Konnichiwa fellow Otakus, and welcome back to my blog! Dating Sims. They've brought many interesting aspects into the gaming community, along with the "Singles" community. Allowing us to choose a character (Or a title in which the character is selected without knowing who they are such as Heart World [Amnesia: Memories] ) and slowly bond with them. Eventually, the heroine of the story will begin to fall in love and, depending on the way you responded to questions throughout the game, you'll be given a happy or terribly tragic ending. The main characters will sometimes act foolish or dim-witted depending on the game you play, and others will seem very intelligent and sometimes wise beyond their years. However, there's one main problem with these games which send my head spinning.... That is the option to choose the Antagonist as the character of interest. This is an option that can sometimes be unlocked after selecting (almost) all of the different characters you can date within the game. You know deep down from playing the other characters how truly evil they are. How harshly they hurt the MC of the story. Yet, you slowly begin to realize that they're truly just misunderstood heroes, sometimes forced against their will to hurt the MC. In Ukyo's case (Amnesia: Memories), his Heroine died so he kept going to different dimensions in hope to save them and every time he slowly began to lose his sanity with each dimension. When you finally play his route, his sanity is messed up to the biggest extent, that he can no longer define whether he wants to kill you to end the Heroine's suffering, or save you. He tries to push you away constantly, and yet he pursues you anyway. He leaves you in a confused mess... and yet, you know and see his humanity despite the damage to his sanity. In the Wizard's route (Dandelion: Wishes Brought To You), you're brought to tears in every way possible (Like almost all the routes in this game). Throughout the series, you see the Wizard as someone cruel. He's the one who put all those cute fuzzy animals into a basket which turned into humans (and always were human like from the start). He's the one who told them that in order for them to be able to save the one's they loved and have their wishes fulfilled they had to compete for the Heroine's love, but only one of them could have their wish fulfilled. In the end, you'd be left in tears, because of what the Wizard had done to the MC and her love life.
Despite all of this, something intrigued me to his route. You had to unlock it by playing other routes. However, it's worth it, trust me. It left me in a puddle of tears. This man who made a living erasing memories was willing to give up EVERYTHING, everything to be with the Heroine. So now you're probably asking, why do you say "It's a problem" when it sounds like you like it? Well, the main reason why I call it a "Problem," despite my love for them, is the fact that it's beginning to become over-used in the Dating Sims franchise and as they attempt to find new plot lines, the reason why I love the Wizard and Ukyo, is beginning to fade away. They're beginning to stick to the original cliché plot of "The Antagonist is simply the antagonist." They justify the fact you're dating them with simple reasons like "Oh, it's a forced dating thing," but in the end that doesn't leave you loving the character, it only leaves a continuing feeling of dislike and hatred. I prefer the feeling of becoming a puddle of sadness at the end of a route because it feels like a part of your life has ended, as compared to that of the stereotypical plot. I like that they gave their antagonists the ideals such as, "I don't belong here. I'm simply here to watch in agony, and play my part." With these new plots, you're no longer left with the feeling of "Perhaps the antagonist isn't so bad after all. Maybe there was never one to begin with." To me, that's the truly heart-breaking part. To this day the dating sim, Dandelion: Wishes Brought To You, is my favorite sim, and Amnesia: Memories being a close second compared to the few others I've seen. My favorite characters being Jiwoo & Wizard from Dandelion, and Shin & Kent from the Amnesia series. These sims left an impact on me in a way I never thought they could. They showed me that even the antagonist has a heart, they just never had the proper chance to shine. So, that's about it for this post. Thanks for reading, and tune in next time. - Otaku-kun \(*^*)/
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My friend one day asked me during our conversation, "How can you love anime characters?" Let me lay it out as simply as possible here.... Because. I. Can. Haha, no. There's more to it than that, and that's what I intend to dive into today. (Note, when I say love, I don't mean like real life romance. I'm not like the people who buy a body pillow of their "Waifu/Husbando" just to celebrate their birthday... that's a weeaboo thing.) So, in my last post "To Want An "Anime-Like" Love" I discussed why otaku's want "anime-like" loves in a way this post coincides with that one. As the character's personalities are something I look at.
So, Otaku-kun get to the point... why do you love anime characters? Because there are no lies. What you see in the anime is their true personality. No lies, no secrets, no deciphering what paparazzi titles were real or not. They lay out their lives before you in full intricate details. That's why I can say I love anime characters. With real life actors, you can say you love the actor. But do you truly love the person, or just their gift in acting or their roles? You can't truly say you love them because you never met them. They could be ten times cruller than the roles they play in real life, and you would never know. However, with anime characters you see their true personality. So there's your answer... this was a really short post. XD -Otaku-kun P.s. Howl & Fujimoto-san are mine. :3 So what does one mean when they say they want an "Anime-Like" love? I decided to dive into this topic because I believe while it's something we say it isn't something we always really thoroughly look at. So first let's discuss what someone usually thinks of when someone says "I want an anime-like love!" So usually what comes to mind is similar to what's above, we think of the heroine's plotline and how her romantic life came to be and the struggles that persisted throughout her life within the anime. We think about Heroine from Amnesia and how, despite losing her memories, she tried to keep up her relationships with her boyfriends from different dimensions. If we think of Kobato or Clannad we think about the cute romance between the main characters. However, this isn't always the case. In my opinion, an "Anime-Like" love actually means you're looking at how the characters personalities interact and how you want someone with similar aspects. We want a romance like ones from Clannad (Tomoya & Nagisa) or Kobato (Kobato & Fujimoto-san) because we enjoy watching the reality of how slow and peaceful love is, how it doesn't just happen overnight but through a slow and heartfelt progression. Love is patient. We want a romance like that from Amnesia because we like the idea that despite losing all of our memories the person who cared for us the most still loves us. (Main reason why I love Kent is despite the fact that he can be over-analytical and cruel, he truly cares for Heroine and finds odd and heartwarming ways to do so. I love Shin as well because he knew almost immediately Heroine's memories were gone but chose to stay by her and help her in a calm and loving fashion.) We want a romance like that of Airi & Satoru. As we want that romance that will last, even the largest of hurdles. Even when others don't believe in you, they still will. The romance that can survive even the largest of changes in the past, despite the fact that there should be no connections left. We want a cute relationship like that of Yuuta & Rikka. A relationship that's very innocent, and true. A relationship where you're free to act as you please and the other person loves you for it. They respect your uniqueness and you respect theirs.
We want a funny but fragile relationship like that of Mirai and Akihito. One where comedy is always needed, one which isn't perfect but together makes it perfect. Throughout the anime the two of them go through their own personal troubles of having powers which seem more like curses and make them outcasts. "Kuriyama-san, you're not alone anymore." There are so many more honorable mentions, however there's far too many to list. So next time you're thinking or discussing "Anime-Like" Love think about what it is you truly love about the characters. -Otaku-kun Welcome back, No, this isn't a post against Otakus.... only a post explaining our secretly evil intentions of World Domination. (Also, just a random update cause I'm bored). Example #1: If your hairstyle of choice is the "Mom Ponytail"/"Side Ponytail"... Run for your lives. Example #2: Yanderes in general. (P.S. Yandere-Dev, Yandere-Dev!) Example #3: We can turn any "Just Girly Things" into your personal nightmare. Example #4: Lady Otakus got their act together, cause we may not look like it but we're Magical Girls in disguise. ;) Gentleman Otakus also have a secret weapon: GLASSES! One look and somebody's bound to faint. Example #5: If we have to choose between school, life, and anime... Hahahaaaaa.......... Example #6: We ship... and if you don't ship our ship things will go down hill fast. SHIPPING WARS!!!! (I WILL GLADLY GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!) Example #7: We have the best weapons. Example #8: Most of the Hot Guys are jerks or psychopaths.... (Occasionally, they're just hot for no reason). Example #9: You don't mess with our food (Especially Strawberry Cake).... Or else. Example #10: AND THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE; Never, EVER, tell an Otaku you don't like anime. Overall, when we're not filing through our plans on world domination, we're kawaii, li'l sushi rolls who just want happiness and food.
May the strawberry cake be with you, Otaku-kun. Welcome back!
Today, I'll be discussing my personal Go-to Otaku Survival Guide to the Internet. The first thing we're going to discuss is websites: Websites for Anime: TRY NOT TO USE KISSANIME.TO!!! It might seem tempting, and I'll admit they do have some animes that not a lot of websites have in their library, and that I myself used it once or twice. However, they do not pay the artists if you watch the anime. There rule is you watch it, and if you like it then buy it and support the artist yourself. I'm going to list some websites that do support the artists below: Hulu.com (Yes, even the free one [Which honestly it's only a few commercials and they have one of the best anime libraries ever ] ). Crunchyroll.com Funimation.com (Funimation... you should be watching). Now, manga is another topic, and I'm very guilty of using Youtube to my advantage. XD Some youtubers have videos up where they go through page by page of a manga. However, if you have an accessible library with good manga (Cause mine doesn't care for them whatsoever), then I suggest you read them from there or buy them from your local thrift stores/half-price stores. To be honest, thrift stores are one of the best places to look, you can get manga for really cheap there... the only thing is that you need to be constant in checking cause manga (depending on where you live) can be a rarity. I've found in very good condition, Wolf's Rain v.1 and The Tempest, Shakespeare Manga at my local thrift store and the two of them together cost me less than one dollar. Alright now back to the online stuff. So if you're looking for websites that give you anime/otaku updates I suggest: Youtube.com (There are people on there who do anime and Japanese videos examples being: SharlaInJapan). Gobiano.com (SHOUT OUT TO MAKKATHEAMERIKAN!!! [P.s. she's one of the coolest friends Otaku-kun has. Say hello to Makka-kun! :] ). Funimation.com/blog Otakumode.com Fb.com or Facebook.com ( *enter anime sites and youtubers in search engine...* [You can often get updated faster on FB compared to other sites]) You can also follow boards on pinterest, or people on Tumblr who center their boards around anime. (https://www.pinterest.com/ToLoveIsDestroy/ *< Me on Pinterest & me on tumblr* > https://beyonddaisy.tumblr.com/) Now, if you're the type of person who doesn't like spoilers, like most of us Otakus, my simple suggestion is to avoid searching the titles you wish to avoid. It's the simplest way to ignore all the drama. Sometimes this doesn't always work, but 89.0% [Otaku-kun: *works hard to make a really random percentage*] of the time it does.) Now, for the best suggestions... the best suggestions come from your fellow friends and otakus. There's nothing more enjoyable than being able to share and enjoy an anime with your closest friends and geek out over it. (OTAKU-KUN: *YELLS* "GERMANY, ITALY, & ENGLAND-KUN, THANK YOU!!!*) I hope this helps you through your Otaku journey, Otaku-kun. |
AuthorA fancy otaku who is kind of too lazy to legitimately finish this little box about myself. Just click on the "about" page. Archives
January 2017
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