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Star Army Uniforms: A Look Back

The interesting thing about the Type 30A and the quickly following Type 30B Duty Uniform is, as I mentioned earlier, the armor that came with it. It was only good against energy based weapons and was useless against projectiles, but as a result, was slightly stiffer than desirable for a uniform one would be wearing for a good portion of the day. This of course, lead to the Type 30B, which was primarily cloth.

The first few are the same ones from the page, but full size. However, pay particular attention to Murasaki Aoiko; you'll note that despite the uniform coming with short sleeves and short skirt with no stockings, hers is all long. Despite the emphasis of the uniform that I mentioned before, the variant she has gives her a more graceful appearance. The uniform is surprisingly flexible.

Unfortunately, I can't find out who was the one right next to Aoiko on the page even though I suspect it's Cherry. Digging around is not always easy.

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I also point out for any newcomers that Masako's image in the ones above was the one present at the welcome page for quite a few years before being changed out. Unfortunately, I don't know who was there before her; just that when her image was changed, it really caught us by surprise. Like, a lot-a lot. I'm actually not sure if I should get into that or not...

Anyways! Given how things can turn out in the setting, I often imagine one Neko crying over another and wailing the question of why she didn't wear her armored one instead. A bit of a dark turn there, so I'll also supplement that with something more humorous too. If I recall correctly, we were once in the IRC and having a discussion about the Type 30A/B, and were starting to wonder about just how good the plastic armor was against energy weapons. I can't remember if it was Wes himself or someone else that said this, but the answer was along the lines of, 'Just good enough to keep them from burning their tits off.'

Though it wouldn't stop an NSP, you also have to keep in mind that those are basically some of the very best firearms in the setting anyways. Like a Desert Eagle loaded with a bottomless magazine filled with tungsten core, discarding sabot ammo and stun-rounds on the side.

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Hurrrgh.

And that wasn't even all of them, I'm sure of it. Perhaps one of the reasons why the Type 30A/B were so popular, was an event that I think some of us may remember as 'The Longest YE'. You'll notice on the setting's Timeline that there's a discrepancy between YE 29 and YE 30 - IRL, that time period stretched on for a good while. Though the Second Mishhuvurhtyar War hadn't officially started until YE 31, events were already underway. And then when it finally became official, it was all, for better or worse, quite a hallmark in SARP history. As a result, I believe that Type 30A/B ended up becoming emblematic of that distinctive time period and all the stuff that a lot of the players went through, hence, how it's endured much like the Type 22 Bodysuit, but in a sligthly new form.

More on that later.
 
An important thing that happened was that Zairyo, who has drawn like half the character art on the site, began experimenting with new uniform designs around 2007, and that one of those concepts became the working uniform (Type 31), which was the first Star Army uniform not to follow the classic colors and lineage. And around this same time period (YE 30) the UOC was breaking away and coming up with their own cool-looking peacekeeper uniform that was much more detailed than the Star Army's. So I went to Saejin Oh to get new uniform art and he's the one that created such a "Korean Cheesecake Fighting Game" look to the uniforms and art. It was too extreme for me, so we normalized the look with the Type 30B, and that's the one that almost every character used (notice that the Type 30A is quite rare, with only 4-5 pics).

Again the uniforms have a serious color consistency problem, as the uniform pages weren't clear, and every time an artist got creative, the art got used by other artists as a reference and we ended up in a sort of cycle until the sweater ended up gray, somehow. Also note the huge variety of boots and belts. If you're interested in this topic, there's a part of the Star Army uniforms thread starting on page 18 where I do "a look back" at the belts and boots. This ever-increasing maelstrom of uniform inconsistencies would eventually lead to the Type 35 uniform, which was extensively detailed down to the color palette and belt types so that it came out looking mostly the same no matter who drew it.

Keep in mind that even with the Type 30 uniforms, we were still using tricorner hats. But that would be about to change...
 
Thats cool. My aliens in progress are using bicorns (both worn for and aft and athwart ships) for their navy and pith helmets for their army ;)
 
I actually find that hilarious Wes. I honestly don't mind the Type 30A that Saejin Oh had come up with, nor do I mind the inconsistencies that came along with the Type 30's boots and belts in general. Maybe the sweater, but that's easily overlooked too. They're small details that are off, but ones that I feel aren't harmful, and also serve to add a little fun color to things too. And I've honestly never heard of the phrase "Korean Cheesecake Fighting Game-look" before. I honestly feel that the only one that would deserve that would likely be Saejin Oh's more recent rendition of Hanako,

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Though it's clear his skill as an artist has significantly improved over the years by quite a degree, well, let's not kid anyone. This is anime like crazy. That's not a bad thing of course, but the two main things I'd have to fault it on would be that her hips are incredibly wide, and that her face is also wider as well. Doesn't quite look like the same person. Damn shame it seems he's inactive now, and I'm sure some people would disagree with me on the hips part though!~

One of my very favorites would have to be this one here though; Hanako Nouveau!

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It's one of the finest renditions of Hanako and the uniform, nevermind that it's with a pair of skintight space-leggings integrated into the space-boots. Hell, it even looks great. Even then, I think it would have looked even better if she were wearing a skirt. With or without, I think it's mature, alluring, and exotic, all right there. Inconsistencies are definitely not a bad thing at all if they only add variety and more enjoyment out of these.

Also, if tricorner hats ever become a thing in the Star Army of Yamatai again, Hanako needs to dress up in a Pirate Costume. Maybe something in line with what Sento wore in Amagi Brilliant Park. Or maybe get some Space Pirate Captain Hanako going on. Both their names start with an H even!
 
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What I meant in terms of art style is exaggerated manhwa-style CG in the style of Korean superstar artist Hyung Tae Kim. Like this:

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For the Hanako Nouveau artwork, her upper legs were originally bare and the artist couldn't seem to figure out how to put a skirt on her (despite being a wonderful artist) so I told her to color them cadet blue like the boots and just call it a day. So she ended up being in space-leggings, which was, for a time, in serious consideration for being a pants substitute for the duty uniform.
 
I'm not entirely sure that space yoga pants would've done anything but make it nigh impossible for male SAoY personnel to focus on the tasks at hand.
 
Ah, I understand what you mean now Wes. Though, with the Type 30A's, it wasn't so bad at all. It's not until the later redux he did of Hanako that the manhwa style end up in the forefront of things. With the skirt though, she wasn't able to work off of some reference images? There's a few decent ones, and these are just some I randomly grabbed;

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Anyways, I'll be getting back to the uniforms tomorrow morning.

EDIT: The uniforms are not just for their benefit, but for ours too @Kirkatan
 
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Alright, playing off of what someone said before, I'm going to do some beefcake next. Or, to be more honest, some bishi-cake, because Yamatai just doesn't do beefy men all that much. Well, to be fair, many of their women do, but that's besides the point. Today, we're going to look at the Type 22 Duty Uniform.

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Some of you will notice that not all the images that are on the uniform's page itself are here. In some cases, I'm guessing it's what happens when a third party image hosting site is used and the thing goes down. Poof. No image anymore. At the least, these were the ones I could find. As you can see here, it has the same evolutionary lineage as the female Type 22. However, one thing I notice is that the elements that players didn't get to see until the Type 30 are already present here. The most prominent example would be the colored portion wrapping around the torso rather than being a small fragment at the center of the chest. Basically, it looks like some cross-influence between the male and female uniforms.

One thing for sure, is that I'm glad the Neko don't always wear the pants and choose what people wear!
 
Two of those images (the ones by Sketchasmile) are not the Type 22 Uniform. One is a Type 31 working uniform (the one where he's in coveralls) and the one with Takeyu is a Type 31 Working Uniform, but with the top drawn incorrectly as a Type 22-style duty uniform top. I would not use either of those as examples. Both were made after the Type 30 Male Duty Uniform had already come into service.

And hey, I found the original Star Army uniform with the cloak and the tricorn!
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Here's a Type 22 Duty Uniform artwork I bet no one has seen in a while:
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Wes is right about the inconsistencies, however, I like to think of it as being an In-Character Type 22 Precursor to the Type 31 Working Uniform which I haven't covered yet, even though it was an Out-of-Character snafu. More importantly though;

Holy crap Wes, that's actually really impressive. It's a modified body suit, emphasizing the female form, while also having this real strong, awesome feeling of "Space Pirate Captain Yui" going on. It doesn't fit the theme of the later uniforms, but it does look really good in its own way.
 
Oh shoot! That cloak and tricorn are fricken sweet! Uniform its self looks like the ones from Banner of the Stars :)

I am REALLY digging the original uniform! Dude this art needs to go up on the uniforms page :D

Should totally bring the tricorn and cloak back for dress uniforms
 
Also, regarding the second image you just added in; who is that? It seems to be a girl that looks like a boy that looks like a girl. A reverse trap in the SAoY?
 
Zipper detail for the Type 22 Female Bodysuit.

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Original colors labeled on here:
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Fun fact: There was also an alternate version with zipper on the back, but it required help to just put it on!

Hanako's variant bodysuit uniform, with unique red belt and bodysuit.
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And here's what appears to be the first-ever attempt at a Star Army pleated skirt:
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It's always interesting to see these images, since not all of them are even accessible on the wiki or through it's media storage. Looking at them, it's possible to piece together a sort of story about how the uniforms developed as well. The first picture on the upper left stands out in particular too; I'm curious as to who that is, and I'm also quite amused that her helmet also has provisions for her ears as well. As for Taji, well, at least we have a face to the name now. I'm sure those who are saltier than I am knew what she looked like, but I definitely didn't. I admit, I was always surprised she wasn't ST'd back to duty. Then again, things do happen with those backups.

As for the Type 22's zipper, I note that though having it at the back of the bodysuit was an inconvenience since they'd have to nimbly reach around, they probably didn't mind too much. It was possibly a bit of a social thing, helping each other get dressed in the morning.

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Though, I wonder, who's the one in the skirt?
 
Ho-boy, it's been nearly a month! This time, we'll be taking a look at the successor to the Type 22 Bodysuit, the Type 30!

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These are merely the fullsize versions of the same images on the uniform's page, or at least the largest ones I could find, which is telling in and of itself. For whatever reason, it never really seemed to pick up and be as popular as the Type 22, though I'll get to my guesses as to why a little later. As you can see here, the Type 30 Bodysuit has not only many similarities, but differences between itself and its predecessor, the Type 22 Bodysuit. From the waist down, the lineage it has with the Type 22 is very clear, with the skintight bodysuit hugging the wearer's every curve. In fact, very little had seemed to change there save for the thigh panels becoming more straight and angular at the edges. From the waist up however, the changes are very apparent, with many of them appearing to come from the Type 30A instead. Here, we see a very similar form fitting chestpiece, and even the sweater-patterned cloth or spandex. The shoulder pads are still a holdover from the Type 22 and shared with the Type 30 though. The last notable change would be that the sleeves seem to be a bit looser, or with Eika's, even have a cuff at the end.

If I had to guess, I would say that the uniform was less popular than the Type 22 because it was overly complex. Though still quite appealing, the add-ons likely gave it a more heavy appearance which took attention away from the wearer rather than emphasizing them. Despite being present with most of the uniforms up to this point, if the shoulder pads were taken away along with the lined spandex/sweater-material, the uniform would most likely look a lot better. By having just the chest piece remain, and the shoulders being covered by the same body hugging suit as the rest of the user, the impression of a wearer having bare shoulders or having a corset on would be stronger. This way, more emphasis is put on the user without actually showing any skin - as odd as it is, sometimes less is more and more is less. In the end though, it all boils down to execution.

Despite its apparently lower popularity and possible shortcomings, I still think it's a lovely looking suit from the Star Army's extensive history of uniforms.
 
I'm hoping for another installment of this series, soon!
 
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