It has come to my attention that this game has received 500 downloads… I didn’t expect it to happen so fast, wow! Thank you so much! It might seem like small potatoes to some, but if you put 500 potatoes in a room (small or otherwise) it would be pretty overwhelming. So thank you, my good potatoes.

I realized I’m terrible with these devlog things because once I am done with a game I try to wash my hands of it due to my own exasperated personality. If you spend too much time with one thing, you’re bound to get sick of it. That being said, my own fervent love of comics is stronger than my inability to focus, so I decided it would be nice to talk about the influences of Reaper’s Goodbye. It’s a sweet and small collection packed with all of my very special interests in an effort to pay tribute to the things I love. So it’s time for a history lesson!

💀Only read this is you've already completed the game!💀

🚬 Tatsumi, Tezuka, and Gekiga

  While many of the character designs are ripped straight from Tezuka manga, the actual idea for the project as a whole came from Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi (a certified Tezuka fanboy in his own right) is credited with the birth of gekiga manga– A grittier, more mature style of comic from the 60’s/70’s that sought to differentiate itself from the (perceived) more childish manga of the 50’s. The scenes were wide and sprawling, the cities overflowing with filth with its inhabitants crammed together like sardines in cans. Tatsumi’s stories dealt with the hopelessness of his generation and the way the mind warps when subjected to such overwhelming isolation. I read Abandon the Old in Tokyo as a kid and was captured by the dreariness. I will never forget the panel of a young man, a disaffected wanderer, standing in his long coat looking out to the train tracks that sink into the blackness of night. The same train tracks were used in the start of the game when you first enter the ghost town. Trains… are just really cool. *puffs cigarette* 

🍶 On the Wanderer

  To go down the list, all of the characters draw from specific sources. First off, the main character “Jackal” is loosely based off of Midnight by Osamu Tezuka. Midnight is a cool and mysterious doctor who operates without a license– Oh, excuse me. I meant to say he’s a cool and mysterious taxi driver who drives without a license. Completely different guy, of course. He’s manly and capable, but he’s got a streak of vulnerability to him. So moe.

  Jackal is a character I came up with long ago. He was always meant to be a somewhat intimidating wandering Reaper with the heart of a lonely boy. He was abandoned as a child and didn’t grow up completely, thus his unorthodox use of chopsticks. He joined the Reaper’s Association after meeting Beetle. His tool of choice is a classic sickle. So moe.

🍶 On the Frenchman

  The next character would be Beetle. He actually came from another project I haven’t talked about at all, but he’s a dashing frenchie there as well. Too bad I killed him off in this one (lol)

  Beetle is heavily based off of the infamous Tezuka character, Hamegg. He’s normally a terrible, scheming greedy scoundrel. But in the Black Jack OVA, he became overwhelmingly handsome… An austere, smooth guy with a cheesy grin and a cigarette. Everyone Akio Sugino draws is ridiculously gorgeous. I was swayed by the power anime, and put him in.

  His story is the only one that doesn’t draw from anything. Actually, he originally wasn’t going to have a story, but I felt the pacing wasn’t good so I added it at the last minute. I simply wanted an excuse to use his sitting sprite… *swoon*

  Beetle is a long-time member of the Reaper’s Association and he uses a fish gutting knife as his reaping tool. Even if they can reap the souls of the dead, reapers are (mostly) ordinary people who can bleed and die like anyone else. 

🍶 On the big nosed guy

  Eno is the arrogant physician guy. He’s based off of some Tezuka guy, but I can’t remember what… He was probably just a side character in Barbara or something. I wanted to put in an unlikable windbag in denial of the situation. Originally he was going to have more dialogue with Tiara, the mature woman, but I couldn’t find a proper place to put it.

  His story is based on the segment “The Tunnel” in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. Kurosawa is known for his chanbara films, but I’ve always liked things like Ikiru and Dreams the best. In “The Tunnel”, a man walks nervously through the pitch black, talking with a comrade from long ago… It’s a remorseful story that left an impression on me.

🍶 On the oldie

Luza is the jovial old man. His face is very loosely off of Tatsumi characters, which generally tend to be a little square. Halfway through I decided to add scars on his hands as evidence of his shady past, but I apparently didn’t replace all the assets all the way… Schrodinger's scars, you see. Let’s pretend it didn’t happen. Anyhow, jovial geezers in a nice suit are totally the best.

  His story is based on an early Midnight chapter where a mysterious child wanders the beach. It’s a tender tale with a horrifying finish. Additionally, the ghost child was drawn similarly to Toroko from Regards to Bukkira! A sleepy lamb kind of look is sooo cute.

Additional child sketches!

🍶 On the mature woman

Tiara is the mature woman. I couldn’t stop drawing her. The only thing better than a dapper oldtimer with a cigarette is a cynical, languid woman with a cigarette. While she was drawn using Toshiko from Tezuka’’s Book of Human Insects as a reference, the hidden eye, long hair and thick lashes call back to classic Leiji Matsumoto beauties. Her real name is Tokiko, but she uses the cover “Tiara” when at work. Nobody can truly know the heart of such a worldly woman.

  Her story was originally very close to a Tatsumi story about a man who, tired of his controlling wife, slips a scorpion into her coat to kill her. I was unsatisfied with that line of action for Tiara. After all, even if the man’s wife was controlling, a man and a woman have very different places in the world. I began to think about her mother and her circumstances and how she fell into the same position, villainized by the world around her. I wrote the new story with my utmost affection. Worldly women with sly eyes and cigarettes are truly the best.

🍶 On the little girl

  Finally, there’s Ayumu. Her appearance is that of Ayako from a manga of the same name. Her flashy eyes and pale face with the rest being washed away by night creates a really striking image. Originally, she was going to pass on like all the others, but I didn’t want the story to end on such a lonely note. Ever onward, the two lonely souls march…!

  Her story exists to tie all the others together. However she is still haunted by a usutsuki warashi, a child spirit that causes mischief in their resident household. Actual usutsuki warashi do not cause real harm but the one in this story just really wants the attention (lol). 

  Some people who played the game said that Ayumu must be a reaper like Jackal and Beetle. I actually hadn’t thought of that when I made the game, but if you ask me past this point I will simply say that it was totally the intended experience and that I’m a genius who decided that in the first place. It got me thinking about how Ayumu will grow up. I’ve decided that she’ll grow up to be a skilled reaper with the name Scorpion, and her tool will be a snappy whip or a pitch-black handgun. I picture her cool like Meiko Kaji from Female Prisoner Scorpion. So cool. Now I want to write a story about it.

🚬 Making art with other art

  Ah, we’re at the end. Thank you for reading. Essentially it all came down to “this thing is like this other thing!” but all art is just derived from things we enjoy. Art leaves its fingerprints on us, and we walk with its influence simply because we are human. Tatsumi’s dreary stories fascinated me as a child because it gave me insight into a world that, at the time, was hopeless and cramped and bleeding with human pleas for hope. Tezuka’s endless ambition and drive to create inspires me to this day. I believe there is no shame in loving them and paying tribute to them in an embarrassingly obvious way because I want to share my love for their work with the world. And with my love, I think I’ve created something only I can make.

  Thank you for 500 downloads. Thank you for looking at my work. Thank you for spending your time with me.   

  Gekiga forever ✌