Sakuma Jirou - Blog Posts
teikokus entries from the all players directory 👍 swag
Kisaku for my bi-monthly ship art quota. I wanted to draw another piece to be posted together but I've been physically burnt out lately so I made a no Kidou goggles file instead. Heh
This doubles as a character analysis art so I will write down my thought process under a read more. It's very christian so if you're not comfortable it's okay to not read it
I had been having the idea of making a Kisaku art with christian imaginery since early January, but I only managed to sketch a good composition for it last week.
This art is based on a post-Shin Teikoku arc scene that's also one that's very memorable for me. Like, it's just a very tender and profound one, especially when one can see Kidou's hand holding Sakuma's tighter after Sakuma told him he can't shake his hand. I also referenced the scene when Sakuma faints right before the match end whistle.
Another thought that inspired this was the christian concept of being saved from sin and its consenquences by Jesus' death and resurrection (salvation); which is pretty much what happened to Sakuma in this arc. Sakuma fell to the temptation of the aliea meteorite (sin), but it's Kidou's love that saved him from destroying himself physically and mentally (salvation).
An interesting part from Shin Teikoku arc was that while it ends with Sakuma and Genda being saved, Kidou came out becoming even more traumatized especially after seeing what happened to his friends and hearing Kageyama's words. And that's without mentioning that he also witnesses Someoka's sacrifice.
Kidou and Sakuma are two people who feel deeply yet tenderly for each other so I wanted it to show in the colors and rendering. I used colors that could remind someone of the dawn. I wanted to color in low contrast but the initial palette hurt my eyes (physically) so I ended up opting with shading with only highlight, with the soft light peeking through behind the pair. Subtlety was all I was aiming, so I tried to draw Kidou's expression that could express it too.
The text on the background is,
What is Salvation? Salvation is... to be saved from sin, and its consenquences from death, and eternal separation by your cross.
The text was thought and written by stream of consciousness, unlike the drawing where I worked on it precisely unlike my usual drawing style. Initially I wrote it by hand to see where should I type the text but I found that handwriting conveys the emotions in a rawer form so I went with it.
I also free style-ed the text's content because NGL, scrolling through christian articles and wikipedia pages gave me religious trauma based anxiety so I let my instinct and write whatever came to mind.
I was torn between "crucifix" and "cross" as I wanted a word to replace "love and suffering". I went with "cross" because crucifix is used to specifically refer to the cross Jesus was crucified on and the portrayal of it. For people, the word used is "cross" (referring to the christian concept of carrying one's cross). Kidou is very much associated with pedestalism, even Kageyama saw him in an idealized manner of a perfect creation to bring him back to his childhood. But despite everything Kidou is only human, and he's as sinful everyone else.
I had so much fun working with this piece, and I think I'm more satisified than I was with my previous character analysis art. I hope I could do more of this type of works in future.
Musing about Sakuma being a psychology or any kind of social studies major.. he would want to study more about people and behaviors out of not wanting to repeat his mistakes in S1 era and so that no children will go thru the same thing ever
Nothing analysis important from this clip I just wanting to point and giggle at idgaf warriors Sakuma and Rika not reacting at Endou nor Megane (Kidou's double head turn is also silly)
my ass forgot to post a version with Kidou's glasses off
kisaku for christmas
Very cute observation I've gotten is how physically affectionate Sakuma is with Kidou and Kidou not minding it because, Sakuma isn't as overly affectionate with the others.
Sakuma cares for the other members and is on friendly terms with them, but he's more lowkey displaying his affection than he does with Kidou.
Episode 94, after Endou gives a speech to the team after he and penguin trio were away and Inazuma Japan lost their match against Argentina's team.
Episode 96, everyone is raising their hand as they're sending Kurimatsu away. You can look closely that Sakuma isn't raising his hand and is doing the same crossed arms pose Fudou does.
As for Kidou, Everyday hints that he doesn't really like to be touched with him frowning whenever he is tapped by the player (Clip 1) (Clip 2) (It's so funny because everyone else smiles when tapped). While it is possible that he grows to become more accustomed to it, he's still awkward especially with sudden contact, lol
Going back to the first pictures I've shown, this is really one of my favorite Kisaku official arts... it's very sweet when one thinks about Sakuma's body language, he's hunching to Kidou's level as he's considerably taller than him, aww
My favorite game vs anime difference of S3 so far is how Kidou is the one beefing against Fudou and everyone has to stop him before he punch Fudou's face
Bonus: This scene below happens after Kidou scolds Fudou for making fun of Toramaru saying he can't sleep if not at his home. Hiroto's response is sweet and funny
Redrawing some Sakuma official arts to brute force anatomy (individual arts and references under read more)
When I'm in the pretty princess competition and my opponent is GO!Sakuma
(under read more because i'm embarrassed but i really want to add this)
sakuma's so pretty even when his face isn't shown... what is this sorcery......
Adding to this post with my analysis of the emotional implications of this scene because it gets even crazier when one tries to visualize from Kidou's POV
You can see that Kidou was standing behind Sakuma in the initial composition of the scene's frame. It then switches to Sakuma's close up, which is more or less should be similar to what Kidou's point of view. So what possibly could be going on in Kidou's mind when it happened?
The close up of Sakuma's face ends when he fully turns his head, revealing the eye that's normally covered by his eyepatch and the disheveled hair his Shin Teikoku arc design has.
As one can see on the first post, looking closely Sakuma was drawn in a way that makes him look like his original design with the pulled forward hair and the eyepatch covered right eye, it was what Kidou saw!
What Kidou (and the viewers) initially saw was the Sakuma he knew, the one who played soccer together with him, the Sakuma who is his best friend. But something about it is uncanny, until Sakuma's entire face was shown and it was Shin Teikoku Sakuma that Kidou was seeing. It wasn't the Sakuma Kidou knew.
Even if their scope of love in their writings are different (Sakuma loves Kidou, while Kidou loves EVERYONE including Sakuma) Sakuma and Kidou care deeply towards each other. And it was Kageyama's actual purpose in the arc, to not win the match but rather to inflict as much trauma he could on Kidou by manipulating and hurting (mentally and physically) his best friends against him.
Shin Teikoku arc has really good animation and storyboarding in general; this particular scene has cleverly drawn frames where Sakuma's hair was positioned to look like how he normally looks until he fully turns at Kidou and you can see the the black eye
I don't have frames that are of 1:1 comparison but I hope you get the gist
Shin Teikoku arc has really good animation and storyboarding in general; this particular scene has cleverly drawn frames where Sakuma's hair was positioned to look like how he normally looks until he fully turns at Kidou and you can see the the black eye
I don't have frames that are of 1:1 comparison but I hope you get the gist
Edit: added alt text!
Shin Teikoku Sakuma piece from 2024 when I was trying to analyze Sakuma's feelings in the arc (I keep forgetting to repost it outside twitter, oops)
Explanation under read more
The idea for the piece is to convey what Sakuma actually felt in the arc. What the aliea meteorite did was amplifying his negative emotions and converting them to hunger for power. Like how Kazemaru originally only started seeking power in a bout of deteorirating mental health; Sakuma (and Genda) only seeked the meteorite because he felt that Kidou abandoned him / them because they weren't good enough. So the idea here is to convey sorrow.
Unfortunately I'm very bad at writing analysis post in Tumblr's blogpost format as I'm very used to Twitter and Bluesky's thread style of writing; so I perhaps will revisit and rewrite this explanation.
Sakuma with covered eyepatch
Based on this frame from the end of episode 38, after he came to his senses:
The windows
Sakuma is wearing the same patient outfit as he did in episode 37's flashback
The sequence of closing the curtains is to express "closing one's heart off" (accepting the meteorite, going back to Kageyama, cutting ties with Kidou; etc etc anything works LOL). Also a reference to how Fudou entered their hospital room from the window lmao.
The eye
Should be self explanatory. It's also a reference to eye as a common symbolism used in Sakuma's character, which... he has... because Kidou himself has eye motif. gay ass.
my fave kisaku compilation (also sakuma gayboy compilation)
Reuploading a 2024 1 hour drawing but with better colors
my 2025 resolution is to draw sakuma as cutieful as possible
EDIT: added alt text!
kisaku for christmas
Sakuma as my Webfishing character that I made based on him
A friend of mine bought the book w all these refs so I finally have the one for Sakuma! Big shoutout to her🌸
The pages are very thin so we can see Natsumi behind oopsie
Sakuma, Sakuma, Sakuma, Sakuma, and Fudou
i chiikawafied your teikoku blorbos
as you can see i really like sakuma
Kidou: *sighs* Explain to me how Genda broke his leg.
Sakuma: We were running downhill and a deer jumped in front of us, so I yelled, "Koujirou, deer!"
Kidou: Genda, what did you say?
*uncomfortable silence*
Genda: "Yes, honey?"
