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| |  "Random Thread Nongaming Edition VIIr" , posted Mon 1 Jun 12:21:  
A really interesting thing that a pal linked me to is this modern folk hero, a protest dog in Chile:
long twitter thread full of images
I did not know about this at all, and it really makes me wonder about what sorts of other folk heroes have come to be in the past decade or two in various parts of the world. There are folk heroes of all kinds, ranging from anti-authority vigilantes like Robin Hood, resisters against foreign occupiers like Wong Fei Hung, to those who united countries and became symbols of authority like King Arthur, but most of the ones I do know of are at least a century old, if not many centuries old! I know very little of the folk heroes of South America and Mexico and India and the many nations of Africa, to say nothing of Southeast Asia and many other parts of the world! If any of you do know of ones local to your region, do name them for me so that I can look them up!
[this message was edited by Spoon on Mon 1 Jun 12:38] |
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| "Re(1):Random Thread Nongaming Edition VIIr" , posted Tue 2 Jun 00:04
quote:
A really interesting thing that a pal linked me to is this modern folk hero, a protest dog in Chile:
long twitter thread full of images
I did not know about this at all, and it really makes me wonder about what sorts of other folk heroes have come to be in the past decade or two in various parts of the world. There are folk heroes of all kinds, ranging from anti-authority vigilantes like Robin Hood, resisters against foreign occupiers like Wong Fei Hung, to those who united countries and became symbols of authority like King Arthur, but most of the ones I do know of are at least a century old, if not many centuries old! I know very little of the folk heroes of South America and Mexico and India and the many nations of Africa, to say nothing of Southeast Asia and many other parts of the world! If any of you do know of ones local to your region, do name them for me so that I can look them up!
Aw man, this story made my day. Love it. There are also 3 other dogs in Chile with a similar story and I think one still alive.
Favorite picture of matopacos is the three version of him. One of himself as normal, one in flames, and one with full of green grass. To show that although a dog, powerful when resisting but down to earth once peace is restored.
Comments mentioned dogs similar in Turkmenistan and Greece. Definitely would like to see somemmore of this.
Long Live I AM!
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| "Re(1):Random Thread Nongaming Edition VIIr" , posted Thu 4 Jun 12:08
quote:
A really interesting thing that a pal linked me to is this modern folk hero, a protest dog in Chile
While I can't be sure, I like to think that our favorite Chilean, Toxico, would approve.
As for non-canine folk heroes, Spoon, you should probably look into Ishikawa Goemon---no, not his supposed successor Ishikawa Goemon XIII of Lupin III---the real-life virtuous thief who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, and tried to assassinate the mighty daimyou Toyotomi Hideyoshi and maybe even Wakamoto Norio Oda Nobunaga. Unlike his English Robin Hood counterpart, he was unsuccessful and boiled alive, but the legend lives on in kabuki and in the hearts of all virtuous thieves.
The other guy who came immediately to mind is souhei warrior monk Benkei, famous for roaming the land and attempting to collect 1000 swords from samurai. Famous for dying standing up, and staying that way, even after being pierced by arrows. He's the model for the Final Fantasy series' Gilgamesh, to bring it back to games.
The most famous American outlaw hero, of course, has to be Billy the Kid, another bandit figure and a famous train robber, also based in fact. Famed composer Aaron Copeland (who essentially established modern American-style classical music as differentiated from the centuries-old European composers and thus ensured that classical music would one day become the soundtrack music of choice for movies) wrote the Billy the Kid suite, a magnificent score for a ballet about Billy the Kid that totally evokes the wild prairie and Sega blue skies before they were Sega.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| "Re(1):black anime" , posted Fri 12 Jun 22:18
quote:
Woah! Brandon shared a cool article on the first black-owned anime studio in Japan. You'd better believe I had no idea this existed! Every so often, you'll hear a tale from a non-Japanese person who worked in the industry, like at Gainax or Ghibli or somewhere, but this is cool and brand-new to me.
Edit: more interesting still, they've also contributed not only to MMCafe's favorite series, Dracula, in the form of the Netflix TV show, but also to Gintama, which is hot hot hot
Impressive! It's even more impressive when you remember how absurdly underpaid most people in the anime industry are, so traveling to the other side of the world just to get paid peanuts is a real labor of love.
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| "Re(3):Pollyannime" , posted Tue 16 Jun 10:38:
quote:
There's this tribute book edited by Itoi for MOTHER and it's named Pollyanna
And it made me miss Pollyanna  I hope she's doing well!
And here Iggy and I were so sure that our strategy of leaving friendly stalker-ish notes on her Steam profile would somehow catch her attention to lure her back! Who knew?
I think of her whenever I think of Tales of the Abyss, which was pretty good and all thanks to her! Along with many other interesting observations and conversations, of course. Sometimes I think of creating a Bring Back POLLY thread after the success with ONSY, but I figure that if the Toxico tribute thread didn't naturally summon her, nothing would. 
On the subject of Itoi, who might be one of the finest writers around today (I can't tell if writing PR copy was a waste of his time, or whether he elevated the already excellent Japanese PR world to new levels with the Ghibli ads he's famous for), it's always good writing at his site, the Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun, the Almost-Daily Itoi Newspaper.
...or at least it was before, though I find it too cluttered now. I was super-confused to find there was an English version of the Japanese store, but then realized it's probably because it's now this Muji(rushi)-like design shop. I take it as a problem that I literally could not even find the book section without an internet search. That's too bad, because there are some great collections from his pithy daily journals, and his press also published this book on dearly departed Nintendo president Iwata Satoru that collected his Iwata Asks columns and also had special interviews with Itoi.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Tue 16 Jun 10:48] |
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| "Mortal Kinema" , posted Fri 11 Sep 08:50
I'm never one to pass up multimedia tie-ins to fighting games, so I was curious about Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge. Not curious enough to buy it, mind you, but curious. Luckily, my local public library had a copy(!) so I got to check out the latest adaptation of our favorite kombatants.
When I say "favorite" that's pretty accurate, because while this is yet another retelling of MK1 it shifts the focus to also being the origin story of MK's poster boy Scorpion. While the nominal MK heroes are off doing an "Enter the Dragon" pastiche yet again the movie spends an equal amount of time reinventing Scorpion as a sympathetic lone wolf who realizes the error of his ways in time to save the day. It's certainly a shift, but not necessarily a bad one. No matter how beautiful his hair is, poor Liu Kang isn't engaging enough to carry the story by himself.
The character designs reminds me of the chunky, stiff style of a syndicated cartoon series for kids from the 1990's. It even feels that way at points, with Raiden continuously burping out platitudes about destiny and heroism to anyone within earshot. After Raiden a one-to-grow-on lesson the movie would then immediately cut to Scorpion punching the head off a demon in hell. That juxtaposition was cheap amusement but nevertheless worked.
Speaking of which, the main selling point of the show is the violence. Unlike those 1990's cartoons where everyone had to wave weapons at each other in a non-threatening manner, people in MKL are getting chopped apart constantly. Unlike the gruesome fatalities of modern MK games, the violence in MKL is quick and kinetic, with people flying apart in sprays of neon red blood and salami slices of body parts. It's overdone and delightfully ridiculous. Watching the film put me in mind of MK: Shaolin Monks, where you could perform fatalities but other times you could be fighting a group of enemies and some guy's head would suddenly go bouncing off mid-combo. I miss Shaolin Monks, that was a fun game.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the MK OVA. In the end it's MK so it's ridiculous but this particular outing is the good sort of ridiculous. Even the outlaw movie critic Vern agrees with me.
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| "Re(2):Mortal Kinema" , posted Sat 12 Sep 08:46:
quote:
I somehow managed to see The Killing Joke one time on HBO, and now I'm curious as to what people thinking about these "matured-up cartoons from my childhood" or if its trying too hard
I'm probably going to get in trouble with Onsy's ghost, but the way I see it, American superhero comics trying to be mature is always going to be a losing battle because the century-old basic premise is so childish. And I say this as someone who loves good fantasy and mythology, so that's not the problem! It's that at the core, you have a collection of characters originally designed for children, where the creative process was literally indistinguishable from what small schoolchildren might've said back and forth: "Oh, check this out, I'm inventing a character who has spider power!" "Ah, but mine is invincible!" "Mine dresses like a bat!" "Mine has the power of the birds!" "Mine has water power!" You see what I mean.
That said, the Gotham aesthetic and bat theme might've made Batman less ridiculous when made darker later on, and the animated series is a nice mix of approximately Shounen Jump-level drama that's fun with some actual adult themes. But in the end, it's still a challenge working with a guy wearing tights and underwear outside his pants with a big bat symbol on his chest in a world of secret identities and villains in elaborate villain costumes.
I've got another theory, though! Maybe the issue with "grown up" superhero media is that people think Alan Moore's gritty Killing Joke style is the only way to go, and it becomes too much like self-parodic self-seriousness. Like, Monkey Punch was once asked if he disliked Miyazaki's more chivalrous take on Lupin that makes the main character less of a pervert, and which was in turn influential on later material. He answered that he was not at all against Miyazaki's take, only that so many other people were slavishly trying to do the same thing as Miyazaki, and not as well, rather than doing something else different. I think there's room for an adult take on silly superheroes, but Alan Moore noir can't be the only way.
quote:
everyone who isn’t Warren Ellis is doing pretty good thanks to their association with Castlevania.
It certainly applies to the Cafe and its successful and attractive clientele!
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Sat 12 Sep 08:51] |
| | "Re(1):Mortal Kinema" , posted Sat 12 Sep 22:35
quote:
I'm never one to pass up multimedia tie-ins to fighting games, so I was curious about Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge. Not curious enough to buy it, mind you, but curious. Luckily, my local public library had a copy(!) so I got to check out the latest adaptation of our favorite kombatants.
When I say "favorite" that's pretty accurate, because while this is yet another retelling of MK1 it shifts the focus to also being the origin story of MK's poster boy Scorpion. While the nominal MK heroes are off doing an "Enter the Dragon" pastiche yet again the movie spends an equal amount of time reinventing Scorpion as a sympathetic lone wolf who realizes the error of his ways in time to save the day. It's certainly a shift, but not necessarily a bad one. No matter how beautiful his hair is, poor Liu Kang isn't engaging enough to carry the story by himself.
The character designs reminds me of the chunky, stiff style of a syndicated cartoon series for kids from the 1990's. It even feels that way at points, with Raiden continuously burping out platitudes about destiny and heroism to anyone within earshot. After Raiden a one-to-grow-on lesson the movie would then immediately cut to Scorpion punching the head off a demon in hell. That juxtaposition was cheap amusement but nevertheless worked.
Speaking of which, the main selling point of the show is the violence. Unlike those 1990's cartoons where everyone had to wave weapons at each other in a non-threatening manner, people in MKL are getting chopped apart constantly. Unlike the gruesome fatalities of modern MK games, the violence in MKL is quick and kinetic, with people flying apart in sprays of neon red blood and salami slices of body parts. It's overdone and delightfully ridiculous. Watching the film put me in mind of MK: Shaolin Monks, where you could perform fatalities but other times you could be fighting a group of enemies and some guy's head would suddenly go bouncing off mid-combo. I miss Shaolin Monks, that was a fun game.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the MK OVA. In the end it's MK so it's ridiculous but this particular outing is the good sort of ridiculous. Even the outlaw movie critic Vern agrees with me.
I watched it, too. Your assessment is very accurate. The animation is very violent but it feels goofy rather than uncomfortable like the MKX/MK11 fatalities.
The story is very different from both the original game and the 2011 reboot, with many deaths that didn't occur in either of them (at least not during the first tournament). Then again, Boon has said that there is an entire multiverse of MK alternate realities (that's what happens when you get involved with Warner/DC, I guess), so this animation is just another one of them.
That reminds me that there is a live-action MK film being produced (though I suppose the production was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic). The few details about it made it seem like they were taking a lot of creative liberties...
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| | "Re(2):An even better TvC" , posted Thu 17 Sep 02:57
quote:
I'll post it in the Non-gaming section for now, but if this doesn't graduate to being an actual game, I'll riot in my living room.
https://www.cinra.net/news/20200915-tezuka
I'm really puzzled by the collaboration, because I can't remember Capcom ever doing a game with Tezuka characters...? Maybe Tsujimoto have invested money in the museum. Or the Tezuka heirs funneled all the money from their horrible plan for AI-generated Tezuka volumes into Californian wineries.
This is awesome and also very puzzling indeed! What is the missing link between Capom and Tezuka productions? Hyogo prefecture is too far away for casual museum travel, but it's going to be very interesting to see how both Capcom and Tezuka artists will draw each other's various characters in this project.
I think I'm more interested in the Capcom depictions of the Tezuka characters, because the Tezuka style is extremely well-established and because it's an institutionalized house style from a dead artist, it by design will not be changing. Capcom has multiple styles established for its games, to say nothing of the multiple styles of the artists used as exemplars of Capcom to the artists who were previously more unknown. It doesn't have a single institutional style, even if there are styles associated with particular Capcom titles.
So in that sense, there's multiple possible directions any particular one of the Capcom renditions of the Tezuka characters could take: character as if they were from game X in game X's contemporary time frame, character as if they were from game X but through the studio style of 2020, character through artist Y's idiosyncratic style, etc.
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