#Western release VS Japanese version

[babil-plush]

being gay is bad btw

Yeah ok

But have you heard that Ace Attorney[a] is a visual novel adventure video games franchise developed by Capcom. With storytelling fashioned after legal dramas, the first entry in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was released in 2001; since then, five further main series games, as well as various spin-offs, prequels and high-definition remasters for newer game consoles, have been released. Additionally, the series has seen adaptations in the form of a live-action film and an anime, and has been the base for manga series, drama CDs, musicals and stage plays. The player takes the roles of various defense attorneys, including Phoenix Wright, his mentor Mia Fey, and his understudies Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes, who investigate cases and defend their clients in court; they find the truth by cross-examining witnesses and finding inconsistencies between the testimonies and the evidence they have collected. The cases all last a maximum of three days, with the judge determining the outcome based on evidence presented by the defense attorney and the prosecutor.

While the original Japanese versions of the games are set in Japan, the series' localizations are set in the United States (primarily Los Angeles), though retaining Japanese cultural elements. In the spin-off series Ace Attorney Investigations, the player takes the role of prosecutor Miles Edgeworth and in the prequel series The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, of Phoenix's ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo.

The series was created by the writer and director Shu Takumi. He wanted the series to end after the third game, but it continued, with Takeshi Yamazaki taking over as writer and director starting with Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (2009); Takumi has since returned to write and direct some spin-off titles. The series has been well received, with reviewers liking the characters and story, and the finding of contradictions; it has also performed well commercially, with Capcom regarding it as one of their strongest intellectual properties. The series has been credited with helping to popularize visual novels in the Western world. As of June 30, 2023, the game series has sold 10 million copies worldwide.[3]

information.[75] Dual Destinies also introduces "revisualization",[76][77] where the player reviews vital facts and forms links between evidence to reach new conclusions.[76] Spirit of Justice introduces "divination séances", in which the player is shown the memories of victims moments before their deaths, and must find contradictions in the victim's five senses to determine what has happened.[78] Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney introduces simultaneous cross-examinations of multiple witnesses, with the player being able to see and hear reactions from the different witnesses to the testimony and using this to find contradictions.[79] The Great Ace Attorney introduces "joint reasoning", where the player finds out the truth by pointing out when their investigative partner Herlock Sholmes takes his reasoning "further than the truth".[80]

The Ace Attorney Investigations spin-off series splits the gameplay into investigation phases and rebuttal phases, the latter of which is similar to the courtroom trials of the main series.[81][82][83] During the investigation phases, the player searches for evidence and talks to witnesses and suspects. Things the player character notices in the environment are saved as thoughts; the player can use the "logic" system to connect two such thoughts to gain access to new information.[81][84] At some points, the player can create hologram reproductions of the crime scene,[81][85] through which they can discover new information that would otherwise be hidden.[86] Ace Attorney Investigations 2 introduces "logic chess", where the player interrogates witnesses in a timed sequence that is visualized as a game of chess, with the player aiming to destroy the other character's chess pieces. To do this, they need to build up their advantage in the discussion by alternating between speaking and listening, and then choose to go on the offensive.[83][87][88]

The protagonist of the first three games is the defense attorney Phoenix Wright (Ryūichi Naruhodō in the Japanese version), who is assisted by the spirit medium Maya Fey;[89] in the third game, Phoenix's mentor Mia Fey is also a playable character.[57] In the fourth game, the protagonist is the defense attorney Apollo Justice;[90] in the fifth, Phoenix, Apollo and the new defense attorney Athena Cykes are all protagonists;[91] and in the sixth, Phoenix and Apollo are the main protagonists, while Athena is playable in one case.[92] The spin-off The Great Ace Attorney is set in England near the end of the 19th century, and follows Phoenix's ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo.[93]

Phoenix's childhood friend Miles Edgeworth, who is the protagonist of the Ace Attorney Investigations games,[81][83] is a recurring rival prosecutor character; in addition to him, each new game in the series introduces a new rival:[89] Franziska von Karma is introduced in the second game,[94] Godot in the third,[95] Klavier Gavin in the fourth,[96] Simon Blackquill in the fifth,[97] Nahyuta Sahdmadhi in the sixth,[98] Barok van Zieks in Adventures,[99] and Kazuma Asogi in Resolve.[100] Most of the prosecutor characters are portrayed as powerful and arrogant characters of high social status and who care about keeping perfect-win records in court, and even may favor convictions over finding the truth, although most have secret motivations and sympathetic backstories and typically help the protagonist at the game's climax. Similarly to real Japanese prosecutors, the prosecutors in the series often directly oversee investigations, issuing orders to the police. Japanese attitudes towards the police force are reflected in the series, with the police being represented by incompetent characters such as Dick Gumshoe, Maggey Byrde and Mike Meekins.[101] In the world of Ace Attorney, trials only last three days, and usually end with a "guilty" verdict, with trials taken up by the protagonists of the games being rare exceptions.[89] The outcomes of cases are decided by a judge, based on evidence provided by the defense attorney and the prosecutor.[101

between games: art from the first game for main characters such as Phoenix, Maya and Edgeworth was reused, to avoid having the previous games look outdated in comparison to newer games in the series; and no new gameplay mechanics were added for Trials and Tribulations, as Takumi was happy with the gameplay after having added the psyche-lock mechanic for Justice for All.[108]

For the fourth game, Takumi wrote the scenario and took on a supervisory role.[55][109] He had wanted the series to end with the third game, as he felt Phoenix had been fully explored and that his story had been told; he said that it is important to know when to end a story, that he did not want the series to become a shadow of its former self, and that he did not see any reason to continue it.[110] Despite this, the spin-off series Ace Attorney Investigations was created, being directed by Takeshi Yamazaki and produced by Motohide Eshiro;[111][112] Takumi returned to the series to write the crossover Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.[113] He also directed and wrote The Great Ace Attorney, which was described as being the first entry in a new Ace Attorney series.[41] He said that he has mixed feelings about the series being developed by other Capcom staff, comparing it to a parent sending their child to their first day in school.[114] Yamazaki and Eshiro went on to direct and produce the main series entries Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice.[115][116][117] Due to exhaustion after working on Dual Destinies, Yamazaki split direction responsibilities with Takuro Fuse for Spirit of Justice, with Yamazaki working on the scenario, and Fuse on the art and gameplay.[117] In 2020, Yamazaki left Capcom.[118]

Games through both the Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice series were created using two-dimensional sprites, initially due to the limitations of the hardware. The developers had discussed switching to 3D computer graphics ahead of the first Apollo Justice game, but it was not until the Professor Layton crossover, which used 3D to a limited extent, that they realized the Nintendo hardware could now easily support 3D. Dual Destinies was developed around the use of 3D graphics, which remained a staple for future games in the series. Similarly, Level5, the developers of the Professor Layton series, also started using 3D graphics after the crossover title.[119]

The localization of the first game was outsourced to Bowne Global, and was handled by the writer Alexander O. Smith and the editor Steve Anderson. While the Japanese version takes place in Japan, the localized version is set in the United States: because one of the episodes involves time zones, they had to specify where the game takes place, and chose the United States without thinking a lot about it.[120] The Japanese justice system of the original still remained intact in the localization, as changing it would have altered the entire game structure.[121]

The change in the series' setting became an issue in later games, where the Japanese setting was more obvious.[120] Starting with the second game, the series localization direction has been handled by Janet Hsu;[94] One of the first decisions she had to make was how to localize Maya's hometown and the mysticism of the Fey clan. She came up with the idea that the localized versions of the Ace Attorney games take place in Los Angeles in an alternative universe where anti-Japanese laws like the California Alien Land Law of 1913 were not passed, anti-Japanese sentiments were not powerful, and where Japanese culture flourished. This dictated what should be localized and what should be kept Japanese; things relating to the Fey clan and the Kurain channeling technique were kept Japanese, as that was Maya's heritage, while Japanese foods that were not widely known in the West were changed, such as changing Maya's favorite food from ramen to burgers. That particular change was mocked by players as the dish later became more well known in the West, and was lampshaded in the English release of Spirit of Justice, where Maya is described as liking both ramen and burgers.[94][122]

Character names were also localized to use double meanings similarly to the Japanese names;[121] the name puns were based on the characters' personalities or backgrounds, or were visual gags.[123] Several English names were based on their Japanese counterparts, but for some characters the names had to be altered heavily compared to the Japanese versions.[121] Smith and Anderson had a lot of freedom when localizing the names of minor characters in the first game, but discussed the names of the main cast with Capcom. Phoenix's English surname, "Wright", was chosen as his Japanese name, "Naruhodō"—meaning "I see" or "I understand"—was frequently used as a joke in the script.[120]

Dual Destinies was given a digital-only release in the West as to release the English version as close to the Japanese release date as possible while maintaining a tight development schedule.[30] Its follow-up, Spirit of Justice, was released in the same manner. Although Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has not been officially localized, an English fan translation has been made.[40] Both The Great Ace Attorney games were released in the West with English localization in July 2021 as part of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles,[53] making Ace Attorney Investigations 2 the only game in the series to remain a Japan-only release.

The Ace Attorney series has been well received by critics,[124][125][126][127][130][133] and has performed well commercially: in December 2009, it was Capcom's 9th-best-selling series of all time,[135] and in October 2010, they called it one of their "strongest intellectual properties", with more than 3.9 million units sold worldwide.[136] By December 2013, the series had sold over 5 million units.[137] In the United States, the first game became surprisingly successful, forcing Capcom to prepare at least three additional runs to meet the demand.[138] By June 2018, the series had sold over 6.7 million units.[139] As of June 30, 2023, the game series has sold 10 million copies worldwide.[3] Geoff Thew at Hardcore Gamer said that the "craziness" of the game world makes the cases entertaining, but also that it "resonates on a deeper level" due to its connection to the real Japanese legal system, making the setting still feel relevant in 2014.[89] Bob Mackey at USgamer said that the Ace Attorney games were among the best written games of all time, and that the series' strength is how each game builds up to a "stunning and satisfying finale".[140] Thomas Whitehead at Nintendo Life also liked the writing, praising its balance between "light-hearted nonsense" and darker, more serious scenarios.[141] Several reviewers have appreciated the series' characters;[83][89][140][142] Thew said that Phoenix and Maya's banter is among the best in video games, and that Edgeworth's character arc is one of the most compelling parts of the stories.[89]

Reviewers have liked finding contradictions;[1][143] a common complaint, however, is the games' linearity,[56][144][145] as well as how the player sometimes has to resort to a trial-and-error method due to the games only accepting specific pieces of evidence, and how testimony statements sometimes need to be pressed in a specific order.[57][70][143][146] Some reviewers have criticized the lack of changes to the gameplay and presentation throughout the series,[81][16][145] while some have said that fans of the series would not have a problem with this.[83][145]

Several reviewers have praised the series' music.[89][140] Geoff Thew said that the greatest aspect of the series is its audio design, with the first three games using the Game Boy Advance sound chip better than any other game for that platform; he called the music phenomenal, with the exception of that in Justice for All, but said the sound effects are what "steals the show".[89] Mackey commented that the games' small amounts of animations for each character are used well for their characterization.[140]

The Takarazuka Revue, an all-female theater troupe, has adapted the series into stage musicals: 2009's Ace Attorney: Truth Resurrected, which is based on the last episode of the first game;[147] 2010's Ace Attorney 2: Truth Resurrected Again, whose first act is an original story, and whose second is based on the final episode of the second game;[148] and 2013's Ace Attorney 3: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, which is set before the events of Truth Resurrected Again.[149] A stage play based on the series, titled Gyakuten no Spotlight, ran in 2013, and was written by Eisaku Saito.[150] A 2012 live-action film adaptation of the first game, titled Ace Attorney, was produced at the film studio Toei and directed by Takashi Miike.[151][152] A 2016 TV anime adaptation of the series, Ace Attorney, was produced at A-1 Pictures and directed by Ayumu Watanabe.[4]

Kodansha has published several manga based on the series: a short story anthology was published in Bessatsu Young Magazine in 2006; Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth were serialized in Weekly Young Magazine in 2007 and 2009, respectively; and another manga, which is based on the anime, was published in V Jump in 2016.[153] A novel based on the series, Gyakuten Saiban: Turnabout Idol, was released in June 2016.[154] Ace Attorney drama CDs,[155][156] soundtrack albums,[157][158] and figurines have also been released.[159][160][161]

Ace Attorney characters have made crossover appearances in other video games. Some Ace Attorney characters appear in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS.[162] Phoenix and Edgeworth make a cameo appearance in She-Hulk's ending in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds;[163] in the game's update, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Phoenix appears as a playable character.[164][165] Phoenix and Maya are playable characters in Project X Zone 2, while Edgeworth makes a non-player appearance.[166] Phoenix, Maya, Edgeworth and Franziska were all playable in the mobile game Monster Hunter Explore in 2017, as part of one of its temporary crossover events,[167] and a Phoenix transformation is available for a companion character in Monster Hunter XX.[168] Music from the Ace Attorney series is featured in Taiko Drum Master: Doko Don! Mystery Adventure, with Phoenix making an appearance in the game's story.[169] In April 2021, Ace Attorney was introduced to Teppen alongside the Dead Rising franchise with the "Ace vs. The People" expansion.[170]

In 2015, GamesRadar+ named Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as the 55th-best video game of all time.[171] In 2016, Famitsu readers voted Gyakuten Saiban as the second-most memorable Game Boy Advance title (behind only Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire) and Gyakuten Saiban 123 as the tenth-best Nintendo 3DS game.[172] In 2017, Famitsu readers voted Gyakuten Saiban the third-best adventure game of all time, behind only Steins;Gate and 428: Shibuya Scramble.[173]

The Ace Attorney series has been credited with helping to popularise visual novels in the Western world.[174][175] Vice magazine credits the Ace Attorney series with popularising the visual novel mystery format,[176] and notes that its success anticipated the resurgence of point-and-click adventure games as well as the international success of Japanese visual novels.[177] According to Danganronpa director Kazutaka Kodaka, Ace Attorney's success in North America was due to how it distinguished itself from most visual novels with its gameplay mechanics, which Danganronpa later built upon and helped it also find success in North America.[175]

The Ace Attorney series has also inspired many video games. The 2008 Capcom title Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, based on the animated series, shares many elements with the Ace Attorney series.[178][179] The 2013 title Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher keeps the Ace Attorney format but swaps law for philosophical argument, and the 2015 adventure game Aviary Attorney features similar gameplay but with an all-bird cast of characters.[180][181] The 2016 video game Detective Pikachu, which received a 2019 film adaptation, has also drawn comparisons to the Ace Attorney series.[182][183]

Ace Attorney is referenced in several anime shows. In a murder mystery arc of the 2006 anime series Haruhi Suzumiya, the show's titular character mimics Phoenix Wright during an episode.[184] The 2014 anime series No Game No Life also pays homage to the game during an episode.[185]

In early 2021, a user on Reddit created a bot that took selected Reddit forum arguments into short movies fashioned after Ace Attorney courtroom battles between the games' various characters.[65] A similar bot was later created for the platform X (commonly known as Twitter).[186]

Later that year, the San Francisco Chronicle took note of its queer inspiration and influence: the first game inspired a great deal of fanwork featuring same-sex pairings and developers in turn took inspiration from boys' love in writing the sequels' characters.[187]

[centrally-unplanned]

Comic Box 1997 End of Evangelion Issue - Archive Scan

Comic Box was a magazine in Japan launched in, from what I can gather, 1982. It was a bit of an ‘alt” magazine - it has an imprint, Comic Box Jr, which focused on doujinshi for example - and would cover anything anime-adjacent, including western films. The October 1997 release of the magazine was dedicated to the release of the End of Evangelion film, and to answering the question “what was the phenomenon called Evangelion?”. Towards that end it features fan submissions, art, comics, essays, all talking about what Eva meant to them. Some are serious, some are fully comedic, way way more than I expected are erotic, and overall it is a time capsule of how the anime community was thinking about Evangelion when EoE came out. The magazine dissolved in 1998 from what I can tell, so this was one of its last releases - you can still see its absolutely vintage website here! Complete with dashing chibi cat gif.

I discovered this magazine through japanese anime/manga archivist-in-residence ehoba on twitter, who provided photos and rough summaries of some of the pages. They are just camera photos of an open magazine though, not scans, and not at all complete. I hunted around for a while to find a scanned version, messaged ehoba and a few others, posted on forums like Evageeks, and drew total blanks. I couldn’t find any listings of it online, so I set the quest aside...until I was placing another order for some artbooks for import and decide to check Yahoo Auctions Japan and lo and behold, there is was! It arrived this week.

So that image above is not one pulled from the internet - I have scanned the entire Evangelion segment of Comic Box - October 1997 issue. I am a neophyte scanner & image editor, these aren’t gonna be amazing or anything, but while I hope to make a more polished version I wanted to share the drafts now. I really aspire to translate it, but of course I don’t speak Japanese, so I am going to see how far working with some people I know and brute-forcing with AI would go. If you are interested or know someone who would be, definitely reach out! 100% would crowdsource this. If someone already scanned and translated this, also let me know, I would groan heavily and curse my google skills but i’d rather it be available and know, and not waste time.

Below will be some reduced-down PNG’s of the magazine to fit Tumblr image limits with Ehoba’s notes and a few of my own attached to them. A link to the full images as a singular PDF is on the Internet Archive [Here]

A reflection of a very known thing in this magazine is that, from my perspective, End of Evangelion is definitely Asuka’s moment to shine, but it didn’t matter because the 90′s Eva fandom *loved* Rei. She was the most popular by far, and I think dethroned Sailor Mercury on the ‘best girl’ polls in magazines of the era. Nowadays if you poll audiences - as the NHK did recently - Asuka is the most popular girl, but it was a different, proto-moe-boom time.

"Evangelion was fake. A fake made by one director, or by the staff. However, it was a very real fake. God, it was so good."

Watermelon Kaji absolute goat here; so cool indeed

How much Asuka is suffering in all these images vs god-salvation Rei is, again, saying alot about the waifu wars.

"I don't think episode 25 and 26 were professional work. I understand that the ADR script and previews with layout sheets are supposed to be avant-garde, but something is wrong with it." "TV show is not an individual's job, so I wanted them to deal with the schedule limitation."

90% sure this Asuka ‘escaped’ and I saw it on the internet in the early 2000′s - maybe the author published it elsewhere in a doujin, I assume a lot of this art would have been repurposed for other mediums.

Honestly the art is incredible for this magazine sometimes, the splash pages they have are filled with Evangelion’s anime-spiritual energy.

"Unit 02 has a mouth, which means it can give a blow job." "The biggest surprise is Rei in cowgirl position. The official content does that, so hentai authors have nothing to do."

(Gainax putting hard-working hentai doujin authors out of a job, what assholes!)

"My heated up feeling toward Evangelion was quick-freezed by episode 25 and 26. EoE defrosted it, but now I feel distant from Evangelion."

How much Episode 25-26 come up here is great evidence for how divisive they were - End of Eva is absolutely seen as commentary on, and opposition to, the TV ending. I think in the west the initial reception of the original ending is overall more positive? Certainly nowadays, would be curious how it is seen in Japan today.

OCR’ing this image will literally murder me, pls I can’t

"Bullshit plot, surficial information, shallow dialogues, inconsistent direction, story with tons of plot holes, the director's masturbation, the otaku's useless attempt to enlighten other otaku..." "BUT I LOVE IT."

10/10 take

"'Sincerity' of someone I don't like just confirms that I still don't like them. Anno apparently thought that honest depiction of himself can be depiction of otaku, but that's not wrong. Anno is exceptionally creepy."

God-tier Anno portrait here. I love how many of this art showcases “settings” from End of Eva and which ones hit the audience - re-using the movie theatre seats for Shinji, that is really cool!

Evangelion - Slayers edition! The artist names are in the black box panel on the page lining, I absolutely hope to track down a few of them and see what kind of works they made.

"I think each material of Evangelion was nothing new. In the early half, however, I was moved by their techniques of arranging and remixing those materials." "Creators' strong desire for expression supported this story, but I'm not sure."

"Adam and Eve in the Eden East" "I hope they will live happily after the ending."

"The theater was like a funeral after the screening. No, I should say it was a literal funeral. Evangelion ended, it died. In terms of entertainment, Evangelion was completely and brilliantly killed."

Kaworu’s insta-inclusion into the ranks of the kid cast is always amusing to me; he is in one episode of the show after all, barely in Eva! But he is all over the art immediately. The power of design - and also being one of the first gay characters on television (as opposed to OVA’s) in Japan.

Hopefully if I can make progress on translation I can have actual thoughts to add to the scan, certainly I will post results if I get them.

I value, way too deeply to be honest, the preservation of the other side of the ‘media mix’ - how people responded to the media in question and what it meant to them. It is way more likely to be lost than the media itself or documents from the production side. May this contribution to preserving a bit of that experience be of value to those out there who would be interested in the history of Evangelion, and anime more generally.

If you think you know anyone or your followers overall would be interested in translation help, I would appreciate the broadcasting!

[satoshi-mochida]

REYNATIS coming west this fall for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC

From Gematsu

NIS America will release FuRyu and Natsume Atari-developed dark action RPG REYNATIS for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam this fall in the west, the publisher announced. The PC version is newly announced. It will support Japanese audio with English text.

In Japan, REYNATIS is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch on July 25.

Here is an overview of the game, via NIS America:

About

REYNATIS is an action RPG set in the painstakingly-recreated streets of Shibuya, Tokyo. In a world where fantasy meets reality, the citizens of Shibuya fear magic and the power it holds, forcing wizards to conceal their inhuman abilities or face oppression. Seeking freedom through strength, the wizard Marin heads to Shibuya, where he meets Sari, an officer of the MEA, an organization dedicated to keeping wizards under control. Conceal your magic to explore the city as a regular civilian and shop or take on quests, or use your explosive powers to reach new locations and battle those who stand in your way. Fight for what you believe in in this stylish, spellbinding RPG from director TAKUMI and featuring music by Yoko Shimomura!

Key Features

Freedom vs. Order – The wizard Marin and the officer Sari stand on opposing sides of a conflict that will shake the world to its core. Experience an enthralling story that tackles oppression, clashing ideals, and the price of freedom.

City of Secrets – Navigate the streets of Shibuya and choose between remaining concealed to talk to civilians, shop, and accept quests or exposing your true self to harness your inhuman powers. Your journey will also take you into the alternate world of Another, a fantasy land teeming with ferocious monsters and secrets to uncover.

Might and Magic – Freely swap between using evasive maneuvers in Suppressed mode and utilizing magic to deal explosive damage in Liberated mode. Each of the six different playable characters has their own unique abilities, from summoning to aerial attacks.

Watch the western announcement trailer below. View a set of screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here.

Announce Trailer

[randomnameless]

I found this tidbit spoken by a resident in abyss. not sure if you or the others in your circle came across it yet, but any thoughts or opinions on it ? I'm also curious what the jp version mentioned so I used a translator. The jp version provides more detail/context but I'm not sure how accurate google is.

houses.fedatamine.com/en-us/monastery/7#event-wc-122-0

English version

Resident: "When the nobles came for me, they were completely without mercy. They... They killed everyone. My parents. My husband. My son. They all died... for nothing. For being in the way. People with Crests do whatever they want. No one even tries to stop them. Especially not the church..."

Japanese version

住人: ……私の家族は、みんな殺されました。 私が、貴族の目に留まってしまったせいで。夫も、息子も、両親も…… 私を守ろうとして……。紋章があれば、何をやってもいいんですか？ 教団も、何もしてくれない……。

JP Google translation:

Resident: …my family was all killed. Because I caught the eye of a noble. My husband, my son, my parents... trying to protect me... What can I do with the crest? The church doesn't do anything either...

Ooh!

I think I remember this line being discussed earlier in (2020 when it released?) but I don't remember more about it :(

Thanks to @renisfan I have :

"My family has all been killed. Because I caught the eye of a noble... My husband, my son, my parents...trying to protect me... Is it ok to do anything as long as you have a Crest? And the church didn't do anything either..."

So yep, as expected, extra Pat points for the "especially" part because Church BAD and I'm starting to wonder if the localisation team didn't consciously remove all mentions of lewd and sex from their version - apparently this woman "caught the eye" of a noble who most likely wanted to "seduce" her, she most likely said no, and all of her family died as a result...

(is she adrestian?)

So the Noble acted like an ass because he had a crest, slaughtered people and this NPC is contemplating about this, was he allowed to be an ass because he had a crest? Is it alright for him to do anything he wants because of his crust?

I'd say the "church didn't do anything either" as the Church didn't punish the noble, which the NPC laments - even if she seems to ignore that she is in the Abyss, a church related facilty who welcomed her after she lost everything.... so it's not really "didn't do anything", at least they offered her shelter?

(now that I type about this, I'm starting to remember things lol)

However, as legitimate as her anger might be, it might be, you know, misplaced?

Say, if someone rolls over my cat, I should of course go to a french police station (then pray they're working and not on a strike because they don't like to be considered regular people by the judiciary like everyone else) to file a claim against the driver who rolled over my cat. I could complain about the Vatican not doing anything against that driver, but is it really useful? Does it even make some sense?

Of course we're not talking about cats here - and yet, as misplaced as this line is (lady, why are you saying the Church doesn't do anything, why aren't you complaining about the authorities of the land you come from, like the Empire, the Kingdom or the Alliance??) imo it also cements Seteth's earlier claims - the Church's authority over nobles is only nominal -

They can do whatever they want and the Church doesn't have the power to stop them, rather, to punish people who do not belong to their organisation or who doesn't directly target them (Lonato waltzing to Garreg Mach and targeting various villages on his merry way?). WC is a good exemple of "show vs tell", Church BaD and controls Fodlan (NoA approved!) - but in WC, each time Billy is sent "abroad" it's because people from "abroad" file a request for the Church to intervene, rather, "the people in charge living abroad".

But if the CoS isn't invited, when it doesn't concern their jurisdiction (Western Church nonsense), they can't do as they please.

It's almost as if their power and prerogatives to intervene are limited by something else... rather some other entity (or entities, Fodlan is made of three states, despite what some Adrestians say!)

In a way, that NPC is important and showcases a lot of Fodlan's issues - the three countries are all flawed to different degrees, but instead of working to make sure they're not flawed anymore, the games will use the CoS as a scapegoat and play it straight in all routes (the CoS is always reformed!).

(The Faerghus routes touch this issue very slightly - in AG Dimitri makes reforms and has to juggle with some lords who don't want his reforms, but the Zahras chapters exist :( )

[miriamundertale]

Skate-Leading Stars, The Bane of my Fucking Existence

I've partially wanted to talk about this anime for a while, but after Confirmation that it's real and I haven't been fucking hallucinating it, I think now is likely a better time than ever to uh, Discuss this weird ass show. Skate-Leading Stars was first revealed to me while working on a separate whole project (My attempt to watch every anime where Hiroshi Kamiya voices a main character) and saw it as the main currently airing show that he was voicing a character in. Unfortunately for me, the thought that formed was "oh sweet, this is a currently airing one I could watch this as it airs," not realizing the two fucking year long brainworm I was about to nourish. As a precursor, I need to make clear I'm going to be jumping around in focus a lot. moreover, this is NOT a review, i just want to vent about something that's been taking over my mind. there is a LOT of weird shit going on with this anime that I'd like to at least cover so if I leave something hanging for a bit, I will get back to it at some point.

Spoilers for Skate-Leading Stars, Your Lie In April

What the fuck is Skate-Leading?

Have you ever watched like, a sport, a game, or some other activity (Including Single player ones!) and just wanted to add people to it for no fucking reason? like, "What if chess was 5 people on each side per board deliberating every action while really hoping nobody else listens in" tier shit. That's the main premise of Skate-Leading. It's a sport where 5 anime boys do figure skating all at once in a formation together. The obvious concerns about safety are not even mentioned and the idea of "how do you even judge this on a regional level well without a LOT of judges" is settled by having the numbers be put up as a box that they say is an AI judging it. a core plot point is the One Interesting Character figuring out how the AI works in his gamer cave and gaming it.

Your first bit of confusion you may encounter with that premise is of course "isn't there already pair skating as an actual real sport one could use for the drama of multi-person skating?" or maybe "doesnt this mean this just a more fucked up yuri on ice?" which to me are both great questions, with only the first easily answered with a Yes. Yuri on ice is the obvious comparison for what SLS is attempting to draw from here, given you have seen literally anything about yuri on ice and the timing of the two shows, but you need to understand that the figure skating is a bait. the yaoi is the point but is bait in regards for understanding this plot. they're not trying to do Yuri on ice. They're trying to do Your Lie In April.

Let's Talk about the OP (Updated info in final paragraph)

For some fucking reason that I originally credited to COVID delays, half the fucking OP is black screens.

I don't think anything of it is especially standout aside from that, while SLS has many weaknesses the OP isnt one of them. Unfortunately it's not anything to write home about either, so I don't want anyone else to feel like we're truly missing out when I reveal the fact that as far as I can tell the OP was censored for the western release. I'm operating on my own anecdotal evidence and what is one of my two current white whales (the other that isn't about to be mentioned is the Japanese dub of Batman Vs Superman) so if my theorizing here is completely incorrect than that's Fine. Thats Fine. About a month into watching the show while it was airing, the half black OP started to get to me. I wanted to see more, try and get to the bottom of it, and eventually managed to find the full uncensored version uploaded which remained up for about two weeks before disappearing. I know that the version we can find online is fucking censored. I have no idea why. once again, so little people I know have any knowledge about this show aside from me, let alone have talked about it. I cannot find anything online talking about the OP aside from light mentions in the comments of the Crunchyroll upload sandwiched between Jesus Bots.

While spending a pathetic amount of time delaying this, I actually in fact have been sent proof of the uncensored OP existing. from anything I could tell or from what the friend who sent this from me could tell, the entire reason is something involving covid delays (Confirming my original suspicion, at least!) making them rush out the international version before the broadcast version, thought the delay wasn't that huge? its still definitely a mystery to me that haunts me a little but at least I know it Exists.

Since I've spent enough time talking about not the plot I think its a good time to address the whole Your Lie In April thing

What the Fuck do you Mean Its Trying to do Your lie In April??

Your lie in April, if you haven't seen it, is a story about dealing with grief, parental abuse and falling in love again with your passions even after loss. it's a very rough anime to sit through emotionally, and while its very much a show i have mixed feelings about personally, it's still a very well written example of its genre. Skate-Leading Stars spends has the main character parallel Kousei Arima's (The Main character of Your Lie in April) very basic arc of a teenager getting back into the area he used to be a prodigy in as a child, any forms of subtly or trauma have been entirely replaced with as many meatheaded brash qualities as they can in order to fit the true BL purpose of the story. Instead of having the love interest heavily foreshadowed to die being someone who views said passion in an entirely different light than him as a way to work through trauma and difficulty handling the act of playing piano again, the love interest is a mysterious boy who's using him to try and get back at his brother. Skate-Leading Stars, unabashedly, apes the format and ideas of Your Lie in April, barely understanding anything else going on, and uses it for a bl anime about a sport that is at best impossible to judge and realistically physically dangerous to exist.

Ok now what?

I don't think its necessary to do a plot summary of SLS, partially because I don't want to, but mostly because who fucking cares. I love bad shows, and while the start of the show is undeniably strong in its garbage it goes nowhere with anything. It spends a large amount of its time as a story setting up beats that never pay off, having loud yaoi boys yelling constantly, or underusing Hiroshi Kamiya. There IS a manga I could read for the rest of the story that's likely been playing out, but since only the first chapter is translated I don't see any reason to examine it too closely. If you want to watch gay ice skating anime, Yuri on ice is talked about for a reason. if you want to watch bad anime with Hiroshi Kamiya Ultimate Otaku Teacher exists. If you have read the manga please tell me if Sasugai actually has some sort of fatal disease or they're just aping the framing from Your Lie in April without meaning again.

[benevolentbirdgal]

Hello, recently the new Legend of Zelda game came out and it made me think about the main villain Ganondorf again. I’ve always kind of though he tends to fall into some harmful antisemitic traits such as the red hair, green skin, large nose (his race of people are portrayed with large noses, he is from a desert race of people but I thought it was important to mention), his goal is to take over Hyrule and has the Triforce of Power, and his early depictions re of a large pig-like creature. I am not sure if this was done purposely to make him a harmful stereotype or not, but with how many people are talking about him I thought it would be important to ask.

Hi Anon!

Honestly, this is not an element of discourse that is familiar to me personally. After looking at some images and whatnot (it's been a long time since my NintendoDS has seen the light of day), I can see where people are coming from.

I think it's unfortunate - especially with how aggressively white and western and not remotely Jewish or Jew-coded the protags are - but I don't (personally) think it's intentional nor am I terribly bothered by it. I get why it gives people the ick (esp the pig one), but Ganandorf also hits a lot of general folklore/adventure/fantasy tropes writ large (which TBF, often have antisemitic roots in contexts where Jews have been persecuted). There's legitimately a read that maybe the uber-white-and-western-good-rulers vs the thief who has a big nose has some bad coding TM, but I don't think it's the only read. I also honestly hadn't thought about the visuals that hard, because I've encountered pixel art versions of Zelda stuff on pretty small screens previously and well, those have limited visuals.

If you're asking about this (fanart I believe by an unrelated artist that people had Opinions About on reddit) then yeah that particular drawing was Big Yikes and IMO, intentional or not (artist did release a pretty detailed apology postfact), did emphasize the most problematic/antisemitic/caricature bits of the character.

Re: intention in the original character: given that Zelda originally came out in' 80s (and Ganandorf was introduced in the '90s?) and was produced by a Japanese company (i.e. with designers not from a culture that has historically had interaction with or oppressed Jews pre-WW2), I'm inclined to believe it was more a case of "cool western fantasy elements" without necessarily interrogating their origin or coding or possible harmful impacts. If I had to hazard a guess, I don't think that Japanese designers in the '80s and '90s had any considerations for Jews (so.much.kabbalah.appropriated.in.anime.but.discuss.another.time), much less intentions to create antisemitic caricatures or necessarily even awareness that it could be read as such.

As is increasingly (and delightfully) the case with my asks, this is very much my personal opinion territory, and I'd love to hear what other Jews have to say

[speedsiteinsurance]

Dragon ball z super butouden 3 ost download

Read the terms and click 'I agree to these terms'.

Click the 'You are not logged in' button in the upper right.

To register and submit, do the following. I recommend Soundcloud, don't forget to allow downloads to enable me to upload the song at ThaSauce. If anyone has problems with registering or uploading the song to ThaSauce, please upload the song somewhere else and post a download link in the thread. These differences can be attributed to Super Butoden 2 being the first SNES game to be re-released on the 3DS, as SNES games didn't see release on the 3DS Virtual Console until the release of the more powerful New Nintendo 3DS.To submit a song at the compo page a ThaSauce account is required.

Despite being labelled as a Virtual Console title, the 3DS port of this game included with Extreme Butoden pre-orders is remarkably different from actual 3DS Virtual Console games, featuring unique icons on the home menu and a gray border dotted with several Dragon Balls rather than the standard black borders.

The bassline for Cell's theme is taken from the 1971 Pink Floyd song "One of These Days" this song, as well as the rest of the game's soundtrack, was composed by Kenji Yamamoto, who would eventually be fired from Toei following the discovery that he had plagiarized several popular western artists throughout his career.

This is the first game to feature an underwater fighting option.

This is the first fighting video game to include movie characters.

A code is required to unlock him and Broly, the other hidden character.

This is the only Dragon Ball Z fighting game in which Goku is not readily playable in the Japanese version, as he was currently dead at that point in the manga's continuity.

For unknown reasons, Broly, Zangya and Bojack were renamed Tara, Aki, and Kujila, respectively, in the French and Spanish versions.

Satan's name change is that "Enfer" is the French word for " Hell". Satan was renamed Enfer in the French version because the name "Satan Petit-Cœur" is used for King Piccolo in the French dub of the Dragon Ball anime. The game sold 1.15 million copies in Japan.

World Martial Arts Tournament (nightfall).

Broly arrives on Earth in order to find Kakarot (Goku, who has been killed during the "Cell Games" story), and attacks the Z Fighters. If the player completes certain tasks during the Story Mode (only on difficulty levels 3 or 4), the " Legendary Super Saiyan?" story will be unlocked. If the Z Fighters fail to defeat Bojack, Broly will appear and kill him, thus ending the Story Mode. In the "Sudden shock ! Duel" branch, Bojack and Zangya use gigantic machines to spread the Destron Gas on Earth, and use the Cell Juniors as henchmen. They trick the Z Fighters into fighting each other with evil clones of Gohan, Future Trunks, Vegeta, or Piccolo. The Galaxy Soldiers Bojack and Zangya arrive on Earth and try to get the Dragon Balls. The "Resurrection! Galaxy Warrior" story is unlocked after Cell's defeat. Gohan uses the Father-Son Kamehameha if the player does not defeat Cell during their second confrontation. Satan's appearance, Cell self destructing and coming back. The story then follows the Cell Games, including Mr. The Dragon Team are training for the Cell Games and the player must choose a sparring partner for his or her character: Goku or one of the other playable characters in the mode. The first story in the mode is "Fear! The Cell Games". Satan vs Cell during the "Fear! The Cell Games" story

It follows different branches of the story depending on the player's decisions, victories, and loss. In the Story Mode, the player can control Gohan, Future Trunks, Vegeta, or Piccolo. A significant number of sentences were grammatically incorrect, sometimes to the point of complete incoherence. The official French translation was clumsy and most of the time hardly comprehensible for anyone unfamiliar with the Dragon Ball Z story. Depending on if the player wins or loses a battle, the story will take a different turn, which leads to a lot of possibilities to experience. The story mode became very popular at the time because of its many different variations. The game's story mode covers the Cell Games Saga, as well as alternate versions of Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound and Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan/ Broly - Second Coming.

Super Butōden 2 features ten playable characters (eight normal, two unlockable with a code).

[artistjust]

Gradius rebirth 3 loops

#Gradius rebirth 3 loops code#

Pokémon GO Spotlight Hour Times: This Week's Featured Po. Pokémon GO Community Days 2022: September Community Day. Talking Tom, Candy Run (not sure about this one, but it has vertical elements) There other vertical games, puzzle games, that use the touchscreen only:ĥ. I will mention just a few offbeat shooters: Johnny Turbo: Heavy Barrel (same deal, flips the wrong way) Johnny Turbo: Nitro Ball (flips the wrong way, but you can "flip" the FlipGrip)ġ6. Sasuke vs Commander (seeSNK Collection)ġ5. Namco Museum (Note: other game, PacMan Museum+ DOES NOT have vertical mode)Īrcade Archives has a crap load of shooters, and a bunch of non-shooters, I'm listing just a few of the non-shooters:ġ0. SNK Collection-Ikari Warriors, a few other (also shooters included)ġ1. Contra Collection- Contra and Super C (Beware: Arcade Archives versions are better but more expensive)ġ0. Capcom Arcade Stadium 2- Gunsmoke, Speed Rumbler, Hissatu Buraiken, Rally 2011, Block Block (also shooters too!)ħ. Capcom Arcade Stadium 1-Commando (has a bunch of shooters too)ĥ. Pinball FX 3-Williams Collection (22 tables!)ģ.Gunbarich (follow this games developer to a trove of vertical shooters)Ĥ. Let me highlight some games that are NOT shootersĢ. (Forced to be since Nintendo doesn't have a category for vertical games.)

Sat 30th Jul I am a bit of expert when it comes to the Flip-Grip.

Ra圜risis HD (2023) – A remaster of Ra圜risis. RayStorm HD launched in 2010 with additional elements and a 16:9 aspect ratio, but RayStorm NEO-HD includes the same content as the arcade version and retains a 4:3 aspect ratio. RayStorm NEO-HD (2023) – A remaster of the arcade version of RayStorm. Here's what you can expect in this Chronology (via Gematsu): It's a mix of the original releases along with some remasters as well. The Switch already has an amazing selection of shmup games to select from, and this new collection will bolster it with a total of five games. There's no word on a western release at the moment. Original Story : Taito Corporation and the retro specialists at M2 have announced they'll be bringing Ray'z Arcade Chronology to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 next year in Japan. We'll keep you updated as and when an announcement is made for the West.

#Gradius rebirth 3 loops code#

While Taito hasn't delivered any news on an overseas release just yet, anyone who pre-orders the game via Amazon Japan on Prime Day (12th-13th July) will get a code for R-GEAR, a previously unreleased sequel to Rayforce that was cancelled and replaced with Raystorm. It'll cost 7,480 yen, although there's a fancy special edition version with a Blu-ray, a two-disc CD set, a guidebook, and other printed goodies that will set you back 18,480 yen. Update : Taito has announced a Japanese release date for Ray'z Arcade Chronology - 9th March 2023 (thanks, Gematsu). ➡️ /xCdsKrAwFq- Strictly Limited Games July 30, 2022 Ray’z Arcade Chronology will be available for pre-order on One of the most iconic vertical shoot ‘em ups from the 90s which was created by TAITO is coming back with new features and in HD quality on Nintendo Switch and PS4! The physical edition of the Chronology will be distributed by Strictly Limited locally - with pre-orders opening on July 31st. There's no release date just yet and ININ will be handling publishing duties of both games digitally ( via Gematsu). Update #2 : ININ Games has confirmed it will release Ray'z Arcade Chronology and also RayStorm x Ra圜risis HD Collection on the Switch here in the west.

[opalmaplehibiscus]

An Opinion about Official English Twisted Wonderland and Announcement with Blog

Hello! Hi! ヾ(≧ ▽ ≦)ゝSo, as everyone knows, Twisted Wonderland has just announced they will be releasing the official translated English version of Twisted Wonderland ! Preregistrations are already opened and the plan of the game being officially released is sometime around January of 2022 (next year!) (＠＾０＾) It is very exciting to see the game getting translated as it would mean the game has been doing very well. However, there are some concerns with it. 

One of them that was instantly nipped at the minute the English website was released was mistranslations. Yes, not a few, but many mistranslations. Many of the Japanese fans were discussing about each character’s lines and descriptions, an example being Leona’s line with “ain’t” being used when “isn’t” should’ve been used instead. Another one was pointing out the title Crowley was given and how inconsistent it was as well as again, incorrect term being used. Because of this, there are people in the  English fandom, myself included that are concerned over this. I can not nor will I speak for others, but, for me personally, I’m really concerned how newer fans will interpret and hold opinions of the characters in the game due to these inaccuracies. There’s already a good 5% of misunderstanding already because of lack of consistency in fan-translations due to different translators translating the game.  But, I personally prefer the fan translations more than officially translated mangas, games, animes in general because fan translators are able to take things in context and translate as such while writing notes/explanations why words/sentences were translated in whatever fashion they chose in hopes for everyone to be able to understanding why they chose to translate that way while official translators can’t and have to consider new players who aren’t familiar with the term equivalence used.  With that in mind, I don’t think the translations is really bad. “First year” translated to freshmen, “second year” to sophomore - it’s NOT incorrect; those are the equivalence when comparing grade level terminology used in Japanese  to Western school grade levels. In fact, fan translations shouldn’t really be seen as the “golden standard” or “official of official” but more like reference. Though “house warden” is jarring in so many levels, it’s also not really incorrect. As one of the translators have stated before, “ 寮長 “ ( “ryocho”) doesn’t directly translate to “dorm leader” but can be translated to dorm head, dormitory director, etc. Not going to lie, I get the sense of them attempting to convey that there are different “magical dorms” in Twisted Wonderland by using Harry Potter terminology with the ways of calling their dorms as “houses”. I could be wrong of course   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  Just because I think this way with the translations doesn’t change again, my concern with how characters and the story will be interpreted by newer, English speaking fans. In fact, I honestly don’t think nor hope English VAs be used to voice the characters for the English version of the game because the “speaking styles” of the characters will definitely change and, from what I feel, be misrepresented compared to the original Japanese version like with the English dub/tl vs Japanese raw in anime or manga. 

So yeah. Lot’s of thoughts and mixed feelings for the game right now. All of this being said, I do welcome any new fans to the fandom and followers to this blog, but any requests or writing I post will go by what was interpreted from the original Japanese version of the game including analysis.  I do hope for the best and see the game reach new heights in terms of achievement and success! 

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Dear 'Anime Bad' Anon: I Want To Help I pity your situation, so please have a list of weebshit that isn't moeified, or wherein the cutesy art-style serves a greater purpose. (Note: though they won't be soft marshmallow uguuuu, they may still have issues in other ways. Some may have aged badly with regards to how society views or portrays groups or beliefs, some may have upsetting content and dark themes, and some may simply not be to your taste. Note: Anime is a genre, not a monolith, and the disparaging stereotype that it's all cute girls uwuing over their brother s-s-senpai!!! is as much of a disservice as saying all western movies are just vapid cash grab superhero movie sequels with no inegrity or thought put into them. There are indeed a lot of superhero movies, but they're not all identical schlock (megamind vs venom vs kick-ass),  but even more than that, there is a wealth of creative endeavor just beyond the veil of Marvel's cape: just as there are plenty of good anime if you dig past the isekai high school harem wish fulfillment genre that no one wants to keep making but people keep making because it prints money to a very small demographic of the animation equivalent of a mobile game whale thereby allowing this frankly quite-small industry to work on engaging and worthwhile series where the budget permits, Regardless,)

Mushi-shi: -Pros: gorgeous animation, tranquil vibes, episodic stories so you can cram in an episode between classes or on your lunch break. highly recommended by the literal-who typing this out. -Cons: some themes or stories may cause emotional distress, learning to tell apart Urushibara Yuki's characters is a learning curve.

Baccano-Pros: meticulously-researched 20s-and-30s-era mafia violence with a hint of the supernatural, as a treat, told anachronistically with flair and jazz music. practically made to be binge-watched. the novels are finally getting translated into english as well. -Cons: lots of characters to keep track of, fair bit of blood and violence, some scenes or themes may be upsetting, lots of jumping around between different time periods. See Also: Durarara, another series by Ryōgo Narita with a ton of characters and a plot with more threads an overpriced sheet.

Cowboy Bebop-Pros: incredibly well-regarded, space bounty hunters are cool, episodic series that slowly takes on a plot towards the end, fantastic animation, scoring, and even dub work.  -Cons: some scenes or themes may be uncomfortable, some parts have not aged quite so well, the smart doll version of the main character is ugly, you're gonna carry that weight.

Trigun-Pros: starts lighthearted, develops an increasingly investing plot as the series goes along. fictional westerns are cool. this world is made of love and peace -Cons: some scenes or themes may be upsetting, and probably will be. gun violence is naturally present, but that ain't all of it.

Hellsing (standard or Ultimate. or Abridged)Pros: vampires killing nazis. the original adaptation isn't bad, the second adaptation (ultimate) is generally viewed as an improvement. abridged is a youtube parody version that was so popular the voice actors reference it in convention interviews.Cons: a Lot of violence, even trending to the gorey side of things. Uncomfortable Themes Everywhere, but it's a horror-tinged action series about killing nazis, so that's to be expected. 

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood-Pros: while the original anime was quite good, the second iteration is a large improvement. does to alchemy what naruto does to ninjas: It's Basically Battle Magic. the plot starts on a strong note and doesn't let up from there. -Cons: there are distressing scenes and themes that may or may not be tolerable to the viewer. there are moments of cheesecake and even an occasional joke or a moeblob here and there, and it's not all doom and all gloom all the time, but this doesn't detract from the abject horror-despair that comes to permeate this series as it progresses. finally understand why people on the internet respond so negatively to the name 'nina'! 

[Mod: many more recs/reviews under the break, worth reading for those who like more obscure anime and animation]

Grave of the Fireflies-Pros: you will remember how to cry. it's a good reminder that one country's 'triumphs' often come at the expense of another country's people.  -Cons: this movie is incredibly dark, do not watch if you are in a bad headspace. see also: Barefoot Gen, a similar tale but this time from the perspective of an actual survivor from Hiroshima.

Michiko to Hatchin-Pros: an actually diverse cast of characters tangled up in a messy and very humanizing story, interspersed with Shinichiro Watanabe's particular flare for adventure. -Cons: some scenes or themes are very likely to be distressing. can be tricky to find, too.

Mo no no Ke (not the ghibli movie, though it is also quite good.) -Pros: incredibly unique art style and pacing that draws heavily from japanese theatre traditions, every screenshot is wallpaper-worthy. -Cons: may cause motion sickness. it is a psychological horror series, and one that does not need blood, nor gore, to cause visceral emotional response in the viewer. scenes and themes will be distressing- as really, that's the point.

Tokyo Godfathers-Pros: a transwoman, a (self-identified) homeless bum, and a runaway teen girl find a newborn in the baby on christmas. incredibly wholesome, somehow, and grounded in reality, with wonderful animation from the tragically late satoshi kon. -Cons: it is grounded in realism, and sometimes, people are dicks. mild transphobia warning, too, but in-universe- the transwoman herself is portrayed with kindness and allowed to be her own (wonderful!!!) person. still, viewer be mindful.

Kino no Tabi (the first series is my preferred, the second is shinier but lacks emotional impact- in my onion.) -Pros: mostly episodic, very unique series that can be gritty where it counts and kind where it matters. -Cons: some scenes or themes might be disturbing. finding it's not easy, either, and unfortunately, i don't think the novels are being translated right now, either.

Spice and Wolf-Pros: it's mostly about economics. there are shenanigans, a harvest god, and a slowly burgeoning romance, sure, but it's still mostly about economics. -Cons: there are moments of cheesecake and comedy, and moments that may cause distress to the viewer. it may or may not be to your taste.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica-Cons: yeah i know, it's moeblobs.  -Pros: you're gonna watch 'em die, though, in case that may interest you. it's quite a good subversion of the magical girl genre overall. somehow volks hasn't made an MDD of anyone from the series and i will never understand how that didn't happen.

Wolf Children: Ame to Yuki-Pros: watch a family grow together as a newly-single mother does her best to raise her twin children after the tragic loss of their father.  -Cons: keep tissues handy. certain scenes or themes may be uncomfortable.

Lupin III (Red Jacket, Ghibli, and the new 3D animation are all A+) pros: heist comedy elevated to an art form before half (or more!) of the people reading this were born. the english dubbed series that used to air on adult swim is a treat. cons: this franchise started in THE SIXTIES, so naturally, some shit has not aged well. certain series (fujiko mine) are darker than others in themes and material. the 3d movie that released recently is an excellent starting point.

Samurai Champloo-Pros: breakdancing samurai, a fascinating roster of characters, and a superb soundtrack by the tragically passed Nujabes. -Cons: it was made in the weird era of the transition from analog to digital animation and so the /series master/ was animated at a painfully low resolution, so even if there's a bluray out there (I haven't looked,) it will be an upscale, which doesn't always look the best. as well, there are scenes and themes that may make the viewer uncomfortable here and there.

The Works of Studio Ghibli Oh, I'm sorry, Ponyo too suffused with childhood wonder for you? My Neighbor Totoro not depressing enough?  In addition to the infamous Grave of the Fireflies, Studio Ghibli has made a wealth of movies that aren't aimed squarely at the kodomo (children's) sector. -Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: climate change existential dread, the movie -Castle in the Sky: government obsession with obtaining weapons of mass destruction destroys everything beautiful, the movie -Pom Poko: human-caused deforestation and urbanization is destroying the natural world and all that live in it, the movie -Princess Mononoke: industrialization will be the death of everything beautiful in the world, the movie, with a side of sometimes everyone (and no one) is the villain when everyone is simply trying to survive -Howl's Moving Castle: The Physical Manifestation of Depression is a Liquid Ooze, the Movie, also War Is Bad It's not all depressing, but let it never be said that Hayao Miyazaki was subtle. Whisper of the Heart is a good coming-of-age story, Kiki's Delivery Service is a classic, Tales from Earthsea is divisive among fans of Ursula K. Le Guin but I personally liked it. From one studio alone there is a wealth of opportunities.

And that's really the point. These are just some from the top of my head. There are so very many options outside of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre that I couldn't list them all if I was here for a week. Or as Madoka Magica so ruthlessly showcases, even series that appear a certain way on the surface might not be what you bargained for once you look into them! These are all (I think) mostly older, mainstream-appeal series that should be easy to track down, too -- there are all kinds of singular animations like The Diary of Tortov Roddle, crowdfunded experiments like KICK-HEART, Masterpiece World Theatre renditions of classic (western) novels that never get talked about, films like A Silent Voice that confront social issues- and of course, series like Rozen Maiden that helped popularize this very hobby!

There is literally an ocean of content to explore from Japanese creators alone, and it opens up even more if you look into works from other parts of Asia- just look at how popular manwha have become, or Chinese animations like Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild! It's a genre unto itself, with all the breadth of content and inter-industry problems that come with it, and without any of the respect that similar art forms have been granted over the years. The way an entire culture's art form is often disparaged, disregarded, and belittled- and by extension, the way most of Asia's animated endeavors are often rolled up into that reductive dismissal along with anime and manga- is honestly Not Great, and there is absolutely a thread of xenophobia that runs through it. The industry has so very many problems (low wages, poor training, overwork of everyone ever, archaic financial modules, the exclusivity and breadth of merchandising necessary to turn a profit and how it leads to consumer burnout and disconnection over time, and yes, the way minors are portrayed not just in anime, but in Japanese media in general- and how much of that is actually bad (some of it is indeed,) and how much if it is cultural difference (I've heard people call the scene where the family in Totoro bathe together problematic because of the nudity, but I've also only heard people say that from the West)

-- none of the actual problems affecting the people who produce this medium are gonna improve when the general response to "animators frequently have to live at home to survive" is "that's what happens when you're a weeb."  It's 5am and I'm gonna point out the problems in the narrative around how we discuss this genre of entertainment because it's important, damn you! Regardless, thank you for coming to my unasked for and overlong TED talk about animation on a doll collecting drama blog, feel free to call me a pathetic weeb etcetera on your way out- but while you do so, might I suggest you also go watch a choice animated series! My current go-to is Bofuri, which is a cute-girls-doing-cute-things moefied isekai series that I refuse to apologize for watching. Be free. (The battle scenes are great and it captures the feeling of learning to play a new MMO with your friends better than most video-game-based anime I've seen in a long, long time. does anyone even still remember .hack? how about serial experiments lain...?)

~Anonymous

[emblemxeno]

Fates’ 2nd Gen Characters: Parallels and Contrasts

A request from an anon. Again, I won’t do the neutral children since it would be kind of difficult to do so. But it was easier than I thought to do the rest of the kids.

Shiro and Siegbert: Both are heirs to their respective kingdoms through their very renowned fathers and are actually pretty insecure about inheriting the title of king. Siegbert is principled and docile, and always knew he was royalty. Shiro is rebellious and direct, and was kept in the dark about his identity. Siegbert idolizes Xander and wants to be just like him, whereas Shiro wants to be better than Ryoma and went so far as to fight with naginata so he’d have an advantage over his dad in a fight.

Kiragi and Forrest: Both have mixed feelings about their royal blood and their inheritance; Forrest is afraid of the responsibilities and terrifying power that comes with being royalty and Brynhildr’s successor, whereas Kiragi hates being coddled due to his status. Forrest is a healer with a keen aesthetic eye, loves fashion and prefers to keep things neat and tidy. Kiragi is an amazing hunter who is one with wilderness, and is pretty unkempt. Forrest is shy with confidence issues (said issues being more apparent in the JP version, again he was kind of changed in Western releases) and has an uneasy relationship with Leo. Kiragi is optimistic and outgoing, and loves Takumi unconditionally.

Asugi and Nina: Both of them have very strained relationships with their fathers, are skilled in espionage, fight for what they believe is righteous and just, have unconventional obsessions and both of their paralogues require you not to let them escape. The key difference is that Nina chose the same path that Niles did despite him not wanting that for her, whereas Asugi resents being the sixth Saizo, and wants to find his own path in life no matter what his father wants.

Mitama and Soleil: Both are noted to have inherited a slew of traits from their respective fathers (Soleil inherits Laslow’s smiling credo and flirtatiousness with women, Mitama inherits Azama’s star eyes, wisdom, and sharp tongue). However, Soleil is sociable and enthusiastic, while Mitama is lazy and keeps to herself. Also, Mitama is very artistic; she enjoys poetry, scroll crafting, and chigiri-e (a Japanese form of artwork where you tear and paste together colored paper to create an image). Soleil on the other hand has as much artistic style as stale bread, and is outright noted to be a terrible dancer and singer, among other things.

Caeldori and Ignatius: Both characters look up to their fathers and want to be just like them, but have massive insecurities. The difference lies in that Caeldori is outwardly confident in both social interaction and battle, but is incredibly anxious and afraid of not measuring up to her father. Ignatius is afraid of looking like a coward to basically everyone, especially because his role as an armor knight means he must protect people; however, he gets a boost of bravery and courage whenever he’s on the battlefield. Another difference is that Caeldori hates being treated like a natural talent because it makes her feel isolated and her hard work being ignored, whereas Ignatius diminishes his own talents and hard work a lot, and hates looking like a failure in front of people.

Rhajat and Ophelia: Both are eccentric spellcasters who are talented in the dark arts. Ophelia is open and dramatic, whereas Rhajat is gloomy and introverted. Ophelia makes her love and admiration for her father well known, hence her being inspired by him. Rhajat on the other hand is initially rebellious and standoffish with her father, but does reveal that she loves him deeply. While Ophelia is always flashy and chipper, she’s secretly insecure that people won’t take her seriously and that she’ll never measure up to the Chosen One status that she seeks to accomplish. Rhajat may appear standoffish, but desperately wants to make friends and have people like her despite her gloomy aura and odd habits. In short, both care deeply about what others think of them despite it seeming like the contrary.

Hisame and Percy: Both characters initially rebelled against their fathers. Both also have contradictory traits compared to their fathers (Hisame’s seriousness vs Hinata’s carefree attitude, Percy’s good luck vs Arthur’s horrendous luck). However, Percy’s rebellion against his father is played for laughs and a reference to both of their respective luck (good luck that Percy had mercenaries to back him up, bad luck that Arthur has to deal with the mercs), and he ultimately loves his father a lot. Hisame’s relationship with Hinata though is more complex and deep-seated, but he ultimately does care for his father and is actually secretly jealous of his carefree nature. Lastly, Percy is childish and innocent, whereas Hisame is calm and wise beyond his years.

Selkie and Velouria: Both characters are scions of their respective beast tribes and love their fathers dearly. Selkie is a free spirit who loves playing with others and getting praise, whereas Velouria likes to remain by herself most of the time and has more unconventional interests. Selkie is naive to the ways of the world, and often has to be taught about things such as morality during conflict or how her race puts her in danger. Velouria on the other hand is quite knowledgeable about things, if a bit blunt. Also, Selkie is clingy to her father because she never had a chance to visit the rest of the kitsune hamlet, but Velouria is clingy to her father because she knows she’ll eventually have to live for herself one day and is trying to make the most of the time with her dad that she can.

-

And there you go. I hope I made a good sequel post.

[repentantsky]

The difference Between JRPG’s and WRPG’s, and why we should stop comparing them

If you’re like me, you love RPG’s of many different genre’s. Whether they cover fantastical realms like Skyrim and Final Fantasy, or more technologically advanced ones like Borderlands or Star Ocean. 

Like all genre’s most RPG’s of different genre’s also suffer from different problems because of tropes and reused settings that people can grow tired of, but talking about RPG’s from two different parts of the world, is a whole other problem. Japan for example, is mostly marketing itself to Western players, while Western RPG’s, are mostly marketing themselves to Western players...uh wait, why does that make them different? 

It’s all because of style choices. See, Japan like most countries, has a lot of traditions that make a lot of it’s products fairly same-y. As I said that happens with everyone, but Japan has to try harder with smaller series to get western appeal, which is required to have a successful selling game, unless it’s a mobile title, since those all do really well in Japan, because people can just game on their way to and from work. I digress, but Japan is so rooted in tradition, that you can watch an episode of Gigantor, the anime that is considered by many to be the first anime ever created, and Demon Slayer, and notice a lot of similarities in the way the characters are speaking, because Japan has always made their shows where actors talk like they would in real life, which isn’t always true in other acting platforms around the world, which of course means, this translates to video games. 

Specifically what it means, is that Japan has to hop a cultural barrier that Western games don’t, and they have to rely on a lot more tropes, because there are only so many ways to translate the same basic plot of a JRPG, for Western audiences, before things become too cliché. A lot of RPG’s are successful in doing this, like the aforementioned Final Fantasy, and other JRPG’s are coming through with successful games to, like Fire Emblem. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Atelier, and several others. All of the games coming through lately, lead people to believe that JRPG’s are a thriving genre in the west, but that’s not really true. 

If you were to ask any random person what the most successful JRPG of all time was, a lot of people would probably think of a Final Fantasy game, but not even Final Fantasy 7, has come close. In fact the only JRPG that even made it to the top 10 best selling games ever, is Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow as a collective, with four different versions. The next best selling one is Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, and in fact, only 11 of the top 49 best selling games of all time, are RPG’s, and all of the JRPG’s are Pokemon titles. Final Fantasy 7 has still been wildly successful, as the original has sold over 11.8 million units, and the remake over 5 million, but the fact of the matter is, that even though RPG’s as a whole are the biggest genre of the top 49, the few that made it are exceptions to the rules. In fact, of the top 10 best selling games of all time, 6 of them are by Nintendo. The other 5 excluding Pokemon, are Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. Mario Kart 8/Deluxe, Wii Fit/Plus and the original Gameboy version of Tetris, which itself is on there twice because EA’s version is number 3. so you’re actually better off in Japan, not making a JRPG. 

There’s a lot more that can be gleamed from looking at the list, so you can check it out here if you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games 

The point is that JRPG’s, aren’t always as successful as people think they are. I mean sure, you don’t have to be on the top best selling games list to be successful, but Persona 4 Golden on PC is considered a massive success for selling only just over a million units since it’s release, and the Tales of Series, which is one of the longest running in gaming, as recently as April of this year, had it’s sales numbers made public, and Tales of Symphonia, the undeniable Final Fantasy 7 of the series, sold a total of 940,000 units in the United States, and the game, easily the most successful title from Tales of, only managed 2.4 million in total. None of this is to say, that JRPG’s are struggling, because most of the ones I brought up are shining examples that they aren’t, but going back to that top 10 list, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V,  just the top two of that list, have sold 345,000,000 total units. That not only beats the entire mainline series of Pokemon, it’s only about 2.5 million short extra, of beating the original 151′s total sales, with how many spare units the two games over Pokemon’s  300,000,000 million total sales mainline games, which means likely, the two of them will beat the series out at some point in the future. 

Western RPG’s, don’t often suffer from as many problems, because they don’t have a border to hop, and it shows with Elder Scrolls, which has sold 58 million total copies with only five mainline games, and 30 million of those came from Skyrim alone. It took Pokemon, the undisputed champion of JRPG sales, 20 mainline games to reach 300 million, which means arguably, by the time Elder Scrolls reaches it’s 10th installment, it will have caught up to Pokemon’s first 20 games total sales. Borderlands, which is arguably the Tales of to Western RPG’s in most people’s eyes, has actually outsold Elder Scrolls with only 4 mainline entries, one of which is considered bad by many, with a total of 60 million total units sold. The better comparison, surprising for many I’m sure, for a Tales of comparison, is actually Fallout, which has sold 13.51 million units, to Tales of 23.5 million units. 

Enough about numbers for a few minutes, 3 paragraphs about it is a bit much, but the fact of the matter is, Japan struggles more overall to make successful RPG’s in the West, than the West does in the West, and it’s all due to how much of a challenge it is to hop that border. 

Outside of sales numbers, the other major difference between JRPG’s vs Western RPG’s is how they are classified. Generally, when someone thinks of a JRPG, they think of a fantasy world, with leveling, where rare items can be won off bosses, but your main way of improving stats is to level up, and have enough money to buy the best equipment at each new town you enter with a shop. However, a lot of games have been getting that label slapped on them by their marketing teams or fans, and some of it is just wrong. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one such game, despite the drops from enemies being the only correlation between BoTW and JRPG’s. The correlation was made by fans, which might seem like an innocent mistakes, and in fact could be nothing but that, but then there’s Monster Hunter, which actually does have two JRPG’s attached to it, in the Stories 1 and 2 games, but who took the reigns of JRPG to market, calling Monster Hunter World, a JRPG. despite it having few differences from other Monster Hunter action games, outside of having a story, and having nothing more to do with JRPG’s than Zelda. A lot of fans of Japanese games will classify simply playing as a fake character an RPG, which normally would be fine, but in games, that’s not how genres are defined. If that were the case, all of Yakuza’s games would be JRPG’s, instead of just Like a Dragon, and in fact most games would be RPG’s, and they obviously aren’t. Bubsy 3D RPG anyone? No? Ya sure? Yeah I didn’t think so.   

The west has the exact opposite problem of under classifying it’s games as RPGs. While sure, you wouldn’t call Halo an RPG, unless you know, Master Chief was shooting an RPG, you absolutely should call Ratchet and Clank one. Think about it, your main playable characters all have HP, most of them have weapons that can level up, and the action setting of these games, basically should make Ratchet, a response to Level 5′s Dark Cloud series, which did all the same things for combat. However, it’s just seen as series of action games, despite it also being a lot like Borderlands. 

The point is, there are a lot of things that differ JRPG’s and WRPG’s from sales, to marketing, to style and so many other factors, I would run out of characters available to me, before I get through them all. There’s nothing wrong with these genre’s being different, but people classifying them as similar, could harm either since they don’t often jell that well together. So please, think before you compare, and for those rare RPG’s, where you can’t tell the difference, makes sure you find out where they were developed, because a lot of games you might think are JRPG’s, could in fact be Korean or Chinese. 

[entamesubs]

Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS Blu-Ray: Episode 4

Google Drive ONLY (for now)

Support us on ko-fi

Blu-Ray episodes will come out one at a time every Friday, until I’m done with the full first season (1-13).

--------------

Please use either MPV or MPC-HC to view the Blu-Ray episodes. I do NOT recommend using VLC.

Please check the post for episodes 1&2 to see why.

--------------

!! This is NOT a final release !!

If there are any corrections you wish to make, please put them through the ask box. This includes any typos, grammar weirdness, or if you have a better way to word a sentence. Once it goes up on Nyaa, the subs will be LOCKED and can no longer be edited. I will consider it the final and best version I can put out.

If you see any mistake at all, please do not hesitate to send me an ask about it.

--------------

Extended Translation Notes

Gakuto’s characterization

RoadRush:

“I am supposed to be stopping their chaos [...] How could I do such a thing?!”

Original Japanese: 「遊我くんたちの暴走を止めるべき立場にありながら [...] 私としたことが…」

The original RR subs make it seem like Gakuto is appalled at the fact that he’s been going along with the crew, but in reality the original Japanese points to Gakuto being appalled at his lack of responsibility (as in Gakuto himself is frustrated that he, himself, has not done anything despite the fact that he should).

The bolded Japanese from above is what I’m highlighting as the key to understanding him here.

立場にあり = someone in (my) position 私としたこと = someone like me

The translation I decided to use instead, and which I felt conveyed his inner turmoil better, was “I’m someone who should be stopping them, and yet... [...] I, of all people...!”

Gakuto is very concerned with his position and duties, which is the main focus for this episode. He is a character who is hyper-aware of his place and what kind of person he should be (that is, someone who strictly follows the rules and enforces them). The conflict he feels here is because of that hyper-awareness, not (primarily) because of the fact that he’s been “having fun” or “swept away” by Yuuga’s antics, it’s that someone like him shouldn’t be “swept away” in the first place.

I hope this makes sense and that this translation gets across his characterization a lot better.

Further Gakuto characterization

RoadRush:

“I have to draw the line somewhere!”

Original Japanese: 「きちんとけじめをつけなければ｡」

This is actually a translation I liked a lot, with “draw the line” being something very clear and also easily got across his newfound determination. It’s the reason I decided to keep the “draw the line” phrase in my final translation.

However, there is one important part of his sentence: けじめ, which I bolded above. It means “distinction”.

My final translation was “I must be decisive and draw the line somewhere!”

Gakuto uses the word “decide” and “decisive” a lot. You’ll see it the most in his summoning chants, where he keeps “deciding” not to stop, or “deciding” to follow a road, or “deciding” to find something new, or that he alone must “decide” his resolve, etc. At this point, being “decisive” is a huge part of his character and who he is as a person. The main theme of Sougetsu Gakuto is being able to lead, to decide, and, as we see in episodes 24, 33, 50, and 57, to be someone worthy of the Sougetsu name and inheritance by making these “decisions” and having the power to do so.

For this reason, I decided (haha) to put in his keyword here and tie this line further to his characterization in future episodes.

“Yametekudastop”

“Does Gakuto actually say this?” No, but he makes a pun just as bad as this one. This is a great pun to convey just how weird his “Yameruler” pun in Japanese is as well.

Thanks English!

トイレには神様がいますからね “Since a kami is always in the restroom, you should...”

This is a fragment of the full sentence, though its implied that Gakuto is trying to say “[I cleaned the restroom with care,] because a kami is in there”. To make this sound more natural in English, my final translation was the sentence you see above in bold, which adds a “you should” for context.

This sentence may seem strange to a lot of people, even more so if you don’t know what exactly a “kami” is. I wanted to elaborate on that in this translation note, and also the reason why I left “kami” untouched.

A “kami” does not uniformly mean a “god” or “deity”. In some contexts, yes, someone can be referring to such a being. In others, a kami can also be seen as a “spirit”, not necessarily of divine origins, who exists in a myriad of spaces for a myriad of reasons.

The “kami” Gakuto says exists in the restroom is not a god in the way English speakers would see it, but a spirit that has found a home there. However, I felt that the word “spirit” did not really encompass the importance of the word kami and why Gakuto was so careful with it, while the words “god” or “deity” placed too much importance on it.

For further context, I’d honestly just recommend the kami wikipedia article, which goes a lot more into detail than I can here. For heavier reading, and if you’re interested in this sort of stuff, I recommend the books Shinto - A Book of Prayers and The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart.

黒子 (くろこ) Kuroko / “stagehands”

Wow, Kuroko Tetsuya himself from the acclaimed basketball manga and anime, Kuroko no Basuke! Okay I’m joking.

A “kuroko” in Japanese means a “stagehand”, though they have very a specific job in Japanese theatre that is different compared to what you might know of stagehands in Western theatre.

The job of a “kuroko” is to be invisible, which of course is not a literal thing. This simply means they help move things along on the stage, appearing center at times, while still not being perceived by the audience. This is where the “kuro” part of “kuroko” comes from—traditionally, they wear black clothes and cover their faces with a black sheet on stage, so that when they appear, the audience will not focus on them and instead blend them in with the background.

A kuroko does such things like moving scenery and props as a normal stagehand, however they may also play non-human parts in plays sometimes, being something like an animal or spirit when needed (usually with the help of a minor prop, not with a costume). They are the “invisible stagehands”.

Gakuto’s entire aesthetic themeing with Ranze and Rinnosuke is basically kabuki, a form of Japanese theatre that places more emphasis on aesthetics than on story.

A popular genre of kabuki is known as jidaimono, or historical plays, which dramatize a major historic event (like a war), which is how Gakuto’s various “Rulers” tie into this theme. Of note, Yameruler’s defense position animation is very much like how one in kabuki would try to “disappear” off stage (by holding a fan in front of his face), Kimeruler has elements of kabuki makeup in his design (though heavily watered down), and Semeruler’s summoning animation is a very common kabuki pose for combat.

--------------

For people interested in the raw BDMV vs encoded final video comparisons, click here. (Click the image in the center to swap between “raw BD” and “encoded”).

--------------

Credits

Translation, timing: entame Proofreading: angelthinktank (Yona) Encoding: PelvisBass

[kinsey3furry300]

Three awesome post-GoT series I would commission if I owned any of the Big three Streaming platforms.

Yo! Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, you have a problem: there are nerds like me who want to give you even more of our time and money, but you’re not making the stuff you should be.  Following the hugely disappointing end of “Game of Thrones”  there are a huge number of sci-f and fantasy nerds who are currently not getting our fix of epic adventure, and rather than commission a whole bunch of cool series that are just begging to be made to cash in on this, you’re all just sort of doing your own things. And that’s Cool, I’m loving the Netflix Witcher series and Disney’s Loki, and looking forward to the Amazon Middle Earth series with a mix of hope and trepidation (please be good), there are, however, a whole mass of cool book series that are just begging for release in an episodic fashion, and what’s more, I can think of which series plays to which streaming platforms strengths. And unlike Game of Thrones, there are series where running out of source material to adapt shouldn’t be a problem.

So, three sci-fi or fantasy series that play to the strengths of the big three Streaming services, as suggested by me, a big ol’ nerd. One: Amazon Prime. Strengths: successfully adapting darker comic-book or Urban fantasy works Like Preacher, the Boys, Good Omens and American Gods and making a profit. Weakness: has never successfully pulled of a big Grimdark fantasy series, despite having all the talent to do so because they’re working on the Middle earth series, which doesn’t seem a good fit for their brand image as the place you come for for comically dark works, and all their adaptations are too much of a slow burn, which necessitates padding the source material (look at how little happens in any episode of Preacher or the Boy vs the insanely fast pace of the comics). Solution: Malazan, book of the fallen. A deep, insanely dark, insanely Epic story that would actually lend itself to a slow burn and the grim-dark over the top violence of other Amazon shows, and fill the “Tit’s and monsters” gap left by GoT in many of our hearts. And unlike Tolkien, I have faith that the studio that cast Sweary Karl Urban as Billy Butcher could actually pull this off with the correct tone and feel. This would have the Witcher fans from Netflix defecting in droves, and could also pull in some new viewers who might enjoy the anthropology and political intrigue of this complex, multifaceted world.

 Two: Disney+. Strengths: near infinite money and ambition, the production team behind The Mandalorian and the MCU, great Hollywood clout to draw in big name stars, but willing to cast talented unknowns, the best mix of live action and CG in the business. Weaknesses: It’s Disney, so they can never go full grim-dark: they can imply or infer dark acts, but need to keep what’s shown on screen PG13 to fit their brand, which rules out a lot of modern fantasy. And they have no true fantasy serries in their stable.

Solution: Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, and other Cosmere works.  A rare example of an excellent current fantasy and sci-fi writer who isn’t grimdark as heck, and manages to convey dark and adult themes by implication and hints rather than outright showing them, this is pretty much the only big fantasy series out there that is aimed at and enjoyed by adults but remains consistently PG13. It’s also so epic and super-hero-ish in this various magic systems, that I can’t see anyone other than the team behind the MCU pulling off a live-action version of this that doesn’t suck. In addition to this, the logical starting point for this, Mistborn, is by far the safest and most marketable, coming the closest of any of his works to a standard young-adult plot with Vin as an easily sell-able character to studio brass, being to all intents and purposes Katniss Everdeen with super-powers, which could get a big studio invested  and convinced this is a good idea before we get to all the “lets kill and replace god” stuff. If Mistborn was successful, other Cosmere works could follow, and I could see something like the Stormlight Archives working really well with the MCU effects team behind it, so long as they don’t white-wash it: No one on Roshar is white other than in Shinovar, and half of the cultures are based on either Polynesian or far eastern traditions, so cast Hawaiian, Māori, native American and east-Asian actors, and it could be both a great series, and also the most diverse Disney has ever done. You want a new, easily marketable but epic scale franchise, Disney? It’s right here.

Also for the love of god, do Wax and Wayne. I just need this, okay?

 Three: Netflix. Strengths: good at tapping into the prevailing nostalgia of Millennials and producing works that speak to them on a relatively small budget (see Stanger Things) and good at grabbing the rights to adapt good but slightly obscure works cheaply. Good working relationship with a ton of Japanese Anime rightsholders. Weaknesses: By far the smallest budget of any of the big three. Tends to produce awful live-action adaptations of beloved works (to the point that the Witcher was a pleasant surprise), but has good relationships with lots of animation studios.

Solution: Animorphs, but do what they always should have done and animate it. It boggles my mind that anyone would every try to pull this off in live action, as the transformations, which are the heart of the series, would be so hard to pull off well (look at the 90’s series). And yet, I’m aware they’re making a film, but dear god, why, when K A Applegate said form the get go that this series of books were written specifically as if they were a 90’s Saturday morning cartoon. This was always meant to be adapted as a series, not a long form film. So, don’t try to modernise it, or relate to “The kids” don’t whitewash the cast, don’t edit out the gore and body-horror, but lean into the 90’s and early 2000’s angst of it, and go balls to the walls insane with the concept. What music do you have playing for this scene? Is it Every day is exactly the same by Nine Inch Nails, and if not, why not? Do the transformation sequence genuinely scare you? No?  Then you’re doing it wrong.  Is that a happy ending? Get that the hell out of there. Go for the original time period and concept, and go hard, and if you do it now, you’ll just hit that sweet spot as the rolling 30 year nostalgia cycle moves out of the 80’s and into the 90’s. And as an apology to all the bad live-action Anime you produced, Netflix, get a Japanese studio to animate this: the Animorphs books were popular in Japan, with wonderful hand drawn illustrations throughout. Get Studio Orange on this: Beastars proved they can do flowing, fast-moving combat well, and make animal and other non-human characters look good, and what’s more they’d probably be up for it: Animorphs is basically a western Shōnen,  so the market for an Anime of it would exist in Japan.

 So there we go, the three series I would commission if I ruled the world of streaming sites. As ever, tell me why I’m wrong below, and have a great day!

[alexanderlee1012]

Reflections on Mulan

It took me a long time to cherish my Taiwanese-American heritage. Growing up in the United States, it wasn’t a facet of my identity that I attached any importance to. As a child, I even actively denied that part of me. Whenever my family went out to eat Chinese food, I threw a temper tantrum and would only eat if we stopped by fast food first. I didn’t bother speaking Chinese; I replied to my Mom’s Mandarin in English and I consistently repeated the entry level class for my Saturday Chinese-school until I was not compelled to go anymore. The only attempt to understand the vast history and traditions of my culture was acknowledging the bare minimum to profit off of the New Years. 

While there are many reasons for my delayed acceptance of my culture and identity, the portrayal of Asians in Western Society was definitely a significant factor. Similar to many young children, I was deeply impacted by television and movies. My weeks were organized by TV show airtimes and the few times I was able to go to the movies were momentous occasions. I idolized the heroes on screen, wishing to become just like them. However, what I saw on the screen never closely resembled me. Almost all Western media featured white protagonists, and in the few moments there was somebody of Chinese descent, they were essentially a one-dimensional caricature that was completely unrelatable (for men, choose either kung fu master or a super nerd, and for women, choose an exotic hypersexualized love interest or submissive wallflower). Many values are actively defined and imprinted at a societal level, and this one was no different. The messaging from Hollywood was loud and clear: there is nothing valuable about being Asian American; this culture only deserves to be simplified to basic tropes. 

To my delight, as my own relationship with my culture deepened and flourished over the decades, it seemed that the media’s portrayal of Asians were finally evolving as well. First starting on the fringes, with Asian-American content creators using new platforms such as YouTube to reach directly to their audience, then slowly creeping into the mainstream, with sitcoms and major blockbuster films. Finally, Asian-Americans can be cast as characters that were complex and interesting. Their only defining feature wasn’t just that they were Asian! Similar to white actors and actresses, it was just another part of their identity. Witnessing Asians star in these multifaceted roles has been amazing given how the landscape was just a few years prior. 

I also understand that at the end of the day media is a business, and for this movement to not be temporary, Asians need to throw their full support when these things happen. Personally, I watched Crazy Rich Asians four times (two times in theaters, once on a plane, and then renting again at home to show my mom), and I’ve been subscribed to Wong Fu’s Patreon ever since I’ve learned of it. So of course, given this momentous live-action remaking of Mulan, I’ve been at the edge of my seat, excited and ready to support. 

Especially given the cultural phenomenon that was Black Panther, I was ecstatic that Disney was going to take on Mulan again. While many were bemoaning the exclusion of Mushu, Shang and those classic songs, I actually grew more excited since the director stated that she made those decisions to be more faithful to the original legend. The anticipation kept growing and growing as the pandemic forcibly pushed back the release again and again. Until finally, this past Friday’s release on Disney+, where I eagerly paid the additional $30 premium access to be among the first to support the movie. 

My disappointment was immeasurable.

While there are many major flaws to dive deep into regarding this movie (especially the superpowers that weaken the narrative of a woman fighting to be seen as an equal in a patriarchal society), I wanted to spend some time to speak on some smaller details that yanked me out of the immersion by how grossly misrepresented it was. In life, it’s the small actions that build up to communicate your intent. Love is shown by showing care and consistency in the tiniest of details; however, in this case, the small details accumulated to disrespect and disregard instead. These cultural details clearly didn’t matter to the people designing this film.

Warning slight spoilers ahead, but nothing too major if you’re familiar with the story.

The villagers from Mulan’s hometown all lived together in a Tulou (土樓), a circular earthen hut that can house many families. However these buildings are a facet of the Hakka people living in Fujian originating from the 12th century. Mulan’s story takes place in the Northern Wei Dynasty; which occurs during 386 to 534 AD and is, as the name describes, in the northern part of China. Not only is it geographically inaccurate, but there is a time difference of 600+ years there! That would be akin to placing a modern skyscraper penthouse into the Renaissance.

As someone who is learning more about Chinese tea to connect to their culture, the teapot used during the matchmaking scene was equally jarring. The teapot was a Yokode kyusu, a teapot that has a side handle 90 degrees from the sprout. While Japanese tea culture was originally imported from China during the Song Dynasty, the cultures have significantly diverged. Each has their unique vessels, tools, and processing techniques worthy of celebrating (matcha vs pu’er, sencha vs oolong, yokode kyusu vs yixing). However, maybe to the creators of this movie, east Asian culture is just all the same to them. 

The phoenix was a central character in the movie, and to the chagrin of many fans of the original, Mushu’s replacement. As the Hua family’s ancestral guardian spirit, it provided a nice symbolism for Mulan, as her character’s male persona dies and she is reborn as Hua Mulan. What is egregious is that Phoenixes are not even an animal within Chinese folklore, that’s a Western (Greek) myth! While some may point out that there is a Chinese mythical bird called the Fenghuang (鳳凰), these are immortal birds that only choose to visit regions when there is peace and prosperity. What it definitely is NOT is a reincarnating bird leading warriors into the heat of battle. Sure, Fenghuang are genderfluid and that does match Mulan, but why was the only emphasized trait of the bird the aspect from Greek lore? Why bother taking out Mushu to be closer to the original if it’s replacement is a Western myth?

Finally, I have to bring up the obvious change in accents that happened when Mulan changed from a kid to an adult. Why cast a child actor with an American accent if the main character has a Chinese accent? There is no way that any other movie with a 200M+ budget would have allowed a white child actor to speak with an American accent, to then change it to a British accent when that character grew up and not even acknowledge it. Are we just supposed to be okay with it since they’re at least both Chinese looking?

No movie will ever be picture perfect in representing any culture, trade-offs are inevitable. However, I can’t see how those choices above added anything. Why would you make the villagers live in a Tulou? Was it critical to the plot? Every other Mulan adaptation is fine without a Greek Phoenix, why make it so necessary to this re-telling? Those small details exposed the attitude that I was all too familiar with growing up: who cares about representing actual Chinese culture?

After watching that movie, it felt as if the creative process was a room of white people gathered together, cherry-picking what fit their own narrative, sprinkling some Asian artifacts throughout, shrugging and saying to each other “That’s Chinese-y right? Good enough for me!” Imagine my lack of surprise when I checked to see that none of the screenwriters, producers or director had an Asian background. Chinese culture is the longest continuing culture in the world. It deserves to be shared for what it is (warts and all), not to be trivialized into a simplified palette that’s easiest to digest. Chinese representation in Western media should be about collaborating with us as peers, not to be used as a tool to extract the growing affluence of the Chinese and it’s diaspora.

I so badly wanted this to be a celebration, but now it’s a lose-lose situation. I wouldn’t want the younger version of me to watch this. It would have pushed me further away from my culture; I would either not relate to the characters alluding to “honor” every other sentence, or I would see that my culture isn’t worth even having just one person in this $200M major blockbuster film correct the gross cultural inaccuracies. On the other hand, I also don’t want critics to point at bad numbers and proclaim that Asian representation isn’t worth the investment. 

I just wish for us to be portrayed as who we truly are. 

[ahiddenpath]

So I want to write a Taishiro fic or even just a Koushiro-centered fic/drabble but for reasons, I don't have access to any of the canon shows to watch and I am unwilling to pirate, so I don't really have a handle on character personalities. Advice?

Hi there, thanks for the ask!  I’m so pleased that you’re looking to create Digimon fan content!

I’m not sure if you’re asking me:

1.)  Where can I legally watch the Japanese Digimon Adventure audio with English subtitles?

or

2.)  How can I learn character personalities without consuming canon material?

This got long, so I’m throwing the rest below the cut!

If 1:

 I WOULD ALSO LOVE TO KNOW.  I don’t want to pirate, but for reasons best known to Toei/Bandai, Digimon Adventure and 02 (and the related movies, I guess?) are not officially available with Japanese audio/English subs.

Netflix briefly carried Digimon Adventure in Japanese with English language subs, and that’s how I was finally able to watch it it 2015.  I don’t think they carry it anymore, and I don’t see it on Crunchy Roll....

If any of my lovely followers have an answer to this, please let me know!  I’d love to see it again, myself!  In the meantime, I wonder if enough of us asked Crunchyroll, they would consider it???  They carried Tri and the Reboot...

ALSO if you can, please consider purchasing the Tri and Kizuna Blu-ray/DVDs!  These are the first official Digimon Adventure releases to offer both Japanese/English audio and subtitles!  The best way to encourage this is by purchasing them.

If 2:

If you are looking to generate fan material, I’m assuming you’ve seen the show?  But maybe it was a long time ago?  Or maybe you saw the English dub, but you want to learn the Japanese version characterizations?

If you saw a certain dub- clearly the English is not the only one- then my advice is to write your fic based on that dub’s characterizations until you can get access to whatever version you’re hoping to see. 

 I grew up on the English dub, and I’ll be the first to say that the characterizations are different from the Japanese version (here is a brief essay on Yamato vs Matt and Koushiro vs Izzy).  I imagine there are differences among most of the dubs!  The English is just more notorious on the basis of being widely known and very different and unique- they added a ton of jokes and lightened the overall tone.

I personally blend character traits for, say, Yamato and Matt based on what I like and the story’s setting.  For example, I have a story called Four Years where the kids are college students in America.  I decided that it would be disrespectful to pretend that I know what Japanese college is like when I have zero clue, and since the English dub was already tailored for Western audiences, I would simply draw on the English dub for characterization.  And because I was using English dub personalities, I indicated this by using English dub names.

So basically, I would write your story based on the version of Digimon you know, and either use the dub names that go along with it, or just write in your fic that you are drawing on that dub for your characterization.  Say it with me: dubs are not bad or less!  Watching the original is probably the best way to successfully interact with international audiences, since a lot of us tend to watch our local dub + the original Japanese, so it’s an amazing shared reference point.  But writing a story based on a dub doesn’t make your story “lesser” in any way!

Now, if you’re asking if there is a place to learn characterizations without consuming canon material...  Um, I don’t know if I can advise this.  I mean, I’ve written a lot about characterizations, and I personally am of the opinion that @adventure-hearts has some of the best meta on original Japanese Digimon Adventure characterizations you can find in English, but...  

Hm, how do I say this...  For me, a huge part of producing fan work is to communicate to other fans what these characters mean to me.  So...  If I’m regurgitating someone else’s characterization cliff notes...  Like, what am I doing, at that point?  BUT!  I am a character writer, not a plot or setting writer.  Maybe this isn’t as big of a turn off for folks who write plot or setting stories.

Um...  I’m not sure how helpful all of that was.  I hope something useful shook out!  And everyone, please let me know if you know of a legal way to watch Digimon Adventure and 02 in Japanese with English subtitles!

Keep writing! :D