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Showing posts from August, 2024

Interview with story writer Tiffany Van Peenen.

Cam and Tiffany at the Mitten Kitten tournament, Michigan.   I think I know the answer to this, but it was a while ago, so I’ll ask again. What is your favorite sports manga? TVP: Currently, it is Haikyu!! Which is incredible and made me cry. But I also like Kuroko’s Basketball, Kurogane, Prince of Tennis , and honestly any sports manga. I love a character that works hard and really strives to be the best. Even manga that is not truly in the “sports” genre, but has the same elements is a good read. Hikaru No Go is a great one, it has all the elements of a sports manga, but it's about the Japanese board game, Go. Another one that comes to mind is Aozora Yell , which is half music/ half sports/ half wholesome school crush. Honestly, any story that is upbeat and is leaning towards a happily ever after will pique my interest. I’m a simple creature. I have a relatively narrow window of experience with Japanese media, and I kind of rely on you for help with that. What parts of Rorasuke

Rorasuketo influences: The derby.

Photo by Soul Collector, DeFord Designs. Cam the jammer. As a kid, I did not play sports much outside of the mandates of gym class. We've already discussed  Final Fantasy. At age 30, I attended my first roller derby game. And, like most derby skaters, I knew by the end that of that first game that it was something I had to do. So I became, contrary to everything I had ever been, an athlete! There's a lot more to derby than you might expect. To the untrained eye, it's a bunch of people skating around in a circle, occasionally hitting each other. One might not even know the difference between a blocker, a jammer, and a pivot. Things just kind of happen and you "ooh" and "aah" at the big hits. But there's a lot going on. There are specific blocking techniques and when to use them (and if you're really good, you don't actually need to employ a big hit). There are different wall formations with their own names. There are signals you throw to get y

Rorasuketo influences: The games.

Let's flash back to 1992. Cam and their siblings move into a new house and score a Super Nintendo for Christmas. They also meet their neighbors, who have a Nintendo Entertainment System. And that's where things really take off. Final Fantasy had an enormous impact on me. The boy next door would chronically rent the original from the in-house video rental section of the grocery store. I'd watch for hours. So when I saw that there were more of these games on the SNES, it was a given that it was my turn to play. In a strange twist of fate, a used Final Fantasy II (IV) was $44.95 and a used Final Fantasy III (VI) was $54.95, and I only had $50 to spend... so FF2 it was. I feel like this is kind of a fork in the road for an impressionable young gamer. Because the battle system of FF2 was so much simpler, the focus for the player had to be the story. Another big difference between FF2 and other JRPGs was the art. I always liked the cleaner, more streamlined stylings of FF2 .