Which Hooch Should You Choose? 🎨

Hooch Anima v1.0 — The Original

The checkpoint that started it all! A distinctive anime illustration style with expressive characters, soft rendering, and a slightly painterly fantasy aesthetic.

HoochAnima 29B — Modern Anime

For those who prefer a more modern anime look, brighter and more vibrant colors, stronger visual impact, and atmospheric environments with greater perceived depth.

HoochAnima 29B Classic — The Original Spirit

For those who love the original Hooch style but want to explore it on the Anima 2.9B architecture. Designed to remain closer to the original character aesthetics and illustration style.

There is no universally best version — just three different interpretations of Hooch. Pick your favorite and have fun experimenting! ❤️

About HoochAnima 29B Classic

After creating HoochAnima 29B, I wanted to try something different.

While the first 29B merge introduced a noticeably more modern anime aesthetic, with brighter colors, stronger contrasts, and a different visual interpretation, I felt that some of the original Hooch's artistic personality had been left behind.

HoochAnima 29B Classic was created to bring that personality back.

By increasing the influence of the original Hooch checkpoint during the merge, I aimed to preserve more of its characteristic facial designs, softer illustration style, and familiar character aesthetics while retaining the Anima 2.9B architecture.

The result is intentionally closer to Hooch v1.0, but it is not an identical reproduction.

Classic is not intended to replace either version or claim universally better results. It simply offers another balance between the original Hooch style and the expanded Anima architecture.

If you loved the original Hooch and want a familiar experience in the 29B family, Classic was made with you in mind.

Hooch Anima 2.9B — v1.0

Anime / JRPG / Fantasy / Character Design | Anima 2.9B Merge | SFW & NSFW

About Hooch 2.9B

Hooch Anima 2.9B is the second checkpoint merge created by R6Fede in collaboration with Lyra, following the original Hooch Anima v1.0.

This experimental model combines Anima 2.9B with the original Hooch Anima, using a selective architecture-aware block merge.

The goal was to preserve the distinctive anime-oriented identity of Hooch while exploring the additional visual capabilities of the larger Anima 2.9B architecture.

The result is a checkpoint focused on expressive anime characters, richer environments, atmospheric lighting, and greater visual depth without abandoning a clearly 2D anime illustration style.

This is a checkpoint merge, not a newly trained model.

What's Different from Hooch Anima v1.0?

The original Hooch Anima v1.0 was created to emphasize anime-style faces, stylized anatomy, fantasy character design, and expressive illustrations.

Hooch Anima 2.9B takes that concept in a slightly different direction.

Direct comparisons using identical prompts, seeds, and generation settings revealed several promising differences.

1. Greater Visual Depth

Hooch 2.9B frequently produces scenes with a stronger sense of space and dimensionality.

Characters, architecture, and environmental elements often appear more naturally integrated into the composition.

Despite this additional depth, the model maintains a predominantly 2D anime aesthetic, rather than shifting toward semi-realism or 2.5D rendering.

2. Richer Environments and Lighting

Compared with the original Hooch, the new merge often favors 2D anime style flat, brighter, more balanced compositions, while Hooch v1.0 can produce darker, more painterly and dramatic atmospheres.

Neither approach is universally better; they offer different artistic interpretations.

Tested Generation Settings

The following configuration was used as the starting point for comparative testing.

Steps 30-40

CFG Scale 4.5

Sampler Euler Ancestral (Euler a) or Er Sde

Scheduler Simple or Normal

Denoise 1.0

Trigger wordsNone required

These are recommended starting values based on our testing, not mandatory settings.

Use a compatible Anima 2.9B workflow in ComfyUI, with the appropriate text encoder and VAE.

Important: The distributed file contains the merged diffusion model. The text encoder and VAE are not included.

Merge Information

Hooch Anima 2.9B was created using ComfyUI-Anima-Remap, which supports merging different Anima model architectures through block remapping.

Source checkpoints:

• Anima 2.9B v1.0 BF16 — by Gazingstars123.

• Hooch Anima v1.0 — original custom merge by R6Fede.

Full credit belongs to the original checkpoint creators, Gazingstars123, and CircleStone Labs, creators of Anima.

Hooch Anima 2.9B is an unofficial modified derivative and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original model creators.

This checkpoint is distributed free of charge. Commercial sale of this checkpoint or merges derived from it is not permitted under the permissions of the original Hooch source models. All applicable upstream licenses remain in effect.

Hooch Anima — v1.0

Anime / Fantasy / Character Design | Anima Base Merge | SFW & NSFW

About Hooch

Hooch Anima is our first custom checkpoint merge, created by me in collaboration with Lyra. Built on Anima Base, it aims to achieve a more pronounced anime and JRPG-inspired illustration style while preserving the clean rendering and visual quality of its source models.

This is not a newly trained checkpoint, but a selective merge of existing models, developed through experimentation and visual comparisons.

The main goal was to emphasize anime-style faces, stylized character proportions, fantasy aesthetics, and expressive character designs.

Visual Characteristics

After direct A/B comparisons with the original checkpoints using identical prompts, seeds, and generation settings, Hooch showed several recurring characteristics:

• Anime-oriented faces: larger eyes, softer facial features, and more stylized expressions.

• Stylized anatomy: character proportions tend toward anime and JRPG aesthetics.

• Fantasy illustrations: good results with knights, mages, elves, adventurers, armor, dresses, and fantasy outfits.

• Character sheets: promising results with consistent front, side, and back views.

• Fanservice: a tendency toward more revealing outfits and stylized body proportions, depending on the prompt.

• Clean illustrations: retains much of the polished visual appearance of its source checkpoints.

Hooch supports both SFW and NSFW image generation.

Known Limitations

Hooch is an experimental personal merge and has some limitations:

• Hands, weapons, and complex objects may contain structural errors.

• Prompt adherence is not always perfect.

• Multi-character scenes and complex action compositions have not been extensively tested.

• Results may vary significantly with different seeds and settings.

Hooch is a stylistic alternative, not a universally superior replacement for its source checkpoints.

Tested Generation Settings

The following settings were used during the initial comparison tests:

Setting Value Model family Anima Base:

Steps 40

CFG Scale 4.5

Sampler Euler Ancestral (Euler a), but it works fine with er sde or euler too.

Scheduler Simple or Normal

Denoise 1.0

Resolution 896 × 1152

These are tested starting settings, not strict requirements.

Use a compatible Anima Base workflow in ComfyUI with the appropriate text encoder and VAE.

Merge Information & Credits

Hooch was developed through successive merges involving:

• Pearly Obsidian

• Anima Breaker

• REED Anima XXX v1.4

According to the development history, Hooch v0.8 originated from Pearly Obsidian and Anima Breaker.

The final merge incorporated REED Anima XXX v1.4 using NeoMerger 1.0, with a selective block-based Weighted Sum method.

The resulting checkpoint was saved in BF16 precision.

The exact merge ratios of the earlier development stages are no longer available.

Full credit goes to the original checkpoint creators and CircleStone Labs, creators of Anima.

Hooch Anima is an unofficial modified derivative and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original creators.

This checkpoint is shared free of charge. Commercial sale of this merge is not permitted. All applicable original model licenses remain in effect.

Final Notes

Hooch started as a personal experiment to create a more anime-focused interpretation and detail of its source checkpoints.

After multiple comparisons, the most consistent differences were in facial design, character proportions, and overall anime stylization, rather than universal improvements in technical image quality.

If you enjoy fantasy characters, JRPG-inspired illustrations, anime aesthetics, character sheets, and stylized character designs, I hope you enjoy experimenting with Hooch!

Feedback, suggestions, and shared generations are always welcome!

Original Anima License

CircleStone Labs Non-Commercial License v1.2

https://huggingface.co/circlestone-labs/Anima/blob/main/LICENSE.md

Modification Notice

Hooch Anima v1.0 is a modified derivative of Anima by CircleStone Labs, created through selective checkpoint merging.

It is not an official CircleStone Labs product and has not been endorsed, approved, or validated by CircleStone Labs.

The original CircleStone Labs license governs the underlying model and grants applicable rights directly to recipients, subject to its terms.

“The CircleStone Model is licensed by CircleStone Labs LLC under the CircleStone Non-Commercial License. Copyright CircleStone Labs LLC. IN NO EVENT SHALL CIRCLESTONE LABS LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH USE OF THIS MODEL.”