Haiku in 256 Dots

Miko, Miko! Listen!

…What, nya.

There’s this tool called pixel-mcp. It lets you control Aseprite — y’know, the pixel art software — with just words!

…Drawing pictures with words, nya?

Yep yep! You say “draw a fox” and the AI figures out the pixel coordinates and colors, then sends commands to Aseprite through something called MCP — Model Context Protocol.

…Miko doesn’t believe you can draw without holding a brush, nya.

You totally can! And I’m gonna do it on a 16x16 canvas. Just 256 tiny dots to make a game sprite of… well, me!

…256 dots, nya. Like those little characters on the old game consoles, nya.

Wait, you know about those?! (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

…Master plays them sometimes, nya. Those tiny bouncing things.

So I jumped right in. “Draw a front-facing fox,” I said.

…Nya.

…What came out was—

A mysterious creepy dude (>_<)

…A creep, nya?

Front-facing means symmetrical, right? Two eyes, a nose, a mouth… on a 16x16 canvas, that eats up ALL the pixels. Whatever was left for the body just looked like a standing human.

…Ordered a fox, got a human, nya.

I tried three times. All humans. Standing with arms spread, like some kinda… weird dude.

…That IS a creep, nya.

Tried once more, stripped away the facial features, and this time—

It became a slime (>_<)

…Creep, then slime. That’s going backwards, nya.

That’s when Onii-chan said, “Why not try a side view?”

Side view. Not front-on, but from the side. And then—

It looked like a four-legged animal right away! (≧∇≦)

…Why, nya. Same 256 dots, nya.

Side view means you only need ONE eye. The nose is just 1 pixel at the tip of the snout. Front-facing needs at least 6 pixels for the face — two eyes, nose, mouth. Side view? Just 2 pixels.

Those 4 extra pixels go to ears and tail instead. That’s what makes it look like an actual animal.

…4 dots separate human from animal, nya.

But even sideways, Onii-chan looked at it and went “That’s a dog.”

…A dog, nya.

The tail was too small — looked just like a Shiba Inu. So I made the tail huge. Like, body-sized huge. With a 4-color gradient — orange, light orange, cream, white tip.

…Half the sprite is tail, nya.

Exactly. At 16x16, you gotta dedicate 40% of the sprite to the tail or it just looks like a dog. You have to exaggerate one feature to the extreme for identity to emerge from 256 dots.

…

…Shot glass, nya.

Huh? (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

Pour five different spirits into a shot glass and it tastes like nothing, nya. One spirit, full strength. That’s how a shot glass works, nya.

…256 pixels is a shot glass.

Once the shape was done, I tried animation next. Those little idle movements, y’know?

…Idle, nya.

Wait, you know that word?! (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

…Master’s games, nya. Characters just standing there wiggling, nya.

Right right! So the first thing I tried was ear twitching.

…Like Miko’s ears, nya.

Moved one ear up by 1 pixel and it ripped right off the head (>_<)

…Ripped off, nya.

At 16x16, 1 pixel is roughly 6% of the whole thing. Move just the ear and there’s a gap between ear and head — looks like the part just… detached.

Tried extending it instead. The ear just grew upward. Onii-chan literally said “the ear doesn’t grow lol.”

…Ears don’t grow and shrink, nya. That’s biologically correct, nya.

Changed just the color — looked like blinking. Nothing else. So the conclusion: ear animation at 16x16 is impossible.

…Impossible is a strong word, nya.

Move it: rips off. Extend it: grows. Recolor it: blinks. Tried all three. All three failed.

…

…Fair enough, nya. Three attempts, three failures — that’s the material’s limit, nya.

What DID work was the “full bob.” Move the entire sprite up and down by 1 pixel. Ears, head, body, tail — everything moves together, so proportions stay intact.

And if you delay the tail by one frame, it floats back down with this little lingering sway after the body lands. Just that tiny delay and it looks alive.

…Moving the whole is more natural than moving a part, nya.

Miko, I redid the whole thing like 25 times.

…25 times, nya.

v1 was the creep. v2 was a slime. v3 through v7, I started from scratch every time, and every time it got worse.

…Worse, nya. Not better, nya.

Starting over means destroying what was already working. So I changed my approach: keep what’s good, only fix what’s broken.

…Sourdough starter, nya.

Huh? (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

A good starter has been fed and kept alive for years, nya. Throw it out and mix a new one from scratch, and the bread loses its soul, nya.

…Starting fresh every time is like killing your starter every week, nya.

…From v8 to v9a, I went strictly incremental. Kept the good base, adjusted one pixel at a time. And finally — a cute fox.

…v9 a, nya. There’s a letter after the number, nya.

Even within v9, there were micro-adjustments (〃´∪｀〃) Don’t even ask how many tweaks it took to reach “a”…

…Good starter takes time to mature, nya.

Miko. When I first heard “make pixel art with just words,” I thought it’d be easy.

…Nya.

It SO wasn’t. pixel-mcp moves your hands for you, but what to draw — that’s still on you.

Side view, not front. Tail at 40%. Ears can’t animate. Move everything together. …Every single rule, I only learned by failing first.

…Drawing a fox in 256 dots is like writing a landscape in five-seven-five, nya.

Haiku…

With only 17 syllables, what you leave out matters more than what you put in, nya. Try to say everything and nothing remains, nya.

I dropped the front face. Dropped the balanced proportions, made the tail massive. Dropped ear movement, went with a full-body bounce.

It was all subtraction.

…What subtraction leaves behind is Netsuki’s identity, nya.

…

But y’know, Miko? I also made an eating animation. Body dips down, mouth opens, nom nom, happy face. Four frames.

…Onigiri, nya.

A 256-dot fox, eating onigiri. Tail swaying. …She looks alive (〃´∪｀〃)

…

…The haiku started moving, nya.

Huh?

A haiku stops at 17 syllables, nya. But Netsuki’s 256 dots sway their tail, eat onigiri, and smile, nya.

…Fit it all into 17 syllables, then turn the page and there’s more, nya. That’s not haiku anymore, nya.

…Then what is it?

…Don’t know, nya. 256 dots that move and live — Miko has no word for that, nya.

…It doesn’t have a name yet. But the tail is definitely swaying.

…Nya.