#possibly writing for tekken later

[gay-dorito-dust]

I hear you write for tekken!!! So idk if ur okay with this but: Jin Kazama x fem reader post sex cuddles and sweet nothings XD

This man has a slutty waist, why am I a slut for a man with a slutty waist it’s not fair- anyways this is my first time writing for something like this, so if it comes off shit that’s why. 🦦

‘I wasn’t too rough was I?’ Was the first thing Jin asked whilst holding you firmly against his chest, his strong hands were splayed across your back and his fingers were on the verge of lulling you to sleep with their gently and soothing caresses.

‘Rough? No. Passionate and romantic? Absolutely but I wasn’t exactly complaining now was I.’ You teased with a hoarse voice that was slowly but surly recovering. You had to admit your were a little sore in places but it wasn’t like it was completely unpleasant to the point you’d have to say something about it.

After all you knew how seriously Jin took you and your safety that even if you did mention it, he’d be out of bed before you know it to find something to relieve your soreness whilst treating you like glass in the process; something you have got to help him unlearn because you knew you weren’t going to break under his touch but he didn’t.

Sweet as that might be, sometimes you just want to be held in the well defined arms of your beautiful man and soak in the aftermath together with nothing but the sound of your breathing for company.

‘I’m serious, you need to tell me if I’m ever going too far next time.’ Jin insisted as he looked down at you with a serious expression. ‘I don’t want to ever cause you harm…no matter the circumstance.’ You understood his fear but in that moment you couldn’t get it out of your head of how lucky you were to have someone as ethereal as Jin in your life as you reached a hand out to hold the side of his face, caressing his cheek with your thumb.

‘And I’m serious when I say that you could never hurt me Jin. I put my trust in you for a reason and you’ve never gave me a reason to regret that decision.’ You told him softly as you pulled him in close without waiting for him to say anything, just so that you could kiss him on the lips, melting at the sweetness of it as you weaved your lips between one another; savouring it at your own pace and committing it to memory so that you’d never forget the taste of his kiss. Something that you were starting to think was impossible because how could you possibly be made to forget a kiss as unique and enticing as Jin’s?

‘What did ever I do to deserve someone as beautiful, as kind and understanding as you after all I’ve done or will ever do afterwards this moment?’ Jin asked upon pulling away, tucking you even closer against him as though he was fearing that you’d be taken from him in that very moment. You traced shapes into his broad chest before planting a few quick kisses there before making yourself at home within the crook of his neck, nosing the skin there affectionately.

‘Just being you.’ You replied softly, moving a hand to play with his hair, hearing him hum in content. ‘It may not sound like much of a reason but to name just a single thing that I love about you should be illegal when I love you in your entirety.’ You added, feeling the need to let everything you’ve been keeping inside out while given the chance. You didn’t want to regret anything later on nor leave a single thing unsaid between the two of you. ‘Good and the bad because it wouldn’t be nearly as genuine a love if I only focused solely on your good traits. I wouldn’t be loving you authentically if I did.’ You concluded, feeling a weight finally remove itself from your chest.

‘Then I too want to love you as authentically as possible.’ Jin stated as though it was fact. ‘Allow me to love your flaws as I do the rest of you, frivolously and without a second thought, for you have opened me up the idea that love is anything but beautiful, that love is patient, kind and considerate of those who are a little more lenient to let themselves freely fall into it.’

Jin then rested his forehead against the top of your head, closing his eyes as he inhaled deeply, wanting to engrave this moment to memory in hopes of having something to look back at fondly. ‘You’ve shown me all of that and so much more that I don’t think I could possibly hope to repay you for all you’ve done for me but I can only try.’

You smiled as you began to close your eyes also, finally conceding to your body’s desire to fall fast asleep, though not before saying. ‘You already do Jin, you already do and I couldn’t be even more in love, if that’s even possible.’ You let out a sleepy chuckle and felt Jin gently kiss into your head.

‘I’m glad to hear that because you’ve made me a really, really happy man that I didn’t know I could even be.’ He mutters.

‘You deserve to be happy Jin, more then anyone.’ You sluggishly responded, kissing his neck.

[popculturebuffet]

With Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon originals covered, may as well put this in full circle with Disney TVA (only bringing up non-preschool stuff and the half-hour ones to make it simple). Who is your favorite character from the 1987-92 half of the Disney Afternoon era cartoons you saw like: Adventures of the Gummi Bears, The Wuzzles, DuckTales 1987, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid 1992, Raw Toonage, and Goof Troop?

I haven't seen Gummi Bears or Wuzzles, though the former's theme song kicks ass and I love that it keeps getting brought up. Ducktales 87: *womp womp womp womp womp womp* Faviorite character is Webby. It was a shockingly easy choice but she's adorable, and while she has a cutsey nature a lot of the time it's oftset by her genuine heart and pluck. She'll gladly tag along, and while she'll cry and be more emotinal because well.. 80's kid show version of what they think a little girl is, those emotoins often ground her against her peers, less in the cliche

Way and more simply by having more of a heart than scrooge (who shuts his off but Webby is one of the few people that can bring out his warm caring side) and the boys (Who are often sexist dicks who need to get thrown into a volcano tekken stylez to learn a lesson). Her reboot self IS better in pretty much every way

But it's comparing a character who got a lot of layers and came out in an era where women were actually writing the character. So the comparison is hard.

So as for the show itself.. it's decent. It has gorgeous animation, captures barks style well and throws in it's own touches with webby and launchpad (and beakly but unlike the og webby who I feel is underated, og ms beakley sucks as much as her reputation), and later Gizmoduck. It's a solid series and it's easy to see why it set off the disney afternoon and disney tva as a whole; while gummi bears proved it was possible, Ducktales proved it could be a roaring success and that putting good money into animation was just good sense. The show changed animatoin.

I respect the show but admit it's just.. okay to me. It's not bad, I wouldn't mind reviewing more episodes , plug plug plug shill shill shill, but it just dosen't really hit me the way some of the other cartoons in this block or later disney stuff does. IT's a fine adaptatoin, decent enough and Alan Young is THE scrooge, with David Tennant a close second, but it's just not something I seek out. Granted i'm bad at watching shows that are just sitting ther eon D+ but while I enjoyed what I saw before the reboot back when I had the dvd, it's one of those shows that was worldshaking then but now is just.. okay> Not bad, still specail, but just not for me. Maybe that'll change if I see some of the later episodes, I feel my opinon could easily evolve, but for now it's just a fine part of the lore and worthy of adding to the cannon , but not for me.

As a bonus since all of the shows adapted are present i'll also throw my opinons in on the nes games as one of the first things I got for my PS4 was the disney afternoon collection and while I intend to review these games in full at some point (Again comms are open for those intrested) . So in order: Ducktales is really good, a solid platformer whose only real flaws are difficulty (not as bad in an age of rewinds) and the amazon requiring a cash gate. Really fun platformer. The second one is decent, not quite as good but I do like the adition of adapters like mega man.. even if said addition left me stuck at one point bu tthat's ag ripe for another day.

Finally we have remastered, another one to review some day and a beautiful well game you can still find on steam and I have on both there and x-box 360. like with the disney afternoon collection it was one of my first purchases when I got one again about two years back. It feel slike a grand and proper finale to the cartoon, bringing back everyone who was alive at the time, having vibrant animation and ending on a wonderful note. IT's only real issues are difficulty once again and the fact the lovingly crafted story to justify each level does eat up a bit of time in each level and breaks the momentum. I wish we'd get another platformer like this from disney though I intend to try illusion island at some point.

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Eeore. Always. Honestly haven't seen this one outside of some vauge recoltions of catching it on disney channel as a kid, so I can't say much but unless they made him a giant sentient fart cloud that kicks tigger in the gonad I doubt my answer would change.

Chip N Dale: Gadget. She's the kind voice of reason, and can be real funny. The show itself.. is mid. I've reviewed a few episodes at this point and the show is fine, it just leans into cliches a bit, which being a late 80's show, isn't suprising. It's got some creative energy, a standout ep or two and some shockingly adult content, but it dose'nt have ducktales grandness or the next two's energy and vibe. It's just kinda a kids show As for the NES games the first is like the show itself: fine, kinda forgetable, probably not bad to at least check it out. The second on the other hand is a shocking leap in quality: the sprites are more detailed, it evolves on the pick up stuff and throw it gameplay, and gives the game an actual plot.. an excuse plot still but one fitting the show and shockingly detailed for an early 90's videogame. Well worth checking out.

Talespin: OH OH OH OH OH OH SPIN IT!. I've made my love for what i've seen of talespin (I badly need to watch more) very clear. My faviorite is Sheer Khan, a villian whose a nice mix of caluating and honorable: unlike most buisness scumbags, while he will do shady stuff, he does so right and can be our heroes ally, enemy or a neutral party depending on the day, utterly respecting higher for higher but not being afraid to go against them if needed with cold, calculating percision. A perfect adaptation

As for the show itself.. it's a lot of fun. Granted the 1930's 40's pulp adventure setting with plans, tons of gorgeous tropic vistas and eiral acrobatics is for me: I love a good plane, and I love this kind of 40's set story if done right. See INdiana Jones. So it works. it has a great main cast, fun antagonists, and a great setting. Unlike Ducktlaes the episodic nature dosen't bother me as much because they vary it up more, sometimes adventuring around cape suzette sometimes doing globetrotting. It all depends on what the episode needs and this show is sensatoinal The nes game is a tad hard, you WILL die and you WILL need that rewind, easily the hardesdt of the bunch.. but I can't hate it being fun, breezy and having a kickass chiptune version of the theme. Granted it's also because I just love this cartoon so much, so i'm an easy mark, but it is a lot of fun and I feel dosen't get the respect it deserves.

Darkwing Duck: Negaduck, the perfect arch enemy. While Darkwing has a solid as hell Rogues Gallery, Negaduck has that extra menace, being one of the very few foes of his that comes off as menacing, with Jim Cummings low growl feeling perfect. He's everything Drake COULD be and worse: Cold, arrogant, murderous and yet he still fits the zany tone, gladly whipping out a chainsaw or engaging in slapstick just enough to make him not feel jarring iwth the show as a whole, but not enough to undercut his menance

The show itself is great and I REALLY wish we'd gotten that reboot. But the original is really good: like ducktales or chip n dales it's got a very loose continuity and i've talked at length about how the episode order is a styigan labyrinth from which few escape. But it mostly works.. by being funny. When it isn't it's mid and i've reviewed plenty of episodes I didn't like.. but when it's working, it REALLY works, having a ton of laughs, a suprising amount of heart, and a really fun well thought out prtoaganist: part egotist, part genuinely heroic, part judgemental fuckup, all darkwing duck

The final NES game covered here and easily my faviorite. Granted it's partly a prefrence thing: I'm a HUGE mega man fan, so getting a game tha'ts essentially another nes mega man but still perfectly caputres the spirit of darkwing duck is an easy sell. The game is HARD, though rewind helps.. but man if it isn't fun. Like all 6 games, capcom put a lot of heart into it and a lot of effort into matching the style of the show. And while the music for all 6 games slaps, darkwing has the best soundtrack by far, perfectly fitting the show, the foes all fitting the zany superhero parody feel an di'ts impressive given the game was clearly put into production early into the shows run using production materials as everyone works for fowl like in an early pitch.. and yet despite this the game is juts pitch perfect.

The Little Mermaid 97: I'm only including this because like winnie the pooh I defintely saw it once in a while, but I dont' remember it. Sorry.

Raw Toonage: I've only seen the episode I recently reviewed and it was.. okay. The first segment was like living in a living nightmare and bonkers sucks at least in these (His own show is probably fine, haven't seen it), adn the other two were fine. Like the concept fine enough.

Goof Troop: REPORT TO THE GOOF TROOP. I like most of the cast.. but it's Goofy. It's the boy. This is one of the best versions of him, though Goofy Movie obviously fleshed him out considerably, this is where the groundwork was laid out. Goof Troop itself is decent.. it dosen't always land or age perfectly, Max like the boys can oscelate betweeen tolerable and punch him in the head, but it's over the top fun nature, great slapstick and kicking theme song help. It's jus ta lot of fun. Budaopbobadowop YEAH

[honoredsage]

Replaced

Writing this on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Sunday night since we’re planning (note: planning) to record an overdue podcast episode later.

Another busy and stressful week at work.

I guess this week’s a little bit better than last week though, work was still busy, but these last few days, a bulk of our work was directly related to our division and not just for the event we’re preparing for December.

Also really helps I have awesome officemates.

Also the first full week of living with my new roommate. No problems so far. We haven’t had any conflict of schedules of using the bathroom so far. Since his mom was also demanding that the room be airconditioned, my other roomie is now sleeping with his door open since the AC is in there. He’s a loud snorer so I need to get used to his snoring.

Also bought a new wired earphones since my current one’s right earpiece is not producing any sound anymore. RIP. That lasted for more than three years. Hope this one lasts too.

Got to play Tekken with TJ a while ago. I did a lot better than him but I think it’s just him getting back to the game and me using a cheese character.

As expected, Canada and USA will have their matchup later at the FIBA World Cup. Unexpectedly, they’ll be fighting for bronze as both countries have been upset by Serbia and Germany, respectively. Anything is possible indeed sometimes.

Still dreading work but at least I’ll get to meet Marianne again this weekend.

[xchildofdestiny]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ 〔 Headcanon for @teslagravity 〕

OOC: I always had the thought, the belief, the feeling (or whatever you want to call it) that Lars was close to Jin and the only one of the Mishimas (we know Jin wouldn't consider himself a Mishima, but, you know...) that he really liked. And no, I'm not talking about the moments before the preparations for the war just before the Sixth Tournament, but in the time of the events before the Third Tournament.

With Jin having come of age, he would begin working as an assistant in the Mishima Zaibatsu; time in which Lars in turn stood out as a young officer of the Tekken Force.

Lars always had a good eye, was always intelligent and knew the details that involved Heihachi's actions with his private army, that this benefactor image was only a masquerade to cover his misdeeds. But Alexandersson sensed that the young Kazama was different from the old man, as it would not be so difficult for someone like Lars to find out and come up with the right information: the history of Heihachi and Kazuya in the previous two tournaments, his conclusion that Ogre killed Jun (not that Jin was open and looking to vent just like that, or that absolutely all Tekken Force missions are on record, but it doesn't take a genius to conclude that the monster the private army woke up on that excavation was the same that had been wreaking havoc for years, killing and "consuming" fighters around the world).

Also, Jin was lonely and aloof, but docile and kind, so several times he went to train with Lars, Tougou and some other members of the Tekken Force (this also helped to keep Jin away from Heihachi). Lars sensed that Jin had potential, and that with proper training, he could go further than the old Mishima and improve things.

When the events of the end of the Third Tournament happened and Jin disappeared, Lars couldn't do much to find him and help him, since it meant exposing himself too much and the still leader Heihachi would not look kindly on it. Time passed, and despite not having approached Jin during the Fourth and Fifth Tournaments (don't ask me how with a possessed Jinpachi in charge of the Zaibatsu then), since he was a more "different" Jin than the young man he once met, he preferred to keep an eye on him from a distance anyway.

Jin wins the Fifth Tournament and takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu, but his plans were different from what Lars felt Jin could do. Alexandersson took this betrayal of the values he believed the young Kazama held very personally; for he would never have imagined that the boy who despised his lineage was becoming a corrupt tyrant like his predecessors.

Even if he really appreciated him too, Jin knew that Lars would not support him in the war, since he knew of Lars' strong righteous personality. Alexandersson tried to reason with Kazama, but he was too intent on burning the world, a reason Lars never understood… until everything was revealed: the "relation" (?) of blood curse, Azazel and the "salvation" of the world.

Lars believed Jin another enemy after feeling betrayed, but… he later understood that possibly Jin was not the best, but perhaps the least worse than he could still redeem himself and make things right in the end. Because while Lars always had the bravery, strength, and determination to bring justice with Yggdrasil… he couldn't do much if he was up against Devils. Much to his chagrin, Lars knew that another Devil was needed to finish him off.

"He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you…"

(Note: I don't know wtf did I write or if it makes any sense, but I hope it works as a headcanon. 😅)

Interaction post: Headcanons

OOC: So, long time since I don't do this… at least I never did it on Tumblr, but as I want to give an opportunity to this account, I will (try to) do it.

♥️ this post for a headcanon between our muses.

RULES:

Tekken muses only, for now.

Doesn't matter if we're not mutuals, yet is a plus if we are.

Reblog for exposure will make you gain my eternal appreciation.

Lenght may vary, yet I hope to write extended and detailed depending on what I could think regarding said headcanon(s).

Thank you!

[lesserfandomappreciation]

Someone inquired about Tekken imagines, so I’ve been watching the cutscenes. I’m still not got up but here are my notes so far:

Heihachi has issues

Kazuya has issues.

Jin has issues.

3 generations of family need severe therapy.

There are apparently several people with cat masks who roar and are somehow understood. They have a soap opera “my twin brother” moment. 

You can play as a Panda. 

You can play as a Bear.

You have several options to play as a high-school age girl who goes around kicking ass, it just depends on which variant you want.

Bob.

Paul. 

Silver-haired man is neat. 

Several characters are down to get into world tournaments for cash while there is a literal war for world domination going on. 

Nina and what’s her face could also stand to go to family counseling. 

Miguel owns my entire heart as the only Spaniard character in a Japanese videogame that has an actual Castilian accent.

Also, Miguel could get it. 

There is a Sumo wrestler. 

Apparently??? There’s demon genes? And Jin started a war to fight a devil when he could of??? TOLD THE REST OF THE WORLD AND MAYBE COORDINATE THIS CRAP SO THAT THEY CAUSE CHAOS WITHOUT KILLING AND CONQUERING COUNTRIES?! What is this plot?

The less I say about the Russian-esque character the better. 

Reforestation rocks, Lara Croft with glasses said so. 

Eddy deserves way better writing than what he got.

I will update in the future, but for now... wow this is a lot to process. 

[vinnival]

If you're still doing these, I'd love a Madness Combat Match up? (If not please ignore thiS your writing is just too good 😭💞)

So I'm fairly short I guess, 5'3 I think?? I have ADHD (diagnosed) and I don't really do much but play games and mess with my phone. I'm Pansexual and I have short (ish) brown hair and brown eyes! I might use technology a lot but honestly I know absolutely nothing about technology outside of like, phones or something. You need me to code something?? Girl HOW. I also tend to be pretty loud around people I'm comfortable with, but if I'm not I'm pretty quiet and reserved. However, if you have a similar interest to me, I'll be all over that and use it as an outlet to get close to you. Also I'm a fairly picky eater, I have a hard time eating fruits or vegetables, although I've been trying to eat healthier despite thaT. I try to be nice to everyone and I have a hard time handling when people are upset, though the most I can do is say "it's going to be okay" because people tend to forget that things do in fact get better. I hope that this was ok aaAA

OH HONEY THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I ADORE YOU OMGOMG I will give you this brownie and you will accept my love deal? TOO LATE YOURE DOING IT

I love when people compliment my work I hhrbehehrhddhrje💞💞💞 enjoy it love!

You got a match! You're matched with...

Auditor!

<3

You're definitely the "childhood friend" scenario

When you found out your friend from like 2nd grade up to 10th was now the leader of what's basically a mafia in post-apocalyptic Nevada...?

You HAD to go visit him

And WOW when you got there you were scared out of your wits

Grunts everywhere with their guns trained on you

Ten mins later a familiar void-black figure stepped into your periphreals

He had to do a double take once he recognized you

"May I ask... What are you doing here?"

"Well... I heard noise that you apparently started a mafia, and wanted to come check on you," you were talking really quietly, but Audi was used to most of your talking habits already :,]

He brought you inside ofc to catch up

"You haven't grown a bit since I last saw you"

"At least I'm not a forever void-like being"

"...Cliche."

You explained everything thats happened to you, how the hellhole in Nevada affected you and your family

You know, just regular tuesday talk

You were pleased to know he still secretly enjoyed video games

You two then passionately talked about every game you both have played since you two split

The grunts and agency members love you ngl

You always help out around the facility, talking with the MAGs or the regulars

You're very respectful and they all appreciate you for that

Everyone sees the chemistry between you and Auditor too

They even began calling you "special boss" or "miss boss" or even "side boss"

Auditor deifnitely makes you eat healthy

He just wants you to be as nutritionally set as possible

He also knows you took an interest in robotics in HS and managed to gather some books in case you ever felt just a tad curious about it

You were very grateful for that

If you ever have an ADHD overload Audi immediately picks up on it, and ushers you to a safe room to calm down, maybe relax for a bit

He's very punctual and organized, so he almost never forgets anything

So he's basically become your "reminders" app

He was 100% willing to

No matter how much you felt weird about it

Of course he asked you to stay at the facility with him

"Nevada is very dangerous nowadays, especially with Wimbleton running amok. Stay here."

That was not a request, more of a demand

You simply accepted

You guys were chatting lightly while playing Tekken one day

You managed to knock Audi out, and he approved of how you did so with smart, new tactics you came up with in the spot

He set his controller aside, and stood up, looking serious

You noticed it right away, "You okay?"

He nodded silently, and left the room, only to return a couple minutes later

"Around 8 years. We've known each other for 8 years, and before we parted ways I wanted to ask this of you, but I was never able to."

You got a sneaky suspicion of what he was getting at, and your cheeks grew warmer every passing second, and then you noticed his arm was behind his back

"Ever since then, I've been filled with regret. I eventually pushed you to the back of my mind. But, now that you're here, I couldn't wait any longer..."

He pulled his arm from behind his back, and a beautiful bouquet of black Hawaiian Hibiscus waited in his hand

"I... I really like you. I love you. Would you do me the honor of dating me?"

you turned into a puddle

obviously you said yes

the grunts call you "royal highness"

wonder who told them to do that... 🤔

Heoeheei i hope you liked this <33 you gave me auditor stan kind of vibes and he would really appreciate your respectful, quiet air

[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach  -Name Games

I did Rose’s sword because it’s super cool and elaborate, but I figure I can’t leave the other Visored out to dry, even if most of them don’t have a lot going on with their zanpakutou.

In general I tried to go over the Visored’s personal names already a while back.  (I actually feel like I did a disservice by trying to cram them all into one, and looking back on it it was a sloppy assessment, but oh well...) And I’ve covered Shinji’s Sakanade in that old post and Hiyori’s KubikiriOrochi recently...  Mashiro and Hacchi never even released their swords... So, that really only leaves Love, Kensei, and Risa...

In Kensei’s case it couldn’t be more straight forward Tachikaze(断地風) is written as  断:”Sever” 地:”Ground” 風:”Wind,” and Viz rightly translates it as “Earth-Severing wind.’   The release call, Futtobase(吹っ飛ばせ) means to “Blow off” as in “to Blow on + to Scatter,” Viz called this “Blast away” which is a little off base, but has a certain double play that I’m actually super surprised they caught,  because Futtobase(ふっとばせ) and Buttobase(ぶっとばせ) are super close and Buttobase(打っ飛ばせ) is “to send flying” or “to knock down/off (their) feet” which is in line with Kensei’s brawler delinquent demeanor.  But this way “Blast off” sounds both like wind scattering something like dust, as well as a blast knocking someone off their feet.

So, the name can be taken pretty literally, but as far as references that Kubo might have been making; Tachikaze was a class of naval Destroyer in operation during the 1970s (Vietnam War), as well as the name of a specific Minekaze class Destroyer operating the 1930s(Sino-Japanese war).  In general Destroyers are typically fast moving and used as escort ships for larger, slower ships as part of a convoy.  In the case of these ships, and in the case of other media that have used the name, typically Tachikaze(太刀風) is actually written  太: “thick” 刀:”Sword” 風:”Wind,” where Tachi(太刀) is also a specific type of Japanese sword.  The name evokes a great cutting wind like a gale or a hurricane.

I think, if anything, the name might be a nod the 1970s Destroyer class ship, because of Kensei’s initial outfit having a vaguely modern miltiary style about it: Combat boots, tactical cargo pants, short cropped hair, and his sword even having a rubber grip and finger loop like a combat knife rather than any kind of traditional Japanese weapon --even though he later swerved more toward a bosozoku gimmick.  He also has a move identified in the UNMASKED databook as Bakudan(爆弾突き),  爆弾:”Bomb” 突き:”Thrust” which has a bit of a military weaponry vibe.

I also tie it to the Vietnam war in particular because in general the Visored all had specific outdated styles of dress when first introduced, which seemed super deliberate on Kubo’s part but never really got elaborated on.

Shinji’s Brit mod look, Kensei’s Vietnam War fatigues, Mashiro’s Himitsu Goranger tights, and Rose’s shoujo bishonen look all tie them to the 1970s. I’m not super sure about Hacchi’s look... He almost looks like a host?  A tacky lounge singer?? a bad prom tux???  And Risa’s sailor-fuku is kind of broadly attributable to anywhere from the 1920s to modern day. (although sailor-fuku as school uniforms have seen substantial decline as school uniforms since the open sexual fetishization of them in the 1980s.)  Also both Love and Hiyori just have a kind of slacker/mountain hick sweatsuit/tracksuit aesthetics, which aren’t exactly era specific...  Although if we assume Love’s afro is actually a punch perm that was very much a 70s-80s trend.

Anyway... that was a big tangent, but the point was that maybe Kensei’s sword is a reference to a Vietnam War destroyer ship because of the 1970s.  Kensei’s bankai adds Tekken(鐡拳) to the name, and just like the videogame series it means “Iron Fist.”  There’s really not a lot to that one.

Love’s sword is a simple yet weird one.  The name Tengumaru(天狗丸) is just Tengu(天狗) and the suffix -maru(丸) which really just serves the function of making it a name.  I would imagine the Tengu is a pretty well recognized bit of Japanese mythology, even outside of Japan by now.  There’s a neat history to them and how they got their name, and the way they look in art, and their shifting role in folk lore and mythology from antagonistic bringers of war to benevolent, if still dangerous, protectors of the mountains and nature, as well as their association with the Japanese religion of Shugendo in particular...  But none of that seems to be referenced here.  In fact there doesn’t appear to be any actual reference to the Tengu at work at all....

Love’s mask is a pretty stock and standard Oni or devil mask, and the giant iron bludgeon weapon is a stylized kanabou(金棒) which is also associated with oni imagery, but not Tengu.  If anything, the general shape and size of his giant club might be a play on the shape of a humanoid Tengu’s iconic long nose, while the long nosed Tengu’s red face might be the influence for the fire powers, but the Tengu itself doesn’t have any particularly strong direct associations with fire...  and moreover neither the tengu nor the oni seem to have anything to do with Love’s whole “love” theme in his name.

His release call is uchikudake(打ち砕け) which is just a pretty straight forward action for an iron club, “Crush.”  He uses a technique called Hifuki no Kozuchi(火吹の小槌): “Little-Mallet/Gavel of Fire-Breathing” but I feel like the “Little Mallet” bit is a reference to the Uchide-no-Kozuchi(打ち出の小槌).  In the Issun-boshi myth, where the little hero retrieves it from an oni he defeats; the magic hammer allows him to grow to regular human size.  Similarly in the myth of Momotaro, the hero obtains the mallet from the oni-island.  I only get this impression because if it’s not a reference, then it feels really weird to call a massive club “little-hammer“ as if that were a literal description.

On second thought, I forgot that tengu nose is pretty commonly used as phallic image, so it’s entirely possible that that’s the link to the “Love” theme.

Lisa’s is a real weird one though...  Her shikai is called Hagurotonbo(鉄漿蜻蛉), which is the name of the Calopteryx atrata damselfly.  And I guess the generally bodyshape of a dragonfly could be seen as reflected in the shikai being a polearm, but that feels kind of weak...  The specific kanji used here for Haguro(鉄漿) means “Iron Drink” and refers to Haguro(歯黒) “Tooth-Blackening” which was a kind of fashion trend in Japan prior the the Meiji restoration, primarily among married women of some courtly status, although it did eventually spread into general public style as well.  The "Tooth”+”Black” writing is fairly obvious, but the “Iron”+”Drink” form refers to the fact that the tooth dying concoction included dissolved iron powder.

So in Lisa’s case it’s kind of weird...  Is it just a reference to the species of black-winged damselfly?  Is it some kind of evocation of the old fashion of a married noble woman?  Her shikai is a strange blade shape that could be either an exaggeratedly broad yari spear, or some variation the Chinese Monk’s spade.  And her mask is a diamond with a cross slit that doesn’t appear to be related to the shikai form or name at all...(if anything it just kind of randomly looks like the head piece of the Zeon mobile suit, Gyan)  her release call is tsubuse(潰せ):”to crush/flatten,” which also doesn’t seem related to anything other than paddling something with the broad end of her spear.

In fact if there’s anything that actually seems to suggest a real theme it’s the random technique she has named Nijuuichijou Tonbokudari (二十一条蜻蛉下り): “21 Clauses Dargonfly Descent,” which she technically used fighting Gerard Valkyrie, but we barely really saw.  It looks like a super specific direct reference to Taika Nijuuikkajou Youkyuu(対華21ヶ条要求): generally known in English as “The 21 Demands” referring to the terms of surrender Japan made of China in their conquest of Manchuria during World War 1.  The demands were ultimately negotiated down to more favorable terms for China, minimizing Japanese expansionist gains, but the signing resulted in massive distrust between Japan and America, Japan and Britain, and of course Japan and China.

But all together these elements don’t seem to have any kind of cohesive theme behind them all...

Anyway, that’s the Visored swords, it’s really weird to think that Kubo basically had to come up with all of these names and designs at basically the same time yet the level of thought and investment in them seems to be all over the place.

[havetheavengersdoneanythingwrong]

An Interlude — The Unknown Expanse

A fearful baker lost his calendar yesterday, and a month passed—

And ever since that year went by, the coward has lost sight of everything but the false safety of ‘home.’

That decade passed without word, without sound, as the baker faded away from the world —

—until, that second later, a message from ‘someone.’

—

I lost my calendar yesterday.

Last April.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. Seconds, maybe, or hours. It could be days.

A light shines underneath the door, for a moment, and flickers off. It illuminates hardwood floor — its texture worn down over months of use, light barely showcasing whatever cracks remained after all that pacing, just before vanishing as quick as it came.

It could’ve been anyone — my parents, perhaps, or someone else entirely — but it felt the same.

It all felt the same. A grip surrounding my neck, that forced the breath out of me, its spare hand rearranging my stomach to tie itself into hundreds of knots.

Dread, wasn’t it? That was its name. That horribly, sputtering feeling, that bit into your heart and ground its teeth relentlessly until all you could think of was passing out to halt the pain.

Darkness surrounded my vision — the tunnel vision that built up, certainly, and the darkness of the place I called ‘home.’

In the shimmer of my light, someone could easily see a target of burglary — someone to steal from �� through a window that wasn’t boarded up from the inside just yet.

Compared to that, the endless darkness surrounding me was preferential, if not optimal. The fear of possible insects, of beings that scuttled in the night, was nothing compared to it.

‘Aah, wouldn’t it be nice, if...’

Even in my mind, I cut myself off thinking of a better idea.

Slipping in and out of consciousness endlessly — in this darkness, time was impossible to understand. ‘Sleep’ and ‘awake’ melded into one whole, two lovers apart by circumstances now waltzing together in the haze. Only ever seeing daylight in the times I ate, it was all too easy to mistake reality for fiction, and fiction for reality.

‘...It’s better like this, isn’t it?’

Aah, for all I knew, it was reality that this was all there was — that thieves and criminals existed only in my head, and that the world outside was only an illusion made to hurt me.

Was that reality?

Was that truly reality?

...Or had my eyes closed again?

—

I was 14.

14, 13, 10, 15–

The first incident is impossible to recall in the soup of ‘happenings.’

Twenty dollars — a little dollar bill I held close to my chest, moving slowly through the Toronto streets that lay just outside my home.

The bakery, ‘Roland’s Pastries,’ lay just a stone’s toss away — a half hour walk from our home. My father’s business, one he pridefully named off his last name, and the focus of the pastime we enjoyed more than anything else.

More than even the base jumping my father enjoyed, or the parkour stunts my mother taught to a generation of gymnasts —

Was a simple pastry, made delicately and kindly, warm to the touch, to sweeten even the sourest of days.

To call it my dream to run that bakery one day would be putting it lightly. I could still remember the shimmering gaze I always directed at its structure, the way my parents joined their staff to produce the best quality they could manage. I could still remember the first loaf of bread I helped make — even though it rose poorly, and didn’t taste the best, the gleaming smiles of my family stayed with me.

Yes — today was the day I was going to buy my own baking materials. Twenty dollars wasn’t much, but I wanted to contribute something to the next loaf of cinnamon bread we made.

A man brushed past me, however.

They wore a dark green rain jacket, and a grey shirt. Black jeans, too — they were impossible to miss.

Their face was a blur — a mismatched cloud of skin-shaped vapour in my mind, only a single bloodshot eye remaining in my mind.

It stared daggers into my skull, but I hadn’t noticed.

I was going to get some cinnamon. Maybe flour.

I was going to help. I was going to make cinnamon loaf.

I

I was going to

I was

I couldn’t make the

The hand reached out , and the gaze of the ‘person’ said it all -

Their hand remained in their pocket, but the outline of a <hand/dagger/gun>

Their hand reached to mine, and their <hand/dagger/breath>

The weight was gone in a moment, but the front door opened, and it

—

Aah,

So that was fictional.

Certainly, it were my dreams — separated from reality only by the fact that ‘nothing’ lay instead of ‘something’ before my eyes.

Darkness — the roots of unknown, of fear — felt comforting, compared to that.

The light outside my door was turned off. Shuffling could still be heard, though — and a gentle knock at my door.

“...It’ll be your birthday soon, son. If you want to celebrate... Just let me know, alright?”

...A calm, older male voice. My father.

Aah, how it was so pleasant to hear — how someone existed who could be that kind.

It must’ve been May, then —

...

“...I’ll think about it... Thank you, pops. Really.”

“Of course. Just... Let me know what you want, okay?”

...

Aah, how it almost felt like those older times —

—

...16.

I can still remember the first muzzle I stared down.

I was working the cashier booth at our bakery. Handling money, the works.

“Just smile and do whatever the customer says,” said my father. “If they cause any trouble, just call me and I’ll be here.”

He’d pat me on the back and send me on my way, with a list of basic instructions. Just the way I liked it — after all, words in general were in one ear and out the other when it came to me. Didn’t stop my mother from trying to speak a novel to me, but I could always rely on my pops to write down some of what to do.

Of course, those days usually went well — kind customers, kids with the cutest goshdarn smiles, and admittedly a fair few free cinnamon buns given to people who needed a pick-me-up.

I remember, one day —

“He’s been too slow lately. You need to punish him a bit, or he’s just going to stagnate like this.”

“He’s doing just fine for his age. He’s taking a load off our shoulders, handling customers, so I think he’s doing well.”

“You need to teach him a better work ethic.”

“He’s doing fine enough as is.”

I did have my slow days — where, suddenly, counting dollars didn’t mesh with my mind. Where in a matter of moments, I lost my desire to keep working, and I was fighting my mind to keep moving.

And this, of course, was one such day — the line was small, albeit, but I couldn’t deny I was a bit slow on the draw.

I remember counting out around forty dollars — around four of which were due in change.

Just enough time for—

...

...I was handed a note with the change. I open it, not thinking much of it-

“Empty the register, and say nothing, and nobody will get hurt.”

A teenager at the register of a bakery. The perfect target for a silent robbery.

Nobody was behind me — nobody could see his actions. Least of all the empty line behind this man, holding no witnesses in sight.

My family, arguing in the back, had no idea of what lay beyond that thin wall.

Just me — and the muzzle of a pistol.

It wasn’t possible to forget what the inside of a gun looked like.

A dark, empty void — reflecting what it could do to me, in an instant, if my hands now stopped.

The blur of repressed memory brought the scene into a haze —

—But hours after its completion, as that ‘me’ lay in horror, sobbing, I couldn’t help but listen —

“He’s misplaced most of our earnings for today! I told you that you had to discipline him better!”

—Aah,

They hadn’t known, had they?

—

Something — to nothing.

Faint, hazy memories dissolved like a tablet into water, as I felt something on my face.

I couldn’t see it, nor understand it in full — it were there, however, placed as if to irritate me specifically.

...I’d awoken in a cold sweat. Perhaps from the chilled air surrounding me, and the weak blanket I forgot to sleep under, I found my legs quivering when I tried to stand in the darkness — groping and feeling the air around me, stumbling into my bathroom to take a sip of water from the tap.

Even this darkness, this state of mind as if I hit the supercritical point of reality and dreams, felt comforting —

—Even the horrible memories of what once was could be dismissed as dreams, even the fear that came from living like this, and the fear of abandoning everything.

Here, reality was what you made of it — what you chose.

Lapping at the lukewarm tap water, barely reaching it, unable to see it save for the small reflections in the surface of the water itself, I heard a buzz on a nearby device.

My phone — charging there, waiting for something that would never come, began to vibrate.

“...What..?”

Unlocking my smartphone, I was met with a familiar image as my home screen —

—a young ‘me,’ eyes shining with delight, holding a loaf of cinnamon bread with utter care while grinning in pride.

“The only one who could take that was...”

...My phone began to ring.

A phone number I didn’t know — only one number off from mine, I realized. Out of curiosity, or perhaps loneliness, I placed my finger on the ‘accept’ button.

“Hey! I don’t know who you are, but we’re textdoor neighbours! Thought I’d say hello.”

...

...

“...Who are you..?”

“Uh, Ritsuka. Ritsuka Fujimaru. If it helps, I was the person who bingeplayed tekken and ate curdled yoghurt for superchats.”

“...”

...Had that much changed? How long had it been..?

“...Tell me more.”

—Somehow, it felt wrong to continue.

As if, by saying those three words, I was changing something that should have never been changed.

And yet — as my finger hovered over the button to hang up, the words fell out of my mouth instead.

Within the fear that lay in revealing who I was to a stranger —

—somehow, I felt as if this person was worth meeting.

Somehow, I felt as if something would change if I said something.

Something better would happen —

—surely, better than this.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen X Wants to Like Guilty Gear Part 1: Allen X Does Not Like Guilty Gear

Folks, I tried. I really tried. For the last few years I’ve tried to like Guilty Gear. I’ve honestly been playing bits of this series since around the time Accent Core was on the PS3 store. I’ve really tried. I’ve played Accent Core Plus R, Xrd, Revelator and Rev 2, and I’ve been trying my damn hardest to like this series because I can see all the cool and fun stuff in it. I can see the cool grungy-rock meets 90s anime aesthetic. I can see how insane and cool Roman Cancel combos are. I can hear all the awesome music in the soundtracks. And I see all the blood, sweat, and tears poured into this series to make it the coolest hard-rock fighting game it wants to be and I really want to like it.

But I don’t... God, it’s Samurai Shodown all over again.

I just can’t get into this series, man. Something, some things about it keep me from fully enjoying it. Mostly some petty things that just add up and tumble the pile over, but things nonetheless. 

And... I wanted to talk about that a little. 

I wanted to just let out all my love and misgivings for the Guilty Gear in hopes of finally purging all the negative from my being, or at least write it out in a constructive manner so I can lay all my transgressions bare and maybe... possibly... actually want to purchase and play Strive on launch day.

But first, as usual, a synopsis. 

The Guilty Gear series is a fighting game developed by Arc System Works, helmed and created by Daisuke Ishiwatari, who I know as the composer of the Blazblue soundtrack, but has quite the large track record that I won’t go into here. Guilty Gear as a story focuses on the lone bounty hunter Sol Badguy, a human experiment known as a Gear, half-human, half monstrous being of science and magic. The storyline of each game tends to focus on Sol finding the humanity in his would-be marks as well as confronting the still-lingering humanity in himself as he copes with both his self-loathing and loathing the for one who made him this way, a scientist simply call That Man, or Asuka as the most recent games have shown us. The storyline itself is long and complicated but as of Strive it seems the final battle between Sol and That Man is finally at hand and the battlefield will be the United States.

Gameplay-wise, Guilty Gear is a fast-paced, combo-centric series that uses chaining attacks that can cancel into special and super moves, along with the unique Roman Cancels, which slow down time and leave your opponent open for more punishment mid-combo. Think the Chain Shift in Under Night with a bit more hangtime if you want a comparison, or the Rapid Cancel of the Blazblue series with a slowdown effect and more flash. 

And with the basics out of the way let’s talk about the specifics.

The Good Things

Of course, that isn’t to say I hate this game series. There’s a lot I like and enjoy about the Guilty Gear series that I’ll go into greater detail in a later essay, but for now I’ll give a brief mention of all the things I enjoy about it.

The Music

I was introduced to Daisuke Ishiwatari’s music through Blazblue, and while I love Blazblue music to this day I’ll also admit that it sounds very... video game-y. It doesn’t sound like something that could be listened to from anything other than a game. But Guilty Gear music sounds like actual music. I don’t mean that in an insulting way toward Blazblue, but... man does Pride and Glory sound like something you’d listen to while driving your pickup truck on the highway. Damn, does Get Down to Business sound like something an actual rock concert would play. And the Xrd soundtracks sound so good man. One Dawn, Enough is Enough, Starry Sky, Lily of Steel, they all sound so damn good. And as cheesy and over-the-top as they sound I love the LA and NY Vocals of this series. Personal favorites are Keep Yourself Alive II, Fuuga, and Suck a Sage. 

The Aesthetic

If there was one thing I didn’t really like about Blazblue it was a lot of characters, even the ones I mained, had an aesthetic I just couldn’t latch onto. A weird mix of fantasy, eastern, and early-2000s action anime that just didn’t click with me save for Hibiki Kohaku. Guilty Gear is a lot more my speed with a more rugged look to their characters. Something about a lot these characters just have that good mix of grunge and 90s fashion I love. Some of my favorites being Answer, Ramlethal, and Jam.

Tension

While there’s a lot about Guilty Gear’s mechanics I find unappealing and convoluted I love how building and using meter works in this series, specific in Accent Core Plus R. Dust being a sort of EX button works really well in this game since I personally feel like Dust is kind of under-used a lot of the time save for the universal sweep.  This point probably won’t get an entire essay covering it, but I did at least want to give it a shoutout.

Setting

This point will be getting its own essay, but to keep things short and simple I like the setting of Guilty Gear, medieval-esque magitech with a dash a modern-world flavor just hits with real well with me. Like a nice mix of Under Night and Tales of Symphonia.

And that’s it for the good stuff, at least the good stuff I can make into later essays. Now let’s talk about...

The Conflicting Things

Really, my issues with Guilty Gear are similar to Samurai Shodown and Granblue Fantasy Versus, where I love those game aesthetically, but actually playing them is another matter. However, unlike those two games my issues are almost the opposite. Where Samsho and GBVS had a slower and more fundamentals approach that didn’t appeal to my cocaine-esque addiction to combo chains, special cancels and air-dashing, Guilty Gear is almost too fast for my taste, or at least a different kind of fast. This is something very hard to explain. If you've read my initial thoughts on Crystar then you have a good idea about what I mean. This is something very hard to explain to people that haven’t played the game and is likely more a technical part of Guilty Gear’s mechanics that I can explain with an real sophistication aside from saying ‘this game feels weird,’ but... I’m gonna’ try.

The Button Layout

Alright, this is something I can actually explain. I’m... not a fan of 5-button fighters. Really, anything more than 4 buttons is hard for me to grasp. This is mostly due to the fact that I use a standard dualshock controller when playing fighting games. I frankly don’t have money for an arcade stick nor the patience to figure our how to work with one, so I’m stuck with the PS4 controller. For games like Blazblue, Granblue, and even stuff like Tekken and Dead or Alive this works out fine, as even when those games have a fifth or six button they usually aren’t heavily involved in combos or can be supplemented by other means. But games like Street Fighter, Skullgirls, and Guilty Gear the fifth and sixth button are used very liberally. Granted, Dust isn’t used as often as heavy punch, but it’s still a key button used for sweeps and air combos, turning my hands into pretzels as a results. 

I don’t you dare tell me to just get use to it or get good. I’m a Carl main. I’m used multi-tasking with my hands.

...

...

...

Dammit, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean. 

Anyway, a smaller issue I have is just the way Punch, Kick, Slash, and Heavy Slash are mapped both on the controller and on the display screen. It just doesn’t mesh well with me where they’re mapped, and switching the button layout honestly makes it worse because the display proper doesn’t adjust for where I map the buttons.

Roman Cancels

Roman Cancels are just a tool I don’t think I’ll ever find a good use for, or at least something that would take me a long time to use optimally. Like I said before, they’re basically Chain Shift with more hangtime, but it feels like the Rapid Cancel in the sense that I have to move very quickly after activating or I outright lose the combo, and unlike Chain Shift and Rapid Cancel where I can just ignore the mechanic, keep the meter, and focus on small, easy combos with good defense, Roman Cancels feel somewhat needed to do decent damage in this game. Or at least the trial mode really thinks so.

From what I’ve seen of Strive’s mechanics I think Roman Cancels will be a little easier for me to conceptualize and use, but... I dunno’, I’m not feeling too confident on that. 

I do recognize that this issue is a me problem, but it’s a probably I have nonetheless.

The Look

Specifically on Xrd, something about the 2.5D makes certain movements a little hard to read and judge. This isn’t something I can really describe that well, but something about that game specifically feels weird. Like the cell-shaded, 3D contrasts a little with the feel of motion in that game. I have a similar issue with the recent Street Fighter games as well. Again, it’s nothing concrete and it’s honestly indescribable for someone of my knowledge on the subject, but... something feels awkward when I’m playing this game in a serious light.

The Fandom

This has nothing to do with the game, but tends to create cracks in me when I play this game. As a guy that got into Arc System Works games via Blazblue Calamity Trigger, seeing a lot of the Guilty Gear be demeaning and insulting toward the Blazblue Community has always rubbed me the wrong way and I have a difficult time getting into this series in a more serious way because of it. I know this is likely a vocal minority, I know this isn’t every Guilty Gear fan, but it feels like a vocal side of Guilty Gear community keeps thinking that Guilty Gear is some sort of antithesis to anime air-dashers like Blazblue, as if the grungy rock aesthetic cancels out the anime aesthetic of Blazblue. This has always annoyed me, but it tends to crop up everytime someone brings up Guilty Gear designs versus Blazblue designs and while I find the idea of discussing and comparing the two interesting it always seems to devolve into insulting Blazblue.

Though to give a short version of my opinion this: I don’t want to hear shit about Blazblue waifus when Baiken mains don’t even play Baiken. And I especially don’t want to hear shit about Blazblue’s pandering fanservice when Dizzy, Ram, and Elphelt exist.

About Strive

I think that covers the main things keeping me from liking Guilty Gear, or at least playing Guilty Gear. So I want to talk about Strive, the next game coming up. This will also be something that will be expanded on in a later essay, but for now I’ll say I’m cautiously excited about Strive coming out and I look forward to at least giving it a shot. Though to give some rapid-fire bullet points on the matter... 

Overall, I think Strive looks great, the presentations is fantastic and I love a lot of the new designs for the characters, though I hear that opinion is actually contentious in the fandom.

I heard that Strive is gonna’ have a dub again. I’m... curious, but I’ll save my opinions for a different essay. Long story short, if they get a new director or the old director puts more care into the performances I’ll be happy. I did overall like Xrd’s original dub barring a few performances.

So far everything about Strive looks cool, but it’s still Guilty Gear, so... debating on if I wanna’ get that day 1. Especially since I still only have a base PS4. I’ve no interest in getting the new hotness for at least another year and gamers are self-centered demons that mock those using lesser hardware. That isn’t a Guilty Gear thing, it’s just a gamer thing.

For those wondering, if I pick of this game I’ll probably main Chipp, Ram, and maybe Giovanna.

I have mixed feelings about the soundtrack. Save for Smell of the Game the lyrics in the themes I’ve hard are a mix of okay to... not okay. Hope they have versions without the lyrics similar to Raven in Rev 2.

And I think that’s everything. Next... probably another essay about Arknights.

[sharkuccino]

This might be a long, uncoordinated post, but that's because I want to get all my thoughts out. I want to talk about age of calamity. Spoilers for up to Chapter 5

:readmore:

If Recall was such a vital figure to the Rito, a commander!!!, why is it he's hardly remembered aside from his name 100 years later?? No records or any kind of memorabilia of him exist aside from his name, his death, and his bow?? I find that hard to believe. I suppose it was possible the information could have been lost, but if he was so vital to the rito, why not try to preserve his memory more?

And I know the game needed villains but Kohga!? Hold up does this dude have fins tucked in that skintight suit of his cause how on earth is he alive right now?? I could believe if this was a tekken situation, and the name Kohga was passed down to yiga clan leaders; however that's clearly not the case. I believe a bit of suspension of belief is necessary here, but it does have me thinking of longevity. Like we know the zora live up to and past 100 years. What about the other races?? We don't see any other evidence of long lifespans. Mass mentions his teacher, although I cannot remember right now if that teacher lived through the events or had the songs passed down.

It's kind of funny that the great fairies are playable. Did they help in the war, survive, and just hunker down in hiding until some amnesiac sap with full pockets decided to wander by?? That seems most likely. Maybe that's why the fairy fountain myth stayed with people lol

I actually only reached chapter 5 earlier this morning at two. I didn't expect the Calamity so soon. I expected another spring mission since we didn't see Zelda go to the spring of power. Man. That was Intense!!! I really felt despair when everything started turning against us. I also felt incredible bloodlust (oil lust...?) because botw trained me for this, but let's focus on the tragic, shall we? Dude my heart was pounding as I ushered Zelda to safety through the infested castle. My heart was in my throat as I watched Urbosa and Revali struggle with their blights. It brought to mind that wonderful fanart of the champions in their last moments. Chills. Last chance for big spoilers.

And then comes the non canon nonsense.

Riju and Teba. The little bot had opened a portal for them. The new champions fighting alongside the old. And you know what? I know we were kind of disappointed when we saw the robot time travel cause we were hoping for a soul-crushing, heart-wrenching tragic tale of how botw came to be, but you know what? I am sick of tragedy in the year 2020. More than that, I was FLOORED by their appearance. I thought Moz and the Fairies were the wildest characters we were going to get, but Nintendo said, no here's a little treat. And I Appreciate it. I had so much fun running through the map as Riju and then fighting the windblight by Revali and Teba's side. Not to mention the bit afterwards. It was sooo fun!!

Unfortunately my switch died after that, but I came to the realization....I'm going to get to play as Sidon!!!!!! He's going to fight alongside his precious big sister!!! I can't be upset about that! And I'm not! Give me the wacky! The wild! Let me try to fight against this grim at future! That's what I love about this non canon game. Even though destiny says we're fated to lose, we are fighting tooth and nail against that end in the name of hope! I love that. I really do.

I'll write down other thoughts as they come to me, but man am I excited to see how this progresses. I suppose I should have expected all this. It is a Hyrule Warriors game, but I didn't. It totally caught me by surprise. So final message: please don't spoil the game for anyone. Tag your spoilers carefully. Let's let everyone have their Whoa! moment :)

[popculturebuffet]

Prince of Wishful Thinking (Tom Retrospective): Tough Love or The True Monster

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Prince of Wishful Thinking, what is usually my look at the life and times of Tom Lucitor but since I NEED to cover the season 3 finale as vital part of Tom’s story, we’re taking one last look at the tragic tale of Meteora Butterfly before the finale sends these two stories hurtling together. You’d THINK this would be the last detour of this already sizeable arc.. and you’d be wrong as i’ll also be covering Kelly’s World, as I feel it’s vital for both “Curse of the Blood Moon” and “A Boy and his hard to remember title”, as it provides extra context for Marco’s anguish in the former.. and provides extra evidence for why a CERTAIN MOMENT in the latter pisses me off to no end.. seriously even when as universe dies and the only people left are Frankllin Richards and Galactus, there will still be a little note reading “Fuck how they treated Kelly” written in all caps so Galactus remembers to yell it. 

So sadly that DOES mean it’s been three entries in this retrospective in a row that either haven’t feature Tom at all or in the case of the last episode only had him in short cameos. I mean we did get his love affair for pie but we also got a creepy goblin man forcing his girlfriend and best friend to kiss each other, his best friend being WAY to eager to jump to that conclusion, and neither considering using Marco’s Scissors because the writers only remember he has those half the time in Season 3... and clearly I ddn’t either as I forgot to mention that plot hole, something @jess-the-vampire​ brought up to me. Sadly I DID forget to consult on this when we talked earlier this week , and she’s not online as I write this so I won’t have her insight for this one. 

But if you want some Tom content, i’m happy to share my crossover ship for the boy with you. I’ve been shipping him with Octavia from Helluva Boss lately.  Because of course it’s Helluva Boss, i’ve not been at all subtle with my obession with it and much like Letterkenny, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z Abriged it is a love I never plan to be subtle about. 

But I just think they compliment each other well: They have contrasting atittudes, and tastes in music, but seem like they’d share hobbies. Like taxidermy.. I could see Tom buying this... demonic combination of a badger, a skunk, a deer and my nightmares Octavia is preciously holding up.

Granted I also feel tom would both animate them with their dead souls.. and then use his new woodland friends of the dammned as a chorus to sing “Can You Picture That” from the Muppet Movie, because that’s what my mind does on a regular day. I think the contrasting attitude creates great chemstiry and it made me also realize I have a thing for ships with directly contrasting home lives.  Tom has two loving decent parents who deeply love one another and at worst simply didn’t reign in his worse behavior because it was standard for demon stuff. Octavia in contrast simply has two parents, one who DOES love her and tries his best, but his best includes calling his side piece “My big dicked blitzy” right in front of her and hiring said side piece to guard them, and her mother who clearly thinks so little of her daughter’s emotional well being she hired a cowboy to shoot her daddy dead in the middle of a large crowd. The point is I think they’d be adorable and they both badly need to be happy after being emotionally fucked over by people they care about. 

But  alas my new ship will have to wait as we marginally important things to get down too.. things that will impact both this season and the next’s endgame and utterly destroy Eclipsa and Moon’s relationship for good. Sound fun? Well if so join me under the cut won’t you?

We open in the Pidgeon Kingdom.. and things aren’t exactly great.. and by that I mean Meteora stomped a hole through it and ravaged the place and Rich demands blood.. and vengance.. and possibly blood vengance. But not Tekken Blood Vengance.. he already has like 5 copies of that on dvd. Still needs it on Blu Ray though, hook him up if you got it. 

So Moon and Eclipsa are trying to smooth this over/find out which way did she go George which way did she go, and are angrily dismissed after they try Rich’s patience, not helped by Eclipsa not being familiar with the Pidgeon Kingdom because they hadn’t slaughtered everyone who used to live there yet. Look that’s what happened, Star outright mentions in the Big Book of Spells that htey suddenly sprung up where another kingdom was and no one knows what happens. There was some bird murders up in that place.. or birdur if you will. Some birds drank some human blood. This is what Alfred Hitchock tried to warn us about with his film built on horrifying actress abuse. 

The point is with some more pidgeon-led murder stabbings on the cards our heroines are trying to find her since their attempts to convince Rich not to go on an Archer Style Rampage fell on deaf ears. 

But it’s clear from the second the two are alone both have diffrent priorties: Eclipsa desperatley wants to find the daughter she lost and talk her down from what sh’es become, help her become better and hopefuly heal from the pain she’s been in. She’s lost her husband, her kingdom and centuries. She can’t loose her baby girl too.

Moon on the other hand... clearly has no intrest in helping Meteora or stopping this peacefully. Her first thought is stopping Meteora. Her living through it is not necessary. It’s also clear her racisim isn’t REMOTELY gone depsite Buff Frog and Star’s best attempts and despite learning just how deeply and horribly Mewni’s engrained racism has hurt eclipsa and destoryed Moon’s own family history. To Moon this is just a big monster to fight.. i’ll dive into this more in a bit.

For now our heroines encounter an angry mob. This time their not here for Homer Simpson, but for Meteora as her rampages have destroyd their towns, livelehoods and given some weird guy a hat. It’s the best bit of the episode and i’m embarassed I forgot it happened. 

So with them being no help our queens back out but end up finding some actual help: Eddie! You know the guy from the episode I skipped over... River’s cousin or something like that. He dosen’t have a wiki entry, I do not know why. He’s voiced by Rhys Dharby of Flight of the Conchords Fame whose since made quite the career as a voice actor. No major roles yet that i’m aware of, but a lot of delightful minor ones like this. It’s good to see him he was one of the highlights of that show and not just because he sang this..

Eddie showed up in the Bog Beast of Boggabah and I honestly forgot he was in this episode.. but again, it’s Rhys Dharby. It’s not like suddenly finding out “Aw god dammit Pauly Shore is in this”. So Eddie agrees to help as he’s been tracknig Meteora.. and we find out something troubling: Meteora is getting BIGGER. Gradually, to the point the bog from said episode Is skipped over is drained because she DRANK IT. We also get a great exchange “I’d hate to see the size of her mother” “Actually her father more than helped with that”

Awwwww.... seriously Esme Blanco is a national treasure and has some great deliveries in this one.. and some heartbreaking ones. But before we can get to that it turns out Meteora sucked the powers out of Eddies family.. who he misses..e xcept one guy> That guy can fuck right off. Seriously Eddie is also a national treasure and I wish he’d shown up in season 4. I mean he couldn’t of HURT it. For one it’s Rhys Dharby and for another that season shot itself in the face, both feet, the groin and then the face again enough that I don’t think anything could hurt it as bad as the writers already did. 

But sadly we say farwell to Eddie as he goes out how men have since the begining of time.. deciding to poke a strange creature till it murdered him. Or took his soul out in this case, speaking of which...

Yeah while I couldn’t get Jess in time for this review, she did bring this up in the past: Meteora’s ablility to pull a 

Comes right the fuck out of nowhere with no build up and no explination for it. She DID drain personalites and according to this episode youth.. but that was with a big ole machine. It MIGHT have been intended to be one of Globgor’s powers.. but that makes zero sense, as if he COULD do that, as we saw with Toffee last season when he had that power, also out of nowhere but at least it made a touch more sense given his power was draining magical energy anyway at the time, so adding souls to that isn’t a huge stretch, but as we saw that would’ve been game over for the comission, especially since we DO see him fighting them one on three next season. If he had this power, he wouldn’t be in crystal and I think they realized that, but just tried to act as if his daugther COULDN’T do that and assumed everyone would casually forget. And I get not accounting for me writing about this years later, even I wouldn’t of thought that, but not counting on fans both young and old to latch onto a continuity error? Have you met fandoms Disney, have you? It dosen’t bring the story down entirely and I get WHY ti’s there, so she can nonlethally kill people so we’re not down most of the cast for Season 4, but it feels like an easy win button and one she barely uses despite it being eye beam activated. It should be easy enough to pull, boom, soul suck, win, rinse and repeat. It’s okay to have uber powerful tequniques but they have to have a drawback. For instance the Kaioken from DBZ. It’s a really damn cool technique that gives the user a neat red aura and amplifies poewr.. but the more you amplify the more strain it puts on your body and the more likely you’ll die, and Super later creatively explained why it hadn’t been used since Super Sayian was introduced because said form would’ve sped it up so much it’d be too much for a body to take. Here whie Meteora dosen’t use it in EVERY fight, she uses it enough that it makes no sense this isn’t just her first move for every fight she gets into, mental breakdown or not. 

That being said Meteora’s current mental state as she talks to her mother, having regressed to talking in only a few words and acting like a child, makes perfect sense. Henious already wasn’t in great mental shape to begin with, having a slow sustained breakdown since Marco overthrew her. and now on top of this she remembers her whole life has been a lie, starts to mutate into her natural state at a rapid and likely unehalthy pace, and then finds out on top of all of this Mewni is rightfully owed to her. Given she ended last episode blowing a guy up for rejecting her, it’s not a stretch that given even more power and no time to process anything, Metora would deteroate further. 

Esme and Jessica really knock this scene out of the park as Eclipsa presents Metora with her old doll Bobo and gently trying ot talk to her.. but you also get the fear Eclipsa feels as she tries to awkardly manuver around the fact her daughter is far more unhinged than she was prepared for, even threanting Eclipsa simply because Eclipsa wanted to be called mother instead of mommy. But despite this fear.. Eclipsa wants to help and Walter beautifuly captured metoera as a hulk like tragic figure:a being with low sanity and too much power desperate to be loved by the one person it cares about. And it makes it even more heartbreaking as Eclipsa explains what happened: bad people trapped her , a disfunctoinal society with a racist queen and even more racist subjects has taken hold in her absence... and it’s clear both want opposite things: Meteora wants what sh’es owed, her family back on the throne and Mewni back in her graps, but has lost herself so much to rage, anger and insanity she can’t see it’s not hers to take, while Eclipsa.. just wants her daughter back. She’d be happy just settling down with her and having a LIFE after hers was taken away. Eclipsa just wants a chance to be with what family she has left. It just HURTS to know that despite RIGHTFULLY hating the comission, despite having eveyr reason to take the crown from Moon by force and make the world better by force.. she dosen’t want that. She just wants some peace. It’s selfish... but it’s hard not to be when you havealmost nothing to hold onto. Eclipsa has lost her legacy, her husband and her crown... Meteora is all she has and all she wants and sh’ed of been happy if she just accepted that. If that was enough. 

But the real telling part, and the thing that ultimately makes this go as bad as it does.. is Moon’s reactions to all of this. Sh’es CONFUSED by Meteora having a toy as if that’s foreign to her a monster would, and she’s cleaerly livid , if restrianing it, at both Meteora’s deire for the crown and Eclipsa RIGHTFULLY calling out the state of how things are, and mildly at that. Despite seeing how much damage Mewni’s inherent racisim has done, how it lead to her living a lie, ruined Eclipss, Globgore and Metora’s lives, despite how DESPERTLY her daughter struggles to fight against it, despite seeing firsthand that Monsters can have famiies and lives... she can’t let it go. She can’t see monsters as people. SHe dosen’t see a flawed person who was turned into a metpohrical monster by years of brainwashing and abuse and is slowly unravling under the weight of her true self.. she just sees a threat to her kingdom. She dosen’t see her kingdom as racist, just as it should be. And she dosen’t see herself as stepping down like hse damn well should’ve the MOMENT she found out everything. Because at her heart Moon can’t accept the truth and clings to her racisim. 

And that my friends.. is what ultimately leads to Tragedy. Not Meteora’s unraveling mental state, not Eclipsa’s naitvite. What happens next is ENITRELY Moon’s fault. Whle Eclipsa was failing to get through to Metora, she was trying her best and might of gotten somewhere.. but Moon was already settling to attack.. and does so, making it look like Eclipsa set her own child up. 

A fight ensues, a suprisingly even one... but Eclipsa breaks it up and PROVES her way could’ve worked. In one of Esme’s best performances sshe tearfully tells her daughter she loves her.. that ALL she wants is time with her to make up for what she’s lost.. she dosen’t need a kingdom or her crown or her wand, all things she DESERVES... she just wants her daughter. She just wants to help her baby girl before she goes so far down this path of hatred and vengance she’s alreayd well trod upon there is no point to return to. 

It gets through to Meteora, makes her stop... and Moon TAKES ADANTAGE OF THAT. She then restrains metoera with a magical rock barrier and starts palpatineing her to death. It’s a horrifying moment that ultimately shows who Moon really is.. that when given the chance to let Meteora go, let her CHANGE and grow as a person and help the kingdom.. she instead tries to kill her. When she’s no longer a threat,  hasn’t seriously hurt her in their fight, and could use her power to RESTORE the damage she’s done, fix what she’s broken and help the kingdom grow and mend the bridges racisim has torn down. But all she can see is a monster, and something to destroy.. not someONE to save. 

So Eclipsa does what Moon would do if it were star about to die and saves her daughter, desperatly trying to stop mooon.. and allowing Meteora to get a clear shot and take half of moon’s soul. While Eclipsa is able to stop her from taking the full thing, Moon is left disoreinted and half alive and leaves on insticnt to parts unknown while Meteora escapes. Eclipsa is left alone, devistated and with her daughter truly lost. And the worst is truly yet to come. 

Before we get into final thoughts i’d like to talk about how this scene impacts Moon’s betryal later. To me having rewatched this scene.. it only makes it work MORE making it clear Moon simply can’t fahtom racial equality and that she can’t fahtom that eclipsa had very good reason for doing what she did ... to me it comes off as her using Eclipsa betryaing her as a very flimsy justifcation to not validate her rule and to first retire and then try a coup. That “Well she “BETRAYED” me so i’m fine. “ But in truth... she betrayed Eclipsa first. She attacked her daughter TWICE when Eclipsa was close to getting through to her Her reasons are flimsy.. because i’ts not ABOUT eclipsa, but what eclipsa represents: equality with a race Moon dosen’t see as people. It’s about Moon’s racisim coloring everything tills h’es truly blinded and should have lost everything She didn’t because the ending is a fucking disgrace, but we might get to that at some point, the point here is for all that disgrace’s faults... it did get it right here, and Moon was always portrayed as being unable to let go of her racisim no matter what it cost her or how much her daughter despteratly tried to change her. Trust me as someone whose Dad used to argue that gay marriage meant he should be able to marry his cat, and who still argues against trans people using the bathroom of their choice, I get trying desperatley to change someone who don’t wanna. “Sigh”. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is truly excellent. The writing is top notch as is the voice acting for all involved and the climax isa true, well led up to tragedy. The animation is also on point, with the characters emotions on perfect display. This is an episode I now realize is one of the series best and worth ar ewatch if you haven’ts een it. Truly amazing stuff that gets me pumped for the finale.. and disapoints me in how the series could reach these highs for one finale.. but would sink to it’s lowest point for next seasons.  Next Time on Prince of Wishful Thinking: Star tries depseratly to find her mom, while Marco, Tom and a motely crew of misfits try to take down Meteora and Tom learns the awful truth from the photo booth and wears a zuko ponytail which weirdly looks good on him. That boy can rock anything let me tell you. 

If you enjoyed this reviews, please consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As mentioned my 30 dollar stretch goal includes a review of the cluster fuck that is the series final arc, and the goals up to that , me making 20 and 25 dollars a month repectively, have their own nifty rewards: At 20 i’ll review Darkwing Duck once a month, the two remaning Ducktales 87 mini series I have not covered and the Danny Phantom film The Ultimate Enemy. 25 meanwhile gets you reviews of the Proud Family Movie, the theatrical recess movie and the Kim Possible almost finale movie so the drama. And 30 also gets you reviews of every episode of gravity falls season 1 at least one a month till I finish it at some point, so as you can see you get a lot of bang for your buck and these reviews will be public for everybody. Not only that but joining my patreon gets you a review a month if you pitch in 5 dollars and evne if you can’t swing THAT much just 2 bucks gets you access to my discord, a guarnateed pick in my shorts, votes for patreon exclusive reviews, and SAID patreon exclusive reviews. It’s a lot of bang for your buck is what i’m saying so please help me out so I can make a living off this and sign up today. I even JUST ADDED an exclusive and utterly insane scrooge mcduck review, The Great Wig Mystery. So throw in a buck to check that out. 

And if your intrested in Tomtavia... please hit me up. I’m really proud of it and until then... i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[thisyearingaming]

1997 - This Year in Gaming

Muggins here was born in ‘97, and can’t really remember much of it, natch. But there were some good things released this year - I’ve played every one of these, and have missed so many more.

Diablo - Windows, January 3rd

We start with dungeon-crawl-em-up and well-loved out of season April Fool’s Joke, Diablo. I’ll be totally honest - I don’t like Diablo that much. It’s absolutely fine, I just can’t get into it. The writing, setting and characters are all very good especially since this year only marks the beginning of games being seen as a bit more adult and intelligent. Check out this gameplay from Hour of Oblivion on YouTube, and marvel at the faux-Scottish accent on Griswold the blacksmith.

Mario Kart 64 - Nintendo 64, February 10th

Compared to its more recent versions, Mario Kart 64 is a veritable bloody relic of the past - solid controls and a quirky style mean it’s still a crowd pleaser to this day, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone right now that would die on the hill of it being their favourite single-player racing experience. It’s also got some of the deepest, impenetrable lore in any medium known to the human race - why exactly is Marty the Thwomp locked up here?

Blast Corps - Nintendo 64, February 28th

February’s position as most boring month of the year is shaken up a bit by having a uniquely designed Rare game slammed into its 28-day long face. Blast Corps is the puzzle-action game where you take control of several vehicles to destroy homes and buildings in order to prevent a nuclear warhead exploding in the coolest incarnation of Cold War politicking ever seen in a video game. Calling Blast Corps a “hidden gem” these days is like calling Celeste a hidden gem - it impresses nobody and makes you look like a dick. 

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Nintendo 64, March 4th 

The N64 was home to a surprisingly large number of above-average shooters despite its muddy graphics and small cartridge space - Turok is one of these, a great FPS game where you shoot the SHIT out of dinosaurs. Brett Atwood of Billboard said it was like Doom and Tomb Raider mixed - Doom Raider, if you will. I say it isn’t - there’s no demons, and there’s no polygonal breasts to poke dinosaurs’ eyes out with! 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

What is a retrospective? A miserable little pile of opinions. I’ve only recently played through SotN for the very first time on a TOTALLY LEGITIMATE copy with a CRT filter. Bloody good (geddit?) game, that takes the repetition of its predecessors, improves on it in basically every conceivable way, and combines it with special effects and graphics that even 23 years later had me going “ooh, that looks quite good!” Symphony’s music and audio design are wonderfully paired with a deeply enjoyable experience that’ll have you saying “mm, maybe just one more room?”

Tekken 3 - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

Also releasing from the Land of the Rising Sun that day was Tekken 3, which many believe is still one of the best fighters ever made. Tekken 3′s combat is so fast and responsive that it’s better than some games made today. T3 is also the best and easiest way to knock seven shades of absolute shite out of your friends without risking a massive head injury or a trip to the headmaster’s office... where you could also challenge him, but only if he plays as my favourite Not-Guile-or-Ken character in gaming, Paul. 

Sonic Jam - Sega Saturn, June 20th

The moment Sega realised that re-packaging old Mega Drive games would net them serious cash - although unlike later collections, this is a strictly Sonic affair, and has a neat little 3D world to run around in as a sort of hub world. Sonic X-Treme proved that Sonic Team would have to work hard at getting the fastest thing alive into 3D space properly: Jam is the sort of test ground for it too. It features some genuinely good emulation work for 1997, although it’s basically the gaming equivalent of going round to your grandparents at Christmas only for them to give you the exact same gifts you got in 1991, 1992 and 1994 but wrapped in a bow to make you think it’s different. What are you lookin’ at, you little blue devil?

Star Fox 64 - Nintendo 64, June 30th

So there’s this German company, right, called StarVox. Nintendo look at Europe and say “shit, we don’t want another lawsuit... after all, we’ve done three this year!”. So they give us in the PAL region the exciting title of Lylat Wars which as far as I know means absolutely fucking nothing in the context of the game. They’re still called Star Fox in-game too so what was the point? Anyway, fun 3D shooter with graphics that’ll make you do a barrel roll off the sofa and onto the power button to make the brown and green blurs a little easier on the eyes. Hello 2007, I’ve come back to make old references with you!

Carmageddon - Windows, July 30th

The game so scary it was BANNED in the UK! More like the game so fucking shit it was banned. Carmageddon is so deeply boring to play on PC that I can only imagine that Stainless Games made it tasteless by 90s standards simply to ramp up demand - much like another game we’ll be covering soon. 

Herc’s Adventures - Sony PlayStation, July 31st

“And they said Kratos was the best hero? Shish... they got it wrong, sister! Hercules is clearly better... he even has a coconut weapon.” A surprisingly fun overhead action game that most people only know for... well, I’ll just embed it.

Mega Man X4 - Sony Playstation, August 1st

A few years ago I tried playing every Mega Man game there is - I gave up at X3 because I was getting bored. Even still, Mega Man bores me - but at least the level design is good. Stay away from the Windows port. Pictured: me in the background yawning.

GoldenEye 007 - Nintendo 64, August 25th 

The name’s Intro. Overused intro which I also managed to fuck up twice through the deeply editable medium of text. GoldenEye is like the Seinfeld of console shooters - playing it nowadays you’re unlikely to be amazed but holy shit there’s some absolute greatness in this game. Every sound and every piece of music in GoldenEye is permanently seared into my brain - sometimes I’ll just hear Facility or Frigate in my head alongside the door opening sound and the gentle PEW of the PP7. I mean come on, fucking listen to this and tell me Grant Kirkhope isn’t cool as all hell.

LEGO Island - Windows, September 26th

The first open world experience I ever had was LEGO Island. It’s still quite good today, utterly deranged animation from the likes of the Infomaniac and Brickster - a cautionary tale for children that giving pizza to high-profile criminals is disastrous for the human LEGO race. 

Fallout - Windows, October 10th

War never changes, but franchises do. Fallout’s legendary status in the industry is exemplified in how different it feels. Yes, we had the game Wasteland nine years prior, but until September 97 there was nothing quite like Fallout. From the chilling introduction sequence showing the ruins of the United States to the tragic ending, Fallout is an exercise in pure human misery with the brightest spots of hope it can possibly muster thrown in for good measure. What begins as a tedious isometric point-and-click RPG ends as a minigun-wielding power fantasy, before your entire worth is stripped from you at the finish line. You have 500 days to find a water chip before it’s too late, but you’re constantly being fought by terrifying Super Mutants, irradiated animals, and the biggest monster of all - humanity. See what I did there? If anything, humanity in Fallout’s setting would be the greatest unifying force possible against the horror of the outside world. But how is it? It’s dull, it’s sluggish, and it’s really hard to get into even if you’re already a fan - but push through that and it’s worthwhile to see exactly how far the series got before Todd Howard said “eh fuck it” and had the whole thing dipped into an FEV vat.

Grand Theft Auto - Sony PlayStation, October 21st

To put it simply, the first in the GTA series is now nothing but a novelty. It has an irritating camera, wonky controls, poor graphics and deeply repetitive gameplay. But thank fuck it exists, because without it the Rockstar story may have been very different indeed. It’s quintessential cops and robbers gameplay, spanning across Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas in one game, but with maps so far removed from their modern incarnations they may as well be named “Not New York, Possibly Bristol and Orange Town”. People really fucking hated Hare Krishnas in the 20th Century, didn’t they?

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Sony PlayStation, October 31

A hard one to talk about, honestly - it’s more Crash and better than the first one. It looks great, and Crash controls so well compared to his first outing. It’ll also keep you playing for 100%, fiendishly addictive and unashamedly difficult. Had a weird cover that moved with your head. 

PaRappa the Rapper - Sony PlayStation, November 17th

Type type type the words into the box! (Type, type, type - uh oh - the box?)

PaRappa is a gorgeously stylised rhythm game about rapping to steal the heart of the girl of your dreams - which involves learning karate, getting your driver’s license, selling bottle caps and frogs, making a cake, desperately trying not to shit yourself, and finally performing live on stage. Every one of its segments is so well-produced that they’d genuinely sell like ghost cookies in this era of shite rap. Notable for producing the greatest Jay-Z backing track ever made.

Sonic R - Sega Saturn, November 18th

Sonic R is absolutely FINE with vibrant textures, interesting levels, neat gimmicks and decent controls. But I’m gonna talk about its fucking AWESOME soundtrack by Richard Jacques and T.J. Davis, an eclectic mix of Europop and New Jack Swing - even thinking about it is bringing tears of absolute joy to my eyes hearing Super Sonic Racing in my head. You’ve got the main theme, Living in the City, Can You Feel the Sunshine, Back in Time, Diamond in the Sky, Work It Out and Number One - all of these are absolute club bangers and genuinely wouldn’t be out of place in a 90s disco. 

Tomb Raider II - Sony PlayStation, November 18th

Lara Croft returns to single-handedly endanger every species on Earth. TR2 is really good, the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects of the first game expanded upon here and the gunplay remaining just as punchy. Lara’s got a fully-functioning ponytail which absolutely boggles the fucking mind - a lot of work went into Lara’s hair for the 2013 reboot, so I can’t imagine the amount of man hours it took to get fluid(ish, come on, it’s the PS1 we’re talking about) hair movements in 1997. 

And really, that’s all I played from 1997. I’ve left out big hitters like Quake II, Gran Turismo and Diddy Kong Racing, but I simply haven’t formed an opinion on them yet. Maybe in a future post. 

Thanks for reading.

[marshmallowgoop]

Kill la Kill at Sakura-Con 2019

It’s been a few days since Sakura-Con 2019 ended, but I’m back home now—and well rested enough to finally write in detail about my experience there!

The con featured a playable demo of Kill la Kill the Game: IF, and David Vincent (Senketsu) was present as well. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with the game over the weekend, and I also attended one of Vincent’s panels, “BlazBlue/Kill la Kill Voices with David Vincent,” which he hosted on Saturday, April 20th. While the panel revealed very little about the upcoming video game, there were quite a few fun tidbits shared about the Kill la Kill anime and voice acting industry.

Since I played the game first, let me start there!

Kill la Kill the Game: IF

The Kill la Kill the Game: IF demo was available to all attendees of Sakura-Con from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Friday and Saturday and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday, but unfortunately, there was very little publicity regarding its appearance at the convention. Sakura-Con itself never advertised the demo; shockingly, Arc System Works is even absent from the Exhibitors list in the official Sakura-Con paper guidebook.

Even someone like me—who has heavily followed any and all news on the game since its announcement and devoted dozens of hours to reporting on it—only discovered a few mere days before the con that I would be able to play!

So, maybe it’s no surprise that I heard, many times over the weekend, some variation of, “I didn’t know there was a Kill la Kill fighting game!” And maybe it’s even less of a surprise that there was practically no line to try the game out while it was available at the Sakura-Con Exhibitors Hall—heck, sometimes, there wasn’t a line at all.

While the small crowd allowed me to easily play numerous matches—the only characters I have yet to try are Houka Inumuta and Ragyo Kiryuin, and I played Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin several times each—I was also sad to see the game not receive the attention it deserves.

As for the game itself, do note that this account is coming from someone who is not a gamer and who’s legitimately struggling to think of any other fighting games besides the Super Smash Bros. and Tekken series that she’s played. (But, y’know, actually, Tekken was my jam back in the day. Anyone else remember playing Devil or Angel in Tekken 2 and just holding down like circle, triangle, and square to shoot lasers outta your eyes and take out practically all of the opponent’s HP bar? Just me?)

So, needless to say, anime fighters are totally new ground for me. I don’t have the background to discuss how Kill la Kill the Game: IF stacks up to similar titles, nor do I have the expertise to talk any technical details, and I won’t pretend that I do. But I will say this: as someone who was already planning on buying the game 2-3 times purely for the story and who had extremely minimal interest in the actual gameplay, I enjoyed playing way more than I thought I would. The combos were flashy and fun, I loved the supers and special attacks, and the whole experience honestly brought me back to the good times I had playing Tekken as a kid. Sitting at the Arc System Works booth, I thought, “Wow, this is fun!”

Regarding the particular demo available at the booth, a few elements stand out to me:

✄ First, the build was not titled in the same way that other builds have been. Whereas the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) 2018 build was titled “EVO2018 Demo Version,” the Anime NYC build was titled “AnimeNYC 2018 Demo Version,” and the EVO Japan 2019 build was titled “EVO Japan 2019,” for example, the Sakura-Con build was simply titled “Demo Version.”

✄ It was previously revealed in ArcLive episode 46 that there will be an online demo of Kill la Kill the Game: IF. It’s likely that the Sakura-Con demo, literally titled “Demo Version,” will be this online demo.

✄ The Sakura-Con demo did not include all of the stages that have been seen in other builds. For instance, the Fiber Castle that was first playable in the Game Developers Conference (GDC) build last month was not present in the Sakura-Con demo.

✄ The Sakura-Con demo did include all of the characters that have been seen in other builds. Ryuko Matoi, Satsuki Kiryuin, Uzu Sanageyama, Ira Gamagoori, Houka Inumuta, Nonon Jakuzure, Ragyo Kiryuin, Nui Harime, and the dual-wielding variations of Ryuko and Satsuki were all available to play (though, printed-out character guides only seemed to be available for Ryuko and Satsuki). This is perhaps interesting because the PQubeGames stream from last week did not have Ragyo, Nui, or the dual-wielding variations of Ryuko and Satsuki available to play.

✄ But speaking of the PQubeGames stream, the build there did offer alternate color options from the character select menu. The colors were “Basic Color,” “ARC Collab Color,” and “Alternate Color.” The Sakura-Con demo, in contrast, did not offer alternate color options from the character select menu. 

✄ At Sakura-Con, the only way to see alternate colors was for both players to choose the same fighter. All alternate colors in the Sakura-Con demo were presumably based off of the evil clone colors from the Kill la Kill episode 25 OVA: characters are grayed out with green eyes and blonde hair. The PQubeGames stream includes a match that features the evil clone colors for Ira, and Alpharad’s GDC video includes a match that features the evil clone colors for Satsuki. 

✄ And, though I do not have any screenshots, I purposely played double-character matches against the computer when there was no line at Sakura-Con just to see the alternate colors. I was able to try Ryuko against Ryuko and Nui against Nui, and they too had the evil clone coloration for their alternate colors. Ryuko is grayed out with blonde hair and green eyes (which Senketsu shares as well), though her red streaks remain intact. Nui is also grayed out with a green eye and a dark pink eyepatch. 

✄ Interestingly, the evil clone colors were not the alternate colors that were originally shown for Ryuko and Satsuki. At EVO 2018 last year, the alternate color for Satsuki was not grayed out and did not have green eyes. The alternate color for Ryuko featured orange hair and a white Senketsu. It was stated in ArcLive episode 46 that there will be more than two color options per character, so perhaps these colors for Ryuko and Satsuki will make a return in the final version of the game.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that Seven Net Shopping is offering Junketsu-colored costumes for the cast as a pre-order bonus, and these costumes could possibly be purchasable later.

✄ There were minor changes to the translation in the Sakura-Con demo. For one example, Senketsu’s “Don’t make me dizzy,” which was the localization as of the GDC build last month, became “You’re making me dizzy.” I also might have been too overwhelmed to pay the most attention to this detail, but I can’t say I recall any mention of “Snippity-Snips.”

✄ It might be another case of being too overwhelmed to pay the most attention to this detail, but I also can’t recall any of the big red “Counter Hit”s and “Guard Break”s that have been in every build thus far in the Sakura-Con demo.

✄ After completing a match, the game simply said, “Thank you!” In the past, such as at Anime NYC last year, there would be a request to complete a survey and share your thoughts. The game may be too far in production now to really incorporate feedback.

For some other general notes on the game and my experience playing it:

✄ Every character has an Instant Kill attack that’s accompanied by an elaborate cutscene (and you can see all Instant Kills that have been featured in gameplay videos in this extensive document). I never managed to score an Instant Kill myself (because I failed at the rock-paper-scissors-styled Bloody Valor like literally every time and definitely got Insta-Killed for it!), but while watching others play, I caught glimpses of the Instant Kills for Uzu and Nui, neither of which I’ve seen in any released gameplay footage thus far. 

Uzu’s Instant Kill involves a lot of “Men! Dou! Kote!”-ing, and Nui’s Instant Kill is rather haunting. The pupil of her one eye shrinks, and she slashes her opponent in a way that’s reminiscent of how she murders Isshin Matoi. When she’s finished, she sticks out her tongue.

✄ I enjoyed playing Ryuko and Satsuki (both versions) the most, and this is probably only partly because they’re my favorite characters on the roster. Both Ryuko and Satsuki are speedy fighters with some really fun, flashy combos and specials. I tend to value speed over power when it comes to gaming, so these two fit my preferences nicely.

✄ Ira was by far my least favorite character to play (sorry, Gama! I still love you!) He’s simply far too slow for my liking. But surprisingly, I enjoyed playing as Nonon more than I thought I would. I like my battles up close and personal, but zoning as Nonon wasn’t really that unappealing at all.

✄ I played against the computer for the double matches, and it was set very easy. I won without breaking a sweat, and I lost to plenty of folks at the con.

✄ And, of course, I love the dialogue. The banter really makes this game 100 times more enjoyable. 

Well, for me, at least. 

I can’t tell anyone else how to play the game, but it definitely hurt a little when folks I played with skipped the cutscenes.

✄ I saw so many lines I hadn’t seen translated before, and I wish I had the memory to recall all of them. But perhaps some of the most amusing lines came from the double-character matches. 

Nui notes that it’s annoying that her copy looks like her, but she haaaates even more that her copy sounds like her. Ryuko, meanwhile, gets very caught up in calling out her copy as a fake, but Senketsu tries to be all analytical about it. He wonders if it’s the Life Fibers that created the clone and tells Ryuko, “Stay calm... there may be more of them.” Ryuko answers, “Fight now, think later!” When you win, Senketsu will say, “We won, but I have so many questions” or wonder about where “she” came from. It was way too loud in the Exhibitors Hall to make out the Japanese here, but I wonder if Senketsu does in fact specify that he’s referring just to the copied Ryuko and is less concerned about the copy of himself, pfff.

Other dialogue things:

✄ Uzu calls Nui “a beast.”

✄ Ryuko essentially pulls a, “You killed my father, prepare to die!” right before fighting Nui, and it is amazing.

✄ Ryuko tells Ragyo, “You’re just like your kid.”

✄ Ryuko’s “ass wipe” comment is included in the PQubeGames stream, but, okay. It’s great. It definitely got some reactions at the con! 

Especially because she was directing it at herself in that case....

tl;dr?

✄ Me, a non-gamer just about 100% interested in this thing for the story, really enjoyed playing the game!

✄ Which sadly did not receive much attention from Sakura-Con.

✄ But it’s a fun game with fun dialogue, and while the Sakura-Con demo didn’t have everything I’ve seen in other builds (such as some stages and the option to use alternate colors), all currently released characters were playable. It seems likely that Sakura-Con’s demo’ll end up being the online demo of the game, and I’d be thrilled to play this build again!

BlazBlue/Kill la Kill Voices with David Vincent

Saturday’s panel was largely an open Q&A session with David Vincent with some voice acting from the crowd in the latter half. Some Kill la Kill-related questions and answers are as follows:

✄ Someone (not me, I swear!) noted that Ryuko and Senketsu have a very close bond in the series and asked if David Vincent (Senketsu) ever recorded with Erica Mendez (Ryuko) in the booth. The answer was no. It’s too difficult to match lip flaps with more than one person in the booth, so in anime dubbing, everyone records alone.

✄ One question asked about the auditioning process for Senketsu. Vincent noted that he wasn’t sure how to voice a jacket, but he understood more as he watched the series. He described the typical auditioning process for voice acting roles, saying that an actor is called in to read for the character and, if they do well, they’ll receive a callback to read for the character again. With every callback, the pool of actors becomes smaller and smaller until one actor finally wins the role. Interestingly, Vincent said that he had to record the first episode of Kill la Kill again because he was told to change the voice he was using. Later in the panel, he further revealed that he had to say the “Sen-i-Soshitsu!” line at the end of the first episode about 25 times because producer Hiroe Tsukamoto was very strict about the pronunciation; for example, she told him the correct way to pronounce “Osaka.”

✄ When asked if Vincent tries to base his performance on the Japanese VAs, he said no. Vincent likes to bring his own take on a character.

✄ In regards to ad-libbing, Vincent said that he often isn’t allowed to. For instance, at the end of Senketsu’s speedy recap for episode 16, he ad-libbed Senketsu taking a deep breath... but this was cut.

✄ Someone spoiled the ending for Kill la Kill and asked how Vincent felt about Senketsu getting “dusted.” Vincent answered that Kill la Kill is a wild, ludicrous show, but Senketsu’s death is quite poignant. The final episode was shown at Sakura-Con 2014, at another panel that Vincent was present for, and he said many people came up to him afterwards and expressed how saddened they were by Senketsu’s passing.

✄ Regarding Senketsu’s death, there was a question asking if Senketsu is “really” dead in the episode 25 OVA. Vincent said that Senketsu is “comic book dead” and coming back.

Can I foolishly hope this means that there’s a “Senketsu Lives” ending in the upcoming video game?

✄ Concerning the game, Vincent said that he had signed contracts and couldn’t say a thing about it... except that he just finished recording, and it’s good.

Given that Kill la Kill the Game: IF releases in North America and Europe on July 26th, it’s likely that we’ll hear a bit more of the English dub—and Vincent reprising his role as Senketsu again—before too long.

[jewelridersarchive]

The Music of Jewel Riders

Aside from the Kenner doll collection, possibly the most remembered aspect of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders by the fandom is the music. The theme song can be quite the catchy earworm! And for many, they remember the theme song before they remember the name or whether they did or did not actually see the series. We invite you to listen to the theme song, as you remember it, from our music playlist: Have you had that jewel-powered theme stuck in your head for 25 years? If you haven’t listened to our compilation of the theme song as heard ‘round the world, we encourage you to do so now! Listen now: Did you know that the show was pitched with episodes being “Mini-Musicals,” likely an appealing concept for the early 1990s when Disney’s musical animated films were the king of family entertainment. The characters never truly break into song the way those in a true musical might, but the show does feature both Broadway-style musical numbers (sung by Tamara) and background vocal numbers over the action in the show. Series Music Credits:Music: Louis Fagenson. Notable Credits: Composer for Johnny Bravo, Universal Studios Tram Tour and Theme Park. Music Supervisor: Ken Kushnick. Lou Fagenson’s Manager. Notable Credits: VP International Operations/Europe for Warner Bros. Records;  Face/Off, Muppets From Space Songs Producer: Jeff Pescetto. Notable Credits: Singer of the DuckTales Theme Song, Wrote songs for Spaceballs, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Sound Designer for Tekken 5 From Lou, "It was my first series and I had to crank out 18-20 minutes of music a week. Episodes would air two weeks after I scored them. No room for error and because the production company was based in New York, I was on my own as far as musical direction. I had to clue into the art of directing. The book I got the most of of and highly recommend is, “The Uses of enchantment” by Bruno Bettleheim. Knowing how the story line works on an unconscious level is an important key to how the music can help develop a story.(http://www.animationinsider.com/2011/11/louis-fagenson/) I wrote the music to an episode a week (except for the songs) and it would air two weeks later.  I don’t have a single copy of any episodes – just a few toys. I wish I had them to play for my daughter. The show brings back a flood of great memories for me. Thanks for keeping the fire alive… After Gwen, I went on to write the music for Johnny Bravo and other animated shows. Recently I arranged an album of Christmas music for Neil Diamond." In  the Avalon: Web of Magic books by Rachel Roberts, the Fairy Band B*Tween is loosely based on the Jewel Riders. Their songs (outside of “Supernatural High” and “Golden”) are songs that were originally in PGJR. Several of the songs and lyrics have been available for download from the Avalon Website for some time, along with an orchestral suite related to the books. The songs featured for download and in the playlist below all originated with a Starla and the Jewel Riders “Free Sing-Along Cassette” that was discovered on Ebay. The Gwenevere version of full opening has been edited together with previous audio sources to create a one-of-a-kind exclusive version! Visit The Jewel Riders Archive's Music page to discover music downloads, sing-alongs and more! http://www.jewelridersarchive.com/music/

[lostsummerdayz]

Otakon 2019 In Review - The Language of Cosplay and Music

The legacy of famed artist, Nujabes, bridges two nations and two cultures together many years later

By. Nay Holland

Hello and good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening! Wherever you are reading this across all of the seven seas, or in the comfort of your own home, Lost Summer Dayz is here to bring you an exclusive report! A report none other than Otakon itself! This was my second time attending Otakon, with my first being way back in 2012, when it was still held in Baltimore.

There were several firsts for me the past weekend. It was my first time ever being inside Washington instead of passing through. Secondly, it was my first time attending the convention within the Washington venue. As such, I was coming into this convention, excited on what it would hold for me. For several reasons. Did Otakon live up to my hype that I had built up for it in my mind? We’ll find out now!

Our Otakon 2019 story begins earlier within the month of July, contrary to the day of travel. I had first heard the news of Otakon via a suggestion of the group I am affiliated with, the Geeks of the Round Table. What made me dead set on wanting to attend the event, however, were two major reasons.

The first reason was the Tribute to Nujabes concert and the chance to see quite possibly one of my favorite Japanese artists, MINMI. The second reason was to also meet my actual muse for getting me into Japanese music, Taku Takahashi. Everything else would have been a bonus, and the entire experience was indeed a giant love letter to the culture. But! I am getting way ahead of myself here!

Nessa and Leon from Pokemon Sword and Shield credit: bunsonbunscosplay

Knowing this, I’ve purchased the tickets to Otakon and VIP for the concert, and twiddled my thumbs waiting for this eventful weekend to arrive. Sure enough, on Thursday, July 25th, the morning did come. Meeting up with my fellow cohorts, we embarked on our bus ride to the event! At least, we would have, had the bus not arrived an hour late, thus making the trip a six hour trek. (The ride back was way more palatable, thankfully!)

The moment we arrived at Union Station we were greeted by panhandlers.

It was at that moment I realized, we never truly left New York after all.

Okay, so, D.C is different enough from NYC, but within the first thirty minutes of us walking to our hotel, I felt a sense of familiarity from the city. Aside from the White House that loomed in the distance, I grew accustomed to the city streets. It was just like walking through New York, but smaller. We’ve arrived at our hotel and once settled in, I departed to pick up my badge.

This was the main reason why I wanted to arrive at the con the day before the official first day. Thursday is considered to be “Day 0”, yet with the amount of staff assisting attendees, the abundance of cosplayers both inside and surrounding the venue, and the overall hustle bustle, one could easily assume that this was “Day 1” instead. There was so much activity that I stayed around for a few minutes after I had picked up my badge, just to take in the atmosphere. It was truly the calm before the storm.

Day 1, Friday. The gates were let wide open and Otakon commenced!

The Nujabes concert wasn’t until 8 and I had to be on the line by at most, 7, so I had about a good twelve or so hours to take in the Otakon experience. One of the first things I did was head to the game room, as per routine for any convention.

Ran by the lovely people at Tokyo Attack, the lineup for the arcade portion of the game room ranged from Gundam VS, to Dance Rush, DDR, Pump It Up, Sound Voltex, Nostalgia, Pop’n, Chunithm, BeatStream, and others. There wasn’t a IIDX machine once again, but with a star studded cast of niche Japanese rhythm games, I couldn’t complain.

I literally couldn’t believe they had IDZ. First time EVER seeing it in person!

At two, there was a Tekken tournament that I did participate in, that deserves a mention briefly!

Oh boy, here comes Nay a.k.a “Cereal K.” plugging in his Tekken experience at any event he goes to again!

Alisa from Tekken credit: sugarc0maa

In my defense, it wasn’t the main reason why I came to Otakon! Remember when I said “bonus”? This was the “bonus” albeit, I didn’t get too far in the tournament itself. I was one win away from top eight if that's any consolation, but, overall all who I played against were really good and I enjoyed my time hanging with my good friends in both the Tekken scene and the Otakon staff!

Annie from League of Legends credit: gbudnyjr

With still more time to kill before the Nujabes concert, I took more pictures of cosplayers throughout the convention. You’ll see pictures of them throughout the article spread across all three days, with their information underneath for you guys to check out! Part of the magic in attending conventions are the cosplayers. I’ve said this in my Castle Point article if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts, but, in a large scale convention like Otakon, you’ll never know who you might end up meeting.

One particular cosplayer however deserves a special mention. What started out as asking for a photo of her cosplay, due to the overall rarity of seeing a Tekken cosplay aside from the Alisa cosplayer in the tournament earlier that day, ended with a kindled friendship over the course of the weekend. Known as Kawaii Kiki Cosplay on Instagram and Facebook, Kiki has been cosplaying since 2013, yet has been attending Otakon since roughly 2009.  I was able to sit down with her briefly to have a conversation as she was open and friendly to share her story with me.

Straight from the DMV area herself, her cosplay ventures began in 2013, when a Sailor Moon group cosplay was in need of a replacement senshi. She answered the call, and the rest was history. Being a graduate of the Art Institute, she’s able to utilize her academic knowledge into her cosplay for optimal effectiveness. For example, when I first met her on Friday she was cosplaying Asuka from Tekken. Being recently introduced to the Tekken series,  she was able to capture the character well. As we spoke several attendees exclaimed in excitement as they, too, asked for her photo. It was these reactions, that made the cosplay worth it.

“Cosplay for me, is like one in costume wearing a Disney Princess outfit in Disney world for kids. I want my cosplay to enact a similar excitement for those who see me. I want to make others happy with who I’m cosplaying as,” she reflects.

It isn’t about how much you know about your cosplay, but rather, how much you are able to bring joy to others for wearing said cosplay.

There are some personal favorites that Kiki has in her arsenal, such as another Asuka cosplay she wore for the second day of Otakon. This Asuka was from Evangelion, with the outfit made to appear similar to Asuka’s  Eva 02. Lastly, she carried around a stuffed version of the iconic Pen Pen along with her. Perhaps her most favorite cosplay and convention experience was her appearance in Blizzcon last year, when she cosplayed as Leah from Diablo 3. The excitement of being around those who enjoy the same medium as her, while also cosplaying as an important character from said game, was enough to enhance the experience for her.

If any of you guys reading this have the chance, please give her some love! She’s a really amazing cosplayer and woman to hang around with and it was my pleasure to talk with her. Follow her at Kawaii Kiki Cosplay!

To round up Day 1, we have the Tribute to Nujabes concert. From the beginning, the message was clear. It was not just an ode to a legendary man, but an ode to hip hop.

The MC EyeQ blessed the stage, following Maryland’s own Substantial, then Shing02.

Seeing Substantial and Shing02 live, performing songs that I had listened to since my high school years gave me a sense of euphoria. At the time, over ten years ago when I was a sophomore in high school, I would listen to Nujabes during my lunch breaks in school. This was back during a time when I still used the pen and paper to write. Lyrics, fiction, whatever came to mind. Listening to the backdrops that Nujabes laid out, with rappers such as Substantial and Shing02, who would bless that very stage, tuned out life’s many inconsistencies at the time.

Coping with my grandmother’s passing, failing classes due to woes back at home, and overall trying to get a grasp of my existence. His music, along with the lyrics of everyone on that stage, helped me get through high school. To see them live and perform was what my teenage self would have wanted. I felt like I was fifteen again.

Being the opening act, EyeQ shuts it down while backed by DJ Okawari beats.

And then there was the final set. Adorned in an intricately designed kimono with long flowing hair comparable to a goddess herself, Minmi emerged basked in light. She took to the stage singing Shiki no Uta, the original ED to Samurai Champloo, and as the song ended, she shed her garment to reveal a flowing yellow tracksuit.

This was her way of saying “The gloves are coming off.” She had our attention, and we were under her spell for the next hour.

Performing some of her hits including Sumertime!!!, Hibiscus, and one of her recent singles, #Yacchaitai. Following these songs, the scene shifted once more as she pulled up a piano and started singing slower ballads. These included a cover of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” Who’s Theme, and Sha Na Na. The last song was all the more powerful considering that Sha Na Na, originally a Dancehall classic, was sung in a ballad.

I’ve been a huge fan of MINMI for almost as long as I’ve been a fan of Nujabes and those who had graced the stage. She brings special mention because for a while, during my college years, I was growing accustomed to a new phase in my life. A new scenery in college, new friends, old ones moving from the city, long lasting relationships coming to a close, and overall I felt alone.

I first heard of MINMI through Samurai Champloo and a dear friend of mine who was unable to make it to Otakon with me, Devin Harris, had got me into her outside of the anime.

There’s this Japanese used book store called Book Off where I was able to find used CDs of hers, and since then I’ve been hooked. My knowledge of the Japanese language is limited, but, even through her music I could sense the energy and influence that Western music had on her. It was a different type of energy she brought with her, even hearing her as guest vocals on songs such as m-flo’s “Lotta Love.”

MINMI performing her cover of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You”

She can bring out the energy, but also allow her audience to cool down as well. She can be the hype of the party as well as the emotional support. Dedicating her final songs to the tragedy at Kyoto Animation, she made me feel a wide range of emotions. Very few musicians I’ve had the pleasure of listening to, have had the range that MINMI has.

For me to be able to have a chance to see her live was a treat. For me to meet her after the concert and tell her these things and more, was the icing on the cake.

Day 2 began with meeting quite possibly my biggest influence in Japanese music, Taku Takahashi. You may notice a pattern at this point, with Nujabes, Substantial, Shing02, and MINMI all being music of my adolescence, and Taku does not break away from this mold. Being a third of the trio of talented artists known as m-flo, m-flo as a group exposed me to music I would have never known existed outside of New York.

I was just thirteen at the time during middle school. I already felt like an outcast because my, then, budding tastes in anime and “nerd culture” caused me to be the odd one out. I was into DDR at the time, so I would join several online communities where we would talk about music from DDR. M-flo was one of the groups brought up. While technically not being in DDR at the time, their songs were featured in beatmania IIDX, a rhythm game I mentioned earlier. When IIDX was in its infancy, it was possible to link a IIDX machine and a DDR machine, known as “Club Versions,” to allow players to play IIDX songs on DDR machines. This was how I found out about m-flo.

I liked their style of hip hop and how familiar it sounded to me, despite the language barrier. From the beginning, they always had a style to blend Western Hip Hop with a local flavor to call it their own. They were one of the pioneers of the Japanese Hip Hop renaissance period, and I would be introduced during the tail end of it. Just as I was getting into m-flo, they were starting their “m-flo loves” series, in which their next three albums, Astromantic, Beat Space Nine, and Cosmicolor, would feature heavily on collaborators. One of these collaborators as I’ve also mentioned earlier, would be MINMI.

LSD ❤ ☆Taku Takahashi!

I’ve been an m-flo fan for a very long time. Not just as a group, but for their solo careers as well. From the rapper, VERBAL, being a consistent feature on Nujabes’ earlier works as L-Universe, his collaborations with Pharrell, and his fashion career. From the singer, Lisa, with her solo career and independent projects. Lastly, there’s Taku Takahashi himself.

Of the three I resonated with him the most, considering how many works he had become a part of over the years. From his works with House Nation, DJing, collaborations and remixes independently. To his recent features on IIDX and his musical works in anime which includes Panty and Stocking to his most recent being Carole and Tuesday. To list everything that these three had done independently as well as a group, would double the reading length of this article. Needless to say, to have a chance to meet one of the hardest working artists in the business, who started as an inspiration for my music tastes as well as learning more about Japanese culture, made me starstruck. Pun intended.

After meeting him, there was the Nujabes tribute panel to accompany the concert from the night before. Seeing everyone on the panel, most of whom I had met either the night before or a few hours prior and hearing their stories, left me with a deeper understanding on the influence that Nujabes had.

There was also a lot that I’ve learned involving some of the work that went into the songs for Samurai Champloo. Back on the subject of MINMI, the inspiration for “Who’s Theme” was more personal than I had initially thought.

I had always had speculation that “Who’s” was meant to be “Fuu’s,” as the main character in Samurai Champloo was arguably Fuu. Somewhere there was a loss in translation and Fuu was mistaken as Who due to the way Fuu sounds in the native tongue. She mentioned that the song was, indeed, “Fuu’s Theme,” but her inspiration for writing that song was putting herself in the character of Fuu.

There are some minor spoilers for Samurai Champloo here, but, Fuu’s goal in Samurai Champloo was to find a “samurai who smells of sunflowers.” Ultimately, the “sunflower samurai” was Fuu’s father, and the loss of her father was her driving force to find her against all odds.

MINMI read the script of Samurai Champloo and it instilled an emotion inside of her that she could relate to. The feeling of loss, the feeling of separation from one’s family. Feeling what Fuu felt, she used Fuu as a muse to write the song. This brings a new meaning to the song itself, as you can feel the words that are being said by her.

This was a point that everyone at the panel brought up. It was a question I’ve had since middle school, which was finally answered that very day.

“How can I, who does not know Japanese, appreciate the music? How can I, who does not know Korean, influence my musical choice for many years to come?”

Aside from Japanese music, I was also getting into Korean hip hop and R&B at that time as well. Despite the language barriers, when it comes to music, we all have an ability to feel an emotion. Happiness, sadness, it doesn’t matter what language it’s spoken. Music is a language we feel. Nujabes’ ear for music tastes, whether he wanted to go for the urban sound or a more traditional one, was an ear that understood the universal language of emotion. Everyone in that room, be it on the panel or as an attendee, had felt that language spoken to us in one way or another.

Later on that night, everything came full circle. I was able to go to the Otakon rave and see Taku perform his set. Remember when I said that MINMI was a collaborator with m-flo during their “loves” series? He had brought her out as a guest during his set and she performed the song she collaborated with m-flo, “Lotta Love,” live.

A vast majority of the crowd may have been introduced to her that night, but it was an energy that was felt. The music alone was enough to make everyone dance and have a good time, further answering my question. I left that night, no, I left that weekend in a state of content.

While I never had the chance to meet Nujabes when he was alive, he lives in in his music. He lives on in the memories of those he had worked with, those he has influenced, and those who listened to his music. I left D.C with a value that was priceless than any merch. Although the weekend came and went, the memories I made, the people I got to experience, and the stories I got to hear, will resonate with me for the rest of my life.   Rest in Power, Jun Seba As a bonus, this was probably the hypest part of the night. Watching Shing02 and all who had performed, perform a cypher to Battlecry backed by Team Red Pro breaking. Blood was left on the stage that evening and it was a massacre of beats and lyrics.

See you next year, Otakon!

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 7 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 1 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 2 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 3 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 4 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 5 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 6 Production Analysis

With Brunswick farms behind us, it’s time to move on to a series of different settings and a few surprises in this chapter that mark the halfway point for volume 6. With interesting story beats this episode, there are as always equally interesting aspects of the production to add to the discussion.

Before actually getting into the production analysis itself, I wanted to take a moment to briefly highlight on Gen:Lock. I’m unsure if or when I want to get around to throwing my two cents on the upcoming mecha show, but with this preview and the last one prefacing the latest episodes of RWBY, it’s intriguing seeing how this show has been building up attention between interviews and announcements about it’s cast and production. It’s also a bit concerning the kind of feedback from viewers and what they’ve been approving of and expressed being bothered with. Again, whether or not I’ll touch on its production is up in the air right now, but I wanted to put forth my quick thoughts on the matter.

With that out of the way, let’s start the analysis proper by touching briefly on the Haven Academy vault scene. Not a whole lot to say other than the character acting, which I suspect may be Hannah Novotny. The way mouths are seen as either puckered or with teeth shown clenching are the supposedly calling cards, though beyond that, I’m not really sure whether it’s Hannah or it’s someone else. Regardless helps sell the kind of interpretive facial expressions for a character like Neo and the little gestures of Cinder casually forging different knives add to her overall character in a manner similar to what Kim Newman and Millivette Gonzalez did with Pyrrha in the skit they animated during episode 8 of RWBY Chibi season 1.

Speaking of RWBY Chibi, now would be a good time to move on to the next scene highlighting Maria Calavera’s younger self and the behind-the-scenes story behind her being called “the Grimm Reaper”. Tom Alvarado, a writer brought for RWBY Chibi since season 2 who had a small prior experience in the American animation industry writing the “Metalhead” episode of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was inspired by Miles Luna’s thread of tweets about the Apathy Grimm to share his own anecdote. Although presented in a more comical tone, the fascinating piece of information to take away was that he thought of calling Jaune’s superhero alter ego, “The Grimm Reaper” before it changed to “The Hunts-Man.” Although Miles and Kerry Shawcross didn’t specify why at the time, they apparently already had the former title planned for something else. What’s also worth noting is how back during the CRWBY Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event back in February of 2018, Kerry answered a question mentioning that during the writing process, a certain character and sub-plot had to be cut out of volume 5′s script and pushed for a later, yet to be tangible point in the story. Between that and Tom’s tweets, it’s very likely that Maria was suppose to be that character.

Just a theory worth sharing based on scattered pieces of information about the behind-the-scenes of the story’s creative process. Moving on to analyzing Maria’s scene itself which the first minute of it was uploaded via Rooster Teeth on Youtube prior to the episode proper, the choice of camera shots and overall setting display an array of callbacks from certain scenes in past installments of the show. The way we see Maria walk across the bridge and responds to the incoming Nevermore Grimm is definitely reminiscent of both the Red trailer and the volume 4 character short and the overall setting and the is akin to that of of the setting against the Nevermore Team RWBY fought in chapter 8 of volume 1. What makes this work so well is how instinctively recognizable the callbacks themselves feel. This is also not the first instance of callbacks being made instinctive through the cinematography. As stated in the production analysis for chapter 2, the reveal of Salem in her past is very similar to that of Salem’s first proper reveal in the end of chapter 12. Another example was when Weiss got stabbed by Cinder’s spear at the end of chapter 11, where storyboard/camera layout artists, Rachel Doda and former lead producer, Koen Wooten, both stated in episode 11 of RWBY Rewind that Kerry was very deliberate about having that shot be a callback to both Amber and Pyrrha being shot at by Cinder. These are just things worth keeping in mind when watching the show going forward.

At the risk of being a broken record, choreography has its place in a fight scene, but so does staging for both the physical aspect and the story being told. In this case, the choice of camera shots help sell what kind of character Maria was as The Grimm Reaper and what her reputation meant for characters like Qrow and Ruby and how they made their weapons and have fought. With all that being said, the similarities between Maria’s scene and the other scenes with Ruby mentioned end there as the rest of the visual direction from here on gives Maria her own identity. Speaking of which, from the start of her bout with the Nevermore onward, most of the scenes were animated by Megan Pellino, Joe Vick, John Yang and Matt Drury with assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern providing the Maria vs Tock segment in particular. If these names sound familiar, that’s because with the exception of John Yang, this is the same set of people involved with the Cinder vs Neo fight. Since volume 3, the process animating fight scenes changed from Monty Oum and Shane Newville doing individual fights by themselves to having fights be done in groups of 2-4, if not more. The names of people involved with fights may have varied from volume-to-volume, but the approach has remained the same.

  Unfortunately, despite being familiar with these names, it’s still difficult to entirely tell the difference between all the animators and how they go about fight sequences, particularly Megan Pellino and Joe Vick. However, as an educated guess, it’s likely that they animated the beginning segment with Maria and the Nevermore while the latter sequence between Maria and Tock’s group were done by John Yang, Matt Drury and Melanie Stern. There are confirmations of previous sequences done by John and Matt, making it easier to tell their styles apart. In the past, John did a bit of the Blake vs Ilia fight (likely right before Kim Newman’s sequence), Oscar vs Lionheart, and part of Ozpin vs Hazel. In Matt’s case, he animated Ghira vs the Albain twins in chapter 9 of volume 5 (might’ve been his first action sequence) and much of Adam’s fight segments in his character short. Based on these confirmations and comparing those scenes to Maria vs Tock and the bandits, John may have animated the segment from the start of the fight up until Maria’s aura broke while Matt animated the next sequence after. John seems to have this way of how before or after certain swings, strikes and other attacks, a character will maintain a pose for a split-second before striking again, kind of similar to how the animation director of volume 6, Joel Mann has animated scenes. His sequence also tends to have the camera move a bit wildly but still steadily-enough follow each character’s actions, though how much of that is due to John or whoever provided the final camera layout is unclear. Matt on the other hand does not seem to emphasize as much on the poses leaving a dynamic impression and has the animations feel a bit more continuous. Also unlike John, he’s more conservative with the camera shots being more steady, to the point where it feels like watching a side-scrolling fighting game like Tekken or Street Fighter. Again though, how much of that aspect is the animator as oppose to who does final camera layout is uncertain.

At the end of the day, this is all guesswork so it’s totally possible that I may have mixed-up who did which segments. But it’s still fun to estimate none-the-less. At the very least, it’s definitely confirmed that Melanie Stern animated Maria’s eyes being slashed and quite possibly Tock getting the upper hand on her right before and the rest of the scene right after. What’s more interesting is that since her position as assistant lead animator, this is the first episode where she helped lead a fight in a manner similar to how Kim Newman led the newer animators when she was assistant lead back in chapter 10 of volume 5. Hopefully, this serves as another reminder of how it’s important to pay mind to newer talents working on the show, as I’ve stated in previous posts, even when comparing to some anime productions. Before moving on to the next scene, the choice of having the ticking clock sound incorporated into the action sequence also deserves a mention. It’s amazing how intentionally well-timed it came off right down to the timing being precisely 60-seconds, which I imagine was no easy feat to pull off with director, Kerry Shawcross and co-director/lead editor, Connor Pickens having to coordinate between the storyboard, editing, animation and audio departments. 

With that out of the way, let’s shift focus from Maria’s flashback to the next scene in the present. There’s honestly not a whole lot to say about the scene between elder Maria and the others other than that there were some great facial expressions between Qrow and certain other characters to expressed how flabbergasted they were about the former Grimm Reaper’s reputation. There was also a bit of neat choice of angling the camera to highlight both Maria’s praise to team RWBY while having Yang’s self-doubting reaction be made clear. Where the visual direction really picks up though is once Ruby answers Jaune’s call and she holds her scroll towards the path towards Argus. Given the earnestly melancholic discussion about whether to follow the foot steps of one who deemed herself poorly and whether one of the older generation could still contribute something to the newer one, seeing an old throwback to character nicknames via Ruby’s caller id for Jaune provided quite an appropriate change of tone for the scene. From here on, things get uplifting, through the piano instrumentation of this volume’s opening theme, the shift of lighting to create warmer color schemes as a result of likely the art and lighting departments and having the camera get closer towards with each invisible wipe transition of the trees as they travel uphill until the payoff of the city in their site is shown.

Next is the reunion scene between the two teams and while there’s again, not a whole lot to add, there are a couple of interesting notes. First, when Nora is first seen, there’s a moment where the camera suddenly zooms towards Nora. This is to serve as another reminder that choice of camera direction between different characters is indeed a thing as mentioned previous posts and in Nora’s case, shots can sometimes have zippy panning or zooms to compliment her very enthusiastic nature. The second thing is a little mention from Asha Bishi about how another animator did the moment where Jaune and Ruby hugged. She didn’t say who it was exactly, but it’s just something I wanted to acknowledge.

Then there’s the scene establishing Argus which has definitely been a highlight for fans. In volume 5, a lot of fans were especially critical due to how what little of Mistral was shown at the time was partially via the composited still art of residents in one of the market. The backlash, though not immediate, was very understandable and it does seem like a bit of a waste to not have enough on-screen interactions between the main cast and whatever new settings they set foot on given Monty Oum’s intention from the beginning. However, if I were to speculate as to why Argus was provided more premium treatment in its production instead, it may be because the main cast are expected to interact and traverse more within the setting. Knowing this, Kerry Shawcross and Miles Luna wanted to make sure more time was allotted specifically for however many episodes would take place. Combine that with a shift in software to model and animate crowds from Autodesk Maya’s Golemn Crowd plugin to Side FX’s Houdini and the creative process behind the color aesthetic and architecture from the art department and here is the end result. As breathtaking as the setting is, it shouldn’t be dismissed how time-consuming it must have been making this setting as fleshed out as it is.

Moving on, we get the first introduction of a character teased for the longest time since chapter 7 of volume 2, one of Jaune’s seven sisters, Saphron Cotta-Arc, fully voiced, modeled, animated and everything! There’s a lot to cover about the Cotta-Arc family scene in general, first and foremost being Saphron’s voice actress, Lindsay Sheppard, who has previously done some voice acting work, most notably Aria from the Pokemon XY anime. Second thing to mention is that seeing team RWBY meet Saphron was actually animated by Nyle Pierson, who you may remember for first contributing to volume 6 through his animation of Yang and Blake walking through the blizzard in chapter 5. Seeing someone new to the show’s production do facial expressions and the right combination of surprise and eagerness from Ruby is delivered very effectively, all while making sure to show the other characters in the background express finding the behavior awkward in response. It’s unclear if the next set of animated cuts are also from Nyle or not due to the similarly exaggerated nature of the expressions and body language of the characters, but kudos to him either way. This is also a good opportunity to talk about the storyboards for the Cotta-Arc living room scene which were done by Cassidy Stone. This is the same storyboard artist that provided the scene of the main cast eating the ramen hot pot in chapter 7 of volume 5 and it was actually Cassidy’s first work on the show. Between that, the scene of Ruby and Weiss in the storage room and now this, it’s clear that her forte is providing lively banter between characters in a way that rekindled some of the aspect more prominent in RWBY’s earlier volumes. The camera layout also deserves some credit, namely for that bit where Jaune firmly points at Adrian and the camera is timed to shake at that moment to sell his annoyance. One more thing to note was Jaune and Saphron’s family photo which may have been drawn by art director, Patrick Rodriguez.

Next is the introduction of Terra Cotta-Arc, Saphron’s wife which has undoubtedly invoked the fan base into a fervor of positivity over a visible representation of a married lesbian couple. As significant as these characters are for adding another log to the fire of making a minority feel more inclusive through fictional media, what especially works here is that in the short screen time, we get an inkling of what kind of relationship they have. Between the expressions, gestures, choice of dialogue and types of voices from Lindsay Sheppard as Saphron and Rooster Teeth layout coordinator and associate producer, Jamie Smith as Terra, we can tell that one is slightly more free-spirited and easy-going while the other is a bit more grounded, stressed and concerned with ethics (i.e: whether students helping professional huntsmen is “legal” or not). Both clearly have a strong rapport at the end of the day, but it’s the small bits of information in-between that gives that insight. Straight or gay, romantic or otherwise, that’s important to depict in any relationship between characters.

That small tangent aside, one more thing to add about the scene was the cast eating sandwiches. This moment was at least partially animated by Collin McAtee who funnily enough, did the scene while eating a Jimmy John’s club lulu sandwich. The animation was nicely done, especially with Ruby’s eagerness to chow down as well as Blake’s subtle reaction through her cat ears. Though what I wanted to note in particular are the modeled sandwiches. Since it was confirmed that the modeling team handled the ramen food in chapter 7 of volume 5, I assume that they also handled the models for the sandwiches by providing different ones for certain characters depending on how much was bitten off. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, though I felt with Ruby eating her sandwiches in particular, there could’ve been different models of the sandwiches not being bitten off as much to make the animation of her eating them feel more seamless. But it’s all really minor.

There’s one more shot at the end of the episode of the gang at the Atlessian base, though given the preview for next week’s chapter on RWBY Rewind, it’s best to put a pin on that until the next production analysis. Speaking of which, that marks in end of this episode’s analysis. Definitely a variety of scenes that all provided different purposes and different tones, all done very effectively. To go from Cinder and Neo to Maria’s backstory to the present to reuniting with team Jaune, Ren & Nora to meeting Saphron and her family, all in roughly 15-16 minutes, was done very effectively and never felt jarring. We’re now officially at the halfway point with what seems to be an overall more well-received volume thus far and it’s pretty exciting to see what else will be in store from here on.