At the risk of setting off any local rivalries, I am pretty certain that the center of the riichi (Japanese rule) mahjong boom in America is right here in New York City. To bring up just one point, I don’t think you’d see a large, dedicated riichi parlor
movies
This week I decided to go see the Masters of The Universe (He-Man) movie on a cheap matinee before it drops out of theaters, which might already have happened by the time you read this. The trailer for this movie was a constant presence before nearly every film I
video games
An emulator setup is kind of a project— a project of finding files, dragging and dropping them at great volume, and fiddling with settings— so I want to make an early impressions post on my new AYN Thor handheld before I make a final review. Why did I need a
I previously mentioned taking up Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond and having a pretty fun time returning to trading card games after frauding my way up to the top ranks of MTG: Arena way back during the pandemic. I had played the original Shadowverse— which is modeled after Hearthstone, with more Magic-
the trembling right hand
I say this despite the last feature on this newsletter being a slam review of a promising but ultimately disappointing anime: I don’t really like to write negative reviews, not anymore. I would rather not be let down in the first place. And I don’t really like to
anime
This anime is shallow pulp, utterly confident that it’s an art film. By the time this season ends— by copying the “congratulations” scene from Evangelion, infuriatingly satisfied with itself— I was yelling at the screen. “This isn’t profound!”
arcade games
I saw Yoko Kanno in Brooklyn One thing about getting into middle age is that the culture starts targeting you. The pop music of your childhood starts playing at the pharmacy and in car commercials. The old-guy references on TV shows start to be about stuff your old ass
Akanebanashi anime premiere came with Actual Rakugo I was pretty busy this past week; all my plans turned out to be for this particular week in April. Any other week this would have been the highlight: I got to see a pre-broadcast premiere of the new anime adaptation of
I found I actually did have room for some shorts this week; here they are. Rave Racer I don’t think I’ll get as obsessive about grinding out Rave Racer (the first true Ridge Racer sequel, out for consoles for the first time in the Arcade Archives series) as
The whole fighting game community has been talking about online ranked match lately, because the more you grind ranked match, the more you come to hate it. We’ll all eagerly tell you so; probably too eagerly for our own good. After the dopamine rush of rising through the ranks
anime
YOU NEED HEART TO PLAY THIS GAME 気持ちがレイムじゃモノホンプレイヤーになれねえ
manga
I’m not sure I can really call it a criticism that these guys don’t act like any guys I’ve ever met, gay or straight. But I also suspect that this is one of those things you can file under “feature, not flaw” for the actual target reader.