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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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In which I describe the maths of how to attack and dethrone God (per Minamimoto)

So in my evergrowing post thread (which I know I'm already gonna have to add to that essay fml) I did make ref to...well, a thing that literally has made my jaw drop since when I played TWEWY the first time (and keeping in mind this was a game friends forcefully insisted I play because "there's a char Sho Minamimoto who's just like you fr", and after I'd nodded "yup" re the SI unit obsessions and the compsci refs to Heaps and Crunching (and later, as I found out, "crashing" in JP), and the aesthetic, and, and...)

Namely: Sho Minamimoto literally uses (or tries to use) a very famous maths formula called Euler's Identity to take out the Composer as an example of Forcefully Applied Mathematics. :D (This may have also been the moment when I was like "Yup, he just like me FR")

So. First off. Euler's Identity.

It's kind of difficult to explain why this particular equation is considered one of the true Chef's Kisses of Mathematics to non-mathematicians, but part of it is elegance, and part of it is that it includes five of the foundational variables that show up in mathematics all the time (and really even more functions if you break it apart): a) the natural logarithm e or Euler's number which is roughly 2.71828182845... and which is zetta important in a lot of fields including finance, biology, medicine, and calculus functions, and (as we'll get into) antennas and field strength measurements and pretty much a Shitload of functions related to growth b) the imaginary unit i or the square root of -1 (which turns out to be extremely useful in a lot of contexts, including electronics (seriously; AC electricity and functions relating to that are *heavily* dependent on the imaginary unit) and graphing and arguably how Cartesian graphs work especially once you get into calculus c) Pi (π), everyone's favourite circle ratio of 3.141592653589793238462643393279 (is pulled away from keyboard before I can draw a Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil in Paint) and which is Important in many, many contexts d) 1 (yes, 1 is considered a constant! Specifically "A quantity exists") , and

e) 0 (yes, 0 is considered a constant too, specifically "a quantity does not exist", and reducing Euler's Identity results in e^(i*pi)+1=0) To make it even more Minamimoto-esque, you can technically also express Euler's Identity as a reduction of "e^(i*x) = cos(pi) + (i * (sin(pi)) (aka Euler's Formula), and cos(pi) =-1 and sin(pi)=0.

And really it's kind of a beautiful way of how things all fit together in a lovely function that is almost a kiss from the Math Gods and if plotted traces a lovely circle.

So after that little tangent, here's how this all relates to W2D7 of TWEWY, and Minamimoto's forcefully applied mathematics. * * * So, first we end up at Pork City (Mark City if you're watching the anime; Tokyu Group liked the TWEWY tourism and by the time the anime and NEO came around decided to take advantage of the advertising), and...Joshua and Neku start having a very interesting conversation on why there's So Much Damn Noise at Pork City anyways:

Neku asks if this is the work of Pi-Face, Joshua notes "Probably" and then goes on to note that it might not all be JUST Minamimoto:

In other words: Pork City is effectively acting as an amplifier or at least an antenna for Noise. (I am not the only one to have noticed it and not even the only one on Tunglr, for that matter; Voice From The Corner also picked up on this as well though I'll freely admit I'm diving a bit more into the STEM portions of this.) TWEWY:tA is even more blatant about this imagery in ep 6, where Joshua explicitly notes that all the emotion in Shibuya collects at Mark City (remember, the animation uses the RL name) and then "crashes into Mark City and shoots up into the sky. That emotion flows back down and keeps building up here." (Shortly afterwards, Joshua also mentions the Imaginary Noise Plane as the inside of Mark City warps, similarly to a sine wave flow--or the flow of energy into, or out of, an antenna. (You do not know how loudly I screamed seeing this, as an aside) So, this is where we get into piece one, e (and where a healthy interest in radio and electronics hobbies helps!)

So antennas, interestingly, have how well they pick up a frequency measured in a logarithmic scale, and basic field strength measurements (and a lot of other "wavey" things, including earthquakes, including, well, literal background noise) get measured on logarithmic scales too. It's rather more common with antennas and earthquakes for this to be measured on log-10 scales (hence the Richter scale for quakes, or decibels for antennas and sound). There's a particular group of measurements (physical field and power measurements), however, that actually uses log-e, aka the natural logarithm, and especially for voltage or current and "root power quantities"--the neper. And, in Euler's Identity, e is taken to powers...and Pork City is basically acting as a huge antenna. Also in info engineering aspects, there's another aspect--the nat, which is considered a unit of information or info entropy...also based on e. (I told you Euler's number comes up a lot of places!)

Let's continue... So now we come to i, the imaginary unit, and that's called out blatantly by Joshua:

This, too, is based on math--from Final Fantasy II, specifically, and how the Flare spell worked. Flare is an area-effect spell and it hit based on (Enemy's HP/Flare level), i.e. enemies that had HP divisible by 2 could be hit by a Flare level 2 spell and could deliver damage based on that spell's level, etc. So a level i Flare, based on how complex numbers work, could hit just about anything (assuming, of course, that the Composer is not a Fractal Bastard and promptly yeets himself into a PokeYugiBeyBladeVerse). But...that's not the ONLY part where things imaginary come into play. So, one of the interesting bits of lore that came out in (of all things) the NEO:TWEWY Field Walk RPG (alas, JP only, but a delightful source of lore, and thankfully the fan community preserved almost all of it) is actual canon on how Tin Pins and Psychs work including the actual formula on how they work in a convo between Minamimoto and Fret:

Fret: Soooo, these psychs and pins and stuff… how does it all work? Minamimoto: The pin is charged by the Imagination of the user. Fret: Uh huuuh. Minamimoto: The pin itself is just a medium. Fret: Mm-hmm. Minamimoto: “Power” is calculated from the numerical limit of the pin, using your will as a coefficient. Fret: Yeah. Minamimoto: But that formula alone means nothing to me!

(Emphasis mine: props to Pavaal on the Dead Bird App for initial translation, and to multiple others for confirmation from the FWRPG script.) So basically how Psychs work is functionally as an athame, using formula Psych=Limit^Imaginatio. (Secret Report 1 in TWEWY also confirms Imagination is important in making a Psych work to begin with; the formula) Of note, Minamimoto also has a canonically high Imagination, as detailed in the Secret Reports. To even become a Reaper to begin with (as noted in SR7) those who survive the week who have enough Imagination become Reapers, and even among Reapers Minamimoto tends to stand out (he is canonically the youngest Reaper Officer ever, and apparently had quite the rapid rise to power). SR15 in TWEWY notes (even keeping in mind that in this instance Hanekoma is being a bit of an Unreliable Narrator in covering his own butt regarding the Taboo Thing):

The sigil Minamimoto drew was one of the undecodable types. Was that a mistake on the Fallen Angel's part? Or was it a transcription error by Minamimoto? Either way, with that design, he stands little chance of reviving himself. However, Minamimoto is driven, and his Imagination strong. Perhaps strong enough to make a Taboo sigil work, even in the Underground... If so, the specific result would be impossible to predict.

And in SR19 (again, covering up just a bit for his own helping hand):

I've detected an energy spike here. It would seem Minamimoto has returned. I judged his revival unlikely after spotting his Taboo refinery sigil on the first day, but it appears Minamimoto's Imagination is much stronger than I'd anticipated. The Fallen Angel must have completed the array for him. A troubling thought. Who can say what impact this will have on the Composer and Conductor's Game?

And even in the NEO Secret Reports it's noted his second trip through Coco's version of the Sigil actually ramped up his Imagination even more (in NEO SR 7):

Minamimoto, on the other hand has all but vanished from the proxy’s side. His Noise refinery sigil drastically heightens his Imagination, which may be why he can clearly recognize the proxy’s abilities. I have an idea of what he’s planning. It’s dangerous, but I have no way of stopping him.

And again, TWEWY:tA also makes it more blunt that Minamimoto was selected explicitly because of his Imagination and his connections to Shibuya as Hanekoma's Plan B. So there's imaginary units (in the sense of literal level i flare), and imaginary units (in a Reaper whose Imagination is already in the stratosphere). And in regards to pi? Well, Pi-Face, he has very much a rep of being....numbers- and math-obsessed even BEFORE he throws 156 digits of pi in the Composer's face:

But pi (as a number) is actually meaningful as HELL to Minamimoto, he engages in saying pi to himself drawing the Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil (goroawase in Japanese which relates to literally an obstetrician going to a foreign country and a woman giving birth at night as insects make a lot of noise which can almost be seen as a minor ritual to Make It Work, a little happy pi rhythmic thing in English in the game, actual spoopy sounding pimetry in the anime that sounds very sorcery-y). Looking (for far too long) at the Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil, pi is encoded in it in at least four or five places (multiple times as functionally a magic binding circle, at least once where he draws the symbol for pi in such a way that when it's turned upside down it literally spells "pi"). It's important. It's meaningful. It's His Number and transcedential and irrational and beautiful and unrestrained :D So now y'all are wondering, "OK, smartass, where's the -1 at?" As I noted, another way you can write Euler's Identity is specifically as "e^(i*pi)+1=0", so that can be expressed as a way to null the Composer (who is probably the 1 in question). Euler's Identity would be used to subtract 1 from the equation, in other words (as Minamimoto was intending to come back from Erasure by literally integrating himself via Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil). There's one other interesting bit of symbolism, one that's deep enough that I'm not even sure the writers of TWEWY intended, but if so...it's such a chef's kiss that I have deepest admiration.

So Euler's Identity can be expressed in terms of a formula, and as a reduction of sine and cosines involving pi and i, but it can also be mapped as motion--specifically as how a function evolves. (I tend to be a pretty visual thinker, and there's an extremely good discussion on Euler's Identity here that goes into the whole "mapping the function" aspect to show how Euler's Identity works in practice.)

So typically when you're doing a non-negative function or a zero function, generally there's an assumption of "right-hand" rotation or movement. Complex functions, you get into fun things like circles, and curves, and even some very beautiful fractals (like with the Mandelbrot set) with the right iterative formulas. Euler's Identity...is literally a left-hand-path function:

(And those of you who were writing about the Cyclic Nature of Minamimoto are probably all screaming right now) Anyways, wanted to share in full one of the things that was a jawdropper for me in TWEWY back when I found the game at a glorified skateshop that sold games in 2011. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, zeptograms :3

#twewy #twewy spoilers #sho minamimoto #character analysis #I'm not fluent in math so these are very enlightening #and leave me with a greater appreciation for the Minaman #thanks op for sharing these thoughts #and giving me a deeper understanding of this fantastic story #you learn something new every day #rb

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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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In which I probably think about Minamimoto way too much (and trauma)

So...well, yeah, I do think about a certain feral engineer a bit much (possibly to the point of writing a 37-page essay at one point as a formal rebuttal to "he didn't change at all in NEO" Apparently Tumblr does...NOT like image heavy posts, so I'll have to do this one as a Google doc, but...anyways:

So this long thing is inspired in part by a continuing thread I've seen come up in the fandom to the effect that Minamimoto...tends to "backslide" fairly often regarding progress, especially relating to working with others; @scramble-crossing has written on some of it here (particularly JP script interpretations), @chiiri-h and their posts here and their addendum here, and similar thoughts I've seen on other social media from folks I know who don't Tumblr).

tl;dr I'd argue that it's possibly a spiral, there's some STRONG left-hand-path and alchemical imagery, and probably a healthy bit of actual trauma in Minamimoto's case (though the last is more from subtle signs and, well, my own experiences with C-PTSD and being someone likely On The Spectrum who was never formally diagnosed and who also dealt with institutional abuse on top of things).

And because Tumblr apparently refuses to cooperate with a large Post from Hell with many pics, here I go in sharing this on Google Drive :D

#twewy #ntwewy #sho minamimoto #character analysis #drinking this analysis like a delicious tea #this is why I won't write a Sho analysis #because the Sho fans are hardcore and have things far more covered than I ever would #and are also admiringly fluent in Minamimoto #big thank you to op for sharing this high quality Minamimoto dissertation #especially a fan of the LHP symbolism #bc Sho is most certainly working his way toward some kind of enlightenment/rebirth #but in a chaotic/unconventional/dangerous manner #and that doesn't necessarily make him wrong #true innovation and genius so often requires at least a little bit of madness after all #anyway this is highly recommended reading #rb

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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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It's Composer posting hours

#twewy #yoshiya joshua kiryu #my art #twewy spoilers #needed to take a break from the Joshua analysis I've been (foolishly) writing #7.5k words and counting...#but it did put me in the mood to draw Composer Joshua #what a character...

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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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1, 9, and 17 for the ask game!

character(s) that first caught your eye/first favorite character?

When I first picked up the game, I really wanted to like Joshua! In all honesty, character vibes was a big factor in whether I engaged with media or not back then. And Joshua landed closest to what I typically looked for in a character (based solely on design vibes). Note I say closest, because back then my taste in characters was actually a little different than it is now.

What I got was...a surprise, to say the least.

I didn't like him immediately. I wanted to, but his, well...prickly nature was quite a bit different than what I was used to at the time. That said, as week 2 went on and I learned more of his story (fabricated or not), I was fascinated. By the time week 2 ended, this character I had wanted to like but wasn't sure if I would had so completely grown on me I was quite possibly obsessed. He single-handedly changed my taste in characters, design and personality. He's lived rent-free in my head ever since and quite possibly owns the place, since he seems to be the one making the rules on whether anyone else can stay, and for how long.

So yes, I admit I have trash taste in characters now, and it's very much his fault.

Over time, after many cycles of character analysis (and my own character arc that was...not all positive), I even came to find him quite a bit relatable...but this is redundant information, since that's literally question 17.

9. what platforms have you played twewy (and/or neo) on? if multiple, what’s your favorite?

For TWEWY, I've played it on the original DS, Solo on ipad, and Final on Switch. My fave, far and away, is the original - the game was really made for that system and it uses all the perks of the hardware with aplomb. I actually broke the A button on my DS lite playing TWEWY, haha. Being able to control both partners at once, with the old fusion star/cards system, not only feels great to play, it's also very nostalgic for me.

I do like Final for what it is though, if only because you can attempt to get the chaos of the original by playing solo multiplayer, and if not, the multiplayer in and of itself is fun if you have someone to play with. Being able to share the experience with someone else makes Final worthy imo.

NEO I played on Switch as well. I can't make comparisons because I haven't tried it on other platforms. I'm not much of a PC gamer and don't have a PS4.

17. what character(s) do you relate to the most?

TWEWY is full of relatable characters, so this list isn't going to be comprehensive. I think most of the playable cast is relatable in some way...but as this question says "the most," I'll try to narrow it down.

I think this would be more fun without context, so I'll say

with a side of

and a dash of

Have fun trying to diagnose my personality~

#answered ask game #strawberrah #yes I actually do find the main cast of NEO very relatable albeit all for different reasons #though it may also be that the first time I played NEO I had a much better understanding of myself and had gone through more #versus when I played the original #so first impressions may be a factor #twewy spoilers #time for a scan

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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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How about 13 and 16 for the TWEWY ask game?

13. what would you like to see in the future of the series?

First and foremost, my wish is that the series continues to be beloved and thus kept relevant by its fanbase, even if we don't receive anything new. I'm not incredibly hopeful for new entries, but that's not entirely a bad thing (and considering NEO's 14-year gap, anything could happen, so I won't say the chance is zero!). That said, I feel generally the same way about any potential sequels as I did when the "new 7 days" was first announced - I don't really want a sequel for sequel's sake, but if the team has an idea they want realized, I'd love to see it. That's one of the reasons I so wanted NEO to happen - because I had a distinct feeling the original "new 7days" project had been cancelled, and I'd always wondered about that idea that never saw light.

As for more specific and self-indulgent answers, the things I'd want most if I had infinite money and could fund the team myself:

TWEWY Prequel: This was my number one want before NEO. The original game concluded nicely, so most of its loose ends lie in the past. Joshua's rise to Composerhood is a fascinating topic, along with Kariya's hints about a previous long game occurring in the past and his familiarity with taboo noise. There's just enough information there to suggest the team knew more about all this than what they ultimately chose to share, and it kills me a little that we'll likely never know what exactly they were thinking when they wrote that. In all honesty, I still want this game, but it faces some competition from -

The Shinjuku Story: This one I mostly want because I feel like most of the story has to exist already somewhere - it almost feels like a missing entry in the series. I think I'd like to see this as a "Neku's adventures with Coco as they investigate Shinjuku and uncover the story of what led to its destruction" game, but a split timeline would also be nice. My guess is you'd play as Tsugumi during the pre-inversion sections in that case. I really, really would like a twewy prequel, but between this and that, I feel this one is in more dire need of telling. Part of the reason NEO is so convoluted is because they're trying to allude to an entire game's worth of backstory that doesn't actually exist in any other format. (On a side note, in an alternate universe I'd have liked NEO to be split between Neku in Shinjuku w/ Coco and Tsugumi, and Rindo's group working with Beat in Shibuya. Minamimoto could be on either side depending on what role Coco has for him. It'd feel a bit more relevant to AND that way, and be able to tell the Shinjuku story without losing the Shubuya tie that the team deemed necessary.)

Should they determine they're never going to make any new entries in the series, I really want a data book. I'd love to see all the plot bits that never made it into writing (which I assume they won't share now on the off-chance they do use the IP again). Novelizations of the two aforementioned plotlines would also be very welcome as an alternative to full games.

This is less of an actual want and more of a pipe dream, but I think it'd be neat to see the original remade in the style of NEO. I don't think it's quite possible to replicate what made the original's gameplay special on systems that aren't the DS / 3DS, so that ship has sailed - so a re-invention of the battle system to work in a single-screen 3D space could be a lot of fun and very stylish. Would it be as good as the original? I don't know. But it sure would look cool.

Please, please let Sora make good on his promise to see Neku in Shibuya in KH4, I'll actually buy the game if you do SE. Even better if it's NEO Neku. And let Neku bring his friends so I can finally have a 3D NEO Joshua model to spin around and get a reference for that hairstyle facing right I'm begging you SE

16. any pet peeves – gameplay mechanics, story details, missed pun opportunities, etc?

The original game is absolutely perfect except in one regard.

Where are my threads macros???

I'm willing to forgive it for the original DS version but I really would have liked to have them added to Final. We have four pin sets, but for a game heavy on fashion (especially with the brand chart mechanic) we have to manually change threads piece-by-piece. And read through all the descriptions again and again looking for that one effect...again. I think I played with equipment sets a lot less than I would have otherwise because of this.

But fine, Final is an enhanced port so I'll forgive it too.

But then we get NEO, a brand new, modern RPG in the year 2021...

And we still. Do not. Have. Threads macros.

Ugh.

Another big one for me (but probably more personal) is the total loss of ground-Joshua in Solo and Final remix once you unlock levitation. I understand that, unfortunately, switching mid-combat wouldn't really work anymore, but I would have at least liked a toggle in a menu somewhere.

"But Yoshaiya," you say, "why do you need that? What insane person would actually use ground combat Joshua once you unlock the vastly superior god-powers-angel-beam-flinging-levitating-actually can kill things Joshua-"

I would. I do not need to elaborate.

I'm not going to get into story details pet peeves since surely you're tired of reading this by now and wondering when I'm finally going to shut up - I'll just quietly note that while I do love both games, I do have some story nitpicks regarding NEO. But that's not something I want to get into right now. I'd rather not discuss my misgivings without also going into what I like about it, and most likely, neither you nor I have time for that essay right now. (Also, before I say anything about what I like / don't like regarding NEO's writing, I'd definitely want to give it another replay.)

As a minor one though...I would have liked to see more familiar faces among NEO's minor cast. Shibuya's a big town and always changing, but it's almost sad how the old faces are just...gone, three years later. Off the top of my head, I remember Eiji Oji and Ken Doi, and K-1 Okada from J of the M...and that's it. I'm actually kind of hoping I overlooked someone at this point. This isn't actually a pet peeve, mind, just...a missed opportunity I'm a little bummed about.

#answered ask game #gramoturtle #I apologize I am incapable of succinct answers #twewy spoilers #ntwewy spoilers #time for a scan

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rainbow-nijisaki · 8 months

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That ask game does look fun~ :D I’ll throw in… 15 for one~ Whether it’s what you’d wear or what you’d like to see Josh wear. XD And then 21, ‘cause I’m curious~

15. put together an outfit you’d like to wear, only from in-game clothing options!

Oh boy... My fashion choices are not exciting, haha... I am not BRAVE enough to pull off most of what they have going on in the game. That said, I've already drawn Josh in a fair amount of outfits, some of which I personally did want to see on him, so...in light of not repeating myself, I'll go with the first option-

...not too interesting, huh?

If I were braver, perhaps

...though I don't have the rest of the outfit coordinated.

If I were even braver, maybe I'd tote around one of these guys-

-because I'm a sucker for umbrellas and folding fans. Though, I have no idea what I'd coordinate these things with, haha

I tried to do one from the first game, but the result was even more boring than this, it didn't seem worth mentioning.

21. how were you introduced to the series?

I think I first heard of the game through Nintendo Power back when it was still purported to be part rhythm game. I knew nothing else about it other than it being made by the team who made KH (specifically Chain of Memories). It sounded interesting but back then a lot of things did, so it was kind of at the back of my mind but not in a "I absolutely need this game" kind of way.

Fast forward to me seeing the game in stores. I'd pick it off the shelf occasionally over the course of the next few months, flip through the manual, read the back of the box, all the while thinking "oh right, this game by the guys who made Kingdom Hearts" (I had not played Kingdom Hearts).

On one very momentous day the stars aligned in which I was at the game store, doing this very thing, but I was also very bored and in want of something new to throw myself into. TWEWY was there. I picked that. The rest is history.

A fun fact I always like to throw in at the end whenever I tell this story - the very next day I went to browse the game store again, and TWEWY was no longer on the shelf. They'd run out of copies. I was so very close to not playing the game that, well...you see what it's done to me, haha.

Some things really do feel meant to be.

#answered ask game #ayahachitwister #I apologize for the long delay on this I had to go window shop the twewy clothes store #time for a scan

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