Let's Play!- Gaming Masochism At Its Best
The Something Awful forums has always been an example of how entertainment on the internet can bloom when exposed to the insanity of people on the internet. You can find discussion on anything on the Something Awful forums. And hidden away as a subforum of the Gaming forum is a small forum known as Let's Play! In this forum, people choose a game, and then, through various mediums such as screenshots, transcribed dialogue, subtitled video, or audio-commentary video, they provide watchers with a gaming experience that is just as good, if not better, than playing the game yourself.

Every Let's Play thread tends to have its own gimmick, and every LPer has their own style, which lends to the feeling of their threads. The games that are LPed range from the relatively new (any game that's been out for at least 6 months is fair game), to the ancient (SNES, Genesis, even old text-based adventure games), to the customized (ROM Hacks of popular games such as Super Metroid and Super Mario World). The authors of these threads regularly update, putting a fun spin on the game that they choose to exhibit for their readers/watchers' pleasure.

Some of the games played are stupidly easy, and they're usually done for the amusing features of their plot, or some gimmick that the LPer chooses. Others, such as the ROM Hacks of certain games like Super Mario World are ATROCIOUSLY difficult, and most videos simply descend into an incomprehensible cloud of gibberish and obscenities. At that point, the real amusement comes from either watching the suffering of the LPer, or watching them prove victorious against even the most difficult of gaming challenges.

There's no cost to view the forums, but it does cost 10 dollars to buy an account and post on the forums, You can find the Let's Play forum here on the Something Awful forums. There's also an excellent Let's Play Archive where you can find a lot of the classic LPs preserved for general enjoyment. Go check it out, you won't be disappointed. Until Next Time...
02:06 PM PDT Permalink |

Tsukihime- A Vampiric Love Story
Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand most random lovey-dovey stuff in the Anime that I watch. It's why I've never been much of a fan of most romantic series, but there are always some exceptions to this rule. The first exception, of course, is the downright amazing series Elfen Lied, which balances random romance with violence, gore, and general awesomeness, as well as being pretty perfect in most every way. The next is this week's blog entry, Tsukihime.

Tsukihime is an interesting case. It was produced by Type-Moon in 2000 as an H-game, a visual novel aimed at adult audiences- something similar to the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with hentai popping up every once in a while to reward the adult buyers. However, there are a number of interesting things about it. First, you can install the game as a non-hentai novel, which is actually not a bad decision since the scenes are largely superfluous given the absolutely phenomenal plot. Second, Tsukihime started as an H-game, which spawned a non-H-game sequel, an Anime series based on the main storyline path of the game, and the Melty Blood series of fighting games, the third of which was released in 2007, and the fourth of which has recently been announced. The Anime, Tsukihime: Lunar Legends, is actually quite good, but pales in comparison to the game, so if you want to watch it, you should watch it before reading through the game, as you'll enjoy the Anime a lot more before reading through the game.

Tsukihime follows the story of Shiki Tohno, a person who would be just an average high schooler, were it not for a catastrophic accident eight years earlier. This accident nearly resulted in Shiki's death, and as such, Shiki has gained an ability known as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. When an item is created, its fate, or its "death" is already outlined. Shiki can see this "death" in the form of lines that appear on an object or on a living being, and can, by cutting these "lines" dissect anything into up to 17 pieces. In order to avoid being driven insane by the appearance of these lines, Shiki wears a special pair of glasses that prevent him from seeing the Lines of Death in his everyday life.

Of course, there's no real "storyline" in Tsukihime. The game plays like a choose-your-own-adventure book in that throughout the game, you are presented with choices that shape the outcome of the story. The five storylines of Tsukihime are each defined by the female character that Shiki pursues as a love interest, and the storyline you embark on depends on your choices in the game. Basically, each choice will earn you a "point" with that character, and if you get a certain amount of points toward a character, you end up officially on the character's path, and the storyline takes off from there. Each character has two endings: the True Ending, which is what really happens at the end of the story, or the Good Ending, where everyone lives all happily ever after. Beating one character's endings unlocks more choices for the next playthrough, allowing you to get the next character's path.

Unfortunately, Tsukihime is now out of print, and there are little to no legitimate non-eBay methods of obtaining the game. However, Seorin of the Something Awful Let's Play forum did a runthrough of the game, and an entire transcript of the game, with comments and other things, can be found here in the Let's Play Archive. Until Next Time...
03:48 PM PDT Permalink |

The Spoils of Fanime
First off, Fanimecon was AWESOME this year. There aren't words for how awesome getting to go to Fanime with my friends for the whole weekend was- I'd always been so limited by the schedule of the people I was traveling with that being able to take the whole weekend and make my own rules and my own schedule was absolutely awesome. I spent most of the time camping the Melty Blood: Act Cadenza cabinet (the first I'd ever seen), which was awesome, but I also got to have plenty of fun in the dealer room looking for souvenirs, and managed to find exactly what I wanted.

First up is the souvenir that I'd wanted to find from the beginning of the con. Originally, I'd wanted a set of figurines of the maids from Tsukihime, Kohaku and Hisui. No luck finding Kohaku, but I did manage to find one of Hisui (and that's the one that I wanted in the first place anyway).

That figurine is now sitting proudly atop my computer desk at home. I almost didn't find it, but one of my friends pointed it out to me while we were looking through the Dealer room, and I am infinitely grateful for that.

The next souvenir is yet another piece of wall decoration for my room. I currently have a signed Megatokyo poster, a signed Avenue Q cast poster, the "'04 Presidential Election Boxing Poster" from inside America: The Book, and a random M.C. Escher print. Joining it is this:

I spotted this on my first pass through the dealer room, and then went back for it later in the weekend. The place I originally saw it had sold out of it, so I almost thought I'd missed out on it entirely, but another dealer had a ton of them around, so the situation wasn't nearly as dire as I thought it was. It makes a great addition to my wall.

Last, but certainly not least, this shirt:

Let it be known that I'm a huge music nerd- I'm currently a music major at Sonoma State University, and so when I saw this shirt, I knew that I had to have it. Turns out the shirt comes from a shop called M. Folz, which carries plenty of awesome music and science-related shirts. Go check it out, I'm sure you won't be sorry.

Until Next Time...
03:31 PM PDT Permalink |

Preparing For Fanime
It's that time of year again- the Fanime Convention is coming to San Jose, and this time, I'm going all out. A friend of mine that I haven't seen in quite a while is finally coming back home, and so we're going to spend the weekend in San Jose having a ball at the convention. However, it's not all fun and games getting ready for the Convention. A lot of planning has gone into this for a number of reasons, but it'll all be worth it when the 23rd rolls around.

The first big element of planning has been getting everyone together. Plans have changed a lot over the time, but it'll be me and three friends in San Jose for the weekend, so I have to get everyone organized. I also had to pick up a hotel room for me and a friend, get the pre-registrations in, and make sure everyone knows what's going on. I'll still have to get everyone there, figure out the schedule, and decide what I want to see and do when I get there.

The next part was preparing my costumes. I'm going for a different costume for each day, and so I had to prepare a lot of different things. The three costumes I intend to use are my Mugen costume, my Wolfwood costume, and my Kakashi costume. For Wolfwood, I had to get a new pair of pants to replace the ones that I outgrew, since it's been about 3 years since I've worn it. I also had to reconstruct the most pain in the butt prop ever- the big frame that I use to be the frame for the Cross Punisher that Wolfwood carries around. I constructed it out of a big cardboard box bought from Office Depot, and it'll be swathed in a sheet and covered in belts for the authentic look. The other costumes didn't need nearly as much work, so that was a bit of a blessing.

I'll have an update next Tuesday when I'm back from the convention. Until Next Time...
01:17 PM PDT Permalink |

FLCL- For When Sanity Just Isn't Interesting Enough
Let's face it. Every once in a while, no matter how good the everyday can be, you still need a break. And that's where FLCL comes in. FLCL, also known as Fooly Cooly, is probably the most amazing nugget of insanity in Anime form I've ever seen. While a scant 6 episodes long, those 6 episodes served to both confuse, enthrall, and amaze me equally for the two hours that I spent watching it.

It's hard to say what exactly FLCL is about... so I guess I'll give as much of a summary as is possible for such a show. The show revolves around Naota, an average 6th grade boy... except for the part about everyone around him being absolutely insane. When Naota's brother leaves Japan to play baseball, he leaves behind his homeless girlfriend Mammimi, who proceeds to attach herself to Naota in a not entirely innocent manner, sending all kinds of mixed messages to him. Naota's situation is made even more complicated when Haruhara Haruko shows up in a rather explosive manner. Riding her signature yellow Vespa, Haruko shows up out of nowhere... and proceeds to smash Naota in the forehead with her weapon of choice, a four-stringed bass. Of course, when this fails, she proceeds to do it AGAIN. While not being fatal, it DOES cause a humanoid robot to pop out of his head (who knows why), as well as a huge robotic hand, which then proceed to become locked in a BATTLE TO THE DEATH.

That's where the first episode ends. Like I said, NONE of it makes sense, but that's what gives it the unique charm that it has. It's also filled with tons of injokes about other animated series, such as Lupin the 3rd, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and even South Park. An amazing show that will bewilder as much as it amuses, FLCL is worth every minute.

Until Next Time...
11:23 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 3: Analysis: Trinity Blood and Conclusion
Here's the long-awaited final part of the essay I wrote. Sorry about the delays, it's been Finals Week and Production Week for the SSU Chorus, so my time's been rather occupied. Once again, SPOILERS INSIDE.

Trinity Blood, produced seven years after the release of Trigun, follows a similar path. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the only remaining populated land is Europe, power is split between two main forces—The Vatican, a revival of the ancient Holy Roman Empire, and the Empire of the Methuselah, a race of vampires that controls the area currently known as the Middle East. The main character, Abel Nightroad, is a priest and an agent of the AX, the arm of the military suited to stealth tasks and secret missions, as well as diplomatic missions aiming to secure a peace between the Vatican and the Empire. Of course, the AX is made up only of the most skilled officers, and Abel is no different. Like Vash, he has superhuman traits that set him apart from normal humans in power, reflex, and general ability. His power comes from his nature as a Cruznik, a human enhanced with Nanomachines that enhance his reflexes, his healing, and allow him to take the form of a vampire that feeds on the blood of other vampires. However, he characterizes himself as a sinner, having committed some unknown mortal sins in his past that he must atone for, and as a result, refuses to kill an enemy unless he is forced to. Sound familiar?

In keeping with this traditional storyline, Abel is opposed by the Order of Rosencreuz, a small group bent on increasing tensions between the Empire and the Vatican, in an attempt to create a grand holy war that would wipe out both sides, thus purging the planet of “impure life” that is bent on destroying one another. The mastermind behind all this is, of course, Abel’s brother Kain, who also has the powers of the Cruznik, but feels that this sets him apart from humanity and the vampires, and that he, as a more perfect being, should be able to wipe out life on Earth and replace it with his own more perfect race. Déjà vu, anyone?

Of course, with the introduction of the supporting cast, this is where the similarities end. Abel is accompanied by Sister Esther Blanchett, a woman whose family was murdered by a rogue vampire, and as such, holds an unending hatred for the vampiric race. She’s rash, but lacks the skill required to follow through with what she starts, often requiring Abel to bail her out of tough situations. The next member of the supporting cast is actually not a companion of Abel’s, but still plays a major role in the show. Ion Fortuna is a Methuselah prince that is dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the Vatican that goes awry through the efforts of the Order of Rosencreuz. He’s arrogant and stubborn, believing that all the world’s problems stem from the existence of the human race, and that the Methuselah are superior in every way. To this end, he has a bitter hatred of humans, and often this leads him into bad situations. If this sounds so familiar, it’s because Ester and Ion Fortuna are basically the same character with different genders and basic tooth structure. This leads to the two of them becoming the focus of many a side-plot, and a great deal of the show is devoted to the romance between the two of them. The final companion is less emphasized than the other two, but still plays her own part. Astaroche Asran, also Methuselah royalty, is yet another Methuselah that believes herself to be superior to all humans, to the point that she despises the human race. Of course, this only lasts as long as Abel shows up to bail her out of yet another bad situation, a recurring theme that stays with the show until the bitter end.

And what a bitter end it would be. While the majority of the show is phenomenal, the ending falls apart entirely. Approximately three episodes before the end of the show, Abel’s brother Kain shows up. He does so without warning or announcement, and his first action is to kill his brother. Yes, the main character is now dead, and there’s still three episodes to go. But fear not! The Vatican apparently has some form of Deus Ex Machina to save Abel in the form of an unexplained black liquid that appears to revive Abel from death. The origin of this substance is never revealed, nor what it is or what it does. Then, before the grand fight between the two, a five-minute backstory segment occurs, in which almost nothing is shown about the history or the relationship between the main character and his arch-nemesis except that one is good and one is very, very evil. Then, of course, the great battle erupts between the two of them. It’s flashy, and there’s no telling who’s going to win. Then suddenly, a bright flash envelops the screen and… what? The audience finds itself at a point in time after the conclusion of the battle. Esther, who turns out to be the crown princess of Albion, the country inhabiting what is now Great Britain, is being crowned Queen of Albion, and none of the supporting cast is to be seen anywhere. The scene cuts to a small island where Abel stands, swearing to hunt down his brother for as long as he lives. And standing behind him is none other than… Ion Fortuna? Yes, despite the massive relationship built up between Ion and Esther, and without rhyme or reason, he decides to run off with Abel to pursue the “ultimate evil” that plagues the world.

This is an example of how endings go wrong. First, the series introduced a character without any backstory or warning, forcing the audience to guess as to who the character is. It then proceeded to kill off the main character, requiring a convoluted and unexplained resolution to come out of nowhere and save everyone. When the story finally returned to its grand conclusion, the audience was again forced to infer the outcome of the final conflict between the main character and the primary villain. And when all was said and done, the series abandoned its relationships and had an ending that defied all logic and common sense as to how a series of its type would resolve. The romance between Esther and Ion Fortuna is completely abandoned, and Astaroche, the character that would be most likely to accompany the main character in a grand quest to defeat an ultimate evil, disappears entirely. An ending that creates such an atmosphere ruins the rest of the series, no matter how good it is, and wastes all the work put into creating good characters and relationships.

At first glance, Trigun and Trinity Blood look nothing alike. But a closer examination shows that while the formula stays the same, careful use of characterization and a compelling storyline can ser two very similar shows apart from one another, for better or for worse.
02:17 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 2: Analysis- Trigun
MORE SPOILERS D=

Trigun follows the adventures of Vash the Stampede, a legendary gunman whose skill is only matched by his penchant for flagrant and flamboyant destruction—so much so that he’s earned a sixty billion dollar bounty on his head, and has been classified as the first human natural disaster. At least, that’s what he’s made out to be. In reality, while he is truly a gunman of incredible skill, he has taken an oath never to kill a living being, and much of the destruction that is pinned on him is actually the fault of an organization known as the Gung Ho Guns that constantly hunts him. The Gung Ho Guns are the minions of Millions Knives, Vash’s twin brother, who has decided that he is a superior being in every way to normal humans, and that in order to purify the world, he has to exterminate humanity and repopulate it with a more perfect species. Along the way, Vash is accompanied by Milly Thompson and Meryl Strife, insurance agents tasked with reducing the damage caused by the first human natural disaster, as well as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a priest with a spotted past, a massive cross-shaped machine gun as his weapon, and the skill to use it effectively. One of the defining characteristics of this style of storytelling is that all of the secondary characters play the role of foil to the main character in one way or another. In the case of Trigun, Vash is accompanied by Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, agents of the Bernardelli Insurance Company. Each one represents an opposition to Vash’s personality. Meryl can best be described as the straight man in the trio. Her adherence to order and protocol almost invariably conflicts with Vash’s carefree nature, which tends to cause tension between the two, as it is Meryl’s job to try and restrain Vash and prevent him from causing even more damage that her company has to cover. Meanwhile, Milly shows a different side of Vash. Milly is rash, often thinking before she does things, and is controlled primarily by her emotions, which tend to pull her all over the place, dragging Vash invariably to her aid. Wolfwood, on the other hand, is a much more direct foil. Despite being a preacher and professed holy man, he also has incredible skill with firearms, and is later revealed to be a member of the Gung Ho Guns tasked with keeping surveillance on Vash and later killing him. The main conflict comes from the fact that Wolfwood’s main method of dealing with threats is far more direct than Vash’s, and he has no qualms about killing his opponents, and would often do so if not restrained by Vash.

Of course, there can be no great quest without an enemy to oppose the main character. This enemy is Millions Knives, twin brother of Vash the Stampede and leader of the Gung Ho Guns. While his motives are hidden for the majority of the series, the second to last episode is composed entirely of backstory, something that is vital to this type of show, as we generally come in with less knowledge of the world and the characters than is necessary to piece together the plot. Vash and Knives are members of an unknown humanoid race found during a spaceflight to find a suitable new planet to replace Earth after all of its natural resources are used up. They appear human, but are immortal—While Vash and Knives both appear to be no older than their middle-to-late twenties, they are actually 116 years old, and their heritage affords them supernatural durability and reflexes. While Vash believes that this puts him in a position to become a protector for humanity in a new and dangerous environment, Knives thinks that humanity has become superfluous, and that they are nothing more than inferior pests to be exterminated. This leads up to the climactic final conflict between the two, where Vash refuses to kill his brother, and instead simply incapacitates him, picks him up, and walks off into the desert. A prime example of the Open Ending, if there ever was one. The storyline has been wrapped up, but it’s clear that the main character’s journey is far from over.

03:42 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 1: Criteria and Formula
Yet more SPOILER ALERTS abound in this article.

I was tasked with writing a critical essay in a field that I have expertise on in English, so of course, I wrote on Anime. Specifically, the differences and similarities between Trigun and Trinity Blood.

Over the past few years, Japanese Animation, or Anime, has been steadily growing in the entertainment industry, with popular series popping up everywhere, conventions being held across the country that attract thousands of die-hard fans apiece, and more and more companies are getting in on the lucrative business that is importing new series and translating them for American audiences. And while the industry continues growing and new series continue to be released, some of the best Anime to come out is many years old, written before certain themes or ideas became clichéd or outdated.

There are a number of criteria by which an Anime series can be judged. Generally, many of the criteria overlap with those used to judge movies, but a case can be made that more scrutiny is placed on some points due to the vastly increased amount of time spent per series—Movies last two to three hours a piece, while the shortest series is generally at least thirteen episodes or just over six hours long. As such, the basis for judging an Anime series is slightly different. The most important is characterization. Given how long a series lasts, the viewer is going to be tied to the characters in the show for a very long time. As such, having well-developed, convincing, and captivating characters is the most important element of any series. And with that comes the need to completely build and reinforce the relationships between the characters. A character’s true colors are shown by the way he or she interacts with the other characters in the show, so this is the most important part of effectively creating a compelling character. Another major part of any series is staying true to its genre. If a series is characterized as Action, then it should carry with it a large amount of well-choreographed action scenes to captivate its audience. A Romance series should capitalize on the interaction between the male and female leads. And of course, the ending gets a special mention.

It should be intuitive that a series should always wrap up all loose ends before the grand finale of the show. There are two main ways of doing this: the Closed Ending and the Closed Ending. As endings go, the Closed Ending is the less common of the two, characterized by an ending in which the majority of the cast either leaves before the end of the series or is killed in the final few episodes. It’s rather blunt, and difficult to effectively implement, but this blunt nature results in a more tied-together resolution that ends the story in the most direct manner possible. The Open Ending is generally characterized by having a closing scene that opens up a number of possibilities for the characters involved, but not going far enough into the story to warrant continuing the series. This has the effect of never truly ending the show, but instead allowing the audience to construct its own ending, and creating an atmosphere where the story can continue on forever. However, in the case of the Open Ending, care must be taken to not leave too much of an opening and to ensure that what occurs in the story is fully wrapped up before opening up anything further.

It’s an unfortunate fact that most every plotline in existence has been done before, so it’s hard to find new subject matter to base a show off of. However, many series will use very similar plotlines structure-wise, yet by their handling of the characters and the setting, creates a very different experience. There are two in particular that stand out as having a very similar basic framework, yet having a very different experience for the viewer. These two series are Trigun and Trinity Blood. The shows are very, very different, but at their heart, they all have the same storyline progression. It is an often-used storyline—The main character is a wanderer with no real aim, completing various tasks and missions wherever he goes, meeting allies who act as foils, as well as enemies who all have ties to a hidden mastermind, who almost invariably turns out to be a person from the main character’s past, either by blood relation or previous experience. While the details are never readily available, they are almost always portrayed as an ultimate evil, something akin to Adolf Hitler if he took up baby-eating.

To Be Continued...
02:52 PM PDT Permalink |

Shoddy Battle- Taking The Grind Out Of Poke-Battling
One of the biggest problems with RPGs, I find, is the endless grind that comes with leveling and getting items and stuff. This applies triple for MMORPGs, where the only real gameplay element in effect is random grinding- Kill some stuff, loot their corpses, walk ten feet, repeat. For hours and hours on end. But at the same time, it's an integral part of any RPG-style system. This goes for the Pokemon games as well. You have to find the Pokemon that you want, then level them up, evolve them, get the moves you want for them, and in the case of serious upper-tier play, breeding over and over again to get decent IVs or Egg Moves, just to have that perfect team.

Or you can be lazy like me and do the next best thing- Shoddy Battle. Shoddy Battle is a Pokemon simulator that is meant to give all the fun and satisfaction of creating a fun and powerful Pokemon team without the nuisance of having to grind them yourself. The thing is that Shoddy Battle provides the same experience without having to buy the games or put the massive amount of grind time into the game. You can build a team out of whatever Pokemon you want, with any natures, EVs, items, and moves that they can have, and then use either the official Shoddy Battle server or one of the many publically hosted servers. On a server, you can set up your own team, and then either challenge players or let the Find Match function find one for you. There's some lag on the Official Server from time to time, but otherwise, it's usually fine.

If you ever want to challenge me, or just to chat with me, my SN on Shoddy Battle is PH34R-B0T. Hit me up, it's always nice to hear from readers. Until Next Time...
01:15 PM PDT Permalink |

How NOT To Screw Up An Ending
Just like last week, let me start off the blog by saying that there will be spoilers in this blog post. Now, if you've been following my recommendations, you've watched everything that I'm about to talk about in this blog, so you should be safe. I am of the belief that the most important part of any story is the ending. You can have amazing detail, storyline, and everything else that makes something great, and if you flub up the ending, all that becomes worthless. But enough being negative. Since I wrote up what makes an ending BAD last time, I'll be exploring what makes an ending flow well and bring good closure to the series. This blog will be broken up into the two main types of endings: Open and Closed, and will go in-depth into what discerns the two as well as examples of how they're done well.

The Closed Ending

Closed Endings are endings in which the story has completely ended. There's really nothing more for the main character(s) after this, no real adventure left. What's happened happened, and there's not much left. This type of ending is less common, but from time to time, it carries with it more power than another ending would. The most extreme case of the Closed Ending is Neon Genesis Evangelion's alternate ending in End of Evangelion. The apocalypse has come, and the entirety of the human race has died out... with the exception of those lucky enough to be housed in a great big flesh and armor mech- Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Soryu. So... when you're the last guy and girl on the face of the planet, what's the logical thing to do? Obviously, Shinji has removed himself from all logical thinking at this point, because he proceeds to turn around and strangle Asuka to death. Then, with the grim realization that he's the last living human being, he simply sets himself down on the beach to think. A slightly more subtle form of this is the ending to Cowboy Bebop. Faye's run off to continue her cheating, scamming, and general rambling about the universe; Jet's left alone on the Bebop to plot his next move; Ed's found her father and finally has her own family; and Spike, having lost Julia and finally taken revenge against Vicious, dies on the steps of the Syndicate Headquarters. It's a beautiful ending to say the least, and it wraps things up nicely for everyone involved. Sure, everyone else's stories go on, but there's really nothing new in store for them. Just more of the same.

The Open Ending

Open Endings are far more common, and as such, get messed up far more often. The Open Ending is a method of ending a series where the characters have no set path after the ending, so there's no real ending to the series. The big issue is that this is NOT an excuse to leave "loose ends" all over the place thinking that the viewer can tie them up on their own. First off, I'll parallel two endings that might as well be the same ending... except one was good, and one was damn bad. The two series in question are Trigun and Trinity Blood, and Trinity Blood basically did everything wrong that Trigun did right. Since I already laid out Trinity Blood's sins, I'll be covering Trigun today. First off, Trigun spent an entire episode laying out the backstory between Vash and Knives. And at the end of the epic battle between the two (there was actually an END, Trinity Blood just kind of cut it off somewhere in the middle, leaving us to wonder what the hell happened), instead of finishing Knives off, Vash just simply picked Knives up and walked off to deal with him at some point in the future. Meryl and Milly end up going back to the Bernardelli Insurance Company, their stint with Vash having come to an end, and Vash going off to deal with the future however it presents itself. Ties everything up nicely, and lets the viewer wonder about what happens after the ending.

However, I have to say that, from start to an AMAZING finish, Elfen Lied still holds the title of best series I've seen in a long time. In the last episode, Lucy and Kohda finally reconcile their incredibly troubled past and realize that they actually do love each other, and that despite the whole Lucy killing Kohda's family thing, there's far more to her than just the misanthropic, homicidal part of her psyche that all Diclonius share. But even with such a revelation, Lucy realizes that she's got to atone for her sins no matter what, and goes off to face the soldiers that have been dispatched to hunt her down. Gunfire erupts and Lucy's one remaining horn flies into the air, shattered. The remain characters find themselves once more around the dinner table- Kohda, Yuka, Miyu, and Nana, and realize that Yuka has mistakenly set a place for Lucy, regardless of the fact that she's no longer around. As they're about to eat, the dog starts barking. Kohda goes to answer the door, and sees an unknown figure behind the shoji screen at the gate. The music box that has recurred so much throughout the series ticks down to nothing, and as the grandfather clock that Lucy broke in the beginning of the series strikes 8:00, it begins to ring again. The series ends without anything further, leaving the viewer with only ideas of what follows. Absolutely amazing given the depth and power of the rest of the series. No loose ends are left, no characters unexplained. There aren't words for how amazing I think Elfen Lied is as a series, and I'll probably end up re-watching it because of this.

All in all, there are plenty of ways to do an ending right, but plenty more ways to screw one up. Here's to hoping that the remainder of my viewing falls in the first category rather than the second. Until Next Time...
04:03 PM PST Permalink |

How To Screw Up An Ending In Three Easy Steps
First off, let it be known that THIS BLOG ENTRY WILL HAVE LOTS OF SPOILERS for various series, the endings of which I will use as examples of either good or bad endings to series. It's been a rather alarming trend that a lot of the shows I've been watching have: the really, REALLY bad ending to a really, REALLY good show. This has been popping up everywhere recently, and it's been bothering me a lot. So, to hopefully help better understand the mechanics of an ending, I'll be laying out what I think makes an ending good or bad (mostly bad) as well as examples of each. Again, THIS BLOG ENTRY WILL HAVE SPOILERS IN IT. Consider yourself warned.

1: Characters Out Of Nowhere

The foundation of a good show is a well-defined cast of chracters. Any good show will have its viewer feel as if they know everyone involved, and each of the characters will be a well-developed, deep backstory. However, every once in a while, a show feels the need to just randomly throw new characters into the mix near the end, and have them be major villains to be defeated by the heroes for no real reason. Most recently, the three shows that were most guilty of this were Berserk, Real Bout High School, and most notably, Trinity Blood. In Berserk, the last two episodes were so vastly removed, including a new villain (the king of the demons) who had come to turn Griffith into the lord of Midgard, the land in which Berserk takes place. This would be okay... if the show had even HINTED at this from the beginning. However, it never even tried to give its audience a hint of how the show would end, which was just confusing beyond belief. In Real Bout High School, a villain popped up in the last 15 minutes of the show, with no backstory and no real reason for existing, got jumped, and was defeated by the heroes. And in Trinity Blood, Cain Nightlord, Abel's world-destroying brother, decided to show up without warning and start destroying stuff all over the place. Introducing characters out of the blue is a BIG no-no, and really tends to screw up endings. There's only one show where it was pulled off effectively- Elfen Lied. The legendary third-generation Diclonius that was one of the big villains showed up. However, they spent the better part of an episode going over her story, and made her a major part of the ending, which was a good way to handle a late arrival in a show.

2: Just say no to the Deus Ex Machina

Deus Ex Machina literally means Device of the Gods. It refers to how in ancient plays, when things looked bleakest, one of the Gods would roll up on everyone and fix everything. The Deus Ex Machina is actually really quite a cheap play, a way to fix things without even trying. When the writers really can't think of any other way to fix the screw-ups that they've unleashed on the main characters, the Deus Ex Machina makes it all better. Trinity Blood was quite guilty of this in the end of the show. A bad judgment call leaves Abel on the wrong side of a vicious attack, which quite abruptly ends our hero's life. Yet, when things look bleak, Cardinal Sforza manages to conjure up some black liquid from Abel's mother (another character that never really gets explained) to bring him back to life, just in time to stop Abel from destroying everything. Nothing about this black liquid is ever explained: Where it's from, what it is, what it does, how it works... only that it brings Abel back to life at full power somehow. Cheap beyond belief. Berserk does the same, but in the opposite. Things are going smoothly... up until the point in time where the "Egg of Kings" turns out to summon a bunch of demons to take over the world and make Griffith the lord of the world. No warning, just LOL SUP DEMONS.

3: Backstory, Backstory, Backstory

Backstory is the explanation of things that happen before the beginning of a show. Some shows, like Gungrave, are ALL backstory. The entirety of the show is a flashback, with the exclusion of the first two and last 4 episodes. Backstory is one of the ways that late arrival characters can be reconciled, by showing what makes them so evil or good or powerful or whatever they're supposed to be. Trigun does this well. Knives shows up four episodes before the ending, but the second to last episode, Rem Saverem, is ENTIRELY constructed out of the backstory between Vash and Knives. Trinity Blood, however, seems to just ignore this. Cain shows up, and they go into a small backstory sequence. This sequence introduces new characters that have never been seen before, as well as some odd plot points. The point of backstory is that it ANSWERS questions that come up in the introduction of new characters. Yet the backstory behind Cain and Abel does nothing but create new questions that never get answered.

Next time, I'll be going over how a series can end correctly, as well as more examples of good and bad endings. Until Next Time...
01:28 PM PST Permalink |

Trinity Blood- Yet Another Disappointment
I'm sensing a trend here. A trend that is rather alarming, unfortunate, and just tends to get on my nerves. This is the third series that has done this to me recently, and has really annoyed the hell out of me recently. Series' that are AWESOME throughout, then get to the end, and suddenly and mysteriously ruin themselves, either by adding new characters out of the blue, using convoluted plot points that make no sense in the context of the show, leaving out key details of backstory, or leaving relationships unresolved after everything is said and done. Most unfortunately, Trinity Blood, the latest series that I set my sights on, is guilty of all of these sins that make an excellent show fall apart in the home stretch.

Armageddon has occurred, and much of the world has been thrown into turmoil. All would have been lost, were it not for the guidance of the two great powers in the new world- The Vatican, seat of power of what appears to be the new Holy Roman Empire; and The Empire, land of the Methuselah, a race of vampires residing in the area that was once the Middle East. An uneasy peace holds between the two sides, a kind of Cold War where petty conflicts in the buffer countries that prevents a full-blown invasion on either side. This uneasy peace is held together by members of the AX, a team that could be considered the "Special Forces" of the Vatican- While the Inquisitorial Committee could be considered a broadsword, a weapon with great power but little precision, the AX would be considered more of a scalpel, a directed team with the skill to handle whatever may come their way, but also the diplomatic prowess to keep the peace and make sure that a conflict doesn't come to blows (though they don't exactly demonstrate that much in the show).

There are a number of agents of the AX, but one of the higher-ranked ones would be Father Abel Nightroad, a clumsy, foolish priest with a consistent lament for his lack of money, and a penchant for tea so sugared up that it resembles something more similar to a syrup than an actual beverage. And yet for all his seemingly inefficient style of investigation, Abel tends to be incredibly useful in the clutch. He goes from ditzy to serious at a moment's notice, and when things look grim, he always shows up to save the day. This is bolstered by the fact that Abel has a powerful secret that gives him the power to protect those he holds dear. Abel, seemingly being a relic of a greater time, is a Cruznik- a being made of flesh fused with Nano-machines to create a kind of uber-vampire, capable of drinking the blood of other vampires, as well as brandishing a massive scythe to cut down those who stand against him.

This show was absolutely AMAZING from start to... almost finish. But the last story arc brought with it all of the errors that I stated in the first paragraph, and those are just so damning that I can't say I advocate this show. It's excellent, but be prepared for a bit of a hollow ending.

Until Next Time...
01:29 PM PST Permalink |

Super Smash Brothers Brawl: The Next Generation of the Nintendo Beat-em-up
Every console has a defining game that makes people go out and snap it up as quickly as they can. (Except for Sony- that's one of their crippling failures). As Halo 3 was for the XBox 360, so is Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. Easily one of the best games for a new console by FAR, Brawl is one of the most hyped game releases in a very long time, eclipsing many of the other big releases of the year. Not that it doesn't deserve to be- it's one of the best games of the year, easily. The third in the series of popular games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is based on a very simple, very effective idea. Take all the various heroes, villains, and main characters from all the most popular games, throw them into an arena, and have them beat the hell out of one another. Simple in concept, flawless in execution, the Super Smash Brothers series has been a major part of the Nintendo franchise for a long time coming, from the original Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64, to Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Gamecube, to Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii.

I went to a release party at the local Game Crazy, and it was absolutely massive, Over 400 copies had been pre-ordered, and about half of them were to be picked up at the stroke of midnight when the game first went on sale. They had a huge tournament, where the winner got a free copy of Brawl. Some excellent play went down. The winner won his best 2 out of 3 match with absolutely excellent play of Marth and Bowser. I got to get some decent play in, playing for the first time in about a year. I wasn't THAT rusty, playing a decent Captain Falcon, Samus, and Marth, but I really could have done quite better. In any case, I really hope to finally buy my Wii and grab a copy of Brawl ASAP.

Until Next Time...
02:09 PM PST Permalink |

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - The New Generation of Justice
I'm such a liar.

I swore up and down that I wouldn't like this game. I mean, it had so much going against it. First off, they decided that the best way to make the series fresh was to almost entirely discard the cast of the Phoenix Wright games in exchange for a new set of characters. No more Edgeworth. No Gumshoe. None of the Fey family... In my mind, it was a recipe for disaster. Fixing what isn't broken never worked well for any game series. And yet, despite the fact that I was so vehemently opposed to the IDEA of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, I found myself last week in my local Game Crazy once again, plunking down the 35 dollars for the game.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad. It was actually a lot better than I'd expected it to be. They created a thoroughly decent cast of characters that, while not as amusing as the cast of Phoenix Wright, still add a lot to the game. Apollo is (as expected) the same kind of nervous, inexperienced, not very confident attorney. Trucy is just too freakin' cute... and while she's probably my favorite character of the game, I'd take Maya any day over her. Phoenix pops up again, sort of in the same role that Mia played in the PW games. And the new detective, Ema Skye, is one of the few returning characters from the old games, being the sidekick character for "Rise From The Ashes," the DS-only case that was added to the first Phoenix Wright game.

However, here's the part of the review that I've been dreading writing. My first problem... is that the game is short. WAY short. To put it in perspective, I spent more time beating the final case of Trials & Tribulations than I did beating the entire game of Apollo Justice. This is a devastating weak point, given that the game has absolutely nil in replay value. My second real qualm with the game is just how... not compelling the last case is compared to the last cases of the other games. Each of the other cases has had a main villain- the real murderer- who is just such a reprehensible human being that when you finally lock them away... And that just isn't there in the last case of Apollo Justice.

But by far, my biggest issue is the prosecutor. I actually liked Klavier Gavin... and therein lies the problem. Edgeworth was always condescending, overconfident, and knew what you were going to say before you even said it, and already had an answer. Manfred... was everything Edgeworth was (like mentor, like student), but to a MUCH greater degree. Franziska was abusive, yet was always able to shut down your case to such a great degree that recovery seemed impossible. And Godot... was consistently so aloof, never being bothered by anything, and always knowing exactly where the weak point of your case was, and exploiting that to the fullest. Compare that to Gavin... He almost seemed to be COACHING you through the case.

In any case, Apollo Justice is a decent addition to the series. It may not live up to the high standard set by the other games, but it's still decent in its own right. Until Next Time...
02:43 PM PST Permalink |

Your Webcomic is Bad, and You Should Feel Bad
No, I don't mean you specifically. However, it's pretty easy to spot bad ones... most of the time.

Good thing there's John Solomon, the man behind Your Webcomic is Bad, and You Should Feel Bad. Your Webcomic Is Bad is a blog written by John Solomon (a pseudonym) that searches the internet for webcomics of mediocre or bad quality, then posts long, involved rants about why each webcomic is bad. Now, anyone can talk down about a webcomic, but the thing that sets this blog's reviews apart from others is that the author actually takes the time to read through the comic and write about specific instances of bad writing, art style, and general lack of depth in character development and dialog. Combine this style of writing and reviewing with his standard anger and hate-filled rants, and it becomes an incredibly amusing blog.

One of the excerpts from his blog on Dominic Deegan, one of the worst webcomics that I've ever read:

"Dominic Deegan is a webcomic so bad you'd think it was hosted on an ancient Indian burial ground. It's so unwaveringly terrible it might as well be a universal constant. It's so bad that it spoils milk. It's so bad that your computer will physically smell when you load the page, an aroma of brimstone, decaying meat and burning feces that will linger for days afterward. It is so bad that none of what I have just said does justice to how bad it is."

Check out the rest of his work at Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad. Until Next Time...
02:20 PM PST Permalink |