Author: bluemist

Blue about Blu-ray

soneee
Around this time last year, after months of self-bickering on how to drive my PC upgrades forward, I decided to buy a blu-ray writer disc drive. This was a big leap that emptied my wallet for quite a while. It was priced around 250$ then. Nowadays you can get similar drives for almost half the price, and I might say that it’s a rather good deal. Unfortunately, the format in itself still seems to be so unpopular. And even I myself deem it unpopular in my own usage, as I own only a handful of blu-ray movies because of certain unattainable price points. Yet with these conflicts, I still wanted to defend the format as a way to move technology forward, or at least to make me less sad about something that still has a chance to become a “useless purchase” for me.

What are we at right now anyway? We’re just rising from recession just now, so I think more and more people are going to buy TV sets. LCD and Plasma sales are on the rise. We recently bought a modest LCD TV ourselves, and now I realize why regular consumers aren’t buying blu-ray. The basic answer is that DVD quality is enough for them, sure. Another reason which is sometimes unmentioned is how people will watch quite a distance away from the TV. Coupled with the fact that consumers will want a cheap set, so I think an extreme majority own the small 32″ screens. At those distance and sizes, even I don’t see the pixels. DVD is really enough after all. Screw me who always watches video on the computer only a couple feet away from my LCD monitor. A TV isn’t meant to be viewed this close. And so for our set, I conviced my parents to move the TV around for it to become closer to the sofa to better appreciate the visual quality.

The first blu-ray movie I bought would be the BBC Planet Earth documentaries. I would highly recommend this series as a prime gateway to the beauty of blu-ray. After that though, I really hadn’t bought much else. Just a couple samplers and some blockbuster movies (Iron Man for instance). I have a grand total of 10 titles… for an entire year of having the format. My main enemy would be both price and region inferiority. I think by now in the US blu-ray movie prices have dropped near DVD levels, which is quite nice. Unfortunately I’m NOT in the US, so I have to make do with those prices + 12% tax + markup. A 20$ movie there will become 36$ here, which is freaking ridiculous. Prices in Japan are as horrible as ever too, some in the 80$ range even. I can import some because I know people in Japan but still I can’t just blast my money just for some odd anime or two.

I think anime is the best showcase for blu-ray because you will noticeably see the difference. Lines are thinner in character designs and the colors become richer because you see more detail in the backgrounds. Japan knows this as most of their top-selling blu-ray movies are anime. Unfortunately, blu-ray anime in the US is almost endangered. With all the problems they have in selling anime DVDs, I don’t think some localization studios will even move to the format. Such a shame, because part of me holding up to buying anime DVDs all-in-all would be because there is a slight chance that they would move to blu-ray someday.

Another problem in the horizon for blu-ray will be digital distribution. While today there doesn’t seem to be any threat because of the competing formats and small libraries, we go back to the quality case. If DVD is enough, won’t HD be enough even at low bitrates? Right now people enjoy their youtube at supposed HD format, which is no more than a 720p video with a low bitrate which degrades quality. Still, enough to whet their appetites. The second one would be piracy but I don’t think this is as strong today. It’s such hassle to download and move around a 4 or 8GB file, even if you say broadband is fast and hard drives are cheap. Also, to enjoy those on your big TV you still need an HTPC or media streamer of sorts, so the piracy audience are more of the techie types rather than the bulk of consumers who just want to plug-and-play.

The only savior of the format that I can think of is the Playstation 3. While still the sore loser in terms of video game sales, that box freaking does everything, including blu-ray. If it were not for this console, blu-ray may as well be dead two years ago. With the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim with its competitive price, I even think this is a second coming for the format. I don’t have a use for a PS3 since I have my computer for high-quality gaming, but it really fits the bill for an all around entertainment device.

This holiday season will be a crucial one for the format. Personally as well, because I will go stock up on blank blu-ray discs for recording and backups. I just hope that locally the price comes down for the movies so that I can buy more. It’s a really interesting battle in the video space nowadays, and I hope blu-ray gets a piece of that pie. At least, to justify my purchase of this blu-ray drive. Heh.

Love Plus: Impressions

Love Plus

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpo8lXvAGR4&hl=en&fs=1&w=384&h=313]

People may be interested about how the Love Plus gameplay works. Depending on how you look at it, this may either be the most innovative dating sim ever or a freaking marketing gimmick. After playing for almost a whole day, I managed to get one girl and move on to the second part of the game, which is supposed to be the, er… Tamagotchi part. Anyway, enough for intros, this may be a long one. Let’s start.
Continue reading Love Plus: Impressions

TV5 Animega – Episode 2: Endless Eight

haruh
August 2009 marks the first-year anniversary of the TV5 reformat. This local channel of ours had been struggling to keep up with the big two (ABS-CBN and GMA), but since the reformat it has been doing quite well. They have innovative and fresh TV programming which made them #1 in some timeslots. In particular, the anime blocks had been receiving a lot of praise from some of our most dedicated local anime fans. For almost a year, a slew of anime have been aired with less cuts, good dubbing, and impressive lineups. Unfortunately, they can’t keep up with their high pace for too long, and so these past few months have been quite troubling for them.
Continue reading TV5 Animega – Episode 2: Endless Eight

Hatsune Miku – letter song (Subbed… made by me!)

Arienai! Impossible! My second fansub ever!

The first one:
[BREAKING: Shugo Chara Episode 10 Subbed… made by me!->shugo-chara-10-subs]

“letter song” is created by unformed which consists of doriko and nezuki. They also made a number of other popular Vocaloid original songs like Romeo and Cinderella, Uta ni Katachi wa Nai Keredo and Yuuhizaka (to which letter song seems to be the sequel). This song in one instant became my second most favorite sentimental Vocaloid song ever (Sakura no Ame is still the first).

Actually I heard this just a month ago, and I have been in love with it ever since. The song’s message caught into me so quickly: A letter addressed to oneself 10 years into the future, asking about life and love. While I don’t have any self-reflection letters and stuff like that, I do frequently look back to whatever I have written in the past (be it on paper or in my blogs) and wonder what kind of person am I right now compared to myself years before. You know, I honestly can’t imagine who or what would I be 10 years from now, but surely, like this song, I would want to ask. Maybe I’ll start a time capsule thingy eh?

Yes there was already a sub of this song somewhere out there but I found it to be sorely lacking in accuracy because it was cross-translated from Japanese to Chinese and then to English! Horrible things will obviously come out of that, so I had to do this myself. The lyrics seemed easy enough after all. But heck… I spent a whole HOUR on this. Considering that the song is slow, minimal lyrics, and 5 minutes long, I realize that it wasn’t that easy at all! I had a number of translation tools to my disposal (my stock knowledge, online converters, dictionaries) and each conflicting result confused me. I appreciate fansubbing more again. Of course, anime episode fansubs are abundant not only in quality but also in piracy controversies. But as for me, I think we need more of the copyright-free Vocaloid, Touhou, Niconico animeme in English fansub variety as well. There is still a wealth of entertaining doujin content out there that deserves to be seen and heard by us fans.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I got many of the lyrics right, so there it is in its full glory… my second fansub which is really my first because you still needed the raw video for my first one. Please turn on the Captions feature in the YouTube video to see the subs. Seeing my Shugo Chara 10 sub, I think that I got a better handle of my Japanese proficiency this time. I would like to thank a couple of people who checked the translation, one of them was Hinano. If there are further corrections, or if you liked the song as I did, feel free to contact or comment.

Enjoy!

The Lost Sequel

[The Melancholy Code->]
[Melancholies and Demons->]

keychain-haruhi
Oof… here we are again.

Oh they really have the fans in their control. Did you even think that Kadokawa and KyoAni do NOT expect this kind of reaction from us? We are all being led into their just as keikaku master plans. In the first place, why did the original Suzumiya Haruhi series from 2006 have a random episode timeline again? Please do refresh me on that. This is one lucky series you know. If there are thousands upon thousands of youtube and niconico video parodies and homages out there, thousands of fans buying everything from dvds to merchandise, and thousands of online people discussing the series with an unending passion, a risky move or two (or seven, or eight, or…) wouldn’t hurt your bottom line. In fact, this kind of radical programming is just what we need. If anime can’t brave the economic recession with all the cookie-cutter stuff we’ve been seeing for these past few years, I would only honor the ones who really want to make a difference. It’s hard to do that right now.

Do you know what’s the REAL ENDLESS EIGHT for me? Anime. There must be something… “strange” if this plot, this character, or this whole anime reminds you of some other plot, some other character, or some other anime itself that you have watched. Doesn’t everything resemble some part of everything else? In the anime world, everything is deja vu.

If you are in the bishoujo category fetish like me, in 90% of those eroge and bishoujo game-turned anime, the characters look, feel, and act familiar and similar to any other character in any other game. Fancy an onii-chan complex? Da Capo has one. Obviously Da Capo II has one too, as well as Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, Canvas 2, Gift… this list can go on forever (even with anime that doesn’t come from a game… like Hatsukoi Limited). When you watch an episode with that kind of character, that’s the real Endless Eight. You have seen this kind of character a hundred times in many different variations.

That was just one example. Endless Eight can appear in any aspect.
– Chances are these anime has a Yui Horie character in it.
– Chances are Kugimiya Rie has a tsundere character in these anime.
– Umm this OP song sounds like that OP song.
– Umm this ED movie looks like that ED movie.
– Ahh, the ever-present beach fanservice episode.
– Kimodameshi episode, school festival episode, onsen episode, matsuri episode…
– YES TEH CONFESSION SCENE!
– Oh there was no confession after all… maybe in another episode.
– This is probably the “male character stumbles over the girl touching her body parts and then the girl goes kyaaaa” scene
– Oh and this is the “male character opens some door and the girl is seen with limited clothing and the girl goes kyaaaa” scene
– Oh so this is about a young boy who has potent power and goes into the adventure of his lifetime, and meeting some old master to train him, maybe a sidekick or two, and a princess to probably save along while he battles the evil forces of whatever to save the world?
– Oh so this is about a young girl who suddenly discovers her magic, then a cute mascot appears, maybe a sidekick or four of them, and have multiple prince characters for them to adore while saving the world from evil by their magic wands, transformative costumes and bright pink lights and explosions?

All in all, I don’t see anything particularly offensive with Haruhi’s obviously repeating Endless Eight episodes. After all, most other anime I watch have the same darn thing on it. Strange… I know that I’ve seen this all before… but why am I watching all these cookie-cut anime for more than a decade now?

Hmmm… I don’t know. I enjoy watching anime maybe?

Press Release:
There was widespread speculation about content of the eagerly-awaited new anime from phenomenal bestselling production studio Kyoto Animation. For the first time, fans worldwide will discover the setting for the action and key themes from the forthcoming thriller. Since announcement of broadcasting in April 2009, anticipation for the release of the new sequel featuring this anime’s unforgettable protagonist, Suzumiya Haruhi, has reached epic proportions amongst fans, especially in the online community. The ratings have been equally enthusiastic, predicting that The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi will be the biggest ever hit in anime since records began.

Following the publication of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Kyoto Animation’s other animes Full Metal Panic, AIR, Kanon, Lucky Star, Clannad, Munto and K-ON have all gone on to become multi-million copy international bestsellers. See all the great preview reactions from various press around the world about this revolutionary release:

*facepalm* – Kyon
“Freaking awesome!” – Haruhi
“…” – Yuki
禁則事故です！ – Mikuru
“I LOOOOVE YOU” – Koizumi
“Kyon-kun denwa~” – Imouto
“WTF I DON’T EVEN” – Dan Brown

Also see the reactions from some of the fans:
e8 (1)e8 (2)e8 (3)e8 (4)

Hatsukoi Limited

Hatsukoi Limited

hatsukoi1hatsukoi2hatsukoi3hatsukoi6hatsukoi4hatsukoi5hatsukoi7hatsukoi8

Let me just say this up front. I can’t believe myself. How could I consider Hatsukoi Limited, a stereotypical, fanservice-laden, straightforward series with one-dimensional characters and simplistic plot as one of the best romance animes ever made? This anime panders to the male audience. The girls are of different but typical flavors of hawtness. The guys have their loser qualities just the way it should be in this genre. All of them entangled in a Web 2.0 style relationship chart, which is really the only complex thing in this show. Everything about this spelled “shallow”. “Dumbed down”. “Bland”. “Generic”. Yet with all this negativity… I love this show! I love this anime with an almost guilty, embarassing passion! So to anyone still not intimidated by all the bad things I said about this anime so far, please read on. Let’s try to discover why the hell Hatsukoi Limited is freaking awesome. Let me say that again: Hatsukoi Limited is FREAKING AWESOME!

We begin with a not-so-limited number of boys and girls in middle and high school, the oh-so-typical setting for multiple “first loves” to bloom. And bloom they did, as each episode focuses on one or two girls with their first experiences at this simple, yet confusing feeling called love. If you have any kind of fetish in your 2D girl fandom, they probably have it in this show. We have a cute girl who’s dangerously strong despite the looks. The optimal cool beauty who’s quite a newbie in the love department. The worst (best?) onii-chan complex in any anime ever. The big-bust swimming girl who actually doesn’t like being well-endowed. The cool beauty #2 tennis superstar. The all-systems-completely-normal girl that had the best episode in the anime. And finally, my personal favorite, the ultimate rendition of tsundere. These seven girls are paired with no less than nine guys – the kind yankee, the normal guy, the semi-normal guy, the ero-kappa, the siscon, the anti-siscon, the tennis guy, the swimming guy, and the alpha painter guy. Along with side characters, this provides probably a very confusing relationship chart considering it’s just a 12-episode anime. After a few episodes though, you would eventually get a hold of these characters, simply because they are… er… simple.

The attitudes of each character are so strongly-typed that they seem to give every single cliche in the harem book a run for its money. The girls, they are hot. The guys, most of them are losers in their own domains. How does Hatsukoi Limited succeed then, being the complete encyclopedia of what is right and wrong about harem anime? My answer may be as confusing as “first love” itself! The anime merely “clicked” on me. I read the manga beforehand and I really didn’t think it were anything special. But then the anime came and had this awesome presentation, all elements laid in perfect symphony with each other. The animation, the music, the story pace, all very entertaining. Everytime I watch a single episode, it feels like an event. For many weeks, it had been my Sunday show, getting and watching the raws first before watching the same episode AGAIN with the subs. I would make worthless Twitter posts about how awesome the episode is even if I can’t describe it well within the character limit. In this time when I treat most anime as an “I can always watch an episode later” afterthought, Hatsukoi Limited is the single anime which I just HAVE to watch as immediate as possible. This is indeed, love at first sight.

In Hatsukoi Limited, romance is unlimited. From a simple blush to the heartful embrace, everything is endearing. There is always something innocent and pure about a “first love”, and this series just expresses that in every example that it makes. The way each character learns about love is what made this anime go deeper than its otherwise generic exterior. The development goes beyond the one-dimensional phase of these characters, with them asking each other and even themselves about love. How would I react to a love confession? How could I confess to a childhood friend? How should I serve onii-chan today (this is a joke)? How can I get over my complex and please my love? How can I hold her hand? How can I show him my affections? Why is my love so shallow? Why am I holding on despite her loving someone else? Why me? How can I be a better person? How can I be true to my feelings?

These questions, while simple, feels real. It’s actually the way we deal with emotions in our own lives. When you add these thoughts and self-reflections into the equation, all that shallow and bland exterior goes away. Hatsukoi Limited is a show where you really shouldn’t judge it from its cover. This is not just about fanservice or about unreal situations to fuel any otaku’s wish fulfillments. It’s a show about love, in a simple and complex way, when it is your first time at it.

I highly commend the animators at J.C. Staff for this. This is essentially the spiritual predecessor to any excellent romantic comedy anime that they have made, particularly [Kimikiss ~pure rouge~->kimikiss]. The feel of that series is here, the same “kilig moments” (sweet romantic moments), camera panning cinematography styles, and to how exceptional the music blends with the current scene. They have modified an otherwise normal manga into a highly coherent piece, mixing up multiple storylines to make it less confusing, and even changing some events slightly. I feel rather bad about the original manga actually, because with that complex relationship chart, the series is clearly gunning for a long serialization. But the series was unfortunately cut short due to some reason, and so the ending feels kinda rushed. The anime ended more or less the same way, but the modifications made it completely tolerable. In fact, they made it superior to the original source itself. It’s rare that an anime can go beyond its source material, but somehow with Kimikiss (with its typical bishoujo game roots) and now Hatsukoi Limited, they pulled it off. J.C. Staff is having hit after hit in this genre for quite a while, I should enjoy more of their works.

What else can I say? I really hope I had convinced you to watch this show if you haven’t already. I would admit, part of my excitement about this anime is my own version of overhype, but what’s wrong about that? One of the girls in the series just nailed that point. If you’re in love, you are in love. That’s it. No ifs, no buts. And as one of the songs in the anime goes, it’s just something you feel, and the feeling won’t stop. You want the whole world to know about it, before it fades away hidden within the many other anime people are more likely to watch than this. To me, Hatsukoi Limited is an instant classic. Highly recommended. I hope you feel the same way.

Eroge Recession 2

[Eroge Recession?->]
crapo3

If the first article may have been a result of my personal burnout having lost interest in these kinds of games, I think this time the industry is in a real paradigm shift. Well, this news may have been mostly overlooked by everyone since… well, who among us really do play rape-related eroge anyway? This is a niche genre inside a niche genre inside a niche genre of gaming. I wouldn’t have even known of Rapelay at all if it were not for some over-conservative people who want this game banned, and in effect drove a massive campaign against this niche of a niche of a niche genre of games. I find this rather ironic, because as a result of this sequence of events that eventually led to the [banning or restricting of games in Japan with rape themes->http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-06-02/j-industry-group-agrees-on-rape-game-ban-on-tuesday], the gaming industry itself JUST GOT RAPED.

As I said, most people won’t care about this, and to the two people who are still reading my article, kudos to you because I am about to say why this is very important. As the legendary saying goes… THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS. The vast majority of people, namely the people who don’t understand, refuse to understand, or are co-erced by other people not to dare understand, ruin it for the rest of us. Well, it can’t be helped. We are in this niche genre. Anime is still niche. Heck, even with how big E3 is or how gaming is braving the economic recession tide… gaming is still niche. These two aspects of entertainment that are close to my heart are the current punching bags of our world. It gets blamed for everything wrong in the world, from violence, to immorality, to radical thinking… etc. And we are unable to save it because democracy is the most powerful thing in the world today. Whatever the majority of people want, they get, most of the time.

See, it has some advantages too. When the majority is on our side, the over-conservatives usually stay quiet. This is why violence and sex in games like Grand Theft Auto 4 were allowed. But in something as small as bishoujo gaming, only few would cry for justice. Little do we realize that each step in the wrong direction has some drastic implications for the future. It only started with games with rape, but what would stop them from banning something else? According to this [blog post->http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/06/03/the-fax-from-the-eocs-was-sent-out/], the regulations are clearly set in paper now. Some of those regulations are not related to rape right? Who knows when the next big issue comes in that those rules would be further tightened? Who knows when someday sexual inclinations in games would be further reduced until it shouldn’t exist at all?

It’s not that I need ero in my games. As I said, it’s not my genre. But just like the other issue of [banning everything hentai->philippines-bans-hentai] in my own country, I hate the reality that other people are dictating what I should and shouldn’t experience in life. It hurts to have no freedom in choosing my hobbies. While these bans don’t affect me, the point is they don’t affect me… yet, with the fear that it will definitely affect me someday.

Let me try to bring a positive note to this though. I admit I don’t know everything about the bishoujo gaming industry, but I imagine each game company’s state of shock looking at those reactions from them. Shock… because this time they have to do a little better. They have to be more creative in either avoiding the restrictions or circumventing them. In short, they should see this as an opportunity to change their ways. Make their own paradigm shift. Innovate. Well, they have rested on their laurels for so long after all. Look at [all those bishoujo games->so-many-galge], they have not changed all these years. We are still in 800×600 resolutions. Character designs still resemble each other. Storytelling and characters are just rehashes of each other. Sequels galore. Fandisks abound. Where are those innovations in the game engines? Why are the highest-selling games still the sequels? Why can’t the Da Capo multiverse ever ever die (I heard there’s a [new DCII->http://calamitousintents.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/d-c-ii-to-you/] sidestory coming out)?

Sure, you can pull me back for a while with your sequels for a moment, but if the technology and creativity of this genre doesn’t change, I’m totally out of this market. You want examples of what I think should improve in this bishoujo gaming industry?

– Umm let’s go HD please? Even just widescreen options would be welcome. It shouldn’t be that hard to upconvert a CG either right? But the bigger problem is the simplistic game engines they use. I liked the one [age->] uses in their games, they move and manipulate 2D as if it were pseudo-3D. Lately the games I see have over-simplistic engines, and only rely on the power of their art. What use are pictures if they’re not presented effectively?
– Virtual girlfriend simulation. Games like [this->http://kotaku.com/5243198/]. This time wooing a fictional character shouldn’t just be a simple matter of predetermined decision points. How about incorporating text-based commands first before moving to voice? With some kind of AI engine running a girl’s intricate characterisitics and emotions? Hey, you’ll even help wussies this way by training them for real-life social situations.
– Marketing should be better. This one is hard. They have to open their doors and appeal to newer audiences. They can’t expand their reach unless they do so. Surely, if there are creative games already out there, they must try harder to advertise, because clearly I ain’t hearing them from here.

This is a hard road ahead for everyone of us. I, as a consumer, must do my part as well. For one, we let this restriction in freedom of expression through undetected and undefended. I hope the few still reading this push the awareness further. This is not just about rape games, not about bishoujo games, not about games either. This is about being oppressed by the powers that be. This is about them dictating what is right and what is wrong for us. And someday, this may be about losing our human rights. I don’t like to live in a world like that. But this is not a battle for us to fight for now. I hope that when that time comes, the time when we are directly affected in some way, we should be better prepared for the next wave of battles. Let’s make this a game worth playing.

WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux