#so perhaps 2000 isn't realistic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

suhmayzooka · 2 years

Note

19–Rant about a change they made to a character of your choice.

jason todd's everything

OKAY i mentioned this briefly here but i do think one of the worst things done to jason was actually done to willis and catherine todd: namely, making willis a basic abusive drunk deadbeat criminal, and making catherine...Just an Addict

i hate RHATO for many reasons (i only touched the tip of the surface here but tldr I Hate Scott Lobdell so fucking MUCH), only one of them being the absolute disgusting retcons to the todd family. thank god for RCO so i don't have to give a sexual harasser a cent providing these screenshots

from rhato 2011 #0, our introduction to catherine and willis was catherine in labor crying "get it out already" because she "really needed a cigarette" and willis already jumping out of the picture to flirt with the hospital staff

willis drives drunk and runs someone over, goes back to catherine, fights, gets arrested, leaving jason to take care of catherine who's addicted to drugs, etc. this is all a very, very basic story that has been told over and over, because (unfortunately) many people have experience growing up in this kind of environment. especially in poverty. perhaps if written by someone who understood poverty, crime, drugs, addiction, the cyclical nature of it all, this may have been told well. unfortunately scott lobdell is a piece of shit and DC can't handle sensitive subject matter, so DC has given us the backstory that, i reiterate, REAL PEOPLE EXPERIENCE (i know because i know real people who had this upbringing—poverty, drugs, abuse, violence) as an excuse to make jason 'street trash' and dehumanize low income families.

but lynx, you just said that you know real people whose lives are reflected by this, shouldn't this be valid representation for them? isn't it realistic?

sure.... maybe, if all the surrounding stuff about jason's story doesn't make this all so CLASSIST and gross in retrospect.

it's not enough that jason escaped the cycle of poverty.... he had to be saved by batman lest he become a Bad Criminal like his father, because that's the only possible outcome to this. there's no reason willis was abusive or drunk or a criminal beyond the fact that he's poor, that he's a 'street rat.'

(side note, can some fans like,,, cool off calling jason a 'street rat' all the time? it's dehumanizing, and like. you know. there are real life people in these situations, they're not 'street rats,' they're the results of a failing system that perpetuates poverty. your anger should not be with 'street rats' but with the governments and the system that leaves vulnerable people behind while lining the pockets of millionaires and billionaires who won't ever step foot into east harlem or brownsville. go serve soup at the bowery for one day and look into the eyes of people stuck into the failing systems, of families coming in with their kids who are trying to do what they can to survive, they're not 'street rats' they're evidence that leaders don't give a shit. your privilege is showing. i digress).

the thing is... making willis and catherine like this isn't bad on its face. before i read DITF, i assumed this characterization was always like that, since both canon and fanon never seemed to indicate any differently.

OH how wrong i was. as i mentioned before, one thing about DC comics that i find... weird... is how comics from before 2000 can be more progressive or sympathetic than comics from the past 20 years.

THIS is how catherine and willis todd were APPARENTLY introduced originally, from batman #426 (part one of DITF):

"her name was catherine todd, a good woman who probably loved her son deeply, only wanted the best for him. willis todd probably loved jason also. maybe that's why he drifted into crime, hoping to give his son a better life. the poor fool realized too late that those kinds of shortcuts never pan out. catherine todd's life was cut short by a disease that didn't care just how much love she had in her heart. jason's dad fell victim to the vicious gangster he was working for, two-face."

wow! so from this... it seems that willis todd wasn't a piece of shit criminal, but someone who turned to crime out of desperation. to give jason a "better life." shocking.... this is ..... more in line with how poverty actually makes people turn to crime. being poor doesn't make someone turn evil just to be evil.

POV you're willis todd. your wife is terminally ill (and, i want to remind international DC fans, gotham is based in new jersey. no free healthcare. no universal basic income. if you want to be precise about when this specific comic was written, RONALD REAGAN was president. think about the circumstances going on). you have a kid. you are unemployed, and there aren't many work opportunities around you.

do you relocate to metropolis, since that city seems better than gotham? with what money?? most of what you do have is pooled with your wife's money to fund her medical bills, but remember this is america and the costs are piling up. additionally, you have to pay for your kid's necessities like food and clothes. you're not going to find an office job making more than minimum wage.

two-face comes along and, being a criminal, can pay you better than working at a random warehouse can. you just go along and follow his orders, and sure it's dangerous and you know you can be arrested but your priorities in life are catherine (until she dies) and then after that, your kid. to willis, and indeed many real parents who find themselves in this situation, crime is probably the most immediate solution; whether willis dies or gets arrested isn't as important as making sure he can put food on the table for just one more night.

let's just go back to catherine—i've seen some people speculate that "the disease" was actually just a euphemism for drugs and the comic was trying to be vague about that. here's how I would handle it if I worked at DC: catherine was sick from some terminal illness, but couldn't afford to pay the ungodly medical bills, so she turns to illegal drugs. you think living in high poverty just makes people turn to nonmedical opioid (the 'opioid crisis') because they're evil ne'er-do-well drug addicts? no!

NOW let's get to jason. he's already an orphan when bruce meets him, stealing the batmobile's tires not out of an inherent evilness within him but because he needs money to survive. he says it himself, he doesn't want to be a criminal! did willis want to be a criminal? did catherine want to die? no! from batman #409:

"i don't wanna learn to be no crook. i just boost what it takes to survive..."

everything about this could make for a compelling story and why i hated HATED HATED cheer so much. jason KNOWS the relationship between poverty and crime because he's LIVED IT, more than bruce could ever understand.

jason is adamantly AGAINST the systems in power BECAUSE HE'S SEEN oppression and injustice. he's lived it.

making willis abusive severely diminishes any sort of sympathetic connection jason could have to petty criminals...which makes no sense because he was one. jason should not be killing random thieves or henchmen, his issues should always be with the people in power. including in crime. note that he DOESN'T go on an anti-drug, anti-crime crusade in UTRH (which, as a whole comic, does contain some war on crime propaganda, but overall miles better than the bad parents retcon). he DOESN'T think that all criminals deserve death; his issue with batman ISN'T that gotham is too full of criminals that should be killed, but if you read the retcons and the abusive willis todd it's easy to interpret that (URBAN LEGENDS CHEER MY BEHATED).

i think lost days should be included in every printing of UTRH because of how much emphasis it places on jason's compassion for the downtrodden; he's not just murdering people because hee hee the lazarus pit made him evillll but because they're oppressing others; he kills people in positions of power who are abusing the systems in place. (NIGHTWING ANNUAL 2021 MY BEHATED)

so much of that is just... it just doesn't come off the same if willis was abusive at the start.

now. even after my rant, i want to say there's an upcoming fan film about jason's upbringing as an "abused street kid", HOWEVER the creator has discussed many times that this is based on his own personal experience so i have a lot of hope that it'll be less misery porn than what DC wrote.

salty comics ask game!

#yes i watch many red hood fan films i have a whole playlist. some are pretty fun!#if anyone wants fan film recs i can provide a list. i think i've watched enough to do so #dc #lynxreadscomics #meta #asked #jason todd #benbamboozled #moots

90 notes · View notes

demonfox38 · 9 months

Text

Completed: Okage: Shadow King

I think the game would prefer to speak for itself.

In my previous game evaluations, you may have seen me mention my best friend classified co-conspirator @jeannettegray. As of writing right now, her avatar on multiple services is this:

This would be an image of Rosalyn, one of the lead characters of today's evaluation. Having been given this knowledge, I bet you can put two and two together to figure out how I ended up playing "Okage: Shadow King." Because, let me tell you. I might be a nut for niche RPGs, but I definitely wouldn't have heard of this title without her influence. So, thanks again, JG!

"Okage: Shadow King" is a 2001 PlayStation 2 turn-based RPG developed by Zener Works. It (arguably) stars Ari, a young boy most known for…well. Nothing. Really! That's his schtick. Not that he doesn't have his own personality, but he's literally overshadowed by a bombastic set of characters hell-bent on taking over the world, reforming it to their desires, or stopping the chaos around them with their own tilted bents. To free his sister from a peculiar curse, Ari forms a pact with Stan, the titular Shadow (Evil) King, traveling around the world and defeating other Evil Kings to restore his power. Along the way, he picks up additional characters (including a handful of said Evil Kings, a dipshit scientist, and a mortified hero) and discovers the true nature of the world, all while finding a way to…well, step out of the shadows of others, I suppose.

Possibly by being the most sarcastic bitch in the world!

Now, if you read "2001", "PlayStation 2", and "RPG" above, you may pre-emptively have come to some conclusions about why this game is so damn niche. I checked the release dates just to confirm our mutual suspicions. This had a two months' head start on "Final Fantasy X" and was released in what appears to be the best month for it to come out (more on that in a bit.) So, I wouldn't say definitively that one game ate the other's supper. But, realistically, it only had a couple of months in the spotlight before went into…you know. Components of its own name.

There is definitely something weird to "Okage: Shadow King." I mean, weird beyond the intended vibes. I did some reading on Zener Works to see exactly what they are, as that's not a company familiar to me. It seems like they had a handful of titles in the late 2000s, as well as some mobile game properties (and a pending lawsuit against another company, if Google Translate was correct on their website.) This game is not only their only PS2 game, but seems to be the only RPG they ever built. Additionally, some general information on Wikipedia claims this was originally intended to be a PlayStation release but was then asked to be moved to the PlayStation 2 literally a day before the console's existence was revealed to the world at large.

I’m bringing up the development history because I don't want you to start playing this game and come to the conclusion that your PlayStation 2 is dying. (I mean, they are frailer than race horses, but it's not the console's fault exclusively that things are acting strangely.)

This isn't to say the game looks bad. Anything but! (Well, I guess there's some general distance fog, occasional camera issues, and Madril's kind of an ugly town, but stick with me here!) Honestly, given the character design for this game, I thought that perhaps there was some creative staff overlap with those that worked on stop-motion film/Hot Topic darling "Nightmare Before Christmas." This doesn't seem to be the case. Somebody in the design team was just a major nerd for that film. Like, blatantly stole the hill from that movie kind of nerd. The design team had their inspiration, and damned if they didn't nail it. So, if you're into the aesthetics of that film in particular, this game is a must play for that alone.

Also, one of the character modelers went on to work on "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night." You know you've got the charming spooky look nailed when the former design team for several "Castlevania" games wants you in their company!

Honestly, the music is pretty good, too. There's a couple of tracks that go a little too heavy on the use of chanting or bagpipes for my taste, but otherwise? Solid. Also? It reacts to you being inside/outside a building and whether or not you are about to die in battle. Responsive music programming! I love that!

The major attraction for this game is its writing, bar none. It's the world's most sarcastic RPG, and I say that with full affection. Like, all of your dialogue options can be boiled down to good/bad/sarcastic. There's no sane man in this universe. They've all been run down and driven to frothing vengeance by those in manic passion for power. Hell, the only thing that even remotely restores sanity in this game is giving up power.

Even with the game's bombastic nature, it can come out swinging with its plot twists. Like, you'll catch some. Obviously, there's a reason that the girl with demon horns and a pink miniskirt has aspirations for becoming a pop icon. Some seem obvious after the fact, like, "Of course, you can't trust butlers for anything. That's always how it goes!" Even the nature of the world itself will explain some issues you rub up against gameplay-wise. The one that really caught me off-guard was the opening for Chapter 5. Like…I don't want to spoil it for you, so I won't get into it too much. But, let's say the bit with Ari having to stand up for himself and regain some sense of personality and appearance was surprisingly resonant for me.

So, this makes a pretty good YouTube longplay video, especially if you're listening to one sans commentary. How about the game part?

Well…how much do you like "Quest 64?"

Not that the two games are all that alike. (Well, actually, maybe in the good music/character design bit.) But, I bring up my tolerance for "Quest 64" in that I love that game despite its online reputation as being the worst RPG on the Nintendo 64. (I mean, have people even seen the opening cutscene for "Aidyn Chronicles"? JFC.) I have a great deal of tolerance for funky RPGs is what I'm trying to say. For me to call an RPG bad, you'd literally have to present something like "Hoshi wo Miru Hito" to my face. Like, poorly functioning, poor audio, and having no final boss bad.

This is a novice RPG written relatively new into its console's library. It's got issues.

If you're gonna play it, you're going to need to have patience with it.

Looking at how it operates, I suspect the game designers were fans of "Megami Tensei" games (like "Shin Megami Tensei" or possibly the "Persona" series, although the timeline isn't quite the smoothest for the latter.) At least, the occasional Stan chats prior to combat, the focus on supernatural entities, the enemy abuse of curses, buffing/debuffing importance, and HP consuming moves are screaming that to me. There are some tweaks to it that are odd. For example, characters share a special ability pool (LP) instead of having their own points to spend on special moves or magic. This seems to fluctuate based on who is in your party and how magically gifted they are. There may also be some "Chrono Trigger" influence? Maybe? Possibly? I mean, you've got a party of three that trails you and can join up with you to attack a single target. It feels familiar for a reason.

Also, it's one of those RPGs where you can't trade the main character out of the party. And, if he dies, it's an instant game over. Yep. Like, there's an implied plot reason for why this could be so, but damned if it isn't irritating as hell.

Some of the mechanic focus is strange to me as well. Like, there are several levels of curses (think poison/sleep/confusion/reward penalties), and some of these curses can be stacked multiple times to have more severe effects. Meanwhile, the elemental system is just a triangle. It is also a strange triangle if you think too long about it. It's better just to think blue > red, yellow > blue, red > yellow instead of wondering how exactly fire defeats lightning and how ice works almost opposite to every other RPG on the planet. It also has a distribution issue both within your party and the monster populace at large. Like, you only get one fire elemental guy. But, to compensate for this, most of your cast will learn spells to cover the elements that they aren't. And then, it seems like there's not the most even balance of enemies out there, anyway? Like, it seemed mostly blue/red early on, with yellow appearing towards the end to be a pain in the ass. I don't know. It was weird. Like, "Fire Emblem" handing you so many sword dudes when there are so few axes to grind and more spears to dodge. It could be personal bias, but you know that feeling, right? Not as rough as taking a fire starter in Pokémon, but maybe taking a water starter.

Pacing is also a weird issue in this game. Like, there are some dungeons where you step one foot into and can win instantly, and others that require grinding for 10 levels. Your party member pool is strapped to the same three people for almost half of the game. (Trust me when I say you want Kisling out ASAP. Dude's a creep and a dud.) Hell, in trying to get my party evened out to level 60 for use in the final dungeon, I accidentally ended up gaining, like, 37 levels for the main character. Also, Chapters 4 and 5 seem to be significantly bloated, with a great deal of fighting taking place in or around the second town. It's like, blink and Chapters 1 and 6 are gone. Very odd.

So, okay. I've got a few creative differences with the dev team. What I really don't get is how the loading issues, audio volume multiplier, and save erasing bug made it into the wild. Like, I know. Novice game made by inexperienced team on new hardware. But, c'mon. Sony had a QA team on this. They had to pick this up.

What's frustrating about these items is that I could see both how to fix them and how they just weren't fixed. Like…

The game loads fine when it's one large horizontal map. The loading issues come into play with more multi-roomed environments like homes, dungeons, and towns. Other games work around this by having multiple chunks on one map, then teleporting the player around as they enter and exit spaces. Or, hell, implement a visibility flag and turn that on/off as needed. Could the maps not be congealed, for some reason? Couldn't someone at least give the player a loading screen so I’m not sitting there wondering if my PlayStation 2 is having optical drive issues?

The audio volume multiplier is a weird event where a single sound is being played many times, usually when multiple of the same attacks or spells land at once. All that requires to fix, theoretically, would be implementing a volume maximum to not be played over, then making that volume be whatever the default value for the base sound is.

I saw the save erasing bug happen a whopping 3 times over 40 hours of gameplay, and I had been rotating my saves like a good girl. So, it wasn't something I couldn't recover from. But, holy shit. No. Absolutely not. That could have been real bad. Like, I can only guess what's happening here, but it seems like a file is being purposefully deleted before some new file is written in its place (as opposed to some file updating process) and that the writing process subsequently screws up. This would prevent bad progress flags from being recorded, I suppose, but the opposing situation of losing an entire damn file isn't pleasant, either.

Considering how much dicking around the publishers asked for in getting this game on the PlayStation 2, I'm going to assume that they're also to blame for these issues getting out. As in, "Well, we've got to ship this by October!" and wham! Bugs pressed.

Even with all of the quirks to the game, it's not the hardest RPG to get through. About the roughest time I had was with Big Bull, and the troubles there involved dealing with Ari dying in two hits and Kisling just generally being unhelpful. Honestly, most of the problems in the game can be solved by ganging up on weak enemies and having a dedicated healing item spammer. (Healing items are super cheap, so might as well cram as many as you can in your pockets!) The rest is just talking to as many people as you can and reading as many signs as possible.

Also, here. Just take this video guide on gear locations. Life is short; don't trouble yourself with something as silly as gear hunting blindly. (At least it's not as silly of a side quest as dodging lightning 100 times or learning a new sport!)

I feel a little bad for coming down on "Okage" as hard as I did at the end. It's funny, thought provoking, and respectful of the player's time. For as fresh and different as it is, I'd play this over several contemporary members of its library. But, for some of its quirks, it does require a little patience. You've just got to know whether or not you've got that on hand.

Frankly, for its price, "Okage: Shadow King" is quite the bargain, too. Hell, it's even available on the PlayStation store! Can't argue with the fair distribution it has in a modern market.

And, hey! Now I know more about JG's icon! So, it's always nice to have some additional context, especially when characters and stories are important to your friends. But, I do have to wonder how Rosalyn won over Stan for that place of honor. I mean, other than by being classified as a hero.

Then again, it might be a little disturbing being followed by something like this online.

#post game evaluation #okage: shadow king #okage shadow king #minor ending jumpscare?

9 notes · View notes

canmom · 1 year

Text

Animation Night 152: Shinji Aramaki

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Animation Night! Tonight I'm running late as ever, but I have a curiosity to present to you!

CG in anime is generally speaking a dirty word. Something to be tolerated, or begrudgingly acknowledge it wasn't bad. Exceptional studios such as Orange (of Houseki no Kuni [AN97], Beastars and most recently Trigun Stampede) may escape the stigma by cleverly integrating 2D layouts, but they're surrounded by a wasteland of CG (often on Netflix) that is mechanical, awkward and just unappealing.

The style of CG in anime also tends to be designed towards imitating, or integrating with, traditional animation. Cel-shading is the order of the day, established all the way back in GitS:SAC with its tachikomas and helicopters. And generally speaking, that's a good approach! When it's not followed, as in the case of Psycho-Pass season 3, the results often look very jarring.

But there are exceptions to every rule!

We covered one of them back on Animation Night 85, with the bizarre Square-Enix project Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, which tried to apply the then-very new technique of motion capture to create something like a movie-length videogame cutscene. And this is the start of another strain of Japanese animation (perhaps not anime! depending on whether you define anime in a geographical or technical way) - the feature-length CG animated film.

Let's start with Shinji Aramaki, who has spent decades trying to bring anime fans around to the idea of CGI. Aramaki got his start back in the 80s, doing mechanical design on OVAs like Megazone 23 and Bubblegum Crisis. He debuted as a director with Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (1987), and in 1989, he became the third director of the constantly-reinventing-itself Megazone 23, following on from Ishiguro and Hirano (AN103) on Part I, and Itano and Umetsu on Part II. So, an old hand at the past way of doing things.

In the 2000s, Aramaki returned to direction jumped on CGI, directing early CG animated films such as Appleseed (2004) in cel-shaded style, following Gainax in adapting the dense Masamune Shirow manga, and its sequel Appleseed Ex Machina in 2007 which started moving the stylisation away from cel-shading. In this time, full-CG movies were still very new; Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children dropped only in 2005. Aramaki continued to drill into full-CG with a mecha series Viper's Creed and a Starship Troopers sequel film. From that you can probably get a sense of his taste: he likes mecha!

The results received mixed reviews, as often about the technology as the movies themselves. The first Appleseed inspired Toshio Suzkui of Studio Ghibli to declare it would revolutionise animation, which doesn't seem to have been entirely borne out.

Still, when Toei decided to do a new CG adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's renowned Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Animation Night 146), famously first taken on by Rintaro, I suppose Aramaki must have seemed a natural choice. If Appleseed had been made on the cheap, Harlock was the opposite, costing 3 billion yen as the most expensive Japanese CG film (and maybe animated film?) evaaaa, surpassing CG-heavy megaprojects like Eva 3.0+1.0, Otomo's Steamboy and In This Corner of the World. Toei clearly had big ambitions for the return of Harlock.

So. The style of this Harlock resembles more closely videogame cutscenes, or the films of Square Enix's Visual Works, than Aramaki's past films: realistic materials and lighting, only mildly stylised character designs. In contrast to the 'aliens everywhere' maximalism of the original Leijiverse, this film puts a more antiheroic Harlock in conflict with a human government, in the context of space colonists attempting to resettle Earth and fighting a big old war over it. Which isn't to say there's a shortage of alien superweapons, dark matter, and plans to reset the entire universe. It sounds pretty wild.

Following Harlock, Aramaki would continue to direct CG, including a cool take on an Eva launching for a short film for the Animator Expo, and then perhaps his most infamous creation: a sequel to GitS SAC, in SAC 2045, which brought in a plasticy CG style in place of the beloved traditional animation that proved... divisive at best. But this didn't stop him; his most recent work is a Blade Runner TV series, titled Black Lotus.

Alongside that, he continued to work on adapting Appleseed, rebooting the story yet again with Appleseed α in 2014 with CG studio Sola Digital Arts - indeed, Sola is pretty much Aramaki's studio, with almost all of their works directed by him.

Shirow's series, a predecessor to Ghost in the Shell, deserves a better introduction than I can write tonight - but it's the territory you'd expect: post-apocalyptic cyborgs in a bleak world. Far more than the others, α - which is something of a prequel, telling how the main characters came to the city where the story is set - was highly praised for its exceptionally detailed animation and mocap, though not so much its plot.

I admit, I'm taking a big chance on both these films. Neither managed to make much impact on release, but I'm definitely curious to see this anime that isn't 'anime'. (My original plan was to make this a story about a specific CG studio, but I decided it would be better to put the Final Fantasy films side by side on a night when I can write a proper history of FinFan!)

Animation Night 152 is going live now at twitch.tv/canmom. I'd love to see you there!

#animation night

19 notes · View notes

hopeymchope · 1 year

Note

I posit the theory that PMMM and Danganronpa are two very similar works that are both products of their time. In many ways, they compliment each other.

Characters with distinct personalties

Deconstruction of various character tropes

Marketed itself one way, only to pull the rug out and become darker

Tons of sequels and spinoffs that get even darker and more divisive

Focus on hope vs despair (with hope winning after great sacrifice)

The first death is well known, even outside the fandom

Release around the same time

Now I'm no expert on Japanese politics and finances, but I do know that there was a global recession in the late 2000s-early 2010s. Japan was also rocked by a major tsunami in 2011.

What I'm saying is there's a reason they gave Madoka and Chiaki the same VA in English

I'm a hugely devoted fan of both. And honestly, so little else comes CLOSE to them for me, even though I only got into them YEARS after their initial release.

Therefore, I guess if they're "products of their time," then apparently for me, 2011 is the ideal time??? LOL! But nah, they resonate so hard even so many years after the fact. I don't think they've aged all that much, except for maybe (?) Fujisaki's storyline in Chapter 2 of the first one. Otherwise, it's all good. Anything else they do that's kinda sketchy is stuff that tons of anime and manga still do today all the time.

I'll disagree with/question a few other things in your list, though:

1) I'll maintain that Danganronpa characters are still some of the quirkiest and most realistically complex people I know in fiction thanks to Kodaka's "ordinary process for crafting extraordinary stories [and characters]." I don't think the PMMM characters quite get there, or at least not as quickly as the DR characters do. The ones that do reach that height of complexity often require spinoffs and deep dives in the "Magia Record" game to nail it down. So to me, the unique PMMM characters rarely stack up to the DR characters. .......... But that's just a personal taste thing, really.

2) Wait, how did Danganronpa market itself one way and then pull the rug out? By the time the game was fully in production and then released, I think it was pretty clear that it wasn't gonna be like "Distrust" anymore. But I guess it does still pull the rug a bit with that famous early death? Featuring a character that was central in the marketing, ofc. Is that what you mean?

3) Given how long the lead time is on producing a visual novel AND an all-original anime, I don't think the tsunami could've played a factor in the start of these franchises. Maybe some other stuff could've, however... but it's harder to pinpoint major events with national impact when you remove the tsunami from the mix. Perhaps that recession you mentioned (which is only agreed to cover 2007-2009 on a global level) informs the despair/hope dichotomy, inspiring some of the theming. That would make sense.

4) The sequels/spinoffs don't always get darker, but they certainly do get more divisive all the time. I guess that's common with most franchises; people always start to splinter off with sequels. I feel like DR2 went down pretty smooth for everyone, but things got more divisive from there for sure. (And hey, DR2 isn't as dark as DR1 either!) On the flip side, "Rebellion" is definitely something that comes off divisive AND darker than the original PMMM series, so it's kinda the opposite case of the first follow-up to DR1. However, some of the PMMM spinoff manga definitely go lighter in tone overall, even among those that AREN'T strictly comedic (Homura's Revenge and Kazuki Magica jump to mind).

#asks #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm #danganronpa #dr1

6 notes · View notes

theconstitutionisgayculture · 1 year

Note

I'm going to specify my reasonings for why I think 18 should continue to be the legal age of becoming an adult anonymously cause I have a fandom blog and I choose to remain a closet conservative to keep the peace. Anyway, at 18 we're given access to pretty much everything aside from alcohol and renting a car, and perhaps a few other things. We can live on our own, vote, buy cigarettes, get a loan, apply for credit cards, etc. I would even be okay with lowering the legal drinking age to 18. I think the biggest thing we need to do better, though, as a society, is preparing teens for adult life, helping them to develop skills that are required in adulthood. I know it's a big thing right now for people to bring up the fact that our brains aren't completely mature until we reach 25, but I don't see how we could realistically change the legal age of an adult. What exactly would that look like? Would they have to live at home with their parents until they reach that age? What kinds of jobs would they be allowed to have? Would they be allowed to go to college or would we add more years of high school education?

Anyway, at 18 we're given access to pretty much everything aside from alcohol and renting a car, and perhaps a few other things.

That's literally my point though. If 18 year olds can't be trusted with being a full adult, why do we let them become partial adults? Why can someone vote and serve in the military, but not buy alcohol? And it's even worse these days when adolescence has been extended so far into people's 20s. In a perfect world, the legal age of adulthood, or at least to vote, would be at least 26. But 21 is a decent compromise. It recognizes that 18 year olds are still not ready to take on adult responsibilities, but it sets a reasonable age of adulthood that's already used for other things like buying alcohol.

Would they have to live at home with their parents until they reach that age?

Yes. And considering the growing trend of people living with their parents well into their 20s anyway, this is gonna happen no matter what the legal age of adulthood is.

What kinds of jobs would they be allowed to have?

The same jobs we let under 18s have now. Which are mostly the same jobs 21 year olds fresh out of college with useless degrees get anyway.

Would they be allowed to go to college or would we add more years of high school education?

Of course they'd be allowed to go to college. In most colleges, you need to be 17, which is already a year younger than the national age of adulthood. But even that isn't absolute, since kids who skip grades and homeschooled students can be accepted earlier. What colleges look for are SAT or ACT test scores, along with racial and gender demographics because they're just like that. Age isn't really considered.

The use of "we" when you're talking about 18 year olds makes me think you're either that age, or very close, so I'm sure that's a large part of the reason why you're against raising the age of adulthood. And trust me, I get it. If I was under 21 and people started talking about raising the legal age I'd be pissed too. I thought 18 was too old, since I was smart enough at 16 to know things adults didn't seem to get. I had my opinions and I knew they were right.

And then I got older and realized I was wrong about at least half of what I thought were rock solid facts. I didn't have the life experience, or the fully mature brain, to handle life the way an adult needs to. And most people my age didn't either. And that was in the early 2000s. These days it's so much worse. The amount of young people who think they know everything but actually know nothing is disturbingly high, especially considering how easy it is to access information these days.

As for how to implement it? You just do it. Maybe a grace period gets put in place. Say, anyone 18-20 when the law gets passed is grandfathered into legal adulthood, but for everyone else it's now 21. There will be an adjustment period, definitely. But that's what happens when you change anything, and if that's enough to halt change then we might as well just accept everything as it is and never try to improve anything. And I know how much that'll suck too, because when I was going through school I was always in the first year they were implementing new state standards and tests and a lot of teachers didn't know how to teach to those standards yet, so I was always getting stuck in the experimental year. And it was shitty. But I got through it, and so can kids now.

5 notes · View notes

spicebiter · 2 years

Text

Well I've finished reading Gantz and there's A Lot to say about it, tbh. I have, overall, very mixed feelings about the series.

On one hand, sexual violence and general sexualization of characters both human and alien (the latter I was not expecting but WOW did the man invent ways to sexually assault shapeshifting entities) is not really high on my list of 'things I hope to see', but I have to begrudgingly admit that as far as the actions of characters in the story go I don't find that this was out of place. It's definitely a lot to take in and isn't always something you expect to happen, but I wouldn't necessarily call their inclusion or depiction gratuitous. Depressingly realistic, perhaps? The pinups at the beginning of most chapters, though, that I don't fuck with. They are neither tasteful or necessary and quite frankly there's simply not enough screen time for the women to justify it- especially early on, when most of the pinups occur.

On the other hand, god damn does this series go hard. Right from the beginning you have a really cool sci-fi horror feel, and tbh for the longest time I was mostly just reading because the art and concepts behind the sci-fi gear and alien design was so cool. From the start Gantz's strong point lies in its consistency juxtaposing the most high tech and unrealistic future gear with the mundanity of modern Earth. Despite killing aliens on the reg and using guns that seem to emit a fucking One Punch Man level hit, the main character of phase one is concerned with getting a girlfriend and losing his virginity, with other characters dealing with their own everyday lives throughout the series.

While the series lacks severely in its pacing, feeling like it drags on in the in-world sense of time while also having SO fucking much happening, I do have to appreciate the underlying sense of build up to the story and the stakes behind it. In the beginning you have a bunch of people who don't know what the hell they're doing and are less concerned with the implications behind their role as alien hunters conscripted by a black sphere than they are with their personal lives, but by the end the fate of humanity as a whole is at stake and the main character, a character I all but loathed in his immaturity and arrogance, is now a character I can actually root for and feel how far he's come. Additionally, the main characters are not the only focus and you see a decent amount of character work done on tertiary characters and their growth/backstories. Even by the beginning of the third and final phase of the series- almost 100 chapters from the end- I found myself fully invested in seeing where multiple characters ended up.

Now, a slew of things that Suck. Spoilers ahead, but nothing that major, honestly. There's a whole leg of the story that splits focus between the alien fighting and... god it just sucks i barely even want to think about it... a cult of vampires trying to kill the alien hunters. This comes completely out of left field with no build up, and no real conclusion, either, as the last (?) of the vampires kinda just disappear 80 or so chapters from the end and show up for a singular panel where they muse over the possible end of the world and that's it! Their reasons behind killing the alien hunters is mentioned briefly as saying they're 'enemies' but with no real evidence to back that up since the vampires attack first and the alien hunters never retaliate out of more than self defense. The entire storyline of these vampires is completely dropped for the final phase of the series and while I was glad to not have to see any more of it I also have to just not know what the fuck that whole thing was about and why it was even a part of the story other than it just Could Be.

While it's not surprising for a manga written by a guy in the early 2000s, I still want to mention that this series is not kind to its female characters. For some, they have agency and character and some interesting moments. But especially in the first 150~ chapters, most women are disposable and/or used to show that certain male characters are garbage rapists. All of them have more interest in the male characters (primarily the primary protagonist Kurono Kei) than literally anything else, including a 23 year old woman with a child who meets the secondary protagonist, a 17 year old high schooler, and within a night decides she's in love with him and that he and his brother should live with her. For all its world building and sci-fi coolness, it can't make up for the less than stellar writing. Sad!

The series concludes quietly. While this is, in some ways, akin to the end of something like Titan A.E and you are left to ponder the possibilities of the future after so much hardship and chaos, and it can be a bit of a release as an ending because there is less to be disappointed in, it also leaves literally nothing to feel disappointment OR joy over. The climax of the series reaches its end, yes, but only for the main and secondary protagonists, really. There are so many loose threads left behind, characters I had grown attached to left unattached to any kind of ending of their own and the factions of humanity that botched the salvation of the world so handily left unaccountable (aside from the death of one small group, not enough to make up for the countless lives lost imo). In the span of less than 30 pages the fate of humanity is up in the air and then everything is over. While it's a somewhat dignified end, especially after such a long period of highs and lows and dread uncertainty, it still left a lot to be desired as far as I'm concerned.

This is not a series I could easily classify as good or bad. There's a lot I enjoyed endlessly about it, and the last third of it was some of the most intense and exciting manga I've ever read. But I also spent so much time thinking 'wow this is really really bad' that it's honestly surprising that I even made it to the end. Every time I thought about giving up, a chapter cliffhanger or thread of plot would pull me back in. It's like a train wreck, but if somehow all the train cars performed a respectable rendition of the Swan Lake ballet before the whole thing ended in a massive fireball. If you like sci-fi horror and don't mind a mind boggling amount nudity and blood and the idiocy of teenagers, Gantz might be just what you need in your life.

#gantz #media talk #spiced

3 notes · View notes

shinobiguide · 2 years

Text

Kishimoto NYCC Interview

(Archive)

Part 1 – ANN's exclusive 1:1 conversation with Masashi Kishimoto and his editor, Jo Otsuki

Part 2 – The "An Evening With Masashi Kishimoto" event at New York Comic-Con on Thursday afternoon, which attracted a standing-room only crowd of over 2000 fans.

Part 1

I know this is your first trip to an overseas comics event -- How did it feel to get a taste of your overseas fans' enthusiasm for your work at the Apple Store yesterday, and so far today at New York Comic-Con?

Masashi Kishimoto: It was a very mystical experience, a very interesting experience!

I know you must know that Naruto is very popular all over the world – but as I listened to you talk at the Apple Store last night, I got the sense that this didn't really feel real to you. What do you think now that you've met some of your fans?

Of course, I have been told that it's popular overseas, but it really hasn't felt real to me until now. Even now, it's still hasn't quite hit me yet. I feel like even the people telling me that there's this many people wanting to see me, I feel like it might've been a setup?

(laughs) What do you mean by that?

Kind of like when there's a studio audience when you're filming a sitcom?

You mean like a fake audience?

A planted audience, yes.

Oh my goodness! (laughs) When I told people that I would be doing this interview, I got so many comments like, "I'm so jealous that you get to even be in the same atmosphere as Kishimoto-sensei!"

I really don't feel like it's sunk in yet, even now.

Wow. Well, you'll definitely get a taste of it today at your afternoon event today at NYCC! So I wanted to follow up with some of the things you said about your artistic influences from your chat at the Apple Store last night. You especially mentioned Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, and Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura. What do you take from their work? What do you love about their work?

I would say I've probably picked up a little bit from each of them, and perhaps a little bit different thing from each of them. For example, with Dragon Ball, I was reading that when I was in grade school. What Dragon Ball taught me is what was fun about manga, what makes a fun story in manga. In fact, I was reading it as it was coming out in weekly installments in Weekly Shonen Jump, so it really taught me what entertainment is and how to keep an audience captivated—and of course the art influenced me as well.

What did you learn from reading Hiroaki Samura-sensei's work?

I think Samura-sensei really taught me about the craft of manga making, in terms of what's cool. Especially in terms of splash scenes, he really taught me the importance of splash scenes. In his splash page scenes, a lot of times he doesn't focus on the faces of the characters – he usually focuses on their hands. He taught me how one can focus on the hands and how important expressions using just hands can be.

Oh, that's fascinating. This also brings up an interesting question about the world of Naruto -- Blade of the Immortal is a very traditional Japanese samurai story, while your ninja world is very fantastical. How did you come up with that?

So of course, a realistic ninja is someone who wears all black with only the eyes visible, kind of lurks in the shadows, and they are assassins. That's cool in its own way, but it's not necessarily appropriate or really makes up for a shonen manga series. That kind of story, it would be a different genre. So I was thinking about what would be appropriate for not only a shonen manga series, but a Jump shonen manga series. I figured I wanted to take a polar opposite approach, and portray this character who wears orange.

(laughs) Yeah! I was gonna say that Naruto's bright orange outfit isn't very stealthy for a ninja assassin!

It's an orange jumpsuit, and Naruto goes 'Hey, I'm here!' Which is totally opposite of how a ninja should behave! It's a paradox. But I figured, 'Why not make this another type of real ninja?' Of course, I had some hardcore ninja fans who were like, 'Dude, get lost.' (laughs) They were really upset because this is not how ninjas are supposed to be!

Another thing that's interesting about Naruto's world is that there's technology, like ways to view videos, communicate over long distances – it's definitely not something that exists in traditional samurai-era Japan, but it's not a typical 'modern' Japan either. What definitely does NOT exist in Naruto's world?

It would actually take too long to really go nitty-gritty into details, but for example: one of the things I focused on was that anything that's NOT possible to recreate, or to do, using ninjustu, ninja skills, I would not develop for Naruto's world. So no cars. Because they have shuriken, the throwing stars, there's no guns either. So there were certain things I had clearly in my head that I didn't want to have available in their worldview.

Mari Morimoto (translator): So I brought up the fact that in the Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring sequel story, there's that one line when Naruto complains about how Sasuke's so analog, and Shikamaru's says, "Oh, but he goes to areas where you can't charge anything."

I asked Kishimoto-sensei about that and he said, 'Well, you know, I wanted to show that time had passed. So some things may have developed in the intervening time between the last chapter of Naruto and fifteen years later when the Seventh Hokage story happens. Also, there's the fact that the story is set during a time of peace, so there's now more money available, because the funds that were being pushed into the war can now be used for things like developing technology.

So another thing that struck me about your conversation with Chris Butcher last night was when you mentioned that you made several tries to create a hit shonen manga series until you created Naruto. What kept you going during what sounds like a discouraging time in your career?

I don't know if I ever really got THAT discouraged or depressed during that time! (laughs) I always had the thought in the back of my head, 'Eh, so they rejected me this time, I know I'm going to be a mangaka someday. That's all right, I'm just going to move on.' Partly because I thought that was the only thing I had to market myself. Maybe that makes me a little naïve or stupid. (laughs)

Mari Morimoto:

I told him, 'That's very Naruto-like attitude!'

(laughs) That's true! So most of the story in Naruto is told from Naruto's point of view, with him as the central character. However, there's a lot of different and interesting characters in Naruto! It made me wonder, would Naruto be a completely different story if it was told from another character's point of view? If you could tell the story from another perspective, ala Rashomon, which character would you choose to tell a different version of the Naruto story from their point of view?

I suppose one possibility would be to write the story from Sasuke's perspective, or even the mentors, the teachers, especially like Jiraiya, because there's a generational difference there too.

How would the story be different if you told it from these characters' point of view?

This actually just came to me but, for example, if I were to draw the story from Jiraiya's viewpoint, from what we've already seen of Jiraya he's very… not so much arrogant, but overconfident, blusterous, and very, very skilled. But there was a time when he was still young, when he didn't really know much and he was kind of dumb too. So it'd be interesting to show that contrast.

Also, Jiraiya grew up in a time when the jutsu that we know now in the current Naruto worldview had not been refined, or even developed in some cases. So I think it would be fun to show that gap. In fact, there's a very famous TV series in Japan called Oshin.

(NOTE: Oshin is a live action historical drama that aired in the early 1980's about an orphan girl who grows up as a servant in the Meiji era, and follows her rags-to-riches life from pre-WWI Japan to the 1980's.)

I'd forgotten this aspect of that show until now, but in the very beginning of Oshin, you see the woman as a very old woman, very rich, and all of a sudden it flashes back to when she was a kid and she was poor and destitute. It kind of triggers this thought in you, 'Oh, how did she get there?' That's the kind of story I think would be fun to draw.

That would be interesting to read! With Naruto, you've created a very rich universe with many characters, and you just did a Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring side story, the Boruto movie, which you wrote the screenplay for, and there's also the Kakashi Hiden side-story novel that Viz Media is also publishing. That's a lot to enjoy, but are these sequel stories the last of your Naruto stories, or do you think there's more stories left to tell? Or after 15 years, are you just DONE with Naruto? (laughs)

There are infinite possibilities right now. If I decide that I want to do more Naruto stories, perhaps I will, perhaps I won't. That said, there is nothing firmly in the works at this time. Just that there is always the possibility…

I see! So I guess Naruto fans can keep their hopes alive to see more someday, maybe. As I mentioned, Naruto has many, many wonderful characters. But were there characters in Naruto that surprised you that were very popular with fans?

Rock Lee.

Ah, right! So did you decide to include Rock Lee in the story more because he became so popular?

No necessarily. It's just what I heard. It kind of surprised me how popular he was, but it didn't necessarily lead to more plotlines with him in it, or anything like that. That's not to say that I didn't consider writing him in more or creating more stories about him, but the timing was never right, so I never had the opportunity.

Speaking of new characters, I also noticed as the story evolved, there were more multi-cultural characters introduced to the story, like Killer Bee. Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to do that?

When I started expanding on the world, especially through introducing other ninja villages, the very nature of doing that kind of forced me to widen the perspective. I wouldn't say it was necessarily a deliberate decision, but I was definitely conscious of the fact that if I wanted to have my Naruto world reflect actual society more, then it might be easier for fans to accept, to see, other cultures or races as well. So while it wasn't necessarily an outright deliberate decision, I think I was conscious of the fact that I wanted Naruto's world to reflect, at least a little bit, the world at large.

As these characters appeared in Naruto, I noticed that lot of black and Latino cosplayers were very excited to see these characters, to have characters that they could dress up as that they could relate to.

(big smile) That makes me happy to hear that as well!

Did you expect such a divided reaction (in the U.S. at least) when you revealed whom Naruto marries in the future?

I actually didn't realize I caused such controversy.

Really? You had no idea?

Mari Morimoto:

So the fans wanted Naruto to get together with Sakura?

Well, there's definitely camps of fans who felt that way, and there were also those that were very happy he ended up with Hinata. But there were quite passionate opinions on both sides!

I almost caused a rift in my own household too, because my wife was very upset also that Naruto didn't get together with Sakura. In fact, she complained quite vehemently to me!

Jo Otsuki:

Quite few of the female staff at Studio Pierrot that produces the anime, apparently were also upset.

Whoah. So how did you handle that, especially with your wife?

I tried to defuse the situation by assuring my wife that SHE was actually the model for Hinata. (laughs)

As you were saying that, I thought, I wonder if your family life was more like Hinata and Naruto's family or Sasuke and Sakura's? (everyone laughs)

Masashi Kishiimoto: Well… it might not actually be like either. My wife is quite strong as well, she's a strong character.

Oh, so kind of like Sakura!

So I think my wife might secretly realize that Hinata wasn't really the model for her… (laughs)

Did you decide this early on, that Hinata and Naruto would get together in the end, or when…?

From the middle, actually.

From the middle of the story? Hm! What sealed this decision for you?

I think what made me realize it was partly because, if you really look back and think about it, Hinata always supported and acknowledged Naruto, even before Master Iruka. She had the ability to see beyond his reputation and see the true person inside. I think I started realizing that they were meant to be.

Aw, that's nice. So you obviously care a lot about these characters and this story. It took up over 15 years of your life! Was it difficult to decide to end Naruto?

It was kind of decided—not necessarily early on, but I knew that it was going to be concluded soon. So it's not like that decision was unexpected. However, it took a while to smooth out the story to let it conclude the way that I want it to.

It was a slightly bumpy road, mainly because I wanted one of the themes of the end to be Naruto forgiving Sasuke. I wanted to make sure the intervening story lead naturally to that in a realistic way to make it plausible. Because if one minute they're fighting and then 'Oh, I forgive you!' would be weird. So definitely there were little bumps on the way to getting there.

Deb Aoki: Can you share an example of a bump that you ran into along the way toward the ending?

It would be the Pain Arc. It was difficult, because it was the very first time Naruto truly forgives his enemy. I didn't want the conclusion of their confrontation to be in battle, but through talking, so to bring that all about was quite difficult.

So now that Naruto has ended, you've hinted in other interviews that you're considering creating a sci-fi series next. You've mentioned that you like Star Wars, but are there other sci-fi series that you like?

It's hard for me to narrow it down to one or two. I actually like quite a bit of sci-fi movies, for example, Elysium and Chappie, two films directed by South African Neill Blomkamp.

Oh, what do you like about these movies?

Just the sense of this director, Blomkamp's cinematic view. I think what I like about it is there's still elements of real society within the movie and it's kind of merged with the fantastic elements -- it's really meshed. It picks up on current issues we're facing and expands further on it.

You definitely deserve some time off after so many years of drawing a weekly manga series, but when can we expect to see your next manga series debut?

Perhaps after my children finally acknowledge what I'm doing and acknowledge me… acknowledge the work I've done!

What? Really? They don't now?

Naruto took up so much of my time that I didn't really get to spend quality time with my kids. It's only recently that they really accepted my presence. So I think I might have to wait until my children give me permission to work on my next series.

Wow. Well, that's very important too, so I totally understand. I know that fans who'll get to see you at your New York appearances are very fortunate to have this chance to be here for your first overseas trip to a comics event. That said, you have so many fans around the world who are hoping to meet you some day, see you visit their cities or countries. Because these fans would have loved to have met you but didn't have a chance to be here this weekend, do you have any messages for them?

First and foremost, I wanted to thank all my fans out there for reading Naruto and for loving Naruto so much. It really is gratifying for me too. But despite how I answered the last one, I wanted to say it might not be so long until my next series to appear as my answer implied! After I spend enough time with my kids, they might be like typical kids and say stuff like, 'Okay Dad, you can go away now.' (laughs) So you might see my next series in the not-too-distant future!

Thank you – and I hope we will see you again soon at another event in the near future!

Part 2

Mari Morimoto:

I think he wants to say a brief greeting to the fans.

Christopher Butcher:

Oh that'd be wonderful, please go ahead.

Masashi Kishimoto:

My name is Masashi Kishimoto, I am really, really, really pleased to meet you today!

(audience cheers)

Christopher Butcher:

Did you ever imagine that Naruto would go on for as long as it did? 72 volumes, that's an incredible accomplishment.

Masashi Kishimoto:

Actually, I like never imagined it. In fact, I actually thought it might get canned after the tenth week. (laughs) That's actually a regular occurrence at Jump, that if the fan reaction is not very good, episode ten, the end.

Christopher Butcher:

Luckily, we all got 72 volumes!

(audience cheers)

Christopher Butcher:

72 volumes of Naruto. Did the editors of Shonen Jump want you to keep going? Some of the Shonen Jump series go for a hundred volumes or two hundred volumes. Did the editors want you to keep going on Naruto?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I would be lying if I said there wasn't some pressure from management, the powers that be as they were, but I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted the story to come to a close, so I had to put my foot down and say, 'No, I'm sorry, this is it.'

Christopher Butcher:

In your very first English-language interview in 2006 for Shonen Jump Magazine's US edition, you said you had the ending for Naruto perfectly visualized, the layout, the text, the scenes. That was in 2006. Almost ten years later, were you able to execute the ending exactly like you imagined it would be?

Masashi Kishimoto:

Actually, it really was all in my head. I actually had envisioned that Naruto and Sasuke would make the seal of reconciliation in the valley of endings by the statues of First Hokage and Madara. I actually had visualized all that.

Christopher Butcher:

Oh, that's so cool that you had that finished at the very beginning and you were able to put it in at the very end too. That's very, very cool. I know you've been working on some of the stuff like The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (now available in digital format from VIZManga.com) You've been working on a lot of stuff, the Boruto movie, the new manga, the side stories, the novels.

It seems like now you might be winding down a little bit and talking a bit better care of yourself? Is that true, or is your workflow still like it was when you were drawing the chapters for Weekly Shonen Jump?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I would say that life got a little bit easier when I finished drawing the series. On the other hand, it might not be obvious to the fans who don't know the timeline, but as I was drawing the last chapter of Naruto, I was told that I would be working on the screenplay for the new movie, Boruto. It was the first time I actually managed to work on an entire screenplay by myself. But on the other hand, that came right after the series. So it's only very recently that I was truly able to start relaxing just a teeny bit and spending more time with my children.

(audiences awwws, cheers)

Masashi Kishimoto:

It's only after I finished the screenplay and the production on the movie started that I was actually able to take a break.

Christopher Butcher:

I actually heard you got married while you were doing Naruto, is that correct?

Masashi Kishimoto:

That's the truth.

Christopher Butcher:

I heard you were actually so busy with drawing Naruto you were never actually able to go on honeymoon, is that true?

Masashi Kishimoto:

That is also the truth.

Christopher Butcher:

So this is your first trip to America, and this is like a honeymoon with all your fans in America!

(audience cheers)

Masashi Kishimoto:

You know, I have nothing against you guys, but unfortunately there's something called 'school.' My children have to go to school, so therefore my wife had to stay behind in Japan as well. So as much as I love you all, it's not really a honeymoon. That just means I have to come back to America again some day.

Christopher Butcher:

Now, in every good shonen story, there's the hero and there's also the rival who pushed the hero to achieve greater heights.

It's very clear that your rival is Oda-sensei, creator of One Piece. Your series started within a few years of each other, you battled to be the most popular manga in Shonen Jump magazine. How does Oda-sensei feel now that his rival has stopped making his rival manga series? Has he said anything to you about it?

Masashi Kishimoto:

Yes, indeed, I would say my rival is One Piece's creator, Eiichiro Oda. Honestly, it's interesting because I was just saying that on my own in the beginning, and then finally in the back of Naruto Volume 72, Oda-sensei acknowledged the fact that he considers me his rival as well. That felt so gratifying.

Of course, both One Piece and Naruto ran together for so long and ran, even in Japan, in Shonen Jump together, that sometimes we'd meet up and be like, "I wonder how long our manga series are going to go on." And then, One Piece kept going and going. So when I finally said, 'Well, actually Naruto's going to be concluding soon," it kind of gave him the awareness, like 'Ohhh, I guess One Piece may conclude sometime in the future too. It gave him awareness of an ending.

Christopher Butcher:

Naruto has been an incredible success story in North America, in Japan, and around the world. It's not just been THE best-selling manga, which is has been, it's not just been some of the best-selling comics, it's actually THE best-selling comic series. It's been one of the best-selling BOOKS of all time, outselling every other fiction, non-fiction, everything. Naruto is a genuine phenomenon. How did you feel when you heard first heard this?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I just found that out, about it being a top-selling book, not just a comic or a manga, like just NOW. (laughs) I'm really happy, but I'm still having trouble processing it.

Christopher Butcher:

When did you first realize the impact that Naruto is having on fans around the world?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I guess I might've started realizing it when my first editor, Mr. Yahagi. At the Shueisha office in Tokyo, there's a specific department for Shonen Jump. Fan letters would be sent there. He came by and would give me a bundle of fan letters every time he'd see me. I started noticing that there were letters that I couldn't read. I'm Japanese and I only know Japanese, so any other language would look like, well, Greek to me. So that's when I started realizing, 'Wow, there are fans that don't live just in Japan!'

Christopher Butcher:

That's pretty cool. Do you ever feel like anything has surprised you about the reactions from international fans of Naruto?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I would say I think I really started to become more aware of it—I don't know about surprised, but it started sinking in more recently. I've been able to look at images or watch videos of cosplayers from all over the world. That made me realize how much passion fans have; not just how much you love Naruto, but how much passion you can express with my work.

There was a time I was really thinking about having to make heads or tails of all the foreign fan letters I'd received. I kind of gave up on that but I wanted to think that they were all positive. Especially seeing all the images of all the cosplayers out there made me truly realize what a global impact the work has had. Actually, that's something that just came to me as I looked out upon all of you.

Christopher Butcher:

Cosplay's always been such a big part of the Naruto phenomenon. Everyone's got headbands on today. I love the character designs of Naruto, they're so good. They're always fresh and you keep redesigning the characters as they get older as well.

Did you ever think about the cosplay-ability of the character designs? People love to cosplay Naruto maybe more than any other series! Did you think about that when designing your characters, that people would be wearing the character designs you create?

Masashi Kishimoto:

Actually not at all.

In fact, I actually feel like a lot of my characters might not be so easy to cosplay. In fact, to all of you out there who raised your hands saying you had headbands on, I feel really bad, because are you sure you don't have like a rash on your foreheads from wearing these headbands? I'm sorry!

Christopher Butcher:

You guys are all right with the headbands?

(audience cheers)

I'd actually like to talk a little bit more about the manga. I know you greatly admire the work of mangaka Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira, which is awesome. You also mentioned loving the work of Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, but I wonder if there's any other manga you're fond of? I've heard about maybe Hiroaki Samura-sensei or any mangaka or manga that you really like?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I have to say that I've also over the years enjoyed, and also perhaps influenced by, Osamu Tezuka-sensei's Phoenix, especially the Karma part. Then I would say Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk. And finally—there's so many—but if I had to narrow it down the other person I would mention is Naoki Urasawa's Monster as well as 20th Century Boys.

Christopher Butcher:

All very good series. One of my favorite parts of the manga is, especially in the early volumes, the notes you would do to the readers, to the readers about your life, about breaking into the manga industry. A lot of readers found them very inspirational, you really worked and tried and finally made it in.

The thing is though: you tried a lot of different manga and a lot of different age groups, things like that, but ultimately I felt that maybe Jump was the most important to you. Was it really important to make a Jump manga, to be a Jump mangaka?

Masashi Kishimoto:

Yeah, I have to say that no matter what projects, what stories, I came up with, in the end, my dream was always to be part of, or succeed, in Shonen Jump. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that when I grew up I was reading Weekly Shonen Jump during its golden age; this includes series like Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, Saint Seiya. I read these in real time, week by week, when I was growing up. I think that's why it was always like this, you know. Sometimes it felt like it was far off, but it was always a goal I wanted to achieve.

Christopher Butcher:

That era of Jump that you're talking about is largely considered to be the golden age of Jump. I read an interview between you and Oda-sensei where you both said you were both lucky to have read jump during that time.

But for fans today, especially in North America, that manga wasn't available in English. Shonen Jump started here in North America a little bit less than fifteen years ago. It included Dragon Ball for the first time serialized and Dragon Ball Z. It also included Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach; lots of long-running series that changed the face of comics, of manga, in North America. I think that maybe that era of Jump, YOUR era of Jump, would be considered a new golden age. What do you think?

Masashi Kishimoto:

You saying that resonates very happily with me, it reverberates very happily within me, even though I'm kind of embarrassed about it! I feel ashamed to say this in front of my mentors, the people that I consider the gods that came before me. Then again, they're not here in this room, so maybe I CAN say it. (laughs) Maybe it would be great to call that the golden age here for Jump.

Christopher Butcher:

Now as a special treat for everybody, Kishimoto-sensei has agreed to maybe draw for us. All right, so what are you going to draw for us today?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I guess I at least have to start with Naruto!

Christopher Butcher:

While Kishimoto-sensei is drawing here, I'm going to put Otsuki-san on the spot, he has to answer some questions. Otsuki-san, what do you think makes a hit manga?

Jo Otsuki:

Certainly an important thing is very appealing and attractive characters. But if we really knew the secrets of making hit manga, you wouldn't need us, I might not have a job! (laughs) It might not necessarily be a bad thing that we don't truly know (what makes a great manga). In fact, if any of you do know this secret, please let us know! (laughs)

Christopher Butcher:

This is for both of you: in the last chapter of Naruto, we fast forward to fifteen years later. Naruto's a dad now, he's with his son Boruto. We saw the trailer for the Boruto movie, it's crazy! There's skyscrapers in the world of Naruto now, and computers and stuff like that.

One of the things that I thought about the series is because it ended on such a peaceful note and it ended on "the end of fighting, was that great technological advancement, was perhaps possible because they had peace for so many years. Do you think peace brings about prosperity?

Masashi Kishimoto:

Yes indeed.

Christopher Butcher:

Otsuki-san, I'm actually curious because you came in towards the end of Naruto as the editor on the project. Was it intimidating to take over such a beloved series as editor?

Jo Otsuki:

At Shonen Jump, at Shueisha, we have a list of what series will be edited by which editors. When I first saw the list of series with my name on it I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe it was a typo or an April Fool's joke. (laughs) And then I looked at it again, that's actually MY name, it's actually on the same line as Naruto! Especially since this was a title that I'd seen and I'd watched and read as a kid too.

(Kishimoto completes the drawing of Naruto)

Christopher Butcher: (to Kishimoto)

Actually, other than Naruto, who is your favorite character in the series?

Masashi Kishimoto:

I'm going to go with Jiraiya.

Christopher Butcher:

That's a good answer. Me personally, I'm a fan of Rock Lee.

Masashi Kishimoto:

Maybe I should do Rock Lee instead…

Christopher Butcher:

The fans will turn on me!

(audience shouts "Jiraiya")

Masashi Kishimoto:

Okay, I haven't drawn Jiraiya for a while, so I just need to get a little reference. (checks his phone)

Christopher Butcher:

Another question for Otsuki-san while we're waiting. Naruto is a very, very unique take on shonen manga. In that series, even the worst character, no matter how bad they are, how evil they are, they get redeemed in some way. They're sympathetic, they're understandable. In some genre manga, some characters are just like bad to the bone and then they die, but everyone in Naruto gets redeemed in some way. I'm really curious about where that comes from.

Jo Otsuki:

It's kind of weird for me to answer this, it because it all comes from him. I think it's because these characters aren't just influenced by the story or do whatever they do in the story because of the story, but because when each character first appears, or even before that, sensei has very carefully laid out how he wants the character to be, what his personality traits are, what has he done, what is he about to do. He'll complete his personal history and background on each and every character, whether they be good characters or evil characters or villains. So by understanding the character, to make the character, he or she, a complete, well-rounded character, I think that's why they become relatable; because they're not just flat animations on paper.

Christopher Butcher:

I think everyone's got their own favorite character in Naruto. There's so many different characters. I feel like it's really easy to find somebody in the story who you really relate to. Otsuki-san, who do you relate to?

Jo Otsuki:

I guess Sasuke? And you Chris?

Christopher Butcher:

Oh, Rock Lee; he tries so hard. I know the last volume's only been out for a week or two, can I just get a—I was going to say show of hands, but you guys can scream—who HASN'T read the last volume of Naruto? <audience shouts> There are not that many, I'm definitely going to spoil things.

(audience screams)

So Sasuke keeps winning the character polls for most popular character. I always find it fascinating because Sasuke's got this pessimistic worldview. He thinks everything's going to fall apart unless he specifically holds it together.

Meanwhile, Naruto's like 'Nah, it's all good, it's going to be great!' But yet everyone's still like, 'No, Sasuke's got it, Sasuke knows what it's all about.' I'm curious because I think that's a pessimistic worldview. And I think Naruto's worldview is very optimistic. What do you think?

In the end, Naruto defeats Sasuke's worldview and brings Sasuke around. Do you think ultimately that by liking Sasuke you're more of a pessimistic person or more of an optimistic person? Actually I'm going to change it a little bit. I'm going to say: do you think it's easier for everybody to relate to a pessimistic character? How about that?

Jo Otsuki:

Some of it might just be even simpler than that, in the fact that Sasuke looks cool and is kind of cooler. You know, even in terms of his abilities. But whether it's Sasuke or Naruto, optimistic or pessimistic, there's everything in-between as well, they're all reflections of some personality that exists in the real world. Fiction is not reality. In reality, there's not always a happy ending, but because this is fiction I guess that's why we end up focusing more, or concentrating, highlighting more the optimistic worldview.

Christopher Butcher:

The Jump worldview of "you can do it!" That's a very thoughtful answer, thank you very much. So we've got time for a couple more questions.

(Kishimoto completes his drawing of Jiraiya)

Masashi Kishimoto:

Actually it's the first time in a while that I actually drew Jiraiya or any character from Naruto, so I did have a little bit of nostalgia, but also I have to embarrassingly admit, I don't quite remember how to draw Jiraiya! I tried to look it up but I couldn't connect to the wifi. So in fact I used the Jiraiya cosplayer in the audience as my model. So thank you, Jiraiya cosplayer, you saved me one!

Christopher Butcher:

Now as you all know, coming up this Saturday it's the Boruto movie premiere! When the original trailer was released for the Boruto movie, it had the line from you: 'This is the pinnacle of my career,' is the Boruto movie. I would love to hear from you why you think this movie, that we're all going to go see on Saturday, is the absolute pinnacle of your career.

Masashi Kishimoto:

As I briefly mentioned before, this is the first time I had actually been able to work on a screenplay from beginning to end. It's not the first Naruto screenplay I'd done, but certainly the one that I personally wrote the ENTIRE screenplay.

The story is essentially something that I wanted to draw as a manga, but didn't have the opportunity to. So I was really able to make the story and the characters everything what I wanted to see done, and then had the honor to have the anime come to life.

But it's also something that I envisioned as this is the last chapter of Naruto, the last climax scene, and so on.

Christopher Butcher:

I think we should watch the trailer for Boruto. Is that cool? All right, there we go.

(trailer plays to huge applause)

Masashi Kishimoto:

I am about to cry tears of joy.

Christopher Butcher:

Kishimoto-sensei, is there anything you'd like to say to the audience? One last remark.

Masashi Kishimoto:

I heard that there are many fans that couldn't even make it today. To hear that after seeing how many people are really here! This is just a little title that I started working on so many years ago without ever thinking about any impact that it might have, much less globally. All I can say is: to know how many of you, how many fans love my work and have followed my work, I'm just so grateful, the only thing I can really think of saying is thank you.

0 notes

freedom-of-fanfic · 7 years

Note

Just wondering if you have thoughts on why klantis can't accept if their pairing does not become canon. I mean, even with other age-appropriate pairings like Allurance and Kallura, they can't seem to accept their existence. But the mere thought that their OTP may not happen in canon seems to be an almost existential fear for them, let alone a queer ship like Sheith. They'll all turn into pumpkins if klance isn't canon! Youth and ignorance of how fandom works, perhaps?

so this pressing need for Your Ship™ to be the Canon Ship™ isn’t a new or even unusual phenomenon … but I think it’s taking on a new fever-pitch in VLD fandom due to how social justice is misused these days.

factor 1: it could be canon

As long as I’ve been in fandom, I’ve spent most of that time shipping ships (if I shipped at all) pairings that had no chance of becoming canon: i.e. slash or femslash.

there’s a weird security in that! If you’re shipping mlm/wlw in a show where they will never canonically date, much less be endgame, you don’t have to worry that they’ll have a bad breakup or - in general - much serious relationship drama. (most series that feature romance only have serious drama in the romantic relationships.) Their canon romantic pursuits make no difference because you already know your OTP was never going to be canon. and even if you could reach the creators with your feelings about a non-straight ship, slash/femslash fans were the Weird Ones back then; you didn’t talk about your ships with anyone but other transformative fandom members.

This is no longer the case. As LGBT+/queer people have gained more and more visibility, media representation has been more and more realistic to expect. Younger LGBT+/queer fandom members are especially ‘used’ to representation being a genuine possibility, and they consume media with that expectation in mind. They even boldly inform the creators that they demand representation! (we’ve come a long way from the early 2000′s.)

factor 2: the meta of vld raises hopes higher

In the case of VLD, the creators have mentioned that they want to include queer representation. Of course that’s got a lot of us looking out for when it shows up. Also, some of the executive team staffed Korra - the animated show for teens that made the queer ship canon.

According to the executive directors of Korra, Korrasami confirmation was grafted onto the end of the series partially because of the fandom. Its popularity online seems to have been the spark that led to the final handholding scene. If that isn’t motivation enough to beg and plead and bang on the door of the vld staff in hopes they will fulfill every dream of non-straight shippers, what could be?

Making sure the staff knows that klance is the best engame, of course.

factor 3: fandom is an echo chamber filled with purity/‘social justice’ culture

without getting into it at length: a lot of factors have made tumblr a dangerously toxic environment where saying something that bullies don’t like is volunteering for public verbal slaughter and holding the party line is the best way to avoid trouble. and that party line is extreme and getting more extreme because the people who dictate the social rules of tumblr are the ones who are willing to punish anyone who steps out of line (ie bullies). this has turned tumblr into an echo chamber of people repeating whatever the loudest people say and dissenting voices are more likely to catch hell than get heard.

currently the ascendant fandom voices are ones that support purity culture - that is, content needs to be free of ‘bad’ or ‘corrupting’ content to be allowed to exist - especially because kids might see it and get corrupted. therefore, all ships need to be ‘pure’ to be allowed to exist.

The other ascendant voices are exclusionist voices. the more gay/lesbian a ship is, the better it is: in fact, it makes the ship even more pure. (all other kinds of queer representation matter less.)

this is how klantis came to exist: pro-klance antis who use purity/exclusionist standards to prove that klance is the most pure ship of all - and therefore is the one most allowed to exist. everything that competes with it is problematic or not as good representation somehow.

why does this matter? because vld is a kid’s show! if klance is the most pure and the most LGBT, that means it’s the one that has to be endgame.

and they have to prove this because vld fandom is neck deep in a ship war (that klance would lose based on traditional standards. adds that extra spicy desperation flavor.)

factor 4: there can only be one

klance fans who demand klance be canon endgame are not all that different from the average ship war soldier.

the most epic ship wars are almost always sparked by one thing: sharing a popular character. Harmony vs Harry/Ginny, Zutara vs Kataang, Wincest vs Destiel, MaKorra vs Korrasami - they all have one character caught between two ships with so many fans that a few of them on both sides were bound to be pants-on-fire wankers that can’t stand people having different opinions than them and existing. sheith vs klance is the same old song (or would be if social justice wasn’t the most popular bludgeon of choice, as noted above.)

the traditional weapon of ship wars has been ‘being more canon’, so most warring is done by close canon analysis, scrutinizing the words of the creators for hints of how it ends, etc. This unto itself isn’t ship warring, but it quickly gets personal for the pants-on-fire wanker types: they accuse fans of the ‘wrong’ ship of all sorts of horrible things … even in the old days these wars could get hideous. (VLD fandom is giving the HP fandom a run for its money in terms of Real Life Consequences for ship warring, but HP was pretty intense.)

Where both ships have the possibility of being canon endgame, the ship that is chosen by the creator to be the Happily Ever After ‘wins’. and because these ships share a character, only one pairing can ‘win’ (poly isn’t a likely canon endgame for a while yet, I’m afraid). and the overwhelming intensity of ship wars can often make the participants forget that any third endgame option exists.

–

so adding up the above factors, a lot of klance fans are experiencing a range of pressures:

queer/LGBT+ representation has been hinted at by the creators & is a realistic possibility in today’s political climate

some of the creative team has a history of making ships endgame in response to fannish support

they feel that klance is the best queer representation the series could provide because it’s ‘pure’ and also very clearly mlm rep

other non-straight/otherwise progressive ships threaten klance’s position as the only ship that can be the rep the creators hinted at, and they don’t want to ‘lose’

all of this together, I think, makes some klance shippers particularly urgent that klance be the series engame - in a way that might have been less intense a decade ago.

(and honestly the fact that they feel they can influence the ending by being loud enough is the worst part. I’m worried they’ll blame themselves if klance isn’t the ending romance, or feel that the creators ended with something else only to spite them.)

#the klanti saga #vldiscourse #*chanting* SHIP WAR SHIP WAR SHIP WAR #why antis do the thing #fandom meta #i hope that the klance fans are okay no matter what

118 notes · View notes