Thread: Audio Drama: Lonely Gunman and Hacker Kid (English Subs)

So I've recently been teasing an imminent project. The good news is that in a manner of speaking it's here. The bad news is that only half of it currently is. I have been facing technical issues in Vegas Pro, the video editing software I use. Normally each line should only take me about a minute to subtitle and implement. Due to the problems it's usually taking five minutes or longer per line and there's hundreds of them. Without further ado though...



It may only be ten minutes of it but it should whet your appetite until the rest of it arrives. I can't say when that will be but I'd like to focus on finding ways to address the root causes of these problems I'm facing in Vegas which should speed it up. Enough of that though. Here's some information on the episode itself, first of all a synopsis (keep in mind that it does contain minor spoilers):

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Lonely Gunman and Hacker Kid


Sentinel III is an industry-class terraformed world with a population of 1.5 million. Its major cities are Hugo, Locust and Nebula. Generally, public order was usually well maintained, but more serious crime has more recently become a bigger issue. This tale follows a young man called Gene Starwind. Three years prior, while travelling to the Sentinel region with his father their ship was ambushed. At the time the attackers were thought to be mercenary pirates from the Acid B guild who occupy the area. Nevertheless, his father's trade ship was defenceless and Gene's father, Norman, sacrificed his life and threw his son into a lifepod, ejecting him towards Sentinel III.

Gene Starwind, a young western native of planet Earth, had difficulty fending for himself in this Asiatic world he suddenly found himself in. He spent his later adolescence resorting to petty crime and soon aspired to become a bounty hunter. Recently, Acid B has been wreaking havoc in Locust. They're backing a man called Volg. Amber Dream is a brothel that has also been targeted by Acid B. Jim Hawking is a young boy who lives there but works upstairs alone as an accountant. He often confides in a woman called Natalie. Since his mother passed away and his father—the famous Computer Wizard—is still imprisoned on his homeworld Homage, Natalie has become a mother figure to Jim.

Gene, however, has a problem with Volg and his mercenaries causing trouble for the townspeople. After defending Amber Dream against an attack by Acid B, Jim took notice and decided to work with Gene to take down Volg before it's too late. But even with his broad technical know-how, can Jim really make a difference in a daring scheme to defeat a powerful syndicate with only the help of an often-reckless lonely gunman?

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What did you think of the audio drama so far? This is actually longer than a normal TV episode at 27 minutes. So the preview is a little over 1/3. There's a second drama episode which is set during the events of the anime rather than being a flashback. That one is about the whole crew who get stuck inside a casino. You might be wondering about the artwork displayed through most of this episode. I commissioned it last year. It has a more modern anime style but I like it. It captures Gene and Jim's slightly younger age quite well. The original plan was to make this like a slideshow with lots of frames but I had to go with just one picture because the alternative was too impractical, financially and time-wise.

You may have found it peculiar that Gene is lacking his iconic scar. There's a reason for it. Gene and Jim's early friendship is shown in flashbacks in the manga. He doesn't have the scar there but the plaster that you see is, adding to how he was more of a loudmouthed cocky punk. It's easy to believe that the scar came from Gene's crash-landing on Sentinel but he doesn't have it when we're briefly shown young Gene after the crash in an anime flashback so he probably got the scar as a bounty hunter.

In the full video you'll learn how Gene handles this sudden threat and how he goes about enlisting Jim. What do you think about Volg? Although he is almost entirely unknown within the Outlaw Star western fanbase, in my opinion within this smaller corner he'll become a highly underrated and overlooked villain. He's a very interesting character, basically like a yakuza boss. He knows his business and is clearly a smarter foe than most who Gene faces in the show.

Anyway, I think it's about time I got some sleep. (Obviously I'll update/rewrite this OP when the full episode finally comes.)

For my 1 thousandth post, I shall dazzle you with my opinion on this audio drama.

It's pretty good so far. I like that it demonstrates that Gene's drinking and womanizing was even worse before he met the rest of the gang. I like Jim's brief time with Natalie even though, considering that she doesn't appear at all in the anime, it seems obvious what her fate is going to be. I don't really have much of an opinion on Volg since we don't really spend much time with him in the preview but his low ass voice is probably a safe indication that he is not one to be fucked with.

Kind of disappointing that you couldn't get other frames for it, though it's understandable with the costs and all. Maybe you can have that artist do a pic that's just the characters making one stance but different expressions and then have one big splash page for like the climax of the story or something. It'd be nice to see him do a rendition of the other characters since I don't think there's any art for them.

All in all, it's some good shit.

Originally Posted by Starwind55

For my 1 thousandth post, I shall dazzle you with my opinion on this audio drama.

Mantis probably already knows my thoughts on the audio drama since I was slightly involved behind the scenes but I'll leave some thoughts here nonetheless.
Firstly a minor correction to address: at 5:16 Natalie says "young brother", I think this should be "younger brother"? People say "my younger brother", not "my young brother". That was the only thing I felt needed correction out of 10 mins of constant dialogue, so you have my commendations for an incredible stretch of text without typos or otherwise weird sounding interactions!

About the content itself: I'm really enjoying this, even more than I thought I would. They did an excellent job with the production of the audio drama, as some don't even feature SFX or feature a severely restricted cast to save on costs and studio time. you can tell that they were really passionate about producing this and having some fun with it in the studio. Looking at Gene holding a beer for nearly 10 minutes and realizing that this would primarily take place in Clyde's bar & a hostess bar, I went ahead and cracked a cold beer to sip while I listened. I know that you guys aren't beer types, but for me it really enhanced the experience! Not to mention that I've been to places similar to the one where this is taking place, minus the daily gun fights. Since non-essential businesses are closed at the moment, this really made me miss my regular hangout. I've gone to that little local bar so much that the staff knows my order, when I come in I give them a wave and my regular order comes to the table without saying anything. Having a go-to bar of my own helps me get in the mindset for this place, imagining the smoky interior filled with regulars.

One thing I noticed was that Volg isn't necessarily a "bad guy" yet. At least, no worse than Gene. Gene is really the one who starts the altercation and keeps it going. Gene's equally as rough as Volg and his henchman, and Volg recognizes Gene's skill and even offers him a fine paycheck to continue the type of work he's already doing. Now, with all the knowledge we have of Gene becoming an Outlaw and forging his own path it makes sense why Gene doesn't want to accept a form of work where he isn't his own boss, but to be fair Volg's offer and treatment of Gene was perfectly reasonable. I assume something will happen within the next few minutes that will turn my opinion of Volg.

Additional feedback: The differing display speed on lines is great, using Visual Novel methodology to adapt an audio drama is an A+ idea.
While I agree with Starwind that more pictures would be nice...well...I know better than anybody how much shit you went through just to get this one completed and how expensive and logistically unfeasible it is to add many more commissioned images. As I recall, that particular artist isn't often available, and to source them from different artists would mess up the cohesion. The only way I see that happening is if we had an internal artist on the team here that was personally motivated to create a portfolio for the project for little or no pay. Commissioned artists are just too difficult to pin down for such a long project and the costs add up too quickly.