Category Archives: thought exercise

The Many Faces of the Bionic Commando

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Bionic Commando, originally an arcade game from 1987, found its way onto the Famicom/NES, where a new plot involving Nazis Badds and an improvement on gameplay features made it a hit, particularly in the United States. Since then, while not a super popular franchise, Bionic Commando has gotten a number of remakes, most notably the HD 3-D retooling of the original game, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and the 2009 Bionic Commando sequel.

In each game, you control a man with a gun and a bionic arm, whose goal it is to climb and swing through levels while eliminating enemy soldiers and reach the end of the level. While the gist of gameplay has remained fairly consistent, the art direction has not, resulting in a very different face for our cyborg hero over the years.

Our hero from left to right: Bionic Commando (Arcade, 1987), Bionic Commando (NES, 1988), Bionic Commando (Game Boy, 1992), Bionic Commando: Elite Forces (Game Boy Color, 1999), Bionic Commando: Rearmed (PS3 and 360, 2008), Bionic Commando (PS3 and 360, 2009)

Here you can see the Bionic Commando go from a simple blue-haired arcade hero to different degrees of fantastic and realistic, producing about as wide a range of portraits as a franchise can get. Note that portraits two, five, and six are all supposed to be the same character, i.e. Radd Spencer, bane of mustached fascists. What is immediately evident is that the NES Bionic Commando was originally made for a Japanese audience with his vaguely manga-style 80’s looks, while the newest Bionic Commandos are both conscious of the fact that the NES version built a sizable American audience, and are attempting to appeal to a childhood image of the NES game being a fairly gritty and serious affair. Square jaws are the name of the game here.

Now, compare the Game Boy version to the Game Boy Color version. Can you guess which was done by a Japanese development team and which was done by an American one? Yeah, pretty hard I know.

What I find so interesting about the GB and GBC incarnations of Bionic Commando relative to each other is that they are both trying to achieve the same aesthetic goal: a far-flung whiz-bang high-tech laser future setting for the game that appeals to the audiences in their native countries. The GB Bionic Commando is a full-on early 90s anime bishounen hero with big eyes, small mouth, and hair reminiscent of Cyborg 009 or Soldier Blue from Towards the Terra. The GBC Bionic Commando meanwhile is a rough and gruff 90s X-Treme superhero akin to Marvel’s Cable or DC’s Lobo. “Yes! This is exactly what kids want!” both development teams must have thought as they approved the designs.

If Bionic Commando gets remade again in a few years, I look forward to how the cultural fashions of the time influence our hero yet again. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be some kind of strange amalgam of realistic muscley dude, superhero, and anime protagonist.

Vocabulary Power Up with Otaku Mind

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If you’ve been paying attention to my Twitter, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been doing some vocabulary study over the past few days, and that I have been distinctly anime and geek-themed in constructing my example sentences. For example, yesterday I wrote that Jagi fomented Shin’s decision to take Yuria from Kenshiro.

Good laughs for all, this anime vocabulary buildup, except I am conscious of the fact that it is actually helping me to study. I think that says more about my mind and my anime obsession than anything else, and I worry a little about my future sanity.

I’ve used a similar method for memorizing other things, including rules of Japanese grammar as well as vocabulary, but when I try to explain these mnemonic devices and such to other people they just look at me blankly. “That doesn’t help!” they might say. In short, I’ve created a study system that works only for me because I’m a huge anime nerd.

You might be asking, “Why are you sending these sentences to Twitter?” And to that I say, I’m not entirely sure. It’s definitely not because I want it to be noticed however. I think I just concentrate and remember better when I feel like my example sentences have some kind of target or purpose, and sending them online into the great Twittering Beyond kind of accomplishes that.

The Different Perceptions of “Realism” in Anime Among Fans

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What does it mean for an anime to be “realistic?”

It’s a question which seems simple, until you realize that different people interpret and prioritize different aspects of an anime as “realism” based on their own personalities and beliefs.

Take the Gundam franchise for instance. Depending on who you ask, you will get different answers for what is the “most realistic” Gundam series. Let’s look at just Universal Century.

Some will say First Gundam, because of the complex morals the characters possess.

Some will say Zeta Gundam, because it shows how easily government corrupts.

Some will say Gundam 0083, because of the grittiness and detail of the technology and battles.

Some will say 0080 War in the Pocket because of its depiction of what impact war has on the innocent.

Some will say 08th MS Team because of the way it follows the down-to-Earth “common soldier.”

And so on.

In every case, the supporters are correct, but only when they define “realism” by their own standards. Just as easily, I can accuse First Gundam of being unrealistic for having characters realize things a little too quickly, or Zeta for its over-the-top characterizations. I can accuse 0083 of being unrealistic for a lack of depth in its characters, and 0080 for being too preachy in its anti-war message. I can even accuse 08th MS Team of not being about the REALLY common soldiers, i.e. the ones NOT riding in Mobile Suits, or simply say that Gundam as a whole is nowhere close to “realistic” because the concept itself is preposterous.

The idea of “realistic romance” also has the same issue. Is a show realistic because the characters talk like real people? Is a show realistic because it conveys emotions in a way that is easily relatable? Is a show realistic because nobody falls in love (provided you believe true love isn’t realistic)?

You can already see some of the different ways to define “realism” in regards to fiction. There’s an external realism, where everything looks and acts as it does in the real world. There’s an emotional realism, where the characters’ feelings appear to be so genuine that they mirror your own. There’s a conceptual realism, where complex ideas and ideologies show a world of shades of gray. But in these cases and beyond, how we define realism is of course based on our experiences in life.

It’s just up to us whether or not we want to understand everyone else’s “reality.”

The Colors of Modern Fanservice

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As part of the ritual of watching new shows at the start of a season, I decided to check out the show Kampfer. Immediately upon watching it, I got this strong feeling that I knew exactly the kind of show it was going to be (and I was right). Sure, the character designs are what you expect out of this sort of otaku-targeting fanservice show, but it was something much more fundamental than that. Then it hit me: It was the color scheme.

Lots of anime throughout the years have had bright or cheerful color schemes, but there’s something very distinct about the kinds of shows that are made in order to get otaku in a tizzy. When it comes to art, color and color theory were never my strong suit, so I cannot speak with any real authority or learned foundation, but there is a certain optimistic quality to the colors used in Kampfer and shows like Kampfer. Even if terrible things happen to the characters, it comes across as a fantasy that wants the viewer to become engrossed in, but at the same time makes it easy to remove oneself from that fantasy if one desires to do so.

kkitousen is affected by this to a lesser extent, due to the fact that it uses colors with greater saturation and contrast, but it still shares a similar fondness for bright colors combined in specific ways. These shows appear to be aiming for an ideal, trying to tap into a core color scheme that is attractive to otaku on some deeper level.

The reason, I suspect, is that they are getting very close to the colors commonly used in erotic PC games.

Here we have Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien aka Rumbling Hearts. The soft gradients seen here which are common to erogames are also pretty much impossible for any anime to achieve on a consistent basis. It looks as if the staff working on these “erogame color” shows try to achieve the same effect by choosing bright colors with a little less contrast than normal.

I also suspect that this color scheme also exudes a very negative connotation among people who dislike these sorts of shows inherently. It’s probably something which jumps out at them subconsciously and tells them that they may be in for a rough ride should they continue to watch.

Color is such a huge topic that obviously I can’t cover it all in one post. For that reason don’t be surprised if I return to the topic again at some point in the future.

Otaku Diaries: Surprise! Nerds Think They’re Smart

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The Reverse Thieves’s Otaku Diaries continue on, and this time the theme is self-image. More specifically, it’s about how the otaku interviewed view themselves physically and mentally, and probably to no one’s surprise, the vast majority of anime nerds polled stated that while they believe themselves to be average in appearance at best, they also believe they’re smarter than the average person. It’s as if we’ve fully embraced the nerd moniker.

In some cases, the otaku are rather extreme with the degree to which they consider themselves more intelligent than the average, which begs the questions, just how is it that they determine the average, and why do those responses have either a strong or subtle hint of negativity to them?

The concept of intelligence is such an odd thing in that while we are sure that it exists, we are never really sure what entails someone to be “more” intelligent than someone else. We can give IQ tests, we can discuss politics and philosophy, we can converse about anime, but it is difficult to get a complete idea of a person’s intellectual capacity, especially if you see them only briefly. What is the average intelligence actually supposed to be like, and why are we on the winning side?

I ask this question to you, but then I remember I too answered that I was smarter than the average person, so I guess I should direct this at myself as well. So when I think about “average” intelligence, I do tend to think of someone who is perhaps not as perceptive as me in certain ways, but is able to do just fine in the world. They can think about complex ideas, and while they perhaps cannot work out a conclusion, will at least be able to conceive that a solution exists somewhere out there. I mean, average is average right? And environment can play a large role in just where a person directs or cultivates his brain matter.

But then I think about my friends, classmates, previous co-workers, family, just various people over the years, and I’m not sure how many people I know are average or below average in intelligence. Even the bullies who picked on me had to be smart in a certain sense, if they could bother me with just words. Even friends in the past where I’ve thought, “I’m probably smarter than him,” have surprised and humbled me. Maybe the “average” is higher than any of us expect.

AMV Makers, Here is My Challenge to You

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An AMV of Queen’s Blade set to “Princes of the Universe” by Queen.

The stipulation is that you have to make the video look as serious as possible. As serious as those AMVs about two characters in serious love. You know the kind.

The Fear of Ridicule

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Anime fans are no strangers to being ridiculed. We tend to be socially inept to varying degrees, and we have a hobby that others don’t really understand (or more specifically, they don’t understand how we could devote so much time and energy and emotion to it). This creates a strong fear inside of us, that someone, whether it’s people at your school, your co-workers, your friends and acquaintances, does not think very highly of you. I’m no exception, and I know that I am neither the first dork nor the last one to experience this fear. I understand that it’s the kind of thing that can paralyze an individual, and make them unable to interact with others and grow, which in turn paralyzes them further.

Perceived ridicule comes from all angles, but the most interesting by far is the ridicule that comes from your “in-group,” in this case other anime fans. It’s one thing to be attacked from the outside, you can retreat, you can defend, but when the attack happens from “within,” it makes you feel that much more vulnerable. Again, you don’t even have to experience an actual slight. All it takes is the fear of one, and then it becomes a matter of overcoming it or ignoring it.

The reason why this fear of ridicule is so strong and present is that none of us can say we have never met a fellow fan who has weirded or creeped us the hell out. In some cases, as we get to know them we realize they’re okay overall, but there are those who are just somehow unapproachable, whether it’s due to their abrasive personalities, tendency to kill any line of conversation, or just someone whose presence in a room makes everything worse. We’ve seen these people, and then we think, “Wait, maybe I’m like that! I’m so busy thinking less of this person, but I bet that guy doesn’t think he’s that guy either, so maybe I was that guy all along!” Then you start to wonder what qualities about yourself might make you the person no one wants to be around, and now, even if you weren’t that guy, you might become him inadvertently, or worse yet, in your efforts to not be him as much as possible, you change yourself into a sad shell of who you were.

How do you move past this point? I’m not sure if any anime nerd will ever be able to completely rid themselves of these feelings, but we can take things one step at a time, and learn more about ourselves and others. If we know what we like and what we do not, and have confidence tempered by humility, then I think we’re on the right path.

The Anime of Anime Fans

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There are times when I wonder about the perception of anime among regular folks in the US who have been exposed to it, but as of late I’ve wondered more about anime’s perception in the US among people who consider themselves to be anime fans. What do they look for in shows? What draws people to certain titles and has them going to cons dressed as or hugging certain characters? Obviously I can’t just pin it down on any couple of trends, seeing as otaku are a diverse bunch, but why do some shows succeed that you might never expect, and why are certain ones seemingly destined for success flops?  If I could answer this definitively, I would be rolling in cash money so don’t expect any revelations, but I feel like there is a certain something which attracts the vast majority of anime fans, a certain look and feel in any given era that gives off the impression that this is something new and different, and yet somehow just familiar enough to resonate deeply. Depending on the era, these qualities change, but they are what grab the individual, transform them into an anime fan, and then keep them there.

The Effects of Visual Falsehood

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In the Anime World Order review of Nobody’s Boy Remi, Gerald Rathkolb discusses the way in which the narrator plays with the expectations of its viewers by saying things that turn out to be completely false a short while after. If the narrator says that Remi found some money and spent it happily, there would likely be a scene shortly after where he accidentally drops the money down a sewer.

Generally, identity-less narrators are seen as omniscient, so either the narrator does not actually know everything, or is actively deceiving the audience. A similar effect happens with misleading episode titles. How many times does Chiba Shigeru in Hokuto no Ken declare in the next episode that a major character is definitely going to die but actually doesn’t? It makes a person begin to doubt the authenticity of words in fiction.

But words are easy to ignore as lies. The very idea of lying is tied closely to the use of words. If someone says you’re lying, it usually has to do with what you’ve said and not what you’ve done. What happens then, when the lies are not words but pictures?

Ambiguity in a given scene is a common technique used in anime and manga to create a sense of tension and drama. In Dragon Ball Z, a character attacks an enemy with so many energy projectiles that a giant explosion occurs where the target was standing. This ambiguous moment is meant to leave the viewer in anticipation as to whether or not the attack worked, though the explosion itself begins to take on a symbolic identity as a red herring and leads the viewer to assume that the opponent did not in fact die. What I’m referring to with visual falsehood though is something far more sinister.

While I cannot speak for everyone, I tend to believe that what is presented to me on the screen or on the page is what has happened in the story. In other words, there is a certain degree of “truth” to the visuals of a manga, because without them how are we supposed to know what has or has not happened?

One prominent manga author who uses visual falsehoods to their utmost advantage is Fukumoto Nobuyuki, creator of gambling series such as Mahjong Legend Akagi: The Genius Who Descended into the Darkness, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji: The Suffering Pariah -The Ultimate Survivor-, and Gambling Emperor Legend Zero. In Akagi and Ten for example, mahjong hands are displayed right on the page and presented as what a given character has to work with. In the anime for Akagi, the hand is generally displayed by itself floating in a space, as if to say that this is an objective view of the mahjong hand. Of course, it turns out not to be, and we are presented with what is really there.

This is a scene from Zero where the main character is faced with a scenario where he cannot see who is behind the wall. Fukumoto lets us the readers take a peek at the person behind the wall. Then he reveals the truth!

What are we to believe? Reveals like these are downright disarming.

A non-anime/manga example of this comes in the form of Megaman 9. In this game, there is an enemy that disguises itself as a 1-Up icon. Attempting to get a free life will of course result in an unpleasant surprise.

Though the enemy is not difficult to defeat, it creates some paranoia in the player. Just which 1-Ups are real? Does that 1-Up seem too good to be true? The game has challenged your perception of what “should” be.

I do not believe these visual lies impact these works negatively, but when the images themselves are untruths, it can create a sense of imbalance, a distrust for what is in front of you. Keep in mind that in Fukumoto’s case, this never damages the “gambling” or “mystery” aspects of his stories, so you are also unable to just doubt everything and view his works from a position of absolute superiority. It adds a new layer to reading manga, one where you are in a sense competing against the creators themselves.

Am I “Qualified?”

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This is one of those weird blogging about blogging posts. If you have no interest in waxing philosophy on such matters, then I suggest you go watch some anime (because anime is awesome).

If you look at the way in which I form ideas and write them out here at Ogiue Maniax, you will see that I have a tendency to qualify statements, taking simple sentences and complicating them in order to fully explain what I mean. Generally my goal is to remove as much ambiguity as I can (unless intended), but it can be a dangerous habit that can lead to strong assertions being weighed down by too many technicalities.

It’s not so much that I dislike the fact that I qualify statements so often(ah, there it goes!), but rather that I think it’s a good thing for me and other writers to be aware of. We can then know when it is appropriate to try and clarify in great detail what we’ve said previously, and when it is best to let something just stand on its own merits (in my case, this usually takes the form of a bad pun). In a manner of speaking, it all comes down to “how much should you say?”

The other major pitfall of over-qualifying statements is that if done incorrectly it can make your words seem as if they are constantly contradicting themselves in order to keep your opinion “correct.” That’s something to really watch out for.