So you’d like to see #TheJCS Part 4

Today, you’re getting Day 6 and Day 7 of #TheJCS. I divided it up this way in the hopes that more people will see more posts. I hope that you enjoy my introductions as well.

Day 6

So I have an addiction to a game called Battletech. It was a miniatures game with giant robots set in a futuristic world where people have fallen back on feudalistic systems of royalty. The setting is a wonderful combination of pulp and mecha, and is the closest that the west ever came to anime.

Yes. People could bring up Avatar, but they are different things.

Anyways that’s not the point. A couple of years ago, Harebrained Schemes came up with a computer port of the game, and released some DLC. I started playing a couple of months ago, and I’m obsessed.

Then I found a mod, which makes me even more excited.

This is a long way of saying that I’ve been put off my schedule because I was playing Battletech. But I’m back on track now.

So let’s go and talk about some posts.

Oh NANA.

I have a deep and abiding love for both Paradise Kiss and Nana. I want shows that make me feel something. As I talked about on another day, even if I don’t love a show, if I’m emotionally invested in it, I will give it a much wider pass.

NANA and Paradise Kiss are worlds that I want to live in. They are stylish and beautiful along with moments of casual cruelty that hurt me. It’s like real life only better.

That is what good drama should be.

It’s no surprise that a show that is steeped in music and pathos would inspire so many AMVs, which the Apprentice Mages compile into a great post.

Go on. Live your best life.

Now, we move on to everyone’s other favorite Austrailian, LitaKino and Nobunagun.

To be honest, I’m sold without even reading the post. I love big splashy spectacle shows. I don’t love them in the same way that I love heart-wrenching emotional dramas, but I do love them. It’s nice to sit back and let the bright lights and pretty colors wash over you and hook you.

Japan has a fascinating relationship with its historical figures. We often see our folklore heroes as troubled men here in America. Sure at one point we were in love with them, but we all know that Davie Crockett might have killed him a bar when he was only three, but he also helped oppress an indigenous population.

Or at least he would have, if he was real.

Japan seems far less introspective about their historical heroes, and choose not to examine what they might have done that is unseemly. I wonder if that is a factor of having a largely homogeneous population, or if it’s some other reason.

Anyway, I will have to check out Nobunagun, because it looks like my kind of show.

One of the things I find myself doing as I write about these posts, is latching onto one facet and talking about to the exclusion of everything else. I think that’s what is going to happen with Matt Doyle Media’s review of The Fandom.

You should go read his review of the documentary, which he gives a 5 out of 5. Even more you probably should watch the documentary itself. That is how you learn things I think.

What I’m saying next, has no reflection on The Fandom or anyone else. It’s just an idea that popped into my head as I read about how mainstream media casts aspersions on furries.

I often wonder who is better equipped to tell a fandom’s story — the participant or the disinterested party?

This is not a simple question. Everyone, including me, tends to cast ourselves in a positive light. We aren’t generally truthful with ourselves about ourselves.

That said, outsiders don’t really understand the nuance of a situation. People can be ham fisted in their interpretations. They can be quick to judge.

To be honest, I didn’t realize there was a non-sexual component to furry fandom until I saw Sonic Fox playing fighting games.

OK. Time to stop before I dig this hole any deeper.

And from here, let’s go on a tour of the history of licensed video games.

FuckBoiOpinions takes us on a tour of video game tie-ins, which was a world that I’ve been in before. I remember staying up very late playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES. In fact, I played both the bad tie-in game and the one that came out that was kind of a port of the arcade game.

You could do an entire treatise about how those two games demonstrate the two sides of how to do a tie-in. One is a clumsy platformer and the other is a charming beat-em up that captures the spirit of the cartoon.

Tie-ins have this strange balancing act they need to maintain. If they’re slavishly tied to the source material, they can seem like they’re just shoving game elements into a story. If they’re too divorced from it, they can just have Batman shooting across the screen.

First and foremost, tie-ins need to be good games and then they need capture the essence of what made the source material special.

Though I thought The Stick of Truth and the Fractured But Whole were well-received. Maybe, I’m wrong.

Anime is never canceled and you are (not) alone.

So I’ve been reading the OWLS posts about the mini-con, but LynLyn surpassed my expectations. They put together an entire course syllabus that would includes watching anime like Ghost in the Shell, Your Name and Princess Jellyfish.

I wish I attended this class.

One of the things I wish college did more was take modern pop culture and analyzed it. For instance, I think the difference between X-Files and Fringe tells us a lot about how 9/11 impacted people’s view of the government. (Yes. This is my pet theory.)

But we can take a look at the arc of sitcoms from I Love Lucy to All in the Family to The Cosby Show and see how South Park is not a break in a trend, but a continuation of a pattern.

This may be why I have an anime blog that I write in occasionally.

Day 7

Some days finishing a day of writing to come back and write some more isn’t as much fun as I imagine it would be.

I would classify large portions of my life as a struggle between my sense of responsibility, and my desire to just let the world go to pot. I know that sounds horrible, but it’s not really intended to be that way.

But I know that the 90 percent of everything is attitude. So today, I’m not going to do a horrible job because everyone is counting on me, and I will lose all credibility, and I will need to go and…

OK. It’s not that dire.

Let’s talk about some posts.

I’m going to start with Never argue with a Fish, which is undoubtedly the best name for a blog ever. It sounds like something straight out of Douglas Adams.

Unfortunately, Arthur had never read page 8,545 of the guide, which clearly states that you should never argue with a fish. Except in the case of the Scully Gulwumpus of Caviorn-7, where arguing is the traditional greeting.

OK. Bad Douglas Adams impressions aside, we have another show that I haven’t seen, but sounds delightful: Princess Connect! Re: Dive.

When did anime start using Re: as part of their sentences. I feel like it’s a bit of English that looks “cool.”

I’m finding that as I get older, I like the occasional show about nothing. They’re pleasant and relaxing and going on finding delicacies sounds awesome.

Man. Do I watch anime?

Crow, who I respect as the guy who also enjoyed Fairy Gone, is presenting everyone with the Episode 4 review of The Misfit of Demon King Academy. Yes. You guessed it. It’s another show I haven’t seen.

That said, I do like his pleasant description of sisters stabbing each other and coming back to life. Even if I don’t have any context for it.

Maybe I’ll check the show out.

Anyways, lets’ move on.

I like the title 5 years of Summer Anime. I feel like I’m going to start a journey like 500 days of Summer. Though that is a romance, Ang’s post at Couch and Chill is a blog post.

Yes. That is redundant.

One of the interesting things about anime is that it can have quite a few hidden gems circulating during all of the seasons. I think Ang comes up with a pretty good list of anime that came out during the summer of the last five years.

I mean it’s a little less of a romantic journey of 500 days of dating a girl named summer, but it is a journey.

I’ve even heard of Mob Psycho.

God, I’m such a fake fan.

So 9 Tailed Kitsune posed an interesting question. Is it bad to be a typical shounen protagonist? While I might bicker a bit about some of the finer details of Mia’s definitions, it is an interesting thing to talk about it.

Mia definitely goes one way with the question. She looks at all of the good qualities that being the protagonist in a shounen fighting show normally brings. They’re kind. They’re compassionate. They teach us to perserve and never give up.

They tell us to take the drill of our dreams and pierce the heavens while screaming.

Manly tear to be shed for Kamina

That said, shounen heroes have the classic gunslinger problem. There is always someone younger, better or stronger that they need to challenge because the world is in peril. So their life is always war. Would that really be a good way to live a life?

Let’s finish off today with talking about the year that was.

I heard a great joke today.

A man walks into the bar and says, “I want two hurricanes and a Corona.”

The bartender replies, “That will be $20.20.”

This year has been one of those years where dreams die and we just cling for dear life to anything, even as all of the things we would normally cling to vanish like fog on a summer morning.

Anime Expo is no different. I appreciate Animated Andy’s talk about his experiences with the California convention. While cons aren’t my thing, I can appreciate what drives someone to go to one. I also appreciate the communal spirit.

But really what I think Andy’s post really highlights is that you shouldn’t let the possible opinions of others stop you from doing the things you like (within reason.) You’ll never know if you’ll get another chance to do it.

That’s it for me today. Have a good night you all.

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