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Minna de Mamotte Hime no Tokemeki Rhapsody (Protect Me Knight 2) by Ancient
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| can you tell i figured out how to make bank? |
It's stupid charming and if my rudimentary Japanese was any better I'd be able to enjoy the other (apparently) wonderful facet of the game: its self-aware dialogue. The game is (once more, apparently) very much aware of its overcooked "Damsel in Distress" theme and makes light of it on many occasions throughout the game's story. I'm sure that it is incredible—I want it to be incredible, especially since this game is rumored to be in the midst of localization [citation needed] and would make a fine penny in the hall of Recent-Retro-Reimaginings that games like Mighty Gunvolt and Shovel Knight have ~plowed~ already. (that was the best shovel-knighty pun I could summon from the deep...) The design of the game parodies the Famicom system (Nintendo Entertainment System for us Americans) from pixelated graphics and chiptuney music, all the way down to fabricated screen-tear and the boot-up requiring you to blow on the digital "cartridge" (via 3DS mic) in order to start the game........ so like if a game that requires you to rend the 4th wall to boot it up doesn't convince you that this is spectacular, then I really have no idea what I can do to help you.
For those who have access to a Japanese 3DS, and roughly 8 bucks, I would very highly recommend this game! And I wouldn't worry about understanding any Japanese at all (though chances are you know a little given you'd have to own a system), as the game is extremely clever with visual cues and has very straight-forward, engrossing gameplay that will teach you trial-by-error. You'll have plenty of time to learn as the game, out of its whopping 100 levels (not to mention unlimited access to user-created QR code maps you can download), has roughly 15-20 levels that let you ease into the action before the Real Grind happens. If you are interested, here's the QR code (--- >) to take you to the eShop page, and here's the wiki you can use to find basic info (albeit in Japanese) on the game. If you have any other questions regarding the game, maybe I can help! Shout out in the comments or hit me up on twitter!
Black Mirror by Charlie Brooker
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| biggest flaw: they missed a wonderful opportunity to use Arcade Fire's hot single for the intro... |
The best way I can describe it is "Mature, Modern Twilight Zone". Each episode is its own vignette, following a set of characters who interact with a particular idea or situation that may mirror something similar to issues in our own world. Though they are obviously exaggerated to a degree, the point made is salient and sometimes heavy-handed, but justly so. You walk away from each episode wondering if the outcome was the "best" outcome, thinking what you would have done differently, pondering what the "right" thing to do would have been in such morally ambiguous situations. This is the one show that I feel it important to explain a bit of the first episode in order to entice (or possibly, warn) folks who might be interested in diving in.
The first episode begins with the Prime Minister being woken up to a state of emergency: a terrorist has captured a princess and uploads his ransom video to Youtube (it's impossible to take down, it spreads through the entire world; everyone knows), along with his peculiar demand. If the Prime Minister wants to see the princess returned in one piece (and hopefully, alive) he must have "relations" with a pig on the most popular public television channel, live. The question arises, "Should he do it? Is her life worth the horrifying action required to save it?" That's only the first five minutes of the 45 minute episode, what follows is the tension that gives Black Mirror its namesake; we question ourselves, looking into a black mirror to discern what we think is the "right" thing to do.
As I said, not recommended for all! I could only handle one episode at a time of the first season (there are 3 episodes per season, and currently two seasons and a Christmas Special (oh joy)), and each one had its own message that caused me no small amount of anxiety throughout. But, if you can stand it, I do think that the over-arching messages are worth wading through. It is very important to be aware of ideologies that seem harmless now and could come to consume us as a culture in time (I'm looking at you, episode 3!!). The season finale of season 1 was incredible, and I think the best episode I've yet seen. It's all on Netflix, so check it out if that's your jam. Though if you're not interested, I think Breaking Bad is still up, and that's a more palatable dose of moral ambiguity for most.
Starting Point 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki
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| a self-portrait of the artist, a beautiful man |
Looks like the joke's on you; I basically worship this guy. But for serious, I just finished this book of essays and interviews written by Hayao Miyazaki himself (well, I mean, he didn't write his own interviews, but semantics), and I'm an enlightened creature. I've been thinking on it for a while now, and I have come to the conclusion that Miyazaki's animated films are fiercely rivaled by his own writing. Whether it's the spectacular, unbelievable, incomparable, jaw-dropping, divorce-causing manga-behemoth Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, or his musings on environmental issues and the purpose of mankind, he's a babbling fount of succinct (and oft times offensive) wisdom.
Starting Point follows Miyazaki's life via essays and interviews from 1979 through 1996 (as the title suggests). At first I thought it would merely be thoughts he had on certain films he made, maybe even some extended discussion on the complex themes that layer his repertoire, but I quickly found that this was only a small portion of what was written. The book is filled to the brim with interviews about his thoughts on Japanese animation, how the Japanese interact with nature, and even contains some colored scans old sketchbooks that he worked on during different films and productions he was a part of.
If you're a fan, a big fan, owning this is simply a must. He is one of the most brutally honest, kind men I've ever read of (and I hope to some day meet [cries]), and this book is an absolute treasure. I still reread certain portions when I feel down in the dumps. Among my favorites are the times when he goes to elementary schools to talk to kids about pursuing their dreams, or gives lectures at aspiring artists in college. I've also begun Turning Point this week and am eager to continue to learn from this modern prophet, this ascetic monk.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo (Part 5) by Hirohiko Araki
This is a particularly odd thing for me to review given that it's a portion of a gigantic series that's been ongoing for years, the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series. So this portion has a prerequisite, more or less, of having read up to/past this point in the manga. But! But if you're merely interested, I have plenty things to opine over and won't really spoil the plot.
For one thing, and I won't tarry to get this out in the open, I wasn't the biggest fan of this arc. Jojo is a really delightful manga, one of my favorite in years, that seems to only get better and better with every new "part" in the series. Phantom Blood, the first part, starts off pretty shakey. Some weird art, some weird dialogue, and some weird plot points lead to an overall "weird" experience. But oh, oh, oh man how good it gets. Though you may not have read any of Jojo, mangaka Araki's style is one that you've likely noticed elsewhere. For example, if you're a fan of the Super Smash Brothers series, you may notice a very flamboyant masculinity about the character Captain Falcon. Masahiro Sakurai, the director of Smash, is quite the fan of the series! Captain Falcon's entire move-set would be not be unfamiliar in a chapter of the series.
That is to say, it's over the top. People with special powers, "Stands", similar to familiars or auras, do battle with one another in fantastic circumstances with maximum flamboyance and style. And it's incredible. It's very difficult to describe, so if you get a chance please check it out! It isn't the equivalent of fine literature, and probably wouldn't be considered for the Criterion Collection in film-talk, but it doesn't strive to be those things; Jojo is ridiculous for ridiculous' sake, and does that superbly. It is reading for pure entertainment, and lives up to its namesake. As for the anime (beginning with the third part of the series), I'm afraid I cannot vouch for it. Aside from the fact that I haven't watched it, what I have seen has not been nearly as lustrous as the manga. The animation seems somewhat dried out compared to Araki's usually detailed style.
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| check out the coal-smudges that passed as shadowing back in early part 1... dark times |
But I digress, il Vento Aureo! Well... well it wasn't so hot, in my humblest opinion. Usually each arc focuses on a new "Jojo" character, this arc's being "Giorno", a handsome Italian lad. Throughout the their journey we get to know the main character and grow attached them and their motley crew. As they progress, fighting other Stand users, learning each others' strengths and weaknesses, a natural chemistry, or camaraderie, binds the reader to the pages, making it very difficult to put down. It only took a couple weeks for me to read the thousands of pages of the first four parts! But Giorno's adventure lacks what made the others' so appealing: character.
Giorno, though a very interesting character (with heavy teases throughout the beginning to possible plot-twists/reveals), does not seem to be the star of his own story. His thoughts are often kept to himself, the reader is never let in. During battle sequences we see only what is necessary to know as the partially omniscient audience, nothing more. We don't get an idea of his personality other than that he is a very calm, collected individual. The friends he makes seem to have more facets than he does, and are ultimately what cause you to continue reading. At the end of this portion I find it very hard to put my finger down on what, exactly, I liked about it. The art style became more busy than the previous entries, and unfortunately the translation I was reading seemed to grow cruder from the middle til the end.
Though it is necessary reading for any fan of the Jojo series, I would daresay it pales compared to its predecessor Diamond is Unbreakable, or Part 4. Josuke &co. hunting down serial killers in suburban Japan, a fully realized design, and extremely lovable characters made for an unforgettable experience, and I only wish the best for Giorno as I continue to forge on to Part 6, Stone Ocean.
Evangelion Rebuild tetralogy
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| Shinji looks cool in this picture, but trust me: he's not |
Though, I don't really wanna talk about the television series. Though the cornerstone, creator Hideaki Anno stated that it was created for another generation. He has in recent years ordered a cease-fire for production of the original anime, and began to reproduce the anime for a newer generation, with a more succinct storyline and trajectory, wrapping itself up in four films. A tetralogy. With this, he seeks to accomplish what he sought to with the advent of Shinji's oedipal complex and other characters' freudian slip-ups.
As of right now, the first three films are out there, in the wild, for people to watch, with the fourth on its way this year (2015 being the same year that the world ended in the original anime... whoa, whoa??! whoa!!!!). In order to mentally prepare myself for what will be probably the most confusing thing I willingly put myself through this year, I decided to rewatch the second and third films back to back. I didn't bother with the first as it was basically the first two thirds of the television series, of which I've already watched several times in recent history for my senior thesis (wow humble brag no big deal I wrote about anime for my senior thesis). What followed was nearly 3 hours of pure mind-numbing confusion.
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| very very very prettyyyyy |
It must be said that one of my favorite things about Evangelion isn't actually the watching of the films (though the animation in the films is incredible and worthy of checking out on its own ^^look at dat gif^^), but reading about the films after watching them. Because there aren't concrete details ever in the show, the fan speculation is out the wazzooooo online, and it's one hell of a beast. Where the television series may have a more palpable (debatable) series of themes that people can analyze, the as-of-yet finished tetralogy is still ample for discussion and has even more cryptic ideologies at play than the television series could have ever hoped to achieve (one of the fundamental reasons being that the manpower required to animate Anno's current vision for the world would have been superhuman to accomplish in the 90's). The films cover much more territory in a much shorter span of time (which has its ups and downs), and seems to be held together by a much stronger sense of self. A lot of unhappiness with the television series lies in the fact that, during the middle of the series, Anno had a serious bout of depression that caused him to alter, noticeably so, the direction of the show. It is somewhat clunky, and leads to an (unfortunately for some) unsatisfying end.
I am a big fan of Evangelion, and I'm also a real big fan of Anno. Anno has spoken out quite a bit about the over-commercialization of anime (and other faults with consumerism, especially with the Japanese people post-Bubble Economy), and Evangelion being one of the biggest (if not the biggest) commercial rackets for anime figurines and merchandizing just seems to play into this "performance art" piece, if you will. (Recently his crew at Gainax worked on a short animation called ME!ME!ME!, which heavily contributes to these ideas. It is definitely worth checking out, but be forewarned: it is definitely definitely definitely NSFW.) However, I want to be careful. I'm not really well-versed enough in this area to talk with too much authority, but the PBS Idea Channel dudes did some mad talks on this and how the television series could be an incredible take on the "Death of the Author" discussion. It's only five minutes (the other half is answering questions), so check it out!
All that being said, if you have seen the show and are nonplussed but originally wanted to enjoy it, maybe check out the films. Condensing the plot, making it more understandable (to a degree), and taking the focus away from Shinji's annoying inner-monologues adjusts the trajectory of their scope to a much more meaningful end. 3.0, the third film, takes the series to territory never tread before (though dragging at parts) and has set up the finale to Evangelion as either the most spectacular accomplishment or failure ever seen in anime. If anything, it's some of the best animation for technology that exists. Geez, I could watch those guys hop in and out of EVA suits, cuing up holographic computer programs for the rest of my life. But I guess we'll see soon enough, come the final film's release this 2015.
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That about wraps up all I wanted to talk about what I was doing this week... I did a lot... and there's even some stuff I didn't mention. I guess this is one of the perks to having the attention span of a dead cat. But I've prattled on long enough, and if you've made it this far with me: thank you.
Thank you for listening to me talk about anime and video games and violent shows and cute old men. To think that I could get anyone on Earth to do that... the internet really is magic.
Please join me next week as I try to do the same thing all over again with different things! If you hate my flawed interpretations of Evangelion, let me know in the comments! If you love my obsession with older Japanese men, send me a message letting me know I'm not alone! And if I scarred you for life with Black Mirror, please contact my lawyer.
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