Reolink Covers Every Security Scenario With Its Latest Lineup of Cameras
Smart home innovator Reolink is back with a couple of new product ranges that cover the full gamut of home and business security needs: However big the space you’re looking to cover is, and whatever the breadth of features you need, there’s likely to be something to suit you here.
We’ve got both the high-end OMVI Series, for maximum camera coverage and the longest list of features, as well as the ‘everyday security’ Power-Efficient Series for simpler (and more affordable) home protection.
Both these product ranges bring with them the usual no-nonsense reliability that Reolink is traditionally known for, as well as easy-to-use app interfaces that mean you’ll be up and running in no time—whether your new camera pick is the first smart device like this you’ve installed or the fortieth. What’s more, with local storage capabilities for video recording, data privacy is guaranteed as well.
Decide what your requirements and your budget levels are, and make your pick accordingly. You’ll find full details of the cameras below, to help you make an informed choice for your next home or office security camera.
The OMVI Series: Full-View Security with Seamless Coverage
Leading the new product line-up from Reolink we have the OMVI Series of cameras, advanced devices that are designed to give you a full view of your property without missing out on any of the important details. The idea is to ‘see everything, miss nothing’, with a number of key features on board to achieve this.
The cameras all feature a triple-lens system so that everything is captured all of the time—the OMVI devices are able to follow specific, moving targets while also keeping a wider overview of the scene in view. With both panoramic and pan and tilt lenses installed, you get comprehensive, 360-degree coverage at all times.
These OMVI models are best suited for larger homes, small businesses, and high-risk areas where the security protection has to be as robust as possible. The units are weatherproofed and waterproofed, and come with all the key features you’d expect to find in high-end equipment: That includes two-way audio, color night vision, and AI-powered smart detection to distinguish between people, pets, and animals.
The new OMVI series combines a panoramic view with a focused zoom. (Reolink)
For additional privacy and security, the OMVI Series of cameras work via local storage too—either via a memory card fitted internally, or a connected network video recorder. There’s no need to pay for additional cloud storage subscriptions, or to send anything back to remote data servers on the web.
There’s a lot to like from the software side too. These devices come with Reoneura, Reolink’s signature on-device AI suite, enabling you to quickly search through video archives using simple keywords, and minimizing the risk of false alerts. You can set up smart alerts for people caught on camera who cross specific boundaries, loiter in specific areas, or enter particular parts of a scene.
The cameras are designed to be easy and straightforward to use. You’re able to tap on any point in the panoramic view to focus the zoom of the camera, and set up Auto Patrol routes for the cameras to follow: It’s similar to having a security guard on site, who never takes a break or a day off.
You’ve got three different models to choose from with OMVI. First we have the OMVI 3i, available in both PoE and wifi versions to give you the flexibility to pick the installation option that best suits your needs. This camera brings with it an 18MP total resolution—a 10MP dual-lens panoramic camera and an 8MP pan-tilt lens—and full 360-degree video monitoring with those cameras working in tandem.
You can pick up the OMVI 3i PoE now from Reolink.com and Amazon for $299.99. The wifi version will be available from June 17, for $319.99.
Color night vision is supported on the OMVI series.
The PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology ensures uninterrupted coverage and rock-solid video connectivity—giving you peace of mind that your video security system is going to work reliably and without fuss when called upon. Alternatively, the wifi version gives you the convenience of fitting the camera anywhere, without cabling.
Then there is the flagship model, the precision-engineered OMVI 16x PoE (a recent CES 2026 Innovation Aware Honoree), featuring a 16MP dual-lens panoramic camera, a 4K/8MP pan-tilt lens, and up to 16x optical zoom (and 24MP resolution overall). That means every detail and every movement gets captured, even a substantial distance away from the camera itself. The OMVI 16x PoE model is arriving later this year.
The Power-Efficient Series: simple, everyday smart home essentials
The Power-Efficient Series of cameras come in at a lower price point than the OMVI models, but that doesn’t mean they skimp on features or specs. These cameras come with Qualcomm chips inside, an indication of the hardware quality you’re investing in when you pick up one of these models.
If you think about the features that consumers are most likely to want from their smart home security cameras, the Power-Efficient Series are designed to check those boxes: Hassle-free setup and operation, long-lasting battery life to minimize the number of recharges, and comprehensive video monitoring that can be relied upon.
And as the name suggestions, it’s that power efficiency that’s the headline feature here. With the Qualcomm QCC730 Micro-Power Wi-Fi solution on board, these devices are able to offer up to 96 percent better battery life than the industry standard. Those are energy and time savings that really add up.
The Argus Magicam is designed to fit just about anywhere. (Reolink)
Cameras like these should blend naturally into everyday life once installed, and that’s the promise the Power-Efficient Series makes. Covering both cameras and video doorbells, they’re suitable for homes, rentals, dorm rooms, apartments and more, and given their wifi connectivity, can be installed just about anywhere.
There are four different cameras to pick from here. First up we’ve got the Argus Magicam, a wireless, portable, go-anywhere security camera that’s battery powered and offers a resolution of 2MP. With an IP67 waterproof rating it’s suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, while the magnetic mounting system means you can pop it almost anywhere—and with up to nine months of battery life, forget about it for a while. Offering on-device human detection for accurate alerts, it’s available now for $59.99, from Reolink.com and Amazon.
Next, we have the Video Doorbell 2nd Gen, an upgraded version of Reolink’s video doorbell—with Qualcomm’s new micro-power wifi tech inside. It brings with it a 4MP head-to-toe view so you can get a proper look at visitors, and offers integrated AI that can identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages. As well as real-time alerts, there are new security protections to guard against tampering and to mask your voice. You can set this up to be battery powered (with up to 10 months between recharges) or via a wired connection, and it’s available for $129.99 starting June 15.
Then there’s the Video Doorbell SE: It costs $99.99 and will be available this fall. Powered by AA batteries (so you just need to quickly swap them out rather than wait for a recharge), the wifi-enabled device offers a 3MP video resolution, and up to eight months of battery life. With a 4:3 aspect ratio and the same on-board AI detection as the Video Doorbell 2nd-gen, you’ll always know what’s at the door.
There’s an upgraded version of the original Reolink Video Doorbell. (Reolink)
Finally we have the E1 Swift indoor camera, with a 2K/3MP resolution that’s intended to give you complete coverage of indoor spaces—the pan and tilt technology here means that it can be pointed in any direction once installed. It’s able to track people and animals automatically, making it ideal for looking after children, senior citizens, and pets, and battery life lasts up to four months. It’s coming later this year.
It’s worth emphasizing that all of these Power-Efficient Series cameras come ready to store video clips locally—you can fit memory cards up to 256GB in size here, and you don’t need to worry about paying for extra video subscriptions or logging into cloud portals.
Every camera in the new Reolink range is designed to be effective and useful in real-world scenarios, delivering the peace of mind and reliability that you want from crucial smart devices like these: And there’s one for every requirement and budget.
Smart home innovator Reolink is back with a couple of new product ranges that cover the full gamut of home and business security needs: However big the space you’re looking to cover is, and whatever the breadth of features you need, there’s likely to be something to suit you here.
We’ve got both the high-end OMVI Series, for maximum camera coverage and the longest list of features, as well as the ‘everyday security’ Power-Efficient Series for simpler (and more affordable) home protection.
Both these product ranges bring with them the usual no-nonsense reliability that Reolink is traditionally known for, as well as easy-to-use app interfaces that mean you’ll be up and running in no time—whether your new camera pick is the first smart device like this you’ve installed or the fortieth. What’s more, with local storage capabilities for video recording, data privacy is guaranteed as well.
Decide what your requirements and your budget levels are, and make your pick accordingly. You’ll find full details of the cameras below, to help you make an informed choice for your next home or office security camera.
Shop Omvi Series on Reolink.com
The OMVI Series: Full-View Security with Seamless Coverage
Leading the new product line-up from Reolink we have the OMVI Series of cameras, advanced devices that are designed to give you a full view of your property without missing out on any of the important details. The idea is to ‘see everything, miss nothing’, with a number of key features on board to achieve this.
The cameras all feature a triple-lens system so that everything is captured all of the time—the OMVI devices are able to follow specific, moving targets while also keeping a wider overview of the scene in view. With both panoramic and pan and tilt lenses installed, you get comprehensive, 360-degree coverage at all times.
These OMVI models are best suited for larger homes, small businesses, and high-risk areas where the security protection has to be as robust as possible. The units are weatherproofed and waterproofed, and come with all the key features you’d expect to find in high-end equipment: That includes two-way audio, color night vision, and AI-powered smart detection to distinguish between people, pets, and animals.
The new OMVI series combines a panoramic view with a focused zoom. (Reolink)
For additional privacy and security, the OMVI Series of cameras work via local storage too—either via a memory card fitted internally, or a connected network video recorder. There’s no need to pay for additional cloud storage subscriptions, or to send anything back to remote data servers on the web.
There’s a lot to like from the software side too. These devices come with Reoneura, Reolink’s signature on-device AI suite, enabling you to quickly search through video archives using simple keywords, and minimizing the risk of false alerts. You can set up smart alerts for people caught on camera who cross specific boundaries, loiter in specific areas, or enter particular parts of a scene.
The cameras are designed to be easy and straightforward to use. You’re able to tap on any point in the panoramic view to focus the zoom of the camera, and set up Auto Patrol routes for the cameras to follow: It’s similar to having a security guard on site, who never takes a break or a day off.
You’ve got three different models to choose from with OMVI. First we have the OMVI 3i, available in both PoE and wifi versions to give you the flexibility to pick the installation option that best suits your needs. This camera brings with it an 18MP total resolution—a 10MP dual-lens panoramic camera and an 8MP pan-tilt lens—and full 360-degree video monitoring with those cameras working in tandem.
You can pick up the OMVI 3i PoE now from Reolink.com and Amazon for $299.99. The wifi version will be available from June 17, for $319.99.
Shop OMVI 3i PoE on Reolink.com
Shop OMVI 3i PoE on Amazon
Color night vision is supported on the OMVI series.
The PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology ensures uninterrupted coverage and rock-solid video connectivity—giving you peace of mind that your video security system is going to work reliably and without fuss when called upon. Alternatively, the wifi version gives you the convenience of fitting the camera anywhere, without cabling.
Then there is the flagship model, the precision-engineered OMVI 16x PoE (a recent CES 2026 Innovation Aware Honoree), featuring a 16MP dual-lens panoramic camera, a 4K/8MP pan-tilt lens, and up to 16x optical zoom (and 24MP resolution overall). That means every detail and every movement gets captured, even a substantial distance away from the camera itself. The OMVI 16x PoE model is arriving later this year.
The Power-Efficient Series: simple, everyday smart home essentials
The Power-Efficient Series of cameras come in at a lower price point than the OMVI models, but that doesn’t mean they skimp on features or specs. These cameras come with Qualcomm chips inside, an indication of the hardware quality you’re investing in when you pick up one of these models.
If you think about the features that consumers are most likely to want from their smart home security cameras, the Power-Efficient Series are designed to check those boxes: Hassle-free setup and operation, long-lasting battery life to minimize the number of recharges, and comprehensive video monitoring that can be relied upon.
And as the name suggestions, it’s that power efficiency that’s the headline feature here. With the Qualcomm QCC730 Micro-Power Wi-Fi solution on board, these devices are able to offer up to 96 percent better battery life than the industry standard. Those are energy and time savings that really add up.
The Argus Magicam is designed to fit just about anywhere. (Reolink)
Cameras like these should blend naturally into everyday life once installed, and that’s the promise the Power-Efficient Series makes. Covering both cameras and video doorbells, they’re suitable for homes, rentals, dorm rooms, apartments and more, and given their wifi connectivity, can be installed just about anywhere.
There are four different cameras to pick from here. First up we’ve got the Argus Magicam, a wireless, portable, go-anywhere security camera that’s battery powered and offers a resolution of 2MP. With an IP67 waterproof rating it’s suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, while the magnetic mounting system means you can pop it almost anywhere—and with up to nine months of battery life, forget about it for a while. Offering on-device human detection for accurate alerts, it’s available now for $59.99, from Reolink.com and Amazon.
Shop Argus MagiCam on Reolink.com
Shop Argus MagiCam on Amazon
Next, we have the Video Doorbell 2nd Gen, an upgraded version of Reolink’s video doorbell—with Qualcomm’s new micro-power wifi tech inside. It brings with it a 4MP head-to-toe view so you can get a proper look at visitors, and offers integrated AI that can identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages. As well as real-time alerts, there are new security protections to guard against tampering and to mask your voice. You can set this up to be battery powered (with up to 10 months between recharges) or via a wired connection, and it’s available for $129.99 starting June 15.
Then there’s the Video Doorbell SE: It costs $99.99 and will be available this fall. Powered by AA batteries (so you just need to quickly swap them out rather than wait for a recharge), the wifi-enabled device offers a 3MP video resolution, and up to eight months of battery life. With a 4:3 aspect ratio and the same on-board AI detection as the Video Doorbell 2nd-gen, you’ll always know what’s at the door.
There’s an upgraded version of the original Reolink Video Doorbell. (Reolink)
Finally we have the E1 Swift indoor camera, with a 2K/3MP resolution that’s intended to give you complete coverage of indoor spaces—the pan and tilt technology here means that it can be pointed in any direction once installed. It’s able to track people and animals automatically, making it ideal for looking after children, senior citizens, and pets, and battery life lasts up to four months. It’s coming later this year.
It’s worth emphasizing that all of these Power-Efficient Series cameras come ready to store video clips locally—you can fit memory cards up to 256GB in size here, and you don’t need to worry about paying for extra video subscriptions or logging into cloud portals.
Every camera in the new Reolink range is designed to be effective and useful in real-world scenarios, delivering the peace of mind and reliability that you want from crucial smart devices like these: And there’s one for every requirement and budget.
Shop Omvi Series on Reolink.com
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#Reolink #Covers #Security #Scenario #Latest #Lineup #Cameras
Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
#Lava #Virat #Series #Runs #Stock #Flipkart #Sale #LiveLava">Lava Virat Series Runs Out of Stock as Flipkart Sale Goes Live
Lava’s newly launched Virat Series received a strong response on its first day of sale. The Lava Virat V1 5G and Lava Virat V1 went out of stock on Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
#Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki">‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
#National #Design #Studio #DOGE #Landing #Pad #Big #Balls #Recruitinginner loop,politics,government,doge,elon musk">The National Design Studio Became a DOGE Landing Pad. Now ‘Big Balls’ Is Recruiting
“I have no idea how they got my contact information,” says the engineer. Unlike other interviews for government jobs, the engineer says, there was no recruiter present—only Coristine was on the interview call. “Normally initial screenings are done over the phone, rather than video, to reduce bias in the process,” they say.
During the engineer’s NDS interview, they say, Coristine didn’t seem to know the skill set he was looking for. “I generally don’t know if this person is capable of evaluating a full-stack engineer,” they say, “because they themselves aren’t aware of the skill sets, tools, and things needed in this profession.” Coristine did not reply to a request for comment. (In January 2025, Coristine was one of several DOGE members who interviewed workers at the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services, who were required to defend their jobs and justify their projects. At the time, employees who spoke to WIRED described meetings in which the DOGE members were not familiar with their work.)
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
![‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/08/Brain-Alive-4.jpg "‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki")
![‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki](https://i0.wp.com/gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/08/Brain-Alive-4.jpg?ssl=1 "‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki")
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