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 6.7 out of 10 - Show as random as slot machine.
I recommend watching
This is a story about OP dude who can kill anyone by just thinking it and his twin tailed female companion.
Despite giving main protagonist such an overly powerful ability, the show actually manages to make some battles challenging for him. I will not go into details to not spoil how they achieved that.
Despite that most battles go as far as some super powerful antagonist just shows up in front of protagonist, everyone around him acts like world is about to end. However, protagonist just says "die" and enemy is no more. Some antagonists die within 5 seconds of being introduced. Because of this I described the show as random as slot machine.
Story is rather random and disjoined too. The protagonist couple just travel towards capital for no particular reason other than expecting to find out something and fight random enemies, half of whom appear as randomly as a jack from a box. There are somewhat too many side characters, many of whom are completely forgettable. There are too many info boxes for classes and abilities of every single classmate of the protagonist couple. About half of them die before they even get to use any of their abilities.
All of that is as unconnected to each other as if author just randomly add to the story every single idea that randomly came to their head and every random thing they accidently looked at. It has mechas, dragons, fantasy classes, gods, ghosts, vampires, zombies, classmates, school buses, underground research facilities, office women in pencil skirts, employed by abovementioned facilities to babysit a kid (no, seriously). Author could not decide if they wanted it to be isekai, fantasy or ski-fy so they made it all three.
Despite an extensive cast of characters, I somehow did not particularly like or hated anyone. In better times not liking anyone might have made me drop it, but in these times the fact that I did not hate anyone was a good enough reason to keep watching.
That said I can recommend watching it just for the simple fact that nothing annoys me in this show to drop it.
I wanted to watch the original 1978 version as well but due to various circumstances never came to do it until recently.
I often complain that sequels are not as good as originals. Some do not live to the high mark of their predecessors, other got completely fucked up and corrupted by a different creative team.
The Herlock made of a curious inversion of this rule. I liked new Herlock a lot more than the original one. 2002 Herlock is strong and silent, very introverted and melancholic character who is wise, capable, makes sound and well thought decisions, saves people loyal to him and then universe as well. Herlock of 1978 is by contrast a contrarian who fights against all that is good and somehow calls it freedom.
I only watched up to episode 7 of the original but so far it does not shape up to be good at all. Differences between it and The Endless Odyssey are subtle but significant.
To begin with ideology and world set up. In The Endless Odyssey it was World Government that was hellbent on ending Herlock and all the pirates. They captured Key and most of Herlock's crew and wanted publicly to execute them as a show of force and to intimidate opponents. Herlock merely fought back to save his and his crew's freedom from government oppression.
The Endless Odyssey government was motivated by nothing more than desire to oppress and enforce their evil order against people's will. The Endless Odyssey government ruled over dirt poor wasteland and was a total mess. It was space North Korea, the polar opposite of the utopia that government was in the original Herlock.
In the 1978 original it's not the government that opposes Herlock but its Herlock who oppose government instead. In fact, government is almost happy to leave that Herlock alone, but he keeps bothering them all the time. And the reason he opposed government was nothing less than because it's "too weak and relaxed". Herlock and other characters keep complaining how people on Earth are weak and worthless.
At times the whole 1978 show feels like a cheap advert of "tough times ideology" that is popular with some idiots nowadays. Tough times and toughness do not make anything better, people who believe in benefits of tough times are morons beyond redemption and should all be exterminated.
Thus, when in The Endless Odyssey Herlock called his pirate flag, the Flag of Freedom. It actually meant something. It was a flag of freedom from government jackboots, oppression and poverty.
In 1978 Herlock also calls his flag, the Flag of Freedom but here it does not make any sense at all. What freedom? Herlock does nothing to save Mayu who is being abused because she is his daughter. In fact, he even finds delight in thinking about her suffering. I maybe support BDSM Maledom femsub, but that is not it. Also, no one who deliberately causes suffering to their own children is a decent person. Herlock also puts Daiba in danger and more. He does not fight for freedom; he fights to make people suffer and that is not something I can approve. 1978 Herlock's is not flag of freedom but a flag of suffering. Something neo-Christian cult wants to impose on society.
Speaking of Daiba, in 2002 he is rather unlikable. Overly emotional boor who gets in fights just for the sake of it. I always thought that he is unnecessary character who adds nothing to the story and should not even be in it.
In the original Daiba is not anymore likable but has a much more prominent role. He also looks very much like Herlock himself, as if he is his younger brother or son. This dynamic does not appeal to me at all.
Because of Daiba I was willing to give original Herlock a little more time to develop, thinking that once Daiba ark is over, we will move to the more interesting parts, but as of episode 7 that seems increasingly unlikely.
When it comes to Herlock, then in the 2002 Endless Odyssey he was, a strong and silent Byronic hero type. He was wise, smart, capable and many more. 2002 Herlock travels space, learns secrets of the universe and solves problems for the benefit of himself, his crew and humanity.
Herlock of 1978 is basically a bully and an asshole who lives by some stupid rules that make no sense and believes that comfort is bad.
Unfortunately, Mayu is a kid in original while she was cute teen girl in 2002 Endless Odyssey. Her episodes in the original are unpleasant to watch.
Opponents are also different. In The Endless Odyssey they were ghosts of the past. Dead scientists who opened some ancient vault, got killed, turned into ghosts and now wander the universe, killing people. They were part of Noo, the ancient fear that destroys civilizations. Herlock eventually defeated these outdated fools. I liked it because I like when young prevail over old.
In the original the opponents are women who burn like paper, Mazone. They are pretty and very feminine. Sure, story justify fighting them, but that is still a fight against what is good, beautiful and pleasant. Not something I support.
There are few things that are mostly the same. Both Miime and Key are rather feminine and demure, something I like. Unfortunately, we no longer have the black-haired female assistant to older Daiba.
As of episode 7, original 1978 Herlock is on its way to being dropped with rather low score. I will probably watch a few more episodes to make sure my conclusions I outlined here are correct, but so far it does not look promising at all.
Black pants Herlock of The Endless Odyssey maybe a hero but his washed-up jeans predecessor from original is not. Only the black pants Herlock fights for freedom, the washed-up jeans Herlock only fights for suffering.
Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - It misses more than half of the time at predicting future but has good plot.
I recommend watching.
A while ago I reviewed the original Ghost in the Shell movie. I pointed out many of its shortcomings compare to other shows about future technology and implications it will have on humanity.
However, despite other shows doing it better, GitS was first and ended up creating a cult following, others could not muster. There are many sequel movies as well as two full double seasons of episodic series. This is the first season.
To begin with, tech. This show takes original tech of the GitS and further develops on it. That means that there are certain things that as a moment of writing this review are not yet available for humanity. At the same time certain technology that is completely ubiquitous to us is conspicuously absent in this show. For example, one can easily separate the AI that controls the robot from the physical body of the robot. AI can be uploaded, changed, updated very easily with our current tech. Yet in this movie they had to withdraw all the think tanks just because there was issue with their AI. Other things like hacking electronic eyes with no direct contact yet requiring a wire from one artificial body to another to pass information between people. Technology did not age well in this story.
On the other hand, plot is the best part of the show by far. Executives certainly loved that show and splurged on good writing team. Episodes are diverse and creatively written. Diverse cast of both main protagonists as well as episodic characters they are dealing with. There is even an overreaching plot that connects stretches several episodes and concludes closer to the end. Even if ending somewhat disappointed, I will admit I was curious to learn the truth behind Laughing Man when he was first introduced. After rather early introduction, main plot involving him takes a pause to focus on other things only to resurface at rather unexpected moments.
Characters themselves did not really endear me to them. I could hardly point to anyone I particularly liked. I did not especially dislike anyone either, but overall, they are not my type of crew, there is some subconscious rejection of them. They lack ambition and vision to build something better; they merely work humbly for the cause. Not that an agency like Section 9 needs ambitious people but still. Also, they are far too duty bound, overly subservient to superiors and seem completely lack any personal desires or motivations, they live to serve the state. That is probably why I subconsciously dislike Section 9 as this is an organisation that is ignorant and indifferent to people personal wishes and desires. They are not as free spirited or driven by internal sense of justice as Herlock crew or Black Knights from Code Geass. Neither are they try to indulge themselves in whatever pleasures they can like Lagoon Company.
Main protagonists, including Matoko and Batou, are all members of Section 9. It is an elite force of an internal security or secret police type of organisation, that fights complex crime, stops international incidents, investigate corrupt politicians and businessmen and also fights rival government agencies. It has such an inconspicuous name so that not even their colleagues in police and security know what they really do. They take secrecy very seriously there. Most of the individual episodes revolve around one or the other member of the Section flexing hard their mad skills, for the lack of better description.
Episodic antagonists are diverse, and some are rather interesting like that rich guy who surrounded themselves with robotic maids in his mansion and died long before Section 9 got to him. I wish I could live how he lived.
Laughing man himself ended up rather underwhelming. At first, he was introduced as super hacker with some over-the-top super plan for something yet to be unveiled. By the end of the show, it ended up merely about government decision to cover up effectiveness of a vaccine for political reasons and how Laughing Man wanted to expose it all this time; no, seriously.
Also, there are Catcher in the Rye references, so many that it almost wants to make this book central to the character and motivation of Laughing Man and possibly Section 9 as well. I cannot say I hate Holden Clayfield (not sure if surname correct) as some people say, but Catcher in the Rye is certainly not among my favorite books. I think it's overrated.
Overall, it is a diverse and interesting series. I can recommend you watch it at least once, for rather intriguing plot. Resolution does not leave you satisfied but premise does keep you curious and there are cool fights and too. There is also a second double season that I will probably watch at some later date.
Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Nice comedy that starts strong but goes astray halfway through.
I still recommend watching at least first dozen episodes.
Recently I watched a number of shows that begin very strong but then somehow lose their touch and become near shit closer to the end. First Toji no Miko, now this.
First few episodes were complete blast. I would not call them in the mold of Gintama as there is clear difference in tone and feel. However, they were just as funny and enjoyable as best episodes of Gintama. These episodes were centered on Tenma and her hopeless love for Karasuma. Silly and stupid things she did was really fun to watch. I called comedy a royal entertainment and as God-Emperor of the Universe will employ Tenma as court jester or personal maid.
That did not last, however. Gradually focus shifted to Harima. At first, he was just a guy who liked Tenma and did as much silly things for her as she did for Karasuma. Gradually he became a main character of sort. Episodes about him as mixed bag, some are relatively interesting, but others are meh.
The worst however are the episodes that make fun of guys or pit them against each other. Show actually has large and ever-expanding male cast, that leads it into unlikable territory. I would have dropped this show and gave it 30 if the first episode I watched was that camping trip. A few other equally bad.
Overtime even Tenma's role has changed from being a silly girl into being a spoiled one. A very unfortunate devolution. It's like there was not enough manga content for the whole 26 episodes so anime scriptwriters wrote some of their own script that interprets the characters wrongly.
When it comes to girls, the best is obviously early version of Tenma, Yakumo and Ichijou.
Early Tenma is cute kind of stupid. Most importantly she has a lot of devotion for Karasuma and willing to do a lot for him. She is honest and driven by her love and devotion. She is not playing games or calculating if he is worth is. She is non-judgemental and non-gold-digging. In our modern world the fact that she is too stupid to sue for divorce and get half of your home is clear advantage. Generally, her innocence and stupidity are very appealing.
I do not really need to explain Yakumo as she is the obvious perfect girl. She is quiet, introverted and does not have many friends. She cleans cooks, does other chores, she is solitary and likes cats. What no to like. That said she is somewhat avoidant of most men and that can be a problem. It is good that she does not hangs out with others, but how you make her yours?
Finally, Ichijou is very humble and insecure. She is strong but does not use force against men, which is ok, I guess. Though in real live one cannot have that strength without really fucking up the way body looks. Aside from that her personality is nice, the way I like them.
On the other hand, the other three girls are annoying. Sawachika looks down on Harima but still loves him somehow. The most annoying one. The blue head pushes that blond dude away all the time and has a standoff with the Sawachika over dating field. Both are unpleasant as they look down on men, an unforgivable offence. Finally, Akira does not do much but has the kind of look that will make you avoid her.
There is also Harima's cousin with whom he lives, who is rather annoying too. Then finally that another girl Harima lived with, who later became nurse, she is somewhat better.
Overall, I would still recommend it. First 3-4 episodes are the best. First half is decent. Skip some episodes in second part.
There is also a double second season (more 26 episodes) and third too (only a few episodes), but in view of the above I do not look forward to watching it. Will probably watch eventually, but when remains to be seen.
Overall Rating 5.7 out of 10 - Flawed waifu show that barely works as intended
I can recommend watching if you have no better anime to watch
Even a talentless studio that has little idea what they are doing can sometimes produce something half-decent.
Assault Lily is one such example. It is based on a series of anime figurines, featuring cute dress in sexy clothes with overengineered weapons, called charms. This alone carries the show. Figurine designers knew what they were doing and their girl design is indeed sexy and likable: black dresses with white frills, small puffy skirts, stockings - near maid outfits. This design is what carries the show. This show is about staring at cute girls on screen and little more.
The bad parts clearly came from the scriptwriters. Personalities of must girls are rather unlikable, too much jealousy, toughness and wickedness, too little moe. Waifu shows are all about moe, take K-On! for example, girls there so innocent, cute, silly and stupid in a cute way. Kyoani clearly knows how it's done. Here instead most girls exhibit rather unlikable personally traits instead.
They also tried to tap into lesbian dynamic too, but they did it like real lesbians where one girl plays the guy's part in a relationship. That is how yaoi is written for female audiences, lesbians written for male audiences are instead written by making both girls equally sweet and innocent.
The story in theory revolves around fighting huge, but most of the time is dedicated to girls' drama instead. It's the kind of girl's drama that is nor entertaining in any way.
The only thing that carries the show is uniform design. This barely pushes this show to above average overall. Because of that I can recommend this show for times when there are few good anime and there is nothing better to watch, like post 2012.
Overall Rating 6.3 out of 10 - Decent show that begins really well and ends rather lackluster.
I recommend watching.
Cute girls, Japanese culture and aesthetics, pleated skirts, stockings and swordfights. A formula of near guaranteed success. That is why I was very enthusiastic about this show. Finally, something not feminist, subverting working formulas with unworking ones and such. Pure female exploitation for male enjoyment.
Beginning did not disappoint. Several episodes in plot made such an original and creative twist, it definitely looked like a success story that can earn something around 8 out of 10. For the first quarter to 1/3 of the show, Toji no Miko kept delivering more twists and turns of this rather compelling narrative. I deliberately avoid giving details here as experiencing this as its progress is the best this show has to offer.
Then came the big reveal that explained all that happened and why it happened. It was not only too long, as they talked several episodes straight, but also rather disappointing. It's not that core plot idea was bad it was rather creative actually. The problem is the role older generations characters played in all that.
Closer to the middle focus shifted from cute young girls to their parents and grandparents. These older people were settling scores with each other, and younger people were merely pawns in their schemes. This older generation teaches younger who is eager to learn never sit well with me and it did not so here as well. Alas, creators of the show like it far too much and spent too much time on that.
The show is officially a one double season, but in practice first 12 episodes get its own conclusion and final battle, followed by full second season that goes from there and offers an interesting boost to the story. Once again core story is solid a be it less dramatic. It's the same old generation problem that got even worse in second season as now old women directly boss young girls to do heavy lifting as they sit in comfy office chairs.
Older generations are former sword maidens, who screwed up when they were on duty. Now managers they essentially send their kids to fix their mistakes and fight not only aradamas but also rival fraction of sword maidens who disagree on methods and principles, typical boomers. To make matter worse a number of older generation women are really detestable. Younger girls have nicer personalities on average but that too varies. Sayaka is best girl at least according to my taste.
Overall ideological bend of the show also does not sit well with me. It's all about preserving ancient ways and honoring old stuff while opposing modernity.
That said aside from the problems outlined above, it's a decent show. Diverse cast of girls will allow anyone to find one to their liking. Fights are nice with occasional surprise twists. Main antagonists are complex, compelling and interesting. On summary it floats above waterline, even if barely.
Overall, I can recommend watching it. This show has its flaws that are several episodes long at times, but it also has strong points. Middle episodes are worst as well as epilogue.
Overall Rating 3.0 out of 10 - Season that betrays and retcons nearly everything from the original
I do not recommend watching.
Me complaining that 2nd and 3rd seasons do not live up to the original is nothing new. Sometimes it's just a minor issues and other times it's a completely deal breaking.
Unfortunately, 3rd season of Arknights manage to do the worst disservice to the original, changing nearly everything. It's a worse fall that even Kaiji's second season. What makes it worse is the fact that with Kaiji or Gochiusa one could have a benefit of the doubt that new creative team simply misunderstood the original work and fucked up unintentionally. With 3rd season of Arknights its clearly not the case. It was a fully intentional retcon to reframe the entire story as something altogether different.
First season of Arknights was a simple but likable waifu show, much in the mold of Kancolle or Dolls Frontline.
In addition to a collection of many cute women for every taste out there it had a simple but compelling and relatable plot. An infection called Oripathy infect certain people, giving them special abilities called arts. Common uninfected people fear the infected and discriminate against them.
Reunion wants revenge for the mistreatment they suffered. Rhodes instead wants to find ways for everyone live in peace somehow. Very on the zeitgeist as boomers and Gen W (early Gen X) ruined economy, betrayed Millennials and stole our future. Because of that one can relate to a Reunion's cause.
In contrast Rhodes, who is a protagonist, offers a number of nice, kind, accepting and forgiving females, something real life women clearly lacking nowadays. Rhodes is clearly a waifu garden for a discerning man.
Amiya clearly represents (or represented) all these qualities well enough. Her presence made half of the show. Rooting for Reunion to deal with all the uninfected the other.
First season was the truest to the cause, second season had some questionable parts but was on the level. Things really went south in the third one. To begin with most of the season are flashbacks. First, we see a Rhodes past. It was transformed into a fraction that fought for power in Ursus but lost, Theresia was killed and Rhodes went on to fight Reunion instead. That was followed by flashback about Talulah, who was retconned into an altruistic idealist who was helping poor and wanted to transform Ursus until loss of her best friend made her insane. All of it became inside Ursus conspiracy.
Characters and their motivations changed too. Amiya was transformed from kind and accepting girl into an enforcer of some abstract moral; creators try so hard to sell to viewers. Other characters changed too. I already explained Talulah, but doctor, Kalt'sit and Mephisto all have changed too. Patriot got a big role with his weird and contradictory ideals about who has right to speak or fight or whatnot. He is but another vehicle for authors to sell their views to public.
Until last episode I was willing to give it somewhere between 50 and 60 but conclusion was the worst possible. It was almost as if it deliberately tried to cover the bingo card of every single trope, I hate modern fiction for: justifying abuse, suffering and hardship, absurd levels of guilt, self-punishment, self-sacrifice, false justice, illogical arguments, stopping fight instead of resolving issue, avoiding the real problems and more. Causing people suffering is not making them stronger, it's a heinous crime whose perpetrators need to be stopped, by killing them if necessary.
All in all, this is unapologetic propaganda piece that tries hard to sell viewers its views and values. The question is whom these values benefit so much they would be willing to go out of their way to hamfist them into this story. The answer is old, rich and privileged.
Story deliberately tries to blame the victim by shifting blame from society to infected themselves. Allegedly it's not the world that treats infected unfairly but rather infected themselves who supposed to live to some higher standard none around them even bother to adhere.
Who benefit from this victim blaming message this season pushes so heavily. Obviously, the crooks themselves, people who steal your money and future now telling you to learn forgiveness and acceptance, blame yourself instead of those who wronged you.
Once again, the fiction hit close to the real life. Older generations who stole wealth of the younger ones in a Financial Crisis of 2008. Now they sit in their luxurious retirement homes paid by stolen wealth and fear consequences. Reunion reminds them of these consequences. They fear Millennials will organise like Reunion and pry back that stolen wealth from boomer's cold dead hands.
That is why older people sponsor this blatant rewriting of the story into propaganda. It is to preserve their stolen wealth and status that wealth allows them. That is why this season is not focused on changed but on preserving status quo. They might call it de-radicalisation but it's just another lie, a hypocrisy designed to protect the stolen wealth from those from whom it was stolen. Justice is not protecting status quo. Justice is taking this wealth back, not in letting the thieves keep it.
Our lives and our futures were stolen by boomers and Gen W (early Gen X), it's time we pry that back from their cold dead hands. They did not earn any of it, its paid for by the ever-increasing rents and ever decreasing salaries. Justice demands boomers pay for their theft, lies and other crimes.
Arknights: Enshin Shomei is a sequel that betrays the original cause of the show and twists it into toxic and unlikable tale. I do not recommend watching.
Overall Rating - 7.2 out of 10 - Smarter than average, even if dragged out show
I recommend watching.
Higurashi is what Ryukish07 was writing before he created Umineko. You may call it the Umineko prototype of sorts. However, Umineko went all out to the very bottom of Nietzschean abyss, pulling all the stops along the way and showing just how far you can take the "train of thoughts". Umineko is one of a kind "black tea" for fellow "monsters", I rate it only below Code Geass. However, you need a far above the average intelligence to fully understand it. Many fail to understand Umineko at all and thus Higurashi remains fans favorite as it is more accessible for an average intelligence. Either that or they all obsess over Keiichi, just like female heroines of this show.
Compared to Umineko, Higurashi is a much simpler show, but it still has a few clever tricks to offer. This review is of the second season. I watched the first one a while back (8 years ago) but did not review it. In the first season, girls all took turns getting jealous of Keiichi for preferring someone other than them and went on a killing spree, killing all their rivals and sometimes Keiichi as well. I might miss some details here and there.
Second season is the so called "answer" ark, where it all explained or covered up if you understand what is going on. Events of the first season are re-interpreted as caused by Hinamizawa syndrome and is said to be triggered by Miyo Takano's revenge for the treatment of her adoptive grandpa. They also show alive older Rena as a hint to the answers for the first season.
Takano as well as her backstory is rather well written. She is an interesting and realistic villain who knows how to jest, lie, pretend and use feminine charms to get something. In contrast the protagonists certainly overdo the "power of friendship" routine. At times it's worse than shonen anime. It certainly makes the anime feel drag out. Ryukishi07 was never the laconic type, but if length of Umineko was due to sheer complexity of the ideas he wanted to explain, in Higurashi it feels unjustified.
Of course, that could also be because I just do not find the setting or characters very likable or relatable, so excessive cheering for them does not fill me with good emotions. Characters do fit the story well, but hardly likable in their own right. If I had to name a favorite it will be Rena, because she is all cute and sweet half of the time at least. That is rather unusual for anime or Japanese media, where some shows hardly even have plots and entirely carried by the cast. Compare to that this show is story driven.
Overall, however I can recommend it simply because it was written by someone much more smart than average screenwriter. It's a show that can actually give you things to think about and keep your brain entertained. A tad rare thing in our anti-intellectual era where dumbness and room temp IQ is standard, because everything should be understood even by a 5-year-old toddler to maximise profits. Though to really help your intellectual solitude I recommend Umineko and my other 10, 9 and some 8.5 shows.
I wrote a review for Umineko, but even a review for Umineko cannot be understood with room temp IQ, much less show itself.
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.
Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - A rare OVA that actually brings the best out of the original.
I recommend watching
I do not always review OVAs. One or two extra episodes often just stuff too boring to put in main show, so it's released as extra to entice people to by DVDs or spend extra in other way. Rarely they do try to enhance the original, like in Kanokon OVA, but end up failing. However, in case this show, the OVA is clearly a win.
When I was writing review for original Mondaiji-tachi I said that best things about it are female sexual exploitation and unconventional character of main protagonists. However, it later gets bogged down in themes like poverty, backbreaking work and childcare that plague late 2010s anime. Now in this OVA fixes it by removing all that bogged show down and only keeping the good parts.
Here we have plenty of females in sexy compromising poses, dressed in sexy clothes. They got, molested by tentacles, covered in sticky liquids, get their cloth destroyed and many more. However, that is not all, we also have Izayoi being OP, like he plays warlock in WoW.
If there is something that perhaps lacking is that we have not seen that snake molesting all the female characters.
Overall, this is possibly the best OVA I have seen, and I think the only one I rated higher than the original show. I can recommend watching.
Watching another isekai anime I could not help to notice a repeated use of the title, called "floor guardian". Even good takes on the videogame genre such as Overlord series do that, many others copy that.
However, what a floor guardian even is, if you look at world of Warcraft for example, you will not find one in the entire game. Most likely this is part of player jargon and used in lieu of boss, possibly something culturally acceptable and meaningful for a Japanese person.
Boss is a term used by players a lot, but it is never used by a game itself or in game characters. Reason for disparity is due to different objectives for communication between players and between NPCs in game.
Players need to communicate fast and precise. The game is fast paced, and any delay can be costly. There is no time to nitpick on titles of each individual character, a simple precise term that denote their role in game is needed. That is why players use terms such as: boss, trash, loot, CC, DPS, tank, healer buff, nerf and so on. These are technical terms that sum up much more complex actual names for spells, characters and other game aspects as well as denote their role in game. Refer to OMGWTFBBQ article (net rather than my blog) for the full list of abbreviations used by players.
On the other hand, NPCs in game and the game plot has to tell the story and immerse players in the world. To do that each character is given elaborate name, sometimes title and a role in the organisation they are part of. No real-life organisation would have a floor guardian and no person referred as boss has this written down on their business card. The game imitates reality so by extension it has none either. Instead, each NPC has a certain role in one or the other in game organisation. These range from royal and even divine titles to humble farmhands and shop keeper assistants. Each character is someone in the big world the game designers want to portray.
Broadly speaking both forms of communications are equally important for the whole experience. Player's jargon is needed to actually play and communicate with fellow players. The story language on the other hand allows you to feel that it's not just a game with game pieces, but a living breathing world, full of all sorts of people.
Any fiction is just as good as how well it can suspend our disbelief that its real. Yes, underneath the hood it's all numbers and game mechanics, they are important to master the game, but they are not why people play in the first place. People play because they find the world game set in compelling. Yes, it is a fictional fully made-up world, but if its likable and believable enough then people will keep coming back to it.
That is why what happens in this world is important. A one careless plot twist that does not fit the established world or characters and this whole illusion of the world falls apart.
That is why good actors train themselves to actually believe they are who they play in the movie. That way they can act like it really happens and viewers looking at them could believe it too. They cry like their own wife and child died in front of them, then bash villain like they a person who killed their loved ones.
A bad actor does half-hearted act that breaks the illusion and expose the 4th wall, allowing audience to realise it's all an act, no one died and there are cameras and director on the other side.
Characters calling themselves floor guardian is that kind of breach of 4th wall act. If you look on WoW lore, every dungeon boss has actual title and role, they are, chef wizards, lead engineers, cannoneers, fighting instructors, captains, inquisitors, lords, even school headmasters and so on. Behind every title there is a story and a role they play in their organisation story wise. Same with characters talking about game rules and game mechanics. Phrases such as gift game or geass scrolls are all such artificial concepts that expose them as mere game mechanics.
For example, NPCs in WoW do not say such things, they act like characters in screen are real people, experience real like sorrow or joy if someone dies or saved. In short act like real life people would in similar situation. Citizens of Darkshire is afraid undead or Worgen going to kill them all one of these days and then implore player to help them fend-off these threats off. They also ask you to contact every other Stormwind friendly locality and ask them to send help. All responses however are negative as they have too many problems of their own and could use some of Darkshire help if they can spare any.
That get you invested too as you realise that you are possibly the only one who stands between Darkshire and its obliteration at the hands of Worgen and undead. When you save them, they call give you gifts and promise to remember you, tell tales and celebrate your victories like in historical myth. You can become as immortalised as Momotaro, or Minamoto, or Till Eulenspiegel or Ivan Susanin or crusaders, name it. You saved them from a certain assured destruction, story wise that it. Yes, you will be remembered by fictional people, but still.
Yes, really game will not break if you do nothing and they will not die, but it's the illusion that they will that makes people love the world as much as they do and continue to play classic. This is one and quintessential thing that classic got right compared to modern WoW.
Generally High fantasy stories are like Lord of The Rings or cliche WWII movies. JRR Tolkien got the formula right in his books, that is why they are so loved by the fans.
In High Fantasy enemy is devil incarnate and trying to destroy everything and exterminate everyone; we either win or die. There could be variations on how exactly they plan to destroy everyone, or whether they honestly admit to their designs or believed so by their opponents. If they do not plan to destroy everything and kill everyone and can be trusted and negotiated reasonable terms with, then why all the struggle with fighting them to death. Let's just make a deal and have peace of our time, Neville Chamberlain style. It's the impossibility of compromise that makes all the struggle against the enemy necessary. When plot fails to deliver that impossibility of peace, it cheapens the whole experience.
It works in real life as well. Take even recent war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia called Ukrainians nazis and refuses to negotiate with them. Ukraine and Europe in turn consider Russia untrustworthy genocidal power who seeks to destroy Ukraine and Europe. It is not a situation where there can be trust in any agreement, not backed by something more concrete, like force and guarantees.
Originally WoW followed this formula faithfully. For as long as they continue to follow this formula, fans were happy.
In later expansion they started to deviate from it. NPCs started to admit that not much will change even if you do nothing. You no longer save them from assured destruction, just kill some mobs to earn some gear. Story progressively went somewhere else.
There are no antagonists to speak of. As I wrote in one of my previous articles about WoW, western stories are almost always antagonist driven. No antagonist is almost as good as no story.
Before enemy was deadly and good guys are completely hapless without you. You were the center of all efforts to win and save Azeroth, everyone else either supported you or relied on you. It was all about you. When Nietzsche talked about Will to Power, he meant this: the power to decide the future of the world.
After you end up being an accessory to the dodgy protagonists like Garrosh or Sylvanas and later even Shadowlands Jailer if I understand story correctly. It's no longer your show, it's their show and you are just an extra. You are no longer the power, they are, you are just around. You can have that IRL, as IRL most of us can affect nothing, why bother playing the game.
The reason to play games is to feel more powerful and influential than you really are. Games can give you what reality alas cannot. That fulfilment of Will to Power. When games and other entertainment stop giving you that, then why continue?
If it's not about you, everyone can be just as fine without you, then why play, why struggle, why invest into the game, what all these efforts will accomplish? Videogames were one of few opportunities for an average person to feel they are important and matter a lot. If you take that away than what remains? Crunching numbers until your numbers are bigger than their numbers?
It is the same with isekai or any other anime. In some anime, like Code Geass you feel that future of the world is at stake. You can feel invested.
Yet other shows make you feel discouraged instead, system is just too strong or stiff or inert, and you can never change it no matter what you try.
Back to the original topic. When writing about videogames, player jargon and game story narrative should stay distinct. Authors should not mix them as that breaks the whole thing apart. Instead, two distinct narratives should exist side by side, one describes the action from story point of view, and the other describe in in gamer's jargon terms.
To achieve that one way is to make one character speak in jargon and the other in story terms. One of the players, invested in story or narrator can give plot context of what is going on, while another experienced player will speak jargon instead.
As I was often writing in my articles, quality of writing has declined in all media, movies, anime, videogames. In this article I have describe how it declined exactly and how to fix it. Hopefully it will result in more and better stories across all media.
