I've been a long-time patron (10 years or thereabouts) of the English DLSite page. They sell some great doujin products (Stellavanity and Hatoful Boyfriend, for example). Additionally, there are a lot of royalty-free audio/visual assets for game creation which is always nice.
There's a summer sale so I decided to revisit it again and... yeah, it's almost entirely flooded with ASMR goods now. This isn't really a new thing -- it's been a popular trend for a few years now, but I always found it kind of weird. It's not really a problem except that I have to wade through these when looking for deals (lol).
I always wondered how an extremely niche site like DLSite (well, the English version, anyway) stayed afloat this long. I guess I have my answer.
Well, good for them, I guess.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Muv-Luv vs Otaku
so JAM Project is performing at Otakon 2017 so I'm buying a VIP pass because hell yeah
to commemorate the occasion I am going to do a tiny lil thing on one of my favorite visual novels, Muv-Luv Alternative, the third and final entry of the Muv-Luv VN series.
I've been meaning to write about how brilliant this game is at tethering the player to the protagonist so I will draft out some thoughts here because you are all a captive audience
obviously none of you have played or heard of this game so I will drop the minimum amount of context required to understand what I'm saying
Muv-Luv vs the Otaku
The Muv-Luv series is, to my knowledge, the first overtly anti-escapist mainstream visual novel ever written. To clarify what I mean by this, I will first describe the target audience for this game, draw upon a well-known anime as a point of comparison, and then describe how Muv-Luv Alternative functions in this lens.
Part 0: Context
Muv Luv is a visual novel trilogy that started in 2003 and concluded in 2006. It is comprised of three parts (obviously):
Muv Luv Extra,
Muv Luv Unlimited, and
Muv Luv Alternative.
The first game, Extra, is a generic high-school rom-com harem eroge starring resident pussy magnet Takeru Shirogane.
In Unlimited, Takeru one day wakes up to find himself in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/military hellhole and is forced to join the United Nations to fight against an alien menace (using giant robots, of course). Ultimately, he fails to save humanity, leading us to ---
Alternative, in which Takeru is sent back to the beginning of the timeline of Unlimited, and is given a second chance to save humanity. (This is the meat of the story)
In this essay(?), I suggest how, fundamentally, Muv-Luv attacks the conventions of harem eroge and serves as a criticism of the otaku consumerbase.
Part 1: Otaku
Most of you probably are aware of what otaku culture is like, but for the rest of you, here is Google's definition:
o·ta·ku ōˈtäko͞o/ noun (in Japan) a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills.
It should be little surprise that there are large otaku subcultures that play pornographic dating sims and watch anime. In particular, I want to draw attention to the following points:
Axiom 1:
Above all else, otaku value bitches and guns.
Axiom 2:
Otaku fucking love mecha anime.
Corollary 1:
Otaku resort to anime and computer games for the sake of wish-fulfillment.
Computer games and anime serve as wish-fulfillment for these otaku because of course they can't have bitches and guns of their own. Mecha anime, in particular, hold a special function for otaku because not only do they have guns, but big fucking guns and fighting robots.
Naturally, a few works of fiction have addressed this trend, to varying degrees of success.
Before diving in to Muv-Luv's commentary, I will ground you with a more mainstream anime response to the otaku trend: Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Part 2: Evangelion vs the Otaku
You all know what this show is. I'm too lazy at the moment to go over a plot synopsis, but the idea is that a wimpy teenager is forced to pilot a giant robot to save humanity against alien intruders.
What's most important here is the main character, Shinji Ikari, and his function in the narrative as a whole.
Shinji is cowardly, weak, and unable to function socially around women. He is completely emotionally incapable of performing the tasks set out before him by his environment and routinely shuts down when confronted with adversity.
Shinji is the otaku caricature.
Shinji, and Evangelion as a whole, are an answer to the question, "what would I do if I was allowed to pilot a giant robot?"
It's quite easy to say, as viewers, what we would do if we were in the pilot's seat in a giant mech, but Evangelion provides a realistic account of how the otaku caricature would function in this genre.
The otaku is fundamentally ill-equipped to deal with this scenario.
---------
One problem that people tend to have with this show is, unsurprisingly, the protagonist. He is a bitch and thoroughly unlikable. He is, in my opinion, a very accurate caricature of the target audience, but that actually kinda works against the show as a whole. We reject Shinji because he is not the kind of character we typically project ourselves onto in mecha shows. Thus, the show's message falls on deaf ears (at least to the part of the core otaku audience).
^ Regarding this point, I am not suggesting that Evangelion is a commercial failure, because it's not, but this is a description of a common response to the show to those that are not "in the know."
---------
Muv-Luv addresses the same otaku phenomenon, but it takes a subtly different approach and arrives at a different conclusion.
Part 3: Muv-Luv vs the Otaku
The "Fantasy World"
Takeru Shirogane, the protagonist of the Muv-Luv series, the kind of person we all wanna be. He has not one, but two childhood friend waifus who clamor over the dick for no reason beyond the fact that it literally exists in their general proximity. He's smart, but he's a bit of a slacker. He's a nice guy with a bit of a rough edge. He's good at videogames and everyone just gravitates towards him because he's the main character.
Takeru is the otaku ideal, the person the otaku audience wishes they were. His desirable traits make him perfect for self-projection. He has no particular depth beyond what you might expect from a generic harem eroge.
Takeru is a strong tether for the kind of wish-fulfillment masturbatory fantasy that Muv-Luv Extra describes. Muv-Luv Extra is a fantasy world.
The author knows this and exploits this to its fullest potential.
---------
You might think, then, that the post-apocalyptic hellhole described by Unlimited is "the real world". Well, not exactly.
Despite what most people think, Unlimited is very similar to Extra, just in a different setting.
The bitches still want his dick.
He's still remarkably attractive to everyone around him.
He's not only a good pilot, but the best pilot everyone's ever seen, and the only reason he's the best is because he played a lot of video games.
Takeru, the otaku ideal, is fucking amazing in this sci-fi/military/mecha scenario. He never really has to dramatically change himself in order to fit in.
Unlimited is still the fantasy world. This is still wish-fulfillment for its audience. This time, instead of a romance fantasy, it's a mecha fantasy.
And, after spending upwards of 30 hours living vicariously through Takeru, we "become" Takeru.
...but this world isn't really realistic, is it?
The "Real World"
Hey fam, remember all those desirable traits Takeru had and how awesome it was to live through these cool scenarios in his shoes?
Fuck you.
Fuck you for liking Takeru. Fuck you for thinking that Takeru was the kind of person that is actually desirable in society. Fuck you for thinking that Takeru could save the world.
Fuck you.
Muv-Luv Alternative is like the incontinent pet mastiff that just can't stop shitting diarrhea chunks over the carpet of your brain.
To give you an idea of what Alternative is like, Attack on Titan is a fanfiction of it. Admitted by Isayama himself.
I won't go too deep into spoiler territory, but the idea is that all of these things that Takeru, the otaku ideal, is good at don't actually fucking matter in the real world.
Bitches? Guns? Fuck you, that doesn't really matter.
What actually matters? Empathy for others, mental fortitude (a FUCKTON of mental fortitude), courage, and strength of character, for starters. Takeru initially possesses none of these things and is fucking FLATTENED by the events that unfold. (There's literally a story arc about PTSD)
We otaku are not prepared for the real world.
Alternative makes us question what characteristics we, the audience, should actually value.
Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited are both the kinds of wish-fulfillment escapist fantasies that Muv-Luv Alternative criticizes at a core level.
The series as a whole works because of how it forces us to invest in Takeru, and how it routinely tears him down when it actually matters. We are on a journey with him, we like him, but we realize that we need to change in order to survive in the real world. Takeru's charm and likability are not sufficient ideals to live for in this world.
This is what I mean by Muv-Luv Alternative serving as an anti-escapist fantasy.
We projected ourselves onto Takeru, the otaku ideal, and were punished for it. At the same time, we are forced to mentally adapt with Takeru, or die.
Alternative is optimistic, though, and shows us that the world isn't purely a shitsack of terror. With enough effort, willpower, and courage, we can change ourselves into heroes, heroes that can actually save the world.
We grow alongside Takeru because of the tether established in Extra and Unlimited. Takeru is us, and if Takeru can adapt in this hellhole, maybe we can too.
But we have to work for it.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
"Milk Bound" Anal(ysis)
Game: Milk Bound
By: Sponge Teitoku (すぽんじ帝国)
Completion:
2/3 endings unlocked (Endings A and B)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to user mellonxcollie for the recommendation! I'm seriously curious how you came across this game. (Only 8 Westerners have purchased this game ever...)
---
I understood fuck-all about this game, because it was in Japanese. However, with the help of user evanescence_death4ever and Visual Novel Reader, I was able to piece parts of it together. Thank you eva!
Synopsis
The player stars as Yousuke (Yo-kun), a kid who lives with his parents in an apartment complex. However, it is Golden Week, so his parents are out of town. He is visited by his neighbor, Midori-san, whose husband is also out of town for Golden Week.
They're both lonely and decide to keep each other company. (That's a euphemism for "they fucked a lot.")
Assorted Thoughts
The Developers
Sponge Teitoku is a doujin circle with, as far as I know, three other games. I was going to check them out and apply similar treatment to them, but they seem kind of rape-y, so I'm gonna stay away.
Unfortunately, Sponge Teitoku does not seem to be in business, which is a shame. Not because this game is actually good, but because I strongly support doujin/indie development endeavors. Rest in peace, すぽんじ帝国.
Game Design
One playthrough takes around 2-3 hours of reading, without skipping text. If you fast-forward, one playthrough takes around 3-4 minutes.
There are around 6-9 choices, each with 2-3 options.
As you probably have reasoned thus far, this game contains three endings. I am not totally sure what leads to each ending, but here is what I gleaned about the structure of the game:
* There are choices which have "local consequences": that is, choices which diverge only to provide different H-scenes, but do not have long-term consequences. For example, one of the last choices contains two options: the first option results in a blowjob H-scene, whereas the second option results in a reverse cowgirl H-scene.
* There are choices which do not have short-term consequences, but result in different scenes playing in the long run. For example, if you choose to hold Midori-san's hand during the movie at the beginning, she asks you if you love her towards the end of the game.
* The third ending, Ending C, is extremely difficult to find. I was unable to reach it after several dozen attempts. (I called this the "Steins;Gate" ending --- perfectly straddling the A and B attractor fields)
Three endings gives a bit of variation, but it's not immediately clear to me what choices affect what outcomes. (That is, I don't know what choices lead to Endings A, B, or C). This reduces my sense of agency over the game. However, I am not in a position to criticize the game over this point, since it might have made more sense if I was able to read Japanese.
Regarding reading and config settings, it's pretty par for the course: you can adjust voice, sound effect, and BGM sound settings; you can adjust the text appear speed. One feature which I appreciated, and one which is often missing in doujin games, is the ability to fast-forward through previously read text. This feature is important for games with divergent narratives, since it lets the player know when their choices have resulted in different outcomes, while skipping every scene they have previously seen.
(For example, if I perform one playthrough and then perform an identical playthrough and fast-forward, I skip through the entire game. If I perform one playthrough where I make one different choice, and that choice results in a different scene, the fast-forward stops, indicating that my choice actually mattered.)
Like all eroges, this game contains a CG gallery, so you can walk through memory lane and reminisce about all the different times Midori-san gave you a blowjob.
One thing I appreciated(?) was the option to revisit previously viewed H-scenes from the main menu. I'm not sure if this is a common feature, but it will surely resonate with nukige fans.
So, regarding game design, Milk Bound generally hits all the right notes for an indie eroge production.
Art
Well, Midori-san has huge tits.
It's important to note that while Midori-san actually is a MILF, she is not drawn like a MILF. Instead, she's drawn like an onee-san, which provides a different feeling for the game. (Whether or not that's a good thing depends on your boner type.)
Characters
I can't tell you anything about the protagonist besides the fact that he doesn't know what beef stroganoff is.
Midori-san seems to have the amount of complexity required for a heroine of a cheating game, so I can't really complain. Her husband is away, and she's horny lonely. She seems to have a kind of cute personality though. (I can only partially tell because, you know, I can't totally understand what she's saying.)
The relationship between them is kind of charming, which is not something I would normally expect from a game like this. I can't quite place my finger on it, but I could imagine almost liking this game if the characters were placed in a different scenario.
Sound
The BGM and sound design of this game is pretty standard for a low-budget eroge, except for a few startling exceptions.
The song that plays during the H-scenes feels really... sad and depressing. If that is intentional, kudos to the developers --- I felt it. (This could potentially be intentional, considering that Midori-san is literally cheating on her husband this entire time. It serves well to inspire cognitive dissonance: it's fucking awesome that she's blowing me, but is this really right?)
I don't think it was intentional though.
The other significant scene is where Midori-san gives you a blowjob while Greensleeves (yes, that Greensleeves) plays in the background. Even further, this song actually plays within the storyworld of the game itself, so she is literally giving head while listening to fucking Christmas music.
It's one of the most memorable blowjob scenes I've ever seen. Fucking kudos, Sponge Teitoku.
---
Now, let us turn to the character voices.
Only Midori-san is voiced, which is customary for eroges (that is, the protagonist is usually not voiced).
I don't really know what to say besides she pulls off the onee-san role pretty well. And she put her, uh, all into the H-scene voicing.
Let us discuss the H-scene voice acting.
JESUS FUCK, is she into it. She fucks like a madman. I want to give particular attention to her blowjob acting.
It's revolutionary. It's paradigm-shifting. It's transcendental.
--Midori-san, 2008
Midori-san slurps like a starving African child at a watering hole.
This actually raised my standards for what a blowjob could be. If I'm ever being slurped on without vacuum-cleaner-like energy, I will be sorely disappointed.
Conclusions
This game is exactly what you think it is.
If you want a quick fap, go for it, but otherwise this game is not going to be leaving any real lasting impression on you.
Verdict
Pants-off rating: 7/10
Pants-on rating: 3.5/10
Monday, October 24, 2016
ErogeQuest 2016 Part II: More C's Ware (Desire)
ErogeQuest 2016 continues! This time, I read through Desire by C's Ware.
All in all it was pretty damn good, this is more like the YU-NO I love.
Playthrough notes here: (Spoilers for Desire and YU-NO)
So yeah. 7/10 probably. Next up is Eve ~Burst Error~!
All in all it was pretty damn good, this is more like the YU-NO I love.
Playthrough notes here: (Spoilers for Desire and YU-NO)
Monday, October 3, 2016
ErogeQuest Part I: Journey Through C's Ware
Halfway because I'm interested in visual novel history and halfway because I hate myself, a few weeks ago I decided to go and read C's Wares first VNs. A rational person would immediately dismiss these games as smut and then bleach their eye holes after beholding them, but I'm not quite rational.
I know it gets better. I know this garbage culminates in YU-NO, which is alone enough motivation to push me through the slush. Surely the previous games by YU-NO's staff would have redeeming qualities, right?
Ha, ha.
--------------
The following are my notes while reading mixed in with post-mortem evaluation. I am aware the writing devolves with time. These games have destroyed my ability to organize my thoughts.
--------------
RECURRING THEMES / MOTIFS:
[1] Mean-spirited
[2] Lack of agency in sex scenes ('craziness', 'love pills')
[3] "Rape is something to be endured"
[4] FUCKED UP
[5] PUNISHMENT
[6] Random and "convenient" characterizations for sex scenes
-----Fatal Relations-----
So like, you move into a house with your new family after your father dies or something. The house is led by a matriarch and houses several sisters. The house is special, though. Every character wants sex with you, all the time, until it kills you. This made it pretty (unintentionally) hilarious.
Negatives:
There are strong horror vibes in this game, particularly sexual horror, which is a recurring theme in C's Wares games (which is really uncomfortable). Otherwise, there's nothing really to talk about here,
-----Love Potion-----
It's all the same shtick: guy comes to all-girls school as a teacher, sex happens constantly. This time, a magic pill makes everyone go into heat. Wow!
That said, there were actually traces of goodness in here. This is Hiroyuki Kanno's entry into VN writing iirc, and you can definitely see a resemblance to YU-NO in here, namely the humor and style of writing. On top of that, the conspiracy-type plot with many moving parts. It kind of reminds me of Divi-Dead too, even though the authors aren't shared.
Still pretty bad, the ending was kind of nice though. (A happy-ish ending?)
I can see why people say that C's Ware and Kanno can only write sex-themed stories though --- even when looking at Divi-Dead and YU-NO, the sex (and, in the former, sexual horror) motifs are pretty strong. I know he can write WELL (re: YU-NO) but it would be interesting to see a... not rape-centric story before then?
-----Don't Call Me Amy-----
The translation of this game is a fucking disaster. I literally cannot even tell what's happening.
Emi is a really funny character though, but that's just because I kinda like airhead characters.
The scenarios are ridiculous, and I think that might be intentional. The first story is a school life story, followed by a nurse story (lol), concluding with a maid story (LOL).
The game seems aware of this, esp considering the character commentaries between stories (something I liked actually).
The plot is highly sexual, with a bit of sexual horror.
Literally LOL'd when Tomomi got stabbed to death in the end of the second story.
THE LAWS OF NATURE LITErALLY ARE FORCING THE GIRL AND THE BOY TO BE MARRIED OR ELSE HE'S CURSED LOL
Emi was tortured as a maid, so in vengeance, she and Tomomi literally rape everybody in the house.
THE HOUSE BURNT DOWN AGAIN LOL
happy ending again
What the fuck is this stuff in the description about "two Amys" and split personalities? I literally got none of that. Did we play the same game?
EXTRAS: Fun PSA on contraception, because lol.
--------------
Parting remarks:
I know it gets better. I know this garbage culminates in YU-NO, which is alone enough motivation to push me through the slush. Surely the previous games by YU-NO's staff would have redeeming qualities, right?
Ha, ha.
--------------
The following are my notes while reading mixed in with post-mortem evaluation. I am aware the writing devolves with time. These games have destroyed my ability to organize my thoughts.
--------------
RECURRING THEMES / MOTIFS:
[1] Mean-spirited
[2] Lack of agency in sex scenes ('craziness', 'love pills')
[3] "Rape is something to be endured"
[4] FUCKED UP
[5] PUNISHMENT
[6] Random and "convenient" characterizations for sex scenes
-----Fatal Relations-----
So like, you move into a house with your new family after your father dies or something. The house is led by a matriarch and houses several sisters. The house is special, though. Every character wants sex with you, all the time, until it kills you. This made it pretty (unintentionally) hilarious.
Negatives:
- Shit. Total shit.
- Uncomfortable as fuck.
- I hated everyone except the maid.
- Nothing really made sense, was the house making people crazy? Or something?
- It invokes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], AND [6]. Fantastic!
Positives:
- The ending was amazing. Everybody burned to death in a mansion fire.
- Kinda funny in a "this is garbage" kinda way.
- The maid was a bro.
- It was short.
There are strong horror vibes in this game, particularly sexual horror, which is a recurring theme in C's Wares games (which is really uncomfortable). Otherwise, there's nothing really to talk about here,
-----Love Potion-----
It's all the same shtick: guy comes to all-girls school as a teacher, sex happens constantly. This time, a magic pill makes everyone go into heat. Wow!
That said, there were actually traces of goodness in here. This is Hiroyuki Kanno's entry into VN writing iirc, and you can definitely see a resemblance to YU-NO in here, namely the humor and style of writing. On top of that, the conspiracy-type plot with many moving parts. It kind of reminds me of Divi-Dead too, even though the authors aren't shared.
Still pretty bad, the ending was kind of nice though. (A happy-ish ending?)
I can see why people say that C's Ware and Kanno can only write sex-themed stories though --- even when looking at Divi-Dead and YU-NO, the sex (and, in the former, sexual horror) motifs are pretty strong. I know he can write WELL (re: YU-NO) but it would be interesting to see a... not rape-centric story before then?
-----Don't Call Me Amy-----
The translation of this game is a fucking disaster. I literally cannot even tell what's happening.
 |
| me too |
The scenarios are ridiculous, and I think that might be intentional. The first story is a school life story, followed by a nurse story (lol), concluding with a maid story (LOL).
The game seems aware of this, esp considering the character commentaries between stories (something I liked actually).
The plot is highly sexual, with a bit of sexual horror.
Literally LOL'd when Tomomi got stabbed to death in the end of the second story.
THE LAWS OF NATURE LITErALLY ARE FORCING THE GIRL AND THE BOY TO BE MARRIED OR ELSE HE'S CURSED LOL
Emi was tortured as a maid, so in vengeance, she and Tomomi literally rape everybody in the house.
THE HOUSE BURNT DOWN AGAIN LOL
happy ending again
What the fuck is this stuff in the description about "two Amys" and split personalities? I literally got none of that. Did we play the same game?
EXTRAS: Fun PSA on contraception, because lol.
--------------
Parting remarks:
Friday, September 2, 2016
Visual Novels, Anime, and the Trouble with Adaptations
((Note: This was written mostly before the Rewrite anime was released.))
It's always exciting to see a favorite story get adapted. You get to see your favorite scenes animated! The story will get greater exposure, giving you more people to talk about it with! And for some of us, we get that hipster cred when we discover something before it becomes mainstream! The downside is that it's remarkably difficult to make an adaptation work, and some mediums have it worse than others.
Visual novel adaptations, unfortunately, usually don't turn out very well. When they do turn out well, they're usually still inferior versions of the source material. It's why the great news about the new Rewrite anime is often met with anger and frustration instead of excitement and optimism.
That's a justified response given the anime industry's track record. Some of them will even describe why the anime is doomed from the start. What exactly are the solutions, then?
"The Rewrite anime can be good, but they have to do it right."
Despite being a tautology, this is completely useless advice. Literally anything on the planet can be good "if done right." Animation, interior design, murder, you name it. There are a set of qualities that can make each of these productions "good." Our job, then, is to isolate what major obstacles face anime producers when making adaptations and describe possible remedies for them.
In short, the fundamental obstacle with most adaptations is this:
---Writers choose the medium to fit the story.
Note that this isn't always true in storytelling. Authors write their stories in books because they lack the resources to make movies. These are limitations which don't necessarily reflect qualities of the stories themselves. Perhaps the starving author would make a movie if they could. That's not what we're concerned with.
---Visual novel writers chose the medium for the story.
For a visual novel writer, there are particular qualities that are attractive in the visual novel that are absent in other mediums. Sometimes these writers will select other mediums for their stories: a notable example is Jun Maeda, who began with VNs (Kanon, CLANNAD, Little Busters!) but eventually started writing for anime (Angel Beats!, Charlotte).
For him, choosing the medium was an explicit choice.
"I want to explore the function of family in a number of different ways, so I'll write CLANNAD as a visual novel so I can have multiple routes."
"I want a fast-paced mystery that spans one timeline, so an anime would be better for Charlotte."
In short, the medium itself played a role in the telling of the story. Adaptations often will ignore this and try to coerce the VN into a linear, animated form. If we really want a good adaptation, the subtleties of the new medium itself needs to be considered. Changes need to be made. A carbon copy usually just won't do.
You have to analyze the strengths of each medium in order to make a good result. You need a new direction.
--------------
Below I list some common pitfalls that anime adaptations suffer and offer suggestions each of them. I tried to list as many as I could think of, but I don't expect this to be complete. At the very least it's a good starting point for analyzing the differences in media.
--------------
Problem 1: Content
This is usually the first thing that people point to when describing faulty adaptations, but I wouldn't classify this as the biggest contributor to bad anime. However, it is still a big concern.
Visual novels are long and dense. Many of the "great" VNs are in excess of 50 hours long. How can you condense 50 hours of content into 13 hours of anime? Inevitably, content will be lost. You can't avoid that. It's impossible to represent everything in the adaptation. You have to cut things out.
Do we really need Kappei's route in a CLANNAD adaptation? No, this doesn't tie in as well to the main story as some of the other routes.
Do we really need talks about food in a Fate/stay night adaptation? No, there are other ways to characterize the protagonists while having them do things that matter.
Do we really need Okabe's dense description of the laboratory in Steins;Gate? No, we get that already through visuals and cinematography.
The problem of reducing content is difficult. Trimming content is hard without deciding on a new direction for the story in the adaptation. Sometimes projects are doomed from the start (Umineko) if you can't find a way to condense information in subtle ways.
The strength of motion picture is that things can be shown. There are plenty of ways to represent information outside of text. You don't need to turn description into dialogue. You can turn description into imagery.
Problem 2: Multiple Routes
This is the next most-cited point in these kinds of discussions. At first glance, it's impossible to reconcile this difference. Anime is linear, The visual novel isn't. However, directors have shown us clever workarounds over the years. The CLANNAD approach can work if you can "de-romanticize" the routes: simply splice the temporally compatible routes into character arcs for the minor characters. The CLANNAD anime's treatment of the game is altogether special: since the narrative focus in the anime is almost entirely devoted to Tomoya and Nagisa, you get to experience Tomoya and Nagisa solving the other characters' problems, instead of just Tomoya. It creates a new dynamic between the story's characters.
A lot of the time this simply isn't possible, though. It the routes are not temporally compatible, the directors will need to reevaluate the structure of the anime. Why cram a bunch of incompatible routes together? This stems from the misconception that an anime adaptation of a VN needs to be a strict retelling of the VN's events. It doesn't have to be that way as long as you frame the audience's expectations appropriately. Aren't there other ways to characterize the minor characters without ripping the routes from the VN?
Problem 3: Perspective
In my opinion, this is one of the largest obstacles in adaptation. Visual novels are (usually) told through first-person limited narration. Anime is not. The importance of perspective is often overlooked because it usually doesn't contribute to bad adaptations, but rather mediocre ones. Most of these VNs would be "just okay" without the focus on narration. Certain VNs are fantastic because of their reliance on this narration (Muv-Luv Alternative works so well because we are constantly assailed by Takeru's most intimate thoughts). Failing to capture that aspect of the story doesn't always cripple the adaptation, but reduces its emotional impact on the audience. It's a silent killer.
There are a number of choices anime studios have made over the years to address this:
Problem 4: Serial vs Complete
This is a subtle point that is often overlooked. Anime are episodic, visual novels are complete. To turn a complete work into a serial one, you have to slice up the plot.
Compare this with manga, another serial medium. Manga is delimited by chapters. At least in this way, manga is easy to turn into anime since you don't need to make decisions about where to interrupt the action. That's given to you by the author already.
For the visual novel, you need to forcibly impose boundaries for plot segments. This is a storyboarding and directing problem. Thus, the directors' and scriptwriters' vision is imposed onto the anime itself. This isn't a bad thing. On the contrary, this forces them to develop their own vision for the anime and adopt stances that may differ from the source material.
Problem 5: "Quirks"
The visual novel, as a medium, has a rich history behind it. There are plenty of "quirks" and conventions now attached to it that aren't present in other media. It's natural that some artifacts would play around with our expectations of the medium. Ever17 and Little Busters take full advantage of the conventions of the VN form in order to subvert them later on. This effect is lost when translated to a medium without those quirks. At least in these two examples, you can probably achieve a comparable effect with nonlinear storytelling, but then the resulting statement is one broader and less focused than the one in the original work (i.e. commenting on the expectation of linear narrative is less specific than commenting on the expectation that subsequent playthroughs of a VN exist in their own closed-off narrative spaces, for example).
Summary: What is the purpose of this adaptation?
This is the most fundamental question we must ask ourselves when adapting an IP. What do you wish to accomplish with this anime? Do you want to faithfully retell the story or introduce a unique spin on the concept? Specifically, are you marketing this towards fans of the IP or are you trying to appeal to a wide audience? You can do both, but you need to frame the anime for your specific goal. You'd be surprised at how frequently the anime industry spawns ill-conceived adaptations. In reality the issue is complicated because directors and screenwriters must work with bigwig executives to balance artist merit with mass appeal, but this doesn't have to be damning.
I don't care if the studio has to remove things to make it marketable.
I don't care if you change the style to make it work.
I don't even care if you deviate from what made the VN good in the first place.
Just make the anime good on its own terms.
It's always exciting to see a favorite story get adapted. You get to see your favorite scenes animated! The story will get greater exposure, giving you more people to talk about it with! And for some of us, we get that hipster cred when we discover something before it becomes mainstream! The downside is that it's remarkably difficult to make an adaptation work, and some mediums have it worse than others.
Visual novel adaptations, unfortunately, usually don't turn out very well. When they do turn out well, they're usually still inferior versions of the source material. It's why the great news about the new Rewrite anime is often met with anger and frustration instead of excitement and optimism.
That's a justified response given the anime industry's track record. Some of them will even describe why the anime is doomed from the start. What exactly are the solutions, then?
"The Rewrite anime can be good, but they have to do it right."
Despite being a tautology, this is completely useless advice. Literally anything on the planet can be good "if done right." Animation, interior design, murder, you name it. There are a set of qualities that can make each of these productions "good." Our job, then, is to isolate what major obstacles face anime producers when making adaptations and describe possible remedies for them.
In short, the fundamental obstacle with most adaptations is this:
---Writers choose the medium to fit the story.
Note that this isn't always true in storytelling. Authors write their stories in books because they lack the resources to make movies. These are limitations which don't necessarily reflect qualities of the stories themselves. Perhaps the starving author would make a movie if they could. That's not what we're concerned with.
---Visual novel writers chose the medium for the story.
For a visual novel writer, there are particular qualities that are attractive in the visual novel that are absent in other mediums. Sometimes these writers will select other mediums for their stories: a notable example is Jun Maeda, who began with VNs (Kanon, CLANNAD, Little Busters!) but eventually started writing for anime (Angel Beats!, Charlotte).
For him, choosing the medium was an explicit choice.
"I want to explore the function of family in a number of different ways, so I'll write CLANNAD as a visual novel so I can have multiple routes."
"I want a fast-paced mystery that spans one timeline, so an anime would be better for Charlotte."
In short, the medium itself played a role in the telling of the story. Adaptations often will ignore this and try to coerce the VN into a linear, animated form. If we really want a good adaptation, the subtleties of the new medium itself needs to be considered. Changes need to be made. A carbon copy usually just won't do.
You have to analyze the strengths of each medium in order to make a good result. You need a new direction.
--------------
Below I list some common pitfalls that anime adaptations suffer and offer suggestions each of them. I tried to list as many as I could think of, but I don't expect this to be complete. At the very least it's a good starting point for analyzing the differences in media.
--------------
Problem 1: Content
This is usually the first thing that people point to when describing faulty adaptations, but I wouldn't classify this as the biggest contributor to bad anime. However, it is still a big concern.
Visual novels are long and dense. Many of the "great" VNs are in excess of 50 hours long. How can you condense 50 hours of content into 13 hours of anime? Inevitably, content will be lost. You can't avoid that. It's impossible to represent everything in the adaptation. You have to cut things out.
Do we really need Kappei's route in a CLANNAD adaptation? No, this doesn't tie in as well to the main story as some of the other routes.
Do we really need talks about food in a Fate/stay night adaptation? No, there are other ways to characterize the protagonists while having them do things that matter.
Do we really need Okabe's dense description of the laboratory in Steins;Gate? No, we get that already through visuals and cinematography.
The problem of reducing content is difficult. Trimming content is hard without deciding on a new direction for the story in the adaptation. Sometimes projects are doomed from the start (Umineko) if you can't find a way to condense information in subtle ways.
The strength of motion picture is that things can be shown. There are plenty of ways to represent information outside of text. You don't need to turn description into dialogue. You can turn description into imagery.
Problem 2: Multiple Routes
This is the next most-cited point in these kinds of discussions. At first glance, it's impossible to reconcile this difference. Anime is linear, The visual novel isn't. However, directors have shown us clever workarounds over the years. The CLANNAD approach can work if you can "de-romanticize" the routes: simply splice the temporally compatible routes into character arcs for the minor characters. The CLANNAD anime's treatment of the game is altogether special: since the narrative focus in the anime is almost entirely devoted to Tomoya and Nagisa, you get to experience Tomoya and Nagisa solving the other characters' problems, instead of just Tomoya. It creates a new dynamic between the story's characters.
A lot of the time this simply isn't possible, though. It the routes are not temporally compatible, the directors will need to reevaluate the structure of the anime. Why cram a bunch of incompatible routes together? This stems from the misconception that an anime adaptation of a VN needs to be a strict retelling of the VN's events. It doesn't have to be that way as long as you frame the audience's expectations appropriately. Aren't there other ways to characterize the minor characters without ripping the routes from the VN?
Problem 3: Perspective
In my opinion, this is one of the largest obstacles in adaptation. Visual novels are (usually) told through first-person limited narration. Anime is not. The importance of perspective is often overlooked because it usually doesn't contribute to bad adaptations, but rather mediocre ones. Most of these VNs would be "just okay" without the focus on narration. Certain VNs are fantastic because of their reliance on this narration (Muv-Luv Alternative works so well because we are constantly assailed by Takeru's most intimate thoughts). Failing to capture that aspect of the story doesn't always cripple the adaptation, but reduces its emotional impact on the audience. It's a silent killer.
There are a number of choices anime studios have made over the years to address this:
- Provide the narration as voiceover
- Provide the narration as dialogue ("People die when they are killed")
- Ignore the narration altogether
- Show the character's thoughts visually (through cinematography and mise-en-scene)
Each approach has its merits and uses, but the choice should be made consciously and with awareness of the work as a whole.
This is a subtle point that is often overlooked. Anime are episodic, visual novels are complete. To turn a complete work into a serial one, you have to slice up the plot.
Compare this with manga, another serial medium. Manga is delimited by chapters. At least in this way, manga is easy to turn into anime since you don't need to make decisions about where to interrupt the action. That's given to you by the author already.
For the visual novel, you need to forcibly impose boundaries for plot segments. This is a storyboarding and directing problem. Thus, the directors' and scriptwriters' vision is imposed onto the anime itself. This isn't a bad thing. On the contrary, this forces them to develop their own vision for the anime and adopt stances that may differ from the source material.
Problem 5: "Quirks"
The visual novel, as a medium, has a rich history behind it. There are plenty of "quirks" and conventions now attached to it that aren't present in other media. It's natural that some artifacts would play around with our expectations of the medium. Ever17 and Little Busters take full advantage of the conventions of the VN form in order to subvert them later on. This effect is lost when translated to a medium without those quirks. At least in these two examples, you can probably achieve a comparable effect with nonlinear storytelling, but then the resulting statement is one broader and less focused than the one in the original work (i.e. commenting on the expectation of linear narrative is less specific than commenting on the expectation that subsequent playthroughs of a VN exist in their own closed-off narrative spaces, for example).
Summary: What is the purpose of this adaptation?
This is the most fundamental question we must ask ourselves when adapting an IP. What do you wish to accomplish with this anime? Do you want to faithfully retell the story or introduce a unique spin on the concept? Specifically, are you marketing this towards fans of the IP or are you trying to appeal to a wide audience? You can do both, but you need to frame the anime for your specific goal. You'd be surprised at how frequently the anime industry spawns ill-conceived adaptations. In reality the issue is complicated because directors and screenwriters must work with bigwig executives to balance artist merit with mass appeal, but this doesn't have to be damning.
I don't care if the studio has to remove things to make it marketable.
I don't care if you change the style to make it work.
I don't even care if you deviate from what made the VN good in the first place.
Just make the anime good on its own terms.
Monday, August 29, 2016
"Equivalent Side-Character" Syndrome
((Spoilers for YU-NO, Air, and Steins;Gate ahead!))
A well-written side-character really excites me. It's often refreshing to see interactions between these kinds of characters because they tend to have larger flexibility in the story with respect to personality and actions. Sometimes they can even steal the scene they're in (for me personally? Rohan Kishibe from Diamond is Unbreakable, Mettaton from Undertale, to name a few).
Visual novels have it kind of hard in this area, though. It's not so much that VNs don't have well-written characters, but more that the conventions of the medium force these characters to be treated by the narrative in certain ways.
A large portion of visual novels with routes belong to the harem genre, or at least follow conventions of the harem genre (namely that the protagonist has multiple love interests and that each route focuses on a single love interest in some form).
Traditionally, these kinds of games offered up multiple female love interests so that each player would be able to develop a romantic relationship with characters they were actually interested in. Players are more likely to be interested in at least one character if their selection is large, after all. A consequence of this is that they tend to get "equal attention" by the narrative; after all, eroge players tend to get mad when their favorite character is framed as "equivalent" to other female leads but is actually given significantly less attention than the others ("why don't we get a 'Kyou After'? Nagisa is boring!"). This can make the narrative fairly predictable at times, since you know that the stories involving the girls are going to be "balanced" to make sure no one heroine gets more attention than the others. Additionally, there isn't a whole lot of room for one character to steal the spotlight, which can be disappointing.
An interesting example to bring in is Elf's 1996 classic YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world. The majority of the female leads exhibit an equal amount of agency over the events in the game, which leads us to assume that they are going to be treated equally towards the end of the game. In the game's final act, the protagonist is sent to an entirely new location and encounters an identical counterpart to one of the game's main heroines. Because the heroines thus far have been "equivalent", I expected to see ALL of them have some appearance, but this never happens. In this last act, one heroine is given more attention to the story, and it was actually slightly disappointing for me. The pretense of equivalency was dropped at the end of the game, violating my expectations in a negative way.
VN's have changed since then, especially since KEY's Air, which features a "true" route. This route occurs after all of the other routes are completed and usually focuses on one (or a few) heroines over the others. Air initially frames one heroine, Misuzu, as "more important" than the others, and the true route focuses exclusively on her. This allows for more narrative focus, since the story is no longer forced to equally accommodate to each heroine. I personally prefer this format since it allows certain characters to really shine, but also because the concept of a single "canon" ending allows the writers of the VN to actually construct a coherent thesis. For example, each of the original routes in KEY's CLANNAD focuses on some aspect of "family", and the true route unifies each of the thematic threads in those routes and presents a final message about family as a catalyst for personal change.
Many of these games don't escape the "Equivalent Side-Character Syndrome", though. Nitroplus's Steins;Gate, while a fantastic game, is a good example to study. There are a variety of female characters, but only two of them actually matter. The others each are only important in that they get a single character arc. The structure of the game makes this aspect especially tedious. We know that since only two characters matter, the rest are going to be treated roughly the same way by the narrative. Once one of those characters gets a story arc, all of them must get a story arc. We are thus given a sizable portion of game that is spent on character arcs that don't entirely matter to the plot, but occur so that each of the minor female leads gets attention.
All in all, this trope isn't all that bad, but it definitely can frame our expectations about the game. If the game goes out of its way to let us know that all of the characters are "equal", then we know that we can have fulfilling experiences no matter which route we take. If the game attempts to elevate certain characters as more important, we can expect a more cohesive, focused narrative. There are great (and also bad) examples of both styles.
A well-written side-character really excites me. It's often refreshing to see interactions between these kinds of characters because they tend to have larger flexibility in the story with respect to personality and actions. Sometimes they can even steal the scene they're in (for me personally? Rohan Kishibe from Diamond is Unbreakable, Mettaton from Undertale, to name a few).
Visual novels have it kind of hard in this area, though. It's not so much that VNs don't have well-written characters, but more that the conventions of the medium force these characters to be treated by the narrative in certain ways.
A large portion of visual novels with routes belong to the harem genre, or at least follow conventions of the harem genre (namely that the protagonist has multiple love interests and that each route focuses on a single love interest in some form).
Traditionally, these kinds of games offered up multiple female love interests so that each player would be able to develop a romantic relationship with characters they were actually interested in. Players are more likely to be interested in at least one character if their selection is large, after all. A consequence of this is that they tend to get "equal attention" by the narrative; after all, eroge players tend to get mad when their favorite character is framed as "equivalent" to other female leads but is actually given significantly less attention than the others ("why don't we get a 'Kyou After'? Nagisa is boring!"). This can make the narrative fairly predictable at times, since you know that the stories involving the girls are going to be "balanced" to make sure no one heroine gets more attention than the others. Additionally, there isn't a whole lot of room for one character to steal the spotlight, which can be disappointing.
An interesting example to bring in is Elf's 1996 classic YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world. The majority of the female leads exhibit an equal amount of agency over the events in the game, which leads us to assume that they are going to be treated equally towards the end of the game. In the game's final act, the protagonist is sent to an entirely new location and encounters an identical counterpart to one of the game's main heroines. Because the heroines thus far have been "equivalent", I expected to see ALL of them have some appearance, but this never happens. In this last act, one heroine is given more attention to the story, and it was actually slightly disappointing for me. The pretense of equivalency was dropped at the end of the game, violating my expectations in a negative way.
VN's have changed since then, especially since KEY's Air, which features a "true" route. This route occurs after all of the other routes are completed and usually focuses on one (or a few) heroines over the others. Air initially frames one heroine, Misuzu, as "more important" than the others, and the true route focuses exclusively on her. This allows for more narrative focus, since the story is no longer forced to equally accommodate to each heroine. I personally prefer this format since it allows certain characters to really shine, but also because the concept of a single "canon" ending allows the writers of the VN to actually construct a coherent thesis. For example, each of the original routes in KEY's CLANNAD focuses on some aspect of "family", and the true route unifies each of the thematic threads in those routes and presents a final message about family as a catalyst for personal change.
Many of these games don't escape the "Equivalent Side-Character Syndrome", though. Nitroplus's Steins;Gate, while a fantastic game, is a good example to study. There are a variety of female characters, but only two of them actually matter. The others each are only important in that they get a single character arc. The structure of the game makes this aspect especially tedious. We know that since only two characters matter, the rest are going to be treated roughly the same way by the narrative. Once one of those characters gets a story arc, all of them must get a story arc. We are thus given a sizable portion of game that is spent on character arcs that don't entirely matter to the plot, but occur so that each of the minor female leads gets attention.
All in all, this trope isn't all that bad, but it definitely can frame our expectations about the game. If the game goes out of its way to let us know that all of the characters are "equal", then we know that we can have fulfilling experiences no matter which route we take. If the game attempts to elevate certain characters as more important, we can expect a more cohesive, focused narrative. There are great (and also bad) examples of both styles.
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