#but with in the era of more experimental actual play and game design

[villainihavedonethymotheronao3]

Obviously, DnD characters are wish fulfillment and lots of people don’t want to address the slow senescence of the vulnerable human form in their fun games. That being said, narratively, I do think that levels should probably fluctuate over the course of a lifetime. The level twenty world-saver is going not going to stay level twenty into their old age—that’s not how athletes and retirement work! Wisdom and Charisma casters maybe, but your STR/CON/DEX builds are going to soften with age. They might still be the spryest bastards in the old people tai chi group, but “terrifyingly in shape 70 year old” is not the same as “deadliest man on the planet”. Drop those old folks a few levels, give them some creaky bones and presbyopia. It’s good for them, promise.

[hollowtones]

opinions on yoshis story? imo that game doesnt deserve to have music that good

I haven't played very much of it and I've been meaning to do something about that forever. I've played some of it and I've watched others go through most of it.

I know I've seen a little bit of modern grumbling (I don't know if this was a point of contention when the game came out because I was three at the time. OK I looked up some reviews from the era and it looks like it was also a thing people were mad about back then. LOL) over the fact that the game isn't more like "Yoshi's Island" & that it feels like it's aimed more at younger audiences. I dunno. I've never been bothered much by games with some tie to one another doing something different. (Some of the response reminds me of Transformers fans being upset over Hasbro making toys and shows for very young children sometimes; admittedly maybe I'm off the mark here.)

It's a very easy game if you want it to be. You can just eat any fruits you want forever and it's over in a blink. And it's fine. It's fine if the video game lets you beat it very fast if you want to. You can also try to collect only one single kind of fruit in a level and that makes things take longer and makes them feel like more of a scavenger hunt (especially if you're trying to get all the melons). I think that's neat. There's sort of an interesting design trajectory from "Super Mario World" to "Yoshi's Island" where the levels become a little longer, a little more meandering, a little more exploratory, sometimes (not always, and not massively, but it's still there) a little less linear. No time limit. Going for collectibles instead; making every level about getting a score of 100 (if you want to). You can see that iterated on in "Yoshi's Story"! No singular end point of the level. Bigger rooms to explore (while still keeping levels relatively short). More of a focus on puzzle solving and exploration. Collectibles simplified to one meter that you fill up, but there are multiple things that can fill it & you get rewarded for only collecting one kind. (And also the hearts that let you pick what level you go to next. There's a lot of "opening up more of the game for yourself if you want to go out and look for it" here. Are there other collectibles, actually? I don't really remember...) Secret fruits that give even more points. It makes the levels feel more like puzzle box toys that you roam around in. It's neat that they designed that for younger kids and it's neat that you can make it more difficult if that sounds fun to you. (I would have to play more of it myself to decide if going for all melons is fun for me specifically. But I like it on paper, y'know?)

The pop-up storybook theming is cute and the visual aesthetic of the game overall works really well. It feels like arts & crafts dioramas made by kids (or with kids) so they could play pretend with their toys while reading a storybook. It's got very strong toy feel overall. The music is really fun!!! It does the dynamic soundtrack thing where some parts of the track change depending on your health!!! I'm always clapping my hands like a seal with a game's music changes depending what I'm doing!!! Maybe it's a little silly of me to say this, given that it's a sentiment I've had in the past, but nowadays I scratch my head a bit at "the music in this has no right to go this hard" type comments. It goes hard because the musicians got hired to make it like that. (I'm imagining a guy who thinks the "Yoshi's Story" music is the hardest music ever created and I'm smiling serenely about it. I hope he's real & I hope he's out there somewhere.) I'm glad they let Totaka do something that feels at least a little experimental for the goofy Yoshi babies storybook super happy yay & jumping throwing game soundtrack. It's a fun contrast, isn't it? It feels very of-the-era in a way I'm having trouble externalizing outside of "well it's a little weird and multi-genre". It's neat that they all have a shared melody that they draw on.

Thanks for reading my short essay on a childrens' video game I haven't played a lot of yet. I need to go take a shower now.

[kitoral]

Your original illustrations are really fantastic. I dig the colors and the anime girls. I feel like I resonate with them well, so I am curious about what creatively influences you. Like... Why do you color as you do? Why are your illustrations of anime girls? What do you think of when illustrating? Are there artists, pieces of media, or events in your life that inspire your stylings? Sorry if that seems like a lot or if I'm being intrusive! I just really want to know why your art is the way it is, but I feel that if I ask that so simply, I may not receive an answer with nuance, which is what I'm hoping for.

no worries about being intrusive, if anything, i appreciate the ask!

there's no clear-cut answer for a lot of these, but i'll try to articulate as much as much as possible. i started drawing from a very young age (~5 or so), and my preference was always cartoons/games/anime. i always enjoyed heavy stylization - not that i disliked realism, it just felt as if i had already seen so much of it before? and this isn't to discredit such works, just that they werent something i personally gravitated towards.

as i got older, i realized i wanted to pursue my goal of becoming an artist. things started to change when i entered college, though. it's a choice i dont regret, but i often felt a bit lost in comparison to my peers - because i didnt really draw [or study/learn] the way they did. i still struggle with insecurities regarding technical skill or talent because of this - and i actually stopped drawing for a year or so after i graduated. i kept thinking "its just another anime style anyways." (which is discrediting in and of itself, as all art has value regardless of how subjective it may be).

basically, i did a lot of soul searching - and the reasons i wanted to draw started to resurface. i loved drawing incredibly cute, yet somewhat outlandish looking characters. of course there's a sense of nostalgia with this, but i always preferred the art used for older anime (90s and early-mid 2000s specifically). i'm also really into hobbyani, which is basically hobby/kids media (precure, duel masters, beyblade, etc). i love the sense of experimentation that comes from designers who intentionally market stuff to a broader audience within restrictions, if that makes sense? it just seems to resonate with me.

i'm also heavily into old tech/computer graphics. a big example of this is the old (and still running!) chat program known as worldsplayer. i discovered it about a decade ago, and while a lot of people found it ominous or strange, it felt... comfortable to me. reminded me a lot of the stuff i used to play as a kid, but beyond that, a sense of style/texture i wanted to replicate in my artwork.

(as a sidenote: i actually run a sideblog dedicated to old chatroom media called digitalspacetraveler!)

as for specific inspirations/artists? i love the traditional sketchiness of van gogh, rembrandt, etc. a lot of classical painters during the renaissance era + beyond come to mind. for more modern artists, id say yoshitoshi abe, shigenobu matsumoto (duel masters mangaka), yoshihiko umakoshi (doremi, heartcatch precure, casshern sins), hajime ueda, and a plethora of artists on tumblr/pixiv/twitter.

basically, i love the idea of combining ridiculous amounts of texture with otherwise cutesy and/or 'smooth' styles, such as those found in anime/manga. the end goal is pretty different from the initial sketch, but that's what makes it fun to me. mimicking traditional mediums while also incorporating digital processing, overlays, and filters!

[it-brought-me-to-my-knees]

DIGICORE LOVE

[Tyler, The Creator voice] RANDOM DISCLAIMER:

Unlike some of my Twitter mutuals I have a very spotty knowledge of the past few years of SoundCloud rap, the history of the term “digicore”, and so on, so don't take any of this as gospel; this is just me shining a light, through the lens of my own personal experience, onto something that means a lot to me. And that "something" is daft post-trap indietronica for gay zoomers. What can I say - I'm a silly goose!

Hey, remember chillwave? Wait wait wait, please don’t close the tab my jaded millennial friends, I promise this post isn’t actually about that! Even this bit is more about the other stuff that was floating around at the same time: the weird experimental pop of the late ‘00s/early ‘10s that, like chillwave, often involved retro tech and a haunting sense of atmosphere but didn’t fully commit to summery vibes. Cloud rap pioneers like Clams Casino, conceptual chinstrokers like Oneohtrix Point Never a.k.a. Daniel Lopatin from Ford & Lopatin (a.k.a. Games)... and soulful white boys who settled in a previously undiscovered spot somewhere between Jodeci and Arthur Russell: How To Dress Well, Autre Ne Veut, and d’Eon.

I didn't listen to d’Eon much at the time, but in early 2022 I checked out his latest LP Rhododendron on a whim and, while the more experimental material wasn't really my cup of tea, I instantly fell in love with the title track - and then it started to drive me (very slightly) insane.

I loved it because it felt both like something from another world and like something I’d known all my life, like a song from a Dreamcast JRPG I’d never played... which drove me insane because I never even owned a fuckin' Dreamcast, and when I actually look back at the relevant music of that era it's never quite the same. I don’t mean to be dismissive of video game soundtracks, many of them are wonderful—this gorgeously wonky indie-tinged track from the Evergrace 2 soundtrack somehow predicted Gold Panda’s whole style, and this Main Attrakionz classic is built around a sample from Chrono Cross—but...

Thankfully I’m not trying to permanently solve the countless strange problems of nostalgia today - I’ll probably circle back to the topic a few times in future posts, and anyway I hear that many very serious academics are already hard at work sorting these things out. But stumbling around online for interviews about his inspirations, ready to grab d’Eon by the lapels and yell “WHO ARE YOUR GUYS?”, I found one where, just as his music perfectly resonated with my gay loser heart, he casually but thoroughly summed up the exact thoughts that my idiot brain had never managed to fully put into words.

In short: there are two hyperpops.

But you have that kind of music [Charli XCX], which is like pop with futuristic or kooky sound design, and then you also had SoundCloud rap that had gone in a similar direction but came from a totally different sort of lineage. You had some people who were like, post-Lil Peep who were making what got called rap music but they were really just singing. And the production got more and more sugary and more and more hi-fi and complex, and you had artists like my friend blackwinterwells who went on an unbelievable creative streak in 2020, putting out hundreds of songs with various people. Each one of them is this hugely complex, melodic, major key music all done with really modern synths and really hi-fi production techniques. It was rappers, but they’re really just like, singing emo. And so it was like emo, electronic Soundcloud rap, and that got lumped in with hyperpop, it got put on hyperpop playlists. So, there were two types of hyperpop in my opinion: there was pop music, and then there was basically rap music that was unrecognizable as rap music. And so this Soundcloud rap strain of hyperpop was what I was really into last summer.

“Sugary”, “emo”, “rap music that was unrecognisable as rap music” - yes! Yes! For the past few years I’d been drifting from the stately but puckish beauty of SOPHIE’s “BIPP” to the dirtbag buffet of the first 100 gecs album and then even further afield, to a really, really obnoxious song called “Kiss My Own Dick” that I just couldn't stop listening to. Sometimes I'd have to take a second or two to figure out whether something should go in my "hyperpop" playlist or my "emo-rap" playlist, which now seemed to contain a lot of songs that weren't exactly emo-rap - at least, not in the same way that Lil Peep or Wicca Phase Springs Eternal were.

Loose but convenient binaries were forming in my head: UK vs US, shininess vs scrappiness, impersonal vs personal, pop vs rap - and, most conveniently of all, “hyperpop” vs “digicore”.

There are so many exceptions to the rule here that these don't even really function as provisional guidelines - there is UK digicore (there’s a lad called Kurtains who lives in Carmarthenshire. WELSH digicore!) and US hyperpop, and “impersonal vs personal” is a near-impossible distinction at the best of times, let alone when the supposedly “personal” side will happily sing/rap about anything from blatantly fictional street-rap clichés to horse theft and the “impersonal” one includes songs as moving as SOPHIE’s “Immaterial”. And yet…

“Immaterial” is one of my favourite songs of all time, no question, but I’ve seen people point out that SOPHIE was always far more interested in art as a tool for formal expression rather than personal confession, and that several of her most beloved songs were heavily co-written by her excellent collaborator Cecile Believe. Even “It’s Okay To Cry”, a song very clearly inspired by the trans experience, is written at a slight remove, in the second-person.

To be clear, I don’t think it’s as simple as “SOPHIE didn’t care about lyrics”. Songs like “BIPP” and "JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE" are so painstakingly word-perfect that they remind me of arch-formalists like her beloved Pet Shop Boys, or Stephin Merritt, or even the poet Thom Gunn, who once wrote about being far more moved by a Renaissance sculptor’s work-for-hire than by the melodramatic angst of his Creative Writing students, its generic execution of religious themes and marble perfection allowing it to serve as an empty vessel for his own thoughts and feelings. (Ngl, it is very striking that all of these people are gay.)

But sometimes I don't want marble perfection. Sometimes, it turns out, I want to hear "Kiss My Own Dick". Or maybe something that sounds like "Kiss My Own Dick", but isn't about snowball kisses. (Yeah he's not literally kissing his own dick. He's speaking figuratively. It's kind of like poetry in that way.)

I don’t want to cite the first wave of punk as the obvious precedent to any raw, widespread outburst of grassroots creativity like some NME hack, but I do feel the need to say that I’m not going to cite it, so Idk, maybe that cliché is kinda inescapable. There's something thrilling about young freaks in their bedrooms making music so deeply personal (not even necessarily in the sense of their lyrics being confessional so much as the specificity and intensity of their musical vision) but with such towering ambition, with their imaginations, Google-enabled curiosity and pirated music software opening up whole new worlds and allowing for magpie-like pilfering and a breadth of musical knowledge that simply wouldn’t have been possible a few decades ago, especially without an obscenely huge budget. (Shout-out to Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks for shaking their record companies down for as much debut-album money as they possibly could then spending it all on extra cellists for shockingly uncommercial songs about, like, a guy in 19th century Oklahoma falling over. It's a miracle they're still in the music industry 50 years later and not in shallow graves.)

Maybe the giddy irreverence of the best digicore is like punk, but the fascination with sprawling soundscapes and heavy ~vibes~, especially in Jane Remover’s Frailty, imo the best album that's emerged from this… genre?... loose collection of online music scenes?... is more like... prog? But also like neither of these things, because it mostly sounds like emo... but with shoegaze’s warmth and weight, and an unusual emphasis on synths (no offence to emo Moog-havers like the Get Up Kids and Motion City Soundtrack). Oh, and there’s a bit that sounds exactly like a Nintendo 3DS soundtrack.

Where was I?

AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF HYPERPOP/DIGICORE INFLUENCES

emo (the genre as a whole has some interesting similarities with “fifth-wave emo”/”post-emo” but I am not getting into all of that today lmao)

‘10s trap (which was itself influenced by early Three 6 Mafia, who cannot possibly have imagined how influential they would become decades later)

house (Charli XCX directly sampling “Show Me Love” by Robin S on her middling 2022 album was gilding the lily, or, more accurately, making the lily a bit shit. It’s one of the greatest songs of all time, either pay indirect homage to it—“BIPP” did this very well, imo—or leave it alone!)

UK garage (the wild thing about this one: before PinkPantheress properly took off in the States I think the main influence was “Frail State of Mind” by the 1975 (sampled in saoirse dream's "upset", for instance)

’10s EDM (Porter Robinson looms especially large but Skrillex is up there too)

all sorts of dance music, really - Jersey club, Aphex Twin style acid house etc. etc. - but the one that stands out the most to me is “breakcore” (it’s drum and bass, but like… more)

“teen”/”disposable”/”novelty” chart hits

‘90s indie

cloud rap (I dismissed Yung Lean as a novelty at the time but now it’s 2023 and Bladee and Ecco2k are the ones still bearing the cloud rap torch. My apologies to Sweden, good luck with the Eurovision)

video game soundtracks (it’s nice that the “cringe” influence of chiptune is often embraced very casually, these kids love their dang Undertales)

nightcore (nightcore barely exists as a genre but the squeaky vocals and euphoric trance instrumentals of hyperpop/digicore have retroactively validated it as one. People aren’t just influenced by Cascada - they’re influenced by a low-quality YouTube upload of “Everytime We Touch” sped up by 33%. Probably accompanied by a picture of an anime girl.)

J-pop

third-wave ska (okay this one might just be 100 gecs - I really respect them continually leaning into this instead of just doing it as a one-off novelty)

And so on and so on - and then there's the countless possible combinations of these genres, not to mention the ever-present potential to warp them into something new, like the Can of Bliss song that's so manic that it almost reminds me of Chris Morris's song for ravers tripping on the fictional brain-slowing substance "Cake"... it would be impossible for one lone autist to do anything with this embarassment of riches, except perhaps to present a very biased and selective account of the stuff that she thinks is worth recommending to friends and strangers on the Internet...

[SOPHIE - BIPP voice]

SO.

COMING THIS SUMMER (maybe)

An infrequent series of posts about My Five Favourite Songs (As Of Right Now)

A quick glance at “proto-hyperpop” - is it real? is it good? is it the Buggles?

An apologia for my obsession with something called “Dariacore”

A rolling Spotify playlist for the songs I mention on here, if anyone's interested in that. I chose YouTube to optimal clickability but let me know if any of the links are broken :3 (<- that's how I type now. It's a kewl hyperpop thing, you wouldn't get it XD)

[button-mash]

What I played last week #10

Splatterhouse [Turbografx-16]

I very recently became really interested in buying a PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 (Japanese/Western name) as not only does it have a lot of fantastic games, but it's also a system that has an element of mystique as it never really caught on in the west - I'd genuinely never even heard of it until long after it had came and gone, so it's always been a bit of a blindspot. It's curious because it sat somewhere between the 8-bit and 16bit systems (it was actually marketed as the first 16 bit console, but really it had an 8-bit CPU with a 16-bit GPU, which gives a lot of the games a very distinctive graphical look compared to it's peers. Anyway I almost bought one for an amazing deal (although still very expensive) and decided not to at the very last moment, because I realised it was probably pretty silly to spend more than 250 quid on a system who's games I wasn't even all that familiar with and I had zero nostalgia for. Once I accepted that this was probably a dumdum idea, I decided to actually play some games for the system to get a good feel for what it's about. 

I'd always understood the Turbografx-16 version of Splatterhouse to be the best home version of the arcade game, but I didn't actually realise that the very first game never actually came out on the Mega-Drive at all, and in terms of home versions, it only actually came out on PC, Turbografx-16 and FM Towns Marty. It's one of those weird games where it somehow feels so ubiquitous and familiar, but when I really think about it, I don't think I've really ever properly sat down and played any of them for more than a quick couple of goes before bouncing off and doing something else.

Having now played through it, I actually think it's a pretty good game, if not a little basic - I remember 2 and 3 being a little more complex in their game design but this just a simple left to right brawler, although some stages do have sections where you can fall down into different areas you need to get out of, etc. Most surprising about this game is I actually thought it was pretty well balanced - its still pretty difficult, but when you die you start back at the section you were on and it's pretty generous with health and lives, so you get a decent chance at properly learning each section, although you only get 5 continues which go pretty quick. It's one of those games where the first time you play you've burned through all of your continues by the 3rd level boss, but after a few goes, you're suddenly getting back to the same section having not lost a single life. It definitely has it's frustrating moments, but its just one of those games that requires a bit of patience and experimentation to figure out your way through each level. There were a few bosses where I couldn't even figure out how you can possibly hit them without taking damage, and then you'll suddenly figure out a spot to stand that'll bair a certain attack out of them, or where you're harder to hit, etc. It's quite satisfying because it really gives that feeling of getting better and more familiar if you put the time in. There are 7 stages and I think at first I was getting to level 3 or 4 and having to start again, and when I finished it, I think I'd only actually used one continue. I imagine the Arcade version tries a lot harder to take your money, but I actually think the home version is pretty feasible to 1 credit clear if you practiced enough and got familiar with the patterns etc

I'm definitely tempted to play the others now - the first game is pretty basic, but you can still see the hallmarks of what some people love so much about the series - the weapons are really satisfying to use, and the enemy and death animations are really well done and have a lot of detail and personality to them, I can definitely see why that era of Nintendo were too shook to have a game like this on the system. The Turbografx version actually has a fake parental warning

Pretty good

Bonk's Revenge [Turbografx-16]

My apparent odyssey into checking out the Turbografx-16 library continues - kinda amusingly ironic in a way that I didn't buy one because I didn't want to risk spending a lot of money on some tech I might not use, and my solution has been to emulate the TG-16 on the Steam Deck, which until this point was a very expensive piece of tech I had literally not used at all since the week I got it last year...

The Bonk series was one of those games that I'd always seen around but never actually played - it wasn't until playing this and reading about them that although some of the games appeared on PC/NES/etc, the Bonk Series was originally created specifically for the Turbografx-16 and was their attempt at having a mascot franchise akin to Mario or Sonic. Obviously the system as a whole never really caught on in the west like they'd hoped, but I actually think they were pretty successful in making a mascot platformer. I'm not sure why I started with 2 (there are 3 mainline games as far as I am aware), but by all accounts this seems to be the best one, so no regrets really.

This was a game I really came to appreciate the more I played it - the stages and enemies have a lot of personality (as does Bonk himself) and it's a really nice looking platformer. You can hurt most enemies by 'Bonking' them with your head, either by doing a jump from underneath, a standing headbut with a very short range, or a diving midair attack you can also use to propel yourself higher into the air. You can also do more situations things like a wall-jump, as well as find power-ups, although these are mostly neglisible - they're more akin to something like Sonic where it's a temporary power boost that gives you an advantage, rather than something like Mario where it might be something that changes up how you fundamentally approach the level.

When I first played through the game I found it became quite difficult quite quickly and burned through my continues, but on the second time around I realised the game actually wants you to explore and use all your platforming abilities to reach and find hidden areas where you will gain items to win more health, bonus levels (some of which are genuinely very fun), and extra lives, which make the pathway ahead much easier. It made me realise that blitzing along the first time through I'd overlooked a few layers of complexity to the mechanics and level design I'd missed, and I came to really appreciate the game for trying to keep things so varied. It's actually a pretty long game too - at the start you can choose Beginner, Intermediate or Expert which I think essentially just chooses how many stages you complete rather than inherently adding any difficulty, but the 'Expert' full game had 8 worlds witch each one having 4 or 5 stages it seemed. Id argue that if anything it maybe begins to outstay it's welcome a little bit, but when looking at the individual stages all of them are pretty strong and it does a fairly good job of trying to change up what you're doing from level to level, whether that's focusing on a particular platform mechanic, making it more enemy focused, etc. It's not too hard of a game, but it definitely demands that you get to grips with most of it's moveset by the end

One gripe I had was that about halfway through I seemed to encounter a lot of bosses where I just couldn't figure out how to hurt them without taking damage myself, and essentially winning through a war of attrition and burning a few lives - it was a shame because what felt like pretty tight, consistent and fair platforming suddenly felt a bit clumsy and janky. I am actually fairly sure this was maybe an issue with the emulation as it wasn't something I noticed once the first time I played the game, and watching videos of one of the bosses I was struggling with, nobody seemed to have this issue despite doing the exact same thing as me, so I suspect maybe there is some weird issue with an emulator gamespeed causing some collission fuckery or something. Willing to give the game the benefit of the doubt because it seemed so jarring compared to the other 95% of the time with the game. I'd say the music is pretty forgettable too, which is a shame because I think it had so much personality that a killer soundtrack would have really sent this one over the edge. 

This felt like a proper treat getting to discover a top tier platformer I'd literally never tried before, but I think genuinely holds its own against other stuff on the big platforms. It looks great, it's super colourful and fun, the bosses are really imaginative and it has decent difficulty curve with a lot of variance in the levels and lots of secrets to find and explore. Most of all it just has a lot of personality, with some fun animation and sprite-work. Bonk himself seems to have so many different sprites and animations - actually way more than something like Sonic or Mario have, which gives him loads of personalith and it really adds to the game a lot. I said earlier I thought they were really successful in making a Mascot Platfomer and the animation and personality he has is exactly why. I've no idea if 1 and 3 are on the same level as this (or even the same style of platformer), but I'll definitely check them out now.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood [Turbografx-CD] I did also play some probably the most famous game on the Turbografx-CD. Again I thought it was really impressive but I really didn't play loads to form some huge opinion beyond I can totally see why it's so beloved - it straddles that line between the original Castlevainia games and what it became with Sympthony of the Night, and some of the graphical flourises it has look amazing, particularly the parrallax backgrounds.

I had a little go on a few more Turbografx-16 games also - namely both Alien Crush and Devil's Crush, which are some very beloved pinball games for the system, as well as Blazing Lazers, another Turbografx staple - although to be honest I didn't really play any of them for long enough to have much to say about them. I'd been really impressed with the TG-16 so far to be honest - annoyingly so, since I regret not pulling the trigger even more now. Ideally next time I jump onto the system the next lot of games are dogshit

[soundofseclusion]

Pokemon Series Retrospective, Volume 2: Pokemon Snap

After the break: a massive Pokemon fan plays Pokemon Snap N64 for the first time to completion.

Background

I mentioned in the previous volume that I got into the gaming sphere kind of late, with my first console being the GBA.  I didn’t grow up with an N64.  My experience with Pokemon Snap was brief encounters at the homes of friends and wealthier family members, maybe some posters or promotional videos at Blockbuster, maybe a McDonald’s N64 kiosk if it was ever demoed in those.  Mostly, just a vague impression of the game.  So playing the game was an experience I didn’t have until the Wii era, when it released on Virtual Console.

The Virtual Console release was notable for letting you post pictures to the Wii message board, but other than that, it was just another Wii Shop novelty for me at the time.  I barely progressed, possibly because I was confused, possibly just because I didn’t really play through video games back then.  For context, I played every single Zelda game as they came out from WindWaker onwards, but never finished a Zelda game until BotW.  Part of the reason for starting a media thread on Twitter and a (since abandoned) Zelda game marathon years ago was to encourage me to actually complete games.

I’ve recently revisited, and completed with unexpected quickness, Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack.  I found myself quite enamored with the whole experience; here’s some more detailed thoughts.

Present Day

The main elements of this game just work well.  The fact that courses are relatively short, on-rails segments means you can revisit levels with a sense of familiarity that makes experimentation with different course elements into something you can do reliably.  There’s a good loop of “next time around, I’ll try this here and that there,” and when you unlock new items/tools you get a good sense of “I should try this in this previous course element which eluded me.”  Feeling those things is especially important because I believe this is designed to be a short game with a lot of elements--experimentation, discovery--that make revisiting it fun.  I don’t believe Pokemon Snap is trying to be more than a brief novelty which lets you live in the fantasy world so many of us dreamed of.

The allure of Pokemon is, at least partially, that these are wild creatures with a real presence in the world.  Pokemon Snap is the first game to really lean into that by taking away a lot of your agency.  You still interact with the world through apples and pester balls and flutes, but primarily you serve as an observer.  For people who enjoyed the act and idea of completing a Pokedex, reading every new entry as though you were making a new discovery every time, this game actually puts you in the shoes of the person making those observations that lead to Pokedex entries.  Pokemon mainline games mostly exist in this realm where you’re meant to take Pokedex entries at face value but never really get to witness the behaviors described in any real capacity.  This was the first attempt to actualize Pokemon behavior and natural habitat, and it’s a good attempt. 

The game has its flaws.  The scoring system for photographs is... awkward, clumsy, somewhat archaic by its limitations.  Oak looks for photos that fit a very specific criteria that is often extremely difficult to pull off well.  While getting a better photo is definitely part of what makes going through the courses multiple times enjoyable, that only slightly alleviates the sting of a good picture prompting a “YOU WERE CLOSE” from Oak because the Pokemon was turned 15 degrees away from the camera’s focus.  The actual act of maneuvering your camera is also a bit janky, but not enough to detract from how enjoyable taking photos and interacting with the world is.

Though, overall, I hope you can see that I was pretty endeared to this game.  I went into it expecting a fun but clunky game, and yeah, I did scream at Oak a few times, but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the overall experience.  I think Snap quite impressively accomplishes what it was going for: a chance to exist in the Pokemon world from the role of an observer, and a chance to contextualize those creatures into a believable world which lives up to the series’ potential.

[teaveetamer]

Why do you think FE as a series is not as accessible compared to say FF? I know you mentioned the wacky release timings but there are probably other reasons.

Hmmm, that's a good question honestly.

I think permadeath was definitely part of it. It's not really coincidence that the series exploded in popularity after pemadeath was no longer mandatory.

Weirdly enough, I think also removing support restrictions and making it easier to get supports probably helped FE out a lot? I mean permadeath was ostensibly a way to help you feel more connected to your units. The characters have also always been a big part of FE's appeal. However, in earlier games, unless they were a main character, they barely got any focus, or if they did get supports they were restricted to, like, five per playthrough. So if you wanted to see all content related to your fave you'd have to play the game over and over just to see one or two slightly different nuggets of dialogue. With the modern games, though, you can pick up Awakening, decide Gaius is your favorite character, and spend your entire single playthrough investing heavily in him.

In a similar vein, being able to grind helped a lot. First, because you can get those supports much easier (in the PoR playthrough I just finished backseating for we never even got like three quarters of the possible supports we could have gotten, just because some units got benched immediately and there was never opportunity to use them so they could actually build supports). Second, because being able to grind past your problems if you aren't able to do something is great. In older FE titles (and newer ones too, if that's how you choose to play them, but the point is that it's an option now and not the default) it's completely possible to get 100% stuck because your units got stat screwed or you just don't have the tools you need to get past the current problem you're facing. Again with the PoR playthrough, our Ike was getting MASSIVELY Str screwed in the first half of the game and we were genuinely worried he wouldn't be able to, like, kill the final boss (we ended up shoring him up with some energy drops and it was fine, but still). If you get badly screwed enough and you aren't able to correct it, then you have to restart the ENTIRE GAME. Most people don't like getting to the final battle of a game, realizing that it's literally impossible, and then restarting the entire thing just because one of their units didn't get good level ups. And remember again that a lot of these games were pre-YouTube so if that happened you couldn't necessarily just look it up on the internet later to see the ending.

Other than that I'd say the older games were just kind of... weird? About their features? The Kaga era especially had some pretty questionable design choices, like forcing you to pawn off and re-buy items if you wanted to transfer them between characters, or giving each individual character their own gold inventory and only being allowed to trade money between spouses. It's that kind of thing that really limits (and even punishes) experimentation to get past problems. I know Thracia also had a few mechanics like that which didn't seem entirely thought through (like fatigue is the big one I hear complained about).

There's nothing wrong with having different features in different games, but it does lead to a situation where you never quite know what you're going to get with each new entry and that's not necessarily a good thing. Like most game series have consistent gameplay across different entries. The older games might be clunkier or less realized, but there's a recognizable evolution of features. Usually things are only added, rarely or never removed (and if removed, usually its because its not necessary anymore or its replaced with something better). People usually don't like when their features are removed from their games, like when ME3 axed having different paragon and renegade scores and just gave you one reputation meter, or when Dragon Age 2 got rid of the tactical camera and gameplay.

(And yes I know Pokemon has started doing this. Pokemon also released B2W2 a year after the 3DS came out. When you're Pokemon, AKA the highest grossing media franchise in the world, you're allowed to do wacky things like this without being punished. FE doesn't really have the same luxury).

That's about all I've got for now but I'm sure there's more so if anyone thinks of any go ahead and share

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] Overdue final yr, the Slovak Design Museum launched a translated choice of ’80s textual content adventures from the area. The video games, regularly programmed through youngsters, seize a second in historical past when the primary era of Slovak builders had been finding out their craft to proportion amongst their buddies. The museum didn’t at all times quilt video games. Maroš Brojo, the overall supervisor of the Slovak Recreation Builders Affiliation, pitched the multimedia assortment that he now curates. “While you get the patronage of a museum… it will give you a lot more credibility,” he says. “All at once, other folks begin to have an excessively other view of this in reality being a part of one thing vital. Our tradition and our heritage.” The ten video games that make up this primary batch of translations and re-releases had been decided on for his or her historic importance. They seize part of the past due ’80s in what was once then Czechoslovakia, a Soviet satellite tv for pc state. In a single, Šatochín, the titular Soviet Primary fights with Rambo in Vietnam. “I don’t wish to say [it was] in opposition to the regime, however it’s very subversive,” says Brojo. Probably the most builders in the back of Šatochín, Stanislav Hrda, was once additionally concerned within the translation and preservation undertaking. He was once 16 when he and a few buddies printed Šatochín after being fascinated about the American motion pictures that made it around the border on VHS tapes. “This sport is making jokes [about] the regime… and the Soviet military,” he says. “It’s arduous to win. So when you're taking part in, Rambo will kill you 10 instances since you [were] no longer fortunate, and also you made the flawed selection. It was once very humorous for my buddies.” “While you get the patronage of a museum… it will give you a lot more credibility.” Ten is also underselling it — in my experimentation with Šatochín, the Soviet soldier misplaced his lifestyles in a handful of ugly techniques, together with being overwhelmed in opposition to a coral reef, inside of only some mins of beginning the sport. Hrda additionally built-in an Easter egg into the sport, the place binding the keys “KGB” as controls would permit the participant to play as Rambo himself. Recreation building was once essentially a teenage interest on the time. As a result of video games weren’t offered in stores, there was once no probability of getting cash out of it. Hrda and others shared those video games amongst their buddies for leisure somewhat than benefit. At one level, Šatochín made it into the fingers of František Fuka, a developer from Prague who had up to now impressed Hrda and his buddies. In Hrda’s phrases, he advised them, “Yeah, you guys made this sort of great, a laugh sport, however be ready and take a toothbrush with you as a result of when the police come to catch you, you should be in a position.” Hrda laughs as he says it, however he admits that he was once “just a little afraid” after that. However he and his buddies persevered to make video games, calling themselves Sybilasoft. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 resulted in extra democratic governance and a marketplace economic system being established in Czechoslovakia, Hrda, then 18, created an actual corporate to promote video games. With financing now to be had, he says, programmers throughout Czechoslovakia had been ready to create “very fine quality video games for the ZX Spectrum.” However within the West, other folks had moved directly to extra complicated computer systems, leaving the creations of Hrda, Fuka, and others to be performed essentially in Jap Europe most effective. However a couple of years in the past, Hrda was once occupied with an exhibition on the Design Museum that confirmed off those video games from the ’80s, permitting other folks to play them at the unique hardware. Extra exhibitions had been deliberate — sooner than COVID were given in the way in which.

Brojo calls the web page “type of a backup digital exhibition, but in addition says that he’s happy that it will possibly shape the start of a database as they proceed to broaden the undertaking additional. In addition to the video games themselves, which may also be run on emulators on trendy PCs, there are photographs of the hardware, field artwork, and so forth from the duration. Brojo says that his subsequent purpose is so as to add scans of ’80s and ’90s Slovak sport magazines. “Stay taking part in just right video games, and in case you are courageous sufficient, you'll check out ours.” Together with the translations, the web page additionally makes the video games out there to a much broader target audience. Brojo says that the staff was once fortunate that a lot of that paintings were completed through ZX Spectrum fan communities like Spectrum Computing, in order that they didn’t must salvage a lot from cassettes and the like. And discovering the unique builders with a purpose to get their permission was once generally easy. “Many of the group was once very pleasant, so a large number of the authors know different authors, they usually had been ready to get us in contact with them,” he says. The difficult phase was once disassembling the video games in order that Slovak textual content may well be changed with English. Programmer Slavomír Labský and translation coordinator Marián Kabát wrote about a few of their revel in in a put up at the Slovak Design Museum’s website. Labský explains his procedure in taking the video games aside and changing them as soon as the translations had been dropped at him, allowing for difficulties like the fast lengths of the textual content segments. Kabát described the demanding situations of contextualizing era- and location-specific references, equivalent to the ones to widespread people singers. Brojo says he hopes that the nuances of the video games will come throughout in those translations, just like the subversive writing in Šatochín. Then again, he mentions that the 1987 sport Pepsi Cola seems to be the one who English-speaking individuals are maximum considering on social media. Advanced partially through Fuka, it duties the participant with stealing the drink’s secret recipe. Brojo assumes that the recognizability of the emblem is curious to Western gamers. “It may well be type of a strange factor that we additionally knew Pepsi Cola within the East sooner than 1989,” he says. “Even if Pepsi Cola was once in reality one of the widespread cushy beverages.” (It were offered within the Soviet Union since 1972.) However the historic price of the video games isn’t the one reason why they’ve been made to be had. As an alternative, Hrda simply needs other folks to revel in them like his buddies did again when he made them. “I [hope people] may have a laugh with them although the ones video games are very previous,” he laughs. “Stay taking part in just right video games, and in case you are courageous sufficient, you'll check out ours.” [ad_2] #design #museum #unearthed #treasure #trove #vintage #Slovak #video games

[fox-and-his-friends-records]

(FOX009LP) NENAD VILOVIĆ - PRIZMA (UNRELEASED SYNTH SPACE SESSIONS FROM SPLIT 1985) LP

★ Unreleased space synth sessions from Split,  Yugoslavia, 1985. ★ From the original master tapes. ★ Vinyl Gatefold LP ★ Liner Notes ★ Exclusive Artwork & Design by Eric Adrian Lee  ★ DMM cut by Pauler Acoustics ★ Mastering by Antony Ryan (RedRedPaw) ★ Limited Edition ★ No repress ★

Deluxe limited edition vinyl LP of the unpublished Nenad Vilović lost synth-masterpiece Prizma. The Yugoslavian and Croatian disco and pop chart-maker and once a Split International Music Festival headman (also in groups Grupa ST, Mladi Batali, etc.), producer of Dino Dvornik, Ambasadori, Oliver Dragojević, Meri Cetinić, Leo Martin and many more, recorded this space-prog-electronica album in complete secrecy. ★  It was refused in the 1980s by all major Yugoslavian record labels for being too experimental, but it is actually a game changer in the field of socialist YU electronica. Miha Kralj, Laza Ristovski, Igor Savin and Kornelije Kovač now have company in the field of complex analog synthesizer concept albums, with this one being finally released by Fox & His Friends Records after 37 years of being shelved. Every instrument on this album has been played by Vilović himself. This rare piece of vinyl is cut by Pauler Acoustics, mastered by Antony Ryan and features exclusive cover design by Eric Adrian Lee. 

In the golden era of pop music in Yugoslavia, city of Split had a special place. The Adriatic Sea, nearing Italian radio stations and the famous San Remo music festival that influenced almost everything, from fashion, lifestyle to music. It's local counterpart was The Split Pop Music Festival since the 1960s, international at first and lasting even till now. Our hero was in the organizational leadership at the end of the 1990s and attracted much public disapproval while selecting the tunes for the competition: he resolutely refused to include what he considered old-fashion songs. Nenad Vilović fiercely wanted the Split Festival and music scene to modernize, in order to appeal to the younger audiences and to reach the charts and dance-floors. As the sound of the time regarding his requirements was predominately electronic, the ‘traditionalists’ hated him.

It was not the first time Nenad Vilović (often under the names ST or Nenad Vilović & Grupa ST) clashed with the keepers of tradition. Long before he managed Split Festival, many of his songs and productions won the awards of the popular vote and became high-selling singles. However, critics smashed his efforts, calling him a commercial sell-out and even the local term was forged especially for him: ‘čekićanje’ and ‘kovačija’, meaning ‘hammering’ and ‘blacksmithing’ of the songs that introduced 4/4 beat. It was Vilović’s love of dance culture and disco, catchy melodies and fun lyrics that his opponents and critics took as a final proof that this guy is making empty and shallow pop music.

Nenad Vilović has enjoyed quite of success; produced, composed and arranged for numerous artists and himself as well; been in several groups starting the legendary Mladi Batali and released singles and LPs for some of the largest companies in Yugoslavia: Jugoton, PGP RTB and Diskoton. But, as he jokingly said when Leri Ahel and Željko Luketić first met him in his studio: I was all ‘kovačija’, they said! Then he played us the main theme of an album that was shelved for a staggering 37 years, luscious and layered synth-prog piece called “Introduction to The Prism”. Amazing! The tape was played once in the 80s to a local music critic who said “oh, you CAN make quality music!”, but it was still rejected by a major labels for being “too experimental”.

The studio master is here presented in its entirety; no track was replaced or changed its side or order. This is how it was imagined to be released in 1985, when Nenad Vilović played all instruments, produced, composed, arranged, recorded and even sang on the whole thing. However the title “Prizma” may suggest, this is not a structuralist concept album, but a conceptual use of his studio, instruments and musical knowledge. It mixes the ethnic, electronic, geographical and ambient roots of the crowned festival producer, hit-maker and fast-skilled studio musician who spent all of his money on new machines and his musical progress.

Composed, arranged, produced, recorded & all instruments played by Nenad Vilović. Recorded in 1985 at Vilović Studio (NV), Split, Yugoslavia (Croatia). Vocals by Nenad Vilović.

Real time recording and mixing via 24-track 3M M79 reel-to-reel. No computers and no sequencers were used. ★ Instruments: Violin, Viola, Keyboards (Yamaha Piano, Fender Rhodes Piano, Prophet 2000, Crumar Performer, Ace Tone Canary Organ, Korg CX-3, Polymoog, ARP Omni-2), Effects (Eventide Harmonizer H949, Iskra Signal Generator MA3731), Guitars (Acoustic, Les Paul Gibson, Ovation Matrix, Fender Jaguar, Klira), Clarinet, Soprano Sax, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Ocarina, Drums (Ludwig, Sonor), Fender Bass Guitar, Gibson L9-S Ripper, Gibson SG, Claves, Remo Rototom, Tambourine, Mandola, Triangle, Bells, Conga, Castanets, Shakers.

Executive Producers, Creative Direction and A&R: Leri Ahel & Željko Luketić Liner Notes by Željko Luketić Artwork by Eric Adrian Lee Audio Mastering by Antony Ryan (RedRedPaw Mastering) DMM Cut by Pauler Acoustics Rights Society: HDS/BIEM

THE TRACKS:

A1 Nenad Vilović | Sjećanje | Memory A2 Nenad Vilović | Maglica | Nebula A3 Nenad Vilović | Čudesna panorama | Magical Panorama A4 Nenad Vilović | Prizma | The Prism A5 Nenad Vilović | Sanjivi glasnik | Dreamy Messenger A6 Nenad Vilović | Zlato mozaika | Mosaic Gold

B1 Nenad Vilović | Iza Oriona | Behind the Orion B2 Nenad Vilović | Prerija | Prairie B3 Nenad Vilović | Konjanici | Horsemen B4 Nenad Vilović | Istočni pravac | East Direction B5 Nenad Vilović | Sjećanje na istok | Memory of the East B6 Nenad Vilović | Refleksija | Reflection

Links: http://www.facebook.com/foxandhisfriends http://soundcloud.com/foxandhisfriends http://twitter.com/FoxAndHisFriend http://www.instagram.com/fox.and.his.friends https://www.discogs.com/label/1132857-Fox-His-Friends http://foxandhisfriends.bigcartel.com/

©℗ 2022 Fox & His Friends Records

[planned-planethood]

A list of things to be excited about in space exploration

In space science and exploration, things tend to move slowly. That is, until they don't. It is easy to lose perspective on exactly what is possible when the right people are providing the right support for exploration initiatives.

With significant advances in rocket technology, ambitious programs from one administration being continued by the next (THANK YOU, finally!) and funding for NASA at an all time high there are some exciting things coming up not just in our lifetimes, but possibly in the next few years for some of these. Here is a list of things that could actually happen which will make your imagination go wild:

- The Artemis program: the Artemis program was started in 2017. For years there has been intense debate about whether or not we should be returning to the Moon or sending astronauts to Mars. This debate, it seems, has finally ended. When President Biden determined to continue to support the previous administration's goals to return Americans to the Moon, all remaining opposition evaporated as the space-science community wants to simply conduct human exploration missions again regardless of the destination. Now, with essentially unified support and bipartisan political capital, the Artemis program looks extremely likely to survive.

It's more than just a return to the Moon though. We will be building a new space station called the Lunar Gateway. Gateway will orbit around the Moon and provide NASA with a way station from which SpaceX rocket ships will ferry astronauts to the Lunar surface. At this point, what happens next becomes a little more nebulous. NASA is currently researching the feasibility of founding a permanent colony on the Moon on the South Pole (I also have some things to say about this landing site in the future that I can't talk about right now, but resources could be slightly more plentiful than is known currently).

The target year for human feet to stand on the Moon again is no farther than the year 2024. This timeline can and probably will slip, but it's currently unlikely to slip significantly. Before the year 2030, we're highly likely to be inhabiting the Moon again, this time, with no intention of leaving. The Artemis program will aim to develop a lunar economy as a way of incentivizing both more public and private investing in lunar exploration.

One thing that I'm personally happy about is that with with rockets finally becoming cheaper to use, and spacecraft working autonomously now most of the time, it is predicted that the number of astronauts required to be experimental aircraft pilots from the military will probably go down. Let's send some more geologists to the Moon!

Oh and by the way, since I mentioned way stations earlier...

- Astronauts on Mars: This has been the holy grail-goal of space exploration since humanity has realized Mars was another planet. NASA's Artemis program is designed to not simply be a lunar program. The goal isn't just to create a lunar economy: the goal of the Artemis program is to create a sustainable lunar presence so that the Moon can be used as a way station for much deeper space exploration. The idea is that with easier access to the lunar surface, NASA will be able to rapidly run tests and develop technologies that we would need to embark on what could be the most treacherous and epic human exploration adventure in history. It would also be fantastic logistical support to a potential permanent or semi-permanent colony on Mars.

... and NASA may not even get there first.

SpaceX, eager to showcase their own Starship, is currently planning a human mission to Mars in 2026. Humans have never trod on another planet before. This event, whether done by SpaceX, NASA, or any other entity, would be one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. It would hopefully mark the dawning of a new era in human civilization, for the betterment of us all.

- Venus: It's been decades since NASA has sent a mission to Venus. The number of Venus experts has gradually dwindled, and now we are in danger of all of them retiring out of planetary science before their knowledge can actually be passed on. Thankfully, NASA just announced two separate missions to Venus to investigate basically everything you can possibly imagine. DAVINCI+ will send a lander to the surface and VERITAS will orbit the planet and map the surface in high resolution for the first time. We don't really know what sort of surprises this incredible world holds in store for us. It may be that we find a planet full of active volcanism, and evidence that long ago it was habitable for life as we know it.

Astrobiologists have recently begun paying even closer attention to this planet as there have been some interesting signs that, and I say this cautiously, Venus may have biosignatures. Ultimately, it's an entire planet, our neighbor, and we are going to see incredible images, and learn so much about planets, how they form, evolve, and improve our understanding of how easily a terrestrial world can become habitable. Both missions launch this decade.

- The Search for Life: There's been a veritable revolution in exoplanet hunting over the last decade. Missions like Kepler have provided us with mind-boggling amounts of data to go through, much of which has led to the discovery of so-called exoplanets, planets in other star systems. Right now we are closing in on approximately 5000 confirmed exoplanets.

It's almost impossible to mention exoplanets without immediately breaking into the subject of habitable zones. The fact of the matter is that we're well into the numbers game that one day, will turn up something stunning that will change humanity forever. In my opinion, it's a matter of time. With the rate of exoplanet detections growing rapidly, it seems like a matter of rapidly shrinking time before we come across a truth that, if it is out there, will reveal itself.

Scientists are currently studying a relativistic telescope concept which would make use of the light-bending properties of relativity, combined with the mass of the Sun, to warp light in such a way that it magnifies the image of whatever is in the warped light. Such a telescope could reveal surface details of an exoplanet: if there are oceans, we would be able to resolve them. Same to mountain ranges. City lights.

Whatever the truth is, it may be difficult to hide from the astronomers of Earth for much longer as our sight has officially pierced the interstellar veil and active searches for signs of life outside the Solar System have absolutely begun.

Breakthrough Starshot is a mission concept that would actually send a small spacecraft to our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. Around this star is an exoplanet: Proxima Centauri b. What would a flyby mission see on this mystery planet? Right now, we have no idea. Proxima Centauri b orbits in its star's habitable zone. Unfortunately, if this mission ultimately makes it off the ground, it would take in the range of 30 years to reach its destination and send its photographs back. Fortunately, that's within most of our naturally remaining lifetimes. I think it's worth the wait.

We won't be waiting idly however. Right here in our very Solar System, we are closing in on a number of ways in which the idea of a habitable zone can be played around with. Icy moons around places like Jupiter and Saturn have seriously reopened questions of where life-as-we-know-it could live. Queue the discovery of the ecosystems living around hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the lightless oceans of Earth. Diverse communities of never-before-seen creatures were living entirely without sunlight being involved at any point in their ecosystem.

Scientists now believe hydrothermal vents exist on moons like Europa and Enceladus, inside liquid water oceans, hidden under the ice. In a few years, NASA is launching a mission to fly around Europa. Perhaps it well get a chance to fly through one of the erupting geysers and take a look around. A mission to land on the surface is being designed as we speak to be proposed to NASA.

Never in human history, written and unwritten, have we realistically had to contend with the idea of knowing the Truth (as Mulder puts it). Well, contend away folks. We might not be wondering for a whole lot longer. Things might move slowly, until they don't.

Space exploration has never been boring, but we are without a doubt entering a golden age for space science and exploration.

(Image credit: Steve Jurvetson~NASA~NASA/JPL-Caltech~ESO/M. Kornmesser respectively)

[oc-mother]

Here is the line art for the new version of William Afton i made. 

No, he is not the same version as my TV William Afton, the William Afton from my SugarGlider comics, nor the one i drew based off of the original books.

(Also not my Vincent Era PG known as Nigel Benedict Mavris... i haven't posted him yet.) 

This is my AU that takes place during the Security Breach game, where the MC is not necessarily Gregory, but could either be replacing Gregory, or going alongside him.

The whole bit for this William, or at least part of his shtick is “family.” although he does it in a whole evil, ew, way.... and he probably knows that its a bad way to do it, he just don't care. 

Anyway, there are two ways that the dynamic between him, Vanny, and the MC’s relationships can go. 

1. He intends for Vanny to be the mother/wife role and for Gregory and the MC to be the children (brother and sister)

2. He pretends to play along with Vanny’s belief that she is going to be the mother/wife role, but instead William wants the MC to play that role and Gregory to be the son. (Not sure if he essentially planned to off Vanny in the end or something... maybe he’s that much of an ass?) Kind of like the sudden twist at the end of the Goosebumps Episode called Bride of the Living Dummy...

Of course, FAMILY isn't just, “Hey, you my kid now”... at least, not with WILLIAM. William obviously has some nasty animatronic stuffing, or experimentation up his sleeve. 

Ok, now some tidbits on how i intended to design him. 

1. Creepy, grungy, old man. White hair, longish, thinning, and probably had several face lifts in his time, but some of which were botched. 

2. Sort of based off of Kosperry’s Vincent in AGE RANGE. Not that Kosperry’s Vincent could compare to the terrifyingly creepy and grungy old man THIS guy is. Kind of someone you could imagine becoming the “puddle of vomit blathed in grape juice” comic Glitchtrap. (I apologize, i do not remember the person who did that comic... if you can find out who did it, i would be very greatful!)

3. Creepy ass smile

4. Missing teeth probably

5. Age spots

6. There are still some cuts here and there that leak that blackish purple goop mentioned in Princess Quest. I don't know if this goop will have magical properties in the story, or if he can control said stuff, or how far he can control it if he can... but... lets just say for now that its just there... until further notice.

7. Ew

8. In a wheelchair, although he has definitely spiffed it up with some robotics. Or will do so through the progression of the story... 

Yes, this is a work in progress, and i will be tuning it up a bit more before i begin coloring, which is why i left in some artist notes here and there. 

Yes, his wheelchair is more based off of a spider than a bunny, however, i could not without ruining his creepy old disturbing image give his wheelchair bunny features. Might give it a bunny tail, but he is not at a proper angle for you to see it anyway. 

P.S. I realize that his head appears to be a tad too big. Hopefully it just looks like that because his body is super thin and boney, and old... making his head/skull look bigger than it actually is. Also, he’s supposed to be leaning forwards a bit. I could not find a very good pose ref... sorry

And yes, he is in his boxers... and bathrobe. One has difficulty putting on clothes when one is a half undead old man who has to be in a wheelchair and has somehow crawled his way out of a video game in which he was trapped in as a glitchy bunny rabbit... and i don't think he wants Vanny to help him get clothes on. Would be kind of awkward.

[passionate-reply]

Here’s something I know you’ve heard before--Dare, by the Human League! One of the most famous and widely-acclaimed synth-pop albums there is, Dare was a huge game changer. Find out why by watching my video, or reading the transcript, after the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’m going to be talking about one of the single most important albums in the history of electronic music, and, perhaps, in Western popular music as a whole. It’s Dare, the third full LP from the Human League, first released in 1981. While there had been two albums released under this name prior to Dare, these are considerably more obscure.

Music: “Empire State Human”

While “Empire State Human” has a catchy and affable chorus, it’s still a few shades too weird and avant-garde to be a pop hit. In the early days, the Human League’s experimental, underground sound was driven mainly by founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. Prior to the recording of Dare, Marsh and Ware had already left the group, and would go on to form Heaven 17. Frontman Phil Oakey, and newly hired backup singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, were without a leg to stand on, as none of them had any serious background in music composition or playing instruments.

While the situation looked quite dire, the trio would find a new musical bedrock in Ian Burden, who had played keyboards on their most recent tour as a session musician. Against the crude, naive, unprofessional vocals of Oakey, Catherall, and Sulley, Burden would provide simple, but competent melodies. The other key ingredient of this new sound was professional production, which would come from Martin Rushent. Despite working with many guitar-oriented acts prior, Rushent was one of the first producers who had deliberately devoted himself to working with electronic instruments at the time. Put all of that together, and you’ve got synth-pop magic, like nobody else had hammered out before.

Music: “Don’t You Want Me”

If you came to this video with even a lick of knowledge about Western pop, then you probably know “Don’t You Want Me” quite well. “Don’t You Want Me” wasn’t the first electronic pop song, nor was it the first major hit to feature a chiefly electronic instrumentation. The real reason it was such a game changer is that it’s ultimately a very ordinary pop song, underneath all of that. Songs like Gary Numan’s “Cars,” or OMD’s “Enola Gay,” were comparatively easy to write off as mere high-concept novelty. Many felt that their vision of a future full of machine music would blow over, the way jetpacks and flying cars had failed to revolutionize the world. But “Don’t You Want Me” proved that you could write an otherwise unremarkable love song, set it to a fairly unambitious synth backing, and achieve major pop success. “Don’t You Want Me” is that watershed moment, where synthesisers start presenting a credible threat to guitars, and everything that they stand for. Moreso than anything else that was released in this era, “Don’t You Want Me” is the reason why “pop” is, at this point, assumed to be electronic by default.

While the sheer influence of this track can’t be overstated, it’s also far from the only thing Dare, as an album, has to offer. In fact, “Don’t You Want Me” is the very last track on it, and its apparent simplicity is heavily contextualized by everything that comes before it. Take “Love Action,” for instance, which was the first single from the album, and one of the band’s best-known tracks.

Music: “Love Action”

“Love Action” is certainly not devoid of pop sensibility, and its being a chart hit makes plenty of sense. But I think it’s decidedly stranger and less conventional than “Don’t You Want Me,” with its piercing intro and glitchy synth effects. While its lyrics aren’t challenging, in an obtrusive manner, they seem to read as a sort of parody of a pop song, declaiming the superiority of limerence or casual affairs--“no talking, just looking.” It’s a pop anthem that’s aware of its own disposability, and the sort of culture of disposability and frivolousness that it’s participating in. Another strikingly ironic number is the album’s opener, “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of.”

Music: “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of”

With its confident proclamations about what “everybody needs,” and unquestioning praise of petty luxuries like ice cream and vacations, the saccharine “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of” is even more pointedly satirical, a wan hymn to the pleasures of postwar prosperity. But even if this track maintains a surface level “believability,” there are still a number of darker tracks to be had on Dare, which more strongly recall the style of those earlier albums. Take a listen to “Do or Die.”

Music: “Do or Die”

One of the more confrontational or frustrated tracks on Dare, “Do or Die” still maintains something of a pop core, and it’s easy enough to sing along to. What I think really stands out about it, though, especially for the time, is the use of mechanical percussion. Prior to this point, acts like Gary Numan, OMD, and even Kraftwerk still had human drummers who physically hit things in their bands. Even Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love” used traditional percussion, despite featuring nothing but Moog synthesisers and the human voice besides. It wasn’t only the guitar that feared for its relevance during this time, but also the drum kit. The dense, rattling backing of “Do or Die” was made with a Linn “drum computer,” and remains an impressive use of it that’s still mesmerizing to listen to. But perhaps the most avant-garde track to be found on *Dare* is “Seconds.”

Music: “Seconds”

While “Seconds” feels sort of warm and dreamy at first, its startling gunshot casts doubt on just how pleasant we ought to feel. “Seconds” is actually telling the story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, addressing us listeners as though we embody the infamous gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. The titular “seconds” apply to the brief moments of apparent happiness and security we feel before something goes wrong, and those narrow margins of time during which everything in our lives can change in an instant. While it’s significantly shorter, I can’t help but think it recalls the high-concept narrative tracks done by the earlier incarnation of the Human League, such as “Zero As a Limit.”

Dare’s iconic cover, a powerful symbol of 80s synth-pop to this day, was inspired by fashion magazines such as *Vogue.* While the design would crib the title, the typeface, and the face-focused composition from a 1979 cover of UK *Vogue,* the stark, bare white frame that surrounds this close-cropped headshot of Oakey is a major distinction. Floating in this sterile bath of emptiness, and borderline anonymized, it feels like the interchangeable mask of someone living out a mechanized and mass-produced existence. It’s an image that almost plays into how detractors of electronic music have decried its seemingly emotionless, inhuman ambiance, and it rides that enmity with a deliberate, defiant dignity. It says, we are what you think we are, and we’re damn proud of it. Much like the bold and brash title implies, the cover of *Dare* is a provocation, perhaps even a threat. While the cover isn’t particularly beautiful to me, as many others are, I think its austere ugliness is deeply purposeful, and that’s something I’m compelled to admire.

Despite the breakthrough success of Dare, the Human League’s 1984 follow-up, Hysteria, was a relative flop, plagued by troubled recording sessions and a lack of consistent vision for the band and their sound. Its lead single, “The Lebanon,” would achieve modest success, and its use of rock guitar and surprisingly topical lyrics make it feel very different than what you’ll find on Dare.

Music: “The Lebanon”

Though they would eventually go on to have one last major hit, in 1986’s “Human,” the Human League never developed mainstream staying power, and their core trio’s reliance on outside writers and producers left them without a firm artistic identity to fall back on. They’re still around today, performing concerts that revisit their best-known work from the past, but they never recreated the fruitful environment and industry connections that made Dare possible. Still, it’s safe to say that Dare is an inescapable presence in the history of electronic pop, looming over all subsequent works like some inscrutable Sphinx, a lightning in a bottle success whose influence remains all around us.

My favourite song on Dare is “Darkness.” As the title implies, it’s one of the more dreary, gothic numbers you’ll encounter on the album, narrating the harrowing, paranoid mindstate of an insomniac. I don’t particularly struggle with sleep, but I do have a habit of being awake all night and sleeping all day, so I love nighttime-themed songs. Plus, the lyrics of this song make reference to “seeing sounds” and “hearing colours,” a phenomenon called synesthesia. I’m not sure if anyone in the Human League really experiences this, but I do--which is part of why I’m so strongly interested in music. But enough about me! That’s all for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “Darkness”

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Magnificent Scoundrels: The Team, Part I

After having this idea buzzing through my brain for a while, I got bored and decided to write it.  This is a multi-sci-fi universe crossover story, involving the Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, Titanfall, Mass Effect, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warhammer 40,000, the Empyrean Iris stories by (), and my own sci-fi story, Tongues of Fire.  

Disclaimer:

I only own Tongues of Fire.  Disney owns Star Wars, CBS owns Star Trek, Microsoft owns Halo, Respawn Entertainment owns Titanfall, Marvel owns Marvel (should be fairly obvious), Games Workshop owns Warhammer 40,000, and starr-fall-knight-rise owns Empyrean Iris.

Note: Italics indicate thoughts

Note: Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, and Marvel (as in Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe) exist as fictional stories in the Empyrean Iris Universe, as they were specifically mentioned or alluded to in the stories that make up that universe.  Likewise, Star Wars exists as a fictional story in the Marvel Universe, as it was specifically mentioned in several of the movies.  Otherwise, the other universes, even though they are fictional stories in the real world, do not exist as fictional stories from the respective fictional universes.

Now, sit back, relax, try not to die, and enjoy the story!

On the edge of several different galaxies 

Admiral Adam Vir walked the dark streets of what he thought was probably a long dead moon.  After the events of the past several weeks, he had received a mysterious summons from a mercenary from another galaxy to come here, this day, and hear an offer.  It was…uh, well, complicated.  Actually, complicated was putting it rather mildly, he mused.  Apparently, the man, named, he turned and discreetly checked the transcript of the message, Thomas Drake, was going to assemble a team of magnificent people to “to be all around awesome, make a ton of money, and generally get up to as many shenanigans as possible.”  This was going to end real well.

The shadows grew long as Adam, Sunny, his first lieutenant, and Krill, his medical officer, both aliens, walked into a small black building that looked like the outside of a respectable restaurant.  Two tall black-suited human guards stood at the entrance.  Strangely despite the dark, they wore eye-covering sunglasses.  As Adam and his retinue reached the entrance, the closer guard smiled.  

“Admiral Adam Vir?” he asked.  Adam forced a smile, overriding his instincts that this probably wasn’t a good idea.  Sunny and Krill shared a look.

“That’s me,” he replied.  The guard held up something that Adam recognized as a fingerprint scanner.

“Just put your hand here sir,” instructed the guard.  Adam did as he was told, and a green light blinked on the side of the device.

“You can go right in, sir,” said the guard as he opened the door for Adam and his friends.  

It was not what he expected.  It looked like an extremely high class lounge.  The windowless room was decorated with large black drapes with red trim, and had many white table-clothed booths and tables spread throughout.  There was an elegant bar on the side of the room near the door, and a dance floor on the side opposite it.  It looked quite classy, and quite cozy.  But the room itself took second place as the most interesting thing there.  By far the most interesting were the people.  Lounging and talking throughout the room, or quietly keeping to themselves and looking with suspicion at everyone else, they were probably the strangest and most varied group of people Adam had ever seen.  

Sitting far away from the door at one of the back tables, nursing a small glass of amber liquid, was a man with short-cut black hair.  He was completely by himself, and seemed rather content to remain so.  He was wearing some sort of strange, sleeveless armored vest, the likes of which Adam had never seen before.  An odd-looking green helmet with a strange x-shaped viewing slit sat on the table next to him.  The man had the look of a professional soldier, although exactly what type of soldier and from where, Adam had no idea.  

Across the way, sitting in a both, still towards the back but on the other side of the room, sat perhaps the strangest group of people Adam had ever seen, and that was saying a lot.  There were two two relatively normal looking people, a man and a woman, wearing military fatigues who glared pointedly at the two aliens in Adam's retinue when Adam looked at them.  Their regular looking appearance only served to contrast the man sitting in the middle of the both.  He had a long, scarred, rather handsome face that was framed by neatly trimmed sideburns.  Adam couldn’t really tell what color his hair was, however, because of the hat.  Where to begin with the hat?  It looked as if someone had taken several doses of LSD and tried to design an officer’s cap worn by the secret police of a fictional government agency, then made it several sizes bigger than normal.  The uniform wasn’t much better.  It was as if an insane Napoleonic-era Prussian tailor had created it, added an equally horrible-looking greatcoat, and draped the entire thing in altogether too much gold lace.  The overall effect was...bizarre, to put it mildly.  Although, now I want one, mused Adam.  The two wearing military fatigues looked at the gold-laced one, probably their boss, if the uniform quality was to be gone by, then looked back at Adams' group.  They seemed to be arguing over him, and the man made several gestures to emphasize a point before bringing his fist down on the table with a thump.  The insane-uniformed man rolled his eyes, grinned, said something that appeared to placate the two wearing fatigues, and swirled his drink experimentally before tossing it all back.  The two wearing fatigues kept glaring suspiciously in Adam’s direction.  It was only then that Adam seemed to notice the fourth person at the table.  The fourth man was sitting quietly by himself, wearing a more plain set of fatigues, bothering no one, but something about him felt...off.  Looking at the man sent chills down Adam’s spine, his collar itched for no reason, and his stomach suddenly felt slightly queasy.  He brushed it off, and kept looking across the room.

In another booth, towards the middle of the room, was...Han Solo and Chewbacca?  The hell was going on?  Was there some mercenary captain who dressed like Han Solo, the character from a 2,000 year old movie?  And there weren’t any aliens that looked like Chewbacca, or were there?  Confused, he shook his head to clear it and continued his search around the room.  His jaw dropped.  There, leaning against a wall, was the video game character Master Chief.  Another fictional character from a 2,000 year old story.  What the hell was happening?  He continued his around the room, now suspicious of where this was going.  

At another table, this time closer to the door, sat two tough looking humans males and one figure wearing a strange body suit with a purple-hued mask that completely obscured the face.  One of the humans appeared to be wearing normal civilian clothes, (the first normal one in the room, thought Vir) and the other was wearing black body armor with the numerals “N7” stamped over the right breast.  If Adam had to guess, he’d say the humans were mercenaries of some sort.  The other one, he had no idea.

Moving over to the ornate bar, located on the same wall of the room as the door, stood a tall man in a black leather greatcoat.  HIs face was movie star handsome, and framed with immaculate black hair.  He had an easy smile, and looked rather out of place in a room filled with soldiers and old fictional characters.  And talking to the man was...Captain Kirk and Spock from Star Trek.  Adam shook his head as if to clear it.  Obviously, this was some sort of fever dream, and he’d wake up in his cabin at any moment…

But it was not to be.  The door slammed open behind him, and a strangely familiar voice said, “Excuse me.”  Vir turned around, and when his eyes laid on the figure walking through the door, they almost fell out of his head.  Walking into the room was a blond-brown haired man wearing a red colored greatcoat and a small, old-fashioned music played attached to his waist.  Following the man was a green skinned human looking alien, and a raccoon walking on it’s two hind legs.  The Guardians of the Galaxy.  Another ancient fictional story, come to life.  The raccoon sneered at him.

“Finished staring?” it asked with a surprisingly human-like voice.  Adam shook his head again.

“Er, yes, yes,” he trailed off.  What was happening here?  The black haired man from the bar appeared suddenly next to him and gave an enthusiastic grin.  

“Ah Adam Vir, Sunny, Krill, Peter Quill, Gamorra, Rocket,” he addressed each of the new arrivals by name and with a small smirk as he shook each of their hands.  All the new arrivals looked at each other with confusion.  How does he know our names?  We don’t know him, seemed to be the unspoken consensus between the two groups.  “Welcome.”   He turned behind him and spoke to the rest of the room. “Alright now that everyone’s here, we can begin!  It would be best if we all sat or stood in the middle.  Yes, yes, there it is, wonderful.  You’re fine there.  C’mon, get your gluteus in gear and get over here, Han.”  Everyone shuffled somewhat awkwardly to the middle of the room.  The black haired man and several tuxedoed waiters pulled over a group of tables and chairs.  The man, who Adam guessed was their host, Thomas Drake, gestured at everyone to sit.  Most sat, with several electing to remain standing.  Drake languidly leaned against the edge of a table.

“So.  As you may already know or have already guessed, my name is Thomas Drake.  Due to several of your galaxies messing around with the fabric of time,” Drake glared pointedly at Kirk, who gave a sheepish smile, the solo military-looking man from the back of the room, who shrugged indifferently, and the elaborately uniformed man.  Said man threw out his hands in a defensive gesture.

“Hey, I’m just a humble Commissar.  If anyone’s screwing with time, it’s the Inquisition.”  Drake sighed.

“Whatever.  Anyway, before I was oh so rudely interrupted, I was saying that due to several of your galaxies screwing with time, all of our galaxies, which existed separately as alternate realities, have all combined into a massive, multi-galaxy and multi-timeline mess.  The reason that all of you are here is because, apparently unlike the rest of you, I’ve done my homework, and I’ve found something interesting.  In every one of our collective galaxies, there seems to be a badass, lucky, famous, and all around awesome soldier or mercenary.  You.”  Things were starting to make much more sense.  Drake continued, “I have invited and/or got permission for all of you to be here today for one simple reason: I plan on creating a group of all of us.  Put together, we can overcome any obstacle, learn more about this new reality of many different galaxies we are facing from inhabitants of said galaxies, cause a bunch of shenanigans, eliminate any threats to the governments we work for or the people we love, and if none of those are incentive enough, make an ungodly amount of money.”  Several people (and aliens) around the table grinned at the last one.  “I’ve already gotten permission for those who need it to join this little group, so, the only question remains,” he spread his hands wide for dramatic emphasis, “who’s in?”

Chewbacca growled something and Han Solo nodded.  “We’re in.”  The lone military-like man nodded.  

“I’m in.”  The Guardians looked at each other and nodded.

“Making tons of money and exploring new galaxies?  Oh, we’re definitely in.”  The tough-looking man with the “N7” on his armor and the hooded figure in his retinue nodded.

“I have Council authorization.  I’m in.”  Drake looked at Adam.

“And you?”  Adam’s mind was made up.  Get the chance to go through multiple galaxies, some actual fictional stories from his childhood, meet a ton of new people and get to see new aliens?  Definitely.  He looked at Sunny and Krill.  Sunny nodded, Krill merely had an exasperated look plastered on his bug-like face.

“We’re in.”  Drake looked at the elaborately-uniformed man.

“What about you?”  The man pursed his lips.  

“You got permission from the Administratum for this?” he asked skeptically.  Drake rustled through the pockets of his greatcoat and came out with a piece of parchment with a medieval-style wax seal.  

“No, I got permission from one Inquisitor Amberley Vail.  These are the written orders.”  He tossed them to the man.

“Ah.  That would explain several things.  I’m in.”  Drake turned to Kirk and Spock.

“And you two?”  Spock frowned.

“This does not seem as if it were in the best interests of the Federation.”  Drake smiled dazzlingly at him. 

“Your government would want to explore these new galaxies anyway, and who would they send?  You.  This way you have more allies to help you.”

“Fair point.  We’re in.”  Drake grinned wickedly.

“Wonderful.  Time to Rock and roll!”

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: How I Got Into Sakuga

Kaiba, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

  If you’re an anime fan, you’re likely an animation fan in general. But how do you know when an animation is “good”? How do you learn to identify an animator by only what you see, or tell when their drawings are better than usual?

  English-speaking anime fans have adopted sakuga as a general catch-all term for exceptional animation. While the word sakuga itself means “animation,” in this context, sakuga has come to mean something very specific: Not just animation that looks cool, but the deliberate handiwork of specific animators with specific artistic aspirations. For example, a single-animator project might have a lot of “sakuga shots” because it has a personal, highly-refined style. Meanwhile, a television series might have an entire team of varying specialists for a larger narrative. Some of this might be attributed to specific key animators, while some might be credited to an entire studio — transformation sequences, explosive missiles, robots — that’s all fair game to be called sakuga. But how do you really know if what you’re looking at really is this so-called “sakuga?”

  Like most art, it’s almost entirely subjective. Here’s my story.

Project A-ko, a high-energy 1986 OVA series best remembered for its exceptional animation staff

(Image via Retrocrush)

  All’s Fair in Love and War Games

  When I was a kid, I got my hands on the English-dubbed Digimon: The Movie on VHS. This notorious release was a three-part recut of Mamoru Hosoda’s Digimon OVAs released from 1999 to 2000, heavily featuring his second film Digimon Adventure: Our War Game. Of course, I didn’t experience this package as a “Hosoda anime” at the time. Besides the inspired inclusion of Barenaked Ladies’ "One Week" to the soundtrack, I strongly associate these films with Hosoda’s signature interpretation of Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru’s original Digimon Adventure character designs. Compared to the Toei-produced television series, these renditions of the Digi-Destined are charmingly off-model and move with awkward intention, like actual kids up against terrifying monsters.

  In a sense, that’s what most people mean by sakuga — animation that makes us lean in and notice traits about the world and characters that can’t be communicated otherwise. Sakuga, in particular, places special emphasis on an individual animator’s keyframes, or the drawings used as a basis for in-between frames during movement. That’s what I mean by the phrase “Hosoda anime.” If you watch Summer Wars or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time enough times, anyone will notice a stylistic palette of idiosyncrasies.

    Digimon Adventure “Home Away From Home” directed by Mamoru Hosoda

(Image via Hulu)

  An Emerging Style

  When I got older and realized there was more anime than what was on cable, I kept returning to “flat” style animation with films like Tatsuo Satō’s 2001 Cat Soup and Shōji Kawamori’s 1996 Spring and Chaos. Around this time, contemporary artist Takashi Murakami also began developing his own “superflat” style (coined in his 2000 book Superflat and later in Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture) we’ll return to. Once I got a taste for the experimental, I never turned back.

  But back to Hosoda. Less focused on the details of models and more fixated on a “flat” or fluid style of movement, the key animation in Hosoda’s films makes body language a priority. This is perhaps the best thing about good sakuga — its potential to express deep emotion even under production constraints. My favorite example comes from the first Digimon short film Hosoda directed, the simply titled Digimon Adventure from 1999.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

  Originally conceived as a standalone for Bandai’s then-new Digital Monsters virtual pet toys, this version of Digimon is less loud, more atmospheric — and sincerely preoccupied with the question: “How would little kids actually handle a giant monster of their own?” The result is an unforgettable shot of Kairi, Tai’s little sister desperately blowing her whistle, stopping to catch her breath, then spitting and coughing in an attempt to calm down their newly evolved kaiju Greymon friend. 

  For the television series, Hosoda directed the episode “Home Away From,” depicting the two siblings clinging to each other as the other slowly drifts back to the Digital World. In both scenes, characters don’t constantly move, but only act when necessary via careful manipulation of the frames. This technique not only makes everything seem more “realistic,” but also acts as a visual cue for the anxiety Tai and Kairi feel. In other words, painstakingly controlled animation serves both form and function, especially when you’re selling an emotional climax of another kid-meets-monster plot.

Tomorrow’s Joe, 1980 film adaptation of the 1970 TV anime series directed by Osamu Dezaki

(Image via Retrocrush)

  A Little History Lesson

  After Digimon, Hosoda and Nakatsuru collaborated on films like Summer Wars and the Takashi Murakami-inspired pop art short Superflat Monogram. Hosoda is no doubt inescapable to sakuga fans today thanks to the ubiquity of his feature films. Still, Hosoda obviously wasn’t the first sakuga animator. Animators like Yasuo Ōtsuka, known for his cinematic work in a pre-Ghibli era of anime film with Toei, documented the growth ‘60s and ‘70s of Japan’s animation industry in his 2013 book Sakuga Asemamire. When the demand for films lowered in favor of anime television during that era, animators took risks. Classics of the era like Tiger Mask and Tomorrow's Joe literally held no punches, and Osamu Tezuka’s own Mushi Productions dove headfirst into experimental adult films. Animators, and especially keyframe animators, had creative control. In this perfect storm, the advent of sakuga was inevitable.

  Everyman Ken Kubo is taught the ways of eighties anime in Otaku no Video

(Image via Retrocrush)  

Why Bother With Sakuga?  

In 2013, animation aficionado Sean Bires and company hosted an informational panel titled “Sakuga: The Animation of Anime” at Anime Central Chicago. Uploaded to YouTube that same year, this panel informed my younger self’s understanding of not just the “how” of sakuga, but the “why” it even needed to exist in anyone’s vocabulary. Accessible, meticulously researched, and full of visual references, Sean’s two-hour panel-lecture does the heavy lifting of contextualizing anime not just through a historical lens, but within the broader project of expanding cinematic techniques. This primer might sound heady, but considering the popularity of Masaaki Yuasa’s series like Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and references to animator Ichirō Itano’s “Itano circus” missiles in American cartoons like DuckTales, it’s hard to say sakuga isn't relevant. Nowadays, it's practically a trope to parody one of Dezaki's most iconic shots. Supplemented by a rich community of blogs and forums, it couldn’t be easier to learn about animators like Yasuo Ōtsuka or the early days of Toei if you want a bigger picture. Blogs like Ben Ettinger’s Anipages and the aptly named Sakuga Blog are a good place to start, not to mention dozens of dedicated galleries of anime production and art books published by studios themselves. Now couldn’t be a better time to vicariously live your art school dreams through anime masterworks.

  Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a 1989 film featuring animation by Yasuo Ōtsuka best known for his work on the Lupin III franchise  

Sakuga Is For Everyone  

Fans have always been obsessed with the technicalities of animation, even if they weren't artists. As early as 2007, uncut dubbed collector box sets for Naruto came with annotated booklets of episode storyboards. More recently, critically-acclaimed series like Shirobako further explicated this love for animation as a team effort — people love attaching other people to art. In contrast, psychological horror series like Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent features an episode about an anime studio’s production going terribly wrong. Not to mention the endlessly self-referential Otaku no Video Gainax OVA and its depiction of zealous sakuga otaku. Anime fans adore watching anime be born over and over. It’s that simple.     

Digimon Adventure “Home Away From Home” directed by Mamoru Hosoda

(Image via Hulu)

Today, I’d comfortably call some shots from Hosoda Digimon films great sakuga. But Koromon is still weird. Sorry.   The love for sakuga isn’t a contest to one-up fans on production trivia or terminology. It’s about taking the time to appreciate the fact that anime is ultimately a collaborative artistic endeavor. From tracing back the lineage of animators like Yoshinori Kanada to Kill la Kill, to appreciating the visual sugar rush of Project A-Ko alongside slow-paced Ghibli films, “getting into sakuga” isn't a passive effort, nor a waste of time. Besides, wouldn't it be fun understanding how your favorite animator achieved your favorite scene? The phrase "labor of love" is cliché, but maybe that’s a good synonym for what role sakuga inevitably plays for artists and fans alike — work that brings you joy, no matter how you cut it.   Who is your favorite animator? When did you get into sakuga? Let us know in the comments below!

      Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more. He actually doesn't hate Koromon.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Blake Planty

[abifurcatedheart]

Of Machines and Pigs Pt. 6

"My dear Mister Mandus, I admire your vision, I really do, but there are surely not enough pigs in the whole of London to feed the appetite of such a machine."

"That all rather depends, Professor, on what one considers to be a pig."

(It's been a long while, but in this post I'm going to talk about the Mandus Processing Company! So get ready for quite a lengthy read!)

First, let's go back a bit and talk about the original Mandus Co. Meat Processing Factory, established in 1828. Presumably it has been a family-run business, passed down through generations. In the November 7th, 1898 Found Document which discusses the Mandus family's recent financial burden, we find out that Oswald Mandus, in an attempt to keep up with the risen era of industry, took a gamble on revamping his shop into a full-scale, machine-driven factory, and unfortunately for him the gamble did not pay off. Now he's in hot water, unable to move forward due to his exhausted fortune, yet unable to convince the bank to lend him what he needs to progress.

So, after scouring his great uncle's notes, he learns about various ruins and the treasures they may contain -- including the orbs, which he hopes to obtain and sell for profit. Of course, we all know what happens during his expedition in Mexico.

When he returns home to London, he immerses himself completely in his work of expanding his business, partly as a way to cope with the loss of his sons -- according to his phonograph conversation with Professor A. His newfound charisma, humanitarian ideals, and I'm going to presume pity points due to his intense illness win him the favor of many a wealthy benefactor, and, much to the surprise and awe of men like Professor A. he is quickly able to renovate his factory and then some. He builds an entire enterprise, an empire if you will.

It is called the Mandus Processing Company, and its logo can be found everywhere throughout the game.

Before we go further from here, let's detour a little and talk about Compound X, a liquid that is used for everything from machine fuel to coolant, to tissue mending and life restorative, and just about everything in-between. But what is Compound X, exactly? Another "gift" found in the notes of his great uncle, it's actually the discarded formula for manufactured vitae that Alexander had come up with in The Dark Descent. With all of the elaborated lore in Amnesia: Rebirth surrounding vitae, now its various uses in A Machine for Pigs make more sense. (For those who haven't played Rebirth yet, vitae is a curative, regenerative, fuel source, and a power source used by Alexander's people.)

In Oswald's company, Compound X is not only used in the surgical processes of creating manpigs, it is also, and perhaps more interestingly, used for helping to keep the factory running. Mandus has created an essentially self-sustaining workhouse, as well as connecting systems to his home to ensure that things like electricity and heat are generated using the factory's inner workings.

The factory is designed using the same various compartments and systems as any other slaughterhouse -- except the main line has been modified to accommodate human bodies, rather than just pigs. He alternates between capturing and slaughtering the rich and the poor, in order to make the disappearances less obvious; as he himself explains, it would seem too suspicious if too many wealthy, upper class individuals went missing at one time. But the poor, on the other hand? No one would notice the loss of the "undesirables" of the city, allowing him to kidnap them in bulk.

But how does he manage this, as critically ill as he is? He builds his reputation by donating money and food to the church and its charges, the orphanages, mental hospitals, and the workhouses, giving the impression that he cares deeply for the plight of the less fortunate and thus deserves respect and assistance. (One ironic aspect of his new factory is that it is a workhouse, granting employment to those in need of it, including children.) St. Dunstan's Church has been connected to his factory, and its congregation led into the metaphorical belly of the beast, with Father Jeremiah accompanying them following Oswald's grand reveal to him about his plan. The more distrustful lower class citizens are gathered and, owing to traps beneath the city streets, swept away in the blink of an eye to be turned into produce. Meanwhile, for the rich, he flaunts his new wealth and product, earning him the attention of those in higher standings -- enough so that he's able to throw luxurious parties at his residence for them. The various rooms of his home have been rigged with traps, so that unlucky drunk and drugged guests are easily transported onto the pigline through them, then are subsequently fed to the next guests at the following parties.

Not a bad system, or so it would have been had the authorities not begun to grow suspicious of disappearances. Their investigations, without fail, led them to Oswald Mandus, and so we are granted the phonograph conversation with Professor A. as a result.

But back to the factory! Three interesting locations worth noting are the laboratories, found beneath the main factory buildings; the nuclear reactor, lurking deep beneath the city and likely supplying most of the power to the resource-intensive systems; and South Tower, where much of the Compound X is stored and is likely regulated to the various compartments due to its cold storage.

The laboratories are where the experimentations are carried out by Oswald, most notably those dealing with Compound X and resuscitation of the deceased, and the creation of more manpigs. Victims are shipped down to this area and held in cages until it's their turn to be taken. The process, much like the production line process, is explained and described in various notes in-game.

The nuclear reactor, I tend to assume supplies a large amount of power to the factory because of not only the nature of it, but also because it's the heart of the sabotaging efforts that we are undoing during the first half of the game, and it isn't until after we restart it that the factory truly and fully comes back to functional life. Being that it, again, is the heart of the sabotaging efforts, I believe that it is the -- if not one of the -- most important parts of the "machine". There is also implication in the Machine's dialogue and another few found documents that the reactor's function is also to split apart the earth's core(the "egg of the world").

South Tower, fully known as "Electrogravitic Suppression: South Tower" is home to the Tesla manpigs, being that it's the only area cold enough to sustain them and their stability due to the high volume of Compound X within them. (You run into another variation of them in the sewer level, the "Failed Experiments".) It, curiously enough, also houses in its very center a human heart, suspended in air and surrounded on the room's outer area by glass harmonicas. What does it mean? I'm still not sure, but after activating the glass harmonicas and charging up the power to the room, approaching the heart seems to cause it to become electrocuted. If I were to take a guess, I'd assume the heart is located there to keep it alive and beating until that moment, as well as to preserve it using the cold temperature.

Alright, I think I've rambled enough for now. What are your thoughts and theories? If you've read this far, and the post has piqued your own curiosities, I'd love to hear what you think as well!

[border-spam]

Troy HC dump

These span all eras and are valid for the Troy I write , some are 18+ so read more at your discretion:

Hugely into any puzzle / collection echo games (think puzzle and dragons), and uses them to relax very often in private. Finds puzzle games really destress him and help him sleep. Has spent an insane amount of money in them.

Keeps his own personal coffers and the amount he spends wouldn’t even be noticeable against his almost infinite wealth , but he’d be intensely embarrassed if anyone found out how much God King Calypso spends on gatchas.

Hair is naturally very thick, his iconic hairstyle was originally born out of frustration after going for a bandit mohawk, realising how much work that was going to be every day, then swiping it all forwards and hoping for the best.

Has v little torso hair but does pluck the patchy little bits he grows for the aesthetic, bitch.

Incredibly hygienic for a Pandoran, but more so with his oral hygiene than anything else. Had to keep a rigorous cleansing routine for the first few months after his jaw mod and just kept it up from then on.

Understands a huge amount of different languages, but not fluently. Leda taught him the basics of a lot of language cores and he can understand and read a lot relatively well. Cant speak or write them though, and keeps this skill close to his chest.

He’s intensely clever and realised early how useful it was to understand what sponsors were saying to each other in “private” by using another language during meetings with the twins. He’s turned having his intelligence underestimated so often into a weapon he wields with great skill.

His hand writing is atrocious. He can read it fine, but not even Tyreen can half the time. Almost proud of having his own shitty shorthand code he can use for notes.

Can count the amount of times he’s worn underwear by choice on his one hand since adulthood. Didn’t have any on Nekrotafeyo, and fuck it. Freedoms comfortable and let’s you have very low slung pants.

Very low slung pants are very good at distracting possible competitors/business partners enough during interactions to either cause them to slip up, or underestimate his cunning again. Either works fine for him, he gets attention, and the upper hand. Win win.

Snores really bad from a combo of mods and compromised respiratory system. Modded tongue tends to slowly extend the deeper his sleep gets, and he’s woken up with it over his eyes before. Will completely deny he snores, only Tyreen has heard it and she’s clearly lying, right?

Did most of his own piercings and barely flinched. Full on SOBBED after he pierced his nips. Sat on his bathroom floor for an hour waiting for the pain to pass while strongly second guessing his life decisions.

Gets extremely emotionally invested in classical music / soundtracks and falls asleep listening to his fave playlists often. Has nicer dreams when he does than if he doesn’t, and also feels like it helps boost his creativity while working. Doesn’t know why.

A combo of keeping his neck covered under the collar, and the scarring on his throat, has left it hyper sensitive when uncovered. A caress will instantly have him snapping viciously or melting into a gasping mess of goosebumps and shivers depending on who’s hand it was.

Super comfortable with nudity, his self esteem issues are focused on his body’s layout and the self perceived damage/disfunction of it, nudity doesn’t come into play at all.

That is, as long as his bracer is on. What’s under the bracer is the one part of his body he would be terrified of showing to someone he valued in a vulnerable situation. Any COV worshipper stupid enough to think just because they can touch him naked means they could try and touch under the bracer is going to really miss their hand afterwards ( if they are still alive to miss it ).

Would love to be able to play a musical instrument well but he’s struggled with any he tried before as only his existing hand is dextrous enough for one. Would really appreciate and treasure someone with the patience and kindness to teach him, but knows that would mean dropping the God King persona, and can’t justify damaging their reputation just for something that would make him happy.

Gets recognised instantly regardless of how he dresses or looks, which he loathes. There is no way to hide his height or build, let alone the markings on his face. Really misses being able to just wander and explore like he could in the COV’s early days.

Really, really, really loves food, but his ill health means he can’t eat the way he’d like and often has to avoid foods he wished he could eat more. God King Calypso is known for being exceptionally choosy about the food he eats. In reality, Troy just can’t trust a lot of the overly rich food he’s served.

Massively enjoys cooking in his Sanctum when alone, and would treasure doing so for anyone he sees as a friend. Has, very rarely in the past, and loved seeing how surprised they were that he’s not useless at it.

Solely drinks alcohol to get drunk, can’t really taste beer very well and doesn’t enjoy most spirits. He’s a functional alcoholic but would deny he relies on it or other drugs (he absolutely does) and blows off concern from medics as it being something he chooses to do, not needs.

Wishes he could smoke Pandoran weed but wouldn’t risk the damage to his weak lungs, tends to make tea with what he grows in his ship, shares it with Tyreen a lot. She can’t touch plants, so he has no problem doing the green thumb work and sharing with her when she needs to relax.

Unless their dad had thought it to them or they saw it in an echo show, then the twins had no grasp of basic social do’s and don'ts when they reached Pandora.

Troy would have no problem sitting in a merger meeting picking his nose while Tyreen scratched her ass in front of board members. They learned a lot of their social skills the hard way, having been asked to please, please stop by priests and saints.

Has never won a burping competition against Tyreen in his life. Is genuinely irritated by this.

Can’t dance. Can strut and pose, has a great sense of rhythm, just cannot for the life of him do anything dance wise. Please don’t ask him to it will end in tears (his).

Savant with numbers, sees them as patterns like his dad did. Thought everyone could till he met people on Pandora. Gets aggressively frustrated with anyone who he needs to explain his process for reaching a mathematical conclusion to, because they never get it.

Complete idiot tier for animals. Likes them a lot, just doesn’t know what any of them are and no one is in a position to correct him without risking embarrassing the God King publicly and having their neck snapped.

Calls everything he sees a Skag. Rakks? Flying Skags. Bullymongs? Arm Skags. Skags? “Those bitchin lil’ mouth dudes.”

Really enjoys art and has a beautiful defined style with spray paint. Dumbs it down for propaganda, but his Sanctum is filled with canvases that are experimental colour and line pieces. Very much likes working with holy iconography but tends to only illustrate Tyreen this way in his own time..

Spends a lot of hours in the Mechanicum and knows a lot of the Tinks in higher leadership position by name. Likes to talk engineering with them and feels comfortable enough to drop a lot of the God King persona and actually enjoy the conversation.

A Troy who’s excited and interested in a discussion is all twinkling eyes and gentle, eager smile. He often has to remind himself to shift back into persona mid conversation, and it can be quite.. sad.. to see him go from so clearly happy, back to an icy, scathing asshole.

Incredible at lying but cannot bluff for shit. Play any card game with him and he has instant facial tells (squints and sticks his tongue slightly out the side of his mouth when looking at his cards). Doesn’t understand why he could never win against his dad or Tyreen, probably never will.

Would never wear his reading glasses publicly, thinks they completely destroy his overall aesthetic and lines of his face mods. Won’t accept his’s wrong about this from anyone, though he personally likes how much more like himself he looks when wearing them in private.

Tyreen was so sick of seeing his ass crack, she was the one who suggested the overly tight belt that became part of his outfit. All his pants that are the right length are far too wide in the waist for his narrow hips. He could just get fitted ones now, but the low slung waist line + belt combo is part of his look at this point.

Incredibly high pain tolerance for almost everything, says he barely felt the tattoos and genuinely means it. The constant pain from the bracer and damaged shoulder joint has let him numb to most other relatively low levels of pain.

Is an amazing kisser as long as what you enjoy is the threat of being consumed alive. Troy’s mouth is a self designed weapon, verbally and physically, and he’s never been in a position to learn to use it tenderly. Doesn’t let worshippers choose to kiss him when bedding them, and is aggressive with it if he chooses to kiss them.

Would love to learn how to be tender from someone who cared for him and he felt safe enough with to allow his persona to slip and be vulnerable with, but as the years go on and the God King becomes more in control, Troy has become resigned to the fact that it’s something he will never have.

Very self conscious about his hygiene and showers usually twice daily if he can. Everything on Pandora is covered in sweat and filth, and he can’t risk getting infections considering the amount of open ports along his body. Really enjoys scents and has a surprisingly large collection.

Gets highly irritated with public displays of affection. Intensely, soul crushingly envious.

This gets dangerous late God King era as he becomes more and more violent. People have learned to be extremely careful to not show affection to each other in viewing distance of him at all, or risk losing a limb. Or worse.

Sex drive only gets higher as time goes on. For the first few years he much preferred pleasuring himself rather than interacting with the squalid heaving masses of followers throwing their bodies at him, but by the time of the God King era in later COV years, he can’t stand touching himself anymore. He doesn’t want to touch his body, and the God King is more than happy to let others praise it nightly instead.

Sleeps with huge cushions he brushes off as being for comfort, but deep down he knows its because their weight and pressure helps him not feel so alone.

Squints a lot and is known for scowling, but it’s mostly due to terrible headaches, not eye sight issues or his mood. The dark eye makeup helps with the glare a little but he’s noticeably paler than his sister due to the bright sun causing them more often than not and him preferring to stay in the shade of indoors.

Has kept every single thing given to him out of kindness. Will keep sugar packets if someone brings him a coffee with one out of concern for him looking tired. If he feels it was done because they like him and not out of respect for his title, he will keep anything he’s been given.

Most of the people who gave him these tiny things he’s kept.. well.. they aren’t around anymore (no one he’s gotten to know well chooses to stay very long ).. but he still likes to look through them sometimes when he needs to be reminded he’s possible to like.

The collection looks like a little box of trash to anyone else, but bar his old jacket his father made for him out of one of his own that he still keeps hidden away, it’s probably his most treasured possession.