Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

May 14, 2013

The Shiny Festa: Now an English Language Hoobie

By omo

Isn't she on my team wut

Since Bamco decided to localize the three iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa games for the iOS (and especially make it look nice on the iPad), I’ve been enthralled with them yet again. Well, specifically, I finally got to play all three this time, thanks to a friend whose favorite is Chihaya, which rounds out the one game that I don’t own in some form. If it wasn’t clear, I own “Rhythmic Record” on the iOS (that’s the team lolicon version) and “Groovy Tunes” on the PSP (that’s the one everyone buys, ie., Makoto, Miki, Yukiho & Takane).

In some ways if you are familiar with iM@S, there are no surprises here. It’s the same smooth cool-aid that I’ve been drinking since almost 2 years ago. The games offer new songs, old songs, popular songs, character songs, meaningful songs, and some duds. I still don’t think much of the music in the game, but seeing the girls dance to the rhythm is a fun thing. Turning the experience into a video game, though, is something else entirely.

It’s exactly what you don’t get when you go to an idol concert. Maybe this is where wotagei can transform these group-participatory experiences into game-like situations. It’s as if someone turned the ritual of Mass into achievements and on-beat motions, or pulling off a PPPH with the preacher gets you bonuses? I’m not sure how to feel about that exaggeration that I just made. But it’s not far off the mark.

Which is to say, Shiny Festa is still a set of video games. It’s fun, because of the songs, of the dancing, of the core game design decisions, because it’s well-polished, it looks nice on an iPad, and it’s got our oshimen in it.

Best Cinderella Idol

Me too, Anzu.

And lots of jokes. Jokes are the studs and buttons and the stitches of iDOLM@STER fandom. The entire franchise is a series of corny jokes, interspersed with showsmanship, gameplay, and spending of money. And I’m barely exaggerating. Continue reading

6 comments | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, Modern Visual Culture

May 10, 2013

Reading Reddit So You Don’t Have To: DQ/GSC AMA

By omo

I missed cherry blossom season just by that much

In summary, these are probably the most interesting actual questions/answers (IMO):

  • A blurp about Mikatan’s translated blog posts and being too sexy? It’s kind of funny to read this, and that is probably only because I read Mikatan for luls. For people who don’t know, Mikatan is a GSC employee who “reviews” figures by posing photos of new products that go on sale or on pre-order. Review in quotes because it’s more just plain PR, although it is still quite functional. Her blog also includes a lot of inside info, as expected of a social media outlet for a small, otaku-focused company. It’s just in the past few weeks there were some entries that is LOL, shall we say, a bit fanservicy. And she gets right down to it (“One of us”). Perhaps what is truly notable is that she writes in Japanese and someone translates it into English (old posts) usually a day later (and I think part of that charm might be lost in translation, causing it to feel more pervy). It’s also kind of prolific (a couple posts a week).
  • Regarding import restriction. I don’t have the full picture on this but it comes down to that there’s some degree of price discrimination between Japanese releases and oversea releases, plus an additional time lag. It’s most notable with Kotobukiya figures. The price difference between oversea and domestic releases are usually not very big so it’s not a super big deal, but the larger Japanese online shops do brisk and good business selling overseas, such as HLJ, Hobby Search and AmiAmi. There’s a reason why Amazon doesn’t sell overseas I guess. At the same time, you get into this situation where an official oversea distribution setup has to jump through more hoops like licensing issues and what have you, and that puts local retailers at a big disadvantage. What has happened in the past is that some JP distros will tell JP retailers to not sell to oversea buyers, but that doesn’t really hold any weight legally so the practice continues for the most part. Thing is, most importers aren’t paying any less to get our figures from Japan, so the real victims here are local shops, who may get the same figures, often for a slightly lower price, but months later. Well, with the exchange rate being what it is, it’s even cheaper now.
  • GSC is planning to hold tryouts for figure sculptors in the USA? Very interesting.
  • Future of 3D printing (including paint). I guess this hit the JP news cycle a while back but it’s good to see it again.
  • Sales patterns between US and Japan. Pretty much what you expect.

Some bigger picture things:

  • People want more vocaloid figures, duh. By more I mean non-Crypton ones. I’d say IA, because she’s still new, not to mention I’d buy one.
  • Pretty much everything popular, GSC will try to make it, or so it seems.
  • Figure collecting is still a niche market, overall, but like what DQ says, it’s got a very wide bottom, with a sharp spike somewhere representing you, me and all these peeps.

I like GSC. They run their company as if they know what they’re doing in terms of marketing. I hope you guys going to Acen or AX take the time to visit their booths, should be a good time.

Leave a comment | posted in 3D-2D Modeling, Modern Visual Culture

May 8, 2013

~Spring~ 2013 Anison Albums

By omo

I put ~ around Spring because the albums I’ll cover in this post go before Spring. Basically, the crap I alluded to in this post.

As a commenter on Danbooru would have it, "DES Metal!"

Actually the main reason I want to share these opinions is so I can write a sentence about something from Angela to Zwei. And it really reflects the sort of releases we’re seeing for the first half of 2013. There’s also some observable trends. The “vocaloidzation of seiyuu idol music” is really the number one thing. That, and the appeal of groups.

By “vocaloidzation” I mean it in a simple, one plus one sort of way. Just like how I can enjoy a Kuchiroro track because of the seiyuu connection (and also because Kuchiroro is ballers), same can be said of producing seiyuu music in a similar way–just treat their vocals as samples rather than cohesive part of an idol image. Well, the vocals are part of the idol image, may it be reduced more so in recent years, but you gotta wonder how many people stopped listening to the likes of Mamiko Noto because it kind of hurts. Well, maybe it’s better to say that thanks to vocaloid fandom, now there is another framework in which we can make idol music. Because as cool as showa-era idols are, it’s a tough thing to ask of anyone. The sad fact is that while there are a lot more pretty faces today among the seiyuu idol crowd, and there are a number of decent singers, the two still rarely overlap.

Joking aside, with Yuikaori graduating from StylipS (and I feel this is something they sort of planned from ages ago), or how the Yuki Aoi x Taketatsu Ayana combination is now a thing, what does this mean? On the other hand Itou Shizuka is still putting out stuff and there’s that Pikasha woman with her album debut eminent. Aniplex’s Hanazawa project is going swimmingly, and it really does complement the array of artists they have under their thumb. With competent production companies and pipelines, idols gonna idol…? Money will part from fools, all is well with the world. And let’s get a move on– [aff links ahoy]

Continue reading

7 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

May 6, 2013

Internet Scrap Heap, May 6, 2013

By omo

Just random thoughts.

John from Ask John finally addresses the hilarious bit in the Wikipedia entry for Risky Safety. AN Entertainment, the short-lived licensing arm of AnimeNation, a fairly sizable Florida-based anime store (online and B&M), licensed Risky & Safety. Later, it licensed Miami Guns. Then, Hare Guu. That would be the three things they’ve licensed. In the Wikipedia article for Risky & Safety, a snarky joke was put in the article (edited in Dec 23, 2011, out in Mar 31, 2012) that you can see here.

How do you even hate on Risky Safety anyway? It’s like kicking a puppy. John’s blog is basically the semi-official mouthpiece of AN so it’s good he addressed it finally.

===

Arudoc’s kickstarter to translate Little Witch’s Romanesqe, launched earlier in May, has now been DMCA’d. So LW’s HQ is in Koto, Tokyo? Cool. Anyway, this is actually not as big of a deal as people think it is. It’s just an interesting thing to gnaw on mentally. Slightly less interesting than how ZUN still hesitate to release his games “commercially.”

The comment thread of the original launch post on Arudoc’s blog go through all the key elements. Basically, it’s illegal. And once money is involved, your petty translation project now gets a higher level of scrutiny. People will DMCA you. And I think Kickstarter is way too high profile for illegal fan crap anyway. This is why fair use is kind of a lamer way to say what you do is illegal. Better is to make sure what is legal is legal to begin with [yes yes free culture 4eva blah blah].

I think Arudoc operated with a “if it’s not stopped it’ll go ahead” kind of the mentality, one that makes the Internet the hyper-copyright-infringing machine that it is. Maybe that’s okay, but people will stop you? Anyway, I agree it’s a step in the right direction–just a wrong step in the right direction. He did reach out to various “legit” parties but it seems LW just doesn’t want their game ported for whatever reasons (eg., piracy). Maybe we can analyze their claims in detail (I think it is not ridiculous to consider games that are exported & localized will increase piracy even in its home country) but that’s way too much work. I would give Arudoc more credit if he cited a $ figure that LW might budge. I mean, this is Kickstarter he’s trying to use, he owes us that much. Actually, that’s exactly the “wrong step”: he’s basically trying to use KS as an improved “donation” system and that is just way too half-assed.

Which is to say, donations for piracy is simply way too shady. How can you really bring yourself to do it? I’d buy some xdcc bot owners a beer or something, sure, but money for servers and bandwidth is too much.

===

oh also

(psst)

===

Yuniko

1 comment | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, Modern Visual Culture

May 6, 2013

The Key to Decode Gargantia

By omo

Gargantia ep5

I really enjoyed Gargantia episode 5. It’s got fine girls in skimpy bikinis (Hanaharu wau), giant robots, ocean-side BBQ, a light-hearted aero-plane race, a foot chase up a spiral tower, high-vantage landscape shots (complete with water-umbrella-rainbow-all-that-jazz), unconventional use of beyond-high-tech, fine weather, sunshine, relaxing in the shade, girl talk, retro scuba suits, teasing the AI, sauce, party, and this:

[] This episode gets to the heart of Gargantia, and its true meaning as a statement of sociopolitical solidarity with Japan’s young generation of much-maligned NEETs and freeters. Urobuchi has said the show was intended as a statement for these young people about to enter the world.

And frankly, it’s a little too on the nose. It’s not even subtle.

Here’s Ledo, poor guy finding himself uncertain about his life for the first time. He’s been raised in a strict, regimented educational system that prioritizes efficiency and is dedicated to only one thing: passing exams, er, killing space monsters. But in this new world, vaporizing people is looked down upon. He has his Master’s Degree in Space Monster Vaporization and it’s completely unsuited to the needs of the post-wormhole economy.

And on top of the unemployment he’s saddled with massive debt he doesn’t even begin to know how to pay off. Sure he has some neat technological gizmos that allow him to do cool things, but what can he *himself* do? He’s not sure, and it seems that no matter where he looks on the ship, there’s no place for him.

I think it’s not even subtle since the beginning. And for people watching anime this way, it’s not the first time we’ve seen a show that served this up like that roasted hog with an apple in its face. It’s been a while since people are cheeky enough to adopt post-bubble philosophies into their stories–probably in the early-mid 00s.

For the sake of completeness, please read this from our dear Butch, who too had to struggle to make a living and get to the point he is in his own career. I suppose he’s just enjoying the fruit of his labor!

Butch's specialty

Update: Added this quote from ANN’s interview of Kazuya Murata, director.

What do you hope people take away from the experience of watching Gargantia?

For the Japanese audience, I would like “young people who are about to enter society” to take the message, “Don’t worry. Try. You can do it”. For the larger audience in the world, I want them to have the message, “Whatever could happen, we, human beings, will be alright. If we all together open the path, the future will always be ahead of us”.

Looks like they really want to get that message across. That said, Murata is probably a good reason why the show has such a positive vibe.

 

10 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Suisei no Gargantia