Fanart Friday returns, providing an anime intro and really bad dubbing for this week's installment. Last week, we wrapped up two weeks of mecha mayhem, but this week we're changing gears for another two three-week theme!

I think it's safe to say that the most popular genre of games among the Crunchyroll audience is RPGs--specifically Japanese RPGs. I'll hold off all jokes that I usually make about RPG fans and their "atrophied claws for hands incapable of precise motor control" or "fear of hand-eye coordination," and come clean by saying that I like JRPGs too. A lot, in fact, as evidenced by just how many I've played since the SNES and Genesis days--I was never much of a fan on the NES.

However, the JRPG world is a big place--this week, we're only going to be taking a look at JRPGs specifically not made by uber-publisher Square-Enix--that means no Final Fantasy, no Dragon Quest, and no Star Ocean--that's next week!

DISCLAIMER:  None of the art presented is the property of myself or Crunchyroll.  All characters and series are ^tm and © their respective creators and corporate owners.  All art is the creative property of their respective artists.  Any artists who wish to have their work removed from this article may contact me, and appropriate action will be immediately taken.

by SuperCaterina

And what better place to start than with Paper Mario? This series (especially The Thousand-Year Door on the GameCube) never fails to disappoint with dynamic gameplay and great writing.

by JoshuaTheAsmodian

Confession time: aside from Tales of Symphonia's chaotic co-op, I kinda hate the Tales of... series. It's hard to ignore Tales of Vesperia's beautiful graphics, though... or fanart like this.

by RuuNa

Y'know, when I first picked up my PS1 copy of Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete, I wasn't prepared for the old-school graphics--it was kind of a shock--but the game quickly grew on me!

by reki

As someone who's not a big fan of turn-based combat outside of strategy games, the Grandia series gets it the most "right" for me with its Cancel system--but man was Ryudo a whiny, unlikeable jerk.

by 股野まや

Xenosaga wasn't quite the follow-up to Xenogears I was hoping for, but it was a really beautiful game. Yeah, that's all I've got--it was pretty. OKAY FINE I ONLY PLAYED LIKE TWO HOURS OF THE FIRST GAME, I COULDN'T TAKE ITS PHONEY BALONEY PHILOSOPHIZING ANY MORE

by さやかじょう

Something I've always appreciated about Fire Emblem: death is permanent. You get somebody killed, it's your fault and you have to live with the consequences for the rest of the game--or in my case, come up with some creative swearing and restart the map from scratch.

by sebychu

Wait, when did Suikoden become Avatar: The Last Airbender? Oh, whatever--Hugo was pretty awesome. How many other freak completionist have-to-get-all-108-Stars fans do we have here?

by zaionic

Okay, so why didn't people give Blue Dragon a chance? Only somewhat-modernized but still classic-style gameplay with Akira Toriyama designs and Nobuo Uematsu music in a game by Hironobu Sakaguchi--isn't that what people have been wanting from Square for years?  Hell, switch out Uematsu for Yasunori Mitsuda and you have a full-on spiritual sequel to Chrono Trigger!

by sash0

I don't really want to talk about that time when I was just playing Phantasy Star Online, day in and day out... and that's really the main reason I refuse to start a World of Warcraft account. I would get nothing done... ever.

by ryo-hakkai

So who here has had a chance to check out the Persona 4 anime? Now there's a theme song that'll get stuck in your head. As for the game, I liked P3:FES a little better... but only a little bit better.

by w3etiki

I love you, Valkyria Chronicles. Specifically, I love your combination of strategy, action, and role-playing in your Fake Anime WWII Europe. It's almost like Pumpkin Scissors somehow got cuter and (only slightly) less vicious.

by Child-of-Neglect

Yes, Shenmue is an RPG. An RPG with an awesome real-time battle system that's basically Virtua Fighter with multiple-opponent combat. By the way, do you know anyone who can read the Chinese language?

That about wraps it up for this week. Don't worry, RPG fans--I do love the genre, lots and lots--enough to make sure that the next two weeks of Fanart Friday are dedicated specifically to this vast, beloved genre of games. Make sure to swing by next week, when we take a look at fanart of Square-Enix's library of RPGs!