Anthem of the Doomed Song Translation and Interpretation

A while ago I translated traditional anarchist song, Horses are Running because I thought existing translations did not do it proper justice. Looking at many other Russian songs I like, I notice that they all have a rather nuanced lyrics, actual meaning of which is often lost when translated. Russian art and sometimes even normal speech tend to be more subtle than particularly American one, famous for being very upfront and on point. There are a lot of references to various other books songs and such, making it impossible to understand what any of that means if you are unfamiliar with what is being referenced. Thus, I decided that I need not only translate but also provide context to some of the phrases and references used in the lyrics.

Subject of this particular article is Anthem of the Doomed song. It is an anti-Putin regime protest song, written in wake of War of Ukraine. The song is popular with various opponents of Putin regime and reflects their feelings about the whole situation. Back in the days I would have called it very on point, but after spending couple of decades in Australia, I can notice that song would be very confusing to someone not familiar with Russian oppositional lingo and talking points, much less to someone from a foreign country. The song speaks to feelings of those who already oppose Putin while at the same time may pass on as neutral or even pro-Putin to those unfamiliar with oppositional lingo and reference points.

It almost as if such a song is self-defeating to the oppositional cause as such a song only radicalises those who already oppose Putin while failing to sway those who are undecided and fails to clearly communicate its opposition to the regime. One can say the same about many other messages that anti-Putin opposition produces. One might even call it a cunning and successful neutralisation of opposition by Russian government, government managed to produce a message that resonates with anti-Putin Russians that at the same time does not sound anti-Putin to foreign audience or even non-oppositional Russians.

However enough of context, the lyrics.

Sodom and Gomorrah came to Moscow

The city I no longer live in

Sodom and Gomorrah are associated with homosexuality, Russian government is known to be anti-gay in the West, but that is not really true as many of them are actually gay. 

However main idea is not that it is about homosexuality, but that war in itself is a kind of perverted orgy that meant to appeal to certain dark traits and desires, hidden in Russian soul. More details further below in other lines.

Those ghouls on TV have long had

Their arms drenched in blood to the elbow

The second line about 'arms drenched in blood' is a common reference to various autocrats who ruled Russia and whose rule caused significant number of deaths. It supposed to invoke a sense that bloodshed these people caused are excessive and unreasonable.

The first line about 'ghouls on TV' mean both senior officials of Putin's regime, including Putin himself as well as major TV anchors who support the regime. In Russia TV is controlled by the government so only pro-government anchors as well as government officials allowed to appeal. Since they all work for the regime, they are all complicit of its crimes.

Look there, orcs.

Orcs

Orcs

Orcs, eating crusts.

Orcs are common slur, used to describe Russian troops by their Ukrainian opponents. However, the final like adds another detail. Eating crusts, or leftovers is a reference to poverty. Most Putin supporters are people impoverished by his rule, who nonetheless support him because Putin successfully managed to convince them they are poor because of the West, not him or his rule. To support this mindset, government keeps telling people about bandits, poverty and misery during 'wild 90s' when Russian government was pro-Western. All to convince people that they are poor because of Americans and Europeans, collective West, not because of those in Kremlin and other corridors in power rob them. Through that Kremlin cultivates hatred towards West among Russian people. The song calls those who believe in these lies orcs.

Path of the Doomed

Path of those who believe in Kremlin's lies and now go to their certain death in war in Ukraine.

Trains full of Inmates

References to Soviet era mass transportation of prisoners to Gulag as well as mass deportations of certain ethnicities, like Crimean Tatars to undeveloped lands in the east.

Tribes of Renegades

Possibly a reference to various pro-government youth organisation, like Nashi, that Kremlin sponsors to mobilize as many people to their causes as they can. Those who join reneged on truth.

Novichok to the Underpants.

References killing various political opponents, using complex poisons, like Novichok that was used against Sergei Skripal in UK.

Laughter of the Lepers

Line about those who enjoy what government is doing and want to see them kill more. The authors find them so reprehensible, he compares them to lepers.

Masks of Distorted Faces

Line about those who pretend they support the regime, to prevent repercussions from the government, but actually dislike the war. They are hiding their true self behind the mask. 

Submerged in the Sweet Dream

This is one of the more complex lines. It's about those who either believe Kremlin lines or what to believe them. Those who want to see the war no as an aggression but as a fight for a good cause. To them Kremlin provides 'Sweet Dream' where Russia is a hero fighting against bad guys. Russian propaganda deliberately casts Ukrainians as Nazi to give people this illusion of Russians being good guys in this war and fighting against something evil, Nazis in this case.

And Wet Earth

Earth wet with blood but also earth wet because no one left to work it.

Goida orcs

Goida orcs

Goida orcs

Goida, da da

This is reference to a word pro-Kremlin propagandist Okhlobystin coined. He claimed it's an ancient Russian word, that means something like 'let's go', something to rally people. He it used to ironically rally supporters of war to fight. It's an implied question to the supporters, are you willing to actually go and fight there? He is depicted in music video as Alien from Alien vs Predator, that prompt many in comments to ask the creators how they could convince Okhlobystin to 'star' in the music video.

Passing gases and drill for oil

Reference to Russian economy excessive dependence on oil and gas industries

Third Reich have nothing on us, we are Third Rome

Statement that Hitler's delusional ambitions on reshaping the Europe as his Third Reich are far not as delusional as those of Russian patriots who unironically think of themselves as successors of Roman Empire. During various times in 19th century Russian Tsars actually tried to retake Constantinople, the Second Rome, from Ottoman Empire and either re-establish Byzantine Empire or make it part of Russia. Despite that City of World Desire eluded them.

The superior will decide for me and you

Who flies back home as cargo 200

This is reference to the fact that authority figures in Russia have too much power and that people are far too acceptant and resigned to their decisions. That is something opponents of Russian system like to complain about, but unable to change. 

Finally, cargo 200 is a euphemism to people killed in action who are labelled as 'cargo 200' in military inventory. I wonder if military decided to call it that to hide real nature of this and other things in their inventory, but it sounds condescending and disrespectful to people who died. By extension this applies to how government generally values human life rather low and does not hesitate to send people to certain death or even kill them if its expedient for the Kremlin.

Look there, orcs.

Orcs

Orcs

Orcs came down the hill.

Hill here is possibly a reference to Valdai Hills, where Putin likes to send young people from organisations such as Nashi to indoctrinate them into Orc-hood.

Path of the Doomed

Trains full of Inmates

Tribes of Renegades

Novichok to underpants

Laughter of the Lepers

Masks of Distorted Faces

Submerged into Sweet Dream

And Wet Earth

(same as above)

Shamans growl in Woods

Might as well be a reference to opponents of the regime, helplessly trying to reach out to someone to rally against the regime, but they are lost in the woods and unable to get their message across

Junkies boil in Caldrons

Reference to those who gave up trying to change anything and now abuse substances instead

Caravans leave towards western border

References those who leave Russia for western countries

Jesters Dance

So, Suckers do not get bored

References how Russian TV distracts public from issues facing the country with some cheap entertainment

And hurried to karaoke to meet the Armageddon

Country is at war and approaching its destruction, but people entertain themselves harder than ever

(Several key verses repeat several times afterwards)

A rather complex breakdown of the seamlessly simple song, that at increased total amount of words somewhat 10 times. They tried to cram all their grievances against Russian government, they had to cut too many corners for it to make any sense to anyone unfamiliar with Russian opposition. I hope it will make clearer what the song is about.

In future I plan to cover more songs in a similar manner: Aquarium, Aria, Kino, Sector Gaza and other bands I like. Not all, in fact most, will not be political, or not as political as this one, but they are good in their own way and reflect on complexity of Russian art and some of the people who appreciate it.

WoW Classes as Rick and Morty and Futurama Characters

Warlock - Rick Sanchez. 

Warlock is certainly Rick, both are unkept and have repulsive looks, that makes you wonder if they are villain of the story. Both drink some vile burning liquid and it probably something worse than booze in Warlock's case. Both are very smart and powerful, both explore and exploit space or WoW's equivalent of space, Twisted Nether. Both do not care how their experiments affect society. So, what that demons what to invade Azeroth and burn it to crips, warlocks summoned and summon them like its Tuesday. Both are self-driven and power hungry, both use tricks to outsmart their opponents. Warlocks ride infernal steeds they stole from some demon lord, using help of a rival demon lord who had grunge against the one with the steeds. Some say it takes Rick Sanches level of intelligence to play Warlock but its nothing a couple of macros of few dozen commands and conditionals with a few action bars full of spells could not fix. Plus an extra action bar for a pet demon. Well ok, maybe you do need Rick Sanchez levels of intelligence to play Warlock.

Paladin - Morty. 

Paladin is a hero, a good guy kind of hero, a superman that saves humanity with his awesome power, minus the awesome power of course, Paladin is tad mediocre when it comes to that. Aside from that Paladin has all the trappings of a hero, shining armour a halo overhead, golden wings, blessing of God and all the angles or whatever WoW's equivalent of that. They even have a unique mount also covered in shining armour just in case you do know already that he is the knight in shining armour who is there to save anyone and get the girl, minus the girl of course as they do not like Paladin types. Paladin is like Morty, both want to go on adventure and defeat evil or something like that. Both are far too idealistic compared to cynics around them. Both sometimes preach morals. Both will get duped by a girl. 

Mage - Beth. 

Mage is Warlock's 'follow the rules' cousin. Mage has all the power of the Warlock, but they only use it in ways approved by mage association. So, no awesome demons, pestilence to genocide all the creeps, extracting souls of all living beings and sacrificing them to demons, cheating death, conspiring with demon lords or riding hellish stallions from hell, pandemics, destruction annihilation or fun, just some safe magic. Ice, fire and arcane, magical in plain words as they could not come up with another element. Not straying too far from the sidewalks. Also, mages conjure food and water, by cooking, erm using magic of a microwave. That said mage can be powerful and is popular in raids as they are more straightforward to play compared to Warlocks. Also, no repulsive mad looks, scholarly robes, cute books, a staff, every nerd wishes to be them.

Hunter - Jerry. 

Hunter combines disadvantages of Warrior and Warlock in one class. Just like warrior hunter fights using medieval weapons instead of magic, that has significantly less damage output compared to magically conjured apocalypse, a Warlock can create. Just like Warlock, Hunter has a pet, but instead of a powerful demon, it's just some bear or tiger. On top of that it needs food, care and love, like it's a Tamagotchi rather than a fearsome beast. Pet management alone takes more than half of entire action bar, and you need these slots for fighting abilities mind you. Other players hate Hunter, when they see one they immediately assume its played by a noob who does not know how to play the game. Its an uphill battle to prove yourself to other players as hunter, but some manage to do so. If hunters knew they are that hated, they would have responded with 'h8 gonna h8' or 'deal with it' or 'oh, so sorry' in condescending tone. Most of them however completely oblivious to not only what other players think of them but to a lot other things about the game, they just roam Stormwind with their pet dinosaur and cannot hear you over the sound of their freedom, erm love for dinosaurs. Jerry's level of awareness of what is around him.

Warrior - Lila. 

Warrior is a simple but effective type. They see shit and just hit it with a big stick. All they want is even an even bigger stick to hit monsters even stronger and maybe ever larger shoulder pads, that dwarf their heads. Warriors risk their lives more than other classes, they endure pain and privation for the team, generally they are the one who carry the team 50% of the time. They are backbone of the party and needed in every raid. They are there in front of everyone, facing the scary raid boss, taking ungodly amount of damage that would kill any other class, yet still hitting it back, man to man. Far not every warrior is dumb, but they are simple down-to-earth types.

Priest - Professor. 

Priests are there to solve every party's problem. They can do truly revolutionary things, like bringing people back from the dead, heal their wounds in several dozen ways, improve their various abilities with countless buffs, wipe their tears and asses and so on, truly marvel of science, erm magic. In raids and dungeons priests are invaluable as without them there can be no raid. Outside of raids and dungeons everyone forgets they even exist. Priests have certain maturity about them, or sage like wisdom, to accept this treatment and not mind that party forgets them the moment final boss falls. leveling priest is a challenge in itself in anything that can hurt monsters, by the time you reach max level you will be as old as the professor. 

Rouge - Bender. 

Rouge are assholes that make even Bender from Futurama look like nice guy. Rouges are as anti-social as Warlocks but if Warlocks use their power for self-interest, Rouges instead enjoy causing people suffering just for the kicks of it. Rouges are bane of new player existence; they are hated like hunters but in a different way. Instead of hating Rouges as a class, people hate each individual player who plays as rouge. Rouges caused infinite number of players to rage quit, spam chat with insults for half an hour straight, cry, throw their PC in a window and many more. They enjoyed every second of doing it and would certainly do it again. Story wise rouges were supposed to be secret agents who work in shadows to unravel plots against the Kingdom, however 99% of players who play as Rouge are completely indifferent to something like that as they are too busy backstabbing someone for lulz.

Shaman - Zoidberg. 

Shaman is a lot cooler than people realise. They can enchant weapons and fight like warriors. They can use elements to cast magic like mages, they can create storms and earthquakes, they can heal and buff like priests, they have fancy totems with lights swirling around them, they can turn into wolf who is also a spirit. A true all in one class, even more so than druid. Lore wise some of the most important and beloved characters are shamans. However no one gives a shit because shamans are creepy and all they can do can be done in much more simple and straightforward way. By the time Shaman's storm is ready, mage and even warrior will already kill everyone with their more straightforward way. Thus Shamans sit on their cliffs with sad look on their face and ask their spirits why no one cares to talk to them.

Druid - Fry. 

Druid is another protagonist type of class. Druid can be anything, not that it just transforms into different beasts, but that it can also fulfil any gameplay role, like tank, dps, healer, stealth. To top it all up druids maybe have fewer spells than other classes but the ones they have are really powerful and get job done without clogging the whole action bar. Even Fry can figure this class out. To top it all up various animal transformations replace the standard spells with a dedicated set that gets job done. Druid is a jack of all trades that nonetheless can do every trade good enough. Perfect for sticking your fingers into every pie and licking them.

Death Knight - Pickle Rick. 

Rick was so popular they had to add him twice. Pickle Rick, erm Death Knight is a simplified version of Rick. Less complex, more aggressive. Kicking, not thinking or exploring. Kind of a hybrid between Warrior and Warlock. DK has warrior's pauldrons, armour and weapons mixed with warlock's deadly spells. They could punch people in the face or create a plague and see everyone around them dying from it. Or can do both. To become one, one must first go through some complex scientific, erm magical, process that involves dying once. That too adds edginess and whole goth/emo vibe to the class. Warrior, Warlock and Rouge in one, if that is not an overdose, then I do not know what is.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Overall Rating 6.0 out of 10 - Overall pleasant show with at least half good episodes

I recommend watching

All harem anime has one male MC and several different girls, each of different corresponding stereotype to appeal to different male viewers.

Nonetheless not all harem anime were made equal. In this regard, topic of this review, Hoshizora, favourably compares to Mashiroiro, that I reviewed a while back.

Unlike constant drama and women problems, that heroines of Mashiroiro pester male MC, Hoshizora is more relaxed and laid back. Characters spend a lot more time doing fun stuff like eating, going to gaming arcade, karaoke or beach. That is a lot more enjoyable to watch that women having emotional issues.

Hoshizora has two likable waifu material heroines: Ui and Madoka, but other girls are somewhat nicer on average. Even violent green head from Hoshizora is somewhat easier to tolerate to her red head equivalent from Mashiroiro.

Ui is sweet and her simplistic, friendly and cheerful personality makes it easy to love and trust her. Madoka is well mannered and shy, but sometimes hard to deal with, thus second place after Ui.

Episodes are mixed bag, some left rather sour aftertaste, like forest one, or sake shop girl, otherwise the final score would have been higher. A somewhat unique achievement, this show managed to get sport episode fun, by making women stuck in various compromising poses and sigh.

Overall, Hoshizora is a rather pleasant harem anime, it has its flaws, some episodes and characters are more likable than others. However, on the summary it's a pleasant show despite certain flaws.

More On Game Design Principles: Looting and Items

In my previous article about game design, I discussed issue about choosing subjects that actually appeal to people. This time around I want to cover another aspect of game design, the loot.

Looting and items have been in games since almost forever. They are so ubiquitous it's easy to overlook them as just another meaningless attribute of the medium. That would be a grave mistake, however. Looting and items is one of the most important aspects of game design. Getting it right will make people return to your game over and over again. Fail it however and an otherwise perfect game will somehow be disliked by fans.

When it comes to looting and items one will think of RPG genre first. It by far has the most of item management and such. However, if you think about it, every other genre has their own equivalents too. Even astute FPSs with their no-frills design have new weapons and ammo for existing ones. When you find any, you always dash to pick some. Weapons themselves are by far the biggest prise of them all. There are other items, like heals, armour and various power-ups. However, the biggest thing are of course guns. It lifts your mood high and you certainly want to try it out on some monsters as soon as possible. It's almost as if the real goal of the game is collecting guns and monsters are there just so you have something to try these guns on.

If you think about it, that last sentence a lot closer to truth than anything else. Game designers and gamers themselves pay a lot attention to complexity, challenge, lever design, intelligent AI and what not. However, all of them overlook the most important thing that drives the game, the items and collecting them. It's as invisible as air we breathe and as vital for success of the game as oxygen is for our survival.

If you think about it, all the good and popular games always have plenty of likable items. Take Heroes of Might and Magic III for example, that somehow manages to stay more popular than its countless sequels. Load any map and behold countless items all around you, all shining, glowing and laying around completely defenceless for you to pick them up. You do not need many of them, but you still pick them up, just because. Multiplayer pro players do ignore them and only pick really valuable ones to save time. Looking at them doing so just chokes on something inside, it feels wrong to leave a pile of gold unpicked. Items are the real reason people love it. They want plenty of juicy cool items to pick and play with. Sequels do not have the same appeal just because items there are not as plentiful of shiny.

It works even on a completely barebone browser game, like Vivid Army. You hardly do anything there but open various boxes with items in them and yet it feels satisfying. It's like opening Christmas presents or birthday presents.

Meanwhile when it comes to RPGs then items there are back, front, center, on sides and in between. Loot tables for raid bosses are more important than monsters themselves, parties, guilds and friendships form and break up over items and their distribution. Some items are so valuable they are sold for real life money. In fact, a website hosting a database of all the items in WoW is larger and more visited that an encyclopedia, explaining every other aspect of the game. One of the most important types of items in the game is a bag that allows you to carry even more items than before.

On the other hand, games with lackluster items just quietly die without anyone remembering them. A Bard's Tale once satirised this fact, but it too did not last too long due to the fact that it's not too generous with items 

Yet it asks the question: why? Why do we love picking items so much. The answer is as simple and common sense as one can get. In real life we value items just as much as in games. Games merely reflect this simple human quality. People work and do other things to afford items. If you think about it, everything we do in our lives can fundamentally be reduced to but a simple process of acquiring items. 

In fact, we did so ever since prehistoric times of hunter gatherers who wandered woods to find valuable items such as food, wood or stones. We even killed animals for no other reasons that to acquire items such as meat and hides. Thousands of years have passed since then, but this process of hunting and gathering still resonates with us and we still find joy in doing this in video games. In most famous MMORPG, World of Warcraft you kill monsters to collect items they have, just like our hunter gatherer ancestors.

This process is not even unique to humans alone. Fundamentally animals too but wonder the wilderness and look for items can eat or places they can use as a shelter from elements. It will not be stretch to say that search for items is a universal trait of life itself. Even plants grow their roots to reach and absorb more and more minerals from earth.

Because of the above, items are of paramount importance for any game. The game will be a success if it has satisfying items to play with. On the other hand, if the game does not, it will be a quiet failure where people would just not be into it without any particular reason they could identify. Desire for items is so fundamental we do not think about it consciously on a daily basis, yet it's the fundamental driving force that stands behind nearly everything we do. Thus, mastering it is mastering the game development and more.

Why I Hate One Piece

Writing my review about Shin Angyo Onshi got me stumble on the fact that I hate One Piece. That was not always the case, however. I actually once thought very highly of this show but then changed my mind. Reason for that is rather peculiar way I got to watch/read One Piece. To explain why I will have to re-tell the whole story of how I got to read OP.

It was somewhere around 2010. The Impel Down War Ark just ended and Luffy was mourning death of Ace. Fans were all over the issue, some mourned Ace almost as hard as Luffy and others reacted to it in various ways. Seeing this whole affair got me thinking of giving One Piece a chance. At the time I knew few key characters from the show but nothing more.

I began not from very beginning but from where manga or anime currently were at the time, that is on flashback arc/Grey Terminal Arc, Polchemy Incident to be precise. That is where Sabo and Ace saved Luffy from some second in command in some small-time pirates, called Polchemy. Most people do not even remember this character, and I only remember him because he was one of the first characters I saw in OP. 

Grey Terminal Ark had three main characters, Luffy, Ace and Sabo. Out of these three Sabo was by far the best one. I found him to be very relatable, and his sense of justice is similar to my own. Unlike Ace and Luffy he was from well off family on Sabody archipelago but hanged out with poor kids at the junk yard, called Grey Terminal. His family did not like Sabo, they thought he was stupid and preferred his younger brother Stelly who later went to marry a princecss and become a ruler of Sabody Archipelago. Sabo in turn did not like neither his family, nor the society they lived in, so he preferred freedom of his friends at Grey Terminal Luffy and Ace, together they dreamed to one day leave Sabody and live free as pirates. 

Sabo got to leave first as one incident at Sabody high society pushed him to make a plunge. Some rich kid attacked Sabo with a knife and almost killed him. Sabo managed to defend himself, but the attacker called for help and police arrested Sabo. Sabo protested he was innocent and did it in self-defence, however on Sabody its status who determines who is right and who is wrong. Parents of knife guy were some high nobilities and per Sabody rules he could not be wrong as he is of higher status than Sabo. Sabo protested this rule and called it bullshit, for that Sabo's dad called him stupid and said Stelly is much better son than he is. After that Sabo had enough of Sabody Archipelago rules and hypocrisy so he decided to set sail as soon as possible and leave for good, even without Ace and Luffy. He did so but his small boat got in the way of an even higher status Saint who shot it with some advance weapon. Sabo was taken to die in this incident. 

That is how flashback ended, after that we were turned back towards older, contemporary, Luffy crying over Ace, two of his brothers are dead now, it's up to him to fulfil their vision for the free life as they discussed it back after drinking sake at Grey Terminal. Just like that after Gret Terminal Arc One Peace appeared to be a dead serious high tragedy show about social issues that does not shy away from killing its main characters. It had strong Code Geass feel about it, the Grey Terminal Arc that is, certainly not the whole One Piece as I later found out. Sure, my favorite character, Sabo was dead, but I was certain a person who wrote such a character could manage more good characters.

Looking back at it, after I watched the most other One Piece Arcs, Grey Terminal Arc was rather uncharacteristic of OP as a whole. It was unwise to commit to watching the whole thing over such an uncharacteristic arc. However, since I did not know it was such an uncharacteristic arc, because it was the only one I watched, I decided to watch OP from the beginning and catch up on the whole story.

That said I liked Grey Terminal Arc a lot and if I were to rate it by itself, I would give it 8 or at least 7.5. Far above what I rate One Piece overall. 

Grey Terminal Arc was the reason I stick with OP for as long as I did. In general, One Piece is nothing but a clown show more than 60% of the time. However various small elements of plot and world building occasionally made it seem more than it is. There is more to the story and Circus level weird antagonist and majority of Straw Hat crew. Remembering Grey Terminal Ark made me think that show certainly can be serious and profound if it wants too. So, I thought it will eventually stop its introductory arks antics and will get to the main storyline with full seriousness. Naruto too took several dozen chapters to grow into a show I could see as enjoyable. 

In fact, closer towards Grey Terminal Ark, it did get more serious. War at Impel Down, Water 7 ark and even Barque Works vs Alabastra were clear improvement over early arks. One Piece was growing into a full scale good shounen show, like Naruto with large epic battles and cool abilities and diverse cast of epic characters. I thought finally it is getting there. 

Then it ended. War at Impel Down ended, the only two characters to ever die in One Piece died there, a very small casualty rate for an equivalent of a World War in OP world. 

From there it went back to silliness of early arcs. Underwater kingdom could be dismissed as transitional ark. However then came animal people ark, that was just meh, followed by Big Mom Pirates, Big Mom is more reprehensible than Germa Judge described her. She and her full clown show on steroids crew is where I decided enough is enough and dropped One Piece for good.

Also, they later brought Sabo back, but he was not the same principal, uncompromising and freedom loving Sabo from Grey Terminal Arc, far from it, he was pathetic and it was pain to watch him being bossed by some cunt.

So that is how I got to hate One Piece. Its brand of clown-show characters. Diehard loyalty of subordinates to underserving superiors who should have been couped instead, backstabbed and removed from power. Abusive unlikable women with bad personality. Abused men reduced to being jokes. Creepiness of many characters, particularly gay ones. 

Speaking of women. I wonder if it were editors, who insisted Oda dropped Vivi for Robin as people who prefer submissive women would like her a lot more that spoiled self-assertive princess or orange head navigator. Taking Robin over Vivi certainly improved my opinion about the show. That said alas gradually Robin became closer and closer to nami's levels of spoil-ness. Aside from that there are many women in the show, but hardly any likable ones. Best girl of OP is of course Harpy-chan, who else but Harpy-chan.

By the Big Mom Ark it becomes abundantly clear to me that Grey Terminal Arc was an exception that does not represent what One Piece is and it's pointless to wait any further for the show to get back towards that diehard serious mood it had back then. That show is as gone as Sabo's little boat with S over the crossbones flag. Only clown show remains and I am not into it.

It could have been a show like on top panel, but instead it became a show like on bottom one instead:

Shin Angyo Onshi Review

Overall Rating 5.9 out of 10 - Plot full of plot holes, unlikable characters, but cute heroine and locations

I actually can cautiously recommend as it has certain good points about it.

I watched this movie because of a small video with tied up girl in what looked like BDSM gear. It was more of a clickbait than a real thing.

To begin with a girl. She has nice outfit, but the show does not make full use of it, like Bikini Warriors do for example. After a short tied up scene, followed by a longer fighting scene where she fights in this outfit, she later gets covered in a large blanket and gets too little screen time. A really glaring offence for a show like this. Personality wise she is mostly nice and likable, thought I am not sure about that scene where she disobeys her master's order in order to save him, but that is on director's bad discretion.

A male protagonist here gets a lot more screen time. He is kind of mixed bag with a side of cognitive dissonance. He protects old order as he sees it even if the country he used to serve no longer exists and attacks whoever he feels like. I found it hard to relate to his value system, like why beat gun trader. Even final antagonist does not seem such a bad person. Also, he has a medallion with a ghost army, but he is not using it all the time for some reason even though it does not seem to be any limitations on when he can use it. 

Overall, I find it hard to understand him, but maybe what he does matters to him in some reason, not covered by the story. I myself might just be the same kind of wandering warrior who fights for causes only I myself understand and others find equally confusing. Yet I am not this guy, and this guy is not me, each of us fights for a different cause and I cannot really understand his at all.

Antagonists seemed to be far too generic maybe. Human eating monsters. A weak official, who simps for that tied up girl and just executes people left and right. A guy who sells guns and does nothing else bad, no, seriously. 

Finally, a Mandrake magician who created an illusion of life on an island that was wiped out by epidemic. One of the ghosts he created figured the whole thing was an illusion and requested protagonists' help somehow despite being a ghost. He killed himself in the end too because he too was a ghost and he wanted to put an end to a charade. 

Go figure what author was thinking when he came up with that plot. That said it feels more of a glaring plot gaps and characters that make no sense, than original and ingenious plot writing. That is one of the reasons why final score is so low.

Environments, both nature and urban as well as backgrounds are one of the stronger elements of this anime. They look stunning and give Studio Ghibli vibes as well as old anime movies vibe, like Arabian Nights: Sindbad no Bouken of 1962 with some mix or Mushishi. They do look slightly old, but that feels more like a design style rather than cheap production and only adds to the vibe, like fine aged Scotch whisky. Considering that half of the shows just go with basic backgrounds, it's very important to mention that this show is not like that.

The same cannot be said of worldbuilding. That fallen Jushin Empire and special enforcers Angyou Oushi, while somewhat original, sort of leave bad aftertaste. Recuring theme of weaker guys just relying on Musnu or idea of Angyou Onshi. Or more of a this somehow clear divide between strong and weak that bugs me a lot. Or this peculiar brand on enthusiasm certain supporting guys professes. It's hard for me to pin it on something particular but something just does not sit well for me with this anime. Most likely its certain arbitrarily of Munsu's judgement on who gets help and who gets boot or death. He takes to his medallion far too liberally. Or the fact that these ghost warriors are far too undefined and it's too hard to measure its limits.

Most characters are unlikable too, far too unlikable. One Piece style stock characters but better written. I do not like One Piece and clearly rate Shin Angyo Onshi higher than OP despite OP being global phenomenon.

To sum it up, this anime has a few things going for it like good art and cute likable female heroine in sexy outfit. However rather illogical plot, unlikable premise and most characters just drag it down for me.

Why I do not Like Drama

Writing review about Mashiroiro Symphony brought my attention to the fact that I hate drama. I wrote about this before, but it was probably few posts on MAL, I likely never wrote a proper article about this topic.

I hate drama because its fundamentally about everyday troubles and hassles. Such things are hassle enough to deal with in real life, that is why you sure as hell do not want to see it on screen. A lot of drama is merely about a girl being difficult for no good reason and guy dealing with her. Just the kind of thing all men want to avoid in real life.

There are different kind of shows, called cute girls doing cute things, where girls instead do things, men like them to do. Such CGDCT shows are a true joy to watch, if no one spoils them with women being challenging or difficult in any way. Drama is not it; it's about problems and men do not like problems, men want things to go smooth and effortless.

If you compare drama with food, drama is cheap and tasteless like a rice cracker. It's so watered down, it does not sate any of my cravings, all it can do is waste my time with a treadmill of repetitive story. Watching drama is like running in a hamster wheel, it never gets you anywhere. Sure, certain critics might say that other entertainment is by a form of wasting time, but to this I will respond that it's not. 

Just like different food or drinks can be more sating and fulfilling, so are entertainment. A well-made pizza with good toppings can make you feel well fed for a day, a well-crafted cake can bring sweet joy and make one jovial and so on. In contrast a tasteless rice cracker makes you question why did not you bought something better to eat.

Same with shows. Idyllic (wish fulfilling shows, CGDCT), like Gochiusa, GuP or Hand Maid May can make me happy as I enjoy looking at cute gentle demure girls. Good sarcastic, witty and insightful comedy (see separate article about comedy) can make me laugh to no end while also see sharpness of the creator's intellect. Finally, a good tragedy can make me sympathize with characters and their struggles, sometimes even root for one of them to win or like them if they are female.

Drama has none of it. Its low stake never-ending hassle is nothing but a drain of energy. Story brings nothing of value but keeps characters busy doing some stupid shit and the viewer busy watching them. I do not want to be busy; I want to see something that can touch my feelings in a pleasant way. Idlily (wish fulfilling show), comedy or tragedy can do that, a drama simply cannot.

To begin with drama is like a very diluted tragedy. Kind of like vodka mixed with some strawberry juice or something. Most of the time it adds so much mixer, you can hardly even feel any alcohol at all. While alcohol level is close to beer it's not a beer either, beer has its own unique flavour and character a diluted vodka simply does not. In that regard a dedicated simple show, like shounen - beer of anime, can be enjoyable in its own way, it's not trying to be whisky, but it does what it does well enough. Meanwhile a diluted spirit puts a heavy liquor on the name but really its but a juice with extra steps and huge markup.

Value of tragedy comes from the very fact that it's so heavy and high stakes. It's like heavy liquor of anime, cognac or scotch aged 12 years or more. Its heavy but it has this unique flavour that otherwise just cannot be produced. It's because it's so high stakes and characters are so emotionally invested in it, they are willing to die for it, that it works. Anything less than that will just cheapen the show, make you think they are but useless posers. Not everyone knows how to write good tragedy, just like with Scotch and cognac, for every good well aged spirit there are 4 times more of cheap swill from dodgy brands that taste weird and inconsistent, but a good tragedy is a true drink (or show in this context) worthy of a King.

Because of the above, drama is bound to be a failure. Low stake everyday life problems are but the worst topic to make anime about. If you make it about everyday life, then at least make it idyllic with perfect girls like in Gochiusa and no drama, just pure cuteness and sweetness. Despite simplicity of formula, it's really baffling how many shows fail at it. Sure, a good tragedy or a comedy requires good writing skills but an idyllic cute girl doing cute things is but a simple to make show. All of it is in tropes and there are plenty of examples of just what kind of girls' viewers like. Yet despite that far too often one or another creator decides to twist a formula and fails it in process. The resulting drama becomes a slog to watch, a salted caramel with too much salt.