Praising Anohana

Three.

I like my long and wordy reviews, where I try to go into detail with what limited knowledge I have of whatever medium I'm reviewing. Occasionally, there's something I want to write about that I really don't have much to say about. Usually, I've just avoided writing about it in those situations, but, for once, I'll actually write about it, because Anohana is just so damn good that I can't not praise it. As a

Anohana follows Jintam, a Japanese high schooler who one day wakes up to find his dead childhood friend Menma in his room. After finding out that she's back because she has a wish that she needs fulfilled, despite not remembering what it is, and that Jintam seems to be the only one able to see Menma, they proceed to almost inadvertently reunite the old gang, who have fallen out in the years following Menma's death.

It's a relatively simple premise executed near perfectly. Jintam, Menma and the gang are all extremely well rounded and interesting characters, and they felt *real* to me in a way I've very rarely experienced in anime outside of the phenomenal Grave of the Fireflies. These aren't larger than life superheroes or magical creatures like you'd find in the likes of A Certain Scientific Railgun. They're also not the superficially real-world characters of something like Free! who, despite clearly living in the real world, constantly act like they're characters in a show motivated by drama. Nor, finally, are they alike to the comically relatable but over-the-top characters of something like Kiniro Mosaic. They're much more similar to characters out of something like Breaking Bad, albeit without all the drugs, violence and obnoxious foreshadowing: They're people that we can identify as people we could realistically meet in a familiar environment.

Since Anohana is mainly focused on getting us to know and relate with these characters, this is a massive victory for it. It smashes the one thing it needed to get right out of the park, and just how incredibly right it gets this would warrant watching the show by itself. It being gorgeous, fantastically paced, and featuring one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in anime is just topping on the already outrageously delicious cake.

Anohana's final episode made me cry. This happens incredibly rarely to me. It's not that I don't tear up. I tear up a lot. Amongst many other things, I've teared up at five different episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, four of Angel, half of Isao Takahata's films, Undertale, Dragonheart, Mass Effect 3, Non Non Biyori (embarrassingly) and Smosh the Movie, thought that last one was for different reasons. Counting Anohana, only three things have made adult me actually cry, as in "made uncomfortable amounts of tears go down my face for what felt like too many minutes".

This is because Anohana isn't just a brilliant character study. Anohana is an ode to an all too recent childhood. Instead of just providing sadness in its closing moments, Anohana transports you for a second to days gone by, when the world seemed smaller, simpler, and a hell of a lot easier. It gives these memories a final nod, and moves on, keeping and cherishing them, but looking firmly forward.

Anohana is absolutely brilliant. There's a few nitpicks and bearbugs I have here and there, but I honestly can't bring myself to discuss them. On a surface level it's an immensely moving story about some immensely likable and immensely interesting characters, and on a somewhat deeper level it's an immensely moving story about some immensely important things in every person's life.

This isn't a review, but Anohana definitely rates a 10/10. Perhaps not my favorite anime, but it's definitely competing for the spot.

Go watch Anohana.

On a lighter note, and in case people are interested: I also cried at the wheat field scene in Lilly's route of Katawa Shoujo and at the end of TellTale Games' first episodic The Walking Dead game. Also, Anjou is clearly best girl. Menma's great, but she just can't compete.

An Ode To Overwatch

I love video games. That is an undeniable fact. They can be meaningful in a variety of ways that no other medium can achieve. They have a very unique capability to tell stories and really touch lives. Serious games like Spec Ops: The Line, Gone Home, or Cibele are truly powerful experiences that leave their mark on you after you play them.

But let's face it, those games aren't the reason we're gamers, are they? Some of the older gamers out there would've been initiated into the medium with their Super Mario Bros. and their Sonic the Hedgehog. People my age were brought in by stuff like Advanced Mario Bros. 4, or the third generation of Pokémon. The newcomers would've got here via their Call of Duty and Minecraft. None of these games are particularly deep or challenging, but what they most definitely are is a whole bunch of fun.

At a very basic, very baseline level, gaming is about fun. No, this doesn't mean games that aren't fun are not good examples of the medium. I don't think there was a moment during The Banner Saga where I was genuinely having fun. It's a game that's heavy, dark and keeps just weighing down on you like a son of a bitch. It's unparalleled at creating a feeling of dread, of despair at this tired, dying world that you're scrambling to keep alive for a few more moments. It's an absolutely magnificent experience, masterfully crafted and one that I would recommend without a second of hesitation. Its very nature, however, means it's not fun.

I have to admit, in these past couple years, I fell prey to one of the things that I hate the most about some game critics: I became snobbish about fun. Sure, games that are fun were to be commended for it, but that wasn't enough. I needed the clever commentary about how narrative affects gameplay of a Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the smart messing about with the player/character boundary of a 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors. If not that, I at least needed the relatively substanceless narrative focus of a BioShock: Infinite. I needed something there to justify playing games other than that stupid, childish "fun" thing. I'm an adult now, I can't play games just for fun like some kind of 14 year old.

Then there was this Overwatch thing Blizzard was putting out. I'd never really liked Blizzard, but I started playing the stupidly addictive card battler Hearthstone a couple years ago and its grip is still holding me. It's got tonnes of strategy: Figuring out what the meta-game is like, and what deck counters it best. You have to figure out what your opponent is playing as soon as possible, figure out how to scramble your strategy into place with the disparate parts of your game plan you've drawn so you can defeat them, and adapt to unexpected situations borne from odd card combinations, unconventional deck-building, or random factors baked into the cards themselves. I guess it also has that "fun" thing. I'd heard nothing but good about this Overwatch thing, and it was coming out in a couple days, so why not, fuck it, I'll pre-order it on a whim at 4 AM, exams just finished and I deserve a reward of some kind for studying so hard.

I, of course, knew that Overwatch was just an online shooter, but my tired self at 4 AM never really parsed what that meant. It looked colorful, was made by a company that has made one of my top 10 games of all time, and it had a talking gorilla named Winston in it.

So, a couple days pass, and when my Internet connection is finally good enough to let me play online shooters, I fire up Overwatch. A quick tutorial and a few bot matches later, I'm jumping into the quick-play mode proper. I pick up the hero who seemed the coolest from the little experimenting I did in the practice range, and I start pointing and clicking at things until their health is gone.

This... this is fun.

And that's it. That's all that Overwatch is at the level I'm playing it at. It's just a lot of fun. Let me rephrase that: It's a lot of fun. There's no place for a "just" there.

I feel like a child again.

I just... I just want to play this game, man.

It feels good. I like shooting people. I like flying around as Pharah. Zipping around as Tracer. Throwing bombs around as Junkrat. Failing at doing anything useful as Genji. Pulling big Resurrections as Mercy. Just creating two fucking dragons out of nowhere as Hanzo. Engaging in GLORIOUS COMBAT as Reinhardt.

Overwatch reminded me why I'm a gamer in the first place. All the games I mentioned before? They're all great. They're fantastic, beautiful pieces of art, all unique and worthwhile in their own ways. I've got nothing but respect for them and the mad geniuses who created them.

Overwatch is just relentlessly, unflappably fun. It controls so well!  The heroes are all so enjoyable to play! It's a truly beautiful, really masterfully designed piece of art. It works like absolute clockwork. It's just so tightly constructed in every way. And for what purpose? To say something about video games? To convey a message about the human condition? Tell a personal story?

No. Fuck that. You're going to have fun. That's all you need, and that's exactly what you're going to get, in an absolutely masterful and ridiculously polished way.

Ultimately, I play games to have fun. Yes, there's games like The Banner Saga that aren't fun at all, but are fantastic experiences in their own right. I won't knock them for not being fun, and I'll keep looking for those kinds of experiences. I love those experiences. But when I first fired up Advanced Super Mario Bros. 4 I wasn't looking for that. I wasn't looking for a significant challenge, brilliant atmosphere, or something significant to think about. I just wanted to have fun making the funny little man jump. I did, and it brought about a passion that hasn't just informed what I do in my free time, it's fundamentally changed me as a person through the experiences I've had through gaming.

Overwatch is an absolutely brilliant game. It's most definitely among the 5 best games I've ever played, and it's revived my love for gaming. I'll keep looking forward to games like Analogue: A Hate Story and Always Sometimes Monsters, that are there to provide a deep and meaningful experience, filled with rich themes, but I'll make sure to not forget that something like Overwatch that exists solely to provide joy is just as valuable, important, and impressive.

Thanks, Overwatch.