Author Archives: Kevin Pennyfeather

Fringe 2013: What Gives? review

If you ask any trained musician about the rests written on their score, they’ll tell you that the moments of silence are equality important to the notes meant to be heard.

This production What Gives? doesn’t feature any live musicians at all (the actors sing along with a quiet, prerecorded accompaniment) and while the basic foundations for an ok show are present, the cast’s performances – or more accurately, the lack there of during the quiet, and off-focus moments really drag the show down. Kind of like a musician who forgot to “play” their rests.

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Fringe 2013: Limbo review

There’s a healthy bit of confusion going on in Limbo, but If you’ve got an obsessive penchant for one-man monologues, it shouldn’t disappoint you too badly.

Andrew Bailey tells a story of his own coming of age while coping with various social anxiety issues often stemming from his religion, and at the same time he tries to deliver a humorous, yet serious explanation of the meaning of life. He purports to solve the philosophical question in the first minute of his monologue and then “unsolve” it for the next 59.

This premise is a fairly successful one, but depending on how you interpret his solution, you might feel that he either undersells the rest of the play, or too drastically diverges from his initial point.

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2013 Fringe Festival review schedule

Here’s a schedule of every show that I’ll be seeing at the Fringe this year. I intend to review each one within a day of viewing. I will be adding more shows as the festival progresses, so check back frequently and shoot me an email if you want me to review a specific show. I’ll link to each review from this page.

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Jisei, Kansei, and Yousei: an original mystery saga with room to grow

Jisei, Kansei and Yousei, are a series of fully-voiced visual novels in which the biggest mystery for you to solve is that of yourself: a teenage protagonist, who remains nameless throughout the entirety of the first game. You’ve returned to his home town to face his past, and while unearthing the deep, murky supernatural history that Sakevisual has crafted is mostly a good experience, design quirks, occasionally poor writing and continuity errors do detract from the series’ immersion.

First, I will that say that crazy things happen when a team of people dedicate themselves to a project for a prolonged period. Steady improvements are a given when you put in the time. And with each game in the Jisei visual novel series (JKY) developed and released roughly a year apart, experiencing the improvements upon the already competent narrative-foundation spawned in 2010, is enjoyable.

Though, I’m glad that these games are chapters instead of a conclusive trilogy, because three years later, there is still room for improvement.

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Godless Sunday twists the apocalypse formula enough to warrant your attention

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Of the three shows that I’ve recommended this weekend, Godless Sunday is the one that I’m the most undecided on. That’s partially due to an extended narrative-frame that’s developing at the start of the show. But if the intrigue of heavenly Grave Keepers and forsaken immortal humans, can be maintained, I’m willing to buy-in to future story arcs.

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Shapeshifting racoons and their unique encounters make The Eccentric Family a Summer standout

There are five racoons in this shot. Believe it.

The Eccentric Family is a show that I can recommend to anyone at this point in the season. Whether you’re a harsh anime critic, or you’re a Western-culture centred person looking for a step out of your comfort zone, it’s sure to engage you with its unique appeal.

Great comedy-dramas are works that really get me going. There’s always something there to make you chuckle and keep you hooked, but in each joke there’s an iota of character development that – over time – weaves a slightly bitter narrative that becomes more powerful as your investment in the happenings increases.

The Eccentric Family looks like it’s going to be a great comedy-drama that oozes originality, and that’s what has me jazzed.

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Stella Women’s Academy subverts expectations and gets better by the week

Stella Women’s Academy (or Stella), on its most basic level, is a show about high school girls that are part of a club, but it has got one hell of a conceit.

It sounds like the description of every slice-of-life safe-bet anime that’s aired every season since K-On! took Japan by storm in 2009. Actually, I also just described the core of three other original series that started airing along side Stella. The proliferation of the setup is getting a little ridiculous.

But Stella is a lighthearted show all about airsoft, not traditional athletics, music or supernatural shenanigans. It’s about oddballs in a private girl’s boarding school shooting at each other with plastic pellets. If there was even the slightest hint of a joke in the show’s execution, I would have stopped watching it in an instant. But while Stella may be lighthearted, it’s lacing it’s combat boots as straight as a show about replica firearms possibly can.

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Surprising Summer anime to look out for

At the beginning of each anime season, I’ve taken to pulling up “The Chart:” a master list of every animated piece of entertainment of Japanese origin that you can view in the next three months. From the movies set for release in theatres, the OVA episodes slated for home releases, and of course the list of currently airing weekly television series.

The chart combines information from official press releases and promotional materials currently available to the public, and they provide a handy visual cue that helps me compartmentalized the shows I want to see.

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Wow, I just had my first persistent, co-op online-matchmaking experience since ’09

Online matchmaking never crossed my mind when it came to Borderlands.

That might sound strange given that the game is undisputedly at its best when played with a group of people, but I had a set circle of friends who played the 2009 surprise-hit to death. By my last count, together we finished it nearly a dozen times. But this week, I gravitated towards the in-game matchmaking queue of the 2012 sequel for the first time, and I struck gold.

After 10 months of my friend’s excuses, religious sign-ons in which I’d stockpile Gearbox Golden Keys out of frustration, and my immediate downloads of the latest DLC the moment each tidbit launched, I finally grew tired of waiting for my “set circle” to play Borderlands 2.

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Lucky for me, I found a perfect match with a group of likeminded strangers on Xbox Live, and 26 hours later, I can’t imagine playing the game with anyone else.

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