Kashiwazaki Sena

My first garage kit is Sena from Haganai.

Senjyogahara Hitagi

My second GK is finished, Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari.

Anime Boston 2015 LiSA Concert Awesomeness!!

One of the greatest nights, so much fun.

Vice Commander Asuna

My third and most difficut GK, my favorite, Asuna.

Home Made LiSA Statue

My first sculpted in clay and cast in resin statue.

Platinum #57: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoninge

Fun RPG from the last generation.

Monday, September 7, 2015

STEINS;GATE Visual Novel vs Anime

After playing through Steins;Gate on PlayStation 3, I couldn't get enough so I started re-watching the anime with English dub. I just finished episode 12 and these are my thoughts so far. After spending ~35 hours listening to the Japanese cast, I learned to prefer them over the English cast. The English cast is still really good, especially Okabe and Daru, but I vastly prefer the Japanese voices of Mayuri and Kurisu. Hearing the Asuna's voice come out of the Part Time Warrior also takes me out of the experience.

I like the localisation into English that was done for the dub, over the anime subs, but I MUCH prefer the dialogue from the game. Okabe's "mad scientist" act is appropriately labeled as chuunibyou, though I never thought of it like that before the VN (visual novel). The anime used the term OTP. one true pairing, referring to Kurisu's bickering with Okabe, which I never heard of, but the subs for the anime called her tsundere, which I did understand. The anime, and even more so the dub, I think, doesn't give you such a clear picture that the group is really otaku. I never thought of Mayuri as otaku, but she is obsessed with cosplay. Whenever you see her sewing in the lab, she is making costumes for cosplay. Okabe has chuunibyou, 8th grade syndrome. Kurisu reads @channel, aka 2chan, in secret and is embarassed by it. Daru is clearly a nerd in both adaptations.

The biggest thing that bugged me, and pushed me to write this post, was Kurisu crying over Okabe yelling at her over his name in the anime. In the VN, she acts strong all the time and is always calm. She is seen by us and Okabe to be serious and objective, except for 2 serious moments, which are made more impactful because it appears out of character (really she puts on a front and hides her emotions). But the anime she cries twice (out of fear?) which makes her look weak (and Okabe looks terribly mean).

If you choose to ignore it, the conversation continues.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Platinum Watch #58: Steins;Gate (PS3)



PSN Level 28 - 84%

Since I played Virtues Last Reward for PS Vita a couple of years ago, I have been immensely jealous of the slew of visual novels on consoles in Japan. When one comes to the US on a PlayStation console, I buy it. I was doubly excited when Steins;Gate was announced, having seen the anime and attempting to play the PC fan translated version (didn't enjoy playing on the PC).

The anime was one of my favorites. I "marathoned" the English dub when it came out. Though, before playing through the game, I remembered very little of it. Playing through the game was like experiencing it for the first time again. And it was amazing.

I remember liking the English dub, and since beating the game, I started re-watching it. The voices are great, and the localization is excellent. But I also love the Japanese cast, especially the female leads.

Mixed in throughout the game is a bunch of science terms, and many otaku/2chan memes, many of them parodies of real life media. Luckily, the game provides an excellent index, adding the entry when the word is used. Be sure to read all of them because they can and will be used again in the future dialog. The game seems to cater more toward the otaku fans than I remember the anime doing, or I am just understanding more of the references now.

I think all of the endings were heart wrenching. Getting 80% of the endings(there are about six or seven) is easy. The other 1 or 2 need to follow a specific text thread starting in earlier chapters. Responding to texts is an interesting way to engage the player. but they require you to choose between about 1-3 seemingly random words to respond to. And once you choose the word and write out the new text, I can't see any way to back out to pick a different word and am forced to just send it. I would prefer to preview all responses before picking one because this random replying means you can miss small details about other characters, or the bigger deal, a whole story thread required to get the better endings. I strongly encourage anyone to play through all the endings, using a guide when necessary, to see the true ending. This ending, the same from the anime, is so much more impactful after seeing how much the MC (main character) went through to get there.



After finishing, I am struggling to find more English translated media from this franchise, hoping more will come to america soon.