Spring Eddy and Extraneous Romance: A Case Study

I saw Spring Eddy today, and what could have been an amazing movie was marred by random romance. The first part of the movie was great. Our dim witted protagonist Eddy gets himself into one wacky fix after another- complete with mobsters, rednecks and people inexplictably wearing cowboy hats.The plot is simple but understandable - Eddy needs money fast and also needs to  get out of town fast. However, when he gets put in the slammer and his ex fiance has to get him- the movie hits a huge snag.

They introduce a guy who cleans out septic tanks for a living, his stalking of his ex, and his stalking of Jennie, Eddy's ex fiance. They meet cute during a car crash, blah blah blah. Of course, there's also an additional subplot including the hit man after Eddy and some random Western wear lady. The main plot: this idiot needs to avoid getting killed for crossing the mob has great narrative tension. When we see him interact with a scantly clad hitchhiker - we think "Man, this won't be good", and wonder what happens next. When he tries to stick up a bank (on free gun day) - the result is important to whether he gets away or not

However, whether some septic tank salesman gets laid or not is not. When a movie starts off with life or death stakes, taking time out to worry about whether two random folks will knock boots really is jarring. I see this in YA a lot, actually. Sure, the evil government/aliens/vampires are out to kill a girl, but which guy should she choose? The fact that these are just side characters makes the padding even more apparent. Jennie has a part to play in that we're waiting to see if she can get Eddy out of jail. Her new boothang is irrelvant.

The hitman/random chick is less jarring since it's set up as a (flimsy) excuse to get the writer out of the corner he has written himself into. I wish he'd trust the audience- I could see several ways to get Edie out of there without a paper thin romance. 

A movie isn't like a novel where one can convey the love lives of every minor character in detail. A movie is a short story. Every moment must pull its own weight. When we add romance just because it's expected- the movie becomes heavy and bloated.

Pocket Stables

After the disappointing Pyraplex , Pocket Stables is a return to form for Kairosoft. The graphics appear much improved although still charming and lo fi. The gameplay is a mixture of the two separate Kairosoft genres- the Game Dev story style where the player builds a product and lets it run and the Oh! Edo Towns type 'build em up' where the player tries to create 'combos'. You build your ranch, complete with training facilities, places for your horses and jockeys to live, and visitor facilities. No 'combos' here, but placing facilities correctly and brightening the place up with plants is part of your path to success.

The real star of the game is (of course) the racing. You can choose your tactics, skip past the announcer's blah blah blah and see how your horse does. My only problem is that the course preview doesn't show the curves of the track like Grand Prix Story. The mechanics of training for a race are simple- your horses use your training facilities and you can use special training at the cost of money/medals(the 'research points' for this game) and fatigue. You can also research, equip and upgrade abilities such as 'speed'.

The base horses you can buy are pretty dire, but luckily, due to the breeding mechanic, you can create much better horses. This mechanic really shines as it lets the player tinker around.  I noted that Pyraplex was disappointing before, and the reason was that you could get everything on the first playthrough. Pocket Stables much improves on this. I have not won a triple crown yet, but I'm still working on it. I also enjoy the attention to detail- the backwards walking sprites on the observation deck, the odd little indicators of the horse breed(a fro for bouffant, a little top hat for noblesse), and the strange breaks from reality such as the fact that people apparently pay over $10 to take cell phone pictures of your ranch.

Yes, Kairosoft has a formula, and if you like the formula, you'll like most of the games. I enjoy these lo fi sims which allow you to play either for a few minutes or a few hours.  I find their games soothing- usually I mute the music on Kairosoft games but for Pocket Stables I like to listen to the soothing music as the visitors, horses and jockeys go about their tiny business.

I find as I get older the games I want to play are more retro in style. Smaller, cheaper, less stimulation. Pocket Stables keeps the faith.

Madoka and the Nature of Sacrifice

I have now seen Madoka episode 10. While watching episode 9, I thought that Madoka was the princess, the Madonna of the group. Sayaka, Homura, and even Mami to some extent are all protecting Madoka, even to the cost of their lives, or in Homura's case, unimaginable pain.* In the best shoujo series, I feel, there is the princess figure, one that everyone is fighting to protect. In Sailor Moon, Usagi is the princess, and the messiah- the one who sacrifices herself to save the world. In Princess Tutu, our titular hero isn't the princess- the prince Mytho is- he is the one sacrificed for. In the end, Ahiru (aka Duck) gives up her human form for him, as he gave up his heart to defeat the raven. Being a princess does mean you're at the center of the shoujo world, but you're also expected to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I find that the whole series has been about sacrifice thus far. Homura is more typical- someone who promises to protect Madoka no matter what, which is a bit of twist considering that the arc from episodes 5 to 9 has been about the sacrificed- Sayaka. Sayaka, like most girls her age, was not able to face her true feelings, and Kyubey manipulated that. Her desire to protect Madoka, her desire to have the love of her upperclassman, her desire to be important and powerful... Sadly, Sayaka was going to be a hero, but it's not that type of story. The girls can either sacrifice themselves like Kyoko, and Homura or become sacrifices like Mami and Sayaka.

Join me next time for 'The Princess is the Witch!"



*How hard must it be for a girl of that age to see the person most valuable to her and many others as well, die over and over again?

Thanks. *grumbles*

The sort of person who complains about Naughty Tenticles could just stop using tvtropes instead of ruining it for everyone. There are thousands of pages that meet their standards. And I know that eddie has to be in the golden mean and be nice, but on the other hand, the not so prudish aren't trying to destroy the wiki. asses.

This Week's Madoka

is episode 8. Taking some inspiration from Utena, not just visually anymore, we get to see where witches come from, and it's not pretty. In Utena, Anthy says a woman can either be a princess (innocent, naive, needing to be rescued) or a witch (not innocent, powerful, and considered to be evil). As Sayaka's soul twists under the burden of realizing she is no longer human, that her wish did not result in what she secretly hoped for, and the enormity of her sacrifice, Sayaka grows, not into the responsible adulthood of a traditional magical girl show- protecting the weak, and finding expression of their abilities*, but into the cruel brutal adulthood that is reality for so many people. Note that her transformation into a witch reaches its peak when she is listening to disgusting men who use women and toss them away. That's a reality as well.

Kyubey talks about how magical girls grow into witches, and I wonder if this is why he seems to target only young girls to become magical girls. Perhaps that liminal state between childhood and adulthood is where there is power. Maybe I'll find out in episode 9.





*Notice the Magical Idol Singer subgenre.

A Fake Geek Girl

In reponse to this. I admit I do think there are some fake geek girls. Not anime fans that have only seen Bleach or comics fans who have only read Scott Pilgrim. Those people need a recs list. And you don't need to know every single issue of Batman, either. But I don't like it when just regular ol' models and actors think they need to attract a bigger fanbase by pretending to be geeks. At least the folks who don't know the classics at least LIKE what they say they are geeky about. Maybe in a few years, they'll become deeper geeks. What they won't do is lick a video game console just to get their 15 minutes of fame.

You may say, but aren't you being super mean to the pretties?! No. It's one thing to sew your own awesome outfit, even if your boobs are falling out. It's another to be "What demographic am I today? I guess I'm a geek now. I was a hipster yesterday." Geekiness is PASSION. So show some.

The last person to see Madoka ep 6 or 7.

Yes, as the last person to see Madoka I was shocked by this week's latest episode. It started out with a nice parallel to the typical metaphor for adolescene the magical girl is, and ended with people getting their souls ripped out of their bodies. I enjoyed the subversion of the genre standard that if a magical girl loses or breaks their transformation trinket, they just detransform. (see sailor moon)

I wondered why Kyoko was shocked that the girl she was trying to kill died, until I realized that she was just thinking 'hey, that could happen to me!'. Then again, in the next episode, she stops trying to kill Sayaka completely, and even tries to save her before she totally snaps and goes ham on the witch.


One day I'll have to figure out why I like angst. I wouldn't like a real story about a girl whose whole family died or who went insane, but in fiction, I guess I feel better because I'm not supposed to do anything about it. I can't change what happened, so enjoy the ride. But in real life, I feel bad because I feel powerless to change anything.