blade gunnblade !!!!!!!!

via eliza simpson:

There are no words for this true warrior. They kill me. MMM: went in for a post show hug. Me:"ow!" Asia: "oh sorry, that's my bullet necklace." 😳........ 😍

Dominic Miller. Absinthe, 2019. ECM 2614. (  Manu Katché )    ~  [ Album Review |     1) ECM Reviews  +  2) All About Jazz  +   3) London Jazz News ]

1) The title of Absinthe, Dominic Miller’s follow-up to his 2017 ECM debut, Silent Light, harks to the early French Impressionists, whose all-in dedication to art is a philosophical touchpoint for the guitarist. To carry on that spirit, he could hardly have asked for a more eclectic yet integrated band. Bandoneon player Santiago Arias brings a sense of cross-continental shift that makes the world just a little smaller; keyboardist Mike Lindup adds a sometimes-surreal vibe that’s equal parts cry from the past and message from the future; bassist Nicolas Fiszman is the soil to Miller’s sunlight; and drummer Manu Katché, a remarkable impressionist in his own right, is time incarnate.

With such a massive scale to be reckoned with in theory, one might expect the results to be overpowering, when in practice the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content is so evenly distributed between pans that by the end of each tune we’re left on an even keel from where we began. This is nowhere so true as on the opening title track, which spins a steady downtempo groove from the filaments of Miller’s solo introduction. The way his bandmates shuttle through the greater loom of the album’s concept is as intuitive as the compositions yearning for consummation. A certain feeling of inward travel continues in all that follows.

The quiet locomotion of “Mixed Blessing” and is as progressive as the tender “Christiana” is regressive, the geometrically inflected “Étude” as inviting as the open-ended charm of “Ombu,” the melancholy “Ténèbres” as dark as the transparent “Saint Vincent” is bright. The latter bears dedication to the late Cameroonian guitarist Vincent Nguini, a longtime collaborator with Paul Simon and something of a mentor for Miller. Even without such biographical details, these stories write themselves, unhidden, in real time. Binding their pages are shorter pieces, including the piano-rich “Verveine” and the haunting “La Petite Reine.” Into these we are afforded only fleeting glimpses, personal tesseracts whose potential for transfiguration can only be expressed in song. 

All of which makes “Bicyle” quintessential in the present milieu. Its pedaling motion is more than a metaphor; it’s an actualization of life’s unstoppable flow. For there, woven between each spoke like a playing card, memories fade into new experiences, squinting into the glare of a setting sun as the world curls into slumber.

2) Guitarist Dominic Miller's 2017 ECM debut Silent Light was a low key affair that focused on his solo classical guitar (plus a bit of light percussion). The sequel features a full quintet with a rhythm section. A bigger sound, but with a similar impressionistic flavor. Miller's liner notes make that visual art reference explicit: as a resident of the south of France he has become fascinated with the French Impressionist painters, admiring their artistic daring.

The album opens with the title tune: Miller's acoustic guitar and drummer Manu Katche's swirling cymbals set the scene for the entry of Santiago Arias' bandoneon, the primary melodic instrument in the music. It is a significant new timbral color in the ensemble, as well as a nod to the avowed Argentinian influence in Miller's music. "Mixed Blessing" includes a synthesizer solo from keyboardist Mike Lindup, a contrasting sound that is favored throughout the set; although on "Étude" his piano playing is a foundational element.

The spare, low rumbling drums and guitar of "La Petite Reine" recall the sound of Silent Light. "Étude" and "Ombu" step up the tempo a bit, and the latter gives the drums a highlighted role as active rhythmic accompaniment for the whole band: no doubt very satisfying for Katché fans who have been waiting to hear him cut loose. Closer "Saint Vincent" is an upbeat tune that features the whole band, with solos from Miller and Lindup (on piano).

Miller has an expanded musical concept to go with the larger band. The tunes are still compact statements, but make use of the instrumental forces for greater timbral contrast. And he is a generous band leader as well: while his guitar is at the center of the arrangements, all of the players are given a chance to shine. It will be interesting to see where he goes next.

3) Absinthe is Argentinian-born guitarist Dominic Miller’s second release for ECM and his fourteenth solo album. The list of recordings with other people, however, is immense. Even if his name is unfamiliar you have probably already heard him. He has played with Sting since The Soul Cages in 1991 and masses of other musicians along the way, from The Chieftains to Youssou N’Dour, via Tina Turner, Lesley Garrett, Sarah Jane Morris and Manu Dibango. Some of the musicians with whom he has recorded make up the new quintet for this album.

Absinthe is an airy, atmospheric set of compositions inspired by Miller’s love of the works of the Impressionist artists, many of whom painted in the South of France where he now lives. The title came to him first, apparently – many of the impressionists drank absinthe, that potent anise-based spirit favoured by bohemians known as “la fée verte”. In a recent interview with German news site DW.com, Miller expands on the title:

“For me it’s about being out of it. And over the last few years I’ve really been into French paintings and thinking about this history of the early 19th century and how Lautrec and Van Gogh and a lot of these guys were tripping on absinthe but still coming up with amazing work. And because they were such highly skilled artists they could come up with these really outrageous trippy concepts with colour.”

Miller put together a quintet sympathetic to his ideas and wrote the music with the “sonic palettes” of his chosen musicians in mind. First up is young Argentinian Santiago Arias who studied under Dino Saluzzi at the Conservatoire in Buenos Aires. He plays the bandoneon, that concertina-like instrument associated with Argentinian tango. His sound is pure and extremely melodic. The combination of Miller’s lyrical guitar with Arias’ lovely lines is delightful – they are the perfect foil for each other. The other three musicians have all played with Miller for years.

On keyboards is Englishman Mike Lindup, best known for his work with Level 42, but a regular performer with Miller, who played with Level 42 himself back in the 80s. Lindup’s is a third melodic voice with the guitar and bandoneon – he also adds delicate ethereal tones, almost theremin-like in places.

On bass is Belgian Nicolas Fiszman. He studied guitar with Philip Catherine, then changed to bass. He’s played with Miller since 2005, but has accompanied Johnny Halliday, Angelique Kidjo, and Charles Aznavour in his time. Miller describes his playing and intonation as having “the nobility of a great whale”, which is a lovely description and also, I think, fair enough. His subtle and discreet bass underpins the whole endeavour.

Miller describes French percussionist Manu Katché as “an artist on the drums, especially with his cymbal work where he is like a great painter”. His presence is everywhere on this recording, and his contribution adds colour, as well as texture to the pieces. Katché is well-known as a session musician – having played with almost everybody. He’s also an ECM veteran. Miller has recorded with Katché as part of his band, and he’s another long-serving member of Sting’s band, so they know each other musically very well.

It’s an unconventional combo, but it works well – the range of timbres and harmonies is extremely agreeable. There’s an Argentinian tinge to much of the music, though think Gotan Project, rather than Astor Piazzolla, as there is a groove through many of the tunes, not just from Katché’s inventive percussion but the rhythmic qualities of the ensemble playing. On an initial hearing the CD appeared light and easy, bar some disjunct improv in the track Ombu, but this is misleading. I think that the limpid clarity of the production (by Manfred Eicher himself), the pleasant atmosphere, the sweetness of tone and the downright prettiness of the guitar and bandoneon sound just gives that impression. As is often the case with music which can be perceived as light or suave, like bossa nova, for example, on a closer listen, the complexity of the composition and the beauty of the ensemble playing comes through.

From the first track Absinthe, where the bandoneon, after a precise harmonious intro, starts sliding about into little patches of dissonance, and the spectral notes from the synthesiser twist around against a backdrop of precise strings and strangely colourful cymbal sounds, the listener is entranced. By the final track, Saint Vincent (presumably a reference to Van Gogh rather than the countless catholic saints, or indeed the American singer/songwriter of the same name) the sonic palette has been fully explored. Miller’s guitar playing is wonderful throughout, lyrical, deft and harmonious. Saint Vincent builds in layers of colour and light to a Pat Metheny-esque crescendo and then disappears as if blown away by the mistral.

This record will appeal to Miller fans, to Sting fans, to existing fans of any of the other members of the band, and to new listeners who are already aficionados of ECM’s fine output of chamber music. As usual, I now want to hear this live, and indeed a grand promotional tour for Absinthe of Central and South America, and Northern Europe was planned. Sadly it has had to be cancelled for health reasons. Wishing Dominic Miller a speedy recovery.

V Watches MagiReco - Season 1 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime*

If you’ve been been following my weekly reviews on the Magia Record anime, you’ll know that my “reviews” are really more like general impressions, thoughts, and fangirling as I mentally recap the episode after my initial viewing.

For this final review of the season as a whole, however, I’m actually going to try and make it more like an actual “review" and discuss each aspect of the anime separately. I’ll be splitting my points of discussion into individual sections and giving each a score out of 10, before rounding it all off with an overall score/grade.

Oh, not sure if this needs to be emphasised, but these are just my opinions! You may agree and you may disagree, and either way is cool!  (・ω・)b

Before I begin, I just want to make it clear that one very, very important thing to keep in mind when watching and reviewing MagiReco is the fact that it isn’t a direct continuation of PMMM. So many people find themselves unable to enjoy the series because it’s “not the same” or “not the PMMM they know” etc. But it isn’t and was never intended to be. It’s a spin-off, not a sequel. To expect a spin-off to have the exact same impact and level of quality as the original is unrealistic to begin with, not to mention that although comparisons will be inevitable, the original PMMM anime has reached a legendary status where it isn’t really fair to compare anything with it xD

(And for the PMMM fans who are unhappy with MagiReco simply because it isn’t “dark enough” and there isn’t enough “suffering”, all I can say is that if a lack of darkness and suffering automatically means the show is bad, then this one just isn’t for you. Dark doesn’t equal good, and suffering isn’t essential. MagiReco is not intended to have the same tone as PMMM, and those elements do not entail everything that defined PMMM to begin with anyway.)

For these reasons, I’m going to try my best to review the MagiReco anime as a standalone piece and try not to make too many comparisons with PMMM, unless explicitly necessary. Also, as a game player, the inevitable curse of “expectations” was a major issue I needed to overcome when watching the anime. I will therefore also try my best to look past these expectations and try to see the anime as a story of its own. However, there will be discussions on the changes that the anime made and how I feel the anime did in adapting the game story for a television series.

Anyway, sorry for all the additional rambling. Let’s jump into the review before I lose everyone’s attention ^^;; 

Plot: 8/10

One thing I love about the MagiReco plot is that they take the original world and concepts of PMMM and actually come up with a whole new story. It’s familiar yet different, and a perfect way to please the nostalgic fans while also offering something fresh. The PMMM world always had a lot of potential to explore other girls’ stories, considering how many Magical Girls there are, and it’s nice to meet a whole new cast of characters with their own story that’s still set in the same world and uses the same concepts we’re familiar with.

I think my favourite thing about the MagiReco plot, which is the same both in the game and in the anime, is the idea of the Wings of Magius. Any story that involves Magical Girls somehow trying to undermine or overthrow the Incubators’ system always has a lot of potential, in my opinion, and it’s a creative way to delve even deeper into PMMM’s unique take on the magical girl genre without being repetitive. But the key to what makes the Wings of Magius so compelling and intriguing as antagonists is the moral issues it raises. The grey morality going on with the Wings of Magius is not too different from the issues presented by Kyubey, and these kinds of moral debates get the audience really thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s good and what’s evil. The Magius are presented as being very similar to the Incubators in many senses--sometimes even worse--and I always love a compelling villain or villain group that actually gets the audience pondering whether the bad guys really are that “wrong" after all. Plus the whole idea of salvation and liberation and the whole cult impression we get from the Wings of Magius really adds another layer of that dark and creepy atmosphere that PMMM does so well.

However, I do strongly feel that many of the important scenes and major plot points were presented much better in the game. As mentioned earlier, having played the game meant I was going in with expectations for how I wanted/hoped/expected certain things to be done, and this is a common issue that adaptations have when there’s an audience familiar with the source material. I’m okay with completely changing parts of the game’s story to create something new, but there were instances where the anime intended to replicate the scene as it was in the game but somehow fell short in its presentation. These cases of inadequate storytelling thus hinder the unfolding of the plot, ultimately creating problems with coherency and pacing. (I mean, if you think about it, the “main plot” doesn’t really even truly begin until all five main characters have been introduced.) I have dedicated a whole section to this pacing issue, so I’ll go into detail when we get there xD

Characterisation: 7/10

The anime’s presentation of the characters ranges from fantastic to extremely lacking. Iroha has moments where she’s extremely passive, but also times where she’s shown to be quite proactive and brave as well. I’m honestly not too sure what to make of Iroha’s characterisation so far due to this big range, but I’m hoping that she’ll show more growth and that her changes will be written in a way that actually makes sense, rather than abrupt shifts that make you question how and when she had it in her. Either way, she’s a lovely sweet girl and a very likable character, and I do like that even if she isn’t necessarily always doing anything or contributing to a fight, the sole reason she’s in Kamihama in the first place (to look for her sister) is a good sign that she knows what she’s doing and has taken the necessary measures to go about her quest.

Yachiyo didn’t seem to display much uniqueness until her past was unveiled, and that wasn’t until we were well into the second half of the first season. In my opinion, this took way too long. I find this to be a slight problem because of how central to the plot Yachiyo is, and while I understand that backstories being revealed later on can have a bigger impact (like Homura’s in Episode 10 of PMMM), the way they portray Yachiyo throughout the majority of the season doesn’t have that constant loose thread hanging. She almost seems too “normal” at times, blending into the cast, and only when certain things happen or when someone says something in particular do you actually remember that we still don’t know what her deal is yet. I guess what I mean is that a more looming sense of “mysteriousness” could have justified the late reveal a lot better. The reveal of her past and her wish were slightly underwhelming, too, seeing as we hardly got to know Kanae and Meru before they were killed off, making it difficult to connect with those characters and thus relate to Yachiyo’s grief at losing them. And as for the revelation of her wish, I’ve ranted enough about it in my review for Episode 13, so you can check that one out if you haven’t already xD

Tsuruno has it even worse than Yachiyo because they literally haven’t revealed or even teased anything about her. All we know is that she works at a Chinese restaurant, was already friends with Yachiyo in the past (this “mystery” was later explained in Yachiyo’s flashbacks), and is super cheerful and energetic. Her backstory is the only one that hasn’t been shown yet, and they never really even hinted at there being something deeper about her character. While I completely understand that they’re intending to leave all that for the Rumour Tsuruno arc (which will most likely be done next season), I feel that they really needed to give us at least something for now. Even in the game, we got a better sense of who Tsuruno was as a person before the Rumour Tsuruno arc revealed her hidden sadness. I guess I can’t really fault the anime for this, since they’re just going in chronological order, but a little more insight into Tsuruno’s character would have been a better decision so that we don’t get another round of “info-dumping” when we do get to Rumour Tsuruno, and the reveal about her inner emotional turmoil would actually be a slight twist that adds even more depth to her character, rather than random information that never seemed important because there were never any signs of it.

But while Yachiyo’s and Tsuruno’s characterisation could have been better, Felicia’s and Sana’s were handled superbly. The anime actually made me adore Felicia as a character when I merely “liked her enough” in the game. She’s so much more than just the spoiled and rowdy child who goes berserk when seeing a Witch, and her introductory episodes (namely Episode 7) actually managed to move me to tears. Her bond with Iroha is also portrayed even more nicely in the anime, and I have a newfound love for the friendship between these two, which is quite underrepresented in the game. Felicia manages to retain all the lovable traits she displayed in the game with just the right amount of brattiness so as to not seem too annoying, and the anime hasn’t even really touched upon the cruel reality behind her wish. Whether or not they venture into that territory at some point, I just hope they continue doing as amazingly as they’ve done with Felicia so far, because she really is super cute and a lot more likable in the anime version <3

As for Sana, she’s more or less the same as her game counterpart, but something about the way the anime unveils her past makes it even more tragic. We’ve always known of her terrible “family” and the unfortunate circumstances of her home life prior to joining Mikazuki Villa. But the episodes that detail her story did a stellar job at bringing out and actually showing the sheer horror of having a family like Sana’s, and just how deep and suffocating her sense of loneliness was. Her story is absolutely miserable, but the anime manages to present it in a way that doesn’t make it seem like they were “trying too hard” just to make it as sad as possible. The things happen for a reason, and the consequences it has on Sana as a character are all realistic and believable, and even a wish as extreme as hers made perfect sense after seeing everything she had to go through.

Other characters don’t seem to have as much of a presence to warrant a paragraph of their own, but I will give honourable mentions to Rena and Tsukuyo. Rena’s Magical Girl Story made me a sobbing mess when I first read it, and while the anime obviously couldn’t sidetrack and include all the details, I think they did a pretty good job considering the limited amount of time they could spend on a supporting character. The anime also did a really nice job at giving Tsukuyo that humanising moment during her conversation with Iroha at the cafe, emphasising the good inside of her despite being an antagonist, and also taking the chance to give her a sense of individuality so that she and her sister are not always seen as an identical and inseparable pair with no personal lives or traits, so props to them for that :) Mitama has hardly made many appearances and doesn’t even seem very story-relevant at this point, so I’m wondering how they’re going to build up her importance in the next season so that she doesn’t seem like the “token shopkeeper character” who’s there for no real purpose outside of gaming mechanics (because we all know that Mitama is so much more than that). And as for characters like Kaede, she’s been changed so much that I’ll reserve my judgment for now because I simply don’t know where they’re intending to take her character. Same goes for Kuroe and her still-unclear purpose in the plot lmao

I think it’s important to remember that a lot of characterisation we get in the game is from Magical Girl Stories and Event Stories, both of which are obviously not viable to delve into too much in the anime. As a result, I guess it’s “to be expected” that the anime will have to give up quite a bit of the details that make all these characters so real, likable, or relatable. I’m not an anime writer, nor do I know anything about adapting games into anime, but I do feel that it would have been so much better if they had come up with some other way of compensating for the lost characterisation moments that are only shown in the game’s side stories. Not sure how else they should have done it, but simply removing some of these vital bits of information does harm the portrayal of these characters, especially when they’re part of the main cast.

But yeah, mixed feelings because while some characters really needed more work in the characterisation department, others were handled amazingly well xD

Pacing: 4/10

Okay, let’s be real. The pacing was almost definitely the anime’s weakest point, and possibly one of the main reasons why someone would find the show hard to enjoy or even understand. I’ve seen people complain that the story is too fast, and I’ve also seen people complain that it moves way too slowly. In my opinion, it really is a combination of both, and I’m honestly quite fascinated at how the anime somehow manages to pull off being both too fast and too slow at the same time xD

The story is almost excruciatingly slow in that it takes a whole ten episodes before the main cast is fully assembled. I thought a bit about this and, to be fair, some classic magical girl shows also take many, many episodes before all the main characters are introduced, such as Sailor Moon taking a whopping 33 episodes before all five Inner Senshi have gathered. So I guess this slow episode-by-episode “collection” of team members really isn’t something new. But MagiReco isn’t really a long-running anime that has filler episodes back-to-back to justify the slow pace of the plot. The plot is moving every week, yet it still feels like it takes forever to get the main cast together, which is slow enough to make the viewer question what they had been sitting through all this time when it’s been ten episodes and the story is really only “actually beginning” now.

And at the same time the plot somehow manages to feel too fast at the same time. How is this even possible? My answer to this is simply the fact that they introduce conflicts and mysteries, only to quickly resolve them and then immediately jump to the next one before the audience has even had a chance to really process or understand what they just watched. We’re not given the time to really absorb the development of the story or the subtle changes the characters are undergoing before we’re immediately thrown into a new mini “arc” the next week. In some ways, it almost seems like the “Monster of the Week” formula that many magical girl series adopt, only instead of being aware that we’re seeing trivial conflicts that are intended to last for one episode with characters we are likely not going to see again, MagiReco is throwing out new ideas, new terms, and new plot-relevant characters almost every episode, vomiting out information in a way that viewers who haven’t played the game will find very difficult to keep up with.

And that brings me to one of the biggest problems I had with the anime: important terms and concepts are often thrown in as a “by the way”. (This is most apparent with anything to do with the Wings of Magius before Episode 10, most notably Alina’s introduction.) Game players will obviously know what they’re talking about, but anime-only viewers are left confused and lost as to what exactly is happening half the time. I’ve seen more than a few instances where a viewer who wasn’t familiar with the game needed extra clarification and explanation before they understood certain things, and honestly that isn’t a good sign. All the important stuff should be made crystal clear so that even anime-only viewers will be able to grasp all the concepts without game players to spell things out for them. The anime should be a standalone piece on its own, not a “supplement" to the game. And the consequence is that anime viewers are constantly raising their eyebrows and wondering what the heck just happened or when the heck something was ever established, because crucial information is thrown around with no emphasis and the fast pace doesn’t allow viewers to digest anything properly. This unclear storytelling wastes the opportunity to present mysteries that are intended to keep the audience invested; rather than continuing the series because you just have to find out what something means or why something is the way it is, you’re left with question marks popping up all around your head because you’re confused af and wondering if you forgot or missed some crucial information at some point.

Another issue I had with the anime was what I’ve decided to dub the “one-shot curse”. Witches and Rumours alike are one-shot-ed so quickly and fights resolved so suddenly that I was often left wondering what the point of that fight was. Not to mention that a lot of the battles lacked real “action”. Witches appear, get one-shot-ed, and the characters return to whatever it was they were doing before as though nothing had happened. So... what was the point? I guess they really wanted to emphasise just how many Witches there are in Kamihama and just how easy it is to come across one everyday? Or maybe it was just for the sake of including an obligatory battle in each episode so there’s at least some action each week? Either way, if you’re going to include Witch battles, you may as well do them properly. For crying out loud, InuCurry, the guy who designs the Witches, is the director of the MagiReco anime! You’d expect a bit more emphasis and flourish to highlight what he’s so good at! But to be fair, there were some good Witch battles, such as the ones in the first episode, the ones in Yachiyo’s flashbacks when Kanae and Meru died, and of course, the epic battle between Holy Mami and Sayaka in the final episode. So they’re not all that bad, but I just feel like there was a lot of wasted potential.

I find that the main problem is a lack of balance between the battles, the exposition, the plot, and the fluffy slice-of-life stuff. All these are crucial to a good anime, and a lot of these moments were done quite nicely as standalone scenes. But the way the MagiReco anime has packaged them together and tied a very unattractive Bad Pacing ribbon on top just doesn’t work. It’s like a giftbox that has some lovely things inside if you look carefully at them one by one, but the way the gift is presented just isn’t very appealing and ruins the goodness of the content inside.

I get that the anime probably has issues with pacing because it’s essentially adapting a mobile game. I’m not sure if the pacing would be better if this weren’t the case and the MagiReco story was scripted for an anime to begin with, but I really, really hope they fix these pacing issues next season.

Visuals and Animation: 8/10

To me, the visuals were nearly always top-notch, and definitely a huge improvement from the original series. They managed to retain the art style of PMMM while also updating it so that it looks a lot more sleek and polished. The characters looked great, the scenery is gorgeous, the labyrinths all unique and intricately designed, and there was a lot of clever visual symbolism going on in the still shots and subtle scene transitions. I’m not an expert on animation or visual arts, but I definitely think this series deserves a very high score for this section.

There were a few instances where we saw some wonky “meguca" shots, but those were rare and nowhere near bad enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the series. I don’t really have much else to say because, like I said, this really isn’t my forte, but I genuinely loved most of the visuals we got.

Music and Soundtrack: 9/10

I know a lot of us were disappointed when we learned that Yuki Kajiura would not be returning to do the music for MagiReco. And we all knew that whoever they hired would have very, very, very large shoes to fill. And I can definitely say that I was not disappointed at all.

Guys, the music for this series is AMAZING. Takumi Ozawa managed to capture the style that Kajiura used for PMMM in a way that retains the original tone of the franchise without seeming like a mere carbon copy of her work. I don’t think there was a single musical piece in there that didn’t make me feel like, “Ah, this is no doubt a PMMM anime!” And none of them gave me the impression that he was “trying too hard" to “rehash” Kajiura’s style. No, there’s familiarity and there’s originality, and it’s all packed together in a way that allows MagiReco to retain the charm of its predecessor while also standing strong as a work of art by itself.

I only docked one point because there were so many amazing tracks from the game and I don’t really understand why they didn’t use them when there were moments that seemed perfect for those tunes. It would be a nice sense of familiarity for game players, and it’s still considered “new stuff” for anime-only viewers too, so I really don’t get why xD Maybe they really wanted to separate the anime from the game? Which is also fair enough :)

I wasn’t so sure about “Gomakashi” as the OP when I first heard it in the trailer, but it’s definitely grown on me! While I still think “Kakawari” is superior and has a more catchy and iconic sound to it, “Gomakashi” is sweet and girly, very much like the kind of song you’d hear in a magical girl series. I don’t think this is an OP that will be legendary enough that everyone knows the tune (like the theme song for Sailor Moon, for example), but it’s a lovely song and I do like it a lot ^^

“Alicia” was beautiful from the very first time I heard it, and I’ve only grown more and more fond of it with each listen. Definitely one of my favourite EDs of all time, and perhaps my favourite OP/ED song out of the entire PMMM franchise.

And that ED song for the final episode? Gorgeous, too. Almost has a “Magia” kind of sound, and definitely sets a darker tone for the upcoming season where (I assume) sh*t starts getting real.

Overall: 7/10, B+ or A-

Despite my criticism and picking the anime apart in this review, overall I still genuinely enjoyed it a lot :D It’s far from perfect, but I was nowhere near as disappointed as I’ve been in the past with other anime adaptations, and while some parts could definitely have been handled a lot better, it was mostly still decent in my opinion. Get rid of the pacing issues and I’d probably give it a solid 9 (for context, I rate the original PMMM anime a 10/10, perhaps even higher if possible).

Again, I think my experience and knowledge as a game player definitely influenced my view on the anime as an adaptaion. For example, I already love the characters and know enough about them, and so I probably didn’t really feel the consequences caused by the anime’s sometimes lackluster characterisation. I also often have ideas of how I want or hope a part gets adapted, and then get disappointed when it’s done in a different and underwhelming way compared to what I imagined. I’m sure my impressions, comments, and scores would be very different if I were an anime-only viewer and had no idea how things went in the game. But alas, you can’t have both experiences to compare, so it is what it is xD

Anyway, no matter how much I nitpicked, I still love MagiReco a lot, both the game and the anime, and am really looking forward to Season 2! With the obvious changes they made in that last episode, I get the feeling that it’ll only diverge even further as the story unfolds. I’m okay with these new surprises and new takes on characters, but I do hope that they aren’t changing it all completely, because there’s a lot of good stuff in the later chapters that I really hope gets animated, e.g. Kanagi’s entrance, Rumour Tsuruno, Yachiyo vs. Holy Mami, basically everything that happens at Fenthope in Chapter 9, and of course, the big reveal about Ui, Touka, and Nemu’s wishes in the final chapter. Just imagining these things animated already gets me super excited, so hopefully we’ll at least still keep the core of the game’s story despite the changes (and hopefully these changes are all improvements!) ｡^‿^｡ 

~~~

And since the anime is taking a break, my reviews will also be going on a break ╥﹏╥ I’ll probably still pop up in the MagiReco tag every now and then if I can think of something to talk about, though? Depends on what I can come up with xD But yeah, I don’t really post updates about my gameplay here (unless it’s something major like pulling my favourite character lol), so if you’re interested in seeing any of that stuff, you can follow me on Twitter instead, since I’m much more active there nowadays. I’m always happy to discuss things and scream with fellow fans, so whether it’s here or on Twitter, please feel free to approach me anytime if you want someone to fangirl with (๑ゝڡ◕๑)

I’ll be ending this post here! Thank you so much for reading, and please continue to love and support MagiReco while we wait for the second season ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡

Promare Original Soundtrack Review

Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and this is the perfect candidate. I have waited for this Sawano OST for almost 8 months, ever since Sawano was confirmed to compose for Promare, and now it’s finally here.

A little side note to my followers who aren’t aware: Promare is an anime film by the duo behind Kill la Kill (Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kazuki Nakashima) and the 2nd time they got Sawano to compose for their project. And boy, was it worth it. I have been hyped about Promare since I first saw the announcement after finishing KLK and before Sawano was confirmed as the composer. And at long last, it’s here. The movie is still gonna take a while to come out internationally, be it at the movies or as a disc release, but the soundtrack is out and that’s what I’ll be talking about today.

This marks the first original, non-sequel Sawano anime work since Re:CREATORS which was... almost 2 years ago. That’s a lot of time, and 2018 was a... questionable year for Sawano’s discography filled with average and low-effort sequel works and an abundance of Jpop songs as part of the [nZk] project. But anyway, here is the review to the soundtrack of Promare, composed by Hiroyuki Sawano! As usual, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on each track individually before discussing the soundtrack as a whole. Let’s get right into it!

01. Inferno (vocal: Benjamin, mpi)

Here is what I like to call the “sub-theme vocal track” of Sawano OSTs that follow this pattern. This is basically the “Track #1 that’s a vocal song that could be the main theme but actually comes before the main theme” (similar to God of ink from R:C and Perfect Time from NnT), and a pretty neat one at that. I was looking forward to this track ever since I heard it in the OST CM and it’s honestly very pleasant. Ben and mpi have a lot of synergy as vocalists and the lyrics, plus overall tone and production are very good.

I am generally not a fan of more bright, upbeat and playful vocal songs but this one doesn’t really come off to me as that kind of track. It’s very “everyday” especially the verse and the chorus is super catchy and memorable. Overall, a very solid track. I also really like how Ben and mpi alternate now and then especially with the first and second verse/chorus instead of just having them all sing the same thing. They do that, but only in the last chorus and it sounds like a nice ending to it. The choir in some of the parts (which Sawano himself is part of) is also very nice. 

I have two complaints about this track, however. The first one is that outside of the guitar chords and drums, the instruments are barely audible in the mix because of the percussion. You can make out some of the guitars but overall it sounds a bit drowned out. That, and it ends a bit suddenly without a proper outro to tone down the last chorus. Those are still very much nitpicks though, great track otherwise but not my favorite vocal song on this soundtrack.

02. PRO//MARE

And now we come to the actual instrumental main theme of the movie. I have genuinely missed original Sawano works because most of the modern ones have this thing where he names the main theme after the show it’s made for, and it’s just a really cool pattern that never gets old to me.

PRO//MARE is the newest entry to this category and it’s the orchestral track that was heard in the first half of the 2nd trailer. Part of it was also showcased at AnimeJapan at the Promare section. Personally, this is one of my favorite tracks in the album. I love how unpredictable the structure is and the subtle synths and guitar give it a unique flavor that make it stand out from the typical Sawano orchestral tracks. The strings part at 1:55 is my favorite part and it’s just amazing. The main melody is also very nice and overall, it’s a very solid main theme that gets its purpose across. On top of that, this has to be one of the best uses of fake choir Sawano has integrated into an orchestral track.

On top of that, it also does not have a 2nd half and has a pretty good length for an instrumental track. This actually makes it more solid and doesn’t give the feeling of Sawano not knowing how to make a track longer without a 2nd slow half. Overall, very good and again, a big highlight on the album for me.

03. GAL-OTHY-MOS

After 3 years of no woodwinds, it was time to go home.

Okay, here is an absolute banger. Galo (the protagonist)’s theme marks the return of woodwinds in Sawano’s works which is something we didn’t think would happen at this point. And oh boy, this one is big.

Right off the bat, the flute establishes itself very nicely alongside the overall Japanese/ethnic sound the track is going for, which I need to talk about on its own. It’s so freaking cool how unique this theme sounds like with the whole ethnic soundscape mostly because of how appropriate it is for Galo as a character. A side note about Promare, the movie is basically about firefighters who use mechs called “MATOI” which, aside from being a cheesy Kill la Kill reference, are banners used by Firefighters in the Edo period. It’s just so sweet how the overall sound comes together as a character theme.

The track itself is dope. Aside from the ethnic melodic elements it focuses on standard band percussion and orchestra, which is pretty nicely mixed if I might add. The arrangement of the strings stands out among Sawano orchestral tracks and I love the ostinatos throughout the track. Structure and melody iis also very strong.

The 2nd half leaves a bit to be desired as it’s basically a slower version with some instrumental changes, but other than that it’s not that interesting. Still, overall very nice and another highlight for me.

04. Λsʜᴇs (vocal: Gemie)

Another vocal song, and this time it’s Lio’s theme... well, of them. I like to think of this as the main theme among all the other tracks that use the same leitmotif. Anyway, right off the bat, Λsʜᴇs instantly reminds me of RE:3343 and ABYSSwaltz from Re:CREATORS. This also marks the return of a very nice vocal technique that I’ve missed in Sawano works which is layering a whispering of a vocal line alongside the main vocal line with both lines being the same. Adds a very interesting “ethereal” sound to the vocals in a track that is already pretty ethereal on its own.

The strings here are nice but of course, Gemie’s voice is the highlight and boy did I not know she can sing this high. The wailing/non-lyrical part after the chorus is very powerful and personally this is one of the best Gemie songs for me. There is another version of this song later on which I prefer more, but this one is also very nice.

Lyrics are also quite interesting, as expected of cAnON. and her particular choice of vocabulary.

05. WORLDBIGFLAMEUP

Say hello to the track with the best song name on the OST and one that perfectly describes the Sawano fans’ reaction to the soundtrack dropping. This is the initial teaser track that played all the way back then and our first sample of Sawano’s work for Promare. (Well, technically it was the strings part in GAL-OTHY-MOS but we just assumed it was the same track).

WORLDBIGFLAMEUP is, to put it short, awesome. Instead of an all-out bombastic orchestral Sawano track, it’s more of a tense, emergency and action type of piece that goes at a fast pace and overall delivers a feeling of uneasiness and chaos, which perfectly captures the whole “Fire” aspect of the movie’s concept.

Instrumentally, I have to say this is one of my favorite instrument choices Sawano has done for an orchestral track outside of the usual strings and brass. It partially has some ethic elements here and there with the dulcimer which adds a whole new layer to the rhythm of the piece.

And then there is the gamelan which is probably my favorite instrument in this entire track and what makes the whole track what it is for me. It’s so cool and the little quiet sections where it’s more audible are probably my favorite. That’s just all I have to say. It’s awesome.

The 2nd half of the track was a thing I had a problem with initially because it’s another “2nd slow half” to fill up track space, except this one has grown on me. I like the piano addition though overall it sounds like the track was slowed down in Audacity or something... I just think the overall arrangement makes it a better fit for the fast pace of the first half and not the way it’s presented in the 2nd half.. that is until it gets to the main part with the band percussion. This is where I would make a PotS/<X9> joke, but this one is actually pretty cool and pure headbang material, especially the last part. I mostly have to thank @shifter-lines for getting me to like this as much as I do now, haha. Yet another highlight for me and a very good track.

06. PROMARETHEME

So, GAL-OTHY-MOS was the first of two tracks to have woodwinds return and that’s something we’ve known about since the initial recording tweet. This is the 2nd, except it’s a tin whistle instead of a flute and boy does it sound good.

PROMARETHEME legitimately sounds like Sawano went full Zimmer/Powell and made a Kung Fu Panda track because it’s so awesome with the tin whistle it’s hard to put it into words. Oh yeah, and it’s an orchestral version of Inferno that was actually made before Inferno itself. This is one of Imaishi (the director)’s favorite tracks as far as my knowledge goes and one of the sub-themes for the movie. 

Overall, it has a very powerful start with, again, the tin whistle and the choir part after the main chorus is equally awesome. I initially thought it was going to go into a 2nd half after that pause but it was just that, a pause. Overall, a pretty neat track... again, that tin whistle.

07. BangBangBUR!...n?

Hoho boy, here it is. I am not ashamed to use this joke for the 10000th time since this OST released last week, but this piece is an absolute Banger. It’s pure fire and is my favorite instrumental track on the Promare OST.

This was initially first played in a very obscure CM in Japan that came out around the same time as the initial teaser and didn’t show any new footage, but it had a bit of this track playing and I loved it.

BangBangBUR!...n? is one of those tracks that don’t need a good and powerful lead melody to stand out. The overall sound design and instrument choice for this piece is freaking amazing and I highly recommend listening with headphones for the full experience. The bass, the beat, the synths and the guitars, plus the synth ostinato and combination of electronic kicks with additional distorted drums to add to the rhythm is absolutely incredible. It’s an awesome track in every way.

The strings portion makes it even more awesome by adding a melody to it and repeating the previous part, essentially building onto the foundation it sets for itself beforehand.

The 2nd half is probably the best 2nd half Sawano has ever done if we count slow arrangements in the same piece. Instead of just slowing down the first half, it changes up the arrangement a bit and sounds like a semi-ambient dark piece while maintaining the coolness factor of the first half. The strings are equally awesome. By the way, this is the director’s other favorite track and he loved the demo Sawano initially showed him. Of course he did.

Overall, absolute banger and again, best instrumental track on the OST for me. Go listen to it, and if you haven’t seen the first 5 minutes of the movie online yet, go do that as well. This track is used perfectly as an establishing piece for Promare and what it is.

08. NEXUS (vocal: Laco)

We come to the first original Sawano Laco song to be officially released! (Because Zero Eclipse is taking forever). NEXUS initially gave me a much different impression than the one I have right now. When I heard it in the OST CM, I didn’t really like it to be honest.

Like I’ve said in the past, I generally dislike “happy”, playful vocal songs because it doesn’t feel like they have any emotional impact for me while I’m listening to them and this is pretty much what I expected.

Instead, I get a 90s pop song that has one of the sickest drum productions I’ve ever seen. Seriously, those drums are insanely good. It sounds like typical four on the floor type of beat at first, and that’s what it mostly is in the chorus, but the drums in the verse are insane. You can, to quote someone else here, internally feel the rhythm and it’s amazing.

The synths are super catchy and compliment the vocal line really good and, again, sound straight out of a 90s pop song. Laco’s singing itself is also pretty good and I think she stands out as an OST Sawano vocalist with a different tone to her voice than Gemie, Eliana and... someone else whose name I can’t remember. Weird.

Anyway, the vocal effect in the intro with the reverb/semi-choir sounds dope. The lyrics for the song itself are kind of weird, though.. and from what I’ve heard, this track was kinda overused as a battle theme in the movie. And, although I think it can fit under said circumstances, I don’t think using it for every battle scene would benefit it, especially the chorus which is my least favorite part compared to the rest of the tracks. It just sounds... but overall, the track is great, Laco’s singing is great and the production quality is very high. Great piece overall.

09. BAR2tsuSH

We come to the big baddies (well, some of them) villain theme. This and WORLDBIGFLAMEUP are the closest to being a KLK-esque track on this OST and this one is pretty good. It’s the “group villain theme” for the Mad Burnish, also part of the song name and it’s a pretty neat one at that.

Instrumentally, it goes ham with the scratchy synths and the edgy guitar chugs around the middle of the first half. Also, the rhythms of this song are sick. I like how it goes into a different drumming pattern after the first two measures in the synth portion and the main part is also a nice Sawano orchestral vocal track. Great alternating melody between the synths and brass with a nice ending to it.

The 2nd half is unfortunately a bit weak and doesn’t really do anything interesting with the first half other than the typical “slow it down, change up the instruments” thing. It’s not bad, just nothing outstanding either. Overall, a nice piece. That’s all I have to say.

10. DeusPRO召す

Next up we come to the theme of a character who is so important to the plot, they have barely shown anything about him and his last name, Prometh, literally has the name of the movie in it.

Deus’ theme is super cool and unique. Right off the bat it establishes a unique soundscape with some interesting synth ostinatos that make you think you are listening to a factory/laboratory theme in a video game. The rhythm elements with the brass coming on later on are also very nice and this is another like I think can hold its own without a powerful lead melody in a similar matter to BangBangBUR!...n?. Not quite as good at it but still very good nonetheless. I can totally lay back and listen to this.

The 2nd half gets interesting because it brings up the PRO//MARE (main theme) melody and does some interesting things by layering the synths and drums from the first half over it and it works pretty well.

I mean... you know you’re an important character when your character theme rearranges the main theme of the movie you’re in.

Overall, this is a dope track. Wish I could say more but I’d be repeating myself.

11. fanFAREpiZZA

Next up is the track with the most questionable song name for someone who hasn’t listened to it. The first half is exactly what it says. A fanfare sort of victory theme and a pretty good one with some cool synth over it that almost sounds like it’s a continuation from DeusPRO召す. The only thing that’s weird is that the brass here is sampled... not entirely sure why when all the other orchestral tracks have actual brass recordings. It’s a bit weird but it doesn’t really sound that bad. It’s a pretty nice track. Can’t say anything else.

...Except about the 2nd half. “piZZA” is in the title as well and... it’s a comedic track. Harmonica, catchy beat and nice guitar going on in the left channel. I love it. It’s the only comedic/everyday laid back track on the OST and a pretty good one at that. Watch the 11-minute prequel to the movie if you want to see how it’s used. It’s pretty darn sweet. Again, I want to say more but.. that’s about it.

12. Λsʜᴇs ～RETURNS～ (vocal: Gemie)

And here is the better version of Λsʜᴇs, in my opinion at least. At the cost of the ethereal feel of the original, this one slaps on distorted drums and some really cool synths over it and makes it more like an orchestral bombastic track, and a really tragic but good one at that.

One thing that I absolutely love about this one is how the strings and especially Gemie’s vocals are re-recorded instead of reused from the original track. You can tell by the tone of her voice and especially in the chorus where she sings louder and the wailing part which is completely different. Overall, this is a much more chaotic version of the original and an excellent arrangement. I love 6/8 orchestral Sawano tracks and this one in particular reminds me of Ω from Guilty Crown which is one of my all-time favorite orchestral Sawano pieces.

Very good piece and yet another highlight of the soundtrack.

13. 燃焼ING-RES9

The Burning Rescue theme is yet another arrangement of Inferno which I guess fits-context wise. Anyway, on my first listen-through, this was my least favorite track because unlike PROMARETHEME it didn’t do anything interesting with the Inferno melody. At least, those were my thoughts at the beginning. Also, it kinda sounds like it borrows the drumline from Before my body is dry in some parts.

Regardless, like NEXUS, this track has grown on me and I think the guitars in the start make the whole thing a lot better for me. It also has a nice little outro section going on there which I also like.

Overall, I don’t have that much to say about this one apart from what I wrote above. I prefer Inferno and PROMARETHEME more to this one but it’s still alright.

14. BAR2NG4女14yoN

Next up we come to yet another absolute banger and a highlight for me. When I first saw the teaser visual for Promare and informed myself about what it was and from who it was after watching Kill la Kill, this track is very close to the kind of music I initially imagined for Promare. A fast, electronic, upbeat sort of battle theme that’s super uplifting. Also, another one I recommend listening to with headphones.

The drums in this track, like NEXUS, have insanely good sound in the mix and are basically the main instrument of this piece. Overall, it’s a more rhythm-focused track rather than a melodic one. Also has some sick guitars going on there that remind me of bL∞dy f8 a little bit. Then comes Gemie with the (uncredited) vocals that add a sweet layer to the already upbeat piece and a melody so it’s not purely rhythmic. Overall, very uplifting and an absolute banger.

I can mostly say the same about the 2nd half which is also quick and synth-focused but doesn’t have vocals. It’s more neutral/concentrated in terms of sound and less “playful” than the first half and imagine some high-altitude, high-speed fight scene happening in the movie with this playing in the background. The synths add to the overall mood of the piece and it’s great. Again, great drums and great rhythm all around. Definitely a highlight in the OST.

15. 904SITE

...I don’t know guys, he still might not be the villain.

Okay seriously. There was a point before the Promare premiere where they stopped trying to hide the fact that Kray was the antagonist of the movie and this theme playing in the OST PV was basically like “nah nah fam what are you talking about.”

Anyway, right off the bat, this is my least favorite track on the soundtrack. It’s not bad, I just prefer everything else over it. And the track itself is a bit...well... it’s an arrangement of BAR2tsuSH and a slow one at that... and that track already has a 2nd slow half.

Thing is, this is more of a mood-setter made for a certain scene in the movie. Personally, I don’t enjoy it that much as a standalone track because it just feels very raw and weak, especially since I had the expectations it would be a full-length character theme like GAL-OTHY-MOS, which it isn’t, and it’s not even an original melody for the most part. Overall, it’s not a bad piece, just underwhelming, but regardless, was probably important and used well for the movie, which is what’s important on its own at the end of the day.

16. REG-GIRT

The track that spells “Trigger” backwards. Classic Sawano.

Okay, so for the record I had much lower expectations for this track based on what I heard in the OST PV. Because it’s literally PRO//MARE with synths, drums and guitars layered over it which screams 2018 Sawano and we don’t talk about that here.

But anyway, that’s not entirely what it is. For once, said synths, guitars and drums are actually pretty great even when you do hear that it arranges the main theme instead of being an original track. On top of that, some of the string sections are new and not in PRO//MARE. The main part is probably the weakest for me since it’s very much the original track with the drums over it. This was played in the 3rd PV and honestly, this part in particular is just uninteresting. 

The outro itself is cool but for goodness sake... remember my complaint about Inferno ending suddenly? This one ends so suddenly it sounds like it immediately cuts off into silence which is just weird... at least let the instruments echo/fade out. Makes me think it was made for a scene which ends on an unexpected note... wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

17. RE:0

No, this is not a Re:Zero reference.

Judging from how Sawano names character themes after the character themselves, you’d assume this would be Lio’s theme but for me... that’s Λsʜᴇs, and this is the piano version of it. Yep, classic Sawano making a piano arrangement of an existing track. And this one is really good.

I don’t have that much to say about piano solos in general but this one is definitely up there with the likes of omake-pfadlib for me and overall perfectly executes the emotion for me and is a great rendition of Λsʜᴇs. Favorite out of the piano solos on the OST.

18. PIROMARE

The last arrangement of Inferno on the album and a pretty good one at that! It’s another piano solo with some nice touches to the original track, especially towards the ending. Really like it, but I wish it was more of a medley that included more melodies like PRO//MARE rather than just Inferno, but it’s still a very pleasant piece to listen to. Again, not much else to say.

19. Gallant Ones (vocal: Benjamin, mpi)

And here it is. This is the Holy Grail of the Promare Original Soundtrack and the one song I have been most looking forward to ever since hearing the instrumental in the 2nd half of the 2nd PV.

Gallant Ones is, without a doubt, my favorite song on this entire album and by default my favorite vocal song. It’s also straight-up one of the best vocal songs Sawano has ever written for a soundtrack work and I would easily put it up there with the likes of theDOGS. Not quite too close to it but still a huge favorite for me.

This track borrows some of the percussion from BangBangBUR!...n?, as well as the ostinato pattern, except it changes the key and makes a freaking guitar play it. And speaking of guitars, this is without a doubt some of the best guitars Sawano has written in ages, mostly because of the fact that there are more melodic elements than rhythmic ones and that’s something you just don’t see Sawano do with electric guitars nowadays.

Going into the guitars again, one of my favorite production techniques when writing guitar parts is writing two semi-improv lines with one on each side of the panning (channels). And when played together, it sounds like pure fire. Gallant Ones does this with the verse guitars which were originally showcased in the 2nd half of PV2. It’s pure groove.

The percussion is another thing that makes the track what it is. It has a bunch of stuff going on that’s very similar to BangBangBUR!...n? like I already said, but the beat itself is dope and I love it so much.

Vocal-wise, this is far better than Inferno and Suck your blood from Kill la Kill for me. Ben and mpi make an even better duo here, combined with sick lyrics and absolutely lit chorus/vocal melody, this track is amazing in every sense.

If there is one thing I had to mention it would be my initial complaint about the length of Gallant Ones. The track is a few seconds short of being 3 minutes long which is pretty short for a vocal song that starts off like this. However, the more listen to this track (I’ve heard this well over a few dozen times at the time I’m writing this) the less it bothers me. If it had the standard structure of Sawano vocal songs where it repeats the chorus two or three times, it would have gotten repetitive really quick so I think the length is actually a plus here.

Despite all of that, if it was up to me I would have given it an extra 40 seconds or so by adding in the parts from the PV, specifically an instrumental version of the chorus where the guitar ostinato can be heard clearly, or the guitar outro which is better than the actual outro in this song. However, even now those are just nitpicks. Gallant Ones is incredible. Go listen to it.

“YOU ARE THE ENGINE AND THE POWER, LET’S FIGHT THIS TRUTH AND NAIL”

“I AM THE PILOT IN THIS GAME AND THIS TEAM WILL NEVER FAIL!”

...Had to get that out.

20. stRE:0ings

This is another one of those tracks like 904SITE where I don’t doubt that it was used well in the movie but still find its position in the OST a bit meh. It’s basically exactly what it says... a strings + piano version of RE:0 which is a piano version of Λsʜᴇs, which... also has strings and piano. What.

Okay seriously, I don’t mind it on its own, I just think it’s a bit too similar to Λsʜᴇs for me to fullly enjoy it, but it’s nice regardless. Don’t have that much else to say.

21. 火-YO!人

At last we come to the final track, which is the 3rd piano solo on the Promare OST and a pretty interesting one. It’s very dissonant and sounds like it’s from a Guilty Crown Another Side album. Overall, I think it’s nice. Really like how it sounds like it’s gonna go off into a melody then abruptly stops, and the closing section is nice.

Overall, a nice finisher to a great OST.

Conclusion

As a whole, this soundtrack is amazing. This is the kind of music Sawano can make when given proper direction. Of course, he’s worked with Imaishi before on Kill la Kill, and that OST turned out great. This one did as well. It’s a very fresh Sawano soundtrack with a lot of interesting elements, amazing vocal songs and diverse instrumental tracks.

Since KLK is a 2-cour anime show with more music, the music itself is all over the place and there’s a lot of tracks. Promare, on the other hand, likes to keep thinks in flavor but also concentrate on certain aspects, since it’s a movie and has to have a higher level of consistency.

Anyways, after a tough year of average low-effort sequel OSTs, getting this originality back again was very welcome and was well-worth the wait. I highly recommend checking this out if you haven’t listened to it already.

Also, I made a poll for the soundtrack! Make sure to check it out if you do get around to listening to it. Always like hearing what other people think! 

Favorite vocal song: Gallant Ones

Favorite instrumental track: BangBangBUR!...n?

Favorite piano solo: RE:0

Favorite song name: WORLDBIGFLAMEUP

Least favorite track: 904SITE

Other highlights: PRO//MARE, GAL-OTHY-MOS, WORLDBIGFLAMEUP, NEXUS, DeusPRO召す, Λsʜᴇs ～RETURNS～, BAR2NG4女14yoN

Overall Album Rating: 9/10

Anne watches MCU: Captain America through Age of Ultron

My trek through the Marvel Cinematic Universe has continued but I really slacked off on making posts about it after the first, uh, three, so here's a catch-up post!

And as a note, I am watching the films in release order, but for simplicity's sake I'm grouping some origins and sequels together here.

Spoilers for everything through Ultron, as well as some mentions of Civil War and Captain Marvel.

Crossposted from dreamwidth.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) & The Winter Soldier (2014)

Captain America to me marks a turning point in the MCU, the moment when these films reach a level of sincerity and groundedness that will become a standard in superhero films. And as such, the Captain America series is one of my favorites within the Marvel universe. World War II has also long been an interest of mine, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed the first film so much.

And when Steve reawakens in the modern day and becomes one of the Avengers, carrying on the ideals that made him who he is, I love that too. I would say Winter Soldier is as much an Avengers movie as it is a Captain America movie (the same has been said of Civil War) because once Cap enters the present day, you can't really have Cap without the Avengers.

In the hindsight of having recently seen Civil War, think this is partly because Steve, more than any other Avenger, is defined by his relationships to other people. His friendships, his rivalries, his loyalties—these are what make Steve Rogers who he is, both in the past and in the present. Steve's whole life is shaped by his friendship with Bucky Barnes. His first thought upon waking up in another time is not of the world he has lost but the people he has lost. And his new friendship with Sam Wilson is easily one of the most delightful moments in The Winter Soldier.

I will say that my primary disappointment with The Winter Soldier was that it wasn't really an origin story for Bucky Barnes. There is not a lot of character development for Bucky himself—it is still very much Steve's story. But the focus is again on Steve's relationship with his old friend, and his refusal to give up on Bucky ultimately saves them both.

And I think that focus on relationships is also what makes Captain America a favorite for me.

The Avengers (2012)

I really wish I had written about this movie when I first watched it, because my memory of it is now very much colored by having seen Age of Ultron and Civil War since. Attempting to set that aside, I did enjoy this movie when I watched it, though not quite as much as I enjoyed Captain America.

The Avengers is absolutely not a standalone film. This is definitely the point at which the MCU truly becomes a shared universe, and the origin stories we've had so far are really not optional for understanding these character dynamics.

The tension between Steve and Tony does make sense, both for the characters themselves and as a kind of meta commentary on the evolution of the Marvel universe: Tony Stark's layers of defensive irony set against Steve Rogers' straightforward sincerity.

There are other character beats that work for me in this movie as well. We get the best character development for Natasha, given that she doesn't get her own movie. (CRIMINAL.) That she successfully plays Loki, out-tricks the Trickster, is a truly beautiful moment. Ruffalo's Bruce Banner establishes pretty clearly that he is not Ed Norton's Bruce Banner. And Tony/Pepper manages to grow on me a little bit.

Loki as a villain is... okay. I think it's pretty clear by the end that his plan was never really about dominating Earth, but about causing chaos—which he does, pretty successfully, and in the hindsight of Civil War, said chaos has some far-reaching effects. That part works for me. On the flip side, I really hate mind-control MacGuffins; I think they're a lazy means of getting characters to do whatever the plot requires without having to justify the characterization in any way or deal with the aftereffects, and in my opinion Marvel overuses this trope to death.

Hawkeye as a character is absolutely wasted in this movie, as we have no idea who he is before he is controlled by space magic.

This ties into a larger issue with the Avengers series that, again, feels much more prominent after seeing Civil War: the Avengers aren't a team. Not really. They're a group of solo superheroes attempting to work together. This would be fine for a first Avengers film if the plot were about building them from a group of loners into a real team. But this film isn't about that. It's about dividing them before we've really seen them united. We are told, and not shown, that Natasha and Clint are close friends; beyond that, who on this supposed team actually have a reason to care about one another? And by the end, what has this film really accomplished in terms of building a rapport and making the Avengers feel like a team?

I think the fact that they end the film sitting around a table eating shawarma in stone cold silence says it all.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

The third Iron Man movie begins to bring Tony Stark a little more in line tonally with the other Avengers. Tony loses none of his distinctive character, but his experiences are treated more seriously in this film, with Tony suffering from PTSD. It also explores how the events of Thor and The Avengers have challenged Tony's arrogance as a former lone-wolf superhero driven by technology and his own extreme wealth.

By this movie I'm pretty well over Tony/Pepper. Pepper loves Tony, she cares about him—but she never seems happy with him, only constantly stressed, and as a viewer who loves Pepper, it's honestly not fun to watch. This is something I think Nolan's Batman series better understood; there's a reason Rachel doesn't wait for Bruce. The genius billionaire superhero is a terrible boyfriend. Marvel, unfortunately, doesn't really want to acknowledge that. For Pepper to be happy with Tony, Tony needs to change, and Marvel doesn't really want to change Tony. For Pepper to leave Tony means the hero doesn't get the girl, and Marvel doesn't want that either. So we're left with this tiring, unsatisfying relationship, and I'm super over it.

To add insult to injury, Pepper gets superpowers and doesn't even get to keep them.

The MCU has a Women Problem, and it's really, really obvious in this film. I do like parts of it very much; it's undeniably enjoyable to watch, and I like a lot of what it does with Tony. But it's also representative of some of the cracks in the Marvel fresco as a whole.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Darcy is the most fun character in the Thor movies at this point, and to be honest I kinda like her more than Jane.

The Dark World is another fish-out-of-water story, only this time it's Jane that's the fish. I didn't hate this movie, but it didn't make a huge impression on me, as evidenced by the fact that I can't find any notes for it. :P I enjoyed the stinger of Loki being alive at the end (I knew he was going to be, but it was still fun to watch), and I was pissed they killed Frigga (one of my favorite characters in the Odin family).

And once again, we have a female character infused with a force of tremendous power and she isn't even allowed to keep it. Are we noticing a pattern here, whereby with men, superpowers are celebrated no matter what kind of horror they went through to get them or even how much they hate themselves for having them (hello, Bruce Banner), but for women, superpowers are a horrible curse they need to be rescued from?

Yeah, Marvel has a women problem. NEXT!

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) & Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2017)

Along with Captain America, Guardians is tied for my favorite series within the MCU. It is unapologetically fun, yet still sincere in its own way, striking a fresh and unique tone for the MCU.

These two movies are excellent and in my opinion, do a much better job of showing a band of loners becoming a team and building a rapport and learning to trust one another than Avengers did.

There is no character among the Guardians I don't love, and the restraint with which Quill and Gamora's relationship is handled (in that they build a friendship, rather than making Gamora Peter's prize for becoming the hero) is damn refreshing. Drax is simultaneously hilarious and sincere—in fact his humor comes from his innate sincerity. Rocket Raccoon exemplifies the kind of insecurities all the characters must overcome to work together. And both Gamora and Peter show self-reflection and growth in the second film, Peter by facing down his own ego, Gamora by acknowledging what her sister Nebula went through without denying her own suffering.

These films, especially 2, are all about relationships, including complicated and troubled relationships, and that's probably why I love them.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Age of Ultron was a weird watch for me.

There were things I liked about it a lot, Natasha's relationship with the Hulk and Clint finally getting some long-overdue character development especially. And yet I came away from this movie feeling more tired than anything else. There were some good character moments, but the story did nothing for me.

Most of all, though, I think my exhaustion stems from how deeply formulaic the Marvel films have become at this point. They're just really, really predictable. I'm already tired of AI-centric plots not thinking of anything more creative to do with their premise than "It tries to wipe out humanity/take over the world I guess." This story feels utterly phoned in.

And even in terms of relationships, this film doesn't really hold up. For one thing, the whole setup of the film is the continued tension between the Avengers, most prominently Steve and Tony, which has never really been resolved. Tony going rogue and activating Ultron isn't so much a betrayal of an established trust as it is simply highlighting the fact that there isn't any.

Meanwhile, Natasha and Bruce are bungled... badly. Much has been said about the conversation in which Natasha seems to be saying that being infertile makes her a monster. A generous reading can attribute this to bad dialogue, appearing to frame the "monster" remark around Natasha's infertility when she is meant to be remarking on the fact that her greatest strength is as a highly efficient killer. But in light of Marvel's Women Problem, that reading really isn't any better. In some ways it's just as bad or worse, as it once again frames power in a woman as a curse rather than a gift. Either way, it's not really a valid comparison to Bruce's specific angst, which is unique to him: he is possessed by a power he not only never wanted, but cannot control.

(No wonder people are confused when Carol Danvers doesn't have to be brutalized to become powerful, or hate herself for being so. It breaks the rules. And thank the gods for it.)

One bright spot in this film is the introduction of Wanda Maximoff, the most powerful heroine we've yet seen in the MCU. Vision, by contrast, feels like a fairly pointless character to me. I feel like everything he did could've been done by someone else, and he's only here because he's in the comics.

I’ve also watched both Ant-Man and Civil War this week, and took copious notes this time, so expect posts for those films soon.

Wolfenstein 3D

Original Release Date: May 5, 1992

Original Platform: MS-DOS PC

Developer/Publisher: id Software/Apogee Software

It's a rare thing, particularly in modern times, to witness a new genre of games being born. It's even rarer to know that you're witnessing something that big in the moment. One of the few times this has happened in my life is with the first-person shooter genre. I was at a friend's house and his father, a PC gamer, had recently downloaded the first episode of Wolfenstein 3D. Said father wasn't especially big on letting teenagers mess around with his computer, but he allowed me to play a few minutes of the game. I was so spell-bound by what I saw in that short period of time that I was soon begging my own father for the even more precious favor of using his computer. Unfortunately, that didn't happen terribly often.

Still, I had experienced enough of Wolfenstein 3D to know that it was something big. Something important. It seemed so incredibly immersive. So fast. Most of my experiences with computer games up that point had been simple single-screen or side-scrolling action games, adventure games, and of course, RPGs. Wolfenstein 3D was nothing like any of those. I naturally have to mention Ultima Underworld here, as it was technically a little earlier with its convincing first-person world. But by happenstance, Wolfenstein was the one I encountered first. As such, it's the one that burned itself into my memory. Perhaps part of the mythic quality it achieved in my mind is owed to the fact that I couldn't play it to my satisfaction until quite a long time after. This was going to be huge, I thought, and for once I was actually right.

As was the case for many other players, this was the game that got me started on a minor obsession with first-person shooters. Although I'm more known for my RPG appreciation than anything else these days, it's important to remember that I got my gaming debut as an arcade rat. Fast-paced score attack games like Galaga, Defender, Asteroids, and Robotron were my bread and butter, with RPGs only entering the picture after I got my Commodore 64 computer. In Wolfenstein 3D I could see some of the DNA of those games, but from a totally new angle. Pun slightly intended. As the genre became more multiplayer-focused and less arcade-like all-around, I dropped right out of the genre almost completely. I think the last first-person shooter I really enjoyed at all was Halo 3, and even that felt more like it was out of respect for the good times I had with the previous two games in the series.

The rise of first-person shooters more or less coincided with me getting my first IBM clone PC of my very own, which probably also contributed to my brief but intense affair with the genre. The golden era of BBSes, the increasing utility of modems, and the rapid advances in graphics technology proved to be a fertile ground for the genre. I hate saying that you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but I will say that having boots on the ground in that era was pretty special. It was the Wild West that preceded computers becoming ubiquitous devices in the home, and it was hard to guess just how things were going to shake out.

Wolfenstein 3D was able to take advantage of some of that. Certainly, the game's shareware model of distribution benefited greatly from the increasing popularity of BBSes, though I think it's safe to say that the reverse was also true. The next step from developer id Software would be the bigger one, bringing in ideas like modding and multiplayer modes that they either hadn't thought of adding to Wolfenstein or couldn't. But you can't get to DOOM without going through Wolfenstein 3D, and that makes it an incredibly important part of gaming history. More than that, it's also a pretty unique game by the genre's standards. Simple, to be sure, but also more complex in the way that only a trailblazer tends to be. Is it still fun today, after so much has followed in its wake? Yes, to an extent.

The game's history has been well-documented by better writers than me, so I'm just going to jump right to the game itself. You play as B.J. Blazkowicz, an American spy who has been captured by the Nazis and locked up in the jail of Castle Wolfenstein. The initial game consists of three episodes made up of around ten stages each. It was soon expanded upon with another set of three episodes known as the Nocturnal Missions. Finally, a sequel of sorts called Spear of Destiny was created by the game's retail publisher. The ultimate goal of the original set of episodes is to do no less than take down Hitler himself. Mind you, it's Hitler in a mechanized exoskeleton with quadruple chain guns for arms, but it's hard to mistake that mustache.

One of the most striking things about going back to Wolfenstein 3D is just how much its arcade roots show. While the first-person perspective was extremely immersive, just about everything else about the game screams "video game" at the top of its lungs. It makes heavy use of bright colors. B.J.'s foot speed is blazing quick. You have a score and are awarded points for kills and picking up treasures. The very act of picking up treasures causes a twangy, chirpy sound effect to play. The game even has 1-Up items, which naturally take the form of B.J.'s disembodied head in a circle. Yes, you have a limited number of lives. There are zombies, mechanical Hitlers, and even hidden stages inspired by Pac-Man, patrolled by giant colorful ghosts.

While the idea of a first-person shooter set in World War 2 having any similarities to Pac-Man seems preposterous at a glance, it's more on the nose than you would think. The level designs in Wolfenstein 3D have to make do with simpler tools compared to the games that would follow, but even what they had available was enough to make things quite challenging. The way the game was designed, levels could only take place across one vertical plane. The DOOM engine would fudge this in a believable way and Quake would completely bust it open, but at this point even the idea of a small incline simply wasn't part of the package.

Levels couldn't fold back or twist upon themselves, so the level designers relied on good old-fashioned labyrinths instead. Throw in a couple of different-colored locks and you've got all you need to keep the player running back and forth for a satisfying length of time. Indeed, if you're playing a version of the game that allows you to see the overhead map, many of the stages in Wolfenstein 3D look like they wouldn't be out of place as maps for a Pac-Man hack of some kind. B.J. is slightly more prepared to fight back against his pursuers than Pac-Man, mind you. He can pick up a few extra weapons to supplement the pistol and knife he starts with, and although his arsenal looks positively thin compared to most games in the genre, it suffices. All of the weapons use the same ammunition, and you're frankly best to use whichever one fires the fastest at all times unless you're pinched for ammo. Which you might be, depending on the difficulty level you play on.

The enemies can be very dangerous, especially since you don't get as much obvious feedback when you're being hit as you might be used to. The real challenge comes in navigating the mazes, however. They quickly become huge, and if you're trying to find every secret, collect all the treasures, kill all the enemies, and do it in as fast a time as possible, you'll have your work cut out for you. On the higher difficulty settings, where ammo is scarce and enemies are super-tough, Wolfenstein becomes a very different game. One where carefully peeking around corners and not necessarily killing everything you see is the best way to proceed at times. Where using that silly little knife you start with becomes an essential part of your strategy. While id Software wouldn't start leaning heavily into horror until after this game, there's still plenty to be afraid of in Wolfenstein 3D.

Personally, I enjoy the original three episodes of Wolfenstein 3D the best. The Nocturnal Missions are alright, while the Spear of Destiny campaign just doesn't do much for me at all. It's an interesting game to go back to and play now given just how far the genre has gotten away from its roots, and as long as you can forgive its thin set of features, it's an enjoyable bit of arcade action. It's not too hard to find a version of the game to buy, and I think Bethesda may have even put a free browser version up at some point. I played three versions in anticipation of this write-up: the PC version available through GOG.com, the PlayStation 3 port, and the now-antiquated iOS version.

I found the latter to be the most fun to play, though that will depend greatly on how well you get on with touch controls. It makes sense that it's something of an ultimate version, though. It was the last version of the game that original programmer John Carmack worked on, and I believe he did the port by himself. It includes all of the original episodes, the Nocturnal Missions, and all of Spear of Destiny. There's a handy level select, and you can access a map at any time. It's sort of cheating, but only sort of. It can actually be harder to skip to a later map than to play through from an earlier one, since you won't have access to any of the better weapons. You can only save between levels too, so that adds yet another layer of difficulty to the game, albeit one that speaks true to its arcade-inspired feel.

Wolfenstein 3D was a very surprising game. Even more surprising, however, was just how quickly its own developer would render it obsolete in so many ways. As big and important as Wolfenstein 3D was, its successor would seem so far ahead of it that you would think five years separated the two rather than just a year and a half. We'll be taking a look at DOOM in the next article in this series. I'll mostly be focusing on the first game, but I might dabble in the second one as well since that's one of my favorite games of all-time.

Neo Geo Mini outshines the PS1 Classic, could pave the way for a GBA Mini

But it’s not without its missteps

I don’t know what’s going on with the Neo Geo Mini. Shortly after I got my hands on one, SNK announced that an upgraded Holiday version of the hardware would be going up for pre-order in the coming days. That’s not a good sign. I have to guess that the initial SKU failed to sell as well as SNK had expected, leaving them scrambling to rework the units they already produced into a more marketable package. Their apparent lack of confidence in their product leaves me pessimistic about this weird little machine’s future. 

It’s a shame too, because this is by far my favorite plug-and-play mini console to date, at least in terms of its library. I bought the NES and SNES Classics day one, and I love them to “bits”, but there’s no denying that nearly all the games on each system are outdated. That’s the point of the nostalgia-powered novelty collections though, right? To take a trip in your mind back in time? 

If so, then that’s probably why the Neo Geo Mini isn’t selling. These are not the games that many grew up loving. These are the games that most of us could only afford to play for ten minutes a week at the local arcade, before going home and sinking hours into The Legend of Zelda or Sonic the Hedgehog. That said. there are several games on the console that stand up to the best that 2018 has to offer in their respective genres. Garou: Mark of the Wolves looks and plays better than 99% of today’s fighting games. Metal Slug 3 is still the best looking 2D run-and-gun action game I’ve ever played. There are also plenty of quality games on here that I’d never heard of before. For instance, if you told me that Ninja Masters was as all new indie fighter, and not a Neo Geo title from the ’90’s, not only would I have believed you, but I would have been more than happy to pay $15 for it.

That’s why, despite my love of Jumping Flash and Super Puzzle Fighter, the Neo Geo Mini beats out the PS1 Classic for me this holiday season. It’s also why I am more optimistic than ever that Nintendo will skip the N64 when it rolls out its next Classic console, and will instead jump straight to the Game Boy family of systems. I’ve already taken my Neo Geo Mini on the go with me a few times, and I’m sure people would love to do the same with a similarly versatile handheld/home console pre-loaded with games from Nintendo pre-DS portable generation. The Neo Geo Mini has issues, but its definitely worth looking into once Black Friday rolls around. 

The Setup 

The Neo Geo Mini is a better handheld than it is a home console. I have fairly large hands, but I’ve had no problems with the stick and buttons on the console itself. The screen is also bright and clear. The console doesn’t take batteries, and instead runs off of a USB port, similar to most cell phones. I’ve played it running off my car’s cigarette lighter USB adapter, a mobile cell phone battery, and hooked up to my laptop on the train, and as of yet I’ve had no problem with power supplies, or pulling off special moves in KoF 2002 while on the move.

The optional control pads (sold separately) aren’t nearly as nice. The analog stick is loose and the buttons are loud and clicky. They aren’t impossible to get used to, but its strange that they are such a downgrade from the stick built into the console itself.

In some misguided attempt to replicate the arcade experience, all the games are programmed to have a set amount of tokens for both players, You can tone down the difficulty ,or increase the amount of default lives you have for most of the games, but your starting token count never changes.

These are not arcade original roms though. Most have been altered for the home market to let you save then restart from whatever stage you last made it to. You can also open up the emulator’s menu and activate save states. It’s a pretty weird system that is cumbersome and confusing at first, but that’s easy to forget once you acclimate.

The emulator also has some real bare-bones features, like the ability to turn on pixel smoothing and stretching. It’s extremely small-time stuff, and for the most part, will make each game look different or worse, but never better. With the correct aspect ratio and smoothing off, the games look about as good as they do on the Switch or PS4, at least to me. I haven’t had my eyes checked this year, so maybe I’m missing something, but pressed my face up right up to the screen to look for artifacting, and my 41-year-old eyes didn’t detect any. So that’s good news. The bad news is, the only extras here are a couple of stickers. No in-menu history section, no bonuses, nothing but a instruction booklet for the hardware itself. 

The Games

There are 40 games on the Neo Geo Mini. The console costs about $110, so you’re getting each one for less than $3, about $5 less than what they might go for on digital storefronts, assuming they are available anywhere else at all. They fall under the genres of fighters, wrestling games, run and gun, shmups, beat ’em ups, sports games and unnerving Tetris knock offs. There’s actually only one of these here, but it’s worth mentioning for how bad it made me feel. 

The range of quality here is pretty enormous. Some of these games are a sincere waste of time unless you go in strictly to marvel at how much gaming has changed over the past 20 years. Others are games that I sincerely believe are some of the best ever made. I’ll break them up into three categories (Oddballs, Mid-tier and Classics) and do my best to describe them for you. 

The Oddballs 

Blue’s Journey, one of the oldest games in the bunch, is relic from a bygone era, not unlike a cigarette commercial starring The Flintstones. It has a decidedly launch era TurboGrafx-16 feel to it, with overly detailed backgrounds and very small characters. They don’t make them like this anymore for a reason. It’s generally messy, but in a sort of “manic toddler eating a $1 box of sugar cookies” sort of way. 

Robo Army is so bad that it’s funny, but not that funny. The opening cinematic is completely bananas, promising unhinged Sci-Fi violence on whole other level, but when you finally get control of your character, things slow down quickly. It’s a beat ’em up where you play as a cyborg that can randomly turn into a car, as you blow up other cyborgs, giant dogs that turn out to be cyborgs, and angry cars. It’s clunky and sad, but those with a morbid curiosity for what people used to be willing to play for $.25 microtransactions might find it interesting in a scientific sort of way.  

Mutation Nation starts off feeling similarly janky, but after a few minutes, you’ll see that a lot of the animation here is pretty solid. Charge moves lie at the core of the game’s combat system, which is novel for the genre, and the Akira-meets-Cronenberg character designs are surprising, sometimes genuinely disturbing.

Ghost Pilots is a top down WW2 shmup that was probably trying to leech off the popularity of 1942 and 1943. It’s totally fine, but nothing to write home about.

Crossed Swords is another beat ’em up, but this one plays from a Punch-Out!!/Pato Box perspective. It’s more polished looking that Robo Army, and the RPG elements add some depth, but the combat is a total mess. That’s bad news for a game that’s about, uh, combat.

Puzzled is the Tetris-knock off I brought up at the top. It really makes me appreciate all the little quality-of-life improvements that are found in recent Tetris games like Tetris Effect and Puyo Puyo Tetris. All you can do is move, rotate and drop you paces, so even the most basic of advancements like the T-spin is out of the picture. The game has a campaign mode and different stages, based around trying to free pixies who are trapped under some blocks? I don’t know guys, video games just sort of do their own thing sometimes. 

The Mid-Tiers

Magician Lord is one of the first games I ever blew $20 on at an arcade in order to see it to the end. Playing it now is not that great. In many ways it feels like Castlevania with larger characters, but the controls are just as stiff, making it hard to keep your giant hitbox out of the way of enemy attacks. It’s got a cool transformation gimmick though (you can turn into a dragon, a ninja, or even Poseidon for some reason) and one heck of a creepy womb level. 

Kizuna Encounter is a fighting game that probably started of in development as a two-player beat ’em up. Two of the games ten playable characters are beautifully animated, while the rest are serviceable but unimpressive in their appearances. What’s really interesting about the game is it’s tag team system. Unlike in recent tag fighters like Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, you have to get close to your partner before you can tag them in. They don’t automatically jump in when the character you’re using is out of health either, adding an interesting layer of strategy to the otherwise standard Street Fighter II-style fighter. 

Ninja Masters feels like it was supposed to be the first entry in a series that would work as the Ninja equivalent to Samurai Showdown. They clearly didn’t have a lot of RAM to work with for their ambitions, as the characters are relatively small, but it has some really smartly executed animations. If I were game designer and one of my students wanted to learn how to make realistic, non-pandering breast physics for their game, I’d probably point them to towards Ninja Masters. The whole thing culminating in battle with good old Nobunaga, which is a lot of fun for fans of magical Japanese history games like myself.

Sengoku 3 is another ninja game, a beat ’em up this time, one that’s gotten a lot of praise from retro enthusiasts over the years. I’m not 100% sure why. It’s got good art and a varied cast of characters, but nothing about it really stands out about it. Maybe I’m just unfairly comparing it to the Capcom Dungeon and Dragons games without realizing it. 

Blazing Star (sequel to Pulstar) is a pretty good shmup that works on a upgrade system that extends the length and strength of your charge shot meter. Picking up power ups doesn’t always make your basic shot better, but it does give you the potential to fire off huge payloads of neon energy if you play your cards right. Other than that, a standard sci-fi anime shmup.

Last Resort is more up my alley, with a novel take on R-Type‘s bit system and even greater attention to detail to make the world you destroy feel lived in. The open levels takes place in a city under siege by giant robots, featuring little civilians driving – or even running – away from the carnage in a futile attempt to survive. It’s adorable and sad in a way that few modern shmups bother going for anymore. 

Shock Troopers and its sequel are Ikari Warriors-likes with an added evasive maneuver (a roll or a jump) to get you away from bullets, though it has a fair amount of a cooldown so you can’t spam it. The animation is better in the second one, but some of the backgrounds and characters have a weird pre-rendered look that can be a bit of a turn off, whereas the first one has more consistent art direction overall. Still, both are fun enough if you’re in the mood for some hard boiled co-op arcade action. 

King of Monsters, King of Monsters 2 and 3 Count Bout, are all wrestling games that are a nice alternative for people who want to beat up their friends without having to worry about too much depth getting the the way of the immediate violence. The King of Monsters games are based around Kaiju films, which adds an extra layer of charm if you’re a fan of the classic rubber suit Toho movies of old. 

3 Count Bout plays it more straight faced, but it’s definitely very “videogamey”, as are Foot Ball Frenzy, Super Sidekicks and Top Players Golf, the other three sports games found in this collection. Technical limitations permitted them for going for anything that approaching “realism”, but the sprite-based graphics have a loving, hand crafted feel to them, and the respective designs of each game play like cartoonish approximations of the source material. 

World Heroes 2 Perfect has a special place in my heart, as its has both the most superhuman fake Bruce Lee in the history of gaming and a psychic monk based on Rasputin, Russia’s famous love machine, but I have to admit that it’s not as deep, original, or well crafted as most of the other fighting games here. Still, it’s the best World Heroes game of them all, so if you were ever curious about what the Battleborn equivalent of ’90’s 2D fighters was like, then you’re in luck.  

The Classics

A lot has already been written about the Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters families of games, so I probably won’t go on and on about them here. Like I said at the top, I think Metal Slug 3 is one of the best looking games ever made. Metal Slug X/2 and the original game in the series come close behind it. Metal Slug 4 and 5 are notably less visually impressive than the games that came before them, with little in the way of new enemies other than bosses. So you can stop after 3 if you want, but if you don’t, go into the next two with lowered expectations. 

There are only three Samurai Shodown games here, and they stand out as some of the most extreme iterations of the franchise. Sam Sho 2 is is essentially the first game but with more characters. Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa’s Revenge retains the new and improved sprites and Slash/Burt systems from Samurai Shodown III while (you guessed it) adding more characters. Samurai Shodown V Special is essentially an apology for Samurai Shodown V, bringing together characters from every chapter of the series for one last hurrah.

The King of Fighters games are a little more difficult to break down, as they work as a giant crossover of various SNK franchises. Technically, Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury Special (an enhanced version of Fatal Fury 2) work as their prequels. They are both dated compared to the games that followed, but they have significance. Fatal Fury Special is the first game to officially start the shared SNK fighting game universe with it’s hidden battle against Ryo from Art of Fighting. Real Bout Fatal Fury is also on this collection. I almost put it on the oddities list, as its weird, three-plane fighting system is pretty strange. In the end though, I threw it here with the classics because it’s definitely a significant part of the evolution of fighting games. 

From there were have King of Fighters ’95. ’97, ’98, 2000, and 2002. The offer a nice overview of how the franchise evolved during the height of popularity enjoyed by fighting games in the late 90’s into the early 2000’s. From a visual perspective though, they largely pale compared to The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. For my money, they are the two most beautiful SNK fighting games of that era, or any era for that matter.

[These impressions are based on a retail build of the hardware provided by the publisher.]

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      reviewed by Jonathan Holmes

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Quite a bit happened...it was quite the tornado of stuff, as I predicted two posts ago, what with Ludum Dare and everything else happening.  There was even more than I expected thrown into the mix... Ludum Dare Ludum Dare came and went, and despite several hardships along the way, was a huge success for our team! I'll be writing a more detailed post-mortem later, but here are the two (!) games that we ended up making in the 72 hour timeframe: Goodnight Sheep: http://ift.tt/2AfwKw9 Samurai Shaver: http://ift.tt/2Ai9opD The soundtracks for both of those are also available (linked on those pages). Even before it started, it already felt like things might be rough for Ludum Dare, as our writer fell ill that week and wasn't feeling well enough to work together with us.  We decided she should take it easy and help us out remotely instead (which also left me with an abundance of extra groceries in stock, haha).  I actually also wasn't feeling the best that Friday either, though thankfully I didn't end up coming down with anything.  Trying to communicate back and forth over chat and video calls was a real challenge and we really struggled to nail down the concept and gameplay behind Goodnight Sheep as a result of that. Halfway through finishing up Goodnight Sheep we actually decided to start work on Samurai Shaver and just start making that.  Although there were a lot of things that we still needed to figure out about Samurai Shaver still (initially it wasn't even a rhythm game at all!), I personally felt like I had a pretty good vision of what the game should look and feel like, so it felt more certain to me, and I was looking forward to escaping the uncertainty of the screaming lambs to work on something a little more well understood.  However I still wanted to finish up some work on Goodnight Sheep before that, including making the music for the levels, and it was during that process that I made some key realizations about what the game should be like.  So in the end it all ended up coming together just fine -- it just needed some more time to get there. We were about a third of the way through our 72 hours when we decided to start work on Samurai Shaver, which put us quite far behind, but interestingly enough I felt very confident that we could finish it in time.  I knew it was a fairly simple game and we didn't need to make a ton of different assets and such (as we did for games like The Music Box).  And of course, I had a pretty clear vision for the game, as well.  But perhaps the primary reason that I was so confident was because back in Ludum Dare 36 we had also started just as late when we made Watch for Falling Rocks (we totally scrapped our initial idea and started over).  Now that we've done the whole "start a game really late and still finish fine" thing twice, I feel like that will always be a sort of possible "plan B" for us moving forward if our initial concepts don't work out.  Obviously that's not the kind of thing I'd like to rely on, but I think it's a bit comforting to know that because thinking up an initial idea for a game is often one of the most stressful parts of the jam. Anyhow, I'm quite happy with how both games turned out.  Currently we're a good ways into the rating and voting process, with a little over a week left before results are announced.  I've been playing my fair share of games (around 40 so far), and we've gotten around 30 ratings for each of our games. Meowmie Early in the morning on Saturday December 9th, we were woken up to news that the one and only original Meowmie had suffered from heart problems over the night and wasn't going to make it.  We were able to say our final goodbyes before he was put to rest.  It was very hard on us and there was definitely a bit of a crying party that day.  Though I was not his owner, I felt very deeply for the loss, more deeply than I realized that I would, too.  It was a new experience for me as well, since I have never had a pet or anything leave me in that way.  Though it still makes me very sad to think that Meowmie is not around anymore, and the image I have in my mind of him from that day really affects me deeply, I am very thankful for the fact that I was able to see him one last time.  Rest in peace, Meowmie.  You will always be special.  (Thank you) Work Work went through a pretty busy period, as we were getting out another demo of our game for PlayStation Experience (PSX) -- more about that here.  Btw, as an aside, I don't know if I've ever mentioned here that Luna has been out now, both for VR (the true Luna experience) and as a 2D port version for those of us who don't have access to a VR headset.  Find that here. Anyhow, work went through a busy period for sure and I basically had infinity work to do, but I think I managed alright, though there was one day where I had not gotten enough sleep at all and was suuuuuper grumpy as a result.  Funnily enough, once the amount of tasks crosses a threshold, I feel like it doesn't really matter how many other work items there are because I know I won't get to them all, so I just sort of chug along at whatever pace I end up going at and whatever will be, will be. After that, work has been really strange as we are in the middle of transitioning to a new office (heating?? A/C??  More than one restroom maybe?? what is this madness?  Maybe the floor won't be slanted either?).  The new place is ever so slightly closer in terms of walking distance from the station, but also just in a much nicer area (right across from Dropbox).  I haven't seen it in person yet, but should be exciting to have a nicer office, and I'm sure it will make it easier for my cooking-lunch-at-the-office escapades as well.  Maybe I need to start bringing in a portable burner?? lololol Anyhow, I'm on vacation now for the next two weeks (much needed) and definitely enjoying some time off to myself.  Should be useful to catch up on a bunch of things after that super crazy busy period that I had (haven't done any work on Rhythm Quest; want to still do more for our Ludum Dare games; have some music I need to write, etc), but also just to chill out and relax. Games I went through the bonus content of VA-11 HALL-A, so that's all finished up with (don't think I'll bother replaying the main story again, though there is a bit more to experience there).  I've moved on for now -- I just started playing through Cave Story!  Actually playing the remastered Cave Story+ version since apparently I have it on Steam already, but after some careful thinking I decided I'll go with the original sprites/graphics and original soundtrack.  Well...ah, who are we kidding, it wasn't exactly a tough choice.  I appreciate the fact that they took the time to remaster it and everything, but sometimes the original has a certain appeal that is diluted with additional modifications and I personally feel that way about this.  Though, if I was already familiar with the entire soundtrack (I'm not) I think the new soundtrack would be a nice change of pace, so that is something. Other than that, Finding Paradise (the sequel to To The Moon) is out now!  Haven't gotten it yet, but I'm sure I will be going through it at some point.  I wasn't 100% sure what to expect, but apparently Kan Gao himself says the game is "utterly, disgustingly terrible", so now I know exactly what to expect!  (I'm sure it'll exceed expectations, hooray!)  It's all a bit tongue-in-cheek, but to be honest, perhaps it was really warranted after all, because I went into Rakuen expecting a lot out of it and came out disappointed.  So maybe I'll temper my expectations this time.  Though to be honest, how could you not get hyped after THIS trailer???  Hahaha. Besides that, we are making our way through Secret of Mana still (just finished up Ice Country), and have taken a bit of a break on Life Is Strange (but will pick it up again I'm sure).  My brother also came over and we raced through Mega Man 1 through Mega Man 4, which was a blast.  I had a bunch of problems and lost most of those races but was way ahead for Mega Man 3 (also the one that I played the most as a child), so woot.  Mega Man 5 and 6 will probably be real challenges for both of us as we're really unfamiliar with those -- I think I've only finished each of them once... Started playing a bit of Hollow Knight, but unsure exactly what I'll do with that one as I think I want to actually just go through Cave Story first.  It still looks like quite a fine game, but perhaps not as unique or special. Dance Not too much of note here as dance events are sort of on break for the end of the year.  A little birdie told me that Unjammix might actually be happening again sometime, so that is super duper exciting!  Also, it's getting to be a few months before Viennese Ball again, so probably sometime next month it'll be time to whip out my Journey dress and add on the final layers so I can be a fully-embroidered red cloak.  So cool that this costume has been evolving along with me over the past 4 years!!! The last Jammix of the year was not too notable and actually was pretty low-energy for me, but I did end up connecting with someone unexpectedly, which was quite nice. Anime Was skimping on Inuyasha for a while but finally watched another episode, hahaha.  But more notable than that, I watched "The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl" (by the same director and writer as Tatami Galaxy), which I enjoyed a lot!  I've watched a handful of other things in recent months too actually, including A Silent Voice (good) and most notably, The Case of Hana & Alice, which I really loved!  Quite an unusual movie I think, but it's really good, really fun, really well-done.  Currently also watching Evangelion (the series), which I watched most of before (but not all?) but largely forgot about.  Have not watched any movies recently -- haven't yet gone to go see Coco or Star Wars... Xmas Xmas stuff is coming along well!  Like I keep on saying, I still have some DIY gifts to handle, but other than that, everything is pretty much squared away.  It took a lot of work but all the letters and stuff are mailed out and all the gifts are wrapped (and some shipped).  I still have to go on my Santa delivery runs at some point this week but that should be fine :) Cooking Have been trying to make Shui Zhu Yi recently (the sichuan boiled fish dish) to varying degrees of success...I'm finding it quite a difficult dish to get right since there are so many factors, like type of fish, everything that goes into the liquid, the different spices, etc.  I think I am getting closer, and definitely am learning more about what to do and what to avoid, but I'm not nearly there yet.  We'll see. Melee Melee stuff has been good recently; I've been feeling a lot of confidence as Marth especially when I am doing crazy stuff like getting pivot grabs and stuff like that.  I haven't really paid much attention to my Fox but I am trying to grind out some stuff with Falco because my Falco definitely needs some work on tech and punishes, so trying to get better with that.  I'm feeling increasingly comfortable with Falcon but am still figuring out how to place my aerials to go for reads on techchases and how to place moves correctly to combo well.  Perhaps the most exciting development is that I am finally starting to "get" Sheik for the first time, as I'm dedicating some time to learning her as a character.  Like Falcon, she feels really weird in neutral to me, and I had to adjust to learning how to boost grab instead of jc grab (feels really weird....also really weird that you don't =always= boost grab, so you have to do it situationally), but I think my experience with all the others characters (esp Falcon) is helping me understand it more and I feel like I am starting to get a handle on her, which is great since I've always wanted to learn her as a character.  I'm going to try and work that up to par for a while before moving onto Peach, which will require a lot more grinding of techskill since she's a whole other animal. Overall life is in a pretty good spot right now; it's nice to be on vacation finally and to feel like I'm on top of things now instead of juggling around a million different things at once.

Anime Roundup - Winter 2017 [Spoilers]

As always, this season flew by despite how disappointing it was (for anime that started airing during it, not leftovers from Fall 2016). Well, maybe it was also because near the end I started playing video games and fell behind on my normal watching schedule. Either way, it didn’t feel like a whole 3 months. I’m a little late, as usual, and I didn’t write as much this time around. (Chalk it up to laziness and distraction by the aforementioned video games.)

Overall: I think this season qualifies as the worst I’ve seen yet. So many disappointments but only one or two highs.

Featured Anime: Ao no Exorcist S2, Gintama., Rakugo Shinjuu S2, 3-gatsu no Lion, ACCA, All Out!!, ClassicaLoid, Nanbaka + S2, Onihei, Trickster

Total: 10 | Average Score: 6.8 | Word Count: 4,581

~ (DIRECT) SEQUELS ~

Ao No Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc [5/10]

Let me be blunt, the only thing I actually give a crap about in Ao no Exorcist is Yukio. Specifically, Yukio as a character and his brother complex for Rin. That is really what carried me through the first season of AnE and made me feel like it deserved more than a 5. In season one, the whole dynamic between them, Yukio’s complicated feelings for Rin, and their rivalry was the main theme of a significant part of the show. But in this season and arc, Yukio is barely there at all. The shift focuses more to Suguro, his family, and the Impure King. While I don’t dislike Suguro (Nakai Kazuya being his voice helps), I really don’t care enough to watch a whole cour about him and his family. There’s a lot of Rin too, of course, but he’s the main character and that’s obviously unavoidable. 

Well, at least there a little bit of Yukio, however. He’s there for a few episodes and there’s like half an episode dedicated to his and Rin’s relationship, but that’s a pittance compared to the last season. For those reasons, AnE has dropped one point and just went into boring/average territory. If Yukio is a major part of next season or some future season, the score will go up to 6 again, but this one will stay at 5.

To give some credit though, I’m really grateful that they brought back all the original cast for this long awaited sequel. Unlike D.Gray-man last year, I never felt like something was wrong because all the voice actors and art style were different. It is unfortunate that they couldn’t get Keiji Fujiwara to reprise his role as Rin and Yukio’s father, but still 99% of the cast is the same.

Gintama. [8/10]

It is with a heavy heart that I have to give a title in the Gintama series less than a 10 (only applies to the main show and not movies/specials/OVAs). Unfortunately, the recent change in Gintama’s pace is tiring and got boring rather quickly. This problem was beginning to show in the previous season, but at least that had enough episodes and arcs to have more change. 

This season honestly didn’t have a bad start... it was really great seeing the Joui4 together again especially Sakamoto (since he appearances are normally so limited) but then it went into Kamui and Umibozu’s backstory arc. To be clear, I like Umibozu, don’t care about Kamui, and love Kagura, but this whole arc was mostly about Kamui, Umibozu, and Kouka (Kagura and Kamui’s dead mother). Kagura herself felt like an afterthought in this arc. This was more about explaining Kamui’s issues with his dad and how Umibozu met Kouka. 

Now, aside from my general disinterest in Kamui, the problem is not really with the backstory itself. It’s the fact that Gintama had turned into a battle shounen. I really dislike the pacing in battle shounens, especially if they are done badly *coughsNanbakacoughs*, and the worst part is that Gintama normally does these bits right in previous drama arcs. In this one though, it was boring... maybe not unbearable, but I found myself tuning out a lot more than I would watching Gintama - y’know, one of my all time favorite anime. 

Personally, I think the comedy in Gintama has always been stronger than the drama. The drama, when done in arcs between a lot of comedy, is really when it’s at its best because that is when the show brings a necessary change of pace and adds more depth to the characters. When it’s just one drama arc after the other, the battle shounen portions tend to take over. Plus, I just really miss the humor. It always gelled with me and that’s why I loved the show so much from the beginning. I miss laughing my ass off every episode, but in season I only chuckled a few times.

There is one silver lining though and that is Utsuro, who is becoming more and more interesting. While it is kind of cliche that he came back from the dead and turned out to be immortal, I think the way it’s presented is really good, and I can’t wait to see more of him. The last episode giving his backstory definitely pulled me in for the next season. I just hope it lightens up a little more because the comedy is where Gintama always shined the best.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Descending Stories [9/10]

This show... how am I supposed to talk about it? I want to do a proper review that does it justice, but obviously that review would be spoiler free. In this post though, I think I’ll just quickly summarize my overall feelings.

First, let me say that Rakugo has totally met my expectations in S2. It expanded on the story pretty much just as perfectly as it needed to. There was one little thing that ruined it just a teeny bit near the end, but honestly it was otherwise masterful. For me to articulate exactly how I feel, I really need to rewatch both seasons. Sorry, I’m gonna skip actually putting effort into this lol, but I will try my best to get out a proper review on MAL later. Maybe one day I’ll even attempt an analysis, but that’s far off.

~ INDIRECT SEQUELS  & NON-SEQUELS~

3-gatsu no Lion [9/10]

3-gatsu no Lion is easily one of the best and most emotional anime that I’ve seen recently. I’m actually surprised that it is a Shaft production (most famous for the Monogatari series and Madoka Magica), but it has Shaft all over it with Akiyuki Shinbo at the helm. I know some people have mixed or negative feelings on his style of direction, but I like it in all the other Shaft shows I watched and I especially like it here. It’s the first time I’ve seen Shaft do an anime like 3-gatsu, which has no fanservice, no harem (elements), no strong humor, nor any fantasy or supernatural elements.

In my opinion, they did an excellent job. If 3-gatsu was not presented in the way it is, it might not have been as interesting as it is. It would’ve been so easy to make this a dry and boring adaptation, but Shaft brings it to life with such incredible bold, imagery. And it pulls off mood whiplash (sudden mood changes) a lot better than most anime I’ve seen. Normally, I think they clash with the overall tone, but when 3-gatsu does it, it feels like an exaggerated version of what happens in real life, where tone does not stay consistent between moments.

Then there’s Rei, the main character. He really skirts the line between being relatable or not. On the one hand, he is a Shogi genius and makes his own living at age 17. On the other hand, he has a complicated past, depression, and is a very down to earth and nice person. The whole series really rests on Rei’s shoulders, as he is the narrator and everything revolves around him. But I think he’s excellent written and relatable despite being essentially a child prodigy. 

Speaking of the shogi, I was also worried that it would be hard to understand the series because I don’t know shogi very well. Thankfully, that’s not the case. While there is a significant amount of focus on the shogi, the real focus on the characters. I’m sure for people who are familiar with shogi, it gives an extra layer to the narrative, but even for those who aren’t, it’s not so focused on the games that there’s nothing left. At least shogi has similarities to chess, which most westerners have a passing knowledge of. Still, even if you know fuck all about shogi and chess, I think the great depth of characters and the wonderful visuals carry the show and make it incredibly watchable.

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka [7/10]

I... liked ACCA. Don’t love it, but liked it well enough. It has a uniqueness to it that you don’t see often in anime. For example the cast are all adults and most of them are government bureaucrats, the plot revolves around a conspiracy, and the anime is fairly slow paced and is very light on action. More than half the series is spent on world-building, with very little romance or other cliches. I could probably go on.

The color palette and art style is also a highlight with lots of bright, pastel colors. ACCA is just a neat little package of an anime that I appreciated watching for being something a little different. Have to say though, I’m not sure how much this will stick to me in the long run. Some of the world, maybe, and definitely the art style/colors, but not really the characters or plot.

All Out!! [6/10]

What initially drew me to All Out!! is a) rugby, never seen that sport before in an anime and b) incredible diversity in body types with a very wide variation in height, muscularity (although most are muscular guys), and weight (never seen so many chubby guys in an anime). So, while All Out!! does have some things that set it apart, unfortunately in literally every other way, it’s pretty much exactly the same as other sports anime. The protagonist is, OF COURSE, a newbie who joins the sport for the first time as a high school freshman. He’s overly energetic and most of the rest of the team thinks he’s annoying, but he’s super motivated and improves at an incredible rate. And he has another freshman friend who is a lot more experienced and naturally talented at the sport who serves a foil (especially since they have opposite personalities). The captain is an extremely motivated guy who’s tough on his team, but he’s also incredibly protective of them ie. team dad, and so on. The cliches just don’t stop...

That doesn’t mean AO is unenjoyable, just that the unique elements in the beginning wore off rather quickly and I was left with another run-of-the-mill sports anime (especially since this show is 25 episodes and not 12). My ratings for sports anime thus far have worked on a different scale than most other anime simply because sports is such an unusual genre with its own strict conventions that I have no choice but to rate them compared only to others in the genre. That means if sports anime were judged relative to the rest of anime I’ve seen, they would be rated lower (by between .5-1 points) because 95% of them have the exact same plot and many of the exact same characters. 

I mention this because as I’ve watched more and more sports anime, my standards have steadily been getting higher and are finally starting to match the rest of my rating scale. If this was one of the first sports anime I ever watched, it would easily be an 8/10. Now, as the dozenth sports anime I’ve seen, it’s only a 6/10. I am finally getting really tired of the old sports anime cliches and want more unique experiences. That’s why I praised Baby Steps so much for being different when I recently saw it. Looking back, I may have to re-rate some of the other sports anime I’ve seen, especially more recently like Days of the Summer/Fall seasons last year.

So, do I regret watching All Out!!? No, it has some good and fun stuff in there. Will I watch if there’s another season of it? Probably (even though I don’t necessarily want to) because I only avoid sequels if I give the first series a 5/10 or less... even then sometimes I’ll keep watching for the sake of keeping up (fcking K). Would I recommend AO in the end? Nah, unless you’re really interested in rugby.

ClassicaLoid [8/10]

I... feel almost ashamed to give this show such a high rating. Looking at MAL, my score is a whole 1.53 points higher than the standard deviation, and one of the most incongruous scores I’ve ever given - in the positive direction. In the negative direction, I happen to have some highly unpopular opinions on anime like Erased, Sword Art Online, and Mirai Nikki. 

For a long while, I just couldn’t decide on a score. Normally, I know pretty early on what score I’m going to give an anime, give or take a point in either direction (or two if the anime pulls something towards the end). By the end of a show’s airing, I usually pretty much know exactly what I want to give it. (This doesn’t apply so much to my precise ratings, but rather the broad score I give on MAL.)

For ClassicaLoid, I didn’t know whether I wanted to give this show a “guilty pleasure, I know this show is bad but I enjoyed it a lot” 6/10 rating, a “fuck it, because I loved this show that much 8/10 rating”, or a 7/10 as the balanced alternative. As you can see, I ultimately decided on an 8 (more specifically a low 8, but an 8 nonetheless) in the end. Yes, I really do love this show, and I did find it just that enjoyable and hilarious. It’s one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen recently and definitely my favorite comedy of 2016 (over the likes of Sakamoto Desu Ga? and Handa-kun).

The thing about ClassicaLoid is that if I didn’t love the characters so much and find it funny, it would be a pretty bad show. It seems pretty polarizing because a lot of people think this show is stupid and hate it for that reason. In my opinion, it is stupid, but it has some self-awareness and never takes itself seriously. The other thing is the humor. If the humor does not gel with you, you will hate this show, and that’s also highly subjective and polarizing. I think the humor is spot on most of the time, with great comedic timing and gags. There’s also, I guess, the “gimmick” of the show which is arguably the whole point - the remixes of classical music in the vocaloid style. 

Tbh, I’m not at all familiar with vocaloids and even so, I found the remixes to be mostly average or even a bit cringeworthy. They were the weakest part for me, but that only applies to the songs themselves. The actual visuals that accompanied the almost once-an-episode sequences? They were not bad. Sometimes they were even funny or resulted in hilarious things (Schubert’s fish adventure comes to mind), but most of the time they were a pretty mindless distraction. 

One of the real strengths is the characters. I seriously either love the characters* or I like them. They bring life to the show with their varied personalities. It’s kind of amazing because many of them skirt the line between being one-note quirky archetypes and actually being kind of deep. My favorites include (in no particular order):

- Kanae, who is mostly the straight man character, but plays beautifully off the rest of the cast because she has to put up with so much shit, but has her own silly and selfish sides. (Also, she’s one terrible idol.)

- Schubert, definitely my favorite classicaloid of the bunch. I was kind of surprised because he was introduced a little later than the rest, but Schu is so genuine... so weird, yet so underappreciated in-universe that I think is the opposite irl. His unpopularity is what makes him popular in the first place because aside from being a catty bitch to Mozart (who deserves it, btw), he tries really hard to be a good person.

- Liszt, who is amazing, I love that she’s badass and reliable (the only one who pays rent) but also a sucker for love. And she’s basically a trans women, isn’t she? She’s not the only originally-male-irl classicaloid to be given a female body, but she’s the only one who completely embraces it. 

- Chopin, who in my opinion is a little underused, although that’s partially justified because he’s always hiding. He’s definitely the most relateable, being a shut-in who just on the computer all day playing games or watching stuff (sounds familiar), but he’s also blunt af and has such witty lines. 

- Beethoven, I initially had mixed feelings on him, but came to love him over time. See, he may be voiced by my favorite voice actor (Tomokazu Sugita), but at first all his jokes revolved around GYOZA!!! and being a gigantic fucking ham. It got old kind of fast, but thankfully he gets more jokes and depth over time. I especially love his dynamic with Kanae and Schubert.

*The sole exception is Mozart. Here is where I rant about Mozart because thaT FUCKING PUNK BITCH IS THE WORST, AND IT SUCKS THAT HE’S A MAIN CHARACTER WHO GETS SO MUCH SCREEN TIME AND EPISODES DEDICATED TO HIM. ... Okay, I’m gonna calm down. I’ll stop shouting now and explain why I hate this pos. Here we go: He. Is. Not. Funny. Or. Likable. In fact, the only one who is not funny or likable. He’s always annoying, unhelpful, sexually harassing Kanae, and genuinely a terrible person except when it benefits him. Actually, the problem is not even that he’s terrible, but rather that he’s terrible and gets away with it. 

Compare him to someone like Sousuke, who’s a little similar in some ways, except... hey, get this, there are consequences (funny consequences) when he’s being a douche. Sousuke, along with Schubert, are the butt monkeys of the ensemble. Sousuke is even referred to as “tool” by Liszt and mostly everyone else. If Mozart was also a butt monkey, he would be a lot more tolerable, except he’s not. Mozart behaves like an annoying dick 98% of the time and the anime has the fucking audacity to try and make him sympathetic. 

I also have to bring up his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, who is easily my least favorite voice actor, so maybe I do have some inherent bias against him. See, if Mozart were played by someone who’s not annoying as shit, then maybe he would’ve been more likable, but Yuki Kaji has the range of a triangle (he’s one-note). Compare him to Beethoven, who could easily be so fucking obnoxious, except he’s played by the exceptionally talented and charismatic Tomokazu Sugita. /sighs. Well, I think I’m done ranting now.

Finally, I want to cover the jokes. It’s true, at first they appear to be of the very “lol random xD” type humor, but I think they are deceptively well constructed. There were many episodes where I was laughing out loud and some episodes where I spent the entire time laughing my ass off (again, I bring up the Schubert fish incident). With a few exceptions, I don’t think the humor or gags ever got old because the anime keeps doing more and more with the characters, throwing them into crazy situations. The absurdity of it all is hilarious and the likableness of most of the characters supports it. 

I’m probably one of 10 people in the west who is very excited and happy that there’s a season 2. Only two more seasons left until it’s back :D.

Nanbaka [6/10] / Season 2 [4/10]

I’m put in kind of an awkward position by this show... At first, it was going to be published with the Fall 2016 Roundup until I realized that there was going to be a second season. So then I delayed it for Winter 2017 except the quality of the show has gone down significantly between the first and second season. I wrote most of my thoughts for the first season already, so I’m just gonna talk about season one first by itself and then compare it to season two. Here are my thoughts on S1:

At first glance, yes, the character designs are incredibly silly… an anime podcast I listen to described them as “deviantart ocs”, (which is not too inaccurate), and everything sparkles like a shoujo manga for some mysterious reason. But aside from the strange design choices, the humor was pretty solid and characters are pretty likable. Not just the main 4 characters, but Hajime (my favorite) and the other prison wardens, and their fellow prisoners all have a charm to them.

The first half of the show is pretty damn funny, definitely a solid 7/10, but then the New Years competition arc starts and the pacing screeches to a halt. There are four whole episodes dedicated to this arc and they actually introduce a plot, drama, and some intense action near the end. It comes out of nowhere. The problems don’t stop there, unfortunately. I can forgive the terrible pacing somewhat if they kept up the laughs, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the genre switches and suddenly becomes a drama with a whole conspiracy plot about some of the main characters. Insofar, the only comedy anime I’ve seen pull off dramatic arcs is Gintama (but as I’ve said even that gets tiring after a while). Nanbaka is simply not as well-written as Gintama in either way, and the actual “plot” was a total let down compared to the humor which I genuinely liked.

This plot continues for another few episodes and it takes a little while to get back to the laughs. Humor and characters are the only thing this anime kind of nails. When the author attempts drama, it turns into another generic shounen anime. What a shame. If this anime stuck to being a pure comedy, I definitely would’ve rated it higher.

Ohhhhh boy, now onto season two. My worst fears for the anime basically happened. Imagine the New Years Competition arc I just complained about. Now, slow down the pacing another 500%, take out all the humor from the first season, and chuck in some boring ass cliche shounen crap. That is what S2 is in its entirety. It’s like they sucked out all the fun and hilarity of the first season just to “advance” the plot. I put advance in quotes because the pacing is seriously glacial. It rotates between plot exposition/backstory and “action” comparable to a Naruto filler arc for the entire run time. 

For example, my favorite character Hajime gets locked in a jail cell early on. Then some of the jail mates (including Jyugo, the main character) decide to break him out a little while later in the show. Guess when they reach Hajime? If you guessed the very last episode, you’d be correct! Inbetween is just pointless, boring fight after pointless, boring fight and fucking endless exposition! Either the character talks for minutes on end about their powers or the strategy of their enemies or about some thing in the past or there’s a flashback/backstory explaining the characters (by the way, a whole bunch of new characters are introduced except without the humor, they’re all shit) or the plot, it’s just UGH. 

Halfway through, I came to dread Nanbaka. Most of the time, I would put on the show and zone out as much as possible, although in reality, I spent a lot of time bitterly remembering how funny the first season is and how it actually had characters I liked in them doing funny shit and being likable. If the first season was a lot of fun but was bogged down by the action/drama, then the second season is the bog. Watching it is liking wading through a swamp about waist high. It won’t kill you and it’s doable, but it’s unpleasant, tedious, and you rather wished you just walked around it. 

If you really want to enjoy the show, just watch season one. Even then I only recommend the first half and the last couple of episodes. AVOID SEASON TWO AT ALL COSTS. I am certain there’s going to be a season three later this year or next year, but hopefully I’ll resist the temptation to watch it just because I watched the first two seasons.

God, it makes so angry how this show could’ve been a fairly pleasant humorous affair but ruins it completely and chucks it in the fucking garbage disposal. Way to waste your potential, Nanbaka.

Onihei [6/10]

Onihei is... unremarkable, but not a hard watch either. It’s just... alright? Very very middle of the road, but I can kind of appreciate that because it didn’t require much effort on me to watch, and I could just enjoy it without thinking too much about it. It helps that I’m already into samurai, but I admit I was hoping for more initially. Once I accepted that it was just going to be a simple collection of samurai/pre-modern japanese stories, then I began to enjoy it more. 

My biggest complaint is that there were too many episodes not focused on Heizo (aka Onihei, the main character). Heizo really was the best part of the show, and I liked it most when they focused on him and his backstory, but about a quarter of the show is about other characters that I just didn’t really care for aside from two or three of them. It’s fine that this show is mostly episodic, but because it frequently shifts focus, it is quite inconsistent because some episodes are better than others.

There’s also the fact the show looks very cheaply made, especially in those creepy ass CGI people in background shots. It has almost a B-movie feel, but not as much of the B-movie charm as I’d like. Still, it’s not really bad at all. It’s a good thing I like historical anime and that the main character is great because that is what pushes it up from a 5 to a solid 6. 

Trickster [5/10]

First, let me just say that Trickster baited me - and baited me successfully with the promise of attractive boys and homoerotic subtext. At least it delivered and pretty much met my expectations 100%, but unfortunately, it did not surprise me by being better than I thought it would be. It’s kind of a pity because Trickster actually has pretty good production values, but it falters in more important places: the characters and plot. Both of those elements are pretty clumsily handled. If not that, then they feel cliche, like I’ve already seen [x type] character and [y] trope countless times.

The characters in particular I feel like could’ve made up for the plot, but the anime chooses to focus on the least interesting ones (yes, I know this is a book adaptation). The main character, Kobayashi, is unlikable from the start and even when you unlock his tragic backstory late in the anime, it feels too little too late and it’s another overused trope. Hanasaki, the character who probably gets the most screen time is... actually alright. He’s annoying at first too, but his character development is not handled that badly either. The best characters are probably Inoue and Akechi; the former barely gets any attention at all, and the latter’s subplot is so fragmented by the rest of the characters and their own plots that it gets lost.

In fact, what I just said may just sum up the biggest problem I have with this anime. The whole thing feels fractured, like the writer wanted to give all the main characters (except poor Inoue) their dues, but didn’t know how to tie their separate plots together elegantly or didn’t know how to give all of them development/depth in one flowing plot. With tighter focus, I’m sure it would’ve turned out better, but the cliches and their rather bland execution still drag it all down.

The production values do deserve some praise though. The voice acting is great as always and the animation is overall good, but the music and direction had some standout moments that really elevated certain parts of the show. Unfortunately, the overall mediocreness of Trickster put it at a 5/10.

Thunder Force 4: Switch SEGA AGES

Original Release Date: July 24, 1992 (JPN)

Original Hardware: SEGA Mega Drive

Thunder Force 3 had been a great early example of what SEGA’s 16-bit hardware could do, showing off ridiculously high-quality visuals in a speedy, action-packed shooter. A couple of years later, however, other games had arrived that pushed the system to a similar degree. What more could developer Technosoft do but try to top its previous effort? The job fell to a different team this time, who were committed to honoring the work of their predecessors by making a sequel that felt true to the series. While it’s arguable as to whether or not Thunder Force 4 is better than the third game on the whole, fans certainly weren’t displeased. It retains the same core gameplay as the fantastic third installment, but kicks up the visuals and throws in even more content than the already-robust Thunder Force 3.

As in the previous game, you get to choose the order in which you tackle the initial set of four stages. In total, the game spans ten rather large stages that, in spite of largely scrolling horizontally, offer quite a bit of vertical space compared to other shoot-em-ups of the time. Thorough exploration will reveal power-ups and extremely valuable extra lives, the latter of which being a virtual necessity to see the game through to its ending. Your ship can carry five different weapons, and partway through the game you’ll be given one more extra-powerful attack. You can switch between the five main weapons freely once you’ve got them, and using each one in the right situation is vital to survival. Other power-ups include a shield that will protect you from a couple of hits, and Gradius-style optional crafts that stop certain bullets and widen your attack capabilities. You can also adjust your craft’s speed whenever you like, allowing you to slow down for more careful maneuvers or speed up to run circles around larger foes.

The SEGA AGES version of the game adds a few options, some of which are drawn from the Saturn port of the game. For example, clearing the game allows you to play it again with the ship from Thunder Force 3, which has slightly different weapons. The usual options are present here as well, including filters, sound options, save states, and the ability to swap regions. The Kids Mode that made its debut in the SEGA 3D Classics version of Thunder Force 3 has also been added to this sequel. It’s basically the same content as the normal mode, but whenever you die, you return fully powered-up. This is a pretty tough game, so it’s nice to have some options to make getting through it a little easier. It’s still quite a challenge even in Kids Mode, though, so don’t think you’ll just be touring through. Powered up or not, you can still be diced to tatters by the bosses if you’re not careful.

I’m going to try not to harp on this every time, but the 3D effect in the 3D Classics version of the previous game looked so good that it’s hard not to miss it here. Technosoft loved to lean on parallax scrolling to create the illusion of depth and layers, and that all really popped nicely in 3D. Sadly, you’ll have to rely on your paltry human eyes to imagine the depth this time. Nevertheless, Thunder Force 4 (I will never call it Lightening Force) is a great port of a wonderful shoot-em-up, adding yet another legendary classic to the Switch’s already healthy library. It goes well with Sonic as part of the initial volley of SEGA AGES. While Sonic shows that the most famous and market-friendly titles will be coming, Thunder Force 4 reminds us that we can expect plenty of titles aimed at the hardcore fans, too.

Play It Because: You have got to see its weird, overly-dramatic ending.

Bonus Trivia: The team that created this game was previously dedicated to making ports of existing games, such as Devil’s Crush on the Genesis.

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