Anime Recommendation: Ghost Stories

I think the last time I watched anime was season one of One Punch Man. Before that, season one of Attack on Titan. Before that, I don't know. Anime seems meh these days, but I have seen a ton of anime in the past.

This past weekend I watched Ghost Stories, a horror anime from the early 2000s. I watched the English dub which is infamous for let's say not honoring the source material very well. In spite of this, I think the major concepts came through and it was still enjoyable. It's a monster of the week series featuring five school kids. One of them, Satsuki I think was her name, is the main character.

Here's the premise of the story that I can decipher based on the English dub. Satsuki and her little brother have recently lost their mom. Their family is moving back to their old neighborhood where Satsuki's parents grew up. There's a new school across from the old school, and so the old school along with an entire hillside of little old shrines is scheduled for slow demolition for new urban or commercial development. Every time the demolition crew demolishes some old shrine, they disturb a ghost or a release demon that was coincidently put to rest or sealed away by Satsuki's mom. The revelation that Satsuki's mom did all this is revealed in episode one by their first demon encounter, and the ghosts and demons are all looking to take their revenge on Satsuki! Within the first episode, Satsuki visits the old school and discovers a secret journal left by her late mom detailing her encounters with all these ghosts and demons, along with how to defeat them, and she manages to defeat her first demon by trapping it inside her own pet cat. The demon in the cat, named Amanojaku, becomes a very interesting character really fast because he hates her, but his powers are useless inside the cat body. Still, he taunts her every time her life is threatened and reveals partial hints about how she and her friends might die.

Satsuki may or may not have spiritual powers or be the daughter of a witch. It's unclear in the English dub why she or her mom could defeat any of the monsters, but she can thanks to her mom's journal. There's an overarching plot about the unresolved grief or trouble or mystery caused by the untimely death of the mom, but that plot got very, very lost in the English dub. It's a short series of 20 self-contained episodes. I wouldn't mind watching it again in Japanese with English subs to get the real story and characters.

I appreciate writing, and so I appreciate how this series wrote monster of the week horror. What I learned about horror while watching this anime is that monsters are scary because they each have unique, weird, esoteric, sometimes unintuitive rules and the point of view characters have to figure them out. Who are they, why are they violent, how do their powers work, and what is their secret weakness are all asked and answered in each episode. Information is valuable! The characters have no other powers but to run, to hide, and their ability to get the right information in time. Sometimes there's other conflicts like being separated or pitted against each other. The monster questions are often resolved by consulting the mom's journal, but sometimes the journal entry is unclear to the characters, and they have to get more information from somewhere or someone else. Or they don't know how to look up the monster because they must first learn its name! A lot of the time, it feels like they're gambling, and that's where the tension comes from.

As far as writing goes, what else does this show do well? The set up is done well. The characters live in a grounded world and there's a perfectly believable and plausible reason for why hauntings are suddenly a problem. Characterization is good. Every ghost or demon has an unresolved issue or grievance motivating their violence. Sometimes it's personal because they hate the main character because her mom sealed them away, and that's unfair to Satsuki because she didn't do anything wrong. She's got to learn and adapt, and she has a cast of brave, helpful friends. They have an overarching plot that got lost in translation, but it's of a personal nature to the heroes and I can only assume it helps them grow as characters and has a moral lesson about life and death or coming of age. Curse the English dub! These are all strengths of the show! If you don't mind the comedic spin, put on it by the English dub, or if you kind of like the English dub, you'll enjoy the show. Unfortunately, I can't appraise the characters more deeply because of the dub. Their English personas are fine for a dumb comedy, which I'm sure is a quirk of the English version only

What other positive things can I say about it? Well, I think in spite of the English dub, I am inspired to write my own horror and to see the original. And, the English dub was kind of fun. Unlike the English dub of Shin Chan however, I don't think I like this English dub enough to watch it a second time. That's it.

Anime Recommendation: There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless... (Spoiler Free)

In most stories, the hero defeats the monster, saves the world, and gets the girl. We know that going in. So, if we know that going in, why do we watch movies and TV, read books, and play story-rich video games, etc.? Because of the feels; that is to say, the vicarious experience of a character growing and overcoming conflict. The feels felt on the journey are what make the journey satisfying, not just the feels of the destination (or the ending if you get my metaphor). I don't remember the last time I watched an anime, but this weekend I felt like doing something different. I felt like finding a comedy. I wanted to laugh. I watched Ghost Stories. If you've never heard of it, the English dub is infamous. I enjoyed Ghost Stores immensely in spite of the dub, which wasn't as bad as the video compilations make it seem. I enjoyed it so much that I searched for more anime to watch. I tried a few things and decided to pass. Then I saw this one called There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless... It looked like it might be pervy. It looked like it might be something that should be embarrassing to watch as a man. But I gave it a try in spite of that, and I haven't been that engrossed in something since I beat Morrowind this earlier this year.

And why was I so engrossed? Because each episode sets up a dramatic question, ahem, "Will the heroine..." (that dot, dot, dot is the dramatic part) and then the show paid it off within the same episode, or it set it up in the current episode and paid it off in the next episode. The set ups and pay offs were consistent! The show consistently promised something interesting, and it consistently delivered. It did this really, really well. And so, spoiling the ending would be a disservice to this anime because I'm not sure I could watch it a second time now that I know what happens and I've already been on the journey. I rewatch Avatar the Last Air Bender every other year because it's so good, but I'm not sure this show would be that good if you know what happens next. That uncertainty is the hook for me. This created and maintained a lot of tension throughout the story.

Oh, and, in a typical story the hero gets the girl, but in this case, it's an all-girl harem genre. So, even that exact outcome is not certain! Now, I think I have poignant thoughts about the ending, but like I said, it would be a disservice to the anime to spoil the ending. Watch this anime. It's good. Watch it. I watched it on TubiTV in two days. Maybe for other people that's nothing, but for me, I don't get engrossed in things easily. So, anything that sucks me in like this is praiseworthy. I have ADHA which does not mean I have trouble paying attention, it means I have dopamine issues. I crave dopamine, but my brain doesn't produce enough. I'm constantly seeking a dopamine kick, which is why I can't maintain my weight because carbs, chips, and soft drinks are great at that. So, trust me when I say, this anime does things very, very well.

First off, it's really colorful and fun to look at like CoCoMelon. I joke, but the art is pretty. That instantly got my interest. Second, they introduce two characters in the first episode, Renako and Mai. Within that first episode, the show tells us who they are, what they want, why they want it so bad, and what happens if they fail to get it. It makes them sympathetic characters immediately and it sets up their unusual relationship.

Here's the set up. Renako, a new high school student, wants friends and she's afraid of being alone and missing out on life, but she's terribly introverted (relatable). This year, she's learned how to pass herself off as a normal person and by the start of the first episode she's in the friend group of the most popular girls in high school. Somehow. Just go with it because justifying this set up is unnecessary. Further, this lifestyle is very exhausting for Renako. She comes home from school mentally fatigued every day. Mai is a child celebrity, and she's the daughter of a famous, hyper-successful, very wealthy model. Shut up, just go with it. Fiction does not have to be realistic. Mai reveals to Renako and the audience very early that she's perpetually wearing a persona that she developed very early as a coping mechanism for being a child celebrity, though the show doesn't explain it to you as bluntly as I have. These two share a near-death experience, and now they're having a deep conversation, as one does when they share a near-death experience. Seriously, if you want to bond characters quickly, the best way is shared trauma, both going through a trauma together and also sharing your traumas with someone.

This is the premise, and if there's anything distracting to you about the fact that the show is a romance between high school girls, it's not going to distract you for very long.

For those of you who don't know the work of Carl Jung (I'm not an expert myself), your ego is who you really are, and your persona is the person you pretend to be to fit into society. These are outdated concepts in psychology now. I share them because they help explain this story. Both these characters wear a metaphorical mask to hide who they really are. These are the layers that each character will have to get through to understand each other, and, these are the set ups for their internal conflicts which they'll struggle with during the show. There are other characters who slowly get introduced and developed, and by the third character introduction you realize this is how all the characters are conceived by the author.

Very little about the show is done poorly. For example, there's one scene where they show Mai has a bodyguard for like three seconds. Then in the next episode, the bodyguard gets a few lines which she uses to be a bitch to Renako for vague reasons that seem like a set up to something. Then, this subplot was evidently dropped and forgotten by the writer. It's fine when you consider a mangaka's production cycle. Or maybe it was just left out of the anime? There's another occasion where one character reveals a secret to another character, but they deny the audience the revelation until later by making that scene go silent. I hate that because I think that's a cheap way to create suspense, but they only did it once.

The characters are very well written. They are constantly forced to make choices between two undesirable options, and you sit there like a member of an audience in a horror movie, ready to yell "no! not that way!" And you go with it because you understand their decision making and you feel their anxiety. Their relationships with each other are written very well. Their dialogue is well done. In fact, the show is more dialogue than spectacle. By that I mean the characters have substantive conversations, and the spectacle, like a contest of skill in a video game, is there for only as long as it needs to be and it doesn't get in the way. The dialogue has a lot of layers. By that I mean, characters say one thing but mean something else, or they hide something, and you don't know exactly what they mean or hide until they're forced to explain it.

It's really good. I don't think that a second season could be successful because the characters go through all their character arcs and confront their conflicts. What that means is the story is not incomplete. I repeat for emphasis, the story is not incomplete. If you've heard anything about a cliffhanger ending or an unfinished ending, that's commentary by person who doesn't understand story telling. Ignore it. When the characters complete their character arcs and confront their conflicts, the story is over because there's nothing left to write about, and adding something new will be an all-new premise. I promise you this is a complete story. The major questions get answered. Seventeen episodes. Not a bad time investment at all.

Addendum: Apparently there were 12 episodes of the anime released with a cliffhanger, then another 5 episodes were released with an ending. The later 5 eps may or may not be considered a second season.

How to Play D&D for Free

You don't need D&D to play D&D. There are free alternatives. Not to mention that its not hard to make your own game if you understand how table top roleplaying games (TTRPGs) are played. 

• Basic Fantasy RPG is a free retroclone of an old school edition of D&D. It's like the Basic / Expert edition (B/X) with a few modern rules. This is the GOAT! They have a downloads page where you can get supplemental books including adventures.
• White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game has a free pdf. It's a 100 page retroclone of original D&D and I love it!
• Blueholme Prentice Rules is a retroclone of an older ed of D&D taking you on levels 1 to 3.
• OSRIC 1e, which stands for old-school reference and index complication, is a retroclone of Advanced D&D (AD&D) 1e.
• For Gold & Glory is a retroclone of AD&D 2e.
• Both D&D 3.5e and Pathfinder 1e have a System Reference Document (SRD) here. I've heard PF 1e described as D&D 3.75e. An SRD is also available for D&D 5e there.
• Draw Steel by MCDM is a relatively new game with its complete rules free online (got to respect that). I've heard it's similar to D&D 4e.
• Index Card RPG 2e has a very generous amount of content in their quickstart rules. It's a very simplified version of the essence of D&D. Setting and genre neutral. Flexible. Fast. Simple.
• Olde Swords Reign is a mix of D&D 5th edition, D&D 0th edition, and then some quality new ideas. I would call this a great way to ease modern gamers into older style D&D games.
• Shadowdark has a quickstart rules set. It's a popular alternative to D&D 5e. Its similar to 5e mechanically but it has an old school feel. I hear it's a good entry point for modern gamers into older style play.
• Cairn aka Cairn RPG is a very rules lite game. 1e and 2e online.
• Black Hack RPG is a hack of classic D&D. Probably B/X.
• Lamentations of the Flame Princess is old school D&D with a weird / horror twist. The core rules are slick and free.
• Open Legend RPG is like if all the familiar assets of character creation for D&D 5th edition were broken into little bity pieces and it allowed you to make a highly customized character. It's setting and genre neutral and highly customizable. Core rules are completely online. I really like it but the barriers to entry are that no one's playing it, there are few to no other resources for it even though its open-source, and it's character creation is really involved.
• OpenD6 is an a free game different from D&D and the d20 system. OpenD6 uses only six-sided dice. It's got a dice pool system. Your stats are represented by a number of dice. For example, rather than having 10 strength, you might have 2D for two dice in strength. That's the number of six-sided dice you roll to make a strength test. The rules are modular so if you want to change it to suit your game, you can by adding or removing stats, skills, etc.
• Patherfinder 2e is here. I hear this is very different from PF 1e.
• Mork Borg has a bare bones edition for download. This is a dark fantasy/ horror fantasy game.
• Open 2d6 is a game with mechanics inspired by Barbarians of Lemuria. Roll 2d6, add bonuses, try to roll 9 or higher. Double 1s are a crit fail, double 6s are crit success.
• Open Lite RPG is a game I wrote for fun on this blog. I imagined it as a simple, rules lite game. It uses only the d20 and d6's. 

Free Settings

A setting that is ready-to-play. A setting is a defined major location for your game with one or more minor locations. It could be a town, a dungeon, and a wilderness in-between. Or a whole region of a world. Or a galaxy.

• Mystara is a classic D&D setting.
• Blackmarsh (not Elder Scrolls).
• Draconia '95 is an in-progress setting I'm working on, also on this blog. It takes place in a generic city in 1995. It's a bases for urban fantasy, sci-fi, and horror in a grounded modern setting where the best of technology exists but is not ubiquitous.

Free Starter Adventurers

What's an adventure? It's a scenario to play through with a problem or goal, a map or series of maps, monsters, treasure, etc. Sometimes adventures have built-in settings.

• Basic Fantasy RPG's dowloads page is your friend! One thing worth noting is that all versions of D&D pre 3e are mostly compatible and easily converted, which means adventures for one work for the others. I am recommending these as good starting adventures:
• BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign. This contains a starter setting.
• JN1 The Chaotic Caves
• AA2 Adventure Anthology Two, the mini-adventure Kidnapped on page 41
• Tomb of the Serpent King is a teaching dungeon. Very good!