Ever since “Equality Now” pulled their little stunt with Japan and sparked an international debate, I’ve been reading more and more about Japan’s histrionically paranoid, xenophobic and isolationist attitude towards the rest of the world. If something happens on an international level, Japan withdraws from the international scene that much more. A great case in point is the Equality Now issue: Someone from England bitched, and suddenly Japanese websites stopped allowing foreign traffic. Many businesses in Japan refuse to do overseas business. A little-reported but mentionable case is when the H1N1 flu started entering the public scene- Japanese people that were out in other countries were encouraged to return to Japan.

Ultimately it’s this attitude that has discouraged me from buying any more games or merchandise from Japan. If I’m not “good enough” because I’m not native, then I’ll spend my hard-earned and hard-saved money elsewhere. Though that won’t stop me from playing.

Being exposed to this attitude has in turn made me aware of it on a larger scale- it’s not exclusively Japanese, and this in turn has made me far more aware of what happens on the international scene. I was recently reading an article about a particular event in France where French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke up against Islamic isolationism in France.

See, here’s how it goes down: Paranoid hate-mongering Islamics immigrate to France. Rather than integrate into the society that has welcomed them in, they instead form isolated ghetto communities that stagnate and putrify. They don’t want help.
From an article I read: “At the heart of the identity crisis plaguing today’s France is a significant immigrant population that refuses to become French, and a multicultural left that has allowed them to live isolated in ghettoes for decades, where many have fallen prey to Muslim preachers of hate.”

This leads to poor, marginalized minorities constantly thinking that “hurr durr the white man is keeping us down” no matter what is done- constantly discouraging themselves to do anything constructive, praying Allah because their parents do, and getting turned into fanatics easily, and indulging themselves into all sorts of criminal activities, all based on “BAAAAW we’re so unhappy, if you don’t let us do whatever we want, you’re a fascist”.

All of this, of course, could be averted if they simply dropped their isolationist attitude and worked towards the idea of one world community.

“Although many have assimilated into French secular society, which Sarkozy applauded, others openly seek to transform France into a Muslim nation and have won allies in the multicultural left.
“France does not demand that you give up your history or your culture,” Sarkozy said. “But France demands of those who would link their fates to hers to also share her history and her culture. France is not hodgepodge of communities or individuals. . . Becoming French means accepting a form of civilization, values, and customs.”
Sarkozy’s definition of those values left no ambiguity from which direction he felt the danger was coming: “France is a country where women are free. France is a country where church is separate from state, and where the beliefs of each person are respected.
“But France is also a country where there is no room for the burka, and where there is no room for the subjugation of women under any circumstance or pretext.”
The French have debated for 25 years whether Muslim women should be allowed to veil themselves in public schools or in public workplaces, as radical Muslim preachers and their supporters on the left have demanded.
Sarkozy ended that debate scarcely one year after becoming president by outlawing the veil in public last year.
In announcing the reform at the time, Sarkozy said he was troubled by the “discriminatory and degrading” Islamist practice of veiling women.
“I don’t want certain neighborhoods to feel more like Kabul or Tehran than France,” he said.
The same day Sarkozy gave his speech on national identity, police turned away a group of women wearing Islamist veils as they attempted to enter the French National Assembly.
Sarkozy took direct aim at radical secularists as well. While calling on immigrants to share French values, he said French men and women have to believe in those values themselves.
“To open our doors to others, we have to have enough confidence in ourselves. We must be sure of our values and of our model,” he said.
“By giving in to moral equivalence that proclaims all values, behaviors and accomplishments to be the same, we strike a blow against the idea of civilization and against society itself,” he said.
And then he warned: “And it is for this reason, my fellow citizens, that anyone who comes to France to call for violence and hatred of the other will be deported.”
If France is having problems with integrating Muslims, “it is not our values that are at fault but our departure from them, at times even our denial of them,” Sarkozy said.”

I believe in this. I believe that there should not be any isolationism. I believe in a free and equitable exchange of ideas, beliefs, and information. I believe in liberation from outmoded and fear- and hate-driven ideologies. In this I express belief that it is not only our individuality, uniqueness and self-identity, but also our willingness to work together across cultural and social boundaries and barriers that gives us our true strength.”

These are the things in this world today. Where everyone tries to live. And here in this world are the things we want: sex and birth, votes and traits. money and guilt, television and teddy bears. But all we’ve actually got is each other.

I was first introduced to Cross†Channel when I started hanging out in one of TLWiki’s irc channels, and the introduction was less than descriptive. I was simply told that it was good and I should play it on that merit alone. What the hell, I’ve got nothing but time. I don’t know what sort of expectations I had when I started Cross†Channel. Well, it’d be safe to say I didn’t actually have any to begin with. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. In fact, it was only when I started the install process (what fun! haha!) that I realized it was the inspiration for that ridiculously insipid-yet-addicting flash game, Nanaca Crash.

Installation/ Patching:

Installation is a breeze, patching is easy, simply run the *.exe.

Menus/ interaction:

I found the hover bar at the top of the page to be a kiss-curse in a way: damned useful but fucking annoying. I feel that they handled the repetitive text the best they could.

My first impression was that the protagonist Taichi was a loon. Irrational, nonsensical, and ridiculously energetic. This is a huge step away from other protagonists I’ve played. The Junker was bluff and no nonsense, Fuminori was cold and calculating, Takumi was cowardly and introspective, Shirou was idealistic, etc. From the very start though, Taichi pointed out (and kept pointing out) that the Gunjou Institute was not a normal school and this was not a normal world.

I initially thought that this was going to be a simple progression of events with a bizarre protagonist, so after a brief assessment of the superficial facts, I chose a girl and moved forward with the expectation that I’d get her in the end. Well, that’s inaccurate. Each week I gain the option to pursue an additional girl, and the story is not linear.

The Girls:

I was presented with the option of pursuing a girl and when presented with that choice, I rejected her. Rejecting her introduced me to Misato, the beautiful sempai. Learning about Misato was like watching a rose bloom. Every layer of gorgeous petals simply opened the way to reveal yet more beautiful petals. I fell for her instantly, and I fell hard. She’s so wonderful, so cute, so amazing. Everything she did was amazing.

On the second iteration, I was once again presented with a choice, and this time I chose Touko. I was hesitant to pursue her in the beginning because she gave off a very strong Tsundere vibe. I’ve never been a fan of the tsundere archetype and was resistant. However, I was impressed. I was impressed and touched. Touko was amazing, regardless of whether it was her bizarre oral fixation or her naïveté, Touko touched me. She touched me in a way beyond what I thought possible; when her week ended I went back not once but several times in an effort to change certain things.

The third week I was given the chance to chase after Kiri Sakura, and so I did. She’s always been cool and displayed a certain animosity towards me, and with Touko’s end still ringing in my ears I could only jump at the chance. To be honest, I’m glad I did. She’s ridiculously fragile and complex, like a puzzle made out of spun glass. Playing through Sakura’s route was a little rough, but it was amazing. I fell so hard for her.

As each route progressed, I was eagerly looking forward to Miki. Miki was this little bundle of flat-chested cheerfulness in every other route. I expected something delightful, and I wasn’t in the least bit disappointed. Miki is indeed a flower, as much a flower as Kiri, and most definitely is Taichi’s pupil in every aspect. She’s also a delight. Her ending was more of a shock than Touko’s or Kiri’s, but so much more rewarding than either. Not only because it revealed so much more than any other route, but because from the beginning to the end everything was simply done in a way that was amazing.

After so much about Youko had been revealed in each route, I was finally given the option of pursuing her. Her route was short and brutal in its simplicity. There was no one else that understood her the same as me. There was no one that understood me the same as her. Everything else was irrelevant.

After each main route, everyone gets a mini-route that answers a lot of questions and concludes a lot of open-ended and ambiguous ends from the previous weeks. They must be completed in order. We get a proper ending and Taichi’s inevitable conclusions and resolution.  Afterwords, we get a credit roll and we finally understand what Cross†Channel is all about, what it really and truly means to cross paths with someone else.

The game touched me in a really amazing way. I haven’t felt this way in a very long time. I was initially going to give it a low score because I didn’t believe it was up to par with other games I’ve played, but ultimately that was wrong. The game is immediately elevated to the top ten. If I could give it a higher score I would. I leave you with several things. Taichi’s recipe for cooking rice, and Miki-Miki with Taichi.

The best way to cook delicious meals:
1. Believe in yourself.
2. Weigh the rice.
3. Each and every grain of rice contains a precious life.
4. With those innumerable lives, people can keep living.
5. But every life will eventually return to the earth.
6. The Earth is Life, just as Life is the Earth.
7. In order to someday bring about new life
8. Long Sci-fi novel “Gaia’s Journey” – Fin
9. Polish the rice and wash it for twenty minutes.
10. The summertime makes me want to eat some incredibly spicy curry.
11. Cook.
12. Stare long and hard at the fire, letting dangerous thoughts soak into your body OR remembering comrades-in-arms who gave their lives to protect you (Two choices)
13. Once cooked, steam upside down for ten minutes.
14. Super delicious rice is born.

Off and on I hear about our favorite anti-free speech, pro-censorship feminist group Equality Now attempting to do away with all sorts of things they arbitrarily deem offensive, all around the world. I don’t claim to have my thumb on the pulse of events, and most certainly I don’t have any sort of reputable information to present, but this is what I’ve heard:

First, we know that they forced japan to essentially fuck themselves in the ass. Well, the Japanese fucked themselves in the ass, because they bent over for the giant gaijin penis. err, vagina. Whatever. The Japanese should have told the histrionic feminist group to get fucked, get back to the kitchen, and then slapped them in the face with their constitutional rights. To climb on a moral LAWFUL GOOD soapbox here, it doesn’t matter if I find rape games to be disgusting or reprehensible, the constitutional law says they can be made and sold to the adults that want them and that right cannot be infringed upon. Period. Equality Now should have been told to fuck off.

Secondly, and apparently most recently, (no verifiable sources on this one, sorry) Equality Now has decided that what they’ve done simply is not enough. “Japan is a nation which accepts hentai. This encourages rape so hentai must be banned. Rapelay was withdrawn from sale, the EOCS banned all fetishes, and some companies have banned foreigners from their websites. This is not enough. The Japanese government must ban everything we object to and make it all illegal. The UN must tell the Japanese to do as we direct.” Of course, they also say, “Women should not have to resist sex to be able to call it rape.” which opens up a whole different direction of irrationality and misandric terrorism. I can see it now: “he raped me.” “no, it was consensual.” “I don’t have to say no, fight back, disagree, or otherwise express an unwillingness to have sex, I can simply decide that it was rape and it is so.”

Let’s sort of set that to the side here for a brief bit. One thing I can’t help but do is draw a parallel between this… ridiculous campaign and jack Thompson’s equally ridiculous campaign against violence in video games. Same medium of entertainment, same question of artistic expression, etc. But I will show you a couple of things I’ve picked up in my travels through the internet and I’d like to ask you to consider a few things.
First, rape has gone down since the early nineties.(Source) This roughly coincides with the increase of VCRs and VHS distribution of porn. There’s no direct correlation that says that as sales of porn videos have gone up, rape has gone down, but it’s damn suggestive.

Second, Violent crime has also gone down since the early nineties (Source) which again also roughly coincides with a larger market penetration of ‘violent’ console and PC games. Again, no direct correlation between violent crimes and violent games here, but as I said before, it’s suggestive.

So, putting two and two together, we can see the direction Equality Now is taking is a bad one. However, the Japanese have a bit of a passive-aggressive inferiority complex, which means that if a vocal histrionic and irrational minority like EN says something should be banned, they will willingly and happily legislate it out of existence without so much as a whimper of resistance- and then they’ll angrily mutter under their breaths about how it’s EN’s THE FILTHY GAIJIN’S fault. Simply put: Equality Now is a bunch of fucked-up and histrionic cunts, and the Japanese are servile spineless fags. What a great combination.

If there’s one particular franchise I’ve never quite had an interest in, it’s the Shuffle! Franchise. I watched the anime back in 2005 and up until the tail end when Kaede goes yandere. Suddenly it got a whole lot more interesting! Ahahaha~! Though if you were willing to sit through twenty-two episodes of doormat, tool, and generic, utilitarian plot with the consistency of runny eggs, then I suppose you deserve what you get. The anime ended as badly as you can imagine with a trite, cliché, and thoroughly un-enjoyable conclusion. This soured me on the series, on the game, and the franchise in general. That and it’s most vocal proponents are perhaps the most histrionic retards.

Mercifully, I forgot all about Shuffle. I picked up the translated game… I’m not sure why. I went on sabbatical from playing ren’ai and visual novels for a few months because I could no longer feel the magic. Anyway, I picked up the translated game the other day. I struggled with myself and decided to play it. No guts no glory, and sometimes you have to suffer so that you can ultimately appreciate something else even more.

Menus/ interface: First off, I don’t particularly like the default settings. The music was too loud, the text didn’t appear quick enough, and the menus were a bizarre and motley collection of nigh-incomprehensible sliding bars. The font was faint and barely visible. There was no cute game cursor. After spending more time than necessary configuring and customizing things to my liking, I started playing. (4/10)

Story: I want to say that the story is as bland as it was in the anime, but that would be wrong. Ultimately it’s worse. You find yourself going back over the same territory over and over again, rehashing the same plot details over and over and over, ad nauseum. Skipping text you’ve already read is a given, but I spent more time skimming through text I’d already read than actually getting to individual story. Ultimately a very bland and unrewarding experience, especially as the already-read text seems to multiply with each route completed. Whomever decided to “decensor” the game really, truly, and strongly needs to take a class on human anatomy. Barring that, they need to watch a porno. Things don’t work that way (or look that way). Story-wise, the world is flat and two-dimensional. I’ve played a variety of other games and if you took the characters away, you can see the world behind them. A strongly shining example of this is Planetarian. If you took the Junker and Hoshino Yumemi out of Planetarian, you could still see beyond them, see the city, and see the world as it was, but the world of Shuffle is simply a contrivance. Tripping flags is ridiculously easy and the choices available have no effect on the inevitable conclusion except that it locks you into a specific route. Once you’re locked in, you can skim the text, collect the ending, and move on to the next girl. Speaking of girls… (2/10)

Sia: I went through her route somewhat baffled that I was interacting more with Primula and Nerine and Kaede more than with her… up until the point that I bagged her. Her … plot twist was lackadaisical and didn’t seem to have any real tangibility. Ultimately, I didn’t like her. The only benefit to playing her route was that her voice was different than the anime and it didn’t grate as badly. I apparently didn’t have a lot to say about Sia during my playthrough; my notes seem to only mention her a few times. “Oh God Sia is stupid. She’s about as dumb as a sack of hammers. Hahaha, logic 1, girl 0.” Her ending is as baffling as it is insipid and destroyed any hope of redemption for her. (3/10)

Kaede: I played Kaede with some trepidation; To give fair credit where credit was due, I tried my best to like her, but I dislike her very strongly. My notes reflect this, at length. “She’s such a fucking tool. “I’m a gaping vagina that exists solely for the purpose of Rin-kun”  Oh fuck, there she goes again. “I have no self identity, I simply exist to be useful to you.” What the fuck girl. Oh for fucks sake girl, you’re fucking retarded. just kill yourself. God, Kaede’s obsequiesness is disgusting. Fuck, Kaede sounds a lot like Mikuru from Haruhi- Oh god, she is. No wonder I can’t stand her. I think Kaede-chan has sort of a persecution complex: she feels he should reject or punish her or take advantage of her, but he doesn’t. Of course Kaede is also a retard, so there’s that, too. I’m fairly certain that her childhood illness (lol) scrambled her brains and she was never actually able to grow up as a normal child. Maybe I’m a bit jaded and cyhnical, but she gets no sympathy or pity from me. She’s just a retard, herp derp. Oh, finally got some Kaede time. Wait, what the fuck is this shit? “I’ll hate you if you don’t”? She’s a fucking retard. And a slut. a trite, manipulative whore that needs her meatsocket to be filled in order to think she’s a verifiable human being. God, her ingratiating servility is disgusting. I want to puke twenty years of cigarette tar directly into her mouth. She’s the worst kind of woman. She takes away the entire valuation of being a man. How can a man feel like a man if he’s expected to do jack shit? “use my body, take advantage of my kindness, capitalize on my retardation but don’t love me.” God what a fucking piece of work. I was right about the persecution complex. “To serve Rin-kun is my life!” What fucking outrageous stupidity.” (1/10)

Asa: I remember I liked her in the anime, up to the end, when she just became repetitive and stupid. The game is a lot like this, but because of the story bloat and all the “skip previously read portions” I was simply marking time until I could read through her arc. She was awkward in her femininity and responded to certain inquiries like a tsundere. Certain elements of her arc (namely unnecessary bloat) kept me from liking her. When there wasn’t crap in the way of her story, her arc seemed contrived. There’s this block of time between “I’m interested in someone else” and my kiss with Asa that is completely devoid of interaction with her. From zero to hero in a couple weeks? I don’t fucking think so. Then things started balancing out and I was daring to hope, but no. crash and burn. In the final result, I was wanting a Kareha route more because she was far more entertaining. Ama and Kareha made this route shine, but unfortunately the route wasn’t about them. (4.5/10)

Nerine: Surprisingly, all throughout Sia, Kaede, and Asa’s routes, I was always sort of eyeing Nerine. When I played through her, though, my first thought was “Start a new route, skip through blue text.” The blue text being, of course, shit I’ve already read before. The blue text kept going and going and going. The game starts June 13th and her route-specific content doesn’t actually start until July 22nd, and that was a five-minute scene at the pool. Afterword she seems to display the same sniveling, cringing, eager-to-please meatsocket philosophy that Kaede seems to personify. However,  in the tiny amounts of story we get while sifting through the already-read bloat, you catch glimpses of a potentially decent character that doesn’t suffer Kaede’s crippling flaws- there’s a world of difference between sniveling servility and devotion. But because you don’t get anything you haven’t already seen until mid-august, she falls flat. Her ending drama is very much in tune with Sia’s, Kaede’s, and Asa’s- female irrationality heaped atop poor writing and straw logic. (4/10)

Primula: Throughout my playthroughs, I never once considered Primula’s route. I can appreciate judicious use of a token loli, but there was never anything through any other route that said Primula was worth pursuing in the slightest. She’s also the last route in my playthrough, so with that in mind, the deck has already been stacked against her. Primula in a school swimsuit is appropriate in her type of appeal, but it simply seems I’m being pandered to. “Here is a token loli. It’s expected you’d see her in these things and doing these things, so here she is, doing those things.” I feel patronized and insulted. She wants validation and affection, I respond by giving her penis. LOGICAL CHOICE. (2/10)

Twenty-five years ago, if I had been asked about romance, I probably would have replied “That’s icky stuff, girls are gross.” Twenty years ago, I would have said, “cards, candy, flowers” …essentially the staples of any Valentine’s Day.Fifteen years ago, I would have said the previous, but added in secluded dinners for two, fireplaces, getaways, etc.

When you get older you understand it’s not just a matter of giving of material gifts, but it’s also to a certain extent ‘being thoughtful’ and paying attention to the complex, bizarre, mostly contradictory and irrational wants and desires of your partner. And then satisfying those desires with material objects and emotional validation. Women need to be reassured that they’re still attractive. Women need to be reassured that they’re still sexy. Women need to be reassured that they’re still appreciated. Women need to be reassured that they’re still women.

You see it all in contemporary television, and if you look at it with a scrutinizing eye, you see the ever-popular scene: man forgets anniversary or birthday or valentines day or whatever, and becomes a nervous wreck buying a last-minute present that he hopes will appease the woman. Maybe my chauvinism is showing a little, but I can see that scene in dozens of different dramas and sitcoms and errata- women are being programmed to expect unnecessary amounts of gifts. Women are idols that must be sacrificed unto. Men are stupid, bumbling idiots that have to be reminded of their place: which is to say sacrificing hard-earned money and groveling at the feet of the woman in the hopes that she deigns to grant him the use of her vagina.

There are solutions, though. By not buying into the shallow, materialistic ideas of romance perpetuated by the misandric feminist movement, by not collapsing into complacency and pursuing your girl consistently, by consistently providing attention, affection and appreciation, you can avoid emasculating yourself (and your wallet) for the sake of the almighty vagina. Alternatively, the Japanese have come up with a unique solution: simply abandoning women in totality.

The guru of the 2-D love movement, Toru Honda, a 40-year-old man with a boyishly round face and puppy-dog eyes, has written half a dozen books advocating the 2-D lifestyle. A few years ago, Honda, a college dropout who worked a succession of jobs at video-game companies, began to use the Internet to urge otaku to stand with pride against good-looking men and women. His site generated enough buzz to earn him a publishing contract, and in 2005 he released a book condemning what he calls “romantic capitalism.” Honda argues that romance was marketed so excessively through B-movies, soap operas and novels during Japan’s economic bubble of the ’80s that it has become a commodity and its true value has been lost; romance is so tainted with social constructs that it can be bought by only good looks and money. According to Honda, somewhere along the way, decent men like himself lost interest in the notion entirely and turned to 2-D. “Pure love is completely gone in the real world,” Honda wrote. “As long as you train your imagination, a 2-D relationship is much more passionate than a 3-D one.” Honda insists that he’s advocating not prurience but a whole new kind of romance. If, as some researchers suggest, romantic love can be broken down into electrical impulses in the brain, then why not train the mind to simulate those signals while looking at an inanimate character?

I have to say, since watching the Evangelion series ten or more years ago, I really hated it. Couldn’t stand it.

A random bowl of bullshit and sophistry and pseudo-psychological and pseudo-religious babble revolving around a simple story of people that are ultimately and fundamentally broken? What’s to like, right? I think listening to TEN YEARS of rabid and histrionic prepubescent fanboys (and post-pubescent too!) slavering and masturbating to something that was mediocre at best has got to be the worst part of Eva- the second being the almost auto-cannibalistic release and re-release and re-re-release of “new versions”. Who here remembers the collector’s series white VHS tapes? ($30 each!) The black box DVD set? The metal black box DVD set? The White DVD pack? Gold Edition? Deluxe Edition? Deluxe edition with 30 second more footage? Deluxe Edition with Director’s cut? Platinum? Platinum thinpack? Those two things made me hate Evangelion the most. It’s an average story, overhyped and overmarketed. But in all honestly, I think that the first and second movies have redeemed the show in ways that may not necessarily be readily apparent.

I think there are certain things you can’t look at directly, at least not at first. You must first glance sideways, examine things laterally. Look at the edges. Examine principles of effect and causalities. Find trends and values and from all of the outlying data begin to coalesce the fundamental core of what you are seeking. Look at footprints, fingertips and strands of hair, only then can you dare lift your eyes and truly understand all of it. So it’s with that that I watched Evangelion 01 You are (not) alone and Evangelion 02: You can (not) advance.

There are certain things that one must think of as “necessary” when you think of the series of Rebuild movies; and most specifically, the second one.  The expectations have already been set with previews, promos and hype:

• First, that there’s a new pilot we never saw in the series. Mari. We’ve got that, and it’s fine.
• Second, that Asuka shows up, and accordingly, so does Unit 02. She has, and that’s fine.
• Angels will show up and die. Okay, we’ve got that covered.
• Gendo’s keikaku doori.
• Bizarre insertions of random religious symbology.

The lesser-known but still necessary elements, though, are the things that bring home to us the realization that while it may be done with new technology, better animation, smoother transitions, amazing music, and such and so forth, this is still, irrevocably an evangelion movie. Like Asuka’s ubiquitous ‘Anta, baka?‘. Or, perhaps Misato’s enthusiastic beer-chugging and self-satisfying war-whoop at it’s completion- I believe that details like this flesh out and draw up the phenomenon known as Evangelion.

I’m going to admit it, I’m a slut for the almost…. pornographic level of detail that goes on in the background. Buildings raising and lowering, solar panels turning to catch the rays, cars moving, clouds shifting, escalators churning away. Even in this badly captured cam, you can still see beyond the mundane and appreciate the less obvious. One of the things that’s only hinted at, viscerally, throughout the eva franchise, is just how big the complex that houses NERV and the EVAs really is. If you’re not specifically looking for it, you will miss the important detail- it’s huge. Staggeringly huge. Mind-bogglingly huge. And that’s something you can clearly grasp in the second movie.

Another detail that we’ve got to learn before we can raise our eyes to the sightline, is not something we can see, but instead we have to hear it. The music. A large part of the pacing and overall mood of all iterations of the movies and the series and such has been the music. Prior to watching Evangelion back before I got married, I had never heard so much ‘brass’ in a show. Blaring trumpets and trombones and tubas and such; Rebuild brings in new iterations of these same tracks with different instruments to create a heartfelt similar yet audibly different, experience.  That’s not to disregard the strings. Most certainly not. There are string movements in the movie that awe-inspiringly dramatic and only serve to apply elements to the story we may not immediately see if we were to look at the movie straight on.

If watching the series, simply look straight at it. There is nothing beyond the obvious. There are no magic suppositions or deeper meanings except the ones that you yourself impose. Ray Bradbury once said, “My stories are often open-ended so that the reader can draw his own conclusions.” and while you have the freedom and encouragement to seek a deeper meaning, there really isn’t. If you’re watching the Rebuild movies, don’t look at them straight on. The story hasn’t changed in new or dramatic ways- you’re not missing anything. Instead pay attention to the things you wouldn’t normally think of, and ultimately the true reward will present itself: the redemption of an otherwise shit franchise.

When Tinfoil mentioned that he was looking for QC’ers for the Chaos;head RC2 patch, I went ahead and jumped on it. hanging out with them on their irc channel and listening to them talk about various problems and searching for workarounds, it really helps cement in your mind tha tthis isn’t as loose and as disorganized as many people seem to believe.

Some time ago, someone affiliated with a game translation group mentioned that wiki-driven and community-driven projects were doomed to failure, and that only dedicated groups with staff would be able to turn out any sort of … product. He went on to castigate everyone at TLWiki, wretched hive of scum and villainy, so on and so forth. Now, admittedly, I haven’t spent but one day with TLWiki, but there doesn’t seem to be the sort of disorganization, chaos, or what-have-you that he predicted.

Anyway, getting back to the central part, I’m QC’ing the RC2 with the expectation that I’ll be grammar-nazi-ing the text. this means I’ll be playing through it again, something I’ve been hesitant about doing. To be frank, I’ve been hesitant about playing any game, I’ve reached a point where a sabbatical is necessary. I love the game though, and I want to help, so it’s time I leave Elba and get back into it. I can only hope that I don’t end up returning to St. Helena to complete my exile, hahaha.

Coming back to the ren’ai/ visual novel/ eroge genre, the big thing that’s on the lips and hearts of the entire community is the rather … dramatic actions that have been going down. I can’t summarize very well- No, I can, but this sums it up succinctly, taken from sankaku complex.

An Irish rag on a slow news day picks up the story that importers have been selling Rapelay via Amazon. The theme is that the game encourages rape and is child pornography.

Amazon completely drops the product, including in Japan. Other retailers soon follow suit.

Feminist busybody group “Equality Now”, which organises spam campaigns to keep its members busy without actually having to deal with problems directly, targets the game, accusing it of human rights violations and telling the Japanese government it should be banning this sort of thing, like low crime paradises such as the UK.

The developers tell the foreign feminists to get lost.

Soon after the Rapelay developers cave in and completely remove the game from distribution.

Equality Now’s Japanese lawyer (the group has no presence in Japan) drums up anti-eroge media attention.

A Japanese diet member, an avowed feminist, picks up on the scandal and starts calling for a ban. Objections start with the opposition and minor parties and soon the ruling party jumps onto the bandwagon.

A “study group” is organised to decide how best to ban the games.

Broadcaster TBS falsely reports that the EOCS has banned the games.

The EOCS bans the games.

Personally, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit from a bunch of histrionic women that have nothing better to do than meddle in other peoples’ lives. I have low opinions of feminists as it is: a vocal group of women looking to work at cross-purposes to any other suggestion excepting their own agenda, namely that of the bitterly vengeful subjugation of the evil opressive patriarchy. A shame they can’t channel that energy towards more positive, constructive pursuits- after all, that sammich won’t make itself.

Getting back to it, though, my view is this: a woman in britainland arbitrarily decides that a fictitious game is the root of all evil, and campaigns for its removal. Any sane society would have told ‘Equality Now’ to get fucked. I’d like to point out the rough parallel Jack Thompson made with his (equally ridiculous) hate-parades on violent video games being the source of all the world’s sores. Unfortunately, Eroge makers have pretended to be good little dead goldfish and have shown their bellies, resulting in regulation and censorship on more or less, an unregulated industry. Now where will I find a game that lets me whip a pooping catgirl? Without caving to hysteria or running off the deep end, this sort of sets a dangerous precedent. After all, we’re talking about the censorship of fiction and fantasy. This is something to be concerned with.

The result of this censorship has been less than stellar. A few companies have started blocking non-japanese IP addresses. This is the wrong thing to do. It was japanese legislation, it was japanese politics, it was japanese corporate interest that censored them- however foreign fans feel the brunt. The Japanese should have told Equality Now to get fucked, get back to the kitchen, and then slapped them in the face with their right to freedom of speech. Foreign fans should not be punished because of local ineptitude. Instead, we get xenophobic statements like

Some foreigners seem to be having an antipathy against EROGE.
Therefore, We prohibited the access from foreign countries, to defend our culture.

And let’s not forget,

PLEASE PLAY THE GAME OF YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU PRAY FOR THE WORLD PEACE!:-)?

So the conclusion that can be drawn from this is… Gobots suck.

Tsukihime:

I’ve been debating writing the review for the longest time. I’ve talked about the game off and on (and at great length, I might add)but actually writing a review… that’s heavy work. Heavy. I really like this game, and I’ll easily put it in my top ten games to play. It’s got depth, substance, and the characters are great. To cut down on my workload, I’ll be taking excerpts from my ramblings in other places.

The game divides into two portions: the Near Side and the Far Side. Near Side involves the two Arcueid and Ciel routes and your dealings with them, while the Far Side takes things closer to home and involves your sister Akiha, and the maids Hisui and Kohaku. I have been told that word for word, Tsukihime has more text than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and I figure that’s enough reading to satiate anyone’s desire to read, read, and read some more.

On my own experience with Tsukihime, story-wise: I only had the barest of ideas- no, not ideas- unformed concepts about what I was getting into. Starting the Arcueid route, I was blown away by how things went from “this is who I am, this is what I’m doing” to “holy fuck shit crap, what the fuck just happened?”Things moved on from there, and got better and better. I got a feel for the world really quickly. The disparity between Arcueid’s nature and her personality was amazingly well-expressed. If Arcuied’s route and Ciel’s route were two sides of the same coin, I have to say that while Arcueid’s route was well defined and written, the complementary side (Ciel’s) didn’t reach me as well as Arc’s did. Once you’ve played through the Near Side routes, you unlock access to the Far Side Arcs.

The first route of the Far Side arcs I played through was Akiha’s, following through the natural (intended) play order. I had expected that when I played through Akiha’s story that there would be a reconciliation but instead I got a completely different story altogether. When I played through it back in December of ‘06, I wasn’t interested or particularly attentive, not to mention she wasn’t easy to like at all. I replayed parts of her route just the other day, though, and no one was more surprised than me when I discovered that not only could I understand her better, but I also started to… appreciate her motivations. I still don’t like her very much at all, but… well.

When I played through Arcueid’s, Ciel’s and Akiha’s routes, I was sort of… I don’t know… brusque to Hisui. Maybe a little rude. I figured, “Well, when I play through her arc, I’ll make it up to her.” Jesus Christ, wrong assumption to make. It wasn’t so much being nicer to her as it was fucking with an abused puppy. You give it a little food, coax it to let you pet it, and then you kick it. You repeat the process. Oh, man. I felt fucking bad. “Hisui, come here, I need help” followed by “Arrrg! don’t touch me, I hate you, go away!” … rinse, repeat. That was part of it. But at the same time, coaxing Hisui out of her reticence and hesitation, to the point where she eventually made her decision at the end to be by Shiki’s side was amazing. From the first time that I played the game to the last time a couple days ago, I’ve loved Hisui. She’s sweet, simple, and wonderful. By far and above she’s number one in my book, above any other character in any other game.

I can’t remember who told me, or when or where, but it was made mention to be wary of Kohaku. I had this… sort of visceral wariness of her when I finally did play Tsukihime that always put me on edge whenever I was around her and I didn’t know why. I have to say that if Hisui is my favorite because she fulfills me, then I’d have to say Kohaku is also a favorite (though not as much as Hisui) because she challenged me. Dynamic, emotional, dangerous, exciting. Kohaku comes as a close second to Hisui in the game, but for opposing reasons to Hisui. If Hisui was a refreshing beverage that put you at ease, Kohaku was a spicy dish that made you sweat!

Menus: moving around the game is a breeze. Saving, loading, skipping ahead, etc are all easy to do. Clean and simple interface.

Patch, Patching: My copy was pre-patched, I didn’t have to do anything. Yours may be different. Oh well.

I’ve put off writing this review because it’d ultimately force me to return to the game. No, no, no. Don’t misunderstand, don’t get me wrong. This game is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever made the statement “X game is the best, and no other.” If so, then I apologize, I’m going to break that statement. Overall I don’t have a particular favorite per se. To be frank, I judge on the quality of the story, not superiority or comparison over another. Well, I try not to, at least.

Getting back to it, this game hit me in a fundamental way that I don’t think I’ll be able to convey without describing large portions of my internal makeup, something I’m disinclined to do at this point. Nevertheless, I found this game had a tremendous amount of quality.

However, I’ll let you in on a secret: When I play a particular game (game is subjective, but work with me here, okay?) I have it running on one monitor, and a notepad doc open on the other. As I play, I take notes. What’s going on in-game, and how I’m reacting to what’s happening. I can’t possibly post the notes here, for one alot of personal shit is mixed in with it, as well as tremendous fucking spoilers, (not to mention it’s hugecat huge) but I’ll post excerpts in the hopes that perhaps you and I will maybe come a little closer to understanding Chaos;Head.

Now that I’ve gone through the opening (great music, BTW), This is awesome shit right here. The way things move visually- I hate to use evocative, but it is. It’s dizzying, when things move around, because it’s done first person. Things move and seem like you really are Takumi seeing them. Should I feel bad because some of the figures he has on his shelf are the same figures I have, or wanted to buy?

For me, I was captivated. I’d been hesitant to play the game, both because of the patch (more on that in a bit) but because, well, Nitro+ has a certain … well, noteriety. Not only that, but when people start going on and on and on about something, I tend to hate it out of spite. Boy howdy did people talk about it, and at length. I finally succumbed, however, and tried it out. Regarding the music- It was really great.

A metal stake… CLANG CLANG CLANG oh god not the music. Dude, fucking leave. This isn’t the time to be hanging out and listening to someone play “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong DAY!” Just leave. Go. Get the fuck out of Dodge. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, just GO. Oh god. I’m done for. BAD END, right? Glad? What? Why is she glad? Awfully happy, too. And bloody. I can’t see anything in her eyes, her face is unreadable. Am I dead? Will I die? Is this one of his delusions? She knows me by name and she knows my school and she’s wearing the uniform.

I’m referring, of course, to this scene. All of the little details that were occuring as the scene played out kept unnerving me. One other thing that set Chaos;head apart from my more recent games. I felt directly involved. It’s hard to connect to a character when there’s future robots, or incomprehensible mgics, or things things like that. The main lead, Takumi, is not an admirable lead. In fact, getting into Taku’s head is like slipping on a glove that had jelly inside. slimy and disgusting. Combining that with the overall disturbing, somewhat nervous, paranoid aspect of the game, when things happen, I was reacting.

Holy- If I have the stake, then it must be real, right? Wait a second. Let’s think this through logically. If there really WAS a gory murder, a New Gen murder, and it was done with those stakes, me having one in my posession implicates me. Disregarding fingerprints and all, if she didn’t leave any prints and I was caught out I’d be fucked, true and proper. If I got rid of it, and the police went looking for evidence, and a helpful garbage man found it and turned it in, then again, because of prints, I’d be implicated.

When I saw the stake for the second time, I had this little brainstorm. Fairly self-evident, right? Immediately after typing this out, Takumi thought the exact same thing. Not a big deal, normally, but when I was in the game, the parallel in our thought processes not so much the content but drawing the lines to the conclusions, the processes behind it, that freaked me out and drew me in that much more.

Thoughts on the womenfolk:

Aoi Sena: Sena was a difficult girl to like. Very tsun, difficult to know or understand. I felt more and cared more for her mother than Sena, but there were some moments when she was delightful.

Kusunoki Yua: It’s hard to put into words exactly what about her I liked or disliked. Every step along the way, from beginning to end, she was there, she evoked a response from me, be it amusement, nervousness, shock, consideration, moe. The way she moved, in my mind, from trusted to untrustworthy band back again really affected me. Her “awakening” seemed separate from her, detached, and I wish I’d been given more clues.

Kishimoto Ayase: Just like Yua, it’s hard to describe just what about FES I liked so much. I dunno. Despite her cool exterior, despite her defenses, I really liked her. No, I think I know why I liked her. Part of it was the singing; I’m a sucker for a sweet voice and hers was crystal clear. Part of it was her restraint, part of it was the sheer enigma of her. When you get to her part, the website of the hospital that is linked on @chan is real, and loli-FES is cute~

Orihara Kozue: I just didn’t like Kozu-pii that much. I mean, out of all of them I’d encountered, I’d trusted her more than Sena, Yua, Ayase, and Rimi, but I couldn’t like her. Part of it was her external personality No. It was the disparity between her external personality and her internal personality that jarred on me. Also, her voice grated on my nerves, along with all the upuu~ hanyuu~ and whatall else she added into her speech.

Sakihata Rimi: She takes #2 in how much I liked her, but only by the barest of margins. The way she kept me on edge, flip-flopping between being kind and sweet and cold and untrustworthy, and finally reaching an end with her (apparently she’s the heroine and all) was so amazingly well done. The feeling of “I could trust her. Wait. What was she doing? Is she plotting something? Oh, she’s not suspicious at all, no, wait!” through the entire thing was so awesome. It was the journey I made with her that made is so rewarding, so enjoyable. Riding that mix of paranoia and hope, fear and empathy from start to finish was simply amazing. When Taku was at the darkest points, when things couldn’t get any worse, those clear, openhearted moments of pure human kindness made me fall so hard for her.

Nishij? Nanami: By far and above, #1 in my book. From start to finish, there wasn’t anything at all I didn’t like. She’s a good girl. No crazies, really! Her honest purity is soothing, I mean, come on I’ve been having to deal with Taku’s shit for a while and frankly, Nanami was a breath of fresh air. Beginning, middle, and end, she was simply amazing. Part of it, I suppose, was the fact that she was one hell of a moe-bullet, but from start to finish she was wonderful. An excellent contrast to Taku. I’m not a fan of tsundere, but her bouts of mild tsundere were well orchestrated and that was actually a part of why it is I liked her so much. I regret being unable to share her fish sandwich. I would have.

Overall this game was superior to most I’ve played. Rich and rewarding, disturbing and hillarious. There were a surprising amount of things in the game that exist on “teh interwebs”, making it alot more… interactive than I’m used to, but in an excellent “I’m participating in the story” sort of way. on a 1-10, I’d give it a solid 10.

Patching: It is complicated, and it’s very much an effort. Also, it’s clearly and blatantly a beta patch. It’s a shining fucking example of why I refuse to help people with patching problems. If you can’t get it to work, don’t ask me, because I had problems too.

Downloadables? You bet! I’ve packaged up Nanami’s ringtone, Suwa’s ringtone, and Let Me Pass into *.mp3 format, so you too can use them for your own nefarious preferences. Right click, save as. Link verified working as of 12/19/2008.

Whose eyes are those eyes?

I propose that irregardless of the physical existence of the individual, a societal existence is wholly reliant upon societal recognizance. To wit, if no one in your society knows of your existence, you don’t exist. The society typically has measures in place: citizenship, birth certificates, census, taxes and tributes, educational and employment records, marriage records, and death certificates and notifications. Identity is clearly and obviously established only through societal recognition, irregardless of your own individual accomplishments. Who would acknowledge your society-given rights if you had none of the aforementioned documentation? There is at no point in your involvement with the society when there isn’t a clear and obvious placement within the society, so therefore, the society creates recognition and acknowledgement, bringing us full circle: the society creates your existience.

“Laws come from people when the need arise(s)” And this is true. Refer back to my earlier statement: “Organization of a society means rules.” The individual in any given society has a vested interest in said society, but there exists a need for rules and regulations that establishes a clear-cut delineation between what is good for the society and what poses a detriment to said society. To wit: killing another member of the society threatens the existence of said society, therefore it should not be sanctioned.

From this we can derive several things: Firstly, the individual (further termed citizen, for brevity)  that has a vested interest in the survival of the society would be appropriate in creating and enforcing the jurisdiction of the society’s influence. To wit: If you contribute to the society through service, deed, donation, or merit, then you have the right to propose laws.

Secondly, the aforementioned citizen has the right and responsibility to enforce the laws through corrective action and the propagation of information. To wit: reporting a crime, and educating your offspring on what constitutes a crime and why they should avoid such activities.

Finally, the citizen also has the right and responsibility to dispose of laws. Rulings that are outmoded, contradictory, or destabilize the society should be corrected and resubmitted or removed outright.

In conclusion the valuation of a citizen is the ability to propose how they should be governed, enforce that government, and change or nullify the governing of the society in order to protect and ensure the survivability of the society.

Going forward, we’ve determined that a citizen is a valued member of the society he inhabits because he contributes to its well-being. Therefore the question “Does man exist to serve society, or does society exist to serve man?” is rendered almost meaningless; the symbiotic nature of the citizen and his society answers the question clearly. The man protects and provides for the continued well-being of the society he inhabits and in turn the society protects and provides for the well being of the citizen. The caveat being that the society is much larger than the individual and thus ultimately more important than the individual.

To be continued in Part Three: The Society