Brain Damage

Brain damage is the loving term i use to describe cartoon characters i've got big crushes on. Feel free to read them and come to your own conclusions as to how dysfunctional i might be

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There is also actually a visible throughline with a lot of them and i'll be explaining what i like about them too, because its MY website and i get to subject you to my interests.

Kida [Disney's Atlantis]

I used to LOVE this movie as a kid, it was my favourite movie ever and i watched it like 20 times. I don't know what it is about being a kid that just gives you some weird amnesia about movies you like which lets you just rewatch the movie like its new when you watched it just yesterday. Though i guess yesterday feels like a week ago when youre a kid. Or, it did for me at least. Anyway, Kidas this really cool white haired tribal dress wearing lady, shes got this really confident and straightforward personality and a nice voice. I think this movie defined a lot of what i like in terms of art for me considering how much it's backgrounds and designs stuck around in my head. Like Kidas pretty, right, so its no wonder i remember her but all the other designs are also really solid. Her dads this cool old guy, he looks ancient and wise and he would probably say something poetic about clouds or bushes unprompted and make you wonder what he meant when he was probably just trying to tell you oak trees are his favourite. The military dudes in this movie look cool despite being bad guys, they got mike mignola's help with this movie and it really shows in their designs, they have these big baggy outfits with gasmasks and old ww1/2 looking rifles that they swing around.

Anyway, her being so straightforward and upfront with the way she speaks is really appealing to me, because its just really simple and easy to understand what she saying. Not that i don't like women talking circles around me, but the way she just spends half the movie with milo pulling him around or messing with him in small ways is nice, shes like, direct and clear and motivated and thats all really cool. She was also straight up willing to stab some dude for trying to take the giant atlantis gem.

Lupe the Wolf [Archie Sonic]

Yeah yeah laugh it up, but these comics did a number on me. The artists for these comics were pushing their luck every single day with how defined they could draw sally before someone at archie told them to knock it off. Could you imagine picking up a newspaper and suddenly this week, for whatever reason, Jim Davis decided to draw Liz in a skin-tight revealing doctors outfit? Then, next week, you pick up the next newspaper and shes just drawn normal again. That's what these comics were like. Before they rebooted it, anyway. Seriously they had to censor a couple issues because they just drew sally as a featureless naked woman and that was too hot for the printed page. I say censored, they JUST edit her jacket back on it doesnt cover anything. Anyway. This isn't about Sally Acorn.

Lupe was this cool tribe leader, and she helped sonic and his friends fight guys every now and then. She had this whole wolf tribe and their bit was getting in fights with an enemy cat tribe that lasted a couple issues and came up a few times. The sonic comics are a mess i dont know if i can reccomend them at all, but because of how they operated and how long they ran for, it does have this really interesting legacy to it where you can get a feel of the popular artstyles of the time that comic was made in, if that makes any sense. Like you can go from classic cartoon art for the first hundred or so issues, then you start to get this strange anime-look alike style, and all these weird inbetweens. There are some very talented artists on board though, and even the rougher, less refined art has a nice look to it and it was never really unreadable looking. A lot of the scans of the comics floating around still have the ads in them, and its a nice little walk through history to see some justice leauge unlimited ad or a kim possible one between the pages.

Special mentions go to Nicole the lynx, i always thought she was really cute.

Krystal [Starfox Adventures]

Are you seeing a theme yet i think i have a type

Ok so. So. I didn't have starfox adventures as a kid. I never owned a gamecube until i was in college, which was when i was like 15/16. (uk college, not uni.) BUT. When i was in primary school i would watch a lot of online animaitions, you know the classics like stickfights, metal gear awesome, brawl taunts level stuff right. I sit down one day when im maybe like 10 years old to watch "supernin10doh" right, and its a pretty good time. Theres some decent jokes, or at least decent to kid me. I am BLINDSIDED by a dual carraigeway of just, i dont even know how to explain it.

There was a pokemon snap bit right, except the entire joke was the pictures he was taking were for a swimsuit/porn magazine. This was the entire joke and they drew them with these weird half-human half anime half pokemon faces, it was the most embarassing thing in the world to kid me but, this is flash, and i dont have a little timer bar to be able to skip past it. I was so worried my parents or brother would see it i dont think i've ever felt more in danger than that moment. Anyway, it passes after some time, and after im left just hoping the next joke is actually funny. Maybe it is idk i dont remember, because i am hit with a scene where fox is trying to peep under her skirt while shes trapped in the krystal crystal. (if you havent played the game, she spends most of it stuck in a crystal. Because her names krystal.) Anyway because i was a kid that didnt learn lessons, a couple weeks later im looking around and i find the nin10doh sequel. Well DAMN i think, it cant be worse than the last one. And it DID have funny jokes. So i click, and this time im watching some dudes hypercam recording on youtube so, i can just skip past if it happens again. I don't remember if the pokemon snap bit happens again i dont really care to check. But what DOES happen is a sequel where krystal is yelling at fox for trying to look up her skirt. And she has this really nice voice, and im not joking when i say this is what started a most-of-my-life infatuation with a character from a game i had not at the time played. I did play it a couple years ago though, its okay. Not that good but its not that bad either. Solid middling game.

Anyway, Krystal herself has a really nice design, and i like her a voice a lot but again im from england i think im baised. She sounds a little like Lara Croft, and shes just generally a nice character. She doesn't do too much in the game which sucks. And she spends half of the time speaking a fake dinosaur language like a muppet. I didn't play Starfox Assualt and i dont really care for the skintight suit they put her in. Even though its technically more modest it still feels more revealing, and it kind of looks silly. I think they shouldve put her in a jacket and pants like the rest of the starfox crew.

Renamon [Digimon Tamers]

Shes TALL, shes got big claws, shes nice (when shes warmed up to people) and AND shes really cool. I was really young when i saw the digimom movie, that she wasn't in, but i WOULD watch the show on tv later on because of this. Shes very self reliant, to a fault, and it's kind of her main problem in the context of the show, where both her and ruki, thats her partner, have to learn to trust and befriend others. I guess shes like the strong silent type of women. I like how she hangs out on telephone poles. It's been a while since ive seen tamers, but i always liked how they were more equals in that show than something like pokemon. It always kind of weirded me out how there were dudes like lucario who could speak and hold full conversations with their trainers, and they were on that equal level, but then something like pikachu would just say its name like its a dog. It's why i could never really think of pokemon in that way i guess, and why most people who do make it a point to show that they can speak and walk around and pay taxes. Anyway i liked how all the digimon could speak and they were really on a level field with their tamers, she was like an actual person, with her own problems and personality and things she wanted to do. Also i want to paint her nails. I cant explain it. I just love how sharp nails look and i want to paint them for her. I think shed struggle with that on account of her claws. Which is where i could help. Again i dont have anything to justify this.

Ryoko [Tenchi Muyo!]

Ryoko is really recent actually i only saw Tenchi Muyo this year but she really hits a lot of my buttons, shes confident, she pokes fun AND shes strong, plus she has that big hair and she dresses like Shelly Duvall did in that one fashion magazine where she looks like a JRPG party member. Google for it you'll know it when you see it. Tenchi Muyo in general has some VERY solid designs especailly for the ships, they went with this really cool of the time theming where the ships are full of these plants and its like a forest inside them. Outlaw Star did something similar, with the cat-peoples ships, and it's one of my favourite sci fi design choices. Tenchi muyo is a harem anime which is, well, full of what youd expect from a harem anime. Despite that it does have some nice characters, and they bounce off each other really well. Ryoko's so cool. I love her hair and how expressive they make her when shes mad or yelling or moving around in general. It's a really nice looking anime series, and i consider it a real shame they dont draw the same ways anymore. I think all these old techniques and styles have a lot of charm, and its something i want to personally practice more, especially the painted backgrounds. A lot of shows these days use pictures or painted-over pictures and it look kind of strange, whereas these older ones have these great looking paintings done physically so they have this great texture to them, it adds a lot especially with the simply-shaded characters on top. ALSO they give her a tail sometimes, but its always something attached to her like a belt. It's a really unique choice and it just helps add a little more charm to her.