This is the finished video regarding the script. It is written, edited, and read aloud by Kernook of “The Demented Ferrets”. You can watch the video on this blog and on YouTube. I hope you enjoy the content.
Minako and Rei from Sailor Moon are without a doubt a solid character pairing, even if they aren’t exactly cannon across all of the Sailor Moon media. Why do they stand the test of time? Simple, because their romance comes natural to those who see it within the subtext.
In popular media, when I think of reasons to sail any ship, it’s not the large cannon elements that come to mind. It’s the tiny things. Moments when characters might brush their fingers together when exchanging an object. Times when short quips and witty dialogue carrying a greater subtext within a scene.
Know what other ships sails really well because of this? Pretty much any ship containing at least two of the main four girls of RWBY. I ship nearly every combination because of how versatile they are.
Small moments make a ship, that’s a fact. It is particularly important if a series isn’t centrally focused on romance. Then the smaller moments matter even more. Long running series with advancing story arcs might not spend a whole lot of time focusing on romantic overtures. Instead, they tend to spread large romantic elements few and far between. Sometimes, the best ships don’t have any big moments at all. Sometimes they only have a series of small elements to craft a greater narrative. In this instance, subtext quickly becomes fan fodder.
I look no further than NCIS as an example. Tony and Ziva, or “Tiva” as the ship is named by the fans. These two are strong contenders in shipping because the slow burn is as hilarious as it is dramatic.
Romance between these two is the show in spades, but, it walks a fine line. The pairing never consumes the show. Instead, the fans consume the romance, looking for the little details hidden between the subtle character interactions. These two aren’t obviously a cannon couple until much later in the series. However, this didn’t stop fans from sailing that ship early on. It was only through implication and subtext that the relationship held any ground, at least, at first.
I think that personally this is sometimes the better approach. Fans have a gift for running away with subtext. Collective fans like making stories of their own. When moments are rare,it’s no surprise that fan-fiction itself becomes a selfish endeavor.
Fans meet their own desire to see character romance carried further than a series could have taken it. This is true for almost all media that has an active fan following.
Depending on the character pairing, strange ships sail fast. I think of the romantic pairing of Elsa and Anna from Frozen being a prime example of fandom running amok. Seriously, fans ship these two hard. I don’t see the draw in it personally, but it’s in the fandom for sure.
There is no conceivable way that Disney would have imagined their older fan base deciding to turn the sisters into lesbians…
Or that, even if they were on the GRSM spectrum, that they would ever be seen as romantically in love with each other. Then again, I can’t say that I’m surprised. Pairings revolving around sibling romance can be common in fandom, particularly of the animated variety.
Even without sibling romance, some stories become downright filthy as fans of a medium carefully craft and contort romantic relationships between characters. Ultimately, for better and for worse, fans have always been able to fill gaps that cannon material fails to provide. If little else, fan communities keep character romances thriving when long stretches of time pass without cannon material.
This is particularly important when large series take an extended break or the series eventually ends. At that point it’s up to fans to find a new source of entertainment. Some find this solace within the media that they already care for, writing or reading stories that reflect on certain plot elements within the series as a whole.
Deceased or retired characters in media find new life, and new stories because fan fiction and far art too. I think of characters like Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY, or Kate Todd and Ziva David from NCIS, as prime examples of characters that continue to live on in fandom because of the stories people write.
Without these stories, these characters, and their ships, they might have been left stagnant and forgotten. Within fandom, these characters will always live on. They will always be shipped, and the fandom will always triumph.
That’s what little moments do. They’re powerful, and they can’t be disregarded.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, Kernook here. I’m back again, with another artist recommendation.
As for the usual disclaimer, nobody solicited my opinion.Nobody offered me any sort of perk for writing about this musical artist. I have not met this artists personally. I have not seen her live, in concert. I just like her music, and the covers she does of popular songs. That was the only qualifier I deemed necessary for writing this post.
That said, if you’re interested in listening to her musical talents, you should check her YouTube channel down below.
Have you ever heard a female singer with a smokey voice, and instantly, your ears perk up? That is what happens when I listen to this artist. My ears perk, I zone in, and I just listen. Her music is good. I can’t say why exactly. I can’t even put my finger on it.
It’s just that good.
That indescribable draw is notable, and that’s why I wanted to suggest her music. The thing is, I’d like to say that I’m a decisive person. That things need to be able to tick certain boxes for me. For whatever reason, her music doesn’t need to. It’s not something I can shove into a mold. Strangely, I don’t really want to try, either.
I just want to enjoy her music for what it is. Her vocal quality is a rarity. I wouldn’t say her lyrics are too catchy, or too edgy. They’re not ear-worms and they don’t linger around long after the song is over. Instead, they’re impact in the moment.
Her lyrics have a subtext that really draws me in. That’s why, I think, I keep going back to her music. When I think of what I would like to suggest, it would have to be “My Funeral” It’s smokey, soft, slightly sensual, and something I always come back to.
Another great song with the same qualities happens to be “Silence and the Clock“. It’s a song I often zone out to as I let the sound sweep me away. The song was actually assisted by Robin Ghosh who ghost recorded all of the guitars used in the song.
Krysta Youngs is just a prolific singer and songwriter, there’s no two ways about it.
All in all, that’s the only reason I need to keep listening. I think there’s something to be said for music that doesn’t just speak to the listener. Songs that are self-serving speak about the artist. It reflects their deepest thoughts and desires, and there will always be value in that.
Like I said, give her music a try, and you might find out you like it.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey guys, Kernook here. This is not a review. Rather, this is a post about a game I absolutely adore and always suggest to those looking for a casual gaming experience.
I love farming simulators. I always have, and my first introduction to the genera was Harvest Moon. I absolutely loved it, and my mom did too. We’d spend hours after I got home from school playing it together. The two of us dedicated way too much time building a farm, raising the animals, and befriending the characters. Getting to play my wholesome little farm family lingers as some of the most memorable gaming moments in my life just due to how often I played those types of games.
Naturally, when I’d heard an indie developer was working on a game to rival the Harvest Moon franchise I didn’t believe it would be successful. I was told the game would be available on steam, and when it released, I bought it. I was skeptical, but soon I realized my fears were unfounded.
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Stardew Valley is one of the best farming simulators I ever played. It’s a game I often return to when I just want a game to play casually.
Farming isn’t all that you do, but it is a rather large part of the game’s core design. Tending to crops and caring for the animals are the only way to make some of the highest quality goods in the game. Unsurprisingly, Stardew Valley was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon franchise. Therefore plenty of the core features in the game revolve around key aspects that were so loved by players of Harvest Moon.
In many ways, those core ideas were expanded upon, and new concepts were added too.
Eric Barone, also known as “ConcernedApe“, developed the game as an endeavor to improve upon the genera. I’d like to think that he certainly did, as Stardew Valley is an incredibly robust game all on its own, not to mention the modding community that comes along with it.
Published by Chucklefish, the game was released for Microsoft Windows in February of 2016. Later ports of the game were released for macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android devices.
ConcernedApe developed the game over the course of four years, and players are still treated to occasional updates. If his updates aren’t enough to satisfy, the modding community has a wealth of content to satisfy even the most seasoned players looking for new challenges or simply additional features.
The Story
The story starts the same way many other farming simulators do. Usually, an aging family member decides to leave you an old farmhouse in hopes that your character will continue the family’s legacy.
Upon starting the game, you play as a young adult who takes over your grandfather’s farm. Packing your bags, you move to Stardew Valley. The farm is in a horrible state of disrepair. It’s your job to get it into proper working order.
In this respect, Stardew Valley settles into a predictable pattern. However, the game will subvert expectations quickly.
Let’s take a brief look at the opening story…
Now I’ve made a male character, but both genders are open to creation. You can make a male or a female character, and have that character marry a man or a woman.
Your character’s has an old and ill grandfather. He leaves his legacy to you.
Once you’ve made your character, the scene begins with an old man lying in bed. He’s clutching an envelope and struggling to breathe. This man is your grandfather, and he says that this letter is for you. Then, he asks you to not to open it until the time is right. He gives you the letter, and the screen fades to black.
A moment later, a new visual awaits…
Your first look at “Joja”, the major corporation that threatens to consume everything that your character seems to care about.
A grey and lifeless office building comes into focus. Cubicles stacked closely with one another pan slowly, showing office workers in poor conditions. Two figures loom over the exhausted employees, gazing down at them from the comfort of their offices on the floor above.
This is the first indication that Stardew Valley has a darker story to tell. Make no mistake, this isn’t like the farming simulators of the past. The plot elements begin the same, but this is a somewhat mature re-telling of classic tropes. The game is riddled with grim subtext and context clues to further its narrative.
This oppressive atmosphere seems like a prison. The building is untidy, and workers are being treated unfairly. The imagery in front of you suggests long hours and little pay. The sounds themselves are mechanical, lacking any warmth. There are none of the usual comforts you might find in a typical office building.
The lighting is dim, grime cakes the desks, and a security camera hangs over the head of each employee. The skeleton of a deceased worker hangs limply in his cubicle. The slogan plastered upon the wall is a lie.
Life isn’t better with Joja…
Your character is unhappy. The poor working conditions have obviously taken their toll. His eyes are closed as the monitor in front of him glows blue. He looks as dull and lifeless as everyone else around him. His eyes slowly open, groggy and with a sense of hopelessness.
He bends forward to reach into the drawer of his desk. His grandfather’s letter rests neatly inside, sealed and waiting. He opens it, finding a heartfelt letter from his grandfather.
You’ve kept the letter for an indescribable amount of time. Yet, today is the day you choose to open it.
According to the letter, your grandfather has left you his farm. He tells you to reconnect with what matters most in life. The names you’ve chosen for your character and your farm will be listed in the letter.
Your grandfather writes that the farm is tucked away on the southern coast, located in a place called Stardew Valley. After a moment the scene fades to black again.
Although it isn’t shown on screen, your character packs his bags and heads off for his new home. The scene opens with a bus speeding down an otherwise empty country road. Upon arrival, you meet the first of many NPC townsfolk.
Robin, the town carpenter. She is the first of many characters you’ll meet in the game.
Her name is Robin, and she’s the local carpenter. She’ll be useful later for making upgrades to your farm. She tells you that the town mayor, Lewis, asked her to come and greet you. She offers to take you to your new home.
Befriending the townsfolk is a core game-play mechanic. The closer you are with them, the more you get to know them. All of the characters have at least some level of depth to their backstories. It behooves you to make friends with all of them.
Like other genera titles, giving gifts twice a week and speaking to the NPC’s daily raises their friendship score. Higher scores give you access to more cut-scenes. Each character has things they like, and things they don’t. You’ll have to learn about that through trial and error, or simply look it up online if you don’t want to go through the trouble. Lastly, Don’t forget to give them gifts on their birthdays. It gives a greater friendship boost.
Lewis is the town mayor. If you want to get a divorce later in the game, you can do it at his house.
Robin takes you to your farm. There, you see what a complete mess the farm is. Obviously, it’s fallen into disrepair. This is the another core game-play mechanic. There’s a lot of different ways to enjoy your time playing Stardew Valley, and one of them is maintaining your farm.
You can raise crops and animals here. That’s not all, the game offers a robust crafting system, allowing you to run your farm is several different ways. Bee keeping is one of my favorites, but there are others too.
You’ll need to clear the mess on the farm to get it in working condition. First however, you need to finish the cut-scene.
Once you enter your farm, you meet Lewis, the mayor of Stardew Valley. Robin and Lewis banter, proving that not all of the townsfolk get along. Eventually, Lewis tells you to get some rest because there will be plenty of things to do tomorrow.
Finally, the cut-scene ends, and the screen fades to black. After this, you get control of your character for the first time. This is where the story truly begins.
Final Thoughts
The game isn’t intense or “hard core” in any way. The appeal of it comes from the short bursts of time you can offer and still feel like you’ve gotten something done. The game saves after each in-game day, and they’re fairly short.
Now, you can binge the game for hours on end too, I certainly have at times. However the long-running appeal for me is that I don’t have to binge it to enjoy it.
No matter how you choose to play though, you’ll have to manage your character’s time on the farm wisely. Days move quickly and you have limited energy at first. As a farmer, you’ll clear your land and care for your crops. You can choose to raise livestock, too.
Seasoned players will tell you that it’s best to avoid livestock during your first in-game year. You’ll have to earn money if you want to expand your farm, and livestock can be a drain on time, money, and valuable crafting goods such as wood and stone. That being said, the great thing about Stardew Valley is that it’s meant to be played however you wish to play it. You can set up your farm in many ways, and it’s not set in stone.
By crafting goods, mining for ore, and befriending townsfolk, you’ll make your deceased grandfather proud. It’s important to join in on social activities around Stardew Valley. You’ll be able to start a romance that may lead to marriage. If you get married, you’ll get to have children. If you have a same-sex marriage, you’ll be able to adopt. There are many inhabitants in the small town, so there are plenty of spouses to choose from.
The game is fairly open-ended, allowing you to choose how you’d like to play. Friends can play together too. Stardew Valley features a multiplayer mode that allows up to four people to play on the same farm at once.
I absolutely love Stardew Valley. With the wealth of content constantly being released by fans and the creator alike, Stardew Valleyis a game that is always refreshing to return to.
The modding community is a fairly healthy one too, and the types of content you’ll find among them is vast. Some of them produce darker cut scene content, that add to the already lightly mature themes discussed in the series. I won’t cover that here because if you’ve played the game already, the mods are the next logical step. This is more of an overview for players who haven’t heard of the game, or simply weren’t sure if they’d like it.
So, if your looking for a relaxing title, with a story that appeals to an audience that isn’t inherently a child at heart, then look no further. Give it a try and see how you like it.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
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Artwork made by Rukangel, this piece is called “Asylum” and features Rei and Minako from Sailor Moon. Find more of her artwork on Deviant Art.
Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here with another post. Today I want to talk about the One True Pairing concept, and why it’s a fallacy.
When fans of a series gather to form large social groups over a specific type of media, we call this a fandom. In general, fandom tends to be a positive space, but there can be occasions when it isn’t. Discussions can get heated and when fandom takes a a nosedive into negativity people tend to slip off and form smaller cliques.
One of the ways this can happen is when a fandom is overrun with the “one true pairing” fallacy. This occurs when fans collectively agree that two characters belong together romantically, no matter the circumstances, or the outlying opinions of others. I’ve seen this problem occur mostly within anime and gaming, but I’m sure it happens elsewhere too. It’s a rare problem, but it is nearly toxic to a fandom when it does occur.
Now, many people have personal “OTP’s” or a “one true pairing” that they love to sail as a ship. On its own, that’s completely fine. There is nothing wrong with that. As long as the “one true pairing” isn’t forced on others as the only ship to sail, there is no problem at all with having them.
This problem of the “one true pairing fallacy” comes along when a large contingent of the fan base adopts the “one true paring” mindset viciously. This usually happens in less popular media and welled established, fan communities.
A lack of widespread diversity can hinder a fan base. Eventually, that will cause these echo chambers to exist. Particularly in older fandom, where die-hard fans have lingered around for years after the initial hype ended.
A fan simply has to love and enjoy the medium. Weather or not they sail any ship should be up to them. The “one true pairing” ideology shouldn’t need to apply.
I personally never wanted to sail an “OTP”, primarily because I don’t consume media that would require me to have one. I don’t believe having an “OTP” does me any good. I don’t gain anything from the media I care about by having one. In fact, I often think it does a media like anime a huge disservice by having an “OTP”.
Anime has a tenancy to leave an open ending. Several of them are just long running advertisements for its manga counter part. To see the full story you’d have to consume both pieces of media, and some fans like myself don’t have the desire to do both.
At the end of the day, “one true pairings” can be very powerful things inside of a fandom, and its our job as fans to recognize that. We need to be respectful of the ships we sail, and she ships of others. It’s the only way to keep a fan base growing, and all fans should want that. The stronger and more diverse a fan base is, the more fan based content will thrive.
Do you sail an “OTP”? Let me know in the comments below.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. This past decade was one of the best we’ve had in anime. No matter what your personal tastes were, there were plenty of anime to choose from. Many anime reviewers took the time to do a top ten anime of the decade list, paying special attention to the most noteworthy titles that came out in the past ten years.
I honestly wanted to try doing that as well. The reason I ultimately chose not to write a list of my own, comes down to the fact there are too many great anime to choose from. Some of them are downright genre defining for a new generation of anime fans, and that alone has merit.
The number of worthy anime that I’ve seen this decade is staggering to say the least. For example, when crafting my list I ended up with around thirty of them. There was no good way to narrow the titles down. I realized just how impossible that task was going to be, and I decided better of it.
Picking a top ten list is hard enough for any given year, let alone a decade. What makes it even harder is that 2010-2019 saw a resurgence of remakes, re-dubs, and blue ray releases of classic anime. This opened the door for new fans to find old favorites. Older fans, like myself, were given the opportunity to revisit those nostalgic anime experiences in a new way.
So that said, instead of making a top ten list, I’d simply like to say that this decade was a great decade for anime. Sure, we’ve had our fair share of bumps and bruises, too. There were shows the missed the mark, and tragedies in the industry that will take years to heal. In spite of the negatives, anime thrives, and the communities who support it thrive too.
Below is a long list, in no particular order, of note worthy anime from the decade. I don’t want to number them, or give them a ranking. I just want to look at the splendor of all of the titles. Each of them have their own reasons for being landmark series. Keep in mind, these are only the anime I’ve seen and recall off the top of my head. If your favorite anime of the decade isn’t in the wall of text below, don’t take it personally.
Some of the best anime from 2010-2019 include the following: Ancient Magus Bride, Space Brothers, Erased, Attack on Titian, Demon Slayer, Vinland Saga, A Place Further Than the Universe, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, The Promised Neverland, Ano-hana, Mob Psycho 100, Golden Kamuy, Psycho Pass, Bloom Into You, One Punch Man, Beastars, Terror in Resonance, Assassination Classroom, Noragami, Hunter x Hunter, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Yuri On Ice, Zombieland Saga, New Game, Hibike Euphonium, A Silent Voice, Your Lie in April, Snow White with the Red Hair, The World Is Still Beautiful, Fruit’s Basket Remake, Your Name, My Hero Academia, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Hyouka, Death Parade, Maho Shoujo Madoka Magica, Violet Evergarden, Wolf Children, Made in Abyss, Angel Beats, Mushishi, March Comes in Like a Lion, Megalo Box, K-on!, Durarara!!, Dororo, Aggreatsuko, Ping Pong the Animation, and probably so many others too…
That is one big wall of text. All of them are just names in a vast sea, but each anime listed above is memorable to me in one way or another. I know there are anime that I’ve missed, haven’t watched, or I’ve forgotten about entirely. That just goes to show just how many awesome shows we had to choose from every year, and how impossible it was to enjoy them all at once.
I hope that the next decade continues to provide amazing content. I know for a fact that this winter season of 2020 will be packed full of interesting choices, and I’ve already got my watch-list ready. Honestly, I just can’t wait to dive in and enjoy each new anime experience I come across in 2020 and the future.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. Beastars is a great anime, and no, it isn’t just for furries. In fact, it’s far from it. No, really, I’m serious.
Beastars is a great anime, and no, it isn’t just for furries. In fact, it’s far from it. No, really, I’m serious. Beastars offers fans of the series a meticulously crafted world and compelling characters. Both qualities are the bare minimum for a halfway decent anime, but Beastars goes the extra mile. The anime is beautifully animated, there’s no question about that.
So why did the show garner such a strong stigma when it first released?
Upon first glance, this is actually a pretty difficult question to answer. The simple answer is that it just looks like a furry show. For those of us who don’t identify as furries, that can be a little off-putting. However I’d say the issue goes a little deeper.
In general, furries get a bad reputation across all kinds of mainstream media. For example, the widely popularized NCIStelevision series has a bad habit of throwing shade at the anime and gaming fandom. There have been episodes where a few off-handed remarks painted furries in a bad light. Now this problem has gotten way better in recent years on NCIS but doesn’t erase the history of the show, or the fact that those old episodes still air on television.
I can’t imagine how the furry community feels when it comes to mainstream media, and I wouldn’t care to speculate. Frankly, I don’t identify as a furry, and I don’t speak on behalf of the community, nor would I ever want to.
What I can say is that some of the backhanded comments made on the crime drama, particularly in the earliest parts of the series still prick at my sensibilities in a wholly unsatisfying way, and I’m just an anime fan and a gamer.
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If mainstream media perpetuates those stigmas too, then what about the anime community? Surely we would have been more enlightened, right?
Well, I don’t have the answer to that one.
Beastars didn’t do itself any favors with it’s promotional material for those of us that didn’t originally follow the manga. Moreover, Beastars has a barrier to entry that’s a little steep.
That being said, when the anime started airing, I couldn’t help but wonder where the series was going to go. From a narrative perspective, the anime just seems odd. It revolves around anthropomorphic animals. The anime isn’t just about bunny and cat girls. Every character, both male and female are animals with human characteristics.
They walk on two legs and speak normally, but the characters are still animals. While animal instincts tend to crop up from time-to-time in each episode, it isn’t exactly the core theme of the show. At least, not in the way you’d entirely expect.
So, given the murmurs about Beastars, and the initial knee-jerk reaction that came along with it from non-furry anime fans, I knew I had to see the series for myself.
My conclusion is this: Beastars, while somewhat strange, it is not just a furry anime. In fact, it is far from it. I wouldn’t say that it’s a “must see” show, or that it’s a pinnacle anime that everyone should watch.
Instead, I would say that it is a rare show, and a diamond in the rough. Yearly anime line-ups usually hosts a slog of repetitive, formulaic shows. If that’s you’re thing, awesome.
But, it isn’t my thing.
I don’t like watching rehashes of the same types of shows over, and over, and over again. Beastars is the breath of fresh air that I sorely needed.
Now, as I said before Beastars has a barrier of entry. I believe that for some people, it might be a steep one. It isn’t say… Sweetness and Lightning, for example.
Beastars will demand that you leave your preconceived notions at the door. The reason I’m speaking so generically about this series is because it is extremely easy to give off the wrong impression of this show.
The core themes are deep, vast, and very nuanced. Not to go into spoilers, but some of the themes revolve around psychological impulse, trafficking, oppression, addiction, and the confines of society. That is what I mean by a barrier to entry. It never quite goes too far, but it is just dark enough.
I certainly came away from Beastars with several personal qualms. I won’t get into what I think is truly problematic, purely because that’s a very subjective concept. Also, what I dislike toes a fine line. I’m not quite sure how to articulate or even categorize those thoughts cleanly and concisely. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.
Beastars demands its viewers to challenge their own perceptions. Anime as a creative medium, has a power to really challenge a viewers personal outlook. This anime could do that, if you give it a chance. Or, it could simply just annoy you. There are times this anime did both for me.
Now, there’s an interesting discussion to be made about how the series portrays racial tensions using species as a metaphor. It questions social divides, and the inevitable problems that come along with that. It even manages to do it in a very pragmatic way. It’s approachable, but it’s also unnerving.
This anime balances on a very slippery slope in a lot of different ways, and this is one of them. As an American, that particular part of the anime is one of the areas that I take extreme issue with.
I’m not sure how I feel about how the anime handles racial tension in its metaphors. Mind you, I realize that this comes from my American sensibilities, and my personal upbringing. In America, comparing someone to an animal tends to come off as racism, and this anime toes a strange line.
To give an example, there are two different species of rabbits in this series that don’t get along. Some of things that are said in dialogue exchanges are just flat out uncomfortable for me to watch. That being said, I am not the one qualified to lead any sort of discussion on this particular sort of topic.
I just wanted to point out that the metaphor is there, and that it can be questionable.
So, with everything I’ve just said in mind, I think every anime fan who wants a unique experience should watch Beastars at least once in their lives. This is not a mindless show. It is not furry pandering.
Beastars is literally a narrative beast all of it’s own, and it cannot be aptly compared to anything else that I’ve ever seen in anime.
If you do choose to watch Beastars, be aware of the core themes. Understand that it can get dark pretty quickly. A lot of concepts in the anime are very morally grey. If you do watch the series, keep that in mind.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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I’m keeping it simple today as I sit here listening to music. I enjoy a lot of creators, and their music. I’d like to highlight that so. So here’s a blog post about one creator I enjoy listening to often.
As a standard disclaimer; I’m not being paid by Boyinaband for this post. Nobody solicited my opinion. I have not met this artist personally. I have not seen Boyinaband livein concert.
This is merely a fan related post. I highly encourage you check out his channel. In general you can find his music on YouTube and Spotify. I often frequent his channel to listen to his lyrical poetry. However, if that isn’t to your tastes he also produces other content too.
Dave From “BoyInABand”.
I tend to find his music to be pure artistry. That was the only qualifier that I found necessary to recommend his channel. If you would like to see his content for yourself, you should follow the link to his channel below.
His actual name is Dave. As a creator he loves music as a medium, and it shows. Dave often collaborates with other YouTube creators. Unlike his YouTube name implies, however, he is not currently in a band.
Not anymore, anyway.
Some of his collaborations include video game inspired raps from popular games at the time. Along with other YouTube creators, those catchy beats are notable all on their own. However, I want to highlight one of his songs that isn’t inspired by the gaming medium.
If I were to suggest a song from him, it would be “I’m not dead”. The weighted words in the song resonate with me. It speaks a great deal about the daily struggles a person might face, and the logic we use to contradict ourselves constantly.
It’s a song that underlines the reality that people are not infallible. That even if we hate aspects of our personality, we can choose to change ourselves. The message shows that even if that’s a difficult thing to do, it’s not impossible.
His lyrical rhymes dance a fine balancing act of negativity and hope.
This song is a critical look at the creator’s own human condition, imperfect as it is. At the end of the day, I relate well with music like his. If you’re interested, you should check out his channel.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hideo Kojima is a master at making objectively good games. It’s not a question, it’s fact. He’s a risk taker, making games with mechanics that don’t have a “one size fits all” approach. From the early Metal Gear series, to the P.T. Demo, Kojima has proven time and time again that he knows what it takes to make a good game. His greatest games push incredibly deep narratives, multifaceted, and compelling.
Then Death Stranding came out and made waves among the gaming community. Although it sold well, the game just wasn’t as well-received as it could have been. Strong positive reviews aside, hard-core gaming critics and casuals alike raised eyebrows at this odd title. While most of the reviews seemed to be positive, of them slammed the game for having uninteresting point A-to-B slog with questionable story telling. Others complained about the fiddly controls in the game. Even I have to admit a few of the mechanics were pretty annoying.
At the time, the occasional annoyed rants from the larger review sites only fueled my desire to play it. I didn’t really know what I was in for. My expectations weren’t incredibly high. Personally, I feel that the higher my expectations are for something, the more I let myself down when those desires aren’t reached.
After all, game developers don’t owe me anything just because their artistic vision didn’t meet my own criteria for what a good game should be. That said, I have three basic criteria for any game I play.
If a game can meet these standards and I still don’t like it, then it’s my fault. If I ended up buying a game I don’t like, and that’s not something I can blame a developer for.
My three rules are the following:
The game must ultimately be playable. No game breaking bugs, visual eye-sores, or glitches that will severely hinder and impede my game-play experience.
The game must be reasonably priced for what it has to offer. If I shell out money for a game, I want to know that I’m getting a quality experience that at least reflects that price. I don’t mind paying large amounts of money for a shorter game-play experience, but, that experience must be worth something.
The game must be accessible for me play on some basic level. I have a fine motor-skill disorder. That often means games like Dark Souls kill me repeatedly on hard mode. That said, I can still play, beat, and enjoy the game. I don’t ask for an easy game. However, I expect the controls to be fluid. The subtitles must be easy to see and to read. The mechanics of the game must choreograph properly what’s happening on screen.
For example, if something’s about to shoot at me, I want an obvious sign of that someplace. I don’t want to be sniped and have no obvious way to tell. If I’m about to get a “game over”, I want a clear and consist metric that’s about to happen.
I think that those three criteria are essential for any good game. With the building blocks in place, any game has a chance to be a fun, interactive piece of media.
Having completed Death Stranding, I’ll say this: For adults, Death Stranding is worth playing at least once.
This is not a children’s game, and it doesn’t try to be. This game was crafted for an adult gamer, with a firm sense of self, and a firm grasp of morally grey ideology. Parents should use caution when buying it for their mature teenagers. Do your research first, and don’t just pluck this game off of the first shelf you see.
The controls are a little clunky, yes. There is absolutely no disputing that. However, if I can figure them out and navigate the game with Dyspraxia, then the controls must not be a complete failure. They are repetitive, but that serves a narrative purpose. It’s not complete and total garbage. They’re just not the greatest, either.
Multiple layers of subtext in the game will always be important, and Death Stranding uses mechanics as a metaphor. Yes, perhaps it is a bit overdone. Yet, everything in this game seems to have been placed there intentionally, and the story is captivating in its own strange way. I adore the opening quote at the start of the game, and the somber opening song.
The themes are dark and heavy, the game reflects that masterfully. The world is beautifully crafted, and the design is completely immersive. The mechanics aren’t always easy. There are times when the game falls a little short, but it isn’t a bad game.
If you start to look at the game as a complete narrative experience, it’s actually quite good. If you haven’t played it yet, pick the game up when it’s on sale. Give it a try. You may end up liking it too.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, early fiction chapters and more.
Media remains a powerful touchstone in our society. It’s helps to shape our culture and to experience the cultures of others. Through a lens that is not our own, we’re taken to vast new worlds.
Media often asks little of its consumers. Only that we take it in, consider it, and accept it for all that it is. When we become fans of something, we take part of the media that has influenced us. We spread it around, hoping to find others that share our joys and passions. That is why retrospectives are so important.
That being said diversity of opinion, culture, personal experience and critique are fundamental in fandom. This inclusion is the only way to keep a fandom from stagnating.
Media will always be a flawed mirror into the biases of its maker. It will not be perfect. It will occasionally hold views that are different from our own, and that’s okay too. Media is a tie that binds us all, it’s up to us to choose how we consume it.
When I dive into a retrospective, I do it carefully, trying my best to recall what once captivated me. On occasion my views shift. Sometimes I am no-longer captivated.
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Truthfully, I don’t see that as a bad thing. Media I once loved and now hate is my personal journey onward to better things. I will never be ungrateful for that steppingstone, and that’s important too.
That’s why this blog will be so heavy with retrospective content. I don’t want to forget the media that influenced me, or the changes in perspective that I gained from that experience. The two share a symbiotic relationship, just as they should.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
When I first starting writing fan fiction, I was still just a student in elementary school. I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to put down on paper, and I wanted it to be about characters I already knew about and loved on the screen. With a bent pen and torn piece of paper I wrote my first scene.
News flash, it was terrible…
I didn’t know about any popular fan fiction websites at the time. I had no idea just how many fan fiction writers were out there. The only thing I knew for certain was that I didn’t want the story to end after the shows I enjoyed had its final episode.
Sailor Moon was my gateway, on a whim I did a google search. I quickly learned that hundreds of thousands of fan fiction already existed online for me to read. All of it at my fingertips. I felt elated, and also overwhelmed.
I didn’t know where to begin, it was an exciting time. Back in those days FanFiction.net , or “FFN” as it’s known nowadays, wasn’t even around. That didn’t come around until 1998, a full two years after I knew what fan fiction was. theArchive of our Own, or Ao3, wasn’t even a twinkle in the eyes of fandom.
The Early Days of Fan Fiction
In the early days, fans made their own websites or posted on forums to publish fan related content to the world. There were hundreds of posts sloppily mixed together. Stories were often tangled with comments. It was a far different world than it is today. Some web pages had no way to contact the author, leave a review, or click a kudos.
To be honest, fans had so few ways to connect at all. As a child I had no way to join in on this fun. I had to sit quietly, watching others write their stories, posting them online… I wished I could do the same.
For a short time I stopped reading actual books. I only read fan fiction. I was enamored with it. Every aspect just seemed so much better to me. I don’t know why. I can’t put my finger on it. I think at the core of it all, I recognized that these people were like me. They loved the same thing that I did.
As a child who’d been bullied in school and teased for a lot of different reasons, this one fact gave me inclusion. I finally felt like I was part of something that mattered. I knew these writers had to be older than me. There were a lot of words I didn’t understand and story plots that were never in the anime.
That didn’t matter to me. All that I cared about was that for once, I fit in.
FanFiction.net launched in October of 1998. I don’t recall much from that time. I still read fan fiction, and scribbled my own messily on paper. However I stuck to the small sites that I knew of. I didn’t venture into the treasure trove of archival sites until much later.
Yes, published books are polished, neatly written works of art. I don’t argue that. I simply see the original source material as the catalyst for something greater. The author can’t attain such an amazing feat on their own. I believe that seeing art through a fan’s lens makes everything so much more beautiful.
Fan fiction binds us together in a way nothing else can. New stories, deeper adventures, and combined inspiration fill so many different voids in our lives. You can’t put a price on that. It isn’t tangible. Spend enough time in a fandom, and you’ll form bonds you never thought possible. Some of those ties can turn into life-long friendships. I have several of my own. I have fan fiction to thank for that.
One such person is Ruka, our artist. Here you can see some of her earliest concept art for “The Demented Ferrets”. Without gaming I would have never met Kreshenne, but without fan fiction, I would have never met Ruka.
Fan Fiction is a Growing Medium
Nowadays fan fiction is very easy to find. A simple search will yield plenty of archives with thousands of fandom to choose from. Countless people gathering in one place to share their works and to celebrate the works of others. We cross over into many communities too, meeting others like ourselves.
Artists who draw fan art often credit fan fiction as their inspiration, and vice-versa. This collaborative effort made by fan communities is what fuels the ever-growing fan fiction population.
Yes, fan fiction can be a sloppy, unfiltered, unedited mess. It will often be riddled with grammatical errors and aggravating tropes. Usually people don’t have an editor, or “beta-reader” to help them out. All they have is a love for the medium and idea to plunk down for other fans to read. Honestly, I think that’s enough.
I wouldn’t be who I am today without fan fiction. I would have lived a far more isolated childhood, feeling as though I had nowhere to belong. Fan fiction is a powerful thing, and one we shouldn’t take for granted. I would strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t tried fan fiction to give it go. Open your browser and do a search.
Find a book, anime, or television series that you like. There will be fan fiction you’ll absolutely adore. I promise you, it’s out there waiting to be discovered. You’ll be glad you did.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
The Demented Ferrets 