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Video Game Review: Red Dead Redemption

There is a lot that can be said for picking a theme and devoting all the time and effort available toward fleshing out and perfecting that simple concept. This is  precisely what Rockstar San Diego did for Red Dead Redemption. It is a relatively simple, single faceted experience that is rendered with such care and attention to detail that it is one of the most immersive and beautiful games ever created. Yet, because it is such a simple, easy, and sometimes repetitive experience, it lacks a certain amount of depth.
Best played in short bursts, Red Dead's campaign mode can come to be quite a grind to the finish. This is not a new problem for Rockstar, masters of the sandbox game format. I've played nearly all of their games since Grand Theft Auto 3, but actually finished only a few of them. I believe that this exposes an apparent flaw in the sandbox genre itself, or at least the way in which it has been presented in the past. So yeah, the appeal of the sandbox game is freedom. Freedom to go where you want and do what you want. To experiment in a living, breathing digital world. The campaign just kind of works around this already present world to give you things to do in it. This means that right off the bat, the world and all the fundamental mechanics of the game are there for you to explore. This creates a sense of wonder and exhilaration in the very beginning of the experience, which wears off long, long before the conclusion, 40 hours in. You just start to get bored when you fell like you have gone everywhere and seen everything, and at that point, if you are feeling like that, you probably have. Rockstar has tried to remedy this problem in the past by locking off certain areas of the map and gradually opening them up. Red Dead Redemption does this too. And while there is a certain amount of joy derived from seeing the new scenery of each area, there are no real new, unique experiences to be found in these new areas. Just more of the same gameplay set in a different setting.
Essentially, this is what Red Dead Redemption is. It is GTA set in the old west. Comparing GTA 4 and Red Dead just on on appearances could be like comparing apples and oranges. The vast open expanses of the old west certainly seem to be at odds with the cramped urban sprawl of Liberty City. However, when you boil it down, these games are extremely similar in terms of gameplay, tone, story, and mechanics. I would say Red Dead is the better game in the end though for several key reasons. Unlike GTA, which had an extremely annoying policy of making you restart a mission from the beginning if you failed, Red Dead has a checkpoint system, which relieves enormous amounts of stress. Red Dead also has a greater array of activities that the player can do on the side of the campaign. Some are just pointless and boring- picking herbs, horseshoes, cards. Some are quite a bit more fun- bounties, random roadside encounters, hunting, going to movies. While they are very hit or miss, at least they are there to mix things up a bit. Hunting, in particular is a blast and the wild animals found all over the world of Red Dead is one of it's very best features and something new to the Rockstar formula. Some of the very best experiences i had with the game came from being stranded in the wilderness with no horse and having to fend for my life against a pack of wolves of an extremely lethal cougar. These moments where I was truly struggling to stay alive were particularly notable because of the fact that they were mostly absent from the campaign mode. This game is pretty damn easy. Once you have the dead eye and a couple decent guns, you are essentially unstoppable. Unlike GTA 4, where if you broke the law, it could be pretty difficult to get away from the cops alive, in Red Dead they essentially have no chance of catching you. This is due in a big way to the fact that you a riding a fast, extremely maneuverable horse through open fields instead of trying to maneuver a difficult-to-control-car through busy streets.
    Red Dead's greatest strength is it's tone and atmosphere, which never breaks for a single second over its entire run time. Essentially, the game is an extremely beautiful Western, in which can control the main protagonist. The writing and acting is sharp and clever, if a bit repetitive, just how you would expect from Rockstar. The plot is a decent yarn filed with many of the conventions of the genre. It is at times very heartfelt and touching and contains some really great scenes that would be right at home in a classic Western. There is a certain underlying cynicism to be found in the story, something also present in the GTA games. Red Dead smartly goes for a more serious approach to homage though, as opposed to the borderline genre parodies of Vice City and San Andreas. You might not laugh as much as you did at older Rockstar games, but you will probably take the story a lot more seriously, as it tones down the outlandish comedy quite a bit.
    So yeah, Red Dead Redemption is essentially Grand Theft Auto set in the old west with a few minor changes. But then again, this same thing can be said about almost every sandbox game. Since GTA 3 simultaneously invented and perfected the formula back in 2001, not much has changed, Sure the games have allowed you to do more things than you could before, and the attention to detail and production values have improved drastically, but it's still the same basic idea. That being said, red Dead Redemption is perhaps the best sandbox game yet because it has the most beautifully crafted world, the most memorable story, the best (original) soundtrack and the most consistent tone of any of the similar games to come before it. It's a highly immersive experience that only the collective efforts of a large and highly talented studio can afford. A true next-gen experience.

Album Review: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead- Tao of the Dead

After nearly two decades, seven albums, and numerous iterations of the band itself, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have crafted an album that delivers on the epic potential of their founding vision: a grandiose, orchestral, dynamic, and ultimately compelling heavy rock opus. Tao of the Dead is sonically and thematically closer to the oft cited masterpiece of 2002 Source Tags and Codes than any other album after. It's the sound of a band who went pretty far out and finally decided to bring it all back home and focus on the core concepts that made them amazing to begin with.
    Trail of Dead still hold a unique piece of real estate in the music landscape. There is no other rock band that is equally fixated on the sounds of punk, noise, and prog rock and has the musical prowess, sense of subtly and pacing, and artistic integrity that Conrad, Jason and company do. Very little modern music has this kind of teeth, and it's extremely refreshing to hear the band regain the vigor and ferocity that fell of at points along the way. Where previous albums sounded a bit forced and uncomfortable at points, Tao of the Dead constantly engages. It succeeds magnificently because it is the band's most consistently huge, freewheeling and ornately detailed album, helped immensely by the fact that it is very evident that the band had a damn good time recording and producing the thing. Taking only about ten days to record, it is without a doubt the most impulsive feeling Trail of Dead album, songs lingering just long enough to make an impression and then morphing into something else.
    An easy criticism to make of the album is that it is slight in the way of what we traditionally recognize as a standout song. On only a few occasions do we get a normal verse/chorus progression. More often the songs bleed seamlessly into one another like how the verse of The Spiral Jetty becomes the chorus of Weight of the Sun. Make no mistake, this album as a whole, is infinitely greater than the sum of its parts and is best enjoyed in order, the way the band intended. The sense of pacing and the dynamic ways in which the tracks meld into one another is awe inspiring. Trail of Dead have played with the idea of a reoccurring motif bridging across past albums (After the Laughter, Insatiable, Stand in Silence), but the way that Pure Radio Cosplay and Know Your Honor bookend both parts 1 and 2 of Tao of the Dead, respectively, is pure brilliance- a move that harkens back to the great concept albums of the 70's like 2112 and Dark Side of the Moon.
    As far as production goes, one thing that the post-Source Tags and Codes albums were berated for was pulling away the heavy fog that had previously shrouded and romanticized the band's sound. As the hazy production and mystery of the band's debut faded, there was a definitive point when just enough of the underlying melodic nature of the band was obscured. That point was Source Tags and Codes. When Worlds Apart was released, it was notoriously panned by many critics. I believe that this has to do with this the fact that the remainder of the obscuring noise and chaos had been pulled away in favor of a focus on a more classic sense of songwriting and a cleaner, more simplistic sonic pallet. Tao of the Dead wisely re-instates a good deal of fervor and destruction that serve as the obscuring fog. Look no further than the blaring, screeching guitars at the climax of Cover the Days like a Tidal Wave and the out of tune chords at the end of Weight of the Sun. These are among my favorite Trail of Dead moments, where the music reaches a sort of point break where there can be no turning turning back but to abruptly crash into itself. A beautiful trainwreck.
    All this being said, I'm still not sure that this album will really convert many nonbelievers as it may not be as apparent why this album is so great to someone who is not a long time listener. The thing about …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is that they are obtuse, difficult to categorize, un-radio friendly, and overstuffed. And I love them for it. I honestly think that there is no other band in existence that can capture the same spirit of bombastic, artistic, rock grandeur and wide eyed wonder about the power of music. Here's my pick for best album of the decade.

Fairly More Concise Anime Review: Azumanga Daioh

Continuing my voyage into the heart of Moe-centric anime, it seemed necessary to watch the series that is perhaps most beloved of the entire genre, Azumanga Daioh. The 1999 anime is a retelling of the popular 4-panel manga by Kiyohiko Azuma, also author of the very entertaining Yotsuba&! manga.
    Azumanga Daioh is considered by many to be the finest slice-of-life/coming-of-age-story-revolving-around-a-group-of-school-girls anime out there. Basically, it is regarded in some circles as the premier Moe anime. These lofty claims are justified for the most part as Azumanga Daioh, while average in many regards, has an extremely strong sense of character and humor. While not exactly intellectually stimulating by any means, it is an excellent show to just relax and enjoy for what it is, mindless entertainment.
    If you want to compare popular Moe anime, it could be said that while Lucky Star is most self aware and K-On! is most sentimental, Azumanga Daioh is by far funniest. Not that the other two are not funny, but this show brings something entirely different to the table. Sure, there is the typical humor that is usually displayed in shows of this variety (back and forth banter about mundane topics resulting in resolution, judgment, or impasse) accompanied by the typical scenarios (culture festivals, trips to the summer house, athletic competitions, and a WHOLE lot of passing periods). From the casual uninvested perspective, there is nothing remarkable about Azumanga Daioh and for the first few episodes it is difficult to see what the hubbub is all about. Slowly though, the show's knack for excellent comedic exposition and timing as well as an interest in the just plain bizarre come into focus. The character Osaka, with her sleepy southern drawl, has got to be one of the best anime characters of all time. Her strange epiphanies and surreal daydreams make for many of the show's funniest moments. She is the kind of like that friend that always says the exact right thing at the exact right moment, unintentionally, that pushes the whole conversation over the edge. Magnet-for-abuse Chiyo and hyperactive Tomo are also hilarious quite frequently. The writing of the show seems to have a bit of a dark streak, which is funny given its benign context. Infact, the show's crowning moment of funny is equally parts disturbing and innocent, something that is difficult to pull off. There are also a slew of other gags worthy of being honored as some of the finest that anime has to offer. When a show has it's own chunk of YouTube real estate filled with "top 10 funniest moments" compilations, then generally, you know that it struck a chord.
    And that's Azumanga Daioh in a nutshell- a run of the mill, slice of life story with some entertaining characters, peppered with just enough moments of pure comedic brilliance. While some of the gags are great, there is just as much, if not more, of the tedium that can be found in any show of this variety. You will need some patience. You will need to scratch your head at jokes that don't hit on the head. (getting repeatedly bitten by cats doesn't do it for me) Most importantly, you will need to accept the fact that very little actually happens in these shows- it is more about finding a grove in the calm, casual air that exists within them and taking comfort in it.
    Make no mistake. Like its contemporaries, Azumanga Daioh is hugely entertaining. It's just plain easy to watch and it compellingly exhibits the qualities that are admirable about Moe and slice-of-life anime while expanding the envelope ever so much, to encompass a more mature observational keenness to the goofiness of everyday life. Although the conventions of this genre can grow stale quite quickly, Azumanga Daioh proves that it is all about the spin you put on it, not the actual content.

Rambling Anime Review: Mushi-shi

 Score: 8

Mushishi does not march toward some sort of conclusion or final purpose. Much like it's main character, Ginko, the anime merely drifts around, dispensing bits of wisdom and wonder. It is an almost zen-like meditation on the mystical unseen natural world and holds many parallels to our own lives, as it deals mainly in the unanswered and mysterious questions that we all find ourselves asking in life. It excels at acute observations on the state of humanity and revels in our lack of understanding. Most importantly, it romanticizes the things that we do not understand and creates a new language to describe it's nature. This language is the Mushi, an unseen force which holds great mystical power. This series plays out like a sort of collection of folk tales concerning the Mushi, centered around a sort of sage who helps people with their problems as he wanders the Japanese countryside. It is quite slow and is probably not for everyone, but if you have patience and a sense of wonder about the natural world, you will almost certainly gain something from this.
    This anime is beautifully drawn. Taking place mainly in the forest and small villages, the show contains an unfathomable amount of painstakingly painted backgrounds. You don't really notice how beautiful it is after a few episodes, but the fact that there is never a significant dip in quality to call your attention to it is impressive in itself. Characters are a bit more generic looking. Because this anime is meant to have an aesthetic quality similar to that of a restrained traditional japanese painting, there is no overt craziness in the character's designs. They all have dark hair, wear traditional Japanese garb, and life in modest homes. What distant visual flare there is comes from the atmospheric and believable settings that the show dwells in. The caves of a tunneling Mushi, a foggy sea, a field set ablaze, and an inescapable bamboo forest are all brilliantly infused with personality and a sense of realness that is uncommon in animation. The Mushi themselves are also highly creative at times.
    The series score is done by Toshio Masuda, also the composer for Naruto. The music here is restrained and has an almost improvisational feel to it. Each episode has it's own piece of accompanying music, which is nice, however many of them sound the same. Repetition also sinks in when the few other pieces, like the one used when Ginko is describing a Mushi, are used EVERY episode. I will say though, the opening theme, "Sore Feet Song" is absolutely amazing. It conveys the feel of the show perfectly and for all 26 episodes, I never skipped through it. It prepares you perfectly for the quiet and contemplative experience you are about to have.
    Mushishi, as I said earlier, dipenses bits of wisdom about the age-old relationship between mankind and nature. The story, if you wish to call it that, is all about different people and their experiences with the unknown and the unexplainable. The show never really makes any assertions on good vs evil, right vs wrong, etc. Instead, it makes simple observations about the things that exist in nature and twists them into bizarre phenomena. For example, it details the experience of closing your eyelids vs truly not seeing or actually finding the end of a rainbow. Although there is peril in many of these stories, they are usually resolved through natural and logical means. If there is one overarching message, it is that things simply are. Trying to control what simply is is a futile exercise. In this way, the series draws similarities to the Zen Buddhist outlook on life and existence. This show is, in-fact, as close to a meditation as any piece of popular entertainment I have seen.
    So what is wrong with the show then? As I just said, this show succeeds brilliantly as a meditation. However, It fares less well in terms of entertainment. Despite the show being beautifully done, If you know what the conflict and resolution is going to be going into each episode, you kind of lose interest. In each episode, you know after a certain point that there will be a problem which at first seems unexplainable, it will be explained as being the work of Mushi, there will be some way to fix it, and everyone will go home. Although there are deviations from this outline, they are somewhat rare. The real reason to keep watching is not to see what happens so much as it is to see what there will be. The scenarios and settings are sufficiently interesting and beautiful to keep you wanting to return to this world. However, you may become fatigued, as I did, and take a break for some more straight-forward entertainment.

Rambling Anime Review: Aim For The Top! Gunbuster

Score: 6

This is a review of the 1988 OVA series Gunbuster. Be sure to also read my review of Diebuster, the second part of the Aim For The Top! series. I had never seen either before so I decided that watching both, one after the other, would be a great way to witness the progress of Gainax as a studio and perhaps to observe trends in the anime genre at large. After all, Gainax's productions has always had a certain effect on the industry. This is the one that started it all for this studio, so it's importance is inarguable.
    I feel like the Aim For the Top! series fits into the category of media in which the original was a cult phenomenon that gained critical appreciation over time, and when the sequel finally came out much later, there was no way it could live up to the unrealistic expectations placed on it. Another recent example of this is the Tron sequel that was just released. For something like Tron or Gunbuster, their fandom has become something of an institution- something that has far reaching implications in the rest of the medium. They have been attributed with pioneering and shifting tropes that exist to this day. Like the more popular Evangelion, Gunbuster is seen by many anime appreciators as a series that was ahead of it's time, heavily nuanced and far deeper than it may seem from a glance. To what degree should we attribute this to actual quality, as opposed to nostalgia? As we know, nostalgia can cloud our perceptions of things. As a viewer with no sense of nostalgia, this should be an unbiased comparison of both Aim For The Top! series.
    Gunbuster was Hideaki Anno's debut as a director and in many people's opinions, it is the first real reveal into the mind of a man who is one of the greatest ever to grace the anime genre (a sentiment I would agree with). I'll say right here that if you are looking for an expertly paced, beautifully twisted, life altering experience on par with Evangelion, you will probably be disappointed. Gunbuster does not set it's goals and stakes nearly as high. So, in a way, Gunbuster is the smaller, more simplistic prototype of the masterpiece which was yet to be told.
    This is only a six episode series and there is very little time for the subtle character development found in Eva. However, it is very noticeable that Anno MAKES as much time as possible, even at the cost of much explanation of the setting and plot itself. Like Evangelion, it is very clear that while the story could easily focus on the stunningly rendered sci-fi world, it would rather spend time in the minds of the main characters, searching for what it is that makes them tick. I have absolutely no qualms with this approach but there are a couple nagging issues that don't work in it's favor. Length is one. There is simply not enough time to develop anyone other than Noriko. In Evangelion, we got to really get inside the heads of five or six characters. Here there is just one or two (you could maybe argue that Amano counts). The other thing is that the main character, Noriko is simply not as deep and multifaceted as some of Anno's later characters. Her motivations are pretty two-dimensional.  That being said, she is still deeper than the  majority of anime characters. She is almost a more simplistic representation of the themes that were later fleshed through Shinji Ikari in Evangelion. She is given a seemingly impossible task despite very little experience, the fate of humanity rests on her shoulders and she has a very hard time with this, she is desperate to be accepted and loved. She has deep insecurities about abandonment and self-worth. The only thing that is lacking is a sense of maturity in storytelling of knowing how a character would actually behave and react in given situations. You can see the raw emotion that went into this character but there is very little restraint and subtlety. So, Noriko is perhaps a perfect personification of this series- ambitious and filled with volatile emotion, displaying hints of some great untapped potential. Noriko is a great character to discuss. However, she is unfortunately the only really developed character in the series. The only one that even comes close is Amano, Noriko's idol. Her most discernible quality is the tendency to be utterly two-faced. A sort of Asuka Langley Soryu prototype shows up too, in the form of Jung Freud. (haha get it? Anno likes psychology) It would have been nice to see more of her too. There is nothing to set her apart from any other hot-headed pilot. It's hard to knock Gunbuster for it's characters though. After all, it is only six episodes long. Although better characterization can be seen in just as short a span of time (FLCL, much later), it is an admirable and impassioned early try.
    Okay, so… art style. It looks dated. No way around it. Compared to the quality of animation in say, Diebuster, it looks pretty uneven. Where as Diebuster comes off as a culmination of everything Gainax had done up to that point, Gunbuster has the visual look of something in it's insecure infancy. You can see vague traces of what would come to be known as the Gainax style, (female character designs, jiggle, interesting robot ideas) but you really have to search for them. For the most part, the characters, animation and designs look generic. Not bad, just a lack of that certain exaggerated visual flair found in later productions.  The music is notable for being far more produced and expertly done in many places than the visuals. The theme song for when the Gunbuster machine first makes an appearance is a relatively famous piece of music that is both instantly recognizable and invigorating. Other orchestral pieces are found throughout and are extremely effective at conveying the emotion of the series. The 80's style OP and ED just sound dated unfortunately- they remind me a bit too much of 80's montage music.
    Gunbuster was Gainax's first take on the giant robot genre, originally made popular by the likes of Gundam and Macross. It serves as a unique and interesting take on the concept, with a heightened sense of personal drama and inner turmoil. Iv'e said it already, but this series should really be longer. It is just too grand a story to be crammed down into six episodes. This problem could have been potentially solved had the sequel, Diebuster, been a continuation or embellishment of the story instead of an update… Stick around for the review.

Did Trail of Dead getting a low score on Pitchfork effect the band's sucess?

I've been thinking a lot about the moral implications of writing "high-profile" reviews a lot lately. It seems absolutely ridiculous that one review could have so much weight in, truly, the future of a band. I think in some cases it is very true though. Many artists know this. Even Kanye West, seemingly surprised, profusely thanked all of the "magazines" that gave him good reviews. I'm positive that those reviews factored into album sales. In the current musical climate, there is simply too much music to NOT read reviews as recommendations that will help you sift through the pile. In the case of pitchfork, many artist who had low profile beginnings, got excellent scores on the website and ended up getting major label contracts because of the hype generated around them from a single review (surfer blood, etc). I do believe that Trail of Dead has suffered because of Pitchfork. I think their reviews are incredibly pretentious, opinionated, and caught up in appearances and trends. However, I still read them because they are informed and interesting takes on music that other sources can't offer. Anyway, in order to truly be an esteemed critic, you would have to have no qualms about crushing the dreams and aspirations of others for the sake of others, based on your opinions of it. This disturbs me. I always think of that line from Rattatoille-
"The worst piece of art is still infinitely more valuable than the best piece of criticism."