#what a great 3d debut

[all-the-angels-stare]

✨ Hiba's cute moments with Hibari-san ✨

Please do not repost on other social medical platforms. Thank you!

[heartmachinez]

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF HEART MACHINE

A Decade of Creativity and Community

A decade ago, we began a journey that would lead to the birth of Heart Machine - a game studio committed to crafting immersive, vibrant experiences that resonate with players on a profound level. As we celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we reflect on our history, achievements, community, and the exciting future that lies ahead.

THINKING BACK

Glitch City, Kickstarter, and Hyper Light Drifter

In 2013, we took a leap of faith and launched a Kickstarter campaign for our debut project, Hyper Light Drifter. Little did we know that this campaign would not only secure the funds needed to bring our project to life, but also ignite a beautiful connection with supporters, players, and community members who believed in us from the outset.

Fueled by a need for camaraderie and knowledge, we spent those early days of Drifter’s development as a part of Glitch City, a then-small collective of independent game developers, artists, and creators all working together out of Alx’s basement. Those early days and (often) sleepless nights vision were critical in defining our design philosophies, studio culture, and grassroots community connections - setting the stage for what was to come.

Our Heartfelt Gratitude to Our Early Contributors

To date, thanks to the incredible support of our community, the Kickstarter for Hyper Light Drifter remains one of the most successful game projects on the platform. It smashed through the initial funding goal of $27,000 and ultimately raised over $600,000.

To our early backers who believed in us and our vision, and those fellow devs who helped us through endless rounds of playtesting and feedback, we extend our deepest gratitude. Your unwavering support enabled us to bring our dreams to life and emboldened us to continually push the boundaries of game design.

Special shout out to core Drifter team members: Alx Preston, Beau Blyth, Teddy Dief, Casey Hunt, Rich Vreeland, Akash Thakkar, Sean Ward, Lisa Brown, and Cosimo Galluzzi.

The critical reception following the release of Hyper Light Drifter was incredible - beyond our wildest expectations. We never could have anticipated the accolades and recognition it received, or the impact it made on players far and wide. It was humbling, and affirmed our dedication to continue to make great games to share with the world.

Moving Into a New Dimension

We started development on Solar Ash about a year before the multi-platform release of Hyper Light Drifter. Early on, we joined forces with Annapurna Interactive, whose expertise and resources facilitated our exploration of 3D game development. Over the next five years, Annapurna's support played a pivotal role in bringing this ambitious project to fruition. The vastness of the game's ethereal landscapes and fluid movement mechanics opened new avenues for worldbuilding and storytelling.

To date, Solar Ash continues to engage new players and inspire returning ones to create beautiful works inspired by the game. It is following in the footsteps of its predecessor and is now available on a a wide array of game platforms for a worldwide audience.

All of the positive reception that followed Solar Ash’s release proved that our community was ready to continue along this new aesthetic path with us. Just as Drifter smashed through its initial Kickstarter goals,  we are poised to once again smash the boundaries of possibility with our upcoming projects.

HEART MACHINE TODAY

Reimagining a Familiar World

As we celebrate our 10-year milestone, we're thrilled to now be well underway with our newest title set in the familiar Hyper Light Universe. This new project, Hyper Light Breaker, builds upon the foundations we've laid, evolving our creative vision in unexpected ways.

A Shared Journey

Our journey would not be complete without acknowledging the invaluable contributions of our community. From community leaders who pave the way forward with creativity and kindness, to creators who challenge us with incredible skill and passion,  to modders who continuously breathe new life into our games, to wiki writers who meticulously document every detail, to speedrunners who push the boundaries of possibility – you are the heartbeats that keep our worlds alive.

Over the years, we've had the privilege of connecting with our wonderful community at conventions and events across the digital and physical world. These gatherings allowed us to share our passion, hear your stories, and learn from your insights. Your presence and enthusiasm continue to inspire us.

We’re so grateful to: Polare, Lukas, Durtle, Clark, Yrrzy, CornMayor, Aza, Andreas, Conscy, Perfectly Mediocre, Thunderbrave, Bryonato, Utsu, NicowithaC, Covert Muffin, Sylvi, among many many others who make our work worth doing.

Our Company Vision

At Heart Machine, we've built more than games. We've cultivated a company culture that values kindness, inclusivity, and pushing the envelope. Our mission has always been not only to entertain but also leave a lasting impact. This dedication has enabled us to support and grow a thriving studio of some of the most talented, thoughtful, and fun people in the entire industry.

Our ethos revolves around fostering a work environment that prioritizes professional advancement, mental and physical health, and employee happiness. This commitment takes shape in various dimensions of our culture. We proudly offer Heart Machine University (HMU), a collaborative peer-teaching initiative where we cover everything from how to LARP or make sculptures out of driftwood to environment, concept, and tech art techniques. We also organize activities like group gaming and anime sessions, provide access to networking and learning resources, and support social and charitable initiatives to reinforce our team’s sense of purpose. As a studio, we strive to hang our culture on a framework where each individual can flourish and achieve their own growth and learning goals.

It’s no accident that the trajectory of these past 10 years has led us to forming the team we have now. We have always and will continue to adhere to our culture of high quality standards, emphasis on creative innovation, and heart-first leadership practices.

LOOKING AHEAD

As we stand at the threshold of the next chapter, we're excited to announce that Hyper Light Breaker will be arriving in Early Access in 2024. This project represents our ongoing commitment to pushing boundaries, taking risks, and creating experiences that captivate and challenge players in our specifically unique ways.

Beyond Hyper Light Breaker, we have other projects currently under wraps that will continue to define us as a studio. We can't wait to share these journeys with you as we forge into this next decade.

Thank you thank you thank you for joining us on this incredible ride. Heart Machine wouldn't be the same without each and every one of you. Here's to the many more adventures that lie ahead!

With love and gratitude,

The Heart Machine Team

[ganbaramen]

Link! Like! LoveLive! SPECIAL STAFF INTERVIEW

[This interview was published online on the G's Channel website, and is print in the Link! Like! LoveLive! FIRST FAN BOOK, released Dec 27, 2023.]

The Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club is a group of virtual school idols that made their striking debut in April this year. How did their fan engagement app “Link! Like! LoveLive!” come about? Fujimoto Yoshihiro and Sato Kazuki discuss the app’s origin and what they think about the project.

It’s all about enjoying Love Live!—! The untold story behind the birth of the fan engagement app LLLL

—The smartphone app “Link! Like! LoveLive!” (which we’ll refer to as “LLLL”), celebrated its six-month anniversary in November. Let’s look back on the past six months and discuss the birth of LLLL. To start us off, could you two tell us about your roles in developing this app?

Sato: I’m Sato Kazuki from CERTIA, a producer for this app. I’ve worked for game companies as a planner and director, and now I’m a self-directed game producer. From arcade games to consumer software to apps, my path has involved a variety of media. I’ve been following Love Live! as a fan since the µ’s era, and became a producer for Hasunosora’s game after being consulted for a Love Live! app where the members stream.

Fujimoto: I’m Fujimoto Yoshihiro from Bandai Namco Filmworks, and I’m also a producer for LLLL. I started with the desire to make a Love Live! smartphone game.

***

—LLLL’s official start of service was May 20, 2023, but I heard that the road there was quite long. Could you talk about that?

Fujimoto: If we want to start from when development began…. we’ll have to go back to 5 years ago.

Sato: A big part of the appeal of Love Live! comes from these school idols being independent and putting their souls into it as a club activity, so there is a certain kind of enjoyment and emotional payoff from supporting them.

If you insert a “player” who can essentially play god into this, it inevitably feels like a mismatch. Then wouldn’t it be great to turn that idea on its head and instead have an app where you support these independent idols? And streaming would be a great match for that. As we worked out this concept where you cheer on the members as just another fan, this “school idol fan engagement app” took form.

—What led up to integrating motion capture into the app?

Sato: From the very beginning, we had decided that virtual concerts and streams would use 3D models. The development team already had the know-how for streaming with 3D models, so of course we were going to use them.

The key idea is to have the virtual concerts, live streams, and story intimately linked to make the entire experience real-time, so we decided it would be best to have them appear in the same form in both the streams and the activity log (story), which is why the story also uses 3D models. The visuals should be precisely linked so we carefully animated the story with 3D models.

Fujimoto: It is quite rare for the cast to also do motion capture, but it was necessary to realize the vision that Sato-san has described. Yes, it would technically be doable to have the cast only voice the characters and instead have actors do the motion capture, but that would be a lot less palatable.

Sato: It certainly feels a lot more real when the cast is both voicing and moving their characters. The fact that this project is a part of the Love Live! series helped a lot in being able to implement this. The cast loves Love Live!, and it’s because of how much the project staff and cast members put into this that we could make it a reality.

—As an example of this hard work: the cast had intense training on motion and talking, with lessons and rehearsals starting about a year before the app was released.

Sato: In both the live streams and virtual concerts, the cast do the motion capture, in real-time too! Even now, this fact isn’t well-known, or rather, it seems like there are a lot of people who think “No way they go that far!”. Yes, the cast do it themselves!

—So why does doing it in real-time make it good?

Sato: What a pointed question! (laughs)

Fujimoto: What’s important depends on what you value. What we’re aiming for is the feeling of a real concert.

Sato: Putting it concisely, the feeling that it’s live is very important to LLLL. It seems to me that the feeling of being live has recently been highly valued, not just in concerts but in the entertainment industry as a whole. We can look back on works of the past whenever we want through subscription services and the like, so following something now has its own appeal that can evoke a certain zeal. Bearing witness to this moment in history is now viewed as being more significant than it used to be. That’s why we maximize that feeling of being live by having the cast do the motion capture and by streaming in real-time. We felt that those two points are essential.

—So rather than just being parts of the concept, these are essential to the project.

Sato: At one point, we considered doing only the talk and MC in real-time, while having the performance part be recorded. But because we want to get at the heart of the pleasure of having it be real-time, we couldn’t make that compromise.

Actually, the cast do occasionally hit the wrong notes or mess up their dance formations, but these are little things that signal that it’s live—in fact, such happenings can increase how real it feels, which can make the performance feel special if you approach it with the right mindset.

***

—Can I ask about the Fes×LIVE production, like the camerawork, lighting, and outfits? It feels like the production value goes even higher every time.

Fujimoto: I think that’s probably because, just like how the Hasunosora members are growing, the staff is as well, going further each time after saying things like “For the next performance, I want more of this!”.

Sato: Things like flying over the stage or swapping outfits in the instant that the lighting changes—we won’t do those. A core principle is that we aim for a production that matches what school idols would do and constrain ourselves to portray what’s possible in reality.

***

—The story following school idols at a school steeped in tradition—that’s a new challenge, too.

Sato: We had certain reasons for setting this at a school with a long history—so long that this year is the 103rd. There’s this common image of streamers debuting as no-names, and then working their way up to become more popular. But if Hasunosora were like that, the fact that there would be a lot of fans from the beginning would make it very unrealistic. After all, there’s no way your average rookie streamer could be like “This is my first stream!” and yet have 5000 viewers. (laughs)

We thought hard about how to resolve this in a way that makes sense. Then, we figured out that it would work to have a tradition-laden school that was already a “powerhouse”. So in the end, we made it a point to have the school be a powerhouse with a history of having won Love Live! before.

—So the school already had fans following it, with high expectations for the new school idols: Kaho and the other first years.

Sato: Yeah, it’s meant to be like one of those schools that are regular contenders at Koshien, the national high school baseball championship.

—The world-building is done so thoroughly that such an answer could be arrived at pretty quickly.

Sato: We consulted with many people, starting with the writer team, about implementing the concepts that we mentioned before—having the cast do motion capture to maximize the live feeling, and doing the streams in real-time.

In the beginning, there was a lot of resistance to the idea of trying to successfully operate an app while constructing the story and streams such that there would be no contradictions between them. If you do streams in real-time, such contradictions can certainly arise—you have to work out the setting in quite a lot of detail, and even then, things can happen that are impossible to predict.

But my thinking was always that this is doable if we adjust how often we synchronize the story and streams. I think it’s impossible to stream every day and release a new story every day. But on the other side of the spectrum, if we were to write a year’s worth of story ahead of time, and then do however many streams within that year, that would certainly be doable. 

Following that line of thought, in the early stages, we had a lot of discussion about how often we could do streams, searching for the limit of what would be possible to implement. As a compromise, we arrived at the system of fully synchronizing once a month. For each month, we can keep the setting relatively flexible, not setting everything precisely in stone until the month is over. We thought that a monthly frequency should make it possible to both maintain the charm of the story and implement streams.

But right now we’re streaming three times a week, so there end up being a lot of things like “they shouldn’t know this yet” or “this event hasn’t happened yet”. It feels like putting together a complicated puzzle.

Fujimoto: There’s one aspect that we haven’t made clear before—I don’t think there are many people that have realized it. It’s that the talk streams are the furthest along in the timeline, while the story shows what has already happened. It’s not that the story happens on the day that we update it, but rather that the story describes what happened up to that day. People who have realized this have probably read quite closely.

Sato: That’s why it’s called the “activity log”. The With×MEETS serve the important role of synchronization between what happened in the activity log—the world of the story—with reality, so we carefully prepare for them each time.

—That makes sense! One nice thing is that if you keep up with the With×MEETS in real-time, then watch the Fes×LIVE, it feels like keeping up paid off—”Good thing I watched the With×MEETS!”.

Fujimoto: It would be great if our efforts got through to everyone enjoying LLLL.

—If you set things up that carefully, it must be difficult when irregularities happen. In August, several cast members had to take a break to recover from COVID-19, causing many With×MEETS to be canceled. How did you deal with that?

Sato: The silver lining of that period was that it avoided the most critical timing. If that had been off by even a week… it might not have been possible to recover from that. This project always has this feeling of tension, because there is no redoing things.

***

Tackling the Love Live! Local Qualifiers! The culmination of the story put viewers on the edges of their seats!!

—On how people have reacted to LLLL: was there anything that went exactly as planned, and on the other hand, was there anything that defied your expectations?

Fujimoto: To bring up a recent event, the Love Live! Local Qualifiers in October very much stood out. There was tension all around—even I was nervous about how it would go. The feeling that “these girls really are going to take on this challenge, at this very moment”. It was like watching the championship of the World Baseball Classic… Well, maybe that’s an overstatement, but an atmosphere similar to that. I’m really happy that we managed to create such an atmosphere with the cast and everyone who participated as a user.

Sato: Not just in sports, but also in the world of anime or fiction, there is definitely a certain excitement that arises when you “witness” something. Bearing witness to the moment that “drama” is born produces an impulse, something that hits deep. This is not something that can be produced in an instant. Rather, such an overwhelming concentration of passion can come about only because so much has happened up to that point.

That’s why, aiming for “that moment”, we first have people experience the Hasunosora members’ existence and reality day after day. After having connected with the members and viscerally felt the sense of being in sync with their “now”, something new will be born…

The closest we’ve gotten to an atmosphere of tension that’s as close as possible to the real thing is what Fujimoto-san just mentioned, the Love Live! Local Qualifiers. I think part of why that was such an “incredible” event was the weight of everything that happened in the Love Live! series up to that point.

—Is there anything else from the fans’ reactions and the like that was unexpected?

Fujimoto: For the talk streams, we have a system where everyone can write comments in real-time. Some users go all in on the setting and act as if they’re in that world.

Sato: The characters are not aware that their everyday lives can be observed in the story, so these users adhere to the rule of not talking about anything that’s only depicted in the story, commenting as if they don’t know what happened there. And if you do that, your comment might get read. So you really can be a participant in the performance. We were surprised at just how many people were earnestly participating like that.

—It’s like making a fan work in real-time, or rather, it’s like playing a session of a tabletop RPG.

Sato: I think what we’re doing here is very much like a game. It’s the “role-playing” of a tabletop RPG taken to an extreme, a pillar of a certain kind of “game”, or maybe more like a participatory form of entertainment.

—Oh, I see! It’s as if we’ve returned to the classic reader participation projects of Dengeki G’s magazine, which is kind of touching.

[Translator’s note: Love Live! originated from Sunrise collaborating with the Dengeki G’s magazine editorial department, bringing Lantis in for music.]

Sato: Yes, indeed. In the era of magazine participatory projects, the back-and-forth would have several months in between. In comparison, a real-time system makes it easier to participate, which I think is a significant and useful advancement. For now, in the first year, it feels like we’ve been grasping in the dark while trying to do the best with what we have. But we’re thinking about how best to adjust the frequency and volume of activities from here on.

Fujimoto: Also, the users have largely figured out all the hints we cooked in!

Sato: They’ve been looking in quite some detail. (laughs) Our cooking has paid off.

***

—Is there any challenge that LLLL is taking on anew?

Sato: Going back to what I said at the beginning, I was a huge fan of µ’s, so I started by trying to analyze and put into words just what made me so attracted to, so crazy about them. 

A big part of the charm was that it involved youth and a club activity, so by following their story and cheering them on, you could vicariously re-live the passion of those three years in high school. So I wanted to make it so that you could re-live that experience of youth in depth.

My goal is to have it feel so overwhelmingly real—through LLLL’s real-time nature—that you can unwittingly delude yourself into the sense that you’re re-living your high school years.

Fujimoto: If we’re talking about a new challenge, maybe it’d be good to touch on how frequent the interactions are.

For example, let’s consider a one-cour anime. No matter how much you’d like to keep watching it, it ends after three months. Even if it turns out there’s a continuation, you’ll have to wait before you can watch that.

In contrast, if we turn to virtual content, people are streaming three times a week on YouTube. In that vein, what we’re aiming for with this project is this: you can follow this group you like throughout that limited time between matriculation and graduation, and during that time they’ll always be there for you to meet.

***

—Some people are expecting an anime as one of the future mixed-media developments. To put it bluntly, what do you think about that?

Sato: What we are doing right now with Hasunosora would not work outside the structure of an app. As mentioned before, it’s not quite a tabletop RPG but rather a participatory form of entertainment, and it’s that structure that allows fans to experience the true spirit of the Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club.

—So for now, we should experience it through the streams in the app! Is that what you’re saying?

Fujimoto: Exactly. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that LLLL is a project to make you fall for these girls throughout their streams—that’s how much effort we’re putting into it.

Sato: Starting LLLL by going through the story and then participating in the With×MEETS streams might be more common, but you can also start enjoying it in a novel way by just jumping into the latest With×MEETS stream. The members’ engagement with the comments has been especially noticeable in the most recent streams—it feels like a symbiotic relationship.

***

—Finally, a word for those who are looking forward to the project’s future.

Sato: I can confidently say that LLLL is a new experience made possible because of the times we live in. Because of that, it is very high-context, so it’s hard to explain how it will make you feel or what kind of game it is—you must play it to understand. We are very aware of how much of a hurdle this is, and how it might be difficult to get a grasp on if you start later.

But if you’re willing to take that first step into the world of LLLL, we promise to bring you content that is worth following. So to those reading this interview: please do consider trying it out once, even if it’s with a window-shopping mindset.

Fujimoto: Hasunosora’s story can only happen because of everyone watching. We hope you’ll keep supporting us!

Sato: We’ve prepared plenty of tricks up our sleeves for the end of the school year in March, so please look forward to it!

Credits

Translation: ramen Translation check: xIceArcher Various suggestions: Yahallo, Yujacha, zura

[jung-koook]

I don't care what you think or don't think but you crossed the line when you come to my blog and question my love and admiration for him. I've literally been here since 2012 waiting for them to debut and do you really think I'd be here because pretty face and body??? while I have to deal with disgusting people like you??? because this isn't the first time I've received hate on the internet. I'm literally tired mentally and physically having to deal with this here. there are literally 101839180101 posts of mine here on my blog talking about my story with bangtan and talking about that I'm not just here because I love and admire them as an artist but also for everything they've done in my life. I don't know what hole you came out of but go back there and please block me first, because I'm going to do the same to you (reasons why i'm replying to your message like this)

not agreeing with me is one thing, I literally knew this would happen that's why in my post I stated that I thought it wasn't a popular opinion/thought. I'm open to discussion about anything I've opined here, any thoughts I've shared here. but it's another thing completely different if someone came here to say that I'm not a real jeongguk or bangtan fan. this is literally disrespectful to my blog and everything that bangtan means to me. jeongguk literally saved my life not just once and they literally changed my life to something better. never again will I let anyone dare to come to my blog and question how important jeongguk is to me, to my life. this will be the first and last time you do something like that and if you try again you will be ignored as it should be happening now but you make me so angry.

"y'all have a problem with everything Jungkook does from the artists he collabs with to his friends." I'm here for jeongguk and not because of the people he's friends with or because of the people he collabs with. but if jeongguk or any other member collabs with a problematic artist I won't stay silent. I said that I think usher is an great artist, but I won't support someone who posts posts in favor of i*rael. if it were in the 90s I would even understand, since it was much more hard to get information there, but in 2024 this is not something I will accept. but literally my post wasn't about that, it's you who seems stupid and can't understand.

"Someone just said they think his features for seven and 3D felt calculated by the company and u shamelessly posted it ." I posted that just like I'm posting your stupid message. my blog is open to discussions. or it was because I don't know how long I'll have the mentality to put up with stupid people like you. calculating something is not a bad thing……. this is something normal lmao. literally before they release an album everything is calculated to be perfect, even the day they release the album is something calculated. why would jeongguk or bighit calculating a collab be a bad thing???? In my reply I just said "there are collabs that jeongguk chooses and there are collabs that bighit chooses". in my reply I said "there are collabs that jeongguk chooses and there are collabs that bighit chooses and that some may be random for us but that's not a bad thing". jeongguk and bighit can very well think and calculate how much a collab can help him as an artist. like I said, even if we don't like a collab or remix, we have to understand how important this can be for the success of their music internationally. bangtan managed to be one of the biggest groups in the world on their own, but even so there are many countries that don't want to play them on the radio or elsewhere if they shouldn't sing in english or collab with another international artist. but I think this conversation is too deep for someone stupid like you.

"Like u claim to be JK biased but I barely see you talking about him as an artist" it's not my fault that you don't read the things I post on my blog. but you seem so stupid that I think this is your particular problem. please fix your particular problem.

"BTS who does the most work in the studio and not a single post from you about Jungkook being nominated or winning awards" by coincidence I posted one today but it's true that I don't post everything because I have a life outside the internet. sometimes I forget to post updates from them but sometimes I have such nice people who come to my inbox to let me know about it. even though they don't need to do it, they do it because they're just nice people, but I don't think you know what it's like to be a nice person.

"PLEASE FREE HIM FROM Y'ALL LOL . THAT MAN HAS SANE FANS OUTSIDE THIS CULT LIKE FANDOM" I got this now lmaooooo you might just be a solo stan lmaoooo 😭😭😭 now I understand where this stupid message came from.

please stop annoying people and jeongguk too. jeongguk told us to live our lives until he comes back so since you are such an incredibly big fan of jeongguk, follow his advice and live a little. life isn’t just about the internet, okay? free jeongguk a little bit of this negativity, maybe after breathing some fresh air and distracting yourself with your life outside the internet you'll be less stupid. sometimes really spending too much time online can make people stupid, maybe it's not 100% your fault alone. i hope your gets well soon! I've seen many stupid people getting better, I hope the same will happen to you. ♡ you wanted my attention and I gave it to you now bye ;*

and I will stop talking about this subject. jeongguk worked really hard on his album and I hope people will always give him all the credit for everything he did for this amazing album 🥹I still think that standing next to you deserves much more recognition. standing next to you is literally a queen!!!! what jeongguk did with this song (and with everything he sings) is literally something out of this world! his vocals are so unique! jeongguk is unique and standing next to you is one of the songs that shows this clearly to anyone.

[canmom]

Last season's anime: Frieren episode 7-10

Shit I guess I'm full on liveblogging this one now.

This time we have episode 7 dir. Naoto Uchida (known for work on Mob Psycho 100), episode 8 dir. Tomoya Kitagawa (who also directed ep. 2), episode 9 dir. Kōki Fujimoto (key animator on a whole buncha stuff, this is his debut as an episode director), and episode 10 dir. Nobihide Kariya (who debuted not so long before as an episode director on Bocchi).

So at the end of the last post about Frieren, I commented that I found the demons underwhelming as antagonists, and hoped they would have their motivations fleshed out some more beyond 'ontologically evil baddies'. Well.

lmao.

So Frieren and the gang are travelling. We get a lot more on the Great Mage Flamme, who is Frieren's mentor figure. At this rate... she's probably gonna turn out to still be alive or some shit.

They roll up in another ridiculously picturesque town. The backgrounds in this show are apparently based heavily on the concept art paintings of Seiko Yoshioka, who gets credited under various roles including 'layout designer' and even 'worldview illustrator'. She did a crazy amount of work to design all the different settings, giving them distinctive cultural motifs and architectures and colour palettes and so on.

Since this town covers a whole four-episode arc, we get a number of different views of it. There's definitely a reasonable amount of historical care put into the design of those city walls - even sketchy and in the distance you can spot the hoardings and appropriately narrow crenellations, as well as the machicolations on the tops of the towers. (Though unfortunatelly some of those details seem to get forgotten in the later episodes.)

The streets in the town seem kinda wide and clean but it fits the austere vibe. The main thing I'm wondering is what exactly they eat in this town - it's triple-walled in hostile territory without much in the way of farmland in sight, or indeed roads that aren't tiny.

I'm pretty sure they built a model of at least parts of this town in 3D, because as well as certain 3D tracking shots (unfortunately hampered by the lack of any parallax mapping on the floor)...

...we also get shots like this one, which feature a crazy 3-point perspective:

I wouldn't say it's impossible to draw this, but it would be a hell of a lot easier to block it out roughly in 3D and then paint in the details.

Mind you, that's not even the wildest perspective we get in this episode. Check this out:

Absolutely bananas. I love it.

But tbh the praise I have for this arc is pretty limited to this kind of technical stuff. Let's get into the story. (Though you can be sure I'll have more to say about the animation!)

At this point the story shifts gears from this fairly low-key exploration of grief and the passing of time, into more standard action anime territory.

Shortly after arriving in this town, our heroes discover that it has been infiltrated by demons in the guise of peace emissaries. Frieren attempts to attack immediately, but she allows herself to be subdued rather than harm the guards, so off she goes to jail.

Luckily, wizard jail still has pretty generous visiting hours, so she's able to explain the deal with demons to the gang. Frieren declares that demons always lie to gain an advantage over humans, illustrated through a flashback in which a young girl demon begged for mercy, only to betray the townspeople a bit later. Having been proven right, Frieren summarily executes the girl.

I think it's worth comparing this storyline to a couple of other similar storylines in other works of fiction.

First of all, in NieR Replicant/Gestalt, there is the story 'The Little Mermaid', which was adapted into a segment in the game in the remake. A postman takes pity on a girl on a shipwreck, not realising that she is a terribly powerful monster who is struggling to maintain her human appearance. The girl starts killing people to try to maintain her connection with the postman. Eventually, the player shows up and discovers what's been going on. Their intervention provokes the girl to revert to monster state and there's a big boss fight. However, at stake in the fight is the girl's identity. Depending on how you play the boss fight, there are two possible endings, and both of them make overt parallels between the monster girl and your party member Kainé, and one portrays the grief of the postman who cannot let go of his affection for the monster.

Secondly, the second episode of last year's Tengoku Daimakyou features a woman who is trying to protect a monster which she believed to have taken on the consciousness of her son after it ate him. The monster has been curiously non-hostile to the woman - she persuades our protagonists to back off, and they agree. Then it abruptly kills her! Oh shit. Fight scene, they kill the monster, etc.

But as they depart, the protagonists are left discussing whether the monster could really have had the son affecting its actions, whether it was just drawn to prey etc. The monster's motivations are left distinctly unclear, and the protagonists conclude there's no way to know the truth. Throughout the rest of the season, the exact nature of the monsters remains an open question.

In both cases, we either know or it is strongly implied that the monsters are fundamentally human, or derived from humans somehow. A certain amount of effort is spared to try and at least raise the question of the monster's subjectivity, and even if a monster has to die, they play it for tragedy.

So, let's return to Frieren. We're introduced to the demon girl. She ate a kid, but she staves off execution by pleading for her mother.

The villagers decide to give her a chance to atone. Before long, she kills the village chief who took pity on her. Frieren's party show up and she does small Shaft head tilt...

She's no longer pretending and talks in a much more level voice. She explains that she wanted to give a replacement daughter to the family of the girl she ate, by removing the village chief, for the sake of living in peace. This goes down about how you'd expect. Frieren goes ahead and kills her. As she's dying, Frieren asks why she called for her mother when demons don't raise kids. The answer she gets:

She is surprisingly forthcoming on this front, and honestly, self-preservation is something like an understandable motivation. The impression you get from this flashback sequence is a being that is amoral, and encountering humans as something alien and, honestly, kinda threatening. Why she killed the girl in the first place is an open question - they explicitly say that the demons don't have to eat humans. Even if she kinda felt like it, you'd think she'd be able to figure out it would be an unwise move.

But as far as the show is concerned, the point of this flashback is to establish one thing: demons are lying liars who lie. Frieren is the only one who knows the truth, which is that you must shoot them on sight.

You might think the show would leave some doubt about whether Frieren is justified in having such a severe attitude towards the demons - is she just prejudiced? But nah we go pretty much straight into the demons saying 'Frieren is right about everything, now let'ss discuss our evil plan'.

Props to this guy (he has some longish German name I can't remember) for making this random bench feel like a throne though. Like on some level he's just soft-voiced evil anime aristocrat guy but he does pull it off.

Anyway, one thing definitely doesn't seem to add up. Frieren says that demons are solitary creatures who speak in a human voice only to deceive, but the demons seem to be pretty happy to natter away to each other when no humans are around and express all sorts of thoughts and even express (fairly reserved) emotions. The boy is arrogant, the girl is protective of her boss, etc. The guy is a smooth liar and manages to wriggle out of being killed by the earl by playing the 'we're the same, let's put an end to this' card. But we're constantly reminded it's fake, he's a lying liar who's ontologically evil.

I think the super-deceptive adversary with no qualms about telling any lie is something that can be done well to create an incredibly paranoid scenario. I can't believe I'm mentioning ratfic again in the space of two posts, but this is something Worth The Candle performed very effectively. Though honestly the fantasy of the perfect manipulator who plays everyone like a fiddle is a recurring device in fantasy.

Here... the acting is strong on our main sussy demon dude. But as a worthy adversary, he's not super convincing. He lets his underling run off and get killed, and his response when the jig is up is to reveal that he's super OP and kill everyone nearby, except the governor, who he tortures. So the manipulation angle seems questionably motivated, like he wants the earl to lower the barrier so the demon army can come in... but you're kind of left wondering why he didn't already just go and kill everyone in the city since nobody who isn't Fern or Frieren can touch him. I guess he's trying to get that low chaos route.

I won't continue the beat-by-beat summary. There is a cool fight scene in Frieren's jail cell though, which has some well-integrated 3D. Frieren totally no-sells the boy's attack and cuts his arms off. Lotta dismemberment in these episodes! The main demon guy has some tasty blood-based powers, lots of monofilament whip slicing imagery (also a thing in Tengoku Daimakyou oddly enough). In general the action scenes in this show continue to be super tight. There is a pretty cute bit where Stark is trying to free the earl and can't cut through the rope holding him to a chair, the earl is going 'leave me', and I was sitting there going like 'why not destroy the chair', and then Stark does. So props for that.

Towards the end of ep 8, we learn that Frieren is actually a suuuuper scary battle mage. She was the one who researched the demon killing spell. OOooooohhh.

Seems our demon guy hasn't changed his style in 80 years lol.

And she did not think it too many.

So we already knew that Frieren was part of the party that killed the demon king, the last living person who knew Flamme, etc. etc., so it's not exactly surprising to see once again that she's kind of a big deal. What we seem to be setting up here - or at least maybe I'm just hoping for something more than 'only our hero is wise enough to know coexistence is impossible and a war of annihilation is the only option' - is to suggest a parallel between Frieren and the demons. They're incredibly long-lived, they love to obsessively study magic, they both have a very cold affect, they're calm under fire. If it turned out that Frieren is a demon that would be a fun angle, but I don't think it really tracks. Rather, the framing is suggesting that, when confronted with demons, Frieren is not so different...

We get a title drop in any case - turns out the anime title is an in-story title for its main character. In Japanese: 葬送のフリーレン Sousou no Frieren. 葬送 is translated by jisho.org as

attending a funeral procession; seeing off the deceased; burial of someone's remains; observing a burial​

The fansub I'm watching translate it (when used for the character) as 'Frieren the Elegy', which has about the right vibe! In the context for the show title, they translate the same phrase as Frieren: An Ageless Elegy which involves a little more interpolation, but I think it works. The official English title is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, which is very direct but not a bad subtitle at all. Then again, maybe the bar is in the floor since 'Delicious in Dungeon'.

Anyway, after all that setup, we finally get the big fight episode. Because you see, in contrast to the earlier story which skipped over decades in a montage, this arc spans a whole four episodes. It's not badly done, but it's definitely feeling much more like a standard fight-driven show at this point.

We also meet Aura, one of the demon generals. She looks like a youngish girl and has a habit of doing the sanpaku eye smirk.

Her schtick is that she has magic scales that let her dominate people. Then she cuts their heads off and walks their corpses around. This is represented by a big army of suits of armour, mostly rendered in CG. They've done some kind of filter to make the linework less even, but the difference in shading style is quite noticeable.

From there it's a lot of 'my gambit vs your gambit' and 'who has more mana'. The fights are, without doubt very nicely animated, although the CG castle set used for the big camera moves feels a bit... lacking in detail compared to the gorgeous painted backgrounds. Anyway, Stark wins his fight by the power of GUTS and DETERMINATION, and Fern wins her fight by being a fast analytical type who can stay cool under fire and also knows Frieren's special demonbuster spell. Though a lot of Fern's fight is just kind of both participants standing still with impassive expressions shooting either blood or big laser beams at each other or zipping all around the castle.

Of course, the major turning points in the fight hinge on flashbacks to moments with mentor figures. This is an anime, and more specifically, it's Frieren.

One thing that is interesting is that the 'point of view' indicated by internal monologue often moves from Fern to the demon guy. We get to see him try to think through how to beat her, unsuccessfully. By contrast Stark's fight takes Stark's POV. I don't think we're expected to sympathise with the demon exactly, it's a way of underlining just how badass Fern has now become thanks to Frieren's levelling up regime.

I admit Frieren has lost me a bit by this point. It's not that it's bad at being a fight anime, it hits us with a whole series of stylishly composed and strongly animated cuts. Not novel necessarily, but absolutely well-executed. But it's not a very interesting direction to take the story! I don't care about this town, we'll be leaving it in an episode or two anyway, and the only named character in it is the earl. I wanna know more about the demons but what we get is kinda just a succession of Guys With Powers. He can make his blood fly around and stab people. She can copy anyone's moveset. He has a monofilament wire. She has a magic scale that mind controls you if she has more mana.

So how does Frieren beat the magic scales? ez. It's kind of spelled out as soon as they introduce the scales, but they spend a whole episode explaining how she's been using a relentless mana retention regimen for the last thousand years to hide her power level so that demons underestimate her. It kinda belabours the point lol. Like it kinda has to because if it doesn't try to make a big deal out of the mana hiding thing, you're just left with 'Frieren wins because her number is bigger'. But... Frieren wins because her number is bigger.

I don't hate fight-driven anime. They can be a ton of fun. But honestly, after the emotional impact of the first few episodes, taking it this way seems like it's wasting the early show's strengths. But, I hear episode 11 sees the return of Keiichirō Saitō as enshutsu, and it's said to be one of the best episodes in the show, so I'm not gonna drop it! It's certainly more than pretty enough to be worth watching through to the end.

There is a good amount of nice stuff in this last episode. The pseudo-Roman town is a cool depiction of a different material culture a thousand years prior to the main story. The 'field of flowers' magic is called back as a specific invention of Flamme - Frieren's whole deal is to kind of go around doing things to commemorate dead people and it turns out the flowers thing lets her do it twice over! We get to set up some parallels - Frieren could intuit that Flamme was a super OP mage, and Himmel could do the same for her.

We also get some worldbuilding stuff about the demons: they have to constantly display their power level to determine their place in the demon pecking order bc they're soooo individualistic. This seems a little dubious to me - like are the demons really so dumb? Is 'hide your power level' such an incomprehensible concept? It seems like it would lead to some kind of Diplomacy-like situation where other demons would team up to take you down.

Honestly, I think what bothers me about all this is like... I don't like the concept of an ontologically evil monster at the best of times, but the demons are obviously not mindlessly malevolent with no inner lives. They talk and scheme and feel things (such as 'proud of their magic'). They have an honour system. But the narrative doesn't quite seem to be able to acknowledge that this is what it's doing. Besides levelling up their magic, we have no idea what the demons want, still, except that it seems to involve killing humans sometimes.

Anyway! kvin has an article about this section, so if you'd like to read about who did which bit and how they worked together resourcefully and where the storyboard creates imagery of separation and so on, there ya go! It sounds from this article like the manga gets a better handle on what it's trying to do with the demons later on, so I'll hold out hope.

[spiritsofprogress]

Here’s how Figment can still win | updating the attraction

I envy those who got to experience the ride in its original form with dream finder and all, I really do. I remember being a kid In the early 2000s and my grandpa was excited to take us on it as it was his favorite ride, only to find it completely different. However, what you might not expect me to say is that I don’t think the current iteration of journey into imagination is bad! Do I think it lives up to the original? No, but Dr.Channing is decent and the concept is quite cute.

The problem is this iteration is a clear patch job done nearly 20 years ago and they’ve let it sit ever since. This sucks. Especially considering Disney and Epcot clearly realize how much pull Figment has as a character, people adore this purple dragon years after his debut (remember the popcorn bucket?). They’ll slap him on anything and everything for festivals… but his ride? Actual non festival attraction related merch? You get a shirt or two if you’re lucky! When I went recently there was a single shelf reserved for figment related items. A single shelf in a decently sized gift shop that was mainly filled with the same Toy Story summer line they overestimated in popularity. (I’ve never seen anyone buy or have something from this line). The state it’s in is sad, especially considering Disney pulls on figments popularity! He’s getting a meet and greet again so can we finally update the attraction! … I’ve also heard rumor of the rainbow tunnel returning….

My solutions-

As much as I wish it could, I don’t know if we’ll get the dream finder version of the ride back, but here’s my idea on how to update the ride with the storyline we do have. It’s a cute concept but they’re not doing it to the best it can be.

1. Make it longer! To say they shortened journey into imagination is a understatement, I have no idea what they’re using half of the building for. Make it longer- maybe do go into the smell and taste labs. Make some more elaborate scenes- show that chaos figment has brought to the institue! One of the best gags is in the queue and the poor secretary of Dr.Channing answering the phone every few seconds - give me that energy! Give me… imagination running wild! That’s literally the storyline with figment but he feels so… constrained? Lack of space as it’s so short.

2. 2D figment. I beg of you. I know when the ride was redone 3D animation was new and all the rage but… I’m sorry 3D figment is terrifying and super dated. Soft, cuddly and cute 2D figment is timeless. It wouldn’t be that hard to go over the same scenes just with a drawn model instead, this is a quick fix to Rodger rabbit it.

3. More characters. I’m not even asking for animatronics but you need to give us something more. Again, that secretary is just a gag but its such a good show of story we don’t get on the actual attraction. A fun idea you could do is have “Dean Finder” come out and be the only one to be able to calm figment down/understand him? Sort of nod to the OG besides just a door THEN they open Channings mind to imagination as something to be free. This equally lengthens the attraction.

4. It just makes me sad as they have a really good concept here and ERIC FLIPPING IDLE but don’t utilize such a great comedic actor to the potential I know they could have. Another thing I’d request is the return of a good imageworks that’s not 99% photo opportunities with random characters not seen anywhere else. Additionally if you don’t want to make a lot of merch for the ride that’s fine… make the gift shop smaller, which shouldn’t be a issue if you make the ride longer again.

It’s fascinating to me that Disney consistently lets such a beloved attraction down despite using it for merch and festivals. It’s also fascinating that despite getting a whole makeover the park is leaning into a retro futurism feel and a “Epcot center” vibe (this is a good thing). But again ignores this ride- It’d be costly, sure, what isn’t, but I think it’d be worth giving just a bit of attention.

[weirdmarioenemies]

BURT THE BASHFUL: Oh, there You are.

YOU: I'm not sure we've met.

SWORM: Heh, good one! We've been waiting for You.

YOU: Have you? You seem...

SWORM: Big?

BURT: Yeah, we're Big Boys.

SWORM: Big Boys.

BURT: Big Boys. Try and keep up, mate.

YOU: No, I think I get it. You're quite big.

SWORM: Yeah, and we're so big we don't just sit around and learn about one enemy at a time...

BURT: Yeah, that's for dummies and wimps.

YOU: Really? Okay, great!

BURT: We do two at once.

YOU: ...Right. Uh, well...

SWORM: What's wrong? I thought You were up for pushing the boundaries?

YOU: Yeah, but two at—

WALLEYE: That’s right, boundaries are important!

YOU: No, look-

Name: Walleye Debut: Super Mario 3D World

Walleye’ll be! This little guy is sort of a spiritual successor to Wallops from Super Mario 3D Land in that it’s an animated wall creature that blocks your path by shuffling back and forth, but it’s actually got quite a bit going on to differentiate it from its relative!

YOU: Look, that’s not what he meant!

BURT: What?

YOU: I said look-

SLAMMER: Look where? Somewhere else?

YOU: What? No! Oh, come on…

Name: Slammer Debut: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

Pleased to meetcha! Today we'll be looking at Slammer, arguably one of the most iconic Mario characters of all-time... unless you look somewhere else! As a minor one-off character from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, he's about as obscure as obscure characters get... but that's what this blog is for, isn't it?

Walleye is constantly moving, regardless of the player’s position, whereas Wallop only activates when you get near enough to it, and tries to mirror your movement to block you off, even jumping up when you do!

Now it might be hard to tell what Slammer is, just by looking at him, but did you know? Slammer is a working man! He's the assistant to Sam Shalam, who sells the finest carpets in all of Cloud Land... if your definition of "the finest carpets" involves being covered in bugs!

Walleye can’t jump, but it does have spikes on its top and sides!

But bugs don't bug me, so I'd be more than happy to buy from them! How can I resist that face?

YOU: Stop it!

SWORM: Shh! We’re about to streamline!

BURT: Try and keep up, mate.

They even have their own temple! That being said, Slammer's irresistible face is slammed against the carpets. Can Wallop say the same? As it unfortunately turns out, it's his job to keep the bugs out! I didn’t think so! So unfortunately, as long as Slammer's around, you'll never find bugs in your carpets... Well, it probably wasn’t built for them but maybe they were animated from its walls or something. Unless you look somewhere else!

You look somewhere else...

[deadlypastelcutieart]

Awwww, now that's a sweet ending doesn't it? :)

Yes! That's right! This year marks a huge milestone for Cartoon Network's history, because this year marks the 30th anniversary of the first original Cartoon Network character, Moxy! From the 1995 anthology series "The Moxy Show".

Okay actually to be honest the show he's from is 28 years old. And I know what your thinking.. Wait, if his show is 28 years old, why are you saying Moxy is turning 30 this year?

I have explained this already many times but the truth is Moxy actually came out way before The Moxy Show came out! Before that in 1995 formerly known as "The Moxy Pirate Show", his actual debut was on November 26 1993, with a live Cartoon Network televised event called "The Great International Toon-in", which not only aired on Cartoon Network but also on Turner's other channels such as TNT and TBS in different countries. And that's where Moxy first appeared onto the channel! He was the host of the event as he was seen in-between the marathon of cartoons, interacting with children on a tv screen. And of course was known as the first cartoon character to be animated live on tv! (Actully it wasn't really live but just pre-recorded.)

And looking back to when I first discovered this character when I saw that OK KO episode, it made me question if he was their mascot to represent the channel and I loved looking through any info I can ind about this interesting 3D cartoon dog character.

It is sad though for CN's first original character he became so unpopular and ended up being lost media to the public. But at least there are some found stuff from his show. But honestly I really thinkg we should continue to find more info! I would love to see more info about Moxy and what's his interests are? But fir now at least he's been getting a bit of attention and finally got a cameo in another CN show!

So, in honor of Moxy's 30th Aniversary, I give you all this special comic I made featuring Moxy and of course all of the Cartoon Network characters over the years! Yeah I know, I forgot to add some more but I couldn't fit much and I just really wanted to get this comic done! So if your going to complain that I forgot to add a character in this comic, I do apologize! But DAM! This was my first time drawing all these CN characters and I honestly feel proud of this! And I wanted to make sure I draw them in their right designs! But this was worth it!

So Moxy, happy 30th Anniversary to you! And happy 28th Anniversary to The Moxy Show! I know Cartoon Network dosen't care about him, but hey! I think he deserves a huge celebration! Hope there will be more info of him found! :)

[dallieart]

Long post incoming! I wanted to share my thoughts about the Hololive EN Connect the World concert I went to last night.

overall, the concert was fun and amazing and I had a really good time. it was great being surrounded by other fans. it's like being in a comfy swarm of strangers that are somehow also your friends. it's surreal.

I was sitting waaaaaay in the back, so while I got a clear view of the entire stage, the giant screen felt small. they weren't Hatsune Miku style holograms as I had thought. but I will say that this was the only negative thing I have to say.

it really felt like yet were actually looking at us and hearing us. the only awkward one was Kiara, who had quiet pauses at the end of her sentences 🥲 still love you, Kiwawa!

hopefully it was audible, but after Fauna's performances, dudes would yell "I love you, Fauna!" "I love you, Fauna!" and I tagged on at the end "I also love you, Fauna!!"

this happened 2 or 3 times lol 😂 I wanted Fauna to know that she has female fans, too!!!!!! 💚

fans are great. While waiting for a ride back to the hotel, I spotted a squad wearing Deadbeat shirts and I yelled, "Let's go, Deadbeats!" and they all cheered really loud!! My Calli nui high fived another one! it was a special moment lol

Calli was amazing as always. I'm glad she got to use her guitar scythe. wanted, wasted is such a hype song, I wished I knew the lyrics better to sing along! 🩷

I'm so glad Kiara sang SPARKS. I've recently started getting more into her music, but I've always admired her as a dancer. the song was so hype, I was bouncing out of my seat. just such a good song. 🧡

Ame had improved SO MUCH since her debut. absolutely amazing. ChikuTaku is an insanely fun song. I was singing along. Such a stark contrast to her purin song at 3rd fes. she was really moving and singing, she feels like an idol 💛

Gura did great as always. looking forward to the song when it officially comes out. Gura fans are always so hype, it was great 🩵

Ina did amazing on Ghost. she's another one who's singing has improved and become so much more confident since her debut. and the takodachis are nuts as always. but so much fun.

they were so hype, they jumped the gun on Ina's call and response lol. just way too much excitement!!!! 💜

I can't believe Kronii wasn't at 100% because of her jaw??? because she did freaking amazing. I love her singing voice. such a legend. her dancing was so good, too, I did not expect her to shake it so much on that stage. just amazing. 💙

Mumei took me by surprise. I knew she was a good singer, but she really delivered the emotion of the song. just wonderful. 🤎

Bae was incredible as the opening singer. she freaking delivered. dancing, singing, her performance was amazing. I loved that she encouraged everyone to sing along with the end of the song. what a way to start, just blowing it out of the park. ❤️

Fauna!!! my dear kirin...she was amazing. her singing and dancing have improved SO MUCH since she debuted, it blew me away. even since 4th fes she's just improving exponentially. She was so cute, it warmed my heart and soul. I ALSO LOVE YOU, FAUNA!!! 💚

finally, Irys was every bit the idol that you'd expect. Amazing performances, I really liked her song choices. You're not alone. 💗

The guest performances were also great, as expected from the jp senpai and ID girls are all so cracked. I was hoping they'd sing more with the EN girls and maybe get some shuffle units in there, but I'm also satisfied with what they all sang.

I was worried about what they'd do for Council's unit song, Rise, in regards to Sana's lines. but I'm very happy with how they handled it.

everyone singing Sana's final "for eternity" together felt very poignant. hit me right in the kokoro, as it always does.

the audience chanting for an encore was funny because we chanted for so long we got tired and started to lose hope...and then BANG. Encore song.

that little video of everyone's 3D journey almost got me. tears did well up. 🥹

Hololive EN forever! 🩷🧡💛🩵💜💙🤎❤️💚💗🪐

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

favorite band/artist?

Sheesh. Complicated one.

You see, my music tastes are, to put it mildly, rather varied. I think it showed in my music recommendation post and the post that further explored one of those artists, but to further illustrate, my library includes:

Earth, Wind & Fire

New Kids On The Block's Jordan Knight's first solo single

Dubstep band Hadouken!’s Lana Del Rey cover

A mashup of Wham! and a fishing anime

A Japanese bilingual melodic punk rock band's two songs about bowling

80s remixes of Justin Bieber songs

A Japanese "punk ska and melodic hardcore band"'s cover of Scatman’s World

A 140+ song Beatles remix collection, featuring such gems as "Octopus's 3D Garden", "I Saw Her Yankin' There" and "Help!" (suspicious)

A eurobeat female duo of rotating Italian and British members’ Abracadabra-sampling track about falling in love with a banana

A remix of Azumanga Daioh’s Sata Andagi scene I retrieved from a porn site reupload

Moldovan folk punk band and folk musician duo’s collab about celebrating the reopening of a railroad

The soundtrack of Pictionary for the NES

A mashup of AVICII, Rick Astley and Chumbawumba

An 80s pop Linkin Park remix

Black Sabbath covers by The Cardigans (of Lovefool fame)

JT's solo debut

A Flock Of Seagulls (of I Ran (So Far Away) fame)

One (1) DJ Khaled song

A 2011 My Little Pony-themed song by then commentary youtuber

(And I beg each and every one of the people who read this list and thought "Okay that one cannot possibly be good" to hop in my askbox and allow me to prove them wrong.)

But let's go through bands and artists I've not posted about before.

Two Door Cinema Club Just out of statistics. I can prove I played I Can Talk over a hundred times and I can tell you any number under two hundred is underselling it. There is genuinely some problem with my brain that that intro slots into perfectly.

Oh also all the rest of their first album this comes from is this great too, and if you ask me what a perfect album sounds like I will tell you it's not that far off their second album.

OK Go Now, I like the music. Actually, I'd left my two guitars alone for years until an easy OK Go song made me think "Oh, maybe I can play this" and realize that rather than -as I had prior- just play the music I'd been taught I could actually teach myself to play the music I was listening to, which snowballed into playing more OK Go songs and then it expanded and now I have a ukulele, a bass, a third guitar I need to merge with that bass (it's complicated), a fourth "guitar" (it's complicated) on the way, a Casio calculator/synth (it's complicated), a melodica, a launchpad and a kazoo. Whoops. But really, all you need to be sold on OK Go is see two of their videos. One to find out what they're like (and you're already good on that front because you have visited the internet ever and have thus seen Here It Goes Again aka "The Treadmill Video" aka what when posted to YouTube upon its CEO begging them became the biggest video of all time) and another to find out that no the first one was not a one-off fluke. I am serious, go click that link, it takes you to a playlist of their videos and each one is crazier than the last. I mean they played a song with a car. A song. That has a guitar solo. With a car. Have you seen the name of this channel.

Ah, right, the name of this channel. I guess I have to say a thing about that car now. Uhhh this video was sponsored by Chevrolet to promote the Aveo which, despite being badged as a Chevrolet, like many of the more Europe-oriented Chevrolets was made by the automotive branch of Daewoo, brand General Motors picked up after the Daewoo conglomerate (then the second largest in South-Korea which may as well be called Samsungland) went bankrupt in '99 over almost $90B modern dollars in debt. Its founder Kim Woo-chong (because Lord knows the "woo" in Daewoo did not stand for "woo what a great car") earned a ten year sentence, but I feel they focused too much on the wrong guy. The REAL criminal is whoever penned Daewoo cars.

A good person doesn't do this on purpose.

Owl City I have too few of his songs, but I absolutely love how comically upbeat he is. He is so precious. If c: walked this Earth. I mean "Golf and alcohol don't mix and that's why I don't drink and drive / Because, good grief, I'd knock out my teeth and have to kiss my smile goodbye". Protect this man at all costs. Also one time I saw the Fireflies video after what must have been a good decade and you know when you feel near crying? I adored that song when I was a kid and I was right.

Liquido European one-hit wonders - and not even "people know them just for one song", not even "people don't know them and just know the song"; I found you can tell people the name of their hit and they won't know what you're talking about. But hum the riff and infallibly, invariably any single person in my country (and, in my limited experience, the rest of Europe) will go "Ooooooh, that one". And to be fair, those guys did stumble on one of the most memorable riffs in modern history.

Not saying this is a hidden gem of a band, I am sure some bigger music nerd would stamp a big fat "SEEN BEFORE" on all their stuff, beyond some enjoyable splashes of "I wonder how much of this is them leaning into it" cheese (yes, even more than that video) - but I've still got their whole discography including all the B-sides, because to me, so what? It's good music and I'll treat it like it. What's the point of praising "groundbreaking", "genre defining" works and then glossing over those inhabiting the ground they broke and making the genres they defined? When I eat bread I don't complain that it doesn't innovate or set itself apart from the rest of the genre, so as long as my music doesn't bore me why should those be problems there? I feel like people have a problem in general separating their enjoyment of a work from its artistic merit. I'm digressing.

The Beatles If you ask me "What's your favorite number of pant legs?" I'm not going to answer five because two would be cliché.

And now we get to the final answer, the real answer, in such a league of its own it deserves to be separated from the rest via a Read More.

I lied, this is under a Read More because it's an entire fucking dissertation. Your fault for asking.

Caparezza I've spent well over a decade of my life mulling over his lyrics to the point me and my ex-flatmate played this game where she told me a random word and I'd try to find it in his lyrics (e.g. the first word of your ask, "favorite", was used in the second verse of the sixteenth track of his sixth album, yes I am neurodivergent why do you ask), and still it happens that as I am going through my everyday life I happen to accrue some information and slam my forehead going "Oh my God THAT'S what he meant there". His songs are more layered, more deep, more thoughtful, more cutting, more witty, more clever than most prose you see around and still he manages to play with his words and rhymes with incredible dexterity.

Take his last record, Exuvia - actually, take the previous record Exuvia picks up from, Prisoner 709:

Its name not only introduces the theme of imprisonment, but also of dilemmas and juxtapositions, since the prisoner's number, 709, stands for the dilemma about the number of the record: it's the 7th in his discography as Caparezza, but the 9th if one also counts the two shit records he made under his previous name Mikimix (we don't talk about those). Its tracklist, indeed, while being as typical for him incredibly varied in topics (from religions to his affinity with Ludwig II of Bavaria to "I'm not [x], BUT-" types) is arranged as chapters of a journey through an imprisonment (The Crime, The Punishment, The Weight, The Psychologist, The Letter, The Visit, The Yard Time, The Torture, The Revolt, The Guard, The Infirmary, The Window, The Evasion, The Hiding) and associated to dilemmas - for instance, as the record is about his feeling imprisoned in his body and in his role, the first song -and first chapter, The Crime- is indeed Prosopagnosia (i.e. face blindness), a track about him no longer recognizing himself in the artistic reputation he built himself, with the dilemma being between "Michele", his name, and "Caparezza", his rap name. Oh, and if you also want a taste of the impressive wordplay, well, count the letters of those two names. Yep. Every single one of the 16 tracks is a dilemma is between a 7 letter word and a 9 letter word. Because of course it is.

So now, let's get to the last record, Exuvia.

Nah, the pop-up edition's cover fucks way harder.

That's more like it.

Exuvia is the exoskeletal remains left behind by ecdysozoans after ecdysis, i.e. when creatures like insects and crustaceans develop a new exoskeleton and crawl out of their old one, as this record starts from his escaping from the anguish compounded through all his previous records and through a deep analysis of his past, his self, his surroundings, his fate, condensing it all and moving on to a new self, a new birth, a new shell. (Understand how I feel when people say the greatest rapper of all time is one whose greatest record is called "Damn" because the songs made him go "Damn" and whose biggest song is "Biggie Smalls' Juicy but this time about me".)

Well, in the second track of it, about running away from the dire situation of hatred, decay and persecution described in the first track, he says, and I paraphrase,

I give it all up, I'm dying, I retreat - Caporetto plus Waterloo Dripping and smelling like my head was in a station's toilet- oh.

introducing the desperation and hopelessness of military defeats and immediately following it up with an image whose comedic nature makes a contrast so stark as to surprise even him while still, being a reference to the military's hazing and bullying, latching back to the line before. While the prose I represent it with is deliberately poor, the concept behind the words is brilliant enough that it would be a good line if it didn't rhyme at all. And yet the original lines rhyme for twenty syllables. TWENTY.

Thing is, you can be as clever as you want, but the underlying music, you know, it can't be clever, it can just be good or bad. One would think. And yet the music is not just good but full of clever, witty samples and ideas that don't just reinforce the track's mood but tie the instrumental inextricably into the lyrics' themes, like Larsen (the track about his tinnitus, which he calls by audio feedback's technical name of Larsen effect) using high-pitched synths and emphasizing cymbals, Prisoner 709's title track being 79bpm (I wager 709bpm was a bit non-doable), House Credibility's instrumental featuring intercom buzz and cowbells reminiscent of cookware, or, well, everything in Exuvia's second single. See, that song is about the choice he faces between the story of Beethoven, who despite all his challenges kept devoting himself to music until the day he died, or that of Mark Hollis, lead of Talk Talk, who despite all the fame peaced out to focus on his private life - and the entire instrumental is devoted to that concept: the verses' reference Für Elise, the chorus Such A Shame, and the bridge I Believe In You; and when you tun into the background choirs you find they are rhythmically repeating "I don't know".

You start to get a clue why there's three years between his records.

So if his songs are so fucking good, why is he not famous? Well, he is! Except for his first album which no one really noticed (fairly so in my opinion - while I like a few songs I feel he really got going in his second one), the following records did really well for someone with such dense content: his third record has been certified gold! And all the others platinum. Some twice. Never since the first one did a record of his peak under 5 in the charts, and he's got 8 gold singles, 3 platinums and a double platinum. And don't get me started on the shows.

(That's me in the background!) Hell, he's even been on the cover of Billboard! So why've you never heard of him? Well, see the word next to Billboard.

Yep. The man, Michele Salvemini, is an Italian born and raised and, like any proper Italian, doesn't speak a whole lot of English, so pretty much all the English you'll hear in his music are the handful of English features, like Michael Franti, DMC (!) and Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley, with which he made a song about Italy's emigration crisis.

Emigration that is also internal, from the underdeveloped, falling aparty and criminality-run south of Italy to where all the industries are, the richer and we-pretend-it's-not-criminality-run north. And since he's from Apulia, Italy's heel (his rap name in fact means "curly head" in Apulian dialect), he's made a song about its woes too, featuring the music of the tarantella, Apulia's traditional dance. (I don't know why y'all add an A in front. It's fucking "Puglia", y'all.) Here's an imperfect translation with a couple of helpful explainers to the asterisked terms over in the video's description.

It depresses me every time I think about it that all the English speakers I know will never be able to fully appreciate his lyrical brilliance. But oh well. At least y'all can appreciate the music... so fuck it, have that song whose music I yapped about so much. You'll hear the choirs in the background say "non so" (I don't know)... and a bunch more Italian words (translated here for those on desktop who want to follow along).

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

[duckapus]

Ever since Wario got that package he's been getting tons of ideas for making WarioWare more successful, with his VR game idea as just the start. And at first it's great! They're doing better than ever, and some of the ideas even help him and Waluigi get their finances in order and move into a freaking penthouse! So things are looking up.

Except...

Except some of the ideas don't feel like his own.

Except he's gradually becoming colder and more businesslike.

Except he keeps Conveniently Forgetting to take off his Meta Glove when he's not using it.

Because the arm is programed similarly to SMG4's old demonic keyboard, but it's far more subtle and insidious since it's not dealing with a sleep-deprived perfectionist already in the midst of a complete mental breakdown.

And it's so subtle that even as Wario realizes that something's wrong with him, he doesn't figure out what until it's too late and he's a prisoner in his own mind.

Now it's-a Metario Time, and he activates a similar program in the replica Meta Gloves to forcibly hijack the minds of the WarioWare crew, Waluigi, and new hires Amy and Mira, then leads the resulting Army in an assault on the Showgrounds, which is the big cliffhanger before what I'm calling WAHtfiWare.

Speaking of which, the format is that Tari manages to convince Metario to settle things with a gaming competition, with both of them using their unique abilities to pull their respective Crews into a WarioWare game. The transition screen between challenges is a fighting game-style character select, with the SMG4 Crew's side being blue, Metario's side being purple, and the real Wario trapped in a TV in the middle. The actual challenge skits are much shorter than usual, both because they're supposed to represent Microgames and because there are a lot of characters and if we went with the standard format we wouldn't be able to use them all even if we included some 2v2-or-more-challenges.

To differentiate him from the real Wario, Metario wears the same suit and bowler hat as the TV Adware guy and his Meta Glove, which looks just like Tari's arm but refitted to Wario's proportions, purple glowy bits instead of blue, and Wario's signature blue "W" on the back of the hand instead of Tari's wing emblem thing. The rest of the WarioWare crew also have Meta Gloves fitted to their proportions, and their eyes glow the same purple as the glowy bits when they're under Metario's control.

Just before the climax song starts, the Crew discovers that they can break Metario's control by getting rid of the Meta Arms when they manage to do so to Waluigi, Amy and Mira. Then during the song they gradually manage to free all the WarioWare employees (coincidentally in reverse order of their debuts Because Thematics) while Metario transforms his in-game sprite (because keep in mind that with how his and Tari's special power works their bodies are still in the real world unlike everyone else), and near the end Wario finally breaks free of the TV and gets to lay an extremely satisfying smackdown on the asshole program that stole his body.

In the aftermath, it turns out that Metario's ideas weren't actually as good for the company in the long term as he thought they were, because as good as the program was it was still working with Wario's brain, so a lot of the extra revenue they got has to go into damage control and the Wario Bros can't actually afford their penthouse. But when they think they're going to have to go back to living on the side of the road, the two Crews have a surprise for them.

Apparently the initial WarioWare VR concept, the one idea that was genuinely All Wario before the Meta Arm had any influence, was the one that actually properly worked, and between the sales from that and everybody deciding to pitch in something of their own, they managed to put in a down payment on a house for the brothers. It's not particularly big or fancy, in fact it's just a 3D version of Wario's dinky little run-down shack from the actual WarioWare games, complete with the big dumb "W" sign on the roof.

And as far as the two of them are concerned, it's perfect. Better than the stupid penthouse even. Because for once in their lives they've finally got somewhere that feels like home, given to them by the first people beyond each-other who've ever felt like family.

[melloggd]

Review: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

Capcom • Capcom • 2013 • Nintendo 3DS Read it on Backloggd: (x)

As fans of the series are likely well aware, this fifth game marked the point when a new team took over Shu Takumi's darling mainline series of murder-mystery games. Takumi was preoccupied with Ghost Trick, the Professor Layton crossover game, and later Great Ace Attorney, and the team he previously led for the series' fourth game had kind of just dissolved after finishing up. So, the team behind the spinoff Ace Attorney Investigations duology ended up taking the reigns of the main series. What this boils down to is, that this marked the first time that two different teams were making Ace Attorney games in parallel with one another: The Investigations team now making this game, led by Takeshi Yamazaki, and Takumi's team releasing The Great Ace Attorney just two years later.

The reason for leading with this context, is because I find the contrast between these games to be inherently fascinating. That despite being fundamentally "the same kind of game" they had such different directions as to lead to two wholly different experiences for wholly different players.

Looking at Takumi's games and history in interviews, its clear to me that he values "The Puzzle" above all else (he IS a magician in training, fun fact!). The feeling of working things out in your head, drawing conclusions wholly on your own and submitting your answer to see the game react in amazement at your ability. Ghost Trick and the existence of Herlock Sholmes in general make this the most apparent, but in my eyes "The Puzzle" is only a piece of what makes Ace Attorney what it is, and it is only thanks to Takumi's direction that it has become a focus in his games.

All this build-up, is just to say this: Yes, Dual Destinies easily has the least interesting gameplay in the series. Yes, it will often make it plainly obvious what the solution to a puzzle is, moments before its time to submit the answer. BUT: I believe this is because Yamazaki's priorities were elsewhere in production. In my eyes, Dual Destinies focuses far more on its own narrative, mysteries and character drama than it does puzzle-solving, detective sleuthing and experimenting with game mechanics. This in my eyes is neither "better" nor "worse": Its just the result of a CHANGE in direction. But it IS a change that happens to be to my preference.

For instance: There's no Soseki Natsume-type case here that, as Takumi loves to do, exists SOLELY to be a fun puzzle to unravel. Instead every case feels as if it has more of a point to it narratively, having them all fit together well thematically. Characters return, dynamics are explored, themes reinforced in interesting ways and generally I rarely got the sense that--story-wise-- my time was being wasted with any of the cases I was playing. This was an issue I felt plagued AA3, despite its attempt to be dramatic and conclusive. Its mainly because of this new direction that I feel Case 2 in this game is the worst one: It seems intentionally set up like a "puzzle-box" mystery typical of the most devious puzzles in AA1-3, yet as I've explained that kind of focus is not one Dual Destinies typically wants to have.

Because of the baggage that both the series' prior game and Capcom high-ups gave the team, Dual Destinies' story was almost destined to be one that attempted a lot of things, yet I don't think I could have predicted that it'd pull those things and more off...surprisingly well. I know the whole "Dark Age of the law" setting has been derided by a lot of fans, but what I found especially commendable with this direction was that they used it as a tool to go in and clean up a lot of things that...Apollo Justice just kind of handwaved away. Like...if Phoenix was disbarred and shunned away from the law world for seven years, how was he able to set up all that he does to take down Kristoph in the end of Apollo Justice, including the debut of the wholly untested Jury system? Why was Phoenix so casually doing extremely shady things both in the development of this system and while in court in Case 1? And, of course: Why was a supposedly story about Apollo becoming the new face of Justice instead written to secretly be about Phoenix being this mastermind?

By retroactively framing Apollo Justice as ALSO taking place during this Dark Age, suddenly things begin to click: Apollo defending nothing but criminals in that game becomes more than a neat coincidence, and Case 3 in that game suddenly becomes more about showing that corruption. The grimy world of Apollo Justice aside, I find all the cases in Dual Destinies in some subtle way show how the perception of the law has changed (which is a big part as to why Case 3 is my favorite in the game). The world itself hasn't changed: People's perception of it has. Culprits commit crimes not because they're in a position of power to where they're able to get away with it (AA1) or because they seek revenge (AA2), but simply because they now feel its the easiest way to solve their situation: because the current law system will not catch or punish them. Kristoph in AA4 is an excellent, shining example of this, going to lunatic lengths to commit a crime because he knows that a law world run the way it is in this age will never catch him.

Dual Destinies shows a world where people see little benefit in being truthful, because their "champions of truth" in the most recent times were also the ones who used fake evidence in a murder trial, who defended nothing but criminals for a whole game's time, who deprioritized their duty as a lawyer over playing in a rock band - and one of them was even convicted of murder themselves.

That's a really cool yet understated part of Dual Destinies: Almost every character, new or old, are hiding away the truth or their true selves, not because they have done anything, but because they are afraid of what will happen once that truth is revealed. They're scared of what honesty will do to themselves, their relationships, and their careers, and instead keep it to themselves. Because to them, what happened to Phoenix, their guiding light in an unjust world, seven years ago, was the truth about him coming out, and as soon as it did his career and public perception of the law plummeted. This feeds into Blackquill's backstory as well and how he willingly turned himself in as a murderer, rather than having him be exposed: The moment these guardians of the law world come clean about their honest nature, the world came crumbling down, thus a world of secrecy and distrust was seen as the only way to live.

In terms of playable characters, I feel like the 3DS Home Menu diorama best showcases the game's direction: With Phoenix's story now told (and told again) with AA1-4, and Apollo having been introduced, its his and Athena's story now being told with Phoenix as mentor and motivation. Apollo and Athena are shown fighting in court, with Phoenix at home in the office. This is even reflected in the ending cutscene of the game, with Apollo and Athena being the ones celebrating as Phoenix just watches and smiles. The Dual Destinies the title is referring to is the two young lawyers overcoming their inner doubts and no longer hiding from the truth, no matter how scary it may sound, thanks to the help of their mentor, channeling Mia's positive mentorship.

I've heard people (mainly Athena fans) say the game feels crowded because of the trio-setup, but I find everyone gets a very comfortable slot in to tell the cohesive story. Phoenix is a passive figure as the plot delves into Athena's life alongside Apollo's inner turmoil. Given that AA4 didnt really...establish much of any goal for Apollo beyond meaningless family relations, this game works as a springboard for him, with a character moment so perfectly executed and befitting of him that he shot to the top of character popularity polls after launch. Following AA4 up with another game just starring Phoenix and Apollo and..."exploring" those family relations could've been a safe and easy direction to go in, yet Yamazaki's team committed to an ambitious idea of two kinds of character growth: DUAL DESTINIES, so to speak.

This is why I don’t mind Apollo’s “new backstory” in this game being so brief and, in a sense, discardable. Because the point of the backstory is to drive his actions and growth as a character: Not to give him a goal to pursue. You aren't meant to sympathize with him on a personal, "I-knew-how-good-of-a-guy-your-friend-was" level, because you're just observing the mental effects its having on Apollo, and trying to help him from the perspective of two people who really don't know the pain he's going through. Its what starts his internal turmoil and it does that well.

And putting a bow atop of it all is presentation that feels almost a cut above Ace Attorneys typical stellar pedigree: The composer of AA3 paired with the sound director of AA4 leads to whats pretty easily my favorite sound in the series, narrowly beating Great Ace Attorney purely by the element of variety. One of my biggest issues with AA4 was just how...dislikable a lot of the interacting cast was (again, is retroactively made more interesting with the Dark Age framing), and Dual Destinies remedies this with some absolute top-of-the-line new favorites (Simon + Case 3 my beloved) All the characters animate beautifully, and I admire the restrictions the team placed on themselves regardless: Characters like Filch and Fulbright will still snap to animations to retain the snappy timing of the original games, something I felt The Great Ace Attorney was comparatively lacking in due to reliance of "natural" motion-capture.

But then we come back to that point, that interesting contrast in direction: The Great Ace Attorney’s character models have far more detail and a whole new sense of fluidity, giving it more of a sophisticated feel, wheras Dual Destinies’ more simple designs and harsh cuts lend themselves to a different vibe altogether. The game’s anime cutscenes are a great example of this. The simpler designs lend themselves nicely to the occasional shift, and it does wonders to help drive the story. TGAA gets half as much cutscene runtime and accomplishes precious little with it, mostly just feeling jarring and out of place; Again, different direction.

So let's summarize: A fantastic story that retroactively makes the Ace Attorney game I have the most issues with click better and established three Top-5 favorite characters, paired with the best soundtrack in the series and a really nice visual direction for the mainline AA series. And crucially, while as I explained before the game fumbles in puzzle design, it NEVER shows its hand too early. This is my distinction between “the puzzle” mentioned earlier and "the mystery”, and the mystery is always excellently paced out across each case whilst driving a good story to boot. The points at which the game nudges you toward what to pick aren’t several steps before said event occurs, but rather often right after a major new unveiling has happened within the story. THIS is why the handholdy design doesn’t bother me.

Neither Takumi or Yamazaki had an easy task on their hands. Takumi had to introduce and build a whole new world, knowing full well it and its new characters, story and games would likely always live in the shadow of what would occur in the mainline series. Yamazaki, on the other hand, had to tie together the tangled web that Apollo Justice established, and carry the torch of the mainline series forward with a wholly new team with a distinct new flavor for the series, whilst also making an impactful game in its own right for both new fans and old. The results of both efforts are ones that, in a way falter where the other succeeds. Dual Destinies just so happened to land on the side of the pond that I happen to vibe just a bit more with, with all due respect paid to Takumi’s equally impressive effort.

I feel its best summarized with this: TGAA’s new mechanics like the Jury and Herlock Deductions lead to deviously clever puzzles and fun character interaction. AA5’s Percieve/Mood Matrix are very lacking in substance, yet are both used to pull some of the series’ best storybeats with incredibly satisfying ludonarrative harmony. And just the fact that Dual Destinies even HAS those abilities, on top of it all, to me speaks volumes on how passionate the team was to honor and respect the old, push forward with the new, and give it their all.

[Playtime: 35 hours] [Key Word: Admirable]

[ethereal-originate]

Movie Review 🎬🍿 Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers (2022)

The movie is just a movie. I grew up watching the show as a kid and was excited to see something that was nostalgic to me. But however, it didn’t. It was like “oh”. The movie isn’t really about the “Rescue Rangers” it just Chip and Dale solving a mystery of trying to find their missing friend. I’m weirded out of Gadget ended up marrying with Zipper. It just weird. I don’t understand why the movie said Chip and Dale debuted in Rescue Ranger (1989) when they first debuted in Private Pluto (1943) The movie is full of cameos but it didn’t left a great impression as “Who framed Roger Rabbit” it just showing our faces on who is here in this money cooperation movie 🫤. Probably the most impression cameo is Sonic. And the main villain of this film is Peter Pan. Really? They choose Peter Pan as the villain? Couldn’t a villain is just some greedy cooperation man? It honestly doesn’t make any sense that how Peter aged but then 1 of the lost boy is still young. The movie doesn’t make sense with cartoons age, and the characters Baloo from “Jungle Book” become 3D but Lumière from “Beauty and the Beast” isn’t but however he in the live action in 2017? Why there can’t be 2 different versions of Baloo of 2D and 3D? It will be interesting if 2 different versions meet each other. What really cruel that Disney did, is that they are referencing to the actor Bobby Driscoll who the inspiration and voice of Peter Pan who entered puberty that Walt fired him which lead to his tragic downfall. Leading him to drugs addiction and sadly passed away at the age 31. Really cruel. I really wanted the movie to be the entire Rescue Ranger crew solving mystery together. If they want the movie to be like Roger Rabbit then I will like to see a movie/series about an cartoon that exists long time ago seeing new generations of cartoons (such as 3D and Anime) a hilarious joke of fandom, and a Villian could be a cancel, rejected or forgotten cartoon who want to revenge of the mistreatment in the pass and want the popular cartoon disappear. I will rate this movie like a 4 or 5 out of 10.

[penumbraphantasm]

big old wordy post for anyone wanting to get into the layton series and support it in a slightly more legal manner loool

first off, the Original Trilogy. probably the easiest option is purchasing the first 3 games on mobile. yes, these are the full games that debuted on the DS but in HD with BONUS content.

oh hey katrielle and alfendi. i guess mystery journey and mystery room are there too but i'll get back to those.

anyways, the layton series comes in different parts with some spinoffs. the first three as seen are Curious Village, Diabolical Box and Unwound Future. these are first in order of Release. so you can't go wrong starting here.

the next three that came after are the Prequel trilogy: Last Specter, Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy. this means even though they were released later, they take place before Curious Village chronologically. so maybe you want to make LS a starting point if you like that sort of order? LS was the last layton game for the DS while MM and AL were for the 3DS. this is where it gets difficult.

currently, Last Specter has no other port. if you search on something like ebay, you will see a clear price difference compared to listings for the original DS trilogy. and with renewed interest in the series, the amount of ppl looking for copies has probably grown too. so i don't recommend joining the fight unless you really love layton and physical media lol. i still probably RecOMmend finding another way to play it.

also my fav part of Last Specter is London Life!! a game within a game where you can create an avatar, dress up, decorate your room, get a job, fish, meet characters from the past 3 games (and a couple from Eternal Diva!) HOWEVER, London Life is only available in versions for Japan, US and Australia. if you have a European copy, you won't see it... so keep this in mind...

but before you get to the 3DS titles, you should watch the movie i mentioned earlier. what, a movie? YES! Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva! released in 2009 and takes place between Last Specter and Miracle Mask. it's animated in the game's style and comes with subs and dubs. you can easily look it up on youtube.

okay now you can move on to 3DS. Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy are available digitally in 3DS eshop but that is CLOSING MARCH 27 2023. physical copies are also expensive to acquire. they currently do not have mobile ports either.

there's another 3DS title available as well and it's a wild one. Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! a crossover spinoff where you get to enjoy the gameplay of both series and the work done here would later influence some stuff they did in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles so you can check that out too. but i rec this title if you are already a fan of PL and AA so you can get the most out of the experience. if you hope to get this physically, be aware it's an extremely expensive hassle. otherwise, just grab it from the 3DS eshop for $29.99 before it closes or brew up another method at home.

okay okay but what about Mystery Journey? well, the protagonist this time is Prof Layton's daughter Katrielle! her game's available on 3DS and mobile (with free demo) and there are extra purchases if you want more goodies. but you may want to consider the switch version instead. it comes with all DLC unlocked, extra outfits and nicer graphics. it also has some new and improved puzzles. why is that? well, some of the puzzles in the original release weren't popular. if you try out the mobile demo, you may notice a totally different vibe with the puzzles. well, why is That? sadly, the original puzzle master for the layton games passed away in 2016. Mystery Journey is a more divisive title so maybe don't make this your first layton adventure.

BUT WAIT! there's also a Mystery Journey anime you can watch! Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File! it goes through the events from Mystery Journey and MORE! yes, the story goes BEYOND the game!! it's only available in japanese though (but there are subs lol)

HOLD IT! there's one more mobile game to talk about. Layton Brothers: Mystery Room! this time, you follow Lucy Baker, a fresh detective constable assigned to assist Inspector Alfendi Layton, son of Prof Layton. this game is less about puzzles and more about investigation and interrogation. it's a freemium game, which means the prologue and first 2 cases are free. the rest of the cases are in-app purchases.

if you've already played all these games, well congrats! now we just sit here and wait for New World of Steam

(and keep praying for Mansion of the Deathly Mirror lol)

[dojae-huh]

I’ll be waiting for your commentaries on Doyoung youth documentary! I think you’re really gonna like a lot of the contents during this promotional era. Thankful that promotion nowadays are not just about going to variety shows. Thanks to social media, we got to see him appear to talk shows and see him talks more. We’re seeing more of Doyoung who is not part of NCT. His thought process, his interaction with people outside of his circle or out of his field. I can see he’s a lot more confident too. He really says ‘This is who I really am’ through this era (album-wise and personality-wise). Despite being ambitious he’s also aware that this album will not appeal to all due to people’s preference. But most important thing to him, he’s satisfied with it. I learnt a lot from him through this album. Once again, you’re really gonna enjoy it!!

*sobs* Yeah, only in June. I'm in a new country, and the prices for mobile internet are insane here. Plus there are complications with buying a package in the first place giving my location and lack of a credit card. I have to severely safe on data. Unlimited is not even an option.

I see that Doyoung goes on a lot of programmes where he can sing live. It's really great he has the opportunity to do now what he had been longing for for so long (remember how he complained about his parts in NCT songs? "I will do what I have to do"). All his patience and perseverance is paying off.

I think, it is extremely hard to wait for postponed gratification (when an idol starts to invest blood and tears since day one of a trainee life), to see other, younger people, making it or doing what you want to do (like freshly debuted groups achieving more awards than NCT), add to it the loom of enlistment over male idols. Fortunately, in comparison to poor Taeil, and even Taeyong to a degree, Doyoung lucked out with the debut time window. I'm really happy for him and for his fans.

I also suppose that he got a full album because he found those additional 3 songs himself (one he wrote, one from Lucy's guy, maybe Kenzie's or the one with Mark can be counted as the 3d). As it is less about money, and more about finding enough of good songs that can go together. The songs were collected over a long time as well (Tae had less than a year after Shalala).

I said before that I don't find idol Jaehyun interesting, he is bland to me. (His real self I'm sure I will like, what's with the love for arts, old things and jazz). Doyoung is a different case, but mostly because I invest in knowing him and see past his fake facade of a cute trembling bunny. The real Doyoung is tenfold more charming than his idol image that he developed over the years in apprehension of antis and not his NCT fans. After his shift in image (from savage) there always was a difference between what he allowed to show being in a group setting with other 127 members versus his communication with his own fans. With his fans he was more honest (Doyoung/Dongyoung divide, fake boyfriend pictures, etc). And as a soloist he is even more sincere. I'm looking forward to seeing him open up in those interviews (he will never be not self-censored, but still).

I thought yesterday about Doyoung's words about standing out. To me, he is a more unusual and rare individual than even Taeyong. I guess "tortured artist" is a well-explored personality, heh. There are many of them in the industry. Meanwhile a "tribal chief" could be more often found behind the scenes, not on the pop-stage. And if they exist, they are not "seen". The idol culture exposes artists, shows them from many sides, it is very different from how pop-scene is elsewhere.

Real Doyoung gives off a lot of energy. Active positive energy. Many idols are a subject of desire (sex appeal), adoration (cuteness) or empathy ("mistreatment"), not many are "class presidents" (Hanbin seems to be one, btw), those who push you.

I'm sorry, I'm rambling, but Do's chant guide cracked me up. It heavily reminded me how he persuaded his class to participate in a choir competetion and led them to win it.

Doyoung: "Repeat after me. You all emit light, you are all fireflies and stars, you are all kind and meant for great things. You are my support, I'm your support. If I can do it, you can do it. Do like me, do better than me. Sing with me."

[soup-du-silence]

YES TUMBLR, I KNOW YEO TAGGED ME, IM AWARE, YOU DONT HAVE TO SEND ME A PUSH NOTIFICATION EVERY HOUR, I WAS AT WORK!!!!

Taico tagged me too apparently but I didnt get a notif for that??? ok

Last Song: The DJ is Cryng for Help. Excited to be the oldest bitch at the AJR concert this summer.........again lol. Love/hate relationship with the new album but they put on a good show

Favourite Colour: red! I need to re-dye the red in my hair I am considering this a reminder.

Currently watching: We've been on youtube lockdown pretty much ever since Vanguard debuted, but with the boys in japan for holofes/their upcoming 3D debuts, their schedules have been inconsistent. Alisa's a very hardcore Betellion meaning if Bettel's streaming she has him playing on at least two screens simultaneously and is active in chat, and Im a very normal Hakkito meaning I usually get through like 65% of Hakka's streams, eventually, if I have time. We'll throw on Shinri or Altare if we're caught up or there's nothing else happening. I made the mistake of introducing Alisa to HBomberguy and she's been filling the gaps with her 500th rewatch of the Plagiarism or Pathologic vids while the stars are busy. But also we're watching Dungeon Meshi! Izutsumi soon!!!!!

At this precise moment in time Alisa's watching the new JapanEat upload. (We love this guy)

Sweet/Savoury/Spicy: Spicyyyyyyy I love spicy Im a terrible cook and i only know how to season with cayenne. i dont know when exactly i started equating "flavor" with "pain" but it is what it is. I'm kind of reaching the stage in my life where I need to be more careful about what I put in my gut because sometimes just too much pepperoni will fuck me up for 24 hours but also what if I ignored my aging body and didn't do that?

Relationship status: I've been with Alisa for 15 years! We met in the Meet the Robinsons fandom on livejournal/deviant art

Current Obsession: Four years late to the party Twisted Wonderland finally got its hooks into me! (Add me on EN: ZyEdsarR) I'm very mentally unwell about Scarabia. None of the fanfic on AO3 is scratching the itch so I'm spending too much money importing doujin. It's great but it takes a month to get like eight books and oops one of them is just a straight up fanfic and im sure its banger but I can't google translate my way through 60 pages of japanese text, one of them is solid porn which, yknow, cool, but it was probably something I was in the mood for when I placed the order a month ago and now I want story, and I have to sit down at my desk with good light to translate with my phone camera when what i CRAVE is to lie in bed on my side reading fic on my phone until 2 am. I'm dying, squirtle. (Anyone got good fic recs? there is WAY too much fic for pickings to be as slim as I feel like they are)

Last thing I googled:

none of these recipes look like the amazing shit they gave us at Falafel King so wish me luck