This blog is about Anime 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 6.3 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.
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.
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.
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.
