Thoughts on Heike Monogatari

Y’know what one of my favorite topics in school was? History. In fact, while I’ve likely mentioned I am a college graduate with a Bachelor’s in English, my minor was in History. There’s a lot to learn from studying the events of the past and how they’ve shaped the present, and it’s something that’s always fascinated the observer in me. This interest often makes its way into the media I consume, as well—such is how I came to discover and take a keen interest in Heike Monogatari.

With a combination of a distinct art style and the promise of some (moderately) realistic depiction of olden-days Japan, it was something I was able to consume fairly easily, despite the eleven-episode runtime. Pus, it had “Monogatari” in its name. If Katanagatari and Bakemonogatari are any indication, anime with that titling tend to just be good by default. It’s a sign.

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Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto (Partial Re-Watch) (Merry Days of Anime 2022)

In early 2016, I stumbled upon a series by the name of Umi Monogatari. For the record, it has nothing to do with the Monogatari series by Nisio Isin. This series has an abysmally low average rating on MyAnimeList, which intrigued me more than anything. After viewing it the first time, I left with a shockingly positive outcome. “This anime is severely underrated! How can people not understand that this is actually a pretty good series?” I thought to myself often.

Try as I may to keep things positive, a lingering doubt permeated in my mind as the years continued onward. Why is this so low in score? What is it that makes people find this so easy to despise? For this year’s festivities, I wanted to once again travel back to my younger twenties and see if things still held up, particularly a series that has seen its fair share of malignment. After three and a half episodes, I return with one question:

Why… did I think this was good?

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Thoughts on Cursed to Golf (Steam Next Fest 2022 Demo)

Let me tell you an objectively correct fact about life: Golf in real life is boring; golfing video games are awesome. My history with the Mario Golf franchise almost overtakes the time spent on mainline games, and other golf franchises like Everyone’s Golf and Outlaw Golf were favorites growing up. Around the start of Next Fest, I saw this on Twitter. How can I not include Cursed to Golf after such a splendid display?

Quick structure disclaimer: Given this (and all the others) is only a demo, I won’t be too in-depth with my coverage, and will only reflect on the good and the bad. No overly long personal history or filibuster. No nonsense. That said, I will provide a synopsis for the game below.

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Thoughts on Exophobia (Steam Next Fest 2022 Demo)

In recent years, first-person shooters are something of a rarity for me. I’m more fond of things from a scaled-back perspective, allowing me to take on more of an observer role. First-person games tend to be more intimate, and my interest in games has shifted more to empathizing with others rather than indulging in the self. Yet when games like Exophobia pop up on my radar, it’s hard not to want to explore a violent, claustrophobic, sci-fi setting.

Quick structure disclaimer: Given this (and all the others) is only a demo, I won’t be too in-depth with my coverage, and will only reflect on the good and the bad. No overly long personal history or filibuster. No nonsense. That said, I will provide a synopsis for the game below.

Continue reading “Thoughts on Exophobia (Steam Next Fest 2022 Demo)”

Day Thirty: Black Christmas (1974) (March of the Movies 2022)

With this, my Horror quota for the month has been filled. No one can say I didn’t watch anything “scary.” Take that, literally nobody.

My cowardice aside, Black Christmas was something of a choice based on curiosity. I had never heard of it before, and I was convinced that the title was more racially significant than it was thematically. Upon some further research, it seems this is considered a progenitor to the “slasher film” subgenre, which is neat! Even with the threat of many jumpscares afoot, my addiction to analysis overweighed my disdain for BOO!

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Day Sixteen: Don’t Look Up (March of the Movies 2022)

With this entry, I am officially over halfway through the March of the Movies! Should it continue to greet me with films like Don’t Look Up, someone please help me.

From here, I will begin to sprinkle in some Best Picture nominations, leading up until the Oscars itself on the 27th. I already did so earlier with The Power of the Dog; I also intend to watch a few others (but likely won’t watch all of them). So far, I believe two are deserving and now two are not. We’ll see how that changes as time passes.

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Day One: Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (March of the Movies 2022)

What better way to start off this year’s March of the Movies block than with some Godzilla? I love Godzilla! I’ve watched a Godzilla film during March of the Movies every year since 2019! It’s a comfort viewing, really, especially since one can argue that they’re all more or less the same. Like Pokémon or Mega Man or Call of Duty. Now we’ve come to an entry with perhaps the longest name for a Godzilla film ever. Does the film feel as long as its title?

Fortunately, no! Alas, a similar achilles’ heel presents itself, like an ode to the previous film in the franchise’s history.

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Princess Principal (Merry Days of Anime 2021)

Not the best cover image ever, but I’m working with what I have. Princess Principal is something of a long awaited watch, as it’s been on my radar since around the time it began airing. Something about it seems… unique. Why I never watched up to this point may have been because of a number of things—it looked maybe too self-important, top reviews on MyAnimeList didn’t paint it in a great light, etc.

In the spirit of the holidays, I went ahead and gave it a shot. No, that phrasing was not initiated due to the clear pistol present in the cover image.

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Twitch Streamer Shoutout: An Ode to namesmelanie

In the early days, when my curiosity guided the course of new streamers to follow, I would occasionally click into streams where the host didn’t even speak English. Italian, French, Spanish, and in this case Dutch, language barriers did not prevent me from watching gameplay. It was kind of enlightening to be able to sit in with people outside my country and experience the same joy that gaming provides to anyone.

If the mood struck me, I would go to Google Translate and convert a little greeting from English to whatever language applicable, just to let them know I was around. With this particular streamer, something surprising occurred: she started speaking English after I made it apparent that I spoke it. Even more, she spent the entire rest of the stream speaking English so that I could understand. Such consideration was not necessary, yet she took the time to ensure everyone was included.

Introducing namesmelanie. (← Link to her Twitch channel.)

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