This was the final game waiting on my shelf to be played and now I've beaten it too, on normal difficulty because the fighting system isn't that great to get obsessed over to begin with. Even at normal difficulty I would lose some stages twice, but usually I could beat it on the first or second try. That's about where I want my difficulty to be, challenging but not frustrating.
The fighting portion of the game isn't what's appealing, though. Some have described this game as a visual novel rather than a game, because almost all of it is wandering around talking to people. I think it's a game though, there are too many interactive parts to call it a visual novel, but in any case the mystery solving portion of the game is amazing. The overly complicated plot and setting, with so many different timelines and worlds, makes it almost impossible to understand what happened, or remember what happened, even right after playing the game. But the general gist of it is that 13 innocent teenagers who are being manipulated by a bunch of nasty competing adults have to break free of all their brainwashing, get in a bunch of giant mecha and fight off a bunch of terraforming AI gone berserk to save their city.
That part is pretty cool in and of itself, but that's not where the game shines either. The true purpose of this game is just to show off the beautifully drawn 2d sprites of the main cast, and the beautifully drawn 2d backgrounds they run through. And you could say that out of all that beauty the lighting is the most beautiful of all. This is one of the prettiest games ever made. They fleshed out the city really well, so there's endlessly varied backgrounds to stand and pose in, and the sprites are put through endless different poses that give a personalized flair to each of them. Of course their voice acting is also perfect and characterizes them all too.
Out of all those characters the most attractive and innocent is Natsuno, a track team girl who's often dressed for gym class, which means in bloomers, and her nigh-bare legs are a wonder of the world. Especially because she poses with one leg straight and the other bent at the knee giving such a classy body line to it all. It isn't just her legs that are pretty though, she has a great cheerful voice, she's always happy, she's quick to help others and ready to sacrifice herself for them, and has a great suite of combat skills once she is in her mecha. Because she has so many things she likes and wants to do, she's the protagonist of her own life, she can occupy herself without relying on others, and that's an inner strength I also admire. After living with Natsuno for the last week I'm confident in adding her to the fictional character hall of fame -- she replaces Ika who is half-squid, clumsy, violent and childish, who really has nothing going for her in comparison.
13 Sentinels as a game makes my video game hall of fame, replacing the ancient Crystalis from the NES, which lacks the graphics of this game, the length, the voice acting, the music, or the large cast of characters. All it has is good gameplay, but gameplay doesn't make a game -- Aegis Rim has weak gameplay but great everything else. It's an easy win.
Ika Musume has been kicked out of the manga hall of fame alongside Lucky Star, because both are mindless comedies that never really tug at the heartstrings. And I find as I age that I care less and less about comedy when not accompanied by love or drama. Zaniness isn't enough. In their place is Shikkakumon and Isekai Kenkokuki, two series that weren't originally manga, but nevertheless are best represented by their manga works, because Shikkakumon's anime was only 12 episodes and Kenkokuki never got one at all. Shikkakumon had a lovely scene just recently where Lurie braved death for Matthias and said as ways to go this one wasn't bad. And Kenkokuki recently had a wonderful scene where Almus chatted merrily with his two wives as they bathed together. There's nothing Ika Musume or Lucky Star can do in comparison to those scenes, and both of them were just chapters that came out recently, there's plenty more quality where that came from.
Lucky Star was also in my top anime rankings, so to completely nullify it I needed a new top anime. Luckily there's an obvious candidate for the job, the newly aired 16bit Sensation. It had a fantastic first episode and a charismatic main heroine who refers to herself in the third person as Konoha. I love the premise of the story, which is basically how great visual novels are, and can't see how this could go wrong. If all the remaining episodes are as good as the first this is definitely a great anime. It's also by famously good authors so I'm confident we've got a gem on our hands.
The poster girl of 16bit Sensation is Konoha, so she replaces Kagami in my fictional character hall of fame as well. She's beautiful, hardworking, passionate and values the same things I do, which is heroic enough for me. 16bit Sensation takes Frieren's place as great anime #199, while Frieren moves up to Lucky Star's former place of #159. Frieren will continue to rise but this will do for now.
While I was at it I decided to replace one more character in my hall of fame, due to the amazing preordained name of the heroine of Uma Musume S3. Her full name is Kitasan Black, and in '100 Waifus' I happened to give Kuon the last name of Black, since she lacked any. In addition I have a tradition of tailed girls giving birth to tailed girls, and Kitasan is a horse-girl while Kuon is a panther-girl. So the stars were all aligned. It was too impossibly good a match to leave out, the two were made for each other. Kuon's daughter had to be Kitasan Black, first and last name fully preserved.
Kitasan doesn't just have a convenient name though. She's gorgeous and has an amazing outfit. On top of that she's destined to be a star and has a great sincere and heartfelt approach to life and friendship. I'm sure by the end of Season 3 Kitasan will have proven herself to all the doubters regardless of her name.
Kitasan had to replace a daughter of Kuon's so I took out Ayla from Chrono Trigger. Ayla is pretty in her skimpy outfit but that's about all. She's a cave girl who likes to eat, drink, dance and fight. Compared to the sophisticated life Kitasan leads, with lots of friends and rivals, a thorough education, and a helpful attitude that goes around saving everyone in the neighborhood, there's just more 'there' to Kitasan's character than Ayla's. Being the protagonist of a new anime is more promising than the side character of an old game.
All in all the great represented franchise counts stays at 300.
While I was at it I also added a new sentence to '100 Waifus', for once a substantive change, located in Chapter 29: 'Living up to the strict laws of Eden was in and of itself a worthy job deserving of due compensation.' This is one of my favorite justifications for the citizens dividend, that when it's tough to qualify to be a citizen, it makes sense for people who do to have earned a citizens dividend. The two ideas go hand in hand. I've pointed this out in my nonfiction writing but not in this fiction book so I thought it was a good idea to include.
With all these edits I've future-proofed my book to not need any more updates for at least the rest of the year, if not forever. Now I can rest easy and read the new 39th edition knowing there's nothing left that needs to change.
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