Recently, I did something very bad. I got into Bleach. After reading the whole manga in a very short time period, I came to a few conclusions:

• Bleach, on the whole, is a waste of time to read, let alone watch(which I haven’t done but I hear there are filler arcs in addition to the overly long canon arcs);
• Kubo Tite is great at writing and drawing characters;
• Kubo Tite has some really interesting plot ideas; and
• Kubo Tite sucks at continuity and resolving plot arcs.

I can see how people reading little by little might not see it, but when you read everything at once the plot holes and such are pretty obvious.

What does this mean? Apart from the mess that is Bleach canon, which I may still read in bursts just to keep up, but will never defend, it means opportunity for fantastic fandom. Why? Because along with the enormous base of interesting characters that Kubo Tite made and gives only hints of interesting backstory for, there is also a ton of foreshadowing and plot points that are never dealt with, or dealt with in such a cursory/stupid way that they beg for a better treatment from fan artists/writers.

Anyways, I don’t usually go against canon in my shipping, because it’s just frustrating rooting for a couple that will never get their canon ending. However, in Bleach relationships are so vague that you can pretty much pick whatever couple you like. For me, I always was kind of annoyed by Ichigo – I liked him and Orihime, but in the last half or more of the series that doesn’t seem likely (and even if it ends up that way, I don’t think it should), and his personality is underdeveloped in romance, so it almost feels weird to ship him with anyone. And anyways, there are much more interesting pairings to explore – my favourite are (don’t laugh) Orihime and Ulquiorra, and Orihime and Grimmjow. Two pairings that are almost totally impossible, yet I love them because before Tito Kube wrote the horrible (IMO) endings of their character arcs, I could totally see them developing a relationship with her in various shoujo/otome plotastic ways. So I’ve been having some fun exploring fanfic and fanart of these pairings, and can I just say, I’m so happy to live in a time when fandom is so big that almost everything has a niche fandom?

 
Anyways, for anyone strange enough to also enjoy Ulquihime, here are some good links:
Fanart:
http://tricktrap.sakura.ne.jp/top/index.htm
Fanvid　（fans of Utena will probably enjoy this too):
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8967981

Hilarious vid if you can read Japanese:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4996194

Bittersweet fanvid, Japanese not needed but spoilers for the end of the arc
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm14731692

Cute fanart

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=25580223

Gorgeous fanart (was missing this link before):

And yay, a picture that I would totally love to read/watch more of!
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=21369043
This artist does a bunch of great Ulquihime (ウル織) art.

Some fun 4-coma manga:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=20015057

Sorry for the non-otome post, this pairing has just sucked me in recently. When I’m not playing FFVI (finally!) or Renai Banchou 2, I’m checking out pixiv and nicovideo and AO3 way too much. I think I’ve seen most of what’s out there – online at least, there is TONS of doujinshi.

Twitter icons - cute!

Looking back at the magazines, the first time I saw anything was way back in the July 2010 Girl’s Style (released in June 2010!). It just had teaser pics of the guys (no Dante, guess he came after lol), with quotes – for some it seems a little different from their final personalities. It’s interesting because B’s Log doesn’t cover it at all until a year later, in their August 2011 (sold in June) issue! Although, they had it in their calendar for a few months before that. Maybe Girls’ Style had an exclusive deal or something.

Comfort was the actual creator although HuneX published it. Its vision was to be a combo of shounen manga (thus all the comic style speech bubbles and action) and otome game (with everything else). And it definitely succeeded – it will be an anime during the Summer 2012 season. It seems like the plot of the show is the same as the game, which I’m a little disappointed in – I thought they could have started it earlier and shown some history before getting into the tournament.

Just for funsies, here’s the first drama CD on Amazon.jp – Volume 1 Arcana Famiglia Piachure! La Primavera.

I haven’t finished Nova, who might be the last character I finish in Arcana for a while. Dante and Jory don’t interest me too much (although if I didn’t have such a backlog I’d totally finish it), but I’ve done everyone else. I find The Lovers ability pretty fun to use, I thought it was well done, and if you know where to look, I don’t find the fighting to be very difficult.

And after poring through magazines for an hour looking for it, I always forget how much is in them. Though I do the news monthly when I get them, it’s mostly just highlights – new games and ports/adaptations. There’s so much other stuff, including some fun little gag comics – I should put them on tumblr or something.

First of all, even in Japan otome games are really fairly new. Though Angelique came out in 1994, it wasn’t until around 2005 that otome games started to come out regularly, with established brands and creators. That means that even though we as otome gamers might wonder why a breakout could happen now, the genre is really just maturing now.

Also, I feel like otome games are not just for women who want romance, but also women who just want something made for them – with the female gaze in mind. And recently the female gaze has been getting a lot of attention, growing from BL and shoujo and the slash community into anime, and now into Western mainstream film and TV. A lot of otome games aren’t heavy-handed with the romance (part of this is due to the young target audience and characters, but whatever), and I could easily see women, who are still a growing share of the gaming market in general, embracing otome games not only for the romance but for the overall atmosphere that they’re made for them.

One of the points brought up in the article was that bishoujo games(1 male/many females harem games) had a few localizations that didn’t do very well, so otome games might not either. To rebut this, let me throw a few stats at you:

From RWA – Romance Writers of America – Industry Statistics:

2010 Romance Fiction Sales in Comparison (ed: this is as a share of all fiction)
(source: Simba Information)

• Romance: $1.358 billion
• Religion/inspirational: $759 million
• Mystery: $682 million
• Science fiction/fantasy: $559 million
• Classic literary fiction: $455 million

I got into otome gaming not only because I love playing videogames, but because I love romance and am used to buying romance novels. Culturally, women are about a thousand times more likely to buy a piece of romantic fiction, whether it’s a novel, movie, or a game, than men. In 2010, romance as a genre sold almost TWICE as much as its closest competitor, and overall was 36% of the fiction market. That is a huge number yo! And most romance is bought by women. So…I really believe that otome games might succeed where bishoujo didn’t.

And to finish, I checked out Hakuoki’s Amazon.com rankings. The first thing that surprised me was that the limited edition is doing better than the regular edition! Aksys definitely hit the right price point there, I think. And it’s currently in the top spot for Adventure PSP games!! However, looking at the other games in the category, there’s not much new there. In total videogames it’s #784. Now that sounds really low, but taking a look at the top 100, a lot of those are actually accessories >.>;; Hard to tell what it really means.

Anyways, of course I want Hakuoki to do well so more otome games are localized, and so I’m inclined to be optimistic, but I really feel otome games have a chance in the Western market. Now I have to go and plan my Hakuoki party!

Arco Baleno Portable PSP
Death Connection Portable PSP
Hakuouki Zuisouroku Portable PSP
Moujuutsukai to Oujisama Snow Bride PS2
Harutoki 5 PSP
Vit XtoZ PSP
HanaOni PSP
CLover no Kuni no Alice PSP
Kimi ni Todoke
Hakuouki Yuugiroku DS
Are you Alice
Garnet Cradle Portable PSP
SYK fd Portable PSP
Asaki Yumemishi PSP
Starry Sky Winter Portable PSP
Hiiro no Kakera Aizouban PS3
Iza Shutsujin PSP
Shin Hiiro no Kakera 2 DS
Sangoku Senrenki PS2
Kaerutaubake fd  PSP
Xechs FD PS2
Mother Goose PSP
Beastmaster Portable PSP
Musketeer PSP
Hiiro no Kakera 4 PSP
Nise no Chigiri fd PSP
Shinigami to Shoujo PSP
Heart no Kuni no Alice Anniversary PSP
Hakouki Reimeiroku  PSP
Storm Lover Natsukoi PSP
UtaPuri Repeat PSP
Amnesia PSP
Bunmei Kaika Aoiza PSP
Hiiro no Kakera 3 DS
Crimson Empire PSP
Gekka Ryouran Romance PSP
Wand of Fortune II PSP
Okashina Shima no Peter Pan PSP
Clock Zero fd PS2
Kaminaru Kimi to
Arcana Famiglia PSP
Joker no Kuni no Alice PSP
Miss Princess DS
Angelique Maren no Rokukishi PSP
Strobe Mania PSP
Mahoutsukai to Goshujinsama PSP
Hakuouki 3D 3DS
FabStyle 3DS
Uta puri music PSP
Beyond the future PSP and PS3
Omocha Bako no kuni no Alice
Hanayaka Nari Waga Ichizoku FD PSP

I see 20 new games, and 9 new fandisks. The rest are ports/adaptations.

PC games
Diary
Starry Sky After Summer
Kago no Naka no Alishous
Tsubasa no Oka no Hime R18
TYB (3 games)
Red Riding Hood R18
Chou no Doku R18
Miyako fd
Grimm Director’s Cut
Hotokensaa
Noise
Dare ni demo FD
Starry Sky After Autumn

In PC games they’re all new except Grimm.

Apart from the new character in Tokimemo 3 GS PSP, Hasumi Tatsuya:

• there was another character revealed for Yura’s new game Hana Aware
  
  I *think* his name is Karakurenai and he’s one of the five Lights. He’s very confident, enjoys fighting and bloodshed, and controlling.
• Starry Sky After Winter will be released Apr 27 for the PC
• Finally I think I understand what TYB (Tokyo Yamanote Boys) Sweet Jelly Beans is – it’s the compilation of all three original games, plus a route for the murderer (I hope it’s good, it would take A LOT for me to be interested in a killer…although there was Kurayami de Kimi o Matsu…) – it’s out this January
• Speaking of TYB, they’ve announced fandisks for EACH of the original games (and I used to think Jelly Beans was the fandisk, how wrong I was!) with stories about after the competition. Fresh Ginger is the FD for Honey Milk, Pure Raspberry is for Super Mint, and Black Vanilla is for Dark(?) Cherry.
• Hiiro no Kakera anime!
  
  What do you think about the designs?
• New PSP adaptation from a cell game from the same team that did Iza Shutsujin! – this game is called Abunai! Koi no Sousashitsu (Danger! Love Investigation Room), and is a detective game, totally different from Iza which was set in the Sengoku period (and which I still have barely started)



]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2011/12/bs-log-december/feed/ 0 http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/04/bits-hakuouki-ps3-bl-comics-law/ http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/04/bits-hakuouki-ps3-bl-comics-law/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:18:31 +0000 lijakaca http://lijaka.com/blog/?p=572 Recent news and random thoughts:
• There’s a post on Kotaku talking about a possible new law in Osaka (Japan’s second biggest city) regulating depictions of underage sex, including that in BL manga and games. Ignoring Kotaku’s simplistic explanation of why BL is popular, I pretty much agree with their opinion that it’s more of a political plower play than actual moral disapproval. I hope that it doesn’t go through, since I don’t believe in limiting freedom of speech when it involves fictional depictions of characters unless it’s hate speech.
• The Hakuouki PS3 site has a little about what’s new in the PS3 game. One of the new features is AAS (active animation system) – small movements of the characters during dialogue screens, e.g. breathing movements. I thought the breathing was pretty good, but the first pic (who is that btw?) put me off – it looked like his face was moving up and down on his head!!! Creepy. But I’m hoping it won’t look like that in the game, lol.
• The Natsuzora game is listed as a time loop adventure, renai isn’t mentioned – so it may not be a true otome game.
• Starry Sky is coming to the PSP! ~spring~ will come out June 24th
]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/04/bits-hakuouki-ps3-bl-comics-law/feed/ 2 http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/02/testing-123/ http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/02/testing-123/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:16:45 +0000 lijakaca http://lijaka.com/blog/?p=3 Does this work? Man, I hope so!
]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2010/02/testing-123/feed/ 3 http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/11/shin-tamayorihime-hiiro-no-kakera/ http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/11/shin-tamayorihime-hiiro-no-kakera/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:12:06 +0000 lijakaca http://www.lijaka.com/blog/?p=453 I’ve been playing the new Hiiro no Kakera, and it’s good, although it doesn’t have the same punch as the original…I guess it would be tough to, since most fans are familiar with the storyline. I was really impressed with the seiyuu though – I totally forgot that they were all the same as the original! Except Touma, he sounds almost exactly like Takuma (has he ever done a very different voice?)
So far I still have Touma and Shun to do, but I’m taking a break so I don’t get bored. And their personalities are totally different too.

The six guardians are, of course, descendants from the original six, except for Shirou, who (though he may be descended from Ryou since he has the same last name) was more made into a guardian rather than being one naturally. There are two enemy groups trying to control Kanna City’s source of (spiritual) power, one being the Tenyakuryou (sp?), whose head scientist raised the heroine, and the other being the Teni, a religious group whose leader says she is the Tamayorihime. Half of the guardians have connections to the Tenryakryou and half to the church, and depending on whose route you go into, the ending ‘boss’ will come from one of these groups. Then there are the mysterious twins Kyousuke and Teppei (both acted by Ueda Yuuji), who act as both deus (dei?) ex machina and comic relief. I really like them, and almost wish they could have more part in the story.

The story isn’t as angst-filled as HnK1. Each route has its intense moments, even happy-go-lucky Shirou, but they’re not drawn out for long (IMO Shinogu’s is the most angsty so far). Also, at least so far, there’s been no route where it’s the heroine + 1 guardian against the rest, so the story’s atmosphere isn’t as oppressive as Hiiro no Kakera 1 was. Overall, whether these changes are good or bad is a matter of taste. Personally I think I’d like to have seen some more story for each guardian where it’s just him and the heroine – one of the downsides to having the guardians on your side is that there’s a lot of group scenes and not too many one-on-ones. And the scenarios for each character could, I feel, have been explored more. It is ‘easier’ to get through the story though – in the original sometimes I wanted Tamaki to just run away, the whole village (including her grandmother) seemed horrible

How do you guys like it? Which do you like better, and why?

]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/11/shin-tamayorihime-hiiro-no-kakera/feed/ 2 http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/10/other-news/ http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/10/other-news/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:30:32 +0000 lijakaca http://www.lijaka.com/blog/?p=449 …that I missed or forgot before
• Sensual Phrase (Kaikan Phrase), the quintessential smutty shoujo manga by Shinjou Mayu, is getting a game on the DS. It’s set for release in February 2010. Unlike the manga where the heroine Aine falls hard for Sakuya, in the game you’ll also be able to pair up with Kazuto, Yukifumi, Yoshihiko, Hitoshi, Ralph, or Tomoyuki. I have to admit I’m not a fan of the comic, but I might check this out…
• Mizu no Senritsu, a little-known PS2 game, is being re-released December 24 for the PSP by Cyberfront. I might do a post on it, as it doesn’t get the love I think it deserves
• Da Capo Girl’s Symphony Pocket will be released next spring on the DS by Otomate
• Dear Girl ~Stories~ for the DS will be released December 17 2009
• Signal for the DS will be released December 3 2009
• Sangokuren Senki for the PC scheduled for a February 2010 release
]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/10/other-news/feed/ 6