A Short Rant About Hiatuses

So you saw a great episode of your favorite show the week before and you can’t wait to see what happens next. You wait all day with baited breath for prime time and turn the channel and see… a rerun of a different show. 

A wave of confusion hits you. “Did I miss it? Am I on the wrong channel?” You ask. Flipping through you channel guide you see that you were on the right channel but your show is not scheduled to air!

Confusion turns to anger. Why would they do this to you? Why would they put something out with no conclusion and then skip a week or longer?

This is what happens every time a show goes on hiatus, either because they are behind in production, or they want their episode to air during sweeps week. And why the fuck not? It builds anticipation, and it’s not like the fans won’t watch, right? 

When a season has 15 to twenty episodes or less out of a fifty two week year, is it that outrageous to expect a professional company to have most of the material finished in advance? To anticipate needed gaps before starting release? I can kind of understand when some small youtuber can't quite make their deadline but when major corporations start doing the same thing you have to raise your eyebrow. Of course you can't expect a creator to put on an incomplete product or you get some of the early episodes of Dragon Ball Super with their terrible animation filling in the gaps. But at the same time these shows are often making millions and fans should expect money and resources commiserate with that put in to them.

I understand that this is just fan-griping, but when you love something and it lets you down you tend to grip a little. When you do this stuff you’re disappointing thousands of fans, and if you have to do it, I hope you’re doing it because you want to put out a better product rather than wanting a big sweeps week.

-Gedaemon

Thoughts on Dragon Ball Super Episode 76

When the enemies of the past appear in the forest of terror, Kuririn can’t deal with it. Acting more like the Kuririn from Dragon Ball Z Abridged than the actual series he panics and runs. Goku of course bails him out. When he remarks how much fun it is to fight them again Kuririn yells at him and proclaims he is going home. In an uncharacteristic show of empathy Goku follows him and they both end up trapped in the forest with their now gigantic enemies. Of course they soon discover that these beings are created from their own fears, So Muten Roshi arranges one last illusion which they quickly defeat. Yay….

My first thought was that someone at Crunchy Roll needs a spell checker. They spelled "defeat" as "daefeat" in the title. This was an underwhelming episode coming off the last one. It was just so cliché as to lose my interest fairly quickly. The only touching park is at the end where Kuririn shaves his head and goes off with Goku to spar. 

Hopefully next episode will be a bit better.

-Gedaemon

Thoughts on Dragon Ball Super 75

Human fans rejoice! Since the Freeza Saga of DBZ The humans have been left in the dust by transformation after transformation, so it’s nice to see an episode revisit Goku’s best friend: Kuririn. 

When Goku needs a training partner Chichi calls in Gohan. While it was nice to see Goku and Gohan fight again they end up destroying Goku’s farm as a result. Soon Goku is back in the market for a sparring partner and when Kuririn is mentioned Goku hurries to Satan city to recruit him. He encounters Kuririn in the middle of a fight where he gets hurt by a bullet! IN the personal crisis that follows Kuririn decides he has to get stronger and heads with Goku to Muten Roshi’s to be retrained. 

This was a great episode. It was funny and compelling. The animation was OK, which is the most I hope for from DBS. Kruririn’s frustration with being left in the dust by Goku is easy to relate to, as are his motivations for wanting to get stronger again. In recent years the Kuririn has become a joke, only slightly below Yamcha on the pitiful scale. But he was always one of the most interesting characters in the original series and I am happy to see an episode do right by him. I’m just frustrated I have to wait till next week for the conclusion. Here’s to hoping it holds up!

-Gedaemon

Resident Evil Revelations: Where the hell are the zombies?!

I’ve only ever played two Resident Evil games. The first two were RE2 port for the N64, the remake of the original for the Gamecube. So when  I picked up Resident Evil revelations for the 3DS on sale a few weeks ago the changes to the series came as a bit of a shock to the system.  It wasn’t a bad shock, but I’m not sure the changes were all for the best either. 

Resident Evil Revelations starts out pretty promising. Jill Valentine and her partner, What’s-his-name board a dilapidated cruise ship in the Mediterranean looking for Chris Redfield and his partner, What’s-her-name. Unsurprisingly this does not go well and the two end up strained on a boat filled with B.O.W.s, which are like zombies only not as scary or disconcerting.

Zombies have become really overdone in recent years but that’s for a good reason. The zombie encapsulates both our fear of dying and our fear of the dead. As much as we humans strive to overcome death, part of us is repulsed by the overturning of the natural order. We are both worried and comforted by the idea that the dead cannot cross back over to the living. The idea that a body might do just this disgusts and terrifies us. That’s why a generic humanoid monster just doesn’t have the psychological impact of a zombie, even if it’s a person “transformed” by a virus.  Doing away with work-a-day zombies was a huge mistake.

The plot of Revelations is convoluted, not always in a bad way but not always in a good way either. Without spoiling the details there are a lot of government agencies, conspiracies and twists, some of which are predictable. Even more annoying is the games constant quote od Dante’s Divine Comedy in an attempt to appear deep.  Dante was deep but RE Revelations is not, and no amount of gratuitous quoting of an old classic will change that. Another flaw is the constant flashbacks which can be disorienting at first. One minute you’re on the cruise from hell and the next you’re on a beach surveying corpses. 

The concerns about writing aside, the game is well designed. The camera is always behind you, except when you aim, then the view switches to first person. This is great for the horror/survival angle. Since you can’t see behind you the player most constantly look around to keep watch for threats or useful items. Unlike in the classical titles you can move while you shoot. This is more realistic, though it somehow hurts the survival aspect, as you don’t have to be as careful choosing your fights. Another feature is the map on the 3DS’ bottom screen, while not very realistic helps keep you from getting lost in the huge cruise ship, which would be quite annoying. 

One very annoying feature which probably seemed cleaver in development is the Genesis: a portable scanner you carry with your through most of the game. The scanner lets you find hidden items and create anti-viruses (green herbs) by scanning monsters. Scanning everything becomes tedious, especially when you’re trying to survive. Good game design would simply hide things in concealed but intuitive places.  

RE Revelations looks good on the 3DS, with decent 3D effects. The game has aged pretty well over the last half-decade. Unfortunately even on my New 3DS, the game lags when loading a new map. Thankfully this does not affect combat, but it seems the game is a bit more than the system can handle . 

If it sounds like I hate Revelations I don’t. It was a fun game which I will probably replay at some point. But there were all these little things about it that bugged me. Still, it’s not a bad game by any stretch and I would encourage people to play it, though it lacks the iconic status of earlier entries in the series.

7.5 out of 10

-Gedaemon

Thoughts on Dragon Ball Super 74

Gohan and Videl are back for another episode, and once again, Videl proves herself the best female character in the series. When the actor Barry Kahn tries to blackmail Gohan with pictures of an idol kissing him Videl has none of it. But after being kicked out of their house Barry encounters the alien invader Baby- I mean Watagashi. With Watagashi’s power he knocks Gohan out and kidnaps Pan. Enter the Great Saiyaman to save the day! 

­This was a good episode. From Jaco’s continuing incompetence, to the final battle with Baby-I mean Watagashi, to Gohan's family. The episode really made me happy to be a Gohan fan again. And with the tournament coming up hopefully we'll get to  see more of Gohan in is old form.

The Next episode promises to feature a little more Gohan, but it looks like it’s a Kuririn episode as they begin training for the next arc.  

-Gedaemon