zerochanges

[zerochanges]

My 2022 Media Binge Reviews

I find myself somewhat circling the drain during the year of 2022, I don’t want to say I was repeating the same year as 2021, but I also can’t exactly say I was doing much differently. I think both years were hard on me but in some different yet similar ways. I still work the same job I hate and my anxiety has still gotten the better of me in a lot of the same old ways, but also new exciting ways! The older I get the more it feels like essays like these always say “well blank year was a hard year” so I don’t want to say that anymore but it’s hard not to want to complain about a year’s worth of troubles all the same. 

Last year I was really able to overcome some grief in my personal life by finally taking the plunge and getting through Twin Peaks, a series that for years I wanted to finish but never got past the first season. It was incredible, and made a lasting profound impact on me. And this year honestly just saw me chasing that high in a lot of ways. I think the general theme of a lot of media I consumed was “Twin Peaks-like”. Sadly nothing seems like it will ever scratch that itch for me. I guess that just goes to show how unique and incredible Twin Peaks was—but at the very least I think some of the most fun I had this year was chasing that high all the same. 

American Psycho

This year finally saw me getting around to watching American Psycho in its entirety. Now I've seen it plenty of times on TV in bits and pieces. I’ve caught parts of it, and generally knew the whole gist of the movie, but honestly I don’t think I ever watched it from start to finish before. The internet is obsessed with this movie, the memes alone it spawned are everywhere, which honestly kind of finally got me to get around to it. 

It’s easy to see why the internet would become so enamored with a movie like this, Christian Bale gives such an incredible performance as the lead, putting so much energy and life into Patrick Bateman that almost every frame of the movie he is in feels like it should be hung up in some meme museum. I’m old enough to still remember when he was cast as Batman in the Nolan trilogy and the consensus was “how the heck can the murderer from American Psycho be one of the best superheroes ever?” It’s funny to me to see the argument flipped to “wow I can’t believe Batman was such a good murderer in this movie.”

But beyond the incredible cathartic violence, and over-the-top performances there is definitely a very scathing view of the American lifestyle and capitalist hellscape we are all trapped in nowadays that much like I mentioned in my anime list with Kaiji seems far more relevant today than ever before. 

Dune x3

This year for me was the year of the Dune. With the new movie coming out near the end of 2021 I finally got around to grabbing it on blu-ray, and while I was at it I just couldn’t resist grabbing everything else too. I got Dune opinions, and they are about as crazy as you would expect from a hipster like me. So let’s talk about the three Dunes.

Jodorowsky's Dune, this 2013 documentary is all about the failed Dune movie that never was by visionary and art film auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky may not be a household name so just to get a little preamble out of the way, the man has made some of the damn craziest films around—and his breakout 1970 ‘acid westerner’ El Topo is considered by many film historians to be one of the first Midnight Movies, starting a much believed trend for cinephiles the world over. 

Towards the end of 1974 the man attempted what was at the time thought impossible by adapting Dune into a movie and he developed a variable dream team of auteurs and creative talent to do it, which he called his ‘warriors’; many of said warriors would go on to become absolute legends of the industry while many were already legends. Jodorowsky’s Dune was the very first film that ever saw acclaimed legend H. R. Giger worked on a film for example, and beloved French artist Moebius did a ton of art designs for the project. It was truly a melting pot, almost like a mini ‘scene’ of its own that brought together an unbelievable amount of extremely talented people. It’s honestly not a stretch to say that without Jodorowsky’s failed attempt at Dune that there would be no Alien, there’d be no Star Wars, there’d be no science fiction as we know it today in American cinema. 

Jodorowsky’s vision really only ever saw the original novel as a jumping off point of inspiration, the man himself never even reading the book. What he sought to create was both incredibly dense science fiction and incredibly philosophical spiritualism. The end of his proposed Dune movie honestly gives me chills, and hell if I don’t want to steal that idea for myself. 

It’s hard to say what the finished project would have been like, Jodorowsky’s own ambitions and artistic vision is what killed the project, trying to turn it into a 10 hour epic of a movie! I often wonder why they just couldn’t make it into an animated series when that failed. I mean they had Moebius right there! But perhaps it was for the best. The failure of the movie saw incredible talent shift to the four corners of the wind and go on to create incredible work of their own in cinema. When it comes to lost or unmade media there’s a mysticism about it; “if only we could have experienced it”, and I think that’s half of what makes it so good. If it was real, who knows how good it might have been, in a way I am glad I got to be fascinated by this best movie never made.

Now let’s get to my hot take and just say it, David Lynch’s 1984 Dune is so much better than Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune. There I said it! 

Okay, please give me a minute to explain. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is by far a much better made movie that has a better reverence for the source material and overall makes for a grander and more easily digestible sci-fi film that finally accomplices the dream started in 1974 by Jodorowsky to create something great out of Dune. It’s just that it’s just another good movie. Honestly a lot of good movies already exist. So yes I think for the normal person this is the one, watch this Dune and enjoy, but for hipster’s David Lynch’s Dune is where it is at!

Lynch himself hates the movie, it crushed his spirit and the man calls it the biggest sell out of his career. Yet I think it somehow is something special. The film is easily gorgeous and out-there levels of weird which I think is important for Dune, and is something Villeneuve’s film lacks in a lot of ways. The fight scenes are satisfying and action packed in Villeneuve’s film, making for a great Hollywood movie experience … but is that Dune? Honestly I think I like Lynch's extremely awkward and poorly executed bumbling drunk sad sack fights more. Those honestly feel way more like Dune. People flying around and spin kicking hundreds of dudes in the face is great, but I’ll take two dudes awkwardly dancing around each other while big blocky Minecraft shields glow over their bodies. Now this is my Dune, baby. 

There’s something surreal in both the execution and visuals in Lynch’s take on the material that simply vibes with me more. Had the movie been cut properly by Lynch and not butchered by executives to sell the maximum amount of tickets, had it got the chance to be the longer length or two movies that Lynch wanted, I think it would be a much more beloved cult sci-fi film today. 

In conclusion, I think Dune is an awesome story and great material to really get weird with, and honestly it’s pretty cool that there’s a lot of out-there interpretations to be enjoyed today. 

One Piece

2022 saw me return to One Piece once again and picking up right where I left off after binging through Thriller Bark to Punkhazard in 2021. While I didn’t watch nearly as much as last year it almost feels like I did, as I was able to finish both Dressrosa and Zou before the year’s end. Now Dressrosa is such a dense and huge story arc that took up many months of my year. This arc being a whopping 118 episodes long is honestly just flat out ridiculous, this one story arc is longer than most anime! For those who might need a reminder, the entirety of Yu Yu Hakusho is 112 episodes long, Dressrossa is 118 and in-story the vast majority of it all takes place over a single day! 

This is by and large the most ambitious writing Oda has ever attempted by this point in One Piece and it pays off in dividends as so much truly happens and the entire series as a whole really starts to show a lot of its hand. This is what the entire post time-skip One Piece since Fishman Island has really been leading into. Luffy’s little journey from a boy with a dream is truly maturing into a fearless and brave leader able to sway incredibly powerful cohorts to stand up alongside him against an all powerful and corrupt uncaring world government that is far more preoccupied with keeping its status quo and image than the lives of those they govern. Oda is able to create a venerable army for which Luffy to one day lead on his quest to become King of the Pirates, so many interesting and just plain fun characters are able to stand up not just as new game pieces on the board to lose to show how strong the enemy is but as honest to god equals to our protagonists and are able to hold their own against the villains alongside Luffy and his crew. 

We learn more about the world and see Luffy take on easily his biggest fight yet against DoFlamingo, a character that has easily been hyped up for what, like 500 or something episodes? And just wow, what a villain, DoFlamingo is easily one of the most interesting and compelling characters in the series and just a straight up horrifying monster of a human being, if you can even call him that. Which is great because Luffy has another trick up his sleeve, Fourth Gear. I had seen it before online, being an anime fan means it’s impossible not to get One Piece spoilers but I don’t think I ever appreciated Fourth Gear until now that I’ve seen it in action. This new form is just incredible and so well made. It shows so much creativity from Oda and I love how BIG it is! Anime protagonists nowadays just keep getting hotter when they power up, even the new Dragon Ball series see Goku becoming increasingly prettier, I really missed this. Luffy gets thicc in Fourth Gear, this is what I want, go all out, just have fun being a cartoon again, let dudes have muscles on top of muscles–and no neck while you’re at it. Give these boys just ridiculous proportions, let’s make even Liefeld shiver. Bring back the beefcake.  

Luffy didn’t have all the fun either, I think Franky had one of the best fights in the whole series when he went up against Senior Pink, a bare knuckles, no hold barred, man to man slug fest that easily goes on for something like 30 episodes straight of just two manly son of bitches beating the ever loving fuck out of each other. Zoro fighting Picca sees our greatest swordsman to be taking on perhaps one of the most insane action set pieces One Piece ever had. And then there’s great moments with the new characters like Bartolomeo and Cavendish and oh yeah, did I mention Luffy’s thought to be dead brother Sabo shows up and utterly steals the show for a good portion of the arc? The appearance of Sabo in the story utterly wrecked me. I cried when Luffy was able to see him again, it was such a beautiful reunion.

Dressrosa is truly an epic as far as anime storytelling goes but Zou also somehow delivers so much too and in general that later half of Dressrosa and almost all of Zou really proves that One Piece is able to carry so much forward momentum and still be able to go places even 700 episodes in. The plot has never been more interesting, the goal has never felt more obtainable, and the fun is still there. Right now I am about a quarter of the way through Whole Cake Island and trying to finish it too before my Funimation subscription runs out. I have a month to go but I think I can make it. Wish me luck/

Orpheus (1950)

In my quest to relive the emotions Twin Peaks gave me I watched Jean Cocteau’s 1950 French film Orpheus. Now the film is a (then contemporary) modern reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern day Paris. I’ll be real with you guys, I knew jack shit about Orpheus when I watched this, to me Orpheus was just “the master of strings” in Persona 3 so even now I can’t tell you if they did a great job transposing the story to modern day, but I can say what Jean Cocteau accomplishes in this film is nothing short of stunning. The surreal atmosphere and cinematography is easily breathtaking while the plot balances both being playful and light while also dealing with dense topics like love and suicide. 

It’s easy to see why Jean Cocteau is a legendary film creator and why David Lynch considers this film such an inspiration to him. A lot of visuals very much so look like prototypes of what he would later go on to do in Twin Peaks specifically, even down to the iconic Black Lodge. But this isn’t just some Twin Peaks prototype, it’s definitely a damn fine masterclass piece of cinema, definitely worth a watch for its own merits. I would say the shot of the film that stayed with me truly throughout all year was when Orpheus and Heurtebise walk through the world of death, it is something I think about often.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

I’ve seen the original Planet of the Apes when I was a lot younger, and pretty much that was about it. Growing up the movie was parodied and paid homage to in everything from other movies and TV shows to the cartoons I saw as a kid. It’s easy to think of all those parodies and see the remake and the modern reimagined trilogy and think the original is just plain bad but no! It holds up insanely well. I was surprised to see just how good it still is. This is such an iconic science fiction classic and so much has to do with how sharp the writing is, the incredible acting of Charleston Heston, and yes, that legendary twist ending. I implore you, rewatch the first Apes film, you won’t regret it.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

I thought the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was a cute well made kid’s movie with just enough material for adults to enjoy thanks to Jim Carrey’s performance as Eggman elevating the material. But the sequel oh boy, this is legit the best video game movie I ever seen. This film captures the spirit and tone of the Sonic franchise perfectly. It’s a love letter to the entirety of Sonic the Hedgehog and just a damn fun action adventure. All the characters feel much better utilized and written, with even the human sidekicks like James Marsden’s character having a lot more to do and better material to work with. I had never seen so much reverence for classic Sega video games on the screen before outside of other video games than this movie, and it truly felt like my childhood was coming to life in ways I never imagined before. 

Sonny Boy

This year saw me finally getting around to watching Shingo Natsume’s original 2021 anime Sonny Boy. This was a critical darling of the Fall 2021 anime season when it aired but having been burned on so many “deep” anime that weren’t I was weary of it during that time—and not to mention busy and never got around to it. I heard so much praise for almost a solid year though and it seemed utterly visually and narratively interesting so I finally cracked and watched it. Glad I did, it was a rare example of something living up to its praise. 

Actually I got to be straight with you, here’s another piece of media that I honestly only watched because I desperately was begging to feel what I felt when I watched Twin Peaks last year. Sonny Boy is nowhere near that though but somehow is. It’s completely different but delivers a similarly dense and visually fascinating world. The music being done entirely by indie groups gives the entire atmosphere of the show a homemade feeling to it—the emotional core is often tinged with this sense of raw emotions that feel free from the corporate mainstream often overly produced music in most anime. Together with insanely complex visuals and free moving animation that isn’t stiff or obsessed with staying on model and we got something that just stimulates all the right sectors of my brain. And damn if I can’t stop listening to the tracks even now. 

I guess what I want to say is I came for the Twin Peaks comparisons, I stayed for the depression and how beautifully the show paints the futility of life and what death means in a meaningless world. Watch Sonny Boy, while praised during its airing the show almost seems totally forgotten about. You’ll probably have a good cry while doing so, but it will make you feel truly alive.

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

Okay, this is another example of me knowing all about this movie because of the internet. There are so many clips and memes about this movie that I have obtained endless enjoyment out of but I never actually watched the movie properly. This year I decided it was finally time and on Christmas Eve, I watched the legend, and my God: Best. Christmas. Movie. Ever. I think I found a new Christmas tradition that I am going to do every year. This movie is downright hilarious, the memes don’t even do it justice, you have to experience the whole thing in context, it’s even somehow funnier that way. In all the best ways. 

Eric Freeman’s acting is legit something I wish I could emulate. I want a whole movie or video game of just people going as hard as Eric Freeman in full earnest and not trying to ham it up. His screen presence is so funny, so magnanimous, so scene stealing, I can’t even breathe every time the camera focuses on him, I am utterly out of breath laughing every millisecond, on the floor gasping for air on the verge of death, but I can’t stop laughing. I just can’t help but love the movie even more as every minute passes. 

And the story behind how the movie was made is even fascinating. If you get the blu-ray like I had to of course go out and find a way to buy it after watching it, there’s a great documentary on how the whole thing came to be. What started as a way to just re-edit the movie Silent Night Deadly Night so they could release it again and make more money turned into a passion project by the editor now turned director Lee Harry which is why he’s credited as both the director and editor of the movie. Harry took the old footage from the movie, turned it into flashbacks and made it into a sequel by shooting new footage. They honestly took a legit and serious slasher movie and turned it into the best comedy ever made. As far as I am concerned you don’t even need to watch the original Silent Night Deadly Night, just see all of it in Part 2’s flashbacks and bask in Eric Freeman’s life changing performance. 

Stalker (1979)

Andrei Tarkovsky probably needs no introduction for film buffs but let’s just say for the uninitiated much like what I said about Alejandro Jodorowsky above this Soviet filmmaker is another auteur artist that is beloved in the world of cinema and leave it at that now because this list is already much too long as it is. Stalker is the first film of his I watched and one I wanted to see for many, many years—and one I only finally saw now because of my damn insistent pursuit of relieving the emotions Twin Peaks gave me. 

Stalker a 1979 Soviet made science fiction film based on a 1971 novel Roadside Picnic which depicts a guide or Stalker taking two individuals through an incredibly dangerous location that is closed off to the public where extraterrestrials had once landed one night and left the next known as the Zone. The story fascinates me on so many levels because of my love of sci-fi, this thought that strange alien life interacted with a place on earth and left it so tangled up, so hard to navigate that common sense need not apply, that you have to go up to go down, you have to walk backwards to get forward, that at any moment some terrible curse could afflict you, that something you did upset the order of this strange land, that expert guides exist in this shady black market underground to take people on tours through it, and many traverse this illegal Zone because of the rumors of a room within it that can grant any wish your heart desires. How can I not want to see it? This is my kind of sci-fi. What I got … was something much different.

I was expecting this sci-fi epic, instead it’s very much almost not present. It’s more about the passage of time, what it means to be alive, the place of religion in the world, the meaning of living in a meaningless world, if there is any magic left to be had in a world where we understand so much thanks to science. The Stalker and the outlawed area of the Zone almost seems like reverence for magic that used to exist, an old world point of view that can still look to the stars and see Gods instead of just clusters of hot space gas. Stalkers with their silly rules; their going backwards to go forward seem like nothing more than that silliness, something modern people don’t need to do anymore. The Stalker in the film is often undermined by his two clients who constantly push their luck and break tons of rules he tells them not to. At its core it seems like a struggle between wanting to believe there’s something special in this life, and being a skeptic. 

I wanted a sci-fi epic instead I got an artsy fartsy film that drinks way too much depresso espresso. Yet the magic of Tarkovsky’s film stays in my mind. The emotions I felt, the long shots that border on almost trolling you with boredom, they stay in your very soul. I still see the beauty of the undisturbed Zone when I close my eyes, the clearness of that water, and the magic of the bird disappearing into the dunes. The ending speech about time and what it means to all of us living from the Stalker’s wife, I hear it play back in my mind from time to time. 

This isn’t really great sci-fi, I wanted to hammer that home to anyone listening, so your expectations aren’t all wrong like mine. But this is an incredible film that uses some very light sci-fi window dressing to convey incredibly complex emotions behind living in modernity. I recommend it a lot to anyone who can handle that fact. 

El Topo, Holy Mountain, and Santa Sangre—or how I fell in love with that weird Chilean Movie Guy

Let’s get back to Alejandro Jodorowsky as he was a big figure in my 2022 media. It started with the documentary about his attempt at making a Dune movie in the 70’s but after that I had to know more about the man. This visionary auteur who took Dune and made this insanely almost religious spiritual epic in space, now this dude sounds incredible. Also holy crap it turns out David Lynch was a fan of his work too and you can easily find a lot of his work being repeated in Twin Peaks. Uh-oh, you know what that means, right? Yup, let’s keep this pursuit up, boys. 

We’re starting with the 1970 ‘acid western’ El Topo, since I still have yet to see his first film 1968’s Fando y Lis (although I do have it, I just have yet to work up the courage to play it thanks to its infamy). El Topo is easily what truly started his career on the world wide scene and not just in Mexico where he started out, it was a movie that would become insanely influential to many creative talents from the Beetles to Suda51; in fact No More Heroes is almost a complete remake/reimagining of it but anime. 

This western is no simple cowboy movie, it’s spiritual and just all out bonkers. It almost feels like two movies stitched together too. The first half sees El Topo, or “The Mole”, as this badass gunslinger taking down the four greatest gunslingers in the desert who are almost guru-like, in order to claim the title of the best gunslinger and spiritual enlightenment all so he can lay with some bodacious babe. He however fails at this and dies, only to be resurrected as some religious savior to a village of deformed people that live underground, and as a new man he tries to rescue the village and lead them to prosperity. 

This film is weird, and like yeah, bonkers. The two halves are almost completely different movies yet somehow they work really well together. I think the first half is easily the part most people really will enjoy while the second can easily lose you. All that said though this is the film that easily got me excited for more from Jodorowsky.

1973’s The Holy Mountain seemed like a slam dunk, the movie about an alchemist training a thief that broke into his Tower to be his protégé then taking on seven wisemen with him to ascend a legendary mountain to find the secret of immortality is the insane kind of bullshit I want in my veins. It’s a … that is to say it’s … the thing about The Holy Mountain is … well I hope you like drugs. So yeah, hard to believe but El Topo, the acid western, was made sober, while Jodorowsky decided to really, how do you say, “expand his mind” , on his next film and it shows because I think you need to be on drugs to fully enjoy this one.

The film has an incredible beginning and an absolutely incredible ending with an insanely good and thought provoking twist at the very end but the middle is very meandering. The scene where the Alchemist introduces his seven wisemen just goes on for like ever. They pretty much stop the plot for a solid 50 minutes just to show vignettes about each of these characters and they are all very good, and interesting, and some insanely funny, but like bruh, the movie is just dead in its tracks for at least half its runtime to introduce characters that essentially just stand in the background after their introduction and that’s it. 

As I said the ending is truly something special and that I cannot elaborate on because if it’s spoiled for you I can confirm it kind of ruins the whole movie. Yeah I knew the ending spoiler before I watched it and that just really took the wind out of my sails. I loved the beginning of the film to bits, the middle just would never end its nonstop barrage of introductions for what turn out to be NPCs, then the ending I spoiled, it was a boring experience for me. 

Don’t spoil the ending, and I promise the dragging middle will be worth it. Probably.

1989’s Santa Sangre or Holy Blood, is probably Jodorowsky’s most mainstream and easily digestible film. I’d also say maybe because it was his at the time most recent work, the film that David Lynch took the most inspiration from when he made Twin Peaks. If you watch some scenes in this one back-to-back with certain Twin Peaks scene, it’s definitely obvious what Lynch was watching at the time. Because of this I say it’s the movie of Jodorowsky I can recommend the most, it’s definitely the favorite of his I have seen so far. Hell I’d go as far as to say one of my favorite movies I ever seen.

Santa Sangre follows Fenix, a young man in a mental ward, and shows the story of his life and how he came to be in such a place. Fenix grew up in the circus, his father a womanizing drunk knife thrower and his mother a trapeze artist and also a devout Christian that runs her own crazy offshoot cult of Christ. It’s a fascinating childhood and the imagery is striking. It’s visceral and a wild ride but also something I have to tiptoe around and not explain a lot about. The movie is best experienced knowing very little about it. There’s a very apt comparison that can be made to a certain famous movie, film critics often call it “The Mexican version of [said famous movie]” and I wholly agree, but my God if you know said famous movie’s name that spoils way too much! Classic, film critics ruining film again. 

I highly recommend this one despite almost bending over backwards to deny you too many of my thoughts on it. There are so many scenes that if I close my eyes I still see. The music is fantastic, the scene where Fenix plays piano is easily a stand out moment of cinema. This is the life story of one man I think you simply must experience. 

Vinland Saga

The 2019 first season of Vinland Saga finally came out this year on special edition blu-ray and after waiting what felt like a lifetime I couldn’t be happier to begin my rewatch of the show. I know Sentai released their dubbed version of it back a year prior but I adored Vinland so much I wanted to wait for the special edition and I definitely felt it was worth the wait, as the poster proudly still is on my wall and I am never taking it down. When it comes to Vinland itself I will be brief and say it’s a fantastic anime, and one of the best the year it came out. I mainly just want to talk about this Sentai release which I found to be stellar, the special edition was of very high quality, like I said I love the cloth poster, and I very much enjoyed their dub. I thought the writing was much more naturalistic than the Netflix produced dub with better dialogue flow as well as being just dirty enough in the way Sentai usually is by sprinkling in some tasty F-bombs that most other dubbing studios would shy away from. I enjoyed how accurate it was, as an actual historian with a degree in this stuff it always drives me mad to see so much mainstream entertainment go for the bottom of the barrel easiest to understand AD over using Common Era, so I was glad Sentai used it. Also actually pronouncing the Nordic names correctly where the Netflix dub hilariously butchers all of them is a nice touch too. 

Wild Palms

Wild Palms in a 1993 mini series that followed in the wake Twin Peaks mania. It’s very obvious how much the series wants to be Twin Peaks and often shows up in a lot of comparisons to it. It never quite reaches those heights however. Twin Peaks’ own mastery of mystery and otherworldly feeling just evades this production at every step but where it succeeds is capturing the other more humble aspect that made Twin Peaks great, the soap opera-like cast. It feels very much at home with the out-there and over-the-top quirky characters and I think is one of the best productions to capture that tone of the original first two seasons of the series. It probably helps that it was a Twin Peaks inspired production that was actually made during that 90’s era where soaps were still king on TV. 

Where Wild Palms differs however is how the plot is far more science fiction based and often attempts to juggle complex conspiracies about religious and political leaders and it stumbles at times but by the end is able to actually pull off a fairly interesting story. Sadly the biggest hurdle is maybe the funniest thing. The series stars Jim Belushi and I’m sorry, he gives a great performance in a dramatic role of a father and businessman trapped in some crazy far right religious cult taking over corporate America through the mass media. 

But it’s Jim Belushi, he has such an iconic and recognizable comedic voice and presence that it can be downright hilarious in really unintentional ways. Jim Belushi’s son in the series, an evil genius child, also suffers a lot from this because … it’s a very young Ben Savage. Yes, Cory Mathews is in some Shin Megami Tensei like end of days cult in this. And you know Ben Savage does an excellent job, you can see why he would become a lead in Boy Meets World after this, even as a child he’s a great actor, but it’s Cory Mathews, in a seat of power, in a cult that is trying to take over the world. 

So yeah, the casting is kind of ironically funny today in 2023, especially for millennials, but the series does run a lot of great ideas and by the end of this short 5 episode mini series I was hooked. Some of the dream sequences are downright incredible and almost feel like they could have occurred in the Black Lodge, it’s definitely where the series cribs a lot of its ideas from Twin Peaks.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicles

If you know me personally you know I have an absolute obsession with the hit indie RPG called YIIK: A Postmodern RPG. Yes, truly a masterpiece that is beyond the understanding of a normal human being. Okay, enough snide, YIIK is a downright meme but it fascinates me endlessly. I spent so many years of my life reading about it and watching videos on it, and seeing playthroughs of it. Maybe one day I’ll actually play it … although I don’t think I’m that crazy. It’s a bad game but there’s a lot of creative ideas behind it and I want to say the creators’ commitment to their art is praise worthy, I have nothing but respect for Brain and Andrew Allanson and I mean this sincerely. They messed up, big time, but they created something with all their heart, they shouldn’t be made fun of for that. 

Andrew Allanson the writer of YIIK is a huge book nerd, and often cites Haruki Murakami novels as his big inspiration with his 1994 novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicles as the biggest. And it shows, having read it now because of my YIIK obsession yeah, so many of the best and most creative ideas I thought were in YIIK are definitely just from this novel. That isn’t meant as a insult though, if anything like me questing to see all of David Lynch’s inspirations for Twin Peaks it just shows the creative process, we are the media we consume, and in turn we take that and turn it into our own thing. 

#New Years #David Lynch #alejandro jodorowsky #silent night dealy night part 2 #sonny boy #one piece #american pyscho #Dune

[zerochanges]

2022 Favorite Video Games

Another year, another instance of me not really putting in the time I used to for this favorite hobby of mine. Yup it’s true, 2023 was once again a year I really did not play a lot of games in. I found myself fairly busy and not having as much time as I would have liked to play games. Sadly it has been really difficult for me to manage time in my adult life as of late, and often I see what free time I do have going towards other hobbies with more immediate pay off. With all that said though I really wish I could be back to gaming like I used to be when I was younger. I like to think what I did play was at least of high quality but with my taste that might not quite be true. I suppose I should let you be the judge of what I wasted my 2022 on. What I did play I wanted to talk about , so although it’s not really much, I hope it still makes for an interesting read. 

AI the Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative

The first the AI the Somnium Files was a revolutionary title, no it didn’t do anything to change the landscape of visual novels, and no the narrative wasn’t ground breaking, it was revolutionary because of one thing: Kotaro Uchikoshi finally got a game with a good goddamn budget! Woo boy, you dunno how good that felt, the man is a legend and has created some of the best visual novels in the industry but the last couple generations seemed like no matter what he just couldn’t get major backing. 

I’m really glad the first AI happened, and I generally had a lot of fun with this second entry in the series as well, but I couldn’t help but feel a lot of the magic was gone from the first game. That isn’t to say, AI Ni, as the game has been dubbed, is a worse game; just that the first AI was exciting and I didn’t know what to make of it but now I have certain expectations from a sequel and AI Ni more or less met them all just as I thought it would. The game play is a bit more polished, and some puzzles felt a little more fair this time than in the first but besides that, under the hood it’s just what you’d expect.

I definitely did enjoy a lot of the new characters introduced in AI Ni, it was a smart decision to really center about half the game on an all new cast--and I thought they were just as dynamic and interesting as the characters from the first game. It helped that their interactions with the original cast made for some material that we couldn’t have see in the first AI game too. The main premise and murder behind the game is also some grade-A fun Uchikoshi, the man is always able to write great  sci-fi goobly gunk in such a fun way that I just will always love the his work. Basically, if you liked the first AI you’ll like this one. And that’s all I have to say about AI Ni for better or for worse.

Chaos;Head: Noah

The year was 2008 and I was nearly finished with High School. I was in the peak of my youth, and at the time couldn’t be a bigger weeb if I tried. I stumbled across this one interesting anime, based on a game I never heard of. It’s a visual novel and I had only just recently got into those games because of the many excellent ones released on the Nintendo DS. I can’t wait to try this out. That anime was Chaos;Head and oh boy did it begin a new chapter of my life. 

I don’t know how to stress this enough, there was no market for this stuff back when it came out. Fan translations were incredibly slow too, and often involved having to run some Japanese's version of windows and even then only certain routes had English patches and the other parts of the game were still in Japanese and it was a mess. I can’t even fathom that I finally can own this! And that it is in English!

Chaos;Head is the original and progenitor of the science; adventure series otherwise known as that series that Steins;Gate was in. In a way it makes a lot of sense why Steins;Gate took off to such explosive levels of popularity and overshadowed this game, but that also is kind of what makes Chaos;Head special. 

It’s so much grittier and more violent, it has a lot less mainstream appeal to it than Steins;Gate with an immediately lovable and quirky cast. Instead you have an incredibly flawed protagonist like Takumi who is an insanely flawed individual that manages to grow into somebody better. He has no self esteem, agoraphobia, and chooses to run away into fantasy from anything difficult. Plus he exhibits all the toxic traits of the fandom at that time but that makes sense since he completely devotes himself to said nerd culture in his attempts at avoiding reality. He’s a difficult character but honestly one of the best examples of a flawed protagonist and unreliable narrator in video games, hands-down. 

Light Fairytale Episode 1

I ended up stumbling upon this game completely by accident. Being a love letter to the classic PSOne era JRPGs and essentially being made by one guy really endeared it to me. Episode 1 is pretty short, maybe only 2 hours or so but it’s a brisk well produced vertical slice of a realized game, and I had my fun with it. No, it’s not fantastic or anything, but it really helped to entertain me one weekend and I ended up playing it twice even, the second time with the perspective of the main heroine. There’s a lot of personality in the game and it’s obviously a passion project which really shows. Trust me, I buy Kemco RPGs I know the whole “cheap profit off nostalgia” grift better than anyone, so when true passion is there, you really have fun with the game.

Pokémon Violet

It’s really easy to dunk on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. I know I did. These games are a mess!!! What a glitchy and bug ridden, unfinished, and lacking polish game. And this is one of the most profitable and beloved IPs the world has! What even is going on?! It’s easy to feel jaded and hate the game for it. Honestly the game does nothing to win you over when you start playing it. But if you give it time, damn, they really did deliver a good game after all. I know that’s a bit shit, right? “Oh the game is bad, but if you play it enough it becomes good!” I know, I know. If anyone told me that about any old random game I wouldn’t want to bother with it and think they’re an obsessed fan that doesn’t want to admit the shortcomings of their fave series. But in Pokémon's case, it’s true! Or shit, maybe I am an obsessed fan that doesn’t want to admit the shortcomings of one of my fave series. One or the other. 

Honestly it’s a tragedy the development was so rushed and that it runs as poorly as it does with so many glitches. By the end of the game you can really see how creative and inspired GameFreak was. They begin to do stuff I always wanted to see them do in Pokémon games. The story begins to really take shape and becomes one of the best plots the series had since Sun & Moon. The game play loop becomes even more fun and rewarding, and worth all the bugs to get through for just one more minute. Just one more! I found myself utterly addicted by the closing hours of the game. It’s a shame all this great stuff is tied to such a poorly made game.

Sega Genesis Mini 2

The model of Genesis I grew up with was actually the Model 2, in fact I was so accustomed to the Model 2 I legit never saw the Model 1 Genesis in my entire life until the internet came along. It’s weird, I owned the Model 2. My best friend owned the Model 2. My cousins owned a Model 2. I just thought this was what a Sega Genesis was and that was how they all looked. I didn’t even know it was a Model 2. So naturally, another Sega Genesis Mini console after the incredibly well made first one, and it’s shaped like the Model 2? Sign me the funk up, brother!!! 

It also helps that this time around the mini console is packed full of tons of Sega CD games, something the original was lacking in. If anything you might even want to call this the ‘Sega CD Mini’ instead. The game list is pretty solid, though I am bummed about the lack of Lunar games which the Japanese version got and which we didn't. That shit is whack. Also no Snatcher is just downright infuriating, c’mon you negotiated the rights to Castlevania Bloodlines, get off your asses and go back to Konami for Snatcher, it’s only the most prized and expensive Sega CD game ever made, like you know, an easy console seller. I usually never hack my mini consoles and just keep them stock, but yeah if a hack ever comes out I’m adding Snatcher, screw it. 

Okay, enough complaining, I love this little guy, it’s a gorgeous mini console, and I know I’m going to end up playing it tons when I can. I love how well it emulates the game, the borders look snazzy on it and the selection has some truly great choices like Crusader of Centy a game I definitely need to play one day. I also appreciate the extra mile M2 went just to get this thing made and how they gave us some quality of life improvements like the ability to switch from the North American and Japanese soundtracks of Sonic CD in menu and a new easy mode for Phantasy Star II. 

Shenmue

Like I mentioned in my anime thread, the recent Shenmue anime had me replaying this game again this year and man was it a blast! I really appreciated the insane amount of details the game had and in general the less-than-stellar elements that haven’t aged well only make the game more charming–especially the voice acting. But at its core is such an engaging and ambitious title that really just screams Dreamcast. This was an era full of experimentation and doing things like no one else had. It was an era where companies threw insane money at projects that they would definitely never make it back but who cares, it was now or never. Shenmue encapsulates all of that. 

It’s at times a really dumb game with some really jank controls. But it’s also at times a game that feels alive. The sandbox world it represents is tiny, hell even its sequel makes Shenmue 1’s world feel like a joke, and today we have sandboxes the likes of which they couldn’t even dream about when this game was in development, but still somehow everything feels so alive. Interacting with the cast is so good. Learning new martial arts or just about their day, it doesn’t matter, seeing all these NPCs grow and change over time is still special, even today. There’s an insane amount of detail to everything and the amount of interaction the player can have is just stupid at times. You can open cupboards to pull out shelves to pick up an item to turn side item around to read the bottom inscription on said item. It’s a whole lot, games today don’t do that amount of detail, I really appreciate it so much today in 2022.

Who knows if Ryo’s journey will ever find its ending, the future looks just as bleak now as it did when Shenmue 2 originally flopped, but I think anyone who enjoys this era of games should definitely experience the start of this journey.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Xenoblade 3 feels like the crowning work of Monolithsoft. It is as if they perfected almost every aspect of their core identity as game developers in this one title. It’s a masterpiece and I don’t mean that lightly. The game provides easily the best combat in the entire Xenoblade series, hell maybe even all Xeno games, I am feeling just that bold. It manages to be just so incredibly fun to play and yet constantly finds ways to keep evolving, even towards the tail end of the game after 60 or 70 hours or so, the game still throws plenty of new elements and refreshes the system and how combat works. It never gets stale and on the flipside never feels overwhelming. Xenoblade 3 is the cumulation of years of work all coming together, even if that wasn’t intentionally so, as a third in a line of games, and as how well crafted as it is, it feels that way--it can’t help but to have that impact. If it weren’t for the staff working on the game being vocal that it isn’t an end to their Xeno games I could even swear this was some grand finale.

Oh and also did I mention you can combine and transform into giant robots?! Like hell yeah, what isn’t there to love about this game?! 

The game has one of the most realistic and personal feeling cast in the series. I personally related a lot to the character Taion all throughout the game, but every character manages to be fleshed out and brings an interesting perspective to what we are seeing. At times the plot can get a bit heavy, I kind of swear Tetsuya Takahashi really wanted us all to check out his pretty sweet Gundam fan fic, but this is the kind of stuff I love with these games. The return of super long and well animated cutscenes like the Xenosaga games had really surprised me as well. I know some people aren't crazy for 30 minute long cutscenes, but I dig this stuff.

Overall Xenoblade 3 is very easy for me to call my favorite game of this year. I know I didn’t play many but at least with all the hours of this game behind my belt I feel I can say I chose quality over quantity in this situation. The entire game just feels like a magnum opus for Monolithsoft and Tetsuya Takahashi. I honestly don’t know how they’ll top this one any time soon.

#new years #video games #ai the somnium files #ai the somniun files nirvana initiative #chaos;head #chaos;head noah #light fairytale #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon #pokemon violet #sega genesis #sega genesis mini #sega genesis mini 2 #shenmue #xenoblade #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade 3

[zerochanges]

2022 Favorite Anime

The year 2022 was an interesting one. I’d say it was bad but not all bad. I had a lot on my plate and once again it feels like I never have enough time to actually play or watch all the things I want to within the year. This year just like last year I am going to include stuff irregardless of when it came out, so even if it’s an anime from 2020, if I watched it in 2022 for the first time it will make this list. So without too much more pomp or circumstance let’s just get into my list of anime that I thought was worth talking about in 2022.

A Couple of Cuckoos

So I am starting off this list with yet another basic romcom, just the way I like it. Why not do something a little light and easy for the start? Yeah. A Couple of Cuckoos is more or less what you would expect out of the genre, but yeah, like I was getting at that is more or less all I really want; I’m not asking for a reinvention of the wheel for my entertainment, at least not all of it. The characters are all likable and the show is weirdly 2 cours, something not seen all that often nowadays, which gives you a lot more time with the cast. The slower pace and extra time really helps develop the protagonist’s relationship in a way that feels more believable, well as believable as getting switched at birth and ending up living with randos your whole life then getting engaged to the person your genetic family raised in order to “fix” that can be. 

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

Last year was probably one of the biggest highlights for the Boruto anime, really getting into the solid meat and potatoes of the series and covering a large arc from the manga, and this year … pretty much went the exact opposite direction—yet I loved it all the same. It was fairly obvious from the onset that the series would need another cooling off period so to say to distance itself from the monthly published manga material and give it some more time to serialize itself, so expectations for me where always set at tepid, but I genuinely enjoy the anime original content the series is largely comprised of.

This year started off on a very strong foot none-the-less as it went into a nearly 25 episode long story arc, one of the longest in the anime, that returned us to the Land of Water, something fans have wanted for years now. We got to see the return of anime favorite character Kagura, and a joint mission with Team 5, the often little utilized characters of the main cast. And then there’s the fact that Kawaki officially joined Team 7 with Boruto and crew, making this his first formal mission. Overall there was a lot of content to enjoy here, although I admit due to its length the arc drags a bit in the middle, but has a solid start and finish.

The following arc sees Kawaki take over as the central protagonist in an undercover mission to guard a noble attending the ninja academy, this was perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the anime this year for me, as it really helps shine some more light on our new deuteragonist and brought back a fun and whimsical tone. Seeing a character like Kawaki who had a very rough childhood; an alcoholic father, being human trafficked, and then experimented on, have to go to school with younger kids and try to fit in is in itself just a perfect premise for a story. It also deepens his relationship with his adopted sister Hima as she begins to attend the academy. This was honestly Boruto at its sharpest as far as anime original content goes. 

The final arc this year was a bit wacky but just so out-there that how can you not have fun with it. Boruto essentially ends up in a SAW movie and has to survive all these trials to the end. Do people know what SAW is anymore? Should I have said Naruto meets Squid Game instead? Is anyone reading this anyways? Oh well, it’s honestly a lot of fun seeing what death games would be like in the Naruto universe and the large cast created (to mostly die) for this arc have great chemistry with our boy. The staff evenly finds a great way to neatly tie this all together with the main plot of the manga. I genuinely hope we can see a return of some of these characters in future anime original content.

This new year is already starting off strong, covering a Sasuke light novel and then getting back into the next manga arc so I am still really excited to follow the series after all these years.

Call of the Night

I was a big fan of Dagashi Kashi when it originally aired back in 2016, so seeing a new manga from its creator was very exciting. In general Call of the Night is almost identical to his prior series, it carries the same incredibly relaxing and chill aura with emphasis on character interaction. This is a vibe series, largely composed of dialogue between its cast, and that isn’t a complaint, I’d say that is a real strength of Kotoyama’s making interesting dialogue that flows naturally as a pathway to seeing the very soul of his characters. 

I adore the night time only setting, being a night owl naturally myself—and the direction, animation, and general direction of the anime is incredible. This is one solid production, with easily the best soundtrack of the year. The name of the manga itself is taken from a song made by the Japanese band Creepy Nuts, which very fittingly ended up being used as the ending theme, but not only that they provide much of the music heard in the show itself, and they are all  bangers in my book.

Cardfight Vanguard will+Dress

The inaugural season of overDress was a bit of a mess back in 2021, I think I may have said as much back in my 2021 retrospectives, but I’ll repeat myself here again. It was far from bad but it was awkward; probably down to the fact that it was only 1 cour long and trying to both establish the cast, world, and relationships the series will be founded on, while also being a card battle series—and it often had to sacrifice one for the other at times. The second season or cour of overDress largely corrected that and was where the series really began to shine for me, winning me over and making me feel confident in this new single cour a season approach Vanguard is heading in now. 

The newest season of the “D Series” as it is being called now, will+Dress largely continued being a solid but a bit rushed card battle series. Covering an entire tournament arc in under 13 episodes is no tall order but they mostly succeed in what is presented here and have some genuine great battles as well as fit in just enough character development for a couple cast members that it doesn’t overwhelm us with nothing but battles. It wasn’t as strong as cour 2 of overDress but I was honestly on the edge of my seat during a lot of these fights, and Jesus Christ does the soundtrack destroy this season! 

I never seen a card battle anime go THIS HARD before, for real! I have to mention this, I have been a fan of this genre since its actual inception during the mid-90’s and not once have I ever experienced anything as incredible as the will+Dress soundtrack. It’s just that good, a new standard for card battle anime music to follow. 

Chainsaw Man

This is going to be difficult. I really don’t know what to do when it comes to accurately describing my feelings towards Chainsaw Man, if anything putting down into words all my thoughts and emotions have been part of what made me drag my feet on doing this list for so long. Chainsaw Man is a complicated show. Well really, no it isn't. But actually it is. It’s difficult. Let’s start at the very beginning since I think that would be for the best.

So for me Chainsaw Man truly began when the manga ran a chapter that featured the characters going to the movies. There they watched a bunch of crappy films all back-to-back and then finally at the end, after hours of countless garbage they see one good film. It brings tears to the protagonist’s eyes over how good the experience was. It was a fascinating and sincere commentary from an author about the movie going experience and what cinema means warts and all. Hell maybe it is even deeper and is about the experience of life itself and how you have to go through lots of bad but that there is still good. 

Either way, I knew nothing about the manga at the time when this chapter went viral on twitter. I kept seeing it, and multiple takes on it, and even read just that chapter. It made Chainsaw Man seem like something special to me. And then that’s it. Much like everything else in my life I just never got around to reading the manga proper. Had some friends that loved it, and that one chapter about going to the movies left an undeniable impact on me. But life is life and mine always sees me never getting around to things I really should.

Years later the series gets an anime and I figured “Great! This is my chance to finally get into it” and what’s more it’s being done by MAPPA? “All right, those guys kill it.” And they did. When the anime came out it was highly praised and easily one of the most talked about series I saw on twitter during that season. I finally got to experience Chainsaw Man and honestly … I just don’t know.

Let’s talk about what works. The animation is stupendous, to a stupid point. Even just characters walking are insanely good looking, the most basic stuff, the most minute little things that don’t usually matter, they are all done as well as the big important battle scenes. The English dub is top notch, maybe even the best this year. The dialogue is incredibly natural, and conversations flow just like real life. I especially appreciate the F-bombs that occur fairly often in the series but never feel gratuitous, just another part of how people naturally talk. Which really impressed me since Funimation dubs tend to be far more squeaky clean and avoid the fouler side of language. 

So what doesn’t work? It just feels kind of hollow, if that makes any sense? Maybe it’s the pacing. The beginning of the show is slow and not much happens, which I am not complaining about since we’re just learning how the world works and about these characters, but then it just kind of ends. Very abruptly. We take our sweet time, and for what? As soon as the show is getting into the swing of things it just stops. It feels hollow, almost like it was canceled. Maybe this is just the nature of the beast and how high quality productions work, we have to settle for less content that is higher quality, but another cour might have really made it feel better. When the final episode finished I just felt nothing. Just “that’s it, huh?” I wonder if there could have been a better stopping point in the manga, who knows.

I wanted a lot out of Chainsaw Man, there was tons to love, and I can’t honestly think of any other grade to give this anime than an A+, but damn dude, I just don’t know. Why do I feel so empty? Maybe I should read the manga, it might have the catharsis and energy I wanted out of the show but was denied. There’s been some controversy over this anime now that it’s over but I don’t want to contribute to it. I can’t help but feel conflicted though. Will I forever be chasing the high of that one viral chapter of the manga I saw all those years ago? Or am I overthinking it and just want more Chainsaw Man and that’s a good thing? I just don’t know anymore. 

Digimon Ghost Game

I did not grow up with Digimon. I say this because there is a very obvious difference between people that did and people that didn’t. I don’t have this irrelevant love for the original series that came before nor even really that high of an opinion on them, and honestly I like when the franchise seems to branch out and try new things—and that’s definitely where Ghost Game squarely falls. 

It’s not a perfect show by any means and it has a fair number of dud episodes that just don’t land nearly that well, but it is overall a much more interesting and easier to watch series than the last five or so years of overly indulgent nostalgia trips the series has been set on. At its strongest I almost feel like I’m watching GeGeGe no Kitaro (2018) again, and that is definitely not a compliment I give out lightly. 

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

I had a lot of reservations about this film. I wasn’t crazy about an all CGI Dragon Ball and I definitely had trust issues with this series when it comes to promises of Gohan being important. After the Buu Saga, being a fan of Gohan is endless suffering. My boy has had more false starts and character assassinations than anyone else in all of anime. He really is the character Toriyama and other Dragon Ball writers seem to struggle with the most despite him being an essential core component of Dragon Ball. When I started watching anime Gohan was who I put myself in the shoes of. He was how I related to Goku and everyone else. I just don’t really wanna see my boy done dirty yet again by another false start that goes nowhere.

Well worry no more! Because the film looks fantastic, honestly there were moments where I forgot it was even CGI at all, it was that good and captured the look of a 2D anime that well. And the plot truly lets Gohan be Gohan again. Between him and Piccolo, the two are able to carry the film. It’s a great return to form and does a lot without having to rely on Vegeta or Goku. I love the charm and humor of earlier Dragon Ball shining through again in the film too. 

More of this please. I absolutely would adore seeing these elements of Dragon world explored again.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)

The 2020 adaptation of Dai no Daibouken has been a dream come true for me. One of my all time favorite mangas, a venerable Shonen Jump classic, finally got the anime it deserved and it’s been so much fun. I can’t really comment too much more on this, Toei made an incredible, well paced, well animated, and very faithful adaptation of a wonderful manga. I felt like a kid again watching it every Friday night, and the ending is just as good as I remembered. If you missed it, Dragon Quest fan or not, I highly recommend binging the entire 100 episode series, you won’t regret it. This is one of the best that 90’s Shonen Jump has to offer, and done with the best animation today has to offer.

I’m Quitting Heroing

This was a nice little gem of a title that was exclusive to Hidive. A fun twist on the usual JRPG tropes about brave Heroes fighting Demon Kings, we have the titular Hero throwing away his duty and instead joining the demon army! The army he just crushed not too long ago. You see, after saving the human world from the Demon Army, the humans returned the favor by exiling the hero fearing him for being even stronger than the demon threat. Not taking that lying down, our hero has now changed sides.

This series has an insane amount of heart. It’s a very short story, able to be told in its entirety in its single cour season, and yet does so much with its cast. Learning the story behind the titular hero and what it means to “quit being a hero” and finding your own identity and reason to live. There’s a lot more stuff in this little simple funny twist on the usual JRPG formula than you would expect. 

Kaiji (Dub)

After 15 years the Kaiji dub is finally here! It’s really hard to believe. How did it take this long to dub such a beloved series I’ll never know?! But finally another reason to rewatch Kaiji in 2022, I’ll take it! If anything, Kaiji feels even more poignant today than it did back in 2007 after two more financial crises and who knows how many recessions have occurred. Honestly every day since the mid-twenty-teens have felt like some absurd nightmare with the rich keep consolidating power and the middle class increasingly disappearing. 

The catharsis of the scathing anti-capitalist themes in Kaiji are so needed today. Hell it’s really saying something when a scumbag like Kaiji is the most moral person in the room, money truly does something horrible to all of us. Seeing Kaiji’s moral compass time and time again come to screw him over when he could have gotten out of sticky situations if he was just as greedy and heartless as everyone else really speaks volume to me. It doesn’t help that all the gambling done in these death games are also incredibly interesting and fun to watch on their own even when you ignore the themes of the work as well. 

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer came out all the way back in 2005 and was one of the debut works of the incredibly talented and often overlooked Satoshi Mizukami. It was a fan favorite manga that sadly never got an anime nor a very widespread publication of the manga over here—with the volumes long out-of-print and often going for very high prices now. Yet somehow, for some reason, all the way in 2022, the series is getting a second chance, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer got an anime! It’s not great though.

Yeah sadly, the anime isn’t exactly worth the 17 year long wait. It’s not awful by any stretch, and condenses the material of the 10 volume long manga into a complete and full story 24 episode long anime, but I can’t help but feel it could have been better. 

Maybe I am spoiled seeing how well other anime productions have condensed materials, the 2011 Madhouse adaptation of Hunter x Hunter comes to mind, more specifically the Greed Island portion, that was a great adaptation of the material, and the recent JoJo seasons like Diamond is Unbreakable is another solid example of taking a lot of material and condensing it, 18 manga volumes in 38 episodes. Animes like these make Biscuit Hammer’s decisions and pacing feel a lot weaker to me. 

Then there’s the animation, to be blunt it ain’t very good. All this screams to me that the show had a very tight and small budget and not a lot of staff. I imagined they didn’t really go out of their way to make this series a priory. It kind of reminds me a lot of what happens to Berserk animes, but thankfully it isn’t anywhere nearly as bad as that!

So don’t get me wrong, the general spirit of a great manga is still present in this adaptation. It’s a very unique and well written battle shonen and it definitely is a good enough representation of Mizukami’s work. I’m really glad it happened and enjoyed watching it. I enjoyed reliving this wonderful series again. If you like the anime even a little I do suggest doing what you can to find the manga and see it at its best. Might be a fun read after seeing the final episode. And hey if you’re seeing this on Crunchyroll good news, CR actually has a digital version of the manga on their CR Manga reader. Yeah, remember that thing? Remember how they tried to break into manga at one point. That was a weird time. Anyways enjoy.

Macross Frontier: The False Songstress and Macross Frontier: The Wings of Farewell

I’ll show my age and say I watched fansubs of Macross Frontier all the way back when it originally aired on Japanese TV in 2012. It was an incredibly fun time to see a classic series return again and the production quality blew me away, I never seen CG used in an anime that well before, despite it being such a norm now, it was not the case in 2012, it often did not blend well with the flat 2D animation and looked awful, yet the CG dogfights in this show were incredible, almost movie quality like. Hell watching these movies in 2022 I am still impressed. And oh yeah, I watched these movies in 2022 holy shit!

For decades it seemed like the Macross franchise would be stuck in Japan only, I don’t think anyone ever saw this long feud ever coming to an end but it’s finally over. Blu-rays for Frontier, Seven, and so much more are on the horizon, and we even for the two Frontier films to show in theatres over here! Just simply wow. That alone made this special to me. 

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul (the movie) and Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun (Season 2)

The first season of Made in Abyss was a breakout hit in 2017 and it was never a question of if there would be follow up content but when as sadly the manga is published irregularly. Finally in 2020 after nearly three years fans got Dawn of the Deep Soul, a movie continuation of the first season. I didn’t watch it back then, only seeing it now in 2022. It’s great. I’ll be brief since there’s a lot to cover but it is probably my favorite story arc in MiA now, and where the series really seems to be coming into its stride, if you ask me, someone who thought Season 1 was good but not that good. I’m really glad I finally sat down and watched this in preparation to seeing Season 2.

And without further ado, let’s talk Season 2. Also great. By this point creator Tsukushi seems to have a really good command of his series and is able to do a lot more interesting things with it. The Golden City of the Scorching Sun really presents something he simply could not have done earlier on in MiA and is maybe one of the most complex and well crafted narratives I watched this year. It definitely is the most thoroughly and well written arc of the entire series so far and the longest arc in the series. 

I personally think I do prefer the more simple and fun Dawn of the Deep Soul, to me that was simply incredible and had the best fight in MiA occur, but damn if both that film and this new season didn’t impress me equally.

My Dress-Up Darling

My Dress-Up Darling is an incredibly well animated and crafted show, easily the best romance anime of 2022 by a landslide and it’s a shame that while very popular when it aired it seemed to have been forgotten about now at the end of the year. The central relationship between the two leads is just so pure and healthy. Gojo helps Marin with her cosplay hobby and is the first person to not judge her for it. And she in return is one of the few people at their school to see the positive qualities that Gojo possesses. The two are good together and it’s also just refreshing that it’s the popular girl that ends up falling for the guy for once and not the other way around. The two are great together and it’s adorable seeing their supportive side, the season even ending with Gojo staying up all night talking to Marin on the phone to help her feel better is maybe the perfect way to end a season too.

My Isekai Life

Okay I legit only watched this show because it was on Hidive. Being a smaller service they promoted it pretty hard and even gave it a dub despite it seeming like a fairly basic show. I mean dude, look at that name, it even has Isekai right in the title! Like what the heck. But despite this being a very basic and overly simple isekai series, it’s incredibly well executed. I found myself enjoying it every week. I don’t know what to say, maybe I’m a simple man, but the story was never boring and out of nowhere there were fantastic spurts of insanely high quality animation. Why? For a series like this! I don’t know, but the overall package ended up being a nice little show that always delivered every week. I even found myself looking forward to it. Sometimes good things can be something you least expect.

ODDTAXI (dub)

ODDTAXI was a sleeper hit when it first aired back last year in 2021–why it took so long for the dub to happen, who knows, but 2022 finally gave us the English version of this series and that’s what finally got me to watch it. The unique art design is easily the first thing you will notice with the anthropomorphic characters despite this being a mature murder mystery, and it goes a long way to help give this very well written series even more of its own identity. I can definitely see why it was such a well reviewed series last year when it aired and it definitely has some great ideas towards the end.

Sadly talking about it is one of those things that is hard to do, as it will lead to spoilers, but the basic premise is our protagonist Odokawa, a taxi driver, picks up various strange clients, each with their own mystery, and as we follow their cab rides we learn more about the greater murder mystery behind the series at large. I highly recommend not sleeping on this series like a lot of others might have, you are missing out on one of the best who-done-its in anime in a long time.

Shadowverse Flame

Two years back the first Shadowverse anime aired and I called it one of the best animes of the year … for all the wrong reasons! It was a legit mess with an insane plot that flew off the rails and became incredibly dark for some reason. Like the apocalypse actually happens and everyone dies in the show a la Neon Genesis Evangelion, that is something that happens in Shadowverse, don’t ask me why. Despite the apocalypse killing everyone, kids gaining psychic powers and jumping off skyscrapers and not being hurt, and also some part where the cast dimension hopes to the world of Granblue Fantasy because Cygames, I guess, the series got a sequel. And it’s … really good … for the actual right reasons!

Yeah, I never saw this coming, Shadowverse Flame is actually a really competent well made card battle series. I’d even go so far as to say maybe the best card battle anime that aired in 2022. It has none of the insane nonsense that its predecessor did, and actually took the time to explain all the core mechanics of the card game and have dynamic and really well written card battles. The overall plot is fun, basically amounting to a mysterious transfer student Light Tenryu, joining a failed Shadowverse club on the verge of disbanding and resurrecting it. Everything is … good actually. Really who saw any of this coming??? 

If you like card battle anime, definitely check out Shadowverse Flame, it won’t disappoint, and it isn’t batshit insane so that’s cool too.

Shenmue the Animation

I had zero hope for this toonami original when it was first announced. After all a ton of the appeal to Shenmue was the relaxing play at your own pace sandbox style it helped to revolutionize. I wouldn’t say it was the first sandbox title, there are a few early PSOne and PC games that are very experimental  and essentially pioneered this genre, but Shenmue was one of the first big ones, and an inescapable part of the gaming landscape when it first came out. Sure it had a story, and a good one at that too, but the game play and insane attention to detail for the world it took place in is what it is most fondly remembered for.

But despite all that this series ended up pretty solid. Damn it honestly might be the best toonami original series yet, though that’s a pretty low bar. But the series is a pretty solid adaptation of the first Shenmue game, making some very smart decisions in reordering some events and abridging others, it’s overall a solid representation of the original game with the fights fully realized in a way the Dreamcast never could. The latter half of the series that covers Shenmue 2 is sadly a bit worstly paced however and it becomes obvious that the scope of that game was too much for the anime to fully handle, but it still ends in a satisfying manner. 

Hell I had so much fun it made me finally, after nearly 3 years, crack open that Shenmue 1 and 2 remaster I bought and replay the games alongside the anime as it aired! So yes, let me tell you as someone that experienced both actively at the same time, this was a solid version of the series.

Spy x Family

The best way to summarize this anime is cute and it makes me happy. Okay that probably isn't enough, sorry. Found family narratives always get to me though and Spy x Family is one of the better ones I’ve seen in anime over the recent years. The premise of a Spy father, Assassin mother, and psychic daughter all living secret lives but together as one family increasingly presents lots of potential for stories, and it’s a rock solid production. The animation is always strong every episode and the character interactions between the central trio always present a solid through line that keeps every episode consistent and fun. Overall a great series with tons of heart and some good laughs along the way too.

Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs

First of all Mob means NPC in Japanese. I just thought you should know that, because the anime doesn’t care to tell you, even the English dub which really should have if they wanted to use that Japanese term. And yes, if you’re like me congrats now you know why Mob is called Mob in Mob Psycho 100, his nickname is essentially Mr. NPC boy. 

I dunno if I would call this show mean spirited? It’s honestly very dark comedy based, maybe even meanly so, but it’s genuinely really fun and doesn’t seem hateful so who knows! The premise of some gamer boy being reborn into an Otomoe (female demographic dating sim) game as an NPC and abusing everything he knows to live the best life is already funny enough, but add that the game is also incredible shitty with bonkers writing, inconstant characters, and takes place in some nonsensical world, and it’s even better. Then there is also someone else in the series who appears to be doing the same but inserting herself into the main story of the game, taking the place of the heroine and wooing the bachelors within it, and how that changes the world is interesting. 

Basically Leon, is a huge a-hole and hates everyone and everything in this story, but is able to still come out on top over and over again because of his gamer knowledge and it never gets old.

Urusei Yatsura (2022)

I adore Rumiko Takahashi’s work. Real hot take, I know, after all who doesn’t like the work of one of the most beloved creators in the entire manga industry? But yeah ever since I was young and just getting into anime I always found myself watching her series and reading her works. 

For some people today a lot of her stuff might seem dated, maybe too predictable, too slow paced; afterall anime today is all about very fast paced and tightly controlled productions that get to the point right away, but for me I honestly prefer taking detours. I watch Boruto guys, enough said. So you won’t be getting much plot progression out of this newest iteration of her classic Urusei Yatsura, but you will be getting an incredibly well crafted and updated adaptation of a series that helped pioneer a lot of modern tropes still used today in anime and manga.

Plus this is just such a super chill series with some good laughs. I never fall out of my seat, it isn’t that kind of comedy, but I genuinely leave each episode with a smile on my face. 

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun (Season 3)

Iruma-kun is easily one of the best long-running shonen series around today. Maybe that is an actual hot take, but I don’t care, I’ll fight you. It’s an incredible and well crafted world with very fun characters that all have great chemistry. Season 3 continues with maybe one of the longest arcs yet in the series and has been tons of fun seeing the Misfit Class take on the Harvest Festival. 

I love Iruma being paired with Lead as well in this arc, it’s a great combination of characters and not what you would expect but works so well. Honestly the two of them are kind of the most pathetic people in their class when you really think about it—and that’s why it’s fun seeing these idiots in way-over-their-heads while the rest of their class are genuinely really bad ass in this tournament arc.

I would be remiss to not mention the unfortunate and untimely passing of voice actor Billy Kametz as well, who used to play Asmodeus Alice in the series. Billy was an incredible talent and an actor I loved to listen to in anime; ever since his debut as Josuke in Diamond is Unbreakable I actively followed his roles. When he was cast as Az I thought it was perfect casting and he gave a wonderful performance in the first two seasons. It is a tragedy that he died so young and everyone that knew him seems to paint the man as a truly kind and caring individual. The current replacement for Az, Stephen Fu, is doing a fine job and gives a fairly convincing voice match to Billy, but I can only imagine it is an unenviable situation for Stephen, as he seems to increasingly be casted to fill these roles for Billy. 

Ya Boy Kongming

Ya Boy Kongming was maybe my biggest dark horse series of the year. It came out of nowhere and really wowed me. The premise of the great ancient Chinese war strategist dying and being reborn in modern times only to fall in love with pop music and using all his smarts to help promote a young hopeful singer fulfill her dreams is just so funny but played so incredibly straight and sincerely that it never feels like they are wasting your time. It’s surely a comedy, they definitely are having fun with the characters, but this is also equal parts a legitimate idol anime and a damn good one too. 

This was one of the first animes this year that really helped showcase to me Hidive’s incredible curation ability post AMC buyout. They are grabbing some incredibly high quality shows. They still can’t compete with Sony’s almost monopoly of the market, or Netflix’s raw power, but they were able to consistently pick a handful of high quality really great shows every season.

#New Years #Anime #a couple of cuckoos #boruto #boruto naruto next generations #call of the night #cardfight!! vanguard #cardfight vanguard #Vanguard #cardfight vanguard overdress #cardfight vanguard will+dress #chainsaw man #digimon ghost game #dragon ball #dragon ball super #dragon ball super super hero #gohan #piccolo #dragon quest dai no daibouken #dragon quest the adventure of dai #i'm quitting heroing #Kaiji #kaiji ultimate survivor #lucifer and the biscuit hammer #Macross #Macross Frontier #made in abyss #my dress up darling #my isekai life #odd taxi

[zerochanges]

2021 Favorite Video Games

True to form, I did not play that many games this year either. However the games that I did play all ended up being incredible experiences that left lasting impressions on me, so I like to think I somehow ended up going the quality over quantity route without even realizing it. Because of that I think I ended up with two favorite games this year instead of just a simple one favorite game of the year. I’m getting a bit tongue tied here but what I mean to say is one game I think is game of the year, another game is my favorite game I played this year (but not game of the year since it did not come out in 2021). Hope that clears it up. You’ll see more of what I mean when we get to it. 

If you are wondering why or how I didn’t talk about [your favorite game ever] I probably didn’t play it this year, is all. I have a giant pile of shame I amassed in 2021, and it haunts me. A lot of these I might have played a little but not enough to have anything to talk about, not start at all, came out around the same time as other games I wanted to play and I had to make a choice, or happened around some personal issues I went through this year. I know I talked up how much I love the Super Famicom version of Famicom Detective Club, I’m sure I’ll love the Switch remake too, but dammit all that came out the week my dog died, sorry guys, I still can’t bring myself to play it. 

For now let’s just talk about the video games I did play. 

Critters For Sale

Critters For Sale is an indie made point and click adventure game and most people will probably recognize it as that weird game from YouTube where Michael Jackson is a time traveler and has reached out to you to awaken your past memories as one too. Yes, that really happens, it’s the first of five playable episodes in this game and most likely the most known thing about it since the first episode is completely free. The rest of the game is more or less just as crazy though and features even more real world celebrities, as well as aliens, interdimensional beings, secret societies, demons, and of course the critters. 

I would describe the game as a bad trip but I feel like there is more to it than that, especially since its creator Sonoshee has indicated that this is just the beginning and they have plans for future games to follow. This is one I followed for awhile, I want to say it was somewhere around 2 years ago when I first found out about Critters for Sale when searching for random stuff on itch.io. I was immediately sucked into the wonderful visuals inspired by the Gameboy Camera–and the music was peak A E S T H E T I C. I still listen to quite a few tracks from the game regularly and always find myself going back to the music from this game when I need a pick-me-up.

Above all the creative weirdness though is a solid and unrelenting atmosphere, like this is not a world we naturally belong to and should not be partisan to right now but here we are. Everything is off-kilter but the residents in this world seem to not find anything amiss. One of my absolute favorite jokes in the game is from an NPC that just out of nowhere exposits that he is having a spat with his girlfriend who in retaliation has taken his xbox away–and “I live in South Dakota where there is nothing to do but play Halo 3”. Did I mention this conversation is happening0 in 1997? And you are most likely talking to an alien from outer space. This shit cracks me up so much, it’s so out of left field and stupid and makes no sense in the context presented. I love it.

Deadly Premonition

Deadly Premonition is the favorite game I played this year. It is not “Game of the Year” since it didn’t come out this year, heck, even the latest version, the Switch port didn’t come out this year, but to me this was the best gaming experience I had all year. The impact this game left on me is so much so that I would say Deadly Premonition is in my Top-5 Favorite Video Games of All Time now. Maybe that’s biased; when I played the game I was in a very dark place and I wasn’t sure what to do to get out of it. Out of desperation I picked this up, and somehow I made it through, but even if saying it’s one of the best games of my life is biased because of that, I don’t care. The impact it left is all the same. 

What makes DP so special is its own creator, SWERY, who is a master of utterly bizarre games. You know it’s a SWERY game when it’s way overly ambitious, made on a shoestring budget, is full of bugs, glitches, and crashes–and somehow still moves you to tears. SWERY is an absolute oddity when it comes to mainstream gaming, there is no real clear way to review or talk about a SWERY game which is probably why his games tend to be all over the damn place when it comes to critical reception. Odd characters, bizarre strings of dialogue, a love of cinema, and anti-game play mechanics all make up key components of DP. 

That last bit is an aspect that I would like to personally go into more depth about DP one day since most people really only talk about either its charm or its jank, but at the core of DP is a lot of small things that are designed very strangely. The easiest of which to talk about has to be how the game starts with protagonist York crashing his car, forcing the player to traverse the rest of the map on foot. This is unnecessarily long, and grueling, it probably lasts a solid 2 minutes of just walking down a highway with no car until you get into town finally. 

Any sane person would turn the game off, this is a horrible start! What kind of game play is this?! But it has a point, your power is taken away from you, all your comforts of the city: your car, your computer, your cellphone, all gone. You are unwanted here, an outsider, there is no rest, and no place where you belong. The game, naturally through its game play (or anti game play as it’s not fun) expresses all this to you silently. There’s tons of small, weird moments like this, and I would argue even the less than stellar combat in the game that is often viewed poorly even by fans is another example of anti-game play, this isn’t what SWERY wants you to do, he wants you to be a good detective not rambo.

That tangent aside, Francis York Morgan and of course Zach too, are characters I will never forgettable.

Monster Hunter Stories 2

I never really got around to playing the original MonHun Stories on 3DS despite liking the demo a lot and watching a fair bit of the tie-in anime that aired around the time it was originally released. I was probably gonna pass this game up too despite it looking fun since I was still in a bit of a funk but at the behest of a friend–and also I had some good luck and bought the amiibos for it which I still collect so I may as well buy the game–I got it on release date. And I am glad I did! MonHun Stories 2 is just a plain fun video game, pure and simple. The capture and ride mechanic makes for an addicting game play loop that builds on an already solid tired and true JRPG formula. The graphics are incredible (honestly putting the latest installments of Pokémon to shame), the characters are tons of fun, and I got to make a terrible derp-faced kid that looked like he hasn’t slept in weeks save the world, thanks character creator!!!

Pokémon Shining Pearl 

The Short Version: This is a flawed remake of a good game. It feels cheap and was full of bugs and glitches when it first came out as well. Bad graphics. But Pokémon is Pokémon, the base game is always strong: catching, raising, and battling is just as addicting. I wish it was better but I still liked it a lot as a fan. I never beat the original Pearl so I am looking forward to finally finishing it with this remake. I do however think we deserve better than this though. The Pokémon Company continues to disappoint on Switch.

I have Opinions: Okay, so Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are obviously trying to replicate the style of the original Nintendo DS games hence why the graphic design choice, but it’s not /DOING/ that right. I have no doubt they saw the very beautiful Link’s Awakening remake and thought they could just imitate that in a similar fashion–go for something that can look cute in a top-down perspective; try to capture how older Pokémon games alternated between overworld chibi sprites and more anime-esque battle sprites. And if this was a remake of Ruby and Sapphire that would be fine but they already missed the boat on that! 

They forgot that the games they were remaking are not just 2D but 2.5D (i.e. 2D with some 3D depth for added effect). These games were on the Nintendo DS and while Gamefreak probably could have turned in something more ambitious at the time with 3D they still didn’t ignore that extra axis. Gamefreak’s contributions on the Nintendo DS are brimming with depth. They use tons of 3D mixed with 2D to create illusions of depth, almost like a shadow box or pop up story book. 

These games are gorgeous and the remakes fall incredibly flat not just because “2D good, 3D bad” but because the original games were made to take full effect of the hardware they ran on. They had a wow factor, the 3D objects in the game made the world feel bigger. It was Pokémon in a dimension the likes of which we never seen before. And because of that the entire Shinnoh region is designed with depth in mind. It’s full of skyscrapers, and bridges, and cliffs, and ridges, as well as many objects that are high above and obstruct your view momentarily as you travel underneath them. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl completely miss this point. Everything is in 3D to begin with, any attempt at recreating this scale, or depth, fails, it’s just another 3D object, there is no wow factor. Ironically the 3D game is flatter than the actual 2D game. These remakes do not pop, I mean that literally and also because they are ugly.

If they truly wanted to actually go about the right away to capture what the Nintendo DS games were they should have looked at Square Enix and Team Asano’s recent works, titles like Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy gorgeously incorporated 2D with 3D and create worlds full of depth that pop and feel alive. Instead we got plastic dolls in a flat overworld. The game screams cheap, and I am sure many people worked very hard on it, but it was obviously rushed and despite its best defenders touting the graphical style being “true to the originals” that is a bold face lie. The original games were designed with depth of view in mind, not the flatlands we got with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. 

Shadows of Adam

Shadows of Adam is a fun little return to classic JRPGs of yester year. I know these old retro inspired RPGs have truly become a dime-a-dozen nowadays but I still quite enjoy them for what they are worth. Shadows of Adam brings with it a fun turn based combat system and some really nice pixel graphics. It’s not much but in a way that is really all you need to make a good retro inspired indie game like this, and the developers absolutely nailed it. This was just a cozy and simple play through I was able to find the time for this year, and at the time having that took a lot of stress off of me. 

Shin Megami Tensei V

SMTV is my Game of the Year for 2021. This was one I was looking forward to for like what, almost as long as the Switch was around, and it paid off in droves. It feels like a natural progression for the series, tackling open world game play and letting you explore an entire netherworld as much as you want. It’s pretty much the best elements of the two main 3DS entries, SMTIV and SMTIV Apocalypse, combined with the best elements of Xenoblade to create a truly immersive experience. This is just a game that is fun to play on its own, story, missions, side quests, it doesn’t matter, just let me Naruto Run in Da’at and chill with the boys, and I’m having a great time. So much so that I joke around with friends that the Tokyo you live in sucks. Screw that place, let me just live in Da’at forever, bro. 

I had a lot of fears and reservations going into this one so it was reassuring that I ended up playing the game for some 10 hours straight the day it came out. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and really enjoy a bereft JRPG in a long time and I think SMTV is my gateway back into that.

#New Years #video games #Critters for Sale #Deadly Premonition #Monster Hunter #Monster Hunter Stories 2 #Pokemon #Pokemon Pearl #pokemon brilliant diamond #pokemon shining pearl #Shadows of Adam #Shin Megami Tensei #Shin Megami Tensei V

[zerochanges]

2021 Favorite Anime

It’s that time once again for me to list my favorite stuff from the year, and oh boy, what a year it has been. It sucked, okay, let’s just cut to the chase. The anime I watched the most this year was probably One Piece, like I discussed just the other day in my media binge reviews. If you wanna see my thoughts on some stuff that isn’t from 2021, check it out, if you don’t give a crap, and really who can blame you, just keep scrolling down. I am once again going to include sequels and long running animes in my ranking this year, and yeah, the list is just in alphabetical order so there isn’t really a number 1 to say, although if you ask me, it’s Muteking! Muteking is my favorite anime from 2021, that was the best show. Well, you can read why down below, but let’s get started. 

Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside

You can tell this one is based off a light novel with that title, for simplicity sake let’s just call it Banished from here on out. Banished is a somewhat interesting concept, instead of being about the classic JRPG Yusha (Hero) character it instead focuses on a temporary party member. If you have played a decent amount of JRPGs I am sure you know what I am talking about, Red the main character isn’t a permanent party member, just someone that joins the group temporarily then leaves at some point. Red, being a former companion of the hero’s party, makes him worldly and interesting but he’s also down to earth and just wants to live a quiet life with his adventuring days behind him. When he meets Rit from his old adventuring days he is initially worried that his cover will be blown but she instead decides to settle down with him. What follows is pretty standard fantasy anime schlock but it’s held together really well because of the great chemistry between Red and Rit that make an adorable couple. It’s refreshing to have two adults actually openly dating with no “will they or won’t they?” antics.

Black Clover

Of all the things for 2021 to take, it had to be Clover! How cruel! I kid of course, and with the current state of anime I have no doubt it will one day return, hey even World Trigger did and I never would have believed that. For now though, Black Clover is over, and it ended pretty well for what it was. We got absolutely fantastic battles towards the end, Asta and Yami vs Dante is a true highlight of the entire series and really shows how much Asta has grown up now in the time skip and how important he has become to other people in his life. Hearing Yami finally call Asta by his name gave me goosebumps, it’s a beautiful moment. It hurts to have this one leave, it became a pinnacle of my Saturday nights on Toonami for some 4 years but Asta will return to save his friends again, I’m sure of it. 

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

Last year Boruto began delving into manga content, both adapting story arcs from it directly and creating new content around it that further elaborated on material left vague in the manga. It was a great year for the series and it’s awesome to see that it pretty much kept that momentum for the entirety of 2021 as well, adapting almost the entire manga by this point. It was this year that finally revealed the secret behind Boruto’s curse mark and the cruel fate that awaits the youth as well as finally bringing the secondary protagonist into the series, Kawaki. Kawaki really shook up the status quo, a misunderstood youth that was being chased by a criminal organization, he had the same curse as Boruto and took crap from no one. 

Over the following story arcs we watched both Boruto and Kawaki grow a lot and share a deep brotherly bond because of the dark fate they have been given. And the battles, holy crap, the fights were incredible. The Boruto staff truly outdid themselves, animating some incredible fights that went above and beyond spectacle into almost cinematic quality fights. And it was absolutely earned, as these fights were tied together nicely with some really great story telling. Overall, I know the following year will probably be a bit slower since the anime has more or less caught up, but I don’t even care, it was one hell of a great ride these past two years, and I can’t wait to see what comes in the future. 

Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress 

Last year the third series of Vanguard finished after a nearly two year long run and 2021 has seen the start of Overdress, the new fourth series that celebrates the ten year anniversary of the franchise. OD is both something new and a return to form, and it was kind of an odd start to me; much of the first season simply did not click for me like I hoped it would. And that is one of the big differences OD has over past entries as the series has shifted to a much older demographic and airs late at night and in single cours. Gone are seasons that last 50-65 episodes and instead in their place are beautifully animated 12 episode seasons. The series having such a smaller episode count however didn’t vibe well with the same old kind of slow pace storytelling Season 1 presented and often had to sacrifice the titular card fights of the series in order to tell plot. I’m watching a card battle anime because I want card battles, that shouldn’t be too complicated to understand, right? 

Season 2 thankfully delivers in many ways and made me realize that a lot of the former season was all done for set up and finally getting this pay off felt great. Card fights become much more regular and said fights in general become really enjoyable with great strategy and wonderful animation. The story really picks up in this season and the cast finally feels like it all has fallen into place. Overdress was a rocky transition but I think Bushiroad has managed to bring a really great and well crafted card battle series to an older demographic. I’m looking forward to future seasons of the series now.

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars

Season 2 of Dr. Stone picks up right as the war between the two different factions of the stone world, Senku’s Kingdom of Science and Tsukasa’s Empire begin their war and it wastes no time in getting to the good stuff. Old characters return, Senku unleashes some great science on us, and most importantly the chemistry of the entire cast is top notch, even for the villain side. Every character is really well realized and written. It says a lot when the end of the season makes you empathize with the villain just as much as you did with the main characters. It’s sadly hard to talk a lot about Stone Wars since it is just one story arc of the series, going into details is pretty much just spoiling the story arc, but it’s a great continuation of a really fun and different Jump manga.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)

Toei’s modern adaptation of Dai no Daibouken is a dream come true, and one I never thought I could get. It brings back the same feelings I had when Madhouse began a new Hunter x Hunter adaptation in 2011, and I simply love that so many beloved 90’s Jump series are finally getting their due. This year the anime finally surpassed where the original 1991 anime left off, and seeing these story arcs get animated is incredible. And the animation is top notch! The staff working on the series really bring a lot of talent and creativity that brings the fights from the series into new light. Most importantly, I’m just having so much fun watching this series every weekend like I’m a kid again. Dai no Daibouken at one time in my life I considered my favorite manga, and to this day it really holds up so strongly. The anime finally entering into the second half of the manga has been one of the most exciting things for me this year!

Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!

For me it’s kind of hard to do a comedy isekai (another world) series nowadays. It’s probably just because of how dry the isekai well is in general but there’s also just some really great competition, like Konosuba kind of already did everything and did it so well it’s hard to find any more humor from this. But then Full Dive came along and oh boy, I usually don’t find mean spirited comedy that funny but this is gold. The series really takes the piss out of so many power fantasy series, making a VR fantasy world that is too realistic, meaning that if you are weak IRL you are weak in the game, and it’s such a one trick pony but it works just so incredibly well. Watching the main character constantly fall over and over again because doing even the simplest of things in a JRPG is herculean for real life people. Hell, I think one of the funniest jokes is that he doesn’t even leave the starter town until the very end of the season! The thing that usually happens in a couple of minutes in an actual JRPG. 

Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Speaking of great comedies this year, Girlfriend, Girlfriend is another one. Instead of the usual “will they or won’t they” love triangle, the series protagonist Naoya is way too pure and doesn’t want to cheat on anyone so he somehow ends up in an utterly bizarre three way poly relationship with two other girls that is way too hard to explain to normal people and often leads to fairly funny outcomes. It’s just your regular high school romance between one dude and his two girlfriends. The humor is often really absurd, and the characters are sometimes too stupid to even function. The whole thing is held together by just how pure and sincere Naoya is in being the perfect two-timing boyfriend.

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

“Hey, that’s me!” is pretty much how I describe Uramichi-oniisan. Do you hate your job? Is life in your thirties depressing? Is your body starting to age and fall apart? Have you given up on ever achieving personal happiness? Are you going to be single forever? If you answered yes to all these questions then this is you too! We are all Uramichi-oniisan! The fact that this show aired on mondays too was way too perfect, I think it had to be intentional; vegging out to work time blues and your depressing 30s on the harshest day of the week really helped to get me through.

Muteking the Dancing Hero!

In what is probably the most creative and ingenious reimaging of a classic property I have ever seen, Muteking the Dancing Hero, takes an old cheesy early-80s Tatsunoko superhero show and transforms it into a modern spectacle that still pays homage to the era of origin. It’s such a clever idea that I can’t get over–poaching one of their many, many, dime-a-dozen Gatchaman clones and transforming it into … well pretty much an old school goofy rhythm game. Anyone familiar with the classics like Gitaroo Man, Rhythm Heaven, PaRappa, and the like, will know what I am talking about: Muteking the Dancing Hero is pretty much just one of those games if they were an anime. Gone are the mechs and the toyriffic gadgets, and in their place are epic dance battles against kaiju that seek to destroy the city. 

The music is phenomenal in the series, naturally, the dance battle portion of every episode is just so much fun, and way too enjoyable, but the soundtrack brings a lot of weight to it outside of just those tracks and there are even some old school classics from the era of the original Muteking; I nearly lost my mind when the show played the legendary (or maybe infamous now) Plastic Love, and somehow made it work for one of the saddest scenes in the series. Then there is also Aurora the most popular celebrity in the city and a dark idol that Muteking just can’t seem to beat for most of the series. Their dance clashes bring some of the best music in the series.

Besides the great idea to take a cheesy old property and reinvent it, and besides the great music that came with this new dance battle aspect of the series, besides all that, my favorite thing about Muteking the Dancing Hero is just that it’s loads of fun. The series is one of those rare shows that every episode feels insanely fun, the characters have fantastic chemistry with each other and no matter how small a role everyone gets something to do, the world is so well defined and cartoonish enough to seem magical, and 25 minutes just go away in a blink of an eye. This was the most fun I had watching anime all year, and easily my favorite show of the year, I will forever go up to bat for this weird, creative series. Two best buddies really can save the universe with the power of dance!

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

I originally watched this show because a lot of people were dunking on it for being super pervy and dumb, and hey, oh shit, a stupid perverted dumb isekai series, sign me up, bro. This wasn’t what I was led to believe, as it slowly became a really well written and heart wrenching series, I guess the twitter mobs never know what they are talking about, oh well, at least I watched a great show for once. Mushoku Tensei is a really interesting beast though and I can see why people might be grossed out at the start, it feels like the author probably played a lot of eroge back in the day before writing this series, and hey, me too, so it didn’t ruin the experience for me personally. Eroge, or erotic game in laymen, is probably the best comparison I can think of for Mushoku Tensei, as just like many famous eroge (think Yu-No or Fate/) the horny content is there but an incredibly deep and well articulated plot is just under the surface (and the boobs) too.

Remake Our Life!

This show I really felt on a lot of levels, being a burned out 30-something with a dead end job. There are a lot of fantasy titles in Japan now that seem to focus on escaping to another world or redoing a pivotal part of your life and it makes me imagine there’s a good chunk of the population there just as burned out as me. Remake really did a great job at not only making me extremely jealous of protagonist Kyouya for getting such a great opportunity to follow his creative dreams again in his youth, but also made me feel insanely inspired again every episode. Anybody struggling to become an artist in their adult life can relate to this series, and it really shows how the best of intentions sometimes can lead to the worst results. Nobody ever said second chances are perfect but I can’t help but to think how great it would have been to chase more of my dreams in my college years.

Tokyo Revengers

Tokyo Revengers feels like it might be the last big title from Crunchyroll and that made it extra special to me. We had this big 2-cour long mega popular show with a fantastic Crunchy commissioned dub in the vein of their other prior major gems like Jujutsu Kaisen before it. Now that they are owned by Funimation I had no clue going forward what will happen so this may really be the last of its kind. I can say though, it was a damn fun series to end on. 

Just like Remake Our Life! Tokyo Revengers features the protagonist time traveling back into his middle school self, on a mission to save his childhood sweetheart from a cruel fate in the present. The time travel aspect originally threw me off a bit, as it is kind of poorly written but after a while I came to actually really appreciate it for what it is. This is not a hard sci-fi fantasy series, at its core this is a fun yankii battle manga: the time travel aspect is just a narrative device that helps set stakes and creatively gives you exposition. We know why Takemichi has to succeed so badly because we get glimpses into what will happen if he doesn’t.

TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy-

This is a guilty pleasure of mine. Tsukimichi does nothing extraordinary nor is it really that well made but there is just something there that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes me enjoy it a lot. Perhaps it’s that the series has a somewhat older feel to it, the original novels it is based on do date back to about 2012. For whatever reason this show makes me nostalgic and I really don’t have any prior experience with it. Feels like something I would have watched in high school. If you told me it was from 2006 I would believe you, as it firmly feels like Zero no Tsukaima to me. Anyways, guilty pleasure, but I would be remiss not to mention it since I spammed my friends with screenshots from this one quite a bit over this year.

World Trigger (Season 2 and Season 3)

Seeing World Trigger return like it has is honestly something that still surprises me. I was there, eight years ago, I watched since episode 1 aired back in 2014, and never could I have imagined that we would get past that cliff hanger the original first season ended on way-back-when in 2016. Seeing the anime finally finish the story arc it left on is really satisfying in a lot of ways but seeing how much care and effort was put in these new seasons is even more satisfying. It’s no secret the original first season had a rocky start and was right at the peak of Toei being kind of a disaster so seeing them have such an amazing output recently is a true underdog story, Dai no Daibouken and World Trigger are some of the best animated series around right now. Beyond the stellar animation (seriously this is the best I’ve seen in so long) World Trigger always holds a special place in my heart as the best Jump series from the 2010s. To me World Trigger is just where it is at for that decade, and this isn’t some diss on the many other great Jump titles of that era, I just think this is my favorite one; it has the sharpest writing, uses real world combat tactics, a huge roster of amazing characters, and is just a fun sci-fi series all together. 

The Vampire Dies in No Time

The Vampire Dies in No Time is a really great “buddy cop” kind of comedy, where world class Vampire Hunter Ronaldo somehow ends up partnering with the most fearsome and powerful vampire of them all, Draluc–except all that is total bull. Draluc’s legend is greatly exaggerated and despite his best efforts to be the stereotypical Dracula kind of vampire, he’s completely harmless, if anything he only hurts himself not humans. Pretty much even the smallest flick of your finger is enough to kill Draluc, who thankfully can revive endlessly but that’s about all he’s good for. Ronaldo and Draluc bicker constantly, are a terrible vampire hunter team, and each try to betray the other at every chance they can get–but somehow they are stuck together. It’s never a dull moment with these two idiots.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun (Season 2)

Iruma-kun is back and this newest season covers some of my favorite content in the series like the Evil Iruma story arc and the Walter Park arc. It’s nice to be able to settle down more into this series and see it continue, and knowing there is a season 3 in the upcoming future makes me hopeful we might get the entire series animated one day. Iruma-kun really fills in that void that Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Left in my heart after its ending. It’s funny, has some great small character moments, and can also handle battle manga material very competently. Watching young Iruma and his friends of demon misfits grow to rise above their misfit labels and become the most respected class of the titular Demon School is just too much fun. 

#New Years #anime #Banished from the Hero's Party I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside #Black Clover #Boruto #Boruto Naruto Next Generations #cardfight!! vanguard #cardfight vanguard #vanguard #cardfight vanguard overdress #Dr Stone #Dragon Quest #Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken #dragon quest the adventure of dai #Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! #girlfriend girlfriend #Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan #Muteking #Muteking the Dancing Hero #Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation #Remake Our Life! #Tokyo Revengers #tsukimichi -moonlit fantasy- #World Trigger #The Vampire Dies in No Time #Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun #Iruma #Iruma-kun

[zerochanges]

My 2021 Media Binge Reviews

2021 was a weird year for me personally; full of a lot of downs, and yeah that’s pretty much it, there weren’t really any ups to speak of, just downs, it just kept going down and down–in fact I think it hasn’t stopped yet, I’m still falling, please god, make it stop, things get worse every day. ah-hum Excuse me, ignore that. My year honestly isn’t probably all that different from a lot of others’; it was the same old, same old: work sucked and drained my life, my health declined, a family member died, and covid just kept trucking. To say this year burned me out would be an understatement. I won’t really elaborate too much more than that, it’s all just useless self gratifying prattling anyways, whatever, who cares, but because of how hard my year was it sent me down a couple new rabbit holes and also really kept me from engaging in my usual hobbies.

Usually at the end of every year I list off my favorite video games and anime but damn man, I really didn’t play that many games this year, and shit, I can’t even remember when x anime aired and if it was from y season or even if it was from this year. It all just runs the same and blurs together now in some gelatinous apathetic blob known as time. But I did do stuff this year! I did find comfort in this living hell known as reality. So I thought as an experiment it would be interesting to discuss and go over the media I binged this year instead of just listing and ranking random shit that came out between the months of January and December. If it catches on, maybe I’ll try to do it again next year, I'm not sure, but making a media year-in review seems like it’s popular nowadays. Right? I see a lot of really long, annoying, and impossible to follow threads on social media dedicated to that at least. Well whatever, who even cares anymore. 

By the way if you are wondering why all this is happening a week into the new year, my own health declined once again, literally on New Year’s Eve, yup, ended that year just right. Well, being overdramatic, but damn, I got sick during New Years, so I’m a week late. 

One Piece

One Piece was my rock this year. It got me through the worst that 2021 brought me and marathoning episodes well into the night just to wake up and watch more episodes in the morning was all I could do in order to keep living. It was nostalgic and comforting since it’s been going since I was a kid, but also all new and exciting since it will never end and there is so much content to digest that there’s always something to discover. 

Now, One Piece fans will laugh at me for sticking with the Funimation redub of the series, but I have grown very fond of it over the years and found it best suits my watching habits. I try to just sit down and complete entire story arcs of this behemoth and then take a break from the series when I need a break. It just makes it more digestible and easier to sit through, I cannot even imagine trying to follow it every week anymore. The English dub is still stupid behind but this watch method of mine makes that less of an issue since I still haven’t caught up with the dub anyways. 

That might change though in the near future as I progressed a considerable amount this time. I watched over some 220+ episodes this year, picking up at Thriller Bark where I last remembered watching it and going all the way through Punk Hazard, finally getting past the time skip, it felt so good. I plan to pick up Dressrosa now too, since the dub is in Zou and I know I can watch all 100-something episodes of that arc in peace with no fear of waiting for the next volume. 

This chunk of One Piece I watched this year was especially fantastic and highly beloved in the fandom, and it’s easy to see why. Impel Down, Marineford, Post War, all these arcs are masterfully done and set in motion such unforgettable moments in the series. And here I was at my lowest pigging out on these episodes nonstop, life was good then. Updating my current personal list of favorite story arcs for One Piece I think it is now:

Arlong Park

Impel Down

Post War

Loguetown

Thriller Bark

Robotech

One of the better things to come out of this year is the end to the long (and at the time) seemingly never ending dispute between Harmony Gold and Macross, and I am hopeful that we will be seeing more Macross in the near future. For now, we have the first ever blu-ray release of Robotech, and I’m a slut so I bought it and began my rewatch of this 80’s classic largely because of that. 

Robotech is controversial because of the terrible things Harmony Gold has done but now with this hopefully behind us we can appreciate it a bit more. For many it was a landmark experience and a gateway into anime and a damn fine attempt at localizing material that never had any chance over in these necks of the woods. Robotech is legitimately fairly fascinating and well crafted for what it was. The writing is sharp, and even the voice acting holds up surprisingly well–and it is some of the earliest known roles for a bunch of now prolific voice actors in the anime dubbing community like Wendee Lee and Tony Oliver who seems even more famous and beloved now than back in his heyday of the early 2000s. I remember hearing him in so many dubs then and he never seemed to get much attention so it’s funny how much the American Lupin fandom has claimed him the definitive English Lupin. Getting off track there, my bad, just been thinking about how much people’s perception for celebrities (do anime voice actors count?) change the longer you live. 

Super Dimension Century Orguss

This is a show I wanted to watch for a very long time. For about 6 years to be exact. When Discotek originally released Orguss on DVD back in 2015 I was beyond excited to get it but one thing led to another and I just sort of lost track of time. It didn’t help that this DVD set in particular never really seemed to go on sale that much and was on the more expensive end. Because of that I decided to wait for an eventual BD release from them since it is a fairly common business tactic from Discotek. When they finally got around to rereleasing the series on blu-ray this year I was all in! 

I got to tell you guys, Orguss is weird. Like really, really weird! I never experienced a show like this before, it’s honestly really hard to even explain it! I don’t even know where to start with this thing! The main character is a complete asshole and total pervert. Somebody like Kei would never be in a TV show today, especially as the main protagonist. At best maybe a funny side character but not the main guy. Kei is a total horndog, he cheats on girls, he can’t keep it in his pants, his main fling in the show is with a girl who has a fiancé already, and did I mention he caused the end of the world? 

The show starts with my dude for whatever reason breaking military order and deciding “Screw it! I’ll detonate this extremely complicated and very dangerous weapon of mass destruction that needs exact calculations to work” and causes a calamity that implodes like every Alternate Reality into one. I don’t know, does this count as an isekai? To Kei this is like being flung into some parallel universe but it is actually his own Earth! Just that every other parallel universe Earth is also now conjoined in it. Honestly it sounds like some DC crisis superhero comic cross-over event instead of an anime. I have no goddamn idea how Big West thought this should be the follow-up to the highly acclaimed and profitable Macross and I can totally see why it was considered a flop during its time for falling to live up to Macross. It’s like going from Star Wars straight into David Lynch’s Dune. We are firmly in psycho weird ass anime territory with this one, and goddamn I freaking love it. Orguss is wonderful. Also, the opening theme song is iconic. 

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I only ever watched Eva once, back when I was in High School. Back then I remember thinking it was okay but also that it just kind of really bummed me out and it probably wasn’t for me. I more or less kind of wrote it off as overrated as very intelligent and worldly teenagers often do and moved on with my life. Over the years I became more interested in the series that served as major inspirations to Eva, this was not because of Eva though and I often didn’t realize they even were its inspirations until much later after people brought it up. For me that meant having to defend the likes of Devilman and Space Runaway Ideon from Eva fans that saw them as only stepping stones of Evangelion. To this day, I find this debate annoying and honestly detrimental to the enjoyment of some series–but honestly my biggest regret is that I never went back to revisit Eva because of it. 

As an adult, I definitely ‘get’ Eva much more now. Shinji chanting “I mustn’t run away, I mustn’t run away” is me every morning in my parked car sitting outside of work on the verge of a mental breakdown as I force myself to go inside and pray to whatever god in the universe that might listen that I won’t die of covid today in this hellscape I unfortunately have to call my home. Shinji as a protagonist is something I can relate to a lot more in my mid-30s than I ever could have as a teenager. The series honestly feels less like a head trip to adult me and more like a deep dive into somebody’s depressive episode and how to cope with a world that is constantly collapsing around you. In this regard it’s one of Anno’s sharpest works which is another thing I respect. Despite my prior disinterest in Eva I always found Anno to be extremely talented and loved many of his works, from Shin Godzilla to Kare Kano to Gunbuster, all seminal works with great direction, atmosphere, and writing–and now as an adult revisiting Eva I can say the same of it as well. 

I love how Shinji as a character has a pretty classic tired-and-true character arc throughout most of the TV series as he grows, socializes more, and comes out of his shell–only to be abused so badly at the eleventh hour by his father forcing him to almost kill a friend and regressing back into an even worse state than he started the series in. It’s poignant, my boy was shot down the second he was starting to fly again, that’s toxic people for you. Shinji’s rage, paranoia, and sense of betrayal upon having to fight Kaworu is honestly the high point of the entire series to me. “You betrayed me! Just like my Father!” It’s at this point the young man has completely lost his marbles, and I love it. 

The final two episodes of the series are rough, and for many leave a lot to be desired but I think it’s my preferred ending. The End of Evangelion films are fine, and I like some parts of them better, it certainly gives Asuka closure and not to mention way more to do! But overall, I actually think the original TV series ending as-is was thematically more poignant and just more interesting. 

Coming back full circle to where I started, it seems like I don’t need to come up to bat for Devilman anymore; it having its own resurgence with Masaaki Yuasa’s very excellent Devilman Crybaby reaching new generations. I still think I’m more of an Ideon guy though at the end of the day. Ideon’s tenuous relationship to Eva really has brought it nothing but hardships honestly. So many people expect a show like Eva when they watch Ideon but Ideon is far more cut from the same cloth of the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam than it is of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The front half especially of Ideon is far more inline with the episodic early portions of Gundam granted on a cosmic scale and with some mysticism thrown in but it’s the back half of Ideon where it gets downright Lovecraftian. Sadly most Eva fans never get that far. Also Ideon can kick Unit 1’s ass any day of the week, fight me. Ideon destroyed entire planets, and eventually galaxies, and maybe even the universe itself. The ideon wins every time! 

I ended up spending some stupid money on this because of the classic dub being taken hostage in a special edition set, but I don’t regret it. This was how I wanted to watch Eva again and goddammit I had a great time watching it again. I definitely can see why a modernized dub was needed, and I definitely see the merit and quality put into it, but I just couldn’t accept the large amount of recasting despite the new actors all being incredible talent that I love in other works. To me, recasting Spike Spencer is like recasting Sean Schemmel as Goku, it’s just not something you should do. Apparently somebody else out there agreed since he has reprised the role again post redub. 

Twin Peaks

Oh boy! Here we go again! This was my biggest obsession of the year! Twin Peaks! A few years back I tried to get into Twin Peaks and I am pretty sure I got somewhere in the middle of season 2, before the murder was solved (I never had that spoiled for me thank god) but just didn’t finish it. This year, I finally came back, I just had to really cross this one off my list. It felt great! This is such a remarkably quirky and iconic series and it had such a huge influence on Japanese nerd culture, and hell after reading a lot of essays and watching the show Twin Peaks probably even changed the landscape of American television forever. But the Japanese nerd end is definitely where my interest lies. Watching the show I had glimpses of Suda and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and of course survival horror games, Silent Hill and Deadly Premonition being the biggest most obvious instances. It was almost like Twin Peaks was some primordial ooze that birthed all these great and wonderful things that I grew up with and obsess over so finally coming full circle to Twin Peaks, I obsessed over it all the more. 

At its core is just such a wonderful and fun show and the main character Dale Cooper easily is at the heart of it giving great sage wisdom that I find myself now trying to live by and just having a general quirky zest for life that feels refreshing and wonderful. Coop is just a joy, and I wish more modern TV shows would ape this too, we need protagonists that are just wonderful people that are excellent to everyone. When you start the series you have no idea what this guy is about, he seems cool but there isn’t really anything to go on, hell back when it originally aired in 1990 there were even some people who were initially confused at who the main character was supposed to be after the pilot aired. But then a couple episodes in, Coop is talking about Tibet, solving crimes by playing baseball, and having strange cryptic dreams that he believes whole heartily will solve the mystery. It’s a wonderful progression as you slowly learn more about Cooper and slowly become more entrenched and in love with this small town and the many people that live here. 

For me the original first two seasons are peak Twin Peaks, it’s the show at its best. I know a lot of people think the second season starts to go downhill a bit after the creators were forced to solve the murder of Laura Palmer, something that David Lynch was adamant about never wanting to do since it was a plot device to steer the entire show. And I agree that at first the second season can be a bit rocky, post Laura Palmer murder, but it picks up and gets great again if you ask me. It’s everything after Season 2 that falls off a bit. 

To me, the film Fire Walk With Me, is both a masterpiece and the worst entry in the series. It’s beautifully shot, has some incredible lore, great moments, lines I quote constantly, but not the right tone. The darker subject material, that being a prequel that gives you an in-depth look at the rape and murder of Laura Palmer, is … how to say it lightly, a downer. This movie made me downright depressed when I watched it. It’s wonderful but this is one that hurts. It hurts a lot to sit through. There’s no levity in the whole film once it starts covering Laura’s last week alive, and there is no quirkiness the series had. It’s violent, upsetting, and beautiful. I can see why the film was initially misunderstood and hated when it came out. 

The Return (aka Season 3) almost feels like a combination of the two, it is a darker, harsher, more cruel Twin Peaks, some 25 years later, but it is still Twin Peaks. The humor and tone return to level out the violence and harder to watch aspects that the series gained with Fire Walk With Me. It’s a strange season but it is great to see a series become un-canceled even after 25 years. This season initially was hard for me to follow and I wasn’t into it as much as the first two seasons, and still now I think those are my favorite, but The Return is something that grows on me, especially more as I analyze it and try to understand the deeper meta narrative behind it. I wasn’t sure if I would ever … return to The Return but I think in future rewatches I will. As a finale it’s not exactly what people want, the unconventional ending can easily leave you feeling confused, and maybe upset. But the more you examine it, the more you look at it outside of the context presented in the show, the more you can see what it is doing is something special. 

Overall, there is nothing really like Twin Peaks (except Deadly Premonition, that nails it) and it’s something that needs to be experienced. It was one of the best TV experiences I have had in a really long time, and obsessing over it, and later the works of David Lynch, have kept me going long after I finished the final episode. That said, my God, I don’t think I will ever forget some scenes from the show. To not spoil anything, let's just say “It is Happening Again” is forever a scene that will stay with me. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced in television.

On another note, the blu-ray set I bought had these wonderful menus that played clips of the show, all curated around themes or commonly used motifs in the show and I absolutely adored the amount of effort that went into giving each disc its own. When I reached The Return I was gutted to find that these discs did not do that. This isn’t uncommon, I’m no stranger to companies reprinting older discs with just a different label on top of them so I am sure they simply grabbed already authored discs for logistical reasons and used them but losing those wonderful menus made the transition to The Return all the more jarring. Man, those original discs had so much personality and were made with so much love for the show, and The Return discs are so bare bones, and so depressing. Don’t get obsessed and over analyze media kids, or else you become a 30-something that talks about DVD menus.

David Lynch films

I am going to start off by saying I know David Lynch directed more films, I don't have them all, but I have give-or-take almost all of his feature films on blu-ray that are easily purchasable. I know Inland Empire is long OOP and DVD only in the US, and I don’t want to mess around with importing European BDs and there’s a few other oddities like that, but so far, what I got this year, I am happy with. I haven’t seen every film here yet too, but burning through Lynch’s filmography is something I am enjoying at my own pace and I just wanted to mention that I am doing that. 

Obviously, like I said above, my love for Twin Peaks was so much that it made me branch out into all other David Lynch material. I have grown rather fond of the man, he is a true artist and I greatly respect him. I enjoy his work, his outlook on life, and just listening to him. My YouTube history at one point was just video after video of interviews and keynote speeches from Lynch on movies, art, meditation, and just anything else. Lynch is such a fascinating individual, he makes some of the hardest, most violent, thought provoking horror I have ever seen but in real life is the kindest, most gentlest, charismatic, charming little old man. He’s too adorable in a lot of ways. You can truly tell every work of Lynch is 100% sincere, he puts himself into everything and wears it all out on his sleeve to create something beautiful. There’s no corporate world BS or just doing a job because you need a job, the man is an auteur, you can identify David in every one of his movies. That’s him. That’s so him. His work is himself. 

Out of everything I have seen so far, I think my favorite of his films are probably Blue Velvet and Lost Highway. For Blue Velvet it’s easy to see, it is almost in many ways prototype to Twin Peaks, maybe that’s my dumb Twin Peaks fan way of interpreting the film but I can’t unsee it. It’s a fascinating movie and probably the most conventional and easy to digest film from Lynch. You can’t help but get a certain Twin Peaks vibes in how the film presents a good vs evil dichotomy, and Dennis Hopper is hopping mad in the film as Frank Booth, which is legit just Killer Bob from Twin Peaks. Lost Highway I love for the elements of identity and how people aren’t who they seem to be. The mystery is unsettling, and the villain, if you can call him that, once again steals the movie as a truly haunting performance from Robert Blake, who turned out to be an actual murderer in real life too, so yeah, go figure. Lost Highway is a real head trip though about reality and what we think is reality, and how we all shape our own identities, sometimes to even hide ourselves from none other than us.

#New Years #David Lynch #neon genesis evangelion #One Piece #Robotech #Super Dimension Century Orguss #Twin Peaks

[zerochanges]

Robotech: Unboxing + Rant

Anime licensing and localization has come a long way since the dark ages of the medium where you had to track down old fan subbed VHS tapes or hope you can catch some heavily edited version of a show on one of your local networks before cable was even a thing. The latter describes the place in history that Robotech holds, and for many it was a landmark experience and a gateway into anime--and that should have been its legacy whole stop but well, corporate greed is a bitch. I’m sure I don’t have to sit here and explain the myriad of ways license holder Harmony Gold has more or less been super scummy. From downright patent trolling, to blocking any attempt at localizing certain series and even preventing video game releases; they have become infamous in the anime fandom--so much so to the point where I just don’t want to talk about Robotech anymore. 

Which is a damn shame! Robotech is legitimately a fairly fascinating and well crafted attempt at bringing over anime for its time. The writing is sharp, the voice acting holds up surprisingly well--and it is some of the earliest known roles for a bunch of now prolific voice actors in the anime dubbing community like Tony Oliver and Wendee Lee. Most importantly however the material is treated with respect, and while a bit clumsy at times, there is an obvious love from the staff being put into the work. It’s easy to see how generations grew up with this Frankenstein of an adaptation and became lifelong fans of anime. 

For me personally Robotech will always occupy the same part of my heart that loves the work of Ted Woolsey and other earlier localization figures who took a mess of bland too literal translations (sometimes ones that didn’t even make sense in English) and reworked them with a lot of character and charm despite some really insane restraints of the time. It’s not for everyone, but I do enjoy these early localizations for what they were.

Sadly it seemed Robotech would only be remembered in infamy for Harmony Gold and its (very well documented) downright criminal powers-that-be. Until this past April, where out of nowhere anime fans’ prayers seemingly have been answered. Now the agreement between the three companies is still not fully understood, and it’s hard to say for sure where this will go but for now I like to have goodwill that things will be different from now on. Which is what I want, I easily do love Robotech, and this new agreement brining new Robotech blu-rays is great, but I also want Macross blu-rays too! Hell, I don’t want just that but also Southern Cross and Mospeada releases too, even if they have to be on SD-BD. Over the recent years we have seen blu-rays for all kinds of tangentially related Robotech properties: Megazone 23, Zilion, Orguss, it would be great to have all of Macross as well as the main three series that comprise Robotech to go alongside with them on my blu-ray shelf.

With all that out of the way, I will stop ranting now and show off the most recent Robotech Collector’s Edition from Funimation as well as some comparisons to a past set I posses. 

The box itself is absolutely gorgeous and the contents inside of high quality too. The asking price may be a bit steep but for fans it really does pay off. 

I was especially impressed with the figure which I had no real interest in (and will still keep stuffed in the box lol) but was shocked to find out it can indeed transform between the three iconic forms of the Veritech fighter.

The blu-rays themselves are housed in a nice sturdy chipboard box and each set has unique art separate from the standard retail release.

Anyone familiar with Funimation’s previous release of the anime series Zillion will easily notice the similar “retro” (or maybe even VHS???) look of the packaging. 

I was somewhat annoyed at this graphic design choice when Zillion came out. I love older anime art and want to appreciate it for all its worth. I get how the vintage VHS look is a fun idea but still! Despite saying that however I ended up really liking it for this latest Robotech set. Probably helps that the o-cards aren’t made of the usual glossy paper stock and are instead really heavy and thick cardboard giving them an almost old book type feel. 

The interior art for the amaray cases as well as the disc art are all great looking. I was especially impressed with the art used for the Masters Saga set which opted to feature protagonist Dana instead of a mech.

The earlier mentioned chipboard box. The entire set looks great in it but it does lead to my major complaint for Funimation about the packaging; it’s all Macross. Yes, the Macross Saga is great, hell it’s a common sentiment amongst fans that “The Macross portion of Robotech is the best part”. But really what makes Robotech what it is was the mixing of multiple shows. Really bummed out that Southern Cross or Mospeada got no love this time. 

The Collector’s Edition blu-ray standing next to the 2013 A&E DVD set, which was the only one I could really find laying around at the time of this writing. 

The first of these two images is a screenshot directly taken from the 2013 A&E DVD set, and the second of the two is a screenshot taken directly from the 2021 BD from Funimation. This pattern will be followed for all subsequent comparison shots; DVD on top then BD below it. 

The colors really pop when the image is done right--with darker frames advantaging the most while brighter ones are too oversaturated.  

Overall there is greater detail and the colors presented better reflect the original animation work in the BD but it isn’t too uncommon for it to look a bit garish and oversaturated at times too. 

I’d still say this BD upscale is a noticeable improvement at least from the 2013 DVD set I had on hand but well any fan of DBZ will know the song and dance with Funimation and how they remaster old footage. The similar issue of them working off a copy of a master and not the original film itself probably also is equally in play here as it is for their many botched DBZ sets. I’d also argue this set is a bit too heavy on grain (and I say that as a huge lover of grain) but the oversaturation may be the true culprit behind that feeling. 

Overall Funimation’s BD is a nice upgrade but I don’t see myself dipping any more into Robotech unless they actually can recreate the show from the original film master, by this point any more work will just be negligible.

It’s a steep price tag, and the entire series is fairly easy to stream now too if you have a Funimation account, but for the right kind of fan it makes a great piece for your collection. Until next time, let us all hold out hope for potential Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada blu-rays.

#Robotech #unboxing #anime #images

[zerochanges]

Here's my contribution (i.e. shit post) for the final protagonist reveal of Shin Megami Tensei V. That E3 trailer was super exciting tonight! So glad to see the game finally getting concrete game play footage. I just want to play it already! lol

#Shin Megami Tensei #ShinMegamiTenseiV #SMT #SMTV #SMT5 #E3 #images

[zerochanges]

2020 Favorite Video Games

I don’t know if I am an outlier or if this is the same for everyone else but I really did not play a lot of games this year. 2020 was a very harsh year for all of us, especially for me for some personal reasons. So to get to the chase, I am just gonna say it left me not doing much in what little free time I did have, and I didn’t play much either. Usually I try to keep my lists for ‘favorite of the year’ to only titles released that year but since I played so little this year, screw it. I am gonna include any game I played this year regardless of release date.

Collection of SaGa

By far a flawed rerelease. It’s bare bones: there are no advance features you would usually expect out of these kinds of emulated rereleases like save states, fast forward, or rewind, and there was no real effort made to touch up almost 30 year old localizations that had to meet Nintendo of America’s then harsh standards. This really is just 3 roms slapped into a nice looking interface with an option to increase the game speed (which by the way you better use, the characters walk very slow in these old games). 

I am bit harsh here, but only because I thought the Romancing SaGa remasters and the upcoming SaGa Frontier remaster all looked like they got a great budget and a lot of love while this is just another Collection of Mana situation (moreso specifically talking about Seiken Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana part of that collection). I would have loved to see Square Enix do a bit more for these older games. Or at least include the remakes. Seiken Densetsu 1 had two great remakes, both unused in Collection of Mana, and all three of these original SaGa titles have remakes that have never seen the light of day outside of Japan. How great would it have been to get the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1, as well as the Nintendo DS remakes of Saga 2 and SaGa 3? 

But my gripes aside, these games are still fun as they ever were. Replaying SaGa 1 specifically during the holiday season really helped calm me down and made me feel at ease. It’s easy to forget but even in their Gameboy roots there are a lot of funky and weird experimental choices being made in these games. They aren’t your run-of-the-mil dragon quest (or considering the gameboy, maybe pokemon would be more apt) clones. 

Raging Loop

Perhaps my favorite game of the year, Raging Loop is one of the best visual novels I have ever played hands down. The level of creativity and splitting story paths that went into it is simply mind blowing. The basic premise is both a wonderful throwback to the old days of Chunsoft sound novels while still modern and somewhat reminiscent of both Higurashi and Danganronpa. Essentially you play as Haruaki, a poor slub that got lost in the mountains with no clue where to go until you stumble upon an old rural village with a strange history and even stranger superstitions. Before you know it there has been a murder and the Feast is now afoot.

The less said about Raging Loop the better, although I do want to say a lot about it one day if I ever can write a proper review of it. This is a gripping game that will take hold of you once you get into it though and never let go. I actually 100%-ed this and I very rarely do that. I got every ending, every bonus hidden ending, played the entire game twice to hear all the hidden details it purposely hides on your first play through, played all the bonus epilogue chapters, unlocked all the hidden voice actor interviews, collected all the art work, etc, etc. I was just obsessed with this game, it’s that damn good! And the main character is maybe the best troll in all of video games, god bless Haruaki. 

Root Double

From Takumi Nakazawa, long time contributor to Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work comes a game any fan of Zero Escape or Uchikoshi in general will probably enjoy. Root Double, like its name suggests is a visual novel with two different routes, hence Root Double. The first route stars Watase Kasasagi, the leader of an elite rescue team in the midst of their greatest crisis yet that could lead to nuclear devastation as they try to evacuate a nuclear research facility that has gone awry. 

The other route stars Natsuhiko Tenkawa, an everyday high schooler whose peaceful life is thrown into turmoil when he stumbles upon a terrorist plot to destroy the nuclear facility in the city and his attempts to stop them. Together the two separate plots weave into one and creates a really crazy ride. Part Chernobyl, part science fiction, any fan of the genre will easily enjoy it. And hey it’s kind of relevant to include on this list too since it just got a Switch port this year (I played it on steam though).  

Snack World

I was shocked upon starting Snack World as it is instantly incredibly charming, witty, and downright hilarious at times yet I heard almost zero people talk about it. EVER. This game is Dragon Quest levels of quirky though, and the localization is incredible. The game has such an oddball sense of humor that works really well with its presentation right down to the anime opening video that sings about the most bizarre things. Instead of the usual pump up song about the cool adventure ahead we get stuff like wanting to go out to a restaurant and eat pork chops. 

The self aware/fourth wall breaking humor is just enough to be really funny, but doesn't overstay its welcome and always makes it work right in the context of the dialogue. And finally, just everything; with the menus, the name of side quests and missions, and the character dialogue -- are all just so witty and full of quirky humor. This is one hell of a charming and funny game and addictive to boot.

Trials of Mana

Trials of Mana has gone from one of those legendary unlocalized games, to one of the first major breakthroughs in fan translation, to finally getting an official English release complete with a fully 3D remake. In a lot of ways from a western perspective this game has had an incredible journey. As for this remake itself, I really found myself having tons of fun with it. I loved the graphics, and the voice acting while a bit on the cheaper side almost kind of adds to the charm since both the graphics and acting really give it an old PS2 vibe. I know that is probably just more me being weird but yeah, I had to say it. 

I really hope Square Enix sticks to this style of remake more often, instead of just doing Final Fantasy VII Remakes that break the bank and involve extensive tweaking to both plot and game play. I’ll take smaller budget projects that play more like the original game any day personally. I wouldn’t mind if they also deliver a brand new Mana game all together in this engine either. 

Utawarerumono Trilogy

This year saw the release of the first entry in the series, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen--and thus finally after three years since the sequels Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth came out in 2017 the trilogy is now complete in English. I ended up binging through Prelude to the Fallen very fast shortly after it came out and immediately jumped on to the sequels. Perhaps the best part of 2020 was that I finally played all three of these fantastic games, and did so back-to-back-to-back. Playing the first Utawarerumono was an experience I will never forget, it was like visiting old friends again that I haven’t seen in ages, by and large thanks to the fact that I saw the anime adaption of the game when I was much younger, nearly a decade ago. Back then I would have never of dreamed that I would get to play the actual game and get the real experience. 

And it only got better from here, as all three games are such wonderful experiences from start to finish. The stories are all so deep, and by the time you get to the third entry, Mask of Truth, it’s crazy to see how they all connected over so many years and weaved together into a plot much bigger than they ever were. What carries it beyond all that though has to be the fun and addicting strategy role playing game aspect, which while a bit on the easy side, is still so much fun and helps make the game feel better paced since you get to play the conquests your characters go on and not just read about all the battles they fight. Beyond that the games are packed full of awesome characters, and I know I’ll never forget the amazing leads in all of them. Hakuowlo, Haku, and Oshtor will all go down as some of the greats to me. 

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Ys: Memories of Celceta is a full 3D remake of Ys IV, a rather infamous game in Falcom’s Ys series. Not to get bogged down too much into the history of Falcom but by this point they were facing a lot of hardship and had to outsource this entry to other developers, and thus passed it on to two particular developers they had a business relationship with, creating two unique versions of Ys IV. Tonkin House who had worked on Super Famicom port of Ys III with Falcom ended up creating their own YS IV entry, Mask of the Sun for the very same system, where Hudson soft who had produced the much beloved Ys Books I & II remakes for the Turbografix (PC Engine) CD add-on created their own Ys IV entry Dawn of Ys for that console. Both games followed guidelines and ideas outlined from Falcom themselves but both radically diverged from each other and turned into completely different games. 

Falcom finally putting an end to this debate on which version of Ys IV you should play have gone and created their own definitive Ys IV in 2012 for the Playstation Vita. I played the 2020 remastered version of this remake on my PS4. I even bought this on the Vita when it first came out but I am horrible and only horde games, never play them. So it was a lot of fun to finally play this. 

Memories of Celceta is probably one of the best starting points for anyone looking to get into Ys, especially if you only want to stay with the 3D titles as out of all the 3D entries this explains the most about the world and series protagonist Adol Christian. Beyond that it’s just another fantastic entry in a wonderful series that has a few good twists hidden behind it, especially for long time fans of the series. 

Random Video Game Console Stuff

Xbox Has Blue Dragon: I actually got an Xbox One this year for free from my brother. Because of that I started to play Blue Dragon again and there’s a lot I would love to say about this game. I don’t know if I am fully committed to replaying it all the way through however but I find myself putting in a couple hours every few days and enjoying myself again. Does anyone else remember Blue Dragon? I feel like it really missed its audience and had it come out nowadays and probably for the Switch it would have really resonated with the Dragon Quest fandom a lot more instead of being thrown out to die on Xbox and constantly compared to Final Fantasy VII and the like which it had nothing at all similar with. 

The Turbografx 16 Mini: This was probably one of the best mini consoles that have come out and I feel like thanks to the whole 2020 pandemic thing it was largely forgotten about. That’s a shame, it has a wonderful variety of great games, especially if you count the Japanese ones (god I wish I could play the Japanese version of Snatcher included), and a wonderful interface with fantastic music. One of these days I would really like to be able to play around with the console more seriously than I have already. 

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon Never Existed: So Nintendo localized the first ever Fire Emblem game on Nintendo Switch which is awesome to see them touching Famicom games again--I haven’t seen Nintendo of America rerelease old Famicom titles since Mysterious Murasame Castle on the 3DS, but their trailer hilariously made it seem like this is the first time ever they released Fire Emblem when in fact they had already localized the remake Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS nearly 10 or 11 years ago. I and many other fans I talked to all found this really hilarious, probably solely because of how much they kept repeating the fact that this is the first time you will ever be able to experience Marth’s story.

All that aside though I have to say the collector edition for this newly localized Famicom game is probably the most gorgeous retro reproduction I have seen in a long time, and I really spent many many hours just staring at the all clear glass mock cartridge. I have found myself really obsessing over retro reproductions during 2020, and obtained quite a few this year. I really hope this trend continues to go on in 2021 as recreating classic console packaging and cartridges is a lot of fun. 

#video games #collection of saga final fantasy legend #SaGa #SaGa I #SaGa II #SaGa III #Raging Loop #Root Double #Snack World #Trials of Mana #Seiken Densetsu 3 #Utawarerumono #Ys #Ys IV #ys memories of celceta

[zerochanges]

2020 Favorite Anime

I am sure I don’t have to exactly spell it out that 2020 was a different year, we all know the spiel now. It was in particular a bad year for me for a lot of personal reasons on top of the whole world wide pandemic thing killing millions and shutting down business and and all our hobbies--so I really was straight up not having a good time. It’s because of that I honestly didn’t really keep up with a lot of my hobbies this year so when it comes to choosing my favorite anime and games of 2020, I don’t have as much as I usually would. 

So this year I decided to just say screw it, there are no rules. I usually try to impose some on myself every year for my lists: rules like no sequels, no long running shows, no shows that technically started last year, only new content from this year and not older stuff I watched/played this year but came out from a prior one. This time, there are no holds barred. I am just going to list my top whatever the hell I feel like listing. So starting with anime and in my usual alphabetical order; here we go.

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

Maybe a guilty pleasure? Maybe I just enjoy some trashier shows? It’s hard to say. There is nothing that great about 8th Son, it’s very bland and doesn’t stick out amongst the million other isekai (another world) power fantasy series that are all the rage now and yet there is a strange draw to it. Perhaps it’s because almost all the isekai elements in the series feel more forced than anything else, like they are just tacked on to appeal to modern audiences. 

8th Son honestly feels more like a good old fashion fantasy series from the 90’s that just had to add isekai elements in it to appeal to kids today. I really enjoyed it for that aspect. The power fantasy isn’t too out of control (although the protagonist is quite strong), and there is no real end goal or attempt to return to your previous life. The protagonist Wendelin is more or less just cool with how things are now. Instead it focuses on his growth as a mage and how he tries to navigate the political intrigue of this feudal world being one of the youngest born in a noble family with no clear line of succession to take over yet being the most talented and magically gifted child of said family. 

Ascendance of a Bookworm

Proving that not all isekai series have to be a power fantasy, Ascendance of a Bookworm plays out more like an educational take on medieval times, think something among the lines of Spice and Wolf, if you will. One day Motosu Urano wakes up in the body of the small child Myne in a fantasy world much like medieval Europe but with a few other elements like magic and sorcery. While at first that may sound like a high flying adventure it really isn’t. The series is more about following the average life of a peasant in this world and how far out of reach literature is to them, given the lack of printing press and the like. Urano now Myne tries her best to create books for the common people and spread literature, a herculean task considering the insane douchebaggery of the higher caste in this world. But armed with modern day knowledge of the 21st century Myne is able to create modern conveniences and wow most people around her.

Black Clover

So I am going to include long running shows now this year, get over it. Black Clover has been a favorite of mine in recent years. Out of the modern Jump battle series I find myself more and more drawn into Clover (and also my one true love, the ever underappreciated World Trigger) than the other more popular ones that seem to rule all the anime conversations today. Since I was following the series dubbed as it aired on Toonami this year brought me the end of the first part of the series; finally seeing the epic conclusion of Clover Kingdom’s long standing battle with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and revealing some pretty great and shocking twists behind the war of elves and humans along the way. 

This finale was fantastic and honestly while I am glad to see the series continue on and grow from there, and look forward to seeing more of this new second part of Clover that focuses on a war with the Spade Kingdom, I absolutely would not have complained if the whole thing ended right here with this story arc. It wraps up so beautifully and is a compilation of three great years of episodes. 

BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt so I’ll Max Out My Defense

Bofuri is not a series I thought I would enjoy as much as I did but it really won me over. Essentially just a ‘cute girls do cute things’ kind of show but with a twist of it being in an MMO game, there is something about it that made it so comfy and easy to watch. There’s always something enjoyable about watching the protagonist Maple, an absolutely clueless newbie at video games continue to be the bane of existence to the developers and admins of the game as she constantly breaks it and becomes insanely overpowered on a regular basis all from her own cluelessness. 

As the title suggests she is the only person in the world to get scared of taking damage in a video game and puts all her stats into defense and literally nothing else entirely. After so much grinding the girl is such a tank she can just walk through enemies to kill them. It’s fun little things like this that make the show always worth a chuckle as her legendary player status continues to rise while in reality she just has no clue how to play RPGs whatsoever. 

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

If you think Black Clover had a great run of episodes this year in 2020 just wait until you see what Boruto had to offer. While not a perfect year, the series did take off for about 2 months thanks to a pandemic hiatus, once it came back it was stronger than ever. We came out of the gates running and kicked off the return of Boruto with a fantastic 20+ episode long story arc centered on introducing the main group of villains in the series, the Kara. The world of Boruto became much bigger and much darker, and the series in the last year has started to bring in a lot more manga content and moving at a brisker and faster pace, changing the status quo up quite a lot. Watching the New Team 7 grow so much and rise to these challenges was rewarding and I am so excited for the vessel story arc teased at the latest Jump Festa this December. 

Ultimately though their first encounter, crushing defeat, and subsequent rematch with Deepa; a new anime only member of Kara meant to introduce the organization to anime viewers was an insane show de force of animation and one of the best battles in 2020 anime, dare I say. These kids are growing into great warriors and the stakes have been raised so much.

Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden IF

The 2018 reboot of the Vanguard series saw not only the card game get refreshed but the television anime as well. Dubbed the V Series by fans thanks to all the new card serial numbers starting with a V post reboot, these last two years have been fun and full of fan service for long time viewers of the anime. Gaiden IF is the final season of this reboot before the fourth entry of the franchise Overdress begins in 2021, and was a very strange and experimental one at that. Gaiden IF holding true to its name was a gaiden, or spinoff of the series that wasn’t necessary in the same canon as the regular show and more fascinating had zero card fights during the entire show--instead being one huge parody of card game animes in general and the beloved cast of characters the series has built over its ten year run. 

It’s quite hilarious and a great round of fun, especially since there isn’t a main character in sight. Gaiden IF is carried entirely by a cast of side characters and former villains now taking over the role of protagonist. I’ve never seen a show go for an entire season with such minor characters playing such a huge role and that is one of the best aspects of it. Every week watching Ibuki Kouji, one of the most feared and powerful villains in the series being tormented and kicked around as a would-be hero now honestly carries the entire show. 

But really, this was one of the first anime to air post pandemic hiatus and it was so refreshing to have Vanguard back. Every week it reminded me how much I loved the franchise and anime in general, it was such a delight to finally have something enjoyable back in my life after such a grueling pandemic hiatus of nothing. 

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think there would be a modern adaptation of Dai no Daibouken, or The Adventures of Dai as it is being called in English now. This was one of my all time favorite Jump manga growing up and I always thought the original unfinished 1991 anime was the best we were ever going to get as far as animation goes, so to see this beautiful new series with its fantastic storyboarding and animation, great use of CG mixed in with hand drawn, and what seems like an outright declaration from the series itself that it will adapt the series in its entirety this time, it’s all too much. 

This new Dai adaptation is like a dream anime that was made just for me. Every Saturday morning I giddily log on to watch the new episode just like being a kid again with Saturday morning cartoons. If you are sleeping on this show, don’t! You won’t regret watching it, Dai was one of the all time great Shonen Jump properties of the 90’s and is ready to show kids today what that era has to offer!

Gundam Build Divers Re:rise Season 2

Rerise was hands down one of my favorite shows last year when the first cour aired, and this year is no different either, dare I say once again this was probably my favorite show of the whole year. It’s hard to really go into what made this second cour so good without flat out spoiling all the best parts, and all the character development, and all the amazing battles, but suffice to say, this may be one of the best Gundam shows of the entire decade, Build series or not. Hell I ain’t afraid to say this kicked G-Tekketsu (Iron Blooded Orphans) ass this way to Sunday, I don’t care that this is a toy commercial for a much younger audience. Basically, watch Rerise, it’s going to be a great time. 

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

This was another series that I expected very little from but ended up really enjoying each week. The basic premise is pretty simple, a super fan obsessed with an idol (singer) goes to insane lengths to support her and thinks her love will never be reciprocated but maybe it just might be. It’s kinda strange and an unusual romance series that isn’t really all that big on romance. In fact it seems to be much bigger on being informative about idol fan culture and nerd culture in general and poking fun at that while never being too mean spirited. 

I think that’s the charm of this one. These are by all extent weird kinda creepy people that are obsessed over young girl singers but it never demonizes its cast for that nor does it ever go too far in the power fantasy of them ‘getting the girl’. It’s about the struggle of fan life and the tightknit and utterly bizarre groups of friends you can make in a fandom--and also maybe some love might happen along the way.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Another big modern shonen jump battle manga got its chance to be animated this year, and this time courtesy of studio Mappa who are the real stars of this party. Everything about Jujutsu Kaisen feels like Mappa throwing down the gauntlet and trying to one-up the highly praised and beloved Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba from last year that wowed everyone with UFOtable’s signature beautiful animation. It’s very fascinating to see the insane levels of gorgeous jaw dropping action set pieces between these two series, both raising the bar to ridiculous levels in their own ways. On top of the animation front though are some very easily lovable characters, a much darker feeling supernatural story than one may expect, and probably Crunchyroll’s best dub produced in 2020. 

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is another series from beloved auteur Masaaki Yuasa. Bringing with it his signature style and wonderful animation, his hardworking compatriots at studio Science Saro deliver something truly special, an anime about why anime is great and just how the heck it is made to begin with. I think one of my favorite aspects of Yuasa’s work is just how sincere almost his entire output is, and how you can really feel a certain kind of emotion and vision behind each work that is unique to it. For Eizouken it is definitely the joy of creation and what it means to pursue something creative. Easily one of the best watches of 2020 for both its visuals, sound design, characters with great chemistry that have to deliver very heavy and technical dialogue but do so in a really natural and enjoyable way--and hey the shows within the show that the girls make are also usually pretty interesting and good too.

MAJOR 2nd Season 2

I think my favorite aspect of this new middle school arc of MAJOR 2nd was seeing just how much Daigo has changed over the years since we last saw him in elementary school in the first season. No longer in little league and now trying to save his school’s baseball club, Daigo has grown into a strong leader and really feels natural with everyone he talks to. It’s a huge departure from the bullied and reclusive selfish kid he was in the first season. Seeing the kid grow up into somebody reliable and caring like this almost brings a tear to my eye. 

It’s an old cliché but saving the falling apart club in your school is a classic underdog story and the fact that Daigo built his own team from the ground up really sells it. The team is largely made up of girls too which brings a really great girl power aspect to it as well. With just 3 boys and the rest of the positions being filled with females, the haphazard team Daigo put together not only has to show that nobodies can make it but that girls are just as good as the boys.

Rent-a-Girlfriend

I love trashy romcom harem anime, I will be the first to admit it. I am not even their target audience, in fact I am probably the exact opposite of their target audience yet I can’t get enough of this kind of garbage, and Rent-a-Girlfriend brings in the garbagest of garbage it can! The name says it all right there, our hero is literally so pathetic he has to pay girls money to go on dates with him. And he just continues to ruin everything around him with his constant lying and all around patheticness. He is like a blackhole of suck that will drag down any and all that go near him. What more can you even want?! 

I am half facetious here of course, but to an extent what I said about Kazuya isn’t wrong. He’s the biggest loser around, and I love him. It’s fun to watch him squirm, and it’s nice to learn more about him and see he has a good side deep down too. In a lot of ways he’s probably one of the more relatable leads in these kinds of shows as he’s just as pathetic as all the rest of us who watch these kinds of shows are. But besides Kazuya there are plenty of nice leading ladies too and probably most surprisingly a fairly well fleshed out circle of friends that he hangs out with. Usually these kinds of shows will sideline the male friends of the leads and only focus on time between the lead and the girls, so it’s refreshing to see so much time spent with other boys in the show too. 

Also as an addendum to anyone who watches the series dubbed, Aleks Le‘s performance as the lead role is maybe some of the best casting in modern anime dubbing I have ever heard. He kills it in this show. It’s a performance that carries the entire show. 

Shadowverse

You might say, I saved the best for last, but honestly this was a coincidence. Shadowverse is a by-the-numbers card game anime. It starts very slow and very bland, and offers nothing new to the genre instead sticking entirely to the classic tropes and clichés of sports anime and Yu-Gi-Oh clones alike. That is for the first 12 episodes or so. It begins to evolve and gets a little more interesting from there, then something happens. Something I cannot explain. Something that makes no sense. Something that the production committee probably should not have allowed to occur. The show just goes absolutely, positively, certifiably, fucking insane. 

Out of nowhere, the plot suddenly turns into a straight Neon Genesis Evangelion knock-off, complete with plugsuits, random nonsense mysticism from exotic religions, and soul crushing nightmarishly harsh treatment of the child protagonists. Suddenly time freezes for everyone but the main characters, and the totally original not Kabbalah, Tree of Woe, begins to end the world. Now armed with their new psychic powers (that they just have now out of nowhere!) the kids have to fight brain washed former enemies and loved ones alike that seek to destroy the world via assimilation into the darkness. 

Suddenly we have moments like the above where Luca, the coldhearted and cool Shadowverse player who only ever began fighting in tournaments to earn money for his younger sick sister’s treatment has to face off against a possessed evil version of his sister who bemoans all the isolation he put her through, never being there with her, always away trying to earn money. She berates and destroys the young man’s heart for his well intentions. Luca with no other options has to put her down for the good of the world. 

You know, for the 12 year old kids in the audience that signed up for a show about a cellphone app.

I haven't even gotten to the best part yet, the show isn’t over! There’s still 12 episodes left in the series and do you wanna know the best part?! The heroes already failed! The world blew up and everyone got sucked into a blackhole and died! That’s not a joke. The bad guys won. And there’s still another season worth of episodes to go! I am not kidding, this is how the show ended the year 2020! This is legendary, no fucks given status if I ever saw it. The best way to end 2020 if ever there was one:

Every week I anxiously log on to watch Shadowverse after it jumped the shark just to see what insanity happens next. This is Tommy Wiseau The Room energy levels of pure insane dribble. Shadowverse might be the biggest disaster of a card game anime of all time, and I simply cannot get enough of it now.  

BONUS THOUGHTS For 2020

Random Anime Collecting: This year saw Discotek release three Case Closed/Detective Conan movies on blu-ray. Detective Conan is a series near and dear to my heart, and one I spent a lot of my college days obsessed over. This is a franchise I really went to great lengths to collect after Funimation reprinted many of the long time out of print volumes of the series back in 2013, and I bought them all back then. Buying new Detective Conan movies in 2020 felt super surreal, and also wonderful. I really hope I can keep buying more in 2021.

Hidive for these hard times: I didn’t include anything really from Sentai, I am not sure why, maybe none of what I watched this year would count as a favorite of mine, maybe I was just lazy and didn’t want to add to my list anymore. Honestly though I watched a lot of series this year on Hidive. I think my favorite has been the new dub of Pet Girl of Sakurasou. 

A Lost Classic: Nobody is talking about God Mazinger finally getting released in English from Discotek and that kind of bums me out. The series was one I obsessed over when younger, especially because it was rare to find even raw footage of it lead alone subtitled. It was never subtitled in fact, so Discotek’s release is the first time it has ever been in English. 

#anime #The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? #Ascendance of a Bookworm #Black Clover #Boruto #Boruto Naruto Next Generations #Bofuri #Cardfight!! Vanguard #Dragon Quest #Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken #dragon quest the adventure of dai #Gundam Build Divers Re:rise #JuJutsu Kaisen #Keep YOur Hands Off Eizouken #MAJOR 2nd #Rent-a-girlfriend #Shadowverse

[zerochanges]

2019 Year End Review - Anime Side

This is the second half of my Favorites list for 2019. If you wanna see my video game picks then refer to the prior blog entry. 

This year had tons of wonderful and great animes, and really reminded me again why I love the medium so much. While my game play time did suffer quite a bit this year I was mostly able to keep up with every anime season of 2019 and really soak up as many shows as I could. There aren't really any major rules to my list other than avoiding long-running anime a la Black Clover or Pokémon and the like. The only reason for this is so I can focus on the seasonal shows that may get swept away with the passage of time. If I included all the never ending shonen animes I love this freaking list would be crowded to the brim with it after all.

So without further ado, let’s check out some great anime. 

Ahiru no Sora 

The main character Sora Kurumatani is an incredibly short high school freshmen with dreams of joining his school’s basketball team. Unfortunately the school’s basketball club is comprised entirely of dangerous delinquents who have all taken over the club and use it as their hang-out because of the school’s policy that every student has to join a club. Undeterred Sora tries his best to get into the club and stand up against the delinquents who run it, and maybe just hopefully help them turn over a new leaf and become actual basketball players in the process. 

This has been a pretty fun sports anime, that also veers somewhat into the “yanki” genre of manga and anime too with tons of fist fights, blood, and beat-downs in-between the times the characters do play b-ball. The series really gives off a lot of 90’s anime vibes despite its more modern aesthetic (a great opening theme from the Pillows certainly helps in that regard too) and I’ve been having tons of fun with this one each week. It is scheduled to run for a total of 4 cours so it’s taking its time and really establishing the entire cast so well. And watching Sentai’s dubcast of the anime has been delightful too, I love they really ran with the delinquent characters and aren’t afraid to swear up a storm and drop F-bombs regularly, it’s just tons of fun to listen to.

Astra Lost in Space 

The newest series from Shonen Jump alum Kenta Shinohara, Astra Lost in Space is just what you would expect from the creator of SKET Dance: a hilarious romp through space with a great group of characters that all carry heavy emotional baggage. The series really does remind me tons of SKET Dance, except set in outer space instead of high school, and I am all for it. I laughed, I cried, and I racked my brain behind the main mystery of the series. Just who stranded these kids in space, and why did they want them dead? 

The mystery element is perhaps the most unique twist on Astra that sets it apart from most of Shinohara’s earlier works in Jump, and while no Sherlock Holmes or anything, it is still fairly a fun component of the series that pushes the adventures of the young crew of the Astra beyond just being episodic romps. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys comedy and space travel stories.

BEM

The newest entry in the long running Humanoid Monster Bem (Yokai Ningen Bem) franchise that started life in 1968 during the yokai boom largely created by GeGeGe no Kitaro’s huge success. The series has definitely played second fiddle to its clear influence Kitaro, but is a fairly beloved franchise that has still gotten multiple iterations of its own. 

What largely separates Bem from Kitaro is its more science fiction based monsters over the old fashion folklore creepies from Kitaro, and the three protagonists of the series: Bem, Belo, and Bela. These three “humanoid monsters” appear almost human enough but are still freaks in a conventional sense and do not fit into society. Despite being shunned by humans they still choose to protect humanity from other monster attacks in hopes that one day if they do enough good deeds they can be reborn as human too and finally fit in. 

This newest series places a lot of narrative focus on the titular Bem, the leader of the group, who honestly was never all that fleshed out in part iterations and sometimes even played second fiddle to the younger member of the trio Belo who probably connected to the younger audience more. This really separates Bem from pasts series as it’s a lot darker and more mature. I would really love to analyze all the animes at some point in the future.

Boogiepop and Others 

The previous Boogiepop anime series from over 20 years ago now, Boogiepop Phantom, is one of the all time great A E S T H E T I C animes, with absolutely chilling horror, downright mystifying and confusing plots, and a heep ton of gore. It’s one of my favorites and it’s also entirely non-canon to the original light novels and is instead a stand alone original anime series. So how does the actual adaptation of the Boogiepop books far then? They’re all right. 

Boogiepop and Others lacks much of the aesthetic nature of the original Phantom series, and keeps a tone that is more consistent to its source material. It’s a series that starts a lot slower and is much more down-to-earth in the beginning before revealing all its pieces and getting into the supernatural aspects. Once it gets going however I found I really enjoyed this more accurate Boogiepop adaptation. Shingo Natsume is a fantastic director and the anime is incredibly gorgeous with his adept work on the series, and the general atmosphere is strange and creepy, and fairy creative without ever going full on horror anime.

The Demon Girl Next Door (Machikado Mazoku)

When I read the initial synopsis for this anime; “a young girl wakes up to discover she inherited demon powers and must now fight against magical girls in order for her clan to be lifted from its curse” I almost downright dismissed it and passed on it because I thought it was being played straight. However I gave the first episode a shot out of curiosity and quickly discovered it was actually a comedy series. A huge spoof on the Magical Girl genre if you will. And a damn good one.

What really separates Machikado Mazoku from the rest of the millions of Magical Girl comedies is how sincere its protagonist is and how low stakes the relative series turns out. Yuko, or Shadow Priestess Yuko, or Shamiko for short (a nickname she despises) is such an airhead and klutz. She can’t accomplish anything and instead of fighting magical girls she ends up befriending the only two she meets. This is such a relaxing and fun series and most people probably missed it because of the Hidive exclusive streaming rights.

Dr. Stone 

Dr. Stone was always one of the newer Shonen Jump hits I was curious about but never got around to reading--largely thanks to my rule to not touch anything in Jump until I am certain it won’t be axed. So many bad memories. So many manga I loved dying. Ah-hum, excuse me then. Anyways I heard incredible things about the series, especially from one friend in particular and once it got an anime announcement I was so excited. TMS did a fantastic job adapting everything as far as I can tell too, and the anime has been wonderful. 

Perhaps the most impressive thing to me about the series so far is how it isn’t reliant on battles or typical power scaling escalations like a lot of Jump titles are known for. Instead this is a fun adventure series, that largely focuses on science and the power of friendship and I can really get behind that.

Fire Force (En'en no Shouboutai)

Fire Force came on the scene and dazzled everybody early on in its run with amazing production values and insane fight choreography and animation but as the series went on it got a sort of reputation for being fairly bland and not nearly as gorgeous as when it started. And I kind of hate that. I actually thought the series has looked great throughout its entire run--sure maybe some episodes aren’t action packed exploding set pieces, but the general direction and story-boarding in the show is always beautiful and great looking. There’s an expert eye on the lighting, and each scene flows into each other wonderfully. I also greatly respect and love the slower and more somber pace of the episodes--it really lets all the drama soak in, and you get a feeling that this world the characters live in is not great; it’s fairly suffocating actually, even without all the fires. 

As far as the plot goes, well I suppose that is more subjective; I certainly cannot argue that it is a wholly original story with groundbreaking characters, but I will argue that for what it is it works well and is enjoyable. The cast is fun and interesting, and all have great chemistry with each other, especially Shinra and Arthur who easily carry a lot of the show with their constant bickering despite being allies. I am really happy to see it getting a second season next year.

Fruits Basket (2019)

This is the second adaptation of the popular shoujo manga and a very accurate one at that. Pretty much any fan of the series will easily tell you how the original 2001 anime infamously upset the creator so much because of the changes it made from its source material (both big and small) that she denied any attempts at a sequel. It is definitely no surprise that this anime plays its cards incredibly loyal to its source material and it works great because of it since the source material is so good too.

Watching Fruits Basket again was like talking to an old long lost friend. It was such an enjoyable series to have back in my life and hearing Funimation’s almost entire original cast reprise their roles, even Laura Bailey as the protagonist Tohru, was just magical. This is very much a healing series and every episode felt like a weight was being lifted from my soul. I can’t wait for the future seasons, and I love they are going to adapt the entire manga this time!

Gundam Build Divers Re:rise

Another new year, another new Gundam Build series. These entries have really started to become a regular part of Bandai’s release schedule and I am not complaining. Re:rise is a semi sequel of sorts to last year’s Build Divers, a show I put on my favorites list a year ago too. Despite this you thankfully do not need to watch the previous show to fully understand Re:rise, as it is largely just set in the same world and instead has its own original characters and disconnected plot. 

And what a plot it is! Re:rise’s plot is fantastic, and its characters are so much fun with great chemistry. Re:rise’s cast is the oldest group of protagonists we’ve really seen in a Build series which gives it a much more mature tone than all the previous entries, with higher stakes that mean more than they ever have in a Build series. This show honestly on par with the main Gundam series at times and it drew me in so much. I loved every episode and want more, and hate that it ended up being split cour and we have to wait! The last two episodes of Re:rise particularly are huge gut punches that push the show beyond all expectations and really stick with you. This might just be my love for Gundam but this was easily one of the best animes I watched all year.

Gundam The Origin: Advent of the Red Comet 

So is this cheating? Technically speaking Advent of the Red Comet is just the original Gundam The Origin OVA series (2015-2018) sliced into a 13 episode TV show format. And I watched most of the OVA back when it was released already too (I still needed to catch the two Loum Arc episodes before this came out though). But goddamn, rewatching all of Origin again in TV show format was so excellent. So I don’t care! This was one of my favorite shows to catch each week, and don’t at me. YAS’ contributions on the Gundam universe simply cannot be overstated, and his work with Origin was so excellent and talented that it gives the entire series a feeling of true cinematic sophistication--something the original cast and crew all desperately wanted when they first created Gundam! 

Also, it gave us the greatest Opening theme of the year and honored the 40th year anniversary of the legendary franchise while doing so. You can’t beat that.

Kemono Michi - Rise Up 

In this isekai parody series the protagonist Genzo is a pro wrestler and animal lover aficionado summoned to another world to save it from the Demon King. When told that in order to do so he would have to slaughter countless magical beast he refuses and german suplexes the very princess who summoned him! There’s no way Genzo will ever harm any animal, they are far too precious. Trapped in a fantasy world Genzo makes the best of it by capturing and training all the magical beast and opening up a pet shop so they can find their forever homes. Even more hijinx ensure. 

Kemono Michi is notable for being a new series by the creator of the beloved Konosuba, and it both shows and doesn’t show. Kemono Michi is another isekai parody series but it’s largely its own thing and a lot of humor is pretty different from what you would expect from Konosuba. People coming into the show looking for more Konosuba will probably be disappointed but for anyone just looking for a good laugh and don’t mind how different it really is they will have tons of fun. Genzo and crew are hilarious and the series’ genuine disinterest in the classic save the fantasy world plot is really refreshing. Sure the Demon King is out there slaughtering millions, but that’s not Genzo’s problem, somebody else can get on it, he’s busy trying to run a pet shop of his dreams. 

Unfortunately said pet shop only sells the typical JRPG monsters you encounter and not real animals …

Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

So this might be another cheat as Sunohara-sou did indeed originally air in 2018 however it was locked up in streaming prison and nobody could legally watch it until this year thanks to Funimation’s newest deal with Bibibili. I ended up really enjoying it this year and watched every episode back-to-back with Fruits Basket. As I mentioned earlier Fruits Basket is a healing kind of show and I felt the same for Sunohara-sou. It was a really relaxing and cute show that made me super comfortable and chilled out before I had to go in to work for my worst shift of the week. .

MIX Meisei Story

Mix is the newest anime adaptation from the legendary manga-ka Mitsuru Adachi and also a sort of sequel to his seminal work Touch (1981-1986). Set thirty years after Touch and with a largely different cast of characters but still in the same town that Touch took place in, this series is fairly easy for anyone to get into but also extra rewarding for long time fans who will pick up on more smaller things that while not important are there in the background. 

The brotherly relationship between Touma and Souma is what drives the core of the series and much like the twin protagonists of Touch Tatsuya and Kazuya their ambitions to make it to Koushien and play in the Nationals and love for baseball is unmatched. Touma and Souma aren’t just rehashes of the original two protagonists and by in large this has to do with Mix not incorporating a certain major plot twist Touch is famous for but I will refrain from talking about. With all that said you get a lot more interaction with these brothers than the original series and it is simply delightful. 

Mix brings in the classic great character writing, and sense of youth that Adachi is always known for, and he is a true master at writing high school romance and sports manga by this point. It’s been an actual decade since his last anime Cross Game and the wait was worth it. Man, now I just need a Season 2!

Mob Psycho 100 II 

MOB IS BACK!!! Need I really say more? The entire staff that worked on Mob is phenomenal, and really Bones is showing the best of the industry with both seasons of this series. But what lies at the core of Mob even more so than the amazing and unique art style and fluid animation is the wonderful character driven writing of indie writer ONE who started his career online and not with a major publisher. ONE is a master at not just comedy but characters. Watching all our best boys grow and learn in Mob has caused me to literally cry. Just the first episode of this season has shown how much Mob has grown as a person and how he is maturing. Mob you’re becoming cooler and cooler every episode, you little adorable awkward dork. 

One Punch-Man Season 2 

Man, OPM2 was thoroughly destroyed when it came out earlier this year. I largely definitely understood why though as the production of this season is such a major downgrade in every regard to the amazing work the crew did on the first season and it seems shifting from Madhouse to JC Staff really did harm the series in the long run. I didn’t even bother when it aired in Japanese because of that and have only just recently started to watch it after it got dubbed and put on Toonami. And I have to say … it really isn’t that bad. 

Maybe the dub version is using the more finished home video release footage over the original TV airing but I don’t think it’s really at a level of horror story (if anything look at Arifureta from this year too). Is it worse than Season One? Yup. Does that fact suck? Oh yeah. But the same heart is present from the original series in this season. I am surprised how badly it went because I am really loving this. ONE is such a talented writer and seeing his work animated never disappoints, I guess.

Outburst Dreamer Boys (Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy)

This is another fairly funny series that seemed to fly under everyone’s radar and I assume that yet again the main culprit for this is because of the Hidive exclusive streaming. It’s a shame the platform is easily missed by so many considering its plethora of great content and tons of exclusives it’s been snagging up lately. *ah-hum* I promised I was not paid for that shill just now, sorry. 

Anyways, this is a comedy about a young girl Mizuki Hijiri who just transferred into a new school. All she wants is a normal high school experience but she is unfortunately adopted by the local Hero Club at the school more or less. Now the Hero Club is nothing more than a bunch of chunni boys going around doing all sorts of crazy and hilarious things and hijinks ensue. This is a fairly straight forward premise but largely carried by just how funny the characters are. It’s nice simple laughs that lead to feel good conclusions at the end of almost every episode.

The Promised Neverland 

Everything I said about Dr. Stone I can pretty much repeat about Neverland as well. I was so impressed with this series although it started off fairly simple it really grew into something far more sinister and ambitious. The ending of the season I did not see coming, and the creative team behind the manga’s bravery to move past the status quo instead of just milking it for all it is worth is applause worthy. Really looking forward to the next season. Speaking of--if you don’t mind the tangent--this must just be the year of Shonen Jump or something, though, am I right? Dr. Stone, Neverland, Astra, wow Shueisha really is killing it this year.

The Quintessential Quintuplets (Go-Toubun no Hanayome)

On the surface the Quints (as fans call it) is nothing more than a basic cut and dry harem set up where one guy has to tutor five beautiful girls who all just happened to be sisters. Like damn I think I might have played this game in high school and it was naughty! But Quints is surprisingly deep and a lot more than just that. It’s by no means a masterpiece in anime romance story telling but I was thoroughly blown away by how restrained it really was and how well written each of the heroines are. This is a really cute series that’s just easy to watch and appreciate it for its simplistic but well crafted story.

Radiant (Season 2) 

Radiant is back and is having a much better start than the first season ever did a year prior. This current season has had significantly less filler and is much closer to the manga in its story which makes for an improved viewing experience and is noticeably a lot more mature now. The original season of Radiant struggled with how much filler and changes to the plot and characters it piled on in its early run. That really made the series seem more cliche and simple than it really is and because of that it had a lot of difficulty in finding an audience early on who may have (rightfully so) dismissed it based on those early fumbles. Early Radiant anime somewhat reminds me of the start of the Black Clover anime in this regard, actually. 

It wasn’t until the first season moved on to one of the earlier big picture story arcs in Rumbletown that it really started to come together and let the source material shine through. Seeing season 2 maintain this relatively same quality since its very first episode is promising. The character interaction is much improved, and Seth’s journey only gets more complicated from this point on in the story as he learns more about nemeses, magic, and his own past. It’s a great battle manga finally given some real justice with its anime and I really have been digging season 2.

RobiHachi

RobiHachi is Diet Space Dandy and in a world where Space Dandy is only 26 episodes and that’s it, that’s a good thing! We need more Space Dandy!!!

While not even close to the animation powerhouse of Dandy, or the experimental nature of how it changed directors constantly, RobiHachi is very close in the same sort of style and humor of Dandy. It’s essentially a buddy series where two men Robby and Hatchi end up on a voyage through space together and get into all kinds of crazy adventures along the way. It’s a nice little series that helps fill in the void that Space Dandy left after it ended in 2014.

Run with the Wind (Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru) 

Run with the Wind, based off a novel of the same name is a series about a disheveled track and field team trying to run the Hakone Ekiden, a world famous (or infamous) race that is extremely grueling and has destroyed many young athlete and potential Olympic runners sports careers in the past. Despite all this team leader Haiji pursues his dream of racing down this grueling track and will stop at nothing to run it, even if he has to make an Olympic quality team out of rejects and losers. He often butts heads with protagonist Kakeru who views the world very differently from Haiji and thinks he needs to accept reality already and give up this pipe-dream. 

Run with the Wind is utterly fantastic, and a show so many people slept on. I honestly don’t even know why! Because it’s about running, I guess? Really, there is no excuse! What are all of you guys doing missing this show?! What separates it from a ton of the other sports anime peers is a few things, on the surface level there is the University setting and older cast. All the characters are young adults, and plenty of them are 20-somethings at the phase of their lives where they need to find their first real career and figure out how to live. But at the heat of Run with the Wind is a far more serious dialogue about being an adult and facing reality vs pursuing your dreams and what the limit of hard work should mean. This is far more than just a series about running. It’s about the weight of the dreams we all carry with us and the weight of the friendship and bounds we all form. And what weight we should carry and what we should let go. 

This was an incredibly emotional and impactful anime series and I am super happy to see it receiving an upcoming dub next year from Sentai, it deserves it!

Senryu Girl 

This series of short 12-minute episodes was one of the most adorable series in 2019 and always managed to make me smile. Senryu Girl stars Nanako, a girl who because of her incredible shy and introverted nature never speaks and only communicates through senryu poetry she writes. Nanaka hangs out with Eiji, a local delinquent that most of the school fears but is in fact a huge softie and a major fan of poetry--he even belongs to the same poetry club as Nanaka. Together the two write poetry with each other, go on dates, and get into all sorts of adorable situations.

True Cooking Master Boy (Shin Chuka Ichiban!) 

In this semi-remake, semi-continuation of the classic 1997 Cooking Master Boy anime we follow the youngest super chef in all of China Liu Mao Xing, as he takes on the dark Underground Cooking Society who seek to control the entire world through their cooking and beat them at their own game.

I think this series is best described as Food Wars!/Shokugeki no Soma but instead of being incredibly horny it’s a martial arts film. I didn’t really follow the original anime series but definitely plan to get around to finding it after watching this newest series. I really enjoyed all the cooking battles that have been shown and the characters are all excellent.

Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga is an artistic marvel and this anime adaptation fully lives up to its legendary manga’s reputation. 

Every episode of Vinlad was so damn compelling, and this feels like what the previous Berserk series should have always been like instead of the infamously janky CGI animation and knife to the page cutting scripts it got. Vinland is such an emotionally powerful series that can be carried by its own characters alone even during long stretches of episodes that lack the adrenaline fueled action fests for the eyes that it has. Honestly the less said about Vinalnd the better, as it’s an experience you should go into fresh without knowing too much about it. But oh boy, I am still reeling for that finale, it was downright terrifying and therapeutic. 

This is easily a major highlight of the anime industry in 2019.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshi Kousei no Mudazukai)

I’m starting to notice a pattern where I talk about comedies a lot, but I guess that just is my taste in entertainment, huh? This series is also another pattern too, the Hidive exclusive nobody watched. I know, I know, let’s just get on with a few words about the show. 

Wasteful Days is  downright the most hilarious anime of 2019. I guess I ended up saving the best for last, as every episode would have tears rolling down my eyes from laughing too hard. The basic premise of a classroom full of a bunch of weirdos is super uninteresting, and on the surface if you read the description it doesn’t sound like anything special but don’t be fooled. The whole damn series is constantly hilarious and ludicrous. There isn’t a single minute of screen time where you aren’t falling over and laughing at the stuff happening on the screen.

Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun!

While not as funny as Wasteful Days, Iruma-kun is also another great comedy of the year, and I would be remiss not to mention. The series has a more fantastical element what with it being a demon school in the Netherworld, and poor Iruma, the only human boy in the school is trying his hardest to not stand out and get eaten by all the demons but he just can’t stop being incredible at everything in the demon curriculum somehow. This is a great little funny series, and the dub made by Curnchyroll is equally hilarious. I really recommend it especially for anyone who is a fan of Disgaea.

#ahiru no sora #astra lost in space #bem #boogiepop and others #machikado mazoku #dr. stone #fire force #fruits basket #gundam build divers re:rise #gundam the origin #kemono michi #sunohara-sou #mix meisei story #mob psycho 100 ii #one punch season 2 #outburst dreamer boys #the promised neverland #go toubun no hanayome #radiant season 2 #robihachi #kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #senryu girl #shin chuuka ichiban #vinland saga #wasteful days of high school girl #anime

[zerochanges]

2019 Year End Review - Video Game Side

2019 ended up being a pretty grueling year for me personally. It can probably be best described as a year of a lot of ups and downs--and I know that is typically a fairly cliche thing to say, but well it feels especially true now that it’s over. This was a year where I accomplished a great many feats but all of them felt as if they came at a great cost. It was a year where I regressed on some things and accomplished some others. I had a lot of fun in 2019 but I was also deeply stressed out for a large chunk of it and going in and out of doctor’s offices because of said stress. Ultimately it was the quintessential Twenty-First century experience! 

I didn’t play too many games this year, especially if you count only games from 2019 in this list. Because of that I am gonna change some things up from the past couple of years when I wrote my lists. This time I am going to create some new sections. First we will have the typical ‘favorite games of 2019’, next there will be a sort-of runner-up category of ‘games that aren’t from 2019 but I played them in 2019 so I will include them anyways’, and finally we have the miscellaneous category of ‘games from 2019 I wish I played but didn’t’. For the most part I will really focus on just the 2019 game section, so don’t worry, but I really wanted to talk about some more games in general too. So without further ado here are my favorite games of 2019. 

Section I: Favorite Games of 2019

AI THE SOMNIUM FILES

AI was easily a game I had on my radar all year long since I was a major Uchikoshi fan to begin with (999 being one of my all time favorites) and his hotly anticipated follow up did not disappoint. It was uniquely an Uchikoshi experience right down to its incredible ARG advertisement campaign leading up to the launch of the game that really made AI feel special even before I got a chance to play it. Following Tesa’s online streaming career in real life months before the game hit store shelves, and weaving through tons of fan theories about said videos was something else.

Playing through the game to find out what it was truly like had me giddy after all those months, and it really delivered on everything I wanted out of it. Great characters, fantastic and hilarious dialogue, and some of the albeit expected, but still executed super well, story beats that Uchikoshi is famous for. My time as Kaname Date, a special agent with the elite police force known as ABIS, was great. I went on dates with high school girls, argued with 12 year olds, shook down otakus, leered at waitresses, stole women’s underwear, and even got to do a little bit of actual police work on the side!

I kid of course, but Uchikoshi’s usual sense of comedy is clearly on display all throughout the story, and anyone familiar with his previous games can expect a sort of more serious Punch-Line out of AI. I honestly think it’s best described as Uchikoshi combining the serious elements from his previous works like 999 with the more light hearted characters of his later works like Punch-Line. Overall it’s a great cleanser for fans after the rather grim Zero Time Dilemma. The puzzle elements, while not as nearly strong as the Zero Escape trilogy, still feel improved from Punch-Line’s, and the framing device of diving into people’s dreams in order to solve said puzzles, works really well.

AI: The Somnium Files was one solidly written game on every front, both from the original writing staff and the localization staff; who all went above and beyond in presenting an incredibly well executed script and an absolutely gut busting hilarious English audio option. AI is probably one of the best English dubs I heard in the last decade for a video game. A feat even more impressive considering almost every line in this 30 hour game is voiced. Then there’s the fact that AI is probably one of the best looking Uchikoshi games in easily a decade. Gone are the super stiff and awkward 3D models from Zero Time Dilemma, and the strange, awkward, and low budget feeling weird mix of old anime footage and 3D models of Punch-Line. AI is what giving Uchikoshi an actual budget must feel like and it feels great.

Out of the games I did play this year I would easily feel comfortable calling this one my favorite.

The Caligula Effect: Overdose

The original 2016 PS Vita release of The Caligula Effect always interested me a lot. On the surface of the game is yet another “Persona Clone” trying to cash in on the success of a popular franchise but when you looked under the hood more you could see it came from some pretty high pedigree--with Tadashi Satomi the writer of the original trilogy of Persona games returning to pen this title and a whole slew of talented musicians (that are far too many to list) doing the soundtrack. Caligula brought its A-game with those two departments … and that was pretty much all it brought. The game was marred with terrible reviews; some even going as far as to say the battle system was nigh unplayable. Add to it a lukewarm localization from Atlus and a digital only release, and yeah, I was curious but stayed my distance. 

2019 brought with it a shiny new remake for the PS4 that improved on almost everything wrong with the original on Vita--completely remade from the ground up in Unreal Engine 4 with a brand new battle system--and along for the ride is the added bonuses of even more great new music, new party members, and an all new story route. So how does it fair? A lot better! 

Overdose is still far from a perfect game however, but I found it was probably the best “Persona Clone” I have played so far. It has a lot of flaws, with some bad dungeon designs, and some overly obtuse game play mechanics that are not properly explained in game; not to mention some fairly bad difficulty balancing as it went on--but it is definitely far more playable than the original Vita version and dare I even say, still a good game. I had a lot of fun with it at least despite its flaws. Of course the main stars of the game are still the music and the amazing story and that’s where Caligula Effect shines the most. In a lot of ways it felt far more satisfying than Persona 5 did to me. 

You’ll hafta excuse this little tangent here, but among my friends P5 is infamously a game I was very disappointed with. I know I will get a lot of flack for this. Hell I hate myself for even being like this considering how much everyone else seems to really like it. It isn’t like I enjoy being that guy coming in to ruin everyone’s fun--but I just can’t help it. Persona 5 is a fantastic game on the mechanical level--with some of the best dungeon designs the series has ever seen, a battle system that feels pretty much perfected by this point, and a whole lot of content and things to see and play (sometimes bordering on too much). All of these Caligula Effect severely lacks as well. These are easily elements where this game greatly needed to be polished. But P5 was also a super safe game that at the end of the day did not feel as poignant or meaningful as all the other past entries in the series. 

What did P5 even have to say? “Politicians are bad”? Yeah, no shit. “Lying is bad except when we do it then it’s good”? Ah, excuse me. “Brainwashing people into believing what we think is right makes us just and any repercussions or arguments against it will all be disregarded after the first boss fight”? Yeah, this game is a mess thematically, I’m sorry. (Not to mention the best plot twists were stolen wholesale straight from Persona 2, sorry not sorry lol). This is where the Calgiua Effect really came through--to an almost therapeutic level. Where P5 stumbled terribly thematically, Caligula Effect soars. This was the story I wanted P5 to have. This was the emotional weight I wanted to see in that game. This was the “I have a message I want to scream out and I don’t care how controversial, dirty, or uncomfortable it makes other people feel I still need to say it!” that the Persona series used to be. 

Anyways I lost focus. To get back on track, I will just say that the Caligula Effect really delivers interesting, poignant takes on the typical “Persona Clone” game premise right down to the fact that this game is a “Persona Clone”. Because of that the characters have to be high schoolers. They are all trapped in this virtual world recreation of high school; are all forced to assume the form of high schoolers despite their real life appearance and ages being different. That right there is the sort of meta commentary on modern Persona you can get from Caligula Effect.

At the end of the day all these characters are deeply flawed individuals, many of them sick and desperately need treatment for their mental health issues. Most of them simply cannot survive in the real world. Attempted suicide, eating disorders, social anxiety disorders, autism, all these mental health issues and more are what the characters deal with in Caligula Effect. The cast may even be better off in their virtual world prison just reliving the same three years of high school over and over again on repeat, never coming to terms or facing their issues. But despite that the aptly named go home club wants out. They choose to face the world, they choose not to run away from reality itself anymore and escape their Matrix prison cells and return back to their flawed lives in the harsh and cold reality. 

Collection of Mana

This is a game I never thought would get localized but somehow it actually happened. When Collection of Mana initially released in Japan sometime in 2017 I desperately pleaded for the game to come out in America; sadly it didn’t. Fast forward two more years and at E3 2019 it is dropped right into our laps! That alone is just awesome to see. This is the first physical release of a Mana game in who knows how long! The franchise was so dormant for such a long time just buying this collection and having it on my shelf made me so happy. 

But even better than that for the first time ever Square Enix has released Seiken Densetsu 3 and has finally quelled the long debate of whether or not to call it Secret of Mana 2. Thank god! That dumb debate is finally over! Trials of Mana is a localization miracle in of itself and playing it again brings back so many memories of my high school days emulating the game (and many, many other SNES titles). It’s good to finally own it in some capacity. Haven’t seen such a miracle localization since Atlus released Shin Megami Tensei I back in 2014.

Daedalus: Awakening of Golden Jazz

It’s no secret that me and my ol’ boy Jake Hunter (that’s Jinguji Saburo for those of you not in the know) go way back. The Jake Hunter series is one of my recent obsessions over the last decade. The games span all the way back to the original Famicom Disk system in Japan and have changed publishers and even developers multiple times yet have still stuck around all these years and have been fairly consistently good too. It is one of the oldest and longest running visual novel series, and anybody who is a fan of hardboiled detective noir fiction will feel right at home with it. 

In this newest entry you play as a much younger Jinguji trying to discover the truth behind his grandfather’s apparent murder. The investigation takes you all the way to New York City and eventually involves an old conspiracy centered on “Daedalus”. This is a prequel which makes it probably one of the easiest entry points into the series we’ve seen get an official English release. With the American setting and no need to know any past continuity (this is an origin story after all), you probably couldn’t ask for a better start to get into the series than this. 

Everything about Daedalus is beautiful. The real life photography used as backgrounds--all shot on location in New York City gives the game such a unique atmosphere. Added with the color pencil like tone of the character art, and neo-noir esque story and this game almost feels like a Hotel Dusk 3 at times. The story is simply fantastic and the ending twist had me screaming in excitement. It all comes together so well and leads into such a legendary and beloved series. I really can’t recommend it enough to fans of detective games.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses 

So you guys ever play a game until you become absolutely sick of it? Like you just played it religiously nonstop for months. Like before you knew it you had something like 200 hours clocked in already? Guess what game that was for me. Go ahead. Guess!

Fire Emblem Three Houses came in like a wrecking crew and destroyed my gaming slump this summer. Once I got my hands on it I never let go until I beat all four routes in the game. I was a fiend. I was 100% addicted on this game. Three Houses started out good enough for me. I still felt the previous entry Echoes was a more interesting game but the more I played Three Houses the more it became one of my favorite games in the series. It’s so fresh, it’s so fun, and it’s so full of best boys! Yes, the memes alone that Three Houses brought with it are all worth an award of their own, and are an essential part of the FE3H experience, don’t at me. 

The other most essential part of the experience is the military academy setting. Having three different houses to choose from, four different alliances to forge,students to recruit, paths to discover, it all makes the game perfect for sharing with others. In my friend group I played Black Eagles on my first run while my other buddies played Blue Lions and Golden Deer. Sharing the experience of each house and having our own rivalry over our fictional video game alliances was all so much fun! 

This was a solid entry in the Fire Emblem series and the first time said series has really faced HD, and it succeeded so well! I feel like a decade from now we will all be looking back at Three Houses as an incredibly important and great part of the Fire Emblem series.

Legend of the Tetrarchs 

I like Kemco RPGs. I like them a lot. They are a sorta morbid and strange hobby of mine. Most of them however are fairly pretty basic, and some are downright bad--but there’s usually one universal truth between any of their releases: they are all kinda cheap looking. Well not anymore! 

Legend of Tetrarchs is the first Kemco RPG I played where I truly felt it looks on par with its obvious SNES inspiration. The sprite work is gorgeous, enemies are huge and fully animated, and the character designs are all fantastic. If you put this on a SNES cart and told me it came out in 1994 I would 100% believe you. This is all thanks to the fact that Kemco as a publisher has really turned around over the years and has greatly slowed their output down from a new game every month to a new game when it’s ready. They are allowing the developers that work under them more time to release much higher quality work and are targeting home video game consoles and PCs much more heavily than their original mobile phone focus and it really is paying off.

Tetrarchs is a great game, and a wonderful sign of things to come from Kemco. I really enjoyed this one a lot, and feel like it’s the best Kemco game to recommend for anyone looking to get into this company’s line of retro inspired RPGs.

Pokémon Shield 

Never in my life would I think liking a pokémon game would be a controversial opinion to have but I really liked Shield. Is it a perfect game? No, of course not. Does it feel rushed? You bet it does. But is it bad? Hell no. Even with its flaws this is still a pokémon game and damn fun one at that, don’t let anyone else try to convince you otherwise. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Sword & Shield. I actually loved all the new pokémon in the game like Falinks and Grimmsnarl, and the soccer themed arenas for gym battles—something I thought seemed kinda dumb—turned out to be a total blast. There’s just something so exciting and fun seeing two pokémon dynamaxing in a huge arena and duking it out in front of a roaring crowd. Heck I even liked the characters which really is saying something since the story regrettably doesn’t give them much to work with. I’ll be darned, I started the game laughing at Leon and Hop but by the end I fell in love with both of these boys quite a lot. Just a darn shame there wasn’t much story this time around after I enjoyed the plot in Sun & Moon so much. 

Overall Sword & Shield was a flawed entry, but still a good showing for the first real major HD output of Pokémon (or actually does Let’s Go count instead?). Now if only the game was a bit longer though, I would have liked it even more.

SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions

Note: I really only just started playing this game earlier last week but I was having such fun with it that it felt wrong to skip out on mentioning. 

The newest SaGa game is here, and it’s both incredibly gorgeous and incredibly ugly. I dunno how to feel about that still. Never before have I seen a game with such a wonderful artstyle and such terrible character models. The world is so pretty, the story book art is so wonderful, and the general aesthetic is so pleasing to look at. But then the ugly character models that look like they popped out of 2003 rear their ugly heads, and the hideous mobile phone looking UI makes it all the worst. I guess I am just ambivalent to how the game looks.

But moving beyond that into much more important things, this game rocks! The classic SaGa game play style is back and you essentially wander around the world making your own story as you go along stringing together all sorts of crazy feats that you do in the neighboring lands. This is one funky and weird game and yet is it so addicting. The combat is fast paced, and tons of fun, and the patented go anywhere and do what you wanna do aspect of SaGa still makes for a great chill game play session. Scarlet Grace also feels like it might be one of the better entry points to the SaGa series as well for new playser who may have been interested.

I honestly did not think I would get to play a new SaGa on a home console again so I am honestly happy with just that too.

Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World

The original Yu-No is a legendary eroge (let’s just say that means sexy visual novel, okay) from 1996 that was deeply influential to tons of creative minds in the Japanese PC gaming market and would go on to serve as the major inspiration to the 2009 phenomenon Steins;Gate. This remake, ironically made by 5pb/Mages of Steins;Gate fame is an incredibly loyal recreation of the orignal for better or worse, and it’s because of that I sadly find it hard to recommend for everyone.

There are tons of elements that did not age well since the game originally came out more than 20 years ago. Some of this is not Yu-No's fault per se since it was a major inspiration for tons of later games in the visual novel genre which in turn gives it a bit of a “Lord of the Rings dilemma” whereas Yu-No can come off as cliche to modern audiences at times but it is in fact the very thing that invented those cliches and did them all first. I think any huge fan of Steins;Gate that may be somewhat interested in Yu-No because of its obvious influence on Steins;Gate will feel this the most. 

For anyone that can look past that though you are in for a treat. Especially the second half of the game that is still not matched to this day out of the genre and a real mind screw through and through. That entire part of the game was insane and holds up so remarkably well. Also it should go without saying (but I'll say it anyways) but the soundtrack is absolutely the stuff of video games legends and easily stands toe-to-toe with some of the best from Falcom during that same era of PC gaming.

Section II: Favorite Games I Played in 2019 But Are in Fact From a Different Year

428: Shibuya Scramble (2018)

What can I say about 428 that I haven’t already said in my two incredibly long blog posts I wrote earlier this year? I really recommend checking those out if you enjoy unique games, text heavy games, or visual novels. 

But I guess I cannot sing enough praises about 428, can I? So let me just say it is a fantastic game that you won’t soon be forgetting if you play it. The story is so interesting and well written, the localization painstakingly fantastic, and the music and presentation so uniquely Japanese.  This is a game that you won’t see come out every day, it’s a game that really sticks with you after you play it and you won’t soon forget it either. It’s a perfect game, and there’s nothing more I can say.

Punch Line (2018) 

Uchikoshi’s funny game. It came to a shock of some Zero Escape trilogy fans but Punch Line is sort of a return to form to his earlier more romance esque kind of games like Ever17 and Memories Off. Except even zanier and crazy because if the protagonist Yuta Iridatsu sees panties twice in a row the entire world explodes! What starts as this strange Ghost Trick like experience soon turns into an even more bizarre superhero story about saving the world from terrorists and creating the strongest hero team ever assembled. 

Punch Line is bizarre, and just so hard to even put into words without spoiling all the best parts of it. It’s so funny, but at the same time deals with serious issues you would not expect, I am willing to bet a lot of the later LBTQ+ character moments will take quite a few people by surprise in particular. Uchkoshi admitted in an interview that although Punch Line came out first, he actually wrote it after the third Zero Escape game, Zero Time Dilemma, and did it as a way to cheer himself up from the depressing and dark tone of that game. It definitely shows, but I really loved the game all the more for it.

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (2017) 

A unique mix on the visual novel genre that is largely character driven dialogue told through a huge cast of episodic characters you talk to in a bar. It all comes together as a grander story by stringing together everything you learn about your setting, Glitch City, and the protagonist Jill’s character growth through talking to the wide variety of patrons who come into the bar. 

This game is just fantastic and shows what a small but talented team can do. It’s hilarious, really relaxing, and has a great dystopian sci-fi feel while never being too overbearing about it and actually remains fairly down-to-earth in spite of the turmoil going on in the streets; no doubt an influence mirroring the developer's experience in their native country of Venezuela.

Section III: Games I wished I played in 2019

2019 was a year full of a lot of games, and I barely got to touch a fraction of them. Here’s a short bonus little section of games that really caught my eye but I never played. Maybe some will make it to the blog in full in the future?

Astral Chain - This looks like a fantastic action game! Love the design of the world and seems to bring back a lot of the classic pick up and play but tough to master 90’s Japanese style to me. 

Daemon X Machnia - Holy crap a big super mecha game on Switch! Sign me up! Sadly this dropped while I was stuck obsessing over Fire Emblem and I missed it then and things kept piling up and stopping me from getting it later.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 - Hot damn, the first Dragon Quest Builders was one of my favorite games the year it came out and this is shaping up to be even better than that! Really gotta get around to it when I can. 

Grandia HD Collection - I bought this the day it came out. Still haven’t played it! I really need to find the time to indulge in it. God Grandia I and Grandia II are some of my favorite JRPGs and are both some of the finest games from their respective generations. I can’t wait to sit down with them again on my Switch.

Heroland - Brownie Brown is back (okay the name is different now but still) and their new game seems to have all the charm of their old works like Mother 3 and Magical Vacation. I really need to find some time and money for this.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening - This game is a bit of a weird place on this list. I do own it, and I played it for 2 hours but got very frustrated with its somewhat archaic retro game design and decided to put it back on the shelf for a bit. I wasn’t in the best of moods when I played it, and I think the depression really got in the way of my enjoyment of it. I definitely wanna restart the entire game fresh from the beginning when I’m in a better mood. 

Luigi’s Mansion 3 - I loved the original Gamecube game but have since then never touched any of the games. I really wanna go back and even replay the original (maybe on 3DS and while I’m at it play the sequel on there too) as well as this game. 

New Super Lucky’s Tail - This game caught my eye a lot when it was shown at Microsoft’s E3 a few years back, and now this enhanced port/remake for Switch caught my eye even more! It looks so fun and adorable! I really wanna give this a spin if I can.

Ragging Loop - The first of Kemco’s many visual novels (yes that Kemco from earlier in this list, you heard right) to get a localization and it was a huge deal in Japan too. This was by far their most popular of their visual novels they released digitally over there and it sounds fantastic! I really have to get it when I have the time and money. 

Resident Evil 2: Remake - I love the original, heck it was the original on the N64 that got me into Resident Evil in the first place! This remake has been 17 years in the making as far as fans are concerned and it delivers on everything from what I’ve seen. Gotta get around to this bad boy at some point.

Spirit Hunter: NG - The second entry in the Spirit Hunter series and a darn good looking game at that. The first entry Death Mark I still have unplayed on my PS Vita and it haunts me. I need to play both of these some time. 

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - I didn’t play too much of the first Yooka-Laylee game but what I did play I enjoyed. This looks like a huge improvement on it as well and well I am also a gigantic DKC fan to boot so it’s music to my ears. 

#AI The Somnium Files #Caligula Effect Overdose #Collection of Mana #Daedalus the Awakening of Golden Jazz #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Legend of the Tetrarchs #Pokemon Sword and Shield #SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions #yu-no: a girl who chants love at the bound of this world

[zerochanges]

Merry Christmas from GeGeGe no Kitaro!

(GeGeGe no Kitaro (2018) episode 86: Bloody Christmas) 

#GeGeGe no Kitaro #GeGeGe no Kitarou #GeGeGe no Kitaro 2018 #Merry Christmas #Santa Claus #images

[zerochanges]

Blog Updates and Plans for 2020

It’s no secret that Zero Changes has been pretty much dead for the latter half of 2019. Explaining the recent inactivity of my blog is a bit of a long story but the short version of it can pretty much be summed up in two words “I moved”.

Since about May of 2019 I began the long and arduous process of moving across the country. It started relatively stationary enough to be fair; I didn’t really leave my house until about the middle of October, but the time it took to pack all my belongings, clean and repair the house so it was in tip-top shape, and list it on the market for sale, was enormous. Between working and moving I had very little free time for myself. My writing naturally fell to the wayside during this entire endeavor and it shows. 

Even after I moved things were still in limbo for quite some time. Starting up a new life in a new city was hard, and getting the new house cleaned, repaired, and in tip-top shape was an ordeal all of its own. And this has nothing on the horrors of bureaucracy and dealing with the bank which left my family fairly exhausted and not to mention homeless for some time in-between the sale of the old house and the purchase of the new house. Mooching off of relatives for a month is just not fun, I will tell you that.

By late November everything was finally settled and yet things only got worse from there. I had to organize family events, Thanksgiving happened, and then the Christmas holiday swept up everyone like it always does. It was crazy. There was very little time to myself and I even got sick somewhere in there which I account to the stress, really. It’s only now that December is entering its end that I feel I finally have a bit of breathing room and space back to myself. It is still a bit strange, and it’s hard to get back into the groove of things, but I am finally starting to feel at ease. So with that my blogging will start to resume again ever so slowly. I really would like to get some writing done for my own personal story I have been working on and there are a few end of the year blog posts I really hope to make. It will be a slow process but things are finally starting to come back. 

Organizing all my gaming and anime collection has been both the highlight and hardest thing about this move. Without a basement I really do lack my old game room I used to have and storage is limited which means sadly a lot of my older games are now going to have to settle to live in storage in the garage for the time being. But I have managed to get a respectable level of display space in my room for my portable gaming collection and current generation titles which feels good enough for me now. Gone are the days I was able to flaunt some Limited Editions sets, but let’s be honest, those limited editions really were just huge space takers and dust magnets.

Anime faired a lot better and I feel I got a majority of them out. My DVD media shelf really grew into a nightmare all its own--and what I thought was enough space was not nearly enough. I wanted there to be room to grow for the DVD shelf but there wasn’t enough room period. I got a large majority of my favorites on display and seeing all my old Gundam DVDs out of storage really felt special. Alas Gundam and Dragon Ball pretty much destroyed any chance of reasonably displaying other DVD sets so it is what it is, I have to admit. For the time what I have is fine and the DVDs and Blu-rays no longer have to share the same storage space which is great. 

Speaking of blu-rays I am really happy with what I got for them. There are still tons of room to grow my budding blu-ray collection and I was even able to get my Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Ushio & Tora sets out. Now the LotGH set was quite possibly one of the most stressful things I ever had to move in my entire life surely because of how fragile it is and how much it costs! There was no way I could let it be damaged and went above and beyond when I secured it for the move. Seeing it in perfect condition when I unboxed all my anime set me at ease like a long struggle was finally over.

The last little display piece I feel good about right now is my toy shelf, or perhaps more apt my amiibo shelf. It’s nice to have a lot of space to display my amiibo collection and I look forward to growing it in the future as well. I was also able to get some spots cleared at the very top for my model kits and I plan to grow that even more in the future too--I don’t have nearly enough Gundams! 

In closing, I moved, it was tough, but things are finally starting to get comfortable again. There are a few projects I would like to tackle in the upcoming future for my blogging; a long overdo Bravely Second analysis is definitely one of them. It’s been something I planned ever since I did my original Bravely Default analysis and a lot of factors kept causing me to put it off. Now that we had a Bravely Default II announcement though I feel there is no better time than to get around to it. Look forward to that in 2020 and much more. 

#update

[zerochanges]

Dorotabo 48 Years Later

This week’s episode of the latest GeGeGe no Kitaro series more than likely left many viewers floored. The writing for the 2018 Kitaro has been incredibly strong and has consistently tackled many issues of our modern day while never once talking down to its intended younger audience or painting a pretty picture--and episode 54: Dorotabo, Life and Earth was no exception.

Coexistence isn't easy, be it between man and yokai or even man and himself, and there are times when both sides of an argument are both equally right and there is no clear cut answer what to do. These issues are all written beautifully in this episode covering land redevelopment and how it’s claiming more and more of nature’s beauty. Usually a clear cut issue even in past Kitaro series as those jerk humans are ruining nature with their factories and shopping malls and whatnot, but this episode take it a step farther, as the humans are only trying to build a solar power plant to help keep their city alive and yet in the process of their own development are taking away the precious land once dear to Dorotabo.

Sharp viewers or perhaps parents that grew up with Kitaro and are now watching with their own kids should be familiar with Dorotabo, as he appeared in the premiere episode of the 1971 GeGeGe no Kitaro series “Return of the Yokai”; the first time Kitaro made his Color TV debut around the nation. This week’s episode becomes a special treat for these fans as it essentially alludes to being a sequel to the original 70’s Kitaro episode when we soon learn this is the second appearance of Dorotabo and Kitaro, who once fought at this very spot some 30 years prior--and although the math isn't quite perfect there, it still adds an entire extra layer to the episode. 

I previously wrote about the 1971 episode briefly in my overview of the past GeGeGe no Kitaro anime series back in October, and was so blown away that this week’s episode was a semi sequel to it. This is not the first time a recent GeGeGe no Kitaro series has served as a sequel to past entries in the franchise, as the previous 2007 series was especially fond of playing on the idea of Kitaro being an unaging child and often had its many “monster-of-the-week” episodes framed as semi sequels to past series and not just simple remakes of older chapters. Heck, this isn't even the first time in the 2018 series, but it’s definitely always a fun thing to see in the franchise.

Check out some comparisons below while we all look forward to next week’s episode!

#GeGeGe no Kitaro #ge-ge-ge no kitaro #ge ge ge no kitaro #GeGeGe no Kitarou #Kitaro #Kitarou #anime #images

[zerochanges]

428 - Chunsoft’s Sound Novel Perfected

428: Shibuya Scramble is an unequivocal, truly Japanese game, and one that nobody ever thought would come out in English--and the doubters were sort of right. The title was a Japan exclusive for many years since its original Wii release in 2008 but after a decade of being out of reach for the English market this cryptically Japanese exclusive was somehow able to be cracked and come September of 2018 made the journey to North American and European markets on PC through Steam and both physically and digitally on the Sony PS4. Honestly I still can’t believe it and I own the darn game! The journey to getting this game out is surely an interesting one, as localization director David Kracker recounted on the Playstation blog that he had to fight hard to get the game pushed forward for a worldwide release outside of Japan, but ultimately was able to do so by showing that appeal for niche games such as these have been increasing steadily since its original Wii release. 

For many people 428: Shibuya Scramble will be their first experience with a Chunsoft sound novel--especially since the localized Kamaitachi no Yoru (Banshee’s Last Cry) is downright almost impossible to play now. Last blog post I discussed in detail what the heck a sound novel even is, and went through a brief history of the visual novel market in general covering where Chunsoft falls in and how much they contributed to the genre. So because of that I won’t go into too much heavy details on sound novels today, but the short and simple answer I gave in my previous entry is that a sound novel is two things. The first of which was a dated term that Chunsoft used regularly (mostly on the Super Famicom and Sega Saturn) and has since fallen out of use in favor of adopting visual novel. The second of which is the more complicated answer that sound novels are both the aforementioned term that was used by Chunsoft for their brand of visual novels and also a certain style of visual novels that would follow years later by other companies that were heavily inspired by the early works of Chunsoft often aping their presentation and narrative style, with 07Expansion’s Higurashi - When They Cry being one of the most popular examples. 

If all that sounds like a bit much, or is just all greek to you, don’t worry--all you have to really take away from my rambling is that the Chunsoft seal of quality with 428 really means something, especially to fans of visual novels. You see, 428: Shibuya Scramble is actually a spiritual successor of sorts to Chunsoft’s earlier Machi sound novel released in 1998 on the Sega Saturn and later Sony Playstation. Machi was a highly well regarded game for its time that was a big hit both critically and with gamers, but despite its constant praise still sold poorly. Over the years people started to discover the game through its solid word of mouth and old fans and new fans alike were always clamoring for a sequel. After many years of begging Chunsoft finally delivered just that, and this is where 428: Shibuya Scramble comes in. By no means a direct sequel (so don’t worry you definitely DO NOT need to play Machi to understand the story) 428 is set in the same city of Machi (aka both take place in the same fictional version of Shibuya), and super fans will be able to spot some references and cameos from Machi sneaking in. 

428: Shibuya Scramble is essentially a dream game to many hardcore fans in Japan that waited anxiously for a return to form from Chunsoft. When it came out the game even famously got a perfect score of 40 in the well known Famitsu gaming magazine--and this was back when you could still count perfect scores they gave out on your fingers, only 8 games prior made that list; nowadays the magazine is known for being far more forgiving with its reviews. So basically, what I am getting at is this is yet another game that was pretty huge back in Japan but sorely skipped over worldwide. 

You may be thinking to yourself then, that’s all well and good, but what about the game itself? Well let me get into that. 428: Shibuya Scramble is as its name implies, a game about Shibuya, while you do take control of characters in the game, at large the characters themselves all feel like a part of the city. Shibuya is a living, breathing entity in 428, and you really get to explore the entire city from multiple perspectives in this one long, crazy day. Shibuya’s story is your story. There are multiple characters you get to play as and each one has their own unique, individual story to tell, but each story is interwoven into the others and they begin to overlap in creative and fun ways. This is where a large part of the game play comes from; finding out how decisions you made with one character affects the fate of another character. 

Say for example if you are being chased in one character’s story and decide to run into a busy city street to escape your pursuers thus causing a traffic accident, in another story the character you are playing now is stuck in said traffic accident and cannot progress their story leading to a bad end. Everything you decide to do with one character not only affects that character’s fate but may even affect the entire city’s at large and change the outcome for every other character you play as too. Finding out how to best affect the story by jumping around the multiple characters and getting everything to play out just right is a lot of fun and no surprise was also a major feature in Machi prior. 

There are a bevy of characters to interact with in Shibuya but the multiple residents in this major Japanese metropolis you take direct control of are Shinya Kano, a rookie detective trying to make his way in the force and crack a kidnapping case, Achi Endo, an ex-gang leader with a heart of gold trying to make Shibuya a better place, Minoru Minorikawa, an investigative journalist on a mission to save a life, Kenji Osawa, a brooding genius that just wants to be left alone but is trapped inside a corporate scandal that goes beyond anyone’s imagination, and Tama, a poor soul trapped in a big furry cat mascot costume that just wants to be free from the hell that is a terrible part time job. Each character has their own unique flavor they bring to the table and their own individual plots range from comedic to serious, romantic to frightening, and everything else in-between. Kano’s scenario is a pretty straightforward crime drama, while Osawa’s plays like a physiological thriller where you don’t know who to trust, meanwhile Tama and Minorikawa’s scenarios will have you on the floor laughing at the insane hijinks they manage to get into somehow, and Achi is kicking ass beating up thugs and saving a lost girl. 

428 manages to combine all these different kinds of smaller stories into one large story seamlessly and it’s an incredible experience jumping between all these fun characters and seeing how they eventually interact with each other as the plot progresses. It’s hard for me to even pick a favorite character in the game as all of them are so well written, and so different from one each other. If I had to pick though, I would say Osawa is probably the protagonist I relate to the most and a lot of his big story moments left me teary eyed and really moved on a truly genuine personal level (I don’t think I’m a genius like him though). 

I can praise 428 to the high heavens, and really a large part of me writing about it today is to do just that, but there is an elephant in the room I probably should address at some point. Something truly horrendous, something that prevents the game from ever being a true masterpiece, something that scares everyone away, the horror of … real life actors! Yeah, as I am sure it’s obvious by this point 428 uses real life actors and was actually filmed on location in the city of Shibuya. A lot of people are put off by this and honestly that kind of bums me out that so many are so unwilling to even try different things. 

To go off on a bit of a tangent, my own personal opinion is that I freaking love the way 428 looks. I’m someone that quite enjoys campy FMV video games; stuff like Night Trap or any Tex Murphy adventure game is solidly right up my alley. I also enjoy unique mixtures of real life and animation, so I love rotoscoping a whole lot--I’m always ecstatic when I find a cool movie or animated series that is rotoscoped, and that’s a large draw to me for games that use it such as Hotel Dusk. So no, I really think 428 is a beautiful game visually that was made by real pros who had to use guerrilla film making in order to bring their vision to life because of laws that prevent filming on location in Shibuya. What the team was able to do here, while also hiding it from “the man” is incredible work! 

Contextly Chunsoft’s sound novels opted to not use the now established format that predominantly is how visual novel look. Originally with Otogirisō this was because visual novels were still in their infancy and the now ubiquitous presentation where sprites are shown in front of background art had not yet taken off. Nobody really knew what visual novels at the time should look like. Otogirisō is actually commonly attributed as one of the earliest examples where a visual novel had background art to begin with and wasn't just mostly text or sprites presented over a black void. Chunsoft kept their games pretty consistent visually from that point, and characters were often not seen on screen, usually just presented through the use of silhouette if needed. This really helped the “novel” aspect of their visual novels, since you had to imagine the characters’ appearances mostly through the narrative descriptions about them just like in literature. 

Over time this changed with the advent of CD hardware which meant the use of still image photography and Full-Motion-Video could really take off, and Machi ran with this new hardware looking much like how 428 does. You can say these games really have a more broad appeal to them too as they are not just “anime” games but games anyone can enjoy just like a good book. This while true in Japan does get a bit tricky for a localized title as a majority of the actors are Japanese which is off putting to a general public not used to watching Japanese cinema or TV dramas. For better or worse 428 is an unequivocal Japanese game, but I really implore anyone who is even the tiniest bit interested to try it out for themselves (especially since there is a free demo) and stay open minded about the game, because if you do, you will find one of the best written, and best localized games in a generation.

428: Shibuya Scramble's predecessor; Machi on the Sega Saturn

428 didn't get a very fair shot when it came out in the English market. The month of September was jam packed with both Triple-A titles such as Marvel’s Spider-man and niche titles that could not be missed such as Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. The release date really was setting the game up to go against some huge competitors and with its enigmatic overly Japanese sensibilities 428 lacked much of the charisma to fight them. I followed the localization process very closely and this was a game I dreamt I could play for many years, but even I had to pass up grabbing the game on its release date and waited about a month or so until I managed to pick up my own copy as I had poured all my attention into Dragon Quest XI at that time which as bad as I feel for 428 I still don’t regret. By the time I wrote my annual favorite games of the year list I had to exempt 428 from it even, only writing a brief honorable mention as I knew I would love it but hadn't actually gotten to play it yet. The end of the year was far too packed with excellent titles vying for my and everyone else’s attention and what a shame, as 428 is now easily neck-and-neck with my then favorite game of the year Dragon Quest XI.

The truth is it will be very unlikely we will ever see a game like 428: Shibuya Scramble come out in English again. This was a very unlikely localization to happen in the first place, and a very risky one, but it sadly was not a runaway success. Anyone interested in the history of visual novels, sound novels, or seeing one of Chunsoft’s greatest titles definitely shouldn't pass this game up though. And anyone willing, I really recommend 428: Shibuya Scramble hard. If you love good storytelling in gaming, there isn't any better than what’s here. The story in 428 is so heart felt, and uplifting that I found myself crying a lot during my playthrough. I laughed, I cried, I found tons of inspiration for my own writing, 428 truly is a game that changes you. I think those are far too rare nowadays. This is a game that should be in any niche gamer’s PS4 or Steam collection. 

#428 #428 Shibuya Scramble #Chunsoft #Spike Chunsoft #Sound Novel #video games #Visual Novel #Visual Novels #VN

[zerochanges]

Chunsoft and Sound Novels

I remember when visual novels weren't quite known as well as they are today. By no means are visual novels a mainstream genre of video games--in fact you won’t be hard pressed to find some “expert” try to argue with you over how they are not games at all--but their notoriety is far more than that of even just ten years prior. For the longest time visual novels were seen as just an anime fandom “thing” that mainstream gamers paid no mind to. Very few titles were discussed outside those that had animes be it a TV series or an erotic OVA, and even some of the earliest visual novels localized into English were done so by anime and manga translation companies and not actual video game publishers.

If I had to pinpoint a time in my own memory where the genre started to get noticed more it would be when the Nintendo DS took off. With the DS there was an increase amount of western releases for visual novels thanks in large part to its touch screen interface working well with adventure style games. This wasn't just noticed by Japanese developers either as a fair share of American and European made adventure style games were developed for the console as well. It seems everybody was anxious to utilize the system’s unique features when the DS started soaring in popularity. The point ‘n click and visual novel genres really had a home on the DS, and because of that a lot of people outside of just the anime community got a taste of these kinds of games with beginner friendly titles such as Ace Attorney, Trauma Center, and Hotel Dusk.

However, despite the Nintendo DS (and later to a lesser extent the PSP and PS Vita) giving gamers a finely curated and easily digestible dose of the genre I’d say the sad thing is the push was pretty small and died out quickly. Instead what seems to be the biggest reason why most video game outlets nowadays talk about visual novels are because of the parody dating sims that started to grow in popularity. Hey, do you want to date some monster? Is your girlfriend a llama? Maybe all you need in your life is to date a pigeon. Don’t try to hide it, we all know you secretly wish you could go out with a YouTuber. Not into dorky millennials, well no problem, we got a game for you--that is if dating other people’s dads is a you thing. Yes, this is the era of the wacky, silly dating sims taking over in the English market. It wasn't always like this however, and yes Japan has had a long history of doujin dating sim parodies themselves, but lately it feels like all people know are the parodies that make good YouTube videos to react to instead of what a large amount of the games in the genre can offer.

Don’t get me wrong however, I’m by no means saying parodies do not have a place nor should they stay out of the limelight, and I definitely love that this fad has ushered in a wave of indie made English titles--but simply put this wave lacks so much variety and has been stretched so thin by this point. For every one creative title that pushes boundaries and gets new people interested in visual novels there are ten bland titles spilled all over Steam that feel like they were made by people with barley a grasp on what a visual novel can be outside of either parody dating or “boobies are pretty awesome”. Some of these bland games are even really well made and have a lot of care and attention added to their interfaces and artwork, but when push comes to shove, they are still just a basic joke stretched to its thinnest level. Visual novels don’t have to be that however, and while most mainstream gaming outlets may still be joking about how great it is to date your kitchen appliances, you don’t have to (unless you want to, in which case I recommend dating the toaster for he is the bravest of all kitchen dwellers).

A lot of this misunderstanding can be tied into the nebulous relationship between visual novel and dating sim, two “genres” that many people debate are separate things entirely yet due to the overlapping nature of the two they are often confused for each other. There’s a great article by Brian Crimmins online that actually goes into heavy detail about how visual novels came to be as a genre and how over time both visual novels and dating sims affected and evolved each other. It’s a wonderful read that I really recommend it for anyone curious about games such as these, but either way, whether or not you think visual novels and dating sims are the same thing or should be counted as separate but similar genres of games; it certainly doesn't seem to stop most western gaming outlets reporting solely on gag dating sims as visual novels and taking away a majority of people’s attention from so much more that these games can offer.

I take back all my complaints

I somewhat lost focus and started rambling today, so let’s move on now and finally discuss what I wanted to talk about--that being, despite there being well known visual novel developers to the tight knit community that follows games such as these--examples including but not limited to: Mages, Type Moon, or Nitroplus--my favorite developer often seems forgotten in the conversation. What company is that you ask? Well, it’s Chunsoft. So today I want to talk about why Chunsoft really should be talked about more in the western fandom and all their contributions to the genre.

Chunsoft is one of the many long standing Japanese developers that have been around for every major home console since the Famicom. Nowadays they are known as Spike Chunsoft after their merger with Spike Co. in April of 2012. For the sake of this blog post however I am mostly going to refer to them as Chunsoft still given everything I really want to talk about predates the merger. Chunsoft’s involvement with Japanese style adventure games and visual novels more or less are tied to the very beginning of the genre. There isn't quite a de facto known “first” visual novel per se, but most fans put the starting line at around 1982 or ‘83 depending on which game they may be talking about and which source they want to use for the release date (remember release dates were not entirely clear back in these early days).

One of the earliest contenders for this honor is Yuji Horii’s adventure game The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken), a game that was based around Horii’s interest in western style adventure titles, much like Horii’s later known legendary game Dragon Quest was based around his fascination with Wizzardy and Ultima and how to replicate those games in an easier to understand interface for his home nation. It’s here we can see “visual novel” wasn't even a blip on the radar yet, and there was no definitive understanding of what genres for games really were at the time. Portopia proved to be a major hit during its release however and lives on even to this day as a fondly remembered game (and also a Japanese internet meme). Chunsoft handled the porting of the title to the Famicom and this was the beginning of a long business relationship between Chunsoft president Koichi Nakamura and Enix’s own Yuji Horii as in the years to follow Chunsoft would develop the first five entries in the hit Dragon Quest franchise for Enix.

With the birth of the Super Famicom things began to change between both Enix and Chunsoft. Having developed games primarily for the publisher Enix Chunsoft felt they should move into their own publishing, and soon got certification from Nintendo to do so. After slaving away on four Dragon Quest titles on the Famicom, and also working on the fifth title for the Super Famicom, most of the employees at Chunsoft were burned out so they decided their first self published title should be a simple game. Koichi Nakamura wanted to help make gaming more accessible at the time and took both the team’s exhaustion and his desire for a more casual audience into consideration when they moved forward. 

The title Nakamura needed to make had to be simple; a game that anyone could be able to figure out to navigate--even those intimidated by a controller, but despite that also needed to take advantage of the more powerful hardware of the Super Famicom by using Kanji scripts which again would make the experience easier on casual players who had trouble getting into video games because game consoles prior could only display text entirely in Hiragana or Katakana making the reading experience poor and hard to enjoy for Japanese players (see Japanese writing systems for more details). To all these ends the team at Chunsoft decided to create a game entirely around reading to tackle this Hiragana issue and show off the hardware (or at least the hardware’s Kanji capabilities) while also being something anyone of any gaming skill level could enjoy. The game would mostly be text for the player to navigate through and present choices at key moments in the story to advance, cutting out any complicated aspects from western adventure style games that might intimidate the unfamiliar such as solving puzzles or finding hidden items. This is how Otogirisō was born.

Otogirisō (Japanese for St John Wort) was Chunsoft’s very first sound novel, a nomenclature which has since confused the hell out of everyone. But what exactly is a sound novel you may ask? Well, people get kind of convoluted about it. Looking at the definition currently found on Giant Bomb a sound novel can be defined by its heavy reliance on sound effects and music to create a game's atmosphere. Usually sound novels will use minimalist visuals and choose to emphasize the text over the artwork presented on screen--most commonly covering the entire screen in said text instead of keeping text only contained in a dialogue box. Something among these lines is the definition usually seen online when you look into it. It’s not entirely wrong either, but it’s also missing something to it. The term sound novel is a creation of Chunsoft themselves, and something they own a copyright on, this is also often brought up when you search sound novel, but at the time of its creation sound novel was meant to be something really easily understood and not this tangled mess of “a certain kind of visual novel”. 

When Chunsoft first created Otogirisō the brand sound novel was added to its box in order to help potential customers understand what kind of game it was. At the time it was just a way to let people unfamiliar with adventure style games (more commonly found in the west) to understand that this title will largely feature reading. In fact when Otogirisō was originally shown to the press in a 1991 Nintendo Space World show the game looked radically different from its finished project. Otogirisō was presented mostly as a book that the player would read, pretty much just like modern e-readers are now, with the exception that it included some sound effects and music. The press at the time was underwhelmed by this so Chunsoft took the game back to the drawing board and created unique visual backgrounds to give the game more flair and in doing so set a certain precedence for future visual novels to follow in. 

An important factor to remember here is there was no clear cut way to define games such as these yet. The term visual novel had not yet been coined, and even gamers themselves were not very well aware of genres. As Nakamura admits in a Famitsu interview when asked about the creation of sound novels, “if you look back at the very beginning of video games, for me, the conception of “genre” didn’t exist. Take action games, for example: within that label you had shooting games [note: Shoot ‘em Ups], you had stuff like Pac Man and Dig Dug, and you had more puzzle-y games too. It was very diverse. On the same note, with adventure games, there were Ascii Magazine’s games like Ometesandou Adventure and Minamiseizan Adventure, which were pure text adventures… but you also had things like Mystery House, which had a few pictures, or war simulation games like Fleet Commander. I played all those, and while I recognized there were many different types of games, I never thought about it in terms of genres.” So basically, at the time sound novel was conceived it was just meant to be the most straightforward way to define this Japanese style of adventure gaming that Chunsoft was trying out on the Super Famicom.

But does it end there? Well no. That’s only the part of the answer. Otogirisō ended up being a modest sleeper hit upon its release and this lead to Chunsoft to making more sound novels, with their next title being a legendary game that has since eclipsed Otogirisō as the de facto sound novel; Kamaitachi no Yoru (Night of the Sickle Weasels). This game was a hit, there’s no easy way for me to describe just how big it really was back during its release--out of the pantheon of legendary Japanese games that people in the US and Europe know jack about Kamaitachi no Yoru is one of the highest. Kamaitachi no Yoru is a fantastic game and I talked about it ad nauseum a few years ago when I payed the localized version called Banshee’s Last Cry, check that out if you’d like to know more, and if you’re still somehow able to play it then you’re definitely in for a darn good time.

With the a string of successes in the visual novel marketplace after both Otogirisō and Kamaitachi no Yoru, Chunsoft kept churning out games over the years, many of which are highly respected by the fandom still such as Machi and 428: Shibuya Scramble. All these releases of theirs had a certain tone and atmosphere, not to mention a distinct presentation that didn’t change much over the years and because of that did not look like what visual novels typically look like now. There’s a certain charm and narrative style between all of Chunsoft’s sound novels that is a really strong defining link in their catalogue despite a lot of these games being stand alone--and because of that people come to expect certain things upon seeing the term sound novel. Many titles would eventually come out not made by Chunsoft that shared similarities to their brand--these games followed in the footsteps of Chunsoft’s tone, structure, style, and presentation--and people began to notice, the most famous of which being 07th Expansion’s Higurashi doujin series. This is where we begin to see that murky kind of convoluted aspect of sound novels, as they start to transcend a basic label put on a box almost three decades ago and turn into their own little sub genre or maybe better described as their own style of visual novel. 

So what the heck is a sound novel then? The simplest answer is a sound novel is a dated term that Chunsoft used regularly and has since fallen out of use for visual novel; the more complicated answer is that sound novels are both a term used by Chunsoft for their brand of visual novels back before the term visual novel existed and also a certain style of visual novel that is mostly inspired by the early Chunsoft games’ presentation and ambiance.

Top Left to Right: Otogirisō - Chunsoft '92, Kamaitachi no Yoru - Chunsoft '94, and Machi - Chunsoft '98 Bottom Left to Right: Higurashi When They Cry - 07Expansion 2002, Tsukihime - Type Moon 2000, and GeGeGe no Kitaro Maboroshi Fuyu Kaikitan - Bandai '96 

Over the years Chunsoft has expanded, changed, and moved beyond their sound novel brand. Despite this however, they have never really stopped putting out solid titles in the visual novel market, and it seems like each new generation of gaming is blessed with at least one visual novel of theirs. My personal favorite title out of all their work from this era would definitely have to be 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on the Nintendo DS. It was because of this game in particular that my love of visual novels in general really started, and Kotaro Uchikoshi’s sharp writing--especially the incredible dialogue and thorough thought narration in protagonist's Junpei’s head still stands at the peak in my mind. Throw in beautiful sprite work based around art from legendary Capcom (and now freelance) artist Kinu Nishimura, and a fantastic soundtrack from the man himself, Shinji Hosoe and you got yourself a meeting of some fantastic minds. I've written about 999 in the past, and you can read about it here, but I still want to write more about it in the future, especially tackling the latest release it got in 2017’s Zero Escape: The Nonary Games. 

Recent years have seen Spike Chunsoft make it big with their Dangan ronpa franchise, admittedly however the first Dangan ronpa title should be more attributed to Spike, as the game was released in 2010 two years before their merger. However the two companies together as one have since released three more Dangan ronpa games, and two (or is it three?) Dangan ronpa anime titles, and many, many rereleases and compilations. My own interest in the franchise isn't nearly as strong as everyone else’s seem to be but I did however absolutely adore the last game, Dangan ronpa V3, with how many times it managed to jump the shark, upping the game, and constant plot twist after more ludicrous plot twist. If there was ever a way to end something like Dangan ronpa it was what that game did, and oh boy did I get a kick out of that. 

Finally moving past Dangan ronpa, 2019 will see Spike Chunsoft develop and publish Kotaro Uchikoshi’s newest game, AI: The Somnium Files, for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam which just got its newest trailer and release date announced earlier this week. I am very excited for it personally and love the intricate and complex alternate reality game type marketing the team has been using to build up to its release! This is some next level stuff, and has been tons of fun all on its own.

Then there’s of course one more game I simply cannot pass up mentioning, 428: Shibuya Scramble. Now I briefly spoke this title earlier mentioning later sound novels that have been highly acclaimed, and trust me 428 is definitely beloved; its perfect score in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu really meant something back in 2008 on the Wii. But why mention this with recent Spike Chunsoft games? Well the answer is easy, 2018 saw the much beloved, super Japanese game finally get an American and European release! And much celebration was had! If anything in this whole blog post remotely sounded interesting to you I really implore you all to go check it out either on the PS4 or Steam, and see what a Chunsoft sound novel is all about. And for the impatient, I will be writing about it next on blog! 

Despite Chunsoft changing over time and no longer using their sound novel brand, they have still put out many classic and fantastic games in the visual novel genre. Their later work may take a radically different presentation from their prior titles, but despite their moving away from that set style there are still other developers out there that keep up that mantle. Overall I think the effect Chunsoft has had on the genre is undeniable and anyone missing out on their catalogue of fantastic titles are really missing on some of the best titles visual novels have to offer. That’s why I really wanted to write this blog post about them and put into words my thoughts about this developer’s library that just seems so often overlooked by many others in the fandom, at least in my experience. I hope through all my grumbling, and “kids today” rant I was able to at least get somebody interested in trying out one of their games.

#428 #428 Shibuya Scramble #999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors #999: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors #999 #Banshee's Last Cry #Chunsoft #Spike Chunsoft #Danganronpa #Higurashi When They Cry #Kamaitachi no Yoru #Koichi Nakamura #Kotaro Uchikoshi #Nintendo DS #Otogirisō #Otogirisou #Portopia #The Portopia Serial Murder Case #Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken #sound novel #video games #visual novel #visual novels #VN #Zero Escape 999 #Zero Escape