Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

Outside of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo is known for helping produce and direct compilation animé films, such as; Neo Tokyo, Robot Carnival and Memories, his most recent endeavour being ‘Short Peace’, a collection of animé shorts featuring other directors as well as himself.

In the UK, this has been released as part of a package along with Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day by Suda 51, a side-scrolling, action game by the same company that brought us that wonderful gem Killer is Dead, which I loved so much.

The animé has 4 stories, the first of which, ‘Possessions’, was nominated for the Best Animated Short at the Oscars this year, concerns everyday Japanese objects which have become possessed with spirits after years of neglect and a lost seamstress who happens upon them. The art style is bold and defined, with lots of Japanese folklore effused in the story and animation. Probably the oddest and most unique, the surreal depictions and sound design are the obvious indicators for its acclaim.

Also inspired heavily by Japanese culture is ‘Combustible’, a tale of a geisha whose sweetheart leaves to become a fireman, the art style is reminiscent of Ancient Japanese art, with cream, black hues and an isometric angle in most scenes. This is probably the most beautiful of the shorts and also the shortest, the abruptness and lack of immersion, not having enough time for the story to become attached, make it somewhat frustrating.

The PEGI-16 rating this collection carries is clearly certified in mind of ‘Gambo’, the third feature about a disheveled ronin who enters a village that is plagued with an amourous oni who visits and nicks the women, meanwhile, Polar Bear. The most ludicrous and unexplained of the lot, Gambo ‘bears’ all, literally, the gore, tits and more are quite shocking, a bit like the voice acting which is sketchy in parts, the ending also a let down by introducing stupid and unnecessary shovel ideas into an already brilliantly realised animation, however the fluid animation and action are more than enough to make up for it.

The final part, ‘A Farewell to Weapons’ is my favourite with more traditional animation and utilises the style of Otomo, the short presents a futuristic world where soldiers don Power Armour (the real kind) and destroy unmanned robotic vehicles. The scenes offer more dialogue than previously and the action scenes are extremely well animated, as befits the expectation following his signature art, being the longest, it would seem they really blew all the budget here too. The armour depicted are the best I have ever seen on-screen, they look realistic and seem to function the way they ought. The plot is Philip K. Dick-esque which suits me fine, but the tone shifts somewhat uncomfortably to a shaky ending, losing traction after a pretty good impact.

Overall the animé was fun and thought -provoking, the new ideas and settings in older Japan are welcome, the high quality of animation is astounding, still though, I think that the two especial favourite shorts of mine in Memories are still much more enjoyable and mind-bending than anything Short Peace has to offer.

Aaaand now for the fifth additional piece, well… the less said the better really.

The gameplay of Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is very monotonous, it only has a couple of buttons and aims, go right, jump and hit shit, occasionally the game will do something dickish and loop which you won’t notice until the fifth or so run-through because both the artistic and level design are so generic, you also have to do something arbitrary before you are allowed to escape, nice. There are a few boss battles, which the gameplay changes for each, from awkward platforming to slow shmups and some really aggravating ‘faux’ wrestling. The best thing about this game is the cut-scenes, at the start you will be counting down the seconds for him to decide he has tired of the facade of storylines and jumps abruptly to the action or simply something weird or random happens, but as the short, 50 minute game continues, these scenes descend into hilarious self-parody, which is actually enjoyable.

The game isn’t worth it, but if you want to own the animé it is the only way to go, the only saving grace after purchase being the elaborate ridiculousness of the game’s ever-changing cut-scenes. I paid £37.99 for this game, even including the storyboard artbook that came with it, it is still horrendous value for money, with the animé totalling 68 minutes and the game only 50, you only get 2 hours for a full-priced release. Perhaps it should have been renamed ‘Short Piece’.

Holding right a lot.[/caption]

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

Magic Realism - Then and Now

One Hundred Years of Solitude – 1967

At the peak of the Latin American Boom in the late 60′s and 70′s, One Hundred Years of Solitude was published by Columbian author, Gabriel García Márquez, and is known today as the seminal novel of Magic Realism, incorporating themes of love, loss and as eponymously suggested, solitude.

The novel follows several generations of the Buendía family who founded a town called Macondo in Columbia, which forms the setpiece to the story as the time passes. There is no particular focus on any of the characters for the duration of the novel, as such, there is no protagonist, however certain key members do subvert the paradigm, which in turn reinforces many key themes throughout.

Set in the late 1800′s stretching through seven generations and a hundred years, there’s an enormous sense of time and its passing in the shift of history, which is outlined with the backdrop of the Thousand Days’ War, a civil conflict between the ruling conservatives and the liberal revolt, sparked by the conservative government rigging elections. The town of Macondo exudes Latin American culture, while also maintaining the unique magic which gave birth to an entire genre of writing. Each time the allusions come across as handed down, conceivably mad and somewhat sardonic, yet it’s more a case of representing the people of Macondo, than the atmosphere.

A smart novel that treads softly between modernist Magic Realism, and folklorish whispers, that allow the novel the freedom to explore the fantastic in a serious tone, and the melancholy with fortitude.

Cloud Atlas – 2004

Amidst all the blandness of the noughties, books other than Harry Potter were published, read and well-received, such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. It was nominated for several big name awards such as the Booker prize as well as Sci-fi gaff, like Arthur C. Clarke and Nebula awards – a rare occurrence that, for me, necessitated reading, fortunately the release of the film by the Wachowskis rendered this book cheaper for me to obtain and so I finally managed to read it after 10 years.

Featuring 6 inter-woven stories, the novel is a vignette spanning hundreds of years, from the colonisation of Australia to years in the future, after humanity has forsaken itself. Likewise, the writing style is changeable, from sweeping and existential (in the pop philosophy sense) to subjective and momentary.

Although not in a modernist style like Marquez’s work, Cloud Atlas enjoys sci-fi elements as well as philosophical musings that inform the plot rather than the feel of the novel, each character feels like an outsider rather than a part of a whole, and the many genres allow freedoms to express the characters better, such as the conspiracy plot and the young journalist.

Unlike many newer novels that attempt to emulate older style writings, Mitchell is able to pull it off, with correct use of archaic language and ideas, the novel works as well as a piece of historical fiction as it does anything else. There is less obvious Magic Realism at work, with the cloud hanging over it mostly, rather than being steeped in it like One Hundred Years, it would little affect the composition if taken out, but adds as it is.

There is no real comparison to the two, despite being the same genre Cloud Atlas and The One Hundred Years of Solitude are very different pieces, whose only real similarity is the allowance of realistic freedoms in order to engage their readers and form worlds more exciting and realistic than even our own.

Whilst writing this Gabriel García Márquez passed away on 17th April 2014, aged 87, as such I have decided not to edit my piece on the novel, for fear of revisionism, despite my favourable opinions. However, what one can say is that, he not only created the seminal novel of Magic Realism, he also defined a country’s literary perception the world over, with his tales of fantasy that transcends eras and cultures.

Magic Realism - Then and Now

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

What’s better than a little sit down with a game about a killer bear, trapping students in a house and making them kill each other? Well, probably a lot of things, but few could be weirder.

In the Japanese visual novel style, (watered-down adventure game; or games for lazy people) Danganronpa follows a typical adventure game format, with sections being devoted to talking to people, story sections and wandering around, while the other part is detective work and court-style simulations in order to figure out who the killer is for that chapter. An atypical Battle Royale-style, the plot involves an elitist school whose students are the best of their respective fields, when the doors are all bolted up, they are asked to kill one another and get away with it, or be locked up forever, this means that there, for the most part, is no immediate agency allowing the rest of the game to play out as character-building exercise.

The story is linear, there is little you can do to affect anything, there is only one proper ending and little need for replayability, unlike in 999, where branching paths make different endings, with two playthroughs forming the bulk of the storyline.

Plenty of people to kill off.[/caption]

Also unlike other visual novels, there is a huge emphasis on character levelling, each time you choose to spend your free time with someone you can level your relationship up and gain extra skills for use during the courtroom battle segments, this is pretty ironic as it means you are essentially hanging around with people so you can get skills from them, in order to beat them later. So not a very ‘pro’ tagonist then.

The different relationships with the characters can give new insight into the story, and also means that if you wanted to replay the game, you can use the fore-knowledge to optimise your time spent with them.

Much like other visual novels, the characters do carry animé tropes, which can be rather annoying and unnecessary, fortunately there are also a few interesting developments which make the situation a lot more bearable, despite being a game which intends to kill off most of its characters, it still has lots of surprises in store.

Clocking in about 20-25 hours, the game is longer than most visual novels/adventures localised to the west, and is about as long as a normal visual novel in Japan, however, with most of your time spent wandering corridors, exploring and talking to people, there is a lot more interesting gameplay than the usual fare.

Although not as compelling as 999 or as charming as Ace Attorney, the game forms its own niche with its unique gameplay elements, art-style and animé style storyline and characters and with a sequel on the way this looks to be a rather promising franchise.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc