Category: 2023

The Fascinating Development Of Simulpub Manga

Published December 21, 2023

Even in an industry with as much history as that of manga, innovation continues to be a necessity in order to keep up with the demands of consumers. In my personal opinion, no development has been as fascinating as the rise of simulpub manga since it is one of the most obvious responses to a major problem that I’ve ever seen. Alongside the fact that there are numerous advantages and disadvantages with this release format, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at this fascinating development, the history leading up to simulpub manga and my thoughts and opinions on it.

Let’s start with defining what simulpub manga is. The word “Simulpub” is a portmanteau of the words “Simultaneous” and “Publication” and refers to releasing a chapter of manga digitally outside of Japan near simultaneously with its Japanese release. What this usually means is that the chapter is released outside of Japan within 24 hours which is a remarkable, I might even use the word incredible, release schedule and much, MUCH, faster than the historical release of chapters.

Cover of Weekly Shonen Jump by Viz Media — Viz’s digital release of Weekly Shonen Jump was the first time I came across simulpub manga.

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Why I Look For Distinct Art Styles In Anime

Published December 18, 2023

I think it’s fair to say that among those who do not watch anime and even those who dabble from time to time, there is a stereotypical art style that is associated with the medium, that being of doe-eyed characters with proportionally correct bodies and highly exaggerated emotional expressions. I wouldn’t say that this concept is unfounded and I often see anime resort to what I would consider to be a bland, default art style. While the more mature stories were the primary appeal of anime for me back when I first discovered it, I’ve increasingly been more enthused by anime that stand out in their art direction and so I thought I’d discuss why I look for more distinct art styles in the anime that I watch as well as a few examples.

I don’t think many people will disagree that a major component of the experience of watching anime, and animation as a whole, are the visuals. I won’t name any names, whether with regard to the anime series themselves or people, but I remember being at the anime society of my college and noting people’s distaste for anime that looked too different to what they expected anime to be. In turn, there were a few anime that they watched which I found to be too bland, both from a story perspective and an art perspective, to keep my interest. Since then, I’ve found that I’m more likely to be interested in a show whose art style stands out as being distinct.

I remember Redline being one of the first anime that I saw that made me realise that the anime art style was not as restrictive as I thought.

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I Want You To Play Inti Creates Video Games

Published December 14, 2023

In the modern video game industry, it’s very easy for high-quality products to fall under the radar of many gamers because of intense marketing from large companies, the overcrowding of digital storefronts, poor algorithms, etc. That is why I felt that it’s only right that, when a game developer continually impresses me with their output and their sales numbers seem comparatively small, I should point out and promote companies that deserve greater success. This is very much the case with Inti Creates and, so, I decided that I should provide a brief history of them, what I’ve played from them and why I want you to play their video games.

Inti Creates was originally founded in 1996 and spent the first few years of its life developing two games for Sony, neither of which were successful either critically or commercially. This changed with the release of Mega Man Zero for the Game Boy Advance which saw both praise from critics and strong sales. They continued to work with Capcom on the other Mega Man Zero games as well as its successor series Mega Man ZX and developing Mega Man 9 and 10 while they also worked with other companies on IP such as Crayon Shin-Chan, Doraemon, Power Rangers etc. They also developed a somewhat infamous series of fan service games called Gal Gun during this time but I think they really found their stride once they started self-publishing games in 2014 with the creation of their flagship series, Azure Striker Gunvolt. Since then, they’ve done some projects for other companies but seem to be predominantly working on their own games.

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The Real Reasons Why The Epic Games Store Is Failing

Published December 11, 2023

There was an interesting statement recently with regards to the Epic Games Store and it’s something that has provoked further discussion about the place of both the Epic Games Store itself and Steam in the PC marketplace. As part of yet another trial that Epic are pursuing, this time with Google, Steve Allison, the General Manager of the Epic Games Store, stated that the Epic Games Store has yet to make any profit after almost five years of operating! Of course, this news should be shocking but it’s actually not that surprising based on previous information. Nonetheless, it’s been interesting hearing people, at least the reasonable ones, discuss their thoughts on the matter and I thought I might share what I think are the real reasons why the Epic Games Store is failing as well as its place in the market.

Let’s start by breaking down the problems that the Epic Games Store is facing. Despite having revenues of over $800 million, the amount of money that Epic is spending on it, alongside the fact that they only get a 12% cut of $355 million of that figure, is resulting in a net loss and, from what I’ve heard, a staggering one at that. These expenditures, beyond the standard such as maintenance, wages etc., mostly revolve around the acquisition of timed exclusives, the weekly handout of free games and, now, their own publishing label where they fund games for longer term or permanent rights.

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A Few French Language Animated Films That I Love

Published December 7, 2023

I’ve spoken before about how much I love animation and how people should watch films from other countries besides just the US and Japan. In particular, I’ve seen quite a few French language animated films at this point and, though it is by no means extensive, I think I’ve now experienced enough of these movies that I start picking out a few of them that I particularly love.

1. Long Way North

A French-Danish coproduction, Long Way North is set in 19th century Russia and follows a young member of the aristocracy called Sasha who travels to the Arctic in search of her missing grandfather who set off to explore the North Pole several years before. I found myself pleasantly surprised by the character development that Sasha goes through as well as how endearing yet grounded the cast of characters were. I also adored the art style and, barring a few moments, thought the animation was very impressive.

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What Exactly Is An Indie Video Game?

Published December 4, 2023

I can already see many of you shaking your head with regards to this article. What exactly is an indie video game? Why does this question even need to be asked?! Everyone already knows what an indie video game is, right?! Well, tell that to The Game Awards, the largest and most notable awards in the gaming industry! As I write this, the nominations for The Game Awards 2023 have been announced and one of the discussion points has turned out to be one that no one was expecting. You see, among the titles nominated for Best Independent Game is Dave the Diver, a well-received game that certainly looks like something you’d associate with indie games but is actually made by a subsidiary of Nexon, a company whose value is in the billions of dollars and employs thousands! This fact did not escape notice and, while I’m not sure if The Game Awards will make any changes based on the response, I thought it time to discuss indie video games and what exactly they are.

Let’s start by defining what an indie video game is. Indie is short for independent and refers to video games that have been developed outside of the traditional production of game development which involves being funded by a publisher. While independent development of video games have been around for some time, it was the advent of digital distribution in the 00s that led to the explosive growth in independent video game developers whose contributions to the industry have only grown and grown over the years. Many of these games have proven to be so critically and commercially successful that even so-called AAA developers and publishers have taken note of their innovation and incorporated it into their own projects.

Despite appearance, Dave the Diver is actually from a company worth billions!

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An Overview Of The Higurashi Franchise

Published November 30, 2023

As a fan of horror media, it would only make sense that I’d search for something similar when it comes to anime, manga and video games. While the survival horror genre is well established within video games, I find horror surprisingly difficult to find when it comes to the other two, anime more so than manga. Regardless, there is a franchise that spans anime, manga and video games that is heavily associated with horror. Having only just watched the first three seasons of the anime recently, I thought it might be interesting to provide an overview of the Higurashi franchise and see how this series ended up becoming surprisingly expansive.

The Higurashi franchise began in 2002 as a series of independent visual novels that were created by Ryukishi07 and the doujin circle 07th Expansion that were distributed at Comiket. These are set in the village of Hinamizawa where mysterious events occur and a looming sense of threat hang over the cast of characters. Despite the original artwork proving to be quite crude and the lack of interactivity, the games proved to be popular due to the numerous theories that people developed about what was happening and there ended up being eight main entries alongside several fan discs.

A picture of Higurashi running on the Steam Deck. — A picture of the first game on my Steam Deck.

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As A Godzilla Fan, I Want To See The Heisei And Millennium Films Rereleased!

Published November 27, 2023

Godzilla Minus One came out recently and seems to be doing spectacularly at the Japanese box office. I’m hoping that it will perform similarly well when it comes to its international release but it also got me thinking about the franchise in general and how surprisingly restrictive it can be when it comes to availability. Over two years after having picked up the Showa era films from Criterion, I’ve yet to see a major push when it comes to making the other films generally available. Therefore, I thought I’d take the opportunity that the release of a new Japanese Godzilla film has presented to make my case for why, as a fan, I want to see the Heisei and Millennium films rereleased.

I’ll first provide a quick summary about the way that Godzilla films are divided up. The first fifteen films are regarded as the Showa era films and cover the films that were released between 1954 and 1975 and it was these films that Criterion released in their lovely collection. The next seven films were released between 1984 and 1995 and are referred to as the Heisei films, despite the fact that the Heisei era didn’t begin until 1989. These films served as a continuation of the original 1954 film and wiped away the timeline of everything in between. From 1999 to 2004, six Godzilla films were released in what became known as the Millennium era. These films were essentially anthologies, only serving as a continuation of the original 1954 film with the one exception being Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. which served as a direct continuation of the film from the year before, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. Finally, the current Godzilla era is referred to as Reiwa which consists of the 2016 Shin Godzilla, a trilogy of anime films from 2017-18 and, most recently, Godzilla Minus One, similarly strange to the Heisei films in that the Reiwa era began in 2019.

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Why I Love Siegward’s Questline In Dark Souls III

Published November 23, 2023

I like to watch YouTube videos while I’m eating, using my Steam Deck, exercising etc. and I’ve been watching a particular YouTube channel recently, 1ShotPlays, that have been playing the Dark Souls trilogy for their first time. I’ve reached a little over halfway through their Dark Souls III playthrough and, among many other things, I was reminded of how much I love Siegward’s questline and consider it to be one of the most satisfying I’ve ever had the joy to complete. Given that, I felt the need to write an article praising this story and why I ended up loving it so much! Understandably, there will be spoilers for Dark Souls III as well as the first Dark Souls game so if you wish to play them at some point without spoiling anything, I’d strongly recommend you stop reading here.

Before I talk about Dark Souls III, I want to talk about the first Dark Souls game and Siegward’s predecessor, Siegmeyer. Anyone who’s aware of Dark Souls but not played it may be aware that arguably the most famous character to come out of it is Solaire. Back when I first played Dark Souls in the winter of 2015, he was the only character I knew of beforehand so imagine my surprise when I found a character who I loved even more, Siegmeyer of Catarina. Sometimes affectionately referred to as the Onion Knight due to his armour, his jolly attitude stood out in the dark and sometimes lonely world of Dark Souls and I found myself wishing to help him out with his troubles whether they be opening a gate he was stuck at, disabling a boulder trap or clearing out a room full of hostile knights. However, his storyline ends rather tragically as he either loses faith in his own abilities due to always relying on the player or goes Hollow and attacks his daughter, Sieglinde, who kills him in self-defence and is broken-hearted as a result. Regardless which way his questline goes, it’s a tragic end that fits with the world of Dark Souls but one that I always found a bit unsatisfying. Regardless, I still continue to view him as my favourite character in the first Dark Souls game.

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Why Atari Have Suddenly Got My Attention Again

Published November 20, 2023

When it comes to video game companies, I’ll admit that Atari is one that I’ve payed little to no attention to in recent years. It seemed they were long past their heyday and any news I heard about them tended to be negative. However, the last twelve months has seen my interest in Atari grow due to some interesting decisions that they’ve been making. Due to this, I thought it might be interesting to discuss why Atari have suddenly got my attention after all this time and what I hope to see from them.

Let’s start with a brief history on who Atari are and their significance to the video game industry. The original Atari company was established in 1972 and quickly became one of the most significant companies in the video game industry with their console, the Atari 2600, becoming the best-selling console of the second video game console generation. However, a deluge of shovelware led to the Video Game Crash of 1983, which interestingly in Japan is known as the Atari Shock, leading to Atari being divvied up and sold, an unceremonious end for such an important company. The modern Atari company actually started out as Infogrames Entertainment and later acquired the brand through their acquisition of Atari Interactive. Still, things have not been smooth sailing with bankruptcy rearing its ugly head in 2013 and forcing sales of many of their intellectual properties such as Desperados, Backyard Sports, Deer Hunter and later on the notable Alone in the Dark franchise in 2018.

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