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Grabbing loaded firearms out of other people’s hands, does that make Eijiro an action hero? Unfortunately, Yoko isn’t able to continue coloring the comic, but current reader and lead member of the ‘Unhealthy Obsession with Ken’ fanclub, Discorvid, has stepped up to the task. You may remember him from the mountains of incredible NN4B fanart he’s produced, and now he’s officially part of the team!

So Sony announced its next console of sorts, the PS4 Pro. For those not aware, it’s basically a PS4 with a better processor and other hardware, but running the same OS as the original PS4, and fully compatible with any PS4 games. It’s also the same price the PS4 was at launch, $400. I’m thinking about upgrading from my current PS4, except for one little problem. if I’m being totally honest, most of my gaming happens either on my PC, which is like 10000x better spec’d than any console, or on my WiiU, which happens to have all the console games I want to play this generation (I desperately want to play Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE). Then again, Last Guardian is incoming! That’s not likely to come out on PC any time soon, if ever. And I suppose getting the best performance out of Final Fantasy 15 would be ideal, if, like, I had any desire at all to play that terrible looking game. (shots fired!)

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Genchu is FLABBERGASTED in that last panel.

Okay, no lie, the last week of my life was completely consumed by the Nioh Beta. Shortly before posting this page I managed to complete the last piece of content this beefy demo had to offer! I think Tachibana Muneshige, this super aggressive samurai boss, killed me around 200 times over the course of four hours before I finally took the jerk down. Well, he was really polite about it, bowing every time he ended me, so maybe he’s a nice guy, I dunno. Either way, finally beating him was like the best video game feeling ever. Then I watched this video of some guy beating him with a level 1 character and a wooden sword and I was like FFFFFFFFFFFF.

I’m inspired to try Dark Souls again, because I think Nioh has helped me see the appeal of the Souls games. Granted, I don’t think the Souls series’ combat is as good as Nioh’s. Wielding any weapon in Nioh feels precise and powerful, and you’re always in control. Maybe I’d enjoy Bloodborne, as I’m told the combat in that is very fast paced and there’s less random jank than what you find in DS 1 and 2 (dunno about 3). Then again, I already fear for my free time whenever the full version of Nioh comes out. GIMME A RELEASE DATE, TEAM NINJA!!

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The next page starts with Tanaka shot in the face. SPOILERS!

I saw Kubo and the Two Strings and I loved it! It’s a real shame at how quickly its dropping out of theaters and how little money its made, especially since it had such a killer trailer. How did this movie not get a massive hype train to show up on? Kubo certainly deserves more buzz and call to action than it’s received. But, even though it’s a joy to watch, it’s not a perfect movie. Lemme talk about it! (SPOILERS, for real this time)

So Studio Laika has made some of my favorite animated films, and Kubo has definitely stolen my heart! I think Coraline is a better film, but Kubo has epic sword fights and feudal Japanese stuff, so I’m enamored with it. Kubo’s not a perfect movie, but even though its plot coherence is a bit muddled, it’s emotional intent is very clear. I teared up a couple times during this movie, its ending is painfully bittersweet. But what do I mean by muddled plot coherence? well…

Was Kubo’s mom’s memory fading at the beginning of the film because she hit her head when she fell out of her boat, or because she was losing her divinity? Her father, the Moon King, lost his memory as soon as he became human(?) again.
Was the Moon King always a monster thing, or was he a human who could take monster form?
After the Moon King turns human, is his new left eye Kubo’s? Seems like it, but where did it come from, where was it being kept?
Was it Hanzo’s intention to overthrow the Moon King or just marry his daughter? “You are my quest” is a very romantic thing to say, but it confuses me as to what he wanted. Both, I guess?
There’s a lot of talk about the Moon King and his family being above humanity, which indicates they’re celestial beings, but the movie makes them the bad guys. Yet there’s very little clarification as to why being a Celestial being is bad, other than you have no empathy for humans. I guess that’s bad enough!
Why does Beetle kidnap Kubo when Monkey isn’t looking? If he just wanted to introduce himself anyway, why not just pop up and give an introduction?

There were some other things that bugged me about the plot that I can’t immediately recall, and the introduction of Beetle and Monkey also felt disjointed with some cringe worthy humor. But I don’t these are plot holes so much as a vague plot in general, operating more on feelings and concrete details. And this is also fine because the movie is pure magic. The soundtrack is wonderful, the visuals and character designs are top notch, the animation is incredible, and the characters are very likable. It’s also a kids movie that forgoes a perfectly happy ending. I mean Kubo sees his mom die twice in this movie, and sees his dad stabbed in the back. It might be bloodless but it’s still kind of brutal, and I dig it. Also, the creepy sisters are just the coolest, and that fight on the sinking leaf ship? Incredible!

Basically what I’m saying is that if you samurai stuff, you’ll probably also like Kubo and the Two Strings. Go see it before it’s out of theaters, you won’t regret it! (also if you read this before seeing the movie, I’m sorry I just spoiled a bunch of stuff for you)

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It’s impressive how unimpressed Tanaka is by the show of force on display here! Dude’s a stone cold samurai.

We had a great time at Matsuricon this weekend, and now I’m too tired to write anything interesting. So off I go!

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I’m kinda on Tanaka’s side with this one. Genchu’s doing his best but his credibility here is KINDA SUSPECT! If only he had photo ID or something, I’m sure the dude’s gotta be famous enough to garner some clout!

I generally don’t much care for procedurally generated games because they get very samey very quickly. Whenever a game developer says their procedurally generated worlds will have a hundred trillion combinations and you’ll never see the same thing twice, what they’re really saying is that they have hundreds of variables mixed into thousands or millions of combinations. And, sure, at first each world may look different and unique, but soon you start seeing the same variables pop up over and over again, and once you’ve seen all those variables, seeing their infinite permutations loses its luster.

My SO picked up No Man’s Sky and it’s really got its hooks in her. I’ve seen a fair bit of the game from over her shoulder at this point, and I have to say, it looks repetitive as sin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the progress you’re making in the game as you play is tangible and constant. I’ve seen a lot of the same variables pop up over and over again on different planets, but so far the variety of randomly generated terrain and alien wild life has managed to produce a steady stream of ‘wow’ moments. There’s a lot of time spent staring at inventory management menus selling goods and keeping your tech fully functional, which I wish was a little more streamlined, but it’s all part of the game’s measured pace. No Man’s Sky is definitely a chill experience. I’ve only played it for an hour, but it seems like a really good podcast or audiobook game.

I downloaded Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R), which is a fan game using gameplay from the Metroid GBA games and original, authentic looking pixel art. Thank you, Milton Guasti, for filling the giant hole in my life that was a great new Metroid game. Sure, this is a remake, but I’ve played Metroid 2, and this is far more than just a beautiful upgrade. It’s filled with tense, new boss battles, new and greatly expanded areas, fantastic level design, scripted cinematic events, beautiful art and sound design, and a killer soundtrack! On my list of great 2D Metroids, this may rank just under Super Metroid, but above Zero Mission. No kidding, people, this is a TOP TIER Metroid experience. I’m sure there are a million legal reasons why Nintendo can’t simply pay Guasti for the game, make it official, and slap it on the Nintendo e-shop, but AM2R deserves nothing less. If you’re a starved Metroid fan, you owe it to yourself to play this game! It’s nothing less than the Metroid experience we’ve all been dreaming of for years now.

(I also tried the Federation Force demo on my 3DS and it was butt. Thanks Big N!)

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Maru’s always quick to lose his cool. Yeah, we updated, WHAT OF IT?? Expect more, you know, updates, on update days moving forward.

A while ago I backed a kickstarter for this independent animation Under the Dog, maybe you heard of it. They released a ‘pilot episode’ for a potential series. I watched it, it was gods awful. And, I mean, I looooove Sword of the Stranger, and this is the same director. But Under the Dog is devoid of any of the charm or heart of SotS and filled to the brim with garbage anime tropes. SPOILERS INCOMING!

So the plot of Under the Dog (or at least this pilot episode) is that there are, like, monster people, and the Japanese government, or some organization that I think is part of the Japanese govt, basically makes teenage girls hunt for ‘the chosen one who will bring hope to the world’. Don’t ask me why they’re looking for HOPE, as there’s basically not elaboration on this point. Also, the girls are special in that they seem to have monster-person abilities, which basically amounts to glowing green eyes and above average/superhuman strength and speed.

Anyway, 80% of the episode is from the perspective of a teenage girl, Hana, who’s got to evac this teenage boy, who her handlers think is potentially ‘THE ONE’, out of his school and back to her handlers before he gets captured/killed/whatever by a bunch of American marines. Hana is actually being coerced into this mission because the organization giving her orders will kill her family if she fails a mission. Why is this? Dunno. For an organization searching for LITERAL HOPE, they’re pretty freakin’ ruthless in their tactics. ANYway, Hana is depressed and upset throughout the whole episode. She not-quite-Matrix-style fights some marines in the highschool lobby, and eventually gets shot up a bunch, it’s all VERY GRIM. Meanwhile, it turns out the marines aren’t there to hunt the boy, instead they’re after the boy’s father, who is also at the school for reasons I can’t remember or was never given. The marines, speaking laughably corny Engrish dialog, find and shoot the dad to death. But daddy turns out to be a monster man, transforms into a nearly unstoppable Evangelion-looking creature and proceeds to wipe out the marines. But Hana’s organization wants to stop the monster also (I don’t understand why these organizations aren’t just working together since they seem to want the same darn thing), so they send in BLONDE TEENAGE BADASS GIRL.

This girl, I dunno, she’s the character featured in the Kickstarter pitch trailer, and the website labels her as ‘the main character’, and yet she is literally just the Terminator. She comes falling into the school from a plane in this HALO pod thing, shoots a bunch of missiles at the remaining marines and monsters. She pops out of the pod, finds the dying Hana, and, shoots poor Hana in the head (this show has NO JOKES, people, this is some SERIOUS STUFF). I’m still unsure WHY this happened since Hana and blonde girl seemed to be coworkers, and Hana had not actually failed her mission and was still alive. Anyway, because the mopey, depressed Hana dies, Hana’s parents then ALSO DIE (such sad wow), and then blonde girl goes to fight the monsterdad on the school roof. She pulls out a big scifi gun, shoots monsterdad a couple times, and then monsterdad EXPLODES WITH WAVES OF ANIME ENERGY, ripping blonde girl’s shirt half off so we can get an underage boobie in there thanks. The ‘chosen one’ boy is on the roof too, surprise, and the monsterdad attacks him, at which point chosen one’s arm turns into a giant monster blade and pierces monsterdad, turning monsterdad’s head back into a human shape. The ‘chosen one’ boy realizes he just killed his dad with a giant monster arm that he’s never had before and FLIPS THE FREAK OUT (which is totes understandable considering the circumstances). Unfortunately for the ‘chosen one’, it turns out this wasn’t what boob-exposed blonde girl wanted, as it means the boy isn’t actually the chosen one (Apparently monster blade arms are a BIG NO NO if you want to be THE CHOSEN ONE). So blonde girl shoots the boy in the head (seems to be her signature move). FADE TO BLACK ROLL CREDITS GIMME SOMMA DAT SWEET SYNTH GUITAR.

One thing that bugs me about this whole kickstarter is that the original pitch trailer, while not exactly filled with ‘jokes’ or ‘character depth’ does show a lot of slick action involving scifi motorcycles, and gunplay while jumping off skyscrapers and shooting at helicopters. It’s very Ghost in the Shell and I would’ve been fine with a mindless half hour of beautiful action schlock, but the final product has nothing from the trailer. Its animation also never looks as cool as the trailer’s. Granted, the animation in Under the Dog is still very good, but it lacks anything visually memorable. It’s all ‘generic military guys shooting up a bland looking high school’, and ‘rampaging generic monster man’, and the world setting and character designs are forgettable. There’s so little here that doesn’t feel like it’s been done a thousand times in other, more memorable series that it feels like they shouldn’t have even bothered. I mean if you’re going to create such a drab, depressing world where all your characters act hopeless and melancholy, then at least make the main character ANGRY about it, make them EMOTE. Cold, silent badasses are one of my favorite tropes, but if everyone else in the story is sad and depressed, the lack of emotional contrast is numbing. And maybe don’t kill your narration character three quarters of the way through the story of your pilot episode for your cool new action show. Also, NOT EXPLAINING THE MOTIVATION BEHIND WHAT’S HAPPENING DOES NOT MAKE ME WANT TO KNOW MORE, especially when you have two organizations that seem to want the same thing! Anyway, I could keep going on about why I found Under the Dog distasteful, but I also need to update the comic so I’ll stop!

…

Maybe I’m just annoyed because my name is in the credits of this turd.

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Hey, it’s General Tanaka! Tanaka/Maru is my new favorite bromance of the comic.

We went and saw the new Ghostbusters, which I’ve been looking forward to since it was announced. I know people had been up in arms about un-funny trailers, and a lack of continuation of the original films’ canon, but none of that really bothered me. It’s very hard to make a good ‘comedy movie’ trailer, because you don’t want to give away all the best jokes, and a lot of funny jokes require a good set up. Sure, it’s possible to make a really funny trailer, but it’s not easy, so the fact that I wasn’t rolling on the floor from the trailers didn’t bother me. You only had to look at the cast and crew behind this movie to know it was filled with a bunch of very funny, collaborative comedians. And, SURE, they could have put this in the same canon as the original and thought of some fun, creative way for there to be a new group of Ghostbusters getting trained by the original cast, but I think that might have brought about a bloated cast, and rebooting the universe means they don’t have to carry any canon baggage.

And the new cast is great, I laughed through the whole movie! Mileage may vary, as I’m admittedly someone who laughs easily and frequently, but I felt that for every one joke that didn’t work, at least three did. The humor is more improv and wacky than the orignal’s dry and snarky humor, but that doesn’t make it less funny. My biggest problem with the movie is that some of the editing feels sloppy. I was concerned when they tossed up the GHOSTBUSTERS title and started playing the classic Ray Park Jr theme, and then faded it out as soon as the lyrics started. I mean, either fade it out before the lyrics or at least have the first “Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!” and then cut it off. Fading it out with “If there’s something strange…” is just a weird choice. The ending of the film is also a little weak in that it kind of loses track of what the characters are doing and why, but only in a subsequent viewing sort of way. And the main villain is never intimidating, he literally turns into a cartoon at one point. But it’s hard to fault the film much considering how highly entertaining I found Ghostbusters 2016 to be, despite all the pre-release negativity. Overall, it’s a strong first film in what’s clearly intending to be a continuing franchise, and I’m excited for the inevitable deluge of sequels!

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It’s nice to know that Maru has gone from indiscriminate execution to kinda listening to what people have to say.

I’ve been watching a couple anime as of late! It’s actually been a while since I’ve picked up a new series, but in the past two months I’ve watched Voltron (not technically an anime, I realize), Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Berserk (2016), and Kuromukuro.

Guys, Voltron is so much fun! This animation studio went from making big action/adventure asian inspired martial arts epics to big action/adventure scifi mecha/space opera epics, they are my FAVORITE PEOPLE. My only complaint about it is that there isn’t currently enough episodes. Episode 11 ends on a big ol’ cliffhanger and nothing is resolved, which is infuriating when you’re having such a jolly time watching the show! Oh wait, I do have one other complaint. WHY NOT USE THE ORIGINAL THEME?? I mean, I like the new theme, it grew on me pretty quick, but the classic Voltron theme is probably the most quintessential GET HYPED music ever made, Thundercats’ theme being a close second. Every time Voltron forms in the new series, I unconsciously begin to vibrate with anticipation over hearing that improbably awesome theme, but I’m consistently let down! Other than that, though, show’s just great, go watch it.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, or Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, is ALRIGHT. I enjoyed parts of it and I love the concept and character design, although it feels like a derivative work trying to cash in on the popularity of Attack on Titan. Initially I thought I would like it more than AoT, seeing as how it’s basically steampunk samurai armed fighting zombies, but it quickly gets bogged down in way too much melodrama and perhaps too little plot clarification for my tastes. My initial impression of the cast was very positive, as they all came off as smart and proactive, but about four episodes in, everyone started getting very emo and indecisive, and the introduction of a main villain took the show in a direction less about straight up survival, and maybe over complicated a series that was only 12 episode long. The pacing also has a lot of stop and go to it and the ending definitely left me with more questions than answers. If it gets another season, I’ll watch it! But I didn’t like Iron Fortress nearly as much as I thought I would. Great soundtrack, though. I loves me some Hiroyuki Sawano.

Berserk (2016) is a direct sequel to the new movies, or the original 1998 anime. Unfortunately, it’s almost entirely done using some rather ugly CG character models, and there’s a lot of stiff animation and fugly faces. Visually, it’s not my favorite thing. I am happy it exists, though. The anime is only two episodes in so far, and it’s interesting enough that I’ll certainly keep watching, being a big fan of Berserk. If nothing else, it’s definitely gotten me to go back and start re-reading the manga, which is probably one of the most engrossing and visually impressive manga ever made, easily being my second favorite after Kenshin, and even then probably only second because Kenshin actually has a fantastic and conclusive ending. After two episode, I don’t know if I can really recommend Berserk (2016) to fans who haven’t read the manga and are looking for a continuation of the two animated adaptations of the Golden Age arc. Instead, I’d just recommend to read the darn manga because it’s incredible. But who knows, maybe we’ll get a Sailor Moon Crystal scenario where the show would go from looking ugly and low budget to looking utterly beautiful between season breaks. (I just compared Berserk to Sailor Moon)

OKAY GUYS, HERE’S WHERE IT GETS REAL. I had not heard or Kuromukuro, it was totally off my radar. While browsing Netflix I just saw that it was a new addition, and the description was something like “a samurai from the past helps defend a research station from attacking mechs”. I was all “I enjoy all the nouns and verbs in that description, maybe I’ll watch this show”. Well, and this is NO JOKE, I may have found my new favorite anime of all time! We’ll have to see, since I’m only three episodes in, but I pretty much love everything about this show, and it contains very few of the anime tropes that infuriate me. So far the characters are well defined and interesting, with no cast member coming off as boring or annoying. The main character, Yukina, is ALMOST too boring, but she’s established with an expertise in geology and geography, and she’s generally laid back, which makes her far less frustrating to watch than your standard ‘hyper anime girl’ trope. Kennosuke, the samurai from the past, is the classic ‘fish out of water’ time traveler, and although it’s been done to death, it’s a trope that I never get tired of, especially when played for humor. Kennosuke is so wonderfully earnest that he’s impossible not to like. He’s also a super badass when he’s piloting his giant robot or fighting enemy mechs buck naked. The other side characters are great too, my favorite being Tom Borden, who acts exactly like you’d expect Kenta Daisuke would if given a giant robot. But what really sells this show for me, other than it’s beautiful animation, great character designs, and incredible fight choreography, is the PACING. this show has some of the best pacing in an anime I can recall in a long time. Each episode (and, mind you, I’ve only seen the first three so far), slowly builds up the story, letting the characters grow and interact with each other before throwing a big problem at them. The jokes are legitimately funny and not the “I’m eating a lot of food” or “I fell on a girl and touched her boob” anime garbage I hate (although there was one grope joke that I groaned at). Overall, it avoids the blatant and distracting fan service and tired, overused jokes of most anime to deliver a character driven story full of, well, samurai robots that fight with giant swords. It’s fantastic and everyone should be watching it! (okay, I’m seriously be geeking out about this show, I can’t help it. Everyone’s got such great hair!)

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For a while now I’ve been tossing around the idea of hiring a full time colorist to work on NN4B, and that’s finally happened! This is the first page, and likely to be many pages onward, colored by the talented Yoko. “But, Alex, why hire a colorist? Clearly you are also capable of coloring!” Well, the truth is that with a full time art job, occasional commission work, and the comic, I’ve been gradually losing steam. I want to draw the comic, but I no longer want to put ten or more hours into each page. With Yoko on as a colorist, I can get a page drawn and inked in five to six hours, or possibly less depending on the complexity of the page. This also lets me draw more pages, which, likely, will result in more frequent updates! I can’t promise when this will happen, as we’d like to build up a buffer of pages first (usually I’m finish a page just before it’s updated).

Does anyone here watch this little, barely known show called Game of Thrones? It’s alright, I guess. Actually, it USED to be alright, even quite good, through the first three seasons! Now my favorite part of Game of Thrones is Preston Jacob’s hilarious review videos. It’s not really that I hate the show at this point; if it were any other show it would easily be top quality spectacle entertainment. The problem is that GoT went from being a nuanced, morally gray drama with anti war and anti oligarchy themes and storylines that frequently subverted expectation to a good guys vs bad guys slug-fest where a lot of people randomly die with no story resolution, and everyone acts in ways that serve the plot rather than the characters.  As a fan of the books and the first three seasons of the show, it’s like watching a very disappointing train wreck with a few beautiful dragons thrown in. Then again, maybe I’m upset over nothing and should be happy to get any resolution on this story!

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It’s update time, yay! Genchu gives his best “we’re not threatening” look amidst an epic ground battle.

E3 happened and it was a good time! Aside from the embarrassingly awkward and disappointing EA press conference. “You wanna play some Star Wars games? Well, get ready, because we’ll totally have more to say about them in the FUTURE!! Also, SOCCER!!”  But there’s so much I want to geek out about over E3, and I think the biggest game of the expo is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s such a weird thing for Nintendo to decide to have literally only one game to show, and it’s a game that has no release date, but that Zelda name alone is such a crazy buzz word. I mean, does the game look good? Yeah, it looks great! My brain is itching to explore that vast, open world!

Everything about BotW looks like a direct response to the criticisms of Skyward Sword (a game I loved for the music, art style, and storytelling, not so much the linearity, disconnected world locations, exhausting motion controls, and extreme hand holding). Finally in BotW you start the game immediately, with very little in terms of opening cutscenes or long tutorials. The motion control are gone, and in their place a more standard button layout with the ability to actually JUMP. What’s strange to me is that even though BotW FEELS revolutionary, objectively it’s just doing ‘the open world thing’ that so many other franchises have done. I don’t really know if it’s breaking new ground outside of its own franchise. But I guess that’s the point!

Fans who remember playing the original Legend of Zelda on NES in their childhood have been enthusiastically commenting that BotW captures the essence of that first game in the series. It feels open and lawless. It’s just Link and whatever weapons he can scrounge up versus a massive, unknown wilderness filled with deadly monsters. You can go any direction and encounter dungeons and temples in any order. I mean it’s basically Skyrim, except with Dark Souls’ combat system and Skyward Sword’s vibrant art direction (oh, and VOICE ACTING). So good job, Nintendo, for finally making a sequel that people have actually been asking for to one of your major properties! Next on the list, Metroid, maybe, please?

 

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