Episode 23 – Themes and Symbols in Anime
Themes and symbols in anime, things that occur in many anime or only a select few but are done very well.
Reviews: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Gravitation and Utawarerumono
anime addicts anonymous podcast
Survivor Series: PS Vita: Up Till Now
Hey everybody! I hope everyone is having a good Christmas season out there in the AAA community. What I’m going to talk about today is the first year of the PS Vita with all the ups and downs (mostly downs), and what the future might hold for the pretty little handheld.
So the Vita launched a year and a day ago as in Japan as I’m writing this, and it had a pretty auspicious start in the lands of the rising sun selling 325,000 units in the first few days, a good launch compared to other systems like the 3DS. However, in the next weeks the sells cratered dropping to as low 12,309 units in the week of February 13th, and being outsold by the PSP. Now the sells have recovered somewhat in the following weeks averaging about 40,000 a week worldwide. This pattern followed with the North American and European launches, initial sales was great and then sinking down to low levels. The black Friday and holiday sales good, but this is likely a temporary bump as with all holiday’s seasons sales always rise dramatically over normal sales figures.
So now let’s look the games released for the system so far. There are currently 158 games as of writing for the Vita. Of these 25 were the launch titles, including Little Deviants, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Rayman Origins, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend etc. The best selling game is Uncharted with 850,000 units sold and will likely also be the first 1 million seller on the system. Not of the other games come close to Uncharted; however three games have about half the sales. Some of the games have been released to critical acclaim such as Persona 4: The Golden which is the highest rated handheld game in 2012 on Metacrtic. Gravity Rush has won handheld game of the year from some publications. So the Vita does have some games to answer that question people like to ask all the time about Sony systems haha. There are a couple games that came out this year that were suppose to turn the fortunes of the Vita around, the so-called “Killer App” that people are always talking about that sells systems, but neither Call of Duty: Declassified or Resistance: Burning Skies became the killer app as both suffered from bad controls and were a little short on content. One of the key selling points people were touting was the ability of Vita to play FPS on the go with the dual analog sticks. Now that two high profile FPS have come out and both have been utter disappointments and in my mind this has damaged the Vita brand.
There is isn’t much to say about what Sony has done to turn around the lackluster sales of the PS Vita because there hasn’t been a permanent price cut, the marketing has largely remain the same, and the Playstation Plus is now on Vita and that should help with sales, how much it will help remained to be seen.
Now I’m going to discuss some things that I think Sony can do to turn Vita around and get it selling good. Here’s the strategy I have conceived that Sony can follow to make sell well and make a profit. They cannot drop the price until the handheld can be redesigned into a form that makes a profit off each unit, otherwise Sony will be losing even more money then they already are on each unit sold. This could take a year or so, but in the end be worth it if they include the features I’m about to list. Include a drive to play all the PSP games; all of the people on the fence about buying a Vita that have a big PSP game library would have a huge reason to buy the system. Add an SD card slot; having only Sony memory cards as the only storage media on Vita has hurt the system even if its not the main reason people often point too. The Vita memory cards are expensive and are an unnecessary extra expense for buyers when they probably have a few SD cards they could be using to store games and data. Extend the battery life of the system; this is probably the easiest one to implement as it has been done many times for other handhelds. The most recent example being the 3DS XL, which added an extra 1.5 hours to the 3DS’s battery life, so it is not that hard. This could also be done through third party batteries such as the ones by Nyko, and that’s what I did with my 3DS and its battery life is actually better than the XL’s. Make games that are an unique experience to the Vita; I think the major problem with Sony’s ideology towards Vita is that they are trying to create scaled down versions of PS3 games for Vita instead of developing games from ground up specifically for Vita. In order to attract people to spent the money on a new hardware you need to have exclusive software that is found no where else. Marketing the Sega Genesis style; it would be extremely funny to watch Sony do some commercials along the lines of the ones done by Sega against Nintendo in the early 1990’s, and seeing how those worked well for Sega it could work for Sony as well.
Well until next time,
Devil_Survivor
Survivor Series: Devil Survivor 2 Review
Recently, I imagine that you been asking yourself a question lately, ” Where the F#%k has Devil Survivor been for the last three months??” Well ladies and gentlemen I moved to South Korea and I’m teaching at a public high school. Its been a good time so far and finally I have time to write something. The topic this time is the second Devil Survivor game which came out in February. I have played through it twice now and I’ll give you a tour.
Background Story
The story in Devil Survivor 2 is a bit different then in the first game as the story this time takes place in different locations around Japan and in the first game you were locked down in Tokyo the whole time trying to escape. Again your a boy in high school, this time a third year high student instead of a second year student, who is coming back from an exam at school with his two friends. When at the subway station, they receive an email on their phones from a website that shows a video clip depicting their deaths in an explosion in the near future. The three students are able to avoid their imminent deaths because of a warning from an avatar from the site and then a train comes crashing and they run for cover. As they wake demons appear and a battle begins, after defeating the demons the students form a contract with the demons and become demon summoners. Soon after the heroes encounter a mysterious government agency known as JP’s that is trying to protect the remaining Japanese cities that haven’t been completely destroyed by the disaster that has struck Japan. They ally with JP’s in order to find out what is behind the disaster that has befallen Japan and find a way to survive.
Gameplay
The gameplay hasn’t changed much from the last game which used a turned based system combat system on a grid of squares. The combat system also featured teams of three, two demons and one of the human characters, and the game allowed you to use up to 4 teams at once. You can carry up to 24 demons in your party at any one time and a great feature of this game is the ability summon a new demon if one of your demons lose all its hit points. Another feature from the first game is ability to create more powerful demons by fusing two less powerful demons. A new twist has been added to this feature called the demon compendium which saves all demons used or created in the fuse application, and for a price you can immediately summon that demon back to your party as long you have a free space. A completely new feature is called the Fate System which is a social relationship system that uses a 0 to 5 scale to rate the bond between the main character and the other characters. The benefit of having a high level bond with another character is that it grants you certain special abilities that can only be used with that character. Again present is the branching story lines like other SMT games, although it seems like there are as many paths as was in the previous game. The demon auction also still in the game, but is less important now with the demon compendium in the game.
Graphics and Cutscenes
The graphics in some ways are not much improved from the original game. The environments looks more detailed and the bosses look quite nice. However, some of the artwork from the first game was reused, but if you haven’t played the first one then you probably won’t notice that. The cut scenes are where the game shines because the first game doesn’t have nearly as many as DS2. The cut scenes all look graphically bright and vibrant. Overall the game is an improvement in most areas in terms of graphics.
Audio and Music
The game’s soundtrack is exceptional, which is a hallmark of any of the SMT games. Each song seems to fit the scene its being played in. The sound effects for the different demon attacks and other actions fit nicely with the overall feel of the game.
Closing Comments
Comparing this game to the original devil survivor it holds its own, while bringing some new gameplay elements to the table. I think Atlus could have put some more effort into making some more new artwork for the character interactions instead of just reusing some of the character models from the first game. Overall, the game is improvement over the first incarnation. One final note, if you haven’t played the first game yet, don’t worry because you can jump right into this game because the two stories have no bearing on each other at and are completely separate stories in effect.
Cheers and Beers,
Devil_Survivor
Episode # 91
The Life and Influence of Osamu Tezuka
Episode 91: (Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download)
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– Opening –
Opening Song:
Spiral from the anime Blood C by the anime Dustz
New Forum Members:
bad-apple, whats his name, bonalota, shizuo, fugama, questd40, therunonfragment, iheartrankalee, sweetd, shijokuda, supremekai
Trivia
Answer to Trivia: Trigun
People who got it correct: fugama, bravogangus, shorttermcrook, thaivun, jamezilla, neijikun002, guts matrix, mokuren, faust711, sakura angel, bad-apple, robertthecrimson, soulrogue, yellowdays, berserkhallow
Winner for the week: jamezilla
Happy Birthday To:
Darth Hobbit, JRow, Plixic, Chanoun Ozakaki, Amon81
Winner of Supercon Raffle:
Name: BT
Comment: My favorite thing about supercon this year was seeing all the pretty great cosplay… [read more]
The A.A.A. Mailbag
Submitted by: Devil_Survivor
Question:
I wanted to ask you guys about your views on how minorities are portrayed in anime, if you could talk about how certain races, gays/lesbians, and any other minorities you can think of, how they are portrayed in anime would be good. I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on the subject.
Otakon Reminder
We will be doing dinner at Otakon 11, chat us up on the forums if you will be there and want to have dinner with the addicts!
– News Break –
– Main Topic –
Who is Osamu Tezuka? What did he contribute to the anime community? Why was Astro Boy important? If you can’t answer these questions this episode will help. This is one episode with one important man that you don’t want to miss as an anime fan.
Some things we cover:
His early life.
Childhood works.
Career as an adult.
Famous work.
Impact of his work and his legacy.
– News Break –
– Reviews –
[C] The money of the soul and possibility of control – Chiaki – 4/5
Denpa onna seishun no otoko – Roukou – 3/5
– Closing –
Closing Song:
Tsukage no toburanko from the anime Hanasaki Iroha by the artist Nano Ripe
Episode #90
The Cracked out Con Episode!
Episode 90: (Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download)
[mp3player width=177 height=20 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml file=https://www.aaapodcast.com/aaapodcast_episode90.mp3]
– Opening –
Opening Song:
Masterpiece from the anime Yu-Gi-Oh Zexial by the artist Mihimaru GT
New Forum Members:
Sorraia, Asgeras, Mystix, Roarkyo, Linyuab12, Glomag, Luluxiu, and AyumuHunter
Trivia
Answer to Trivia: Madoka Magika
People who got it correct: Dramaticpaws, thaivun, GNDM-Exia, Asgeras, Grisly Bear, Bravogangus, and Soulrogue
Winner for the week: Grisly Bear
Happy Birthday To: Irish Otaku, Princess Buba, Nanashi, Great Teacher Tonizuka, and Mentosnotmental
The A.A.A. Mailbag
Submitted by: Zcomix
Question:
Hey guys, love the podcast! i got a quick Question for you! in alot of
animes i’ve watched the protagonist has a major decision in which the
outcome is debated over throughout the entire series. Sometimes in
anime like Futakoi, a harem about a boy and a group of twins who like
him, the series ends with an open ending where their is really no
resolution. how do you guys feel about open ended animes? personally
they make me a little sad and frustrated because i never really got a
resoultion to the plot. thanks for reading and keep doing what you do!
Supercon Update:
The con went well, we met some great forum members at the table and look forward to future cons. Thank you so much to the supercon staff who welcomed us and who helped us and hooked us up. You guys were great and the con was a lot of fun!
Console Alliance:
We joined Console Alliance (www.consolealliance.com) for their Voice Over show, so check them out!
– News Break –
– Main Topic –
Our top and not top 10 for Anime Conventions. Note: We enjoy all anime cons we go to and the pros always outweigh the cons. We’re just tired and slightly cracked out so we just have fun with it. Also this episode is slightly more explicit.
Top 10:
- Meeting awesome forum members
- Interviewing Awesome people like Steve Blum or Melissia Fahn
- The pervs at the con who buy Kimiko’s stuff
- Really great cosplayers who are also cool people
- Really helpful Con Staff
- Finding something you CANNOT live without and at a good price in the dealer’s room
- People who are understanding at panels, have a good sense of humor, and are interactive (Like saying Sega at the same time)
- When people recognize you in (obscure) cosplay and want to take photos with you
- When you go outside the con in cosplay, in a group, and everyone is like “WTF?!”
- Being accepted for your anime addiction by a large group
Added later: Companies who come to the con and give out tons of free stuff
Not Top 10:
- Very large people who smell AWFUL
- People who are disrespectful of the area and others
- People who trash the place with food, actual trash or themselves, I.E. ConRats
- When basic utilities and other basic structural aspects to the convention center don’t work or fail
- When carpets in hallways smell like urine and/or mold
- Bad Convention Layout
- People who want your stuff and lie!
- People that don’t get the hint
- Poorly Organized Cons and the jerks who don’t show up to do their panels
- When it rains at cons
– News Break –
– Reviews –
Ano Hanna – Kimiko – 5/5
Yumekui Merry – Chiaki – 2.5/5
San Juu-sai no Hoken Taiiku – Mitsugi – 3/5
– Closing –
Closing Song:
Boku Quest from the anime Yu-Gi-Oh Zexial by the artist Golden Bomber
Code Geass
Alternate Titles: Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion
Original Japanese Release Date: 2006
Episode Length/Run-time: 25 Episodes
Summary:
With the aid of gigantic robotic robots known as Knightmare Frames colonialism has taken new meaning and the Empire of Britannia has invaded Japan and placed it under colonial rule. Lelouch a Britannian living in Area 11 (Japan’s new name) vows to free Japan and overthrow the Empire. One day after school he stumbles upon a military secret which happens to be a young girl named C.C. She gives him the power of Geass which can be used on any person only once to make them obey any order. With this weapon Lelouch’s rebellion begins.
Review:
Code Geass, reviewed here in full (both first and second season) is a very well done anime. While plots of overthrowing governments, coup de etats and war is nothing new to anime Code Geass brings lively characters and it’s own interesting spins to the rehashed themes in such a way that it feels fresh and new. One of the fantastic things about this anime is the pacing. It moves at near breakneck speed wasting no time to get to the meat of the show. From there on they don’t dally with stupid antics (okay, they do very rarely) and focus on progressing what they set out.
The mech battles in this show are really well executed and Lelouch’s character as the ringleader is perfect. Possible best friend to Light Yagami Lelouch is calculating, careful, cunning, and slightly cocky in just the right ways. While we’re on the subject of characters they are just the right mix for everyone watching. Enough bishonen to go around, cute girls ranging from well endowed sexy to loli and your stereotypical characters thrown in there to round out the mix nicely. Sometimes the stereotyping is taken a little too far and the acting could be seen as borderline corny. But generally speaking it’s done at the right times and I feel it’s presented in such a way that works for the series overall.
The one thing that really docks this series overall is the fights in the second season. Throughout the whole series there is gray area moral dilemmas argued and a clever cat and mouse both on and off the battlefield between Lelouch and Suzaku. However, in the second season Suzaku, apparently, closes the mental gap rather quickly on Lelouch. All of a sudden he, quite annoyingly, shows up out of the blue at just the right moment to squah Lelouch’s plans and win or thwart the battle. As a viewer it not only screams unrealistic, but it screams annoying.
Despite this, the series is very well executed and has something for everyone. The animation is clean and crisp and the music does not disappoint either. With the characters and engaging plot I’d easily classify this anime as a gateway drug into the world of mecha for any fan or fan-to-be.
[starrater]
Barefoot Gen
Alternate Titles: Hidashi no Gen
Original Japanese Release Date: 1983
Episode Length/Run-time: 83 minutes
Summary:
Gen lives with his mother, father, and little brother in Hiroshima 1945 =. It has been 3 years since the conflict with the U.S. began and the trials of the war have begun to take their toll on the country of Japan. Despite the scarcity of food and other necessities they work to make their lives happy and the best they can. However on the 6th of August 1945 everything changes with the dropping of the first atomic bomb in human history. Gen’s fight for survival begins in the tattered remains of what once was his normalcy.
Review:
Barefoot Gen began as a 10 volume manga running from 1983-1984. It was later produced into a feature film in 1983 with a sequel in 1986. There have also been a number of novels and live action movies and TV series paired with the series.
I think what makes this movie so impacting is it’s creator: Nakazawa. Nakazawa is a survivor of the atomic bombing himself and produced this manga to tell his story and the story of all those who lost their lives and who had to live through the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Knowing this the anime becomes all the more impacting. However, also knowing this you have to understand that the anime is being told from the experiences of a survivor who made it through but this is going to add a spin to his story.
The story doesn’t really begin until the bombing. While it starts the day before this acts as a set-up for everything which is to come. When the bombing happens gen is separated from his family and what ensues is a grotesque and historically accurate series of images. People’s flesh melt off, their eyes boil and pool from their eyes, their clothing burns away in an instant. Those that do survive are left as wandering corpses desperately thirsty for water and aid. The scenery changes in an instant to a hellish landscape where everything is destroyed. Gen navigates through this back to his family only to see his house ablaze. Only his mother escapes and they watch in horror as his little brother and father burn to death before their eyes. They attempt to sleep, but cannot rest, haunted by the screams of the injured throughout the city.
Gen’s mother, pregnant, gives birth to a baby girl prematurely. Since no midwife or doctor can be found Gen must attempt to aid in the delivery of the baby. The baby is delivered and now Gen must look after himself and his mother and newborn sister as the patriarch of the family.
This movie is one heartbreak after another. Just when things seem to be going good they crush you again. The overall hopelessness hangs over the viewer and character like a dense haze that cannot be lifted. What likely makes it even more unbearable is the fact that it is historically accurate on many levels.
That is not to say though the movie is perfect. Sometimes it does seem sensationalized. This anime is never uttered because of the fact that it just doesn’t stand up in production to other WWII anime such as grave of the fireflies and took significantly longer to see a DVD release. The music is lacking and the animation shows its age clearly.
That being said the content and commentary alone is enough to put it on anyone’s must-watch list. The overall message, despite the sorrow, is one of the perseverance and strength of the human spirit. Leaving the viewer on a hopeful note compared to other films and works. This sometimes is criticized for seeming unrealistic but in my opinion it is a powerful message to a good movie.
[starrater]
Kimi Ni Todoke 2
Alternate Titles: Reaching Out to You
Original Japanese Release Date: 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: 12
Summary:
Kimi ni Todoke 2 is a continuation of the original Kimi ni Todoke series. It follows Sawako, meaning “happy child” who is nicknamed “Sadako” from the ring due to her extreme lack of social ability and a number of misunderstandings. Her two friends, Chizu and Yano, after bringing her out and helping her become accepted by the class in the first season see to it to help the delicate and budding romance between her and the most popular boy in class Kazehaya. However, will Sawako be able to overcome her insecurities and will the interference of others like the lovely Kurumi or the playboy Kento get in the way?
Review:
May I please take a moment to express, as a girl, how much I LOVE this series. It’s now 36 episodes long in total, counting both the first and second seasons, but the second season is a convenient 12 episodes. Anything longer than that would’ve been excessive and have gotten into the way. The series is produced and completed by the same people as the first with Studio Production I.G. at the helm it follows the 13 book manga that started in 2005 and is still ongoing. There is also a light novel series which started in 2007.
Now I feel I must preface this review by saying that some of it will be spoilers from the first season just because it is a direct continuation, so if you’re planning on watching the show I leave you with a strong recommendation and telling you to stop here.
So in the first season it was well established that Sawako and Kazehaya had feelings for each other. They were both generally in love but both too quiet about it to make it obvious. Or, when one of them did say something it was misunderstood by the other. Sawako being the main culprit. This season opens with Valentines day, and the painful experience of Sawako not being able to give chocolates to Kazehaya because they meant far too much. Thanks Kurumi, yes, she’s back.
The series goes on and Sawako continues to become more accepted by the school on the whole, to the point that she even has another suitor. But instead of dragging out twisted love triangles to the point of disgust the series takes a realistic approach (I feel) to how the characters interact with each other. Kazehaya is not pleased of course in the situation and acts how a normal boy would. Sawako does continue to eff things up though which is borderline annoying. But as more people in the show begin to see what’s going on between them their assistance helps Sawako and Kazehaya realize the misunderstanding s that have been happening between them.
Is it too late at that point to salvage their budding love? I’m not going to tell you! Watch the series. But what I will say from start to finish, first OR second season this series won’t let you down. The 12 episode length is perfect for the second season, and I almost think they could’ve condensed the whole show down to 24. The shorter length really forces them to focus on the core of what’s going on and that alone makes it a nose above the first season. Plus, how they wrap everything up with a neat little bow and just enough to make the fans happy on top of that was a nice touch.
This show really is worth your while if you’re a fan of the slice-of-life comedic romance. Highly recommended and worth the investment of your time.
[starrater]