Darylsurat

Leading up to the successful rules change in the Senate to require a simple majority vote on presidential nominees, CNN gave air time to a number of right-wing myths about the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, among them that the court is ideologically balanced and that Senate Democrats' decision to embrace the "nuclear option" could make the Senate even more volatile in the future.

On November 21, in response to Republicans' blanket filibustering of President Barack Obama's judicial and executive nominees, Democrats reformed the rules of the Senate (a common practice) to prevent this unprecedented abuse of the filibuster. While reporting on this new rule that will restore up-or-down votes for the backlog of highly-qualified and mainstream nominees, CNN unfortunately repeated right-wing media myths on filibuster reform and the D.C. Circuit. Before the final vote, CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash initially minimized the unprecedented -- and historically partisan -- obstructionism on the part of Republicans, saying that a rule change could make the legislative body "even more partisan" should the GOP regain a majority in the Senate down the road. Bash went on to say that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was considering the so-called "nuclear option" because he wanted "to make a political point," ignoring that the mass filibusters have threatened to grind agencies to a halt:

BASH: What [the "nuclear option"] means in layman's terms is that it could be even more partisan on Capitol Hill, if you can imagine that, than it is now. The reason that the Democratic leader is going to seek to change the rules is because they're very frustrated with the fact that Republicans have been holding up the president's nominees. Let's just take a step back and talk about what we're discussing. ... [T]he current rules allow the minority to filibuster, and it requires 60 votes to overcome the filibuster. What this rule change would do, would effectively take away the minority's rights on most of the president's nominees for the executive branch and also for the bench, except for the Supreme Court.

[...]

Now you might ask well if this is the case why don't people in the majority, parties in the majority change the rules all the time? The reason is, there's a reason it's called the nuclear option, it is because institutionally, both parties have this sort of an understanding that they may be in the majority now but they could be in the minority tomorrow and part of the beauty of the Senate, in the Senate rules at least for the past few decades, has been that minority rights are pretty strong, as opposed to the House and so the respect for that has made it, made the leaders in both parties reluctant to change the rules, but Harry Reid has gotten so fed up and wants to make a political point right now and so it looks like it might happen today.

Although Bash appears to agree with the idea that it's increasingly likely that Senate Republicans will change procedural rules in the future now that Democrats have reformed the rules, her assertion that the "nuclear option" would make Washington "even more partisan" ignores the hyper-partisan maneuvers Senate Republicans have already employed. It is precisely because Senate Republicans have engaged in partisanship that Democrats were forced to consider a rule change. In just the last few weeks, Republicans have topped off their historic streak of mindless filibustering by blocking three D.C. Circuit nominees in a row -- and not because they have qualms about their qualifications. 

Ok, so Japanese hip-hop artist Cherry Brown is about to make his major label debut with a new LP called “Escapism”. And he’s hedged his bets by adorning it with the most mind-boggling jacket sleeve in recent memory: a homage-send-up-parody-dead-serious (we’re really no sure which) mash-up of the stereotypical "money and the power" rap LP cover adorned with otaku signifiers galore: Akihabara buildings, cosplay chicks, CGI girlfriends, dorky anime shirt…even a magical girl’s mighty wand!

 

 

The self-produced Cherry Brown is said to have set the j-hip hop world buzzing with a blend of different musical styles combined with a love of anime and games. I guess times are changing and this cover, wacky though it may be, makes me think of a recent quote from photographer Yasumasa Yonehara on the changing state of otaku culture in Japan (paraphrased)

 

"Otaku don’t get bullied for being nerds anymore… Back in the day, delinquents could join bike gangs. But the cops clamped down on that scene, so geeking out is their only option. If all the kids are otaku, then it means that Japan is growing up otaku. The old folks are the only ones still blind to this fact."

Will Escapism be the official soundtrack to new-school otaku thug life? I don’t know. But here's a sample from one of the tracks, iDol, to pontificate over.

 

 

---------

Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his blog at http://patrickmacias.blogs.com

Original audio with different lip-synching available as free DLC for 2 weeks after release

Comedy duo to be playable DLC characters in February 27 game

Having previously promoted with Evangelion, the Japanese Racing Association (JRA) is again trying to introduce anime fans to horse racing. This time, they've launched an Attack on Japan Cup site, using the cast of AoT and Flash game to sell otaku on the notion of horse racing. 

 

 

------
Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

 

After over 2 months between episodes, with so much that has happened as far as titles and news events, we're...not talking about any of those things since Daryl has to catch up on doing what he said he'd do months ago, which is review the 2012 theatrical animated film Asura. Visit www.animeworldorder.com for full show notes and supplemental links.

Polygon posted a new Dead Rising 3 report that's sure to please Capcom fans, as it heralds the return of Mega Man X. Beat the game and you'll unlock the outfit for protagonist Nick Ramos to cause all kinds of destruction with, as previewed in the video below. 

 

 

As for that X Buster weapon, you'll get that if you complete Dead Rising 3's Nightmare mode. I'm just glad that pretty much everything after the debut trailer has confirmed Dead Rising's commitment to remaining as ridiculous as possible.

 

The full game arrives alongside the launch of Xbox One on November 22. 

 

-------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter at @Moldilox.

Fanart Friday returns, and it's got a new move specially designed for you. Last week, we saluted our men and women in uniform, but this week we're focusing on a different kind of taxing profession: PRO WRESTLERS! This week's theme was suggested by CR user trigunkwan, and I'm glad a lot of you were excited for it--pro wrestling is still a big part of Japanese pop culture, finding its way into anime, manga, video games, and more!

 

 

Yeah, we all know pro wrestling's fake, but it's impressive to see the lengths people will go to in the name of not breaking kayfabe--essentially, breaking character. In terms of performance art, wrestlers may be cheesy and over-the-top, but I've got tons of respect for the work they put into choreographing--and then surviving--these titanic throwdowns. Let's get it on!

 

DISCLAIMER:  None of the art presented is the property of myself or Crunchyroll.  All characters and series are ^tm and © their respective creators and corporate owners.  All art is the creative property of their respective artists.  Any artists who wish to have their work removed from this article may contact me, and appropriate action will be immediately taken.

 

by ug

Why not start with the wrestling anime, Kinnikuman? The toys first appeared in America as M.U.S.C.L.E., then later Ultimate Muscle brought the recent Kinnikuman Second series to American TV. Kinnikuman's one of the classics of anime and manga, and revels in its craziness.

 

by scrotumnose

Of course, in a series full of stealthy (and not-so-stealthy) ninja like Naruto Shippuden, it's a real shock to see somebody like the Raikage Ay (and his brother Killer Bee), who both use high-powered wrestling techniques! Ay is fond of full-arm lariats and power bombs, so it was kind of a miracle that a twig like Sasuke made it out of their fight alive. Also, "scrotumnose" is an awesome screen name.

 

by Jove

Can't believe I got to type "by Jove" in a totally non-sarcastic way. Anyways, a reader asked for Tenjho Tenge's Saga Mask, but I wasn't able to find any actual fanart of him--thankfully, we have this burly cosplayer picking up the slack!

 

by Giga-Leo

I prefer more straight-up physical wrestling involving power moves and trading finishers, but I also have a soft spot for gimmick wrestlers like Papa Shango. His whole schtick was the lights turning out, and his opponent was on the ground with black voodoo goo on their faces, but he also had a slingshot suplex called the Voodoo Driver.

 

by よりすけ

Y'know, it's weird--I love pro wrestling characters, but I'm actually a very casual fan of pro wrestling, only watching the occasional big event like Wrestlemania. Tekken's signature grappler King uses more pure wrestling technique as opposed to flashy power moves, but he does have a few cool tricks like a moonsault and a kickass DDT.

 

by Ｋにぃー

The new Kalos Pokemon are popular as hell, especially the Fighting-types! While you get a straight-up kung-fu panda with Pancham, lucha libre hawk Hawlucha here seems to be more popular!

 

by かずえ

Don't worry, Zangief, your lariat is so cool that fireballs pass right through it, and your EX Flying Power Bomb has armor, so you can just charge right through and give the rest of your Street Fighter co-stars a big hug! Yes, I doled out a lot of 'Gief Grief in the early days of Street Fighter IV, but I've had to move to Cammy and Makoto in the last few installments.

 

by 加賀

Dammit, every time I look for School Rumble art, I find all these lovey-dovey couples pics instead of the characters being the total derps that they are. Anyways, Karen Ichijou (in the back) is part of the school's wrestling club, which she tends to use on poor bosom-loving Kyousuke (the guy in the front).

 

by いいぺん

For those of you who can't tell from the anime style, this is the showdown between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 17! This part of WWE (then WWF) history took place while I was in high school, where friends got me back into watching wrestling.

 

by ButcherBOY

Dude, Tina, if you put on more clothes then it'll be easier for me to include you in Fanart Friday. Tina Armstrong, her father Bass, and kinda-sorta-best-friend Lisa/La Mariposa make up the pro wrestlers of Dead or Alive, but Tina is pretty obviously the most popular one.

 

by ナオユキ

Stupid Jaycee and her treehugger/fake Native American/suddenly lucha libre ass, there is no way that Armor King would let her take him down like that. Two of Tekken's other wrestlers, Armor King is the mentor of the current King, and Jaycee is formerly Julia Chang.

 

by DominicVelando

For those of you unfamiliar with MMA, this match between sometimes pro wrestler/sometimes mixed martial artist Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie, pioneer of the sport and winner of multiple UFC championships, is considered one of the best, most technical (and honestly most hilarious) matches in the history of professional fighting. While Gracie approached the match with his usual technical brilliance, Sakuraba went absolutely nuts, using flying attacks and putting on a show--all that was missing was a show of mic skills.

 

by BOS

I'm always a little sad that Street Fighter IV's El Fuerte isn't a total force of nature. He requires a lot of skill to play, and a willingness to get your ass kicked again and again as you learn the ins and outs of El Fuerte's high-flying style. To be honest, I just like lucha libre in general--I watch that, boxing, and soccer on the Spanish-language channels here, and I barely know any Spanish.

 

by nyoro

Y'know what, I know a lot of you like Wanna be the Strongest in the World, so I'm not gonna be too hard on it. I don't know what I expected, honestly, I just didn't think it would be so... hell, I don't know what word I'm looking for. I also expected the animation quality to be a little higher. Actually, let's just stop talking about this right now.

by 5aq READER SUBMISSION!

I mean, readers like it--a lot! This one came in the day after Fanart Friday was published, but I made an exception... partially because of how much love this series was getting in the comments.

 

by ホズン

The Undertaker is a fixture of wrestling, and I'll be sad when he steps down from his undefeated-at-Wrestlemania throne. I've heard nothing but good things about his last showdown with Shawn Michaels, so I'll check that out as soon as I can. Sadly, the thing I most remember about Undertaker is his "are we really going through with this?" face as he nearly killed Mick Foley in a 1998 cage match.

 

by にゃんた

"Asekusa" is the very appropriate Japanese name for Animal Crossing: New Leaf's Stinky, who is the absolute best neighbor ever in any Animal Crossing game. Give him wrestling stuff! He's a man's man!

 

by 虎杖　鷲

It's too bad that Tizoc didn't show up for King of Fighters XIII--the wrestler known as Griffon Mask in Japan first showed up in Mark of the Wolves, then teamed up with Terry Bogard and Joe Higashi in KoF '03. Even though he's only had two appearances, he's my favorite SNK grappler because he's so damn fun to use.

 

by karu@

I'm not as much of a frothing R. Mika fanboy as you'd think, although the rest of the Street Fighter fandom is clamoring for her return and she embodies a lot of things I like in one package. It was kinda cool to have a striking-based wrestler in Street Fighter Alpha 3 instead of the usual grappler-types like Zangief, T. Hawk and Darun.

 

by 塩三

Now, let's finish up with Hulk Hogan's rules to live by: say your prayers, take your vitamins, train, and never give up--you can't go wrong with that! I can't believe the guy was doing events until just last month!

 

And that's everything for this week! There's no way I could have included everybody--who are your favorite wrestlers, or wrestling-themed characters? Sound off in the comments!

 

Like I say every week, your work is always welcome here on Fanart Friday, regardless of your skill level or experience--just PM me a link to your work, and I'll make sure to include it in a future installment! For those of you artists who want to submit something, here are the next three installments of Fanart Friday:

 

-Next week, on NOVEMBER 22nd, we celebrate one of my all-time favorite video game series, and the launch of A Link Between Worlds, with a LEGEND OF ZELDA installment! THIS IS THE ONLY THEME I'M TAKING REQUESTS FOR THIS WEEK!

-Then, on NOVEMBER 29th, Black Friday, we dig into the darkest depths of evil with our favorite VILLAINS! The original Black Friday Edition took a look at villains back in 2011--who's the baddest of the bad?

-On DECEMBER 6th, we get ready for snowball fights and putting up Christmas decorations with another returning theme: WINTER WONDERLAND EDITION blows back into town!

 

Thanks again for dropping by to check out Fanart Friday--have a great weekend, and I hope all of you come by next week! Who here's picking up a PS4 today?

Fuel up the Mach 5, because Speed Racer is the Greatest Movie EVER!

Click on the movie poster or the title above to download our review of the film,

featuring Daryl Surat of AnimeWorldOrder and Thomas Pandich.

Review in a Nutshell: Critically savaged and commercially unsuccessful, Speed Racer is a visually imaginative family film directed by the Wachowskis. Some people will not be able to enjoy the film’s super-saturated color palette and kinetic editing, but upon re-watching it, I discovered a film with a surprisingly resonant emotional core.

NRA News host Cam Edwards claimed that Glamour magazine's Women of the Year Awards had an "anti-gun agenda" and made "the world a more dangerous place for women" because the event honored victims of gun violence, including Pakistani education reformer Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban.

Glamour's 23rd annual award event held on November 11 also honored former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) -- who was wounded during a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona -- and Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher Kaitlin Roig-Debellis, who saved the lives of 15 first-graders during the December 2012 mass shooting at her school in Newtown, Connecticut. Yousafzai, who at age 15 was targeted for assassination by the Taliban for protesting a ban on female education, told the crowd, "I believe the gun has no power at all."

On the November 14 edition of NRA News show Cam & Company, guest Laura Carno, the founder of conservative non-profit I Am Created Equal, suggested that Yousafzai could have defended herself from the Taliban with a gun and later said that the award event should have invited Carno and other female gun rights activists.

Konami has a great throwback treat in store as a Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes PlayStation exclusive. Sony's version will be getting a "Classic Snake" skin, which decks Snake out like the PSone era never ended, low polygon count and all. See a preview of that and the exclusive "Déjà Vu" mission Konami teased during Spike's PlayStation All-Access event below. 

 

 

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes hits Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 in spring 2014.

 

-------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter at @Moldilox.

A new report from the Center for Media and Democracy reveals an expansive network of closely allied right-wing groups, funded in part by Charles and David Koch and other corporate and conservative sources, operating as the State Policy Network (SPN).

The Center notes that while many of the organizations allied with SPN claim to be independent, their agendas often mesh together and work in concert with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC has often circulated model legislation in state legislatures aimed at promoting conservative causes, including the controversial NRA "Stand Your Ground" law in several states. The report also explains that SPN affiliates are required to share their publications with each other, and as the head of the Alabama Policy Insitute (an SPN affiliate) told National Review, "We trade information all the time and borrow ideas from each other."

It's no surprise that a bunch of characters will be making a comeback in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, but this week's Japanese gaming mags are reporting on one that might raise a few eyebrows: Cid Raines.

 

Ahoy, potentially spoilerish details below...

 

Following the events of FFXIII, it's interesting to see that General Cid Raines will be back in some form. According to a post on the Final Fantasy Network fan site, he'll be acting as "a spokesman for the thoughts of the dead." Here's a scan showing the character among other returning acts: 

 

Japan gets Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII on November 21, and it hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the west in February 2014. 

 

Via Siliconera

 

-------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter at @Moldilox.

A 2,000-pound satellite is currently plummeting to Earth and is expected to penetrate the atmosphere in less than two days--and no one really knows where it's going to land. The one-ton Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (known as GOCE) has a pretty good chance of landing in the ocean, though pieces may land on inhabited land. The European Space Agency has promised to provide updates on potential landing spots as the satellite nears Earth but you can track the satellite on your own here.

CNN:

"Where will the satellite -- or more accurately, fragments thereof -- hit? Nobody really knows.

An ocean somewhere is the best bet, with unpopulated areas on land also a good possibility. Still, there remains a chance that pieces may hit where people live. The space agency has promised on its website that potential landing spots will be narrowed down as GOCE gets closer to reentry.

That hadn't happened yet as of Saturday afternoon, though anyone can track the satellite via an ESA website.

One good thing is that humans on Earth needn't worry about is remnants of a nuclear powered or similarly fueled object. While that's the case for some other satellites, GOCE had been powered by solar panels and not-your-average lithium-ion battery.

That battery ran out of juice on October 21, meaning it lasted longer -- since its 2009 launch -- than most expected."

In March 2011, the European Space Agency added another role -- as the "first seismometer in orbit" -- when it detected sound waves from the massive earthquake that struck Japan.

When the satellite strikes Earth, that will mark the official end of its mission to map variations in the Earth's gravity in 3D, provide ocean circulation patterns, and make other measurements.

Even after CBS' Lara Logan apologized for and promised to correct a retracted 60 Minutes story on the Benghazi attacks featuring inconsistent accounts from an unreliable source, the ripple effects from the delay in retracting the report continue.

On the November 10 edition of State of the Union, CNN host Candy Crowley asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) if he would continue to block President Obama's nominees, after the false 60 Minutes report collapsed. Graham replied that he would continue blocking nominees, saying he's been requesting to talk to Benghazi survivors for a year. Crowley pushed further, explaining to Graham that "what spurred your action to block the president's nominees was the 60 Minutes report, so that's what prompted you to do this. I mean you did it the day after and you cited it."

CBS' failure to properly vet its sources and its long delay in responding to criticism of its report has created ripple effects that continue to this day. Not only has CBS' credibility taken a huge hit, but the story has led Graham to block presidential nominations. Media Matters founder and chairman David Brock explained, when asked by MSNBC host Al Sharpton "how does [Graham] justify blocking every post that the president proposes," that Republicans will continue investigating until they hear what they want to hear:

Bluefin Distribution and Plamocon have announced that the 2013 North American Representative for the GunPla Builders World Cup Gundam model building competition will for Kevin Yi Zhang of Connecticut, USA, selected for his work on the  Legendary Mobile Suit PWS-02.

 

 

Inspired by the Chinese comic Storm Cloud, the entry uses the MG Blitz Gundam and has been heavily modified with parts from numerous other Bandai kits along with custom made pieces and intricate paint work.

 

 

The N. American qualifier was split into live events at several cities hosted by Bluefin and an online competition hosted by Plaocon. Winners of each of these events then competed for the chance to win the spot to be the N. American representative, who will be flown to Japan in December for the Finals against several other countries including China, Indonesia, Italy, Australia, Philippines, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Taiwan.

 

Runner Up: "Dave's Zaku"
by Chris Zeigler (Missouri USA)

 

2nd Runner Up: MG FuunSaiki Gundam
by Eric Suderow Alex Manuel (Illinois USA)

 

Winners for live events included

 

1/35 UCHG Zaku head by Jack Elliot Nunn

Master Funsaiki Gundam by Eric Suderow and Alex Manuel

 

Gouf Custom by Luis Gama

 

Zaku Cannon by Lersak Bunupuradah

 

MG Hi-Nu Gundam by James Michie

 

MG Hi-Nu Gundam by James Michie

-------
Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

CBS News has pulled its dubious 60 Minutes report on the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi following the revelation that Dylan Davies, the segment's featured "witness," has given contradictory stories about that night's events. But Fox News, which aggressively promoted the CBS segment and used it to claim that their own Benghazi reporting had been validated, has so far ignored the story's implosion in its on-air reporting.

Fox was eager to seize on the CBS report shortly after it aired. On October 28, the morning after the 60 Minutes segment, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy told viewers, "It's great that mainstream media, finally catching up. CBS did this story on Benghazi and I see criticism from the left where they go, 'You guys are covering a phony scandal.' 60 Minutes doesn't cover phony scandals."

That evening, Special Report host Bret Baier said that the 60 Minutes report "reaffirmed what we knew and had reported on." The Real Story host Gretchen Carlson and The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld also used the CBS report to prop up their network's own Benghazi reporting.

All told, Fox spent more than 47 minutes -- spread across 13 segments on 11 separate shows -- covering the CBS report on October 28. And it didn't stop there.

After serious questions were raised about Davies' credibility, the network rallied to his defense, with Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade suggesting the administration had leaked damaging information to the press in order to "discredit a seemingly very credible witness." 

Davies had even suggested that Fox News had been involved in a campaign to smear him when Fox correspondent Adam Housley reported on-air that the network stopped talking to Davies after he asked them for money. Nonetheless, Fox personalities still sought to defend his credibility. (Washington Post reporter Eric Wemple points out that during Housley's explanation that Davies had asked for money, Housley said that the network had previously used him as a source for online reports; Wemple rightly asks whether the network plans to review those reports now that Davies' credibility is shot.) 

Last night, after the New York Times confirmed that Davies had provided conflicting stories about his actions the night of the terror attacks, CBS pulled the segment from its website and YouTube. This morning, CBS reporter Lara Logan apologized to CBS viewers, saying, "We were wrong. We made a mistake." Logan added that 60 Minutes planned to "correct the record on our broadcast on Sunday night."

But now that CBS has pulled the report, Fox has gone silent. As of 1:45pm, the network still has not told its viewers that the 60 Minutes report has been retracted. (While it hasn't covered the latest developments on-air, FoxNews.com has posted the CBS apology and retraction.)

The firing of Guns & Ammo contributing editor Dick Metcalf for making the noncontroversial assertion that the ownership of firearms is subject to some regulation is indicative of how the gun rights community will railroad anyone who offers a modicum of dissent to the absolutist view of the Second Amendment.

On November 6, Guns & Ammo editor Jim Bequette announced that Metcalf would no longer write for the firearm publication. Metcalf's offense was a column in December's magazine that stated, "[W]ay too many gun owners still seem to believe that any regulation of the right to keep and bear arms is an infringement. The fact is, all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be." In defense of laws requiring training before carrying a gun in public he wrote, "I firmly believe that all U.S. citizens have a right to keep and bear arms, but I do not believe that they have a right to use them irresponsibly."

Bequette's groveling column, also appearing in the December issue of Guns & Ammo, offered "each and every reader a personal apology," and stated, "Dick Metcalf has had a long and distinguished career as a gunwriter, but his association with 'Guns & Ammo' has officially ended." Clarifying that the Guns & Ammo position is that the Second Amendment has "[n]o strings attached," Bequette wrote, "I made a mistake by publishing the column. I thought it would generate a healthy exchange of ideas on gun rights. I miscalculated, pure and simple. I was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness."

Members of the gun rights community face attack for debating any regulation on firearms or expressing support for background checks on firearm sales, a position extremely popular with the American public.

Sharpen up your katana, because Versus is the Greatest Movie EVER!

Click on the DVD cover or the title above to download our review of the film,

featuring Sean “Hollywood” Hunting and Daryl Surat of AnimeWorldOrder.

Review in a Nutshell: Frenetic, funny, and action-packed, Versus is a genre-bending action / horror / Yakuza picture with a mystic twist. It’s an independent movie with a small budget and a big heart.

Not a joke! Not an imaginary story! Someone out there really is spending time, money, and resources to make an all-new video game based on Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo films!  

 

To be fair though, the Rambo: the Video Game – like the movies themselves – looks highly intelligent and thought provoking (I’m kidding). If nothing else, it aims to be unerringly faithful to the source material, just about 30 years too late. Now, just as Rambo seems about as viable a pop culture icon as the Lone Ranger, you can finally relive all the fun and excitement of the small town mayhem of First Blood, the one-man Vietnam War of Rambo: First Blood Part II, the ideologically confusing Middle East conflict of Rambo III on your PC, XBOX, or PS3. Don’t believe me? Watch the new trailer below!

 

 

Too little too late? The fact is that practically every bang-bang-shoot-shoot FPS for generations now has been a “Rambo: The Video Game” of sorts, and this one looks like a mash-up of Far Cry, Call of Duty, and lord knows what else. Still, speaking as someone who went to see Rambo 4 in the theater by himself on Valentine’s Day (this really happened), I’m probably going to have to check it out if and when it ever actually comes out (release date is currently TBA).

---------

Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his blog at patrickmacias.blogs.com and follow him on Twitter.

One of this month's Club Nintendo rewards is perfect for building up to the November 22 release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. For 150 Coins, you can download arguably the best Zelda game of all time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, to prepare for Link's follow-up adventure. 

 

Both that and Art Style: CUBELLO are November's Wii offerings, while 3DS has Metroid and Dillon's Rolling Western up for 150 and 200 Coins, respectively.

 

 

All four titles will be available to spend your hard-earned coins on until December 8. 

 

-------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter at @Moldilox.

Nausicaa, North Star appear in GameCenter CX The Movie: 1986 Mighty Bomb Jack

Under the Mirabeau Bridge runs the Seine And our love I must bring to mind once again That joy always came after pain
	—Guillaume Apollinaire, 1912

A penetrating examination of the impact of the Vietnam war on American soldiers who returned home and were forced to face the demons of their wartime experience alone, to the anguish of their loved ones, who were reunited with their sons physically only to watch them slip away in spirit. Would you believe this synopsis describes a film about cartoon penguins? For such are the mysteries of Japanese animation, which in 1985 gave birth to the conundrum that is Penguin's Memory. (watch)

This film is one of the mysteries of anime. On the surface, it depicts cute anthropomorphic penguins going through some kind of drama in some kind of generic country town. Think Maple Town. If you watched the film without understanding the dialogue, you could be forgiven for believing it to be a film for children. And you would not be entirely mistaken. But beneath the cutesy penguins and the occasional random song and dance number lies a story that seems flagrantly inappropriate for a children's film.

Penguin's Memory is essentially The Deer Hunter via Sanrio. The Deer Hunter is the film's obvious influence in many ways, not least the basic story about three buddies from small-town America who ship off to Vietnam, only one of whom returns with scars more emotional than physical. (The Delta War in this movie is clearly a stand-in for the Vietnam War.) The protagonist is named Mike. He watches his buddy fall to his death after the two of them grabbed hold of the skids of a helicopter in the midst of battle. He returns home only to shy away from the unwelcome attention of his family. Many other parts of the script have obviously been created for the film, but The Deer Hunter clearly provided the skeleton and the spirit for the journey of this film's protagonist.

At first it is quite confusing to watch the cartoon penguins and slowly realize that the story is in fact deadly serious in intent. It's a feeling remotely akin to that watching a film like When the Wind Blow, in which cartoonish visuals belie a deadly serious message. A more appropriate analogy might be Night on the Galactic Railroad, in which cartoon cats were used to tell a story with complex spiritual and philosophical undertones. They look like children's films, but are far more than that. I think this is the case with Penguin's Memory. The main problem is that in the case of Penguin's Memory the artistry is frankly not up to the level of the material. The cartoon penguins initially seem a baffling visual choice to tell such a story, and that feeling never goes away. There is no sync between the artistry and the narrative. The penguins are nothing more than symbols for humans, no doubt partially to sidestep the challenges inherent in portraying (and animating) humans acting out such a challenging script. The penguin designs are completely arbitrary. The film is essentially a live-action film with cartoon penguins overlaid over the humans.

How did such a film come about? The basic details are clear, although they do little to belay the radiant bizarreness of the final product. It all started with a series of 30-second animated TV ads for Suntory beer, depicting a cute cartoon penguin who each time invariably sheds a tear after reminiscing of lost love watching a girl penguin with a flower bow (watch), or being brought a beer by the girl penguin with the flower bow after losing a boxing match (watch), or some variation thereof. One of these ads featured the boy penguin watching the girl penguin with the flower bow singing a song in a dimly lit jazz bar. (watch) This particular ad may have provided the seed for the movie.

The Japanese love using cute cartoon characters to sell anything and everything, apparently including alcoholic beverages. The ads were such a success for Suntory that they decided to make a movie out of the series. Seems like a great idea, right? A beer company wants a cartoon movie about penguins, so obviously it has to be for adults, but kids still need to be able to watch it. What could possibly go wrong? I don't know the particulars of how the movie was conceived, but presumably what happened is that they decided to flesh out the short set in the bar by giving the boy and girl penguin a back story. The scene with the girl singing in the bar makes an appearance at the halfway point in the movie (watch).

So essentially a movie was constructed around this short ad, by coming up with a story to explain how the boy and girl got into that particular situation. The boy was turned into a Vietnam vet who returned home, but left his hometown for a small town to get away from everyone he knew and live life in peace. He went to work at a library and met a girl named Jill who turns out to be an aspiring singer. She wants to move to the big city with Mike to pursue a career as a singer, but Mike wants nothing of it and tries to leave Jill. The second half of the film deals with the conflict of their romance, which involves a jealous fiance who is a skilled surgeon and a greedy promoter who has a lot of money invested in Jill. Jill's story was obviously concocted to play into the popularity of the song in the CM by the then-rising idol singer Seiko Matsuda.

Thus, rather than a cohesive concept, the film is a Frankenstein's monster of various disparate forces: cartoon penguins shoehorned into a rudimentary Deer Hunter story with a tacked on idol singer plot, coerced at gunpoint into an animated film by a beer company. Meanwhile, the film is crippled by its attempt to reconcile its dual impulse as a child-friendly story for adults, unable to fully invest itself in either. The film entirely lacks the Russian roulette metaphor and other elements that made The Deer Hunter work as a film, borrowing casually without much thought to thematic integrity. This flattened visual and moral world assumes an audience that will not be thrown out of the narrative zone by penguin dance sequences, habituated as they are to seeing animated penguins selling beer. For the rest of us, it's just an improbable mish-mash.

Then there is the title. What devious mind named the film? The film's full title is: Penguin's Memory: A Story of Happiness. This is obviously dark irony. This Story of Happiness is one of the most deeply unhappy animated films ever made, pre-dating Todd Solondz's Happiness by 13 years. Audiences lured by this deceptive subtitle must have assumed they were to see a light-hearted romp in the spirit of the harmless, adorable ads, but were greeted instead by a dark, nuanced meditation about one veteran's struggle to re-gain happiness. This is not a happy film; it's a film about happiness. This film takes place during the dark night of the soul before happiness is, perhaps, eventually found. It is in this spirit that the film at one point quotes the Apollinaire poem "Mirabeau Bridge".

There are three people credited with the script, one director, and one "animation kantoku" or animation director (not to be confused with "sakuga kantoku", which the film also has). Clearly it must have been one of these people who made the decision to borrow heavily from The Deer Hunter and otherwise go in this daring direction with the film. While obviously derivative and watered down, it is nonetheless pleasant to see such hard-hitting material in anime, and I would like to see more like it. But the idea to do such material came from people who don't work in the industry. I suspect the main brains behind the film were the same people behind the ads.

The director of the film is one Shunji Kimura, director of the penguin Suntory beer ad campaign, about whom it is difficult to find much information, despite the fact that he has directed no less than 800 television ads over the course of a 30-some-year career. I assume the writers worked in advertising as well, as it is impossible to find almost any information about them. Funny how easy it is to find info about anime staff, yet how impossible it is to find any info about advertising staff. Yet again, it's a case of outsiders bringing fresh storytelling ideas into commercial animation. A number of films were directed or written by outsiders like this around the period of the late 1970s/early 1980s.

The "animation kantoku" meanwhile is Studio Junio's Akinori Nagaoka (Anpanman, Diary of Anne Frank, Tetsuko no Tabi). Junio head Takao Kosai is also present, but I'm not sure if the production was spearheaded by Junio or was more of a collaborative effort, as the only studio credited is Animation Staff Room, and the film gathers animators and staff from diverse studios, with notable names including Yoshiyuki Momose, Yoshinori Kanemori, Megumi Kagawa, Toyoaki Emura, Yusaku Yamamoto, Masami Suda, Sachiko Kamimura and Yoichi Kotabe. Yasunori Miyazawa can be seen as an inbetweener.

I'm fascinated by films like this in which there is overweening ambition that fails to coalesce. There are elements of genius, but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. The story is one that is genuinely moving and compelling, and is actually surprisingly sensitively told by the script and the directing, but the necessary nuance feels blunted by the childish drawings rather than assisted, as it were, by the distancing patina of animation, as is the case in analogues like Night on the Galactic Railroad.

Anthropomorphic anime were nothing unusual at the time, and I myself never bothered to look into this obscure film until Bahi pointed it out to me just recently, because I fully expected to find nothing more than another Hello Kitty or Maple Town story about cuddly animals engaged in adorable antics. But the opener of Penguin's Memory dispels that notion immediately: You are plunged headlong into a Vietnam battle straight out of Platoon.

At first I took the scene for some kind of a parody, expecting the scene to shift at any moment back to the lighthearted real world of the anthropomorphic penguins, whatever that might be. But that shift never occurs. After the battle sequence, the same story grinds on, chronicling in depressing, painstaking detail the soldier's homecoming and attendant feelings of estrangement from the peaceful world that greets him on his return. A brief synopsis will indicate the level of attention to detail that makes the scene somewhat remarkable for its careful directing.

A lone harmonica sings plaintively over the opening credits, creating a deceptively peaceful mood. The screen fades slowly in from black, revealing the outlines of several Iroquois helicopters flying through the pitch black night. The peaceful mood is shattered as they launch their rockets onto the dark landscape, and unscathed enemy forces on the ground immediately respond with a spray of tracer bullets. On the ground, meanwhile, behind the cover of trees in the jungle, three soldier penguins fire towards an unseen enemy. Al is the burly penguin firing an M60 (favorite of Rambo and Heisenberg), Tom is the scrawny penguin with glasses, and Mike is the hero of the story. First one of the helicopters is hit by a rocket, and next Mike gets thrown in the river by the explosion of a rocket. Mike runs to his aid as Al covers him. The battle ends in stalemate as the helis retreat, and the three soldiers make camp to take care of Tom's wounds.

That night, Mike tends to Tom's bandages around a campfire when Al returns from a reconnaissance mission. As they sit talking around the campfire, we learn that the three are buddies who hail from the same small town, and they hope to start up a business when they get back home. Al jokes that he's got a busty blonde waiting for him when he gets back, but she just doesn't know he exists yet. Mike always carries with him a book of poems by his favorite poet, Randall James, and Al ribs him for it: "How can you read a book at a time like this, with bullets flying everywhere?" "That's exactly why I need it." "I don't get it. Are you going to hide behind that book when a bullet comes flying at your head?" Mike is too busy reading to respond.

The next morning, the three trudge their way warily through the jungle when they encounter a train of refugees, including women and children. Allied helis show up and, to Mike's horror, begin firing on the refugees, presumably assuming them to be Vietcong. Mike runs out and is injured, and Tom runs out to save Mike only to be fatally shot. Mike attempts to revive Tom while Al covers the two. As the enemy encroaches, the heli comes in to pick them up, and Al forces Mike onto the heli's skids, although not before Mike is able to grab Tom's harmonica. Almost on their way to freedom, a rocket hits one of the helis, and the blast causes Al to lose his grip and fall to his death. Mike can do nothing but watch.

The opening scene is exemplary of the film's assiduous 'realism-apart-from-the-penguins' approach. Every little detail of the Vietnam-era paraphernalia is meticulously accurate, from the Iroquois helis to the M1 helmets to the M1910 water bottles to the M60 machine gun to the M16 rifle. Even the flak jacket identifies the characters as Marines. This is a scene that, except for the penguins, could have played out in Platoon. Perhaps the true nature of the war came to light in the intervening years, as instead of NVA killing civilians as in The Deer Hunter, it's the Americans killing civilians that trips Mike's outrage.

One of my favorite parts in the film is the 5-minute wordless montage sequence of Mike wandering the countryside after leaving his home in the dead of the night. (watch) It's a beautiful visual storytelling scene by any measure, showcasing the film's tasteful and subdued sense of realistic filmmaking. The countryside is believably American and rural, with its wheat fields, barns, dirt roads, beat-up Ford trucks, lonely gas stations, and picturesque lines of mailboxes. After some wandering, eventually, to the strains of a jazzy harmonica, he wanders into a mid-century town whose neon signs, gruff industrial sector and steel girder underpasses believably convey a small American working class town. A street boxing den meanwhile reminds of the parts of Ashita no Joe where the downtrodden Joe lets himself be beaten, but also of the gambling den of The Deer Hunter.

The meeting between Mike and Jill symbolically occurs in the library where Mike has taken refuge. As during the war, when the book of poems by his favorite poet offered him refuge, so now the monastery silence of the library offers him refuge. She comes seeking a book of poetry by Apollinaire, a French poet who fought in World War I. She begins reciting Mirabeau Bridge, only to have Mike finish it for her. The book Mike reads is by one Randall James, but the title of his book "Ma Boheme" indicates that this is really Rimbaud, an earlier French poet. For some reason they changed the name to a more American sounding name, perhaps because it doesn't make sense for a lower class American boy with no education to be reading Rimbaud.

After Mike meets Jill, the story settles into romantic mode for a while as Mike and Jill go on dates and get to know each other. Mike saves an injured bird, and light begins to trickle into his closed heart. We discover that Jill is in fact engaged to a skilled surgeon at her father's hospital, but the surgeon is having affair with a nurse. In one scene, the jealous but two-timing surgeon phones Jill from his bedroom with his mistress in his bed behind him. The film can be quite adult in its understanding of affairs of the heart. He seems like a scumbag at first, but the film satisfyingly avoids pinning the crux of the drama on a simplistic arch-rival setup when the surgeon eventually admits that he has the mistress and 'gives' Jill to Mike.

The story then boils down to the question of what Jill and Mike truly want: Does Mike really want Jill? Still emotionally blunted, he reject her offer of redemption for the comfort of solitude. What about Jill? Jill is forced to sacrifice her ambitions for Mike, and this may be the key to saving Mike. When the promoter learns that Jill wants to abandon her career, he brings his thugs to convince Mike to make her change her mind. In the ensuing scuffle, they kill his bird, causing a dam to finally bursts in Mike. He erupts in violence, almost killing the promoter in a fit of blind rage. Mike is sentenced to 3 years probation for the crime, which signals both his low point and his emotional breakthrough.

The story is surprisingly delicate and genuinely moving in the second half with this setup and climax, and makes me wish that all of this were not marred by the visuals, which will prevent most people from appreciating a good, approachable story. Mike parts ways with Jill in a moving letter that reads in part: "My dear Jill, I'm sorry it came to this. I can never repay you for all you've done for me. You opened my heart and made me realize all the things that I've held inside. Maybe I've taken life too much for granted. I'm probably just a weak guy who lost his fight with a monster called war. But I wonder if there's really anybody who wins in a war."

For all that's odd and wrong about the film, it got a lot of things right, and represents a rare kind of humane, real-life based storytelling that I wish we could see more in anime.

---

Penguin's Memory: A Story of Happiness ペンギンズメモリー 幸福物語
(movie, 1985, 101 mins, Animation Staff Room)

Animation Producer:	香西隆男	Takao Kosai
Director ("Kantoku"):	木村俊士	Shunji Kimura
"Animation Kantoku":	永丘昭典	Akinori Nagaoka
Storyboard:	永丘昭典 福富博 今沢哲男 森脇真琴 ひこねのりお	Akinori Nagaoka Hiroshi Fukutomi Tetsuo Imazawa Makoto Moriwaki Norio Hikone
Art Director:	高野正道	Masamichi Takano
Supervisor & Original Character Design:	ひこねのりお	Norio Hikone
Character Design & Sakkan:	鈴木欽一郎 兼森義則	Kinichiro Suzuki Yoshinori Kanemori
Asst Sakkan:	平田かほる 賀川愛	Kaoru Hirata Megumi Kagawa
Key animation:	小田部洋一	Yoichi Kotabe
	山本福雄	Fukuo Yamamoto
	伊東誠	Makoto Ito
	星野絵美	Emi Hoshino
	北島信幸	Nobuyuki Kitajima
	富沢和雄	Kazuo Tomizawa
	須田正己	Masami Suda
	青嶋克己	Katsumi Aoshima
	百瀬義行	Yoshiyuki Momose
	坂本雄作	Yusaku Sakamoto
	木下ゆうき	Yuuki Kinoshita
	松田?之	_yuki Matsuda
	槌田幸一	Koichi Tsuchida
	鳥居愛緒	Ao Torii
	椙目八男	Hachio Suginome
	河村信道	Nobumichi Kawamura
	兵頭敬	Kei Hyodo
	平田かほる	Kaoru Hirata
	古川達也	Tatsuya Furukawa
	賀川愛	Megumi Kagawa
	小山善考	Yoshitaka Koyama
	西山里枝	Rie Nishiyama
	高橋明信	Akinobu Takahashi
	神村幸子	Sachiko Kamimura
	川越洋	Hiroshi Kawagoe
	江村豊秋	Toyoaki Emura
	荒牧園美	Sonomi Aramaki
	辻村武	Takeshi Tsujimura
	梅津美幸	Miyuki Umetsu
	なかじまちゅうじ	Chuji Nakajima
	小堤一明	Kazuaki Kozutsumi
	向中野義雄	Yoshio Mukainakano
	高木美和子	Miwako Takagi