One last thing I caught just before the end, a very cool display for Suikouden HD featuring original art and character design sheets from the game’s developments
Thought the docs would be of interest so I’ll share a few tweets of these to end tweets on the event #TGS2022
Had to take these quick as they’re closing up shop so sorry if the Suikouden pics are a little rough #TGS2022
Never been misgendered in Japan while speaking EN or 日本語 (a lot of Japanese isn’t gendered anyhow but I’ve never had male terms used for me) in 2019 or since I returned, but a booth staffer who refused to speak Japanese when I did just said ‘he, she, /what/ are you’ so… fun
I did not stay to play their game
I mean, it’s not me thing for it to happen but also, my fit is feminine androgynous and as press I do have a press lanyard with my business card around my neck that literally has a name and pronouns so…
Happy Science are one of the most recognizable New Religious groups in Japan with a media empire packaging ultra-nationalist rhetoric and outlandish spiritualism into a wealth of movies and books. In the wake of Shinzo Abe’s assassination, what’s next?
Over the past 6 months I’ve immersed myself into the world of Happy Science. I’ve seen all their movies, visited their temples, read numerous books, magazines and articles from and about them, to drive to the core of what this group is
Not who are Happy Science, but why.
Amidst laughing at these films and books, it’s easy to overlook that these works:
A) Enjoy box office profit and sales success
B) Draw new audiences to the group
C) Become tools for spreading a xenophobic, militaristic, far-right worldview with damaging consequences
Anno viewed the article as his responsibility in light of reporting which linked the arrest of the current director of Gainax for inappropriate conduct with a voice actor including naked photos, because reports about it being the Evangelion studio made it seem like it was him
He found it as a responsibility to Evangelion, staff who worked on it and his studios to speak out about this.
Gainax no longer have responsibility for the franchise, after all, yet still hold it within the public perception and this, he views, is something needing clarity
This is an op-ed of Hideaki Anno finally becoming too sick of Gainax’s mishandling of Eva, his works, the company, its workers and more, and airing the details in public about their bad management practices when it comes to Eva and more
The details here, such as needing a loan of 100 million yen in under 3 days or ‘they’d be crushed’ and more are a DAMNING inditement of the state of Gainax, going all the way back to the immediate aftermath of Eva premiering and making money
Though not explicit, it gives a lot more context to the massive Gainax exodus from back at the beginning of the decade, too, because of pay differentials and more that are also cited here…
It makes the situation with Gainax much messier than the already-messy appearance it had