Battlestar Galactica - MUCH better than the original series

That's right. Sticking my foot out there on this one.

Believe it or not, this is sci-fi. In the future, people wear two vests.

It's pretty good. Good enough that I watched all of series 1 (5 DVD's) in one weekend.

As a teenager, I watched StarTrek - The Next Generation almost every day after school. I wasn't a Trekkie - it was just the best thing on TV from 5-6pm.
But I'm not gonna lie to you - it's obvious that I enjoy a bit of escapism. My life is steeped in Games Workshop and video game lore. And traveling is basically escapism too.

But oddly, what makes B.G. great isn't that it's sci-fi. Its visual effects are adequate if unspectacular (though they never look cheesy), and its premise is hardly new (robots go out of control and attempt human genocide).
What makes B.G. great is that it's a human drama. It just happens to be set in space. And dang, it really sucks you in.
The producers really did a great job. They really understood the zeitgeist. Now, I'm gonna talk about the zeitgeist for a bit. Some of you may wish to switch off now.

In this era of "web 2.0", people aren't so easily wowed any more. You can't expect to just stick some futuristic gadget on TV, make it go 'bleep bloop' and then the audience are amazed. We're too wise to all that now.

Last night, Moonraker was on the TV. Somehow, I'm a Roger Moore fan. He made James Bond so camp, so debonair... it was great 80's stuff to watch. But watching it last night, for the first time in yonks... it was quite... stupid. Maybe Austin Powers really helped us all realise how ridiculous it all was. So detached from reality. The best, most memorable scene in the film is the cable-car scene with Jaws. There are no laser guns. No quasi-futuristic clothes. Just two men trying to kill each other in a tense spectacular scenario. It's a great scene.
Now don't go telling me that Sean Connery was the "correct" Bond. There are just as many problems with the smarmy, rotund Scot as any other of the Bonds. But that's a different issue.

If we fast forward to the now... the new Bond... Daniel Craig... I would say that it's the best movie containing James Bond ever . It isn't necessarily the best Bond movie (continue reading and I hope you'll catch my drift), if you consider Bond as a genre unto itself, but, if you just consider it as a film, an artistic, dramatic creation, then it blows the other Bond movies away. Bond movies should always be a product of its era. And, like Battlestar Galactica, Casino Royale is most definitely a product of (and a contributor to) the current zeitgeist.

So, what is the current Zeitgeist? I would say that it contains the basic tenants (there may be more - please enlighten me);

• The characters are human, and therefore susceptible to human weaknesses. We are vulnarable. And you can't just kidnap a girl and then the guy must put down his weapon. It goes much deeper.
• Characters have a reason for their evil actions. They cannot just be de-facto evil. To see why people become terrorists, to see people lie and cheat out of greed and a desire for power... these are human traits, and we want to see them. Think of a Ghibli anime compared to a Disney one. Thinking about the world this way can help us understand the current socio-political climate of our world. It ain't so black and white. We all have the potential to undertake malicious acts. Stories help us understand the motivation that can provoke such acts. That's why there should be no censorship, and no 'taboo' subject matter.
  
• Technology isn't a story element - it's a prop. So, find a suitable, believable prop, use it, and move on with the story. Don't dwell on it. Don't gloat over its omnipotent powers. You will look stupid in 10 years time, I guarantee you. In B.G., much of the technology actually goes backwards from our current time - phones are cluncky and have wires. That's future-proof, right there. They have circumnavigated against any possible future accusations of being outdated - genius.
• When people fight, it hurts. Body's slam against walls, blood flies, scars remain. For a while afterwards, you will be exhausted. Fighting isn't fun. Look at Bond fight. It hurts just to watch. You really believe that a guy like him would fight like that. There are no roundhouse kicks.
• Women can be tough. Men can be sexy. The two are not exclusive.
  

In a nutshell, it's about people. B.G. is basically ER in space. ER must be more than 10 years old now. It was pretty groundbreaking at the time. The notion that Doctors get tired, that Hospitals aren't super white and squeaky clean, that people die and bleed and cry...
B.G. also borrows the camera style from ER. Close-up, shaky hand cams. Faces that fill the entire screen. The B.G.'s commander (The guy in the photo above) has a really rough, pitted skin texture. You watch B.G., and you will see it. This is a tough guy. What a contrast to Captain Picard.

Does all this have any implications for video games? Yeh, of course. Unfortunately, they are pretty harsh ones too. In TV and movies, visual effects are an accompaniment to the actual footage. You analyse where you need CGI, and you make it.
A video game is 100% visual effects - everything has to be realised by an artist. It's a cruel twist that the resource most important to TV and film is also the easiest to aquire - real human actors. Sadly for games, they need actors, humans, too. But they have to create them from the ground up. And humans are the most complicated, detailed of all objects.
With so much focus - and resources - on the visual effects, it's very easy to forget that the goal of a video game isn't to have spectacular, eye-bleeding effects (stand up Perfect Dark Zero - now get out) - but to have great gameplay. With the new generation of consoles, the resources required to produce adequate graphics in high-definition are astounding. I really suspect that many developers will lose sight of the goal.
The second challenge comes from this rejection of form before function. If games aren't played for their graphics, what are they played for? The answer is of course, gameplay. Good ol' mysterious gameplay. Nobody knows what gameplay really is - just like we don't know what a great story is. There is no guaranteed formula. This is why we really need higher education courses that focus on this. Wake up people - games are real, they entertain millions of people, and create millions of jobs (developing, manufacturing, distributing, retailing, press, PR...). The amount of people from varied backgrounds with game-specific skills is cripplingly low. I'm talking about non-techincal skills here. Anyone can learn Maya or 3D studio Max. But how do we learn about level design? Game narrative? Character design, when we have to design the game for every individual player?
Giving people three years to think about things and experiment will make the world of difference. Currently, High-Ed game courses are of a fairly low caliber. This will surely improve over time as the mount of people qualified to teach and the quality of game related literature improves.
Many games are also important for their story and characterization. Half Life has an intriguing, character-led story. Final Fantasy 12 does not. They aren't necessities for a great game, but they sure do help to maintain your interest. Half Life is unique in that there are no cut-scenes. You never once leave the body of your avatar, Gordon Freeman. Sometimes, you walk past a door and you hear a conversation on the other side. This is an example of game designers looking at narrative from a gaming perspective rather than a film one. We are in the game - so please, don't take us out if it. It's all so wrong. In Total Warrior: Spartan, there are occasional cut-scenes where your avatar gets angry, shouts, and generally makes decisions on your behalf. This is a guy that you never really see in-game, as the camera is zoomed out in order to make the game playable (as opposed to Dynasty Warriors, where the camera is much closer - too close in fact, and you can't keep track of your enemies). This actually made me dislike the Spartan character. At the end of the day, perhaps all video game avatars should be mute, like Link, Gordon Freeman and Master Chief. As soon as some deep American voice bellows out of my body, I'm suddenly reminded that I'm in a video game.

Games are starting to get more realistic. More human. They will start to challenge our actions. Deus Ex tried it, and I think more will. When we play a game, we kill people without question. There will be games that challenge this notion. Don't let your kids out of the house, because, you know you don't want kids playing this stuff. That doesn't mean that its wrong - games have an untapped potential to be profound. I can't wait to see it.

It's no longer good enough to make a 'cool' product, market it to death and reap the rewards. In this era, consumers are smart. If something is full of crap, flawed or cynical, then you can bet your board-room-decisions arse that "the web" is gonna talk about it, and your reputation will be shredded mercilessly. In the 90's, in the decade of marketing, Playstation killed Sega's hardware division by appearing to be the 'cooler' product with guerrila advertising in night clubs and festivals. No-one realised that the Dreamcast was stuffed with great exclusive games. Fast forward 12 years, and Sony is getting murdered by bad press surrounding the PSP and PS3. They are essentially using the same marketing tactics - ads that concentrate on the 'spirit' and 'coolness' of the Playstation brand rather than the quality of the product.
In a distant land called the internet, consumers are tearing them apart in forums.
In the meantime, Nintendo releases a new, reasonably priced, innovative product. The TV commercials show people playing the game. If you make a good product, the people in the internet forums will do all the marketing you could ever need.

This is web 2.0. We won't be patronised any longer.

What were they thinking...

Oh dear. TV has come a long way in 30 years I guess.

Watching them now, the Star Wars movies are a little cheesy at times, but overall, I'd say they still do a good job of suspending belief.

This 2-hour special from 1978 did a great job of almost destroying a dynamite brand. It's about Chewbacca trying to get home for "Life Day". And it's just shocking.


The best part is at around 4:20 - make sure that you stick around for that.

Don't let anyone tell you that the 70's were "cooler" than the 80's. They weren't. They were just wrong in different ways.

The procrastination of truth

Remember a while back I posted about "getting closer to why I am in Japan".

Well, lately, it hasn't been going according to plan.


I didn't get the Motion Capture part.
The movie is looking increasingly dubious.
I still haven't heard about any jobs from my Game Localisation company.

Those were my three main goals for this year, and they are looking slightly vaporous...

Despite all this, I've been in pretty good spirits lately. I've just finished another tax course - perhaps the relief from that is perking me up. It's always nice to finish a teaching job, and realising that both you and the students somehow enjoyed it. Today we did a two hour roleplay session of a foreigner filling his Tax payments... somehow, the students were enjoying it; laughing, smiling. Bizzare.

Well, they are out of my life now, so it's time to think about what comes next. I've got a few TV jobs coming up in Feb, so that should keep me ticking over in the meantime. I'm doing one commercial with a mega-famous pop star from SMAP too. It'll be the most I've ever gotten paid for one day's work. I deserve it, need it, will use it.

I was walking home the other day, and suddenly realised.... if I leave Japan, I won't be able to eat sushi (properly)... this shook me a bit. Not sure if I can leave Japan now. The food here is just so great. British food is so miserable... it makes me angry. Gastro pubs? Friking gastro pubs? Who the hell are these idiots. I went to one in London with Mickey O' last year... it was basically pub food, with herbs shucked on. Decorated with fancy names and dim lighting.
Don't get me wrong - there is plenty of good food in the UK. The problem is, if you go in a pub/restaurant/cafe and order food, 70% chance it will be merely adequate... it's like just producing the meal is the goal (on a large plate so that you can charge five quid for it). I worked in a pub. It was dreadful. Almost everything was frozen-->microwaved.
Am I being too cynical here? Am I looking at the UK through shit-tainted glasses?

Nyago on TV, Nov-Jan

I've been gradually stocking up my TV performances on the HDD recorder for awhile now, and with no more appearances scheduled for the near future, I thought it high time for this compilation.
I've been on Beat Takeshi's Unbelievable 4 times now... I must say, it is fun. I always laugh when I see myself on it. The ridiculousness of it all still isn't lost on me.



My acting career has been on a brief hiatus for the past month (Hence the large amount of free-time enabled posts recently). Indeed, I'll be teaching English to Tax Officers again for 4 days from tomorrow.

Until greater things appear, please enjoy the video.

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given.

It's been a frustrating day.

My goal was to make a highlights reel for Youtube of all my extra roles from the past couple of months.

First, I deleted one of the best ones by accident. That made me angry.

Then, Windows Movie Maker decided not to cooperate. If you've never used WMM... don't! It is seriously bad software. So buggy. A pale imitation of iMovie, to be sure.

Anyway, I've put this video up for now. I'm not in it, but it is nonetheless pretty ridiculous. I decided not to translate it, as I'm sure that your furtive imaginations will come up with much better content.



This has inspired me to put together an article about novelty Japanese celebs, and how they get chained to a single image for the rest of their careers. Poor bastards. Eventually, they cease to be odd any more - just noticable.
Mum sometimes said that if you do a funny face and the wind changes direction, that face will stick forever. I think there's an analogy in there somewhere.
If anyone out there has any ideas for image gimmicks that can get me noticed in Japanese TV, I'll be glad to hear! :-P Extensive nose elongation surgery perhaps?

Nyago new release! 'Draw dros y mor'

Nobody said that making music was easy - thankfully, it is now in the hands of nerds

I was walking back from the video shop, and a new tune came in to my head.

It quickly took shape.

I could see:
It was going to be something special.

Sadly, that's not the same song that I have put together today - amongst all the hassle of setting up the keyboard, laying down drum beats etc, I'd quite forgotten what I intended to do. Damn it - must use the voice recorder on my phone in future! Even if I do look like a doink singing in the streets.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this song - 'Draw dros y mor' (Welsh for 'Over the sea'). It's quite notable for me in that;
It's my first song in months
It has my my first audio sample - the trains outside the apartment
It has voice samples from my favourite singer (me)
I did it in Welsh (current fad of mine)

Anyways, enough reading about it - go ahead and load it up in the Nyago music player on the right, and have a listen for yourselves. I think it's a bit too long myself again, and perhaps has too much going on at times.

You can download it here too (remember to right click->save link as);
Download Nyago: Draw Dros y Mor.mp3

He-man let's it all out

I rediscovered this classic vid on Youtube the other day. Any of you who haven't seen it yet - here's your chance to fill the darkness in your lives with dazzling light.



Surely this is proof - if ever it was needed - that people need an excess of free time if the world is to be a happy place. Bless all art degrees!

Japan radio forum

I'm quite chuffed with the little flash player that I've put up - it took quite a bit of work, but I'm looking forward to getting some good stuff on there. There are musicians in Japan too, you know. I haven't bought a non-Japanese CD now for aaaaaages. I'm not being snobbish - I'm just losing touch. For western music, Jonny is my ears.
I'll try and keep it varied.

You can post your opinions, requests, death threats etc here.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Nyago Music forum

This is the place to discuss music by Nyago, and the music player.
Please, be honest (^o^)v

Cymraeg yw iaeth yr ysgol hon

I was listening to 'Yr Atal Genhedlaeth' today for the first time in yonks. Yeh, it's still pretty good. Forget Stereophonics, MSP - SFA and Gorky's are, for me, the only succesful Welsh bands who both sound good and undeniably Welsh. Not just in accent; but in the very roots of their music. You listen to Gruff Rhys, and you get the feeling that he has been to Llangranog.

That's right - Japanese version, baby

Anyway, the album is also in Welsh. I don't get to hear or speak much Welsh anymore - it's more like some coherent dream.

There's no doubting though that Welsh sounds great in songs. Welsh is so much fun - so camp.
In any language, there are words that make you smile just by saying or hearing them. I would like to collect all of them, Pokemon style. I'm gonna start with some Welsh ones - feel free to add to the list.
I'm gonna cheat and use some phrases too.

Sbwrgi
Sgerbwd
Mor-ladron
Hyder
Ogof

I know that there are more - help me here, before they leave me for good

Capturing the essence of motion

I just got back from an audition for a motion-capture part in a video game. I can't give too much away of course, but I can say that it's for an RPG by one of the major Japanese software companies.
I was very impressed by the professionalism - the staff and studio were much more organised than anything I've seen so far in TV, commercials and films.

This is what motion capture work looks like -
not so different to a Saturday night out for me, then.

The audition was really fun - there were several different parts to try out, as well as some ad-lib sword fighting with a wooden kendo sword. Yeh, I kicked arse, of course. Need you even ask?
It would be real sweet if I could land this job - not only would the experience be ideal, but the money is also really good too. It will be hard though, as all the other actors there were pretty good, and much more experienced... let's hope that I have some raw talent hidden in there somewhere. I thought that I did particularly well doing my lizard-man walk.

The studio had a huge collection of fake weapons - guns, swords, bows - the lot. For one scene, we were going to use this huuuuge bad-ass sword, but it was too long for the poor girl... so we gave her a baton instead. For some reason, all the girls there were all really hot - isn't it irrelevant for motion capture anyway?!? Give the mingers a chance, for pity's sake.

I really need to penetrate through the scummy layer of TV acting that I've been doing - this kind of stuff is much more beneficial. I haven't heard from my voice-artist agency for a couple of months now, so it's been shitty job after shitty job.

It's time for some more 'Oomf'. It's time that they all realised that I AM A GOD!! Only then will I wear my Motion-Capture suit before the masses.

Nyago stars in J-pop videos. Small stars.

I've done a few music videos in the past 6 months for rad-bad J-pop artists. They are always... interesting.

The first one that I did was for mega-group SMAP. We played football in some field in Saitama. The goalie was a real nice guy called Andy who used to be the reserve goalkeeper for Sunderland until he slipped a disk - he now runs a soccer academy in Saitama (his wife is Japanese).
I've often tried searching for the video on Youtube, but the thing is, I don't even know the name of the song, and there are thousands of SMAP videos on Youtube... someday maybe...

I did manage to track down a couple of others though. I did this video with a boy-band called EXILE. They are pretty big.

Good luck trying to spot me though - I could only catch myself briefly at 2:36 holding a camera on the left. It's pretty blurry too...
It's also hard to pick me out from the throngs of volunteer fans who turned up, lucky winners of the EXILE fan club lottery. There was lots of screaming. They were mostly 30's-40's women, with a few wimpy young men also making an appearance (crafty buggers). One old lady was pretty funny, calling one of the members 'Ma-chan' all the time, in the tone of voice commonly used for babies and small dogs. He laughed. I seriously think that her perception of reality is somewhat off-cue.

You can see a bit more of me in this video by bikini-model turned singer Nao Nagasawa. You should be able to spot me a few times, although they disgracefully didn't use my funky dancing moves.

I guess she was trying to be controversial - but here in Japan no-one blinks an eye at this kind of crap. To think that Madonna kicked up such a fuss with 'like a Prayer' all those years ago - well, at least she wasn't dressed like a prozzie (for once).
I think that Randy, who plays the priest dude, does a great job here. When he shows her the cross - hilarious. He's the actor who played the doctor who says "You have ALS" in my sickness documentary.
The studio was so dusty... made me real flemmy for days, I was hacking up all kinds of crap. There was all this glitter too that got everywhere and melted in the lights. Dang. It wasn't fun. They kept us for hours longer then scheduled, with no food all day. I acquired one of the lunch boxes designated for the staff (they never have time to eat them anyway) Ho-hum.
Still, I got about 75quid for each job - and know I am immortalised in music history. Perhaps, someday they will be extras in my music videos. Or maybe not.

Music disclaimer

This is a personal site, and any music that I showcase is not used for profit. I merely wish to showcase great Japanese artists to my friends.
All songs are embedded and are not available for download. In addition, all songs are encoded at the low rate of 80kbps. If anyone enjoys the music, please support the artist and buy the official CD!

HMV will devour us all

It doesn't matter where you are, there are two universal truths in this world;

1. McDonalds tastes the same in any country (i.e. suspicious)
2. HMV's in any country are overpriced yet allude to have 'bargains'


I was in Sendai at the end of the end of the year, and whenever I'm in Sendai, I do like to have a browse around the Book-off store near the station. Most Japanese retailers sell CD's at the recommended retail price (3000-4000JPY, or 15-20GBP), so second-hand is a good avenue to reasonable value.
I bought the debut solo album by Miki Furukawa, former Supercar bassist. It comes in a shiny blue card case that unfolds into a pentagon. It's pretty neat. You can listen to her on Myspace here, and see her on Youtube here. She's clearly sticking to the late-Supercar blueprint that brought her success.

I then realised that this was the first CD that I'd bought in 11 months. Despite my poverty, I used this as some sort of justification when, a week later, I found myself in the Shinjuku Times Square mall with nothing to do, so I cruised around the 13th floor HMV whilst Rumi browsed shoes amongst the rabid, packed throngs downstairs. I went down their later. It was an ugly sight. Like the Tokyo Game Show, but with shoes.

HMV were having their "biggest ever sale!!!" (Their emphasis). To be fair, there were plenty of DVD bargains available, ranging from 500 - 2000 yen, some of them pretty new titles. No doubt they are trying to clear the stock, so that they can overcharge us aaaaaall over again with Blu-ray/HD-DVD. Can't wait for that one.
Still, thanks to the "biggest ever sale!!!", I somehow ended leaving the store with 4 CD's, but my wallet was 12,600JPY lighter... that's 55GBP!! That seems like a lot if you ask me. That sounds like how much it should cost before the sale.

Anyway, I used this rare opportunity to flesh out my Supercar collection with more average CD's (it's horrible when a great band break up and you already own the best albums - you end up scavenging). I'll do a Supercar round up post some other time.

I spent a good half-hour at the Indies music stations in the far corner of the room. It was nice. Should do it more often. I found several albums that I almost rash-purchased.

I did come out of the store with this little doozy though.



Cornelius has been around for a while now - I think he's even collaborated with Bloc Party. He makes very sparky, upbeat experimental music, using lots of live instruments as opposed to synth. It's very trendy boutique music that you could easily imagine being played in a shop that sells expensive T-shirts. Very Daikanyama, I would say (there are lots of stores in Daikanyama that sell expensive T-shirts).

This album will definately be sitting next to Susumu Yokota's "Grinning Cat" in my CD collection for years to come. He's playing in the Liquid Room, Ebisu in March - might have to go check that one out.

Cornelius home page

Cornelius on Myspace

I've made another Flash player over there on the right. In the future, I'll be putting what cool Japanese music I find into there, so be sure to check it out every once in a while. I've put some Cornelius in there for now - have a listen, then I won't have to describe the music! It makes sense really, doesn't it.

NOTE: I've just checked Cornelius' Myspace page, and seems that he hails from Nakameguro - just one station from Daikanyama. So there you go. Maybe he is directly responsible for the trendy T-shirt stores.

Pleasurable distractions, and gambits

I haven't blogged for several weeks now.
.
.
It's not that I don't have anything to write about.
It's been a very busy period. There are lots of things that I have intended to write about, but have now faded from memory.
It's just that, whenever I've had any free time, whenever Rumi isn't around, I play Final Fantasy XII.
This is the first Final Fantasy game that I've played in six years - since FFVI. The series has doubled now, so I guessed it was time for a revisit.

The reason that I haven't played any FF games in so long is quite understandable. Firstly, the games are utterly long. When you start playing, you know that you will end up parting ways with some 60+ hours of your life. That's a lot of time for an adult. Luckily, I certainly have time these days. I've put on an excellent display of restraint in the past to avoid these games, but now was a good time to cave in - media reportings suggested that this was the best FF since VII, which, having never owned the original Playstation, I kind of missed out on. Game of the year in EDGE too.



What makes this game so compelling? Sure, level grinding is kind of fun, but it's much less of a chore than in other RPG's. One part of this is the beautiful visuals and emotive music - I could spend hours in the Ozmore plains - but FFXII also has several areas of true innovation, which is refreshing to see from a franchise which is in it's twelfth installment.
The most noticeable is in the new combat system - gone are the frustrating random battles, replaced by a more fluid natural live system, which is also much better to look at.
But the innovation that has truly impressed me are the 'licensing' and 'gambit' systems. The developers have basically taken some standard RPG aspects... and then they make you pay for them! Yes, you actually have to use your in-game money to buy AI commands for your team members! Whilst it may sound like a cynical move, it is actually a move of genius that empowers the gamer - instead of just waiting for your character to level up until you can use a new weapon, you are now in control. You choose the direction of your characters development. And as for AI, in previous RPG's, there were always three styles - you could either painstakingly enter every individual command for each command like in existing FF games, memorize a large range of keyboard shortcuts like in Neverwinter Nights, or you could allow the CPU to control them for you like in Secret of Mana. In FFXII, by making you pay for the 'gambits' (basically AI commands), you are getting a gradual trickle, which stops you from getting flooded. The level of control and involvement is phenomenal.
Switching to the new live-action style, I imagine that the developers were faced with a difficult design decision. How do you keep the action flowing without either overloading the player, or grinding the game to a crawl with constant menu interaction? The answer, of course, is AI. The developers made a brave decision - to give the common gamer the ability to make low-level programming decisions (eg, IF hit_points<30% THEN cast cure). Making the players invest in the gambits, by making them slowly available throughout the game, and presenting them in a way that is both fun and easy to understand... this, I believe is game design innovation at its best. Finding an entertaining solution to a boring/complicated problem. The beauty of FFXII is that you may not be realising it, but you are actually just programming a database. It's Microsoft Access with glorious, shining bells. Hopefully they can tinker it a little for the next FF - personally, I think that the Gambits are too cheap, and the ones that you really need aren't available soon enough (MP<7p, please, I'm sick of casting charge after every battle!). They should make these available but make them real expensive - make players realise that this will be as valuable as, say, the next sword.
My main criticism of the game is that, except for Balthier, the characters are... boring as hell. And practically indistinguishable from each other. I'm pretty tired of playing brave boys in action games. Give me a real man!!

Anyway, I've wasted enough time typing. I have another 30 hours or so of FFXII to go.
Purest joy.