The Professional Gamer - January 15, 2018

This week has been crammed full of after work meetings that kept me from doing very much fun stuff. This post is going to be short, so let's get to it.

In the world of seasonal anime, I'm continuing to watch Ancient Magus' Bride. It remains the best true fantasy series that I've seen for awhile. Much of the genre has, lately, been dominated by alternate world and RPG influenced shows, like Konosuba and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. A series where the viewer is learning about the magic aspects of the world at the same pace as the main character has been lacking for several years. At least one with the polish and cohesive world-building of Ancient Magus' Bride. I have not read any of the manga at this point; and I don't think I'm likely to do so. I enjoy discovering the story on a weekly basis, rather than waiting several months between manga volumes.

I also watched the premier of Pop Team Epic, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the show. I think its funny, but feels like it could end up going into a reference hole, where it has not humor of its own, but depends entirely on people recognizing things from it. I'll give it the customary 3 episode trial before I pass judgement on it.

It doesn't bother me...

After watching the latest Nintendo Direct, Crystal decided to download the Dragon Warrior Builders demo. I gave it a try as well, and thought it was reasonably fun. I've never been huge on Minecraft, so i didn't have a lot of expectations about the game. It took me a little while to get comfortable with the camera controls and I also had some trouble in some cases getting my buildings to end up where I want them. The game could be improved by adding a way to lock the character in place so that you can spin and more easily select specific squares. The humor is fun, and the characters interact well with each other. Crystal is planning to buy the full game when it is released for the Nintendo Switch, and I'll give it a further try then.

That's all I have for this week. Being one of the lucky few to have today off, means that I'll get to spend more time enjoying myself this weekend. Which is also convenient since my wedding anniversary is also this weekend; I've been married to Crystal for 11 years now, and I'm still enjoying every day more than the last. As for you, have a great week and game on.

Daku Con Photos!

The first Daku Con is in the book folks, and it has been immortalized in photos!

NDK 2017 Photos

Sorry it took me so long to actually post these photos to the front page, but all photos (ok, most photos) from NDK 2017 are now in their home here.

The Professional Gamer - October 10, 2017

Hi readers! My apologies for the delay in releasing this article. I spent the entire weekend working on my deck, trying to get it refinished before Monday’s snow. I managed to get it done just in time. I’m going to do something a little different this week. I don’t have a lot of new things to talk about, so I thought I might post some more in depth review of some of the summer season anime that I’ve been watching. Let’s get started!

Let’s start with Elegant Yokai Apartment Life. This was an anime that I originally thought would be a fairly run of the mill occult high school anime. In the end the story took a much more mature take than I had anticipated. The first surprise that I encountered was the relationship between Yushi Inaba (the main character) and Hase Mizuki (his school friend). The typical pattern in anime would be for Yushi to have a female childhood friend who would act as his emotional support. In this case, however, the primary role of emotional support is played by a male friend. The first season has started to explore their relationship, showing how men can be supportive of each other. This show is actually doing some important work in deconstructing toxic masculinity and helping to destroy some of the bad tropes that exist in other media. Yushi relationships with the residents of the Kotobuki-So also show a more nuanced style of writing than is typical in seasonal anime. Yushi returns the kindness and respect of the other characters, but is also chartiable, even to those who try to cause him harm. He also does not suddenly get some idea that he is any sort of “chosen one”; he only sees himself as a person who happens to be in a place where he can make a difference. There is a second season currently airing in Japan, but as of this writing, there is no announcement of simulcasting in the US.

Next, is Restaurant to Another World (Isekai Shokudo), which is likely the least isekai series to come out in recent years. Conversely, it actually includes “isekai” in the title. Very misleading. In honesty, the series is much more focused on food and cooking, using the “isekai” concept to introduce characters who are unfamiliar with the types of food they are about to eat. There is very little plot in this series; each episode revolves around a new character eating a food, usually something they have not eaten before. As a bit of a food lover, I enjoy this type of show; but I can understand that I am in a small niche.

That’s all for this week. Next week, I’ll start to discuss the seasonal anime that I’m watching. Until then, game on!