Conflict requires things to be at odds and one side is defeated or overcome, which is the opposite of the message of harmony and happiness in simplicity, which is what Aria is. If that is upsetting to you and you require to see conflict in everything, uhm... best wishes.

The story itself makes a point of the "tests" for the trainees being unstructured and secretive- they have no idea they're taking the test (with one exception). They do as they're asked, and then they're given the mantle of Undine and allowed to escort passengers unsupervised.

Akari's entire journey in Aria is about a girl from a technology overridden Earth finding joy and peace in the every day simplicity of her new life. And her happiness that others might call slow or doltish is what infects and brings happiness to them.

If the core of the story is man vs self, then the training and mastering of techniques would be front and center in the story. They are not. There are characters for whom this is a big deal, that is not the case for Akari.

Yes, the character has a goal, but she isn't at odds with her goal or even lacking. Self-improvement isn't conflict, that is just life. As for that goal of becoming Undine, it's background and not front and center. The ones that bring it up are the side characters- she herself is unconcerned.

Aqua/Aria by Kozue Amano is a great story lacking in conflict. Gorgeous illustrations transport you to a planet of water where the city is filled with life, and also represents ruins of an age no one can remember. It's a good read, I highly recommend it to anyone looking to narratively touch grass.

I miss going to Blockbuster, renting from the Foreign Movie section and watching someone paint a picture with light and movement, taking a peek into another world and just being in that space.

I mean... there are definitely stories that exist that don't revolve around conflict. They're just not western stories. They're certainly a dying breed considering most people want to appeal to western audiences either for international reach or money.

(also sorry for the double-post, I forgot to add her name and the name of the game in the post v.v)

I'm not saying the devs didn't have a final look in mind, but when you compare the design with other characters and those characters look like they're building to a finished look and Sylvie's is "shove some metal butterfly shapes on her back and put ruffles everywhere"... It really makes me wonder.

There were definitely those kinds of comments too, which was appreciated. I even ran a murder mystery RPG for the fans on the discord server back in 2018 (lightly based on the Savage Worlds system) and it was a lot of fun!

-supporting that X, Y, or Z actually exist in the story diegetically. It would be annoying, especially first starting out. But then you get so many years down the line, so many chapters in, and those surface level comments don't matter, because the real ones know what the story is really about.

Imagine putting a lot of thought and care into a superhero squad comic with five principle characters and every third time someone comments on it, it's just about how the comic is basically power rangers and how X, Y, and Z exist in PR so obviously that is a thing in this comic despite no evidence-

Join my Patreon to get access to the discord where you can see the latest versions of these designs and the color studies @yokoboo.bsky.social has done for DotL unicorns (until she decides to post them publicly).

www.patreon.com/MegSyv

number 37 is for @yokoboo.bsky.social !! Their character Reina
#artfight

This one marks number 9, for @yokoboo.bsky.social <3

I’m not surprised XD DotL buds had 500+ members its first official day and sits today at almost 3k. It’s a good comic!