Category: Editorials

The Speakeasy #028: The Portal Two – A Talk About Sequels, Re-tellings, and Extended Universes

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Drink #028: The Portal Two
A Talk About Sequels, Re-tellings,
and Extended Universes

Inspired by the new season of shows that include a new Lupin III, more Eureka Seven, and newbie-friendly Saint Seiya, we jump into a discussion about anime which expand their settings or characters over time. Not every series is written in a way to extend it into an ongoing franchise so when a series is ridiculously popular the creators usually have to work some major mojo to be able to create new material. The simplest way it to create a sequel or a prequel but you can’t always do that especially when a story has a very hard beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes they must find a way to retell the same story with a new twist. Other times they explore different parts of the universe they created away from or only tangentially related to the original story. This podcast focuses on what works and what does not when you expand on a story. Also we give our secret wish list to what stories we would love to see more of.

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And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

The Portal Two

  • Blue Curacao
  • Vodka Lemonade 
  • Cointreau Rum 
  • Orangina

“This drink is, of course, designed to resemble the two coloured portals from the excellent sci-fi puzzle game. For the blue version, get a small tumbler and pour in 10ml of Blue Curacao, 10ml of vodka and top up with lemonade. For orange you’ll need another tumbler, this time filled with 10ml of Cointreau, 10ml of rum and Orangina. If you fancy, you can jazz the glasses up with coloured sugar rims. Simply pour some sugar into a sandwich bag with the relevant food colouring, shake them up, pour the resulting mix into a dish and dip your tumbler in. “You can mix the portals together if you like,” says James. “It’s a very orangey flavour, which we thought tied in with The Orange Box, the compilation in which the original Portal appeared.”

REPOST: Shin Christmas Carol Z!

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You may be wondering why I am posting a Christmas article in the middle of April. The truth of the matter is that up until last week this was a lost Reverse Thieves post. Back in March of 2010 we changed servers for the blog. All in all it was a rather smooth transition. There were a few hiccups with links and pictures but within a few days most everything was back online with one exception. For some reason, the Shin Christmas Carol Z post was lost in the shuffle and I did not notice it until months later which was long after our original host deleted anything to do with the blog on our first server. As much as I tried, I could not find a back up of this post and so it seemed it was gone for good . . . until just a few days ago. I randomly thought to try Internet Archive and see if it had any traces of the post. And lo and behold this post was resurrected from its untimely demise. So if you have never read this post or you would like to read it again you can now bask in all of its glory.

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Tampering with the Polling Figures

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Narutaki recently found an article about a poll that the figure company Good Smile is running to see what characters people are interested in seeing represented in their various product lines for their 10th anniversary. Since Nartuaki and I are big toy fans I figured that we might as well use this as an opportunity to muse on what we would like to see made into figures.

I have to say even as Saber Fan #1 I am very disappointing that Saber Lily is the number one choice. No matter what the form they will always continue to make new Saber figures. They have made everything from dozens of figures of the King of Knights in a bikini to Saber in a Lion costume. As someone who contributes to this phenomenon I can assure you that you never have to worry about them not releasing some new form of Saber figure.

This is an opportunity to show Good Smile what niches are going untapped. This is a chance to be bold and innovative. No wisdom or glory is gained by explaining what someone already understands. So we each made a list of 5 characters that don’t get enough love when it comes to toys.

While I’m not nearly the figure collector Hisui is, I’m starting to get a good collection going. That being the case, I never pass up a chance to have my opinions heard on what I want made, even if it is a long shot to actually happening. Also while the figure market for male characters has grown in recent years, there is still a sever lack of them!

I am a big fan of the cute and goofy Nendoroid line from Good Smile Company, so all my requests are for Nendoroids. In fact, in some cases I’m requesting a whole new theme for them to take on with my pick as the one I’d like to see most. And some of Hisui’s ideas on the list are ones I would totally get behind as well.

Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun from Slayers [Nendoroid]

Without a doubt Amelia is my favorite character from Slayers. Since Lina is the main character of the series she undoubtedly gets the lion’s share of the merchandise, and Naga gets attention for two extremely obvious reasons, but sadly Amelia largely goes unnoticed. But with the recent resurgence of Slayers merchandise including a Gourry figure maybe all the secondary Slayers characters will get some attention. It would be nice to see the dynamic duo that is Amelia and Zelgadis finally get their time in the spotlight. While a totally candy land suggestion I would also like a Martina figure but I know the difference between unlikely and nearly impossible.

Black Jack from Black Jack [Nendoroid]

More classic figures is a simple suggestion which I think would be popular. The first in the line might not be Black Jack, but that is certainly my request when thinking about Tezuka’s iconic characters. And his simple designs would translate well to the big-headed form of the Nendoroid. Alternate body/head should include surgical hat and mask with accessories for surgery, and let’s throw in a Pinoko for good measure.

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