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Hey, it's been a while, huh? Sorry, I guess life has kept me busy and I haven't really gotten around to writing you in a bit.

Recently, I've been going back and reading through the Naruto manga. You remember that series? Man, it was really big back in the mid-2000s. That, One Piece, and Bleach were the ones to carry DBZ's torch as anime became more mainstream in the Western market. I remember seeing it on Cartoon Network on their Toonami line.

Funny enough, the first time I actually saw Naruto was at a hospital since we didn't have cable at my house. I thought it was an interesting-looking show with a wacky character. This was during the chuunin preliminary exams, I think. When everyone saw Rock Lee become the main character for an episode and kick Gaara's ass.

Yeah, so I've just kinda been going back to this old series. I guess it's just comfortable.

It takes me back to an earlier time when things felt simpler, and I guess I look to that comfort in my time of stress. I've talked about this before. How I've been doing this a lot recently, but honeslty it feels like unless I do something like this to keep my mind off things, I'd just lose it.

It's actually kinda nice. Usually before, whenever I find myself wandering and bored, I'd browse Reddit endlessly and just feel like shit. Now, I've just been reading through the manga chapters starting from the beginning. I like how you can see a progression in Kishimoto's (the author) style as he refined his artwork. Beginning chapters were definitely much more loose and scribbly with their lineart.

It's inspired me to start writing up my comic again, though I doubt I'll have any time in the coming months to really begin proper work on it. And I have to make sure I don't ape too many ideas from Naruto. Though I will say that it's pretty evident that my art style has been greatly influenced by Akira Toriyama and Masashi Kishimoto during my youth, particularly with clothing (but I will admit that my fashion sense is extremely lacking).

I'll need to do more practice before I can start back up with the drawing. I'd taken a hiatus from it for about three years now, I think. I know the general plot points of where the story will go, but the devil is in the details when it comes to writing. It's sorely a muscle that I need to exercise more.

Anyway, I hope you have a good day! And if no one has told you today, I think you're doing great :)