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Immortallium's Blog Posts

Why Reviews Are Important When I’m Picking Media To Consume

When I was in secondary school, I began to become fascinated by the worlds of anime, manga, movies, TV shows etc. while also doubling down on my passion for video games. However, as you might imagine, this was quite a lot of media to juggle while I had to attend school and do homework. I had to try to determine what was worth spending my precious time and money on and one of the ways I could determine that was to watch and read reviews. When I spoke to my friends about this, I distinctly remember them saying “Ignore the reviews. Just watch what you want”. While I partially understood their reasoning, I thought it might be worth discussing why reviews remain important to me when it comes to picking the media that I consume.

I probably should emphasise that when I began to explore these media, I wasn’t entirely sure where to begin. I had watched plenty of movies and TV shows and played many video games as a kid but I was entering a new world of more mature media and had no idea where to begin. Not to mention that I was practically clueless about where to begin with anime and manga. While I did ask friends and family what some of their favourites were, I wanted to learn even more and find some hidden gems. To do that, I sought out reviews of media that I found interesting to see what the reviewer’s thoughts were and whether I should check them out.

A picture of my horror film collection in October 2020.
When I discovered horror films in secondary school, I had no idea where to begin and I turned to online reviewers to find out what movies I should seek out.
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PC Vs Consoles: Which Is The Better Platform?

The recent announcement that Days Gone, a game that was exclusively released on PlayStation 4 in 2019, was coming to PC this year along with a “slate” of other Sony games was, to me and others, a cause for celebration. I even wrote an article about which Sony games I’d love to see come to PC! However, some fans of PlayStation were upset by this announcement and, while the reaction has been relatively tame compared to the announcement of Horizon Zero Dawn for PC, this vocal minority remained visible. This has made me ponder the differences between the platforms and why some people may feel more attached to one over the other and so, I decided to take a look at PC vs consoles and which is the better gaming platform.

However, I should preface this article by stating that I have made my personal preference for PC as a gaming platform clear in the past. However, I intend to look at the advantages and disadvantages of both PC and consoles when it comes to gaming and I hope to discuss the topic as impartially as I possibly can. It’s also important to note that the conclusions of this article are my personal opinion and that you are free to agree or disagree with me.

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Why I Hate The Term “The Big Three”

When one first discovers manga and anime, you quite often begin choosing titles based on what critics, fans and friends have to say. By the time I got into manga and anime around 2009, I began to hear the term “The Big Three” frequently. Naturally, these series were amongst the first that I watched and were quite formative on my initial tastes. However, as time has gone on, I have slowly come to detest and hate the term “The Big Three” for numerous reasons.

First off, I should begin by explaining what “The Big Three” are. The term refers to both the manga and anime incarnations of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach and were considered by many to be essential reading/watching when it came to exploring the worlds of manga and anime. However, the term has become not only irrelevant as time has gone on but it has also contributed to misinformation when it comes to both the manga and anime industries and the role that these series play within them.

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The Fascinating World of Anime Production Committees

I’ve spoken before about the economics of anime but, in that article, I was more focused on the sources of revenue rather than the actual production of the anime themselves. Today, I’d like to take a look at the world of anime production committees and why I find them so fascinating.

To begin, let’s discuss what a production committee is. When an anime is being developed, a committee is established where companies invest money into production and are awarded certain rights such as merchandising, domestic broadcast rights, overseas distribution etc. These investments help to minimise the risk to any one company by spreading costs while allowing them to make money in their field of expertise.

Bandai is typically part of the Gundam production committees to secure merchandising rights.
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The Template of the Hero’s Journey

It has been argued that, despite the enormous amount of stories told throughout the world and media, there are only a limited amount of “frameworks that are recycled again and again in fiction“. Easily one of the most popular would be the template of the “Hero’s Journey”, also referred to as the monomyth.

The secondary name for the hero’s journey, “Monomyth” comes from James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” and refers to the fact that numerous myths and stories from cultures all around the world use this structure for their storytelling with classic examples such as King Arthur, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Yamato, Beowulf and many others falling into this category.

An illustration of the hero’s journey by Reg Harris
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What is Full Motion Video in Video Games?

Even amongst fans of video games, the term “Full Motion Video”, often referred to as FMV, remains a relatively unknown concept. Full Motion Video refers to cutscenes in video games that have been pre-recorded and are not rendered in real-time. This was typically done in order to overcome the hardware limitations at the time and provide visuals that the hardware could not produce.

Since the term “Full Motion Video” simply refers to any cutscene that has been pre-recorded, FMVs can be surprisingly diverse. 2D animation is sometimes used to supplement games with an animated aesthetic such as Dragon’s Lair or some Japanese games. FMVs can also refer to games that use CGI for their cutscenes with a famous example being Visual Works, a subsidiary of Square Enix that work to create CGI cutscenes for video game franchises such as Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, Dragon Quest etc. Some games even have pre-rendered in-game cutscenes although these are quite often frowned upon.

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Some of the Most Interesting Manga Hiatuses

The manga industry can be quite an intense workplace with constant deadlines to produce an unusually high amount of content. Understandably, mangaka sometimes need to take a break from a particular series before they can begin producing more content whether that be to recover physically, mentally or for any other reasons. Therefore, I thought it might be worth taking a look at some of the more interesting manga hiatuses in the industry.

One criteria I will apply however will be that the manga must have made a return. All too often we see manga series such as Nana or Highschool of the Dead go on hiatus to seemingly never return. While there are many reasons why this might be the case, the death of Daisuke Satō who wrote Highschool of the Dead for instance, I want to pay particular attention to series that did eventually manage to leave hiatus.

The volume 1 cover for the Viz Media release of One-Pound Gospel by Rumiko Takahashi.
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The History of Anime At the Academy Awards

On the day that this article is posted, the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards are due to be announced. Of particular note to anime fans will be the category of “Best Animated Feature” which sees six anime films, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, Earwig and the Witch, Lupin III: The First, ON-GAKU: Our Sound, Ride Your Wave and A Whisker Away all on the shortlist for the award. Taking this into consideration, I thought it might be worth looking back on the history of anime at the Academy Awards.

Before I begin this discussion, in the interest of transparency, I should clarify my own personal thoughts on the awards. I, like many others, used to regard the awards quite highly but, as time has progressed, I’ve steadily become frustrated with the ineptitude surrounding Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards and, for the most part, I tend to ignore the awards these days. However, there is no doubt in my mind that a win at these awards increases the mainstream appeal of the film in question and so I do hope each year to see either an anime or a more experimental animated film win the category which, for the most part, leaves me disappointed each year.

Understandably, of the six anime films on the shortlist, I’d like to see Lupin The Third: The First get a nomination.
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Sony Games I’d Love To See On PC

Over a year ago, I spoke about a rumour that Horizon Zero Dawn, a first-party game from Sony, was coming to PC. After I wrote that article, Sony themselves confirmed the rumour and released Horizon Zero Dawn for PC on the 7th of August, 2020 on both Steam and the Epic Games Store with a release on GOG.com on November 24th. Horizon Zero Dawn seemed to perform strongly on PC but it was still unknown if and how Sony would proceed. However, a recent interview with Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan not only confirmed that a “whole slate” of Sony games were making their way to PC but that Days Gone, a game released exclusively for the PS4 in 2019, is being released on PC in spring. With this news, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the Sony games that I’d love to see released on PC in the future.

First off, there is a particular game that I and many other PC gamers desire Sony to port more than any other, even mentioning it in my article last year. As I’m sure you’re well aware of, I’m a big fan of the Dark Souls series and, having played through each entry multiple times, I’m eager to find other games that evoke the same feelings as when I play Dark Souls. Understandably, I have a strong desire to play Bloodborne, an action RPG directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the Dark Souls series, but have been restricted by the fact that Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. People have told me “just buy a PS4 to play it” but I cannot justify buying a €300 console to play a single game. Besides that, I’m also eager to play the newly released Demon’s Souls remake that was released on PS5 recently. The game was originally announced for both PS5 and PC but Sony very quickly stated that the inclusion of the phrase “Also available on PC” was a mistake. While frustrating, I do believe that Demon’s Souls will be released on PC someday and that Sony were merely trying to drum up hype for the release of the PS5.

A promo image for Bloodborne.
Bloodborne.
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Why You Should Check Out Weekly Shonen Sunday Manga

Amongst Western fans of manga, the name Weekly Shonen Jump is easily the most well-known manga magazine. However, there are many other manga magazines that I believe Western fans should be aware of. Interestingly, the manga magazine that I wish to discuss, Weekly Shonen Sunday, isn’t terribly different from Weekly Shonen Jump but I would still like to discuss it and say why I believe you should check out many of its titles.

To start with, Weekly Shonen Sunday was originally released on the 17th of March, 1959, which interestingly was the same day as Weekly Shonen Magazine. Amusingly, Weekly Shonen Sunday was released on Tuesdays, not on a Sunday, before switching to Wednesdays later in its life. It is estimated that Weekly Shonen Sunday is the fourth best-selling manga magazine of all time by total units sold although circulation has steadily been dwindling with figures stating that Weekly Shonen Sunday is now only the tenth best-selling manga magazine by circulation. Nonetheless, it’s hard to overstate the importance that Weekly Shonen Sunday has had on the manga and anime industries as a whole.

A cover of Weekly Shonen Sunday.
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