Considering that his father apparently conceived that nickname as a joke in the first place (and what a dad joke it is), I actually find that oddly respectful.

Nature abhors a vacuum and all that, so it's natural to assume someone would've stepped up either way, but from a simple point of view no Shaw Brothers also means no Golden Harvest. And then you can start musing whether, without their international success, we would've ever gotten Media Asia. Yikes.

I remember that it was possible to mess around to get a directory listing of mtv.com, which then allowed you to download short music video clips from LL Cool J and such. Mindblowing at a time where "downloading music" usually meant "MIDI files".

Whoa! The Phantom Menace trailer used the Sorenson V2 codec which was AMAZING at the time.

Wait, is Shoot the Piano Player a follow-up in any sense other than "chronologically, in Truffaut's body of work"? I liked it a lot myself (admittedly I love Aznavour in general) but haven't seen 400 Blows.

Sweet, that's the one I'm reading right now!

I kind of hate collecting ongoing series (but I make an exception for Yotsuba), so Jiro Taniguchi and Inio Asano are my recommendations while I make my way through their ouevre myself (undecided on Asano, but Chichi no Koyomi is my favorite Taniguchi). Asano is more modern and electrifying while Taniguchi is mature…

Hit the flea markets more often. Subscription services are great, cost- and space-efficient tools for discovery, sure, but I'd like to discover things based on the quirks of people rather than the quirks of licensing again and find things that not a million other people find at the same time.

I just watched Rhapsody in August this week. Far from his best, but better than its initial reception suggests. If nothing else, it's worth it just to hear Richard Gere speak Japanese.

I watched Christmas Vacation for the first time in ages last week and it was much better than I expected. Completely lost it at the pledge of allegiance.

I'm confused. Where was the Ocean Software logo?

It's an unofficial take on Skygunners from the hobbyist team that later went on to make Recettear. It's pretty good though and you can buy the Vector Cannon from Zone of the Enders 2 in it! No voice acting, but the music is nice.

Get Gunners Heart! Well, that's rather pricey, but at least try the demo here.

It's Arzest now! Can I take this moment to express my happiness that, after years of burying their talent behind "Produced by Nintendo", they have recently done a very good job highlighting their teams and individual talent in both Directs and Iwata Asks? Because they have.

I kind of legitimately love the look of DW8. They've gotten really close to the kind of color grading you'd expect from a Chinese historical epic.

For those who missed the best part: After this summer's awesome Ace Attorney announcement, Shibata came back with some Layton love. I have no idea how you guys can put up with this Reggie figure. Iwata will have to contemplatively stare at some bananas again soon or he'll lose his spot in my heart.

The last one I played extensively was Orochi, but I picked up DW8 at a pay 2 get 3-deal this year and it's a much better game. Storm rush is a great addition to its kill-everything-fast appeal, while switch counters add opportunities to reward reflexes. I've barely touched Ambition mode, so I can't comment on that. I…

Finally, the sequels to the Biing! and Lula series no one asked for (but that would mysteriously still sell like hot cakes).

I dunno, The Blast was pretty popular and the pendulum seems to be swinging towards his end of the spectrum again. But yeah, I don't even like him that much but I still think it's a bit of a shame that he couldn't really capitalize on the moment of mainstream attention he had after "If skills sold, truth be told, I'd…

I really should, I used to be so jealous of the kid who owned Gargoyle's Quest.