Michelangelo, Pietà

Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498-1500, marble  (Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.

The Pietà was a popular subject among northern european artists. It means Pity or Compassion, and represents Mary sorrowfully contemplating the dead body of her son which she holds on her lap. This sculpture was commissioned by a French Cardinal living in Rome.

Look closely and see how Michelangelo made marble seem like flesh, and look at those complicated folds of drapery. It is important here to remember how sculpture is made. It was a messy, rather loud process (which is one of the reasons that Leonardo claimed that painting was superior to sculpture!). Just like painters often mixed their own paint, Michelangelo forged many of his own tools, and often participated in the quarrying of his marble -- a dangerous job.

When we look at the extraordinary representation of the human body here we remember that Michelangelo, like Leonardo before him, had dissected cadavers to understand how the body worked.

Gears of War doesn't reach the greatness or the enjoyment of Resident Evil 4

Downtown Vancouver skyline at the end of November of 2006

I'm still slowly playing Persona 4 again. That's not surprising since it's one of my favorite video games. I'll briefly mention that the game has many clever details. For example, on September 6, you can speak to Teddie in your classroom. This is odd because he isn't a student at your school. He says, "I'm busier than most of you, so I can't come every morning. I mean, I have to eat breakfast, go back to bed, eat lunch, watch some TV... And that's not even counting time for snacks! You might not think so, but coming here is pretty tough to fit into my schedule." Another funny dialogue occurs at school on April 12, when Mr. Morooka says, "Awright, shut your traps! I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward! First things first! Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. Long as I'm around, you students are going to be pure as the driven snow! Now I hate wasting my time, but I'd better introduce this transfer student. This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage. And he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him! Now listen up! This town is miles away from your big city of perverts and assholes, in more ways than one. You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let alone abusing them! But what do I know... it's not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast. Every time I turn my back, you're fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and your my-places..." In fact, there's plenty of interesting dialogue in the game. It's often worth it to just listen to unimportant characters at school or elsewhere in the town. The director, Katsura Hashino, even said that there's so much dialogue in the game that some of it had to be cut in order to fit the game on a disc. Much of the dialogue can be found at https://lparchive.org/Persona-4-Golden/. In addition, you can find and speak to some characters around town that are later revealed to be of much importance to the story. One example is Taro Namatame, who can be found in the Shopping District or on Samegawa Flood Plain. Moreover, when he's there, the weather is usually sunny, there's no music playing, and you can hear the sound of birds and crickets.

I recently finished reading the April 2008 issue of Play magazine, which existed from 2002 to 2010. This U.S.-based magazine focused on video games, manga, anime, and other media such as film and television, comics, and music. The two cover stories in this issue are about the ports of Death Jr. II: Root of Evil (2006) and Okami (2006) for the Nintendo Wii. The inclusion of the article about Okami is probably why I downloaded this issue from https://archive.org/ several years ago. At the beginning, there's a paragraph about the announcement of Gears of War 2, which was released at the end of 2008. I had a mild desire to play Gears of War (2006) and its sequels for a long time, since it's an "over-the-shoulder" third-person action game, like Resident Evil 4 (2005). I had a fantastic time playing Resident Evil 4 on my Slim PlayStation 2 and the Dead Space trilogy on my PlayStation 3 Super Slim. Now I can claim that I've completed two of the Gears of War games, on my Xbox 360. It's too bad that these games aren't available for PC, but I'm not clamoring for a release of these games for PC because when a game is ported to another platform, it's usually as some kind of remaster nowadays, and I just hate remasters. Are the Gears of War games as good as the other great "over-the-shoulder" shooter games? No, they're not. But I still had a very good time playing them, and they deserve to be listed among the greatest video games of all time. The gameplay is very simple. Because of this, it can be played and enjoyed by any meathead. And the story is about human meatheads that shoot at alien meatheads. Resident Evil 4, the video game that revolutionized shooters and had a massive impact on the video game industry, was directed by Shinji Mikami. I think that Mikami, like many other great video game designers, is autistic. Gears of War didn't really revolutionize anything, but it does have its own style of gameplay, which separates it from other shooters in a minor way. This gameplay involves a cover system. That is, you don't just stand and fire your guns in Gears of War. You, playing as Marcus Fenix, have to frequently take cover in order to recover health and to avoid enemy fire. This style of gameplay is actually quite entertaining once you get used to it. The graphics and the designs are generally excellent. I must admit that, like in the Dead Space games, I spent a lot of time simply standing and looking around at the scenery in the Gears of War games, though there are fewer good-looking and interesting things to look at than in the Dead Space games. The surroundings in the Gears of War games are usually ruined buildings, but they still have a certain charm because of the detailed designs and use of light. Perhaps the only real downside in the Gears of War games is that the story and the characters aren't very interesting. The story is definitely not the main draw in these games. It is interesting from time to time. But, hey, in Gears of War 2, you get to kill a "giant worm" from the inside. That's kind of cliche, but still "cool". Anyway, the first cover story in the magazine is on page 10, and it's about Death Jr. II: Root of Evil, which is a game that I haven't played. Ten pages are dedicated to this game. I can't really comment on this game since I haven't played it, but it got a high recommendation from Play magazine, with the statement "If you have a Wii you need this game." I did, however, play Death Jr. (2005) for the PlayStation Portable, which turned out to be an average shooter with an almost non-existent story, though I suppose that this game still has a certain charm. The article about Death Jr. II: Root of Evil is then followed by several articles about upcoming video games. The games mentioned are Iron Man, Lego Batman: The Videogame, Ninja Gaiden II, Fable II, Damnation, Disgaea 3, Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Grand Theft Auto IV, Hail to the Chimp, and The Incredible Hulk. Then comes a review of Okami for the Wii, the first real review in the issue. This article was easily the biggest draw of the issue for me, and I must say that almost nothing else in the issue interested me or grabbed me, though I generally agreed with what the editors had to say. I included a short review of Okami in an earlier post of mine, after I completed the game for the first time. This is easily one of the best games for the PS2, and it's one of my favorite video games. I haven't played Okami for the Wii. Therefore, I can't comment on how it compares to the original game for the PS2. Play magazine gave it a rating of 9.5 out of 10, stating the following. "Okami, to me, is one of the most important games of the past 15 years. Not because it features an elegant mythological story told through a tree spirit and a bug (sorry Issun), nor because it features a mute four-legged wolf god as a savior - although both points are worthy of a moment of silence for Clover Studios. What makes Okami so timeless is an art style that transcends technology. It looks as new today as it did in 2006. And it will look as new in 2010 as it does in 2008. In rare circumstances art can actually triumph over technology. Never has that rung so true as with Okami. But that's only the beginning of this game's towering achievement. It also set new standards in interaction via the celestial brush used in both the real-time battles and the practical world where the player wields the brush like a god, bearing sunlight, fruit and safe passage. How is it then that Okami became the final nail in Clover Studios' coffin? After reinventing side-scrolling action with Viewtiful Joe and adventure with Okami, they were thanked with dismal sales. The face of the matter is that high-concept avant-garde games appeal to a relatively small (yet oh-so-appreciative) audience. It isn't until later that the rest of the world catches up. It's the Blade Runner effect all over again. The greatest science fiction movie ever created tanked out of the gate, but over time became a legend in filmmaking." The review of Okami is followed by reviews of Universe at War: Earth Assault (8.5 out of 10), Condemned 2: Bloodshot (9.5 out of 10), Army of Two (8 out of 10), Viking: Battle for Asgard (9.5 out of 10), SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (9 out of 10), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (10 out of 10), Castle of Shikigami III (7 out of 10), WWII Aces (2 out of 10), FIFA Street 3 (6.5 out of 10), Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (7 out of 10), The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (7 out of 10), Obscure: The Aftermath (7.5 out of 10), Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (5 out of 10), PixelJunk Monsters (9 out of 10), Sega Superstars Tennis (8.5 out of 10), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (9 out of 10), God of War: Chains of Olympus (9 out of 10), Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (9.5 out of 10), Rondo of Swords (8 out of 10), and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (8 out of 10). I suppose that the editors of Play can be commended for reviewing a number of games for every console every month. The only game out of the ones mentioned that I've played and completed is God of War: Chains of Olympus. This happened recently, and I found the game to be enjoyable. Play wrote, "Had God of War: Chains of Olympus not begun to lose focus at the end and rely too much on recycled ideas, this unrivaled PSP game would be a contender to one-up last year's awesome God of War 2. Confidently passed on to Daxter-developer Ready at Dawn while original series creator Sony Santa Monica stick to console, the God of War template is firmly intact, but it's the subtle sensibilities of these fresh creators that make Chains of Olympus an even more rounded success. It's not like that much has really changed fundamentally - a few added magic attacks are nifty but insubstantial - but there are enough stylistic flourishes and design choices that mark the game as something uniquely transformative for a Kratos adventure. God of War has gracefully pushed the PS2 to its limit in the past, so anything less on PSP is asking for trouble in the most obnoxious of gaming circles. No trouble here. There is not a moment in the presentation of Chains of Olympus that disappoints, there is maybe no better tech on the PSP. Add to the benchmark coding job an impressive level of artistry behind the Greek-mythology inspirations and you get a landscape both gorgeous and highly spirited. Credit a sweeping musical score for further layering on the thick mood." When it comes to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Play wrote, "Last month, Nick Des Barres gave Play a thrilling preview of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Calling this game "console-quality gaming in the palm of your hand," he promised that it would be the best part yet of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Well kids, I come here today to confirm what Mr. Des Barres has set forth. Crisis Core is a full, complete, dignified game. It's one of the few times in my life that I have played a portable title and lost touch with its material presence in my hands. Wrapped up in the presentation, engaged by the story, and startled by the music, I found myself playing a big game that just happened to be on a tiny screen. It's so good that I wanted to get a PSP Slim just to be able to plug the bugger into my television at home - to anchor myself on my couch for a more robust experience. Crisis Core has been a system-seller in Japan. I hope it works the same way here." The next article is about The World Ends with You (2007) for the Nintendo DS. It seems that this article was included only to praise the game and not to review it because the game was released almost a year before the issue came out and because no rating is given to the game in the issue. This isn't a problem for me because The World Ends with You is one of the games that I'd like to play and because it's a highly regarded NDS game. Play wrote, "If I was asked to cite one game that defines the NDS experience it would be The World Ends with You. No way this game gets made on console, and what a shame it would be if the spirit of true innovation was quelled during this vital turning point in gaming culture. Developed by the Kingdom Hearts team and Jupiter with character designs by Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi (applause sign flashes), inspired by the aesthetics of Shibuya youth culture, it doesn't get any more avant-garde, J-pop-vogue than this." The next article includes thoughts and hopes about the upcoming Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS. Then there's a long article about a revival of fighting games in 2008 and about the video games that were featured at the AOU 2008 trade show. The games mentioned and commented on are Street Fighter IV, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, Arcana Heart 2, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Fate/unlimited codes, Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next, The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match, The King of Fighters XII, Melty Blood Actress Again, Monster Ancient Cline, Samurai Shodown Sen, Sengoku Basara X, Tekken 6, and Virtua Fighter 5 R. After the article about Okami, this is my favorite article in the issue because it's about a somewhat interesting event in the video game industry and because it features information that I didn't know about before. Play wrote, "I've had a few months now to process the fact that we're getting a Street Fighter IV. Initial media had me cautiously optimistic, and as much as I would have appreciated a high-definition, hand-drawn 2-D revival, my adult self knows that such a thing would not be appropriate for the Street Fighter brand in 2008. All that really matters is how it plays, and after having spent a combined four hours in line to play a total of two matches of SFIV, I can tell you that it is perfectly and quintessentially Street Fighter." Then there are short articles about Tales of Destiny Director's Cut, Warrior Epic, Blood Bowl, and Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. Then there's an article about computer hardware and software. The issue came out when Windows Vista was still being used and when solid-state drives had yet to replace hard disk drives. I remember those days with some fondness now because at that time companies still tried to make electronic devices and laptops that looked distinct. Nowadays, almost all laptops, phones, and television sets look pretty much the same. And many great video games were still being released. Although I didn't play video games at that time, let's not forget that 2008 was the year of Braid, Burnout Paradise, Dead Space, Fable II, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Left 4 Dead, LittleBigPlanet, Persona 4, Rock Band 2, Spelunky, Street Fighter IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Valkyria Chronicles. Moreover, the economic crisis that began in 2008 had yet to reveal itself in full. Therefore, things weren't yet as bad or as depressing as they are now. It was a time when Vancouver wasn't being called a sh*thole by many people. At that time, if I had known that my favorite cinemas and stores would disappear in only a few years, I would have gone to those places more often. People don't really miss something until it's gone or until it becomes a rarity. Finally, at the end of the issue, there are several reviews of new films and television shows. The only reviews that interested me are of Appleseed Ex Machina and No Country for Old Men. It took a long time for me to finish reading this issue of Play magazine because I read it slowly. Although 2008 was a great year for video games, so far I've played only a few of the games that are mentioned in the issue, and almost nothing else interested me in the issue. Therefore, the issue can get only a mild recommendation from me, even if reading the issue was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me.

Review: Yomawari: Night Alone

https://hardcoregamer.com/reviews/review-yomawari-night-alone/232284/#:~:text=Yomawari%3A%20Night%20Alone%20is%20a%20strange%20stealthy%20nighttime,a%20desolate%20open-world%20town%20and%20its%20surrounding%20areas.

The town at night is empty, but its darkened streets aren't completely free of activity.  The shadowy dead stalk any who cross their paths, making going outside a task for only the bravest or most desperate people.  When a young girl first loses her dog and then her sister disappears while looking for it, she has just the right combination of those two emotions to head out into the darkness after them.  The ghosts are pure Japanese in origin, making them infinitely weirder than the "glowing translucent people" of western mythology, and when the sun sets they turn the town into a freakshow of shadows, specters, multi-legged demons, possessed items and other surprises waiting to jump out at a young girl who just wants her sister back.

Yomawari: Night Alone is a strange stealthy nighttime horror-adventure.  It's a mix of wonderful ideas, janky execution, emotional moments, and plenty of jump scares, set in a desolate open-world town and its surrounding areas.  All the horror staples make an appearance- creepy schoolgrounds, haunted downtown area, shadowy shrines, abandoned factory, windswept rice fields, and plenty more all crawling with an assortment of the hostile undead. It's dangerous out there, but the occasional Jizo statue acts as a temporary checkpoint (not, and this is very important, a save point, despite the text saying "quick save") on the many, many times you get the poor girl killed off.

The nameless girl isn't entirely defenseless, but it's close.  She mostly runs away from the ghosts, but hiding in bushes and signs works too.  When running her stamina bar shrinks down at a pace that's determined by how frightened she is, and when her heart is pounding with fear it dissipates almost instantly.  For most ghosts this isn't too big a deal, seeing as walking speed is just barely quick enough to keep her out of their grip, but there are a few encounters where this mechanic is maddening.  The third chapter of the game see the girl running from the persistent ghost of a young woman who died after falling off a cliff, and it's here that the game shows its controls are better suited to doing anything but action.  The ghost's attacks are quick enough that it's easy to accidentally waste the tiny moment of Run that's available before fear eradicates the stamina bar, making for a section that's wildly aggravating.  Thankfully it ends on a touching story note, but Yomawari is at its best when not putting its controls to the test.

Most of the time, thankfully, the girl is exploring the town, picking up keys and collectibles to help her on the way, all while using the flashlight to scout the ghosts ahead and plan the least confrontational way around.  Some ghosts are always visible but most only show up in the beam of her flashlight.  Their invisibility doesn't make them any less dangerous, and that's particularly tricky when they hang around more visible supernatural creatures who are triggered by light.  Other creatures are more attuned to sound, requiring tiptoeing past, while still more ghosts just tool around minding their own business but utterly indifferent to mowing down whoever gets in their way.  It's a menagerie of the paranormal and if they aren't overtly hostile then the best you can hope for is indifference.

Yomawari's strongest point, in fact, is it's personality, which shines through in every scene.  The 2D art is gorgeous, easily overriding the stiff animations, and while the story is very light on the words it packs a strong emotional punch.  I'm being purposefully quiet about a specific spoiler, in fact, but it shades the entire game with a sense of sadness for the girl who isn't yet equipped to deal with her situation.  She's not out to save the world but rather find her dog and sister, and that's a goal that's easy to relate to despite knowing something the girl doesn't.

Yomawari: Night Alone is a game that will be remembered more for its tone and story than gameplay, but that's enough to recommend it.  The PC port is clearly unoptimized from the Vita build, with issues like having to shoo the cursor off the screen every time you fire up the game, but the adventure of a little girl wearing a big red bow and a bunny backpack going out again and again into a haunted town is instantly engaging, hooking the player completely within the first couple of minutes. The variety of weird Japanese ghosts makes for a fantastically unique cast of threats and there are even plenty of harmless jump-scares just to keep you on your toes.  While a bit rough and unpolished, Yomawari: Night Alone is a wonderfully spooky adventure that succeeds on pure heart.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is LAME and Everyone Will LOVE It.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is LAME and Everyone Will LOVE It. Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest character action games of all time. Despite being branded as survival horror, or even a 3rd person shooter, the classic Resident Evil 4 we all know and love actually has much more in common with Shinji Mikami's other beat em' up classic, Godhand, than it does the other entries in the Resident Evil Franchise. When Resident Evil 4 Remake was announced two years ago, I was sure that the original gameplay of the game (the reason why the game has endured and been so compelling) will "updated" for modern gamers. I was right. After playing the Chainsaw demo for Resident Evil 4 Remake I cannot say I am surprised or even dissapointed, because I saw this train coming for years now.

In this video, I do recognize that I am in a minority when it comes to Resident Evil Fans and that my views on the game probably will only apply to a small sliver of the audience, but I think it's imporant to discuss in depth, as I do, the combat and design changes that have taken place in this "update" because Resident Evil 4 Remake is another symptom in this trend of crushing unique combat and level design in favor of the bland and endlessly repeated standard action game model that we see today. Before even posting this video, I am sure I will read a pile of comments that will state that this game should be taken "on it's own terms" and that holding it against the high standard of the original release is unfair or closed minded. To that I do want to say that if Resident Evil 4 Remake's gameplay and design should be held on it's own terms, why doesn't it use it's own design, it's own marketing, and it's own fanbase rather than plugging into an existing fanbase and then releasing a watered down fanfiction of the original? It's a comprimise to begin with anyway as the Remake is trying to throw all these design ideas and mechanics into a blender and then hoping the final result turns out somehow better than the tightly designed original. Sure Capcom own the IP and copyright, but artistic merit is not bought and held in a legal department.

All that being said, I do understand that this Remake world is the universe we exist in, so I can understand why people will be interested in the game and will play it. I personally will play the full version of the game at some point, I'm sure it has a lot of fun moments the same way a cover song can be enjoyable to listen to. But the point I'm trying to get across in this video is that we currently exist in a very stale, lame, predictable gaming enviroment where even all time classics like Resi 4 are now being chewed up and spit out into digestible retreds. This video is not intended as a negative review outright, but since everyone else will talk about how perfect the remake is (I'm predicting) this vid will probably come across that way in comparison ha.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is going to come out on Steam (PC), PS4/PS5, and Xbox Series X. Apparently, the Xbox 1X owners, such as myself, are being left out in the cold because that console is cursed.

Now reading Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons...

Out of Darkness (2022) - Movie Review

https://www.flickeringmyth.com/movie-review-out-of-darkness-2022/

Crafting a survival horror based on the ancient world of prehistoric humanity sounds like a good idea. After all, surviving was pretty much the day-to-day business of being an early human. If you could get through the day with a bit of food in your belly and avoid being eaten up by a hungry predator or stung to death it was pretty good going. In short, it was a scary world, and horror was always just around the corner.

Terror in ancient lands offers plenty of scope for cinematic nightmares. The recent Adam Driver starring thriller 65 explored some similar territory, albeit much further back in time. Going back in our world’s time there are the early 1980s fantasy Quest for Fire and the very 60’s campy delights of One Million Years B.C. with Racquel Welch.

The major release of Out of Darkness (originally titled The Origin) delivers a tense and mysterious story rooted in the ancient world of 40,000 years ago. Based on the thoroughly researched idea of a band of early humans attempting to cross the big water to find new pastures to explore, Andrew Cumming’s film showcases the indomitable spirit of resilience.

The movie’s research team certainly did their work. As well as a detailed look at behaviour and group dynamics, there is even a unique language specially created for the film for the characters to communicate in. Inspired by the Basque language, which is thought by many experts to be the last remaining link to prehistoric languages present in Europe, the dialogue helps to place the story as taking place deep in the past.

Into this world a band of travellers – some family, plus a tough and wild ‘stray’ Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) – set off in search of decent food and shelter. When they travel to a new world they find a gloomy atmosphere, fraught with danger and a stalking presence that seems to know their every move. Under the cover of darkness the mysterious enemy attacks, and starts taking them down one by one.

In this way, the movie operates like a deadly serious slasher movie. The unseen thing is picking them off, and when the youngest member of the tribe disappears, the story evokes ancient memories of children in peril legends. Without giving anything away, the movie – which I felt worked in its aim of imagining the confusion and motivation of early humans – shows off the need for understanding the Earth and its denizens to not just survive, but to flourish.

Out of Darkness is a fascinating update on the themes of survival in an unforgiving world. With richly captured cinematography, empathic group acting from the cast of new faces, and fluid action sequences, the movie places the audience in a cruel world where only the strong survive.

The real cue we can take from this ambitious tale is that the spirit of resilience in the human animal is still with us, and the adaptability we have shown to get this far is needed more than ever. Curiosity, compassion and imagination are all tools that still need to be honed to ‘make it’ as a species. The optimists among us will hope that we get there eventually.  

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Joan Of Arc (1893) and A Nymph In The Forest (1898) by Charles-Amable Lenoir.

Iran-born actor Sahel Rosa on the hardship and help she had growing up in Japan: interview - The Mainichi

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200810/p2a/00m/0fe/017000c

There are many examples of children of foreign nationalities falling by the wayside in Japan, after arriving unable to speak the language and then struggling to fit in at school or in society.

But Sahel Rosa, 34, came to Japan from the chaotic aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and went on to become an actor and TV personality. She recently sat down for an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, and reflected on the difficulties children from abroad can have when starting a new life in Japan, and the help she received which enabled her to succeed.

Mainichi Shimbun: Could you tell us a bit about the circumstances that led to you coming to Japan?

Sahel Rosa: I was born in 1985, in a small town in Iran. From age 4, I was living in an orphanage. A university student who came there are as a volunteer adopted me, and she became my mother. When she decided she would work in Japan, she took me with her, and I came here when I was 7. It was Aug. 13, 1993.

MS: Did you have any concerns then?

SR: I enrolled at Shiki Daisan Elementary School, a public school in Shiki, Saitama Prefecture (north of Tokyo), from the second term of second grade. I came in on a three-month holiday visa, so I was treated as an exchange student. The first thing that surprised me was that there were boys in the classroom. In Iran, where many people are Muslim, boys and girls study in separate schools until they reach university. I was also perplexed about wearing bloomers that showed my legs during P.E. lessons.

There were also differences in the way we communicated in standard situations. TV shows from Japan were shown on Iranian TV, and I watched a few of them. There was Oshin, Captain Tsubasa, Triton of the Sea, and Mito Komon. But they were all dubbed into Farsi, so I just thought everyone in the world spoke Farsi. In Iran, we speak using big hand and mouth movements, and it's like we're singing. Japanese people don't tend to change their facial expressions too much when conversing, so at first I was scared because I thought they were angry.

MS: Did you manage to integrate at school?

SR: My classmates would all gather around my desk, and they'd try to communicate with me using gestures. They'd shout "Sahel" and then give me a thumbs-up and say "Good" in English. But, in Iran, a thumbs-up doesn't mean good at all; it's a gesture used to demean another person. Whenever someone would give me a thumbs-up with a smile, I'd think they were being rude to me, and I'd feel low.

But then I also did things that upset everyone. In Iran, when we want to say "Hey" to get someone's attention, we make a kind a clicking sound with our tongue. When I did it when trying to make friends, the other children would get the impression that I had a bad attitude, or that I wanted a fight, and gradually people kept their distance from me. In class photos from the time, I'm standing on the edge looking down. I didn't have a place where I felt comfortable. I didn't understand a thing going on in classes, and at first I felt like I'd been abandoned there.

MS: According to a 1993 survey by the education ministry, the number of children "in need of Japanese language instruction" in elementary, junior high and high schools was reportedly around 10,450. That number is a fifth of today's figures. With no educational framework in place, who did you learn Japanese from?

SR: My school principal. He was a kind, short teacher with glasses. He couldn't bear to see me the way I was, and told me to come to his office. There, during the mornings until midday, he would teach me Japanese one-to-one. We didn't use a textbook. For example, we would turn on a tap and touch the water, and I would mimic his pronunciation of the word for water. Through that method, I learned five new words each day.

The principal treated me as a friend. He would say, "I'm your friend. Wouldn't it be good if we were able to talk to each other?" I felt like I wanted to speak with him more, too, so I went on absorbing more words. Like with riding a bicycle, being taught how to pedal is important. No matter how many times you fall over, if you know how to pedal you can take off again. As I showed people I was trying to communicate with the words I'd learned, even though I was making mistakes, my classmates started walking home with me after school. After about three months, I wrote about my experience with a jump rope. We had been on a field trip, and what had left an impression on me was when we all enjoyed doing this huge jump rope activity as a class.

MS: If your principal hadn't taught you Japanese, what do you think would have happened to you?

SR: I don't think I'd have come to love Japanese people. I wouldn't have been able to make friends, and I'd have probably gone on misreading things as bullying. With my principal's lessons, Japanese went from being something I perceived as a scary language to a polite and warm one. Language is a bridge that connects people.

If from the start I hadn't been able to go to school, my life wouldn't have turned out the way it has. When we came to Japan, my mother was married, but I didn't get on well with my stepfather and they divorced. We were chased out of our one-room apartment in the middle of winter, and for two weeks I went to school while living in a park.

A school cook found out about our situation, and invited us to her house and gave us something to eat. She also asked a lawyer to help us apply for a visa that would mean we could stay in Japan, and even found work for my mother. If she hadn't been there, we wouldn't have escaped that park, and maybe have become people staying illegally.

When I was going to elementary school, the school got my textbooks, exercise books, notebooks, and pencils together for me. They even got me a school bag. For a foreigner who has just arrived in Japan, prices here are very high. It's at the level where you have to think about buying a single can of juice. The principal and the others accepted us, and saved us. For that reason, now I feel like I want to give back to them, and as one way of doing that I continue to visit child welfare facilities and support refugees.

MS: It's been more than 25 years since you entered that school, and in that time the number of foreign children coming to Japan has risen, but more than 10,000 of them are in "unsupported" situations where they don't get the Japanese language education they need. What kind of support do you think would be best?

SR: If they attend classes while still not understanding the words, they'll never get the knowledge they're meant to. First, the important thing is to secure school courses focused on Japanese language teaching. When they go home, there's no one who can explain their homework to them, and they don't always have people in the neighborhood looking out for them, so the school needs to provide some kind of comprehensive framework, I think.

MS: Is there anything you want to say to the foreign children living in Japan today?

SR: Living in a country with a different language and culture to your own comes with a lot of struggles. The children working hard in the middle of all that can't really be open about their worries and pain precisely because they are working hard on it. I was bullied when I was in junior high school, and there were times I thought I wanted to kill myself, but to my mother, who worked morning to night in a factory until she was exhausted, I would just lie and say, "School was fun."

What I can say from that experience is that you don't have to pretend to be strong. I learned afterwards, but in truth my mother also had her own concerns about living in Japan. If you really show your parents and the people around you your weakness, then by sharing your troubles, maybe a feeling that you can overcome them together will emerge.

--

Profile: Sahel Rosa

Born in Iran in 1985, she started her entertainment career when she was in high school, and made her radio debut on FM station J-Wave. Her performance in the short film "Cold Feet" won her the Best Lead Actress in a Foreign Language Film award at the 6th Milan International Filmmaker Festival. She is a goodwill ambassador for an international nongovernmental organization which aims to find all children a home, and she works to provide support and outdoor classes for children across the globe.

(Interview by Yuka Narita, City News Department)

Manga Entertainment - TV Tropes

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/MangaEntertainment

Manga Entertainment is an influential, yet controversial, anime distribution/production company. Despite its name, the company distributes anime rather than manga. The company was originally founded in the United Kingdom in 1987 before expanding into the North American market in 1994, after the purchase of the American licensor L.A. Hero, which subsequently became Manga Video USA.

Manga, like many other companies at the time, chose to concentrate on dubbed versions of its licenses instead of subtitling. However, instead of bowdlerizing for mass appeal, Manga embraced the racier and gory aspects of anime. Their dubs gained a reputation to match, thanks to several infamously gratuitous examples of Cluster F Bombs being dropped (in order to get an "18" adults-only rating). They weren't above the occasional Macekre, either.

Despite this (or perhaps because of it), Manga Entertainment did well, and was flush with investor cash, which was used to co-produce ambitious projects like the original Ghost in the Shell movie. Confusing matters, Manga UK traditionally advertised its anime releases as "manga videos", and the term apparently took hold for a while.

Manga UK also licenses titles from international companies to release them in the UK market. For example, Manga UK has a licensing agreement with Viz Media that allows them to distribute popular titles such as Bleach, Naruto and Death Note. Manga UK is also the current British distributor for Funimation titles. Many of their earlier releases were licensed from Streamline Pictures (e.g. AKIRA and the animated Fist of the North Star movie).

The company had a close relationship with the US-based Bandai Entertainment, with whom they've collaborated numerous times, most notably on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, where it's difficult to tell which company actually holds the license (Manga does, but sublicensed all production to Bandai). The company also had a presence on American cable television, with the former Ani-Monday block on Syfy consisting of both recent and old Manga Entertainment titles. Manga Entertainment technically had a presence on American television years before that: Manga Entertainment's titles were the majority (though not all) of the anime shown on Starz Encore Action's Animidnight block for years; the Encore channels are owned by Starz, which was owned by the same company that owned Manga Entertainment at the time and said company would later sign a distribution deal with Syfy when Ani-Monday started, which is why Manga Entertainment had such a strong presence on both Animidnight and Ani-Mondays, and both blocks shared much of the same programming. For a long time, in the early 2000s, Animidnight was the only place one could consistently catch uncensored anime on American television, and much of it was Manga Entertainment titles, whose 18+ dubs fit well with adult oriented network.

Manga Entertainment started out as a unit of music executive Chris Blackwell's Island World, which was purchased by PolyGram in December 1994. Following a dispute with PolyGram over attempted Executive Meddling on Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man, based on a screenplay by John Grisham, Blackwell left PolyGram in 1997 and took a lot of his Island World assets, including Manga Entertainment, with him, incorporating them into his Palm Pictures venture; PolyGram would continue to distribute until it went bankrupt and was folded into Universal in 1998. Since 2005, the UK division operated independently from the North American division, both of which were owned by Anchor Bay, a subdivision of Starz Media. Manga USA ceased licensing new products after REDLINE in 2011.

In 2015, both Manga UK and Anchor Bay UK were bought from Starz by managing director Colin Lomax. Manga UK currently shares a working relationship with fledgling company Animatsu Entertainment, with the latter company handling production and international rights. Anchor Bay UK became Platform Entertainment and now has exclusive rights to the Manga branding and catalog in the UK and Ireland. Manga UK would later be acquired by Sony via Funimation in 2019. In 2021, Funimation would mostly retire the Manga UK brand, releasing future titles under the Funimation name alone.

As of 2022, the Manga UK is now operating as the UK division of Crunchyroll.

In 2016, Lionsgate acquired Starz and its properties, and merged both Anchor Bay Entertainment and Manga USA into their home entertainment division. Since the acquisition, Manga USA's website announced plans for a relaunch, which as of 2021 has yet to happen.

Distributors for the American unit over the years included:

- PolyGram Video on behalf of Palm Pictures (February 28, 1995-December 7, 1998)
- RYKO Distribution on behalf of Palm Pictures (December 7, 1998-April 24, 2002)
- Warner Home Video on behalf of Warner Music Entertainment (April 24, 2002-February 27, 2004)
- Warner Music Entertainment (February 27-May 13, 2004)
- Anchor Bay Entertainment (May 13 2004-September 2011)

The series Manga Entertainment has released include:

- AKIRA (their first UK release, Streamline dub and subtitled versions)
- Angel Cop
- Appleseed (1988 OVA with hilarious UK-produced dub)
- Battle Angel Alita
- Black Butler (both anime, UK distribution only; Funimation holds the license in North America)
- Black Lagoon
- Black Magic M-66
- Bleach: Fade to Black
- Bleach: Hell Verse
- Bleach: Memories of Nobody
- Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion
- Blood: The Last Vampire
- Bubblegum Crisis and its follow-up, Bubblegum Crash! (UK release, original series used AnimEigo dub, Crash! later redubbed by Manga)
- Dead Leaves (Funded and co-produced the film)
- Descendants of Darkness
- Devilman
- Digimon Adventure (UK distribution only; currently licensed by Discotek Media in North America)
- Digimon Adventure 02 (UK distribution only; currently released by New Video Group in North America)
- Digimon Adventure tri. (UK distribution only; Shout! Factory holds the North American distribution rights)
- Dominion Tank Police (New Dominion Tank Police; they produced the English dub of the original)
- Dragon Ball (first series)
- Dragon Ball Z
- Dragon Ball GT
- Dragon Ball Z Kai (as Dragon Ball Z Kai)
- Dragon Ball Super
- Fairy Tail (anime, UK distribution only; UK license now held by Anime Limited. Funimation holds the license in North America)
- First Squad
- Fist of the North Star (the first 36 episodes of the TV series, which were dubbed with a new soundtrack by Reinforced Records, and the Streamline dub of the 1986 film)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa (UK distribution only)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (UK distribution only)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (UK distribution only)
- Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (Had their own bizarre '90s British rave music filled dub commissioned)
- Ghost in the Shell (Co-producers of the first movie; cooperated with Bandai Entertainment on Stand Alone Complex and (eventually) the second film)
- Ghost in the Shell (1995)
- Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still (Picked up from U.S. Renditions and dubbed to completion on VHS. Media Blasters redubbed and re-released the series on DVD)
- Gunbuster (Picked up from U.S. Renditions, VHS only)
- Guyver (12-episode OVA)
- Highschool of the Dead (anime and OVA, UK distribution only; Sentai Filmworks holds the license in North America)
- K-On! (Anime series and the movie, UK distribution only; licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America)
- Lensman movie (Streamline dub)
- Lupin III:
- The first movie, under the title of The Secret of Mamo (UK VHS, it got a Manga-produced dub that was extremely rare, but is now readily available in the US thanks to Discotek Media. They later did a UK DVD, but it had the Geneon dub instead)
- The second movie, The Castle of Cagliostro (originally a Streamline title, they did a VHS release for the UK with the Streamline dub, then it got a Manga US-produced dub, which may be the least profane pre-2001 dub they made. [This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.] Doesn't mean it's safe for kids, though Discotek's release includes a "family friendly" version of the Manga dub)
- Lupin III Yearly Specials
- The first TV movie, under the title of Goodbye Lady Liberty (UK VHS only, this dub is also very rare, but was also rescued by Discotek. Until 2018, this was the only special outside Funimation's block with an English dub)
- Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (UK distribution only)
- Macross II
- Macross Plus
- Mad Bull 34 (Now licensed by Discotek Media in the US)
- Mega Man Star Force (anime; UK distribution only)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (Paid through the nose for the rights to films Death and Rebirth and End of Evangelion, which they currently no longer have)
- Ninja Scroll
- Noein (now licensed by FUNimation)
- Orguss 02
- Patlabor: The Movie
- Patlabor 2: The Movie
- Perfect Blue (Now distributed by GKIDS)
- Pokémon the Series (most of the franchise save for most of the Miramax-distributed films; UK distribution only; Viz distributes in North America)
- Pokémon: The First Movie
- Pokémon 2000
- Pokémon 3
- Pokémon: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
- Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (UK distribution only; Viz Media holds the license in North America)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (UK distribution only; Aniplex USA holds the license in North America
- Read or Die (the original 3-episode OVA)
- REDLINE (notable as the US division's final license so far)
- Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (Re-released by Bandai Entertainment with the Manga dub)
- RWBY (UK home video distribution only)
- Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (now licensed by Discotek Media in the US)
- Street Fighter II V
- Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation
- Street Fighter Alpha: Generations (was actually produced specifically for the international market with no Japanese release until it got included in a Japanese release of The Legend of Chun-li)
- Sword Art Online (first anime only, UK distribution only; Aniplex USA holds the license in North America)
- Tactics (license-snipe from ADV Films; Manga's release retained ADV's dub)
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Helped Bandai Entertainment negotiate the agreement to air the series on the Sci-Fi Channel)
- Tokkô
- The Transformers: The Movie (UK distribution only; Shout! Factory published the 30th anniversary HD version and holds the North American distribution rights)
- Vampire Wars
- Violence Jack
- Welcome to The Space Show
- X/1999
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (UK distribution only; released by New Video Group in North America)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (UK distriution only; release by New Video Group in North America)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (UK distribution only; released by New Video Group in North America)
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time (UK distribution only; released by New Video Group in North America)

Keep Circulating the Tapes: The US division has allowed many licenses to lapse, and while some have been rescued by other companies, some have not, leaving the latter group in this realm.

A disappointing port is what Persona 4 Golden is in comparison to the original

A still from Silent Hill 3 (2003), directed by Kazuhide Nakazawa

Since I've been slowly playing Persona 4 for the third time, I'd like to briefly compare Persona 4 for the PlayStation 2 to Persona 4 Golden for the PlayStation Vita and PC. I got to experience playing Persona 4 for the first time by playing Persona 4 Golden on my PlayStation Vita several years ago. The Vita is the first handheld game console that I bought, and, since Persona 4 Golden is considered by many people to be the best video game on the Vita, I bought a physical copy of the game too. At that time, I hadn't played any other Persona game before and I didn't know anything about the Persona franchise. My experience of playing Persona 4 Golden was very good. I must admit that I managed to waste a lot of time at the beginning of the game because I wasn't familiar with the gameplay. There are usually important and useful things to do every day in the game, in the afternoon and in the evening, but I unknowingly wasted time by skipping activities in order to get to the next main story moment as quickly as possible. Therefore, Persona 4 is a video game that teaches players to effectively manage time. Since Persona 4 Golden is an "enhanced port" of the original PS2 game, and since there are no major gameplay or story changes in the port, Persona 4 Golden became one of my favorite video games. But not long after I finished playing Persona 4 Golden, I began to play the original game, since I own a Slim PlayStation 2, and completed it as soon as I could. Doing this changed my opinion of Persona 4 Golden and reaffirmed my belief that video game remakes and remasters are almost always worse than the originals. I'm not saying that Persona 4 Golden is a terrible video game, but I am saying that it's inferior to the original. Why do I think so? There are several reasons. First of all, the opening movie in Persona 4 Golden is worse than the opening movie in the original. For some reason, the developers decided to make everything in Persona 4 Golden brighter and more colorful. In addition, the new designs, like the ones in the opening movie, are worse than in the original. They're both drawn worse and are less fitting to the game. Persona 4 Golden was released four years after the original and perhaps the team that worked on creating Persona 4 Golden was different than the one that worked on the original. I wouldn't really say that Atlus began to slip by the time Persona 4 Golden began to be developed because Atlus released Persona 5 four years later, in 2016. Persona 5, like the original Persona 4, is a great video game. But I would say that the design choices began to get worse. As much as I like Persona 5, I don't consider it to be as good as Persona 4. It's possible, however, that Atlus began to really slip after releasing Persona 5. What I mean is that this company possibly can no longer create great and original games. If the next Persona game turns out to be disappointing or somewhat disappointing, like how Persona 3 Reload was disappointing, I think that it will be possible to say that Atlus is slipping, although one can say the same thing about the entire video game industry now and not just about this one company. Second of all, the added content in Persona 4 Golden makes the game worse and not better. Almost all of this added content makes the game longer, more tedious, and less interesting. It clashes with the original content too. For example, I don't want to spend more time on catching bugs, on fishing, or on sitting at a cafe. The rewards for these activities are minor at best in Persona 4 Golden. They take time and attention away from what's important. In the original game, the countryside town of Inaba seemed creepy, mysterious, and even menacing because the designs in the game weren't bright and colorful all the time. Bad things happen in Persona 4, and the story is a murder mystery. It often rains in Inaba. The TV world is an oppressive place where people can get killed. The original Persona 3 wasn't a bright and colorful game either. It's even darker than Persona 4 when it comes to the story and the game's main dungeon, Tartarus. Like Persona 4, it has excellent designs and artwork. But Persona 4 Golden adds things that make the setting and the story less important, less relevant, and less monumental. In the original game, I often noticed the backgrounds, which actually look interesting and rather beautiful. But in Persona 4 Golden, because of the changes in design and color, the backgrounds look somewhat bland, even if they look very similar to the original backgrounds. So, Persona 4 Golden is actually a downgrade because the design changes and the new content clash with the original content and the story, and they make the game cluttered, less significant, and less appealing. Persona 4 Golden is readily available for purchase, but the superior original can only be bought in used condition now and only for the PS2. The only reason why I'm playing Persona 4 Golden again is because I bought it on Steam for my PC a few years ago when it was on sale. Playing this game on a bigger screen than the one on the Vita made me notice the negative changes to the graphics even faster. Otherwise, I would have been playing Persona 4 for the PS2 again instead. It's amazing that many other great video games got released for the PS2 too. These games look, play, and sound epic because the people that created them were masterful in their field. I'm now slowly playing Silent Hill 3 (2003) again on my PS2, and to me this game is just another example of how great video games were for the sixth-generation of consoles. Nowadays, I try to use the internet as little as possible because so many websites feature pop-up ads and video ads. Well, even years ago, when I began to use the internet, and especially websites like YouTube, I knew that the authorities would sooner or later place the internet under tight control. This has been achieved thanks to copyright claims, censorship, restrictions, and perhaps even threats. Therefore, I've never put a lot of time into developing my YouTube channel, for example. YouTube is a useful website, but, the last time I checked, it was the same as it has been for a long time. There's a whole lot of propaganda and there are a bunch of reactionaries and conspiracy theorists yelling into the void, accomplishing nothing, and repeating establishment propaganda. It's really no wonder that the authorities in the USA are trying to ban TikTok, since it's the only popular website where "the Right" doesn't dominate. Although I've never made provocative or political channels, I must say that a number of my channels on YouTube and on other websites got taken down because of copyright claims and censorship. The managers of a few websites couldn't even tolerate me posting some history videos on their websites. But even back then I didn't think that what would finally discourage me from seriously using the internet would be advertisements. I didn't realize that ads would become so numerous and so annoying that they would make many websites intolerable. This is kind of funny. Anyway, there is a gamer who posts content on YouTube. He may be the most American gamer around because he always curses and calls anything that he doesn't like communism. But this reactionary gamer admittedly makes entertaining videos and he makes some good points. When it comes to the video game industry, he makes interesting observations from time to time. I didn't seriously think about the state of the video game industry until I watched some of his videos. He has obviously played many more video games than me, and he has obviously thought about the state of the video game industry a lot more than me. He considers the period from 1993 to 2011 to be the the golden age of gaming. He said, "Games were so f*cking good for so long. They were seen as f*cking toys until of course the normies picked them up. And now that the normies are in, they want to change everything and f*cking ruin it. That's all you f*ckers know how to do." He thinks that many disappointing AAA (high-budget) video games began to be released when the eighth generation of consoles came around and that few good AAA video games began to get made. Among these disappointing games, he mentioned Resident Evil 3 (2020), The Last of Us Part II (2020), Fallout 4 (2015), Watch Dogs (2014), Mortal Kombat 11 (2019), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015), Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), Batman: Arkham Knight (2015), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016), Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017), Super Mario Odyssey (2017), Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017), Destiny (2014), and Yooka-Laylee (2017). This sounds about right to me, although I don't agree with absolutely everything that he says. I haven't played many of the video games that got made since 2012, especially when it comes to the ones that got made for home consoles, although I have played Persona 4 Golden, which turned out to be a disappointment in comparison to the original. The video game industry today isn't dominated by only one company. Therefore, one can't lay the blame on a single culprit. However, what I have noticed is that the companies that made great video games in the 1990s and in the 2000s are no longer capable of making great video games. One example is Square Enix. Another example is Konami. Another example is Capcom. These and other companies try to follow trends. They make sequels, remakes, and remasters. Of course, one of the reasons why these companies engage in such practices is because it usually costs a lot of money to make AAA video games now. If you make an expensive video game, and it doesn't sell well, you will incur a big loss. Therefore, they try to play it safe. I know that the video games that got made before the PlayStation 4 was released usually had interesting and memorable stories and not only good gameplay. In short, they offered what Hollywood has been failing to deliver since the 1980s and the 1990s. Is this still the case? It seems that this isn't the case anymore. For example, I can claim that I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) and God of War (2018), which are great games, but I must admit that I wasn't "blown away" by the stories of these games. By the way, I think that the story of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was inspired by the film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984). When it comes to places in Breath of the Wild where it's nice to listen to music and look at the scenery, one of my recent discoveries is the pond near Keh Namut Shrine. Therefore, it's clear to me now that the video game industry is in worse shape than I had thought, at least when it comes to creativity and originality. Some people have been complaining about the shortage of good AAA titles and console exclusives for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, but Nintendo isn't doing so well either when it comes to good console exclusives. Nintendo has admittedly released many good modern AAA titles on the Nintendo Switch, which aren't Switch exclusives, and it has released a number of excellent Wii U exclusives too. But Nintendo's Switch exclusives have been mostly disappointing. The Wii U may have been a commercial failure, but it had a number of excellent exclusives.

In 'Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization' (1964) by Adolf Leo Oppenheim, I have already come across plenty of interesting information, although so far I've read only 32% of the text. The society of Mesopotamia had a big influence on many of the societies that surrounded it and on the societies that came after it. The following is a quote from the chapter about economic facts. "In a letter from Ugarit we read in the awkward Akkadian characteristic of these texts one of those revealing sentences that shed more light on the economic life of the time than hundreds of monotonous and lengthy tablets: "Give (in the meantime) the 140 shekels which are still outstanding from your own money but do not charge interest between us - we are both gentlemen!" This curious and unique reference to a status situation mentioned for the purpose of influencing an economic relationship acquires meaning and significance when one connects it with a passage in Deuteronomy, 23:20 (and in Leviticus, 25:36-37), "Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury." We see that both the Ugarit letter and the passage from the Old Testament exhibit the same disinclination to use capital as a commodity. Among the Old Assyrian traders, however, the taking of interest and of compound interest is completely acceptable. Of course, they prefer to pay interest at the rate "one brother charges the other." It is well known that the biblical attitude toward what we translate as "usury" has had a far-reaching and fateful impact upon the economic history of the West. The prohibition of usury was taken over by the early Church and maintained in force with remarkable inflexibility through the entire medieval period in the face of all the pressure generated by slowly but profoundly changing economic conditions. Only the dislocation of the ideological background of the medieval civilization in Europe - the Reformation - was able to break the stranglehold of the traditional attitude of the Church upon the economic life of Europe. Throughout the long theological discussions in scholastic as well as in popular literature (up to the seventeenth century), "capitalistic" concepts of money were often linked with the name of Babylon, a name representing a city rich and materialistic, and eminently efficient social and economic organization." Similar information can be found in Paul Carus's 'The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil' (1899). "It goes without saying that the old biblical legends, far from losing their value by being proved to be much older, gain an additional value; they are now more interesting to us than ever. Formerly the biblical account of the creation was thought to be the very beginning of the religious evolution of man, but now we know that it is merely a milestone on the road. It is neither the beginning nor the end. It is simply the summary of a long history of anxious inquiry and speculation, which would have remained forgotten had we not discovered the Assyrian tablets bearing witness to the aspirations that preceded the composition of the Old Testament. But there is one thing which seems strange: the Chaldean belief in the immortality of the soul found no echo in the literature of the Jews. Did they refuse to incorporate it into the Hebrew world-conception because they disbelieved it; or did they merely ignore it because they were too realistic and would not allow themselves to be carried away by illusions even of the loftiest kind? The civilisation of Assyria and Babylon was more brilliant, more powerful, and more cosmopolitan than the civilisation of Israel. The most characteristic features of the Persian religion after the lifetime of Zoroaster consist in the teaching that a great crisis is near at hand, which will lead to the renovation of the world called frashokereti in the Avesta, and frashakart in Pahlavi. Saviours will come, born of the seed of Zoroaster, and in the end the great Saviour who will bring about the resurrection of the dead. He will be the "son of a virgin" and the "All-conquering." His name shall be the Victorious (verethrajan), Righteousness-incarnate (astvat-creta), and the Saviour (saoshyant). Then the living shall become immortal, yet their bodies will be transfigured so that they will cast no shadows, and the dead shall rise, "within their lifeless bodies incorporate life shall be restored." The Persian belief in the advent of a saviour who will make mankind immortal seems to reappear in an intenser form in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, who preached that the kingdom of heaven is near at hand. St. Paul still believed that the second advent of Christ would take place during his own life-time. The dead who sleep in the Lord will be resurrected, and the bodies of those that are still in the flesh will be transfigured and become immortal. The influence of Zoroaster's religion upon Judaism and early Christianity cannot be doubted."

Now listening to Piano Sonata No. 30 by Ludwig van Beethoven and Hellbound: Hellraiser II by Christopher Young...

In David Lam Park in Yaletown. Autumn of 2018.

Now reading Hearts Of Three by Jack London...

'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Is A Superhero Movie About The Power Of Art

https://www.slashfilm.com/563304/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-analysis/

Miles Morales is an artist.We're introduced to the movie version of Miles (Shameik Moore) as he sits at a drawing table sketching a sword-wielding robot. On his way to school, he slaps custom sticker tags on street signs where he hopes his father, a police officer, won't find them. When he wants to express the vastness of the shoes he has to fill — the "great expectations" of his elite schooling academy — he ventures underground with his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) and creates ornate graffiti murals. His bedrooms, both at home and at school, are littered with an assortment of creative works, from a Chance the Rapper Coloring Book poster to piles of Spider-Man comics.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the world through Miles' eyes, and it does tremendous justice to the story of creativity at its core. The expectations Miles fall short of soon shift from academia to super-heroics; the film follows suit. In nearly every scene, it layers comic-inspired motion and paneling to tell its story, not only paying stylistic homage to the source material, but framing Miles' thoughts, feelings and even movements as he navigates coming-of-age.

Action-lines are used to approximate motion in comics. The trick works in all directions across a two-dimensional plane, but it's especially effective when the movement is towards (or away from) the reader. It often becomes a matter of point-perspective — a technique commonly associated with the Renaissance, though its origins go back further — but rather than mathematical precision, the comic version skews geography, as if to move the reader along with the heroes. It's a snapshot of motion in a static medium, though when the effect is translated to a moving picture, the result is kinetic.Point perspective is common in cinema too, mastered by the likes of Kubrick, but Into the Spider-Verse employs the technique in a manner that blends both art forms. While present in the film's imagery throughout, it's especially potent during key moments when Miles swings into action.

The lines that frame this perspective are sometimes themselves in motion. Whether beams from Wilson Fisk's supercollider, or simply New York's trains and taxis, the living environment enhances Miles' motion either by moving in the same direction as him — allowing him to overtake the lines in question — or by moving in the opposite direction and enhancing the exaggeration.

The action lines even apply to the characters themselves, re-creating the effects of the comics. Some, in the vein of ink-line smears in hand-drawn animation, approximate rapid movement.

Others approximate impact, imitating sharp sounds on the page.

Some approximate the feel of anaglyph 3D — the good old red-and-blue.

And some moments of impact are even punctuated by comic-appropriate onomatopoeia.

Occasionally, the lines aren't used to punctuate movement at all. The introduction on Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), for instance, echoes the stylizations of Japanese anime and manga, as if light itself is being bent around her.

Peni's movements, along with those of Spider-Ham's (John Mulaney), are emblematic of the exaggerated styles to which they pay homage. The hyper-expressiveness of anime, and the hyperactivity of old Warner Bros. toons, are each blended seamlessly into a world of more "realistic" motion.

Also worth noting: Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) on the far right, posed like an old Sandman comic from the 1930s. He's even textured as such.

The comic flourishes don't just exist to remind viewers of the source. When Miles first deals with getting his powers, his invasive, paranoid thoughts begin to manifest as comic book paneling. As he moves through physical space, the narration boxes shift into the background — another great use of 3D — and they're replaced by new ones that are equally impactful.

Transposing these elements to film ends up uniquely transformative. Motion allows the narrations to forego a traditional left-to-right, the western orientation of the page. We don't need to see the boxes in a familiar pattern, since we track the order in which they first appear and read them accordingly. The final image, when read as a singular panel, is chaos — "IN MY HEAD why is the voice Wait! So LOUD?!" — not unlike Miles' state of mind at this point.Another example of this effect is Miles moving through his school hallway after an embarrassing encounter with Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). Rather than narration boxes however, his thoughts are invaded by overlapping panels that exaggerate background details; bits of information of which he's now hyper-aware thanks to his Spider-sense. A clip of this scene isn't available online, but to illustrate, the effect also shows up during the film's backstory recaps.

The characters' quick-fire origin tales are often told through inter-locking comic panels, some even framed by webs. This allows for multiple stories to be illustrated in quick succession, while also painting a portrait of a full life of Spider-hood that we haven't seen.

Not only are these montages a fun visual shorthand — Peter (Jake Johnson) stomps on a glass at his wedding; he's finally Jewish in the text! — but the presence of these origins for each new player helps establish them as experienced Spider-people. Not just through action, mind you, but through the loss they inevitably experience. As even casual fans know, given the character's omnipresence in popular culture, a death on one's conscience is an inescapable part of Spider-Man's mythos.Minor spoilers to follow.Miles, unlike the other heroes, is just starting out — both as a crime fighter, and as someone with lots to lose. Spider-people from various dimensions comfort him after the death of a loved one, and of course, his subsequent guilt. Even if we don't see every death they reference, mere hints of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben, Peter B. Parker's Aunt May and Spider-Gwen's best friend are enough to make the weight of Peni's, Spider-Man Noir's and even Spider-Ham's respective losses feel tangible.One of the film's most affecting moments is so ridiculous on paper — an anthropomorphic, Looney Tunes-inspired pig voiced by a stand-up comedian joins in the collective mourning — but it expresses, with devastating clarity, the idea that mortality and death are inescapable facets of even the most escapist fantasy."You can't save 'em all."The divergent animation styles serve to punctuate this coming-together, as if the notions of heroism, guilt and loss connect them beyond universe and style and genre — the very webs that frame each origin stale also appear to physically connect their universes when the dimensions open up. As the Spider-folk commiserate, telling Miles they're probably "the only ones who do understand," the emotional heft feels earned.We've seen flashes of the lives they've lived, and we've likely seen a full version of this story on screen at least once. Given the film's multiversal concept, their tales are variations on a theme that's now culturally ingrained — a story perfected by Sam Raimi fourteen and sixteen years ago with the first two Spider-Man films.In contrast to our heroes' collective mourning, however, the villain Wilson Fisk (Liev Schreiber) lacks the same mechanics and support system to deal with loss. This also happens to be the very impetus for his dimension-hopping scheme. His grief is so unmitigated and so un-confronted, forever trapping him in the bargaining phase, that it endangers the entire world. The result of his experiments is a kaleidoscopic mish-mash of crumbling buildings, as if giving physical form to Fisk's erratic emotional architecture; an ugly embodiment of using great power irresponsibly.

Eventually, once Miles rises to the occasion, his coming-into-Spider-hood is punctuated by him finally getting his own comic. The moment he arrives, all decked out in a sure-to-be-iconic look, the film even tweaks the way it presents him.For the majority of the runtime, our heroes are brought to life in the vein of traditional cel animation, in which frames of characters were often repeated. For instance, two identical character frames for every one frame of moving backdrop.

In technical terms, it's animating movement "on two's."This effect is re-created in Spider-Verse whenever Miles moves through space. The technique isn't usually employed by CG animation, so its presence helps grant the film a unique visual aesthetic.

Occasionally, even as other Spider-characters move a frame at a time, Miles' frames still double up — like he's lagging behind the more seasoned heroes.

However, once when Miles finally takes his leap and harnesses his powers, the film presents him in slow-motion, which necessitates smoother movement. Both Miles and his surroundings begin progress at the same speed, and even when he isn't slowed down (for instance, his free-fall), his movement is more harmonious, more in tune with the surrounding animation.He feels like he belongs.

What's especially notable about Miles' big "arrival" is the form his costume takes. The comic version of Miles — more interesting in concept than execution — has always felt lacking in this department. He gets his red-and-black suit readymade from Nick Fury, rendering it just another standard outfit. In Spider-Verse however, Miles spray-paints over the existing Spider-Man design and makes it his own — as if in tribute to his uncle, and the creativity they shared.It's the perfect expression of Miles' artistic spark coming to fruition, not to mention the perfect dramatization of the idea at the film's core: that "Spider-Man" is about what each unique individual brings to the table. Each Spider-person in the film has their own set of skills; Miles' talent is expressing himself visually through paint, and his costume being a unique artistic creation speaks volumes about his arc.Miles' most important moment isn't that he decides to take action — he's enthusiastic to help the other Spider-folk from the get-go — but rather, that he's finally able to do so. His turning point comes not through answering a call to action or through finding some hidden bravery, but rather, through his father Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) finally expressing his belief in his son.Miles not only has to overcome lofty expectation, but his father's disdain for Spider-Man. The young hero arrives at this emotional point shortly after being told by the other Spider-people that he isn't up to the task. Peter reminds him being ready would require a leap of faith — a lesson he reflects back to Peter to quell his fears about failure — but Miles isn't ready to take his leap until his father stands outside his bedroom door. Jefferson, who often struggles to connect with his son, uses the language of an out-of-touch parent trying desperately to nurture creative talent:"I see this spark in you. It's amazing."Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a story about art, taking shape as an ode to the very art forms that birthed it. It's a Spider-Man movie that pays homage to other Spider-Man movies, a Spider-Man cartoon that incorporates elements from Spider-Man cartoons, and a moving, breathing Spider-Man comic that brings to life — in composition, texture and most importantly, theme — the very pages that have made Spider-Man so enduring.Ultimately, it's a story of why Spider-Man, in concept, will continue to endure, circling all the way back around to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original idea. That anyone can wear the mask, and anyone can be a hero.