This is going to be a treat for you fans of the AAA Podcast and people who read these blogs, as me, Z Comic and Stopthehumens decide to talk a bunch of crap probably no one will care about. We do have some topics and good discussions, but it was mostly ramblings and rantings about some other things.
So we cover everything from Kids Next Door to Evangelion, and a crap load of stuff in between. Some of our conversations include:
-Kids Next Door
-Dragonball Evolution
-Our Top 3 anime
-My personal MD Geist love
-Our most influental anime and “inviting” anime
-Evangelion talk
-And anime we are currently watching (my titles are: Armored Hunter Mellowlink, Fist of the North Star, Record of Lodoss War, SPT Layzner (not said))
If anything that has been written down is of interest for you, check us out. Our next episode, we hope to god it’s not a total sausage factory.
DOWNLOAD LINK (right click, save as… ah you know the drill)
Hey all you anime addicts, I wanted to share something with all of you. I’m about to finish a course that will certify me to teach English as a second language and I’m thinking about finding a job in Japan. This would be a dream come true for me because I love Japanese culture. I been so busy with the course that I have not been able to write much, but I’ll be back soon with some new stuff once the course concludes. I just wanted to throw this out there and get everyone’s opinion about this. It would mean a lot if this podcast had someone in Japan that could go to things and make reports, and I would love to do that. Anyway that’s all for now, see you soon on the ustream chat and on here for some anime action.
He once watched an anime called MD Geist and said its the worst ever, Once he drank a Dos Equis beer and it was exceptional, and once listened to another anime podcast other than AAA and said never again…… he is the most interesting man on the AAA network.
Ok lol, so that’s going to the new intro to each blog entry because I love those commercials and the beer. In this edition of the series I’m going to talk about a musou games; Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. I know the hack and slash genre has a lot of critics and fans at the same time which leaves it as one of the more hotly debated game genres, and I had never played any until this game, but this game has new features that set it apart from the previous entries in the series. That said, lets take a look at the game.
Background Story:
The story devised for this game is that a number of characters from the various Gundam series are transported to a location along with their mobile suits. The location is never really spell out, perhaps some alternate dimension or whatever. Some of the characters met up and form groups and began battles against other groups of characters. Some mysterious signal is being broadcast and the characters follow it, and this drives the story. Not much of a story :P, however a story isn’t really the main focus of this game.
Game Play:
The story mode of game is broken down into chapters in which two or three characters are playable at first. Each individual character is restricted to his or her signature mobile suit until you buy a license in the game shop which allows all playable characters to pilot it. Each chapter has a number of missions that all have the same end conditions, that being killing the end boss character of that mission. How you go about getting to the end of each mission is really the difference in each mission. There are over 300 different missions within the story mode in 8 different categories. The combat is much the same with other DW games, a lot pressing of the A button to create chain combos to perform different special moves and the unique signature attack of each character. A new feature is the addition of the Partner Strike, which is an attack performed by a partner character set at the start of each mission, which can used to turn the tide of battle. There are a number of other new map features that add a more strategic atmosphere. The Emergency Dash is a new option that allows players to get out of danger if timed right. There 81 different units to choose from in the game to be collected by acquiring MS plans and building them in the MS lab. The plans can gained whenever you finish a mission and you typical get 4 or 5 after each mission
In the online mode up to 4 players can play together in 15 unique missions. There are reports that more missions on the way at some point, although no date has been given.
Audio\Music:
The music in the game is average at best, not horrid and not exceptional either. The characters are voiced in certain parts of game, but not in all dialogue between the characters. The voice actors are the ones that portray the characters in both the Japanese and American versions of the shows, so that’s some good continuity between anime and game.
Artwork:
The art style is an upgrade over the previous two DW:Gundam games. The graphic artists choose to render the characters and mobile suits in a cel shaded style which is bright, well detailed, with great environmental effects, and visually pleasing. The background environments are enough in number without getting too repetitive.
Closing Comments:
DW:Gundam 3 is most importantly an improvement over the previous games in this series. It does all the things the other games have done in a better way that made the others a success. That said it still has the issues of other Dynasty Warriors games, almost completely devoid of anything resembling a story and sometime repetitive combat. This game is almost just for Gundam fans, however it may appeal to fans of the hack and slash genre, which is a viable business model in Japan and not so much in America. Not many Gundam games get released in the West, well at least not many of the good ones, leaving not much to play if your a Gundam fan in the Western world, so its a question of take it or leave it. For myself its just good to have a decent game to go and blow up things with my favorite mobile suits.
I give this game 3\5 beam sabers slashing up grunt suits
Today I’m starting a new feature which will deal with the worst of the worst of troll groups in anime fandom. The terms fanboy and troll are often used to describe devotees of a certain series, so I have decided for the sake of clarity to merge the two terms into new single one; fantroll. The definition of fantroll is a extremely devoted fanatic of a certain series or franchise to the point of delusion and who directs hatred towards fans of other series or franchises because they do not share the mindless devotion of the fantroll to the given series or franchise. For the inaugural entry I thought it would be most appropriate to start with the single greatest example of the fantroll; the Eva fantroll.
I had been aware of Neon Genesis Evangelion for some time, hearing all kinds of things about it, and when one of my friends lent me her copy of the show in 2005 and I sat down and watched it. My thoughts on the show at the time was that it was a average mech show. This was before I slowly become aware of the phenomena that is the holy status that some percentage of the Eva fandom hold the show in. As I heard more of ravings of the Eva fantrolls about how it was “the greatest anime of all time” (You can thank ADV for starting that nonsense), my enjoyment and opinion of the show went down considerably. Before I go into the things the hardcore fans of this show rant and rave about, I just want to be clear I do like this show.
Now I’m going to pick apart the show, and discuss some of the outlandish and outrageous claims that the fantrolls make about Eva. One of the most often cited aspects of this show is the use of Christian imagery and icons. While its a interesting element of the series, fans often read more into it then there is actually there. They forget that its a show made for a Japanese audience, and the presence of Christian symbols its just a weird novelty to the creators and not some deep, intertwined, and complex plot element. Moving on to the most annoying part of Eva; Shinji Ikari. Boy do the fantrolls even like to hype up Shinji , I once had someone claim to me that he was the greatest character in all of anime, wow that’s arrogance lol. Someone also wrote into Gundamn’s mailbag with badly butchered grammar and made a similar claim, but went a step further by saying that Shinji was the reason people watch mecha anime. Honestly, are you that caught up in your worship of this mediocre series that your so delusional and pretentious to try to say this guy is the single most influential character in the history of anime? I could probably think of a 100 characters that have had more of an influence on anime.Char Aznable and Lynn Minmay are just two off the top of my head, who have had much more of an impact on Japanse culture and anime than him. Shinji did nothing at all during the series to warrant being called iconic, in fact he’s just like almost every other mech lead character in recent memory. Another annoying aspect present in Eva is the disposable enemies that appear almost every episode for the first half of the show, this is also known as the monster of the week cliche. This gets old fast and really saps my enjoyment of the show during the first half. The constant remakes of Eva are also extremely annoying which serve just to devalue the series and are just a cheap way for Gainax to make money off the mindless cult that worships the series as the second coming.
What all this adds up to is a symptom of a larger ailment in the Western fandom that has to do with what shows are considered the greatest by Western fans. A lot of fans in the West only see a very limited amount of anime series from Japan and there is a tendency to automatically declare these series the best there is. When they find out about other shows they tend discount these shows and go on believing that what they hold dear is the greatest without evaluating the merits of the other shows, its cognitive dissidence at its finest.
Well that’s all for this post, I’m considering what group to profile next. It was suggested to me to talk about the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom so I might do them next.
Heya, guys and gals, it’s L Lawliet here for L Lawliet’s Movie Madness!
Hayao Miyazaki-even if you barely watch anime, you recognize the name. Miyazaki is one of the few directors to get an Academy Award for best animated picture outside of the United States, for his film Spirited Away. That’s not the only work he’s done, though. He’s made other influential films such as Princess Mononoke, a tale of nature and destruction, The Castle of Cagliostro, about Lupin the 3rd and his attempt to solve the mystery of the perfect counterfeit bills, and Howl’s Moving Castle, the story of-
Wait, what was that second one?
That’s right, the great Miyazaki worked on an anime film adaptation. That’s not all, though-this was actually the culmination of his work with Lupin the 3rd. He had previously worked on the first series, co-directing and storyboarding about half of the episodes in the show. It’s fitting that his first film is his last work with Lupin, and probably his best one for the franchise at that. In addition, it’s a damn good movie in general. It’s got action, romance, comedy; it’s got the whole shebang. It’s gotten shoutouts in everything from Batman: The Animated Series to The Simpsons Movie, and remains, to this day, one of the most classic animated films of all time. So, let’s not waste any time! Come along and let’s steal a look at The Castle of Cagliostro!
The Plot of the Century!
The story begins with a casino heist-a nice little introduction to our duo of thieves, Lupin and Jigen. Taking off after successfully completing their crime, as the police around them find their cars ineffective and falling apart, the two plot how to use their new millions…until Lupin notices a problem. The bills are fake. Every single one. And not just any fakes, but the perfect fakes-they’re called Goat Bills, and they come from a country called Cagliostro, and that’s where Lupin intends to go. So begins their latest escapade, but there’s puzzles abound. There’s more to Cagliostro, and Lupin’s experience with it, than meets the eye, and there’s an even bigger mystery lying in wait for the duo…
This review won’t be a recap-the movie’s got a couple of twists that I’d rather not spoil here, but I’m gonna give you a basic rundown of the cast, music, animation and overall entertainment value. Sound good? Good. Let’s sneak on ahead, shall we?
Crooks, Cops, Counts, and a Couple of Dames
Hold onto your wallets and keep an eye on your cash, folks, because here comes ArseneLupin the 3rd, speeding by in his signature yellow Fiat, stolen dollars abound. Lupin is a master thief, robber of countless treasures. artifacts and millions of dollars in cold hard cash. He’ll steal your heart, followed by your credit card, and you won’t notice either way. He can be anything from a smooth operator to a not-so-chivalrous pervert, but there’s one thing he consistently is-one hell of a guy.
What good’s being a thief without some partners-in-crime to back you up? Alongside him is his good old pal Daisuke Jigen, the sharpshooting marksman who’s the straight man to Lupin’s comedic foil. He’s not against a one-liner now and again, though, and he’s got some of the best lines in the movie. He’s been around the bend and knows how Lupin works, and has been his faithful companion for years upon years. Goemon Ishikawa, on the other hand, originally intended to kill Lupin, but is now one of his most valued cohorts. With sword in hand, he’ll literally cut through all obstacles, no matter how worthless they may be to his blade. Stoic and collected, he and Jigen are the voices of reason in the quartet of crime. Last, but certainly not least, we have the lovely Mine Fujiko, the object of Lupin’s affections and a deadly piece of work. She usually works with Lupin to achieve her own ends, but it’s obvious that she sees something in him, despite her repeated betrayals, and will always come to his aid in the end should he desperately need it.
What’s a robber without a cop? Hands in the air where Inspector Zenigata can see them, you punks! Hellbent on capturing Lupin and bringing him to justice, Zenigata’s hounded the gang across the world and on nearly every continent known to man, with a minimal success rate. He’s no bumbling office, however (though he has shades of it in many of the TV shows), as he’s captured many other criminals and rapscallions during his pursuit of the master thief. He and Lupin are engaged in an endless cat and mouse chase, and the film wouldn’t really work as well without his inclusion and his chemistry with Lupin.
Taking on double duty as a princess and love interest, we have Clarice, the Princess of the castle of Cagliostro. She’s no damsel in distress; she’s managed to escape confinement in the past, and is brave enough to assist others and fight back when she needs to. She’s forcibly engaged to the Count of Cagliostro, the big man in charge of the country, who wants to use her for his own nefarious needs-and that’s just one of his secrets. Both have a connection to Lupin, though less so with the Count as much as his actions, and both are interesting and engaging characters in their own rights.
Alright, we’ve met the cast, but is the world they live in just as colorful? Let’s find out!
Looking Mighty Fine (And the Pictures Ain’t Bad, Either)
Now, this is a Miyazaki movie, so you gotta expect it to look nice. But, some may be put off by how it looks compared to his other works. While films like Princess Mononoke have deftly made animation, with smooth transitions and designs, The Castle of Cagliostro is a bit more, well, cartoonish. While his other films are intended for the big screen and don’t have any set animation style to abide by, Lupin the 3rd was already a popular series, and it had one movie under its belt before this one. Plus, this was his first film, so this was one of the first times that he got to choose how things would appear. As a result, it looks less clean and more ridiculous than his other films, for the most part, as it’s intended to look that way from the get-go, to keep similar to Lupin’s first series. The scenes heavily involving the characters work well in regards to this, and improves upon the original show’s look with some slight modifications. Co-directing the series helped, to be sure.
Despite these setbacks, this film shows the beauty that would later become more apparent in his other works, via the background animation. The first shot of Lupin approaching the ruins shows intricate design, and an amazing attention to detail. Each tile, each section of grass, and each brick on the walls are given focus to, and this makes the scene a lot more effective. Even the Fiat isn’t left out, as you can see the dirt from the previous car chase scene in it. Miyazaki’s other movies may have perfected his background animation, but it was just a stone’s throw away, since The Castle of Cagliostro’s animation was already near-perfect.
Oh, and there’s the car chase scene, which to this day looks well drawn, with everything given detail, including the branch that hits Lupin in the face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGTxs2QeWJg
Gets me every time.
So, all in all, the movie looks great, with a few bumps in the road. But does it sound as good as it looks? We’re going to look at the music in this next section, so let’s get right to it!
The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Lupin~
In general, the music of Lupin the 3rd tends to fit the times. In the 70s, it was actionish, to fit with the era in which the show was made, and in the late 70s/early 80s, it had a pop/disco type feel to it, for the same reason. The Castle of Cagliostro, however, was an adventure movie, and the music suits that genre. It’s designed to make the viewer invested in whatever chase or fight sequence is going on, making sure they are hooked from the first note, while keeping the Lupin spirit. This is apparent in the first track we hear, during Lupin and Jigen’s escape from the casino they just robbed, and which makes recurring appearances throughout the film, Toward the Patrol Line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69ratTplrw
Along with this, during the film’s slower, more personal scenes, the music takes similar cues, letting the viewer float along, emphasizing the emotions on screen. This is heard through another recurring track, Fire Treasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdKPYo0n0U
Of course, a Lupin movie wouldn’t be complete without the Lupin theme. In this variation, the theme is a jazzy, light-hearted tune used in some of the film’s best sequences, like the car chase and part of the film’s climax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX2ci_vr8o4
All of this music, and more, are used to great effect to create an impression on the watcher, making sure that the viewer isn’t just into the pretty pictures on the screen. It can be peppy, somber, or just downright crazy, making the soundtrack not just enjoyable for fans of Lupin, but people who like music in general.
Now, I’ve said all these things about it-but is it worth watching more than once? The answer: absolutely.
All Good Things Must Come To An End…
The Castle of Cagliostro is simply wonderful. It’s got a great story, well developed and likable characters, fantastic music, and superb animation. Some may be put off by it being a film of a show, but this is something that you can watch with no knowledge of Lupin and STILL enjoy to the highest degree. Without spoiling, I can say it doesn’t have any aesop, any lesson we need to learn as Miyazaki’s other works contain. What it has-what it is-is a tale of adventure and thrills, love and romance, good and evil, and the daring thief that brings it all together . Miyazaki has made some fine works, but his first, in this reviewer’s opinion, is his downright best. This is L Lawliet, signing off of this edition of L Lawliet’s Movie Madness. Let the good times roll, and believe in your thief.
So, here I am chilling out on a typical Friday night with no worries, no cares and above all, no date, as I happen to see how far down the whiskey bottle goes when it comes to pulling yet another boxy anime tape off the shelf. After some time in the darkness of “over exceeding” a bit to much, I came to in a world of a desolate Japanese city, filled with heavy smog of radiation and abandonment, as I happen to see far into the distance. I then hear a flute tune pierce my ears, with such beauty and sorrow as the tune danced in my eardrum. I look over to see a younger man in a camouflage poncho with a green leaf up to his mouth as he plays the peaceful tune and then looks up at me. He then begins to tell me his tale of how destiny seems to bring him from one Hell to another. This is the tale of Riki-Oh Saiga…
Ok, so for those of you who know what Riki-Oh’s about, you think I’m going to talk about the (overly) awesome live action movie based on the manga by Masahiko Takajo. Well, you would be half right. I am going to talk about Riki-Oh, but only the anime that is a condensed version of the movie, but you get the same story (only the movie is SO MUCH BETTER). Throughout this review, I’m going to use some captions in words to emphasize how crazy some of this stuff happens, and to use some pop/video game culture punching references, so try and keep up kids. So lets Hebrew Fist our way into the wild and crazy world of Riki-Oh: The Wall of Hell OVA.
The OVA starts us off in the year 199x in Yokohama (and it would not surprise me if this was the same 199x as Fist of the North Star series timeline) as the world in this “year” is full of “high radioactivity rain” and “magnetic field warnings” on a daily basis (these are in the OVA I kid you not) where we get to a man in a camo poncho on a stoop blowing into a leaf to make music that most people can play from any toy recorder flute (its all in the tongue kids) as we seem him suddenly stop playing and stands in the middle of the road. While this “mysterious” man does this, we cut to a Cadillac driving down the streets of Yokohama with a fat old guy in the back trying to score some boob action from two honeys on his lap, when the driver notices the man in the street. Before the car can come to a screeching halt, we see the stranger raise his fist to his face with the Star of David etched into his backhand and proceeds to PUNCH INTO THE FRONT OF THE CAR!! This “Falcon” of a punch is able to turn the caddy into an accordion with the driver halfway out the front of the car in a bloody and disfigured mess. The old guy and some bodyguard of his get out to take on this stranger where we see the man in camo punches the bodyguard hard enough in the jaw to RIP IT OFF!! The old guy tries to shoot the man but is stopped by a flying high kick to shatter one of the legs and gets another “Busta Wolf” to the skull to leave a fist impression, killing the old man. We then know who this mysterious man is, which he goes by the one and only name of Riki-Oh Saiga.
"THIS HAND OF MINE BURNS WITH A HOLY POWER!"
For Riki crimes of being a total bad mofo, he gets the hammer of the Japanese judicial system and gets sent to Koboku prison for 9 years. After some shots of prison life with the prisoners making shelves and having a sentence of continuous woodshop class, we cut to the washroom of Wakamatsu being harassed by another inmate Iwata due to Waka getting out on parole. Iwata throws Waka into a shelf for no reason other than to be (one of) the alpha male of the prison. Waka looses his cool and attacks Iwata with a wood scraper, only to be tripped by one of Iwata goons and Iwata using the scraper to leave a nasty scar on Waka face. The guards come in, Iwata says “oh its an accident” and carry off the injured Waka. With Iwata talking up his victory to his running crew, we then see him trip and fall on a plank of nails facing straight up and Iwata gets his hand and eye into swiss cheese. It was Riki who set this up for Iwata and tells him to watch his step, and walks off blowing on his leaf. Iwata, having his eye, hand and pride poked “full of holes”, gets one of the guards to set up an ambush for Riki by using the fattest man there, Bandoh. During this Riki decides to pay his respects to Waka, by breaking out of his cell the only way he wants to, BY PUNCHING THE CELL WALL TO GET OUTSIDE! Once out, he meets the guards who are carrying the corpse of Waka off the grounds handcuffed. Riki states that his freedom is granted when he died and breaks the cuffs off, then Riki gives Waka the wooden train he made for his son and walks off.
Next day in the showers, Riki is confronted by Bandoh who states he is promised all the food in the world for his fat self to eat if he defeats Riki. Riki gets a backhand from Bandoh, only to laugh it off and punches Bandoh once for the deathblow. Iwata decides to jump in with a nail being used as a weapon to stab Riki. Riki counters this by using his hand to catch the fist, which then the nail impales into his hand while he crushes Iwata stabbing hand and sends another Jew Death Fist to Iwata body with enough force to have his entrails BLOW OUT OF HIS BODY FROM THE OTHER SIDE! With Riki actions in check from the corrupt prison guards, he gets sent to isolation for 30 days. We then see a dream or flashback of Riki at a grave site for someone by the name of Bi-Rei with the image of the Swastika inside the Star of David. Yes, in the year 199x, the Jews and Germans have put aside there differences of what happened in WWII and join there two beliefs into one, for the purpose of making the martial “of-all” arts of this dreaded decade. With Riki about to take his life, an old man approaches Riki and tells him about his destiny, and to stop him from killing himself and the dream ends. So what will become of Riki? Can Riki get out of this “Hell” alive? Find out… for yourself.
Imagine the world today without the Holocaust
I am going to stop here in my review, because in this 45 minute OVA, I only talked about maybe 15 minutes of what happened. And boy, does it get crazier from there. Riki-Oh is about one of the many great things you will ever get to witness in your lifetime, and to me, it has one of the best stories you will ever get to know about (through the manga of course). I didn’t even get into the fights with the bosses of the “wings” in the prison Riki is at, or who the warden is, and the more ridiculous stuff that happens from there. Truth be told, the live action movie is actually better represented in the manga because the live action movie is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than the OVA. I mean shoot, the Daily Show had a clip of the movie in their intros back in the day!!!!
So yes, I recommend EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET gets to witness Riki-Oh for the first and many times after the first time seeing this. Ill say watch the live action movie first, then the OVA. There is one more OVA after this that I have not seen, so I don’t know how insane that will get. If you have enjoyed this review and reading everything about Riki-Oh I care to mention, then feel free to comment, or bake me a cake, or a phone number for you ladies out there what want a Riki-Oh in there lives, its cool.
Thanks again for reading, and check my blog over at Anime of Yesteryear. See yea next time…
Innovation is usually seen as a good thing by most people in any given field in human endeavor, however there are always a small percentage of die hard adherents to something that cannot accept change in any form. This is nowhere more apparent then in video game fandom. So I’m going to look through some of biggest fanboy dust ups over game companies trying reinvent their franchises.
OK, these are not in any particular order, there just ones I have been made aware of. The first one is the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, of which I’m a huge fan. There have been a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh games across many game consoles, but the three that are relevant for this discussion were on the Game Boy Advance and Gamecube. The first GBA game was the Sacred Cards released in July of 2002 and it was different in a couple respects. First, unlike all the previous games in the franchise, this game actually has a story, in fact it lets you play one of the story arcs from the show. The other difference was the rules of the card game itself were different, and that’s really pissed off the fanboys of this franchise. The second GBA game was called Reshef of Destruction, was very similar although it had a completely original story. Now both of these games have flaws, like most games, but they are also good games broken the formula and because of that the fanboys labeled them as inferior, which is so short slighted. Moving to the Gamecube, in 2002 a Yi-Gi-Oh game was released called the Falsebound Kingdom that was radically different from anything seen in the franchise thus and since then. The game was a combination of the RPG and RTS genres and was not a card game at all. Instead the monsters from the cards become characters in the game to be used on RPG style teams of 3 under the command of one of the cast from the TV series. A lot of the items in the game are also cards from the card game, which shows the detail the developers put into the game. RTS element comes out in the missions in the game in which you move your teams and engage your enemies and capture bases, additionally there are other objectives to complete sometimes in a given mission. The games was received very negatively by the review community as with many games that step outside the norm. The game has some flaws, as the maps for the missions were really low rent and not very inspired, but was balanced by the great graphics of monsters and battle animations.
The next franchise that attempted to go a different way and hit a brick wall of fanboy rage was Devil May Cry. The controversy stems from the redesign of Dante, a design that wildly changes from the previous four games. This game doesn’t even have a release date yet, its suppose to come out in 2012 sometime, and the hate is already flowing from the fanboys. You would think that people at least would wait until the game came out ,and not just complain about the visuals.
Infamous is another franchise that has felt a rain of fanboy artillery fire over the design of a character, Cole, the main character in the game. The difference here is that, Sucker Punch the developer of Infamous, caved into fanboy pressure and changed Cole back to to way he was in the first Infamous, although there was still minor changes to him to better fit the new game. Again its just kinda sad that fanboys cannot get pass such trivial things like character designs.
When Transformers: War for Cybertron was announced, the main complain yet again was superficial about character designs. The G1 40 year old virgins were complaining about why wasn’t the game using the 1984 designs. Well maybe because its 25 years after the fact, and things need to change sometimes to bring in new fans to a franchise. Blinded by nostalgia glasses is a common medical problem for most Fanboys, and can be corrected by getting out of your parents basement, actually getting laid , and not watching porn all the time.
In sum, I just wish fanboys would come out of their formulaic comfort zone, and give a game with a different take on a beloved franchise a chance. Its almost like fanboys are afraid of change in and out of their game life, which is probably why they cannot get out into the world and get their lives going. If there is any group of fanboys from anime or video game fandom you look to see get owned by me, please leave a comment or pm me on the forum.
This has been pubic service message from the Truth and Fact Defense Force.
Hey Anime Addicts, so I finally finished main lining the wondrously busty Catherine and now will proceed to review the game. I know that this game has a big following on this site, and I hope a lot of you will read this who are not yet fans of this game will pick it up and play it because its really a one of a kind game. This game has controversy surrounding it, not only for the mature content( when I told a friend I was playing this game she said oh the sex game :P), but also for the difficult of the game itself, I’ll address both of those points below.
Background Story:
In this game you take the role of Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old, systems engineer for technology company. He’s kind of a lazy, unorganized, and very in the moment average guy with not much of a future planned out. He has a girlfriend of 5 years(amazing I know), called Katherine. Katherine has recently began to talk about getting married and then Vincent started to have very dark nightmares. The next morning he wakes next to a hot, young, and curvy girl also named Catherine and wonders he how he will get himself out of this mess.
Game play:
Catherine is two games in one, a puzzle game and what you might call a ” moral” psychological thriller. The puzzle element of the game is pretty straight forward as it involves 9 stages with various themes and lengths. At the end of each stage there is a boss stage in which a large creature will change up the wall of blocks and will attempt to kill you. In each puzzle stage there will be various items that can used to help complete the stage. Sprinkled through the stage you find “sheep”, other guys like Vincent trying to escape the nightmare and they will try to impede your progress. As you proceed through the game there will different types of blocks you will encounter, ice blocks, spike blocks, exploding blocks, black hole blocks, etc. and learning how to manage each type of block will be integral to your completing the game. Also important is mastering the various techniques for scaling the different walls of blocks, these will be taught to you at certain points in the game.
The other element of the game, the moral psychological thriller, mostly takes place between each stage in the form of questions asked by a disembodied voice in a confessional booth and the question is usually on the subject of some issue of morality. How you answer the questions affects the ending you will get upon finishing the game, there are 8 endings in total, three for each Catherine, and two neutral endings. Some of the questions will asked at a bar called the Stray Sheep where you will interact with your friends and get messages on your phone from both Catherine. In the bar there are additional features like a mini game called Rapunzel which is also a block based puzzle game, and there is a jukebox that plays various songs from different Atlus games.
As for the game being too difficult, honestly with any game you should probably play it on lower difficult levels, learn the game,get skilled and then try to beat it on the more challenging settings. Its true this game is very challenging, in fact the develops actually created a very easy mode because people complained it was so hard. I found the game to be not as insanely difficult as people make it out to be, playing on easy I think I never dropped beyond 90 retries as there are more enough items that give retires, so on normal and hard it cannot be that impossible.
Visuals and Graphics:
The game play graphics are pretty good for this day and age, the blocks are rendered in nice detail and are as the characters. Where this game really shines in terms of visuals is in the cut scenes. There are two types, ones that are CG graphic or ones that are anime style. I really love the anime cut scenes, I have never seen such great animation in a game and Atlus really went out of their way to make those scenes so beautifully animated. The CG scenes are good as well, just a little overshadowed by the anime scenes.
Closing Comments:
I loved playing Catherine its a one of a kind gaming experience that combines two genres of games that I think no one ever thought would go together, and yet it seems to work in this incarnation. Its a special treat if your a anime fan like me, and most of you that will read this most likely are. This game asks some interesting questions about relationships and what people want out of life and I found myself rethinking a lot things I thought I had figured already about life. In sum, if you want a game that will make you think, with puzzles, and you are a fan of anime this game is for you.
Oh thank you so much people at Nozomi entertainment! Not only have you managed to get the rights to the Utena series you’ve also managed to give me something great to write about!(I’ve been lacking inspiration.) Okay for those who don’t know, I am in love with this show. It was my cousin who introduced me to it so it also has some personal stuff behind but that’s not important. Also Chiaki will love this news(If she hasn’t heard about it already ^_^;) I have been waiting for these bad boys to come out for a while. It’s great that people can now own a show that uses symbolism the right way, odd yet loveable characters with questionable eccentricities and best of all. Lesbians!
Cue the final movement in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony(Ode to Joy for those who don’t know.)
Also more awesome news, the movie comes with the final DVD set! And it has bonus features! This is for a 90s show that isn’t Bebop or Evangelion as well! Oh this year is looking so much better 🙂 Next thing you know someone will announce that they’ve licensed the first Lupin III series…
Is it just me or is the whole DVD business getting more badass? I’ll let you be the judge. Sorry for the fanboy post but can you blame me? Also I was trying to hold back. Yeah this isn’t one of my better posts(Even though I should be writing tons more on this.) but still if you liked reading then rate it whatever you want. Right now, I gotta go save up some money.
Hello AAA Podcast, sorry to have been away but odd times here. I am back, and I am devouring Anime at a ravenous pace. I do believe that the hosts have succeeded in making my anime addiction worse!!!!!! Ok, so there is only one podcast that can claim the title – Best Anime Podcast Ever, and that is of course this podcast with its wonderful hosts and members. This being said, there are other podcasts I listen to and of the ones that I respect – a lot of buzz has gone on about Manyuu Hikenchou. To explain where I am going with this, I have to discuss a particular genre of anime and film for that matter and book for that matter that I enjoy. Did I say video game for that matter? You see, I suffer from Samurai Motte Oppai syndrome. Let’s take a trip back to a time far far away. Probably one of my first indications that I had developed this ailment would have been when I saw Conan the Barbarian or possibly Excalibur (FOOL!). I am laughing at this moment as you are thinking about the anime but I am talking about the movies. I am laughing at this moment because you are thinking of the new movies yet I am thinking of the original Conan with Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones as well as John Boorman’s classic Excalibur (F-O-O-L!) with Nigel Terry and Helen Mirren.
It was at this point that movies started following comic books and providing the ultimate representation of the female warrior. Yes, the Amazonian Warrior Princess!!!!! (Angelic Choir Singing Erupts) While most of you are quite used to this concept – until then, women were usually rescued. They certainly didn’t wear armor and brandish broadswords to hack guy’s faces and other irritating parts off. Ok – there was Joan of Arc long before but do we really know anything about her chest?
Around this same time, Canada released what I will always feel is the closest thing North America has ever done to anime – Heavy Metal in 1981. Even though this movie had a very american story line, the artwork was anime in style and what came out of this film? The almighty jaw dropping Taarna. So, in a span of a couple of years we had: Valeria – the sword wielding amazonian goddess who stole Conan’s heart. We had Igrayne and the classic medieval armor scene when Uther tricks her (if you have seen this movie, you KNOW what scene I am talking about). Finally, we had the 90% naked Taarna who survives all odds to behead the barbarians after she is raped by all of them.
This was an amazing time for female characters and the syndrome was born. Think of other female characters who have spawned due to this syndrome – Xena for sure (although I prefer Gabrielle – who need I say it was an Amazonian Princess). How about Sparrow from Forbidden Kingdom? Zen from Chocolate or “Fury” (You should watch this if you haven’t). Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger. The OMG hot Miho from Sin City. The totally desirable Selene from Underworld. Heck, even Mulan and Elizabeth Swann from the Disney’s movies. The list goes on and on and on and of course Anime and video games are filled with these types of characters. They are the lifeblood for anime watchers who suffer from Samurai Motte Oppai Syndrome.
Wow – I have been rambling, as I tend to do and I warned you in my first podcast that I would. What was I talking about? Oh yes, warriors with swords and breasts!!!! I was hearing all of the chatter about Manyuu Hickenchou and I thought to myself – “COOL!!!!!!!!! Huh Huh Huh Huh – they said its a show about boobs – Huh Huh Huh Huh”. It’s like all of the people got together in a room and said, “you know, we skirt around this issue a lot, um can’t we just state the obvious?” Wow, what a concept!!!!!! Really, what’s the big deal? How is this any different from an anime most feel guilty watching Rurou no Senshi or the more well know title Queen’s Blade? Yes, I must say that while I don’t plan to own it, Queen’s Blade was an entertaining romp through the anime world. In the first episode, I was subjected to more wrong ideas than should ever be indulged and the main villain of the episode, dare I say it, used her breasts as weapons to try and kill the beloved heroin Leina. My eyes burned, I wanted to turn away but alas I couldn’t! Heck, there were boobs and swords – what was I supposed to do????? “Nosh – its cool, we accept that you are a perv. We shall pity you and place you over there to watch out of the corner of our eye while we continue with our discussions.”
Well, now that I have 10 episodes behind me, I cannot believe what I am going to say. Manyuu Hikenchou makes Queen’s Blade look like Princess Mononoke! Ok, maybe that’s a little over the top but wow! At least Queen’s Blade had a plot! It had drama, it had Leina wanting to follow her own path and find her on way! In Manyuu, Chifusa is not unlike Leina in that she doesn’t agree with her family’s direction and she wants to change things. She is tragic in that she doesn’t want her huge boobs and hates it when they grow larger! This story could go places. Unfortunately, the story is about boobs – no really – that’s it. Taking them away and gaining them back. Grabbing them, swaying them, everything involving the chest of a female warrior. How could my syndrome betray me in such a cruel way? I find it a very very bitter pill to jam into my retina!
In closing, I have to say that in this case new is not better. If you suffer from Samurai Motte Oppai syndrome – first, you are not alone. Second, there are plenty of wonderful anime titles that can help you with your ailment. Heck, give Queen’s Blade a try – the ending is worth the wait. And if you crave something of more substance than Manyuu Hikenchou – there are always more wholesome titles such as Ikki Tousen or Master of Martial Hearts.
