- Jul 25, 2021
- 283
- 898
Uncanny valley is a funny thing. It doesn't take much for someone to fall on one end or the other when it comes to something looking off. So I totally understand where it doesn't work for you. It's funny, because for me, it's the earlier work that was a bit too uncanny, as the CG models were really detailed, but the lighting could make them look plastic-ky at times.
I'm a bit behind on new releases so maybe this pops up in the more recent content, but as far as I remember, there's only a couple of explicitly gory sections in Jack and Jill. The author does seem to really emphasize the misery the characters are feeling, so I do understand the stories feeling like they revel in torturing the characters. That's part of the reason why I mentioned wanting to see some standalone shorts, to get a bit of variety.
But overall, Emory's content is stuff that I'm not always in the mood for, but when I am, I find has a lot of positive qualities. Good use of the comic format and taking advantage of being a visual medium, clear character motivations, deliberate and incremental feminization, and while the plot moves slowly, I'm generally not baffled by it,
.If I had to state some complaints:
Some of the lighting makes the characters look really inconsistent. Jack/Jill can seem to age plus or minus 15 years from page to page depending on how much the lighting makes the wrinkles stand out. It's a major reason why I'm not as a fan of Jack and Jill as I could be. Had there been better consistency, I think I'd like the story a lot more.
I understand the use of different colored boxes to indicate who is "talking". But, Emory doesn't really distinguish between spoken dialogue, inner dialogue, and scene narration. They're all in boxes. I'm assuming this is to be consistent and help with alignment and organization, but by not having a visual distinction, it muddies some of the delivery, and communicates less clearly if a scene is flashback, a scene is just being described to us, or it's a dream sequence of some kind. Obviously, there are context clues that we can use to answer that question, but there's a reason why comics/manga have adopted standards to clue the reader in without having the reader re-read sections.
I always have to head-canon that Nikki's chastity cage is smaller than it's shown to be. The thing looks fucking massive (I'm assuming that to help hide clipping in the model?). Like, I'm glad there's usually an attempt to show that a chastity cage isn't some kind of magic "now your groin is flat" device, and Nikki is shown to have a bulge when just in underwear. But it's still hilariously oversized.
