Explain your Signature!

[~Smugleaf~]

My signature is now a sprite of Litten with text underneath noting that I've moved my claims list to my main profile.

 

[noworry]

I love dogs.

 

[Vulpix037]

Gen V sprites of Mudkip arranged Normal-Shiny-Normal-Shiny-Normal.

 

[TouyaShiro]

The usual double GIF this time around is, like my avatar, themed after Hibiki Tachibana of Senki Zesshou Symphogear. The left GIF is part of her transformation sequence in Symphogear AXZ, and I chose this moment for a couple of reasons - Being part of the latest season helps, but the main reason is actually because of the words that appear during that portion of the sequence, which is the Symphogear's designation - SG-r03' Gungnir. All the Symphogears get this in AXZ, also revealing the designations of relics that previously did not have them - specifically, those of the Symphogear G debuts.

The right GIF is a rather interesting, yet also significant moment, also from Symphogear AXZ - specifically from the end of Episode 5. Hibiki's best friend, Miku Kohinata, urges her not to win, but also not to lose, before she darts off to combat the impeding threat at the beginning of the next episode. This moment was the first time Hibiki's ever blushed from her requests (and while it's hard to see at that resolution, tears are forming in her eyes as a result), and it - as well as a moment in Episode 6 - signifies just how deep their relationship really is. As revealed at the end of the series, this may be for a very specific and significant reason which could shake up their lives next season. Any more detail than that and I'd be banned from this website!

Finally, I have a quote from the character herself, as well as avatar credits.
"If it's for the good of others, then can't we work together?" ~Hibiki Tachibana

 

[Vulpix037]

Two menu sprites of this glitch Pokemon, plus Gen V sprites of Shinx, Vulpix and Umbreon.

 

[Dolce]

They're sprites of Pokemon I like, and a link to BulbaTrade's Twitter.

 

[MegaPod]

A still Xurkitree sprite and two Litwick stamps made by Anime Psyclone, because they're also luminous.

 

[TouyaShiro]

"I simply flap my wings towards the dawning sky... The reason why I can fight!"
Just like my usertitle, my quote is a lyric from Nana Mizuki's Glorious Break, an insert song from Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX. Just like Synchrogazer and Vitalization before it, this song serves as the title of one of the rare times you see Hibiki's attacks be named, since it's the finishing move against the big bad of the season - though it's unique from all the others (including AXZ's TESTAMENT, even!) in that it wasn't from the main opening song of the season (since that role was taken up by the song Exterminate) - instead being used first as an ending song in Episode 1, which funnily enough is normally where you'd hear the new season's opening start to play in all the other Symphogear seasons!

The signature GIFs this time around feature two moments from Episode 13 of Symphogear GX; The aforementioned Glorious Break, and a moment that needs some serious explanation and exposition of the events of the previous episode in order to properly understand it. So out of context, you probably wouldn't get what's going on - but that's intentional. For those who are curious, there's a small clue in certain frames of the animation in the second GIF. I also had to modify my signature to accommodate my new quote - as a result, my claim list has moved over to my profile instead of being partially visible as a single line on my signature (since it only accompanied my Pokémon claims and not my claims from outside of it, which were all non-Pokémon anime characters). This will probably be the norm from now on, since it means I have more room to add quotes and lines for my signature depending on how long the lines are!

The Glorious Break GIF and lyric tie into a somewhat elaborate combination of usertitle and signature which forms the full line, as the above immediately follows what's explained in this post in Explain Your Usertitle right here - and to expand on it since I detailed the attack above, the lyric "Glorious Break" from the back chorus is timed with the attack itself! This is why you don't see that as part of the lyrics in my sig - the GIF provides it for you! Probably one of the greatest examples of musical timing in anime, in my opinion.

Spoiler: The full sequence:

Here, with an unbendable fighting spirit...

"I simply flap my wings towards the dawning sky... The reason why I can fight!"​

 

[Vulpix037]

Two Vulpix stamps by Anime Psyclone, and Gen V sprites of Vulpix, Umbreon, Buizel and Buneary.

 

[danglerwood]

mine includes a pokemon team badge from the very old days of POL

 

[TouyaShiro]

I decided to do two things this time around: Push the envelope a bit further with the text width limit, and also centralise my avatar/signature GIF combo in a different fashion to how I did it in the past. Breaking it down in two parts:

Spoiler: Signature GIFs first!

The two GIFs present in this signature are of two seemingly unrelated characters - GOSICK's Victorique de Blois, and DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou's version of Hibachi. The link between these two is tied to who's present in my avatar - while it looks like Hibiki Tachibana, it's actually an image of her CV, Aoi Yuuki (more details can be found in the link). The connection here is that all three characters present between my avatar and signature are voiced by her! I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, where the connection between my signature GIFs and avatar is less obvious and requires a bit of digging to figure out if you don't know about it on sight.

That is what makes an infinite soul! Holding hands, listen to our resounding infinity!
The above is the ending line of the first (and last) chorus to Gekishō Infinity, a group song from Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ sung by the main three Symphogear candidates (Hibiki Tachibana, Tsubasa Kazanari and Chris Yukine) from the former 2nd Division, with some colour trickery in such a way that conveys who sings each sentence (the first one being Hibiki by herself, and the other two joining in the second).

This part of the signature is actually subject to change, due to the nature of the above signature GIFs - if I remember to do so, I'll be changing between various quotes as said by characters whose voices were provided by Aoi Yuuki... even if they're not present in my signature. More than likely I'll probably go with quotes from Kamen Rider Ghost's Yurusen and Hyperdimension Neptunia's Peashy next.

 

[Zexy]

It's just a bit of information about me and what are my positions in the site, as well as some useful links that can be used as shortcuts.

 

[Vulpix037]

Five models of Vulpix, ordered Normal, Shiny, Normal, Shiny, Normal.

 

[TouyaShiro]

I changed the text format this time! That's something a bit rare. This time, part of the lyrics actually accompany the GIF! Said lyrics come from TESTAMENT - the opening song to Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ, and sung by Nana Mizuki. I themed it this way primarily because very recently, I received my copy of THE MUSEUM III from Japan. This album is the third of Nana Mizuki's "best of" compilation albums. The main selling point for me in particular was that it was the first release of TESTAMENT -Aufwachen Form-, a version of the song with an extended intro that plays at critical points in the series, and it is this version (and its album of origin) that I credit below. The album itself also features the openings of the first three series - Symphogear's Synchrogazer, Symphogear G's Vitalization and Symphogear GX's Exterminate, without the Aufwachen Form extensions for the former two.

Going along with this, one final line accompanies the signature at the bottom - the tagline for AXZ. "By shedding many tears, the reality you face is..."

Spoiler: Signature GIF 17/01/2018

Taken directly from the opening, it features Tsubasa Kazanari and Shirabe Tsukuyomi, a pair that would be seen later in the series singing the song Fuugetsu no Shissou together. The opening itself features pairings of the six Symphogear users in a different formation compared to what was established in the previous series, which is actually a plot point when S.O.N.G. realises that the Bavarian Illuminati will be looking to separate the known groups from each other to prevent them from mutually increasing their phonic gain in a similar fashion to the usual pair of Shirabe and Kirika Akatsuki and their combined group song.

Spoiler: Signature Layout 17/01/2018

Take off, and sing out loud!

7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... AXZ!
~Nana Mizuki, TESTAMENT -Aufwachen Form- (THE MUSEUM III, from Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ)
"By shedding many tears, the reality you face is..."
Avatar credit:「シンフォギアライブ」/「あくあ」[pixiv] (Posted on Pixiv 9/14/2016 22:12)​

Other explanations:

• Usertitle
• Avatar

 

[~Smugleaf~]

A rough Incineroar banner l made, and text telling people my claims have moved to my main profile.

 

[Vulpix037]

Three Umbreon and two Sylveon. In addition to the usual links, there is extra text saying that @Max1996 found this avatar for me, and the credit for the avatar.

 

[TouyaShiro]

Spoiler: Signature Layout 2018/02/02

"Others picked up the slack from my baseless, naive emotions... And I'm oddly envious of myself then."

Phosphophillyte, Houseki no Kuni

Learning and growing is an irreversible process brought about by knowing how the world works.
Avatar credit:「フォス」/「Sayayun」[pixiv] (Posted on Pixiv 1/21/2018 18:30)​

Once again experimenting with the format, the signature portion of my theme this time around (that of Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous' main character, Phosphophillyte) was pushed pretty much to its limits in both width and file size. So, one by one, breaking each component down - there's actually a lot of spoilers this time around, technically!

Spoiler: Yes, quite a lot of them for Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous, as a matter of fact.

"Others picked up the slack from my baseless, naive emotions... And I'm oddly envious of myself then."
I chose this quote from Phos as it represents the state of their character development throughout the anime - As the anime concluded the Winter arc and teased the potential of more seasons to cover the story beyond what this 1-cour long season covered, the Lustrous MC reflects on everything that has happened to them and the other Lustrous. The main four colours were chosen as a representation of what they went through up to that point in the story.

Spoiler: Signature GIFs 2018/02/02

Phosphophillyte, Houseki no Kuni

This particular part of the signature goes hand-in-hand with the above quote, with the character's name and their series of origin - as well as two GIFs from opposite ends of the series.

As a bit of trivia for those reading, creating these GIFs was a bit of a nightmare, but as a result I ended up optimising them by a fair amount without having to compress them with lossy quality or more limited colour ranges - more than what's typical of GIFs I make with 100+ frames of animation, though that's probably a result of them not being particularly heavy on the action. Even still, I barely got these two GIFs under 500kb collectively, as the two images together are pretty much at the high 490 range - and it took a lot to represent all the frames of animation properly.

As one more piece of trivia, with the text in the middle the way it is, it's the widest part of the signature - making it barely fit within the 600px width limit! (Update: It was actually over by about 10 pixels! Luckily, I didn't have to shorten it by too much - I simply put the Romaji title instead of the official English name.)

Learning and growing is an irreversible process brought about by knowing how the world works.
And finally, this quote. This one's an original quote from myself, as I felt like being philosophical when I created this signature. Of course, it has relation to the rest of the sig and isn't just for show - but to know why, I'll explain in one more spoiler since it concerns plot spoilers.

Spoiler

In essence, the story of Land of the Lustrous in itself is a coming-of-age story for Phos, and also about lost innocence - as they learn how the world they live in came to be, some truths come to light that alters their perception of the world. During Episode 9 in particular, Phos ends up experiencing an almost complete 180 in their ability to fight, their usefulness to the other Lustrous, and their personality, as a result of everything that's happened to them in the first 8 episodes. Their hair - and their eyes, most notably - end up changing, too, best seen in a scene from Episode 12.

Simply put, I chose to make this unique quote due to the fact that pretty much nobody can really experience their childhood ever again - at least, not in the same way. One way or another, the world teaches you how things really work, beyond the facade and the fantasies we believed in as a child, and I wanted to reflect how I felt after finishing the series as it really resonated with me - though I think that will require more elaboration another time.

Other explanations:

• Avatar
• Usertitle

 

[~Smugleaf~]

A Midnight Lycanroc banner I made and the usual text telling users my claims list has moved.

 

[Jasper C.]

When I joined the Forums I decided to have my avatar be a different psychic Pokemon every month. This years Pokemon are Inkay, Abra, Gastly, Pumpkaboo, and their evolutions (mega's included). I realized that my signature should tell you the Pokemon Avatars I would have this year. I am working on enhancing it a bit.

 

[Calvinッ]

Mine is a shameless plug to The War Room, and also two awards I won after my first year of being involved in TWR. I should update it but it's always nice to see the awards there.