©若木民喜/みつみ美里・甘露樹(アクアプラス)/16bitセンセーションAL PROJECT
And here, I previously thought 16bit Sensation was a little too soft on criticism of exploitative game creation culture. After weeks of exploring opinions and extolling the virtues of working, often quite long and hard, at the art you love, Another Layer has now offered some reviews. frankness about its dark side. None of the topics discussed in this volume are technically new. But the dismissal of things like automation and overwork has given way to a complete disregard for writing and characters. To the point where there isn’t much time left for blatant otaku references—the anime has reached its conceptual climax.
This comes from confirming what could already be seen happening with the room full of human tubes that Konoha found last week. Planet Games Japan is capturing the imaginations of as many game creators as possible so they can keep wearing their dirty global gloves. The basics of AI generation were covered in last week’s episode for the audience’s benefit, so the large-scale horror of this setup was clear to see. Artists’ ideas are being used as a real-time data set to infinitely train the company’s creative tools. It’s all about pumping out more buzzy “content” to make money for the executives while the people who are ostensibly still making the game are stuck in an unconscious mind machine. 24/7. They still pay them fairly, CEO Glenn Faulkner assured Konoha.
As with the business-minded reincarnation of worldwide otaku culture foreshadowed in the tenth volume, this drastic sci-fi shift is hardly fiction. As discussed last week, AI-generated art and games have flooded the market with concerns about homogenization and dilution of creative works. Of course, the executive solution would not simply be to give in and allow artists to create at their own pace with comfortable remuneration, but instead make them face a personal nightmare. copy. I mean that literally, since the idea of unconscious employees working in their dreams was mentioned in a recent story about a startup in our timeline. It’s a terrible solution to a problem created by the desperation of previous development, serious enough for the Other Class to give it inadequate consideration.
Konoha, despite its simplicity, responded with blatant refusal. She recalls how she was raised on the artistically evolving technology of the 2010s and sees it as a one-way street that led to this horror show. She claims that advances like her digital painting technology will go to hell in the same basket of materials as AI and artist-absorbing brains. That’s the kind of conclusion she would come to; Konoha was a good girl who just wanted to create more of the things she loved, using what she had learned throughout her time working with them. She was never a “genius,” simply someone with decades of inspiration that she could deploy ahead of her time. For all the technical discussion about the downsides of AI and automation in this episode, watching Konoha crumble as she tries to rationalize her love for art with what she lost in pursuit of it still creates an emotional highlight for this entry.
Konoha might be firing on all cylinders as the real lesson of Another Layer seems to be a bit more nuanced and, as always, serious. Creating for passion can cause you to push yourself, work longer hours than necessary, and burn out your creativity for a while. But the end products of that effort can still be celebrated because they were ultimately created to bring joy and love. When Alcohol Soft pushed themselves to make The Last Waltz in 1999, that love was at the forefront of them working hard for themselves. In contrast, Planet Games Japan’s dungeon workers are being forced to do all of this at the behest of their executive leadership. Obviously, this is not the result of advanced artificial intelligence assimilating humanity—it all happens at the behest of humans (or humans as CEOs, as it were). Like the comparisons to Mamoru’s doubts about switching to Windows earlier in the anime, the issue was never about streamlining the game development process, nor was it about “talent.” which Toya is disappointed that she doesn’t have. The mere human act of creating anything is enough to contribute to the great culture of bishoujo.
That’s a lot for an episode anchored by an elaborately animated escape sequence and a last-minute diversion of seemingly returning aliens. But it’s the kind of meditation I keep coming back to in Other Classes all the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a cozy game development office or a shiny sci-fi hallway; The writer’s finger on the pulse of human creation resonates. And it’s so powerful that it speaks out so clearly against the natural enemies of that process in this week’s episode.
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The radio tower seen throughout this episode’s alternate future was confirmed this week as the “Akihabara Sky Tower”. It’s based on a real radio tower being considered for construction in Akihabara around 2001! Obviously, those plans failed in our universe, and instead the super-high airtime was taken over by Tokyo Skytree about ten years later. The song that Mamoru distracts a guard by popping up (from his smartwatch, strapped to a mouse because he’s that clever) is the target “Go Go Waitress” from Welcome To with Pia♥Carrot!! 2. A 1997 release by Cocktail Soft, it was, of course, the sequel to Welcome to Pia♥Carrot!!, which had been glimpsed during 16bit Sensation’s run. Of course, it’s another Tatsuki Amazuyu and Misato Mitsumi relationship.
16bit Sensation: Another Layer is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Chris mostly knows many of the characters in this VN game from the fighting games they appear in. You can find him musing about any number of gaming, anime and manga topics on the blog, as well as posting way too many screenshots of them for as long as it takes. Twitter allow.