Category Archives: video games

Drifting Along: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for December 2015

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Whenever I think of Christmas and anime, my mind immediately goes to Initial D: Third Stage. Does that count as a Christmas anime? I’m going to say yes, and try to make it official.

Here are this month’s Patreon supporters. As always, I’m happy that they have my back.

General:

Ko Ransom

Alex

Anonymous

Yoshitake Rika fans:

Elliot Page

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

We even have a new Yajima fan aboard! Seeing as how the character’s been developing in Genshiken as of late, I wonder if more will join.

It’s a pretty subtle change, but one thing I’ve been trying to do over the past month is put out content three times a week. I used to do at least two posts a week, with a Fujoshi File every other week, but I felt that it wasn’t quite enough.

Speaking of the Fujoshi Files, at the moment they’re on a brief hiatus as I use that time to indulge in my love of Super Smash Bros. After the recent announcement that Cloud Strife is going to be a playable character (!), I’ve gone back to an old love of mine and have been designing movesets for what-if Smash characters. So far I’ve done Pitfall Harry from Pitfall and Zoma from Dragon Quest III, and there will be at least a couple more on the way.

I have more reviews this month, though as always they toe the line between review and analysis. Of course, there’s the requisite Genshiken chapter, and if you’re a Sue fan this is the one for you. I also wrote something about the use of kanji and words in Aquarion Logos, and then there’s my review of the new Digimon anime. If you haven’t heard about that last one, it’s actually a sequel to the original, with all of your favorite characters in high school. If you like giant robots, I also appeared on the Cockpit podcast to talk about Gaogaigar. I even made a new 1 Minute Review to celebrate the release of Girls und Panzer der Film!

As with every month, if you’re interested in requesting topics for me, it’s a reward for those who pledge $30+ on my Patreon. I of course don’t mind coming up with my own topics (and in many ways it’s actually kind of easier),  but I do miss being “forced” to look at something I might not have otherwise. In the meantime I’ve replaced the Ogiue Maniax Skype group reward at $2.00 with a new feature: I will include a link to whatever you want (within reason) in a special section in my sidebar. Remember, if you’re pledging already, you already have access to this, so send those requests my way!

The last thing I’d like to talk about is the whole social media thing. In the past, I’ve tried to make it so that each site I used had a different specialty. My tumblr, for example, was mainly for video clips. However, I realized that many people only look at their favorite social media platforms and rarely venture outside of them. That’s why I’ve been getting a bit more redundant with posts across different sites, to reach more people. My question is, are you someone who sticks to just one, or someone who sees different value in Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, etc.? I’d like to have a better idea of how to interact with my readers, so that I can foster interesting or even delightfully frivolous discussion.

 

Zoma for Super Smash Bros.

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Previous Characters:

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Pitfall Harry (Pitfall)

In celebration of Cloud Strife’s reveal as a new Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U character, I have once again been drawing movesets and concept art for how famous icons of video games might work in Smash Bros. This time around, it’s Zoma, the final boss of Dragon Quest III, aka Dragon Warrior III.

Square Enix began as two rival companies, Square (later Squaresoft) and Enix. If Square’s flagship title was Final Fantasy, and its greatest success story Final Fantasy VII, then Enix’s was Dragon Quest, and its crown jewel Dragon Quest III. Having sold over 1 million copies on its first day of release in Japan in 1988, which included many students deciding to cut class just to buy it, it is one of Japan’s most beloved RPGs. Amazingly, once you beat it, you find out that it was in fact a prequel to the very first Dragon Quest, and your player character becomes the legendary hero whose equipment must be collected in the first game.

However, instead of just going with Loto (or Erdrick) as a counterpart to Cloud, I believe it would be more interesting if Enix could be represented by arguably its greatest villain. Zoma, like all Dragon Quest monsters, is drawn by Toriyama Akira of Dragon Ball fame, and strikes an imposing figure. A demon lord who rules over the land of Alefgard, according to Dragon Quest IX he actually went there because he’s extremely popular with other monsters and is trying to get away from his fans. Zoma is shown to be much larger than the heroes, but like Bowser there does not seem to be much consistency with his scale, so I figured he’d best be a large, heavy target similar to other super heavyweights. However, where Zoma differentiates himself from the rest is that his attacks are not only powerful, they’re very quick to recover.

If you’ve fought a character like Mario in Smash 4, you find that he can move very quickly out of key attacks (Up Smash, down air, back air), and that it makes him difficult to punish. Zoma would be similar. While some of his attacks would have long wind-ups, such as his Side-B Kacrackle (the strongest ice spell in Dragon Quest), it is difficult to take advantage of him if he misses, as he can quickly transition into something like a jab or a forward smash. This is meant to reference the fact Zoma is actually able to attack twice in one turn in his source material.

To balance this out, Zoma would have by far the worst mobility in the game, like if you weighed Ganondorf down with bricks. He would have decent jumps in terms of sheer distance, but would be extremely slow in terms of acceleration and max speed. His walk speed would be awful, and he wouldn’t even have a true dash. Instead, he would get a mini-teleport that still has all the restrictions of a dash. Think of him as being somewhat like Slayer in Guilty Gear.

All of Zoma’s attacks come straight from his battles across various games (he’s been a guest boss in a number of titles), and many of them are capable of freezing. C-C-Cold Breath is a super-charged version of the Ice Climbers’ Down B, and Disruptive Wave can remove status changes (both positive and negative) and even stun opponents very briefly. In one-on-one situations you won’t be able to capitalize on it, but it does travel far and is good for shifting momentum back into your favor, especially given once again how difficult Zoma’s moves are to punish. Bounce is a reflector and stage recovery move combined, making it useful for getting past projectile-based edgeguarding attempts, but is otherwise below average for a recovery, traveling far but very slowly. It is also impractical as an on-stage reflector. Kacrackle is both a powerful damage dealer and a way to seal stocks early, but can be difficult to land. At the same time, it can be thrown out similar to Meta Knight’s forward smash as a read in neutral.

Zoma’s Final Smash is a reference to the fact that Zoma originally covers himself with a protective ice barrier in Dragon Quest III that greatly augments his abilities. The only way to remove it is to use the Orb of Light, and seeing as no one has it in Smash Bros., I figured it would be better as a temporary measure.

Perhaps most important of all, Zoma would have all of the signature attack sound effects from Dragon Quest.

So that’s Zoma, one of the most infamous of JRPG villains. If anyone wants to design a Loto as well, by all means be my guest. As for the next character, it’ll be “the one I’m waiting for.”

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Pitfall Harry for Super Smash Bros.

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With the surprise announcement of Cloud Strife in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U, as well as the upcoming mysterious December Smash Bros. special report, I felt inspired to start up a new line of Smash character what-ifs. You can see the previous ones I’ve made below.

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

Princess Daisy (Super Mario Land)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Great Puma (NES Pro Wrestling)

Thinking about how 3rd-party characters in Smash tend to be ones from influential or important games (Cloud), or representative of entire genres (Ryu), I decided to create a moveset and design for Pitfall Harry, the hero of the classic Atari 2600 game Pitfall. If you don’t know who Pitfall Harry is, that’s probably not surprising, as 1) the game is from 1982 and 2) even if you know the game Pitfall Harry doesn’t have much of a presence. After all, this is what he looked like:

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Pitfall is significant in that, to my knowledge, it’s the first horizontal multi-screen platform game, and in terms of its implementation on the Atari it is a technical marvel, like creating boeuf bourguignon out of leather shoes and ketchup. Because of this, I think Pitfall Harry could reasonably have a place in a pantheon of gaming icons, however unlikely.

However, the first challenge that presented itself is the fact that Pitfall Harry has no consistent design. In addition to the fact that his original sprite (although amazing for its time) has no real identifiable features, Pitfall Harry across adaptations and sequels changes size, hair, clothes, musculature, personality, and more from one iteration to the next.

pitfallharries

Possible Costumes?

As mentioned on the image itself, I decided to prioritize Pitfall Harry’s movements, because they’re what’s iconic about him, while trying to keep his silhouette closer to the original sprite wherever possible. If he can for the most part capture the animations of the Atari 2600 sprite in Smash, then his identity should come through. This should also be reflected in the audio. When he jumps, he should make that distinct Atari noise (or a higher-quality version of it), and when he does his Jungle Swing Pitfall Harry should yell out like Tarzan.

As for the attacks themselves, I feel that Pitfall and Pitfall II are where most of the game franchise’s influence comes from, and so they should be prioritized. His Final Smash is his “deadliest enemy, the crocodiles,” his Balloon recovery move comes straight out of Pitfall II (and is super vulnerable so only useful as a last resort), his Tar Pit trap references both the treasure and hazard aspects of Pitfall, and the Jungle Swing is iconic. The main exception is the Slingshot neutral special, taken from Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure and other sequels. If his son can use it, I’m sure Harry can as well.

Gameplay-wise, I picture Pitfall Harry as being average in weight, average in ground speed, a little above average in air speed, and below average in racking damage and KO power. He’s not that much of a fighter (unlike Mario, jumping on enemies just kills Harry), so he would function primarily as a zoning and trapping character who controls space with his specials, but doesn’t have as much sheer recovery power as Smash 4 Villager. If anything, he’d be closer to Duck Hunt. However, his trapping game is not to be underestimated. Tar Pit works like a souped-up version of a burying attack, both getting the opponent stuck and dealing damage over time. It would also be unblockable, which somewhat makes up for his tether grab. The caveat is that it is very obvious where it is located, with the big glowing gold bar to indicate the trap, but this also means that the opponent best steer clear of the location. Essentially, Harry could cut off a portion of the stage, such as Smashville’s platform or Battlefield’s top platform, and manipulate the opponent to get hit by a Jungle Swing or a smash attack (which would mostly involve fists).

Overall, Harry would emphasize cunning and ingenuity. To succeed as Pitfall Harry requires a clear understanding of space control, as well as adapting to a somewhat unorthodox neutral game.

So, who do you think I’ll be showing next time? I’ll leave you with a hint. “Japan shut down.”

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Let’s Talk About Cloud Strife’s Hair in SUPER SMASH BROS.

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By this point, you’ve probably heard: against all odds, and against all predictions, Cloud Strife is in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U. The very symbol of Square Enix (back then Squaresoft)’s departure from Nintendo consoles, and the most popular Final Fantasy ever, now challenges Nintendo’s greatest icons. I’m not going to show you a hype reaction video (all of my hype tends to be inward), but if you want to see one, this is my favorite.

Instead, I want to talk about this:

smash-cloud-ffvii smash-cloud-adventchildren

(No, I did not purposely use the Japanese trailer, it was just up on the Japanese Smash Bros. page first.)

As you’ve probably noticed, you have the choice between Final Fantasy VII Cloud and Advent Children Cloud. However, what impresses me is that Cloud’s hair is more realistic-looking in his Advent Children model.

That was totally unnecessary to do, but it’s this kind of attention that I love about Super Smash Bros. One aspect of Advent Children is that it updated the designs of the FFVII characters, showing off in the process the advances in 3D graphics that had developed since 1997. What I find especially impressive about this is the fact that the game ends up embracing both versions. While Cloud isn’t blocky like the Akira from Virtua Fighter Mii Costume, there’s still that sense of not just a different hair style but a more polygonal one.

Then again, given Little Mac’s wireframe model, this is exactly the sort of thing I should have expected…if I had expected Cloud at all.

Who’s even left at this point? Who could even top the surprise factor of this? At this point I’m calling Pitfall Harry, the first side-scrolling platform hero.

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The Comfort of Tech Skill in Competitive Games

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The question of how much technical skill or physical prowess should play a factor in competitive games is an on-going debate that really puts at the forefront the tension between “games” and “sports.” I’ve discussed this divide previously in reference to Super Smash Bros. with the intent to understand both sides, but a recent comment by Starcraft and Hearthstone community leader Day[9] has me thinking about the extent to which technical refinement can contribute to the competitive viability of a game outside of the environment of competition itself.

While explaining why he believes that Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the best-designed competitive multiplayer game (emphasis on the word “design”), he organizes his argument into four key points that a lot of the best games tend to share: an engine that encourages interaction, room for strategy, variety of content, and some sort of execution skill with clear reward. In elaborating upon the idea of execution skill, Day[9] explains that it can often be difficult for players to feel a sense of improvement if the goal or evidence of improvement is too abstract. In contrast to the difficulty of tracking your decision-making, getting a basketball into a hoop has a clear goal, and the actions you take towards achieving that goal are immediately noticeable (did this help me shoot more hoops successfully or not?).

The reason why I want to focus on this idea of a high technical or execution skill is, first, that I can totally understand what he means from my own experience playing competitive games, and second, that it really opens up the idea of competitive gaming as being about so much more than just “winners and losers.”

In my time playing Japanese mahjong, I’ve run into a number of hurdles that made it difficult to truly gauge whether or not I’d improved. As much as mahjong takes skill, it’s still a game where luck is a significant factor, and when playing opponents who are equal or better than you, it’s not uncommon to go on a serious losing streak that makes you question if your previous wins were due to luck of the draw or if you’ve indeed progressed as a player. It’s only over the course of many games, as well as by facing players of lesser skill, that it becomes more obvious if your skills have improved. You begin to see the mistakes that you made in the past in the actions of other players, and you understand on a more fundamental level what made those decisions mistakes in the first place.

The big issue is that this is a painful way to go about improvement, and it would not surprise me if most people were not this masochistic about finding out whether or not they have become better players. One has to claw in the dark, finding bits and pieces of light wherever they might appear, and eventually find out if they’re now standing on something stable or a worn-out rope bridge.

Abstract thinking and decision-making are difficult to quantify, which is why something like a Training Mode in a fighting game is so appealing to players. As Day[9] mentions, even if you fall behind in terms of strategy, a game with a “high-variance execution skill band” can give players something to aim for (no Counter Strike pun intended) with very clear rights and wrongs. Compare trying to learn a high-damage combo to trying to understand intrinsically the concept of a “neutral game.” Some players are better at technical execution and others are better at grasping deep concepts, but I think both players would agree that the combo, the headshot, the waveshine are all much more tangible than what David Sirlin calls “yomi,” or reading the mind of the opponent.

This can be a problem, as explained by James Chen when he refers to fighting game players who try to master the art of complex attack patterns (mixups) that cause the opponent’s defense to falter (“opening up the opponent”) without actually understanding the fundamental goal is that you’re trying to psychologically intimidate the opponent into not blocking. James makes an important statement, which is that, while many people believe that the “neutral” (the game state where both players are fully in control and have equal dominance on the field) is all about the mixup, in fact the mixup is the reward you get out of winning the neutral. After all, what use is your amazing mixup and combo game if you never actually get to land it? It’s complex, I know, and it’s amazing that James is able to explain it so well.

Back to Day[9]’s point, what I find to be the major significance of this idea of high execution skill is that improvement becomes almost like a salve, a way of reassuring yourself that you’re not that bad, or that you see a clear path towards getting better. Unlike blaming your teammates (common to DOTA 2 and League of Legends), this isn’t merely a placebo; you’ve still gotten better at your game on some level, and the best players marry brains with brawn. When looking at discussions of competitive games, certain communities such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Starcraft will tout their games’ “high skill ceilings” with respect to technical skill as signs of their superiority as competitive games and as esports, but the presence of a high skill ceiling also becomes a comforting warm blanket. Even if you falter in terms of strategy and abstract thinking, you have the option to continually improve without needing it because you can advance your execution skill.

When I say that this idea seems to bring competitive gaming away from the competitive environment itself, what I mean is that, even though the improvement of skills (be they mental or physical) are generally supposed to accompany you to the moment of competition (whether it’s a tournament or a ladder), the ability to look back at your progress and declare yourself better than you once were is just as important. “I am not what I was yesterday.” Unlike strategy where the personal rewards can be distant and obscure, execution skill is both a short and long-term confidence booster, bringing the competitive game to be just as much about constructing pride as it is about victory or defeat.

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And Then Came Comic Con: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for October 2015

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September I feel was kind of an exciting month, and I think I’ve put out some of my best articles in a while. Chief among them are my review of Love Live! The School Idol Movie and a monthly sponsored Patreon post, “The Rise and Fall of Saimoe.” In fact, even though it’s against the rules of my Patreon, I want to extend my gratitutde to Johnny Trovato, who while no longer a patron was the first to take me up on my offer to write posts based on topics chosen by my patrons. Thanks, Johnny.

Over the past month I’ve introduced a new type of pledge, where you can pledge a certain amount based on your favorite Genshiken character. In all honesty it’s just an excuse for me to make bad puns, so that’s why the amounts are all over the place. Of course, this also means that there are now different categories for sponsor shout-outs.

This month’s special Patreon sponsors are:

General:

Ko Ransom

Alex

otarsus

Anonymous

Yoshitake Rika fans:

Elliot Page

Kyubey Bryant

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

I haven’t gotten to all of the Genshiken characters yet, but if there’s one that you really want to see (Kaminaga? The younger Yoshitake? Ohno?), then speak up! It’ll be interesting to see which characters are still the fan favorites after all this time.

As for what’s on the horizon, New York Comic Con is this week, and I’ll be attending all 4 days! Of course I’ll have a con report for everyone to read, and you’ll be able to (most likely) catch me at a number of panels. Of course, given the hectic nature of NYCC, there’s no telling for sure!

Thu. Oct. 8
5:30 – 6:30 pm 		VIZ Media Presents: An Evening with Masashi Kishimoto, Creator of Naruto
Location: Main Stage 1-D Presented by AT&T		 Panels & Screenings
Fri. Oct. 9
8:00 – 9:30 pm 		Love Live! School Idol Project
Location: Room 1A05		 Panels & Screenings
Sat. Oct. 10
11:15 am – 12:15 pm 		CBLDF Presents: Comics Censorship in 2015
Location: Room 1A05		 Panels & Screenings

A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the “Neutral Game” in Fighting Games

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Introduction

If you ever look into the world of competitive fighting games, people will throw out terms such as “neutral,” “advantage,” and “disadvantage,” all of which appear to be (and are) key terms to understanding fighting games on a deeper, fundamental level. Often their meanings can come across as obtuse and rather abstract, and what exacerbates this confusion is that people make the mistake of trying to explain neutral before explaining advantage/disadvantage. This is why I’ve written this article. Advantage/disadvantage are much easier ideas to understand compared to neutral, and once you get those two down, the concept of “neutral” follows along more naturally.

Advantage, Disadvantage, and Neutral

So, imagine you’re in a fight. Would you rather be punching someone in the face, or getting punched? Most likely you’d prefer the former, a position where you’re at an advantage.

However, this idea extends more to than who’s getting hit. Would you rather be backed into a corner, or backing someone into a corner? Would you rather be standing with your back towards the edge of a cliff, or forcing someone towards the edge?

All of these positions involve someone who has fewer options available to them. The guy with his back to the cliff or the wall can’t go backwards, of course, so he has to fight his way out or somehow get around. However, this also makes him relatively more predictable. In contrast, the person forcing the opponent towards the edge can attack if he chooses to, or walk back. He has the luxury of more choices.

One person is in an advantageous position, the other is in a disadvantageous position. “Neutral,” then, is when neither person feels like they have an advantage or disadvantage. Neither one is getting hit, neither has their backs to a wall or has to worry about a 500-ft drop. Both fighters are fully in control of themselves, and their goal is to get the other one into a disadvantageous position.

“Footsies”

You’ll often find characters who are considered to be great at neutral, and these are generally characters that have more or better weapons at their disposal when trying to gain an advantage. In this respect, you might see people throw out another common but also confusing fighting game term: footsies.

The idea of footsies derives from what kids would do at a lunch table. One kid tries to kick another kid’s legs. If a kid misses, then the other kid is free to kick that extended leg. Fighting games are kind of similar. If one character tries to punch another, but he misses, his arm is now extended forward, and his opponent can “punch his punch” back. Or, if he anticipates a punch is coming, he can hit more quickly, preventing the attack from happening in the first place (see also Bruce Lee’s original concept of Jeet Kune Do, the “Way of the Intercepting Fist“). When combined with the threat of a cliff or a wall, two opponents will try to trick the other into overextending or doing something predictable, and retaliating accordingly.

Neutral and Psychological Damage

You’ll also often see people say a character in a game is “bad at neutral,” and sometimes they’re right, but take the statement with a grain of salt because a lot of people don’t understand what neutral really is. They think it’s just about who can more reliably get the first hit in, and then whose attacks can lead to more combos, but neutral is just as much about potential damage as it is about actual damage.

Let’s go back to the example with two people fighting. They’re both in “neutral,” standing at the center of their fighting area. However, both want the opponent to be at the edge of the cliff, because as great as it can be to throw 20 punches at someone, it’s even better to throw one punch that knocks them off the edge of a cliff. The potential for greater advantage, and the fear of getting hit, become tools just as important as who actually successfully connects.

Leaving Off

Neutral is often touted as the most important aspect of a fighting game, because it’s where the game begins, where the mind games originate from, and is the most basic area where it’s necessary to understand yourself, your opponent, and the tools each of you have at your disposal. I hope in reading this that you have a stronger understanding of how you can use it in your own game.

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The Dream of the Hanayo Team is Here

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Recently I accomplished one of my goals over the past couple of years: I finally created a team of 9 unique Hanayos in the popular mobile game Love Live: School Idol Festival. Seeing as how tomorrow I’m going to see the Love Live! movie, I think now’s as good a time as any to discuss how I play School Idol Festival  as a fan of the franchise, but also as someone who knowingly restricts his exposure to the game, and creates games within games.

There was a time when I didn’t feel as strongly about Love Live! as a whole. All I knew was that I liked the anime quite a bit, and when I discovered the increasingly popular mobile rhythm game, it introduced me to the collector’s mentality that goes into supporting idols, digital or real. What began as a curiosity became an understanding of how involving the rhythm game with its collectible card aspect, character loyalty, and other aspects could be. The game taunts you with the prospect of buying more gems to give you that next gashapon-esque crank of the lever. If you choose to not give the game money, it then becomes the absolute biggest time sink there is. It’s a dangerous combination not uncommon to mobile games, and seeing the potential threat to my free time that the game posed, I knowingly restricted my goals. Thus, the All-Star All-MaddenHanayo Team starring Jerry Rice became my aspiration. I could pick my battles, prioritize certain events over others, and prevent the game from destroying my free (or not free) time.

While I hit my original goal, what’s funny is that somehow I feel that, by aiming for it so intently, it actually got further away from me. What I mean is that in the process of trying to get 9 unique Hanayo cards, I ended up with full teams of Eli and Umi without even trying. I’m sure there are fans of those two characters who would devote their everything to having full squads, but it was merely a stepping stone in my process. Again, it’s a good thing I didn’t approach the game with a completionist mentality, or else I would really be in trouble.

In the end though, I find that the game was merely supplemental to my fondness to the anime, which is why I’m looking forward to the movie far more than my anticipation over getting the final 9th Hanayo on my team. There’s an interesting disparity between the worlds of the game and the anime, and that has to do with the role of men. While players of Love Live! traverse all sexes, genders, and sexual orientations, there’s still the residual effect of idols classically being a point of desire for guys. A lot of the rewards for playing the game are messages from the girls, who will talk about how they want to be alone… with you.

In contrast, men are virtually non-existent in the anime. This is what perhaps makes it yuri fuel for a certain contingent of the fanbase, and certain characters’ actions acknowledge that men exist in a kind of abstract sense (Nico’s behavior, for example), but a lot of the character dynamics and interactions are pointed towards each other rather than the hypothetical viewer/player. The game is where I show my support as an extension of my fondness for the anime, and even if I ever buy a CD (NicoRinPana of course), then that’ll also be supplemental to my fondness for the overall narrative and theme of Love Live!

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Correcting Past Failures Through the Super Robot Wars Games

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The Super Robot Wars series, which crosses over various mecha anime across history in the form of turn-based strategy video games, is known for trying to make giant robots look their best. One way in which this is accomplished is through the attack animations, which have become increasingly detailed, dynamic, and beautiful as graphics have improved, such that even the less popular and even less good-looking series of yesteryear appear to have a new lease on life.

However, on a few occasions there will be an attack, even an ultimate attack, that will within the context of the source material be followed by failure or tragedy, and I find it pretty funny to see when the makers of the Super Robot Wars games try to compensate for this in some way. Below are a few examples.

(Spoilers for some series below).

The first comes from King of Braves Gaogaigar Final.

The mighty King J-Der, rival and ally to Gaogaigar, launches its strongest attack, the J-Phoenix. In the OVAs, this attack is unsuccessful in taking down the enemy, but of course you can’t have that happen in the video game. I personally interpret that pause at the end of the attack animation in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 to be a vestige of that past failure.

The second example comes from Shin Mazinger Shougeki!! Z-Hen (also known as Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!).

In the final battle, archetypal hero Kabuto Kouji sends a shower of Rocket Punches at Dr. Hell, ending it off with a final blow with a “Big Bang Punch.” However, in the actual anime, while the attack succeeds, the consequences are revealed immediately after to be arguably worse than if Kouji had not defeated Dr. Hell. It turns out that Dr. Hell, while evil, was also trying to prevent an even more evil force from succeeding. While this is acknowledged in the Super Robot Wars Z games through its story, as the games move along you can just keep using the attack mission after mission. The fact that the background doesn’t just suddenly turn red to signal further horrific developments almost feels as if something is missing.

The third comes from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

When the Angel Zeruel appears, it’s the toughest enemy that Ikari Shinji and the other Evangelion pilots have ever faced. At one point Asuka, desperate to prove herself, launches a non-stop artillery volley at the Angel, only for it to prove utterly ineffective. In the anime, this is one of the stepping stones to Asuka’s total breakdown at the end of the series, but in the video from Super Robot Wars MX below shows it being used to defeat opponents with few problems.

As I mentioned, most of the attacks in Super Robot Wars don’t really have this issue, and generally it’s all about celebrating their successes and having fun with characters from multiple series working together. Though, if most of the attacks in Super Robot Wars were to come from failures in the original anime, that might say something about where mecha anime as a genre has gone.

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Japanese Pop Culture Gattai: Waku Waku +NYC Next Weekend

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Every so often you may have seen me link to blog posts that I’ve written for Waku Waku +NYC, which is a new Japanese Pop Culture Festival in Brooklyn. Waku Waku +NYC is set for next weekend, August 29th to 30th, and while some of my readers are complete con veterans at this point and others might not have other been to anything of the sort, I encourage everyone to go because it’s going to be a different experience from the typical anime con.

The main things that probably separate Waku Waku +NYC from similar shows is that, in addition to having cool anime guests—like Mega Man and Mighty No. 9‘s Keiji Inafune and veteran anime screenwriter Takao Koyama, who worked on such shows as Saint Seiya, Time Bokan Series, Dragon Ball Z, Slayers, and The Brave Express Might Gaine, —there’s also going to be a huge emphasis on mixing things up. Rather than keeping each all of the various elements of Japanese pop culture in their respective bubbles, Lolita fashion will be encouraged to intermingle with Japanese hip hop and EDM, for example. It’s also going to feature a cool area full of delicious eats called “Savory Square,” which will be serving authentic Japanese food from some of the most notable restaurants in both Japan and NYC. Probably the main attraction is Dotonbori Kukuru, which will be flying in from Osaka to serve the classic Osakan snack, takoyaki.

Waku Waku +NYC will be spread across multiple locations in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. These are the Brooklyn Expo Center, Wythe Hotel, Verboten, Transmitter Park, and Brooklyn Bowl. They’re all within walking distance of each other, but a shuttle will also be available.

I hope you can make it to Waku Waku +NYC. If you come, you might be able to spot me. I’ll be running around the venues conducting interviews.