Circuity

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Circuity logo
The unnamed female character

Megatokyo Omake Theater: Circuity is a series of 10 strips from between July 6 and July 29, 2005. According to Fred Gallagher it was intended to be “…serious, and sombre…”, a counterpoint to the previous multi-strip omake Grand Theft Colo. It contained the first strips in Megatokyo to show serious injury and, probably, death.

Circuity:Rewound, an extended version of Circuity with additional pages, is included in Megatokyo 4. There is a DPD with some preview images.

Two Weeks is a series of four DPD strips from between March 20 and March 31, 2006.

The general setting and character design of “Circuity” are widely taken to be an homage to the anime Haibane Renmei by Yoshitoshi ABe. The online version is closer to Haibane Renmei than Circuity:Rewound, where all direct references were removed and more details on an original background story were added.

Several drawings on Fredart feature a female haibane identified as Memai that vaguely resembles the central character in “Circuity”. Because this unnamed character also shows many similarities to Kimiko it appears she is “playing” Memai's role in this omake. This was confirmed in the last strip in which Erika states: “At least you got screen time…”.

In the accompanying comments to the aforementioned drawings Fred also mentions his ideas for a short story set in the Haibane universe. Apparently these, after some rework, formed the core of this story.

Relationship with Haibane Renmei

When Circuity was first introduced, it was met with a great deal of speculation that it would tie in closely with Haibane Renmei. As it turned out, much of that speculation was unfounded.

The setting for the story comes almost directly from the Haibane universe. The windmills, and Memai's wings, in particular, will be immediately familiar to anyone who has seen even a few minutes of Haibane Renmei. Other, more subtle or spoiler afflicted details also came up in places, but nothing so profound that the total feel of the story would be changed by having seen the original story or not.

The story itself had very little to do with the original story of Haibane Renmei, and understanding Circuity is certainly not dependent upon having seen the anime from which it was inspired. Despite Circuity's modest length, all of its characters were developed well enough that their relationships were as clear as they needed to be for the story to stand on its own. The emotional bonding necessary for feeling and understanding the full depth of the story could be perfectly well achieved from the ten strips alone.

List of strips

Date Strip Title (strip list) Title (in the strip)
2005-07-06 731 Megatokyo Omake Theater: Circuity CIR:01
2005-07-08 732 Circuity : pushing the wind CIR:02
2005-07-11 733 Circuity : cursed CIR:03
2005-07-13 734 Circuity : the other one CIR:04
2005-07-15 735 Circuity : never came home CIR:05
2005-07-18 736 Circuity : voices from above CIR:06
2005-07-20 737 Circuity : gone CIR:07
2005-07-22 738 Circuity : pushed by the wind CIR:08
2005-07-25 739 Circuity : loss CIR:09 [end]
2005-07-29 741 Circuity : curtain call CIR:10
2006-03-20 835 two weeks DPD1: broken blades TW:1of4
2006-03-22 836 two weeks DPD2: tilting windmills TW:2of4
2006-03-29 839 two weeks DPD3: movement of air TW:3of4
2006-03-31 840 two weeks DPD4: stillness TW:4of4
2006-04-17 846 DPD: Circuity:Rewound - work in progress DPD:myheadisspinning