Batman Gotham After Midnight

I recently read the graphic novel Gotham After Midnight and as far as Batman stories goes this was not very good and was unoriginal. The story has Batman fight many villains Catwoman, Clayface, Killer Croc, Man-Bat, Scarecrow Axe-man (no idea as to who that is think they made him up special for this story just to be another villain for Batman to fight) and the Joker who are all being controlled/being used as distractions by the main villain of the book. Most of the characters are out of character to some degree, somewhat explained in the book for some characters but other like Batman are out of character for no discernible reason. I honestly thought that they were going to have Batman be under some mild mind control to explain why he was acting the way he was but they didn't. There is a subplot romance and an extremely predicable twist at the end of the story.

As for the art; didn't like it. Too abstract at times, too strange at others, too difficult to figure out what the hell was going on occasionally, and there seemed to be panels that had images unconnected with the storyline entirely.

Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep

I have watched the newest Ranma Oav, Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep, since I have last mentioned it (this is the third mention of it on this blog). It can now be downloaded from several places such as BakaBT. While I like that it exists and would like to see more Ranma anime made, I like the manga a lot more. There are several things I liked about the Oav. Thing I liked the most is Akane's dream sequence in which she was a soldier, don't really know why, it is just what stuck in my head the most.

There are two things in particular I did not like. The first is Ranma flashing Happosai to stop his panty raid. I like fan service as much as the next person but I disliked it because it seemed forced and tacked on purely for the fanservice. Flashing someone to get an advantage is a tactic Ranma would, and had, used; though in the manga Ranma does not do that to stop Happosai's panty raids. The most common means by which Ranma stops Happosai's panty raids in the manga is a surprise kick to the back of the head knocking Happosai face first into the ground (see picture below); Ranma never had any trouble stopping Happosai's panty raids. The second thing I did not like was that Nabiki added the mosquito repellent to the debt Ranma owes her. The reason I disliked that is because Ranma being in debt to Nabiki is one of the things that the anime added in that annoys me the most. In the manga there is nothing even implying that Ranma has any debt to Nabiki and when she does manage to get money from him he pays it off immediately (it is also much more difficult for her to get money from manga Ranma than his anime or fanfiction counterparts). While on that I also disliked that it had Ukyo and Shampoo in debt to Nabiki when neither of them are in the manga. In fact Ukyo and Shampoo are far too dangerous for Nabiki to even try to swindle (damn near got her killed when she tried it in the manga).

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage.

The giving of dowries is an extremely old practice that is thought to predate writing. While not very common in this time period this practice still exists in several places. Similar practices exist that are not called dowry. Take for example in the USA it is customary for the bride's family to pay for the wedding; some people view this as being a dowry.

A country that still has the practice of giving dowries is Japan. It is not uncommon for the parents to give a dowry of some type. A famous example would be Princess Sayako who in 2005 left the Japanese royal family and becomes a commoner through marriage. The Japanese government gave Princess Sayako 152.5 million yen upon her marriage as a dowry (the legal limit according to imperial law).

I have made some attempt to learn about dowries in Japan with little success (though there is also a similar practice called Yuinou (or Yuino) where the two families exchange betrothal gifts). The reason I have attempted to find out info on them is because a couple characters in Ranma 1/2 have dowries most importantly Ukyo. Some people claim that Ukyo's engagement is invalid because she gambled away her dowry prior to Ranma's father stealing it. The thing is a dowry is not needed or required for an engagement/marriage. Having one and the size of the dowry does show how wealthy/important the girl is but it really does not matter for the engagements/marriages at all. A dowry does not really go to the guy/his family. What a dowry really is is the girls inheritance meant for taking care of her and her children. The girl generally becomes part of the new family (transferred from her family registry to his) and it is a means of giving her inheritance to her. From what I read in the case of the girl dying without having children or divorce it's customary to give the dowry back to her family. Of course I can find very little on modern dowries except that they still exist even though they are of less importance. Most of what I found was about them in Edo Japan (if I find out more I will likely edit this post).

Ranma given foreknowledge versus Saffron

This post is inspired by a conversation I had with someone on a forum. Alternate universe stories are pretty common, most commonly they are asking and then answering the question what if? For example what if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider instead of Peter Parker or what if Superman was raised by Lex Luthor. On this forum someone asked the question what if Ranma had battled Saffron going into the battle knowing what he learned during and immediately after the battle, basically another fight with Saffron.

There is many ways that could go. The first thing I thought was that Ranma would not let Saffron attain his ascension, child Saffron can not stop Ranma. That said I'm going to assume that Saffron has already attained his adult form and that the battle in question is the final battle versus Saffron. A lot of people view Saffron as the most powerful character in the manga, even going so far as to call him a god. Calling him a god doesn't bother me in the least since by many non monotheistic religious standards (including Shinto) he would qualify as a god (or Kami). To me it is very debatable that he is the most powerful, energy wise Herb, Happosai, Miss Hinako depending on whom/what she drains of power, Rouge in her Ashura form (a literal goddess/demoness in several religions) could probably match him or even beat him in raw power were they to really try to do so. Skill wise a lot of the characters beat him in that. Physical abilities other than healing and flight he is beat by a lot of the characters as well.

I am going to assume that the scenario (get Akane to the water) and local is the same and that Ranma has not had prep time. I also want to point out that in this battle Ranma knows about Saffron's attacks/abilities and Saffron is clueless about Ranma's (which is an extreme advantage for Ranma). Though Saffron still has several minor advantages in his favor in that as a being who can fly Saffron has an advantage for aerial combat. Saffron's regeneration beats Ranma's healing ability (which is still pretty impressive). Both are under a time limit Saffron in that he is burning himself out since his transformation was incomplete and Ranma because he has to get Akane to the water before her eyes close. Saffron still has more knowledge and practice with the magical staffs than Ranma does (recall Ranma didn't even know how to turn his on). Saffron has the advantage in that he knows Ranma's goal and can focus his entire concentration on Ranma whereas Ranma's concentration is split between fighting Saffron and getting Akane to the water (to the point that he tried to break off the battle and get Akane to the water) also Saffron knows where Ranma is trying to go whereas Saffron can go any where and attack from any direction.

Another thing I want to point out before getting to how I think the battle will go is that Saffron's statement about how his blast should have killed Ranma and his idea about how Akane blocked the blast is pretty meaningless. The reason I state this is because Saffron does not know of Ranma's abilities such as his ability to take physical punishment or what Ranma's heat tolerance is and he was just guessing. Saffron is not the first character to think that Ranma should not have survived their attack take Mikado very early in the manga, he too could not believe that Ranma survived his attack. It is possible that Saffron's theory is correct about Akane taking the heat (not that that theory makes any sense by real life physics but going by real life physics Saffron shouldn't exist either) but personally I don't like that theory since Ranma still took the physical impact (impacted the rock with enough force to compress it) and Akane was very small at the time and most of the heat would have just continued around her (Akane was like six inches tall the blast was several times her size she was not big enough to stop it). While I'm on the subject of that blast, it might have missed Ranma entirely had he not dropped Akane forcing him to change direction (Ranma stopped dodging/running in favor of catching Akane, hell he stopped paying attention to Saffron entirely in favor of catching her).

Okay here is how I think the battle would go. Ranma would pretty much curbstomp Saffron. The reason I say this is: In this scenario Ranma knows about Saffron's healing ability and that killing Saffron will only cause him to be reborn so Ranma is a helluva lot less likely to hold back. Which is something he did in the manga, once he decided that he was running out of options he sliced off Saffron's wings instead of going for a killing blow. This time Ranma would turn on the ice staff and just slice Saffron to pieces (in the manga Ranma did not know how to turn it on only did so accidentally) and Saffron has no way of stopping Ranma from doing that since he did not get the fire staff until later in the battle.

Big lead up, very disappointing fight. The reason the fight is so disappointing is because Ranma's advanced knowledge causes it to be a curb stomp. Were this a true second battle where both Saffron and Ranma have some idea as to the other opponents abilities; both are unarmed, or both are armed with the magic staffs from the beginning, or one armed with one of them the other unarmed; neither have a time limit or one of them under a time limit; etc. the battle would and could go very differently. Personally a second battle between them could go either way, hell that's how it was in the manga. Saffron had an upper-hand, then Ranma did, then Saffron, etc. the battle was much closer than most fan fics I have read make it appear to have been.

Were this a fight versus Herb than my opinion would be very different. Herb unlike Saffron was curb stomping Ranma for the majority of the time, it wasn't ping ponging between them. Even were you to give Ranma post battle knowledge prior to the battle against Herb it would not really matter. Even post manga knowledge (giving him further adaptations/better understanding of the Hiryu Shoten Ha and knowledge of the Senkens) without preptime and I'd still give Herb better odds of wining than I would Ranma (without preptime because given enough preptime the odds would/could change drastically).

Defcon Levels

War and the prelude to war is a common theme in writing. The reason for this is likely because people have pretty much always been fighting wars (several going on right now, not that most people would know it, at least in this country, since major media does not find war and the causalities of war as interesting as a celebrity's social life). I have seen several war movies and read books that include wars. In general it is not a genre I read often.

One thing I have encountered repeatedly in fiction is the use of DefCon levels. I find it very annoying when they are used inaccurately since it is very easy to find info on them. The three most common ways I've seen them used inaccurately are:

1. The mention of them prior to their creation in November 1959.
2. The use of them by another country that doesn't call their states of combat readiness DefCon levels using a different term entirely.
3. The most common one getting the order wrong. The correct order is:
DEFCON 5 - Normal peacetime readiness
DEFCON 4 - Increased intelligence & strengthened security
DEFCON 3 - Increase in force readiness above normal
DEFCON 2 - Further Increase in force readiness
DEFCON 1 - Maximum force readiness.

Most recently I was reading a fan written story that used them incorrectly making a big deal about DefCon 4 (nuking a US city caused it). It's not really, DefCon 4 has occurred fairly often (most of the Cold War) with most people completely unaware. Defcon 3 has happened a few times but not often (September 11 attack caused level 3). The current DefCon level is 5.

Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted

TokyoPop American manga Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted written by Nathan Johnson and Matt Yamashita and drawn by a multitude of artists. The graphic novel has six chapters. The first and last chapters are stand alone stories, mostly comedy, with the middle chapters being interconnected and less comedic more dramatic.

I like the Ghostbusters and pretty much always have. I've watched the movies several times and like the cartoons. I did not see them in the movie theater though (the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater came out later than Ghostbusters did). I had watched some of the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters on television prior to seeing the movies (and I have not watched the Extreme Ghostbusters ever; did not even know it existed until sometime last year). This book supposedly comes directly after the two movies (the first movie being significantly better than the second) but feels more like the cartoon series than the movies (which is a good thing).

Chapter 1 titled The Theater of Pain has the Ghostbusters called in to deal with a haunted theater that has the latest musical attacked by ghosts. This leads to the cast and crew members quitting and Ray, Egon and Peter take on the roles of stage manager, lead actor and director. Reading this particular story made me wonder a few things. Mostly what did people do about ghosts prior to the Ghostbusters (since there are a lot of ghosts in this particular story) and if ghosts were getting jobs would they have to pay taxes?

The middle chapters are interconnected with a few short storylines. I don't really know how to (or more accurately don't care enough to bother trying too; which amounts to the same thing) give a synopsis of them without giving too much away (not that I really care if I do give away the entire plot since I'm not being compensated for writing this in any way). The most important part of a review is the reviewer's opinion but to adequately discuss something all the people involved need to know enough details to do so hence at least a small summary is needed since chances are any reader of this post will not have read the book. The reviewing I do is not what I would consider to be good and often is secondary to something else I want to discuss. If I were planning on reviewing something I'd keep things in mind while reading/watching it. Anyway I did like that it showed a boring day for Ray in which he got fake calls (one from a spirit medium who wanted to buy ghosts from them, another from an old lady who just wanted someone to talk to, and another from a best man at a wedding who was convinced that the person his friend was marrying was a ghost).

The last chapter is called The Devil Wears Nada. In this chapter the Ghostbusters must stop a fashionista from turning everyone who wears her clothes into unwilling slaves of Heel, the Sumerian god of deception. Two things I want to comment on: This story illustrates the main reason I am against the transgender behavior that is cross-dressing namely if it becomes too common place it loses the humor value (women cross-dressing in the majority of Western society just does not have the humor value as a guy doing so because most of the traditionally men's clothing such as trousers, men's shirts, and even underwear have become socially acceptable for both genders to wear and has therefore lost the majority of the humor value). The second comment I want to make is: In the story it is extremely, and I mean extremely, easy to convince large groups of mostly women to change clothing outside in broad daylight (and by change clothing I mean remove it entirely and put on some other type of clothing, in this case beige coveralls).

While I generally do not pay much attention to the art style of graphic works (I really do not give artists their due); I do not like the art in this book. It changes some with the different artists, not maintaining an overall consistency, but that in itself is alright. Some of the artists are better than others but overall the art work is not that good. Though there is at least one page I did like to a pretty good degree, and it is not so much the drawing as the idea pictured that is good. Here is the part I'm talking about:

Slayers SNES translated

I just found out that the translation for Slayers RPG for the SNES is now available. This is a translation that I've been wanting for a long time (though I have already played and beat the game in Japanese with a little help from a FAQ since I was not patient). This translation took a long time and multiple groups had taken it up but not to completion. This translation was a joint project between Matt's Messy Room and Dynamic Designs. I have not played the game in quite some time but do remember enjoying it. If I remember correctly the game play is similar to the Dragon Quest games (in that it is a turn based RPG). Generally I'd play the game now since I have been waiting for this game to be translated for a while but I am doing other stuff at the moment and may comment upon the game or the translation at a later date.

The patch can be gotten from the Dynamic Designs website. The translations for the Ranma RPG is on that site as well.

The rom can be found pretty easily using Google. One site that has it is Rom Nation.

Here is the front and back covers for the box:


-addon 6/20/2010 I finally have gotten around to playing this game with the patch. If you download the rom from the site I mentioned that has it you will need to remove the rom header from it using a program such as NSRT for it to patch correctly.

-addon 7/27/2010 Having played this game again; I found it to take much less time and to be significantly easier in English. The only part that is of any difficulty is locating a key needed to open the final dungeon located on a lake. As I have mentioned before the best thing about using emulators is the ability to fast forward doing so during the easy battles in this game saves a considerable amount of time (also allows you to quickly level up making the game even easier) and using the same tactic repeatedly works for the majority of the battles. As for the storyline it is alright but not great; the Mazoku's plans to use Lina clones to increase their dwindling numbers is not that bad an idea.