Tag: Fire Emblem

The Biggest Announcements from the Nintendo E3 Panel

Nintendo’s E3 panel sent fans through a doozy. Packed full with announcements, Nintendo provided both good news and bad news for excited fans, particularly those of Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing.

During the panel, Nintendo announced a full sequel to 2017’s Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which came as a surprise to many. There’s not much on the new game beyond the teaser trailer, but it appears to take on a much darker tone than the original, exciting many. Some have excitedly compared the teased darkness to the darker tones of Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, which still stands both as one of the highest rated Zelda games, and one of the most popular.

Banjo-Kazooie was also announced to join the Smash Ultimate game, alongside another hero from Dragon Quest. The DQ hero will be released sometime this summer, while Banjo will come out sometime in the fall.

A teaser for Luigi’s Mansion 3 was released, awing audiences with amazing graphics and revealing a gooey Luigi doppelganger named Gooigi. Gooigi will be available through the co-op playthrough of the game. It’s an interesting turn for the franchise, one that will be sure not to disappoint.

The release date for the adorable remake of Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was announced to be September 20th. Combining Legend of Zelda and Super Mario, the game has adorable graphics, and will have the option where you can build your own challenging dungeons to play through.

A new trailer for Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released, revealing more of what the storyline is actually about. The new game will take a sharp turn from the older Fire Emblem games, with four different routes that players can choose, and will hopefully see more success than Fire Emblem: Fates. The game is set to be released July 26, months in advanced of the previously set date.

The long-awaited Animal Crossing had its date pushed back to March 20 of next year, disappointing fans that had been eagerly awaiting the game’s release on the Switch. Despite this, the graphics look lovely, and will have many updated features that the previous Animal Crossing game didn’t have.

Last but not least, Nintendo announced the edition of Pokemon plus support for their new games Pokemon: Sword and Pokemon: Shield. Although it is not much of an announcement, the E3 panel comes just a week after the Nintendo Direct reveal of the new Pokemon world, including the reveal of new Galo region pokemon. The game is set to drop November 15.

The Ironic Existence of Lolis and Shotas

There is a subcategory within anime and manga culture that has an interesting, and even controversial, existence: lolis and shotas. It is a category that pertains to both males and females, portraying either gender as little children, despite them being full-blown adults. Lolis, or girls that have the appearance of being cutesy and prepubescent, are much more common than shotas, which are the male equivalent. They have two aspects of them, one that makes an appearance in normal anime and manga, and the other, which makes an appearance in the genre known as “Not Safe for Work”, or NSFW.

The former aspect, one in which lolis and shotas make appearances in normal anime and manga, are much tamer, but still controversial. They are usually immortal beings, although they can also be eighteen+ year olds, mostly to add comedic humor. Although, it doesn’t help that usually lolis are sexualized, being child-like or innocent in appearance, but scantily clad in small armor. But say they’re a child and they’ll insist that their actually 1000 years old. The biggest example I can think of is the Fire Emblem character Nowi. Nowi is a 1000 year old dragon in scant armor (literal bikini armor with boots and a cape), that looks like she’s 12 years old. It makes romancing her with anyone rather bizarre and kind of uncomfortable, just as it is strange to romance any of the shotas in her game (Ricken and Donnel).

However, this isn’t to say it’s always the case. There are a few lolis that are normally dressed, or dressed in oversized clothes to emphasize their cuteness (the scantily clad nature doesn’t apply to shotas: they are normally dressed from all the cases I’ve seen). Sometimes, the lolis are fully-dressed, making them seem more normal and not sexualized. Usually, though, the loli is dressed in a way that is clearly catering to male fans, and is very much sexualized.

This sexualization plays heavily into the second aspect that lolis and shotas play in: Hentai. Hentai is the anime equivalent of porn, which I mentioned is the NSFW aspect. In this case, lolis and shotas are sexualized alike (of course with the lolis being more common), sometimes being left alone, and sometimes being altered to be more sexual. The lolis especially, will sometimes be given insanely large breasts (we’re talking the length of their body), in order to add some sexuality, while the rest of the appearance stays the same. Shotas are often feminized, too, making them appear as submissive, while the other partner is much more adult-looking and dominant. In either case, both lolis and shotas are most often set as adults. Not all the time, however.

So, how are lolis and shotas ironic? Well, they’re usually adults, with child-like appearances. They insist that they are older, but promote an almost pedophilic image, without explicitly being pedophilic. They encourage a dangerous sexualization of young, prepubescent children, especially young girls, encouraging creepy men (and some women) to check out and even follow young girls. The sexualization pervades in the anime and manga community, tainting its media.