Things I Played: Super Mario Odyssey's Post-game is Better than its Pre-Game

A few months ago I waltzed into Sainsburys and noticed that they were selling Nintendo Switch plus a copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for £310. Well, I thought, how opportune.

But £310.

Could I spare £310?

It's a lot of money to a broke dude like me.

But hell, let's do it! #YOLO #SWAG #MOTHERFUCKER

This turned out to be a great idea too because the store clerk accidentally got the price mixed up and only charged me £270 - the cost of the Switch alone. I haven't seen him since and presume he got fired for the blunder... SCORE!

With my new found wealth, I decided to pick up a copy of Super Mario Odyssey, a game I completed it sometime last month. I wasn't enamoured with it the first time round but after picking it up again a week ago, I realised there's a lot more to it than the main story.

I don't have much to say but I'm really enjoying it. It's amazing how much detail was put into the post-game content. It's much better than the base game, which is still a bit ehhhhhh.

If you have a Switch, you should definitely buy it. That's my afternoon advice.

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Things I Watched: The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Watercolour Literature

During a recent viewing of Metropolis, I noted that animated films seem to have a strong relationship with literature. Just after I posted that, I found a rather interesting list of anime inspired by books. It inspired me to try Studio Ghibli's latest The Tale of Princess Kaguya - a beautifully animated watercolour-inspired parable that might be their best yet!

The film is based on 10th century Japanese folk-tale The Tale of The Bamboo Cutter. It focuses on an eponymous princess, Princess Kaguya - a young girl who escapes from the moon to experience the joys of being human. She’s initially discovered inside a glowing piece of bamboo and quickly transforms into a human, growing up in a remote village where she earns the nickname, Little Bamboo.

Her magical origin is evidence of her divinity and she's eventually moved to the 'Capital' (presumably Kyoto) to take on her right as the kingdom’s Princess. She doesn't enjoy this much though and struggles to cope, becoming depressed as she seeks once more to become a peasant back in the village of her childhood friends.

Kaguya’s tomboyish demeanour is constant and her refusal to accept the hand(s) of wealthy suitors adds a strong feminist edge. It’s unfair to say it concentrates too much on a politics. Most of the film is told with loving craft, demonstrating  tenderness towards the main character, much like Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday before it.

Overall, it's a simple but effective story of an individual in chaos. I like it a lot.

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Things I Watched: Bright Future – I Won’t Try to Explain

If you’re unfamiliar with Kiyoshi Kurosawa then I have nothing to offer except the advice that you should get familiar with him. 

He makes extremely strange films like Bright Future - an oneiric tale about two disconnected youths that eventually morphs into a father-son ghost story.

I especially love MUBI’s description of the film.

'Enigmatic Mamoru lives alone with his poisonous, hauntingly luminous jellyfish.'

I give up if that doesn't make you want to watch it.

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Things I Read: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage — Man Got No Colour

Did you know that the entire Tokyo subway network comprises of 300 stations? 

Within this there are thirteen lines covering a total length of 300km. For comparison, a blue whale - the biggest animal in the world - comes in at just over 25m. That means that the Tokyo subway covers the same length as 12,000 of these ocean traversing mammals!

This factoid is relevant because the protagonist of Haruki Murakami’s thirteenth novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is fascinated by Japanese railway stations. His occupation is to design them; to create seamless internal systems that allow for the free flow of 8.7 million Japanese commuters. 

Unfortunately it's not a control he maintains in his own life - an incident early in his life causes his childhood friends to inexplicably abandon him and he spends the next twenty years trying, and failing, to come to terms with it.

As a long-time Murakami reader, it's easy to pick on the main themes of the novel - the attempt to overcome historic trauma. It's a concept Murakami explores throughout several of his books. 

It's expressed less abstractly here than in say, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. 

This one is more a direct tale of childhood loss, told with a tinge of classic Murakami melancholy. And yeah there's plenty of awkward sex scenes, don't you worry about that. 

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