pauseandselect

Thank you for your support!

Hello everyone, as many of you are aware, my microphone recently broke so I was getting a new one. Thank you VERY MUCH for your help, I've decided to go with this one. I'll keep everyone updated if there are issues.

The next video will very likely be the Stevie Suan video, followed by the P5R video. I'm trying to get interviews locked down for the Hokkaido video, but it's very difficult right now considering the people I'm trying to interview.

Progress Tracking

Hello everyone! I hope you're doing okay! This post is just to update you on current developments. I've got a few screenshots of one of the projects here. If this post is really, my apologies. My keyboard unfortunately is on the fritz, so typing is somewhat difficult.

Rough Intro P5R video

Hi everyone,

Sorry I wasn't able to update you regularly, but it's been a busy time. I've been doing a lot of projects at once. I wanted to update you on a rough introduction I've been working on for the P5R video, which is probably going to come out after the Stevie Suan video.

Here it is, I still need to hammer it out:

Intro

If you’re into anime and manga - which odds are for this channel, you probably are - you might have some familiarity with one of the west’s most popular entries: Death Note. It’s a series concerning a young man, Light Yagami, who finds a mysterious artifact that lets him kill anyone he wants, albeit with a set of specific rules on how it actually happens.

Okay, so Light decides he’s going to kill people he deems to be undesirables; criminals. This catches the attention of Interpol, and among them genius detective L. Death Note is a cat and mouse game between two young people who believe that what they’re doing are for the right reasons, even if that righteousness’ existence is somewhat…convenient.

And it gets talked about a lot. It’s partly an examination of power and morality, of ethics and justice and what precisely can or must be done to preserve what someone deems to be a proper, lawful society.

But at the end of the manga, there’s a really interesting bunch of panels. People are huddled on top of a mountain, under pale moonlight, and they’re wishing for Kira’s return. On one hand this is the desire for a return of someone to enact justice, to bring punishment. But there’s another message that is interesting: see, in Japanese discourse, Death Note has another meaning that gets peddled around: it’s partly a discussion of survivalist tactics between young people pitted in a neoliberal society.

Light and L’s cat and mouse aren’t just declarations of one’s sense of justice against another, but also the pitting of two young people’s understanding of the world, of society, and how privilege, hard work, and talent are intricate components. In other words, Death Note’s examination of the ethical murderfest can also be seen as a metaphor for neoliberalism and accumulation. In this lens, the position of people like Light Yagami can be seen in class dimensions - he has access to the police, to information, and a lot of insider knowledge on the Death Note, and a lot of that starts to feel like the power of people born into wealth. L, on the other hand, is an orphan - he is the self-made person idolized by greater society.

I’m not saying that ethical or judicial readings of Death Note - of which there are many - aren’t wrong. Hell, even the two producing it don’t shy away from it. What I am saying is that Death Note is a really useful example of how even nonphysical elements of a text can itself be metaphor, and that’s really interesting. We tend to think of works on the level of direct or outright engagement, and then there’s a metaphorical component beneath that. This literal thing happens, but beneath it is a metaphor. But we tend to spend a lot less time and effort thinking about metaphysical and nonphysical subjects as a metaphor for another metaphysical or nonphysical subject.

We can look at a text and discuss its treatment of existentialism, subjectivity, and worlding - but what if existentialism, subjectivity, and worlding is itself opening the doors to another topic?

In this light, if Death Note can be seen as a discussion on the struggles of class in neoliberal Japan, then the last few panels can be seen as a warning of the return of authoritarianism. The loss of Kira - as a seeming revolutionary force birthed in the carriage of privilege - alongside the eventual return to chaos in Death Note reveals a different kind of thematic logic; that if the contractions of an economically unjust society isn’t addressed, then another will surely emerge, or at least, the people will yearn for another.

The metaphor has become a metaphor.

Let’s keep that in mind for Persona 5 Royal, and its fairly metaphorical examination of mental health, class, the body, and what struggle entails in Japan.

Update Post on Next Videos

Hi everyone,

This is to update y'all on what's next. The current project is focusing on two things:

• Persona 5 Royal (and its application of visions of therapy, especially in the context of the post-9/11 Japanese malaise)

• Stevie Suan's video on anime performativity, specifically his work in Anime's Identity

I will be prioritizing it based on the footage I can get first. If I can get all of the footage I need for P5R, I'll shift to P5R. If I can get all of the footage for Suan's video, I'll shift to that. Then I'll update you.

I'm currently working on another project (which will come after) that concerns the content production experiences in Hokkaido. It'll take a while because I'm trying to line up some more interviews, but obviously as a one-man crew with a relatively small subscriber count my channel doesn't scream big media outlet, so let's play that by ear for now.

Thanks again for all of your support, it means a lot!

Final Cut Akiba Video

Hi everyone, here's the (hopefully) final cut for the video. Hopefully there are no issues, I've sent it to a friend for a final passthrough, it's been OK'd by Patrick, but once that's done I'll be working on the sources page and whatnot.

May 19 Progress

Hello everyone! I am a littledrink when I am uploaing this video, so m apologies

Here is the progres for the video, I have most of the stuff doe,I jeust eed to check copyright an to send to atrick for last verifictiojs

As always, thanks for your auppost!

May 06 Progress, Basic Clip Cut

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well!

I've got a basic clip cut for the video now, this is the intended content length. I still need to do a lot of things like:

• create and add the AE clips

• level the audio so it's all consistent

• add preambles and openings

• add closing credits

And there's some other footage that needs to be added (visible by the text I left). But this is the big skeletal framework finished. I am sending this now because on the 10th, I have to defend my dissertation, so I am going to be devoting my efforts to working on my presentation slides and having a basic idea of what to talk about.

Once that's finished and squared away (which is hopefully soon), I'll resume editing the video. If you have any questions, please let me know, and as always, I am deeply appreciative of your support! It's been a huge financial help, and I can't thank you enough.

Also, the movie reviews will continue once this video is finished and uploaded. If my PhD is finished, I should have enough free time to start working on the movie reviews a bit more steadily.

April 28 Progress

Hi everyone, here's the current progress!

I'm uploading this now because I'll be in Tokyo this coming week. I'll be getting more footage for the video, I've run out a bit of footage, so my aim is to get some more (aim is Ikebukuro, possibly Asagaya, and then a few more places).

I think this video will be around 45 minutes in total, but there is a possibility it'll go to 55 minutes. The next part hasn't been trimmed down, but this is an update so far.

Progress Log, 2025-04-21

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't been able to update you all on the video. This is the current progress, I think it's going to be around 45 minutes in total. I'm going to try and continue editing about an hour or so after work every night this week. I have to visit and guide people around during Golden Week, so I can't edit next week, but I'll try and get as much as I can. Again, really sorry about that, it's just been a really busy and exhausting set of weeks and it's been hard to come home and edit on top of everything else.

March 31 Progress

Hi everyone,

I'm really sorry about the delay. There's not much of an excuse. Currently I moved into a new apartment, and for those of you familiar with Japan March and April are really notorious moving days. That means notorious internet setup days, so aside from cellular data I didn't have internet for most of March. Given that so much of my material is online (because I have limited laptop storage), that meant I had limited access to my footage. However, since a few days ago I've been able to get internet footage, so I'll be back to editing at a regular pace. This is the current pace so far, again, really sorry!

No Update this week, Apartment Snafu

Hi everyone, I just wanted to update everyone that I wasn't able to get much done this week in terms of editing. Main reason is because I was moving apartments and there's a ton of paperwork I needed to do and a bunch of meetings I needed to go to for it, so it ate up the little free time I had. The rest was spent being sick but going to work anyways.

My aim is to get some more done, the next section shouldn't take as long as before because I have a lot of B-Roll for that part.

Akihabara Video February 11 Progress

Hi everyone,

Here's the progress for the Akiba video! Technically this is around the halfway mark - the video aims to be around 45 minutes long. That said, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done (like finding footage, fixing audio, adding sounds, etc.), so this is still a rough cut. Tracks might also change.

As always, thanks for your support, I appreciate everyone helping out. I still work a full time job, so I've been editing in my spare time, which is usually about once or twice a week. My hope is to get it done by March.

2025-02-03 Editing Progress

Hi everyone, sorry about the delays. I was quite busy with work during January, but I got a little more time starting now, so my hope is I'll have more time in February.

2025-01-04 Progress

Hi everyone, here's the progress up until 10 minutes out of an aim for 45. As you can see there's a lot of work that still needs to be done, such as getting footage and making animations, as well as getting some other footage.

I'll stop making daily updates because it would be very annoying for people to find, so I'll update people weekly on the video progress as it happens.

2025-01-03 Progress

Hi everyone, it's the beginning of the editing progress videos again, this here is the progress so far of the basic cut with the Akiba video.

My plan is for the video to be around 45 minutes, so this should give a basic idea of my progress.

Stevie Suan Interview, Full

Hi everyone, here's the unedited full interview with Stevie Suan, which will be one of the videos after the Akiba (or Persona 5) video.

Interview: Patrick Galbraith, Full

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the delay. There's not much of an excuse, I've just been working and finishing up a lot of other projects. I was recently sick and busted my hand real good, so it was a bit of a hassle to get working on the project.

That said, here's Patrick's unedited (well, content-wise) full interview, I'll be using this as the base of the upcoming video on Akiba.

Will upload Stevie and Patrick's Interviews end of week

Hi everyone, sorry about the delay.

I've been busy and have been dealing with a problem with my wrist, so it's been a little difficult getting to things. I'll be uploading Stevie and Patrick's (largely unedited) interviews up by the end of this week, and I'll be working on the Akihabara video in October.

Sorry about the delays on everything. I'll also update the budget, sorry on that as well.

Walking around Akihabara with Patrick Galbraith

Hi everyone,

This here is an almost entirely unedited tour of Akihabara with Patrick Galbraith, which is part of the footage I'll be using for my upcoming video on the decline of Akihabara. There are several technical issues (especially the rolling blinds, I had forgotten to set shutter speed to 50, and for some reason the camera didn't want to auto focus, so I had to manually focus). It's also my first time handling the gimbal in a long capacity, so my apologies.

However! The audio is fine, so it's definitely doable as a listening video. Normally these videos are members-only, but I've set this to public because it was technically an idea that came about from the folks at The Weeb Crew, so I felt like I had to at the very least make it accessible for them and their audience, haha.

Stills from the videos in progress

Hi everyone,

I want to update all of you on the videos in progress, specifically the ones with Stevie Suan on Anime's Identity and Patrick Galbraith on Akihabara. It's thanks to your continued support that I was able to fly down and speak to them during my vacation week and get a lot of good footage. I'll be compiling and compositing the interviews in the coming weeks and uploading them to the Patreon as I work on the videos.

August 11-15th, will be in Tokyo to shoot for Suan and Galbraith video

Hi everyone, as the title says, on August 11-15th, I'll be in Tokyo to shoot the interviews for Stevie Suan and Patrick Galbraith. Thank you very much for the financial support, I'll be using the recent Patreon payout to get a gimbal for the camera.

If you have any questions you'd like me to send to either Stevie or Patrick, let me know and I can see if I can ask them in person about it.

As always, thanks for your support! I know it's been a while since I made a video, but it's one of those things where I have a lot of projects in the works at the same time (due to scheduling and production timeline stuff on top of my full-time job), so this support has been a huge lifesaver in terms of getting things done.

Will upload more stock footage

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't uploaded much of the b-roll. I found out a bunch of them were pretty bad because I forgot to bring a neutral density filter, so now I'm seeing if they can be salvaged somehow.

To keep everyone up to date, I have some days off in August, which is when I'll be re-recording my work with Stevie Suan. In the meantime, I'll be working on the P5R script, doing research right now and with a full time job that means I'm working on it piecemeal in my spare time. Really sorry it's taking so long.

Uploading Footage, Budget, and Game

Hi everyone, sorry about the promise to update and then...well...not updating lol. However, I want to say that after a long radio silence I've updated the budget, it's once again found at pauseandselect.com/budget.

Second, I'll be uploading footage that I've taken of Kyoto, which is largely B-Roll, so it's not necessarily super amazing or artsy, it's meant to be B-Roll and it's mostly streets cause I'm working on a video on Japanese streets, so I'm taking footage. I'll be uploading them piecemeal because my internet I think throttles when I upload or download TOO much at once. Anyone is free to use them, but they haven't been stabilized nor license plates have been blurred, so word of warning.

Last, I've also released a stable (but still bad) alpha of a game that I was working on and off, you find it at https://pauseandselect.itch.io/project-alpha-09, the password for the game page is cheese. It's not a good game, its primarily a conceptual system that wrapped a game around, so it's nothing fancy or exciting, but if you ever decide to stream it, send me a link and I'll watch your stream.

Videos are still in the works, of course, next one is Persona 5 Royal. Melancholy is working on getting the footage so we have good footage.

Planning, Structure

Hi everyone, I am BACK! Again!

I wasn't able to log in for a while because I accidentally locked myself out of 2FA, but now I should be okay!

So long story short here are the three videos I'm planning on:

• 2 Parter with Stevie Suan in person, on What is Anime, and his book Anime's Identity

• A video on Persona 5 Royal and the limitations of ludotherapy

• A video on the urban planning of Sapporo, and how Urban Planning Youtube has an infrastructure deterministic perspective on urban planning

Some of these videos will take a while, but they're also uniquely possible because of my move to Japan for work, so my hope - my hope - is to be able to get decent (or at least, unique) footage for what I want to talk about.

Okay, I am BACK!

Sorry about the delay everyone, I've been setting up for work overseas, and haven't had the time to sit down and, well, work on the next video (P5). But now that my life is somewhat stabilizing, I can devote more and more to the research and writing for the next video. I do most stuff on my laptop, and since it was held in limbo for a few weeks, I didn't have many avenues to contact everyone. Sorry about the delays, my sincerest apologies, but my aim is to get a P5 script sometime out in April, and then start editing.

I do want to warn everyone that my latest video will be much simpler visually because it'll be edited entirely on my laptop. Therefore, there's a real physical limits on what I can and can't do, but hopefully it turns out well regardless!

The Stevie Suan 2 parter is still on track; I've been in on and off contact with Stevie and I'm planning on getting him in an in-person sit-down interview.

February Update

Hi everyone,

Just to keep everyone in the loop, I'm moving the end of this week for work, and then once I get set up and internet figured out in my apartment I'll be working on getting the reviews in.

Really really sorry it's taking so long. I've been trying to square away a lot of other stuff that I needed to get finished (I have a bunch of academic journal papers that are all due on the same day), so I ended up prioritizing those.

Since I'm bringing my laptop, I do want to mention that a lot of my editing will kinda be a lot less...visually overdone?...because obviously it'll be dependent on how well my laptop can handle it.

Next Video: Persona 5

Hi everyone, the next video will be on Persona 5, as mentioned, the Lamarre and Lord Knight stuff is publicly available. When I have a basic script figured out, I'll post it to keep everyone up to date! I am moving sometime at the beginning of March and then kinda AWOL until I figure out internet, so I might be really quiet in the coming months.

Update Post

Hi everyone! Now that the P4 video is out, I want to update everyone on what's going on. Movie reviews are coming back, next one is Michael Clayton, followed by Donnie Darko.

The next video is Persona 5. 

Originally it was going to be the Stevie Suan video. However, in March I'll be working and living in Japan, and since Stevie is based out of Tokyo, that lets me set up an in-person interview. Therefore, I'm thinking of doing the Anime two-parter with Stevie Suan in person, hopefully it will let us get some good footage, and that will make the video more fun overall.

Since I'll be getting internet and whatnot set up in the first month or so, I needed a project that lets me work on it while I have some really compromised internet connections, so the Persona 5 video just made sense. As always, I'll upload a preliminary script once I have something figured out. 

Persona draft nearly done, taking Patron questions

Hi everyone,

The Persona draft is slated for publishing either this weekend or early next week, and this is one of those "patron questions at the end of the video" threads. Just respond to this and I'll include it in the video.

Editing Progress: Persona 4

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a good New Year's. Here's the progress. I am nearly done the main cuts. I have a lot of things to time and fix, but that should be done over the next week, meaning this video will come out in a week or so.

There's only one part that hasn't been done, but hopefully I can get it done by the end of the weekend.

I haven't fixed the audio yet or recorded a few more scenes. As always, if you have Patreon questions, please ask them here. That way I can answer them in the video.