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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Shenmue III makes kickstarter goal, Prince of Tennis vs. Genius 10 finally subbed:

Great news for people of all stripes.  Shenmue III reached its kickstarter goal in just nine hours, ensuring the creation of this epic conclusion to the series we've waited 14 years for.

By getting a third and final entry to this series, Shenmue has broken into my video game rankings, which it couldn't achieve while still an incomplete story.  I kicked out Uncharted Waters to make room.  Shenmue is such a uniquely amazing experience, everyone should definitely check it out now that the plot is actually going to go somewhere.

I've been playing FF7 music on my itunes as celebration of the announced remake ever since I found out.  God I miss Nobuo Uematsu's final fantasy soundtracks. . . This announcement is the best thing that's happened in 2015.  It's like the world cup, the olympics, and the college athletic seasons all combined.  Now if we just had a release date we could look forward to.  It's all pointless if it falls into the same development hell as FF 13 Versus did.

Prince of Tennis anime is still coming out, even though the west seems to not realize it.  For over a year, an entire anime season of Prince of Tennis was left unsubbed.  But starting yesterday, that's no longer the case.  Prince of Tennis vs. Genius 10 has been subbed all the way up to date, episodes 1-8.  Eps 9-10 come out in Japan June 26, just ten days from now.  Let's see if it takes another year before we get these last two episodes.  But at least for now, we have cause to celebrate.  Prince of Tennis is back.  This is the biggest influx of new good anime since Ojamajo Doremi was finally subbed.  A big thanks to everyone who worked on this far too neglected project.

Donald Trump made a great speech against immigration, pointing out that Mexico was not sending us 'its best and brightest' like immigration advocates keep insisting.  I think his comments against free trade were dumb though.  Free trade is good for all parties concerned because it lowers prices.  There's no point giving some Americans jobs at the expense of all the rest of Americans who have to buy things at inflated prices.  That's just special interests and playing favorites.  America doesn't need more jobs.  Our GDP per capita, on average, is $53,000 or so.  We can easily afford to give the poor and unemployed a basic income of $12,000 a year per person.  Then we don't have to worry about getting them jobs.  Instead, our economy can focus on becoming as efficient and productive as possible, which will generate even more GDP for all.  Working harder is not the solution, working smarter is.  Scrooge McDuck figured that out decades ago.

Star Ocean 5 is coming out stateside in 2016, but apparently only for PS4.  Alongside FF15 and FF7 Remake, the PS4 will finally become a useful game console in the next few years.  Not yet, though.  There's still no point in upgrading yet.

In light of the things I've learned from various rewatches and the quality of the currently airing seasons, I've also shifted my rankings around a bit.  Fairy Tail took over the #2 spot from Naruto, which seems unwilling to ever leave its morass of filler and flashbacks.  Other minor changes occurred all over, but probably the most significant adjustment was Grisaia, which shot up fifty slots all the way to #53.  The latest season of Grisaia is way better than I expected it to be, far surpassing the original season's quality.  I can't just ignore how much it's grown on me, and there's also a lot to be said in favor of a series that actually goes from start to finish, a complete story in animated form.  Yes, it left a lot of visual novel parts out, but that was because the individual routes from Kajitsu don't fit into the timeline of the Rakuen visual novel, so they had to make some changes to get everything together.  Whatever happens in this coming last episode of Grisaia, it's a masterpiece.  I'm overjoyed that Kazuki is back in the story, acting as Kazuki as ever, taking everything over the moment she arrives.  Michiru has been adorable and Makina has been gallant.  I just can't ask for anything more from this show.

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