Comics, Movies, Video Games, and More
"Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."
~Ephesians 5:16
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
GODZILLA IN HELL Retrospect
GODZILLA IN HELL ended last week with its fifth issue. For a short review, it was definitely interesting. Dave Wachter wrote Big G well and the art was very good. The shocking thing was the ending.
Godzilla rises out of the ocean, in real time.
So apparently the entire series featured Godzilla not in the actual Hell, but in his own personal hell. Basically, he goes through inner demons and eventually...conquers himself?
I will admit the concept is pretty interesting. Godzilla never actually died...or did he? As I type this it becomes a little more confusing because Big G could have died but somehow came back to life after going through all this. I'm inclined to believe, based on the quote provided in the last issue, that he never actually entered Hell, but as started earlier, he went through hell in the mind, which is definitely interesting.
Still, it could also be a disappointment since the descriptions kept telling us different things. Sure, one could make an argument that all the summaries were talking about hell inwardly. But one description talks about King Ghidorah sending him there, while another instead shows us the world blowing up because of a battle with SpaceGodzilla.
As you can see, continuity wasn't consistent, making this the most confusing Godzilla related thing yet. Confusing doesn't equal bad, of course. There's too much unique storytelling for any fan to miss. The first issue established the tone with the "Abandon Hope all ye who enter Here." It was the perfect starter as Godzilla battled a nightmarish version of himself. The second issue might be my favorite, for Bob Eggleton's elegant writing and incredible art. (It was the first actual painted Godzilla comic!)
The third issue was perhaps the most strange. We had these Mothra angels trying to get Godzilla to enlist in battling the demons. As I said in my review, that was too cool of a concept to bring up and throw away. I was also not a fan of how it tried to depict these angelic beings as antagonistic. Considering the title, it would have been nice to see some angels aiding Godzilla out of the place.
(But if this is some kind of dream landscape, then technically none of this actually happened in real time.)
Issue 4 had Godzilla's two greatest enemies: King Ghidorah and Destoroyah. If this is a personal hell, then it's fascinating to see this since Godzilla himself considers battling these two together one of the most brutal things imaginable. The final issue sort of brings it all together. As already stated, it ends with him rising out of the water.
So looking back, when looked at from #5 ending's perspective, GODZILLA IN HELL offers a very unique view into the mind of the monster, which very few things have done in the past. We see G enter his hell in the first issue, fighting a nightmarish version of himself. At the end of Issue 2 he battles whom he considers his greatest adversary. In Issue 3 we see the world, his home, blowing up. Issue 4 we see a nightmare scenario: him battling his two greatest foes. And finally we see him literally being turned into a skeleton in the final issue which is the final hell, death. But it doesn't end there. He rises, beating death, eventually reaches the summit, and rises out of the water.
Still, there are those strange dialogue inconsistencies. The issues are 95% without dialogue, but there is some contradictory narration detailing the events. This makes me think that the original idea was to have G go through the actual Hell, but in the end was changed. Besides the inconsistencies, the story is a definite must read. The Big G has never been in a story like this, and probably won't be again anytime soon.
Monday, November 16, 2015
ULTRAMAN Volume 1 Review
Ultraman is one of the most popular TV/toy properties in Japan right now. Since its debut in 1966, it has remained consistently a hit over there. The actual quality of the shows has waned in recent years, but that's an article for another day. Interestingly, there hasn't been that many manga for the series. (Or at least, some we can find out about!) That's part of the reason why ULTRAMAN was highly anticipated. After being out for four years in Japan, it has surprisingly been licensed over here. Volume 1 nicely establishes the story and provides plenty of references to the original series while being something intriguing for new fans.
Decades ago, a being known as the Giant of Light joined Shin Hayata of the Scientific Special Search Party to save Earth from an invasion of terrifying monsters known as Kaiju. Now, many years later, those dark days are fading into memory, and the world is at peace. But in the shadows a new threat is growing, a danger that can only be faced by a new kind of hero—a new kind of ULTRAMAN…What I found most appealing about the story is that it places itself in continuity after the original series. The intro was great, giving us a rather intriguing scenario: a future where Ultraman is only a memory. The Science Patrol museum was a lot of fun, showcasing Ultraman's final fight with Zetton in figure form. Interestingly, we have Hayata straight from the original show. It's really cool how it looks like he'll be an ongoing character. Then we have Ide also. If you're a fan of the 1966 series, there's a lot to like here. The beginning introduces us to Shinjiro, our main character in child form. There's a nice slow buildup of intrigue as we see he has certain abilities. This leads us to Hayata himself revealing to Ide that he too has powers. "The Ultraman Factor" the manga is calling it. It's quite fascinating, though explained rather quickly. Hopefully in the next volume it'll go into that a bit more.
Shinjiro is an ordinary teenager, but his father is the legendary Shin Hayata. When he learns that his father passed on the “Ultraman Factor” to him, and that he possesses incredible powers, nothing will ever be the same again.
In modern day the story really heats up, and also where we find at least one negative. Shinjiro might have been a happy kid back then, but here the writer (Eiichi Shimizu) goes out of his way to make him the stereotypical high school student. I suppose with not comprehending his powers it could be understandable. Still, it was grating to get through some of those school scenes. He seems to pick up later on when he's given the Ultraman armor. The pacing is very good. The slow unveiling to the antagonist is great. Is that Ultraman? Why does he have a center hole like him? That's why when Hayata says "That's NOT Ultraman" the reader is extra intrigued. So then who is he?
The answer to this day is still one of the coolest scenes in the first volume. This alien revealing himself to be Bemular changes things quite a bit. Longtime Ultraman watchers will remember Bemular to be the very first monster Ultraman fought. This adds a mystery element to the story: has this monster transformed into an alien? Is this a new Bemular? His dialogue is a bit confusing when he says, "My name is Bemular...and I'm your very first enemy!" Is he referring to the fact that he was Ultraman's first foe? Or that he's the first to come? It seems like the latter, so it should be interesting to see how this Bemular connects to the original.
The art by Tomohiro Shimoguchi is definitely very good, even great. The Ultraman armor looks really well done. Bemular however deserves even greater recognition. The art succeeds at making him appear mysterious and ominous. The fight in the climax between them was fantastic and if that's any indication we have many more incredible fight scenes to look forward to. The ending leaves us with a nice cliffhanger, introducing Alien Z-Ton to the mix. These guys have been a fixture in Ultraman since the original show, so it's a really neat ending. Plus, the art nails the design perfectly.
Overall, ULTRAMAN starts out strong. The writing is very good. It's obvious that both the writer and artist care about the source material. It is a must-read for longtime fans. It connects in a fascinating way to the first TV series and continues the story of Hayata, arguably the best Ultraman human host. Shinjiro I'm more mixed on as the protagonist, but it's only the first volume so we'll see where character development takes him. Bemular is firmly established as a great antagonist. Combine that with an intriguing cliffhanger and you have a reader greatly anticipating the next installment.
4.5/5
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Out of the Water: Reflecting on God's Promises
As I rose out of the water this past Sunday at church, a joy had washed over me. Getting baptized was something that had always been on the back of my mind. Finally, after waiting too long, I went up on stage, shared my testimony, and walked down into the water. The anticipation made me nervous, but that nervousness disappeared as I walked onto the platform.
I was happy to share my story, because it reminded me of how far I had come, and what could be an inspiration to others in the audience.
After that event, I began to reflect on what it means to be a saved person, a Christian. Many people get so caught up in various denominations and rituals that they lose sight of the bigger picture. It's sad the key thing gets forgotten: the Good News.
As I opened my Bible this past week I was reminded about some of the glorious promises God has made to his children, born again believers. Jesus states that "this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up on the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and raise him up on the last day."
What a wonderful, simple truth which sadly many people just don't understand. Many choose not to believe in the Son, laugh, and walk away. And on other other side, there are those who believe that we somehow have to be good enough for God to accept us; we have to somehow make sure our good outweighs the bad in order for a belief to work.
But what a great thing here Jesus Himself states. We'll never be good enough. He is the only One good enough, and we must simply believe in him. This is such a fundamental truth of Christianity that is skewed around. We don't "get good" enough for Christ to accept us. We strive to become good because His love compels us to change.
I know this firsthand. For a few years I had an ongoing sin problem. When I came to faith, God planted something in me that has helped me stop and strive to be better going forward.
And this leads me to this point, a verse I had never really thought too much about until reading through it recently. People bring up this concept of cheap grace to receive, but to continue living a sinful lifestyle. This doesn't make sense, because "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in Him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
A born again believer is a new person because they are born of God. And what's utterly fantastic is that He plants a seed, not just any seed but God's seed in that person, and it doesn't fade or go away. That's what separates Christians from the rest of the world. There's a seed inside us that grows as we follow Christ. The verse is not saying we are perfect people. Rather, it says we cannot go on deliberately sinning like we use to, because we have God's seed, His power within us.
That is monumental to really just take a moment and think about.
Finally, a verse that is quickly becoming a favorite and daily motivation is Philippians 1:6, perhaps the most fundamental promise for the Christian. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until day of Christ Jesus." What a promise, and let us not forget that "All of Scripture is God-breathed." Here is a promise saying God is going to finish the work He started in us ever since the day we came to faith. What a glorious thing to know that He is the One holding me together.
God is going to finish the work He started in me, and that's a great encouragement to know I'm secure in Him. And since His seed remains in me, I'm bent toward doing the right thing. We still have a responsibility to follow Jesus throughout this life, and we're able to do that because God has given us the power through the Holy Spirit.
These are such great truths to reflect on when worrying about things. God is going to finish the work He started in you when you came to faith. His seed will remain in you, and you are able to say no to sin, when in the past it was all too easy to give in. We look to the Son, and that inspires us to share this truth of salvation to others we run into.
I'll never forget the day I was baptized. I encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ to do it too if they haven't. It's a declaration of faith, and something Jesus commands His followers to do. As you read your testimony, your're reminded of how He rescued you from the bondage of sin and planted a permanent seed. In turn, we inspire others.
God is awesome.
Verse references: John 6:39-40, 1st John 3:9, Philippians 1:6, 2nd Timothy 3:16
Monday, October 5, 2015
SUPER MARIO MAKER Review
It doesn't take much to notice that the Mario series has been relatively quiet lately. The previous big game, 3D WORLD, came out two years ago. If that wasn't sad enough, 2014 broke the chain of an important game coming out yearly. Yes, we got Mario Kart 8 and...Captain Toad(?) but it was the first year in quite awhile not to feature the next 2D or 3D adventure. 2015 went vacant to the point I was starting to question if Nintendo was starting to run out of ideas or even go the Capcom or SEGA route...which is cease and desist for their mascot. Enter SUPER MARIO MAKER. This announcement was a complete surprise. At first the concept was just a little intriguing. "Create your own levels? That could be fun." was the mindset for many. As the months went on the hype level went extremely high as Nintendo really marketed it as the next big thing. By the time release day hit, it was one of the most hyped games of the year. Mario Maker is an amazing game, and really something we never knew how much we wanted. As a 30th anniversary celebrator, it's perfect.
One of the early criticisms was that everyone would have to wait 9 days to fully unlock all the features, backgrounds, etc. (Some have been able to bypass that, but for the review we'll talk about how it's meant to go down.) I too thought it was at first silly to have to wait, but as I went through the days I actually started to appreciate this. Mario Maker's stage building ability is not complex like Little Big Planet's, but you'll want to experiment slowly to fully appreciate each individual feature. For example, we don't have access to pipe sub-worlds until the final day, which might sound tedious on paper. But during those eight days the player would have mastered all the other features and they could prepare for the pipes because they know it's coming.
Once you have everything, the sky is almost the limit on what one can do. There are over 1,000,000 levels uploaded online. Some are fun, some are excruciating, and some are both. It's amazing what can be done because one can literally almost create their own game with these tools. Of course, while creating levels represents 50% of the draw, the other half is of course playing other creators' levels. A person can literally sit for hours just going through other creations. Plus, for a more standard way to do it we have the 100 Mario challenge. It's a great feature to play other levels in a systematic way. Expert mode is actually extremely difficult and I would say even more challenging than The Lost Levels!
The usage of Amiibos in this game might just be the most innovative. If you for example put a Pac-Man Amiibo the Gamepad, you can summon the chomper himself. You put him as a Mystery Mushroom and when you or someone grabs it, they instantly transform into Pac. It's a really neat gimmick since there are lots of characters whom can appear. (Even those without a 2D sprite, such as Olimar!) It's also fantastic how Nintendo added the little touches and didn't just make the Amiibos palette swaps of Mario. For example, when running as Sonic he does Spin-Dash, and with Pac he goes into his classic arcade self. It's a shame these only work in the 8-bit gameplay, but it's understandable.
One of the most interesting things about Mario Maker is its ability to play with backgrounds not seen in respective games. For example, Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the airship level. So, if you were to switch to 8-bit mode, we would get a retro version of the airship. It's the same with Super Mario World's ghost house. The possibilities will always be endless. One will be spending a lot of time in the Course World (online) part. There's a great level of satisfaction every time one uploads a new level. The problem is that everybody is limited to 10 at first. This wouldn't be a problem if say every month we're able to upload more. But that isn't the system. The system is that you're only able to upload more once a bunch of people star your levels. Here's the thing: there are over a million levels, so there's a good chance yours will get lost in the shuffle. I've had the game since about opening day and still stuck at 10 levels. It's a disappointing system because the player becomes less motivated to make new stages since it forces them to delete old ones.
While making levels is absolutely glorious, there are still some interesting loopholes one comes to notice as they make more and more. For one thing, boss fights are basically non-existent. Sure, we can have Bowser at the end with the axe as usual. But how about those Bowser Jr. battles in NSMBU where you have to beat him to proceed? In Mario Maker there's no real way to make a set boss battle where it requires the player to beat it. In the 10 Mario challenge for a primary example Nintendo obviously wants you to beat Bowser Jr., but why bother when you can just bypass him and hop in the pipe? Another thing is that while 1-Ups are always nice, there's technically no real use for them since each level is self contained. If there was a checkpoint system, then the 1-Ups could be utilized. In fact, it's strange that there's no checkpoints since Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U both have a checkpoint system.
Still, despite those loopholes, make no mistake: the level making is a true achievement in the history of gaming.
Overall, Super Mario Maker is a special game, and fitting for the franchise's 30th anniversary. It's extremely fun creating stages, for there are almost limitless things one can do. Amiibos are put to fantastic use. It's disappointing that one can only upload 10 levels at first, since there's a good chance the player will be stuck at that for awhile. Still, don't that deter you from picking this game up. Trust me, there's nothing like it on the market.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
WABBIT -A Looney Tunes Production Premiere Review
WABBIT is the latest installment in the Looney Tunes saga. I was personally dismayed because it came at the cost of the immensely underrated previous show. Still, Bugs Bunny is almost always engaging and despite comedies on Cartoon Network being terrible 99% of the time, Looney was made for the funny format. So, let's take a look at each segment individually and see if this show is worth continuing...or scrapping.
"Buddha Bugs"
One of the best things about an all-time classic like Looney Tunes is that there's no need to establish the characters. The viewer knows who they are. It's too bad the story here is pretty terribly written. So Yosemite Sam is stealing again, but when he runs unto a temple elder (Bugs Bunny in disguise) he finds out there's better treasure to acquire. Bugs has him do "tests" to prove Sam's worthy of receiving it.
This opening episode is not a good way to start the show. The running gags are annoying and I found myself with not so much a smirk. Yosemite Sam is grating to watch. (And if that wasn't enough, we're reduced to him running around in his underwear...) All the intelligent writing that was present in The Looney Tunes Show is non-existent here in this rather mindless episode. At least Bugs had one good line: "A prosperous journey begins with the first step." Perhaps the next few segments are better?
1/5
"Now and Zen"
This one has this squirrel named Squeaks run into some ninjas. Bugs Bunny is of course thrown into fray. This was much better than the previous one. Bugs had some of his signature humor and it almost felt like a classic Looney Tunes episode. The ninjas though were confusing since they weren't people...but what? The world may never know. The intro had some nice background music.
Let's hope the next two are as good!
4/5
"The Inside Bugs"
This one has Yosemite Sam (once again, hopefully they don't overuse him, cause it seems like that's the case) escape the bank with the "loot" as he calls it. His getaway car isn't what he expected: Bugs Bunny is the driver. This episode was definitely fun as we see Bugs in his traditional trolling persona. Still, there are a couple of needless moments. The running gag of Sam being thrown to and fro in the car got old quick. Really, by the third time a seat belt should have been buckled. And the police looking dumb is so overdone and annoying that the score will be lowered.
3.5/5
Can the last one end on a high note?
"Sun Valley Freeze"
This one has Bugs take a journey to go on vacation at a nice beach. Sadly, when he pops up his head he finds out he's in a snowy mountain. Then apparently a friendly version of Big Foot was following him. Not only that, but hazmat hunters are out to get the monster. This episode was very grating to watch, mostly because of how dumb Big Foot is portrayed. Not only that, but there's this glaring animation error present throughout the entire episode. Most of the time Bigfoot has no hands, but then sometimes they magically appear out of nowhere. It's strange, and I still can't figure it out.
There was virtually no funny moments to speak of here. The running gags are annoying, such as when Big Foot constantly throws Bugs at the mountain, missing the top. It felt like I wasted a good five minutes of valuable time.
0.5/5
Well, "Wabbit" wasn't the worst thing I've seen, but it wasn't anything resembling good either. It's sad because the writers of the previous show put so much thought into the stories. Here it's like the writers of this show decided that only an extremely young audience will be watching, so why bother trying? Parents are better off buying the Golden Collection box sets for their kids to showcase how slapstick in cartoons is really done.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
MAGGIE Review
Generally speaking, most zombie stories follow a certain path with one word: survival. Dawn of the Dead, Quarantine, and World War Z for example all follow this idea of surviving in an unnatural event, or a resistance to take back the world. That's why when a film like MAGGIE comes along, it's easy to write it off as another un-dead flick. That would be one of the biggest mistakes a person could make.
Maggie follows the story of Maggie Vogel, whom has been infected with an un-curable disease. Her father does not want to put her in quarantine, yet knows that she is going to die, and he has the choice to finish her himself. As you can see, the film itself simply with that premise separates itself from all other stories. I love a good action film like WORLD WAR Z, but there's something really engaging about watching a drama set in this type of world.
Of course, dramas can become incredibly boring, even with a cool concept/franchise behind it. (Superman Returns is the perfect example.) The actors involved here really nail the great script. Abigail Breslin as the title character portrays a believable girl as she goes through this unfathomable ordeal. Teenagers in film are rarely portrayed well, so it was refreshing to see a likable character. The slow transformation from human girl to monster was brilliantly done. The viewer can feel the emotion as she breaks down not being able to control the virus from kicking in.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's character's relationship with his daughter was nicely established. The viewer can feel his inner sadness as a father as he's given the option to kill Maggie himself, or bring her to quarantine where they'll do it. No matter what she's going to die, so it's rather bleak. How does a father, or anyone deal with that? How does anyone deal with the knowledge there's no cure for a fatal disease? The film poses some intriguing questions.
That's not to say there's absolutely nothing negative. With its rather short run time, it feels like there could have been a bit more. Maggie's step mom's arc ends abruptly for example. The ending is effective and powerful, plus it gives a frightening perspective I've never seen established before in a movie. But it ends rather too suddenly, with no real end to Wade's, the father, arc. It feels like there should have been something additional. But, this stuff doesn't take away from the quality of the story. While this is not action, there's still one great action scene where Arnold unveils his Terminator skills on a zombie.
Overall, Maggie is a must-see for longtime fans of the zombie sub-genre, and general drama watchers in general. It tells a powerful story of a girl whom is infected with an un-curable virus, and her relationship to her father. The choreography, acting, and writing are all excellent. I've avoided spoilers because I truly want you to go check this out. The fact it's PG-13 and not R is a nice change of pace too. A story with zombies doesn't have to be overly gory to be effective. Maggie makes the viewer contemplate about life, sickness, and reminds "to make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil" and that "now is the day of salvation" (Ephesians 5:16, 2 Corinthians 6:2) because one never really knows when their last day will be.
4.5/5
Thursday, August 20, 2015
The Salt, the Cheese, and the Tiers: On Super Smash Bros. -The Concept and Falsity of Tiers
I remember being at a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament awhile back. Before the actual matches began, there was friendlies being done. I was utilizing Mario and holding my own against two others. One onlooker told his friends something along the tines of, "You guys are letting a Mario survive all this?" That statement always bothered me, but I knew it was a joke since Mario is typically not known as one of the better characters in that particular game. This is the concept of "tiers," which in a nutshell states who the best characters in a game are and the worst. But what makes a character better than another? This concept is especially popular with the latest installment in the Smash series, but is it a really true concept and something that should be followed?
In video games, often there's such a thing has characters having unfair advantages. In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for example some characters literally have far inferior heath bars and nothing backing them up. Krillin for example has so little health in comparison to Goku it gives the latter an extremely unfair advantage. It's games like this when the disadvantage is so obvious that one simply has no reason to play characters like Krillin or Yajirobe, even if the player likes them a lot. This type of stuff doesn't exist in Super Smash Bros. Yet, many will say that there's such a thing as bad characters in the game. Sheik at the moment is known as the best character. So, a much lower tier character such as Dr. Mario should have no shot against her. As evidenced here, this is simply not the case...
Some might say that a single battle isn't enough to gauge this type of thing, since "flukes" can happen according to many. Well, let's pit Pac-Man, whom has never been known to be a fantastic character, against someone whom is constantly being put up in the tier list: Zero Suit Samus, in 3 battles back-to-back.
Let's take two characters: Pac-Man and Sheik. They have vastly different movesets and can achieve quite a bit. On their own however, they can't do anything. They are immobile; they need a person controlling them. All characters are equal in that sense. Then we grab two people. An expert Pac-Man will almost always beat a rookie Shiek, and vice versa. What if you pit two people whom know their characters pretty well? I was listening to the narration for EVO, and one of the broadcasters made the statement of this match-up as "unwinnable for Pac-Man." As we can see, this is simply not the case...
A person can train their character to beat anyone. For example, just a few days I managed to beat the word champion of the game, ZeRo, in a match on tourney mode.
Many will be quick to point out that he wasn't using Sheik, his main, rather he was using Little Mac. Would the battle have gone differently? Let's hypothetically say it would have. That wouldn't be because Sheik is inherently a better character than Little Mac. Rather, it'd be because ZeRo has mastered Sheik so well that it's just supremely difficult to overcome him.
There is such a thing as bad match-ups. Mega Man against Rosalina is a fight in the latter's favor due to her being able to absorb whatever Mega shoots at her. This doesn't make her a better character than Mega Man, she just has the advantage. A classic example is the original Pokemon anime. Near the finale before Advanced started, Ash had his Charaizard battle Blastoise. Both Pokemon are equals; they are the final form of their species and both trainers have been on similar journeys with them. But Blastoise has the edge due to being a water type. Does this mean he is better than Charizard? Not at all. Then in a surprise turn of events, Charizard takes the win, showing that even having the advantage doesn't guarantee a win.
Sheik, Rosalina, and Zero Samus are great characters, but I believe every character in the game has the capability of being the best. Unlike many other fighting games, there isn't an obvious unbalance here. And when an anomaly seemingly appears, Nintendo has been quick to fix it. (Meta Knight being much less over-powered, Robin becoming slightly faster, etc.) If you find yourself doing well with say Duck Hunt and like the way he plays, don't feel like you should switch just because many say your character is more on the average side.
Of course, if you find yourself liking Sheik's moveset for example, by all means grab the character. The problem is that people give up on their mains just because many say certain characters are superior. Then there's this illusion that losing to certain characters means the player isn't quite that good. If say Luigi lost to Mewtwo, many would question Luigi's player skills, no matter how impressive Mewtwo looked, simply because Mewtwo is known as one of the worst characters in the game. This kind of thinking hurts the competitive landscape as less and less diversity is seen since everybody is flocking to characters people claim are the best. Then the other characters aren't taken seriously when in actuality they can be equally impressive.
Here's a saying to remember, "Tier power is all in the head. It's really all about the person playing the character, building a connection, learning their moveset, and being creative. Every character has the potential to be the best. You just have to make them the best."
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