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Category: March

The Strange Fusion Of Anime And Manga That Is Ga-nime

I remember doing some research recently on Yoshitaka Amano and spotted a term that I was unfamiliar with, “Ga-nime”. You can imagine my curiosity and, upon digging into it, I soon realised that Ga-nime was a strange fusion of anime and manga. Having learned about this, I thought it might be interesting to explain what Ga-nime is, how it’s unique and several other interesting details that I’ve found.

Something that’s important to note is that Ga-nime isn’t necessarily a style in and of itself and is actually a product line from the collaboration between Toei Animation, an anime company, and Gentosha, a publishing company. The name itself,画ニメ, is a fusion of the character 画, the second half of the word manga, and ニメ, the last two characters of the word anime. As the name implies, Ga-nime is a strange fusion of anime and manga which is a short work, distributed as an OVA, that features voice acting and music but very minimal animation, mostly being still images that are occasionally supplemented by limited animation, computer animation etc.

Anyone familiar with Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork will immediately recognise his involvement in this Ga-nime.
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Signs Of Trouble For The Epic Games Store?

I usually like to take a look at the results of the Epic Games Store early in the year but, for some reason, the Epic Games Store 2022 Year in Review was delayed this year from the usual release in January to an unusual release in March. Nonetheless, it has now been released and presents some interesting information although one particular aspect has made some wonder if there are some signs of trouble for the Epic Games Store. However, it’s not an outright bleak view and, having spoken about the store several times in the past, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the figures they provided as well as the current state of the store.

As you might’ve expected, we should start by taking a look at the brand new year in review that Epic has released. Let’s start with everything besides the one glaring sign of trouble so we can delve a bit deeper into that specifically. First up, the total PC users of the Epic Games Store has grown from about 194 million in 2021 to 230 million in 2022 but, more importantly, the monthly active users has also increased from 62 million to 68 million. Their social media has also seen some mild growth with their Instagram increasing from 5.8 million to 5.9 million followers while their Twitter has grown from 4.4 million followers to 4.8 million. Their Facebook page has been stagnant at 1.3 million followers but they’ve also set up a TikTok account that has gained 300,000 followers. Interestingly, Epic seem to be taking a page from Valve’s book by categorising the top games by player spending and engagement into abstract tiers of Mythic, Legendary and Epic.

Epic Games Store statistics for 2019.
Epic Games Store statistics for 2020.
The 2021 Epic Games Store Year in Review.

The four year in review charts that Epic has provided.

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Why Do I Love Revenge Stories So Much?

If I had to guess, I believe the first time I ever came across the concept of revenge was when I originally played Final Fantasy IV. As a child of about six, you can imagine that I didn’t come across the concept of revenge that often, I might not even have been aware of what revenge was, but the subplot of Tellah seeking vengeance against Golbez for the death of his daughter, just like so many other aspects of the game, left quite a deep impression on me. As I began to explore not just video games but media such as film, TV, books etc., I found myself often being drawn to stories dealing with revenge. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to examine why I love revenge stories so much.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always felt very strongly about being wronged and the desire to correct these wrongs. Of course, I would never advocate for vengeance outside of storytelling but I do confess that there is something cathartic about seeing a character put everything they have into carrying out their revenge. It also helps that we can often relate to the reasons why the character seeks vengeance such as the death of a loved one, discrimination, abuse etc.

A drawing of Tellah by character designer Yoshitaka Amano.
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I Want Sega Saturn And Dreamcast Classics Collections!

I’ve been playing some games from the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection recently on my Steam Deck after I saw that it had been given a Steam Deck Verified rating. I had previously played several games from the collection on PC but being able to play them portably and to suspend during gameplay has really renewed my enthusiasm for these games. However, what it has also made me wonder and long for are some collections for many of the classics from the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast.

Before I talk about what I want from these collections, I think it’s worth briefly touching on Sega’s history as a console developer as well as the history of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection. Sega first began developing consoles in 1983 with the release of the SG-1000 and, over the course of the next couple of decades, would release other consoles such as the Master System, the Sega Mega Drive, the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast. However, the failure of the Dreamcast led to Sega stopping production on hardware and becoming a third-party video game publisher. Sega, beyond the games they continue to make after their exit from hardware, has a large back catalogue of wonderful games and Sega has continually made use of that in various compilations. The SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection was originally divided into several volumes released for PC before releasing a consolidated collection later. In 2016, Sega updated the collection with the hub, an update that featured both a virtual room to play the games in and mod support. Soon afterwards, it was announced that the release of the hub had resulted in a surge of sales and, in 2018, they released the collection for consoles, Mac and Linux while introducing even more updates such as online multiplayer, achievements, the ability to fast forward or rewind in game etc. It has truly become an outstanding collection and something I’ve got to admire about it was Sega’s continual work on improving it over the years.

An image of the Sega Saturn.
The Sega Saturn.
An image of the Sega Dreamcast, a video game console.
The Dreamcast.
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Moments In Video Games When I Almost Gave Up

You’ll know that I’m a proponent of games being as hard as their creators desire them to be but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find frustration with game difficulty from time to time. However, there is a special type of frustration that I occasionally come across. If I consider a game to be poorly made or unfairly difficult, I’ll just stop playing it but, if I truly love a game, then facing a difficulty roadblock can be distressing. In these cases, I’ll buckle down and keep persevering until I become good enough to overcome the obstacle. Even then, there were times when I thought to myself “What if I’m never able to beat this?” and so I thought it might be interesting to share some moments in video games when I almost gave up.

One of the most vivid moments when I experienced this was when I was playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for the first time. As someone who loves the games of FromSoftware, I was excited to play, at that point, Hidetaka Miyazaki’s newest game. While the combat system took some getting used to, I found myself quickly enchanted by the rich world, incredible bosses, wonderful exploration etc. However, I had heard tales that the final boss of Sekiro was perhaps the hardest FromSoftware boss ever but I was sure, with my prior Dark Souls experience, that I was up to the challenge. I will refrain from saying who the final boss is, since it’s an amazing moment when you realise who it is, but I quickly found myself being destroyed by them. As I fought against them again and again, I slowly began to lose faith in myself and considered the distressing possibility that I might never finish Sekiro. However, the boss’ design is truly impeccable as it’s a test of almost every aspect of combat that you’ve been learning throughout the game and I managed to eventually overcome them. Last time I played Sekiro, I managed to defeat them in one try, showing how fair they become once you’ve mastered the combat and I consider the game as a whole to be a masterpiece.

A promo image for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
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The Resilience Of The Talented Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi

When talking of great modern directors of anime films, you hear names such as Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda etc. but I always feel like the name “Hiromasa Yonebayashi” is too often missing from the conversation. I personally feel that the reason he’s not as spoken of as other directors is due to his more limited filmography but I personally admire his resilience and his films so I thought it would be worth speaking about the talented director Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

Born in Nonoichi in Japan on the 10th of July, 1973, Hiromasa Yonebayashi was inspired to work at Studio Ghibli after he saw the 1995 film “Whisper of the Heart”. Besides a few other projects, Hiromasa has predominantly worked on Studio Ghibli films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle etc. as a key animator and an in-between animator while he notably served as the animator director on the Studio Ghibli short Mei and the Kittenbus.

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My Ranking Of The Live-Action Star Wars Films Part 2

Here is the conclusion to “My Ranking Of The Live-Action Star Wars Films Part 1

6. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Going into Solo: A Star Wars Story, I only knew that it was a prequel concerning the character of Han Solo and that it had the dubious honour of being the first Star Wars film to be a box office bomb. So colour me surprised on how enjoyable the film itself was with a cast of likable characters, plenty of great action and humour and a few ways that the film played with the prior knowledge that Star Wars fans knew about Han Solo’s past. If there’s anything holding the film back from being higher on my list, it’s that many of the emotional moments fall flat. Characters are killed off and they receive only the briefest of sorrow before the rest of the characters move on. What this results in is a film that you’ll probably enjoy watching but that lacks enough substance to stick in your mind as often as many other Star Wars movies.

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My Ranking Of The Live-Action Star Wars Films Part 1

After playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order recently, I found myself in the mood to keep experiencing Star Wars. Having seen eight Star Wars movies at the time, I decided to order the other three that I hadn’t seen and make a marathon of it, watching the eleven films with some friends of mine. Having done so, I thought it’d be interesting to do a ranking of the live-action Star Wars films (the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars is basically a pilot for the TV series so I decided to exclude it for this list).

11. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

The prequel trilogy gets a bad rap and, as you’ll see in this ranking, I consider the majority of the hate to be unwarranted. However, there is no doubt that some of the bad reputation is well-deserved and, as far as I’m concerned, Star War: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is my least favourite of all the live-action Star Wars films. There are some decent moments in the film such as discovering the world of Kamino, the chase sequence on Coruscant and the Battle of Geonosis (excluding the lightsaber segments) but the film is dragged down by poor dialogue and character interactions and nothing exemplifies this more than the awful execution of the romance between Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. It comes off as embarrassingly cliché with the worst moment, for me, being where they are literally running through a field which ends with them rolling through the grass in an embrace. Interestingly, unlike the other two prequel films, lightsaber combat is surprisingly uninteresting with poor editing and stiff choreography. It must also be said that Hayden Christensen doesn’t give a particularly good performance in this film, coming off as emotionless for most of the film with any scene requiring emotion from him resulting in a sudden outburst of emotion that has him whining like a child.

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Why I Really Like Achievements In Video Games

I’ve recently been playing a game called Celeste. I had heard many talking about how difficult Celeste is and, as I played through the game, I remember thinking how, while the game is certainly challenging, that it wasn’t as difficult as people had made it out to be. Then I came across a cassette tape that unlocked the B-side of a level. Playing through the B-sides of these levels truly shows how tough Celeste can be with many demanding near perfect timing and knowledge of some of the more advanced mechanics in the game. I’m now working my way through the C-sides but something I realised was, as much fun as these levels can be, a strong motivating factor is my pursuit of the achievements. Therefore, I thought I’d share my thoughts on achievements in video games, why I like them and my personal policy when pursuing them.

I first heard about achievements some time after the announcement of Gamerscore which would be implemented in the Xbox 360. Not owning an Xbox 360, I didn’t think too much of it. However, Valve, within a couple of years, began incorporating achievements into Steam which, given that I’m a PC gamer, drew my attention. I also owned a PS3 which later developed Trophies, a variant of achievements, but I never committed myself to earning Trophies. I can’t remember when it was that I actually took an interest in earning achievements but I do recall that my rarest achievement showcase, on my Steam profile, once showed that I had somewhere around a 25% game completion stat, that being 25% of achievements earned across all games that I had at least one achievement in, and I now have a 66% game completion stat.

My rarest achievement showcase on Steam.
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