Katawa Shoujo – No Money No Problem

This is more or less the last thing I’ll be posting for a while – circumstances have changed and I won’t be focusing much on blogging anymore.  Regardless I wanted to make a review of this game for quite a while, so here it is.  Katawa Shoujo is a freeware visual novel created by independent developer Four Leaf Studios, released on January 4, 2012.  It is squarely within the dating sim genre, and has a premise that can be off-putting to some.  The protagonist is Hisao Nakai, a high school boy in Japan, who is forced to attend a high school for physically disabled children after being diagnosed with a serious medical condition.  Unless the player makes stupid choices, Hisao will enter into a relationship with one of five girls that attend the school.

The game is far more than an excuse to put the player in explicit situations with disabled girls, despite what you might think (though said explicit situations are there).  The game treats the girls and their disabilities tastefully and realistically… to a point.  Four out of the five girls the player can romance practically laugh in the face of their disabilities – you’ve got the mute student council president, armless artist and legless track star, among others.  All the girls have problems that run deeper than their physical disabilities though, many of which are barely even related to them.  Helping the girls (and the protagonist himself) work through their issues are of the same importance as romancing them.  I can go ahead and recommend Katawa Shoujo to anyone even remotely interested in visual novels right now, because it is absolutely free to download and play.  Just look it up.

The story begins in the snow, with a beautiful backdrop of snowflakes and trees.  Hisao receives a love confession from a girl in his class… it doesn’t go well.  Hisao suddenly suffers a heart attack, leading to a hospitalization and a diagnosis of cardiac dysrhythmia: a rare heart condition that causes the heart to behave erratically.  Almost any sort of physical stress or overexertion can lead to heart flutters or even a fatal heart attack, thus severely weakening Hisao.  On top of that, all of Hisao’s classmates, including the girl that confessed to him, eventually stop visiting him during his long hospitalization.  Unsurprisingly, all this causes him to become insanely cynical and bitter.  These feelings almost boil over when he’s told that he won’t be able to go back to his old school, and instead will be attending Yamaku Academy: a high school for physically disabled children (and a 24-hour nursing staff).  Despite Hisao’s grim expectations, Yamaku is exceptionally well funded and is more like a college campus than a high school.  The Yamaku campus, in fact, is based off of Brown University.

Of course, that’s far from enough to snap Hisao out of his bitterness.  It takes the forceful duo of Shizune and Misha, two girls in his class, to do that.  They introduce Hisao to Yamaku’s culture and values, and present the player with the first significant choices that will determine their fate later on.  Encounters with other students and the borderline eccentric staff of the school reveal that Yamaku is just a relatively normal high school that just happens to focus on disabled students, not a hospital that doubles as a school.  That is as far from Hisao’s (and the player’s) expectations as you can get.

As mentioned before, there are five girls that the player can pursue in Katawa Shoujo.  Shizune Hakamichi is the student council president and the representative of Hisao’s class.  She is also deaf and mute, relying on her overly loud and energetic sign language interpreter Shiina “Misha” Mikado to translate for her.  Misha doesn’t actually have a disability; she is attending Yamaku under special conditions.  There is also Shizune’s rival: class 3-2’s representative Lilly Satou.  Class 3-2 is for visually impaired students, and Lilly herself is blind completely.  Next is Hanako Ikezawa, a girl in Hisao’s class with major scarring on the right side of her body.  This doesn’t affect her too badly physically, but she suffers from debilitating social anxiety.  Emi Ibarazaki is a headstrong girl who had her legs amputated, and then preceded to become the star of Yamaku’s track team after re-learning to run on prosthetics.  Lastly is Rin Tezuka, an especially spacey girl with no arms.  Needless to say she became an extremely skilled artist using only her feet, par for the course in Katawa Shoujo.

Act 1 of the game always starts the same way, but starts to branch off shortly after Hisao arrives at Yamaku.  Nearly every choice in Act 1 gives the player invisible “points” with one of the five girls, or otherwise branches off completely into a new scene or onto a specific girl’s route entirely.  Keep in mind that some of these occur before you even meet the girl that you are earning points with.  Act 1 takes care to show plenty of each girl, their personalities and what they value, without delving too far into their inner thoughts and motivations.  An attentive player will be able to somewhat steer themselves towards the girl they want based on what they see of them, but I would recommend reading up on the five girls and choosing one to pursue before playing.  I say this because taking a neutral path (intentionally or unintentionally) can open the player up to a number of traps, also known as bad endings.  Endings where you fail to follow any girl’s route… and die.  I mean, that’s the whole point of the game, to enter a relationship.  I’d advise that you be wary of choices that seem hilarious at the time, and to JOIN THE ART CLUB if given the option.  Trust me, it makes sense in context.  Knowing which girl to pursue in advance really helps, and to keep plenty of backup saves in case that doesn’t work and you DO end up dead.

Because you haven’t chosen her route yet of course!

Considering how Hisao, the poor new guy, gets plopped down in the middle of a vicious feud between Shizune and Lilly, it makes perfect sense that much of the early game is dedicated to giving you “points” with one or the other with its choices.  On the other hand, it only takes two specific choices to lock you onto Emi’s route no matter how many points you have with either of them.  She’s the type to drag you into her world like that.  Hanako is best friends with Lilly, and not outgoing, to put it lightly.  Thus a single choice right before you are locked onto Lilly’s route will lock you onto Hanako’s instead.  If you don’t manage to get onto anyone else’s route (and avoid all the bad ends), it’s a one-way ticket to Rin’s route.  No matter which girl Hisao ends up going for, they will help Hisao (and the player) realize how narrow their mindset previously was and undergo a bit of revitalization by the time their route officially begins.  That doesn’t mean that Hisao won’t fall back into old habits, unfortunately.

Players can expect every girl’s route to shatter their expectations of character archetypes, as well as common visual novel and anime tropes.  The “spirited competitor” Shizune, “incomprehensible artist” Rin, “plucky girl” Emi, “yamato nadeshiko” Lilly and “shrinking violet” Hanako; all of them will defy and deconstruct what is expected of them from both Hisao and the genre savvy player.  Even characters without routes such as “genki girl” Misha and “conspiracy theorist” Kenji end up doing this.  All the major girls also tend to come in pairs: Lilly and Hanako are incredibly close, Shizune is basically connected at the hip to Misha, and Rin and Emi are friends (but they aren’t as close as the other two, so their routes are completely separate).  The meaning behind these pairings become very apparent as you play through each route, specifically for Lilly and Hanako.  In fact, I would strongly recommend that you play Hanako’s route before Lilly’s, as certain plot points from Hanako’s route are addressed in Lilly’s as well.

For Hisao himself, each route is as much about him overcoming his condition and truly moving on from his trauma as it is about the girls.  He’ll also find his own plans and aspirations for the future, which change depending on how each girl inspires and, to a point, rubs off on him personality-wise.  Sometimes, however, taking on aspects of a particular girl’s mindset is not a good thing for him at first.

“Can you tell me what you think?”

Shizune’s route has you finally give in to the energy of Shizune and Misha, and join the Student Council.  The good news is that you will probably avoid her bad ending (every girl’s route has a bad ending, and some also have neutral endings).  The bad news is that there is only a single choice for the player to make in the route.  Hisao certainly is not mistaken when labeling Shizune as pushy and competitive in an almost child-like manner.  Since she lacks the ability to speak, everyone else she does is excessively loud to make up for it, from her actions as the Student Council President to her exaggerated facial expressions.  And from anything she can’t express directly, she has the world’s loudest translator in Misha (not to mention the owner of the loudest hair in the game).  As a result though, her personality comes off as especially abrasive to others, and Misha tends to put her own spin on translations and leave things out at her own digression.

In Act 2 of Shizune’s route, Hisao learns sign language, becoming fluent in an insanely small amount of time.  You can’t have an entire relationship through an interpreter, right?  Hisao essentially gets to know Shizune and Misha again afterwards, this time as separate individuals.  Shizune is actually much sweeter than she lets on, but is still pretty obsessed with competition and conquests of all kinds.  Once into Act 3, Hisao (unfortunately) meets Shizune’s family.  Act 3 is quite different from any other part of the game: it’s a slice-of-life segment featuring some of the most dysfunctional characters in Katawa Shoujo.  It’s fun, but it’s not for everyone.  Especially considering the lack of player choices and potentially unlikable characters.  But don’t fret; there’s plenty of drama in Act 4.

“Can you stand up for yourself?”

Emi’s route has you… take up exercise and dietary plans.  Hisao becomes the running partner of the adorable and chronically outgoing Emi Ibarazaki, who calls herself “The Fastest Thing on No Legs”.  She’s hardheaded and determined to a fault – she ended up FASTER than she was before she lost her legs, after all.  Emi does have some major personal issues too, but she has a hard time confronting or confiding said problems with anyone, Hisao included.  She tries to handle everything herself, to the detriment of everyone around her, and has a ton of related complexes.  Luckily, the player’s got plenty of help from side characters in this route, including Emi’s mom and Yamaku’s head nurse.  One thing that I admittedly found frustrating in this route was that Hisao never picks up on the heavy-handed foreshadowing, nor does he make an effort to work around many of Emi’s clearly defined complexes until near the end of the route.  It does make a degree of sense that Hisao isn’t too perceptive in this route, thanks to Emi’s hardheaded nature rubbing off on him.  While it does take some determination on Hisao’s part to help Emi and bring stability to their relationship, he also needs to listen to advice from others.  A direct approach is not always the best one, as this route will teach.

“Can you face your fears?”

In Hanako’s route you… well, you do something.  Arguably the most distinctive character in the game, Hanako’s crippling social anxiety and shyness are very deceiving.  Through her stuttering speech and deep-seeded shame over her appearance, Hanako proves to be very perceptive and sensitive to social cues, especially when it comes to Hisao.  Speaking of Hisao, he doesn’t so much become like Hanako in this route as much as he wants to protect and help her through her issues.  This may become the mindset of the player as well, considering Hanako’s incredibly sorrowful past and how fragile she appears at times.

But how much protecting does Hanako need?  She has a very close friend in fellow main girl Lilly, and endured through some very tough times in the past.  Solving this dilemma requires you to listen to Hanako, and listen WELL.  Even the smallest comments or details about her past can prove very important, especially considering how tough it is for a quiet girl like Hanako to talk about such things.  She won’t let you know if you piss her off, after all – Hisao has to figure out that out for himself.  A perceptive player will find that Hanako’s story is in fact very similar to the situation that Hisao found himself in – read into that as you will.

“Can you seize the day?”

In Rin’s route you join the art club, just because you can.  Just like Rin paints despite having no arms: she does it because she can.  To the surprise of no one, Rin is by far the most difficult girl to understand.  She’s prone to speaking in cryptic, fractured and incomprehensible ideas, usually with a questioning stare that gives away no feelings one way or the other.  She rarely shows anything with her near-perfect poker face, in fact.  Which she does without even realizing it.  Add to that her word-finding difficulties (she doesn’t know that “swarm” is a word), and you have a perfect storm of incomprehensibility.  While she says a lot of weird and flat-out hilarious things, the player has to look further into meanings and implications.  If no one can understand her, how do you think she feels whenever she tries to be understood?

Hisao unsurprisingly struggles to understand her, but at the same time empathizes with her and her self-identity issues due to his own mindset being similar early on.  Even though Rin is rather out there in her ideas and philosophies about art and just about anything, she has a shocking amount of determination that comes out when she dedicates herself.  Thus she throws herself into her art when given the chance to take her skills to the next level.  This occurs at the same time as Hisao’s decision to move forward in his life past his heart attack and condition.  They both decide to change, for the better or for the worse.  Hisao ultimately has the hardest time building a relationship with Rin than with any of the other girls, but the end of the route is quite rewarding considering how grim her bad ends are.  Rin’s route tends to fall into more extended prose and descriptions of sights, smells and the like, especially outdoor environments.  This can be a good or bad thing depending on the player’s attention span.

“Can you see what I see?”

In Lilly’s route you drink a lot of tea and get to see some of the prettiest art in the game.  This route is pretty much set up to be the “final” one; it is the only one that resolves multiple characters’ issues, and is the only route to feature an epilogue.  This is also the only route that really resembles a romantic drama, which makes perfect sense considering Lilly’s old-fashioned ideals. That said; the transition from Act I to her route happens rather abruptly and without a strong lead-in, partly due to her and Hanako having many of the same Act I scenes.  Lilly’s route continues to have issues dealing with Hanako early on, with many of the major plot points from Hanako’s route being covered in a compressed format.  As mentioned above, Hanako’s should be played first.

Throughout the entirety of Act I, Lilly appears to be the definition of perfect, discounting her blindness and bitter feud with Shizune.  She is never phased by anything, never shows outright anger or reveals any inner turmoil, and is perfectly ok with people poking fun at her disability. Not to mention her attractiveness.  But it becomes more apparent throughout her route that her perfect and proper behavior is her flaw in itself.  As intelligent and cool-headed as she is, as much as she plays a motherly role to characters like Hanako, she has issues of her own.  She isn’t too forthcoming with talking about her problems (that’d cause needless worry in her mind), but that isn’t the biggest problem in her route.

The problem is that no one thinks that she HAS any issues, Hisao especially.  Thus they become complacent in relying on her for support, but not the other way around.  So she never gets the help she might need, or anyone to stop her and Shizune from getting at each other’s throats.  Complacency is actually a really big theme in her route in general, along with honesty.  Players have to be honest with Lilly if they want Hisao to have an “equal” relationship with her in the end.  Whether it’s due to Lilly hiding her troubles to a fault or Hisao hesitating to push her on the subject, players don’t get to learn a lot about Lilly until late in the route.  It’s probably easier to just go to another girl… Lilly’s older sister, Akira.  A much more matter-of-fact and forthcoming person, she won’t hesitate to let Hisao into the loop.  Or to buy alcohol for underage students, for that matter.

Lilly’s route arguably has the most dramatic and heartwarming ending of any route, and the most surprising one too.  Yes, it’s really saying something when the most straight-forward route manages to have a more surprising ending than those of Hanako, Rin and Shizune.

The girls themselves aren’t the only interesting characters in the game, not by far.  If you were worried that there might be a lack of comedy in Katawa Shoujo, Hisao’s borderline paranoid-schizophrenic shut-in dorm mate Kenji provides plenty of it (technically he’s legally blind).  He tends to appear at the most inopportune times to share his thoughts on THE GREATEST THREAT TO MANKIND: FEMINISIM.  Usually that loudly too.  He’ll rant on and on like a lunatic, reducing all but the most stone-faced player to laughing fits, and reducing Hisao to the most deadpan responses ever made.  It really is surprising that the guy hasn’t killed anybody… that we know of.  Despite his insane logic and conspiracy theories though, he really does value Hisao as a friend, and shows genuine wisdom and insight at times (and doesn’t actually think all women are evil either).  But then there’s the alternate name for the Act I bad end… the Kenji route.  Kenji may or may not be dangerous on his own, but he IS a crazy guy obsessed with feminist conspiracies in a dating sim game with 5 girls to pursue.  If you’re into dark humor though, the Kenji route is worth taking at least once for kicks.

What.

Getting into the quirky school staff, the most prominent adult in the game is assistant librarian Yuuko.  She often shows up to give helpful advice to Hisao about his various relationships, which is surprising, since she herself is painfully neurotic, overworked and tends to freak out at the smallest provocation.  Perhaps it’s because of her problems that she can help other people with theirs.  Like Hanako, she’s also shockingly perceptive of others’ feelings despite her own anxiety.

There’s also Hisao’s homeroom teacher Mutou, a stereotypical absent-minded professor (even Hisao calls him that) who teaches science.  While the game’s current drama often throws him to the side or plays up his scatterbrained tendencies, there’s no doubting his dedication to his students.  He usually plays a big role in helping Hisao plan for his future, and shows hidden depths when dealing specific students like Hanako or Misha.  Mutou has a rival and polar opposite in the form of the outspoken and dramatic art teacher Nomiya, who only appears in Rin’s route.  Last but not least is the head nurse of Yamaku, whose name they never bother to tell you.  He’s a genuine example of a “funny” doctor (and one that is occasionally actually funny), never hesitating to look on the bright side of things or tease Hisao.  On the other hand, he never hesitates to hand out verbal beatdowns if his advice isn’t taken seriously.  He also happens to have a close relationship with someone who makes ignoring advice a lifestyle: Emi.  Unsurprisingly, he appears a lot in her route to give advice, both medical and romantic.

Somebody stop this man!

The remaining handful of notable characters are related to the 5 pursuable girls.  There’s the afore-mentioned Akira Satou, Lilly’s older sister.  She’s everything Lilly isn’t – direct and outgoing, somewhat loud and lacking in… certain assets.  But she’s definitely pretty intelligent and insightful; she works as a lawyer and, quite shockingly, has a good relationship with Hanako.  On the opposite end, there are others who are SCARILY similar to the main girls they’re related to, like Shizune’s little brother, Hideaki.  He’s got a strange monotone matter of speaking, and is even more direct and to the point about things than his deaf-mute sister (which should probably be impossible).  He has the same competitive streak too.  In Emi’s route you have her mom, Meiko.  Just imagine a grown Emi without the hard-headedness.  And then there’s Shizune’s dad.  Let’s just say if there’s anyone in the game you want to punch in the face…

Possibly the biggest issue with Katawa Shoujo in general are the choices leading to the bad endings.  In most cases, players have to make Hisao be a complete jerk to get a bad end.  This does make it fairly easy to avoid bad endings, but as a result, the endings themselves often involve Hisao being a complete moron who is DETERMINED to make the worst decisions possible over and over until the logical horrible conclusion happens.  Hanako and Shizune’s routes have the worst cases of this.  This is also present in most of the paths to the Act I bad end, but it’s more understandable due to Hisao’s bitterness at that point in the game.

But luckily Hisao does.

Before wrapping up this essay posing as a game review, I’d like to point out how good this game, a FREEWARE game, looks and sounds.  The character sprites and artwork are very well done and look realistic in general, making you feel like you’re really looking through Hisao’s eyes (though if Hisao is involved in the scene himself, you’ll get another perspective that shows him).  Even though Katawa Shoujo is certainly an anime-styled game, the anime influence on the art style is limited to characters’ faces and expressions.  The expressions are pretty varied and accurate too, which is extremely important for visual novels and their focus on individual characters.  The developers didn’t take the easy way out either: they made the effort to come up with specific designs and implied personalities for many background characters that don’t play a role in the story.  And as mentioned before, Lilly’s route has several amazing pieces of art that show up at just the right moments to make an impact.

There are a couple of issues with the consistency of the art style at times.  Hisao himself looks different in a few scenes, particularly at the very start of the story (that first piece of art could’ve been made years before anything else in the game).  The biggest issues with the art turn up in Emi and Shizune’s routes, respectively.  Emi herself went through a major redesign late in the game’s development, and thus ends up looking significantly younger in some scenes than her character sprite.  Shizune’s honestly makes a huge mess of this at times, most of which can be blamed on a change in artists at the time.  The new artist has a much rougher style, and the characters in particular are barely recognizable when compared to their sprites or scenes in other routes.  Aside from those two routes, the art is very consistent.

She looks what, about 12 in this pic?

Aside from the actual art, most of the background images are just that: images.  It’s obvious that they consist of actual photographs with a filter placed over, but they still look rather nice nonetheless, and they’d probably needlessly stand out without the filter.  Possibly the most shocking thing Katawa Shoujo has are fully animated cutscenes.  Yes, a freeware game with animated cutscenes.  One rather basic one appears at the start of the game, mostly to serve as opening credits and set the restless mood surrounding Hisao’s hospitalization.  The others appear at the beginning of each girl’s route to introduce their issues to the player in a rather abstract format.  You could say that they’re opening themes for each girl.  The art style is a more simplistic anime-esque style than usual, but that’s practically a positive considering their purpose – it makes them seem more dream-like and gets players thinking about the meaning behind them.

The game does feature a scattered few instances of animation in scenes and sound effects, the most prominent being Hisao’s heart flutters.  After experiencing major flutters and a heart attack in the first scene, repeated cut-ins of a heart along with loud, strained heartbeats are all it takes to fill players with dread, and make them fear the worst.  At times they’re the only things to remind players of Hisao’s condition – it’s all too fitting at the moments Hisao pushes his condition to the back of his mind and ignores it.

The music in Katawa Shoujo is rarely complex, but does its job of setting the mood of scenes, and does it well.  The menu theme is the foremost indicator of this: the first song players hear when starting the game may not seem important, but it’s such a low key, soothing track that it’s the perfect musical chaser to calm players down after a potentially dramatic or heartwarming session.  In most “neutral” scenes (generally during Hisao’s internal monologues) and those lacking in drama, the music is soothing and pretty out-of-the-way, focusing on light strings and occasional piano melodies.  And that’s when it isn’t even trying to do anything: more introspective and calmer moments with the girls feature cushy and heartwarming songs like “Comfort” and “Air Guitar” to touch even the most restrained players.

Each of the girls has their own light-hearted motif that shows up during establishing character moments, excluding Hanako, who has a much more rarely heard dramatic motif.  Lilly’s is more calming than light-hearted too, but it’s perfect for her personality.  It always helps to cast them in a positive light, even for Emi after she nearly gives Hisao a heart attack by crashing into him.  Moments of silliness and general fun are perfectly accompanied by tracks like “Hokabi” or “Generic Happy Music” too.  For maximum hilarity, the Kenji-specific “Out of the Loop” is there for his crazy ranting.  The Nurse also gets his own motif, perfect for when he shows up to mess with Hisao.

When the dramatic moments do come, that is where the soundtrack really shines.  Songs like “Stride” or “Caged Heart” are pretty much just unsettling enough to bring up the same thoughts of insecurity and tension in the player that Hisao is likely grappling with at the moment.  And then you have tracks like “Shadow of the Truth” and “Cold Iron”, which hit you right in the heart and let you KNOW that something bad is going to happen.  The pure impact of the music in those scenes simply cannot be overstated.  There is one other track that matches those two: “Moment of Decision”.  Seeing as this is a visual novel with both good and bad ends, the title should say everything about the scenes it accompanies.

Let’s say the player succeeds in winning the girl – they’re rewarded with the most beautiful and sweetest tracks in the game, such as end credit theme for every girl’s good end: “Romance in Andante”.  Somewhat related to said tracks are “To Become One” and “Letting my Heart Speak”, which play during equally… enjoyable scenes.

Sex scenes.  Anyone with knowledge about the visual novel medium, particularly dating sim games, would not be at all surprised to know Katawa Shoujo has them.  Those who are queasy about viewing such scenes has the option of turning them off, but should be aware that doing so does NOT censor all instances of nudity for character sprites, just the explicit scenes.  About half of the sex scenes are actually plot-relevant: they don’t exist just for the sake of it.  So I wouldn’t recommend skipping them if you want the full impact of the story.  They’re done (in a manner of speaking) in a rather tasteful and realistic manner, highlighting the struggles of the act as much as the pleasures instead of glamorizing it.

As players complete the game and play through every route, the menu progressively fills up with images of each girl and Hisao himself, representing each chapter the player reaches.  It ends up looking like a hastily stitched together patchwork of images, just like the new life Hisao stitches together in each route.  There is also a reward of sorts of completing the entire game (viewing every possible scene), but its only one image that can be seen in the Gallery section of the menu.  I really wish there was more myself.

Katawa Shoujo is a game that values realistic conclusions.  Thus even the good endings leave some uncertainty at the end.  Will the relationship really work?  The player can form the relationship and stabilize it, but the ultimate ending is whatever you imagine it to be.  Happy or not so happy, that’s how real life is.  Hisao can’t make his condition go away after all, and neither can the girl he ends up with.  It’s imperfect, but at the same time makes the relationships all the more real and effective.  Katawa Shoujo is not without its flaws, but is compelling and beautiful nonetheless.

“Our pasts may be scattered and at times overshadowed by sadness, but they’re also an irrevocable part of our lives and personalities.  Even if I could change a single thing, I wouldn’t, because my past was what led me here.”  “That’s why, even with all that’s happened to us before, and all that may well befall us… together, we’ll keep walking forward.”

The Hunger Games – From the producers of Survivor and Wipeout

Novel-based film trilogies have been huge money makers since the debut of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter film series in 2001, and The Hunger Games appears to be following in their footsteps.  Most novel-based trilogies are of the fantasy genre though, while Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic science fiction series made on a (relatively) low budget.  There is an emphasis on social and political commentary not often seen in mainstream movies, and is more violent then Lord of the Rings and the like.  I am a bit late to the party, with Hunger Games already being out on Blu-ray, but let’s find out how The Hunger Games became a hit.

The beginning of the film brief explains what the titular Hunger Games are all about.  The country of Panem (formerly North America) is made up of 12 Districts, which all specialize in particular professions, and is ruled by a totalitarian government based in the absurdly wealthy Capitol.  74 years prior to the story, the Districts rebelled against the government, and were subsequently put down by the Capitol.  The former 13th District was destroyed, and the government established The Hunger Games as punishment for the remaining 12.  Every year, one boy and one girl from each district between the ages of 12 and 18 is chosen at random to participate in the Games – essentially a gladiatorial death match between the chosen “tributes”.  The Games take place in a large arena in various extreme locations (think Survivor), where the tributes have to survive and fight each other until only one is left alive.  The lone survivor gets to return to a life of fame and fortune.  The Hunger Games are shown on TV like your typical reality show and treated like the Super Bowl, glorifying the intense violence and suffering.

And they’re hosted by this guy

The main character of the series is Katniss Everdeen, a strong 16 year-old girl from District 12 (the poorest district of course).  Her father died in a mining accident, leaving Katniss to take care of her little sister Primrose while her mother was severely traumatized by the incident. Katniss herself is mature beyond her years as a result, but somewhat quiet and socially awkward.  At the “Reaping” ceremony where the tributes are chosen for the Games, Primrose’s name is drawn.  Katniss desperately volunteers herself in her sister’s place, and becomes a tribute alongside Peeta Mallark, a baker’s son. Katniss, who has terrific survival skills and is a good shot with a bow, is quickly identified as a strong competitor with a chance to win.

She has a somewhat. . . fuller figure then in the books too.

Katniss and Peeta are then taken to the Capitol, where they meet their assigned mentor – Haymitch Abernathy.  The winner of the 50th Hunger Games, Abernathy is an alcoholic and disillusioned with the Games and the government.  He initially refuses to help Katniss and Peeta, but eventually tells them that the best way to survive is to get the audience to like you.  Interested viewers in the Capitol can choose to sponsor a chosen tribute, and send them needed supplies during the Games.

Over the next few weeks, the pair appear on television several times, making a good impression on viewers and the Games’ MC thanks to Abernathy and the savvy of their stylist, Cinna.  Peeta, who has a crush on Katniss, admits his love for her in an interview.  This angers Katniss, but Abernathy insists they play the part of “star-crossed lovers” to win supporters over.

All the tributes also participate in training exercises with each other, and are given an overall score of 1-12 based on their abilities.  This is also where the “Careers” show up – tributes that train specifically for the Games from childhood and volunteer themselves.  A Career tribute will typically win the Games, but Katniss and Peeta have the skills to compete with them.

Do they look like nice people to you? Didn’t think so.

When The Hunger Games actually start, it becomes a mix of Survivor, TV sports and barbaric gladiator combat.  Alliances are made, blood is shed frequently, and plenty of political hustling goes on behind the scenes, particularly between the head Games-maker Seneca Crane and the ruler of Panem, President Snow.  And in the end, Peeta and Katniss deal a blow to the totalitarian government machine.

The influences and messages contained in the movie can be seen all over.  It mixes an ancient Rome-like interest in primal violence with over-the-top showmanship and live commentators, turning the titular Games into some kind of sick reality sport.  Not to mention how the rich residents of the Capitol bet on the Games and sponsor tributes like the whole event is the Kentucky Derby.  The Hunger Games can also be seen as a blow against reality TV’s obsession with the twisted, similar to films like The Truman Show and Death Race.

Her odds of survival were 30 to 1 – pay her no mind, Capitol residents

The Panem government is, without a doubt, as oppressive and brutal as they come.  The fact that The Capital resembles a modern-ized Roman city is a subtle, if unneeded, hint towards that conclusion.  Most of the main characters express their distaste of the government, giving off an anti-government message that has drawn criticism from some corners.  But if we really were ruled by a regime this oppressive, wouldn’t there be some widespread governmental distrust?  The fact that Panem was formerly North America may have been the thing that set off some detractors, but so was Code Geass’ Britannia, another highly self-serving fictional government.

Katniss has been widely identified as a strong and more than capable female figure, in no small part thanks to Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of her.  Her Katniss is similar to a character she played a few years ago: Ree Dolly of Winter’s Bone.  Both are women of few words and a lot of action, yet are deeply mature, having been forced to become the primary caretakers of their siblings AND their own mothers.  Katniss though, is a woman of even fewer words.  While there are a few people she can engage in witty banter with, she is normally quite awkward and soft-spoken – “I’m not good at saying something” is how Katniss describes herself.  But when she gets seriously determined. . . watch out.

Peeta, played by John Hutcherson, struggles with being the overlooked one next to Katniss, despite his honest feelings for her.  Perhaps accepting his lower chances of survival next to Katniss, he is far more eager to play up to the Games’ TV audience and gain their support.  He and Katniss grow closer over the events of the movie, though it could be debated they were just putting on a show for potential sponsors.  Real or not, it sets up a love triangle with an interested viewer back in District 12 – Gale, Katniss’ hunting partner with a secret crush on her.

Let the love-interest-speculation commence!

The films’ other characters don’t quite possess the depth of Katniss and Peeta, but are played well nonetheless.  Haymitch Abernathy is the drunken and reluctant mentor who is tired of watching District 12’s tributes die.  Once he becomes convinced of Katniss and Peeta’s determination and skills though, he awakens from his stupor to become a fierce ally, sparing no effort to secure sponsors and gain the support of the head Games-maker.

Speaking of the head Games-maker, Seneca Crane shares behind-the-scenes antagonist spotlight with President Snow, who he often consults during the Games themselves.  While Crane’s main concern is putting on a good show and pleasing viewers, Snow only cares about the political results of the Games, giving a hint of malice as he subtly advises Crane.  Donald Sutherland was effective as the villainous president in his short appearances – look for him to give a killer performance in the next film.

With beards like those, they just HAVE to be evil

The most visible of the tributes out to get Katniss once the Games become are the Careers, who immediately band together.  They are portrayed realistically – meaning they’re highly trained, egotistical killing machines.  I imagine one would end up like this when they’re trained to essentially be a teenage soldier, but the Careers end up as little more than compelling antagonists to root against.  The only other significant tribute is Rue, a 12 year-old girl from District 11, who forms an easy partnership with Katniss thanks to her resemblance to Primrose.  Though the reasons behind their pairing are only implied at best.

There is some sporadic comic relief, mostly before the games begin, thanks to the oblivious remarks of Effie Trinket, the Capital’s appointed overseer of District 12’s tributes.  And the egregious amounts of cheese contained in Katniss and Peeta’s journey through the media circus.  It’s especially jarring when the film switches from the fake TV personalities to the very REAL carnage of the Games.

The Hunger Games boasts a modest budget in comparison to other blockbusters, but still manages to look really good visually.  The modern, yet Romanesque architecture of The Capitol stands out in grand opposition to the near-destitute state of District 12.  That said, the forests surrounding District 12 and those in the Games have somewhat of a quant charm to them – particularly the latter.  Excluding really action-y or violent scenes, The Hunger Games themselves are shot in a relatively straightforward manner; it’s not difficult to follow any of it.

It’s not much, but it’s home.

Some of those oh-so-edgey shaky camera tricks show up during especially dramatic or violent scenes.  I do think it sets an equally unstable mood during said dramatic scenes, which is definitely a better use of the shaky camera than for action.  That said, the action scenes don’t overuse it, they use just enough to keep the gore to a minimum and maintain the PG-13 rating.  However, there were a few scenes (Katniss’ dream sequence for example) that made a rather awkward transition from written to visual form.

While I’m not the biggest fan of the costume design in this movie (it can be TOO over-the-top at times), I think The Hunger Games at least deserves an Oscar nod for it.  The residents of The Capital are effectively portrayed as the fakest people on the planet – sporting ridiculous hairstyles, tastes in clothing somewhere between the 17th century and a gay pride parade, and skin dyed any color from white to green.  Don’t forget Seneca Crane’s beard either.  Cinna’s creative masterpieces for Katniss and Peeta are just as impressive, employing literal fire in their designs to draw attention straight to them.  The TV commentators were as impressed as I was.

Typical casual attire for Capitol residents

The Hunger Games is a real treat, both visually and mentally.  The large amount of social commentary and the number of times you’ll wonder “Are they doing it for real or just appealing to sponsors?” will keep viewers engaged for a long time after the credits roll.  You can easily find films with more emotion, more wit, better action and better visuals, but The Hunger Games makes its limited amounts of both really count.  One shortcoming of the film is that it doesn’t reveal much backstory on Panem or the Districts, nor does it expand much on the supposed main antagonist, President Snow.  I can only hope those questions and more will be answered in the sequel. . . they’ve successfully roped me into the series.

Resident Evil: Retribution – What am I doing with my life. . .?

I’ve heard plenty of horrible, terrible things about the Resident Evil movies – mostly criticism of Milla Jovovich’s “Alice” character and how they failed to live up to the video game series they’re based on.  Despite this, the series has become a big money maker, especially overseas.  It was only by chance that I ended up seeing Retribution, the fifth film in the series.  Does this installment do anything to change the perception of the series?  Spoilers: it doesn’t.

The film shows its true colors right from the get-go; the opening credits are accompanied by a slow-motion version of what will be the first “real” scene in the movie, played in reverse.  This kind of stuff happens frequently in Retribution: where the film overuses bullet time and brushes proper plot and anything resembling character development aside in a desperate attempt to look “cool”.  But the opening credits are just showing a scene that the audience will see again in real time 5 minutes later – it’s really just unnecessary, like a lot of stuff that happens throughout this hour and a half of torture.

On the bright side, they follow up the opening credits with a “catch-up” of sorts in an attempt to inform newcomers what’s going on with Milla Jovovich’s Alice character narrating.  It basically boils down to the T-virus, an experimental bioweapon that turns people into zombies, leaking out across the entire world and causing a good old-fashioned zombie apocalypse.  The stupidly powerful company that created the T-virus, the Umbrella Corporation, continues to experiment with bioweapons despite causing A COMPLETE APOCALYPSE.  Yep, they have nothing even resembling ethics.  Alice is special, as she is the only person to successfully bond with the T-virus, so Umbrella is interested in re-creating her potential.  They previously cloned her a bunch of times to this end, but that didn’t exactly work out.  So now they’re trying to capture her again.  With a platoon of soldiers led by a mind-controlled friend (Jill Valentine) who is still alive for no particular reason.

Following the real-time version of the opening scene, we’re thrown into an alternate reality where Alice is a housewife living with her husband (a clone of a deceased character from previous films) and their young, deaf daughter Becky.  As you’d expect, zombies attack and kill the husband, and Alice and Becky try to flee the town with the help of Rain (a clone of a character who HASN’T APPEARED SINCE THE FIRST FILM).  Then they randomly crash into a truck and the zombified husband kills Alice.

The real Alice then wakes up inside an Umbrella facility, practically naked, and is interrogated by Jill.  When she refuses to talk, we the audience are rewarded with an ear-piercing screech meant to torture her.  Multiple times.  Luckily for her, a power failure gives her a chance to break out.  She eventually encounters Ada Wong, an agent for Umbrella’s former chairman Albert Wesker.  Wesker is now working in opposition to Umbrella, which has been somehow taken over by the advanced A.I. called The Red Queen (it has not appeared since the first film, of course), and is now trying to eliminate all of humanity.  In addition to hacking the facility, Wesker organized a mercenary team to invade and destroy the place – consisting of Barry Burton, Leon S. Kennedy, Luther West (from the previous film) and two other guys who don’t matter at all.

The majority of the film shifts focus between the pairing of Alice and Ada and the mercenary team as they make their way through the facility, which, for whatever reason, contains replicas of several major cities.  These fake cities exist for the purpose of testing bioweapons – they can be filled with clones (which Umbrella has a ton of randomly), and simply introducing a virus can simulate a zombie apocalypse.  The clones are made using the data of former Umbrella operatives, so the writers have an excuse to bring back long-dead characters just for the sake of it.  As you might have guessed, the “Alice” in the alternate reality was a clone.

So yeah – this film is full to bursting with plot holes, and is less of a coherent story and more an ongoing train of excuses to include more action scenes.  But that’s not even the worst part.

The vast majority of the characters are as flat and cardboard-like as they come.  How in the world Milla Jovovich is still the star of this series is beyond me – she is literally incapable of emotion judging from this movie, and I doubt she’s any better in the previous Resident Evil movies.  Even her attempts at deadpan humor fall flat thanks to her total lack of emotion, though I sometimes couldn’t help but laugh at how horrible the “humor” in this movie was.  Deadpan humor is essentially the only thing that keeps the entirety of Retribution’s dialogue from being blander than plain white bread.  The characters show so little emotion that this is the only type of small talk they are capable of.  This is partly the reason why two members of the mercenary team don’t matter at all: no appears to care in the slightest when they get killed off.  Sure, Leon and friends are mercenaries and may not know much about them, but that doesn’t mean they have to be robots.

Even the characters that originated from the Resident Evil video games seem like emotionless cardboard cutouts.  I admit I don’t know whether characters like Leon or Ada Wong are portrayed correctly since I haven’t played any games they’ve been in, but they’re still terrible.  Those two along with Wesker and Jill may be dressed exactly like their game counterparts, but that’s about where the similarities end and the robotic personalities take over.  Barry Burton is just a little better – though he’s as emotionless as everyone else for most of the film, he displays his joking badass personality from the video games during a climactic fight scene.

Actually scratch that. This guy looks nothing like Leon

Michelle Rodriguez played Rain in the original Resident Evil film, and returns as two separate clones of her long-dead character in this one.  The “good” Rain that helps out Alice has no memory of the original’s combat experience and is the only character in the film capable of getting flustered or worried.  The “bad” Rain accompanies the mind-controlled Jill and her soldiers in their pursuit of Alice and the mercenaries, and is a cocky jerkass.  Of course, we don’t see much of  “good” Rain – she can’t fight and has EMOTIONS GOD FORBID WE CAN’T HAVE THAT.

“Bu-but I campaigned for gun control. . .”

The visuals and fight scenes, luckily, are relatively well done.  The overhead shots showing the Umbrella facility, which is hidden deep in the snowy Russian wasteland, are pretty cool, especially thanks to the abandoned Soviet submarines concealing the underground complex.  The recreated cities inside the place may be little more than excuses to have action scenes in major cities that are long destroyed in series canon, but they are nice settings for fights regardless.  The zombies and all the other monsters in the film may not be that menacing, but they are brought to life with some really impressive CGI, and many of them originate from the video games.  The giant Axemen/Executioners that attack Alice and Ada are particularly awesome.  The Las Plagas zombies lifted from the Resident Evil 4 game look kind of stupid though, they’re basically just skeleton warriors with the dexterity to wield machine guns and drive vehicles.

Proceed with the synchronized axe swings!

On that same note, they try way too hard to incorporate the Umbrella logo into everything.  It’s on the floor of the interrogation room, the facility’s lobby has counters rise out of the ground in the pattern of the logo, and the silliest thing, the logo appearing in the eyes of the mind-controlled Jill.  Why would they even DO something so pointless?  And the corridors of the place are way too white and sterile; they’re trying to go sci-fi on us.

Milla Jovovich may be a horrible actor, but she does look quite sexy in her skintight outfits while beating the heck out of zombies.  One particular scene where she fights off a zombie horde in a corridor is actually choreographed really well – kick this zombie in the face, flip over another zombie and toss it to the ground, grab the gun and shoot this other one in the head.  This is done without stupid camera tricks, although with blatant overuse of bullet time.  But consider that this is Resident Evil – a game series about zombies and explosions, not something that should take influence from martial arts flicks.

Never mind the sexy kicks, EVERYTHING’S SO WHITE

Aside from the expected shoot-outs between Umbrella’s forces and the protagonists, there’s a car chase where Alice crashes a car directly THROUGH a truck and keeps driving, among other blatant disregards for the laws of physics.  And there’s the final fight; one that the protagonists seemed like they wanted to avoid at the cost of several allies’ lives.  It’s the most out-of-place martial arts fight scene ever, with Jill taking out a high-tech spear and Alice countering with two. . . mini-scythe things.  Adding “bad” Rain beating up bulky men nearly twice her size and the usual overuse of bullet time results in levels of cheese that are off the scale.

There’s not a lot more I can say about this movie other than this – don’t watch it.  Don’t spend money to see this train wreck of a movie.  It might look good visually, but it’s really cheesy and doesn’t even utilize 3D all that well.  Not to mention the stupid, nonsensical plot and wooden characters that don’t sound at all excited to be in this movie.  If you can successfully ignore all that and just enjoy this for the mindless action movie it is, then you are a better man than I.  If you can’t then avoid Retribution at all costs, along with the entire Resident Evil movie series for that matter.  I know I will.

Oh man, you were almost a Jill sandwich!

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – The Longest Review Ever

It feels bad to have to apologize AGAIN for a delay, but circumstances pretty much forced me to put my reviewing aside.  I had to deal with some added responsibilities, and I was sick for most of this week to boot.  It didn’t help that this is by far my longest review to date – although warranted due to the sheer amount of things that I need to cover with this game.  I simply ask that you bear with me on this one.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a 2008 role-playing game developed by Atlus.  It is the fourth game in the Persona series, one of many offshoots of the main Shin Megami Tensei series.  Both this game and Persona 3 are arguably the most popular games in the entire SMT series: Persona 4 has received both an anime adaptation and a recently released sequel in the form of the fighting game Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena.   Persona 4 has been heavily praised in both Japan and worldwide, so let’s see if it lives up to the hype.

Persona 4 starts with the player-named protagonist moving into the small Japanese town of Inaba, to spend a year living with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his daughter, Nanako.  Not long after arriving, a series of mysterious murders start occurring in the town, which leave the police (including Ryotaro, a detective) stumped.  Meanwhile, the protagonist learns of an urban legend called the Midnight Channel – supposedly watching a switched-off TV at midnight will reveal the viewer’s soulmate.  But as the protagonist and his new schoolmates find out, the Midnight Channel doesn’t reveal one’s soulmate, it shows the murder victims prior to their killings!  And what’s more, the protagonist realizes he has the power to go through TV sets like a portal, transporting him and his classmate Yosuke to another world on the other side!

No, you have to actually fit through the screen to go in

The fog-filled world contains mysterious places and items related to the murder victims, as well as a strange bear-like inhabitant called Teddie, who informs them that he has sensed people being thrown into the other world and asks the pair to find a way to stop these events.  Besides Teddie, monsters known as Shadows inhabit the TV World, becoming notably aggressive after people are thrown in.  Initially powerless to fight the Shadows, the protagonist and each of his friends end up confronting “Shadow Selves” of themselves: Shadows formed out of their inner thoughts that wreak chaos in the TV World (the majority of those inner thoughts cover rather mature subject matter – the main reason this game is rated M).  Once they come to terms with the thoughts that gave birth to their Shadow Self, it transforms into a Persona, a manifestation of their true selves that they can commend in battle, allowing them to combat the Shadows.  The protagonist and his friends form an Investigation Team in order to find the link between the TV World and the murders, and catch the culprit behind them!

Considering all that information is just an introduction, the beginning of the game drags on for several hours before you get into your first battles and are allowed to choose your own actions.  The bulk of the game consists of the Investigation Team’s missions to save those that appear on the Midnight Channel, and thus become targets of the murderer.  The mysteries behind the TV World and the murders are revealed very slowly, leaving large sections of the game devoted entirely to character development.  Though in a game where character development directly leads to the ability to fight, it’s quite appropriate.

Following the long introduction, Persona 4 plays like a cross between a visual novel and a dungeon-crawling RPG.  Players are free to wander around Inaba after school and spend time hanging out with other characters, working at part-time jobs, completing various quests or developing their character stats (courage, expression, understanding, knowledge, diligence).  The game operates on a calendar system – players are only allowed one action after school and one action during the evening.  Certain days have pre-determined events, and sometimes the game sadistically steals an entire week from you in the form of midterm exams.

Persona 4’s small town setting really sets it apart from most modern RPGs

Each person that the player can hang out with has their own Social Link, which increases as the protagonist forms deeper bonds with them.  This of course includes all of your party members.  Some Social Links require character stats to be at certain levels before they can be started (annoyingly high requirements in some cases).  It is very important to develop Social Links, for a reason I’ll explain soon enough.

As for the dungeons, they consist of 8 to 10 maze-like floors to fight through to get to the boss, with the enemies becoming progressively tougher as the player progresses.  The floors are randomly generated, so it’s difficult to predict where the doorway to the next floor will be.  The dungeons unfortunately have only one save point in them, right before the boss.  However, there is a purchasable item that allows players to exit the dungeon at any time, and they can start off at the highest floor they reached upon returning.  A battle will start upon contacting any of the shadowy enemy avatars, but unless the player themselves initiates the fight by “attacking” the enemy with their weapon, the enemy(s) will get a preemptive strike.  I found this particular part of dungeons very frustrating, since it is almost impossible to approach the shadows without alerting them, and missing with the weapon attack almost always results in the enemy catching you off-guard.  Each dungeon has its own particular theme (most being rather out there), and manages to stand out despite every floor looking almost identical in appearance.

And your party follows you in some sort of awkward formation

The dungeon’s treasure chests are also randomized: some of them yield weapons and armor, some have SP (magic points) recovery and others have completely useless 10 HP recovery.  SP recovery is hard to come by for most of the game, unfortunately – that fact alone makes it necessary to set aside several days to finish a dungeon.  It doesn’t help that most of the dungeons have several enemies that can’t taken out with physical attacks, thus forcing you to spend SP to deal with them.

The battle system of Persona 4 seems rather simplistic at first, but holds a deceiving amount of depth, especially once you build up a full party.  With the exception of the player’s own character, the player can choose to directly command their party members in battle or just give them orders on how to fight and let them choose their own actions.  I personally didn’t bother with the orders and just controlled them directly.  The key to fighting in this game is exploiting enemy weaknesses, mostly through the elemental magic present in every RPG ever, which knocks them down and allows an additional attack.  If all the enemies are knocked down, the player can order an All-Out Attack, which deals heavy damage to every enemy.  The problem with this though, is that there’s no logical method to figure out enemy weaknesses, reducing the player to simply guessing in most cases.  And the OTHER problem is that your party members have weaknesses of their own, which the enemies can exploit for a free turn of their own.

As you develop Social Links with your fellow party members, they gain the ability to perform certain actions in battle – such as shielding the protagonist from attacks, the ability to endure killing blows and the ability to wake up knocked-down allies when they themselves knock an enemy down.  The REAL key to battle in this game is teamwork, becoming closer to your allies equals better teamwork potential.  I’d advise not to change your party members around too often unless you plan to do a lot of level grinding; being underleveled substantially increases the difficulty of fights.

Stating the obvious is a common theme in battles too

My biggest complaint about the battle system is a simple one: it’s an automatic game over if the protagonist falls.  This is REALLY annoying if you’ve progressed through half the dungeon and just ended up in a bad situation with a powerful enemy and/or got caught off-guard.  You can buy an item that lets you instantly escape from battle, assuming you can recognize when you’re in a tight spot.  The battle system’s ultimately a lot of fun, but the possibility for unfair enemy advantages is very real (thanks a lot, preemptive strikes).

Let’s finally get into the namesake of the game: Personas.  While the protagonist is a special case, every other party member has a single Persona, which possesses specific strengths and weaknesses.  With one exception, each Persona lays claim to one specific element of magic.  The protagonist starts with one Persona like his allies, but can possess up to 12 different ones – additional Personas can be earned through the “Shuffle Time” game that takes place after victories in battle.  Two or more Personas can also be fused together to create a new one in The Velvet Room: a type of dream world that exists in the protagonist’s mind.  Just for the record, no, this isn’t optional.  You’ll likely get destroyed in the first dungeon if you don’t take a timeout to fuse Personas about halfway through, and this applies for just about every subsequent dungeon too.

Fusing 3 Personas usually yields a better result than 2 as well

Fusing Personas is where all your Social Links come into play.  Each Persona and Social Link has an Arcana, such as “Magician” or “Strength”, associated with it, and developing the Social Link of a certain Arcana boosts the player’s ability to create Personas of the same Arcana.  There is a formula of sorts to fusing Personas, but it becomes very complicated when fusing more than two together.  Fused Personas can inherit up to four skills/magic from those that are combined to create them at random, but it’s rather time-consuming to get them to inherit the exact skills you want.  That aside, it’s pretty fun to experiment with fusions and see what new Personas come out of them.  The Persona Compendium expands the potential for experimentation – it allows you to register any Personas you possess and pay a fee to resummon them after they’ve been used in a fusion or discarded.  Helpful if you want to use a specific Persona in multiple fusions.

Now that all THAT’S out of the way, we can move on to the characters.  The player-named protagonist can’t really be considered a character though, as he only communicates via player-chosen speech choices.  He is essentially a player avatar (his canon name is Yu Narukami, also).

Yosuke Hanamura is the first ally to receive a Persona and participate in battle alongside Yu.  He and his family moved to Inaba 6 months prior to the start of the game, and opened the megastore Junes, which is despised by some for stealing much of the local shopping district’s business.  Yosuke himself leans towards being comic relief and establishes himself as a wannabe ladies man – but he proves to be an insightful and reliable (if sometimes hot-headed) team member.

Chie Satonaka is another classmate of the protagonist, a steak-loving tomboy who is interested in martial arts.  While very hot-headed and pushy, she shows occasional moments of insight and is gifted with physical attacks in battle.  She is very protective of her best friend Yukiko Amagi, and has no problem kicking Yosuke around when he says questionable things.

And man can she kick

Said best friend Yukiko Amagi is a very reserved girl whose family owns the Amagi Inn, a traditional Japanese inn that is the pride of Inaba and a well-regarded vacation spot.  Yukiko is set to eventually take over the inn, and is incredibly dedicated to her current job of helping out there everyday.  Perhaps too dedicated, as Yukiko can come across as rather oblivious at times despite her high intelligence.

Teddie is the lone inhabitant of the TV World, a strange being who appears as a person in a bear costume.  He is very emotional and a bit of a worry-wart, aspects of his personality that are often played for laughs along with his unfamiliarity with certain real-world concepts.  A more serious aspect of Teddie is that he himself doesn’t know what kind of being he is, which leads to major problems later on in the story.  He eventually becomes a guide during battle, remembering the strengths and weaknesses of Shadows for the player and giving advice during battle.  At the same time though, he NEVER shuts up when your party members have low health or are afflicted by a status effect.

A bit later in the game, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa and Naoto Shirogane are introduced.  Kanji Tatsumi is an infamous delinquent who allegedly beat up an entire biker gang on his own.  Rise Kujikawa is a teen idol that goes by the stage name of “Risette”.  She moves back to her hometown of Inaba after announcing that she will be taking a break from showbiz.  Naoto Shirogane is a 15-year old detective prodigy, who is sent to Inaba to assist the police with their investigation of the murder case.

Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima are also major characters in their own right.  Ryotaro is so dedicated to his police work that Nanako is often left to fend for herself.  Though the bumbling of his assistant, Tohru Adachi, is sometimes to blame as well.  He does manage to figure out parts of the mystery despite not knowing about the TV World, and eventually comes to suspect that the protagonist is involved in the murder case in some form.  Nanako is initially quite shy, but opens up to the protagonist before long.  She is mature for her age, doing most of the housework that her father isn’t around to do.

She’s absolutely adorable too

The main cast of the game has great overall chemistry, leading to some memorable and hilarious moments, and none of them are unlikable.  They also go through some further development via their Social Links.  I won’t go over the Social-Link only characters, but many of their links can be started via joining clubs at school or accepting certain part-time jobs.

Considering Persona 4 was made for the Playstation 2 system, it looks really nice.  While there’s nothing particularly impressive about Inaba itself, the dungeons are always beautifully rendered and the battles look great.  The bosses are for the most part very imaginative in design and are quite memorable, if a bit out there in the themes they personify.  Each character’s personality is clearly shown in their idle and attack animations – it’s really quite awesome.  The occasional anime cutscenes are a real treat too, especially since they’re usually saved for the most visually-appealing scenes.  I still wish there were more of them though.  The one thing I can criticize would have to be the visual novel-style headshots that pop up whenever a character speaks in-game.  They really, really need to have a wider range of expression when the difference between “normal” and “pissed-off” is very minimal.

You don’t look tired at all!

Persona 4 mostly uses J-pop songs for its music (performed in English).  The game achieves varying levels of success with its soundtrack – while I do enjoy most of the songs, some of them, particularly the dungeon themes, need longer loops to avoid being repetitive as hell.  The boss themes are not J-pop; they’re just awesome.  However, you won’t hear any of them besides “I’ll Face Myself” until pretty late in the game.

The voice acting is, for the most part, really good.  Chie sounds like she should, Teddie sounds appropriately silly and so on.  I don’t feel that Yukiko’s voice is that fitting, however.  It sounds too overly nasally and is more suited to silliness than anything serious.  While doing Social Links, the voice acting becomes just horrible, if you can even call it voice acting.  Only small snippets of dialogue are actually voiced during Social Link activities, which come off as really unneeded and awkward, especially since what they say rarely if ever matches up with the shown dialogue.  This even applies to the Social Links with major characters.  I honestly don’t see why those aren’t fully voiced, in the least.

Overall, Persona 4 is an incredibly engaging game that has sometime for everyone.  Whether you’re interested in the moderately-challenging battle system, solving the murder mystery, fusing cool creatures or watching a varied cast of characters develop before your eyes; there’s never any lack of things to do in Persona 4.  I would recommend this game to any RPG fan of any age. . . well, not really.  The mature subject matter the game covers at times doesn’t make this a game I’d recommend to anyone under 17.  And the visual novel aspects of the game on their own aren’t particularly well presented: don’t buy Persona 4 just for that.  If you happen to own a Playstation Vita, I would recommend you buy the updated version of the game – Persona 4: The Golden.  Aside from including another playable month and new Social Links, it allows the player to actually choose which skills their fused Personas inherit.

Unfortunately, Super Teddie is not a playable character

The Dark Knight Rises: Bane’s Voice and Anne Hatheway

I’ve been a huge fan of Batman in general since I was a child: I still love the 90’s animated series, the Arkham Asylum game series is great, and I used to own a ton of Batman action figures and the Batcave playset when I was little.  I also have legitimately enjoyed all the Batman films (except for Batman and Robin, obviously).  The Dark Knight Rises is the finale of the Nolan Batman trilogy, and as such I expected great things from this film.  Did Nolan, Bale and half the cast of Inception deliver?

Story

I can hardly claim to be an expert on comics, but the plot of The Dark Knight Rises was taken from 3 very well known Batman comic arcs: The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall and No Man’s Land.  Gotham has become a much more peaceful place since the events of The Dark Knight.  The Dent Act, named after the (false) fallen hero Harvey Dent, has kept the most dangerous criminals locked up in Blackgate Prison.  Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne retired the Batman persona and spent 8 years as a shut-in – never leaving the rebuilt Wayne Manor.  He is crippled in one leg from the events of the last film, but overcomes his injuries to become Batman once more upon the appearance of two villains: the mysterious cat-burglar Selina Kyle/Catwoman and the ruthless masked terrorist known as Bane.

Both Catwoman and a corrupt business mogul appear to be working with Bane’s group, who plan to bring destruction upon Gotham.  They specifically target Gotham’s rich and powerful citizens, Wayne Enterprises and Batman himself as part of their intricate plot.  While Batman pursues leads on the villain through Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon and patrol officer John Blake follow rumors on the street to Bane’s hideout.  Bane manages to stay one step ahead of them, however, and plunges Gotham into chaos. There is also one final shock near the end of the film: there is another well-known character from the Batman mythos involved with Bane’s plot.

No it is not The Riddler

While the film manages to put together an equal parts daring and well thought out plot as far as Bane’s scheme goes, they take perhaps an uncomfortable amount of liberties with his personal origins and motivations.  And at least for me, the fact that the story is a mashed-up version of three comic stories was made too obvious, while The Dark Knight managed to avoid making it obvious.  The movie also tends to drag on and on, being 3 hours and perhaps focusing too much on side characters and drawing scenes out for dramatic purposes.  What I do enjoy is the symbolism employed by the film with the word “rises” that is in the title.  Bane rises from what is called “hell on earth” to rain terror on Gotham, and like The Joker, is a chaotic and highly intelligent foe that the police cannot defeat.  Thus it falls to Batman to rise out of the ashes of retirement to combat him.  The ending is quite well done, though it doesn’t completely close every plotline – there could be a fourth movie if not for Nolan’s decision to end the film series as a trilogy.

Characters

The Bruce Wayne/Batman of The Dark Knight Rises starts out in a darker place, similar to the Bruce of Batman Begins.  This time though, it is his physical and emotional scars endured from the last film that haunt him: he not only retired Batman, but he spent 8 years as a recluse, holed up in Wayne Manor.  It is actually Selina Kyle who draws him back out, after she steals some precious items from him.  When he finds out about Bane, who the police are struggling to track down, only then does he decide to return despite his aged and battered body.

Does this look like a man who has seen daylight recently?

This decision not only leads to a huge fight with Alfred, but the realization that he now has limits he didn’t have before, and that he may have met his match in the brutal Bane.  Bruce ends up having to find new motivations and new ways to combat his foes this time around.  Some of the anger and darkness, which usually characterizes Batman, disappears whenever Catwoman is around.  Catwoman IS very different from every other character in the movie, but she is an individualist, just like Batman.

Speaking of Bane, there are some good and some bad things.  His design is terrific: he looks exactly like the chaotic terrorist he is, and appears truly menacing and brutal when he’s in control (most of the time).  They even come up with a great replacement for the somewhat gimmicky “Venom” of the comics by having Bane be in constant pain from a botched surgery: he inhales painkillers through his cool-looking gas mask constantly so he can function.  His intelligence is completely intact as well, managing to outmaneuver both the police and Batman for a long time.  Both Bane’s fighting style and methods are as brutal as you’d think.  He doesn’t just want to destroy Gotham, he wants to do so in the cruelest possible way.  Just like the comic version, Bane is a handful for anyone to take on.

Bane seems really fond of this pose for some reason

When it comes to Bane’s origin though, it is rather hit-and-miss.  He was born in a prison like his comic counterpart, growing up to be an extremely intelligent yet brutal extremist as a result.  But he appears to be of Irish/English descent, not Spanish like he should be.  I only say this because it leads into my biggest problem with Bane: his voice.  The Lizard sounds elegant compared to him and his hilarious muffled voice that I could hardly take seriously at all.  Sure the voice is loud and booming like it should be, but that doesn’t matter when you can hardly understand a thing he says.  I think he would’ve sounded a lot better with a Spanish accent as opposed to a mask. . . cent.

As mentioned before, Catwoman is very different from just about every character in the Nolan film series.  While most major characters are altered in both personality and appearance to fit the gritty realism of the Nolan universe, Selina Kyle/Catwoman is not.  She’s pretty much exactly like her comic book counterpart: sexy, impulsive and an individualist.  Selina has plenty of wit, putting in her snarky two cents even in the most stressful situations, and is not above using feminine charms to her advantage.  While she is a very likeable character, I felt that her more “comicy” personality was at odds with the gritty realistic flavor of the rest of the film, especially during the climax.  Though she did have great chemistry with the ever-gritty Batman: a requirement to play an effective Selina Kyle.

Safes are always useless in movies. Just like the police.

Commissioner Gordon spent the 8 years between The Dark Knight and this film working nonstop to clean up the streets of Gotham, and largely succeeded thanks to the Dent Act denying parole to violent criminals.  However, he never got over the events at the end of The Dark Knight, and the fact that they built up Harvey Dent as a savior after he committed horrible acts.  His insane dedication to his work also caused his wife and child to leave.  It should come as no surprise that he’s perhaps too eager to jump into action, especially considering his age.

John Blake, a relatively fresh police officer, was orphaned at a young age, like Bruce Wayne.  The feelings of anger and the emotional “mask” he uses to hide said anger are very similar to what Bruce went through.  This helps Blake to correctly deduce that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and he directly appeals to Wayne to make his return.  He is a bit hotheaded, which puts him at odds with most of his superiors, but that same trait also makes him a favorite of Gordon’s.

Alfred, who has stood by Bruce Wayne forever, is not happy to see Bruce don the Batsuit again after 8 years.  Many of his concerns are legitimate, but Bruce refuses to back down, ultimately causing Alfred to take extreme measures to stop him.  He serves as a constant reminder of Bruce’s “loss” of a life after Batman, due to Rachel Dawes’ death in The Dark Knight.  We get a deeper look into Alfred’s pain as he recounts how he spent his time during Bruce’s travels in Batman Begins, and how he wanted him to find a new life outside of Gotham, instead of returning to where he lost everything.

Visuals

Unsurprisingly, the visual style of The Dark Knight Rises is very similar to the previous Nolan Batman films.  Most of the fight scenes don’t last long, but feature plenty of action as Batman beats in thugs’ faces or Catwoman pulls off acrobatic kicks and all the sexy moves you’d expect from a chick in a skintight outfit.  When Bane is involved, the pace of the fighting tends to slow down a bit, just enough to really show off his brutal punches and slams that are meant to BREAK his opponent with every hit.

Bane proves once again that the head region is the most effective area to break

The Nolan films have always boasted some impressive overhead shots and exciting action sequences (with explosions in all the right places), but this movie in particular has a ton of them.  When Bane announces his presence to Gotham with an endless chain of explosions, you know that there’s no escape from his carefully planted web of destruction.  There’s no CGI here either: those explosions are real and actually look like the fruits of calculated labor by Bane’s group.  The overhead (and occasionally underhead) shots have a shocking amount of depth: I’m almost sad this movie wasn’t in 3D.  I also want all football games to be shot like the football sequence in this movie.  If I had to complain about something. . . I wish they still used Chicago for the Gotham City stand-in rather than Pittsburgh.

Football would be much better with explosions, admit it

Music

Like the visuals, the music of The Dark Knight Rises is quite similar to the previous films.  Hans Zimmer returns to create plenty of adreneline-pumping tracks for action scenes and booming, epic chords for dramatic moments.  Some of the tracks, though, feel like they were taken directly from the last two films.  Notably, Catwoman receives a theme/motif of her own that plays whenever she’s in action.  It consists of light string chords played at medium or fast paces depending on the situation.  It’s easy to visualize Selina creeping around or getting the jump on thugs to said theme, which is exactly what a Catwoman theme should do.  There’s also several times where Arabic chanting is weaved into the soundtrack, though it mostly is used in the movie proper as prisoners in the foreign prison that once held Bane repeatedly chant during attempted escapes.  The words they chant, “deshi deshi basara basara”, translate to “rise rise, up up”, adding yet another layer to the “rise” symbolism.

Overall

The Dark Knight Rises provides a nice conclusion to the Nolan Batman series as Bruce Wayne faces his toughest challenge yet against very effective villains.  Personally though, this was my least favorite entry in the series, due mostly to the plot blatantly mixing and matching various comic book stories together and Catwoman’s portrayal occasionally being at-odds with the feel of the movie (and Bane’s hilarious voice too).  I would probably not recommend this movie too strongly to those who are familiar with Batman’s history and mythos, due to how much they rely on pulling plot elements from the comics and the changes they make to Bane.  For more casual fans of Batman though, The Dark Knight Rises is full of action and plenty of plot twists, just like The Dark Knight.  It’s a very exciting movie that most summer movie goers will love.  But I think The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers outclass it and win the year for Marvel myself.

FLCL: A Chaotic Classic

FLCL, or Fooly Cooly, is a 6 episode Original Video Animation (OVA) anime series created by the Gainax studio in 2000.  It is well known for its insane characters and comedic sequences, as well as being one of the earlier anime series shown on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block.  FLCL is regarded as a classic, and solidified Gainax’s reputation as one of modern innovators of anime.  Not to mention I’ve watched it a ton myself.  Let’s get into it.

First Impressions

I’ve watched this series so many times that it may be hard for me to give an unbiased first impression, but I’ll attempt to anyway.  FLCL quickly introduces us to the main protagonist, 12-year old Naota Nandaba.  The story is mainly told through his eyes: setting a surreal mood for the series as his bored-sounding monologues clash with the strange reality of the happenings in the Japanese town of Mabase.  Naota already has an awkward relationship with his brother’s ex-girlfriend Mamimi and his own family, but his life takes a turn for the bizarre when Haruko Haruharu arrives on the scene.  This pink-haired beauty proceeds to smash Naota’s head in with a guitar, creating a huge mark on his forehead that ends up making an even bigger mess of Naota’s life.  And by bigger mess I mean HIS HEAD BECOMES A PORTAL FOR CRAZY SPACE ROBOTS TO COME OUT OF.  They don’t explain exactly why this happens until later episodes, so don’t expect to understand it right away.

Not shown: crazy space robots

Until then, the focus is put on Naota’s awkward adolescent problems and his attempts to act indifferent and “mature” in the face of increasingly crazy situations, mostly involving Haruko and her obsession with him.  This is interspersed with moments of insane screwball comedy and countless pop culture references, which oddly seem to fit among the surrealist nature of the series and the occasional giant robot fights.  FLCL is certainly not a plot-centric series – it works because of the insane situations and the comparatively low-key character development.  It’s mostly due to the first part, though, that keeps viewers watching.

Characters and Development

Naota Nandaba is the main protagonist of the series.  He is obsessed with being mature, and often acts cynical and indifferent.  His monologues, which occur on a frequent basis, lack emotion and describe insane happenings as if they were mundane.  He insists that “nothing exciting ever happens here (Mabase)”, despite crazy things ALWAYS happening in Mabase.  Naota hates anything that he sees as immature, from school plays to most of the adults in his life.  The behavior of his own family (consisting of his widowed father and grandfather) doesn’t help matters.  Naota tries very hard to be mature, but he usually fails when upset, not to mention how picky of an eater he is.  He idolizes his older brother, who moved to the U.S. to play professional baseball.  This seems to be the primary reason he hangs out with Mamimi, at least at first.  He develops over the course of the series, gaining confidence and figuring what maturity truly means thanks to Haruko and the chaos that follows her arrival.

Mamimi Samejima is a presumably homeless 17-year old and high school truant, Mamimi is the ex-girlfriend of Naota’s brother.  She doesn’t exactly handle his absence well:  the especially clingy girl latches onto Naota, and even calls him “Takkun”, her nickname for his brother.  Mamimi has an air of depression about her, and is prone to self-destructive activities like smoking.  She also has trouble separating reality from fiction at times, leading her further down a dangerous path.  Mamimi has an interest in photography as well: she carries around a camera and is prone to catching pictures of Naota in embarrassing situations.  The ever-changing and always-awkward relationship between her and Naota is the key thing to watch as the series progresses: it’s a good indicator of Naota’s character development.

Haruko Haruharu is a mysterious character that is usually the catalyst of the series’ insanity, and provides plenty of comedy as she teases and obsesses over Naota, much to his chagrin.  She has a secret agenda that somehow has to do with the portal on Naota’s head and the Medical Mechanica company, which has a large factory near Mabase.  She claims to be both an alien and a “Space Patrol Officer”, both of which Naota refuses to believe.  Naota, Mamimi and Haruko are the 3 most prominent characters in FLCL, with Haruko being the driving force behind most of the strange happenings in the city.

Haruko is the number one cause of guitar-related injuries

Kamon Nandaba is Naota’s perverted father: a bakery owner and writer of a self-published trashy tabloid that he sells at the store.  He is essentric and acts far more childish than Naota, to the point where Naota is the one that has to keep him in line.  Kamon is the source of a large number of pop culture references and the series’ trademark “Fooly Cooly” jokes (in Japanese the term is used to describe a fondling motion).  These are only made more effective by his motor mouth delivery.

Kanti is a Medical Mechanica robot with abilities ranging from flight to transformation and taking x-rays with its television-like head.  He ends up living with Naota’s family as a servant of sorts, and to no one’s surprise, only Naota seems to be at all concerned about the situation.  Despite being incapable of speech, Canti expresses plenty of emotion and often wanders around town aimlessly.  The people of the city pay him no mind; either they’re familiar with Medical Mechanica robots, or it is simply a case of the show’s surreal nature winning out over common sense.  Haruko passes him off as useless, but he ends up playing a big role in the plot of the series.

Did I mention he kicks ass on other robots? Because he does that.

Eri Ninamori is one of Naota’s classmates and the daughter of Mabase’s mayor.  Eri acts even more mature than Naota, and is very intelligent for her age.  She is rarely phased by anything ever, and finds rather indirect ways of channeling her frustrations with her family, keeping her feelings restrained to an unhealthy degree.  One of her emotional outlets happens to be a school play, which leads to her clashing with Naota, who views them as childish and stupid.  Despite this, she shows hints of having a crush on him.

Amarao initially appears as a mysterious foil to Haruko: he warns Naota not to get close to her in his first appearance.  His dignified way of speaking and aura of wisdom is only a mask – he is actually quite immature and engages in less than respectable behavior at times.  This makes him more comparable to Naota or Eri than any adult in the series.  Nonetheless, Amarao is a commander with the Department of Interstellar Immigration who seeks to put an end to Haruko’s plans.  Amarao’s most distinctive feature are his giant fake eyebrows, which he wears to appear more manly (he has a bit of a complex about manliness).  In sharp contrast is Amarao’s Lieutenant Kitsurubami, an attractive young woman who is the only “mature” adult in the series.

Plot Development

It is difficult to determine exactly what the “main” plot of FLCL is: Haruko’s true identity and goals, and the role that the robots coming out of Naota’s head play in them, form the biggest mysteries in the series.  At the beginning of the series, the mysterious Medical Mechanica company is introduced as a presumed antagonist.  They build a huge iron-shaped plant in Mabase, which regularly releases huge amounts of steam (this also helps the setting seem more surreal).  Their true goals and role in the series plot however, aren’t shown until practically the final episode.

There’s probably a giant ironing board somewhere too. . .

But the majority of the series is focused on character development, specifically the development of Naota, Mamimi and Eri, while the other characters and the situation with Naota’s head add in some comic relief.  Actual “plot” moments tend to be quick, only giving subtle hints as to what’s really going on.  The mysteries surrounding Haruko, the robots and Medical Mechanica are rapidly revealed later on when Amarao and the Department of Interstellar Immigration appear to combat Haruko and Kanti.

The ending is truly epic: the title of the final episode, “FLCLimax”, is very much an appropriate way to describe it.  All the hanging plot ends are brought to a close: Medical Mechanica remains as mysterious as ever despite their major part in the plot, though.  Again, it is the characters that this series cares about, not the antagonistic faceless company that advances the plot.

Art Style and Animation

FLCL’s art style beautifully fuses high-quality visuals and a more super-deformed style, often using both in the same scenes to exaggerate characters’ expressions during tense moments.  While the series in general leans towards realistic, the super-deformed style is used a lot during fast-paced comedic scenes, turning them into over-the-top chaotic action sequences.  That said, the usage of mostly subdued colors and the (possibly intentional) lack of background or facial details at dramatic turns play a large role in establishing the surreal mood of the series in general.

The most detailed animation is reserved for fight scenes, which are very well choreographed and feature some really good-looking scenes of Kanti transforming and beating the crap out of much bigger robots.  On the other hand, Haruko’s weapon of choice gives her a unique fighting style (bashing in heads with a guitar), and she’s more prone to go beyond the impossible with her evasive maneuvers, inserting a bit of comedy into many fights.

The art style is occasionally changed completely in order to parody various things, something that Gainax is fond of doing in their more comedic series.  Two scenes feature a fast-paced and very amusing “manga” art style, while another scene has Naota drawn like a South Park character in a direct parody of the show.

Music and Voice Acting

All the music in FLCL was written and performed by the Japanese rock band The Pillows, who provide a good mix of low-key tunes and loud guitar and vocal songs for fight scenes.  Their “Little Busters” song, which usually plays at the climax of each episode, could be considered the main theme of the series, along with the awesome ending theme “Ride on Shooting Star”.  Aside from fight themes, the more restrained tunes do a great job of setting a surreal mood for most of the series, and matches up with the cynical indifference displayed by Naota in most of his monologues.  Although, the fact that the music isn’t used that much and often played softly may have more to do with that.

As for the voice acting, I admit that I have a lot of bias in favor of English dub, as I’ve watched dubbed episodes of this show many, many times.  I did watch the subtitled version to give it a fair chance though.  The Japanese voices are quite good, but I would still strongly recommend the dub over it.  Haruko’s Japanese actor in-particular sounds a bit too silly for my tastes – it’s fine for comedic scenes but lacks the depth to make the more dramatic scenes believable.  On the other hand, Haruko is voiced by one of my personal favorite voice actresses, Keri Wahlgreen, in English.  She really has a nack for portraying both serious and more comedic characters like Haruko with a surprising amount of depth: she does a terrific job with Haruko.   Also, the episodes tend to move quickly, especially during comedic moments, so I find it easier to watch in English as opposed to having to read subtitles.

Overall

If you’re looking for a series with a deep plot that’ll make you think about the meaning of life and all that, you won’t find it in FLCL.  What you will find is a short, charming anime about finding the confidence to overcome adolescent difficulties and mature, mixed in with chaotic comedy and an insane, over-the-top plot involving giant robot fights and cosmic entities.  FLCL is one of the most surreal series out there, switching between super-deformed action comedy, low-key character development scenes and (mostly) realistic fights between robots tearing each other’s insides out.  It’ll make you laugh, think and possibly cry: FLCL is an infinitely entertaining series that is short enough for me to recommend MULTIPLE viewings of.  If you even slightly enjoy comedic anime, giant robots or surreal drama, FLCL is the perfect way to spend 3 hours.

The eyebrows demand it!

Update!

Yeah. . . three weeks without a post is terrible I know.  A lot of real-life stuff came up, work was really rough and my experiments with Five Hour Energy did not work out as planned.  Nonetheless, those are all the excuses I’ve got.  I’ll try to get another post out this week, but it might take until next week depending on circumstances.  I will only be making posts every two weeks from now on as well, but I plan to actually be consistent with them from now on.

The Amazing Spider-Man – No More Tobey

It’s already here, actually

I apologize for the two week wait, I had a few issues with work and the realization that, if I’m going to review a movie that I see in theaters, I have to do it the very next day or not at all.  Now you get to enjoy a review of a film that hasn’t even seen its first weekend: The Amazing Spider-Man.  Does it live up to the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire films?  We’ll see.

Story

Like the 2002 Spider-Man film, The Amazing Spider-Man is an origin story.  Peter Parker is an awkward teen that lives with his aunt and uncle, gets bitten by an enhanced super-spider, and gains his trademark powers (though they did miss the Spider Sense).  Uncle Ben is then shot and killed by a thief whom Peter could have stopped, leading him to become a vigilante.  The basic plot similarities between this film and the 2002 movie may bore some viewers, but there are more than enough differences for The Amazing Spider-Man to stand on its own.  One of Peter Parker’s biggest motivations in the movie is to find out what happened to his parents, who left him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben at a young age before departing for parts unknown.  His investigations lead him to Dr. Connors, a former college of his father’s, who reveals that the two of them were researching cross-species genetics as a way to cure illnesses and re-grow lost limbs.  Dr. Connors is still involved with cross-species genetics research under Oscorp, and is being pressured by his superior to find a cure for the unseen CEO of Oscorp, Norman Osborn.

Of course, cross-species genetics were responsible for creating the spider that gave Peter his powers, and also give birth to Spider-Man’s first nemesis and the main antagonist of the film: The Lizard.  Well, the main antagonist alongside Oscorp, which operates as your standard mysterious corporation that drives the plot along with its complete lack of business ethics.  Peter also has to deal with the police’s attempts to bring him in, which is made awkward considering the manhunt is led by Cpt. George Stacy, the father of his girlfriend Gwen.

The movie focuses mainly on Peter’s troubles and heroic exploits as Spider-Man and has very few subplots, thus allowing more time for the characters to shine (and shine they do).  The film leaves a lot of loose ends when it comes to the whereabouts of Peter’s parents and the future role of Oscorp, but ultimately leaves plenty of material for potential sequel films to cover, and creates some buzz for the next one with a post-credits scene.  Marvel movies in general have gotten really good at the whole hype-creating thing.

Characters

Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who I think pulls off the role much better than Tobey Maguire did.  Garfield actually looks and acts like an awkward outcast, as opposed to Maguire’s Hollywood nerd character.  Peter’s troubled past and high intelligence play major roles in the story too; both were ignored in the 2002 film.  He doesn’t become a wise cracking vigilante right away either – he actively hunts the criminal that killed Uncle Ben and pushes his aunt away in the process.  The parts where he does wise crack behind the mask are short, but quite amusing nonetheless.  I actually would’ve liked to see more of that. . . maybe in the sequel.  Peter’s development from a troubled and angry teen into a true hero really shows as he earns the respect of the people around him: he doesn’t just take Uncle Ben’s advice and develop fully right then and there.  The difference in personality that Peter displays behind the mask as opposed to his normal behavior is also displayed quite nicely.

Dr. Connors’ motivations are known right from the start: he wants to help sick and disabled people through his cross-species genetics research, including himself (he has one arm).  He feels that everyone should be able to benefit from his breakthroughs (which Peter helped him achieve).  These desires end up causing huge problems for Connors and Spider-Man, when his superiors at Oscorp push the normally ethical scientist to extreme measures.  Connors is ultimately a flawed character that both Peter and the viewers sympathize with, even as his actions become more and more extreme.

Gwen Stacy, not Mary Jane, was Peter Parker’s first love in the comics, and correctly appears in this movie.  Even though Peter is a shy outcast and Gwen is extroverted and (presumably) popular, they end up getting together thanks to the bond of science and the age-old “opposites attract” theory.  Emma Stone plays Gwen as a peppy and somewhat stubborn girl, who insists on staying with Peter and helping him out even after learning of his alter ego (while somehow avoiding damsel in distress status).  Though the vast differences between the two lead to some. . . interesting exchanges of dialogue.

And by interesting I mean hilariously awkward.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May are essentially Peter’s parents, and act as such; worrying about Peter’s increasingly angry behavior and embarrassing him in front of Gwen.  Uncle Ben (played wonderfully by Martin Sheen) in particular establishes himself as a witty yet hard-working blue collar man, who only wants Peter to be happy.  When Ben meets his tragic end, it’s quite jarring, even though most viewers know its coming.  Almost all of the major characters are affected by his death as well, even the SCHOOL BULLY that torments Peter.  Aunt May, who originally stood up for Peter when Ben scolded him, ended up scolding Peter herself when the former’s behavior turned cold.

Police Captain George Stacy leads the manhunt for Spider-Man, assuming the role of the authority figure that opposes the web-slinger’s vigilante activities.  He and the police pose a much bigger threat to Spider-Man than J. Jonah Jameson and his negative PR did in the first film: they are far more competent than most superhero movie cops.  He has a strong sense of justice, and thus is easily irritated when Peter defends Spider-Man’s actions over dinner with the Stacy family.

Flash Thompson, the jock that constantly bullies Peter at school, does more than simply fill the role of stereotypical school bully.  While he does beat on Peter and some others, he starts to show humility after being stood up to and embarrassed by a super-powered Parker.  He stops bullying Peter completely after Uncle Ben’s death, sympathizing with him, and eventually even befriending him.  His hero worship of Spider-Man is touched on as well.  This is probably the first time I’ve wanted a school bully type to actually recur in a series.

Visuals

The previous series of Spider-Man films (and many of the more recent Marvel comics films) have all boasted impressive visuals and fight scenes, and The Amazing Spider-Man is no different.  Overhead shots of the city, particularly those featuring Oscorp Tower, stand out among billions of similar shots in other films.  The stunts and fight scenes are pulled off with more realism than in the previous Spidey films.  Spider-Man actually looks like he’s swinging from building to building as opposed to gliding through the air with a rope, and the fight scenes involve no shaky camera tricks, only Spidey flipping off walls onto guys’ shoulders and tossing them down with his legs.

Maximum Spider!

The Lizard is brought to life with a combination of stunt doubles, CGI and motion capture, with the final product being genuinely intimidating and slightly creepy with the human-like scaly head attached to a 10-foot tall monster body.  He smashes things and tries to break Spidey’s arms as you’d expect, but he also talks: personally I’d rather he look more lizard-like as far as the head goes.  The Lizard’s going to look silly either way when he’s taunting Spider-Man with his booming voice.  This movie manages to make good use of 3D, focusing on Spider-Man’s web slinging and swinging and taking advantage of The Lizard’s huge size and large pieces of debris.  At the same time, they’re smart enough to keep it out of the way during character moments.  This movie was actually shot for 3D unlike many of its brethren, resulting in a much cleaner product.

The last thing you want to see outside your window

Music

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about the soundtrack of the movie: it recalls the music other Marvel films like The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers with its dramatic crescendos at “epic” moments and its quiet background chords during dialogue.  The music certainly is not a huge factor in the film, especially during extended character scenes where it’s absent altogether.  The 2002 film actually eclipses Amazing Spider-Man in this regard. . . the original had to win SOMETHING, right?

Overall

The Amazing Spider-Man looks and feels like your usual summer superhero movie, but is more realistic with its visuals and its characters.  Nothing feels bland in this film, despite the plot being very simplistic and Spider-Man’s origin treading the same ground as the 2002 version at times.  It is quite similar to The Avengers in that it actually feels like a comic book movie, with The Avengers focusing a bit more on the humor aspect of comic stories.  Spidey comics were always a bit more serious than others, along with the X-Men, so it makes sense for Peter Parker’s character development to be at the forefront.  This is by far the best Spider-Man movie yet – I would recommend it to any movie lover of any age.

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend – Fighting with Style

I’ve always been a big fan of fighting games, and I just recently picked up the Blazblue series. Blazblue is considered the spiritual successor to the Guilty Gear series of fighting games, which were made by the same developer: Arc System Works.  Extend is the third expansion of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, which added one new characters and new game modes.  The developers could be accused of being money grubbers if you look at the first expansion, which required players to pay extra for DLC characters, more colors for characters and the “Unlimited” versions of the characters.  With Extend, these along with a huge amount of artwork and sound options, are unlockable in the Gallery.  Players earn points for the Gallery by playing through Arcade, Story and all the other modes, rewarding players for continued play instead of rewarding those who are willing to shell out extra money.

The character select screen with new character Relius Clover selected.

Like Guilty Gear, Blazblue is renowned for its diverse and colorful cast of characters.  Ragna the Bloodedge is the main protagonist, who wields the Azure Grimoire and is a bit of a hothead.  Jin Kisaragi is a major with the Novus Orbis Librarium (NOL) who wants to kill Ragna.  Noel Vermillion is a timid NOL officer who finds herself a target for the game’s antagonist.  Rachel Alucard is a vampire who is much older than she looks, and tries to steer the heroes of the story in the right directions.  Taokaka is a carefree and childish catgirl of the Kaka Clan, who’s obsessed with food and not very bright.  Carl Clover is a child vigilante who believes his Nox Nyctores, Nirvana, to be his sister.  Arakune is a man that was transformed into a slimy monster after a reckless experiment went awry.  Litchi Faye-Ling is a beautiful woman who runs a medical clinic in Kagusuchi’s Orient Town, and seeks a way to reverse Arakune’s transformation.  Iron Tager, also known as the Red Devil, is a robotic agent of Sector Seven’s Kokonoe, a scientist who transformed the formally human Tager into a robot when he was on the brink of death.  Bang Shishigami is a hot-headed and somewhat dense ninja who (loudly) claims to fight for love and justice.  Lambda-11 is another creation of Kokonoe, who she utilizes as another agent.  Hakumen is a mysterious warrior who follows his own idea of justice: he is one of the Six Heroes as well.

Hazama is a captain in the NOL, a man whose cool and calm behavior masks something darker.  Tsubaki Yayoi is a First Lieutenant in the NOL and Noel’s friend and former roommate, who is ordered to execute an assassination in Kagusuchi.   Makoto Nanaya is an NOL officer who reports to Hazama.  She is part of the beastkin race, and a friend of Noel and Tsubaki.  Valkenhayn R. Hellsing is Rachel Alucard’s aged butler who is part-werewolf.  Platinum the Trinity is a young girl whose body contains the consciousness of 3 individuals, one of which is in fact male.  Relius Clover is the newest playable character: Carl’s father and a polite yet cold-hearted scientist with the NOL.  Mu-12 is the embodiment of Kusanagi, whose only purpose is to destroy.

The characters’ playstyles are as varied as their personalities, each possessing a unique set of moves that are controlled with the “drive” input.  The drive input allows Carl to control Nirvana, Hazama to extend his chains around the field and for Rachel to exert her control over the wind.  This really simplifies the process of learning each character, making them easier to learn than one would think.  Players with any sort of familiarity with fighting games such as Street Fighter should have no problems hitting the correct inputs and advancing to an intermediate level of play.  The only control-related issue I ran into was with Carl.  In order to attack with Nirvana, you have to release the drive button and immediately put in another command with it.  I had a difficult time coordinating attacks between Carl himself and Nirvana as a result.  His father Relius has a similar weapon in Ignis, and he does a much better job of controlling it.  When it comes to high-level play, intimate understanding of the barrier and other defensive options are vital, and of course, knowledge of combos.  The fruits of working on such combos are easily seen in high-level matches, with players pulling off longer and more impressive combos on each other.  The game maintains a tight balance between offense and defense, with a wide variety of defensive options weighed against punishing players who run away too often.  Thus matches boast endless action and reward the truly skilled.  The super attacks, or Astral Heats, are also incredibly satisfying to land.

Relius attacks Ragna using Ignis. I did find him quite a lot of fun to play as.

This is not to say that you won’t run into some problems here or there.  I did every playthrough of Arcade and the Story mode on easy, but I still had some problems defeating certain opponents.  Arcade’s final boss found a way to be very tough even on easy.  They probably could have toned down his AI a bit.  Also, when first encountering the “Unlimited” versions of characters, newer players can be confused by their purposefully overpowered moveset changes and end up losing many times.

The Story picks up where Blazblue: Calamity Trigger left off, several days after Ragna the Bloodedge reportedly raided the Novus Orbis Librarium branch in the 13^th Hierarchical City “Kagutsuchi”.  As Ragna lies in wait, both old and new characters descend on Kagutsuchi in pursuit of their own goals.  What few of these warriors know is that the plans of a mysterious, evil being have already been set in motion: plans that will cover Kagutsuchi in darkness and threaten the entire world’s existence.  The game’s story is told in a visual novel format: each character having a brief storyline of their own.  Each storyline veers in a different path than the last, but they often intersect.  Some questions are answered, while others are left for the next installment.  Thankfully, Blazblue’s story doesn’t take that long to play through, unlike most visual novels.

While Blazblue’s story stands head and shoulders above that of pretty much any fighting game out there, there are plenty of clichés involved.  The legendary Six Heroes, who saved the world from being consumed 100 years prior, end up playing vital roles in the current story, and were not quite as “heroic” as they have been made out to be.  Nox Nyctores, powerful weapons that many playable characters possess, are known for having negative effects on the wielder’s psyche and senses over extended periods of use.  Said weapons directly influence many characters’ motivations and behavior patterns (most notably Jin Kisaragi’s).  Blazblue also loves time travel.  Both this game and Blazblue: Calamity Trigger deal with continuous time loops, and characters such as Rachel Alucard directly tamper with time: putting characters into “continuum shifts” they do not belong in.  Finally, the theme of tampering with things that should not be tampered with is used a lot in the storyline.  The character of Arakune is a monster, a living example of the dangers of tampering with The Boundry.  Despite the use of these cliches, Blazblue manages to have a deep and somewhat compelling story that can keep players hooked.  This is mostly thanks to the game’s varied and interesting cast of characters that drive the plot along, and the extra story segments that give players a bit more information about the Blazblue universe.

Yes Relius again. He makes everyone uncomfortable.

Extend boasts an extensive amount of game modes to keep players interested.  Aside from Arcade and Story, there is Tutorial mode: a series of exercises designed to teach new players about the game.  These very in-depth lessons are narrated by Rachel Alucard, and delve into general fighting game strategies as well as advanced techniques and individual character playstyles.  This does a very good job of getting newcomers up to speed regardless of how many fighters they’ve played before.  At the very beginning of the Tutorial, players are urged to use the “Stylish Layout” if they’re completely new to fighters.  This simplifies the inputs and allows players to easily execute combos, making the game accessible to players of all skill levels.  The other modes include standards like Score Attack alongside Unlimited Mars, which is only for more advanced players.  The Abyss mode is also a lot of fun, making characters’ attributes customizable as players make their way towards the final fight.  One thing I didn’t like is how some parts of Arcade and Story mode were left unchanged.  Some characters were kind of shoehorned into their final Arcade fight, having the same opponent as Ragna and company when it would have been more fitting for another Unlimited character to be their last fight.  As for Story, it felt awkward when fights against newer characters such as Relius were not added into older characters’ stories (Carl does not fight his father in his mode, but does fight Litchi).

The game looks and plays very smoothly.  The backgrounds are detailed and the character models have obviously had a lot of care put into them by a skilled team of artists.  It’s tough to not love the over-the-top Astral Heat animations too.  This is an anime-styled game, however, so some people might be turned off by the character designs (or the images and themes that push the game’s T rating).  The game’s story and arcade modes are fully voiced, and the actors do an amazing job of bringing the characters to life.  In the new story mode additions however, some of the actors have been changed.  Bang Shishigami in particular got a new and far less impressive actor.  And there are some moments where the audio messes up: either the characters say something different from the subtitles or say several lines in Japanese when their voice has been set to English.  Blazblue, like Guilty Gear, has amazing battle music that really hypes up matches, including many themes that play for matchups between certain related characters.  Some of the Story Mode tunes aren’t as memorable, but they’re still very high-quality songs.

The game can be tough at times and there are a few small issues, but Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is an immensely fun game that I highly recommend to fighting game fans, as long as they aren’t completely turned off by anime or visual novel-style games.

And then a magical girl gets Squirrel Punched.

Soul Eater – Tim Burton does Anime

Soul Eater is a 51 episode shonen anime from the animation studio Bones, released in 2008.  It is adapted from the 2003 manga series of the same name by Atsushi Ōkubo, which is still ongoing.  This unfortunately means that the anime suffers from some Adaptation Decay, which becomes very apparent in the later episodes.  But this series has an interesting look to it and has become quite popular in its own right, so let’s get into my first anime review.

First Impressions

The first few episodes give a very, very brief background on the concept of the series that can leave first-time viewers a bit lost at first.  The main protagonists are some of the many students that attend the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), a training facility and school for humans that can take the form of magical weapons (referred to as Weapons; so original I know) and their wielders, who are called “Meisters”.  Once a Meister and a Weapon team up, they must capture the souls of 99 demonic entities and the soul of a powerful Witch.  These souls are needed to transform a Weapon into a Death Scythe, a personal weapon for Lord Death himself, who actually runs the DWMA.

Unfortunately, Soul Eater starts off on the wrong foot with the first few episodes, dedicating a full episode to each of the 3 main protagonists: Maka Albarn, Black Star, and Death the Kid.  The first episode, which introduces Maka Albarn and her Weapon, Soul Eater, seems very stretched out.  The major events of the episode could be covered in half the time, and it also tells us next to nothing about Maka’s history and day-to-day interactions with Soul.  What it does manage to establish is that Maka’s father, Spirit, is Lord Death’s current Death Scythe, and is separated from Maka’s mom.  He also has a reputation as a womanizer, something Maka despises him for.  For an episode that is supposed to focus on Maka, it devotes plenty of time to showing Spirit dramatically crying and screaming over Maka’s dislike of him (played for laughs of course).  This complicated daughter-father relationship should have been saved for a later episode, in my opinion.

Black Star and Death the Kid do have very obvious quirks to introduce the audience to, but Black Star’s giant ego and Kid’s obsession with symmetry grow irritating when each has an entire episode devoted to them.  Black Star in particular comes off as incredibly annoying (due to his ego being THE focus of his episode), though he does grow more interesting over time.  Kid’s entire deal with symmetry is a rather sensitive quirk that is not fit to be used as often as it is in his first appearance.  I’d say that while the first episodes establish an interesting feel for the series and are animated very nicely, they ultimately fail to make the plot or characters look all that interesting.  When a show starts as slow as Soul Eater does, it’s hard to make the audience stick around for the story to pick up.

Characters and Development

Maka and Soul seem to be the de facto main pairing of Weapon and Meister in Soul Eater.  At her core, Maka is a rather sweet girl who is dedicated to Soul and matching her mother’s accomplishment of creating a Death Scythe.  But she also has a tsundere streak, which shows itself when Soul gets into trouble or when her father is around.  Maka is quite an emotional character in general, despite her efforts to stay calm.  Soul on the other hand generally stays cool and collected, but is no less dedicated to his partner.  He often comments on whether or not things are cool and reminds himself to keep his cool in every situation, which hints that his “coolness” is a façade of sorts.  Especially considering he’s close friends with Black Star and is capable of matching his energy and impulsiveness.  Maka and Soul are not that interesting on their own, but their relationship is put at the forefront of the series and is repeatedly tested: it’s interesting to see how the pair reacts to certain plot developments.

Apparently scythes are illogical as weapons in reality.

Black Star’s insane ego can get annoying sometimes, but it also allows him to pull off impressive moves when he gets motivated.  While maybe just a little delusional with his stated goal of surpassing the gods, his dedication and sheer willpower are unrivaled.  Black Star can shut out anything that’s unimportant, and focus only on his own (and Tsubaki’s) fights.  Despite his constant boasting, Black Star won’t allow himself to be greedy or dishonest: he’s not really a bad guy all things considered, putting a lot of trust in his partner and friends.  Tsubaki is the one sane man of the main protagonists: a self-less young woman who is the only person capable of handling Black Star’s tremendous ego.  Normally very reserved, she becomes very forceful in battle when teamed up with Black Star.

Kid’s neurotic behavior in many ways parodies typical shonen protagonists that look “cool” all the time, as he desperately tries to be cool, collected and perfectly symmetrical in all situations.  Which he is most of the time, but his perfectionist nature always manages to get in the way in some fashion.  His weapons often get caught in the middle of his neurotic breakdowns, and have to frantically lure him out of his stupor or continue the fight for themselves.  Liz is by far the most amusing of the pair, with her emotional disposition often being played for laughs when she tries to keep Kid on-track.  This is the complete opposite of Patty, who is a stereotypical clueless scatterbrain who Liz ALSO has to constantly keep on-track.  Kid and Black Star have a mutual respect for each other as characters who always want to look as badass as possible.  Though Kid does tend to get frustrated with the latter’s impulsiveness (and personal hygiene).

Lord Death himself, the founder of DWMA, is Kid’s father (shocking I know) and a fairly comedic character despite his role as the school’s headmaster.  His non-threatening appearance and personality, however, serve as a mask for his true plans and motivations.  Lord Death’s tendency to keep others in the dark, including his own son and DWMA staff, leads to plenty of mystery and conflict to keep viewers interested.  Plus he makes a great comedic foil to more serious characters like his current Death Scythe, Spirit.

The witch Medusa is one of the major antagonists, and she is quite effective in that role.  She has a snake motif in her appearance and powers, as well as her personality.  She is sly and manipulative, and takes care to never show fear to anyone.  Unlike many shounen anime villains, Medusa doesn’t shy away from fighting directly, often putting herself in harms’ way to accomplish her goals.  Other witches fear Medusa, thinking that her relentless pursuit of her goals puts them at risk to be exterminated by the DWMA (There seems to be a witch organization of sorts that governs their actions, but very little is made of this).  Another thing that sets Medusa apart from the typical villain is her pure fighting prowess.  While she is still quite strong, she cannot overwhelm every single character in the series, nor does she run from battle without accomplishing her goals.  It is Medusa’s manipulative nature and her ability to alter her plans on the fly that are her greatest assets, not her power.

The appropriately-named Franken Stein was DWMA’s greatest meister, and Spirit’s first partner.  He is a rather mysterious character who calmly helps the meisters and weapons get stronger, but struggles with his own demons behind closed doors.  The madness of his past comes back to haunt him, however, thanks mostly to Medusa.  The theme of madness, which comes up often in Soul Eater, and certain artistic motifs serve to link Stein to the villain.

Crona is an enigma: a character whose GENDER is not revealed to the viewers (though I think Crona’s male).  Crona behaves quite erratically and has a relationship with his weapon that is questionable at best.  He/she is quite fond of the phrase “I don’t know how to interact with ____”, which is proven to be more than a catchphrase when his incredibly depressing backstory is covered.

Excalibur kind of exists in his own vacuum, creating hilarious situations and driving others to wits end whenever he appears.  Most of the time Excalibur is restricted to comic relief episodes that feature him, a wise decision for such a deliberately irritating character.  Though at times the episodes seem to be trying too hard with Excalibur’s over-the-top stories that parody specific genres or films.

“Fool! My legend begins in the 12th century!”

There are plenty of other characters introduced later on, adding plenty of uniqueness to the cast without expanding it beyond the viewers’ ability to keep track of them all.

Plot Development

It is eventually revealed that the monsters that the Miesters hunt were former humans who lost their humanity after they began devouring human souls.  If they are not killed, they will eventually transform into a Kishin, an extremely powerful demon god who threatens the stability of the entire world.  Medusa, the series’ most active antagonist, seeks to reawaken the first and most powerful Kishin of them all.

While it’s true that the first few episodes drag along without revealing all that much about the Soul Eater universe, the story develops quite quickly afterwards.  Battles are rarely dragged out, and all the major characters get their time in the spotlight.  The villains’ plans are put into action without an obscene amount of build-up, and said plans actually SUCCEED much of the time, a shocking development from a shonen anime series.  Rarely is there a lack of action or plot development to be found in Soul Eater.

There’s certainly plenty of comedy in the series between the eccentric personalities of Kid and Black Star, Maka’s relationship with her father and general randomness.  Beyond the first few episodes, the comedy is presented in bursts and kept fresh, and the show is quite good at switching from comedy to seriousness and back again.

While many shonen series either shy away from more mature issues or ignore them in favor of fanservice, Soul Eater does neither.  Sexual themes, madness, child abuse, attempted suicide and plenty of disturbing images. . . all key parts of Soul Eater’s narrative.  Madness in particular plays a large role in the story, serving as the basis of the villains’ schemes and affecting the majority of the main characters in some fashion.  Especially after a certain powerful antagonist shows its face.

Unfortunately, the series’ quick pace turns into a negative later on as the story rushes to the finish, bringing up many plot points and dropping each one within minutes.  This is part of the Adaptation Decay that the series suffers for the last 10 episodes or so, as the manga the series was based off of is still running.  It doesn’t help that most of those 10 episodes embrace the shonen plot elements that the series previously avoided (or parodied) for the most part.  Personally, I would have preferred it if the series simply didn’t have an ending, and just left the door open to be continued with a second season.

Art Style and Animation

Soul Eater’s art style is probably the best thing about the series, and certainly its most unique feature.  The series was designed with darker American animation in mind, and thus ends up giving the environments and characters a very gothic influence.  The backgrounds and scenery shots are very well-done, drawn in a greatly realistic style despite the otherworldliness of the series in general.  That is excluding the sun and moon, which, amusingly, sport goofy faces and a wide grin.  The nighttime scenes and the darker environments are reminiscent of some older 90s cartoons, such as Batman: The Animated Series, that used black canvas as a base for their backgrounds.  Soul Eater also utilizes the classic gothic horror technique of off-balance camera angles, adding to the darker atmosphere.

Against the realistic scenery, the off-the-wall character designs really stand out, both during fights and when just standing around.  The humanoid characters are slim, and most of them incorporate white, gray and/or black into their designs, closely resembling the art style of The Nightmare Before Christmas and basically any animated movie Tim Burton has worked on.  Every character has very distinctive features to set them apart from everyone else, from Maka’s huge black coat to the huge bolt in Stein’s head to Excalibur’s. . . Excalibur-ness.  The only real flaw of Soul Eater’s art style is the fact that some of the full-featured females, mostly Liz Thompson and the walking fanservice machine Blair, are occasionally drawn disproportionate in an exaggeration of the slim character designs.  Even the minor villains that are killed in their first appearance look quite awesome, resembling over-the-top Tim Burton movie villains like Oogie Boogie and Beetlejuice in both appearance and hammy personalities.

Like this guy.

Out of all the settings in the series, Stein’s laboratory is one of strangest.  It’s a mismash of cartoonish mad scientist items, Frankenstein-like stitches holding everything together and black vectors pointing in every direction.  All this perfectly represents Stein’s inner turmoil, and even serves to connect him to a certain snake-themed villain.  Medusa utilizes black vectors in the vast majority of her attacks and, as their art-based connection suggests, shows a rather creepy-sexy interest in the scientist.  The resourceful ways Medusa uses her vectors in battle makes her one of the most exciting characters to see in battle as well.

Just a little creepy.

The other most interesting character to watch in battle is Maka, though Black Star and Kid are certainly not without their awesome moments.  She swings Soul (a scythe weapon) around expertly, and even uses him as a source of momentum to put more force into her punches and kicks.  Maka doesn’t simply rely on Soul’s blade to get the job done, flipping around like an acrobat and contorting her thin frame to dodge attacks and counter from different angles.  Her flexibility and in-your-face style of fighting is a huge departure from main characters in most shonen series, not relying on power alone to beat everyone up.

Soul Eater places importance not only on the souls of monsters and humans, but on the souls of meisters and their weapons as well.  The size of one’s soul (which can only be seen by Maka or other skilled meisters) represents the power of the individual, and the “soul resonance” technique allows meisters and weapons to combine their souls to unlock greater powers.  When matters of the soul are discussed, short illustrations are often used to literally show the viewers how that kind of stuff works.  Most of the concepts aren’t that difficult to grasp, but the unique visualizations of the souls themselves (which resemble their owners) and the sometimes comical ways the concepts are explained are definitely worth seeing.

Sound and Other Factors

The music isn’t really much to remember, a bit disappointing since it could add a lot to the overall feel of the series.  The villain and madness-oriented motifs set an appropriate mood despite this, as do most of the comedic tunes.  What is somewhat annoying is how songs that feature hip-hop vocals tend to pop up at tense moments, getting in the way of the scenes’ emotion.  The most recognizable songs are Excalibur’s theme (one of few genuinely great songs in the series) and a jazz tune with incredibly horrible vocals that I suspect may have been intentionally bad.  The series’ 2 opening themes and 3 ending themes are of high quality though.  The Japanese voice acting is quite impressive, with each character’s voice being very distinct and immediately recognizable.  Maka’s actor can produce an impressive scream with Maka’s normally sickeningly cute voice, and Kid’s actor can effortlessly portray him as both the coolest guy ever and a babbling idiot when his neurotic nature kicks in.  Even Black Star’s enthusiastic voice (Yahooooo!!) is quite infectious.  Medusa in particular has an impressive voice that can switch from friendly to chaotic and evil in a flash.  This is without mentioning the comedic performances of Lord Death and Excalibur, or the terrific portrayals of Crona and Stein.  I would highly recommend to stay away from the English dub of the series though: many of the characters are miscast and show a complete lack of emotion in their acting to boot.

Overall

Soul Eater seems to have found a balance between comedy and serious drama, and rarely steps over itself to include either.  Surprising considering how often Black Star and Kid are over-the-top.  The series strays away from the stereotypes that bind most shonen anime and does its own thing, both with the art style and the mature themes woven into its plot.  Soul Eater is ultimately a very enjoyable and action-packed series that is nearly ruined in the last 10 episodes where the plot takes a huge turn away from its source material, and it’s forgettable and sometimes flat-out horrible soundtrack.  But it survives these flaws in the end: I would highly recommend this series to general action fans and fans of darker American animation alike.

If you don’t watch it, Stein will find you.