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coolcattime · 1 year

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Some of my thoughts on The Devil in Me because I love the Dark Pictures games and I've had a few days to think since finishing our playthrough (I playthrough these games with my best friend Atlas) and also spent some time looking into alternative routes and things we missed.

These thoughts are gonna contain spoilers but in general, I loved this game. I wish there were more traps and more opportunities for characters to die, but those things didn't reduce our enjoyment of the game.

Firstly, beyond anything, thank God scene select before the game is over is back after being gone in The Quarry (I know The Quarry isn't a Dark Pictures game but obviously they're the same style). We used scene select to reload four scenes throughout the playthrough, which I don't know completely by name but it was the glass wall trap (to save Kate), the roof chase (to save Jamie, then about another 4 time mistakenly thinking Kate was dying when she can't die in this scene), the slaughterhouse scene (to save Charlie, though I thought him dying from falling off the planks was really funny), and the scene with the dog (to save Jamie). Obviously this means we did save everyone, including Connie the dog.

Opinions on the characters:

My favourite Jamie, Atlas' favourite Kate.

Honestly I really liked all the women. Jamie was my personal favourite because I like kinda mean women in horror, that Jamie and Erin's relationship got me very invested in them. I was actually quite surprised Jamie and Erin wasn't in any of the advertising as it happens quite quickly and I was so much more invested in them than Mark and Kate.

I really did like Erin. I really like that she is quite assertive despite how they definitely could have made her quiet. Like she knows what she experiences and isn't willing to be told otherwise. Atlas thinks she should've been in the game more as she's by far the most sympathic character in the group.

Kate grew in me, I thought she might just kind of be the main character(tm), though I did like her helping Mark cross the bridge and her giving Charlie the self help book is such a funny gift to give your boss. Then it started getting into Kate's backstory and God did I like Kate. Her fully accepting and not putting her own death on Jamie in the glass trap was maybe my favourite scene in the game (I also like the reverse scene with Jamie). Atlas thinks that she's one of the best written characters in the series, as they can see how there would be a lot of different ways to interpret her, and that they relate to her a lot.

Charlie I thought was like good, a dick but I think that makes sense with the trope of him being the boss. Atlas thinks that there wasn't really enough time to do the story of Charlie setting everything up, which I definitely agree with.

Mark is my least favourite by far because, well, his character is a bit confused. Like his lesson at the end of the story was apparently to make his own decisions, but I never got that. He was very condescending to both Kate and Erin and I'm honestly not sure why he broke up with Kate but then is staying that a bad job to be with her. Atlas sets that Mark is probably his least favourite character in the series, and that he is "Mike from Until Dawn but bad and not vibey". I think this is made worse by Mark being unable to die until the finales.

For some more general thoughts:

-- This is the first time we've wanted to replay one of the tutorials.

-- I love the concept of a bad ending with a completely different finale scene, I wish it could any two characters rather than just Kate and Mark.

-- I like that not everything is spelled out about DuMet, he's a mysterious slasher killer and while there's enough info to come to a pretty good conclusion, it isn't just outright said and leaves some stuff to theory crafting.

-- I love that the everyone lives ending, it's the two couples getting whatever ending their relationship dictates and then Charlie quitting smoking, just made me chuckle.

#the dark pictures the devil in me #the devil in me #just thoughts #i really liked this game

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amaya-chwan · 3 years

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Therapy Game Restart Discussion: Who is Onodera?

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well~ ❤️💛💜 I've had a headscratcher of an ask/message regarding Onodera, so I figured I'll make it into one big post!

Before I begin this Q&A/discussion post (feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts), I have looked through past chapters to gather the information I will put into this post to support my predictions. Not all chapters are readily available for everyone at the moment as only one volume of TGR is out right now, so I shall put the chapter numbers for your future reference! ⚠️ Also, just a note! These opinions are my personal thoughts, conjectures, and opinions, so please don't think I am saying one idea or speculation is wrong--this is just how I see it, and of course I could very well be wrong! And I also am not fluent in Japanese, so I may have some translation errors!

⚠️ Also, a warning, this will be a long post! Keep reading if you're interested and please let me know your own thoughts!

First, in an earlier ask, I was directed to a translation group that said Onodera is a man. With the help of Google and Google Translate (because I don't understand/speak Spanish), I found that post (dated April this year) and the origin of the picture they used in that post. The image is from Hinohara-sensei's 13th August 2020 tweet here and is also below for reference:

Now, all I can remember from first seeing that image is "Woow, so pretty! A female character? A love rival? A threat? OH it's the infamous director they're all talking about???"

This image was released around the time chapter 8 was released, i.e. the first chapter we see Onodera in full.

Looking at the image again, I can see how Onodera could be seen as a female or a male. Onodera has long hair, yet no visible breasts. There is no evidence of an Adam's apple, but that could just be because of the turtleneck as part of their outfit. Furthermore, in chapter 13, we see a view of Onodera from behind. There are no "womanly curves" visible in this view of Onodera.

After searching some Japanese blogs, some fans also had the same thoughts: no breasts = possible male, the shape of the face etc. Here are the blogs I found: [1] [2] [3] but most of these are from around chapter 8.

Just about the breast argument: there are a lot of different shapes for breasts. I learnt that when working at a department store selling bras during university. It is possible that Onodera is really flat chested or just has very little breast tissue. Not sure if that's getting too technical now, ahah, but what I want to say is that the lack of breasts isn't a definite yes to Onodera being a man.

Hinohara-sensei also has not explicitly stated throughout TGR so far (ch1-13) that Onodera is male or female.

From chapters 8-12, Onodera is always referred to as 院長 (director) by Shizuma and the nurses at the clinic. No gender-specific pronouns have been used in the story nor by any characters to refer to Onodera when speaking so far (that I have read). So confirming Onodera's gender is just misleading at the present moment.

We do find out in chapter 9 that Onodera's first name is 昌 akira. Akira is a gender neutral name in Japan. It is often given to males, but it is not uncommon for females to have this name. Which, I think, is genius on Sensei's part. It leaves us all thinking!

Q: So Amaya-chwan, what do you think Onodera's gender is?

Just for me as I've been reading TGR the past 1.5 years, I see Onodera as a woman as I have been "encouraged" to see Onodera as one by the little subtleties in the story, and Minato sees Onodera as a female, so I probably am viewing Onodera in Minato's POV.

(Please keep reading on for more insights and answers to questions! Really, this post is long! 😅)

In chapter 9, Onodera's older brother, who is also Shizuma's university professor (and his last name is not Onodera), makes small talk with Shizuma regarding the staff at his placement:

Shizuma's professor says: By the way, Shizuma-kun, how've you been!? You haven't been bullied, have you!? // The female team here is scary, right~ You know, Nakajou-kun and I were in the same grade...

So here, I'm made to think Onodera's clinic is pretty much all female, including Onodera too.

Fun fact: His professor uses the suffix -kun for Nakajou-sensei, yet Nakajou-sensei is a female and -kun is commonly used for males these days. But, it is also used for females in very specific situations. I'm not too sure what the situations are, but I have heard them used for females before.

In the same chapter (9), while Shizuma is changing out of his scrubs in the men's locker (?) room, Onodera walks in. He is slightly flustered, and kindly reminds her that she's walked into the men's locker room. Her reaction is "Huh? Ahh..." So here, again, I am made to believe Onodera is female.

While no gender-specific pronouns have been used to address Onodera, Minato and Itsuki have referred to Onodera as a female in chapter 13.

The kanji for "female/woman" is 女. In these two images, Minato refers to Onodera as 上司の女 female superior, and from Minato's story, Itsuki hence calls her 職場の女の人 female from (Shizuma's) workplace. This is the only time Onodera has been referred to as a female.

⚠️ Just a note going forward in this discussion, I will now call Onodera "she/her" as that is what I believe Onodera's gender is at the present moment!

Now, I did get a second ask from an Anon! Here they are below with my responses:

This one is about what's behind Onodera. I think she's a pretty interesting character. I actually think she's a trans woman or a non-binary trans woman. Sensei has been dropping so many hints to that... The name her brother calls her might be her dead name. He complains about her hair and what their father would say. She's designed to have flat breasts, perhaps she's not under hormone therapy, perhaps her "trips" and "days off" have something to do with reassignment surgeries...

She most definitely is an interesting character. I wouldn't say Onodera being transgender is out of the realm of possibility because the story is still ongoing. But regarding her name, I don't know if I'd call it a dead name since it is gender neutral already. Perhaps the kanji for a male Akira name would be different to a female one though?

About the hair comment (ch10), I just thought it was unruly? I honestly didn't think too much of it! What I will add is that the kanji for hair (髪) is used, but the reading is あたま head. Not sure why just yet, so I'll just leave that here as some extra information for the moment.

Not sure what I really think about a) her flat-chestedness and b) her insanely long business trips yet! I figured a) might be a character design, and b) she really is a top-notch veterinarian so she's probably in high demand. But I could be completely off the mark!

Also, I don't know where to add this random bit in from the story, but in chapter 12, we find out that Onodera has been calling one of the staff the wrong name for more than 10 years now. Not sure if this new piece of info affects anything?

But again, that is a very interesting prediction/thought you have about Onodera, and I wouldn't say it's not possible!

She's kind of a female Minato, psychologicallly and in appearance, which brings some challenges. And one more thing that I think hints to that: "I'll make it so your body can never be satisfied by any woman", Minato says to Shizuma. As the last chapter leaves it at that, we don't know exactly what he is talking about. [spoiler?] I haven't seen the Japanese text yet to be sure if he's clear about topping Shizuma.

That was exactly my thought when she was first introduced! That's part of the reason why I think Minato sees her as a threat, especially when he saw her for the first time and was told she is a 美人beautiful person (both in chapter 12). She and Minato definitely share some characteristics, but I find she's a bit more socially-awkward than Minato given her background (Chapter 9 & 10).

For the dialogue, the Japanese lines and the most literal translations I can give are:

今から　静真くんを抱く From now, (I'll) hold/embrace you, Shizuma-kun.

どんな女に出会っても　絶対満足できない体にしてあげる No matter the women you encounter, I will make it so your body definitely cannot be satisfied (by any of them).

Hopefully we'll find out what Minato means by that exactly in the next chapter, which I hope comes to me this week!

But if that's what he's talking about, it's 1. poor Minato being transphobic (besides being biphobic towards his own boyfriend)* 2. poor Minato probably foreshadowing his own fall. If Onodera happens to be a woman with a d**k, she can do whatever Minato thinks a cis man only can do. That's not what will make Shizuma stay by his side. Shizuma will stay by his side because he loves Minato. And that's that. Debunks biphobic myths, debunks transphobic myths. *He's not a bad person, he's got issues

Okay, this is probably as straight-forward as I can say this, but I just want to say that I don't know enough about the issues faced by the LGBTQI+ community. My friends have kindly answered all my questions so far as I don't want to be ignorant or rude when learning more about my friends and the community. I don't want to give off the air that I'm assuming anything since I don't want any misunderstandings. And I am fully aware that I need to educate myself more regarding this!

So about Minato, I'm not completely sure what you mean by number 2. But he definitely has his share of trauma, insecurities, and fears regarding his relationship with Shizuma. Having Onodera as a threat in this story really helps drive Minato's growth. The story is titled Therapy Game Restart, so what I gather from the title is that Minato is going to face another fear/insecurity he has, something deeply-rooted in him, and it's going to get really heavy and complicated, but he will eventually get through it and it will help him heal and grow as a character, and hopefully strengthen his faith in his relationship with Shizuma.

So far, I believe this "fear" is carrying on from +Play More, that Shizuma can be whisked away by a female at any moment.

But yes, Minato has to realise for himself that his and Shizuma's love, relationship, and bond is strong enough for him to not worry about Shizuma leaving him so abruptly. He has to learn to trust in Shizuma more, and TGR is slowly revealing that, especially in chapter 13.

I'll stop here. I have already written long analyses on this series and I think about making them public at some point. But it would be nice to hear from you! Maybe I'm completely wrong in my interpretations! I'm really sorry for being so annoying and maybe using inappropriate language. I really didn't mean to bother you. But I never see anyone making these points. I just want to know if I'm thinking unreasonably...

I love reading different analyses, opinions, story predictions, the whole lot!! So please feel free to ask me or post your own ideas. It's always a welcome thing for me to discuss stories and learn new things! Don't be sorry that you're being a bother or annoying, because it's not a bother at all!

We're all allowed to have our own ideas and opinions about stories, and these ideas will change once something is canon in the story, and ultimately is something we will have to accept too.

So yeah, just my two cents. Thank you for being so patient with my response, dear Anon!

To anyone reading at this point, thank you for reading this far! ❤️💛💜

I shall see you in our next set of takeaways~ As always, stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones! 💜

(2021-05-17: Speedy proofreading is done ahah! And yes, my brain is still so full of 山河令/Word of Honor right now, so I have been VERY distracted! Highly recommend this drama, guys! It's up for free on the official Youku Youtube page! Totally not an endorsement, but I love this drama! AHHHHH!! Gong Jun [Simon] be living on my mind rent free~)

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tanukimorado · 2 years

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Is Netflix's Cowboy Bepop a bop?

(originally posted on DA Dec 12, 2021: https://tinyurl.com/42zpah6p)

I've watched the OG and the Netflix adaption of Cowboy Bepop the passed month or so.

The OG is honestly work of art but found the ending leaves you with a lot of questions (don't mind that, it's anime and they've been doing this since the 80's so...there you go).

So far for the live action we only have one season and its...well...meeeh.

It's not bad, it's not good its just awkwardly in the middle. There are some parts that are fantastic, I think most of the character choices are great but there's a lot of moments where your drawn from the story and what's

going on for one of several reasons:

- bad fight choreography

- choice of music doesn't fit

- Spike

- storyline doesn't match up.

[spoilers ahead!]

First of all, I've grown up watching alot of eastern themed fighting films (who hasn't) and I found most of John cho's fight scenes were off and don't think that its his fault but he didn't exactly sell the part either. I feel the writers missed the mark and mistook most of his mannerisms. like there's an episode I loved that was done beautifully where we see Spike and Vicious in the Syndicate and how they went their separate ways (putting THAT politely). and I felt the Spike (or fearless rather) in this episode was the closest with seen Spike from the original. I was expecting to see more slight of hand magic and I honestly can't name a scene where we saw this. His original confidence and swagger if you will? comes across as arrogant and annoying. even in scenes where Spike is suppose to come across as sincere its got a vibe of he's not really about it.

Choice of music for the most part was actually pretty good but there's a lot scenes where a different choice would have made a better fit. either the tempo to what was happening was off, for each character there's a specific genre of music and sometimes it felt like they forgot which characters where on screen and just went with "I like that song, lets put it here."

About the story line, I'm not expecting them to mirror each other but for the story line the pacing feels rushed!

Some of the changes of the storyline I actually like! Jet having a kid throws you at first mention but she slots in quite nicely. I like the way Fay and the lady that tricked had this weird bonding moment and I much prefer this Julia. she's not just some blonde woman that two blokes are fighting over, she's got depth.

but some parts are underwhelming. for instance how we meet Ein. in the original series, Hakim is this tall bloke who's stolen Ein because of how he was engineered to be and we have this epic chase scene through out the town and it feels like there's alot going on at once but it all comes together in the end.

In the Netflix series, Hakims lost his height and his silent violent character. He murders rich people and kidnaps their dogs to attempt to kill them later. We do get a funny scene of Jet and Spike in a S&M place looking for info but eventually they stumble upon Hakim because EIN escaped and lead the way to Hakim...playing with dogs and then trying to himself.

this is the meh department.

was it because of budgets or writing in general we didn't get this epic chase scene over a dog (all be it a genetically engineered one)? I didn't mind the funny scit the s&m place. I thought that went well with the story. but the rest of the episode was drawn away from the main thing that was Ein.

at the end of the episode sure, we're reminded that it was all about Ein as Jet decides to keep him after his baby mama was like 'I'm broke, we can't afford that'. and in this moment you forget that Ein had nothing to do with the rich people and their dogs - at all. in fact the only way we know Ein is special is because he hacks his way out of his special cage.

Felt the writers we're hoping the people watching this were new to the series as a whole and had short memories.

Also not sure what to make of Ed...Feeling a little let down on how she's been portrayed, think if they turn Netflix Ed down a few notches they'll nail Ed's character.

Ultimately should you watch it?

Yes, I think you should cause I do think the good out ways the bad.

do I think some tweaks need to be made for season 2? yes, yes they should.

Let me know what you think, Have you seen it yet?

#live action #anime #cowboy bebop #netflix #reveiw

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