Chapel Orahamm's Blog, page 34

Mobile Game Review: Nobodies

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Nobodies is a mobile puzzle game with a dark spin. I mean, what was I expecting with that type of art for the intro?

I got into the game and for some reason was expecting an otome light novel game. Nope. Wrong. This one was different. It has a story element to it, but you’re not wooing characters. This one, you’re hiding bodies.

Sounds simple, right? Took me a hot minute to figure out the controls, but once I got that under my belt, it was a matter of determining what order a scene had to take place in so that the crime could be committed and I could move on to the next part of the game.

Do I like it? I mean, it’s an interesting concept, but some of the elements feel railroaded in. It’s a puzzle game, but for the most part, when you deal with the concept of a murder mystery, where you have to hide the body, you want to have that sense of inventiveness, where you can decide how you would hide a body.

This feels like a bizarre conversation to be having.

Anyways, as I was say.

The problem for this is in the aspect that it is a logic puzzle where you have to work with the specific elements provided and now your own inventiveness. So, there’s your heads up if you have some particularities to that.

Otherwise, the graphics are good, the bits of story line are fleshed out enough to get the point across. You don’t have to dedicate a ton of mental space to playing hours of it. Its what falls into casual game territory, but due to the nature of the game’s topic, it feels less casual and more maniacally stealthy.

It isn’t still on my phone if you’re wondering. It was an okay play through for the couple rounds I tested, just not my type of game. I know of a few people who probably would play this all the way through to the end. Give it a whirl if you like logic-puzzle type games and want something a bit dark and gritty. I could really see this as something fun to play right around Halloween.

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Lovestory Manga Wednesday: Chunqing Yatou Huolala

Oooohkaaayy. No. I have no clue why I’m running with this one, other than the fact it sounded like it was Chinese rather than Japanese. I want to make sure I’m actually reading a diverse swath of materials.

The other reason is I’m super in love with colored in comics. I love Korean Manhwa and I have not read much in the way of Chinese Manhua. It’s not that easy to find it.

So. Here I am, test driving the first Manhua romance I could get my hands on.

Can I just…the art? I want to go cry, and not in a good way. The woman is rendered painfully. The guy’s great in a couple panels but super disproportionate in others. Just…ow, no. I’m taking a few deep breaths and hoping my brain just snaps to this art style.

Three pages in and…

Where’s a good throbbing red angry symbol gif when I need it. Like ticked off angry.

Trigger warning for assault.

This whole comic needs to come with some serious trigger warnings.

A – she’s drunk because her ex-boyfriend is a playboy and she’s trying to “get revenge on him” by sleeping around with a male escortB – he calls her underageC – he has her forcibly taken to his private suite and instigates actions that should not be done.D – don’t freaking rip people’s clothing!

He didn’t get further than scaring her in the first section, but dang it, I’m pissed off at this comic. I thought Hare-kon made me mad.

Grinding of bones, nashing of teeth. This whole comic is full of psych abuse, physical abuse, just…what is the author trying to even say with this mess? Everyone has a completely broken personality and major relationship issues. Is this? Is this a thing people enjoy reading? Like…no, really? Am I missing something?

Look, I get it, relationships can be difficult in some ways. Sometimes I might disagree with Wren about a certain aspect of running the house, but we sit down and talk it through. I respect him, he respects me. We don’t depend on alcohol to do the talking. Are we just weird? Cause…I think my concept of romance might be broken if so many of these comics consist of this whole distressing trope set up. And I don’t want to fix it to whatever this dysfunctional thing is. *Waves hand at manhua*.

I guess that’s part of why I write romance, because I tend to be extremely dissatisfied with how romance is currently written. I want relationships to build up. For both the MC and LI to have equal balance in the relationship. That they both develop together and independent of each other.

Someone once told me that when both parties are able to fully live independent of the other safely, but instead decide to be together, that they truly want each other’s company. The relationship is not a dependence on a hero, but an equal friendship. I prefer that concept.

This one. It starts out rough. The coloring is okay, but the linework and the style are…painful…at best. I’ve read other comics with worse style, but the story made it a part of the experience, not another strike against it. It’s just…bad.

All the way around.

It hit each of my strikes for a DNF right out of the gate.

So, here’s where I go: I am most likely not the target market, if I have come to the DNF conclusion. At the same time, I hope that this type of mysogynistic abusive ‘romance’ storyline doesn’t have a target market after a time.

People read romance for some of the flash. At the same time, there are people who use the romance genre to learn how these romantic relationships work. Maybe they didn’t have a lot of explanation on the birds and the bees. Or their family just weren’t great role models for what loving relationships look like. Authors have some responsibility in recognizing that, even if “they write for themselves” and then release the book, they may be the first point of access to some people when it comes to their introduction to romantic relationships.

I’m preaching. So, I’ll get off my soap box. I leave it to you if you want to seek out this manhua to read. I’m…I’m out. I can’t condone this type of relationship development. The bridge burned in the first chapter.

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Video Game Review Tuesday: Stardew Valley (Switch)

Alright. I’m a cheapskate. I’ve been wanting to play Animal Crossing on the Switch since it released last summer. However, dannnnnng it’s expensive, still. I was hoping the price point would go down.

So, a couple weeks back, I got into a conversation with someone on Twitter and talked about this game Stardew Valley with them. They suggested I might like it because it had a bit more depth than Animal Crossing, and cost a whole lot less.

For $15, I picked it up, rather than fork over $60 for AC.

I’m honestly rather enjoying this. Wren gave it a whirl and found it boring. He liked The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while I found that game (the 20 minutes I played on it) intense. So, there’s a difference in who might find this game enjoyable.

There are tasks to work on. Clearing and cleaning up the gardening space, but also interacting with npcs and doing side quests like taking care of the community center. It’s a bit of that mindless type of grinding that I do enjoy finding on mobile games every once in a while like Lily’s House or those other games. This one though doesn’t involve Candy Crush style puzzles to plant the garden. You just get to plant the garden.

Hence, why I mentioned the difference in appreciation for the game between Wren and myself. If you don’t like task grinding, but prefer more action grinding for xp, Bravely Default and BOTW would be more up your alley, most likely.

The graphics, for playing it on a Switch, surprised me. I had seen a couple pictures of the game before making my purchase, but for some reason, I thought visually it would look like Link’s Awakening and not ‘old school’. I’m not against it, just not what I expected for something with a screen capable of rendering better detail. With that type of knowledge, it was either a budget choice or a stylistic choice. Either way, I can’t complain. I haven’t spent a lot of time in 16bit worlds and this might make going into doing reviews on Gameboy games less…jarring?

The colors are decent. The materials are distinct enough you can distinguish them on the control bar. If you can get ahead on the storage pack and a few resource areas early in the game, you’ll guarantee you’ve got coin for seeds for a nice long while. It’s really supposed to be a relaxation game and not an endless dungeon crawl. So, if you’re looking for that kind of mood and don’t want to drop more than $20 on a game, I’d say this might fit the bill.

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Manga Cafe Monday: Mushoku Tensei Isekai Ittara Honki

This is another manga where I started watching the anime first before picking up the book. Also, Wren kept saying it was really good and hinting at all the things to come in the anime.

Let’s just say this now: the anime is slow AF. Takes forever and a day to get to any real movement. The manga doesn’t belabor scenes. It moves along, gets to whatever point its trying to make in each chapter and moves on with the story. I’m not sure about the decisions made by the animation team and director, but it adds a lot that isn’t in the manga. It’s not bad. I guess you could see it as the team rounding out the story and plugging in plot holes quickly. Their method has also helped expand Rudi’s character development, though in the anime, he does come off as a relatively lewd character. The manga has moments of lewedness, but they might be a single image panel here and there rather than the awkward 5-20 second scene takes.

The art is decent. I wouldn’t call it dynamic or revolutionary to the medium. It’s not poorly executed. Average. I’d call it average for what you would expect from a decent publishing house. Screen toning is not egregious. Line weight is varied.

This is an odd side note that has nothing to do with the story, but because the illustrator made part of Paul’s (Rudi’s father) shirt white, and it’s not screen toned, the guy looks like he’s wearing fetish gear quite a bit. It’s interesting to me in considering how one would go about rendering certain colors and clothing choices because of the medium and perception of the reader.

That, and Ghyslaine’s (the beast woman) clothing, or lack there of. Is there a point to drawing these types of garments? No, no, really? How much sticky tape does she need to have to wear that? My calculation when it comes to anime characters is “how feasible will this costume be for someone to cosplay with.” This is not one of those costumes I can see being done easily. Not a pit on the character herself, just one of those things I tend to notice about clothing choices and characters in manga.

The story line is better in the manga. The character development is better in the anime. So, if you want to get the story, read it. If you want to see personal development and introspection, watch the show.

Would I suggest giving this a read? Sure. It’s cute. It cuts from the major script that SAO, Konosuba, Arefueta, and a lot of the other OP isekai incarnates have set up. The character has power, but they start from the ground up. The author builds the world along with the character, bringing out some touchy topics in small doses, like bullying, avoidance, anxiety, without making it into a dark fantasy.

If you aren’t in for fanservice, then this might rub a bit wrong here and there. One of those “is this completely necessary to the script?” situations. Some lewdness at least explains the virgin NEET mindset of the reincarnated person. At the same time, said NEET has been given a second chance and more years. Doesn’t learning come with years and age? I would think some of the characteristics of the MC would polish out after a bit just due to the number of years he has in his new environment.

Anyways. Good anime, good manga. Has a few flaws that are not necessarily flaws, but design choices marketed for a specific audience. So, this particular story tastes better with a pinch of salt.

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Ukiyo-e, World War II, and Walt Disney; the Influencers on Tezuka Osamu’s Development of the Modern World of Anime and Manga

Thornton-Gibson

Originally published in The Phoenix papers (2017), hosted by Fandom and Neomedia Studies in conjunction with A-kon Dallas.

Walt Disney’s famous motion picture cartoons, that bounced around to jovial tunes and sang and danced their way across the television screen into the hearts of millions of Americans, did not just cater to the Western market.  Disney’s early films were seen and loved by well-off individuals in Europe and Asia as well, including Japan.  A boy, who grew up to become just as famous a man as Disney in his own cinematic history, was one such privileged individual.  Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), influenced by his own cultural heritage in Japanese art, was moved by what he saw in Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, and other movie stars of the early years preceding World War II.  Through these media sources, he was motivated to develop his own media of choice.  By these actions, Tezuka Osamu was able to influence the development of the Japanese cartooning methodology, anime and manga, to what it is today.

Manga was not a new invention of the twentieth century.  Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849), most famously known for his works in ukiyo-e woodblock prints, created a series of works, volumes, that he titled Manga or “sketches” in Japanese1.  These works showed body movement and the daily life of common individuals such as bathers, sumo wrestlers, and working men.  Even at that, Hokusai’s manga was not necessarily a new phenomenon.  There are several emakimono, ink on hand scrolls, from the twelfth and thirteenth century that depict movement and action of creatures in simplified forms.  A rather famously cited emakimono that shows animated, even cartoonish, movement is the Choju Jinbutsi Giga2.  This scroll depicts the Buddha, Buddhist priests and practitioners, and other individuals as animals in energetic poses and interactions.

Ukiyo-e prints and kusazoshi, quite popular from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, depicted a variety of scenes of daily life, folklore, explicit shunga, landscapes and portraits.  The ukiyo-e images could be bought separately or in “books” and were often pieces to stories3.  They were used almost like magazines today.  They also worked, to some degree as an equalizer between classes.  The Yoshiwara district of the floating world or ukiyo, was primarily designed as a pleasure district for those who could afford it.  Typically merchants, the lowest class, had the most money and spent quite a bit of it there.  Other classes could go and see it, if they could pay the fees or if they were even allowed to travel.  The ukiyo-e prints provided those who wanted mementos of their visit with a small decorative token, and even acted as a souvenir or a daydream to those who could not visit.  

Kusazoshi were also illustrated, published, and distributed in the same manner as the ukiyo-e prints, but were typically stories targeted towards children and those who could not read extensive amounts of kanji.  They were often written extensively in hiragana.  There were a few different variations of kusazoshi: kibyoshi4, ao-hon5, kuro-hon6, and aka-hon7.  These illustrated children’s books, kabuki-play based stories, ghost stories, and some adult content were usable for many levels of society, with a high literacy rate amongst Japan’s population. They were cheaply made and cheaply distributed8.  However, to think about it, these were children’s books created in the seventeenth century onward.  Most of Europe at that time had not develop extensive enjoyment based children’s literature, instead keeping their texts to moral development with a thin spattering of woodblock illustrations9.

At first ukiyo-e sheets were used  as collectible items.  It became a booming niche market for decorations though after Edo burned during the Furisode Fire in the mid seventeenth century10.  People recreated their houses after the fire and needed a cheap way of decorating.  These woodblock prints met that need. 

The ukiyo-e sheets, in the later part of the nineteenth century lost their value as decorative and collectable art though and were used as wrapping paper for shipment of goods.  With the advent of Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan to Western trade, many goods entered the West shortly after into the Japonisme fad-market that sprang up.  Often, Western artists would collect the discarded scraps and utilize the pieces as either art for themselves, or as models for new styles.  Van Gogh, Dega, Matis, even Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec, all quite famous for the development of new art styles, specifically Impressionism, were all greatly influenced by the Japanese woodblock prints11.  Hokusai’s Manga were also quite popular amongst the Impressionist artists.  This was the first true introduction of Japanese art to Europe.

The prints faded out with the deaths of the most prominent ukiyo-e contributing artists. Hokusai Katsushika(1760-1849), Utamaro Kitagawa(1753-1806), Hiroshige Utagawa(1795-1858), and Kyosai Kawanabe (1831-1889) were just a few of the last such artists.  The images of these stories were being replaced through poster design, political cartooning, and improved printing techniques that made the woodblock prints into an old style art form that took too much time and money to create for the worth that it was valued at for public distribution12.  

The story lines were changing.  It became popular for individuals to create beautiful images in storyboard form to sell to people who would then go out to the cities and tell stories to the people who would gather.  A predecessor in Japan to the development of animé – the French word for animation that was adapted by the Japanese, was manga kamishibai.  Anime is the animated and televised version of manga.  “Kamishibai were picture stories enacted by itinerant storytellers with illustrated boards set in a Punch-and-Judy-like state.13”  Kamishibai is thought to have shown up in and around Tokyo in the early 1930s14.  Storytellers and their art helped to set up the prominent anime and manga dialogues and genres of the twentieth century, such as action and adventure, superheroes, the supernatural, war, and science fiction stories.  Kamishibai storytellers kept audiences entertained throughout the depression era and during World War II.  There are several manga artists and figures that became prominent due to initial works in the kamishibai field, such as Takeo Nagamatsu, Sanpei Shirato, Shigeru Mizuki, and Kazuo Koike15.  These artists and storytellers may or may not have been seen by Tezuka Osamu in his early childhood years, but the artistic impact of their works helped the field in which Tezuka would participate.  He was in his late childhood to mid teenage years during the depression and World War II, the same time period that kamishibai was in vogue.  The reason he may not have seen these were two-fold, he did not live directly in Tokyo and the Japanese government set up a policy to take down the kamishibai artists and storytellers due to their determination that “amusements for the masses are debasing themselves to the lowest common denominator…16”as the Home Ministry stated in 1937.  The Ministry did not end up taking kamishibai entirely out of the picture so to speak, but instead revamped it.  They had the artwork and the storytellers portray stories of courage and valor on the home front and created propaganda that hid the war crime atrocities and provided morally boosting stories of people’s self-sacrifice during that trying time17.

Tezuka Osamu was born in Toyonaka, Osaka to Tezuka Fumiko and Yutaka.  He had a younger sister, Minako, and a younger brother, Hiroshi.  He had an extensive, prodigious family line, with several doctors, a lawyer, and many military individuals – all to become later inspirations in Tezuka’s manga and anime18.

Tezuka’s parents were rather well-off individuals.  His father enjoyed photography, and his mother loved the theater.  They both also found comic books and movies to be fascinating, accumulating quite a collection for their time.  They purchased a foreign film projector and movies to show to family and friends.  They went out to see the acting theater and the movie theater, where Tezuka grew to enjoy Disney films.  His mother was an ardent storyteller and musician, again influencing Tezuka’s life and career.  

They moved to Takarazuka during his childhood, where his mother often took them to see plays performed at the Takarazuka Grand Theater19.  The Takarazuka Revue was renowned for being a full female acting cast, in comparison to Kabuki theaters of the same time period that were full male acting casts.  Kabuki initially was a mixed cast, but was banned from using female actresses to keep moral order less than thirty years after the initial development of its known theatrical form in the seventeenth century, the same time frame that Ukiyo-e started to become popular. The Revue and Grand Theater were established in 1913 by the Hankyu Railway as a way to draw tourism into the Takarazuka area.   The Takarazuka Revue often portrayed lavish Western style plays, such as Pinocchio which Tezuka is said to have seen multiple times and influenced the storyline of Mighty Atom.

Tezuka, with his family’s penchant for movie theaters and film, was introduced to many early animations and live action films.   Animé saw its beginning with very short animated illustrations in the beginning of the 20th centuries with Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by Stuart Blackton in 1906, Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl in 1908, and Little Nemo by Winsor McCay in 1911.  Tezuka though was born during the same time frame that Walt Disney produced Steamboat Willie.  By that point animation had been able to develop longer stretches of film time.  Japan kept up with these new innovations, producing their own animations in the early 20th century too.  Namakura Gatana of 1917, Kobu-tori of 1929, and Oira no Yaku of 1931 are all good examples of early Japanese animation prior to Tezuka’s involvement in the industry20.  Animated films that Tezuka is known to to have seen in the early animation years produced in Japan include Norakuro of 1933 and Tako no Hone of 192721.  Due to the firebombings during World War II, many Japanese animations and films were lost.  Some movies can only be assumed to have been seen by Tezuka, but there is little proof of all that he had seen or read in his lifetime.

His life took him on two different paths.  His family insisted on a progressive education for his siblings and himself.  The children were all enrolled in co-ed schooling22.  They all were provided accommodations and encouragement for their many interests in an effort to develop themselves as not just contributing members of society but as intellectual, upright individuals that could think outside of an antiquated, rigid, crumbling political and social structure.   His parents encouraged the children to read challenging books, Tezuka read Crime and Punishment  multiple times as a child and enjoyed Russian literature immensely23.  

As children, he and his siblings drew and doodled quite often.  They drew inspirations they received from their father and mother, and their surroundings.  Some of these drawings, preserved with the family, depicted military and war material that they may have seen or heard about.  Tezuka is renowned for his artistic documentation of insects and bugs as a child24.  Many of his early drawings, though, were based off of comic strips, Disney animations and comics, and proto-graphic novels.  Some of these proto-graphic novels were European and American cartoon books, such as Milt Gross’s He Done Her Wrong (1930).  That particular cartoon was a “parody” on Lynd Ward’s Gods’ Man (1929)25, who was influenced by an early woodblock print novelist, Frans Marsereel and his work on Passionate Journey (1919).

The other congruent path that Tezuka took began when he became horribly ill working in a school factory in Osaka producing asbestos panels.  His arms swelled up like balloons from a bad infection.  He spent a long time in the hospital.  Due to the difficulties he faced during this time, he took a great interest in the doctors, the staff, and the proceedings that took place during his hospital stay.  He would later attend medical school and gain his degree in medicine to be a practicing physician.  He became proficient at detailed depictions of medical dissections, cells, and instrumentation, as seen in his manga Black Jack.  He never really did much in his field of study, though he did publish a paper on Spermatogenesis in Animals as Revealed by Electron Microscopy26, also translated as A Microscopic Study of the Membrane Structure of Heterotypic Spermtids27. 

Tezuka, during his lifetime, drew “over one hundred and fifty thousand pages of comics and created five hundred different works, populated by over one thousand highly individualistic characters.28”  He made his debut in 1946 with Ma-chan no Nikkicho(The Diary of Ma-Chan) which was a small comic strip of four panels seen in Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun29.  Quite a few of his early published manga were distributed in aka-hon as one shot stories.  He continued to produce works until his death in 1989 shortly after the Showa Emperor died.  He left many stories unfinished, some of which his staff has taken on to produce, but most have been left as is30.

In Tezuka’s early published cartoons, during the occupation years, he had to adhere to the occupying force’s strict guidelines on what he could and could not publish.  This was to keep art that reached the masses from possibly inciting riots, protest, and other potential violent acts towards the American occupying troops.  These images included most forms of war, violence, and some cultural aspects, such as martial arts, swordplay, and the samurai class display.  When the occupation ended, these would all become very popular topics for many manga artists.

New Treasure Island, A Man from Mars, and Lost World were all popular long story early creations of Tezuka.  These special manga by Tezuka diverged from the usual path of early 20th century manga – which used to typically be a stylized version of American comic books before the war and during the occupation.  These new and different manga bring the action into focus and manipulation through cinematic frame shots similar to scenes in movies where pan, close-ups, splices, fades, and rotations help with the movement and dynamic portrayals in the story.  These styles of film depiction were actually unprecedented in Japan right before these novels hit market.  

During the war, Japan had banned the import of European or American films and comic books which were advancing in their imagery and camera action frames.  Japan created their own movies and propaganda with early film styles that kept to the stage acting from Europe and America.  This pre-war methodology restricted special effects obtained from camera movement.  Society within Japan became used to the type of cinematic methodology they were allowed to participate with.  When provided with the new stylizations coming in from Europe and America, people became entranced with the dynamic styles.  They wanted more and Tezuka filled that niche with his manga style.  This thrilled the reader as the story came to life and they were thrown into the midst of the action, rather than watching objectively from the sidelines31.

Working the manga venue helped in Tezuka’s funding for his medical school degree.  He would draw for several different companies to receive small payments during his school career.  The irony here is two-fold.  Firstly, he spent most of his time creating manga to go to medical school, which overlapped his study time, creating for a very busy, stressed Tezuka.  The second part to the ironic situation was that when he was in class, though taking notes, he was often working on creating new characters and more manga.  He was working to work.   A professor once informed Tezuka, after seeing his work, that he should “become a cartoonist, so as not to end up killing his patients from malpractice.32”

His most famous work, starting as a manga, and his introduction to mass production televised series anime, was Tetsuwan Atomu – Astro Boy, Mighty Atom, Captain Atom, Ambassador Atom – it was given many different translated titles.  This was one of the first serialized animations from Japan that worked with Tezuka’s eight rules of animation.  It was also the first serialized Japanese animation by Tezuka to be dubbed into English and shown to an American audience in the 1960s.  The manga of Tetsuwan Atomu took on various lives with diverging paths and story arcs.  Astro Boy was not even referred to as Tetsuwan Atomu initially.  It was first called Atomu Taishi (General Atom)33.  

Mighty Atom was not his first animation though.  He had several shorts prior to Mighty Atom.  Mighty Atom was just his first, and Japan’s first, televised, serialized animation.  A remarkable piece that Tezuka brought out prior to the production of the serialized Mighty Atom was Aru Machikado no Monogatari (Story of a Certain Street Corner, 1962) to showcase what his newly founded Tezuka Osamu Production, established in 1961, later renamed Mushi Productions in 1962, could create.  The style is reminiscent of early Hanna Barbera or even Leon Schlesinger Productions – later to be sold and renamed Warner Brothers Cartoons.  Within the film during a scene with internationally influenced animated posters, between seconds 8:19 and 8:20 is a reference to ukiyo-e by Tezuka.  The poster featured is the famous print by Tōshūsai Sharaku: A Samurai’s Manservant produced in 1794.  This shows that Tezuka was at least aware of the historical Japanese art form Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, even though his fixation was more towards modern cartoons and modern film media.  

It also reflects of the social and cultural influence of war on him during the span of 28:18  to almost the end of the film.  Posters are torn down and replaced with a scheming blue man and mustache presenting something reminiscent of the Nazi salute.  Posters that were not torn down had items exchanged for military paraphernalia that exhibited death heads.  It is possible to assume this section of the movie reflects World War II, though the Korean War had just ended in 1953, the  Vietnam war in 1961 had just started not too many months before the production of this movie, and the Sino-Indian War in was just beginning in 1962.  The recent wars could have potentially, subconsciously prompted Tezuka to take the story in the direction he did in Story of a Certain Street Corner.

To diverge from Tezuka’s experimental art animation Story of a Certain Street Corner, one must look to the man’s revolutionary work in establishing the televised serialization of anime based on his prior manga work with his big hit, Mighty Atom.  The story line of Atomu Taishi reflects influences of World War II on Tezuka like Story of a Certain Street Corner.  The context of the storyline was such:  space people and Earth people, living on a planet similar to Earth, approached a time of war when food and resources were scarce and the two peoples were blaming each other.  The scientist, who designed and built Atom in the manga, lost his son during the feuds.  He decided to create a replacement robotic son, but was infuriated when he discovered that his mechanical son could not grow up, there by selling him to the circus.  Tenma, the scientist, also created a weapon to be used against the space people.  Atom, who later on learns of his father’s contemptuous ways, goes about trying to moderate and negotiate between the two warring factions in an effort to kept the world from being destroyed34.

The initial set up on Tetsuwan Atomu, design, and story line exhibit the deep influence that war had on Tezuka during his childhood.  It also reveals Tezuka’s moralistic side that tends to bleed through most if not all of his manga and anime.  He looks for ways in his animations and manga to show a soft side, to provide hope and amusement to his reader, whether the topic is serious or humorous.  The use of Tezuka’s eight rules of animation and his almost factory-like production team, helped to create Tetsuwan Atomu cheaply and quickly, which helped the series run for as long as it did.  The cost of production was made palatable by virtue of contracting with a local, large candy company to help sponsor the production company and create merchandise.  He made it acceptable practice for companies to sponsor animation studios, and to establish a merchandising routine with those companies.  This made it necessary to standardize characters – to keep a character’s features relatively the same throughout the course of a series

He was also able to sell the series to an American company who named the series Astro Boy and dubbed it into English.  The American company was then able to edit material and text within the episodes to better cater to their own audiences who came to love Astro Boy just as much as Speed Racer, Josie and the Pussy Cats and Johnny Quest.

In his development of mass production anime, Tezuka had to create a fast, cheap way to publish his works.  Tezuka’s eight rules of animation revolutionized the production of animation and made the process much more affordable, exactly what he and many other artists were looking for.  This method is described by Frederick Schodt35 in The Astro Boy Essays.  Schodt is also cited by both Natsu Power and Helen McCarthy in their respective books on Tezuka Osamu, which indicates just how famous this concept is:

 Shooting three frames of film for every drawing instead of one or two to create the illusion of fluid movement.Using only one drawing in a tome, or “still” shot, when shooting close-ups of a character’s face.Zooming in or out on face shots or physically sliding a single drawing under the camera to create the illusion of movement with a single drawing.Shooting a single short sequence of animated drawings and then repeating it again and again while sliding the background image.  This was particularly useful for repetitive movements like walking or running.  Six or twelve drawings could thus be used to show a movement as long as necessary.When a character moves an arm or leg, animating only that portion and shooting the rest from one drawing.Animating the mouth alone (rather than using full animation synchronized to the sound) and abbreviating the drawings used, showing only a fully open mouth, a shut mouth, and a partially open mouth to represent characters speaking.Creating a “bank system” of images to save on the total number of drawings, allowing reuse of the same drawings in different situations.Using more short takes in place of single long takes that usually required more movement.

 As mentioned before, Tezuka was able to revolutionize the process of both animation and manga production.  His factory system, using the “banking system” and “star system” helped to coordinate with apprentices and other artists to create vast amounts of pages for the mangas.  He would write down on his pages what type of background was needed, who and what should be in the shot, the text for wording, and such other items.  The “factory artists” working on the page would then be able to find the correct frame, background, imagery, and personnel to fill in the scenes.  Tezuka was known to fill in the images with his main characters and to ink the eyes before handing the pages off to be finished by the other individuals working for him.  This is what is meant by the factory system.

Tezuka’s works reached out to multiple generations, some grew up with Tezuka, some only learned about his works after he passed away.  His moral overtones and anti-war friendly sentiments portrayed throughout his stories reflected his learning from World War II and Walt Disney’s influences36.  His artistic style derived from his passion for movies and theatrical performances he, as a child, enjoyed with his family.  His knowledge of medicine, law, and other such facts that he gained from both his relatives and his own education pop up again and again in his works.  His imagination for stories that wrap a reader up in fantastic adventures was all his own.  Though some say that he was just a man who helped to create the “factory anime/factory manga”  he is truly a man to be revered.  The amount of his works and contributions to the world of anime and manga contribute to his title, The God of Comics.

Tezuka was regarded as the Disney of Japan.  He had seen, by the time Japan shut down importation of Western media during World War II, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi.  Tezuka had also been privileged to see many of the early Mickey Mouse shorts.  All of these movies and shorts created by Walt Disney exhibited flat black and white round or oval eyes, geometrically based features, and an overly detailed background.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was a revolutionary full length animation for its time, being executed in full color, with a special artistic manner of moving through frames and scenes as though it existed in a three dimensional world that a camera could zoom in and out of and pan around in at will. 

Disney also consistently portrayed his three most famous stars, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy in different roles throughout their careers, staring them as detectives and traveling performers, children and teenagers, etc.  They were more obvious than Tezuka Osamu’s star system usage by far, but they were anamorphic creatures, not characters designed to resemble humans.  Tezuka actually took characters, outfitted them in new trappings and presented them with a new name and entity in his films, often later citing an “actor” or “actress” of his staring in his films.  He treated his cartoon characters as that of Hollywood actors and actresses, keying into payments and personality types, even keeping resume like lists of his characters to show what they had played in and their typical moral role that they were suited for in possible other films.  This can be seen with his actors such as Ken’ichi from Mighty atom and Monster on the 38th Parallel and Rock Holmes from Detective Boy Rock Holmes and Buddha who both played parts in Metropolis.

A famous debate in the cartoon world is whether Disney Production Company, after the death of Disney, outright stole Tezuka Osamu’s idea of Kimba the Jungle Emperor to utilize in its own film The Lion King.  Both characters lost their fathers early on in life.  Simba runs away and grows up in the forest, afraid because he is convinced that his actions led to the death of his father.  Kimba and his mother are attacked by poachers and he escapes to grow up in the forest alone.  Both Simba and Kimba’s throne is taken over by an evil adult lion, in Kimba the Jungle Emperor the role is played by Claw who is missing an eye, whereas the character in The Lion King is played by Scar who has a scar across one of his eyes.  The evil adult lions are normally helped out by hyenas.  Simba and Kimba are both helped out by a monkey and a bird.  Kimba was featured in America during the 1960s as a Saturday cartoon favorite for many children.  Though there are similarities seen throughout both films, Disney Production Company claims originality, and Tezuka Osamu’s company backs up that claim, stating that “If Disney took hints from the Jungle Emperor, our founder, the late Osamu Tezuka, would be very pleased by it.37”

Thanks to the influence of Disney animation, Tezuka Osamu was able to learn and observe at an early age how to develop character appeal and story lines that, though relatively generic now days, were able to captivate and hold audiences’ attention.  He utilized Disney’s simplistic geometric base system that all of his hand drawn characters were established on – rectangles, circles, squares, ellipses.  

 He utilized his knowledge, historic and artistic influences, the social and cultural influences of war and the Occupation.  Tezuka managed to make his characters, his “star system,” and his eight rules of animation his own development and concept outside of Western influence by incorporating themes and ideas that were taking place in Japan and during his lifetime.  He took the best of both worlds and developed an accessible art form that still spans social, economic, and cultural lines.  It reflects his history and his wishes for the future.

End Notes “Katsushika Hokusai Biography.” Katsushika Hokusai Biography. Accessed June 08, 2016. http://www.katsushikahokusai.org/biography.html.Hays, Jeffrey. Accessed 2010. http://factsanddetails.com/japan/php?itemid=697&catid 20&subcatid=129.Stewart, Basil. A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter. New York: n.p., 1979. Print.Weiss, Jennifer. “Art from the Edo Period: The Origins of Manga – Odigo Travel Blog.” Odigo Travel Blog. N.p., 29 Nov. 2015. Web. 19 May 2016.“JAANUS / Aohon 青本.” JAANUS / Aohon 青本. Accessed May 19, 2016. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/aohon.htm.“JAANUS / Kurohon 黒本.” JAANUS / Kurohon 黒本. Accessed May 19, 2016. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/kurohon.“JAANUS / Akahon 赤本.” JAANUS / Akahon 赤本. Accessed May 19, 2016. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/akahon.Holmberg, Ryan. “The Bottom of a Bottomless Barrel: Introducing Akahon Manga, What Was Alternative Manga?” The Comics Journal. N.p., 5 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.Taylor, Peter. “History of Children’s Books and Their Illustration.” History of Children’s Books and Their Illustration. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2016.Artifacts: Prints of the Floating World. Dir. Dr. Kevin John McIntyre. Discovery Channel, 2007. DVD.Youtube. 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 15 May 2016.Eisenman, Stephen, and Thomas E. Crow. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Print..  Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print: Including an Illustrated Dictionary of Ukiyo-e. New York: Putnam, 1978.   Sullivan, Michael. The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.Gallo, Max. The Poster in History. New York: American Heritage Pub.; Distributed by McGraw-Hill, 1974.Nash, Eric Peter. Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater. New York: Abrams Comicarts, 2009., 15.Nash, Manga Kamishibai, 15.Nash, Manga Kamishibai, 101.Nash, Manga Kamishibai, 167.Nash, Manga Kamishibai, 168.McCarthy, Helen, and Osamu Tezuka. The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2009, 15.McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka, 16.Crow, Jonathan. “Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917-1931).” Open Culture. N.p., 4 June 2014. Web. 19 May 2016.Schodt, Frederik L. The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/anime Revolution. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge, 2007, 57.“Permanent Exhibition：Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum：TezukaOsamu.net(EN).”May 19, 2016.Schodt. The Astro Boy Essays, 25.McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka, 114.Buisson, Lauren. “The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It: The Graphic Novels of Lynd Ward.”UCLA Library Special Collections Blog. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 May 2016.Yasuzumi, G., Hiroaki Tanaka, and Osamu Tezuka. “Spermatogenesis in Animals as Revealed by Electron Microscopy VIII. Relation between the Nutritive Cells and the Developing Spermatids in a Pond Snail, Cipangopaludina Malleata Reeve.” The Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology 7, no. 3 (1960): 499-504. Accessed June 8, 2016. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2224836/.“Permanent Exhibition：Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum：TezukaOsamu.net(EN).” Permanent Exhibition：Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum：TezukaOsamu.net(EN). Accessed May 19, 2016. http://tezukaosamu.net/en/museum/permanent_3.html.Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays, 16.Power, Natsu Onoda. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2009, 38.McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka, 234.Power, God of Comics, 40-55.Power, God of Comics, 62.Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays, 16.Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays, 17.Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays, 71-72.Brode, Douglas. From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture. Austin: U of Texas, 2004. Print.Associated Press.  “Is it Simba or Kimba?” The Globe and Mail (July 16, 1994).Bibliography

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Bix, Herbert P. 2000. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Bornoff, Nicholas. 1991. Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage & Sex in Contemporary Japan. New York: Pocket.

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Buhot, Jean. Chinese and Japanese Art, with Sections on Korea and Vietnam. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1967. Print.

Buisson, Lauren. “The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It: The Graphic Novels of Lynd Ward.”UCLA Library Special Collections Blog. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 May 2016.

Carroll, Andrew. “Two Letters Frame the Moment Paradise Lost Its Innocence.” World War II July-Aug. 2007: 25-27. Print.

Crow, Jonathan. “Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917-1931).” Open Culture. N.p., 4 June 2014. Web. 19 May 2016.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, Anne Walthall, and James B. Palais. Pre-modern East Asia: To 1800: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009.

Eisenman, Stephen, and Thomas E. Crow. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Print.

Gallo, Max. The Poster in History. New York: American Heritage Pub.; Distributed by McGraw-Hill, 1974. Print.

Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. London: Laurence King, 2004. https://amzn.to/3c1Wul6

Hays, Jeffrey. N.p., n.d. Web. 2010.

Hersey, John, Warren Chappell, and Edith Goodkind Rosenwald. Hiroshima. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1946. Print.

Hirao, Sachiko. “Manga Museum Draws a Bead on Osamu Tezuka.” Japan Times 23 May 1994: 10. Print.

Holmberg, Ryan. “The Bottom of a Bottomless Barrel: Introducing Akahon Manga, What Was Alternative Manga?” The Comics Journal. N.p., 5 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.

“JAANUS / Akahon 赤本.” JAANUS / Akahon 赤本. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2016.

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“JAANUS / Kurohon 黒本.” JAANUS / Kurohon 黒本. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2016.

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Kehr, Dave.  “Anime, Japanese Cinema’s Second Golden Age.” New York Times (January 20, 2002) Late Edition, East Coast, sec 2.1.

Koyama-Richard, Brigitte.  Japanese Animation: From Painted Scrolls to Pokemon. Paris: Flammarion, 2010.

Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print: Including an Illustrated Dictionary of Ukiyo-e. New York: Putnam, 1978. Print.

MacWilliams, Mark W., ed., Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime.  New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008.

Mangan, John.  “Animation Nation.” The (Melbourne) Age (December 20, 2005): 14.

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Anime Cinema Friday: Amagi Brilliant Park

I like this anime a lot.

It hits every one of those tropes that can drive me up the walls some days. So I’m not entirely sure why I can forgive it with this one. There is a lot of jiggle. A lot of fan service. A lot of short skirts and guns and slapt stick humor.

It is fast paced but complete for the amount it covers. It feels like there are a billion and one plot holes, but they each get covered in due time. There’s enough of a hook and cliff hanger in each episode to make the viewer want to come back for more.

The MC does develop through the story. First meeting is kind of rough. A bit of humility and some sense through the rest of the episodes knocks him down a peg without spiraling into mental health crisis level. He goes from being an egotist to being a confident manager.

This is one of those anime, if I know someone just needs a bit of whimsical urban fantasy, I’ll send them to this one. I’ve suggested it a number of times over the years when people ask for anime suggestions and they aren’t looking for psych-horror (my other favorite).

There are some follow up videos after the initial arc that you can watch to expand on the story.

It’s a great bit of feel good, if you’re okay with some mind bending fan service. It’s not deep. It’s not revolutionary. The art isn’t even in some high end bracket of workmanship like Jujutsu Kaisen or Violet Evergarden.

It’s not something that you have to watch all at once – though you kind of forget that when you watch and then go “wait, why did it end?” I’d put the thing in as the Halloween candy bowl that you grab handfuls out of throughout the day and then realize you have a mound of wrappers on your desk and you didn’t realize you ate that much.

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Mobile Game Review: Mall of the Dead

Well, hello beautifully rendered hotness on my phone. Wait, why are the zombies really jerky? Why are there only two versions of the zombies? And why are all the customers black shadows? I think I’ve been pampered on playing some other otome games before getting into this one. So, let’s step back and take a moment to center ourselves before dashing off into the madness that is a rom-sim game set in a zombie filled mall.

I got through the prologue just fine. I had read a couple reviews that said the five and a half hour wait time between recharge drops on rubies was steep. I figured, meh, it really can’t be that bad, I’ve played other games with similar recharge drop rates.

Yeah. No. This thing eats your rubies fast and frequently and I barely got into the first chapter. I did my subsequent wait for drops. Ran the little ad that it makes you watch. And then…no rubies. Yeah, it said I got them, but it never credited to the little counter. So, I couldn’t move on to the Weber arc correctly.

You know the four little throbbing red corners in anime to note frustration? Yes. I was doing that. I wanted to get into this game, but $2.49 for 20 rubies and every major story interaction costs 20 rubies at least and you have to wait 5 and a half hours for 30 rubies that may not credit to the account?

That’s a big fat no in my department. I’ll probably end up purchasing some otome games on Steam for my birthday this month just out of sheer irritation.

This is why I like the game The Arcana. It has a decent recharge rate on keys. You can proceed through the storyline without having to spend coins if you want. Though do I ever want to throw money at that particular app. They give you enough so it can be played freely, and that makes me want to throw a dollar here and a dollar there on the app. If I was stupidly rich, I’d probably drop $100 on them without blinking because I appreciate the amount of work that went into creating that game. The art and design team alone I want to fangirl all over.

This Mall of the Dead though. It raised my irritation hackles. Not because the art is necessarily bad. I just couldn’t get into the rhythm of the thing without being microtransactioned into the dirt.

So, if you’re after an otome game with some action and a zombie flare, this might be for you, but be prepared to slap some cash on the counter before you can get anywhere in it.

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Lovestory Manga Wednesday: Say I Love You

I was leery of this one early on from the art style on the cover. Not sure how to qualify it other than probably just me being a style snob. The shading is good, maybe it’s the faces or the wrinkles in the clothing. Something feels off.

Well, let’s see what the inside holds, shall we? More often than not, the style progresses, or is different from the cover art.

First impression: The Female MC has some serious trauma issues that need to be addressed by a therapist so she can develop some healthy relationships and confidence. I can relate to her feeling of friendlessness. That aspect of calling on someone and no one being there. I guess I do have that kind of mentality when it comes to what a friend is. If I’m in trouble and call to get a ride or something, anyone I know who would actually show up to help is who I’d call a close friend. I don’t have to talk to them every day, but when we do talk, its for hours. I probably have four people like that, and the rest are family for people that I can rely on, and for people who I would think could rely on me. That pessimism she has, yeah, that one feels pretty real.

The Male MC, hmm, still not sure about. But the first kiss trope was pretty spot on and well done. That one gets a good jobs thumbs up gif if one ever did.

Also, the cover art style does percolate into the manga design itself. It’s much easier on the eyes in the story. It’s at least consistent. The line weight and panel architecture is not crowded or lacking. And every panel doesn’t go all florally – you know the ones I’m talking about.

There might be a bit of problematic relationship building. Bullying is being addressed. It’s a typical slice of life rather than a magic girl or fantasy genre. So, there’ll be uncomfortable situations that come with real life scenarios. For the moment though…

The feel of the story itself comes off as the author decided “if I could do it all again, if I could back to high school and tell my younger self, if I could have just stood up for myself back then.” The representation of Tachibana’s perspective comes across much older than a 16 year old. At least, the bravery to actually say what she says. I think, looking back on when I was 16, I harbored those same feelings. Sometimes I would tell people point blank in the same way Tachibana does, but more often than not, I was to scared to say anything. High school is viscous. In a way, this story talks to the people who are not exactly in the age category of the characters, but to a slightly older audience looking for the nostalgia of school life, for when they wish they would have said something, done something different.

Well now,

After that first pair of chapters, I’m gonna just *swipes all the manga books* take these back with me and enjoy them on my own.

You can go find your own copies.

P.S. – it has a great ending.

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Video Game Review Tuesday: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (3DS)

Holy freaking intense tutorial mode! Is this normal for square enix games? It feels like it. The few times I’ve opened up any of the Final Fantasy games I’ve felt like my brain was melting. How does anyone remember what all these combo and spell slots do?

Alright. So I’m simple when it comes to game structures. I have to wonder if it’s just me trying to get used to working on a tiny screen? I didn’t get to grow up with gameboys or those types of handheld gaming systems. The structure is intense and the graphics are…not great. That might be more the fault of playing this game 10+ years from when it was produced. I’ve thrown Kingdom Hearts 1 on my new TV and that’s eye openingly painful now. So much no. I am going to review it though. I loved the Alice in Wonderland section from that game.

This one. Save me. Save me. I am really bad at this. And why can’t I remember all the button combinations?

Hey, I’m doing reviews. I never said I was actually good at playing video games. I want to be. I don’t want to be a competitive millionaire pro-player or anything like that. I’d just like to actually find that level of relaxed enjoyment so many other people get by playing video games and understand that feeling.

I don’t.

I really don’t get it. But I’m going to keep trying.

This one’s story line is jarring and feels scattered. I have a feeling that I probably am playing it out of game order. I jumped into it and other than recognizing the characters, I don’t understand what the situation is exactly.

So, if I’m not focused on the story line, which probably has me playing through both KH 1 and 2 to understand, then we turn to the play system.

Wait, which button was it, and I’m dead. Again.

This shouldn’t be this difficult. I like slash and bash games. Reason I loved KH 1 & 2. For the most part, I can ignore most of the magic system and just chase down bad guys and turn them into coinage. Simple. Clean cut. Easy. I’m just not exactly quick on the “you need to drink a potion now – oh look, you’re dead again.”

Work.

This one takes a bit of work.

Would I suggest it 10+ years since it’s release? If you love KH series, yes, because it fills in the edges. If I could just remember the edges. I’m having fun with it, even if the graphics feel old. I mean, I plan on reviewing gameboy games, so I need to get used to things not looking like ps4 graphics. Wren’s letting me borrow his old pokemon yellow from his childhood and some of the game cartridges he had laying about. What’s that you say, there’s no backlight? The horror. Look forward to it. I ran about 30 minutes of Pokemon Blue and felt like I was playing snake on a flip phone from 2000 all over again. Is that what childhood feels like, an 8 bit game to some people?

The DS game is better than that situation. I’m just not great at it. Practice will make it better and hopefully when I get around to doing a review on KH 1, 2 & 3, this game will make more sense in the realm of the story ine for me.

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Video Game Review Tuesday: Kingdom hearts 358/2 Days (3DS)

Holy freaking intense tutorial mode! Is this normal for square enix games? It feels like it. The few times I’ve opened up any of the Final Fantasy games I’ve felt like my brain was melting. How does anyone remember what all these combo and spell slots do?

Alright. So I’m simple when it comes to game structures. I have to wonder if it’s just me trying to get used to working on a tiny screen? I didn’t get to grow up with gameboys or those types of handheld gaming systems. The structure is intense and the graphics are…not great. That might be more the fault of playing this game 10+ years from when it was produced. I’ve thrown Kingdom Hearts 1 on my new TV and that’s eye openingly painful now. So much no. I am going to review it though. I loved the Alice in Wonderland section from that game.

This one. Save me. Save me. I am really bad at this. And why can’t I remember all the button combinations?

Hey, I’m doing reviews. I never said I was actually good at playing video games. I want to be. I don’t want to be a competitive millionaire pro-player or anything like that. I’d just like to actually find that level of relaxed enjoyment so many other people get by playing video games and understand that feeling.

I don’t.

I really don’t get it. But I’m going to keep trying.

This one’s story line is jarring and feels scattered. I have a feeling that I probably am playing it out of game order. I jumped into it and other than recognizing the characters, I don’t understand what the situation is exactly.

So, if I’m not focused on the story line, which probably has me playing through both KH 1 and 2 to understand, then we turn to the play system.

Wait, which button was it, and I’m dead. Again.

This shouldn’t be this difficult. I like slash and bash games. Reason I loved KH 1 & 2. For the most part, I can ignore most of the magic system and just chase down bad guys and turn them into coinage. Simple. Clean cut. Easy. I’m just not exactly quick on the “you need to drink a potion now – oh look, you’re dead again.”

Work.

This one takes a bit of work.

Would I suggest it 10+ years since it’s release? If you love KH series, yes, because it fills in the edges. If I could just remember the edges. I’m having fun with it, even if the graphics feel old. I mean, I plan on reviewing gameboy games, so I need to get used to things not looking like ps4 graphics. Wren’s letting me borrow his old pokemon yellow from his childhood and some of the game cartridges he had laying about. What’s that you say, there’s no backlight? The horror. Look forward to it. I ran about 30 minutes of Pokemon Blue and felt like I was playing snake on a flip phone from 2000 all over again. Is that what childhood feels like, an 8 bit game to some people?

The DS game is better than that situation. I’m just not great at it. Practice will make it better and hopefully when I get around to doing a review on KH 1, 2 & 3, this game will make more sense in the realm of the story ine for me.

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