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|  "Re(2):The Greatest Article About the Ducktale" , posted Thu 17 Aug 10:13  
quote:
I'm glad this thread is only about ducks.
While Spoon has broken the ducks-only theme (short answer: LCD is...acceptable, but why more?), I am here to bring it back on track: that article is fun, but ye gods, look at how awful that new Duck Tales looks compared to the original.
One of the joys about getting older and complaining about new things is that occasionally you're objectively right. Just like how the lower-budget, featureless faces of the CG/eroge-looking anime junk on TV now just doesn't have the same production values as anime in the 1980s and 1990s, this is demonstrably worse. I realize that Americans don't know how to draw by hand any more, that the brave and traditionally drawn Princess and the Frog didn't make enough, and that portions of the original Ducktales were drawn in Japan, but come on.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(3):The Greatest Article About the Ducktale" , posted Thu 17 Aug 17:05
quote:
I'm glad this thread is only about ducks.
While Spoon has broken the ducks-only theme (short answer: LCD is...acceptable, but why more?), I am here to bring it back on track: that article is fun, but ye gods, look at how awful that new Duck Tales looks compared to the original.
One of the joys about getting older and complaining about new things is that occasionally you're objectively right. Just like how the lower-budget, featureless faces of the CG/eroge-looking anime junk on TV now just doesn't have the same production values as anime in the 1980s and 1990s, this is demonstrably worse. I realize that Americans don't know how to draw by hand any more, that the brave and traditionally drawn Princess and the Frog didn't make enough, and that portions of the original Ducktales were drawn in Japan, but come on.
I haven't seen yet the new DuckTales episodes, but the art style is really bad.
Somewhere I read an interview where someone said this new design is more in line with current people "tastes", well there are like 2 million american show with the same squared, simple, uninspired, easy to draw, style.
Heck, recently I saw also a fucking Scooby Doo show redesigned to look like one of this new Disney style cartoon. It was horrible style-wise (content-wise I can't speak, I can't stand that series, so didn't see enough to comment on it).
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| "Re(3):Masked crusaders working overtime" , posted Fri 18 Aug 18:19
quote:
Ok, GIJoe and Transformers crossed lots of time, somewhat make sense to cross them with M.A.S.K., but Jem?!?
Please, leave Jem alone, and give me a worthy reboot/sequel...
I've read good impressions of the newer Jem standalone comic series.
On the wider Hasbro verse thing, I'm all for interesting crossovers, and the comics medium has delivered many and interesting cases these past few years, but I'm not familiar enough with some of these series to appreciate them, altough they'd have a hard time being worse than a recent Street Fighter/G.I. Joe one where they made Rufus the Psycho-Power-enhanced final boss...
...!!
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| | "Re(1):attn: Chaz re: LCD Soundsystem" , posted Sat 19 Aug 12:57:
quote:
What is your opinion on this, or are they already too demode to be worth being interested in unironically?
Hi Spoon, sorry I was very busy with work (and Dragon Quest XI) recently so I have missed MMC for a while. I did not remember that I had mentioned / we had discussed LCD Soundsystem here in the past!
The article seems to date from last June, so at the time I think it was understandable to adopt a dubious approach about the merit of their return and their capacity to produce an interesting project in 2017. I think there is always a worry about why would you bring back something which was pretty much the perfect representation of a specific timeframe of pop culture. When their next project is a lesser work, it's also an echo of their fanbase's own fall in relevance in culture, which is never fun to think about. On that point, I am not expecting LCDS to ever produce an album as relevant as Sound of Silver or This is Happening. Hell, I am not even expecting albums to be relevant. Teens are probably as perplexed by the concept of "albums" as I was about "scopitones" when I was their age.
LCD was most interesting and relevant as a band encapsulating the rise of Williamsburg's prominence in American pop culture, and its wide impact on a lot of WASP counter-culture from the G.W.Bush administration: the Portland exodus, the massive improvement of cuisine culture in the US, American Apparel, the rise of Vice as a media empire, the relaxing attitude towards drugs, the de-diabolization of socialist activism in the US etc. Sound of Silver is a cultural peak of that era and I am not surprised it came right about as the USA shifted back to a Democratic administration and the Yes We Can! agitprop.
LCD's work was obviously less relevant under the calm (and let's be honest culturally complacent) Obama era, which saw popular culture more impacted by technological innovation (Netflix, Uber, Youtube, Grinder/Tinder, the rise and fall of successive SNS, Bitcoins etc.) than the cultural contents which they broadcasted. LCD did not have so much to bring to this cultural revolution, in the way that OK Go understood the newfound importance of video performance for example, or in the way young black artists took over the Internet to reach a broader audience cheaper and faster than through the hoops of traditional labels which either imposed commercial or regional barriers in the past. So it made sense that LCD fade away after This is Happening, which always sounds to me like the 65m35s victory lap of that generation.
But recently, social activism in the US has been getting more "interesting", to say the least. Under this new context of social unrest, there is necessarily going to be a explosion of creative output. I would rather hope and expect the output comes from minorities rather than white males rooting for them; in its own way Despacito in an interesting phenomenon counter to the narrative of the recent culture wars and wall-building proposals, and I would bet #BlackLivesMatter will give rise to some interesting artistic endeavours from teenagers who grew up under the stress and energy of these social engagements.
I don't expect (and would not hope for the United States of America) that LCD Soundsystem would be at the forefront of this new cultural dynamic, but their return makes much more sense in the current atmosphere of doubting the government, media, technology, neighbours and oneself. The three tracks we've heard so far go from alright to great in my book.
I actually went to Fuji Rock 2017 in order to see LCD Soundsystem in concert a few weeks ago. I am not a concert buff and had never done so until they broke up. I felt very stupid at the time for missing out on the chance to see them live, so I did not want to miss one more (one last?) chance to see the band perform. The festival was a messy, exhausting experience under an unforgiving thunderstorm. But the two hours long, rainy and sweaty, midnight in the middle of the forest LCD Soundsystem concert was mindblowingly good. They struck all the hits (besides Drunk Girls), the playset's order was on point, Murphy was charming and self-depreciating about playing the new songs, (it was the first time anyone in the crowd heard 'Tonite' which is a bonified dancefloor hit when you are surrounded with people clearly under the influence of MDMA and other toys). I got an innocent, unexpecting friend to join me and he seems to have loved it even though he knew nothing of the band. Probably one of my best concert memories now that the sore muscles have properly rested.
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Sat 19 Aug 13:08] |
| | "Death Note" , posted Fri 25 Aug 09:35
Reviews are up.
quote:
The film’s central problem, really, is Light, who is too dull and unthinking to be truly persuasive as either vigilante hero or proper villain. If he’s ambivalent about killing supposedly bad people with impunity, you’d think he’d spend far more time weighing murder against his conscience. If he’s evil, you’d think he’d spend far more screen time celebrating the Death Note’s revolutionary potential. Light Turner, as played by Wolff, does neither. He seems to murder people because, and only because, a script requires him to do so. He’s never characterized as an exceedingly vindictive person. At his high school, he’s enough of an outcast to walk through each hall and classroom without a friend in sight. But later, Light Turner is so seductively witty and arrogant, especially once he’s acquired the Death Note, that he instantly charms the first (and only) girl the camera ever settles on. Light is enough of a sociopath to use the Death Note, without hesitation, to murder random criminal suspects across the world; but then he regularly interrupts Sutton’s passionate embrace to stress, “We don’t kill innocent people.” It’s a vague metaphysics. There’s no rhyme or reason. And since there’s no coherent ideology, however reprehensible or even ridiculous, there’s no exact, captivating character at the heart of Light’s actions.
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| | "Re(1):Death Note" , posted Wed 6 Sep 02:44
quote:
Reviews are up.
The film’s central problem, really, is Light, who is too dull and unthinking to be truly persuasive as either vigilante hero or proper villain. If he’s ambivalent about killing supposedly bad people with impunity, you’d think he’d spend far more time weighing murder against his conscience. If he’s evil, you’d think he’d spend far more screen time celebrating the Death Note’s revolutionary potential. Light Turner, as played by Wolff, does neither. He seems to murder people because, and only because, a script requires him to do so. He’s never characterized as an exceedingly vindictive person. At his high school, he’s enough of an outcast to walk through each hall and classroom without a friend in sight. But later, Light Turner is so seductively witty and arrogant, especially once he’s acquired the Death Note, that he instantly charms the first (and only) girl the camera ever settles on. Light is enough of a sociopath to use the Death Note, without hesitation, to murder random criminal suspects across the world; but then he regularly interrupts Sutton’s passionate embrace to stress, “We don’t kill innocent people.” It’s a vague metaphysics. There’s no rhyme or reason. And since there’s no coherent ideology, however reprehensible or even ridiculous, there’s no exact, captivating character at the heart of Light’s actions.
Yeah, it's bad.
/ / /
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| "Re(8): Edano shows off rare twitter feat" , posted Thu 5 Oct 10:51:
In between constant rounds of Gunhouse and Juan's inkfest, all I can see this month are bright pastel colored wonders with bizarre grins. I love it.
Meanwhile, politics may be frowned upon at the Cafe, but politically impactful news makes it through, and since we've had so many bad announcements here in the last year, how about a good/amusing one? In Japanese politics, where bright young people go into the civil service while ancient morons and young right-wing twits go into parliament, it's rare to have good or even interesting news from the political parties. But after a new center-right party threatened to push out the liberals in opposing the ruling right-wing party, an even newer center-left party has managed to get more followers on its charmingly personal twitter account than the staid dregs of the majority, all in about a week! Eat sh-t, 2ch! This is my favorite one:
Original tweet by supporter: "When I saw [Constitutional Democratic Party President] Edano give a press conference, I explained to my 2nd grade daughter what 'constitutional' means, and I almost cried when I told her, 'Your mom is going to vote for this uncool but sincere-looking middle-aged man.' We're pushing for you, Mr. Edano!"
Response by Constitutional Democratic Party: "Thank you for your support! He may look like an uncool middle-aged man, but he's our party's brave and intelligent leader. We'll be working hard for your support!"
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Thu 5 Oct 10:55] |
| | "Zippers, Departments, and Food Folks N' Fun" , posted Sun 8 Oct 18:27:
Either I've been living under an anime-blinding rock the past few years-- which seems quite plausible-- or an advertisement wave this year for Japanese companies has been about making short anime flicks. Thus far Mcdonalds Japan, YKK, and the Marui department store chain has been guilty of making millions watch cute girls and boys do things that are utterly... pronless and worksafe, obviously. Which is fascinating since YKK is that world renowned ZIPPER COMPANY and yet there's not a shed of NSWF cutscene. In fact there's not a shed of zippers getting subliminally advertised either, which is even more fascinating.
Meanwhile the Marui anime is like OH YES I WANT TO SEE THE BALDING OFFICE WORKER FILL HIS MOUTH WITH A HOARD OF Strawberry Shortcake and By lord that donut looks like poison in Ep2.
The Marui ad in particular was quite a shocker in terms of quality since they're small potatoes compared to Mcdonalds and yet their ad looks damn better. The Ad's character designer is actually a housewife and works as an illustrator in between chores, which certainly reflects well on how working practice is slowly but finally catching up to the times in Japan. It also suits perfectly with the department store since their main target are the young female work force. On a side note, she was selling her doujins at Summer comiket and cripes the line was huge (one row only line, so makes sense).
Marui
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj-tf7v1bT8
YKK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfvqiiVosi0 (JA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xV4YTcBkQ (EN)
Mcdonalds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woFc0v0h5o0
Bonus:
Here's a collection of NHK public service announcements done by Shinkai Makoto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zscr1k_A36E
[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 9 Oct 20:12] |
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| "Re(5):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Tue 10 Oct 15:13
quote:
A free lecture course from MIT about the development of cinema
Having previously found myself lacking for ways to describe elements of movie and cinema language, I'm interested in giving this a shot to see if I can expand my knowledge on the subject.
Good news: if you conclude--correctly--that the peak of film was achieved in German expressionism and the Weimar period, you can expand your cinematic "vocabulary" (literal and figurative), skip the inferior 80 years that follow, and retire after episode 6!
Ideally, this will mean that you watch every Fritz Lang film ever made, change your MMC handle to "Dr. Mabuse," and spend many hours developing your own theory of film by considering the revolutionary possibilities of new technologies via your new friends Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno at the Frankfurt School, coupled with the deeply counter-revolutionary tendancies of said technologies once co-opted by market forces.
Isn't it time you started having fun contemplating the work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility? Don't worry, you can trust me (citation needed), one of the editors was my advisor...
Now, repeat after me: "Semiotics, critical theory, diegesis, mise-en-scene...semiotics, critical theory, diegesis, mise-en-scene..."
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(6):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Tue 10 Oct 19:32
quote:
A free lecture course from MIT about the development of cinema
Wait, am I missing something or is there no part about Ingmar Bergman?
I know it's stupidly pedantic on the verge of self-parody to say you like Bergman, but damn it, Bergman is the most consistently impressive film director on a period that spanned maybe 5 decades, while Godard sunk into self-parody after 2 decades at best. Bergman ended his career with Saraband when he was 80 or something, and that was possibly among his best creations.
There are obviously many less-than-stellar movies out of the forty-ish he's done, and the 7th Seal, though his most famous, is honestly not worth to have had such a lasting legacy. Persona on the other hand is the greatest movie of all times and needs to be re-watched periodically.
Bergman is very much Proust to the art of cinema: deep and moving psychological description of all sorts of people (mostly women in Bergman's case), huge influence of what we call classical music but is really only music, similar astral themes, and both were pretty horrible people in real life, Bergman worse than Proust.
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| | "Re(6):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 03:23:
quote:
A free lecture course from MIT about the development of cinema
Having previously found myself lacking for ways to describe elements of movie and cinema language, I'm interested in giving this a shot to see if I can expand my knowledge on the subject. Good news: if you conclude--correctly--that the peak of film was achieved in German expressionism and the Weimar period, you can expand your cinematic "vocabulary" (literal and figurative), skip the inferior 80 years that follow, and retire after episode 6!
Ideally, this will mean that you watch every Fritz Lang film ever made
cut...
I recently watched just out of curiosity Metropolis (complete version? it's available on Youtube), being an old film, I found the story a little bit silly in some aspect, but I enjoyed it very much, probably thanks to some sequences more artistic than others, it was a positive experience, I expected far worse.
I would like to continue to exhume some old movies, but I don't have many ideas, some atrocious suggestions?
[this message was edited by Lord SNK on Wed 11 Oct 03:27] |
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| "Re(7):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 04:22
That course looks like it would be a fine introduction to cinema but I do wonder if it is going to cover what you are interested in learning. Looking over the assignments it looks like the course could be discussing the themes of the film in much more general, social terms instead of how those ideas are expressed through the language of cinema. If you do sit through the course let us know what you think.
Also, have you looked at something as elementary as DVD commentary tracks? Commentaries by the late Roger Ebert make for fascinating listening/viewing. He only did a few commentary tracks but they were all for masterpieces such as Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
quote:
I recently watched just out of curiosity Metropolis (complete version? it's available on Youtube), being an old film, I found the story a little bit silly in some aspect, but I enjoyed it very much, probably thanks to some sequences more artistic than others, it was a positive experience, I expected far worse.
I would like to continue to exhume some old movies, but I don't have many ideas, some atrocious suggestions?
I'm not certain what version of Metropolis you watched but as I'm certain you are aware silent movies such as that aren't supposed to be silent; they were supposed to be seen with musical accompaniment. There are groups out there such as Alloy Orchestra that are creating new soundtracks for many old classics. Watching a "silent" film with this sort of music -or, better yet, seeing a live performance- greatly enhances the viewing experience.
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| | "Re(7):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 05:21
I am not sure until when "old" fits, but if you mean movies from around Lang's era, Murnau's Sunrise is a classic (1928), and Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925) is considered to have laid down most modern foundations of modern cinema in terms of scope (almost literally speaking), editing and staging. Chaplin's Modern Times (1938) and The Dictator (1940) came later but their heritage is closer to late 20s movies than late 30s productions. Before directing Casablanca during WW2, Michael Curtiz was essential in the foundation of the swashbuckling genre, which has inspired Spielberg, Lucas, comics and tons of video game studios consequently. All the movies above have an unescapable quaintness to them, which might throw you off.
If you want a striking taste of modern cinema and movies that seem ahead of their time, either in terms of pacing, plot or structure, I recommend to dig through the works of Alfred Hitchcock (for suspense), Ernst Lubitsch (for comedy) and Howard Hawkes (for suspense and comedy). Hitchcock's first English period concluded with some of his best work, especially The 39 Steps (1935) which is pretty much as airtight as Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (1993) nearly sixty years later. Lubitsch is a pure, under-appreciated genius. His Trouble in Paradise (1932) is one of the best comedies ever directed; it could be made again almost shot for shot today with modern actors and still find a huge audience. Hawkes unveiled deeper and stronger female characters than most of our current film makers.
Citizen Kane (1941) is kind of a special case because, while it completely changed the scope of how movies could be made and how they could tell their stories, most of what it brought to cinema has been so well assimilated over the decades which followed that, when watching the movie nowadays from the perspective of a modern audience and without the intent of studying the story of film, it might seem a bit boring compared to its (earned) reputation. So it depends why you want to watch those movies. Regarding Welles' works, I personally prefer Touch of Evil (1958) but it's a much later film.
For my soul's worth, the greatest film ever made is Marcel Carné's Children of Paradise (1945), especially the first part Boulevard of Crime; "first part" because the movie ended up so long, partially for intentional sabotage purposes under the Nazi occupation, it got divided in two feature films which both released once France was liberated. I unfortunately cannot vouch for the quality of the subtitles, as it is an especially tricky movie to translate because a lot of its appeal came from the clever script by one of France's greatest poets. The dialogue is phenomenal. The acting and delivery of lines is exceptional, even from guys who appear only one scene in the entire movie. The story is complex, multi-layered and a meta commentary on French History, stage, and therefore cinema. They invented some crazy special effects just for this joint. Also, Children of Paradise literally saved lives by hiding Jews and Resistance fighters on its set. How many other films can claim such feats?
I got to bang a hot girl who had seen Children of Paradise on TV on the same night as I had (at midnight on national TV on a Sunday), simply because we had seen the same movie at the same time and were both mesmerized by its quality and relevance and would not shut up in class about it the next day. That's how good this movie is.
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| | "Re(8):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 07:02:
quote:
I'm not certain what version of Metropolis you watched but as I'm certain you are aware silent movies such as that aren't supposed to be silent; they were supposed to be seen with musical accompaniment. There are groups out there such as Alloy Orchestra that are creating new soundtracks for many old classics. Watching a "silent" film with this sort of music -or, better yet, seeing a live performance- greatly enhances the viewing experience.
Yeah, I know, thanks, I watched this version.
I heard also good things about the music of the Moroder version, but apparently that version of the movie is shorter.
quote:
chazumaru loooooong post
Sure a lot of things, I'm more intrigued by Battleship Potemkin in that list, but can search for some other of those (also Chaplin's and Citizen Kane are pretty famous, but I never managed to view them).
Battleship Potemkin become pretty famous in Italy around the end of the '70 onwards thanks to its parody in a famous comic movie by (recently deceased) comic actor Paolo Villaggio in "Il secondo tragico Fantozzi".
More than international movie milestones, I'm looking for some weird watching experience.
Sadly I will not have an hot classmate to watch Children of paradise with.
[this message was edited by Lord SNK on Wed 11 Oct 07:05] |
| | "Re(8):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 08:08
quote:
All the movies above have an unescapable quaintness to them, which might throw you off.
Watching Casablanca for the first time is an utterly bizarre experience, coming from the perspective of somebody who had a childhood that was full of Warner Bros. cartoons, comics like Calvin and Hobbes, and so on. To say nothing of the fact that there is an entire Tiny Toons episode modeled after Citizen Kane, Casablanca was like a nonstop parade of cliches and dialogue that seems like every line was written to be a memorable one-liner or memorable exchange of one-liners (which is often how Joss Whedon works tend to be...), except that every one of those reads like an intensely familiar cliche. So part of the fun is seeing just how ingrained in culture Casablanca had become, and it is kind of shocking as well as incredibly amusing. That doesn't mean that its lines aren't delightful, or that Bogart's character isn't iconic, but it's iconic to an almost bizarre degree.
I watched Battleship Potemkin when I was in high school, but I did so under the context of "this is a historically powerful piece of propaganda filmmaking, observe the historical circumstances depicted and how the movie reinforces ideals of the Soviet regime in what it dramatizes/romanticizes", as opposed to "observe the techniques of cinema used here".
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| | "Re(9):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 11:21
quote:
More than international movie milestones, I'm looking for some weird watching experience.
Gotcha. Then I recommend these 10 movies.
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
The Hands of Orlac (Wiene, 1924)
Freaks (Browning, 1932)
Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau, 1946)
The Wages of Fear (Clouzot, 1952)
Persona (Bergman, 1966)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1969)
The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970)
Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972)
The Holy Mountain (Jodorowsky, 1973)
All very unique atmospheres, in their own way.
Also, anything filmed by Sokurov recently.
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| "Re(8):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 12:23
MMC will teach you how to MOVIE
Truly a subject worthy of a chat in a cafe. I'm going to steadfastly push the one true era of film via Weimar, and have Spoon read Tom Gunning's "The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity" as a way to also build up his vocabulary for film theory to boot! Metropolis is visually impressive, and probably the best distillation of expressionism through mise-en-scene and stage design until...frankly, the Nikkatasu pink films of the 1970s, but it's also Lang's dumbest movie. LordSNK, here's what you can try instead:
Der Mude Tod, "The Weary Death," (sometimes known by the dreary English name "Destiny"): Death isn't just for whipping by Belmonts anymore! Here, he's a weary and sorrowful figure in a silent love story of great power where a woman searches across time for a substitute life to provide to Death in exchange for sparing her lover. Comes with wild set pieces expressing the exoticism and orientalism of different eras and nations.
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler --> The Testament of Dr. Mabuse --> The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse: Lang's adaptations of the Dr. Mabuse character read like an evil Lupin III combined with (not our) Professor Moriarty, a criminal mastermind who dominates techno-modernity via gadgetry, new-fangled psychology, and modern mechanized timetables to build his "empire of crime." Comes with WILD technical-semiotic stuff like on-screen floating text (as distinguished from inter-titles) representing certain powerful incantations. Mabuse also gets the most clever set of sequels I've ever seen, each totally eschewing the obvious approach to continuing the story, while placing the filmic technological advances (audio, surveillance) in the intervening time between films in the hands of Mabuse within the story.
M: Lang came relatively late to the world of audio, but his use of sound is consequentially far more intelligent and terrifying when he finally does so.
quote:
Casablanca is everywhere
While coming to Casablanca late deprives you of the freshness, it's sort of a cultural education like Laputa, where you realize that since then, everyone has stolen everything from it.
quote:
I got to bang a hot girl who had seen Children of Paradise on TV
Meanwhile, Chaz has blown the cover on the real fun of film studies: enjoying your attractive and bohemian/gothic londonian boyfriend/girlfriend. I had one who kept a meticulous spreadsheet of brief comments on every one of the hundreds of films she'd watched over the years.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(7):Beware of Cinema dogma" , posted Wed 11 Oct 14:33:
quote:
I know it's stupidly pedantic on the verge of self-parody to say you like Bergman, but damn it, Bergman is the most consistently impressive film director on a period that spanned maybe 5 decades, while Godard sunk into self-parody after 2 decades at best. Bergman ended his career with Saraband when he was 80 or something, and that was possibly among his best creations.
There are obviously many less-than-stellar movies out of the forty-ish he's done, and the 7th Seal, though his most famous, is honestly not worth to have had such a lasting legacy. Persona on the other hand is the greatest movie of all times and needs to be re-watched periodically.
Bergman is very much Proust to the art of cinema: deep and moving psychological description of all sorts of people (mostly women in Bergman's case), huge influence of what we call classical music but is really only music, similar astral themes, and both were pretty horrible people in real life, Bergman worse than Proust.
The classics are classic for a reason! As cliche as it is (I like cliches!) Bergman helped me get into classic and artsy films when I was in high school. I absolutely loved The Seventh Seal. It has such a great premise and I think it persists as his most famous film because of it's incredibly iconic imagery which really defined how to convey the feeling of the transcendental and unknowable in film.
I have to admit, my unwitting introduction to Bergman was actually through the (thoroughly underrated!--but don't quote me on that cos I haven't seen it since I was 10) Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, whose entire premise was a parody of The Seventh Seal.
I also have to admit that after watching Seventh Seal I tracked down and essentially forced myself to love Persona even though I did not understand it AT ALL.
I also had a similar experience with Jess Franco's Venus in Furs, a masterpiece of surreal late 60s eurotrash exploitation cinema. It totally flew over my head, but I enjoyed the seemingly profound and adult mood of it (even though it had a a lot less sex than I'd hoped).
Shortly after my awakening to appreciating "old movies" I also picked up Jodorowsky's El Topo on a lark cos the imagery on the VHS box was so striking, not knowing he was an "important" filmmaker and it blew my goddamn mind. Jodorowsky's imagery is so bold that even a precocious 14 year old can grasp it in their gut.
I highly recommend everyone check out El Topo and Holy Mountain if they haven't already! I haven't done much research into it, but I'm certain they must have been huge influences on the Megami Tensei games and a lot of other dark supernatural noir stuff from Japan in the 80s and 90s.
Ah it's such a pleasure to discuss movies!
quote:
More than international movie milestones, I'm looking for some weird watching experience.
Definitely watch Holy Mountain as Chaz has recommended!
You might also enjoy The Night of the Hunter. It's a very dreamy, surreal, iconic as hell film. Once again, this is a movie I saw randomly, this time it just happened to be on TV. I had no idea that it was an "important" film, so without any hype it managed to instantly become one of my favourite films of all time, moving me to tears at very unexpected intervals. Reverend Harry Powell, played by the great Robert Mitchum is one of the great villains in fiction. He is simultaneously terrifying and beguiling. Mitchum plays the character with an INTENSE INSINCERITY that still comes off as charming. It's very difficult to describe. It definitely does not feel like a film from the 50s. It's emotional peaks and performances match any modern movie out there. Mitchum goes full on looney tunes at points and it's amazing! I don't want to spoil too much, but I'll also say that I was very pleased to find out that Night of the Hunter is also the favourite film of Frank Frazetta and many other great artists.
If you want something really weird and out there I highly recommend the films of Seijun Suzuki. He helped shape the modern concept of an art film. His films are suuuuuper experimental and full of really cool imagery. What's more, his films are also FUN. When asked why his films were so weird, he said that he wasn't trying to go out of his way to make art films, he just wanted to make his movies as fun to watch as possible. I think he was very successful in that goal (and come to think of it, I think David Lynch probably has the exact same attitude when it comes to his body of work).
Branded to Kill is an especially fun starting point, because as far as I know, it's the first film to present a romanticized world of languidly beautiful assassins wearing nicely fitted suits and dresses who constantly vie to be the #1 killer under a formal ranking system that everyone adheres to. I'm certain it's influenced countless other movies, manga, anime, etc.
Pretty sure his imagery had a profound impact on a young John Woo too. "Iconic." I use that word a lot, but that's pretty much why the classics are classics. They hit upon these perfect notes where everything just comes together in such a striking fashion that it defines the language of our imaginations for generations to come.
Tying things back to games, if you like the playful surrealism of Grasshopper Manufacture/Goichi Suda games, by all means watch Branded to Kill and if you like it, make your way through the rest of Seijun Suzuki's cinematic catalog.
His work has some of the most striking imagery ever. He's the master of setting up shots that make you go "i don't know what's going on, but I need to find out!"
AH THIS IS SO FUN! I hope this thread goes on for a while!
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Wed 11 Oct 14:49] |
| | "Proper viewing order for Jodorowsky's canon" , posted Sat 14 Oct 03:01:
Jodorowsky is fantastic, and I have some opinions on how to best experience his work. Before you watch Holy Mountain, which is considered his masterpiece, I would recommend you watch Santa Sangre. It's a bit less abstract, but still a fantastic film filled with incredible symbolism and sights you will not see in any other movie.
If you If you like that, proceed to El Topo, which is a little more out there but still a bit more accessible than Holy Mountain.
At that point, you may approach the Holy Mountain for a "religious experience".
Then watch Fando y Lis which is not bad (in fact, it is great), just not quite as "big".
Chaz beat me to Tarkovsky's Solaris, but this director is another genius. Stalker is cool, just like the videogame! You should also watch the nearly three-hour Andrei Rublev, which is IMO well worth the time. Ivan's Childhood is the more accessible option of his oeuvre, Mirror is maybe the magnum opus, and the "really weird one" is The Sacrifice. You should probably watch all of them.
But, I can still score originality points by mentioning Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel. If you want weird, surrealism will do the trick. Another good choice from this director is The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
If you are looking for Japanese films, try The Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara) or, for something closer to horror, Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo). If you want something horrifying yet modern, look to Yoshihiro Nishimura's Tokyo Gore Police for what one may rightly call "some real freaky shit". If you are into that, this director is quite prolific. You can learn more about the individual in this short profile piece.
To briefly address another of Chaz' recommendations, if you seek out Testuo be sure it's the first film, Testuo: The Iron Man. I didn't find the sequels nearly as good. If you then wonder, huh, what if this guy made a movie that was more grounded and reality and dialed up the perversion a bit, watch A Snake of June.
To circle back around, have you seen anything by Cronenberg? Videodrome and Naked Lunch
may fit the bill for starters. If you'd rather try another David, definitely try Eraserhead.
Edit: I feel like I should include a French film. Try La Grande Bouffe, and be sure to watch it after an overindulgent meal.
Edit again: Damnit, what about the Greeks? I can only really think of Dogtooth. Trailer here.
24th Edit: I forgot Jan Svankmajer. Lecke Faust (from the trailer) is my favorite, but you may have an easier time finding Alice (the girl in the wonderland). Unless you really hate stop-motion, you should check this guy out.
33rd edit: Wait a minute, have I made a similar post in the past?
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Sat 14 Oct 04:00] |
| | "Re(1):Canada Kabaddi Cup 2017 (attn KOFOGUZ)" , posted Sun 5 Nov 10:32:
quote:
While searching for videos of the Canada Cup 2017 fighting game tournament that is wrapping up right now, I found videos of a certain other "Canada Cup 2017":
The Canada Kabaddi Cup 2017
You might be wondering right now, what is at all interesting about this?
1.) It is a game I first learned about from the dynamite comedy manga Chiyo-chan no Tsuugakuro, that I had to google because I wasn't convinced it was a real thing.
2.) It is playing before a stadium audience that is PACKED, even though it is admittedly the Powerade Center in Brampton which normally seats 5000 people. For a niche sport, that's a solid turnout!
3.) Seeing a video of this made me remember your posts about Hakan, in which you told us about the legitimacy of Turkish oil wrestling. This is a sport in which huge, shirtless dudes with no shoes have to try to tag each other and then flee from other huge dudes that attempt to wrestle them such that they cannot flee. It is like a game of tag/red rover featuring pro-wrestling sized Indian dudes.
From the rich cultural heritage of Turkish oil wrestling, I'm curious about what your opinions are of Kabaddi.
Sorry for late reply! I wanted to have a little research before this post.
Kabaddi seems like a really interesting sport. Eventhough it seems like a literal child's play turned into a full fledged sports game.
That made me think that the need of these rural sports coming to existence can be boiled down to two main reasons. Practice and time travel of certain part of your lifetime; for teens it is proving that they stepped into adulthood and for adults it is going back to childhood.
To eloborate before talking about child's play angle here are some more examples of the few of the many rural and traditional sports from Anatolia that now in preservation and evolving into commercialized sports. These are mostly wrestling and horse riding varieties, though. Since horse riding was one of the biggest part of Old Turks, it's understandable. Almost all the legends of Old Turks describe the heroes born on the horse back. Back in time when Turks were literally worshipping the nature and the sky god (Picture town life in Breath of the Wild) every kid, regardless of gender and rank, know how to ride because of mobility of lifestyle. So sports like horse ride javelin and archery mostly comes from that practice angle.
On the other hand the child's play angle, maybe effects of Turks being converted into more heavily gender-role restricted religion and switching patriarchy from matriarchy along the way had created this defence mechanisms leaking more and more into these rural sports and games. Since socially these games and rural sports are the rare chance adult males allowed and celebrated acting like children; naive, frail,intimate and immature, very very hazing-like-immature 1, 2, 3, 4....,∞ in the countryside.
These games if they have any athletic aspect they evolve into professional sports.
If we go back to oil wrestling and other games with dueling and atlethic values. There are more traditions surrounding it and Kabaddi made me think about the child angle. For example "Cazgır" is a person (most probably a fan or ex-wrestler) who is promoting the game, explaining the rules in a theatrical way and telling "Mani; a short musical-ish poetry, usualy an uplifting reminder of sportsmanship with some solid life advices.
Even though older versions were much more poetic, these Mani(es) also don't refrain themselves from romanticising masculinity, faith and patriotism.
Also the starting ritual after Mani has this childlike exaggerated movement. So another point for Capcom nailing the design with making Hakan a naive buffon. It would be really sad not to see a well thought design in SFV and possible sequels.
I'm not very well informed about South East Asian culture, I only worked with four people from Bangladesh this summer so my knowledge is limited to that experience.
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
By the way, I was surprised Dolma a very traditional Turkish dish also has a version there. Well,I was surprised that Sweden had Dolma, too but for a dish originally called Lahana Sarması.
End of Spoiler
Anything deeper about Kabaddi needs research for me.
Though it is common to see many similar dishes, traditions and sports among Anatolia, Eastern Europe, Eastern Mediterrennean, Northern Africa, Arabian Peninsula and West Asia. Apparently Kabaddi prove itself as a wrestling by having a lot of fans and competitive value. I can imagine how it evolved to this point.
Does any of our multicultural members have knowledge of unique sports made it into commercial success? I heard that Quidditch made it.
[this message was edited by kofoguz on Sun 5 Nov 10:41] |
| | "Re(2):Lolita Kenshin" , posted Tue 28 Nov 20:32:
quote:
Maybe this is a good time to mention that I tried to read kenshin - I gave it 15 volumes - and I just didn't think it was very good. that ororo stuff was obnoxious, all the characters suck... did it just become popular because it was an accessible samurai manga? I found it extreeeeemely lame.
For the west, Rurouni Kenshin's popularity--as you guys said--was probably because of good timing. And also because it was simply one of the few Samurai mangas. I still recall how Blade of the Immortal was better known in the west than it was in Japan. While at it though, I can give three basic insights into why Kenshin was a hit in Japan.
1/The Meiji era and meiji restoration period is always a good time plot for stories, just that it's usually not meant for younger kids. It's a sepia-toned period where traditional values and new values collided, where the days of the sword was taken over by guns, and Japanese culture mixed with westernization... which sounds cool but you don't really get to appreciate it until you learn about it in history class. There's never been anyone who took the theme and turned it into an action-packed shonen manga... which was quite an idea but also certainly a challenge since up until then, shonen mangas usually targeted the younger age audience. The protagonist being near his 30s' was another major difference from usual shonen mangas, but the risks paid off for Watsuki since there were plenty enough readers in their late-teens and 20's that grew up reading the Shonen jump--and hadn't grown out of it. For them, the protagonist being an older character and having a past was an acceptable change from the usual heroes in the Shonen Jump (note: they were already used to characters that started out super-strong rather than to level up during the storyline, thanks in part to Jojo Pt.3). The gags like "Ororo" were probably thrown in to give it an atmosphere that wouldn't alienate the more younger readers.
2/ There were elements that attracted both the male and female readers. For male audiences, the manga came right after when the Dragonball and Yuyu Hakusho series ended on Shonen Jump, so there was a thirst for a new hardcore battle manga. For the female audiences, the manga had plenty enough bishonens, and they all had their own stories, carrying burdens from their past. The Shonen Jump has always had a few mangas in their lineup with a good female following let it be Captain Tsubasa or Yuyu Hakusho, but by lord, the doujin scene for Kenshin was pretty big. (Although of course it's probably even bigger for the modern day Touken Ranbu, but that's a whole different subject of its own. Thank you Cygames for giving us an SSR Mikazuki.)
3/ It adapted things that were popular at the time.
Keep in mind that we're talking about the mid 90's when KOF and fighting games were huge, and when the Final Fantasy series went from classic pixel-n'-tiles graphic to the wacky world of polygons and fmvs with lots of bishounens, and J-pop together with visual-kei bands were big.
... it didn't work out as well when Watsuki tried to fit in Magneto into his next manga series, Gun Blaze West.
[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 29 Nov 15:49] |
| | "Re(5):Paging doctor Nobi" , posted Sat 3 Feb 01:34
quote:
Youloute, you're great.
I mean, generally.
I absolutely agree (and thank you Youloute for so quickly explaining the image's origin)!
PS everyone here should go see VGDensetsu on Twitter. It's one of the great joys of an otherwise bleak and dismal site.
Ahhhhhh! You all rock! That video was so amazing! What a time to be alive!
It's so nice to see that Akiman is in good health. And wow, SO MUCH BURIED ART TREASURES are in there!
Seeing Akiman's pencil drawings for sprite art up close was a revelation. I had no idea the source art was so detailed. It all makes so much sense now. By drawing on the custom made graph paper (HOW COOL IS THAT??) from the very start, they were optimizing for sprite art while also maintaining all the benefits and appeal of traditional animation. I know this sounds very obvious when plainly stated, but just SEEING it was really PROFOUND.
I went ahead and edited some gifs out of the parts where Akiman was flipping through his old pencil animations. I hope you all enjoy:
https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/959155410157514752
Akiman's pencil animations are so beautiful. They are so perfect in their complex simplifications of the human form. His draftsmanship is at least on par with the old Disney masters. I wish I could just spend all day (all year!) perusing his old animations. It occurs to me that if he actually held on to all the old pencils, you could make a really really really goshdang INCREDIBLE HD remaster of all those old titles if you used the actual source art. IT WOULD BE SO AMAZING IM TEARING UP JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
Seriously, look at how beautiful this drawing is! Now imagine it moving with the silky smoothness of Third Strike! Ah! Ah my heart!
Now to bring myself back to reality, I'm guessing probably not every single frame was drawn with that level of fidelity. I imagine Akiman provided that as a guide for other animators to follow when animating on the game. Someone else mentioned that that's what he did for Felicia on Darkstalkers as well.
Anyway, it's so great to be able to peek into Akiman's life like that. And so great to see so many people excited over it too!
I wonder if Blizzard will send some work his way after all this. That would be pretty rad if he worked on Overwatch. I'd love it if someday Akiman took the lead on a new fighting game. Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream ...
www.art-eater.com
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| | "Re(5):Hi Score Girl" , posted Fri 30 Mar 04:02:
quote:
Hi Score Girl will get an anime adaptation this summer.
Is this series any good? Outside of the copyright carryings-on I know nothing of this franchise outside of this trailer. After watching it I am reminded of the previews for that dreadful looking movie Ready Player One, the trailers for which wallow in meaningless nostalgia and references without context. Are the Japanese kids of today interested in old arcade culture? Do the people who are old enough to remember arcades care about the antics of cartoon high school students? Is that the way Tokyo girls dressed in the 90's?
From what I understand it's one of those mangas aimed at the 30-something crowd that makes them say "ahh the good ol' days". It does a fairly good job at showing the games and talking about them in detail, and mixes it with some love-romance story with the characters that are playing them.
If that sounds kind of cool but also a tad superficial, that's because it probably is. The manga's been criticized that while it depicts the games, it doesn't depict the era too well. It seems like the author isn't too keen about the golden years of fighting games and "trys to redramatize those days" from whatever references that's available, let it be magazines and whatnot. As a result the manga doesn't feel natural to people that knew the era. The author apparently didn't really get into the games until the 2000s when the boom had died off, which kind of explains things.
The thing about the fighting game golden era was that it wasn't just about the games themselves-- it was a living experience quite like no other. I'd love to write down about it some day if I could.
And no, that's not the kind of fashion that kids wore back then, the artist just isn't that good at drawing, albeit he does have a very distinct art style that stands out.
[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 30 Mar 11:34] |
| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(1):You Don't Know Maou Yet (re: Gunma)" , posted Mon 9 Apr 01:14:
quote:
Evidently there is an anime, a live action series and more to come from this manga about how Gunma really isn't all that bad?
Ha! I have chuckled over this before with Gunma people but actually haven't read this (or really, any) comic in a long time! Apparently they do a pretty good job of representing things that you actually experience there, starting with the intense "karakkaze" dry wind that makes it really hard to bike to/from school, though people don't actually refer to themselves as "Gunmers," nor is there a particular rivalry with Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures.
Since the author moved to Gunma in middle school, he's not really making fun as an outsider. I figure any exposure is good, since Gunma is criminally underrated, despite being a really pleasant place filled with nice people, boasting truly excellent hot springs and hiking, serving as the setting for Initial D, producing four prime ministers, and having what is actually the best local sweet, yaki manjuu (that last link actually does reveal a local-local rivalry--yaki manjuu are made with both bean paste and non-bean-paste versions, but it's a point of contention which is best).
...I'm pretty sure that the Cafe now leads all gaming message boards in references to Gunma, Proust, Tale of Genji, auteur theory, cheese, and "wearing an umbrella."
quote:
The thing about the fighting game golden era was that it wasn't just about the games themselves-- it was a living experience quite like no other. I'd love to write down about it some day if I could.
Hey Prof, that'd be really interesting to see. Maybe we could all "interview" you in a thread and compile it?
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Mon 9 Apr 04:55] |
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| "Re(1):Legend of the Galatic Heroes" , posted Mon 28 May 23:36
quote:
All the talk about the Legend of the Condor topic in the other thread always reminded me about Legend of the Galatic Heroes since I was currently watching that anime. And I must say, this is one of the greatest anime's I have ever witnessed. I am glad I have watch it at this age and not when I was younger because I would have not completly understand the concept behind the story. As I was watching LOTGH, it seems the studios is airing a updated version of the original into 12 episodes and three movies that is considered to have four episodes in each.
Anyways, the question I have is does anyone know where I can purchase or view the OVA, Movies, and side stories of the original? I cant seem to find it anywhere.
HIDIVE has the series up for streaming, although I'm not sure if that's available for all regions:
https://www.hidive.com/tv/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes
Been watching the new series, and I like how they're handling it so far - in the classic series the actual space battles were the weakest parts, and the CG allows their full scope to be better represented. Also, MVP Oberstein actually smiled more in his first appearance that he has during the entirety of the classic series, so that's a nice touch that helps humanize him. The extra glimpse at some characters' history is another nice plus.
I am, however, still disappointed with the absence of Hortense, Cazerne's wife that's quietly pulled major strings in the story with the occasional pertinent suggestions from the safe appearance of an uninvolved housewife with no official political or military role - it is not too late for them to correct this, but I wonder if they'll bother. No Dusty Attenborough so far either, which is a shame since he tended to have some of the best lines.
...!!
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| "Re(2):Legend of the Galatic Heroes" , posted Mon 28 May 23:59
quote:
All the talk about the Legend of the Condor topic in the other thread always reminded me about Legend of the Galatic Heroes since I was currently watching that anime. And I must say, this is one of the greatest anime's I have ever witnessed. I am glad I have watch it at this age and not when I was younger because I would have not completly understand the concept behind the story. As I was watching LOTGH, it seems the studios is airing a updated version of the original into 12 episodes and three movies that is considered to have four episodes in each.
Anyways, the question I have is does anyone know where I can purchase or view the OVA, Movies, and side stories of the original? I cant seem to find it anywhere.
HIDIVE has the series up for streaming, although I'm not sure if that's available for all regions:
https://www.hidive.com/tv/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes
Been watching the new series, and I like how they're handling it so far - in the classic series the actual space battles were the weakest parts, and the CG allows their full scope to be better represented. Also, MVP Oberstein actually smiled more in his first appearance that he has during the entirety of the classic series, so that's a nice touch that helps humanize him. The extra glimpse at some characters' history is another nice plus.
I am, however, still disappointed with the absence of Hortense, Cazerne's wife that's quiet
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Oh wow thanks a bunch. They have LOTGH Gaiden both parts combined. I think that is the most important part outside of the Original anime. Just have to find the three other movies and should be good to go.
Hopefully I will watch the new series sometime soon. I will wait to see how it plays out. Oberstein smiling? Does that mean the universe is ending?
Attenborough is indeed a memorable character as is Poplan. But if no Attenborough, Poplan would be insignificant. Thanks again Loona.
Long Live I AM!
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| "Re(3):Legend of the Galatic Heroes" , posted Tue 29 May 21:05
quote:
Hopefully I will watch the new series sometime soon. I will wait to see how it plays out. Oberstein smiling? Does that mean the universe is ending?
Attenborough is indeed a memorable character as is Poplan. But if no Attenborough, Poplan would be insignificant. Thanks again Loona.
That scene with Oberstein was his meeting with Kirchieis, sometime before meeting Reinhardt (which IIRC was when he was introduced in the OVAs) - the way I see it, Obersteins was probably pleased and/or relieved to see a glimpse of meritocracy, after getting used to the exasperation from dealing with guys that basically inherited their positions - I haven't really seen him smile in the show since, but it was still a nice touch.
As for Attenborough, I heard that he as introduced earlier in the OVAs than in the books, as a way to replace moments of internal monologue Yang apparently has in the books, since he's kind of the other major "ideas guy" on their side.
Poplan is mostly used as, not quite comic relief, but as a way to lighten the atmosphere with his near constant talk of getting it on with the ladies - which gets one worried when in a later part of the story he's shown to know quite a bit about psychoactive drugs... and that portrait of his on the new ED doesn't help...
...!!
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| "Re(4):Legend of the Galatic Heroes" , posted Sat 9 Jun 01:16:
quote:
Hopefully I will watch the new series sometime soon. I will wait to see how it plays out. Oberstein smiling? Does that mean the universe is ending?
Attenborough is indeed a memorable character as is Poplan. But if no Attenborough, Poplan would be insignificant. Thanks again Loona.
That scene with Oberstein was his meeting with Kirchieis, sometime before meeting Reinhardt (which IIRC was when he was introduced in the OVAs) - the way I see it, Obersteins was probably pleased and/or relieved to see a glimpse of meritocracy, after getting used to the exasperation from dealing with guys that basically inherited their positions - I haven't really seen him smile in the show since, but it was still a nice touch.
As for Attenborough, I heard that he as introduced earlier in the OVAs than in the books, as a way to replace moments of internal monologue Yang apparently has in the books, since he's kind of the other major "ideas guy" on their side.
Poplan is mostly used as, not quite comic relief, but as a way to lighten the atmosphere with his near constant talk of getting it on with the ladies - which gets one worried when in a later part of the story he's shown to know quite a bit about psychoactive drugs... and that portrait of his on the new ED doesn't help...
Oh wow so lots of differences. Well let me know how it goes for this season. I will try to wait and watch untill everything is complete before diving in.
Thank for letting me know own about Hidive. Watching Gaiden and story is very good and entertaining. I tell you the writing in this series is fantastic. So much applies to today society and definetly in the future.
Long Live I AM!
[this message was edited by Neo0r0chiaku on Sat 9 Jun 01:18] |
| | "Re(3):IGN Editor Play-gerising" , posted Mon 20 Aug 07:34
quote:
As has been the case since the early internet, IGN appears to be the lowest common denominator---I'd be more surprised if something like this happened with some of the much better, newer English-language sites like US Gamer or Polygon. ("What's a Kotaku? Can you eat it?")
I've honestly been a bit impressed by IGN in this situation. Even at the beginning, when it looked like it might have been a one-off issue, they didn't try to hide it. They didn't throw Muicin under the bus, but they also didn't circle the wagons. They didn't try to downplay the severity of the charges. They didn't try to deflect the whole matter.
Contrast that to gaming site scandals of the past, where the common response was often obfuscation, denials, hair-trigger reactions, recriminations, hypocrisy, attempts to shift or derail discussion...
IGN just took down the reviews, put up notes explaining exactly why they took them down, started investigating, fired Muicin after it was clear that it was plagiarism and not just coincidence, talked to the guy who's copied review set this whole thing off (and who himself had been pretty reasonable throughout), and ultimately took down all of Muicin's work when they found that so much of his work had at least in part been taken uncredited from other sources.
IGN reacted up front and honest, and calmly and rationally, even while I have no doubt that various employees were rather upset.
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| | "Re(3):IGN Editor Playgarising Gate" , posted Mon 20 Aug 22:11
quote:
Years ago when SNK vs Capcom Chaos was first announced (or maybe it was another game) Professor put up some scans and had a small MMCafe watermark. IGN put up the same scans with the watermark, but never credited the cafe.
My favorite such story was many years ago when GameSpot decided to run and editorial condemning other sites for reusing images GameSpot posted without permission or credit, even going as far as to slap their own watermark over GameSpot's. It was met by a flood of commenters posting that GameSpot had for years done exactly the same thing to various Japanese gaming news sites.
Oh, the fun of the days when you'd see game sites proudly posting images with three or four (or more) different watermarks. And some sites seemed to design their watermarks to be large not just to be harder for other sites to cover them, but also to better cover the marks of other sites.
quote:
I really wonder how game news sites even manage to survive nowadays without bending down to game publishers for ad revenue from them..
They get swallowed up by larger competing organizations, which get swallowed by even larger organizations, which in turn get bought by larger general entertainment news companies. Eventually you get to a parent that theoretically the game publishers can't push around, at least if you parent company thinks you are worth assisting.
Earlier this year, ReedPop (which handles conventions like New York ComicCon and PAX) bought Gamer Network. Gamer Network itself owned around ten different videogame released sites (Eurogamer, VG247, GameIndustry.biz, ModDB, RPS, Nintendo Life (through Nlife Media), etc), which it either launched directly or bought out over the years.
Ziff Davis, owner of IGN, is a large multimedia corporation. Over the years, it bought up IGN competitors/compatriots like 1Up. 1Up itself had itself previously been acquired by UGO, which itself had been acquired by the Hearst multimedia empire.
Enthusiast Gaming is a Canadian gaming media company. It bought Destructoid in 2017 and bought The Escapist earlier this year.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(4):Discotek animation-fest" , posted Fri 24 Aug 14:14:
English-speaking DVD regions have some pretty exciting classics reappearing via the small but bafflingly prolific translation house Discotek. I knew these guys were classy before when they started releasing some of Japan's earliest long-form animated movies from Touei Douga (before it was Touei Animation), including seminal works in the history of the medium like Horus, Prince of the Sun, and Puss in Boots. And because it's the Cafe, I'll even make this new list of magnificent releases ON TOPIC via game references:
Kimagure Orange Road: The best TV adaptation of a comic I've ever seen, and the original English release was by the venerable AnimEigo (president: Robert Woodhead, co-creator of WIZARDY).
Galaxy Express 999 TV: I don't think this has been out in English before. Obviously, the partial inspiration for the ghost train sequence in Final Fantasy VI, together with Miyazawa's original Night of the Galaxy Railroad.
Giant Robo: STILL ON TOPIC, with character designs by Kubooka of the Lunar and Idolmaster series.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Fri 24 Aug 15:27] |
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| "Re(5):Discotek animation-fest" , posted Fri 24 Aug 22:10
quote:
English-speaking DVD regions have some pretty exciting classics reappearing via the small but bafflingly prolific translation house Discotek. I knew these guys were classy before when they started releasing some of Japan's earliest long-form animated movies from Touei Douga (before it was Touei Animation), including seminal works in the history of the medium like Horus, Prince of the Sun, and Puss in Boots. And because it's the Cafe, I'll even make this new list of magnificent releases ON TOPIC via game references:
Kimagure Orange Road: The best TV adaptation of a comic I've ever seen, and the original English release was by the venerable AnimEigo (president: Robert Woodhead, co-creator of WIZARDY).
Galaxy Express 999 TV: I don't think this has been out in English before. Obviously, the partial inspiration for the ghost train sequence in Final Fantasy VI, together with Miyazawa's original Night of the Galaxy Railroad.
Giant Robo: STILL ON TOPIC, with character designs by Kubooka of the Lunar and Idolmaster series.
Oohh, nice for Kimegure Orange Road. Really great anime and wish I would have seen it when it originally came out. I haven't seen the OVA yet nor the movie so will wait for it once they release.
Long Live I AM!
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| | "Re(7):Iggy-tato" , posted Wed 17 Oct 13:15
quote:
Gatorade straight up says "look at all these electrolytes in our drink" which really means "we have dissolve a bunch of salts in our drink"
Ah that's interesting, thank you for the trivia! (And all this time I thought its lighting logo was just an aesthetic). It's very similar then to Pokari Sweat which in Japan is advertised as an "Ion Supply" water.
Now I feel like a child back in the 80's. Tonight I will sleep listening to either this or this.
The human body has a number of functions which are dependent on a few very particular ions! For instance, one of the things you will learn about when it comes to nerves is that a nerve firing a signal works via the sodium-potassium pump, and blood plasma has a sodium concentration of 0.1%. When the salt (not merely sodium salt!) balance in your body is badly upset, you are prone to having muscle cramps as well as all kinds of other badness. In fact, if you drink enough water and your body is not able to eliminate it from the system fast enough you could even kill yourself, as one person did trying to win a Wii or something like that... in that case, it wasn't a matter of having so much water that the nerves didn't fire right so much as having so much water that some of the mechanisms of osmosis that are important to regular cell function just started failing.
How much you need these infusions of ions or their efficacy in sports drinks, well, that's another question. It probably doesn't hurt, and all the sugar in them certainly helps when you've been vigorously exercising!
However, when you are profusely sweating for long periods of time, you can certainly lose an amount of salt that is significant. One of the actually quite common situations where this can happen is when you are sick and run a fever for a sustained period of time! Similarly, if you drink lots of alcohol and become dehydrated, you will easily get a hangover headache. Having a tin of sports drink powder in your house so you can mix up some at a moment's notice and not really have to worry about it going bad until 199X is actually pretty useful!
I often think that if high school biology connected all the zany things it teaches about the human body to real life mishaps and misery and sometimes how those can be treated, people would take to it a lot better and in turn could make their own lives better.
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| | "Re(3):BBC reports: Penguin island army availa" , posted Sat 22 Dec 09:39
quote:
They don't use the gregorian calendar for their business/regular things? Nah, they are both all over the place, both in documents and in the way people talk, man! "You must defeat [both calendar systems] to stand a chance."
Unlimited supplies of Penguins! If only we could pay by sardines... I told JJJ we could crowdfund it. Or maybe a Cafe timeshare.
To elaborate on what Maou said, they're both used all over the place depending on context. As a general tendency, the Japanese format is used for official documents like government papers, whereas gregorian is usually used for business, especially more nowadays compared to like two decades ago because things are saved digitally and gregorian is more convenient.
I think gregorian is more used in daily life. For example if you buy something at a shop, the receipt is in gregorian.
But the Japanese format also has its casual use, especially when it comes to people mocking each other.
"Bah, he's from the Showa period. He's an old fart!"
"He's a Heisei kid, he's got no guts!"
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| | "Re(1):Angoulême International Comics Festival" , posted Mon 4 Feb 06:42
quote:
The intense shame of double posting is outweighed by the fun of sharing this article on the Angoulême International Comics Festival and the booming French comic market. I've always loved the ligne clair of Tintin and imagine that French culture has had a sophisticated comics market for longer than places like the US where mainstream comics were (still are?) heavily burdened by censorship for so long. Oh, I see this is the one where Takahashi Rumiko won the grand prize, too.
"The festival, spread out in venues across the city, featured comic books on just about every conceivable subject — the life of Jules Verne, the wines of Burgundy, erotic stories set in space, even one whose main character is a gym sock. The St.-Martial church was repurposed as a shop specializing in comic book titles for Christian readers, whether modern spiritual tales or retellings of Bible stories."
I think the US mainstream comics have some deeper issues (hah!) than just a legacy of having gone through a long era of censorship, though the content restrictions certainly did affect the comics quite deeply for a long time. By the time Frank Miller was making the comics that would see great commercial success and mainstream relevance, sex and violence and drug and glamorous villains were no longer considered problematic content nor were they edgy subjects that only niche comics would touch. There's a substantial number of interesting comics from the USA that aren't published by Marvel or DC that tell stories and have style very much different from the typical Marvel or DC fare, but they definitely don't form a.... mainstream niche?
"Mainstream niche" is kind of a weird way of putting it, but it's the best way I have to describe genres of things that are commonly accepted in the mainstream but don't necessarily form a broad cultural touchstone. For instance, you've got your... I dunno, josei manga, and I'm sure nobody bats an eye at the notion or existence of it in general in Japan, but I don't think (and I could be wrong!) it is a commercially and culturally dominant thing the way we tend to imagine when we think of the usage of the word "mainstream".
A niche that most people are aware of however vaguely and possesses enough commercial success to be a particular industry, but not commercially or culturally dominant. Yeah. That's how I'd define it.
Independent comics in North America tend to just get lumped into one huge ball as "independent comics" or "underground comics". There's also "web comics", but that's its whole own thing!
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| "Re(2):Angoulême International Comics Festival" , posted Tue 5 Feb 01:45
quote:
I think the US mainstream comics have some deeper issues (hah!) than just a legacy of having gone through a long era of censorship, though the content restrictions certainly did affect the comics quite deeply for a long time. By the time Frank Miller was making the comics that would see great commercial success and mainstream relevance, sex and violence and drug and glamorous villains were no longer considered problematic content nor were they edgy subjects that only niche comics would touch. There's a substantial number of interesting comics from the USA that aren't published by Marvel or DC that tell stories and have style very much different from the typical Marvel or DC fare, but they definitely don't form a.... mainstream niche?
"Mainstream niche" is kind of a weird way of putting it, but it's the best way I have to describe genres of things that are commonly accepted in the mainstream but don't necessarily form a broad cultural touchstone. For instance, you've got your... I dunno, josei manga, and I'm sure nobody bats an eye at the notion or existence of it in general in Japan, but I don't think (and I could be wrong!) it is a commercially and culturally dominant thing the way we tend to imagine when we think of the usage of the word "mainstream".
A niche that most people are aware of however vaguely and possesses enough commercial success to be a particular industry, but not commercially or culturally dominant. Yeah. That's how I'd define it.
Independent comics in North America tend to just get lumped into one huge ball as "independent comics" or "underground comics". There's also "web comics", but that's its whole own thing!
It's funny, things like Saga, Monstress, Wicked + The Divine and whatever Ed Brubaker feels like hard-boiling all achieve critical and commercial success but they don't have the public mindshare that other forms of entertainment occupy. "Mainstream niche" is a good way to put it since it's readily accessible to anyone interested but the number of people interested is never going to be blockbuster numbers.
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|  "Long live MMC" , posted Fri 1 Mar 09:20
quote:
MMCafe is a small group which is probably the reason but yes, it's kind of interesting that it's still surviving. 
It's clearly due to:
1) the outstanding yet humble board owner
2) the incredibly interesting, witty, and attractive clientele 
3) the unflinching love of dairy products, Dracula, Kinu, penguins, and SNK
4) the fact the conversation is not America-centric, as per 2) and 3)
5) the robust support for ASCII art and delicious looking icons
BONUS: 18 years later, I finally noticed that the "dandy" icon is a guy with a cigarette, not a gun
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| "Re(1):Long live MMC" , posted Fri 1 Mar 20:27
quote:
MMCafe is a small group which is probably the reason but yes, it's kind of interesting that it's still surviving.
It's clearly due to:
1) the outstanding yet humble board owner
2) the incredibly interesting, witty, and attractive clientele
3) the unflinching love of dairy products, Dracula, Kinu, penguins, and SNK
4) the fact the conversation is not America-centric, as per 2) and 3)
5) the robust support for ASCII art and delicious looking icons
BONUS: 18 years later, I finally noticed that the "dandy" icon is a guy with a cigarette, not a gun
I like how this board is very peaceful. Solething extremely weird, if not impossible, for a video game centric board
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| "Re(4):Hi Score Girl 2" , posted Fri 29 Mar 22:35
quote:
Just released teaser/trailer for Hi Score Girl 2
Oh~ ye~s! I can't wait for autumn now! Ha!
I'm confused. I realized yesterday (March 25th) that new episodes had been posted on Netflix (11 ~ 14). Are these some sort of OVA releases? Definitely not part of Season 2; or are they? Thanks in advance.
More like this was planned as a 15 episode series/season but on broadcast they had only 12 slots for episodes so the rest was sold in the Blurays and thus, delayed on Netflix.
I liked the series but not sure how to extend for more than one season since the whole love "triangle" is pretty much resolved and big part of the dramas between Haruo and Akira are as well. Also, I read that the manga didn't have a "fulfillment" ending so can we hope the anime to "fix" this?
I just found weird how the story just gloss over Fatal Fury. Isn't Special really big there in Japan? Or is the kid so fascinated with Samurai Shodown that he ignores everything else? I'm impressed we had a KOF match even though they didn't explain much about '95 as much as they put detail in Vampire/Darkstalkers. I think the pacing of early chapters more focused on the games than romance were better, I guess.
Also, hi guys!
I haven't read the manga (I spoiled the ending though) so I'm not 100% sure of this, but is what someone told me in other forum
It seems that a big difference between the manga and the anime is that in the former, they never had that scene of the of Ono tutor "apologizing" to Haruo for throwing away his console, so in that regard there is still a chance for another ending.
At least the conflict on season 2 should be about how Akira still has her future written by her family, a rivalry with Hidaka and Harou deciding what he wants to do with his family.
And yeah, is funny how Savage Reign got more screen time than fatal fury special, and it was also funny how when Haruo said goodbye to Ono in the airport, he talked about the release of the first Fatal Fury as this big event that will mark the next boom period of arcade centers
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| | "Re(1):Welcome Back, Love Heart?" , posted Tue 21 May 14:12:
quote:
Sorry for bumping...
It appears Highlights Entertainment has abandoned pachislot development effective last March 31st and will instead focus in developing and selling peripherals for the the gaming machine market.
I assume it's because of financial difficulties within the company. Possibly, along with the same reasons why SNK withdrew from the pachislot business (declining market and stricter pachinko/pachislot regulations).
Thanks for the heads up, and here's the lowdown--
Basically, Highlights Entertainment went belly-up in only two years after they got those rights from SNK. Their demise came so fast that they didn't even make a Sky Love pachislot. As a small correction to Yuki Yagami's post, they're not making game peripherals now-- they closed business and they're just continuing product support for their pachislots (maitenance + peripheral sales).
So the question is "where are the rights to those SNK titles now", and to be frank we don't know for sure since there hasn't been an official announcement from Highlights Entertainment nor any third party companies claming to have aquired them for commercial use. Thus far, what we do know is this:
1/ One of the few merchandising products that was out in the market was the Sister Quest LINE stamp, but it's been pulled from the LINE shop. Previously it was sold for 99 cents by Highlights Entertainment.
2/ Highlights Entertainment's parent company (J-Trust) decided last September to sell all Highlights Entertainment shares and debt claims to a real estate company named Sai Partners. Only a few days after the announcement, a second announcement was made, saying that the debt claims instead will be sold to Sumaha Management, a company associated with Sai Partners that specializes in the medical field. Given that Sumaha Management is a small company, the general consensus is that Sai Partners is probably thinking of disassembling Highlight Entertainment and taking just its good parts and throwing away whatever is unneeded. And in March, Highlights Entertainment withdrew from the NDK (Nichidenkyo), the Pachislot maker association.
3/ So in the end, the question again, is what happened to the SNK rights. If Highlight Entertainment liquidated it, it's in the hands of a new company. If they still kept it, it went to either Sai Partners or Sumaha Management.
[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 21 May 14:17] |
| | "Re(2):Welcome Back, Love Heart?" , posted Tue 21 May 17:55:
quote:
Sorry for bumping...
It appears Highlights Entertainment has abandoned pachislot development effective last March 31st and will instead focus in developing and selling peripherals for the the gaming machine market.
I assume it's because of financial difficulties within the company. Possibly, along with the same reasons why SNK withdrew from the pachislot business (declining market and stricter pachinko/pachislot regulations).
Thanks for the heads up, and here's the lowdown--
Basically, Highlights Entertainment went belly-up in only two years after they got those rights from SNK. Their demise came so fast that they didn't even make a Sky Love pachislot. As a small correction to Yuki Yagami's post, they're not making game peripherals now-- they closed business and they're just continuing product support for their pachislots (maitenance + peripheral sales).
So the question is "where are the rights to those SNK titles now", and to be frank we don't know for sure since there hasn't been an official announcement from Highlights Entertainment nor any third party companies claming to have aquired them for commercial use. Thus far, what we do know is this:
1/ One of the few merchandising products that was out in the market was the Sister Quest LINE stamp, but it's been pulled from the LINE shop. Previously it was sold for 99 cents by Highlights Entertainment.
2/ Highlights Entertainment's parent com
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Thank you for the correction and the explanation of what really happened.
I admit, I am not sure if SNK was aware of what happened.
"Lasciate ogne speranza"
[this message was edited by Yuki Yagami on Tue 21 May 18:00] |
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| "Re(2):Welcome Back, Love Heart?" , posted Wed 22 May 09:29
quote:
Sorry for bumping...
It appears Highlights Entertainment has abandoned pachislot development effective last March 31st and will instead focus in developing and selling peripherals for the the gaming machine market.
I assume it's because of financial difficulties within the company. Possibly, along with the same reasons why SNK withdrew from the pachislot business (declining market and stricter pachinko/pachislot regulations).
Thanks for the heads up, and here's the lowdown--
Basically, Highlights Entertainment went belly-up in only two years after they got those rights from SNK. Their demise came so fast that they didn't even make a Sky Love pachislot. As a small correction to Yuki Yagami's post, they're not making game peripherals now-- they closed business and they're just continuing product support for their pachislots (maitenance + peripheral sales).
So the question is "where are the rights to those SNK titles now", and to be frank we don't know for sure since there hasn't been an official announcement from Highlights Entertainment nor any third party companies claming to have aquired them for commercial use. Thus far, what we do know is this:
1/ One of the few merchandising products that was out in the market was the Sister Quest LINE stamp, but it's been pulled from the LINE shop. Previously it was sold for 99 cents by Highlights Entertainment.
2/ Highlights Entertainment's parent com
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Nice, thanks for the update!
I wonder if there's a shot SNK's parent company handling this - I got the impression they might have helped settle things with Square Enix over the Hi Score Girl manga issue back in the day, and while it may be a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of things, it probably would make it simpler to sell and market versions of the like of KoF XIV and SNK Heroines for future console generations, for example, I'd guess, since it'd be one less layer if legal issues to tackle for posterity...
...!!
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| "Evangelion time all the time" , posted Tue 25 Jun 13:34
Now that it’s the 1990s all the time with FFVII everywhere, may as well note the hubbub about the Western broadcast of the other massive force that unified Japanese and Western subcultures back then, Evangelion. I hadn’t realized that the show had been out of print in the US for so incredibly long, which this Polygon article says was because it was a victim of its own success—too valuable to license cheaply abroad, but too expensive to make back a profit when the US anime bubble burst?
Like with FFVII, I’m not sure it even matters if it’s actually “any good” since it’s interesting just as a pop cultural phenomenon. It was amazing to me to see it have such a hold on people both in Japani and the US. So it seems completely ridiculous that this has been out of print in the US for so long and that young so-called anime fans there may seriously have never seen it before???
For my part, I had a good time back then and was the product of a friend’s mad experiment to provide both an end to the story events and a happy ending, by showing me TV episode 25, then movie episodes 25-26 (urgh), then TV episode 26. It worked! “CONGRATULATIONS!”
All that really matters though is that genius composer Sagisu Shirou wrote the music for the most important anime of the 1990s after writing the music for Kimagure Orange Road, the most important anime of the 1980s,{citation needed} so hopefully he has made a billion zillion dollars.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| "Re(2):Evangelion time all the time" , posted Thu 27 Jun 04:34
quote:
Was there any anime that was up to par with KOR or one that KOR was up to par with?
Well, that time period had an amazing number of absolutely excellent and influencial TV series like Macross, Dr. Slump/Arare-chan, Dragon Ball, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Nadia, Ashita No Joe 2, St. Seiya, Yawara, Hokuto No Ken, Captain Tsubasa, Garasu No Kamen, and City Hunter, and people's tastes vary widely so it's hard to say which is really blah blah blah blah
Actually, no. Nothing is better than KOR.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| "Re(3):Evangelion time all the time" , posted Thu 27 Jun 12:16
quote:
Was there any anime that was up to par with KOR or one that KOR was up to par with? Well, that time period had an amazing number of absolutely excellent and influencial TV series like Macross, Dr. Slump/Arare-chan, Dragon Ball, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Nadia, Ashita No Joe 2, St. Seiya, Yawara, Hokuto No Ken, Captain Tsubasa, Garasu No Kamen, and City Hunter, and people's tastes vary widely so it's hard to say which is really blah blah blah blah
Actually, no. Nothing is better than KOR.
Hahaha!
I guess what I mean specifically was the romance comedy genre type like KOR.
Long Live I AM!
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| | "Re(5):Evangelion rom-coms all the time" , posted Thu 27 Jun 18:27
quote:
In thaaaaaat case, I'll draw from my redacted answers and say Maison Ikkoku and, in a funny slapstick kind of way, Urusei Yatsura. If you continue into the 1990s, and returning to the original topic, some people swear by Evangelion creator Anno's take on Kare Kano. Uh...or there's always Wedding Peach. 
Actually, a Rumik-World GO would work, in a strange way.
Capture characters while you walk, and then assemble them in teams that would be a manga that give you points. She has created enough cool characters to rival the hundreds of Pokémon!
No, even better: a Meitantei Conan GO. Every landmark of the city is a crime scene, and you need to run (not walk!) to catch the criminal's silhouettes. Also, be careful not to be the next crime victim!
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| | "Kyoto Animation" , posted Thu 18 Jul 16:15:
I think most people have heard about it by now and it's by far the biggest tragedy to have hit Japan's subculture scene this century. Kyoto animation's Studio 1 (the main studio, 3 floors), has burned by arson; of the 70 staff members, 36 have been hospitalized, 12 are in critical condition, one person has deceased, and the remaining are still unaccounted at the time of this writing. Director Shoko Yamada is currently the only person known by name to be safe. Reportedly, a 41-year old old male went in the studio and started pouring liquid on people (presumably gasoline) and lit the place on fire. The suspect has been arrested and hospitalized.
[edit]
- 16 deceased
- 10 in Cardiac arrest
- ? in critical condition
- 6 in mid condition
- 20 with slight damage
- 12 whereabouts unknown
Cripes.
From what I understand, this is the largest death count by a single arson incident in post-war Japan. It's also more deaths than the Tokyo subway Sarin incident. This tragedy.... is unbelieveable.
quote:
Hey Cafe,
Do anyone know someone, small group, or really small company that can produce comics? A friend want to create a small series and has all the drawings and stories ready. Just want to know how he can get them into production to create the actual comic books themselves (Physical copies) that is. He already knows how to make digital but would like to create some in physical format. Thanks.
I don't think there's any company that specializes in just comics, but a number of places offer it as one of their services as far as I know, like Litho Ninja, Ka-Blam, Printninja to name a few. I don't know of their reputation so your friend will probably want to search around people's voices on social media or whatnot for that.
Btw if this is the first time your friend is doing print, keep in mind that with most print houses he'll need to send CMYK data which color tones can end up looking quite different if he just converts from RGB. Other things like whether to go with offset printing or POD, and what sort of paper, are also things he'll need to consider.
[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 18 Jul 18:56] |
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| "Re(3):Kyoto Animation" , posted Fri 19 Jul 09:53
quote:
I think most people have heard about it by now and it's by far the biggest tragedy to have hit Japan's subculture scene this century. Kyoto animation's Studio 1 (the main studio, 3 floors), has burned by arson; of the 70 staff members, 36 have been hospitalized, 12 are in critical condition, one person has deceased, and the remaining are still unaccounted at the time of this writing. Director Shoko Yamada is currently the only person known by name to be safe. Reportedly, a 41-year old old male went in the studio and started pouring liquid on people (presumably gasoline) and lit the place on fire. The suspect has been arrested and hospitalized.
I know I'm just as shocked as anyone would be but can anyone explain how a single person could do this in a building during working hours and how the fire could spread so quickly? Unless the guy had the time to pour gasoline in many places.
There is an NHK translation that goes he came in on a relaxed security day due to NHK filming, and dumped 40L of gasoline at the front entrance. The ensuing explosion and rapid combustion including fumes going up a main stairway resulted in rapid casualties and loss of life.
From what I understand he also used the gas to set fire to the fire escapes, which cut off all of their escape routes. So it wasn't so much that the fire spread quickly, but that nobody could get out.
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| | "Re(6):Kyoto Animation" , posted Fri 19 Jul 16:55:
quote:
I have a vague wish to know the motives of the perpetrator even if I know that nothing motivating this awful crime will justify it
Reports about the perpetrator up to now have been vague and spotty-- however, the police just now released his name as Shinji Aoba (41), so it's a matter of time before more details trickle out. It turns out that Kyoto police haven't technically arrested him because he's accidentally barbequed himself in the arson and receiving heavy treatment, but they decided to release his name because of the graveness of this situation. Up until now, one media outlet reported he had a tattoo on his stomache (this is probably a mistake by witness), while another reported him saying that 'Kyoani stole my novel" (note: only one media outlet has reported this so its accuracy is also not confirmed yet), while other media outlets just wrote that he said "they copied off [from something]".
What we do know though, is that the perpetrator was a Saitama prefecture resident (no relation to Onepunch-man) living in a 40,000 yen/month room receiving welfare and he was a relatively violent type otaku with a mental disorder and receiving nursing care. From what's being reported by the news, he had a criminal record from 12 years ago for robbing a convenience store with a knife back in his hometown of Ibaraki and served 3 years 6 months. In more recent years he's had neighborhood trouble with police intervention numerous times for playing loud anime/game noises, and he also wasn't afraid to make confrontation with neighbors and giving death threats. This guy was 180cm of genuine nutjob material.
Kyoani lost everything in this unfortunate tragedy. The names of the victims and hospitalized aren't yet known for the most part. Past artwork, materials, PCs, all lost. All because of one person.
What people probably don't realize is, with national security declaring to go into full involvement, this isn't just about an animation studio burning down. This will likely end up changing various things in society and not nessesarily in a good way, similarly to the Tokyo subway sarin incident. What's also concerning is that this can potentially result in less tolerance for people with mental disabilities.
Although this seems to have been debunked, the initial rumor was that the perpetrator was a train photography otaku. As the story goes, he coined up a photography term, Barisaku, and he tried to spread it but it didn't get widely used. However he was so annoying that people eventually started calling him 'Barisaku'.
So the rumor continued, he got pissed off after the same term was 'stolen' and used in a scene of one of the more recent Kyoani anime, Kagayake Euphonium. However it was coincidental since Barisaku is a Japanese abbreviation for Baritone Sax, which has long been in use before he came up with his photo term of the same abbreviation. It was a scene where a character did a Baritone Sax solo; the unfortunate thing was that the played song was 'Take the A-train', which might've made the perpetrator more paranoid and convinced since it's train-related. His hatred towards Kyoani got further fuled by anime otakus who came into train otaku territory when they came to see the Kagayake Euphonium wrapping train, and he snapped and started posting hate messages on the anime boards of 5chan on a frequent basis. However the messages suddenly halted right on the day before this incident. You can check a screenshot of his post here, which says at the very end, "My life's been totally screwed by the Barisaku solo in Kagayake Euphonium! I'm never going to forgive it!"
However, it's since been reported that the guy suspected of being Barisaku lives in Chiba prefecture and was coincedently prepping for a trip to Taiwan on the same timing as this incident.
[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 20 Jul 02:33] |
| | "Re(9):Kyoto Animation" , posted Sat 20 Jul 18:32:
quote:
As for KyoAni staff members, was there any news on their condition? I've heard some reports of injuries so severe that some have ended up being amputated...
According to reports from Kyoto Journal and other outlets, 34 have survived and either have light injury or are in critical condition. 33 were found dead at the scene, one vicitim passed away later. 28 of deaths found at the scene are suspected due to Carbon monoxide poisoning. 5 of the bodies were badly damaged and autopsy confirmed that their deaths were from burning; a male and female age 20-30, a female age 20-40, and a victim of unconfirmable gender age 30-50. The police plans to also perform autopsy on the remaining bodies. 19 of the deceased were found overlapping each other on the stairway from the 3rd floor to the roof, likely due to inhaling smoke and CO while trying to seek escape.
Police haven't released any names but from social media, Yoshiji kigami has been reported deceased. Staff reportedly safe are Naoko Yamada, Tatsuta Ishihara, Taichi Ishidachi, Miku Kadowaki, Akiko Takase.
Btw Seizya-- I am only secondary source at best; if you plan on posting things on Twitter regarding something as grave as this Kyoani incident, it's probably best that you credit directly to solid sources.
[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 20 Jul 18:37] |
| | "Re(2):Re(10):Kyoto Animation" , posted Sun 21 Jul 03:49:
quote:
But, not trying to sound harsh but that was mostly major lack of security. Both from the staff and the building itself. I mean, what's the point of having security if you're going to lax when you're going to receive unknown people to your workplace?
But if the "answer" is to be less tolerant people with mental disabilities that would be a bizarro world-tier of turning the problem upside down.
Yes. And I think this is a good point that deserves a three-part response.
1/ This news wasn't known until last evening but according to the Kyoto Journal, local witnesses say the perpetrator was spotted around the studio days before the incident; the police suspect he was living at a nearby park for a number of days and waiting for the opportune time to strike. So as it turns out, it's apparently not by random luck that he went in just when security was loose for NHK filming.
2/ Even if NHK wasn't filming, the security at Kyoani was probably a lot lower than standards expected in some other countries. However for Japan they were probably normal, and so I haven't seen any reactions where the locals were talking about them lacking security. (We're talking about a country with a low crime-rate that, leave aside large-scale global corporations, security for most companies are just a card key and a door.)
3/ Another thing about Japan, people see crime as a crime and may generally not take mental disability as an excuse, albeit the law does take that into consideration and may judge them incapable of responsibility. The question this time, is whether this incident will set an example in bending that consideration for legal cases, just as how the Kyoto police broke standard procedure and released the perpetrator's name prior to his arrest. He may have been mentally instable but his attack was planned out, which will unquestionably be a major factor to his case if he survives from his own fire wounds and makes it to court.
[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 22 Jul 01:15] |
| PSN: SeizyaStarlight
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| "An eerie birthday" , posted Wed 24 Jul 12:34
This is so frustrating! I can't escape the fire as I approach my birthday! Hopefully by next week, I get good news. I'll try to watch an episode or two of "Euphonium" or "Chuuni" for now to send good vibes.
quote:
According to reports from Kyoto Journal and other outlets, 34 have survived and either have light injury or are in critical condition. 33 were found dead at the scene, one vicitim passed away later. 28 of deaths found at the scene are suspected due to Carbon monoxide poisoning. 5 of the bodies were badly damaged and autopsy confirmed that their deaths were from burning; a male and female age 20-30, a female age 20-40, and a victim of unconfirmable gender age 30-50. The police plans to also perform autopsy on the remaining bodies. 19 of the deceased were found overlapping each other on the stairway from the 3rd floor to the roof, likely due to inhaling smoke and CO while trying to seek escape.
Police haven't released any names but from social media, Yoshiji kigami has been reported deceased. Staff reportedly safe are Naoko Yamada, Tatsuta Ishihara, Taichi Ishidachi, Miku Kadowaki, Akiko Takase.
Btw Seizya-- I am only secondary source at best; if you plan on posting things on Twitter regarding something as grave as this Kyoani incident, it's probably best that you credit directly to solid sources.
Crediting solid sources like the "Kyoto Journal" is probably the best route to go as you typed.
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| | "Re(2):Gamest Tribute Book" , posted Wed 1 Jan 01:28:
May Syd Mead rest in peace in a more neo-futuristic heaven!
quote:
Not gaming but also kinda gaming, an art book with some of Gamest's covers and comics! Not a lot of details for now, but a lot of big names have worked for the magazine, so if there were no issues with rights, this should be a treasure trove for old people of the cafe.
https://twitter.com/channelseven3/status/1205587382285684736
Ooh, I need this!
I've picked this up today; a rough summary, it's about
- 18 pages of color illustrations (including cover)
- 8 pages of b&w illustrations
- 36 pages of mangas /b&w
- 18 pages of columns, artist comments & misc /b&w
Color pages include
- Fujiwara Hisashi (Gamest cover artist)
- Inoue Sora (Gamest EX cover artist)
- Zakkun-pop (Gamest column artist)
- Sonic Wing artist Nantoka Fumihiko
- World Heroes artist Saitou Tsukasa
- Martial Champion artist Akasaka Yoshiki (Rachael designer)
- Sengoku Blade artist Tsukasa Jun
- Sukusuku Inufuku artist Hiroko Yokoyama
- Metal Black artist Senba Takatsuna
- Akio Watanabe (Payoyon Rock)
- Aoi Nanase
- Ohse Koihime
- Akatsuki Gomoku
- Yoshizaki Minezaki
- Marukata
Tsukasa Kotobuki is in there too for Toshinden but only in B&W for some reason despite the same piece being in color on his Twitter. Perhaps didn't make it on time for the printers?
The manga pages feature three pieces from different artists
- Masahiro Nakahira (Sakura Ganbaru!) does a Kanzaki Karin manga. His art style certainly has changed since those days to a more Shiroboshi Kouhaku style drawing.
- A SF Ryu-ken manga by an artist named Kamei, whom I'm not too sure of when it comes to her background (Twitter here)
- An original short manga by the Highscore Girl artist Oshigiri.
Overall, it's a nice tribute to Gamest magazine which collectors may want, especially considering how rare it is to see artwork of vintage games by some of the artists. That said, just my two cents, it's not as thick as it might sound and I think more color illustrations from reminicent artists could've helped, even if it raised the price by another half or so.
If trying to be extremely critical of this book since the project creator actually got Akio Watanabe to do the cover, they missed getting some prime artists for this opportunity, like Yusuke Murata of OnePunch-man who was a hardcore contributor to the reader-sent illustration pages back in Gamest. Trying to get Etsuya Amajishi who did the AOF mangas for Gamest as well as Ryo Takamisaki who did KOF94Gaiden would've made it additionally authentic. Zenji Ishii, the chief editor of Gamest, actually has a 4 page column near the end of the book talking about how things worked at the company back then, so why not!
[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 1 Jan 03:17] |
| | "TOEI too" , posted Wed 8 Apr 21:39
For people speaking japanese it would be a useless news, but TOEI has opened an official Youtube channel where they are putting old japanese shows with english subtitles.
That's really an amazing thing to see that finally lots of shows can be viewed in an easy and legal way without resorting to piracy or other dubious things.
TOEI Tokusatsu World Official
For the moment they have episode 1&2 of many shows, they will update weekly with new episodes. Now there are classics tokusatsu (Kikaider, Jaspion, etc.), kids show (Robokon, Nemurin, etc.) and anime (Voltes V, Laserion, Guy Slugger, etc.). I don't see any Super Sentai but they should start to add them in a few days.
There are too many to watch, I can't follow all of them!!
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| PSN: ShikyohMukuro
XBL: IAMDC1
Wii: n/a
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| "Re(1):TOEI too" , posted Thu 9 Apr 05:33
quote:
For people speaking japanese it would be a useless news, but TOEI has opened an official Youtube channel where they are putting old japanese shows with english subtitles.
That's really an amazing thing to see that finally lots of shows can be viewed in an easy and legal way without resorting to piracy or other dubious things.
TOEI Tokusatsu World Official
For the moment they have episode 1&2 of many shows, they will update weekly with new episodes. Now there are classics tokusatsu (Kikaider, Jaspion, etc.), kids show (Robokon, Nemurin, etc.) and anime (Voltes V, Laserion, Guy Slugger, etc.). I don't see any Super Sentai but they should start to add them in a few days.
There are too many to watch, I can't follow all of them!!
Awesome, I was going to bring it up also because I had a question. Can you provide List of which shows are specifically for kids?
Long Live I AM!
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| PSN: Mike_ADV
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STM: tamakimike
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| "Re(2):Cyberfanatix Website, RIP" , posted Wed 29 Apr 15:08
Yeah, I still have many thanks for you Yuki and the whole CX team for many amazing CMVs I still search on youtube every now and then. Now where we'll get our KOFXV leak? 
quote:
That's a bummer, I saw that there are more series I don't see listed in the Video section, but are there in the playlists, it only says "Video not available".
All the Super Sentai are blocked 
It has to be Saban or Disney fault
What's weird is that Shout TV is streaming a lot of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider on Twitch. It must be some weird contractual issue but blaming Saban seems like a safe bet.
Yeah, it's exactly that (besides Power Rangers being owned by Hasbro now). In Brazil we can't watch National Kid, Jaspion, Jiban and Jiraya there since they are licensed by Sato Company... and already available for free on their youtube channel, on brazilian Amazon Prime for few years and now broadcasted every sunday morning on regular TV. I just think it's a shame they aren't putting subs for the episodes 3 onwards and not even letting people add their own subs for them like a comment in the episode 3 of Winspector says. Also one of the most watched in their channel since it was never released here, Janperson still didn't get update with newer episodes. I wish they had their schedule more clearly for everybody.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(3):Video Game developer...Nobi-Iggy?" , posted Mon 11 May 00:34
quote:
Spoon: "I can cleanly move to a new online identity with no connection to my previous one."
Hmm hmm hmm, you'd be surprised by how much we know about you, Mr. Anderson.
quote:
Iggy, did you state that you are a video game developer? If so, what is the best way to contact you or your studio?
- You're mistaken, sorry!
Oh, Iggy does make games...of a certain kind, for the right price. I'm afraid I'm ahead of you on the client list, however. Nobi's company is Bit Egg, by the way, if he doesn't find you here first.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| PSN: ShikyohMukuro
XBL: IAMDC1
Wii: n/a
STM: N/A
CFN: n/a
| "Re(4):Video Game developer...Nobi-Iggy?" , posted Tue 12 May 02:45
quote:
Spoon: "I can cleanly move to a new online identity with no connection to my previous one." Hmm hmm hmm, you'd be surprised by how much we know about you, Mr. Anderson.
Iggy, did you state that you are a video game developer? If so, what is the best way to contact you or your studio?
- You're mistaken, sorry! Oh, Iggy does make games...of a certain kind, for the right price. I'm afraid I'm ahead of you on the client list, however. Nobi's company is Bit Egg, by the way, if he doesn't find you here first.
Thanks.
If anyone else is let me know,
Long Live I AM!
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| |  "Re(9):Art History thing...Nobi+Iggy" , posted Wed 20 May 11:29:
quote:
Edit
I actually have a question. What is a good resource to look at the coding done for games back in the 16-bit era?
If we're talking SNES/Genesis, then the best resources out there in English are largely from the emulation community. With a google search you can get everything from the developer's manual for the Genesis to tools for developing your own game that can be run as a ROM. Another really insightful resource is Chris Shrigley's page, which has project files for some old games he has worked on.
If you're interested in the Amiga, there's a lot more English resources available since the platform is a Western-originated one. I don't know if the demo scene for it is as lively as the one for Commodore 64, but google should easily return a wealth of resources for you.
If you're interested in MS-DOS games of that era (there were amazingly great PC games in 1993!), then there's an especially wide gamut because MS-DOS games could be written with languages like C rather than in assembler. Doom in particular is one of the most well-analyzed and documented pieces, and you can even download the entire source code for the game since Carmack released it. Doom is a bit of a technical marvel, though, so it isn't entirely representative of the coding of that era (in terms of engineering and architecture, it is arguably one of the highest points of its era). Part of the reason why Doom seems to have been ported to every device imaginable and then some is because of how it was architected.
If you'd like a bit of an overview, one of the really neat ones is here:
Aladdin for the Genesis!
I haven't read assembly code since my university days, so I'd basically have to learn it all over again if I wanted to actually understand any of the code written for the consoles!
[this message was edited by Spoon on Wed 20 May 11:33] |
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SCARY 
Penguins sure have a weird grocery list 
who follow the path of a warrior
"Re(3):Iggy-tober" , posted Sat 13 Oct 10:35
< Golden Excelsior!! 
This is the Most Gorgeous Incident of Timeslip Showa, of course! 
Gamer 
