Snail World (PC)

 Snail World is a cute little shooting game, and the developer's page for it on itchio states "This game is in Japanese, but if you know the Fantasy Zone, you should be able to play it without any problems", which is true, as this is very much a Fantasy Zone fangame, mechanically speaking, at least. Furthermore, even that polite warning is more that is really necessary, since the intro and ending scenes, as well as the item shop are all bilingual. 

 

It's interesting, after Near Fantasy Space, to see another Fantasy Zone fangame that takes a completely different approach to the source material. While Near Fantasy Space paid homage to various other shooting games from the history of the genre, re-imagining each of them as Fantasy Zone stages, Snail World is totally its own thing, aesthetically speaking. It uses only four colours throughout the entire game, and as a result, has a very clean, stylish look to it. 

 

Snail World is an excellent and lovingly-crafted game in every respect, and the only real criticism that can be levelled at it is that it's incredibly easy: I'm not even particuarly good at shooting games (as much as I love them), and I managed to get the one credit clear on my first time playing. However, I don't think this really is a criticism in this case, because I feel like Snail World was created as a kind of playable art piece, to showcase the creator's pixel art and music. 

 

A deliberate prioritisation of aesthetics, then. And judging the gme on its aesthetics can only honestly be done positively: it's clear the developer had a vision, and realised it perfectly, and it all looks and sounds great. There isn't really much more to say on this game, other than that it's free, so if it sounds interesting to you, go and get it. It's definitely made me curious about the developer's other works, so I'll be looking into those at some point, too!

Other Stuff Monthly #22!

 Though it was unfortunately short-lived, in my opinion, Raijin Comics was the second-best of all the English-language manga magazines (the best was Pulp, obviously). It was a magazine of extremes: some of the series it printed were super-popular, some were obscure works by new creators; some of the series were incredibly violent and masculine, some were very soft slice of life or romance stories. Even shorter-lived though, was its companion magazine, Raijin Games and Anime: a slender bimonthly publication that covered the current otaku culture in Japan at the time.

 

Before either of them came out, though, there was this preview issue with a front cover at both ends. From one side, you saw a preview of the first few manga series that would be running in Raijin Comics, and from the other side, a preview of the kinds of articles that would be running in the aforementioned companion magazine, which was at this point called Fujin Magazine, which is a better name than Raijin Games and Anime, in my opinion. Raijin and Fujin, they always go together, right?

 

So, what kind of stuff's in here? As the cover suggests, there's quite a bit of Sakura Wars coverage, as well as an article about the 2002 Tokyo Toy Show, and a few pages of very expensive-looking action figures. And it wouldn't be an early 00s publication aimed at anime nerds if there wasn't a mention of those overpriced lego minifig knock-offs, Kubricks (and their even worse spin-off Be@rbricks). There's also a look at upcoming games, and anime TV shows and movies. Most of these even got released in the west, eventually!

 

The most interesting article is the one covering the Radio Kaikan building in Akihabara, detailing what kinds of items are sold on each floor. The building has since been demolished and rebuilt, but I'm told it's still full of shops selling nerd stuff. I wonder if it still keeps the same layout described here? Also on these pages are two cosplayers: eighteen-year-old Wakatsuki Sena, who is attending a voice actor school (a quick internet search for her name turns up an AV star, though I don't know if they're the same person), and nineteen-year-old Kikouden Misa, who is "a player of a New Japan catfight league", the meaning of which is a mystery, though again, searching her name brings up a JAV star whose date of birth would put her as being nineteen at the time of this publication.

 

I don't want to go into too much detail on the manga previewed in the other side of the magazine, except to point out that for a few of the lesser-known titles, the few chapters printed in Raijin Comics remain the only English translations they've ever received, without even any fan translations stepping in to finish the job. These include Bow Wow Wata, a charming slice of life/veteranarian story about a teenage boy who can talk to animals, Revenge of Mouflon, a gritty story about an anti-terrorist agent, and Encounter, a series about World Health Organisation agents investigating paranormal phenomena. Encounter was created by a duo working under the pseudonym Sakuya Konohana, one half of which was Nishino Tsugumi, creator of Hanamaru Angels!

 

I still don't have a scanner, so once again, I'll apologise for the low quality photos used in this article. But I hope it was interesting and informative for you. I don't recommend picking up this preview issue specifically, but I do definitely recommend picking up any issues of Raijin Comics that cross your path, and if you're interested in turn-of-the-century otaku culture, then you probably won't regret seeking out Rajin Games and Anime, either.