The Guardian has some interesting coverage of SXSW this last week. Contrary to popular geek belief I frequently find mainstream reaction to events and ideas just as fascinating as specialist coverage – although that may be due to my science fiction projects, which deal with the public and cultural acceptance of bleeding edge technology.

In particular, this bit on ‘gamification’ caught my eye:

“The current public face of gamification is Jane McGonigal, author of the new book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change The World, but many of her prescriptions are cringe-inducing: they seem to involve redefining aid projects in Africa as “superhero missions”, or telling hospital patients to think of their recovery from illness as a “multiplayer game”. Hearing how McGonigal speeded her recovery from a serious head injury by inventing a “superhero-themed game” called SuperBetter, based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which her family and friends were players helping her back to health, I’m apparently supposed to feel inspired. Instead I feel embarrassed and a little sad: if I’m ever in that situation, I hope I won’t need to invent a game to persuade my family to care.”

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. Certainly the idea that a generation of gamers can only be motivated by turning what should perhaps be common sense into a game seems a little patronising to me, and the mention of African aid there borders on some kind of imperialism. But perhaps I’m overreacting. What’s your take?

A bit off-topic, but I know lots of you got a kick out of the Totoro cupcakes my better half made earlier in the year. Well, she’s been at it again. My birthday is Christmas Eve, but we tend to celebrate with friends a few days early for obvious reasons – so this weekend she magically produced these amazing looking Pac-Man cupcakes. Enjoy the photos – and yeah, they did taste as good as they looked.

Following on from the popularity of last week’s Parappa and Street Fighter in just 15 pixels, I thought i’d better share this. Alaskan Military School have been at it again, this time cramming a whole bunch of classic games into just 15 pixels and four minutes – all to celebrate Gamecity kicking off today.

Question is – how many can you name?

OK – the second non-anime/manga related post today, but when my good friend David Surman showed me this today I just couldn’t resist sharing. David is heavily involved in organising Nottingham based games-fest Gamecity, and – well, I’ll let him explain it himself:

This year we commissioned design collective the Alaskan Military School to produce an animation package to communicate the ethos of the event. We recently launched a series of viral spots that are the first part of this collection of new work.

They each take one of our favourite games at GameCity HQ and translate them into a 15 pixel grid. It’s Hyper pixel minimalism! We realised that you can communicate the essence of great, iconic games with minimal visual information. I think this approach echoes the values of the festival, to take a sideways look at games, and foster a creative space.

Too cool. But what about the festival itself? Don’t worry, David has more words for you:
GameCity is a lot of things, but most of all it’s an ongoing project to find out what a videogame festival could be.

Unlike a lot of videogame events, it’s not really a place to come and play them – we’d rather do that at home on the sofa. But if you do love videogames, you’re going to find lots here to enjoy. We’d like to think that there’s something at GameCity for anyone who’s interested in interesting things.

Get over to the Gamecity website to learn more

A couple of quick news updates for you: this Sunday (May 3rd) sees the annual Sci-Fi London Film Festival’s annual Anime All Nighter swing into action – highlights this year being a showing of the controversial Ghost in the Shell 2.0, and – most interestingly – a very rare screening of a little film from 1972 called Panda! Go, Panda!

And why is that interesting? Well, the film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Isao Takahata – over a decade before the two friends would go on to create the legendary Studio Ghibli. It was made at the height of ‘Panda madness’ in Japan, when China had started lending the cuddly beasts to Japanese zoos so they could assist in breeding programs. The film is a real treat for Ghibli fans though, as both the pandas themselves and the films little red-haired protagonist were clearly the inspiration for Miyazaki’s subsequent character designs for the Totoros and Mei. If you’re in London and free on Sunday then get yourself down there – but hurry up and book some tickets, as they look like they’re selling out fast.

While we’re talking about the greatest animation studio in the world – I must remind you all to check out Daniel Thomas’ ever brilliant Ghibli Blog – Conversations on Ghibli. He’s been digging out some real treats recently – most notably this mind-blowing piece on a never-to-be-released home brew Porco Rosso game for the Nintendo DS. Looks amazing but will never see the light of day due to, amongst a million licensing problems, Miyazaki’s dislike of video games based on his creations. Never the less: do want.

Keep up the good work Dan.

We stumbled across a true gem on the main Akihabara drag today; a store that sold only old Nintendo products and emulators. In amongst the Famicom and N64 carts my girlfriend spotted what’s pictured above: this beautifully formed Bomberman multi-tap. I’ve never seen a video-game peripheral evoke such nostalgic glee in a 28 year old woman before. The whole place was fanboy(and girl) heaven.

I was procrastinating preparing to do some work today by clearing out my office/studio/spare room, when I found myself taking the above photo. I was emptying a drawer of the usual flotsam of modern life, when I realised it was subtly different. Maybe it’s because I’m weird, but instead of the usual collection of random badges, elastic bands, paperclips and the tops off lost biros, this little pile included:

• An old 3rd party Playstation memory card
• A Gunpey game cartridge for the Wonderswan, complete with protective slip case
• A weird Playstation cable tidy thing, that I was given at a Sony developers conference some years ago
• The cover for the network adaptor port on a black Nintendo Gamecube
• Protective covers for what I think are Dreamcast memory cards or VMUs (x3, various colours)

I don’t know why I took a photo of it. Possibly because it’s in someway a comment on how the minutiae of even the most mundane aspects of our lives have been changed by our reliance on consumerism and technology. Or something.

If you can actually use any of this shit then give me a shout.

I’d been sat on Vexille for a while before watching it, to be honest. After the disappointment I felt from seeing the last Appleseed movie, I wasn’t sure if I could face another cold looking, mecha based, entrely CGI anime. But there’s an important fact that kept slipping my mind about Vexille, and that revitalised my interest every time I remembered it – that its the second movie from director Fumihiko Sori.

Sori, for the uninitiated, is probably best known for directing the live action Japanese film Ping Pong back in 2002. A small, gentle, touching but often very funny movie about friendships and rivalries between table tennis obsessed teenage boys, it became a huge favourite in our household after we caught a showing of it at the Bath Film Festival a few years ago. It’s a movie that works completely because of characterization, dialogue and the emotional relationships between the central characters, and with this in mind I was hopeful that Sori might breath some life and depth into the mechanical looking Vexille, seeing that he had sole responsibility for writing, directing and editing.

For a start, Vexville has a far more promising and involved premise than Appleseed. It’s 2077, and the UN has imposed severe limitations on the development of AI, robotics and nanotechnology, fearing that their unmonitored use could pause a threat to human civilisation. This has, quite understandably, pissed off Japan, who are the world leaders in this field, and have adopted a policy of isolationism, and taken this to an extreme never quite seen before. While they still trade with the outside world – selling robot and weapon technology to the highest bidders, they have literally sealed off the country using a powerful electromagnetic thingamybob field, which blocks all communication and observation including satellite photography, and no foreigner has set foot on Japanese soil for over a decade. Enter the eponymous Vexille, a female UN anti-terrorist agent and her squad of hi-tech commandos, tasked with sneaking through and then disabling the magic field so that UN snoopers can have a good look at what’s really going on.

And it’s here that things do start to get a little interesting. Without spoiling the big reveal too much for you, Vexille from this point onwards depicts a Japan that has undergone a singularity. For those of you not familiar with the concept, and who can’t be arsed the read that wikipedia link, the singularity is a point in the future where technological acceleration, and specifically the development of artificial intelligence, get to a point where machines are more intelligent than man. It’s a very common theme in contemporary science fiction, and in many ways has been used to create a slightly more utopian backlash against the dystopian worlds presented in cyberpunk. While writers like William Gibson used cybernetics and AI to paint images of hyper-corporate, corrupt societies, singularity writers use them to create worlds where scarcity and poverty are history, and nanotechnology is used to clean up the environment that science had previously wrecked. I won’t bore you with my involved views on the concept, but needless to say I’m sceptical. As a scientific principal it seems sound – if you disregard the fact that AI research has failed, for decades, to make the developments it has promised. But as a social concept I’m far more sceptical, not just of the the singularity itself, but of utopias in general. And as a device in science fiction, well that’s where I really have issues. While some writers have handled the concept well, for many it seems to me that it’s become more a way of repositioning science (and as a result scientists) as mankind’s godlike saviours, after years of cyberpunk chipping away at it’s ivory tower. Too often it feels too much like the utopian pop SF of the 1950s, where everyone sat around waiting for their nuclear powered hovercars, robot butlers and daytrips to venus, instead of trying to deal with the social issues of the time.

Okay, rant over. Again, while trying to avoid spoilers, what Vexille does is present a Japan post singularity where things are as pretty far from a utopia as you can get. And while it’s not the first SF movie to take this angle – arguably both Terminator and The Matrix do the same thing – it does it in a far more contemporary way, using popular singularity fiction ideas like nanotechnology, uploading and the physical re-shaping of the environment to create its own dystopian hell. And largely it works, even when some of the ideas verge on the more fantastic and unbelievable. What I mean by works is that it’lll be enough to get up the backs of the likes of Ray Kurzweil and everyone else that’s sipped the trans/posthumanist Kool Aid, and that’s fine by me.

Sadly, despite this over-arching theme of the failed, de-humanising singularity, there’s not much else plot wise to get excited about. After the setting has been established we’re treated instead to a fairly predictable and largely uninspiring parade of action sequences, set pieces and high speed chases. Even more disappointingly, considering Sori’s pedigree, characters are largely two dimensional and the dialogue is uninspiring, and we find ourselves back in familiar Appleseed territory. I’m not sure why this is in particular an issue for purely CGI anime; whether it’s because the script has to work harder to offset the clinical visuals, or whether its because studios are still concentrating too much on the production technology than the writing, but it’s something that’s haunted the sub-genre since Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Unlike some critics, I don’t subscribe to the opinion that CGI anime will always be artistically inferior to it’s hand-drawn relatives, but on the evidence so far it is hard not to argue against it being cold and emotionless.

Which brings us to the visuals. I’d love to say that Vexille is another CGI tour-de-force, but sadly much of the time it fails to impress in this area too. There are some fantastic moments – especially the sprawling US city scenes and the wonderful fly-bys of the bustling Japanese shanty towns, but a lot of the time you can’t help feeling that you’ve seen it all before. The mecha designs, whilst being perhaps more realistic looking in an industrial design sense, seem flat and un-stylish compared to the Shirow created Landmates of Appleseed. And at other times it feels like it borrows imagery too heavily from films like Mad Max, Dune and even Star Wars without leaving its own personal touch. Don’t get me wrong – it’s by no means ugly or aesthetically unpleasing at any point, it just has a tendency to feel rather dull and flat.

So, is it worth seeing? Yeah, I guess so. If you’re interested in singularity theories but don’t want to dive into too much detail, and you’re not yet bored of high-tech CGI action, then give it a go. If you want proper characterisation and depth with your sci-fi anime, then look elsewhere. Personally, i’m starting to feel a little fed up with CGI mecha action, and believe me, that’s something I never really expected myself to say.

Produced by cult animation studio Madhouse and directed by relative newcomer Mitsuo Iso, Denno Coil first started airing in Japan in May of last year, which is when I first started watching it, courtesy of Ureshii’s sublime fansubs. In fact, I watched the first 8 episodes just days after each one was first broadcast, but with other commitments and time conspiring against me, I criminally left the rest of the series untouched on my hard drive for months, until last week when I had a chance to sit down and try and catch up. I got as far as episode 12, still leaving me with another 14 to watch, and believe me, I’m going to be doing whatever I can to get through them. That new short story I’m working on may just have to wait a little bit longer.

Centred around a group of Japanese elementary school children, the show is at first glance apparently aimed at that age group, but with closer inspection that’s about as useful an assessment as dismissing My Neighbour Totoro or Spirited Away as just kids’ films. In fact, I wouldn’t be the first critic to make the comparison between Denno Coil and some of Ghibli’s better crafted output, and it is a wholly deserved and justifiable one.

Set in 2026, it tells the story of young Yūko Okonogi, who moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological centre of an emerging half-virtual world, created after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses eleven years previously. This new technology has now become as common place as, and in fact replacing the role of, cell phones for Daikoku’s inhabitants. As such it has become massively popular with children, and even before Yūko can start at her new school, she finds herself tied up with a group of kids that spend their whole life in this augmented, half-real digital world, playing with virtual pets, battling each other with over the top (but of course harmless) cartoon weapons, hunting for the gem-like ‘meta-bugs’ and investigating the mysterious computer viruses known as ‘Illegals’.

From the very first episode the series is enthralling and compelling, for a number of reasons, the most significant of which being the way that the writers and animators have managed to create an all too believable world, with carefully thought out logical rules and systems. As a viewer it is impossible not to believe in the technology it depicts, or to avoid being convinced that something very, very similar lies just around our collective corner. As you watch you quickly start to understand how this augmented world works and behaves, and it starts to feel less like an anime fantasy and more like a description of a futuristic personal operating system, with it’s screen wrapped around you and its icons and interfaces pulled out into three dimensions. As the children play and interact with the colourful, often cartoon like objects and creatures that the glasses insert into their world, it’s clear that each one represents real-world, familiar computer applications; the ‘metatag’ stickers that they stick on traffic lights to change them are in fact hackers’ scripts, the over zealous floating robots that patrol the city are in fact anti-virus software, and the slimy, odious ‘Illegal’ creatures that hide in the shadows are fragments of malicious code. One of my strongest beliefs is that good science fiction always makes social commentary on the time in which it was written, and it is here that Denno Coil excels, presenting a world where children are more in touch with technology than their parents, are obsessed with video games and Pokemon style fads, and where peer pressure and owning the latest gadgets can become almost disturbingly important.

Visually every episode I’ve watched to date is excellent, as you would expect from a studio of the pedigree of Madhouse behind it. Again character design is reminiscent of Ghibli – especially Yūko’s little sister and the ‘Mojo’ virtual pets, who both reference famous charcaters from Totoro – but it is depiction of the technology and it’s interfaces that really grabs the attention. Everything feels like a slightly warmer, more user friendly versions of the AR tech we’re familiar with from Ghost in the Shell, and again it borrows heavily from video game aesthetics, although this time leaning to the slightly more kawaii, Nintendo style, rather than the dark, violent vibe shown in recent games influenced work like Appleseed. While this is mainly due to the age of the characters and the shows family target demographic in Japan, it works perfectly, referencing fads like Pokemon without ever feeling quite as childish or overly cute. Also impressive is the noise and digital glitching effects subtly employed throughout the show – so subtly in fact that many viewers at first thought they were quality control issues – that remind the viewer that what both they and the characters are experiencing is not always real.

What ultimately makes Denno Coil such a success for me though, and i’m so pleased to be writing this, is the writing. The dialogue feels natural at all times, even when the characters are talking about technology and concepts that are unfamiliar to the viewer, and the children act in wholly believable ways. The whole series is accessible and friendly, while at the same time having the sort of downbeat atmosphere usually only found in Oshii movies – while at first we seem to be just watching child characters develop, there is constantly the feeling that some sinister mystery is gradually unravelling, and that perhaps some terrible secret will unveil itself before the series ends. Certainly it’s yet another example of how the Japanese have become masters of writing not only for anime, but also TV in general, and is possibly the best example since Planetes I’ve seen of their ability effortlessly fit so plot, humour and real character depth into 25 minutes, leaving you wishing that we took are TV writing, for both adults and children, anywhere near as seriously.

With still 14 more episodes left to watch I can firmly say that, unless it seriously jumps the shark, Denno Coil is set to be a remembered as a true classic in anime TV history. But don’t just take my word for it, go and grab the first episode right now, kick back and just relish in it.

Read the second part of this review here.

Updated: link fixed, video working again…