You're looking above at a series of four doujinshi that together make up a fan sequel (not by Akari Funato) to Vheen Hikuusen Monogatari. The drawing is very rough, but the story, while altering VHM's plot in a couple respects, is an interesting and thoughtful consideration of Silver Star's events from another perspective that includes some very prescient character moments. (I wrote a very lengthy two-part synopsis of the series here and here if you're interested, and I am gradually working on translating the books.)
The story's not why I'm writing now, though. The title of the work is Ama no Kairou, or Heaven's Corridor. More probably Corridor to Heaven, or Corridor to the Heavens, though strictly speaking, that would be Ama e no Kairou. (Ama can also mean "sky," which obviously has its own relevance to Tales of the Vane Airship, but I think the more poetic interpretation is more apt.) The phrasing of the metaphor seems somewhat odd, but the intent makes sense, given the time in Ghaleon's life it depicts (his life post-KSK up to his challenge to Althena and death).
Right, so I was reading The Obscuritory, a very worthwhile website dedicated to obscure and intriguing PC games, and I noticed an interesting bit of text in an article on Comer, an ambitious yet extremely rare adventure game self-published by a Hong Kong dev:
As one of the commenters on the article notes, the large text on the side also translates to "Heaven's Corridor," and it uses almost the same text: 天國の走廊 instead of 天の回廊. The commenter notes that 走廊 is the Chinese version of "corridor," while 國 is the classical version of 国 (天国, or tengoku, being the more common word for "heaven"). The character の is Japanese-native, though Wiktionary is telling me it's sometimes used to add a faux-Japanese flavor to Chinese text. In any case, this Hong Kong developer felt inspired enough to go out of his way in what is reportedly otherwise exclusively Chinese & English box text to use a mix of Chinese and Japanese, or at least Japanese-flavored Chinese, to express...this same odd metaphor from the doujinshi.
So I took to the search engines, wondering if this was some sort of reference I was missing. 天國の走廊 (and 天国の走廊) brings up only the Obscuritory article, but 天国の回廊, a slight alteration from the doujinshi title to more common verbiage, brings up the Chiostro del Paradiso—the Cloister of Heaven—in the Duomo of Amalfi, whose name in Japanese is, evidently, "Tengoku no Kairou." The Chiostro apparently serves as the graveyard for Amalfi's nobility, though looking at photos, I'm hard-pressed to answer where, exactly, the nobles are buried. Maybe in the walls. The Chiostro's purpose, however, would suit its invocation in both the Vheen Hikuusen doujinshi, dealing with the demise of the magic-race "nobility" of Vheen, and Comer, which evidently deals with the long-futile efforts a succession of historical geniuses (Einstein, da Vinci) to solve "an ancient puzzle that will determine the future of humanity" and leads to a sea change in the planetary status quo. Still unanswered, though, is how Amalfi's Duomo got boosted to such visibility in Japan (and Hong Kong, I guess).
The Wiktionary definition of "cloister" notes such structures in religious architecture often showcase stations of the cross, which would be in line with all the Ghaleon turmoil in Ama no Kairou on top of his canon tragedy mire.
I've had my eye on Super Mario 3D World since it came out for the Wii U. I didn't even own a Wii U. I considered buying that system solely for the title. An apparent modern-day sequel to Super Mario Bros. 2 was just up my alley, I thought.
I never got around to buying that Wii U, but I went Day 1 for the game's rerelease on the Switch. And...while I enjoyed it, I wanted to LOVE it, and I didn't LOVE it. Part of it was adjusting to stomping stuff in a 3D environment with a pulled-out camera: I'm a lot less accurate in that department than I'd like, and it's a lot less satisfying compared to the 2D equivalent. Part of it was learning through experience that it's more a sequel to the 3DS 3D Land than Mario 2. (This complicates my comments below somewhat, as I haven't played 3D Land, and I'm experiencing and approaching as "new" stuff that's actually pulled from that game and interated upon in ways that I'm not equipped to judge.)
Part of it, though, is...a lot of other stuff. This makes the laziest form of content generation, the listicle, very convenient for relaying my overall positive but still mixed emotions for this game:
LOVED: Just playing the SMB2 quartet again. (Well, I played Peach straight through, but you know.) I know that Miyamoto insists on simple princess rescues for the mainline Marios so that the plot doesn't distract from the action, but it's so much more satisfying to have Real Toad and Princess Peach out in the action, part of one big party with Mario & Luigi. Adventures are more fun with friends.
I was walking in a cemetery recently, as you do (it had some impressive statues I wanted to check out), and I ran a pair of epitaphs that gave me pause:
I realize upon research that this is a reference to Ecclesiastes, but I was still wondering for a moment if I should go retrieve the gold & silver crests to access the basement lab.
(Respect and wishes for a peaceful rest free of further interruptions by doofuses to Lewis and Sarah.)
First, from The Art Librarian, which solicits prompts of paintings and returns books the maintainer believes reminiscent of them, a selection that reminded me, for obvious reasons, of Snake from 999:
Second, a short bit from a simple photo book entitled Angels: Messengers from Heaven. One quote accompanying a Melozzo da Forlì fresco struck me as reminiscent of Angelique's Guardian of Light:
It's the bit about "almost harsh in its perfection" that reminded me strongly of Julious. I don't recall the man himself having any aptitude with instruments. In fact, there's this one novel about the Guardians at a music festival that has Julious encountering considerable difficulty in learning to play the flute (with Clavis smirking over him attempting "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"). But, you know. Embouchure instruments.
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