“Eternal Youths” – Happiness Vol. 4
For three volumes, artist and author Shuzo Oshimi has made it clear that the cast of Happiness struggle with growth; with the fourth, he shows how easily these impulses lead us to seek out paths of regression we mistake, in our confusion, for progression. In Gosho’s case this means befriending vampire hunter Sakurane, a man who, like her, has never been able to make peace with the death of a younger sibling. He may seem like a positive role-model for the doubting teen – constructive, motivated, wise – but anyone with perspective can see that his crusade against Nora and her
Do We Really Need a Netflix for Videogames?
There’s been a lot of talk about a ‘Netflix for games’ lately. It’s an appealing idea, of course: a simple monthly fee for access to more games than you could possibly play, with new games added every month. We’re already seeing tentative steps in this direction with services like EA Access and, in a roundabout sort of way, PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. But the hypothetical Netflix for games would be far bigger, boasting the kind of catalogue that leaves you hemming and hawing like the donkey caught between two bales of hay. It sounds like a good problem
The Franz Kafka Videogame Isn’t As Absurd As It Thinks
In the absurdist play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the feuding couple, Martha and George, skirts the thin line between illusion and reality in their marriage. One eventful evening, Martha invited a young couple to their place for some drinks on a whim. The hosts—probably one of the worst pair in the history of theater—then pummel one other verbally in front of their guests, trading increasingly vindictive insults as the couple squirmed at the spectacle. After bickering over a series of incidents involving their son, the evening culminated with George gleefully telling Martha that their child had just died in