[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH To be fair, most characters in DtD are something like that, they are somewhat...caricaturic, in a good way. So there will probably be some good characters there. But why is Durarara unusual? I'd think @AmrAli1 had a chance to mention it at least once 😉

It could be a money thing, after all, Yakuza is niche in terms of audience, but these days, pretty much AAA in terms of budget and quality, I'd say. Sega gave Japan a big head start in gaming, I mean, no other country has a genre named after it. China and Korea are only catching up, so they may do something like that sometime. The important part is to find good talent and vision.

True, airports are more often featured in action movies or thrillers rather than outright horror, the one from Die Hard 2 or Terminal comes to mind. But also, airports have less personality than hotels; hotels can be privately or corporately owned and have an interesting history, while airports, while some are architectural marvels, have less character and are designed for function. It would be interesting to see more stories told about them, but at the same time, airport visits are anxiety-inducing enough even without horror 😅

I fully finished TLoU and Left Behind the other day. Now on to Nier. As for the headphones, it is not that they are unusable; I am still using them, but they just become somewhat uncomfortable after long gaming sessions. So long as I play no more than 3 hours at a time, there is little issue. I'd still prefer to get more fitting cushions, of course, but my current predicament with their size is not a deal-breaker.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch I’d always thought of Durarara as a niche anime, even among anime fans, so it was refreshing to see it mentioned in this community 😄

Japan’s contribution to gaming is absolutely unmatched. But if you look at the pie chart of global gaming revenue, a massive chunk is taken up by mobile gaming. And if you look deeper, you'll find Chinese studios making a killing. So the industry is definitely there, but they just need to scale up a bit. Hopefully Black Myth: Wukong ends up paving the way for talented developers from China.

Very well put about airports. It’s not so much the horror element, but more this surreal, out-of-place feeling. Like you’ve entered a different dimension where normal life rules don’t apply. Even something as basic as sleeping or eating at weird times feels off. Btw, in Left Behind, it's pretty cool how they utilized a shopping mall as this creepy spot eh?

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Really? I thought it was relatively mainstream, as far as anime is concerned. Well, not "mainstream", it is not the right word, perhaps "iconic" is more fitting. Like Haruhi Suzumiya, Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop. Niche would be something like...I dunno, Katanagatari or Sakamichi no Apollon. Then again, as with all things, it is a matter of personal perspective and preference. It just seems that your "niche anime" and mine may be somewhat different 😅

The observation about China and mobile gaming is astute and may be true, but also, do you remember this meme?



Need to scale up indeed, leave the mobile cradle and spread their wings. Let's see what happens now that Black Myth: Wukong has proved that there is a demand for it.

Indeed, and that is explored in interesting, but not horror ways. Terminal that I mentioned before comes to mind, or Up in the Air.

As for the malls, I'd say that it may be because they are, actually similar to hotels and airports, a microcosm. But in case of malls, they are there for leisure, not function like airports or necessity like hotels. That opens them from a different angle. When they are abandoned, they freeze in time, I remember reading one article where an old (but still functioning) mall somewhere in the USA was being refurbished, and they knocked down one of those temporary walls that they sometimes put to cover unused shop spaces, and discovered a fully functional old Burger King:

And yeah, malls often star in zombie films and games, it is almost obligatory these days 😅

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Oh yeah, definitely a case of personal perspective. Back in school, my primary source for discovering anime was through chatting with classmates. As expected, most of the recommendations skewed towards Shounen anime like Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, and stuff like Death Note and Attack on Titan. Now, with the newer generation getting into shows like Demon Slayer and Solo Leveling, I honestly have no clue what label to assign to Durarara 😅

😂😂😂

Note to self: if a zombie apocalypse ever happens, seek out the local Burger King 😂 That place looked pristine! Lots of cover and plenty of barricade spots!! But yeah, what better way to show desolation than by using once-thriving leisure spots. I’ve been to some malls that feel stuck in time, and boy do they invoke sadness and a slight sense of hopelessness.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Makes sense, those are very mainstream examples that are more of franchise brands than anime at this point, even. When I first started watching it, I began with things like GTO or Kare Kano, so there is some generational bias there 😅

If a zombie apocalypse ever happens, I'd say better chances are on one of the islands, like Majorca or Crete or Oahu. If those places manage to clear out the initial waves, then they should be relatively safe from there on out. So first get to one of those places, and then find a mall there 😉

I'd say up to a pint. Once a place gets stuck in time, it may invoke sadness or hopelessness, but when it gets old enough to be vintage, it starts to inspire awe and wonderment instead. I want to say in cases like this, emotions may depend on how old the place is.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Oh man, now that GTO opening song is totally gonna loop in my head 😁 So iconic! My anime journey started with Dragon Ball Z, back when I used to call anime cartoons 😓

Not if they’re the zombies from World War Z! Apparently, they can walk across the ocean floor, travel insane distances, and pop up to bite islanders at the worst possible moments 😂

Hmm, that’s true!

Edit: Oh btw, I wanted to ask something. To add some extra flair, I made a custom signature and added it to my profile settings.

While it shows up in the settings, it doesn’t appear when I comment on threads. Was just wondering if I botched this up or if the functionality itself is disabled 😄

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH It is a nice song, all of them are, really, both openings and endings. I generally like older songs a bit better than more modern ones for openings and endings, with some exceptions, of course, but maybe that's nostalgia talking.

Dragon Ball Z I have not watched, too many episodes for me, I tend to be wary of longer anime like that. I like shorter stories with clear development and ending, a few seasons is as high as I want to go. I did watch Attack on Titan start to finish, for example, but I could not do the same with My Hero Academia, that one is already too big. Monogatari was a challenge.

I'll look into the picture for you, that's a nice one 😊 Could you let me know the size, resolution and format of the one you tried it with?

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch I'm with you on liking older openings and endings better. I feel like modern openings (post-COVID era onwards) are made to go viral on social media and often sacrifice cohesiveness for something super catchy. And yeah, this isn't the case for every anime opening out there, but I doubt we'll ever hear something like the Evangelion opening again 😓

Same dude, same! Thank God I started watching One Piece really early (around 2010, I think?), otherwise there’s no way I could’ve sat through 1000+ episodes 😆 What are some great short anime you really enjoyed? I can only think of Erased, Steins;Gate, 91 Days (great anime if you're planning to play Mafia: The Old Country), and Death Parade.

Thank you 😁 The picture (attached below) is 211 × 70 px, 4.8 KB, and in PNG format. Btw, if this proves to be too much trouble, please don’t worry about it. It’s just a small thing I wanted to try 😄

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH We might, when someone tries to make something nostalgic and reminiscent of that era. But also, it may depend on the artistic process.

For example, the Evangelion opening that you mentioned, "Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze", was written specifically for Evangelion. These days, modern anime like Fire Force or Demon Slayer more often use music from the albums of some singers, those songs are not written for the anime. Not sure how widespread that practice of anime-purposed song composing is, given how expensive and/or time-consuming it may be.

Then again, it may not have been a widespread practice even back then: GTO, for example, did not have songs written for its openings.

I actually watched all those you mentioned 😅 For something in the same genre pattern of your list, I'd say Baccano!, ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka, or Summertime Render.

Try making it into JPG format, let me know how it goes!

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Haha, you're spot on about the use of songs from albums. If there's a new ambitious anime coming out with a big budget, you can almost guarantee it'll feature a song by Kenshi Yonezu or LiSA. In recent years, I can only think of Attack on Titan and Dandadan that had songs composed specifically for their openings.

Oooh, those are some good recommendations. I've seen Baccano! pop up a bunch of times, and it's only 16 episodes!? Very tempting.

Sadly, changing the format to JPG didn't work 😅