Five Star Stories

Overall Rating 6.3 out of 10 - Show that does certain things really well yet fails at other times.

I recommend watching

This is a rather strange if well animated and sophisticatedly drawn anime. Certainly, someone hoped it will succeed somehow, it had certain promise, but it ultimately failed to develop in the right direction.

The worst thing about this show is its main protagonist, Sopp. A sort of feminine guy who pretends he is girl or something. He is hard to understand or relate to. Nothing about him makes any sense to me.

Female characters here are good actually, that is why I watched it. Girls here are, for the most part, demure and cute. The only flow is that they are not 100% obedient, but only 95% obedient. Which makes Sopp's attitude towards them even more strange. For once an anime with likable females and male MC is not into them.

Premise is very promising. They brainwash females into being a Fatima, a kind of medium between giant battle robots and their pilots. These fatimas are then paired with the pilot for life in a special ceremony. Very original and detailed idea that I actually like. There are also 4 planetary systems with their own governments, rulers, knights and more. Some complex destiny that foretells end of the world, it could make for an enjoyable many hundreds of episodes long show if it made into a series.

Story is kind of meh, a perverted fat merchant sponsored development of 3 fatimas, but with defects, because he wanted to keep them for himself. They run away, one by one, Sopp helps one, then does not want to help another until some female ghost told him to and he does. And then he also was doing some gay things in between all this. Then merchant gets defeated in the end. Meh.

If anything, exploiting the fatimas would make this show an absolute win. Most of them are so cute, pure and demure, defiling them would in every sexual position would make a porn spinoff that would beat Bible Black or Quasar without breaking a sweat. I am with merchant on this; it's said that the most sensible man in the show is made its main antagonist. And he also had female servants in semi-transparent harem outfits, an absolute genius of a man. A main show should feature all these girls more often and more prominent too, fatimas in harem outfits and in lingerie and in bdsm gear, tied up and oppressed.

Finally, art is very, detailed and well done. One of the best features of this show is certainly art. Not just execution, but design too, very fancy and over the top.

Overall, it's a missed opportunity. It had ingredients to become something cool, but poor story and gay MC ruined it. Under my direction it would have been a resounding success.

Suisei no Gargantia Review

Overall Rating 7.4 out of 10 - Good show with an excellent plot and story

I recommend watching.

Gargantia looks like a very uncharacteristic anime for Gen Urobuchi, unlike his other works its bright and seamlessly upbeat. However, there is more to this show that initially meets the eye, it certainly worth your time.

Story and premise are by far the best thing about this anime. I would not reveal to many details to not spoil all the plot twists ahead. Far into future humans spread across the space and now locked in never-ending fight against squid like beings called Hideauze. Main protagonist got separated from his unit and ended up stranded on a seamlessly mysterious planet of never-ending ocean where people live by salvaging old equipment and technology from seafloor. As show progresses, he adapts to live on that planet but eventually gets to discover more about Hideauze and the planet's past.

Setting is somewhat mixed bag but mostly positive. There is too much of doing with little, leaving in shacks and scrapping by, however there is also plenty of abundance and relax resort-like vibes too, turquoise sea, terracotta-coloured clothes, girls in belly dancing harem outfits, fancy meals and such.

Show presents a dichotomy between a society of universal acceptance and letting go of things, practiced on Gargantia to rigid utilitarianism of Galactic Alliance. Both societies are somewhat lacking in my opinion, so I do not have clear favorite. However not everyone monolithically backs one or another way of life. Different characters have different views on the matter and behave on their own conviction. 

Overall characters are well written and their behavior makes sense. Each life by their own believes and cooperates of conflicts with others based on these believes. They are well fleshed out. The way Ledo interacts with society that is so different from Galactic Alliance where he grew up is absolute brilliance. Main heroine, Amy is very nice and likable girl.

As for negatives, then if it did not have so much of leftist defeatism and letting go of things, I would have given it 8. To put it short, I am on Pinion and Flange side on issue of Whale-Squid lair.

There are two OVAs too. First is mostly flashbacks about various characters, its best to watch it only after finishing the main storyline as there will be spoilers in second episode of OVA. Overall, these are OK-ish with second episode is better than the first.

Second OVA is larger and takes place immediately after the main storyline. It expands on the world, Gargantia exist in. Here again second episode is much more interesting than the first one and this time by a lot.

Overall, I can certainly recommend this show. Its punching far above the average.

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.

Mashiroiro Symphony: The color of lovers Review

Overall Rating 5.3 out of 10 - Anime with few good points, drowning in a slog of a long drama.

I can only recommend episodes 5,6 and 11, skip the rest.

This anime has a few good points, but they drown in a sea of long pointless drama. I will begin with good.

The good is 'stray maid' Ange, who unfortunately got less screen time than other girls and the fact that anime ended up with Lavender-head girl (Miu Amaha) being main love interest instead of the blond one. alas this anime uses very confusing names for most of the girls so I will go with colours instead.

With Ange its simple but it works. A maid who is eager to serve and please her master is always a win. Ange is a bit rough on edges, but she is undoubtedly the best girl among them all. She likes being useful and will do anything for a protagonist, she also does not mind any other women he has in his life. Yes, I like maids, and that is why I watched this show to begin with. However, role of maid is simply a reflection of what good proper woman should be, unlike some other maids out there who are only maids because of the hype and popularity of this trope, Ange is a maid in spirit and soul, and it matters for the final verdict.

As for Lavender-chan then she is a mixed bag but with more positive than negative. On one hand she is demure, reserved and very well mannered. She is very sweet in a good way when she and main protagonist are alone. Her cat cosplay from her job is very cute. She is also a caring person who gets attached to people and animals and then go to great length to care for them. 

On the negative side, her attempt to be 'senior' to the male MC, lead and teach him something. She is technically older than him despite him being much taller than her. Senior role does not fit a girl in a relationship, even if she is older, she should not remember about the age and should just let him lead instead. In the end age is number, not a claim to authority. Lavender-chan too is much more fit the role of weak, protected and led girl as she is demure and soft.

Now for a negative of the show as whole, which are plenty. 

To begin with there is too much drama, I will write a separate article about why I hate drama. Everything takes too long, makes the show overall more of a chore to watch 90% of the time.   

Next it the setting. School merger where male MC school got abolished and merged into an all-female one and he is getting bad lip for that is unpleasant to watch to say the least. Its condescending towards male MC to treat him this way.

It does not get any better when attention shifts towards Kitty Club, using care for animals as part for character development to show that a girl in question is caring person is a good idea, but this show certainly takes it too far. Caring for animals becomes the main focus of the show and detracts attention from romance. Even final episode is not about male MC and Lavender-chan, but about show weird mascot Pannya-chan. There is a lot wrong with it: to being with you do not return animals to their parents, animals live on their own when they grow adult and so are people. Also, what Pannya even is: at first, it looked like weirdly drawn cat, but then we got actual cats that got two full episodes dedicated to their adoption.

Then other girls. Blonde and red head are both very unlikable. Both get more scree time than Ange, which is unfair to the best girl. Red head is a downright masochist choice and very repulsive for one who is not. Blonde is more nuanced, but she is far too entitled, and it makes her unpleasant. Her type is what people call thot or karen. Looking how male MC has to navigate around her many sentimentalities and standards is no pleasant sight either. It makes it even more sad that she is average fan favorite. I would not date either of them, it's better to be alone than to put up with either of these two antics.

Finally, a blue haired iumoto-chan, she is a baseline OK girl with neither good, nor bad traits. She is in the middle because only two girls in this show have more positive than negative.

Overall, this show is a slog. I can only recommend watching a couple of episodes focused on Ange (episodes 5 and 6) and then episode 11 for Lavender-chan. The rest of the show is a waste of your time.

What Makes Good Comedy

Recently I have been rewatching some of the comedy anime I watched and rated highly before. Overall, they felt less funny compared to when I watched them last time. Comedies do have diminishing return on rewatching. You remember best jokes well enough and hearing them ad infinite does not generates as much laughter as it used to when jokes were new. Moreover, you better notice various issues like some other jokes that are not funny, rudeness, unnecessary cruelty and other problems. 

What makes a good comedy is a tricky question. Different people have different tastes in humor: what is funny for one is not so for another. One might also grow up from some forms of humor and find certain jokes you used to laugh at in the past no longer funny. Different types of comedy have their own terms for them, like satire, dark humor, absurdity, self-deprecated humor and so on.

Here I would not talk about something called Romantic Comedy. This is something women like for some reason I cannot really understand. From my point of view comedy is all about laughing at something that is funny. This funny is more often than not is not sexy, its complete opposite of sexy. Because if someone does something, that certainly will not win them any affection, while being completely certain it will work, then it's funny and you can laugh at their stupidity. If they do something that will actually work, it can be useful to know but it will not be funny. 

In my case I like either dead pan absurdity where people do completely senseless things like it's perfectly normal or satire that makes fun of social issues and stupidity in real life. Anime that best represent this genre are Gintama, where they combine their idiocy, Excel Saga that calls itself Quack Experimental Anime, Nichijou that is very good at making their absurdity look like the most normal thing in the world and Kill Me Baby, that offers very common-sense solutions when characters expect something wild instead. Outside anime, movies by Zucker Brothers that often feature Leslie Nielsen fit this role best. British humor, particularly Monthy Python, Black Adder and Spitting Image do it well too.

As for comedy anime I did not like, then Azumanga Daioh because it makes fun of characters in a mean way for no good reason, there is nothing funny about Osaka and it's rude to make fun of her. Invader Ika Musume, because all jokes were too obvious to be funny, basically its dumb. Konosuba, because they think comedy is merely about being rude and for the most part ignored jokes altogether, one exception is headless horsemen trouble with noisy neighbors or something, I watched long ago so do not remember details, but there was a funny headless dude there. Nonetheless one joke is too litte to redeem Konosuba.

As to why watch comedy. To answer that question, I first need to talk about why it is good to laugh. That might seem self-explanatory, but I will iterate on it. Laughter makes you happier so something that makes you laugh is good and useful in itself. I had a friend that used to find funny things in pretty much anything around him. That allowed all of us to laugh, a lot. He even joked that if 1 minute of laughter extends life by 10 minutes then we will live forever. That is how much we laughed back then. I cannot know if he still laughs as much as we used to or not, maybe life got the best out of him and he too now fell into the same doom and gloom, unable to cope with fucked up reality around us. Now that I no longer have any contact with him, I watch comedy to bring back that laughter and lighten up life a little bit. 

In view of that it's sad that old favorites no longer shine as bright and bring as much laughter as they used to. Unlike other shows it's hard to be consistently good (in this case funny) in a comedy genre. Some jokes really make you laugh for minute or more. Others could not even put a faint smile on your face. 

Gintama always had a mixed bag of episodes, the best episodes produced more laughter time than episode runtime. Others just did not work. Watching it again made me pay more attention to what did not work. The excessive rudeness of characters, especially women, and unreasonable violence towards men is actually Gintama two big problems. When these things are mixed with a really ingenious and funny jokes, they go well enough, but without a good joke these things feel unpleasant, so unpleasant that I would have dropped Gintama altogether if not for the jokes.

Excel Saga seemed much less funny then how I remembered it, best jokes seemed missing altogether for some reason, but worst ones are still there. Again, too much unwarranted violence towards men. It was still good occasionally but far less so.

I do wonder why that was the case. Did my standards rose after I watched better shows? Did I started paying more attention to things I do not like? It's not like my tastes changed, but my perception of the show changed on balance. Before I thought it was more good than bad, now it seems bad outweighs the good for some reason.

Nonetheless I will still remember best Gintama jokes, like: to protect his identity we will cover his real name with <beep>, I am not <beep>, I am Katsura, writing in Kamchatkan, test to join Joi, using elder as weapon then complaining that other players use demon king as weapon, riding on a coffin, dying from hitting a sign, shed a skin and become a more evolved gorilla, aliens turning people into screwdrivers and then characters thinking it makes sense to work as truck drivers because their body parts were turned into screwdrivers, Nabeleon, girls like storms hurricanes and the like, writing love letter, what is this white thing, 24 hours inside out of control Shinsengumi, an assassin Gorilla 13, when these things will catch up with them, I will dump that pants pooping loser, Bentendo OwwEee que, all of the dialogue is funny, mayonnaise with mayonnaise, marathon evolved Taka-tin into a huge wrestler looking foreigner, answering quis correctly by asking to go to toilet, eating Arkraiser and then making deal of saving Earth for supply of Arkriser cartriges, what is this big white thing, its toilet paper, a ghost from the well that forget her kotatsu, Blureiko that makes everything blue instead of scary, Jump Samurai, why do you cook in my kitchen while playing that action music, loose-eared slut, chuubert assassins, temp Elizabeth that filled on Mondays, Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon that everyone recognises for some reason, catching space octopi is like daring a woman, most importantly is to show initiative, Space Captain Katsura, Zura development week, hardboiled, Abe-san, Mage on public hair, Pandemonium-san turning shy and cute, whole Barbershop saga was funny, Robot for doing business in space and more.

Fundamentally however a good comedy shows sharp mind and intelligence of the author. They can fool around, but they are actually much smarter than an average joe. It's like a secret code message that only smart people get (really get) and more stupid ones miss the point. That is something bad comedies seriously lacking as bad comedies are written by people too stupid to understand the message.

Two Men, Who Reshaped the F1 into the Sport, We Know it Today

Lotus and Colin Chapman

It's been a long time since Lotus and its founder, Colin Chapman, raced in F1. Most fans have no idea how much impact they had on the sport, which is a shame. Because it would be an exaggeration to say that without Chapman, F1 would have been about as famous as regional carting races. Here is why...

Back in 50s and 60s F1 was but a gentlemen's pastime. A somewhat well-off people with passion for racing would buy a racing car and enter the sport as a private team. McLaren and Brabham all begun this way and there were many more like them. It was a rule, not an exception. If anything, Ferrari that hired races like modern teams do was an exception. There was no big money, huge R&D departments staffed with countless top of the class engineers, wind tunnels, motorhomes, multimillion deals and such. Just a bunch of enthusiasts with enough money to afford a car and to travel around the globe with it. Some of this spirit still lives in F1, that is why racers who started out in carting like Verstappen and Leclerc still do well in this sport.

The man who changed it all was Colin Chapman, and he did it used tobacco money. Back in the days governments of various countries were cracking down on tobacco advertisement. A multi-billion industry was deprived of conventional ways to promote its products like billboards, TV commercials and such. The law however did not say anything about less conventional ones, like an F1 car for example. Colin Chapman figured this and made a first in sport sponsorship deal to paint his car in Golden Leaf cigarette livery. First race in Silverstone went badly for the deal as authorities insisted he remove the livery as it violated the law. However, F1 is an international event and tobacco advertisement laws vary from country to country, what was a violation in UK was still OK elsewhere back them. What's more the races in these foreign countries would still be broadcasted on British television and British public will stare for 2 hours straight on his "moving billboards", coloured in Golden Leaf livery. Big tobacco companies like Phillip Morris and BAT were willing to pay nearly any money to use this advertisement loophole and Colin Chapman together with other F1 bosses fully exploited this golden opportunity. This influx of easy tobacco money eventually turned F1 into the super expensive event we know today.

However, Colin Chapman was not just a shrewd businessman who wanted to become a richest man in the world. At heart he was an engineer and he used this newly found tobacco fortune to fully indulge his engineering passion. Gone were the days of using of the shelf technology, tobacco money could afford Chapman and other engineers all sorts of rare materials and even rocket technology used in space programs. Rocket fuel, expensive lightweight alloys, complex electronics, computer tech. F1 became the hotbed of all sorts of technological innovations. Chapman himself is most famous for his ground effect cars, but he invented other things too, like a monocoque body and sturts.

Colin Chapman was not the only innovator in the sport; he inspired many other people with passion for engineering to join F1 and use the tobacco money to invent all sorts of advance technologies. Above mentioned Adrian Newey, Paul Bernard, Nick Fry, Patrick Head, Harvey Pothelwhite and many others followed in his footsteps and used the generous tobacco money to innovate and build ever so faster and advance F1 cars that have become almost rocket ships on wheels. Some of these innovations later made their way into road cars as well.

Colin Chapman and his Lotus team are forgotten heroes who had more impact on F1 and even the broader world as we know it than many people realise.

Brabham and Bernie Ecclestone

Most people familiar with F1 do know who Bernie Ecclestone is. Now retired F1 Supremo is known for being greedy and unscrupulous in finding and signing new tracks for F1, extracting huge sums of money from track owners for a chance to host F1 while completely ignoring any ethical considerations or reputation of said owners. Few however know how Bernie came to be this way.

Before becoming F1 Supremo, Bernie tried to be a racer and then for a long time owned a team and run it successfully, winning titles and even innovating technologically. Bernie was contemporary of Colin Chapman, see above photo of them together and saw F1 for almost the entirety of its history. 

Bernie and other team owners saw how much money track owners make from selling tickets and broadcasting rights while at the same time also charging teams for using the track to race thought its unfair. There were other grievances too, like conditions of some tracks, abysmal safety and poor conduct of organisers and track owners. Eventually not just him but also other team owners got fed up with this unfair state of affairs and decided to act. They formed FOCA to claim broadcasting rights and to begin charging track owners for hosting the F1 like it is nowadays. Resistance to this change was stiff and it was up to Ecclestone to navigate these turbulent times and get people to accept the change.

Thanks to Bernie, the FOCA revolution succeeded but it also created the new role of F1's boss who will negotiate contracts on behalf of the teams and the F1 itself, later dubbed F1 Supremo. Bernie took the role, but doing so meant that he had to sell his team, Brabham, to someone else to avoid conflict of interests. Alas Brabham did not last too long under the new management. It was a sacrifice for the future of F1 itself that Bernie made.

Using FOCA, Ecclestone essentially glued together various disparate parts that together made F1 and packaged it into a single legal and organisational entity. Bernie was the go-to man if you wanted anything with F1, like hosting or participating. The organisation he created was eventually sold to Liberty Media as a complete ready to use package. Without Ecclestone's efforts there would have been nothing to sell at all.

Bernie also contributed to solving F1's financial problems. Sure, at the time of FOCA creation the biggest source of money in F1 were tobacco sponsors so it was not a big issue. However, in 2005, when governments got their act together and figured how to close the advertisement loophole, F1 lost tobacco money as tobacco sponsors left. For big tobacco it was all about advertisement and ability to paint cars in liveries of their cigarette brands. This "Black Day of F1" would have been much darker without sound business model, Bernie and FOCA have created, it allowed the sport to continue without devolving back to its carting roots.

Later in life Bernie would sometimes get into disagreement with team bosses and many other people. Ethics scandals, friendship with "worst people" like Flavio Briatore and such would gradually tarnish Bernie's image. People would gradually begin to view him as an evil boss of F1. That was not always the case, however. Bernie is a man who loves F1 and did a lot for the sport. Without him it would not be the glamorous ultra expensive event we know and love it.

Conclusion

Both Colin Chapman and Bernie Ecclestone are the titans who build the F1 from a rich gentlemen pastime into the most expensive and glamorous sport on the planet. They deserve more credit than they get. Understanding them and what they done is essential to understanding what F1 is and how it came to be this way.

Formula One Teams Explained

Mercedes 

Average modern F1 team, a better ran variety. An outfit created by a large corporate entity to promote its products. Everything was thoroughly calculated to guarantee return on investment and profitability. In case of Mercedes no matter how expensive running an F1 team is, the advertisement opportunity and expose it creates pays for itself as Merc will be able to sell enough overpriced AMGs to suckers worldwide to recoup the costs and return profit, no srs.

Everything in Mercedes is well organised and thoroughly calculated to ensure this return on investment. The car practically drives itself. One radio conversation between Hamilton and his race engineer about "the magic button" literary admits it. The car is so well engineered it will literarily win the face for you, one just has to carefully drive it to the finish line without scratching, much less crashing into something. Any crashes give the entire Mercedes corporate board heart attacks, not only cars cost fortune but it's also bad for brand image. They want to associate their brand with security and reliability, and a crashed racing car is anti-thesis of that. 

That is why Mercedes is strictly anti-fun. Two guys fighting hard to overtake each other and win is why fans watch F1, but if they brake their expensive Mercs in process then its bad for business. That is why Toto Wolf fired Rosberg and eliminated one last intrigue the sport had until the rule change in 2022.

Ferrari 

The grand old team that was founded by a guy who "married a v12 engine and never divorced it". If Mercedes car maker created its F1 program to promote its road cars, then Enzo Ferrari is the opposite, it created its entire road car business with its many iconic cars only to finance its racing obsession. 

Everything in Ferrari is the opposite that of Mercedes. Mega revenues from selling Ferrari sportscars allows team to splurge irresponsibly on racing and they do so with complete irresponsibility. Ferrari can afford multiple parallel R&D programs for its engine alone and when they both fail they will just pay for two more. Crashes are Tuesday here. Team will easily forgive you for breaking its multibillion car but it will not forgive you if you do not try winning. Unlike Mercedes, the car is not engineered to just win races for you with its clever electronics but its fast and can allow you to win if you have what it takes. You drive Ferrari like you have a personal grunge against every single kerb on the track from slowing you down on your relentless push for victory. That is why Ferrari will never get rid of Leclerc; he is the epitome Ferrari-man who constantly pushes himself and the car to go tad bit faster. Also, Ferrari cheats like no tommorow because winning is more important than some stupid rules anyway. When caught they repaint their cars in white and blue as a protest and make regulators change their mind. 

Depends on your views on order and fiscal responsibility, Ferrari is either a unmitigated dumpster fire disaster or the only team on the grid with a soul and a passion for racing. Both the team and fans are completely self-aware of it all. Fans call themselves Tiffosi (as in sick with typhus) precisely for that reason. In Ferrari racing is passion and fuck the costs.

Audi 

If you ever wondered if one can be even more soulless, shrewd and calculated than Mercedes then you actually can. Mercedes does splurge on fun every once in a while, Audi strictly does not.

Audi's approach to F1 make even Toto Wolf look like a spendthrift. Merc convinced FIA to switch to engine rules favorable to them only after loosing for some time under previous rules. Audi negotiated engine rules favorable to themselves even before they entered the sport. After years of being McLaren engine suppliers Merc bought a one time miracle of Brawn GP for a unreasonably inflated price. Audi instead bought financially struggling but well run Swiss team for a budget price. To avoid associating its brand with being a backmarker during formative years, Audi run its team as Sauber for the first two years. Unlike Merc that pays for expensive overpriced racers, Audi only recruits those who are proven good but still cheap like Hulk or Bortoletto.

Audi is like Mercedes 2.0 but even more calculated and German. Even two out of three of their livery colours are the same: black and metallic. Though in Merc's case its metallic is aluminum and in Audi's is titanium instead. Audi might just achieve enough brand exposure on its rather small budget, that will make Merc's board envy.

Cadillac 

Cadillac is following in Audi footsteps while making all of the mistakes Audi avoided making. If you ever wondered why people think Americans are stupid, now you know.

To begin with unlike Audi, Cadillac races its 'John Deere years' as their own brand, potentially coping scalding videos from internet pundits in near future. Also unlike Audi Cadillac picked overhyped underperforming racers. Cheko was fast a half decade ago but he is now past his prime and too old to get back to its peak form. That is why Red Bull fired him. Meanwhile Bottas was never good and was only in Mercedes so that he does not compete with Hamilton like Rosberg and accidently break both cars.

Overall, it looks like Cadillac has no idea what it's doing and on its way to HRT, Spyker or Marussia level disaster. Then again, it's a new team so they might eventually learn things and start making smart moves like Lawrence Stroll in Aston Martin. 

However there is also American saying that 'there is no such thing as bad PR'. That is different from what Germans in Mercedes and Audi is thinking but may be Americans are right after all. In few years' time we can compare how much more Cadillac road cars have increased compare to that of Audi and be able to tell the winner of that philosophy of marketing debate. 

McLaren 

The Official British Team. It was founded by a Kiwi (New Zealandian) of Scottish origins and currently owned by Bahraini oil sheikhs. You cannot get any more British than that. What can be more British than taking something a Scot has created, giving a British iconic identity and looks, milking it dry and when its no longer performing sell it for a lot of money to someone found of British things like an oil sheikh or Roman Abramovich. The epitome of Britishness.

To paraphrase Abba, McLaren done it all and now is back to get some more. Its not as old as Ferrari but possibly had more impact on F1's history than the prancing horse. It was founded by Bruce McLaren as a personal racing entry during garage enthusiasts era when such teams were commonplace. Later in tobacco money era it was bought by Ron Dennis and with money from Phillip Morris made into one of the big winners. Some of the most famous F1 racers like Senna and Prost won in McLaren while wearing iconic Marlboro livery. When Marlboro got tired of Macs and switched to Ferrari, Ron Dennis found new suckers, I mean partners, in Mercedes, ushering equally iconic McLaren-Mercedes era with a different by equally iconic black and silver livery. When Mercedes got tired of Dennis and went on to create their own team (see above) McLaren went through some soul searching and eventually sold out to Bahrainis to continue racing in yet another iconic historical Papaya livery.

Aside from that McLaren had one and only two seater F1 car that they used to drive guests around the track in a one in a lifetime experience no other team cared to imitate. Also to capitalize on their F1 fame, McLaren once had a like of sport cars that looked like Lambo. 

McLaren embodies both the highs and lows of F1. It was implicated in worst scandals and got its partners disillusioned with their conduct, but they also produced F1's most iconic rivalry between Senna and Prost as well as its most iconic liveries second only to Lotus John Player's Special. If one team summarises F1 in itself, its probably them.

Williams

The Underdog British Team. A team that was run a a very stubborn man in a wheelchair who just refused to give up and quit already.

Frank Williams original F1 entry was shut down by his partner, named Wolf (not Toto Wolf yet), who got disillusioned after few years of failure. Frank went on to create another team to continue racing. When tobacco makers quit F1 and other private owners like Frank sold their teams, understanding that without tobacco money they will not be able to make it work, Frank stayed. When he got too old to run a team, he got his daughter to run it for him. When he finally run out of ideas and was forced to sell to another Wolf, Toto Wolf this time, he died in less than year afterwards. I guess one cannot escape fate, but can still delay it for more than 40 years. Frank Williams out of F1 is like fish out of water.

Aside from usual struggle, Williams had a successful period when they dominated the F1. In 80s and especially early-mid 90s they had a lucky break from using then still new and untested computer technology to get an edge other teams could not even dream of. FW15C is often called the best F1 car out there and its livery became iconic despite being just a mix of different sponsors logos on different background because they each wanted to stand out from each other. See HP on Ferrari to get the idea.

Aside from stubborn refusal to quit, Williams is one of the most frugal and cynical teams out there. Most of the time livery was white background with logos of all the sponsors Frank could find and sign, other times it was an eclectic mix of different sponsor's colours. Frank is probably the only team boss who kicked out reigning world champion right after he secured the crown just because he knew that with his technology he could win with a cheaper racer at the helm.

Williams has fewer and less visible fans than either Ferrari or McLaren, but they are often the most dedicated and rich ones and some of them have money to actually salvage the team.

Nowadays team is owned by officially undisclosed entity, but likely by Toto Wolf, and used as Mercedes second team, kind of like VCARB for Red Bull.

Red Bull 

Red Bull is a Mercedes that pretends it's a Ferrari. Underneath the wild identity that extols speed and extremes there are calculated corporate machine that made Red Bull energy drink the global success and inspired many energy drink competitors.

Unlike Mercedes who promotes cars, Red Bull promotes an energy drink. That means the Bulls do not need to care for associating their brand with safety, reliability and respect. Far from it, Red Bull's corporate identity is build on extoling sport and extremes in order to associate their energy drink with these things. Because of that an F1 was a suitable place to promote the product. F1 has speed, glamour, money and what not. Dietrich Mateschitz figured people will pay big money to drink it from a can and they did. Despite all the expenses on F1 and many other sport teams the Red Bull owns, the company makes record profits. Many wish they were as fast as Verstappen. A more savvy ones wish they had as much business savvy as Mateschitz.

Due to different corporate identity Red Bull can benefit from more aggressive racing and conduct of its racers and personnel. Even various scandals could be just another PR opportunity rather than a blemish on brand reputation. Thanks to that Red Bull races aggressively like Ferrari and Max Verstappen has more in common with Leclerc than with Hamilton. One can call it a golden middle ground between too sober and boring Mercedes and too much passion for their own good Ferrari.

Red Bull was not the first corporate entity that ran an F1 team to promote its brand but arguably first that actually succeeded. That led towards other corporate entries like Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac that by now dominate the sport in this current works corporate teams.

Alpine 

Alpine is a Ferrari that pretends its Mercedes. It pioneered the idea of using F1 to promote their car brand. It failed because its unreliable and Renault does not make any sport cars that can benefit from such promotion.

Until settling on name Alpine, the team had many names but its begun as Renault back in early 70s when after being ridiculed for designing "a pear car", Renault decided to prove that they are not -a beholder- a joke and can make fast and cool cars. Back then their cars featured innovative and theoretically fast turbocharged engine. The cars were fast but unreliable and F1 insiders nicknamed them "yellow teapots" because of the iconic white smoke that they emit when their engine overheats too much and dies.

Unable to take ridicule, Renault quit but not really quit renamed the team, sold to affiliated businessmen to look after it and keep foot in the door and went back to drawing board. Ever since Renault altering between returns and quitting again. They won a few times too, half of that time as Benetton with legendary Schumacher as their racer. And every time under leadership of a man as scandalous as Jeffrey Epstein, Flavio Briatore, as its team boss. In his defence Briatore is not the only one who rigged races, he just got caught in very explicit way by screwing the guy he made to take the fall. He runs the team even today.

Unlike Mercedes, Alpine does not have a cohesive strategy to even run a team, much less win. Both their engines and other engineering innovations are hit and miss. Other teams like Red Bull and Williams make a much better use of their engines then they themselves are and win when works team flounders. Unlit a while ago, Renault did not even had a sport car brand they could use their F1 entity to promote, that was rectified only 50s years after their initial entry into F1 with creation of Alpine. 

Alpine acts corporate like they have a plan, but they really are in it because they want to beat those pesky Italians, Brits and Germans and show them that French are strong and fast and not "frog eating surrender monkeys" Americans call them. The results do speak for themselves I guess. Sacre Bleu. 

VCARB

Red Bull second team. Most Red Bull racers begin here and have to prove themselves in this team to be promoted into the main team. Occasionally racers also get demoted to here from the main team. It has a different name and livery from the main team but, the same Red Bull brand logo is inscribed on both of them, and they promote the same energy drink brand.

By now Red Bull completely gave up pretending its a separate team. Both main and second team share the same motorhome, offices of management and other personnel are in the same place, their racers hand out together and live next to each other. VCARB exist so that Red Bull can have 4 racers instead of 2 and double the number of engineers and the financial cap as legally they still count as separate teams. The only reason Ferrari and Mercedes are not protesting this is because they also doing the same thing, but more discreetly (see Williams and Haas).

After running for some time as Toro Rosso and then Alpha Tauri, the team settled for a VCARB generic name. Visa Cash App Racing Bulls. That way Red Bull can still promote their energy drink brand while also giving some advertisement space to Visa for its Cash App, because money.  

Haas

Haas is Ferrari's second team. The same thing as VCARB is for Red Bull, see above. Originally it was an attempt to bring an American team to the sport. To cut corners they used Ferrari equipment, tethering the future team to the grand old team. 

Early on Haas was led by 'charismatic' Gunter Steiner mostly because IndyCar teams are famous for their charismatic leaders/owners. In F1 however it charisma alone does not win anything aside from fans. Eventually after Ferrari's original second team Sauber/Alfa Romeo went on to become Audi, Ferrari needed a replacement and double down on investing into Haas. By now Haas is run by a 'former' Ferrari engineer and employs half of Ferrari engineering personnel in at attempt to double effective cost cap by distributing development between two technically independent teams. Toto Wolf is not protesting because he is doing it too, but more discreetly (see Williams). 

Unlike VCARB Haas still has its own motorhomes, even if ex-Ferrari ones painted white, red and black. So far cars do not feature Corsa Rossa or Prancing Horse. I would bet that Ferrari will retain American look and feel of the team.

Aston Martin

Aston begun as a pet peeve or Lawrence Stroll to give his talentless butt of many F1 jokes son a ride in F1. Then, one sunny afternoon, everything changed.

At first Aston did not amount to much. The only exception was when, while still Racing Point (old name), it copied Mercedes once and got 3rd in constructors cup, was fined for infringement and told not to do so again. For a while it looked like Aston would remain just another midfield Mercedes client run by a clueless rich guy. 

Then suddenly everything changed. Adrian Newey announced leaving Red Bull for Aston and Honda announced they will make an engine for it. Yes, the very same Newey that build championship winning cars for Williams, then McLaren and finally Red Bull. He brought success everywhere he went and now he is at Aston, without him Red Bull is already falling apart, just like two other teams he left before. To top it up Aston stopped being a client of Mercedes and became a works team with an engine maker that powered championship winning McLarens of Senna and Prost and recently Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Suddenly Lawrence Stroll showed that he may be a slow learner, but he learns and then makes killer moves. Newey and Honda are a bid for winning championships, not just being a midfielder. 

Early results of Aston partnership with Newey and Honda leave to be desired, but such a big change would always require some time to get used to working together, so it's too early to judge from few early races.

Aston Martin is a racing bulldozer that, while slow, might one day crush all its opponents together with the all the intrigue and even the sport itself under the sheer weight of its financial tracks. One day Lawrence Stroll might just hire everyone worthwhile in F1 to work for Aston, completely gutting out all other teams. If Aston will ever become champion, we will know that speed, racing prove-ness, engineering genius, strategy, tactics, fame, renown, charisma and even Bahraini oil money are completely powerless in face of overwhelming might of even more Saudi oil money. That will be like an end of the world, Ragnarök of F1, as the sport will die that day.

On Game and Media Design Principles: Why Subject Matters More than Quality of Execution

In my previous article about DearS anime, I mentioned a difference between desirability of subject of an animation and a quality of animation. These are not one and the same. There can be a very high-quality picture that depicts something subjectively undesirable, like for example a pile of turd. On the other hand, there could be the opposite too, a very poor-quality picture that depicts something desirable, for example cake. My and other people's biggest issue with modern media is the former problem, they depict the subjects, I find unlikable and unpleasant.

I mentioned this in my articles about World of Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic. In case of both of these games I am not alone. Majority of players prefer older 3rd HoMM and Pre-Cata WoW to more modern versions. Sometimes people cite various reasons, like charm of old 2d pictures over the modern 3d models, fondness for disfigured low-poly models or even plain old nostalgia for these player's sentiments. None of these however hit the mark. Problem is not in these things but in the simple fact that subject of the picture does not appeal to public. No matter how much you improve the picture of a turd from HD to UHD and then to 4k and 8k, it will not make it any more likeable. The reason for that is not that public dislikes 8k and prefer good old 320x240, but in the fact that public does not like looking at turd.

Some might argue here that newer versions of the games feature all the same characters, fractions and so on. It's not like the subject have changed. That is far from truth. As games evolve, the way they depict their characters changes too. New design or redesign may not hold the same appeal as the original one. One may say it's the same archer or centaur or some famous hero but that misses important small details that make characters what they are. Various features that became associated with the character could be altered and discarded by new art director or designer. Sometimes a simple facial expression change can ruin public perception of a character. Replace an iconic grin or scowl with a "friendly" smile or neutral expression and people no longer like the character. 

Heroes of Might and Magic particularly suffer from this problem. In my article about the game, I argued how 3rd game version of towns and creatures particularly appeal to players and why sequels changed to much less likable designs. Its small things like colour of centaurs and shape of their lances, but they do make or break the game. Centaurs in 3rd look like Remy Martin logo, in 4th like a donkey with human face.

There is also an issue of different tastes. No one will argue that turd is not appealing and few will have any issues with cake. However, replace these things with say broccoli and beer and you will see public much more divided. Some will argue for broccoli, saying its healthy and should be included, other will feel repealed as broccoli does not taste too good. On the other hand, beer will repeal most of the broccoli fans who will argue that alcohol is bad, meanwhile the opponents of broccoli will be a lot more entices with booze. There will also be those who like and hate both in equal and different measures.

World of Warcraft suffers from this problem a lot. Many of the changes and new characters are disliked by old fans. Blizzard went too far into broccoli direction and as a result many fans would rather have their old slightly spoiled, but still sweet cake of the Classic than a new and healthy but bitter and unpleasant broccoli of retail.

However, how one can design games that will appeal to more people. What characters, stories and designs capture people's imagination and make them return to them over and over again? What instead make them feel they should be doing something else instead? It is a complex question. Often it was solved not through any knowledge or method but through simple trial and error. However, through years of trial and error we now do have knowledge of what works and what does not, there are TV tropes, stereotype like dandere or tsundere and more. One can also trial new ideas in subtle way to see if public is interested or not. A small cameo appearance and a survey of public opinion can tell if people are interested or not. Finally, one can employ knowledgeable people like me to direct the game in the right direction and make sure it depict subjects that people do want to see on screen.

For a long time, the industry has chased the quality of execution while ignoring subjective appeal of the subject. Quality is easy to measure in tangible numbers, like number of polygons or scale of resolution. It is something one can clearly see improving. Subjective appeal of subject is more difficult as one cannot measure it in a simple way. Nonetheless public's outrage over the subject of the matter clearly shows that public is not happy with the subjective appeal of the games. A solution to this problem is needed to keep public interested in the games, movies, anime and other media. Experts such as I can help in this matter and win back the players.