The OQ Weekly (1 April 2021) - The 'Ura Is Going to Be a Star' Edition
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Guys… guys.! GUYS!! I AM GOING TO BE A STAR!
I am not kidding you… I am so excited that my eyes are turning into huge purple stars and my headphones are blasting happy tunes made of candy and rainbows.
Ready for the BEST announcement ever?
Get those party horns ready:
I AM GETTING MY OWN ANIME
Who is getting to star in an anime? I am, yessir, thank you very much. It’s a short anime, with just ten three-minute episodes, but it will tell my own personal story and how I came to leave my rural hometown and move to Tokyo to become a star in my own anime. Cool, right?
1 April? What’s wrong with the date? (bouahahahahahah)
If you want to talk about pranks and how I am definitely going to be a big star someday, don’t forget to join our Discord! We talk about more than just anime, manga, and games, too.
I am Ura, your always trendy guide in this amazing journey into Japanese pop, geek, and sub culture.
Thank you for joining us.
1
The game that time forgot.
As luck would have it, just as we dove into the forgotten Serial Experiments Lain tie-in game this week, the whole thing has been made available in English.
That’s thanks to a project called ‘lainTSX,’ which involved recreating the entire PS1 game in WebGL and translating all of the original Japanese text. You can play it on your browser for free right now, marking the first time that the game has ever come overseas: it was never localized at the time of release. The remake exists in a legal grey area, thanks to the fact that Lain is now ‘open source.’
In terms of the game itself, Alicia Haddick describes it as an ‘interesting experiment’ that is ultimately let down by some clunky controls and a dated interface. It also delves a little bit deeper into Lain’s past, who she is, and how she became so dependent on the Wired in a way that the anime does not.
2
Public Service Announcement.
This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill: Pui Pui Molcar is now on Netflix.
Everyone’s favorite stop-motion anime about guinea pigs that are also, um, cars, is now on the world’s biggest streaming service, bringing the viral hit to audiences all around the world. The original twelve episodes have also been combined together to create four, slightly longer installments (the original episodes were only three minutes long) which presumably works better on the platform.
In other Molcar news, director Tomoki Misato has since set up his own production company in collaboration with WIT Studio, recently putting out a stop-motion animated music video for the song ‘Candy Caries.’ We wish Misato all the best, and hope that he gets all of the opportunities in the world going forward, because he deserves it.
3
Magic noodle powder.
Ever wondered what to do with that last bit of soup left at the bottom of a Cup Noodle? Do you drink it and intake an ungodly amount of sodium, or throw it away? Well, Nissin might have the answer.
Introducing: the magic noodle powder! Simply dump this into the bottom of your Cup Noodle and mix it into the leftover soup, and it’ll harden to make it ready for recycling. There are lots of rules when it comes to garbage disposal in Japan, so Cup Noodle enjoyers were once left with the binary option of either drinking the soup or finding some place to dispose of it once they were done. With this powder, however, things have become a lot easier.
Please bear in mind that you cannot eat the solidified soup: it is forbidden soup, made for recycling and not consumption. Don’t come crying to us if you try it out and get an upset stomach!
And no, this is not an April Fools joke: this is deadly serious, so stop laughing.
4
Tokyo Baby-gone.
The unfortunate saga of Tokyo Babylon 2021 continues, as the production committee announced this week that all work had stopped on the series due to further instances of plagiarism.
An apology was already issued late last year as the committee had found some evidence of plagiarism in the character and costume designs, but more has since been uncovered. In an official statement, the production committee said, ‘As a result of repeated discussions within the production committee, we have decided that it is impossible to continue production due to the lack of trust with the current production company.’ The work will start again from scratch somewhere new.
This might be a blessing in disguise, because production studio GoHands is notorious for producing some of the most baffling affronts to animation in recent memory. Their usage of 3D environments and over-the-top character designs, in particular, has grown increasingly egregious ever since K in 2012. CLAMP’s original manga, meanwhile, is beloved, and more than deserves a proper adaptation.
Here’s hoping that it finds a better home.
5
To doujinshi or not to doujinshi?
That is the question: Hololive virtual YouTubers Sakura Miko and Houshou Marine certainly got in trouble for doing the former, sparking a debate about the rights of doujin creators.
Put very simply, the two personalities read a Mobile Suit Gundam doujinshi live on stream as a bit of a prank. This prompted a response from the original creator, given that they mocked it, misrepresented the pairing, and didn't ask for permission. Eventually, apologies were issued and the video was taken down.
As Jacob Parker-Dalton says, ‘All of this is unfortunate, and doesn’t reflect well at all on the creators or their parent company, Hololive… it’s good that the video has been taken down, but it needs to be said: doujinshi artists are artists too, and deserve to be respected.’
Don’t attack the original artist for speaking out, obviously.
6
A piece of blue glass moon.
Fans of the Fate studio TYPE-MOON felt very spoiled this week as not one, but two new games were announced for release.
These include the long-awaited Tsukihime remake, as well as a surprise sequel to the 2002 doujin fighter Melty Blood, titled Type Lumina. Both feel like a bit of a miracle, even if the Tsukihime remake will only contain two out of five routes from the original game. Many of us thought that TYPE-MOON was only interested in Fate/Grand Order these days.
On Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Chris Cimi says ‘Seeing a real, built-from-the-ground-up Melty Blood sequel from its original developers now feels like a miracle.’ On Tsukihime, Jacob says ‘The changes made to the original game are... tied to Nasu’s own experiences and evolution as a creator, but it still does feel like a bit of a kick in the teeth to wait so long for the Tsukihime remake and only get half of it.’
Both will release this year.
7
Manga we want to see animated.
Every year, AnimeJapan holds a public survey asking fans which manga they would most like to see animated. This year, a very deserving work came out on top.
That was Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu (published in English as The Dangers in My Heart), which has taken Jacob’s heart on account of a ‘unique central relationship’ and that it ‘doesn’t waste any time in bringing them closer.’ It’ll be available in English from Seven Seas this July.
Other series featured in the ranking were Solo Leveling by Chugong and Dubu (Redice Studio) at number two, Senpai wa Otokonoko by Pom at number three, and Oujisama to Neko by Umi Sakurai at number four. SPY x FAMILY got a bit of a downgrade from number two last year to number six this time around, while Komi Can’t Communiate’s placement at number eight begs the question of why it doesn't have an anime yet.
You can see the full results here.
8
Fighting over best bouts.
My Hero Academia recently held a public poll to decide what is the series’ best fight once and for all, and the results are surprisingly reasonable.
Usually, these sorts of things are marred by recency bias and don’t always reflect the actual quality of what’s up for debate, but no sane fan of the superhero series could possibly argue that Bakugo and Deku’s rematch from season three didn’t deserve the crown, because it obviously did.
At least, Jacob seems to think so: ‘Indeed, even looking back at it now, Yutaka Nakamura has never really animated anything as good as that flying roundhouse kick.’ It got high praise in our earlier piece analyzing how Studio BONES brought key moments from the manga to life. Deku vs. Todoroki from season two came in at number two, by the way, along with Endeavor/Hawks vs. Nomu High End at number three (season four).
9
Attack on automobile?
To celebrate the anime and manga of Attack on Titan coming to an end, Hajime Isayama’s series has teamed up with Mercedes Benz for a car.
Yeah, um, an Attack on Titan car. Not sure why you would want to drive that, but the design is just about what you’d expect: key panels from the manga made into custom decals. Luckily, these cars aren’t available for the public to purchase, instead being displayed at a variety of Mercedes stores across Japan. There’s also a themed menu, bizarrely.
Corey Prasek is right when he says that ‘the series has done Snickers, laundry detergent, and been part of a UNIQLO x Weekly Shonen Magazine collaboration… so, why not?’ But on that day, humanity received a grim reminder that just about anything can be combined with a popular series to make a collaboration product.
10
Monster hunting holiday.
Last week was Monster Hunter week, as the latest entry in the long-running franchise Rise launched for the Nintendo Switch. Mark-On bit the bullet and gave the entire company the day off.
This is probably because they knew that many of their employees would coincidentally get sick on this very special day, or that so many of them would have booked it off that they couldn’t get anything done anyway. As a result, company CEO Jack Masaki declared 26 March to be a ‘Monster Hunter holiday’ and gave all of his employees the day off, whether they were getting the game or not!
It’s worth noting that Mark-On is a tech company specializing in VR and AR, so they are pretty well-versed in nerd culture. Other companies would do well, however, to follow suit: you can’t expect Japanese people to concentrate at work when there’s a new Monster Hunter out. That’s just preposterous!
Now where did I put my Switch...
Video Corner
Usually, for Anime Japan, the team at OTAQUEST would descend upon Odaiba, separating into strike teams, translating and writing up all of the new information to come from the Japanese anime industry. But obviously, COVID has made this a very different world, which can be a little unexciting. There’s usually these big setups, where you can see models, and trailers, and artwork and it’s fun to see them make a big show of it. But the advantage this year is that now we can keep track of the announcements online.
See you next week!
Ura and the OTAQUEST team.
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