title: Soul Eater (manga)

text: In her 2008 Anime Preview Guide, Casey Brienza of "Anime News Network" wrote; "Though "Soul Eater" should not be surprising anyone with its standard tournament plot structure, it has some serious style to burn. Like "D.Gray-man" it is deeply indebted to Tim Burton's idiosyncratic gothic-fantasy imagery (think "Beetlejuice" and "Nightmare Before Christmas"), but this series does, if possible, execute it better". Jacob Hope Chapman of the same website describes the series as "dark but lively, visually imaginative, explosive great fun". James Brusuelas of "Animation World Network" wrote positively about the series, stating; "this anime knows exactly what it is: fun! The result: a series that takes the guilt out of your guilty pleasure". Holly Ellingwood of "activeAnime" praised the anime series, and wrote that "It is different, exciting and unexpected at various turns. A large part of its uniqueness and thrills have to do with the original animation style. It is zany while at times being creepy at whim. It is stylin' from start to finish!". Sandra Scholes of the same website, wrote that its story is "full of comedy, fun and dark humour in a Gothic vein", also comparing the series to "D.Gray-man" and "Bleach", and its art style to Gorillaz's videos. Scholes concluded; "If these type of dark fantasy anime grips you then you've seen nothing yet – it's the one that holds the audience right till the end!". Chris Zimmerman of "ComicBookBin" gave the series "A−" rating. Zimmerman wrote that "Soul Eater" follows the "shōnen" conventions of many other series, but it stands out due to its "unrelenting humor and otherworldly feel", in addition to studio Bones "knack for cinematic design and eye pleasing animation". In his A+ review of "Soul Eater: the Meister Collection" Blu-ray, Zimmerman wrote that the series "embraces its shonen origins with flashy fights and themes of friendship while relying on lush animation and a colorful cast of characters that range from ultra serious to nonsensical".


title: Soul Eater (manga)

text: Jason Green of "Anime News Network", wrote that the series "explores the imposing concept of death gods in a tone that's less "Death Note" and more "Gurren Lagann"". Green pointed out the Western references presented in the series, with characters named after Jack the Ripper, "The Blair Witch Project", Al Capone, Syd Barrett and "Frankenstein". Paul Champan of "Otaku USA" noted as well the series' Western influence, as it is seen in the presentation of the witches and monsters, its nods to American horror films and its different architectures and locations. Regarding the anime series finale, Chapman wrote; "The conclusion and the denouement of the "Soul Eater" anime are adequate. The ending may not be mind-blowingly original, but it gives me everything that I require to be satisfied and it leaves me with the warm feeling of seeing the characters that I care about accomplish a worthy goal". Champan concluded that ""Soul Eater" is a solid addition to the collection of any anime fan who likes heroic action with a taste of the sinister and the macabre mixed in". Serdar Yegulalp of "About.com", said that the series last episodes "unleash some gloriously absurd wide-scale action that tap into giant-robot stories like "Gurren Lagann" or "Evangelion"".


title: Soul Eater (manga)

text: Writing for the "Los Angeles Times", Charles Solomon ranked the series the sixth best anime on his "Top 10". Serdar Yegulalp listed "Soul Eater" on his "Course of Anime For Newcomers". Writing for "Crunchyroll", Kara Dennison included "Soul Eater" on a list of "Five Creepy Anime for Your Halloween Party Playlist". Stephanie Donaldson and Jacki Jing of "Anime News Network", listed the series on their list of "5 Anime That Need a Reboot, Now!".


title: Mircea Monroe

text: Mircea Monroe (born March 11, 1982) is an American model and actress, known for her roles on the TV series "Episodes" as Morning Randolph (2011–2017), "Hart of Dixie" as Tansy Truitt (2011–2015), "Impastor" as Alexa Cummings (2015–2016) and "Sing It!" as Stacey Needles (2016). She has also performed in films including "Cellular" (2004), "House of the Dead 2" (2005), "Just Friends" (2005), "The Change-Up" (2011) and "Magic Mike" (2012).


title: Mircea Monroe

text: Monroe was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her first name Mircea is a traditionally male given name in Romania. She says her father chose the name to honor his favorite professor, Mircea Eliade, with whom he studied History of the Religions at the University of Chicago. She lives with her long-term partner, English actor Stephen Merchant, in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles.


title: Mircea Monroe

text: Her first professional acting job was in the New Line film, "Cellular". Since then, Monroe has appeared in various films, and pilots for The WB and Fox, starred in the Fox show "Drive", and guest starred on TV shows, including "Freddie", "Scrubs", and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". Monroe appeared in the starring role of the film "The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It", playing Sarah Marshall. She also appeared as Veronique in the horror film "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond".


title: Mircea Monroe

text: Monroe was featured in the September 2004 issue of "Maxim" and on the cover of "Yoga" magazine's August 2014 issue.


title: Anthropocene

text: The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.


title: Anthropocene

text: , neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) nor the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has officially approved the term as a recognised subdivision of geologic time, although the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in April 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define the Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale (GTS) and presented the recommendation to the International Geological Congress in August 2016. In May 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021, locating potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-twentieth century of the common era. This time period coincides with the start of the Great Acceleration, a post-WWII time period during which socioeconomic and Earth system trends increase at a dramatic rate, and the Atomic Age.


title: Anthropocene

text: Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000–15,000 years ago, to as recently as the 1960s. The ratification process is still ongoing, and thus a date remains to be decided definitively, but the peak in radionuclides fallout consequential to atomic bomb testing during the 1950s has been more favoured than others, locating a possible beginning of the Anthropocene to the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, or the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963.


title: Anthropocene

text: An early concept for the Anthropocene was the Noosphere by Vladimir Vernadsky, who in 1938 wrote of "scientific thought as a geological force". Scientists in the Soviet Union appear to have used the term "anthropocene" as early as the 1960s to refer to the Quaternary, the most recent geological period. Ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer subsequently used "anthropocene" with a different sense in the 1980s and the term was widely popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen, who regards the influence of human behavior on Earth's atmosphere in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological epoch.


title: Anthropocene

text: In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London considered a proposal to make the Anthropocene a formal unit of geological epoch divisions. A majority of the commission decided the proposal had merit and should be examined further. Independent working groups of scientists from various geological societies have begun to determine whether the Anthropocene will be formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale.


title: Anthropocene

text: The term "anthropocene" is informally used in scientific contexts. The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: "Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future". The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolution c. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine. Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP). Evidence of relative human impact – such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction – is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity. Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000–15,000 years BP, based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of the Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years"; this would make the Anthropocene essentially synonymous with the current term, "Holocene".


title: Anthropocene

text: In January 2015, 26 of the 38 members of the International Anthropocene Working Group published a paper suggesting the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 as the starting point of the proposed new epoch. However, a significant minority supports one of several alternative dates. A March 2015 report suggested either 1610 or 1964 as the beginning of the Anthropocene. Other scholars point to the diachronous character of the physical strata of the Anthropocene, arguing that onset and impact are spread out over time, not reducible to a single instant or date of start.


title: Anthropocene

text: A January 2016 report on the climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores suggested the era since the mid-20th century should be recognised as a geological epoch distinct from the Holocene.


title: Anthropocene

text: The Anthropocene Working Group met in Oslo in April 2016 to consolidate evidence supporting the argument for the Anthropocene as a true geologic epoch. Evidence was evaluated and the group voted to recommend "Anthropocene" as the new geological epoch in August 2016. Should the International Commission on Stratigraphy approve the recommendation, the proposal to adopt the term will have to be ratified by the IUGS before its formal adoption as part of the geologic time scale.


title: Anthropocene

text: In April 2019, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) announced that they would vote on a formal proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, to continue the process started at the 2016 meeting. In May 2019, 29 members of the 34 person AWG panel voted in favour of an official proposal to be made by 2021. The AWG also voted with 29 votes in favour of a starting date in the mid 20th century. Ten candidate sites for a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point have been identified, one of which will be chosen to be included in the final proposal. Possible markers include microplastics, heavy metals, or the radioactive nuclei left by tests from thermonuclear weapons.


title: Anthropocene

text: In November 2021, an alternative proposal that the Anthropocene is a geological event, not an epoch, was published and later expanded in 2022. This challenged the assumption underlying the case for the Anthropocene epoch - the idea that it is possible to accurately assign a precise date of start to highly diachronous processes of human-influenced Earth system change. The argument indicated that finding a single GSSP would be impractical, given human-induced changes in the Earth system occurred at different periods, in different places, and spread under different rates. Under this model, the Anthropocene would have many events marking human-induced impacts on the planet, including the mass extinction of large vertebrates, the development of early farming, land clearence in the Americas, global-scale industrial transformation during the Industrial Revolution, and the start of the Atomic Age. The authors are members of the AWG who had voted against the official proposal of a starting date in the mid-20th century, and sought to reconcile some of the previous models (including Ruddiman and Maslin proposals). They cited Crutzen's original concept, arguing that the Anthropocene is much better and more usefully conceived of as an unfolding geological event, like other major transformations in Earth's history such as the Great Oxidation Event.


title: Anthropocene

text: The name "Anthropocene" is a combination of "anthropo-" from the Ancient Greek () meaning 'human' and "-cene" from () meaning 'new' or 'recent'.


title: Anthropocene

text: As early as 1873, the Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani acknowledged the increasing power and effect of humanity on the Earth's systems and referred to an 'anthropozoic era'.


title: Anthropocene

text: Although the biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is often credited with coining the term "anthropocene", it was in informal use in the mid-1970s. Paul J. Crutzen is credited with independently re-inventing and popularising it. Stoermer wrote, "I began using the term 'anthropocene' in the 1980s, but never formalised it until Paul contacted me." Crutzen has explained, "I was at a conference where someone said something about the Holocene. I suddenly thought this was wrong. The world has changed too much. So I said: 'No, we are in the Anthropocene.' I just made up the word on the spur of the moment. Everyone was shocked. But it seems to have stuck." In 2008, Zalasiewicz suggested in "GSA Today" that an anthropocene epoch is now appropriate.


title: Anthropocene

text: Homogenocene (from old Greek: homo-, "same"; geno-, "kind"; kainos-, "new";) is a more specific term used to define our current epoch, in which biodiversity is diminishing and biogeography and ecosystems around the globe seem more and more similar to one another mainly due to invasive species that have been introduced around the globe either on purpose (crops, livestock) or inadvertently. This is due to the newfound globalism that humans participate in, as species traveling across the world to another region was not as easily possible in any point of time in history as it is today.


title: Anthropocene

text: The term Homogenocene was first used by Michael Samways in his editorial article in the "Journal of Insect Conservation" from 1999 titled "Translocating fauna to foreign lands: Here comes the Homogenocene."


title: Anthropocene

text: The term was used again by John L. Curnutt in the year 2000 in "Ecology", in a short list titled "A Guide to the Homogenocene", which reviewed "Alien species in North America and Hawaii: impacts on natural ecosystems" by George Cox. Charles C. Mann, in his acclaimed book "", gives a bird's-eye view of the mechanisms and ongoing implications of the homogenocene.


title: Anthropocene

text: The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene. Humankind has entered what is sometimes called the Earth's sixth major extinction. Most experts agree that human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction. The exact rate remains controversial – perhaps 100 to 1000 times the normal background rate of extinction. A 2010 study found thatmarine phytoplankton – the vast range of tiny algae species accounting for roughly half of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass – has declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century. From 1950 alone, algal biomass decreased by around 40%, probably in response to ocean warming – and that the decline had gathered pace in recent years. Some authors have postulated that without human impacts the biodiversity of the planet would continue to grow at an exponential rate.


title: Anthropocene

text: Anthropogenic extinctions started as humans migrated out of Africa over 60,000 years ago. Increases in global rates of extinction have been elevated above background rates since at least 1500, and appear to have accelerated in the 19th century and further since. A "New York Times" op-ed on 13 July 2012 by ecologist Roger Bradbury predicted the end of biodiversity for the oceans, labelling coral reefs doomed: "Coral reefs will be the first, but certainly not the last, major ecosystem to succumb to the Anthropocene." This op-ed quickly generated much discussion among conservationists; The Nature Conservancy rebutted Bradbury on its website, defending its position of protecting coral reefs despite continued human impacts causing reef declines.


title: Anthropocene

text: In a pair of studies published in 2015, extrapolation from observed extinction of Hawaiian snails of the family Amastridae, led to the conclusion that "the biodiversity crisis is real", and that 7% of all species on Earth may have disappeared already. Human predation was noted as being unique in the history of life on Earth as being a globally distributed 'superpredator', with predation of the adults of other apex predators and with widespread impact on food webs worldwide. A study published in May 2017 in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" noted that a "biological annihilation" akin to a sixth mass extinction event is underway as a result of anthropogenic causes. The study suggested that as much as 50% of animal individuals that once lived on Earth are already extinct. A different study published in "PNAS" in May 2018 says that since the dawn of human civilization, 83% of wild mammals have disappeared. Today, livestock makes up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%). According to the 2019 "Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" by IPBES, 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. According to the World Wildlife Fund's 2020 "Living Planet Report", 68% of wildlife populations have declined between 1970 and 2016 as a result of overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming, and the report asserts that "the findings are clear. Our relationship with nature is broken." However, a 2020 study, by Leung et al. including Maria Dornelas, disputed the findings of the "Living Planet Report", finding that the 68% decline number was being influenced down by a very small amount extreme outliers and when these were not included, the decline was less steep, or even stable if other outliers were not included. A 2021 paper published in "Frontiers in Conservation Science", which cites both of the aforementioned studies, says "population sizes of vertebrate species that have been monitored across years have declined by an average of 68% over the last five decades, with certain population clusters in extreme decline, thus presaging the imminent extinction of their species." According to the 2021 "Economics of Biodiversity" review, written by Partha Dasgupta and published by the UK government, "biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history." A 2022 scientific review published in "Biological Reviews" confirms that an anthropogenic sixth mass extinction event is currently underway. A 2022 study published in "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment", which surveyed more than 3,000 experts, states that the extinction crisis could be worse than previously thought, and estimates that roughly 30% of species "have been globally threatened or driven extinct since the year 1500."


title: Anthropocene

text: Studies of urban evolution give an indication of how species may respond to stressors such as temperature change and toxicity. Species display varying abilities to respond to altered environments through both phenotypic plasticity and genetic evolution. Researchers have documented the movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected.


title: Anthropocene

text: Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record. This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel. The ecosystem of the entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River.


title: Anthropocene

text: Researchers have found that the growth of the human population and expansion of human activity has resulted in many species of animals that are normally active during the day, such as elephants, tigers and boars, becoming nocturnal to avoid contact with humans, who are largely diurnal.


title: Anthropocene

text: One geological symptom resulting from human activity is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide () content. During the glacial–interglacial cycles of the past million years, natural processes have varied by approximately 100 ppm (from 180 ppm to 280 ppm) , anthropogenic net emissions of have increased atmospheric concentration by a comparable amount: From 280 ppm (Holocene or pre-industrial "equilibrium") to approximately 400 ppm, with 2015–2016 monthly monitoring data of displaying a rising trend above 400 ppm. This signal in the Earth's climate system is especially significant because it is occurring much faster, and to a greater extent, than previous, similar changes. Most of this increase is due to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas, although smaller fractions result from cement production and from land-use changes (such as deforestation).


title: Anthropocene

text: Changes in drainage patterns traceable to human activity will persist over geologic time in large parts of the continents where the geologic regime is erosional. This involves, for example, the paths of roads and highways defined by their grading and drainage control. Direct changes to the form of the Earth's surface by human activities (quarrying and landscaping, for example) also record human impacts.


title: Anthropocene

text: It has been suggested that the deposition of calthemite formations exemplify a natural process which has not previously occurred prior to the human modification of the Earth's surface, and which therefore represents a unique process of the Anthropocene. Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material "outside the cave environment". Calthemites grow on or under man-made structures (including mines and tunnels) and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone "etc".


title: Anthropocene

text: Human activities like deforestation and road construction are believed to have elevated average total sediment fluxes across the Earth's surface. However, construction of dams on many rivers around the world means the rates of sediment deposition in any given place do not always appear to increase in the Anthropocene. For instance, many river deltas around the world are actually currently starved of sediment by such dams, and are subsiding and failing to keep up with sea level rise, rather than growing.


title: Anthropocene

text: Increases in erosion due to farming and other operations will be reflected by changes in sediment composition and increases in deposition rates elsewhere. In land areas with a depositional regime, engineered structures will tend to be buried and preserved, along with litter and debris. Litter and debris thrown from boats or carried by rivers and creeks will accumulate in the marine environment, particularly in coastal areas, but also in mid-ocean garbage patches. Such human-created artifacts preserved in stratigraphy are known as "technofossils".


title: Anthropocene

text: Changes in biodiversity will also be reflected in the fossil record, as will species introductions. An example cited is the domestic chicken, originally the red junglefowl "Gallus gallus", native to south-east Asia but has since become the world's most common bird through human breeding and consumption, with over 60 billion consumed annually and whose bones would become fossilised in landfill sites. Hence, landfills are important resources to find "technofossils".


title: Anthropocene

text: In terms of trace elements, there are distinct signatures left by modern societies. For example, in the Upper Fremont Glacier in Wyoming, there is a layer of chlorine present in ice cores from 1960's atomic weapon testing programs, as well as a layer of mercury associated with coal plants in the 1980s.


title: Anthropocene

text: From late 1940s, nuclear tests have led to local nuclear fallout and severe contamination of test sites both on land and in the surrounding marine environment. Some of the radionuclides that were released during the tests are Cs, Sr, Pu, Pu, Am, and I. These have been found to have had significant impact on the environment and on human beings. In particular, Cs and Sr have been found to have been released into the marine environment and led to bioaccumulation over a period through food chain cycles. The carbon isotope C, commonly released during nuclear tests, has also been found to be integrated into the atmospheric CO, and infiltrating the biosphere, through ocean-atmosphere gas exchange. Increase in thyroid cancer rates around the world is also surmised to be correlated with increasing proportions of the I radionuclide.


title: Anthropocene

text: The highest global concentration of radionuclides was estimated to have been in 1965, one of the dates which has been proposed as a possible benchmark for the start of the formally defined Anthropocene.


title: Anthropocene

text: Human burning of fossil fuels has also left distinctly elevated concentrations of black carbon, inorganic ash, and spherical carbonaceous particles in recent sediments across the world. Concentrations of these components increases markedly and almost simultaneously around the world beginning around 1950.


title: Anthropocene

text: William Ruddiman has argued that the Anthropocene began approximately 8,000 years ago with the development of farming and sedentary cultures. At that point, humans were dispersed across all continents except Antarctica, and the Neolithic Revolution was ongoing. During this period, humans developed agriculture and animal husbandry to supplement or replace hunter-gatherer subsistence. Such innovations were followed by a wave of extinctions, beginning with large mammals and terrestrial birds. This wave was driven by both the direct activity of humans (e.g. hunting) and the indirect consequences of land-use change for agriculture. Landscape-scale burning by prehistoric hunter-gathers may have been an additional early source of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon. Ruddiman also claims that the greenhouse gas emissions in-part responsible for the Anthropocene began 8,000 years ago when ancient farmers cleared forests to grow crops.


title: Anthropocene

text: Ruddiman's work has been challenged with data from an earlier interglaciation ("Stage 11", approximately 400,000 years ago) which suggests that 16,000 more years must elapse before the current Holocene interglaciation comes to an end, and thus the early anthropogenic hypothesis is invalid. Also, the argument that "something" is needed to explain the differences in the Holocene is challenged by more recent research showing that all interglacials are different.


title: Anthropocene

text: Scholars have also disputed Ruddiman's claim that the land change and greenhouse gas emissions caused by Neolithic farming practices account for a large enough systems change to denote new epochal designation. These scholars claim that an early date for the proposed Anthropocene term does not account for a substantial human footprint on Earth. Others have argued that the "Early Anthropocene Hypothesis" only provides a cursory view of Native American farming practices prior to European colonization, which did not result in the same land change or greenhouse gas emissions as European and Asian agriculture of the same period. They argue that if precolonial Native American farming was studied in relation to European and Asian agriculture of the same period, the European colonization of the Americas would be seen as the epoch's starting point.


title: Anthropocene

text: Professor of Earth System Science Mark Maslin and Professor of Global Change Science Simon L. Lewis argue that the start of the Anthropocene should be dated to the Orbis Spike, a trough in carbon dioxide levels associated with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Reaching a minimum around 1610, global carbon dioxide levels were depressed below 285 parts per million, largely as a result of sequestration due to forest regrowth in the Americas. This was likely caused by indigenous peoples abandoning farmland following a sharp population decline due to initial contact with European diseases – around 50 million people or 90% of the indigenous population may have succumbed. For Maslin and Lewis, the Orbis Spike represents a GSSP, a kind of marker used to define the start of a new geological period. They also go on to say that associating the Anthropocene to European arrival in the Americas makes sense given that the continent's colonization was instrumental in the development of global trade networks and the capitalist economy, which played a significant role in initiating the Industrial Revolution and the Great Acceleration.


title: Anthropocene

text: A number of other anthropologists, geographers, and postcolonial, settler colonial, and Indigenous theorists, including Métis anthropologist Zoe Todd and Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte have also linked the Anthropocene to the rise of European colonialism. Because of these arguments, it has been suggested that the epoch should instead be called "The Kleptocene" in order to call "attention to colonialism's ongoing theft of land, lives (both human and nonhuman), and materials" that are "in large part responsible for contemporary ecological crisis."


title: Anthropocene

text: Crutzen proposed the Industrial Revolution as the start of Anthropocene. Lovelock proposes that the Anthropocene began with the first application of the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change takes the pre-industrial era (chosen as the year 1750) as the baseline related to changes in long-lived, well mixed greenhouse gases. Although it is apparent that the Industrial Revolution ushered in an unprecedented global human impact on the planet, much of Earth's landscape already had been profoundly modified by human activities. The human impact on Earth has grown progressively, with few substantial slowdowns.


title: Anthropocene

text: In May 2019 the twenty-nine members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposed a start date for the Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as that period saw "a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals and other human activities. At the same time, the first atomic-bomb blasts littered the globe with radioactive debris that became embedded in sediments and glacial ice, becoming part of the geologic record." The official start-dates, according to the panel, would coincide with either the radionuclides released into the atmosphere from bomb detonations in 1945, or with the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.


title: Anthropocene

text: A marker that accounts for a substantial global impact of humans on the total environment, comparable in scale to those associated with significant perturbations of the geological past, is needed in place of minor changes in atmosphere composition.


title: Anthropocene

text: A useful candidate for holding markers in the geologic time record is the pedosphere. Soils retain information about their climatic and geochemical history with features lasting for centuries or millennia. Human activity is now firmly established as the sixth factor of soil formation. Humanity affects pedogenesis directly by, for example, land levelling, trenching and embankment building, landscape scale control of fire by early humans, organic matter enrichment from additions of manure or other waste, organic matter impoverishment due to continued cultivation and compaction from overgrazing. Human activity also affects pedogenesis indirectly by drift of eroded materials or pollutants. Anthropogenic soils are those markedly affected by human activities, such as repeated ploughing, the addition of fertilisers, contamination, sealing, or enrichment with artefacts (in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources they are classified as Anthrosols and Technosols). An example from archaeology would be dark earth phenomena when long-term human habitation enriches the soil with black carbon.


title: Anthropocene

text: Anthropogenic soils are recalcitrant repositories of artefacts and properties that testify to the dominance of the human impact, and hence appear to be reliable markers for the Anthropocene. Some anthropogenic soils may be viewed as the 'golden spikes' of geologists (Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point), which are locations where there are strata successions with clear evidences of a worldwide event, including the appearance of distinctive fossils. Drilling for fossil fuels has also created holes and tubes which are expected to be detectable for millions of years. The astrobiologist David Grinspoon has proposed that the site of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing, with the disturbances and artifacts that are so uniquely characteristic of our species' technological activity and which will survive over geological time spans could be considered as the 'golden spike' of the Anthropocene.


title: Anthropocene

text: An October 2020 study coordinated by University of Colorado at Boulder found that distinct physical, chemical and biological changes to Earth's rock layers began around the year 1950. The research revealed that since about 1950, humans have doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen on the planet through industrial production for agriculture, created a hole in the ozone layer through the industrial scale release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), released enough greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels to cause planetary level climate change, created tens of thousands of that do not naturally occur on Earth, and caused almost one-fifth of river sediment worldwide to no longer reach the ocean due to dams, reservoirs and diversions. Humans have produced so many millions of tons of plastic each year since the early 1950s that microplastics are "forming a near-ubiquitous and unambiguous marker of Anthropocene". The study highlights a strong correlation between global human population size and growth, global productivity and global energy use and that the "extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how the Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since ~1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth's stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene."


title: Anthropocene

text: A December 2020 study published in "Nature" found that the total anthropogenic mass, or human-made materials, outweighs all the biomass on earth, and highlighted that "this quantification of the human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene."


title: Anthropocene

text: The concept of the Anthropocene has also been approached via humanities such as philosophy, literature and art. In the scholarly world, it has been the subject of increasing attention through special journals, conferences, and disciplinary reports. The Anthropocene, its attendant timescale, and ecological implications prompt questions about death and the end of civilisation, memory and archives, the scope and methods of humanistic inquiry, and emotional responses to the "end of nature". Some scholars have posited that the realities of the Anthropocene, including "human-induced biodiversity loss, exponential increases in per-capita resource consumption, and global climate change," have made the goal of environmental sustainability largely unattainable and obsolete.


title: Anthropocene

text: Historians have actively engaged the Anthropocene. In 2000, the same year that Paul Crutzen coined the term, world historian John McNeill published "Something New Under the Sun", tracing the rise of human societies' unprecedented impact on the planet in the twentieth century. In 2001, historian of science Naomi Oreskes revealed the systematic efforts to undermine trust in climate change science and went on to detail the corporate interests delaying action on the environmental challenge. Both McNeill and Oreskes became members of the Anthropocene Working Group because of their work correlating human activities and planetary transformation.


title: Anthropocene

text: In 2009, Dipesh Chakrabarty pointed to the dilemma that the Anthropocene poses for the practice of history: On the one hand, it spells "the collapse of the age-old humanist distinction between natural history and human history" yet, on the other, societies and individuals do not experience themselves as a "species". In 2014, Julia Adeney Thomas highlighted problems of scale and value as the reasons for this irresolvable tension between human stories and scientific ones. Since 2007, historians and scientists have been actively collaborating on multidisciplinary approaches to the Anthropocene. Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), the Deutsches Museum (Munich, Germany) hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, ""Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in our hands"", which was then digitized as a virtual exhibition on the RCC's Environment & Society Portal. In 2016, historians Christophe Bonneuil and Jean Baptiste-Fressoz published "The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us" in an attempt to provide "the first critical history of the Anthropocene" through engagement with the history of science, world history, and human development.


title: Anthropocene

text: As anthropogenic ecological crises and environmental disasters increase, so too do emotional responses to these issues. The emotional responses are inherently adaptive and with appropriate support can lead to action and collective support. Evidence suggests that increase in reflective functioning and capacity for emotional processing can support the emotional responses through crisis, leading to stronger societal responses and individual resilience. Some scholars have posited that the realities of the Anthropocene, including "human-induced biodiversity loss, exponential increases in per-capita resource consumption, and global climate change," have made the goal of environmental sustainability largely unattainable and obsolete.


title: Anthropocene

text: Although the validity of "Anthropocene" as a scientific term remains disputed, its underlying premise, i.e., that humans have become a geological force, or rather, the dominant force shaping the Earth's climate, has found traction among academics and the public. In an opinion piece for "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B", Rodolfo Dirzo, Gerardo Ceballos, and Paul R. Ehrlich write that the term is "increasingly penetrating the lexicon of not only the academic socio-sphere, but also society more generally", and is now included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. The University of Cambridge, as another example, offers a degree in Anthropocene Studies. In the public sphere, the term "Anthropocene" has become increasingly ubiquitous in activist, pundit, and political discourses. Some who are critical of the term "Anthropocene" nevertheless concede that "For all its problems, [it] carries power." The popularity and currency of the word has led scholars to label the term a "charismatic meta-category" or "charismatic mega-concept." The term, regardless, has been subject to a variety of criticisms from social scientists, philosophers, Indigenous scholars, and others.


title: Anthropocene

text: The anthropologist John Hartigan has argued that due its status as a charismatic meta-category, the term "Anthropocene" marginalizes competing, but less visible, concepts such as that of "multispecies." The more salient charge is that the ready acceptance of "Anthropocene" is due to its conceptual proximity to the status quo — that is, to notions of human individuality and centrality. Whereas the concept of "multispecies" decenters these notions by viewing the "human" as a species "entangled in copious folds of nonhumans, without which we would not exist" — e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi — the conceptual framework embedded in the term "Anthropocene," according to Hartigan, does not challenge anthropocentric humanism nor species individualism, ideologies which he takes to have enabled the climate crisis in the first place. The scholar Mark Bould has similarly criticized "Anthropocene" as a concept. The enormous temporal scale of the Anthropocene, Bould argues, potentially yields politically detrimental outcomes. More specifically, if the climate crisis is figured into the timeframe of a geological epoch, as opposed to decades, it might impede the sense of urgency needed to build the political will to act on the climate crisis. As Bould writes: "talking about a geological epoch invites awestruck recoil at sublime magnitudes, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since hubris should be clobbered once in a while, but also risks evasion and complacency."


title: Anthropocene

text: Other scholars appreciate the way in which the term "Anthropocene" recognizes humanity as a geological force, but take issue with the indiscriminate way in which it does. Not all humans are equally responsible for the climate crisis. To that end, scholars such as the feminist theorist Donna Haraway and sociologist Jason Moore, have suggested naming the Epoch instead as the "Capitalocene." Such implies capitalism as the fundamental reason for the ecological crisis, rather than just humans in general. However, according to philosopher Steven Best, humans have created "hierarchical and growth-addicted societies" and have demonstrated "ecocidal proclivities" long before the emergence of capitalism. Hartigan, Bould, and Haraway all critique "what" "Anthropocene" does as a term; however, Hartigan and Bould differ from Haraway in that they criticize the utility or validity of a geological framing of the climate crisis, whereas Haraway embraces it.


title: Anthropocene

text: In addition to "Capitalocene," other terms have also been proposed by scholars to trace the roots of the Epoch to causes other than the human species broadly. Janae Davis, for example, has suggested the "Plantationocene" as a more appropriate term to call attention to the role that plantation agriculture has played in the formation of the Epoch, alongside Kathryn Yusoff's argument that racism as a whole is foundational to the Epoch. The Plantationocene concept traces "the ways that plantation logics organize modern economies, environments, bodies, and social relations." In a similar vein, Indigenous studies scholars such as Métis geographer Zoe Todd have argued that the Epoch must be dated back to the colonization of the Americas, as this “names the problem of colonialism as responsible for contemporary environmental crisis.” Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte has further argued that the Anthropocene has been apparent to Indigenous peoples in the Americas since the inception of colonialism because of "colonialism's role in environmental change."


title: Anthropocene

text: Other critiques of "Anthropocene" have focused on the genealogy of the concept. Todd also provides a phenomenological account, which draws on the work of the philosopher Sara Ahmed, writing: "When discourses and responses to the Anthropocene are being generated within institutions and disciplines which are embedded in broader systems that act as de facto 'white public space,' the academy and its power dynamics must be challenged." Other aspects which constitute current understandings of the concept of the "Anthropocene" such as the ontological split between nature and society, the assumption of the centrality and individuality of the human, and the framing of environmental discourse in largely scientific terms have been criticized by scholars as concepts rooted in colonialism and which reinforce systems of postcolonial domination. To that end, Todd makes the case that the concept of "Anthropocene" must be indigenized and decolonized if it is to become a vehicle of justice as opposed to white thought and domination.


title: Anthropocene

text: The scholar Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, for example, has emphasized spiritual connection to the land as a crucial tenet for any ecological movement. Similarly, in her study of the Ladakhi people in northern India, the anthropologist Karine Gagné, detailed their understanding of the relation between nonhuman and human agency as one that is deeply intimate and mutual. For the Ladakhi, the nonhuman alters the epistemic, ethical, and affective development of humans — it provides a way of "being "in" the world." The Ladakhi, who live in the Himalayas, for example, have seen the retreat of the glaciers not just as a physical loss, but also as the loss of entities which generate knowledge, compel ethical reflections, and foster intimacy. Other scholars have similarly emphasized the need to return to notions of relatedness and interdependence with nature. The writer Jenny Odell has written about what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls "species loneliness," the loneliness which occurs from the separation of the human and the nonhuman, and the anthropologist Radhika Govindrajan has theorized on the ethics of care, or relatedness, which govern relations between humans and animals. Scholars are divided on whether to do away with the term "Anthropocene" or co-opt it.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Ashutosh Ramnarayan Neekhra (born 10 November 1967), known professionally as Ashutosh Rana, is an Indian actor, producer, author and television personality. He has worked in Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi films. He has also worked in Indian television shows. He has also won two Filmfare Awards for "Dushman" and "Sangharsh". He won these awards in the category Filmfare Awards in a negative role. He is known for his portrayal of negative roles.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Besides being an actor, he is also an author. Some of the books written by him are 'Maun Muskaan Ki Maar' and 'Ramrajya'.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Rana was born on 10 November 1967. He is from Gadarwara, Saugor Madhya Pradesh. He also spent some time Kasindra city of Ahmedabad district, Gujarat state. He spent his childhood in Gadarwara, Narshingpur district of Madhya Pradesh where he finished his primary school.He had done his graduation form Dr, Hari Singh Gaur university Sagar Madhya Pradesh. He used to play the role of Ravana in the local Ramleela productions. He is cousin of Rameshwar Neekhra, two times MP of Narmadapuram (Lok Sabha constituency) and state vice president of Indian National Congress.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: He went to the National School of Drama, New Delhi and studied acting. He has done many plays with Satyadev Dubey in Prithvi Theatre.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Rana is married to Renuka Shahane also a Bollywood actress. They have two sons, Shauryaman and Satyendra.


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Rana started his career with the television serial "Swabhimaan", followed by serials like "Farz", "Sazish", "Jax Kabhi", "Waris" and anchoring the TV show, "Baazi Kiski". He also hosted "Sarkaar Ki Duniya", a reality show which took place on Mango Island in Karwar, Karnataka. Later, in 2010, he had acted in a Star Plus show "Kaali- Ek Agnipariksha", where he played a negative role as "Thakral". He had also played lead role in famous TV serial of Doordarshan, named "Apradhi Koun".


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: Rana became known in Indian Cinema after his movie "Dushman", where he played a cold blooded psychopathic killer. He is mostly given roles of antagonists in movies, particularly that of a killer. And in some movies he played supporting roles. He has acted in South Indian films. He frequently appears in Mahesh Bhatt's films. He played the role of Alia Bhatt's father in Karan Johar's "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania".


title: Ashutosh Rana

text: He has acted in many Kannada films. He has shared screen space with South Indian Super Star Vishnuvardhan, a star of 220 movies in five different languages. He acted in the Kannada film "Vishnu Vijaya", starring Akshay Kumar. He also acted with Vishnuvardhan in the 2005-released super hit film "Vishnu Sena", and the 2007 released movie Kshana Kshana that also starred Aditya and Prema.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave ( ; version 10.14) is the fifteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. Mojave was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and was released to the public on September 24, 2018. The operating system's name refers to the Mojave Desert, the home of the Mojave Rattlesnake, and is part of a series of California-themed names that began with OS X Mavericks. It succeeded macOS High Sierra and was followed by macOS Catalina.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave brings several iOS apps to the desktop operating system, including Apple News, Voice Memos, and Home. It also includes a much more comprehensive "dark mode", is the final version of macOS to support 32-bit application software, and is also the last version of macOS to support the iPhoto app, which had already been superseded in OS X Yosemite (10.10) by the newer Photos app.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave was announced on June 4, 2018, at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Apple pitched Mojave, named after the California desert, as adding "pro" features that would benefit all users. The developer preview of the operating system was released for developers the same day, followed by a public beta on June 26. The retail version of 10.14 was released on September 24, 2018.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave requires a GPU that supports Metal, and the list of compatible systems is more restrictive than the previous version, macOS High Sierra. Mojave drops support for various Macs released in 2009 to 2011. Compatible models are the following Macintosh computers running OS X Mountain Lion or later:


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave requires at least 2GB of RAM as well as 12.5GB of available disk space to upgrade from OS X El Capitan, macOS Sierra, or macOS High Sierra, or 18.5GB of disk space to upgrade from OS X Yosemite and earlier releases. Some features are not available on all compatible models. Mojave installations convert the installation volume to Apple File System (APFS), if the volume had not previously been converted from HFS+.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: It is possible to install Mojave on many older Macintosh computers that are not officially supported by Apple. This requires using a patch to modify the install image.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave deprecates support for several legacy features of the OS. The graphics frameworks OpenGL and OpenCL are still supported by the operating system, but will no longer be maintained; developers are encouraged to use Apple's Metal library instead.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: OpenGL is a cross-platform graphics framework designed to support a wide range of processors. Apple chose OpenGL in the late 1990s to build support for software graphics rendering into the Mac, after abandoning QuickDraw 3D. At the time, moving to OpenGL allowed Apple to take advantage of existing libraries that enabled hardware acceleration on a variety of different GPUs. As time went on, Apple has shifted its efforts towards building its hardware platforms for mobile and desktop use. Metal makes use of the homogenized hardware by abandoning the abstraction layer and running on the "bare metal". Metal reduces CPU load, shifting more tasks to the GPU. It reduces driver overhead and improves multithreading, allowing every CPU thread to send commands to the GPU.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS does not natively support Vulkan, the Khronos group's official successor to OpenGL. The MoltenVK library can be used as a bridge, translating most of the Vulkan 1.0 API into the Metal API.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Continuing the process started in macOS High Sierra (10.13), which issued warnings about compatibility with 32-bit applications, Mojave issues warnings when opening 32-bit apps that they will not be supported in future updates. In macOS Mojave 10.14, this alert appears once every 30 days when launching the app, as macOS 10.15 will not support 32-bit applications.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: When Mojave is installed, it will convert solid-state drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), and Fusion Drives, from HFS Plus to APFS. On Fusion Drives using APFS, files will be moved to the SSD based on the file's frequency of use and its SSD performance profile. APFS will also store all metadata for a Fusion Drive's file system on the SSD.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: New data protections require applications to get permission from the user before using the Mac camera and microphone or accessing system data like user Mail history and Messages database.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave removes integration with Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and Flickr, which was added in OS X Mountain Lion.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave features changes to existing applications as well as new ones. Finder now has metadata preview accessed via View > Show Preview, and many other updates, including a Gallery View (replacing Cover Flow) that lets users browse through files visually. After a screenshot is taken, as with iOS, the image appears in the corner of the display. The screenshot software can now record video, choose where to save files, and be opened via + + .


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Safari's Tracking Prevention features now prevent social media "Like" or "Share" buttons and comment widgets from tracking users without permission. The browser also sends less information to web servers about the user's system, reducing the chance of being tracked based on system configuration. It can also automatically create, autofill, and store strong passwords when users create new online accounts; it also flags reused passwords so users can change them.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: A new Screenshot app was added to macOS Mojave to replace the Grab app. Screenshot can capture a selected area, window or the entire screen as well as screen record a selected area or the entire display. The Screenshot app is located in the codice_1 folder, as was the Grab app. Screenshot can also be accessed by pressing ++.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS 10.14.1, released on October 30, 2018, adds Group FaceTime, which lets users chat with up to 32 people at the same time, using video or audio from an iPhone, iPad or Mac, or audio from Apple Watch. Participants can join in mid-conversation.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: The Mac App Store was rewritten from the ground up and features a new interface and editorial content, similar to the iOS App Store. A new 'Discover' tab highlights new and updated apps; Create, Work, Play and Develop tabs help users find apps for a specific project or purpose.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Four new apps (News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home) are ported to macOS Mojave from iOS, with Apple implementing a subset of UIKit on the desktop OS. Third-party developers would be able to port iOS applications to macOS in 2019.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: With Home, Mac users can control their HomeKit-enabled accessories to do things like turn lights off and on or adjust thermostat settings. Voice Memos lets users record audio (e.g., personal notes, lectures, meetings, interviews, or song ideas), and access them from iPhone, iPad or Mac. Stocks delivers curated market news alongside a personalized watchlist, with quotes and charts.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave introduces "Dark Mode", a Light-on-dark color scheme that darkens the user interface to make content stand out while the interface recedes. Users can choose dark or light mode when installing Mojave, or any time thereafter from System Preferences.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Apple's built-in apps support Dark Mode. App developers can implement Dark mode in their apps via a public API.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: A limited dark mode that affected only the Dock, menu bar, and drop-down menus was previously introduced in OS X Yosemite.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Stacks, a feature introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, now lets users group desktop files into groups based on file attributes such as file kind, date last opened, date modified, date created, name and tags. This is accessed via View > Use Stacks.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS Mojave features a new Dynamic Desktop that automatically changes specially made desktop backgrounds (two of which are included) to match the time of day.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: macOS update functionality has been moved back to System Preferences from the Mac App Store. In OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), system and app updates moved to the App Store from Software Update.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave was generally well received by technology press. "The Verge"s Jacob Kastrenakes considered Mojave a relatively minor update and typical of 2010s macOS releases, but Kastrenakes and Jason Snell thought the release hinted at the future direction of macOS. In contrast, "Ars Technica"s Andrew Cunningham felt that "Mojave feels, if not totally transformative, at least more "consequential" than the last few macOS releases have felt." Cunningham highlighted productivity improvements and continued work on macOS's foundation. TechCrunch's Brian Heater dubbed Mojave "arguably the most focused macOS release in recent memory", playing an important role in reassuring professional users that it was still committed to them.


title: MacOS Mojave

text: Mojave's new features were generally praised. Critics welcomed the addition of Dark Mode, although some noted that its effect was inconsistent; "MacWorld"s Karen Haslam noted that it did not affect the bright white background in Pages, for instance. Others noted that Dark Mode's utility was curtailed by the lack of third-party developer support at release.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a 2019 video game developed by Vanillaware and published by Atlus. It was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in November 2019 and worldwide in September 2020, with a Nintendo Switch version released in April 2022. The game is divided between side-scrolling adventure segments and real-time strategy (RTS) battles, and follows thirteen high-school students in a fictionalized 1980s Japan who are dragged into a futuristic war between mechas and hostile Kaiju in a nonlinear narrative.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Director and writer George Kamitani conceived the game in 2013 following the completion of "Dragon's Crown", originally pitching it for a toy line. "13 Sentinels" began production two years later, discarding the toy line element under Atlus. The production proved challenging for Vanillaware, as the studio dealt with workload and development challenges. Contrary to previous works, Kamitani both worked on the script alone and handed character design duties to Yukiko Hirai and Emika Kida. Hitoshi Sakimoto and his studio Basiscape, who handled the music for Vanillaware's past games, revisited their roles.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Originally scheduled for a 2018 release on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the game was delayed to 2019 with the Vita version being canceled. The English localization by Atlus West proved challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It saw a slow start in sales upon its release in Japan before eventually exceeding Atlus's expectations, with shipments and digital sales surpassing 800,000 copies by November 2022. Critical reception has been generally positive, with praise going to its narrative and art design, though several reviewers faulted the RTS segments as the weakest part of the game.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" is a video game where players take control of thirteen different characters, who interact with each other to build a larger narrative. The gameplay is split into three sections. They are Remembrance, with exploration and dialogue taking priority and advancing the narrative; Destruction, where characters equip mecha and engage in battles against enemies called Kaiju; and Analysis, a glossary which documents event scenes and important items and characters.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: During the adventure game-style Remembrance segments, the player explores two-dimensional (2D) side-scrolling environments, interacting with elements of those environments in a non-linear manner. Several elements move in real-time regardless of the player's actions, and choices can be made which alter the outcome of some scenes. Keywords spoken by characters and obtained items are added to a Thought Cloud database, which can be accessed to trigger both internal monologues and initiate new dialogue. Once learned, keywords are carried over into other earlier or parallel scenes, which in turn unlock further story routes and options. The character stories are tracked with a flowchart, with players able to jump between scenes to try different keywords from the Thought Cloud. If a wrong choice is made during one section, the game rewinds back to the beginning of the day so players can select the right choice. To reach that point faster, events the player has already seen can be fast forwarded.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The battle system of the Destruction mode takes the form of a real-time strategy scenario, with up to six chosen characters using Sentinels to fight off waves of Kaiju defending a terminal. The terminal's health is determined by which units are in place, and if all units are defeated, the hub is overwhelmed and the game ends. Gameplay can be paused, allowing for Sentinels to be moved and actions such as combat and support abilities to be carried out. The section is completed when the hub is successfully defended against all waves. Battles pit Sentinels against Kaiju with differing strengths and abilities such as flight or extra defense, requiring one of the four Sentinel types; some Sentinels are strong against flying enemies, while others do better against large ground-based forces. They also have different attack ranges and movement speeds. Sentinels have at least one basic attack that costs nothing, and additional abilities that cost a resource called EP; EP can be recovered by defending. After acting, each Sentinel has a cooldown timer before it can act again. Damage can be repaired by Sentinel pilots, but this requires leaving the Sentinel and leaving them vulnerable to attack. The player can also trigger limited-use "Terminal Commands", special field-wide abilities such as an EMP which use up a dedicated energy gauge. Characters level up with experience points and gain passive bonus effects, while Sentinel abilities and attributes can be raised using Meta-chips gained during battles.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Analysis takes the form of an index where event scenes and information on people, items and concepts are archived. Mystery Points, earned through Destruction mode, are used to unlock new index entries in Analysis. As the player advances, character narratives are locked off until something else has taken place in another section of the game. These unlock conditions can include unlocking entries in Analysis, advancing stories in Remembrance, or tackling particular battles in Destruction.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels" is primarily set during a fictionalized version of 1985 in the Shōwa period, but also jumps between 1945 during the later years of World War II, 2025, 2065, and the distant future of 2105. The story follows the perspective of thirteen characters. While several characters are native to the 1980s period, several come from either the future or the era of World War II. The storyline is split between these characters, and by following each the player aims to avert a disastrous future for mankind. A recurring location is Sakura High School, which multiple characters attend across different time periods. The story is told using nonlinear narrative, switching both between different protagonists and the events of the final battle against an army of Kaiju, otherwise known as the "Deimos", giant monsters who arrive in 1985 and attack Japan. Each of the thirteen protagonist's arcs culminate in summoning a Sentinel, a mecha designed to fight the Deimos which also has the ability to travel between different eras.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The thirteen protagonists are Juro Kurabe, an otaku who is troubled by strange dreams; Iori Fuyusaka, an outgoing student who likewise has dreams similar to Juro; Ei Sekigahara, an amnesiac young man pursued by a mysterious organization; Keitaro Miura, a young man from World War II-era Japan; Takatoshi Hijiyama, Miura's upperclassman from the same time period; Nenji Ogata, a good-hearted delinquent; Natsuno Minami, a track team member fascinated by the occult and UFOs; Shu Amiguchi, a playboy with a kind heart who discusses his dreams with Juro and Iori; Yuki Takamiya, a notorious sukeban (delinquent girl) and childhood friend of Natsuno; Tomi Kisaragi, a girl from 2025 sent to 1985; Megumi Yakushiji, another girl from 2025 who is in love with Juro; Ryoko Shinonome, a sickly girl from 2065 tasked with pursuing an escaped prisoner dubbed "426"; and Renya Gouto, a stern young man from 2065 who ultimately leads the Sentinel pilots.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: There are several notable supporting characters. Chihiro Morimura is both the school nurse and the teacher for Kurabe and Fuyusaka's class. Tsukasa Okino is a genius student with deep knowledge of the Sentinels, who frequently cross-dresses as a girl. Chihiro is a mysterious girl who Miura considers his sister but who later accompanies Gouto during several sections. Kyuta Shiba is one of Juro's best friends, but possesses a hidden agenda. Erika Aiba is a student who tags along with Takamiya as they solve mysteries surrounding the Sentinels. Tamao Kurabe is a woman from the 1940s who closely resembles Aiba. Tetsuya Ida, while ostensibly a part-time instructor, is the chairman of the covert Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in 1985. The small robot BJ accompanies Natsuno on her journeys through time. Fluffy, a talking cat, strikes a deal with Megumi to save Juro. Miyuki Inaba is a famous idol within the 1980s period.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: In 1985 Japan, Kurabe, Fuyusaka, and Amiguchi experience shared dreams, either of themselves fighting previous wars against the Kaiju or of what appear to be older versions of themselves in the future. They are later seen by Morimura, who Kurabe learns is administering an unknown medication to some students; Kurabe is referred to in Morimura's notes as "Juro Izumi", an identity he cannot remember. Takamiya is blackmailed by SIU member Ida into monitoring students at Sakura High School. Takamiya's friend Minami finds a robot called BJ; assumed to be an alien, BJ is an AI robot from 2105 searching for its Sentinel. Yakushiji, from 2025, is approached by Fluffy, who says he can bring back "Izumi" if she shoots select people with a special gun. Gouto and Shinonome both work for the SIU, recruiting Kisaragi from 2025 after the Deimos attack her time period. At a later point, an amnesiac Sekigahara wakes up next to the murdered Morimura, ending up pursued by SIU operatives. In 1945; Miura and his little sister Chihiro live with Tamao Kurabe, and are friends with Hijiyama and newcomer "Kiriko Douji", later revealed to be the cross-dressing Okino. Shortly after Okino takes Hijiyama to 1985, the Deimos attack 1945. Tamao vanishes upon being "killed", Gouto kidnaps Chihiro, and Miura accidentally travels to 1985 using a Sentinel. Each playable character has dedicated intertwining story arcs, revealing more about individual pieces of the plot.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: It is gradually revealed that rather than time periods, the protagonists inhabit five different areas, or "Sectors", which replicate a specific era. In the real-world 2188, a nanomachine virus ravaged the Earth, leaving only fifteen survivors; the thirteen protagonists, as well as Okino and Tamao. The survivors initiated Project Ark, sending their DNA and records of their history to a new planet where they would restart humanity. The events of the game are happening on a distant terraformed planet and the simulation housing and training their minds is otherwise populated by human-like AIs. Project Ark and its population are managed by Universal Control, an AI which erases inconsistencies and falsifies information to preserve the simulation. The 2188 Shinonome, disillusioned with humanity, secretly implemented the Deimos Code; this would cause Shikishima, a mega-corporation that exists in all Sectors, to produce the Deimos. Once the Deimos invades all five Sectors, the simulation resets to sixteen years prior to protect Universal Control, with the fifteen humans losing their memories of the events, trapping them in an endless loop. Some characters survive loops with their memories intact using "Sector 0", a non-spatial area at the system's core.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Some key plot threads are scattered through each character's narrative. Ida, an earlier version of Amuguchi, seeks to perpetuate the loops in an attempt to restore an earlier version of his lover Kisaragi, who exists in the current world as Inaba. He loses hope and is killed after learning that Sector 0 will be erased in the next reset. Juro Izumi, the original version of Kurabe, uses extreme measures to change events and is dubbed Prisoner 426, going on to use the avatars of Aiba, Fluffy and Shiba to further his plans and ending up directly aiding the thirteen pilots. The current Morimura—a former associate and lover of Izumi—is determined to trigger Operation Aegis, which will cut off Universal Control from the Deimos while trapping them in the ruined simulation. She is killed by the preserved personality of the original Chihiro Morimura, who exists in the avatar of Miura's sister. Initially pessimistic of their chances, she is persuaded by Gouto to aid them. Fuyusaka is revealed to be another avatar of Morimura. Minami, Takamiya, Kisaragi, Ogata and Miura cross paths repeatedly and end up discovering several aspects of the backstory through travels to different sectors. In Hijiyama's route, it is revealed that the originals in the space colony eventually descended into violence over resource disputes.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Each arc concludes with the protagonist joining the final battle. When the Deimos arrive, the 13 pilots band together to fight them, with remote assistance from Inaba and Chihiro. The pilots fend the Deimos off long enough for Inaba to contact Universal Control and shut down the simulation, allowing the pilots, together with Okino and Tamao, to awaken from their hibernation pods in the real world. Five years later, the pilots have formed families with their loved ones on the new planet. They restore the simulation and all its inhabitants, and plan to use the pods to create bodies for the AI humans so they can all live in the real world. Inaba and Ida plan to live in Universal Control, while Izumi and Morimura are reunited in the simulation. A secret cutscene shows self-replicating machines sent into space by Project Ark have colonized at least one other planet, where the game's events are repeating with some differences.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels" was developed by Vanillaware, a Japanese game developer who also worked on "Odin Sphere", "Dragon's Crown" and ""; notable for their usage of 2D art in an industry predominated by the usage of 3D graphics. Vanillaware founder George Kamitani, who also directed "Odin Sphere" and "Dragon's Crown", returned to serve as director for the game while handing the character design duties to Yukiko Hirai and Emika Kida. The game was produced by Akiyasu Yamamoto of Atlus, a role he had fulfilled for "Odin Sphere". It was the team's first game to use a contemporary or science fiction setting, as all their previous projects had used high fantasy settings. The concept originated in 2013 following the completion of "Dragon's Crown". Tired of spending so long in fantasy worlds, Kamitani wanted to create a science-fiction story set in the time of his youth in the 1980s. He also wanted something on a much smaller scale, as "Dragon's Crown" was a huge project for him.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The game was originally pitched to an unnamed media company on the basis that it would be used as a basis for a toyline, with the marketing focused exclusively on Japan and having a small budget and low sales margins. As part of the initial pitch, Kamitani created mechas with hulking designs inspired by "Robot Jox", then created a "gap in expectations" by having a setting and characters inspired by shōjo manga. He was about to push forward with the project in this form when he remembered Atlus had been given right of first refusal as part of their contract to fund "Dragon's Crown". Frustrated with the other company's demands and uncertain that Atlus would approve of the concept, Kamitani nevertheless showed it to them. Atlus, who was searching for a game to market internationally, immediately accepted it without the need to incorporate the toy line marketing. Despite these changes, the overall story concept remained intact and the final scene was unchanged from the original draft.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Full production began in the summer of 2015 following the completion of remakes of "Muramasa" ("Muramasa Rebirth") and "Odin Sphere" ("Odin Sphere Leifthrasir"). The entire production period, including early concept work, lasted six years. The game was originally in production for PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PlayStation Vita (Vita). At the time of its announcement, the game had only just entered full development and there were very few assets to show. The game was originally scheduled for release in 2018, but in November of that year Atlus delayed the game and cancelled the Vita version due to the longer time needed for development. In response to this, so players would experience what to expect from the game's characters and narrative, a demo-type release called "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Prologue" was developed. Based on feedback from "Prologue", the development team were able to make adjustments and additions to the main game. Kamitani described the game as "truly, recklessly ambitious". He referred to the project as the culmination of his work and skills up to that point.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The concept for a story featuring multiple protagonists was drawn from the long-running television series "Chūgakusei Nikki". Kamitani's original concept had seven or eight characters, but as the first artwork for the concept was published in 2013, he decided to increase the number to thirteen; this exponentially increased the company's workload. Prior to incorporating mechas, the story revolved around young people with superpowers inspired by the TV drama series "Night Head". Due to lacking excitement and overt science fiction elements, he rewrote the premise. Kamitani based the narrative on the original video animation "Megazone 23". He was originally planning to use the Jules Verne novel "Two Years' Vacation" as inspiration. In the final product, the characters Gouto and Yakushiji are based respectively on the novel's characters Gordon and Cross. The narrative structure also drew inspiration from Western thriller fiction. In contrast to his work on "Odin Sphere", where he had created the overall story while other writers worked on the game scenario, Kamitani wrote the entire scenario of the game himself both in and out of office hours over the course of three years. Kamitani chose to set the game in 1980s Japan due to his own experience; his knowledge of the modern Japanese school system was limited, and the lack of mobile phones in that era allowed for more face-to-face conversations between characters in-game.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The original scenario timeline ran from the 1940s to the 1980s, but when Atlus took over the project Kamitani expanded the scope into the near and distant future. Kamitani wanted to create a mecha-themed story for a modern audience, as many of the most memorable genre works ("Mobile Suit Gundam", "Neon Genesis Evangelion") were by that time several decades old. At one point, each of the thirteen protagonists had twelve possible story paths, making for a total of 165 possible variations. Due to the production timeline and the need to reveal the story mysteries, Kamitani had to cut a lot of planned optional comedic and bonding scenes between characters. Several of the surviving routes went through extensive revisions, with some planned scenes such as a coffee shop location being cut, but a key surviving theme that came with its shōjo manga inspiration was romance.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Each protagonist's storyline drew inspiration from a particular outside source, ranging from Japanese anime and manga to Western movies and classic works of science fiction. Sekigahara's route originally had a shōjo-style romantic choice between Fuyusaka and Shinonome, but this was changed to make Fuyusaka the only choice. One of the core mysteries were the characters of Fuyusaka, Morimura and Chihiro, who were different incarnations of the same character, with her designs and portrayal showing the alternating charms of different ages. This section of the plot, which was a key part of Gouto's scenario, underwent major revisions late in production. Okino, created by Kamitani on Hirai's request for a "unique" character, was based on a soft-spoken character from "Tottemo Hijikata-kun", a 1980s manga series. The complex relationship between Hijiyama and Okino, which used both comedic and romantic elements, was inspired by the manga series "Stop!! Hibari-kun!". Kamitani cited several storylines as technically difficult to write, such as Takamiya's detective-themed narrative, Shinonome's amnesia plotline and Ogata's train sequences. Amiguchi's story was the most straightforward and thus easiest to complete, while the dark tone of Yakushiji's narrative often left him depressed.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Kamitani, who handed character designs himself in previous games, handed duties to Hirai and Kida due to the writing workload. In the same way, he originally wanted to handle the mecha and kaiju designs, but only created a few drafts before handing over their designs to other staff members. The character design was influenced by the work of mangaka Akira Kagami, a favorite of Kamitani in his youth. Hirai was given the stylistic direction of "girls and robots" for the character designs. Unlike past Vanillaware games like "Odin Sphere" and "Muramasa", which repeatedly used the same 2D background environments for their event scenes, the team created different backgrounds for several event scenes in the game and experimented with using some 3D assets for additional layering in these scenes, increasing development time. The added depth also created problems for the team with conveying emotions during cutscenes. During production, the character designs of Shinonome and Yakushiji were switched to better fit their emerging story personalities.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The team's aim was to push the boundaries they had previously established for 2D artwork in video games. In contrast to the fantasy landscapes of earlier Vanillaware titles, "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" was set in drabber modern environments featuring concrete and metal. To ensure a similar vibrancy to their earlier projects, the team leveraged the lighting effects to create an equivalent atmospheric effect. As with previous titles, during adventure segments the camera was fixed to mimic the experience of watching a stage play. To achieve a suitable depth of field, Vanillaware "[placed] objects within a layered three-dimensional space" and adjusted the lighting to create the illusion of distance. The battle level designs were directly based on the graphic design of "Gunparade March" and "Fantavision", with the blue-hued character portraits being based on the monitor displays and lighting of "Alien".


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The gameplay concepts drew from Vanillaware's earlier game "GrimGrimoire", with the balance of adventure and battle sections in "13 Sentinels" being based on "GrimGrimoire"s original pitch. The adventure sections were designed to feel like the gameplay of "Shenmue", expressing the classic style of adventure games with a more intuitive interface design and response, for which the Cloud system was designed. Though Kamitani thought the Cloud system would be simple, its implementation proved extra challenging. An original plan for a strict time limit was scrapped after negative feedback from staff. As the "StarCraft"-based battles of "GrimGrimoire" had met with a mixed response in Japan, Kamitani combined it with elements of the tower defense genre popular in the region. These elements were mostly handled by the programming team, led by Kentaro Ohnishi. The Archive was suggested by staff member Kouichi Maenou as a means for players to explore the game's mysteries. This aspect was handled by other staff, as Kamitani was in the middle of scenario writing. He reminisced that due to the various development challenges and his own workload, he felt like an absentee compared to the other staff as there was comparatively little interaction during development. The increased workload, scope, and challenges for the game's development led to significant changes in the studio's usual development cycle.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The music and sound design for the game were handled by Basiscape, a music company led by Hitoshi Sakimoto who had collaborated on other Vanillaware projects. The music was composed and arranged by a team led by Sakimoto, and included Yukinori Kikuchi, Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Yoshimi Kudo, Rikako Watanabe, Kazuki Higashihara and Azusa Chiba. All other aspects of the game's sound design were handled by Masaaki Kaneko.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Sakimoto was contacted by Kamitani at the beginning of development when the New Year image was designed. The first track composed was the opening theme "Brat Overflow", which featured in the reveal trailer and would inform the game's musical style from that point on. He wrote the theme as a "lean motif" that could be incorporated into multiple tracks. The game featured a vocal theme, "Seaside Vacation", performed by singer Hu Ito who was the singing voice for in-game idol Miyuki Inaba. The song was written by Sakimoto. In keeping with the main setting, the song's style was based on Showa-era pop songs, though there were no particular inspirations behind the song and singer. The lyrics were written by Watanabe.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The musical style of the game was driven mostly by Basiscape based on the game's premise. Compared to his earlier work with Vanillaware, Sakimoto worked more on keeping a unified musical image. The music was themed around techno, but the team worked to keep melodic balance in the score. Its theme was "juvenile", with Sakimoto needing to redo his early work with Kamitani's help. Though Kikuchi and Watanabe were new to Vanillaware titles, both Kudo and Kaneda had worked with the studio on "Odin Sphere" and "Muramasa". Kudo, Kaneda and Kikuchi handled the battle tracks based on Sakimoto's direction for tracks which changed based on the player's progress through the stage. A recurring need for the score was to balance electronic and orchestral elements throughout the score. The two gameplay modes had different musical styles; the adventure sections used "analog" sounds and a focus on atmosphere, while battles made heavy use of electronic elements and rhythm. Some of the earlier tracks overtly used Showa-style composition, but as the setting was already heavily based around the Showa period, the music shifted to be less period-specific. Another difference compared to earlier Vanillaware projects was that more of the tracks were designed with a specific story-based theme, such as shopping in the high street. Due to the changes made to the game, the themes consequently needed a lot of adjustment during production. The placement of some songs within particular scenes, such as a sombre piece accompanying a comedic moment, were done by Kaneko based on his interpretation of a scene.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: A soundtrack album was released on February 27, 2020, the physical version being exclusive to Atlus's online store. The album features four discs, and has a cover art drawn by Hirai. The album also released digitally worldwide through iTunes. The album included the full version of "Seaside Vacation", and versions of the battle tracks which ran through all their variations before segueing into the victory theme. A mini soundtrack featuring ten tracks from the game was packaged with the special edition of "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Prologue". An arrange album, featuring two new tracks and a new cover design by Hirai, was released on February 27, 2021. It was also released as a worldwide digital release on iTunes. The album was described by Kudo as "a musical expression of another aspect" of the game.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Voice recording for the script ran concurrently with the scriptwriting and revision process, with six different recording sessions for various actors happening during production. Voice recording ran on until very close to the game's retail release. Several of the actors were fans of Vanillaware's titles, and enjoyed voicing the characters. Due to the plot point surrounding Fuyusaka, Morimura and Chihiro, all three shared the same voice actress: Atsumi Tanezaki. As scenes were recorded out of story order, the recording team needed a dedicated worksheet showing which scene called for what emotion so the actors would not make any serious mistakes with characterizations. Kaneko had a difficult task balancing out the music and dialogue in different scenes, made more complicated by the scenario's complex structure. Full voice acting, including the Thought Cloud dialogue sections, was a later addition chosen to promote player immersion. Due to this task, Kaneko had to carefully sync voice clips with keywords from the Thought Cloud so that it would not sound like random noise, along with filtering the music and environmental effects so the voice work came through clearly.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels" was announced at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show. Prior to the announcement, the game was teased in a preview video in July 2015 as a collaboration project between Atlus and Vanillaware following the public reveal of "Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir". The delay and cancellation of the Vita version was announced in November 2018. "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Prologue" was released in Japan on March 14, 2019. It came in both a standalone edition and a special edition which included artwork and a mini soundtrack. A demo that allows players to access the first three hours of the game was released in Japan on October 30, 2019. The game was released in Japan on November 28, 2019. An Asian release for Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia was published by Sega on March 19, 2020. A manga anthology based on the game, featuring stories from each character's perspective, was released on September 10, 2020.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels" was originally set to be released outside of Japan on September 8, 2020 before being delayed until September 22. Pre-orders included an artbook, with limited quantities for the game's physical edition. The localization was led by Atlus West's Allie Doyon. She commented that the project's voice director had a difficult time explaining the complicated storyline to the actors, saying she lost count of the number of times they used the phrase "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" to explain it. As there was no lead protagonist, each actor only got their own side of the narrative and the team had to integrate the recordings with this separation in mind. The complexity of the plot, the continual adjustments to voicework in the Japanese version, and the way dialogue was delivered in small pieces during scenes rather than in a dedicated dialogue box all presented challenges for the localization. For the European localization co-managed by Sega's regional branch, the team used the Japanese script rather than the English one for translations into French, German, Italian and Spanish. The game was published in the region by Sega.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The team were beginning English dub recording when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their schedule. The only actor to finish recording before the pandemic forced Atlus West to close their sound studios was Kaiji Tang, who voiced Hijiyama. The studio heads, voice actors and localizers collaborated on a solution, with the actors doing the rest of their recording using conference call software within makeshift sound studio environments set up within their homes. Due to the makeshift recording conditions, the sound editing department at Atlus West had a greater workload cleaning up recordings to ensure uniform sound quality. Shorter recording sessions, together with connection problems that occurred from time to time and the toll of isolation on both actors and sound staff, also proved difficult. The voice acting took a collaborative effort between Atlus, Sega, Vanillaware and Basiscape. Doyon referred to "13 Sentinels" as one of her favorite video game project up to that point in her career. A Nintendo Switch version was released on April 12, 2022 in the West and two days later in Japan. An August 2022 patch added the Switch port additions and updates to the PS4 version.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. The narrative and characters were universally praised for their complexity and compelling nature, though a few found it difficult to follow or overly reliant on jargon, or cited uneven character writing and occasional pacing issues. The gameplay was met with generally positive comments, though the RTS sections were seen as the weaker part of the experience. The visuals were also met with general praise, though the battle displays were faulted compared to the adventure segments. The music was also met with praise, while the localization saw positive responses from Western reviewers.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: Japanese magazine "Famitsu" lauded the game's presentation and narrative, with two of the four reviewers giving it a perfect score. "Destructoid"s CJ Andriessen lauded the game as intriguing, feeling that only the RTS battle sections held the game back from being Vanillaware's best game to date. Malindy Hetfeld of "Eurogamer" compared the attention to detail in its worldbuilding to the work of Hideo Kojima and generally enjoyed the game although she faulted the lack of central plot and portrayal of both straight and LGBT romance. Joe Juba, writing for "Game Informer", praised the narrative delivery and art style of the adventure sections despite finding the RTS sections weaker in both gameplay and presentation. Heidi Kemps of "GameSpot" called it an unforgettable experience and "a unique, genre-mixing experiment", lauding its narrative and art style while again faulting the RTS gameplay as weaker overall.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: "IGN"s Matt Kim called the RTS gameplay style "commendable", but cited the storytelling and adventure art style as the main reasons for buying the game. Robert Ramsey of "Push Square" gave the title a near-perfect score, lauding the experience overall despite pacing issues with the narrative. Alex Fuller, writing for "RPGamer", enjoyed the game's combat and felt that the narrative, while enjoyable, was not interactive enough and took up too much of the gameplay. Alana Hagues of "RPGFan"—referencing a 2009 interview with Kamitani on his ideal game—felt that Kamitani and Vanillaware had "have achieved their ultimate goal", lauding the overall game design and strength of narrative. Josh Torres of "RPG Site" gave the game a perfect score, lauding it as a new landmark in video game storytelling and praising the overall package despite its RTS elements appearing weaker.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: In an update to the original review, Kemps noted that very little was graphically lost in the transition from the PlayStation 4 version to the Nintendo Switch version, calling the port "superb". Mitch Vogel of "Nintendo Life", while finding the combat repetitive and some of the story delivery confusing, generally lauded the game as enjoyable and strongly recommended it for genres fans and players of visual novels. "RPGFan"s Cory Tischbein, while echoing general praise of the narrative and graphics while noting the weaker combat system, said the game stood as one of the strongest gaming experiences on the Switch. Nathan Lee of "RPG Site" gave the game a perfect score, citing it as a great port and praising it as being additionally pretty to look at on the Switch's OLED model.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: In Japan, during its opening week, all retail versions of the game sold just over 34,200 units, debuting in fifth place in the charts. These low sales were blamed by Kamitani on the game's blend of genres, difficult production, and releasing alongside other popular titles. While initial sales were low, positive word of mouth from both players and other industry figures caused sales to increase, resulting in stock shortages. It remained in the top 30 best-selling titles into January, with total physical sales of nearly 59,500 units. By this point, physical and digital sales had reached 100,000 units. In their fiscal report, Atlus said that "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" exceeded their sales expectations. Following its worldwide release, the game had sold over 300,000 copies by January 2021. By November 2022, physical shipments and digital sales surpassed 800,000 copies.


title: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

text: The game won the awards for "Best Scenario" and "Best Adventure Game" at the "Famitsu"/"Dengeki" Game Awards 2019, whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year", "Best Graphics", and "Best Rookie Game". It received a nomination in the "Media" category for the 51st annual Seiun Awards in 2020, the only video game nominee that year. The game was also nominated for "Best Narrative" at The Game Awards 2020. In "IGN"s "Best of 2020", "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" was one of the nominees in their "Best Adventure/Puzzle" and "Best Video Game Art Design" categories.


title: Da 5 Bloods

text: Da 5 Bloods is a 2020 American war drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Spike Lee. It stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jean Reno, and Chadwick Boseman (in his last movie released during his lifetime). The film's plot follows a group of four aging Vietnam War veterans who return to the country in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader, as well as the treasure they buried while serving there.


title: Da 5 Bloods

text: Originally written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo in 2013, the script was re-worked by Lee and Kevin Willmott following the pair's successful collaboration in "BlacKkKlansman" (2018). The cast joined in February 2019 and filming began a month later, lasting through June and taking place in Southeast Asia. With a production budget of $35–45 million, it is among Lee's most expensive films.


title: Da 5 Bloods

text: The film was released by Netflix on June 12, 2020. It received acclaim from critics, who praised the direction, themes, and the performances of Lindo and Boseman, with many considering it among Lee's best works. The film received numerous accolades, including nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and was named by the National Board of Review as the Best Film of 2020.


title: Da 5 Bloods

text: During the Vietnam War, a squad of Black US Army soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, Paul, Otis, Eddie, Melvin, and their squad leader Norman, who dub themselves the "Bloods," secure the site of a CIA airplane crash and recover its cargo, a locker of gold bars intended as payment for the Lahu people for their help in fighting the Viet Cong. The Bloods decide to take the gold for themselves and bury it so they can retrieve it later. However, in the ensuing Vietnamese counter-attack, Norman is killed, and the Bloods cannot locate the buried gold after a napalm strike obliterates the identifying landmarks.


title: Da 5 Bloods

text: In the present day, Paul, Otis, Eddie, and Melvin meet up in Ho Chi Minh City. A recent landslide had uncovered the tail of the crashed plane, and with this new information, they plan to find the gold and Norman's body. Otis reunites with his old Vietnamese girlfriend Tiên, who reveals that he is the father of her grown child. Tiên introduces the Bloods to Desroche, a French businessman who agrees to help the Bloods smuggle the gold out of Vietnam once they retrieve it. Soon thereafter, they are joined by Paul's son David, who has a tempestuous relationship with his father.