I kind of forget that things are coming up, or that they happened two weeks ago, or indeed my position in space and time. So it was a last-minute thing when I asked my buddies if I could tag along with them to Anime NJ++, a very small convention run
Legendary animator Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite, Mezzo Forte) dreams of girl assassins blasting their way through massive, bloody action movie set-pieces. A craftsman and a perfectionist, he looks to create the platonic ideal of a popcorn form, flawless in every detail from the fluttering of a jacket, to the precise shape
If you’re of a certain age, games using live-action movie footage snap your brain to the “full motion video” fad of the 90s and the middling games that resulted from it. (Or Dragon's Lair, if you're a Gen-Xer.) I had a Sega CD as a
As evidenced by the tears of so many Like a Dragon series players, it’s kind of tough to learn riichi mahjong. In video game terms, riichi is a tutorial-required game. A few strict, inflexible, and complex rules shape the game’s strategy at its core; everything grows out from
It is good of the developer to let us imagine what “catlike reflexes” would really be like.
This has actually been nearly in the can from a while ago, but I took an actual nice long break– the real kind, where you don't look at anything, even if you finally got a good idea for a Kawaiikochans comic– last week. Also, the thing I came
(One of the things I really like about Turkey! is the way it doesn’t shy away from the “nasty, brutish and short” of ancient life, even though it’s at heart a “cute girls have fun” anime.)
This morning I watched Japan Railway Journal and thought about the impermanence of our social order. The Gamesoft Robo Fun Club is a solo labor of love that depends entirely on paid subscriptions from readers to exist. If you enjoyed this piece and you'd like to see more,
It’s messed up that just a couple of newsletters ago I was tricked into referring to Mario Kart 8 as “perfect”, because I spent hours this past weekend playing an arcade racer that seems set on nitpicking Mario Kart 8 (not World!) and improving on its all of its
I’m going to try something new today. I find I don’t always get around to talking about the stuff that I enjoy— which would be fine, except at this newsletter it is kind of my job— without writing a very long piece that usually spends a lot of
I spent a bit of Labor Day over at the Brooklyn Bandai-Namco showroom. When I first visited, I wrote it off as a tourist trap I didn’t really need to visit again: Bandai toys and model kits were on sale for market prices, but gashapon toys and arcade games
"I'm not worried about winning stuff from two opposing business rivals. That just means I'm decorated."
After months of buildup, the Virtua Fighter staff came up on stage at Evo this weekend, dropped about a minute of actual gameplay footage, updated us on continued support for VF5 Revo, and went on their way. This is a clever way of handling things; we’ve started to expect
I haven’t done one of these in a long time, and I don’t want to commit myself to it on a regular basis because it often takes time I could be talking about more interesting stuff— like actual finished series which I could give a proper review to—
I had been quietly excited about the upcoming TV series revival of one of my all-time favorites, the post-apocalyptic kung-fu melodrama Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). It’s certainly been long enough— the original Toei TV series is over 40 years old!— and with a high-end production
Nobody wants to have to follow up perfection, and Mario Kart 8 nailed it. Ten years and two consoles ago, the game refined the arcade kart racer into the very best version of itself. Rather than bothering with a sequel, Nintendo simply kept adding content to it until it was
video games
Education is walking far in front of entertainment here, advertisement's hanging out in the background, and grinding boredom is the main attraction.
arcade games
Part of me wants to say Capcom Vs. SNK 2 isn't that old. But I know. Haruhi Suzumiya is old too.
city of the wolves
I’m only two thousand words in and I finally get to talk about how the game plays!
mahjong
Niche mahjong choices, and therefore, Sega.
games
Not to brag or nothin’, I just want to get that out of the way so we’re all clear.
movies
"Everything in the film centers on this one ecstatic moment that everyone builds and inhabits together, unashamed, loving, exuberant, free, and so powerful as to call the spirits out to play."
anime
"The thing I hate most passionately about isekai slop is the false modesty of a fake underdog."
anime
As the guy from Hand Shakers says, this stuff just won't mesh.