What was it like to work with director Yoshinori Kitase?

I have been working with him since Final Fantasy V. When he joined Square, he told me he initially wanted to become a film director, but that he thought this would be impossible in Japan. The previous version of Final Fantasy could be called puppet shows compared to this one. It’s a real film requiring innovative effects and various camera angles. His experience studying cinematography and in making his own films has contributed a lot to the making of the game. He is the director of this game. (From an interview with Final Fantasy VII producer SAKAGUCHI Hironobu.)

SAKAGUCHI comparing the Final Fantasy games previous to VII to puppet shows is interesting both when looking at the plot twists outlined in the last installment of this series of articles and when looking at the in game character presentation. FFVII indeed applies many cinematic techniques which hadn’t been possible in the predecessors but the characters themselves look more like puppets than ever, a fact that was “remedied” in the next sequel, Final Fantasy VIII, where the characters for the first time are realistically proportioned at all times.

Bunraku, the real art of Japan (youtube video)

I have drawn connections to the one particular Western puppet that is the namesake for this series of articles but of course the Japanese have their own puppet tradition that predates any influences Pinocchio could have had. The traces of Pinocchio we find in the works presented here mix with this older tradition and it’s time to have a look at bunraku, the traditional Japanese puppet theater.

Chūshingura

As we can see in these youtube videos, the movement of the puppets is very life like but the facial expressions are lacking animation mostly. FFVII has a similar presentation and aesthetic, using very fluid motion compared to the 2D sprites of earlier FFs but hardly animating the facial expressions (except in some more detailed pre-rendered cutscenes) which was the most important way to express emotions in the 2D FFs. Instead body language is emphasized as in bunraku plays.

Bunraku players have to train ten years as the feet before moving up to controlling the left arm. Another ten years before they finally "level up" to become the main actor who controls the right arm. (from a Japanese TV show about bunraku)

The themes of the bunraku literary tradition also found their way into FFVII. One of the most popular bunraku pieces, the Chūshingura, tells of the 47 rōnin of Akō who follow their lord into death, by having their revenge on the daimyō who ordered him to die. This story is heaviliy entangled with the ideas of bushidō, the way of the samurai, being loyal to your master and prepared to die for them.^{1 Of course it also questions where this loyalty lies exactly, to one’s immediate lord or the lord of one’s lord. As it favors one’s immediate lord it can also inspire rebellion so the events portrayed in this story weren’t exactly welcomed by the rulers of the country.} All these bushidō values are questioned in FFVII, the game has the player confront a part of their tradition by turning them into a bunraku puppet and ultimately dispenses with some of these traditional ideas.

The birth of Tetsuwan Atom

Cloud being manufactured to be a substitute for Sephiroth (although he ends up being one for Zack, by his own choice), him becoming an electronic puppet, this echoes the great superhero classic of post-war Japanese comics: Tetsuwan Atomu (Atom with the Iron Arm, 1952) or Astroboy, as he’s called outside Japan, was a substitute for Dr. Tenma’s son who died in a car crash. In this manga TEZUKA Osamu continues to draw upon concepts from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) which had already inspired his earlier work of the same name (1949). That one also had a robot protagonist but only in Tetsuwan Atomu the robot became a substitute for a deceased family member. Instead of the wife Hel it became the son Tobio that was “resurrected” as a robot. But like Cloud by Hojo, Atom is judged to be a failure by his father Dr. Tenma and is discarded accordingly.

Hyakkimaru's father sacrifices his son for his ambition (from Dororo)

One of TEZUKA’s later works, Dororo (1968), set in the sengoku era of the warring states, reimagines Atom’s story in the past rather than in a sci-fi future. The hero of the story, Hyakkimaru, is a pre-modern cyborg, born without 48 of his body parts claimed by demons who grant his father rulership over Japan in exchange. Hyakkimaru’s missing organs and limbs are replaced with prosthetics which make him actually stronger than any human but yet he seeks out the demons to reclaim his lost organs. Every time he defeats one of them a superhuman ability granted by mechanics is lost and replaced by an ordinary biological one. In a reversal of typical bildungsroman and RPG narrative Hyakkimaru actually grows weaker by seeking to become the human he was never allowed to be.

In this regard Hyakkimaru’s goal resembles that of Pinocchio who als wanted to become an actual human. It still is a bildungsroman in the true sense of the word, growing up to become an adult (or human, as children are treated as objects in the Pinocchio narrative). The story of Dororo ends prematurely before Hykkimaru achieves this goal though. His sidekick Dororo, after which the manga is named, drops out of the story when she is revealed to be a girl cross dressing as a boy^{2 Fußnotenauszug: Gender ambiguity abounds in other works cited here as well. Atom’s predecessor Micchi, hero of TEZUKA’s Metropolis, had a switch to change his gender at will. Cloud cross dresses as a girl to rescue Tifa from a brothel. And of course Pino in Wonder Project J is succeeded by a female version Josetto, just one of many female robots in Japanese comics, Gally and Arale having been our firs...}, with Hyakkimaru continuing his quest alone, his remaining bildungsroman untold in the pages of the manga.

1. Of course it also questions where this loyalty lies exactly, to one’s immediate lord or the lord of one’s lord. As it favors one’s immediate lord it can also inspire rebellion so the events portrayed in this story weren’t exactly welcomed by the rulers of the country. [↩]
2. Gender ambiguity abounds in other works cited here as well. Atom’s predecessor Micchi, hero of TEZUKA’s Metropolis, had a switch to change his gender at will. Cloud cross dresses as a girl to rescue Tifa from a brothel. And of course Pino in Wonder Project J is succeeded by a female version Josetto, just one of many female robots in Japanese comics, Gally and Arale having been our first examples. [↩]

One of the last big games Square made for the SNES in early 1996 before departing Nintendo’s consoles for the then new Sony Playstation^{1 The Playstation was released 2 years earlier in late 1994.} was a collaboration with Nintendo and the first RPG to starr the mute hero Mario. It was also the first game in which Mario teamed up with his nemesis Bowser, as well as two new characters the designers at Square created for the Mario universe. One was a crybaby marshmallow who believed himself a frog^{2 The combination of frog and marshmallow reminds fans of previous works by Square of Glenn, a youth turned frog who’s nickname was marshmallow in Chrono Trigger, released in 1995.} called Maro and the other a puppet come to life named Geno. Here’s the scene that introduces Geno:

Boy (as Peach): Mario, save me!!

Boy (as Bowser): Gwahaha, Mario, I got your precious Peach!

Boy (as Mario): Bounce bounce… Super Jump!

Boy (as Bowser): Gawahaha, how could a wimp like you hope to defeat me! Gwahaha!

Boy (as Bowser): Hoho. Peach, you’re coming back with me to the castle!

Boy (as Peach): Eeek! Someone rescue me!

Boy (as Peach): Rescu… (sees Mario)

Boy: Ah!

Boy: Ma-ma-ma…

Boy: Mama! A customer!

Mother: On my way. Welcom… Oh, if it isn’t Mario.

Mario: (greets)

Boy: Mario!?

Boy: The beard and the hat, he looks just like him! Are you… the real deal!?

Mario: > (real deal), (you’re mistaking me)

Boy: You’re really the real Mario? It’s, kinda hard to believe… Prove it!

Mario: (jumps)

Boy: Wah! You’re really Mario! Hey Mario, let’s play Geno together!

Mother: Hey hey, Toydoe. Mario came to get some rest, don’t bug him like that.

Toydoe: But mom, you never play with me.

Mother: What am I going to do with you… Mario, could you please play with my son for a bit?

Mario: (nods)

Toydoe: Great! Since Mario just got knocked down, why don’t you play Bowser? And I play Geno!

Toydoe: Let’s go! We’ll continue where I left off! You ready?

Mario: (hops twice)

Toydoe: (also hops twice)

Toydoe: Ju-u-ust a moment!

Super Mario RPG, released 03/09/1996

Toydoe (as Geno): I, the great Geno, will bring you down, Bowser! Hiya! (bumps into Mario holding Bowser)

Toydoe (as Geno): Make your move, Bowser!

Mario: (bumps into Toydoe holding Geno)

Toydoe (as Geno): Crap… If I don’t turn this one around I’m done for…

Toydoe (as Geno): Here I go! Shooting Star! Shot!

Toydoe: Oops, I hit the wrong one…

Mother: Eek! Mario, are you alright!?

(screen fades to black)

(screen lights up again, no one is in the room but the puppets)

(a star floats down, circling in on the Geno puppet, which suddenly comes alive and walks away)

Geno, which rhymes with Pino, is Square’s interpretation of a Mario-like hero player avatar as a marionette.^{3 Fußnotenauszug: They weren’t the first to make this connection though. The toads populating Mario’s world since Super Mario Bros. (1985) are called Kinopio in Japanese which is an anagram of Pinokio, the Japanese spelling/pronunciation of Pinocchio. So Miyamoto and the other designers at Nintendo probably already saw a connection between Mario and the word marionette. Mario at first didn’t have ...} The boy imagines himself into the story by becoming Geno, one of the toys he uses to act out his fantasies. When he uses his puppets to play out his stories, he has to play all the roles. This is very similar to scenes in which the mute Mario relates past events by acting out all the roles. For example in this scene in which he returns to the castle after Princess Peach has been kidnapped yet again and he failed to save her:

Narrating: Hero

Narrating: Villain

Narrating: Princess

Weiterlesen

1. The Playstation was released 2 years earlier in late 1994. [↩]
2. The combination of frog and marshmallow reminds fans of previous works by Square of Glenn, a youth turned frog who’s nickname was marshmallow in Chrono Trigger, released in 1995. [↩]
3. They weren’t the first to make this connection though. The toads populating Mario’s world since Super Mario Bros. (1985) are called Kinopio in Japanese which is an anagram of Pinokio, the Japanese spelling/pronunciation of Pinocchio. So Miyamoto and the other designers at Nintendo probably already saw a connection between Mario and the word marionette.

   Mario at first didn’t have a name and was referred to as Mr. Video then Jumpman in Donkey Kong. He got his name only later from American businessman Mario A. Segale. [↩]

Super Play #28, pages 14-15: Fantasy Quest article by Nic de Costanzo and Zy Nicholson

The point of this series of articles is to show the influence the novel Pinocchio had on Japanese popular culture and the robot hero type common in manga and games. The examples in the last installment feature strong parallels with Pinocchio but it could be argued that these might be purely coincidental. This time I will showcase a much more obvious example of Pinocchio being reworked for a Japanese audience. The Wonder Project J games by Enix for SNES and N64 also have an original setting but the key characters inspired by Pinocchio retain the same or similar names as in the source work: the creator is named Geppetto and his puppet looking robot creation is named Pino.

The dancer Jichael

I didn’t play the first game, Wonder Project J: Mechanical Boy Pino, at all but it got some coverage in UK magazine Super Play in its column presenting Japanese games, many of which were never localized. The N64 sequel, Wonder Project J2: Josetto of the Corlo Forest, also never officially localized, I bought used but also hardly played back then. In this sequel Pino is succeeded by another robot, this time a girl named Josetto (rhyming with her creator’s name). In both games the player takes the place of Geppetto as a substitute parent for Pino and Josetto. The games are adventures with a strong emphasis on raising simulation elements.^{1 The major game to start this genre would be Princess Maker by Gainax for Japanese home computers in the 80ies. A better known example would be the later Tamagotchi portable pet raising sim games.} The player cannot influence the game world directly but uses a personalized cursor to try and teach the main character how to advance in the game world.

"But we have to make these movies. Otherwise who knows what they'll do to us.""

In Wonder Project J2 this is done by giving the character items to use. Josetto will try and use these items to her best understanding and it’s up to the player to approve or scorn her actions. For example, she might eat non-edible items which were supposed to be used as tools or to be read. Or she might kick things or throw them away which isn’t completely without benefit though, as she becomes stronger this way. When she balances books or other items on her head this might also not be what the player wants her to do but in fact her improved balance does help to cross bridges in certain places. In this way Josetto learns from the player but also the player learns not to discourage everything just because it might not seem immediately useful, or well behaved.

One of the many jobs takes Josetto to mine corridors rendered in old school 3D

Josetto also has to work to raise funds and buy more items which are needed to teach her. The more she learns the more varied the jobs she can take and the higher the payment. In this way progress of learning, by trial and error or studying with books is interdependent with work and career. Communication is limited to yes/no or good/bad comments by the player following Josetto’s actions or questions she addresses to the player. These have to be carefully considered as Josetto will react with a wide range of emotions which affect how well she will receive the player’s attempts of teaching her.

"This feels like being ordered around, which I don't like but I guess it can't be helped."

In Pinocchio and works inspired by it the recipient is usually supposed to identify with the protagonist who serves as their avatar but this being a raising game they have to take the role of the parent. The distance between player character Josetto and the player themselves is pronounced by Josetto and the player interacting and even talking with each other, and Josetto knowing that the player is in another world which she cannot see. She keeps running up to the screen as if to close the distance between herself and the player but yet both remain trapped on their respective sides of the screen that separates the anime styled game world and the reality which the player inhabits.

3D flying into the 2D world

The game came out on the N64 in a hardware generation which marked the shift from 2D to 3D graphics, yet it uses a very low amount of 3D elements in its mostly 2D anime world, thus ignoring its new hardware’s 3D capabilities for the most part, instead using the increased storage for more (and more detailed) animations but keeping the style of the earlier SNES generation prequel. When polygonal 3D graphics are used they stick out, like a touch of realism that invades the hand drawn fantasy. On the other hand, when Josetto runs up to the player instead of left and right on the 2D game stage the hand drawn graphics are used for 3 dimensional movement that targets the players reality.

Siliconian the 13th

In this way the lines between real parent and imagined child become blurred, and the player might notice that in a way they they are teaching themselves, even if the roles are inverted. This furthers mutual understanding of parent and child side but there’s also a common enemy which is a suppressive authority, an evil villain version of the parent role. The Siliconians are occupying Blueland, the island the story takes place on, and the Siliconian leader is rendered in polygonal 3D, invading the 2D game world both in action and in visual representation.

"If you're interested in martial arts, go watch some of our Siliconian movies!"

Same as the player decides what books Josetto should read and what movies she should watch the Siliconians also tell the occupied Bluelanders what movies to watch and even to produce. This is a key element in the cut scenes early in the narrative. The Siliconian invaders are of course a distorted version of something from the game makers’ reality and even though it’s exaggerated it does express an aversion against a perceived evil, an interpretation rooted in childhood as much as the visuals of the game. To escape being trapped in a child’s world the player has to become a parent and walk in the villain’s shoes, even if he will still seem rather heroic compared with the other fantasy invaders, the over the top evil Siliconians.

1. The major game to start this genre would be Princess Maker by Gainax for Japanese home computers in the 80ies. A better known example would be the later Tamagotchi portable pet raising sim games. [↩]

As a child, once I had learned to read I was constantly grabbing books to read from libraries and people around me. But one of the first books I bought for myself was Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. My mother had read it as one of her first books when she was sick as a child as well but didn’t keep the copy to pass it on to me. In my late teens I was reading less and less books and more and more comics, especially Japanese ones once I had discovered them. I also started to learn Japanese to read them in their original language, as well as play Japanese games.

One of the manga I read back then was Battle Angel Alita by KISHIRO Yukito or Gunnm (A Dream of Guns), as it is called in Japanese. Another one was Dragon Ball which of course was preceded by the more light hearted Dr. Slump by the same author, TORIYAMA Akira. Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump and Gunnm were among the first manga I tackled in Japanese, although I was reading Alita in translation as well, simply because it was available which then wasn’t true for the TORIYAMA ones.

What did strike me was the similarity of motifs between Pinocchio and those android hero manga like Gunnm and Dr. Slump. Pinocchio being a world classic of children’s literature it’s not far fetched to assume that indeed Pinocchio could and must have influenced the latter two. I didn’t watch it much but in my childhood there was an animated TV series based on Pinocchio running in Germany which was made in Japan so this was already proof that the Japanese must have had some exposure to this classic.

Looking at Wikipedia now Pinocchio was translated into Japanese as early as 1920, by NISHIMURA Isaku, who narrated the story to his 12 year old daughter Aya reading and translating word by word from a Western version of the book. Aya wrote the story down and it was published by Kinnotsunosha the same year.^{1 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA#.E4.B8.BB.E3.81.AA.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E8.A8.B3, 31.10.2011} A more official one was published much later in 1970 by children’s story author ANDŌ Yukio^{1 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA#.E4.B8.BB.E3.81.AA.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E8.A8.B3, 31.10.2011}, decades after the 1940 Disney movie adaption of Pinocchio was screened in Japan in 1952^{2 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA_%281940%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%29, 31.10.2011}. The god of manga TEZUKA Osamu adapted Pinocchio as a comic^{3 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA#.E6.BC.AB.E7.94.BB, 31.10.2011}, also in 1952. And in 1972 the first anime adaption by Tatsunoko Pro Studios ran on Japanese TVs^{4 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A8%AB%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%A8%E3%83%A2%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF, 31.10.2011}, years before the 1976 version by Nihon Animation that also ran in Germany^{5 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8E%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA, 31.10.2011}. So it’s fair to say that this world classic had similar influence on Japanese children as it had in the rest of the world.

Carlo Collodi’s 1883 original story portrays Pinocchio as a wicked boy, who keeps on disappointing his well meaning father Geppetto and to a slightly less degree also the fairy who becomes his mother substitute in the longer second half of the story. This certainly owes to it being written over a century ago but also to certain Christian ideas of man being inherently evil and having to be raised to be good. Dr. Slump‘s robot girl Arale on the other hand is a perfect example of the Japanese idea that children are pure and good, as opposed to adults like her creator father Senbee, who are already corrupted by mature traits. Arale also is a bit mischievous at times and gets Senbee into trouble but she’s never portrayed as wicked rather than naïve and excessive in her usage of her super human powers endowed to her by Senbee. She’s certainly not put through harsh hardships like Pinocchio to become a better person either, instead Senbee is ridiculed for being much more wicked than his daughter. In 1980 Japan was also a much wealthier place than Italy in 1883, so the authors Collodi and TORIYAMA simply had different backgrounds to put into story. In Gunnm Gally and her ‘creator’ Ido are even more idealized morally, both having to kill for a living in a bleak future where almost everyone has cyborg parts but neither being portrayed of bad character really. The setting does provide enough hardship and opportunities for character building to match Pinocchio in this regard though.

Pinocchio is of course also a novel of education, or bildungsroman as it is called in German, a term often used in reference to works of manga and games in Japan. Geppetto is an avatar for his author as much as Pinocchio was one for his readers, cursed to be a puppet which cannot grow up until it meets the high standards of its parents. Looking at and comparing some of the early motifs in these three stories I want to show how the relationship between parent and child is portrayed in these works.

Weiterlesen

1. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA#.E4.B8.BB.E3.81.AA.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E8.A8.B3, 31.10.2011 [↩] [↩]
2. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA_%281940%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%29, 31.10.2011 [↩]
3. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%8E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%82%AA%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA#.E6.BC.AB.E7.94.BB, 31.10.2011 [↩]
4. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A8%AB%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%A8%E3%83%A2%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF, 31.10.2011 [↩]
5. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8E%E3%81%AE%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA, 31.10.2011 [↩]

I’ve been watching the English CineSneak screenings on Mondays at the CineStar Metropolis in Frankfurt for the past few weeks as it’s a great way to watch new English movies at an equally great price. Of course with sneak previews you never know what you get but so far none of the movies disappointed in the least. So with five movies watched in a bit more than five weeks (they skipped weeks a few times) I thought it’s time for a top 5.

Number 5: Contagion

A large ensemble of high profile actors and a beautifully shot vision of an epidemic with a high budget and convincing plot to make the unimaginable seem reasonably real, this reminded me of L: Change The World^{1 The third Death Note movie, based on the comic of the same name.}, just on a larger scale and sans the shōnen manga drama. Deadly viruses are a recurring motif in Japanese comics but this Hollywood take on the subject by Steven Soderberg brings it awfully close to a realistic scenario, which is mostly thanks to the money he was able to spend on this movie.

Number 4: The Change-Up

Body switch comedies are overdone, there’s not much to do with the genre anymore but still every few years a new one gets made. In this case the actors were convinced by the creative team of writer and director who worked on some of the more interesting comedies to make an impression on  movie audiences during the last few years. When you go watch a sneak preview weaker entries are bound to appear as well and I expected this to be an example of this statistical fact but it ended up being quite enjoyable and even orginal. A fresh and warm hearted take on the genre which isn’t that bad after all.

Number 3: Another Earth

What I liked about this one was that it is essentially a sci-fi (or rather a fantasy) movie with almost no special effects. Instead this story about an encounter of planets is told as an encounter of people and puts its actors before the surreal sci-fi plot. Same as the recent Melancholia the base idea of planets meeting reminded me of similarly anthropomorphized heavenly bodies coming up in video games which I wrote a series of articles about (in German). And I think it’s no coincidence that the two people encountering each other in Another Earth are having a match of some kind of Wii boxing at one point in the movie. A great subdued take on the reality of the virtual.

Number 2: Friends with Benefits

This is the first movie I saw at the sneak preview and the only one I saw coming. It was scheduled to start screening on the following Thursday and I really wanted to see it and would have gone even if it hadn’t been in the sneak. I love romantic comedies, I love Justin Timberlake, both as a singer and recently as an actor in The Social Network, and I loved Mila Kunis in That Seventies Show and in Black Swan. This movie totally delivers and is one of my favorites in the genre, hands down.

Number 1: 30 Minutes or Less

First thing to tell you what you’re in for in this comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg is the fantastic hip hop soundtrack, and everything else about the movie just works together to drive the viewer without ever giving them time to rest. The first scene already cleverly shows Eisenberg’s character Nick failing to keep the title’s promise but with such perfect timing that we still understand that he has the skill to pull it off even when he fails. Great dialogue and characters (both Nick’s Indian friends and the goofy villains) make it an enjoyable ride from beginning to end. I was positively blown away by the well written narrative that doesn’t ever resort to cliché instead betraying the viewer’s expectations which gives the humor the necessary oomph to match the booming soundtrack.

 See you in five when I’ll return to this list which then will have grown into a top ten!

1. The third Death Note movie, based on the comic of the same name. [↩]

Unter „richtigen“ Videospielern ist die Wii als Staubfänger für Gelegenheitsspieler verpönt. Nur für Partyspiele und im Kreis der Freunde sei sie zu gebrauchen, aber nicht für „ernsthafte“ Spiele. Trotzdem ist sie die erfolgreichste Konsole der letzten Jahre. Aber auch eine der am wenigsten genutzten, die Zahl der aktiven Spieler ist nicht so hoch wie bei den HD-Konkurrenten, deren Nutzer sie praktisch täglich einschalten um „intensiv“ zu zocken.

Die Wii und ihre Spiele wie Wii Sports sind ein bisschen wie Monopoly, Scrabble oder andere traditionelle Gesellschaftsspiele. Man holt sie raus, wenn man Freunde da hat. Man spielt sie mit der ganzen Familie. Aber schon ein etwas teures Monopoly, oder? Werden sich die ganzen Wii-Käufer auch das Nachfolgemodell holen? Oder muss die Wii U ganz auf „you“ setzen, den etwas vernachlässigten jungen Intensivspieler?

Microsoft und Sony sehen sich mit Kinect und Move erstmal nach den Gelegenheitsspielern um. Nachdem ich mir vor einigen Monaten das Move-Paket auch endlich zugelegt habe, bin ich etwas ernüchtert. Die Kamera ist im Gebrauch wie erwartet umständlicher als die Sensorbar. Wollte ich sie oben auf meinen TV stellen, würde sie sicher leicht runterfallen, unten sind aber alle möglichen Dinge auf dem Couchtisch im Weg. Bequem vom Sofa spielen ist nicht so leicht, wegen der entstehenden toten Winkel.

Unter den Demos, die ich ausprobiert habe, war auch Blokus. Die Umsetzung eines Brettspiels. Das war ziemlich spaßig, aber ich fragte mich dann, warum soll ich das am TV spielen? Da hole ich mir doch lieber die analoge Version für an den Tisch. Die aber im Kaufhaus fast doppelt so viel kostete wie der Download. Das spräche dann schon wieder für die Konsolenvariante.

Wenn ich mir diesen Screenshot so ansehe, glaube ich, dass die Wii U schon auf dem richtigen Weg ist:

Und die richtigen Spieler können ihr Hardcore-Game abends aus dem Wohnzimmer mit ins Bett nehmen, ohne sich sowohl Konsole wie auch jedes einzelne Spiel doppelt kaufen zu müssen. So das Konzept von Sonys PS Vita als portabler Ergänzung zur PS3.

Ich hab mir heute den Spaß gemacht, die Liste der beliebtesten Spiele, gewählt von den Nutzern des japanischen Nintendo-Kanals, abzuschreiben. Alle Spiele, die man auf der Wii gespielt hat, einschließlich der Virtual Console Downloads, können dort von ihren Besitzern auf einer fließenden Skala von überhaupt nicht empfehlenswert bis sehr empfehlenswert bewertet werden. Kriegt ein Spiel genügend solcher Bewertungen und fallen sie hoch genug aus, werden Auszeichnungen von Bronze bis Platin vergeben.

Diese können sich im Lauf der Zeit auch wieder ändern, der frühere Platingewinner 428 hat heute „nur“ noch eine Goldauszeichnung. Derzeit hat auch nur ein Spiel diese oberste Auszeichnung verdient, nämlich das RPG Xenoblade von Monolithsoft.

Alle Gold-, Silber- und Bronzegewinner in der jeweiligen umgekehrten Reihenfolge ihres Erscheinens:

1. Der Nintendo-Kanal selbst ist also auch eine Bronze-Auszeichnung wert… [↩]

Lang ist es her, dass Stefan Raab mit seinen anarchischen Sendungen „Vivasion“ und „Ma’ Kuck’n“ einer der Lichtblicke im Programm des damals viel kritisierten neuen deutschen Musiksenders Viva war. Der dank Moderatoren wie Raab aber den Konkurrenten MTV doch das Fürchten lehren konnte, ihn zwang, ein eigenes lokales Programm aufzubauen, um konkurrenzfähig zu bleiben. Zwar hat MTV den ehemaligen Rivalen Viva mittlerweile geschluckt, doch nicht ohne vorher stark von ihm geprägt worden zu sein. Schon vor dem Kauf der Viva-Senderfamilie hatte MTV einige Talente wie Markus Kavka von dort abgeworben.

Stefan Raab hat mittlerweile ein Zuhause bei Pro7 gefunden und produziert eine Großzahl der Aushängeschilder „seines“ Senders. Und auch wenn Raab wie alle Stars mit Mainstream-Erfolg heute sehr viel braver ist als zu seinen frühen Viva-Zeiten, so ist er sich doch inhaltlich treu geblieben. Viele seiner Rivalitäten gehen noch auf seine Zeit bei Viva zurück, wo er seicht produzierte Dance-Produktionen wie Fun Factory oder DJ Bobo genauso veräppelte wie einheimische Gangsterrapper wie Moses Pelham, von dem er sich dafür auch schon mal eine blutige Nase holte. Die Kelly-Family waren stets ein leichtes Ziel für alle Komiker und Raab machte keine Ausnahme, was heute in eine freundschaftlich sportliche Rivalität mit Joey Kelly übergegangen ist. Und man mag es heute kaum glauben, aber Dieter Bohlen wurde (ebenso wie Jürgen Drews und andere deutsche Musikgrößen) von Raab regelrecht vorgeführt, und Raab trotzdem regelmäßig von Bohlen wieder in seine Villa eingeladen.

Bohlen produzierte zwar nach wie vor erfolgreich immer dieselbe Musik und es ging ihm finanziell bestens, aber ohne eigene Band oder eigene TV-Sendung war seine Medienpräsenz eher begrenzt. Die bestand zu der Zeit vornehmlich im Breitwalzen der Scheidung von Verona Feldbusch, heute Poth, die damit ihre eine Weile sehr erfolgreiche Karriere begründen konnte. Für die meisten Deutschen war Bohlen aber eher eine Witzfigur, musikalisch überschätzt und ohne viel aktive eigene Fans. Genau dieses Image zeigte auch Raab bei seinen Besuchen bei seinem Freund, den er freundlich (aber gnadenlos) veralberte.

Mittlerweile ist Bohlen dank „Deutschland sucht den SuperStar“ wieder voll da. Dazwischen gab es noch ein Comeback mit Modern-Talking-Kollegen Thomas Anders, aber noch mehr Aufmerksamkeit beschert ihm der Jury-Posten in mittlerweile mehreren Casting-Sendungen auf RTL, wo er eine ähnliche Rolle einnimmt wie Raab auf Pro7. Beide repräsentieren ihren Sender, beide setzen auf Lästerhumor und beide haben es mit ihren Sendungen in die Königsklasse der TV-Unterhaltung geschafft, die Samstagabend-Show. Dass Bohlen den Witz auf Kosten seines Gegenüber sucht, könnte er sich auch von Raab abgekuckt haben, schießt aber mit seiner späten Rache an Unbeteiligten etwas übers Ziel hinaus. Zwar werden beide regelmäßig wegen ihrer derben Scherze kritisiert (und zuweilen auch verklagt), doch ist Raab doch noch etwas sympathischer in seiner Rolle des netten Lästerers. Bohlen hingegen legt auf das Attribut „nett“ kaum großen Wert.

Weiterlesen

Auch dieses Jahr findet wieder die Nippon Connection statt, das japanische Filmfestival in Frankfurt. Da ich trotz wenig Zeit doch gerne zu allen gesehenen Filmen was loswerden möchte, habe ich mich entschlossen, das in jeweils einem prägnanten Satz zu machen.

In The Rise and Fall of the Unparalleled Band machen sich Möchtegernverbrecher des Träumens schuldig, schlagen dabei aber einer nach dem anderen den Solopfad ein. ★★★★★

In DumBeast wird nach dem vermissten Autor eines gleichnamigen Buchs gesucht, mit dem dieser die kollektive Anime-TV-Jugend der Japaner als Roman verarbeitet und damit den Unmut seiner auch im echten Leben überzeichneten Protagonisten auf sich gezogen hat. ★★★★★

Der Ausnahmeanimationsfilm Midori-ko erzählt mit 10 Jahren Arbeit in 56 Minuten, wie man auch ohne Fleisch zu essen Mama werden kann. ★★★★☆

Mit der Doku The Duckling reinigt Nachwuchsregisseurin Sayaka ONO tränenreich ihre Seele und die ganze Familie spielt mit. ★★★★☆

MILOCRORZE vereint drei Geschichten, drei Genres und drei Stile zu einem passenden Ganzen, mit überraschenden Sprüngen und raffinierter Inszenierung. ★★★★★

Übermüdet bin ich zu später Stunde während Sketches of Kaitan City ständig eingenickt, aber die wach wahrgenommen Teile waren gut genug, mich auf Verdacht 4/5 Sterne abreißen zu lassen. ★★★★☆

Arrietty ist der schönste Film, den ich seit langem gesehen habe, und hat meine Liebe zum traditionellen Trickfilm wiederbelebt. ★★★★★

In Permanent Nobara scheitern starke Frauen an schwachen Männern, das aber voller Liebe, Lebensfreude und schwarzem Humor. ★★★★★

Das dialoglastige Beziehungsdrama Love Addiction setzt auf authentisch wirkenden Stil, Improvisation und überzeugt in seinen besten Momenten sogar als Satire. ★★★★☆

Wig ist eine nette Mainstreamkomödie, die aber auf vielen Ebenen funktioniert und das Hirn sogar mehr belohnt als die Lachmuskeln. ★★★★☆

Helldriver ist wie eine trashige Splatterversion von Dororo, wenn dessen Titelfigur selbst die Heldin gewesen wäre. ★★★★☆