Walking around with your Pentax Q is old, walking around with your 35mm fixed-focal-length point-and-shoot is the new new. Unless the Pentax Q only appears in season 2.
Monthly Archives: January 2016
Going the Extra Mile on PSO2 Anime
I was looking up the voice cast on the PSO2 anime on ANN and came across this, just Zac’s part I’m talking about here:
Well, this show requires some context, doesn’t it?
And I won’t quote the rest because it’s quite long, you can read it in his first impression piece.
I think that’s fair and well and good, but it doesn’t go far enough. Well, besides that most late-night TV anime requires some context…???!!
First of all, this is not the first outrageously SEGA-inducing anime trying to sell a product. I mean, why make a straight-face infomercial? That’s so…mainstream. To target the JP otaku crowd they have already deployed the latest Standard Operating Procedure: idols. That is the Seha Girls Project from 2014.
I think the PSO2 anime has to be linked with that context. We already (and this is an international thing to an extent, but much more so in Japan/Asia) make mascots out of Sega’s various IPs. Just…search for Sonic. I think in a world swimming with mascots like Japan, you have to go deeper, as they say. So why not make an anime that is a literal holeelevator that takes you to from no context to full metal jacket context? After all, PSO2’s stories are inside the game, if there’s going to be points made about the meta-game, the anime has to cover both sides.
In SeHa, the characters, who each represent Sega’s iconic consoles, revisit various old-time classics from the original Virtua Fighter to Phantasy Star even. My favorite might be the Golden Axe ep. The “entertainment value” of the show is its core gag-style comedy routines, also that you’re seeing cute girls revisiting our collective memory lane, probably. But if you take a 15-year-old who knows nothing about SEGA’s storied past since it quit the console-making space in 2001, how do you entertain them in a way that’s kind of unique to SEGA?
For the PSO2 anime, the watering-down aspect of this nerd soup is happening, and as we slurp its first offering it should not surprise anyone we find some naked commercialism floating inside the broth. The context of why the is commercialism so blatant here is because, well, the type of people who would be entertained by a late-night TV anime has already been accounted for. PSO2 is a known quality by all means. The form the PSO2 anime takes matches its target audience. It’s a compromise that takes the original game into account (can’t just be some guy stuck in PSO2) and the audience (thus the very archetypical lead-in ep1) into account. Unfortunately the side effect is that the commercialism is more naked than usual. It has always been there. Imagine if SAO’s various arcs used trademark names for their virtual worlds!
Well, that audience is certainly not quite Zac. I think the entertainment value of the anime has a lot to do with PSO2’s existing place in nerd lore, for both current players, past players, and people who are just familiar with it. In short, it’s just like most anime adaptations. When faced with something like a PSO2 (or perhaps this point could be made for gameplay-first, character-driven games in general) as the core concept I don’t know how many options you have. Not everyone is going to think Bahamut Genesis is the way they should go.
TL;DR – the context is a person who is familiar with PSO2, not this naked capitalism nonsense.
PS. There’s a Zac-ism here (his public persona is kind of a condescending ass when it comes to other nerd verticals outside of his own (films)):
Concerned that only losers play video games?
I understand what he’s getting at but it doesn’t even make sense. The better joke is “Concerned that only losers play video games? Guess what, you’re watching an anime of the video game–that automatically makes you a bigger loser already! What’s the worry?” And it kind of just further points out this American context switching (pardon the pun) that’s happening. The hierarchy in Japan is well-understood… or maybe better put, online games have more of that stigma than the traditional console fare. I suppose games like Monhon and the current SNS game flood have long put that away though.
Or alternatively, “Concerned about justifying your PSO2 habit to your friends and family?” would make a truer pitch.
PPS. Suwa Ayaka has a lead role for the first time, this could be interesting. I already liked what I heard in this episode. The anime itself is not my kind of thing, but it could be kind of thought provoking along the lines of this post…
PPPS. FFXIV anime wouldn’t have this problem. It would have the problem of existing in the first place, sure, but aside from that…
PPPPS. As I write this post the more I feel and think the commercialism is actually a form of irony that…I guess is too dull to cut through the cultural barrier. Maybe it should have been even more naked.
Year in Review 2015: The St@te of the Union
I feel writing about IM@S is a good way to write about my feelings in 2015 because it basically tracks with IM@S news, marketing strategies, and trends. Such is a life of a Producer in its employment.
News recap: First of all, two posts on HPT’s site explains basically some stuff. The first, just a list of announcements to give you an idea how things ramp up to IM@S 10th. The Yukumas Yurumas end-of-year nama, which we’ve had it the second time on 12/29, went over the year in a pretty succinct way.
The first part of the year, life was still coasting on the residual feels of the IM@S movie and IM@S 9th (even though I did not go…) which hits a point at the February event, the “uchiage” for all of that. Then it is about the 10th anniversary. In the middle was dying to go to ML2nd but didn’t pull the trigger, some events to distract me from that, and Asapon North.
Events: Second, this is kind of the roadmap of IM@S 10th, as Dire1 describes his plans for the three IM@S franchises. (This is the original JP interview.)
Personally? I have definitely reached a point where I am mellowing out from this fandom. I am still excited about 765pro and the entire year of CG bombardment means I now know some of the CGs well. The funny thing is besides the Cinderella Project 14, I know about the idols mostly from other Ps talking about them and the Deresute game. The anime didn’t do much besides floating that CG boat, and carried some nice sakuga moments.
I kind of want to deep dive the article so let’s briefly. First, LOL Dire1 called Rei & Yui’s Bunka Housou Home Run Radio to get some info on Seibu dome. Getting info from boots on the ground via Team Baseball Idols is hilarious. In this case I think Amiami not only had a hit seiyuu nama/radio on their hands, but who knew how far this had gone…
Then there’s the live-driven aspect of ML. I think it’s worth a post on its own so I’ll do that. Let’s just say that in the end, CG, ML, 765Pro and SideM are all pretty similar, and it’s just a matter of if that thing will get an anime or not.
I said I’m mellowing out only because I’ve reached the point where I feel like I have extended myself out far enough that I feel pulling back sounds like the right thing to do. There’s a place where I’m most efficient or comfortable at, I guess, in terms of my involvement as a fan, eventer, someone who buys IM@S stuff, who spend so much $ on mobile games this year (whatever I spent last year I probably spent 5x that).
Oh, yeah Deresute. Week 18 update–I blew a lot of money this past few days because of the double SSR rate, and on Mika SSR. That I don’t have.
Game-wise, the only real notable thing is that I switched to a Nexus 6P and there is a different input lag (not music lag) than my last phone that it took about a week for me to adjust. If I play with no sound, I have to hit the notes slight earlier on the N6P than slight later on my Moto X 3rd gen… Well, it cannot be helped.
Event-wise, I’m glad we have a dance groove because I can now star level my Vocal SRs that I don’t want to keep around for support. Also my luck has skewed a lot more on Vi and Da so I field some really strong teams in this groove event. And isn’t this event just the Deresute version of Derepa…?
akom
— ????? (@coloruri) December 31, 2015
Also, with the Christmas event introducing the double-stam feature, scores did go up within expectations across all the tiers on this basis. So you can kind of guess what happened.
The game is firing on all cylinders and I’m expecting things to go through without too much boat rocking for a while as there is still a lot of content to be delivered by, I think, ultimately, a content delivery mechanism that is this F2P game.
Looking back, though, this is the really the most dangerous thing out of IDOLM@STER in 2015–you can lose both your money and resistance to cute unvoiced idols who are caricatured in the most endearing way that IDOLM@STER does best.
This is on top of how Deresute came into the rhythm game F2P Socia-ge space like how WoW came on top of the MMORPG market. Considering WoW is a 2004 game and lots of people don’t MMORPG, maybe that figure of speech is lost. But never had a genre got so much of an upset by a copy than WoW, and its enduring success since plays partly due to that interruption. Deresute copied and perfected upon the LLSIF formula in a big way. It is a killer app. And unlike most it also kills people’s bank accounts if they’re not careful.
In terms of fandom, as I mentioned over time, I love the present. More newbie fans are one thing, but overall things are so much better today out west than ever. Thanks for all the shoutouts from not only the team in Japan but all the other cool cats who helped make our lives as oversea Ps better.
In 2015 we made a lot of flower stands. HPT itself is responsible for over $4000 USD worth of flowers just at 10th alone. I don’t have the exact counts because some HPTers sent their own flowers, and others participated in other stands arranged by other Ps. We got a lot of help from Akiba nerd flower start-up Hananoki Flowers so here’s a shout-out to him. We used many other shops, so just on this aspect alone “we” have advanced miles since 2014.
Well, that’s just eventer talk.
Domestically, I already listed Lantis Fest as my favorite event of the year. That served as the template of my favorite offkai of the year, which is the one in Toronto with those crazy Canadians. And yeah I will write this up but that was also a big budget event. The ballpark total (including the cake) was well north of $2500 CAD, and you still had to buy alcohol. I guess it can’t be helped.
I love how offkai and hanging out with Japanese Ps opened doors, and they returned the favor in Japan when HPT hung out in Ikebukuro for a couple hours after 10th Day1. And that was a very the-world-is-all-one moment. The bus was pimp.
I also feel the pressure of trying to one-up the JP producers and one up our own tricks in 2016. Not to say it’ll happen but who knows? It’s never too early to come up with cake ideas.
The future is bright for IDOLM@STER. And maybe for its oversea fanbase too. I don’t know, really, but I enjoy this thing, whatever you call it–fandom? Series of vidja? Going to events? What GamiP said during the Yukum@s nama was that 2015’s theme was “a step” and this just means 2016 will be yet another step. At least we are going places, and there are reasons to be excited.
What we do know now is that IM@S will get its PS4 release probably sometime 2016. PS4 is now about $300. Thank Jesus. Because spending money on IM@S is now something so conditioned in me that I just hope for the master to be kind to its koebuta farm. Looking at the near future though, ML3rd is already killing me softly.
Year-in-review 2015:
- Introduction
- Shirobako, Kurobako
- Sounding Off
- Eventing
- The St@te the Union
- N-Listing
PS. Due to unforeseen events the last two posts are delayed, but it’s not even 12 days since Christmas so maybe this is OK.