#horror game protagonist bracket

[randomvideogametournaments]

Horror Game Protagonist Bracket: FINALS

Finals and 3rd place matches will be open for 1 week.

Welp, we made it to the finals match. Thanks to everyone who voted, liked, reblogged, anything! This was my first ever Tumblr bracket, and it was very fun to create and run. Might do another bracket, but not immediately after. Thank you all so much!

[lulusoblue]

This is a travesty

Now, listen, I know Silent Hill is an old school series, and I know (somewhat, maybe I'm wrong) that some old school series don't necessarily have the biggest fandoms on tumblr. But I refuse to believe that the Silent Hill fandom is deader than the BioShock fandom for James Sunderland to be losing to Jack BioShock in a horror poll.

I love BioShock, it is my hyperfixation until the end of time, but you cannot look me in the eye and tell me that James Sunderland, THE sad man of horror, who spawned several psychologically horrifying and iconic monsters that you could swing a pipe at, is losing this horror protagonist poll. This is a call to ACTION! A call to ARMS! Because if James Sadmanderland loses this poll, what is to be said of Heather Mason's chances in the next round? Of Harry Mason? Of Henrick Townsman?

(but in all seriousness folks please check out and follow this bracket because this kind of competitiveness is fun and brackets are cool and also Harry Mason's round is coming up. Give @randomvideogametournaments a follow, show some love!)

[rpghorrortp]

RPG HORROR O.T.P. BRACKETS

a silly contest to find out the most popular ship from games generally seen as falling under the 'rpg horror' umbrella. CONTESTANTS | ROUND 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SameWada (Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea) : Samekichi x Wadanohara SugaShio (Forest of Drizzling Rain) : Suga Koutarou x Shiori Kanzaki Sunflower (OMORI) : Sunny x Basil Yosafroze (The Grey Garden) : Yosafire x Froze

JoeSara (Your Turn To Die) : Sara Chidouin x Joe Tazuna Brian × Kate (Yuppie Psycho) : Kate Hicks x Brian Pasternack

NoelClaire (Witch's Heart) : Noel Levine x Claire Elford Aya × Dio (Mad Father) : Aya x Dio

SeiRin (Mermaid Swamp) : Seitaro Wakasugi x Rin Yamazaki Batterie (OFF) : Batter x Zacharie

Aki × Misao (Misao) : Aki x Misao AyuShiki (Corpse Party) : Ayumi Shinozaki x Yoshiki Kishinuma

GoyApe (SHTDN) : Goyou x Agape KanAtou (Cell of Empireo) : Aogu Kanou x Haruki Atou

Elevatorstuck (Elevator Hitch) : Protagonist x Coworker BlakeWorth (Vincent : The Secret Of Myers) : Vincent Edgeworth x Victor Blake

[obscure-horror-game-protagonist]

OBSCURE HORROR GAME PROTAGONIST BRACKET

Welcome to the Obscure Horror Game Protagonist Bracket, where the "obscure" in the name is modifying the word "protagonist" and not the word "game".

We believe we have, after a decent amount of deliberation, come up with a wide range of characters, ranging from "Just Normal Guys" to "Insane Torture Murderers" to "an apple", some from games that are fairly obscure themselves and some from games that are actually pretty well known, but we believe all these somewhat arbitrarily chosen characters have one thing in common: If you referred to them by name while talking to any given random person, we've determined there's at least a 60-70% chance they won't know who you're talking about. And they're horror game protagonists. More or less. They all have two things in common. Kind of.

Due to the nature of the premise, it is likely that there will be some situations where you may not have any idea who these people are. To compensate for this, descriptions of the characters including any notable traits will be included with each poll. There's no shame in deciding which one you like better on the spot if it comes down to that.

Additionally, we would like you to please be wary that due to the nature of this being about horror game characters, sensitive subject matter will be mentioned in the descriptions of many of the characters, as it's often unavoidable. Similarly, there will be spoilers for the storylines of the games brought up here, if that matters to you.

But without further ado...

OUR ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:

Cynte (Endoparasitic) vs. Blake Langermann (Outlast 2)

Ellis Lynch (Blair Witch) vs. Murphy Pendleton (Silent Hill: Downpour)

Michael Tapp (Saw 2: Flesh and Blood (Xbox 360)) vs. Daniel Lamb (Manhunt 2)

Benjamin Oliver Walker (SCP: Containment Breach) vs. Andy the Apple (Andy's Apple Farm)

Foxtrot Unit 1 Commander Sanders (SCP: Nine-Tailed Fox) vs. Eriko Christy (Illbleed)

Clancy Jarvis (Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage) vs. Simon Jarrett (SOMA)

Justine Florbelle (Amnesia: Justine) vs. Thomas Smith (Neverending Nightmares)

David Hoover (The Crooked Man) vs. Arthur Hastings (We Happy Few)

Round one will begin on May 1st, 2023.

[horrorgameprotagbrawl]

hey horror dweebs

you guys got some games that make you Shit Thine Pants, but you also really like the guy you're controlling through a tidal wave of hell? well, then do i have the bracket for you! if you have a horror game protagonist you really like, submit it with the blog submission option! two things to clarify: 1. your character can be from any media, so long as it's a game and/or playable. (EX, John Ward and James Sunderland would be perfectly fine submissions) 2. The game does not necessarily have to be *entirely* horror, but it has to have horror as a main theme. (EX, We Happy Few and Cult of the Lamb, I guess? I don't know, We Happy Few was really the only example I could think of)

*gabe newell vc* thanks, and have fun.

[comshipbracket]

Antis DNI

Remember, you are voting for the ship you prefer, not the ship you find more problematic

Propaganda for both ships under the cut.

Paperhat Propaganda (Abusive Dynamic, Power Imbalance, Species Difference, Age Gap)

"Eldritch horror shitty boss x fucked up doctor with anxiety employee. We have so many scenes of Black Hat strangling Flug. SOOO MANY."

Batjokes Propaganda (Hero x Villain, Abusive Dynamic, Murder and Gore Themes, Obsessive Love)

"OH YOU GOTTA KNOW HOW INCREDIBLE THEY ARE. Joker is obsessed with the Bats! He would do ANYTHING for B. Bruce has REVIVED joker even after the death of his kids by Joker. THEY FLIRT. THEY GO ON FAKE DATES IN TELLTALE. THE FUSE IN MULTIPLE UNIVERSES, GAMES AND COMICS HACE SHOWN THEIR WAYS OF INFECTING EACH OTHER. They care for each other and they have been queer coded since interception"

Coffincest Propaganda (Abusive Dynamics, Codependant Relationship, Incest)

"They're the protagonists of the game who are stuck in quarantine because `the water was infected` though by now this seems to not be true and the government just wants to let some people starve I guess."

"Their dynamic is really abusive with Ashley being possessive of Andrew and controlling his life since they were kids (making him accidentally kill a girl by asthma because she said she liked him, per example), and in the events of the game, convincing him to cannibalize their neighbor when he died to a demon (it's not like the wardens were giving them food sooo). Though Andrew also seems to have some power over her, by the fact that he's the only person she likes and talks to (especially after the quarantine driving everyone else away) and without him, she would be completely alone, giving that little touch of codependency to their relationship."

"Even with all this they're so fucking cute together, the little CG of them kissing at the end of the demo really warms my heart (I was gonna put this one on the image link, but the image I sent now is better, Ashley sitting on Andrew's lap with hickeys and Andrew with scratch marks). Also, nemlei (the dev) said they're gonna be canon on some of the full game's endings."

[mermaidbracket]

The Finals for Mermaid Bracket 2: Aquatic Boogaloo are underway, but I've decided to open the doors for Mermaid Bracket 3: The One About Tails early!

As the subtitle for this one suggests, this edition of the Mermaid Bracket is specifically focusing on mermaid tails! The bracket images will additionally be framed around the tails this time, not the entirety of the character.

[SUBMIT HERE AFTER READING THE RULES UNDER THE CUT]

1. All genders of merfolk are accepted. Yes it's called the Mermaid Bracket, but that's for marketing purposes.

2. The submitted character must be merfolk. This means mammalian top, aquatic bottom, and human-like sentience.

3. Fitting with the previous rule, they have to have a tail. This specific bracket is about tails after all.

4. There MUST be a clear image available showcasing their tail. The bracket images will be entirely framed around the tails, so if I can't find an image or one isn't sent to me, it's not going in.

5. Submitted characters from the same source material with very similar tails will be going up against each other in a preliminary match. This is to prevent just a bunch of the same tails in different colors filling up the bracket. If the tails are different enough though, they can skip this process.

6. Real people and mermaid personas (mermaid performers, v-tubers, etc.) are not allowed.

7. Mermaid costumed characters are allowed, even if it was a one time thing. They however have to be wearing a full mermaid tail and not just a skirt.

8. Harry Potter isn't allowed.

9. You can submit as many characters as you want, but please don't submit the same character more than once. Everyone's making it in because I love making lists and documents.

10. All characters that appeared in the past two brackets are allowed to be resubmitted for this (AS LONG AS THEY FOLLOW THE ABOVE RULES).

11. They have to have a picture. I am not pasting a screenshot of a book description of their tail.

And here's me tagging a bunch of other brackets that I've reblogged from before! @pinkhairswagtourney @precureshowdown @precurehairtournament @battleoftheicyfreaks @purpleboytournament @autisticgirliesbracket @christ-figure-bracket @obscure-horror-game-protagonist @favoritecapcomcharacterbracket @evilmilftournament @dreamperson-poll @yuribait-battle @green-magical-girl-showdown @princessandknightfight @magical-mascot-smackdown @orange-magicalgirl-showdown @princesspoll @mahougender

[protagonistpolling]

PROTAGONIST POLLING

Why should you vote for Andy? (1)

"He has been subjected to too many horrors i think he deserves a little fun. He's the player character of the haunted video game creepypasta he needs a break from all the spooky ghost stuff"

Why should you vote for Denji? (2)

"hes been through so much. he is so stupid. but he has a big heart. :)"

[actionforpalestine]

ACTION BRODOWN TOURNAMENT

A POPULARITY TOURNAMENT TO DETERMINE THE MOST POPULAR ACTION HERO (OR HEROINE) TO GRACE THE BIG (OR SMALL) SCREEN!

MAY THEY BE THE EXAMPLE ALL BROS STRIVE FOR.

SUBMIT YOUR FAVORITE ACTION MOVIE/ TV SHOW HERO (BRO) TO HAVE A CHANCE TO BE TUMBLR'S NUMBER ONE BRO- UH I MEAN ACTION HERO!

THE RULES:

NOMINATE THROUGH THIS GOOGLE FORM, BOUND TO EXPIRE SOMEPOINT AT SEPT 12TH.

BE CHILL AND RESPECTFUL. RUDENESS AND BIGOTRY NO MATTER WHAT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

CHARACTERS HAVE TO BE PROTAGONISTS OF ACTION MOVIES OR TV SHOWS. BROS ARE FOR THE FORCES OF GOOD, SO NO VILLAINS. ANTI-HERO ACCEPTABLE.

DEUTERAGONISTS / SECONDARY MAIN CHAR (LIKE UNCLE BOB FROM TERMINATOR 2) ARE ALSO ACCEPTABLE AS LONG AS THEY KICK ASS TOO.

REMEMBER BRO IS FOR ALL SHAPES AND SIZES, FEMALE AND OTHER BROS ARE ACCEPTABLE AND WELCOMED.

BE SPECIFIC. YOU CAN VOTE AS MANY CHARACTERS AS YOU LIKE, EVEN IF THEY ARE PLAYED BY THE SAME ACTOR. (POSSIBLE LIMIT DEPENDING ON HOW MANY REQUESTS TIED TO ONE ACTOR OR SERIES ARE SENT.)

SUB-GENRES OR DOUBLE GENRE, SUCH AS SCI FI ACTION OR HORROR COMEDY ACTION ARE ACCEPTABLE. AS LONG AS ACTION IS THERE.

BROPAGANDA IS ALLOWED AND WELCOMED. ANTI-BROPAGANDA IS SEMI ALLOWED, AS LONG AS IN GOOD FUN.

RUNNER OF TOURNAMENT LIVES WITHIN EST. ALSO MAY BE BUSY SOMETIMES.

RUNNER ALSO MAY DECLINE REQUESTS IF NOT FITTING GUIDELINES OR ETC. QUESTIONS ARE ALLOWED.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLE BROS THAT ARE ALREADY INCLUDED.

John Rambo (Rambo)

Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Predator)

Harry Callaghan (Dirty Harry)

Ellen Ripley (Alien)

Ash Williams (Evil Dead)

"Mad" Max Rockatansky (Mad Max)

Neo (The Matrix)

CLARIFICATIONS OR THINGS I DIDN'T THINK OF AT FIRST. IMPORTANT ASKS ARE ALSO ANSWERED HERE.

SUPERHEROES ARE SEMI ALLOWED. IN THE SPIRIT OF THIS TOURNAMENT, ONLY STREET LEVEL SUPERHEROES ARE ALLOWED. (BATMAN, DAREDEVIL, ETC) THINK TO YOURSELF, WOULD THEY BE ON THE LEVEL OF OTHER ACTION HEROES IN THIS TOURNAMENT? (OR AT LEAST SOMEWHAT NEAR) IF NO, THEY PROBABLY AREN'T A GOOD FIT.

ANIMATION IS TOTALLY FINE, AS IT'S A MEDIUM AND NOT A GENRE. JUST MAKE SURE IT'S DOMINANTLY ACTION FIRST.

DO SPECIFY CHARACTER AND MEDIA IF THEY HAVE MORE THAN ONE INCARNATION IN THEIR SERIES.

(Hi, this was inspired by Broforce, an awesome video game inspired by action movies and tv shows. It's really fun and over the top, so I decided to do so here with the all caps.

Tagging for more reach, but also shout out to these cool tournaments, check them out. And directory too!

@80s-movie-tournament

@tournamentdirectory

@tmnt-bracket

@the-nobody-tournament

@dc-tournaments

@red-riding-poll

@pikmintournament

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group D Round 2

[image ID: the first image is of Todoroki Kakeru, a boy with short brown hair with several lighting strike-looking cowlicks. red and white headphones sit over his ears, but they aren't plugged into anything. a small bandaid is on his left cheek. his shirt is red and white, with a golden design in the middle of a crossed arrow and wrench, and he wears black and white gloves. the second image is of a person infected with the Chryacid form of the Exsurgent Virus. it's causing spiked, insect-limb-like growths to emerge from the body. upon the person's back is a large furry sack, like the back end of an insect, with another limb or stinger emerging from it. end ID]

Todoroki Kakeru

he is an idiot protagonist to a rlly fucking weird game/anime series/franchise by square enix that's kinda like transformers but also not; just imagine a world where 11 year olds drive AI cars because that's the basis of this universe and it only gets weirder from there lmao; ANYWAY kakeru rides/pilots (?) an AI car named Raibird that also happens to be a gyrozetter which is basically just a transformer jgies;ajo but kakeru is a self-prolcaimed hero and rlly big fan of wrestling??? (they use wrestling moves while piloting their transforming car mechs) also he has this silly habit of saying stuff like "that was despairingly cool" and is always told that he's using the word (despair) incorrectly as a repeating bit and it's a fun lil quirk of his >w< he's just a silly, idiot bone-headed, overexcited protag and i care him also all the baddies of the week always say his name w a rolling r which is very fun as a repeating bit he just the silly!!!!

The Exsurgent Virus

YES its a character... its complicated. Its an alien computer virus slash hive mind that infects biological matter in the same way it infects computers and manipulates both to achieve the goals of an unknowable alien species. It wiped out life on earth and drove humanity into terrified exile. Sort of. Ok well it subsumed and altered life on earth and reshaped it in its image as hybrid biological-robotic things. Where does the robot end and the biology begin? It doesn't!! Anyway i submitted this delightful existential horror to like four horror brackets. redeem it. It has the memories of every human who lived. They'd appreciate it. [mod note: the Exsurgent Virus has forms besides this one, if you want to see/learn more, poke around here]

[carcassontheshore]

Nana Analysis: How the ambiguous portrayal of Shin and Reira’s relationship tricks us into thinking it’s a love story while it’s undertones tells a cautionary tale.

Disclaimer: Talks about sex, pedoplhiles, prostitution and suicide. None of the topics are too explicit. Viewers under 10 shouldn’t read. But this meta is cautionary. So, minors can read.

First of all, for all the anime watchers here, I am going to limit this meta only upto the anime because I want to warn and I don’t want minors to skip this just so they don’t get spoilers about the manga. This is important, trust me.

This meta is not to attack Ai sensei regarding her writing style. I think her style is beautifully mysterious. Not gonna lie, when I first saw the anime, I thought Shin x Reira was lovely. But I was horribly wrong.

I will mention the inspirations for this meta to properly portray the psychology behind the characters. First comes the book, Lolita. This book is famous for the portrayal of a pedophile’s mindset. In the book/movie, Humbert, the protagonist and pedophile, thinks that Lolita, the young girl and his step-daughter, is in love with him as well as sexually interested in him. The horrifying part is that, we never get to know about the girl’s point of view, how subconsciously or consciously horrified she is. Thus, we get to see the horror story as a love story instead. Humbert has no idea about the girl's thoughts and therefore, he romanticizes everything she does.

The second inspiration is Lana Del Ray’s controversial song of the same name, Lolita. While people think she romanticized pedophilic relationships in the song, I personally think she fills the gap of the book, which is Dolores or Lolita’s point of view. In the song, it is strongly hinted that she is trying to justify her actions. She is trying to make herself think that whatever she and Humbert has is ‘LOVE’. Mark the word ‘trying’. That’s how our brain works. It tricks us into thinking a certain way so that our conscience and body can survive. Most of the time, this way of thinking is produced through subliminal messages sent from our subconscious mind.

Let me include a personal experience in the brackets, skip if you want to. (I don’t consider myself as a sexual abuse victim. But I will try to portray my mindset about my experiences as an early bloomer to make you understand better. When I was 10, I already had a rather mature body, like a woman. But somehow, it was always obvious that I was a child. But that didn’t stop men from harassing me or seniors from showing interest in me. It disturbed me so much that sometimes, I wished to die. However, by the time I was 11, I had convinced myself that it was normal for a girl ‘like me’ to face that. When my conscience got the best of me, I blamed my body. But idk what I meant by a girl ‘like me’. Maybe I thought of myself as mature or dirty. But whatever I thought, it prevented me from dying or killing myself. This is what Dolores tries to do.)

MAIN META STARTS HERE:

Shin is a prostitute who was very much deprived of love as a child. He is only 15. Ryoko got him into prostitution. He is hinted to search for love through sex. It’s complicated. He doesn’t think of sex as anything but a game or business. For him, he gets in bed only after being paid and he can get others in bed if he pays. But his way of proposing to Reira was as messed up. He thought it was  true love just because money wasn’t involved. On the other hand, while explaining to Nobu why he continued being a prostitute, he hinted that he wanted to help lonely women to cope. It is to be noticed that Shin talks in a rather philosophical way almost all the time. While it is beautiful to us, it’s a way for him to convince himself that the things he does are justified. If you notice, he was trying to convince himself that he wanted to help those women. The same can be noticed in the car scene with Reira. He said, “What a teenager boy like me wants is not very different from what we already do (sex)”. Same as before, he was trying to convince himself that since he was a teenager, he wanted sex. It is obvious that he wasn’t sure cuz otherwise, he would have stated what he, as an individual, wanted. It is to be noticed that this happens after Reira refuses to talk to him about her situation and problems. Shin clearly stated that ‘he’ wanted to talk to her wholeheartedly. This is something he said in first person unlike the other sentence. Shin think he is in love with Reira which could be true but that isn’t the problem. The problem is all the things he does to cope with reality. His true feeling are rather a mystery considering his point of view is always indirect that is written in such a way that it makes us feel that what he says, he feels as well. Just like the song, Lolita.

Now, let us come to Reira’s point of view. It is to be noticed that she indeed had problems with Shin and her age gaps, 7 years, and Shin being a minor. This is expressed in the car scene as well. However, she mistook their age gap being 8 years until Shin corrects her. She, through Shin’s words, tries to justify this. She basically thought to herself that it’s almost ok to be in this relationship since it is 1 year less than what she initially thought. (This is something everyone does regarding any matter that includes numbers). Even she tries to convince herself that she loves Shin. Because she is unable to absorb the fact that Shin is just a replacement for Takumi. She knows this. Because she, herself, wasn’t ok with being a discardable person at first. ( The manga takes a different route. She is ok with being unimportant later on unlike anime.) On the other hand, in the car scene, she was ok with doing it with Shin cuz she didn’t knew what Shin was thinking. Just like Humbert in the book where he doesn’t know what Dolores is thinking. Both of them think that the minors are enjoying the time as much as they are. While both of the minors try to convince themselves that what they are doing are normal for people ‘like them’.

This is it. Even though unlike Humbert, Reira had a moral compass, this doesn’t justify anything at all. Just like, just because Shin is a prostitute, unlike Dolores, it neither justifies his actions nor does it make him any less of a victim.

[randomvideogametournaments]

Horror Game Protagonist Bracket: Round 3 Match 7

[seaweedsawyou]

Podcasts in review

Simple and nice list of all the podcasts I discovered in 2020. I had to go to the office alone during quarantine, don’t @ me. So, let’s start with fiction.

- numbers in brackets the number of episodes listened and existing, not rating - * indicate currently ongoing productions - cursive is for the cool kids

Friends at the table (a lot/a lot) 

Hands down, the best actual play podcast out there. It rarely happens that an improvised TTRPG would end up creating a world that is as rich and engaging as the Divine universe. Also Austin Walker is my second philosophy teacher (first was Detective Pony). 

Tomorrow the void (8/8) Quantum entanglement runs in the family. Moody. Sad mad old men. Includes a robot ball. 

This planet needs a name (5/5) * The most heartwarming post-apocalyptic tale, a rare sci-fi with a soul. Instills the desire to grab coffee with all the 7 characters after the prologue. Hopeful, mindful, soothingly slow paced. The new world will be better if we try.

Lighthearts (4/4) * A new queer community space is learning to cope with ghosts and new ways to connect people. Just all around warm and nice. From the same people who do This Planet Needs a Name. 

Murmurs (10/10) A very well produced (from BBC, duh) loose anthology (separate stories loosely connected to each other). An art house movie in audio form. Episode second includes an extremely touching love story and an instance of fucking a ghost.

The tower (7/7) It's Celeste. Climbing the tower to face the challenge and free yourself from the human condition for a while. It's not literally Celeste, but you know.

Middle below (10/10) A nervous ghost whisperer has one friend. The tag line of the show is "bad things will happen", and which has been an anxiety reliever and a call to action. 

Folxlore (3/3) Short horror stories from, by, about and for queer people from Scotland. The last one about pregnancy really hurted. 

Dungeon economic model (10/10) Less than 5 minute vignettes about why you should invest in dungeons. Some nice background worldbuilding. 

London necropolis railway (7/7) Ghouls and humans learn the true value of friendship and acceptance and defiance. 

The vanishing act (2/?) The promise of urban fantasy set in the 1930s Berlin underground culture, despite its magnificent appeal, is dwarfed by how annoying the MC is. He's the not funny type of an asshole - dumb, mean to his friends, hates women, utterly insufferable (and I can tolerate a lot of mediocre audio fiction). The production quality is top notch though. 

Station Arcadia (3/?) They are trying, and it's admirable. Would really benefit from a link to the map.

Midst (19/19) Fantasy story set in the world where the accounting is worshipped as a religion, following three protagonists, and told by three narrators - simultaneously, which had proven to be an incredibly fun technique. Worth a listen to at least check it out.

Null/void (9/?) * Anti-capitalist digital goddess preventing the marketing stunts of a malicious company. Way less cool than it sounds. 

Circles (4/4) Beth Eyre is great. The rest of the story (even though it has demons) - eh.

Forgive me (4/4) * Sitcom in the form of confessional testimonies of people revealing their sins to a pastor, who himself is running from something. Yes. Surprisingly well made. 

Next stop (10/10) Sitcom about three wacky millennials. More energetic than endearing. 

Less is Morgue (5/?) * Sitcom about a ghoul and a ghost with an annoying voice. 

Me & AU (11/11) * Turns out, love can blossom on the battlefield of fandom shipping. 

Old gods of Appalachia (12.5/12.5) * Good spooky stories with impeccable atmosphere that are hard to follow for me, for some reason. 

Temujin (5/5) A small, tidy and inscrutable audio drama depicting Genghis Khan's origin story. I have not read The Secret History of Mongols, but I doubt it's that accurate to the text. 

Godshead Incidental (4/4) * There is a girl who tries to live in the world after her sister's disappearance. There are gods. There is an endearing fixer/private consultant with some family drama. Looks to be a very promising show about getting to terms with your trauma set in a fun world with fun characters. Updating slowly, but surely.

Left Right Game (10/10) Audio adaptation of a serialized story on r/nosleep. High production values, alluring mysterious world, characters that exist only to be killed off every episode. 

Valence (12/12) MC with a special depression inner voice learns to meet new people, overcome trauma, find love, fight capitalism. Would not call the world or the characters particularly interesting, despite most of them being magic users. 

Unseen (5/?) A new anthology about magic from Wolf 359 people. One can listen to them say "are you watching closely" only so many times. 

Whirlwind for hire (4/?) Musicals are very ambitious undertakings, by default. This one has immortals, gods, nature spirits? Good for them.

Fall of the house of sunshine (8/a lot) Podcast musical about a murder on a children’s tv show, accordingly fast-paced. A ton of tiny wacky details about the world of teeth and its pearly truth (and more!). The only even remotely sympathetic story was left to the antagonist. 

Mockery Manor (6/?) * An old amusement park, twins, family secrets. Even features a tiger! Not as cool as its premises promises.

Brimstone Valley Mall (10/10) A band of lovable misfit demons trying to survive the reckoning from their dead end jobs. 

In Strange Woods (3/?) A musical that is unfortunately structured as a true crime. Features Patrick Page from Hadestown, so any and all faults are immediately forgiven.

The Cipher (2/8) Textbook YA about a 16 girl that revels a bit too much in the pain it causes her. At first you think “oh, poc representation”, but it’s just so she can be an orphan chosen one.

Non fiction

Into the Zone (8/8) An actually thought provoking and well crafted podcast. By pitting “opposites” against each other, valuable philosophical and sociological ideas reveal themselves in the space in between.

HiPhi nation Real life alarming and amazing stories used to broach philosophical subjects. Sometimes veers into “we need more female drone pilots”, but for the most part interesting.

How to save a planet Literally, how people survive catastrophes individually and communally - and how should you.

Reset 

First contact 

Rabbit hole

Things that go boom

[rpghorrortp]

RPG HORROR O.T.P. BRACKETS

a silly contest to find out the most popular ship from games generally seen as falling under the 'rpg horror' umbrella.

CONTESTANTS | ROUND 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SameWada (Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea) : Samekichi x Wadanohara Sunflower (OMORI) : Sunny x Basil JoeSara (Your Turn To Die) : Sara Chidouin x Joe Tazuna NoelClaire (Witch's Heart) : Noel Levine x Claire Elford Batterie (OFF) : Batter x Zacharie Aki × Misao (Misao) : Aki x Misao

KanAtou (Cell of Empireo) : Aogu Kanou x Haruki Atou Elevatorstuck (Elevator Hitch) : Protagonist x Coworker

LOSERS' BRACKET - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SugaShio (Forest of Drizzling Rain) : Suga Koutarou x Shiori Kanzaki Yosafroze (The Grey Garden) : Yosafire x Froze Brian × Kate (Yuppie Psycho) : Kate Hicks x Brian Pasternack Aya × Dio (Mad Father) : Aya x Dio SeiRin (Mermaid Swamp) : Seitaro Wakasugi x Rin Yamazaki AyuShiki (Corpse Party) : Ayumi Shinozaki x Yoshiki Kishinuma GoyApe (SHTDN) : Goyou x Agape BlakeWorth (Vincent : The Secret Of Myers) : Vincent Edgeworth x Victor Blake

[obscure-horror-game-protagonist]

"OBSCURE" "HORROR" "GAME" PROTAGONIST "BRACKET": "ROUND" "TWO"

We are back! Round one had some surprises and confusion but with the longest week in recorded history now over we now have the results, and are now preparing to enter round two!

Our matchups for this round will be as follows:

Cynte (Endoparasitic) vs. Murphy Pendleton (Silent Hill: Downpour)

Michael Tapp (Saw 2: Flesh and Blood (PS3)) vs. Andy the Apple (Andy's Apple Farm)

Eriko Christy (Illbleed) vs. Simon Jarrett (SOMA) (...oh I feel bad for Eriko...)

Thomas Smith (Neverending Nightmares) vs. Arthur Hastings (We Happy Few)

I must say even though some of these results confused us they did result in there being a very funny corner on this bracket. Round two will start on May 12th (this Friday). Perhaps we might actually get to our final round before the heat death of the universe!

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FEATURE: How ODDTAXI's Animals Take on Adult Loneliness and Coping

  There’s a lot of good anime airing this season. Do you like intense war stories? Go watch 86 EIGHTY-SIX. Found family stories starring giant robots? SSSS.Dynazenon. Austere slice of life about a girl riding a motor scooter? Super Cub. But for those true blue anime-heads searching in vain for the shock of the new, the defining series of this spring for me has been ODDTAXI — an ongoing show about a walrus riding a cab that combines the rapid-fire prattle of Pulp Fiction with Twin Peaks’ sudden swings between comedy and festering horror.

  There are many reasons to love ODDTAXI. There’s the contrast between the humorous dialogue, loaded with references to everything from YouTube to Bruce Springsteen, and the lurking darkness that seeps in when you least expect it. There’s a diverse cast of characters, which includes down-on-their-luck comedians, indebted llamas smuggling meds, and gacha-mad cats out for revenge. It’s a show about many things: social media, the generation gap, the entertainment industry, organized crime, and mental illness. I’ve known older anime fans who are tired of shows about and for teenagers who want work targeted at their specific age bracket. To which I say: What kind of adult are you? A struggling college student? A working adult? No anime I’ve seen produced in the past decade explores the contradictions of modern adult life as thoroughly as ODDTAXI does.

    But there’s something else about ODDTAXI that commands my attention. Folks I follow on the internet have been keeping a close eye on the taxi driver Odokawa, trying to figure out if the show’s animalistic character designs are nothing more than his hallucination. But outside of Odokawa, you just have to ask: is everyone else on the show doing okay?

  Just look at Shigaki and Baba, known together as the comedy duo "Homosapiens." Nobody wants to make it big in the comedy world as much as Shigaki does. Baba, his hapless partner and friend, is along for the ride. But when Baba begins to try out for other roles in the entertainment industry, he quickly eclipses Shigaki in fame. Baba doesn’t want success nearly as much as Shigaki, yet success falls right into his lap; despite working his butt off, Shigaki struggles to get by as a radio comedian. All Shigaki wants is to be recognized for his efforts, yet that recognition is always just out of reach. Will he die before he receives the acclaim he thinks he deserves?

    Or see Tanaka, a game developer haunted since childhood by feelings of insufficiency — never cool enough to be someone’s friend, never smart or skilled enough to be worthy of love. He redirects those feelings first into hunting rare erasers as a child, and then into spending all of his savings on a gacha game. Desperately trying to obtain a rare dodo character in the game, he loses his job, his pet, and his own sanity. What kind of life would one have to live for a crude computer image of a dodo to be your white whale? Tanaka wants the dodo, but what does he need?

  Plenty of anime characters have ambitions. Some characters in ODDTAXI, like Shigaki, have ambitions, but others just want things. Some need money to pay their dues. Others buy CDs to support their favorite musical acts. Like many working adults who seek comfort in routine so as to avoid looking at the gaping hole at the center of their own lives, much of the cast of ODDTAXI participate in unhealthy coping mechanisms so as to forget their lack of control. They do so to escape the debtors breathing down their necks, the perceived happiness and success of their friends, and the fact that the idol you support will never really know or care about you.

  Since this is a show about adults, it’s also worth thinking about the elephant in the room: the ticking clock of age. Shigaki isn’t a Luffy or a Naruto, and he’s running out of time to make it big. What would Shigaki do with his life if he never does? What would someone like Tanaka be willing to sacrifice in order to prove that his life meant something? Meanwhile, the protagonist Odakawa is liked by others, justly or not, because he is reliable: as a 40-year-old taxi driver, he makes decisions according to his own principles and rarely succumbs to the insecurity chasing everyone else. Of course, we’ve seen hints that Odakawa is nursing an even deeper wound. We just don’t know.

    There’s a ghost haunting Odakawa’s town. The teenage girl that goes missing at the start of the series, and whose presence is an ongoing mystery. But it’s also a hollow that torments every member of the cast in their own special way. A mysterious broken promise. It’s something that I know, and you know. The miracle of the city, the chance to have what you’ve always wanted, always out of reach. As ODDTAXI reaches its midpoint, we have already begun to see the human cost taken as the city’s linked strivers plot and counterplot on the streets for that shining impossible thing.

  A few weeks ago, a friend of mine on Twitter compared ODDTAXI to Paranoia Agent, Satoshi Kon’s bizarre 2004 drama about a vicious social contagion. I thought that comparison was on point, which is shocking: How many other shows are out there like Paranoia Agent? Nothing, until now. ODDTAXI is comparatively small and cheap, a show about a 40-year-old walrus who drives a cab. But if we see another show this year that strives as boldly to capture the social malaise that dominates capitalist city life  — that futile longing, that gnawing hunger leading to self-destruction  — I’ll be very surprised.

  Are you watching ODDTAXI? Who is your favorite character? What’s the most regrettable decision you’ve ever made playing a gacha game? Let us know in the comments!

      Adam W is a Features Writer on Crunchyroll. When he isn't thinking about Beastars, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying. You can find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

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

By: Adam Wescott