Author: Anne

Manga Recommendatons: Wandering Son volumes 1 and 2

I absolutely love libraries. Sometimes they’ll randomly get the most exciting things! I’ve been following the manga/anime series Wandering Son (Japanese title Hourou Musuko) for many months now, but I never expected my local library here in Brisbane, Australia to order not one, but multiple copies of the first two volumes! As such, I was finally able to sink my teeth into this series, which has been hailed in Japan and abroad as being a heartfelt and honest coming-of-age story that tackles issues surrounding gender identity.

What with all the gender bending and boys’ love manga coming out of Japan, you may be thinking that the Japanese simply refuse to tackle gender issues in a realistic, meaningful way. And perhaps you would be right… Though representations of gender in Japanese media are much more fluid than those found in the west, they’re still largely limited to a few, narrow stereotypes. This is why Wandering Son is so important. 
The story follows the everyday lives classmates Shuichi Nitori and Yoshino Takatsuki, two transgendered youths on the threshold of adolescence. Drawn in a minimalist style, the series tackles the various issues and questions raised associated with coming to terms with one’s gender identity in a subtle yet meaningful way. For much of the first volume, Shuichi’s biggest hurtle is whether or not he can summon up the courage to try on female clothes, and the unknowingly hurtful things his friends and family say or do while they remain in the dark regarding Shuichi’s discomfort towards living his life as a boy. 
On the flip side, Yoshino is a forward young girl who is widely accepted for her tomboyish appearance and even receives some advances from fellow women when crossdressing as a man. Shuichi’s friendship with Yoshino eventually gives him the push he needs to start experimenting with a female identity, and it is his small steps towards becoming happy with himself that stuck with me long after I’d put down the second volume. 

I highly recommend anyone who has an interest in LGBT issues to pick up Wandering Son, regardless of whether or not you read a lot of manga. It is, in many ways, distinctly Japanese, but its straightforward and honest deception of gender issues is rare in any medium, and it shines equally as a coming-of-age tale, especially for anyone who’s ever felt they never quite fit in. 
It’s also worth noting that the hardcover editions of these two volumes are gorgeous – the oversized format, color pages, and essay by translator Matt Thorn in volume 2 all highlight what a masterpiece this series is. I’m eagerly awaiting volume three, and I can’t wait to pick up my own copies to add to my bookshelf.

Pokémon Battle Royale art show

I don’t think I’ve ever wished I lived in Minneapolis, but there’s a first time for everything, right? Well, after seeing a sample of the amazing pieces to be included in the Pokémon Battle Royale show at the Light Grey Art Lab, I sure wish I did.
151 artists contributing to catalogue all original 151 pokémon? Anyone want to fly me to Minneapolis for opening night? They’re going to be serving Pokémon-themed drinks!
If any of you do live in the area, I highly suggest making your way to the Light Grey Art Lab to view these gorgeous pieces of art in person. And if you’re interested in attending the opening on April 20th, by all means do so, and blog about it so the rest of us can live through you! More information on the show is available on the gallery’s website.
But luckily many of the pieces have already starting circulating around the web, so if you’re like me and have absolutely no hope of making it to Minneapolis, you’ll likely be able to find many, if not all, of the art online at some point. Here’s a roundup of my personal favorites!
Venusaur by Mare Odomo
Dragonite by Chie Y. Boyd
Gloom by Julianna Brion
Clefable by Katie Turner
Honestly, I don’t think there’s one I don’t like! You should definitely take a few minutes to see these, and if you have some more time on your hands, head over here to see the full list of what artist contributed which pokémon. Many have links to their personal portfolios, and if you do some digging you’ll most likely be able to find their entry to the show. There are some big names in there, so it’s definitely worth checking out!
If you do, head back here and tell me which was your favorite!

Japan Envy: Japanese Club Nintendo strikes again

To be honest, I haven’t been a member of Club Nintendo all that long. I believe I first joined in 2010, when I realized I actually bought enough games that came with point cards to actually get some free stuff. And what fun I’ve had! So far, I’ve snagged the 2012 calendar for being a gold member in 2011, the psychedelic 1-up tote bag, the limited batch of 3 Kid Icarus Uprising AR cards, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Wii Virtual Console (hey, I’ve never played it!). I’m still holding out for my holy grail of Nintendo Club rewards: the elusive 800 coin Mario hanafuda cards. Someday! 
All in all, I’d say it’s a rather good haul, considering it’s all perks for buying games I would’ve purchased regardless of coins (or stars, if you live in AU –– and yes, I have a Nintendo Club AU account, as well). Nevertheless, I’ve been green with envy at the amazing Club Nintendo items Japan gets on more than one occasion in the short amount of time I’ve actually been tuned into the various things each region gets. This time, though, takes the cake: Japanese Club Nintendo members have the opportunity to score Nintendo-themed polo shirts. Not only that, but they’re completely customizable! 

For a mere 550 points (funny how every region uses a different “currency”), one of these babies could be yours. Well, if you live in Japan and haven’t spent your hard-earned coins on one of the many other awesome rewards that’s come out in the past few months.

What I find most exciting about this is the fact that you can completely customize what decal you want, the shirt color, and even the size. Don’t like the color combinations above? No problem, just head over to the Club Nintendo site and play around with the colors and images until you find something that you like. Just don’t blame me if, in doing so, you get really depressed about the fact that we’ll probably never see these outside of Japan.

It’s pretty obvious what I’d pick, but if you’re curious, I’d definitely have to go for the purple Animal Crossing cat. It’d look best on a pink or light blue tee, don’t you think? My runner up would have to be the heart capsules, but the Game & Watch one is pretty cute, too…

Man, I don’t even like polos!

The “animefication” of Little King’s Story

I don’t believe I’m the only one who noticed that the new art direction for the sequel to Little King’s Story, titled The King, The Demon King and the 7 Princesses: New King Story (now that’s a mouthful), differs significantly from the original. Case in point:

King Corobo from Little King’s Story
“New and improved” King Corobo

I would be lying if I said I didn’t like his new character design at all, as I actually quite like the illustration above, but the fact of the matter is the original had such a unique, quirky art style that has been completely thrown out the window. I assume the majority of the reasoning behind the vast change in art style stems from the fact that anime/manga style art appeals to a much wider audience. With developer Cing dissolved, Marvelous Entertainment probably has free reign to do what they wish with the intellectual property rights. As such, we get this:

Who put thighs and ass in my Little King’s Story? Granted, shots like these are stills from event scenes and probably make up a small percentage of the game, but it’s clear that the series has a new, much more mainstream, direction. With early reports from Famitsu stating that the game will even have “love elements,” it sounds like New King Story is very much trying to catch the attention of a certain crowd. 
In-game screenshot from Little King’s Story 
New King’s Story. As you can see, the in-game graphics are ever-so-slightly more realistic. 
It’s sad to see such an original-looking title changed so drastically for what I can only assume to be an attempt to garner better sales. Though I don’t mind the new art direction, it looks too much like so many other games out there already. Little King’s Story‘s King Corobo was so iconic, but the Corobo from the new title? Not so much. 
Regardless, I’ll still be picking this one up when it’s released in the west (it’s already out for the PS Vita in Japan). And that’s even without having played Little King’s Story. I own it, I just haven’t gotten around to it, okay? Oh, the shame! 

Sumioni initial impressions… and pizza!

Basically what I look like when I try to play video games

I debated calling this article “why I suck at video games” but that would be defeatist, now wouldn’t it? But let me take a moment to me recall a recent scenario for you:

I’m playing Sumioni, a PS Vita downloadable title, for review. Being the good, timely reviewer I am, I dive right into it, playing whenever I have a free moment. Enter the first boss of the game: A glowing, floating eyeball thing with pointy projectiles, that also happens to be the final boss for the game’s first ending (yes, ending – I’ll clarify momentarily). You know, the first and second tries don’t really count, since you have to get used to the enemy’s patterns, right? Well, yours truly probably clocked in at about 10 tries before throwing in the towel and handing the shiny black handheld over to my husband, who hadn’t touched the game before that moment. I throw him into the deep end and have him restart the level I’m currently on – why waste time replaying earlier levels just so he can learn the ropes? 
Shaun beat that boss in two tries. That’s once to figure out all of the game’s controls and the boss’s attack patterns, and a second time to get ‘er done, as they say. I knew my husband was a fiend when it comes to games (you should see him play DotA…), but I was not prepared for immense gap in our skill levels. Does that mean that Sumioni is disgustingly hard, or even more difficult than your average platformer? Well… probably not, because I already knew I was pretty bad at gaming. But it makes for a good story, eh? 
That said, I’ve only gone through the first two endings of the game so far (with help from Shaun, of course). You get a rating at the end of each level (which so far have only taken about 2-4 minutes to complete) which will dictate how you will progress on the level “tree.” There are a total of six endings, the first being the easiest to obtain and that last, which I assume is the “best,” being the hardest. You’ll need to get a lot of 2 and 3 star level ratings to follow the tree down to the better endings, which means replaying the initial levels a lot of times. The fact that the game doesn’t really tell you how it scores you at the end of each level is a little confusing, but from what I gather it’s based on the usual stuff: how much damage you’ve incurred and how long it took you to clear the level. 
Graphically, I’m quite fond of the game. Many have compared it to Okami, and it’s true that they’re both based on the Japanese art form known as sumi-e, but Okami was so much more colorful and vibrant than Sumioni, so I think in the end the comparison is pretty arbitrary. The backgrounds are rather sparse, much like sumi-e paintings, but so far have been pretty varied between levels. I’ve been seeing a lot of the same enemies, though… Let’s hope that changes as I progress further. 
And what self-respecting Japanese game
would be complete without a cute princess?
Sumioni utilizes the front and back touch pads in a continuation of the sumi-e theme by allowing you to draw platforms and execute spells by swiping the screen as if your fingertip were a paintbrush. At the same time, you’ll be controlling your demon’s movements with the analog stick or directional buttons, and jumping and attacking with x and square, respectively (I find I prefer using up on the analog stick to jump, though). When your ink meter runs out, and it will run out, you’ll need to rub the back touch pad in order to recover ink. Let tell you, this happens a lot. I don’t know if it’s the way I play, but in boss battles in particular, my pattern of actions goes something like this: thunder magic, fire magic, swipe swipe swipe rear touch pad. Rinse and repeat. You’ll need to be fast, and regaining your ink feels so painfully slow… It’s a fun mechanic but I’m finding it a little hard to get used to. For one, it gets tiring swiping so furiously after a while! Drawing platforms on the screen to evade enemies and position yourself for optimal attacks never gets old, though. 
From what I’m hearing the game doesn’t take more than 6-8 hours to complete, so I should be able to finish my playthrough and have my review up before the week is out. Until then, feel free to ask any questions if you’re at all interested in this title and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Oh, wait. Did someone say… pizza?
Yup, that’s right! And not any pizza. Sumioni pizza. The few blogs I read that covered this interesting collaboration seemed rather disgusted by the prospect, but I have to say, if I lived in Japan, I would’ve ordered that pizza the day it was released. As it stands, it the promotion was just concluded yesterday, unfortunately.
This awesome pizza not only has squid ink sauce to make it look like it was splattered with ink, but also those funny looking pointed crust pieces that are meant to look like demon’s horns, or so the advertisement says. Other toppings include cheese (of course), basil, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and actual squid. 
So, the big question is: Would YOU eat it? I’m personally salivating at the very thought. 

Let’s celebrate Theatrhythm’s impending localization with some merchandise

I suppose we all knew it’d happen eventually, but if you haven’t heard, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will be coming out in the US and Europe sometime this summer! How’s that for great news? To celebrate, hit the play button on your favorite Final Fantasy track and take a look at some of this awesome merchandise I managed to wrangle up!

First of all,  I have to say I’ve been warming up to the cutesy art style used in the game. It first appeared in a Kingdom Hearts cell phone game in Japan, and I never found myself very partial to it… But the more I see, the more I find myself starting to like it. I mean, who can resist drinking their favorite beverage of choice out of one of these Theatrhythm mugs?
You can purchase it online here!
Or how about a tumbler, for when you’d rather your drink available on the go?
source

I personally like the color on the tumbler, but prefer the simplistic design of the mug. But it’s hard to pass up chocobos!

But better yet, perhaps you already have a trusty water bottle you’d like to spruce up a bit? In Japan they have bottle cases like these all over the place:

source

Love the addition of the plush music note!

There is certainly a lot of drink-related Theatrhythm Final Fantasy merchandise, isn’t there? But never fear, the usual cute keychains have also made an appearance:

I’ll be honest – that’s not my favorite Final Fantasy moogle design (I’m actually partial to the more rabbit-like moogles from the Ivalice Alliance titles, but don’t tell anyone I said so), but the chocobo is pretty darn adorable. I particularly like the contrast of the yellow and blue.

And last but not least, we have a special item that I could only find on Kuma’s Mad Dog Blog, a Square Enix blog dedicated to their merchandise (the previous two photos were also taken from there):

A tote bag?? Better yet, an unreleased tote bag?? It’s a little known fact on the internet that I am actually obsessed with tote bags. They’re good for groceries, books… everything, really! Ok, I’m a little obsessed. But I do love something that’s both cute and functional, and tote bags really do fit the bill. According to Kuma’s Mad Dog Blog, where this image was posted on March 15th, it’s a brand new item, and currently no more information is available, so we’ll have to wait and see when and where this is released. Admittedly, it is a little on the plain side, but I think owning a Theatrhythm Final Fantasy tote bag trumps all. I think I’m going to make it my personal mission to make sure I get my hands on this lovely thing.

Do any of these items catch your fancy? What would be your ultimate Theatrhythm merchandise? I wouldn’t mind some stickers…

Why I’m both intrigued and annoyed by Code of Princess

Before today, I hadn’t paid any attention to the upcoming Japanese 3DS title, Code of Princess, but as soon as this box art appeared, it immediately went on my radar.

Is that not a gorgeous illustration? Generally I don’t like very busy box art, but I love the colors and attention to detail in this one. Above all, the character designs have me very intrigued – though I am decidedly not in favor of the surprised female knight with bikini armor (more on that later). 
It’s always a little thrilling to learn about a game for the first time from its box art. There’s nothing more fun than browsing though a game store and coming across a title that looks interesting but you’ve never heard of, then rushing home to Google it as soon as possible. … What’s that? Yes, I am still living in 1999 and do not have internet on my phone. 
Of course, finding new boxart when you’re already browsing the internet is a different thing altogether, but no less fun. I’ve learned that Kinu Nishimura, the woman behind the illustrations of 9 Hours, 8 Persons, 9 Doors and the more recent Virtue’s Last Reward, was in charge of this gorgeous cover as well as the character designs for Code of Princess. No wonder I like them! 
I particularly like the pink haired lady in the middle.
Nothing quite like a swashbuckling guy with big pants and feathers in his hair.
But even with all these exciting character designs, I still manage to find something to gripe about. Brace yourself for my biggest beef with Code of Princess:

Where on earth do I start? Well, admittedly, her sword and cloak are both pretty amazing and display the kind of detail that I love, but my positive comments end there. Not only is she wearing less clothing than is physically possible, but Kinu decided her only armor would be in the form of gauntlets, which is pretty much worthless considering how little else she’s wearing. And, though the box art for the game features this lady, who is the main character Code of Princess, in a relatively active fighting stance, this official art, which has already been made into a resin figurine in Japan and is the most popular result when searching Google for Code of Princess images, is about as passive as it gets. She’s not only holding her sword in a pathetic excuse for a defensive pose, but she also has a frightened expression on her face, with her arm extended backward in a way that sexualizes her more by rendering her powerless, if that’s even possible. I hate to dwell on issues such as these, and of course I know Kinu Nishimura has done her fair share of “sexy” illustrations (999‘s Lotus, anyone?), but this image takes the cake for portraying a female main character in the worst possible light.

Well, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest… Is there anything else good I can say about this game? For those who aren’t familiar with it, Code of Princess is a 2D brawler that shares many similarities with Guardian Heroes. It also touts an extensive 4-player multiplayer mode, and I’ve got to say, even the gameplay looks pretty interesting:

Mark that one down in the books, folks: I said even the gameplay looks interesting!