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thearkhound · 5 years

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1998 Metal Gear Solid art commentary from Yoji Shinkawa (revised translation)

Source:http://web.archive.org/web/20050109031649/http://www.konamijpn.com:80/products/metalgear/art/index.html

The following is a translation of various artwork commentary by Metal Gear Solid illustrator Yoji Shinkawa that were posted on the game’s official Japanese website on July 9, 1998. These pages remained online until 2008, when Konami decided to relaunch the website in order to promote the digital download release of the game on the PlayStation Store.

I posted an earlier translation of these blog posts on March 8 of this year (2019) that was missing most of the illustrations being described, since the image files were not archived. I’ve since found the missing image files on another website and took the liberty of revising my translation to fix mistakes or clarify certain statements. I’ve tried to edit the original blog post, but for some reason tumblr didn’t allow me to upload any new images, so I decided to delete it and post the revision as a new blog post.

I’ve also found the images of the scratch Metal Gear REX model sculpted by Yoji Shinkawa that were uploaded on the official site, but unfortunately they were watermarked by a fansite that copied them back in the day. With that said, it’s still better than nothing, so I added them at the end of this blog poster.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t found any of the photos used on the seventh blog post, so that will still remain untranslated for the time being.

Interviewer: First of all, it’s a pleasure to talk to you Mr. Shinkawa.

Shinkawa: Please to meet you too.

Interviewer: I’ll start by asking about the game’s protagonist Solid Snake. What kind of details were you paying attention to when designing his character.

Shinkawa: Well I talked about this before in Konami Magazine Vol. 2, but there were two Metal Gear games prior to this one, so I struggled to find a balance between them. The Snake in the original Metal Gear looked like a young musclebound guy, while in Metal Gear 2 he was more of a bitter middle-aged man. This time Mr. Kojima’s image of Snake was one of having a tough and athletic body like Jean-Claude Van Damme combined with the middle-aged nature of someone like Christopher Walken. As a result, he became something of a middle ground between the two.

Interviewer: I see. What was your work after Snake’s image was decided on?

Shinkawa: The truth is I had trouble designing his costume. At the beginning I was thinking of a conventional military uniform in blue urban camo. But then I thought it might had been a bit too careless to have Snake swim underwater wearing such a uniform. Since the story takes place in the near future, he ended up wearing a costume made of leather and waterproof material.

Interviewer: It’s an amazing attention to detail that you kept in mind Snake’s infiltration route when designing his costume. So there’s a scene where Snake is underwater? What happens if the Ninja lands in a pond or something?

Shinkawa: What would happen? Huh... He would spark up and then yell something like “Water! My weakness!” (laugh) Just kidding.

Interviewer: (laughs) I guess not.

Shinkawa: It’s hard to know when it comes to Mr. Kojima though...

Interviewer: Don’t worry about it. By the way, is there any behind-the-scenes stories about the game’s development.

Shinkawa: Yes. It’s not much of an inside story, but I drew Ninja in a train.

Interviewer: During a train ride?

Shinkawa: Yes, I drew him while riding a commuter train. I was stationed at Osaka at the time. Most of the people there not friendly, so I would spent time observing the college girls.

Interviewer: That’s pretty nice.

Shinkawa:I guess so. But the friendliness here is good though. But Tokyo doesn’t have such a thing, so it feels a bit lonely. How I should say this, but there’s something that could be described as “enjoying the reaction of people watching in my direction” that could be seen not just over there, but here too.

Interviewer: So that’s how you train your sense of observation!

Shinkawa: No, that’s not what I meant. (laughs)

Interviewer: Is there a type of woman that you like?

Shinkawa: I wonder about that.

Interviewer: I’m sorry, that was such a trite question. Let me rephrase that. Is there a particular celebrity that you like?

Shinkawa: I guess I have no choice. My type would be someone like Shinobu Nakayama.

Interviewer: Is that so? Personally I’m a fan of Yuki Uchida if you’re curious to know...

Shinkawa: Yeah, she’s not bad.

Interviewer: Ah!

Shinkawa: Well, let’s put that subject aside. The truth is that the character of Mei-Ling was actually modeled after Nakayama herself. I used to watch her drama series.

Interviewer: Ah! That’s such an interesting thing to learn. Now that you say that, Mei-Ling really does resemble Nakayama looking at her closely, doesn’t she?

Shinkawa: Mei-Ling was written to be a bubbly college girl. She tends heavily to my taste, since she’s in the right age range and has my ideal image.

Interviewer: That’s nice. Having your preferences tied directly to your job.

Shinkawa: It’s not just mine. The character of Dr. Naomi Hunter was made to suit Mr. Kojima’s preferences too.

Interviewer: I see. Huh? At this rate, will you have a type for everyone?

Shinkawa: That wasn’t the intention, but... (laughs)

Interviewer: When was this drawn?

Shinkawa: I think it was around the end of last year. Huh? Around six months ago. Time sure fly quickly! I drew it for a magazine ad.

Interviewer: I heard the Ninja was your idea.

Shinkawa:That’s right. But originally there was a trio. They would say something like “Worya! Trinity Attack!” and they were going to have random kanji characters on their backs such as flame (炎) or horse (馬) without any particular significance.

Interviewer: “Fire” doesn’t seem so unreasonable, but why “horse”?

Shinkawa: I’ve mentioned “horse” as a joke, but that sort of thing happens very often, doesn’t it? When it comes to the image of Japan from a foreign perspective, while the outline is the same, the finer details differ. I like that kind of thing. The finalized design of the Ninja is and isn’t a ninja. If nobody told you he was a ninja, you wouldn’t think of him as one. But if someone points out that he must be a ninja because he has some ninja-like parts if you look at him closely, then you might think of him as one.

Interviewer: Is that so? That’s the Shinkawa magic!

Shinkawa: (laughs) What’s that?

Interviewer: I think I’ve seen this artwork a long time ago.

Shinkawa: It was first published around a year ago.

Interviewer: I see. So why did you draw it like an American comic book?

Shinkawa: Well, in reality I was going for a BD-style. Doesn’t it look like that?

Interviewer: I’m sorry, but what does BD mean?

Shinkawa: It stands for bande dessinée, which is the term for graphic novels in France. It means “sequential art”.

Interviewer: Huh, I did not know. So, is there a particular reason why you chose the BD-style?

Shinkawa: Of course! There is a reason. While talking to Mr. Kojima during the early stages, he said “Alright! Let’s turn Metal Gear into B.D” as a conceptual image. So I drew a few illustrations like that. This one was used as promotional art.

Interviewer: I see. So that’s the reason. And this one was perfect for a promotional artwork. Huh! Why is Gatse Becker [the BCPD chief from Policenauts] there?

Shinkawa: That’s not him. (laughs) It’s the Secretary of Defense [Jim Houseman]... Jeez... (While saying this, Shinkawa’s mouse keeps hovering on Mei-Ling for some reason.)

Interviewer: (nervous face) Uhh... Mei-Ling’s skirt seems awfully short... By the way, will you be able to shake the female characters’ breasts like in Policenauts?

Shinkawa:...That’s classified information!

Interviewer: Well, here’s REX. Is there anything particularly different about this Metal Gear model?

Shinkawa: The Metal Gears in the previous two games had weak legs, so this new version has a strengthened lower body. During the initial planning I came up with several illustrations and settings, but the finalized version was settled pretty quickly.

Interviewer: How so?

Shinkawa: Since it was going to be turned into a polygon model, I made it into an actual model in order to solidify its conceptual image and verify its functions.

Interviewer: Is that so? Please show the model to me.

Shinkawa: Of course! REX was designed purely as a weapon, so it’s not exactly a heroic mecha. I decided on a dinosaur-like design like this one, since it conveyed a scary and grim image.

Shinkawa: There are three types of enemy soldiers shown here. From left to right: we have the light infantry, the heavy infantry and the arctic warfare soldier (nicknamed Yukinko by the developers). There’s also a gas mask-wearing fourth type.

Interviewer: Were you given any sort of references to use?

Shinkawa: I had books and photos that were given to me by Mr. Motosada Mori (MGS’s military advisor).

Interviewer: All the enemy soldiers have their faces covered up. Was that decided because they were terrorists?

Shinkawa: That’s certainly something that could be think of, but there’s actually more important reasons.

Interviewer: Huh? Explain!

Shinkawa: Simply put, we needed to reduce the number of polygons.

Interviewer: Is that really the reason?

Shinkawa: If you want to draw faces on your characters, you have to use quite a few polygons to get them to a satisfactory level, which ends up consuming too much resources. When taking into consideration the game as a whole, you got no choice but to trim certain parts. It’s a shame, but in the end I think the finalized designs suit the enemy soldiers better.

Interviewer: It’s a matter of balancing supply and demand. By the way, I really like the helmet worm by the Heavily Armed Troops. You don’t see them often in the game though.

Shinkawa: Well that helmet is an original design. Like everything, I try to keep things intuitive for game-playing purposes. The enemy soldiers are color-coded from left to right: brown, green and white, plus yellow for the gas mask-wearing soldiers.

Interviewer: There are indeed a variety of schemes. By the way, the arctic warfare soldiers are layered with clothing. Snake spends most of the game in arctic environments, but he isn’t wearing that much. Why is that?

Shinkawa: He’s wearing a high-tech suit.

Interviewer: You said it so bluntly... (laughs) One last nitpicky question. Who does the laundry in the base?

Shinkawa: They use a laundry machine. (laughs)

Metal Gear REX Model Photos

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livingcorner · 3 years

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Garden Path Ideas: 10 Ways To Create A Beautiful Walkway – Gardening @ From House To Home

Find some inspiration for your yard with one of these beautiful garden path ideas and learn which ones will fit your budget and which ones will break your back.

Garden Path Ideas

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I have to admit I am WAY behind on my garden upkeep this year.

You're reading: Garden Path Ideas: 10 Ways To Create A Beautiful Walkway – Gardening @ From House To Home

So to make sure that I get going on it, I’ve started a new routine of going out to do an hour’s worth of gardening before I go to work in the morning. And I have to say the new process is working…I am definitely making some headway in my war against weeds!

It’s also got me thinking about some of the areas in my yard that need an overhaul (like that back corner where I’m still planning on creating a Japanese garden).

The big problem area is the path that leads from my backdoor to the shed. Now that I have to use it every day, it has suddenly become a priority ?

I’ve been trying to decide what to do with this path to make it easy to navigate (I’m always pushing a wheelbarrow or pulling a wagon down it), and easy to maintain. And of course, I want it to look good…and hopefully not cost too much…

Here’s my list of garden path ideas that may be my next outdoor DIY project.

1. Mulch Garden Path

Mulch garden path | © Susan Montgomery – stock.adobe.com

Mulch is what I have on my the path to my shed now. I love the way mulch walkways look, especially in informal, wooded areas like this one. Maybe if my path looked like this, I wouldn’t be wanting to change it

Pros

Mulch garden paths are really easy and relatively inexpensive way to create a pathway. Put down some landscape fabric, spread the mulch over and you’re done.

Cons

I like it, but you do have to replace the mulch every year or two. And when you put a fresh batch down, it’s hard to wheel over until it gets beat down a bit.

Plus, the weeds seem to think the mulch on my garden path is the perfect place to grow, so I’m always having to pull them.

2. Gravel Garden Path

Gravel garden path | © Barbara Helgason – stock.adobe.com

Gravel is another option on my list of garden path ideas. It’s suitable for pretty much any kind of garden, and is easy to make into any shape you want.

Pros

Like mulch, gravel walkways are relatively easy to install.

Gravel garden path edged with rocks | © Jamie Hooper – stock.adobe.com

They are a little more work than mulch because I would need to install some barriers along the pathway to keep the gravel in place (like the rocks in this picture or the pavers in the one above).

But other than, it is about the same installation process as mulch.

Read more: What’s been digging in my flower bed?

Unlike mulch, it doesn’t need to be replaced often and would be harder for weeds to grow in, so it has a couple of extra advantages.

Cons

On the con side, I’m not sure how easy it would be to push a wheelbarrow over.

And plain gravel definitely wouldn’t suit my bare foot lifestyle. I walk around the yard without shoes on a lot of the time…so I guess that’s another requirement I should add to my list.

Stone garden path ©studio2013 – stock.adobe.com

However I do like these walkways that have stepping stones in the middle of the gravel. Maybe that’s the way to go?

3. Grass Walkway

Grass garden path | © John A Trax Jr – stock.adobe.com

Covering the entire path area in grass is the third possibility on my list of garden path ideas. I always think grass pathways look so inviting.

Pros

Creating a grass pathway is not as labor intensive (or as expensive) as some of the other options on the list. Bringing in some top soil and putting sod down is about the extent of the installation effort. And this walkway would definitely be great for walking on with bare feet.

Cons

Except that Winston (that’s my dog) might decide it’s a good bathroom area, which is not so good for bare feet ? And I’m pretty sure the same weeds that grow up through my mulch would still be an issue.

Not to mention that I would have to cut this grass pathway…and edge it…and water it. In other words, there’s quite a lot of maintenance involved in maintaining a grass walkway.

4. Flagstone Pathway

Flagstone walkway at the side of my house

Can I just say that I love flagstone walkways? I love how they can turn any old garden path into a romantic garden walkway so I have to include them on my list of garden path ideas.

In fact, I love them so much that most of the other garden paths in my yard are made of flagstone. The sidewalks on both sides of my house are flagstone, as is the walkway through my front garden, and the patio and walkways extending from the deck in the backyard.

Flagstone walkway in my mother’s front yard

Apparently, the love of flagstones runs in the family, because my mother has them throughout her garden, too.

Pros

Flagstone walkways are durable and don’t require much maintenance (especially now that I have this awesome weed torch*…it’s the best weed killer for pathways and patios ever!)

Once they’re settled, they’re pretty good for rolling over with carts and things, although they are not totally level, so not quite as easy to navigate as something flat would be.

Cons

Having installed all of those flagstone pathways and patios, I can say for a fact that they are not the easiest walkway material to put in! At least if you want them to be level.

Since they are natural stone, flagstones aren’t a uniform thickness and size so there’s a lot of taking them up and putting them back down again to get them set properly. And they are definitely more expensive than a lot of the other options on the list.

5. DIY Flagstone Garden Path

I saw this DIY flagstone mold* back when I owned my first house and didn’t have enough money to buy real flagstones.

I bought one to create a small flagstone patio and then ended up moving before I had a chance to use it. And I’ve been looking for a reason to try them ever since!

Pros

I still think they are a good idea if you want the look of flagstones but not the price. You can make them in different colors if you want to match your house. And you don’t need to worry about leveling, since the concrete will automatically shape to the contours of the ground.

Cons

For me the biggest negative of concrete flagstones is you have to mix your own concrete. It is heavy and pretty messy to work with. And I think it might take a few tries to get the hang of making the tops of these flagstones flat. It’s not an impossible task for sure, but since I have a fairly long path to create, I think I’ll keep these DIY Flagstones in mind for another project.

6. Brick Garden Pathway

Brick garden path | © rabbitti – stock.adobe.com

Brick pathways are a traditional option for garden walkways…and for whatever reason I have never installed one.

Pros

Bricks have the same positive features as flagstones. They are durable and easy to maintain. And since they’re all the same thickness, they should be easier to install than flagstones.

Cobblestone garden path | © chaloemphan – stock.adobe.com

Cons

However, you do need to make sure that your base material is totally level or your walkway will look wavy. Based on the number of wavy brick walkways I’ve seen, I think this must be harder than it sounds ? Bricks can also be fairly expensive.

Paver garden path with grass | © hanohiki – stock.adobe.com

I also like the idea of having the bricks mingled with some other softer material. In this picture, they used grass, but if it were me, I think I would go with creeping thyme. It smells good when you step on it and is easier to keep under control than grass.

7. Wood Walkway

Wood garden path | © scenery1 – stock.adobe.com

The next option on my garden path ideas list is wood. I love the idea of having a wood boardwalk in my garden.

Read more: Garden Line

Pros

A wood path is easy to roll over with a cart, easy on the feet and about middle of the pack when it comes to amount of installation work and expense it requires.

You can even get pre-made wood pathways* now that you can just roll out where you need them. How easy is that?

Cons

The main drawback for using wood is the amount of annual maintenance it needs. If you’ve read about my favorite DIY deck cleaning solution, then you’ve seen the “before” pictures of my wood deck in the spring. Enough said!

8. Composite Wood Tile Pathway

Another option to wood is to use composite wood tiles*. It functions the same as wood but doesn’t require the same amount of maintenance.

I actually installed a composite wood tile patio a couple of years ago, so I have some first hand experience with it.

Pros

Composite wood tiles are very easy to install (I did my whole patio in less than a day), require very little maintenance and they are flat (so I have no problems rolling the cart across this area).

Cons

However, they do have one drawback. Even though I installed a light color to minimize the heat they attract, my composite wood deck tiles get really, really hot in the sun. I definitely cannot walk on them in bare feet (and Winston won’t go on them during the day either). They are also more expensive than regular wood.

9. DIY Stepping Stone Garden Path

Gravel garden path with stepping stones | © Kalle Kolodziej – stock.adobe.com

In order to get a pathway that is functional and pretty, I think I may have to combine more than one of my garden path ideas together, like this stepping stone in gravel idea.

Square concrete stepping stones with mulch and grass between them are another option.

However instead of using plain old concrete stepping stones, I think these DIY tile stepping stones from Better Homes and Gardens would be perfect!

Pros

I have a whole bunch of leftover tile from previous projects, so I could get it all out of the garage and add some whimsy to my garden path at the same time. Which definitely makes this an inexpensive project!

Cons

Most tile gets pretty slippery when it’s wet, so these wouldn’t be a good option for a main walkway. And lugging around all of the concrete blocks to install the tiles on does not sound like a lot of fun ?

10. DIY Pebble Mosaic Walkway

Pebble Mosaic garden path | © Downunderphoto – stock.adobe.com

While I’m not sure the path to my shed warrants a garden path that’s this fancy, I love the idea of it! So I just had to include it in my list of garden path ideas.

In case you’re interested, you can find out how to make your own pebble mosaic garden path from Better Homes and Gardens.

Pros

Since it’s based in concrete, this mosaic pathway is durable and easy to navigate. And you can make it in whatever pattern or size you want, so it can fit into any garden space.

Cons

However, positioning all of those stones in the right pattern is pretty time consuming. So it’s not something I would want to do on a big scale (like my whole walkway). But I’ll have to see if I can fit it in somewhere in my garden!

There you have it…my list of garden path ideas. Now I just have to figure out which one of these I’m going to use for my own garden path inspiration!

Have comments or questions on our garden path ideas? Tell us in the section below.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/garden-path-ideas-10-ways-to-create-a-beautiful-walkway-gardening-from-house-to-home/

#livingcornernews

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yierknives · 3 years

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How to Cut Different Cheeses (and the right knife to Use)?

You’ve gathered several artisan cheeses, and you’re ready to turn them into a tasty cheese board. But before you grab your cheese knives and start cutting up those wheels and wedges, it’s a good idea to plan out how you’ll cut each different-shaped cheese based on different shapes and textures.

Aside from aesthetics — who doesn’t want a gorgeous cheese and charcuterie board to admire before they dig in? — how you cut a cheese can affect the eating experience, too. In general, you want each piece to be a cross-section from the center to the rind so that each piece includes the full range of flavors and textures. Here’s how to cut different cheeses so they’ll taste and look their best.

HOW TO CUT LOG-SHAPED CHEESES

Logs of very soft cheese like Miracle Springs Farm’s Everything Chevre don’t necessarily need to be cut. These types are so soft and spreadable that often, it’s best to serve them whole with a spreader or soft cheese knife and allow guests to cut their own pieces.

But if you want to pre-portion, the best way is to cut each log into several uniform rounds. Use a thin-bladed soft cheese knife or cheese wire for this delicate job. They’ll keep the cheese from sticking to the knife blade and getting crumbly and misshapen.

Choosing the right type of cheese knife is imperative for many reasons, with the main one, of course, being the proper cutting of cheese! One of the most common options available is the Damascus steel cheese knife.

Why Is a Cheese Knife Important?

Anyone who has ever tried to cut a hard-shelled yet soft piece of cheese with the wrong kind of knife can attest to the importance of having a proper cheese knife around the house.

The unique textures you’ll find in soft cheeses, as well as many hard cheeses, make having the right tools for the job a necessity. If you try and use the wrong type of knife, you are liable to simply make a mess! As well, you’ll likely end up wasting a good deal of that expensive gourmet cheese you sprung for at the store.

HOW TO CUT SOFT WHEELS OF CHEESE

Small, whole wheels of cheeses like bloomy rinds and washed rinds are simple to cut: just pretend you’re slicing up a birthday cake.

Cutting equal-sized wedges from the center out ensures that each piece will include the cloudlike center, lush cream line, and delicate rind, giving each bite the full range of flavors and textures for the cheese. A thin-bladed knife or skeleton knife will give you the best results. This method also works for square-shaped bloomy and washed rind cheeses like the ones from Tulip Tree Creamery or Boxcarr’s robiola-style blocks.

If the cheese you’re serving is too gooey and liquid inside to cut normally — like Firefly Farm’s Merry Goat Round Spruce Reserve, for example — that’s no problem! Simply use a sharp knife to cut through the top rind, almost as though you were opening an aluminum can. Peel back the “lid” and let your guests dip in with bread, crackers, veggies, or a spoon.

HOW TO CUT PYRAMID-SHAPED CHEESES

These uniquely shaped cheeses can feel intimidating to cut, but they’re actually quite simple to handle. Use a sharp, thin-bladed cheese knife or skeleton knife so the soft, delicate cheese doesn’t stick to the blade.

Why Is Damascus Steel the Best for Cheese?

The reason that Damascus steel is such a popular option amongst cheese connoisseurs is that it is incredibly lightweight and incredibly strong.

Blades made from Damascus steel can be thin and strong enough to make fine cuts on even the softest cheeses without making a mess. As well, they’re lightweight enough to allow for the utmost precision.

Three Great Damascus Steel Cheese Knives!

Now that we know a little bit more about cheese knives and why Damascus steel cheese knives are generally considered the way to go, let’s take a look at some great examples! These knives, whether serrated or not, all feature Damascus steel builds, which make them great cheese knives!

Shun Kai Classic Utility Knife 15.2cm From prestigious Japanese kitchen knife manufacturer Shun, the Shun Kai Classic Utility Knife is an excellent option for those chefs looking for a single all-purpose cheese knife.

This knife is made using 324 layers of Damascus stainless steel, so you know it has all the strength and durability needed for the job. As well, its hand-sharpened 16 degree double-bevel gives it the perfect functionality for precise cuts.

This knife features 324 layers of Damascus steel in addition to i’s proprietary VG-MAX cutting core, which gives it the best of both worlds in terms of strength and durability. The blade is grafted onto an ebony PakkaWood handle, which provides charm, sturdiness, and comfort for careful control.

Wherever precise cuts are needed, this all-purpose utility blade is perfect, and that includes most cheese-cutting incidents a chef is likely to face. It’s nimble, sharp, and strong, allowing you to make small cuts and big cuts with both hard and soft materials.

Shun Kai Classic Tomato Serrated Knife 15.2cm Here’s another knife from Shun, this time with serrations for cutting softer cheeses. It features all the same benefits of the other Shun knives, but its serrations make it ideal for some unique situations.

As the name implies, this serrated knife from Shun is optimized for cutting into tomatoes. As one can imagine, this means that the knife is also perfect for cutting into some incredibly soft cheeses!

The many sharp serrations along the blade allow chefs to make easy and smooth cuts into even the softest cheeses without any mushing. It’s also sharp enough to get through tough skins, meaning that brittle cheese rinds won’t be crumbled up with the soft cheese.

This is certainly an excellent kitchen knife for those who are going to be eating a lot of soft cheeses, and it’s versatile enough to be used in plenty of other situations, as well!

Tojiro Pro Flash 63 Layer Damascus Steel Utility Knife 15cm Here’s another all-purpose utility kitchen knife, this time from Tojiro. Tojiro is another excellent and prestigious knife manufacturer based out of Japan, finding its home base in Niigata. As with Shun, they offer incredibly high-quality steel blades that utilize Damascus stainless steel.

The Right Damascus Steel Cheese Knife for the Right Situation

There’s certainly a lot of information to take in when it comes to choosing the right cheese knife, and hopefully this article made it a little easier for you!

While there’s no one perfect knife for all situations, even regarding cheese, any of these knives would certainly find plenty of use in the cheese-lovers kitchen.

A serrated Damascus steel cheese knife would be ideal for softer cheeses, while a non-serrated all-purpose Damascus steel knife would likely find more versatile use with milder and harder cheeses.

Any of our winning options are quality knives that will serve you well, but selecting the perfect one is about your preferences and ideal price point.Want more recommendations for the best kitchen knives and cutlery to complete your knife set? Check out our guides to the yier Damascus knife.

Why choose YIERCITY?

We do professional knife set retail and wholesale business. We hope to be your stable global supporter and partner.

We are an enterprise integrating factory and trade, specializing in the design, manufacture and sales of high-quality knife sets.

We always make every effort to ensure the quality of each set of knives.

#Damascus knife #cheese knife #kitchen knife

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damienhasmoved · 6 years

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Kiyotaka Ishimaru is Autistic - A Writeup

Hey there!

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, this is gonna be a pretty long post about Kiyotaka Ishimaru from the Dangan Ronpa series, and how I believe that he is autistic. Note that I am #actuallyautistic myself, so a lot of this is drawn from my own experiences of autism, as well as some common symptoms Kiyotaka displays. This is one of my personal favourite headcanons, because I relate to Kiyotaka a lot, and it’s nice to be able to relate to him on a neurological level as well. That being said, despite the evidence I’m going to cover in this writeup, it is still a headcanon- so of course you can feel free to disregard this if you don’t agree with me (just don’t come and fight about it on the post... because a lot of that tends to go into “autism is a bad thing” territory and as an autistic person it kinda makes me feel shitty).

With that out of the way, the rest of the post will be under a readmore, because this is about to get kinda long.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru is a fairly minor character when it comes to the Dangan Ronpa franchise. He’s a member of the cast of the first game, and dies halfway through, with almost no re-appearances or further mentions in the rest of the series. However, his personality is very distinct, and he’s been consistently seen as one of the most popular characters from the first game because of this.

Kiyotaka’s personality boils down to a few essential parts- his keen sense of justice and morals, his lack of social skills and social intelligence, his drive to be the best in his schoolwork, and his encouraging, yet strict nature towards his classmates. Just from this base analysis of his personality you can start seeing some autistic traits- namely in his idealization of morals and ethics, and his lack of general social skills. The former is so important to his character, it’s what gives him his talent- as the Ultimate Moral Compass (Disciplinary Committee Member in the Japanese version of the game, and Hall Monitor/Prefect in a few fan translations).

It’s quite common for autistic people to be unusually obsessed with justice or morality. I know from my own experiences that I absolutely hate situations I perceive as “unfair” or “unjust”- where I’ve been punished for doing things I didn’t do, when other people have been punished for things they didn’t do- I even find it hard to lie in certain situations. Kiyotaka certainly seems to display this pattern of thinking- his entire talent ties into making sure that those who do wrong are suitably punished, and those that do right are rewarded accordingly. The only time he goes against his morals and potentially condemns innocents are when he votes for himself instead of Mondo in the Chapter Two Trial, which seems to be him not fully realising that someone he associates with “being good, just and moral” (his new, and only, friend) doing something as amoral as murder.

He simply doesn’t believe that someone he trusted could turn out to do something so wrong- to the point where, at the end of the second trial, he is begging everyone else to give him another explanation, or for Mondo to at least explain why he did the things he did. I understand that this is a reasonable reaction when one’s friend is faced with death, but consider this in the context of the Dangan Ronpa games. To keep up the flow of the games, characters usually seem to brush aside the murders and executions once the trials are over. Otherwise, things would drag out too long while the cast mourned. Even Naegi, who was good friends with Sayaka and knew her all the way back in middle school, only spared a few hours or so mourning her after the end of her trial.

Kiyotaka’s reaction is the most drastic in the first game, even surpassing Asahina’s bid to make Sakura’s suicide a mistrial. She’s only shown to be seriously affected by Sakura’s death for the duration of the trial, and afterwards is composed enough to fight back against the mastermind. Consider also that Asahina and Sakura were friends for the entire duration of the first game, and that Kiyotaka and Mondo were only friends for one day, and you can see how exaggerated and strange Kiyotaka’s reaction really is.

Kiyotaka’s reaction is so strong compared to the other characters because Mondo’s killing is not only a betrayal to their friendship, but the betrayal to Kiyotaka’s perceived view of the world and what’s right and wrong. He fixates on his hatred of geniuses to an almost unhealthy level, and will not listen to anyone who tries to tell him that these “geniuses” can be good people as well. Simularily, he’s put Mondo into a box- a box that raises him above the amoral sensibilities of the killing game, making him someone who can do no wrong in Kiyotaka’s eyes- until he does.

This is the only time Kiyotaka’s moral compass seems to be seriously tested in the killing game, and it destroys him. He relies so much on his fixation with morals, that the second they are shattered, he breaks apart. Of course, this is only a minor reason for his breakdown, but we’ll get into the rest of that later.

Another big clue to Kiyotaka being autistic comes in the form of his social skills- or, rather, his lack of them. Kiyotaka, in his entire life, has made one genuine friend. Mondo Oowada seems to be the only person he’s truly connected with, and he even states that he’s “never had a proper conversation before” in one of Naegi’s FTEs. It’s not hard to see why- Kiyotaka has very little social intelligence, which displays itself multiple times throughout the story.

He doesn’t understand that people watch TV shows and play video games to form connections over them- he just thinks they do so to get a temporary buzz out of them. He’s surprised when Naegi describes what people normally do when they hang out, and his idea of a social setting is a very old-fashioned Japanese tradition of communicating naked in a bathhouse with other men. It’s obvious that he’s personally never had an experience like this before, as he’s reportedly “never held a conversation longer than three minutes”, so he’s most likely picked this up from old Japanese literature or other media and assumed that’s still how teenagers hang out.

Mimicking behaviours from media is another common autistic trait, and even though Kiyotaka doesn’t seem the type to read a lot of books outside of school-assigned ones, he still displays this trait. Mimicking other people in general seems to be his go-to when it comes to social interaction- he calls Naegi a “Professor” when Naegi tells him how to hold a regular conversation, and says he will study the same games and TV shows Naegi knows about to be able to hold conversations just like he does. Kiyotaka, once befriending Mondo, is shown to be mimicking him in some ways- he starts calling Mondo “kyoudai”, something common amongst gangsters in Japan. In the English localisation, this is changed to “bro”, slang that would also most likely be picked up from Mondo.

After Mondo dies, Kiyotaka copes by completely mimicking him, even combining their names together and acting like Mondo to feel closer to him.

Kiyotaka doesn’t seem to understand sarcasm or humour, in most cases. Kiyotaka seems a little oblivious in general, and tends to brush aside other’s criticism- a lot of the times because he doesn’t understand it. He takes things very literally, which is a key autistic trait.

He also wholeheartedly does seemingly idiotic things in an attempt to help others in the class trials- such as calling for the murderer to raise their hand, and stating obvious facts that were taken as a given (examples: “I propose that the victim was Sayaka Maizono”, and “We can be sure the knife was the weapon because of where it was found- sticking out of the victim’s midsection!”). Kiyotaka also displays this kind of well-intentioned, yet obvious advice when everyone is searching the school for an escape route- while others take note of potential danger and means of escape, Kiyotaka’s only contribution is to say that everyone has a dorm room.

This makes sense for him, and most likely for others with autism- nobody’s mentioned it, and he has the information, so he thinks it will be helpful to share it. He doesn’t get the subtext that people will already know these things, and that clarifying them further wastes time and isn’t helpful in the grand scheme of things.

While his dedication to morals and his lack of social skills are the most major identifiers of his autism, he also displays a few more subtler autistic traits.

Kiyotaka insists on holding the class meetings at a certain time in the morning, and arriving to the cafeteria at another set time. He’s always a punctual early comer, and he gets annoyed when others are late (holding back the time of his meeting). It can also be inferred that Kiyotaka is one to plan things- he has to be, if he’s taking on studying (and presumably kendo practise, due to the sword found in his room) as his only hobbies. This, and his love of the school system, can be hints towards him needing to function on a schedule. School is good for Kiyotaka because it’s structured, and planned, and not very subject to change. His hobbies of practise and studying are also not subject to sudden reschedules (unless he takes kendo lessons, but with his family’s financial situation, I don’t think that’s the case). A steady schedule is imperative for autistic people to function on a day-to-day basis.

Kiyotaka only wears one set of clothes- his school uniform. He owns several copies of it, and refuses to wear anything else. It’s implied that he doesn’t own anything else. This could be his dedication to being a good student, but it could also easily be a manifestation of sensory issues. Kiyotaka may only feel comfortable in the material of his uniform, and doesn’t like wearing other clothes because they make him feel uncomfortable. As a fellow autistic who prefers their school uniform to their other clothes, I can definitely understand this path of logic.

Similarly, Kiyotaka is a one-note cook. It’s revealed in School Mode that he can only cook rice balls and green tea. This seems like another case of sensory issues, where the textures of rice balls and green tea are soothing to him compared to other food tastes and textures. It seems a little odd that he’s put enough practise into creating his “famous green tea”, but wouldn’t branch out to cooking different kinds of foods than simply rice balls, especially if he wants to have a more balanced diet.

Kiyotaka’s fixation with the things he does know how to talk about seem to be extremely intense. Kiyotaka seems completely ready to engage in a long debate with Naegi over politics, international affairs, and the economy. He also seems to have memorised his school’s old policy, and seems delighted to talk about schoolwork. These could be examples of special interests, topics that Kiyotaka fixates on and ignores all others. Kiyotaka’s biggest special interest seems to be revolving around politics, a career path he hopes to succeed in in the future. Other than that, he seems to have a special interest in school policy and the school’s curriculum, shown with his dedication to school code and his continued study of everything he has to learn about. He doesn’t understand that other people can do recreational activities that don’t revolve around these two interests of his.

Physically, Kiyotaka has an almost unnaturally straight posture. He stands with his legs pressed tightly together, and seems extremely rigid. An unnaturally rigid posture is a trait of autism (as is an unnaturally slouched or floppy posture, but that’s not relevant here). Kiyotaka is extremely prone to crying fits, even in the middle of regular conversation. He is shown holding his head and sobbing full-force in some of his FTEs, which then turns into him cheerfully laughing a few seconds later. Extreme mood swings and unprompted crying or laughing are traits of autism. When Kiyotaka is reprimanded, or when he believes that he’s done something wrong, he immediately switches into an over-reaction where he cries and begs someone to hit or “punish” him. Breakdowns like these are also common in autistics.

Kiyotaka’s speech is abnormally loud. He seems to have trouble speaking quietly or whispering, and most of his lines are yelled. Volume control like this is a classic autistic trait. Kiyotaka’s dialogue also seems stiff and stilted at times, or verbalised in a strange manner.

I could go on more about Kiyotaka’s autistic traits, but I think I’ve said enough for one post! This is long enough as-is! I definitely think that Kiyotaka Ishimaru is autistic, but it’s up for you to decide if you agree with me.

#kiyotaka ishimaru #ishimaru kiyotaka #dangan ronpa #character analysis #autistic headcanon #actuallyautistic #my post

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Do Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s Stay Puft Marshmallow Men Confirm Gozer’s Return?

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“I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never ever possibly destroy us: Mr. Stay Puft!”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife just revealed how it will make those words from Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz more prescient—and poetically meta—than ever. The line, from the 1984 original movie, was a contrite explanation for his impulsive decision to choose the now-iconic, pillowy “destroyer” form of ancient evil entity Gozer for its attack on the Big Apple. Now, the 32-years-awaited follow-up to the franchise’s original iteration (last seen with 1989’s Ghostbusters II,) is bringing back Mr. Stay Puft—miniaturized and multiplied. Thusly, speculation on Gozer’s prospective return is potent.

Paul Rudd’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife character, summer school teacher Mr. Grooberson, will collide with the original team’s spectral legacy, as indicated in a new teaser clip (seen below). Indeed, some grocery shopping—rife with forensically-framed Baskin Robbins product placement—goes sideways quickly when the search for toppings leads Grooberson to a moving bag of marshmallows—Stay Puft Marshmallows, which apparently survived its monumental PR nightmare—after which a single puff escapes, revealing its resemblance to the pancake-cap-modeling mascot himself, all to the needle drop of Elmer Bernstein’s haunting original movie score. However, the pint-sized snack’s brief display of Baby Yoda vibes abruptly ends when it gnashes its teeth and bites his finger. What follows is an orgy of macabre marshmallow mischief with a runaway Roomba and barbecue grill. While the small town Oklahoma location makes the Gozer connection seem puzzling, it’s actually not.

The 2019-dropped first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife provided some Gozer-implicit material, notably with the shot of an abandoned property called Shandor Mining Co., which—barring an unnecessary coincidence in Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s script—explicitly points to the name of Ivor Shandor. Still not with us? Well, that name was mentioned in key expositional dialogue in the 1984 original movie from Harold Ramis’s Egon Spengler, who explained that Shandor—a wealthy architect and physician—was a cult leader who had Dana Barrett’s fateful apartment building constructed in the 1920s to secretly serve as a doorway for Gozer to enter our world, making it the hub for New York’s wave of supernatural activity. The endeavor—motivated by disillusionment from the First World War—would come to fruition in the events of the first film, decades after Shandor’s death, relegating his presence in the film canon only to Egon’s dialogue. Yet, non-canon offerings such as the 2009 Ghostbusters video game and the recent IDW comic book series utilized Shandor more effectively.

Sony Pictures

However, the mine and newly-revealed army of mini Stay Pufts aren’t the only things in Afterlife pointing to Gozer. The aforementioned trailer also contains a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of Rudd’s Grooberson in a car, seemingly in the midst of a frantic escape, when something lands on the hood. While the creature is mostly out of the frame, a familiar-looking clawed, canine-esque foot does make the shot, implying the film’s presence of Terror Dogs. One of the most iconic creatures from the original Ghostbusters (save for Stay Puft himself), the Terror Dogs were the frightening forms of Gozer’s demigod lackies, Zuul, a.k.a. The Gatekeeper, and Vinz Clortho, a.k.a. The Keymaster. Of course, the former ended up possessing Dana Barrett and the latter would take over her awkward floor neighbor, Louis Tully; a necessary step to create the coupling that unlocks Shandor’s interdimensional doorway. The result was a liberated Gozer, who initially took the form of a demonic-looking woman sporting a Sheena Easton haircut and pink jumpsuit before becoming a kaiju-sized manifestation of the fictional marshmallow brand’s mascot made from Ray’s happy childhood memory. Consequently, the apparent presence of Terror Dogs in the new movie seems to point to another Gatekeeper/Keymaster conundrum.

Books

Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Who is Ivo Shandor?

By Gavin Jasper

Movies

Ghostbusters: Afterlife – First Trailer Lands

By Kirsten Howard

The film will nevertheless serve as a generational handoff of the franchise from returning classic players in Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore, Annie Potts’s Janine Melnitz and Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett. The plot kicks off with the ordeal of single mother Callie (Carrie Coon), who’s forced to move to a rural Oklahoma farm owned by her family. However, her inquisitive two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) discover that said farm was built for a purpose, one connected to the supernatural activity that now stirs within the Shandor Mine. While the film’s early character details remain ambiguous, the trailer shows the children at home finding the Ecto-1 and Ghostbuster uniform of the late Harold Ramis’s Egon Spengler, thus implying that they are his grandchildren. The apparent familial connection further solidifies the notion of a Gozer-centric plot, presumably with the idea that Egon purchased the farm to watch over things based on his research on Shandor.

Regardless, it’s clear that Afterlife is a legacy movie, and its usage of nostalgic concepts was always inevitable. Yet, while the name Gozer may be iconic to us geeky movie buffs, the creature itself is not widely renowned, at least not to the casual moviegoers who may have only seen the film once or just maintain passing knowledge due to the franchise’s pop culture presence. After all, even Activision’s infamous original Ghostbusters video game—most widely played via the 1988 NES version—mistakenly labels Gozer as “Zuul,” a famous botch (uncorrected across all of its ports) likely attributed to the film’s oft-quoted “There is no Dana, there is only Zuul” line and the Japanese development team’s equally infamous lack of competent English translators. Thus, we’re not quite ready to put Gozer on a Darth Vader-type pedestal of veneration.

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It will be interesting to see if director Jason Reitman builds upon the legacy established by his father, Ivan Reitman, on the classic first two films, or if he ends up going the trope-mimicking, member-berries-bountiful unironic parody route that has become so commonplace with modern film reboots. We will certainly find out when the frequently-delayed Ghostbusters: Afterlife presumably makes its long-awaited premiere at theaters on Thursday, November 11.

The post Do Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s Stay Puft Marshmallow Men Confirm Gozer’s Return? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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pipedream-truths · 7 years

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i know we all ignore nora’s extra content anyway (*cough* andreil wedding *cough*) but i have headcanons about this fashion designer allison thing

okay so

allison goes pro. after fighting tooth and nail for the right to play exy there’s no way she’s giving it up after college. also no one expects her to actually do it or succeed so it’s a giant fuck you to all the haters

she’s the first fox to ever play professionally and when she gets signed she asks wymack if she’s made him proud. he tells her he was always proud.

once she’s on her new team (one whose colors are not that god awful orange this time) she notices some things about the uniforms that could use…improvement

initially her critique just gets written off as her being a bitch but now that she’s pointed it out everyone starts to see it, see what could be better. and especially her fellow women teammates pool ideas and research and resources until they’ve got crazily in depth designs that are just so much more functional and clean and appealing. they pitch the designs at a meeting their coach set up just so they’d spend more time practicing in the uniforms than ripping apart the outside of them.

the suits try to say no but theodora muldani happens to be on allison’s team and between allison and thea they don’t stand a chance.

i need a whole separate post for thea and allison’s friendship

so it’s agreed but when the new uniforms arrive the next season and the team is trying them on they still aren’t right? wtf? so allison decides to take matters into her own hands.

well, renee’s hands, at least in the beginning. renee’s really good at making clothes and allison bought her a high power commercial sewing machine for christmas last year so plug that baby in and let’s kick corporate ass

allison does learn how to do it all on her own. she just likes watching renee work, and it’s a way to spend extra time with her when she’s home and not halfway across the world

she starts small because the concern is brought up that if she just starts producing her own team merch it’ll be a contract violation or some other legal shit. so she just does the undergarments for her and her friends. then pretty much everyone on the team is placing an order in. then dan asks if she can do some stuff for a few of the people on the team she’s coaching. word spreads and the media gets ahold of it and starts praising allison’s ingenuity

there are few pos articles about how “women’s place has always been at the loom” and another that cries about her “struggle to stay in touch with her femininity in a predominantly male sport” detailing how she turned to clothing as a last refuge and sanctuary, which ??no?? but most of the media coverage is good for once in allison’s life

at that point her team higher-ups have to finally recognize what she’s doing and fall over themselves to sign agreements that she’s affiliated with them and whatever

she goes to a new team instead

the transition keeps her busy and the buzz dies down, so she has time to really consider and think about what she wants to do

a lot of time actually, because she gets injured in a game and is out for the rest of the season. it’s as she’s ranting to renee about what the point of wearing armor even is if her collarbone still snapped like a twig that she realizes yeah, their armor is really shitty, and she could do better?

once she gets a few prototypes made she enlists neil and matt to try it out. andrew doesn’t say anything the whole time until they’re packing up to leave

“add a mouth guard so josten can’t run his fucking mouth during games”

kevin finds out he wasn’t invited and throws a hissy fit which is exactly why she didn’t want him there in the first place. but kevin knows exy better than anyone and will know any weaknesses in the armor better than anyone so she gives him the new version and leaves him at the court for a few hours. when she picks him up they outline every good and bad thing

the new gloves may or may not be called day gloves.

if they are it’s just because there’s a black version called night gloves

so eventually, after it’s been tested a million times and she has a few sets of it, allison’s gotta patent this shit. she’s gotta patent it and gotta unveil it in the most dramatic way possible.

the question: how?

she doesn’t want to just sell all her hard work to some bigger company or have it be attached to whatever team she’s playing for now. or any team for that matter. she wants this new gear to be accessible to all. and affordable. unlike the two hundred fifty “02” kevin day sweatshirt currently on sale at exites that she’s so buying him for his birthday just to embarrass him

she did not expect neil to have the same sweatshirt? apparently it’s part of some inside joke between him and andrew about neil being obsessed with kevin? who the fuck knows what goes on there. definitely not allison.

anyway

by this time it’s getting close enough to the olympics that Court training is getting super intense

like, if not for the whole nest thing, kevin and jean and neil probably wouldn’t leave the stadium

if we’re ignoring the extra content then we’re ignoring that jean doesn’t make Court

thea tells allison kevin had to get his own bed because with both his racquet and the dog in the bed there’s no room for her and she sure as hell isn’t giving up her memory foam mattress

for whatever reason this pathetic story about kevin sparks an idea in allison (probably has to do with her preying on everyone else’s current patheticness)

using all her reynolds bargaining skills and fox brutality along with renee’s charm, she bullies the people in charge into replacing their former super expensive top grade gear with allison’s new stuff. she goes home after days and days of debate and arm-twisting and lying through her teeth and collapses onto the couch. renee has to hold her pretty much until the next morning before she’s recovered enough to even move.

“i feel like a politician babe. wash my face for me, i can feel the political pimples coming out of my pores.”

and of course allison’s new gear is better than any other team’s. she didn’t spend a month schmoozing up to that swedish developer just to be usurped on an international level. and she didn’t learn japanese just to talk to kayleigh and tetsuji’s original developers for nothing either.

what better way to establish yourself than the fucking olympics

“I’m like a fucking superhero babe” she says, feet in renee’s lap, wine in hand, gold medal around her neck

compared to dealing with everyone involved with the Court deal, the rest of it is a piece of cake

she retires not long after the olympics

once she does that, she can focus on her brand

renee suggests she connect with her younger customers

bond with the kids. youth outreach stuff. allison tries to get away with just donating a bunch of armor but renee gives her a Look so allison actually goes and talks to some of them.

she pretty much hates it. the only kids she likes are her foxes’. but she does meet a few little ones who her success has impacted and encouraged and that’s. that’s something.

once it gets so big she can’t manage everything, it’s with great reluctance that she dials an international call to germany.

nicky’s only reservation is the amount of time he’ll spend stateside versus at home with erik, but they work it out and allison leaves him in charge of marketing with a promise to rip off his balls and feed them to erik junior the goldfish if nicky screws up her company

she expands into generalized athletic/active wear, normal stuff that isn’t exy exclusive.

“what other sport is there other than exy”

“stickball” andrew whispers

“AGAIN WITH THE STICKBALL WHAT IS STICKBALL”

poor kevin

bc why do anything if you can’t look and feel good doing it

her parents try to invest in the company.

that’s a giant fuck no. she built this baby from the ground up. it is hers. they didn’t want her and exy before and they’re not getting her and exy now. in no way does she ever want to be tied to them or their money ever again.

she goes into exites sometimes to scope out what the people actually buying her product say about it and there it is. that kevin day sweatshirt. she nearly buys out the exites chain just to make them stop selling it.

allison reynolds gets inducted into the exy hall of fame for her contribution to the sport as a Court gold medalist and for revolutonizing exy armor forever.

#allison reynolds #aftg #tfc #extra content #headcanons #kevin day #andrew minyard #neil josten #nicky hemmick #thea muldani #exy #all for the game #the foxhole court #since i spent like four five hours total on this i might be biased #but this is better than a no pro fashion designer #making sweat fabulous is the company slogan #piper

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intoxicatedeuphoria · 7 years

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Royai Tidbits from FMA: To the Promised Day (PSP Game)

There’s this FMA game for PSP that was never released outside Japan (and thus, untranslated). It’s called Fullmetal Alchemist: To the Promised Day. What’s interesting about this game is that it shows what the characters were up to before and during the preparation period for Promised Day. There are a lot of side stories which were not included in the manga and/or anime and most of the stuff are related to character development and/or backstory.

Since I’m Royai trash, I painstakingly watched the entire playthrough of one user (カジ) on Nico Nico Douga to glean as much information about Riza and Roy as I could. I’m not sure if the game is canon, though. I used the image translation function of Google Translate + my meagre knowledge of the Japanese language for the dialogues so I probably missed some of the details, but hey, something is better than nothing, right? Here’s my first official contribution to the Royai community. Cheers!

Please credit/mention my blog when you use the summary/translation for your works. Thanks <3

PS. BEWARE OF SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA/FMA:BROTHERHOOD

EDIT (31.05.2017): I already posted the full translation of Riza and Ed’s conversation here.

#1. Ed and Riza discuss their daddy issues

One of the scenarios that you can unlock in the game involves Riza and Ed talking about their dads. Riza reveals to Ed that her father is also an alchemist, which is why she could empathize with him. She also admits eventually that Roy was her father’s apprentice (and she calls him Mustang-san instead of Colonel as she narrates her story to Ed).

Riza tries to convince Ed to talk to his dad at the very least, while he still has the chance. Then she proceeds to tell him about her relationship with her late father -- how she was afraid of him because he was so obsessed with his alchemy, and how Roy (after Berthold’s death) convinced her that her father loved her in his own way (the proof of which was the moment he asked practically begged Roy to apologize to Riza on his behalf and to take care of her). At first Riza doesn’t say who the apprentice was, but in the end, Ed pieces together the clues and figures it out. Ed is left shocked, but thanks Riza for her advice and for revealing a part of her past to him.

#2. Al, Roy and Havoc share their hospital fantasies/preferences

Al visits Roy and Havoc in the hospital after the encounter with Lust. While Riza is away, Havoc begins a conversation about his hospital fantasies. Al (bless his innocent soul) comments that he wouldn’t mind it if Lieutenant Hawkeye took care of him while he’s sick/injured because she seems capable and caring. Havoc then gets this brilliant idea of imagining Riza as a nurse, and then as a doctor. [screenshots from kaji’s playthrough on Nico Nico Douga]

He voices out his opinions on each of the scenarios. He says the nurse uniform would enhance Riza’s feminine hips, while the doctor outfit would emphasize her beautiful legs. Roy just hums/nods in agreement at each of the mental images. This is where the screenshots of Riza as a nurse and doctor come from!! An unamused Riza eventually returns to the room and tells them that she heard everything since she was just outside talking to some other patient. The guys are terrified, and Al quickly excuses himself and rushes out of the room.

#3. Riza goes on a picnic with Ed and Al and reveals more about young!Royai

Riza meets up with the Elric brothers for a picnic. Ed consumes everything in sight and comments that the food she had prepared were really good. Al then points out that Riza is the perfect/best woman because she is beautiful, cooks really well, and is really competent at what she does (or she’s good at work, I was lost in translation!). Riza says that it wasn’t always the case.

She tells them that she had to learn how to cook at a young age since her mother passed away early. At first, she had no idea how to cook, but she had to do so anyway since nobody else would do it for her. Then her father’s apprentice Roy arrived. Riza once tried to prepare a feast for him on his birthday. He gladly ate everything she cooked and enthusiastically praised her for her cooking, even if he ended up running to the toilet afterwards. She was so touched by his kindness that she took up cooking lessons so she can prepare better meals for him. [At this point, I’m not sure if the brothers figured out she was referring to Roy every time she mentioned the apprentice.] Al then says it’s great that she cooks really well now, and asks if there’s someone she’s cooking for. She says there used to be someone, but right now that person can’t eat the food that she prepared. [WE ALL KNOW IT’S ROY!!] The boys thank Riza for the wonderful lunch, and assure her that someday she can cook for and eat with that person again. Awwwww.

Right now I can’t remember if there are other important Royai scenes. Maybe I’ll re-watch (and translate, then summarize) the other scenes if I have time ^__^

#royai #riza hawkeye #roy mustang #fullmetal alchemist #fma #alphonse elric #edward elric #jean havoc #spoilers #fullmetal alchemist: to the promised day #hagane no renkinjutsushi: yakusoku no hi e #FMA translation #my translations

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wendynerdwrites · 7 years

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Im glad that u also like archer. Ive been rewatching it (im on s2) and i feel guilty as a feminist for liking it so much :( i know a lot of the jokes are supposed to be ironic but i still feel bad for laughing, and my bf has made comments abt "how can u laugh at that as a feminist" (he isnt one, hes using it as a gotcha). How do u feel about this? Any advice for separating myself from toxic fandom to just be able to enjoy something problematic? Love ur blog btw happy friday 💋💋

Thanks, and don’t worry, anon: You’re not a bad feminist.

It’s funny you ask this, but I used to have an entire essay series on this exact topic, and on Archer, particularly!

My philosophy is: don’t ignore the problematic, examine it. Use it as a springboard for analysis so you can learn more about the issue conveyed. Use your problematic responsibly! Because, let’s be honest, there ARE no unproblematic pieces of media. So just use it to educate yourself instead. For instance: my love of West Side Story (starring Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria) got me to learn more about the issues of white-washing.

Being a feminist is not about being perfect, it’s about learning and being open to examination and learning. Use your fandom for good!

Laughter is the balm for the soul. And listening to your boyfriend telling you how to be a feminist… less so. Kind of the opposite.

My old articles are lost, for the most part, but under the cut, I’ve pasted them for reference and included a great video on satire that also very easily applies to this discussion (just substitute feminism with the Holocaust)

Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)

Nothing and no one is perfect, so isnt it about time we learn how to call out the things we love?

We are all familiar with guilty pleasures: those things we like in spite of ourselves, that we are ashamed to admit we enjoy. Usually the term is applied to something we enjoy despite a perceived “lameness”, or because we’re not the right demographic for something. For instance, I still have a deep, abiding affection for Sailor Moon: that colorful, stock-footage-laced Japanese phenomenon that still gets me shouting “MOON PRISM POWER!” when I’m in the right mood. Yes, childhood is over, and yes, the show’s American dub did give me incest panic as a child, but I can’t help but love it.

But then there is the more difficult brand of guilty pleasures guilty pleasures that involve actual guilt instead of “mild embarrassment”. I’m talking about problematic faves the stuff that we love despite it containing clearly objectionable material.

willing18

(Image copyright Vertigo Comics)

…This is a panel from Bill Willingham’s Fables. The character there is Bigby Wolf, one of the main (anti) heroes of the story and the character the writer identifies with most. The person Bigby is waxing poetically on pro-Zionism to is someone literally called “The Adversary”.

Fables also happens to be one of my favorite comic book series on the planet.

Safe to say the issues surrounding Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East are a bit more complicated than that. And my own feelings on the matter are far more complicated. But this glorification of Israeli military policy is… um… in very tame terms… uncomfortable. After reading this, I resolved to only check Fables out of the library: a way for me to enjoy these comics in a legal way without financially supporting these ideas, however indirectly.

There are other problems with Fables: a lack of ethnic diversity, some murky racial and class commentary, and instances of some objectionable tropes, but there is a lot to recommend of these books as well. The stories are fantastic, the art brilliant, the characters well-fleshed out, and there is a definite progressive take on issues like gender and sexuality. But as much as I love this series, there is no getting around the fact that these stories have issues.

No excuses.

But it’s not just Fables that has disappointed me in the past. I am now and forever a Trekker, yet despite how horribly sexist episodes like “The Turnabout Intruder” are, or the very troubling anti-Semitic coding of the Ferengi. The Star Wars prequels famously had racist caricatures with the Trade Federation and the infamous Jar Jar Binks.

In the world of media, there’s no shortage of problematic content. From the novels of Robert Heinlein containing pro-fascist commentary, to HBO’s Game of Thrones misogynistic adaptation decisions, there’s nothing that is quite free of some messed up messages, subtle and blatant alike.

Now, when we talk about such media, we don’t merely mean triggering factors (i.e. the presentation, portrayal, or discussion of potentially traumatizing issues like domestic abuse, racism, hate crimes, substance abuse, or sexual assault), but rather how these matters are portrayed. A piece of media, such as Marvel and Netflix’s excellent Jessica Jones series, can portray certain issues (such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and mental illness) in a respectful, progressive, and sensitive light. Thus, while the content of the show can be triggering, the skill with which they portray these matters keeps it from being problematic.

In contrast, something like Game of Thrones, which portrays sexual assault in a thoroughly insensitive, exploitative, and misogynistic manner, is highly problematic.

Unfortunately, progress has been a slow-moving process, with many issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, mental illness, substance abuse, and violence only being examined in a more nuanced way fairly recently. As a result, almost all media is problematic in one way or another. Especially since even today, the majority of executives crafting, publishing, and greenlighting books, shows, comics, movies, and other forms of media are in fact cisgendered, heterosexual white men.

So what do we do?

Good news: here at Fandom Following, we don’t believe in dropping something you like just because it’s problematic. Why?

Because knowing, examining, and yes, even appreciating problematic content can be incredibly important. While certain content can be damaging, it can also teach us a great deal. Not only about current issues, but also about how to go about discussing these matters, and constructing narratives in general.

The racial issues in things like Star Wars and Star Trek can teach us much about how coding works, and how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes. The exploitation of women and rape on Game of Thrones can open up a dialogue of how to portray these things properly and improperly.

There are three tricks to enjoying problematic media: 1) Recognizing that there is an issue, 2) Being ready for a dialogue, and 3) Not ignoring or silencing the complaints about said issues.

Well, we here at Fandom Following have decided to tackle this issue head on with a series called “Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)”, where we will be exploring specific media franchises, creators, and works and, specifically, the problematic content they contain. In this series, we’ll be examining the issues, talking about why they’re important, discussing what this piece of media did wrong, how to approach the issue in a more progressive way, and the best ways to go about discussing the issue itself. Various writers will be contributing to this project, and we’re excited to present this feature to you!

So let’s get down and dirty, people. We all have our problematic faves. Let’s talk about them.

My Face is Problematic: Archer

Honestly, doing a post like this on Archer, a show which is deliberate in its dark humor, is a bit hard for me. Not because I like the show, but because I think there’s true validity in the argument that humor and narratives about really messed up, problematic stuff has its place. The show exists to be as outlandish and absurd as possible. The extremes and the awfulness of the characters’ personalities and their actions is the point.

I VUZ BORN IN DUSSELDORF AND THAT IS VY THEY CALL ME ROLF!

Joking about awful things, awful circumstances, and awful people is hardly new ground for comedy to cover, nor does it send a poor message, necessarily. Mel Brooks wrote a movie in which one of the characters was a Nazi, who wrote an overblown pro-Nazi musical produced by men deliberately trying to make a flop. Springtime For Hitler, as it exists in our universe, is not problematic. The Nazis are the butt of the joke, in which any pro-Nazi sentiment can only function if it is wildly fabricated and over-the-top, and even then, it will still be taken for satire. Because Nazis are utterly terrible, they built their movement on total bullshit that they dressed up in shiny boots and Hugo Boss uniforms and German exceptionalism and “glory”. This song-and-dance number about “Don’t be stupid, be a smartie, come and join the Nazi party” only ever deserves to be a joke, as the Jew who wrote it can tell you. Nazis fucking suck and it’s hilarious that anyone would ever suggest otherwise.

There’s justice in reducing Nazis to self-parody, and doubling down on that by making a joke about them being reduced to self-parody. Especially when said self-parody and depiction of it is crafted by the very people Hitler tried to destroy. No one enjoys or masters mocking Nazis like the Jews. Plain and simple.

Joking about awful things and how terrible they are can be a good way to process things and not allow them to hurt you anymore. Comedy, at its core, is a defense mechanism against horror and pain. There’s a reason slapstick is a classic subgenre of comedy that people have built entire careers around. Laugh at terror and pain to make it go away. Unfortunately, some of the things we manage to find humor in can really make you wonder if were all just terrible and have no limits.

Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt about his impoverished, abusive, dangerous childhood in Ireland. In it, he chronicles his own starvation, life-threatening illness, abuse, and suffering at the hands of alcoholism and brutality from adult authority figures. He was a child laborer who went days without food while his father drank away the family’s money and abused the rest of the family, who often came down with horrifying illnesses as a result of the terrible conditions he lived in, and spent his formative years suffering along with all the people he loved. Three of his infant siblings die within the space of a chapter. We get a glimpse of the time when his father, overjoyed at the birth of his daughter, finds the will to stop drinking, stop mistreating his family, go to work, provide for his family, and just generally be a better person so that his children don’t have to suffer. For a short period, the McCourts have food, heat, and happiness. Then the baby promptly dies and Frank’s father is back in the pubs, once again squandering any pay he manages to acquire on alcohol and returning home at three am to scream at and beat his wife while his remaining children try to cover their ears and sleep on the cold ground.

Along with being praised for it being a both an unflinchingly brutal depiction of poverty and a testament to the triumph of the human spirit, the book is also praised for its humor.

Remember: Angela’s Ashes is a true story written by the very man who suffered through all of these horrible things. And it’s considered a pretty funny book. And the author who, once again, is the person who actually suffered all of these horrible things, actually did intentionally try to make people laugh as they read about that time he was in the hospital with Typhoid Fever and enjoyed it because it was the first time he’d been in a place where he was fed regularly and got to sleep in a warm bed.

Hilarious.

That being said, there’s satire and dark humor, and there’s just gratuitous, shock-jock bullshit. There are jokes that are terrible simply because of what they’re about and how they’re handled. George Carlin said that anything can be made funny, even rape, if you imagine Elmer Fudd raping Porky Pig.

If we can build entire films and musicals about how any pro-Hitler sentiment can only ever be taken as satire, isn’t that proof that you can joke about anything?

Yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean you should try, that the joke is funny, or that it’s alright, necessarily. Maybe Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Springtime for Hitler prove that anything can be made funny and that’s okay. But if that’s true (and no, I’m not saying that it is), that still doesn’t mean every attempt at making something funny is either acceptable or funny.

Springtime for Hitler is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for any attempt to make a terrible subject the object of humor. Standards need to exist.

Unfortunately, the line between good or acceptable dark humor and simply gratuitous, insensitive, inherently problematic jokes can blur. The excuse of humor can only go so far. Yes, make light of Nazis. But there’s still a point where “humor” is used an excuse for people to act like assholes. And it’s an excuse that is used all too often. Radio Shock Jocks have been using that excuse to help reinforce racism and rape culture for quite a while. Whether certain dudebros like it or not, there’s a point where it stops being gross-out and just starts being gross.

Which brings me to Archer, the animated spy comedy on FX that premiered in 2011. Like many comedy series like Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a major part of the premise is that certain characters are, quite simply, terrible people. These characters and their abhorrent behavior is the joke. And, as the show is about spies, these terrible people are often put into highly dangerous, outlandish, and traumatizing situations.

So, the main characters, by virtue of their profession, spend a lot of time killing people in cold blood. Or trying to seduce or manipulate enemies. Or engaging in clandestine operations of sabotage that harm a lot of people. Horrible, violent things are going to happen, things violent enough to serve as narratives on their own. But most of the characters are as awful as the situations they encounter, so the horror is amplified. And it’s a comedy.

Indeed, in the first episode of the fifth season, we get the whole main ensemble recounting all of their actions and experiences working for the spy agency ISIS that we’d witnessed over the course of the show’s run at that point. Drag racing with the Yakuza, knee-capping the Irish mob, encountering human traffickers, 30 year affairs with the head of the KGB that only ended when the guy was blown up because one of the ISIS members had choke sex with the victim’s cyborg replacement, actual piracy, paying homeless people to fight for spectators, defling a corpse, defiling a different corpse, sexual assault, kidnapping the pope, blowing up oil pipelines, “smuggling Mexicans”

Yeah.

There are comedic arcs about cancer, illegal immigration, kinky S&M bondage murders, cocaine addiction… a lot of stuff, basically.

Now, take those situations, and add in characters who get aroused by things like homeless people, being choked, sex with food, and the thought of their mother dying. Who spend their weekends starting fires, making hybrid pig-people, rubbing sand into the eyes of their employees, competing in underground Chinese Fighting Fish tournaments, and calling in bomb threats so that they can get a table at a fancy restaurant. You get the idea.

And it’s all totally awesome and hilarious and god damn it I kind of love these characters.

This show has a season-long sub-arc about one of the main characters getting so aggressively addicted to cocaine that she not only consumes (literally) half a ton of it in the space of a few months, but almost gets her head chopped off for buying amphetamines from the Yakuza with counterfeit money. It’s one of the most incredible things the show has done.

Pictured: An absurdly self-centered man feeling genuine dismay and concern over his friend risking her life to achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty.

The title character has a butler named Woodhouse who practically raised him. One of the first interactions we witness between them is Archer not only threatening to rub sand into Woodhouse’s “dead little eyes”, but making him go out and buy the sand himself and check if they grade it, because he wants the sand to be coarse. He’s also done things like make the man eat a bowl of spiderwebs and deliberately keep him in the dark about his brother’s death and funeral.

Another character is a mad scientist and possible clone of Adolf Hitler who kills a young intern by giving him a drug designed to turn him gay. That’s one of the less disturbing things Dr. Krieger has done.

Frequent gags on this show include one guy repeatedly getting shot, another character repeatedly getting paralyzed (it’s complicated), people trying to remember the inappropriate puns that they wanted say as one-liners, the horrific abuse and neglect Sterling Archer has received from his mother his entire life, and basically everyone being a sex-maniac.

There are plots revolving around mind-control, drugging people, and hypnotism. You can imagine the paths some of those episodes go down. Yes, there is a character that has tried to sexually assault one of her sleeping co-workers. And later deposited two unconscious, naked coworkers in a bathroom stall with an octopus, in an episode that has already made tentacle hentai jokes. Yes, the openly gay character on the show is often the target of jokes about him being gay or a woman from his coworkers. Yes, the female lead, a black woman, is referred to as a “quadroon” at one point by one of the characters.

Yes, the following exchange of dialogue does take place in an early episode:

“Oh my god, you killed a hooker!”

“Call-girl!”

“No, Cyril, when they’re dead, they’re just hookers!”

And yet… Oh my god. How it manages to play around with stuff in an amazing fashion. For one thing, it is amazing how often this show skewers micro-aggressions and fucks around with stereotypes. And, despite how unabashedly messed up it is, the writing in it actually manages to be oddly pro-social progress in ways that most modern media doesn’t even seem to be aware of.

I take pride in my sex work and I will not put up with your bullshit!

For instance the “hooker” referred to in that exchange? (spoiler alert: she wasn’t really dead) She’s Trinette, and she an unbelievably refreshing and strangely progressive depiction of a sex worker. While she’s a minor character, every time she shows up, it’s awesome. Trinette is a sex worker who is unashamed of her job, a woman who truly does take pride in and enjoy her work, who does not put up with poor behavior from her clients, and is just generally awesome. She call people out and makes them pay for any mistreatment she receives, from calling out micro-aggressions by insisting on her preferred terminology for her profession (“Call-girl, you puke!”), shaming men for their sexual misdeeds (“How can you cheat on Lana bare-back?!”), demanding restitution for any injuries or threats she’s suffered (Threatening Archer into giving her his car after he fakes her death and stuffs her in a rug to fool Cyril into thinking he killed her), and determining her work and clients (“What about Trinette? She said that? Damn it!”). When she has a baby, she gives it her last name along with his father’s (“Magoon-Archer”) and she unapologetically proud of her Irish heritage. She’s easily one of the most functional characters in the show, and every one of her appearances on the show manage to defy at least one whore-phobic trope a minute. She’s the best.

Then there’s the show’s handling of race, which is mixed. While arguably the most important female character in the series (the show, despite its name, is very, very much an ensemble, especially as the series progresses. But in the early episodes when they focussed on fewer characters, she was the one who got the most screentime) is Lana Kane, a highly-competent (for ISIS) African American woman who is really, really well-developed, there is also the fact that she’s the only POC in the main cast. Granted, part of that IS the point. One of the earliest episodes is “Diversity Hire”, where, aside from Lana, the spy agency is so overwhelmingly white that they hire a “diversity double-whammy!” Conway Stern, a black Jew.

“Sammy Gay-vis Junior!”

Now, granted, that doesn’t sound great the way I describe it, but there are so many great moments in this episode alone. For instance, when Mallory Archer, terrible woman and owner of the spy agency mentions their lack of diversity, Cyril, the tragically white accountant and “nice guy” puts his hands on Lana’s shoulder and says he thinks they’re pretty diverse, a statement Lana finds hilarious. Cue Sterling Archer, other horrible person, telling Lana she’s “black-ish”, then responding to her offense at this with “Well, you freaked out when I said quadroon!”. The framing of this entire discourse is that Cyril and Archer are fucking idiots and Lana is of course taking offense because, duh, she should. The episode proceeds with a lot of references and discussion about racism, highlighting casual racism in a nuanced, funny, and organic way. For instance, Archer’s relief that Conway didn’t sleep with his mother. While Archer freaks out about anyone sleeping with his mother, regardless of race, Conway believes it’s racism on Archer’s fault. And in no way does the narrative act like he’s overly-sensitive or irrational for thinking that. Because the stereotype about black men seducing white women and fear from white men about this is still a very real, pervasive thing that has somehow managed to survive in our “enlightened” times. Of course Conway encountering a guy who displays a downright violent fixation on whether or not his new black coworker is sleeping with his mother will assume it’s a race thing. Because why would anyone be so preoccupied with such an idea? In that situation, it’s almost certainly based on the long-standing paranoia white men have about black men’s sexuality “conquering their women.” It’s one of the most common varieties of anti-blackness in existence.

Of course, since it’s Archer, who has kidnapped a LOT of people under the suspicion that they were having sex with his mom, we know this is the one case that it isn’t racism. It’s Archer’s disturbing, Oedipal relationship with his mother. He even kidnapped and threatened his role model, Burt Reynolds, for dating his mother. When he says “Not in a racist way” to Conway in this episode, it’s actually true. He’s just honestly that screwed up where his mother is concerned.

Conway’s conclusions on this, regardless, are still framed as a totally understandable. To the point where the episodes suggests that it would make no sense for Conway to think otherwise. Part of the joke is that no, Archer isn’t a horrible racist at all. He’s way too screwed up for his actions to be motivated by racism.

And before anyone asks, no, this wasn’t the “episode that acknowledges that racism is a thing.” You know the ones… The episodes that talk about race and why racism is bad to prove to the audience that they’re not racist, then proceed with the rest of the show, which never acknowledges race and racism again. There are frequent instances of highlighting racism, from violent outright bigotry to common micro-aggressions to clueless white people demanding how the thing they just did/said could POSSIBLY be considered racist! They’re not racist! How is THAT racist?! Cue Lana face-palming.

I just really, really like this. It doesn’t just end there, either. Racism is called out pretty frequently on this show, and not in a cliche, strawman way. Nor is it treated like something that only exists in the form of aggressively bigoted bad people shouting slurs and holding cross burnings. Nope. The “heroes” of this show just say shit that you could easily imagine someone saying in real life, shortly before getting defensive about any racism on their part. It’s treated as a common, pervasive thing that Lana and other PoC have to deal with every day, and the offense they take at it is treated as nothing short of sympathetic or justified (even in the cases of misunderstandings, like with Conway). This includes Mallory telling Lana to “put [the race card] back in the deck!” as reminder of how much of an unapologetic douche Mallory is.

It’s made clear: people say and do some super racist shit on a regular basis with realizing it or meaning to, and regardless, it’s still uncool and people have every right to get upset and call you out on it. See: Ray’s bionic hand at the end of season six.

Lana’s reactions and how they’re framed is usually pretty awesome. Mostly they come in the form of small, reasonable confrontations, which are never framed as an overreaction on her part. The fact that she “freaked out” when Archer called her a quadroon is framed as “well, duh, of course, she should.” Then there are instances like when she, Archer, and their child visit a high-end nursery school where they encounter a pretty obvious racist. The guy ignores and dismisses Lana at first, then expresses surprise at the fact that she’s the mother of the child (despite the baby being black), remarking about the “times we live in” and telling Lana “good for you!” when she informs him that yes, she is the mother, not the nanny or the maid.

Not all of the racism stuff stems from Lana being back, either. They skewer bigotry against Latinos on a pretty regular basis. When an Irish mobster rants about Latinos (he doesn’t refer to them by that name) “taking American jobs!”, Archer immediately calls bullshit, recalling actual history of the Irish being accused of that exact same thing during the mass immigration of the Irish to America during the potato famine, and it’s just as shitty and bigoted to say such things about immigrants now as it was in 1842. He is extremely irate about a mission ISIS is assigned to do on behalf of border patrol to arrest people who just want to get a job, and he ends up siding with and befriending the Mexican illegal immigrants he encounters. All of this while aspects of certain Latinx cultures are often highlighted, often very favorably (“Ramone is Latino, so he’s not afraid to express affection.”)

That being said, there are still a lot of issues in the show. The lack of diversity is definitely an albatross around this show’s neck. Especially so many seasons after the “Diversity Hire” episode. While I do praise Archer for not treating racism as a thing that is rare and only needs to be addressed in one twenty-minute block of time, it is telling that the lack of diversity at ISIS is never addressed again.

Then there’s the approach to sexuality. The show loves gross-out sex humor, especially regarding Krieger. And the depiction of sexuality is actually pretty mixed. On one hand, the openly gay character in the show adheres to a lot of stereotypes about gay men: he mocks Lana about her “knock-off Fiacci drawers”, his go-to alias is “Carl Channing”, his free time is spent at raves, and he loves to make effeminate poses. He’s also a frequent target of homophobic jokes and remarks. His outrage at this is treated as being every bit as valid as Lana’s, but it doesn’t change the fact that their main gay character is basically ALL of the stereotypes, as are a number of the other gay characters.

“Alright! Were off to get our scrotums waxed!”

Then there is the sexual assault. Which, once again, is called out for being what it is, in defiance of many common biases (such as the idea that female-on-male sexual assault isn’t a thing). But this show is way too flippant about this.

While I consider Archer to be very sex-positive, allowing every character, regardless of sex, age, or orientation, to be comfortable and expressive about their sexuality without judgment (a lot of jokes, yes, but not any that come off as particularly shaming). Almost every character, male or female spends a fair amount of time naked or scantily clad. We see Archer stripped down just as often as Lana. And the fan service isn’t relegated to just women who adhere to the typical youth and weight obsessed eurocentric standards we all know and hate.

Pam, who is a big woman (and often the target of fat jokes, which the show always treats as nothing short of detestable) is a total sex goddess who grows to be utterly confident in herself as a woman to the point where she’s giving Mallory (one of the most desired women on the show) advice. When she reveals that she keep ingesting cocaine because it’s made her thin with big boobs, Archer is utterly dismayed, telling her she was way better off the way she was, acting horrified that she’d risk her life to be “hot”, and just generally freaking out about Pam’s desire to be thin. It manages to avoid being cliche or empty given that Archer considered Pam the best sex he ever had before she got thin, to the point of blowing off assignments just to have sex with her, because she’s just that awesome. After she gains the weight back in season six, she’s still sexy, making Archer’s jaw drop in the episode “Edie’s Wedding.” She’s also unapologetically pansexual, which is awesome.

Mallory, meanwhile, is still actively sexual and treated as desirable. While sex and sexuality are always sources of gags and jokes on Archer, never do the jokes about Mallory’s sexuality ever come across as ageist. Sure, some characters make ageist comments on the show, but it’s never treated as valid. Mallory is still treated as being extremely sexy and confident about it. While Mallory is generally a horrible person, her enthusiastic sexual agency is never once treated as a flaw or something disturbing or gross. What’s disturbing, gross, and worthy of ridicule is her son being so preoccupied and reactionary about his mother having a sex life. It’s clear: if you have a problem with Mallory having a lot of sex and enjoying it, you’re the one with issues.

Even the one young, thin, white woman in the main cast gets to be unapologetic about her kinks. It’s really only a problem when her desire for choke-sex motivates her to lead a KGB cyborg to the ISIS safehouse. Or when she coerces Cyril into sex. And generally acts like a violent, awful person.

Essentially, there’s no tolerance for shaming women for being sexual. All of it, regardless of preference, age, size, or race, is nothing but fun and should be enthusiastically represented. “Can’t talk, got a pussy to break!”

Being a predator is shameful. Having belly rolls is not.

Who on Earth finds this funny?

But, then there’s the flippancy about sexual assault. There ARE gags about Pam and Ray dropping their pants when encountering an unconscious Cyril. And sorry, but the framing of it is all manner of screwed up. There’s tons of sexual coersion as well. Another one of the most problematic instances comes in an episode of season two, where Archer is repeatedly sexually assaulted by a sixteen-year-old German socialite. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that Archer explicitly refuses consent, that he’s being violated, yet the show treats this as funny.

While I get that this is a comedy show and that in-depth exploration of the trauma of sexual abuse isn’t going to be something they can spend a lot of time on, the option they should have gone with is, you know, not base an episode around a german schoolgirl raping the main character. It’s not funny, guys. It’s not necessary. It’s actually just uncomfortable and off-putting.

The show mentions things like alternative gender identities, emotional triggers, and sexual exploration in ways that treat these things as totally valid, which is good. It also frequently portrays poor people as jokes in and of themselves, which is a lot less good. While materialism is lampooned frequently, it’s not treated as a joke in and of itself the way poverty is.

The way the show often portray legitimate abuse for laughs also often goes overboard. While the show does a good job of exploring and following through on all the ways Mallory’s abuse screwed up Archer, there’s a point where the volume of “abuse humor” gets to just be downright gross. Dark humor is one thing, not being able to go an episode without a “Haha, ten-year-old archer was abandoned in a train station at Christmas!” joke is, uh… Not great.

Archer is an awesome, immensely watchable show. But it’s not one I always feel clean watching. It’s a show that celebrates extremes, yes, but there’s a point where certain lines are crossed and it’s just problematic rather than gallows humor.

Archer is one of those series that really makes me struggle to distinguish the gallows humor from the simple tastelessness. To give pause to the idea of problematic content being the “point.”

The line blurs with Archer. A lot. It often manages to distinguish itself with the things it gets right, especially since they often do well on things that most shows, movies, and books are often terrible at. And that’s enough to buy it some goodwill for when they screw up.

But seriously, guys, please stop treating sexual coercion and child abuse as bottomless gag wells. I would have really preferred to have Pam and her awesome sexuality without her sexually assaulting Cyril and Ray. It’s not funny or clever or edgy. It’s just gross.

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#archer fx #your fave is problematic #anon #feminism

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Berlin—February 1st, 2017. I am rushing through the neighborhood of Mitte, slaloming my way through icy mud piles along the streets. Google tells me the sun is setting today at 16:53. I have two more hours of daylight. Just about enough to get a few shots of Errolson Hugh, the Canadian designer behind the Berlin-based performance wear brand Acronym.

We get together at his studio in the Mitte neighborhood in former East Berlin, which is now a popular bourgeois-bohemian neighborhood. In his loft-like studio, I almost crash into one of the stacks of the hundreds of shoe boxes that dot the floor plan like Greek temple columns. “Sorry about the mess,” Errolson says in a calm voice, “all these shoes go online for sale tonight.” Inside the boxes is the Acronym Nike Air Force 1 Downtown sneaker, the latest edition of their ongoing collaboration. Like almost everything Acronym puts onto the market, it is in high demand and soon to be #VeryRare. I find out later that night that all 600 sneakers sold in less than 12 minutes online.

I look past the shoe boxes through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. The sky is grey and darkening at the horizon. We dash out in the backyard to catch the last rays of gloomy light. Errolson grabs a couple of black jackets, among them the J1A-GT, a revamped version of Acronym’s first collection from 2002. “It’s damn cold,” I gasp, and Errolson smiles, replying, “Oh, this is nothing compared to where I come from.”

Born in Canada, Errolson grew up facing another echelon of cold winters. To keep ourselves warm, I ask him if he can show me a few martial arts moves, knowing that he has been a karate pro since he was a kid. He shortly considers, looks around the neighborhood, then says, “Yeah, why not.” Errolson tells me that he and his younger brother both started training together, when they were 10 and eight years old, respectively. The uniform, the karate gi, is a very traditional example of Japanese pattern-making, and its geometry is such that there are no restrictions to physical motion. That was the first time Errolson realized a piece of clothing could limit or enable the way the body works. “I was always driving my mom crazy trying to find pants that I could wear and kick in. Any kind of pants. I’d always be in the department stores in the changing rooms, throwing sidekicks,” he says.

Errolson is dressed in his own collection, wearing black P25-CH pants, exactly those ones he dreamt of as a kid—pants you can move in freely, stay outside in, and practice karate. I ask him what he learned from karate apart from how to do a badass axe kick. “Martial arts fosters self-reliance, and you learn to trust your own judgment. You realize, in a very real, physical way, that you can do more than you think you can. The whole mind over matter thing, mastering situations, all of that has real world application, particularly if you’re an entrepreneur or you’re in a super competitive industry, like fashion.“

Only much later would the designer apply the merits of karate to his work process, design, and brand. Errolson’s parents, Chinese-Jamaicans, moved from the tropical Caribbean to the woodlands of Alberta to study architecture. After graduating, they worked together all over Canada, moving around to wherever the jobs would take them. “For me, Canada was the feeling of alienation and total isolation,“ Errolson says about his up-bringing, “Growing up there was myself, my brother, maybe one other Asian kid at school, one black kid. People wanted to grow up and be hockey players or work in the oil industry, that’s kind of all there was, so being a designer was about as realistic as becoming an astronaut.”

Nobody knew anything about fashion. Errolson remembers one shop, which had a copy of The Face and i-D, that was like a message from outer space. “I think it was my guitar teacher who first gave me an issue of The Face,” Errolson remembers, “That blew me away. Then my dad gave me a copy of Interview magazine at Christmas in 1985. Madonna was on the cover, along with handmade pencil drawings. It was this giant newsprint magazine. I still remember spending the entire day reading. I knew every single page of that magazine by like a week later.” With no internet, those rare magazines were the only channel to see what was going on outside of Alberta.

In 1989, Errolson enrolled at Ryerson Polytechnic University. He graduated, but it was a bumpy road. “They tried to kick me out, twice. I was a horrible student—very disruptive and not respectful,“ he confesses. I ask him if it had to do with his karate mentality, the idea of being self-reliant and one’s own boss. “Yeah, there had always been that outsider perspective,” he answers. “It is still that way with my brand.”

In 1999, Errolson registered the brand Acronym with his partner and former girlfriend Michaela Sachenbacher. From the start it focused on experimenting at the edges of what apparel can be. “Acronym is conceptual,” the designer says, “You take something and make it compact and useable. You express something very complex in a compact way, which is similar to everything we’re trying to do with apparel.”

Michaela and Errolson are both trained as designers. She now runs all of the legal, production, and finances of the company from Brooklyn, while Errolson does all of the Acronym studio work, collaborations with Nike or Stone Island, rotating between Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo. They both design Acronym together. “I’m the visible part, but Michaela is equally strong as far as aesthetics, and Acronym definitely wouldn’t look the same if she wasn’t co-owner,” Errolson says, “She is the person I’ve probably learned more from than anyone else in my life. I’ve known her since we were 18.”

Before establishing Acronym as a fashion brand, Michaela and Errolson had a creative agency in Munich. They were designing and art directing mostly active sportswear, for mountain bike or snowboard brands like Burton. Both picked up on the technology that was there and through friends came across military and industrial apparel, which at some point led to the question, “Why can’t we have all of this for everyday use?” The couple realized that what they were looking for in clothes was not yet on the market. “People were like, ‘Oh that sounds terrible, it’s so difficult, it’s expensive, why would you want to do that?’ So we started Acronym almost out of frustration. We said, ‘Alright, if you don’t want to do it, we’ll do it.’ At first, people didn’t care. It was like five to six years before anybody was interested.”

Errolson is well-connected in the fashion world, having lived in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York, but for years the brand remained something like an outsider, a well-hidden secret. Another reason Acronym stayed detached from the fashion system is the way the company and the studio work. “We operate in parallel with it, and sometimes we intersect with it,” the designer says about the industry at large, “but for the most part our process and the way we work has almost nothing to do with the way everyone else works. This is our strength and it’s also obviously our weakness. The strength of it is being so outside of the system you develop your own independent way of doing things, and it really gives you an individual approach and a fingerprint. Then the negative part obviously is to interface with the system at play. You’re not limited by the limitations of the system, but you also don’t get to benefit from the advantages of being in the system.”

From the beginning, Acronym was focused on soft and light shell fabrics like Gore-Tex, a lightweight, waterproof, breathable fabric membrane designed for all-weather use. A lot of what Acronym does is taking an unattractive or not obviously stylish fabric and finding a way to make it look good. It always starts with the function of the apparel. There is a lot of thought that goes into each design and an obsession with details. The architectural influence from his parents comes into play with Errolson’s approach to materials. “The whole form follows function thing, fitness to purpose, all of those broad architectural concepts. My brother and I grew up with those all around us, and so it was very natural for me to apply that to apparel.”

Acronym’s collections never have more than 15 pieces, an indication of the painstaking detail that goes into each design. It took three years to work on the brand’s first collection, named Kit-1. It was released in 2002 in an edition of 120, consisting of a jacket, a bag, and accessories. The industry noticed, liked it, and the Fall/Winter 2003 collection was picked up by concept stores like Colette in Paris.

There is a misconception in the fashion world that Acronym limits its number of pieces on purpose to create artificial scarcity. In fact, there is so little of Acronym because it is so hard to make. It is very difficult to find a factory that can meet the technical criteria to produce it, Errolson explains to me while pouring himself a glass of Coca Cola. “There’s always a very specific reason for the things that we put in, and those things happen to be expensive, and that’s why it’s expensive. We’re not trying to create something purposefully scarce or purposefully luxurious, we’re just trying to make the best possible thing we can. It’s not a marketing strategy.”

Until 2009, Errolson and Michaela were the company’s only employees. They got so used to working by themselves and for themselves that when people started knocking at their door, they were surprised. Errolson wondered, “Wow, where did people get our number? Why do you call us?“ Even today, it is still kind of like that. There is no PR, no marketing, hardly any events. It was not simple to reach Errolson as he travels and focuses more on work than doing publicity. Yet the team has grown slowly over the years. “I basically hired all of my friends. We joked that all of the lost children of Berlin end up in our office. In other cities, people talk about being cool, because it’s actually a bankable commodity. The way they describe it, that kind of cool actually exists in Berlin as a real thing. People are legitimately cool here, and it’s not about knowing it. I think that also comes because it’s the least materialistic city I have ever lived in. People just aren’t about money. They just don’t care. I think that’s super healthy.”

Only in the past few years has the visibility of Acronym increased. One factor being the cultural shift in the industry in favor of their aesthetic and the rise of high fashion performance wear. Acronym pioneered the introduction of technology as its own category of design aesthetic, and their moves have paved the way for many brands’ ready-to-wear collections in recent seasons. Today, technology is one of the industry’s big trends, blending traditional sportswear with high fashion. Dubbed athleisure, active wear, or performance wear, it is casual clothing designed to be worn both for exercising and for day-to-day use in the cityscape. Fitness and athleticism has become one of the defining cultural paradigms of contemporary urban life, similar to the powers of street culture, that has turned the fashion world upside down in the last decade.

When I ask Errolson about his relationship to streetwear, he says it is hard for him to have an objective view on that, because he knows those guys, and through his work with Burton snowboards, way back in the day, met a lot of the people who invented what everybody calls streetwear today. In Tokyo, he met people like Nigo, Jun Takahashi, and Hiroshi Fujiwara. “Everything we take for granted as streetwear today,” the designer says, “started there organically. They’re all friends. They worked together. They invented the idea of collaboration.”

Acronym itself slowly began working with very carefully selected partners. After five to six years, they realized that trying to do it all by themselves was not possible. “You can’t change the industry as a single brand,” Errolson admits. Among the collaborations are well-established sportswear and streetwear brands that were part of Acronym’s growth. When Paul Harvey retired from his job as creative director at Stone Island, the Italian brand approached Errolson to be a part of that team, a partnership that gave birth to Stone Island Shadow Project. “That’s been super amazing because we get to do things ourselves,” Errolson says. “That’s the only collection we’ve ever worked on where you get to design not only the pieces but also the fabric of those pieces in the collection. They’re so up for trying different things, difficult things, and stuff no one else would even attempt. They’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s add these three processes on top of it and see what happens.’ And you just don’t get that anywhere else.“

Since 2013, Acronym has had another mutually successful partnership with Nike. Both brands worked together to create iconic sneakers, among them the Lunar Force 1 and recently the Presto Air, which has helped Nike develop an avant-garde feel and reach out to the premium menswear segment of the sneaker market. Both companies also worked together on another line, relaunching ACG (All Conditions Gear), Nike’s iconic mountaineering-inspired offering. “It’s the first time we’re really able to work at a scale where we can take an idea and put it on the street in a way that’s much more accessible to more people than we would with Acronym,” Errolson reflects. “Working with Nike means that you’re really working with pop culture. It’s not just a product or a collection. It’s so ingrained into so many people’s histories.”

When Errolson says this, we both glance at the hundreds of shoe boxes in the studio, holding the latest much-anticipated collaboration between Acronym and Nike. By the time the interview ends, the sun is down, leaving this part of the studio in the shade. It is hard to imagine that all the sneakers will be gone soon. Other parts of the studio show pieces of older Acronym collections and accessories, most of them designed from black materials. I ask him if that color is a fetish. “According to my dad, I used to wear all black when I was 10, which is kind of strange to me because that’s before Yohji and Comme des Garçons, which I never would have heard about anyways. He thinks it’s from being influenced by Arata Isozaki, who is a Japanese architect, which kind of makes more sense because there were definitely a lot more architecture books around. But with Acronym later, and the size of production that we used to do, black was the only color that all of the suppliers would have on stock, and that you could order and expect to look sort of okay. That’s why everything is black.”

Besides the underlying constants of dark colors, select materials, and a focus on functionality, in recent seasons, Acronym started to concentrate on pattern-making and how the garments move on the body. As with everything, Acronym takes its time. It’s a culture of methodical tactility. When Errolson mentions this shift, I am reminded of his karate gi and how it sensitized his perception of fashion and empowered him to become a better fighter. “That’s why fashion is so powerful,” Errolson says. “It’s that intersection of design, communication, and identity. It’s a large part of who you are, how you define yourself, how you present yourself to the world. So people definitely get attached to that. Plus, it’s just hard to find a pair of pants that fit you perfectly. It’s actually quite difficult.”

Before leaving his studio, I ask Errolson what was the last mind-opening thing he learned from someone. He tells me about his daughter and seeing her grow up: “It’s amazing to see somebody discover everything for the first time and it’s a good reminder that there can be magic in the most banal things.”

#acronym #acrnm #nikelab #stone island #ghost in the shell #攻殻機動隊 #blade runner #ブレードラーナー #altered carbon #when gravity fails #neuromancer #william gibson #cyberpunk #fashion #goretex #techwear

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attractionjapan · 7 years

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The Birth of Japan Game: Episode 1: The Love Hotel Kid

The Birth of Japan Game is a chronicle in ten parts, recounting the early years of Dorian Gray’s journey along the path. The narrative begins some time in 2006 and concludes in early 2012. Names have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent alike.

Momoka was late. I’d been waiting outside Shinjuku Station for fifteen minutes, and I had better things to do than waste time on a complete stranger: improve my Japanese; hit the gym with friends; go shopping for new clothes with Maya, my girlfriend. I didn’t owe Momoka – who I could barely remember – anything, and I glanced down at the time on my mobile phone and considered going home.

Two weeks ago I’d been walking back from a night out with my friends, the other foreign exchange students at the university I attended in Tokyo. We were a hard-partying bunch of Europeans, Americans, and Australians like myself, and we spent almost every night out in one of the city’s numerous bars and izakayas: combination eating and drinking establishments with dim lighting and traditional decor. Textbooks and lectures were passed over in favor of watching Japanese television and making friends with the locals, some of whom had excellent drug connections. On this particular night I started talking to a young girl and the young man who seemed to be her boyfriend as we passed them on the street. I was known for approaching strangers while drunk, a trait that had gotten me in trouble over the years. But this time the girl immediately stopped and stared at me with rapt attention.

“Where are you going now?” I asked her in Japanese.

“Karaoke.”

“What are you going to sing?”

“Björk.”

The young man next to her made no effort to interfere, and I ignored him completely.

“Really? I like Björk too, favorite album is Homogenic.”

“You know Björk? Not many Japanese do,” she said.

“Yeah, like I said I have all her albums. We should go to karaoke together and sing some time.”

We exchanged numbers, and then my friends dragged me away. By the next day I’d forgotten all about the girl who had tapped her name into my phone as Momoka. When she called me a week later, it took me a few moments to remember who she was.

“When are we going to karaoke?” she asked, a bit petulantly.

“Um, what?”

I was cooking spaghetti in the shared kitchen of the student dorm where I lived, and a drama was playing on the television.

“I was waiting for you to call me.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’ve been busy with my girlfriend.”

“When can we meet?”

“I don’t know, on the weekend? Saturday night?”

I agreed to meet her in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo’s busiest stations, and not far from my university. I couldn’t remember what she looked like and didn’t plan to stay long; I was going clubbing with friends later. Simply put, I didn’t trust my drunken judgment. Momoka would probably be unattractive, boring, or both. I vaguely remembered the Björk conversation, but in my admittedly limited experience, the hottest Japanese girls didn’t listen to experimental electronic dance music, they listened to J-pop and mainstream R&B.

Standing outside with a cigarette in hand, I looked towards the station and watched the hordes of people streaming from the entrance. Mixed in with the salarymen and tourists were countless beautiful girls: university students with dyed brown hair and miniskirts, office ladies in smart form-fitting suits, hostesses with elaborately-styled hair and ornate nail art. I watched them wistfully, wondering how I could get them into my life. Pursuing girls wasn’t my main reason for being in Japan, but I couldn’t deny that it was always at the back of my mind.

Suddenly one of them caught my eye and I stared at her longingly. What would I have to do to meet someone like her? There were lots of young women in my social circle, but none so beautiful and stylish. Girls like her were out of my reality.

Wait. Now she was looking back at me.

I smiled and expected her to look away, but she held my gaze, her expression demure yet intense as she cut through the crowd. Whoever she was here to meet was a lucky man. I expected him to appear soon, doubtless a rough and heavily-muscled Japanese youth in sunglasses, or one of the effete model types crowding the pages of the fashion magazines. All we would have would be this shared smile, and then she’d be gone forever.

Then she walked straight towards me and spoke my name.

Wait.

This was Momoka?

The same girl I’d forgotten ten minutes after meeting? Whose phone call I’d almost ignored?

I was now looking at a girl like a love goddess from a teenager’s fevered dream. Taller than the other girls and even men walking past her, with a model’s posture and penetrating eyes. Long silky hair, perfect baby doll lips and a captivating, heart-shaped face. Strong yet slender legs gripped by ripped thigh-high fishnets. Generous breasts displayed by a revealing top, and a mind-blowing ass brought into relief by a black miniskirt and the pressure of her ultra-high heels. Her fashion was high-end glamour with a hint of gothic punk, all black lace and coordinated rips. She was eighteen years old, still in her last year of high school, as I would later learn, and already a world-class stunner.

Had I really been so drunk that I’d forgotten this?

All my dismissive cool deserted me. Disarmed by her beauty, I suddenly had no idea what to do. I couldn’t take her to McDonald’s or some cheap noodle house, could I? A girl like this would have expectations, would be used to classy bars and expensive restaurants. But my student budget was already stretched to the limit by Tokyo’s cost of living, and even if I could afford places like that, I didn’t know where to find them. I’d been in Tokyo for six months, but my knowledge of its more upscale night life was pitifully limited.

But Momoka knew exactly where to go. She’d already eaten, she explained, so there was no need to look for a restaurant; why not go straight for drinks? I was hungry, though, so we went to Sukiya, a cheap chain restaurant, where I wolfed down a beef rice bowl. Then, taking my arm, she led me to Don Quijote – often abbreviated as Donki, an all-purpose store selling everything from cosmetics and costumes to electronic goods and cheap souvenirs. On its bottom floor we found the liquor section, where Momoka selected a tall bottle of vodka.

“You buy it,” she told me. “I’m underage.”

Vodka in hand, we headed to karaoke and booked a room for two hours. We ordered drinks – brought up one of the uniformed staff – and liberally topped them up with the bottle we’d smuggled in in Momoka’s handbag. I’d only been to karaoke a few times before and was impressed by the choice of songs; along with the comprehensive library of J-pop were tracks by all kinds of Western artists, even obscure alternative and indie bands. I’d always been obsessed with music, and now I let loose with an array of favorites from my teenage years, many of them mopey dirges and anguished songs of despair. The Smiths? The Cure? Joy Division? Not exactly an ideal date soundtrack, but Momoka seemed to like it and even recognized the bands. And true to her word, she knew every line of every song by Björk, her voice nearly a match for her idol’s. I was in love already, but so caught up in singing that I barely noticed the rapidly-emptying bottle of vodka, and didn’t think to make a move either. Before long an hour had passed, and Momoka was leaning against me, so close that our faces almost touched.

Then she leaned over and shyly kissed me on the cheek.

It was on. I threw my arm around her and kissed her deeply, my hands exploring the rips in her clothes and the sexy curves of her body. She kissed back with equal fervor, darting her tongue into my mouth and gently biting my neck. Soon I lifted her on top of me and buried my face in her breasts. Things progressed quickly and before long her panties were off, my hands sliding them smoothly from under her skirt. I unzipped my jeans and laid her down on the vinyl seating, stopping only to throw on an ancient condom from my wallet.

From my current perspective of nearly ten years later, sex in karaoke seems normal, but at the time I was terrified. What if one of the staff walked by? And what about security cameras? I couldn’t see any, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Even so, I entered Momoka and gripped her tightly, feeling that I’d somehow slipped into Heaven. Her long legs wrapped around me as I gazed into her eyes and tried to hold out as long as I could.

“Hoteru iku?” she whispered in my ear afterwards: “Can we find a love hotel?”

For those who’ve missed the countless sensational books and films about Japan, love hotels are full of rooms used by adulterous lovers, young couples who still live with their parents, and anyone else without a ready trysting location. The decor ranges from functional motel-style units to elaborate fantasy themed rooms: jungles, castles, and honeymoon-style suites with kitschy pink sheets. They’re usually found in the city’s seedier districts, such as the back alleys of Shinjuku’s Kabukicho where we were now. After leaving karaoke we continued down the street and saw scores of other couples on the same mission, scanning the numerous hotels for any vacancies. I noticed a few young men turning away from their girlfriends and glancing at us, lingering on Momoka as if to say, “With a foreigner? Really?” I couldn’t believe it myself.

At peak times – weekends and holidays are the worst – love hotels fill up quickly, and it’s not uncommon to find yourself wandering around for ages, searching in vain for an available room. Fortunately, Momoka and I managed to secure one in the third hotel we checked. It was small and overpriced – more than my weekly food budget – but I didn’t care. We drunkenly stumbled inside, still holding hands, and before long our clothes were strewn across the floor. Now we were free to enjoy each other more slowly, without the threat of interruption, and we took full advantage of it. Momoka’s stunning naked body enthralled me, and after kissing every part of her I went straight for the condoms which had been kindly left in the room. Unfortunately, like most Japanese condoms not labelled Extra Large, they were painfully tight, so much so that I finally gave up on them and resorted to the pull-out method. After a few passionate rounds we fell asleep in each other’s arms. Or more accurately, Momoka fell asleep a few minutes before me, so that the last thing I heard as I drifted off was the sound of her soft snoring.

I’ve always felt there’s something captivating about a beautiful girl who snores.

The next morning I woke up with a hangover, still unable to believe the previous night had happened. My phone was full of messages from my friends wondering why I hadn’t shown up for clubbing. Momoka had to get up and prepare for her part-time job at a convenience store, so after a quick shower we threw on our clothes and left the hotel. We took the same train line back, and on the ride Momoka showed me photos on her phone, many of them with her in her high school uniform, her bare legs gleaming in the sunlight.

“Mata au?” she asked: “Will I see you again?”

I smiled like a moron.

The post The Birth of Japan Game: Episode 1: The Love Hotel Kid appeared first on Attraction Japan.

from Attraction Japan http://attractionjapan.com/birth-japan-game-episode-1-love-hotel-kid/

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