Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko: A Consummate Example of 80's Animated Bliss

Good god. Talk about combining everything I love about 80's anime into one beautifully animated amalgamation of feminine aesthetics, sword & sorcery, giant robots, and a dash of classical piano complemented with J-pop. Damn shame that Righstuf released a dubbed VHS at one point and probably doesn't own the rights anymore. Thankfully a phenomenal rip exists of what I gather is a now terribly out of print--and sumptuously priced--Region 2 DVD. Big surprise there, of course. I guess one can hope in their most outlandish otaku dreams that such a thing can get localized at some point. I'm sure Righstuf is just waiting for the right moment to surprise the .04% of classic anime and release a fairly obscure OVA to the public, right? Hopefully I can commission an internet buddy to make me a poster of it and further whet my insatiable desire for even more posters and figures and all that materialistic hogwash that I need.

But yeah: teenage girl stuck in an alternate fantasy dimension. Talking dogs. Robots. Magic and shit. It's perfect. Do yourself a favor and download it here: http://bakabt.me/149936-genmu-senki-leda-h264-remastered-a-fanrips.html

MY BRAIN

I need to watch all of Maison Ikkoku. I also need to watch all of Urusei Yatsura. I guess I should give Inuyasha a chance if I love Takahashi so much. That's like 300+ episodes and nigh on a hundred TPB mangas. I need to read some William Gibson and some Robert A. Heinlein. Better throw in Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft's entire library as well. Not enough time in the goddamn world. Not enough fuckin' time. Trying to catch up on Bradbury as well, then follow up with some Asimov. Never finished The Black Company; fool's move, there. Need to watch all the seasons of Space Battleship Yamato. Too overwhelmed to start Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Why the hell haven't I watched all of Galaxy Express 999? Could be watching/reading/playing shit, but nah, guess I'll update this garbage blog. Everything is out of print. Fuck VIZ. This day has been wasted; only one episode of Victory Gundam down--and a half episode, at that. Waste of a day. I should be reading Harlan Ellison short stories and getting all cynical and hateful at my own lethargic nonsense. Guess I'll just drink coffee and think about all the great things I should be indulging, consuming. Need to go back in time; change some things--oh, hey Regret. Bloody hell. Need to read everything Tezuka wrote. Swallowing the Earth is getting a 2nd printing and I'm ecstatic; Message to Adolf as well. Barbara is also getting translated. Please, please localize Marvelous Melmo or The Amazing Three and everything else as well! Vertical is doing an outstanding job and creating quite the catalog. Drawn & Quarterly is doing alright themselves; I really wish they'd chill out with the indie garbage and focus on classics a bit more, though. Today I will finish Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. I think about the loss of classic Gainax far too often. What a forlorn company.

Esoterics, wine...graduate to whiskey. STARE AT THE CAT on the bed. Nebelung. This is a rare breed. This is the best goddamn cat you've ever seen. He knows what he wants, but it doesn't stop there, fool. Stay loyal till the day I die, and will watch anime with me. Can't buy that at the fuckin' market. Listen to late 80's jpop...maybe transcend into some 90's shit. Watching a bunch of "Oh, My Goddess" OVA; get real fuckin' depressed. Realize that harem anime is the only thing that you need...but that's a lie, especially since the aforementioned isn't such a sub-genre. GET fuckin' pissed. Live off of sandwiches and shit for years--oh, you saw that? Get over it; it's godly, at best. Get a fuckin' Mai Shiranui figure in the mail? 11"? Oh, but half the goddamn head fell off? You can rot off, bitches; this isn't some fuckin' fairy tale. Toei's mascot's film is mediocre.

Amalgamation

Was bored and got drunk and watched Lupin the Third: Crisis in Tokyo (Or Tokyo Crisis, as the film pronounced). Film was awesome, but I couldn't help noticing at the end that a random van in the street had the Helloween band name/logo on it. Then I realized how great life was. 80's power metal is the greatest. Life is okay.

Catching Up With Adventure Games

I don't know what the fuck I was doing when adventure games were at their peak. I was dicking around and already gaming during the glory days of companies like LucasArts and Sierra On-Line, but for some damned reason I never had the chance. I have fond memories of playing Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on DOS in elementary school, as well as some distinct memories of, er...attempting to play Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis at a friend's house, but for some reason I just never got into them at the time. I've done some serious thinking, and I think I've reached the conclusion why: I never owned a fucking computer at the time. This is only partially true, I guess. When my family first got a computer, RTS and FPS games were in full force, and obviously being at an impressionable young age such games were quite overbearing. Certainly I do not regret my game choices at the time, for I have some of the fondest memories of playing fantastic games like Doom 1/2, Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad, Blood, Blake Stone, etc, but I still feel as if I missed out for not experiencing the immense catalog of games at the pinnacle of the genre.

Obviously I've tried to reconcile with my foolish past of being an unfledged gamer with wanton materialism, primarily thanks to eBay. Consequently, most of my gaming purchases the last few months were solely adventure games, because I'm pissed off and have a shitload of catching up to do. Certainly the most impressive purchase was Snatcher (see my post on that below), but I'm also absolutely ecstatic to finally own The Secret of Monkey Island, as well as three of the sequels that follow. I need to get off my ass and play all the crap I bought (instead of writing), but I sadly haven't had the time; or, at the least the time I want to devote to the games. Currently playing through the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and absolutely loving it, as well as LucasArts' Full Throttle. I've been kinda slacking on the latter, but what I have played is superb, although I imagine it will be hard to top Schafer's extraordinary Grim Fandango. I think I'm most excited for The Last Express, mainly because of the exalting review on Hardcoregaming101.com and my love for animation. Sigh...I should be beating Snatcher right now. I would have been done with it if my goddamn cat didn't eat my Sega Genesis AV cord, but thankfully a new one just came in the mail. Shit.

I have been wasting my life with sleep. I should start doing meth.

Get drunk; write about bullshit. (A drunken love-letter to Valkyria Chronicles)

Fairly intoxicated. Such an event usually requires thorough analysis of relevant obsessions that I indulge in. Around tax season this year I finally decided to buy a Playstation 3, with my sights centered on a select few games, with those being: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (1 & 2, respectively), Heavy Rain, Demons' Souls, The Lost Guardian (still awaiting it's TBA release), and Valkyria Chronicles. To be honest, I don't know why I wanted a PS3 in the first place. I followed Heavy Rain from it's conception, birth, and finally it's release, but have thus played it. I've now aptly name it Shenmue 3 (unofficial edition), and while it still piques my interest, my desire to play it is fairly antiquated at this point for a number of reasons (I will play it; other games are a more pressing matter).

I could write about the other games, but since that last paragraph the alcohol is fairly stabilized in my system. I'd rather Eidos to keep making Tomb Raider games than play the macho Uncharted. Demons' Souls is a welcome third-person throwback to the hardcore days of the now obsolete dungeon-crawler like Wizardry, Ultima and even Phantasy Star, but I'm fairly pissed at that game at the moment--but for good reasons! The Lost Guardian I'm still fairly ecstatic for, but I consistently lose interest with the elapse of time. I still need to fucking play Ico. Something tells me Diablo III will be out by that time (doubt it), and any time that is considered luxurious will be spent probably playing Blizzard's latest abomination to an already stale catalog of repugnant 3D graphic accelerated games that accustom the market of Wal-mart DELL desktop users. Every Blizzard game looks like an updated version of Sim Theme Park--a game that originally looked like absolute piss in the prime of 3D computer gaming evolution. Look up Sim Theme Park and Warcraft III. Compare the two. I dare you. Certainly most games have surpassed the graphical prowess that was Warcraft III, but my observation still holds some relevancy to Blizzard's shit-excuse for "accessibility" and their departure from the morose and stygian graphics that encompassed the absolutely dire world that was both (especially) Diablo and Diablo II.

I forgot what I was talking about. I guess that was quite the tangent, and per usual, I digress from such. Anyway, the last thought I had was the prevalence of alcohol and the Playstation 3--oh, but that brings me to the main subject: Valkyria Chronicles! I have a hard time typing 'chronicles'. Oddly enough, the letters flow like the finest lepidopteran when I am intoxicated! How superb. Oh, where was I? Valkyria Chronicles has subdued my infernal hatred for modern gaming; or, at least to an extent. I'm a huge fan of tactical gaming, and obviously an anime influenced water-color art style (see Nausicaa tattoo), and Valkyria Chronicles has (surprisingly) surpassed many of my modern gaming qualms and expectations. Surely this blog could have been more of a convincing adulation for a game that I obviously admire, but I must admit the computer monitor is becoming quite transposed and queasy at the moment with my steady consumption of cheap rum and generic cola.

What am I getting at? Oh! It's a fantastic game! Aesthetics are highly prevalent, yes! Alicia has become quite the, er...character to admire and fancy. I like this game a lot. I like the narrative. I like the art style. I like the diverse lot of characters and the pseudo-steam punk WWII themed world. I am too drunk. I am glad I am still slightly coherent.

Deconstructing Shirow Masamune: A Blog of Ambivalence

I finally finished Shirow Masamune's cyberpunk manga Appleseed. It was started in '85 and ended in '89, and while it received an OVA and a Super Famicom game, it wasn't until 2004 when they released a bullshit CGI film that everyone started giving a shit. If anything, my exasperation is obviously nerd rage--but goddamn, the film is bloody ugly as sin. ANYWAY, I started to bitch and moan and write a huge whiny rant, but yeah, I digress, and that sort of thing.

I'm still trying to figure out in my head which of Masamune's works I prefer: either Ghost in the Shell, or Appleseed (regarding the respective manga, only). Both stories are full of intricately drawn tactical action; have lusciously drawn, yet physically strong and toned leading ladies; and each plot delves into politics, philosophy, and insanely elaborate techno-babble, which is one quality of Masamune's writing that I consider simultaneously a weak point, as well as a strong point. This is something entirely different that I will cover on it's own later in this post in more detail, hopefully making some sense of my accusation.

I view Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed in an odd manner: I see them as a wonderfully drawn, thought-provoking, cyber-punk masterpiece for manga, but at the same time I can't help but think that a portion of it is a wonderfully drawn, esoteric mess that is hard to follow--not for content, but simply because it is poorly constructed and too detailed for it's own good at times. I absolutely adore the idea of the complexity of exploring rational possibilities of a technologically advanced society, where cybernetic augmentations are common practice and artificial intelligence is not only prevalent, but also imperative for daily living--be it large corporate establishments, law enforcement, or simply for pleasure, but I also believe there is a point when such a setting can become convoluted, especially at the point when asterisks much be placed every page or so-or an entire index has been implemented at the back of the book-just so you can "keep up", rather than be explained via dialogue or narration. I dunno; I think if anything such an abrupt addendum every page or so describing why this Class-A 0093 Mech can deflect these .009 Caliber Gauss Rifle rounds at 15° Celsius because of the fucking angle the antagonist shot the gun takes away from the story, rather than add to it. Like I said: I love technical details, but why wouldn't you just implement these into the story, or simply let the reader think for themselves? Why have some omnipresent force interrupt every couple of pages to add in some nonsensical information only to confuse you further? Want an example? This is a word-for-word note in the index of Ghost in the Shell to compliment a particular panel on page 338:


Concerning the fissioning pyramid indicated with protons (yangerons): this is a diagram of a system, so it ignores the actual numbers at each different leve.. As with powers of ten, in terms of size, the progression would be [microscopic constructions -> human size -> heavenly body size], but in terms of structural complexity it would instead be [microscopic constructions -> heavenly body size ->human size], which is also the order which they were actually created.

...And it goes on for another few sentences. To be fair, GitS (I'll begin to abbreviate it; it should be quite obvious) has an index. It's been a few years since I've read the original manga in it's entirety, but I do not recall the constant barrage of asterisks and side notes that is so commonplace in Appleseed.  What bothers me even more is the fact that there is a book entitled Appleseed ID, which is sort of an appendix comprised of schematics, notes, explanations, sketches and the like. Something like that I can appreciate--BUT that's not it! No, there also exists Appleseed Hypernotes: another book explaining everything you ever wanted to know about Appleseed, but thankfully another story is included showcasing the events after the original story arc. I greatly enjoy supplemental material like most fans, but if the extra information isn't introduced in the story itself, I feel like I should either A.) Use my imagination; or B.) Seek it out for myself. Shit, sometimes I just like things to not be explained at all. What makes David Lynch's Eraserhead still so interesting and enigmatic today? If Lynch had a disclaimer at the end of the movie that explained everything, wouldn't that certainly take away from the film? Hell, since this blog is focused on the otaku sub-culture, what if during Neon Genesis Evangelion an asterisk appeared at random points explaining what the Angels were, or why 13 year old children are used to pilots the EVAs? Maybe this is a personal grievance, but if such details aren't implemented in the story itself, shouldn't it be up for interpretation, or at least an addition further along in the story line? Wow. Didn't realize I felt so strongly on the subject.

To end this rather side-tracked note, I'd first like to establish that I am a huge Shirow Masamune fan. I absolutely adore his work--be it writing, art, or the world he creates. Certainly, most writers do have their flaws, but as I make out my grievances with Masamune's works, I can't help but express that although I write with passion regarding the aforementioned grievances, they still remain very minor, and if anything, the strong points of his work greatly out shadow his faults. I wholeheartedly recommend both Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed to fans of science-fiction, manga, or both. It's a shame he has pretty much stopped writing comics now, for he primarily focuses on drawing calendars, art books, and hentai. Still, if anything, his artwork shines the brightest of his attributes. Masamune draws absolutely stunning females (to which I have hanging in multiple spots on my walls), as well as intricately designed mechs and robots.

Too bad he can't draw men for shit.