[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Oh god, this arc. Expect an essay from me when we reach the end of it. All I can say for now is that, intentional or not, these episodes hit me in a sensitive spot that I don't think I'll ever not be annoyed by.

TL;DR: Nerd gets mad that writers can't write video games.

There's some other stuff I'll talk about when it comes to this arc, but that's the main core of it, so feel free to skip this post if that doesn't interest you.

One thing Die inquired about is how well Futo PI stacks up in terms of just general anime, and that's sort of a tricky thing to talk about given how this a project that's directly tied to something else.

But absolutely one area that this anime touches on, in this very arc, is the use of idols. And sorry to say, but Megu's' entire deal is one gigantic, tiresome, trite cliche that I just can't stand in the medium. For anyone with any sort of anime experience, the line "She's like a totally different person!" says it all.

For anyone not familiar though, variations of that exact line are said in basically every idol story ever. The story of some shy/meek/nerdy/"useless" girl who totally has this secret beautiful side that she showcases through her songs and everyone just instantly loves her for it. With really nothing past that. It's very much just a vehicle for pushing CD sales and garnering simps towards your show.

So that was already strike one with me when it came to this arc. Strike two was the absolutely lie that was the claim that Philip was jealous of Tokime. Just like how I saw no evidence that Shotaro had to be the one to bear alot of the burdens in W proper, I saw no evidence of the jealousy claim here in Futo PI. Philip outright welcomed Tokime in, he didn't go "No, MY Shotaro!" like a middle schooler. The reason he got annoyed was because of Tokime not letting him explain himself nor attempting to understand his social awkwardness.

Add in the very reasonable reaction he has to Tokime being a liability on the current case and, frankly, I'm on his side. Tokime's' snapback of "Why didn't YOU beat the Dopant?" doesn't even fly because not only should she already know how Double works thanks to Akiko's' notes, but on that same token, why the heck didn't Tokime fight the Dopant? I don't see her taking any swings, hypocrite. If he were jealous from second one, he wouldn't've made her the Stag Phone.

And strike three? An incredible lack of understanding on the writer's' part of not just video games, but fighting games in general. To lay some ground work here, in fighting games, the general rule(though there are certainly exceptions) is that, if it's not something that outright makes the game unplayable, then it's all fair game. When you're playing fighting games competitively, the whole idea is the make the match as unfair for your opponent as possible. You're out to win, not make sore losers happy. Megu's' claim that M used "exploits and pure cheese" are a classic case of what us in the Fighting Game Community call "scrub behavior."

So let's break this down. Cheese strats? Let's name a classic one: Spamming projectiles. That's a legitimate playstyle called Keepaway or Zoning. If your opponent is doing nothing but shooting fireballs from across the screen, it's YOUR job to find a way around that. It not at all required by your opponent to just let you get some free hits on them. But we don't even get to see what exactly M was doing to be considered Cheese in the match they show. I guess you could maybe think he was doing an infinite combo? But not only is Megu blocking it with zero chip damage, but she's able to break out of it and win the match regardless. Therefor it can't be a true infinite.

Since that doesn't hold, let's now go for exploits. Exploits are certainly a bit more dicey when it comes to competitive gaming, as some do actually break the game(as in, causing it to crash and things of that nature). But again, there's no explanation or showcasing of how M was using exploits at all. And even if he were, again, some are considered perfectly legal. For example, "L Cancelling" in Super Smash Bros. Melee is an exploit of the physics engine that lets players cancel out landing lag, but it's seen as a legitimate and infact necessary skill to learn if you want to play the game to its fullest extent. So the idea that the crowd would boo M for anything like that is nonsense and more comes across that people are mad that their precious idol is getting beaten.

Which brings us to the last accusation: Cheating and modified data. Yet again, this requires explanation that we're never given. For anyone who has any idea how video games work, they know right away that this claim should be considered outright impossible. The match between M and Megu is played on a machine that the company itself provided, meaning there'd be absolutely no chance of M modifying anything. The only possible angle I could think of was that maybe Monrado lets you import your characters directly, and as such M modified his character in some way? But again, how so? Is it like a Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 situation where some modders give themselves maxed stats? But even if that's the case, to what extent is that foul play? Monrado's' entire gimmick is that you're able to level your character up in single player, so what's the difference between, say, Megu grinding up to Max Level and M simply flipping a switch to do so? In terms of a basic comp match? Not a whole lot.

Going back to XenoVerse 2, if it's a case like that where cheaters can reach a level you're not normally supposed to be able to get to, then sure, that's one thing, but yet again, we are given no explanation or showcasing of anything, which leads my FGC brain to just jump to the more likely scenario that Megu is just mad that someone is having fun with a game they paid for in their own way. And while some might make the claim "Oh well she's the maker, ergo she should know what qualifies as foul play or not." That is not at all true. "Death of the Author" applies to video games as well. When your game reaches the hands of thousands upon thousands of people, there is absolutely no predicting as to how the playerbase will play the game and what fun they'll find in it. The creator has very little say in things at that point, and one misstep will get them(the players) agitated.

For example, one of the most popular fighting games of all time, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, is notoriously unbalanced. A balance patch was released for it ages ago that addressed things such as the character Urien's' unblockable setups. Thing is though, this upset alot of fans because, continuing with the Urien example, his unblockable setups are the only thing that at all make him a competitively viable pick. Without them he was worthless. Capcom would soon revert back to the base balance of the game and it's remained untouched to this day. To think the programmer has some sort of better knowledge on how the game itself will flow once it's released is, frankly, absurd.

Now, am I saying that this all means that Megu is a demon and that M did nothing wrong? No. Afterall, trying to outright kill someone over a video game loss IS kind of messed up. But what I am expressing frustration at is how no one on staff thought to, I dunno, google anything about fighting games? People have made video essays on this sort of thing, it's not that difficult to look up. Or heck, this is Japan, there are a ton of local fighting game tournaments they could've easily went to for fact checking. If an absolute shitpost of an anime such as Akiba's Trip: The Animation can get it right(seriously, their Street Fighter episode is amazing), then why can't Futo PI, the show with way more budget that by design is trying to appeal to nerd culture?

I get it, at the end of the day this is very much a Me thing and not alot of people will care when watching the episodes themselves, but it just so happened to hit a spot that I'm decently knowledgeable in, and as such its execution annoyed me. It's one of the many reasons I couldn't stand Nico in Ex-Aid.

So, yeah. By far the weakest arc in Futo PI for me. Not a fan.