Redundant Guides: Sonic Adventure (1998) and Sonic Adventure DX (2003)

Written by Daniel – Welcome to Redundant Guides, in this series I’ll be taking a deep dive into old guide books and manuals accompanying games and franchises. Most of these guides accompany popular franchises, which have moved and changed alongside changing technologies and tastes, so this series will provide a look at what can still be got out from these guides as artefacts in and of themselves. In this first post, I’m looking at the original game manual for Sonic Adventure originally released on the SEGA Dreamcast in 1998.

Sonic Adventure is a game with a devoted audience, in spite of the glitches (and endless camera problems!) the game has very much earnt its place in gaming history for its spectacular visuals, beautifully designed locations, and innovative story telling. The game was a best seller, and was applauded for its technological advancements. The game was later enhanced as Sonic Adventure DX in 2003 for release on Nintendo GameCube and PC. If one ventures to look at the PC manual (which still accompanies the game today on Steam as a pdf, though disappointingly has been condensed into just two pages of key information). Though the DX original game manual for PC went a long way to enhance the game experience, and really embellishes the the over all story of the game, so I’ll be having a look at this too. But first things first, let’s do what I’ve set out to, and take a look at the original 1998 Dreamcast game manual. Which you can have a read over here.

Protecting Earth-Chan: Anthropomorphism of Astronomical Objects in Fan Art and Cosplay

Written by Daniel – In this post I’ll be looking at how fan artists and cosplayers have gone about creating and recreating characters; Earth-Chan (Planet Earth), Oppy (The Opportunity Mars Rover), and Black Hole-Chan (First Photographed Black Hole). This post will delve into the history of how anthropomorphic fan interpretive characters have evolved alongside scientific discoveries, and asking how are they getting people to engage with environmental sciences and astronomy, or even if they can…

These characters are the creation of anime and manga fans. This is immediately indicated in the consistent style the characters have been drawn in between different artists (mimicking the traditional style of Japanese comics and animation). Furthermore the lexis ‘chan’ is a Japanese title meaning ‘child’ or ‘small’ in English. It is a common title used in anime and manga, particularly of the ‘school-girl’ or ‘maid’ genres, the common usage of the title has subsequently resulted in western audiences incorporating the term within their own fan art and sub-cultural lexicon. (Artists are credited throughout, a full list is included at the end of the article).

From a galaxy far, far away: A Thought Piece on Everyday-Cosplay

Written by Daniel – The clothing brand ‘Her Universe’ have announced a new line of Star Wars themed clothing called ‘Sisters of the Force’ to be unveiled at Star Wars Celebration 2019. Founded by Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels) nearly a decade ago, one of the companies first line of clothing was a Star Wars series of apparel. This featured many conventional t-shirts and dresses with Star Wars iconography, but it also contained a few more unique pieces, which at first glance appeared to be replications of costumes from the films and TV animated series. But, on closer inspection had subtle differences designed for everyday wear, such clothing has become known as ‘Everyday-Cosplay’ or ‘Casual Cosplay’.

Her Universe – Padmé Lakeside Dress

Her Universe – Sabine Wren

Her Universe – Rose Tico

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a PhD student specialising in cosplay, in particular looking how we can use costumes to explore our own identities and communicate with those around us. But, what is everyday-cosplay, and how does it differ from cosplay? Where cosplay is the costumed performance of a character (from popular media), everyday-cosplay is typical the act of wearing clothes which evoke a popular character. It’s not uncommon to find lists of clothing on ‘Pinterest’ featuring collections of clothes (often from numerous different brands) which compose an outfit evocative of a character. For example, ‘Disneybound’ have produced numerous ‘Pintrest’ collages of clothing one could wear, so that the individual may evoke some of their favourite characters through their everyday clothing. 

Everyday-cosplay is a type of dress which goes beyond wearing a logo on a t-shirt. It implies a sense of creative expression among fan communities, but also a means of expressing ones-self. Cosplay is momentary, a performance which is ‘put on’ for an afternoon, or a photo-shoot, before the participant returns to their usual self. Every-day cosplay however implies a deep connection between the individual and the fictional character. The reasons for which will be many, including but not limited to the desire to try and be more like someone you admire, to express who you really are, or perhaps simply because you feel an affinity with the character, as if they are like you. Everyday-cosplay might be best seen as a form of adaptation, a means of re-imagining a character (or characters), to re-tell popular characters stories within a new medium, this new medium being the practicalities of real life. These adaptations, much in the same spirit to cosplay allow fans to get creative, to mix an match clothes, or even to design and produce their own clothing which evokes their favourite characters. We can just look on ‘Etsy’ to see a whole host of indie clothes manufacturers who have created their own everyday-cosplays for fellow fans to purchase. Such as: a Chewbacca dress by CrystalCottageCrafts, a Padmé Amidala running top by SundayMorningActive, or a Han Solo inspired skirt by RushHourCosplays.

The Love Island Diaries: Week Four

Written by Tom
A continuation of our in-depth look at Love Island, ITV2’s infamous reality TV show.

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In Which Everyone is Just a Bit Fed Up
written in relation to episodes nineteen and twenty

The fact that it’s too hot, the fact that hay fever is attacking me, and the fact that I had to get up too early today in order to get to work meant that I sat down to watch episode twenty of Love Island feeling fed-up and tired. Luckily, the show seemed to be feeling the same.

Alex seemed fed-up, spending the entire hour being irritated at Ellie. I don’t think he was truly angry at Ellie – I think he was sick of having gone from a friendship to the potential of a relationship back to a friendship again, having just spent several days trying to advance something only to end up back at square one. And unfortunately for Ellie, she was the person he almost had the relationship with and so became the main focus of his ire. Alex is the type of person who’s nice enough that everyone wants them to be happy, yet sad enough that no-one wants the job of actually doing making him so. He’s got too much baggage now. Having spent two weeks as the person who deserved a chance, he got one and it fell apart. His show’s basically done now; this is going to be last time he’s a main character for a while.