Circuity
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 |