---ACTUAL IMPORTANT CONTENT---Alright MEN, it’s time for the final results. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m proud to say that the winner is...
*drumroll*
The judges! We’ll be splitting up the prizes amongst ourselves. It’s been a wild ride, so thank you all. Peace out.
... ahaha, April Fools. Poor taste? Most likely. Actually, I have the for reals results, and I’ll post them after I apologise profusely.
The judgenating was a long time coming. Far too long. Unacceptably long. And I apologise. Truth of the matter is, we fucked up. Two of us were prompt, two of us let y’all down by getting distracted by Real Life issues, and two of us, well, two of us seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth (Edit: HEY, MAKE THAT ONE), and while they may come back eventually, we have enough official votes in one entrant’s favour to call it and I'm sure everyone's tired of waiting.
The winner of the Manly Mens OCT is, unequivocally and unanimously,
Okk, with his tremendously fun surprise flash entry:
The judges’ reasoning for this result is as follows:
” Well I have Okk for the win, of course they were both awesome entries. As to why he's my choice he really did an amazing job covering a broad spectrum of basically everything that happened in Manly Mens, which is damn impressive. It also shows how involved he is with the whole contest. Not to say that Irthepwn was bad simply because he didn't do cameos or visit all the areas, as that would be really difficult to do in comic form. I would have really liked to see some more of that though perhaps along with his focus on Riley's plot. Yeah, I think it's just that Okk really went above and beyond his usual , which is already pretty awesome, and that pretty much won it for him.”
“Ragnarok vs Riley (Winner: Okk)
Okk's Entry:
Pros - Dayum. Just dayum, son. This entry was just overall entertaining. It was just so manly and awesome. Compared to many other (amateur) flash animators, this has pretty good pacing and has a damn good choice of music (chi-chi wo moge has gotten stuck in my head) Also, great use of special effects such as blurring and streaks (which I'm sure he learned from me)
Cons - Although I say it has good pacing, there are still scenes that drag on a little too long (especially the post credits scene with Sophia walking veerrry sloooowwlly) If I was judging purely based on animating skills, this wouldn't be the best. Though I understand cutting back animation due to the constraints of the deadline. Some of the poses are pretty weak too (like Ragnarok's sword swinging or his final charge up punch) Those issues are addressed in my extreme pose tutorials. I think Okk may have broken the 180 rules a couple times too. And finally, this animation has rather poor sound effects (riley's punch to his dad's face was pretty damn weak)
Irthepwn's Entry:
Pros - A solid entry, complete with a fair share of jokes, corniness and what not. Pwn's art has improved some since the very beginning of manlymens. The lighting effects are quite good. Looks like he followed the all important 180 rule as well.
Cons - This might have a tad more talking than there shoulda been, particularly during the fighting scenes. I know there's a whole storyline with Riley and his dad, but you could still minimize the dialogue. Now compare that to Okk's entry which had very little talking during the action scenes. People may make the excuse that they'd have to put at least some talking in there to compensate, but your aim is to show, not tell. Does that mean more drawing? Likely, but hey, you're a fucking artist, and more importantly, A MAN.”
“Okk: The first thing I noticed about Okk’s entry, besides the welcome surprise of a medium change, was how satisfying it was. It’s like an homage to the tournament as a whole, with cameos galore and epic to spare. The sprawling fight scene was amazing to say the least, and completely unexpected – you’ve always been a heavy hitter and consistent to boot, but this... This blows it all out of the water. Sure, there are technical aspects and niggling concerns about animation being inconsistent and tweeny which I could go into if I felt like being an asshat, but it really didn’t affect my enjoyment of the entry. It was perfect. Every time I go back and watch it, I spot something I missed the other dozen or so times. I think I saw a frame of The Aussie riding one of the Uzi tigers? I’m going to have to go back and check.
The use of music in this was inspired, and after posting the ‘final countdown’ journal, the use of the song in the round was a happy coincidence.
My largest concern about this round was how quickly Riley’s plot was resolved. It would have been nice to see that given a little more attention, but eh, what can you do? The amount of time and effort put into the flash as a whole more than makes up for it.
Finishing the round with a rollcall of all the contestants was a great choice, and it really sealed the deal for me. The Caruso-chan one cracked me up, and the rest were really well done. And the after-the-credits scene? I had tabbed out by that point to read Pwn’s, and I tabbed back and what I saw made me wet my lacy pink panties and squeal like a schoolgirl. Truly epic.
My vote for the final round goes to Okk. Well deserved, I figure. He’s been the most consistent, in both content and quality, and has easily invested the most in this tournament.
Pwn: Pwn, you have outdone yourself with this round. All the pieces come together well, and although much of the subplot came along a little late, in the scheme of things, it still resonated well. Despite your constant claims to the contrary, the exposition wasn’t too damaging, and it didn’t really register. I just enjoyed it for what it was, which is a good sign. Usually I’m a picky asshole.
It would have been nice to explore what happened to Brick and the judges, but I totally understand that time was as short as Ragnarok and some things need to be sacrificed, so it didn’t weigh against you too much.
Ragnarok’s deadpan reactions to things cracked me up, and I’m STILL using that final explosion panel as my wallpaper. And the Rocky-esque ending was so fitting. You did good.
My decision for this round was not made lightly. It was close, but I think I made the right one. Although I didn’t vote for you, Pwn, I congratulate you thoroughly. Well done.”
“My vote's on okk, I will try to get around to final comments soon, but I'm busy sorting out academic shit. If you want something to put down from me until then:
"I am so fucking proud of all of you."
"Okk, Okk, Okk. Dear Okk, you utter bastard. In no way or form did I ever expect you to create a flash submission in the way you did.
This is a good thing, obviously, but it wasn't without its risks.
To be completely honest, I think the comic medium might have been you a better suit, Okk. I will admit the finale might not have felt as... complete and satisfying and jaw-dropping as your flash submission made it be, but the fact that you are relatively new to combining comic and animation does show in your final submission though, and it shows pretty clearly. The sound effects, such as they were, were also not quite up to scratch. If I wanted to give you technical demerits, I certainly could have. Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for Irthepwn, these faults were nowhere close to sufficient to prevent me from enjoying and being damn impressed by your submission.
Hell, just the decision to out of nowhere have your final round be in flash for novelty purposes? It's staggering! My good man, I had given up ALL hope of seeing an epic finale flash showdown, and there you go and disappoint my disappointments! To be fair, there's more to my enjoyment of your final round than the mere fact that it's in flash. Flash alone does not an epic finale make, so let me grab the most relevant points and then list them in no particular order 'lest this entire rant grows too long:
-Your musical choices were good, and combined well with the scenes of your flash. Points for synergy there.
-Your voice actors did adequate to well. Ragnarok felt a bit emotionless at certain points, but both he and April had moments where they really shone, and the addition of their voices certainly added something essential to your submission.
-You inventively used every possible element, location and meme from the entire Manly Mens tournament in your submission (more or less), along with a ton of cameos and created some truly hilariously appropriate (and inappropriate) moments. I cannot understate how pleased it made me to see all these things come together in one single submission. The fight scene that ran across all of Man Land was so quintessential and thematically appropriate that I cannot help but give you all my kudos for it. All of them.
-The characters' emotions, actions and the storyline itself felt (by and large) real and believable (within the context of Manly Mens, at any rate), and ended on a note that I can only designate as 'perfectly appropriate'. Well done, Okk. If I ever want someone to write my happy endings, I'll give you call.
-You very generously included a picture of every single Manly Mens judge and contestant at the end, with Chichi Wo Moge playing in the background. If this is not some form of 'everyone wins' scenario, then I don't know what is.
Overall, the work and effort you have put into making this flash, and into making it not only impressive, but genuinely funny, amusing, heart-touching and hitting spot-on on what Manly Mens has been all about, is what earns you my vote. You have excelled, and you have won. You are the Man now, dog. Go, Okk. Go and frolick with your prize, for you have earned it."
"Irthepwn, let me first say that you have done very well to come so far and that your spot in the finale was very well-deserved. Since your first submission, your art and scripting has improved by quite a lot, and I think and hope that you have benefited as an artist and a creator of stories from participating in our not-so-humble tournament of MANLY MENS. That said, on to the final critique!
As mentioned, your art skill has taken an enormous leap forward since the beginning of this tournament, but even so, I think you might have been a bit ambitious in your finals plot... that was a lot of pages you ended up drawing there (not that having a lot of pages is a bad thing in itself). Still, there was a lot of stuff that happened, but not all of it managed to catch my fancy.
What happened, I think, is that you pulled in a lot of plot threads in, and it might just have been worth it to have excluded some of them to make room for the ones more essential to Riley and his plot. The inclusion of his father came late enough in the contest as was, and we had a great deal of exposition to get through before the final battle between father and son could take place. It's unfortunate, but the addition of Dr. Odinstein, the clones and Ragnarok's daughters, and the reappearance of Brick and Hudson, in addition to the whole Riley versus his father subplots/mainplots, caused the entire story to get a bit crowded with 'rushed' exposition as the storyliness had to be quickly resolved (or semi-resolved). I believe you could have benefited from tighter scripting and cutting elements that took up space in favor of those that told a better story.
That said, you did manage to churn out an impressive number of comics which together amount to a very decent finale, with a number of high points and amusing scenes... like the fabulosity tracker (which sounds -exactly- like something the Society of the Rose would have invented).
In the end, your final was great in parts, okay overall, and more than enough to win... against a lot of people that aren't Okk. Congratulations and my condolations, Irthepwn! You were nearly there, but second place is nothing to turn up your nose at either. I hope you'll continue to try and develop as an artist and storyteller, so that you one day can kick Okk's ass in artistic revenge. I'll look forward to it. Thank you both for all the laughs and the awesome."And there you have it.
Now, if you’ll tolerate me for a moment longer, let’s talk prizes.
We never listed initial prizes, but you all entered anyway. You all stuck with it even though there was no light at the end of the tunnel, and that just goes to show how great the Manly Mens community has been.
However, it has always been our intention to reward our contestants. Remember the rosters? All for you. With any luck, there will be a final installment of the Manly Mens saga. Yay!
But apart from that, Mr Scribs lined up a few sweet commissions. Rather than summarising, I’ll just copypasta them here:
“Aside from the privilege of calling himself the MANLIEST MAN alive, the grand winner will receive 1x color picture with 1x character of his choice posing in front of an action background, meticulously hand-drawn and colored by the talented webcomic creator JoeEngland.
Joe England was chosen to be the MANLY MENS prize artist by a rigorous, testosterone-laced method of elimination, which involved actual elimination and also cleaned out the webcomic artist/basement dweller gene pool somewhat. Alright, so he might have big floppy ears, and his beard and chest hairs are VERY long and fuzzy, but artists are supposed to be a little eccentric, and it hardly matters as long as he produces stellar end results. We suspect he will. He does, after all, have a Major in Sequential Art (otherwise known as cartoonanizistazation).
For the runner-up (that is, the guy who loses the finale), we have commissioned the lovely Aja, also known as Vanilleon, of True Magic fame to provide a consolation prize, of sorts. It is also a full-color, full-body character picture, albeit not necessarily with the same fun extras as Joe England would provide. Sadly, Aja is also not of the same sterling caliber, and being handicapped by her reservoirs of estrogen she can only manage to draw the most bishounen of males (as a quick look through her online comic will confirm). Luckily, despite what Jared has said, you don't HAVE to make her despoil your character with the prize, it is open for you to use as you want, and on whom you want.”OH BOY. Enjoy those, guys. We’ll chase the artists up asap and they’ll hopefully start pumping out pretty prize pieces for you both.
Additionally, since pretty pictures don’t pay the bills, I’ve decided to dip into the ol’ piggybank and award the finalists with a SURPRISE CASH PRIZE OH WOW. Okk and Pwn shall receive a modestly tiny fortune in American moneys with which they can do as they please. As long as it’s drugs, booze, and hookers. Okk’s sur
prize is $100, and Irthepwn’s is $50. Congratulations, guys, you’ve earned it!
While we’re on the topic of prizes, I believe we have the little issue of the
mini-contest.
If you’ll all cast your minds back to the ye olde days of yore when the competition first took place, the prize was a commission from
manic-pixie. It was left over from the last roster, but it’s a sweet prize indeed.
The winner of the competition is no other than our very own
FluffyTurtle, with
. :devifchickenwascandy: came in a close second with :thumb187054757: :thumb187816818:. Congratulations, Fluff, and sorry for the delay!
That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for your patience.
---COMPARATIVELY UNIMPORTANT CONTENT---With Manly Mens over, I’m sure a giant gaping hole has been torn in all your hearts. Of course, the only way to fill it is with MORE OCTS.
Manly Mens was technically born from AatR, so it seems fitting that it ends with it, too. This one, called New Canvas, promises to be a trillion times better than the last one, and OH BOY THREE OF THE JUDGES FROM MANLYMENS HAVE/WILL ENTER(ED). You should enter too. Or watch it. Either way it’ll be awesome.
This one looks like it’ll be fun, even if the audition process is fundamentally flawed because this is the internet therefore a trillion Teslas. Well worth a look.
This one is the illegitimate son of Manlymens, as Phi, Okk, AND Irthepwn are judges. OH BOY GET ON IT GUYS. It looks to be epic.
Obligatory.
