After almost a year, Nintendo decided to grace us with a new full Direct, and the first thing that crossed my awfully cute mind was these five words: Breath.of.the.Wild.Two.Please.Gaming.God.Make.It.True.I.Am.Just.A.Fictional.Mascot.But.I.Want.It.So.Bad.
Ok, that was more than five words, but my excitement was honest and my expectations mildly elevated. A BotW2 announcement did not come, but we have a digest for you full of amazing news, from a new Mana game to a tactical RPG made using the Octopath Traveler HD 2D engine. You can find the link below, just before your weekly news.
If you still want to talk Zelda and awesome retro RPGs that are still not available on Switch, don’t forget to join our Discord channel. We are more than just anime and manga and games.
I am Ura, your frustrated-at-Nintendo tour guide in this amazing journey into Japanese pop, geek, and sub culture.
Thank you for joining us.
Nintendo Direct Digest
1
Inside you are two Snakes. They are both gay.
Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files creator Kotaro Uchikoshi bit off more than he could chew when he put it to fans to decide whether or not Snake was gay in a Twitter poll.
The Snake in question was supposed to refer to the character in 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but fans of Metal Gear apparently thought it also referred to the protagonist of that series. Regardless, the results were overwhelming, with over 64% responding ‘Yes’ to Uchikoshi’s poll. Only 5% said ‘No,’ by the way.
Much like David Hayter’s intervention in the iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls general election a couple of years ago, this has spawned a wave of fanart and memes. The hashtag, #snakegay2021, has also picked up significant traction. It’s fun.
‘Camaraderie is what makes fandom, and seeing fans come together to ask whether Snake is gay… it’s funny, and yet also somewhat endearing,’ Alicia Haddick explains. ‘While I joke somewhat, it is great to see fandoms come together and use the moment to find a way to further connect with their favorite characters and series in such a way, and using it as an excuse to create fan art and memes.’
2
Helping out the grassroots.
WIT Studio is partnering with the Sasayuri Video Training Center and Netflix to create their own ‘Animator Academy,’ set to open its doors this April.
Successful applicants will receive as much as ¥150,000 (approx. $1350 USD) per month in living expenses from the streaming giant, alongside ¥600,000 (approx $5,800 USD) worth of tuition from Sasayuri. The main draw, however, is the chance to work at WIT Studio or Production I.G. (WIT’s sister studio) at the end of the six-month period - a dream come true for any aspiring animator.
For Netflix, this is an interesting move as it sees them ‘getting on the ground’ and helping to raise the next generation of animators. As Corey Prasek says, this might offer them an advantage in the future, if they continue to finance anime projects. The generous payouts, however, barely make a dent in the number of animators who struggle to get by due to notoriously low rates.
It’s a positive step forward, but so much remains to be done.
3
A new denpa era.
Eiri Naruse recently graduated from Dempagumi.inc, with five new members joining in her wake. This signals a change in direction for the now 10-person idol group.
Many of the new Dempagumi members are also members of other groups, such as new navy blue member Amasawa Rito (also a member of MEME Tokyo), sky blue Sorano Aozora (ARCANA PROJECT), and orange Takasaki Hina (Niji no Fantasia). In recent years, the group has been far more involved with promoting other, newer groups within idol agency DearStage, so it seems as if this will be emphasized going forward.
Alicia is, however, worried. ‘My fear is that working for two idol groups at once, when being an idol is already exhausting and often grueling work, may be asking too much of these members.’ Naruse was also one of Dempagumi’s longest-standing members, meaning that much of the old guard is now gone.
It’ll be interesting to see how the group develops going forward.
4
Consider investing in children’s card games.
If you’re a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan and have a grand burning a hole in your pocket, then perhaps consider picking up this $1000 framed Blue-Eyes White Dragon card.
Encased in a protective brick of acrylic, this mind-boggling Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game collectible was originally offered as the grand prize at the Duel Links 4th anniversary tournament, but is now available for preorder for the general public. Obviously, you probably don’t want to use this card at an actual tournament, but it might actually be a worthwhile investment.
As James Fujita points out, ‘even “ordinary” Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards are quite rare and valuable, with first-edition cards selling for ridiculous prices. So, that $1,000 price tag for the card might actually be a bargain.’
It could even be a better investment than Dogecoin, depending on your point of view!
5
Stop piracy, for real this time.
The ABJ’s campaign to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of piracy on the manga industry has returned for 2021, boasting an impressive list of collaborators.
Contributing shorts this time around will be Koyoharu Gotouge (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba), Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), Hajime Isayama (Attack on Titan), Gosho Aoyama (Detective Conan), Nobuyuki Fukumoto (Kaiji), Paru Itagaki (BEASTARS), and Chica Umino (March comes in like a lion), to name but a few. Seems like everyone and their dog got invited to take part!
That might not be such a bad thing. While last year’s lineup was fine, it did lack a bit of star power with such names as Akira Akatsuki and Hatomune Tsurun. As Jacob Parker-Dalton notes, ‘if getting Koyoharu Gotouge, author of one of the biggest manga in decades, isn’t enough to get people to sit up and pay attention, I don’t know what is.’
We’ve actually written a handy guide to help you avoid piracy and read manga legally online.
6
A demonic Valentine’s Day to remember.
We thought that the latest set of Demon Slayer Valentine’s Day shorts would bring with it news of a sequel project, but many other announcements were made, too.
Alongside the highly-anticipated Demon Slayer season 2, footage from the upcoming console fighting game was shown for the first time, confirming that it is indeed an arena fighter just like the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series. Nevertheless, it looks pretty cool, and will no doubt prove fun for fans of the series.
With regards to season 2, Alicia pointed out that ‘The success of the film and series has clearly earned the series a bigger budget, as the trailer is rather impressive.’ Furthermore, while changes to the original source material were rumored due to mature content, ‘with the geisha being a root of this issue and being prominent in the trailer, I have to wonder whether that will be the case.’
Still, the spectre of The Promised Neverland season 2 looms large.
7
No WonFes? No problem!
Several figure makers have come together to put on their own event in the absence of Wonder Festival 2021, cancelled due to the pandemic.
Some of the announcements are pretty exciting: a Shimamura Rin Figma from Yuru Camp, a MODEROID AV-0 Peacemaker from Mobile Police Patlabor, and a pair of Reimu and Marisa from the Touhou Project that look very cute together.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that the third generation of Hololive VTubers are all getting Figmas, as they’re virtual characters just like me.
The event is running right now until 23 February. That sounds like quite a long time for a convention, but as James says, ‘it’s all online, so it’s not like they have to reserve a convention hall, set up booths, or make snacks.’ Quite.
8
Big murals for a big series.
Two massive Demon Slayer murals hit the walls of Shibuya station this week, ostensibly to promote the series’ first art book and second fan book.
Taking out such a large amount of space couldn’t have been cheap, but as Corey points out, this might be ‘an investment in future success’ given that the second season is coming soon. Furthermore, with the manga recently surpassing 150 million copies in circulation, money isn’t exactly a big problem!
If you’re in Japan and want to track down these Demon Slayer murals in Shibuya station, then they’re located between exits A-0 and A-1 in the Dogenzaka Happy Board advertisement areas. If you’re not in Japan at the moment, however, then you can look at some good pictures on our website.
9
Aspiring VTubers, your time is now.
Auditions opened last week for the second generation of Hololive English virtual YouTubers, following massive success for the first generation.
Gawr Gura is currently the most-subscribed Hololive member overall and very close to overtaking Kizuna Ai, while Amelia Watson recently became the latest EN personality to hit 1 million. This means that over half of the Hololive English members have over 1 million subs, which is quite an impressive achievement.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Hololive would be keen to open up auditions for the second generation. The question is, however, will male personalities be allowed in this time around? Jacob doesn’t think so: ‘male Hololive streamers are a thing, but they have their own associated agency under the name Holostars. Seeing a male character debut alongside females would, therefore, be unusual.’
Applications are open until 26 March.
10
Creating Mario references galore.
Remember that catchy song from the Super Mario 35th anniversary commercial? The full version is out now, and spoiler alert: it’s fire.
Penned by Japanese pop legend Hoshino Gen, the music video and lyrics for ‘Create’ are absolutely stuffed full of Nintendo easter eggs and references for fans to find. Corey runs down just a few: ‘You have the GameCube start-up sound... Mario’s power-up sound when he grabs a mushroom, the stage clear sound from Super Mario Bros. 3, and various renditions of Super Mario Kart‘s Rainbow Road theme.’ All in all, he counts 23!
It’s arguably a testament to the power of Mario and, indeed, Nintendo as a whole that they were able to convince someone like Hoshino Gen to come aboard for this 35th anniversary project. The sheer number of references within the song, too, show just how much he loves the mustachioed plumber.
One has to wonder what kind of musical talents will be recruited for the Zelda 35th anniversary… A rock band, perhaps?
Video Corner
‘The anime industry has grown a lot in terms of both the shows created and the income it brings in and one of the largest factors in this is the rise of digital streaming, especially Netflix and Amazon, who are known to pay way more than the usual licensing fee to secure original programming. However, it’s often been noted that this money only goes to the largest anime companies like Aniplex, Warner Bros., and Toho, while little makes its way back to the animators themselves. But now it seems Netflix is putting their money where their mouth is, in their first initiative to help out new animators.’
See you next week!
Ura and the OTAQUEST team.
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