January Archives - Immortallium's Blog

The Surprising Difficulty of Portraying Romance in Video Games

Published January 28, 2021

You might’ve noticed at this point that I like to play video games and I’ve a particular interest in RPGs. I’ve mentioned before how I’ve played Skyrim and went on to get 100% of all of the achievements within the game. One of the first achievements I took note of was to marry a character and as I explored the world and completed quests, I came across Aela the Huntress. I instantly liked her personality and decided that I would marry her. I built a house in Falkreath and proposed to her. We got married and as we began to live together, I quickly realised that any personality that I had been attracted to had been purged from her. While I still found some enjoyment in the relationship, I could remember feeling quite disappointed from the experience and this made me begin to think about the surprising difficulty of portraying romance in video games.

I should probably clarify that I’m predominantly going to be discussing romance in video games in which you make an active choice to pursue a particular character rather than ones where a romance is fixed. While fixed romance in games can come with their own share of problems, I would rather talk about the issues associated with romance where the player makes an active choice and the limitations that video games can struggle with when it comes to portraying this.

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The History of Bishonen: Beautiful Men in Anime and Manga

Published January 25, 2021

There are many reasons for the increasing popularity of anime and manga worldwide but an often overlooked cause for the rapid growth is the female market which is prominent in many countries and continuing to grow overall. Interestingly, one of the aspects that appeals to many women is “Bishonen”. Given this fact, I thought it might be interesting to look at the history of bishonen in anime and manga, the art-style of drawing beautiful men.

The concept of beautiful men is not a recent one and can be found throughout the history of East Asia. One of the most famous examples would be the wakashū, adolescent males who were “sexually available to both men and women” who wore kimonos and were associated with many aspects of femininity such as flower arranging and makeup. Another aspect of Japanese culture that fed into what would become bishonen were Onnagata, male actors who would play female roles in kabuki theater. These actors were often young with feminine qualities who carefully studied female mannerisms and were also considered desirable by both men and women.

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A History of the Sex-Filled World of Hentai

Published January 21, 2021

Recently, Kent State University had a book called “Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation” by Dr. Susan J. Napier added as a reading material for one of their courses. Since then, the book has seen controversy as Ohio lawmakers are now threatening to withdraw funding unless the book is removed from the curriculum. Dr. Susan J. Napier herself has responded by saying that she suspects that the offending material comes from her chapter on pornography in Japanese animation, also known as hentai, but that she thought that it was important to discuss the topic as a part of anime culture. While I confess that I’ve been uncomfortable with discussing this topic in the past, her words have given me the courage to take a look at and discuss the history of the sex-filled world of hentai.

It might be interesting to begin by explaining the word hentai itself. The word is made up of two kanji with the first, 変, meaning strange and the second, 態, meaning attitude or condition and, when combined, 変態 can mean abnormality or pervert. However, it is far more commonly associated with media that features the art-style of anime and manga, also including video games with that art-style, that depict pornography. While I have touched on the topics of fan service and sexualisation in the past, hentai goes beyond that to show graphic sexual intercourse between characters.

The word Hentai written in hiragana, kanji and romaji.

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Two Surprisingly Popular Works of English-Language Literature in Japan

Published January 18, 2021

I was recently watching an anime called “Nerima Daikon Brothers”. I didn’t particularly care for this anime series but something that stood out to me was an episode where two of the main cast members reenacted the ending to a novel called “A Dog of Flanders”. This reenactment led to the villain breaking down into tears due to their childhood memories of reading the book. This stood out to me and I decided to do some research which would lead me to discover some surprisingly popular works of English-language literature in Japan.

Starting with the work that piqued my interest, A Dog of Flanders was written by English novelist Marie Louise de la Ramée who worked under the pseudonym Ouida and was originally released in 1872. The book is relatively unknown in the English-speaking world but has proven incredibly popular in Japan, the Philippines and Korea. The story behind its popularity can be traced to a Japanese diplomat who discovered the book in 1908 and sent some copies back to Japan.

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What Happened To Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network Releases?

Published January 14, 2021

Those of you familiar with my story of how I got into anime will know that I’m not just a fan of anime but animation as a whole. However, I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to collect Western animated series over here in Ireland and that difficulty was part of the reason why I celebrated the news that Manga Entertainment was going to be releasing some Cartoon Network series. However, as of 2021, I have to ask the question “What happened to Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network Releases?”

I should begin by explaining why the release of Cartoon Network series was so significant. Cartoon Network has been at the forefront of the rise in quality in Western Animated TV series with many of their shows such as Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Regular Show and many others garnering critical acclaim and loyal fanbases. Several attempts have been made to release these shows in the UK and Ireland in the past with a particularly notable example being the original Adventure Time releases which saw entire episodes missing.

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Character Creation in Video Games

Published January 11, 2021

I’ve recently finished playing Dragon Age: Origins and have begun playing its sequel Dragon Age II. One of the first things you will do when starting one of these games is designing the character that you will be guiding throughout the adventure (although Dragon Age II did briefly concern me that I might not be able to do so). This made me think about how enjoyable character creation in video games can be and thought it might be interesting to examine the topic.

The history of character creation in video games can be traced back to tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and many others which saw players create a character by choosing their race, gender, stats, skills, background etc. Understandably, when video game developers began to design video game RPGs, many were inspired by these tabletop role-playing games and adapted many of their systems into gameplay.

A example of the character creation system from the Demon’s Souls Remake.

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Some Of The Best Short Manga Series That I’ve Read

Published January 7, 2021

With so many long-running manga series being so popular, it’s easy to overlook the many shorter titles that the medium has to offer. I’ve spoken before about how much I enjoy one-shot manga and thought it might be interesting to discuss some of the best manga series that I’ve read that I consider to be short.

Of course, it would probably help if I clarify what I mean by short. While many people will have different opinions on what a short manga series is, for the purposes of this article, my definition of short will be that it was originally released in five volumes or less in their Japanese release while being more than a single volume. I will also be trying to focus on series that I have not spoken about too frequently on this blog with a perfect example being Girl Friends which I have often stated to be one of my favourite manga of all time.

The cover for the English language release of Ayako by Osamu Tezuka.

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What is World Masterpiece Theater Anime?

Published January 4, 2021

When I was watching Discotek Media’s release of Dororo, partway through the series a title card called “Calpis Manga Theater” was added to the beginning of each episode. As you might imagine, this caught my attention and I quickly found out that the Dororo anime was the first entry in what would become known as World Masterpiece Theater.

World Masterpiece Theater aired on Fuji TV from 1969 to 1997 and then from 2007 to 2009 and typically saw classic works of Western literature adapted into anime series. The title went through several name changes such as the first name I mentioned “Calpis Manga Theater” to “World Masterpiece Theater” to “House Foods World Masterpiece Theater” to name a few.

The cover for a theme song collection CD for World Masterpiece Theater featuring various characters from the shows.

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Category: January