For quite some time now, there have been hype talks about a Sailor Moon reboot, having gone through 2 significant delays in a 2-year span since its announcement during the weekend of Evo 2K12. Now, since the beginning of July, Sailor Moon Crystal has aired online, two episodes strong. Here are my impressions by far:
Episode 1: Compared to Sailor Moon Classic, there is really little difference in how the first episode pans out here. It's the same structure... Usagi clumsily wakes up late for school, runs into an older young man with shades that makes her feel uneasy, removes band-aid from peculiar-looking cat only to reveal a crescent moon on her forehead, best friend's mother's jewelry store suddenly becomes busy, with best friend's mother acting strange, Usagi finds out the cat can talk, gives her the ability to become Sailor Moon, fights monster in jewelry store, makes some noise, Tuxedo Mask gives pep talk, Sailor Moon beats monster, the end.
However!
The way it's executed matches that of the manga down to the little details. That means unlike Classic, Sailor Moon's design resembles the manga, having hair ornaments early on as opposed to only when she's Super Sailor Moon. In addition, just like in the manga, Mamoru wears a tuxedo casually during the day... as if he's trying any harder to hide the fact he's Tuxedo Mask, smh. Usagi's immaturity isn't as exaggerated as in Classic, which is fine, because in the manga it doesn't last very long. So we might actually see an evolution of her character beyond just transformations.
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Episode 2: Now here's where things get interesting. While like Episode 2 there is hardly any difference between this and Classic as far as story structure, this is the first time we actually see Queen Beryl, just like in the manga. Ami Mizuno - the character of focus in this episode - now wears glasses regularly... and BAHGAWD, she's cute. Don't believe me? Usagi actually blushed just thinking it! Yuri undertones, much? Anyway, staying focused. The differences are very minor here. As opposed to floppy discs like in the original manga and Classic anime, a CD-ROM is used... or a DVD-ROM, I really couldn't tell. Also, just like Sailor Moon's design, Mercury's is more accurate to the manga design, having no shoulder guards like the other Sailors. The transformation sequence is choreographed in the same way as the Classic anime, but with CGI integration. And it looks beautiful. Mercury's first technique used here - like in the revised manga - is Mercury Aqua Mist. It has the same effect as the first move used in Classic anime, but at least it can be taken a bit more seriously than FUCKING BUBBLES. That being said, I'm sure Mercury fans have had their fill of feeling awesome, knowing she's being well-represented.
Episode 3 - as predicted - will introduce Sailor Mars, and by far, the teaser preview looks like it won't disappoint. I look forward to seeing this and Jadeite's swift death. Overall, I highly recommend keeping up with this show, whether you're a fan or not.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Anime Blog #5: How I Got into Anime (Conclusion)
In this last part, I will explain how the current anime industry as well as its past holds a significant impact on my life today.
In all honesty, my interest slowed to a crawl by the time one of the biggest distributors stateside - ADV Films - fell under, forcing a split between the workforce in lesser companies, such as Sentai Filmworks and Section23 Films. Even so, anime still looked promising with the likes of Code Geass and Blood +. That is, until the Moe Nation attacked...
Enter K-On!. One of many moe-centric anime whose influences would swamp the masses in the following years. It was one thing when Love Hina and Azumanga Daioh were popularizing slice-of-life anime in the U.S., but by 2010, moe fever was everywhere, dramatically changing the course of the industry, and thus making us forget the simpler joys of how we got into anime in the first place. It's not to say all moe / slice-of-life anime was bad (Lucky Star is considered a Seinfeld of sorts, and Oreimo, while controversial, brought something experimental to the plate), but it seemed for the most part that it was saturating the market, something was missing and nearly lost. At this particular time, the anime that held my interest was Queen's Blade, a fantasy/ecchi series based on a tabletop RPG loosely based on Lost World's format, but featuring (you guessed it!) various moe types guaranteed to make the intended target audience hella thirsty. There was a sequel series - Rebellion - that would also get an anime adaptation, but as yet, this hasn't gone anywhere as far as completion goes. However, the game books have been successful, branching out to yet another series, Grimoire.
The Big Three around this era were Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece in particular, and piracy was on the rise. As a result, many local distributors were losing money, and Bandai was searching other means of distribution to their IPs, such as digital distribution through YouTube. Although there were a handful of diamonds in the rough that broke this trend of moe-centric anime, it wasn't until around 2013 when there would be a breakout anime that would see the spotlight and help to turn things around... Attack on Titan, an anime based on an ongoing manga that existed four years earlier.
Meanwhile, another resurgence was on the rise. As early as July 2012 - around the same weekend as the Evolution Fighting Game Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada - Kodansha announced that an anime phenomenon of the 90s, Sailor Moon, would be returning with an all-new anime series to commemorate the franchise's 20th anniversary. It was met with worldwide anticipation, and though delayed twice from its original summer 2013 release window, the enthusiasm and hopes hardly wavered. Then, close to the summer of 2014, another unexpected announcement was made.
Viz Media - of all companies - acquired the rights to the assets of the Sailor Moon franchise, and for the second time in 12 years was seeing yet another return to form in the U.S. in its original, uncut glory. While ADV Films and Pioneer's efforts were admirable, Viz has succeeded where they haven't: Not only were the previously released 4 seasons going to come back again, but they would be remastered both in video AND audio quality, re-translated, AND re-dubbed in a way most faithful to the original source material as possible, personally supervised and approved by the author Naoko Takeuchi herself. Finally, for the first time EVER, the final season of the 90s anime - Sailor Stars - would also be officially released in the U.S. translated, remastered, and re-dubbed with the same quality care.
In addition to this, the promised new anime series turned out to be Sailor Moon Crystal, a direct adaptation from the manga that is purely going by the manga's storyline, which is completely different from the original anime series (and faster paced too!). The feats this anime undertook from a marketing perspective was unprecedented and at the same time phenomenal. Unlike most anime which would undergo production through a TV network, this particular anime was exclusively being made for official online streaming mainly via NicoNicoDouga (which Viz would eventually branch out for Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Neon Alley) in an attempt to break away from the creative restrictions Japanese TV stations have put into law some time in 2011. Either way, I haven't been more excited about getting back into anime seriously ever since.
So how does all this impact my life today? It's simple. In an era where traditional TV is slowly dying and shows can be accessed by many alternative formats such as a PC, a smartphone, or even a gaming console, certain online streaming companies have taken notice to the anime market, offering us sweet deals to watch large libraries of anime anytime we wish. While I would still prefer to collect some anime on DVD should things go offline in a big way, this was nonetheless a smart move. Today, there are lots and lots of older anime that I still enjoy watching, but newer ones such as Psycho Pass, Attack on Titan, HunterxHunter, Lucky Star, Queen's Blade, Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam Unicorn, and more recently, a satire of common action anime tropes spanning 15+ years called Kill La Kill, have held my interest in the modern era. With the resurgence of Sailor Moon, I can't help but wonder if we'll be seeing other classics return to form to bring life back to the industry, or even revolutionize it. Either way, my body is ready for a remake of Ronin Warriors in particular... or better yet, a crossover with Sailor Moon, which is something I have long dreamed about (and went out of my way to do thoughtful fanfiction on) for nearly 2 decades, even though I'm aware there's a high chance it may never happen. *sigh*
Anyway, this is it, these are my thoughts on my anime retrospective. We've come a long way from limited VHS fansubs, and it seems we have nowhere to go but up from here. Maybe this era of anime will capture the magic of the 80s and 90s once again, maybe it won't. But one thing is certain... I wouldn't take back an opportunity to watch all the anime I want on a premium streaming channel under a sweet monthly deal, much less for free on an underground streaming channel through my PC. I just hope the market wises up about BD/DVD media sales in the process.
Anime Blog #4: How I Got into Anime (Part 4)
In the fourth segment of my retrospective on anime, I will be discussing my gradual hook into anime from 1997 and beyond. For many of you, this can be quite relatable, as most – if not all of us – was there when the big anime boom happened.
Early on in 1997, the Sci-Fi channel was the main TV hub to get a basic fix on mainstream anime movies and the like. Meanwhile, syndicated shows and even some of the FOX Saturday morning shows were becoming hit-or-miss. In spite of this, several distribution companies were steadily releasing official releases of decent contemporary anime to the then-niche US market. Among these companies, ADV, US Manga Corps, Manga Entertainment, Viz, Bandai, and AnimEigo stood out the most, releasing a handful of great stuff on VHS at the time.
My dad was not a heavy buyer of anime, especially considering they were being sold at nearly $25-30 a pop. But we did however manage to collect Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory after seeing a compelling TV ad for it on the Sci-Fi channel one day. Following this, we also binged on Record of Lodoss War, Ranma ½, the Street Fighter 2 animated movie (which was a sigh of relief after a sour reception of the live action movie) and the Fatal Fury anime collection, just to name a few.
Sometime in the spring of 1997, something I was never expecting was surfacing on Cartoon Network—something of awesome, exciting, nostalgic proportions that I wasn’t expecting to happen for another 3 years at least. At 4PM on a Monday morning, I managed to see Thundercats. Yes, Thundercats. A runaway hit from the 80s was somehow back on cable airwaves on this edgy programming block called “Toonami”, whose slogan was “bringing us a better cartoon show”. But that’s not all… Voltron followed immediately afterward. The rest of the programming block was basically throwback action cartoons from the 60s-70s as well as the still-new “Real Adventures of Johnny Quest”, which I didn’t care too much about.
Along with the rise of Toonami also came the advent of the internet, which I would soon be exposed to in the privacy of my own home. I would never forget that Friday when we got a Pentium processor Compaq computer with 56k wired connection, which by today’s standards is pretty mud. But for the time, this was a big deal for me. I could go to America Online (AOL) and get a chance to chat with random people over the internet about shared interests. It was a dream come true. When I checked a forum that discussed Toonami, there were requests everywhere about getting several anime on the Toonami block, with Ronin Warriors, Sailor Moon, and DBZ being the easiest ones to gain traffic.
The following year, Toonami would expand its lineup and replace Thundercats with Sailor Moon, and in addition, add Robotech and Dragonball Z to the roster, effectively removing the “roulette” of old cartoon shorts. Toonami would then experiment with exclusive premieres, TV movies, and marathons such as the Sailor Moon “Lost Episodes” marathon (which was essentially the remaining episodes of Sailor Moon R that never aired in its initial 65-episode run stateside) Around this time, Cowboy Bebop was a hot topic in Japan, and would go on to be one of the most successful and critically acclaimed anime when it became available stateside.
But the real kicker for the anime boom started in the fall of 1999, which many declare was when the programming block hit its peak in popularity, surpassing even Monday Night Raw at its best in the Attitude Era years. In September of 1999, “The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest” would be replaced by none other than Ronin Warriors, thus sealing the deal that anime awareness was at an all-time high with the incredible lineup that was Ronin Warriors, Sailor Moon, Robotech, and Dragonball Z. In addition, the DVD market was also catching on in the anime industry, as many companies were announcing their VHS lineup to make their move to DVD the following year. Thus, the anime revolution in the US was born. Everyone wanted to buy anime on DVD.
Soonafter, Toonami was a big deal everyday at my neighborhood. Some of my friends would always gather in one house to watch this lineup after school while finishing whatever homework we had to do at the time, and I would always talk about it with close friends I made at school in certain classes and at lunch. Incidentally, a local comic store –then-called Excalibur Comics – was also stockpiling with anime fansubs. And get this… they were actually for rent. Back then I didn’t know any better, but it was illegal to rent fansubs. However the owner kept this on the down-low and expected us to do the same. This was how I was able to sink in as much anime content as possible when the internet and stores such as Best Buy and Media Play were not enough. Granted, some tapes were in poorer quality than others, but for the most part, they were definitely worth watching. Fushigi Yuugi. Martian Successor Nadesico. Akazuzin Cha Cha. Maison Ikkoku. Urusei Yatsura. The remaining seasons of Sailor Moon. Dragon Half. Evangelion. Gundam F91. Rurouni Kenshin. And a shitload of others I couldn’t think of. For six months straight, 20% of my allowance (and later my work pay) would go into fansubs.
That would all change sometime at the end of the spring of 2000, when my dad invested in getting not one, but two DVD players… which at the time was quite the feat. Around this time, the market for the DVD market was as ripe as could be, as the box-office success of “The Matrix” spearheaded interest in DVD to the masses and no longer became a niche format for the wealthy, especially in Japan, where it never caught on until the release of the Playstation 2. Among the first DVDs we purchased, we got The Matrix, The Mummy, Enter the Dragon, Groundhog Day, Home Alone, Terminator 2, and the first anime I purchased on my first paycheck was none other than Vampire Hunter (Night Warriors): Darkstalkers’ Revenge, which was a hot buy at the time. Having recently rented this anime at Blockbuster, I was blown away by the picture clarity and then-earth-shattering sound quality of Dolby Digital 5.1 goodness, all running on a 52-inch flat screen TV with component video. It was truly an experience I would never forget, especially considering this is an adaptation on one of my favorite video games OF ALL TIME. It was then that I knew… the anime DVD revolution was here. And it was gonna change the world.
Later that year and through 2002, a major shitload of anime started exploding onto the DVD market one after another. Yeah, you had your typical moneymaking crack that was Dragonball Z on DVD by Funimation, but the real variety at the time was with ADV, Viz, and Bandai. I swear to God, they were chuckin’ these DVDs out like machineguns, and boy, were fans ecstatic. Ranma ½. Lodoss. Evangelion. Golden Boy. Gundam Wing. Agent Aika. Sailor Moon S. Dagger of Kamui. Patlabor. Fist of the North Star. You name it, you were likely gonna find them at Media Play, and word of mouth was a strong driving force to buy them. In addition to Animerica, I also began to subscribe to Newtype Magazine for the most up-to-date in the anime industry around 2002, and it did not disappoint. Finally, there was Anime Network, a premium cable channel which featured on-demand anime (with available licensing limitations, of course, but it was still something).
But amidst all of this going on, nothing – and I mean nothing – prepared me for what was actually happening in the spring of 2002. After years and years of hard-fought online petitioning, my most-wanted anime finally got the long-overdue push to DVD. After 2 years of airing on Toonami, Ronin Warriors finally made it to DVD on April 22, 2002. And ever since that announcement, I bombarded Media Play on the day each volume came out to a point where I was recognized as the “Ronin Basehead” by peers. Never before have I ever been so ecstatic about picking up an entire series on DVD at full price (though buying the ultimate edition of the Escaflowne movie and the Japanese Sailor Moon boxsets come pretty damn close). But I damn sure wasn’t expecting a DVD release of all three OVA series which never made it stateside. It was at this point where I had all respect for Bandai as a media distribution company more than any other. They went the extra mile just for fans like me, and ADV would soon do the same for fans of Evangelion by bringing out a remastered package of the original TV series, dubbing it the Platinum Edition.
Later that year, for the first time ever, ADV would release the first two seasons of Sailor Moon in its original Japanese version uncut and unedited… but with mixed fanfare. While it was refreshing to see the series as originally intended without all the nonsensical censorship, the quality in which this series came out left a lot to be desired. The most glaring of these flaws were the (extremely) poor audio mastering, as if they were taken from a worn VHS tape. And if that wasn’t enough insult to injury, the second season omitted episode 67, though the packaging suggests the episode is in there! WTF? Granted, it was a filler episode and removed itself from the plot, but still… WTF? At any rate, moonie fans still bought it to support the cause in the hopes ADV would bring out a remastered edition much later. But unfortunately for anime fans, these times of DVD mania wouldn’t last for very long, and many disappointments would be foreshadowed...
In part 5 of my anime retrospective, I will discuss the recent to current state of the anime DVD industry stateside and how anime still holds my interest in these modern times.
Anime Blog #3: How I Got into Anime (Part 3)
Well, here it is... my personal favorite part of my story of how I got into anime-- discussing what actually got me into anime and go further into the depths of its many, many genres and cultural differences. But before we go into all that, I want to briefly discuss a few anime that almost did the job in the early 1990s, starting with my first full viewing of the movie I was denied watching 4 years earlier in 1989-- Akira.
My story with Akira was quite an interesting one. After watching such movies like Galaxy Express 999, Clash of the Bionoids, and even Space Warrior Baldios, my dad figured, Akira might be safe to watch. Boy, was he wrong. The movie was far more mature than even I anticipated, and my furious mother immediately objected to watching it any further after Takashi witnessed a rebel being shot down by the SWAT team. But for the little I watched, the level of attention to detail with every frame of animation is unprecedented. I got to watch it in full during the summer of 1993 because my old man felt like spoiling me with a few ultraviolent anime while my mother wasn't around.
During the summer of 1994, I had earned my yearly magazine subscriptions of my choice, and among the three I was allowed, I subscribed to Animerica, respectively, as the name just popped up when I was at a comic book store browsing. With this, I would learn a little about some more up-to-date anime (some even more outrageous than most) and this would also be where I would first hear about the Street Fighter 2 anime movie. At the time, the movie looked absolutely awesome going by the screenshots, but it wouldn't be until another 2 years when I would get a chance to actually see it. Incidentally, SNK had its own flagship fighting game movie "Fatal Fury" coming out on the same year, and I was thinking to myself, "Wow, and I thought Lion King was hype. Japan's having a party."
I'd also hear about some anime I didn't think would have a significant impact on me a year later, but I won't go into that right now. Right now I wanna talk about my first experience with an actual uncut, unedited anime in its purest form I recently watched dubbed. That anime was Dagger of Kamui. Once dubbed "Revenge of the Ninja Warrior" by the now-defunct Australian home video distribution company Celebrity (who also brought "Clash of the Bionoids"), this uncut version really, really opened my eyes to Japanese cultural references that weren't immediately aware to me in the butchered dub. Also, the anime was surprisingly VERY long... well over 2 hours as opposed to 90 minutes. A lot of graphic death scenes were missing, and there was one particularly good fight scene that was deleted during the scene where Jiro was aided by Chiomapp and her caretaker during the winter. My guess as to why it was deleted was because it was deemed too scary for children, which it probably was. Additionally, I also got to rent a random anime called Vampire Princess Miyu, which would mark the first anime babe I actually had a crush on. For the first time ever, my eyes were opening to the truth about anime... that in actuality, they were more than just cartoons. They were sophisticated works of art with potentially mature storytelling that would rival even the prime-time shows shown at the time. And someday - I wouldn't know how - I was gonna learn more.
So after gaming became pretty much 95% of my life outside of school and other important stuff, the summer of 1995 was almost here. It was the end of the month of May. Turns out nothing new was gonna be on Saturday mornings or on weekdays for either CBS or FOX, and at the time, we had no cable television. Visiting the arcades wasn't always an opportunity, and I was almost burned out from the console games I did play. So I took a chance and saw what was on syndication one day around 2:00 PM EST. It looked like a new cartoon was making its way on the air... but what's this? It looks like... anime style. It was called Ronin Warriors. The intro had a pretty straightforward synopsis and featured 5 dudes in armored suits. My first thought was another Power Rangers rip-off, but after actually watching the episode, I came to realize it shared none of its quirky campiness. Apparently, I was on the third episode, and the main villain - Talpa (Arago) -had blasted them away to desolate locations in Japan. Even more surprising, there was a chick named Mia Koji (who would normally be billed as the damsel in distress) that was determined to find them alongside this kid named Ulie, and I'm thinking, WTF? I've never seen this happen before where the ordinary chick does the rescuing... I gotta see where this goes.
So Mia and Ulie head for "the great volcano" (which in actuality, is Mount Fuji) to free the leader of the Ronin Warriors. No, seriously, they actually went and climbed Mount Fuji to find him. Meanwhile, the first of the Dark Warlords, Anubis (actually called Shutendouji) was lying in wait, looking for a chance to kill Ryo before he recovers. Little did he know that the place Ryo was catapulted to was the very place his power is the strongest. After getting Mia and Ulie to safety, Ryo proceeded to beat the crap out of Anubis after being held back because of them. After watching this, I thought, OK, this show might be good. There's no annoying monsters they have to fight, and Japan's population has been practically subjugated by the bad guys, so there's a bit of tension and a dark feel to this show as opposed to Power Rangers. And on top of that, the show was not episodic like most Saturday morning cartoons, so I had to stay tuned to every episode to find out what happens next.
And with that, Ronin Warriors became my crack for the summer of 1995, with each episode being more exciting to watch than the last. It was something simple and easy to get into, but still had that unique flavor I just wasn't getting in even some of the best SatAM and weekday shows I've watched in recent memory. And wouldn't you know it, I read in an Animerica issue about several anime taking TV by storm in 1995, and wouldn't you know it, Ronin Warriors was featured. So I wasn't watching just another show. I was watching something that would forever have an impact on my affinity for anime. This anime became so important for me to watch that I made it top priority that no matter what chores I did or whatever I was doing outside with friends, my ass was in the house and on WATL 36 every weekday at 2PM sharp... and if I missed an episode, nothing else after that mattered. An X-Men rerun? Meh. Batman's putting a stop to Harley and Ivy? Yeah, fascinating. It felt so empty going through the rest of my TV schedule without watching Ronin Warriors. I was thoroughly, completely addicted to this show, in spite of its flaws. But the point is, this is the show that did it for me. From the ordeal of rescuing the five heroes from real-life locations in Japan, to the badassery of Anubis (Shutendouji), to the fact they didn't rely on a Monster-of-the-Day gimmick like so many other sentai shows, to the awesomeness that was the Inferno (Kikoutei) armor, to the mystery behind the kick-ass villainess Kayura... there was always a reason to keep watching, and I thank syndication for this.
Not too long after Ronin Warriors ended its first run, I would then spot another commercial that at first glance seemed very similar to Ronin Warriors... except this time it involved girls. My initial thought was that DiC caught on to Ronin Warriors hella quick, but it was only coincidential. Anyway, this anime was Sailor Moon, and I'll admit I wasn't too big on the show at first glance and blew it off. It wasn't until a month later that I would find out my sister was geeking out over it like it was the second coming of Thundercats. So I thought, okay... if she actually likes this Ronin Warriors ripoff with girls in it, I should at least watch a few episodes. So sometime during the fall, the show started airing, and I had just enough time to watch it before school started... wasn't too impressed. The titular character had to be the biggest crybaby I've ever seen - even putting Baby Mario to shame - and the supporting character was a guy in a tuxedo with a rose for a weapon... seriously dude? A rose? You would think the Ronin Warriors would play a guest role in the show to spice things up here, but then I realized this isn't like He-Man / She-Ra. Different companies, different universes. So why did I endure watching it? What was the show delivering that I could take seriously?
Sailor Moon - albeit vaguely - had its modern Japanese cultural references out there in spades, though not very apparent because of the nature of the dub. It had school uniforms in even public schools, traditional bento, cram schools, Shinto temples, and many more things to give it a sense of realism just like Ronin Warriors did. On top of that, the lead female characters didn't look half bad in miniskirts. Sure, it had the Monster-of-the-Day gimmick, and yes, their powers don't quite pack as much of a punch than the uber-powerful ones seen in Ronin Warriors, but maybe because of the nature of the story, it's better for that. Besides, a good show doesn't always need a shitload of awesome action scenes. Sometimes it just needs drama worthy of a soap opera, and later on, the show would deliver in that department.
Shortly after Jadeite is put into cryostasis by Queen Beryl, Nephrite takes his place and focuses on gathering energy from one person instead of groups. As his story arc progresses, a gradual chemistry between him and Sailor Moon's best friend Molly (Naru) would occur, eventually leading to a dangerous situation where Nephrite targets Molly and assumes she carries the Silver Crystal the villains have been looking for. However, the plan backfires, as Zoicite was plotting to kill Nephrite and take the credit. Nephrite catches on when he finds out he kidnapped Molly, and Nephrite rescues her, revealing his true identity to her and discussing chocolate parfait as Molly dressed his wounds. Zoicite takes them by surprise and mortally wounds Nephrite, and from that point on, I took the show seriously. The villains were just as three-dimensional as the heroes, much like in Ronin Warriors, and they pulled no punches about the harsh reality of death. Ever since then, I gave the show respect. Even though the dub by DiC was far from the show in its purest form, it was enough for me to remain interested (and even become a fan myself) at the time.
During the summer of 1996 - due to my parents separating - I moved to Florida. Around this time, I managed to catch syndicated reruns of Samurai Pizza Cats, the original Dragon Ball, and Teknoman (Tekkaman Blade). Ronin Warriors would stop airing on syndication and move to the Sci-Fi Channel. Although I was happy it aired again, something was amiss about the episodes. They were actually cut compared to its original broadcast I had on tape, and with unnecessary cuts at that... and I'm like, "What's the point?" But anyway, it was Ronin Warriors, that show was my shit, I was gonna watch it anyway to kill time before I took the bus to school. On top of that, I also was treated to an anime movie every Saturday morning on the Sci-Fi channel now that we had cable, which further expanded on my desire to binge on as much anime as possible. Of the movies my fam actually watched with me, we saw the new and improved English dub of Galaxy Express 999, Project A-Ko, Robot Carnival, Green Legend Ran, and Dominion Tank Police. For Galaxy Express 999 in particular, we actually had a few tubs of popcorn because we had such fond memories watching the old crappy dub back in the day. Project A-Ko surprisingly became a favorite of my mother's, as she wasn't expecting it to be making fun of other anime in the past.
Throughout the rest of 1996, my weeks would consist of Saturday mornings on the Sci-Fi channel and eventually weekdays on USA (after finding out Sailor Moon was being canned on syndication and moving to USA for a short time). I was also hearing that Fox's Saturday morning shows were not doing so hot (especially Season 5 of X-Men), so it was of no consequence to skip it. But this craving for more anime was far from over, as something big was gonna change the anime industry stateside forever, and cause a bigger boom and awareness than 1995 ever did. And it would all begin with a bold move by Cartoon Network at a gradual pace, with companies such as ADV, Funimation, Pioneer, and Bandai taking a splash with a new media format... this will all be discussed in Part 4 of my anime retrospective.
Anime Blog #2: How I Got into Anime (Part 2)
Previously, I mentioned the first three anime I was exposed to at an early childhood (albeit dubbed, flawed, and not completely faithful to the original source material) as well as a few US cartoons that adopted the anime style to an extent by having Japanese animation studios back the production, such as Thundercats and Galaxy Rangers. In this next segment of my retrospective, I will discuss about other miscellaneous anime I've watched either vaguely or partially before my real big push to dive into the depths, so to speak.
Sometime around 1986-87, there were few things that kept me occupied: Preschool, Saturday morning cartoons, and whatever cartoons my parents recorded over the weekdays. You could say the programs were mixed bags-- a little G.I. Joe here, a little Ghostbusters there... but the real standout shows I saw in these mystery meats of videotapes were Robotech and Voltron. Now I was a bit too young to really appreciate Robotech's storytelling at the time, but Voltron's was simple enough to understand: Space explorers and a princess fight aliens from Planet Doom with a giant robot formed by robot lions. Yeah, I was in for a treat. And given I was used to what anime looked like after watching three movies, I could tell Voltron and Robotech were THOSE kind of shows.
In 1988, my immediate family settled in Germany in the city of Butzbach, if only because my old man was partaking in Operation Desert Storm at the time. Watching television there was quite... different. We had only one channel, which I believe was called AFN SuperStation. Essentially, this one channel aired the highest-rated / most popular programming in the US at the time. So whatever kids shows were hot on Saturday mornings, they aired it within a 3-hour block from 8-11 AM. Whatever prime-time shows were hot on the weekdays, they aired from 7-10 PM. And so on. When we first got there, they were still airing Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, which was yet another anime adapted to a US cartoon. But dad-gummit, was the theme song and narrator ever catchy. It was then that I really started to pay attention to authentic voice acting, though I only had basic knowledge of it. But I knew the narrator of this show was also the narrator of Voltron AND the voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen.
My uncle also shipped a couple of other anime from Celebrity - an Australian video distribution company notorious for bringing butchered adaptations of various anime to be watchable for kids - as well as another set of recorded tapes containing one particular series he told me was related to Galaxy Express. At the time, it was dubbed "Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years" by Harmony Gold (the same guys behind Robotech), which later I found was a splicing together of two separate TV series in the Leijiverse (basically connected series authored by Leiji Matsumoto). Although it's not faithful to the original source material and I would eventually look back at this and laugh at some altered plot lines Carl Macek added (or removed), this would mark my first real exposure to the character development of one of my favorite anime characters of all time, Captain Harlock, and one of the few anime that I actually watched in full with my family. And it was memorable enough to make me watch its original Japanese version many years later, but wasn't quite enough to make me dive into the depths of anime at that time, as I was still loving the other Saturday morning programs being offered. Among the VHS tapes from Celebrity, the one that was most memorable for me was "Clash of the Bionoids" (which is widely known today as "Macross: Do You Remember Love?"). Essentially, it was a retelling of the Robotech story with questionable voice acting, but damn good animation and music.
I think that's about all I remember on anime I watched while I was in Germany after leaving in 1990. Beyond that, I remember watching Samurai Pizza Cats the following year and that's about it. The next part will be a doozy, as I will go into incredible detail on how I was sold on actually watching anime in the early - late 1990s.
Anime Blog #1: How I Got into Anime (Part 1)
In this series of my blog, I will be talking about a particularly stylized form of animation from Japan that is anime (Japanese cartoons, if you will)... a form of animation which would go on to influence animation in the west and teach us folks in the older generation that animation wasn't just for kids. In this part of my retrospective, I will be talking about my earliest exposures to anime, and how they would help me get accustomed to watching them in their purest form growing up.
You could say my memories regarding actual anime were rather vague being born in 1983. There were a number of great cartoons that would be airing in the next two years after my birth - Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, etc. - but none of them had as big an impact on my desire to watch and commit to a Saturday morning cartoon more than Thundercats did. The high quality of animation, use of vibrant colors, a unique atmosphere utilizing both technology and magic, and its distinctive stylized appeal made it a very engaging show to watch, despite the story going a bit on the wayside with logic at times.
So why did I bring up Thundercats, even though it was a US cartoon? It technically is, but the animation production company is from Japan, which explains why it was so different from other cartoons at the time (most using endless amounts of stock footage to compensate for a 65-episode run at little cost, because hand-drawn cel animation was a bitch). Thundercats was originally produced in 1983, two years before actually airing on television in the fall of 1985 due to concerns with children's programming at the time. The animation production company in Japan behind this crossover project with Rankin-Bass Studios was the former PAC (Pacific Animation Corporation), which would go on to form the reputable company known as Studio Ghibli, which was responsible for many of Hayao Miyazaki's famous movies (we'll get to him later).
Anywho, Thundercats became the gold standard I personally set for my Saturday morning fix. No matter what cartoon I missed, I made sure not to miss this one. And this would continue to be my main show until Silverhawks (another show from the same staff) came along one year later. There was also another show that also caught my eye called Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, which also had a similar development story to Thundercats, except its animation company was another reputable one called TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), which was particularly well-known for the popular high-quality TV anime of the 70s called "Rose of Versailles" as well as crossover production for "Tiny Toon Adventures" and the groundbreaking "Batman: The Animated Series".
It was around this time that my dad started bringing home random VHS tapes to keep me occupied and entertained. He got some help from my uncle on my dad's side, who has already seen his fair share of anime at the time while in the military stationed in Japan. Among the VHS tapes he got, three of them would be the first anime I would truly be exposed to-- Space Warrior Baldios, Galaxy Express 999, and Dagger of Kamui. While they weren't necessarily completely faithful to the original source material (given the need to tone down or cut scenes with certain grown-up themes for young audiences), the stories were interesting, though I wouldn't really appreciate the story until later, as I was too interested in the action.
Space Warrior Baldios was set in the distant future on a planet called S-1, which has been completely polluted by radioactivity. The world's scientists had just found a way to restore it through a painstaking experiment, but their efforts were cut short by the impatient world military led by Fuhrer Gattler. Having already assassinated the world's leader, he set out to destroy the lab and the scientists and carry the billions of civilians aboard a mothership to search for another planet. The son of one of the world's scientists, Marin Reagan, realized himself the foul play behind Gattler's scheme and quickly became enemies with the military after killing the then-commander Milan, who was the brother of the new commander of the world's military, Aphrodia. Vowing vengeance, she chased Marin to the ends of the galaxy, only to be sent to a time warp that sent them centuries into the past on planet Earth. With Marin's knowledge of subspace technology, the elite Blue Fixer military would be able to fend off against Gattler's large forces with the giant robot Baldios.
Galaxy Express 999 - as will be attested by any true anime fan of old - is a shining example of a classic anime that appeals to all ages while at the same time not insulting the viewer's intelligence, although its earliest English dub doesn't capture the magic the future Ocean dub would 17 years later. Following the TV series in 1978, the movie would be featured as a retcon of sorts that retells the story of an orphaned boy named Tetsuro Hoshino and his quest to obtain a mechanical body so that he would not only live forever, but to seek revenge on the man - or robot - who killed his mother. But in order to do so, he had to somehow get on a train. And not just any train... a train that actually sails the cosmos, allowing intergalactic travel to be possible among mortal men. In a chance encounter with the mysterious chaste woman known as Maetel, Tetsuro manages to gain access to the Three Nine and sets off on his journey.
Dagger of Kamui - the third of the anime I watched - was the first anime I watched that had a secondary impact on my life for being the first to bring awareness to what a ninja actually is. Dubbed "Revenge of the Ninja Warrior" by an Australian video distribution company called Celebrity (which is now defunct), this epic tells the story of a young boy named Jiro, who goes through not one, but two tragic hardships at the beginning of the movie. The first of these starts off when both his mother and older sister are killed in the dead of night by a ninja, and the blame is pinned on Jiro, who unbeknownst to him, picked up the dagger that pierced her mother's heart at the wrong time. Escaping from judgment by the village for matricide and sororicide, Jiro finds temporary sanctuary with a Shinto monk named Tenkai, who promised Jiro that he would find the killer of his family sooner than he thought. Shortly after their meeting, they caught the "culprit", and an enraged Jiro killed him without hesitation. Realizing he had nowhere else to go, Tenkai took him in to train as a ninja, and as he grew up, planted a curiosity in his head about his unknown father in order to send Jiro on a quest to discover a treasure for his own personal gain.
So there you have it, my earliest exposures to real anime. In Part 2, I will discuss other anime I watched along the way that, while entertaining in their own right, were ones I regrettably put under the radar until later.
Personal Blog #3: 1994; Twenty Years Later (Conclusion)
In this third and final part of my retrospective of the year 1994, I'll explain how and why this particular year has a profound influence and relevance to my life today.
What can I say that hasn't been said before? Being a 90s kid in 1994 opened my eyes to a lot of things: The comic book industry, fighting games, the rise of role-playing games in North America, the Bill Clinton sex scandal, classical music, actually learning how to play an instrument, transitioning to middle school after being so used to elementary school, the importance of literary inspirations (such as C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, which was a direct inspiration of the King James Bible to an extent), and family values.
To this day, I'm still in the habit of collecting comic books, if only Sonic comics, specific comic adaptations of outside media franchises (such as Darkstalkers), and select series from the Marvel line. I'm not as indulgent as I was when I was throughout middle/high school (as I have expanded to collecting anime and gaming imports), but the drive is still there. And I owe it all to my grandparents and friends who helped keep me posted on things worth buying.
My fascination with the colorful cast of Darkstalkers and the scope and simplicity of the groundbreaking Virtua Fighter set a staple for future interests in fighting games and what I look for, which led to my eventual interest in the Dead or Alive series 2 years later. DOA is a 3D fighting game series from Tecmo that was not only directly inspired from VF, but initially shared the same control scheme and arcade board as Virtua Fighter 2. However, this game was more accessible and had a more attractive package in more ways than one... and not to mention the most interactive stages and most attractive females in 3D fighters at the time IMO. As far as 2D fighters, Capcom's been bringing out some great 2D fighters back then, but none which stood out to me more than Capcom vs. SNK 2. It had the right balance of visual appeal and interesting mechanics, and I hope in the future they come back to make another... though it'll be a long shot. Aside from Capcom, Arcsys also caught my attention with the metal-centric Guilty Gear and its extensive gameplay mechanics that added a new layer of depth I've never seen before in 2D fighters.
But that's not all. Television and movies in 1994 has also been a noteworthy impact on how it affects my life today. While I generally preferred watching animated programs the first 11 years of my life (aside from Star Trek and sitcoms), it wasn't until age 12 that I really opened my eyes to live-action prime-time programming, particularly Hercules, Vanishing Son, Law & Order, Touched by an Angel, and even Baywatch... God, was I ever hooked into Baywatch. That being said, without these shows, I wouldn't even begin to appreciate some modern-day shows like Heroes, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, True Blood, Sopranos, and others for great time-killers on them rainy days. And although The Lion King has been outgrossed by Finding Nemo as the best-selling box office Disney movie, it still to this day has a timeless appeal and feels like it came out yesterday to many. Even as a Broadway adaptation, it's still too awesome for words.
1994 was also a time when I could really appreciate the arcade industry and brighter, less drama-filled days in the fighting game community before it was ever coined as such. Although I was younger, I wasn't naive. In those days, if people got too abrasive with the salt, folks actually got escorted out and blacklisted. There was order. There was structure. There was a specific standard of behavior to be expected and good sportsmanship was paramount. I knew back then if I were older and able to compete formally, there'd be no issues, just as in the Blockbuster Video World Game championships I attended back then.
So there you have it guys... 1994. The most memorable year of my life by far.
Personal Blog #2: 1994; Twenty Years Later (Part 2)
In this part of my retrospective, I'm going to touch on my experience with the first annual (albeit short-lived) Blockbuster Video World Game Championships, awesome things going on overseas, and TV specials that had a personal impact on me.
Sometime in the beginning of the year, Blockbuster was big in the media business... big enough in fact to promote a sponsored competitive video game scene called the Blockbuster Video World Game Championships, which took place in specific Blockbuster stores containing a kiosk with a specific ruleset established. Mind you, this was the preliminary setup for local store scenes before the push to the finals in mid-August. The games featured at the time were Sonic 3, NBA Jam, and surprisingly, Virtua Racing, each over the course of several weeks. Unfortunately, I never made it very far, only making it as far as state finals before being bested in Virtua Racing in particular. At the time, it was an amazing looking game for a Genesis cartridge, and not even requiring the 32X (though to be fair, the cartridge itself had a large expansion chip inside, which made it incompatible with the later-released "Genesis 3").
Onward to things going on overseas... while we folks stateside got our theatrical fix with "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump", Japan's made an even bigger splash with the fighting game genre - some would even argue this was the year it was at its peak - when two particular smash hits hit the big screen: Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury (called "Garou Densetsu" in Japan). As if that wasn't enough, even the renowned Mobile Suit Gundam series cashed in on the fighting game tournament vibe by breaking its own politically-driven themes with its next TV series. For better or for worse, Mobile Fighter G Gundam was their answer.
Meanwhile in Europe, a particular videogame-based game show was making tremendous waves and wasn't letting up, unlike a particular show in our shores called Video Power. This program was none other than Gamesmaster, whose host was a CGI-shopped projection of a grotesque head who made clever wisecracks every now and then. Although it originally aired in 1992, it really didn't see a compelling overhaul until the fall of 1993, when the show was restructured in format and debuted with a bang with the then-hottest game, Mortal Kombat. And what made this particular episode memorable? The fact the guest stars were in fact the actors who were digitized in the actual game, and playing Mortal Kombat (albeit staged). Backed by some compelling guest stars, intelligent reviews of the hottest games, and competition hosted by people who actually knew how to host, Gamesmaster showed no signs of stopping to entertain and educate European gamers and those outside of Europe lucky to get a recording or two...
Two particular series of TV specials caught my special attention this year as well, and were both made by the same production company, eventually expanded into a TV series (one vastly more successful than the other). The first of these I'd like to discuss is "Vanishing Son", which started off as made-for-TV movies. In an era were stars like Chuck Norris were living a renaissance in prime-time action shows, it was rare to see a show that starred an Asian male in a leading role, and Vanishing Son was groundbreaking in that right. Unfortunately, as compelling as the story was, the series failed to meet the expectations of viewer ratings compared to a particular, less realistic action-show...
This show would be called "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys". Adopted by fans as "Kevin Sorbo Hercules", this series also started off as a series of made-for-TV movies, namely "Hercules and the Amazon Women", "Hercules and the Lost Kingdom", "Hercules and the Circle of Fire", "Hercules in the Underworld", and "Hercules and the Maze of the Minotaur". The movies proved so successful in ratings that it would expand to a smash-hit TV series, and the timing couldn't be better, as this series aired a while after the final season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". This particular incarnation of Hercules was more or less appealing in a 90s kind of way, with camp up the yin-yang.
Basically, Hercules had a family of his own and settled down with them after his many adventures from the TV movies, only to watch them burn to death by his baby mama Hera, whom by Roman mythology is the wife of Zeus, therefore the queen of the Roman gods. Cursing his baby mama, he swore vengeance and eventually walked back to the path of an adventurer with his longtime best friend, Iolaus, where he would butt heads with not only the Roman gods Hera, Zeus, and fan-favorite Ares, but bloodthirsty warlords as well... one of note, Xena, who would eventually prove popular and empowering enough to be in her standalone show, greatly exceeding even Hercules's own popularity and interest. My dad and I had very, very fond memories watching not only the movies, but nearly every episode of the TV series following. We watched them almost religiously while having either dinner or just snacking around.
I also have fond memories of what aired on the Spanish channel around this time as well. I probably didn't realize it right way, but I was actually watching Saint Seiya. By the time I was learning Spanish, I began to comprehend little by little what was going on in the particular sets of episodes I was watching early in the morning. It was near the end of the non-canon Asgard story arc, going into the Poseidon arc. Either way, it was a nice little timekiller, and sure beat watching Barney & Friends. Speaking of Barney, does anybody remember the awesomeness that was the Mac computer sensation Barney Carnage? Dude, that game was the shit. Graphics may have not been the best in the world (you could only expect so much from Mac PCs at the time), but the very concept of clicking and killing Barneys running across the screen was a breath of fresh air from the typical, nonsensical whitewash the TV show offered, albeit educational in all fairness. But seriously, I'm baffled that Barney even caught on as long as it did on PBS, as I was more into Square One TV and Lamb Chop's Play Along (R.I.P. Shari Lewis, bless her soul).
In my third and final chapter of my retrospective, I'll discuss how this year still remains relevant to me in these current times, and what has stood the test of time.
Personal Blog #1: 1994; Twenty Years Later (Part 1)
First and foremost, I wanna thank God for letting me live as long as I have to see this day. I've been wanting to write about this for a long time, as this year - this particular year - has had a profound impact on my childhood and has since become, by far, the happiest year of my life. This will be quite a long article, as I still remember many of these great times as though they were yesterday.
In this particular year, I was in my last year of elementary school, going onto the 6th grade in middle school... Fountain Elementary School in Forest Park, GA if I'm not mistaken. I was doing so well that at times I was bored out of my mind and occasionally helped other classmates with tutoring and whatnot, particularly with literature and math. At the time, the main books we were covering in literature were the Chronicles of Narnia. We went about as far as "The Silver Chair" before watching the BBC TV adaptations, which by today's standards, have not aged very well.
One particular event I'll never forget in the last of my elementary school years was the fierce spelling bee competition I volunteered to represent for my school to compete in the nationals. The prize money - 2 grand toward college - was an incentive. I made it as far as state championships ranking 10th, missing the word "sulcrum", in which I misspelled the second U with an O. Beyond that, academics were standard-fare, and occasionally we'd watch Carmen Sandiego (game show) and Square One Television (a now-defunct variety show from the makers of Sesame Street that made math an actual fun learning experience, using parodies from Pac-Man and Dragnet, just to name a few).
Outside of school, this was probably the year I spent the most time with my family even outside my immediate family. I swear, I think I saw my relatives from Florida and Maryland about three times that year, visiting, traveling or otherwise. My grandparents from Florida came to visit for spring break, and at the time they knew I had an affinity for comics at the time... particularly with Marvel and Sonic comics. So we'd head out to specific comic book stores and look for the latest issues or order back issues I may have missed, and it was around this particular time they taught me the art of collecting - a lesson I'd never forget: "If you're going to do collecting, do it right... always, always buy two of everything. One you'll actually use, and one you'll actually not open." I'd then ask why I wouldn't want to open one, and my grandma showed me this huge book called Wizard magazine. Near the end pages, there was a chart that showed value comparisons of age-old comics... some with even more value in mint condition after 20+ years! If I didn't think my grandparents were cool then, I definitely knew after that day. They actually understood my enthusiasm for my hobby so much it made me cry. So from that point on I had even more incentive to keep doing well in school. The more consistent I was, the better my chances were at keeping up with the comic book industry.
About a week after school sometime on June of that year, my fam and I actually went to Disney World. That's right, Disney World. In a massive effort from both sides of my family 5 years in the making, we made the most out of an entire week at Disney World. It was totally unexpected, and I didn't even see it coming. I particularly remember Epcot, "It's a Small World" (who hasn't?) and pointing out a shitload of Disney characters and picking up back copies of older Disney movies on VHS we may have missed. Incidentally, we saw "The Lion King" on the Friday of that week, and the hype and adrenaline coming from the audience (especially around kids my age) were like none I've seen or ever will see again in my life. The laughter, excitement, and tears... there wasn't a moment we haven't shared it. It was truly an awesome moviegoing experience. The Disney experence resulted in an even stronger connection to my relatives (especially my cousins) that even after we went back to our respective homes we kept in touch through letters, if only because MCI was a bitch to work around with long-distance calls (my old man eventually wised up and got AT&T).
As far as gaming goes, it was a breath of fresh air compared to 1993. Last year was full of rehashes (Super Mario All-Stars, SF2 Turbo), not-so-true sequels (Sonic Spinball), and stupid, stupid decisions (a majority of crap Sega CD games, a hefty price tag on the Sega CD, Mortal Kombat SNES with no blood? Really?), but it wasn't to say it was all bad. There were a few interesting new games that came out later in the year (mainly in the arcade), such as MK2, Samurai Showdown, Battletoads/Double Dragon, TMNT Tournament Fighters, Sonic CD, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Lufia, and the uber-late-in-the-year arcade phenomenon, Virtua Fighter, just to name a few.
But this year was even more special, and it started off with a bang for - you guessed it - a TRUE sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 3. Released on Groundhog Day (tentatively as "Hedgehog Day"), it introduced a new character, an echidna named Knuckles, who gets in the way of Sonic and Tails as they venture to Angel Island, tricked by Eggman (then called Robotnik). The gameplay expands a great deal from Sonic 2, but in a way, I felt cheated. Sonic 2 had 10 stages, and this game had what? 6? I liked the game, but I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed... maybe next year they'll prove me wrong. 8 months later... Sonic & Knuckles? A special lock-on cartridge? Connect to Sonic 3 to play the TRUE version of Sonic 3? Play Knuckles in Sonic 2 if you lock on with Sonic 2? My mind was blown away. Lock-on technology looked as though it was gonna be the wave of the future. Unfortunately, this would be the ONLY game to have that in a cartridge-based console.
But enough on Sonic, let's move on to the next big thing that happened a month after Sonic 3... SUPER. FRIGGIN'. METROID. Now I'll admit, I wasn't all that big on Metroid at first, but after playing a sample of it one weekend at the Electronics Boutique, even my dad wanted to get this game, as he said the game reminds him a lot of the Alien movies. So we got it, and by God, this game did not disappoint one bit. There was danger and tension around every corner, and the likes of Ridley and Kraid were an intimidating bunch. We delved into this game for about two weekends and then went back to Secret of Mana.
Things didn't really pick up until summertime, when I really started digging around after an awesome, enlightened year of school. Around this time, my dad got word that there will be an all-new true sequel to the Final Fantasy series on the SNES, which was a breath of fresh air to him compared to the Final Fantasy Legend BS and the fact Final Fantasy V was not gonna make it. But before I go into that one, I wanna talk about Six Flags on July of that year, and the one game I saw that would truly make me give a damn about 2D fighting games again after Virtua Fighter left me uninterested in them for a time... this one game my old man accidentally game me $50 and I blew almost all the money on it... the game my eyes couldn't believe and couldn't get enough of: Darkstalkers.
What made this game so great was from a visual standpoint, it shitted all over the competition. Never have I seen such colorful and imaginative sprites and backgrounds, all done in smooth, fast gameplay. This was a massive upgrade from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, where the only gimmick at the time was fighting Akuma and a couple of new characters, yet it maintained the same graphics albeit running on the same hardware as this game. Back then, I was like, WTF? But yeah, Darkstalkers. Amazing game for an amazing year. I enjoyed it so much that I actually wanted to play every character, which isn't easy for me as I'm a very picky guy. I got to beat Pyron with every character, check out all the endings, then proceed to meet up with my dad to tell him all about the game (although he was a little upset that he accidentally gave me $50, when he intended to give me $5... but he let it slide, as this was the week of my birthday). We went on all the rollercoster rides at Six Flags (including the Ninja, which was the hardcore shit at the time), snacked on some funnel cakes which I had the pleasure of trying for the first time, and met up with my dad's family at the hotel nearby for the planned family reunion, where my cousins would eventually gather again at the arcade to not only play Darkstalkers, but Virtua Fighter, TMNT Turtles in Time, NBA Jam, and X-Men Arcade as well.
As the summer was nearly drawing to a close, kids my age needed a reason to be hyped for the new wave of Saturday morning cartoons, which back in the day was a BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL. Around this particular time, Fox was owning Saturday mornings, CBS was slowly but surely becoming second-rate, and NBC Saturday mornings were dead, just... dead. After a shitty season of Mario and Captain N with a poor adaptation of Super Mario World and most of the rights to their shows being acquired by Turner to be aired on Cartoon Network, they had no hope. But enough on that, let's talk about Fox. During this time, the big three were X-Men, Power Rangers, and of course, Batman (with Animaniacs as an honorable mention). Before the fall, they had sneak peeks of the next season for Power Rangers and X-Men in particular on prime-time spanning for two weeknights in August. It generated lots of hype, especially X-Men's preview episode before the popular Phoenix Saga, which I was REALLY excited about. So I had something to look forward to after finishing homework, quickly or otherwise.
CBS, on the other hand, was struggling, but you can't blame them for trying. Sure, they had the uber-popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as their flagship go-to cartoon, but when directly compared with Fox's big three, you had to admit the show was losing its edge. So what did they do? They revamped their lineup with an "edgier" interface and rechristened the new fall lineup the CBS Action Zone. In the process, they included Biker Mice from Mars, Wild C.A.T.S., Skeleton Warriors (my personal favorite), and a darker, "edgier" look for the new season of the 1987 TMNT cartoon (though remaining canon to the 80 cartoon by far). Combined with a couple of Disney cartoons based on movies (Little Mermaid, Aladdin), Marsupilami (a long-tailed cheetah with an ape sidekick), the Marvel Action Hour (featuring forgettable first seasons of Iron Man and Fantastic Four), and probably one shitty show based on an otherwise better version that aired on syndication (Conan and the Young Warriors... trust me, this show SUCKED ASS.), you would think CBS would be able to keep themselves afloat, but alas, for only so long. They had overlooked one other key show "Garfield and Friends", and in this particular season, the writers got hella lazy compared to its previous seasons. The new opening for this particular season was also a bit of a turn-off, and this was another long-running show that was once consistent. To think this show would actually jump the shark is beyond my comprehension...
This year would also see the end of some other shows I enjoyed watching outside of Sat AM and weekday cartoons, such as Star Trek TNG, Arsenio Hall, Dinosaurs, and one of my personal favorites, In Living Color. However, there were also new shows (or movies that would later expand to becoming new shows) that would draw my interest anew, such as Touched by an Angel, The Critic, On Our Own, Sister Sister, VR Troopers, My Brother and Me, Gullah Gullah Island, Real Monsters, The Kevin Sorbo Hercules TV movie prequels, and uber-late in that year, the spiritual successor to In Living Color every 90s kid knows and loves-- All That.
The fall and winter also came with a breakout of awesome hits and timeless classics, including Mortal Kombat 2 for SNES (which this time outshined the Genesis version), a home console release of Samurai Showdown, Samurai Showdown Sen (or Samurai Showdown 2) in arcades, the phenomenal arcade sensation Killer Instinct, Doom 2 for PC, Donkey Kong Country, NBA Jam, Virtua Fighter 2 in arcades (which was even more phenomenal than the first, and making me forget about Tekken almost immediately), and the mother of all classics in 1994, the amazing Final Fantasy 6.
Dubbed "Final Fantasy III" in the US for being the third main Final Fantasy game released stateside (as opposed to Japan where all six games to this point have been released), it was released on October, roughly five months after it was released in Japan. Running on a 32-megabit SNES cartridge, this game took more advantage of the graphics capabilities than its predecessors and awesome uses of the Mode 7 engine using an airship, as if you were flying an actual plane. But that's not why this game is awesome. In fact, in more ways than one, this RPG was way ahead of its time. To this day, it still features the largest consistent playable roster in any main Final Fantasy game, arguably the most Eidolons, accessible gameplay, an engrossing story that doesn't cater to just one character, but balances out the entire cast, and quite possibly the best villain in the series, if not the most popular. To spoil the story would be too much, so just get an SNES emulator and play it, if you haven't already.
I think I'm all good for Part One today... I'll give a further analysis on other topics I may have overlooked in Part 2.
DOA Community Blog #2: Chaotic Costume Controversy
This is a rather hot topic as of late, and one that sent the community on fire, but not necessarily in a good way. While there are some of us like myself who are content with what TN is bringing out yet still hold on to hope that a particular favorite of ours gets made, there are some others who are rather impatient, and even going so far as to demonize a certain group of casuals or certain consumer markets. Some would even insist that Team Ninja (or rather, KoeiTecmo) is sexist toward males because they don't have as many abundant, sexy costumes as the female characters do. However, this is not the case. TN keeps making these types of DLC costumes every-so-often for a simple reason. It sells. And when it sells, there's a good chance they will take the extra time to make costumes different from the norm that certain enthusiasts want, and/or help build a competitive scene through major tournaments in key areas of competition, which is the big picture many fail to see.
I'd be a fool to deny that sex sells, and Dead or Alive has since the beginning always delivered with sex appeal in fighting games, and even moreso in the DOAX series. But it has also become a double-edged sword in a way. Although Dead or Alive 5 has remarkably changed the fighting game series for the better and allowing more guaranteed setups in a variety of ways through actual frame advantage, natural combos, obstructions and ceilings, and best of all, unholdable stuns, the stigma of the game's sex appeal has not gone away for some players outside its community. But at this point, I'm beginning to believe the game's sex appeal is not truly the main reason it's being overlooked by outsiders as a competitive game, but rather, a petty excuse. And I'm going to explain why.
Since even the dawn of time in the 90s renaissance of fighting games, sex appeal has been totally acceptable in fighting games. Most of the popular fighting games that are still played competitively thrive on it. For many casual players looking for a starting point in order to grow as a competitive player (particularly males), it's one of the main draws. I don't think I could imagine Street Fighter II having more success than it did had they not brought in a female character like the leggy Chun Li and scantily-clad Cammy, nor Fatal Fury's sequel with the buxom kunoichi Mai Shiranui, or Darkstalkers with the incredibly popular succubus Morrigan and the catwoman Felicia, or Soul Calibur with their alchemist/domme Ivy Valentine or the more petite-yet-suggestive Sophitia Alexandra. Oh, and did I forget to mention the teen rivals that are the brash-and-busty Asuka Kazama and the long-legged lolita, Emilie "Lili" de Rochefort from the almighty best-selling fighting game, Tekken, among others?
There's a number of characters I can get into for each fighter, but my point is this. If at this point sexy costumes are really your main reason not to give a fighting game a chance or to take it seriously, you're showing hypocrisy, and just reaching for a reason to not try something different. It's nothing to be ashamed of if you like a fighting game with a handful of sexy characters, ladies and gentlemen, so long as they can kick your ass. This hardly effects what Japanese players play, so why should it be any different for us? If it's not what you're used to playing and prefer something you're already used to, fine, I can respect that. But don't knock it when you get smacked around by a more experienced player and deem it "broken" or "cheap", when in reality you never understood or applied the mechanics beyond the most basic shit. These kinds of people are the ones really killing the community, ruining the mentality of today's players, and preventing them from trying something different from established mainstream titles... and quite frankly, we don't need them nor their advice, 'cause chances are, most of them are scrubs-by-definition caring only for themselves and letting people share in their misery... or their salt... or whatever.
All fighting games take diligent amounts of time to get used to and understand, much less master. At the end of the day, all you can do is support the game when you can, where you can. At the same time, those within the community must also respect each other and the contributions and knowledge they share. And if in the event they're wrong, don't just stop at correcting them, but show them you appreciate their effort. Encourage them to do better, give 'em a pat on the back if you have to. This is the kind of attitude that builds the community, not destroys it.
And for the love of all that is sacred in the fighting game community, don't blow a head gasket when your favorite costume doesn't make it in and other costumes do. I'll admit I had my share of disappointment because my favorite didn't make it in, but one thing I do not do is take my frustration out on those who made their voice heard and got what they wanted. I acknowledge that I'm in the minority when it comes to my personal preference, and have learned to keep myself occupied in my patience, which is what I also encourage others to practice. Perhaps over time, you'll forget about the costume and find new purpose to the devotion of the character(s) you enjoy playing... you never know.
Well, that's my rant for today. Ladies, gentlemen... take care of yourselves.
I'd be a fool to deny that sex sells, and Dead or Alive has since the beginning always delivered with sex appeal in fighting games, and even moreso in the DOAX series. But it has also become a double-edged sword in a way. Although Dead or Alive 5 has remarkably changed the fighting game series for the better and allowing more guaranteed setups in a variety of ways through actual frame advantage, natural combos, obstructions and ceilings, and best of all, unholdable stuns, the stigma of the game's sex appeal has not gone away for some players outside its community. But at this point, I'm beginning to believe the game's sex appeal is not truly the main reason it's being overlooked by outsiders as a competitive game, but rather, a petty excuse. And I'm going to explain why.
Since even the dawn of time in the 90s renaissance of fighting games, sex appeal has been totally acceptable in fighting games. Most of the popular fighting games that are still played competitively thrive on it. For many casual players looking for a starting point in order to grow as a competitive player (particularly males), it's one of the main draws. I don't think I could imagine Street Fighter II having more success than it did had they not brought in a female character like the leggy Chun Li and scantily-clad Cammy, nor Fatal Fury's sequel with the buxom kunoichi Mai Shiranui, or Darkstalkers with the incredibly popular succubus Morrigan and the catwoman Felicia, or Soul Calibur with their alchemist/domme Ivy Valentine or the more petite-yet-suggestive Sophitia Alexandra. Oh, and did I forget to mention the teen rivals that are the brash-and-busty Asuka Kazama and the long-legged lolita, Emilie "Lili" de Rochefort from the almighty best-selling fighting game, Tekken, among others?
There's a number of characters I can get into for each fighter, but my point is this. If at this point sexy costumes are really your main reason not to give a fighting game a chance or to take it seriously, you're showing hypocrisy, and just reaching for a reason to not try something different. It's nothing to be ashamed of if you like a fighting game with a handful of sexy characters, ladies and gentlemen, so long as they can kick your ass. This hardly effects what Japanese players play, so why should it be any different for us? If it's not what you're used to playing and prefer something you're already used to, fine, I can respect that. But don't knock it when you get smacked around by a more experienced player and deem it "broken" or "cheap", when in reality you never understood or applied the mechanics beyond the most basic shit. These kinds of people are the ones really killing the community, ruining the mentality of today's players, and preventing them from trying something different from established mainstream titles... and quite frankly, we don't need them nor their advice, 'cause chances are, most of them are scrubs-by-definition caring only for themselves and letting people share in their misery... or their salt... or whatever.
All fighting games take diligent amounts of time to get used to and understand, much less master. At the end of the day, all you can do is support the game when you can, where you can. At the same time, those within the community must also respect each other and the contributions and knowledge they share. And if in the event they're wrong, don't just stop at correcting them, but show them you appreciate their effort. Encourage them to do better, give 'em a pat on the back if you have to. This is the kind of attitude that builds the community, not destroys it.
And for the love of all that is sacred in the fighting game community, don't blow a head gasket when your favorite costume doesn't make it in and other costumes do. I'll admit I had my share of disappointment because my favorite didn't make it in, but one thing I do not do is take my frustration out on those who made their voice heard and got what they wanted. I acknowledge that I'm in the minority when it comes to my personal preference, and have learned to keep myself occupied in my patience, which is what I also encourage others to practice. Perhaps over time, you'll forget about the costume and find new purpose to the devotion of the character(s) you enjoy playing... you never know.
Well, that's my rant for today. Ladies, gentlemen... take care of yourselves.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
DOA Community Blog #1: Compliments Before Criticism
NOTE: Before I begin, I want to stress first and foremost that this doesn't apply to everyone in the DOA community (or in any part of the fighting game community for that matter).
Once too often I see criticism take a wrong turn and it turns into a slamfest of personal insults. Mainly because there are some people who can't take blunt criticism as well as others. Sure, you can tell them to "grow thicker skin" until they're blue in the face, but this doesn't always work. Sometimes this leads to giving the impression that you have no compassion or no heart, and 9 times out of 10, that person is gonna turn rebellious just to spite you.
Fighting games can be stressful and require a significantly high mental willpower to become great at them, and for newer players - and sometimes seasoned players down on their luck - how you handle the suggestions to a player, whether they're sharing what they know or seeking methods of improving, could dramatically alter their course of dedication. Sometimes the love of the game isn't enough. Sometimes reassurance and focusing on the positive intentions of the contributor/player as well as the flaws of that very one can keep them wanting to persevere in the game they're ever learning. On the critiquing end, there's a common thing people forget when approaching those who are sensitive, and that's equally focusing on compliments while at the same time giving fair criticism.
For the most part, I want to believe that when people want to give advice or contribute strategies by post or through a video, we all have good, healthy intentions. When we play in tournaments without the intent of exposing ourselves on stream, but rather to support the offline scene, we have good, healthy intentions. When we decisively play in online stream lobbies to exhibit the potential of our game to others, we have good healthy intentions. How you execute criticism in these situations - whether you want to believe it or not - can make or break a player's will, especially newer players and those with "softer skin", so to speak.
I wanna share something about myself. Back then I was known to be a really nice guy. To some, perhaps too soft. Even when I was acknowledged by some as an experienced DOA player (or more specifically, a Christie player), I hated being in a position to judge other players or critique on their play if they ask me to. Because depending on what I say, I could lose that player forever. The fear of being labeled an elitist douchebag would haunt me for quite a long time, and I have seen my share of elitists, especially the kind that leeches off the popularity of accomplished players in order to talk down maliciously to others. I never, ever wanted to become like that. But eventually, I was going to have to confront that fear and do it as gracefully as humanly possible.
One day, back when Dead or Alive 4 was still a thing as far as the now-defunct CGS was concerned, I was recommended by someone to help train a certain individual who will remain nameless (unless this person wants to be made known). I was very nervous, and almost considered backing down on doing so because of the following reasons:
1) I never went to an offline tournament at the time
2) Most of my experience was online, with only a limited amount of time to adjust to offline when my sister was around
3) I never won or placed in an offline tourney
But despite all this, there were a handful of players in the community who believed in me. I observed closely the dos and don'ts when approaching criticism based on how things were portrayed in the forums at the time, whether it was judging artwork, strategies, or whatever. And then I approached this player and winged it the best I could. Before I knew it, I was setting up times to meet and covered basics and fundamentals a bit at a time. The player was excited. We went over Christie's movesets, stuns, combos, her normal-hit launchers, her launchers off of critical stun, her wall safe launchers, movement through her secondary Dokuja-Fujin stance, how to use offensive holds, specific areas of the environment such as Gamblers' Paradise, weight classes, low-punch hold combos, everything. For the first time in my life I felt confident enough in my knowledge to actually teach someone, and I wouldn't have made it as far as I did with this player if I didn't do something so simple: Compliments before criticism.
When the player improves on their game - regardless of how small the feat or accomplishment is - you should always, always take that into consideration before you open up the criticism. From what I've observed, blunt criticism can easily be taken out of context, especially on the internet. And depending on the person (and I'm no stranger to this, ask around) the critic's intention can easily be taken the wrong way. From what I observed, people listen and understand a lot better when the criticism is followed up by a compliment. In doing so, the person can see that you acknowledge their good intentions, and are more likely willing to take your advice regardless of how many holes or flaws you see in their play or their contribution.
Oh, but wait, there is another issue at hand. How do you deal with those who seemingly have a "scrub mentality"? This my friends, is where the real challenge lies, and is why I specifically wrote that this method doesn't apply to just everyone. Some people with a stubborn mindset can be helped, while others cannot be helped. Here's my suggestion in dealing with them without completely condemning them. Even though you may have a better understanding of how to play the game than said scrub, play the humble card anyway. These are a few key personality traits you should consider before confronting them:
1) How bloated is their ego? If they believe themselves to be hot shit, the best thing you can do for them is ignore them, especially if you have taken this person out many times before without the person realizing it.
Maybe with enough beatdowns, they'll eventually humble themselves and open themselves up to learn more. Once they've done this and you know the player well, it's the perfect time to keep that player's ego in check when doing so. Unfortunately, these bloated egos who see the light are nowadays a rare breed.
2) Have they started off casual players, wanting to get into the game competitively, but created their own set of "honorable rules"when it comes to learning? Believe it or not, these people have a lot more hope than the previous. If it were not true, then I would've gone back to playing DOAX2 for several more years, not caring at all about the fighting games and writing them off as a titty fighter with no skill.
Anywho, an example I want to make about this type of player I can relate to was a player who was very indifferent about using air juggle combos in not just DOA5 Ultimate, but DOA in general, although combos are part of the game's intended system to be used and abused whenever possible to score guaranteed extra damage from a launcher. This player considered using air combos "unrealistic fighting", and many have made a counter-argument that DOA wasn't intended to be "ultra realistic" like, say, a UFC fight.
Many have blown off this player, but most of them made one key mistake when explaining the legitimacy of air combos. They left this person with the impression that it is the one and only way to play the game correctly, when in truth, it requires a balance of utilizing all forms of tactics to deal optimal damage. Not every opponent is going to play the same way, and oftentimes will throw off even those with the most powerful tactics. Although the player hasn't shaken off this mentality of not using juggles (yet), I managed to get through to this player and thus became good friends.
Part of the reason I believe this player listened and tried to understand our competitive mentality was because I tried to be relatable to this player as opposed to sounding far removed from the player. We both started off as casual fans, drawn to our favorite character in a unique way, and are character loyalists. So it's not always about giving compliments before giving criticism, but being down-to-earth, honest and relatable to this person to lead them to the proper path and staying the course. It gives them hope that they too can overcome what they believed would be impossible, or better, deem a tactic they seemed unfair legit, then looking back and laugh.
Some thicker-skinned, less sensitive people might classify this as "trying to baby a player", but I disagree. As a friend once told me, "Inspire to improve, improve to inspire". A community is about inspiring others and encouraging them to improve, so that one day they can inspire another. As such, it leads to a chain reaction of positive growth... what you reap is what you sow. You reap encouragement, you sow encouragement. Always consider this when confronting an aspiring player wanting to learn more, and be relatable and down-to-earth with that individual if you can. But if you are clearly more knowledgeable, than this person, and they become stubborn in their ways by creating mental barriers for themselves, remain humble anyway and leave yourself open to them, should they ever decide to see the light when they back themselves to a corner. Either way, it's their choice, and theirs alone. You can only do so much to help.
Once too often I see criticism take a wrong turn and it turns into a slamfest of personal insults. Mainly because there are some people who can't take blunt criticism as well as others. Sure, you can tell them to "grow thicker skin" until they're blue in the face, but this doesn't always work. Sometimes this leads to giving the impression that you have no compassion or no heart, and 9 times out of 10, that person is gonna turn rebellious just to spite you.
Fighting games can be stressful and require a significantly high mental willpower to become great at them, and for newer players - and sometimes seasoned players down on their luck - how you handle the suggestions to a player, whether they're sharing what they know or seeking methods of improving, could dramatically alter their course of dedication. Sometimes the love of the game isn't enough. Sometimes reassurance and focusing on the positive intentions of the contributor/player as well as the flaws of that very one can keep them wanting to persevere in the game they're ever learning. On the critiquing end, there's a common thing people forget when approaching those who are sensitive, and that's equally focusing on compliments while at the same time giving fair criticism.
For the most part, I want to believe that when people want to give advice or contribute strategies by post or through a video, we all have good, healthy intentions. When we play in tournaments without the intent of exposing ourselves on stream, but rather to support the offline scene, we have good, healthy intentions. When we decisively play in online stream lobbies to exhibit the potential of our game to others, we have good healthy intentions. How you execute criticism in these situations - whether you want to believe it or not - can make or break a player's will, especially newer players and those with "softer skin", so to speak.
I wanna share something about myself. Back then I was known to be a really nice guy. To some, perhaps too soft. Even when I was acknowledged by some as an experienced DOA player (or more specifically, a Christie player), I hated being in a position to judge other players or critique on their play if they ask me to. Because depending on what I say, I could lose that player forever. The fear of being labeled an elitist douchebag would haunt me for quite a long time, and I have seen my share of elitists, especially the kind that leeches off the popularity of accomplished players in order to talk down maliciously to others. I never, ever wanted to become like that. But eventually, I was going to have to confront that fear and do it as gracefully as humanly possible.
One day, back when Dead or Alive 4 was still a thing as far as the now-defunct CGS was concerned, I was recommended by someone to help train a certain individual who will remain nameless (unless this person wants to be made known). I was very nervous, and almost considered backing down on doing so because of the following reasons:
1) I never went to an offline tournament at the time
2) Most of my experience was online, with only a limited amount of time to adjust to offline when my sister was around
3) I never won or placed in an offline tourney
But despite all this, there were a handful of players in the community who believed in me. I observed closely the dos and don'ts when approaching criticism based on how things were portrayed in the forums at the time, whether it was judging artwork, strategies, or whatever. And then I approached this player and winged it the best I could. Before I knew it, I was setting up times to meet and covered basics and fundamentals a bit at a time. The player was excited. We went over Christie's movesets, stuns, combos, her normal-hit launchers, her launchers off of critical stun, her wall safe launchers, movement through her secondary Dokuja-Fujin stance, how to use offensive holds, specific areas of the environment such as Gamblers' Paradise, weight classes, low-punch hold combos, everything. For the first time in my life I felt confident enough in my knowledge to actually teach someone, and I wouldn't have made it as far as I did with this player if I didn't do something so simple: Compliments before criticism.
When the player improves on their game - regardless of how small the feat or accomplishment is - you should always, always take that into consideration before you open up the criticism. From what I've observed, blunt criticism can easily be taken out of context, especially on the internet. And depending on the person (and I'm no stranger to this, ask around) the critic's intention can easily be taken the wrong way. From what I observed, people listen and understand a lot better when the criticism is followed up by a compliment. In doing so, the person can see that you acknowledge their good intentions, and are more likely willing to take your advice regardless of how many holes or flaws you see in their play or their contribution.
Oh, but wait, there is another issue at hand. How do you deal with those who seemingly have a "scrub mentality"? This my friends, is where the real challenge lies, and is why I specifically wrote that this method doesn't apply to just everyone. Some people with a stubborn mindset can be helped, while others cannot be helped. Here's my suggestion in dealing with them without completely condemning them. Even though you may have a better understanding of how to play the game than said scrub, play the humble card anyway. These are a few key personality traits you should consider before confronting them:
1) How bloated is their ego? If they believe themselves to be hot shit, the best thing you can do for them is ignore them, especially if you have taken this person out many times before without the person realizing it.
Maybe with enough beatdowns, they'll eventually humble themselves and open themselves up to learn more. Once they've done this and you know the player well, it's the perfect time to keep that player's ego in check when doing so. Unfortunately, these bloated egos who see the light are nowadays a rare breed.
2) Have they started off casual players, wanting to get into the game competitively, but created their own set of "honorable rules"when it comes to learning? Believe it or not, these people have a lot more hope than the previous. If it were not true, then I would've gone back to playing DOAX2 for several more years, not caring at all about the fighting games and writing them off as a titty fighter with no skill.
Anywho, an example I want to make about this type of player I can relate to was a player who was very indifferent about using air juggle combos in not just DOA5 Ultimate, but DOA in general, although combos are part of the game's intended system to be used and abused whenever possible to score guaranteed extra damage from a launcher. This player considered using air combos "unrealistic fighting", and many have made a counter-argument that DOA wasn't intended to be "ultra realistic" like, say, a UFC fight.
Many have blown off this player, but most of them made one key mistake when explaining the legitimacy of air combos. They left this person with the impression that it is the one and only way to play the game correctly, when in truth, it requires a balance of utilizing all forms of tactics to deal optimal damage. Not every opponent is going to play the same way, and oftentimes will throw off even those with the most powerful tactics. Although the player hasn't shaken off this mentality of not using juggles (yet), I managed to get through to this player and thus became good friends.
Part of the reason I believe this player listened and tried to understand our competitive mentality was because I tried to be relatable to this player as opposed to sounding far removed from the player. We both started off as casual fans, drawn to our favorite character in a unique way, and are character loyalists. So it's not always about giving compliments before giving criticism, but being down-to-earth, honest and relatable to this person to lead them to the proper path and staying the course. It gives them hope that they too can overcome what they believed would be impossible, or better, deem a tactic they seemed unfair legit, then looking back and laugh.
Some thicker-skinned, less sensitive people might classify this as "trying to baby a player", but I disagree. As a friend once told me, "Inspire to improve, improve to inspire". A community is about inspiring others and encouraging them to improve, so that one day they can inspire another. As such, it leads to a chain reaction of positive growth... what you reap is what you sow. You reap encouragement, you sow encouragement. Always consider this when confronting an aspiring player wanting to learn more, and be relatable and down-to-earth with that individual if you can. But if you are clearly more knowledgeable, than this person, and they become stubborn in their ways by creating mental barriers for themselves, remain humble anyway and leave yourself open to them, should they ever decide to see the light when they back themselves to a corner. Either way, it's their choice, and theirs alone. You can only do so much to help.
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