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Reviews for "Donaji & the Magical Poncho"

I really loved the animation in this! My only complaint is that it was kind of sappy with the story. I mean, she just wears the thing and is protected. Of course, this is apparently base on some mythology. I wish I was more familiar with it. I appreciate the great artwork.

Yeah, I don't understand most of the Spanish. That always makes me feel bad about my work in High School. Well, I felt this worked well for how long it was. You have to keep up the viewer's interest that long. The colors are so wonderfully bright too.

Shi-Gu responds:

Thankyou!
I do agree, story could have had a bigger developement. I wrote it 6 years ago as a folkloric tale for highschool, and it was pretty simple. Heroine obtains magic object, villain fools her to relinquish it. Hero comes and save the victim, lesson learned, happy ending.
It is loosely based on mesoamerican mythologies, but I took many liberties with it.

I would love to get into more depth with it, but I rather continue the story in the webcomic and make a more complex work there.

I like this shot film.
Will you work on Donaji & the Magical Poncho 2?

Shi-Gu responds:

Thanks, I'm glad you do!
There won't be a "Donaji & the Magical Poncho 2" as far as I've planned, but the story will continue as a webcomic called "Donaji & Itzcacalotl"

Her mother seem to be a pokemon fan!

Shi-Gu responds:

Hahaha, I knew someone would point that out.
Those "pokeballs" are actual symbols used in ancient mexican codices and manuscripts. They're "cosmic eyes" which represent stars.
Donaji's mom's name is Beelia, which means "star" in zapotec, the language from a southern mexican culture from which both her and Donaji come from.

Wow, this was cool! It gave me real Windwaker vibes, what with the tapestry intro, the magical clothing passed down from the mom to the daughter and even the music. Your design for the evil god was really cool too, reminded me of some Ghibli type stuff. It's nice to see animation from other countries/cultures other than the US and Japan, and it's a shame that we don't get to see more of that on TV or in theaters. For what it's worth, this felt like a pilot to what I could very easily see becoming a long running series. I think it's definitely worthy of that, but I'll have to check out your webcomic too. Just hope that doesn't mean you're gonna stop making animation.

Shi-Gu responds:

Thanks a lot!
Indeed, I gotta admit Windwaker was a big inspiration for this.
I'm really glad you liked it and also to see interest in other cultures.
Back in the day I had the impression that people in NG did reject anything that were not in english, so I was pretty nervous when uploading this here.
Glad to see such a positive responce.
I won't stop doing animation, I'll try to have some animated parts in the webcomic as well. It's just that it takes so much time to do, so I often don't get to do as much as I would like to.

Oh man, this was a really awesome animation! I love how culturally-fueled it is, kind of like Warlord-of-Noodles' "No Evil" series. The characters themselves are pretty likable, but also remind me of other characters; e.g., Iztlacoliuhqui -- despite the weird obsession with the little girl -- is similar to Aku from Samurai Jack, and Chicahualizteotl reminds me of Amaterasu from Okami. However, that's my own view, so it's probably not really a problem on your end. Besides, its interesting that the god in the poncho is your own character (if I'm correct) versus a different god like Quetzalcoatl (though I guess that one is overdone).

The presentation is very good, withholding the black bars at the edges of the video. The background sounds and music are great (the beginning especially reminded me of Siren). The animation is stylish; the scenes focusing on Iztlacoliuhqui delivered a good blend of sinisterness and power, the scenes with Donaji and/or her mother were cute, and the appearance of Chicahualizteotl was a mixture of Aztec and anime which worked pretty well. The voices were good, too, though Donaji's voice was a bit louder/higher compared to the others. Overall, however, this was really great and I hope that in the future there is another animation along with the webcomic.

Shi-Gu responds:

Thankyou very much for the detailed review!
I haven't played Okami yet, so I don't know the reference, but indeed, the god's design is entirely original. However, the god itself did exist in aztec culture; Chicahualizteotl is god of medicine, fortitude and strenght, so that's what gives the Magical Poncho it's qualities. He's pretty unknown though, even for mexicans and people familiar with the mythology; at the degree that I couldn't find a single image or representation of him throughout all the internet and history books.

I'm really glad it was of your liking. I'm in fact planning to add animation once every while along the webcomic, at least for certain key moments :D