On July 26th Crunchyroll showed off the first three episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride in theaters across the country, as an installment of it’s Anime Movie Nights. The show has yet to air in Japan or in North America, so it was a rare peak at an anime months before it is due to actually come out.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride follows Chise, a young girl who has lived a life of misfortune and out of desperation, sold herself into slavery. She is auctioned off to a bone faced mage named Elias Ainsworth, who aims to train her as his apprentice and one day marry her. He brings her from Japan to his English countryside residence, which she quickly begins to think of as home.
Now, yes. Elias is in fact a bone faced mage and that seems to be his genuine appearance, having to use magic to appear human at all (a face that Chise complains, looks fake). And yes, Elias makes for an extremely weird romantic interest for Chise. His bone face never changes expression, except for during humorous moments where his face becomes simplistic and he smiles or sweats. Despite his frightening appearance, I was surprised by how quickly I was endeared to it. He can look menacing, or genuinely pleasant, just by his words or the context of the scene. It’s no surprise that Chise quickly becomes loyal to him.
I haven’t seen the prequel or read the manga yet, so I went into this with only the trailer for the series. The show, from what we can tell from the first three episodes, avoids massive exposition dumps and instead prefers to world build slowly, when it makes sense for Chise to ask questions or be given information. It might be more useful for Chise to be sat down and taught everything all at once, but for the sake of narrative we should be glad that Elias and friends prefer to show rather than tell, and only tell when they must.
Chise’s history itself isn’t explained up front; how she came to sell herself into slavery is dripped out in the first three episodes, and I am sure we still don’t have the full story. It does not shy away from the fact that her reasons are depressing and she’s been left severely damaged by whatever has happened. I’m glad the reasons are saved; enough is shown already that we can believe that she felt like it was her best option, but we can watch her heal as we learn more about why she was so desperate in the first place. I realize this may all be explained in the prequel miniseries, but I never felt confused about what had happened. The sadness of the first three episodes are juxtaposed directly with scenes of acceptance, happiness and peace, which works very well. It is emotionally engaging without becoming overwhelming.
The show is heavy on whimsy; fairies come to chit chat, a letter Elias writes becomes a bird and flies away to deliver itself, cute spirits appear out of nowhere to cuddle—all the while harpsichord tingles to emphasize how magical it all is. Luckily, it avoids being too cheesy. The only times I felt like it was edging towards too much was one scene where Chise is babysitting infant dragons. It felt like it went on a bit too long, but again the juxtaposition came; after they fall asleep she has a conversation with their uncle about death. It’s all a bit too heavy to be appropriate for small children, but I can’t help but suspect this will be a good show to introduce to the tweens and teens in your life; cute and bubbly at times, but one that doesn’t sweep away how unfair life can be.
The Ancient Magus’s Bride will being to air on October 7th, 2017 on Crunchyroll. Two of the three prequel episodes are already there, and the third one will be added on September 7, 2017.
Megan “Spooky” Crittenden is a secluded writer who occasionally ventures from her home to give aid to traveling adventurers.
The Ghost in the Shell film is an endeavour that has been mired by controversy sinceitsinception. I highly recommend reading the hyperlinked articles in order to get a bird’s eye view of the problem. That aside, I do want to comment on the first fifteen minutes of the film, that I was very lucky to have seen on March 9th. I have to say, it did look very interesting. So, beware, this is going to be a spoiler for the first quarter-of-an-hour of the Ghost in the Shell Hollywood blockbuster. (To be honest, I don’t feel like I am spoiling much; even the trailer is a spoiler for the first fight, we just didn’t know it was the first fight.)
The first thing that is worth noting, is that the Scarlett Johansson film adheres to a stricter chronological order than the original Ghost in the Shell film, starting the film credits very sedately with what I assume are neural filaments growing to connect to The Major’s brain. What follows, after the director and main actors have had their slides, is something that’s an almost shot-for-shot remake of the following sequence from the original film:
Then, we cut to a close-up of Johansson’s face. She is being gently woken up by a female doctor, and she chokes up. Dr. Ouellet tells her that she was drowning and that they couldn’t salvage her body, but now The Major has a new body—a better one. The Major starts to hyperventilate and the doctor isn’t able to calm her down, so she is sedated and left in a room. Then we cut to an ominous shot wherein The Major is centered in the frame, while Dr. Ouellet and a man (who is from the corporation that finances the experiment) talk about her. We cut again to another shot that copies the original animated film; the one where The Major is crouching on top of the building, hooked with cables to a comms network and assessing the situation of a possible assassination attempt on the President of the African Federation, while he holds a meeting with a high-ranking member of the Hanka corporation.
This is where the robo-geisha fight happens, with gangster men outright shooting the security guards and bodyguards. The situation goes FUBAR, and The Major decides to disregard orders to stand by from Chief Daisuke and takes a leap of faith and crashes into the window. She then starts being a complete badass shooting everything on sight, taking damage and dominating the fight. One of the robo-geishas turns into the spiderbot we see in the trailer, and drags the Hanka corp rep away and hacks into his brain. It’s at this point that a strike team lead by Batou (played by Michael Wincott) enters to support The Major.
The Major is stuck in a difficult position by the robo-geisha who is hacking into the Hanka rep’s brain, not before The Major shoots it fatally. The robo-geisha scuttles back while begging for her mechanical life. ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ I think the robot says. This unsettles The Major, so the robo-geisha has to be shot by Batou. Batou then tells The Major ‘you are not like it, you’re not a robot,’ which angers The Major and she storms off, turning on her cloaking device.
Themes
Subtle, this film is not. I don’t expect much from a Hollywood cyberpunk flick.
The film immediately sets up its main narrative theme: Is The Major human? This happens in the scene where Dr. Ouellet is speaking with the shady corporation businessman. At least, I assume the man is from a corporation since the narrative clues us into that, with his slick business attire and his dehumanisation of Scarlett’s character. This man outright calls her a ‘weapon,’ while Dr. Ouellet insists The Major is ‘special’ and ‘more than human.’ This is a cyberpunk staple, after all.
What I find interesting is that the film also points us in the direction of a big difference between the original Ghost in the Shell film and this live-action film, which is The Major’s characterisation. In the animated feature, The Major displays her emotions in a very subtle way, and her internal humanity, or ‘aliveness’ is contrasted with the way she is animated. One of the things that make The Major so eerie in appearance is that she doesn’t blink at all while she’s awake and has a constant wide-eyed stare paired up with her blank face. Yet, the case is made in the animated film that, if not human, she definitely qualifies as ‘alive.’
In the Hollywood film, on the other hand, The Major is immediately established as human to audiences. When she wakes up, she gasps, struggles breathing, starts having a panic attack about the drowning and Dr. Ouellet has to sedate her again. Clearly, we are meant to sympathize with her from the start.
I’m not a big fan of this change because it means that the fundamental question the film grapples with has been resolved from the start. It removes the thematic conflict from the narrative, by dumbing down the themes of personhood in service of a more standard internal conflict about identity.
This is also shown with the aftermath of the fight scene. The Major is clearly affected by the pleas to spare it, coming from the robot. After Batou shoots the robot in the head and outright tells The Major that she is human, unlike the robo-geishas, she leaves straight away, even bumping into some kind of Section Nine SWAT teammate on the way out. She clearly struggles with seeing herself as a human. Motoko Kusanagi, on the other hand, brings up the question of whether being alive necessarily equals being human in her advanced, technological world, especially after the encounter with the Puppet Master.
There’s also a small contrast between gentle femininity and harsh masculinity paralleled in the duplets of Dr. Ouellet and the corp rep at the beginning of the film, and The Major and Batou. It’s not a particularly subversive scene. However, I believe this will be something present in a superficial manner in the rest of the film.
Design
Before diving into the specifics, we really need to talk about filters. Between the influence wielded by Michael Bay’s Transformers films, and Disney's TRON: Legacy, the Ghost in the Shell live-action film didn’t stand a chance. Remember the good old days when sepia or brown filter was gritty, a green filter meant teh future!!!!/cybernetics, blue was horror or night and so on and so forth? Yeah, no, I think The Matrix poisoned till the end of time the well of ‘green is for cyberworld.’ This film is so blue-tinged and washed out it doesn’t make for a very interesting colour palette. The live-action film looks good, but it’s not memorable.
The overall look of the city looks like a crossover with futuristic Gotham from Batman Beyond with the city from the first episode of The Animatrix. It’s not a very original look, but what makes it interesting are all the holo-ads livening up the background. It gives off a very Tokyo vibe. In the live-action film, the city looks a bit too clean compared to the grimy underbelly as shown in the animated feature. I don’t think it detracts from the film, I’m just jotting it down.
Then there is the scene about the meeting between the President of the African Federation and the rep from the Hanka Corporation. I like this set piece. It really looks like a futuristic Japanese tea salon. The robo-geisha’s design is also warmer than the rest of the aesthetics in the film; they look more steampunk, like clockwork machines. It gives a feeling of the robo-geishas being antiques, which lends itself very well to the appearance that the meeting is happening in a very upscale place. Very interesting.
Also, TRON: Legacy, why do you do this to me? In the Ghost in the Shell live-action film, just like in the 2008 Disney film, whenever there is a sequence that takes place in the digital world, it is all orangey. This Scarlett Johansson film is orange and blue, same old, same old for contemporary action films. I was expecting the digital world to be green as a reference to the original films. I am disappoint.
OtherQuibbles
Sometimes I felt as if the CGI over Scarlett Johansson’s body wasn’t all that well done. They removed the nipples of the naked body in favour of a more cybernetic look in order to get the PG-13 rating, albeit it looks really inconsistent. Even her back is supposed to look a bit mechanical, and sometimes Scarlett just looks naked. I guess we need to have those titillated eyeballs paying cold hard cash to look at Scarlett’s butt? This is even more evident in the fight scenes.
About the robo-geisha fight scene. Yes, it’s with the President of the African Federation, not the meeting with the programmer asking for asylum of the Galvess Republic. Maybe out of guilt, but the film seems to take a more multi-cultural approach, at least when it comes to to secondary characters. Too bad it doesn't have more of a diverse main cast. Also, would the African countries have unified under a single banner considering the vast cultural differences between them? It feels like the done-to-death ‘Africa is a country’ spiel. I would like to know for sure if there’s more diversity in this film. At this point, it’s difficult to say.
There’s also the fact that the fight scenes are not as surgical. This Major is not as precise as Motoko. I don’t know whether it’s because the fights are not as well choreographed or because the producers don’t want The Major’s fights scenes to look like Black Widow’s in the MCU. For some reason I don’t think Scarlett Johansson’s character is as tactical as Major Kusanagi. I have to remind you all that I only watched the first fifteen minutes, and I may be mistaken about the way the fight scenes are structured.
InConclusion
The Ghost in the Shell live-action film seems to be a more easily digestible, high budget version of the Ghost in the Shell animated film. I recommend it, but I wouldn’t go into it expecting any sort of cerebral fare. It clobbers you in the head with the main narrative themes. So far it seems a more dolled-up Hollywood sci-fi action flick, but I’m sure it will be a lot of fun to watch.
Remember, Ghost in the Shell premieres in theatres on March 31st.
Rosario is an early-twenties, outspoken woman, who likes to burrow between piles of books, and store miscellaneous trivia in her head.
As you can see from the cover, Veronica appears to be leaving Riverdale. The two variant covers also have moving motifs, such as a “Now Leaving Riverdale” sign and several main characters looking upset. In addition, the solicit says that Veronica is “sent packing.” I have a feeling that Mr. Lodge has something to do with this. What about you? Comment below and let me know! Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or the Harry Potter books.
The Mass Effect development team answered a few questions at E3 2016, in particular the following details from that Q&A were shared on NeoGAF:
Suggests a Ryder family and "more than one Ryder".
Female is the official default.
Confirmed they are in the last leg of development and expect a 2017 spring launch.
Is she Commander Ryder or does she have another title? We need to know more! In any case, feel free to begin worshiping your newest queen, FemRy or Lady!Ryder— or maybe just, Ryder.
Adrian Martinez is a graphic designer, comic book letterer, hobbyist writer, and all-around geek living in New York City.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an indie game developed by Ninja Theory centered around a Pictish warrior named Senua. Her story is a mash-up of Celtic myth, mental health, and a recently recovered Roman goddess. On Thursday, the developer has updated their Developer Diary with new, in-development footage of in-game combat.
Gameplay
Ninja Theory has made a conscious design choice to eliminate any use of a heads-up display, instead conveying gameplay cues and feedback entirely through visuals and sound. Certain animations, lights, and particle effects indicate the efficacy and follow-up potential of strikes, while enemy health is shown through actual cuts, wounds, and bleed effects. Even the lighting and weather effects in the game have been coded to shift dynamically in sync with Senua's status and moods. This makes the graphic and visceral quality of the game far more than eye candy, potentially taking the gaming experience to another level.
Character
The gameplay and graphics of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice are not the only reasons this game is looking good for gamers interested in something new and willing to push boundaries, in large part due to its strongly-written female lead. In an early development diary, Dominic Matthews of Ninja Theory explains:
"Common wisdom in the games industry is that it's risky to have female lead, as games with a female lead are harder to sell than those with a male lead. But given that Hellblade is an independent, self-published, and self-funded game, we were only concerned with creating a character that's right for our story."
The story is as layered as it is dark. Senua's island home of Orkney is invaded by Vikings, her people are wiped out in apocalyptic fashion. Rather than centering this on a straightforward war or revenge narrative, Senua simultaneously embarks on a personal journey that explores her own mental health: the underworld you traverse as Senua is constructed from both the Viking invasion reality outside her mind, and psychotic manifestations from within.
I'm highly intrigued and excited by this game, which causes me to analyze and critique certain aspects; as with all incredible and inspiring pieces of art, the engagement of it is at least a two-way street and for me, certain questions arise.
Questionables
The story and character of Senua is the brainchild of Tameem Antoniades, Ninja Theory's Chief Creative. He can recognize sexism in game design, but is perhaps a bit oblivious to his own problematic statements. Still, Antoniades seems interested in challenging sexist industry norms in his original notes about Senua:
"She is a challenging female form: not sexy, not skimpy, not young, not skinny, yet stunning, compelling, and believable." – Hellblade Development Diary 3: Senua
Looking at the final Senua design, I have to question if they've achieved all of those goals. On the positive side, they've abandoned the "scantily-clad savage" trope and her outfit avoids usage of the inscrutable pseudo-modern waist cincher that so many games are guilty of inexplicably tossing in. Senua is appropriately-muscled for a warrior: larger than your standard female Hollywood action star and more in line with what see with mixed-martial artists of today.
Although, the original facial captures (done wonderfully by Melina Juergens) for Senua's design included pores and wrinkles, yet her in-game face appears somewhat flawless, other than "sexy dirt" and a few strategically-placed, but still attractive scars. Like Melina, she has the face of an angel, and I'm left wondering if they could have pushed the boundaries a bit further. Additionally, Senua's hair is in dreadlocks, which is a common but historically-inaccurate portrayal of Viking, Celtic, and Pictish cultures. Historical evidence suggests that these cultures didn't wear them, but film and TV series inaccuracies have nonetheless fueled belief in this falsity among some fans and enthusiasts. This inaccuracy could be borne from misconceptions about how dreadlocks (or locs) are formed. Locs are formed naturally from clean and naturally kinky hair, which is why it's commonly seen in black African culture. The hair of white Europeans does not loc naturally, and requires weeks of what would otherwise be considered neglect to achieve a superficially similar appearance. Thus the belief that dreadlocks (a term whose origins are from white Europeans denigrating black African locs) are the product of unwashed and unkempt hair is doubly inaccurate in this usage. Historical evidence indicates that Vikings, for example, were known to take great care in combing out and washing their hair and bodies.
VERDICT
I'm very impressed with the gameplay Ninja Theory has shown of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice so far and despite what is a glaring misstep for me, I think it's clear that a lot of consideration and care has otherwise gone into main character's design. I'm looking forward to the day that I can get my hands on what seems like a very surreal, technical, imaginative, and emotional journey. If you're as interested as I am, I encourage you to follow the game at its various social media touchpoints and support this cool indie publisher. Game: http://www.hellblade.com Developer: http://www.ninjatheory.com https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory https://www.facebook.com/ninjatheory Adrian Martinez is a graphic designer, comic book letterer, hobbyist writer, and all-around geek living in New York City.
