The Whole Eroge Nonsense
This post is about reading casually and rambling casually in regards to the whole eroge thing that is going on. If 2009 continues the way it is, it will turn out to be a landmark year with some big public policy/legal rights issues regarding this fandom that come to the fore. This kind of crap always lurk in the background regardless of what we are doing, so it’s good to pay attention since it can impact the future in drastic ways. Besides, I’m tired to chopping on copyright at least for now.
But just because it can doesn’t mean it definitely will. It’s good to be hopeful about the future, I think.
First off, why are people reading their word on this from Sankaku Complex? It’s not where you want your serious news from. Go to Zepy’s and learn to love Canned Dogs. I should qualify here, though, that it’s okay to get your news wherever you get it as long as you put on your critical hat and think for yourself. And I think Artefact is doing a fine job, whatever that is. (I am talking about the two types of web press, also, because I think where I get my news shapes the opinion I form.)
Second, it’s not a right to freedom of expression or a free speech issue for the most part. The only place that I read or even see actual law on this is on the translated meeting notes from a research group that met to talk about the proposed censorship in progress. I’m in no way qualified to give good opinion on Japanese law, but it seems that Japan has two framework or sets of case law that governs government limitation on restricting adult content. One is on the basis of individual work and another is on the basis of class of work? The actual law is not important; what is important is that the EOCS guys don’t even want to get there. They do not want a law on the books that bans (or otherwise regulate) their goods in a way that addresses them specifically. I’m not even sure if they care about the principle of the thing.
Of course, the principle of the thing is important, but principles don’t put food on the table, nor does it particularly save face. Anyways, Japan is not a litigious place like America, so people often fight for their rights in different ways.
It’s also important to know that EOCS is made up of industry leaders that ultimately serves as a legal cushion and severs liability between the companies they work with and the general public. Zepy explains this better in fewer words, but we need to remember their purpose is to lower liability and promote their products. It must be super bad to see EOCS banning entire types of games for the sake to appease the (imaginary?) press, domestic or foreign, because their goal is also to promote the games (and $$$). However while I instinctively think that EOCS is overreacting, maybe it is done with good reasons? Are they really that close to see a law on the books banning the whole deal? Is a law on the book coming soon?
After all even I know none of this happens in a vacuum. Japan has been getting tougher on child porn and that kind of seedy stuff the past years and that’s all just domestic pressure brewing. Looking at the headlines at ANN says as much. Getting pissed off minori’s figurative bird-flipping to non-JP (and non-PH) IPs is great, knee-jerked fun, but we all have to remember (and minori’s ban affirms this, actually) that this is all just nonsense. Western influences on Japanese domestic industry that they invented for themselves is as much as trying to sell fuel-efficient Americans cars in Tokyo. LOL. In other words, we don’t really affect them compared to the effects of their own actions. Because, really, what does Equality Now stand to gain from all of this? Omo is linking to their site? 2ch vitriol? Oh boy I’m dying to have a bunch of angry Japanese anons at my doorsteps! Don’t kid yourself; all of this is just your usual game of “I troll you for my own benefit, you troll someone else as a result” down the food chain.
And if you’re pissed by all of this, it just means you’re two levels below angry, culturally maladjusted femnazis!
That aside, however, there is a valid cry for alarm in terms of the lock down on freedom of speech. Again, minori is the best example. Their website have been updated with something more constructive since the initial region lock; and indeed, how would you feel about a game like ef being banned, because it has some edgy relationships? I loved the anime that spawned from the ef game, and I do think if the censorship rules discourage games that are just a tad too edgy from either being made in the first place or makes it difficult reaching commercial success (and subsequent cross media marketing), well, that would be terrible.
Then again, this is only because the eroge market expanded and diversified over the past 10 or so years, almost unchecked; games like ef has little in common with the majority of crap you see on a site like Getchu (NSFW). Or at least, these games have no more in common than flour and salt have in common–we all consume both to some extent, for different purposes, although sometimes they’re used together and you might find them stocked close to each other at the same supermarket. In other words, out of many games affected, only a small breed of games with appeal outside of their pornographic nature are truly the victim. If the whole point of the self-censorship is to change the type of porno that gets made, then it is a reasonable adjustment.
Yes, people, eroge is mostly just porn (in a semi-broad sense–since a lot of them is about recreating an imaginary experience via music, images, writing, and obviously the reader’s imagination). Even if it’s Kana: Little Sister, folks!
But I guess people can’t tell the difference between a yaruge and nakige [like me lol?], let alone distinguish a pretty okay game like Kana from the legion of bad strip mahjong games? How many people outraged at the EOCS proposed changes actually know about what’s truly out there in the wild? (I CAN HAS STATS-BURGER?) How many crappy click-click-porn games are born for each Fate/stay nights or whatever that gets made? Or how many future Kanons are going to be banned versus future Rapelays? Is this really censorship when a private, industry club decide to not stamp your game for approval? Is it the end of the eroge genre as we know it when major otaku stores stop stocking them? I mean let’s not even talk about CSA here. (In reality they probably will more or less follow EOCS once the situation becomes more stable, I would guess.)
I remember reading about Rapelay in Roland Kelts’ book. He basically called it, and how can you not call it once you found out about a game like that? But I think that is the problem–there’s so much about Japan that no one outside Japan knows. Its insular, layered cultural construct is part of its charm and an open discourse, no matter if it’s on the legal or industry or even pop-cultural exchange level, will change it sometimes for the worse. Or better. And that depends only on your perspective.
Going full circle, this is why a good news site that frames the issue accurately goes a long way, I guess.
My Heart Flutters with Rumors of War, and of Cryptic Call for Bloggers
If we think of the internet as a place, like a room in your house or a hang-out spot you visit regularly or a class you have to go to every same-day-of-the-week, then the feeling I’m trying to describe is like seeing your puppy-love girlfriend/boyfriend when you are first going out with him/her, as you enter that place. Except it’s not, and much more like, a pheromone and hormone filled Spring season for a bunch of geeks.
Spring fever is real, and this year my heart is dialing in Squad Seven. Also, the word is that Otakon is probably going to call in their first musical guest (probably one of the smaller acts) very soon, so maybe it’ll be even more exciting than it already is. Honestly, Spring is probably my least favorite season, but it’s definitely the most fun out of the four. Memories are made in the Spring (history says as much), and if we believe that seasons fundamentally affect our experience with the anime we watch, then some shows just work better in this time slot than any other.
For example, I would say, these guys are honing in on a “mating call.” See the full batch of caps here.
Yes, I’m quite excited about the anime adaptation of Valkyria Chronicles. It’s been so long since I’ve played a game that I really enjoyed AND have the hope of an equally adept adaptation in anime to go with. Of course, this is a relatively new hope bolstered by the promo screen caps. It’s bolstered by the fact that the game plays just like an anime, down to its episodic pacing. It’s bolstered by the fact that it’s a Sony, and you know what that means. I hope.
Oh am I being set up for a huge disappointment or what.
As for actual information, some might find this post on Sega USA’s blog intriguing. It details a potential release announcement of some kind possibly over this weekend, on Twitter. Besides that fans were already promised the 2 DLC for the game, and the post itself was about the anime (with possibly no real news on that front), I have no clue besides these come in threes.
At any rate, while I may not be able to do anything to actually affect the quality of a Japanese TV animation besides to tilt windmills, I can at least try to throw together a get-together. Or a panel. I think I am walking the blazing path forged by these guys in a way that I’m trying out these aspects of fandom partly because I just haven’t done it before. Not that I’m going to make doujinshi or anything, but also I can see how trying to get a blogging panel at Otakon can be rewarding. So it’s a worthwhile goal for me. And maybe for you, too.
Who’s with me? I, as with last year, need your help. I’ve already gotten some help from said these guys, but please, don’t be shy. Drop me a note in the comments or toss an email (you can find it by where the post tags are). I need people who knows stuff about blogging in general (both tech and theory), about editorializing and reviewing, being the crazy social butterfly that sometimes the role requires, and just people who produce solid content. If that’s all too much you can also just help by come see us, if it becomes a reality.
I know it’s early still, so if you figure out later that you want to help, you still can; but there’s a deadline to this and it’s coming up in a month or so. Just something to keep in the back of your mind if you should care about it.
Year in Review: Type Moon Redemption
Heaven’s Feel is now fan-translated, so that rounds out the entire original Fate/stay night game.
Kara no Kyoukai (the prose) rakes in a professional, English translation and release. Even if it’s just for one chapter, with full book(s) on the way.
More Ciel figures than ever! And Over Nine Thousand things from Fate/stay night; Unlimited Merchandise Works.
Studio ufotable continues to churn out amusing stop-motion animation. And feature films. I want Blu-Ray!
Wait, there was a Tsukihime anime? Hey Kyoto Animation, you know there’s some eager fans looking for anime studios to butcher their games! Hmmm.
Ever since its not-so humble beginning, Type-Moon somehow has a significant hold on the balls of the Japan fan creation scene. Channeling that sort of fan frenzied, raw energy into expressions is the essence of doujin works; but to do so in a professional, well-understood package is a major feat. Through both failure and mediocrity, the boys of Type-Moon will eventually awe us with something. I hope.
(What’s that 428 game and CANNAN thing? Besides that they look delicious?)
The demarcation between doujin and pro is a curious, multiple-dimensional one. It makes a curious subject for a Zepy rant? Someone, please.
But the fact that there’s all this Type-Moon crap to talk about, in 2008, means Type-Moon has gone pro for nearly 5 years, and all 5 years are full of … stuff. They’re on a roll. And at least they haven’t really failed the audience this year even if they didn’t totally floor them either. Getting their current library out to those who hasn’t seen it seems still to be the first order, but they’re also transitioning well into totally new crap. Like the 428 game and anime.
Year in Review 2008:
- Introduction
- Kurenai
- Miyuki Sawashiro
- JAM Project & others
- 12 lists of randomness
- Type-Moon
- 9 TV series of 2008
- Conclusion
Clanclan Noir
Clanclan Philias doesn’t wear clothes; clothes wear her.
RenAi Blogger Is Hinano’s Neo Venezia
Originally I was trying to rig up a poll and ask you “which RenAi Blogger characters did you end up with the first time”? But I changed my mind after giving the game a full, complete play through.
If you haven’t had the chance, an avid AVG gamer will devour this simple, multi-pathing romance adventure in an hour; it should take just 10 minutes or so to get to your first ending as a normal person. Download it at Hinano’s today!
What’s so charming to me about this game is that, believe it or not, is a true to life guide to the life of a weeaboo in Manhattan, looking through Hinano’s eyes. For one, if you are Chinese, for example, you would do your anime craves differently. And I don’t know anyone from NYU who’d hike up to Bryant Park for lulz. But hey, Chase is in otaku paradise.
But having visited many of the places she mentioned in the game, there’s a sense of familiarity and fear at the same time. If I ran into JP and Hinano I will so get lampooned… You think Author’s had it bad?
In all seriousness, in a small and tidy package Hinano and her crew has put together a very solid and thoughtful story that both paints a new look to the various things she ranted about on her blog and gave them life. At the same time she did a great job expressing her online voice (and…probably some offline voice too) in the different characterizations and personalities in the game. The whole thing may be a little contrived but it felt very natural, almost to a degree of innocence.
If Akari was a weeaboo, this is the kind of experience I expect her to deliver if I sign up for a tour?
And the game is cute. The same way a doujinshi is cute, almost. In a non-ero way. Including Impz. I have to say Natsuko is my favorite however :pedobear:
Glossing over the roughness of the production, I think it’s a good use of an hour of your time. Especially if you run around in Manhattan. If you don’t, it’s a good tourist manual (in a very loose sense).
Lastly–JP and Hinano should’ve tried to tie in all those commercial endorsement. I bet some Japanese organization in the city would love to promote her game because it does a good job promoting the different cultural establishments in the city. I wonder who you’d talk to in order to make that happen…
