Music of the Month; Snow is falling in the Galaxy

Christmas time is upon us once more, and we all should slowly slow our work and hype down towards the end of the year. Don’t mind if some spend Christmas for religious reasons, don’t mind if some don’t, this end of the year shouldn’t be about bickering. Y’know, the usual platitudes, but they’re worth every word spoken and breath taken. Our modern societies do spend too much time working and worrying, be what gift to get to whom or global issues that ultimately may be outside one person’s reach. While there are issues we all can strive for as one unit, we have to remind ourselves that each individual has their own limitation, their own stamina that will run out at some point. If not for any other reason, slowing down, settling to a calmer mind set and spending some time with the people you care for the most (or in case you don’t have any, spending that well deserved self-time with your favourite pastime) is all worth it. Certainly there are those who may not be able to do this for numerous reasons. Maybe it’s the usual goodness of our heart, morality, or simply because taking care of fellow man should make us feel better, giving something for those who don’t have any would give some chances of people being able to slow and calm down, just like you most likely can.

That sounds like a lot of bullshit, diabetes inducing sweet talk and all that, but in the end, I would love if everyone could settle their bickering and fighting aside for at least for these few days in the year. You’ll have all the time to go bombastic and drunk when the New Year hits around anyway. All I really want is people get along, despite their differences in opinions and characters.

That’s probably the best I can say about the coming month. By the end of the year, I’ll most likely skip writing a post or two. It honestly will depend how much time I want to end up spending in front of the screen and typing something down, when I could be doing something else. That certainly sounds selfish. Maybe because it is, I don’t get paid. I get paid to build shit. That said, there should be a controller review coming up still, the Retrobit Saturn controller. As usual with these third party aftermarket controllers, licensed or not, I’ll be giving it a fair shake review and open it for a good pornographic inside view to the PCB and electrons inside. Not that I’ll be able to say much about it, outside overall construction quality and basic soldering, but there are people who appreciate pictures of PCBs. Maybe we’ll be able to see whether or not the controller would make a decent base for a project. It’d be nice of some company outside Madcatz would finally realise that there are people who want to build their own shit, and giving them some kind of decent base PCB would be a way to go.

The Post was in strike for good two weeks and then some, ending up with the prime minister and his government resigning, so whether or not the controller will actually arrive before the year ends is a big question. We’ll see. Just like we’ll see if those fifteen other packages that are stuck in the mail will arrive.

I’ll have to think what to do with this blog next year though. While topics will be around, I do consider this year to be a travesty in terms of quality. Nothing of worth has come out, outside one or two special cases. I still think the Virtual-On Retrospective in many ways is the best the blog can offer. Maybe I’ll change the working method and stop doing twice-a-week schedule and turn that to once-a-week while working on posts that take more time. Like those Guilty Gear and TSF comparisons. When you do don’t work 8h+ a day, somehow you find yourself having time and energy to put into something else. Maybe I’ll open a Patreon or Ko-Fi for people who want to drop a nickle or two for those “big post,” though I can assure you this blog would get zero monetary support. I know my own word’s worth, and it ain’t much. Though I could have plans for any support, like purchasing my own domain name and use that for the blog. I really would like to do more controller and gadget reviews still, especially on older stuff and optional third party items, because those have the most interesting things in them. The standard controllers usually don’t have much exciting itty bits in ’em, but something like that Mini Hori Commander for the Famicom, where they crammed all that stuff into two layers while arguably making a better controller the official Famicom or NES one, is that kind of jazz I simply adore.

As for anything âge or Muv-Luv related stuff, well, we’ll see. There are numerous topics I want to visit, but I’d have to refer you to the whole “big post” business I mentioned earlier, and I know hitting that audience all the time would make the blog more a success, but that would turn boring rather fast, and in the end it isn’t the main point of the blog. I maybe I should open a new one and do ML related posting there twice a month or so. Maybe after I reach that 10-years anniversary with this blog, which is coming in couple of years. Time will tell what happens and what doesn’t.

For now, just enjoy life and slow down a bit. There are no reasons to hurry, unless you’re badly injured and need medical help. While you’re at it, remember to sharpen and oil your knives. A sharp knife is a safer too in the kitchen, preventing the blade slipping like a dull blade tends to, because it can’t cut into the material. Oiling of course prevents rusting and all that, just be sure to use something like rapeseed oil rather than motor oil.

Music of the Month; P-O-L-O-N

For some weeks now I’ve been trying to tackle how would I write about the death of one Hideo Azuma. He was a major force in the Japanese comic industry during his golden ages in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He worked alongside with such giants as Monkey Punch of Lupin the 3rd from very early on. His humorous gag comics made him relatively popular, and he increased his following by making science fiction comics in the mid-70’s. Azuma is credit for the first mainstream lolicon work Umi Kara Kita Kikai or The Machine that Came from the Sea. This is the kind of classical lolicon I described in a previous post (I highly recommend reading the linked post for context), not the twisted understanding world has now. Azuma’s works became increasingly erotic in nature, and could be said to be one of the forerunners of the styles and themes that coloured the 1980’s Japanese pop-culture, starting with the late 1970’s doujinshi series Cybele, culminating in motifs found if magazines like Manga Burikko and Comic Lemon People. When Osamu Tezuka created Prime Rose, he stated that there was only one person he considered to be his rival and equal to beat in both themes and visuals, and that was Hideo Azuma. He was already a household name, but with his 1977 comic Ochamegami Monogatari Korokoro Polon already having a TV-adaptation, the effect Azuma had on both media and otaku culture in the 1980’s should not be underestimated, he had become a giant.

Umi Kara Kita Kikai

After Comic Lemon People reformed itself, Hideo Azuma’s work was put on the forefront on the cover, effectively showcasing what lolicon would be for the next ten years before it would be mangled by outside pressure

Azuma’s increasingly larger workload from the past twenty odd years and larger amount of works in numerous big name magazines would cause him to fall into alcoholism and neglect, ultimately making him simply vanish from his work and home for months end, sometimes over a year, with at least one attempted suicide. During these excursions he would live as a homeless man, finding food wherever he could, sometimes finding an odd job he would take to make some kind of living. Ultimately he would be forced into an alcohol rehab centre. Azuma would create a semi-fictional biography of this time with Disappearance Diary, the only work of his that has been translated in English. Some European countries would see the aforementioned Pollon and Azuma’s most famous work, Nanako SOS, localised, but the rest of his library of works has yet to be officially translated. I warmly, and strongly, recommend picking up Disappearance Diary and give it a good read. It should still be available, as the book got reprinted few times over.

Hideo Azuma continued working with comics, never stopping to draw a new comic. The last pages he ever draw were done on his deathbed, the two last pages on a manuscript that probably will never be published. He died of esophageal cancer at age of 69 in October 13th. He had been treated for it for some before, but ultimately there was very little that could be done at the stage the cancer was in.

Hideo Azuma’s works could be described to he humorous, but that’d be disservice. He has a lot of gag comics under his belt, just as he has numerous erotica, science fiction, fantasy and slice-of-life published. He wasn’t limited by one genre, though during the 2000’s and 2010’s people would call his work moe, a term Azuma himself disliked, feeling that would box him into a unnecessarily small range. It could be argued his works paved the way to modern moe, but that would be disservice. His storytelling ranged from very clear cut and straight, like the aforementioned award winning Disappearance Diary, to something that’s almost like a dream, with landscapes and characters floating through the story as if the pages weren’t really there.

This short concept video shows so much of Azuma’s style and looks, but also slightly touches on other works his was inspired by. There is also footage of him working on an illustration, which in itself is a small marvel

Azuma should be considered among the giants of the industry alongside other of his contemporaries. His works may be largely unknown in the West due to the modern stigma on his 1980’s productions, yet the aftershocks can be seen in the current generation of cute comics and shows. Not even the expanded edition of Disappearance Diary has made its way to the Western markets. With the current market, and how most consumers of Japanese comics tend to be on the adult side, Hideo Azuma’s works might find its market. That said, if Tezuka’s works have a hard time making it through the layers, there’s very little chances a publisher will take a chance with Azuma’s work that isn’t an award winner. There are numerous recommended collections of Azuma’s works that shouldn’t take too much effort to publish, but I’m guessing a Western publisher might want to revise some of the covers.

To tell you the truth, I can not do justice to Hideo Azuma’s life and work. It is so expansive and filled with detail I can’t even begin to scratch, as I’ve always put getting into his works aside every time something else has popped up. It’s as if I am too late now, and though becoming a fan of works after author’s death is nothing new to me. This, however, is a case where I’ve consciously been eyeing Hideo Azuma on the sidelines for several years, waiting that best of times for me to jump all in. That of course never came, and perhaps that’s what I learned from him, and from his Disappearance Diary; you have to make it yourself, nothing will wait for you.

To quote someone who knew him better; Rest in peace, king of lolicon.

Music of the Month; Midnight Chaser

Oy, why wasn’t there a post on Sunday? We’re creeping towards the end of quarterly year, so things are busy. Due to this, I’ve been doing some overtime shifts. Last weekend happened to be at night, so it was either sleep or writing a post, so guess which one I picked. Good side on this is that the salary I’m getting should cover me a server, which I might or might not use to set up something on the long run.

There hasn’t been much happening that I’d need to cover per se in this month’s starter. We reached 1k posts and that almost went by unnoticed, I’m not exactly the one to start celebrating such things. Nevertheless, there was a Different take on customers which I used to vent some stuff off. Not the usual kind, but taken from the maker’s point of view. Largely.

With the new Guilty Gear hitting the scene with trailers, those posts have been getting some attention. If I were some kind of grubby attention whore, or just someone seeking to expand and take advantage of current trends, I would’ve started dishing out GG design posts despite the hit they would’ve taken in quality. Nice to see people checking ’em out, but it also made me realise I need to rename the posts to include a direct reference to Xrd now that the upcoming game is the latest one. I’ll probably modify the existing posts to include the new game’s designs at some point, whenever I got enough materials at hand (and time to do ’em) all the while new entries will cover both Xrd and whatever this new game will be called. I hope it’ll get a proper title with four Xs.

I got a topic for a new mecha design post as well with the announcement of industrial design version of good ol’ Gundam. Now what makes it industrially designed is anyone’s guess, but probably the fact that Ken Okuyama designed Enzo Ferrari and has some pull. The topic would be hip design and the main approaches it has, open, skirted and what I call diapers. The linked Gundam has that diaper design, as did most old Transformers, so there’s some stuff to cover and wager how they function in comparison to each other.

There was relatively interesting discussion about game storytelling, where I discussed the complete opposite from the other person, with me sticking to the whole player-actions narrative approach while this other person promoted the idea of having separate sequences for clear storytelling, like FMV sequences. I could marriage this with critique why Hideo Kojima should move into making movies rather than games, seeing he has surrounded himself with Hollywood-types and lives in that bubble after leaving Konami, but we’ll see how that goes ends up.

Maybe the last proper topic I’ve simmered in my head during my downtime has been about the new push for digital-only games because one Blu-ray disc is not enough. Last of Us 2 was reported to come on two discs and this was somehow seen a detriment. As if games historically haven’t come on multiple discs or diskettes in the past. The push nevertheless was that this is somehow a great negative, and the post should cover how that’s bullshit. The last few generations have been exceptions on multiple disc games due how large BD space ultimately is, tho 360 games sometimes came on two discs instead of one due to size limitations, like Lords of Shadow is on two discs on 360 while on one with PS3. It’s like people thinking upgraded console is a new thing, despite early generations doing that willy nilly, or that the SNES is Nintendo’s second console.

I might finally do something Lemon People related, but it’d be a gallery of front covers that would get updated as I manage to slowly expand the collection. It appears I am aiming to collect all the published magazines, for better or worse.

This being a new month, I should remind you to take your knives and sharpen them, after which you should oil ’em. Majority of slips and cuts in the kitchen are because of dull knives slipping from their intended target. Cutting a tomato with a nice sharp knife is just so much nicer than trying to force an unsharp slab through it.

Well, work beckons, though when this goes live I’ll be fast asleep.

Music of the Month; Dogora

You probably did (not) notice that updating was a bit off last month. You know the usual song; stress, work, the two combined, twists in social life, lack of time and so on and so on. The month went by faster than expected, if I’m being honest. Missed some news I wanted to touch upon, situations and events passed by like they were air. Doesn’t exactly help that I’ve hurt my wrist, so I might end up being economical for the next few weeks when it comes to typing.

That said, why Ifukube music all of the sudden? For whatever reason, I began to listen Ifukube out of the blue this week, and his pieces played on during my off-hours non-stop. There were numerous pieces I never listened to, or took any notice really. Ifukube’s library of songs he composed for Toho alone is very vast, and this song above somehow stood apart. While Ifukube’s songs are rhythmically cohesive all around, something about Dogora VS Self-Defence Force playes differently, as if there are two parallel pieces going at the same time, but always meeting at key points. Ifukube felt that to fully understand movie and its music, the two should always be together, as separately they lose the effect and power they were intended to have. I fully agree with him on this matter. Be it games or theatre or whatever, when you have a scene specifically set to music, the lack of the scene or vice versa will always leave something to be desired. Then again, I still know jack shit about music, so this probably is nonsense babbling.

While this probably would make a post on itself, the whole situation with the leaked Dragon Ball English audio with the voice actors letting things rip like no other. If you want to check ’em out, if you already haven’t, there’s a Google Drive with them. While we could discuss ethics of the situation, like whether or not they were justified to use the soundtrack or the like, I really don’t see any point in this. People at work sometimes have to let some steam out by doing stupid shit and laugh after, or even during, hard work. It’s funny to have a character go balls-to-the-walls wack sometimes and make them say something inappropriate. These bits really are something that should never cross to the customer side of things, and people letting stuff out like this is nothing out of ordinary. It is an open secret that voice actors and people working with them often allow all sorts of stuff going on during sessions to ease things out.

This Dragon Ball example is just the latest thing, though before this the most famous one was the Thundercats leaks from way back when. Hell there’s a page dedicated to them. These two things are the same thing really, be it bloopers, outtakes, leak reels or whatever. The voice actor of original Lion-O, Larry Kenney, discussed that this happens. While some might find these jokes and skits offensive, the American voice acting culture at workplace more or less has it as a working standard. The Japanese working culture wouldn’t allow stuff like this, but at the same time, they often don’t give a damn how shit rolls in Overseas market. Just look at how terrible translations are across the board, be it books, games or movies. Then you have shows that were let do whatever, nobody cared. Cue for Ghost Stories English dub. It’s like a whole show of outtakes. Of course, Toei doesn’t really like this thing at all, considering they are paranoid about how Dragon Ball as an IP is handled, and with the Internet outrage culture making its rounds, Funimation probably will feel some results from this backlash. There’s a whole lot more with one of the VA’s suing Funimation after they fired him for reasons and such, but as I usually say; don’t care about the provider, care about the product.

What’s for next month? I can’t really say. That foxgirl Kickstarter got funded, though there’s not much to talk about it. I’m just glad more people will be able to get their hands on it now that it comes gets an English translation. However, I am pretty sure NijiGEN won’t get funded despite being halfway in, because it has sat there for a week now. Not much to talk about if it fails, but if it succeeds, I’ll be sure to keep tabs on it. Then again, with Ifukube being the music, and music sets the month, perhaps I should make time and rewatch Shin Godzilla in order to expand Themes of Godzilla post. I have found that the more I mull it over, the more stuff I consider I must touch upon. Better just cut my losses and get it done with. It’s just one weekend spend on it, whatever could go wrong? Of course, all the âge related stuff are completely open and I still have a folder on my desktop to remind me that there are few more TSF stuff and other subjects to touch upon. On one hand, perhaps I should cut blogging so that there’s one major post a week, and whatever small ones every time something interesting catches interest, but can’t really see that format working. Yknow, they’d be about as rambly if not even not more so than this post. I’m not going to ask for you to drop a comment if you’d like me to try it out, because let’s be real, nobody would comment anyway.

Remember to sharpen, hone and oil your knives. Sharp knife is much safer tool in the kitchen than a dull one, and the same goes for scissors.

Music of the Month; ななこSOS

Time to let out some steam. Month’s first post is, after all, a chance for random ramblings.

Unsurprisingly, due last week’s subject with sadpanda and the historical context of lolita complex in Japanese media history, few people asked if I had certain preferences, to put it diplomatically. Perhaps in the classical sense of having some infatuation with a cute character, but that’s more or less normal. People fall in love with inanimate objects almost as easily as they do in real people, or if life has shown that people are untrustworthy, the opposite seems to hold. In the modern, twisted sense? No. Then why would I spend any time on the subject than what I already have? It is solely historical interest. You know that one image macros, the one which shows how manly Japanese cartoons used to be, how adult and serious, and the Now shows nothing but cute stuff and shows with comparatively vapid content. Despite that image being a joke, it did launch an interest how true it really was. Reading history bit by bit via firsthand sources and consuming the media itself.

From someone who used to read history as a hobby, looking back at how consuming the media of old rather than just reading about it. Media can always be consumed, but events themselves can never be. However, much like when you’ve read enough history from multiple points of views, you begin to understand how everything tends to affects something, how events proceed from one to another. The similar effects can be said about media culture, where if you consume enough media of certain region, not just one kind but all kinds, you realise how much everything has worked in symbiosis, how cultural and historical trends in the media has raised its influential head here and there. It just has to be from relatively long period of time and understand the underlying trends. For example, just looking at the 1980’s anime scene with its OVAs and groundbreaking television shows is hard to understand without first without first looking at massive sub-cultural phenomena in the 1970’s like Captain Harlock, Mobile Suit Gundam and Urusei Yatsura. Those are major names, but only selected few with direct influences with 1980’s scene. Of course, the whole lolita complex, or culture of cute, should be taken into account as it was everywhere. If you go few posts back, I cover this a bit more there. Though I have raised myself a question that I have to find an answer to; where does Japan’s lolita complex, moe and culture of cute have original roots in? This requires some investigating.

To tell you the truth, I have been wanting to discuss this matter on the blog for a long, long time. However, due to difficulty and touchy nature of the subject due to its modern connotations, I have simply pushed it back and back again. I’ve talked about Comic Lemon People and series within in a lot, but never directly addressed it simply because there was never really a good angle to approach it with, and it seemed like time has made it ever touchier. However, Exhentai’s death (and rebirth) gave the perfect angle with archiving and its historical value, an angle I’ll probably stick with in the future when and if talking about the subject. On a side note, the alternative music just to continue with theme would’ve been this song.

In other news, Muv-Luv photonfloers* got released on Steam, so if you’re inclined to continue reading Muv-Luv related media in English, you might want to check it out. It is currently in sale at ~20 bucks, which isn’t a bad price overall when compared to the hundred bucks plus I paid for the PS3 limited edition. photonmelodies♮ is currently at works, and while we could discuss whether or not it was the right choice to call Before the Shimmering Time Ends as Alterd Fable, I should make note that the fandom kept calling the story by the collection’s name almost a solid decade, and âge themselves ultimately adopted that moniker for it as well. While I will keep referring it as Before the Shimmering Time Ends for the sake of accuracy and Altered Fable will refer to the collection. This really is like taking just Muv-Luv Unlimited from Muv-Luv and call it Muv-Luv. [5.8. Edit] I’ll be damned, the official title will be Altered Fable: A Shimmering Shard of Spacetime. I can live with that, and it caters to both people who simply use Altered Fable and autistic nitpickers like me. Sure, it may not be a direct translation, but keeps the original’s spirit with it as the first direct continuation to Final Extra.

Seeing this is port of the PS3 titles, I’d also urge you to get your hands on the original PC release to experience the minigames in their full, bloody glory as well as have the erotica included. I do still erotica in Muv-Luv to be relatively essential to characterisation and showing humane bonding between characters, but your taste probably varies and many VN enthusiasts would rather push a pillow in porn’s face. Then again, VNs themselves are a media slowly withering into a smaller and smaller niche with each passing year, so perhaps it doesn’t do all that well to forget one of the paramount aspects Japanese PC adventure gaming and Visual novels have carried with them. I’d hate to see a beloved media being reduced to mere pebbles, but the fandom could be proud that the things they love now has little to no smut. What a waste.

While I’m plugging titles with cute girls who get fucked, I might as well throw this Kickstarter in your face; Daily life with Konko, or as the devs decided to translate it, Your Waifu Foxgirl Konko. I’m not terrible keen on this translated title, as it tries too hard, almost trying to hit the Internet’s meme nerve. Why would I give a look at something like this? Truth to be told, I’d rather not say, but might as well; the Japanese version of the game helped get over few dark months earlier this year. While I won’t be getting into any details about that human relationship, having something that wasn’t cold and dead like the winter outside kept me floating. There’s a trial that run in a browser on there, though it does raise some issues with the translation. Teacher is left as Shisho, and whole stroking someone’s head isn’t really sexual, leaving the command as just Stroke does strike a bit hammy. The title really isn’t meant to be played hours on end, but little bit each day. Something to wind down a bit, let things slow down and your worries to fall out. The demo’s also lacking any music, and is far too short to give any proper idea how it works, but its something. It does pretty terrible works at depicting the actual gameplay really. Then again, don’t take my word for it. The Japanese fans funded Live2D version of the game on Campfire recently, with yours truly taking part in it as well via proxy, and Megamisoft didn’t just achieve its goal; they made five and half times as much money they aimed at. The Otaku crowd is crazy, sure. However, I do consider this title to be good therapy in the hectic lifestyle we have. Its good to stop, sit down, and a good cup of tea and pat a foxgirl’s head.

While I’m being straight with you, it wasn’t close that this post wasn’t made. Few days ago, I was more or less through with this. I intended to abandon the blog as is, but nevertheless came back to it. I’ll have to make some hard life choices pretty much right now, and most of it is about what I want to spend time on. Blogging takes surprisingly large amount of time, especially when I’m trying to follow multiple possibly interesting news and stories alongside what might happen with some franchises. It eats time, time that I could use for something else like being outside or practicing drawing. I have come to a point where blogging in itself doesn’t bring anything to the table anymore, unless I am to slightly change how I approach. Less commentary, news and popular culture discussion, more personal stuff and things surrounding them. Perhaps you’ve noticed that design comparisons and reviews have effectively stopped and that’s the reason; they just take so much time and are mentally exhausting. A Youtuber friend named Terry advised me to get a Patreon and see if that would give any reason to move forwards, but I haven’t made it public; I know it would yield no real funding to purchase a domain name or towards unique redesign of the and items to review. However, I’m not shutting that out from the equation, but I’d need a real reason to use it. As for the blog, I’ll still aim to continue for few more years despite the admitted drop in quality and content. Ten years isn’t far away at this point, and It’d be shame just to quite when a decade’s almost full.

By the time you’re reading this, my short vacation is over and I’ve returned to work. Sadly, I managed to get jack shit done during this time due to friends having their vacation at different times, so we had to juggle stuff a lot. Vacation seems to be busier and more hectic than work itself.

Music of the Month; East Coast Summer

Y’know, after you’ve worked through the dark of winter and managed to nab some vacation during summer, it all feels so good. Nevertheless, four weeks off from work goes by so very fast. Even when there will be days when you hope to get back to the work bench and burn yourself five times over just to get shit done properly. Sacrificing your skin for perfection that was not asked for, but dammit I do wish to do work well enough to be satisfied at my handiwork.

I think I had an idea for a solid plan what to do for this summer’s long-form post, but I guess that whisky I drank washed it all away. Not that I can keep up with my plans anyway at this point, life’s getting a bit busier again for no good reason. At least I have plums to eat. If you wonder what the hell am I talking about, I had a tradition to write one longer post about a topic, like a read through of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Latest Edition or Themes of Godzilla, which will get that sequel post at some point with Shin Godzilla. I’ll just have to take my time with that, because a part of the discussion will be about whether or not it rips of Kami no Kemono tl. as Beast of God, a 1992 giant monster comic by Tomoe Keisuke. It’s pretty damn well illustrated and written. Just look ho w spiffy the cover is.

Yes, the official English title is Ogre: The Geo-Monster. We don’t talk about the English title much

While I could’ve used some Internet resources to skim over what are and what aren’t, I find it much easier just to get the original material in hand and see myself what’s on the paper. I don’t need to rely on second hand information or translation guesses from or rumours. Remember how Mega Man fandom used to discuss how Sergess was confirmed as Dr. Wily in Rockman X2 comic? Never happened, I had to make a live-reading of the comic years back to confirm the rumour false.

I can’t recall all that clearly if I ever write about the difference of being influenced, ripping off or just subconsciously inserting sources of inspirations into your work properly, but I did make a post how Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse is a sum of multiple sources of inspiration to the point of basically each episode serving few new more or less apparent additions. Like how Cui Yifei is effectively Shampoo from Ranma ½. Things like that. Hatsuke Miku isn’t exactly her main source, though that probably got changed around after she got the nickname ‘Chinese Miku’. Probably would be worthwhile to make a whole post on how much MLA TE just “recycles” inspiration into itself.

The whole story really is Top Gun mixed with Gundam 0083 with a good dash of Macross Plus in MLA setting, so that’s always something to the show. ML overall is like an otaku dreamhouse, filled with references and jokes left and right. Kinda like Gekisatsu! Uchuuken just not as overt and direct about it, and far less IP infringing.

I’ll also take some liberties and might skip a post during the upcoming four weeks or so if it looks like there’s something else I could spend my time on. Be it washing the carpets I have or screwing around with people I know, I’m going to treat this summer as a possibility to take a break of the routine I’ve been having for a good while now. A chance to get back to promised projects, like getting a gallery of CGs via emulation or scanning stuff I’ve promised. If I get time for that. Knowing the usual way vacations and such go, you end up being busier than during work. Maybe I just suck at scheduling.

Before I call quits on this post, I’d still like to touch a bit on the whole games streaming services. Yes, I’ve pretty much beaten that horse to the ground and given it few good kicks, but the more time passes the more I see some people doubting its success. Thus far it has not been a success as such, but very few tech steps like this are during their decade. People often forget how big VR was in the early 90’s with gaming. 3D boom came and went. Streaming games to players hasn’t been exactly a smooth experience thus far, but perhaps Google can make it a mainstream success during 2020’s. We are moving towards media experience where the consumer has no control over the media itself after all. Google making the console experience effectively just the controller is more or less natural simplification of the whole concept technology allows. I’m not their target audience, but their current setup seems to be aimed to shallow Red Ocean market. Whether or not it will work as intended, and even if it doesn’t, we’ll have to sit and wait to see if it’ll become mass market success.

Music of the Month; Megalomania

It has been a rather stressful last month or so. I didn’t even notice when summer months turned around, and that I could’ve set this post last week, or earlier. Things just flow at a rapid pace, with summer heat being a pest. Even my plan to attend a convention to have a presentation was shot down by car breaking down on me and the spare part might cost up to a grand with some luck. There has also been a death in the family, so excuse me if this post will end up being rather short and anemic.

I’ve come to a point where I can safely say that I won’t be planning the future of the blog. It was certainly fun to plan stuff out when and how I’d make certain posts, but that’s just not all that possible if I want to spend any time off the computer screen. That’s not to say I’ll just abandon every long-running posts I have, but as you’ve noticed during the last year and a half (or most likely, have not) is that all plans have mostly gone to shit. Time is of the essence, and that is something I would like to spend elsewhere at times as well.

To cover some topics quickly, the gaming disorder has now been officially been recognised as a disease by the WHO. I’ve covered this topic myself few times over, and the arguments and sources linked in them still apply. WHO is not exactly the most popular organisation going around, and I hope this will be redacted or made far more accurate than what its current for is, as now its determinants really fucking everywhere. You could apply the main forms of it to any enthusiast in a given hobby. A healthy obsession for a hobby is a thing, but hey, a person who appreciates their hobby to a high point should now be considered mentally ill. What a load of shit. Niche Gamer has an opinion piece why WHO is flawed classification, echoing some of the stuff I’ve already written, but also going into deeper and wider look. Ryan Pearson’s article touches on proper points, but leaves the whole political aspect out. Maybe for the better, outside some of the internal leaks that commented on certain nations pushing this classification there is no solid evidence for it.

There’s a new Godzilla out there, and I honestly have no want to see it. The 2014 Godzilla was a disappointment at best, extremely boring at worst. As a movie, it was extremely kitch, safe and resorted on failing consumer expectations. I might go to see Godzilla II (I do love how overseas market gets a number before King of the Monsters in an era where too few movies are numbered anymore) and do a short first impression review, but I’d need to kick myself into the theater and get someone to go with me. Not a tall order, but this is also a good time to rewatch Shin Godzilla and add its themes to the Themes of Godzilla post I have floating around. That’s a post that should get expanded, but with what time?

Here’s the beef I’ve always had with Godzilla, and technically with any other franchise that does the same thing Robocop; it gets dumbed down for the kids. Not just in story, but also in production values and themes. Those movies that are aimed for children audience mainly have the short end of the stick in every regard from story to special effects. The VS Godzilla did find a good balance between adult themes and kid friendly Godzilla, but at the same time looking at the series in perspective it is clear how run out of worthy ideas and resorted on their catalog of popular monsters, setting the whole theme of reusing and revamping old monsters in new guises for the future. Godzilla stopped pushing the envelope well into the 60’s, yet the VS series didn’t even try. Space Godzilla? Evil Mothra? Plant Godzilla? Another Mechanical giant monster based on previous monster? I do love the VS series of movies, but goddamn do they look meek when you take the nostalgia goggles off. Ever since I found out the Gamera trilogy, I’ve been going back to those movies ever since, and its influences are very, very strong in these new millennium American Godzilla movies. Maybe I should just cut this rant short for now. There is room for a serious Godzilla movie every now and then, but the rest will colour the cultural perception. It’s just that very few want to make a good Godzilla that took itself and its themes seriously. No, let’s just drop an Oxygen Destroyer as a missile and call it a day. Let’s not even consider its ramifications.

E3 is around the corner again, I honestly couldn’t give jack shit at the moment. I know I used to make posts about it, but with the lack of time (there’s that again, I’m repeating myself far too often) I’d rather not spend three days of watching direct advertisement meant to sell me games I probably don’t want anyway. Less reason to get angry, more reason to enjoy whatever sunshine and wasps this summer offers. Sure, I’ll probably end up writing a post or two if something interesting pops up in the news sites that warrant speeding the videos over after the fact, but otherwise, I really have to question the hype surrounding E3 when it is world’s most expensive marketing event. Hatebait click articles of course would make money, but that’s not how we roll here.

How we roll is with tea heated in the microwave, added sugar and drinking while the spoon is still in the mug. Just remember to sharpen those knives of yours, that makes cooking safer.

And oh yeah, R-Type Final 2 has some 50h left in its Kickstarter, throw some money at it if you want to fund a resurrection of one of the genre defining franchises.

Music of the Month; Harmony

It may not come as any kind of surprise, but I like three things about ‘koto.’ I’ve always found the music played with the instrument rather relaxing, though something that I do not listen very often. Very rarely, if we’re completely honest about this, it’s something that works best in certain rare moods. Secondly, I really like the colour that carries its name. Koto was a name given to a certain shade of natural light wood brown lacquer, which I extensively used back in the day when I had the chance to do woodwork on the side of learning how to handle steel. Thirdly, I simply like the sound of it as a name, much like how Hibiki resonates with me. The two purposes this choice then reflects are the fact I really need to relax more and not overwork myself (It has shown itself rather harshly at times in overt tiredness and leaving all personal projects aside) and that the new era of Reiwa has begun on Japan. Perhaps this makes the blog seem like weeb garbage, but these monthly openers are one of those posts that don’t need to follow any cohesive line for the blog.

So, what does the music represent for the month? Even I have no clear rhyme or reason for that outside that I mostly likely have to drop few posts in order to make time for projects that have been on ice or waiting to get done for quite literal years now. They’re not massive, just extremely boring and time consuming. Most of these are scanning projects, one of them is writing a book, and the rest are assortment of things like finishing some personal design work, changing the blog’s outlook and things like that. You might consider most of these trivial and fast things to do, but striving for quality takes time. For example, the quality in scanning I try to aim takes time. A book takes a whole day of dealing with, from unbinding to scanning and correcting the pages. While not hard, it is tedious and errors are bound to be made.

While I usually do some sort of coverage regarding what’s been popular on the blog on a yearly basis, I’ll have to make a special mention on the slight rising popularity of the Guilty Gear character design comparisons., which is also why they got their own dedicated page at the top of the page bar. They’ve been making around a bit more than usual, which is positive direction and does give me some faith that this little hobby might end up being entertaining or maybe even slightly informative for someone. I’m not surprised that most popular posts are also the ones that take the most time to make. I did plan to drop the amount of posts I make in order to make longer ones, but that plan kinda backfired on me thanks to the whole overworking myself thing.

In the same manner, I’ve have started the next Fighter elements in TSFs post, but due to lack of certain resources on my part and the sheer burnout I had with Muv-Luv, it’s been sitting in my top item in Illustrator for some time. Yes, the one franchise this blog probably made biggest rounds with at a point sort of burned me through rather badly, and it has been rather gruesome task to slowly but surely to reacquaint myself with all of it again. I’ll introducing the franchise to an audience at a con this summer (their English page is strangely lacking in any sort of programme description) in respect of a friend’s request, so it’s a good chance to revisit things. If things go as intended, I hope to spin things off from that and do something of the kind every year, covering TSFs and such as we go by. Then again, none of this should be any surprise to anyone who follows this blogs or whatever shit I throw at the small amount of social media I use under guise. To tell you the truth, a lot of things regarding Muv-Luv were out of obligation, and I intended to carry those to the end. I just hope it won’t burn the throughout and leave me distanced from the series altogether. If your whole world is just tasty chocolate and strawberries, those two will become the most mundane and repetitive taste there is. I guess the same can be applied to those those Guilty Gear posts I mentioned before. At first they were a riot to make, but with lack of time and constantly trying to read the lore and musical reference turned something interesting into tedium.

Speaking of stuff that I’ve taken a small break from, there has been a significant lack of Iczer-1 stuff as of late from me, so those production materials that I threw up last weekend are there to keep things up on that front. That Iczer-3 radiocassette drama coverage will come through one of these days, but its in the backburner way behind the ML stuff I have to go through first.

Didn’t really mean to turn this post into complaining or opening my mind with this stuff. This day is International Worker’s Day, and you should be having a day off and relaxing. Take things easy, sit back and a sip from the mug whatever you have in it.

Music of the Month; 3-2-1 Let’ Go

So, here we are, more than a decade since the last proper R-Type game that wasn’t driven by plot and tactics, and R-Type Final 2 has been announced. Seeing that there are a whole generation who seem to have missed the franchise as a whole, I’ll be giving it a similar short introduction post in the same manner I did for Aleste. The death of the shooting genre might be two decades old, but when a venerable name like this steps back into the field, a name that once wrestled in the same class as Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gradius, 1984,  and other heavy hitters, it should be noted. R-Type returns to its roots, even if for one title. More can’t be asked for. More on that when the post proper gets made.

As for posts that should or should not be made, I know work is a constant and recurring excuse I give out on being either late or simply not having time to do proper research for the longer posts I was so keen to make, but I have to resort to that once more. Sadly (gladly?) our production got ramped up by a notch again, meaning work needs to be done and yours truly is there to meet the quota. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Then again, I will have that full four weeks of summer vacation, all of which I can spend inside and write and scan stuff that I’ve missed. Like last week. Last weekend was a mess, as I was supposed to go out of town, but got sick thanks to cold nights with fever and all, and in the end couldn’t do jack shit. I’ll be doing double duty this weekend to balance things up, though I’m more and more convinced I’d need someone else on this blog to ensure content production keeps up in the schedule, but very few people are willing to do stuff like this out of joy of it all. Topics for those are already lined up, and interestingly both of them are shooting game related. Well, the above should give some strong hints on what the other will be.

I’ve put the third post about scanning on hold for now, as I need to track down some nice old games related magazine to scan, but it can’t really be any magazine. It needs to be from around the mid-90’s and of certain kind. A high-end publication won’t do, so I might try to find my old mag that covered Spaceworld 1996. I remember that being in a very busted condition and the overall paper quality being of semi-decent kind. It might be lost to time at this point, but I can always track down something else. Might be worth tracking down a random 90’s Japanese gaming magazine instead for record keeping. I’ve also asked a Youtube for his view on the matter for a third party view, and we’ll see if either of us remember to say about that when I get my hands on whatever magazine it ends up being.

Enjoy the music piece, and please remember to sharpen, hone and oil your knives now that a new month as kicked itself into a higher gear again. A sharper knife doesn’t just mean better cutting, but also safer cooking. A blunt knife slips and rips more easily, and is danger to all.

Music of the Month; Shubi-Beam Explosion

I recently managed to fuck up shoulder and neck muscles, preventing me to do a lot stuff I usually do. Work has been bit of a hell because of this, and sitting in front of a computer and typing something down just makes it worse. I’ll probably have to skip next week’s posts because of this, I don’t want this to get worse. This is a reminder for all of you that you should remember to stretch and warm up your muscles more often, especially if your work is in the office or requires heavy lifting or unusual working positions.

The music’s the for the month overall is PC-Engine. That’d be the console that became Turbografx-16 in the West. I recently obtained a PC-Engine Duo-R, modified with a region switch and RGB output. The seller pitched an Everdrive to the mix as well, which allows ROM files to be put on a SD Card. While I just discussed the nature of all the games on a single card, I’ve already made preparations and decisions on this. Just like with the Everdrive N8, which I have an old review up, the Everdrive won’t be an issue when it comes to collecting. It’ll just help me to keep the Hu-Cards in better condition. I just need to find some kind of solution to house the loose cards, either by creating a separate box for them, or custom make some sort of sleeve for a binder. Like trading cards.

While I’m still rooting for the previously planned stuff, that might have to take backseat until my shoulder’s in proper condition. This also means I’d rather do something easier and quick that doesn’t require me to sit in front of the computer and doing any graphical editing or whatnot.  However, doing stuff like reviewing the PC-E’s Avenue 3 controller I got with it should be doable, as most of the stuff is done away from the computer. Fiddling with the controller to take photos of the insides and seeing what makes it tick, all that relaxing stuff. I’d also like to take a look at the library of games PC-E had to offer, mostly some of the more famous titles. Well, I say famous but in reality I mean titles that have solidified themselves into the sub-cultural background of the console. Like how NES had Mega Man, the PC-E had Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman. Everybody knows about the shooting games, but there is a healthy amount of interesting titles of varied quality that more or less represent the best the console has to offer. Whether or not that is on the same level as its competitors of the time is another thing altogether, but seeing it came in third place in the sales race against Nintendo and Sega, you can probably guess how the quality overall was.

 

For now, enjoy the music. I need to slap some Voltaren on my shoulder and take some pain killers.