Basiaclly, right on the day the devs reveal the new Nagato design the old Nagato artist (this artist) posted a series of tweets and concept arts of a redesigned Nagato. Some believe he did this to victimize himself.
The devs rejected the design above 6 months ago. The artist felt so angry that he spent the 6 months re-designing her and released her (post #3139425) on the same day the devs released their Nagato.
His language was rather civilized on Twitter, but people soon found out he insulted the devs, the official Nagato's artist, and whoever like the official design quite loudly on Weibo. I think this hypocrisy is what turned fans against him.
I think this hypocrisy is what turned fans against him.
Yea, lots of responses on his later tweets were users bashing him for underhanded tactics and bringing shame on himself stupidly for something that couldn't possibly remain hidden from public knowledge.
The devs rejected the design above 6 months ago. The artist felt so angry that he spent the 6 months re-designing her and released her (post #3139425) on the same day the devs released their Nagato.
His language was rather civilized on Twitter, but people soon found out he insulted the devs, the official Nagato's artist, and whoever like the official design quite loudly on Weibo. I think this hypocrisy is what turned fans against him.
Not sure of the process but from what I gather this is the concept drawing of her used to make her enemy sprite and usually the same artist improves it when it comes time for playable.... for whatever reason the devs didn't allow this and foolishly quits and then comes back with this as to upstage the new one... leading to this.
I might understand how he feels but in losing his head and acting rashly, he blew whatever opportunities he could have gotten.
Really makes me think one the struggles of an fanartist trying to become a name in the mobage scene. Sometimes there's winners like Konshi or Yoshinori and sometimes....
Not sure of the process but from what I gather this is the concept drawing of her used to make her enemy sprite and usually the same artist improves it when it comes time for playable.... for whatever reason the devs didn't allow this and foolishly quits and then comes back with this as to upstage the new one... leading to this.
I might understand how he feels but in losing his head and acting rashly, he blew whatever opportunities he could have gotten.
Really makes me think one the struggles of an fanartist trying to become a name in the mobage scene. Sometimes there's winners like Konshi or Yoshinori and sometimes....
MZT(the butthurt artist) made this design over 2 years ago when the game was still in early development. At the time they couldn't have imagined it becoming this popular, so the art was rather lackluster, and no longer fit as the main price of a large event (cough*KCIntrepid*cough).
The reason AL dumped him, according to MZT, is that Arisa(new Nagato's artist) is employed by Manjuu, so it's easier for quality control and further skin release, compare to outsourcing artists like MZT. (Also AL tried to employ MZT but he refused, because he's already working for another game company.) Which is pretty believable. The reason Belfast didn't get any skin for so long is because her artist had been busy preparing for graduate school entrance. You'd think AL would want to prevent things like this happening again. Also this whole shitshow MZT created kinda proved AL's decision right.
PS: There are currently 4 character artists under Manjuu employment: Kaede(artists/110981), Kishiyo(artists/39925), Enka(artists/94091) and Arisa(artists/84967).
MZT(the butthurt artist) made this design over 2 years ago when the game was still in early development. At the time they couldn't have imagined it becoming this popular, so the art was rather lackluster, and no longer fit as the main price of a large event (cough*KCIntrepid*cough).
The reason AL dumped him, according to MZT, is that Arisa(new Nagato's artist) is employed by Manjuu, so it's easier for quality control and further skin release, compare to outsourcing artists like MZT. (Also AL tried to employ MZT but he refused, because he's already working for another game company.) Which is pretty believable. The reason Belfast didn't get any skin for so long is because her artist had been busy preparing for graduate school entrance. You'd think AL would want to prevent things like this happening again. Also this whole shitshow MZT created kinda proved AL's decision right.
PS: There are currently 4 character artists under Manjuu employment: Kaede(artists/110981), Kishiyo(artists/39925), Enka(artists/94091) and Arisa(artists/84967).
Hard to believe he was employed elsewhere as the only game official stuff logged on danbooru is WSGs and just one thing (with the stunt he pulled, I don't think that's gonna go anywhere), though it could be well likely his career has been in obscurity with the AL nagato class being his shot out of it. And he's succeeded in a fashion he didn't intend.
And for all the talk of not meeting quality standards, there's a few other active AL artists that could apply to, Enka being the first name that comes to mind. Yet his designs were allowed to feature in an event despite some atrocious posing. (even a lower rung KC artist like Ayaki could get poses right)
Out of those 4 besides Mr. Can't draw a pose, Kaede's the main artist (ala Shibafu to KC and the main reason for AL's fanservicey rep), Kishiyo has done other games (Girls Frontline for starters), and Arisa from what I've seen, has a blessed AL career with most of their works being noted/high rarity without having to really slog it out in lower obscure rarities like say Belfast's artist, Kisetsu has (most of His game art career has been low rarity characters until he got his shot at Belfast and became a name. Examples being Kako, Furtako, IDW of GFL infamy).
Though the whole graduate school thing would make sense for a largely low profile artist like him. He might be the last such story of a lowly artist making a name for himself with AL being more inclined to push in-house artists than unproven names (proven artists like Realmbw, Hao, and Saru aren't likely to get pushed out of the way).
And I have no idea about opinions of old Nagato separated from the incident, but the fact people are still drawing her old design shows that it wasn't entirely unpopular; hell if anything, MZT's stunt basically ensured said old design will not go vanishing into a footnote of AL history.
But for my remark about Konshi and Yoshinori, they were little known Pixiv artists mostly (though Yoshinori did do art for a LN pre-KC which got animated due to his KC fame); now are easily able to be the main artist of a game (so far only Yoshinori has done so). Shibafu was a known name already i mechanical drawings pre-KC.