The Fool » Avisch

The Problem with American Television

Avisch — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:06:41 +0000

How many of you can name any American television shows?

I’m laying this out as I go.

I don’t watch non-Japanese animation because 90% of the time they are crude, ugly, dumb, and disturbing (I should probably try Avatar: The Last Airbender as I did see a few episodes, and they were a great step up from what I expected, don’t get me started on Nickolodeon) so I won’t talk about it.

An unfortunately reality in the storytelling world is that authors sometimes do not have full control over how they present things. The editors for graphic novels and regular novels have influence over how the story will progress. While I am no expert, I think it’s safe to say that some of these “influences” are not in favor of what the author planned. But of course it is likely different for each case. This applies to every country, not just America and the U.K. And to myself I consider it a real issue that money and popularity need to be involved when deciding on how someone’s work has to turn out. I’m not some anarchist who says that authority needs to be taken out.

In sort, I think that American TV plays too much toward
1. Teenagers who like stupidity.
2. Trying to get viewers to stick around for the next episode.

Let’s analyze the only three actual live action television shows that I watch. House, Lie to Me, and Law and Order (yes I love detective stuff).

House: Is described as a “medical-based-whodunnit”. Like every single medical drama airing, it focuses on the relationships of the doctors involved, sometimes more-so than the actual profession of working in a hospital. I like House cause it is almost entirely based on dismantling the persona of titular character and figuring out what his philosophies are.

I hate House because it took three seasons to get anywhere, and that hasn’t been much. Seasons 4 and 5 set up pretense that House was trying to get in a relationship with the Hospital’s manager Cuddy. The second to last episode of the 5th season had them together only have the finale ruin it with the revelation that it was all a hallucination. In season 6th Cuddy (offscreen mind you) gets into a relationship with another person (a side character from last season) and you think this is a big issue until she (offscreen again) breaks up with him and shares a kiss with House in the season finale.

I consider this bad writing. There is nothing for the viewers to catch on to or really discuss. Ultimately it seems that everything moves at a snail’s pace just to get the viewers to come around to the next episode with guise that the show is a medical drama. Viewers who like the romance are thus pressured to watch to the next episode so that may hope that the next episode resolves anything (which it won’t)

Lie to Me is a detective-type show that stars Cal Lightman, who solves crimes with his team by analyzing peoples’ faces, voices, and body language. The show has relationship elements, but they are thrown to the side for actual crimes and issues brought up in the series. I like Lie to Me because some of it’s meaningful episodes focus on how difficult it is to trust someone because of how much deceit there is in the world. The cases get interesting because they revolve around finding the truth and sometimes manage to work in an antagonist for the week.

I hate Lie to Me because most of its episodes have presentation similar to how a 5th grader writes a story: “AND THEN THE GOOD GUYS FOUND THE FINGERPRINTS AND THEY CAUGHT THE VILLAIN IN THE WARHOUSE”. There is no build-up, no villain characterization, nothing that makes us feel satisfied after the case is resolved. It’s an interesting parallel to the problems that Twenty-Four has: lots of build up and villain characterization, but nothing to make the conflict resolved.

Law and Order is best described as a “cop-show.” I love Law and Order, and I’m referring to most of the damn franchise (the original show, SVU, and Criminal Intent). If there’s anything to dislike about Law and Order it’s perhaps the writing in the more recent episodes, but otherwise I just love everything about it. Since the show has no ongoing story the show is able to fit a story (that could easily be expanded into a large movie or a whole series) into a nice 45-50 minute episode. We follow the police as they follow leads on the case, gather suspects, interrogate people, and eventually prosecute the offenders.

Regardless of whether or not the episode has a good ending. The show feels intense and manages to work in contemporary political issues. In short, every episode of Law and Order feels “complete.”

Certainly the lack of no ongoing story gives Law and Order an advantage over the previous shows. But are they really that different? I mean look at this scene from the final episode of the original series:

Jack yells at an insensitive lawyer

Perhaps I don’t watch a lot of television. But to me, that whats what any TV series should strive to be.
And I’ll be fair. Not many anime even have that much intensity.

The image above was drawn by me. But Trollface is the original property of Whynne

The Max Payne Duology – I finally catch up

Avisch — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:13:11 +0000

Not that bad. Not that impressive. But a classic.

From the publishers of Grand Theft Auto come a more passionate story (ok GTA probably is somewhat passionate, but let me continue) taking after film noir. In these last two weeks. I managed to play and beat both Max Payne games.

Despite not hearing about the game series for a good 6 years, I had a very good recollection of the story for both games.

0. Max Payne is an upstanding cop. His family is murdered.
1. Remains part of the police. Becomes hard-boiled.
2. Gets involved in some conspiracy.
3. Kills alot of (bad) people.
4. Avenges his family.
5. Couple years go by
6. Repeat steps 1-3
7. Happy ending(?)

The gameplay is a very nicely simplified 3rd person shooter action game with some of the first bullet-time options in gaming.

The Gameplay

Both games, though the sequel especially, are great achievements in the field of cinematic gameplay. The first game I played that involved bullet time at all was Enter the Matrix (awful game but still a guilty pleasure), and now I can see how much that game wanted to be like Max Payne.

The weapons of the two games don’t differ by much (the sequel actually takes away a weapon). I enjoyed the feel of the weapons, as they felt powerful.

The gameplay was polished in the sequel. The first game had alot of awful situations where you could be gunned down in seconds without knowing what hit you (and this was the normal difficulty no less) and ammunition for weapons was mostly confined to the shotguns and starting pistol until you found henchmen that had the weapon you desired (for myself, the Ingram).

The level design of the game improved vastly in the sequel. The first game actually featured a moment where I was so stumped that I had to look into a strategy guide only to find out that in order to lower a bridge I had to shoot this triangle block on the other side of a fence, which seemed really out of place. The first game also featured two GOD-AWFUL dream sequence levels, which were thankfully improved in the sequel.

Bullet time was the best thing polished for the sequel, it felt much more natural and because it regenerated slowly (in the first game it didn’t regenerate period) you had more times to experiment with it. However, I think they went over the top, as whenever you kill alot of enemies in Max Payne 2, the game cuts to an unskippable sequence in which Max (still in slo-mo) does something fancy. To me, this really broke the flow of the gunplay.

The Story

The story for the first game was a very mixed bag. On one hand it was a cool gritty neo-noir presented through stylistic graphic novel stills, but on the other it seemed like a wierd collection of tales. There was almost nothing that connected each level. Max goes to the subway station and kills some thugs, he goes to a hotel and kills some thugs, etc. Not to say that the final levels weren’t well connected.

The second game was a lot better on this end. With Max having actual reasons to go each area. Mac goes to a badguy filled warehouse and finds clues that it’s related to Vladimir Lem, Max goes to Vlad’s house and it’s under attack, Max goes back to his apartment to reflect on this he meets Mona and has to escape badguys who followed her, etc.

Both game’s have the flaw of having only Max as the developed main character. The first game had Mona Sax…..who appeared twice and having a stunning 4 minute role (why is Max so attached to her in the sequel?) On that note, it felt really weird that Mona was in the first game at all. It feels like there was a very big part of the story cut which involved her sister (who dies, but then goes unmentioned for the rest of the game).

Small Details That I Loved

Both games have some of the best interactive environments I’ve seen in gaming. If you see a faucet, you can turn it on. If you see a wardrobe, you can open it (there’s not much to see unless there’s ammunition though). Televisions can be turned off, electronics will stop working if they are shot,

The regular enemies in this game talk alot, unfortunately I didn’t spend too much time listening. But this one sequence in the second game really got me:

So you are in an apartment complex. You see a civilian gunned down by the Cleaners, he drops two sets of painkillers (the health item for the game). So if you’re like me, you’ll wonder why the hell he was carrying such drugs.

If you wait a bit longer before attacking. The Cleaners comment on it themselves. Like such:

Civilian: No, no, no! What is this? Take my money. Where’s the security? [gunned down, drops painkillers]
Cleaner 1: What was he on?
Cleaner 2: Hey, Wall Street yuppies. What wasn’t he on?
Cleaner 1: [Laughs] Lots of ups, no downs.
Cleaner 2: Lucky we had something to calm him down.
Cleaner 1: Just what the doctor ordered.
(from here)

And no post about Max Payne would be complete without mentioning the television programs within the story. Every couple levels you find television sets that feature one of three different series (Lords and Ladies, Captain Baseball Batboy, and Address Unknown). They’ve even been uploaded to Youtube

Ultimately they don’t add too much to the game, but they are hilarious parodies of contemporary televisions that keep you laughing throughout such a dark game.

Music

The music is quite simple yet quite memorable. The main theme of the first game always serves to highlight the desperate situation Max is in. Whilst the sequel’s main theme is the same but slower and uses violins instead in order to highlight the noir-feel.

I felt the first game’s music (other than the main theme of course) didn’t utilize the music effectively, infact alot of the music wasn’t used during the fighting. This was changed in the sequel, so I was able to memorize the tracks better.

Conclusion

Regardless of this series being good or bad. It definitely deserves looking into, I have not seen a game with such solid direction, in regards to the look, feel, and sound of the game.

The story on the other hand is still mixed to me. I couldn’t get into it too much, but I bet if I replayed it in a year maybe I could get a better approach.

In all. Any gamer should pick this up.

Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0

Avisch — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:20:41 +0000

Couldn’t come up with anything snarky.

If you have been living under a rock for the past couple years, the Rebuild of Evangelion movie compilation is a remake of the 1997 anime series Neon Genisis Evangelion. If you don’t know about Neon Genisis Evangelion, go look up the rest on wikipedia because I’m not going to spend time educating you from the 4th grade.

I actually watched the original Evangelion series when I was 11 or 12. I had originally read about it before hand because the setting new to me, and was greatly disturbed by how the series ended (movie ending, and original TV ending) but was strangely interested in the sexuality involved. I read abit of the manga (which still hasn’t ended to this day) I watched it dubbed, and was greatly confused by the TV ending. Watched the movie (End of Evangelion) and stopped halfway because it was getting too weird for me to handle and I already had heard about the macabre ending to that.

Of course my interest in the series did not entirely die. I think for a period of time I was angry at how the series progressed because it relied on the viewers input too much. But I think I was more annoyed at the lack of a solid ending.

Enter 2006-2007 when the Rebuild was announced as a four movie retelling of the series. I was not very excited because I felt that “retelling” could mean alot of things. But I was intrigued because the Rebuild promised a new ending to the series. This of course, is what I still want, as it gives hope of a new solid ending.

So I kept up with the dates somewhat. I watched part of the DVD release in 2008 but never managed to finish it. Finally I finished it this week (only 2 years late right?).

Review begins here

So there are two ways I can review this.
1. Comparing it to the original series
2. Review it standalone

So I’ll do a little of both.

Review REALLY begins here

Ok so……….Lets examine some problems I had with the original series and how well they are addressed in this first movie

1. Sense of other people

Evangelion takes place in Tokyo 3. The original series never showed anything that gave hint of another human being in the city. Of course, this can be seen as symbolic of loneliness (if you don’t feel lonely after watching the series you are a monster), but it irritated me because the main character is piloting a fucking robot to stop mass destruction and mass death (or so we are led).

The movie addresses this by showing a few things. They have more cars in the city, one of the bomb shelters is shown full of people, there is more sense of civilization overall.

2. Shinji being upset

Not much needs to be said here. Rebuild’s Shinji is very much toned down from the original. I was worried that I would have to go through 9 minutes of “I MUSN’T RUN AWAY”, but it looks like smart direction changed that.

Back in 2008, Kurogane noted that Shinji seemed less “illogically emo” more like a “boy thrown in to a bad situation.” Which serves the point further, Shinji is much better in rebuild.

3. Angels ARE NOT robots

Ok so only 3 Angels are shown in this movie. Let me analyze anyway.

The angels are much more fluid than in the TV series which is good because they are not supposed to be robotic in anyway. In the TV series you could probably dub over lines about the Angels being enemy machinations sent from Russia/China/ and so on and now one would know (people wouldn’t care about the blood, it’s red fuel).

Sachiel still has that creepy skull thing going on for her (it’s a she, look it up), so thats fine.

Shamshel actually manages to be SCARY. Expaning more on it’s shellfish-esque design it features a mollusk vagina dentata which fits oddly well in the Evangelion mythos. The original fight between Shinji and Shamshel was….underwhelming to say the least, I couldn’t help but feel that Shinji was overreacting to a silly looking creature.

Ramiel actually has a very cool design change from the original, mostly compromised of transforming dimensional shapes. Instead of deploying a drill from below his floating body, he turns the lower part of his body into a drill.

This may seem really insignificant. But I enjoyed these changes alot because they add to the mystery of what the Angels are. As opposed to having them be another type of robotic thing.

4. NERV, what the fuck do you do?

Ok, a real problem with the TV series was that it was always emphasized that NERV was “safeguarding the world.” I didn’t buy it cause all it looked like was a bunch of scientists and interns operating equipment.

There are a couple scenes in which Misato and Ritsuko are riding in military vehicles. This does three things that I like.
1. It implies that the two have authority over the military.
2. It makes Eva alittle bit like part of a military drama.
3. From the preceding two points, it makes Nerv’s role more believable as a specialized organization.

Presentation

Ultimately since the movie is well…..a movie, the small glimpses of the characters (major and minor) allows you to refresh your opinion of how well they are developed. I can’t say much on this aspect because I should wait until all the movies are released, but it’s definitely worth looking into. Rei is mysterious (as always), and since they chose to end the movie where episode 6 ended we get a good impression of her.

Review ends here

With all these changes, I’m confident Rebuild of Evangelion will make it on my “favorite anime movies” list (opposed to general favorite anime list). Even though I’m not a huge fan of Evangelion I do acknowledge that it is a very unique and stunning anime (even if the original series was mixed in my view).

Thanks Rebuild. This is how restructuring should be done.

Details in Videogames – Implications

Avisch — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:44:49 +0000

I sure hope so.

IMPLICATIONS, IMPLICATIONS, IMPLICATIONS

One thing that stories of the 21st century have in abundance, are implications. Little things that are unconfirmable to the viewers/readers of the story, which all have to with the background.

When you go to wikipedia or book review site and look at the story summary, they are often shown like:

“Since the Italian government in Gunslinger Girl is implied to be corrupt, support for the PRF is considerable, ranging from civilians and businessmen to government officials and elite special forces units.” (PrintPage – older Gunslinger Girl wikipedia revision )

It is implied that genetic engineering has been used extensively to manipulate human beings so that they are all colorblind, and physically conform with Sameness.
(Gradesaver – The Giver wikipedia summary)

Even extra information for stories dates probably further than the Star Wars expanded universe books. The trope for that is All There in the Manual. For books and movies these implications are all apparent based on the amount of detail the story has. Videogames do this through exploration. We are just talking about implications, because videogames do implications the best. The reason I’m writing this, is because someone finally pointed out the fact that Valve (a game studio that you are likely all somewhat familiar with) uses this storytelling method quite often.

[The grafitti left behind in the safe rooms of Left 4 Dead] essentially tells the story of the game, without showing the player through things such as cinematics. A similar approach was used in one of their earlier game series. (Left 4 Dead wiki)

Whilst the Halo game series fall back on the novels for extra information. Valve games usually rely on fake-websites or very specific game details for such info.

In Half-Life 2, as you travel across the highway you see huge shoreline as well as grounded ships. I personally did not pay attention to this detail, but later a fan-made timeline surmised that this was the result of the Combine (the aliens of the series) draining the oceans.

In the finale of Portal, you see a red phone disconnected. You can imagine there nay have been lots of discussion about this phone. However, the Orange Box came equipped with developer commentary and it was explained that this phone was originally installed for the scientists to contact each other in the case that a certain AI got very upset and started killing people.

I actually don’t have very many examples of this sort of thing. But I’m hoping more games (whether or not they are by Valve) will continue to implement this. Games with large universes and lore are quite nice, and this is simply part of that.

Inception – Christopher Nolan saves us from darkness

Avisch — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:36:50 +0000

That tagline is a bit misleading...

Cause I can’t acquire the Umineko screenshots for my EP6 review. I don’t mind, this is a good movie. (minor spoilers)

I have talked about my anger concerning 3D movies, and movies that gain popularity due to the “revolutionary” peripherals of 3D. Here we have a movie that would not benefit from 3D, and manages to be most entertaining.

But I’m not going to talk about that.

The Setting

The setting is never fully described, but can best be called “the near future.” We are simply made to accept the existence of dream-accessing technology. We are never told how it works, we are only told how the dreams behave.

Ultimately though, not even the physics of the dreams are fully described. This is both good and bad, some audiences will take this confusion, others of course will create their own ideas surrounding the technology and the physics.

The Production

The movie plays out like a heist film that involves elements of dystopia and existentialism.
The terminology is well incorporated, in that it is clearly set up and described to the viewer. But there are even some ideas that are never even used in the film (such as the practical uses for the dream technology and the reliability of the totems).

Plot vs Characters

What becomes striking once you finish this movie is the revelation that it does not rely on its characters too much. The acting is nothing to complain about, but far too many problems have arisen with movies focusing on relationship dynamics rather than awesome events that unfold.

This is perhaps signature part of what Nolan achieved with his last film (The Dark Knight). Aside from Inception I have only seen three of Nolan’s films.

The Prestige used romance as the driving force between two rivals and demonstrate the issue of trust in their profession.
Batman Begins utilized kindness in character in order to demonstrate that there was hope in Gotham City.
The Dark Knight only used character romance as a way of demonstrating how much attachment the heroes (Bruce and Harvey) had to Rachel. Other characters were only used to forward the story, explain the philosophy of the film, or scare the hell out of people.

But the characters of Inception are not badly used. They are just not relied on.

Acting

To follow up on the characters, I would just like to point out something. Leonardo Dicaprio (obviously playing our protagonist), I cannot get my head around him. I can’t tell if his acting is over dramatic or not, his acting is very distinctive. He is not a bad actor, he just confuses me.

Yet, that’s what made him perfect for this role. The movie is hard to grasp, so why shouldn’t he be?

SFX

I find that the best special effects are the ones that don’t create some fictional/fantastical creatures. Inception’s special effects play on weird physics and the craziness of dreams.

In the last half of the movie there is a fight scene that I’m sure everyone will simply refer to as “the corridor fight”, this sequence has some of the best fight choreography I’ve seen in a long time.

Calling it good, may be confusing. You know how in the Matrix some of the fights were legitimately good (you could feel the heat of the moment) while others had nice special effects but simply average in that the fighting proceeded almost too well for either side?

Well this corridor fight is legitimately good part, but manages to include the special effects with some nice camera angles.

Conclusion

As you can see. I love movies that make people think. Please comment if you want to argue against anything I’ve said.

Tatami Galaxy – conclusion and concluding thoughts

Avisch — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:24:15 +0000

I call this a good show. Spoilers for the final episodes below.

Tatami Galaxy is a show that talks about something in life that is quite important, it is about understanding the elements of your personal life as cherish-able and not trying to go farther than that.

Throughout these 11 episodes, we begin to see the problem with our main character (“Watashi”). He has aspirations for a perfect life, but of course fails to see the opportunities granted toward him.

The Rise

Eventually the consistent parallel worlds we see in the show manifest themselves into probably the funniest/scariest way. In the scenario where he chooses not to involve himself on the campus, Watashi sleeps in the 4.5 Tatami room that he has always been in and he wakes up to find that he is trapped in the same room. Like so:

You cannot escape

You get the idea, each room is the corresponding room from those parallel worlds. Now of course, he doesn’t realize this immediately. It takes time to notice the slight differences after all.

There is of course symbolism in this moment. But it really is just a visualization of the situation that our narrator is in (I talked about this last time). He is trapped in the same cycle of repetition.

And then of course there’s the fact that he can never seem to give that Mochiguma to Akashi.

The Climax

(my words do not do this part justice)

As the narrator begins to look on these other worlds. He learns of the people he has missed in the current one. Including Higuchi, Jougasaki, Hanuki, and Ozu.

In a moment of dramatic irony he notes that Ozu would have made his campus life fun (I had to rewatch this to understand it), and it seem like Ozu is indeed his only friend throughout the parallel worlds (what we have been seeing no doubt).

He then ends up in the original room (or is it?) and remembers Akashi, recalling that even in this world he fell in love with her and also has the goddamn Mochiguma.

Suddenly the moths (that have collected over the rooms of parallel worlds) flush out towards Watashi. He jumps out the window of the room and………….he has the left the Tatami world and has ended up on the night of the Gozan Ceremony (the same ceremony as the first episode, and the same one Ozu was trying to steal an airship for).

In a sequence that follows with dramatic music and and symbolizes that Watashi has the combined himself into everyone persona from the parallel worlds, he attempts saves Ozu (lacking his youkai face) from a crowd of angry people (Jougasaki is part of the crowd, and the onlookers include Akashi, Hanuki, and Higuchi). The moths from before overwhelm everyone and the two guys fall into the rapid water of the nearby river and are hanging on for dear life

Higuchi prevents the crowd from further violence, Jougasaki saves the two, and Hanuki leaves with Ozu toward the hospital. Watashi then meets with Akashi (scared to half to death by the moths) finally returns the goddamn mochiguma and he suggests they leave for neko ramen, something she has been (understandingly) wanting to hear for a while.

The Epilogue

Everything is resolved in the end. Which is plainly excellent for a series with such morose atmosphere.There is one particularly awesome moment. Throughout this strange turn of events, Watashi and Ozu have switched roles, with Watashi flashing the youkai face as he teases Ozu about Ozu’s girlfriend.

The series then ends the opening credits (making sense as it opened with ending credits) feeling me with joy cause I love the opening song to death.

Concluding thoughts

The bizarre presentation of the show made me skeptical at first, but it began to grow on me when I saw that it had very serious themes. With such a depressed protagonist, I imagine the author probably had some emotional issues that he put into the story (as is common with much Japanese media).

I’m still not sure if I love the show (well as much I love Bakemonogatari that is). But it really is one of the best shows of this year. It’s amusing, it’s trippy, and it’s about accepting your life for what it is.

Reading the original novel would be a pleasure

Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw – A very cool guy?

Avisch — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:12:31 +0000

couldn't resist some photoshop

Don’t worry. I have nothing but good things to say about this man.

For those who don’t know. Zero Punctuation is a weekly videogame review series by a guy who calls himself Yatzhee. His style of reviewing is notable for a few things. Such as: fast-talking, long analogies/metaphors/similes, funny pictures, and negativity.

I’m not here to talk about how good/bad/crazy Zero Punctuation is. Rather I’m going to rant about how I feel about Yahtzee’s style of reviewing.

I actually have not been too familiar with how the community generally reacts to his reviews. So excuse me if I do some research as a write this.

What Yahtzee does

Whilst many think Yahtzee just simply criticizes a game until his review bleeds out the good parts, I think of it differently. Yahtzee uses his criticism of the game as a base to find what is good about it….Admittedly thats sort of the same thing, but that does not change it from being a legitimate style.

In a conversation with my friend about this interpretation, I did kind of feel it was possible that I was giving him perhaps too much credit. But then again, people have interpreted some Bugs Bunnies cartoons as analogies for cruel and angry gods, so I’m not going to dwell on that idea too much.

I’ve found that Yahtzee does a good job of pointing out how newer game compares to recent ones. In his Jericho review, he points out that all levels have a shade of brown which compares to how the Quake game series looked. I found this kind of funny and amusing, but then I showed the same video to my older brother (who was quite an avid gamer around the time of Quake) and that was actually the part he laughed hardest at.

My favorite bits

Perhaps the part that I enjoy the most out of his reviews is how he points out the flaws that many games of this generation have (though I still have goddamn idea how he missed and other reviewers missed the unskippable cutscenes in Assassin’s Creed). He consistently points out the the tediousness of repetitive gameplay.

His elongated analogies are perhaps what I consider the most distinctive of his reviews. Other than just overstating his feelings they provide colorful and insane imagery to what would normally be a bland review.

One bit that he has only touched upon now and then is his opinion of Japanese culture. He has stated that doesn’t exactly hate anime, but considers it “mindless twaddle.” He has mentioned visual novels atleast twice, I can only wonder if he will review one in the future to mess with the mainstream gamers.

Internet reactions and my feelings

I did say that I was not too familiar with the impressions many had gotten from his reviews, though this is partly untrue. I have only seen the ultra-negative impressions.

As much as Tv Tropes (and it’s community) is what I consider the holy grail of story information and opinion sharing, I am very shocked (and somewhat disappointed) at the amount of complaints level at Yahtzee (seen here) for dissing a game they liked. Furthermore some of those people are complaining about the level of crude humor in his reviews, I happen to hate crude humor with a passion but I’ll have to say to them is “Welcome to the internet you blind buffoons”.

The problems with Zero Punctuation and people are:
1. People take his reviews too seriously
2. People don’t take his reviews seriously enough

Massive paraphrasing and exaggeration below
Now this is just my opinion. But when Yahtzee makes a long winded rant about how JRPGs are oddly designed or how FPSs are trying too much to be like Halo, it does not give anyone the right to just post his argument and claim victory. People who think his word is the law are just latching onto something and trying to be in the “right”.

On the other end, even if he bashes a game he is not calling it all bad. He is pointing out flaws that had issue with and would like to see corrected in games that he plays. I recall seeing someone post a comment for his MGS4 review: “For once, I disagree with Yahtzee. This game is amazing”, which I feel kind of cheapens the idea of his reviewing it to just “he doesn’t like it”.

The thing is. Whether or not I like the game he reviews or see something off in what he says, most of the time I agree with what he says or understand what he dislikes. My favorite game of this year, Mass Effect 2, was reviewed by him. I felt he perhaps was a little harsh on the idea of the characters looking lifeless, but other than that I agreed with nearly everything else.

Maybe I’m just full of hatred (blame Highschool), which allows me to get into the mood of his review. But I rather enjoy the idea of accepting an agree views of a game and putting aside any sense of sympathy for the videogame industry (whilst respecting the fact that developers work hard). I would like to see him review some games that I really like (Odin Sphere), have him analyze it, and then have the honor of laughing at his complaints.

Conclusion

Too long, didn’t read? Yahtzee is a cool guy who makes me laugh. Leaving aside your personal feelings, you will like him, or not care. He is of particular notability to me, as I have moved quite far from the mainstream videogame industry due to my fascination with anime/manga and other Japanese things.

Keep going Yahtzee, you’ve already cemented yourself as a legend.

Jin-Roh: Messages of Violence

Avisch — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:29:39 +0000

Yes, I know this is the french cover.

Rather than this being something I like, I consider it legitimately amazing.

Mamoru Oshii is best known for directing Ghost in the Shell (released in 1995); four years later Jin-Roh was released, part of the “Kerberos Saga”, which was his own creation (dating back to 1987).

What is the Kerberos Saga?

The Kerberos Saga has one of the most complicated plots I’ve read about. Jin-Roh (which I finished last week) is the only actual part of the saga I’ve seen.

The general story of the saga goes as such. Japan loses a very different version of World War II (they lose to Germany). After Japan recovers it is met with internal conflict and terrorism that threatens to destabilize the nation. To combat this, the nation’s police force is restructured to separate the Self-Police (regular police) from a Capital Metropolitan Police Division which holds control over the “Special Unit” (aka Kerberos Unit).

The Kerberos Unit becomes well-known for using awesome skill, heavy technology, and brutally efficient tactics to combat terrorism. For reasons never fully explained, they become disliked by the Self-Police and are put under pressure by the government that created them. As such, the Kerberos Saga focuses on the turmoil of the Unit as it becomes increasingly hard for them to survive.

The Opening of Jin-Roh

Jin-Roh sets the mood instantly by showing us that there is no real “good” in the conflict. The Self-Police not once use brutal tactics against a riot (full of napalm filled molotov cocktails) and are instead blown half to smithereens by a satchel charge.

The Kerberos Unit, without permission from the Self-Police authority, run into the sewer and confronts the terrorists. There are maybe eight terrorist, and at least fifteen Kerberos.

Here we see the how the unit inflicts fear on the terrorists, the red eyes and gas-mask show no humanity. These are “good” guys, though they are brutal, they are just as brutal as the terrorists they fight.The Unit gives one warning. There is a long pause right before one terrorist panics and the Unit then responds by opening fire with their MG42s and killing everything.

As a young female terrorist tries to escape, she is met with one Kerberos who orders her to stop. She refuses and begins to pull the bomb on her satchel charge. The Kerberos, despite shouts from his nearby comrades, refuses to shoot her, and instead asks “Why….?” The bomb goes off, yet the Unit is unharmed.

The remainder of the film focuses on the aftermath of this incident, which is used to try and bury the Unit for “incompetence.” Our protagonist becomes the Kerberos from above, Fuse Kazuki, I’m tempted to say more, but since it’s such a great film I recommend you see it yourself.

Themes

The core theme of Jin-Roh is the question of humanity, Fuse is emotionless for most of the film, and when asked why he joined the Unit, he replies with “I just felt comfortable there.” His existence as a “wolf” remains resolute, though throughout the film he has many opportunities to just leave the military/police and become “human” once again.

What is… and yet isn’t touched upon much, is the nature of how the terrorists are treated in terms of humanity. There is clear implication that they aren’t treated as human. The warning that the Unit gives the terrorists in the opening is thrown into question when it was revealed the soldiers were given orders to eliminate the terrorists, showing that perhaps they knew the terrorists wouldn’t surrender.

I really love how the film does not take sides, of course we are intended to root for the Kerberos (I do at least), but since it is never made clear what the terrorists are fighting for, we can not judge the righteousness of their cause.

Concluding Thoughts

The atmosphere of this film is thoroughly depressing and dark, but if you can bear that, it serves as an excellent introduction to the Kerberos Saga. I’ve been trying to find anime that can be considered more artistic, and I am happy to add this to my collection.

Katanagatari impressions – Moar Nisio Isin

Avisch — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:23:23 +0000

With the series halfway done (six more episodes left) I post my thoughts.

Love this anime or hate it. You have to admit it’s has a presentation that many anime do not. The original light novel is by Nisio Isin, also the creator of Bakemonogatari. The similarity is apparent from the use of wordplay, crazy characters, self-referencial humor, and lots of conversation. I’m not gonna post a summary, cause that’s easy to find anywhere.

Katanagatari uses a plot that many would describe as “shounen-esque”, as it has a “We have to collect all A of the B” type story (A is number, B is a special artifact). In this case, the main characters must collect all 12 of Shikizaki Kiki’s deviant blades.

However, this shounen feeling is kind of overshadowed by the philosophies introduced in each chapter as well as the general seriousness of the story that is reflected by the violence of post-Sengoku era Japan.

Presentation

A lot of people have a problem with the amount of talking in the series. Whilst I understand that, I rather like the talking because it separates the it from other action anime. When the fighting does happen, it is well animated.

The story features a narrator to comment on some aspects of the story, though this generally does break the flow in any way.

Characters

The relationship between Togame and Shichika is probably the most intriguing part of the story in terms of character dynamics.

Togame is surprisingly open with her feelings most of the time, but other times she hides them when factoring logic into her strategies (best seen in episode five). Shichika is dense, but not dense to people’s feelings which is a funny twist on his character type.

The fact that they are working together despite knowledge of their ancestry (Shichika’s father killed Togame’s father) demonstrates a attractive bond, or perhaps rather intentional ignorance on their part. Either way it shows that they don’t care about the past when confronting their enemies and continue to move forward.

Other than Shichika and Togame who make the main cast. Each chapter features a character wielding one of the twelve blades as well as the Maniwa Corps. Almost none of these characters are portrayed as 100% villainous.

Episode 1 has Maniwa Koumori who is arguably the most “evil” character shown, but he does nothing evil enough to be hated. He rather just serves as an introductory antagonist.

Episode 2′s Ginkaku is shown as reasonably angry for the lack of support that the Shogunate shows to his land.

The Maniwa Ninja here (Shirasagi) is killed off so fast that we don’t get to know anything about him except that he talks backwards.

Episode 3′s Meisai is the first good natured blade-wielder, as she is using her blades to help heal orphaned girls. Her death is most chilling, because it shows us that while Shichika can be good natured, he feels almost nothing when killing Meisai.

The Maniwa Ninja here (Kuizame) is once again killed off fast, but remains likeable because of his shark teeth and willingness to enjoy the nickname that Shichika has given the Maniwani. Though earlier he is shown killing indiscriminate people without hesitation.

Episode 4 does not show us the battle with the blade wielder, but everything we know about Sabi Hakuhei shows that he would be a reasonably badass stoic protagonist (SPINOFF NOVEL PLEASE)

The three Maniwa (Kamakiri, Chouchou, and Mitsubachi) are more sympathetic than Nanami who slaughters them like…..bugs (they’re named after bugs after all).

Episode 5′s Kanara is likeable and has a tragic background. Hell, I was praying for him to survive this episode (which he does). His novel illustration is above.

No Maniwa are killed here. But we are introduced to their de facto leader Houou who manages to be most polite, funny, and morbidly obsessed with agreements.

Episode 6 has Konayuki who is just plain adorable and ends up being saved by Shichika after killing perhaps the only remaining unlikeable Maniwani. Houou is still morbidly obsessed with agreements and kills off another Maniwani in order to settle an agreement (much to Togame’s horror)

Music

The music is funny. Part of it can be quite anachronistic, featuring slow beat rap style songs. This is actually rather fitting with the style of the series which features similar anachronisms such as cigaretts or puns that wouldn’t make sense in the feudal time period. Other times the music shifts between being simply dramatic or actually fitting the time period.

My favorite track is Bahasa Palus which is composed of chanting and rap, though I think I prefer thetrailer version of the song. You can find samples here.

Concluding thoughts

Despite being skeptical about Nisio Isin because I had only heard of his Death Note and xxxHOLiC novels (both are series I feel are lacking). The anime of Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari have increased my desire to read his works (though to date I have read exactly none so far).

I will see Katanagatari through to the end. I have been given a few spoilers, but the presentation will likely still surprise me.

P.S.

I graduated from Highschool today. Woot.

SoulTaker – classic?

Avisch — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:52:38 +0000

They need to make a whole show with art like this.

Late as always.

Akiyuki Shinbo is an interesting figure. While I have never actually called “my favorite” anime director. I’d say I probably consider him favorite.

His anime is mostly recognizable for being zaniness, craziness, full of (clashingly beautiful) colors, lolicon, and (for me) generally entertaining.

Of shows by him I have seen: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, abit of Pani Poni Dash!, abit of Hidamari Sketch, Bakemonogatari (as you know is one of my favorite), and Triangle Heart ~Sweet Songs Forever~.

SoulTaker is an earlier anime by him (aired in 2001), I decided to watch two of three episodes on a DVD that fell into my possession years ago. I had assumed it was an OVA because the box wasn’t labeled “volume 1″ but after glancing at wikipedia it’s a whole 13 episode long series (which makes sense considering the pacing of the first two episodes).

Plot

Date Kyosuke witnesses his mother’s dying moments and then is immediately stabbed by her in the heart. He wakes up after being rescued from a buried coffin (how her got there is anyone’s guess) by girl named Mitsuki Maya, he has obviously survived his wound.

The story then follows Kyosuke as he is joined by Mibu Shiro (a mysterious guy who smokes….something) and fights against two organizations: KIRIHARA, and the HOSPITAL.

Production

Through the storyboards, art direction, and overall storytelling you can tell this is a work by Shinbo. However it doesn’t feel very well put together, so you can deduce that this is when he was when he was first starting out.

What do I mean? Well think about this: if you look at Bakemonogatar or Triangle Heart, even if you don’t take anime seriously, you can still garner some sense of seriousness. There’s characters, dealing with a problem, they need to solve said problem whether it’s emotional or through an antagonist.

For SoulTaker you can some of that through the first half of episode one. Kyosuke has to deal with the fact that his mother stabbed him, he then finds out that Maya is a fragment of his sister’s soul, which could make for some interesting psychological intrigue.

But then the appearance crazy transformations and power attacks (LIGHTNING BREAKERRRRR…wait….thatsounds familiar) sort of diminish all that. This is more apparent in episode 2, in midst of everything a giant samurai robot appears out of nowhere, and then you begin to think “am I watching anything serious?”

As always pandering to lolicon side of anime, there’s the character known as Komugi. I haven’t seen enough of her though.

Overall

From the episodes I’ve seen, this show is cool artistic direction with a really skewered plot. I’ll make my way through this somehow.