Why I'm reading more manga

For about the last year or so, I've found myself reading more manga than American Comics.  In fact, it's not even especially close.  Why is that?

Well, I'm sure that I can pinpoint various reasons, including some things I said way back when this blog was more or less active, but I think it comes down to a few things.  I'm just meandering and writing off the cuff here, so take it as it is.

First off, I enjoy that manga is so much more self contained than comics from the Big Two.  Once upon a time, I really enjoyed the expansive universes that Marvel and DC had, where you had all kinds of characters across all kinds of books doing all kinds of things.  There's still something neat about that, but frankly, I think it causes more headaches than anything.

I imagine a part of it is the simple marketing aspect.  You want to push a new character?  Give them a cameo in a bigger book!  Who cares if it really fits that book or not, you need to find a way to work them in!

The deeper problem though is that it really creates way too much opportunity to crush the narrative flow.  I've commented before on the problems that big events create on books.  A book can really be cruising along, and then here comes the big event, and things start changing.  It's worse when the entire universe gets rebooted. (See: DC).

On the other hand, most manga tends to be self-contained stories.  The author is much more free to tell the story that they want to. They can build it, and bring it to a satisfying end on their own terms.  I just read Servant x Service not long ago, and in the final volume, the author brought it to a very clean, unrushed ending, with the major subplots all dealt with in a very satisfying way.  I'm sure manga authors get more than a few "editorial suggestions" along the way, but they don't seem to be nearly as destructive or disruptive as being part of the shared universes of Marvel and DC.

Of course, this is helped a great deal by the fact manga titles are closely tied to the author.  If you're reading a Big Two book, you never know when the author or penciller will get changed for some unfathomable editorial reason, with who knows what results.  You don't get that with manga in the same way.  That helps again with the whole "keeping the narrative flow" idea.

Secondly, I do believe I'm getting fairly close to being heroed out.  Oh, I still like the movies, and some of the manga I read are "heroic", but Manga have a great deal more freedom to be about pretty much anything.  I've hugely enjoyed manga lately about "Love, grief and baseball", "Competitive Japanese game with cards," and "Working in a prefectural office" lately*, as just a few examples.

I imagine that largely goes to the fact that I've always been more interested in the characters than heroism or the like, and some of these books are fantastic character studies.

Now, I realize, that a great deal of what I've said here likely also applies to at least some Indie comics here in the US.  A great deal of the Indie stuff I've seen has just been another guy's take on superheroes (Astro City, Irredeemable for instance), but I know that there's other stuff out there,and if you have suggestions, feel free to post them, I'm always willing to gake a gander.



* Cross Game, Chihayafuru, Servant x Service

Panthelia: Bound

A quiet morning, and a bit of a ficlet here.  This is the Origin of my world of Panthelia.  As with most things, it's very much a WIP, but it's really something to set up the overall cosmology.

Special trivia challenge: Who can figure out what movie characters the two brothers are based on? Bwahahahhahaha.  I'll answer later.


++

The two beings were ancient beyond telling, yet they were neither source nor beginning. When they came into being, there was already existence, there was already life. Neither fully understood his nature, but simply knew that they were the only two beings of their nature in the universe.

When they awakened, they found a great multitude of worlds that already teemed with life spread across the stars. The inhabitants of those worlds were varied and fascinating to the two brothers, for that is how they'd come to think of one another.

For many eons, the brothers were well content to watch and observe the countless worlds. They debated endlessly why one world took one path, while others branched out in different ways. They saw worlds destroy themselves in mindless fury, while others would overcome all the challenges of hatred and survive another day, another year, another eon.

In time, the simple sport of watching the countless worlds began to lose some of its appeal, and the two brothers decided it was time to start experimenting on the worlds. At first, many of their actions were small and subtle, and they delighted in watching the ripples of their work bring changes to the worlds they experimented on.

This game went on for many more centuries, with the brothers endlessly debating the consequences of one action or another. They shaped worlds to their liking again and again. On one world, they would fill it with magic, to see how the people of that would would cope with such awesome power. On another world, they would strip it of all magic, that they might observe how people built a world on understanding, craft and artifice.

One day, a new debate arose between the brothers: “Could a world escape the bounds of a tight and devastating fate?” Long they debated, but both knew where the debate would end. There would need to be a world with a fate of devastation and destruction laid upon it. They would weave the fate to create a time where that fate could be challenged, and see where it led.

They found a world, one that already had life, but they began to reshape it to their whim. It had been a world with weak magic, but they poured more and more power into that world, concentrated it, and then tied it behind a strong but fragile barrier. Would would this world do with that power? They filled the world with magical creatures, who would live side by side with humanity. They brought dragons from a far distant world, and filled them with yet greater power, the power to speak and reason. They might be shepherds or wolves, as their whims would lead them.

Yet, the dragons were not the centerpiece of their experiment, but one part. The centerpiece, those upon whom fate would be focused, would be the Ten. Ten people, some with great power, some with none, but all of them chained by fate in one form or another. Men and women of joy and tragedy, vision and blindness, power and helplessness. They were bound and chained by fate, yet the last of them would be the one who would have a moment, the least opportunity to sunder those shackles and avert destruction.

For those ten, a great hall was built, nowhere and yet between everywhere, a place where the Ten could abide while the experiment continued. From the day they passed from this world until the day the experiment ended, they would remain in the Hidden Hall. Was this a blessing or a curse? The brothers cared little. They people they watched were but the subjects of their experiments.

Would those Ten stand or fall? Would that world stand or fall. To the brothers, it was simply a question they would use to pass the time. However, to the people of that world, bound by that fate, it was something far greater. It was their own lives and loves, their own joys and sorrows which they played with.

In all their debate, the brothers did not consider what rage the people of that world might show them in time. What is more, they had long forgotten to consider a simple question: “If the brothers were not the first, then what was?”

What anime character do you fear?

Yesterday, I managed in my usual klutzy fashion to knock the DVD case for Crest of the Stars off my shelf.  Well, it popped open and disk 1 fell out.  I glanced at the disk and noticed that there was a scratch on the disk.  Well now, what do you do?  I threw it into the player to see if it would still work.

Where did that end? Well, I ended up mainlining all of Crest. (On to Banner!)  I'd forgotten just how much I love that series, and well, away we go.

In any case, I was talking about this last night to the guy who'd originally gotten me to watch Crest/Banner, and mentioned that I hadn't caught how intense Lafiel's death-glare is in Crest before.  Likely that's because I now know just how scary she can be from Banner 2, and can see the signs in her confrontation with Febdash.

Long story short, that brought up the question "What anime characters do you really not want to make mad at you?"  Honestly, that's a bit of an odd question.  There are lots and lots and lots of anime characters who have the power to just entirely wipe you off the face of the earth... yet there are fewer who have the ability to excite a level of existential dread "I'm doomed!"  The kind of enemy you will always be looking over your shoulder for, even if you think you've gotten away.

So, in any case, I have been thinking of the list, and here are some thoughts.  Now, this will simply be heroes and tweeners.  Of course, you know the villain is going to be out for your hide.

1) Lafiel: Crest/Banner of the Stars.

People who haven't seen Crest/Banner might not think of Lafiel as so scary. She's young, thin, almost waifish.  Surely someone who looks like this can't be dangerous:

 
She's honestly kind of adorable (and shows us why we call this show "Elves in Space")

On the other hand:

Urk!  Same series (Crest of the Stars) but that's what you get when you upset her.  Don't ever think of upsetting an Abh.  Just don't.

2) Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist).  What do you get when you have a pyrokinetic who knows how to hold a grudge? (Spoilers here if you haven't seen FMAB)

He's perhaps the perfect example.  The man has a serious grudge, the power to back it up, and that enjoyment that comes from seeing his revenge done,

3) Shiroe (Log Horizon)

This one is a bit weird.  He's never killed anyone, and quite frankly, with the rules of the world, he can't. (Well, it's a trapped in a video game world, so anyone he does kill just gets rezzed.)  That said, he's called the Villain in Glasses for a reason.  He's usually at least 3 steps ahead of anyone, and doesn't much mind humiliating or breaking you in the process.  Utterly ruthless, but thankfully he's on the side of the angels.

Sadly, this vid is not the best Shiroe moment (I'd say that's when he creates the Round Table), but it's good.  Oh, Krusty gets an honorable mention.  In Log Horizon, always beware the people in glasses.  Always.

Maybe I'll put up some more as I think of them.

Remember, the idea isn't simply "the one who can kill you dead in a messy way."  We've got plenty of those from Kenshiro onward, but the ones who inspire that unholy fear that reaches into the depths of your lower colon.

(Honorable Mentions off the top of my head: Harlock, Emeraldas, Mirya Parino, Rally Cheyenne, Rally Vincent, Sylia Stingray.)

Twin Exiles: Prologue

Well, in the last couple days, a few plot bunnies have decided to be born, and this is the start of the story that drags them together.  This is all part of a larger universe I have of Panthelia.  I have a number of stories here, but quite frankly, the older stories need to be rethought from moment one.

In any case, I figured I may as well use this dusty blog to put up bits and pieces as I write.

Twin Exiles

Prologue

There are few highlights in the growth of a young dragon more dramatic than the first time it's allowed to fly beyond the bounds of the Eyrie. Yet, it's an intensely private moment as well. Maybe it was because there were so few young dragons. There was a natural temptation to make that first flight a community event, a kind of “coming out party” for the new flier. However, the traditions of the Eyrie were clear. The young dragon would be allowed to choose its own path. The parents may want to fuss and fly protective circles, but not even they were allowed to interfere in the first flight.

Arsiana stood alone at the edge of the cliff, her shoulder length hair whipping in the wind. She looked like many other ten year old girls, except for that hair. Her raven black hair had a slight metallic sheen to it, a color you would not find in humans. It contrasted with her pale skin, but matched her deep black eyes.

Arsiana took another look over the cliff, at the ground far below her. She didn't feel a single bit of fear, but instead she was filled with excitement. She was going to soar into those clouds, and see a world that she'd never seen with her own eyes.

She smiled and concentrated slightly, placing her hands together in front of her, palm to palm. She was quickly surrounded by an inky black cloud, and within that cloud, she began to grow and change. Where there had been a little girl, there now stood a dragon. She wasn't an especially large dragon to be sure, only about ten foot from nose to tail, but she was still young, and had many years left to grow. She was covered in metallic black scales, and a hint of her black hair remained as a mane on the back of her head.

She extended her black wings and jumped off the cliff, catching herself in the winds which swirled about the high mountain of the Eyrie. She'd been told that the wings couldn't truly carry her, they were too small, too weak to carry her weight. However, the wings were a part of the magic of dragonflight. Dragons who'd lost their wings in a fight or an accident found themselves unable to fly ever again. Arsiana's wings did not fail her. She soared across the sky, exulting in the pure joy of her very first flight.

She looked down at the ground far below her. She was flying above a forest which ran on both sides of a small river. There was a small clearing in the woods, and she could make out the buildings far below her which marked it as a town of some kind. She no sooner saw that town, and an irresistable urge came over her. She needed to go down to that town and look at it. The need to see this town cried out in her mind.

She angled her flight down, and started to descend to the town far below her. Slowly but surly, the details of the town filled her vision. She knew it wasn't one of the great cities of the humans, she'd been told that none of them were close enough to the Eyrie for her to reach in the short time she'd been flying.

What was she looking for? She really had no idea. It was something important, but she had no idea what. She landed in the courtyard of the town, not really noticing the surprised reactions of the townspeople. If she'd been looking closely, she might have noticed that many of them seemed nervous, and a couple of them looked to where they kept their weapons.

Arsiana never noticed these things, because she was focused on a single house in town. It wasn't a large or grand house, but it was somehow important to her. Slowly, the head of a young girl appeared in one of the windows. She looked to be a little younger than Arsiana did when she was in her human form. Is this what she was looking for? Arsiana looked again, and the girl looked back at her. Their eyes met, and in that moment, Arsiana knew: this wasn't the one. This isn't what was calling her, but somehow, some way, she was connected to it.

After a few moments, Arisiana decided that her parents were likely getting a bit nervous about where she was. She jumped into the air, and began the long, slow climb back to the Eyrie. Mother had promised that they'd have all of her favorites for dinner tonight, and she could almost smell the roast mutton already.

++

A young girl watched the black dragon ascend into the sky. “Mother? Why did that black dragon come here? Why was it looking at Cerena's house?”

The queen knelt down next to her daughter “I don't know Alelneia, it seemed to be looking for something.”

++

Nerlana, High Queen of the Dragons watched as the young black dragon flew up over the edge of the launching cliff. “The poor dear, she looks tired. She must have flown all the way to the ground.”

She watched as Arsiana turned back into her human form, and ran into the arms of her proud mother. “It's been a good day. It's been too long since we've had a first flight,” she thought. “I just hope that the rest of her days are filled with joy, instead of something worse...”

Even as that thought entered her mind, she noticed something. She looked closely at the young girl with her ancient gold eyes. The child had returned bearing the mark of fate. Only the eyes of a gold dragon could see that cursed mark, but it made clear that this young girl's life would be marked with triumph and joy, and difficulty and sorrow. She could only hope that she Arsiana would see more joy than sorrow.   

Transformation Continues

A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about anime, and one of the things that had slowly driven him away was all the repeated tropes that he saw.  I somewhat glibly replied "that's why I'm mostly watching slice-of-life stuff any more, I haven't had all the tropes pounded into my head for 20 years the way I have with mecha and action"

I bring this up, because I really do find myself transitioning to slice of life stuff more and more as I choose what to watch.  I've mentioned it here before, but it's been driven home to me again in a couple of ways this weekend.

First of all, one of the CM's at Crunchyroll had a tweet up asking people to list their favorite anime from each of the last 5 years.  My list:

2013 Chihayafuru
2014 Your Lie in April
2015 Sound! Euphonium
2016 March Comes in Like a Lion
2017 Interviews w/Monster Girls


Now, Interview is a bit of an odd man out there, mostly because 2017 is still pretty new. (Sakura Quest is promising so far, but its only a few eps in, and we have most of the year to go.) Otherwise, all the rest are very firmly into the "slice of life" realm.  No magic, no mecha, no violence worse than an occasional slap.  Card games, music and shogi drive the stories.

Yet, these are the stories I find myself drawn to.  For that matter, I find myself drawn to these small stories when I look at new shows and the like.

The second thing that drove it home was that I've spent a good bit of the weekend power-reading the manga "Cross Game."  It's a few years older, but its the story of 2 neighbor kids who both love baseball, who slowly but surely become closer after the older sister of the girl tragically dies in the 5th grade. (For that matter, I really wish I'd watched it before Hulu took it down.  I'd wanted to, but never got that far. Grr.)

Why have I done this? As I've said before, it's not entirely unheard of for me.  I loved Kimagure Orange Road back in the early days, and there are times I wonder what other SoL gems I may have missed in the years that few of them were brought over.  Still though, why?

I guess it's that the stories are so intensely character focused.  Now, that's not to say that action and mecha shows aren't.  Macross isn't anything special without Misa and Minmei, Patlabor is nothing at all without Noa and Gotoh and Clancy, and so forth.

Yet, it seems that something in those slice of life shows just grabs me at this point in my life.  It may have something to do with my age, where I am in my life, the struggles I'm fighting with.  I don't know.

I can sit here, and think about some of the themes that are in those stories, the voices, and how they hit me in my current struggles, but I'm not sure I want to just throw those aspects of my personal darknesses onto the net at the moment. Heh.

I don't remember the last mecha show I truly got into.  There are still some fantasy/adventure type shows I've greatly enjoyed recently, but they're absolutely a tier down from here.

Anyway, I'm always looking for suggestions about good SoL shows.  Just be sure I can get at them on CR, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Strike or the like. Heh.  I'm still an old fussbudget.

A Silent (but profound) Voice.

It's probably in part because I'm getting to be something of an old cuss at this point, but I've certainly found my tastes shifting in anime and manga both.  If you look back at the last couple years (there are very few posts, so it's not hard), you'll find that I've been tending more and more towards Slice of Life stuff.  Action, mecha and the like are less and less on my radar every day.  Profound stuff that digs into people and personalities though?  Those are things I dearly love to find.

Well, a few days ago I happened to be poking at my Kindle app, and it was suggesting a manga to me called "A Silent Voice".  I think I'd heard the name before, but hadn't really paid attention.  I looked at it, and thought it looked like it was worth taking a chance on.  Wow, am I glad I did.

What is it?  In short, it's the story of a group of elementary school classmates (I hesitate to use the word friends), and when they are slowly reunited many years later.  The perspective character is Shoya Ishida.  I don't want to spoil too much, but for him, the entire story is one of redemption from what he was in elementary school.

Why would he need redemption? The other main character is Shoko Nishimiya, a shy girl who is deaf.  In elementary school, she tried to go to the same school as Shoya and some others (who form most of the rest of the cast).  To be blunt about it, she got bullied, and pretty brutally at that.  The ringleader?  Shoya.

However, as things went, eventually the mob turned on Shoya as well, making him the next victim of their cruelty.

As you can imagine just from that short description, this can be a very hard manga to read at times, but it is well worth it.

As the story progresses, each of the characters needs to come to terms with what they have done, and really, with who they are.  It's messy, and in some cases, I honestly don't believe that the ending is very clean, but I see that as a good thing.  People are messy, they don't wrap up all their issues, and that's more than reflected here.

One of the things I really like in the story is that bullying is shown to be a street that goes in many directions.  Shoya was a bully, and then became the victim.  Others are shown to have participated because of their own issues in life.  None of that excuses what they did, but it does show a very real perspective.

I can speak to myself, having been on both ends of that spectrum.  I got the full bully routine for many years, in many places (courtesy of my parents moving a number of times when I was younger.)  Combine a speech impediment with the fine motor skills of a musk ox, and you can pretty much figure it out from there.

Yet, looking back at me in High School and (especially) college, I'd grown into being a downright mouthy and obnoxious jerk at times.  I thought I was being "funny", but saying things that were as hurtful as any of the stuff that had been said to me.  So yes, I can see aspects of myself in 3 of the characters in this story (I won't share which ones, you can guess.)

One of the strong themes in the story is set up by Shoko's mother.  When she saw Shoya again for the first time in many years, she reacted very badly, but she dropped the line "how can you give her back the years you took from her."

The simple truth is, when we hurt others, we can't "take it back".  The ways that Shoya's actions compounded Shoko's problems simply cannot be taken away.  That's a very real truism for us in life too.  We honestly cannot "make up" for what we've done.  Talk of "earning forgiveness" is always empty, because we can't somehow magically take away the pain that we cause.  However, we can start each day, looking to be better and different than we were the day before.  That doesn't "make up" for the past, but it does chart a new course.

I look forward to reading this one again.  I read it pretty quickly the first time, because the story was so compelling.  Now it's time to really go back, and read it to get all the nuance, and pick up on the foreshadowings that I had missed.

(Edited: There's also an anime feature I'm looking forward to seeing.  For some reason, I thought it had already been released on CR, but it's too recent for that.  Certainly goes to the top of the heap when it comes out on BR.)

I put this one in the must read category.

My Favorite Anime Openings

Kind of a slow, tired night here, and saw some youtube vids of people naming their 100 favorite openings and the like, and I found myself thinking in different directions.  Hardly surprising. What's one person's kibble is another person's kitty litter after all.

Anyway, this is just 10 of my favorite (I'm way too lazy to dig up 100) openings.  I'm sure if I took the time to think of things, I'd change up the mix, but hey, no one is reading this anyway, so who cares!  It goes without saying, this kind of thing is exceedingly subjective, and as like as not, everyone will think I'm insane.

Note, this list is 10 favorite openings.  I generally like these anime, but my top 10 anime list is going to be a bit different still.  I'll leave it to you to see if you can figure out any patterns or trends.  It'll be a mix of mostly older stuff and some more recent.

10) Cat's Eye

9) Lodoss (OAV)

8) Shirobako OP 1

7) Saki- Achiga of Side A

6)  Vision of Escaflowne

5) Log Horizon Season 1

4) El Hazzard OAV 1

3) Silent Mobius TV

2) Slayers S1

1) Sakura Wars TV

How do I find this stuff?

Well, back when I first started watching anime back around 1993 or so, my tastes were fairly "conventional."  Action, mecha and the like.  Bubblegum Crisis, Gunbuster, Gaiarth, Gall Force, those were some of my favorite titles at the time.

Yet, there was one title that I fell in love with that should have made me realize that my tastes were not simply for your standard fare.  Kimagure Orange Road, especially the movie "I Want to Return to That Day."  That show is really a topic for another post, and I'm not sure I can do it at this point. (My KOR collection is on all VHS sadly. I keep hoping that Animeigo's next kickstarter will at least be for the OAV and Movie, if not the TV series as well. Not a fan of Summer's Beginning though.)  Anyway, that one surprised me because it was nothing like my usual fare.  Not an explosion in sight.  Simply the story of a few teens coming of age, and filled with the kind of powerful emotion that never quite leaves you.

I mention this because it's a reminder to me that I've always had a bit of taste that goes off my usual.  Please Save My Earth and Spirit of Wonder are other titles that came out of that, though neither of them hit me the way KOR did.

All of that said, my recent foray into more "slice of life" anime is really picking up on those threads.  

That brings me to my most recent find/obsession.  I'm not sure I'd ever heard of it before a few weeks ago, and I'm not even sure I know where I heard it.  No matter how it happened, I decided to poke at it, and have found a new favorite.  Certainly my favorite find of 2016, and very possibly one of my top 10 of all time. (The anime is a few years old, but I found it in 2016.)

Chihayafuru.

Sometimes, when you try to describe an anime to a friend, they just look at you with a glazed over look "what was that guy thinking when he wrote it?"

A teenaged boy turns into a girl when splashed with cold water, and his father turns into a panda...

A lingerie shop owner is the secret leader of a team of battlesuited women who take on rogue androids.

You get the idea.

So, what is it this time?

There is a Japanese game called "Karuta."  The very short form is that you start with a deck of 200 cards.  On 100 of the cards is the first verse of a classic Japanese poem.  Then the other 100 cards have the second verse of the poems.  When you play, each player sets a certain mumber of the 2nd card in front of them, and they play face to face kneeling on a tatami.  Then a reader reads one of the 1st verse cards, and the first person who touches the 2nd verse card gets to take it out of play.  If they get a card from the other player's side, they pass a card of their choice to the other side.  First player to clear their side wins.

It is a game that requires strategy, high end memorization skills and the kind of reflexes I never had.

Quite honestly, the game looks like it would be very difficult.  

Of course, a rather odd, if interesting game doesn't make much of an anime.  In the end, slice of life stories excel because of the people, and this is no exception.

It starts with a young girl named Chihaya meeting a new transfer into her school. He's kind of shy and gets picked on, but it turns out that he's a fanatic about Karuta, and he manages to infect Chihaya and Taichi with the bug for the game.

Yet Arata leaves town again after a short time, but Chihaya's determined to meet Arata again, this time in a formal Karuta match.  At the same time, she's determined to win the Queen tournament, which marks the best female player in Japan for the year.

The series is two seasons, and it's taken them through a bit less than two years of High School to this point, and it's just so good.  They do a good enough job in explaining the game that you get a sense of real tension as you watch the matches, but it's the characters who shine.  I'm still not sure where the triangle between Chihaya, Taichi and Arata is going.  (Sadly, no one is doing an english release of the manga, so I doubt I'll ever find out.)   If I had to guess, I think it's going to end up Chihaya-Taichi, and then Arata-Shinobu (the current queen) but who knows.

Beautiful animation, great music, great characters, an oddly compelling game to watch.  I'm going to give this one 9.5/10.  It's only available at Crunchyroll, but well worth it.

Slice of (Unreal) Life

Last post, I mentioned that I'm slowly but surely getting more and more into "slice of life" kind of anime.

I'm not entirely sure what's exactly pushed the change.  My tastes used to be fairly conventional, with broad swathes of mecha and fantasy and the like.  I still like those from time to time, but I find myself drawn more to looking for things that are somewhat different.

Now, this isn't entirely new.  One of the anime that most truly hooked me on the form way back when was Kimagure Orange Road, and while it certainly had some fantastic elements, I wasn't even really aware of them at first.  The local video store at the time had the OAVs and the first movie (which were all that had been published in English at that point.)  In those stories, the wilder aspects of Kyosuke's powers didn't tend to have much of a rile. I mention KOR, because some of these shows are hitting me in some of the same ways.

A bit ago, I finished up one that's a kind of slice of life, but boy did it take some bizarre and unexpected twists.  It's called Myself; Yourself

I may as well warn you, I may let some spoilers slip on all the stuff I'm going to talk about here to the end of the post. I'm just kind of rambling, musing and reacting, so if you don't want spoilers, it's a good time to go read your favorite webcomic.

I honestly don't know what to make of this one.  It starts with a fairly simple and interesting premise, and then it just goes entirely into the land of bizarre.  Just huge turn after huge turn.  In the end, I'd probably say overwritten, but compelling for it.

What is it? Well, the initial premise is simple and interesting.  The first scene is a group of friends in elementary school who are having a going away party for one of their number, a boy named Sana.  His parents are moving to a new town, so he has to leave them.  After that first scene, we jump to 4 years later.  Sana is moving back to the town, but he's going to be living alone. (He'll be staying in an apartment owned by the mother of one of the other kids.)

So, now he has to reconnect with his old friends, and all of that.  As I said, fairly simple.  Back in the "old days" he'd been closest to one of the girls, Nanaka, and she was the one he was looking forward to seeing the most when he got back.

Well, suffice it to say, he really got off on the wrong foot with her upon his return, and she started to have something of a cold streak towards him.  So far, a fairly straightforward setup for a romantic comedy, and the first few episodes are diverting, but fairly normal.

Yet, as the show goes on, you begin to get a sense that there's a huge amount more going on under the surface than you'd ever think.

In short, pretty much all the major characters except Aoi (the girl whose mother owns the apartment house) is carrying some pretty epic baggage.  You have characters abused by their parents, neglected by their parents, and that's just the beginning.  Honestly, it's just overdone in so many ways.  Twists and turns that have to be seen to be believed.  A light and fluffy series ends up as one with half a dozen major characters who have pain oozing from every gland.

I know I said spoilers before, but I'm just not sure that I want to share some of the moments, They have to be seen to be believed.

How would I rate it in the end?  Honestly, I think I'd give it something along the line of a 6.5/10.  It certainly doesn't rate as an all time favorite, but it has some interesting and powerful moments.  I certainly wasn't inclined to stop watching once I hit the bizarro trainride.


Now, lets move on to something a bit more cheerful.  I mentioned it last post, Sound! Euphonium

It's also a slice of life, but much more fun, and fluffier.  In short, it begins with a Middle School band waiting for their grades in a competition.  They're thrilled to find out that they got the gold medal, but then were crushed to find out that it was a "fake" gold. That is to say, while they scored gold, only the top 3 schools went on, and they were not in that top 3.  It starts with two major characters.  You have Kumiko, who is the main character, who plays a Euphonium (which I can relate to, having played the Baritone way back when.)  Then you have Reina, who is an extremely good trumpet player.

When they hear the news about the fake gold, they have very different reactions.   Kumiko isn't too disappointed, thinking they'd done pretty well overall.  Reina though? She was entirely crushed, and got quite upset with Kumiko for not being as devestated as she was.

The series then jumps to High School.  Evidently, Kumiko and Reina are the only people from that band who went to this particular school, and Kumiko actually went there to get away from band.  Yet, she soon found herself in it, as was Reina (of course.)

From there, the story goes on, and we see a pretty interesting story of a very troubled band.  The year before, it had broken down between people who wanted to work hard and push for high marks in competitions, and others who just wanted to have some fun, but not put in the effort.  The scars of what was a pretty ugly fight are still hanging over the band, and it gets worse when a new teacher shows up. As you'd imagine, he's pretty unconventional (this is anime after all), but from there we have the story of the band growing together.  I was glad to see that it is going to get a second season.  Fun characters, a more interesting story than you would think that a High School Concert band would create.  I'll give it 8.5/10

Ok, we've had one wierd one, and one cheerful one.  Now, it's time to get to the last one, the one that's just plain hard.  Your Lie in April.

I honestly think that this is the best anime I've seen in a decade, and maybe even longer than that.  I mentioned a bit about it in my last post.

The main character is Kousei Arima, and at one time, he was one of the up and coming prodigy child pianists in Japan.  However, one day in a competition, he just entirely lost it, and from that time, was simply unable to play.  His long time best friend is Tsubaki, the neighbor girl.  She can sense that losing his music is something that has "stopped Arima" in place, and she has a bit of a scheme to break him out of it.

There's another girl in the class by the name of Kaori, who is a competition level violinist, and Tsubaki essentially tricks him into going to a tourney with her in it.  Well, where his play had always been precise like a metronome, her play was wild, carefree.  He was smitten on the spot, but he also knew that she had a crush on another friend.

Well, that's just the setup, and from there, the story goes on to how Kosei slowly but surely manages to come out of his long funk. (Actually, a better way to say it would be that he got dragged out of his funk.)

More and more, you see just what lies behind Kosei's problems, and you see the people who care for him trying to help him.  However, the story takes some pretty hard twists and turns along the way, and before you're halfway in, you know that something seriously bad is going to  happen. (That's all I say.)

Moving, touching, if so very, very hard.  One thing I like about it is that the characters are very real.  We see some generally good people doing some nasty things, and then you see the person most would consider the "worst" person in the show with some genuine nobility. (I don't think it remotely makes up for what they did.)

You  have Arima, the human punching bag.   Really, the most troubling thing about the show is how badly so many people treat him, especially those who care for him the most.  I don't know if he even realizes that it's not supposed to be that way.  Then you have Kaori, who is quite frankly, kind of two faced and manipulative at times.  I could go on, but you get the idea.

That said, it comes with my highest recommendation. It is hard, it may well make you choked up (or worse), but it's a great ride.  10/10.


Well, I doubt anyone's actually going to read this, but it was a nice diversion to jot my thoughts down.  Not a complaint that people won't read it.  I pretty much gave this blog up years ago, and it wasn't exactly a big winner back in the day.

The Way Overdue Ashtur Anime Roundup

Well, I know that I always figured this thing would be sporadic.  Would a post every couple of years count?

In any case, the muse has struck, and I thought I'd write a bit about some of the anime I've watched in the semi-recent past (call it the last year or so.)

It's kind of odd, I'd started watching back in the mid 90s, but really drifted away for an extended period of time, only to return in the last couple of years.  I'm not sure what drew me back, but the ease of watching stuff on Crunchyroll and Hulu (and not paying big bucks to buy a series on hope) certainly hasn't hurt any.  I consider both of those subs to be money well spent.  Otherwise, blame it on a midlife crisis. So sue me.

Maybe I'll take a post or two at some point to get into these in depth, or maybe not.  We'll see.  No promises.  However, let's get the show rolling. (I'll try not to drop big spoilers, but do beware.)

Lost in the MMO-verse
Two of the anime that got me back into things are a pair that came out more or less at the same time.  I know that the respective fandoms have tended to snipe at one another, but I like them both.  Neither is without flaws, but both are enjoyable.

Sword Art Online: I imagine that this one is a bit more famous.  It certainly didn't hurt it any that it was shown on Cartoon Network.  A fun show with appealing characters, but one that's also perfectly capable of grabbing you by the throat and squeezing the life out of you.

In short, it's set in a not terribly distant future, where virtual reality has improved to the point that the VR headset is able to supply a full 5-senses experience to the player. A new game opens up, and it turns out that it's all a horrible trap.  It gives "permadeath" a whole new meaning.  The opening concept is strong, and it gives the series an enormous amount of weight right from the start.  That said, the initial problem is solved halfway into season one, and ever since, the show has been a bit uneven to my mind.  It has some incredible moments, and I think that the biggest tearjerker in the whole series is the ending of Season 2, but it can struggle a bit.  Well worth a watch to my mind.


Log Horizon:  While in some ways the pretext sounds the same as SAO, they are very different shows.  Even after two seasons, we're only beginning to get a sense of how the players of the game got sucked into their game.

Like SAO, I think that the show can be a bit uneven, especially in season 2.  That said, it's never quite as serious as SAO, and really does seem to be a "love letter" to MMO players.  The main characters are fun and appealing, and it's well worth a watch.

Magic and Mayhem

The Irregular at Magic High School:  Another fun show that does a nice job of slowly but surely sucking people in.  The cast of characters is extremely interesting, and it does a good job of building a world where magic and technology have begun to bleed together.

If I have a concern with the show, it's with the protagonist and his sister.  In short, the main character may be the most OP Gary Stu I've seen in a long, long time.  His sister?  If you think that the relationship between Kirito/Kazuto and Leafa/Sugu in Sword Art could get a bit troublesome, then hold on to your hat.  Still though, well worth the watch.


Fate/Stay Night:  I'll have to admit, I've not seen all of this.  I've seen the original series and Fate/Zero.  It's got an intriguing premise and some pretty interesting characters.  That said, be prepared for it to take half the season for you not to want to throw things at the screen whenever the main character is on.  He's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

Maoyu:  A short series by the same guy that wrote Log Horizon.  Who knew that an extended lesson in economics could actually make for a fun anime?  That sounds odd, but it's true.  The premise is a bit odd.  The Demon King (who is actually a very busty girl) marries the Hero so that they could work together to bring peace.  By the way, that's their names.  One of the little odd touches.

Slice of Life:

This category is the one that's surprised me the most.  One nice things about the growth of streaming anime is that some stuff has gotten brought over that might not have made it back in the DVD only days. Even if it did come out, I probably wouldn't have taken a chance on it, considering the price tag.   That said, these have grown to be some of my favorite shows.

Your Lie in April.  Remember how I said that Sword Art can grab you by the throat and squeeze?  Your Lie will grab you by the throat, rip it out,stomp on it, and leave it lying in the dust.  It is incredibly powerful, incredibly beautiful and incredibly hard at some points.

The main character is Arima Kosei.  He was an up and coming pianist, easily considered the best in Japan in his age bracket, until it all fell apart.  The story begins a few years later, and Kosei is still suffering from some extreme mental blocks that keep him from playing the piano.  Then, he meets the world's weirdest violin player.  I just can't give this enough thumbsup.  It's utterly fantastic.  Probably the best series I've seen in the last decade.  Bring kleenex.

Sound! Euphonium  Another musical anime, but without the emotional baseball bat.  It's the story of a High School Concert band, and how they deal with their new director (among other things.)  A very appealing cast of characters, and while my band days are long past, I do relate.  This is one that will sneak up on you, and I was very glad to see a second season announced.


Out of Left Field.

I don't have a better description for this last series, because it's not something I'd have ever expected myself to like on so many levels.

Saki (including Achiga Side A)  Um, yeah.  An anime about Japanese style mah-jong.  It gets wierder, because the series has some not exactly subtle Yuri overtones, so really not my thing.  Yet somehow, it sucked me in.  The short form is that it's set in a universe where Riichi Mah-jong is incredibly popular, with High School tournaments being televised nationwide, and people watching in giant screens on the street.   Further, many of the players come equipped with various superhuman powers (the ability to influence luck, see the future, and the like.)

So, the story begins with Miyanaga Saki, a first year at Kiyosumi High School.  She used to play mah-jong at home with her family quite often, but that has actually left her with something of a distaste for the game.  Well, she got suckered into playing a few games with the club, and as you'd expect, she's good.  Really good. She's one of the superhuman "monsters."  She ends up making friends and joining the club, finally finding the ability to enjoy the game.  She also gives the team the 5th member they need to compete in team tournaments.  Those tournaments become the heart of the plot, as the team begins to march towards the nationals.

There is also a side story which focuses on Achiga Girls High School, which is one of the others in the tourney, and in some ways, I like it better than the main series.  You get a whole new set of characters, and they also are on their way to nationals.

I can't say why, but I just like the silly thing.


I may poke up more, and explain a bit more on some of these, or even mention a few other things, but this is enough of a start I expect.

Expanded and Legendary Universe

*blows out dust*

Yeah, I still live, though it's doubtful anyone will read this unless I beat them over the head with a link.  Hehehe.  That's likely because I blog about as quickly as George R.R. Martin writes.

In any case, I've been amused about the furor concerning the "end" of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  http://starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page.html


Now, before I get started too much into this, I should make clear that I'm not incredibly attached to the EU.  I've read a variety of novels (Zahn's first three, about the first half of the X-Wing Rogue Squadron books, the Darth Bane stuff, and a few other odd bits and pieces.)  I've liked the books, but I'm far, far from invested.

Now, on one level, I think this decision is inevitable.  Trying to fit the new movies into such an elaborate and detailed canon was going to be more than a bit tough and limiting on those who are making the movies.  A friend and I were talking yesterday, and he made the point that "30 years after Jedi" puts the movies past a whole lot of very big things in the books, including the Yuuzang Vong and the death of Chewie.  Those are events that shaped the EU, and expecting casual movie goers to "get" those things is not realistic.  I guess they could have tried to focus 5-10 years after the end of Jedi, but going for 30 years is good in that it allows them to use Hamill and Fisher, while paving the way for the next generation.

That's why I think that this decision was pretty much inevitable.  However, what I've found interesting is what most people have missed in the statement.  I've seen headlines that the EU has been "discarded", but that's actually not what it says.  It says that the EU will "continue to be a resource that will be mined for years to come."

What exactly does that mean?  It means that while the EU is not part of the core canon, they're going to be taking long hard looks at it to see what they can incorporate.  They've already said that there will be EU elements in Star Wars: Rebels.  (Amusingly, I saw a news post that said that EU stuff will show up in cartoons, but not movies.  They missed the part where they said "all aspects of Star Wars storytelling will be connected."  In other words, "cartoon canon" is part of the "main" canon.  If it's in the cartoon, it's in the same universe as the movie. Period.)  In short, they're going to pick and choose. If they like it, they'll run with it.

However, that is what brings us to the key question.  What exactly will they incorporate?  What will remain off in the realm of the "Legends", and what will be brought mainstream?  They've already said that things like the Inquisitor and Imperial Security Bureau are going to be incorporated.  What else?

Will it simply be background things like planets, races and perhaps a few organizations?  Or are characters (even if changed somewhat) going to make the crossing?  What will happen with Mara? Jacen? Jaina? Corran Horn?  For that matter, will they ever do a namedrop of something from the Old Republic Era? Revan? Darth Bane?

One of the biggest questions will be in the nature of the Jedi order.  By and large, the Jedis of the movies are "Warrior Monks" (with the very notable exception of Anakin.)  However, in the EU, that quite obviously breaks down, starting with Luke and Mara.  Which way are they going to jump with that?  One thing that makes this interesting is how you see Anakin's fall.  Did he fall because he should have never fallen in love with Padme? Or did he fall because Yoda and the like tried to push him in the wrong way?  Perhaps better advice from Yoda than "love is bad" would have done a world of good after all.  What's going to happen? Back to traditional monkish Jedis, or will we truly see a "New Jedi Order"

We simply do not know. I've heard rumors, but rumors are not worth much.  I know I'll be watching Rebels with great interest, to see how they're tipping their cards.  Personally, I'd like to see Mara, Jacen, Jaina, Corran and company in one form or the other, but only time will tell.

To all things there is an end

For all things, there is an end, and last night, it was the ending of City of Heroes.

It was a wild and difficult night.  I sit here, and try to think of how to describe the emotions of the night, but really, I can't.  There just aren't really words for it.  A joy and sadness mixed together.  The joy of one last run with friends, the joy of playing a well loved game... but the inescapable sadness born of the fact that it was truly the last time.

The little things.  Knowing that never again will there be another epic propel-created junkpile.  Knowing that you'll never get to gut another spawn with a blaster's nuke. (At least in the stuff I've played, there really is not single spasm of joyous destruction that quite matches Build Up-Aim-Nuke).

Yet, and as much as I hate it, the last emotion, and the one that built up since then... anger.

In many ways, I get the decision.  I know that despite how much City of Heroes has been improving the last few years (better writing, better gameplay and the like), the income of the game has not been holding up. Even the change to the promised land of free to play only arrested the decline.  I get all that, understand it, and truly, can accept it.

What has upset me though is the way that NCSoft has truly devalued what the things they had.  They did it when they suddenly put everyone on a 90 day notice, including all the staff who had built the game.  These people had done good work, impressive work and yet there they were on the chopping block.  They weren't moved to new products, where they could take their skill, passion and experience.  They were simply let go.  Yes, I'm sure the got a generous severence package, but even at that, it was only a beginning.

I watched the attempts to save the game with a fair bit of cynicism.  I didn't figure it world work, but the wall of utter silence that came from NCSoft was truly disheartening.  At one point, their only real statement was "please don't use this email address."

Last night though was the bit that really pushed me over the top.  We got notices of the impending end (Virtue crashed shortly after the 10 minute warning in fact), but what I didn't hear was "thanks for everything" from NCSoft.

That's the thing, the Devs, CMs and the like? Positron, War Witch and Hit Streak and all the others?  They said thank you to the fans many times in the last three months (and the fans said it to them).  They were truly a part of the CoH community.  They were there to the end, despite not being "official" any more.

Corporate NCSoft though?  They showed no real appreciation for the community, or of the value of the community.  Once their decision was made, they didn't engage the people who didn't want to see the game die.  They didn't try to engage the crowds who were in game for one last memory.

The final blow though?  Literally within 5 minutes of the servers going down... the CoH Community Forms... gone.  The CoH Twitter... gone.  The CoH facebook... gone.  There could not be even a spare moment for people to use those places to enjoy their last memories, to connect and meet.  To try to hold one last little moment.  Everything that was CoH had to be sent to a dark oblivion, forgotten.  Almost as if NCSoft was ashamed of the game. 

All MMOs will come to an end sooner or later.  The communities that have built around them will have to face this day.  I can only hope that when those times come, the companies involved show more respect for those communities, and make it clear that they value those communities.

I'm sure the momentary anger will pass, and in time, the good memories will be dominate.  CoH was truly a good run in so many ways, I cannot list them all. 

Farewell CoH.

How does one say goodbye to a game?

Tonight's the night.

Who knows how many people have passed through City of Heroes over the years of its existance, but tonight marks the point where it all becomes nothing more than a memory.

It's kind of funny in a way.  Once upon a time, most people's communities lasted a lifetime.  They were born in a town and stayed there.  They went to the same Church from birth to death.  Communities were one of the bedrocks of life.

How times have changed.  I'm not sure of the numbers, but I doubt even half thirty-somethings live in the town they graduated High School in (much less the town they were born in...)  We are a culture of constant change, and all of those touchstones are showing that as well (even the family, with the constant morphing brought on by divorce, remarriage, blended families and the like)

Online communities are no different.  I can't even begin to think how many different online communities I have been in.  Early chat rooms, IRC chats, wargame groups and on it went, until I came to CoH.

The thing is, in the MMO space, CoH was actually fairly old.  Oh, it wasn't the oldest (UO and EQ have that spot taken), but it in today's change-a-minute world, it was certainly considered one of the "old men" of the genre.

Think about that for a moment, City of Heroes was about 8.5 years old.  Even more, think about how many tell those hurt by the decision to kill CoH "oh, get over that old game, its day is past" (usually said rather less kindly for that matter).  One of the older communities in the MMO space is being put to death because 8.5 years is "too old".

That is the new way of our world.  Communities come, and communities go.  The bonds built in them don't entirely shatter.  I'm still in contact with a few people from my very first community online.  I'm sure I'll keep in contact with a number of City players in the future too.  Yet, our frame of reference will never be the same.  It will not be consigned to the "good old days".

The odd thing is, I haven't truly been part of the community for a while now.  For a variety of reasons (simple burnout, wounds from the wars of running a supergroup and the like), I've been largely detached from the game.  Yet, it was always there.  I could go in, and start in with the bad puns and jokes.  I knew it was there when the mood hit, when the need hit. 

Because of that, I'm not quite as torn by this as many of my friends are.  I'd already detached, already gone through the grief process to a certain extent already. 

Yet, there are things that it does hurt to realize... they will never happen again.
-The time a couple months ago where some... trigger in the way a mission went led both my character, and a friend's character to start humming ABBA's "Dancing Queen" at nearly the same second...
- The sheer power of running as a high tier Grav/Energy Dom through Freaks
- The groans in global channels as one of my legendary puns goes out.

Oh, many of those things will happen again, in other places, in other games, even with some of the same people... and hopefully those memories will be just as special in their own way.

Yet, it's a matter of knowing that... my pile of CoH memories will be complete in a few short hours. 

To all those who were part of those memories, good or bad, I thank you.

God's Protect!

Into the Sunset a City goes

It's taken me the better part of a day to fully digest the news of City of Heroes impending shutdown. It's honestly odd in a way.  I saw the signs, but simply didn't put 2+2 together.  Even though I spend little time in CoH any more, I have still watched NCSoft's corporate earnings reports with considerable interest, largely to see how CoH has been doing for them.

The simple truth is, not well.  Players have assumed that things are going great guns, but that's not really been the truth.  Earnings on the game have been flat or even declining since about the time Going Rogue came out.  That's right, if I read the numbers right, Freedom (and free to play) did little, other than possibly arresting the decline.

I'd noted the numbers, been troubled by them, but never really realized that the game's life was on the line.  I guess deep down I assumed that at worst, they'd dump the game into maintenance mode and go on.  It seems that is not NCSoft's way though.  The statements I read didn't really make clear if the game itself was profitable (it lists revenues, but not costs).  If it was though, the profit was very marginal.

It has been interesting to watch players reactions in lots of ways though.  It seems that many players forget that CoH and the American market overall are really a very small part of NCSoft.  Last quarter, North America brought in 4% of their total revenue.  We'll have to see how Guild Wars 2 does, but at this point, I'd not be shocked to see NCSoft pull entirely out of the western market if GW2 struggles.

Yet, while I comprehend the business decision, and even think that it may well make sense from a corporate suit point of view, that still leaves the deeper, more profound side of things, at least to players.

In the MMO world, communities are always in a state of flux.  People come in, they leave for new games.  Guilds and groups have members who have been there since launch day, but many of the old timers have moved on and away.  Yet, even with all that shuffling and change, there is still that sense of community.  You return to a game and see familiar names (if perhaps not as many as you would like).

We've come to expect that level of permanance.  This is the "natural disaster" of the online community world though.  It's the earthquake or volcano.  The decision to end a game, and incidentally gut the community.

Oh, the individual connections that people have made will  go on, and certain subgroups of the community will find a way to keep in touch (forming up in a new game, using forums or social media)... but as a whole, the community of CoH has 3 months to live.  Then the doom.

The suits that make these kind of decisions?  To them community isn't really important.  They may see it as an important marketing tool, to increase retention and bring in new players by word of mouth, but when the red and black numbers say it is time to close down, that community isn't even a single thought. (Note, I'm not saying this about the devs and community managers and reps who are in the end a part of the community. I'm talking about the people higher up who made the decision.)

Now, in the end, NCSoft is a business, and their job is the bottom line, and as much as we'd like to, we can't evicerate them for treating this as a business decision.  (Of course, the way they did it, the sudden announcement, the "get out today" treatment of Paragon Studios is callous and reflects badly on them, but that's another issue).

What does that say about online communities though?  We've come to expect a level of permanance, but really, that exists at the whim of the few.  Any MMO game, be it WoW, SL, SW:TOR or whatever has Poe's swinging axe above their head.  For some (like WoW), that axe is a distant threat, but even there, it does exist. 

Truly a sad day for CoH players, and really for anyone who has been in a MMO community for an extended period.  It is a harsh reminder that our communities are impermament and always threatened.

I'm getting too maudlin here I think. It's time to cut this off.  I'll probably share some memories in time, but not right now I think.

The Dark Knight and Theological Anthropology

One of the reasons I like comic books is that they are not afraid to deal with some very difficult and touchy issues.  People might say that comics are "for children" but on the other hand, comics and fantasy novels are a place where authors truly wrestle with the nature of good and evil.

Because of that, comics and comic book movies can at times be remarkably theological.  Superman Returns certainly was.  Dark Knight Rises is also.  The difference though is this.  SR was playing around with issues of the nature of God, where Superman becomes a Christ analogue (Human/Kryptonian nature, as opposed to Human/Divine).  It also questions the nature of salvation, and if we need salvation (Lois' editorial asking if the world needs Superman).

DKR though?  It's firmly rooted in anthropology.  Now, normally, when people say anthropology, they think of the formal academic discipline, and maybe think of Lucy or the Leakey's.  In terms of theology though, it is the theology of the nature of mankind.  Who is man? What is he? What does it mean to be created "in the image of God"?

DKR (and indeed all the Dark Knight Trilogy) dives into the deep end of the pool in regards to "what is the nature of mankind"  Consider the situation in the beginning.  The city is hopelessy corrupt.  The police are venal and generally worthless, the streets are dangerous.  There is a sense that Ras al'Ghul is right in wanting to purge the city from the face of the earth.

That basic corruption, the foulness of the city of Gotham continues into the second movie.  The boat scene is maybe the best example of it, where so many of the fine "upstanding" members of the city are willing to sell others down the river, for the simple chance to survive.

Yet, in the third movie, something begins to happen.  There is a change, subtle at first, but it grows.  Yes, the city is as venal as ever.  It has embraced the glorious lie of the legacy of Harvey Dent.  Deputy Commissioner Foley is a prime example of this.  He abandons the chase of a very nasty bunch of robbers in order to chase after the glory of capturing the Batman.  He's manuevering, scheming, waiting for the day that he can become the commissioner.

Yet, something has begun to change.  The change was begun in the first movie, when Batman sets himself up as everyman.  As a symbol of one who stands against the chaos, the corruption, the fallenness of the city.  That symbol begins to grow.  We see more hints of a level of "decency" in the people of Gotham.  The prisoners on the boat in DK.  Then the rise of the Police, and the redemption of Commissioner Foley.  The burning symbol on the bridge marks the turn.  We  had seen hints of it already (Officer Blake especially), but the city rises and shows courage in place of venal cowardice. It shows resilance instead of surrender.  It fights on, and it wins.  The victory was not that of Batman alone.  Without Selina, without Jim Gordon, without Blake, indeed, without Foley? There is no victory.

That is the view of human nature in the movie.

That is a very common view in our world today for that matter.  There is more good than evil, that in the end, good men will win out.  It is comforting, it is in some ways true, but in other ways false though.

Theological anthropology begins with the question "what is man?"  The answer is complex and more than I care to get into in a simple blog post, but a key part of that answer begins in a phrase we use in Church.  At the time we confess our sins, we use the phrase "I am by nature sinful and unclean."  That is what we speak of as Original Sin.  Original Sin is one of those things that people don't fully understand, because it offends them.  Yet, any look at the world reaffirms it in no uncertain terms.  Every person is corrupt, every person is sinful.  It goes far beyond "pobody's nerfect" or some such.  It is the fact that within all of us, there lives evil and corruption.  There lives ego and anger and self-centeredness.  It is truly a part of the human condition.

This truth is why Gotham is what it is.  Is the city venal and corrupt? Of course it is.  If you build a house of rotted bricks, the house will be rotten.  Whatever your base materials are will determine what you build.   This is as true in movies as it is in the "real world".  All cultures are broken, venal, corrupt.  Why? Because they are all made by broken, venal and corrupt humanity.  The exact expressions of that corruption may vary from society to society, but it is always there. (For instance, US society is violent, hyper-individualistic to the point of under-valueing other people, materialistic...)

Yet, there remains a certain decency in people.  In theology, it's what we call civil righteousness.  People can care for one another, want to work for the larger good.  It's the thing that leads firemen to dive into burning buildings, what leads a soldier to dive on a grenade, what leads a parent to work twelve hour days to help a child go to college.    Batman, Jim Gordon, Selina Kyle and the others are all expressions of this. 

Now, if you want to dig into the theology of salvation, you see that there is a distinct and profound difference between righteousness and civil righteousness.  For even the best deeds of civil righteousness are tainted by the corruption within us.  To do the acts of civil righteousness does not save.  Yet, they are indeed important, vital for society.  But now we are heading back to Superman Returns, for we are once again approaching the question of "Does the world really need a superman?" Or, to get away from the analogy, does the world need a savior?  I think my answer to that question is obvious.  For even seeing the good that civil righteousness can do, that road remains a dead end, a hopeless end.  Mankind cannot rise to good.  Good must come to mankind.

Dark Knight Rises

I just got home from Dark Knight Rises, and my first impressions are going to be more or less off the cuff here.  (Spoilers abound. If you don't want, stop reading) In short, "wow".  I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the entire movie.  It is to my mind, by a fair margin, the best of the three Nolan movies.

Now, part of that is that I feel that Ledger's Joker is badly overrated (a discussion for another time).  That said, even though the movie was closing in on three hours, it didn't feel it at all to me.  It had a powerful focus and held to it.

Is it a better movie than the Avengers?  No, but they are very different.  In fact, comparing the movies really does show that those differences.  Avengers is much more "old school" and just plain fun.  A good ol beat em up.  Yeah, the characters have their moments of introspection, but mostly, it's just a fun adventure.  DKR?  It is intense, just like the other 2 Nolan movies.  It's much more likely to leave you emotionally exhausted than Avengers ever will be.

The continuing cast (Bale, Oldman, Freeman and Caine) were their usual strong self.  I think that Hathaway did extremely well in her role as well.  I don't think she brought the sheer sultry to the role that Pfeiffer did, but she was very good, and truly did bring out Selina's conflicted antihero nature.  Gordon-Levitt was outstanding as Officer Blake.  A fantastic job by someone I mostly remember from a sitcom I never really liked.

This movie will never be able to be separated from what happened in Aurora, and it shouldn't be either.  In a deep and profound way, what we are seeing is the conflict that is deep within the movies playing itself out in very real and tragic form.

Why did the monster do what he did?  I'm not about to play internet shrink here, but the fact that he did it where he did, the way he did does lead one down certain trains of thought. 

The three movies do work with certain continuing themes.  One of them is the corruption and hypocrisy of society.  The darkness of Gotham, and what it has unleashed on the world is what Ras wanted to avenge back in the first movie, and this final movie returns to that theme.  In reading Gordon's speech to the world, Bane highlighted that hypocrisy, even as he gave a false and lying freedom.   Those movies of course are sandwiched around chaos unleashed, that is to say, the Joker.  The Joker who tried to show the utter dog eat dog nature of this world, yet was foiled by a bunch of convicts (of all things).

Yet, that's the flip side of the movie.  Even in the darkness of society, the utter corruption, the greed and avarice, the anger and hatred, there remains a glimmer of hope.  A hope born of people who stand against that tide.

That hope begins of course, with Batman himself.  In the first movie though, he has very few real allies.  His inner circle (Alfred, Lucius, Rachel) and then the one honest cop (Jim Gordon).  That circle doesn't really grow much in the second movie, but in the third?  It grows profoundly.

The movie isn't the story of one man who stood against the darkness, but men and women who risked everything to do so.  Batman may have been the pointman for it, and the inspiration, but he was not alone.  Selina, Officer Blake, Deputy Commisioner Foley, the assembled police department.

The same police department that was hopelessly venal and corrupt in the first movie.  When the hour came, they stood, they fought.  They charged into the first outgunned, and they fought. 

The inspiration that came from the symbol of the Batman has clearly grown through the movies, to the point that the forces of Order in Gotham are ready to give and sacrifice all.

The monster in Aurora?  He patterned himself after chaos.  He did his best to create chaos, and in a time and place, he succeeded.  Yet, he stands out because what he did was so monstrous.  He brought horror into the world, but in doing so, his evil is highlighted against the compassion and care of so many others.  Instead of bringing down society, he will in the end show how strong it truly can be.

There is more that I can say, and given some time and awakeness, I may get into the theology of the movie.  If Superman Returns played with the theology of grace, salvation and the nature of God, DKR is firmly rooted in anthropology (the theological version, though I'm sure the more familiar one would also have a great deal to say).

The limits of C-RPG's

It's always been obvious that any form of computer "role playing games" are going to be limited.  That has been true all the way back to my early days playing Phantasie I,II and III on my Apple ][+, and it's still true today, for much the same reasons.

There's a few reasons for this, but in many ways, they start at the same point.  They limit the ability of a player to "create and play a role."

In a pen-and-paper RPG, your character is largely up to you (with a certain amount of input from other players and the GM).  You can choose pretty much everything: personal details, personality, powers, the whole works.

Now, think about a fairly traditional Japanese RPG.  Final Fantasy VII is pretty familiar, so it's a good starting point.  You got to choose none of those things.  You were Cloud Strife.  The entire realm of choice that a pnp game gives you was gone.  There were few if any meaningful choices for the player to make in the game.  The gameplay consisted of the mechanics of the gameplay (killing monsters, getting materia, such and so), and watching the story.  It was a good story, and the gameplay was enjoyable, but even so, it really didn't qualify in any meaningful way as "role-playing".

Now, some of the more modern games give you a great deal more choice.  Mass Effect makes you Shepherd, and you do get a certain amount of choice.  You can choose your appearance, your gender and the like.  Perhaps more importantly, you've got a great deal more input into the game, as your choices influence the gameplay, and the attitudes of your companions towards you.  However, it's still limited.  After all, you're still Shepherd.  It's the role you are assigned, not the role that you choose.

Now, all of the above is obvious, and there's likely no real reason for me to even mention any of it.  What about MMO's though?  Don't they give more?  That's where things begin to get interesting.  They give much more, and at the same time, much less.

Now, in an MMO, your personality choice is far greater than any of the above games.  Depending on the game, you can make an enormous series of choices.  The process of creating a character in an MMO is potentially greater than anything short of a pnp game.  Take City of Heroes.  You have great ability to design a true superhero costume, a massive (and growing) list of powers to choose from, the ability to create a personality from scratch, the works.

Yet, at the same time, MMO's take a great deal away from you that a single player game is able to give you.  Most importantly, it takes away the ability to make a difference.  In both pnp and Solo RPG's, there is potential to have your characters actions reshape the world around them.  The decisions you make have the ability to change things in various ways, some of them quite profound.  In MMOs?  Not nearly so much so.

One of the most telling aspects of this is something that MMO gamers have more or less learned to shrug and ignore.  Since it's a shared world, your efforts effectively disappear in a matter of moments.  For instance, there you are, a hero in Atlas Park, and see a little old lady getting mugged by a Hellion.  You swoop in, and voila, the woman is saved.  Hooray!  Look back in 5 minutes, and there's the same Hellion mugging the same lady. 

It's not just little things like that though.  In SWTOR, I've been slowly pounding my way through the planet of Taris, and have been helping the Empire drive the Republic forces off the planet.  I've just gotten the big victory, and our troops are victorious!  Hooray!  Oh, wait, I poke around in the areas where Republic troops spawn, and there's just as many, they aggro just as fast.  (That doesn't even count seeing some other guy running around doing the exact same missions I am).

Because it is a shared world, there is no real permanance to your actions.  The only way Taris will truly change is if the Devs decide to have an "event" where the entire planet is changed during a patch. (Which is certainly possible, but not for the immediate future I'm sure).  You have to mentally suspend seeing all of those things.

So, in the end, you may advance your personal story, but your actions have no larger repurcussions.

This is all pretty obvious, but I'm as much putting this up to think all of this through (it's not like anyone is reading it anyway).

The TOR Elephant in the Corner

After a comment on my post earlier today (yeah, 2 posts in one day... shocking) I decided to push out a few more thoughts on the limits of the story system in TOR.

As I mentioned in my last post,  there are limits to the ability of a player to "shape" the story in TOR.  It is "on rails" to a large extent.  This is most obvious in your class quest.  You complete one part of the class quest and it... sends you to the next piece.   You can make choices in the quest, and they can affect how your companions relate to you or the like, but the story continues.  A Bounty Hunter stays on the Great Hunt (or the equivalents for the other classes).

Now, I can hear you say, your choices can do something else... they can give you... Light/Darkside points.  Yep, they can, but so what?  That's the elephant in the corner of TOR.  What exactly do Light/Darkside points get you?  A few different options in gear. In terms of story? Very little (outside of how  you relate to companions). 

What makes this such a big deal is that it sidesteps the most profound element of character development the game has to offer.  A Sith gaining meaningful lightside points? That's important!  A Jedi piling up darkside points?  You might remember this guy named Anakin Skywalker.   The Fall of a Jedi or the "rise" of a Sith (what *is* a Sith who goes lightside anyway? A fallen Jedi is a "Dark Jedi" but what, a Light Sith?)  Your entire story should start to change!  Every character should relate to you differently, and frankly, you should get different missions.  There is no more profound piece of character development in the SW universe, and the game turns it into a matter of what kind of equipment you get to pack.  That's a severe failing and lacking.

My level 33 Bounty Hunter currently is sitting around 3000 Light Side points, but is still employed by a very satisfied Empire.  Now, of course, the non-Force User classes are going to be considerably different in how LS/DS works for them.  However, it's still led me to a great deal of reflection on why a Bounty Hunter makes the choices they do.  I may or may not write it, but I've got a fair backstory sketched out. 

Now, for all those limitations I just mentioned, just imagine the amount of work involved in developing the core stories so that they react fully to player choices (even if it's only in terms of LS/DS, and not to specific choices). 

Ok, so yeah, that's the elephant.

Musings on Games

Interesting article on games from games from Raph Koster today: http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/

Assuming I properly understood all of it, and wish to unpack it, his basic thesis is this.

Content like videos, music or the like are not a core part of gameplay.  They provide a measure of feedback which can make the game experience better, but they are not the game itself.  A game that relies upon such and does not emphasize the play of the game itself will end up lacking.

Of course, right now, the big thing in gaming is Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Does TOR fall into this trap?  In some ways yes, but not entirely.   The story in the game is certainly one of the primary attractions.  There's some exceptional storytelling involved in the game, and the reveals can be awesome.  That said, I'm sure the second time through the game, the content won't have the same measure of hold over you.  You've seen it, and so it's importance to you begins to fade.

However, there are at least two things off the top of my head which go against simply saying that TOR is a "one and done game".

First of all, is the rest of the gameplay elements.  The rest of the game (combat, crafting and the like) is a strong and robust system.  Now, this is one of those elements where I can see different people having different opinions, but I don't think that TOR matches Koster's warning about a game that is all feedback and little "black box" gameplay.  (Black Box being the way he describes the gameplay/problemsolving aspect of a game) The feedback is big, even huge part of the game ("the 4th pillar"), but that doesn't mean that the "black box" elements are lacking.

Second though, is that TOR (like other Bioware games) have at least to a certain extent integrated the game into the feedback.  You don't simply see the same video every playthrough.  You can shape what you see by your actions and choices.

That said, that is still somewhat limited.  One of the great breakthroughs in a content-oriented gameplay like TOR would be for players to be able to deeply shape the game experience.  Where your choices create ever widening changes in everything around you.   If, as a Jedi, you manage to convince some young Sith to turn from the Dark Side, you might see a cascading change where you see that former Sith grow.  On the other hand, if you are forced to kill him, you become the object of a vendetta by other Sith.  Now, a game like TOR can easily handle that level of branching.  However, it becomes difficult to impossible to create content like that with more than a limited few branchpoints.   If you had 2-3 "world changing" decisions per level... just imagine the amount of writing it would take to cover all possibilities.  What games like TOR or ME or DA do, is they cut the "key" branches down to a more managable level, where you have a very limited number of truly huge choices.

(Also, an MMO like TOR won't let you deeply redefine the universe the way a SP game might.  For instance, imagine a ME-type choice in a situation like this.

Evil General:  "If you do not tell me where your base is, I will launch an orbital bombardment of the planet, killing 99% of all life"
Hostage: *choose*
1. I'll never tell! (*boomboomboom*)
2. It's at 47.1N 55.3E (*base boomed, nothing else*)

That would not be a viable MMO choice, because that would rewrite the entire universe, not only for the player but for every other player.  On the other hand, it could work in a Single Player game.

Now, this is a dilemma that's not faced at all by other genres of game.  Take Europa Universalis III.  If you aren't familiar with it, you start in the year 1399 as the leader of one nation, and from there you go on, with a variety of economic, military and political options to extend your kingdom.

One of the interesting things about that game is that there are literally no victory conditions.  Your goals in the game are ultimately self-set.  Do you want to lead Europe in colonizing the New World?  Have at it.  Do you want to become the Holy Roman Emperor?  Good luck!  Lead Han China to being a viable rival for the European powers before the game ends in 1821? Go for it!

The second thing is that your actions in that game have the profound ability to shape the game world.  The world map by the end of the game generally directly reflects what you've done in the game.

That game works the "blackbox-feedback" loop in a very different way.  You have the "black box" the game problem/play, and a variety of tools you can use to reach your goals.  On the other hand, the "feedback" is largely self directed and defined.  You can look at the map and see how much turf you have, or how you dominate the world economy or the like, but the game doesn't tell you if you are "successful".  You have to decide that for yourself.

A game like HPS Midway is a bit different still.  There is no "story" in the game, per se. (Unless you want to define the "story" as your own view of the game developments).  You start the game and you have a fairly definitive goal.  You want to defeat the enemy fleet.  The "black box" then is the problem of how to use all of your assets to achieve that goal.  At the end, the game then comes up with a score (based on how much damage you did, how much the other guy did to you, and a few other factors) to see how successful you were. 

In Midway, you generally get two forms of feedback.  The first is the immediate feedback "I attached that enemy ship, and got 2 hits, and it's smoking in the water"  The second is the "final" feedback of the game victory conditions ("ok, I sunk a carrier and destroyed 57 planes.  I had a carrier damaged and lost 32 planes.  That's a win."

This is my usual long and rambly self (not that people actually read it), but the article gives some interesting food for thought.