When you think of Westerns you think of tumbleweeds rolling away across the sands, “wanted” posters displaying hardened faces and with large bounties, and swinging saloon doors where patrons watch with bated breath as gunslingers face off in a quick draw match.  

Now think of all that set in space.  

Spaces Westerns are a very interesting genre, blending sci-fi tech with the gritty Wild West. And when it comes to anime-manga, Trigun is the quintessential Space Western.  

Trigun follows Vash the Stampede as he journeys across the barren, scorching planet known as No Man’s Land. Vash’s reputation precedes him:, known as the Humanoid Typhon, he has a staggering $$60 billion double dollar (Trigun’s currency) bounty on his head. Although in Vash’s defence, he didn’t mean to level a city, it was an honest accident.  

Vash isn’t your stereotypical Western protagonist.  

He’s an incredibly skilled gunman who loathes violence and preaches pacifism. In fact, it’s often his pacifism which has violent consequences and terrible collateral. Vash sees the good through the bad and the ugly, choosing to save the inhabitants of his world, cruel and harsh though they may be. He wants to spare everyone, even his enemies. This is in stark contrast to his twin brother Knives, who is his opposite in every way.  

There are three iterations of Trigun: the manga which ran from 1997 to 2007, the 1998 anime adaptation and the 2023 anime adaptation, Trigun Stampede, followed now by its direct sequel in 2026, Trigun Stargaze. Every version of Trigun is inherently different except for the basic plot outline and its characters, especially Vash whose ideals and motivations remain constant.  

The original Trigun anime aired in tandem with the ongoing manga, which meant that the plot had to diverge from the source to fit the airing season. Up to a certain point, the anime and the manga remain the same, but once the anime caught up to the manga, there was a significant departure in story beats. It was also much lighter in tone than the manga’s darker storyline due to the restrictions on what could be aired at the time. Westerns are gritty, harsh, violent and bloody. Space Westerns like the Trigun manga are the same, so the anime had to censor a lot of what was happening in the manga. There was also a lot of self-contained filler material inserted to pad up the story which made it feel more like a slow burn. The animation was clunky at times due to the technological constraints, but there’s something charming and oddly fitting about having a rough style for a story like Trigun. However, visually the original anime follows the manga’s character designs to the letter.  

Trigun Stampede and Stargaze is essentially a reimagining of the manga’s events. The characters are aged down for one. At their core they are the same, but the journey to get there is different. Compared to the 1998 anime, Stampede and Stargaze follow the plot more faithfully, even though the timeline has been altered. It is darker, more befitting of the manga, and doesn’t shy from blood, gore or violence. For one, Vash is more naïve, handling things differently than he does in the manga because he’s still growing as a character. The new anime also raises the stakes by revealing the major players of the story in advance to better encapsulate the manga’s mammoth of a plot. It also has a lot of scenes adapted directly from the manga and cuts off the frills that the anime added in 1998 . Both Stampede and Stargaze do a good job of characterising Vash’s struggle with guilt and loneliness than the original anime did. The trajectory of the story is bittersweet, much like the manga.  

The biggest departure from the manga and the original anime is the aesthetic and visuals.  

Stargaze, like its predecessor Stampede, employs the use of CGI as opposed to the more traditional art style of the manga. Studio Orange, responsible for animating the show, uses a technique called limited frame animation wherein the framerate is lower than the standard framerate for 3D animation, saving time and money. An anime like Trigun is action-heavy with a lot of angular perspectives, intense fight scenes and intricate weaponry. The CGI allows certain character designs as well as attacks to be rendered more fluidly.  

The range of emotions that play out on the characters’ faces is also given a bigger focus. From dead-eyed vacant stares to wide-eyed bewilderment, the minute shifts in temperament make them feel all the more expressive. The choreography in the action scenes stand out. The CGI lends itself much better to fluid movements and highly stylized cinematography, letting the new anime really push the boundaries of aesthetics.  

No version of Trigun is going to be the same. The 1998 anime proved that you can honor the source material while bringing something entirely new to the table by retaining characterizations and the core storyline. Stargaze strives to do the same, this time presenting a retelling that is strong enough to make new fans understand why Trigun is so beloved and leave old fans guessing about what happens next. Stargaze is what remakes need to be: keep what works best and make it better.    

Watch on Crunchyroll.

The post Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune, And So Does Vash the Stampede in ‘Trigun Stargaze’ appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

How far would you be willing to go for love? Will you, in Dracula’s words from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film, be willing to cross oceans of time to find the one you love? Not everyone is an ancient undead with time to kill, so realistically, would you be willing to cross an ocean for the one you love? What about going so far as to hide your identity and enroll in a school exclusively for members of the opposite sex?  

This is exactly what Mizuki Ashiya, Hana Kimi’s protagonist, decides to do. When Mizuki sees Izumi Sano, a high jumper on TV, she’s instantly smitten. She’s so amazed by his skills that Mizuki decides to move bag and baggage to Japan from the U.S., enrolling in the same high school as him. There’s just one tiny setback: it’s an all-boys high school, but Mizuki is undeterred. Chopping off her hair and disguising herself as a boy, she’s determined to win over Sano and convince him to get back to high jumping, one way or another. And so, begins the comedy of errors that is Hana Kimi.  

Hana Kimi has been around for a long time. The manga was originally serialized in Hana to Yume (a shoujo magazine) from 1996, culminating finally in 2004. It has received numerous adaptations from Drama CDs to Live Action Dramas, but oddly enough, it never received an anime adaptation, even during the pinnacle of the shoujo anime era in the early 2000s. Now, nearly twenty years since Mizuki first appeared on paper, her story is finally making its way onto the two-dimensional world of anime.  

Hana Kimi is actually the progenitor of the shoujo subgenre of cross-dressing/boarding school shenanigans and is the manga responsible for popularizing the genre. There’s something about the whole scenario of going undercover, creating havoc, and making everyone question their sense of sanity while masquerading as the opposite sex that’s captivated humanity for centuries. It can be traced back all the way to the first century in the Achilleid by Roman poet Statius. In the chapter Achilles on Skyros, Achilles dresses up as a lady-in-waiting in the court of the king of Skyros. While this particular episode may not have been in Homer’s epic Iliad, it is one of the first documented appearances of this trope. 

William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, written later in 1599, features a girl named Rosalind in the guise of a young boy, Ganymede. Rosalind’s reason for dressing up as Ganymede is primarily for protection; by her own admission, “beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.” Over the course of the play, as Ganymede, she decides to “cure” Orlando (who she loves) of his love for Rosalind and proceeds to act as a substitute for Rosalind in Orlando’s eyes. Sounds complicated? Wait till you hear what the bard wrote next.   

Shakespeare revisited this trope in Twelfth Night, written shortly after, around 1601. Twins Sebastian and Viola are separated on the coast of Illyria after a shipwreck. Believing that her brother perished, Viola assumes the identity of Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino as a page boy. Duke Orsino, meanwhile, is in love with Countess Olivia and sends the so-called Cesario as a middleman to profess his love. Olivia, on the other hand, falls head over heels in love with Cesario, who is in love with Duke Orsino, cementing one of the most famous love triangles in literature.   

Twelfth Night has received numerous adaptations. Most notably, two teen comedies set in high school: Just One of the Guys (1985) and She’s the Man (2006). In Just One of the Guys, aspiring journalist Terri believes she’s passed up for an internship opportunity by her teachers because she’s a girl and enrolls in another high school masquerading as a boy named Terry to test out her theory. She’s the Man follows the plot of Twelfth Night more closely, retaining the names of the characters. Viola pretends to be her twin brother Sebastian to prove to her football coach that girls can play soccer just as well as boys, or in her case, even better. 

In Shakespeare’s time, when women were not allowed to do theatre, the female roles would be given to young male actors. In other words, Rosalind and Viola are played by boys pretending to be girls who are pretending to be boys (and in Rosalind’s case, pretending to be a substitute for a girl)! Without exception, the cross-dressing trope is used as a plot device and a catalyst to provoke reactions that would be impossible otherwise while creating humorous scenarios. It let women fill unique roles which would have undoubtedly and strictly been only for boys or men. In Viola and Mizuki’s cases, it allows them to become confidants of Duke Orsino and Izumi Sano, respectively.   

Back in Shakespeare’s time, of course, characters like Rosalind and Viola went against conventional gender expectations placed on women. By simply donning men’s clothing, they are perceived to be men; not only does this change the way they act, but it also influences the others who interact with them. In Hana Kimi, Mizuki’s classmate and friend Shūichi Nakatsu goes through a sexuality crisis simply because he believes he’s in love with a boy. Olivia falls in love with a boy in Twelfth Night, not knowing the boy in question is a girl.  

But the late 16^th century and the early 2000s had a completely different outlook on gender roles and expectations. And now in the 2020s, the question doesn’t even come into play, and the term gender is no longer defined by what chromosomes your body contains.

Mizuki, Rosalind, and Viola are all girls masquerading as boys, while being in love with boys. In She’s the Man, Viola is good at soccer. In Hana Kimi, Mizuki excels at athletics, beating records set by her male cohorts. These narrative choices position them as tomboys who also embrace traditionally feminine traits, a notion that is somewhat taboo in today’s discourse around what’s feminine and what’s not. 

Fans of the source material would be happy to see their favorites animated on screen, but the jury’s still out for the younger fans who are discovering Hana Kimi now. It’s also infinitely more difficult to pull a stunt like Mizuki’s in today’s era of cellphones and social media. 

It’s for this reason that Hana Kimi’s adaptation is an interesting phenomenon. The manga is set in the early 2000s, the humor is that of the early 2000s, and that certainly comes through in its anime adaptation. The early shoujo manga and anime themselves have a distinct style characterized by doe-eyed female protagonists framed by flowers and pastels. The art is soft yet intricate, from the characters’ eyes to their clothes. The anime finds a middle ground, incorporating everything from the aesthetics of the early aughts to today’s widely popular vibrant color palette. The same goes for the setting, Wataru Nihonbashi, Mizuki’s schoolmate, stalks the halls photographing other students and selling the prints for money. In the manga, at a time when smartphones didn’t exist, Wataru’s questionable side hustle makes sense. In the anime, this is retained, though his customers complain, “I don’t want a print, I want files,” causing Wataru to offer a rebuttal that doing so would ruin his “business.”  

Hana Kimi’s anime adaptation feels oddly nostalgic because there frankly aren’t enough shoujo anime or romcoms like this anymore. It’s stuck in a time warp when things were simpler, and the mental gymnastics that Mizuki causes everyone to go through were weirdly believable. Hana Kimi fills that void of comedy that we weren’t even aware was missing. Whether you’re a fan of this shoujo classic or want to unwind with something lighthearted and cringe at the questionable decisions of a teenage girl, it is undeniable that Hana Kimi feels like a warm hug from an old friend.  

Watch now on Crunchyroll.   

The post Hana Kimi, As You Like It, Twelfth Night: The Curious Case of Cross-dressing Girls   appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

As the credits roll signalling the end of 2025, there have been several unforgettable characters that have lived and breathed on screen. Some have lingered in our memories longer than the others, like imaginary ghosts taking up space, their existence looping on repeat in the theater of our minds.

Their impact is undeniable, making us question everything from their motives to their journeys. In order of release date, here are some of the films from around the world that stood out on the silver screen this past year.  

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Zambia)  

Directed by Rungano Nyoni 

When Nyoni’s grandmother died, she penned her dream down. That dream, born out of grief, has taken the shape of a 95-minute film. Uncle Fred is dead, his body is discovered on a desolate highway by his niece, Shula. Uncle Fred has a long list of sexual assault charges to his name but as per tradition, the funeral will be held and everybody must grieve for the deceased. Shula, a victim of sexual assault herself, becomes a reluctant mourner in a performative funeral. A guinea fowl’s job is to alert the savanna of the coming danger. Here, Shula is the guinea fowl, and the danger was Uncle Fred. But now that the danger is dead, is the coast clear or will the pain and burden brought about by generational trauma and silence persist? 

Train Dreams (United States) 

Directed by Clint Bentley 

This is a quiet film. Based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, it follows the life of Robert Grainer, spanning eight decades set during the late 1800s to the slightly more modern early 1900s. Life is like a train, you get a ticket without knowing where you’ll end up. You take your seat and watch the world pass by around you. You stop for a while at each station, soaking it in. Passengers come and go, but you stay rooted to your seat, governed by inertia until you finally arrive at your destination. Robert Grainer was packed off on the Great Northern Railway as a little boy; he didn’t know where he came from or where he was going and wandered through life in a dreamlike haze. This is a tender film, grounded in the reality of what it is to take that journey on the train called life. No matter what happens, you are helpless and you can’t get off until you reach the last station. This film makes fantastic use of third-person narration, gently guiding the story along one stop at a time.  

Kokuho (Japan) 

Directed by Lee Sang-il 

Ningen Kokuhō translates to ‘Living National Treasure,’ an award bestowed by the government of Japan to a master of a craft, working in a field dedicated to preserving art of cultural significance like music, noh and even kabuki. This 175-minute film encompasses five decades of Kikuo, a kabuki actor’s life. When 14-year-old Kikuo’s father, a yakuza boss, is killed, he is taken in as an apprentice by a renowned kabuki master and trained alongside the master’s son Shunsuke. Both of them specialize in onnagata — male actors who play the roles of women in kabuki. Their strong bond of brotherhood is tested are they are pitted against each other both on and off stage. Fame, success, skill and talent alone aren’t enough to make it in an industry where your blood determines your worth. Both Ryo Yoshizawa (Kikuo) and Ryusei Yokohama (Shunsuke) trained for a year to prepare for their roles as kabuki artists, and it shows in their performances in the film. Playing out as dramatic as a kabuki performance, Kikuo’s saga gives you a front row seat to the elusive, often ruthless, but undeniably beautiful world of kabuki. 

Sentimental Value (Norway) 

Directed by Joachim Trier 

When their mother passes away, Nora and Agnes find their estranged film director father, Gustav, coming back into their lives. His next project is about their grandmother Karin, who killed herself in their family home when Gustav was a child. It is to be shot on location, and he’s written the lead role for Nora, who’s an actress, as a peace offering. Nora refuses, prompting Gustav to cast famous Hollywood actress, Rachel Kemp in her stead, leading to greater strain on their bonds. What follows is a realistic look at complicated relationships, generational trauma and how sometimes, creative outlets–not time–can be used to heal wounds. Gustav’s film isn’t just about his mother. Its scale stretches to warmly envelop his daughters, himself and even his grandson. One of the takeaways is that when art is something deeply personal, it’s hard for an outsider to convey those emotions, as seen from the differences in Nora’s and Rachel’s performances for the same monologue. Fantastic performances from Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning with Trier and Eskil Vogt’s strong screenplay is what makes Sentimental Value stand out. This film within a film is one of the most genuine portrayals of fractured familial relationships and how they can be glued back together one shattered piece at a time to create something beautiful–kintsugi at its finest.     

Sound of Falling (Germany) 

Directed by Mascha Schilinski 

In this haunting film, the viewer is made to wander like a ghost through a farmhouse in Saxony-Anhalt, Northern Germany. Four women of different ages scattered across different times are tied together by an invisible anchor, tethering them to the same geographical location. Etched into the estate are the trapped echoes of memories, eroding the walls with generational trauma, abuse and other dark secrets that stain the wallpaper. Time flows disjointed, past and present coalescing as you witness the lives of those who occupy the space between these walls; peering through a keyhole, between the bars of a window, obscuring your view of a door that’s left slightly ajar. You come away feeling uncomfortable, an unwelcome phantom that bears witness to something not meant for an outsider’s eyes. Schilinski’s second feature film is a century of wallpaper affixed to the walls of a house that begs you not to look away, no matter how melancholic the pattern is. 

No Other Choice (Korean) 

Directed by Park Chan-wook 

This is the Korean remake of a 2005 French film Le couperet (The Axe), which in turn was an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel of the same name. Finding a job is the modern version of the Labour of Hercules; today’s world has an oversaturated job market, featuring enough desperados who would gladly take anything they can get. Plus, there’s AI, which can replace their human counterparts, saving the company time and money. Park Chan-wook has expertly depicted a disgruntled laid-off employee’s sure-fire method to landing that dream job. Loyalty is seldom rewarded, as Man-su finds when he’s fired from his company. Constantly passed up wherever he applies, helplessness and desperation sink their claws into him. He’s a good man, a family man, and he needs a job. His solution? Eliminate the competition. He’s sure to land a gig if his competitors are dead. The cinematography and sound serve as another layer of throwing the audience off because you never know what to expect. Darkly comedic and mildly concerning, No Other Choice is the office worker’s guide to murder.  

Frankenstein (United States) 

Directed by Guillermo del Toro 

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus is the reanimated corpse that refuses to die, two centuries later. This book has received countless adaptations, all of which vastly differ from the source material. While del Toro’s is the closest we’ve come to getting a faithful adaptation, it undoubtedly isn’t what Mary Shelley penned down all those years ago. Instead, this film focuses on an aspect of the Creature that most adaptations choose to forget — that this patchwork galvanized corpse held together by stitches with the overpowering need to be human just wants to be accepted by his creator, Victor. As a result, in the pursuit of showcasing the humane side of the Creature, the film humanizes him a little too much. But interpretations are what keep the source material alive, and it is undeniable that this is a classic Gothic horror story done right. Finally, the Creature gets his spot in the sun.   

Blue Moon (United States) 

Directed by Richard Linklater 

It’s a tough choice between two of Linklater’s biographical directorials Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague, but Blue Moon wins out by an inch. Blue Moon is one night in the life of Lorenz Hart. One of Broadway’s biggest breakups was of the songwriting team Rogers and Hart who were responsible for a lot of standards like “My Funny Valentine,” “Blue Moon,” “Manhattan” and “The Lady Is a Tramp.” On the opening night of Oklahoma!, the play which would cement the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Hart departs the play early and finds himself at the bar at Sardi’s. Hart waits anxiously, despair pooling at the pit of his stomach for the inevitable rave reviews for a project he backed out of and his own declining career. When the crowd arrives and the night progresses, it becomes increasingly painful and an uncomfortable sort of funny. The kind in which you find yourself laughing in situations that are frankly bittersweet and heartbreaking. Ethan Hawke, digitally shrunk and looking quite unrecognizable in a combover, delivers a brilliant performance as Hart. Blue Moon feels like a play masquerading as a film, which perhaps makes it an apt tribute to Lorenz Hart.    

The Secret Agent (Brazil) 

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho 

The story unfolds in 1977 Brazil, set against the canvas of the country’s military dictatorship spanning 21 years. Armando arrives in Recife when the Carnival is in full swing and is caught in the maelstrom. This is an unusual spy thriller, moving at a languid pace with a complicated cast of characters that merits at least three watches to untangle each thread of the film’s tapestry, all of which could very well stand as individual films themselves. Corruption, political unrest, hired hitmen, a tiger shark and a severed leg; in the world of The Secret Agent, paranoia is injected into the characters’ veins, whether they like it or not.    

Hamnet (United Kingdom) 

Directed by Chloé Zhao 

Shakespeare is a bard who is as colorful and intriguing as the characters in his plays and whose life is as rich as his stories. But in Hamnet, it is his wife, Agnes (whose name was changed from Anne) who takes center stage, shining brighter than the spotlight. The story focuses on the courtship and marriage of Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and the tragedy that is the death of their only son. Buckley’s powerful performance is balanced by Mescal’s understated one, both perfectly depicting the two sides of people broken by grief. Dreamlike, heartbreaking and surreal, Zhao’s film feels as mystical as the woods Agnes feels at home in.    

The post The 10 Best World Cinema of 2025  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

It’s been a big year for anime, especially when it comes to films, with both Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc and Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc looking larger than life on the big screen. But there’s also been a plethora of shows that released this year, and narrowing it down to a definitive list is as difficult as becoming a Pro Hero. Choices are subjective, and it’shard to categorize anime when each series is unique with its own strengths and weaknesses. For the sake of elimination, last year’s rankers like Dandadan, Ranma1/2 and Black Butler that were renewed this season will be excluded from this list. Without further ado in order of release date, here are some of the best animes that aired this year.  

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 

Studio: OLM, TOHO animation STUDIO 
Sometimes second seasons are better than the first, as is the case with this anime. Maomao was leading an idyllic life as an apothecary’s daughter until she was thrust into the Imperial Palace as a maid. Her plans of staying incognito are thrown out the window because the Imperial Palace is a hotbed of intrigues and conspiracies (as most courts are). Armed with her extensive knowledge of medicine, Maomao unravels the thread of mysteries, unmasking one culprit at a time. Perfect for those who love playing detective and can’t get enough of historical fiction.  

Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray 

Studio: CygamesPictures 

Racehorse lovers and equestrians, this one is for you. If you’ve been noticing a flood of horses or horse- related posts on the internet, thanks to the western localizsation of Uma Musume, then put on your blinkers and turn to the spin-off series focusing on Cinderella Gray. Uma Musume literally translates to horse girls and Cinderella Gray is the anthropomorphic anime-girl variant of real-life racehorse Oguri Gray (RIP). Can this country girl… er… horse girl make it to the big league? Real life horse Oguri Gray was nicknamed the ‘Idol Horse’ and his anime counterpart strives to make her moniker count. Uma-amazing, neigh-sayers will be left in the dust. 

Takopi’s Original Sin 

Studio: Enishiya 

Some anime exist to emotionally destroy you, and this is one of those so keep the tissues handy. Take E.T., make it a dark, psychological thriller, turn up the sadness and strip away any and all hope, and then you get Takopi’s Original Sin. Takopi, a cute little alien resembling an octopus has a dream:– to spread happiness across the universe. On Earth, he is rescued by Shizuka, a sad little girl who lives a miserable life. Takopi’s bid to make her happy only ends up making things worse. The more Takopi tries, the deeper the hole he digs for Shizuka. Good intentions don’t always yield good results. This is a tearjerker with a trigger warning.     

Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express 

Studio: Yōhei Kameyama 

This series of 3-minute shorts have all been produced, written and directed by one person —–Yōhei Kameyama. After being arrested for recklessly driving in space, Chiharu, a superhuman and Makina, a cyborg, have been sentenced to community service. Along with four other convicts, they have been tasked to clean the interplanetary train, Milky☆Subway. But when it suddenly activates, the violation of space traffic laws is the last thing on anyone’s mind. How do you begin to stop a runaway space train? Remember, drive responsibly, even in space, going at warp speed is only limited to the Starship Enterprise. 

The Summer Hikaru Died 

Studio:  CygamesPictures 

Yoshiki’s best friend Hikaru went missing for a week up in the mountains and returned. This would ideally be good news, if Yoshiki hadn’t chanced upon Hikaru’s corpse while searching for him. The new Hikaru isn’t the same nor does he seem human. But, he is determined to stick around and strike down anyone who gets in his way. Grief is a painful thing; loss is heartbreaking and letting go is out of the question for Yoshiki. Meanwhile stranger things than dead coming back to life is brewing in the town. It, looks like Hikaru isn’t the only monster that’s come down from the mountain. This eldritch rural horror is a slow- burn terror that perfectly encapsulates the suffocatingly eerie nature of small towns, death and the heavy price you pay for not being able to say goodbye.   

Gachiakuta 

Studio: Bones Film 

This year’s stand out shounen. In a world where things are carelessly discarded for the smallest reasons, Rudo gently salvages what’s left and makes them good as new. When he’s framed for the murder of his adoptive father, he’s thrown into the Pit, the dark cavernous opening that swallows up all the garbage. Contracting tetanus is the least of Rudo’s worries in the Pit, with its giant trash monsters and toxic air quality. He joins the Cleaners, a group that’s pushing back against the Trash Beasts in hopes of escaping the Pit and bringing his father’s killer to light.   

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity 

Studio: CloverWorks 

Chidori Public School has an infamous reputation for being a school for delinquents. Rintarou Tsumugi certainly looks the part with his bleached hair and pierced ears, but that can’t be further from the truth for this gentle giant. A chance encounter with the beautiful and delicate Kaoruko Waguri, who sees him for who he really is, sets the stage for this year’s standout romance anime. Too bad Kaoruko goes to the elite all-girls Kikyo Private Academy, whose students look down on the Chidori students. This is Romeo and Juliet without the bloodshed or unnecessary drama. With an equally strong, well fleshed-out supporting cast, this anime takes a good, long look at growing up, insecurities, fear and expectations. Don’t judge a book by its cover, you might actually like what’s written underneath.  

My Hero Academia Final Season 

Studio: Bones Film 

In its heyday, My Hero Academia was the biggest name in modern shounen. Over the years, though, it has lost its shine due to a multitude of reasons:– the fandom space, the character arcs, the rushed battle sequences, and the rising popularity of other shounen anime. Nevertheless, the series persevered and finally culminates in this eighth and final season. Ending on an incredible high after nine long years, you can’t deny there was a reason this was so popular. Whether or not you’re still a fan, this finale is something you can’t miss, almost like attending the funeral of somebody you once considered a close friend . Goodbye Izuku, you’ll always be a hero.  

Gintama – Mr. Ginpachi’s Zany Class 

Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures 

Gintama is one of those shows where context isn’t going to help you explain the ludicrous situations its colorful cast of characters get embroiled in. Often breaking the fourth wall by parodying everything from Stephen King to Star Wars, the term copyright doesn’t exist in Gintama’s vocabulary. Occasionally there were segments in a high school setting with the main character, Gintoki, as the homeroom teacher. Now, that segment has got its own spin-off series with the same humour that makes you double over with laughter until your ribs ache. Ginpachi sensei has his hands full, with students’ temperaments ranging from a mayonnaise addict, a stalker gorilla, a baby-faced sadist and worse. In this seat of learning, sanity is thrown out the window and rules are non-existent. Class is in session!  

Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 

Studio: P.A. Works, Zexcs, Lapin Track, Studio Kafka, 100studio, Studio Graph77 

Before Chainsaw Man or Fire Punch, Tatsuki Fujimoto wrote a series of one-shot manga that laid the foundations for his later works. This anthology of eclectic short stories gives you a glimpse into the strange and absurdist mind of a mangaka who’s managed to subvert the expectations of a shounen protagonist. With stories ranging from a vampire hiring an assassin to end his years of immortal suffering to a little girl who’s the harbinger of the apocalypse, a boy teaching a mermaid how to play the piano, and a humans disguised as chickens post an alien invasion. This is a wild ride from start to finish.       

The post The 10 Best Anime Shows of 2025  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

From indie titles becoming breakout hits and cementing their place in gaming history to veteran developers returning with hard-hitting sequels, it’s been a jam-packed year for gaming. Buttons were mashed, controllers were smashed, consoles and PCs overheated long enough to rival a massive star. Now, as 2025 draws to a close, with our wallets feeling significantly lighter, here’s a look back at the best video games of 2025, listed in order of their release date.   

Urban Myth Dissolution Center 

Developer: Hakababunko 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch 

Has your life been overturned by a curse? Are spirits wreaking havoc in your home? Is there something sinister afoot in your neighbourhood? The afterimage of a murder? If so, then don’t hesitate to contact the Urban Myth Dissolution Center, your one-stop shop to debunking or dispelling any cryptid, otherworldly entity. Taking on the role of Azami, the newly hired part-timer who shows strong potential as a psychic, you must investigate threats, solve cases and get to the bottom of every mystery, existential or otherwise, before it gets you. This pixelated detective game is a joy to play for every conspiracy theorist and aspiring occultist out there.    

Split Fiction  

Developer: Hazelight Studios 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S 

Split Fiction is the ultimate buddy adventure with your go-to gaming pal. Here, your friend and you control Mio and Zoe — two writers who have been trapped in a machine that is trying to steal their story ideas. Now, stuck in a world of their own making, they must work together to break out. How hard can it be to overcome threats you’ve written? Too bad, you both wrote science fiction and fantasy, so good luck! If stories have taught us anything, it’s that the power of friendship is unbeatable, but is it? Your couch and controllers will soon find out. The best part is that this game supports cross play, so no matter the console, your friend cannot have an excuse. 

Blue Prince 

Developer: Dogubomb 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S 

Rogue-lite and puzzles aren’t often used in a single sentence to describe a game, but that’s the best description of Blue Prince. Simon’s great-uncle has just bequeathed him his vast Mt Holly Estate, but it comes with a catch: he must find the 46^th room in the mansion. Sounds easy? Well, the mansion only has 45 rooms. It also changes floorplans every day, so each time you set foot inside it, your progress is undone. But Room 46 is not the only thing Mt Holly Estate is hiding amongst its shifting walls. Can Simon unearth the secrets and claim his inheritance? That’s up to you. Keep a notebook and pen handy for this one, it tickles the little grey cells just right. 

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 

Developer: Sandfall Interactive 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S 

Hard to believe this breakout hit is developer Sandfall Interactive’s debut title. This is a game that feels and sounds like a Baroque painting. The Paintress rouses from slumber each year to paint a number on her monolith, and all who match the age of the number turn to dust and fade away. Every year, Expeditioners try and stop her, and every year they fail. This is Expedition 33; can they stop the Paintress from painting death? Featuring a unique blend of real-time and turn-based mechanics, with the most entrancing soundtrack and a strong plot,– Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will make you want to step into its painting and never leave. 

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach 

Developer: Kojima Productions 

Platforms: PlayStation 5 

Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, aka the post-apocalyptic delivery simulator, has a sequel now. Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is back and takes one final job as a porter to save humanity by establishing connections between the isolated survivors and the “chiral network” (the communication network). The running joke is that describing what Death Stranding is exactly about, is a herculean task — it’s one of those games that you just have to experience. The easiest explanation without giving away the story beats is that the first game was a movie (with a star-studded cast- Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, Troy Baker, Guillermo del Toro) disguised as a walking simulator. The sequel has more gameplay elements but still primarily functions as a thinly veiled film disguised as an open-world game. Most of the original cast reprise their roles, this time joined by Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna, among others. Kojima collects Hollywood A-listers akin to collecting Pokémon cards, and pushes the boundaries of film and games until it becomes an undecipherable amorphous mass. Nevertheless, it’s an amorphous mass that’s meant to be experienced.  

Hollow Knight: Silksong 

Developer: Team Cherry 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Linux, macOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S 

This was one of the most anticipated sequels of the decade, originally planned as a DLC for Hollow Knight. For a long time, people firmly believed that Silksong ever seeing the light of day was a pipe dream. Originally announced back in 2019, this 2D platformer’s long development cycle caused it’s fanbase to descend into the depths of insanity. On Sept. 4, their hopes and dreams were finally realised, curing them of their brain rot. This beautiful hand-drawn insectoid Metroidvania has you stepping into the shoes of Hornet, a hunter who finds herself trapped in the ruined kingdom of Pharloom. Its citizens suffer from the “Haunting”, causing them to be violent puppets controlled by the game’s antagonist Grand Mother Silk, even in death. Can Hornet save the bugs and restore Pharloom? Only one way to find out. Fair warning, the difficulty is amped up in the sequel as compared to Hollow Knight. 

No, I’m not a Human 

Developer: Trioskaz 

Platforms: Microsoft Windows 

Something strange is going on with the sun: its scorching rays are burning people alive. If that wasn’t bad enough, the mysterious Visitors have risen from deep beneath the ground. These Visitors look and sound human but are, in fact, not. They camouflage themselves as the very beings whose houses they infiltrate and kill. Isolation is not an option because that is the only deterrent. But who’s human and who’s a Visitor? This game does zero handholding and plays on your trust issues. With its distinctly unsettling art style and unnerving atmosphere that keeps you on edge, will you let the right one in?  

Hades II 

Developer: Supergiant Games 

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Microsoft Windows  

In Hades, Zagreus was trying to break out of the Underworld by defeating his father. In its sequel, his younger sister, Melinoë, is trying to break into the Underworld to defeat her grandfather, Chronos, the Titan of Time. Meanwhile, her Olympian relatives seek her aid as Typhon wreaks havoc at Mount Olympus. Battle out foes plucked from the Greek mythos and save your family with the might of Olympus at your back. Slick, stylized and with a killer soundtrack (Scylla and the Sirens especially outdo themselves), this god-like rogue-like game is much bigger than its predecessor. Good luck killing Time. 

Silent Hill f 

Developer: NeoBards Entertainment Ltd. 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S 

After being starved for years, Silent Hill fans are finally eating good. Despite the title, we aren’t returning to the foggy town which appears in our restless dreams. Instead, we’re travelling to Ebisugaoka, a small town in Japan. Hinako’s boring hometown has transformed into the stuff of nightmares. A fog’s rolled in, bringing with it grotesque monsters and ancient horrors. Can she, armed with a steel pipe, escape the dread fog and get to the bottom of things with her sanity intact? Or will she succumb to the psychological terror? This is a game that requires multiple playthroughs just to unravel the story threads. Set in the Sixties, it provides especially interesting commentary on the beliefs and expectations of women in society, tightly woven with Japanese mythology. This latest instalment of the franchise has been written by Ryukishi07, who has written the Higurashi When They Cry series, and safe to say: there’s plenty of things that will make you squirm in abject horror.  

Dispatch 

Developer: AdHoc Studio 

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows 

A superhero desk job simulator that feels like HR’s worst nightmare. You’re Robert Roberson III, aka Mecha Man the superhero powered by his suit. Unfortunately, your suit is destroyed and you’re working at the Superhero Dispatch Network while they fix it. Manage your group of reformed villains while questioning what happens now and trying not to burn down the city. You empathize with every member of the Z-Team, even if you don’t always see eye to eye. With its fleshed-out characters and strong plot, Dispatch is simultaneously one of the best games and TV shows of the year.  

The post The 10 Best Video Games of 2025  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

Episodic narrative games are one of the most intriguing genres of gaming. They blur the lines between comics, TV series, and video games until you don’t know where one begins and the other ends. In most forms of media we consume, the reader (or watcher) is akin to a passenger in the back seat of a car speeding down the freeway, helpless to the decisions of the driver. In episodic narrative games, you are given full and free rein to take the wheel and decide where you want to go, with each decision spelling out strong consequences for the narrative. Telltale Games used to routinely put out hard-hitting, stylized stories with familiar faces in situations that are far removed from the norm (in Batman: The Enemy Within, you could actually recruit the Joker as a potential Robin).  

But there’s been a dearth of the kind of episodic video games that were a staple of the 2010s, and now in 2025, Dispatch has answered that call. AdHoc Studio, an indie game company comprising veterans of the episodic narrative gaming industry from Telltale’s golden era, has dispatched its first game, fittingly titled Dispatch.  

You don the suit of Robert Robertson III, who, aside from the name, has inherited the legacy of Mecha Man — an ordinary man who becomes a hero when powered by his suit. He’s got the combat skills of Batman combined with Iron Man’s suit and Spider-Man’s bank account. Cynical, broke, and jaded, Robert and his suit have been held together with a combination of grit and duct tape until his father’s killer, Shroud, destroys his suit (and him in the process). Now, down and out, he’s recruited by fellow superhero Blonde Blazer to join the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) as a dispatcher in return for them fixing his suit. 

At the SDN, Robert is in charge of dispatching the Z-Team, part of the Phoenix Program dedicated to rehabilitating villains. Think of it like managing the Suicide Squad, but with a competent Amanda Waller. This is where the primary gameplay mechanics come into play.  

L.A. has a lot of emergencies. From cats stuck in trees, to drug busts, to theft, to judging talent shows, not to mention the looming threat of the Red Ring led by Shroud. Robert needs to evaluate each situation and send the right hero for the job. Fail the dispatch, and the city suffers; your hero gets hurt, and the next time you dispatch that hero for a job, chances for success are minimal. But remember, these rehabilitated heroes are people too (people being used loosely, since Sonar happens to be a bat-human hybrid, Malevola is a demon, and Golem is a construct), with faults of their own. They have their strengths and weaknesses; they synergize with certain members of the team and sabotage the others. They’re villains on their first hero gig, who, like you, are new to this.  

Sometimes, Robert can intervene in a larger capacity. Just because his suit is out of commission doesn’t mean he is. Certain jobs call for the skill set of a hacker, something Robert is proficient in. Some of these are timed sequences where you occasionally get anti-viruses trying to stop you from fixing the system. Robert generally has three chances to succeed before he fails, and certain sequences are really challenging. For those who want a smoother, stress-free playstyle, however, there is an option to turn on the unlimited hacking attempts mode from the main menu. 

Stakes are also higher because the emergency calls don’t last too long. Wait around and these blips on the map disappear, leaving dissatisfied citizens and dangerous repercussions. But your heroes also need to get some R&R before they’re dispatched again if you want them to be at the top of their game. In other words, Robert needs to keep an eye on the clock, his team and the city while constantly putting out fires both in and out of the workplace.  

Robert is a hero through and through; he fights like a hero, talks like a hero, and stands for what a hero believes in. The Z-Team, however, thinks otherwise — they don’t even know who Robert is. For them, he’s just the guy behind the desk who sends them into the line of fire, an ultimate outsider in a world where people have superpowers. Over the course of the game, Robert has the opportunity to forge bonds and really rehabilitate these reformed villains, giving them the confidence that everyone is capable of being good.   

This is where the narrative gameplay shines. It’s the little things, from a simple bro-fist with your new colleague to exercising restraint when handling your team or deciding to go for the least favorite flavor of a doughnut, that influence the other characters’ perception of Robert. There are also the large story beats that affect the world around him — a decision you make way back in episode one may come back to haunt you all the way in the finale. Each door you open closes another, and at the end of each episode, you can see whether or not you’re in the majority. There’s no right answer; there are only different choices, but that’s what adds to the replay value of this game.  

The beauty of Robert Robertson III is that, at his core, he is a good person, and nothing you do to him can change that.  You might choose how Robert acts, decide the kind of person he is, or the person he’s becoming, but you can’t really mold him into something he’s not. That doesn’t mean that you can’t influence the kind of people Robert comes into contact with —keep in mind, a kind word goes a long way.  

Of course, this wouldn’t be a workplace comedy if there wasn’t some drama. You can’t keep everyone happy. Robert is on the verge of committing multiple HR violations, between romancing his superior (Blonde Blazer) or his ex-villain protégé (Invisigal), though keeping romance out of the equation entirely is also an alternative. Meanwhile, he has some tough decisions to make as he figures out who to cut and who to keep on the Z-Team. These decisions have the power to change the dynamics of the group entirely, and the missions suffer as a result of it. Do you want to give a chance to the anxious trainee who shows promise or a depressed Superman-esque hero who could use the encouragement? It’s an unenviable position to be in, and it doesn’t help that the cast of characters are endearing and well fleshed out. The stacked voice cast — featuring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Jeffrey Wright (The Batman), Matthew Mercer (Critical Role), Laura Bailey (The Last of US II) Yung Gravy, Jacksepticeye, and MoistCr1TiKaL, among many others — do a fantastic job of bringing them to life.  

Dispatch’s writing also sucks you in from the get-go. It’s grounded, despite the superhero setting. There’s no fantastical otherworldly threat; it’s people, their decisions, and what pushes them to the brink. Robert has only ever known life as the Mecha Man and expects to die in the suit just as his grandfather and father did. But when the suit’s taken away, what’s left? It’s interesting to see someone who’s trying to rebuild himself mentor a group in the same situation. There’s a line in the game that sticks with you: “We joke, we laugh, we suppress our trauma.” And that really sums up what it means to keep going in a world that’s pushing you down. 

Its weekly episodic release schedule meant a painful wait to see the consequences of your choices, fervently praying they would turn out for the best. Now that all the episodes are out, you can binge-play the whole season. Somewhere along the way, Dispatch has managed to be one of the most engaging games and TV series this year.  

Not all heroes wear capes; some also sit behind a desk.   

The post Dispatch Proves That Not All Heroes Wear Capes, Some Sit Behind A Desk  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

What’s the real punk rock? Without sounding like Clark Kent in the latest Superman film, punk (or punk-rock) is the anti-establishment subculture that burst onto the scene in the mid-1970s. At the time, the youth were disillusioned and disenchanted, and punk was born as a reaction against everything the previous generations stood for. Punks tightly wrapped themselves in artfully distressed tartan, held together by a plethora of safety pins, and secured with an insane amount of styling gel.  

Punk, like any subculture, has a very distinct aesthetic and style that embodies its rebellious spirit, and one of the best-known names when it comes to pioneering punk fashion is Vivienne Westwood. Along with Malcom McLaren (her partner at the time), Westwood brought New York’s punk rebellion across the pond and unleashed it onto the streets of London at their store on 430 King’s Road, London —SEX. That King’s Road address became the birthplace of punk in the United Kingdom. The band Sex Pistols, founded and managed by McLaren, originated at SEX, with Westwood designing the couture. One of punk’s most definitive bands, the Sex Pistols were partly responsible for popularizing the aesthetic.  

Cut to the Eighties, Westwood opened her first international store in Tokyo. The avant-garde fashion quickly caught the eye of the alternate scene there, and by the Nineties, most fashion magazines catering to those subcultures, featured pieces by Westwood. Today Japan has more Vivienne Westwood stores than the U.K., including the RED LABEL, which is a Japan exclusive.  

But what really boosted this punk brand’s popularity was a manga — Nana. 

Ai Yazawa, Nana’s creator, was a fashion school dropout from Osaka Mode Gakuen, who quit to seriously focus on the career she always dreamt of—a mangaka. Nonetheless, her affinity for the fashion world comes through in her art style and approach to character identity — Nana is arguably one of the best homages to punk fashion.  

Nana follows the story of two girls, both named Nana, who meet on a train enroute to Tokyo. Aside from their names, they couldn’t be further apart. But despite their dichotomy, they strike up a strong friendship, renting apartment 707 (‘7’ is read as nana in Japanese). Together, the girls navigate love, loss and everything in between, finding themselves drifting through the uncertainties of adulthood in Tokyo in the early 2000s.   

While Nana Komatsu (called Hachi), leaned towards frills, lace, lighter tones that suited her softer demeanor, Nana Osaki threw herself headfirst into the maelstrom of punk. Osaki becomes the lead singer of the Black Stones (aka BLAST), a punk rock band in her hometown and starts a relationship with the group’s bassist Ren Honjo. Thus begins the volatile relationship between Ren and Nana that mirrors the relationship between Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen (Ren’s appearance, character and trajectory in life is loosely based on the former). Osaki even gifts him a padlock necklace that looks like an exact replica of Sid Vicious’s own. He’s a fan of the Sex Pistols and it is he who opens the doors of punk rock to Osaki.      

The series has spawned an anime series, two live-action films, video games and several tribute albums. Nana Best (2007) is the compilation of the OST used in the anime. Punk Night from Nana (2003) is an album that has tracks inspired by BLAST’s set list and performances, including covers of Sex Pistols’ songs. The album that stands out the most, however, is Love for Nana (2005) which is a tribute to the series in which Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock provides one of the tracks dedicated to BLAST, coming full circle. 

Nana Osaki’s go-to fashion house is Vivienne Westwood. It is perhaps one of Nana’s greatest mysteries how a broke, aspiring punk rockstar could afford the pieces featured in the manga. Of course, some of them are gifts, albeit expensive ones.     

Osaki is almost always sporting the Vivienne Westwood Armour ring, perhaps as a metaphor to the ‘armour’ she wears to protect herself from the harsh world around her.  

She also wears the iconic red heart-shaped jacket from the Harris Tweed collection, designed by Vivienne Westwood, Autumn Winter 1987-88. It makes multiple appearances, not just in the manga and anime, but also in official artwork.  

The Rocking Horse Ballerina shoes, which first appeared in the Spring Summer 1985 ‘Mini-Crini’ catwalk show, is also rocked by Osaki for performances along with the Super Elevated Ghillie Platforms —the very same infamous ones which caused Naomi Campbell’s fall on the runway in 1993. Osaki, however, stands tall throughout, defying the laws of physics while belting out tunes for BLAST’s gigs.  

And it’s not just Nana Osaki who has a penchant for the designer; other characters do too. Shinichi Okazaki, BLAST’s second bassist, borrows a lot from Westwood’s 1974 Bondage collection.  

The signature Saturn Orb symbol (from Vivienne Westwood’s iconic logo) also makes its appearance in all forms– from earrings and necklaces to, most notably, Okazaki’s lighter.  

Thus, Vivienne Westwood and Nana have always been intrinsically linked together and now in a very strange turn of events for the 25th anniversary of Nana, the two are having an official collaboration. The first collaborative item to be revealed was the limited-edition anniversary cover of Volume One of the manga. Featuring both Nanas decked in Westwood finery with sprayed plaid edges, it’s also one of the most affordable items in the collaborative collection. The price of punk is pretty steep these days –ironic, because one of punk’s cornerstones is anti-capitalism.  

What is perhaps woeful is that the manga is still unfinished and stuck on a cliff-hanger. Due to health issues Yazawa had put Nana on an infinite hiatus back in 2009 at Chapter 84. Now, 16 years later, Yazawa plans to finally conclude the story. The jury is still out whether the girls reunite or if Hachi ends up with a fate similar to Hachiko, waiting for Nana Osaki in Apartment 707.  

Whether or not the final curtains will close on Nana, the series still stands as a testament to one of the best depictions of the spirit of punk in media and its fashion choices continue to influence newer readers. Nana Osaki may be AWOL, but she continues to be an enduring presence as the Princess of Punk-rock. 

The post Why ‘Nana’ Is A Resounding Homage to Punk Rock  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

The ‘Year Without a Summer (1818)’ might not have been a good year for sunshine and warmth, but was certainly good for horror. A group of young people were holed up in Villa Diodati in the Swiss Alps thanks to the torrential downpour. Inspired by reading translated ghost stories, one of them, Lord Byron, proposed an interesting solution to combat the restlessness that follows the rain: they would all write ghost stories. The competitors were: Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron’s physician, John Polidori.  At first, Mary struggled to come up with something sufficiently spooky — ghosts were frightening enough. But possessed by a waking nightmare, she found her answer: galvanism, a corpse known for its “yellow, watery but speculative eyes,” and an artist terrified of his own creation.   

And thus, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was brought to life.  

What started out as a short story transformed into the first-ever science fiction novel. And it did so while simultaneously dipping into the genre of gothic horror fiction.  

The other competitors did come up with their own stories — Lord Byron wrote Fragment of a Novel, a vampiric piece which Polidori would later cannibalize into creating The Vampyre (which went on to lay the foundations of all vampire stories). Percy Shelley, on the other hand, drew inspiration from his own life to conjure his work. Suffice to say, 18-year-old Mary was the victor. Fitting that she named her protagonist Victor, though that wasn’t the actual inspiration for his name.  

They discussed at length the current breakthroughs and experiments of the 19th century. One of them was Dr Erasmus Darwin, who had supposedly preserved a piece of the microscopic organism Vorticella (Mary misheard it as vermicelli!) in a glass case until it began to move. In truth, his experiment proved that rehydrating Vorticella could cause it to survive if it was ever dried out. Another topic that piqued her attention was galvanism. Galvanism is the convulsion of organic muscle tissue upon contact with an electric current, as well as the electric current generated within biological organisms. Luigi Galvani, the physicist and biologist who inspired the term, discovered that a deceased frog’s legs still moved if it came into contact with an electric current.  

Just as Victor Frankenstein cobbled together an undead creature comprising the most beautiful parts, so did Mary while writing Frankenstein. It was only natural that writing was her calling — both her parents were writers, and their influence is one among many that permeate her story.  

Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humanity. Ovid’s Metamorphoses has a slightly different take. Here, Prometheus fashions humanity out of clay, giving them a warm gift far more valuable than flame —life itself.  Either way, he’s condemned by Zeus, King of the Greek Pantheon, to an eternity of torment for his transgressions. Prometheus is chained to a rock, and an eagle (the symbol of Zeus) pecks at his liver. As a Titan, his liver grows back each night, and the agonising pain begins all over again the next dawn — a vicious cycle from which there is no escape. It is Ovid’s Metamorphoses from which The Modern Prometheus is derived. Victor, like Prometheus, bestows the ultimate gift on his creation, only to be tormented by it. Another Greek myth that served as inspiration was the Pygmalion, a man who fell in love with a statue of a woman he’d carved. This story is present in the Metamorphoses, but Mary had already come across this in Pygmalion et Galatée by Madame de Genlis.  

John Milton’s Paradise Lost was such a strong influence that it explicitly appears in the book. The creature reads it and identifies with Satan, who, like himself, was cast out by his creator, God (Victor). The themes of loneliness and despair in both works run parallel to each other, with both the creature and Satan forced to choose the path of evil. 

Aside from literary influences, Mary drew from her own life. Percy Shelley had once used the pen name Victor for the poetry collection he had written with his sister Elizabeth (whose name is also used in the book), Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. Shelley had, during his time at Eton, dabbled with the sciences — electricity, magnetism, chemical reactions. He even kept scientific instruments in his room while at Oxford. Victor and Percy both came from similar aristocratic backgrounds as well.  

A mere three years before she wrote Frankenstein, Mary gave birth to a premature baby girl who died shortly after. Her own mother had died at childbirth, and while she was writing this book, her step-sister — Claire Clairmont, who introduced the Shelleys to Lord Byron — was pregnant. Her tumultuous relationship with birth, death, the span of time in between, as well as the responsibility of creating a life, is laid bare for the reader in her book.  

The themes in Frankenstein are reflective of its inspiration. Like Prometheus, Victor’s unchecked hubris leads to his eventual downfall.  Responsibility, namely parental, is one of the overarching themes of this book, or rather, the lack thereof. Victor is horrified by what he believes to be an abomination of his own making and shuns the creature. The prejudice the creature faces due to its appearance causes it to be isolated and angry. Victor’s actions are unfathomable to the creature — why create life only to abandon it? 

The namelessness of the creature is another fascinating device Mary employs to emphasize its alienation. Throughout the book, he is only referred to as “creature”, “ogre”, “dæmon”, “wretch” and other derogatory derivatives. Being occasionally addressed as “thing,” the intelligent being is reduced to an object. The vilification of a person is based solely on appearance; the creature can read, is well spoken, and has the ability to be kind, but no one will look past his terrifying visage. The creature, as a result, refers to himself as “monster,” as do the townsfolk who see him. Ironically, in the present day, more people believe the creature’s name is Frankenstein and the creator, Victor, is largely forgotten. 

Mary’s competition entry was not a ghost story in any sense of the term. There are no ghosts here, nor any hauntings to speak of. Only a man and his offspring, tethered by an umbilical cord that is prematurely torn to shreds. The creature haunts Victor as revenge for bringing him to a world where he is unwanted and unloved, leading to themes of revenge and retribution. Victor is the creature’s primary tormentor and vice versa. That is where the crux of the terror lies.  

Frankenstein has received numerous adaptations across different mediums in the two centuries following its publication. The earliest were stage plays, which featured a blue-skinned toga-clad monster.  

The first time Victor and his creation appeared on screen was in 1910, in a silent horror film produced by Thomas Edison. It was not until the 1931 Universal film Frankenstein, which had Boris Karloff’s iconic portrayal of the creature, that the story took the public imagination by storm. Not only did this film cement the creature as a pop-culture icon, but it also gave rise to the Frankenstein film franchise. It also added iconic characters like The Bride and Victor Frankenstein’s hunchbacked assistant, Igor. The trope of the ‘mad scientist’ also strongly inserted itself in the minds of the general public, despite Victor’s character in the book being the opposite of that archetype.   

Even today, Victor and his monster continue to come alive on screen, the latest being Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025) — set to release for digital audiences on Netflix on Nov. 7, 2025 — which heralds in the new era of the galvanic man.  

There have been graphic novel adaptations of Frankenstein, and the Classics Illustrated series in 1945 has the story in comic book form. More recently, in 2018, horror manga artist Junji Ito gave it a manga adaptation, going on to receive the Eisner Award. These adaptations are perhaps the closest to Mary Shelley’s original work.  

It is prudent at this juncture to mention one of the most flattering depictions of the creature where he gets a happy ending — Mel Brooks’ iconic 1974 classic Young Frankenstein. This is a parody film that follows Frederick (Gene Wilder), who carries on his grandfather, Victor’s, experiment along with his faithful assistant Igor (aka Eye-gore). The infamous “Abby-normal” brain scene is from this adaptation. Young Frankenstein utilised a lot of laboratory set pieces from Universal’s 1931 Frankenstein franchise and is shot entirely in black and white. A prequel titled Very Young Frankenstein is currently in development at FX.   

Frankenstein has evolved over time. Today, the name Frankenstein will conjure the image of a gargantuan, green-skinned corpse, with bolts on his neck stapled together, terrorising hapless passersby by shouting in slurred, indecipherable, and stilted statements. No longer do people think of a tortured scientist who thought he could play god. The progeny has finally overshadowed the sire.  

It’s strange because the actual description of the creature is very different.  

Clearly, Victor meant for the creature to be beautiful — it was to be the new ‘Adam’, named after the first man created by god in the bible. Unfortunately, a beautiful person is just going to turn into a beautiful corpse, and a corpse is still a corpse. No matter how one dresses it up, it will still be unnerving to see it move. It is the unnatural and “wrong” air about the creature (namely, the eyes) that takes away from any charm it has. It further emphasizes the point that disturbing the natural order of things is not going to end well, no matter what precautions are taken or what lengths one goes through.   

Victor may have been punished for his actions but one cannot deny that his subject of study is fascinating. How viable is galvanism? Is it truly possible to reanimate the dead? Can slotting in a functioning brain resuscitate a person?  

Galvanism today comes under the umbrella of electrophysiology. It hasn’t been successful in bringing the dead to life, but it is presumed to be effective in treating clinical depression. Defibrillators are quite possibly the closest thing we have, in theory, to jump-start a body from death’s cold grip. These devices have been around since 1899. But they have their limitations: one cannot exactly dig up a corpse, outfit it with a defibrillator, and joyously exclaim “It’s alive!”  

While heart surgeries are possible, brain surgeries are sadly not viable at the moment. People have been unsuccessfully trying their hand at this, right from the early 1900s. Partial brain transplants in mice have been proven to be possible, but anything larger winds up dead. The closest we have come to resuming brain activity is a 2019 experiment carried out by the Department of Neuroscience in the Yale School of Medicine. To summarise, brain circulation and basic cellular functions resumed in the brain of a slaughtered pig. The porcine seat of thinking can’t technically be categorised as being alive or fully conscious, but it was no longer considered “dead-dead.” Of course, the ethics of applying this to human test subjects is morally ambiguous, and the implications will no doubt have messy consequences. 

Despite the advances in modern science since the time of publication of the novel, the answer is no. But science is rapidly evolving, so perhaps in the distant future, we might see an actual case of Frankenstein’s experiment succeed. In such a scenario, it’s fortunate that there’s a readily available guide on how not to treat your creation.

The post The Corpse Who Refuses To Die: Frankenstein’s Journey From a Novel to the Big Screen  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

With Halloween creeping up around the corner, all the monsters hiding under your bed, in your closet, are dusting their haunting grounds. Any good ghost knows that setting the mood is what really scares the daylights out of the living, and what’s a better mood setter than music? While most hapless mortals will prefer to listen to Halloween classics like “The Great Pumpkin Waltz”, “Spooky Scary Skeletons” or break a tibia in the process of dancing along to “Monster Mash,” the more discerning listener might prefer something more…macabre. 

 The Haunted Jukebox is Rolling Stone India’s collection of the most unsettling songs that crawl up your ear canal and inject terror directly into your veins. Listener beware: as is the norm with subject matter as dark as this, there is a strong trigger warning advisory for most of the tracks on this list. If any of the songs make you uncomfortable, please take a break. Featuring voices from Pink Floyd to Steely Dan to Billie Holiday to VOCALOID —without further ado, slot your coin in the Haunted Jukebox. 

Steely Dan: “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies” (1975) 

Steely Dan is one of those bands that have intricately precise tracks paired with obscure lyrics full of hidden meanings, each telling a story laced with equal parts irony and cynicism. “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies” is no exception. What we have here is a sort of musical version of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita”. Everyone’s gone to the movies except Mr. LaPage who’s busy luring teenagers to his basement to watch 8mm pornographic films. It’s a cautionary tale featuring dark, unnerving, sleazy subject matter hidden beneath the bright upbeat tempo of Victor Feldman’s vibraphone. The oddly spooky triumphant percussive fadeout heralds the grim success of Mr. LaPage. Sometimes it’s the mundane that’s truly terrifying, and horror works best when you least expect it, which is exactly what this song does.  

Suicide: “Frankie Teardrop” (1977)  

This song should come with a strong content advisory warning that’s big, red and bright. It tells the story of a man driven to the brink of insanity by his circumstances, a helplessness fuelled by sheer desolation and desperation. Frankie slaves away at his gruelling ten-hour shift in the factory, supporting his wife and six-month-old child. But the fates are cruel, and often unfair because sometimes, no matter how much one struggles, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. An eviction notice is the nail in Frankie’s coffin.  

At the 2:42 mark of this 10-and-a-half-minute long song, Frankie’s despair reaches a tragic conclusion. What follows is his arrival in hell, because not even in death does he find peace. The hushed erratic narration, distorted and put through a digital delay, interspersed with vocalist Alan Vega’s bloodcurdling screams and choked sobs, puts the listener in the scene with startling clarity. The waves of the Styx crashing against the shore, the screaming of the damned, all framed by the mechanical droning of an industrial hell, ends on a chilling note —“We’re all Frankies, We’re all lying in hell”. The simple end to this disturbing sound makes you realise that the machine that’s life, continues to turn, manufacturing more Frankies on the conveyer belt. What’s more chilling is that Frankie’s story is real and inspired by a murder committed by a factory worker, who killed his wife and child when he was laid off.  

Ethel Cain: “Ptolemaea” (2022)  

Another song that requires a trigger warning due to its heavy themes. The concept album Preacher’s Daughter falls into the genre of Southern gothic horror. The album follows Ethel Cain (a fictional character who shares the same name as the artist) who escapes her abusive household, only to find herself in even more troubling circumstances. Within the dark tapestry of Preacher’s Daughter, “Ptolemaea’s” threads are dyed vantablack. The title derives its name from the third round of the ninth circle of Hell in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, where the betrayers are trapped in the lake of Cocytus with frozen tears. The condemned share a common denominator they’ve all invited guests in, only to stab them in their back — a fitting parallel for the ninth song on the album.  

The track opens with the buzzing sound of bees as Ethel slips into a drug-induced hallucination, while her captor speaks, eerily calm, about how he invited her in. It signals the start of one of the most disturbing songs on this list. Set in the Locrian mode, the most unnerving of the diatonic minor modes, and paced with a deliberately slow tempo, the song feels as heavy as the subject matter. It envelopes the listener in a suffocating embrace.  To say that “Ptolemaea” is hauntingly disturbing is a vast understatement. 

The Black Dahlia Murder: “Unhallowed” (2003)  

If the name of this band doesn’t leave you feeling at least a little unsettled, then the opening track of their debut album, “Unhallowed,” certainly will. Named after the 1947 unsolved brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, aka Black Dahlia, The Black Dahlia Murder is a melodic death metal band. The self-titled opening for the album takes its lyrics from the ‘Gutting’ section from “Butchering the Human Carcass for Human Consumption” by the Church of Euthanasia. Fun fact: the Church of Euthanasia is reportedly the only anti-human religion in the world, so one can guess by their credo that their views on humanity are extreme to say the least. Listening to this song makes you feel as though you’re strapped to a dissection table in a dark murder basement while your killer gives an explicit play-by-play of what he’s going to do to you. The lyrics starting suddenly half-a-minute in to the two minute song, is meant to shock the victim (the listener). The echoey drone set against a backdrop of industrial static, ebbs and rises as though the victim fades in and out of consciousness.   

Rezső Seress: “Gloomy Sunday (Szomorú Vasárnap)” (1933)  

The antithesis to “Easy Like Sunday Morning,” this song often goes by a more sinister name — “The Hungarian Suicide Song”. Originally titled “Vége a világnak” or  “The World is Ending”, it was written during the Great Depression (1932) by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress. The song, set in the C minor key, explored the sheer hopelessness and dejection brought about by war. Seress faced difficulty in getting the song out due to it being seeped to the bone in melancholy. Publishers felt that no one would enjoy listening to something this dreary. Later in 1933, poet László Jávor, changed the lyrics to the despair faced by a man following his lover’s demise, and his yearning to be with her in death. Many musicians have since covered this song, but it gained notable traction after Billie Holiday covered it in 1941.  

But there’s a reason this song is called the “Hungarian Suicide Song”. If urban legends are to be believed, this song was allegedly behind a string of suicides in Hungary in the 1930s. BBC radio had at one point even banned Billie Holiday’s cover, choosing only to air the instrumental track  (this was lifted in 2002). While there is insufficient evidence for this dirge- like song to be cause for the suicides in Hungary, there is one death that is explicitly linked to the sombre song. In 1968, Seress himself died by suicide in Budapest, reportedly convinced he would never again compose anything as powerful, or as haunting, as “Gloomy Sunday.”  

 Black Sabbath: “Black Sabbath” (1969)  

Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne himself admitted that “Black Sabbath,” from their debut 1970 album “Black Sabbath” is Black Sabbath’s scariest song. The lyrics speaks of an unsettling “figure in black”, inspired by an eerie encounter that the bassist and lyricist, Geezer Butler had. 

At the time of writing the song, Butler had developed a fascination with the occult, moving into an apartment which he promptly painted black, and even adorning his walls with inverted crosses. Osbourne gifted Butler a 16^th century occult book and the latter put it in his airing cupboard because something about the tome was unsettling. At night, Butler woke up to find a frightening shadowy presence at the foot of his bed. Figuring that the book was the culprit, Butler rushed to the cupboard to throw it out, only to find that it had mysteriously disappeared. This incident led to the creation of “Black Sabbath”. The main riff, inspired by “Mars, the Bringer of War” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planet’s Suite”, is followed by a dark tritone known as diabolus in musica (devil in music). This harmonic progression is what gives the song such an ominous and dark tone.  

 The Velvet Underground: “The Gift” (1968) 

This is a morbidly funny short story in song form. “The Gift” was written by Lou Reed for a creative writing class while in college. Perhaps the best word to describe the song would be tart, and if this song were to be categorised as a fruit it would undoubtedly be a cantaloupe. For all those who’ve been afflicted with a certain malady called love, and those who enjoy performance poetry, this is a masterclass in storytelling. Waldo Jeffers longs to see his girlfriend Marsha. He fears their long-distance relationship could risk her fidelity and the thought of her with another man fills Waldo with great distress. Broke and paranoid, he makes a perfectly reasonable decision to mail himself to Marsha and surprise her. There’s a gory end to this story — Frank Zappa suggested they use a cantaloupe to add the effect of a knife slicing through a head. John Cale narrates this story in a deadpan Welsh accent in the left audio channel, while the instrumental track plays in the right. The idea was that if the listener got tired of the story, the instrumental could be heard in isolation. “The Gift” features one of the band’s grooviest tracks: – motorik drumming and a strong baseline remain steadfast and resolute throughout, with the guitar holding them together much like the tape sealing Waldo’s box (and his fate). One of the only songs where a fruit is credited as an instrument, “The Gift” has one of the most graphic, well-executed punchlines in any short story, meriting a place on this list. It hits you so hard because you don’t see it coming (lost as you are, listening to the funky backing track). The main lesson is probably that if you want to surprise your significant other, it might be prudent to place a ‘fragile do not pierce’ sticker on the package. 

Billie Holiday: “Strange Fruit” (1939) 

It might seem strange to have this song on the list, but it is an excellent example of how lyrics can be used to conjure the most vivid imagery. It is powerful, unsettling and oddly poetic. Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish high school teacher, initially wrote the poem “Bitter Fruit” as a response to the brutal racism faced by the African American minorities in 1930s America. In particular, the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Colombia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract to record the song at the label Commodore. “Strange Fruit” was Holiday’s biggest hit and had a negative impact on her career, but Holiday remained brave in her decision to sing it. Haunting would be the accurate adjective to describe this song. Chilling, horrifying and shocking would be some ways to describe the lyrics — “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth/ Here is fruit for the crows to pluck.” While not scary in the traditional sense, the hauntingly evocative lyrics stay with you long after the final note lingers in the air. 

Pink Floyd: “Careful With That Axe Eugene” (1969)  

“We often pick titles that have nothing really to do with the songs” was Richard Wright’s explanation when asked about the song’s unnerving title. Nevertheless, it is most fitting. This was written during the height of Pink Floyd’s psych-rock era and can be considered one of the band’s quintessential songs. Mostly instrumental, the song builds up slow dread as you  progress through it. In the beginning, it is quiet with Wright on the organ taking centre stage along with Nick Mason softly hitting the cymbals. This dread culminates in a hushed whisper of the only lyric in the song — the title — before Roger Waters unleashes a horrific scream. That’s the cue for David Gilmore’s guitar to cement the hysteria, signalling that something has gone terribly wrong. Then, the sound ebbs to its previous softly ominous tone. Implied dread is a powerful thing compared to in-your-face horror. There’s much debate about which version is better, the “Ummagumma” or the “Live at Pompeii” (the latter features additional hushed lyrics shedding more light on the situation). Regardless of which version is superior, both are equally unsettling. The fact remains: don’t let Eugene near an axe.     

Tom Waits: “What’s He Building?” (1999)  

The anthem of every nosy neighbour. Listening to this will either make you close your blinds permanently or eye the one next door with suspicion. This is a song straight out of a snuff film — if it were directed by Renfield from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula (who Tom Waits played in the film). Waits’ very distinct gravelly voice is what really makes this song unsettling. “What’s he building in there?” asks the narrator as he outlines everything he knows about his neighbour.  The question is an eerie refrain giving way to paranoia, the tone of voice becoming increasingly unhinged. It’s not without reason that this question is posed to the listener. In the background, we hear the mechanical rumbling and strange suspicious sounds of a man pottering about his home. “What is he building in there?” you ask yourself as the same tendrils of paranoia sink into your skin. Who is more terrifying? The suspicious neighbour or the overly nosey, increasingly schizophrenic narrator?   

Leonard Cohen: “Dress Rehearsal Rag” (1971)  

Trigger warning once more for mentions of suicide. “Songs of Love and Hate” is one of Leonard Cohen’s darkest works, and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” is one of its most emotionally devastating tracks. It captures a moment of despair with aching precision. 

Cohen’s voice takes on a darkly mocking tone, accompanied by dirge-like strumming as he outlines a day in the life of the unnamed protagonist of the song. Throughout the song, Cohen juxtaposes bleak imagery with flashes of bitter self-awareness. One chilling line — “That’s a funeral in the mirror and it’s stopping at your face” — distils the song’s sense of reckoning. By the final verse, Cohen lists the small, ordinary reasons one might cling to life, only to close with a haunting refrain: “It’s just a dress rehearsal rag.” The final performance, as he implies, is yet to come. 

Steampianist, morbid-morsel: Secrets of Wysteria (2014) 

Another very strong trigger warning for this song, the strongest on this list. VOCALOIDS have been used to create some pretty disturbing songs, thanks to artificial vocal cords that let them hit inhuman notes. There are any number of terrifying songs with pitch dark subject matter, but “Secrets of Wysteria” is the one that truly makes the listener sick to the stomach. Based on a real-life serial killer, it features Oliver, a British VOCALOID whose soprano voice is that of a 12-year-old, making this song even more terrifying. “Secrets of Wysteria” plays like a disturbing music box with a rhythm akin to a school-yard rhyme. Oliver’s childlike vocals paired with the disturbing lyrics is what really makes this song a nightmare, considering the subject of the song —  The brutal murder of ten-year old Grace Budd, who was cannibalised by one of America’s most horrifying serial killers, Albert Fish (whose long list of crimes require a separate warning of their own). “Secrets of Wysteria” is not a song for the faint hearted. 

The Doors: “The End” (1967)  

The Doors may not be strictly goth, but it is undeniable that “The End” is gothic rock. Jim Morrison is a poet, and “The End” is his epic. Nihilistic, dark and moody, it bids adieu to childhood innocence. Robby Krieger made use of open guitar tuning to make his guitar sound like a sitar, adding an otherworldly sound quality to the song. It isn’t scary in the way the others on this list are, but it is haunting. It also concerns a subject that most people are often frightened about: death. According to Morrison, “Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate … That doesn’t make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend.” A modern Orpheus, Morrison takes the listener on a stygian journey after bidding farewell to his only friend — Death. The song then takes on the form of spoken word poetry before delving into a rock and roll retelling of “Oedipus Rex,” finally culminating in a violent burst of “fuck”s and “kill”s.  

The post Haunted Jukebox: 13 Spine-Chilling Songs To Keep You up at Night This Halloween  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

One of the tropes of the cyberpunk genre is the establishment of an artificially intelligent authority figure that governs its creators — the humans. But slowly, over the course of advancements in AI, this is no longer limited to the realm of fiction. While AI might not have reached the state of sentience, in a lot of ways they are beginning to dominate the human race across various fields. 

In the recent past, the use of AI in creative spaces such as art, animation and writing has caused a huge uproar. AI can create videos, images, and even write entire books in the time it takes to snap your finger. Consciously, people are gravitating towards employing AI. as a tool, even in spaces that should be ideally entirely human.  

And the latest subspace is the music industry.  

Taylor Swift is under fire for the alleged use of AI in the promotional videos for her newest album The Life of a Showgirl. Her fanbase, the “Swifties,” have been quick to hone in on inconsistencies in the footage that appears to be doctored by an artificial hand. Swift had always been on the side of artists against the AI invasion, so it does raise a lot of flags if one of the biggest names in the music industry has possibly gone over to the dark side. 

When The Velvet Sundown debuted in June this year. They put out three albums, crept into playlists and amassed over one million listeners on Spotify in the span of a month. The catch: they weren’t real. Everything from their songs, names, biographies, and images were artificially manufactured. They were ghosts on the internet. It wasn’t until the jig was up that outraged listeners migrated towards artists whose music was more organic. But if they hadn’t been exposed, chances are The Velvet Sundown would’ve gained even more momentum.  

At the OpenAI Korea launch on Sept. 11, a mistranslation of a quote by singer/songwriter/producer Vince, who helped write “Soda Pop” for Netflix’s smash hit, K-Pop Demon Hunters, caused quite the stir. Vince was initially quoted saying that he used ChatGPT for assistance to come up with ways to make the song more catchy. If the more accurate translations are to be believed, his statement is broader and more generalised — he ”occasionally” uses ChatGPT for inspiration while producing K-pop. Regardless of the extent to which he employs it, it does seem like using a cheat code in the creative thought process.  

AKB48, one of Japan’s biggest idol girl groups recently held a televised songwriting contest in which the winning composition would be their latest single. Yasushi Akimoto, the best-selling lyricist of Japan was pitted against an AI version of himself — AI Akimoto. This AI Akimoto was trained on the original Akimoto’s songs to mimic his writing style. Both versions came up with two distinct compositions. The real Akimoto’s song “Cécile” lost to AI Akimoto’s “Omoide Scroll” by 3000 points. In this case, AI had managed to replicate and even beat the original person it was modeled on. 

In the same month as The Velvet Sundown’s debut, MIT published a study that found that users of ChatGPT and other AI Large Language Models (LLMs) displayed lower brain activity compared to those who worked without any external or artificial assistance. LLM users “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioral levels”; in other words, the cognitive cost of using AI is steep. Excessive use, going forward, would be detrimental to the instinctual thought process, with creativity becoming a casualty.  

As David Bowie once said, “Always remember that the reason that you initially started working is that there was something inside yourself that you felt that, if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations — they generally produce their worst work when they do that.” 

Have we as a species reached a point where AI knows us better than we do ourselves? Is there no more room for freedom of thought, expression, and creative process that makes us, us? In the three scenarios mentioned above, AI has managed to surpass human creators in seconds. 

Going by what Bowie said, the art of songwriting is deeply personal — the writer is sharing a piece of their soul with the audience. There’s a story, a memory or a moment lodged in there that can instantly strike a chord with the listener purely on the power of human connection. Whether it’s just inspiration or the track’s lyrics, notes and chord progression, if it is generated by AI, then whose story are we really hearing? Why is it even being written in the first place? It makes one wonder —what is the point of listening to anything at all? Has the human race reached a point of cognitive exhaustion where we are unable to formulate thoughts and emotions of our own and convey them? We’ve reached a point in time where we need an artificial entity to tell us what it is that we like, want to like and need to like.  

OpenAI’s Sora 2 is a social media app where users can generate short form videos from seemingly nothing. While Sora 2’s prompts doesn’t allow you to directly use names of known industry figures, there are ways to circumnavigate these guardrails and arrive at a distorted yet clearly recognizable version of a song or likeness of the artist you want to generate. Because these generated tracks and videos are merely modeled from the blueprint of the original, it certainly makes things difficult for the music industry to double down. This isn’t even taking into account how short form videos are a means for smaller artists to be discovered.  

The contemporary audience are becoming slaves to algorithms which decide what’s trending, what’s hip, what’s in and more importantly, what sells. Generic and generated content slinks up earphone cords and fills the soundscape of the mind — it is inescapable. Thanks to short form videos dominating the net, the users’ attention span has decreased to under a minute — if something does not catch their attention as their fingers mindlessly scroll through their feed, it’s forever lost to cyberspace. And because AI works by incorporating what’s popular and overexposed, there’s also a tendency for songs to start sounding similar, with words reduced to synonyms and content repackaged with a shiny new coat of paint. In the process of wanting to be seen rising above the oversaturated depths of the internet, creativity and individuality are killed in favor of being more visible or SEO friendly. It’s a cycle that feeds into itself over and over again. 

It’s the reason today’s generation doesn’t have their own “Bohemian Rhapsody”.  

AI is also able to mimic, with terrifying accuracy, the voice of a person from existing samples. In a strange sort of digital necromancy, AI covers of modern songs by musicians who have long since passed are sprouting up all over social media sites. And while it seems amusing, the horrifying fact remains that there are songs being synthesized by AI from the vocals of musicians who are still alive and in the industry. It can take less than two minutes for a song to be generated and sung, often without consent.  

It isn’t as if voicebanks and singing software are novelties. VOCALOIDs have been around since the early 2000s and function as digital singers for music producers. And while VOCALOIDS can be considered the AI of their time. and Yamaha’s latest VOCALOID6 is even powered by AI technology, they function more along the lines of instruments. These singers need to be tuned properly, like a piano, for them to sound real. However, with the advent of AI, this tuning portion of the VOCALOID software can be entirely bypassed using an AI model. With the push of a button, you can get the VOCALOID to sing instead of spending hours pouring over tracks or painstakingly tuning the notes to get that perfect pitch with the right vibrato.  

The problem with employing AI, even as a tool is that they are trained on pre-existing work — The Velvet Underground was probably where AI got the name The Velvet Sundown. That means that somewhere someone had written something that was repurposed and regurgitated as an artificial product which is now making bigger waves than the original. The waters that AI swim in are also extremely murky: what and whose datasets are they trained on, what are the legal and ethical implications and, more importantly, is this not a form of copyright infringement?   

Unconsciously, today’s listeners tune in to the ghosts in the machine, the formless lines of digital code created from the foundations of human creativity. Perhaps our AI overlords have already taken control of us without our knowledge? 

While AI might come across as the easy way out it, feels as though the tether between the music and the listener is being severed. It’s a flash in the pan before the listener moves on to the next song. In five years’ time, no one will remember it as it’s no longer trending. Is it the distinct lack of human connection that doesn’t cause these synthesized songs to linger in our memories?      

To quote the lyrics to “Video Killed the Radio Star” 

They took the credit for your second symphony 

Rewritten by a machine on new technology 

And now I understand the problems you could see 

The post Is AI Cutting the Tether Between Human Musicians and Listeners?  appeared first on Rolling Stone India.