Christopher Keene's Blog, page 11

LitRPG

[image error]Turns out I’ve been barking up the wrong tree as far as Stuck in the Game’s genre goes!

With its science fiction elements, I assumed cyberpunk was the genre I should be selling it under. I had no idea that there was already a pre-made genre with its own community and platform on social media. As someone who has published a book in this genre recently and has a sequel on the way, this is almost the equivalent of getting a soft re-release for my potential series, the DREAM STATE SAGA. For anyone interested, you can check out their hashtag, Facebook group or website, which I will be appearing on in the future.

As for what LitRPG is, it’s a genre acronym that speaks for itself: Literature focusing on Role Playing Games. This can be executed via science fiction elements with a character interacting with a VR gaming world or via fantasy elements by magic drawing the player into the gaming world itself. Of course, this is nothing new. Many works in many mediums in this genre have been around for a very long time, but the genre has only recently been popularized. As one of the more recent authors to be traditionally published in this genre, I’m more than willing to jump on the bandwagon and promote my books under it.

Steins;Gate [Anime Review]

[image error]The term ‘modern classic’ has been thrown around recently, and being guilty of using it myself, I thought I should define what I mean when I use the term as far as anime goes. I consider a modern classic in anime ‘a series that has maintained a consistently high rank by multiple 100K-up voted on polls for over a decade’ (e.g. Code Geass). Having been ranked in the top five for MAL, Anime Encyclopedia and many other 100K-up voted on sources for the last five years, my prediction is that Steins;Gate will be among the next lot of anime I would consider modern classics. Truth is, I’d love it either way.

As most time travel stories go, Steins;Gate begins with the discovery of a working time machine by eccentric mad scientist Okabe Rintaro and his crew of oddball friends, which grows throughout the series. After a few accidental and purposeful uses of this machine, Okabe, the only one to keep his memories from previous timelines, notices how the butterfly has affected the world and his friend’s lives. However, his actions have not gone unnoticed by powerful groups of people. After the death of one of his friends during a raid of his lab, he retraces each change made in order to get back to the timeline where their death is not an inevitability.

[image error]The animation is brilliantly consistent without the overly rich candy colors of most visual novel adaptations. The voice acting is very good in both the sub and the dub (yes, I watched both). The BGM isn’t over bearing and used at suitable times in each scene and the OP and ED are among the best in anime, the OP perfect to hype up and foreshadow the episodes to come and even a remix of the original visual novel opening is utilized for the climactic revelation that works to gratify the concluding events. I would go so far to say that this climax in the anime is the key reason for its superiority over the visual novel as it succeeds in delivering much of the punch the visual failed to pull off.

[image error]It’s hard to pick holes in this anime. The biggest problems are the aforementioned pacing issues in the first twelve episodes building up to it’s more exciting events in the latter half, but even those I can’t give sins to simply because those with too low an attention span to deal with having fun with time travel don’t deserve the payoff that is to come afterwards. Sure, some character arcs are better than others, as it is for the inevitability of some characters being better than others, but even the worst arcs are still better than the average character arcs in many anime I’ve seen. This isn’t even considering the main character himself and his involvement in each arc, who I would rate among the best protagonists (and not just in anime).

[image error]I have a sneaking suspicions that the similarities in this protagonist’s design is why I was so open to anime like Parasyte – the Maxim, and despite ranking in my top visual novels, I think the anime is the key reason why I favor it so highly. If Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is going to head the next line up of modern classics for the next decade, Steins;Gate is also a shoe in right behind it. This says a lot considering it’s 1/3 of its episode count and under half that of Code Geass (yet is still ranked higher). In other words, Steins;Gate is a hard hitting, superior adaptation of a visual novel about time travel that you would be amiss not try (at least past episode twelve).

Total Rank: 9.5/10

What is the Culture War?

Introduction:

An Attempt to Understand 

I’m honestly asking. I’ve heard the term being used so many times in the context of articles and youtube videos that I think I’m beginning to puzzle together what it might be. This essay is a compilation of what I’ve gathered so far, but I’d love any assistance or new information others might have to offer. Now to call something a war you usually need two or more sides, and I’m sure there are more than just two sides to this “war,” so the first task to understanding it will be to understand the different sides.

Drawing Lines in the Sand

If one were to look at the surface of the conflict, one might assume that it’s arguments between different words that end in ‘ists’: Feminists vs anti-feminists, Islamists vs anti-islamists, Fascist anti-fascist, etc. Each of these can generally be summed up pretty simply: A belief system is popularized, a group of “skeptics” see an underlying authoritarian tendency with the system and push for liberal values via criticisms of its ideas. Figureheads of each of these sides emerge, communities form and tribalism begins.

Note: I am not claiming which of these sides hold these authoritarian streaks, as it’s possible for both sides to have them.

Once tribalism sets in, most rational argument seems to come to an end. However, there are always themes of cultural relativism in the arguments, which the ad hominem and non sequitur arguments act as red herrings for. For instance, identity politics (racism, sexism, identity-phobias) are essentially a smoke screen to avoid the key question: Are some cultures superior to others? If you think the answer is yes, two lines in the sand can easily be drawn, between the cultures themselves, as well as between the pro and anti-relativists.

Note: If you are a cultural relativist, just try to separate the culture/ideas/memes from the people that live/represent/believe them.

Culture Civil War?

If cultures are made up of ideas or memes, it’s pretty easy to judge what ideas and memes are successful by their resulting cultures. Do people in those cultures flourish? Do they suffer? What do they produce? Do people immigrate to or away from them? From the answers to these questions, we can determine superiority or inferiority in certain aspects, whether the ideas were adopted into a culture or if they were founded by them. And where some relativists deny this, others simply refuse to acknowledge it for the sake of “Othering.”

Note: This is also known as “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Once some start claiming these differences, others, usually accepting of the benefits a superior culture creates, will not only refuse to acknowledge the ideas that allowed for these benefits, but will defend and in-turn assist the cultures trying to resist and/or destroy them. This is the distinction between the terms “progressive left” and “regressive left,” which has become it’s own smaller civil war within the larger conflict. To put it simply, one side is trying to encourage beneficial memes in inferior cultures, the other side is trying encourage the detrimental memes of these cultures in their own (e.g. promoting burkas).

Note: Birds ignorantly accept Cuckoo eggs to the detriment of their own. Replace eggs with cultural ideas and you might be able you understand why some people call the regressive left “cucks.”

Confused Priorities

I think this confusion in priorities is why so many arguments about culture degenerate into: “You’re a racist/sexist!” or “You’re trying to censor me!” It’s because both sides are speaking past one another. One side is so blinded by the identity politics smoke screen to see the importance of the ideas from the other side and the other side are so fervently trying to defend the ideas of their culture that they are at a loss to the ad hominems and non sequiturs used to attack them. Once this reaches the stage of irony and satire, both only seem to be proving the others points while also missing them entirely.

Note: “When someone murders another for what they said, you lose the argument as soon as you use what was being said to justify the murder” or “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – Evelyn Beatrice Hall

What encourages this confusion further is the tendency for both sides to redefine their terms. Liberal has become negative due to the regressive connotations, with Classical Liberal being the rebound term used in an attempt to keep its original values. Racism has been redefined by some with a caveat of institutional power, making it so that a minority ethnic group of a country could never be considered racist no matter how bigoted they act. Even impartial words like egalitarian has gained negative connotations on one side simply because it takes attention away from the term feminism.

Note: George Orwell showed the totalitarian aspects of either removing or changing language for the means of control in many of his books.

Conclusion:

Hypocrisy and Irony

When a feminist celebrates Islamic values toward women, that is hypocrisy. However, when an anti-feminist points this out for the sake of the values of feminism, that is irony. When a liberal celebrates the silencing of an enemy, that is hypocrisy. Yet when someone whose being called a fascist is preaching free speech and is then attacked by a liberal hoping to shut him up, that is irony. From recent events it’s not hard to see we are living in a time of perpetual hypocrisy and irony, with one feeding the other in a loop that many in this “culture war” don’t seem to be aware of.

With a basic lacking of what each of these terms mean thanks to a basic flaw in public education that doesn’t deal with philosophy on any level, all one can do is embrace schadenfreude and be entertained by it all. However, another option is to stop pointing fingers and ask other people what is going on, so with what I said in the first paragraph in mind, feel free to try and educate me the best you can on what you think the culture war is all about.

G-senjou no Maou (The Devil on G-String) [Visual Novel Review]

[image error]G-senjou no Maou (The Devil on G-String) is easily my favorite visual novel.

It somehow achieved an atmosphere that many urban fantasy books struggle to create without a lick of the supernatural or magic, instead using crime and mystery as the linchpin for its balance of character and conflict. At the heart of this is Maou himself, a villain who, like The Joker from The Dark Knight, totally owns both the story and protagonists throughout. The only fault in it is in being restricted to the visual novel story structure and medium. Despite this, I can’t imagine any other medium doing it justice and pray there is no future adaptation for it (unless directed by Tetsurō Araki).

By day, Azai Kyousuke is an ordinary high school student, by night, he’s a ruthless financier working for his gangster father’s underworld business. When Usami Haru transfers into his school, a mysterious man who calls himself “Maou” also arrives and starts causing havoc. Haru is determined to defeat this mysterious figure and inevitably involves Kyousuke and his friends with her plans. Maou starts up a deadly game of cat and mouse with Haru and her friends, raising the stakes involved for the protagonists with each move that he makes. Kyousuke and Haru are forced to race against time before each of Maou’s criminal plans are set into action.

[image error]G-senjou no Maou is why I usually feel content just reading a visual novel’s main route. This says a lot about the minor characters, for although unique and interesting in their own right, the minor routes don’t stand up to the main heroine’s story, the sheer epicness of it blowing the others of the water. As I mentioned in the introduction, I found the typical visual novel structure of heroine arc to heroine arc an unnecessary restriction, but at the same time it manages to help develop and build up both Maou and Usami for their ending confrontation, the only ending that ties up all loose ends.

[image error]Although slightly aged, the sprites and backgrounds are still nice enough not to disengage the average reader. Still, a design update wouldn’t go amiss now that the quality of visual novels have risen so high in the last few years. This goes doubly for the voices too. The female acting is so stereotypically anime-squeaky that I couldn’t ever imagine an English dub for the characters that wouldn’t seem out of place. The one thing that definitely won’t need an update is the music, the remixing of almost every classic score I can think of adds perfectly to the atmosphere of the story and the OST even works nicely by itself.

[image error]A flaw I’ve heard from another fan of G-senjou no Maou is that it doesn’t hold up as much the second time through because knowing all of the twists and turns makes them lose some of their impacts. This isn’t something that affected me (the same goes for any spoilers really), as I can enjoy and respect the inclusion of clues and hints that builds up to the big reveals. That being said, I would recommend avoiding spoilers for anyone else thinking of reading it. Something I did notice was the amount of maid and butler exposition during the somewhat drawn-out beginning. Just goes to show what different people pick up on and can admit to being flaws depending on what they value in stories, even as fans.

[image error]This is one of the few visual novels I would gladly recommend to people, even those who haven’t read a visual novel before. In a way, it would almost be a shame to read this one first as it might be awhile before they find something as good to follow it with. However, if it weren’t for my desperate search for something comparable, I might not have read as many visual novels as I have. There have only been a few others since that have managed to live up to it, but I’m glad I continued my search, as I wouldn’t have found as many of quality if not for this one. Although Fate Stay/Night was my first, if it weren’t for G-senjou no Maou, I wouldn’t have gotten into visual novels as a medium.

Total Rank: 9.5/10

[image error]

NIHILIHIN 1: Post-Project Depression

[image error]Once prosperity in the city reached its highest point, depression and suicide rates soared. Why was it that when everyone had all they needed to survive, they all suddenly decided they wanted to die? Without the driving will to gain what they needed to live, it was as though their motives were drowned in apathy, as though the entire world had gone through an existential crisis and only those who found their own worth could continue living. From this, a new evolutionary process for humans beings began.

As a writer, this wasn’t a difficult transition. My worth wasn’t measured by what money or resources I could acquire, only by what meaning I could pull from an ultimately meaningless world. I know what you’re thinking, a nihilist writer seems like an oxymoron, but when your meaning is in itself an attempt to find meaning, the circular logic creates an odd equilibrium. Save to say that the times I wanted to kill myself the most were just after I’d finished a long project. I had to find something new soon, if I was to save myself.

Seeing the massive stack of papers on my desk, you’d think that I’d feel some sort of pride, but all I felt was emptiness. I’d heard that it was kind of like empty nest syndrome, but instead of moving on with life as parents could, you’re desperately fumbling for ideas that might have the potential to draw out some kind of meaning. Yet I had repeated this process enough to know that each time I tried, the only meaning I could find was a shallow escapism that had already been done a million times before.

I needed something new, an idea that would really hit at the core of civilization, and I knew there was only one place I’d be able to find it. Turning my back on another failed attempt, I decided the city, the heart of civilization itself, would be my best inspiration. In an apartment designed to prevent the social pressures of those on the spectrum, each exit led straight to a lift. On odd occasions these prevention measures ironically increased the likelihood of such a confrontation.

The girl inside looked like graffiti on the side of a building, the black and white colors of her hair and clothes breaking her up into perfect horizontal segments that seemed to be mathematically designed to induce arousal. That was her own worth; guys wanted to fuck her. She would go to one place and the guys wanted to fuck her there, then she would go another place and guys wanted to fuck her there. I wanted to fuck her… but that wasn’t my meaning, there was no point in it, no worth.

Stepping in and seeing that we were both heading to the ground floor, I turned and waited for the doors to close. Eyes that had been previously closed opened to reveal glistening sapphires.

“Going down to the zoo, huh?” she asked and I swallowed a breath as the doors shut and we began our descent.

The Political Egotism Conspiracy

[image error]I’d been reading so many articles on censorship & language policing, ideologically driven misinformation spreading, diversity driven affirmative action, and childish overreactions to the stupidest things that it’s actually made me lose enough of my cultural elitism to realize something about identity politics and the current political climate in the west.

Besides religion, it seems that white guilt and feminism, along with other collectivist ideals, are simply becoming masochistic delusions corroding at the ends of what are essentially pretty decent liberal values. In fact, if you look at them, you’d see that classical liberal values are the very ideals that created the foundation of the movements which solved the core problems these people are still winging on about.

And so began another crazy conspiracy…

[image error]Take any set of issues, real or imaginary, trivial or life threatening, and give them a over-simplified boogeyman to turn against (cis white male patriarchal society), and say that’s the cause, and so many people will attack it blindly, disregarding not only their first world wonderland complacency that allows them to do so, but also the developing cultures that don’t have this privilege which actually need help.

In short, they’re conspiracy theories, and I’d say that about any ideals that do this: MGTOW, Illuminati, brainwashing aliens. The closest thing I do believe in as far as wide spread influence goes is our own human nature ‘in reaction’ to money and power. However, in a broader sense, I think both the wealthy and social justice busy-bodies are created by an underlining human cause: egotism (unless you don’t think I’m not being self-aware here, just look at the title of this post).

[image error]My issue, my stuff, my work. As an author and blogger, I can truly understand a desire to matter, and in the new world where everyone is trying to be good and useful to stand out, sometimes the best way to be noticed it to just be a bother, to be in the way and claim that by doing so they’re being useful when they clearly aren’t. It’s similar to the way Jesus Christ thought he was being useful for dying for a non-existent guilt quota created by his imaginary sky father.

That’s what I think motivates both the SJWs, MGTOW, conspiracy nuts and money hoarders to continue doing what they’re doing. They have convinced themselves, evidence to the contrary, that they’re being useful, when in reality, it’s really the attention they get from doing it is why they continue. In the end, it makes them feel like they matter in a world where no one really does, and although some of them are misguided in their attempts, as an insecure human being of the twenty-first century, can you really blame them? Yes… I think we can.

[image error]

Anime Season 2 Hype 2017

[image error]For the first time in a long time I actually feel excited about a year’s line up of anime, dominantly because so many great anime stretching back from the year 2000 are finally getting second seasons, TV reboots and film sequels. I mean, holy shit, just look at this list!

Blue Exorcist (Season 2)

– January –

[image error]
My Hero Academia (Season 2)

– April – [image error]
Attack on Titan (Season 2)

– April –

[image error]
Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel (Film 1 of 3)

– Mid 2017 – [image error]
One Punch Man (Season 2)

– Mid 2017 – [image error]

That’s not to mention Tales of the Zesteria, Little Witch Academia and Berserk (hopefully fixed). Chaos;Child, Sword Art Online, No Game No Life, Kekkai Sensen and Boruto too… but compared to the others… eh.

Manuscript Wish List Day & Novel Updates

[image error]                      #MSWL

-Manuscript Wish List Day on the 8th:

Literary agents will be updating what they want in real time (#MSWL)

                       Updates

-50 p. into Asian fantasy story (winner)

-Stuck in the Game sequel being edited

-Sequel title chosen: Back in the Game

-Series title chosen: Dream State Saga

Last Chance to Vote

[image error]Looks like my Asian fantasy story is going to win and my site will remain Fantasy and Anime for the foreseeable future, unless the votes take a turn. I’m going to swap the poll for another on Monday so this weekend will be your last chance.

ERASED [Anime Review]

[image error]There are very few anime that I enjoy after it’s been over-hyped to me. Because I’m hypercritical of anything considered ‘one of the best anime of the year’, I usually go over them with a fine-toothed comb whenever I watch them. For some reason I didn’t do that for ERASED. I don’t know if it was because I was being lazy at the time or if the story was just so engaging that I forgot to do it, but if I seem like I’m partial to this anime, that’s probably why. For this reason alone, I’d say ERASED mostly lives up to its hype. Saying that, there are a few ass-pulls and obvious twists, but nothing to really get hung up about.

[image error]The story is about Satoru and his ability to rewind time and attempt to change horrible events while lacking the information to do so. At first the rewinds only go for a few minutes but the series really begins when he goes back to his early childhood and starts trying to prevent the death of a girl from his school. My biggest gripe was that he never learn to control and goes back and forward at the most convenient times, hence ass-pulls. This eventually leads to him find out who the murderer is and yada-yada-yada. With the butterfly effect, Satori changes both his relationships and future events.

[image error]What makes the show so great is its progression. At no point does it feel like the character doesn’t have a motive, he’s always looking for clues and trying to make relationships for the point of keeping friends close enough so he doesn’t lose them. Although the he doesn’t use the most obvious path to find the villain, using the victims as bait, you get the feeling when he returns to his present again that there’s nothing he could have done to them anyway. In a way, this makes the path he takes, trying to save the victims, seem the most rational, despite how frustrating his first failed attempts might be.

[image error]Although all this good storytelling is expected from the director of Death Note, the element that is criticized the most is the whodunit element, for, as most of the people have watching anime will tell you, it’s pretty obvious whodunit. That being said, the utter obviousness of it might have you guessing throughout nevertheless. Thinking them to be a too-obvious red-herring the whole time might actually be more of a twist than those waiting for a real twist when you realize you were right all along (I don’t think saying a twist is obvious is a spoiler, is it?).

[image error]The animation is really pretty as well, and consistently good throughout the series. There’s something about using three dimensional animation only for perspective shots that it really made it effective for seeing a new settings and showing intense emotions, and I can’t think of an anime that’s done it better. Although some of the character designs were odd, they were all unique enough for it not to bother me. The snow covered settings are pretty and even the scene transition helps with the feel, the altered shots allowing the revelations to really hit the marks despite having guessed it previously.

[image error]I don’t think there’s much to say about BGM, and although I’ve heard a lot of buzz about the OP, I don’t think it really suited the tense atmosphere of the story. Like most of Tomohiko Itō’s stuff, the dub was great from what I watched of it (yes, I ended up watching both after I realized the dub wasn’t finished yet). That says more about this anime than anything, I was not patient enough to wait for the rest of dub to come out, I wanted to finish it that badly. That being said, the way a lot of the episodes ended on cliffhangers could attest to the reason I decided not to wait.

[image error]For an anime of only twelve episodes, not a moment is wasted and it makes me think that a lot of good anime would be great if they only lowered their number of episodes. Remember that I’m the kind of guy who liked My Hero Academia more than One Punch Man, and although they came out in the same year, I think ERASED would have given it a run for its money. They really are for different audience who bring out different emotions. If I was less of a “YES!” guy and more of “AWW!” guy, I probably would have given first place to this. In any case it gets a pretty big recommendation.

Total Rank: 8.5/10

It’s a time traveling whodunit, what’s not to like?