Let’s take a look at one of my favorite role playing games of all time: Big Eyes, Small Mouth. Originally, this game was published by the company Guardians of Order, written by Mark Mackinnon in 1997, however, in 2008, the company fell prey to a combination of poor business choices and the U.S. Housing market collapse which rippled internationally and caused the company to declare bankruptcy. Today Mark has build a new company, learning the error of his previous mistakes, forming the new company Dyskami, and features all four versions of his unique TriStat gaming model once again.
BESM, as it’s often shortened to, is one of a small collection of games that focuses on anime characters and settings. You know, anime, that Japanese animation stuff featuring characters with huge eyes, girls who sport just as large busts and wild hair colors with obnoxious personalities. Surely, you’ve heard of Sailor Moon, or Vampire Hunter D, right? Pokemon, or Naruto? Anyway, there are other game systems that also cater to the Otaku, anime geek/nerd/fan. And for good reason. Anime is one of the few types of fiction that encourages exaggeration. In fact, it’s because of the use of exaggeration that makes playing a character in such a chaotic setting so much fun. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to kick that perverted old creeper hitting on high school girls in the Deez Nutz hard enough to send him flying into the next neighborhood. Anyway, it’s tempting to just say that anime is just another setting or genre, but actually that’s not quite accurate. Because anime often falls into different genres. After all, anime is simply style, usually an illustration, however, because of the content that has been written for it, nearly exclusively, it also has a fictional style as well. Nevertheless, this also extends into the realm of role playing, and BESM is perfectly suited for recreating our beloved anime characters to explore these truly insane worlds.
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