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introvertguide · 4 years

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957); AFI #36

The film most recently under review was the British class, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). I know that this is almost an entirely British production and the American co-lead in this film is an add-on, but is on the AFI top 100. Also, it’s a darn good film that portrays the blindness that comes with pride and power. In a war setting, this blindness can cost lives and we sometimes forget what the fight is for (sometimes it is nothing). The movie won seven Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Scoring. The film also swept the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs (the movie won Best British Film at the latter). The struggle for power between a British officer and a Japanese internment camp officer is the driving force for almost the entire movie and the psychological chess match is fascinating. Everything else feels kind of like filler, but that might just be me. Before I opine any further, let’s look at the plot, which is always proceeded by:

SPOILER ALERT!!! THIS IS A CLASSIC FILM WELL KNOWN THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA AND WESTERN EUROPE BUT I STILL HAVE TO PUT UP A WARNING!!! I THINK EVERYONE KNOWS THE ENDING, BUT I WILL STILL GET COMPLAINTS IF I DON’T SAY SOMETHING!!! ENJOY THE SYNOPSIS!!!

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In 1943, POWs arrive at a Japanese prison camp in Burma. Two prisoners talk about a recently dead prisoner, giving the idea that many have perished and nobody even remembers their names. The Allied prisoners march from the train into camp whistling the famous Colonel Bogey March and line up at attention in front of their own officers including Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Sir Alec Guinness). On arrival to the quartering area, the Japanese commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), says that all prisoners, no matter rank, will work to construct the railway from Bangkok to Rangoon.

Nicholson says that his men will work, but the Geneva convention says that officers are exempt from manual labor. That evening, Nicholson meets the other prisoners. The rounds include an American Lieutenant Commander named Shears (William Holden) as well as the ranking British medical officer, Major Clipton (James Donald). In conversation, Nicholson tells Shears that there will be no escape attempt since his group had been ordered to surrender and escape would be defiance to his superiors. This adherence to “proper military behavior,” even at the expensive of self perseverance, is a major theme throughout the film.

At the morning assembly before work began, Nicholson again refuses to have his officers perform manual labor. Saito threatens to have the group executed, but Major Clipton steps in and says there are too many witnesses and Saito will face charges for murder after the war. As punishment, Saito decides to leave the officers all day in the jungle heat. At the end of the day, the officers are put in a cramped punishment hut while Nicholson is put into a very small iron box named “the oven.”

While the British officers are being punished, Shears and two others make an escape attempt. Shears gets away but the other two are killed. He wanders off and finds a Siamese village where he is nursed back to health and then travels to the British colony of Ceylon.

Shears gets away but the officers are detained for what is described as a month later in the film. The prisoners won’t work and constantly sabotage the bridge project in protest of having their officers locked away. Saito realizes that he will have to commit suicide if he does not complete the bridge (as impossible as it seems to be), so he finally gives in and releases Nicholson and his officers saying they don’t have to complete manual labor. It was a win of principle and it is strange to see all of the soldiers cheering their officers even though the release will not give them more time or any help. “Yay, our superiors are allowed to do nothing and take credit for the work!! Hooray!!”

Much to the chagrin of his soldiers, Nicholson chastises the men for the poor job that they are done. The officer feels that soldiers need to take pride in their work to maintain morale, even if it means helping the enemy. The officers do a thorough overhaul of the bridge plans and move the construction downstream. They also increase the expected completion rate to try and finish before the deadline. Nicholson thinks it will be an example of British ingenuity and strength if they can complete the project on time...while helping the enemy.

Looking back at the condition of the American in a Ceylon hospital, we learn that the officer stole his rank and impersonated someone else in order to get better treatment at the camp. We know that this did not work out, but it is still treason and could earn Shears serious punishment. A British officer said that the American Navy was aware of this and transferred Shears to the British military for a special mission to destroy the bridge that is being built at the camp. Shears has no choice, but is allowed to volunteer for the mission to save face (which he does).

Shears is going to have to move fast, because Nicholson pushes his men (as well as other local workers) to complete the project. He even has Saito’s men pitching in an attempt to allow the commandant to save face. They are able to complete the entire bridge in only 3 months, just in time to allow the Japanese military to transport officers and dignitaries safely through the jungle. Nicholson proudly puts up a sign commemorating the bridge's construction by the British Army, from February to May 1943.

Shears is able to parachute into the jungle, commando style, the day before the first train is scheduled to cross the bridge. Four men are in the group (make that three because one didn’t survive the jump) that land and get to a Siamese village. The 3 men are aided by the local chief and some of the village women. The group go under the cover of darkness and plant explosives on the bridge supports below the water line. The group waits until the next day to try and blow up the bridge and the dignitaries at the same time.

A problem arises at daybreak when the level of the river goes down and exposes the wire connecting the explosives and the detonator. This is spotted by Nicholson and he is so wrapped up in honor and duty that he point it out to Saito. The two officers take a group of Japanese soldiers over to investigate what is going on in the riverbank. It appears that Nicholson has forgotten what side he is on amongst the fervor to complete his pet project in the name of the British military.

One of the commandoes breaks cover and kills Saito while Nicholson actually yells for help to keep the team from the detonator. He is killed and Shears runs out to try and hit the detonator but is shot and killed as well. Nicholson sees Shears and realizes what he has done. A mortar round from the last commando in the brush injuries Nicholson and he has just enough energy to fall on the plunger for the detonator to blow up the bridge just as the train is crossing. The medical officer, Clipton, watches the proceedings and mutters to himself “Madness!” Roll credits.

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I harp on the movie for not being American, yet still on the AFI top 100. I will admit here that there is a large portion of the film that is designated to the adventures of Major Shear that feels quite like an American story. The thing is, it doesn’t feel like he has a character arc at all. On the other hand, neither does Nicholson until the last 5 minutes of a movie that is over 2.5 hours long. He has the character direction of a candy cane.

I will get into the great parts of the film, but one more complaint is the pace of the film. It is really boring at times. The characters are established early on in the movie and don’t really change, so they do exactly what you would expect them to do. The only twist at all is literally in the last five minutes. That last five minutes is phenomenal, but you sure have to be patient to get that far. I had to watch the movie twice because I fell asleep during the third quarter of the film. Upon watching again, I realized that I really did not miss much.

For the good, Sir Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa were amazing. Both play men trying to survive in an impossible situation and the only thing guiding them is principles and honor. Without their principles, they will die and so will the men that report to them. It seems obvious that both men have made decisions that have ended up with the death of soldiers and civilians, so neither is afraid to sacrifice themselves or others on principle.

I am somewhat confused as to why the Allied soldiers follow the orders of Nicholson. His fight is so that he does not have to do manual labor. When he wins the game of chicken with Saito, he rewards his men by having them work harder to aid the cause of the enemy. Nicholson is like Forrest Gump in some ways because he does exactly what he is told to do (or at least how interprets his instructions). Officers don’t participate in manual labor so risks his (and his officers) to abide this. He was ordered to surrender so he will not attempt escape. The bridge is based off British plans so he will complete the job. He is given a deadline to accommodate enemy officers and dignitaries so he will finish before that time. Those guys shouldn’t be down by the river with explosives so he immediately informs Saito.

Shears was probably the most flexible character, but he did not change over the family. He also did not look like somebody who had been in a POW camp. He had a bit of a dirt tan, but he was healthy and muscular like a man who had a muscle isolated workout plan and a balanced 3,000 daily calorie diet. The clothes may have been shabby, but none of the soldiers really looked like starving POWs. Also, all of the women in the film (there were a few) were all young, good looking, and had great teeth. I kind of doubt it.

Although the characters were interesting, the film did a pretty poor job of painting each lead as a stereotype. The American lied about his history, talked big, and took on the crazy missions. The British officer followed rules to the point of harming others. The Japanese officer was honor bound and willing to kill as a matter of obedience. This is not what I think, but it was reportedly what the writer of the source material, Pierre Boulle, thought.

One thing that I have not touched upon because I wanted to save it mostly for when director David Lean’s opus, Lawrence of Arabia, comes up, the shots of the jungle in Cinemascope are beautiful. From the beginning when we ride in on a train right behind a machine gun, the background speaks volumes. There are not a lot of close ups because the jungle is made into a character. There is no greater threat to the captors or the prisoners than the environment surrounding them and Lean makes sure that the viewer is constantly aware of this. It is really what keeps the film from becoming tedious at times, so a round of applause for director David Lean and cinematographer Jack Hildyard.

My questions that I always ask myself will be answered a little different than normal. Does this film belong on the AFI top 100? Absolutely not. It is blatantly a British film and should not be pilfered because of a couple American actors and screenwriters. It does, however belong on the BFI top 100 and it stands at #11 on the list of greatest British films. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Also, pay attention to the scenery because the characters are established very early and have little growth, so the camera work is the best part between the first 30 minutes and the last 15 minutes. I am not sure that the film needed to be so long, but it is still very good and deserves a full watch.

#the bridge on the river kwai #william holden #david lean #AFI top 100 #british films #cinemascope #award winner #1950s #greatest films #movies #introvert #introverts #film score #Colonel Bogey

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houseofvans · 5 years

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SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIE SHINN

With the sharp-edged graphic feel, high contrast color palette, and a modern twist on traditional Hawaiiana, artist Christie Shinn’s paintings offer a fresh interpretation to life in Hawaii. Her beautiful works have not only appeared as a Vans shoe design, but also as the artwork for the Vans 2013 Triple Crown of Surfing event. Not only one thing, Christie is also the art director and collaborating artist at Surfer Towel, where her two towel designs will be released this summer. Find out more about Christie’s artwork, inspiration, and favorite collaboration by taking the leap below!

Photographs courtesy of the artist. | Portraits by Joel Terron Photography

Introduce yourself? My name is Christie Shinn. I’m a resident of the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. I’m Canadian but I’ve called Hawaii home for over a decade.

What kind of work do you create? What medium and what would you say it is about? I work in acrylic paint on canvas, wood, leather.. really, anything the paint will stick to.

I’d say the style of work is a modern version of traditional Hawaiiana (Hawaii-inspired art/craft).

I taught myself to paint, and my favorite art at the time was early skate graphics and silkscreened concert posters so I think there is a sharp-edged graphic feel to my work because of that. I like to go high contrast with color and pick subjects that are a little off-typical. I live in a place that is so familiar to people all over the world, even if they’ve never been here. I feel like it’s my job to find a fresh interpretation of life in Hawaii.

How did you start from doodling and drawing to what you do now? Where did your love of drawing and creating stem from? My grandma taught me how to paint when I was a kid. I remember being fascinated with making marks on a canvas. It starts off blank, then it’s something and each choice is totally up to you. Some are good choices, some aren’t, but they’re all yours. I still love that about making art. I get to sit at my easel and create a thing that did’t exist before I thought of it. So cool.

Who and what were some of your early artistic influences? My favourite artist as a kid was Henri Rousseau who created massive tropical themed paintings, even though he’d never been outside of France. He created an entire lifetime of artwork exploring his tropical fantasy world. His work is so weird and wonderful.

When I started getting serious about art, my absolute favourite artist was (and still is) Andrew Pommier. I love his characters, I love his style. I feel like I can look into the eyes of one of his characters and see an entire backstory. One of his pieces is on my studio wall for both inspiration and as a barometer for my own work. Even though we have different styles, I try to make sure each new piece that leaves the studio is worthy to be hung next to the Pommier.

What are some things that inspire the drawings you make now? What are some of your favorite things to draw? What about them makes them something you just find yourself re-creating or re-capturing over and over again? I’ve spent a lot of years living on the North Shore of Oahu and about 4 years ago I met my boyfriend who lives on the South Shore. His place is an hour drive , and it’s like a whole new island visually. The colors are different, the ocean is different, the sunsets…everything is new and fresh. I think a lot of my work over the past 4 years has been inspired by the contrast between the two shores.

Take us through your artistic process? What’s a typical day in the studio like? I wake up at 7:30am, get some cuddle time with the cat, make coffee and wait for my assistant to come over. He packs orders while I paint. Usually a friend drops by at some point because I live on a property with several houses and my neighbours are all friends. If it’s a surf day, we break for a surf. The afternoon is a mix of planning out new pieces, answering emails, prepping orders and generally taking care of the business side of art. I’ll do an evening beach run if I’m feeling energetic. Watch the sunset. Usually with a beer. After dinner, I’m back at the easel until about midnight. Nighttime is my favourite time to paint because there are no distractions.

I always take weekends off to maintain the work/life balance. It can get obsessive, especially when I’m struggling with a piece. Mandatory time off helps me reset.

What art tools will we always find in your creative space? Is there a medium you want to try that you have yet to get your hands on? I keep it pretty minimal when it comes to materials. I have one large brush for lay in, 3 flats and 2 liner brushes. I always have several blank canvases hanging at all times. Since inspiration is hard to control, I think the key is to be ready for when it strikes.

I’ve always been fascinated with screen printing. I’d love to dabble in that one day.

What’s been one of your more rewarding collaborations or projects? What about it was so rewarding? What would your dream collaboration be? I first worked with Vans in 2013 as the poster artist for their Triple Crown of Surfing event here on the North Shore. I did a bonus design that they turned into a limited edition capsule collection. It was on button up shirts, bags, hats, towels.. I didn’t know any of this until I opened up the box of samples. It was so unexpected, I actually teared up a little. What a crazy feeling to see your art on a Vans product. That moment really made a lasting impact. After that, I started to really believe it was possible to have a career doing something I was good at and that I loved. I owe a huge debt to the Vans design team of ’13.

A few years later I got to collaborate with Vans again on a shoe design for the Japan market. It was my favourite collaboration to date because they let me customize everything: the shoe, the insole, the box and even the tissue paper!

A few months later I’m in Tokyo doing a signing event next to a wall of my shoes. It was surreal.

I think my dream collaboration would be collaboration shoe for Vans USA. I love to hand-paint Vans and I have a couple favourites from the hand painted series I’d love to see as a production shoe. Also, the Japan sizes were so small I never got a pair I could actually wear myself!

What do you do when you’re not drawing or working on projects? When I have a lot of down time, I love to travel. Japan is my favourite destination right now. When I have a little space in the day, I’ll log some hammock time, go for a surf, run, take photos…not in that order.

What’s the art community like where you are? What kind of avenues are there for artists in your area or is it more of a DIY type of thing? Hawaii is a great place for artists. We have a lot of galleries, local shops and businesses that feature the work of local artists. There are so many interesting opportunities outside the gallery scene too. For example, some big hotels in Honolulu have been doing rebrands over the last few years and nearly every one has hired a local artist to help refresh their look. There is also a lot of love for Hawaii in Japan which has lead to some really cool collaborations between local artists and Japanese companies. It’s a really great place to be an artist because there is no one measure of success. There are so many ways to have an art career here.

What’s your art tip that you want to share with folks? I try to keep the usual stuff in mind as I work: contrast, energy, balance. If there is a lot of warmth, add a splash of cool. If you go high-detail, balance it with some negative space. Dark/light etc…

My favourite pieces are the ones that still have the energy of the first strokes when they’re finished. Overworking is so easy to do. I try to take breaks and walk away or put it away for a while. I usually have several pieces going at the same time for this reason.

What are your favorite style of VANS? My favourite Vans are Slip-Ons. It’s customary to take your shoes off outside of homes and some offices in Hawaii. I take my shoes on and off a lot in a day so the slip-ons are the way to go. Also, they have more surface area to paint on, so they get an extra point for that as well.

What do you have coming up that you can share or are super stoked about? My newest collaboration is with Japanese airline ANA and LeSportsac. I created a series of bag designs for LeSportasac that will be available exclusively on ANA flights. I’m on my way to Japan in May for an art festival so I’ll actually get to see the bags on the flight.

I’m also pretty stoked on 2 new towel designs I have coming out this summer for Surfer Towel.

FOLLOW CHRISTIE | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM

#Art #Vans #Vans Art #Vans Girls #Vans Surf #Christie Shinn #surfing #painting #acrylic #SKETCHY BEHAVIORS

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courtingstars · 5 years

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Notes for The Vanishing Prince, Chapter 4

It’s Chapter Four, hurray! This one turned out a little differently than I expected… Mostly because the scene at Rakuzan ended up being so long. But I decided to keep it as is, because I just love Rakuzan’s team SO MUCH. <3

So as promised, this was Rakuzan’s turn to have a cameo (and by cameo I mean a super long scene, with loads of love for the Uncrowned Kings and especially Reo).

Also, I ended up including screenshots from the anime in this post! So if you’re interested in a basic breakdown of my theory about why scenes like this one prove that psychic phenomena were included in the show from the beginning:

Well read on, friend. BECAUSE OH DO I HAVE THEORIES ABOUT THAT.

(Cut for stuff about Rakuzan, a little about why I love the Uncrowned Kings so much, even more love for Reo, a brief explanation of some of the supernatural/psychic references, and a seriously epic yudofu restaurant because tofu is Akashi’s first love, obviously)

On Rakuzan’s Campus

It was fun to try to figure out what Rakuzan as a school would be like… I’ve had a headcanon for a while that each member of the Generation of Miracles chose a high school (and a team) that generally reflected their personality and priorities. So my version of Rakuzan has a lot of Akashi-esque qualities to it. XD

Canonically, Rakuzan is supposed to be a prestigious school that excels in multiple areas. That’s one reason why I included OCs in this chapter, to show that Akashi is far from being the only overachiever at his school. Which, as Furihata realizes, makes his status at the school that much more impressive! (Plus I like to fill out different areas of characters’ lives that we don’t get to see in canon, sometimes by coming up with new characters… I try not to overdo it too much, though, because I know it might only be interesting to me? //laughs)

As a side note, the Rakuzan students are shown preparing for their school’s cultural festival, which is a common event in Japanese schools, and pops up in anime a lot. It frequently involves each class and/or club designing a different booth or event for the festival (like selling food, putting on a play, etc). I’ve read a few series where the festival occurs in late summer to early fall. I don’t know if that’s the typical time of year or not, but that’s why I included the student council working over their vacation to prepare! From what I understand, it’s not uncommon for Japanese students who are really involved in extracurricular activities to continue participating in them over summer vacation (like sports practices, for example).

I Just Really Love The Uncrowned Kings, Okay?

Hopefully I wasn’t the only one looking forward to seeing how Furihata would get along with Rakuzan’s three Uncrowned Kings! I find their canon relationship with Akashi really fascinating, so I wanted to explore some of the implications of it in this chapter. (And then it went on WAYYY longer than I expected. But I was just having too much fun and too many feelings to stop? XD;)

For me, one of the most interesting questions about Rakuzan in KnB is why the other players elected Akashi as captain in his first year… I have a lot of headcanons about it (and a one-shot fic that I started ages ago, that I still really want to finish!). It’s especially interesting because the Uncrowned Kings had a history of competing against the Generation of Miracles in junior high.

So in this chapter, I ended up hinting at some of my theories about why the Kings in particular would decide to make Akashi (and specifically Bokushi!) their leader. I also implied that Akashi wasn’t the only member of Rakuzan who was forced to reevaluate his priorities because of the events of the Winter Cup. (To me this is portrayed really well in the last few episodes, through Reo’s reactions especially.)

Basically, one of the reasons I love Rakuzan so much is because I think of all of them as hyper-competitive people who originally decided to go after victory and focus on dominating the competition, at the cost of everything else… And then were forced to face the consequences of that decision, and realize it was ultimately unfulfilling, at least in part because they came to genuinely value the bonds they’d formed as a team. <3 So I tried to show this in how they explained the situation to Furihata.

… I’m also kind of surprised that I managed to fit in references to all five of the Kings in this chapter? I did not expect that. (And I definitely did not expect how Kiyoshi and Hanamiya would come up in the conversation. //laughs)

Also, I do headcanon Reo as wearing makeup sometimes! I just feel like he would be amazing at it, honestly. (Or maybe I’ve just spent too much time watching beauty gurus on YouTube or something, lol.) In any case, I’m SO HERE for Reo in general… Especially Reo the Love and Sexuality Guru, finally telling it like it really is? //laughs (Oh my god I worked SO MANY self-indulgent headcanons into that silly conversation… Though interestingly enough, Reo flirting with Takao is from some of the anime outtake/bonus scenes. XD So I didn’t make that part up, at least!)

I should probably also mention that some of Furihata’s assumptions/uncertainty about Reo’s identity are related to Japanese culture… In KnB, Reo is depicted as the type of person who would probably be thought of as an “okama,” which usually refers to a gay man who’s also very feminine in their gender expression. (It can also refer to a drag queen, for example.) I think the term was used in the KnB manga, but I wasn’t able to verify that? (And I should also mention that the term itself can be offensive or positive/reclaimed, depending on who uses it.) So gender and sexuality are distinct aspects of a person, but Reo’s choice of self-expression and honorifics, at least to someone who is Japanese, would tend to imply certain things about both. I tried to make that as apparent in the scene as I could, without going into the cultural concept behind it?

(Also a special shout-out to anyone who figured out why Reo asked Furi his date of birth, and why Furi’s answer intrigued him… Because OH HOW I COULD RAMBLE ON AND ON ABOUT THAT.)

On Empaths, Mediums, Clair Senses, and Auras

So for those of you who wanted to see more supernatural stuff in this fic, I really hope you enjoyed Reo’s little conversation with Furi! (I’ve been looking forward to these two finally interacting for SO LONG. I’ve had a million headcanons about them, ever since I wrote that one chapter of Giving Chocolate ages ago… I even hinted at it in several of my other fics, mostly the Christmas ones. XD)

I won’t go into a super-detailed explanation of supernatural abilities here, since the terms I used aren’t culturally specific to Japan, and are pretty easy to research. But since I see Reo as someone who likes to use knowledge from lots of different modalities of the supernatural (like tarot divination, for example), I figured that I would give a quick overview of some of the stuff he mentioned.

An empath is basically someone who is supposed to be able to sense supernatural “energy” in their environment. The idea is that things like a person’s mental health and emotions manifest as energy—in their aura, for example—and empaths can sense this energy and even absorb some of it. (Sometimes to the point that it’s difficult for them to tell the difference between their own feelings and someone else’s.) Empaths can get very overwhelmed and anxious around crowds of people—or a specific person who is emotionally intense or even toxic—for the same reason. Basically, an empath is naturally affected by outside energy, and tends to let that energy in, more than most people. Even though they themselves may not realize it.

A medium, on the other hand, is someone who can connect with spirits, like those of people who have passed on. (I didn’t mention the term in the chapter, but seeing ghosts could potentially fall under this category.) The ability to do this is believed to manifest in a lot of different ways. Some of the possible ways are sometimes called “clair senses.”

“Clair senses” refer to different types of psychic/supernatural perception. The most common term is clairvoyance, which is being able to “see” supernatural phenomena. (From what I understand, it can be literal seeing, or more of a “in your mind’s eye” type of thing.) There are other types of clair senses too, like clairaudience (hearing supernatural things, like a spirit’s voice), and claircognizance (knowing something supernatural, kind of like having a “hunch”).

And finally, an aura is a form of supernatural energy (or light!) that surrounds a person. Some people think it reveals everything from your overall health to your current emotions. (I’ve always been kind of fascinated with the concept, and I even had my aura read for fun once. //laughs) In Chapter Four, we find out that while Akashi’s aura is more or less a single color (red), Furihata’s aura has multiple colors. Believers in auras often claim that the appearance and colors of a person’s aura can tell you a lot about them, and what they’re going through.

So it might seem like a stretch, to be including this stuff in a fic about a basketball anime… But weirdly enough, the canon of Kuroko no Basuke has a lot of intriguing moments that could be interpreted as referring to stuff like auras and clair senses? I could probably ramble on about my theories on this for FOREVER, so instead I’ll just leave a couple of screenshots here:

(Subtitles/translation courtesy of Crunchyroll)

… Yeah. I definitely did not come up with the idea to include this stuff on my own. XD (You can interpret these moments as symbolic too… But I feel like the story actually makes more sense if it’s literal, at least on some level? //laughs)

(Especially since that’s not even counting all the aura-like visuals in the show. And the weird eye stuff. And characters who can apparently predict the future in various ways. AND THE TRIPPY DOOR VISIONS AT THE END. SERIOUSLY DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON THE DOOR VISIONS. Anyway.)

On Platform Dining in Kyoto

I might talk about this in more detail for an upcoming chapter, but yes, the part about dining on platforms in Kyoto in the summer is a real thing! You can find a general overview about it here.

Basically, since it gets so hot and humid in the valley where Kyoto is, some of the restaurants have a tradition of putting up special wooden platforms over the river and serving their customers on them. It’s called “kawayuka” dining when it’s done over the Kamogawa river, inside the city. (An area outside Kyoto called Kibune also participates in the tradition, where this style of dining is called “kawadoko.”)

On the Yudofu Restaurant

Finally, in the longstanding tradition of me doing way too much research about the places in my fics, I did indeed pick out a real place for Akashi’s favorite restaurant!

First off, I should probably mention that yudofu isn’t just Akashi’s favorite food. It’s also one of the most famous regional dishes in Kyoto. (Maybe THE most famous!) Kyoto has a ton of restaurants that specialize in making high-quality tofu, so a boiled tofu dish like yudofu is extremely popular, both with locals and tourists. Yudofu itself was also created in Kyoto, because the monks working in the temples needed vegetarian dishes for their Buddhist diet.

Yudofu is thought to have originated in the area around Nanzenji temple. That being the case, I wanted to choose one of the most traditional, famous restaurants there to be Akashi’s favorite. I had a couple of choices, like this restaurant, which is one of the oldest restaurants in Japan. But in the end, I chose a place called Nanzenji Junsei because the atmosphere of the garden, the ability to reserve a private dining room, and the elaborate set meals all struck me as something Akashi and his family would appreciate. (Plus it seems to be highly rated as well as famous.) You can learn about the history of the restaurant, and see tons of pictures of the buildings, garden, and the food on the absolutely gorgeous official website here.

(Yeah. I want to go there. SO BAD. You can also see more pictures of the restaurant in the TripAdvisor reviews, including more shots of the private dining rooms.)

And while I haven’t been lucky enough to try it in Kyoto, I have made yudofu before! It’s an ultra simple dish that relies on the highest possible quality ingredients. So it’s definitely an appropriate choice for Akashi. (That being said, it does amuse me that his favorite food is basically just, well, tofu cooked in water… Like what teenage guy would say that was his top favorite food EVER? Oh, Akashi. You are such a Kyoto boy. XD)

On a side note, if you want an idea of how old some of the restaurants in Kyoto really are, I thought this article of the top ten oldest restaurants in Japan was interesting! Kyoto still has restaurants in operation that date all the way back to the middle ages.

The city’s culinary fame also inspired a longtime headcanon of mine that the Rakuzan players initially bonded over restaurant hopping… So that’s why that keeps popping up in my fics? //laughs Well, that, and this screenshot from one of the third season endings that literally shows them eating together in a place that looks like a Kibune kawadoko restaurant, and wearing yukata no less:

(Oh Mayu, I miss you, why did you have to graduate before this fic takes place? XD)

(And seriously don’t get me started on the shots of each team from that ending, they’re all adorable with great little geographical/cultural references AND I CAN’T)

Well, that’s it for my notes! I have a draft of the next chapter completed, and while my goal is to work ahead in the story first, I hope to be posting it very soon. (I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say… IT’S A TRIP.) I’ll also be sharing my Pinterest board for the fic then, so if you enjoyed the ones for Storming the Castle, that’s coming up!

#long post #really long post #vanishing prince #the vanishing prince #kat writes fanfic #knb fic #kat writes about basketball dorks #kat writes about ADORABLE BOYS AND THEIR ADORABLE FRIENDS HELP ME #I want to go restaurant hopping with Rakuzan XD #actually I just really want to try yudofu in Kyoto #also can I just say I was a mess just from rewatching the few episodes to get those screenshots #I STILL LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH #THE EPISODES ARE SO GOOD #I FORGET HOW GOOD THEY ARE SOMETIMES #anyway bless any of you who actually read this #good lord will I ever shut up about these basketball kids #the answer is probably no

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zerochanges · 5 years

Text

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative - One Night Movie Premiere

If you told me ten years ago that I would be able to regularly watch anime movies on the big screen in theatres I would have surely not believed you. Besides maybe a few Pokemon movies or an occasional film in some mega franchise I don’t particularly care for such as Naruto, the prospect would probably seem alien to me even. So it’s funny how times have changed and how anime screenings in theatres is becoming increasingly more common in North America. Just last month I was able to watch the phenomenal Dragon Ball Super Broly film in a packed theatre with a ton of other nerds and it was a delightful experience. Before that I got to see the fun anime version of Die Hard known as My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, and before that a love letter to Go Nagai known as Mazinger Z Infinity! Now only a month after Broly I get to watch an honest-to-God Mobile Suit Gundam motion picture in a theatre too? I feel like the luckiest guy alive.

If I am being honest, I actually hate going to the cinema most of the time, and spent many years avoiding doing just that. I was always the type of person that was happy enough to rent a movie once it released on DVD/BD and that was the extent I would need out of cinema at large. The only exception I started to make was when Disney purchased Star Wars, and that was more out of fear that ravenous fans online couldn't keep their mouths shut than it was about anything else. Over the years however I started to develop a greater appreciation towards movie theatres at large and a lot of that has to probably do with anime. As I began to become a serious collector of anime and made the transition from my old DVDs to crisper BDs I realized I was at the point where as a fan I wanted the most out of my all time favorite movies--because these were not just my favorite anime movies but my actual favorite movies, and that’s when I realized I truly wish I could have seen them the way they were meant to be; on the big screen, with an insanely powerful surround sound system, with fans all gathered around cheering at the best moments. I will probably never get this experience for Akira, or Galaxy Express 999, or the many other films that mean the world to me now, but I can get the experience for future movies, so I don’t want to miss out ever again.

Gundam is one of my favorite franchises from my childhood. As a young kid I fell in love with the amazing robot designs and was blown away at the prospect of an anime that just felt so different from DBZ, which besides Pokemon was probably my only real understanding of anime at that age. As a teen and young adult especially the franchise became increasingly important to me and left a lasting impression on my psyche. I can’t tell you my favorite Gundam series nowadays because the answer will probably be different every time. Maybe I’ll say the original Mobile Suit Gundam, warts and all, it’s everything I love about anime from the 1970’s and to this day I still love the original Ocean Group dub from Canada. This dub while wooden and showing its age terribly will forever be etched in my mind as the definitive voices for most of the Universal Century characters despite Shuichi Ikeda buttery smooth, ecstasy inducing voice in most of the Japanese series. Maybe I’ll say Zeta Gundam as Kamile was a character my younger self identified a lot with and the series as a whole left a very strong impression on me. Maybe I’ll say Turn A Gundam, a beautiful psychedelic series that displays some of the best writing from series creator Tomino.

So yes, having a chance to see any Gundam film in theatres was something I couldn't miss. Even if said film ended up just okay it wouldn't matter, as not in my wildest dreams did I actually think I would get this opportunity. I figured the closest I would ever be to seeing Gundam on the big screen would be if I happened to be in Japan for some reason around the time a new Gundam OVA or film was being screened. When Gundam Narrative tickets went on sale for North America I bought them the day online orders were opened and was even the first person to buy a seat at the theatre (thanks to reserved seating I could see nobody else had bought a seat yet). It didn't matter to me that I had to drive 45 minutes to the cinema, nor did it matter to me that I honestly knew nothing about Gundam Narrative, I just wanted to experience Gundam this way at least once in my life. And so last night I made the trek across the city and finally got to see Gundam like I never have. Now I have decided I want to share some of my thoughts and impressions about it. This won’t be a formal review, nor is it meant to be, as more or less I’m just expositing some of my thoughts, off the cuff.

First a little background information. Sunrise’s current "UC NexT 0100" project that tackles the next century of Gundam’s UC (Universal Century) time-line as well as their ambitious promise to deliver a new theatrical Gundam film every 1-2 years from 2018 onward is something to behold, so it’s no big surprise to me that the first film to kick off both of these initiatives would be a sequel to the highly acclaimed Gundam Unicorn OVA series. Saying Sunrise is kind of on a Unicorn kick right now would be an understatement after all. I actually don’t mind this so much however like a lot of people seem to, as Unicorn deserves all the praise it got and there is no two-ways about it being a pivotal factor behind Sunrise’s returning commitment to the UC time-line again after releasing nothing major in it for nearly a decade. Gundam Narrative serving as a sequel to Gundam Unicorn is something I am totally neutral about.

My greater concern going into the Gundam Narrative film was more that Gundam and films have a pretty rocky history. Honestly most Gundam movies tend to be more on the awful side. If I had to rate all the ones I've seen I would probably only say Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky and Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower are fantastic, the original Mobile Suit Gundam film trilogy is an excellent compilation movie series and a good enough replacement for its own television version, the Zeta New Translation films are incredibly disappointing and omit too much, Char’s Counterattack is a hot mess that barely makes a lick of sense, Gundam F91 would have been a fantastic TV show but as a movie it makes me sad, A Wakening of the Trailblazer is okay but also undone by its own weirdness, Endless Waltz is what you would expect out of Wing, the Turn A compilation movies are pointless, and G-Savior sure was … a thing that exist.

Well I am happy to say Gundam Narrative is among the rare films for the franchise that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish! A lot of this has to do with the scale being relatively small versus the usual scale in Gundam films that are way too big for their own good. Narrative’s laser focus on chasing after the missing Unit 03, the Golden Phoenix sibling to the two Unicorn and Banshee units we've seen in the previous Gundam Unicorn series allows it to tell a story largely separated from politics and the world at large--and let’s the characters become the main focal point of the film like any good movie should.

This aspect alone is missing from so many other Gundam films and is partly why so many fail at being a good viewing experience. I’d say the few that do find that focus, mainly the Thunderbolt series of films and the original trilogy of movies made from the 1979 TV series are the best in the franchise’s filmography. A ton of other Gundam films tend to be bloated as well with rather boring middle sections, so the brisk fast pace of this 90 or so minute runtime for Narrative was a welcome relief. There are some awkward cuts to the film sure, but honestly I felt this beat sitting in the theatre for two and a half hours bored at the long winded middle section that goes nowhere like some previous Gundam films are especially guilty of. This was just enough time to tell a story of this scope properly. Of course the characters and scope of the story isn't enough to carry an entire film so the fantastic soundtrack from returning Unicorn composer Hiroyuki Sawano helped to sell a lot of scenes in the film as well.

The biggest factor that made Narrative for me however had to be the film’s focus on the more metaphysical aspects of Newtypes. Despite my disliking of a lot of Char’s Counterattack I still find the more psychedelic (so to say) aspects of it to be fascinating, just as I always have when such spiritual topics have shown up in prior Gundam works by Tomino and the many teams at Sunrise. While far from perfect I always enjoyed this kind of kooky spiritualism to the Gundam universe, a sort of new age 80’s science fiction interpretation of the soul would be the best way I can describe it but there’s no real way for me to do it justice nor to make it not sound ridiculous. Since Tomino has left a lot of Universal Century Gundam series have focused more on everyday soldiers instead and not so much on Newtypes, the future evolution of mankind, and the soul. In fact I always felt Sunrise somewhat shied away from a lot of these aspect to Gundam since then, so when we got to see this aspect return near the very end of Gundam Unicorn it was a nice treat to me personally. Having it permeate almost the entire runtime of Narrative’s story had me over the moon. A lot of people disagree, and more power to them, but I just can’t get enough out of the spiritual aspects seen in Narrative.

Gundam Narrative being a modern UC time-line production means it of course has references and lore connections to a ton of other classic Gundam series and moments. I really enjoyed most them even if they were just silly fan service moments. I love that we got to see the famous Colony Drop drawn with modern day high budget animation and it wasn't just reused old footage. Getting to see clips of the Psycho Gundam ravage Hong Kong City was a joy on the big screen even if it lasted only about 10 seconds. I loved that we got to hear some of Char’s Dakar speech again in Narrative--this gave us an opportunity to hear Keith Silverstein, the modern English voice of Char since 2010 handle this legendary speech of his from Zeta Gundam.

Speaking of the English dub my favorite performances were definitely Griffin Puatu’s portrayal of the protagonist Jona Basta that had to carry a lot of the emotional weight of the film and Stefan Martello’s portrayal of the off-the-walls insane Zoltan Akkanen who was just a pure fun villain that ate up every scene he was in. The Narrative Gundam itself being a reworked prototype of Amuro’s Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack four years ago was also a fun way to fit another Gundam into this time frame and I love it gave us such a classic looking Gundam in the Unicorn era of the franchise.

I had almost zero expectations for Gundam Narrative, and all I really wanted was the big screen experience for Gundam. As someone that loves the psychedelic spiritual aspect of Tomino’s old works, and someone with zero expectations that a Gundam movie can really be all that good anyways I walked away from that theatre last night loving what I saw. Gundam Narrative has me personally excited for the future of Gundam films, especially if it means we may see more theatrical screenings in North America for said films. This is probably not a film for everyone, and is definitely heavy on both your love of Gundam Unicorn and your love of some of the craziest stuff Tomino would whip out in his heyday of working on the franchise, but if you’re like me I think this one will be a lot of fun, even off the big screen.

#Gundam #Mobile Suit Gundam #Universal Century #Gundam NT #Gundam Narrative #Anime

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coe-lilium · 7 years

Note

Would you be willing to rank the major Apocrypha characters (Masters and Servants) from best to worst? I'm curious as to how you would rank them

Gladly :D

Be warned that this will be 90% tastes and maybe 10% narrative/objective analysis. And sorry for taking so long to answer. Also, it got long ^^’

A concise, condensed ver before the cut

- 10+/10, tie between Mordred, Jeanne e Shirou

- 9.5/10: Semirams and Shishigou Kairi

- 8-7.5/10: Vlad, Achilles, Shakespeare, Caules

- 7: Chiron, Fran, Atalanta, Karna, Fiore, Darnic

- 6, I start not caring: Gordes

- “wasted” and “still bitter after 5 years”, no numbers: Avicebron and Siegfried

- 5-4, it’s complicated: Astolfo

- 4: Sieg (and it might go down to 0, I’m serious)

- 3 to 0: Jack, Reika, Celenike

Btw, I kept them vague, but spoilers/hints up to vol4 and 5

Rank “will fight the world for them, forever in Higashide’s debt, I wish one day for Nasu to write them himself because I trust the mushroom man to make me love them even more than I already do, 10+/10″:

Mordred: SHE. Higashide’s best accomplishment in winning me over no matter other flaws. Tie with Gilgamesh as my favorite Nasuverse character ever.

There isn’t a single thing I don’t love about her (bar that atrocious “dress” under the armor, delete that). The armored and casual character design. The backstory as abused and exploited child who tries to break free of her mother influence and plots but ends up following them anyway because of her other parent rejection and, ultimately, how Morgan life lasting damage could not be undone without support. Her snarky, bratty, selfish and ferocious personality she show to the outside world and the hidden insecurities, the good heart and the ability to reflect on her flaws. Her loyalty and her desperate need for parental love and recognition as her own person. Her fighting style that is a delight to read or watch, truly a beast. Her chemistry and relationship with Shishigou, all of it. How it start in that cemetery, how develops over the course of the story, how she manage to open, connect and trust him and ultimately find a real father in him.

If I have to find a “wish this was expanded on” is her written in but not recognised by canon issues with gender/presentation which wasn’t a real issue for me until I read metas here and I’m now quite confused especially on how to write her (him?) in the future, when I’ll hopefully get at it.

The only reason I don’t completely wish for her and her Master to have been made MCs is the love I have for the following two guys and this couple steal too much of a spotlight from other characters.

Still, while theirs is a story more focused on personal growth and healing then deciding the fate of a great number of people or the world, in the end Mordred and Kairi saved each other so it could’ve still meshed neatly with the overall salvation theme. Sadly it was not meant to be but I’m more than content for what we got.

Jeanne: She. Who gets only second place and no caps lock because, a surprisingly good portrayal none withstanding, she could’ve been even better had Higashide done a bit more research (in his favour, I don’t know what kind of books on her are translated in Japanese and if the processes transcripts are among them).

For example I’ll forever maintain that, while the whole “romance” thing has a historical base (funny that, uh?), it required a way better realisation and as it’s written in Apocrypha does her character a disservice. Laeticia too, who was a potentially interesting “device” and could’ve been our outsider perspective, got derailed into more nonsense romance and aww poor Sieg and oh man, who-gives-a-damn: not me.

Also, not enough of a sarcastic spitfire or military prowess (“just waved the flag”, now that’s a funny way to write “half of Charles’ court was impressed by how good she was with every damn weapon”) for my tastes but I guess historical Jeanne is just that irreplaceable or TM chose to emphasise her piety and “sainthood” over other traits in order to avoid an Arturia 2.0.

Not a single mention to her mentors either, in 5 volumes (which is bad, extremely bad, Higashide why) and too much of Gilles de Rais nonsense but unfortunately Type Moon is committed to roll with it. Dunois, La Hire and d’Alencon never, poor me.

That said, Fate!Jeanne is really a good interpretation, firmly rooted in history and I love, love her.

Her faith and lack of hate are spot-on and are treated with respect instead of mocked.

She’s allowed to have a no-nonsense and even ruthless soldier like attitude, a protective streak (which always remind me of that promise she made to a young noblewoman to keep her husband safe and bring him back to her, or how she took care of her young squire. Both survived her) and loth of empathy at the same time.

She’s down to earth but can also be immature and have flaws and be tempted.

This post is already long as it is, so here’s some more reasons I love Apo Jeanne:

Novel Jeanne musing 1

Jeanne meta from the manga 1

Jeanne meta from the manga 2

My eternal greatest disappointment will forever be the lack of a satisfying confrontation with Shirou. You write someone able to shake Jeanne d’Arc convictions, make her doubt her conduct and moral standing when the threat of torture and the Rouen process weren’t able do so... and you don’t follow on it? Unforgivable.

Shirou: This guy. This absolute mess of a human being. I need more and no, GO, “evil alternative self” isn’t what I mean (but yeah, gimme him too). After discovering him in Apocrypha I started digging my university library to hunt down his IRL self story and there is no higher accomplishment for a Fateverse character for me. Fascinating person and fascinating take by TM, double so since I discovered dude’s still being vilified in contemporary Jp stories/entertainment and man do that enrage me.

It’s like someone mixed up a character I love (Kirei), one I loathe (Kiritsugu), shaked it and the result it’s the best possible one I could ask for.

I like the character design (both), the historical and post 3HGW backstory and how it shaped him into a Jeanne opposite (for excellent reasons), the most “Kotomine” traits like the snark and trollish attitude and how they cover all the suffering, despair and hate boiling under the constant smirk. How Higashide avoided the “turned evil” interpretation that’s prevalent in jp entertainment and made him a good person and a hero, if a misguided one and also the trapping of a “void/hollow inside” personality and instead gave him those fragments where you see he’s still a 17yo kid.

He’s not just interesting, he’s funny to read, even with all the angst going on.

The interactions with Shakespeare are great and... his relationship with Semiramis. Man, that’s excellent, excellent stuff. Can’t gush enough about how much I love them together

My only great complaint -for now, until I see a certain late discovery with my own eyes- is that all the narrative build up and comparisons between him and Jeanne (done in-universe and acknowledged within the text mind you, I’m not headcanoning here) went wasted.

How can you write two characters who mirror each other so perfectly, put them as “head” of their factions, in the same role both... and not deliver with a confrontation? The only thing that tried to do so was -ironically- the anime in ep #13, as their confrontation in the novels wasn’t as personal and as good as the anime.

Rank “good, excellent civilisation, never get tired of them”, 9.5/10

Shishigou: best father ever, 100% should legally adopt Mordred. He was/is extremely enjoyable to read about, snarky, smart, his fucked-up magus backstory had long lasting effects but managed not to destroy him, on the outside your tough, broody mercenary making hard decision but actually a good, moral person with a caring nature and, again, a great father.

As already said, his and Mordred narrative is less tied to the different views of salvation theme and more to the “people making their wishes come true” and they’re bit of outliers for the whole duration of the story but I wouldn’t change a thing (except one T_T).

His relationship with Mordred is one of the absolute highlights of Apocrypha for me, in every medium.

Semiramis: shallow reason first: charming, scheming, hot asshole-ish royalty in league with a Kotomine troll, what more could’ve I asked for? That she was an interesting char in her own right, which is what I got.

More in-depth, she’s another character I never have enough of. Begrudging sole responsible adult of red team, I couldn’t help but grin every time she had to deal with AKA team or single members, not to speak of her scenes with Shakespeare, which are both amusing and very good for characterisation.

She may not have that much of screen time compared to other faves but earned her place by making what she had memorable.

Her backstory is simple: abandoned child learns to exploit her society view on women to rise to the top and get everything she wants and fuck everything else. Which not only neatly establish how and why she became what she is but also why this broken kid, which is a sort of her exact opposite, fascinate her so much.

Speaking about our broken resident Kotomine, her chemistry with Shirou is simply great, all of their scenes are a joy to read. They have fun plotting together, they (she, dude’s either too young to notice or just let it go) casually flirts, have a functioning, mostly open relationship from the get-go that works no matter how messed up they really are and get each other’s back until the very end. Most of the more lighthearted stuff is in vol 1-2, then things gets more interesting.

See, as much as she seems to be (and like to present herself as such to enemies) the perfectly devoted Servant and is aiding Shirou… she’s also truly villainous, cold and ruthless as hell and is also very conflicted and switch back and forth on what she wants, not much as out of the War as instead from her Master in particular (don’t think bad… okay, do) for the whole series. Vol3 and 4 are a godsend for her character and you dunno how I wish we had more than a bare bone summary for vol 5 because god damn some things in that summary.

With the many, many stay night or Zero parallels and homages in Apocrypha, she come off as a sort of reverse Zero Gilgamesh and Gilles in being, respectively, the devilish member of the Kotomine - Servant pair and the “personal involvement/interest in the saint figure, sometimes verging on the creep-ish, predatory behaviour" one (Gilles was 100% full on creepy mode, Semiramis keeps her thoughts for herself and is just tempted. I strongly appreciate), “reverse” for being conflicted, but in the end being a better person than both dudes above and respecting and knowing her partner enough to let go of her worst desires/frustrations. There’s some really good stuff in these two’s relationship, let me tell you.

If Mordred-Shishigou take the cake for best platonic relationship in Apo, Semiramis and Shirou single handy destroy every competition for the romantic one.

Rank “You. I like you”, 8-7.5/10

Vlad: here’s someone I’m pretty content with how he’s written (I wouldn’t change a thing), but really wish had had more space just because I enjoyed him a lot. Higashide nailed him and I wanted more of a historical Vlad III who is a hero, a good ruler caring for his country and a ruthless warrior and executioner and none of this aspects negate the others. Plus, it was refreshing to see a Vlad III being so clearly separated from the “vampire” twist that his wish for the Grail was to erase book and legacy from existence.

Achilles: a simil Alexander, I dislike the IRL/myth dude but can’t stay mad with their Fate incarnations. I like his personality, his quirks, his relationships with Chiron and Atalanta. Loved the mocking duel (and the anime committee will hear me scream from the other side of the world if I get robbed of it yeah, I wrote this part before ep17. Fuck you A1).

I don’t even think he needed more screen time, he’s really fine with what’s shown. Not every character need to be a main one and Achilles manage to be a good secondary one, with enough development and characterisation.

Shakespeare: here’s an enjoyable dude I like to hate. Amusing character, his interactions with Semiramis and Shirou are a joy to read or watch, but, fuck this guy. May Moriarty and Saber Gilles have their way with you in Chaldea.

Caules: one of those rare beasts known as “perfectly functioning siblings” of the Nasuverese. Respect his Servant and tries to do her right till the end. A good dude.

Rank “could’ve shined more in a longer and more focused series, but okay” aka those who served their purpose, 7/10

Chiron Atalanta Karna Fran Fiore Darnic

Not really anything to say about each one here. They’re fine as they are.

Could’ve used more Darnic, the 3HGW is a fascinating subject no matter who the Einzbern decide to summon and his actions shaped the whole world of Apo. Personally I’d have cut the Jack business and expanded him as a character/treat, maybe to shed light into CT politics and magus society fuckery (because if there’s something the Yggdmillennia as a whole and each one of them in particular show is how the magi society is an aberration that twist and corrupt everything it touch). But in the end I know it was either Ygg vs CT as promised or Rulers against each other and I’ll gladly take the latter. A longer series could’ve had space for both, who knows.

Rank “nice arc. There are more interesting people but I’ve come to appreciate you”

Gordes: Probably the human character who experience more growth in the series.

Rank “wasted” and “decent what little is there, perhaps, but still bitter after five years”

Avicebron: also know as the poor thing similar to the antagonist in background and wish that could’ve worked with the themes while also being a personal foil to the protagonist in being a golem/artificial life creator and user but the writer couldn’t/wouldn’t bother with him for some reason and he only got to be the “Gilles de Rais summon Chtlulu and heroes have to team up to bring him down” of Apocrypha, with no other purpose than being a Zero “homage”.

To add insult to injury, the Adam threat does literally jack shit on a narrative point because “Servant goes stray and threaten the world, Servants form both factions have to team up to defeat him” already happened, 2 episodes before for the anime, end of vol2 vs beginning of vol3 for the novel version. And Mordred and Shishigou making an alliance with the surviving Black members was already going to be a thing after the Gardens mess. Shame, shame and shame.

Siegfried: tainbocuailnge here has written some good meta about him lately and, yeah, perhaps all of that was intended, and I can kinda appreciate it. The point is that I couldn’t give a single crap over the OC when for him to come into being means sacrificing freaking Siegfried. I may not have read as much or being already attached to the literature/epic character like other cases but… no, just no. Siegfried deserved way better than what he got in Type Moon.

Add more personal bitterness because with such numbers I thought it was finally time for the Heroes to shine and for the Masters to be sidelined and instead we got super special super powered MC. To hell with it.

If anything, Siegfried may be the only character the anime did more good than damage. He’s still there and sometimes get to act as a mentor instead of being a useful power up and then fucking off for the remaining 4 volumes.

Rank “I tried to like you, I wish I could like you, but I cannot stand you no matter what”, 5-4

Astolfo: I’ve tried to like him but to no avail (rest assured, though, that I’ll deck anyone who’ll try use that t*ap or “girl” bullshit).

It has to be that unholy combination of extremely airhead personality and mannerism, all the screen time he gets that could’ve gone to my favourites, that idiotic attempt at a “love triangle” (for the love of God, Higashide) and a voice acting that, I swear, even if I already didn’t like him from the novel the anime would’ve been the nail in the coffin. All these combined make him grates on my nerves like few other Fate characters. Perhaps part of my distaste comes from being unable to shake the feeling that the author himself don’t respect him.

I realise it’s quite… unfair, because on the page he has everything I usually like: he’s brave, he’s kind, he has morals and will maintain them in front of everything, he stand up to assholes, he save and inspire people, you can overpower him as much as you like and he still won’t care and will still fight you.

Astolfo is a good, decently written character and I really wish the franchise would just stop using him as a joke and stop being so gross to him in order to cater to even more gross “fans”.

If I were to put tastes/guts feelings aside, I could praise him for pages. I simply can’t bring myself closing the gaps from appreciating the undeniable qualities to actually like the character.

Rank: fluctuating between “your concept should’ve been handled by a more experienced narrator” and “goddamn, does your very existence piss me off”, pending more on the second as we go on, less than 4

Sieg: on the page kid’s got a good arc. An homunculus, a magus’s tool, trash to be used and disposed off, gains consciousness and, shaped by what he witness and the actions and sacrifices of heroic figures, rise to free his kin from their slavers and then find himself fighting to “save the world”. How he attained freedom and have come to interpret it and his experiences put him in the path of the antagonist and the two and their “ideologies” makes for an interesting double face of the coin, forced salvation vs free offer and answer to actual prayers. Sounds pretty great.

Unfortunately, Higashide aimed too high for his skills or didn’t learn well from Nasu and Shirou Emiya, or both.

Otakus mad because he “got the waifu” aside, Sieg do come across as too damn lucky and overpowered and there is a limit on how much the in-universe reason “damn, the Counter Force had to work hard to give him a chance to stop a Heroic Spirit with hundreds time his experience” can go before the readers start getting annoyed at Heroes dropping dead or getting sidelined just to push him forward.

I’m not a fan of these buzzwords, but the impression he’s a fan fiction OC that force the original and more interesting cast to revolve around/sacrifice for him or hijack their plots is damn strong. Scrap it, it’s not an impression, it’s exactly what happen. In at least 4 or 5 cases.

There were also too many times he bore me to death so not really what you want from your protagonist.

Another thing, more grave than personal preferences: his wish/fight firstly go nowhere, then get resolved too quickly without a fuss and then, once his goal has been effortlessly achieved, he proceeds to tag along and stole duels and confrontations from other characters, on which he had no stakes nor reason to be. What kind of writing is this?! He get the contract with Astolfo, walks in the castle and the Yggd agree on releasing the homunculi. And that’s it. Wow?

Also here’s my 100% personal reason for not having an ounce of interest in Sieg, godly writing skills or not: for once, just once, we could’ve got our first Fate solo female protagonist. An all-around badass but, at the same time, not an Arturia nor Shiki nor Arc nor Aoko clone. Who just happened to be my favourite historical figure ever.

Could’ve kept the same theme of opposing concepts of salvation, brought the Ruler vs Ruler/Saint vs Saint thing in the spotlight, with all their nice baggage of similar lives resulting in opposite views by different regrets and traumas, faith or lack (that instead got all swept under the rug, and man if the self awareness of vol4 isn’t something to behold) and after five years I still feel personally robbed of all of this, especially when it became clear Apocrypha was yet another “male protagonist with the world revolving around him while the female heroine gets to be his support/sidekick. Oh, and as already said, he get the confrontation with whom the narrative builds as her rival”. Because of course he does.

You don’t sideline Jeanne frigging d’Arc and expect me to forgive you for it.

Rank “why are you even here, why are we wasting anything on you”

Jack and Reika: ye god, why. The concept behind this Jack the Ripper? I find Fake ver superior but I’m on board. Then, first, that fucking character design. Sorry BL, reddit, MAL and whatever: putting a child in a thong is a revolting choice of character design and no, there’s no “well, she learned from prostitutes” that count. I appreciate at least the connection made with Atalanta. But the execution. Their “plot” drag and drag on and goes nowhere (hilariously so in the anime. What was the point of Jack killing some random homunculi and disappearing for the whole arc, again?). Their only narrative purpose is doing ???? for roughly three volumes, *do that* to Atalanta and shaking Sieg’s worldview. At least they grant Jeanne some badass solo scenes and to us more insight on her character. Still the equivalent of a anime-only filler, and a bad one.

Pity, really, because a child Jack who 1. is a child and act as one and 2. get heavily influenced by her/their Master and thus could either become a better person or be exploited wasn’t that bad of a twist for a famous figure but the pair was never allowed to be more than “Apo pair of rogue murderers”.

Celenike: just… begone. I cheered when she died in the novel, cheered loudly when she died in the anime and will cheer even more loudly when she will die in the manga.

#Anonymous #answer #fate apocrypha #fate apocrypha spoilers #fate meta #almost 4k words #fate series

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thebigladjake · 5 years

Text

AX2001: Character Design Brief - Research and Inspiration

For references, I looked into the "Shear Menace" character trope which is a character that wields a pair of scissors. Just in order to see how exactly these characters are presented in different types of media.

Edward Scissorhands

The first character that probably springs to mind when talking about a character’s most defining character trait being scissors would be the 1990 film, “Edward Scissorhands”. Edward is the creation who was left unfinished upon the death of his inventor, leaving him with only scissors for hands. He is discovered by a saleswoman who reintegrates him into society to many mixed reactions.

Edward was intended to actually have hands, but as his inventor died before he got the chance, his main conflict comes from having these dangerous appendages and the harm he could potentially do. Earlier in the film, he’s shown having trouble to do tasks as he’s restrained by his hands being blades, he struggles to eat dinner and he punctures the waterbed he’s given to sleep on.

It’s only when he can actually put the scissors to use is where we see people open up and begin to trust him, trimming hedges, cutting dogs and people’s hair. Here we truly get to see how his hands truly function, the blades on his middle and index finger acting as one pair of scissors which he cuts with. His hands look extremely busy in most scenes, mainly because they aren’t always shown close up.But, when his hands are at work, his fingers move so fast it’s a little difficult to see. However, I found this nice shot where he cuts the hair over the dog’s eyes in a simple motion, we can see how his scissor functionality actually works.

Edward is a gentle character who doesn’t mean to harm anyone, but he’s given this ailment where he’s got lethal weapons as one of the most important features of a human. We see him struggle to function in our normal lives where hands are a necessity, but when given the chance to use his scissors, he flourishes. This is perhaps the most calm and gentle character in my research and it’s interesting how this character type could be taken into a different direction.

Kuchisake Onna (Urban Legend)

Japan’s urban legend known as Kuchisake Onna, also known as The Slit-Mouthed Woman, is another example of a scissor wielding character. I find this example particularly interesting as it stems from Japanese folklore which spans the 17th to 19th century. Meaning this might have been floating around before the original Scissor Man story, it’s like two cultures interpretations of a similar creepy being.

The legend goes like this, the woman was punished by having her mouth slit for various reasons and became an onryō, a spirit that seeks revenge. She appears covering her mouth, the object hiding her face varies from story to story. She’ll ask her victims if they think that she is pretty, no results in death and yes will make her remove the mask asking “Even now?” No, again results in death and yes, results in her slitting the victims mouth to match hers.

There isn’t much to discuss here, however the mystical spirit appearing in front of those it chooses to is a concept I might work with for my Scissor Man. Her initial normal appearance which leads into the nightmarish face she’ll show you is pretty cool and I think it could work for the Scissor Man too, he has a more normal form that he shows to fit in. Whenever, he finds a child sucking their thumb, he springs into action eager to punish them.

Sundowner (Metal Gear Rising)

Videogames have quite an obsession with this trope, looking into it I was quite surprised. Many games from different gameplay types and categories seem to enjoy having a Scissor wielding character. A game I had enjoyed recently, "Metal Gear Rising: Revengence", has a character fitting into this trope. That being Sundowner and his pincer blades.

As soon as I got to work with the Scissor Man, I knew I had got to look into this guy. The team which he is a part of and that serves as the bosses of several chapters all have unique styles, weapons and/or gimmicks to give them a much different feel to their fights. Sundowner uses a pair of Executioner swords which can be wielded separately or together in the form of the “Pincer Blades”. An arm extension allowing him to connect one sword to his arm while the other is in the hand of the same arm.

The way he functions is by having one blade static while, if he needs to chop, he closes the scissor blades using his own hand. Initially, I believed that it was just one function which the blades are combined into scissors, but I find this way of creating his “scissors” is quite fascinating and definitely made for an interesting weapon that also reflects the savagery of his character. However, this weapon does have it’s downside that being it’s weight.

In his boss battle, he is fast but has a lot of openings leading to the player hitting him once in this state and he is amongst the easiest bosses in the game for it. Also, when defeated, you gain this weapon to try out and it’s extremely powerful but slow to use, mainly since Sundowner’s body is much better suited for these heavy weapons. When designing my Scissor Man, it’s important to think of the utility and how he’s going to move, how he will be using them. The way Sundowner is able to close the blades and how he works around a rather non-conventional weapon was very helpful toward my development. Also, the mobility, while not carrying over into my character, was very helpful since my character is only going to be chopping children’s thumbs off and not their entire body. So, the Scissor Man should probably use a small pair rather than being held back by something big and hefty.

Carapar (BIONICLE)

The name of Sundowner’s Pincer Blades brought the idea of crab claws into my mind and how organically they could have the same function. Turning back to my childhood, I remembered a crab character with a huge hulking claw that I used to imagine crushing things in half. This character was Carapar from LEGO’s BIONICLE toyline.

In 2007, the BIONICLE series was given a wave of sets known as the Barraki. Six former rulers cast into The Pit and mutated into various sea creatures. It was done to create much more unique looking characters that what they made previously and Carapar was based upon a crab. His claw blades could open and close as a play feature, the pieces making it up where also massive to give him that crab motif. Carapar is shown to be quite bulky and not that agile, again another hulking figure that can split it’s opponents in two. Which isn’t exactly fitting for the Scissor Man, he’s described as tall and he’s quite creepy so in my mind I have this spindly and odd looking physique. However, Carapar did act as a gateway into the world of crabs and suddenly the ideas for my Scissor Man came pouring in.

Crabs

The crab world is quite amazing as so many crabs of different shapes, sizes, claws and colours exist.

This image caught my interest, not only for the giant claw, but for the colours on this! They’re fantastic! The silvery upper claw melding into the bright orange of the lower section instantly gave me the ideas on making a melding effect onto my Scissor Man. His arm progressively getting more crab-like from his regular body. The silver/grey/blue claw part also gave me strong blade impressions.

Once again, the colours here are amazing and seemingly random. All of it’s legs are bright red and it’s claws are purple, this got me thinking about how the Scissor Man’s legs are also bright red and how the legs can have a crab motif as well, to make him seem more beastly and not just like a guy. The purple is such a radically different colour though, I don’t think my Scissor Man will have a pair of fabulously purple scissors like this boy.

This image was a good basis to look at the construction of a crab’s claw arm, how it looks segmented and how it’s actually connected because they aren’t just pieces stuck together. There is organic detail hidden beneath and this is what I had to consider when making my Scissor Man.

0 notes

sableaire · 7 years

Note

Why do people complain about a white Light but not a black L? Seriously, they could have been both asian or white or black and the Netflix show would still fucking suck. Are even Death Note fans complaining about the fact that Light is now "a white kid" because tumblr logic. People give too much credit to live action adaptations these days.

Sorry for taking so long to get to this, Anon - had a busy Friday, aha.

I think ultimately the backlash against Light is that he’s, well… the face of the show. He’s the one we see in the trailer, and he’s the one we immediately see and go “Well, that doesn’t look right.” And seeing as a lot of people are already talking about this from a sociopolitical representation-in-media point of view, let me explain things from a storytelling point of view under the cut:

For me, the reason that a white Light isn’t working for me is because Light’s character at its core is so fundamentally Japanese. The idea of a ‘model student’ is so different between Japan and America, and Light Turner doesn’t fit the role Light Yagami is supposed to fill, in my head.

Further, the entire nature of Light Yagami’s motivation and drive depends upon the structure of the Japanese legal system, and how his ‘ascension to godhood’ should be interpreted changes if it’s shifted to America. His character was designed in and for a Japanese setting, so when it seems like Netflix just took “Light Yagami” as he is and threw him into an American setting with nothing but a name change to bolster it, it grates on me as a storyteller. To adapt a foreign work, you need to understand what environment the author was reflecting on when writing the work, and then you need to adapt it from that fundamental concept upwards, or the story will only ever pale in comparison to the original.

The reason The Handmaiden works so well as an adaptation of The Fingersmith is because it rewrote the setting, the characters, and the concepts from the ground up. If they just plopped the The Fingersmith into Korea, I don’t think I could have tolerated that.

Also, personal preference, but seeing Light out of uniform is really bothering me. Is Light Turner going to be in an academy or prep school or something, because if not, I take issue with that too. Speaking of which, the director of this live-action said that there’s going to be a ton of swearing and nudity?? Because let me tell you, Light Yagami prided himself on being Japan’s best and brightest, a true model student, so I really don’t know where they plan on slipping that in for Light Turner.

I recognize that in this review I am kind of torn between “they should have stuck closer to the original” and “they should have reinvented the original” but that’s basically the problem - Netflix doesn’t seem to have made the choice either. They wanted to be similar enough to use the name and just different enough to Americanize it a little. Like that, it’ll end up satisfying no one.

Anyway, L’s character, on the other hand, has not been featured as prominently in images or trailers. Heck, I didn’t know L was going to be black until I received this ask, but it doesn’t bother me, personally, as much because L’s character does not depend upon the Japanese culture or justice system. L’s character is a foil and antagonist to Light, and his motivations are pretty universal in it just being that he’s a world-renowned detective with one heck of a case, and he’s going to solve it. His character can exist in any form because, at heart, his character is a shared concept/drive between America and Japan.

Light’s entire sense of justice is the driving narrative of the plot, and that sense of justice is born out of Japan being a) a small nation with a number of densely populated cities, b) a highly collectivist society, and c) having an entirely different legal system and culture compared to the United States.

a) America is huge? I’m not quite sure how well Light Turner’s going to work as Kira because he won’t be able to strike fear into an entire nation. If he’s operating on one state in the east coast, to start out with, California isn’t going to be trembling in fear. Frankly, I don’t have a lot of faith that Netflix put thought into the adaptation in this regard, and if they did, I wish they released a little more information acknowledging that element of adaptation.

b) Japanese culture, similarly to Korean culture, has a lot of unspoken social rules, and the feeling of society as a whole differs greatly from the United States, which is a country built upon the idea that you’re “free to be who you want to be” and upholds the individual. The idea of Kira, and Light Yagami’s power-trip, take on a different role in a setting like Japan, not to mention how Light’s proclamation that he intends to become ‘God’ almost depends on the Japanese setting.

Consider this: God in America is typically the Christian God. When Light Turner proclaims that he intends to become ‘God’, he is saying this after being brought up in a highly Christian environment. He is saying this after attending a school system in which he pledges allegiance every day going “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” and that colors the god-complex in a completely different way. The sheer egoism of a teenager ‘becoming God’ in a Christian-dominated society that proclaims the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God since childhood is enough for me to lose interest in the character.

Light Yagami’s concept of godhood is, on the other hand, born from an environment dominated by Shintoism and Buddhism. I haven’t read or watched Death Note in years, mind you, so I can’t remember if Light seems to be Christian or not, but even if he is, that would make him a minority in Japan. Barely 2% of Japan’s population is Christian, and even with all the Roman-Christian symbolism in the manga, I can’t be sure without further research that it was all intentional, seeing as Neon Genesis Evangelion made use of Christian symbolism because they thought it looked cool.

In the end, the character of Light Yagami is constructed and placed in a culture where ‘godhood’ is equated with ‘divinity’ found in nature, and the ‘purity’ of the natural order of things (edit: the inherent purity of natural things; I realized belatedly that my initial wording could be read several different ways). Even if the character itself is based upon Christianity and Christian concepts, how the Japanese readership would have accepted this character and the in-story Japanese society would have accepted Kira differs greatly from it would in an American context. It makes me wonder if, in the original manga, there was a sense that Light Yagami was trying to become ‘the natural order of things’ by becoming ‘god’.

IfI have to wonder, did Netflix realize this? Is this a purposeful change in nuance? Because there is a way to do this right, and if they did it right it could be amazing! But I know that at heart, this is likely a cash grab, and they took the story and the name and spilled it into an American setting and expected fans to follow along. (And if not, if this is actually a reinvention, I am disappointed in their marketing team for failing to generate positive interest.)

See, as a storyteller, I feel as though if the staff of this adaptation didn’t consider at least as much as I am doing in this post, they’re not doing the original work enough respect, and bottom-line, the character of “Light Yagami” was fascinating. The character of “Light Turner” is far from novel.

Speaking of which, the name “Kira” came from the Japanese pronunciation for ‘killer’ so what the heck are they going to do with that?

c) Death Note was written at an interesting time, the original run going from 2003 to 2006. In the middle of that time period in 2004, Japan changed its legal system to include layman judges. That means that Death Note was conceptualized and written at a time where something akin to a jury system did not exist in Japan (and the current system still differs from a jury system anyway), and according to Wikipedia, the first notable lay-judge trial didn’t even happen until 2009. Even now, this system isn’t well-received because over 70% of Japanese people are uncomfortable with the idea of acting as a judge.

And it is in this kind of society, Light Yagami rises up. Light Yagami’s distorted pursuit of justice depends upon the closed-off legal system where solely the judges determine the guilt of the defendant, if the case even gets to court at all. I believe that at the time of Death Note’s writing, most cases in Japan were handled by a single judge unless it made it to at least the High Courts (which used three judges). Thus, when a criminal escapes conviction in this setting, it means that the existing evidence couldn’t legally convince, often, one individual.

In America, Light Turner is a teenage guy who hasn’t even sat on a jury yet, and I’m not sure why, but that changes things for me. Escaping a court conviction in America usually means that a jury, a panel of civilians, wasn’t convinced. The circumstances in which a guilty individual goes free is either a result of money (either bribes or a really good defense lawyer) or implicit biases in the jury (if the jury and the defendant are part of the same ‘in-group’ such as race, religion, etc.), so Light Turner’s dissatisfaction with existing legal avenues for crime needs a different angle, or it just feels… childish.

If the only reason Light Turner turns into an egomaniac is because he’s a decently smart teenage guy who gets a new, deadly toy, I won’t be able to find him interesting. Also, on that note, Light Yagami is pretty much one of the smartest guys in his nation - that’s part of his appeal. America as a setting has a disadvantage in that, both geographically and culturally, because it’s pretty damn hard to be ‘smartest teenager in the United States’, especially when there isn’t really a way to judge that in the American education system, and also because ‘super-smart’ in America still suffers from lingering connotations of ‘weak nerd’ rather than bringing you great social status amongst teens.

Basically what I’m getting at is that if Netflix was going to do this adaptation of Death Note, they had to have rewritten the character of Light from the ground up as well as completely reshaped the commentary within it, or we lose a lot of nuance to both Light’s character and the story. Sure, the show isn’t out yet, so maybe Netflix did rewrite the adaptation like that, but in that case I would disapprove of how they went with the marketing, and I would still question why they didn’t consider casting an Asian-American guy.

A lot of people are saying, “Well, it’s in America. Why can’t Light be white?” but to them, I ask, “Well, it’s in America, multicultural and diverse. Why can’t Light be Asian-American?” It would also be insight to an interesting cultural perspective which could potentially feed into the protagonist’s egoistic philosophy.

Anyway, if there are any glaring errors I made above, I apologize. I have not read or watched Death Note in many years, and I didn’t feel like doing so just to write this post, ahaha.

#death note #long #netflix #light yagami #light turner #representation in media #Anonymous

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sueandoc · 6 years

Text

My message to Himeno-san

Dear Himeno-san,

I'm Sue from China, who has been a little fan of you for two years☺️I appreciate all of your fantastic works about the Iberian family! I'd love to send you many thanks for your fascinating-designed original characters, especially your Castillia, Aragon, Catalonia and Andalusia❤️

Not only your characters, but also your long stories astonished me very much. I first got to know you from your most laborious work: “Romano and Armada” Your unique interpretation of Armada Spain during the Age of Discovery in 16th Century, it's so great that even make me unable to express my feeling properly......_(:з」∠)_

My best friend and I are both very keen on historical and cultural knowledges, also we like the form of personalizing countries or regions. Because of this, we love to discuss some particular periods in history together with some of your nice works! （We can understand your story in a hazy way by your illustration and some kanjis）

My friend says she loves your character design of Aragon! Also she speaks highly of your various interpretation of Spain. She considers your early work "Story of Andalusia" to be a very ingenious conception and a pretty nice example of personalization! Our favourite elements can always appear in your drawings, and we feel very happy to see so.

Anyway I really love your drawings/doodles and your long/short comics. It's excellent that you've got such a skill of reading and understanding history, then interpreting it through your very nice and styled ways.

Himeno-san, I'm feeling really eager to get in touch with you now, because you haven't posted anything new on Pixiv for a very long time, and seemingly you have quitted the community as well as giving up your creation of Iberian family characters? Oh no, please don't do so! There are always many enthusiastists of your art, looking forward to your new post（especially the rest of “Romano and Armada”! We all desire to know the ending of this amazing story!）and calling you back, like me

_(:з」∠)_

Could you please check out my following request? Among all your Iberian original characters, I found that I've developed a special passion of Miss. Catalonia......However, I think there's a tiny flaw of her design: It's too rare for a Catalan to have such Germanic/Nordic blonde hair together with blue eyes😅From this point, I took reference from your Miss. Catalonia, mainly her hair style and the relationship with Aragon, Valencia and Spain, then I made my version of Catalonia.

Here's my design text for her with a drawing (They're yet to be modified)

♀ - Mireia Montserrat Vallvé i Rossell

♂ - Jaume Càstor Vallvé i Rossell

【The semi-sister younger than Aragon and older than Valencia. She doesn’t have a rather intimate relationship with Valencia, Aragon is their common elder brother. Ever since Aragon was united with Castille by royal marriage, the three has become members in the family of Spain. However, Catalonia detests Spain on sight, especially when she envies Spain and Castille snatching Aragon’s intimate care and love, which she believes she, Aragon’s real family and sister in flesh, deserve them more.

During the Civil War, Catalonia firmly stood by the left side of Spanish Popular Front and fought against the Fascists, but was hit twice in the back during faction of the Republicans, and masscre made by the Nationalists. Afterwards she was shot in her back waist, even once sank in the mire of hemiplegia. Fortunately she got entire, considerate sessions of treatment after Franco’s death. And further after acquiring autonomous right in the Constitution Revolution, she was aglow with health once more.

In recent years she behaves mostly in the manner of a radical protagonist of Catalan independent movement, evertheless, sometimes feeling ambivalent about the issue and even inclined to anti-separatism.

She’s proficient in Catalan language, literature, art, history and culture, also able to speak fluent Spanish, though she refuses to speak it occasionally.

Additionally, Catalonia entertains an innate passion for football. She’s born to be a faithful fan of FC Barcelona, and has been together with her team for years. It’s an astonishing fact that when it comes to something intense such as a match or an argument about football, especially Barça, then she inevitably convert herself into the boy form, a real Catalan boy as her counterpart called Jaume.】

——Thus you see how I “took reference” from your Catalonia......And I'd like to send you my kind request in order to ask if I can do my art and character design in this way.If you agree, then I will always mark out “the character of female Catalonia personalization BELONGS TO MASUDA HIMENO (HEIDOS) AND ME, SUE LIU”

Also I've made up human names for your Castille, Aragon and Valencia (Andalusia will be soon) Different from Catalonia, I believe these four characters all completely belong to you! I'll just make FANART for them because of my Iberian passion😄And I'll explain to you the meaning of each part of the name, if you'd like to know!

Castilla: Calista Isabel Fernández de Ávila

Aragón: Ferran Llorente Zurita Carriedo Aragonés

Valencia: Joaquín “Ximo” Ossifar Vallvé i Martorell

According to the Spanish naming custom, it's more appropriate to consider that FERNÁNDEZ the paternal surname is Aragon's, while CARRIEDO the maternal surname is Castille's......However, I think it looks better when they exchange. Also, for the surname CARRIEDO I only found one notable person on Wikipedia named Raquel Carriedo-Tomás, who is from Zaragoza, ARAGON. Maybe it's reasonable to give CARRIEDO to Aragon as Spain's paternal surname in ancient medieval times😂

I'm rather eagerly looking forward to your reply! And in case you find the English messages too hassle to understand, just tell me and I'd love to ask some of my friends to help me translate them into Japanese, though the process may be difficult for me😂(I've read that your work is related to translation so I guess perhaps it's possible for you to read my longggg English messages _(:з」∠)_

Please check these messages, much love and kind regards from your devoted fan, Sue❤️

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include the making of a Hearthstone card, a couple of neat Horizon: Zero Dawn video pieces, and behind the scenes on seminal 2D fighting game Samurai Shodown.

I also comment on this below, but the rise of 'creators making interesting content about their own games, especially in video form' is something I'm really starting to note and enjoy. (This week - Hearthstone, Runescape, Horizon: Zero Dawn, & more.) This makes sense, especially since some of these games make a lot of money and third-party options for making money covering those titles are way trickier.

Obviously, there's mixed feelings about this - is the only way you can cover games in-depth in the future as part of an embedded team funded by the game's creators? But there are also counter-examples like the excellent Spelunky making-of video posted by Danny O'Dwyer's Noclip below. So maybe a mix of sources will be just fine, absolutists out there! Until next week...

Simon, curator.]

-------------------

With Scorpio rising, Phil Spencer looks to the future of Xbox (Alex Wawro / Gamasutra) "Here then is a rundown (edited for clarity) of our conversation with Spencer about everything from Microsoft's VR plans to the future of the game console business, and how Project Scorpio represents an attempt at "learning from some of our PC heritage.""

The Runescape Documentary - 15 Years Of Runescape (Jagex / Runescape / YouTube) "[SIMON'S NOTE: good to see companies documenting their own history, even with the inherent rose-tinted glasses that might bring in - we still get SOME good historical context.]"

Tim Schafer Talks Shyness, Comebacks and Being Asked Not to Touch George Lucas (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "During an hourlong conversation, Schafer talked to Glixel about his reputation as a project manager at LucasArts, his career-long fight for creative independence, and the troubled development of Psychonauts, followed by the game's remarkable staying power."

A Chat With a Live Streamer is Yours, For A Price (Laura Parker / New York Times) "Andre Rebelo, a 24-year-old YouTube streamer from Vancouver, British Columbia, live-streamed himself playing the game Grand Theft Auto V on his YouTube channel, Typical Gamer, in mid-January. This time, he added something different for his audience."

Building Non-Linear Narratives in Horizon: Zero Dawn (Leszek Szczepanski / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 session, Guerrilla Games' Leszek Szczepanski explains how Guerrilla Games tackled sidequests and open-world activities in Horizon: Zero Dawn, by creating a quest system which has non-linearity at its base."

From GoldenEye To Yooka-Laylee: Grant Kirkhope Reflects On His Career (Zak Wojnar / Game Informer) "If you’ve been a gamer for any length of time, Grant Kirkhope’s tunes have probably been stuck in your head at some point. His music defined some of the Nintendo 64’s greatest games, such as GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie – the latter being the direct inspiration for his latest project, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee."

The Making of Samurai Shodown (James Mielke / Polygon) "With SNK in a bit of a revival at the moment, we went on a quest to track down some of the original Samurai gumi team members and learn more about the origins of the Samurai Shodown series. A chance conversation at Tokyo Game Show 2016 put us in touch with Yasushi Adachi, the original series creator."

Ironsights: A Big Buck Hunter Mini-Documentary (Twitch Creative / Twitch) "The 22-minute story follows Sara Erlandson, Wisconsin bar owner turned Big Buck phenom and Twitch streamer, as she travels from her hometown of Beldenville to the World Championship in Austin, Texas."

The Socialist Surrealist Oikospiel Has a Wild Vision for the Future of Videogame Labor (Daniel Fries / Paste) "Oikospiel, the new experimental game from David Kanaga and Ferdinand Ramallo, wants to make sure you’re paying attention. It doesn’t want you to get wrapped up in its story or relax and have fun playing a game. It’s constantly trying to jar you out of any trance or flow state."

Everything I Said Was Wrong: Why Indie Is Different Now (Liz England, Lisa Brown, Rami Ismail / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Ubisoft's Liz England, indie designer Lisa Brown, and Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail break down why some of their older advice for starting indie developers hasn't held up, how they'd update that advice, and how developers can better think about giving advice to each other and interpret advice."

Snake Pass and the unexplored territory of the game controller (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "The way the input feels is intended to be a part of the whole experience – to the point where Liese was lobbying to ship without a mouse and keyboard option at one point because they hadn’t found one which adequately expressed the same physical elements of playing."

Clark Tank plays: Northgard! (Brace Yourself Games / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: Love Ryan's Twitch stream, and this is an experimental edited-down version of a recent stream, xposted to YouTube.]"

Doom (2016): To Hell and Back (David Craddock / Shacknews) "Marty Stratton knew a good sound when he heard it. He had studied commercial music composition at University of Denver and, with bachelor degree in hand, had headed out west in 1995 determined to land a job in the entertainment industry. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is a GIGANTIC, almost book-length piece, and very well done.]"

The stray dogs of The Silver Case (Gareth Damian Martin / Eurogamer) "For Goichi Suda, those murders would begin a fascination with grotesque crimes that would reappear throughout his career. He was still at developer Human Entertainment at the time, but only a year later, Suda, eager to pursue new ideas, set up his own studio: Grasshopper Manufacture."

Behind the Card | Amara: Warden of Hope (Blizzard / YouTube) "Peek behind the curtains to see what went into creating the cards Awaken the Makers and Amara, Warden of Hope. [SIMON'S NOTE: more deep dive content created by the team making the game - in this case Hearthstone!]"

The first decade of augmented reality (Ben Evans / Ben-Evans.com) "In February 2006, Jeff Han gave a demo of an experimental 'multitouch' interface, as a 'TED' talk. I've embedded the video below. Watching this today, the things he shows seems pretty banal - every $50 Android phone does this! - and yet the audience, mostly relatively sophisticated and tech-focused people, gasps and applauds."

How emergent AI encounters can be beautiful in The Signal from Tolva (Bryant Francis / Gamasutra) "The Signal from Tolva, which comes from the creators of Sir, You Are Being Hunted, is yet another game about science-fiction robots from UK developer Big Robot. And while creative director Jim Rossignol told us yesterday on the Gamasutra Twitch Channel that’s partly because it’s easier to animate beings that don’t have facial animations, he also said it’s because there’s something beautiful about what happens when you program groups of A.I to have their own missions. [SIMON'S NOTE: we're doing a lot more live Twitch chats with devs recently on Gamasutra - here's a good example!]

From hacker to Valve and back again (Brian Crecente / Polygon) "Before co-founding her own augmented reality headset company, Jeri Ellsworth was a technology chameleon, finding niches in electronics and mechanics, mastering them and helping redefine how they worked."

Horizon Zero Dawn - Neil Druckmann Interviews Hermen Hulst (PlayStation / YouTube) "Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann sat down with Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst to discuss the studio's shift away from Killzone, and the long process of bringing Horizon Zero Dawn to life."

Gaming under socialism (Paolo Pedercini / Molleindustria) "But the question of what gaming would look like in a socialist world has haunted me for days. Not only because I’m a leftist and I care about games, but because of how it relates to many crucial issues of 21st century radicalism. [SIMON'S NOTE: so Ivory Tower it hurts, but thought-provoking, fo sho.]"

How Steam brought shmups out of arcades and into a new PC renaissance (Matt Paprocki / PC Gamer) "How Steam and passionate fans pulled shoot-em-ups out of exile in Japanese arcades and back into the limelight."

How Ninja Theory's Canceled Co-op Game Led To Hellblade's Bold Future (Ben Hanson / Game Informer) "With our new cover story on Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, we've shown off plenty of gameplay footage from Ninja Theory's game. Today, the game's creative director Tameem Antoniades explains more about how the talented studio arrived where they are today. [SIMON'S NOTE: good honest video interview with Antoniades here on 'the space between AAA and indie'.]"

Searching for the truth of a fake world at EVE Fanfest (Adam Smith / RockPaperShotgun) "Like many EVE players, he’d come to Fanfest, a gathering of hundreds of players, devs and press in Iceland, to represent his in-game character. People wear the insignia of their corporations and alliances, and chant those same names at presentations and pubs. As a spectacle, it’s fascinating, but it’s also confusing."

Spelunky - Noclip Documentary (Danny O'Dwyer / Noclip / YouTube) "For almost a decade players have gleefully explored Spelunky's refined brand of player discovery and emergent gameplay. In this documentary, we talk to the game's creators about building the rules of its procedurally generated worlds."

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

Simon, curator.]

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes