Great subject, not a great documentary
I read about this on USAToday and was eager to watch it. I'm a retrogamer so the subject matter was intriguing, and the culture of arcade gaming in Japan is a fascinating subject. Unfortunately, the production value is much lower than I expected, in ways that made it hard to enjoy.
The biggest annoyance is the subtitles. They are in a *very* thin white font, and often appear right over screen titles and names, and over complex light-colored backgrounds. It is a real effort to keep up with them.
There is a lot of stock-looking video shown over and over as people talk -- shots of arcades, some video of people playing, shots of Tokyo at night. I guess that's what you expect for this subject, but it became noticeably repetitive.
And, there is an irritating 8-bit soundtrack that plays under most of the documentary. It clashes with the people speaking, doesn't go with what they're saying (unlike most documentaries where the music supports the video), and...
It was worth every yen !!
If you love Arcades, this is for you. It was awesome to see How the arcade scene is Still Alive and how hardcore the Japanese are. Reading the subs are a but distracting from the great footage but the rest is really good.
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