Recently, I finished reading Ouran High School Host Club. I think that the manga is much stronger than the anime. The dynamics of Tamaki with his family (father, and grandmother) are much more complex than whatever was portrayed in the anime. I call this the ``Hellsing effect''---where the anime is called into production before the manga has its main story arcs fully resolved, leading to some make-believe storylines just so that the anime can end its run at the correct episode count. The most blatant of this is the comparison of the Hellsing anime against the newer Hellsing OVA---``Incognito'' as the big bad in the anime made no sense to the narrative build up as compared to the final near-pornographic bloodfest showdown between the Major and Sir Integra Hellsing, as their underlings thrash London to fight the war that the washed up ghoul-Nazis of the Major had planned for fifty plus years after the second world war.
``But MT, the source material is almost always richer than the adaptation.''
Yes, that's the point. Which is why we should not be in a rush to make adaptations of stories without knowing how the major arcs' trajectories are heading. I'm not saying that the adaptors are bad---I'm saying that without having the original creator's direction, there will be a jarring change in direction when the plot holes from unresolved story arcs start showing up. Sometimes, even if the original creator is involved, they may not even know where they are heading since they are ``making things up as they go along'' at times (recall that much of the serialised works are paid by some set contract period, in which case the stories need to be crafted at a consistent-enough pace, with sufficient material to ``keep on going'' for the length of the contract). But at least the original creator's general direction can be sought and the plot holes may be resolved amicably within the adaptation.
Ouran High School Host Club is definitely a romantic-comedy, kind of like Kimagure Orange Road, but unlike the latter, I could actually stomach the former without going through hiatuses from reading. I think it's because of the near-surreal comedy that comes from the over-the-top nature of the clash between the high-class society of Ouran High School and the ``commoners' common sense'' deadpan nature of Haruhi/Ranka---it definitely feels more funny than jealousy inducing, even when Hikaru/Kaoru were showing actual jealousy against Tamaki.
All in all, I like the manga. And thanks to Eirian-VI, I can now tackle the offline version of Questionable Content, all 5.6k pages of them as at the crawl. I'm saying this now because The Adventures of Dr McNinja is no longer available at its original form due to the site being attacked. I have my own offline copy (of course), but for those who want to read this masterpiece of 2010s webcomic storytelling, a kind soul has uploaded it to The Internet Archive.
In short, what I mean is this: if there's something on the 'net that you enjoy, and would like to revisit it again in the future, there is no shame to find a way to make a copy of it. Because the adage of ``what goes on the 'net stays there forever'' is patently false.
``MT, what about DRM?''
Heh. What is morally/ethically the right thing to do sometimes has no support in law---in which case the law is not just and needs to be amended. The law is a set of rules that a particular society has agreed to abide by, and if they are created by humans, they can be amended by humans. Whereas morality and ethics are based on stronger absolute values that may only be judged by God---no one save God can change them.
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I talked about Juufuutei Raden's Guide for Pixel Museum in a post from last month, and I am proud to say that I have finally finished all the 300+ puzzles. The nonogram puzzles were fun, but I preferred those that were associated with the artifacts than the ones that were part of Raden's memories---the former had interesting patterns, while the latter, being some selected part of some pictures that depicted an event Raden was in, seemed to be simpler ones based around basic geometric patterns instead.
So effectively, the memories section felt like filler, and the game would be stronger if they were taken out. But then again, taking them out might reduce the effect of the game as a soft introduction for the casual nonogram lover to the very learned/cultured (literally, not the ironic form of ``cultured'') VTuber that is Juufuutei Raden.
Overall, still loved the game, and am glad that I finished all the puzzles.
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Ah Hades. I last talked about it nearer the start of the month, and I'm proud to announce my first win of the game.
I was expecting my first win to be with the Spear---ah well.
The Bow was not easy to fight with---there was long-ish charge time before the attack can be made, and the AOE was quite shit. The damage from the Bow was also bad (but not as terrible as the Rifle I mean Exagryph I mean Adamant Rail). What made this win possible was largely through the power of the RNGod.
Heartbreak Strike gave me more damage with Weak as a curse, which was cool.
Explosive Shot changed the single-shot into a small AOE, but it slowed down the charging rate. This was rectified somewhat with Swift Strike that added back 30% attack rate.
Companion Battie helped me save one Death Defiance that I was about to lose at the boss fight of Elysium (that 2.5k damage against the solo Theseus meant that I could finish him off with one more shot even as my HP was inching to 0).
I could consistently best the Furies (bosses of the first biome of Tartarus), reaching near consistency against Lernie (boss of the second biome of Asphodel), and am inconsistent with Theseus and Asterius (bosses of the third biome of Elysium). Big bossman Hades (boss of Styx) was always hard, and I was only starting to reach his second stage.
The true MVP for the win is Smoldering Air with Aphrodite's Aid. This combination allowed me to spam Aphrodite's Aid consistently about once every 5 s, and the Charm that comes from the boon effectively interrupts Hades' laser attacks. That gave me more opportunities to land hits more often, needing 3/4 less hits than without the effects of Explosive Shot, and avoid damage as I fumble my way through.
And as you can tell in the screenshot of the victory, I got through the barest of my skin right there.
Honourable mention goes to Festive Fog boosted by Scintillating Feast---it added some additional AOE, and gave enough curses with Weak to allow Privileged Status to proc, giving an additional 40% of damage.
To think that I was contemplating whether to turn on God Mode for that 20% damage reduction that would increase by 2 percentage points for each death... there's no real penalty for using God Mode, but it does store the records separately from non-God Mode. I think I'm fine without God Mode, as shown through this first win. I did a meme run with all the Pact of Punishment conditions at Max, and didn't survive for more than one chamber. Bummer. I suppose it's back to the regular mode for now.
This first win is also special because I think this is the first time I actually had a successful run of some rogue-lite in a long while. I don't usually do well in rogue-lites because they tend to get a tad twitchy, and my reflexes are no longer what they were. Meta-progression in Hades is fun compared to say Rogue Legacy because it is so much easier to control, particularly with the meta-progression currency being separate and persistent as compared to in-run currency for in-run progression items.
And now, another 9 more wins to unlock the rest of the story. 💀
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I wrote a new short story over at my prose blog, and I think that it caught some aspects of a narrative that I was hallucinating about that day. Not sure if it truly achieved what I wanted to say, but I think it is good that I'm writing things other than work reports, slide decks, and rants out here.
I suppose that's about it for now. July is fast reaching an end, and soon, it will be August with all the craziness that the appraisal period brings.
Oh and SIN city celebrates its GOTH BIRTHDAY.
...
I mean 60TH BIRTHDAY. Who the hell capitalises the ordinal suffix letters?
Till the next update.
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