Interactive Fiction review #1 - Signos

Signos, by Mauricio Diaz Garcia (aka M4u) (2012)

Signos: The Hands of Enlightenment

Signos by Mauricio Diaz Garcia is a middle-length, allegorical quest for enlightenment.

On his way to inner peace (and stuff), the traveller is beset by unexpectedly required interactions, perilous spelling errors and vengeful lack of synonyms. You know you have a good game on your hands when the in-game walkthrough doesn´t match up with what you actually have to input to complete the game! On the plus side, the hyperlink-driven interface keeps you focussed on gameplay-relevant items and persons (but don´t expect anything else mentioned in room descriptions to actually be implemented in any way).

The story of Signos takes place in a dreamscape (even though the game keeps reminding you that you are actually "already awake"), requiring interaction with objects which are mostly symbolic and several NPCs, themselves representing mainstream religions, annoying the player with quasi-philosophical ramblings that amount to little more than nonsense. Perhaps the author intended to use broken room descriptions, mysteriously undefined items and the lack of any beta testing to allude to a deeper, enlightening purpose, but as the game is, even though enhanced by the praisable inclusion of pictures and sound effects, it fails to draw its player into the game world since one is constantly confronted with its blatant mistakes.

Despite Signos being, for the most part, an unsalvageable failure, I for one still endorse the intention of the author. The basic idea of creating a symbolic, surreal, metaphysical journey perfectly lends itself to the medium of interactive fiction. While Signos certainly isn´t the "Holy Mountain" or "El Topo" of text adventures, one probably can still play it to experience for himself how NOT to write a game of its genre.

3/10

originally written for the Interactive Fiction Database (check it out for thousands of text adventures to play for free - some even directly in the browser, no registration required!) 

http://ifdb.tads.org/

First impressions #1 - Narutaru (aka "Shadow Star")

Narutaru by Mohiro Kitoh (1998-2003)

First impression: (technically I wrote this a month or two before my created my first blog post)

Wow. Just wow. Mind blown. I have flown through this manga in 4 days, and that is saying something! Clearly this work merits a more thorough commentary, but I have to simply write down my impressions or lose my mind instead!

Narutaru is untiringly introducing new concepts in basically every chapter, sketching them only slightly, and seemingly dropping them in favour of new ideas. This is both a blessing and a curse in multiple ways.

I for one would have (as usual) preferred the story to stay away from shifting too much focus on the supernatural plot elements. The character of Shiina, while lacking depth, is very likable. I would have preferred to see the aftermath of the drama happening in the first part (and especially the first third) of the manga played out a lot more visible. Akira (who is unfortunately ignored for most of the second part of the manga (Vol. 8-End)) falling apart mentally due to the bad things happening to her was easily one of the best parts of the entire manga. Likewise Shiina is never really shown to suffer too much (making her character appear more and more unrealistic as the story progresses), continuing to live in her flimsy, carefree and certainly also oblivous way after things go to hell repeatedly - til part 2 when her character is drained of any reflective thought and becomes a pure object furthering the plot. In other words, the integrity of her character is completely broken, Shiina becomes another person entirely (why not call her Shiina 2). Surely the events of part 1 contribute to the creation of Shiina 2, but the clean break in her depiction, unexplained by the sketchy story of course, is something I consider a deep flaw in this manga. Akira fares even worse, since we barely see her later on! Her demotion from main character to extra is unexpected and baffling.

Some technical problems I had with this manga are the fact the insanely large cast of characters who are more often than not extremely hard to distinguish visibly. Mamiko Kuri and Akira, what a nightmare! Also the endless armada of black-haired boys! To add insult to injury, the speech bubbles lack the part designating who is saying what! I don't know whether this problem was introduced by the translators (and continued by the fansubbers), but it is an absolute no-go, especially in a manga where new ideas are introduced by the minute and information on characters' motivations and opinions are extremely meagre by design!

Rapid action (as in the airplane and gun porn heavily featured in this manga) does never translate to static black-and-white drawings very well in my opinion. I found myself skimming the battle scenes pretty quickly, since I barely could tell what was going on.

The end was something else and saved the second part - well almost. I can't forgive the inscrutable exclusion of Akira from the plot. I LIKED Akira :-(.

I can say I was emotionally afflicted quite a lot by this manga! Reading Narutaru was certainly a unique encounter, a read more like a dream or trip than a linear experience. While I wasn't expecting a Second Coming of Eva (which I don't believe in anyway), my fascination with the early events and the characters of Shiina 1 and Akira HAS been marred by the story and characters developing in a way I did not like in part 2. Certain late events are better ignored, but more on that later when I do a more in-depth review.

All in all, a detailed and reasonably complex story every fan of sophisticated manga should read as soon as possible.

PS: By the way, the anime adaptation has been given only only 12 episodes to retell the first half of the manga, and twice the amount of runtime would not have been enough to reasonably explore HALF the featured content. Definitely read the manga first or you won't have any idea how good the story really is!

Manga opinion #1 - Arigatou

Arigatou by Naoki Yamamoto (1994-1995)

I think the opening could have benefitted from a little introduction chapter, a "calm before the storm".

The ending was disappointing - to be plain, it was bad, really bad.

Casually introducing a couple whose romance wasn't fully developed or in stupider cases like this one not even developed at all (see also: Elfen Lied manga, Naruto, NARUTARO) having a baby is an unforgivable offence in itself. But having the most ego-centered character I've ever witnessed give birth is just abominable. The worst possible mother (You're hungry, baby? Well too bad, cause you're NOT ME. But your crying is annoying, so DO get out of my face!) should not have a baby at all for that reason alone.

One has to wonder how she even introduced herself to her new family. I bet it was something like "Well my family split up and there's only two guys I could stay with, the bug (who I never really cared about but tossed a pity fuck, because, why not) or the violent, psychopathic fat guy from the earlier plot who's really good at fucking. Meh, either way is fine." The splitting up part, while justified in-universe, made really no sense whatsoever. Could Shokou ever live completely alone? She's coming to the last reunion on her own, so she probably (especially after her earlier experiences) doesn't have a boyfriend. She was never shown to have friends (only the opposite). She calls her sister ONCE a year. But she can, after not even being able to leave the house, all of a sudden get her life back on track and go to college? If that's what happens, author, at least SHOW US, otherwise it's just bullshit you pulled out of nothing. The father doesn't go to Russia to work the job he has already accepted? What? But he still survives without a home or job for years? Huh? Laziness much?!

Takako is really a case of underdevelopment and laziness. First of all, her entire life consists of violently reacting to harassment, being annoyed by her mother and especially father - and sex stuff. She is never shown having interests, hobbies, dreams, plans. That could make for a very unique and interesting character, of course, but like I said, the development is simply not there, with the author rather going for a LOT of repetition in her facial expressions and behavior. Since the mangaka had done more than a dozen works before, this is not just a beginner's fault, sadly.

Second, Takako has no emotional connection to any other person, ever. Her only friend is quickly discarded (from the plot as well), her mother is really not a likeable being in any way, her father is really not much more than a lunatic. But the fact there is no relationship with her older sister either is once again extremely jarring and unrealistic. If there was something that tore them apart after early childhood (they seem cheerful in the car ride in the last chapter), it has to be shown. Akiko (or Shokou? - the fanlation wasn't consistent on that) has been heavily traumatized and there is not a single instance of her sister comforting or hugging her (again, compare with Narutaro. In some respects, Shiina is very similar to Takako). If Takako was really THAT unable to relate to any other person, it would be called out by other characters in the story. The same really can be said about Shokou too, there is never any attempt on her side to BE comforted. The mother is a drunk and the father a crazy man, so there IS only each other's sister to hold on to. And this story isn't intended as some shonen thingy where realistic emotions don't play a part. Showing emotional impacts on the characters again and again, and on the other hand having things don't add up left and right is simply unforgivable. To sum things up, the couple out of nowhere shitting out of a baby in the last chapter is always something really insulting, but in this case it contradicts the story so much it's beyond atrocious.

The drawing style is solid and detailed. Takako's room is deliberately decorated in a childish way. I found the mutant-like faces of some rowdies and cult people hilarious. Sometimes I couldn't tell the sex of a character (Takako's friend) or characters apart, and there is some inconsistency with e.g. Takako's height (she looks like she's maybe 10 in some shots) and the way Shokou's face looks. Never mind the chapter title drawings, they are just stupid fanservice, cause if they were meant to symbolize that the 2 girls were stripped bare psychologically, that sure didn't happen.

The father's pathetic death in the end is also lessening the manga. If anything, he should spit in their faces from converting him from a successful businessman (flashback) to a lunatic and sick moron in the timespan of a single year. Having a dysfunctional family like that literally robbed him of his life. (Maybe killing Takako and then committing suicide WOULD have been the right choice on his part...) Arigatou my ass, and that's really the perfect summary of this manga.

Summary: Even if the abovementioned flaws and idiocies wouldn't occur, the manga's spectrum would really have had to be broadened a lot more to create a top tier work. There's no sense of wonder here like in Narutaro, which, despite its piling up flaws and plotholes, is a magical work akin to experiencing a dream; the psychological exploration of the characters, while clearly attempted, was just not developed enough.

On the plus side, this manga was very daring and explicit with its sexual stuff (probably the part that was intended to draw people into reading this), but even that was pretty much dropped in the second half.

Not recommendable.

My blog!

Hey, I'm Thomas from Austria and this is my blog. Took me years (literally) to finally get going with this, but now I'm ready. My blog will feature anime/manga & tv/movie reviews, showing off my various collections and random other stuff, complementing my youtube channel which I'll start putting content on too in the near future. (soon for real?)

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