[Anime] Summer Wars

Starting from "Toki o Kakeru Shoujo" the name of Hosoda Mamoru resounded in the community of anime lovers. Hosoda stepped on a more serious arena of storytelling, but still kept his creations suited for the general audience. From then on once every few years the screens shine on the viewers with the new animation movie. It has distinct animation style and especially a story point that has become very much his thing. I call it "embrace the sadness". There is always a moment of sadness or tragedy that doesn't actually pull the person down to fall, but to pull and release for them to reach a new level. And it happened in all of his movies.

But we're here talking Summer Wars today.

The story of Summer Wars is relatively simple, a senpai at school asks one of the boys to accompany her to her hometown, the occasion is the birthday of the head of the family, her grandmother. She then tells a white lie that he is her boyfriend. During the night the boy receives a strange e-mail with a code and while almost being a math Olympiad representative from their country he solves it and send the answer back only to find out in the morning his own face on TV with accusation of breaking the main system everyone is using - Oz. As it turns his account was stolen and used for malicious attacks and the one doing it is an A.I. developed for hacking. It caused a true chaos in society. But what was most concerning was the stealth of truly important accounts that were responsible for national security etc. Kenji with the entire Jinouchi family then proceed to stabilaze Ueda and fight against the A.I. who stole Kenji's account.

The final scene is of Kenji cracking the code to change the missile's destination that headed right to their residence, but since he succeeded the final angle changed and the missile lands accurately in the fields with a high-pressure hot springs stream rushing out after the impact. The Jinouchi residence in tatters after the shock wave, but still alive and happy.

The story indeed has a lot of questionable points, but since it's young people movie forget about that.

'Embrace your sadness' moment to be pushed forward is - death of the head of the family. 

The cause of it is malfunctioning of monitoring system due to hacking attack on Oz and not being able to give medical help in time. The passing not only pushes the family to grief, but also forward to get together and deal with the A.I. that might cause others' people passing that is suggested by Kenji.

It also brought back Wabisuke, the illegimate son of the husband to the current head, but who was brought up under the loving wing of hers, yet one who ran with the little money family had abroad just to earn it with the project he developed - the abovementioned A.I. In every of Hosoda's movie is a note of melancholy and sadness as a result of some sort of drama or tragedy happening, but it also becomes the character's motivation to move forward.

Really good and obvious point is about the family unity. Jinouchi is a big family that existed for several hundred years, judging by what was said they were once rich enough, but all businesses were lost in the hands of poor abilities (the late husband to the current head). So once rich family declined in assets, but not in family bond. Although declined financially, the head of the family still had connections, which gave a short glimpse of the past, how people were building this society and came together for greater good.

This was a really gratifying part of the movie as a whole. And a really positive part too. And in the end Kenji becoming part of this family becomes a happy thing, due to his own family situation being very much like many households, busy parents and their children left alone.

Ah damn, I still tear up the moment granny dies, she's so dope. But that is the thing in all Hosoda movies, we either live through someone's death or something close to that.

But. There is always a 'but' for me. These are just things that you don't really care about or maybe you notice them the first time, yet still they make you think - uh... And I'm talking about several questionable things. What a surprise from my side (no, it's not, it's a blatant irony): Oz as centralized network for every walk of life. It is pretty dangerous to see how services that are responsible for the water pressure for example are almost in the same aisle as enertainment etc. Not to mention that the A.I. locked out others from the system. And here I think come forward some parts that are under the question like: why there is no emergency to deal with that like.. manually? for example to get disconnected from the Oz and use iternal system. Sure thing it's not a thing for the false emergency calls, but when it comes to other systems, they're basically not protected. Not to mention the missile in the end. Same with traffic jams, have you ever seen a traffic regulator? Like there's a person with a baton that helps cars to move when traffic lights are nto available. If I develop into this further there'll be more questions, but since it's a movie for young people you are not allowed to question things, they are as they are :D Otherwise movie wouldn't have happened.

Generally, it's not that big of a deal, since this was not what movie tried to convey, sure thing this is a hole-y background, but it works for this story. And in general it is what it is - a nice entertaining story. And thank god it doesn't have a mother who has to let her son be let into the mountains, because he wants to become a guradian to the forest and live in wilderness, thanks for that.

RATE: 8/10

[Movie] All I wanna do (1998)

"No more little white gloves"

All I wanna do is a 1998 comedy film that tells the story of a girl Odette "Odie" Sinclaire, who was forcibly transferred by her parents to attend Miss Godart's preparatory school for girls, because her parents discovered her plans to have intimate relationship with her boyfriend, Dennis. In school she meets her roommates, Verena von Stefan and Tinka Parker, who seem obnoxious and unruly at the first glance, and also other two girls Theresa "Tweety" Goldberg and Maureen "Momo" Haines. These four girls together represent what they call a D.A.R. transcripted as Daughters of American Raviolli. In details we find out about these four girls. Like Verena's parents don't have a happy marriage, though they're loaded but they go through divorce. Tinka isn't such a smart person, but still has her dignity despite her overall image of an easy girl, Tweety suffers from bulimia obviously dissatisfied with her looks, Momo is a hard-working person who wants to achieve great things.

All I wanna do doesn't follow any heavy script, its' idea of girl power and fighting for your rights is easy, but it has a nice message delivered with a good dose of average girl school life. 

(from left to right: Momo, Tinka, Tweety and Odie)

(Verena)

The movie starts off with Odie arriving at school after being caught and now being showed around by a hall monitor, Abigail. Her new roommates are your first class troublemakers that are against some of the stiff rules, but also it is obvious that especially Verena cares about the healthy school environment the most. The whole idea behind D.A.R. is to help each other even after leaving the school and support each other's aspirations, like Verena wants to have a magazine, Momo to become a biologist, Tweety a psychologist and Tinka to be a movie star. These dreams show girl aspirations towards the future and ridicule the image of the married life with house and two kids. Verena's ultimate goal at the present turn of events is to dismiss one of the school male teachers who shows obvious signs of harrasssment towards young girls, despite his own wife working in same school. In return for D.A.R. to help Odie realize her current goal - become ex-virgin (though she is ridiculed for that, but from other side it showed Odie's stubborness to reach the game end) - she helps to set up the teacher, but the plan fails, instead they have monitor watch at them more closely. Not giving up they think the future will bring new ideas, while Tweety accidentally heard shocking news that their school will become a co-ed and the news will be announced soon. Before that their own school and the boy school will be joining to have a dance evening and a small concert soon.

These news tore the girl group apart, one part is happy about it, but Verena and Momo are especially dissatisfied with that, since they care about the obvious domination of male students when it comes to be chosen from the crowd and girls' chances to get good push before uni almost non-existent. Verena mocks the possible development of events that girls will be too busy to take care of their beauty to study. Tinka argues with her that real world is about it - boys and girl, but Verena claps back that real world is - boys on top of girls. The group splits, with only Verena and Momo planning, Odie stayed neutral in the situation. The plan of two is to make boys look most hideous at the ending of the evening to which they decided to realize through getting boys drunk during dances. The second is to make the grandson of one of the trustees ("Frosty") to have a situation on campus, be naked in a girl's bedroom, to make things even worse.

When the time arrived boy students made a bet during their ride, that one who gets the girl with biggest boobs and also takes photograph as proof will get all the collected money. Boys who arrived to Godart's were taken around the campus grounds to get familiar, each girl had her own date, Verena who signed up to be with Frosty got another boy, but didn't give up all the way and took him around the campus, that allowed her to lead him to girl dormitory after drugging and leave the Frosty naked, but to both surprise Verena who talked with Frosty throughout the day found out that they're very much alike and made her reluctant about her plan in the end, both left by their parents in school, both try everything to get in troubles and by the end of the evening when her plan was almost successful she gave in into making out with Frosty and eventually being caught. From Momo's perspective when the dances came around she distributed magic punch which was alcohol and made all boys drunk, they also threw a bunch of empty bottles into boys' bus to make it seem as if they got drunk there. From Tweety's perspective since she was most plump, she was led around by her date and it was obvious that she was too fascinated, laughing at every joke and being led to a secluded place where eventually her chest was exposed and the photos were taken, the boy ran away laughing with photographer, leaving devastated Tweety alone. From Tinka's side she enjoyed the boy companionship, but was treated as easy-to-get target, before being saved by "Snake" a boy they met in town, who fell in love with her at first sight and they lead a photography club and call themselves 'Flat critters'. They are a bunch of unruly boys, but put into sharp contrast with the school boys, since though they do whatever they want, but they never disrespect girls in a really mean or despicable way. From Odie's side, they took this chance to meet with Dennis at the secret base of D.A.R. which is in the attic of the school, but her bf not only flopped their long-awaited date, but also didn't help when the two were caught. Gladly Odie is helped by Tinka with the Flat Critters who help to get rid off the male teacher.

The evening ends up in entire boy group being drunk and throwing up on stage, yet the co-ed plans didn't stop there. These news and Verena being caught and expelled give girls the blow. The Headmistress is the most distressed in this situation having her emotions outbreak going forward to the obvious development of their school where girls will definitely be oppressed and dominated just because of their gender. She asks Verena to never give up wherever she goes.

When the news of school becoming co-ed were annoucned girls barricaded in the dormitory and went on strike, so their voices would be heard instead of silent choice of trustees. Girls were given a choice to think and by vote they represented the will of everyone. The school stayed girls-only school in the end with girls also donating money for school needs. Which led to a big victory.

In the epilogie of the movie all girls were said to achieve their dreams. 

Of course there is no such school as well as this is not a biopic, it just takes this non-existent school to set off the precedent. With the ability of its' easy-going storytelling to inadvertently convey and bring up the topics of equality and women struggling in their position. The school itself is the symbol of the stereotypes where school doesn't receive enough funding to continue creating independent and strong environment, just because it's a girls' school. So individually and together girls can show the microcosm and contradictions, as well as show the ability to unite and strive for better not by the means of deceit, but in upright and straightforward way.

I first saw this movie on TV long ago when I was a teen and years later I still watch it for the same reason - yay girl power xD And it might not be a big hit, but to me it conveys more girl empowerment than many modern representatives of such themes.

RATE: 9/10

[Video] Pipa - Back to Lantern Festival in Tang Dynasty“Xulai”

 

[Chinese BL novel] Born to rebel / 天生反骨[快穿]

Title: Born to rebel / 天生反骨[快穿]

Author: 桑沃

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 213 + 1 extra

Status: Complete

Tags: quick transmigration, drama, gore

*title, names etc. are an MTL version, not an official translation

Summary: StarNet was occupied by big news, finally the famous Star Pirate captain Ge Xiu was caught and he will be sentenced for his crimes. Being held in a cell Ge Xiu is given a choice, you either stay in the cell and slowly rot or choose the punishment virtual worlds. Ge Xiu, who only remembers how he stood in front of the crashed ship while he was arrested and couldn't remember anything before, without thinking chose the latter.

- - -

This is the epitome of evil beauty. And this novel is full of it. It is much more bloody than the average novel you might have seen and MC killed much more enemies with his own hands. It was the first time I was so satisfied with the plot of QT novel in a very long time. And let me tell you why:

PLOT:

• The summary doesn't represent even a glimpse of what will happen in the plot. It is just basic information at the beginning, which is misleading into thinking only one thing about Ge Xiu, but also know that he is: 1) really wise and knowledgable; 2) ruthless and doesn't shy away from killing.
• The story basically covers connecting to virtual worlds and returning back to reality. GX is connected to those from his prison cell. Each world is constructed with basic idea, not a plotline, and that is - Ge Xiu must suffer and the more he suffers the better. Settings sometimes are not in favor of GX, for example his physique is weak or he is put into very disadvantageous position, but he always manages to deviate, e.g. in the first world if he followed the setting he would have been a slave and was used as a plaything or was sent to war or any other dirty place, but GX instead stole a ship and started his space pirate career again.
• The background of the worlds only have settings, sometimes we know a little info about the character, but usually only can uncover due time. This makes the whole world blank and its' development comes as a surprise. But everything is one way or another connected to reality, like GX realizes why these experiments are held, who is ML, can he trust ML etc. Before finally getting the memories back. It is one of those novels that when you read the full thing you realize how author cared about details and always threw them at you. Like why GX of all food likes candy especially, why he has nightmares, why he reacted the most to enclosed space, why he can sleep well to ML. The development is though slow, but it actually feels lot more fuller and greater by the end.
• The worlds are as follows: 1) Junk Star (interstellar, MC is a junk star resident and ML is a rebelled marshal); 2) Ragnarok (fantasy world, MC is a key between worlds and ML is a Fenrir, banished god); 3) Mermaid (european fantasy, MC is a siren and ML is a king); 4) ABO (interstellar, MC is an omega and ML is an ex-wanted person, but one feared); 5) Modern entertainment circle (second assigned role world, MC was made to be an actor and ML is a big boss whose early business was dealing with arms); 6) Meow (AU, MC is a wereperson and turns into a cat, ML is a leader of opposition, turns into Fenrir); 7) Zombi King (MC turned into a zombie and reached emperor level and ML is a superpower person reaching highest level); 8) Fantasy world (MC is a princess, though male, and ML is a dragon who kidnaps him); 9) The last world (survival/infinity flow, MC is a player and ML is a copy boss/ghost). The we are told the past of two protagonists and then the end follows.
• The writing style is very like a dark aesthetic, there are many gory descriptions, lots of blood and murder, but it actually fits right when you read about MC and ML.

CHARACTERS:

• MC/Ge Xiu. Evil beauty. Is the best way to describe him. He has beauty beyond imagination, but there is always a dangerous flame in his eyes. GX is very smart, he is also very cunning and cruel. I love that author shows his consistent character, like for example he comes from interstellar era, so when he has to be an actor and be in a backward era, it totally confuses him logically. Slowly you realize his character and later find out why he is like that, why he is used for the experiment. The greatest thing author did for him is balanced the outpour on MC and his ability to fight back or his identityt in the virtual world.
• ML/Isis. A.k.a Pandora. This is a spoiler, but it becomes evident in several first worlds who ML is, but MC can't decide if ML is a friend or a foe to him, because he has no memories prior his arrest. Original body of ML is kept in the research lab and he is used like that, he is the core of Pandora project. In virtual worlds ML time and time again takes the role of protector, although he doesn't remember anything, it is evident that he knows MC somehow and his love for him is deep thus he protects MC in any way possible, though such an MC who is an idividualist is hard to even catch.

RELATIONSHIP:

• Develops really naturally, there are no plots of overbearing presidents, no harassing MLs etc. there is only two people who time and time again meet, MC realizes it's the same person, but he doesn't know the purpose of him. After all the worlds are built to make him experience pain and his trust was always vague. But despite that and with his core personality of - don't trust anyone - MC actually opens up and goes through the same path or realization that ML is the only one for him, he is his partner. Honestly, their past is so touching, I cried a little bit.

Conclusion. I love QT genre as a whole, I like the different approaches to interpreting it, but tbh for me this type of novel was the first. This is logically a man-made plot and it follows it. There is no main god, no one will become immortal by the end, there is no sudden loss of mental strength out of nowhere and getting into other worlds for unknown reason. There are also no systems with shops or not, who might not even help you, there are no plots of revenge or slap back. You never know what will happen next, sometimes you will be really surprised, but everything feels logical and comes together really well. I was completely satisfied with the plot idea and virtual worlds as well, MC was shows as completely different entity, but with a truly consistent character and his own development. I definitely recommend to try this bloody beauty as something different.

RATE: 5/5. Excellent. Will explore other works by this author, added them to my collection.

[Chinese BL novel] After dressing up and doing fine, I am utterly omnipotent* / 穿成作精后我怼天怼地无所不能

Title: After dressing up and doing fine, I am utterly omnipotent* / 穿成作精后我怼天怼地无所不能

Author: Kittens don't like to bark / 小猫不爱叫

Year of release: 2019

# of chapters: 175

Status: Complete

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: quick transmigration, (easy) drama

*title, names etc. are an MTL version, not an official translation

Summary: Cheng Huan was an elite person, with his sudden death he is bound to a system that helps him traverse and help to fix wronged souls. Wishers are all called Cheng Huan and he is also has a person who travels along, though doesn't remember the past.

[Games] I N S I D E

INSIDE is a 2.5D puzzle-platformer adventure game. There are no dialogues, no info, only you, who plays as a young boy without face or identity and travels from point A to point B. There is no clear destinction where the boy came from, we only know that his starting point is him stepping out of woods and sliding off the rock, and there is no explanation why he goes to his point of destination before he finally arrives. And with several endings the fate of the boy also becomes unclear, raising several questions like: should he end up where he ended, was he the one who controlled his path or he was the one being controlled?

The starting point of adventure begins in the woods, the boy slides off the rock and travels further seeing vague things in the fog that look like cabins, he also sees the back of the truck with people leaving. These people are obviously vigilant and you can also see and hear guarding dogs that rush to hunt and kill the boy without any mercy, whenever they notice him.

If you're noticed by people, you'll be chased and subdued with a stun gun and presumably taken away. Your only choice is only to run and jump into water to hide. You not resurfacing for some time makes people lose their attention. But when you dive for some weird reason there is a yellow cable between the rocks. That is a Hidden place and a yellow cable leads you to a strange small spheric mechanism from which you can pull out the core and the lights of this mechanism will be extinguished.

Swimming underwater makes you invisible in the eyes of guards and under the vail of thick gray fog you enter a small corn field before you see some presumably abandoned farm. It has living creatures like chicks and pigs, but there are no living people around. There is also another hidden place, under the rooth of the pig den, for this you need to pluck one of the planks and get inside, climbing to the beams and jumping at a small wooden platform. Surprisingly, the pigs around you aren't making any fuss when seeing an intruder, it also is obvious that no people are around since the pigs are so malnourished and thin. Passing this delapitated farm and climbing the fence, passing a huge pool of water from the never-ending rain it's the first real open space that shows a stepe and mountains in the background, what is surprising are bodies of pigs lying around. One of which gets agitated and tries to attack the boy, but when you lead it to the wall it smashes into the wall like a no-brain, then the boy pulls out something that reminds you of a worm, getting rid off it also changed the pig's attitude, it instantly becomes docile. You use it to reach a helmet that hangs on a cable, but you're too small to reach it.

Using the helmet makes the dormant people in the background move and they do all the moves you make them do, helping you to move the support that make the boards collaps, but the moment you disconnect from the helmet, people enter the dormant state again, being unmoving and forgotten in this place. They won't be last puppet people you will meet on your way that will follow you whenever you wear the helmet. Moving further you see a truck that load people, they do move, but have this robotic and puppet feeling like previous people, this is their only difference. They are also dressed in an office attire, making them look like a cannond fodder office workers, an unedning free labour that never talks and never asks questions, always resolutely and blindly following. Are they same puppets or people who just gave up under the iron watch of the armed guards is also unknown. But what is evident is their obedience and almost always bowing posture.

The boy follows his path to half-built empty warehouses that have strange cages of unknown use on the background, smashing the planks on the floow with a safe he can now jump down again seeing a yellow cable and another machine in a hidden place on his way. There is again a helmet and puppet people for your use to solve the puzzle and open the door to move up and from the roof you can see the familiar trucks and guards and also people marchin in unison. The buildings you pass through look half-destroyed, some look like they were office building in the past, some may be living quarters, but everything looks abandoned. Only endless marching of puppet office workers keep resounding on a big road. The boy moves to a building that has nothing but several robots and few bodies dressed in an office attire, but unfortunately to move up you have to turn the switch on, which also turns the robots on and if you enter the beam of light you are caught by them and they stun you. Passing the next location the boy is unfortunate to step on a rotten board and he falls down ending in a row of puppet people who march, because of your abnormality the camera moves to follow you, but if you move like everyone else it won't ring the alarm. This is one of the sections where you see not only guards, but other types of workers, they also wear same black office clothes and surprisingly have children among them, few take notes ahile looking at the marching people. Only at the end of the line where guards who don't mind you, the dogs who are more keen to emotions feel your fear and your staggering breathe and start to chase you. Your only choice is to make a dangerous jump and trick the dog to stay alive. Once again you have a chance to connect to the helmet that controls a puppet on rails. But when you move further you see that above rails is another helmet and you make the puppet under your control to connect to it, which with a change of music wakes another puppet human from the box. You use this chain control to move to the next place. And with the latch open you jump into the water. This is the first place that has water and more than that it has controls to fill the sections with the water or on the contrary - release it. You pass this abandoned experimental area and being on the rooftop can see in the distance a railway, one is has opened carriages that carry the countless number of puppet people.

And again you encounter robots that use a light to detect any moving living object, but also you see pretty familiar cage, now filled with several puppet people. The cage is not closed, but they don't move away from the cage. Going down you enter a huge underground place that has many abandoned train cars and also several mad dogs. The only thing you can do now that dogs detected you is run and use your witts, because if dogs catch up it's an instant death. Blocking their path and leaving dogs behind you move on, seeing one lit room among the darkness of half delapitated buildings and water. It is unknown how this water came to be. To get a glimpse of the answer you enter a small submarine and travel underwater, but what seems to be the end is just a hole covered by wooden planks, breaking them you enter a huge space that feels never-ending.

You feel absolutely insignificant in this vast space. Swimming further you see an entrance with a mark '2' on the road and everything around you feels like a tilted building of unimaginable sizes. Countless gates, countless sections, countless stairs, countless offices and premises you pass through, before see something lurking in the water.

When your light light on it you see something that looks like a child with a really long hair, but it is afraid of light, most certainly it spent so much time in this underwater darkness that any light hurts its' eyes, but this child that can freely breath underwater will forcefully break your submarine and pull you out making you drown from the lack of oxygen, but maybe it is just too lonely in this darkness and doesn't want to be alone anymore. Only with the help of light you can pass and outsmart the underwater child taking your chance to escape and blocking its' path. You finally see a shore and leave the submarine seeing a tall black wall in front of you. It's thick and when you try to enter you actually fall down. Surrounding you are half-destroyed mines, the rails are half-swallowed by sand, it has several levels and in front of the upper one there is a switch that shows number 19, if you enter the platform the number changes, so you have to have 19 people on the platform. All you have to do is collect them, for which on the lower leve there is a controlling helmet you acquire, but unlike previously, it disconnects from the cable yet continues to work. When you wear it, all puppet people who were standing without moving in miners work clothes start to crowd around you and help you in places you can't reach. Going around all three levels which show unimaginable size of those mines you collect all puppet people to move forward.

Standing in front of the gate the obvious vibrations hit the walls, but when the gate opens you can finally feel the shock waves, first ones smash your helmet off, next you take cover otherwise the shock wave will smash you into minced meat. Only cover of hard metal and rock can protect you. The shocks waves are never-ending, you can see the places it is originating from. At this point the music intensifies indicating danger and you have to use everything around you to pass this section, also passing a room with test objects that were destraoyed by the shock wave. Reaching the end of this section the music become more serene as you finally escape. 

Later you enter the underwater section, a laboratory that definitely studied the children that could swim underwater without air supply, like sirens. The siren can instantly indicate you underwater, but loses your trail when you exit it. The space taken for these labs is gigantic.

And when you think you outsmarted the siren not to become its' playmate, there is again a creeping music and in the next pool of water the siren find you again, indicating that it knows fully well all the areas that are opened to it. You have to direct the siren to have time and escape it. And when you think you finally succeeded you have an accident and fall into water and the siren takes this moment to grab you and drag into deeper waters. You think her actions are malicious, because the boy definitely drowns, but moving lower the siren takes the cabel that usually is connected to control helmets and plugs it into the boy.

The boy drowns deeper and deeper before reaching the bed of this sea and suddenly wakes up, being able to also breath and swim underwater. The boy again enters a ginarmous space filled with water, with huge constructions fully drowned, it is obvious that these areas was once inhabitated and served as some sort of research institute, there is also a number '3' on the floor. The boy enters another are through scavanging system. The constructions aound him are huge, but what is more importantly are working. Here boy enters something that is like a lab, but what is different is that the water is above him, not complying with any law of gravity.

There are also people in the water, all connected to helmets, but having their bodies parasitized by worms. The boy has to open a huge hatch inside the water to get out of this place. 

This is not the last place where the water doesn't comply with the law of gravity and can be manipulated and used to cross the areas, but it also gives you the idea why the many areas are underwater. You also free another crowd of puppet people who, feeling the boy's presence, follow after him and huddle around him. With their help you enter a new area that seems to be a core area at the moment. It is fully operating, there are working places, thought ampty, you can see that there is a phone receiver not being hung up as if someone rushed somewhere.

It is hard to tell what time of the day it is, it feels like this area is under the ground. Passing through you see number '4' printed on the wall and the path. There are also see-through boxes with obvious experiemnts being held, but no viewers in sight. All viewers are actually standing in front of a huge reservoir, what is inside is unknown to you right now, some people notice the boy who is so out of place, but they do nothing.

As if leaving you to yourself to act however you want. The boy goes around and finally enters the reservoir finding a huge blob-like creature - the Huddle - which is made of humanoid limbs. But if you swim to the window where you can see researchers someone will point at the Huddle behind you, pointing that you should go there. Disconnecting the Huddle the boy is sucked in inside of it and becomes its' part and escapes the reservoir. This is the only place where you need to move backwards to proceed. Previous mines had several layers to explore, but it only had one door that led you to exit. Here, the Huddle goes back to fall through the elevator shaft and fall exactly at a place that looked like a diorama. What is surprising, this diorama is surrounded by people, as if they were waiting for your arrival, knowing that this is the only place you can go to. They all watch rather closely, exclaiming but not running away, some even accidently get under Huddle's many feet.

You run through the institute with many people either watching or following you, they are afraid of being crushed by the Huddle, but if looking closer they do help the Huddle to move forward (like the person who helps the Huddle to open the door, one opens the hatch). It gives you the idea that you're led on your way. Or you're controlled on your way and people just see the results of their experiment. Because when you enter a large auditorium you can see the single spotlight on a device, but below it is an obvious way down, a hatch.

The vague silhouettes when the Huddle falls down come forwards and you can see clearly that the circle of silhouettes before were people obviously waiting for the Huddle in this large area. The hatch is closed above, leaving no way out but only to swim in the dark and look for the way out.

The Huddle follows the light and resurfaces, seeing the wooden enclosure, breaking through it the Huddle suddenly falls down and rolls down the cliff before it stops in the single spot of light among the withered yellow grass.

Alternative Ending: Can be triggered if you find all the hidden places that are indicated by yellow cables and de-activate all the spheres you can then enter a final hidden place with a bigger sphere, this hidden place surprisingly is right next to the reservoir with the Huddle. Sphere's hatch only opens after de-actiovation of all sphere devices. And on the board in the background only one light is left, this is one of the hidden places that had a lever you could have not opened without a correct combination.

The secret hatch in the corn field right at the beginning of the game has a spheric device on the left and a closed hatch on the right. In this underground like place there is a helmet with an empty chair in the background in front of many screens and on the right wall there is a huge cable, that if unplugged completely turns off the energy and all lights disappear. You can see how the boy kneels down on the ground, unmoving.

To me it never mattered that the game itself has quite easy to solve puzzles. What builds INSIDE into unique experience is the atmosphere of the game itself, supported by incredible music and a story opened to interpretation, giving birth to many theories.

Because in the end, you as a player might sit and think - who is controlling who in the end? And only playing it twice can give you this idea. Because the first time, you go the obvious way and the boy is absorbed by the Huddle, but the second time you open the hidden sphere and you can get rid off control by unplugging the cable. There is also a theory that many gamers support - is that the boy is controlled by a player. My personal theory coincides with it, but it sounds more like - the boy is controlled from above, because he is given a choice, either to become the Huddle or disconnect the sphere, because someone left the sphere out there.

World of INSIDE from given elements:

• AREAS. The size of the town, institutes and experimental area is unimaginable. It is hard to say is the city was built underwater to later have so many areas drowned or the water was channeled in. But what makes me believe that these areas are still divided comes from this type of thinking. On the way you see distinct numbers like 2, 3 and 4. I haven't seen indication of Area 1, but it makes me believe that no one expected for Areas 2, 3 and 4 to ever appear. The Areas are also separated by their certain experimental directions. It is also possible that Areas 2, 3 and 4 were built simultaneously with how close and interconnected they are with Area 4 being the core we try to reach. The forest the boy goes through gives you an idea that it is used by the main organization or research institute, so the reach of them is far and wide, all of the farms look abandoned and the city we enter feels like it went through some type of major event. Most of the city is obviously built above and below the sea level and feels very strange with many underground houses that were once living quarters. The second Area is the most destroyed one, although the world is 2,5D and the angle shifts, but the obvious tilt makes you think of some serious catasptrophe that happaned and made such a huge structure tilt. When one reaches the final stage it also feels unrealistic and artificially created with how the wooden boards built look like a stage decorations, just large in sizes. Plus the diorama that the Huddle passes by identically reflects where the Huddle ends up.
• HUMAN / EXPERIMENTS. Throughout the game you realize there's at least several human experiements going on. It is unknown what came first, but it feels right to say that the results of the previous ones were carried out to the next one. 1) Worms. This is an actual reference to Inside's predecessor, Limbo, it also had these controlling type of worms. We see them implanted into pigs, but later when your reach the puppets in the water area you can see that some are implanted with those too; 2) Sirens/mermaids. They appear several times. One that follows the submarine and the other follows you underwater. One mermaid is shown to be still connected with the cord floating alone in the long abandoned area, only reacting when the boy comes around. The mermaid experiment turned out a success, presumably, but maybe not really used, yet if the mermaid was controlled and was given the task to implant the boy with the cord, then it explains a lot; 3) Humanoid puppets, unlike humans, that do appear in the game, humanoid puppets don't really feel any pain or any emotions, they can easily be torn apart. This experiment is the most successful, since countless numbers of those puppets are used as free labour and also numerous transparent boxes show experiments being help on them; 4) Mind control. It is obvious that there can be a mind control via the helmet as well as a chain control of host - puppet - puppet; 5) The Huddle. It differs from the rest of the humanoid puppets in size. The reason why the Huddle was create is unknown, one of the theories is to intensify its' controlling power and call for the boy from far away. There are also traces of other experiments, but the most the institute is interested in is the Huddle with obvious lead and control; 6) Shock wave. The poligon for the shock wave is an are that follows the mines, but throughout the next areas you can also see the special covers that are used there; 7) Gravity. The water that is on the ceiling and defies all laws of gravity.
• BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. This theme is pretty obvious. In some point in time the research and military took over any other form of living. The research is the core of it all, deeply connected to the military. The population of real people feels scarce in comparison to humanoid puppets. Maybe that was the reason for their creation in the first place, but it made a turn on its' way. But despite that the cameras on the walls, detecting cameras, robots, they all work for one purpose only, detect the anomaly, which makes this world absolutely tyrannical. Even the whole interpretation of the ending can have this notion attached to it.

Playing this game several times throughout years, I was immersed in its' incredible world and atmosphere each time. The vastness of the world, the openness to interpretation of its' elements made it one of the best games for me. I can never get enought of its' ambience.

RATE: 10/10

[Topic] Lengthy movies good or bad?

    To be completely honest with the amount of never-ending TV shows that expand for countless seasons (Doctor Who, Supernatural etc. as example), which add hours upon hours of content, it is interesting for me to hear the argument of "This movie is too long". It sounds really strange.

    Even excluding TV shows, if we look at movie franchises that get constant sequels, the argument of time length becomes even weirder.

    But is it a good or a bad thing? Is such a criticism a valid thing?

    My answer is - both 'yes' and 'no'. Since it is all an industry and audience perspective. From the industry point of view these people are still professionals, but also individuals and shoot their movies however they deem appropriate and the audience being so diverse also have different vision on movies.

    The whole notion downed on me once again during one YouTube video, more like a video essay, that I absolutely loved and it was dedicated to Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049"

    I'll put the video here, because it is really interesting.

    Unfortunately, what waited "Blade Runner 2049" after the release was the expected faith of majority of neo noir movies. The movie was received well, of course not without conflicting question of time/pacing. Even Ridley Scott, the director of the first movie, said he'd cut at least half an hour from the timerun. But I personally, being not convinced by many latest Scott's projects don't take his criticism seriously. And it's also ironic, since Alien is also a franchise, which under Scott's leadership went out of control and lost any of its original charm.

    As it happened the 'long' in case for the audience were scenes in BR2049, which is indeed true, some shots do take their time to linger and intensify the atmosphere, it's a pity many times these moment were underappreciated. Personally, I had no problem with long cuts, since I watched this movie in one breath. BR2049 never positioned itself as an action movie in the first place and neo noir movies are like that.

    The other day I had what I call a HP marathon, because when you re-watch HP movies you need to watch all of them, including Fantastic Beasts. And I must say, despite being such a popular franchise that grossed so much money wordwide, it's a pity that it suffered from being cut short. I bet no Potter fan would ever say that they're against the movies to be expanded to add a little flavor to the characters and events. Though partially I understand where directors came from. After all the readers would watch and in their mind it would create a simbiosis of some sort, I had the same feeling that interconnected all versions of Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Diabolism in my head, although versions might have been flawed, but my knowledge of other adaptations filled in the gaps. But for average viewers they might not need those details and they might not realize the reference and see the movie as it is.

    It's really amazing how sometimes single movies are considred too long, but other franchises who get continuous sequels (like Star Wars is the best example) don't receive the same criticism (except for random viewers). And ironically the producers of such franchises openly say - it will never end, while people keep watching it.

    But do movies suffer from such treatment? Absolutely. Although it is a needed evil. From one point you understand that you don't need 20 movies on Pirates of Caribbean (well, many ppl agree on that, remembering the criticism), because they might not bring you anything (I don't take such movies seriously). But what most viewers want is to be taken on adventure, not to a brain ring where they have to explore their minds. People want to be entertained. And that deeply affected any other genre that doesn't comply with it. Thus they don't earn as much, they are not as popular. Which is a pity.

[Chinese BL novel] I am a white lotus that died early* / 我是巨佬们早死的白月光

 Title: I am a white lotus that died early* / 我是巨佬们早死的白月光

Author: Shu Qi / 蜀七

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 111

Status: Complete

Link to NU: n/a

Tags: supernatural, drama, entertainment

*title, names etc. are an MTL version, not an official translation

Summary of sorts: After his death Yun Qingcen found out he is a part of a novel. The protagonist is a person who looks like him and villains are his admirers who turned enemies after his death, but after a while under influence of the protagonist were united.

Now onto the reason why this novel sucks: 

1. MC. He's the biggest problem I see in this novel. Simply because of very good reasons: he is manipulative of everyone regardless, he is unsympathetic, it is hard to tell if he has any real emotions. This continues till the very last chapter. And it was very hard to feel anything for such a manipulative ass.
2. Too many things put into one novel. Although I've basically read first 32 chapters and several last chapters it was enough to realize what it was. Maybe som day I will fill this gap, but right now it feels so weird judging from first 32 chapters I finished. What these plot twists include? 1) MC didn't die, but became some sort of ghost entity, he also ate other ghosts and grew, often it was also greenlit by the underworld; 2) MC insists this is the novel world, which makes everything invalid that happened to him, but for some reason he didn't die, but found himself a new body.
3. Gross relationships. MC basically had a harem before his death. He had ambiguous relationships with several men, who were infatuated by him, but also knew his true nature, they also knew about other men he was in contact with. And they gave him everything. He also basically comes back to the point where the original host is quite poor, but he soon contacts one of the past suitors to get out of this predicament. These men are ready to give him basically anything and he doesn't treat it as anything much too, manipulating his way in. You don't know anything true about MC because he basically adapts himself to the man he is seeing at the moment. But in the end you realize that he just switch from one to another and never truly had a sliver of emotions towards them at the first alarm that people stepped into his safe zone you're out. The other quite unsettling relationship is between MC's close friend, the only one he grew up with and was also his suitor and the so-called protagonist, who is actually a stand-in for these people.

So far this reached the top of the weirdest novels with weirdest MC, the other one I met recently which was on the same level of manipulation was from author 'Strategy to capture that scum gong), who, by no means, writes shitty novels, Strategy is the only one I dare to acknowledge. But both have this type of MC that is unredeemable, it's hard to follow them and like them, I don't demand purity, but being this type of calculating where it is supposed to be danmei, and about love, what love can we talk here.

RATE: 1/5. Wosrt MC award goes to...

[Games] Resident Evil. VILLAGE. Phenomenon of our tall crush.

 

Lady Dimitrescu

a.k.a Alcina Dimitrescu, the matriarch of the Dimitrescu clan from Eastern European country (which should be obvious judging by her last name). She resides and rules over the castle Dimitrescu she inherited and lives together with three women she mutated and calles them "daughters".

Although she has such energy that I can bet anything we all say - hi mom - when we see her.

Damn, I love her design so much out of all the characters that we've seen so far. Yes, I'm a huge sucker for more historical looks she has, she has this amazing domineering height and she looks like a woman, her body is not statuesque, but she's not fat either, it's just right. Her marvelous almost morbid paleness with a dust of gray, same as her gown. It's meticulous, yet has the decadent feeling, the dustiness gives you the feeling of dread. Yet not as strongly as her pale, almost transparent eyes. I also like how they chose red lipstick, as if her lips were forever stained by the blood of her victims.

It is evident that Resident Evil Village was heavily influenced by vampirism (or should I say the cliche we know about vampires) and the overall entourage supports this image: delapitated dungeons, traces of many victims being tortured, decadent furnishing and grandeur of the castle itself and the most evident is - obvious traces of human bodies being eaten and blood drunk. Aesthetic feeling of beauty and horror combined. Same goes for the villaness herself.

Pretty obvious references to me:

• Dracula. Whose origin is not only an Eastern European country (Transylvania, the historical region of current Romania), but also had three "daughters", same as Lady Dimitrescu. Three daughters, or just daughters of Dracula were used in cinematography not once. Just giving an example is Van Helsing movie with three vampire daughters.

• Erzsébet Báthory, the Hungarian noblewoman, mainly infamous as the most prolific serial killer. Was said to practice vapirism as she used the blood of her young servants to prolong her own life. Lady Dimitrescu is rumored to be behind a number of homicides that cover a period of approx. 70 years and all the killings happened in the castle.
• Not so obvious reference, but since the game developers are Japanese that's why I mention this manga. As for the elongated claws of Alcina I must say the only time I saw such a thing. Yes, I've seen it before. Was in Tsubasa, reservoir chronicles, creation by a CLAMP team about CLAMP characters' alternative universe where they travel to different worlds, in one of which they meet vampire twins and the way their fingers elongate to become a weapon is pretty similar, you can see for yourself:

Kamui (original character of X series, twin brother to Subaru in TRC)

Although the exact date of birth of Alcina is unknown, but at least her current dress style is a reminder of early 20th century. 1930's to be precise. Incorporating the simplicity of an everyday dress with the non-decorated fabric and the dare of evening gown with the open decolletage and an accent flower.

It is hard not to notice Alcina's uniqueness in the string of RE villains who combines the obvious charm and creepiness. Maybe that is the reason for the excitement that appeared among the RE players and not only, just her image made people who are not connected to RE see her and think - this lady got something about her. Or we are just having a silent crush on tall ladies. Personally, I've seen countless excited tweets about Lady Dimitrescu alone and it seemed that majorority of people can't wait to be killed by her in the game. She doesn't only get guys excited, but honestly she can bend anyone. At least I'm pretty bent for her :3 The uncovered joy reached the RE team as well, along with the developer who sent a heart-warming thank you to the fans and shared a fact people wondered about, that Lady Dimitrescu full height in the game is around 2,9 meters. That's our tall lady~.

But it also made me wonder, why everyone around, including myself, are simping so hard for our vampiric tall crush? Let's not refuse the obvious. No, not that obvious protruding part many want to be crushed in-between, but the fact that she is tall, she is not only pretty (despite that beauty being creepy too), but she is very tall. We've seen our share of beautiful ladies, but we definitely had not had enough of beautiful and tall ladies that dominate us. Pretty ladies are everywhere, there is nothing new about them in games, even if they are villains, no matter how harsh that sounds. But what about tall, dominating, strong women? I don't think one can name many. The only example that stands out and received very positive reviews was Brienne of Tarth, from Game of Thrones, played by amazing Gwendoline Christie in the TV show adaptation, who did not only shine on the screen, but became an icon outside of it. That's why I find the appearance of Lady Dimitrescu so unique in the sea of petite flowers, even inside the game where her three daughters don't actually look much different from each other I find this fact simply ironic.

Let's be honest, tall women can't appear just at any role, that's true and partially it's good, I don't want them to lose their uniqueness, but they can occupy special roles that leave a deep imression that's for sure.

[Chinese BL novel] Today, the Foolish Scum Gong Screwed Me Over Again / 沙雕渣攻今天又渣了我

Title: Today, the Foolish Scum Gong Screwed Me Over Again / 沙雕渣攻今天又渣了我
Author: 红口白牙
Year of release: 2020
# of chapters: 90+7extras
Status: Complete
Link to NU: here / I also wrote a review there :) but here I will be full of spoilers
Tags: drama, holographic game, mystery

STORYLINE: Qiu Yanzhi (QYZ) who played a holographic love game tried to attack a gong, He Zhou (HZ) who looked exactly like the adult version of a boy he once knew and was friends with. But again and again things didn't proceed as he planned, as if the game was against him and the gong realizing that QYZ lied to him multiple times and now he couldn't believe in him at all, leaving only cold "The liar like you doesn't deserve to be loved, no one will like someone like you" behind. QYZ realizing there will be nothing to catch here anymore proceeds to buy a reset card, when choosing a different character to attack and playing for a while he meets HZ again, but a different thing happens, HZ who was supposed to have his memories erased remembered the previous game process.

The story is divided into thre phases: Phase 1 - reale life/game life; Phase 2 - stuck in the game, trying to get out; Phase 3 - outside of the game.

For start I'd like to say that for a novel with obvious hints it is rather long, because the "mystery" of it does not become a mystery when the name of the villain is revealed and many things are too obvious to not being able add 2+2.

Phase 1 is a warming up part, which also accumulates some drama, it basically covers several events inside the game and QYZ inability to attack HZ, several dramatic events that involve misunderstandings etc. Also it involves the story outside of the game, slowly revealing QYX identity, who he was before he came to Qiu father, how he lived, what his brother plans against him not to give him a chance to get any inheritance etc.

Phase 2 basically covers the period when QYZ gets stuck inside the game, outside he falls into a coma and lies in the hospital, but inside the game several events happen. The first unexplained thing that is presented as fantastical is that - WHY/HOW he gets stuck inside the game - this question is never answered. More importantly how the game got to him and he managed to install it is also all phantastical mystery without a solid base. Events of the second Phase include the QYZ trying to get out but he can't, the game crashes due to his actions, but it leaves only HZ as the center of it all where he can survive, his attempt at resetting, reversing the game and trying to attack another person, which reveals the bug of HZ who has all his previous memories of the game, but also slowly other true NPCs have some sort of bug or plot derailment. It also reveals that there is someone who is behind all this and plots against the two. They try to find the identity of that person to realize it is one of NPCs who is planning to use QYZ identity to go outside of the game and become a real person.

Phase 3 is the part of events when QYZ manages to go out of the game, but finds out that not only he came out, but He Zhou as well.

Biggest spoiler of the plot, partially so obvious that it hurts: He Zhou, previously known as Qin He (changed his name when came to mother's natal house), was stuck in the game, since he had an accident (this accident was mentioned very early how an investor who tried the game before its' release had a car crash inside the game which led to him presumably dying outside of the game) and basically forgot his previous memories as a person. So the mystery follows the question what happened to him and why he got stuck, this is revealed almost at the end, but tbh if you have at least some level of IQ everything become too obvious.

THE CHARACTER OF QIU YANZHI:

Tbh it is peculiar how the author decided to reveal his character, I'd say it was done at a pretty wrong pace. The way QYZ treats everyone as NPC and a game is not wrong at first, but his lack of compassion and ruthlessness were evident. And only later slowly author started to reveal the past of QYZ to finally explain how his character was shaped and formed and redeem his coldness and explain that him being a pathological liar is a defense mechanism (especially first 3 extras help at that). Qiu Yanzhi lived his first years as Xia Yuan before his family had a big dramatic reveal, the father he knew wasn't his biological father at all, his mother lied to him, but due to some events revealed it. Thus the family separated. His mother was a selfish person who lived for herself, but didn't want to work much, so she made QYZ to steal as a kid women's clothes, cosmetics etc. She basically used him. This revelation comes quite later in the novel itself, which I find a not a good move, since QYZ's character and the impression he gives semi-solidifies in the reader's mind. Later his mother committed suiced by jumping from the roof, it was the moment when she lost value of her face and body, but she also wanted to drag QYZ with her, but halfway stopped. Basically she lived selfishly and she died selfishly. QYZ later lived alone before being picked by his biological father and lived with him from 14 to 18. He also got a half-brother, they both were born not from wives, as revealed at the end, Qiu Hongshen never took a wife, but had two sons. Half-brother plotted against QYZ to discredit him and his last plan was to send a person so they would gain QYZ's trust and at the crucial moment drug QYZ and take videos and photos, to send it to their father so he would deprive QYZ of his inheritance rights. When seeing the nature of his father even before the ending where he tore all ties with him QYZ planned to leave Qiu family completely. Basically unloving parents and constant plotting against him made QYZ the one who he is now. As he himself explains his heart is truly small and he always refused to give that small piece to anyone, that's why when He Zhou back in teenage years confessed to him he was rejected due this reason. This continued before he admitted to himself, that he actually fell in love with He Zhou, the one he thought as NPC. To me QYZ had a tough time when he finally admitted his feelings, but of course the previous lies backfired on him a lot. It was quite a good part of the drama.

IDENTITY DRAMA: 

• He Zhou. His identity drama becomes evident around the Phase 2. This became the reason for HZ and QYZ to have the first real crack in newly built and good relationship, when QYZ started to truly like HZ for who he is, but HZ turned around, since QYZ mentioned that HZ looks like his childhood friend and HZ takes it as him becoming a stand-in. This drama intensifies at the time when QYZ reveals to HZ that they are inside the game and he is an NPC. At first he was truly against it, but later he couldn't help his love for QYZ, so he decided to occupy the nest, as he thought. But this drama continued to a new stage in Phase 3 where He Zhou came out of the game and met the real body, which started a new wave of identity crisis, before he got all his memories back and realized that he is Qin He, he just forgot all his past when the accident inside the game happened and he was deprived of his player status and followed the NPC route before QYZ arrived.
• Ye Hongyuan. Who is the main villain of this novel and who occupied He Zhou's player identity and wanted to go out when he accidentally saw the emergency exit of the game and got the manual controller the player is given, then he realized that all his memories and events are fake, so he strived to get out of the game and become a real person. Which he failed in the end of course and his data was fully erased. His motivation was described really late and it didn't add anything, he acted viciously and was ruthless, the only thing that kept being true is that his settings inside the game predispositioned his actions of just being a vicious persona. The way author put some sappy stuff at the ending was really like a late attent at splashing the water. Tbh I'd appreciate if the author might have touched on the topic would it be a real life if he occupied someone else's body.

PLOTHOLES and UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:

1. BIGGEST PLOTHOLE of entire novel comes at the end and it is - WHERE DID THE THIRD BODY COME FROM? I have no idea why no one points at it and doesn't shout - look! To describe why it is a plotthole to me let's take a look at actions and consequences: He Zhou enters the game, he has an accident, YHY sees the emergency exit, gets a manual controller, steals HZ's player identity and wants to get out. Why the emergency exit appeared again and how they got out and who became who from the three. Inside the game HZ falls to his death, QYZ kills YHY, QYZ takes HZ's mottled body and reaches the emergency exit. Then, QYZ wakes up inside the ward, He Zhou comes out as a bunch of data (since I assume QYZ took out his body through emergency exit with him) and YHY occupies real body of He Zhou (since he has stolen HZ's player identity and the game due to him being shot sent him out of the game). To distinguish between real and fake HZ, real is called He Zhou by the author, while fake is called Qin He. NEXT. He Zhou knows he is a bunch of data, since when he turned on the holographic cabin his hand when getting closer to it started to disappear. During the fight between QYZ and Qin He, QYZ manages to hit QH's head with a vase, knicking him out. But the one who woke up was not the fake QH but real HZ. His data body disappered from the apartment and in an instant occupied this flesh and blood. Why I say flesh and blood since it's the body that still had sequale from being in a coma and also it didn't disappear when it touched the holographic cabin. Then this happens - He Zhou was sitting inside his car and a news popped out about a person who caused a car crash 11 years ago, that led to three people dying (HZ's parents) and this driver escaped, this triggers his memories to flush inside his head and HZ finally remembers that he is Qin He, he was the one who entered the game, had accident, got his identity stolen, had to live as NPC, but he was the real Qin He. He didn't know how he got out of the car and suddenly he was hit to his death. The one who hit him had the same face as him, it was YHY who they thought disappeared or was inside HZ's current body in a dormant state. BUT! He Zhou's body that was hit disappears and it is seen that it is a bunch of data. He Zhou's consciousness appears inside the body of YHY not being able to control it, before he takes full control of it. And here is the question, why the previous flesh and blood became data again and where this third body came from. Like no answer that would explain it at all. JUST DEAL WITH IT. That's why the ending tbh was pretty much wasted for me, since this detail couldn't get out of my head.
2. Unanswered questions that were put under the mystery graph include: How QYZ managed to download the game, since it wasn't full. How this game even was sent to him who manipulated it. Why QYZ got stuck inside the game in the first place, was it auxiliary robot?

In general it was an interesting plot idea, but the execution at times suffere a lot and the unexplained plothole too made the ending quite smudged.

RATE: 4/5.