#what if an armored core protagonist could talk and most of what he said was just 'fuck'?

[divine-motion]

i already knew the secret level armored core episode wasn't gonna be good (keanu reaves go die in a hole genocide endorsing piece of shit) but man. it sure was just a whole lot of nothing and annoying "look this looks just like how it looks in the video game!!" type shots

[onerabong]

It’s theory time

Something that bugged me for a while is this scene where Boros regenerates his whole body

For some reason I don’t see a lot of people talking about it (few of my friends mentioned it once but other than that, I haven’t seen much).

Boros’ core(heart?) seems to be similar in shape and mechanics to those marbles Melzargard has for their own heart. But their species look entirely different.

That shining orb isn’t seen in the manga or the WC, Boros just regenerates around the biggest portion of his body, so the anime team probably added it for dramatic effect or something but still, it’s interesting. It changes how Boros’ entire species’ bodies work depending on what you consider canon. (Of course since they are all canon, you could just mix it up as you like.)

I personally like the manga/WC version better because that orb is way too similar to Melzargard’s heart which just makes things confusing, for me at least. Also it means Boros has a vital point of weakness that could be used against him like it did for Mel. However it is pretty poetic how they connected that to the destruction of the ship’s core, making it seem like Boros’ death was the death of the ship itself.

Anyways, back to DM. In DM Boros is nothing really special, he’s said to have normal Xar abilities and not even that strong enough to be stationed in the military. But in OPM he says his latent energy and regen abilities far surpassed those of the other Xar. So either something happens that drastically changes Boros’ strength, or he’s always had it somehow without knowing. I don’t know if in DM that orb will even be mentioned or be a vital point in Boros’ story, my guess is the latter cuz we all agree that the anime did the Boros fight in the best way. Another mystery in DM is the Heart of the Universe, which I’m pretty sure has something to do with the strength Boros will inevitably gain. The message he received at the start has a very big chance of being the key to, or being the Heart of the Universe itself, which in turn might have a connection to that orb as well.

But that’s just a theory. A fanfic theory.

Now another thing I’m curious about is the other Xar. We see Boros in action a few times and he can he can kick every member of the crew’s ass if he uses his stellar energy. Then what about the General? He’s said to be the strongest Xar in history, but how much would that be?

In OPM, Boros changes into his second form once the armor breaks, unable to contain his energy. That change into a more offensive battle form, is that common among the Xar? There’s no mention of it whatsoever in the fic yet, so I’m guessing it’s pretty rare, probably only possible for the most powerful soldiers in the military as well.

Then what about Meteoric Burst? Now this form would be even more rare, if not completely unheard of. This form changes Boros’ appearance a great deal, to an almost unrecognizable degree. Which brings me back to a previously stated question, why does it look so much like Iryo?? the similarities are uncanny but, It could be purely coincidental. At least that’s what I thought before chapter 22. Boros analyzes Iryo’s attacks to be based heavily on speed. SPEED. Just like Meteoric Burst is.

Call me crazy but now i am 200% sure that Boros’ MB has something to do with Iryo.

Speaking of Iryo, I have more stuff to say about chapter 22.

Aside from the heart wrenching pain the chapter made me feel, one thing i found absolutely fascinating is how the chapter is written, in a storytelling sense.

Iryo is obviously the antagonist in this story, though he does not seem like it because we see other sides of him that’s not the classic ‘evil bad guy’ image. But in the story so far, he is the active enemy of our protagonist Boros, a visual representation of the Xar military hunting him down.

But in this chapter, we see both of them in pain. Both faced with a power they cannot overcome, something so traumatic and violent that they shiver in fear even after it passes. Just like the author said in the notes, Iryo manages to not only traumatize Boros but himself as well. Iryo and Boros are in pain in a parallel sense, in the very same chapter. And isn’t that something. The only difference would be that Boros has his friends to give him comfort, whereas Iryo, in need of the same thing, is only met with more violence, one that is much worse in a sense.

Dark Matter rambles

Warnings for major spoilers for the fic Dark Matter by @lara60

Something I’ve been meaning to say, I find it very interesting that Boros’ Meteoric Burst form so closely resembles Iryo’s body👀 Wonder if it’s just coincidence, or something more..

Edits of comments I left on the the Scorcher arc

I absolutely LOVE three dimensional characters with pasts shown for the readers to sympathize and relate to, while also maintaining their characteristics. There’s this Korean webtoon called ‘one last god Kubera’, and it doesn’t really have a single protagonist, rather, all the characters, including the antagonists in the story are shown their motivations, has complicated stories of their own supporting the motivations. Of course, there’s a balance between the main protagonists and the others via screen time but even the really side characters are shown to have depth and it makes the story absolutely heart gripping and insane. And I had a feeling that DM had that trait even in the earlier chapters, it intensified with the scorcher arc, especially introducing Valerio with his attitude towards Laura, and this chapter really sealed the deal. The whole story of Valerio’s and Lagareos’ past is, without a doubt, heartbreaking. Laura’s reaction however, is the cherry on top for me. How she still tries to use the situation to her advantage, to escape from the figure that abused her her whole life. Succeeding in it, but having heard his story, not feeling victorious at all. (on ch.15)

I love the characterization of Valerio. He seems more approachable, more kind, to confuse Laura(and the readers) and it works, and just when we’re getting comfortable he shows cruelty again. And the best part is that him being more kind is not some sort of act on his part, but is all genuine. His cruelty and kindness is both a genuine factor in his personality, which honestly makes him one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen. (on ch.16)

I love that it starts with a random newbie unaware of Nova’s powers adding to the suspension of what’s coming. Really shows how terrifying Nova is when you’re her enemy.

The twins meeting their fate was absolutely something else. So gruesome, so cruel, but very deserved, in Nova’s point of view. It’s not like I particularly liked the twins, for obvious reasons, but seeing them go was still kinda sad. Satisfying, but unfortunate at the same time(If that even makes sense lol). Because for them, of course Nova was the number one enemy, more for Nai, because she hated her so much. They were both horrible but they really tried so hard to win and still failed. But that’s what happens, which makes Nai’s last look of hatred towards Nova all the more chilling.

Boros giving out orders - Even if it was in such a high stressed situation and very natural since everyone was on edge, it’s still definitely something. It means he was that much sure of his decision and sure of his place as a crew member. I love to see his confidence grow little by little, especially in situations like these, cuz it really feels natural. Not to mention the fact it feels like a foreshadowing to his leadership..

Him having the idea to broadcast their message as a distress call too, that was so smart. Boros has been a huge help for the crew this chapter, when he’s only been part of it for a relatively short amount of time, which is pretty significant..

And to mention significant, him killing the scorchers. This is actually the first time we see Boros mercilessly kill sentient beings. He killed in the very first chapter, but the tone was very different. That was more of a self defense, he was lost and vulnerable and was attacking in a much more defensive stance. This time though, he was trying to protect Proxima and his friends, and they were his enemies, but the emotion that went into it(or the lack of it), the anger, the cruelty, is what makes all the difference.

(In this universe, killing sentient beings itself doesn’t seem to be a major problem in one’s morality. At least in the group of people we get to see. Be that the pirates, the scorchers, or other various smugglers. Which makes sense, because the nature of their work environment requires constant battles, and dwelling on the moral implications of each lost lives would change the fic into a whole different genre. Similar types of morality scale(?) I think can be found in Star Wars or the MCU. The problem arises however, when a subject with no power to, or desire to fight back is killed. Which can be seen with how the Pirates tried to save that little family from the Scorchers, and how Nova was disgusted with the massacre of civilians on her mission. Also with how the Voyager tried to contact the Maelstrom with the intention to help when they thought it was out of control. (I think))

So Boros killing those Scorchers is not a problem in itself, we see Nova do much worse. The changing factor here is that he’s gone from what was relatively a neutral bystander, to an active participator in the crew’s needs. The Dark Matter Pirates are the first real family Boros has ever had, the first people he actually loves and cares about, and he fiercely wants to protect them, to keep them.

“A cruel reminder that nothing in this universe is untouchable, and that if he wants to stay with his friends – with this wonderful group of people who had taken him in, considered him part of the crew, part of their family – he needs to stop hiding.

He needs to protect them, no matter what. It doesn’t matter from who – common bandits, law enforcement, Scorchers, or even the General and his pawns.” (from ch.17)

Dillio’s death was what really made him realize this I think, and right after that he’s faced with the risk of losing another member of his family.

Anything that threatens his family he will not hesitate to kill. He’s angry at the sight of the Scorcher soldiers, because their very presence is a direct threat to the survival of Laura. So he kills without mercy.

In a sense he is very similar to Laura, she also meets the Pirates and feels familial love for the first time. She loves them, wants to protect them, and anything that threatens them is her enemy. She hates the Scorchers for the things they do, and for the things they made her do, especially Valerio who was in the middle of it all. But there was a chance to see past all that, to heal and have a real connection.. Before they killed her friend, her real family. After that she shows no mercy. No doubt in her mind, no hesitation, she kills anyone that is a threat to her friends’ safety.

The difference would be that Nova’s been fighting battles almost all her life, either as a Scorcher, or as a Pirate. She’s used to death in battles, and this is just another one, one that is necessary to protect her friends. Boros however, is not. He was never a trained warrior, never in the midst of battles, he was just an engineer, watching from the sidelines. Now he actively joins in, all with the intention of death, to protect his friends. A natural change, but a big one. As of now Boros’ actions is similar to that of Nova’s.. but I wonder how that will develop over time..

Now it’s clear that Boros’ dreams show the future. The way he was about to call Proxima.. just before she does it herself- that realization, that his dreams show him the future, the CHILLS dude. God I wanna know how this is gonna work out as the story progresses. Can’t help but wonder if it’s connected to the visions Iryo’s been seeing. And the voice the Cyborg talks to. And the picture of the Galaxy that started all this. Also I am SO hyped for Iryo and Boros’ interaction. I mean, there’s gotta be a reason it was Iryo that was chosen to hunt him. Yeah, he’s a great tracker and has the General’s trust so he was chosen, but in a story sense- He has that protagonist vibe. Maybe I’m going overboard but I wanna see him and the General in action so bad.

The fact that Nova faces Valerio without her armor, it makes the interaction all the more real.

Valerio’s speech.. that he hoped for a life together.. that her coming back was a sign of trust, of reconciliation, just shows how self centered he is. If only he knew that what he was doing was hurting others, hurting the people he loves, that he was the problem and not them.. His method brought him from having nothing to leading a successful empire. He was the one who built everything up from scratch, and there was nothing to indicate that what he was doing was wrong, because the one person who said that he drove away a long time ago. And that was a fluke. It was Lagareos who was in the fault, not him. So he goes on, alone, and after a while makes someone he can care about again. This time the relationship is not one of an equal standing, but rather, one that is based on hierarchy. Laura is his daughter, his subordinate, so of course he gets to make the decisions for her. Control her behaviors, her future, her values. It never occurs to him that what he is doing is not an act of love, but of cruelty. He doesn’t realize that having a child doesn’t mean you possess them. Which is why Nova running away, making friends of her own, is a betrayal.

He mentions Lagareos, saying everyone he loves betrays him in the end. And the tragic thing is he did love them, both Lagareos and Nova. Of course he feels betrayed, the people he loves just won’t do as he says, won’t stay in his control, and for him, what is that if not betrayal? Everything has to be in his control, including his loved ones. But of course that can’t happen. He doesn’t realize that that kind of relationship is not a relationship at all. So with Nova’s ‘betrayal’ he learns nothing, and resolves to start all over again, this time without any ‘weakness’.

For a moment there I thought Nova was just going to talk to him, to just tell him how much of an idiot he’s been but no, all she has in mind is her friends’ safety, her number one priority. So she fights. Her tears as she kills him just adds to the tragedy.

Something about the first thing she sees after all that being Boros. Something about how after all that, she still has the energy to recognize her friend, and say his name.

The whole of the last sequence is such a beautifully written tragedy, the best conclusion this arc could’ve got.

(on ch.18)

The message Boros received.. the thing that started all of this.. I keep wondering if it has something to do with the Heart of the Universe..

-Most of this post is just edited comments for now but I’m gonna add more rambles as time goes-

[shihalyfie]

Ichijouji Ken, his future, and Kizuna

Having talked about Kizuna’s extremely deep relationship to 02 as a series, it’s only natural that I should probably spend some extra focus on its main central character, Ichijouji Ken. It’s no secret that, although Daisuke was the protagonist of 02, Ken was the central figure to the series itself (after all, the series was founded on the concept of deconstructing the supposed “genius kid”), and so Kizuna having such a deep relationship with 02 means that it does, inevitably, have a deep relationship with Ken in particular.

The last twenty years have been full of a plethora of meta analysis on Ichijouji Ken as a character within 02 to the point I feel anything I could possibly come up with would probably be redundant, so today I’d like to place extra focus on his development after 02 (in terms of both canonical materials and general analysis), and how it leads up to his portrayal in the recently released Kizuna. (Naturally, spoilers for the movie will be below.)

We’ll start this analysis by looking at where Ken left off during the final episode of 02.

Thanks to his interactions with the rest of the 02 crew (especially Daisuke), Ken was slowly putting his life back together, but he still had a long way to go. As late as episode 49, we learned he still had suicidal ideation tendencies in regards to his deeds as the Kaiser, and although the rest of the team did get through to him in the end, it was clear that there was still a huge path ahead of him as far as coming to terms with himself and bonding with the rest of the team went. This was especially because he ended the series with the Dark Seed still in the back of his neck -- supernatural forces may have assisted his initial downfall, but it was going to be entirely on him to make sure that he never went back there again for the rest of his life.

One thing that’s really important to put in perspective is the actual chronology this ordeal took place in. Although the Kaiser saga spanned a little under half of the yearlong series that 02 was, Christmas skewed the schedule a little bit, so a good chunk of the second half of the series actually took place in much more condensed time than the first. Taking into account the official statement that everything before Christmas roughly aligns with the time of the year the relevant episode aired, and given the exact dates in December that we know episodes 38-50 take place in, within the course of 02, Ken’s reformation from being the Kaiser and bonding with the group spanned around only four months. That is not a lot of time, especially compared to the roughly two-year period Ken went through the trauma of his brother’s loss and his transformation into the Kaiser, so in actuality, Ken made a huge amount of progress considering how little time he had to do so.

Before we continue, I should make clear that I generally count pretty much everything in the Toei-esque fashion of “everything is canon, don’t think about contradictions too hard” (which is generally their modus operandi with pretty much any franchise), so pretty much everything here is fair game. That said, obviously, contradictions and other outliers do exist, so occasionally I am going to have to omit stuff that really, really doesn’t track...so for the sake of this analysis, I’m skipping Armor Evolution to the Unknown for two reasons: one, because it takes massive liberties with characterization for the sake of crack (it’s pretty hard to believe Ken would be this degree of flippant about the Kaiser persona in a more serious situation), and two, because it was written before 02 finished airing (it was released between episodes 43 and 44) and doesn’t reflect a lot of series and characterization development that happened later in the series. (Armor Evolution to the Unknown was released during a time period when the drama CDs were really, really big on the crack -- the three Adventure mini dramas are the same -- and it wasn’t until later that actual “serious” ones would start coming out.)

Given that, our next canonical point we can work with is Diablomon Strikes Back, which takes place in March 2003.

At this point Ken’s recovery is at a little around six months, and he’s making massive progress -- even if you’re not sure about counting the actual events of this movie as canon, it’s an excellent character study in terms of watching Ken’s emotional recovery at this point in time and his relationship with Daisuke, now that he’s not directly dealing with issues pertaining to his own past trauma.

It’s already a very different Ken from the one we’ve seen in the original series, where in episode 38 the idea of him laughing was such a huge shock, but here we already see a much wider emotional range from Ken -- light cheerfulness, playfulness, and at times even a bit of petulance. His actions and dialogue still have Ken’s trademark “softness” -- being kind and gentle has always been said to be his core inner trait, after all -- but, nevertheless, he’s a lot more willing to show “superficial” emotions, especially compared to how closed up, shy, and sometimes standoffish he would be within 02 proper.

Even Ken’s own body language indicates a lot -- he’s much more relaxed and  natural. Observe how he slouches here.

In fact, if you listen to Park Romi’s delivery of his lines throughout this movie, she voices him with a significantly higher-pitched and “lighter”, soft tone through all of it, which really gives off the impression that he’s much less emotionally uptight.

We get a glimpse of Daisuke and Ken’s future dynamic and how they’ll continue to be such tight friends in the future -- Ken is someone who can keep the infamously chaotic Daisuke in check (especially since prior to Ken coming into his life, Daisuke’s closest friend was probably Miyako, and while the two certainly got along very well with each other, they had a tendency to enable each other’s chaos a bit too much at times).

But despite Ken obviously trying to be more sensible than Daisuke here, it still manifests as a much greater show of emotion than the kind you’d be used to within 02 proper. He’s much more assertive with putting his foot down in keeping Daisuke under control, which indicates not only a more comfortable relationship with Daisuke in particular, but also a general increase in his ability to be assertive.

In one of his most famous scenes in this movie, he actually outright taunts Daisuke in order to spur him on. He’s doing it totally affectionately (it’s specifically to give Daisuke more motivation to keep running), but nevertheless, he’s taunting Daisuke -- not really something you'd expect from Ken in 02 proper. The original line in Japanese even has him use the very super-casual and aggressive end particle ~ze.

He even snarks about Daisuke’s convenient bouts of luck in ways that aren’t exactly complimentary (the literal phrasing of this line has “baka mitai ni” in it, in this context "some kind of ridiculous incredible power”).

And, near the end of the movie, when he starts to lose hope, it only takes a single line from Daisuke to get himself back together -- this kind of thing would have probably taken a whole speech in 02, even from Daisuke himself, but by this point Ken’s got a much better emotional grasp on himself.

And in the end, the movie ends on both Daisuke and Ken laughing together -- very lightly.

It’s easy to pass off Ken’s characterization in DSB as an incidental thing simply because this is a “side story” movie from 02 -- especially since it was technically produced during 02′s airing -- but in fact, this portrayal is consistent with what Ken has to say about himself during his next known point in canon, Spring 2003.

Given that Takeru’s track is apparently set “three months” after Christmas, and Miyako’s track talks about having just entered middle school, I assume that this means Ken’s takes place in around late March or early April 2003 (almost exactly a year since 02′s start), but in actuality nothing really “happens” during Ken’s track. Nevertheless, it provides a lot of information on Ken’s state of mind during this time and his own self-reflection on his past...and defines in very clear words what it is that Ken needs to move away from.

You were always in a bad mood and you were cold to me, but now that I think about it, maybe you really wanted to be nicer to other people. I don’t know what happened to you that made you act like you did, but now, I finally feel like I understand a bit. You were demanded to grow up fast, weren’t you, Brother? Because we were always being evaluated and compared by someone, we didn’t get a chance to have more freedom. We didn’t have any chances to run down an alley because we felt like it, or pull up weeds, or tumble around… meaningless things, things that didn’t bring any value to us at all. Just like the cat napping on the roof… we weren’t able to fully enjoy any everlasting freedom.

02 -- especially its latter half -- dealt largely with the concept of parents imposing too many expectations on their children, acting “proud” of them but actually using them to inflate their own self-worth, and in the end effectively robbing their own children of their right to “be children”. While we don’t know a lot about Osamu based on limited information about him, Ken’s parents also lament that they might have robbed Osamu of the opportunity to be a “normal boy” in 02 episode 23.

Once Ken took the role of the “family genius” after Osamu’s death, Ken was thus likewise robbed of that “normal childhood” due to all of the expectations put on him -- and Ken’s words in his track imply that it extended to before Osamu’s death, because just because Osamu was the favored one at the time didn’t mean that Ken wasn’t subject to the same kind of expectations to at least some degree, even if not as much. (Note how he really didn’t seem to have any kind of friends at all prior to Daisuke and the others.)

Thus, Ken’s ideal trajectory is to become “a normal child” -- one not subject to expectations as a “well-behaved genius child”. That applies not only to things like his academic or sports performance, but also even his core manners -- being a “normal person” in this context meaning being allowed to show emotions, be petty, have emotional range that extends beyond just being deferential and polite, and generally do things because he enjoys them and not because others expect him to. This is consistent with his portrayal in DSB, as in said movie he really does come off as a “normal boy” -- a young child who, while certainly less chaotic than Daisuke, is still enjoying himself and interacting with the world in “his own” natural, relaxed way rather than holding himself to obligations.

Another interesting thing about DSB is that it has Ken refer to Daisuke by given name. This is particularly intriguing because up until the end of 02, Ken consistently referred to Daisuke as “Motomiya” (he did use given name in episode 39, but it wasn’t something he really followed up on). This despite the fact he went with given names (plus honorifics) for everyone else in the 02 team, but it seems like Ken was still trying to figure out his very complicated feelings about Daisuke as someone who was his Most Hated Person™ during his Kaiser days and yet is now trying to aggressively reach through his barriers that he’s constructed out of self-defense.

And yet, extremely notably, almost every single post-02 material is consistent about the idea that Ken switches to given name basis with Daisuke after 02. (The only exception is Armor Evolution to the Unknown, which, as stated before, was written and recorded during 02′s airing and not after; notably, Daisuke is also on surname basis with Ken during that drama CD, even though he permanently switches to given name basis after episode 39.) That includes “out-of-hard-canon” things like Xros Wars episode 78.

Yet they still couldn’t remember to put the highlight back in Ken’s eyes, among other things.

Honorific and surname-given name basis fluctuated quite a bit in both Adventure and 02 (especially whenever canon material changed hands between writers), but for all intents and purposes, there is no reason Daisuke and Ken should not be on mutual given name basis after 02. This is especially when you take into account the more naturalistic relationship they have as of DSB -- there’s no standoffishness at all between them anymore.

This ties very deeply into how 02 portrayed its characters. One thing I’ve very, very often pointed out was that it was always an explicit point of contrast between themselves and the original Adventure team was that the 02 kids were not only “friends” in terms of fighting together on Digimon cases, but “friends” in the sense of actual social-life friends who clicked well in personality and adored each other’s company. (Part of this was because of the core theme of the series; Jogress being such a huge motif, “understanding your friends” took precedence over Adventure’s “understanding yourself”.) These are the kids who hung out together in the totally-not-related-to-any-Digimon-incident (at least, not at first) picnic in episode 6 and Christmas party in episode 38, a stark comparison to the Adventure kids who infamously started drifting as early as Our War Game!.

(Note that this isn’t meant to diminish or drop shade on the Adventure kids’ bonds in any way -- I feel like their bond is more of one that’s a “transcendent” one that crosses space and links them through their shared experience, but, nevertheless, is simply not the same in nature as the “social life” bonds the 02 kids had where they were very casual and yet intimate with each other in almost all daily life respects.)

As a result, Daisuke and Ken’s relationship ended up very different from that of their predecessors Taichi and Yamato -- it’s actually hard to imagine them getting in all that many highly heated fights in the same way their seniors would be prone to, and they’d generally be on “mild banter” terms for most of it. In fact, they come off as pretty casual and in-sync with each other, and it’s to the point where it really does feel like -- especially by the point of DSB -- staying on “standoffish” surname basis really is unwarranted.

And while it’s tempting to limit Ken’s relationship to only Daisuke, this did involve the rest of the 02 group, after all -- we got significant episodes defining his relationship to the others (Miyako got a whole episode in 25, and 30′s entire events kicked off because of an attempt to get him to better socialize with Iori!), and the 02 kids as a cohesive “overall group” were integral in getting Ken to open up and show different sides of himself. Although his relationship to certain team members ended up closer than others (Daisuke and Miyako, the ones who tried most aggressively to reach out to him, ended up getting the most out of him), nevertheless, it was important that Ken ultimately cultivated a relationship with a group of friends, and not just one.

This, of course, brings us to Kizuna, which takes place in the summer of 2010. This is a massive leap of time we don’t know a lot about, and for all it’s worth, this means we have, compared to the approximately two years Ken spent suffering under the influence of the Dark Seed, a whole eight years dedicated to potential recovery. There’s a lot that could have happened during that time, and what happened in between, we can only really guess.

Well, for one, he cut his hair.

The reveal of Ken’s design for Kizuna was a huge shock for those watching, because, among all of the twelve main human characters in Kizuna, he probably has the biggest and most drastic design change -- especially because his long hair was so iconic that even the epilogue depicted him with it (and even longer, at that). Were it not for other important identifiers like Wormmon’s presence and the fact said hair is at least still indigo blue, you’d almost wonder if it’s the same character.

(I do have to at least give props to this Animedia poster, though -- that soft and concerned expression is textbook Ken-chan, so it absolutely nails the vibe that it’s the same character despite the massive design change, and it even has a small cute detail that, despite clearly trying to calm Yamato down in haste, he’s still tidy enough to lay his chopsticks neatly on the bowl. That Ken has a habit of doing this while eating hot ramen is a very specific minor blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail in 02 episode 36, and while I’d normally pass this off as coincidence, Kizuna and its PR has had such ridiculous attention to detail that I’m not entirely willing to.)

Not only that, his actual outfit in the movie is rather unassuming -- it’s just a black shirt, pants, and a belt, compared to the more distinctive/fashionable or setting-immersive outfits everyone else has. I mean, it sure beats that godawful grey gakuran he was constantly wearing during 02, but there were certainly a lot of complaints about how...well, unassuming and plain he looks.

The thing is, though, this is very much in line with how Ken would most likely want to present himself. When you think about it, Ken himself would probably not really appreciate his fanbase status as the “sad pretty boy”; having been scrutinized, evaluated, and put on uncomfortable pedestals through all of his early life, “blending in” and coming off as an average, unassuming person would be right up his alley.

Anyway, before we get into Kizuna itself, we have the drama CD that came with its BD, Where Should We Go? While it was released after the movie, in chronological timeline, it serves as a slight prequel, and what we learn about Ken in it is certainly...interesting. Namely, that he’s apparently a hardcore fan of Japanese hot springs. And not just a hardcore fan of them, but also a complete nerd.

The hot springs *obviously* must have free-flowing water. If possible, I think I’d prefer a quiet, rural flowing hot spring that’s surrounded by a moss-covered garden. Then I want to stay the night at a historical inn that focuses more on tranquility and wabi-sabi rather than wildness or beauty. I’m not looking for a lot on the food options, but the portions should ideally be neither too large nor too small. If we’re just going to relax our bodies, then I’d like it if there was a variety of hot springs to choose from. The water quality that I recommend for the ladies would be the hydrogen carbonate spring or the alkaline simple hot spring (these are otherwise known as simple hot springs with a basic pH of 8.5 or above), but my personal favorite is the hot sulphur spring! Incidentally, the hot sulphur spring is said to treat arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. If it were possible, I’d like to take my time there… At least stay for two nights! Ahh… Hot springs… Hehehe…

I cannot stress enough how much the audio delivery for this depicts him as being terrifyingly into it. It’s also...not exactly the most fashionable thing for a nineteen-year-old to be into (actually, it’s more of a stereotype old man thing, what with the fixation on traditional Japanese aesthetics and health nut aspects), but we have Ken being very shameless and assertive about his personal interests, even if they’re a bit unusual.

Funnily enough, this isn’t actually the first time he was demonstrated to be a huge infodumping nerd -- it’s just that the last instance was questionably canonical, but tracks extremely heavily with what was just demonstrated here. Namely, Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol:

Listen, the thing about Christmas is that it's one of the most important days in the world... It was the day the Savior was born... So, you go to church and pray... Of course, you knew all of that right?

Or in other words, he interrupts Daisuke’s wistful thoughts with The Actual Nerd Facts, because he’s a nerd. He even has a bit of a smart-aleck atmosphere...and then he cheerfully and sassily dumps all of the work on Daisuke thereafter. While the canonicity for this song is hard to place since it was released during 02′s airing (and 02 itself depicted a very different Christmas), plus the ambiguity of character song canon in general, it’s interesting how Ken’s portrayal here is pretty surprisingly in line with what we’re learning about his future personality.

The rest of what we see of Ken in the drama CD is what we generally knew about him already -- he’s kind, he dotes on Wormmon (he even indulges Wormmon’s request to take him skiing!), and he still keeps up with being into intellectual studies, and even soccer (he’s described as actually keeping up with soccer to the extent he does training camp), because he was always interested in those kinds of things -- it’s just that now he can indulge in them in ways he personally likes instead of being held to other people’s standards.

But he’s also very emotional, passionate, and openly assertive -- something he could be in 02, but only when it was something he really, really cared about, because most of the time he was a little more on the shy side with others. Not anymore. And he’s happy to indulge in the chaotic trip planning and enable the others, and, at the end, gives some sentimental words to Daisuke, his best friend.

Anyway, onto the movie itself!

Notably, they do not mention Ken’s past trauma nor his deeds as the Kaiser throughout the entire movie.

That might surprise people, given that this was...well, central to the entire plot of 02, so it’s arguably a glaring omission that despite having the 02 cast here, it’s not even brought up once. The only real “reference” to it is this scene, where Ken happens to be the one who knows about Menoa’s background as a child prodigy -- and even then it’s uncertain whether this had anything to do with said traumatic events (Menoa was admitted to Liberica in 2002 itself) as much as it’s a meta nod to Ken having a suspiciously similar background and the fact he and Menoa were based on the same real-life story (the nine-year-old boy who skipped grades into Columbia University).

But, again, recall that Ken has had eight years to move on from the events of 02, more time than said events had actually spanned over. That doesn’t mean he’s easily going to forget that trauma, nor that said events don’t still have an impact on him, but rather that a true positive development for him should have him not having to consciously dwell on it if it’s not necessary, and that his friends of now eight years should probably not be still holding it over him at a time like this.

After all, 02 itself was dedicated to scolding this kind of behavior -- not being “stuck in the past” (which, well, also happens to be a very pertinent theme when it comes to Kizuna...) was basically the entire point of the latter half, and so it stands to reason that Ken, and by extension the rest of the 02 cast, would be more focused on what they’re doing now instead of what happened back then.

In the absence of any references to said past, Ken in the actual movie ends up coming off as a bit unremarkable and plain compared to the three friends who end up surrounding him, all of whom have much more extreme personalities (the chaotic and exuberant Daisuke and Miyako, and the comically poker-faced Iori). But you get the feeling that he’s perfectly fine being that way -- rather, he’s enjoying getting all of his fun from his exciting friends, without feeling a need to spice things up himself.

So when we finally do meet Ken for the first time in Kizuna, he’s cheerfully eating ramen with Daisuke and Iori in New York (which, for all it’s worth, is probably really questionably legal, considering that Adventure’s world of 2010 likely still hasn’t figured out how to deal with that whole thing with “immigration and customs” as it pertains to Digital Gates.) Emphasis on cheerfully. He’s as tidy as ever (note how he still properly keeps his chopsticks between his fingers and cleans up after himself, albeit not as well as Iori), and he’s obviously more straight-laced than Daisuke or Miyako, but he isn’t really hiding the fact he’s also totally enjoying this. He didn’t even know why they were there for ramen in New York in the first place, but he just rolled with wherever Daisuke took him.

Recall that, according to their official profiles, these three go to completely different schools now -- Iori’s in high school, Daisuke’s at vocational school getting a chef’s license, and Ken’s in university studying psychology. (Which, by the way, is not brought up at all throughout the movie nor the drama CD! It’s easy to glean how his past experiences might give him an interest in the topic, and it’ll certainly be a valuable background to have for his future known career in criminal investigation, but despite Ken previously having had a reputation for being studious, it’s not brought up at all -- almost as if hanging out with his friends and having fun with them is more important and pertinent.) The drama CD even points out that Ken would normally be busy with soccer training camp. Yet they’re hanging out. In New York. Eating ramen. So, Yamato, what were you saying about how “choosing your own path can sometimes mean being alienated from friends”? If anything, these friends seem to be going out of their way to make sure they’re staying tight.

And, as you’d expect, Ken refers to Daisuke by given name, following DSB’s precedent. Again, given the nature of their relationship right now, this should be expected. There’s other evidence that Kizuna does use DSB as reference in certain other respects as well (Takeru calls Yamato “niisan”, which had previously been exclusive to that movie), and it’s very possible that Ken as portrayed in that movie was used as reference for his potential trajectory here.

Note that he seems to be even more outwardly affectionate with Wormmon than before (which is, shockingly, apparently possible) -- he still feeds his partner before feeding himself (similar to what he did in 02 episode 37), but now he also shamelessly carries Wormmon on his head, which he never did in 02. Perhaps it’s because he’s tall enough to carry the weight, but unlike with Takeru and Patamon, Wormmon is big enough that the sight is honestly comical -- yet Ken couldn’t care less, and while we don’t see him in his own school, it’s a sharp contrast to how Taichi and Yamato scoffed at the idea of bringing their partners to school because they “have their own lives to live”.

(A nice touch is Ken carrying Minomon from his arm, which actually comes from a very obscure piece of 02 concept art -- you can find it in the Character Complete File or the Animation Chronicle -- but was never depicted in the series proper. The Kizuna design works in the April 2020 edition of Animedia actually recreated that piece of art with Ken in the exact same position, only as a nineteen-year-old this time, which was an incredibly welcome thing to see.)

He greets Miyako upfront when she arrives, which doesn’t look like much on its face, but recall that this probably wouldn’t have happened during 02 proper -- not even with Daisuke! -- and, at the very least, not with this very casual “hey!” tone. It means a lot in terms of how much more casual of a person he’s been able to become in the last eight years, and how much more casual he is with this group (well, at least with Miyako). Takeru also greets Wormmon in the drama CD, and Wormmon seems pretty unusually happy to see Hawkmon when they meet each other there, certainly implying a lot of interpersonal interaction since.

Miyako meets up with them (and, going back to how tight these kids are, Miyako would come in all the way from Spain to meet her friends even for the exact same job that she dumped on her seniors), and they end up infiltrating Menoa’s office. He gets in a line of snark, especially because the Shueisha Mirai novel indicates he’s deliberately “looking the other way” in regards to worrying about security -- looks like he’s developing some Lawful tendencies, but in the end, his friends and getting to the bottom of the real truth take priority.

And, also, it’s still pretty clear he’s totally taking the opportunity to enjoy this.

So what does this all mean, really? He’s taking a fairly passive attitude with his abundantly more chaotic friends, but he’s also not protesting, and he’s enjoying everything he can out of it. He’s a bit quieter than he was in DSB, but that could easily just be from being older and a bit more mature, and he hardly comes off as reserved, either (it helps that Daisuke doesn’t quite resort to any antics nearly as ridiculous as he did in DSB, so there’s no need to keep him in check -- yep, even Daisuke got a bit more mature himself). And he’s joining these kids in being possibly some of the most chaotic disaster adults (near-adults?) on this planet, in a sharp contrast to their seniors.

I mentioned earlier in my analysis of Kizuna’s relationship to 02 that Ken is actually a “hidden” foil to Kizuna’s main antagonist, Menoa -- they were both conceived from the same idea Producer Seki had regarding the real-life “genius boy” who ended up going to Columbia University at a young age and, in her opinion, was going to be robbed of a proper childhood experience. 02′s Dark Seed children arc was a major indictment against parents forcing this kind of pressure on children, not only in the sense of pushing them academically but also quashing out their more “childish” dreams for the sake of a more “dignified” outlook and future. Through the events of 02, Ken learned a very personal lesson on not losing his “true self” to the pressure of those expectations, and the meaning of valuing his family and friends instead.

Ken and Menoa, effectively, were originally on the same path, but thanks to the circumstances of 02, Ken managed to avert Menoa’s fate and ended up following his own way. Nevertheless, Ken was largely robbed of a normal kid’s childhood up until the age of eleven, and it stands to reason that, even at the age of nineteen, he might still be trying to make up for all of those fun experiences he never was able to have.

Funny thing about his haircut, too -- this isn’t the first time Ken’s had this haircut, actually. You know when was the last known time he did?

Hm. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

But unlike Menoa, who decided that it would be better to trap herself in her own distorted view of what “childhood” is, or Oikawa, who ended up clinging dearly to the last reminder he had of what he’d lost from his childhood, Ken ends up dealing with it in a very forward-facing manner. In fact, he’d elucidated his feelings on the issue back in Spring 2003:

There are still a lot of times when I think about how I should have “done this back then.” But I discovered that there are many things I can do over afterwards. I’ll stop counting the things that I can’t do. Because I’m sure there are many things that I can do.

Instead of living in regrets about the past, Ken simply chooses to move forward by making new fun experiences and memories with his friends, befitting those he couldn’t have when he was a kid, and perhaps even enhanced by his newfound freedom as a nineteen-year-old.

During the final battle, we get a few more emotional and assertive shows from Ken -- his concern about Miyako is pretty frantic-sounding, and the fact he steps in so quickly and frantically to help her out by his own will is pretty impressive. And then he definitively declares that they can’t afford to give up -- which is certainly in line with the nobility he had even during 02, but remember when, even in DSB, Daisuke had to be the one to remind him of this? Now he’s the one reassuring his teammates about this, all on his own. When it all comes down to it, his sense of awareness of what he wants and what he wants to do is stronger than ever.

I mentioned in my analysis of Kizuna in relation to 02 that the 02 kids are in a fairly unique position in the movie, thanks to having already practically gone through a lot of the lessons in both 02 and Kizuna, thus leading them to become very lacking in susceptibility to potentially losing their partners anytime soon (and in fact are deliberately portrayed as such). I would say of all of them, Ken is the most representative of this -- being such a direct foil to the movie’s main antagonist, one who actually came dangerously close to making some of the exact same mistakes she did and emerged with his own trauma as a result, the lessons and warnings imparted by the movie are already deeply embedded in his being.

He’s one of the most openly affectionate and intimate with his partner, having already learned the very, very hard way of what happens when you don’t treasure your partner properly. (He’s taking Wormmon jogging with him, which has got to be an awfully uncomfortable setup, but, goddammit, he’s gonna make it work. And if ~With~ is to be believed, he’s been doing this for years now.) He’s still got a Dark Seed in the back of his neck as an eternal reminder to remember who he is, and to acknowledge the love from his family and friends around him instead of succumbing to arbitrary societal expectations. Remember what I said in my earlier analysis about the true reason for partnerships dissolving, and how deeply it was tied to throwing yourself away for the sake of arbitrary standards of adulthood? Ken’s experiences and extremely painful trauma are like a giant do not do this stamp on his face, and although everyone in this cast is naturally human and may have ups and downs or relapses, Ken is possibly one of the last characters one could imagine succumbing to that kind of mistake again.

So we make it to the epilogue, and although Ken’s technical job title as given in the epilogue is literally “police officer” (keisatsukan), his form of dress (plainclothes, not uniform) and his the Character Complete File indicate he’s from the Digimon Special Investigations Unit (tokusoubu), or, in other words, he’s actually a public-servant detective. (So no, the various dubs also going with “detective” are thus not “changes” in this respect.) In short, he investigates scenes of crimes after they happen, and the Character Complete File provides an example in the form of him investigating a dead body found at the river.

This is probably why Kizuna has him major in psychology, because forensic psychology would be a pretty useful skillset for this kind of job, and a university education in general would most certainly be helpful. (The job requirements as per the Japanese system also require a very high level of athleticism and aptitude.) On the other hand, considering what we know about Ken up to Kizuna, there aren’t any indications that he treated this like any kind of major aspiration, and the psychology major makes you think he might have just fallen into this career by a series of accidents -- he took an interest in psychology (and mental health) due to his own experiences, and then decided that “discovering the truth behind things” was up his alley (much like Iori). Even more notably, his position isn’t really described in any history-making terms, not even ones like being “the first” of anything (like Jou), and it feels like he’s doing this to contribute to society in a way he prefers more than he’s trying to accomplish anything world-shattering.

But on the flip side, it’s probably no coincidence that the 02 epilogue portrays him with such a big family. Of course, it also fits with his and Miyako’s family backgrounds (they’d probably want their kids to have siblings, given their own experiences), but since the Dark Seed was described as having its effects countered by acknowledging how much you’re loved, Ken is clearly surrounded by love -- his wife is one of the most openly affectionate people out there, and his kids (or at least his middle child) use the same “Mama” kind of affectionate language Ken shared with his own parents. Once the events of 02 came to a close at the end of 2002, Ken went on a journey of discovering his own self-assertion, personal desires, and fun -- shedding the expectations and societal standards others had of him, and learning to enjoy life in ways he personally enjoys, for his own sake.

[solesurvivorpaigeargot]

Okay but let’s talk about the opening of Fallout 4

And I’m not talking about the part where you gotta pantomime your way through a half-hour of BS at least before you’re actually allowed to step out into the world and get shite started [seriously Bethesda, if you’re gonna keep making openings like this, please include a ‘get to the point’ option and stop making modders do it for you. First time it’s interesting, second time it’s mind-numbing.] I’m talking about when you roll up on the museum and have to help out Preston and the gang-- and I’m just gonna rant for a few paragraphs here so here’s a read-more cut so I don’t clog up dashes too badly. 

Fallout 4 never gives you the chance to value human life. 

Fallout 3 had this issue as well, but it’s even more glaring in 4 because in 3 an order came down for your death. When you aren’t given a choice, what you’re doing can at least be penciled in as self-defense. 4 expects you to devalue raiders and treat them as unreasonable threats, to see them as a shooting gallery and nothing else... but there’s a serious problem with the framing.

You made me pantomime being a normal person for the first 30 min to hour of your experience, and now you’re telling me a normal person can just pick up a gun and start popping people with no moral issues. 

This is required to even get close enough to talk to Preston. He might take out all the raiders if you’re willing to wait 20 minutes, but when you put yourself into the role play head space of a character, what kind of person ducks behind the sandbags and waits for the dude with the laser to pick everyone off? And there is no force preventing you from simply running away, this is true-- but doing so simply removes your ability to interact with what is a core mechanic of the game a-la the minutemen and establishing settlements. So if you wanna keep the game experience intact, and follow along with the mission? Murder is required, without any time taken out to consider the value of human life or if that murder is justified, or if your character is capable of that kind of violence. 

To say I dislike this headspace in shooters, that whomever the denoted ‘bad’ group is are just okay to treat as squishy playthings, more so in shooters that try to integrate choice and morality, is a massive understatement. There are plenty of other things in the commonwealth that could threaten a group of settlers that aren’t people, and framing us as a normal person [PARTICULARLY IF YOU PLAY AS ‘NORA’ WHO WAS NOT A MILITARY MEMBER] who is just immediately ready for this is ASSUMPTIVE BULLSHIT. More so when you remember that if you played as ‘Nate’ this dissonance would be less-- it assumes a male audience who would choose the male protagonist, and his military service makes this opening a lot smoother. But when you don’t? It becomes batshit insane. Your average lawyer is not ready to just pick up a gun and wreck people, even when there are innocents on the line. 

So, if ya like, I’m gonna propose an ‘alternate’ idea for what this mission could have been that would have kept all the same elements. The raiders, the power armor, the deathclaw-- but not forced the player character directly into murder. 

Step 1: Finding Dogmeat. 

When we find Dogmeat, he appears to be just... wandering the gas station? And yeah, he’s in our path, but Mama Murphy appears to think that Dogmeat went and found you, so let’s take that a step further. Let’s say Dogmeat actually ran and found you-- that he spawns into the world when you get past the footbridge, and no matter where you go from there Dogmeat will find and bark at you. That no matter how you treat him, Dogmeat will try to lead you to Concord and ruin your stealth by running in circles around you and barking if you try to go the wrong way. That this pupper is trying to find someone to help his group, he found you. 

Step 2: The approach.

So say we follow Dogmeat, who leads us to where the raiders and Preston’s group are in standoff. And yeah, sure, we pass the main road where they’re all sandbagged up, but Dogmeat leads us around back to a rear entrance the raiders have not yet realized exists. Possibly a fire escape that has a ladder that could be released from above that was pulled up when Preston and co hunkered down. While, yes, the player could choose to engage the raiders at this point, deciding they’ve seen enough and take on the museum from the front? Going around, Dogmeat barking, and Mama appearing to let the ladder down because she probably knew you were coming gives you a non-violent in. Why haven’t the group left? There’s too many of them to just sneak out, Mama is old and slow, and Jun is nearly catatonic. No changes have to be made to the group to make that path out non-viable, it’s simply a way for you to get in, speak to Preston, and understand what the fuck we’re dealing with here without the one and only solution being kill everyone-- though the power armor is posited as something that might be helpful in a show of force to get the raiders to fuck the fuck off. 

Step 3: The Raiders.

Banditry is not something ‘bad people’ do. It is an act of desperation. The idea that all the raiders are just the most repugnant people on the planet, and there appears to be no fuckin’ end to them is the same flavor of bullshit that’s used in all that war on drugs propaganda 50′s politicians were so high on. The idea of ‘Oh, the raiders are just bad people, so it’s okay to shoot at them’ ignores that they are people. People with lives. People with motivations. People who had their own path that led to where they are and what they’re doing. And what motivates a person to this kind of violence?

Starvation, usually. And I’ll be the first to say I don’t make great decisions when I’m hungry, either, but let’s dig a little deeper on this. Let’s step into the role of the leader of a raider group for a few seconds, get into this head space, and think about what’s going down with Preston’s group. 

Imagine that I am a leader of a raider band. Let’s imagine that it started as me and a friend getting forced out of Diamond city, possibly given exile, because we couldn’t find work and decided to steal some food. The lack of work was no fault of our own; me and my friend may not have known the right people, or had the right skill sets, or been willing to take work that risked our lives as if we were worth nothing. Maybe we survived on good will for a while, but after so many hungry days got desperate, held up the Dugout for all the caps they had, or stole food from the general store, and tried to run with the take before we got caught. Whether we were caught, stripped of our gains, and then thrown out, or we got away-- we now have a place we can’t go anymore, and are at the mercy of the outside world. Are we bad? Are we bad because we were starving to death and desperate? Am I bad for coming up with a not great plan but at least trying to take action rather than just quietly dying in a gutter? I just wanted to eat. So now me and my friend are drifters, and we stick together because we’re all we got. And maybe we meet another drifter here, and another one there, and on some hungry night someone gets the idea that hey, if we all jump out from the side of the road and threaten a trader, maybe they’ll drop some of their stock without a fight?

We don’t want caps. We want food. We can’t spend the caps, and we don’t wanna get into a fight because none of us can get treatment-- we’re exiles and criminals. We don’t want blood, we want to eat.

So we threaten a trader, and that goes well-- we got supplies! But those supplies don’t erase our records. We still need to live, and this food is only gonna last so long. The traders know about us now, they talk-- even if we got money, who the hell would trust us? No one, that’s who. Even better, sounds like our little hold-up horned in on some other group’s territory that we didn’t even know about, and they ain’t happy with us. We all have guns, but none of us have ever killed anyone. None of us want to. We just wanted to eat.

So did the other group. They just wanted to eat, too, but they saw us horning in on their territory. Their take. Those supplies belonged to them. They have mouths to feed. More than us, probably. We stole from them, and all we wanted was to eat. 

Whatever happens next is desperate, and it’s a baptism in blood. It’s a process of alienation. While there may be a select few who are actually out of their gourd and enjoy the violence, the majority of people who engage in banditry are desperate and hungry. 

So what the hell does this have to do with the group holding up Preston’s group?

By all rights, Preston’s group does not have anything a gang of raiders wants. Even if they’re far enough along that caps have value to them again, able to do trade with their own network, injuries are expensive and often lead to permanent disability because these groups lack consistent access to medical supplies and knowledge, and fatalities means your crew is down an important and useful member. SO WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY WANT? 

In the canon encounter, what they want is nothing. They want to wipe out Preston’s group because the game said so [I think there’s a terminal entry about it later, like they’re getting paid or something, but no payment is worth getting wiped out the way they did, and you don’t run a group that big on blind arrogance alone. Gristle woulda been displaced by then. All the caps in the world aren’t worth your life; you can’t feed dead crew members, and greed is useless when you’re blacklisted from all the settlements with any sense of luxury] They exist to shoot at. But when we ascribe motivation to them, what the fuck do they want? 

The power armor. 

It’s a tool; something that would change the balance of power in the area, make other groups think twice and lower the chance of losses when trying to gain supplies. Screw wiping these morons out, there’s only five of them left-- hold them at stand-off for a day or so until someone breaks and asks to negotiate, make them drop everything they’ve got as the toll for getting out, and then the group steps in to take the prize. There’s no need for anyone to get shot, just gotta starve ‘em out a little and then let them run with their lives. 

Step 4: The Death Claw

So we have a stand-off situation that could... probably be pretty easily negotiated through without major loss of life. Your player character is a third party, after all. Opens up some non-lethal ways of doing things if you wanna convince Preston and co to give up all their stuff if it means getting out with their lives. Likewise, a high speech character could possibly go to Gristle and convince him that you’ve seen the power armor and it’s wrecked, no worth the effort he’s spending on bottling this crew up, and the men he’s probably already lost in the process. Or maybe a character with high intelligence could work with Sturges to sabotage the power armor, handing it over to the raiders knowing that in a day or two it’ll fall apart. All of these make for some interesting shades-of-gray choices...

Then the deathclaw shows up. In the middle of negotiation. Everyone gets forced up to the upper floor; no time to kill each other, there’s a giant murder machine prowling around the lobby and it is only a matter of time before it climbs up to the second floor and starts ripping out walls and doors to get at people.

This could have served to make the situation even more interesting-- if you’d gone aggro in the beginning and started killing raiders in the streets, you have less people to deal with a massive threat that could kill the fuck out of you. If you’d been in the middle of convincing the raiders to take a sabotaged set of power armor, you’d have to explain to them why the power armor isn’t gonna help you... or let Gristle take it and get murdered when it freezes up and leaves him stranded to get ripped out of the can and munched. Is that murder? How’s the player feel about that? Meanwhile, if you hadn’t killed anyone and were in the middle of negotiating a bloodless solution, you might have a chance of unifying everyone to take down the deathclaw-- possibly with a future bonus that Gristle and his crew wanna go straight and giving you the choice to set them up within your settlement system, or becoming yet another ‘civilized’ system that won’t work with them because they’re too far gone. 

...................... I may have to write another fic just to explore these ideas in a modified canon. 

[itsclydebitches]

So I'm curious what are some character designs you love? Not from RWBY, but just i general. I'm the same anon who got you to check out Berserk and I'd say essentially all of the designs are done damn well. Fit the character. Changes that makes sense for growth. Also make sense given the setting. Even women in armor that doesn't have those massive boob plates. Good designs impact so much subconsciously to have much we enjoy other aspects of a story.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked my never-ending need to praise Yu Yu Hakusho! :D 

This long, picture-laden post needs two disclaimers going forward: 

I’m not an artist. In the sense that I’m not a visual artist who knows anything about what makes character design good from a technical/community approved standpoint. This is purely based on my own, personal reaction to a beloved series. 

Connected to that, I’m going into this under the assumption that people might really disagree with me (?). Based on the cartoons and anime that I see praised for character design, I don’t think YYH fits whatever list more knowledgeable viewers are pulling from. But I’m gonna lay out my thinking anyway! 

Major spoilers for Yu Yu Hakusho below. 

Alright let’s do this. 

First off, when people start talking character design they often reference how cool a character is. Which makes sense. You want a character to be visually engaging and distinct. Something that makes you go “Wow!” whenever you look at them. However, one of the things I love about the YYH cast is how normal they are. Because they’re supposed to be normal. The trope of the main character having a crazy hair color has become so prominent that we’ve got memes about it now and that works for a lot of stories. You know who is important because, despite the assumption that they’re average people not dying their hair, they stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of the cast. 

However, normalcy is a really important part of YYH. The entire point at the start is that Yusuke is not special. He’s not unique. He’s a delinquent kid who most assume isn’t going anywhere in life. When he dies this doesn’t unlock some Super Special Backstory - you were innately amazing all along! - he just gets caught up in the plot because of a paperwork issue. The afterlife doesn’t know what to do with an asshole kid who unexpectedly saved another kid’s life so they just kind of... shuffle him around until he’s given another chance to live. Then he gets to pay back that second chance by becoming a Spirit Detective. Yeah, Yusuke is talented when it comes to fighting and spirit energy, but at the start that’s rarely emphasized outside of “He’s the best street fighter among no-name street fighters so really, it’s not impressive once you take Yusuke out of his tiny world of school parking lots and the occasional alleyway.” The takeaway is that he’s a dime-a-dozen troubled teen who got involved in the spirit world due to an impulsive act and a bunch of bureaucracy. Indeed, it’s a HUGE moment of emotional growth for Yusuke to realize that people do love him despite his supposedly average, unremarkable, and otherwise negative personality. His normal-ness - and others’ expectation that he could someday make himself great if he learns to work at it - is crucial to where Yusuke starts out. Making him visually distinct in terms of Anime Protagonist Looks would undermine a lot of that. This isn’t supposed to be a Super Special Kid Destined For Greatness. He’s just... a kid. A normal kid. A kid who has to work and learn and grow if he wants to make something of himself. So he gets black hair, brown yes, and a green school uniform. He’s pretty damn average looking. 

Same with Kuwabara. Same with Keiko. Same with Atsuko. They’re just normal people going about their lives and I always appreciated that they looked the part. You can still easily tell them apart thanks to different hair colors, texture, jaw lines, and outfits, but none of them seem out of place in the average world they start out in. Which, as said, is crucial to a lot of YYH’s themes. The ones who look more visually distinct - Hiei and Botan - aren’t human. It makes sense that they wouldn’t obey these same average laws of the rest of the cast and they are our first taste of a world that, in terms of character design, will eventually get pretty wonderfully weird. They function as stepping stones. 

This eventually becomes a story about the demon world and those demons wouldn’t come across as particularly scary/other if you begin the story with equally strange looking humans. Or even just “I don’t see people who look like that walking down the street” humans. Alongside many themes, there’s a contrast at work here. Yusuke stepping out into a stadium full of demons who despise him because of his species hits home when he is so clearly distinct from them. Suddenly, his normal is abnormal. 

Once the ball gets rolling, Yusuke’s looks are constantly in contrast with both his environment and his inner self. He looks like a scary thug but then unexpectedly saves a life. He looks like an average human but is actually the strongest among a group of scary-looking demons. He looks like this badass spirit detective who everyone assumes with have an equally badass spirit beast but, uh... 

Oh my god that’s a precious baby. By the time our cast is family and everyone accepts that Yusuke looks scarier than he actually is or ever was - once the core group is made up of not just humans but demon loving humans who are equally soft - we turn it all on its head again and reveal that Yusuke has demon blood. For the first time he looks as strange and powerful as he is. Yusuke’s normality is done away with the second he’s fully accepted his place in these worlds, throwing everything back into chaos. 

Yusuke’s demon form becomes even more foreign looking  when he’s being controlled by his ancestral father. The above is a Yusuke who is still Yusuke and in many respects the design reflects that: natural hair color, human body, tattoos easily covered up with a shirt. When he’s gone full Mazoku though, something dangerous, the white, wilder hair and change to his expressions ensure we read him as something feral. For the first time in the series Yusuke is truly the dangerous creature he’s pretended to be since his principal was running after him at school. 

As a side-note about character costumes, we see this emphasis on normality in their outfits as well. Obviously a story like RWBY is limited by how much time/money they have for animation, but it nevertheless has an impact to see the group almost constantly in their battle gear. They’re never not the main characters of an action-fantasy show, not even while just out around town with no expectation of entering a fight.  

In contrast, Yusuke and Kuwabara are often animated in everyday clothing that remind us that they’re really just teens trying to live their lives outside of this crazy nonsense. Kuwabara wasn’t even formally hired for all this! The cast wears sweaters and jackets while out and about. More formal clothes for special occasions. Jeans and t-shirts when they’re unexpectedly caught up in a fight because, you know, they’re not ready for battle every second of every day. They’re drawn like normal folks because, outside of the ring, they are. 

(We’ve also got a lot of parallels between Yusuke and Kuwabara’s civilian clothing, visually reminding us that they’re far more alike than they might be willing to admit.)

Despite often changing outfits, the group maintains a basic color pallet that makes them recognizable, yet it’s also not so limited that they appear strange for sticking to one (1) color for the entire time we know them. Yusuke, like most people, is drawn to particular colors, mostly greens, yellows, and blues, so each time we see him he’s familiar while also being distinct from the last time he changed. 

Hiei, as someone who initially wants nothing to do with anyone else and relies on assassin-like speed to take out his enemies, is dressed almost entirely in black. Without that bit of white in his scarf/hair you’d lose him in the shadows... which is the point. 

When he opens up and actually becomes friends with the team, his color pallet starts opening up a great deal too.  

And we’re shown all the little changes he starts incorporating that speak to his growth: his Jagan eye, a bandaged arm hiding his Dragon of the Darkness Flame, the necklace connecting him to Yukina. 

I’ve blathered on about the outfits enough but as a quick final note: EVERYONE WEARS APPROPRIATE FIGHTING CLOTHES. 

No one (even the women to my recollection) wear heels. Everything is loose-fitted and looks easy to move in. They’ve got sensible belts, bandages if they need them, and... that’s it. No unnecessary bells and whistles that distract from what’s supposed to be the story’s real draw: good fights and good characterization. Even the more elaborately styled characters (usually) look like they chose their outfits practically first and for the aesthetic after. At no point do I recall watching this show and going, “WHY would you wear that to a fight??” 

Anyway, back to the designs. 

The exceptions to either side of these extremes - from human normal to demon monstrous - are Genkai and Kurama, both of whom straddle the line. Genkai is someone who has pushed her spirit and body far past the norm. She’s the first human we meet who truly goes beyond that normality, even if you don’t immediately realize it. Her pink hair (such a soft color in her old age it’s not at all distracting) is a slight hint that something isn’t quite right with her. She’s obviously human... but not a normal human. Not anymore. 

Those unnatural looks are emphasized in her youth when she was at the height of her power. 

Genkai as a young woman has vibrantly pink hair (a bright pastel like Botan’s), a softer face, and far more emotive eyes. She looks ethereal, which fits not just her own journey to power but Togoru’s as well. Her story is intimately tied up in what that power does to the human body/soul. So Toguro starts out like this 

a pretty normal looking guy who is on the far end of what the human body is naturally capable of. He’s buff as hell, but not so much that it looks unreasonable. I’ve seen body builders bigger than him. He’s the average (dehydrated...) MCU superhero. However, he ends up like this

In Togoru’s case his abnormality is explicitly presented as grotesque. Rather than giving him a cool looking characteristic that’s clearly supernatural (blue hair, an extra eye, curly horns, etc.), we’ve taken a human characteristic (muscles) and expanded them to an unnatural degree. He’s got some uncanny valley shit going on. 

Paralleling Genkai, we likewise see Kurama subtly standing out among his human allies. 

He’s a demon in a human’s body. By in-world logic his appearance should be just as normal as anyone else’s, but a bit of his true nature shines through. His hair is long in a style not popular in YYH’s Japan. His red is far less of a natural shade than Kuwabara’s. He carries himself with the air of someone who is ancient, because he is. His human design deliberately reflects his true demon form so when that’s finally revealed we still recognize him as Kurama. 

(Same sort of work with Hiei’s demon form.) 

When we look at the cast together we have an immediate, visual impression as to who is normal and who is not - and those assumptions are embedded into the story. Yusuke is someone you’d overlook in the crowd, but he’s the most powerful. Kurama is clearly other in some way, but he’s desperate to live an average, human life. Kuwabara is designed to look and move like the fool and a lot of his development (his and others’ in relation to him, really. Like Hiei) is built around respecting him despite those looks. Hiei is tiny but will kick your ass. Genkai is tinier and will kick your ass worse. 

Her size combined with her age - combined with her status as Yusuke’s teacher - is a continuous reminder not to judge power by looks alone. Don’t underestimate your opponent and get overconfident (a major flaw of Yusuke’s). Know that you still have a LOT to learn about the world. That woman you assume is just a rude grandma? She’s going to break your expectations over and over and over again. 

Speaking of size, that’s a major aspect of Koenma’s design as well. When Yusuke learns he’s meeting the head of the underworld he starts picturing a massive, demonic beast who (sensing a theme here) looks the part of a supernatural ruler. Seeing Koenma for the first time - an adorable toddler-like being - is an absolute shock. 

It’s a gag for the audience, but it’s not just a gag. Due to his looks Yusuke is unable to take Koenma seriously, despite knowing the power he holds. 

Which, even more-so than arrogance, is Yusuke’s greatest flaw throughout the series. He doesn’t take school seriously. His death seriously. Ruler of the underworld seriously. His teacher seriously, etc. Yusuke constantly acts like he doesn’t care, throwing basic respect and effort in the face of whatever authority figure is desperately trying to keep him from self-destructing. He’s on the receiving end of multiple speeches throughout the series (mostly from Genkai) that boil down to, “Care about something, dammit. Take this seriously!” and when he does it’s GREAT. It’s a moment of growth we’ve really built to in a hundred different ways, including how he reacts to others’ looks. Koenma’s design feeds directly into the primary flaw Yusuke is working to overcome. How will he go from a delinquent laughing in the face of the most powerful being to someone multiple worlds can put their trust in? Design assists with that. 

When Yusuke does respect Koenma (even if he still insults/teases him because that’s just an ingrained part of Yusuke’s personality) Koenma’s appearance can change. It’s no longer serving its original function, so he evolves into a very good looking young man (with references to Tuxedo Mask to emphasize those good looks) that just... happens to still carry a pacifier. 

A pacifier that is revealed as an incredibly powerful weapon that will help save the world. Again: don’t judge anyone or anything solely on their looks. They’re never precisely what you’d assume they are based on your first glance - with the exception of minor villains whose looks serve only to convey their villainy: 

For everyone else, looks are complex. Two of the most different looking characters (color-wise anyway) are actually siblings, their contrasts reflecting both differing cultures and the emotional distance between them. 

The scariest looking monsters are just paper-pushers. It’s the handsome humans you should watch out for.  

And this is our hero, a man charged with protecting three worlds. 

I could say SO MUCH MORE but this is already disgustingly long so basically YYH (I think) does a great job of: 

Crafting characters that are distinct but not different for the sake of different. They always feel like they belong to their individual worlds and adhere to whatever “normal” is by those standards. 

Tying character looks really closely to the show’s themes and individual growth. Which, frankly, is something I think all good character design should do. 

It’s not nearly as flashy as other anime... but YYH knows what it wants to accomplish and went about it beautifully. Catch me still weeping over this show fifty years from now. 

Peace ✌️

[daylighteclipsed]

It's so nice that you're enjoying both series!! Especially when fandom is so divided over them.

I’m over 30 episodes into 2003 now. I haven’t finished 2003 or Brotherhood yet, but I think both series are necessary to get the full experience. I see fma as one universe. Brotherhood has breadth and 2003 has depth. Brotherhood gets you interested in these characters, and 2003 (at least, for me) makes you care about them. 2003 fills in the gaps that Brotherhood leaves behind, especially in the first season like:

Ed and Al’s childhood; Ed’s journey to becoming a well-known state alchemist at 12; how the boys become acquainted with Hughes, Roy and the others; the extent of the boys’ bond with Nina; Barry the Chopper’s backstory; Yoki’s backstory; how Riza got her dog; why Al loves cats; Roy’s PTSD; Ed’s PTSD outside of nightmares; everything about Liore; Ed’s big appetite; the extent of the struggles the Ish(b/v)alans still face against racism and oppression years after the war; how corrupt the military is and how Roy and co. are not exempt from that corruption.

The Amestris military is painted in a less sympathetic light. They’re much less trusted by Ed and Al, and although that means a lot of the chummy interactions in Brotherhood are missing, I think its important to see this side of things too. I think its important to not find Roy and co. as “likable” and to see the tension between Ed and the group because Ed doesn’t approve of what they’re doing (obeying orders against their better judgments, truly behaving as “dogs of the military”). Ed often goes behind their backs to do what’s right, and I think that gives more meaning to what he chooses to wear, red and black in a sea of blue and white.

It’s uncomfortable to see characters you’re fond of in one adaptation be deliberately shown as not great in the other, but I think you need that other perspective to fully appreciate the themes of racism, genocide, fascism, militaristic nationalism trying to be told in both stories. You can enjoy/sympathize with the characters, but you NEED to be uncomfortable with what’s going on. You NEED to understand the horrors Roy, Riza, Hughes, Major Armstrong, Jean Havoc, etc. are taking part in as soldiers. You need to see that they’re racist. Even Ed is racist.

One of my favorite parts of 03 is Ed acknowledging his own inherent racism and realizing he and others have to make a conscious effort to unlearn it: “There’s something that’s had me afraid: your red eyes. The first time I saw Scar on those library steps I was scared of him. He was the first Ishbalan I’d ever seen. But now…Well, I’ve learned that you can’t always trust the way that you feel, and you can’t trust everything you’ve heard about people like me either. Not from mom, dad, because even they can be wrong. That’s why we’ve all gotta find our own answers.” 03 is riddled with powerful themes like this that give more meaning to the fma universe as a whole.

Most of all though, 03 develops and fleshes out characters and relationships that aren’t explored much in Brotherhood. Characters like Winry, Sheska, Rose, Maria Ross, Izumi, Lust, even Trisha (…all women characters, yikes). You see Winry interact with girls and have friendships with Paninya and Sheska. And you get a really cool dynamic between Al and Scar that isn’t really brought up at all in Brotherhood. The similarities between them, the unspoken understandings between them, are super interesting to watch.

Al’s character is 100 times more interesting because of 03. His struggles, feelings, and flaws are given way more attention as he and Ed more evenly share the main protagonist role. His idealism and sensitivity get him into trouble. You actually see how much being a suit of armor bothers Al, how painful it is for him, how scary. His doubting he was ever real is built up over many episodes, so when that conflict comes to a head it makes sense. Even more so because there’s already tension between Al and Ed. Their relationship is not smooth and easy. Al has issues standing up to his older brother, and Ed doesn’t really listen to him. It’s revealed Al was never 100% on board with trying to bring mom back to life. Al wants to talk about things that are bothering him, but Ed doesn’t.

But on the flip side of more conflict, you see more of how much the boys love and depend on each other. And you get an interesting look into Al’s character regarding the darker side of that love. Al admits that if Ed was killed he’d want revenge on Ed’s killer the way Scar wants revenge for his brother. He threatens to tear Wrath’s arm and leg off because they belong to Ed. That’s a side of Alphonse you do not get in Brotherhood. He’s much more human and responds to situations the way you’d expect someone in his place, at his age, would. I really didn’t care much for Al until I watched 03 tbh. He just seemed perfect to me, and his attempts to warn Ed against doing things seemed pointless because everything Ed did ultimately turned out OK. Now Al’s a real person to me.

The same goes for Ed, just less drastically because I already found Ed kinda interesting in Brotherhood. Both of the Elric brothers in Brotherhood are kind of just your ideal heroes who don’t have to develop much because they’re already, unquestionably the Big Good. Their flaws don’t create serious problems. They don’t have to learn much, and they’re not forced to change. They’re always strong, always win, always do the right thing. Sure, they could let people like Winry help out more, but its not really treated like much of a problem. They’re pretty standard characters, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as the plot makes up for it–and I’d say Brotherhood’s plot does because I find Brotherhood really enjoyable–but I think you’re missing a lot about these characters if you don’t watch 03.

Ed in 03 has to learn to care more about others outside of his own self-interests. His arrogance as a young child is actually comparable to the Icarus myth he mentions in Liore. He’s stubborn and cynical to a fault, and he and Al butt heads because of this. His unwillingness to open up and communicate is an actual problem that’s prevalent in all of his relationships and it is not easily overcome. He’s defeated a lot, and alchemy can’t solve all of his problems. Like Al, he responds to situations the way you’d expect someone in his place, at his age, would. He cries. People don’t put up with his bullshit as often, and his bullshit has consequences. Things don’t just always turn out OK for him and everyone else. His core is challenged. His morals and goals are challenged. Like Al, the question of how far Ed is willing to go for his brother is posed. He has to sacrifice his childhood and his innocence and you really see the effects of that.

The Elric brothers are complex, human characters so their relationship is also complex and human. It’s the core of the fma universe, and I think 03 does a brilliant job of illustrating that, the conflicts and the profound sibling love between them. In Brotherhood how deep the connection runs didn’t really register to me. Watching 03 I’m like oh my god? They are bonded through soul and blood? Ed wrote that sigil anchoring Al’s soul to this world with his own blood?? They burned down their house. They are each other’s last living remnant of home. They ARE each other’s home. They really feel like all they have is each other. And you get all these really precious scenes between them, like one time they shack up with a stranger and share a bed on the floor, curled up beside each other on the mattress like little kids. The opening(s) often show them staying outside with Ed asleep against Al, which I think emphasizes the fact that home is not a place to them but a person. 

But anyway. Like I said I haven’t finished Brotherhood or 2003 yet, but I really like both of them. I think together they create one complete universe.

[cooplagoop]

My Hero Academia chapter 1 to 7 review

When the anime adaptation was announced, I decided to check out the manga in order to avoid the infamous “The manga is better!” line. When I first read the first volume, I dropped MHA. By the time the tournament arc was coming to a close in the anime, I had almost forgotten why I despised the first volume. So, I started to read about the Internship arc due to the temptation of the heroes losing. I also decided to attempt a revaluation of the first volume in order to see why exactly did it suck.

Colour me surprised! Something tickled my fancy!

I consider All Might to be an interesting character. In chapter 1 he came off as cynical jerk when he told Deku he couldn’t be a hero since not 20 seconds before he did he had said that he lies to himself on a regular basis. Once he starts training Izuku for UA’s entrance exam, we see that he’s really just a bitter old man, who doesn’t like the new generation of heroes due to their obsession with fame & money. All Might is an interesting spin of the classical goody two shoes hero, who most have seen in some incarnation. Despite being capable enough to lower the crime rate marginally, he can’t change other pro heroes to view their jobs as honors like him, instead of jobs or a means to an end.

Another positive would be the weaknesses our mentor-student duo have. All Might can use his quirk for only 3 hours a day due to a severe injury. Meanwhile, Deku can’t control his new quirk because he used to be quirkless. The assigned limitations are more than welcome as One for All is a very overpowered quirk. Of course, when Deku learned how to activated One for All only in his finger from a metaphor about an egg in a microwave, a shift to the other spectrum of my review is needed.

What grinds my gears:

At the center of MHA’s downsides is Deku quite literally. The narrative superglues itself to Deku to the point that only characters who happen to be around Deku will get screen time. For an example lets use All Might, Ida and Bakugo. The greatest similarity they share is that they didn’t acknowledge Deku at first. After Deku tried to save someone their opinion of Deku changed for the better. Despite the significant affect Deku’s act of kindness had on these characters, none of these characters got the screen time they needed in order to reestablish themselves as better people. I’ll exemplify them in the order of least blatant to most blatant. 1st°: All Might doesn’t know what to do. -Deku tries to save Bakugo- -All Might starts acting more like a hero- -All Might tells Deku he can become a hero & starts training him- Instead of focusing on what the encounter with the Sludge villain meant for All Might, as he intended to make Deku his successor due to this battle alone, we are stuck with Deku or future!Deku (I will never understand this.) narrating the events that took place after the Sludge villain was defeated. Aforementioned narration is 100% insight free for all characters except Deku, which doesn’t help solidify Deku as a worthy successor when All Might was searching for 5 years with no results to speak of. 2nd°: Bakugo is controlled by the Sludge villain. -Deku saves him- -Bakugo doesn’t bully Deku like he used to (he’s more bark than bite)- Will he get more screen time? Will we see what he thinks of Deku after he saved him? Why did he mellow down a bit? How did he score so many point in the entrance exam? Why is he so good at fighting? What kind of training did he do before the entrance exam? Why is he the deuteragonist if all of my previous questions were not answered? 3rd°: Ida ran away from the giant robot -Deku rescues Uraraka from the robot- -Ida starts to question if he would do the same thing Deku did- -before Ida can finish his sentence we cut to Deku- This one was so in your face that right there was when I noticed how narrow MHA’s narrative really is. 

What’s the deal with Deku?

The issue I have with Deku is not his personality, but how the narrative treats him. Like I mentioned before Deku hogs the spotlight from other character as if he is the most interesting character to have graced us. When in actuality he is the bare bones protagonist type, whose purpose is to emphasize the complexity of the characters around him. Deku like 95% of protagonists is restricted in the personality traits he has (there’s something about him being a nerd, but when plot stuff is going on he turns into a virtuous hero with no flaws (I think the nerd aspect of his “personality” was added in for pandering)). The worst part is that MHA does use Deku for initiating character development...until the spotlight comes back to Deku & I’m left in the dark about what these characters went through or are still going through in their next scene. What I mean is that it’s teasing me about potentially amazing character writing & then it doesn’t deliver on any of it.

The main reason, which caused me to drop MHA in the first place, was the great obsession MHA has with quirks. I swear that even All for One (the man whose bread & butter is stealing quirks) talks less about quirks than Deku or any other random character in MHA. You could say MHA was addicted to the concept of quirks. I’m not joking here. This addiction was so intense that MHA was no longer about a quirkless boy, who wants to be a hero in a world where the quirkless are looked down upon. It became about a kid with an OP superpower trying to not kill himself with it, while going to the most prestigious hero school in Japan. I don’t understand why they did this. The first page says “Not all men are born equal.”. So, wasn’t MHA trying to prove this first line wrong? Everybody in MHA thinks that quirkless people can’t be heroes, no matter how nice or horrid they are as people (All Might, Midoriya’s mom, Midoriya’s junior high teachers, Bakugo). I know that Deku got his superpower through worthiness unlike everybody else, who got theirs by chance, but what were the chances that All Might’s quirk was transferable? What were the odds that All Might would meet Deku? What were the odds of Deku being the one to walk pass the Sludge villain while going home? What were the chances that All Might didn’t find somebody else to be his apprentice before he met Deku? By this logic Deku also got his quirk through luck. Not to mention that the whole “Deku is worthy” shtick isn’t done that well like I said in 1st°. Furthermore, Deku having a quirk contradicts the moral MHA started out with. “You can be a hero without a quirk.” changed to “You can be a hero if you have a quirk.”. When I first read MHA, I expected it to have a theme of discrimination like the X-men and that was MHA’s main theme. After you-know-what happened the quirkless were unceremoniously shoved into the background. A quirkless hero? No, it doesn’t exsist. Surely our righteous protagonist wouldn’t simply accept One for All without questioning if it’s the right thing to do due to the horrible experiences he had while quirkless? He accepts it. No questions were asked. Maybe we’ll see more quirkless people since every 5th person in the world is quirkless? Check the MHA wiki for the list of quirkless characters. If I’m being frank, this shift in moral is simply rotten to the core. Until I read MHA I thought I knew hypocrisy, but MHA is a level I believed to be an exaggeration.

This post is still valid.(link)

Another major factor in my initial disatisfaction with Vol. 1 was & still is Aizawa’s character. Unlike my annoyance with Deku, my problem with Aizawa lies entirely in his personality. When introduced, Aizawa scolds his students for socializing, taking 8 seconds to shut up & promises to expel the student who places last in a physical test because one of the kids displayed excitement. These actions make him come off as nitpicky to an unfair extent. To top of my great first impression of him, he wants to allow quirk usage in PE, when he himself doesn’t have a quirk which can come in handy in a physical exam. Besides the travesty this ingenious idea represents to the quirkless, it also effects those whose quirks can’t be utilized in a physical exam & don’t even get me started on the property damage. In contrast to All Might Aizawa has a more darwinistic mentality, which is reflected in the quirk evaluation test. To specify, he doesn’t care if the kids are only doing it for fame & money or if they have the traits of a true hero like All Might does. Aizawa is primarily interested in the results to the point where he deems those who fall beneath an unspecified quota to be idealistic half-asses. If you’ve seen either GTO or Assassination Classroom, you may remember that Aizawa’s teaching style is the kind these shows tried to shun & disapproved of in general. Onizuka & Koro-sensei are the antithesis to Aizawa mainly because they genuinely cares about their students. They know that how the kids grow up is more important for them than a test & want them to become better human beings, which both go to great lengths to accomplish. The concept of their students failing them doesn’t exist while Aizawa will fail & scrutinize his students only if they don’t meet his expectations.

Why didn’t Aizawa expel Deku? Remember the only Deku has screen time curse I ranted on and on about? They did it with Aizawa. No insight was given for us to see the person that he is. No defining reason was given on why he expelled 154 students. However, Aizawa is a different case from All Might, Ida & Bakugo in this regard. The primary difference between them is the foundation for their character development. The 3 stooges I mentioned have one a.k.a. experiencing Deku’s heroic deed, but Aizawa doesn’t. Aizawa didn’t experience Deku’s heroism like the three of them & by all means Deku should have been expelled. The only answer I have is that Deku’s plot armor is so strong that it can force Aizawa to break character or Horikoshi wrote himself into a corner with Aizawa.

The gibberish of My Hero Academia This is the part where I express my inter Cinema Sins-wannabe by listing the other things MHA did wrong or didn’t do at all like an explanation. I’m not going to detail why I consider them faults as I can stand them more or less unlike the issues I covered above. However, if you’d like me to expand upon anyone of them, send me the number & I’ll tell you what I meant (The same goes for all other parts of this review). The list is mostly in chronological order.

#1 Why aren’t there any superhero teams? #2 Why aren’t there any quirkless people in Izuku’s junior high? #3 Why is everybody a jerk to Deku? #4 Why didn’t Izuku’s mom lie to him? #5 Why was the Sludge villain waiting for someone to walk by? #6 How did All Might put the Sludge villain in a bottle? #7 Why didn’t All Might lie to Deku? #8 Why did All Might trust Deku with his secret? #9 How is All Might even alive right now? #10 Why did All Might chase the Sludge villain for 3 whole hours? #11 Why is heroism so dependent on quirks? #12 Why couldn’t Mt Lady shrink a bit in order to fight the Sludge villain? #13 Isn’t the firefighting hero the one with an advantageous quirk? #14 How is Deku able to make eye-contact with Bakugo? #15 How did Deku get pass Death Arms? #16 Why didn’t any of the other heroes intervene before Deku was 3 seconds away from certain death? #17 Did All Might kill the Sludge villain? #18 Why is One for All so OP? #19 Why was nothing explained about the Sludge villain or his quirk? #20 Why are they praising Bakugo? #21 Isn’t putting your life in danger due to adrenaline/shock the same as laughing uncontrollably due to adrenaline/shock? #22 Why did they spoil the ending? #23 Why aren’t there any quirkless heroes? #24 Why aren’t any other hero schools besides UA mentioned? #25 How is Midoriya not dead? #26 Why did Bakugo tell Deku to shut up if he started their conversation? #27 How is Deku distracting Ida? #28 Why is MHA willing to risk getting a lawsuit from Nintendo, but doesn’t kill of any of the characters who have screen time? #29 Why is video game logic being used in a school for heroics? #30 Why does this exam sound like something Shigaraki & Stain would design? #31 Why didn’t All Might give Deku his quirk earlier? #32 Why didn’t Uraraka float away from the robot? #33 Who controls the robots? #34 How did Midoriya not faint from his injuries? #35 How was Midoriya still able to think clearly through the pain of his broken limbs? #36 Why didn’t Uraraka look up how to not vomit before the practical exam? #37 Why was Deku able to properly heal from his injuries? #38 Why is everybody so obsessed with quirks? #39 Why is Izuku still training if he knows he didn’t get into UA? #40 Why did Uraraka get less rescue points than Izuku? #41 Why is Deku always paired up with Bakugo (in the story)? #42 If you need to be muscular, so One for All doesn’t kill you, how is All Might still using it? #43 Why did Aizawa have a PE uniform with him? #44 How is UA still in business if they allow teachers to expel students for the most pettiest reasons? #45 Why didn’t Aizawa get fired if he expelled 154 students? #46 Why did class 1B get less powerful students? #47 Why couldn’t All Might find out who was Deku’s homeroom teacher earlier? #48 How does Deku accomplish anything with All Might as his mentor? #49 Why is Aizawa questioning how Deku got into UA? #50 How are Aizawa’s bandages floating? #51 How are quirks activated in general? #52 How can a teacher afford a scarf made out of nanofiber? #53 Why did Deku hang out with Bakugo when they were kids? #54 How did Hagakure & Jiro get into UA? #55 Why did Deku need to use his quirk during Aizawa’s exam? #56 How did Uraraka not know that Deku was an insult? #57 Why are they teaching them normal school subjects?

All in all, I can now finally use this: #Volume1IsHell What? I made reviews for less.

[cosmiciaria]

Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age Review (Spoiler Free!)

I'm terribly sorry, but I'm one of those who played FFXII for the first time this year.

 Final Fantasy XII was actually the first game I ever got on my PS2, because the vendor recommended it to me, but alongside that game, I brought many others, including Final Fantasy X-2 (yes, not X, but X-2). By then, I didn't even know what Final Fantasy was, so I tried XII, didn't like the gameplay, got stuck after two hours and never touched it again.

 After 2014, which was when I've played Final Fantasy X for the first time ever (yes, quite late) and fell in love with the franchise, I actually tried FFXII again, to see if I could manage beyond those first hours of story. It turns out, I managed, but got stuck again, at six hours, without being able to leave the dungeon where I was. I was quite underleveled and didn't have many resources to buy supplies, so I said 'screw it!' and never touched it once again.

 I was really not fond of the gameplay. I was all about turn based combat, not this real-time-thingy-but-not-so-real-time. But when I saw that this game was coming completely upgraded for the PS4, and with the new gameplay mechanics from the International Zodiac Job System (which should be called Japanese ZJS, not International), I desperately wanted to play the game. I have a friend who wouldn't stop recommending it to me, and insisted even more when she knew about this new version. I had no excuses, so… yes, third time lucky!

 I managed to play beyond those first six hours, and up until now, I've played over sixty hours, and there's plenty more. And I can say, what a good game! What a good Final Fantasy! How could I pass on this all these years?

 I must start this (or… continue?) by saying that I'm completely, utterly, totally, overwhelmingly surprised. With two previous failed trials, I didn't have many expectations for the game in general. I only knew this was a Final Fantasy game, and it was going to have a guy called Cid, chocobos, magic, crystals and friendship and all that cheesiness. I did not expect a political conflict, I did not expect such a diversity of characters, I did not expect that much of a challenge. Guess what, I was wrong, of course! It is a Final Fantasy game after all, why would I doubt it?

 Final Fantasy XII happens in the world of Ivalice, in the middle of a political turmoil. The Archadian Empire is engulfing everything in its stride, and pretends to claim the Rozarrian lands. In between these two behemoths (no pun intended) we have two small kingdoms, Nabradia and Dalmasca. The king of Dalmasca marries his daughter, Princess Ashe, to the prince of Nabradia, Rasler, thus sealing an alliance. Rasler will take the reins of this newly formed nation and fight the Archadian Empire back, who was trying to step on both their kingdoms to get to Rozarria. Overwhelmed by their power and strength, Rasler falls in battle (because it seems these people had no sense while designing their armors), and the Empire takes Nabradia and Dalmasca under its totalitarian wing.

 Princess Ashe isn't oblivious to what's happening. The Empire kills her father and she, the only survivor of her dynasty, fakes her own death to fool Archadia. She starts working in the shadows, preparing a resistance, an insurgence, and waits for the right moment to reclaim her throne and her title.

 Two years pass, and fate will bring together six very different characters: the aforementioned Princess Ashe, fighting to get back what's hers; Vaan, an orphan and thief, the so called main protagonist but is less protagonist than that chocobo over there; Penelo, who follows Vaan wherever he goes because, yes, they're friends; Basch, a forgotten soldier who lost everything, even his honor, in the war, but is willing to regain his dignity and to defend Dalmasca; Balthier, a sky pirate with whom I may've fallen in love SO HARD; and Fran, a very beautiful viera (a hybrid with bunny) who's Balthier partner in crime and senses the Mist and speaks in encrypted riddles.

 These guys, who seemed to be taken out of a magician's top hat, will be accompanying Princess Ashe in her pursuit of regaining Dalmasca back, revisiting her ancestor's scattered hints across the globe to learn of a power beyond her comprehension. Along the way we'll MEET: many creatures; different landscapes; lots of tracking and backtracking and tracking again; lots of grinding, grinding, grinding, GRINDING; a very weird but crucially important stone called nethicite (of which I still don't understand much about); the almighty and solemnly mysterious MIST; giant bunnies; some guys with horns called 'garif'; some people who are always acolytes and when you see them from a close up you can learn they're actually white MONKEYS; beautiful and 'step on me senpai' BRITISH ACCENT; sky pirates and ships addressed as 'she'; summons who are not the summons we're accustomed, and the summons we are accustomed were put in the game as names of ships; violent chocobos; a thousand hunts; moogles everywhere doing everything and always in the right time for you; A GIANT ASS CRYSTAL WHICH DOESN'T HAVE A FRICKING MAP; Vaan asking stupid questions; Fran sensing the Mist and collapsing into Balthier's strong arms sorry not sorry; a twelve year old boy who acts and speaks better than all of us; and a ton crap of places to visit and maps to fill and dungeons to suffer through.

 I'll be honest, the game has a lot of content compared to its predecessor in the PS2. FFXII feels like an open world but condensed into zones (because of the limitations of the hardware, of course). But it's, in fact, the closest thing we had to that genre, and it does it perfectly. There's always something to do besides the main story. There's a ton of optional bosses, of unlockable Espers, of spells and technics to find, of weapons to seek, of maps to explore. There are also many, many hunts available, which unlock new areas in previously visited places, and also some hidden fetch quests, which are a must for those looking for the platinum. The game still doesn't cease to amaze me with its content.

 The gameplay might be a bit problematic at first, but you soon learn to grasp it. You basically can control any of the six party members, and set up the orders for the others to fulfill in a certain order. It seems hard to understand when the game explains it, but hey, if I could, then anyone can! The idea is to give priority to those orders which will save your character's life, and then make the appropriate combinations that suit you for fighting. These orders are called 'gambits', and they're the core of your gameplay. Better befriend them.

 You also have 'License Boards'. These licenses 'authorize' you to learn certain ability, or to wield certain weapon. For instance, to wield Excalibur, you not only need to have the actual sword, but also the license for it. And so on, so on. It goes the same for spells and technics. You can buy them at shops or find them in chests across the dungeons. Just bear in mind that some of them are only attainable in certain parts of the game (COF COF, HOLY, ARDOR, FLARE) and won't respawn later if you don't get them on time. 

 In this Zodiac Age version, we get to choose two jobs for each character. Now, I recommend you search in Internet for the best combinations, for I've made many mistakes choosing those, and I'm in no position of giving any strategy to anyone. I'm just going to say that, if I ever replay this, I'll be having a White Mage/Knight character, and it'd be a badass paladin.

 Dungeons can be a pain of the ass, and there's no shame, I repeat, there's no shame in looking for maps and guides. The Crystal has a great dungeon design, I won't deny it, but it can be really annoying and confusing to traverse. Pharos is also a great example of good dungeon crawling, but it can be really tiring with all its many, many floors. 

(Oh, and in case you were wondering because you’ve already played this game, there are no more ‘forbidden chests’ and the Zodiac Spear is located in another place altogether. So don’t worry about opening whatever appears in front of you)

 I can keep on talking about the gameplay and stuff, but I'm missing the most important thing here. What I liked the most about this game and what enthralled me so much, was the complexity of its characters. As I said before, I didn't expect many things. I didn't expect the characters to be morally grey. Ashe, who is the main driving force in the story, many a time doubts about the right path to follow, and blindingly falls into temptation. Gabranth, Basch's twin brother, has a divided loyalty, a complete devotion to his young master Larsa, and contradictory feelings about his brother. Balthier claims to be only there because of the treasure and the sky pirate spirit, but he soon gets on the personal race thing when his father appears on screen. All this, I've never seen it before in an FF game (maybe there was, but not in the ones I've played – that's a conversation for another day), and I was very glad to find that my characters weren't all on the heroes side. Speaking of heroes, our main villain might be the very first Final Fantasy villain I completely hate; he's not relatable, you can't sympathize with him in any moment, he kills his siblings because reasons, he's just bad because he wants to be bad. And also I hate him because I had to replay his battle three times before I finally defeated him. F*ck him.

 So, overall, I really enjoyed this FF. With each game I play, I fall in love more and more with the franchise. I'm glad I've come back to this one after all those years. The story is mature, the cast of characters is adorable (except for Vaan, sorry) and the soundtrack is on point, with many memorable themes. If you haven't already played this game (like me), this is the moment to give it a shot. And if you're a die hard FFXII fan, just dive in and enjoy the same old ride, but in HD!

 Final Fantasy XII is one of those stories which you've heard about but never actually experienced it. But once you do, there's no way in hell to let go of it.

[furederiko]

It's the first post for the month of June, and it's a Random-News-Digest! Thanks to my internet, the previous one was 3 weeks ago though. That means, it's catching up time... and there's a lot of it. Here goes nothing...

Disney Live Action

Another live action reimagining has potentially been added to the list of upcoming releases. Director Sam Mendes, who did James Bond's "Skyfall" and "Spectre", apparently entered early talks to work on "Pinocchio"! Mendes was previously attached to adapt "James and the Giant Peach". But according to Variety, that project is officially not happening, so the chances of Mendes moving on to "Pinocchio" is really high. With Guy Ritchie's "Aladdin" about to start production real soon, possibly followed by Niki Caro's "Mulan" as well as Jon Favreau's "The Lion King", Disney Pictures is currently sitting on a remake comfort-zone. No official casting news have been announced for neither of those projects those, but as we get closer and closer to Disney D23, I suspect things are going to come to light pretty soon. Let's just hope these movies will be as good and successful as what we've gotten so far...

Saint Seiya

Well, this news was truly a surprising one! According to Eiga.com (via Anime News Network), TOEI Animation and Chinese distribution company called A Really Good Film Company (that's the real name) are co-producing a live action movie based on the franchise. Tomek Baginski, a Polish director will be directing the movie. Jeffrey Chan, Yoshi Ikezawa, Joseph Chou will produce, while original manga writer Masami Kurumada, Kozo Morishita, Tim Kwok, and Miguel Faura are serving as executive producers.

Truth be told, I had mixed reaction about this, and that sentiment has remained the same until now. I've always thought that the "Saint Seiya" franchise is PERFECT for Hollywood adaptations, considering most of the characters, especially the Gold Saints... are practically Greek guys with a story that takes place in a Greecian setting as well. The cloths, especially the Gold Saints ones, would easily look amazing as real life armors. Heck, TOEI recently held an exhibition where they showcased the Gold Cloths in 1:1 scale, and that idea worked! So this sounded like a great news already. On the other hand, at the same time, I'm not sure whether they will pull it off. Particularly with the failure that was "Ghost in the Shell" back in March. Not to mention, a Chinese company, instead of a Japanese, or at least Hollywood is working on it. Not trying to be racist, but I don't have a lot of faith in Chinese companies.

My biggest concern is that they might go the "Dragon Ball Evolution" and "Ghost in the Shell" mishap, by altering the core Bronze Saints to be white teenagers instead of Japanese. That would instantly become a huge WTH for me. IMHO, at least the cast for Seiya, Shun, and Ikki should be Japanese. If they need exception, both Hyouga and Shiryu can easily be one. The former can be reimagined as European, since the character is partially Russian anyway (hence the blonde hair), while the latter, can naturally be rewritten as Chinese (still needs to be Asian though). A lesser concern, is the fact that the series never really took off in the US, as much as it was hugely popular in South American region. Once again, if "Ghost in the Shell" couldn't sell well, I honestly doubt the same would happen to "Saint Seiya". So it's already a big question mark. But let's keep an open mind, and well... we'll see.

Charlie's Angels

I didn't realize that the last "Charlie's Angels" movie was released back in 2003! That's more than a decade, and precisely 14 years ago. Which means, the movie (not TV) franchise has entered the right age for reboot, remake, reimagining, or the likes. It's Hollywood folks, so what do you expect? And I'll be damned, because that IS the case. Elizabeth Banks is set to direct a reboot movie for the franchise, and it will arrive on June 7th, 2019. That's legit release date, so yeah, it IS happening. There aren't any detailed information about it yet, but I think we can expect to hear one by summer. Now I can't tell if this is a good or bad news, but I'm always game to see tough and powerful women kick some bums on screen. Who knows, perhaps we might get Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and other Oscar winners as the lead characters. THAT would be wake af!

Hellboy

Not unlike "Charlie's Angels", the same is happening to "Hellboy" franchise as well. While fans have been asking director Guillermo del Toro and/or actor Ron Perlman for a third movie... to relatively zero success, Millennium instead has decided to go on another route: REBOOT. Yes, in a report released precisely a day after my previous R-N-D went up (meaning, it's close to a month ago XD), the studio has gone into negotiations with producer Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin for an R-rated relaunch of the franchise. The working title is "Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen", and Neil Marshall is set to direct from a script by Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden, and Mike Mignola. That last one is the creator of "Hellboy" himself, and he was the one who first broke the news. Marshall would then develop a new script with Aron Coleite.

I'm never a fan of the first two movies, so I can't really say anything good about this. I don't know how I feel, to be frank! LOL. Yet the news somehow got better, when I read the name of the actor who was in talks for the titular role. David Harbour! Yes, that Sheriff of the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things", who was considered to play Cable. I don't know about you, but Harbour sounds like the younger more charming-looking version of Perlman, so this news made me perked up! Okay, that was honestly hyperbole. I'm still unsure about this franchise, but I can safely say that I will at least give it a try... just because Harbour is starring. Ahahaha! But you know what? Perhaps rebooting might indeed be the right decision. There's definitely potentials to be HUGE. It can start fresh without the burden of continuity. And also... attracts new audience who was previously unaware or couldn't care less of the title, right? Like yours truly... *grins*.

DC Films

While it's unclear when we will ever see Dwayne Johnson finally fulfilling his dream to play supervillain "Black Adam", the actor has gone on record to propose an actor to play the protagonist counterpart of his character. And that actor is... Armie Hammer. Okay, HUH? I liked Hammer, so it COULD work. But is he the right man for Shazam? Nope, I really don't think so. Perhaps an Oliver Queen or Hal Jordan, but definitely not as a jacked-up Billy Batson. By the way, Johnson's "Baywatch" recently failed to even make a dent in the box office. Does this mean his popularity is fading? How will this affect his DC movies then? Hmmm...

Fresh from angsty "Power Rangers", and into the murky waters of "Aquaman"! Young chinese actor Ludi Lin, has joined the cast to play Murk. A character who is supposed to be Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry's trusted ally. How on Earth does a Hawaiian and Chinese became Atlantean is beyond me, but this was clearly a nice act to push diversity. Director James Wan also proudly showcased a really WET Amber Heard's Mera via his Twitter. I was still indifferent about it, and still won't be seeing the movie, but looks like many liked it. So that's... good, right? "Aquaman" is set to arrive on December 21st, 2018.

If there's a title that's been going on and off in a seemingly concerning state, it's none other than "The Flash". But perhaps, things are slowly running towards a better track. Why? Assuming that Entertainment Weekly report could be hold accountable, then Robert Zemeckis is indeed in talks to take over the movie after Rick Famuyiwa walked out. And guess the other name being on the contender list? The helmer of "Kingsman" himself, Matthew Vaughn! Not just him, both Sam Raimi and Marc Webb apparently were frontrunners as well, but have since passed. Oddly, the news arrived alongside a rumor of actor Billy Crudup walking out of the movie. One that has been debunked, considering he would be showing up in "The Justice League".

Speaking of the League, it became one of the most talked about news last month. Why? Because shockingly, director Zack Snyder alongside wife and producer Deborah had officially stepped down from the movie's post production and reshoots. He's taking some time off to deal with personal family loss/tragedy (my condolences to the Snyders). This has prompted mixed reactions from movie fans, particularly DC ones with their... insensitive and disturbing remarks regarding the situation. And here I thought they couldn't have gone that low!!! *sigh* The irony here was that Snyder has handed over the finishing duty to... *drumroll* the one and only... Joss Whedon! This was definitely an intriguing twist, because now Whedon would be famous for being involved in both Marvel and DC's ensemble movie. Of course, Warner Bros assured the audience, that Whedon's NOT taking over it completely, and just doing a favor to finish up the work. They said that the movie is still very much Snyder's work. Which was an ODD move, considering the negative impression Snyder has left with his first two DC movies. So... if you were among those who was worried that the movie is going to be as bad as his "Man of Steel" or "Batman v. Superman"? Well... don't jump out of that bandwagon just yet. At least, I think you should stick with the same concern until it has been proven otherwise. Remember, it's still a Snyder's and not Whedon's movie, and it opens on November 17th, 2017.

Another problem is running on the other League. This time, the "Justice League Dark" train. Remember how tall and mighty Doug Liman sounded when WB signed him to take over the project from Guillermo del Toro? Well, it seemed Liman might have just swallowed his own pride, because he's no longer attached to the movie. Liman moved on to work on a Lionsgate's project, so WB is currently on the hunt for his replacement. Back then, I would've instantly commented on this turnout. But now? Things like this has happened over and over again that I'm not even surprised when I read it. After all, it's just another setback to the universe, right? Nothing new here. LOL.

All these behind the scene problems that came in one after another, made you lose faith in WB and their DC Films, huh? Well, hold on to your horses, because I'm saving the best for last. And it's a GOOD news this time! Reviews embargo for Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" has been lifted, and it has received positive reactions! Critics are easily calling it the best DCEU movie so far. Which means, basically better than "Man of Steel", "Batman v. Superman", and "Suicide Squad"... which admittedly weren't even a high bar it needed to top to begin with. LOL. When the first score was accumulated, it resulted a heaping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes! Which ironically begs the question: where has all those DC fans who claimed that RT is ruining DC movies run off to? Surprise suprise, they are out and about protesting and complaining about the Women Only Screening for the movie. SERIOUSLY?!

General comparison to "Captain America: The First Avengers" and "Thor" didn't surprise me, because the trailers have already given the exact vibe. But it's pleasant to know that eventhough those trailers didn't work at all for me, they didn't really capture the spirit and wonder of the movie itself. Which is nice, because in my opinion, it's much better when the trailers are bad but the movie is good, and not the other way around. And when I said the 'other way around', I was obviously referring to those previous 3 DC Films. They all had trailers that many folks claimed to be 'great' or 'amazing', when their actual movies failed to even generate the same response. So if the opposite is happening to "Wonder Woman", it's ironically GOOD, right? The big question now, will "The Justice League" catch on to deliver the same success, finally giving WB a good streak, or will it fumbles into its previous mishaps all over again? Somehow I have a feeling it will be the latter. Oh well, at the very least, the movie will have a good Wonder Woman (step aside, grumpy Superman or violent Batman!). Here's hoping "Wonder Woman" will inspire audience to see more of her, and help give a boost to "The Justice League".

One more thing. I also sincerely hope the positive critical response to "Wonder Woman" is a sign that WB would finally be stepping back on its destructive mentality. All these time, rather than doing their best to deliver a great movie for fans, WB has been focused on one thing: competing with Marvel Studios and trying to top it if not take it down. Which is a SILLY notion on its own, because Marvel Studios already had a long headstart, so no matter what attempts WB tries to be 'different', DC Films will ALWAYS be compared to Marvel Studios' releases no matter what. Ironically, the one and only possible way they could really bring down Marvel Studios from 'the competition', is by damaging the future prospect of superhero genre. Unlike WB and their other variety of franchises, Marvel Studios relies heavily on adaptation to their comic book characters. So by producing bad superhero movies, WB might have unknowingly (or have they? hmmm) been planting the seed of destruction to the genre, which could also lead towards the downfall of Marvel Studios. This helps explain why Marvel Studios have generally refused to say bad things about DC Films, and instead continuously wishing them to do great. They know what's at stake here, and how the genre's longetivity is so much more important than a pointless childish rivalry. A rivalry that WB and its directors, producers, and actors has been flaming over and over again. I sincerely hope, that with Geoff Johns (who used to write for Marvel Comics) finally in full charge, WB and DC Film will turn over a new leaf and proceed with a positive and hopeful heart. One that does not require them to continue being the jerk of the industry...

Dark Universe

Nooo, this isn't about WB's supposed "Justice League Dark" movie. It's a category previously known as... "Universal Monsters". Yes, as if the news of Doug Liman leaving the movie wasn't enough, Universal Studios officially snatched the title of that exact upcoming DC Film movie. Now there's no way WB will be able to use the title again, unless the law sits in in their favor. Don't believe me? Universal has even released a trailer for it. \ So yeah, it IS officially a done deal, no more beating around the bushes. Tom Cruise-starring "The Mummy" will INDEED be the first of its kinds.

Apparently, their Shared Universe's interconnective tissue would be a mysterious multi-national organization called Prodigium, the one possibly led by Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll. Who, as the original tale suggests, WILL indeed turn into Mr. Hyde. Oooohhh... juicy! I mean, this might sound really strange, but seeing Crowe turns dark and monstrous somehow makes me all... giddy. Yeah folks, while everyone is busy oggling Cruise and his endless foray of dangerous self-performed stunts, it's Crowe's inclusion that would be my primary reason to see this movie. And I'm not kidding, this might also sound weird, but he was one of the reason I enjoyed "Les Miserables" too *grins*. Of course, if you're still not convinced about seeing this movie on June 9th, you can check out the third and final trailer, just to be sure of your... uh, life choices. LOL.

What directly comes next after "The Mummy", is the "The Bride of Frankenstein"! Bill Condon has been tapped to work on this movie, based on the script by David Koepp. It has even been set for February 14th, 2019 release, which is Valentine's Day, so things will perhaps be more... romantic. I'm personally curious to know why they don't have another project for 2018, but perhaps unlike WB that seems to rush things, Universal wants to take this slowly? Anyway, knowing the title, it's clear that they will be skipping Frankenstein's origin story. The casting hasn't been made official until now, but Javier Bardem has stated his enthusiasm for the role, so highly likely the role is his to play with. As for who will be playing the titular Bride, names like Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek, and Nicole Kidman have been thrown around for a while now, with Angeline Jolie being the most favored of all. Let's just wait and see who gets it then...

Of course, things are currently riding on the success of "The Mummy". If it does manage to achieve one, at least in the minimum amount of expectation, then we can count on seeing Johnny Depp as Invicible Man, Dwayne Johnson as Wolfman, and so on. If NOT, then I honestly don't know what would happen. Marvel Studios kept on moving despite the response to "Iron Man 2", and now its Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the first and most successful of its kind. WB was persistent enough with their DC Films, that eventhough their first three movies was poorly received critically (among plenty other production issues), they have continued limping their way to produce their first good movie in "Wonder Woman". Will Universe follow suit, for better or worse, inspite of general audience's possible fatigue concerning this forced Cinematic Universe approach? As always, we'll see...

SONY Marvel Universe

Many people ridiculed SONY Pictures when they announced the solo "Venom" movie. Movie writers and journalists didn't quite buy it, until a more concrete news arise. Some fans even questioned how a Spider-Man spin-off would work, in a non-MCU universe WITHOUT Spider-Man. But then SONY dropped a bombshell, by officially announcing a lead actor and director for the project. And they were NOT messing around. Tom Hardy, that great often-under-appreciated Oscar nominee, whose performance as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" became the joke of many DC fans, has signed on to play Eddie Brock. And that's because he's a fan of the character! WOW. Ruben Fleischer, is set to direct the movie, based on the script by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. So it's happening folks, it IS happening.

The same goes to the Silver Sable and Black Cat movie. The project that has been officially titled as "Silver and Black", is closing in on a director. When the news hit last week, Gina Prince-Bythewood was in negotiations to helm the movie. I can't really tell if she's a great director or not, but apparently her work "Beyond the Lights" was highly-appreciated. Chris Yost, who worked on the upcoming Thor movie, is writing the script with Lisa Joy. And Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are producing. So this one IS happening too!

My reaction to these news? I LOVE Hardy, especially his performance in "Warriors" and "Inception". And seeing him headline a movie is always a joy, even if the movie itself might not be good at times. But great gawd, he would've made a great Kraven the Hunter instead of Eddie Brock!!! >:(... And yes, I might have jinxed it when I said that, because apparently there's a rumor flying around social media now, that "Silver and Black" will be using Kraven as the antagonist. Ouch! Is SONY trying to use up the Spider-Man characters, so that Marvel Studios can't use them as antagonists to Tom Holland's Peter Parker? I hope that's not the case, because I could be really angry about it. Moreso, I still don't see how "Venom" nor the pairing of "Silver and Black" makes for a good idea, especially since neither of them would be bouncing off against a Spider-Man. But let's take a deep breath, and just think positive about it, okay...

Uncharted

Speaking of Tom Holland, here's a pleasant little surprise that would make everyone, especially his and video game fans turn heads. The rising British actor has been cast, as young Nathan Drake for the "Uncharted" movie adaptation! Apparently, the Shawn Levy movie will play around Drake's younger days, as opposed to his mature adventures that have been depicted in the four games so far. It was said that SONY head Tom Rothman was impressed by Holland's performance in the upcoming Spider-Man movie, that he pushed for him to be the star of another franchise. The problem with this development, Joe Carnahan's script can no longer be used, possibly postponed until the movie requires an adult Drake. Levy is still onboard, but a new scriptwriter is being sought to work on a new version.

There was a flashback sequence in "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" that showed Drake meeting his mentor Sullivan for the first time. That's likely the foundation of what this movie's going to be about. In a way, we can safely say that SONY is expecting Holland to grow into a charming athletic adventurer like Drake in future movies. Especially because movies like these usually takes at least two years to develop, and the now 20 years old Holland, would be almost 30 by the time he's working on a probable-third movie. You know what? I can totally buy that! And I'm certainly not alone in thinking this way.

And as for Holland's idea on Chris Pratt or Jake Gyllenhall playing a younger Sullivan/Sully? I'm a fan of both actors, so his statement definitely puts a really wide grin on my face. Not sure if they would be a good fit for the role (try picturing THIS IMAGE, but with Holland and any of those actors)... but yeaah, I'm totally down with that!

Marvel Studios

Yes, still talking about Holland. Because he's on THREE effing categories this time! What a year for this hunky young fella, eh? His Marvel Studios movie, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is only a month away from arriving in the theatres, and the hype on social media is growing bigger and bigger. The third and so called final (lengthy, I presume?) trailer was released last week, and it showcased some extra scenes while rehashing the ones from previous two trailers. Considering the 2nd trailer has pretty much spoiled beat by beat of the actual movie, this final trailer didn't even bothered to do the same all over again. Who knows what the TV spots and clips will reveal though, because this feels like SONY's marketing, hence why it didn't feel like Marvel Studios' doing.

The good news is, the movie is tracking to a $135 million domestic opening number. Yes, that's a relatively lower number than Marvel Studios previous Summer releases, but it's still the highest number for any Spider-Man movies since 2002. A number that has consistently been declining, by the way, with the exception of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" in 2014. So despite the number feeling rather low, especially for a movie that has Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, this is still something good on its own.

Meanwhile, now that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is out for almost a whole month, director James Gunn is already hard at work on the next installment, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3". While the second movie made it clear that Chris Pratt's Peter Quill is the only Earthling member of the team, Gunn had openly revealed on social media, that such restriction will no longer apply in the third. In my opinion, Gunn specifically made the rule, likely to ensure Quill being the only representative of the planet, especially when we put into account Ego's 'celestial visit' to various planets. Since "Vol. 3" is set to take place after "Avengers: Infinity War" and Avengers 4, the Guardians would have been exposed to Earth, thus including more Earth-bound heroes like Nova or others should make more sense. Hey, even Brie Larson's Captain Marvel can be among their cosmic ranks too.

X-Men Universe

Josh Boone's "X-Men: The New Mutants" had scored, or rather confirmed its first two cast members. As previously rumored before, rising stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams have officially come onboard to play Russian mutant Magik and Scottish mutant Wolfsbane respectively. Both names have been associated with this movie since last year, so it's nice that we've finally gotten the confirmation some of us needed. Apparently though, the 'Natt Wolff is being approached to play Cannonball' part didn't pan out, as a surprising name has entered talks to portray the character instead. What a strange things indeed... ;D

Hold on, make that four actors, if we count Marvel TV's MVP Rosario Dawson. Yes, apparently Dawson has been approached to play Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a doctor that would serve as some sort of mentor figure for the younger cast. The character has the ability to generate force field, so she's definitely a mutant as well. Assuming Dawson agreed to take the role, this would be her second Marvel role, and also a step up from a rogue nurse Claire Temple into a full blown doctor. Someone just got medically promoted! LOL.

It's seriously unclear when or how the timeline of this movie will fit in the... ugh, already messy and confusing larger X-Men universe. What we can really be certain of however, is the genre the movie will dive into. And FOX isn't playing around, because based on Boone's statement to Entertainment Weekly, "We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe. There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.". Okay, now this was both intriguing and concerning at the same time. The idea of having a younger cast, somehow meant that the movie will be a young adult version of the genre. And that's good. But no costume, and also horror bit? Even "Doctor Strange" didn't fully go that direction, because it might not score the PG-13 rating. Does this mean, "New Mutants" (yes, I'm still not used to adding the X-Men part in front of it) will also be R-rated, much like FOX recent movies? It COULD... be a good idea, but at the same time, it's a risky one that might not work either. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Boone means when the first trailer hits. "New Mutants" is set to be released on April 13th, 2018. Production is expected to begin pretty soon in July... so I'm sure we'll hear more about it and more ethnically-appropriate casting through San Diego Comic Con.

Meanwhile, the tentatively titled "Deadpool 2" has welcomed a new cast member. Jack Kesy, who I just realized portrayed that rocker whose genital creepily fell off in "The Strain" (not kidding, it's a disturbing scene), has been cast to play a major villain in the movie. Deadline said, that their sources pinpointed the character as... Black Tom. Nope, I did NOT know that character, and the day I read the news, was even the first time I have even heard of it. After Ed Skrein's Ajax was universally acknowledged as one of the weakest element of the first movie, one would think that FOX would amp up the antagonist department, right? Looks like that's not the case. But let's give this sequel the benefit of doubt. Ryan Reynolds is returning as Wade Wilson, alongside Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapacic as Colossus, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. And just like Dawson, Josh Brolin will be portraying his second Marvel role, this time as the time travelling Cable. Directed by David Leitch, "Deadpool 2" will hit the theatres on June 1st, 2018.

Let's move on to the TV side now! And let's start with the good news first. FXX, a younger-skewing part of FX Network with focus on animation, has ordered a 10-episode series of Marvel's "Deadpool" (tentative title, by the way)! And guess who will be working as showrunner for this show? "Atlanta" very own Donald Glover, and brother Stephen Glover. Well, color me intrigued! This Deadpool series will serve as Marvel TV's second collaboration with the network, after the critically acclaimed "Legion" that aired earlier this year and has received a renewal. ABC Signature Studios is producing the show. And yes, joining Dawson and Brolin's party, this would be Glover's second major Marvel involvement following his inclusion in "Homecoming" (noticed that he showed up in that latest trailer too?). Hmmm... is it just me or FOX continues snatching actors from Marvel? Anyways, would Glover be voicing the lead character too? That would be awesome.

Now, comes the bad... or politely speaking, not that-good of a news. And it's about that new X-Men TV show, "The Gifted". I know I haven't been talking about this for a while now, because frankly... I couldn't care less. But I'm going to report it anyway now, because it's happening. Well, mainly because an official teaser has been released to celebrate the full season order. So yeah, FOX wanted their Marvel properties to play in the TV poolside as well, so they called out Bryan Singer and writer Matt Nix to... ugh, create this show. And it's generally about, "a family who discovers their kid is a mutant and must go on the run, shacking up with a bunch of other mutants to survive.". What's the point? I guess it's not enough to have "Legion" that, despite being really good, feels weirdly out of place from the X-Men movie universe, now they just need to insert another one to make things more... confusing.

To be honest, what I saw in that trailer didn't inspire confidence. At all. Which was odd, because I thought the teaser was quite intriguing. There's this weird... 'been there done that' vibe running throughout the trailer, and it certainly didn't give me the urge to check it out once it was over. It played a bit like "Heroes" I guess, but not the early seasons when it was good. Nope, it's the latter ones which people couldn't care less. But of course, don't ever judge a book by its cover, because this COULD be good. It has Amy Acker, Stephen Moyer, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby, Blair Redford, Percy Hynes White, Emma Dumont, John Proudstar, and Natalie Alyn Lind as its cast. While I'm only familiar with THREE of them, the rest of these actors could end up becoming as huge as those.. ugh three. So yeah, if you're an X-Men fan, you might want to hang on to your seat until this show arrives on FOX Network. Sooner or later. Good... luck, then?

Marvel TV

Since we've talked about Marvel TV's affair with FOX, let's talk about their own shows now.

Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." has been officially renewed for Season 5. YAY for that! I personally thought the finale for Season 4 was rather... disappointing and underwhelming. Also, that post credit scene was confusing, and was revealed to NOT have anything to do with S.W.O.R.D. because turns out, Marvel doesn't own the copyright. Ain't that a deal-breaker! But obviously, a show renewal means a win for some of its fans, so... good for them. There's a catch though, because unlike previous season, the 5th season will NOT arrive in Fall 2017. Nope, NOT kidding, because apparently, AoS will not start until ABC has finished airing all 8 episodes of Marvel's "The Inhumans". This is a strange reveal, because I've always thought 2017 would be the year that ABC is having two running Marvel shows at the same time. Looks like I've expected too much.

But the report gets even... weirder. "The Inhumans" is officially set to air on... Friday 09:00 PM, following "Once Upon a Time". This news stirred up some concerns on its own, because according to many, Friday night is considered to be graveyard for TV shows. Heck, many people in the US aren't even home during that time! Most tend to go out, and have dates, parties, watch movies and whatevers. Is ABC trying to ruin the show before it even starts? Sure, ABC Chief Channing Dungey has told the press that the network is trying out a new strategy. But it also didn't stop folks on the internet to connect the show to a recent rumor that... didn't sound reassuring. With this odd airing schedule, the trepid response to the show's first look, as well as showrunner Scott Buck's bad track record thanks to "Iron Fist", I think it's not wrong for fans to start feeling... worried.

The good side that we can take from this, is that when the 5th Season of AoS begins airing on January 2018, the 22-episodes will likely run without any season breaks. There isn't any official statement about this, but VFX supervisor Mark Kolpak had hinted so in a social media response. Personally speaking, it's still uncertain if I'll be seeing this new season or not. Knowing my tendency to lose interest when a show starts to get overly long, highly likely I'm going to drop it, to then return sometime after it ends to bingewatch it. But it's not a fixed plan just yet. After all, I WAS planning to do that with Season 4, but then the Ghost Rider arc pulled me back in, and the rest was history. And of course, if the 5th Season is announced to be the FINAL season, that totally changes my plan. I would totally tune out in real time for one last ride, even if sometimes I have to *cough-Glee-cough* drag myself to do so. In the end, it all depends on what strategy the showrunners will apply to the show when it returns on January. It's still 7 months away, so plenty of time for me to have the AoS hiatus I badly needed. Assuming "The Inhumans" doesn't suck up all of my joy and leave me with pure disgust towards Marvel TV, of course... LOL *sigh*

Last but not least, the new season for "Avengers Assemble", officially subtitled as Marvel's Avengers: Secret Wars", is set to have a one hour premiere later on June 17th. This season will pick up directly after that bittersweet ending of Season 3, that left Tony Stark in a... digital state. To be honest, there's an annoying pattern to Marvel Animation's shows in the past few years, in that it started out strong and good... to then suffer a gradual decline in quality. That 3rd season, the one subtitled "Ultron Revolution", was just another good example of this. So while the prospect of having an entirely new roster led by Black Panther for "Secret Wars" sounds intriguing, I can't really say for sure if I'm going to stick around to the finale.

To help introduce these new roster, DisneyXD will be releasing a number of shorts via the digital platforms such as DisneyXD App. There will be six shorts released that feature Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Vision. Characters who have mostly (with the exception of Wasp) debuted on Season 3. These shorts will be available on a daily basis from June 2nd to June 7th. They will be essential to prepare audience for the 2-parters "Avengers No More", on June 17th as I've said before. I might be mistaken, but it seems the voice cast will have several updates as well, since I'm not seeing Adrian Pasdar's name on it. Nevertheless, fans of the animated series should definitely mark their dates to catch this new season. Who knows, perhaps the roster change will be effective to make it... better than the first three seasons.

Netflix

I didn't pay attention because I had to spend less time on Twitter now, but it seemed Marvel's "The Defenders" had a playful time with their social media marketing. Marvel officially released motion posters for the character, and apparently they were delightfully filled with easter eggs. There's Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock and Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones hanging out on Rand Tower, Mike Colter's Luke Cage in Fogwell's gym, and Finn Jones' Danny Rand meditating in front of Alias Investigations, and so on. Fun stuffs indeed, at least by the sound of it, because I haven't personally observed them in details. LOL.

Cox talked to Empire Online, and revealed that despite the tonal difference to all series, "The Defenders" will have a tone of its own. One that is kept "grounded, but at the same time it lives in a slightly mythical world". Colter added that the four lead characters will be reluctant to work with each other at first. He also accidentally revealed on a separate interview, that Wai Ching Ho's enigmatic character Madame Gao is set to appear on the mini series. This wasn't particularly shocking, I should say, because technically Gao IS a member of The Hand, so of course she'll be involved somehow. Perhaps, alongside Ramon Rodriguez' Bakuto, who disappeared after his fight with Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing in Danny's series? Speaking of Danny, Jones said that his character will be maturing and be more responsible in the mini series. So perhaps, turning into someone more... likeable than the one we saw in his solo series. I sure hope that's the case. Marvel's "The Defenders" arrives on August 18th.

Netflix has debuted the first teaser for their animated "Castlevania" series as well. The series itself will premiere on July 7th, and this first season will consist of 4 episodes. Running time for each will be 30 minutes, so it's going to be a really short show. While this is a fantastic idea, considering the game franchise hasn't had any adaptation until now (as far as I know of), this teaser was... vague at best. It honestly didn't make me curious or intrigued to check it out, and I'm not sure that's the purpose. Of course, just like any other Netflix shows, we could expect a full length trailer in the coming weeks. Perhaps, by then it would look meaningful enough for me to judge.

DC Television

Likely inspired by the reception to Marvel's "Luke Cage", DC TV has followed suit by introducing their own black superhero in "Black Lightning". The series, which has been ordered as full season, is set to debut on the CW Network. But unlike the already running "Arrow", "The Flash", and "Super Girl", this one will not be set in the same universe. For now. You can check out the first look trailer on the network's official channel.

Much like the other CW shows, I can't really say if this trailer... appealed enough for my taste. I just... didn't dig it for some reason. The concept of a retired hero is nice, but the whole thing played out exactly like those other CW shows. So already a huge pass for me. But I can easily imagine how some folks, especially African-American audience would be ecstatic to see it. Heck, if Marvel fans could show so much love for a "Luke Cage" series that honestly got more and more draggy as it went by, I certainly hope the DC counterpart would at least do the same with this. There one for everyone, right?

Warner Bros Animation

"Heelloooo, Nurse!!!!". Not content on just delivering CW superhero shows, through their animation division, WB is planning to revive a loveable classic, which is "Animaniacs". Yes folks, the trio of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot will be returning to the small screen... and likely alongside other characters like Pinky and the Brain. According to IndieWire, Steven Spielberg is involved in it, so that's a reassuring fact. After all, it was the iconic director himself who managed to bring the series to its spectacular popularity back then. For the time being, the project is still in early stage of development, and it doesn't have a home yet. But the original series is having great viewership on Netflix, so the streaming media would easily become one of its possible home. Here's hoping we'll hear more about this in the near future!

LEGO Games

LEGO announced their latest action adventure video game title late last month. This time, it's another of their Marvel tie-in games, "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2". Their previous collaboration, the MCU-inspired "LEGO Marvel's The Avengers" did not reach the same heights of the first "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes". So I hope this new one, that seems to focus on themes from recent and upcoming movies like "Doctor Strange", "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Thor: Ragnarok", "Black Panther", and "Captain Marvel", will be able to make up for that strange nitpick-ish disappointment. You can check out the official full-length trailer on Marvel's official Youtube channel. Didn't show much of the plot though. Hmmm....

Street Fighter

Third character for "Street Fighter V" Season 2's DLC has been revealed early last month. CAPCOM promised a completely new character, but once again, similar to Helen/Kolin, this one's technically NOT really new. Ed, has been around since "Street Fighter IV", and before officially becoming a playable character in this game, he's been heavily involved in Season 1's DLCs' (Balrog and also Urien) story modes, as well as appearing in some others. Balrog has been serving as his caretaker, and that explains why his fighting skill leans towards boxing.

I'm never fond of boxing fighters, so Ed's already a huge NO for me. What was more disappointing about his reveal though, is the fact that he's being set up to be the new M. Bison. Complete with that ugly M. Bison-inspired costume! Turns out, ghost of the now-death Shadaloo's boss tried to possess his body, hinting that the evil organization is still lurking about, despite the conclusive ending to "A Shadow Falls". This is something along the line of how "Final Fantasy XIII-2" ruined the perfect ending of its first game! Anyway, some fans have been able to test him out during the game's beta test on May 11th. It's still unclear when he will be available for purchase, but it's safe to assume that will take place this month. You can check out his official reveal trailer on CAPCOM's official Youtube channel.

Dynasty Warriors

Early last month, Kadokawa's Weekly Famitsu magazine revealed that the 9th iteration of the franchise, "Shin Sangoku Musou 8" will be released on Playstation 4. This wasn't surprising, since KOEI Tecmo has been moving away and away from Microsoft and their Xbox family since the 8th game. Despite that, there are hints that the North American and European region will get additional release in other platforms as well. Switch, perhaps?

First announced back in December 2016, the new game will have an open-world environment, placing the continent of China into a single, vast map to explore. There will be key cities and also landmarks in the game. This change enables various mechanics that were unaccessible in previous titles, like real-time climate and its influence to battle, stealth infilitration, long distance attack, as well as variety of other methods like "State Combo", "Flow Attacks", "Trigger Attack", and "Interactive Actions". The story mode will be massively affected by them as well, as everything will take place according to its respective period, and more faithful to the actual history. According to producer Akihiro Suzuki and director Jun Miyauchi, development is currently at 40%, and that their team is currently adding more and more features to increase the game's playability value. With that said, the game still has no official release date at the time being.

Continuing the franchise's tradition, several new characters will be introduced to join the existing 83 officers from the latest title, "Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires". Zhou Cang, wielding the Daisatsutou, will be added to the Shu faction, while Cheng Pu, wielding a dual spear, will join the Wu faction. There might be more for other factions, but so far, these two are the only ones announced. Details for these characters as well as regarding the game in general, can be found on the official English and Japanese websites.

The King of Fighters

Fans who haven't been able to play the game on Playstation 4, will soon have a chance to play it on PC. "The King of Fighters XIV Steam Edition" of the game, has been announced to be released in the near future. SNK Corp has been accepting pre-order starting in May. Regular edition will come with a bonus of DLC costumes for Kyo Kusanagi, and Geese Howard. A Deluxe Pack, which is a MUCH better offer but with understandably higher price, will come equipped with Digital Art Book, Digital Soundtrack, 10 DLC costumes, and all 4 DLC characters announced so far. That's basically everything that SNK Corp has released in one pack! A 20% discount, which is an extra-generous bargain for both sets, is set to run until June 15th, 2017 10:AM PDT. So hurry up and pre-order your copy! I know I would if I had a compatible resource to play it, as well as reliable financial condition... *sigh*

Assassin's Creed

E3 is taking place this month, and Ubisoft has been rumored to be announcing the new title for their "Assassin's Creed" franchise. Nothing official has been revealed to far, but the company has indeed teased that this new entry will be released before the end of their current fiscal year. That means, we can expect it to arrive before March 31st, 2018. Will it be the Egyptian-themed "Assassin's Creed: Origins" as previously speculated? We'll have to wait and see...

Sonic the Hedgehog

When it was announced that there would be a 3rd character for "Sonic Forces", it made me quite... anxious. Remember how the teaser showed a cat-like character? Yep, I was genuinely worried that SEGA would be shoving, shoehorning a completely new character that might ruin the whole "Sonic Generations" combo of Classic and Modern Sonic. I mean, what's the purpose, right? Well, guess what? Turns out the third character is indeed a NEW character, but NOT exactly new. Huh? Because it's still Sonic. CUSTOM SONIC. LOL.

Seriously, this is NICE! And also somewhat brilliant too. I'm sure many Sonic fans have been itching to see how Sonic the Hedgehog would've looked if he's actually a wolf instead. Or if he's not Blue, but Red-colored... Okay, perhaps I'm the only one intrigued by those idea, but the point is, each fans can have their own version of Sonic through this game! This customizable Sonic or 'Hero Character' can be equipped with a variety of powerful unique gadgets called Wispons. The visual look can also be modified by choosing between 'hundreds' of options. So those who have been dreaming to have a nerdy Sonic as their playable character, well, this one's for you! Also, as I said before, players can choose a different base animal apart from Hedgehog, and all 7 types come with their own unique abilities. SEGA and the Sonic Team has provided a reveal trailer, and also quick gameplay trailer for this new Sonic. Looks like he'll be able to play through either Classic or Modern style stages too. Pretty cool, right?!

Meanwhile, "Sonic Mania" has officially received a release date. The 2D Classic Sonic game will be launched on August 15th, 2017, for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. A special pre-order trailer has been released to deliver this announcement. Go ahead and check it out, because it looks... 2D-nostalgic fun! :D

Zero Escape

Just like "Sonic Mania", the PS4 port of "Zero Time Dilemma" will also be released in August. Namely, two days later on August 17th, 2017. That's only for the Japanese version though, and it will be available at the price of 3,800 yen. The English version has yet to receive official release date, but has been planned for a Fall release. This new PS4 version will have refined graphics, and Famitsu has published a comparison sample with the PC version.

Professor Layton

Early last month (yes, don't ask), details for the first arc of "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy" has been revealed by LEVEL-5. Episode 01, entitled "Clockwork Sweets" will have Katrielle investigating the stolen hand of London's famous Big Ben's clock. The incident needs to be taken care of before the arrival of Ambassador Melarco the day after. So to fulfill the request of Scotland Yard's inspector Aspoiro, Katrielle and her assistant Haro needs to race through time to retrieve back the hand, before press conference with Melarco begins. Marc and Reggie Yanchatta, 27 years old twins will be involved in this case. Older brother Marc works as the mechanic on Big Ben, while Reggie is a confectioner.

Two of the "Seven Millionaires of London" from the title, have also been introduced. The first one is Ridley Fremens, who is the female mayor of London. And the second one is Clerk Gospec, a 65 years old multi-milionaire who has taken interest in Katrielle to investigate an incident in his theater. The report is currently unclear, but it seems Fremes will also be involved in the Big Ben case, while the Gospec's request will play out as one of Katrielle's next mission. To be honest, this feels more like a mystery visual novel than the previous "Professor Layton" titles. For some reason, I'm even reminded of that App Game "Layton Brothers", which I only managed to play up to the 3rd case (I need to purchase the next cases afterwards, and I had to pass on that LOL).

"Puzzles" are the signature of the franchise, so of course Katrielle will be dealing with them. The same goes for the other basic flow, like examining areas to discover "Insight Coins", and also tracking down "Collectibles". Another Layton standard feature, a mini game called "The Ideal Dinner" is also available. This time players need to provide clients with ideal dinner course of hors d’oeuvres, soup, a main course, and desserts. The game will be released worlwide on July 20th, 2017, for Nintendo 3DS (for Japan region, western version will come later in Fall), iOS and Android. That means, we might be getting additional information about other characters in the near future. Perhaps, during this month's E3?

Square Enix

The last category of this R-N-D, is a rundown of future plans by Square Enix. The company held a financial briefings for the fiscal year that ended in March 31st, 2017, and president and CEO Yousuke Matsuda revealed that some highly-anticipated title will be launched within the next three years. These projects include "Final Fantasy VII Remake", "Kingdom Hearts III", and also an unnamed Marvel IP License. This means that we can expect those to arrive starting next year. Will they be announcing more details for these projects during E3 though? We'll see...

[oumakokichi]

ok, you may have already answered these two questions, but here goes: thoughts on kaede??? about the twist, about her role in the story, etc. and secondly, ouma's response to her execution: do you think that was authentic or just another lie?

I’ve talked a little bit on my feelings about Kaede before,but I don’t mind going into more detail!

I really, really love her, and I think she was a fantasticprotagonist and character and I honestly wish we’d gotten to see more of her. Iunderstand why the twist was done, and the thematic reasons for it in the game—andoverall, the idea of a protagonist bait-and-switch doesn’t really bother me somuch, because I think it’s usually a really fun subversion of “plot armor”tropes if well-done. It can really get the players or viewers questioning theirpreconceptions and why they assume certain characters are going to be safe ornot.

Of course, the fact that this was a trope done with a femaleprotagonist specifically is what bothers me the most, moreso since it couldeasily have been swapped around. There’s literally no reason why Saihara orKiibo couldn’t have been our baited protagonists (and many people assumed Kiibowas going to be the protagonist from the first promotional material we got,given the obvious fact that he looked so much like Naegi), and then Kaede couldhave been switched in halfway through.

The whole point of a protagonist bait-and-switch should befor some kind of commentary or fun, interesting subversion of a plot twist thatthe audience or readers thought they already saw coming. Hyping up a characteras being “THE first female protagonist in the main series” (because no, Komarudoesn’t really count when we’re talking the main installments) only to thensnatch her away was clearly just a move to make players angry. And I understandwhy Kodaka wanted to intentionally make players angry with this, and why it wassupposed to be a taste of what to come. But it was still such a shitty move.

I’m at least glad though that her role in the story isundeniably important, and that she left such a noticeable, lasting impact onthe group. Like Nanami, Kaede is someone who takes to being a leader and wantsto encourage as much trust and friendship among the group as possible. Butunlike Nanami, whose undoing was mostly by external circumstances beyond hercontrol (see Komaeda in sdr2, see Junko in dr3), Kaede’s own undoing very muchhas to do with her own internal issues of trust vs. doubt.

It is fascinating that Kaede was specifically someone whowanted to go into the game being instantly able to trust people. The fact thatshe asked to be a well-liked leader figure who could open up to and trustpeople highlights how much she valued these things—and also makes itfascinating that even during the game, post-brainwashing, she really couldn’tmanage this all the way. There was always some small part of her that, despitewanting to trust others implicitly, could never really manage it, and this wasultimately why she told absolutely no one, not even Saihara, about her plan tokill the mastermind.

And nevertheless, her willingness to take such a huge riskfor the sake of the group, and the fact that even if she couldn’t quite trustall of them, she was still willing to take on such a huge burden and sin fortheir sake, is exactly what hit everyone else in the group so hard. Kaede wasnot the perfect person or protagonist that she wanted to be or that shepretended to be, but her core values and her selflessness was genuine andauthentic, even from before she was brainwashed, and people could recognizethat.

I love that her influence on the group was still tangibleeven after her death. While it’s a shame that it does feel as if she was usedmostly to further Saihara’s development in many ways, I appreciate that herdeath left quite an impact on many of the characters, and that many of themmentioned or continued to think about her all the way through, so that it wasn’tjust Saihara who felt affected by her.

Where most first culprits in the series are ratherunforgettable, Kaede was the first character to be a culprit in Chapter 1 andundeniably leave a lasting impact the whole way through. First victims haveoften been more memorable than their culprit counterparts—Maizono had much morerelevance to the plot than Leon by virtue of having known Naegi from before,the SHSL Impostor was deeply secretive and had many more things discoveredabout him later on in sdr2 than Teruteru, etc.

But Kaede’s role as a “first culprit” figure who wasactually deeply involved by virtue of having been so used and manipulated bythe mastermind, and whose execution itself was a blatant violation of the rulesand a “lie” of sorts, is really, really memorable.

When it comes to Ouma’s reaction to her execution, as withGonta, I think yes, he was absolutely being authentic. Not with the crocodiletears per se—whenever he does the super exaggerated crying sprite with all thetears and snot coming out, that’s definitely meant to be an exaggeration. Herarely uses those sprites anyway, and when he does it’s very clearly for thesake of an act or routine that he doesn’t expect the others to take seriouslyanyway (which is why he so often gets really ridiculously loud or carried awaywhen he does it, because he’s just putting on an act anyway).

However, as I’ve said many a time, Ouma’s blank spritesoffer quite a lot more insight into what he’s really thinking, and are perhapssome of the only times he’s either letting his guard drop slightly or elsereassessing the situation and trying to figure out where to go from there. WithKaede, he very clearly went blank just before she was sent off to be executed.His last words to her (“You weren’t boring at all”) are the highest complimenthe can offer to any of the cast, as he frequently does to other importantcharacters who we know he doesn’t hate, such as Saihara and Momota.

Given how even when going to his own death in Chapter 5,this is something Ouma references (by telling Momota, “At least I wasn’tboring, right?”), it’s clear to see that this is really, honestly something hevalues. When he says these kinds of things, he’s being sincere. Ouma is acharacter who lives his life by playing things out like a game of chess andmaking cold, calculated decisions—but at heart, he never wants to forget thefun in things. He’s a prankster, and it shows: his own lab is full of prank andgag materials, like glasses with fake moustaches, clown masks, wigs, and walkietalkies. There’s no way to look at him, look at all of these facts, and say “no,he was just lying, he doesn’t really care about that kind of stuff.”

Ouma tries so hard to fight against the inevitability ofboredom from being able to know and analyze so much, and he does this usingpranks, jokes, fun. Saying to Kaede that she wasn’t boring is the equivalent ofnodding his head to her, sending her off with a final degree of respect,because even if he couldn’t agree with her methods or her claims of trusting ineveryone when she so clearly wasn’t taking her own advice, he did understandwhat she was trying to do. As one leader to another (because he is a leader,from the shadows), I think he did mean that compliment with the utmostsincerity.

I hope I was able to answer both questions to the best of myability! I really do love Kaede, and while I wish she’d had more time to shineas a protagonist in her own right, I still love the impression that she leftregardless. I don’t think any of the group could truly bring themselves todislike her, and that certainly includes Ouma.

[sssn-neptune-vasilias]

I guess the “Jaune Issue” is really starting to boil yet again. It’s happened almost every season and I can almost understand the need to want to protect him from people who’re being overly harsh on him, or those who just downright hate him, but at this point, four seasons in, if you can sympathize with Jaune more than the people who’re put off by Jaune, you’re missing something really important- something that people have been arguing is a really big issue with this show in general

I just wanna start off with saying a lot of people feel cheated out of a different anime thanks to Jaune. All of the marketing during the trailers and most marketing today is about RWBY- four girls- and the audience this show gathered back then was obviously an audience who were hungry and starved for more shows that featured girls kicking monster ass. Jaune becoming such a prominent side character that he’s essentially one of the main protagonists now was something not many people wanted, and something the show or Jaune has never really earned.

Jaune started off as an audience surrogate (a trope you can learn more about in the link provided, and I’m gonna be linking back to tropes like this as often as I can). Everyone else in the world that we’d met so far already knew what Hunters were supposed to be doing, what Beacon was for, etc, etc. Ruby or Nora wouldn’t ever need to ask about Aura or Semblances or weapons, because they’ve been training and fighting for years before Beacon. Juane is the character who needed this all explained to him, and through Jaune’s eyes, we were given crucial information about the world. In a show like RWBY, a Jaune is important, as it eases the burden of world-building and allows these really basic conversations that normally wouldn’t be happening with regular characters to happen with Jaune.

Jaune then continued to evolve as a sympathetic character during Jaunedice. “I’m tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends risk their lives!” That line to this day is still so fucking powerful, and Miles Luna is so fucking good at delivering those heart-wrenching lines with quivering voices about feeling inadequate. During season one of this show, people LOVED Jaune. “My baby” “My son” etc, were common terms of endearment for him because Jaune’s feelings of inadequacy were so powerful and so relatable. Despite the fact that Jaune Arc was basically the “Ordinary High School Student” main protagonist of every shounen anime ever, the FNDM loved him anyway because of his conviction. He desperately wanted to get better and we believed him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Despite all of this, Jaune took up an unearned amount of screen time during season 1. Jaunedice 1, Jaunedice 2, Forever Fall 1 and Forever Fall 2 was a four episode long arc based almost exclusively around Jaune. 4 episodes and 25 minutes spent on away from RWBY and the rest of the plot of the show just to showcase Arkos’ rocky start, reveal Jaune’s dark secret, and a bullying arc that all could’ve taken less than an episode to tell and ended up resolving itself in a self-defeating way: Pyrrha never told Jaune she helped him kill the Ursa in the forest. Despite the fact that Jaune was ready and willing to allow Pyrrha to teach him how to fight, Pyrrha never took the time out to explain to him how absolutely dead he would’ve been had she not intervened. Because of this, Jaune doesn’t get the growth he needed, he doesn’t actually get to understand just how dangerous this job really is. It spares Jaune’s feelings, but also puts him and everyone he’ll ever fight with in danger until he actually learns that lesson.

Granted, if you’re unwilling to forgive a show for not-so-great pacing and a few loose ends during its first season, you probably shouldn’t have been following a start-up show like RWBY in the first place. The writers were so obviously just beginning to learn how to tell the story, and needed time to get better. So most people held their complaints and waited until season two.

Here’s where shit absolutely hit the goddamn fan.

Jaune had a crush on Weiss since volume 1, while Pyrrha had a crush on him from before he’d even seen Weiss. The same Love Triangle trope we see all the time. It’s a bit tired, and Tumblr hates it for its heteronormative aspects, its potential to create abusive relationships, and for the simple fact that polyamorous relationships are an easy way to end the trope, but most people just shrugged it off because it hadn’t been to intrusive yet.

Then it got really fucking intrusive.

Jaune. Wouldn’t. Leave. Her. Alone. Over and over again she rejected him and he continued to pursue her. Walking to her dorm to harass her and ask her to the dance, harassing her during class, etc, etc. Now considering a lot of the FNDM were women, Jaune alienated the core audience RT had been marketing towards. So many women came forward feeling irked, annoyed, and even triggered by Jaune’s constant harassment. He was every guy that didn’t know how to take “no” for an answer to these women- and if you talk to them, almost all of them have at least one story similar. But for some reason the narrative painted WEISS as the bad guy here. With Yang ruffling Jaune’s hair with “Some day” and Yang again calling Weiss an “ice queen” after slamming their door in his face, the show had somehow made Weiss the antagonist to Jaune’s “lovable and charismatic dope.” Pair that weird framing with younger male members of the FNDM who related even more with Jaune because of this, and it was a disaster. So many posts from guys about how “girls just don’t understand how hard it is to try to flirt” and “if Weiss weren’t so mean to him then maybe he’d get the message” flooded the tag and it was just all around disgusting. Because of how the show had framed Jaune as the guy trying his hardest to earn what he wanted up to that point, “Weiss” just became “something he wanted” instead of an actual person who had no romantic interest in him whatsoever. Then the added conversation with Neptune sealed the deal and people outright despised him for his grandiose, accusatory and entirely hypocritical tone he took with Neptune. Most women were put off almost entirely by a character they used to identify with. Some guys identified with him even harder because they hadn’t yet learned that Jaune’s failures at love weren’t something to sympathize with, but to correct.

So we ended up with this huge divide in the FNDM, and people on the left didn’t want anything to do with Jaune even if they’d previously liked him, while people on the right would go to any length to defend his actions and keep up the same “he’s just a teenager, he doesn’t know any better” attitude that Jaune himself had asked people to stop using on him.

Two other nitpicks from season 2 were Jaune reading comics while he was supposed to be studying, and Jaune’s reaction to seeing Pyrrha take charge during The Breach when he’d failed to. The first is just a minor character inconsistency- season 1 he’d been so willing to try to learn to be the best Huntsman he could be, why is he slacking off long before his first real test as a Huntsman? The second, though, was a bit more alarming. With RWBY in trouble, Jaune hesitates, unsure of how to rush in to battle. Pyrrha takes charge and rallies JNPR forward into the fight. Jaune- instead of running behind his teammates, instead of being glad Pyrrha helped him out, instead of being thankful- groans at the missed opportunity. Not only was that groan inconsistent with Jaune’s earlier promise to allow Pyrrha to help him, it was just downright childish. People’s lives are on the line and he wastes time from joining the fight to pout that he didn’t get to rush his team into battle? That’s good behavior from a leader at all.

Two seasons in and there’s already a divide about Jaune. He’d taken up so much screen time and people were all around tired of seeing him. People were so tired of Jaune as a character, that he was the only character whose figure didn’t sell out at RTX and ComiCon. Again, here’s where I’m assuming RT got the hint- less Jaune please!

And they followed through! Jaune had so few lines season three and so much less screen time some of the people who’d been feeling alienated by him started to get over it. Jaune was finally being used to further Pyrrha’s plot- a plot with actual relevance to the overall plot of RWBY- instead of his own. He said all the right things, his characterization stayed consistent, and people genuinely felt bad for him when Pyrrha shoved him in the locker and blasted him off. The one thing Jaune hated the most, and Pyrrha did it to him to save his life. Granted, a lot of people took issue with the fact that Jaune never actually tried to get a hold of any of the professors Ozpin had commanded him to, and instead called Weiss before breaking his phone, but not everyone’s perfect. 

Season one Jaune was back during season three. Someone the original targeted audience could and wanted to relate to.

Unfortunately the plot is bending yet again to Jaune Arc’s shenanigans. Most people can agree the pacing for this season is god awful, but somehow the efficiency of Jaune’s alienation of the original FNDM has increased.

“We hit it, harder” was an absolutely terrible explanation to his actually somewhat decent plan, that required further explanation and precious time the others could’ve gotten seriously hurt during.

Melting down Pyrrha’s shield and tiara into his armor seemed like an entirely inappropriate gesture- instead of being laid to rest, they’re being used to strengthen Jaune? The gesture would seem less inappropriate if Jaune actually managed to start becoming a better fighter, but no... no he doesn’t.

Jaune getting all of the character development the loss of Pyrrha allotted the team is just bad writing. ALL of RNJR (as well as RWBY) lost a friend in Pyrrha. So far Jaune’s been the only person to have gotten any sort of growth from her loss (the recordings she left behind). Jaune wasn’t supposed to be a main character, why has he taken up growth that could’ve been spread evenly across RNJR or delegated to Ruby- the main protagonist of the story.

Calling Jaune the “strategist” of the team always seemed so out of place. Even more so considering how quick-thinking and resourceful Ruby always has been, from opening Neo’s umbrella, to shooting Nora with lightning Dust during the Tyrian fight in such a way Tyrian entirely thought the shot had been meant for him and gave Nora a clear shot for what would’ve been a fantastic OHKO. A couple of ill-described plans does not a strategist make.

Tyrian’s insinuation at being interested in Jaune for some unknown reason was- at least for me- the straw that broke the camel’s back. What exactly is so interesting about Jaune Arc? Well, we the audience don’t know- nor do most of us really care at this point- but RT will be sure to tell us eventually anyway. This pattern of giving Jaune unearned and undeserved attention stretches all the way to people who’re actively plotting the world’s demise. We’re tired of him, stop making him even more important without having him earn it!

Jaune closing his eyes, entirely unimpeded and unencumbered while holding the melted down remains of someone who died to protect her friends as the first person to ever show him an ounce of kindness at Beacon was about to die was so absolutely terribly bad. Ren and Nora at least were trying to recover from Tyrian’s assault. Jaune closed his eyes and grit his teeth and didn’t even bother trying.

And after watching Qrow save Ruby’s life and suffer a pretty bad injury at the hands of Tyrian, begins to demean Qrow for the adverse effects of his Semblance. “Some load of help you’ve been.” Jaune’s talking down to a man who’s not only a father figure to Ruby, but a man who saved all of RNJR’s lives and who stepped in to save Ruby when Jaune was too busy trying not to watch.

Last episode left off with Jaune being a huge dick to Ruby, who was only trying to comfort him. “They’ll be okay. “You don’t know that.” Jaune. Buddy. Pal. You’re kinda holding the comatose body of Ruby’s uncle, desperately trying to find medical help before he dies. “Our two friends who just split up probably won’t be okay” is not what she needs to hear right now. But for some reason, framing Jaune as more pragmatic was more important than giving Ruby and growth or emotion about the whole situation? Okay...

Now- for the reason I’m writing this in the first place- the Great War WoR. People are already assuming Jaune’s weapon, Crocea Mors was the sword the King of Vale had used during the final battle. Whether or not it is, whether or not Jaune is a relative of the King and through that, royalty. Whether or not all of these theories are unfounded, I can say this. Through my observation of the FNDM, most people are tired of Jaune Arc. Making him an heir of the king or placing any more unearned importance on him is going to drain people.

Let him fight. Let him earn his title. Let us see Jaune grow into the warrior Pyrrha saw in him. Quit pulling McGuffins to show us more of Jaune’s “untapped potential” and actually show us him trying to use it. I think that’s what most people want from him- what most people were expecting.

Tbh, I wrote this to try to explain all of the trends I’ve seen throughout the history of the FNDM as well as my own personal issues with the show, but I already feel that people are gonna take this as me targeting and hating on Jaune and not like, pointing out actual inconsistencies with characterization and storytelling the show has created on a consistent basis like I’ve been trying to do. If anyone who reads this feels similarly about Jaune, I’d be glad to hear what exactly puts you off about him to confirm or alter my theories about why the FNDM is so tired of him. If anyone who reads this thinks “Jaune is a great character, stop hating, it’s just a story, if you don’t like it don’t watch uwu” then like, please don’t bother commenting because I don’t feel like turning this post into another explanation as to why RT are failing Jaune as a character. Shoot me an ask instead, I’ll be glad to answer it there, but I wanna keep this post just for discussion for people who already have negative feelings towards Jaune.

[lychrono]

17:Tools of the Hunter: Hunter’s equipment

Hunter’s equipment

           Within the realm of combat, a solitary warrior will trust their life with two factors: What he is, and what he has.

What he is comes down to a matter of body and mind, the two greatest weapons a man has at their disposal. With mind, they think, they observe, they strategize, and they problem solve. With Body, they execute, they react, and they endure. Apart, they are useless, but together, they have the potential to create legends.

           However, a well-toned body and focused mind will only go so far. To go even farther, he must depend on what he has.

From the dawn of time, war has always, and will always be an arms race. Both sides struggle to create newer, better, more efficient weapons of mass destruction to gain the advantage over the other side. Could the same not be said about a skirmish, or even a simple 1 on 1 match? If two men enter, equal in mind and body, but different in equipment, is it fair to say that the one with better equipment has the upper hand? Even if victory is not certain, it is more likely they will prevail over their opponent. With superior tools, to a man’s odds are raised.

           And So, what makes a warrior great and deadly, comes down to his self, and his equipment to compliment his self.

           Now why did I go to the trouble of creating this high school essay of what makes a warrior a warrior? Well, I believe that the same could be applied To Hunter. Even if he was perfectly toned and had a supercomputer for a brain (Which he does not have either of), He wouldn’t want to fight a Crime Syndicate with nothing but long johns and a spork. That would be dumb on his part and uninteresting for readers, who would have nothing of note to look at.

           So, because he’s not Saitama, who can part the sky with a single punch, and do it in a superhero costume, He’s going to need equipment, I’m talking high quality, military grade, custom made for him, right proper equipment; And lucky for our furry little wolf protagonist, he has received just that from Mystacine.

           Although I went over a bit of his equipment in my description of part 5/6 of the Lychrono Prologue, that was but a sample. Here, I will go through all of Hunter’s equipment in further detail, including specs, appearance (With concept art to boot), Utility, origins within the lore, and even some trivia about each piece.

           First, why don’t we start off with what is the biggest, and arguably, the most important part of Hunter’s Equipment: His suit

Hunter’s suit

Designated name (By Mystacine):Interloper Armor

Designer:Unknown

Manufacturer:Goswit-dou

Weight:25.56 lbs.

Armor rating:3/5

               Forward

Hunter’s suit, AKA the interloper Armor, Is Hunter’s bounty hunter suit, designed by a member of Mystacine and produced by Goswit-dou, a prominent gear manufacturer within the World of Ellin.

Description

    The interloper armor is comprised of two main layers: the functional outer layer, and the reinforced inner layer, both working in tandem to assist its user (In this case, Hunter).

    The outer layer is, rather than being one big piece of gear, a set of smaller pieces of equipment, Including reinforced leather gauntlets,knee high combat boots, a helmet, a full body under suit, An infinity scarf, a series of utilitarian belts wrapping around his thighs, and to tie it all together, a vest reminiscent of real life naval uniforms, complete with a back flap covering his tail, a hood, and a pair of shoulder pads and pauldrons.

The outer layer of the Interloper armor is colored with an assortment of greys and dark greys, crimson red, brown, and silver metallic pieces.

The entire outer layer of the Interloper armor is made using a series of synthetic material designed to be breathable, waterproof, insulating, tough, lightweight, and flexible, to keep damage to the materials down to a minimum while not weighing down the user. Additionally, the outer layer comes with it’s own leather padding to add protection to risky areas the inner layer could not reach. On a side note, the shoulder plates and pauldrons are made of a material not used on any other part of the suit: A titanium alloy grafted to the vest. Additionally, the helmet is made of primarily of a plastic material, with the individual plates being sewn together by a layer of cloth

Overall, the outer layer was designed with functionality, adaptability, and storage in mind.

The inner layer, on the other hand, was designed with one major purpose: Protection.

The Inner layer, unlike its sister layer, is comprised of only one piece: A flexible, one piece zip up bodysuit, cut off at the knees and elbows. However, what makes the suit special is how it is padded. Rather than rely on Kevlar, the entire body suit  is stuff with a curious, gel like substance, similar to the kind used in padded mouse pads, but much more resilient. This gel substance is spread out on the suit in a muscle pattern, with padding located on the pecs, abdominals, shoulders, trapezius, serratus anterior, shoulder blades, glutes, hamstrings, biceps, triceps, elbows, crotch,knees and thighs.

    The point of the inner layer is to provide protection WITHOUT sacrificing agility and flexibility, which is why the entire suit is made of stretchy material, with the exception of one part: The neck. This section is made using a rigid material to protect against strangulation( If not for the infinity scarf, this section would be completely visible).

Features:

    The interloper has several additional features to make sure the user has a few advantages. For example, the helmet is equipped with:

A built in microphone and headset to keep in touch with those around him, as well as Mystacine headquarters.

A voice modifier, to keep your identity protected from friends, enemies, and loved ones, as well as to make you less recognizable from any database.

WiFi and service compatibility to keep you connected to both Mystacine headquarters, as well as the rest of Ellin.

 A tracking chip, so Mystacine can keep in touch in case you become lost or are in dire need of Rescue

Several sensors to keep track of body vitals, as well environmental conditions such as temperature and air density

An infrared mode

Finally, a charging port, as the Helmet runs on a lithium ion battery, with a max charge of 48 hours (the tracking chip can last for several years with max charge).

(These features come standard with all equipment given to Mystacine personnel)

For features that don’t need a battery, the suit comes with several storage pouches to hold most of Hunter’s equipment.

Finally The Boots, Helmet, inner layer, and outer layer each come with a zipper to allow for easy suit-up and removal. Additionally, both the gauntlets and boots use laces for adjusting size.

    And that is it for Hunter’s suit. Overall, a fine, well rounded suit for Hunter that can get him through just about anything thrown his way. However, that’s only on the defensive, and there is no point to defense if you have nothing to retaliate with, after all, some say the best defense is a good offense. He’ll need something to work with the defense of his suit, something to give him an offensive edge, and lucky for him, he’s been gifted an edge; about 27” of edge:

            Hunter’s sword

    Hunter’s sword is a two-handed traditional Katana, manufactured by Zanzo blades. While similar to many other katana’s, it also has a few key bits to differentiate itself. While mainly to be used for two handed combat, it is light enough to be used for one handed combat.

    Durability is one of the highlights of Hunter’s blade. Through testing, researchers have discovered that the blade can withstand over 2000 pounds of pressure without leaving a mark, can strike a steel beam without dulling. Even still, the blade has been speculated to withstand a temperature of over 5000 degrees fahrenheit. While we can speculate, it is unknown to both Hunter and his colleagues what gave the Sword such fortitude.

Besides durability, the sword is still a katana, a high quality katana, but a katana no less.

Description:

Hunter’s blade, as stated before, is a two handed katana, following the modern day katana design of Shinsakutō. The blade is made of carbon steel with a 1.0% carbon content, folded several hundred times and dipped in a chemical coating to protect from humidity and weather. As a bonus, the protective coating gives the blade a crimson red sheen; although unintentional on Zanzo’s part, this mistake gave the blade both an intimidation factor and style points.

As for the hilt, it is comprised of two major sections both wrapping around a lightweight, wooden core( which is molded around the tang). The upper section of the hilt, located just under the fuchi (hilt collar) is a curious handle reminiscent of the grip of a gun.It uses a two part plastic mold that is screwed together; the mold itself is black in color and uses a cross etching pattern.Parallel to the blade, the black part has 4 indents to fit Hunter’s fingers. most curiously, a red button runs partially down the both sides of the grip, which unfortunately, does not do anything but glow.

For the second half of the hilt, it is a simple strip of leather wrapping around the rest of the hilt to the sword pommel.

The sword weighs in at roughly 2.5 pounds (1.14 kg) and has a total length of 38” ( 96.52 cm), with blade being 27” (68.58cm) and the hilt taking up the remaining 11” (27.94cm).

Additionally, the first 3 inches of the blade, just past the habaki (blade collar), is what is known as a Ricasso, or an unsharpened length of blade. In addition, a guard is located along the back of the blade,starting from the tsubasa running slightly beyond the ricasso. Like the grip, this segment is comprised of the same material making up the upper grip.

The pommel of the hilt is trapezoidal in shape and has a section square section cut out of the middle.

One last note: The tsuba, or guard, has a simple compass like figure carved into it, just for decoration.

Sheath

To go with the sword, Hunter has been given a sheath. The sheath is comprised mainly of brass, leather, plastic, and wood. The sheath is  located along his back, horizontally resting just above his glutes. The hilt of the katana is pointed toward the right side of Hunter’s body, or his right hand. This is to allow Hunter to draw it with his left hand, his dominant hand.

    If needed, the Sheath can be disconnected from his backside to allow for a more quick draw style of combat. Also, in the event of being disarmed, the sheath can be used as a non lethal bludgeon.

Closing statements

    Like a light saber for a Jedi, Hunter’s sword is the most important member of his arsenal. Over his journey, he will learn to love that blade as if it were a part of him.

Unfortunately, his sword will not be enough. The drawback of being a melee weapon gives him a disadvantage to any person with a firearm out of range. To combat this, he’ll need some fire power of his own.

Tranquilizer Pistol   

Spoilers from here on out:Hunter’s sword is his only weapon that can be considered “fatal” when used in the traditional sense.

    The tranquilizer pistol is Hunter’s answer to any long ranged fire fight situation he might find himself in. However, rather than act as a standard handgun, killing the intended target, it will instead incapacitate the target. The reason incapacitation is preferred is because Hunter is a bounty hunter. The simple fact is that when Hunter is asked to apprehend someone, the client will want their target brought alive. Even if they say dead or alive, it’s best just to be safe.

    With that out of the way, why don’t we check out the gun’s specifics. First of, the gun is not semi automatic, nor does it use any kind of bullet. Instead, the ammunition is loaded directly into the chamber, and instead of bullets, it uses darts. That’s right, it’s a dart gun.

    Like traditional dart guns, it uses a .50 caliber dart that’s fired using compressed air. Because it’s an air gun, it has the natural advantage of silence, allowing stealth to be on Hunter’s side. The gun can shoot a dart a maximum of 200 yards before deceleration.

    The darts provided to Hunter are traditional darts with Hypodermic needles, rather than glass, the Syringe is made of metal to prevent breaking. However, if syringes are to be reused, safety regulations requires that they be cleaned with a powerful solution, to prevent the spread of HIV.

However, a dart is but a mild sting if empty. What gives a dart it’s punch is the agent inside it, and for Hunter’s sake, he has been provided with two different agents: The first is a comatose agent, capable of putting the target into a deep sleep. The effects of the dart last an average time of two hours, with the longest observed time being six hours, depending on the targets body mass. The second agent is a paralysis toxin, which causes the target to go numb and go rigid. The effects of the toxin last much longer than the comatose agent, with an average time of twenty four hours.

Thanks to the space in Hunter’s pouch, he is able to carry a maximum of six darts.

In case the pistol is not usable at the time, one can simply jam the needle into the body of the target.   

That’s about it for Hunter’s tranquilizer gun. What’s next?

Smoke Bomb

    The smoke bomb can get Hunter out of most Sticky situations, or even set him up for a stealthy take down. It is a small sphere, roughly 1.5” in height, that can be stored in Hunter’s back pouch.

    To activate the smoke bomb, you first have to pull the pin. Once the pin is pulled, you have five seconds to roll or throw the bomb at your designated target. Once the five seconds are up, 3 emitters along the equator of the bomb will open up and start emitting a powder based smoke. The force of expulsion will cause the bomb to start spinning around wildly like a top, all the while spreading smoke around even further. While the bomb is spinning around, it will create irritating white noise to muffle sound, allowing for quick approach or getaway.

    Finally, once the bomb has run out of powder to expel, the emitters will close up and the bomb will cease activity.

    If a quick cloud of smoke is needed, the bomb can simply be thrown on the ground and crushed underfoot.

    Hunter can hold up to three of these bombs in his back pouch.

    Flashbang

    The second type of bomb Hunter has at his disposal is a flash bang, or stun grenade. It is a traditional, manganese based flashbang; designed to create a blinding flash of light and an intense sound of over 170 decibels.

    Once the pin is pulled, one only has three seconds until it explodes. The effects of flash bang can last anywhere from 15 seconds to 15 minutes, depending on distance from the explosion and whether they were looking directly or not. For Hunter’s safety, he is to look away, close his eyes, and cover his ears to prevent vision or hearing damage.

    An additional note: While the flashbang is considered a non-lethal explosive, exploding within proximity of exposed fur and flesh can cause 3rd degree burns and even ignite the victim in rare cases.

        Utility knife

    If you thought that Hunter’s sword was his only form of melee combat(besides hand to hand), you’re… partially right. While the utility knife has the appearance of a standard combat knife, combat is the least of its priorities. Rather, the main point of the utility knife is just that:utility. Unlike his sword, Hunter’s knife is a double edged, stainless steel knife, with one edge being a standard edge, with the other edge being a serrated edge. As a bonus, both flat sides of the blade have had a cross etched pattern scratched into it, to be used as a heavy duty file. Even the pommel of the knife has been reinforced for use as a window smasher.

    So why can’t it be used as a combat knife. Simply put, both the point and the edge have been dulled to prevent self injury. Additionally, because the blade is composed of carbon steel, it is not the most durable of blades, quickly dulling if used on metal.

    Use as a weapon is only advised as a last resort.

Tether rope

    At this point, we have gone over many different toys Hunter will be in possession of: The interloper armor, a sword, a tranquilizer gun, a smoke bomb, a flash bang, and a utility knife. While all of these are very useful tools, most are designed for one specific purpose. The next, as well as final major tool we are going to cover is not only a multipurpose tool, but perhaps the most versatile piece of equipment in Hunter’s arsenal.

    The tether rope is truly a thing of beauty. In simple terms, it is but a length of rope containing special properties. Made of a special microfiber, the rope is incredibly durable, yet lightweight, Allowing it to hold several people without snapping, as well ais also very flexible. An interesting point, thanks to the microfiber, allows the rope to be cut with ease, but it can also be reconnected by putting two ends together, allowing the ends to fuse back together without making a mess. This property is caused by magnetic properties within the microfiber.

With this rope in hand, what can Hunter do with it? Well:

Knot work

Lashing

Rock climbing

Reppeling

Tightrope walking

Pulley

Bear bag

Pulling objects toward him

Lasso

Tying people up   

Tripwire

Anything that you can think of, it can be used for.

Besides the rope itself, there are a few extra parts that can be used with the rope

    Tether hook

    To the tip of a length of rope, a three pronged hook can be attached. This hook has a pointed tip and three retractable prongs. When thrown, the prongs will be retracted in order to be streamlined. When it hits solid object, the prongs open up to help grapple onto something.  In addition, there is another way to launch the tether hook.

    Tether Launcher

    To achieve shots faraway, or if you want to launch the tether hook straight at someone's face, this is just what you need. The tether launcher is gas powered, and can be gripped like a standard handgun. To use the tether launcher, open up the top of the chamber and slide the rope inside( with tether hook attached). Next, pull the rope until the tether hook is just outside of the chamber. Pull the pressure switch back, locking the rope into a vaccum, then you’re ready to fire. To fire, just pull the trigger and prepare for recoil.

In simple terms, the tether launcher is similar to many other devices like it, such as the hookshot from the Legend of Zelda, the grapple hook/batclaw from Batman, and the 3D maneuvering gear from Attack on Titan.

Rope container

All of the rope  Hunter has at his disposal is safely contained within this plastic container, which works to spool the rope like fishing line. Additionally, the container has a mechanism similar to a tape measure, where it automatically retracts slack unless locked in place.

The container hangs off of Hunter’s right hip.

And that's it for Hunter’s main equipment. However, there are a few minor things that Hunter keeps in his pouches, just as extra things.

Other:

Within Hunters back pouch, he has:

Fire starting kit

Medical gauze

Painkillers

Food capsules

A small water pouch

Survival books

Bandages

Antiseptic wound cleaner

Signal mirror

Spare gas tanks

Washcloth

Pouches for bombs and syringes (puncture proof)

Spare money.

All of this is to keep Hunter from dying from something common like infection, Hunger, or dehydration. Most of these are only used in jobs that take him far away from civilization into the unforgiving wild.

For a place to keep things too large for a pouch, Hunter uses a shoulder bag for clean clothes, street clothes, a rain tarp, and several repair kits for his equipment. The bag itself is waterproof, to keep Hunter’s equipment free of water.

There is one last item Hunter has, special in its own right. On the inside of Hunter’s vest, there is a special pocket meant for one thing:Hunter’s mercenary license. Through this sheet of plastic, Hunter tells others that he is a certified bounty hunter of Mystacine. This slip is identical to a driver’s license, containing a portrait of him, his date of birth, eye and hair color, fur sample, date of certificate retrieval, and mercenary ID number.

There we have it, these are all the basic items Hunter requires if he wants to have a good chance at taking down his targets. However, there is something unaccounted for: Something that is not an actual thing, but a service.

Repairs, replacement, and cleaning

    Whether you want to accept it or not, no item is perfect. Things get lost, broken, damaged, waterlogged, or otherwise are in a state where use is not possible. For that, there is a very simple solution.

    Within Hunter’s foot locker, the very same that Hunter received his gear in, a multitude of Repair kits can be found. For the interloper armor, a sewing kit and leather-works kit can be found. For Hunter’s Blade and the utility knife, Hunter has a sharpening kit that includes a whetstone and polish, as well as a cleaning cloth. This is to make sure the blades stay nice and sharp for use.

    But say that an item takes damage beyond what Hunter is capable of fixing, such as fire damage. For cases like this, Hunter must send his armor back to Mystacine for them to repair, which will take several days at most. Until Hunter get’s his equipment back, he will have to make do with a substitute.

    For replacing consumable items, such as bombs, needles, comatose and paralysis agents, and gas tanks, Hunter must ask for them from the source. If he finds himself running low, he can notify his divisions Elder (In this case, Aspen), and they will set them up with a new supply. If Hunter wants, he can set up a subscription to automatically have replacements sent to his apartment every three months, with a small subscription fee.

For cleaning the Interloper armor, the inner layer,bodysuit and scarf are all machine washable, while the vest is dry cleaning only. For leather items such as the boots, gauntlets, Belts, and tail guard, this must be hand washed with soap and water. For the Helmet, only a specialist in the area should be trusted to clean the helmet do to the complex design.Mystacine requires that Good care must be given to all equipment, which is why they require every member outside of Meerstadt to come once a year for equipment inspection.

Conclusion/ Final notes

    Well, there we have it, We went through all of Hunter’s equipment, gave specs in each of them, and even gave a few alternate uses for each. However, through all of this, there is one question that I did not answer that I feel I should: What is Hunter’s style, and how does his equipment help him with this? Well if I would have to describe Hunter’s style, it could be boiled down to three words:

Apprehension

Utility

Survival

What do I mean by this? Perhaps I can explain in a later update. That’s it for this time, and holy crap, I can see the light at the end of this tunnel; We only have two more minor pit stops before we head into the final chapter of the Lychrono prologue, where Hunter will be given the ultimate test to see if he is ready to become a bounty hunter under Mystacine. Till then, take care everybody