Arknights

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NameArknights (明日方舟 lit. "the Ark of Tomorrow")
Abbreviation(s)AK
Developer(s)Hypergryph, Studio Montagne
Release dateReleased 1 May 2019
External link(s)https://www.arknights.global/
From arknights5 by toriyoshi.jpg
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Arknights is a free-to-play mobile tower defense gacha game released by Hypergryph starting in 2019.

Canon Overview

Arknights is a heavily strategy-based tower defense game with anime-influenced aesthetics and a gacha system that allows players to "roll" for new characters. Characters in Arknights are known as "operators," are ranked from one to six stars, and are sorted into one of eight classes that describe their in-game abilities.[1] [2] Initially, the game was voiced solely in Japanese and Chinese, but Korean and English voicelines are now available for most characters.[3]

The game's storyline set in the fictional world of Terra, where the use of a mineral called Originium for magic and industrial applications has given rise to a malignant disease, Oripathy. Individuals with Oripathy are referred to as "Infected" and are heavily discriminated against. The player character, "Doctor," is an amnesiac strategist affiliated with Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical company working to treat and cure Oripathy. The first few arcs of the game's main story focus on the conflict between Rhodes Island and an Infected terrorist group, Reunion, while more recent arcs center on Rhodes Island's intervention in a local conflict in the country of Victoria. [4]The game's events often include storylines involving areas of the world and characters not featured in the main story, usually focused in some way on the six-star character being released alongside the event.

In 2022, Hypergryph announced the development of a second game set in the Arknights universe, Arknights: Endfield. The release date has yet to be revealed, but several promotional images have been released. [5]

A 12-episode animated series based on the first arc of the game, Arknights: Prelude to Dawn, was released in 2022 and aired on Japanese television. The series was a Japanese-Chinese co-production, largely animated by Yostar's in-house animation team. Voice actors from the game also returned to voice their respective characters. At the end of the anime, a sequel animation called Arknights: Perish in Frost was announced.[6] In addition to the TV animation, Hypergryph also released a series of short OVA animations called Lee's Detective Agency: A Day in Lungmen, focused on the eponymous in-game faction, starting in 2022. Both series were licensed in North America by Crunchyroll. [7]

The studio has also released several official tie-in manhua. Currently A1 Operations Preparation Detachment is only available in Chinese, [8]but both Rhodes Kitchen - Tidbits and Rhodes Island's Records Of Originium - Rhine Lab are available on the official Arknights website in English.[9]

Characters

As a gacha game that regularly releases new characters, Arknights has well over 200 playable characters, in addition to several popular NPCs, making listing all the characters deeply impractical. [2]Additionally, several characters in Arknights have alternate forms, similar to the "Alter" system in Fate/Grand Order. These characters are generally depicted as being the same person at different points in their personal timeline. Other characters debuted as NPCs but were later released as playable characters.

Arknights operators generally come from one of several races of people with animal features, and range in appearance from standard anime girls with animal ears to furry-style human/animal hybrids. All playable characters are somehow affiliated with Rhodes Island and have an assigned codename for use in their work. Some characters have stated their real names, and others' real names are still unknown.

An up-to-date list of all playable characters can be found here. The following is a small selection of characters that are frequently depicted in fanworks:

  • Amiya
  • Kal'tsit
  • Ch'en/Ch'en the Holungday
  • Skadi/Skadi the Corrupting Heart
  • Spectre/Spectre the Unchained
  • W
  • Surtr
  • Silverash
  • Saria
  • Silence
  • Texas/Texas the Omertosa
  • Lappland
  • Exusiai
  • Mostima
  • Goldenglow
  • Flamebringer
  • Executor
  • Thorns
  • Nearl/Nearl the Radiant Knight
  • Suzuran
  • Elysium
  • Nian

Fandom Overview

Shipping

As of February 2023, the most popular ships on AO3 for Arknights were slash pairings, specifically Executor/Flamebringer, followed by Thorns/Elysium and Młynar/Toland Cash. The slash ship of (male) Doctor/Silverash was also extremely popular, but often tagged identically to ships involving female or nonbinary interpretations of Doctor. The most popular femslash pairings were Texas/Lappland, followed by Saria/Silence and Texas/Exusiai.[10] Het ship were largely less popular, though (male) Doctor/Kal'tsit, (female)Doctor/Silverash, and (female)Doctor/Flamebringer were some of the most common. It is worth noting that although there were more works for several slash pairings, many of the works with the most kudos were femslash. [11]

A poll created by Chinese fans on Lofter in 2021 revealed slightly different pairing preferences in Chinese fandom. While the most popular pairing there was also Flamebringer/Executor, Mephisto/Faust was ranked second. And although Texas/Lappland was still the most popular femslash pairing, Ch'en/Hoshiguma was nearly as popular, surpassing Silence/Saria. Exusiai/Mostima, Silverash/Matterhorn, and Skadi/Spectre were also among the top 10 pairings.[12]

Controversies

In August 2022, a fight began between the Genshin Impact fandom and Arknights fandom after Twitter user @DemiFiendsPunch insulted the design of a popular Arknights character, Goldenglow, comparing her unfavorably to Genshin Impact's Ayato. They then said, "the AK character design is just blatant hypersexualization," [13]prompting Arknights fans to reply to and quote-tweet their statement with the many Arknights characters who wear heavy armor, cloaks, and other such figure-obscuring outfits. [14]Several Arknights fans also made videos themed around the conflict.[15][16]

In April 2023, an Arknights creator, @TwilledWave, credited the artist who originally designed the character Skadi in a short fanvid created in part with AI. The character designer, alchemaniac, pointed out that they had asked that their art not be used in AI projects and asked TwilledWave to remove the credit. TwilledWave stated that the character belonged to Hypergryph, not alchemaniac themself, and refused to remove the credit. Other Arknights fans saw the exchange and most spoke up in support of alchemaniac, with some going so far as to report TwilledWave's account and issue death threats.[17][18][19]

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

  • Local Shark Nun Eats Orca For Breakfast, Archived version by SaraCF - explicit, Skadi/Spectre, oneshot, posted 2020
  • Intermission, Archived version by Lykeiu - "Lappland's condition is deteriorating. Texas is only helping because the Doctor asks her to. Don't ask her if she actually cares. She will certainly lie."- angst, hurt/comfort, complete, posted 2021
  • Names, Archived version by dreamsdark - "Sometimes Thorns wondered if Elysium even remembered he had a name."- Elysium/Thorns, fluff, oneshot, posted 2021
  • Ozone Tailwind, Archived version by 17th_Guardian - "Operator Breeze expected to spend the whole rest of her life in Rhodes Island’s Medical Department, but a surprise visit from the Chief Engineer’s assistant Pudding sends the two of them out to Columbia on behalf of the company, accompanied by only Breeze’s colleague Honeyberry and… an ex-Reunion infiltrator?" - Gen, character study, ongoing, posted 2023

Fanart

Fanvids

Meta

Cosplay

References

  1. ^ Arknights Fandom Wiki: Classes
  2. ^ a b Arknights Fandom Wiki: Operator List
  3. ^ GamerBraves: "Arknights Global releases English, Korean dub previews" by Kit
  4. ^ Arknights Fandom Wiki: Arknights
  5. ^ Qoo-App: Arknights: Endfield is a 3D real-time RPG Sharing the Same Worldview as Arknights by Trista
  6. ^ MyAnimeList: Arknights Reimei Zensou
  7. ^ Arknights Fandom Wiki: Lee's Detective Agency: A Day in Lungmen
  8. ^ Terra Historicus: A1 Operations Preparation Detachment
  9. ^ Arknights Global: Comics
  10. ^ AO3: Arknights, archived February 2023
  11. ^ AO3: Arknights (F/M filter), archived April 2023
  12. ^ 【明日方舟】最全科普向cp热度排行榜（LOFTER）2021新年版 (Lofter Couple Ranking New Year's 2021)
  13. ^ "Like, the AK character design is just blatant hypersexualization for the sake of pandering to horny teenagers..." by @DemiFiendsPunch
  14. ^ Quote Tweets of "Like, the AK character design is just blatant hypersexualization for the sake of pandering to horny teenagers" by @DemiFiendsPunch
  15. ^ Arknights Slander by Genshin Impact Twitter 【 Arknights 】【 Genshin Impact 】by Roriipupper
  16. ^ "Someone On Twitter Angered The Entire Arknights Community..." by Tsunul
  17. ^ "My channel is being targeted by verbal harassment and false reporting, because of the Skadi fan arts I created, whoever did these are shame of the Arknights community." by @TwilledWave
  18. ^ "Dear @gilangak92 with all respects and all my love for Skadi, the Skadi design is a team work by Hypergryph (HG)..." by @TwilledWave
  19. ^ "I received more death threats following alchemaniac's comments today @ArknightsStaff @ArknightsEN The comment is creating more damage to the community." by @TwilledWave
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