The best things in life are actually really expensive. Success is just failure that hasn’t happened yet. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it. Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines. Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you’re stupid and make bad decisions. Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television. Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment. I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time.

ROBOTERKAM

Niji・Journey Testing 02 Apr 23

In my opinion, V5 of Midjourney took a step backwards when it comes to the generation of anime pictures, especially chibi art.
Yeah, I could just specify V4 when using MJ, but that takes a bit of the fun away; the latest shiny thing is part of the appeal and I’m a shallow consumer whore. Luckily, Niji is here to step in and show V5 how it’s done.
Admittedly, I’m behind the curve on this one and only just learned of this anime-oriented (layer? plug-in?) addition to MJ. Time for a test run!

First up, a try for the the classic plugsuit and an angry expression. Using some of the Niji tips found on this guide, I entered the prompt of:

asuka langley soryu in a yellow dress with an angry expression, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 3:2

Interesting results. While #2 nails the angry part, only the last picture got anywhere close to the dress she wore in her inaugural episode. None of them particularly scream “90s Eva” to me, either.
Perhaps that’s the key? Let’s add a date!

90s anime still, asuka langley soryu in a yellow dress with an angry expression, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 3:2

Hey hey, that’s looking better! #1 is a complete write-off, but the other three could definitely be from a 90s flick. It ignored the “yellow” part of the prompt, but I can live with it when the rest is this good.
Okay, let’s try the classic plugsuit. And anger 😉

90s anime still, asuka langley soryu wearing a red plugsuit, with an angry expression, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 3:2

Jesus Christ, someone is having a bad day.
#1 and 2 are a little too modern. #3 is good, but 4 really takes the cake. Like, wow. Fucking wow.

Okay, let’s do something a little more full-body to see how it handles her figure, arms, etc:

1990s anime screencap, asuka langley soryu wearing a red plugsuit, standing with hands on hips and a smug expression, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 3:2

Bloody hands. Still, these are pretty damn good. I re-ran the same prompt a couple more times for fun:

While the style varies a bit, I think it’s safe to say that Niji is more than capable of producing a good picture of Ms. Soryu.
Of course, these were are stipulating “style of neon genesis evangelion,” so it should only make sense that the pics look like they’re from the show they’re from.
What if I enter a particular artist’s style?

90s anime still, asuka langley soryu wearing a red plugsuit, by Toshihiro Kawamoto –ar 2:3

Hmm. These results are fine in their own right, but I’m not quite sure they match Kawamoto’s style.
Let’s go back to eva style and try something else:

1990s anime screencap, asuka langley soryu wearing casual clothes and walking downtown, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 2:3

Oh man, It’s 1997 and I had to adjust the tracking on my VCR for ten minutes to get this screencap. Awesome.
The Niji guide above mentions expression and turn-around sheets. I’ve done a bunch of these in the past with straight-MJ, so let’s see how they work here.
I’m keeping the 1990s screencap portion of the prompt in, in the hopes of forcing the particular look:

1990s anime screencap of asuka langley soryu character dress-up sheet, style of neon genesis evangelion –ar 3:2

Not sure if the first three are in a more modern style, or if the style itself is just too different than what I’m shooting for, but only #4 says “Evangelion art book” to me. Embiggened versions for comparison:

Okay, one last test for this post. An expression sheet:

asuka langley soryu character expression sheet, in the style of neon genesis evangelion

Nice. Not 90s, but I didn’t specify that.
So, let’s specify that:
1990s anime screencap asuka langley soryu character expression sheet, in the style of neon genesis evangelion

I’m not sure it’s any more nineties-er than the previous attempt, but it’s still great. And really, as long it’s not red Tumblr noses I’m happy.

So, there you go- a very brief, unscientific and limited look at the anime results produced by Niji Journey V5. Here are a few large versions from the quads above (and probably a couple I didn’t show):

justin

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2 responses to “Niji・Journey Testing 02 Apr 23”

  1. yubin Avatar
    yubin

    Hey! thanks for sharing my guide. it’s a bit old so trying to update it now. are you on Discord?

  2. Yubin Avatar
    Yubin

    Roboterkam, thanks for referencing my guide! really good asuka writeup. are you on Discord?