This blog is about Anime, Music and Video Games. I write reviews, analytical articles and some casual observations. I intend to instill good taste among the shit taste plebs. I also occasionally write about other topics that interest me.
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Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - Rather unusual but interesting and fun anime.
I recommend watching.
In a world where too many creators cannot replicate the usual moe formula right because of their feminist views or opposition to female sexual exploitation. we occasionally get shows that, while not trying to be moe, end up being more moe that those who try to be moe. This show is one such show.
The show is, as paradoxical as it sounds, a colourful horror. It is one of the interpretations of traditional Japanese 7 school ghosts, called wonders here. Each ghost is associated with certain area of school and will show up at certain times, like midnight of if contacted in certain way. In this case the main protagonist is one such ghosts, but you get to see others too.
Most of the time these ghosts are deadly, and this show is no exception. Some students end up dying offscreen and main protagonists try to stop that. Though it's not like a typical ghost anime where students decided to contact one of the ghosts in a attempt to show their bravery only to find out the ghost really does exist and now wants to kill then.
The protagonist ghost, Hanako aka Amane, can be contacted by knocking on one of the toilet stall doors in a female toilet on the third floor, yes, that specific. He ostensively could make someone's relationship work out or help people find love. The protagonist girl, Yashiro, who tried contacting him, ended up turned into half fish and was instead bound to him as his new assistant and toilet cleaner.
I kind of like Yashiro. The amount of air in her head is so vast, it is refreshing and spacious. You just want to fill this space with your own ideas. Much better that girls whose brains are cluttered with feminist nonsense or gold-digging and manhating ideas their parents and society taught them. Yashiro is dreamy, naive and dumb in a cute way airhead. She also has a Stockholm syndrome, a likable trait for a girl. World would be a better place if more girls were like Yashiro.
Hanako is somewhat relatable actually. He seems like carefree at first, but actually rather sharp and capable if he puts his mind to it. He also has dark past that makes him go all groom, dark and brooding sometimes. A character with personality depth. As a ghost, he avoids his brother whom he killed when he was alive and who now also a ghost who looks just like Hanako himself. I can see some of my own traits in Hanako, particularly the alteration between, carefree mood, sharp intelligence and the dark brooding. I did not kill anyone though... however there are number of people I wish were dead, hopefully by a fortunate accident or COVID-19 infection because I do not want to bother killing them myself.
Art is nice too. Its colourful, but tasteful, without oozing ugliness that some other "colourful" shows have.
Not all is sunshine though. Side characters leave to be desired. No likable girls aside from Yashiro and no likable guys either.
On the summary however it is a solid show, not a breakthrough or a masterpiece but a fun and enjoyable experience that you might even want to rewatch one day. Solid 7.
In the end of my previous article about World of Warcraft I mentioned 5 most and least favorite zones. Many of these were opposite of what other players call their favorites. Here I decided to write a little bit about each zone and why I liked or disliked them.
Ashenvale (also Teldrassil and Darnassus as they use the same palette and art) This one is rather unsurprising for me personally. I already mentioned that I like Night Elves in WoW as well as their zone. I ever wrote why. While I can vaguely tell why say few players call Eastern Plaguelands their favorite zone, it is rather surprising why hardly anyone names Ashenvale among their favorites.
Ashenvale is Night Elves and Night Elves are Ashenvale. This zone and all that is within them define this race and its civilization. Constant night, gloving shrubs on the side of paved roads. Magical trees, driads, ancient ruins, wisps. There are mystery and magic in every corner. This is a zone you just cannot imagine existing in real life and that is what is good about it. It is unmistakenly otherworldly. It also reflects well on Night Elves as people; they are ancient mysterious. They were great once and mighty once and ruins scattered around them is testament to that. Just looking at what was left of them allows you to imagine just how great this civilization was in its prime. It was much greater, timeless, eternal even than anything else this world has. Night Elves who leave among the remnants of that ancient civilization reflect its glory a lot better than Blood Elves with their rather shoddy constructs. You can also learn more of Night Elves former glory by visiting Dire Maul dungeon in Feralas.
Ashenvale is definitive outlandish zone of magical mystery of night and a definitive fantasy.
Azshara is one of the most underrated zones in WoW. There are few quests there and no real questing hubs, so few people ever visit there. High cliffs make navigation challenging and annoying. Yes, practical reasons do not favor this zone, but I like it not because of that but because of how it looks and feels.
Azshara is Night Elf biome meets autumn beauty. Autumn is a peculiar season, sang and acclaimed by poets such as Pushkin in some of their most famous poems. I may be biased as I was born in the middle of this season, but I find autumn beautiful, not as much as tropical beach paradise such as Maldives and Teneriffe, but beautiful, nonetheless. Speaking of tropical paradises, Azshara has lots of coastline with beautiful beaches inhabitant by Nagas. Sea there is large and bountiful, many small rocks and islands, one is even a home to a mysterious hermit, Loramus, surrounded by several felhounds. More inland areas have Night Elven Hyppogryphs and mountain giants. All of them manage to coexist in peace and serenity. Serenity is one of the defining feels of this zone, everything is so magically peaceful, minds its own business and does not bother you. Beaches and the sea have a hint of sunset tinge to them, just at the perfect moment of evening twilight. Finally, there are even more Highborne ruins than in other Elven zones.
All in all, Azshara is the definitive zone of twilight of the Highborne civilization. I was almost inclined to rate it higher than Ashenvale, but eternal night and mystery edges it by a bit.
Desolace is often named as one of the least popular zones by other players. Some sure will be surprised to see it among my favorites. Nonetheless it is not a typo or mistake, I like Desolace and I will explain why.
Desolace is a place of large spaces, even larger kodo bones. Middle is a gray desert, but it is a very spacious desert that make you feel free and unencumbered. There is something eternal about all these bones and long wide roads that cut across this endless space. It feels you can go anywhere and keep going there for as long as you want. Horizon has a sunset feel to it. There are occasional statues and other monumental structures here and there, that gives you a hint it's not completely empty or barren.
However, far western and far eastern sides of Desolace have even more to offer. Far western areas have sparce vegetation, growing on the rocky cliffs, a biome peculiar to Greece and Greek islands. It has a unique rare beauty, that few manage to notice over the noise around them. Deep inland areas in contrast have satyrs and demons, together with the darkness they bring with them. As a warlock player, I do not find demonic darkness unpleasant, I would not be playing as warlock otherwise. In contrast I find it curious and stimulating, something to indulge myself into.
All in all, Desolace has a lot more to offer than what initially meets the eye. And that is without even touching Maraudon, that has some very interesting areas inside.
Westfall is probably the most normal zone of my favorites. Something others can possibly relate to.
Westfall is another more prosaic face of autumn: golden fields, ready to for harvest. Harvest is a very pleasant time for a farmer. Westfall combines some of the elements from Azshara and Desolace. From Azshara is takes autumn and from Desolace the space. It is a zone for those who like colour yellow, and I do like it. It is the colour of gold, sun, beer, butter and bread as well as the warm light inside a hospitable home. Westfall is ultimate livable zone, even more so than say Elvyn Forest. Its peaceful, its spacious and it even has some variety, a town, a tower, a mine, a coast a lighthouse and even a river. You can see far and wide there and that gives me certain comfort.
Westfall is warm, dry, cozy and very livable, what not to like.
Eastern Plaguelands is probably the hardest to understand. Toxic mist, ruins, decay, corruption and scourge monsters everywhere. Why would anyone like it?
The reason Plaguelands are here is because it is also an ultimate fantasy zone, a be it in this case it is a dark fantasy. Plaguelands is an example of how far a Scourge can go to twist and pervert everything in their image. Western Plagueland are half finished product while Eastern Ones are the complete work. It's all dead there, only undead roam the ruins.
However, seeing this monstrarium roaming the plains and even being one of them is one of the reasons people play fantasy games to begin with. In a game you can be a monster too, unaffected by the plague, you roam around, killing the innocent helpless humans and animals that dare to venture there.
Plaguelands also make a good backdrop for a tragic story of heroism where brave heroes took their last stand against the Scourge, fell and now roam these lands as undead. Stories like these drive fantasy forward. Lack of lands as desolated as Plaguelands in later expansion makes their storytelling cheap in comparison, whatever egg problem these dragons of Dragonflight are having, it's hardly more important and tragic that this.
Desolation of Plaguelands is what drives the story of World of Warcraft forward and gives meaning to many efforts, players put in the game.
Least favorite zones
Un'Goro is often mentioned as favorite zone by many players out there. Dinosaurs roam there and titans left something behind too. Why I hate it instead?
Un'Goro it just to green to my taste. It's completely unfiltered wilderness with nothing but wilderness. It's all green, green and nothing but green; you can't see the sky or more than 25 meters ahead. There is not a single building or something from a civilization. Despite being rather flat, it's hard to navigate and easy to get lost there. Everyone trying to eat you and most of them are hard to notice as they are as green as everything else here. There is even a green haze to make even non-green things greener. It's as digestible as eating lemons or sugar cubes raw without even drinking water along the way.
Redridge Mountains are also single colour like Un'Goro but too red instead. Mountains are reddish, roofs are red and there is hardly anything else aside from red in that zone. For an early level zone, it can be surprisingly hard to navigate, these mountains are very tall. Not as hard as Azshara but Azshara is endgame zone, by the time you reach Azshara you have mounts and other tools. In Redridge its all on foot and it can take forever.
Overall, there is just not enough in this zone to make it interesting. Its redness keeps you alert rather than calm and happy.
Dun Morogh is dwarf starting zone. This is a snow zone, and I am no big fan of snow. Compared to a rival winter zone, Winterspring, Dun Morogh loses because its more mixed bag than Winterspring. Parts of Winterspring looks like a picturesque winter fairytale from books and stories. That is what puts Winterspting ahead of Dun Morogh. Winter in Dun Morogh is too ordinary and boring, just everyone keeps going on despite the cold and shit. Not my cup of coffee.
Wetlands are another mostly dwarven zone, there is human settlement, but progression leads you there from dwarven Loch Modan. Wetlands is a dark swampy zone with not much interesting going on. It's kind of lost in the middle of nowhere, there are some orks, dark iron dwarfs, murlocs, gnolls and even ghosts of Kul'Tiran humans. It has no cohesive theme and overall, rather bleak. Yes, Dustwallow Marsh is even bleaker, darker and swampier, but it has white and shiny Theramore island, dragon areas and a Goblin outpost and a crashed zeppeling full of strange tech.
Finally, Feralas and north Strangelthorn Vale are much like Un'Goro, but Feralas has Dire Maul and Strangthorn has overall warmer shade of green that appeal to me more than one from Un'Goro. Stranglethorn Vale has many nicer areas mostly in the south around Booty Bay, but north is just too much wilderness.
I can mention a few more areas, but I will leave it at that instead. I think that gives good idea just what I like and why.
Overall Rating 3.3 out of 10 - Bad show with unlikable characters and annoying drama
I do not recommend watching
In anime industry there are sometimes shows that do not really understand what they are doing. Shows like these sometimes try really hard at doing something that just does not resonate with public.
However, there are also shows, or more precise certain creators, who know how it's done but decide to screw it over anyway. It is hard to tell if they do so to troll the viewers, because they are too bored or have certain determination to make a show that public will not like for their personal reasons. Release the Spyce is of this category.
Release the Spyce has appealing art of cute girls in cute ninja-like outfits with pleated skirts, crescent moon logo and what not, perfect for waifu show. If Futoku no Guild will do their show with these characters instead of their own, it will be 7.5 That followed by rather fun first episode that shows what this show is theoretically capable of to further entice viewers to stay and watch.
From there however it goes to shit decisively fast and then equally decisively stays so for the next three episodes. I dropped after that, but I do not think it will recover from there.
After cool battle action of first episode, we go towards internal drama in the spy agency. Couple of early episodes give you certain benefit of a doubt that it just an introductory part and we will get to action once they finally accept the pink haired protagonist as regular member. However, even afterwards drama continues.
There are 6 girls in the agency, but they are divided into 3 apprentices and 3 mentors. Dynamics between apprentice and mentor is the worst thing possible. Apprentice works hard to be approved and do reckless things, putting themselves and everyone else in danger, just to get acknowledged. All that followed by lengthy scolding, blaming, apologising and another annoying drama. Plenty of guilt, self-blame and other emotions I do not want to see. Watching this is painfully unpleasant like eating raw cactus mixed with clay and dirt.
It was supposed to be a waifu shows: where are all the scenes of cute ninja girls, tied up in compromising poses? Even the problem children, I reviewed not so long ago, figured that out by the time of OVA.
None of the girls have likable enough personality, which is rather hard to pull off with 6 characters in the show. One eyed girl's behavior reminds me of my dad, whom I hate a lot. She treats pink hair harsh and cruel (whole crew sick of her rule and want to mutiny and invite the pirates on board to disperse justice), then apologises for to the other members of agency to make pink hair feel even worse.
Antagonists are not that much better; they are weirder that menacing or interesting. Finally, battles are rather sketchy. Sometimes they skip important scenes so it's hard to follow what is going on. Clearly the creators wasted all their effort on that annoying drama.
Overall, it is an anime's equivalent of a clickbait. It's not a cute fighting waifus show but rather a guild and cruel treatment girl drama mess.
Yesterday I wrote an article about songs that made it on one side of Atlantic but somehow failed on the other. I made some conclusions, but time was limited and could not say all I wanted to. Overnight I thought about it again and decided that is not enough and even somewhat misleading. More has to be said to make the differences between Americans and the rest of the World clearer. Just saying what is popular and what isn't will not do much without analysing the reasons why this or that song worked or did not work either side of Atlantic.
I will begin with Hang Up by Madonna, normally her songs are popular on both sides of the pond, but this one is a clear outlier, being hot in Europe but ignored in the US. So, it cannot be explained with lack of exposure and such, something in the song repealed American viewers but not European ones.
After some pondering I concluded that is probably has something to do with feminism and objectifying women. Half of the music video shows Madonna shakes her ass on camera. In America being politically correct and morally upright matters a lot so such explicit exploitation of female body probably offended American sentiments and song failed in the US.
In Europe and Australia however, people find nothing wrong with objectifying females, those who do find it offensive are told to drink beer until they no longer think so. So, Hang Up did not offended anyone and song was a hit.
Now for the Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood (did I remember her name correctly). This one is simple actually. Why would anyone find it acceptable when anyone vandalises your car and other belongings for any reason? Here world is united that such behavior is unacceptable and ignores the song that endorses it. As a non-American it more puzzling for me why Americans like this song?
Generally, Europe and the world, has a lot less tolerance towards wild female behavior. What is OK in the US will get women arrested or deported elsewhere, even in stereotypically wild countries like Australia, that actually not that wild at all. More details below.
American runner up was Higher by Creed. Here European stereotypes actually explain it. Europeans are much less religious that Americans so a religion inspired rock will not do well in Europe. Difference in Creed's popularity on different sides of the Atlantic proves that.
On the other hand, Imagine by John Lennon, anti-war British song, did poorly in the US because his vision of better world without war included no religion.
Another outlying song was Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue. Americans normally like Australian things but this song somehow was unpopular in the US despite being liked elsewhere across the globe. The reason for that is that in the US this song somehow got associated with gay culture despite the song not having any homosexual references in lyrics and is about heterosexual love.
In general, certain songs in the US somehow become so called gay anthems, despite nothing in their lyrics or artists suggest anything homosexual at all. That is part of American tendency towards identity politics/signalling. A lot of rather boring songs, that get no traction elsewhere, somehow become popular in the US because they become identity anthem of one or the other group. The rest of the world does not do that and instead listen to what sounds nice. That will also explain why Europop does poorly in the US as that too gets associated with gay culture.
A final note, while Europeans fooling around, pretending to be Americans in their music videos, Americans do it IRL, pretending to be Australians and by Australians, I mean Steve Irvin. Recently an American women got deported from Australia for kidnapping a Wombat's baby and filming it on camera. She probably imagined herself to be next Steve Irvin and thought it will be OK to do something like that in his country of origin. Turned out it was not. Just cause Steve Irvin did it does not mean its legal. Even if he did it, he followed certain rules and precautions, it was a show on camera, not a reality show.
Fundamentally however it's also a stereotype driven behavior where Americans assume that all Aussies are like Steve Irvin and wrestle with crocks daily. Most Australians will hardly touch any wildlife other than very peaceful Koalas, who are local favorites. It's because wildlife here sometimes dangerous that we do not touch them, just in case to be safe.
I will live it at that at least for now, maybe I will think of more to add later. I analysed some of the songs, but not all of them. So, I recommend watching full videos, linked in the very beginning of the article. I will link them again here: one and two. You will be able to see for yourself what works and what not.
In several of my articles, particularly those about communism, Russia and the West I used to write on how different American stereotypes about Russia are compared to the actual Russia as well as the other way around. What people choose to believe is far from reality.
Turns out I am not alone on that. I recently watched a video, comparing popularity of different songs in the US compare to the rest of the world. First, they made a list of most "American" songs: songs that were popular in the US but were not popular elsewhere. They followed by a second video about songs that were popular outside the US but somehow never managed to win Americans.
To make this objective, the organisers used the archival charts of the most popular song from the US and a selection of other countries. They aimed to find songs that topped the charts on one side of the Atlantic but ignored across the pond. Watch the full video on details. Before revealing the results, they offered a range of Youtubers from different countries to make a guess on what songs would top the charts.
The results did not confirm any stereotypes that people assume of the US and Europe. Before looking at data, youtubers speculated that songs acclaiming America, eagle screaming, gun blazing, like Born in the USA would become US only hits. That turned out not to be the case, the song did not even make top 10.
Most of the America only songs were rather quiet and timid even. They had rather simple melodies and lyrics about either about love or various identity issues peculiar to American life. As a European I never heard any of them. That said most of them sound too bland to appeal to me and I think other Europeans are of the same opinion.
Another distinct feature was presence of several Australian artists, that Australians themselves are not familiar with. I say that as a person who lived in Australia for two decades. Clearly Americans have some peculiar interest in Australia for some reason.
The overall winner however Carrie Underwood with Before He Cheats. Outside of the US most remember her as someone who sand on Trump's inauguration. That was also the first time I heard of her and immediately forget about her afterwards.
More surprises however came from songs that were loved by the world but ignored by Americans. A lot of it was so called Europop, German Boney M had most songs across several charts but, as far as I can remember, have not topped any of them. However, there were many songs from prominent American singers, including Hang Up by Madonna and Shut Up by Black Eyed Peas. Even King of Pop himself, Elvis Presley, managed to appear in one of the charts.
However, even among Europop, clearly America themed songs, such as Barbie Girl, somehow won hearts of Europeans but not Americans themselves. What happened to the stereotype of snobbish Europeans, turning noses away from anything American.
Here winner was Hung Up by Madonna. Isn't that as American as you can get? Al least in Europe we think that Madonna is like essence of Americanness. That nice unique melodic jingle makes it so memorable.
So, what can we take from all that aside from the fact that this disproves all the stereotypes?
Despite the stereotype of being eagle screaming, gun touting, Americans are actually very fond of simple quiet songs, sang by equally simple and plain people. If you look at these songs a little deeper, you can notice that many of these singers seems struggle singing, as if it's something they are not too comfortable talking about or something that holds a lot of meaning for them personally.
Combine this with rather plain melodies and it's clear that these songs are lyrics driven. It's the meaning behind these lyrics that make them popular in the US. Kind of like Kino and Victor Tsoi is for Russia. For Americans music is first of all a song and melody is secondary.
However, this meaning is lost to people outside of the US as culture and life differences makes it impossible to relate to what they sing about.
In contrast global favorites tend to have catchy melodies and memorable performance. You can hardly find a single song where melody have nothing memorable about it. If melody is not memorable it is not going to be remembered, as simple as that. Words and lyrics come secondary and often have to complement the melody rather than the other way around. Often lyrics have few easy to hear and remember phrases that get stuck in the brain and make people remember the song.
Europe and the world speak variety different languages. Words that make sense to some do not make any sense to others. However, a good catchy melody can be understood no matter what language you speak.
Another surprising thing is the fact that global favorites a lot stronger scream America than American own favorites. Americans themselves shy away from their Americanness while Europeans find playing Americacans to be the thing to do.
Almost like a quote from a Gothic King of Dark Ages: "Wealthy Goth plays Roman, poor Roman plays Goth." That means wealthy members of Gothic people liked adopt many aspects of Roman culture and tried to be as Roman as possible. In contrast poor Romans imitated Goth instead.
In our modern world lefty Americans adopt faux European culture to look fancy and sophisticated in the eyes of their American peers. In contrast European bands do not hesitate to sing in English, adopt American stereotypes and pretend they are Americans in their music videos. In both cases the stereotypes they imitate are far from reality of what each side of Atlantic is like. Europeans are not culturally left; Americans are not what they look like in Rednex music videos.
Another thing that stands out is that global favorites are more explicit that American ones. That not only applies to singer's appearance, but also to the lyrics and overall feel. Americans perhaps have certain reverence towards love, relationship, identity and some other things, not something the rest of the world feels the same about. When it comes to American songs that somehow missed out in American charts but made it globally, it is likely that they crossed certain taboos that exist in American society and thus were taken down. The rest of the world do not share these taboos however and embraced these songs instead.
Finally, another thing that world appreciate more than Americans is humor, particularly irony. Most of Europop is subtly ironic. These are songs that make you laugh, not touch your heart. That is how world loves it. That also means that creative music videos and overall interesting performance is important for the success of the whole.
This difference in music tastes that disprove rather than affirmed the stereotypes that people often repeat about Americans and the Europeans. Its Europeans who pretend they are eagle screaming, gun blazing, haystack fucking Americans. Americans instead pretend to be lefty leaning, accepting, politically correct Europeans. That is how world is.
As a bonus I will link some of the faux American music videos by European bands, Barbie Girl by Danish Aqua, Cotton Eye Joe by Swedish Rednex and America by German Rammstein. I am not sure if they were released in the US or not. Perhaps some might consider them offensive to American feelings. In a sense that they are watch me do stupid like an American. That is why they kept them in Europe. On the other hand, maybe European irony is subtle enough to avoid offending Americans, I wonder really. Watch these and judge for yourself.
There is more text below after these videos.
In Depth Analysis
Yesterday I left it at that, but overnight I thought about it again and decided that is not enough. Just saying what is popular and what isn't will not do much without analysing the reasons why this or that song worked or did not work either side of Atlantic.
I will begin with Hang Up by Madonna, normally her songs are popular on both sides of the pond, but this one is a clear outlier, being hot in Europe but ignored in the US. So, it cannot be explained with lack of exposure and such, something in the song repealed American viewers but not European ones.
After some pondering I concluded that is probably has something to do with feminism and objectifying women. Half of the music video shows Madonna shakes her ass on camera. In America being politically correct and morally upright matters a lot so such explicit exploitation of female body probably offended American sentiments and song failed in the US.
In Europe and Australia however, people find nothing wrong with objectifying females, those who do find it offensive are told to drink beer until they no longer think so. So, Hang Up did not offended anyone and song was a hit.
Now for the Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood (did I remember her name correctly). This one is simple actually. Why would anyone find it acceptable when anyone vandalises your car and other belongings for any reason? Here world is united that such behavior is unacceptable and ignores the song that endorses it. As a non-American it more puzzling for me why Americans like this song?
Generally, Europe and the world, has a lot less tolerance towards wild female behavior. What is OK in the US will get women arrested or deported elsewhere, even in stereotypically wild countries like Australia, that actually not that wild at all. More details below.
American runner up was Higher by Creed. Here European stereotypes actually explain it. Europeans are much less religious that Americans so a religion inspired rock will not do well in Europe. Difference in Creed's popularity on different sides of the Atlantic proves that.
On the other hand, Imagine by John Lennon, anti-war British song, did poorly in the US because his vision of better world without war included no religion.
Another outlying song was Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue. Americans normally like Australian things but this song somehow was unpopular in the US despite being liked elsewhere across the globe. The reason for that is that in the US this song somehow got associated with gay culture despite the song not having any homosexual references in lyrics and is about heterosexual love.
In general, certain songs in the US somehow become so called gay anthems, despite nothing in their lyrics or artists suggest anything homosexual at all. That is part of American tendency towards identity politics/signalling. A lot of rather boring songs, that get no traction elsewhere, somehow become popular in the US because they become identity anthem of one or the other group. The rest of the world does not do that and instead listen to what sounds nice. That will also explain why Europop does poorly in the US as that too gets associated with gay culture.
A final note, while Europeans fooling around, pretending to be Americans in their music videos, Americans do it IRL, pretending to be Australians and by Australians, I mean Steve Irvin. Recently an American women got deported from Australia for kidnapping a Wombat's baby and filming it on camera. She probably imagined herself to be next Steve Irvin and thought it will be OK to do something like that in his country of origin. Turned out it was not. Just cause Steve Irvin did it does not mean its legal. Even if he did it, he followed certain rules and precautions, it was a show on camera, not a reality show.
Fundamentally however it's also a stereotype driven behavior where Americans assume that all Aussies are like Steve Irvin and wrestle with crocks daily. Most Australians will hardly touch any wildlife other than very peaceful Koalas, who are local favorites. It's because wildlife here sometimes dangerous that we do not touch them, just in case to be safe.
I will live it at that at least for now, maybe I will think of more to add later. I analysed some of the songs, but not all of them. So, I recommend watching full videos, linked in the very beginning of the article. I will link them again here: one and two. You will be able to see for yourself what works and what not.
Recently I have been watching the walkthroughs for older Assassin's Creed titles. Back in the days I played all of the older ones including Revelations but stopped short on third installment.
Since the beginning of the series, AC evolved from the original idea into a never-ending franchise with many installments. That evolution however was not well received by the old fans, many of whom grew from praising this series high to despising everything about it. To see an example of that, watch Yahtzee's reviews of the original and compare them to later installment.
As one of the older fans who heard about the series in 2006 and played it in 2007, I well remember what it was back then and what Ubisoft have promised us then. So can easily tell just how different the outcome was compared to what was promised. So, I decided to write down the story of the game as it was intended then compared to what it became.
Assassin's Creed known as a historical series, but that is only part of the picture, mere surface really. Original plot was much more ambitions that that: it intended to have an equal stand both in history and in modern world, bridging them together into rather ambition tale. A tale that could be called a conspiracy theory, if authors would not disclaim any claims to veracity and put in disclaimer that the story is work of fiction with no claim to historical accuracy. Nonetheless early AC games we very curious "what if" story, by filling the gaps in historical facts with a rather creative narrative, that leaves you wonder if that is what indeed have happened?
The starting point of the story was the Holy Grail. Back in Medieval times during Crusades there were talks about Holy Grail in the Holy Land, that ostensively has supernatural properties. There was even Arthurian legend about Sir Lancelot and the Holy Grail. Inspired by these stories, some crusaders even intended to find this Holy Grail, as they fought Muslims for control of the Holy Land. As Middle Age ended, the idea of Holy Grail with supernatural powers was dismissed as mere superstition and stories about it were relegated to the realm of fiction.
Assassin's Creed decided to speculate on that. What if a small group of Knights Templar indeed found a Holy Grail in the Holy Land and the device indeed possessed supernatural powers? The historical part of the game begins the moment where a certain assassin, Altair ibn la Ahud, interferes with the templars and steals the Grail for his order.
To top it up the contemporary part of the game begins with a secretive but very powerful corporation Abstergo, not only claiming to be the successor of the crusader era Knights Templar, but also that Holy Grail was not only real but was found by their members in the past. However, the above-mentioned Altair not only stole it from them but also assassinated everyone who knew been there when the grail was discovered. Believing that no man should wield the kind of power, grail has Altair hid it somewhere and then died. Ever since Templars searched for that, but all for naught.
However, as time passed and technology developed, Templars managed to create a device that can access genetic memories of people. With such a device they can find a descendant of that Altair, use the system on them to find out where Altair hid the grail and then go there to retrieve it. That is where Desmond, a kidnapped bartender and a descendant of Altair comes in. Abstergo kidnapped him to find out where Altair hid the grail.
However, when they started to use the genetic memory reader, animus, it glitched and refused to show the desired memory. After some tweaking, the engineer in charge, Vidic, figured they should instead access the memory, chronologically closest to the part where Altair hid the grail and gradually go from there towards the desired part. As Desmond re-lives memories of Altair from many hundreds of years ago, events in contemporary world around him developing in their own pace.
Just when in the past Altair defeated the last templar, but before he could hide the grail. A member of contemporary successor to crusader era Assassins, who works undercover as Vidic's assistant, managers to break Desmond out of Abstergo and they disappear into the night as game leaves us wait for sequel for answers.
Back then the game was meant to be a trilogy, second part was meant to be about uncovering the nature of the grail, and the last part was meant to be set in the contemporary world, where modern assassins and templars continue their hidden war for the grail and fate of the world.
Stakes are high as grail indeed has seamlessly supernatural power. When Al-Muallim used it, all but Altair were driven into submission and even Altair had hard time fighting powers of grail. If templars get their hands on that, they will be able deprive the world of free will and control it at whim.
This over-the-top complex story is what got people interested in seeing the series through to the end where all the secrets and plot twists will be revealed.
Alas that were not to come. Second part was split into three games, or a game and two expansions. Third was re-imagined as another historical installment, this time set in Revolutionary War America. After that Assassin Creed was anything where protagonist wears a hood over their head. Original fans were felt betrayed by the company who in the name of corporate greed decided to stretch the franchise into infinite and deny them the conclusion to the original plot about the grail.
There were changes to the game world itself. Originally the conflict over grail was a secret hidden war, that few people were fully aware of. No one wanted to make knowledge of the grail public. That served two purposes. One is to give the story plausible believability, sure the creators could not prove it really happened as depicted in the game, but neither you can really prove with 100% certainty it did not happen. Only few people knew, and they did not tell their secrets to outsiders. Their secrets died with them.
Second is to allow more complexity to the world around you. Your few named targets know everything about the grail, assassins and are wary about you coming after them. Their uninitiated subordinates have no idea what their boss got so worked up over, so they fulfill their orders with certain degree of indifference and carelessness. Sometimes even very high-ranking figures have no idea. Closer to the end of the game one of the last templars pleads for protection from assassins to Richard I Lionheart of England. Altair instead asks Richard to reconsider. Richard has no idea what is going on, but decides to allow a duel between two, much to the charging of Robert.
That continues into the second part as well. After you help Lorenzo Medici to take control of Florence and sideline rival Pazzi family, guards of Florence became unusually friendly to you. However, when Savonarola takes power, they become hostile instead. Only select few are aware that assassins or templars even exist. For most ordinary people they do not exist. So, guards behave one way when your friends are in power and the other way when they are not. They neither know, nor care about secret war between assassins and templars.
A small detail that makes the world of the game much more complex and realistic even. Maybe Lorenzo Medici indeed was member of some secret society like Freemasons, maybe not. Even if he was a member he will not tell anyone uninitiated to the secret society. That theoretical possibly of all or at least some of that being true gives this story its unique appeal.
Just a couple of expansions later, in Revelations, templars and assassins fight openly on the streets of Constantinople, their flags are everywhere, by now it's no longer a speculative fiction but an alternative history. Also, ibn la Ahad from Altair's name means 'son of no one' in Revelations they instead showing him talking about his father, clearly scriptwriters were not familiar with the original plot. There is no more subtlety that made early AC games so compelling.
That said second part continues to give us more information about the grail, now called Apple of Eden for some reason, may be because its spherical. Now it's a device from an ancient humanoid civilization that lived before humans and completely died out before humas could build their civilization.
Revelations was the last game I played. It was already too far from what got me interested originally. I considered playing third part but never got to it. Instead of being completely set in contemporary times, it offers yet another historical setting and a protagonist that could hardly be a descendant of Altair. The original premise is we access generic memories of Altair's descendants. That is what Animus does. The game felt too far from the original concept to make much sense.
Games that went after third were all over the place, a pirate adventure in 4th that is hardly even AC at all. So does Desmond find the grail, does he defeat templars? When are the answers to the main plot coming? By now AC is just a brand that Ubisoft labels on anything to increase sales. Too sad, it could have been different.
Sure, I only know part of the picture as I did not play of watch the walkthroughs of later games, but time is short and even if there are some answers in footnote, it still proves the point that the game lost its original vision and was turned into a cash cow for Ubisoft.
I took some time to think on what I should put as a conclusion to this article. I guess a conclusion of the original story would be very desirable to get one day.
However, there is a bigger issue here as well. The one that is present in many games these days: disparity in story, in narrative and in overall feel of the game. When new scriptwriters mess up the plot, the game world falls apart and it's no longer the same game anymore. That is what killed modern WoW, that is what killed AC and many other titles.
Why developers do that? Did original creators simply quit the studio, and some sort of replacement had to be found? Even if that was the case, why not find someone who actually understands the plot? If original creators did not quit, then why they were not involved with the plot? Internal politics? Still, it feels strange, so strange that by now even a explanation that someone used the Apple of Eden from the game to take control of the studio will sound plausible. I do hope one day we will find the answer for this mystery.
Aside from that we, at least I, want to see games recapture the middle 2000s atmosphere that made them so compelling and appealing. What was lost since that time? Why was it lost? What can we do to make videogames great again?
Overall Rating 7.2 out of 10 - a rather simple arthouse type show.
I can recommend watching
This one is another of these unconventional shows with weird art and almost no dialogues, much like recently reviewed Angel Egg. That like alone might convince some to watch it and others to ignore it instead.
I am quite an expert at interpreting series of vague scenes with almost no dialogue into complex and profound stories.
Unlike Angel Egg, that had plenty of complex themes that took me a very long article to explain, this one is rather light on themes. All this show is about is showing metaphors for romance and sex in rapid progression. It can be called an allegory of sex. Over the course of 20 or so minutes the show compares sex with chase, with storm, with wild ride, with transformation, with intertwined sprouts and so on.
There are nominally only two characters, but in actuality there are several more. Others play out the metaphors of this show. A devilish male jinn/demon chases after pure and innocent female fairy. Before we can see if he can catch her, scene transforms into something else. He has rather pronounced and wicked eyes and face with pronounced features. Later this jinni advises the prince on how to sex properly. In contrast to jinn, fairy is light and most of her features are blurred and nigh invisible. The most pronounced part of her body is her curvy butt.
Jinn and fairy eventually make prince and princess to re-enact their own play with each other. Something that ostensively leads towards a very exciting sex. Finally, the show ends like it all was a princess's dream and did not really happen.
There is a fair bit of nudity in this show, but since it's so abstractly drawn, it hardly works as porn.
Art and character design is rather usual fantasy Arab theme, typical of Alladin, Prince of Persia and other western stereotypical depiction of middle east. It tries to be as beautiful and enchanting as Prince of Persia 2008 but falls somewhat short, partly because it's a decade older.
Overall, it's a usual type of an unconventional arthouse style show. It nothing too special or deep, but it's enjoyable enough to watch. I can recommend watching.
