This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Wack-Ass Work Shifts
• TSF Showcase 2024-10 Kizoku to Dorei no Irekawari ~Subete o Te ni Ireta Otoko~ [The Aristocrat and His Slave Switched Bodies ~The Man Who Got It All~] by Iwashita (Iwashita Shoten)
• Yuzu Surrenders to Nintendo, Pays $2.4 Million in Damages (Screw Nintendo, But Screw Yuzu More)
• The Only Answer Is Not to Play (Persona 3 Reload Is Getting The Answer as $35 DLC)
• Akira Toriyama Has Passed Away (Rest in Peace, You Absolute Legend)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Wack-Ass Work Shifts

So… it’s March. And I’m a tax accountant. That means I have been super busy doing tax stuff, and will probably stay busy for the next month. Now, this is something that people like my boss like to point out as something normal, natural, and ordinary about this work. But in my oh-so radical ways, I tend to be very apprehensive toward anyone who says ‘it has to be this way’ when something is neither working efficiently nor effectively.

Any time when one needs to work seven days a week— and work overtime several days indicates— a significant problem with management or the very company’s structure. …And, yeah, that’s the case here. The way the practice I work for… works is rather simple. Clients send in documents via shared drives or our company portal, I draft the tax returns, I identify missing items, and I tell my boss about them. Sometimes we have meetings preceding that where clients explain their tax situation in detail and we work through matters together, or we just review what we have. Then my boss and I review together, identifying errors, problem items, and making changes. When everything is finalized, I export a PDF of the tax return, we send it out for eSignature via DocuSign, and wait for the client to review it. Then I submit the return and print/assemble a physical copy of the return. 

…Also, we don’t distribute the PDF to clients, even though we probably should, but we do send a copy via DocuSign, which they sign. And when you sign a document on DocuSign… you’re supposed to download a copy.

My boss is pretty much the person who communicates with clients, does a bunch of admin stuff, like managing money, reviews things, and answers my questions when we encounter something weird. I rely on him for both direction and guidance with a lot of things. In return, I’m the worker bee who enters everything, exports it, sends it, and of course reviews the crypto activity to find and address anything suspicious. Which mostly means uncategorized transactions, because crypto accounting is just regular accounting. A bunch of categorizing ins and outs in order to generate reports summarizing activity for a set amount of time. …And no, that’s not ‘bookkeeping’ you fickle dilweed. Bookkeeping is accounting in its purest form.

This seems like a pretty good system… but it is not very organized either. I work remotely, because it’s easier, cheaper, and I’m more productive on my PC. But that means I’m on day-long Zoom calls with my boss as we work together. This would be fine if it meant working in parallel, but a lot of days we need to work as a team. 

When he is writing emails, I often have nothing to do and am expected to point out any problems with his emails. Which is stupid because he has a Ph.D in English, and I can barely read the books he has on his shelf to look smart. In my defense, justified margin 18th century philosophy is a different medium than modern writing. Rather than review my work independently, he likes to review it together, which… I sorta get, as he is the one signing most returns. But he has been doing tax for 30+ years and has all the supporting information before him, so he could just review it himself on his own time.

So, why does he do things this way? Because he’s a self-described fuck up who needs someone to hold him responsible, keep him organized, and entertain him with a social connection. He says he’s an ‘introvert’ but… he must be using a 19th century definition or something. He does that a lot, in addition to just forgetting words. Dementia’s a bitch like that, and it comes for all men. Only 20% of women though. (My boss jokes about dementia weekly and this is not a real statistic.)

I like the work, as it is very procedure driven and things are ultimately driven by basic, easy to understand mathematics. I like having someone review my work and the security it brings, as I do not have much confidence in my work, and I never have. But I do not think the system we have here works well, as there is a 35 year age gap between us, my boss is a massive scatterbrain, and there’s a general lack of structure. 

I do not know what I am going to do on any given day. I do not know how long the workday will last (or if it will suddenly get an 80 minute extension). And the only thing holding this workplace together is an Excel workbook that my boss does not like to update. He knows how to use Excel, and taught me a lot of things, yet he does not like to update the things I make. Even when it is ticking off that he sent an email, or sorting data using filters he wants me to do it for some reason. We use OneDrive, and Excel just works when using OneDrive. 

So much of what we do is just… ‘caca’ is a good way to describe it. It works, but it’s some wack-ass work that really just makes me pine for something better. I want to work for a place that is organized and where I can be as efficient as I could possibly be. I don’t want to wait on someone who might choose to start at 10:00 or 11:30 depending on how well he slept last night. I don’t want to be the only person maintaining both the task list and the billable hours for clients, while not being in control of my own schedule. And I don’t want to be the one clashing with dysfunctional software in the name of security that doesn’t actually prevent anything. We have Yubikeys, authenticators, BitDefender, and a VPN but a remote desktop environment is not more secure than a desktop. It’s just laggier, slower, less stable, glitchier, and more expensive than a shared directory or rentable mock business server. …We could do all of our cloud-based shit on OneDrive, but he wants to spend a few extra hundred dollars so our work is harder.

I promised to work with my boss for several years… but I really want him to sell the practice and work for, as my mother would put it, a ‘real company.’ A mythical metaphysical manifestation of lore (and Yor) that, in the decade I have been working, I have never encountered. I worked for a realty company from 2014 to 2016, and I now realize that only 33% of people there were organized, because they did everything by themselves. I worked for a doctor’s office and… that made me distrust medical services. They were that shit at organizing anything… unless it is directly related to treating patients. And now I’m working for a dude who I genuinely cannot imagine as a partner as a tax firm… except he somehow was for eight fucking years.

If he is the type of person who can assume that position… then maybe a truly good and organized workplace does not exist. 

…Ah fuck. If I work for a place like that, are they going to try and make me into a partner? I hope not. I could teach youngsters how to do taxes, but I know I’m not management material. I’m a ‘trained to be ageist,’ ‘control freak by necessity’ and I LOVE doing things manually, on my own, my way. When someone else does something that I have gotten good at, I am most often confused by their approach, as they either misunderstand things or go in a completely different direction. …I’m tempted to say that’s because I’ve mostly worked for people 30+ years older than me, but when I’m a rapidly decaying 60-year-old Ingloriously Self-Styled Diehard Witch, it’ll be the same problem. …I’m totally going to cop a primo witch vibe when I get that old. I dunno which witch, but it will be witchy, ya dig?

…Point is, my life schedule has been extra screwy because my work schedule is CHAOS. I was frequently too busy with work and basic activities (eating, exercise, dishes, shower) to have time to actually work on Verde’s Doohickey 2.0. Which is a BIG PROBLEM, as I refuse to delay that novel again, even if that means publishing unedited chapters with no headers. 

Also… I hate these wack-ass work shifts I get put on. I’m only supposed to work 1,200 hours a year, but I have no control over how those hours are allocated, and it pisses me right the fuck off. I want consistent hours I can customize to whatever I want, except for right before big deadlines, when I’m cool putting in a 52 hour alleged ‘Korean work week’ or two. [It’s alleged because (South) Koreans probably work more than that to appease their vile Chaebols (Gods).] It’s not an unreasonable demand… but the mechanisms of the world are dysfunctional by design, and there is nothing I can do about it. …Without tools of destruction.

Akumako: “…Natalie is as subtle as a butt taking a shit.”

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TSF Showcase 2024-10
Kizoku to Dorei no Irekawari ~Subete o Te ni Ireta Otoko~ [The Aristocrat and His Slave Switched Bodies ~The Man Who Got It All~] by Iwashita (Iwashita Shoten)

I was hoping that some of the new hotness would be the right fit for a showcase, but I didn’t find the right spice. I wasn’t even feeling the newest Marialite stuff (Aqua Wing). So, instead, let me dig into my magic bag for something that I think is gross and neat! I was actually considering this for Natalie Rambles About TSF Comics back in 2022, except it didn’t really fit with what I was trying to showcase there. …But it’s good TSF Showcase fodder!

The Aristocrat and His Slave Switched Bodies ~The Man Who Got It All~ is… well, the entire plot is right there in the title. Set in a vague European middle ages setting, the story follows Lana Trau, the daughter of an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times after her father was accused of treason and went into exile. With no support and branded a traitor by association, Lana has subjected herself to slavery at the hands of Lord Ivasilo. With Ivasilo being an archetypical fat ugly bastard. He’s short, bald, has the face of a Japanese artist’s impression of a European dastard, and has no reservations about having this young woman of a questionable age act as his sexual servant.

He starts by dressing her in a bra and loin cloth, caressing her body and proclaiming that soon it will be his. But rather than take that in the normal direction, Ivasilo instead produces a magical contract capable of swapping their bodies. Lana naturally objects, but rather than force her into it, because he has used his aristocratic power to deem her an unperson, he tries to convince her that this will work out for her. Promising to change their ‘positions’ after 14 days, allowing her to take the money, and her true body, and leave Ivasilo either as he slave… or just destitute. It sounds like a weirdly beneficial offer considering the power imbalance of, well, slavery, but Ivasilo does a great job at making him seem like a lustful freak. He goes on about how, no matter how many women he had over his life, he always wanted to feel like it was to have sex as one. To be the one squirming in bed, the one to remain beautiful even in the throes of sex, that sort of thing.

Lana is still rightfully suspicious of this villain, this man with a face so warped he barely looks human. But with the encouragement of one of the mains who stripped her, she agrees to the contract. After all, who wouldn’t agree to 14 days of absolute torture if the end result was wealth and security for the rest of one’s life? A liar, that’s who!

After signing the contract, a ghostly exchange of souls occurs with a scene that really highlights many of Iwashita’s strengths as an artist. With the wide room shot, the suction and settling of souls into their new vessels, and the POV shot as Ivasilo settled into his new skin. His lust is overpowering, shameless, and is enough to bring Lana in Ivasilo to arousal. A trend that I have seen in a lot of TSF manga of this ilk, and am of several minds about. One, it is a means to get the plot to move forward and it’s not really meant to be delved into too deeply. Two, it is the result of a mind being in an unfamiliar body with parts the occupant does not know how to use, so the differences will be met with more extreme, possibly unconscious, actions. It’s just an idea, and it’s not like we can test it IRL. Three, this is a fear response mis-attributed as arousal.

Tangent aside, Ivasilo is still the boss here and uses his newfound body to come onto Lana, leading to the sex scene this story is built around. It’s about what one would expect. The MtF character is euphoric about this experience, forcing the FtM character to succumb to ‘her body’s desires’ while the MtF character relishes in the euphoria of a female body. However, what really makes it work is the decision to include alternating POV shots of this scene, showing it from both character’s perspectives as they longingly stare at their original bodies. 

It does a lot to enhance the tension, drama, and sense of loss of this scene, while making great use of the body swap as… a body swap is inherently two stories, with two perspectives. A creator by no means needs to show both perspectives, though they should always consider them. Iwashita, however, does, and succeeds on pretty much all fronts. It’s not only an impressive use of perspective, but does a lot to engross the reader into the characters’ thought process..

…Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Iwashita later made a less inventive version of this scene that removed the POV features. By comparison, it’s pretty lame.

After the sex scene, the story jumps ahead to 14 days later. Lana has been slowly transferring Ivasilo’s assets to her body, biding her time in this regretful predicament, but now it is finally time for their roles to switch. Lana confronts Ivasilo, orders him to swap bodies, but right as she gives the order a group of nights come into this manor, charging ‘Lord Ivasilo,’ meaning Lana, with staging a coup and framing Lord Trau. Lana panics at this news, trying to explain who she is, but it is no use. This was all planned by Ivasilo from the very start, and Lana’s fate is left unknown… but presumably she dies in some gorey manner. 

In the end, Ivasilo, the aristocrat who switched bodies with his slave, got it all. He kept his wealth by sending it to his new self, took Lana’s fame and lineage, yet most importantly of all, her beauty. With the face of a demon possessing an angel, he swings open the door to his new family’s estate, declaring he is home.

Now, I would ask why Ivasilo went through the trouble of manipulating Lana like this, when he could have just… not. It’s seen as a writing faux pas— mostly by cowards— though you can just have characters lie and not spin these elaborate half truths. However, sociopaths get off on the suffering of others like this, and it does make Ivasilo seem like a true piece of shit. Which is kind of the appeal here. To see something vile steal something beautiful. 

I could just end it there, but I need to talk about the art here! Iwashita is an artist who I’m alway happy to see when they post a new comic, as their work contains several strengths. There is an admirable level of ambition in how things are framed, regularly going above and beyond with certain settings or angles, while not being afraid to make things feel oppressive or unnerving. They also understand they are a TSF artist, and regularly splice in panels and angles that do an excellent job of capturing the TSF fantasy. With Aristocrat in particular benefitting from a lot of POV shots that… put the reader into the perspective of the character, capturing the uncanny yet exciting thrill of being in a body that is wildly different from one’s own.

There’s a lot of technical skill on display with this comic, and I also have to give major kudos for the elegant backgrounds. Most artists would settle for a plain blasé bedroom, but Iwashita set things in a lavish room that screams elegance from the carpet pattern to the trimmings along the walls. Sure, this can make the scene continuity kind of wonky if you really try to pay attention to where things are, not that I mind. I appreciate the ambition and effort alone.

…But my favorite thing about Iwashita’s artwork is that it’s kind of ugly. While being good with anatomy, Iwashita has a unique approach to faces, giving characters these tiny, beady eyes. While more ‘realistic’ than what you typically see in works with a more contemporary ‘anime’ art style, just looks off in nearly every scene. Sometimes it works, but whenever it comes to more extreme emotions, they look distinctly off. It’s like they’re possessed or something, even when they’re not! However, it also allows for a different kind of expressiveness and gives the resulting stories a more… twisted vibe. And if your brand as an artist is twisted shit, that’s not a defect, that’s a perk!

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Yuzu Surrenders to Nintendo, Pays $2.4 Million in Damages
(Screw Nintendo, But Screw Yuzu More)

…Well, that was fast. 

I’m used to lawsuits taking years to play out. So imagine my surprise when, rather than stretch out this case into something that could change the landscape of emulation, Tropic Haze LLC, the creators of Yuzu, went with the path of least resistance. Nintendo and Tropic Haze LLC agreed to a settlement less than a week after the lawsuit was filed.

As part of this agreement, Tropic Haze needs to do two things. The first, and headline worthy one, was to pay Nintendo a significant fee of $2,400,000 in damages. A rounding error for a company like Nintendo, yet a significant sum of cash for Tropic Haze. Based on their historic Patreon earnings, using the incomplete information from Graphtreon, from February 2019 to February 2024 they made a little over $1,000,000 from their Patreon page. Meaning this isn’t an unreasonably high fee, but this lawsuit really is not about the fee.

However, the far, far more significant item is the effective destruction of Yuzu. The website is down, the Patreon is down, the GitHub is down, and the emulator is gone beyond third party mirrors. All circumvention tools, modded Switch systems, and so forth used for the Nintendo Switch have been or will need to be submitted to Nintendo. 

Yuzu has been taken offline… but this was a very public matter, and I’m sure that hundreds, if not thousands, or people made sure to save backups of the publicly available source code.  I would hope that this was merely a minor roadblock, but… it probably isn’t, as Yuzu wasn’t the only casualty here.

3DS emulator Citra was taken down shortly after Yuzu. The GitHub page was destroyed, the website went down, and because development on the emulator stalled in recent years, it was not getting a lot of attention. Prior to this, I did not realize that Tropical Haze was also in charge of Citra, and… this just SUCKS! There are rising alternatives, and Citra was always kinda janky, but this still represents years of work from skilled people being thrown down the toilet. 

And for what? Protection, basically. Nintendo has some of the most valuable IP in the entire world, and they vehemently object to third-party fan works that can substitute their games. To Nintendo, it does not matter that Citra was pretty much the best way to play games on a system they discontinued and no longer support. What matters is that they have full control of their copyrights.

Now, I am being bold and outspoken here by presenting this as the only thing Nintendo cares about but… I think it’s the truth. While a large number of people do play Nintendo games via emulation and ROMs sourced from various sites you can find using any search engine, many of those people are not ‘lost customers.’ A lot of them are people either without the means to play these games, or who prefer to emulate them than rely on Nintendo’s inherently limited hardware. If anything, emulators help people garner a greater fondness for Nintendo and their IP and help make people fans for life. Hell, I’d argue that Nintendo benefits from third party emulators more than any other developer. Maybe not in dollars, but in terms of legacy, nostalgia, and future returns when they bring back old shit? Yeah, absolutely.

Without emulation, there’s no way that Pokémon would have as much of a dedicated community, or a fraction as much nostalgia for the older games. There would not be a cottage industry of Nintendo influencers telling and showing minutiae of Nintendo history, as they would not be able to know about it. Every Nintendo game that benefited from a fan translation would just be a mystery wrapped in an enigma in the western world. GameCube nostalgia just would not be where it is right now, as nobody wants to look at a 3D game running at a potato-ass resolution. There would be WAY less people just talking about or showing off Nintendo games in general, because who the hell would pay the prices of the retro game market, which Nintendo never sees a cent of either.

I could go on, but I’m pissing myself off coming up with these examples. 

Nintendo’s goal here is to scare emulator developers. They want to intimidate them, make them submit, so that way Nintendo never needs to actually take their position to court. If push comes to shove, they will fight tooth and nail to secure control, and burn their opponents in an inglorious hellfire. They do not care about preservation, they care about capital. Sure, they will pretend to care, they will put on a mask of irreverence and nostalgia, but it is always a calculated move, a way for them to make money or generate goodwill. 

And to anybody going on about how Nintendo is ‘acting within their power as determined by the law,’ shut the fuck up. The law is a tool for the powerful to control the masses, a tool to sanction and justify genocide, and a weapon aimed against the people for centuries. FUCK. THE. LAW. The idea that the law is a force of good is the most effective propaganda in history and the most vile of all neoliberal myths!

I am ripe peeved about this… but I’m actually more angry with Tropic Haze than I am with Nintendo. I don’t know what dipshit, dilweed, or bonerhead decided it was a good idea to lock behind updates behind a paywall, but they had to know this would be a problem. Tropic Haze made OVER A MILLION DOLLARS. They sold access to new builds of their emulators, and knew that in doing so they were providing an alternative to both buying Switch games and not buying a Switch in general.

Can I prove that in a court of law? Yes. Because Nintendo already provided the fucking evidence! It would be bad enough if Yuzu got destroyed, but in their hubris, they destroyed the prevailing 3DS emulator, and now it’s going to be years before significant progress is made. …Unless some brave brilliant soul gives us Cirta Re;Juiced.

I’m sorry Tropic Haze, but if you weren’t a bunch of greedy fucks, then you’d still be making this emulator. You wouldn’t need to destroy a DECADE of work with Citra if you organized your soggy shit-filled baggy-drawer asses properly.

…At least The Greatest Website That Humanity Has Ever Made, Will Ever Make, and Can Ever Make has preserved the latest build of Citra. In fact, for being so fuckin’ good, I took that $200 in legal funds I promised… and I gave it to them. Though, they never sent me an email confirmation…

Also, as a last minute addition, this event likely caused another emulator to shut down, Pizza Emulators. A series of GameBoy emulators for Android. …Which is a loss, but there are oodles of GameBoy emulators out there, and the technology is basically perfected at this point, so I’m going to say this is not a major loss.

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The Only Answer Is Not to Play
(Persona 3 Reload Is Getting The Answer as $35 DLC)

I didn’t want to make a segment out of this, but I didn’t have much else to talk about and after seeing the price… I couldn’t help myself.

When Persona 3 Reload was revealed last year, I was highly critical of its new art direction and how different it was from that of Persona 3. Gone was the moody and dark lighting, the heavy use of dark blues and greens, and the cold yet distinct style. Instead, everything was brighter, new visual flair was added, and for every positive change that was implemented, I found two things that made me feel insane because of how artistically BAD they are.

How does someone consciously make the names of characters smaller than their dialogue? How did someone think it was a good idea to switch the colors of the health bar and the magic bar in an RPG? And what sort of freak thought it would be a good idea to make health bars blue? Why would you decorate a dreary and oppressive dungeon with bursts of blood colored ketchup that lines the floors, including in basic enemy encounters? They were in the original… but they looked like blood and were nowhere near as prominent. What criticism did this team at Atlus internalize to inspire them to make the UI move CONSTANTLY? Why do some of the environments look like they were ripped out of the 2006 original and given a slight re-texturing and no polygon upgrade? 

No, seriously, I am not a graphics snob, but just skimming through footage of this game I was routinely shocked at how basic and low detail a lot of the environments were. It looks considerably worse than Persona 5, a PS3 game. I understand that a new art team might want to do something different and make a project their own, rather than echoing the efforts of people 15 years ago. …But if you are going to only moderately make it look technologically better, and dismiss the original aesthetic, then just don’t bother. 

Just looking at the dorm lobby, the central location of Persona 3, in Reload makes my jaw clench hard with fury. It is emblematic of an art team that fundamentally misunderstands the goal or the original, and views any pre-existing aesthetic as a problem in need of removal. And without any aesthetic… you just have an unfinished room with gaudy colors that would make any interior designer sick in rage.

…As for everything else, I’m sure it’s good. The gameplay could benefit from a rebalance, new and expanded voice acting is nice, new models look good, there are a lot of quality of life improvements, especially compared to the PS2 releases. …And I like ~30% of the UI changes.

I am also baffled that the remake was received as well as it was though, as… this seems like it should’ve gotten a deluge of 7/10s in my book, but I also have not played the game. 

That venting aside, the reason I am talking about the game again is because Atlus announced DLC for their $70 remake of a 2006 video game. Not a free upgrade mind you, but a $35 expansion pass. An expansion pass that adds additional music and costumes, which shouldn’t be premium trinkets to buy, but horse armor won that race, and also… The Answer. 

For those not aware, there has been a decade and a half long debate amongst Persona 3 fans about whether the bonus epilogue campaign included in Persona 3 Fes, The Answer, is good. Most think that it is not, as it was effectively just the dungeon exploration and main story of Persona with none of the social links or life sim elements. Also, it’s balancing damn near necessitated grinding and, despite being a post-game campaign, it did not feature the ability to import your characters or equipment. Instead, they were regressed to a lower level. I think the most damning thing I can say about it is that I experienced Persona 3 Fes across hundreds of 11 minute episodes as part of a Let’s Play. The Let’s Player started The Answer, but was so frustrated that they abandoned it and moved onto something else.

I don’t think there was ever an interview answering this… but I’m going to say that The Answer was so poorly received that they did not include it in Persona 3 Portable. Some people have other theories, like it was to make both versions distinct, but… no, that’s dumb. It’s more likely it would be too much work to improve The Answer, address criticisms, and make the campaign both better and reflective of the female protagonist choice. 

With all this in mind… people almost instantly cracked open Persona 3 Reload and figured out that it was getting The Answer via DLC dubbed Episode Aigis, referencing the protagonist of The Answer. Now, on one hand, I admire the developers for taking a crack at improving something that was bad, as bad games are the best candidates for remakes. On the other hand, Atlus is charging $35 for this DLC, making the ‘complete’ version of Persona 3 Reload, story content only, a $100 video game. Which, when adjusted for inflation, is still more expensive than Persona 3 Fes was in 2007. And this is extra insulting when there is arguably as much content and quality in Persona 3 Reload as the slapdash port of Persona 3 Portable, which released last year for $20. 

I find this whole display deeply frustrating, and… it makes me wish this game did not exist. Something I would only say to games with no original ideas and disgraceful remakes. Recreations of titles that butcher the aesthetics of the original, remove content in the name of purity or sell it back as a needless ‘upgrade’ after release, yet offer some quality of life improvements. If you are going to remake a game, either make something different enough to be its own thing, or be faithful to the core and make sure everything is as good as the original, if not better. If neither of those routes are an option… then that remake should not exist.

Sadly, this is a growing trend, and I doubt it will dissipate anytime soon. I think remasterings, recreations, and so forth are a great boon and should fill this technologically defined industry. …But the only thing worse than a bad game is a bad port or bad remake of a good game.

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Akira Toriyama Has Passed Away
(Rest in Peace, You Absolute Legend)

Oh… OH FUCK! Of all things to read while getting this Rundown ready for publication…

Acclaimed Japanese artist Akira Toriyama has passed away at age 68. He died on March 1, 2024 from acute subdural hematoma, a condition often caused by head trauma. 

…This is something I have come to accept will happen whenever someone gets into their sixties. But of all the creator deaths over the past few decades… I think this is probably the most upsetting, just on an intrinsic and spiritual level for me.

I’m pretty sure I’ve said this sometime in the past, but I consider Akira Toriyama to be one of the greatest and influential artists of the 20th century, hands down. I feel like the sheer volume and power of his cultural contributions over the years should go without saying, but if there is any time to go on about how great a person was, it’s after they died.

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball did a massive amount to shape the world of manga and anime, and it all stemmed from the immense quality of the original manga. A work that triumphs with its use and routine introduction of iconically designed characters, the incredibly refined draftsmanship of its construction, and the excellent sequential storytelling. It was by no means a perfect work— no story seeing weekly installments over a decade could possibly be perfect— yet its story and characters were both strong and impactful enough to launch a media empire. 

A media empire that has served as a profoundly powerful force in the internationalization and exportation of both manga and anime. Dragon Ball was the first true global hit anime due to its localizations across Europe, Latin America, and North America, doing much to mainstream-ify what was otherwise a relative niche curiosity. In fact, it was so successful that the sheer amount of supplemental media, re-adaptations, and extra canonical expansions of Dragon Ball is… horrifying.

I doubt there is a good way to quantify this, but Dragon Ball has touched hundreds of millions of people’s lives, possibly even over a billion at this point, and the subsequent impact goes without saying. Both in the mediums wherein it found success, and in the minds of those it inspired. One of the greatest things an artist can do is inspire other artists, and few achieved that goal on the level of Akira Toriyama.

If that, and a couple other less successful comics, was all he was known for, that would be beyond impressive. Yet he was an incredibly prolific artist, designing countless characters, creating a library of manga, and being involved in myriad projects in a vast number of ways. …But his second biggest contribution was across the Dragon Quest series. 

Toriyama was the original character designer and crafter of Dragon Quest’s iconic and instantly recognizable aesthetic. His artwork was an essential part in drawing people to the series, to RPGs in general and, to some extent, video games. Both due to his acclaim and the fact that his designs were… really good. I know people like to highlight the slime enemy as the series icon, but the characters, the towns, and the myriad other monster designs are all foundational to the very series identity. Shit, I would say that Toriyama’s contributions to Dragon Quest is part of the reason why anime is still the de facto aesthetic for RPGs. Because were people merging the two before Dragon Quest? Not really, no. …Xandau‘s box art doesn’t count!

I could dig deeper and go on and on about his contributions to many of the things I love— or say something like he’s the reason I got into TSF and anime. But the one thing I feel like I should say, more than anything is… thank you, Akira Toriyama. You are a legend. You changed the world. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

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Progress Report 2024-03-10

The header image for this week’s Rundown is a background for the Bad Future of Wacky Workbench from Sonic CD. So here’s a bad screenshot from my 2016 playthrough. Yes. I keep all my screenshots for that long.

2024-03-03: I was busy with work for a good chunk of the day, and no anime with Cassie, so I only managed to write 3,300 words for Ch 6-27 of VD2.0. I would have written more, but writing while eating is hard…

2024-03-04: Wrote the TSF Showcase, picked out some screencaps, and wrote the Yuzu segment, amounting to 2,600 words. Then I worked on Ch 6-27 of VD2.0, working on the most ambitious sex scene of the entire act. I got 1,500 words before I was done for the day.

2024-03-05: Didn’t do shit because I was busy working from 10:00 to 23:00, taking a break to do dishes and eat lunch/dinner. I didn’t finish showering until midnight, and I just did not want to try and squeeze out 1,000 words while running on fumes.

2024-03-06: Another busy workday for me! I ended at a reasonable time, but then I had to respond to a heartfelt commenter (who sounded hella trans), do some stuff for my mother, do my sister’s taxes, and other minor bullshits. I only had enough time/writing juice to write a little something, so I wrote the 1,400 word preamble.

2024-03-07: Wrote 1,750 words for the Persona 3 and Akira Toriyama segments, proofread the Rundown, and got the post ret-2-go. That crap takes a long time. I was also busy talking to a young reader about their life situation and trans stuff, ‘cos that’s what ‘elder’ trans people (like me) do.

2024-03-08: Dirty wet donkey balls am I pissed about how this week played out. But I FINALLY had some time to resume work on Ch 6-27 of VD2.0. …Except I started writing at around 23:00 and was working off of shit sleep after staying up late this past week. I wrapped up part two of three of this chapter, and lacked the mental flexibility to shift to new character I had not written in weeks. Wrote 1,400 words.

2024-03-09: Stinky wet donkey balls! I was busy with chores in the morning, had to work in the afternoon, and got preoccupied with my parents’ tax returns after my dad finally gave me his tax stuff. And to top off this shit sundae, I lost an hour to daylight savings time, the aboriginal evil of mankind. Wrote 2,000 words for Ch 6-27 of VD2.0, and realized I need to expand this outline a bit.

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Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp
Acts 1 and 2 Progress Report:

Current Word Count: 341,559

Estimated Word Count: 370,000

Total Chapters: 33

Chapters Outlined: 33

Chapters Drafted: 30

Chapters Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0

Days Until Deadline: 80