Category: Reviews

Urusei Yatsura: The Triumphant Return of Some Terrible Bastards

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hisui_icon_4040_round I have to say I’m glad that there are still anime and manga licenses that can surprise me. Despite the number of crazy anime licenses (that are not Macross) that have been announced there is still about one a year that pleasantly surprises me. The one for 2018 was the fact that Viz said they were going to try and release the Urusei Yatsura manga again despite dropping the license twice before. I was generally content with the anime release from AnimEigo from a few years back but I can’t say I was not at least something secretly hoping for a full release of the manga even if it felt highly unlikely. So I was a bit blindsided in the best possible way by the news and have been waiting for the new and improved books ever since then.

This post is less of a review and more of my observations on the first volume. Like with some of my Type-Moon posts none of what I would write would even remotely be considered objective or measured. This has always been a series that I loved and was very important to my early hardcore fandom so to say I look upon this book with rose-colored glasses is putting it kindly. If anything think of this as a look into the thoughts of a super fan.
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Promare: Studio Trigger Yelling – The Movie

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hisui_icon_4040_round I really wanted to name this Promare: Gainax Studio Trigger Yelling – The Movie but I was a bit too lazy to figure out how to add strike-through into the post’s title. I’m trying to get back on a slightly more consistent posting schedule so I’m avoiding doing anything to give myself extra work.

If you remember a REALLY old podcast on the blog we once talked about the unusual reputation that Studio Gainax had. It seemed there was a time where the studio was able to avoid an odd amount of criticism and have its hits be more forward-facing than its flops. It had its share of detractors and more nuanced analysis but it was a bit of a fandom darling when we recorded that podcast. Since that time they have fallen far from the limelight and they are as mortal as any other studio. The thing is Studio Trigger has sort of picked up that legacy thanks to many of its foundational members being former Gainax staff. I feel like for better and for worse at this point Studio Trigger had inherited much of the old Gainax position. They have the eyes and hearts of a specific part of fandom either waiting for their next work with bated breath or watching to see them fail.

The thing is despite all their ups and downs when Gainax did a film you knew you were in for a treat. The movie itself might not have been your cup of tea but it is going to be a wonderful spectacle with amazing animation and spectacular production. With this being Studio Trigger’s first full-length film it was interesting to see if they would also revive this part of the Gainax tradition. The movie feels very Studio Trigger so the only question is would it stand beside their more beloved works or would it rank alongside their more disappointing productions.

This is an extremely random note but I just wanted to note that I was writing this right after watching the Downton Abbey movie. I would not say that Downton Abbey and Promare and diametric opposites from each other but you would be fairly hard-pressed to find two movies that are as dissimilar from each other. It really has nothing to do with anything I just thought it was funny enough to share.

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Fate/Extella LINK: You Lied To Me ELO

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hisui_icon_4040_round I was told by the Electric Light Orchestra song Twilight (An otaku classic thanks to the Daicon IV opening animation) that, “It’s either real or it’s a dream. There’s nothing that is in between.” Fate/Extella LINK clear proves that statement is completely false. Just when you think you could believe in English rock bands you find out that you can’t really trust anyone.

I have seen more and more anime games following the Musou game formula. Overall it is a decent fit for any anime series that has a large cast of mostly combat capable characters. It has a simple framework where you can plug in a huge cast of character without having to worry too much about balancing them like you would in a fighting game. The games generally have a low bar for entry so they can get a wide variety of players although you might turn away hardcore gamers as they often can be rather mindless especially at lower difficulty levels. They are the sort of the game you put out when you want to put out a game but you don’t want to try too hard. They are more work than say an endless runner but hardly the complexity of an original RPG.

As I mentioned in my two part review of the original Fate/Extella while the Fate/Extra games did fairly well the studio making them went under. This was before the days of Grand Order to give a home to any and all Fate Servants so Type-Moon needed a way to capitalize on the overwhelming success of new Servants like Nero and Tamamo. If nothing else Takashi Takeuchi has always been the sort of guy who has been able to ride a popular wave when he finds one. So Type-Moon teamed up with the publisher Marvelous games again and took the story of the odd rock paper scissors based RPG of Fate/Extra and moved it into a Musou game framework.

Fate/Extella did very well so it only made sense to follow up on that success. Fate/Extella LINK basically continues the story of Fate/Extella while improving some rough game play, adding more playable Servants, and introducing two new Servants.

Since it is my duty to talk about everything and anything Type-Moon related I figured I would talk about the value of this game to Fate Fanatics. I’m going to spoil a major plot point about Charlemagne in this review as it lets me talk about a major element of the game. If you just want my overall opinion the game is an improvement but still very much more of the same. The plot is more of an important side story than a true Fate/Extella 2. The game is good but not essential.

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