Immortallium's Blog

Medal with Purple Ribbon Winners in the Anime/Manga Industry Part 2

Published November 19, 2020

Here is the conclusion of my article that began in “Medal with Purple Ribbon Winners in the Anime/Manga Industry Part 1“.

In 2012, Moto Hagio, one of the legendary Year 24 Group, was honoured with the Medal with Purple Ribbon. I have mentioned the Year 24 Group before for revolutionizing shojo manga with stories discussing gender roles and sexuality and reinterpreting manga paneling with the addition of flowery artwork and softening, sometimes removing, panel borders so that images flow into each other. Moto Hagio is one of the best known members of this group with titles such as The Poe Clan and The Heart of Thomas having a profound impact on the manga medium.

It may surprise you, given his impact on Western anime fandom, but Katsuhiro Otomo only received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2013. Easily his most famous series is Akira for which he both wrote the manga series as well as directing the anime adaptation of it. However, something I find fascinating about Katsuhiro Otomo is how much work he has done since Akira. In addition to writing other manga series, he has continued to direct with films such as Steamboy and Combustible as well as two live-action films, World Apartment Horror and Mushish, and writing screenplays for other anime films such as Metropolis and Roujin Z.

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Medal with Purple Ribbon Winners in the Anime/Manga Industry Part 1

Published November 16, 2020

I was perusing Anime News Network recently when I came across an article noting that Rumiko Takahashi had just won the Medal with Purple Ribbon award. I had never heard of this award but, from what I could tell, it was very prestigious and I decided to do some research. What I found proved interesting enough that I decided that it was worth discussing what the Medal with Purple Ribbon award is and, more importantly, the winners that hail from the anime/manga industry.

The Medal with Purple Ribbon award makes up one part of the Medals of Honor awarded by the Japanese government to “those who have excellent deeds in each field of society“. Originally established in 1881, the Japanese Medals of Honor originally consisted of red (for those who risk their lives to save others), green (for morally remarkable individuals) and blue (for those with remarkable achievements in public welfare or public service). Since then, three other categories have been established with yellow in 1887 (for those who become public role models), dark blue in 1919 (for those who make financial contributions for public well-being) and, returning to the topic of the article, purple in 1955 (for those who have made significant contributions in either the fields of academics or the arts).

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My Thoughts on Stealth in Video Games

Published November 12, 2020

I recently picked up a VR headset (the Oculus Quest 2) and decided to play some games I had picked up from a Humble Bundle. The first game that I chose to play from that bundle was a title called Budget Cuts, a VR game that I had heard many positive things about but knew little of the premise or gameplay. Looking at the promotional images, it appeared to be an action game so imagine my surprise when I soon found out that the game was, in fact, a stealth game! This prompted me to think about and consider my thoughts when it came to stealth video games.

First, for those of you unfamiliar with the genre, a players priority in stealth video games is to avoid alerting the enemies, usually because the player is comparatively fragile with only a few hits leading to death. However, this does not mean that the player is powerless with a player typically able to kill unalerted enemies instantly. Other games may leave the player incapable of resisting in any meaningful way although I would typically see this decision as more appropriate to horror games.

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What is Kodomo Manga and Why You Should Know About It

Published November 9, 2020

I have spoken before about manga demographics, specifically about josei manga but also touching on other demographics like shonen, shojo and seinen. Interestingly, in my experience, I have found that many Western fans of manga are familiar with these four demographics (to the extent that they understand who they’re targeted at) but many show confusion upon my mentioning of a fifth demographic, kodomo. Taking this into account, I think it’s important that Western manga fans understand and know what kodomo manga is.

Let’s begin with what kodomo manga is. The word kodomo means children in Japanese. Therefore, kodomo manga refers to manga aimed at children. However, to specify further, it specifically refers to a target audience younger than 12 since shonen and shojo titles are aimed at male and female teenagers respectively. However, there can be quite a bit of overlap and it is not uncommon to see some series referred as kodomo and shonen/shojo interchangeably.

The cover of the 40th anniversary issue of CoroCoro Comic.

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The Magical Girl Subgenre

Published November 5, 2020

There are many subgenres when it comes to the mediums of anime and manga and I would argue that one of the more overlooked are magical girls. While certainly not overlooked financially, I feel that many non-otaku (and even some otaku) look down on the magical girl subgenre as inferior, mindless entertainment. While I can understand how this misconception can develop, I also believe that there are many wonderful examples that disprove the stigma.

The history of the magical girl subgenre has an unusual start. Two of the earliest magical girl titles, Sally the Witch and The Secrets of Akko-chan, saw their creators cite American sitcom Bewitched as an inspiration. As you might expect, these early magical girl series were primarily slice of life comedies with little to none of the combat that we have come to expect from modern magical girl franchises.

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How I Rediscovered My Love For Horror Movies in 2020

Published November 2, 2020

I typically discuss the topics of anime, manga and video games on this blog but, considering the time of year (as well as the precedents set last year), I thought that now might be an appropriate time to share the story of how I rediscovered my love for horror movies in 2020.

For a long time, I had not been watching many films, instead focusing on watching anime, reading manga and playing video games. Near the end of 2019 however, I decided to pickup and watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and I eventually set up a schedule where I would watch a movie every Monday and Thursday. After I had finished watching the MCU films, I decided to continue this practise.

Around February of this year (which feels so long ago now!), I decided to rewatch a film called “Cabin in the Woods”. I had seen the film in cinema back in 2012 but had picked up the Blu-ray for cheap at a retail store. Upon rewatching the film I was immediately entranced at the style, humour and the clever references to horror tropes and clichés and to other horror films and franchises.

Watched The Cabin in the Woods last week and am feeling a sudden insatiable desire to watch horror.
— Eoghan O'Connell (@Immortallium_) February 11, 2020

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Square Enix Games I’d Love to See on PC

Published October 29, 2020

I’ve spoken before about my passion for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series and how my preferred gaming platform is the PC. However, I have continued again and again to be baffled by Square Enix’s decisions when it comes to which games are ported to the platform with big franchises excluded, spin-offs prioritised over main entries and classics remaining unreleased. Taking all of this into account, I thought it might be interesting to look at some Square Enix games that I’d love to see released on PC.

While many of the main entries of Final Fantasy have now seen a release on PC, the elephant in the room remains the conspicuous absence of the first Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. While neither game tends to rank high amongst Final Fantasy fans, they are still very important entries in the franchise with many recurring elements established in both games and I’d love to see Square Enix release these games on PC.

The logos for the first two Final Fantasy games.

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What is Anime-Influenced Animation and Why it is Different

Published October 26, 2020

Whenever the topic of defining what anime is comes up, it is inevitable that the many non-Japanese animated series influenced by anime will be brought up and debated. Many so-called anime purists will quickly dismiss these shows while others will incorrectly refer to these series as anime. Instead, I view this form of anime-influenced animation as something that exists between anime and Western animation.

While there are plenty of examples of Western animated shows that were animated by Japanese animation companies such as Inspector Gadget, Transformers, Ulysses 31 etc. (often animated by either Toei Animation or TMS Entertainment), my focus is going to be primarily on shows animated by Western or Western-affiliated companies with an anime-influenced art style.

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The Importance of the Element of Wonder in Storytelling

Published October 22, 2020

Whenever I’m writing these articles, I typically pick a YouTube video to play in the background on loop. I was recently recommended the first opening of Naruto (R★O★C★K★S) and I decided to take YouTube up on their offer. Upon watching it though, I was immediately filled with an unusual feeling. I knew it wasn’t nostalgia as I’m quite familiar with that feeling and, upon a few days reflection, I eventually realised that what I was remembering was a faint memory of the wonder I felt when I first began watching Naruto. That realisation made me consider the importance of the element of wonder in storytelling and inspired me to discuss the topic.

There are many wonderful pieces of media featuring children discovering the world and their sense of wonder for relatively banal aspects of everyday life. However, my focus is going to be on stories of adventure throughout anime, manga and video games and how the element of wonder enhances the storytelling.

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Really Difficult Video Games with a Child-Friendly Art Style

Published October 19, 2020

I was recently playing a video game called “Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair” and, as they passed by, people would ask me why I was playing a kid’s game. I was so amused at this interpretation that I decided to show them the titular Impossible Lair. Brutal and unrelenting, they very quickly realized how difficult the game was and conceded. While I’ve spoken about difficulty in video games before, I thought it might be interesting to look at difficult video games that have a child-friendly art style.

When it comes to difficult video games with a child-friendly art style, my go-to example is typically the original Mega Man series. Originally released in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the original Mega Man games have seen 11 main entries with games 1-8 released from 1987 to 1996 and 9-11 released between 2008-2018 and have proven to be a major success with many spin-off sub-series, television adaptations and comics.

Who would guess from this artwork that the games were so difficult!

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