Category Archives: Franchises

March 18, 2018

Forever Million Live

By omo

Today is the last day of operation for the GREE-published version of Million Live, which is the original IDOLM@STER MILLION LIVE game. Ps call it “greemas” for short. It is the core product of that IP and it is now shut down as of this writing, just moments ago.

There are so many things I want to say so I’ll just keep it short and in bullets. Think of it as a way for me to commemorate this occasion.

This game was how my “gacha cherry” was popped. This meant my mental barriers were rationalized away and since then I spent good money on games I think that are worth it, which is namely just the other two major IDOLM@STER SNS games, Deresute and Theater Days. I also spend money on games that I think have entertained me a lot, just much less. (For example, I already spent maybe $160 in Pricone Redive but I probably will stop there. This is not even 10% of what I spent in Greemas.)

This game was occasionally very fun, but usually more a chore. The saving grace is that the chore part is pretty light, unless you wanted to do a crazy amount of ranking. In the finals stats page the game provided during its shutdown period, I was able to get the “IDOLM@STER” achievement 11 times, which is just to say I was able to produce at least 1 idol in the top percentiles. I forget exactly. But it’s little things like that which makes this game fun.

The thing I will miss the most about Greemas is how it is a game that really went to creative places. Like a Star Wars inspired event. Or taking traditional idol torture to the next level. Or the Namasuka Sunday events. Or Tokugawa’s Castle, literally. There were various sports meets. There was TGS. There was the live on the space station. It was nuts. Theater Days so far has not even came close to scratching that itch, although it does seem things might move in that direction finally…

Million Live might be the first time where the game and the live events were closely integrated, to the degree that you can have producer support walls and even ticket lotteries in the game. Will this tradition continue? I hope so.

It is definitely the first IM@S game where recorded lines from the live were delivered into game as content, days just after the event. It’s a great way to energize your hardcore eventing fan base. It also points at the live events as a part of the game. It is the kind of thing that makes me think that Million Live is an IP where the content revolves around the live events.

This is all besides the core community on Greemas. During the Theater Boost [idol voting for Theater Days] people were communicating on the idol boards on Greemas. Greemas also has a dialog engine where you can create commu screens and it ran contests on the best fan-submitted entries. On top of the basic player communication and lounges, there are no easy replacements for them.

Thank you Greemas. Million Live will continue without you, but it will never be the same and we will never forget the good (and bad) times!

Leave a comment | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, Idolmaster

February 28, 2018

To Wit, Magus’ Bore and Re-diving Into Pricone

By omo

To bounce off the evirus again, maybe this is what he was thinking of when he got snarky on adaptations? To quote:

To be honest, it sort of reaffirms my nagging suspicions that The Ancient Magus’ Bride works better as a manga than it does as an anime. I don’t believe this is the fault of the WIT STUDIO adaptation, because it is beautifully done and the quality has remained high throughout. Instead, I suspect the stories featured in the series might just lend themselves better to print than anime.

Having no real horse in the race and not have read the manga (but watched all the anime so far), somehow it makes sense. Like, this anime is not going to get me to read the manga. Maybe it serves as a meta, a talking point, for people to bring up the manga and get people interested (“Oh you are watching Magus’ Bride? The manga is so much better.”) but that’s like throwing on too much shade. I think the anime is decent, it is, to a more jaded viewer like me, something refreshing and different. It might still be kind of the same yokai story centered around a gifted human child, but this spin is way up my alley than, say, Natsume Yuujincho. Just like how Fate-verse is still the best for recasting western folklore and historic figures to do some dumb things, I don’t really like and I am not interested in the Japanese standards on this take. It’s refreshing, even if the anime and story content is quite drab and obtuse I think… Perfect for Kyoto Animation, in retrospect.

===

WIT STUDIO is also producing the anime in Princess Connect Re:Dive, which is the latest and greatest galge-mobage from Cygames. Having seriously played the original Princess Connect game, I was looking forward to this with some trepidation, and so far I think the developers have answered my concerns.

Big picture-wise, Princess Connect and Pricone:R are the player-versus-player realm wars equivalent to social gaming as the hoard of Korean grinders were to the EverQuests and WOWs of the 00s.  Well, it’s more like guild wars, ha ha. But in the greater Japanese social game pachinko-machine-like scene, it is a relative rarity. There are other games like this but none with the spit and shine of Pricone:R I think; well, certainly none with a Tanaka Kouhei score. Pricone the original was a browser-based game with some real-time stuff, and most of the graphics are rudimentary, as you’d expect a game launched in 2014-2015. Pricone:R on the other hand, is a little piece of Sakura Taisen heaven coupled with a standard auto-playing, character-party, fantasy RPG, side combat doohicky that you might see in the Danmachi social game or some such.

Which is to say, there’s a ton of actual anime in the Pricone:R game itself. Well, maybe a ton is exaggerating, but every commu chapter ends with an ending animation with animated next episode preview? LOL. About 90 percent of the commu is the standard talking sprite over a dialog box sort of deal, but they do drop those anime in and around fairly consistently. And WIT did well with them.

My worry in Pricone:R was that it would stop being a PVP focused affair, and it turned out to be a dumb thing to worry about, because it still is. It’s the only game I play that does not a have friend list (let alone friend support). It retains the whole clan mechanics, except so far it doesn’t have any elements of clan warfare (so you can’t filter clan recruits by time slots of when people will be online to play versus battles, as there are none such things). There are two PVP arenas players can participate for loot and glory, but they are both for individuals. Clan interaction so far is a mix of friends list and the ability to ask people for gear in exchange for rupees. The lack of clan-based PVP is still a concern, but I hope they address it soon since they have some outright “to be deployed later” place holders in the game right now.

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Some straight up disclosure and Pricone:R meta, because I’ve been playing it quite a bit lately. Some key thoughts:

  • Spend some money to make more money. The core of this game is a versus experience. Payout in arena and princess arena are in the 1000s of gems. By bucking the bell curve you can stand to make good dosh. The game is also fairly generous, because you can’t be competitive until you roll enough to get your core team up and running, and enough memory fragments to upgrade your 1* and 2* characters. If you want to save up gems for a future roll, you can, but know that you will not make as much gem-wise as someone who spend  them wisely. It literally is spending gems to earn gems, and there will be a balance point where the end result is a powerful team of characters and still lots of free gems in the bank. Playing it too safe means you might have a lot of gems, but your parties’ development will be lagging.
  • Princess Arena needs more balance tweaks. It’s hard to maintain rank, easy to gain rank. The result is it becomes expensive time-wise and a bit expensive gem-wise to reach heights in Princess Arena. Basically, you need to have 2 great teams to stay afloat, but just 1 great team to go up. This is mainly because NPCs have 3 good teams, which is harder to beat sometimes, but less of a sure thing on paper than in practice, so people don’t fight NPCs and instead fight people with 2 great teams, since you just have to beat their second-best team to win.
  • Comp is life, but actually levels are more important. Assuming at rank 7 and equal star power, a level 60 fully upgrade guy will beat a level 50 fully upgraded guy often. Even if the level 60 paper versus the level 50 scissors are, well, paper versus scissors in rock-paper-scissors. This is the zen of Princess Connect Redive. The essence. The zeitgeist. The soul. Whatever. In other words, don’t be the level 50 paper fighting a level 60 scissors. Things also gets much more complex when you deal with a team of 5 characters where the flaws of one guy can be covered up by another guy, but you get the idea.
  • Team comp thus can be boiled down by characters and their counters. Like, the ever popular Suzune/Io back row versus, say, Tamaki, who is flawed in Arena but powerful in this situation.
  • Anna is fun, she is not great, and her explosion power is what makes it fun. Don’t let people tell you that she sucks because her explosion power sucks. That’s like saying because individuals almost never win the lottery, having a free lottery ticket sucks. Without her explosion power, Anna is plenty good. If her power helps you even or win a losing game, so much the better.
  • This is still the game I call characters by seiyuu, but now that I’m talking to plebs on reddit and elsewhere I kind of have to learn the names of the characters.

Leave a comment | posted in Mahoutsukai no Yome, Modern Visual Culture, Princess Connect

January 22, 2018

Laid-back Camp Reminds Me of Pickup Truck Culture

By omo

The first two episodes of Yurucamp (how do people feel about using â–³ and romanji LOL) remind me of what some people do with their pickup trucks on weekends in America. Instead of a high school girl biking up a mountain and camping, enjoying the outdoors, the typical “Heartland America” use case is maybe a small family or some bros up in the wilderness and enjoying the outdoors on their boat or something. I think this recent ad is a good summary.

What’s neat to me in Laid-Back Camp is the low-fi, high-tech nature of the form of camping demonstrated. It’s like, they can only bike to a local campground, so all the gear has to fit on a bike. The gear can’t be too heavy because they’re biking up a mountain. The tent is something that can be setup by one person. Since the camper is just solo, all the stuff she rides with was small and work with just one person. (Relevant but aside, camping at a managed campground is great because you get water and a restroom, which is way better than hauling your drinking water and taking a spade with you every time you go take a dump. It’s a cute-girl-does-cute-things compromise in the anime but it’s a worthy one in real life too.)

With a car or pickup, you can carry a lot more, heavier/bulkier things to camp. These low-budget, low-quality collapsable chairs with drink holder, for example, will be fine on a pickup truck but it would weight as much as half of the gear we see Rin carries with her in the first two episodes. I’m amused and jealous of her collapsible, low-height table; I’d like to have one?

The nature of these niche solo-camp gear is also a bit feeding into pickup truck culture. Since it’s a multi-billion dollar industry in the US alone, a lot of market research and consumer research go into selling pickup trucks (and SUVs, too, more and more). It means there are news and other literature about exactly why car brands sell pickups equipped in these sort of ways, with different trims and Texas-specific models. It’s like if you shop for tents for solo campers, there are all kinds. The one Hanamori Yumiri used in the promo video is a light-weight one good for newbies, and it’s inexpensive. However it is very basic and lack some key features. The ones in the anime are not.

It’s like, I spent maybe $100 in portable chairs last year (to sit during various forms of buppan and queues at cons or what not), trying out two different types. Considerations include weight, height, max load, portability, and is it on Amazon Prime. Now that I think I found a decent compromise, I’d totally bring that to camping.

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Yurucamp

January 21, 2018

Million Live! 4th Anniversary, Take 2: The Story of the Missing Hoshii Miki

By omo

So the Bluray for Million 4th came out last week and I’ve been devouring it since I got it on Thursday. Somehow I squeezed in 2 showings of Mary and the Witch’s Flower in the same time, given the 4-disc set has 12+ hours of material, not counting the commentary tracks, but here goes.

Million 4th was probably the most important live I attended last year, at least on a personal level. It might rank only 4th overall but it was number one in terms of emotional wrecking that it did on me. I was a mess, because, as now I see from the backstage features, it left the performers in a mess too. Like, yeah, I get it, I know how it works. The feelings crossed not only stars, but oceans, cultural and language barriers, through the dance, music, and hard work of cast and staff. It sounds corny only because it’s what happened.

Million Live has a lot of songs about silly things, and it’s got a fairly diverse set of songs, but the most common category of songs are about friendship, hopes and dreams. Sometimes these songs felt like they are speaking to the audience and listeners. Sometimes these songs felt like they are speaking to the performers. And in the Million Live cast, that’s actually exactly what happens.

I’m not going to details to explain, because it will take a long time and my JP is just nonexistent for these kinds of purposes. But man, that Hoshikuzu no Symphonia on day 2 is a great example of what I’m talking about. Kokochan (Koiwai Kotori, who plays Tomoka) joined twitter publicly just the other day and she tweeted on her first day on Twitter about reaching for her dreams.

In short, Koiwai watched Animas in 2011 just as another P and an aspiring seiyuu, but in 2018 she has Mingos and Nunu tweeting with her. We don’t know what the future holds, so live on as such. Like, there was no guarantee that Mingos was ever going to remember the password to her Twitter (LOL).

I bring this up because watching Million 4th reminded me of her performance as part of Milky Way in Hoshikuzu no Symphonia. And you can watch the part in the backstage on the LE Bluray box to see the conclusion… It was a touching moment in that during the bridge, each of the four performers had a phrase to say that puts together the story of Milky Way, the unit that was detailed in LTH09. In truth, Milky Way has 5 members–Hoshii Miki being the one missing. The way the song connects the four Millionstars to Miki and to each other seemed to did Kokochan in as she started visibly crying during the performance, and thus yelling out from her heart that one line during the lead up to the climax of the song.

https://twitter.com/saku_osake_love/status/841273539848097793

Notice how the first word in each of the 4 phrases they said during the bridge spell out “Hoshii Miki” and then they say to connect it together? LOL. Here are the relevant lyrics (tl: project-imas), and I bolded that one line Kokochan yelled out:

好き勝手BPMはハートビート
たどり着いたゴールは次へのスタート
胸の予感　高鳴らして		 Ima datte nari yamanai PURERYUUDO
Suki katte BPM wa HAATOBIITO
Tadoritsuita GOORU wa tsugi e no SUTAATO
Mune no yokan takanara shite		 Even now, the prelude won’t stop ringing
The BPM heartbeats whatever it pleases
Finally reaching my goal to start the next
My heart’s premonition keeps pounding
過去から今日まで　まっすぐここまで
予想もできない偶然を分かちあって
刻んだ足跡　きらめくから
さぁ行こう　最高の仲間で		 Kako kara kyou made massugu koko made
Yosou mo dekinai guuzen o wakachiatte
Kizanda ashiato kirameku kara
Saa ikou saikou no nakama de		 Straight up here from the past until the present
I didn’t expect you to share them unexpectedly
From the engraved, sparkling footprints
Come on, let’s go with my best friends
がむしゃら未来へと　一途な明日へと
軌跡を繋いだ　絆で勧め
心のタクトが導く空
輝き　忘れないでいて
この想い　忘れないでいて		 Gamushara mirai e to ichizu na asu e to
Kiseki o tsunaida kizuna de susume
Kokoro no takuto ga michibiku sora
Kagayaki wasurenai de ite
Kono omoi wasurenai de ite		 To the reckless future, to the earnest tomorrow
Move forward with these bonds connecting the trajectory
I won’t forgot that heart’s baton
Guiding through the shining sky
Nor I’ll forgot these feelings
遠く長い道　めぐり逢う未知
果てしない道
君と		 Tooku nagai michi meguriau michi
Hateshinai michi
Kimi to		 To the far, long road… Stumble across the unknown,
Endless road
With you

There are other instances of this playing out in the years leading up to ML4th. There are other instances of this still playing out today. It’s why when Aikotoba wa Startup played during Hatsuboshi Enbu, MillionP eventers were in shock. Or like hearing Addicted or Just Be Myself or Tsuiyoku no Sandglass. It’s a bit heart wrenching if you are a fan, in that both you’re suffering only because Bamco decided their lives to become this way, and that you’re pining for a thing that will probably come eventually, and it’s more beautiful because of it. It’s a mixed feeling of happiness and regret, that reality of the industry comes in and stir things up, with a distant hope, at least personally, that everything, all together, will be better off because of these complicated circumstances.

I would say it’s a cheap shot except it takes so much to even build up to begin with. A long cheap shot, maybe. A road within a fandom that’s got a significant barrier of entry, yeah. But I guess some producers have no choices here!

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Idolmaster

December 18, 2017

All You Need are Friends, Craft Beers, and Board Games

By omo

It also helps a lot if you have a nice twitter account.

As 2017 wraps up, we are 20 years into a world where late-night, paid-for anime of Japan started to be a thing. What does it mean? Well, it means this type of otaku are now older and many are starting to move on to other stuff as they move on to new stages in life. In the next few years we should see more signs of the generational changing-of-guards that has already happened once since last decade. The churn of hits, may it be anime, game, manga, memes, seiyuu, songs, live events, or whatever else that gets peddled onto our collective consciousness, will trudge on. You and I, on the other hand, can take it or leave it.

That light-novel-turned-anime Imouto sae ga iire ba (A Sister’s All You Need) is the story of someone who is taking it. And when we do it, we do it our way–surrounded by friends who appreciate who you are, nice alcoholic drinks, and social gaming (board games in this case). This is actually a pretty common way to have a good time among my friends, and I imagine it is a common way to have fun across the board among young adults old enough to have money to spend, in the developed world.

The fact that Imotosae taps into the creature comforts of those who are employed (and the money you can buy) to me is already a huge boon, in that it doesn’t just name drop random craft beers or board games, but portrays the characters whose lives in which those luxuries make sense to be a part of. It’s a bit of an adult thing when it talks about taxes, and/or how you can maximize your deductions in various ways, as much as it discusses how common relationship hookups could happen, just like how it’s an adult thing to bring back craft beer souvenirs.

Anime isn’t for kids, right? Legal drinking age is 20 in japan!

https://twitter.com/imotosae_anime/status/937343230898769921

Imoutosae is also over-the-top in terms of the comedy it tries to deliver, because let’s face it, that’s not why we watch anime usually. I think it makes a lot of sense to consider the effects of, say, naked Kanikou wrestling to get her point across to an equally naked Myaa or Kaiko, with what we’ve seen in Eromanga Sensei. In both the purposes seem to be similar, but the point of one is about this imouto freak who writes light novels and the other is about an actual little sister who have these hardcore characteristics.

Truth is however, that this wave of otaku is growing up, and what struck a chord with them will get pivoted to fit better with an older audience. It’s the shift in paradigm where the IP ages, but also changes. No longer we play games on carts, but we download patches and content patches over time as these games grow older with us, to use a video game analogy. It’s table stakes to have cute, adorable characters; to win you have to ante up something. In this case we have a story about a bunch of young adults, which is a lot more affecting than a story about a bunch of goofy but loveable teenagers.

Which is to say, what about Kani Nayuta? She’s a bridge between two realities.

For better or for worse, Imouto Sae will turn around and focus on the little sister in the show, so we’ll see how that rides out. I’m not hoping for much. It’s to the extent in which I don’t want to sell this show to anyone really, despite my enthusiasm for the show, and the ability to point to why I like it fairly clearly.

Another way I enjoy Imoutosae has been that it doesn’t really give a damn about the fictional aspect of itself. It allows some outrageous takes (Chihiro’s ass being one). But watching that Once Upon a Time play-through this past week really put a spotlight in terms of the silly things it comes up with. On some simple level, what goes into a light novel can be the replays some writers put together during their D&D sessions. That isn’t so different than Itsuki’s episode-1 pitch where the character’s sister served her (breast?)milk for breakfast.  In that sense, where and how do you have a discourse in which that kind of thinking serves as a baseline?

Or that for Myaa’s brithday, Kanikou wrote her a short novel which materialized her fantasy via Kanikou’s vivid imagination? I think this is the kind of plot device that just doesn’t happen in this genre format–closest thing I see it ever would be like, say, AnoHana the movie (but they made a fireworks thing?) or Whisper of the Heart (but that piece treats art in a more generic way). It’s quite something if you think about it.

Which is all to say, in order to sell some Blu-rays, Bandai Visual will uncensor the audio track, which is the most delightful meta take ever. In a season with Anime-Gataris I’m glad the current meta has well-outpaced its commercial variant, even in the commercial implementation. The whole existence of Imoutosae is about the delivery of the things I care about, and others like me. So far it has not erred.

Leave a comment | posted in Imouto Sae ga Ireba Ii, Modern Visual Culture