So I forgot some pretty obvious Pre Narnia Isekai novels

When I wrote my Isekai, In Another World with my Smartphone, Why Wish Fulfillment is Art blog post, talking about western works of literature you could apply the Isekai label to.

Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, plus their sequels and stuff.  Ya know, it's amusing that this genre seems to begin with female protagonists and then Males take it over later.  I don't know enough about George MacDonald's works to know if any of them can be labeled Isekai.  What I mainly know is that he is cited as an influence on Lewis.

I still think the Narnia books are more analogous to modern Anime Isekai then those.  Especially as I've watched more now.

So it occurred to me that I'd forgotten about Oz as I was watching No Game No Life.  I'm aware that a key difference between the book and the infamous 1939 film is the whole "No Place like Home" part.  In the book Dorothy wants to get back home to see her family again.  But the overall attitude towards Mid Western Rural America that Baum was expressing was rather cynical.  So the movie saying "There's no place like home" went quite against the themes of the books.

So all that popped into my head as I watched this Anime about two Siblings with absolutely no desire to return to modern Japan, since they are stereotypical Neets.  And then I slapped myself that I just did a blog post acting like I didn't know about any major Pre-Narnia Isekai stories.  Then I thought of Alice in Wonderland also.

Overall though, No Game No Life still feels much more analogous to Narnia.  With a very different attitude towards religion and spirituality of course.  But it's about Siblings who become King and Queen in their new world.

Speaking of which.  The most awkward parallel No Game No Life holds to Narnia is the tendency for some of the fandom to engage in Incest Shipping.  Now knowing Otaku culture that was probably a little bit intentional with NGNL.  While Lewis certainly did not intend that.  Also I don't think any Narnia fans ship Peter and Lucy, which is age wise what Sora/Shiro is more analogous to.

NGNL is a very good show, I highly recommend it.  I'm a fan of stratagey based Anime like Code Geass.

If I hadn't recalled Alice In Wonderland already, I would have when I started Problem Children, where the protagonists are brought to this world by a Bunny Girl called Black Rabbit.

Problem Children shares NGNL's Gaming theme.  But not executed nearly as well.  Problem Children also feels like it's trying to copy Fate/ with all the re-imagining Classical Myths as Anime Girls.

But Problem Children might feel the most like Narnia in terms of being about a group of kids.  And Asuka seems to have been taken from the WWII era and so almost looks like she's a Susan Pevensie cosplayer at the beginning.  Problem Children is a fun show but isn't gonna come off well comparing it to others.

One big advantage protagonists in modern Otaku Centric Isekai Anime have over more old school examples is they tend to be, or at least include, an Otaku who is very genre savvy about the world they've been taken to.  The Pevensies don't even seem to figure out that Aslan is Jesus till the third book when he finally spells it out to them.  And that's part of my disappointment with Narnia as Christian fiction actually, I'd prefer more Bible Genre Savvy protagonists in my Christian Isekai.  The other is that if I wrote a Christian Isekai I'd have one of the nations in this world be one of the Lost Tribes.

Update: January 2019: Peter Pan, I also forgot that Peter Pan kind of qualifies, I'm such a Baka.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is still my favortie Miyazaki film.

I have only seen four.  But those four are the primary ones that interest me Genre wise.  And further I consider Nausicaa my favorite Anime film, period.  In fact it remains the best even if you include only one of the qualifiers calling it Anime implies, it's my favorite feature length theatrically released Animated movie, and my favorite Japanese movie.

Basically, it's The Dark Knight alone that prevents it from being my favorite movie period.

Now Miyazaki is not someone about whom it's common to say he peaked early.  (Nausicaa was his second feature film, first that is fully his original creation).  In fact some films common for people to cite as their favorite were after he was supposed to retire.

Every Miyazaki film I've seen I've given at least a 9 on MAL, that means I think it's Great.  So there is no insult in my placing a Miyazaki film below Nausicaa.  But Nausicaa speaks to me personally in a way few things are able to, and is the only Miyazaki film to make me tear up.

The primary film some are compelled to compare Nausicaa to negatively is Princess Mononoke.  I gave Mononoke a 10 on MAL, I posted about it twice on this blog already.  The breath of subjects it touches on may make it the movie I'll talk about more often on this blog.  But I still don't get why to others this film seems to spoil Nausicaa for them.

Unshavedmouse said because he saw Nausicaa after Mononoke, Nausicaa felt like a dress rehearsal for Mononoke.  Miragephan said on the Neotaku podcast that she hasn't seen Nausicaa yet because JesuOtaku called it an inferior version of Mononoke.

My confusion at this perspective has less to do with my finding Nausicaa better but more to do with my not seeing these films are even that similar or comparable.

My love for Nausicaa starts with the fact that it's a story that played out the Messianic Archetype with a female character.  The title character is not a Messianic Archetype in Princess Mononoke, nor is she the main character.  If any human in Princess Mononoke is a Messiah of some sort it's the male MC, who I just recently called the Superman of Anime. Among other things, that difference should make Nausicaa the preferable film for Magical Girl fans, Princess Mononoke isn't magical, she's Tarzan.

I think a lot of people are just seeing another Miyazki film named after a "Princess" and with an Environmental message, and deciding there is only room for one. (Cue someone to make fanart of them in a Steel Cage Match.)

Mononoke easily comes off the most Disney like of all Miyazaki films, which might explain why it's Unshavedmouse's favorite.  But I think some Weebs prefer it for being about old timey Japan.

While Nausicaa is more like a Star Wars film that never goes into Space.  So it's perhaps telling that I've been into Star Wars longer then I have Anime.  Remember, Nausicaa is the Hidden Fortress to TFA's ANH.

Isekai, In Another World with My Smartphone, Why Wish Fulfillment is Art.

The Isekai genre is arguably more purely escapist wish fulfillment then most, being literally about escaping this world, going all the way back to C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The With and The Wardrobe.  It may not quite be the first Isekai story, but it is the most important in popularizing it.  And it was translated into Japanese as early as 1985.

It's not common to use this Anime term to describe western novels like the Narnia series.  No one would deny that the term applies and so they are technically the same genre.  But the development of Isekai in Japan, in Otaku centric media, has been very particular.  With increasing nods to Video Games of the RPG genre, (making them perhaps feel slightly more Tolkien then Lewis).  But also filled with Anime cliches, including the influence of Anime's most dreaded genre, The Harem.

I haven't watched a lot of Isekai Anime.  I tried both Konosuba and Re:Zero in 2016 and wasn't able to get into them.  If you count trapped in an MMO shows as Isekai, then I've seen 2 seasons of SAO and will see more when it's dubbed.  My onions on them are complicated.

Right now I'm currently watching In Another World with my Smartphone, via it's simuldub so I'm a few episodes behind most watching it, episode 8 I finished recently.  I'm really enjoying it, the number 1 of the Summer season was Princess Principal, but this show has been fun.

I never thought I would be this into a Harem show.  I've liked other Anime with the harem stuff going on, but never all that much liking it for the Harem, but rather preferring to imagine the girls kissing each other.  In this case I like that the show is seemingly building to a non monogamous resolution, as of episode 6 four of the girls have basically already agreed to share the main character.  And it helps that I kinda see why they like him, he is nice, clever, has a sense of humor, and I'm not afraid to say he's kinda pretty.  So not as Bland as the usual Harem protagonist.

The Haremness isn't the only thing that's blatant wish fulfillment about it.  He is also really OP, but in a way that is fairly well explained in the story and so doesn't come off as inexplicable as Kirito or the MC of Log Horizon.

This show, and the two 2016 shows mentioned above, are Light Novel adaptations, and so as expected are very Meta, but in different ways.  Those two were a Parody and a Deconstruction, two things that kinda overlap sometimes.

The Meta in a parody and/or deconstruction involves a scenario not playing out how you expect, or playing out fairly straight but in a way that seems designed to undercut the idea that this fantasy is a desirable situation.  Something deconstructive can have an ultimately optimistic ending, concluding it's worth it, but is still all about the price.

This show is Meta, it's definitely winking at the audience subtly at times.  But rather then spoofing or criticizing it's own genre, it seems to be an unashamed unapologetic wish fulfillment fantasy.  And I actually find that refreshing.

Today critics of fictional media are growing more and more obsessed with rejecting wish fulfillment.  Praising every deconstruction that comes along.

Of course a lot of shows criticized for being pure Wish Fulfillment are ones perceived as putting on a pretense of being something more, of having something deeper to say, but seemingly in the end don't really.  I think that's what a lot of the hate SAO has received comes down to.

This show has no pretense, it does not want to trick anyone into thinking it's deeper then it is.  And yet that does not result it becoming pure memetic trash like Eromanga-Sensei.

Digibro has expressed the view that Meta in Anime is lazy if it's not in some way subverting or rejecting the trope being referenced.  That simply telling us you know what you're doing doesn't make it okay.  Well I agree it can come off that way sometimes.  I haven't seen the main shows he was attacking in that video.

But I do see value in being meta in a way that purely and unironically celebrates the fantasy the show is indulging in.  And that is what appeals to be about In Another World with My Smartphone.

We definitely need art with messages and deeper meanings.  Including that fiction that warns us to be careful what we wish for in-case some cute silver tongued BunnyCat offers you a contract.  But I think Art that's pure wish fulfillment is just as artistic and worth praising.

Isekai is a wish fulfillment fantasy going back to Narnia, which was about escaping war time England.  But Lewis did have messages he wanted to send, and for fans who don't quite share his peculiar brand of Christianity, those messages sometimes become the story's weakest parts.

So an Isekai story that is unafraid to simply be about the fantasy of being sent to a High Fantasy world with your smartphone and demigod like magical abilities, and meeting a bunch of cool cute chicks to hang out with, is exactly what I need right now.  So in a way I like it similarly to why Digi likes Ponyo.

Princess Principal was great

It ended today.  It didn't do one of the few things that could have completely ruined it.

It was a fun cute Yuri show, with a lot of appeal to New Pulp and Steampunk nerds.

I highly recommend it to Otaku and Normies a like.  So I hope it gets Dubbed, and that Amazon fixes it's problems.

There is room to continue.  Plus room for more episodes set between what we already saw based on the Case numbers.  So show it your support.  If it's the only reason you're paying for Anime Strike, make sure Amazon knows that.

The Superman of Anime

To quite Unshavedmouse's review of Princess Mononoke.

"Ashitaka is probably the most purely moral hero of any movie I’ve reviewed. He’s utterly selfless, kind, compassionate, fearless, unprejudiced, polite, respectful to both men and women and only uses violence as an absolute last resort. He sounds like he should be as boring as a workaholic mole but he’s actually a very compelling protagonist thanks to Miyazaki’s skill as a storyteller and also the fact that the dude is a STONE COLD BADASS. Yeah, I said he only uses violence as a last resort. But when he does, shit gets resorted, yo (I don’t know what I’m talking about)."

In fact lots of people have said this about the character before me.  The character seems like the ultimate Jesus-Kun, Such a character should come off as annoyingly bland and perfect, especially when they're a Cis-Het Male.  But Miyazaki makes the character work, as do the Actors who have voiced him.

What's interesting is how strongly I agree with this aspect of how others review this movie, even though I didn't quite think of it on my own as I watched it (what I knew about the movie going in was mostly people talking about Lady Eboshi).  I started the movie accepting this male lead as I waited for the women I'm watching it for, and found myself increasingly enjoying his presence.

Superman is a notoriously difficult character to get right.  I get crap online constantly for being just okay with Zach Snyder's take, much less saying I prefer it in many ways to Donner's.  But rest assured I still think we are far from having the ideal Superman movie, animated or live action.

A lot of Snyder's haters have been pointing to the MCU's Captain America as a not official Superman character who shows how to do Superman right.  I enjoy those films and Evans performance, but I'm not that impressed.

So once again, as I often have over the last couple years, I find myself turning to Anime for the answer.

Before I saw Princess Mononoke a few days ago.  The main Anime character I would point to and say "That's how you do Superman right" is Yuki Yuna, the title character of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, why?  Well for starters read the title.  That Anime is one of my favorite anime, the most underrated of the 20tweens, the dawn of the new golden age.  And probably my personal favorite Magical Girl Anime.

Why she's like Superman comes up interestingly enough when the show is criticized, when people complain that there isn't enough of a reason for Yuki Yuna's drive to be a Hero.  Essentially the exact same thing as the "Superman is unrelatable" nonsense.  She wants to do good for the sake of doing good, if you can get behind that you're probably a Superman fan, if not, then stick with the Bat.

Speaking of the Magical Girl Warrior genre.  I have compared Sailor Moon to Superman in terms of creating a new genre.  But as far as comparing a Magical Girl as a character to Superman as a character, none beats Yuki Yuna.

But Superman comes in variations, they all have the same Origin (Kara no Kyoukai reference), but are a little distinct.  Yuki Yuna is somewhere between Christopher Reeve and the early Post-Crisis Superman, Michael Baily's favorite version of Superman, and possibly also mine based on the overall quality of the Comics.  Which shows you can have a Superman as ideal as Reeve's even in a story that gets pretty dark.

I however am someone who prefers George Reeves to Christopher Reeve.  But even more then that, I want a return to Siegel and Shuster's Superman, who was called The Champion of The Oppressed.  And that is what I got from Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke.

And now, I notice how his colors seem to be Blue mainly with a little red and yellow.  And find myself thinking "was this similarity intentional?"  Was Miyazaki drawing on Western influences in his most aesthetically traditionally Japanese film?  I feel like there must be a Japanese mythical of folklore precedent for a child raised by Wolves, but I haven't found it yet, first and foremost being raised by a She-Wolf is a Roman thing. 

There is nothing new to Superman influencing Anime.  It is well known the original Fleischer Superman shorts were an early influence, the second one arguably created the Mecha genre.  They are in the Public Domain now, so they should be easy to find online if you haven't seen them.

For the record.  The Lex Luthor of Anime is Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket.  As he appeared in the first series of the Pokemon, the prologue of Mewtwo Strikes Back, and especially Mewtwo Returns where he finally truly got to shine.  Since 2006 I have been pointing to Giovanni as how to do a CEO Lex Luthor right.  And in 2016, I still feel the need to.

So I had basically finished structuring this post in my head.  When I remembered that the big Internet Meme is saying Goku is the Superman of Anime.  No, he is not.  Not even close.  Maybe in the creating a genre comparison where you could then also throw in Amuro Ray of Gundam.  But you're not Superman just cause your home planet blew up.

Speed Racer 2008 is a great movie.

I just saw it and I loved it.

It's a movie that mostly flopped when it came out, but has become a cult classic, more and more people, especially people into Anime, have praised it, sometimes seemingly calling it the only Western film they really like.  And some people liked it at the time, I remember relatives of mine talking about it that Christmas.

What I love about it has a lot in common with Digibro's praise for it.  He did his main review of the movie, and touched on it in the Tone Shifts video.  This movie is also a great argument for the point of my Live Action Adaptations of Anime should be Colorful post.

I didn't see it when it came out.  My Anime fandom was in it's infancy then, mostly revolving around Noir still.  My nerdiness was mainly about Comic Book adaptations, so The Dark Knight and early MCU dominated the year, though I did find time for Prince Caspian.

Overall, 2008 was definitely a great year for movies.  Jut try to pretend Frank Miller's The Spirit didn't happen.

As much as I'm into Anime now, I still haven't seen any Speed Racer anime, since my taste in Anime is mostly modern.  But I do have fond childhood memories of old Wackey Races reruns.  And I love Mario Kart.  And I love the Pod Race in The Phantom Menace.  And I like Pro-Wrestling.  Speed Racer is like all of those merged together in a perfect Hot Mess.

Ya know how some Comic Book films try to merge the modern/futuristic with a 30s/40s aesthetic to make them timeless?  Starting with Batman89?  Well this does the same thing but with the 50s/early 60s instead.

John Goodman is great in it.  Matthew Fox has a very George Cloony vibe.  And Trixie was fun, she's totally worthy of being called an Anime Girl.  And the villain was exquisitely British.

I just watched Princess Mononoke

If I had a time machine, and could arrange to have Akira Kurosawa direct a live action adaptation of an Anime with all the advantages of modern technology.  This is the Anime I would choose.  It's a 10, I recommend it.

There are a lot of analytical things I could say about this movie, others have said a lot already.  But the main thing on my mind right now is this.

It's set in medieval Japan (The late Muromachi Period, 24th through 16th centuries).  Of the different Human clans depicted in the movie, the one most ancestral to the primary population of modern Japan (the ones associated with The Emperor and Samurai), are the most villainous.

The might seem strange at first.  But we do the same thing in the English Speaking world, in works based on Arthurian Legend, where the Angles and Saxons are depicted as savage marauding pagan barbarians.  Or even more generally when the Vikings are depicted that way.

I've seen in some Disqus comments sections people being confused by Saber in Fate/Zero talking about Britain falling to ruin, since it looks to them like Britain is still there.  But the population of modern Britain mainly descends from people who were King Arthur's enemies.  They took over the island and started calling Arthur's people "Welsh" which meant foreigner in the Saxon language.  Then later we Anglo-Saxons traveled across the Atlantic and did the exact same thing to the Native American, massacred them, raped them, and appropriated their culture.

Similarly is how the movie actually refereed to the Samurai as "Samurai Thugs".  Not the opinion we're used to Anime having of Samurai.  But remember, the Samurai are often compared to European Medieval Knights, and plenty of modern Western Fiction sometimes acknowledges that they were really the Gangsters of their time.  Like in The Tudors and Game of Thrones.

Perhaps this is not an appropriate observation for a Western viewer of the film to make.  Though it would arguably take a Western perspective to make the comparison to the Saxons in Arthurian Legend.  I wonder what Gaijin Goomba would think?

Arwen and Aragorn's romance is important to the story of LOTRs

I rather commonly see people saying it is not, criticizing the Peter Jackson films for giving so much screen time to an unimportant side story for the sake of making the movie less of a Sausage Fest.

The Lord of The Rings trilogy of novels are not structured like most novels.  They are six prose narratives and a collection of Appendices published in three volumes.  A lot of important scenes are in the books revealed as flashbacks, which adaptations tend to show when they actually happened, like Gandalf going to Isengard where Saurman reveals his betrayal.

So yes, in the proper narrative of LOTR, Arwen appears in only a few scenes.  However Aragorn also comes off as a pretty one dimensional character in that proper narrative.

The Appendices reveal the history between Aragorn and Arwen, and it becomes clear his Love for Arwen is the primary thing that was driving him.  A fact that was talked about in the special features of the DVDs for the films.

Tolkien wanted Aragorn and Arwen to be as important as the Man+Elf Maiden pairings of the First Age, the first of which was Beren and Luthien.  So I really get annoyed at supposed fans of Tolkien diminishing it's importance for the sake of criticizing a trio of movies that yes, took a lot of inevitable liberties, some I'm more fine with then others, but overall they were perfectly enjoyable films.

The previous adaptation of LOTR, the Ralph Bakshi animated movie, also replaced Glorfindel in his role in the journey to Rivendale.  Since Glorfindel doesn't appear again in the main narrative, (given the continuity issues his presence in LOTR causes I suspect Tolkien picked the name at random).  So replacing him here with someone more important to this narrative is a perfectly valid decision.

The Bakshi film replaced him with Legolas, which bugs me only because I feel Legolas, Gimli and Boromir should all be introduced at about the same time, the Elf, the Dwarf and the Gondorian of the Fellowship.  So Jackson's decision to use this opportunity to introduce Arwen is a far better decision in my view, and her Bad@$$ moment in the movie helps make her a more worthy successor to Luthien, who defeated Morgoth.

Now the Hobbit films' approach to providing more female presence was much more questionable.  I enjoyed Tauriel, but the actress originally took the role being promised there wouldn't be a shoehorned in romance, then they changed that on her.  What bugs me most though is how in the final battle scene she ultimately gets sidelined for Legolas to take the most impressive action again.  I wish she had killed the Orc who killed Kili.

Arwen in the LOTR films I think was handled perfectly fine.

Hayao Miyazaki has clearly been an influence on Video Games.

When I covered Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind I talked about it's possible influences on Video Games.

Last night I watched 1986's Castle in The Sky., and I noticed more.  For one thing during the opening credits we see a Goddess in the sky blowing wind who looks a lot like how the Goddesses of Hyrule were depicted in the Instruction Manuel of A Link To The Past.

In fact the entire premise of Castle in The Sky could have inspired Skyloft in Skyward Sword, which was anticipated by the Sky Temple in Twilight Princess.

I also can't help but suspect Miyazaki's love of Air Ships helped inspire the popularity of Air Ships in Video Games, from Super Mario Bros. 3 to the Final Fantasy games.  The Airship idea was of course invented by Jules Verne, and the Airships in this film were more Verneian then the ones in Nausicaa.

People have commented before on Castle of Calgiostro being an influence on Spielberg for the Indiana Jones films.  This movie definitely felt like an Indy film at times.  Some people criticize how Castle of Cagliostro feels more like a Miyazaki films then a Lupin film, but this movie felt like it could have been a Lupin film.

Going the other way however, there was definitely a moment in Castle in The Sky where I went "Well Miyazaki definitely saw Empire Strikes Back".

It's a good film, I just gave it a 9 on My Anime List.

I've liked every Miyazaki film I've seen so far.  But I still doubt I'll get to all of them, for some the plots simply don't interest me.  But based on his track record so far, I'd say he's definitely worth checking out if any of those stories interest you.

Wrestlmania XXX was the greatest Worked Shoot in wrestling history.

Everyone just accepts the official story that the main event was supposed to be Orton vs Batista and Daniel Bryan was only added because the fans demanded it.

I feel like to any Savy viewer of Wrestling Tropes, it should be obvious that they were building to Bryan becoming champ at WM30 all along.  Yet everyone including the WhatCulture people have been dupped.

First of all if it had simply been Daniel Bryan winning the Royal Rumble, that would have given us just Bryan vs Orton, a match we'd seen several times already in the previous year.

If they really wanted to give Batista a title reign to correspond with Guardians of The Galaxy, they would have saved that for Summer Slam, much closer to when that movie came out.

Triple H knew this story-line had a Meta Quality to it, and so he pushed that aspect of it hard.

Part of why people still buy it, is that WWE apparently made the same mistake again the following year and this time didn't back down.  But that's the key difference, they didn't back down.  Vince is very stubborn.

P.S. I have some advice for WWE if they want it, on how to get people behind Roman Reigns.  Reform The Shield, the fans love for The Shield would be strong enough to override their hate of Roman.

Fate/Stay Night is the best modern take on Grail Romance

I have tags on this blog for Grail Romance and Arthurian Legend.  And I have a tag for talking about the Fate/ franchise, the centerpiece of Type Moon’s Nasuverse.  It’s surprising then that this is my first post with all three of those tags, since the Fate/ story is technically all about the Holy Grail and King Arthur.  But I wanted to talk about other aspects of what I like about it first.  

For people who want a summary of how the Holy Grail War works in Fate/, I recommend OtakuDaiKun’s lore videos on YouTube, though they will spoil the novels and shows if you haven’t seen them yet.  The Lore of Fate/Stay Night Part 1: The First Four Grail Wars, and The Lore of Fate/Stay Night Part 2: The Fifth Grail War and Hollow Ataraxia.

Needless to say, at face value it seems like a pretty loose take.  And it might seem outright hypocritical for me to express annoyance at how unresearched Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade seemed, and then call Fate/ the best modern take on Grail Lore and Arthurian Legend.

For one thing, as I’ve noted elsewhere, the original Grail Romances were connected to Arthur merely as a framing device.  So to someone in the know Arthur seeking the Grail herself is almost as shocking as Arthur being a Woman.  Meanwhile it seems like Perceval has still never become a summonable servant, even in Grand Order which seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

First from a continuity standpoint, it seems unclear to me whether or not the Grail being sought in these Grail Wars even is the same one sought in Arthur’s time (we know that Fate/'s Grail is explicitly not the Cup from the Last Supper).  Meanwhile Artoria is currently seeking the Grail because of how her reign ended in tragedy.

Conceptually however, I feel like Illyasviel and Irisviel von Einzbern sort of play the role of the Grail Maiden, a role often forgotten in modern takes on Grail lore.

There is no denying that the people at Type Moon did their research far more than Lucas and Spielberg did for their movie.  Everything different in the Nasuverse is a conscious decision, not a result of ignorance.

The themes of Grail Lore are echoed in Fate/ far more than in The Last Crusade.  Fate/Stay Night is about Shirou’s Hero’s Journey, Lucas told his Hero’s Journey story in Star Wars, Indiana Jones is about someone whose origin story in well in the past, and not really much of a Hero anyway.

I know one blog online that is particularly interested in fiction about King Arthur’s Children.  He might enjoy Fate/Apocrypha, where it turns out Mordred is also female, or at least assigned female at birth, how they identify gets a little confusing.  The one backstory flashback Mordred has had so far (in episode 6) was pretty interesting.

My knowledge of Grand Order is still very limited.  I’ve watched a little bit of Live Stream footage of it.  I’ll be watching the First Order OVA when it’s Dub drops in late October.  As I already mentioned Percival doesn’t seem to be included yet, but Galahad is, and is apparently fairly important.

Another reason why I think it’s best to start with Fate/Zero is that it explains right in the first episode that this Grail was not the Cup at the Last Supper.  This helps make the story less potentially offensive to Christians knowing this Grail has nothing to do with Jesus.  And it fits to me on a meta level because the Grail was just a Christianization of a Pagan concept to start with, the mythical Cauldrons of Celtic Mythology.

Thanks to Grand Order however, three Biblical Figures are summonable Heroic Spirits now.  

David is an Archer Class Servant, which is a decision I agree with, if throwing swords at people through the Magical gateway to your infinite Treasure house can qualify as being an Archer, then certainly using a Slingshot can, since I grew up with Ocarina of Time where the Slingshot and Bow are treated as counterparts.

Solomon is a Caster, largely because they’re going off Kabbalistic and Masonic lore about King Solomon controlling Shedim.  I would have made Solomon a Rider because of his Chariot mentioned in the Song of Solomon.  It’d be funny to me if eventually the game has Salmoneus as a separate servant.

Martha, the sister of Mary of Bethany, is summonable as well.  But the myth this Heroic Spirit is based on isn’t anything Biblical but about her traditional activities in Southern France according to the Golden Legend.  (I added a reference to this tradition about Martha to my Apostles of Ephesus post because I’d read up on it after watching a Grand Order livestream).

If they ever add Joshua, I would make him a Lancer based on Joshua 8:18-26 (Psalm 35:3 is also interesting here).  Though I suspect they’d want to base Joshua’s Noble Phantasm more on the Fall of Jericho.  

Characters known mostly for their Brawn tend to become Berserkers, which wouldn’t be a good sign for Samson.

Well I’ve technically rambled off topic now.  So I hope my observations proved enlightening.

I'm really enjoying Fate/Apocrypha

It's start is rough, I will fully admit that.  And it's not likely to appeal to people who aren't already deep into Fate/ via at least watching the UFOtables Animes.  It even helps to be familiar with other Nasuverse works, like Tsukihime (who's Anime adaptation isn't great, but more enjoyable then Deen/Stay Night) and Kara no Kyoukai which also has a great UFOtable Anime.

A lot of what happens in the early episodes will hopefully be easier to follow once it's Dubbed.

But it really picks up with episode 8, I'm writing this after just finishing episode 11 and it's getting really good.

I like that there is no clear main character, and that it's not easy to pick a side in this war.  At the moment I feel more invested in the Black team, which is interesting given how at the start it seemed like they were setting them up to be the villains.

Astolfo and Jeanne are the best characters so far.  Astolfo is the number one Trap.  And I seem to love every Anime take on Jeanne d'Arc.


Spoiler Warning.

Nostalgia Goggles

When I criticize someone for being blinded by Nostalgia, it's never to criticize them for liking something.  I completely disagree with the whole "people only like it because their Nostalgic for it" attitude.  Any movie or TV show or song or Cartoon or Game has to do something right in order to become something people will be nostalgic for.

There seems to be an attitude that kids will just enjoy anything, and then Nostalgia will make some unwilling to see it's flaws as an adult.  Well I can tell you that is false.  I have Anti-Nostalgia for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I was made to watch that in school (I still don't see how a movie about a magical chocolate factory was educational) and I hated every minute of it.  Now I am willing to acknowledge it must have done something right if lots of other people like it, but whatever it did right is not something I can relate to at all.

There are other things I failed to enjoy as a kid that I can appreciate now.  Like ironically enough The Lion King, I was a hater of that movie when I was little.

If you're Nostalgic for something, that is proof it was good.  Your inability to enjoy it now that you're older doesn't invalidate it, it just means what you enjoy has changed, and that's fine.  I personally however think it's a good thing that I can still enjoy just about everything I liked as a kid, and that maturity has only increased and never decreased what I can enjoy.

So when Digibro says something like "I enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2 as a kid, but I know it's a bad game now".  I just laugh at him.  If anything, when it comes to media made for kids, you should perhaps consider that a kid's opinion on it is more valid then an adult's.  I however still like the Sonic Adventure games.

The Nostalgia Filter is a bad thing only when it causes people to constantly trash what's new in comparison to the equivalents they grew up with.  Constantly being annoyed at tolerance of weaknesses in modern media that absolutely existed in what they grew up with, but are selectively ignoring.  We see this with Star Wars Prequel haters, and with lots of other nerdy media.

Popcorn action films have always been ridiculous.  Mainstream Hip Hop has always included a lot of songs that don't hold up well under lyrical scrutiny.  SciFi has always tended to be more Fi then Sci.  And Anime has always been pretty formulaic.

Pro-Wrestling is the one form of entertainment media where I fear that I have or will become what I hate on this issue.

I'm Nostalgic for plenty of other stuff.  But no where else do I fail to see the value in what's new.  With Music I feel I have definitely become less harsh of a critic.  My preferences with Anime are very much post 2000, I am perhaps the Anti-thesis of ThatAnimeSnob even more so then Digibro.  My favorite Live Action Western TV show is one that just ended, Pretty Little Liars.  And Superhero movies have definitely only gotten better.  And I think Frozen is the absolute best Disney film.

Now with Video Games, I'm definitely a Retro-Gamer, I like 8 and 16 bit the best. But it's never with a lack of ability with get why people would enjoy newer fully 3D stuff.

But Pro-Wrestling, especially the WWE, is something where I can rarely get why anyone still tolerates it.  Now there are lots of things you can point to as objective evidence that the quality has gone down, Raw's Ratings have been consistently low.  And I've seen on YouTube lots of Wrestling fans younger then me who wouldn't have grown up on the Attitude Era in the same way I did expressing similar frustrations.  And the Crowds in the arenas mostly seem apathetic to what is going on.

The thing is, to some extent I've been feeling this way since 2000, since we were still in the Attitude Era, a year many people think was the WWF's best.  But it's gone up and down.  The last time I was truly excited about Wrestling was in 2013 and early 2014, the year of Daniel Bryan.  So it's definitely at it's worst now, I feel like I was being a stupid picky douche for not getting the Ruthless Aggression era when I compare it to what's going on now.

And meanwhile the Pre-Atitude area periods of WWF where they weren't doing that well financially, from 92-96, are periods where I enjoy most of what I've watched from it.  So I still fear my Nostalgia Goggles are a major factor in why I can't enjoy it now.

But at least I'm self aware about it. 

The Animatrix and Batman:Gotham Knight

I added these to My Anime List recently though it wasn't recently I watched them.

My earlier declaration that besides a few Saturday Morning kids shows I'd seen no Anime before I first watched Noir around 2005 or 2006, were neglecting to include The Animatrix.

You see, I thought both these projects where just Anime inspired and wouldn't really have pages on MAL.  But I discovered recently that they do.

The Animatrix I remember enjoying, but I'm not sure I can give a solid score to it.

The problem with Gotham Knight is first that it was too short as most DC animated films were.  But also that it's pretense of being an expansion of the Nolanverse never felt valid, because Nolan had nothing to do with it.  It was a cheap attempt by Warner to cash in on The Animatrix's success that missed the actual point.

I think I have a review of Gotham Knight still up on IMDB, but my perspective then was not the same as it would be now.

The Netflix Death Note Movie

There were things good about the movie, DeFoe as Ryuk was a treat, and at some points it felt like maybe Mia has more agency then any previous woman in a Death Note story.  All the actors did well with what they were given.

The first thing that annoys me is that the point of my defense of Light being White, the reason I still think Light can only be White in any future attempt at another American set Death Note.  Was completely undermined by having him be this obvious potential school shooter.  Light is supposed to be privileged.

I had also already talked about how Death Note should be done as a series, Netfix is specializing in TV serises right now, so that makes it doubly annoying.

The first scene between Light and his Dad just had me thinking "setting it in America shouldn't mean shoehorning in American cliches".

All the characters and dynamics felt different.  Again they made Light too sympathetic.

It bugs me even that they never included a defaulting to death by Heart Attack.  Clearly these people were more interested in the excuse to do Omen/Final Destination style death scenes.

The thing is, I can forgive a lot of liberties if I feel like in some weird way it still captures the spirit or the gist of what Death Note's real appeal was.  I've even said that all things considered the Super Mario Bros movie is a good Mario movie.  It's not by the book faithful, but it's a fun wacky goofy colorful self parody with some heart to it.  That's what the best story driven Mario games are like.

The number one thing that I wanted from Death Note was a battle of wits, I wanted it to feel like two characters constantly trying to out think and out smart each others.  I wanted the tension of Light and L trying to read each other.  This movie was ultimately too rushed to ever pull that off, or seem like it was trying to.

At the very end we a get the typical "here's how he did it all" sequence.  The Death Note Anime also did that revealing it latter thing, but it still felt consistent with the character we had been following.  I felt the 2015 Light Yagami was being too stupid early on, but at least there was some build up there.

One final little thing.  Does the Death Note Anime exist in this movie's universe???  There are several reasons why it clearly doesn't.  But why else would Light Turner expect Mia to be able to see Ryuk from just touching the Death Note?  There is really no logical reason to assume that, Light in the Anime had not at all suspected that could happen before Ryuk warned him.  That scene is clearly just there to tell the audience "hey we changed this rule, for no plot relevant reason".  This is why I hate the "Show don't tell rule" because we get scenes like this that look stupid and awkward instead of just simple exposition.

DC making a Flashpoint movie

I'm awfully late in reacting to this.  It apparently became known back in July.  I would have commented on it in the Zack Snyder post I did last month if I'd known about it, as it's further evidence DC probably isn't going to involve him their films anymore anyway.

The overall reputation of Flashpoint is that people love the story itself, but hate the New52 that it in Kayfabe created.  I actually have my issues with the Flashpoint story even as a stand alone, chiefly how I feel it assassinated Diana and Arthur's characters.  But there is good stuff in it, and I hope Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Thomas Wayne again.

I have enjoyed every DCEU movie so far.  But I have issues with it, and a lot of that is it's New52 influence.  Maybe the movie Flashpoint will be like the opposite, it'll change this depressing New52 inspired universe into the DC Universe I remember.

Some people think part of the plan is to replace Ben Afleck as Batman with someone younger.  I'm tired of always getting young Batman.

I also would have liked to see an Ezra Miller solo Flash film.  But I get that they are not going to be able to complete with the TV Show in anything other then having the resources necessary to do Flashpoint more accurately.

It could go either way.  We'll have to wait and see.

Fate/Feminism

Fate/Stay Night, like other Visual Novels and Anime with Harem aspects, has a male main character and so the extent to which the story seemingly revolves around him can be seen as undermining what Feminist potential could come from having such a large cast of female characters.

However I think there is a lot of Feminist potential in the Fate/ franchise, maybe not always intentional from the original creators, but it’s there.

Spoiler Warning here, since I can’t really talk about any of this without spoiling stuff.

One of the reasons I don’t mind the supposed spoilers that come from watching Fate/Zero first is because I really see no downside to knowing Sakura and Rin are sisters from the start.  I watched Unlimited Blade Works not knowing and just wondered why Sakura got so much attention early on only to be mostly forgotten.  (I also didn’t really know the whole it’s only one route of the Visual Novel aspect.)

I think it majorly helps to watch Unlimited Blade Works Episode 0 knowing about Rin and Sakura, because then you fully get that the reason Rin saved Shirou is for Sakura.  The love one woman has for her sister is why the male MC is even alive.

And that’s just one of a few reasons that Shirou’s importance to the story is seemingly only because he happens to have connections to all these important women.  While in a more typical Fantasy/Harem hybrid it’s more like the women only matter because the super special Jesus-Kun main character likes them.  Indeed you’ll notice in Fate/Zero that all four major Waifus of Fate/Stay Night were part of the Holy Grail War story well before Shirou was, they are all in the first episode of Fate/Zero while we don’t meet Shirou till the last one.

Outside of the main four, I find it interesting that the other two female servants, Rider and Caster, are both women from Greek mythology who have been the subject of a lot of Feminist criticism.  Their stories are pretty clearly originally based on Misogynist archetypes, but women have sought to reclaim them.  A YouTube channel specializing in Nasuverse Lore videos has done videos on Medusa and Medea.  I feel like Fate’s takes on them definitely draws on the Feminist analysis of them.  I can’t comment much on Medusa yet having not gotten to see a version of Heaven’s Feel.  But Medea in Unlimited Blade Works is pretty interesting, calling her a Witch seems to be her Berserk button, and in her flashback episode she laments being again passed around, vilified and discarded by men.

Fate/Prototype is a short OVA that is based on what the original idea for Fate/Stay Night was before it evolved (makes me think it’d be cool to see some Cartoons based on the abandoned versions of Star Wars).  It’s notable that it had a female lead and a male Saber.  This female lead seems more like a proto-Rin then a female Shirou.  But it’s definitely interesting that that is where the idea for Fate/ started.

I have praised Fate/Zero a lot, including calling it the best entry point into Fate/ for potential new fans.  But my one issue with it is it’s not as good at it’s handling of female characters.  It’s cast is overall much more masculine, with Saber herself being the only female Servant this time.  And worst of all there is a lot of fridging, the worst of it being how we’re supposed to sympathize with Karia after he strangles the woman he claims he loves.

But Saber/Artoria is still great, and I love Irisviel.  And I also like Maya, and I like that Irisviel is okay with Maya and Kiritsugu's relationship.  And I think you could definitely see a Feminist commentary in Caster’s obsession with Jeanne d’Arc as he projects her onto a completely different woman.

The currently airing Fate/Apocrypha is difficult to comment on, I think I’ll understand it better once I can watch it Dubbed.  

I don’t know a lot about Grand Order, I’ll be seeing the OVA when it’s Dub drops.  What I do want to comment on briefly is that I heard it has Chevalier d’Eon, and depicts them as Non-Binary.  I would prefer d’Eon be a Trans Woman as she was historically, but that is definitely better than what the Le Chevalier d’Eon anime did, pretty much removing the Queerness altogether.

I really like Fate/Khalied Liner Prisma Illya.  I know it’s very fanservicey and trashy (I hear there was less Lewdness in the Manga).  But it’s still a Magical Girl show and does what we western Feminists like best about Magical Girl shows.  I’m going to quote a comment from that Dark Magical Girl article on AnimeFeminist, left by a user named GreyLurker.

"Fate/Kalieid liner is one of my favorite series in part because it has it's feet set in both sides of the issue. As part of the Fate universe it's naturaly stuck with a lot of dark elements but the Magical Girl elements directly oppose that. For a lot of things Illya can achieve the impossible because she believes in the ideals of a Magical Girl. She flies because Magical Girls fly. It's just obvious to her even if other characters tell her it's not possible.

Confronted with morality choices like "You can save your friend or you can save the world. Which will you choose" She essentially says "Screw that, I'm a Magical Girl so obviously I'm gonna save both and get the happy ending" She will save everyone because that is what Magical Girls Do.

and that faith lets her achieve the impossible."

Prisma Illy is also predictably subject to the most Yuri Shipping of any Fate/ show, because Magical Girls and Yuri naturally go together.  But in the original VN Saber/Rin is technically canon thanks to the Threesome Ending.  And there is a solid basis for shipping Rider and Sakura.  And in Fate/Zero many have shipped Saber/Irisviel.

Other Nasuverse franchises like Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai and Canaan are also worth discussing.  But that would make this post way too long.

So, the Fate/ franchise has it’s issues.  But there is definitely a lot of value in it.

Why Kyoko Sakura is the most important character in Madoka Magica

That title is a bit of hyperbole, but it got your attention.  Also this is an analysis based on the Canon as limited to the original 12 episode series, before we had the expanded universe and stories set in the abandoned timelines.

It’s easy to think of Kyoko as inherently less important than everyone else.  She may be in more episodes and so probably has more screen time then Mami, but she’s not in the opening episodes and is killed off before the end.  So it’s easy to write off her importance as just being her relevance to Sayaka’s arc.  I think even most people who’d say Kyoko is their favorite character aren’t likely to argue that she’s super important to the plot.

I’ve long liked to note that in Episode 10, at the end of the 3rd timeline, what Madoka actually asks Homura to do is make sure she doesn’t get tricked again.  Homura technically succeeded at that by early in episode 9, by then Madoka knows the major dark secrets.  Homura doesn’t think of her mission as being that, but that is why the story has its happy resolution, because Madoka was able to make a fully informed choice to make the contract.

Kyoko’s involvement in this timeline is largely why all the secrets come out.  Her fighting with Sayaka is why Madoka throws Sayaka’s Soul Gem.  And while the writers said Sayaka always becomes a Witch (if she doesn’t die), Madoka may likely have never known about it if Kyoko didn’t take Sayaka’s body.

Now you may be thinking, “in a well written story everything that happens should be relevant to the resolution”.  That is true, but this is why thinking about the other timelines is interesting.

Homura’s actions aren’t quite the only reason things play out differently each time.  Some small things do randomly happen differently, right in the first episode Homura didn’t expect the Witch to attack that soon, or Sayaka to have a fire extinguisher.

It’s established in episode 6 that Homura has knowledge of Kyoko.  But from what we see in Episode 10 that could have been from the 3rd timeline alone (Kyoko must have been called by Mami when Homura started saying she knew things Kyubey was keeping secret, something Homura doesn’t try on other timelines).  So my suggestion is, maybe Kyoko coming to Mitakihara at all wasn’t common?

The end of Episode 4 implies Kyoko came to Mitakihara because Kyubey told her about Mami’s death.  Homura’s behavior in the Charlotte situation implies to me it’s not the first timeline where someone was killed by her, but it may not have always been Mami.  And even in other timelines where Mami dies who knows what small things may have affected Kyubey’s decision to get Kyoko involved.

The Different Story Manga involves Kyoko in one of the abandoned timelines where Mami doesn’t die, other EU works probably did too but I haven’t read them yet.  But what I can say about The Different Story is it’s explanation for why Kyoko came even though Mami didn’t die feels rather forced and random.

So there is good reason to suspect Kyoko’s very presence in this timeline is a big factor in why it plays out differently.  Small things making a big difference is a common theme in fantasy, like The Hobbits for example.

One of the reasons I think Kyoko is interesting is that she’s a Christian.  Christians are a minority in Japan so it’s interesting when they show up in Anime.  And I’ve become an increasingly unconventional Christian, even in the prequel story we’re given about Kyoko and Mami we still don’t know exactly what controversial doctrine Kyoko’s father was teaching, so I’m free to use my imagination if I want.

Kyoko’s arc is partly about how she lost her faith after her family died.  Then finds it again in episode 9 before she dies.

Christian imagery popping up in Magical Girls shows isn’t exactly uncommon.  (In fact it’s Shintoism being relevant that is rather rare. Having only Rei’s Miko duties in Sailor Moon and Yuki Yuna is a Hero) Haruka is a Christian in Sailor Moon (Ikuhara's version at least), and lots of Christian imagery is used in Wedding Peach and both of the 90s Magical Girl Thief shows.  And elsewhere in the Madoka EU there is a Manga focused on Jeanne d’Arc.

That is kinda funny given how the Magical Girl concept isn’t exactly easily compatible with Christian theology.   But whatever, I know some pretty radical Christians who are also into Star Wars.

Kyoko however is different from most of those examples in that her faith partly is her arc.

So how is this ramble about Kyoko’s faith relevant to the main thesis of this post?  It’s not really, more like an epilogue.  But it means a Christian viewer can say a Christian saved the day if they wanted to.