Kimi no Na Wa is pretty bad and Plastic Memories is a better love story

Plastic Memories is the best show I watched in 2016. Yes it came out in 2015, and I am always late to the party, but I don't care. But it was also a year of many great animes like the second season of Arslan Senki, Mob Psycho 100, Boku no Hero Academia; and I got to catch up with some 2015 shows like One Punch Man and Ore Monogatari! too.

For anyone who has watched PlaMemo, I believe they will agree that plot is not the show's strongest point. As someone who has repeatedly emphasised the importance of narrative over a show's plot, and expressed disdain over over-reliance on plot twist to keep a show or movie engaging, it does not really concern me. The plot twist at the end of episode 2 won't come as a shocker as long as you paid attention in the first episode, and the ending to the series was nothing unpredictable either. The brilliance of PlaMemo therefore lies in how the story was being delivered through dialogue, presented through imagery, and layered with symbolism. PlaMemo may be my favourite love story of all time, beating the 4-way love square in Rave Master that I absolutely have to talk about one day, the adorable Gorilla and Princess pairing of Takeo and Rinko in Ore Monogatari!, and even Li-en and Wonrei from Gashbell - all tales that will probably make me cry again when I revisit the material.

What makes PlaMemo stand out is its strong adherence to its theme - the idea of memories - in its writing, dialogue writing, use of symbolism and imagery that never comes across as too direct or forceful. It is a show about people with horrible, horrible pasts trying to live as normal, happy individuals while bearing the curse of their memories. It is a show that questions where memories go when one dies, whether one can distance oneself from pain if they do not try to remember anything, and whether we can actually be able to not create any memories, and thus not feel any emotions for the world and the people around us if we try our hardest. It is hard to explain things without spoiling the presentation of the narrative, which I think everyone should have a privilege of experiencing first hand, especially in the last few episodes where we see main characters Isla and Tsukasa finally getting together and making the most out of Isla final days (I have no qualms about spoiling the plot, it is so generic you will see it coming from the first episode). To love at all is to be vulnerable, says C.S. Lewis, and PlaMemo reminds us to remember anything is to bear a curse. A curse of longing for people who have passed on, a curse of having to live in a future that desires the past where things were better; a memento is a curse, a promise is a curse, and an anniversary is also a curse. I will never forget Plastic Memories, and that is perhaps also a curse.

And this was when I went to watch last years highly acclaimed, perhaps most hyped movie of the holiday season, the No Man's Sky of movies, Kimi no Na Wa, aka Your Name. The movie looks great and sounds great, but everything else was a total mess. It relied on shock factor to keep the show engaging beyond the first hour - the first act was great with lots of very organic and believable character interaction going on and really helped build the main characters relationship as friends under strange circumstances. But that was where the show went downhill. As much as I don't care for the plot and thus not as concerned as some about why certain systems in the movie were unexplained, but the inclusion of so many unrelated elements into a single 2 hour feature film, from body swapping, time travelling, premonition, the spirit world to iPhone diary malfunction, it does add to the mess and the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. It requires severe suspension of disbelief and shutting down of the brain to appreciate, and generally speaking I think no observant audience likes it when they spot an obvious plot convenience that exists for plot advancement sake; and in Kimi no No Wa's case it is as clear as the symbolism with the strings is. And I think all of this compounded together resulted in the eventual failure of Kimi no Na Wa as a love story - it tried include every weird shit that exists and stuff it into the film. The film had strings to symbolise people's fate being tied together. The event was the result of a meteor landing, which feels like it was selected as an adversary because it was absolutely stunning when animated - while an earthquake or a volcanic eruption would have served the same purpose. The meeting on top of the mountain during twilight was supposed to be emotional until I realised I wasn't cheering for them as a couple - they suddenly started swapping bodies one days, they suddenly lost contact with each other, and they suddenly forgot each other's name - there wasn't nearly enough time and material to build up those two as a couple. People don't fall in love with one another just because they miss each other, and if the film is trying to suggest the only relationship that can develop between a boy and a girl is love, that will be very silly and unrealistic. I just saw them as good friends and nothing more. Perhaps the film would have benefited from going with a simpler plot. Mitsuha's disappearance from Taki's life and the film at the beginning of the second arc was great, until you realise it the rest of the film offers no satisfying explanation for why things happened. Loneliness becomes boredom upon the big plot twist which is honestly, as generic as one can imagine, and so much poorly written than other stories with similar structures because of its reliance on the explanation that 'things happen because its anime magic.'

And the name, the title of this film, what in the world does it have to do with the film at all except serve as a nice sounding title and used as a cheeseball ending scene dialogue (I have no qualms spoiling anything about a bad film). In short, what does the idea of 'name' have to do with 'Your Name'? Frankly speaking a title that related to strings, bonds, spiritual connection would have served better and parts that tried to force feed the audience about the importance of 'name' could have been rewritten for the film to have a stronger central theme. The scene where Taki writes 'I like You' in Mitsuha's palm instead of his name was really touching but it has nothing to do with the film in its entirety at all. And its not like their names hold any symbolism either. Ironically, a film all about fates being intertwined and tied together is all over the place, is missing many important links and fails to tie up loose ends. I started this review with the title saying 'Kimi no Na Wa is pretty average', and eventually changed 'average' to 'bad' because I felt it suited the content better - and this is what Kimi no Na Wa should have done with its title too. My guess would be it was concepted to feature that scene on the mountain where they meet, and the ending scene (which was dragged out for another 3-5 minutes for no good reason) where they ask for each other's name first, and everything else was shoved in to make the film lead to that scene. It is ok to want to make a film with cool shots, touching scenes and an impactful ending - but without a strongly knit together plot (which can be generic and not so reliant on hard twists like this film) and a consistent theme to drive the narrative, it just feels like the director didn't put much thought about those other scenes and other parts of the plot that did not involve the theme of 'name'. Just like how the film fails to establish why Taki and Mitsuha love each other in the first place and make the audience cheer for them as a couple, and the only reason why we assume they will be together is because they are the main characters, it also fails to build up to the twilight and ending scenes for them to have any impact or feel rewarding to watch. The film's aesthetics are mindblowing, the art direction is phenomenal and the animation is top-notch, but like a catchy title that also doubles as a powerful punchline, the surface beauty contrasted with the lack of any substance within the film itself makes it look even worst. Lastly, I am anticipating criticism of my comparison of full-blown anime series with a film, but I will argue that the longer an anime runs, there are more risks of losing sight of its core theme - it is easier for a 2 hours long feature film to be consistent than a 5 hours, 13 episodes anime and yet every one of the animes I've mentioned at the start manages to keep to the point better than Kimi no Na Wa.

Plastic Memories' core question was 'What are memories', and explores the meaning to be human together with that central theme. Ore Monogatari! went with the simpler question of 'What is love?' and challenges the perception that people should be paired based on their looks and not by how well they work as a couple. One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, questions the idea of 'What does it mean to be strong?', with overwhelmingly powerful main characters trying to fit themselves in their respective worlds littered with people who think they know the answer. But their perceptions are challenged once they face the respective main characters. Arslan Senki asks, 'What's in a King', which not only threads the main story together from the perspectives of 3 'kings' of the same kingdom, but also seeps into side stories such as the Shindra arc in season 1 cour 2. Hopefully, we will get an even better answer once season 3 is out. And in Boku no Hero Academia we search for 'What does it mean to be a hero?', a question that is constantly being asked and answered through the actions of every character we meet, and because of their individual experiences in this world everyone has a different answer from the next person. It doesn't make these stories flat and one-note, instead it keeps seemingly unrelated stories tied to a single theme, to explore the complexity of these questions. Questions that may look short and simple, but can be answered in so many ways one starts to question whether there can ever be one good, definite answer to any of these questions. Kimi no Na Wa just makes you ask, 'What the hell is going on here?', and that only works when you are a gag anime that uses that surprise factor as part of its comedy - like Osomatsu-san, which has probably the best pilot episode of all animes with its on point gags, comedic shots and moments, and parodies. In fact at this point, I think Kimi no Na Wa is literally the pilot episode of Osomatsu-san but not funny, it feels like a parody of other equally convoluted plots and messily themed shows, but takes itself way too seriously.

Once again, like everything I shit on, I don't care if you like it. This review is less about why I think Kimi no Na Wa doesn't work, but more about why I think you should be checking out the other shows I have listed. If you like it, good for you - I also want to like it but I really can't do it.

[Afterthoughts: I've been meaning to start a series where I regularly shit on things that people really love but I can't seem to like, and will be tentatively titling it 'Making Enemies on the Internet'. List will include Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Berserk (even the manga), HunterXHunter (Manga); and for video games I people seem to hate my Valiant Hearts review a lot so that should count, and Dishonored review should be coming up soon (only using the American spelling because that's how the developers spell it).]

Ori and the Blind Forest – My Ex-Girlfriend the Video Game

Ori and the Blind Forest is not fun. It is filled with imaginative and excellent puzzles and level design, but looking back all I can remember is frustration and anger. But despite me never wanting to return to that world ever again, there remains a longing of that journey, and a lingering desire to just launch the game to listen to that calming and wonderful title theme. 

The game’s visual cues (or lack thereof) are probably my biggest problem with it. The backgrounds have backgrounds and despite loving the depth in the background environment, it is undeniably overly cluttered at times especially when you are trying to identify how to solve a puzzle and which rocks are safe to jump on, during a long and difficult timed platforming sequence.  Granted, failure does not set you backwards too much, and from each failure you learn how to navigate that puzzle better. But the knowledge one obtains from one puzzle does not seem to carry on to other puzzles, as new elements are being tossed at you when you enter a new area, and the Bash-and-Fly system seem to be the only one that is useful to master since it appears in almost all the future puzzles. Two of the puzzle solving skills, Light Burst and Charge Flame are neither useful in combat, nor are they ever used other than one off obstacles that require no skill or technique to pull off. The game also contains mechanics like allowing one to Bash a Light Burst to propel one upwards, but by the time I had any use for that I already have the Charge Jump, which made that technique obsolete. The game forces you to learn way too many things, that you must keep at the back of your head in case a random puzzle that requires that solve pops up. And it punishes you with backtracking and confusion when you forget. Sometimes searching for a guide on the Internet helps, sometimes it doesn’t as you spend hours running around the huge map to try and figure out what to do next.

Traversing the map would have been more enjoyable if Ori controlled better. The first problem is the dash button. You use WASD to move, and Ctrl to dash and air dash. The human hand is not designed to WASD+Ctrl. This would have been better with key rebinding, or if I could afford a controller, but with a mouse and keyboard it just feels awful. The Charge Jump, the final ability Ori obtains, has a mode that allows Ori to charge off walls. It requires the holding down of the Shift key, pressing a directional key, then pressing space – I feel that this could have been simplified because having a three button move (Or more specifically it is A, Space, Hold Shift, Hold D, Space) during a speedy platforming sequence is really not a good idea. Ori sometimes stops himself during a stomp attack for no reason, and doing a wall jump without first getting the ability to cling onto wall is a pain in the ass because the game requires an insane amount of precision to get certain portions right. And this is where the poor visual cues come back to haunt you; landing at a bad spot because you are in a rush, and you cannot see what is coming at you, kills you instantly because the game loves death traps.

It is just like when we were still together. It was not a game that I could play for hours because she pissed me off so frequently, that I would just shut it down for a while to clear my head and deal with the problems later. And every time I return to that title screen, with that song playing at the background, it just makes me want to forgive her again. Never mind the invisible death traps, never mind long platforming stages that only gave you one try or risk restarting a three minutes sequence – I’ll do better this time. You will not change, you are programmed this way, and therefore I am always the one that needs to improve and adapt to become the person you need me to be. I will do so to ensure that I can be here till your game ends. Perhaps I am curious of the ending. Or perhaps, I just loved you more than you loved me.

And you can’t be so harsh when I fail all the time. Some sections are long and gruesome without chance for breaks, and some problems exist because she wants to make my life even more miserable. There are times that I genuinely want to stop playing the game, but every time I see the title screen my heart softens and I return grudgingly to continue the journey. Sometimes I hope that she treated me better, but then again, maybe I’ll not have moved on so easily from her if that was the case. The ending was cliché, but beautiful in its own way. I’d probably forget this game a few years later, simply because our brains are tuned to cover up bad memories as we age. I’ve had enough of trying to make things work, and I think I’d want a dumb fun game like Doom for the time being. In fact, I’m going back to play Doom again.  

Making sense of the Momo Monster: Too much timber in China’s Tinder

My first contact with Tinder’s swiping mechanics was with the queer choose-your-own-adventure and resource management game, Reigns. It makes use of the left and right swiping mechanics popularised for players to make decisions, answer questions and do combat in the game. Neat little game for S$4 on mobile and PC.

Anyway, I knew the existence of Tinder prior to 2016 but never tried my hands at it, mostly because there was no need to. Certain changes that took place over the course of the year, however, created an opportunity for me to mess around with dating apps again. So, while unwillingly stranded in China handling meaningless bureaucratic paperwork, I downloaded both Tinder and Momo to try my hands on them.

I only write for this blog when a topic is inspiring enough for me to do so; and in the case of Tinder and Momo, it is the world of difference between their approach in engaging socialisation that warrants it a spot on this blog. Here I am not simply talking about a difference in function and mechanics – i.e. how and why these apps are used – but a deeper schism on a philosophical and existential level. Tinder is easy to access and use, strike a match and light a fire; while Momo probably has enough timber to burn an entire town down and to call Momo ‘China’s Tinder’ is kind of a misnomer.

I’ll explain the metaphor in a bit but I think it will become clear once we look at the big picture. China gets a bad rep these days for imitating and replicating both hardware and software products to facilitate the growth of infant industries and local businesses. This is done via allowing legal violation of copyrights and trademark laws (heh) and imposing protectionism measures via censorship laws, under the guise of preventing ‘western’ ideas from disrupting China’s ‘harmonious society’. But the best of the best cultivated under strong protectionism policies are more than mere tweaks and translated versions of their overseas counterparts. Through cannibalisation of ideas from multiple competitors, the local products grow into very different monsters that are arguably better and more suitable for the local context. When I used Wechat 5 years ago, it was really nothing more than a Line clone (which is still banned in China now probably because it is the only instant messenger that poses any threat to Wechat). But, now with bank transfer and wireless payment functions that can be used for almost any form of online payment, as well as at convenience stores, on cabs, ubers and buses, Wechat is now the pioneer of the new wallet-less generation that Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, UOB virtual bank card etc. are heading towards. Baidu, China’s answer to Google, has their own maps and news sections like google, and it also does food delivery. And while in China, I’d recommend Ctrip more than Agoda or Expedia simply because there are more selections of hotels, and it also tells you the short time rental rates for rooms, which is somewhat related to our topic today. ;)

And then there is Momo. This Frankenstein monster of an app fuses inspiration from Tinder, Line, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, and whatever livestreaming app that is popular now. Mo in Chinese alludes to unfamiliarity, but for me there is neither unfamiliarity towards the app’s functions (because I’ve seen everything it can do elsewhere just on different platforms), nor does it want you to remember you are interacting with strangers. To begin the dissection of Momo we must first disucss the streamlined and low barriers-to-entry approach to socialisation used by Tinder.

Upon launching the app for the first time, Tinder requests connection to one’s Facebook account to verify the authenticity of one’s profile and extract certain key information like name, age, photographs, interests so that the other swipers (yes swiping) can decide whether they like you or not. It is a very simple process to set-up, and it gets you into the matchmaking process almost immediately. The swiping process is too, idiot-proof that needs no explanation, despite the app’s insistence to do so once. The philosophy behind this, is that this is an app created for people who are either not excellent at socialising, or simply have no time to socialise, in real life. The barriers-of-entry are set as low as possible for ease of use, and ease of convincing the busy or shy individual to try it out. And once there is a match, you start talking. Quite the no nonsense app to me if you ask me. Momo on the other hand has no Facebook to connect to (because this is China), and this firstly opens up opportunities for scams and prostitution due to lack of verification (this also happens on Tinder, but unlike Momo I do not have to report someone every day, literally every day). The app therefore also demands a whole list of information that I took an hour to fill in; it isn’t necessary but the app rewards you with rank points for doing so. If I were a shy person trying to socialise this is neither user-friendly nor as self-contained and comforting to use like Tinder. Even if we compare this to apps used primarily for people to hook up, like Grindr (secondary experience, I don’t use it), it does not depart from the central philosophy that people need the setting up process to be as simple and quick as possible, so that there is lesser chance for one to shy away from using the app. Tinder gets you into the swiping action within the first minute, Momo does not. In fact, I had to spend time looking for the swiping feature, tucked away at a random corner in the infinitely more cluttered interface, and filled with thousands upon thousands of dead accounts that the app does not filter, unlike Tinder. Finally, I realised this is because neither the users nor the admins care about the swiping function. The swipe is not the main point of the app at all. And that is where it gets weird.

A friend told me that Momo functioned pretty much like Grindr back in the days except it was mainly for heterosexuals. I assumed the name alluded to ‘hooking up with strangers’, but it actually makes you do more things than just chatting with and up strangers around you.

The app is subdivided into five different tabs, titled ‘Nearby’, ‘Livestream’, ‘Messages’, ‘Contacts’ and ‘Personal’. Messages and contacts are quite self-explanatory so I won’t be going into details, just note that the messages tab is where you get most of your scammers because everyone on the app can message you, and the contacts tab records every action taken by everyone you follow, every group you are in (we will get to groups in a bit), and everyone around you.

The first tab is an amalgamation of Wechat’s nearby and moments functions, together with features from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all mashed into one.  One can adjust the privacy level of whom to display the information to, but so far, I’ve not seen many people do that because it defeats the purpose of using this platform in the first place. One can view the moments that are being shared on the app from all around China, as well as look at the profile, photos and actions of the people in your area. Imagine Facebook and Instagram but everything you post constantly get pushed to people all around the nation and especially to people near you. So much for conservative Eastern culture that fears of being corrupted by Western open-mindedness. That’s not all, the picture of a pretty girl can also just be an advertisement for petty traders, people selling phones, or a driver; so there’s a bit of Carousell thrown in for good measure. Hidden at the bottom right hand corner is a small button named ‘diandian’ (clicking) that functions like the Tinder swipe feature, which I assume nobody really uses since everyone’s profile is readily available for you to click on, view, send gifts, like, follow and message to anyway.

The second tab gives you livestreams. Here you can listen to good looking boys and girls playing DJs, doing talk shows, eating food, singing and dancing on screen (no I am not kidding, I have photos), but mostly just chatting with the audiences that come to their streams. In these streams, viewers can donate items to the streamers, virtual roses, cars, tiaras (which is probably the best one because it actually appears on the head of the streamers and it can be extremely adorable), so something like what some livestream apps are doing for viewers to ‘cheer’ on the streamers. My suspicion is that some of these popular streamers are hired by Momo to encourage purchase of virtual currencies that are used to then purchase these virtual cheer items, so it works somewhat like Twitch where the company pays the streamers to host shows on the site, through revenue generated through cheering, advertisements, and subscription. Streamers also have a separate rank called the Streamer Rank, which is placed on a nationwide chart and I assume climbing to a higher rank nets you more bonus; or perhaps I am wrong and people are just doing for the fame and attention, I will get to this point at the end.

It is quite insane what these people would do for these rubbish-talking and off-tune singing streamers when you do the numbers. I walked into a stream the other day where this cute girl was just chatting up an old guy via in-stream facetime and he gave her 10 virtual sports cars which would have costed 1000RMB (about S$210) while all she did was just smile and pretended to be interested in the conversation. And the gifts didn’t stop there; every time she asked, more rolls in. Momo understands that there are some really rich people in China who have no time to spend their money, and are willing to blow thousands of dollars on a girl who is willing to entertain them. And it is not like they are asking for anything more than attention and sense of importance to the streamers in return, at least not in public at least. Furthermore, buying virtual currency increases your ‘wealth’ stats, which in turn increases your Momo rank and a person viewing your profile will know you are rich when you are of a high Momo rank with your Wealth stats being the highest. A streamer I follow constantly gets thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from her hardcore fans just showing her face for a minute every day; and among these fans there are those who have donated so much she adds them into a special group to make them feel important. As far as I know, the person she calls her ‘group manager’ sends at least 10 tiaras her way every time he enters the stream, and immediately after the gifts he leaves as though that few hundred dollars was nothing. Who knew the ‘spend a few hundred dollars to make a cute girl smile for a second per day’ was a viable money making market? We may actually need to export this idea from China this time.

The Personal tab has games to play, think Line and Facebook apps that allows certain level of socialisation and interactivity. This is also where you can purchase Momo coins, that reminds the user very much of free-to-play games, where purchase of greater amounts of the currency allows for higher discounts. If Tinder is like a subscription based RPG where a nominal fee unlocks all the features, and further payment is only required to get otherwise unimportant items that will not improve your appeal in anyway. Momo on the other, constantly remind you that your appeal and attractiveness is very much tied to how much money you are spending in the app. Not only can you show off your wealth to other viewers through showering big streamers with gifts, displaying one’s high Momo rank with high wealth stats, it can also be used as a measure to grab the attention of a guy or girl that you like via waving wads of cash in their face.

In addition, the personal interface tab also allows you to search for groups nearby. Momo again displays its understanding that most of its users are female-seeking males by displaying the number and percentage of females in every group before you choose to join in. There are more functions that allows one to join local chat groups, and participate in other activities such as hanging out, going to karaokes, going for a meal etc. I have yet to explore all the functions simply because there are too many things to do, and frankly speaking, this is quite scary. What Momo requests from the average user clearly requires more courage than just swiping faces on an app that does not even coerce you into talking even if you get a match.

I hope 2000 words into this piece you can somewhat grasp the philosophical difference between the two apps that I described earlier. Observing Tinder and Momo is like watching the artistic vision of the two main characters in Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York play out. While Tinder focuses on simplicity to be shy-proof and idiot-proof, Momo is a platform for already confident and egoistic persons to further their egos by collecting fans and admirers of their beauty or wealth. Earlier I said the streamers may just be doing the streams for themselves, and somehow in our world that is an entirely plausible thing. We are a generation that grew up being obsessed in customising avatars on instant messengers and social media, to buying virtual cosmetic items for online game characters, to show off to our friends and publicly display our individuality and uniqueness. Those things are real to us because it is part of a language that can be understood by others of the same generation. Momo is for the prideful and extroverted, one who is not afraid to display their privacy in the most public. One who will sing and dance in front of strangers in hope that they will reciprocate with gifts and praises, because the attention is what they yearn in joining this app in the first place. One who will click on random profiles to chat up people in their area, who will actively seek out local groups and parties to join, like how they will be doing in real life if they had the time and opportunity. Momo is the modern ballroom, tea party, and even like a quieter club or bar for people to hit up girls and sometimes do so by showering them items that can be bought from said bar or club. The introvert will shy away from Momo which requires them to speak to groups of strangers, to initiate conversation with someone who do not even know you, and livestreams are definitely an impossibility to them. Retreating to Tinder, there is at least that certainty that the person that you are chatting with already saw your face and are at least interested in you – and of course if you match with me I’ll initiate the conversation so don’t worry. Tinder is an innovation for the shy and less sociable, while Momo is simply a change in location for the already socially capable. Conclusions? I think it is great both exists, although I find Tinder way more useful for meeting people. Momo is still pretty scary despite being me decently sociable and having performance experience. I may try to start a singing stream on it simply because the ones that are on there are so damn terrible. But seriously, if you think I’m sexist for saying that I’ll probably get 0 views because I’m not a pretty girl, you need to get the app downloaded.

I have no idea how to end this monstrously longer article. Swipe right if you see me on Tinder I suppose.

Sun and Moon: The Pokemon games we didn't know we wanted

There is a lot of talk about thinking outside the box, creative teaching, creative expression, injection of new elements into old way of doing things and revolutionary changes in today’s rapidly evolving socio-economy. However, most of these people do not know what they are talking about, and wish that nothing ever changes until the day they die. This interpassive behaviour is a result of the system of thought these people were raised, educated, and trained in; and as someone who had been looking for jobs the past 10 months, I’ve heard this bullshit from potential employers too many times to realise the pattern. There is much to be said about this generation of human beings that demand creativity and uniqueness from the new, yet possess no special skills and talent to survive outside their comfort zone, and are secretly manipulating things with the power of their seniority (obtained not through being more capable but simply because they were born decades earlier when the socio-economy demanded so little from the everyman even dogs could make it to space) to ensure nothing ever changes; but that topic will have to wait till another day.

Because this article is about Pokemon Sun and Moon, the main titles of the 7^th generation of the Pokemon franchise video games, which is closely related to the rant above. Pokemon SM embodies that creativity that I think a lot of fans have been waiting for; it doesn’t do it perfectly, but we are beginning to see cracks in the old formula that lacks a lot of narrative sense. Why do gyms exist? Where do the champion and elite four come from? Why do certain Pokemon look and act certain ways, and why do they have certain abilities or moves? While ORAS represented the end of a tired generation of the stagnated formula exposed through the nonsensical plot and worldbuilding, Pokemon SM elevates the narrative and worldbuilding aspects of Pokemon games to a higher level by doing away with gyms and introducing island trials to fit into the Alolan world. The hastily mashed together Elite Four as a result of narrative reasons creates probably the most memorable end game boss fight in a Pokemon game hands down.

I love Pokemon XY. It is probably still the best Classic Pokemon title (a term that I’ll use to describe the old titles from RBGY to ORAS hereinafter) alongside FRLG, which despite having no nostalgic effect on me (because I didn’t play Red and Blue). FRLG remains one of the best remakes because the team strived to make a better and updated experience instead of simply trying to invoke nostalgia.

This is important here because SM was clearing riding on the success of Pokemon GO and the reignited interest in Pokemon, especially those of the first generation, in previous fans. GO also serves as a bridge between new players and the mainstream Pokemon games using their familiarity with the Pokemons currently present in GO. This is done through the inclusion of Alolan forms of Pokemon exclusively from the first generation, old Generation 1 Pokemons ranging from the gen-rat critter Rattata, to familiar faces like Meowth and Raichu, to some Pokemon that did not require makeovers because they already look amazing like Grimer and Muk. Even though other than the Pokemons of Hoenn, those from Johto, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos will probably look different if they were living in Alola, the ignorance of this fact reflects the intentional use of familiarisation and nostalgia stirred via Pokemon GO to bring in and bring back players. But the way SM does it is truly creative, and while XY perfected the Classic Pokemon formula, SM brought it outside of its comfort zone and possible created a new order that future Pokemon games can follow, at least for a few more games.  

Now that way XY did it was ok. Allowing one to catch Pokemons from different regions in Kalos was exciting because it is good to see familiar faces and be surprised about what one can find in the grass occasionally. This is also by no means a new method of easing casual players into the games in case they for whatever strange reason only recognise Pokemons up till a certain generation as ‘real’ (this is mostly the fault of Gen 5), but SM brings this to another level. I like having only new Gen Pokemons on my team when going through the main story, that’s just my thing, because why play with a Slowpoke or Wingull just because the latter has a new ability (although we need to touch on this later because I love the change but that’s on a competitive and design level) when I can have a Wishiwashi or a Toxapex (which, by the way, has the coolest new ability in the game) to fill up that water slot? But now the Gen 1 Alolan forms are no longer just ‘something I’ve used before in a past game and therefore their existence has no other purpose other than filling up the dex and the only time I’ll touch them is for competitive’. Alolan Marowak was on my team because it is a Fire/Ghost that rocks Lightning Rod for Electric protection and Bonemerang, which is arguably the best Earth type move in the game. Alolan Muk is now part Dark which negates its Psychic weakness entirely while giving it no new weaknesses. And they look different. That is important. It feels like you are travelling with a new Pokemon and the new flavour text about Diglett and its hair just punctuates the point that it is a different Pokemon.

And this is the point I want to focus on, because prior to XY, Platinum was my favourite Pokemon game. SM is currently miles ahead in the lead, but hopefully not for long, because DPP remake is coming up and the signal SM sends is very positive for a possible amazing DPP remake. I predict that there will be Sinnoh forms for old Pokemons. Of all the Alolan form Pokemons in SM, Grimer and Muk are my favourite because their form changes made sense – it is explained that Alola did not have pollutants for Grimer and Muk to feed on so they fed on garbage, and therefore their looks changed and their habits changed. Why they are now Dark type can be better explained but there is sufficient effort there to make the change believable as compared to steel type Dugtrio with glorious hair which looks more like a rejected Kalos Pokemon.

With the success of the new forms, I hope the team moves even more aggressively towards that direction because it is firstly, an excellent step forward in worldbuilding and narrative through grounding the existence of each individual Pokemon in practical reality. Many of the flavour texts in this generation’s Pokedex reveal that Pokemons like Crabrawler are eaten by humans, and many other Pokemons eat each other in the wild. The Alolan Sandshrew lives up in Mount Lanakila learns how to resist the cold. The weakling Pokemon Wishiwashi learns how to fight in a school instead of alone. This is more believable than Wingull suddenly knowing how to summon rain, or Rattata having whiskers for some reason. This brings me to my next point; I like how they are trying to make each individual Pokemon more useful and unique, even if they are not up to competitive standards. In this cast roster of over 800 Pokemons, many old Pokemons have become simply lower-tier clones of new ones, and there are is absolutely no reason for competitive players to take any notice to them. In the best-case scenario, a change is made for a Pokemon to stand out, and at the same time their change also makes narrative sense. Muk has a new ability that is useful in double battles, its new typing bestows upon it Dark-type STAB and Psychic immunity, and I have already said that its change is rather decent from a worldbuilding standpoint. Marowak, a physical Fire/Ghost type pokemon with exclusive access to the Thick Club and Bonemerang, is not just ‘another ground type’ anymore; and the whole island-fire-dancer feel to its new design makes excellent use of its old design to make catching and owning a Marowak exciting again. Pelipper with Drizzle is now being considered in competitive, and despite the ability change being its only change I still welcome it because that means we get to see new faces at tournaments, but I do hope the Pokemon team doesn’t go down this lazy road of just changing one thing, but combine individualistic Pokemon character building, skillset, and ability customisation to try and make at least one form of each of these 800-odd critters stand out. It is hard, but all they really have open up to fan recommendations. A friend just told me how wonderful it would be to have a Pokemon game set in the prehistoric era, and immediately I thought about how Ancient forms of Omastar, Kabutops, Archeops, etc. can help to revamp these lesser used Pokemon both on main game teams and competitive teams and give them more personality, and more love. Personally? Bug/Dragon Mega Flygon, please.

The other formula breaking element in Pokemon SM is the trials. I am completely in love with the Ghost trial, and everyone who has talked to me about the Fire trial told me how much they enjoyed it too. I don’t think they can do much for Sinnoh remake, but I for one won’t mind if they changed the gym systems slightly just to make it more fun. Talking about that, I will be disappointed if they don’t invite me to be on the BW remake writing team, because I have an idea of how to make it better – long story short, the old team just screwed up all that excellent build up the finale by throwing N out of the window and putting in a regular bad guy instead. Which again, is relevant because the writing in SM is pretty excellent for a game that cannot be too dark in case kids get scared. Something the big bad in this game said in the end really resonated with me, and Team Skull is really quite the charming ‘evil’ group once you get past the cringe. The music is excellent. The Pokemon designs are excellent. The trial captains are bursting with personality. There’s really nothing much to say there because those things have been generally good in past Pokemon games (except Gen 5) and there is no surprise there, although I have to say the music is the kind of good that hits you right in the face and sticks in your head. This is without a doubt my favourite Pokemon game. It does everything it is supposed to do well beyond expectations, or to pure perfection, such as the music. Unlike Owlboy that I reviewed earlier this year that was a great game without a core, this game orbits around a strong philosophy of wanting to make each Pokemon unique, and not simply ‘something you play in replacement of another at a lower tier because Smogon said so’. I hope this is the new bar. You can’t just make a ‘good’ Pokemon from now on. It cannot just be as good as XY, or as good as this, we will be expecting more because frankly speaking, SM opened too many doors for amazing possibilities in the future and it will be disappointing if they decided to close them up again. Pokemon Sun and Moon is the only game this year to threaten my current Game of The Year, which I have reviewed on this site before, but I won’t give it my GOTY simply because the Sinnoh remake may just be a step back and whatever SM has done here will be wasted. On its own, it is an excellent game with a lot of polish, except for minor issues I have with SOS battles and the beginning being extremely draggy, which puts it around an 8/10. But as a game in a franchise that will be coming out with more new games that can be equally if not more amazing because of the possibilities this one hints at?

10/10.

Hard truths about job search that are not swee to say

On 30th August 2016, I was on the Careers@Gov portal searching for new job postings. Of the 1000 most recent postings that I scanned through, roughly about 800 of them required experience which I did not have, another 100+ of the remaining were for IT, engineering and finance which I could not apply for, and taking away the MINDEF jobs that I can never seem to get clearance for, I had about 4 options left. Of the 4 options, 1 of them was MFA, whom I was still waiting for a reply from then, so that left me with 3. 3 out of 1000 advertised jobs that I could apply for, without me even choosing. A luckier local born fresh grad with a non-IT, engineering or financial degree would have about 10-15 options, but 15/1000 is still not an incredible number. 

So when the statement that Minister Lim Swee Say made about fresh grads being picky in their job search came out this morning, I was first perplexed, then angered, not because what say is not true, but is simply uncontexualised in current realities and therefore nothing but cliche government rhetoric. The economy is bad, but it is not always the economy that is at fault. Some individuals are picky but given enough time in unofficial unemployment (because the government refuses to recognise the significance of 6 months of joblessness) people will start settling for lesser options, and I have been actively searching since December 2015. What public discourse and public memory seems to have selectively forgotten, is that it is this exact government that has called for building of more universities and increasing undergraduate intake in the past decade, and is now refusing to talk about it because the plan has backfired. What public discourse tells you is that the economy is bad, and these problems are your own fault. Amidst the hype about higher education when I was choosing between JC and Poly 10 years ago (8 years for the lucky ladies), there was no way I would not choose to study in a JC and aim for a degree with my 9 points at the GCE 'O' Levels. 

There are two main criticisms of fresh graduates that I would like to address this post. Firstly, the issue of experience. Indeed there are students who have never done a single internship in their entire university life, because they really thought university is about committing yourself to school work and research, and enjoying the social life of university before you move into the workforce as how universities are always being advertised. Those people exist but are few and far between. Perhaps NUS could have worked harder to ease internship searching process for students like how SMU does it, but again with more effort and less naivety that wall can also be surmounted. I don't think it is entirely fair to blame an university freshmen for being naive, but it is most definitely a more valid criticism than 'why you don't have job experience before graduating'. Because some of us don't have the time. The mid-term month-long break is way too short to be involved in any significant job or internship, and for me that is usually spent on respite, reading, revising, writing, preparing for upcoming classes and conducting research for the upcoming semester. Some people may argue otherwise and claim their one month internship means something, and that's okay because some of us are literally grasping at straws when preparing our CVs and explaining to potential employers why we are worthy of the job as compared to the hundreds of others applying for the same position. The summer break is 3 month long. But sometimes it is not 3 months for the boys, because I've had reservist call-ups smacked right in the middle of that break, and organisations telling me that I should not bother applying for their internship because they cannot afford me leaving half way during the program. And I don't blame them. MOE's summer internship training was suppose to start on 30th June in 2014, and my reservist also started on the same day - the rejection is reasonable. And on top of that, there are things that we would also like to do other than work during the summer, some of friends went on volunteery trips, others went for summer school, and I had performances to train for. These are things that are perhaps valued less than internships in potential employers' eyes, but I do not think they can be in any way considered insignificant or thought of as things we do for leisure. 

Next, I want to talk about a criticism that is most frequently mentioned by supporters of Minister Lim's statement, the 'just take any job to tide through this period' argument. There are two main problems with this proposal. Firstly it assumes that any job will take us. I've applied jobs that requires no experience, minimum of O/A Levels and basic command of English, with pays as low as $2000 a month for jobs that require one to work 6 days a week. As of now none of these jobs have replied. Considering the employment climate it is likely that they are simply not hiring, or they are afraid that I'd leave for greener pastures once I have the opportunity, which I most certainly will. The point is having a degree is a disadvantage when looking for part-time, lower-skilled jobs. And again, it assumes that such jobs are readily available. Even ad hoc jobs are hard to get, I've been sending out a stream of applications for tuition and translation jobs in the past month, and have only gotten one through a friend's recommendation. Why is this the case? Because there is a surplus of graduates out there who are looking at the same options causing the temporary jobs market to be as saturated as the permanent/contractual ones. Secondly, and the most important point here, is that to not pick at all is irresponsible, unintelligent and possibly self-destructive. Any temporary position we take up now cannot be meaningless because by the time we are done with our half-year assignments, there will be new graduates flooding the job market again. An unemployed fresh grad is an asset of depreciating value if he does not continue to do anything relevant to his career progression. If I get a job in service now and have no intention whatsoever in pursuing a career in service, then the work I do to 'tide through' is completely useless. The whole point of selecting is not for the sake of blind pursuit of passion, it is a practical way to build one's portfolio in order to compete with the fresh grads that emerge 8 months later. I do not think my future employees at risk consulting firms will like to hear about my dishwashing or telemarketing experience, and if anything using that time to prepare oneself for important interviews is much more important - that's what I spent the last 6 months doing. The reason I am looking for tuition and translation jobs is because those are the things that I want to add to my portfolio and display as my advantages during future job interviews. The reason why I've applied for internships at this moment is also for the same reasons. Only people who have never planned for the future will say something as irresponsible as 'you should not be picky'. We don't choose because we can, we choose because we have to. Those who use their experiences from the distant past to backup the 'tiding through' argument have failed to realise the infeasibility of their solutions in current contexts and realities, and the government is happy to have them support their equally brittle rhetoric. More graduates are entering the job market every half a year because of government policies implemented years ago, and we as the victims of that shortsightedness are trying our best to mitigate that damage by being intelligent, sensible and responsible in our own career building process. 

It is a Sunday and I should be writing cover letters instead. Some of you probably don't know what that process encompasses, and that is the very problem with all your arguments. 

Nathan Hartono, singing competitions and the nature of music businesses in a capitalistic world

Nothing really surprises me anymore these days. Woke up to news of Nathan Hartono winning second place at the Sing! China singing competition broadcasted on Zhejiang television recently, which was known previously at The Voice of China, and also hundreds of comments and likes on posts that denounce the competition for robbing Hartono of his victory simply because he is not from China.

There are a few things that we can go into here, which I'd briefly mention but are less important that the not-yet-discussed matters at hand. Firstly, the nature of 'nationality' discrimination. I do think netizens are not entirely wrong about the Chinese's thin ego that might have influenced them to pick a singer born in China. However, there's more. There is also the subjective nature of whom you think is the best. I don't think any singing competition has ever picked the best as their winner - and it doesn't matter because the best is subjective and winners in this particular competition usually end up worse-off than their runner-ups and other competitors anyway - so if anyone is worried that this may affect his career, it most likely will not. I thought he was good, but probably not my pick for winner either (I also won't have picked Jiang, the official winner, and that's the whole point of bringing subjectivity up).  Thirdly, it is incredibly ironic that Singaporeans are calling out a Chinese television channel for using underhand methods to defend their thin nationalistic ego... to defend a Singaporean singer and their own, equally weak, nationalistic ego. Combining that with the point of subjectivity, do we really prefer Hartono because he is better, or is it that he is 'one of us' like how Jiang is 'one of them'? What will happen if say, Jeryl Lee from Malaysia won the competition instead? What will the rhetoric then be? Cliche, but the idea that everyone has their own biases and it is good to check them from time to time is good.

Now that that is out of the way, it is time to scream at capitalism instead. I did not want to write about this issue previously, but I remembered something really important that the collect public memory of Singaporeans has forgotten. Singapore did the same thing too. In 2005. The Ang Junyang Project Superstar Controversy. As with all accusations of competitions being rigged, this one is also mostly made up of rumours with only a handful of evidence to work with. But consider this. Why else would an undergraduate leave University to join a singing competition that he may or may not get anything out of - after all, this is Singapore we are talking about, people don't just make reckless passionate pursuits like that. Moreover, there was no precedence in the local mandopop industry that promised certain fame if you join such a competition... unless you are already signed and promised a contract and album release, and even better, you are the assured champion of the competition. Ang signed to Universal Music Group shortly after the competition and released his album around the same time winner Kelvin Tan released his. I'd say that Tan's popularity throughout the competition was so strong that it simply could not have been ignored for fear of public backlash, and, well, having a visually-impaired person as a winner is good marketing.

Singing competitions are just big advertisement campaigns, not only for sponsors but especially for the singers themselves. Earlier I said some of the most successful singers from singing competitions are all 'losers' of the competitions, and I honestly think that they are just there for the exposure and hope that they will get picked up by a recording firm. Or, more likely than not, it is the other way around. Recording firms send their new artistes who are preparing to release their first albums to major singing competitions, have them exposed to audience, and hopefully boost record sales through name recognition. There are albums that come out so incredibly fast after a competition ends that it is not possible for arrangements not to have been made beforehand. If one dives into the Chinese forums on such matters, one will realise so many of these supposed everyman who claim to be small business owners, truck drivers and bar singers are actually professionally trained, big name recording firm-backed singers that are there to promote themselves for their upcoming album releases. This is not to denounce the real talent that these artistes possess, but it bothers me when people see singing competitions as purely innocent talent scouting programs that are not rigged in every way possible for the music industry to sell albums. Whenever a person of minority ethnicity joins such competitions in China, there is always so much focus on their ethnic language and 'culture' to serve as unique branding for those individual singers... who then release their albums shortly later with those exact branding on their labels. Singing competitions, like all reality TV shows, create personalities with certain characteristics and background to make these people feel unique, even though their singing styles are equally rigid and boring sometimes, so that people will remember them as 'that soulful singer of Tibetan ethnicity', or that 'pure rural voice from the mountains' or 'the free spirit of the Mongolian plains' - these are brands. Kelly Clarkson is a woman, that's a brand. Kelvin Tan is blind, that is a brand. And with the rise of SJWism things are just getting worse with Solo being gay and Wonder Woman revealed as queer and Iron Man now a black woman... these are all brands. I don't care if people don't care about big businesses exploiting neatly packeted discriminatory categories such as race, gender, sexual-preference etc. to sell their characters (yes, singing competition personas are nothing more than characters), but I wish people can at least notice it.

To round it up, there are people I know on Facebook who are triggered about Hartono being labelled as an overseas Chinese in the competition, and are using that one small detail to extrapolate into grand theories about Sino-Singapore relations that may hold some water but only as much as a shallow pond. Guess what? That's a brand. 

Racial Harmony Day – Because not being dicks to each other is a cause for celebration

Race is not a real thing. It most certainly exist, but not in the physical sense, and is an idea that we have willed into existence while continuing to strengthen racial divisions. And because of that, racial discrimination becomes a real thing, and that is just disgusting. I recently learnt from a doctor friend that the only way to get rid of a bad wart is to cut it off; for a wart as deadly as racial discrimination, we are applying nonsensical ointments such as racial laws and policing hate crime and wish that the wart goes away. That never works.

The term racial harmony needs to be deconstructed and dissected before any proper discussion of this topic can be held. To me, the term is simply ironic. Race is a construct invented for the sole purpose to divide and differentiate in order to assign different social roles and rights to other members of the human race (which is a real thing) based on bogus research studies that are, sadly, still being funded and conducted to this day. Harmony is the opposing force that is supposed to bring people (back) together, and for the most part it is a desirable state of being. Except if you enjoy the chaos brought about by people fighting over stupid ideas, such as racial uniqueness, otherwise we can mostly agree that harmony is a good thing. I like harmony. I do not necessarily care for peace, but I like it for the fact that people in this imaginary harmonious world are smarter and more logical than those in our world. So when we speak of racial harmony, I like to think of it as a world where people do not fight over racial issues. When you choose to employ a candidate over another, you do so because of their gender, class status, their merits or simply the way they look, and never because they are of a certain race. When a man tells you her wife is a dentist, you do not ask whether they are Chinese or Malay, but instead make comments like “so she is a nurse at the dentistry?” Because eliminating racial divide will be the end of all our problems, and therefore racial harmony is of utmost importance and needs to be made into a special day for celebration.

Jokes aside, I do think the intention of having such a day for celebration is good, at least partially, depending on how you view nations and nationalism. It is definitely not pure and sincere in any sense, but good. Despite being ironic how we can celebrate unity in diversity, the end goal is at least unity, a fairness in treatment to all despite being told that we are different. Like most scientific projects that end up being part of military weaponry, good intentions do not always yield merits nor intended results. Perhaps it is out of pure naivety of our socio-political scientists, perhaps it is simply required for the grand plot of the nation building story which has not been updated for 50 years, as we were painfully reminded last year. But again, the intention to try and create equal grounds for everyone is faultless unless you really despise the idea of nations. It has certainly not solved racial discrimination, but I cannot find myself to hate on a program that tells kids to not be assholes to other kids because their skin colour is different or they talk funny or something. On my end I will make sure my kids learn about the very basics of linguistic and accents develop from the language other kids speak at home, and not go down the easy path of telling them people speak differently because they are of another race. I will be quite disgusted if educated university friends, especially those who majored in that major where they do nothing but talk about social problems, if they decide to raise their children as lazily (intellectually) as our parents did. I still immediately assume all the ‘Malay’ people I know are Muslims because of my upbringing, and it annoys me to no end even though I am aware that it is a major misconception.                                                                                                                                                         

And after all that setting up we can finally talk about the Yishun Secondary School incident, where students were apparently told only those that are eligible for JC are going for the Racial Harmony Day celebrations. (The original Mothership.com post later updated that it is not in fact the celebration itself that is practising this discrimination but a half day off to prepare for the celebrations, but nonetheless, still differential treatment in relation to this Racial Harmony Day, thus this discussion still needs to be had.) If anyone has not read the web comic On A Plate on class privilege then I do recommend you read it and tell me whether this discrimination of students by results is a class issue, because I most certainly think it is. The rest of this post will be a very angry rant on the idiocy of flaming discrimination in public schools, so I will preface this by saying two things. First, I believe the intention of the school to be good. Selfish, but good. They want the students who are not doing as well and pulling up the school’s ranking to have half a day more of lessons, because that will most certainly help them get into JC. But I can at least where the school is coming from. Secondly, I do not believe the students’ demands are pure. They just do not want classes. But in this case their selfish reasoning is the one I will side on because our goals align despite having different starting points, like how I will stand with people who are against social welfare because they do not want to pay more taxes despite knowing that they are being assholes.

What is the point of sending children to public schools? For me it is to place them in a harmonious fantasy where you are supposedly judged base on your merits and nothing else, so that when time comes for them to rule the world, they will run their world like how their public school society was like. But alas, the ‘real’ world that everyone speaks badly but does nothing to change it will not be moved by such idealistic wishes. There are two ways to go about it. The first way is the easy way; you let kids know that their teachers are discriminating them based on arbitrary favourism, and are focused to help the good ones get better, all while hiding behind the rhetoric of “I cannot help you if you do not want to help yourselves”. You teach them the rules of that ‘real’ world we so proudly uphold, where being of a certain gender, sexuality, skin colour, language group and/or religion determines whether you serve coffee or receive coffee in a meeting room. The second way is the harder way. You raise the future generation into one that can change our twisted world. You do everything you teach them in the first method, and you make the children think about what they can do for a better future. You force these children who have lived through that fantasy create solutions to turn that fantasy into reality. The worst thing that can happen now is that Yishun Secondary School backs down and lets everybody get the day off for Racial Harmony Day. It certainly solves the problem at hand, but similar to the first method, you simply expose the children to the fault lines of discrimination but do not request a solution out of them. I believe a majority of children at that age would want a day off. What about making them abandon that selfish thought for the sake of equality? I think, give them a chance to vote on it. Give them three options, continue with the current plan, make it a day off for everyone, or let everyone go back to normal curriculum. Inform the children about your concern for the students who are not doing as well in class that you need them to carry on with classes on this day. If there is any hope left for the future, I think the third option will win. And if it does not, I guess we just need to try again when my kids and their generation grows up.

I believe that there was a question I was trying to answer with this post, on the importance of dedicating an entire day to celebrate Racial Harmony Day in public schools. The solution that I have provided above is what I think we can do for now, because you are not going to resolve all the issues with the system in a single day, through a single event. But we can take a step towards that better future. And if the upcoming generation cannot balance the need of their establishment (the school, in this case) for the non-JC eligible students to not have the off and continue with their normal curriculum (I am not saying I agree with the method, but neither do I know how to run schools), and yet ensure that equality is maintained by not discriminating anyone with any arbitrary markers, then they need the idea of harmony beaten into them with as pompous a celebration as possible. So yes, if Yishun Secondary School decides to let everyone off in preparation for Racial Harmony Day together after this backlash, then they need the celebration so very much to hopefully turn them into better adults who will not be dicks to each other.  

I will like to hear someone from that generation provide me a rebuttal with a better solution to this crisis – tell me my ideas are outdated and the future requires solutions that I am unable to think of – that will make me really happy.