Revolution has come to the Empire of Tearmoon and Mia, its First Princess, is experiencing her worst nightmare. Stripped of her rank, jailed in a dark cell, and force-fed rotten food, she is then left without any distraction, except for the diary she dutifully writes. Three years on, she finally sees daylight again, only to… Read More First Impression: Tearmoon Empire
In a setting inspired by early twentieth-century Europe, lies the impoverished state of North Ambria (pseudo-Russia). Some years ago, North Ambria went all Lot’s wife and people and stuff started turning to salt, greatly weakening the country and leading to revolution. Now, North Ambria’s economy is reliant on its jaegers, members of a mighty private… Read More First Impression: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War
(It’s getting difficult to distinguish between the titles of my posts and the titles of light novels, isn’t it?) You’ve probably heard that the winners write the history books. The victors of various conflicts (military, political, cultural, etc.) fabricate self-glorifying stories at the expense of the losers. Except that’s not how history actually works. Since… Read More The First Duty of Every Starfleet Otaku is to the Truth, Whether it’s Scientific Truth, or Historical Truth, or Personal Truth
Sometime in the early twentieth century, a cross-country automobile (?) race from Los Angeles to New York City begins. Then the OP plays; it includes a prairie dog. Also, a bottle of whiskey gets shot. Figured you’d want to know. We flashback to a year before the race and meet Sorano Appare, an eccentric genius… Read More First Impression: Appare-Ranman!
Set in Florence, Italy, early in the sixteenth century, this is the tale of a young noblewoman named Arte trying to become a proper artist and make a living. Her supportive father died recently, and now her mother is calling the shots: we meet her as she sets ablaze a pile of her daughter’s drawings.… Read More First Impression: Arte
Last week, I asked for reader response regarding the “moe-ifying” of tragic events, with particular emphasis on WWI. JeskaiAngel, one of our regular guest contributors, couldn’t keep his thoughts to a single comment—he sent us this entire article! Charles asked, “What do you think about making cuteness out of WWI? Of moe-fying some tragic event in… Read More Guest Post: Kawaii Trench Warfare
I’ve recently gotten around to playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You know, the one everybody’s been frothing at the mouth over. And it’s indeed a great game, perhaps my new favourite in the series (even if it isn’t exactly the flawless diamond that a lot of people seem to think it… Read More Storytelling and Myth in Breath of the Wild