A few interesting events has popped up, making me curious about the readers here at Calamitous Intents. Please don’t check the about page, if you did, then pretend you didn’t and answer these questions honestly.

School starts in exactly 11 hours…and I STILL haven’t finished my homework…

AND on top of that, wordpress can’t display GIFs properly (crap, there’s even LESS time now)!

A 2001 reference in To aru Kagaku no Rilgun. But this is supposed to be slightly futuristic, so does that mean the Star Child has already been born? If that was related to the creepy baby monster from episode 12 then choosing the nuclear reactor makes sense now! Ah, but the novel was a novel after all, HAL can’t be real (he’s too huge for it, especially after Kuroko’s phone), and this IS an artificial enviroment after all.

Anyway…caught up with the series, it’s a lot of fun. Though I did quite a few facepalms at the whole ojou-samas-can’t-cook bit.

Well, since people complain that I focus on artists that are too generic, I’m putting out a focus on Aoi Nishimata.

I’ve just read a review to top all reviews which has convinced me fully that I will never play Shuffle, especially Shuffle Essence+. And while I can’t say anything about the story (since I never played it), I agree fully with everything that he wrote about the game art.

If you haven’t realized the problems yet go here and ctrl+f “middle of nowhere”.

Now, my question is: why do artists like this still make money?

Let’s face it, Aoi Nishiata makes money. On top of the stuff she does for Naval she also does drawings for rice, curry, strawberries, batteries, water bottles, star wars,  etc etc. And with all that, I can’t understand why people would pay money for her drawings. This isn’t like Naru Nano with me gradually losing interest in her art until I’m pretty much sick of it and how cheap it’s gotten. This isn’t like Tony Taka with me getting annoyed at every single picture he draws because it’s all fanservice.

No, this is like Itaru Hinoue with me wondering how such an artist has managed to keep herself alive by drawing.

I mean, just look at this picture. Her neck is bending at an impossible angle, her chest is so messed up I can’t even describe it (it’s only possible if the girl is actually flat and she put on an over sized bra crocked), she has no hips, the fabric is folding without folds, her fingers are shaped from play-dough, her legs are disconnected from her body AND the wrong shape, the ribbons must be made from a fabric that defies physics, and the shadows are impossible. On top of that we have the fact that everything she draws is square, and she hasn’t drawn anything that moves, EVER.

Ah, I’ve figured it out! If you want to make money from drawings, you only have to follow 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Draw a whole bunch of straight lines, preferably, make every single line in the hair parallel.

Step 2: Connect the lines, and don’t worry about the laws of physics! Remember, your characters are wearing clothing made of physics string (weightless) which has been enforced with carbon for extra stiffness, they will, I repeat, they WILL look like pieces of cardboard stuck to the characters, but that won’t matter, because your characters will have perfectly straight and unconnected limbs for bodies anyway!

Step 3: Rinse and repeat, again and again and again and again and again.

Oh, and don’t forget, all the characters you draw can use telekinesis! That means that you don’t have to worry about their hands when they are holding something! You can just put in some fingers wherever you like, and their telekinesis will stop the object from falling to the ground~

Se those chopsticks? Totally floating.  But this is good, because girls like that are MOE and MOE sells for shitloads of money.

I mean, just LOOK at that! It’s perfectly FINE for you to ignore the fact  there’s no way in hell such a scene can be possible. As long as you remember that no one gives a damn about physics (like water refracting light) and everyone has telekinesis, you can make MOE pictures all day long and get paid for it!

Oh, and by the way, THIS is a better picture of girls with fireworks (still has some flaws, but they aren’t painful). But somehow an obviously better artist isn’t getting as much attention or making as much money.

And for some reason artists that are actually creative and don’t make any money from their drawings. This above picture is drawn by a friend of mine, achouzi (阿抽子). Of course, as far as I know she’s never made a single cent from her art.

Because THIS is the stuff that makes money. Because THIS is the stuff that the internet loves. Because THIS is the stuff that is popular. That’s right. Moe sells, and sex sells, even if the girl has misplaced boobs when she’s having sex.

Please tell me that’s an actual person and not a picture…He’s already stated that she’s dead so it’s probably a picture, but damn it I want that to be her!

It was just…beautiful. I CAN’T believe how long it tool me to finally get to this series, but I am SO glad I did.

Akito is a pretty average person. Like many other people, he has this thirst for adventure. Because of that, he gets involved with Shizuka (AKA the daughter of a spy family). Sounds cheesy, right? Well, not as much as you’d think. Scarlett is just a simple little story about 2 people, their worlds, and the people they love, that’s all.Characters:

Kurou…is…well…I think the picture says it all. He’s basically a genius at espionage, and a go-at-my-own-pace kind of person.

Akito’s a very earnest highschooler and a gun otaku. He’s constantly searching for adventure, and he found it when he spotted a B2 outside a californian air base. He’s very straightforward, maybe to the point of being simple, but he has a habit of saying the right things in front of Shizuka.

Shizuka is Kurou’s younger sister and Akito’s love interest. She has a somewhat devilish attitude at times but is generally a cheerful person. She can fly most aircraft in the world, is fluent in 6 languages, and has the habit of threatening Akito with her 8mm. Personally, I think she’s the best character in the game.

Emilia (at least, that’s what I THINK her name is) is basically a secluded princess. For most of her life she has been  living in a cabin tucked away somewhere, and because of that she has all kinds of odd ideas about the outside world (for instance, she thought that sinks were used to take baths in).  However, underneath her slightly ditzy exterior is a genius hacker.

Mitsuki often acts as support personnel for Kurou. She’s always complaining about how much trouble he  brings her, but she cares deeply for him nevertheless.

Story:

The story is told from 2 perspectives: Kurou and Akito. The former wields knowledge, strength, and great political power, while the latter was just a normal high school guy. But their differing views on the world and how they themselves change is one of the main reasons that the story’s interesting.

The story’s wrapped up in a pretty relaxing atmosphere. Well, at least, that’s the way it was for me. I say that mainly because I couldn’t understand any of the political maneuvers described in the story, and just let my mind wander at what I guess was supposed to be the adrenaline-pumping moments. Though, that may be the story’s downfall, as the bucket load of jargon has definitely made me waver at the thought of playing it at first.

Another thing that the writers did pretty well was the set up. Sure, it’s not like Ever17, but I was pleasantly surprised at how the little details added up, and how everything clicks together. However cheesy the background was, it was still pretty tear jerking. And I have to say that it’s the best part of the game.

One thing that I found odd is that despite having the story take place all over the world, all the characters are quite Japanese. For instance, we have a German doctor asking for another bowl of rice at dinner, which is just odd.

Art:

The art, for the most part, is clean and plesant to look at. But, some of it is pretty inconsistent (like showing a girl sleeping with a jacket and waking up without one, or using basically the same CG for a young girl at present time and 8 years ago, etc etc).

Sound:

I think that the music is another highlight of the game. There’s a qide varity of sounds, from bongos and guitar to piano and jazzier pieces. Those who has played Narcissu should feel familiar with the music, as the 2 games share many composers.

System:

Pretty average. The textbox was hideous, but the movements of the menus were slick. You can adjust individual voices and font on top of the usual options (which is something that I always like). The game also comes with a number of extras for Nekoneko Soft’s other games (which is to be expected, since they knew it was going to be their last game and wanted a proper wrap up for long time players).

Story:7×5=35/50

Art:8×3=24/30

Sound: 9/10

Programming: 8/10

Total:76/100 B

Overall? I expected more from the writer of Narcissu, but it’s a nice little story if you don’t have much to do over a weekend.

The protagonist is voiced, but it doesn’t play his voice. You see, when I go through the game, I can’t hear Akito, but when I go into the history logs, I can play his voice for every spoken line. How very odd.Thankfully his voice is the only one with the problem.

Voiced or not, Scarlett is turning out to be pretty interesting, even though I’m really not into espionage and stuff like that. Also, the story isn’t what I expected from the guy who churned out 2 Narcissu stories, but it has that nice and refreshing feeling. The music really complements the mood, with lots of acustic guitar and piano. However, the art is quite inconsistent (like showing a girl sleeping with a jacket and waking up without one, or using basically the same CG for a young girl at present time and 8 years ago, etc etc). Ah, this is turning too review-ish, isn’t it? Anyway, the overall mood is like walking your dog when it just got a little bit cold in early fall, and I’m enjoying the title so far.

…Yes, I’m seeing a definite streak in Arina Tanemura’s manga right now.

Anyway, I feel kind of sad right now, to think that I would actually read an Arina Tanemura manga where I didn’t like the clothes and couldn’t squeal at the cutesy relationships…… At least the story’s still awesome. I’m greately interested in the back story of Enju’s companions (especially Rurijou, of course). MY first theory is that they’re clones of the dead, and my second theory is that they’re clones of the living, my third theory is that everyone has twins. I don’t have a fourth theory yet, but I’m getting there.

P.S.: How come every single 14 years old girl I’ve been reading about has figures like this? That’s just not right.

You see a CG…You see a CG…You see a CG…You see a CG…You see a CG…

Anyway, even though I only have the trial, 鸑鷟 is turning out to be really fun (and quite mysterious too). The main character’s best friend is more awesome than Sunohara, and you know that’s not something you see everyday. The music is nice, the programming is decent (they’re using Kirikiri), the jokes are funny (“How the world is producing girlier men and savager women is making me fall into despair!”, said the best friend, right before the students in the class clubbed him half to death while the main character contemplates his younger sister’s relationship with peppers. This was after the best friend started wailing at how the guy’s sister always makes him lunch, while his own family is like Mis*to Katsuragi reincarnated).

And, as you can see, the actual game art is also really nice. The full version was released 2 months ago or something, I think I’m going to go and grab it now… You can see the creator blog here. The game is less than 10 bucks if you change it into the dollar, though, of course, it’s in Chinese(from the screen shots, I can tell than the final product is a LOT more polished than what I’ve been seeing). Hmm…I wonder if they’ll let me translate this thing into English…

P.S.: I got into a bad end and had a cat telling me to respect the gods of saifu luode (save/load). Not as awesome as tiger dojo, but awesome nevertheless.