Gaming & hobby shop The Akihabara Container, which seems to specialize in hosting displays of limited-edition anime & gaming merchanidse, recently announced the pending debut of an installation dedicated to Clock Tower merchandise. It was originally scheduled to run November 3rd to the 23rd, but according to the store's Twitter, that's been delayed. In the meantime, we're left with this flyer:
Going roughly row by row, we have: mini mirrored magnets of the characters; lenticular acrylic keychains of memorable SFAM cutscene deaths; mini acrylic capsule-vended standees of SFAM sprites (well, Suspiria Anne and stumbled Jennifer aren't "standing," but you know; also, good to see Lotte represented appropriately, in an action pose); logo stickers; pins of Bobby's scissors, the demon idol, and Saidou's hannya; more acrylic character standees; an SFAM sprite art sticker sheet with characters, portraits, and items; a larger, metal-loop scissor keyholder; rubber keychains; a mug of the SFAM title screen that shows the SFAM logo when you fill it with a hot beverage; bath salts themed on the SFAM and Ghost Head bathtub scenes, tinted red and yellow and smelling like iron and sulfur respectively; a towel (a hand towel, presumably) of the celestial plate in Barrows Castle; a smartphone case; tote bags of the SFAM guide manga art and...I don't know what that is for the sequel—shears coming out of a TV?; a manga art door plate; a face towel of the SFAM box art; T-shirts (the last one's of guidebook manga art of Chinatsu/Stephanie); a hoodie of SFAM manga art; an alarm clock with the face of the SFAM Barrows Mansion clock tower clock that, despite old-school alarm-bell stylings, allegedly plays "Don't Cry, Jennifer"; a sundial with the Barrows clock tower clock face; and, finally, yet another acrylic standee of First Fear art.
That's a big wall of text that'd actually be even bigger if I made it a bulleted list, but I'd like to highlight the red and yellow iron and sulfur bath salts. They're not as high on the Innovatively Repulsive Merchandise scale as that Inside/RealDoll collaboration, but they're up there.
In other news, we have further confirmation of "Rolla" and "Anne," but "Bobby Ballows" kind of throws taking this as a definitive source out the window. (ETA: Never mind; apparently, they're using "Ballows" in the magnets. And also have Chinatsu's name wrong.) (ETA 2: And I now see they're using "Laura," with her novelization surname "Harrington," on the bath salt packaging. If the bath salt package designer took the English rendition of Laura/Rolla's name from the wiki, which took it from the novelization I translated, then I enjoy the idea that I'm indirectly responsible for the inconsistent nomenclature.)
And speaking of precedent: is Capcom/Sunsoft gearing up to do something with Clock Tower now? You don't set up pop-up shops with this wide an array of merchandise or release even throwaway stuff like that cheap phone "game" from a couple months ago (helpfully subtitled Ready for the Next, though you'd never guess it from this literally two-minute barely-interactive Flash trinket) without a Switch compilation incoming?
What do people do with acrylic standees? I understand their usefulness for in-store promo displays, but the decorative potential of a flat paper acrylic printout of character art seems limited, a very lacking substitute for a 3D figure.
Turning to digital Clock Tower delights: a theatrical gentleman known only as THE BARD recently played through the Super Famicom adventures of Warrior Queen Jennifer Connelly in the inimitable style of an grand, accomplished storyteller. The boundless enthusiasm, curiosity, and relish with which the man approaches every title combined with the voice work in his narration makes every step of the games he plays seem like a grand adventure - and he even took the time to make Phenomena-themed bumpers. He goes in largely blind, save for a trial stream of the game a couple years before the main event, and he discovers every ending, S to H! The videos are available in the Highlights section of his channel, BardicBroadcasts, starting with the end of the video "Warrior Women on the Edge of Victory"; they're a great experience whether you're new to the title or it's one of your favorites. I'd love to see him tackle the PlayStation sequel someday, but I'm grateful for what we have. Hail to Connelly, slayer of the Children of the Great Father!
Before we start: the translations from me here cover the trilogy of interviews/first-person reflections the online magazine Beep21 released for Lunar: The Silver Star—the two-part personal history/reader Q&A from scriptwriter Kei Shigema; the interview with character designer Toshiyuki Kubooka; the article from composer Noriyuki Iwadare. After purchasing the special issue Beep21 released to commemorate the Mega Drive Mini 2, I learned that the Lunar interviews from Beep are far from over. Iwadare and Kubooka both have released another article, this time detailing their work on Eternal Blue, and there should eventually be a piece on EB from Shigema as well. (Evidently, material for each "issue" of Beep21 is posted piecemeal, as it's ready. The Iwadare EB piece is almost a month old, but the Kubooka piece was released last week.) There's also an extremely long two-part interview with former head of Game Arts Yoichi Miyaji, the second half of which is largely dedicated to the technical and system design of both TSS and EB.
However: Translating the three TSS interviews took up most all of the free time I had in an extremely busy October, and we have an obstacle to any further time monopolization in the form of a pressing translation project that I cannot neglect any longer: Jennifer's Clock Tower choose-your-own-adventure book. That translation has gone on way too long, drawn out beyond all reason, and I want to put it behind me and let everyone who's been so very patient finally off the hook. I was going to dedicate October to finishing it, but that didn't work out, due both to the discovery of the TSS interviews and me getting just slammed with work.
I'm going to therefore try to dedicate what time in November I have to getting the Clock Tower novel translation wrapped up. I'm going to try to make some progress on the additional Lunar interviews, but I'm planning on making Clock Tower the priority. Needless to say, the untranslated interviews deserve attention, too. We'll see how things go.
(Update: So far, though I've made progress on Clock Tower, I've also almost translated the Iwadare EB interview. I follow through on my plans so well.)
- Iwadare's bit is a good overview: it tells how he got the job, the tools he used on it, the challenges he faced, and a few vivid, illustrative anecdotes. It doesn't get into track-by-track specifics as the game music fan in me wishes he would, but it's efficient and effective for its relatively-brief length. Shigema speaks as a man who loves this material and still has a lot to tell. Despite the reservations I had toward certain opinions and attitudes Shigema expressed, it's a substantive piece with lots of affection for the franchise that I enjoyed reading. Kubooka, for all he talks, doesn't really say much; while he does go over the same beats as Iwadare about what he did (or didn't do as opposed to Shunji Suzuki, which evidently was substantial), there's shockingly little about the specific ideas he put into the characters. His memory and unfamiliarity with the gaming field detract a fair deal.
- I found Shigema's recounting of how he was able to have a conversation with Ghaleon in the course of trying to understand him genuinely sweet. Ghaleon's this force that's too strong and too much of himself for even his writers to comprehend fully or command. Yes. Excellent.
That Vittorio character they're introducing into Dead by Daylight is pretty obviously a younger Observer, isn't he?
If so, he certainly hasn't gotten wiser over the years. Why on earth did you lose that leather jacket, buddy.
GAILY SKIPPING THROUGH THE FIELDS IN FULL PLATE, TRA LA LA LA LA~
- Raya of Last Dragon fame
- Hermione midway Polyjuice-induced change into cat
- pink fuzzy donut w/ inner tube + sprinkles and teal parasol-toting Victorian lady in satin; despite the marked contrast in tone and materials, these two costumes looked oddly good together, possibly because of the complementary colors
- red-and-black goth fairy, about 8 yrs. old, w/ banana dad
- mellophone-playing pineapple (in parade)
- twin Jasons drumming (one on quad drums, one on bass) (also in parade)
- Waldo, which is not unusual, but also Odlaw, which is
- Batman family taking various approaches: the dad was wearing a sweatshirt and cap, the mom was wearing a proper Batman costume, and the daughter was a Batman princess
- historically-accurate-so-far-as-that-goes-here St. George, complete with English cross on shield (there's a town named St. George not that far away)
- Buzz Lightyear w/ samurai sword
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione (fully-human) all together
- someone in a homemade earth-tone knitted hood and pumpkin dress
- Mario, Princess Peach, little Bowser, little Donkey Kong, no Luigi
- dejected flamingo sitting on sidewalk
- psychedelic hoodie + orange trousers + plush backpack (= ???)
- guy in baseball cap, plain gray sweatshirt with Marvel Logo, and plain gray sweatpants with Marvel logo
- either Captain Spaulding or a member of the ICP
- several girls in Día de los Muertos costumes, all together
- skeleton w/ glittery silvery skirt
- blonde woman in brown corduroy overalls, green knit shirt, and sign pinned to her chest saying "BANANA TREE"?
- Monty Python King Arthur, complete with coconuts that he continually clip-clopped; this guy won the prize for the night
- two very little Beatrix Kiddos (like barely old enough to walk) in identical Game of Death jumpsuits
- unrolled paper towel? The guy was carrying a huge swath of white net-like fabric, partially wrapped around his middle (though not like a mummy), in one hand and a very large & wide tube in the other. His companion was dressed in white and had no fabric but was carrying a similar tube. This was unclear
- red beret and hoodie printed with "NOT TODAY SATAN"
- very small Ghostface
- a couple dressed like what appeared to be two parts of a painting, except that it turned out to be the same painting, and the painting itself was painted to look like an assembled puzzle? Several layers of boredom here
- a Raggedy Ann in this day and age, whoa
- a Predator with very yarn-like dreads
- a terrier mix dressed like a celadon mermaid with some sort of audio device playing "Thriller". They were playing the Eurythmics when I walked by again later
- tamale
- Luna Lovegood w/ those glasses that look like hands
- log: light beige shirt, identical light beige pants, bark tube wrapped around head
- moose
- giant inflatable Among Us crew member/impostor (couple walking by: "They're from a video game." "Ohhhhhhhh.")
- Rocket Raccoon
- lemon, lime, pineapple, and...Thanksgiving princess (crown of red felt autumn leaves + harvest quilt cape)
- postal carrier, but I think he was an actual postal carrier; his bag had genuine wear to it
- angel w/ black wings
- tired tyrannosaur, sitting in street
- ram (very, very large horns on knit hat + knit sweater on 6-year-old)
- Skull Kid from Majora's Mask
- Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach (all adults, yet carrying treat bags for some reason)
- 8-year-old female Freddy Krueger
- female tween Mario and Luigi
- extremely bored-looking Michael Myers, hands in pockets
- kid doing the sheet-ghost thing but with a green sheet made of flowy, somewhat-translucent material that looked quite good. I wanted to give a compliment but was afraid it'd be taken as facetious
- man with no costume but devil horns glued directly onto his shaved head
No man with a tree limb strapped to his back this time.
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