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Smashing Manga Records, Tentacle Satire, Emotional Games, and More - Fun Link Round-Up
I think the “person” behind you wants to be your friend, so go talk to him/her/it. Here’s some links to read for the weekend.
The Boundaries of Humor: An Interview With John Cadice, Creator of Tentacle Bento - I’m sure most you have heard about this card game that recently got their funding shut down by Kickstarter. Now, this interview is pretty bias as the interviewer, Brandon Sheffield, wanted to say “HA! I WIN BECAUSE I HAZ MAINSTREAM INTERNETZ POINTS”. It just felt like a huge flame war done in a professional manner. Though I have to say, Sheffield got Cadice good with that video demo of two people playing the game in action. The lesson of this story: the Internet is truly a frightening beast for EVERYONE involved.
Social Manga Project Aims For Guinness Record - Three of the most epic mangaka, Hirohiko Araki, Takehiko Inoue, and Hiroshi Motoyoma, team up to smash a Guinness World Record? Consider me sold. I love how all types of artists are invited to join them. This is what gets people more interested in the world of manga.
The Influence of Genes on Psychological Well-Being - Reading this makes me think about Naruto and his parents. Naruto and his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, definitely share some similar traits.
How Can Otaku Stay Enthused About Anime? - You know, I do wonder why I still watch anime despite the quality of series decreasing ever-so-slightly. Though as John says, shows like Oreimo and Puella Magi Madoka Magica definitely keep people’s spirits alive.
Why I Stopped My JManga Subscription - I have not subscribed to JManga at all. There’s nothing I really want to read there honestly. Om brings out an interesting point about its PC-viewing preference being a flaw. I still believe JManga will evolve into something greater.
A Personal Journey: Jenova Chen’s Goals for Games - Just like how some folks want emotional substance in anime and manga, some folks want to feel inspired through video games.
Finally, anyone who talks like the third guy in the video below deserves to get chainsawed.
Have a wacky weekend, everyone!
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Idols, Hostesses, Animal Manga, And More - Fun Links To Read
And we’re back with another variety of articles to read!
Japan Times does not like the front-page attention that AKB48 is getting - Good grief, how much attention is AKB48 really getting? Weren’t those candy-sharing commercials and an upcoming Wii game featuring the girls enough? Then again, idols are very important in Japan and it’s pretty unfortunate that they are forced to uphold a “clean” image to maintain that importance, don’t you think?.
Look, a hostess video game for kids is on the Nintendo 3DS! - Level-5, makers of Professor Layton and White Knight Chronicles, released a new portable game called Girls’ RPG: Cinderrelife where you play as girls trying to be hostesses. What would be hilarious and sad is if all the young girls start having this fantasy of being hostesses from this game. However, low sales seem to indicate that this will not happen. Only in Japan, folks.
Manga Xanadu celebrates Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month - Lori Henderson spotlights a few manga titles that focus on animal cruelty. As Lori says, pets deserve the same love and respect from their owners and people.
Japan’s population hits biggest drop since 1950 - I think most of us knew this was going to happen, given the state Japan’s in these days. Many things in Japan (like manga sales) are going down. How can we encourage Japan to REALLY step up for the people?
New Ways To Happiness With Strengths - Because I want each and every one of you to find ways to be happy in life.
Finally, now that Bakuman’s over, what do you think the next title from Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata will be about?
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Facing Yourself, Friends, And The World - Why PERSONA 4 Still Kicks Ass
“It’s hard to face yourself.” - Yosuke Hanamura
Persona 4. So many thoughts come to mind when it comes to the “swan song” video game of the Sony PlayStation 2 era. Critically-acclaimed. A great reminder of what Japanese RPGs are all about. A lovable cast of characters. The “Scooby-Doo”-like plot. The game’s look at homosexuality. To think that a 2008 PlayStation 2 game released at the end of the console’s life cycle would go on to become a media juggernaut (anime, manga, monthly magazine, fighting game, PlayStation Vita remake, spin-off light novels, and even a live-action play!) in late 2011/early 2012 can be a shock to many fans as the title is still considered to be very niche. However, the passion of the Persona 4 fandom has kept the game relevant. It might be attributed to the central theme of “facing yourself” and a much-bigger emphasis on characterization (compared to P4’s predecessor, Persona 3) as the two key components that resonate very well with the fandom and keeping the Persona series alive.
(This entry might contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the anime or played the game.)
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What Character(s) Inspire You?
As much as I like to talk about the character(s) that inspire me (i.e. Vegeta), I want to know which anime/manga characters inspire you guys as a whole.
Do you have an essay you wish to share to readers about a character that makes you feel awesome? I would like to post some of your stories on this very site.
If interested, you can contact me at tonyyao82(at)gmail(dot)com.
Of course, you can always comment below. I love to hear who drives your will to succeed even higher.
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One Treasure Worth Hunting For - The One Piece Gold Edition PS3
From the Sony booth at JUMP Festa 2012 at Makuhari Messe.
Words cannot explain how amazing this system looks. I expect the PS3 to completely dominate video game sales next year because of Luffy and company. Also, here’s the trailer for the upcoming One Piece Pirate Musou game.
Nice to see the Zoro fangirls react to seeing their precious swordsman. After all, he’s the 2nd choice for anime male characters they want to marry. I do admit that I find it a little disappointing that the game will be hack-and-slash (a la Dynasty Warriors) like BLEACH: Soul Resurrecion. Though there’s a possibility this game will be 10 times more epic than the BLEACH game, given the nature of the One Piece story.
That reminds me: I want to take a look at a One Piece character. Either Roronoa Zoro or Nico Robin. Those two stand out to me the most out of the Straw Hat Pirates. Which character do you guys want to see an analysis of?
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Is Harley Quinn An Underappreciated Character in Batman?
Don’t worry, B-Man. Mr. J’s gonna give me the best BIRTHDAY PARTY EVEERRRR because he LOVES ME SOOOOOOOO MUCH!
Normally, I don’t blog about American comic book characters, but this caught my eye. I just finished Batman: Arkham City (total instant classic and deserves all the praise it’s been getting) and while browsing my e-mail newsletters, I found this interesting entry via Kotaku about the character of Harley Quinn. John Cusick, author of Girl Parts, talks about the writers for the game should’ve have gone more in-depth on Quinn’s character.
Cusick brings out some good points about Quinn stating that “she isn’t empowered. This makes her a terrible role model (in addition to, you know, all the wanton killing), but a wonderful character. As the battle for Gotham rages around her, Harley seems like a confused little kid amidst feuding adults. To me, this makes her, on the surface, oddly sympathetic: this poor, fractured woman who followed a man into maddness, and got little in return.”
For those that don’t know about her origin, Harley Quinn was once a doctor who tried to counsel the Joker. Instead, she became obsessed with him, becomes bad, and believes that he loves her. In the game, some of the Joker’s men even comment on how Quinn is nuts and that they wouldn’t follow her at all. Cusick comments that Quinn purposely lets herself regress to a child-like state.
You can read the entry here.
What are everyone’s thoughts on Harley Quinn (if you’re familiar with her) in general?
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Photos from New York Comic-Con 2011
Enjoy the shots I took from New York Comic-Con 2011!
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New York Comic-Con 2011 Adventure Log!
On October 13-16, 2011, the East Coast’s biggest pop culture convention landed upon New York City once again with an infusion of comic book artists, celebrities, video game developers, and of course, a LARGE number of cosplayers. New York Comic-Con 2011 managed to draw an attendance of 105,000 over the span of 4 days. A lot of things happened, so get ready for a somewhat extensive recap.
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EVO 2K11 - WHAT IS “HYPE”?
For those who know me, besides reading manga & watching anime, I am absolutely interested in video games. Lately, I have shown a great interest in the fighting game community (which all gathered recently for Evolution Championship Series 2011, the world’s largest fighting game tournament in Las Vegas). “Hype” there is a bit different from the normal definition of “hype”.
The fans of the community really make things exciting for everyone. If there’s one genre of games that really benefits from its fans, it’s fighting games. I feel that those three factors are what keeps the community going.
Competition + diverse players + diverse characters = one amazing experience.
We’re all competitive at heart and we want to learn how to be better at what we do.
The EVO 2K11 Day 3 tournament stream was probably one of the best streams that I have ever seen. Now I really have to go to EVO one of these days, since they started incorporating panels this year.
Much congratulations go to the organizers for achieving a viewership of over 2 million online viewers and also to the folks who managed to get the winners of the tournaments to trend worldwide on Twitter. I wish the FG community the best of luck to make fighting games more mainstream in the U.S.
You can learn about the Evolution Championship Series at http://www.evo2k.com.
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Quick Book Shout-Out - “Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success” by Aaron Dignan
For you video game geeks and psychology freaks out there, you might want to take a look at this book about using games to make work fun. “Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success” provides an interesting blueprint on how games can be used to motivate people to be more productive. Author Aaron Dignan believes in the power of technology to help advance organizations. He argues that games help people to learn and to achieve in real life.
What I like is how Dignan talks about the two important factors on how people decide to take on certain challenges: volition (the will to do something) & faculty (the belief that we have the skills & tools necessary to take on those challenges). If we don’t have both, then we will be bored. Games addresses these two factors and when done correctly, they challenge & reward us for the better.
Dignan also talks about the history of play and argues that work should be treated as play for people to enjoy themselves. He uses examples of how companies have used game-like management systems to motivate consumers & employees (i.e. Nike+, Pokemon collecting, Domino’s Pizza 30 Min. or Less guarantee, “Employee of the Month” plaque, Zynga games on Facebook, etc.)
Most importantly, Dignan wants to stress that game designers should create behavioral games to solve everyday problems. I feel that he offers some interesting possibilities, but sadly, designers want to make money. I doubt that a majority of them would make games to help combat today’s issues. To them, those can be boring. Plus, some of those issues may hit them personally. Designers might not want to mix work & personal issues together as it can affect their performance.
Dignan has done an amazing job with this book and I truly feel that games do motivate others to do well in reality. I credit games for helping me being more sociable (mostly because of the Final Fantasy series). It’s a really good read and I hope it brings some fun & interesting change. As much as technology can be disruptive at times, it can do wonders as well.
You can visit Aaron Dignan’s website at http://www.gameframers.com.
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