Let’s discuss All Might.

I want to start this off by saying, yes, I like My Hero Academia.  I like it a lot.

I’m not just saying that because it’s popular, or because other people like it.  This anime (and the manga by extension) is legit.  Scarily so.  It’s not hard to see the machinery behind it, and its attempts at emotional torque -- but the execution here is generally at such a high level, it almost always works.  I’ve gotten the chills.  I’ve stifled the gasps.  And I’m about two steps short of starting a tally of how many times I tear up.  It’s getting pretty high up there.

Am I being emotionally manipulated?  Probably.  Am I an easy mark for this sort of thing?  Probably.  But until proven otherwise, I’m happy to say that, well, I’m happy with My Hero Academia.  There are plenty of viable reasons to point to -- to identify as successes -- with the chief one being the horrifically-lovable cast.  Certainly, All Might is among them.

But here’s the thing.  The deeper I go with the anime, the more I realize something.  I like All Might not because he’s Not-Quite-Anime Superman.  I like him because the more I think about him, the more I suspect he’s actually the worst…which is why he’s the best.

Super Hero Time 2018…Relatively Speaking

Like I said before, not every post on this blog can be about My Hero Academia.  Kingdom Hearts, maybe.  But every so often I need a chaser.  So let’s go ahead and do this lickety-split.

In a way that doesn’t tie to Kamen Rider or Super Sentai.  Much to my dismay, granted, but at least this way I don’t have to worry about Toei’s army of Lawyer Combatmen coming to break my legs.

Be a hero. Battle for the net.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to do this.  But I guess I have to do this.

*sigh*

All right.  Let’s do this lickety-split.  Because I guess if the government isn’t going to act in our best interests, we’ll have to pick up the slack.

The New Age of Villains?! (Part 2)

Having only put a paltry 70 hours into Persona 5, I’m not the absolute authority on the game.  From where I’m standing, though?  I’m not afraid to say that it’s got no right to be as good as it is.

Or maybe “addictive” is the word I’m looking for.  Granted that’s a byproduct of its quality -- the overflowing style, the lovable cast of characters, the simple yet satisfying combat, the godlike soundtrack, and more -- but overall, Persona 5 is a hard game to put down.  It’s almost enough to make me go on a months-long hiatus until I see those end credits roll…or, alternatively, until I max out everyone’s Confidant ranks.  I, uh, empathize with Mishima (and to a lesser extent Yusuke) way more than I should.

But even if I were to disappear and huddle in front of my TV for weeks on end?  I’ve got to get through this post first, at the very least.  It’s thematically relevant, after all; some of the stuff I said last time about the cast being potential (if not definitive) villains has already been addressed in satisfying ways.  I still have to see where things will go from there, but A) I’m eager to see how the devs will follow through on what they set up.  More importantly, there’s still point B.

Persona 5 stars a cast that you could interpret as the villains.  Meanwhile, Tales of Berseria stars a cast that you pretty much can’t interpret as anything else but the villains.  And that’s what makes it great.

Let’s discuss One Punch Man.

It’s worth noting right off the bat that I watched the entirety of One Punch Man -- well, the first season of its anime, anyway -- in its official subtitled form on Viz’s website.  I’m at peace with that.  I don’t regret it.  With that said, I have seen clips of the dubbed version.  As someone who’s always had an appreciation of dubs, I’m glad that One Punch Man got the treatment it did.  I know that it’s easy and common to hate dubs, and there are legitimate reasons for it.  But they aren’t bad by default.  And when they’re done well, they bring something special to the table.

Doing that post the other day on Mumen Rider (the best hero) got me thinking about subs versus dubs.  Obviously you want to stay true to the source material/creator’s vision, so taking the anime in as “pure” a form as possible is 100% understandable.  But seeing the cyclist for justice take on the Deep Sea King in both the original Japanese and the alternative English highlighted the potential both have -- namely, that they’re two different yet valid interpretations of the same moments.  In the Japanese version, Mumen Rider sounds like a professional hero -- someone who knows what he’s getting into, but ultimately starts letting the cracks show and his emotions spill out when things get desperate.  In the English version?  He starts by sounding impassioned, desperate, and even scared -- but the end result is that the emotions that come out hit with the force of a tsunami.  One scene, two interpretations, both valid and enjoyable in their own way.  That’s rad.

…This is a weird way to start a post on One Punch Man.  Maybe that’s because I’m tempted to write about Mumen Rider again.  So let’s start again -- and start off right.

Let’s discuss Mumen Rider.

Okay, so I know that I’ve said some controversial stuff on this blog before -- COUGHunchartedCOUGH -- but I don’t think anyone’s going to take too much issue with what I have to say next: Mumen Rider is the best character in One Punch Man.  And that’s saying something, if you ask me.

Though while we’re on the subject?  Let me back up and say that One Punch Man is, on the whole, a pretty freakin’ good anime.  Its popularity may have surged relatively recently -- and thus people have likely started throwing stones at it -- but much like JoJo or Attack on Titan, I’d say that that popularity is deserved.  And now that I’ve said that, I’m just going to spend the rest of this post gushing over how freakin’ sick Mumen Rider is as a character.  Like, I would absolutely be down for a full-on Mumen Rider series -- not spinoff, but series -- starring the cyclist for justice.  Granted it’s not a guaranteed success, but…hey, it’d at least be something that caters to me.  And that’s what matters most.

Now everybody sit down and shut up, because Mumen Rider said so.  Or someone of relative import.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Blogging (Part 2)

Can I just take a minute to gush about how much I love Hamon?

Sure, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has long since earned fame for its Stands.  But having watched and enjoyed Phantom Blood, I still feel like Hamon’s the cooler power of the two -- and that’s saying something, because I agree that Stands are rad.  The “power of the sun” not only lets its users fight with supercharged energy and beat down vampires (and zombie grunts), but also gives them a chance to interact with items in the environment in all sorts of zany ways.  Lots of creative applications, to be sure -- as Battle Tendency proves later on -- and it’s the sheer unpredictability that makes it a treat to see in action.

I also love how Hamon’s weakness is an obvious one.  It’s made possible through the proper breathing techniques, so if you can’t breathe, you can’t use it.  I mean, yeah, pretty much every living being is crippled if they can’t breathe, but the applications of it in JoJo add a layer of tension to battles.  When mere chains or a dip underwater become a credible life-or-death situation, you know you’ve done well in storytelling.

Also, this doesn’t have much to do with anything yet, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut…cripes, JoJo does NOT shy away from the body horror.  Thank god for the censorship, because sometimes it’s seriously hard to watch without cringing so hard my eyes clamp shut.

Anyway, on to Phantom Blood.  Again.  WITH SPOILERS.  Again.

Ranking the Kamen Rider Seasons (Part 2)

So the other day, I asked myself a question: why do I like Kamen Rider?

Call it a crisis of faith, I guess.  It’s easy to get caught up in something and follow it out of some unspoken sense of obligation -- like you’re just going through the motions, because “I did the thing once, so I might as well do the thing again.”  I’m pretty sure I’ve typecast myself as some kind of Rider fanatic, given how many times I slip allusions, images, and even secret references into my posts.  (To say nothing of the posts actually about Kamen Rider.)  In a perfect world, people would pay more attention to that stuff instead of huddling around the campfire when I upload a post on Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts/the madhouse that is Squeenix.  But I digress.

Pared down to basics, I like KR because I like heroes.  And not to get maudlin or pitiable, but it’s a safe bet that I needed to see heroes in my life.  After all, it’s probably not a coincidence that I started seriously getting into the franchise in the same year -- 2013 -- that I went through some major personal losses.  Beyond that, I had to deal with the frustration of having my own works -- my writing, my dreams, and my own batch of heroes -- rejected to the point where I scrapped and rebooted years of work.  Beyond that, it seemed like fiction in the western world had basically given up on heroes.  Man of Steel turned Superman into a braindead whirlwind of destruction and angst.  The Walking Dead became a hit with a cast of survivors barely a cut above the zombies they routinely shot in the head.  I…I don’t even want to talk about DmC.

I’ll argue that the world needs heroes -- even, if not especially fictional -- but I’ll also acknowledge that that’s some top-tier projecting.  I need heroes.  KR delivered, again, and again, and again.  And that’s why I’m here today once again, as a fan, and as a spokesperson.  These are my Top 4 picks of the franchise thus far.

Who’s the Best Superhero Ever?

So both Captain America: Civil War and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice have made the rounds in the past few months.  One of them is great; one of them is not so great.  Still, they do represent an important talking point: even though superhero movies have been around for a good while now, they still have enough clout and momentum to stay self-sustaining, at least for a while yet (and more for the Marvel camp than, say, Fox, Warner Brothers, or Sony).  We’re bound to see more of them, obviously.  There are detractors, and they have a good point -- we’re at risk of oversaturation, for sure -- but hey.  Maybe we’ll get a good Doom Patrol movie out of WB, so that my dream of seeing Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man on the big screen can finally be fulfilled.

That does bring up something worth discussing, though.  Obviously, the Marvel movies (and others) have brought once-obscure characters into the spotlight, and pretty successfully; where would Iron Man be if not for the efforts of Robert Downey Jr. way back when?  But I wonder how many people the movies are actually converting.  That is, how many people have gained enough interest in comics thanks to the movies to actually seek out these heroes in their natural habitat?  How many people who weren’t already down with stuff like Asgard or the Infinity Gauntlet have even run a Google search?  Are people actually converting into true fans?

I’d imagine so, because the movies serve as condensed introductions.  But that leads to a follow-up question: who are people choosing to follow, and why?  Who’s captured their hearts and minds?  Who is the best superhero?

Okay, that’s like three questions (technically four), but whatever.  It’s for a good cause.

Who Wins Out -- Heroes or Villains?

If you’ve been checking around the blog recently, you might have guessed that I’ve got Infamous: Second Son on the brain.  (The posts on which will come this Monday and Thursday, so look forward to my joy/despair.)  And with good reason; I may not be one for comics, but I’ve always loved the idea of superheroes.  And by extension, I’ve always loved the potential that they hold.  Powers beyond the mortal man!  A persona that’s larger than life!  HnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngCOSTUMES!  There’s a lot to love, so there’s an obvious reason why they’re so popular today.

But if The Avengers -- and the internet at large -- is any indication, it’s that people love villains as well.  Maybe more.  Tom Hiddleston’s Loki made a huge splash in the first Thor movie, much to its (and his) credit; his presence helped make that movie what it was, and you could say the same pretty damn easily about The Dark World.  Loki’s popular, but I’d bet that he’s not the only one who’s enjoyed his fair share of popularity.  Nor will he be the last.

And I find that more than a little interesting, if we’re being honest.  Along with Loki’s horns.  That seems like an accident waiting to happen -- if it hasn’t already.  On the other hand, they ARE curved upward, so, you know.  S'all good.

D.O.X. is Dead #4: Destiny and Beauty

Okay, so we’re at installment number four.  Let’s do something a little different.  Here’s a very brief recap/summary of what’s been talked about so far.  But let’s do it with style, and invoke the spirit of Kamen Rider OOO.  Sing along if you know the words.  Or the five-second phrase at the start of an episode.  Or, you know, just speak.  Don’t sing.  I feel like this conversation’s gone off the rails, so let’s get to it…with the proper thirty-second music, of course.

These three things happened last time on D.O.X. is Dead! 

Firstly, the ghost-centric story and its multiple versions are revealed -- along with the concepts and key event at its core!

Secondly, the two lead characters, Arc Siegel and Kaylee Hazlett, are discussed at length -- with one of the old version’s greatest faults made clear!

And thirdly, the setting is analyzed, and its expansion made clear…along with the corruption system that informs the plot!

Okay, that’ll do it.  By the way, you can probably close that video earlier.  Unless you actually like the music.  In fact, just go bookmark it so you can listen to it whenever you want.  It’ll be fun.  Or do the smart thing and throw your computer out the window so you can rid yourself of that nonsense once and for all.

Still here?  Great.   Now let’s begin in earnest.

As Black as Lightning (Part 3 -- FINALE)

(Cross-Up is still on hiatus, but don't worry -- it'll be back before the end of the month, maybe!  In the meantime, have one more irreverent and overzealous post on a certain magical video game!  Because that's what you're here for, right?  Not the sauerkraut jokes?)

If for some silly reason you’re just joining me here for this FFXIII miniseries (here’s part 1, and here’s part 2), let me give you another primer.  The thrust of my argument is that Lightning Farron, lead character of this so-called Lightning Saga and Square-Enix’s current golden girl, is actually the villain of her games…and as of the last post, you can add “insane” to her name.  If only by accident -- or sheer writing incompetence, if you prefer.

I’d like to think that this trend is going to continue, and get even worse, with Lightning Returns.  It’s easy to shrug off the game as having a garbage story and just enjoying the gameplay -- but that really is a disservice to everyone involved.  If a game is going to tell a story, especially if it’s part of a genre half-built on telling stories, then the quality of the game CAN’T be divorced from the quality of its story.  The technique has to be judged, as do its particulars; ideas, themes, and especially characters have to be taken in wholesale.  And that includes the sequel nobody begged for…to another sequel nobody begged for.

It’s hard to get a full understanding of the story without playing all of Lightning Returns, but with the release date lurching ever closer (God help us all), I think there are just enough details for me to make a few claims.  Obviously, all of this is going to be up for interpretation, so feel free to disagree with me.  I’ll welcome dissent, even if I don’t exactly have a good counterargument.  One man’s villain is another man’s hero, after all.    

So let’s get started.  But before I begin, let’s step back for a moment.  A long moment.

Spoilers for FFXIII and XIII-2 -- and potentially Lightning Returns -- incoming.  I would probably not even read this post if I was you.  Or…you know, if I was smart.

  

As Black as Lightning (Part 2)

(Cross-Up is still on hiatus, because who needs posts on video games when you can enjoy the holidays?  In the meantime, please enjoy this post on a video game!)

And here we are again. 

If you’re just joining me here for this little miniseries (and here’s part 1 if you missed it), let me give you a primer.  In lieu of current -- and in my eyes overwhelming -- evidence, I’m convinced that Square Enix’s beloved Lightning Farron is more than what she appears to be on the surface.  Whether you’re convinced she’s a strong, cool heroine or a bland marketing tool, I have my own theory in mind.  Simply put, I think this so-called “Lightning Saga” of Final Fantasy XIII games earned its name because the titular lady is actually the villain.  Or if not that, then at least a villain.

It should go without saying, but die-hard fans of Lightning/FFXIII MIGHT want to stay away from this post.  It’ll keep your blood pressure at a stable level.

(Spoilers for FFXIII and XIII-2 incoming…and also Metal Gear Rising, tangentially.  I would run now if I were you, especially if you want to see the games fresh.  Especially MGR.  Because it’s so friggin’ cool.)

Let's discuss Xenoblade Chronicles (Part 2).

You know what?  I just thought of some flaws for this game.  And it only took me two months!

--One of my biggest regrets with this game is that I didn’t get all of the “Heart-to-Heart” sequences scattered about…but I wonder if that was my fault, or the devs’ overestimation of the player’s dedication.  Unless I played the game wrong (a real possibility, I admit), in order to get these special sequences you have to find them in specific spots all over the game world -- which, need I remind you, are MASSIVE.  But that’s not enough; the characters have to have a high enough affinity for each other to even start the sequence, and the best way to do that is to have them as your active party…which I didn’t.  And even then you have to answer questions during them that you have no way of knowing the answer to.  It feels like a needlessly complicated system that locks you out of character insights, rather than promoting them.

--I’m not going to take back what I said about the battle system (i.e. I think it’s awesome), but I don’t think the terrain is used as effectively as it could be.  It’s true that you can blow enemies off high ledges to win your fights, but outside of that there really isn’t too much done with it in the middle of a fight.  If it was, then a late-game boss wouldn’t have been as much of a pain in the ass as it was; because of its size, the small paths you can fight on, and the acid surrounding you, it’s more than common for you to get blown -- or even brushed -- into pools of the stuff so you can watch your party melt before your eyes.  Why that stipulation to battle would be added in the game’s later skirmishes is a mystery best left for the ages.

…And I think that’s it for now.  At least, those are the big ones.  So with that out of the way, let’s get to the game’s strength: it’s story.

WARNING: OH MY GOD THERE ARE SO MANY SPOILERS IN THIS POST.  DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO HAVE EVERYTHING RUINED.  DON’T.  DON’T.  DON’T.

…All right, time to ruin the game for you.

Pacific Rim: Fight a Hurricane

There’s a scene relatively early on in Pacific Rim where our hero Raleigh is giving the audience a voice-over to explain the mentality behind piloting a Jaeger, the giant robots employed in the future to fight off the kaiju invaders.  He says something to the effect of “standing up” and “looking forward” -- or more specifically, he mentions that normally when there’s a hurricane coming, you run and hide.  But when you’re in a Jaeger, you feel like you can stand up to it.  You have to fight the hurricane.

That…sounds like a really dumb idea, even if you’re in a giant robot.  A hurricane is a swirling mass of wind, water, and debris, isn’t it?  That really doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing you could get rid of just by punching it.  It sounds cool as hell, sure, but pretty impractical.  Still, it’s something you can chalk up to the nature of the movie and the universe therein.  It’s a world with giant robots and giant monsters.  It’s not supposed to make sense; it’s just supposed to be cool.

Except that mentality doesn’t really work for Pacific Rim.  Believe it or not, this isn’t necessarily the sort of movie where the “turn your brain off” mantra can come into play.  The movie is inherently dumb, but if you take even a few minutes to listen to these people and get invested in their world, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised.  Surprised, and rewarded -- and walking out of the theater with a smile on your face.

I know I did, at least.

There are likely some SPOILERS to follow, but there shouldn’t be anything too heavy here.  Besides, you shouldn’t even be reading this post anyway if you haven’t seen the movie; go out there and watch it so it can beat out Grown Ups 2.

Do the right thing.  Don’t let Adam Sandler win.

Let's discuss Sengoku Basara...and more.

I have a confession to make: I’m not really a fan of the Dynasty Warriors series.  I mean, at one point I was -- when I played the fourth game on the PS2, I was pleasantly surprised.  I made a warrior of my own with a massive sword, and delighted in spinning about like a death-blender to the sound of some rockin’ tunes.  And I do have some fond memories of co-op with my brother, and scrambling to survive against Lu Bu (“It’s Lu Bu!  Lu Bu has come to destroy us!”  Classic line, that).  And the victory jubilee is one of my favorite jingles ever.

But of course, my brother couldn’t leave well enough alone.  After the fun we had with 4, he decided to pick up DW5.  Fair enough…except the game was starting to lose its luster, and its flaws more apparent than last time.  Brain-dead AI, way-too-simple combat, and allied units that would make YOU fail a mission just because they can’t be arsed to practice a bit of self-control.  But I still played it…and the same applied when he picked up a cheap copy of DW5: Empires.  The sheen had really started wearing thin by then -- though interestingly, I would be the one playing it more, since I tried to take over China in the campaign.  Of course, in the interstice between games my brother nabbed the Japanese-substitute Samurai Warriors 2.  And after that, DW6 (a game which, as I recall, boasted that its new mechanics were the ability to swim and climb ladders).  And after that, DW7.  And that’s ignoring the anime tie-ins like DW: Gundam and Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage...though as noted, One Piece: Pirate Warriors is the best of the bunch.    And THAT’S ignoring the fact that we both played the hell out of the GameCube title Mystic Heroes, which (by virtue of being by the same company) might as well have been Dynasty Warriors, But with Magic and Big-Headed Children.

In recent years he’s gotten better about buying so haphazardly, but I can still see flashes of his fanaticism every now and then.  Case in point: when he started recommending a purchase of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes on the grounds that it was “Like Dynasty Warriors, but better”, I wanted to start clobbering him with the PS3.  And maybe a sledgehammer for good measure.  But I decided to give it a chance.  It couldn’t have been that bad -- and of course, it was made by Capcom, the once-kingly purveyors of stylish crazy action.  It certainly helped that he had to order the game online because nobody from GameStop had even heard of Sengoku Basara.

“Like Dynasty Warriors, but better.”  That’s actually a very apt description.

Spirit Showdown -- Round 4 Recap

 And here we are.  Three more posts are uploaded and set, and once again, it’s time for a short reprieve while I massage my sore fingers.  (I’m noticing that I have a weird way of italicizing things; I bend my left thumb really far back to reach the CTRL key.)  But enough about my hands; I’ve never even entertained the thought of becoming a hand model, and I’m not about to start now.  There’s writing to be done, and a battle to be won…in more ways than one.

Insert your own joke about rhyming here.  Preferably one featuring hot dogs in some capacity.

Spirit Showdown #10: The Biker

>tier-two summoning completed

>transporting data packets

>analyzing boundary

>analyzing tri-existence quotient

>analyzing

>pondering

>wondering

>thinking

>hoping

Spirit Showdown μ: The Nobody

>breaching boundary

>accessing terminal

>uploading post number 266

>preparing tier-two summoning procedure

>link established

>beginning upload

>executing reality preservation protocol

>calculating tri-existence quotient

Spirit Showdown -- Round 3 Recap

So here we are again, with another set of heroes revealed.  How fitting is it that the New Year would start off with a pair of characters who are just barely qualified to be heroes?  Oh well; in their universe, they’re the best the world has got.  Though you could pretty much apply that to every character introduced so far, but that’s neither here nor there.

In any case, I’ll hold off on posting a summarizing video, mostly because the “full set” hasn’t been revealed yet.  It’ll come next time, but for now you can either read the posts for Alice, Raze, and Tony/Beat -- or you could do the more natural thing and wait for the highly-condensed version in about a month.

The reason, obviously, is that I promised ten characters -- and that’s precisely what you’ll get.  So I’d rather not make a video now (which with my limited tool set takes much longer than I’d prefer), only to make another video for one character.  It seems wasteful, is all I’m saying.  But in addition, there’s also the story arc that I’ve been developing for quite a while -- the one in which I (or at least my virtual stand-in) actually die.  So for the sake of providing a refresher, I'll give you a quick summary.