[Status Report #3 + Preview #1] MBML Chapter 2 - Episode 1

Okay, first preview's here, hot out of the oven. By "oven," I mean Photoshop, where I'm trimming clippings and cleaning up stray details. 😅

I'm rolling this into a Status Report + Preview so I can park my focus on the Episode for the rest of this month—and likely into the next.

The "40% progress" you've seen is basically the intro alone. A lot's happening early: we're catching up with most (if not all) of the girls, and that reunion phase keeps bumping into Klara's arc, which kicks off right in the intro. It's a juggling act, but nothing detrimental is slowing us down. I'm still trying to keep a story structure in Episode 1. Once we're past the check-ins, the spotlight shifts to Klara.

Her arc isn't as labyrinthine as Moon's or as openly emotional as Emma's—it's simpler—but the delivery is different from anything else we've done. When it's Klara's turn, the POV shifts entirely to her. No shared lens, no Kei narration—just Klara, full stop. We'll dive into that beautifully fucked-up mind of hers and contrast what she thinks with what she actually shows.

I've been testing a few storytelling approaches, and what's stuck has this eerie, solemn hum to it that's kind of hard to describe. "Creepy" or "uncanny" is close… and when those words are up, you know I'm all about that.

(If you know the reference, you’re giga-chads.) 👊
You'll also see a strange kind of metacognition—Klara thinking about her own thoughts—surfacing as visual beats, like the image above: quick flashes of a word or a short phrase, nothing verbose, just enough to get under your skin. Conclusion? She's a cuckoo… just kidding. Maybe...😅

I'm having a blast writing her, and I hope she hits you the way she's hitting me when this drops.

After Klara's arc, we start ramping into Episode 2. Yes, the one that a lot of you have probably been waiting for. Same. It's going to be a hell of a ride—first main girl arc of Chapter 2.

(Emma's and especially Kei's models in this key visual are a bit dated, but that's an easy fix later. We might even cook up a new key visual for the Episode proper.)

Lately, I've been neck-deep in camcorder-style animations, cutscenes, and little motion stuff. They're stupid fun to do. But I'm aiming to wrap the remaining ~20% before the month's end.

Hope you liked the previews. We'll talk numbers once I've got stats worth sharing.

Until then...

Take care and have a great day ahead!

— NiiChan