Never underestimate a bored internet fandom.
If you aren’t familiar with web series MS Paint Adventures – in particular its latest installment, Homestuck – then know this: The Homestuck fandom is second only to fans of Japanese shooter series Touhou Project as the craziest and most devoted fandom on the internet. Case in point: When series creator Andrew Hussie announced that he would be taking a temporary hiatus from the comic in order to prepare for San Diego Comic-Con, the fans erupted in a flurry of creation.
Specifically, they created their own anime.
Now, that’s a bit of a misnomer: The fans haven’t actually animated anything outside of a few animated .gifs. What they have created, however, is an overwhelming pretense that the story they love isn’t a webcomic made by some dude from Boston, but a manga/anime series out of Japan – replete with a bunch of fake screenshots. We’ve gathered some of our favorites here.
What’s impressive here is the commitment to verisimilitude. No, no such Homestuck anime exists, but the “screenshots” have appropriate subtitles, and the style and character expressions look authentic. Some of them even add the subtle watermarks of the various Japanese TV networks (or the YouTube UI for all of those who stream their anime online). Hell, some of the screens even have the compression/quality issues that anyone familiar with watching bootleg anime VHS tapes in the ’90s might recognize.
All in all, the focus on creating actual believable screenshots or manga pages (terrible anatomy issues included) is what sets this fan project apart from mere fan art. Fans without artistic talent have also made fake Wikipedia articles referencing the nonexistent series.
Obviously, the next logical step is for Homestuck fans to follow in the footsteps of Touhou fans and actually make their own freaking anime.
If you ask me, this whole thing doesn’t have nearly enough Kanaya.
Images Via: Tumblr and Skaia.net
Update: I stand corrected. There is an animated and voiced clip after all, albeit a short one.
