I think it’s no secret that, due to immense cultural differences, the Japanese and Western gaming markets operate very differently in both the way their games are made and the actual products that are released to the public. Japanese games tend to be more “out there”, more cartoony and colorful, often being released on handheld systems like the 3DS or Vita (sometimes exclusively, other times alongside a console release). They experiment more, and when you pick up a Japanese game, you know that what you’re getting may not always be good, but it’s certainly going to be interesting and unique in some way. Western games, on the other hand, tend to be a bit more formulaic, focused instead on pushing the envelope of technology. Bigger worlds, more realistic graphics, more weapons and modes and content! Western games tend to be rather similar in nature (for example, “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare”, “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” and “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” are so similar that they’re almost indistinguishable), but each one is bigger and more advanced than the last.

Up until now, the question of whether Western or Japanese games were better was purely a matter of preference. Some people enjoy brand new experiences – they like the quirky world, battle system and music of “The World Ends With You”, or the complete mindf*ckery of something like “Katamari Damacy”. Others prefer a more straightforward experience – a couple of matches of “Fifa” after work, or a new “Assassin’s Creed” game that gives you exactly what you expect from it. Nothing’s wrong with either approach, and over the years we’ve seen countless amazing games coming from both hemispheres. But something changed in 2017. A quick look at the top-rated games of the year shows that quite a few of them came from the East – way more than in previous years. “Breath of the Wild”, “Persona 5”, “Nier: Automata”, “Nioh”, “Resident Evil 7”, “Dragon Quest VIII”, “Yakuza 0” and many, many more games in the top charts came from Japan and not the West. That’s not to say that there weren’t any Western games found at all, with “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and the recently released “Prey” and “What Remains of Edith Finch” both finding a place near the top spot, but they’re definitely in the minority here.

So what’s happening? What changed? I feel like it has a lot to do with development cycles. In the West, games often have a set release date the moment they’re given the budget to start development, even if that release date isn’t always announced that early. Remember when in 2014 Marvel announced release dates for all of their movies going forward 5 years? Something similar happens with games, except it’s a lot less public, as games’ release dates tend to be a lot more finnicky and likely to be pushed back. However, games are also extremely expensive, and if a product is pushed back, it’s going to cause major setbacks to the developers, hitting them with heavy financial losses. The reason why so many games are released completely broken and then get fixed post-launch is precisely because some studios literally can not afford to not release a game when it’s scheduled, even if it doesn’t work. And then there’s the fact that in the West upper management often has more creative control over the games than the developers – they decide what gets released and what gets cut and sold as separate DLC, for example. The constant pressure of working long hours under a strict deadline while constantly taking into account executive meddling AND planning for the sequel all at once tends to drain many Western developers of their creativity.

Japan, on the other hand, does things a bit differently. For one, while in the West crunching for 10-12 hours in order to meet deadlines is considered an anomaly exclusive to game developers which tends to lower morale, in Japan extra long work days are common across the board, and even though they’re not particularly healthy, they’re considered the norm within that culture. In addition to that, while loose release windows are set, most Japanese companies tend to value creativity and a quality product over shipping something out the door as soon as humanly possible. While a Western developer like Activision absolutely needs a “Call of Duty” every single year to maximize profits, even if most of those games aren’t that great, Japanese developers are cool with waiting for an absurdly long time. The gap between “Final Fantasy XIII” and the next main single-player “Final Fantasy” title, XV, was eight years. The gap between “Persona 4” and “Persona 5” – also eight years. The gap between “Metal Gear Solid 4” and “Metal Gear Solid V”? Seven years. And probably the most famous example, the gap between “Shadow of the Colossus” and the studio’s next game, “The Last Guardian”, was eleven years. In the time it took Team ICO to create and release this one game, Ubisoft Montreal (just one of the numerous studios working under French publisher Ubisoft) released 44. And sure, some of these 44 games have been great, and it’s true that the developers have had help from other studios, but we’re lying to ourselves if we believe those games wouldn’t have been improved significantly if they were cut down in half.

But the thing is… Many studios can’t really afford to cut their workload in half. They need the revenue just to exist. Japan has a different standard than the US – if a Japanese game sells one million copies, it’s considered an astounding success, but if a Western game sells the same amount, depending on its budget, it may actually be considered a failure. Western developers need to release games constantly, and they need to be games that make money – even if they’re not necessarily good. If they don’t, they’ll just go the way of THQ and close their doors sooner or later. It’s lamentable, and the sad part is that there’s no real solution to this. Think about it – the best, most innovative Western games of the last few years are either indies with minimal budgets and not too much to lose or console exclusives where the console manufacturer foots the bill and allows the developers to get wild, because quality ships consoles. I don’t really see that changing, and as Western games keep pushing technology forward, game development will become more and more expensive and we’ll see Western games start taking less and less risks, hoping to appeal to the broadest demographic possible in order to sell. And don’t get me wrong, they’re probably still going to sell – by all accounts “Mass Effect Andromeda” is not a good game, released in a shoddy state and plagued by terrible writing and characterization, and yet it still managed to outsell “Nier: Automata”, one of the best action-RPGs ever made. Western games may be doomed to be inferior to their Japanese counterparts, but no matter what they will always sell better.

Yeah, guys. We’re talking about “Shelter” today. Everyone else that is even marginally connected to anime is doing it, so… Sure, why not? It’s not like I’m going to be original about it… And besides, I did discover it before it blew up! Hang on, let me put on that scarf and fedora I keep around here… Seriously though, the funny story about “Shelter” is that I actually discovered it through the YouTube algorithm when it only had a little over a thousand views, and I sent it to a bunch of friends telling them “Holy crap, you guys totally need to watch this”, and of course not a single one of them watched it. And later on, when everyone and their mother realized that “Shelter” is one of the best animated music videos of all time, garnering over 3.5 million views at the time of this writing, suddenly those very same people were sending it to me. Gotta love it. In any case, don’t be dumb like my friends and go watch “Shelter” if you haven’t already. It’s 6 minutes long, and I promise you every second is worth it.

Anyway, my friends’ idiocy aside, there was another incident which happened pretty early on in the short’s lifespan which kind of helped boost its popularity even further, because as we all know controversy sells. /r/anime is one of the biggest communities for sharing anime stuff around, and that’s because it’s a very tightly moderated subreddit (subforum of the social media site Reddit). Off-topic threads get deleted pretty quickly, there are dedicated topics for each currently airing series, that kind of stuff. Overall, the moderators have been doing a pretty great job. Well, naturally, “Shelter” was uploaded there and immediately reached the top, garnering hundreds of thousands of upvotes… before promptly disappearing, never to be heard from again. The moderators even went as far as to add a script to the subreddit which automatically removed any threads with the word “Shelter” in their name or body. Why would they go to such extremes to ban this amazing short film?

Well… Because according to them, it’s not anime.

And if you haven’t actually watched the video, I can see you going “Yeah, that makes sense, just because something looks anime-ish doesn’t make it anime – I mean, look at Avatar or Teen Titans, those aren’t anime!” But anyone who has actually seen the short is probably going “Huh? It’s not?” After all, “Shelter” looks, sounds and even smells like anime! It wasn’t just inspired by anime, it decidedly feels like anime. It would look right at home airing on Japanese TV. The voice acting (what little there is of it) is all in Japanese. The color palette is just right. Honestly, the only non-anime thing about it is the song that plays over the music video, which features English vocals, but that’s about it. And the reason why the short feels so natively Japanese is because… Well, it was, um… Actually made in Japan, by Japanese people. You know, like all anime.

The short was made at the Japanese studio “A-1 Pictures”, which are responsible for anime classics like “Anohana”, “Sword Art Online”, “Black Butler”, “ERASED”, “OreImo” and many others, including “Persona: Trinity Soul”, but hey, we all make mistakes. They’re masters of their craft, with years of experience in the anime field and numerous legendary series behind their belt. So, it’s an anime-styled short that was made entirely by a Japanese studio, right? How come it’s not anime? Is it because of the music? Well, sort of. The thing is, “Shelter” is a passion project of Porter Robinson – a highly successful musician and avid anime fan. It’s his song, also titled “Shelter”, that plays over the animation, and the entire concept and storyline was his idea, with Robinson also acting as a producer, funding the project himself with some help from streaming service Crunchyroll. It’s his involvement, apparently, that disqualified “Shelter” from being considered anime. Because, you know… If the team behind an anime has a single white person on board, regardless of their role, then I’m really sorry, but that anime is no longer anime. It’s, um… Something. I’unno. No, seriously, you think I’m exaggerating? This is what one of the mods of /r/anime had to say about it:

“This is a music video by an artist that contracted out a studio that happens to also produce anime. If A-1 was contracted to produce episode of Spongebob, we wouldn’t allow that either.”

Woooooooooow. Just wow. Apparently, someone missed the memo stating that “Shelter” is not “Spongebob”. Well, at least this exchange gave us the “Spongebob is an anime” meme, which will probably circulate on Reddit for a little bit until it goes to that big deadpool in the sky when people move on. This whole thing begs the question – why did this happen in the first place? Well, two reasons. First of all, many hardcore anime fans (as in, the people who live and breathe anime, to the point where they do very little else with their lives) are kiiiind of sticklers when it comes to technicalities. To them, everything in anime must meet a certain set of criteria, or otherwise it doesn’t count no matter how obvious it is. For example, many anime fans don’t consider “Code Geass” to be a mecha anime because the giant robots in it aren’t the main focus like they are in, say, “Gundam”. So if one of the criteria for defining a certain piece of art as “anime” is “It’s produced by an entirely Japanese team”, the presence of a single white guy on the team has forever ruled out that particular artwork as “not anime” in their mind. Second of all, Reddit admins in general do tend to be a little bit totalitarian, banning people who disagree with their own views even when no rules have been broken and removing threads at their own personal discretion rather than by the community’s request.

Soon after “Shelter” was taken down from /r/anime, the sheer pressure from the userbase caused the mods to restore the original thread, even if they did so begrudgingly. Still, that whole debacle raised a whole lot of interesting questions. Is anime a set of criteria that need to be kept, or is it more of an artstyle? Why is something like, say, “Panty & Stocking”, which looks decidedly less like a traditional anime and more like a Western cartoon, considered anime just because it covers some arbitrary criteria while “Shelter” is not? In 100 years, when everyone involved in the creation of “Shelter” is dead, will it still matter who was white and who was not, or will the work be judged on its own merit? Or am I just overthinking an incident that lasted for a few hours and was triggered by a six minute short? Probably the latter, but… Hey, that’s what I’m here for, right?

While “Kill la Kill” is definitely a very “love it or hate it” kind of show, in the same vein as “Attack on Titan”, it served the purpose of putting its creator, studio Trigger, on the map, and making them one of the most recognizable names in anime. As such, when it was announced that they were working on a new anime that would air for a 12-episode run in 2012, you can bet that all eyes were on it as the starved fans waited to dig their teeth into whatever weird-but-deeper-than-expected adventure they’d be presented with next. Upon its release, “Kiznaiver” immediately became the stand-out anime of the season, with many praising its premise and characters before quickly… forgetting all about it and moving on to other things. Surprisingly, “Kiznaiver” neither became a classic nor was despised by fans, so… Is it good, or is it bad? Let’s get to the bottom of it together!

The series is set in a near-futuristic city and centers on a small group of classmates who find themselves kidnapped by a mysterious organization and forced to participate in an experiment. Don’t worry, the series is a lot more cheerful and upbeat than something like “Danganronpa”, as the experiment doesn’t involve any physical harm coming to them… At least none that is caused by the organization. Instead, the teenagers are turned into Kiznaivers – people with a mental and physical connection who can share each other’s pain. If one of them is punched in the face, all six of them feel the pain of being punched in the face. Their primary task is to survive until the end of the summer, which is when they’ll stop being Kiznaivers and can go back to being normal students again.

Now, let me say from the beginning that the premise is AWESOME! Sure, the idea of a cast of characters being brought together by something is used in pretty much every single anime series ever, but this time the cast has a literal connection to each other that causes them to watch out for each other and help their fellow Kiznaivers whenever they can. Keep in mind that, one exception aside, most of the Kiznaivers are complete strangers despite being in the same class, so the experiment acts as the push they need to truly bond and become friends, which is fascinating to watch. Another thing I need to point out is the animation, which is absolutely stellar. I mean, geez, just look at this opening – so much creativity in just 90 seconds! Within the series itself, the character designs are great, the animation is fluid and smooth, and the colors pop out quite nicely. It’s a beautiful anime to just watch! Unfortunately, that’s about where the good points end.

A lot of praise went to the characters, but honestly? Most of them are just stereotypes. Main character Katsuhira is your standard quiet protagonist with a mysterious past that every woman seems to love anyway – there’s nothing new under the sun. Chidori is the unlucky childhood friend with a crush on Katsuhira who is too embarrassed to admit it. Tenga is the big dude who’s not that smart and loves to fight, but has a big heart. Yuta is the popular pretty boy who, um… Did something, I guess. I don’t know, I don’t remember much about Yuta. The best characters are undoubtedly Nico and Maki, who are still stereotypes, don’t get me wrong, but they’re also a bit of a subversion. At first, Nico seems like a very typical cloudcuckoolander, with her energetic over the top reactions, the fact that she still believes in fairies despite being in high school and her very unique fashion sense (seriously, what is wrong with her hair), but it’s quickly revealed that this is just a persona she built for herself because she didn’t want people to think of her as the spoiled rich girl. Maki, on the other hand, seems like the typical kuudere who refuses to open up to people, but honestly, this behavior stems from some very real trauma she sustained, and there are numerous hints pointing towards the idea that she might have Asperger’s, which further helps to explain her behavior. Sadly, not even Nico and Maki can save this otherwise very boring and typical cast of characters.

Another thing that stands against “Kiznaiver” is just how many missed opportunities it has. As I said, the premise is fantastic, but unfortunately it – much like the premise of “Sword Art Online” – is better developed in your head than on the screen. While there are certainly moments in which the anime takes advantage of its premise in unique ways (asking questions such as “what if a Kiznaiver is physically unable to feel pain”, or “what if a Kiznaiver is a masochist”), a lot of interesting ideas remain unexplored. Half of the Kiznaivers are girls, so what happens when they get their periods? Seeing the guys struggle with the kind of pain that girls need to bear every month would’ve made for some pretty fun comedy, and more importantly, it would’ve deepened the characters’ understanding of each other. Or what if one of the characters was sick and required painful treatments or even a surgery? It might have been interesting to make one of the cast members diabetic and see the cast react to the daily insulin injections. I could go on and on, but my point is that “Kiznaiver” could have done a LOT more with its premise.

Instead of just creating some interesting characters and setups and letting them free into this world, “Kiznaiver” feels the constant need to literally force situations on us. Throughout the summer the organization behind the Kiznaivers continuously place them in various experiments and setups in order to test out various features of the Kiznaiver program, and honestly, I feel like it would’ve been way better if those results were achieved naturally. For example, in one episode the group is chased by murderous mascots controlled by the organization, with the hopes that they would be split up into pairs which could form romantic attractions so that the effects of pain from heartbreak can be studied. And I’m just sitting there thinking… “Could you have a less natural way of shipping your characters?” Instead of just letting the relationships grow gradually due to subtle character moments, “Kiznaiver” seems intent on picking up a few canon couples and just shoving them down the viewer’s throat as forcefully as possible in scenarios like the one I explained above. And, of course, at the end of the series, almost everyone ends up with someone, tying everything with a nice little bow. And while in any other series two characters finally ending up together is seen as a climax, here my reaction was more along the lines of “Meh, whatever.”

If the premise of “Kiznaiver” sounds interesting to you, then maybe the show is worth a watch just for that alone. Just be wary of the fact that it’s not a masterpiece, and will likely be forgotten within the next few years. Enjoy it for what it is if you can, and if you can’t, don’t worry – it’s not that long, anyhow. And besides, if push comes to shove, “Kiznaiver” is a fantastic anime to test out the 3 episode rule with. If you’re interested, watch the first 3 episodes and see if it grabs you. If it doesn’t, the remainder probably won’t either.

Hey, remember how last time I said I was going to go into some articles about fan-favorite franchise “Shin Megami Tensei: Persona” (which I’m going to refer to from now on simply as “Persona” in an attempt to shave off a couple hundred words from having to constantly write the full names of the games)? Well, here I am, ready to keep my promise! While “Shin Megami Tensei” is still kind of a niche franchise that only JRPG aficionados have any real interest in, its “Persona” spinoff has grown into a cultural phenomenon. Nobody thought that a game that is so deeply rooted in Japanese culture, philosophy and mythology could be successful worldwide – in fact, when released overseas, the first “Persona” was majorly overhauled for an American audience, with changed names and locales to make it more Western. Neither the first nor second games were really big hits on the original PlayStation, but when “Persona 3” hit on PS2… Boy oh boy.

The game acted as a soft reboot of the franchise, changing many of its core elements and overall acting as its own thing, and it was beautiful. Shortly afterwards, the world was treated to “Persona 4”, which managed to sell about a million units worldwide (which may not seem like much, but for an obscure JRPG in 2008 it was a ton) and made “Persona” into a cultural phenomenon. “Persona 4” built its own story, characters and world only loosely connected to that of “Persona 3”, but kept many of its predecessor’s mechanics and assets, inviting numerous comparisons between the two. Now, don’t get me wrong, sales and popularity-wise, “Persona 4” blows “Persona 3” out of the park, to the point where it was popular enough to receive two anime adaptations, an updated re-release on the Vita, two fighting game spinoffs and a dancing game spinoff. But putting that aside, if we compare P3 and P4 objectively, which one of them is superior?

I’m not going to be comparing things like graphics, mechanics or any other technical stuff – honestly, the two games are nearly identical when it comes to those. Instead, I’d like to focus on the story, characters and atmosphere of each game, which is where they REALLY start to come apart. Story-wise, there’s absolutely no doubt about it – “Persona 3” is infinitely superior. “Persona 3”, at its core, is a tale about life and death, exploring them as both sides of the same coin. It’s a constant motive throughout the game that you need to die so that others can live, and vice versa. Hell, the way you fight is by shooting yourself in the head – if that doesn’t make the themes clear, I don’t know what does. But even if we place the symbolism and complex themes aside, the plot is actually really interesting, featuring numerous turns, twists and revelations, including one of the best mid-game reveals I’ve ever seen in my entire life, which I won’t dare spoil here. “Persona 4”, on the other hand, places a lot less emphasis on its plot. At its core, it’s a murder mystery, but it’s a pretty terrible one – none of the victims are even remotely likeable (in no small part because you end up saving most of the victims before their deaths so they can become your party members), there are really no major clues that point out towards the identity of the killer, and you need to figure it out based on circumstantial evidence alone. It’s not great.

When it comes to characters, on the other hand, “Persona 4” is the winner… Though it is pretty close. Don’t get me wrong, I love the “Persona 3” characters, but… I don’t know. Look, it’s complicated. It’s not like the “Persona 3” cast is bad, quite the opposite – they’re great guys, all of them. But “Persona 4” has two things that distinguish it from its predecessor – first and foremost, it has based its dungeons on its characters, which allows you to learn about them during combat and exploration rather than simply through dialogue. Second of all, “Persona 4” is kind of like wish fulfillment – it’s a fantasy friendship. Everyone gets along with everyone, they constantly hang out together and do fun stuff… You get the feeling that they’re not just together because of the events in the story, and that they’d remain friends even if they weren’t obligated to be. On the other hand, the “Persona 3” cast goes through a lot of turmoil, and they’re not quite as close as their P4 counterparts. It’s made pretty clear that, at the end of that story, all of them will go their own separate ways, and that’s fine. On the other hand, you truly feel like you’ve lost some real friends once the credits of “Persona 4” start rolling, and that’s not something that can be easily replicated.

What about atmosphere, though? Considering the fact that P3’s motif is all about life and death, you can imagine that the game gets pretty grim at times. Almost every single party member has to deal with the loss of someone in their life. Party members die, deal with depression, consider suicide, undergo nervous breakdowns, but ultimately come off as stronger people than they have been before their ordeal. The atmosphere is dark, but I wouldn’t call it “edgy” or “emo” – there are just enough bright and happy moments to offset the darkness. The message of the game is quite clear – “Being a Persona user is suffering. The fact that we have this power gives us the responsibility to use it for good, as well as all of the burdens that come with it.” On the other hand, there are nothing BUT happy moments in “Persona 4”. Well, sure, that’s not entirely right, there’s exactly one sadder moment that gets resolved pretty much immediately (as long as you’re not an idiot and trigger the bad ending). Other than that, the message is very clearly “Being a Persona user is having a fun time with friends”. Neither is better than the other, so I guess the final result is a… Draw? That’s kind of anti-climactic, but it is pretty accurate. The thing is, neither of them is better than the other. They’re both great, in their own, unique way. If you’re looking for something a bit darker, more complex and with a great plot, if you get a tickle from psychological titles with lots of symbolism in the vein of “Silent Hill”, go with “Persona 3”. If you prefer to have pure, unadulterated fun in a character-driven JRPG, “Persona 4” is for you. Now pick your favorite and go hunt some Shadows!

Okay, people, we’re taking a little bit of a break from our usual anime and anime-inspired topics for a little bit in order to dive a little bit into Japanese culture! I promise that I’ve got plenty of anime-themed posts for you to enjoy (including, but not limited to, a review of “Kiznaiver”, the new anime from the folks behind “Kill La Kill”, and a multi-part retrospective of the “Persona” franchise), but for now I’d like to focus on something a bit different which I regardless find quite interesting, and somewhat relevant to our interests. If you’re strictly interested in my anime thoughts, then feel free to stop reading and wait for my next article, but if you’re fascinated by Japanese culture, then keep on reading! In particular, we’re going to be talking about pachinko machines, which have been a staple of Japanese arcades since the 1920s and have become a big part of the country’s identity, with entire pachinko parlors popping up in numerous cities hosting nothing but dozens upon dozens of pachinko machines. Since gambling, in most of its forms, is strictly prohibited in Japan, pachinko is the closest that most people get to real gambling. It’s actually an ingenious system that has been created by someone deserving of a whole lot more credit than they actually got – when you play pachinko, you earn tickets that you can exchange for prizes. Next to most parlors are entirely separate businesses that will buy those prizes back for cash, so as a result you’re pretty much gambling without breaking any of Japan’s strict laws. Brilliant!

But if you’ve been on the Internet… Well, at all in the last couple of years, you might have seen a lot of backlash towards pachinko machines. The announcement of pachinko adaptations of beloved franchises such as “King of Fighters”, “Silent Hill” and “Metal Gear Solid” was met with an uproar among the fan community even though the overwhelming majority of them will never even get to play them, since pachinko is practically non-existent outside of Japan. Controversy after controversy surrounding the announcement of Pachinko machines happened, and even if we put that aside, there seems to be hardly a good word about them on the Internet. Gaijin Goomba – a popular YouTuber whose whole shtick is that he’s intimately familiar with Japanese culture, seemed utterly flabbergasted by pachinko. But why is that? Why all the hate for pachinko when traditional Western gambling doesn’t receive anywhere near this much hate? I mean, sure, there’s still people who go all “slot machines suck your soul and online gambling is the Devil”, but for the most part people seem to be pretty okay with it, especially if we take into consideration its excellent online casino reviews. So why do people hate pachinko?

Well, I asked a couple of my Japanese friends, and the truth is… Drumroll, please… They don’t. Not in Japan, at least. In Japan, people regard pachinko more or less in the same vein that Westerners regard their own gambling. Keep in mind that there is a bit of a generational gap – while in the West gambling is enjoyed by people of all ages, in Japan pachinko is mostly played by older people, which is a big part of the reason why many developers try to push machines bearing the licenses of franchises that appeal to the 20-25 demographic, like “Metal Gear Solid”. And that’s another part – to many Western fans, the existence of a pachinko machine means that the core series suffers. And the worst part is that they’re usually right. Konami, the publisher behind the aforementioned “Metal Gear Solid” and “Silent Hill”, had announced not too long ago that they would cease development of any console titles in favor of pachinko machines, since they cost less to make and as such are more profitable. And while they appear to have backed down on that decision, at the time it truly angered many fans of their franchises, including me. My point is that the hatred isn’t really directed towards the pachinko machines themselves, more towards Konami (and other developers) and their decision to prioritize them over more substantial experiences. It’s like hating on a younger sibling who receives all the affection – we’re not really hating the sibling, just the fact that they get all the love. I hope that clears at least some of it up, and if you enjoyed my little dive into a tiny part of Japan’s culture, then I wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime! And if you didn’t, then stay tuned – we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next time!

Quick! Name the best Japanese RPG you’ve ever played! No, no, don’t think about it, just say the first thing that comes into your mind. “Final Fantasy VII”? “Persona 4”? “Secret of Mana”? Ha, you know nothing, Jon Snow! Everybody knows that “Final Fantasy VI”, “Persona 3” and “Adventures of Mana” are the superior games! Seriously though, when it comes to JRPGs in particular, there’s usually a couple of titles or series that seem to pop up on everyone’s radars, whether it’s because they grew up with them (like “Chrono Trigger”), because they discovered them and realized they’re consistently good (like the “Tales” series) or because, well, they’re just really, really great (like “Xenoblade Chronicles”). However, there’s just as many awesome JRPGs that you may not have heard of, yet still deserve your attention! Today we’re gonna do something a little bit different and, rather than talk about anime, we’re going to be talking about games inspired by anime! Sound good? Alright, let’s get cracking!

1. Conception II

Let’s start off with something unbelievably weird, shall we? “Conception II” is definitely very Japanese, so if you’re looking for something a bit more conventional, you might want to look elsewhere. The basic plot is simple – monsters are coming out of dungeons and terrorizing the peasant in a fantasy/sci-fi land, and it’s your job as a student at a warriors’ academy to enter those dungeons and shut them down for good! One of the ways you can fight those monsters is through the use of Star Children – magical creatures of various levels of ability that can assist you in combat and can belong to various different classes. Only problem is, the only way you can create these Star Children is, um… Well… You see, when a male JRPG protagonist and a female party member love each other very much… Don’t worry, the process is entirely PG-13, but that doesn’t make it any less awkward . The closer you are to your party member, the stronger your Star Children are, which adds an element of dating sim to the game, with each of the girls having her own storyline that you can follow, in addition to taking her out on dates and such. Add to that some actually pretty solid fighting mechanics and you’ve got one of the best Vita JRPGs out there… If you can handle all the weirdness!

2. Fate/Extra

If you’re a fan of anime, then you’ve most likely seen something related to the “Fate/Stay Night”, be it the mediocre original anime, the EXCELLENT “Fate/Zero” or the “not quite as good as Zero but still pretty good” “Unlimited Blade Works”. For the five of you who haven’t seen it, the “Fate” franchise basically revolves around the Holy Grail War – a competition between seven Mages, each of which has summoned a heroic Servant (a legend from history) to serve as their proxy in combat. In “Fate/Extra”, which is set in an alternate universe to the anime, the war has escalated and now there are 128 Mages competing for the Holy Grail in a single elimination tournament. The winner gets to move on in the bracket, the loser dies. That dynamic creates one of the most emotional games I’ve ever played, since you basically spend each in-game week collecting every possible piece of information about your opponent and interacting with them, only to end up having to kill them at the end. It really says a lot about how emotional the game is when it made me shed tears for Shinji Matou, of all people. On top of that, the game has a very unique rock/paper/scissors battle system which rewards you for knowing your opponents well while keeping combat fast-paced, and I can’t praise it enough for it! I just wish that the sequel/alternate story, “Fate/Extra CCC”, would get released in the West already.

3. Radiant Historia

Now, I’m going to keep this entry short because “Radiant Historia” is truly one of those games that are better experienced going blind into them, but suffice to say, it’s by far the best JRPG on the DS, and that’s a system with “Final Fantasy”, “Dragon Quest” and the absolutely amazing “The World Ends With You”! Basically, if you liked “Chrono Trigger”, but were hoping for something a bit more tactical without going into a straight-up tactics game, “Radiant Historia” is absolutely going to be your jam. Seriously, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, and 35 hours later I was like “Huh? I’m at the credits already? What happened? Wait, why is it Wednesday?!”

In 2013, the anime series “Attack on Titan” hit the world by storm, creating one of the biggest anime hits of all time. Come on, don’t pretend – if you’re here you know about it! Practically every single anime convention ever since 2013 has had at least one member of the Survey Corps among its ranks of cosplayers, and even today, in early 2016, the Internet is STILL buzzing with discussions about it! Hell, the anime was so successful that even the creators didn’t expect it to grow THAT big, which is why today, 3 years later, the second season is still in development. That didn’t stop the Japanese movie machine from releasing two live action movies of dubious quality, several animated features with footage from the show and, of course, countless ads featuring the titular Titans. And after playing numerous videogames based on the franchise, the latest of which (titled simply “Attack on Titan”) released weeks ago in Japan, I can’t help but stop and ask myself… Why? Why is this anime so unbelievably popular, to the point where it has overshadowed everything else released in the last 3 years? Let’s take a closer look.

First, let’s discuss the things the anime does really right. It doesn’t take a trained otaku to realize that the visuals are phenomenal. This is a show that spared no expense in crafting its visuals, and it really shows. While “Attack on Titan” looks great practically all the time, it really shines during the action scenes, which involves the main characters leaping around in an attempt to reach the necks of the gargantuan Titans. The camera spins around, tracking each member of the Survey Corps as they leap across buildings in a way that would make even Spider-Man jealous. It is by far one of the best-looking anime series to date, and I’m comparing it with the best, such as “Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works”. Another thing I really loved about it was the depiction of war and PTSD. While there isn’t such a thing as a draft in the “Attack on Titan” universe, a lot of young people are pretty much forced to either join the army and help fight an enemy that they don’t understand nor stand a chance against or starve on the streets. As such, when the Titans finally attack, it’s little wonder that everyone is absolutely, gut-wrenchingly terrified. Some even go as far as to take their own lives, considering that a preferable option to being devoured. Watching the first real battle of the anime gave me chilling “Enemy at the Gates” vibes as I saw these young people, literally on the day of their graduation, being slaughtered like cattle. It’s horrible, it’s hard to watch and I love every second of it.

There were, however, many things that I didn’t love. Can you give me a synopsis of “Attack on Titan”? Okay, so the main character Eren is living a peaceful life with his family… And then Titans attack and everybody he knows dies safe for his best friends Mikasa and Armin. He vows to fight and kill all the Titans, joining the army and training to become a soldier… And then Titans attack and everybody he knows dies, safe for his best friends Mikasa and Armin. Distraught, Eren decides to join the Survey Corps and leave the comfort of his own home in order to kill all the Titans… And then Titans attack and everybody he knows dies, safe for his best friends Mikasa and Armin. You seeing a pattern here? The anime doesn’t have a plot, it just has a series of skirmishes against the Titans, which I guess would’ve worked out fine if they were spread out across Eren’s lifetime, but after the initial Titan attack in his childhood the guy seems to be attacked by Titans every few weeks. It’s ridiculous. This war, if you can call it that, has been fought for thousands of years, and all of a sudden this dude shows up and survives numerous battles in the span of a month or so alongside his best friends? I call nonsense.

And speaking of the best friends, have you noticed that all of the characters are extremely simplistic? Eren’s entire character can be summed up in 5 words – “Wants to kill the Titans”. Mikasa, his best friend since childhood, is even simpler – “Wants to protect Eren”. Don’t even get me started about how problematic it is that a female character’s entire being and everything she does and feels is based around a male character, to the point where when Eren is considered dead Mikasa almost ceases to function as a human being in the middle of battle. Armin is the most complex of all, since he takes slightly more words to describe, but essentially he wants to prove that he’s not as useless as his friends despite being the worst out of them when it comes to killing Titans. But that’s another major problem, isn’t it? Eren, out of nowhere, has the ability to turn into a Titan at will. Mikasa, out of nowhere, proves to be the most proficient soldier who ever lived, even putting veteran Titan killer Captain Levi to shame. Armin is hinted to be a strategic genius, but I’ll leave him alone for now and just focus on Eren and Mikasa. Why are these two people so special when all of their compatriots die left, right and center? And more importantly, why are we even following them? This is supposed to be a war story, even if the enemy isn’t human. You don’t see the Terminator pop up to save Private Ryan in the movie, do you?

But at the end of the day, maybe this simplicity is precisely what makes “Attack on Titan” so popular. It’s not an anime that requires you to think too much. Its premise alone provides you with thrills, excitement and drama, so as long as the writers keep throwing Titans at us we’ll be happy. Not every anime needs to be “Ergo Proxy” or “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, after all. Sometimes otakus need comfort food – something that’s, as the meme goes, same same, but different, but still same. “Attack on Titan” is that comfort food, and it does its job well. Just don’t expect it to be a gourmet.

As some of you may already know, I’m actually a pretty big fan of online casino games, slots in particular. It’s not something that I obsess over religiously (you know, like anime), but it’s still an activity that I absolutely adore. The few of you who already know about it have probably read my previous article in which I complained that every single slot I’ve played which was based on an anime series has been, well, pretty damn bad. I was thinking about that a few days ago, more specifically wondering how to make them better. Ultimately, the question I ended up asking myself was this – if I could turn any anime into an online slot, which would it be? Now, keep in mind that I don’t believe that “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and “Ghost in the Shell”, whose slots I complained about in my article, are bad series – very, very far from it. But I do think that they weren’t suitable for slots. In this day and age, when online casinos are so advanced (especially the casinos that allow their customers to deposit with PayPal, which are typically top of the line), we can’t afford to settle for subpar slots.

So, what series are suitable, in my opinion? Well, first of all, we have to keep in mind that there’s a bit of a culture shock here. Anime is entirely a Japanese invention, and most series remain strictly in Japan, and when they do leave the island they’re mostly consumed by Anime fans and not the general population. The problem is that the circle of anime fans and the circle of online gamblers overlaps only a little bit, so we need to pick series which appeal to not only anime fans, but Westerners in general. As such, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to pick “Attack on Titan” as one of the best series that can be adapted into a slot. There’s more than enough characters and enemy variations to create more than enough symbols without having to resort to letters (just make all the major symbols characters and the minor ones Titans and you’re all done! In addition, you can also make a Titan Slaying bonus game where you need to navigate Eren or Mikasa as they leap through the streets, picking a direction and hoping to dodge all the Titans, with every kill netting you more money. See, this slot designs itself!

Another extremely popular slot is, of course, “One Piece”, which I’ve written about before. As you know, it’s the most popular manga in the world, by a gigantic margin, with every single volume that comes out topping the sales charts of its respective month, every year. “One Piece” is also a series with a whole ton of characters, which is a quality that lends itself very well to slots. And besides that, the main character can stretch his body like rubber – just think about the countless bonus games you could create with that! Maybe you can have him protecting his friends from cannonballs by punching them out of the sky or something. Or if you’re looking for a variation of the classic “cups” game which shows up in almost every slot (where you have a bunch of items laid out and you can select one or several, with a different prize hiding in each one), then you can always have the Grand Line in there! Have a bunch of islands that the crew can choose to visit in any order they want, with one island containing One Piece (and ending the bonus game, giving you a huge bonus) and one island containing Blackbeard (once again ending the game, but without the bonus). If someone wants to hire me to design this, please use the “Contact” form at the top of the site!

When you ask somebody who’s not really all that interested into anime to cite a couple of anime films, the responses are always the same. “Akira”, “Ghost in the Shell”, “Spirited Away”… But a lot of people will also mention another movie by the name of “Paprika”. While most anime movies don’t receive a wide release outside of Japan, “Paprika” did, and it’s very easy to see why – its stellar animation, mindbending visuals and story that’s confusing in all the right ways made it a hit in Japan, and won it a moderate success outside of it, which is about as much as anime movies can enjoy, really. “Paprika” is a very interesting case within the anime industry because its director, Satoshi Kon, has never actually made a bad movie. Not only that – he’s never made anything that hasn’t been absolutely and completely stellar. From “Perfect Blue”, which inspired a generation of Hollywood directors, through the brilliant “Millennium Actress” which showed the world how a character-driven historical drama was supposed to be made, to the amazing “Tokyo Godfathers” which is, by far, the best Christmas movie I’ve ever seen despite coming from a culture that celebrates Christmas by eating lots of KFC. His movies could be terrifying, but they could also be quirky and hilarious when they wanted, but most importantly, they consistently pushed the boundaries of what could be done with anime and animation in general as a medium. Still, I believe that none of his works give us a better look inside Satoshi Kon’s mind than his first and only foray into serialized anime, “Paranoia Agent”.

While “Paranoia Agent” has a semblance of an overarching narrative, it is, for the most part, an anthology show. Characters cross over from story to story, giving the semblance of an interconnected world, and yet for the most part each episode revolves around a particular character and the struggles that they’re undergoing. The theme of the show is how our mind gives our problems physical form, manifesting them and causing us to confront them. Each character is plagued by something, be it guilt, regret or a feeling that’s a bit too complicated to describe in a single word, and the primary antagonist of the series is a creature that confronts them with their issues, allowing them to achieve catharsis in the most unusual way possible. At the heart of the story is a young woman named Tsukiko Sagi, who some time ago created a mascot character that has since taken Japan by storm. The character, a small pink dog named Maromi, appears on keychains, posters, toys, and even has his very own TV show. Pressured by everyone to repeat her success, Tsukiko starts looking for a way to escape… and finds it when, rather conveniently, a young boy on roller skates attacks her in a parking lot, giving her an excuse to take a few weeks off. Naturally, the detectives assigned to the case are skeptical of the existence of such an attacker, until a second victim reports being struck by a young boy on rollerskates. Then a third, a fourth and fifth. Little by little, hospitals start filling up with people who have been attacked by the mysterious boy (nicknamed “Lil’ Slugger” by the media), and as such have been allowed to escape their problems. Is this a mass psychosis, or is something a lot more demented and mysterious going on?

From what you just read you might be thinking that every episode is the same – “Oh, we’ve got a guy who has some sort of problem and deals with it during the episode until Lil’ Slugger comes and hits him on the head”. Yeah, well… No. Episodes are as varied as they would be on an anthology show, and while the theme of Lil’ Slugger and his influence connects them all, building up to a climax which brings Tsukiko back alongside several other characters in order to solve the mystery once and for all. In the middle of this all too delicious hamburger we’ve got the meat, which consists of stories that are as varied as they come, and the best part is that they’re not all about people with problems that Lil’ Slugger has to solve – some are about people with problems caused by Lil’ Slugger, while some only tangentially involve him. For example, one of the earlier episodes is about a young boy who matches the description of Lil’ Slugger, and the rumors start ruining his life. Another episode is solely about a couple of housewives gossiping about who, or what, Lil’ Slugger actually is, with each trying to one-up everyone else in order to relay the most shocking account of the events regardless of just how ridiculous they sound. My favorite episode is when the members of a chatroom decide to meet up in order to commit suicide together, except one of them turns out to be a little girl, so the whole episode becomes about them trying to bring her to the authorities while pretending to be searching for a suicide spot. It’s surreal, it’s bizarre, and yet it’s presented in such an amazingly intriguing way that you can’t help but be invested in it.

I really can’t talk in depth about the nature of “Paranoia Agent” without getting knees deep into spoilers territory, but suffice to say that you’re in for a ride! If you’re interested in checking out a crazy, creative semi-anthology series from one of the world’s greatest animators, then you owe it to yourself to give it a watch! It’s worth every second!

For the next few blog posts, I decided to switch things up a bit on the blog! I’m usually talking about anime series from the 80s which are directly related to Saint Seiya, in some way, and by “directly related” I mean they’re Hokuto no Ken. Well, even though I’d never get sick of writing about Seiya and Hokuto, but I’m fairly certain you guys might get sick of reading about them if I don’t mix things up, so why don’t we fast forward a bit in the timeline and talk about some current anime that I’d recommend? At the end of the day, while 80s anime had a certain charm to it, anime from the last 10 years is also pretty darn great!

The first series I’d like to talk about is “Plastic Memories”, which is notable for being one of the best dramedies I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’m not just talking about anime, I’m talking about any medium here. It manages to take a setup that is so utterly depressing and make the best of it, because the characters choose to make the best of it. The drama comes naturally, but the comedy is enforced by your typical wacky character archetypes (the normal guy protagonist, the shy, quirky romantic interest, the tsundere, the aloof superior, the womanizer – you know the drill) doing typical wacky things. It sounds like a weird, even inappropriate contrast, except it really, really works!

“Plastic Memories” is set in the not too distant future where lifelike robots named Giftias are the latest trend. The robots don’t age, obviously, but other than that look and act exactly the same as humans – they can learn, they develop a personality based on their environment, they gain their own dreams, wishes and aspirations, hell, they even have certain civil rights! The only thing that differentiates them from humans, aside from the whole “no aging” thing, is that their lifespan is only 81920 hours – roughly about 10 years. After that, their memory and personality starts to fall apart, and if they’re left to deteriorate completely very bad things will happen (suffice to say, having a super-strong automaton without memories or a personality roaming the streets is not a good idea). In order to prevent this from happening, units known as Terminal Services retrieve Giftias shortly before their expiration date, by erasing their memories and OS, essentially killing them and then recycling their body to be used for a reinstalled OS – though the new Giftia will have a significantly different personality and no memories of his or her past life.

In case you didn’t grasp that, let me put it this way – their job is to go to families and take away their children, husbands, wives, parents or siblings, euthanize them and then recycle their bodies. It’s the equivalent of working as a doctor whose job is to do nothing but tell people their loved ones have died. It’s heartbreaking, heartwrenching and not something that anyone should ever have to do, and yet certain people have to because it’s better than the alternative. One of those people is Tsukasa Mizugaki, a high school student who flunked his final exams because he developed appendicitis. On his first day of employment he gets paired up with Isla, a Giftia who’s set to train him in the best way to retrieve targets (sometimes all you have to do is ask, but other times families are quite reluctant to part with their Giftias) and to assist him in his job. Naturally, it’s not long before feelings between the two blossom.

This is sort of where the beauty of “Plastic Memories” lies – it’s a brilliant drama, a brilliant comedy, a brilliant romance and a brilliant sci-fi all rolled into one wonderful package, and it is beautiful. I was often surprised about just how much I laughed, considering the overall rather depressing setting. The characters are all funny and memorable, including the regular cast and the side characters that they encounter during their retrieval missions. I really loved how, in merely 13 episodes, we were able to examine realistically just how many uses society would potentially have for human-like robots. The most common ones are, of course, children, but on several occasions we’ve seen humans being raised by Giftias, or them being used to do certain jobs such as being a bodyguard. And of course the anime doesn’t shy away from the darker side of humanity, with a particular character being a black market dealer who steals Giftias and reinstalls their OS so they could presumably be used as sex slaves.

Honestly, the whole retrieval aspect of the anime was the most interesting part for me, personally, but for better or for worse in the latter half of the series that takes a backseat to the romance between Isla and Tsukasa. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a great romance – unlike so many other anime romances, it doesn’t end just as soon as they decide that they’re a couple, quite the opposite. Sure, there’s a bit of a “Will they, won’t they”, but the moment they decide that they do want to be together after all (um, spoilers, I guess?) they start going on dates, joking about at home, stuff that normal couples do. After all, a Giftia’s lifespan is pretty limited, and they know that better than anyone. It’s not about crafting a relationship that will last – it’s about crafting memories that will.

I honestly can’t recommend “Plastic Memories” enough. It’s got everything you might want from an anime – action, drama, comedy, romance, sci-fi, you name it. There’s no reason for you not to watch it, so stop reading and get on it, people!

“Saint Seiya”, just like pretty much every huge anime franchise, has seen a ton of videogames based on it. Starting with “Saint Seiya: The Sanctuary” ten years ago on the now archaic PS2, the franchise has seen three more games based on it, with the latest, “Soldier’s Soul”, being released only a few months ago on the PS3, PS4 and, rather surprisingly, PC. While this may seem shocking, it’s really not – as I said, most big franchises of fighting anime have gotten plenty of games, including “Hokuto no Ken” (no, I’ll never stop talking about it on this blog, so sue me), “Bleach”, “Naruto”, “DragonBall” and so on and so forth. And admittedly, most licensed games haven’t been very good. Essentially, if you’ve played one of them, you’ve pretty much played all of them – they’re all 3D fighters with lots of flashy special attacks that play exactly the same way. “Ultimate Ninja Storm” is exactly like “Heat the Soul” which is exactly like “Dragonball Xenoverse”, minus a few differences.

Sadly, “Saint Seiya: Soldier’s Soul” falls into that same category of flashy 3D fighters, but I’m happy to say that it’s done well enough to definitely warrant the interest of both casual and hardcore “Saint Seiya” fans! First of all, it’s very important to note that this is the first “Saint Seiya” game that allows you to play through the entire story, starting from the tournament arc and finishing up with the Hades arc. And what’s even better is that the story in between the fights is narrated by fully 3D cinematics, which means that even if you know literally nothing about “Saint Seiya” or its story you can learn everything you need to know just from this game. I love it when games do that! By the way, “Hokuto no Ken: Ken’s Rage” does the same thing, just so you know. I told you I’d never stop talking about “Hokuto”! I should’ve titled the blog hokutonoken2014… But I digress!

About 40 characters are playable in both the story mode and in versus mode, which is really cool – I personally didn’t feel like anyone was missing from the roster, so that’s definitely a very good sign. Aside from story mode, you can play in a variety of tournaments and extra battles, against the AI or against your friends. One of my favorite features was the offline tournament mode for up to 8 players, which is something that’s pretty rare in these types of games! But at the end of the day, if you’re not a fan of 3D anime fighters, there’s not much in “Saint Seiya: Soldier’s Soul” that’s going to change your mind. The standard gameplay is the same – do some combos to fill up a meter at the bottom of the screen, then unleash special attacks while trying to avoid an opponent trying to do the same. It’s not exactly “Street Fighter” level of depth, nor is it trying to be. I don’t think you should hold it against it, though – not every fighting game needs to be a perfectly balanced tournament fighter. Sometimes, all we need is a faithful adaptation of a beloved storyline and some awesome sequences!

What do you think is the hottest manga right now? It’s okay, I know that, unless you’ve researched this, you probably don’t know the answer off the top of your head, but take a wild guess. “Attack on Titan”? Close. “Naruto”? That actually ended last year. “Bleach”? Hahahahahaha, no. Give up? Well, if you’ve read the title of this article, you should know that the answer is “One Piece”, a manga that has been running continuously for 18 years and shows absolutely no signs of stopping. How popular is it? Well, take a look at this chart of the best-selling manga in 2015. When we examine them by series, “One Piece” is at the very top with 14 million total volumes sold, which is 4 million more than the second place. But it doesn’t stop there! “One Piece” is also first when it comes to the number of individual volumes sold… And also second, third and fourth. May I remind you that there were only four volumes of “One Piece” released in the entirety of 2015, and those four are at the very top of the bestsellers list.

This isn’t a new phenomenon – the overwhelming majority of “One Piece” volumes have been at the top of the charts, barring unnatural circumstances. Even so many years after its inception, the series is still going as strong as it always has while other manga series have slowly dimmed away until nobody even cared about them. Why has “One Piece” persevered? Well, there’s three main things, really. First and foremost, it’s very well-crafted, almost to the point of perfection – nothing feels ham-fisted or heavy-handed. Second, its themes and characters are timeless. “One Piece” is about following your dreams regardless of what they are. In its world, even the most pathetic person can train and become a fierce warrior – we’ve seen several examples of this where utterly laughable characters put in the necessary work and eventually manage to become soldiers and fighters, acquiring the means to fight for their dreams. It’s a theme that resonates equally with all generations, and will continue to do so. And last, but not least, the manga seems like it knows where it’s going.

A lot (and I do mean a LOT) of mangas lose their steam after the first few arcs. A fantastic example is “Bleach”, where following the first two arcs (which seemed very well-crafted and thought out) we literally just got a repeat of them for the next two arcs, followed by some pointless fighting to close off the series… Except it didn’t end, it just kept on going, but nobody kept reading because nobody cared. In 2006 I still read “Bleach” every time a new volume came out in English. In 2016, I don’t even know if it’s still going or not. “One Piece”, on the other hand, has a very clear direction that it has established from the very first pages. We know exactly where the characters are going, and thanks to the manga’s structure, we even know just how far into their adventure they are. It never feels like the writer has ran out of ideas.

Overall, I think that’s really the most important aspect of a manga that hopes to live a life as long as that of “One Piece” – the mangaka (writer and artist) needs to know exactly where he or she is going with it, and make the story just as long as it needs to be. Readers don’t mind long stories. They do mind bloated ones, though. And on that note I shall leave you, dear reader! If you haven’t read “One Piece”, give it a shot – omnibuses of the first several volumes are available for pretty cheap on Amazon!

I’ve got to admit – I’m not the biggest gambler around. I don’t really like to play casino games, mostly because I’m really, really bad at them. No matter what I do I can’t seem to win at card games. I’m a dud at poker even when I think I’ve got good cards, and I’ve never won more than I’ve lost at blackjack. I do, however, quite like slots. There’s something awfully relaxing about watching the reels spin, and in the Internet age you don’t even need to go to a casino in order to play some great slots! Since I’m a huge anime fan, I recently decided to try and track down some anime slots… And boy, oh boy, was I disappointed!

As you know, there’s plenty of things you should consider when playing online slots with real money, such as RTP (Return to Player) percentage, bonus games, free spins and so on and so forth. With licensed slots, meaning slots which are based on movies, games or TV shows, there’s also the question of just how accurate the slot is to the source material. For example, if, say, there was a “Saint Seiya” slot with a romantic theme (hearts everywhere, bonus games that involve kissing girls, etc), then that wouldn’t be very faithful at all. Certain slots, such as “South Park”, “The Avengers” or “Pink Panther”, are really great at being faithful to the source material while also delivering a stellar slot experience. The problem is that slots based on anime don’t do either.

First of all, I have to say that I only managed to find two slots that are actually based on anime (there’s plenty of slots INSPIRED by the anime artstyle, but that’s not really what I’m looking for). Luckily, they’re both based on some of my favourite series, namely “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” and “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. Oh, and also both of them suck bad. Neither has anything to do with the source material outside of a few pictures. They have wildly inappropriate music and are very bare-bones, meaning that they lack any sort of cool bonus features or bonus games. Sure, one of them has a Free Spins bonus, but that’s something that all slots have anyway.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about why the slots are terrible, as I’m not a slots reviewer, but suffice to say they’re not that great, and I have absolutely no idea why. Both of these licenses are absolutely amazing, and I’d think that it’s literally impossible to make a bad slot based on them, but alas! It’s not like that’s some small license that the developers just didn’t treat with enough respect because nobody knows about it – both “Ghost in the Shell” and “Evangelion” are huge, especially outside of Japan. So what the hell?