Sunday, March 4, 2012

Rare's Random Thought: Yanderes are scary

There’s a certain aspect when considering a character for a story. They have to be interesting, likable, and have a backstory. However, there are also several elements in which a character becomes unlikable. It can be a tragic backstory that makes them completely rotten, emotionless or downright violent for the sake of drama. It is then that if a character is unusable for the story, they are, to put it mildly “put on a bus” in order to further the main plot along. In some cases, that can backfire.

Today I will be talking about a certain character trait that I’ve dreaded and probably the scariest (to me anyway) that could be known: The Yandere.

What is a Yandere you say? As you roll your eyes in patheticness to see why I asked that when you know the answer, reader. A Yandere is a character trait used in fiction to describe in laymen terms, cute, but creepy. They can be cute, shy and adorable to the point that you can feel something for this person. However, deep inside that fluffy exterior lies a rather unsettling persona that will manifest if a certain trigger is pulled off. In contrast to the good side of cute, the bad crappy and violent side merges to sometimes scare the viewer. It varies though if Yanderes are your thing.

The following story is based on false true events and every aspect of the not story is completely untrue.

Once upon a time in the sunny town of Joseph, Henry met up with some of his coworkers from college to have a little fun because it was his friend Nathan’s birthday. Nathan also invited his friend Charlotte. They all met up at the arcade and were having the time of their life.

When it was time to leave to eat at Frenchie’s, Nathan’s friends suddenly hit the jackpot and won lots of tickets. They decided to get a few cheap plastic toys and have a little fun in the parking lot. Charlotte however had to retreat because Sophia had to leave for work. So Charlotte took Sophia to work while Henry and the others were having a jolly good time with their newly acquired toys.

Charlotte came back as it was about time to go to the restaurant. Nathan thought it would have been fun to joke around and aim the toys at Charlotte. However, when she arrived to see a few toys aimed at her, she exploded. Now Nathan thought Charlotte was a nice girl, who enjoyed watching the same tv shows as he did. What Nathan and the others didn’t know is that Charlotte had a nasty side that came out of nowhere. Charlotte got out of her car and started pushing, choking and hurting Nathan’s friends. He dashed to his friend's rescue and started talking about how he and the others were just having fun.

Charlotte lashed out on Nathan and started crying because she saw something in Henry’s hand that caused her to be angry at him. Later on Nathan tried to reason with Charlotte as he was getting his bike from her house. Charlotte was thinking that Henry and the others were talking behind her back calling her names based on what she saw in his hand. Nathan assured that the boys were talking about card games and how much they like playing them on vespas. After the talk, Nathan left Charlotte’s house to go eat at Frenchie’s.

As puerile and stupid as that story was written, there was a key aspect to it: Charlotte was the Yandere. I explained how at first she was cute and friendly, but turned creepy and violent because of what happened to her in the past. I honestly don’t get how some people actually like Yanderes considering their antagonistic nature.

Yanderes are written to be either unlikable, or creepy. From the initial cute intro where they are shy, to further their madness to the point of obsession. They can be downright cruel to the things that they will do for their own selfish needs. Whether it’s choking a guy that did nothing at all than try to calm her down, or continue to search for someone who they want for not only money, but a little piece of ass.

I myself encountered a Yandere in the past. Long ago, Natalie claimed to be a magic user and said that they can mimic the personality of someone that is alive. Their tragic backstory is that they were to be engaged to someone, but he went missing so they went into mourning. I just happen to be around at the time. Sure it was fun hanging out with Natalie and meeting their friends, but someone came in, claiming to be famous and if this is a confusing term, it means feint, but They NTR’d in front of me while I cooked some food. NTR or Netorare is japanese slang for feint. So a couple of years later, I thought I could help Them by working. As soon as my own problems came I had to leave and move to a new place. However, Natalie started calling me leaving me incredibly long messages which round up to nothing. It was then I developed a case of Post Persistent Stalker Disorder. That condition does not exist, but it explains downright what I was going through. Seems they were looking for money and the only way was through me. So I ended up as I call it, “leaving no corpse behind” and ended up in a new place. The creepy late night messages that led to nothing are a Yandere’s inner most thoughts. Ironic seeing that happened near Halloween.

There are many examples of the Yandere, both fiction and non fiction.:

* Take the Stephen King novel Christine for example. It’s a demon car that becomes possessive and kills anyone that gets in the protagonist’s way.


*Anne Wilkes in Misery as well. I’ll leave it at that.

*Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. An elderly priest who is horny over a gypsy that he wants to punish her for being impure and have sex with her. Disney took that and made it an incredibly dark song for a kids film.

*You know that movie Beyonce Knowles starred in? What was it called that involved a crazy stalker blonde coworker that became “Obsessed” over the one nice guy who had a nice hot wife (Beyonce) and son? What was it called? Oh I remember, Big Wolf on Campus.

*Nina Einstein from Code Geass, who develops this obsession to Princess Euphemia who is half 11 and the former who hates them, starts masturbating on a table end to her picture. Oh and makes a giant nuke out of anger and trauma to wipe out all 11s. Yikes.

Ui from K-on, Yui’s younger sister. To be honest I’m stumped to why she is called a Yandere. Is it because her names means gloomy? Who knows?

*Amy Fisher, meet Joey Buttafucco’s and his wife. She got better I think.

*Legend has it that someone named Sada Abe killed her husband, chopped off his penis and ran away so she can have sex with it forever. The memento was later found and put in a museum.

*Finally there is Yuno from Mirai Nikki. She wants Yukiteru to stay with her and will do anything, anything for that to happen. Remember that thing about Natalie, and the Post Persistent Stalker Disorder? Yeah. Yuno is that.

The question now is, what do you do if you have encountered a Yandere? Easy. Run the hell away! These are beings that are not to be reasoned with. It seems near impossible to talk to yanderes when they merge. It’s more of a psychological thing that Yanderes stick to the obsessive part and focus on that, whatever it is. If you can talk to them and calm them down, good luck with that. I’ll keep my head on and avoid them at all costs. Who knows if you end up missing one of them.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Rhythm Heaven Fever

Rhythm, it’s a part of life whether we want to believe it or not. Without rhythm, we wouldn’t have beats and without beats we wouldn’t be able to live. Ever since we are born to the day we see ourselves saying farewell to everyone we hold dear, there is a bit of rhythm that is in everything. And what better way to enjoy rhythm by putting it in a video game.

Rhythm Heaven is a collection of musical mini games done in very catchy tunes that eat through our very soul. They started ironically at the end of the lifetime of the GBA as it was singing it’s last ballad while the DS was filling in the big shoes of it’s predecessor.. The major problem? Japan didn’t share the love. So finally Nintendo releases Rhythm Heaven or Rhythm Tengoku Gold on the DS a couple of years later. Just like the older step brother who we never see on those family get-togethers, the DS sequel shares the same personality, but with DS capabilities. You tap and flick to the beat of the tune and that’s it. Rhythm Gold.

Now recently Nintendo released it’s newest Heaven Rhythm opus with Minna no Rhythm Tengoku or Rhythm Heaven Fever. At first glance it looks silly just like the other 2, but in all honesty, it’s very addicting and fun. The initial negative feedback it got was not because of the core gameplay, but rather the localization. Some may claim that some mini games in English were going to suck because purists don’t like listening to English. To that I say, it isn’t bad. More on that later.

With every Rhythm Heaven game (even though there’s 3 in the series), you tap a certain button to the beat of the tune. The difference is more that it uses only 1 or 2 buttons compared to the DS where you tap and flick with the stylus. You use the A button mostly and B for the off beat tussles. It feels similar to the GBA version in that it takes only 2 or so to jingle along to the music. No need for special combos or complicated button presses or realistic graphics to make it look almost as uncanny valley as it almost achieves in some ways. Just 2 simple buttons and that’s all you need.

The music in Rhythm Heaven Fever, regardless of which version you prefer, are all the same on both fronts. Each song is chock full of personality and style that many few can pull off. Sure everything looks pretty simple, but simplicity brings out the best of one’s imagination and we interpret what we see the most. From the humble beginnings of golfing with monkeys to the beat of trumpets, to the adorable sounds of slapping hands with monkeys on a watch, to the silly moments where you accidentally press off key buttons to punch dolls which make fart sounds that tickle my childish side, to the somber Japanese style beat that tugs at my heart strings. Each song is different and unique which begs the question to why no one at Nintendo or the creator of these youthful tunes, Tsunku(male sign) don’t release a soundtrack like everyone else. The last thing to mention is how memetically catchy it is. Almost everyone has done a parody of Rhythm Tengoku mini game from different walks of life. From Rhythm Fortress to Touhou Tengoku, to My Little Pony, Rhythm is Magic. you just can't deny the cuteness of this.

The core aspect of rhythm heaven is the mini games, and quite an immense number of them on one single disc. Up to 50 main mini games as well as unlockable games that were in the GBA version remastered to give you a glimpse of what you missed. The best ones would include, golfing with monkeys, pigs spinning around in chairs (get it? They're at a "bored" meeting), a samurai chopping evil spirits to save a boy's stolen pinwheel, a boy kicking balls away from weasels during a date, a dog and a cat playing badminton in airplanes, to bookworm cheerleaders. Each mini game, including the unlockable ones are rich and full of personality that gives off a style not seen anywhere else.

I really don’t want to say anything bad about Rhythm Heaven Fever because it’s so good, but I must address a couple of minor quips. In one mini game, Karate Man/2, the tempo is lowered for some reason. The Japanese version is one octane higher. I can still enjoy the great music and for once the English translation is not bad at all, in fact I would even call it incredibly decent, but the lowered tempo was awkward at first glance. The other thing is in Love Rap you are rapping about “love”. The “rap” isn’t so bad (I normally don’t like rap and hip hop, not my thing), but the girl is rapping in what I hear is a southern accent. Think about that for a second while I also address the ridiculously outdated slang that is used as the translation. Comparing daisuki (like you) and into you (???) or crazy into you (suki nanda), it just sounds awkward and just gives me fits of giggles that make me get meh rating which is like the mediocrity of my score eats away at me bit by bit. I guess I could say that Love Rap’s “rap” is so bad it’s good, but that is just me.

Here is a better comparison:


And this:


The other awkwardly hilarious thing that needs to be mentioned is in Bossa Nova, you have two flower people who like to "bump" and volleying shapes while they turn and make weird noises? Oh and listen to the lyrics in the 3rd remix. It sounds like someone is excited to finally score. Was someone asleep at the radar or something? Not that that it's a bad thing.

The last minor gripe is more in the fact that some people may hate this game because it's too hard. It's only hard because rhythm takes some getting used to. If you don't have it, don't fret. There's a tutorial in the way beginning that tests you on your timing. You can access it in the cafe with the doggy bartender (what?), as well as demos with every mini game so you can learn the ropes on how each of them work. Except for the remixes. Good luck keeping up with the pace. The last remix is specifically there to make sure you don't screw up. Remember, don't blame the game for the lack of rhythm, it's all on you.

What I do like though is that the unlockables include remastered mini games from the GBA version. Only 5 are available, but each of them are perfect for the one button style pressing that the wiimote implicates. From the Clapping Trio, Sneaky Spirits, Power Calligraphy (how they get that past is beyond me), Tap Trial, and the finale is a remastering of Night Walk. Wish they could have added more like Space Dance, or Bon odori, or Toran and porin (Tram and Poline), or even that weird one with plucking hairs from vegetables. This game could have had more bang for the buck, but for 30 bucks at budget price there’s a lot of treats to go around with this game.

If you like rhythm games and I know you can’t deny them no matter how many unsold guitar peripherals you see like soulless plastic instruments, get Rhythm Heaven Fever. Plenty to do in this and well worth making new addictions for. I got a fever and the only prescription is more rhythm.