I said earlier that Asian live action media's reputation for cheesy special effects is starting to wear thin. The increasingly popular realm of dramas has given story-tellers even more room to play. The Asian market doesn't seem to shy from the sci-fi and fantasy areas like the American market, so live action has seen a lot more of it lately. Nevertheless, I still find myself a little embarrassed on behalf of some shows I adore, because I really wish they could look better.
On the other hand--while dramas have started to fill the role of cheesy practice fodder for special effects and stunt artists--Asian movies seem to have taken the next step. (The same thing happens in economics all the time. someone has to fill the bottom rung, but no one wants to stay there forever.) In the same way that I didn't want to watch dramas based on my favorite anime series, I wanted to watch live action movies even less.
In the American market, a comic book, video game, or novel being made into a movie used to mean someone wanted to exploit something vaguely popular for a quick and dirty script idea. For a good part, it still does. There are some exceptions, like Marvel and the newer Batman movies. As for anime, I liked Speed Racer, but it was crucified before it could even hit the screens, and I don't think I need to talk about Dragon Ball Z. Astro Boy was still marketed to kids.
For a long time, I had forgotten that the Asian media market is different. Comics and novels are not an underground, they are auditions. A successful story is usually a manga (comic) or a novel first. If it is popular or seen in the right light it may become an anime (cartoon) (a novel may become a manga and then an anime). A successful anime is likely to sprout all kinds of media like video games, drama, audio drama, side stories in novels and manga, and perhaps even a feature length animated movie or live action movie.*
*this hierarchy is rather squishy and has gotten more so recently. rungs may be skipped or inverted but the old order was always (novel =>) manga => anime =< video game, audio drama, drama, movie. Video games seem to break this order more frequently, as popular video games will often become anime then manga.
Despite this knowledge, my preconception was still that live action adaptations of my favorite comics, video games, and anime were little more than insults to the fans as our beloved fiction was stripped, whipped, and sent out to dance for the masses. So long have geeks and our fandoms been ridiculed and abused that we've learned to instinctually horde them in dark holes and often crawl in after them ourselves. Whenever "normal" people handle them it feels like our dark secrets and precious treasures are being hung on display and held hostage awaiting approval. We feel naked and don't know what's going to happen.
As "geek" culture becomes more popular, this is less dramatic. It now feel more like reckless mishandling of unearthed artifacts than a brutal attack on our lairs and souls, but the defense mechanism is the same: we fear and hate it... and we still feel naked. Whether it's accurate or not, whether they like it or hate it, we've still lost our
shield: their ignorance. Before if we said " I like D&D or Dragon Ball, they would wrinkle their nose and say "never heard of it." Now they think they have some idea of what it is. they can attack us for it, or pretend they understand us. More often than not, even if they like it, they still don't understand it like we do. And sometimes that's worse.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: being a geek isn't about WHAT you like, it's about HOW you like it. There are anime fans that are not geeks, just as there are rock-and-roll or baseball geeks. There are gamers and people who play games.
Whatever the case, when I found the Rurouni Kenshin movie, I couldn't resist. When you enter a franchise that is that popular and beloved, particularly for BEING GOOD, if you don't make it up to par, you will be crucified. While the prequel to this article says we should be able to make things even if they aren't done well, I reserve also that some things just should no be touched unless you are going to do it right. An established series is one of them.
I needn't have feared. The Rurouni Kenshin live action movie was not only an acceptable addition to the series, it was actually a GOOD movie. Some of it was a little ridiculous in that "you can totally tell this was meant to be an anime" but none of it left me with the feeling that "they should have just left it as an anime." It's not only started assuage my fears about live action fantasy and anime adaptations, it actually makes me look forward to more. While Kenshin is not the most magical of series, it does involve a lot of magic-like movement, which was handled very well.
Dramas may not have the money for it yet (or the techniques are still very expensive), but movies are really getting into shape. After all, movies are about 2-hours long, where a drama averages between 10 and 25 episodes (resulting in about as many hours of aired footage). And for that long, it seems Asian productions at least have learned to balance good dramatic technique and flashy filming extras.
That established, I'm finally going to dare to say this in a public forum with little fear of being cursed by Murphy. I first realized it-- believe it or not-- while watching The Dark Knight Rises with my friend, but it's come up since then, particularly with the news that Sony Pictures has bothered to copyright some appropriate titles.*
Devil May Cry the live action movie needs to be a thing.
It doesn't need to be a thing like Dragon Ball Z: Evolution was a thing. It needs to be a thing like Ruroni Kenshin the live action film was a thing. DMC is, after all, nothing if not fan service. It's definitely one of those things that should not be done if not to be done right. Not because it's an established series, but because it's the sort of thing that you only get one crack at. It's either done right and the right people like it, or it's done wrong and no one will ever touch it again.
So while I'm less fearful, and even eager to so more in this live action format (the pretty actors doesn't hurt this desire), I'm still guarded about it. What has been seen can not be unseen.
*I will not say anything about the Reboot here. that's a rant for a different time. Probably for after I play it. And while, yes, the preemptive copyrighting is probably for the later version of dmc, rather than the former, it did bring the issue back to mind.
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
"This show knows exactly what it is."
Hey, long time no see. As if I'd see anyone around here anyway. I really should be doing other things right now, but I rambled this out a few days ago and felt like procrastinating, so it's going here.
~
I frequently use the description that a show/book/game ((from here on I'll reference a "show")) "knows [exactly] what it is." It's a quality that's difficult to define as the it involves first, the circular notion that something "is what it is." But it is pretty recognizable in my book, with a little training. Generally, this kind of show holds a quality of being cliche and/or shameless, but does so in just the right way. It's cliches then become a reason-- if not the main reason-- for liking it. It also may exhibit some genre-savvy and, in more comedic moments, even reference itself as such in a 4th-wall breaking way. This kind of show was created, not to be profound or original or push boundaries, but to be very good at "what it is." It ends up excelling at being a confident genre piece and tends to leave a bit of room for thought by the time it's finished. In a sense, if the show were personified, it would have very high, but modest, self-confidence and would strut the world being itself for all it's worth-- and possibly more.
More often than not, this statement has more to do with characters and writing than production quality, but it shows all the more if the production is good, too. Generally if a show "knows what it is," it's a sign that the production staff knows "what it is" and have consequently put forth the effort to make it the best "what it is" that the show can be.
I think it was first used in my circle ((I think I got the description from one of my friends)) to describe Devil May Cry (game/anime/manga/novel/etc., 2001-present) and Star Driver (anime, 2010). It applies to things like Highlander (movie/TV/anime, 1986-2007), Firefly (TV, 2002-2003), and Slayers (anime, 1995-2009). I've most recently used it on Bloody Monday (J-Drama, 2008, 2010). I think it can also apply to Mackerel Run (K-Drama, 2007) on the writing and production end, but from the politics surrounding the show and some signs that it may have been prematurely cut, it seems that the marketing and producers themselves weren't quite sure what they were dealing with. Mackerel Run is also an example that something doesn't have to be flashy or expensive to show it's colors.
Faith (a.k.a. "신의" [Shinui] or "The Great Doctor," K-Drama, 2012) could almost be described this way, however, as a bit of a counter example. Sometimes it knew, and sometimes it didn't. Overall, it either didn't really know that it was "what it was" or didn't want to be "what it was," and lost steam. "What it was," was a video game/anime-like piece of period fantasy; what it wanted to be, was a time traveling love story. One of the reviews on MyDramaList.com states, rather accurately, that Faith "doesn't seem to know how good it is." It could have been an awesome, super-powered fantasy with political intrigue. It didn't quite seem to have the courage for that. In other words, the show didn't want to be itself. Don't get me wrong; it was still pretty good. But often the most disappointing things are those that were good enough that you know they could have been better. I loved it anyway; if not for what it was, what it could have been... and Choi Young.
In my book, a show "knowing what it is" is a good-- nay, EXCELLENT quality. It is a point of high praise. However, these pieces tend to have cult followings, and may be very prone to developing anti-fans, probably most often because of their genre specificity and cliche-ness. I understand this type of show is not for everyone, but more often than not, it's what I look for these days.
~
I frequently use the description that a show/book/game ((from here on I'll reference a "show")) "knows [exactly] what it is." It's a quality that's difficult to define as the it involves first, the circular notion that something "is what it is." But it is pretty recognizable in my book, with a little training. Generally, this kind of show holds a quality of being cliche and/or shameless, but does so in just the right way. It's cliches then become a reason-- if not the main reason-- for liking it. It also may exhibit some genre-savvy and, in more comedic moments, even reference itself as such in a 4th-wall breaking way. This kind of show was created, not to be profound or original or push boundaries, but to be very good at "what it is." It ends up excelling at being a confident genre piece and tends to leave a bit of room for thought by the time it's finished. In a sense, if the show were personified, it would have very high, but modest, self-confidence and would strut the world being itself for all it's worth-- and possibly more.
More often than not, this statement has more to do with characters and writing than production quality, but it shows all the more if the production is good, too. Generally if a show "knows what it is," it's a sign that the production staff knows "what it is" and have consequently put forth the effort to make it the best "what it is" that the show can be.
I think it was first used in my circle ((I think I got the description from one of my friends)) to describe Devil May Cry (game/anime/manga/novel/etc., 2001-present) and Star Driver (anime, 2010). It applies to things like Highlander (movie/TV/anime, 1986-2007), Firefly (TV, 2002-2003), and Slayers (anime, 1995-2009). I've most recently used it on Bloody Monday (J-Drama, 2008, 2010). I think it can also apply to Mackerel Run (K-Drama, 2007) on the writing and production end, but from the politics surrounding the show and some signs that it may have been prematurely cut, it seems that the marketing and producers themselves weren't quite sure what they were dealing with. Mackerel Run is also an example that something doesn't have to be flashy or expensive to show it's colors.
Faith (a.k.a. "신의" [Shinui] or "The Great Doctor," K-Drama, 2012) could almost be described this way, however, as a bit of a counter example. Sometimes it knew, and sometimes it didn't. Overall, it either didn't really know that it was "what it was" or didn't want to be "what it was," and lost steam. "What it was," was a video game/anime-like piece of period fantasy; what it wanted to be, was a time traveling love story. One of the reviews on MyDramaList.com states, rather accurately, that Faith "doesn't seem to know how good it is." It could have been an awesome, super-powered fantasy with political intrigue. It didn't quite seem to have the courage for that. In other words, the show didn't want to be itself. Don't get me wrong; it was still pretty good. But often the most disappointing things are those that were good enough that you know they could have been better. I loved it anyway; if not for what it was, what it could have been... and Choi Young.
In my book, a show "knowing what it is" is a good-- nay, EXCELLENT quality. It is a point of high praise. However, these pieces tend to have cult followings, and may be very prone to developing anti-fans, probably most often because of their genre specificity and cliche-ness. I understand this type of show is not for everyone, but more often than not, it's what I look for these days.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Kratos ga Taosenai... Just kidding, We kicked his a--
about the title: "Kratos ga Taosenai" is "I can't beat Kratos" in Japanese. It's a reference to a song called "Airman ga Taosenai" meaning, similarly, "I can't beat Airman," which is lamenting about a particularly difficult boss in the Megaman series. There is also an English rendition called "I can't Defeat Air-Man."
Kratos Aurion. Possibly one of the most EPIC characters in video game history. I mean that both literally and figuratively. He is both awesome, and belongs to a class of character highly consistent with those in epic stories. But then, when the official tagline of the game is "The epic battle for survival" you SHOULD follow an epic structure; Tales of Symphonia has NO problem with this.
Those familiar with the game, aka, having played it, you will be able to understand the significance of this post's title instantly. For those who are less familiar or have no clue what I'm talking about, yes Kratos is a party member*. No, that does not mean you won't have multiple opportunities to fight him. As an older, more experienced adventurer, he quickly becomes a mentor figure, and perhaps even more depending on how you play and how you interpret his character. At the same time, as a mercenary and the only other swordsman the main character has met, he is easily identified as a possible rival.
At multiple points in the game, you have the option, and often obligation, to fight him. Very few of these fights are you expected, or even REQUIRED to win. That's how bada__ this character is as a boss. Strong melee fighter, ridiculously fast at casting spells, and nearly impossible to interrupt. Generally your best tactic is to split up the party so he doesn't kill you all in one go, and try to hang on for dear life long enough to see some of his cooler moves before he slaughters you.
One of his more threatening moves, the bane of my existence, is a spell called "grave" (an earth spell summoning forth spikes of rocky death, not unlike FMA). It was a particular favorite of the AI that one day I had to fight him, like, six times. Go into overlimit so I can't interrupt him, cast "grave," knock me down with said "grave," and start casting "grave" again while I struggle to get up. I HATE grave. Plus, it makes me sick to think that he's using it to kill me before I can use it to kill things playing AS him.
However, as difficult as it is, Kratos IS beatable EVERY time you fight him. Last night my friend and I, on a FIRST playthrough might I add, actually defeated him. It wasn't the first time we fought that battle, but we went back a few times. Once or twice because we didn't think we'd put up a good enough fight, and once for some serious sidequesting. By the the time we got back from tracking down long lost parents, visiting graves (real graves, not the spell), helping children find their mothers, and saving princesses, we finally settled down to fight this guy, well and prepared.
We decided our goal was to get off one good Unison Attack, one which we'd built to use an attack we usually used him for (Cross Thrust, for those who know the game), and my own goal was to get off as many GRAVES as possible with our other characters capable of the spell. If we were gonna get our a__es handed to us, we were going to put up the most ironic fight ever. After all, our most commonly used characters are Lloyd (mostly her character) and Zelos (mostly mine), and my friend is a role-player (she actually went to an in-game amusement park simply to "cheer up" one of our characters she felt was depressed by recent events). Lloyd would go down fighting and Zelos only fights in style, so that's how we were gonna do it.
Being the SPEED DEMON on the field he is, Lloyd managed to reach Kratos and perform our first Unison Attack fast enough to cut off Kratos's most powerful spell in the middle. It turns out, the AI opens this battle with that spell and only uses it once. This is a good thing because that spell would have taken half our hit points within, literally the first 5 seconds of the battle. After a bit of walloping on Lloyd's part, I got off Zelos's grave spell; we were pretty happy. Though we kept taking a beating, we continued to do well.
After a bit we started using items and even life bottles (the equivalent of phoenix down). As I went to the item menu one more time, I asked her, "how much are we trying to win this?" It was then that we decided we had used too many items to not go all the way, so I pulled out our secret weapon, "all-divide."
All-divide is a classic Tales boss item. You only get about 2 or 3 a game, so use them well. They cut damage done to anything on the field in half, friend or foe. Why would you do that? Healing isn't halved, only damage. This version of Boss Kratos doesn't heal himself, but we can. We have four damage-dealing characters and he has one. Essentially, if you're going to be whittling away at his 20,000+ hit points, make sure you can survive long enough to do it.
Before long, we were doing well enough to use a magic lens and see he had about 2500 HP left. This fight was in the bag. Over all, we got off about 3 Unison Attacks and a fair number of graves. Oh yeah, and kicked his a__.
The four-and-a-half minute boss fight yielded, literally, over 9000 EXP (XP, experience points), a few choice items, including a level 4 ExSphere, and +2.72 grade. Three of the four party members on the field leveled up. Oh, and Kratos's data in our bestiary. Again, for those unfamiliar with the game, those are good spoils. Plus, the bragging rights of having defeated Kratos as relatively inexperienced gamers on a first playthrough**, that is, no "new game plus" where most people pull these kind of stunts.
No, the fight isn't as hard as your first one with him, or some other battles, but we still feel pretty good about it. And, since my friend in a writer and a RP gamer, she even decided our defeat of Kratos filled in a few subsequent plot holes. Overall, not a bad night.
~singing~I can't defeat… Kra-atos. No matter how I try to dodge of his lightning he just graves me again. Every time. Somehow, every time I lose. ~hums "I Can't Defeat Air-Man"~
*For those even less familiar with video games, that means he is a playable character. He's in your party. You get to play as him. From a literary standpoint, "party members" would be considered a protagonists or allies.
**I say "a first playthrough" rather than "our first playthrough" because I have played the game before, but I don't have the data, so i don't have "new game plus" for it.
Kratos Aurion. Possibly one of the most EPIC characters in video game history. I mean that both literally and figuratively. He is both awesome, and belongs to a class of character highly consistent with those in epic stories. But then, when the official tagline of the game is "The epic battle for survival" you SHOULD follow an epic structure; Tales of Symphonia has NO problem with this.
Those familiar with the game, aka, having played it, you will be able to understand the significance of this post's title instantly. For those who are less familiar or have no clue what I'm talking about, yes Kratos is a party member*. No, that does not mean you won't have multiple opportunities to fight him. As an older, more experienced adventurer, he quickly becomes a mentor figure, and perhaps even more depending on how you play and how you interpret his character. At the same time, as a mercenary and the only other swordsman the main character has met, he is easily identified as a possible rival.
At multiple points in the game, you have the option, and often obligation, to fight him. Very few of these fights are you expected, or even REQUIRED to win. That's how bada__ this character is as a boss. Strong melee fighter, ridiculously fast at casting spells, and nearly impossible to interrupt. Generally your best tactic is to split up the party so he doesn't kill you all in one go, and try to hang on for dear life long enough to see some of his cooler moves before he slaughters you.
One of his more threatening moves, the bane of my existence, is a spell called "grave" (an earth spell summoning forth spikes of rocky death, not unlike FMA). It was a particular favorite of the AI that one day I had to fight him, like, six times. Go into overlimit so I can't interrupt him, cast "grave," knock me down with said "grave," and start casting "grave" again while I struggle to get up. I HATE grave. Plus, it makes me sick to think that he's using it to kill me before I can use it to kill things playing AS him.
However, as difficult as it is, Kratos IS beatable EVERY time you fight him. Last night my friend and I, on a FIRST playthrough might I add, actually defeated him. It wasn't the first time we fought that battle, but we went back a few times. Once or twice because we didn't think we'd put up a good enough fight, and once for some serious sidequesting. By the the time we got back from tracking down long lost parents, visiting graves (real graves, not the spell), helping children find their mothers, and saving princesses, we finally settled down to fight this guy, well and prepared.
We decided our goal was to get off one good Unison Attack, one which we'd built to use an attack we usually used him for (Cross Thrust, for those who know the game), and my own goal was to get off as many GRAVES as possible with our other characters capable of the spell. If we were gonna get our a__es handed to us, we were going to put up the most ironic fight ever. After all, our most commonly used characters are Lloyd (mostly her character) and Zelos (mostly mine), and my friend is a role-player (she actually went to an in-game amusement park simply to "cheer up" one of our characters she felt was depressed by recent events). Lloyd would go down fighting and Zelos only fights in style, so that's how we were gonna do it.
Being the SPEED DEMON on the field he is, Lloyd managed to reach Kratos and perform our first Unison Attack fast enough to cut off Kratos's most powerful spell in the middle. It turns out, the AI opens this battle with that spell and only uses it once. This is a good thing because that spell would have taken half our hit points within, literally the first 5 seconds of the battle. After a bit of walloping on Lloyd's part, I got off Zelos's grave spell; we were pretty happy. Though we kept taking a beating, we continued to do well.
After a bit we started using items and even life bottles (the equivalent of phoenix down). As I went to the item menu one more time, I asked her, "how much are we trying to win this?" It was then that we decided we had used too many items to not go all the way, so I pulled out our secret weapon, "all-divide."
All-divide is a classic Tales boss item. You only get about 2 or 3 a game, so use them well. They cut damage done to anything on the field in half, friend or foe. Why would you do that? Healing isn't halved, only damage. This version of Boss Kratos doesn't heal himself, but we can. We have four damage-dealing characters and he has one. Essentially, if you're going to be whittling away at his 20,000+ hit points, make sure you can survive long enough to do it.
Before long, we were doing well enough to use a magic lens and see he had about 2500 HP left. This fight was in the bag. Over all, we got off about 3 Unison Attacks and a fair number of graves. Oh yeah, and kicked his a__.
The four-and-a-half minute boss fight yielded, literally, over 9000 EXP (XP, experience points), a few choice items, including a level 4 ExSphere, and +2.72 grade. Three of the four party members on the field leveled up. Oh, and Kratos's data in our bestiary. Again, for those unfamiliar with the game, those are good spoils. Plus, the bragging rights of having defeated Kratos as relatively inexperienced gamers on a first playthrough**, that is, no "new game plus" where most people pull these kind of stunts.
No, the fight isn't as hard as your first one with him, or some other battles, but we still feel pretty good about it. And, since my friend in a writer and a RP gamer, she even decided our defeat of Kratos filled in a few subsequent plot holes. Overall, not a bad night.
~singing~I can't defeat… Kra-atos. No matter how I try to dodge of his lightning he just graves me again. Every time. Somehow, every time I lose. ~hums "I Can't Defeat Air-Man"~
*For those even less familiar with video games, that means he is a playable character. He's in your party. You get to play as him. From a literary standpoint, "party members" would be considered a protagonists or allies.
**I say "a first playthrough" rather than "our first playthrough" because I have played the game before, but I don't have the data, so i don't have "new game plus" for it.
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