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  • I Cannot Write This Post

    This was supposed to be the day where I talk about One Punch Man S3. But I can’t write it. I don’t want to beat a corpse so I’ll just talk about my thoughts on how it’s become like this.

    My opinion is that One Punch Man has fallen into the trap of “Good Enough” just like many other adaptations. It’s pretty well established that a new story must have the best first impression possible to get a consumer base to consume it. In the case of One Punch Man, this first impression was one of the best examples of action animation with incredibly fluid animations, incredible voice acting, and a story that quickly pulled viewers into the world. After the hardest work of acquiring an audience what then?

    This has actually been a big problem for a lot of major Animes such as My Hero Academia, One Piece, and many others. They build up a large audience but have to continue moving somewhere to keep the money ball rolling. At the end of the day, views are needed to pay the bills and bills will forever haunt us creators. So I’ve given examples of One Piece and My Hero Academia both of which have maintained relevance despite running for so long. What’s the difference between these two examples and One Punch Man?

    I think the difference is the acceptance of “Good Enough” for aspects that are vital to the anime’s identity. For My Hero Academia, the writers choose to pivot the story to a slower pace causing them to lose some consumers. However, this choice of pivoting the story was made to maintain the quality of the story and animation for the action that is now closing the major arcs of the story. It’s true that retiring All Might made the series drop dramatically in views but knowing how to allocate their resources made it possible to cater to people following the story and to people following the spectacle.

    If you go on youtube you can probably find a bunch of videos of just clips from action anime where the main character powers up or some big letters talking about some amazing fight scene. I often go back to season 1 of One Punch Man to rewatch the fitness test or go back to My Hero Academia to watch Deku punch the crap out of that big ass robot. But when I go back to watch these clips it’s really not for the story but for the spectacle. When studying One Punch Man season 1, we can see how the mix of story and spectacle are refined in the starting episodes as each episode is basically a story on it’s own. The only real story behind One Punch Man is the story behind Saitama losing his humanity. While this story is incredibly interesting, it is definitely not the reason why I first watched the show. I watched it because I saw a clip of a bald naked guy squishing a mosquito.

    From looking back at season one, there is a clear emphasis on the animation of the spectacle while the other parts have some fairly obvious cut corners. However, the viewer doesn’t really care about those cut corners because in the overall story, those cut corners don’t matter. To cite an example, the underground laboratory they fight in pretty much repeats every few seconds but nobody would notice it because it’s not a detail that stands out. In season 3, much of the spectacle got reduced so much it would be almost impossible to call it animation. From looking at season 2, this is clearly because the publisher thought that this would be “Good Enough”. I think all creators can take something from this because we don’t have infinite time and resources.

    Try to figure out what matters and make sure it’s better than “Good Enough”.

  • Suit Up Scenes

    One of my favorite scenes in almost any form of media is the classic suit up scene. There are countless videos on youtube and other places that talk about some really good examples like Ironman, Halo, and many others. However, I wanted to just make a post today to gush over my personal favorite which is the Wings of Liberty trailer teaser which was made in 2007. Dang. That’s almost as old as me. Anyway, here we go.

    So as with all my posts I’m gonna try and break down why I really really really like this piece of media aside from the fact that it’s scifi, it’s starcraft, and it’s just really really cool. The first minute of the cinematic has no face and slowly builds up by going from darker tones to lighter tones. We can make note of the camera angles that try to emphasize the strength of the container the unknown prisoner is in.

    Once the actual “suit up” part of the cinematic starts, the details of each plate of armor and each turn of a mechanical part seems much more impactful because of the work done in the first minute to build up to the guy standing in the middle of the room. To add to this, the words spoken throughout the cinematic add to the atmosphere by indicating that the prisoner isn’t being set free but rather simply being moved to a different kind of prison. It feels almost poetic that the armor that protects someone would also be a wall that imprisons them especially in the context of starcraft where the dominion is literally the wall that imprisons and protects.

    This kind of hidden message adds a ton to this specific cinematic and is probably why I like it over others. The way the audio effects are done makes the addition of each plate feel like a significant addition of weight. And from the messages we can imply that every piece of armor that is added onto him is part of his prison that will weigh him down.

    The final shot where Tychus finally speaks “It’s about time” after the obviously false promise of “Your freedom awaits” only adds to the anticipation of what Tychus is going to do. There’s a lot of cinematic stuff that goes on to make this scene great but I’m really not good at that. I’m only okay at analyzing stories so I’ll stick with what I’m alright at.

    From looking at the way suit up scenes are used, they are almost always used as a way to build up anticipation for some kind of big event. In the case of Halo they are always used before combat sequences. In Ironman they are always before combat sequences. In basically every form of media the “suit up” is meant to build anticipation for the action. In many other examples of the “suit up” scene the scene is made to be part of a greater whole where this trailer has the scene as an isolated piece of media that is basically an advertisement to get someone to want to buy the game.

    I think the trailer is a perfect example of a “suit up” scene with the addition of story elements that add deeper meaning that is necessary for the cinematic to hold up on it’s own.

  • Murim Login and “VR” Webcomics

    For the longest time, I’ve been sort of against all of the stories that generally fall under the umbrella of “VR” webcomics. I have tried reading the OG “VR” webcomic which is that whatever painter it is called but honestly never found it to be a genre I would go out and try to find. Another examples from this genre that are pretty well known is Overgeared and many others. To be honest, I’ve read a crap ton of these “VR” webcomics and have just generally found the whole idea behind the genre kind of meh as a personal opinion. I can see the appeal but it’s not for me. That is, until I found Murim Login. So then that got me thinking, why don’t I like it?

    So typically, the “VR” element of the story is introduced as a way to essentially have two running stories that are connected by the main character. This makes the story much more difficult to follow because it literally is a story that goes through two worlds. Now this isn’t unheard of in fantasy where you could have different dimensions and such but one of the major differences between portal fantasy and “VR” is the lack of challenge in crossing between the supposed worlds. One of the big foundational ideas that a lot of the “VR” stories follow is the idea that you can just join up into the virtual world and there you go, instantly transported to a different dimension where a typical fantasy story would have some kind of mechanic that must be used to bridge the gap between worlds.

    We see from newer “VR” stories an attempt at putting some kind of barrier between the reality and the virtual world to add some kind of resistance between crossing the barrier whenever something gets difficult. To name a more traditional example, Ready Player One is a perfect example of a book that uses VR but adds friction between the worlds in the form of danger from the virtual world spilling over into the real world. This kind of barrier adds tension and makes the virtual world feel like it has actual impact on the character.

    Now when we compare Murim Login and Overgeared we can see how both use some kind of virtual world however the effects of the virtual world have a much more direct impact in Murim Login as the powers he gains in the virtual world transfer over to the real world. For the main character of Overgeared really nothing other than more wealth is transferred over. This makes it feel like the character in the game is a totally different character as the one in reality since the character progression of the character in both worlds is so loosely linked. I think this is the biggest reason why I tend to dislike these virtual reality stories which divide the real and virtual world without having risks or progression carry over between worlds.

  • Frozen Chicken

    I love frozen chicken. Okay so like imagine you got 3 tests tomorrow you gotta somehow get something in that stomach of yours and you really really really don’t want to eat some garbage junk food. That’s why frozen chicken is so good. I got this breaded frozen chicken from Costco and I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever bought for me to stay at least somewhat healthy when I’m needing to cram in a bunch of work. Just a few minutes in an air fryer or even in the microwave and I have a full meal with protein without any of the weird preservatives that are in much more processed meat snacks.

    I really think that for much of my life I have neglected the value of eating well and sleeping well. When I was in school last year I slept 5 hours a day and ate much less than I should have. Probably around 1700 calories a day on average. It was simply not sustainable and it was difficult to study or do anything productive during those days. Just by fixing my eating and sleeping habits I found myself able to work much more efficiently which led to gaining more free time for working out and other activities that improved my efficiency even further.

    Somehow, I think frozen chicken might have pulled me out of the depths.

  • Tropes Are Good

    When used right. So yeah. Their not always good. But it’s impossible to write any story without them so what matters is the execution of a trope. Okay so like why do I care about this random stuff so much? Well it’s because I’ve been writing this little book called “Fool In Space” and I’m using this website and these posts as a kind of advertisement for my book that will be release on January 4th. Okay I’m done with the shameless plug.

    What is a trope? Well to put it simply, it’s a common occurrences in similar stories that provide a framework for readers and writers to fill in a story. At least, that’s how I define a trope. Some might have other ideas. It’s impossible to make a story without a trope since the trope is often what brings in your audience. Without some kind of framework, why would a reader ever give your story a chance? They wouldn’t. You need something familiar to get a reader attached to your story but also need something to keep the reader to continue reading.

    So Mudkip, what you’re saying is make a story predictably unpredictable. That’s insane. A total contradiction. Well… yeah. That’s why writing is hard. It sucks. Why do you think it took me 4 years to write a hardly coherent book that I’m scared will flop? Anyway, let’s pull a trope directly from my story. So I’m pretty sure everyone has seen the “hidden OP” character trope that is often used in anime and webcomics. I decided to take a little piece out of this for some of my characters. So how did I do this?

    First of all, I had to understand what made the trope successful. To break it down I looked at countless different media and found some similarities. Each of the characters that hide their OP power do so because of a reason that is tied to them as a character and not a plot point. This also helped reinforce my understanding that it’s better to build a story around characters rather than characters around a story. Personally, I give quite a lot of power to my characters. If I think my character wants to kill someone, they will kill someone. However, I carefully tuned my characters in such a way that I have the freedom to put them into situations where their development as a character progresses.

    Okay back to the trope thing. Hopefully I stop getting distracted. I’ve already spouted my hate for the use of the phrase “that person” as a horrible feeling trope. However, I’ve decided to use “that person” as a means of letting the reader paint a picture in their own head of the hidden powerful person in question. In my case, that would be the main character’s mother. Throughout the first five chapters, we never meet the mother but my main character and his father constantly ask each other “What if mom finds out?” painting a picture in the reader’s head that these two are screwed if mom finds out. I think this application of the “that person” trope is able to perfectly mix with the hidden OP character trope to make someone mysterious while also not annoying the reader as the main focus of the story at this point was never on the mother as a character but rather mother’s power over the family.

    I find that these two aspects of the character that is called mother are different. Just like how a businessman treats a politician and a policeman differently, one who is in the face of family would act differently than one who fears the power of another. In this case, the two characters fear mother’s power in the military rather than mother as a character which is clearly articulated through the dialogue. By doing this, I manage to somewhat eliminate the annoyance of “that person” while maintaining the promise of the “hidden OP character” trope.

    Anyway, I hope this helps anyone else who is trying to write. I’m relatively new to this thing so I’m just spouting what I’ve found. That’s it for me today. And PC now half works so that’s good.

  • Advertising Books Is Hard

    Aight it’s that time of the week again where I desperately try to plan something and inevitably fail to correctly plan out my time for various posts on this website. I’m thinking of sticking to smaller and simpler posts this week as my book comes together and some other things in life have cropped up. I’ve been quite busy and writing a book is really hard.

    Let’s get to the matter at hand for why I’m so busy. So I’ve set aside $500 for the publishing of this book. And since I’m self-publishing the main source of revenue for this book will be through a patreon that I start at the launch of the book. This means to break even I would need times of people paying me $10 a month. Assuming I’m shooting for the book to run 10 months I would need at least 1 new member a month. Since I write 1 chapter a week I would need to have 45 chapters ready to break even on my investment. Out of the $500 I’ve spent $300 on my book cover and this website meaning I’m left with a little less than $200 on advertising. If I got an ad made by my cover artist I would only be able to afford 1 custom ad. That’s for sure not enough since each ad costs $55 to put up (not including tax) and most artists don’t do commercial use commissions under $100. This puts me in a difficult spot. On one hand I could expand the budget but I really am not confident in my ability to break even. After all, who wants to read a book written by someone as crazy as me?

    Contents for this week:

    • Tropes Are Good
    • SFM Is Stupid
    • One Punch Man S3 Is Disappointing
    • I Love The Starcraft2 Cinematics
    • Frozen Chicken
    • Media Reviews

    Aight that’s it for me today. I didn’t find the time to fix my PC yet so every 10 or so minutes it gives a memory error and blue screens. Well whatever. Still works. Right?

  • The Best Direct Strike Mutations

    So I play a lot of starcraft 2 and one of my favorite arcade games is Direct Strike. Now a lot of people will start calling me names for this but hear me out, it’s the best game to play while I sit around on my computer waiting for someone to hop on a meeting that they arranged but didn’t show up to since I can still play the endgame while doing work since the endgame of each matchup is pretty much solved.

    So the additions for the weekly brawl this week is 3 mutations that give extra starting cash and the one that makes every wave go at the same time. This is crazy fun because now all the players smash heads at the same time making it actually kind of difficult to hard counter a team unless they totally screw up their initial units.

    I honestly didn’t expect to have more fun this week than last week with the 3 aura mutations but I’ve already played over 30 games this week when usually I just play 2-3 games and then the novelty dies off. The amount of times I screamed, “MORE SPLASH” in the chat is hilarious. Ah and if you see swimmingkip on your team say hello. 🙂

    If you haven’t tried the weekly brawl yet, it’s worth a shot. Oh and the coop mutation this week is also pretty fun. Just make sure you keep track of the candy otherwise your mineral lines will get destroyed in the blink of an eye.

  • Surprisingly Good Murim Webcomic

    Surprisingly Good Murim Webcomic

    Whenever Asura releases a new webcomic my expectations are generally pretty low. At this point I pretty much expect a 6/10 webcomic from them. Something readable but nothing that I would keep up to day on every week. To my surprise, Asura recently added a pretty good webcomic to their collection.

    The webcomic I’m talking about is Rebirth of the Divine Demon which is a story about some guy who was really powerful that ends up dying and then enters someone’s body and decides to live in that body. The story follows many common tropes and doesn’t really innovate on anything however by following the common tropes the story avoids many potholes on the path that many other Murim stories trip on. It also helps that the art that was done for this webcomic is incredible. I am tempted to even say it is on the same level as Nano Machine which is an incredibly high bar to meet. There’s no spoilers in this so you may continue without worry. 🙂

    The story doesn’t let itself get bogged down in backstory by only including brief flashbacks to history that span at most 1-2 panels with longer backstory embeded inside of scenes where the main character is also trying to figure out the world alongside the reader. This makes the backstory introduction feel very natural and maintains interest by keeping it short and to the point. I often see murim stories go through and explain the backstory of a villain that the main character take 2 frames to walk up, slap, and kill them. Why spent five panels developing a character that doesn’t actually matter? It’s honestly a waste of time. 5 frames isn’t enough time for me to form any real connection to a character and simply knowing a character’s backstory won’t make me feel any reasonable amount of empathy for them. As a reader, I develop my connection with characters through that character’s interaction with other characters. I very much appreciated the author’s respect for my time as a reader by cutting out much of the unnecessary filler by either not asking about it or making the main character cut off what could have been a monologue.

    I also really appreciated the semi-predictable payoff cycles in the story. From the nature of it being a murim story, we already know the main character will be able to get to the end of each arc and win. It’s kind of obvious that the main character will need to power up and as a reader I always have some idea in my mind for how I think the main character will power up. However, the author always manages to make some kind of plausible twist that made my prediction only partially correct. This would give me validation because I was right but not bore me because there was something more to what the story had to offer.

    The characters felt very real. This was complimented by extremely detailed art that helped to solidify the disposition of each character making many of these characters feel like they were actual people and not puppets dancing in a plastic stage.

    Overall, I would give this webcomic an 8/10 as it is excellent but doesn’t bring anything new.

  • My PC Killed Itself

    So yeah. My PC up and killed itself yesterday morning. Honestly I’ve been expecting this to happen much sooner but I really didn’t expect it to just end itself right in front of me. Anyway, here’s what happened.

    My computer has always been a bit… troubled I guess you could say. I’m able to afford a better PC but my penny pinching self have always said if I could throw that money into stocks or investments it would be better than throwing it into a PC. As a consequence of that, I’m still using the PC my father gave me 7 years ago. Alright so the specs on this PC are actually quite workable.

    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, Intel I7-2600K 3.40 GHz, and 16GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory.

    Now this PC isn’t bad but uh… it’s a little old. I recently upgraded the old Intel I5 to this new CPU and something got screwed up with the memory because my PC has started to give me memory errors. I kind of just looked at all these errors and shrugged because ehh, still works.

    Well, now it doesn’t work. Oops.

  • Royal Road Link

    I was pretty busy today so uh I’m just gonna put out the link to where the book will be launched. The cover and stuff will be changed since the artist I hired should be finishing the actual cover soon. The current launch plan is January.

    https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/117862/fool-in-space