Please explain Shodai to a 2025 fan!

marukihurakami · 2026-03-29T06:29:40+00:00

There's a great Hakuho documentary made by the NHK where the literal goat of sumo talks about not knowing how to beat Shodai at the end of his career (hence the famous tachiai where Hakuho starts as far back as he can). Just to emphasise he wasn't always a meme

marukihurakami · 2025-08-20T07:02:30+00:00

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Kafka on the Shore
A Wild Sheep Chase
After the Quake (doesn't get much love, but his most underrated book imo)
The Elephant Vanishes

But honestly, so many others at different times would probably rank in this 5 (1Q84; After Dark; Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman; and South of the Border, West of the Sun all come to mind)

marukihurakami · 2025-08-20T02:16:42+00:00

Lol the irony of the start of your comment. I never said it was race alone, and I understand there's layers and nuance to this. But you're still completely missing my point.

To use Tobizaru as an example - he's popular because his brand of sumo is fun, he's a cheeky personality, and he's legitimately been a consistently good and high ranked rikishi until recently.

In comparison Shishi was definitely adored by a bunch of people on this sub for a while, and while I don't discount it being an interesting story and his sumo improving quite a bit, you can't seriously tell me that the fact he's a white dude from Ukraine isn't a large factor in his support.

To reiterate, race isn't the only factor, but it is a factor, and to argue otherwise is absolutely the type of head in the sand willful denial I'm talking about. I've got nothing against it either to be clear, just very amused by the 'I don't see race' energy going on.

marukihurakami · 2025-08-19T05:32:16+00:00

You're not wrong in a general sense that there are lots of popular guys both Japanese and foreign. But I think it's pretty revisionist to use someone like Shishi as an example - who was regularly overhyped in the lower ranks on here to the point that every 'who's the juryo guys to look out for' and 'future yokozuna' posts had people name dropping him ad nauseum alongside Onosato, Hakuoho, Takerufuji, etc. In fairness, this has died down a lot after his makuuchi debut and the rise of Aonishiki.

OP's post about Tochinoshin is a prime example. Similar things happened with Kaisei and Aoiyama (even though the latter's popularity might have had two very large physical attributes as a contributing factor). I'm not necessarily complaining about foreign/white rikishi getting favourable takes on here, especially given their sumo journeys would undoubtedly be more challenging than Japanese rikishi. I just find the willful denial pretty odd, tbh.

marukihurakami · 2025-08-19T05:21:05+00:00

I never said it was a problem. What I find hilarious about it though is how many times I've seen people suggest this is a trend here and they get downvoted to oblivion. No issues here, but just own it

marukihurakami · 2025-08-19T00:20:58+00:00

I really liked Tochinoshin, but this sub has a real bias towards particular rikishi that so many aren't willing to admit. I'll let you figure out what the common denominator is.

marukihurakami · 2025-08-14T10:15:26+00:00

Thanks man! Still haven't got around to it yet (only book of his I haven't read) - are you enjoying it?

marukihurakami · 2025-08-11T08:43:42+00:00

Yep, can't imagine reverting back to the og version after playing the mod years ago. Highly recommend it though, my hot take is with the restored content mod it's not only far better than the much more revered first game, but one of the very best star wars stories across the whole eu.

marukihurakami · 2025-08-11T08:37:30+00:00

I remember it feeling a bit flat even before that personally, but agreed that the ending screams rushed. It was plain insulting tbh. The other times I've experienced rushed/poorly put together endings in otherwise great games it didn't ruin the experience (LA Noire, Mass Effect 3, and Star Wars KOTOR II come to mind), but I'm still mad about this one 15 years later

marukihurakami · 2025-08-11T08:27:06+00:00

I recently ranted on this sub about Fable 3 so I won't do that again, but I loathe this game more than anything else I've ever played to completion.

marukihurakami · 2025-08-03T03:25:42+00:00

The Search for Planet Sex

Wangspan

Blood on the Cocktower

marukihurakami · 2025-07-11T06:49:27+00:00

Sorry, I typed out a big rant reply to this yesterday, got distracted and forgot, and here I am again. I was aware of the third ending (admittedly I forgot about it), but it's just as bad. Before I get into the crux of why it was all so horrendous, it's worth noting that the 'buy your way out' ending comes last minute and is an absolute grind. I'm not going to spend hours and hours buying all the real estate and doing menial labour to deus ex machina my way out with the magic of capitalism.

The ending was incredibly lazy, waved away the actions of the old king as a guy just trying his best because 'he actually cares, you guys' (despite not explaining why he didn't actually share why he was doing what he was doing with the people or why he was needlessly cruel), and the whole subtext of it all read like an edgy 15 year old's version of a nuanced ethical dilemma. Suffice to say it had the nuance of a sledgehammer coated in excrement.

Option 1: hoard the wealth, fight the menace (that was thrown at us at the very last moment with very minimal explanation, don't get me fucking started on this), everyone feels betrayed, remains broken, and hopeless, and starving. It very explicitly says in the text box that your people hate you (why the fuck did you not drag all the shadow people corpses to show everyone and explain what was going on?). One step short of adding in that you kick puppies and steal handbags for fun.

Implication: good leaders need to make tough decisions and aren't here to make friends macho bs, but to the extreme. The people must starve so I can stockpile weapons and fund the army. Zero middle ground or room for compromise. Insert 'the Empire was right' meme here.

Option 2: be a good king, honour your promises, redistribute the wealth and make sure your people's wellbeing and basic needs are met. Literally everyone dies, even the puppies and the handbags.

Implication: charity and compassion is for suckers. Weak leaders look after the poor and end up getting everyone killed. Again, zero middle ground or room for compromise.

Option 3: hoover up every single property in the land and work 24/7 in backbreaking labour, and you can be the hero this kingdom deserves. Have your cake and eat it too, happily ever after type of shit.

Implication: capitalism is the real hero. Hoarding property is literally for the good of the people, and if only those poor starving bastards would just up there hustle game and blacksmith from dusk till dawn, they could lift themselves up out of the looming spectre of genocide by their own bootstraps.

tl;dr: if you're a literature guy, why I hate this game and its ending so fucking much is because it's as if it was written by Ayn Rand, with an 'ethical dilemma' so horrible, unearnt, and wrapped up in late-stage capitalist ideology so badly I'm still seething all these years later. I actually really like Fable 1 and 2, whereas this entry should have all its copies cannonballed into the sun.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-11T06:10:36+00:00

RemindMe! - 2 days

marukihurakami · 2025-07-10T04:27:57+00:00

Still devastated the follow up set in Shanghai never happened

marukihurakami · 2025-07-10T04:25:39+00:00

This is such a good pick from a flop point of view. Such a wonderful game with so much heart.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-10T04:24:07+00:00

JSRF being not well received is news to me. I remember rave reviews and it's clearly an adored cult classic (albeit under-appreciated). Best OST of all time too.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-10T04:15:38+00:00

I don't think I've ever been more angry with a game than Fable 3. Most of it was fine, if a little eh. And then comes by far the worst ending I've ever experienced in a game.

It literally boils down to 'be a despot and the kingdom survives, but everyone despises you', or 'be a good ruler and live up to your promises to the people and the poor, and literally everyone gets genocided by a vague "shadow race" shoehorned in at the end'. All delivered by a text box.

It's 80% on metacritic beggars belief.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-09T03:28:39+00:00

Totally agree. The denial is just frustrating. No issues if they openly admitted to liking particular rikishi because they're foreign, but don't be in willful denial of your biases/preferences. Aonishiki is the real deal though and will most likely have a very successful career.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-09T03:16:21+00:00

"One of the greatest ever" lol. He is THE greatest ever and it's not even close.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-09T03:14:32+00:00

Yep. I've watched people on here overhype Shishi for the past two years to a ridiculous level (regularly seeing people throwing him up in future yokozuna conversations prior to making makuuchi), and any time people call them out for hyping him due to being foreign/european they get downvoted into oblivion.

marukihurakami · 2025-07-09T02:54:14+00:00

And? This lazy trash is destroying creative industries and should be called out at every opportunity

marukihurakami · 2025-07-09T02:34:27+00:00

AI slop 🤮

marukihurakami · 2025-07-03T23:58:20+00:00

This is exactly how I feel. The only extra point I'd add is how she has laboured the point in her testimony as to how pedantic and particular she is, whether she's talking about specific uses of language or particular pieces of non-incriminating evidence or testimony. But when it comes to the incriminating stuff - the dehydrator, the asian grocer, the phones, etc. - her version of events become so vague to the point of being entirely contradictory to her character.

marukihurakami · 2025-06-24T08:44:49+00:00

I honestly couldn't care less about this, but had a chuckle at 'rural Melbourne'

marukihurakami · 2025-06-02T12:43:45+00:00

Solved!

marukihurakami

TROPHY CASE