Quarantine Control #118: Wild Munching… Live
Images that have come out of Anime Expo are pleasant for anyone who highly desired a return to normalcy, but frightening for other reasons. The crowds were huge, and several people among them were unmasked. Word has since come out that ventilation in the Los Angeles Convention Center wasn’t good enough to prevent COVID-19 from spreading around. (Not to mention the body odor.) This, combined with how cases are increasing in LA, is a recipe for disaster. Anime NYC 2021 was one of the first spreaders of the Omicron variant, and if AX becomes another one, this means we must shut down anime conventions until we can figure out what the hell is going on.
Angela Moseley
The news is depressingly bad these days. Keep taking care of yourself.
Munch (2020)
Source: Snooby Comics!
Episodes: One comic, more expected (maybe?)
As I mentioned in my write-up of The Mysterious Micro-Face, I don’t read very many physical comics these days. Every so often something will catch my eye. Munch happened to come my way in this very manner. I was at hair salon preparing to pay after getting my hair braided and noticed comics for sale next to the register. I asked the salon owner to add the $4 comic to my bill. Once I got home, Munch would actually sit on my desk’s shelf until I got around to reading it while on vacation months later.
An alien named Commander Glutok is in the middle of an emergency as his ship careens toward Earth after an ambush by rebel forces. He desperately creates a recording of his last minutes and a final message just in case he doesn’t survive the crash. The ship survives an impact near the Grand Canyon and Glutok is largely unharmed. He finds the Earth’s atmosphere warm enough and breathable enough, but complains about his constant hunger. While out foraging for something edible, he comes across two humans hiking around the Grand Canyon. It is here that the difference between the alien and the humans becomes extremely noticeable. Glutok looks vaguely like a large humanoid viking easily reaching a height of 12 or more feet.
When he comes in contact with the humans, they aren’t afraid of him. In fact, one hiker insists that Glutok is friendly. His trusting nature is repaid by swiftly being devoured raw by the alien. It turns out the alien actually has a huge maw and can unhinge it much like a snake or lizard. The other hiker attempts to run for her life, but Glutok kills her with a sharp, retractable bone appendage. Saving her body to eat later, he remarks how delightfully divine the humans tasted. Later, he fixes his ship as he monologues about the greatness of his race, the Hordonians. It now becomes clear that he’s from a war-mongering civilization. As he leaves Earth to return home, he takes the remnants of the humans with him.
Three year pass and not only have the Hordonians made contact with Earth, but they view humans as little more than food and conduct regular raids. An army pilot named David Munch (who laments the irony of his last name) has been kidnapped by the Hordonians, which are called Vorts by the humans. He imagines the Vorts probably have food franchises where people are cooked up and sold like fast food. Just as he’s cursing out his captors as he’s about to be devoured alive, another Vort kills his aggressor and speaks to him in English. The Vort needs his help.
I enjoyed Munch immensely. The story about hostile aliens finding Earth is pretty cliché at this point, but I do appreciate different takes on the trope. This goes doubly true for having more than the half the issue take place from the Hordonian’s point of view. It was easy to find some sympathy for Glutok right until that first tasty contact with humans. Afterwards, the story switches to Munch’s point of view right as he’s in a state of duress. Unfortunately Issue 1 ends on a hell of a cliffhanger.
I went online to see if I could find more issues of Munch. While the first issue was printed in October of 2020 and a second issue was promised in 2021. Sadly, nothing has materialized. Munch was created by Snooby Comics!, a subsidiary of Out of the House Media founded by Shannon Newby– who’s also the comic’s writer and letterer. From what I could find, Out of the House is a local, black-owned Philadelphia company. The media company has created another comic called Super Nana and Cap App and Heavy Sedation, a weekly series of short films. Newby has a limited presence on social media and has not updated much in a while. It’s unclear when the next issue of Munch will be out.
It’s hard to recommend a comic issue that’s a year and a half old without knowing when or if more issues will be available. I am intrigued by Munch’s premise and I’d like to learn more about the Hordonians, their war, and why some of them want help from humans. If anything, Munch is a short breezy read. The downside is that it’s physical only. Still, if the idea of supporting indie media sounds intriguing, this comic just might be your jam. If more issues ever come out, I’ll be sure to write a follow-up.
Geoffrey Barnes
Live A Live Demo (2022)
Source: Nintendo Switch
Episodes: 3 Story Samplings
Several Squaresoft RPGs were skipped over for localization during the Super Nintendo/Famicom time. That was a shame, but it’s heartwarming that Square Enix is slowly addressing this by localizing them. Trials of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan, was given both a localization of the SFC version and a full 3D remake treatment. The second and third Romancing SaGa games were also given the treatment through remakes with updated sprites to keep a somewhat authentic early-to-mid 1990s flair. The newest example will be Live A Live, a remake of an SFC game originally released in Japan in 1995. Fan translations have swirled around for a while, but anyone who hasn’t pursued that path yet will be able to do so through an HD-2D version. Before the game arrives, though, a demo was provided on the Switch eShop, and the samplings provided were already enough to convince me that it will be an enjoyable experience.
The demo includes a small sample of three scenarios, which I chose to play in chronological order. This turned out to be a good idea. The Imperial China story was the earliest of those available here in terms of the timeline, which features the tale of a Shifu who desires to pass on his kung-fu style to younger learners. It’s up to the player to find all three of them and escort them back to the dojo, which can be done in any order. This served as a good intro to the game, to adjust to the unique map setting and the battle system.
The map doesn’t make destinations too obvious, and can hardly be compared to waypoint markers in more modern games. But it helps to guide the player in the right direction. This scenario is similarly good for adjusting to the battle system, a unique one where characters can move around an open grid during their turn, and act when the Active Time Battle-like bar is full. More powerful attacks take longer to charge, but the damage reward for many of them is worth it. The Imperial China one is a good introduction thanks to how nothing in the demo section can stand a chance against the powerful Shifu, and there’s a lower risk of a Game Over.
That’s hardly the case in the Fuedal Japan setting, in which the player controls a ninja who infiltrates a gigantic castle. Traveling around the large structure is easy enough, and the hidden rooms aren’t too difficult to find for anyone experienced with Squaresoft’s sprite-based JRPGs. But the ninja is nowhere near as experienced a fighter as the Shifu, and the enemies hit harder. It’s possible to use stealth to get through, but I got concerned about whether my level would be high enough if I had to face any bosses, and there doesn’t appear to be an EXP reward for slipping past enemies and exploring. It was sometimes better to get spotted and fight.
The third sampling is for the distant future tale, one in which the player controls a robot aboard a spaceship staffed with the inventor and other crew members. This one, interestingly, is all story, outside the optional battles played through an arcade game aboard the ship. It’s a slow-moving one, but nonetheless intriguing. I’d say playing these in chronological order is a great idea, and I hope this carries over to the main game.
I’ve still yet to fully play through an HD-2D title, but seeing one in action through a demo is beautiful, especially on the Switch OLED’s screen. The sprites themselves feature a pleasant fusion of old school and new school styles, with good character animations combined with modern lighting techniques. The voice acting for some of the scenarios seemed a little iffy, with some characters having Asian accents that I hope to hell aren’t faked. But it’s fine when they don’t attempt them — the Distant Future scenario is free of them in favor of British accents.
The Live A Live demo was enough to convince me that this game will be as good as everyone who’s played the original Japanese SFC game or fan translated rom claimed, with a brand-new literally shimmering presentation to boot. Progress from the pretty robust demo will carry over to the final game, though I might want to start at least one scenario over to ensure a less reckless playthrough.
Joseph Daniels
Have you noticed that the ads on YouTube have gotten worse lately? Maybe I just haven’t noticed, since I usually watch with an ad blocker on but sometimes I’m watching YouTube on something without an ad blocker, so I get hit with the full force of their ads. They even sometimes interrupt the video in the middle of a sentence, which is very annoying and disruptive when the video is trying to convey a thought and that thought is interrupted by a car commercial.
Anyway, nature shows are generally good for providing material on topic for the Year of the Tiger, but this week I have a PSA for everyone.
Wild Russia (2018)
Source: Disney+
Episodes: 4, 3 available
Tiger content: Potentially deceptive
A series like Wild Russia seems like it would contain a substantial chunk of content on topic for the Year of the Tiger. Not only do tigers live in Russia, a whole manner of creatures live there. From varieties of river otter and weasels to bears and wolves and tigers. However, although a tiger is shown on Disney+ when you click on the series, and a tiger is seen in a clip at the start of an episode, the series makes an effort to show everything except tigers. Wolves somehow gained quite a bit of focus in the series, and yet they couldn’t spare a few minutes for a tiger? They were, at least, able to fit a lynx in during episode three, but that doesn’t make up for the disappointing lack of tigers.
For all I know, they could’ve done the same to lynxes in Wild Nordic. I should check that out and report my findings.
That said, my research turned up a fourth episode that mysteriously is missing from the Disney+ upload. I suspect that if there is a substantial trove of tiger content to be found in this series, it is in the elusive fourth episode.
Sadly, that’s all I have time for this week. There really isn’t a lot you can say about another National Geographic nature documentary and sometimes I don’t feel like trying to dress up something like this and pretend it’s as insightful as some of the shows I’ve mentioned in past columns. Sometimes a nature show is just a nature show, you know? If you want to watch animals catching and eating other animals, there’s a lot of that in this series. For example, they managed to catch some impressive footage of bears hunting salmon, from many different angles and they dressed it up with very epic music. It was like watching Aslan’s army fighting the White Witch’s army. Then they showed two bears fighting each other in play, making use of the same camera work as before. Survival sure is epic.
See you next week!
There has been so much bad news in the headlines that it’s tough to have the energy to talk about them, including in this conclusion. Let’s just stop here. Have a nice week.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
