analysis

Episode 5 – The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service

April 8, 2021 by Chikorita157

Hana Kouen Podcast

Episode 5 - The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service

00:00 / 12:16

In this episode, we will discuss the dark downsides of playing Gacha Mobile Games and the Gaming as a Service Model. After all, with a Gacha mobile game, you don’t own anything.

This is an audio version of our post, originally titled The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service, published on September 10, 2020. If you have any comments, leave a reply in the original post.

This podcast uses the following songs:

Night In Venice by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5763-night-in-venice
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5010-ultralounge
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

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Episode 1 – Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture

April 3, 2021 by Chikorita157

Hana Kouen Podcast

Episode 1 - Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture

00:00 / 8:42

In this episode, we focus on calling out Anti-Asian hate. We also focus on the dark history of the treatment of Asian Americans in the United States. Lastly, we focus on why fetishizing a culture is bad and how it contributes to Anti-Asian racism.

This is an audio version of our post, originally titled Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture, published on March 21,2021. If you have any comments, leave a reply in the original post.

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Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture

March 21, 2021 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

In last week’s monthly digest post, I shared my thoughts on the disturbing rise of Anti-Asian hate. Since I review Japanese media, I think it’s important to make people aware of this. It’s not too surprising since only a very few focused on it in the anime blogging community. Given recent events, I think it’s a good idea to make everyone aware of this so we can fight against hate.

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The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service

September 10, 2020 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

It’s not a big surprise that anime fans tend to play Japanese mobile games that has a gacha element. In some cases, you probably saved a lot of free in game premium currency to roll for your favorite character. Others probably spent a lot of money in order to get the character they want in the game.

However, not everything is forever, especially in gacha games. The big downside of these games is that unless it’s successful, as in bring in a lot of money, the game won’t last long. In other words, you will lose all your progress and money spent in the game.

Believe it or this, this is not too uncommon, especially with localized mobile gacha game releases. This can really upset a lot of people as seen when Aniplex USA decided to pull the plug on the English version of Magia Record. Yes, I was livid about it, but apparently the franchise isn’t popular enough compared to popular franchises such as Fate Grand Order.

Since I spent money on monthly passes, this announcement really left a bad taste towards mobile gacha games or the whole games as a service thing. The question is, do you really own anything in these games? The answer is obviously no. Since I am salty about this a few weeks after the announcement, I want to share my thoughts on the dark side of Games as a Service.

Note: An audio version of this post is now available.

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Impact of Covid-19 on Japanese Animation Studios and the Need to Embrace Digital and Telework

May 16, 2020 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

Believe it or not, I have covered the impacts of the Anime Industry due to Covid-19. However, we still didn’t know the full impact back then, until now. This just didn’t happen overnight. Animation studios faced problems such as poor working conditions, a packed production schedule and noticeable delays in 2019.

As expected, the coronavirus situation made the whole thing worse. Sure, a handful of titles suffered minor delays. Eventually, the coronavirus situation worsened with more than forty titles facing delays. As a result, studios had no choice but to delay productions. Eventually Japan declared a state of emergency on April 16, weeks after delaying the Olympics. This does not come at a surprise since the workplace at these studios clamped. As a result, this makes social distancing efforts nearly impossible. With that, I want to focus on some thoughts on the whole situation.
[Read more…] about Impact of Covid-19 on Japanese Animation Studios and the Need to Embrace Digital and Telework

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The SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak – The Impacts on the Anime Industry and Everyone’s Lives

March 22, 2020 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

While Eripiyo doesn’t have Coronavirus, but the flu, this scene is relatable to this situation.

As expected, it seems that the Novel Coronavirus has started to affect everyone’s lives. For an anime fan, it definitely had an impact. Not only anime productions are getting delayed, but also events and even anime conventions. Even the Tokyo Olympics that is happening later this year is in jeopardy and will most likely see a delay.

Not only that, various anime productions faced delays as a result. Some are very noticeable with Koisuru Asteroid, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T, A3, and others. It doesn’t end there. Some spring anime, most notably Re Zero Second Season along with a bunch of films pushed back until the summer. Moreover, Amazon is prioritizing shipping of certain goods to deal with the virus. This causes things like anime DVD/Blu-rays, merchandise, video games, etc to face shipping delays. With that, we are living with a new reality and life as we know it is changed forever.

You might be wondering, what is the Novel Coronavirus (aka Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2/SARS-CoV-2/nCov-19/Covid-19) and what affect it is happening on the anime industry. Most of you should have heard about this virus on the news and social media. As expected, it’s having a huge effect on people’s everyday lives. I will share some of my thoughts on how this situation is affecting me personally.
[Read more…] about The SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak – The Impacts on the Anime Industry and Everyone’s Lives

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Pitfalls of Anime Streaming, Competition and Subscription Fatigue – Is It Becoming Too Fragmented?

March 16, 2020 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

It’s obvious that the Novel Coronavirus has caused a lot of public events to become cancelled along with schools. Aside from people who have a job, but can’t telework, most will be at home. In other words, some or most of you would binge watch on anime while being stuck at home.

This of course brings the topic of anime streaming. In recent years, anime has become more accessible legally through legal streaming services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, and others. Not only that, you don’t have to spend $50-250 to buy the whole series on DVD or Blu-ray to watch it. Of course, we started to see Crunchyroll losing the lion share of the anime streaming as competition heated up.

If you recall, Amazon tried to jump in the fray with Anime Strike and Netflix doing its own thing. While competition is good as it doesn’t cause a service to become complacent. During that time, Crunchyroll became a bit lazy by not updating their video player and with poor video quality.

Once competition took hold, they eventually added an HTML5 player. It’s not without consequence. They lost a good amount of their catalog once Funnimation pulled out of the deal.

As expected, exclusive simulcasting is becoming an issue as people have to subscribe to the multiple services to watch the content they enjoy. Otherwise, he or she will miss out unless they subscribe. As they say, each subscription adds up in the end. This phenomenon is called subscription fatigue. While some bloggers have covered this concern, it’s time to go more in depth in it.
[Read more…] about Pitfalls of Anime Streaming, Competition and Subscription Fatigue – Is It Becoming Too Fragmented?

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Transfer Limitations in Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield, Is Game Freak Betraying their Fans?

June 12, 2019 by Chikorita157 5 Comments

Back in February 2019, Game Freak finally announced their next generation games, Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch. This game will finally have a third person view in an open world compared to the previous games. However, after showing off new features at E3, a lot of people became upset. News broke that you won’t be able to transfer all your Pokémon from the Pokémon Home service to the new games. This is because of Game Freak’s change in direction.

To me, this decision is a big betrayal to the loyal Pokémon fan base. Of course, many people are angry about this decision and for good reasons. He or she won’t be able to use all of their favorite Pokémon in the new games. With that, I want to share my thoughts on why Game Freak is out of touch with the fan base.
[Read more…] about Transfer Limitations in Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield, Is Game Freak Betraying their Fans?

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The Power and Popularity of Manga Time Kirara

May 9, 2019 by Chikorita157 7 Comments

Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, there has been various debates about moe. Despite the critics, moe in general has eventually became mainstay in modern anime

I feel the main reason moe actually saved anime is of course the adaptations of Manga Time Kirara series and Houbunsha, a Japanese book publisher that is behind it all. The first few series in 2007 started receiving anime adaptions. The first being Hidamari Sketch and Doujin Work. After that, the rest was history after K-ON aired and became wildly popular.

Since the 2010s, there are usually anime adaptations of series from the family of Manga Time Kirara family of magazine air almost every season. Sometimes, there might be two that air in the same season. You might be wondering why I think Manga Time Kirara is the savior of anime and why these magazines are popular? I will explain why.
[Read more…] about The Power and Popularity of Manga Time Kirara

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When A Fairy Tale Becomes a Nightmare – Analyzing the Production Failures of Märchen Mädchen

March 29, 2018 by Chikorita157 5 Comments

Back in 2015, I analyzed production issues in regards to Anime. It seems that every year, production issue are becoming more apparent. It’s saddening that a lack of production values can hold a show back regardless of how good or interesting the story and characters are. To me, no adaptation deserves the poor treatment that this show received. This adaptation is Märchen Mädchen.
[Read more…] about When A Fairy Tale Becomes a Nightmare – Analyzing the Production Failures of Märchen Mädchen

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