1947: Some Great Anime Soundtracks

Writing in the comments of yesterday's post, Mr Heaslip reminded me that I've been continually impressed with the quality of soundtracks in modern anime.

I tend to listen to a lot of soundtracks when I'm doing other things — particularly when I'm doing work of some description. I prefer soundtracks in this context because lyrics can be distracting — particularly if you're trying to write something — plus, given the right one, they can lend a certain air of drama to proceedings. And it doesn't have to be work, either; there's nothing that livens up a tedious motorway drive like a storming, over-the-top soundtrack.

The majority of my soundtracks come from games, unsurprisingly, but since I started really getting into anime a year or two ago, I've begun tracking down soundtracks for various anime series, too. So I thought I'd share a few favourites today.

This is Swordland from Sword Art Online, the "trapped in an MMO" show that was popular but somewhat divisive. I enjoyed it a great deal — at least partly because it reminded me of .hack, a series of games and anime that I love the idea of but am yet to actually work my way through — but I will acknowledge the arguments that it was cheesy as hell and moved way too fast for its own good. Those things didn't put me off as much as some other people, but as I think we've established over the course of the last 1947 days, I have a much higher tolerance for bullshit than many other people.

Anyway, I'm a fan of this piece because it sounds authentically "gamey" — plus, for all the series' faults, it knew exactly how to give a sense of drama to a big fight scene, and that included having a suitably epic soundtrack.

Contrasting completely with the above, this music is… well, I don't know what it's called as my Japanese reading comprehension isn't quite up to the task, but it's the music that plays during the "Previously on Love Live!" bit at the beginning of each Love Live! episode.

Not a lot to say about it really, other than the fact that it nicely captures the feeling of sheer joy that Love Live! encapsulates; it's happy, cheerful, summery, uplifting and heartwarming, just like the show as a whole.

KissXSis was pretty dumb all round — it was thinly-veiled… no, completely unveiled fanservice for the most part, but it had some entertaining moments and some fun characters. The two titular sisters were an enjoyable study in contrasts, and the supporting cast made for an enjoyable ensemble to spend some time with.

The thing that stuck with me long after finishing watching the show, though, was the ending theme — and this adorable dance animation that was shown in partial form during the closing credits, and which was rendered in its full glory for, I believe, the Blu-Ray release.

Yuru Yuri was an odd show in which pretty much nothing happened for its entire run, but it was immensely endearing purely for its characters. It was one of those shows where you feel like you're "friends" with the cast by the end of it, and for that I'll always think of it rather fondly.

I can't actually remember the context of this song in the series — or indeed if it actually appeared in the series at all, or if it's just a character song from a soundtrack album — but either way, it's a nice little song that I like a lot.

DanMachi, also known as Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? thanks to questionable transliteration, is the current hotness in anime, with many calling it this year's Sword Art Online. It seems to be overall a bit more consistently well-received than Sword Art Online, however, thanks in part to its main heroine Hestia being a much more interesting and fun character than SAO's Asuna.

Like Sword Art Online, DanMachi has a gorgeous incidental soundtrack accompanying the action. There are some awesome battle themes, but in the interest of a bit of variety, here's a lovely, more pensive piece reflecting the affection between Hestia and protagonist Bell.

To Love-Ru is another show that was pretty dumb and mostly fanservice, but I still really enjoyed my time with it. I found it particularly interesting in that it changed format significantly over the course of its three distinct seasons, with the main heroine from the first season being largely relegated to occasional background roles by the third. (I wasn't super-happy about this, as I adored Lala, but the new "main" characters made up for her relative absence somewhat.)

To Love-Ru was another of those shows that was unrelentingly cheerful throughout. It knew exactly what it was — silly, lightweight, occasionally (all right, frequently) pervy fun that had no intention of making you think too hard. This particular track, known just as "Good Morning!" reflects the show's character pretty nicely.

Welcome to the NHK was an awesome show with a wonderful streak of honesty and bitterness at its core. Contrasting starkly with the relative darkness of the protagonist's hikikomori lifestyle was the fictional anime show many of the characters were obsessed with, whose theme tune ran something like this.

Purupurupururin…

Oh, Lord, Clannad. So many feels. Anyone who's seen the show probably doesn't need any further words when they hear this piece of music. And if you haven't seen the show, rectify that right now. Bring tissues. Not for that. For all the crying. Because there will be lots of crying.

1946: Hey, Hey, Hey Start-Dash

I feel I should probably address something before continuing onwards in my life: I started watching Love Live! School Idol Project a little while back having left it stewing in my Crunchyroll queue for months, and I'm having an absolute blast watching it.

For the unfamiliar, Love Live! is a show about a group of girls who decide to form a "school idol" group in order to raise the profile of the school they love so much and save it from closure. In many ways, Love Live! is essentially K-On!: The Next Generation, in that it features an all-female cast with a broad spectrum of personality types, has music as its main theme and centres around a low-key but nonetheless meaningful "conflict" — in K-On!'s case, this was the disbanding of the school's light music club; in Love Live!'s case, it's the closure of the whole school.

Love Live! also possesses the same sort of heartwarming but occasionally manic energy that K-On! did, with very little in the way of conflict between the core cast members. There's a little as the cast is gradually assembled over the course of the first seven or eight episodes, but this is generally quickly resolved in favour of more light-hearted banter, inspirational training montages and the occasional boob-squishing when Nozomi is around and wants something.

Love Live! is an unashamedly happy, positive, colourful and cheerful show, then, and it is by no means particularly deep or thought-provoking. Despite having the opportunity to critique idol culture, too, it doesn't appear to particularly run with this, instead presenting a somewhat more idealised (or should that be idolised?) view of the girls' journey to stardom. That said, it doesn't skimp on representing the fact that the girls work hard to achieve their dream, and acknowledges the fact that different people come at this sort of thing in different ways — and in order to work well as part of a team, you sometimes have to make compromises or take on challenges you might not otherwise have done by yourself.

It's an appealing cast of characters all round, though since I'm partway through the series I am hesitant to declare anyone "best girl" and potentially call down the wrath of the Internet on me for picking the "wrong" one.

Honoka makes for a good "protagonist" of sorts, though really this is a show about the ensemble cast rather than a single protagonist as such. She's ditzy, silly, cute and fun, and she complements her permanent companions Kotori and Umi nicely.

Kotori is certainly a highlight for me — primarily for Umi-chan… onegai! — while Umi represents the rather sensible "class rep" type that I find rather appealing. Elsewhere in the cast, Nico is endearingly chaotic and rather tsun, and is wonderfully set off against her fellow third-year, school council president Eli. Nozomi, meanwhile, is an enjoyable study in contrasts, initially appearing to be the demure, quiet, shy "shrine maiden" type, but occasionally letting this facade slip somewhat as she goes full-on Katsuragi and starts feeling up her bandmates. Maki is super-cute — I have a thing for redheads, as many of you know — and arguably the character I find most appealing on a shallow, superficial level — plus she plays the piano, which is cool.

Of all the cast, I feel like I know the least about Hanayo and Rin — though Rin's "-nya"-ing at the end of sentences is a character trait I find adorable whenever any character does it — but since, as previously mentioned, I'm only partway through the complete run so far, there's still scope to find out a bit more about them.

I'm enjoying it, then. And I'm pleased that I'm finally in a position where I understand what's going on when people go "Nico-Nico-Ni!" — although your own feelings on that matter may vary, of course.

1943: Meat, Meat, Meat

Went out for dinner this evening as part of my continuing combined stag and birthday celebrations. We went to a Brazilian place in Southampton that I neglected to remember the name of, but which a quick Google reveals is called Fogo Gaucho.

Fogo Gaucho is a place that I've been curious to try for a while, as it sounded like an intriguing dining experience. It's a place where you pay a flat rate for your meal (plus drinks) and then simply sit at your table while you have lots of different bits of meat brought to you. In between said carnivorousness, you have the opportunity to visit a buffet and fill up your plate with some other bits and pieces like veggies, potatoes, rice and Brazilian stew, but the highlight of the experience is undoubtedly the meat.

And it was a fine selection of meat, too, running the gamut from spicy chicken thighs to some wonderful cuts of beef steak and lamb. At the start of the evening, the serving staff ask how you prefer your meat (rare, medium and so forth) and remember it, cutting pieces of meat from giant, majestic skewers that are according to your liking and then inviting you to pull them off the skewer with a pair of thoughtfully provided tongs.

The meat was delicious. It was all seasoned in various ways — pork ribs had a tasty, sweet coating, for example, while one of the cuts of lamb had a garlicky flavour to it. The spicy chicken thighs, meanwhile, were, well, spicy, and the beef steak cuts were wonderful, with the varied cuts provided really allowing you to appreciate the difference between different types.

The most common criticism of the place is that the meat is all a bit salty, and I'd concur with that; I don't know if that's a hallmark of Brazilian-style cooking or if it's a deliberate choice intended to get you having more drinks — drinks cost extra, remember — but either way, it didn't bother me too much. It was a great meal — and great value if you make sure to go when you're really hungry — and I'm pleased to have discovered this place. Now I have somewhere fun to take people who come to visit!

Now I'm very tired, so I will call it a night there. More games tomorrow!

1940: An Open Letter to Paul Glass, Slimming World Consultant, Upper Shirley

Hi Paul,

I was saddened to hear this evening of your impending departure from the Upper Shirley Slimming World groups, but completely understand your reasoning behind it and would like to thank you for your openness and honesty with the group. I'm sure everyone you've helped to date is very happy to support your decision, and will keep you in our hearts even after you start your new life supporting your new family.

I'm writing this as an open letter online for a few reasons. Firstly, and most selfishly, for vanity purposes: it's a means of me celebrating my own achievements with Slimming World — something that would not have been possible without you, which I'll talk more about in a moment. Secondly, I hope it might potentially provide inspiration to anyone who happens to be reading who has struggled with similar issues to me. Thirdly, it provides the opportunity for others to be able to chime in and voice their support and gratitude for what you have done for each and every one of us. Fourthly and finally, I'm not that good with saying this sort of thing out loud due to a certain degree of social anxiety; I am, however, and not to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet too much, somewhat more skilled with the written word, so this seemed like the most appropriate medium through which to deliver this important message.

I have lost nearly three and a half stone since joining the group about four months ago. Those four months have flown by; in the meantime, I lost my job under fairly personally traumatic circumstances, have had to secure new work for myself, begin to establish myself as a local music teacher and figure out what on earth to do with my life — something that, at thirty-four years of age, I still don't have a definitive answer for. Alongside that, I'm dealing with wedding preparation, other personal commitments, a friend who attempted suicide once and has threatened to do it again, and supporting my bride-to-be through a period of ill health. It has, in short, been a stressful, depressing and anxiety-inducing time.

In the past, my main means of coping with such a situation would have been to "treat myself" to something delicious, "because I deserved it" for dealing with difficult times. Unfortunately, as someone who suffers with depression and anxiety — conditions that I have recently started undergoing treatment for — I found myself relying on this means of emotional support more and more, which meant I piled the weight on and on, got bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier.

It had got to the point where I was embarrassed to look at older pictures of myself, because although I've been a fairly big fella for much of my adult life, I was conscious that I was far bigger than I'd ever been. It was starting to be physically uncomfortable. It was starting to affect my life, in that I was becoming increasingly conscious of silly little things like the fact that I was over the maximum recommended weight for a stepladder we have, that I was too fat to ride some of the rides at Alton Towers — one of the most humiliating experiences of my life — and that I was unable to participate in part of a friend's stag weekend activities because I was too heavy for Segways and treetop "Go Ape" activities. I was disgusted to look at myself in the mirror, and I worried that my appearance disgusted others, too — though the only people who ever commented on it were random strangers who occasionally made hurtful comments as I passed by them in public, and thankfully this was a rare occurrence, perhaps largely due to the fact that I generally prefer to stay indoors!

I was starting to despair over it. I felt that, whatever I did, I couldn't turn back this weight gain. I felt that I was doomed to continue gaining weight forever, and it's not an exaggeration to say that I thought — knew? — it would eventually be the premature death of me. I tried various things. I tried fad diets on several occasions. I tried exercising on several occasions. I tried eating "better", as I saw it. But nothing seemed to work; still the weight piled on, because still I had my weakness: my means of coping with difficult situations, and a life that seemed to attract said difficult situations.

I turned to Slimming World as a last resort. This was to be my last final push, my last attempt to do something about my weight, and if it didn't work, I was going to do my very best to try and at least accept myself the way I was if I couldn't change it. I chose Slimming World because my fiancee's sister has had some noticeable success with it since she joined, and because the programme, as described online, sounded like it was both appealing and practical to fit in to my life as it is today. So I bit the bullet, took that step and showed up to the 7:30 Upper Shirley group for the first time. And, while there are many things in my life that I regret, taking that step over the threshold and joining the group for the first time will never be one of them.

Why? Because you helped me achieve something that I had started to believe was impossible for me. You inspired me to try my best, but to take my journey at my own pace without pressure. You even helped me to enjoy food again; food had become something that "just happened", and it was pretty rare I found myself genuinely enjoying something, because it was often followed by guilt over whether I should have picked something "better" for me, or just passed altogether.

The wonderful support of the 7:30 Upper Shirley group counts for something, too, of course, as I'm sure you'd be the first to say. But your contribution to how much better I feel — both physically and emotionally — cannot be understated, and I will be forever grateful for you starting me on this path, as I'm sure I will be grateful for P's support as she helps us all continue on our journeys towards becoming the people we want to be.

My journey may have been proceeding faster than I ever dreamed possible, but I still have a long way to go. Rather than this being a scary, demoralising concept, however, you have helped me rise to the challenge and feel confident that, with time, dedication, effort and the support of everyone around me, that I really can achieve anything.

Thank you, Paul, from the bottom of my heart, and I wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavours. The Upper Shirley groups will miss you greatly.

Pete Davison

1934: Across the Universe

I've been rewatching Star Trek recently and simultaneously introducing Andie to it. At the time of writing, we're coming up on the end of season six of The Next Generation and a few episodes deep in Deep Space Nine, because yes, I'm one of those people who likes to watch overlapping shows chronologically so the few-and-far-between crossover episodes happen at the "right" time.

I've been really enjoying them. I reached something of a saturation point with Star Trek in my late teens and early twenties as it was on TV an awful lot and it was one of those shows I liked to record every episode of on video. I started collecting the official videos at one point and even had some of the more ostentatious box sets — such as the awesome Data one which had a metallic mould of Brent Spiner's face — but eventually reached a point where I simply parted ways with it, not because I was no longer enjoying it or had seen it all — to date, there's a significant chunk of Deep Space Nine I've never seen, I've not seen beyond the first season of Voyager and I've been surprised how little I remember of The Next Generation — but simply because there were lots of other things vying for my attention.

With the modern age of video on demand, though, you can watch a show like Star Trek at your own pace when it's convenient to you, and with no fear of missing episodes because you're out on Wednesday nights at 6pm or whatever. This gives the shows a much greater feeling of coherence than if you're watching disjointed — and sometimes out-of-sequence — episodes once a week on the television, and makes it into a much more enjoyable experience as a result.

Although I'm enjoying revisiting The Next Generation — and, as noted above, have actually forgotten a significant amount of it, so rewatching these episodes feels quite "fresh" — the main thing I'm looking forward to is the completely new episodes of Deep Space Nine. For some reason, when I was younger, I and my family regarded Deep Space Nine as "the boring one" in the Star Trek pantheon, with it not getting truly interesting until the fourth season, when they sped up the theme tune a bit, gave Sisko a badass starship to fly around with and decided it was high time the Klingons started being villains again. Watching it with more mature eyes and — I like to think, anyway — refined tastes, I'm liking it a lot more than I used to for its emphasis on characterisation and relationships over tales of derring-do in space. It's a good complement to The Next Generation, and watching them in parallel as we have been really highlights this.

Also Odo is a work of genius, combining witty writing with some wonderfully deadpan delivery by Rene Auberjonois. I'm especially interested to find out more about his particular story arc, as that's something I've only seen dribs and drabs of here and there; I stopped collecting the videos and watching the show just as the Dominion storyline was getting underway.

There's still a long way to go before we've watched all of them, but I'm not complaining; the shows — with the possible exception of the first couple of seasons of The Next Generation — very much stand up to the test of time and, while occasionally cheesy (rocking camera shots while people throw themselves around the set ahoy!) remain some of the most interesting, enjoyable, dramatic, emotional and thought-provoking television there has ever been.

Here's to the final frontier.

1925: Tiger and Dragon

I finished watching Toradora! last night — I also forgot the time we normally raid in Final Fantasy XIV on Monday nights, so I had to split the last episode in half — and I have to say, I'm very much a fan.

I knew nothing at all about the show going into it, aside from what a few of the characters looked like and that it was by the same person who did Golden Time, which those of you who have been reading for a while will recall was the last show I watched all the way through. I enjoy jumping into things like this, whether they're books, movies, TV shows, anime or games. It means that you can start watching/playing/reading/whatever with no preconceptions, and it also means you have that genuinely pleasurable sensation of not knowing what is going to happen next — and the equally fun ability to play "Wouldn't it be cool if…"

Toradora!, as it turns out, ended up pretty much where I expected it to end up, albeit with a bit of a twist in the latter half of the last episode. It was an enjoyably unpredictable ride along the way, however, featuring some extremely complicated interpersonal relationships between the main cast members — who were, in turn, complicated individuals in their own right.

Ryuji was a good protagonist. Eschewing the frequently-seen blank-slate or self-insert protagonist found in a lot of anime — particularly slice of life, romance or harem anime — he was an interesting character whom we gradually came to understand fully over the course of the whole show. The show sensibly didn't batter us over the head with his personality traits or angst; a lot of his characterisation was quite subtle, with the things he didn't say often being as important as the things he did say.

Taiga, meanwhile, was an exciting leading lady. Brash, unpredictable and quick to anger without relying completely on the tsundere trope, much of the show's "point" — if indeed it had one — concerned the audience and Ryuji alike coming to understand exactly why she seemed so angry at the world. Again, though, the show didn't fall into the trap of having her make overly melodramatic gestures of angst throughout; the things that caused her pain were real and relatable, and her relationship with Ryuji was believable and heartwarming to watch grow.

The other cast members all had their interesting elements, too. Minori, for example, lets her genki girl attitude slip more and more as the show progresses and reveals that her feelings for both Taiga and Ryuji are complex, conflicting and difficult to know what to do with. Ami, meanwhile, underwent some interesting development from being a simple two-faced bitch to someone with depth and not always entirely clear motivations. I did find Ami's falling in love with Ryuji to be a little hard to swallow — it felt a little like drama for the sake of drama — but it added an interesting twist on proceedings.

I was surprised that the show had two surprisingly brutal fight scenes, too; these weren't sexualised catfights that were intended to be arousing rather than shocking, as sometimes seen in more fanservicey anime, and nor were they overdramatic, exaggerated conflicts that, while stylish, were out of place with the rest of the setting and characters. They were gritty, believable, brutal and genuinely quite upsetting outbursts of anger from people who had been bottling things up for way too long. (As a fellow "bottler", I could relate very much to the feelings in these scenes, although I have thankfully never come to blows with anyone over this sort of thing.)

Ultimately, everything wrapped up fairly neatly, but there was a pleasing tang of bittersweetness to the ending; the understanding that, despite your best intentions and grand plans, things don't always go exactly as you expect them to — and that in a complicated situation of personal relationships, you need to know when to let go, otherwise somebody is going to get hurt.

I very much enjoyed the show as a whole, and understand now why it's such a well-regarded anime. I think some lighter fare is on the table for my next show to watch, however; after an hour or so of several people I follow on Twitter exchanging a series of rather racy pics earlier, I'm strongly considering checking out High School DxD, because who doesn't love a bit of fanservicey nonsense? Boring people, that's who.

1919: #WaifuWednesday - Shin (Criminal Girls)

The temptation to pick another Senran Kagura girl this week was very high indeed — I've just finished the main story of Shinovi Versus and there are, after all, 25 very interesting female characters in that game. But since I'm planning on doing a more comprehensive Senran Kagura writeup over at MoeGamer later this week when I've finished all the side stories in Shinovi Versus, I thought I'd mix things up a bit and show a bit of appreciation for the girl who currently graces my Windows wallpaper on my living room PC: Shin, from Criminal Girls on Vita, which I beat a few weeks back.

Spoilers ahead.

Shin, real name Makoto, is based primarily around the commonly used anime trope of the hikikomori, or shut-in. A renowned, well-known and somewhat notorious MMO player who was viciously bullied in real life for her interests and passions, Shin had, over time, retreated from society to live in her own private world where she felt safe. She'd done this to the exclusion of everyone around her — going so far as to lock herself inside her room and only eat whatever food had been left outside for her.

When you encounter Shin for the first time in Criminal Girls, none of this is apparent. She simply seems like an overconfident "leader type", wanting to boss everyone around and, as the oldest member of the group, believing that her opinion carries a considerable degree of weight. Her "leader type" personality is even reflected in her game mechanics; by herself, she's not very formidable, but most of her power comes from her "Operation" skills, which partner with at least one other party member to effectively deliver multiple special attacks in the space of a single turn.

Over time, her facade slips, however; she continually makes poor decisions that put the group in danger, and throwaway comments she makes gradually reveal her otaku side. It eventually becomes very apparent that she's trying desperately to be someone that she isn't, and that by hiding herself away she's hurting the people around her.

The main thrust of Criminal Girls' story surrounds the player's attempts to "redeem" the titular girls from their past sins, to prevent them being incarcerated in Hell and giving them another chance at life. Shin's sin, then, is that of neglecting others; she personifies the Deadly Sin of Envy. She envies those who have a normal life and is embittered by her drop-out, shut-in existence; the arrogant persona she initially displays is both a reflection of the character she played online and of who she thinks she "ought" to be — a persona she believes to be more likeable.

As the girls and the player character come to trust one another more, though, Shin starts to open up. She's more honest and less confrontational, though she still bickers with the rather spoiled Kisaragi; the two are more similar than either of them would care to admit. Most importantly, she learns through others accepting her that it is also possible to accept herself without being ashamed; there's no need for her to cut herself off from her problems and hide away. In doing so, in fact, she had simply made matters worse; the longer she was alone, the more she believed she needed to be alone, and so her resentment and envy towards "normal" people grew.

Those of you who know me well will surely not be surprised to hear that I found Shin to be one of the most relatable characters in Criminal Girls. While I haven't gone to the lengths she has — I'm fortunate enough to have a good circle of friends (both online and off) and a wonderful fiancee who tolerate, understand and accept the things I'm interested in — I can very much empathise with her feelings of isolation, the suffering she endured while she was being bullied and her envy for people who seem to be able to go about their business "normally". I've been through some of the things Shin has been through — though fortunately in my case it didn't involve a literal trip to Hell and back — and as such she occupies a special place in my heart.

A toast to you, then, Shin; you were one of numerous reasons I'm glad I made that journey through Hell.

1914: I Wish I Liked Star Wars More

Recently, there were a couple of big bits of Star Wars-related excitement: the release of a new trailer for the upcoming movie, and some "not gameplay footage" footage of the upcoming new Star Wars Battlefront game.

And… I don't really care.

This post isn't, however, a tirade where I get angry at people who are into Star Wars — certainly I don't begrudge anyone their excitement over the new stuff, and it's nice to see something people can get enthusiastic rather than angry about for once. No; rather, it's a contemplation of why I'm no longer into Star Wars now, in 2015, when many of my peers are.

In theory Star Wars should be right up my alley. I like sci-fi and I like fantasy, and Star Wars combines elements of both, being, essentially, a tale of heroic fantasy, mysterious magic and dastardly villains… and a tale that just happens to be set among spacefaring civilisations rather than the more conventional quasi-medieval setting of most fantasy.

And yet I just can't muster any enthusiasm for it any more.

I don't think it's the fault of the films themselves. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are all still solid films, albeit somewhat cheesy at times; The Phantom Menace is a bit poo but inoffensively so, and Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are both perfectly competent, exciting movies. I recall a couple of years back I watched them all through in sequential order — The Phantom Menace first, Return of the Jedi last — and found it to be an enjoyable experience that actually made the prequels seem a bit better than I had previously thought.

I've not felt any sort of urge to watch them again, though; I don't think I even own a copy of them any more, having ditched most of my DVD collection the last time we moved house. I'm kind of done with Star Wars; I got all that I wanted to out of it, and moved on.

Except Star Wars didn't want to move on, and I think this is why my excitement and interest in it has completely faded over the years. Over the years since the prequel movies, we've had TV shows, animated shorts, websites, video games, toys, novels, comics, fan movies, endless speculation, memes, and the Great Unwritten Rule of Geekdom: that if you don't like Star Wars you're not a proper nerd. (I don't actually believe this last one, of course, but I have had a few looks of surprise when fellow nerds have asked me what I think of something Star Wars related and I've responded that I'm not really into it.)

In other words, Star Wars was inescapable and being used more as a gigantic marketing juggernaut than anything else. I've become very aware of this sort of thing over the last few years — I think working in the press and seeing long-running PR campaigns for various blockbusters "from the inside" jaded me somewhat — and I was just getting a little fed up of seeing it seemingly everywhere. That manifested itself in the realisation that I didn't really care for Star Wars any more, and a response to the announcement of the new movies and games best described as "meh".

I'm kind of sad about this in a way, and I do stand by my title for this post; I do wish I liked Star Wars more, because it would be nice to share in some of this excitement, and it's nice to reminisce about classic games like Super Star Wars, X-Wing and TIE Fighter. But, for me, at least, I think that ship has sailed (or done the Kessel run in however-many-parsecs-it-was, insert your own tortured metaphor here) and I've moved on to my own things that people give me blank looks about when I express my own excitement and enthusiasm. It all balances out, I guess.

So for those of you into Star Wars, I hope the recent reveals were everything you hoped they'd be. And for those of you not… well, I've got a nice quiet little corner of the Internet here. Pull up a chair and I'll put the kettle on.

1907: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

I have a large backlog of TV, games and anime to plough through, so it's pretty rare that I will come to something the moment it's released, particularly if I have to wait a week between new episodes. The last time I did it was for the first season of the anime Sword Art Online which I don't care what anyone says, I enjoyed a whole lot.

Appropriately enough, it's another anime that's got me doing it again this time: the somewhat cumbersomely titled Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, also known as Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka or DanMachi for short. (I shall refer to it as DanMachi hereafter for the sake of brevity.)

DanMachi is, like many anime, based on a light novel series, and the first episode of its anime adaptation recently aired. It seems to be picking up a lot of buzz already (some of which is admittedly due to little more than the physical appearance of heroine Hestia) and is looking like it will be one of the "biggies" this season if the early enthusiasm is anything to go by — and judging by the first episode, it looks like being a lot of fun, too.

It's a premise and setting that appeals greatly to me. Set in what appears to be a typical Japanese role-playing game world — complete with various humanoid races including the obligatory catgirls — DanMachi's protagonist is a young man named Bell, a level 1 adventurer and the sole member of the "Hestia Familia". The "Familia" business involves the gods having come down to the mortal realm to give up their powers and live among their people; adventurers pledge allegiance to a particular god or goddess' familia in order to receive special powers to fight monsters and grow stronger through their experiences. Levelling up, in other words.

Young Bell, as previously mentioned, is the sole member of the goddess Hestia's familia. It's not yet clear after one episode why Hestia only has Bell, but she doesn't seem too upset about it; in fact, she seems rather taken with him. Hestia herself is an energetic, impetuous tsundere of a goddess who so far seems to be pretty open about most things but quick to anger, somewhat jealous and rather possessive of Bell.

Hestia is kind of adorable, to be fair; she seems to be the main reason a lot of people have been drawn to the show.

As you might expect, this sets things up nicely for some tension. In the opening moments of the show, Bell is rescued from the fifth level of "the dungeon" — far too difficult for an adventurer of his calibre — by an experienced female warrior named Aiz Wallenstein, whom he is immediately smitten with. His rather hasty obsession with her manifests itself as his first ever "skill", which Hestia immediately does her best to try and conceal the presence of: it allows him to grow in strength considerably more rapidly than other adventurers, so long as his feelings remain strong. Wanting Bell to succeed, Hestia encourages him to do his best, but is somewhat hurt when the huge amount his "stats" jump up by reflect seemingly very strong feelings for Aiz.

Late in the episode, Bell is sitting in a pub enjoying a meal, when Aiz's adventuring party comes in. They don't notice him, but they knew of his initial encounter with Aiz, and one particularly obnoxious member mocks and insults him for being "too weak" for Aiz. While DanMachi isn't explicitly intended to be a reflection of modern online games like Sword Art Online was, it's difficult not to read this as a reference to overconfident elitist players of games like Final Fantasy XIV who see themselves as "superior" to newcomers, even when it's not a fair comparison. I don't doubt that Bell will see this obnoxious scrote of a catboy get his comeuppance before the series is out, and I already know it will be a satisfying moment.

I'm glad I checked out the first episode, then. So far, despite the inane-sounding title (particularly when it's in English, as Crunchyroll has it) it's shaping up to be a really interesting show, and I'm already looking forward to seeing how it develops. Oh, and I want a game of it already.

1906: Waifu Wednesday

There's a sort of tradition among anime and game fans on Twitter — well, game fans who are into the Japanese end of the spectrum, anyway — called Waifu Wednesday, which is often used as a simple excuse to post lots of pictures of anime girls the posters in question find attractive, but sometimes also used as a means of celebrating a favourite character for more than just their physical appearance. Perhaps their story arc resonated with the person who posted it. Perhaps they simply liked them as a person. Perhaps they represented an ideal they wanted to aspire to. Whatever the reasons, Waifu Wednesday is a thing, and, well, why not here too?

For today's Waifu Wednesday, then, I think I want to talk about Nepgear, pictured to the right.

Nepgear, as those of you paying attention to my deviant, disgraceful taste in video games will already know, is the protagonist of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 (and its recent remake Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2) and the sister of series protagonist Neptune. Specifically, she's Neptune's younger sister; in the series' tradition, she is the personification of a specific game platform, in this case the Sega Game Gear to Neptune's… well, Sega Neptune.

Nepgear isn't the only younger sister character to make an appearance in the series. Sony PlayStation personification Noire — who you better believe will be the subject of a future post like this, because she's one of my favourite characters in the series aside from Nepgear here — has a younger sister called Uni, who represents Sony's handhelds the PSP and Vita. Nintendo Wii personification Blanc, meanwhile, has two younger twin sisters called Rom and Ram, who between them represent the two screens of Nintendo's handhelds the DS and 3DS.

The fact that these characters are personifications of well-known brands and platforms is one of the most well-known things about the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, but it's also one of the least important things about them; it makes up little more than their concept and, in some cases, influences aspects of their design or basic personality type.

The reason I like Nepgear so much is because I can see a certain amount of myself in her. Obviously I'm not a young, pretty, skinny girl — I'm pretty much the exact opposite of her in that regard — but I find her personality and the way she goes about her business to be eminently relatable. Why? She's awkward, she's nerdy, she's lacking in self-confidence and often finds herself the butt of jokes: these are all traits I became aware of in myself when I was younger, and which persist to this day.

It's not just about "negative" traits, though. Although often doubting her own abilities, for example, Nepgear is someone who will try her very best and follow through on a plan when she makes it, even if things don't go entirely as envisioned. She tries hard to do the right thing in all situations — though doesn't always succeed — and makes an effort to bring people together and ensure they are getting along with one another. Obviously she then goes on to fight giant robots and evil goddesses and whatnot, which are parts of my life that haven't happened as yet, but, without wanting to sound too arrogant, for the most part she represents some of the aspects of myself that I actually quite like.

Aside from the relatable aspects, Nepgear is just an altogether pleasingly wholesome character; she's cute, sure, and in her transformed "Purple Sister" form (left) she ups the sexy quotient considerably, but she has never been a character that attempts to take advantage of either her cute or sexy aspects.

Instead, well, I've already used the word wholesome above, but it really is the best way to describe her. She's someone who is very pleasant to spend time in the virtual company of, and she's just plain nice. The kind of person who would always have tea and cake for you if you stopped by; the kind of person who remembers your birthday; the kind of person who does random acts of kindness without any expectation of reward — and who often doesn't receive any kind of reward for her hard work.

In many ways, poor old Nepgear is one of the most "normal" people in the entirety of Hyperdimension Neptunia, and she suffers a bit for it. There's a running gag in the games that followed her starring role in mk2 where she's paranoid about everyone thinking that she's "boring" and, when you compare her to the other characters in the series — particularly the pure, unbridled chaos that her sister Neptune tends to create in her wake — it's perhaps easy to see why she worries.

But even if she goes unappreciated in her own dimension(s), I certainly appreciate Nepgear, and thus it's with pleasure that I give her the dubious honour of a Waifu Wednesday post on this little backwater blog.