anitations

lelangir, anitating owen about sorrow-kun’s Bakemonogatari and Other Anime With Great Dialogue

Maybe I’m alone – or maybe my weeaboofu is over 9000 – but I hate it when -chan/-kun/-san are changed into stuff like ‘lil sis, or changed at all, for that matter. Unless you’re translating katakana-based loan words (sorta re-translating), it’s futile to try and “translate” one exclusively Japanese meaning into another Engrish one. What exactly does “itadakimasu” mean? I don’t know, but it probably doesn’t mean “let’s eat”. Just like if you really think about it, what does “you’re welcome” mean? It’s a metaphor, but if you take “welcome” very literally, the phrase makes no sense. Similar confusion arises with prepositions. Why are things “under control” or “in control”? Again, they’re metaphors, they make use of reification, which makes no sense if you take it literally.

The following are a bunch of comments from our friendly neighbourhood fansubber, koda. Naturally, we share the same thoughts. This is regarding the Umineko VN, and the terribad/horribad literal translation thereof:

via this comment onwards

Sterling01: Yeah the translation was very stiff for the earlier chapters of Episode 1, though it does get better.

miasmacloud: …do they get rid of the honorifics spam later? Because it’s quite terrible.

(I’m guessing “no” based on their multi-page grimoire entry about honorifics.)

Sterling01: The honorifics don’t go away… though I really don’t see the problem with them. (This may be because I read it in Japanese)
Well we could have used Aunt and Uncle instead of Obasan and Ojisan…

miasmacloud: Stuff like this. I was really apathetic about every nii/nee and shit being preserved in dialogue, but Rolo’s constant cry of NII-SAN!!! in R2 quickly wore me out on that. When used as an honorific, nii/nee should be removed. “George Aniki” -> just “George”. The line I linked in the screenshot could very easily be made to say, “he was like a brother to me” etc etc. As it is, mixing “brothers” and “aniki” in the same sentence is fucking dumb. Whenever nii/nee is used as a noun, it should be replaced with the persons name unless you absolutely positively don’t know what the name is. (IE: Kyon’s little sister) Like I have 2 older brothers, I don’t go around calling them “Brother [Name]“, I just call them “[Name]“.

And super casual stuff like “hey bro/sis” is a different story, but I don’t think that’s relevant to Umineko because of the time period it takes place during?

Shit like -san I think can be totally omitted unless it’s one of those “quit calling me -san” things. -sama can easily become Mr or Mrs/Ms. -kun/-chan you can sometimes just omit, but other times you might be able to come up with a nickname! (Unless the name is too short to nickname. Some people just put “little” or some variation in front of the name, I think.) Let’s go for the gay and say Battler-chan could be turned into Battie. *^_^*

Anonymous: >Battie

8/10

miasmacloud: Gonna have to sub Umineko now just to call him Battie.

Bocom: Ironically enough, there is at least one scene where it is a “stop calling me -san” situation. (’_’;)

miasmacloud: Then just put Mr and make it “Quit calling me Mr”. ┐( ¯3¯)┌

miasmacloud: Additionally, Blue-kun told me about a line in the translation where one character who usually uses ore switches to using watashi. There are some times when it is genuinely “lol idk how to do this” but that situation is very easy to translate by just having the character who usually uses ore speak in say, non-contracted more lolelitist-sounding language, and have the character who points it out say something like hurr durr you don’t like sound like a tuff gai or ic you speak better now or whatever the situation calls for.

Anonymous: Well, thinking up clever titles and changing the language to fit the tone of each character would require ::effort:: especially considering the massive amount of text. In any case, you should continue reading to at least see Beatrice, one of the greatest troll characters ever.

miasmacloud: I don’t think you’d have to fit language to tone of each character. Using stuff like casual and contracted language is just standard fare for uh, idk… “modern” dialogue so using un-contracted and trying to make it sound less casual for only the segment in question doesn’t exactly sound magically hard?

miasmacloud: Okay, Sterling, are the amount of notes that can be found in the Grimoire.doc’s really necessary? (´_ゝ｀)

• “We gotta start picking up tips!”
The original line in Japanese was 「後でツメの垢をもらってきてやるから一緒に飲もうぜ。」. “Tsume no aka wo nomu”, “to drink the dirt under someone’s nails”, is a Japanese expression stemming from the belief that if you make a potion with someone’s nail scrapings, you’ll steal their talents by magic. Considering its unintuitive meaning, we adapted this way. Obviously not conveying completely the expression, but any extravagant analogy would have more risk of a very different meaning.

I don’t see why this is needed for what’s basically, “We’ll follow in your/their/whoever’s footsteps”.
I also don’t see what’s so magical about the shinkansen that it can’t just be put as bullet train.

Sterling01: I did find the amount of translation notes to be a bit much for Ep 1 and many weren’t really necessary. But once the meta world shows up and you get into different types of checkmate (Epaulette mate, Back rank mate, etc) I think some type of note is needed.

miasmacloud: Seems more like a “Wiki on your own time” thing. ( ´∀`)

by † Owen S Posted on 28 July 2009 in Notes & Owen & lelangir & miasmacloud

sorrow-kun, Bakemonogatari and Other Anime With Great Dialogue (specifically, owen’s comments on translation)

via

owen: See, a lot of this is due to lazy-as-hell or non-proficient translators who know their Japanese but suck at English, period. All that leaving in of -chan/-kun/-san go a long way towards pointing you to a translator who treats English (an SVO language) as Japanese (an SOV language), since if they’re lazy/weeaboo enough to leave in honorifics, something’s gotta give, eventually..

Which brings me to editors–their role is to transform the translated line into English. Hilarious, I know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some fansub groups skip the editing process altogether, considering the quality of what’s out there.

Maybe I’m alone – or maybe my weeaboofu is over 9000 – but I hate it when -chan/-kun/-san are changed into stuff like ‘lil sis, or changed at all, for that matter. Unless you’re translating katakana-based loan words (sorta re-translating), it’s futile to try and “translate” one exclusively Japanese meaning into another Engrish one. What exactly does “itadakimasu” mean? I don’t know, but it probably doesn’t mean “let’s eat”. Just like if you really think about it, what does “you’re welcome” mean? It’s a metaphor, but if you take “welcome” very literally, the phrase makes no sense. Similar confusion arises with prepositions. Why are things “under control” or “in control”? Again, they’re metaphors, they make use of reification, which makes no sense if you take it literally.

So if you take for granted that translation is by necessity just a whole process of compromising language, there are three kinds of “translation” (as our definition quickly becomes inoperative). In academia, book reviews of translations will always gripe about whether the translator tried to be as accurate as possible, simply trying to “convert” a text into English, or if they took liberties and tried to make it “flow” in English – of course, doing the latter could be viewed as being very “unfaithful” to the original.

The third kind, however, is the kind of lazyness Owen points out. Or is it lazy? If a goal of translation is to stay as close to the original as possible…wouldn’t it make sense to leave as much of the original intact as possible…in the original language? [It makes me wonder exactly what the hell kind of research Bang Zoom was doing when dubbing Lucky Star.] This is why it bothers me slightly when someone will translate onee-chan into big ’sis, or something. Of course, it only annoys me because I’ve never heard someone actually say big ’sis in real life, me being an average east coast, dc metropolitan area american. However, if translators really want to take into account regional varieties as a whole, they would not simply make an English translation, but they’d have to try and make regional translations. If you’re translating the slang of Japanese teenages, you’ll have to translate it to match the teenage dialects of the areas in which your viewers live – impossible, most likely. That’s why instead of, so to speak, the anime coming to the viewer, the viewer has to come to the anime. At least that’s why I think translation is best when it translates least. wwwwwww

So what about the role of the editor? Fuck the editor. Weeaboo culture may be over 9000% wwwwww, but it in itself presents a real (with all the faggerjack philosophical/theoretical implications) alternative to the canon of “translation”.

Let me quote a passage from this book: My aim, nonetheless, is to convey not my nationality but my transnationality. To succeed, the original ought to read as if written already in translation – a translation without an original.

by † admin Posted on 27 July 2009 in Notes

ask john (suzumiya haruhi and endless eight)

via

Endless Eight may be now KyoAni’s latest and most daring attempt to goad anime fans. It’s literally the knowing challenge, “We can do whatever we want because we know you’ll watch it.” And to a large extent, they’ve been proven right. Taken in a broader context, the Endless Eight episodes are a scathing illustration of the fickle hypocrisy of contemporary anime viewers. Anime fans worldwide complain about contemporary anime being all the same, lacking originality. Yet when Kyoto Animation literally delivers the same episode six times in a row, viewers continue to tune in. I may not like these episodes, but I have to respect Kyoto Animation’s most drastic move yet to point out the irrational, contrary behavior of anime otaku. I don’t know for certain what the Kyoto Animation staff is thinking, but I know that I’m personally thinking: if you’re willing to watch the same episode six times in a row, stop complaining about a lack of originality in anime. Obviously, you’re getting exactly what you’re willing to watch.

Does the fact that Haruhi is supposed to be a god make it more ironic? Haruhi controls the in-text universe, but apparently controls the viewers too…

But, if John’s prediction is correct, then Endless Eight functions as a kind of Geassian Requiem where you commit suicide to stop some kind of system by becoming that very system wwwwwwwwww

by † admin Posted on 21 July 2009 in Uncategorized

google reader on Shinbo, Watanabe, et al.

post in discussion. Though I have little clue about what they’re talking about, it seems very interesting.

Shiraishi: except for me, of course

Zetsubou-sama: No, even you, in time, will learn to come to love Our Shinbo as one of your own!

Shiraishi: much like with kimi ga nozomu eien, the drugs were the only way i was able to make it through pani poni dash

Takayuki-kun: the best thing about bakemonogatari was how it lifted some of the charm points from yamamoto yohko and soul taker and rolled it into a stick and beaten people with it. then again, that might be just akio watanabe’s fault.

Akio-san: I wouldn’t say “watanabe’s fault,” it’s probably overall the best shaft crew assembled in a while, and it shows. I do like the Shinbo sound bite about how, because of the author’s use of words, he and shaft were perfect for the adaptation. It works.

Shiraishi: i wish i understood what that meant

Takayuki: Nisiosin is a perfect match with Shinbo, that much is obvious to a lot of people already and Bakemonogatari is just confirmation.

But uh, <3 Watanabe.

Kona-chan: “Is there a difference in the instantiated Shinbou versus the conceptual Shinbou?”

The main issue I have with Shinbou is the tendency to go borderline extreme artsy, a point where I just start questioning the necessity of scenic disorder attempting to provide a textured meaning but ends up annoying. Ya

Takayuki: That’s my problem with Nisiosin too. Among others.

Kyou-Sensei: The comparison with Kubrick is an interesting one: I think the thing that really marks Shinbo out as different, right now, is that you have to pay attention. Lots of directors/writers are making intricate stories, and the best back them with great characters and designs. But in the end it’s all still presented to the viewer on a plate, like sandwiches cut into bite-size squares for consumption. That is the proverbial “grain of truth” in the accusation that a lot of anime is juvenile: it’s not the stories, it’s the method with which the viewer ingests them.

Shinbo isn’t “for kids” in any way: I’m not certain a kid could fully process most of what’s going on. EVA is perfect for adolescents, it mixes media, but in a stilted way, great for the viewer just becoming able to process it all. Shinbo assumes you’re already through with that phase, and can handle the mature levels. It’s a lot like reading in that sense, where you have to do a whole lot of the work yourself.

And part of the reaction against Shinbo happened to the New Wave SF writers: just tell a simple story, or it’s not SF (anime). Why all the arty shit? Well, as Delany said, the style is entertaining. If you ignore it, you’re refusing to entertain your audience as well as you can.

Takayuki: I don’t think Shinbo’s presentation of his stories are as complicated as you imply. It definitely has layers, but at the same time one can take the flip side of the coin and accuse him stuffing the mattress with bills that someone enjoying the show will either find them or don’t, rather than organizing that layering in a manageable, presentable way. Hopefully obvious, but you can make a complicated show that’s easy to understand, so why be convoluted?

The criticism about “for kids” have two layers to it, too. One is that kids may or may not have the intellectual capacity or education/life experience to understand all that is going on, on the screen. The other is that a kid would not have lived long enough to accumulate all the necessary background information to even perceive every reference and nods in Shinbo’s shows. The latter is the most common form of criticism Shinbo gets.

It’s a bit like those overly thought-out murder mystery light novels that are/were all the rage in Japan (LOL Umineko) where the fun exists in the meta rather than its per se presentation.

To me, Soul Taker remains Shinbo’s best directorial work because he was able to add that extra dimension to the show via the actual direction of the show! As opposed to relying on merely stylistic presentation or Unlimited Joke Words or something. Although that might be as much fault (or credit) of the source material Shinbo works with.

Kyou-Sensei: Well, accusing him of “stuffing” is essentially accusing him of adding too much entertainment. The guys who do the Venture Bros. have called attention to the fact that some of their fans complain that there are too many jokes… in a comedy show. I would say the same is true here: as it’s never actually difficult to follow the story in any of Shinbo’s works (that I’ve seen), complaining about how there’s too much stuff in the episodes is complaining about too much content.

Shiraishi: the problem i have with what i’ve managed to sit through is that you DON’T have to pay attention. so much of what’s there is as you put it “arty shit” which doesn’t actually add anything. it can be things like blackboards full of references that serve no purpose (not even to be funny!), or it can be like baroque mise en scene that’s ultimately irrelevant because the focus of the scene is a conversation. when i watched pani poni dash for example, i didn’t even bother trying to pay attention and take everything in once i realized that doing so, even when i did know what it referred to, added absolutely nothing to the work as a whole.

it’s not even like say, south park’s critique of family guy. these aren’t even jokes a lot of the time! to put it another way, would you think that a random show is better or worse if there was a text crawl at the bottom that just spit out unrelated memes? like you’re watching an episode of i dunno, full metal alchemist and at the bottom is a string that goes like “my own father never hit me…norio wakamoto…omae mo naa…yaranaika…yomiuri giants…do you remember love…three times faster…zaa warudo…lucky star…the japan that can say no…”?

finally, the question of “why” does matter for the simple reason that there are opportunity costs, for lack of a better term, in everything that’s there.

Kona-chan: “baroque mise en scene” I lol. (I dislike Baroque)

by † lelangir Posted on 21 July 2009 in Collected

collected discourse on K-ON

ascaloth: a straight forward, mostly descriptive review. He ends with:

And at the end of all things, at the end of the road, it’s finally time to say goodbye to these girls, once and for all. It has been a fun journey, and while this is the last we’ll see of them for a long time to come, the last time that they’ll sing for us After School, we can always take away from this journey the memory of how to enjoy the Light and Fluffy Time of life to its fullest, shedding what worries we may have at the end of the day. And someday, we’ll meet these girls we loved once again.

two commenters say that this episode was a good “send off”.

less blkmage: more opinionated and analytic than ascaloth’s, blkmage states that K-ON

was pretty entertaining until about halfway through the season. At that point, I began to get pretty bored of the whole thing. …What went wrong? What’s different about the slice-of-life formula that K-ON! uses? It’s just cake and moe, right?

It’s easier to quote his comparative section at length:

I’ve found that K-ON! is crtitcized for being too much cake and not enough music. I’ve come to realize that it does focus on music a lot. What’s surprising about this is that I find that this makes it uninteresting like other slice of life shows. See, the problem is that K-ON!’s music parts aren’t done very well. The most interesting thing about the music is watching them perform and that is rendered boring because of their attempts to avoid animating the playing of their instruments as much as possible. That leaves terrible and boring talks about music.

And since they focus on the music more than people realize and because it’s so boring, it renders the entire show boring. Outside of music, the girls are doing the same thing: eating cake instead of practicing, going on trips, and performing without it being animated. Unless they delve into more specific stuff about music, there’s really nowhere else they can go. I mean, when Azusa was introduced, it was just an excuse to repeat what they’d already done.

The difference between K-ON! and Hidamari or Lucky Star was that they didn’t just do the same stuff. Yeah, Hidamari was about art, but the stuff they did outside of that took up more time and was weirder, like the caterpillar or the box of seafood or Yuno’s acid trip when she had a fever. The same applies to Lucky Star, where Konata’s otakuism gives more room for interesting things to happen, like the cosplay cafe or Comiket.

I also remember someone mentioning Manabi Straight. They both share the band of friends trying to accomplish something against all odds, except Manabi Straight had real conflict as opposed to the manufactured crap that happened in episode 11. The characters had problems and they struggled through them and grew. And dear God, I can’t believe anyone would seriously compare Beck with this. Seriously, guys? Just because they both have gitahs?

hanners: delivers a descriptive summary and opinion section:

If nothing else, this episode is masterful at reminding us just how much life has been imbued into the show’s characters over the course of the series – It was actually really quite upsetting to see things going wrong for the girls, before of course they all pull back together in a final scene of abject happiness.

Really, that point is probably the biggest one in favour of K-ON! – Marketing machine it may be at its core, and I know some have felt disenfrachised with it as an actual piece of entertainment as the weeks have drawn on, but if nothing else the series has succeeding in pulling together a group of lovable characters even ignoring those much-discussed “moe elements”. Cute figureheads of that aforementioned marketing machine they may be, but beyond that they also exist as characters that you’d really quite like to spend some time with as genuinely fun characters. It’s that sense of fun that permeates through K-ON! from beginning to end, making it an enjoyable slice of life series in it’s own right – Yes, this show is no Haruhi (and indeed I think the return of that particular franchise has thrown this show’s capabilities into sharp relief in recent weeks), nor is it a study of up and coming musicians as some seemed to expect; it certainly isn’t KyoAni’s best work, but is watching a series just because it leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a handful of good laughs every week such a bad thing? I would suggest that it isn’t, and measured by those terms K-ON! is nothing if not a relative success.

taikutsu remedy: as more incendiary review, said author writes that K-ON is:

tired, uninspired and derivative. [K-ON] relies on its moe appeal to such an extent that any other matter of substance is sacrificed.

[...]

Kyoani, you can do better then this. Whilst I’m not much of a Haruhi fan, I can objectively say that it is a very good show. Even K-On had brief moments of brilliance; from genuinely witty jokes to inspired directing. But these moments were brief and fleeting. For the most part, you were perfectly content to take the easy path and substitute wit for tired jokes such as Mio getting freaked out or Azusa being moe.

Shame on you, Kyoani. You have creativity and talent to be so much more, yet you rather settle for rubbish. You are not some third rate studio, you are Kyoto Animation. You have supperbly talented directors. You have meticulous and skillful animators. Yet despite all these gifts, you’d rather produce derivative crap that does nothing but stiffle creativity in anime.

also helpful is the author’s posting the first impressions post from April.

janette (borderline hikikomori): talks about expectations:

I honestly really enjoyed and loved this series, and am sad to see it end. Which is odd, because it certainity isn’t the most fantastic/moving show I’ve watched or really spectactular in any way. Now let’s hope no one shoots me for saying that.

Overall, I really loved this series. Which is weird, as while it was a stand-out show for the spring season, in the world of anime it wasn’t really that special. Then again, I don’t think the show needed to be special to be successful.

I think my expectations had a lot to do with me developing a love for this show, as I never expected it to be amazing, or to move me. At first I expected this show to suck majorly, and then as I slowly fell in love with it, I expected to watch the adorable antics of these four and later five girls, and be entertained for half a hour. This show fullfilled these expectations and sometimes did a little more. I never expected too much, so it never let me down.

rabbit poets:

If last week was the spiritual finale to the show, it seems like the writers decided to mail it in for this week. Maybe they were only getting paid for 12 episodes, because I’d want my figurative money back for this episode, which probably shouldn’t have existed and unfortunately ends the show on somewhat of a down note.

All in all, it was a pretty lazy episode, not unlike Haruhi’s Someday in the Rain episode, but unlike that episode, this one didn’t have an awesome end scene to redeem it. When you pull the girls apart, remove their antics and their chemistry, there’s just not much to enjoy. It’s an unfortunate way to end the season, because I loved the show, but could have definitely done without this episode. I’d much rather have had them save their budget making this 13th episode and instead used it to animate more performance scenes throughout the season.

schneider:

I’m surprised how I liked the final episode so much, considering that it was fairly uneventful. A lot of it has to do with how the girls live their personal lives through the winter, which shows some insights on their character.

Overall, I think of K-On as a decent show. I had fun watching it weekly, and was pretty low-maintenance (meaning you wouldn’t be so pumped to get the latest sub floating around), compared to, say, Eden of the East. Sure, complain that the animation is below normal KyoAni quality, but it still kicks the ass out of many shows. I find it inoffensive, though, to be unfruitful for trolling. This is not Beck, or God Knows drawn out to 13 episodes. Deal with it, because I did, and it saves all of us some grief.

crusader:

Overall it wasn’t the best series EVAR, but it was enjoyable even if the music did not feature as prominently as I had initially hoped. I suppose as a slice of life thing it works as a tale of a club of four and later five girls and their very talented Teacher Advisor. To be sure there was lots of moe fodder to be had, but in the end it was kind of the point even if it got excessive at times. In the end I can only really recommend it for yuri subtext, moe, and some moments of comedy. On that level it does succeed, but it is hardly ground breaking.

derailed by darry:

Sigh. Kyoto and their sugar-free, fat-free “extra” episodes. I would have loved for K-On! to end on a high note, like their recent concert or Mio getting trained or Mio getting lesbian stalked, but, no, we’re getting a K-On! re-enactment of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 9. Though I like having more material, I just wish the material was… uh… better.

While this episode wasn’t as big of a tone shift as the Ritsu jealousy episode, I think this episode proves that K-On! is at it’s best when its working in its clever gags that really bring out the personalities of the characters. Kakifly has just been awesome at it in the manga, and I’d rather see more of that goodness than Ritsu going love struck.

deculture:

wtf KyoAni?! I don’t even know where to begin. The last episode left me absolutely speechless as to how pointless things got. Ever since Haruhi, Kyoto Animation seems have had a licence to put out moe mediocrity and fanboys seem to swallow their shit up with every iteration.

The last episode was the epitome of this shit being dragged out to please the fans. [add vitriol]

See, wasting time on ordinary shit is only acceptable if it’s in Haruhi, because it never is ordinary with her. Nothing is. Plus the characters are too good, except Mikuru. Too moe and well deservedly messed around by Haruhi. Anyways, back to K-On!

For people who want to start watching it, expect nothing more than what you had with Lucky Star. Great characters, nothing happens in the end except whatever they do everyday. Maybe I expect greatness from everything KyoAni does. Whatever, Haruhi season 2 better be good or Ima have to choke a bitch.

and of course, there’s the Kaioshin post.

by † admin Posted on 29 June 2009 in Collected

colony drop, “Operation British, Phase Three: The Case Against Haruhi Suzumiya” 3.0

Reinhard gets his own post, because we live free or reinhard.

Reinhard: i will continue to lol:

by their definition, nanoha is a harem because there’s one dude (yuno) and like 20 female characters.

sailor moon is a harem because there’s one dude (tuxedo mask) and like 10 female characters.

golgo 13 is a harem because there’s one dude (duke togo) and like a million women he fucks.

Reinhard:for some reason, i got an error when i tried to post this comment on the site:

First:

1) A harem series consists of a blank self-insert
2) A harem series consists of sex objects
3) Duke Togo is a blank self-insert
4) Golgo 13 has lots of naked sexxxay ladies (getting fucked by the self-insert, natch)

Therefore, Golgo 13 is a harem series

Next:

1) Golgo 13 is a harem series (see above)
2) Harem series are shit
3) Therefore, Golgo 13 is shit

Chiyo-chichi: golgo certainly does a lot of self-inserting

Wenli: inserting eh.

Counterattack of the GRSI Comments 1.0
Counterattack of the GRSI Comments 2.0

by † Owen S Posted on 25 June 2009 in Notes & colony drop

colony drop, “Operation British, Phase Three: The Case Against Haruhi Suzumiya” 2.0

via David, who said that we were “fundamentally missing the point.” (Still ongoing!)

Alto-hime: I wonder if there’s any real integrity with their position, or is it just part of the schtick they do.

Chiyo-chichi: They seem to feel pretty real about some of this stuff. I’ll be the first to say that if you’re a hipster wearing a mullet ironically, you still have a mullet. But the position that COLONY DROP STAFF (LOL) takes is that no parody will ever work.

“Simply pointing out the stupidity of heavy metal bands doesn’t excuse Spinal Tap from being one.”

“Simply pointing out how awful air disaster movies are doesn’t excuse Airplane! from relying on air disaster as its central plot point.”

Not saying Haruhi’s as brilliant as Spinal Tap, I’m not delusional. But the point stands.

Xingke: So wait, Haruhi is both a “self-insert” and a “moe heroine”? Anime fans really are messed up…

I’d suggest that this piece went wrong at approximately sentence two, otherwise agree with most of the above counter-argument. At the same time, not being a Colony Drop reader, I’m slightly surprised at some of the general hostility to the site over here. This is a site whose frontpage suggests low comment count, is that just because no-one wants to talk to them? When did they acquire the negative rep?

Wenli:I don’t think badly of Colony Drop guys. They have a schtik and they play it very pro. However since they have really low output (like, what, 2 posts a month?) and their pieces do not inspire serious thought, Colony Drop caters to a small niche of the internet audience.

Kino:I thought that Colony Drop just hated everything mainstream, but I stopped reading them after they claimed that every anime blog on the internet was shti unless they stamped it with the COLONY DROP STAFF SEAL OF APPROVAL.

Chiyo-chichi:yeah I don’t know if stopping by comments of other blogs just to say how much better they are is a really “pro” schtick.

I guess I admire their stick-to-it-iveness, but I’m not sure what the audience would look for: they don’t inspire discussion, they don’t really encourage it, and the schtick itself makes them questionable as a trusted source for reviews.

Wenli:I don’t read it until someone links me, which ends up covering like, 80% of their total posts anyways.

If there’s a fault, I’d say they troll way too hard for what they’re trying to do.

Hei: I think their fault lies in tooting their horn (read: taste in anime) atop their little hill while declaring that they have the higher ground and that their hill is bigger and better than any other person’s hill when they’ve built said hill on… what was it again? Ah, yes. ANN-esque taste and reviews to match said taste.

Wenli:Really? I think it’s clearly an act, unlike ANN.

Hei: So, Wenli, you’re saying that there’s hope for them to see the light, unlike ANN?

I don’t know. A lot of their macho posturing comes off as the real McCoy, especially when you frame it in the context of “Robots good, moe bad”, but not always. It’s the R1-faggotry, the pseudo-old-school (because they’re not really old; ghostlightning is old, and he knows what real old-school is) bullshit championed by this select group of Americans usually hell bent on asserting their superiority in the face of new anime.

In other words, fandumb!

Alto-hime: animekritik is older than a year, and focuses on even older shows (matsumoto leiji works) and isn’t interested in a rhetoric of superior/discerning taste.

I think that a review site’s capital is, for better or worse its taste and the way it’s articulated. However, in their case I think the lines drawn are indelible and there is no space for growth — as it, or they — can only interpret any change/relaxing of their stance as weakness or compromise.

Believe it or not, **** and I have had civil exchanges after our escalating hostile ones:

http://****.****.***

I happen to think that he is probably one of the most learned Macross fans in the web and is a big deal in the community (I am hardly known, since I’m mostly a lurker in the forums). The difference between us is that he takes on a very elitist stance: i.e. he views Macross Frontier as an insult to his intelligence as a viewer, and a betrayal to him as a fan. I don’t subscribe to such attitudes at all, but I get it. (I would be on the raving fanboy end of the sliding scale, which is also why I do not write reviews; but instead endorsements and propaganda)

This attitude that I’ve observed in his reviews and his behavior in the Macross World Forums (where he is far more civil to others) suggests that he really believes in their taste, and the fundamental position they take.

Now, the reference to ‘Colony Drop’ and ‘Operation British’ is classic Universal Century Gundam. What I can tell those who are unfamiliar with the franchise is that there is little reason not to read these as hostility. Hostility is their methodology, and their schtick is an appeal to some dark comic realm that can resonate with a few like-minded and perhaps sophisticated readers, but will antagonize everyone else.

Wenli: Hei: You’re almost right. The difference is the writer’s distance. ANN is the real McCoy, Colony Drop is a mix of “this is so ludicrous I can’t believe they are serious” and “yeah we’re just pandering to the R1 fake old-school fandumb crowd, because somebody has to.”

Reinhard: make sure you use that phrase “fake old-school” rather than just “R1″ or whatever, Hei.

(i cannot stop loling at their whole insistence at a kind of elitist “taste” in something so middlebrow as macross. ugh, that middlebrow show is so awful compared to this middlebrow show. it’s not like they’re saying “stop watching k-on and go watch kaiba” or “stop watching gundam 00 and watch mind game” here!)

Wenli: Also, FWIW, at least one of Colony Drop’s writer is in Japan. So yeah, it may only be R1 in upbringing at the most.

Hei: You can take the gaijin out of America, but you can’t take the America out of the gaijin?

Alto-hime: In a preview to to spring season one of them said Dragon Ball Kai was awesome because “[what's the matter with you!!?] it’s Dragon Ball!”

That’s their taste too.

Wenli: Hei, that would make an awesome book title. The market is ripe for this crap too!

Counterattack of the GRSI Comments 1.0

by † Owen S Posted on 25 June 2009 in Notes & colony drop

colony drop, “Operation British, Phase Three: The Case Against Haruhi Suzumiya”

via

in response to said article (names altered to protect privacy?):

Hei: hahahahahahahahahhahaha. Actually I just realised that what I really want to read is a Kaioshin writing for Colony Drop. Yeah.

Shiraishi: Wow… never has the truth hurt so much…

Hei: Wow, whoever you are, Shiraishi, you’re as retarded as them.

Reinhard: lololololololololololololololololololol. (i think the problem is less of haruhi and more the fact that the show deconstructed the genre, but then didn’t rebuild it in any good way, just leaving this guy to RAEG)

Hei: They started to feast on highly concentrated dumb at the point where they mentioned “harem”, and everything went downhill from that point.

Wenli: Yeah, I think once they mentioned harem this post was done. I guess they missed the memo that most 21st century self-inserts loath true harems. They just want the appeal of one. The QB comparison is particularly laugh-worthy. He tried to contrast them but I guess he forgot about the people who want smug protagonists in science fiction!

Alto-hime: Note the resistance to call anime anime. They gave up because it sounds too stupid to say Harem-Jap-Cartoon or Jap-cartoon landscape. And for Colony Drop to something, ANYTHING intolerable for being smug…I dunno, maybe they read tj_han’s guide to being cool

Hei: Don’t forget the hilarious Intent card where they insist that Kyon approaches some sort of quasi-blank-slate animeveryman archetype without realising that yes, people can be sarcastic in real life, too! Oh, and that his real name isn’t revealed, ergo he must be intended to be some self-insert!

I am as sarcastic in real life as I am online, and this must make me:

1) Unrealistic
2) A self-insert (but of whom?)

Speaking of intent, it’s funny how they play the Intent card at the beginning and conveniently forget to play it during the Genre step where what goes unsaid hangs in the air like the silent stench of the stealth fart: It’s only harem if the girls are actively vying for the protagonist, stupid!

I don’t really see how anyone but Haruhi herself approaches anything close to romantic interest in Kyon. Mikuru definitely isn’t, and Yuki, well… yeah. I guess it is some sort of weird triangular non-harem if you consider Itsuki as gay4Kyon but… no. So stupid. Sooooo stupid.

by † admin Posted on 24 June 2009 in Notes & colony drop

Kaioshin, Time Out! (Because I’m Sick And Tired Of People Telling Me I’m Watching K-On Wrong)

via

he says:

I’m talking of course about the defence where people claim that those who didn’t appreciate K-On must have failed to realize the type of show K-On was in a slice of life comedy and that it was because it was never meant to be an ambituous series that those who watched it for the “right” reasons and as a “light and fluffy” series should find it to be a satisfying piece. Basically the idea is that those who criticized K-On must have missed the point of it all and that therefore their reactions are the wrong ones for the series.

to which JP indirectly responds (via google reader)

slice of life” is such a great defense for something that’s completely derivative/cliched/boring/unimaginative/uneventful/etc. “it wasn’t funny and nothing happened and the characters weren’t interesting, but you know, it’s a slice of life show so that’s OK!

The general tl;dr fare occuring at this disclosed location in the sphere prevents me from reading the original post anyway; however, zzero pointed me towards what he deemed a trainwreck discussion [via]. Uncoincidentally, Kaioshin is very active in this ‘trainwreck’ animesuki thread.

in other words:

by † lelangir Posted on 22 June 2009 in Collected & Kaioshin & jpmeyer

omi-chin, Thoughts On The Weeaboo

via

For example, the wwwwwwww thing. It’s annoying and I don’t understand how it’s become(ing) so widespread. It doesn’t even work in any language outside of Japanese. ghostlightning rightly said that it was easier to type out than loooooool but something about it still feels off. It’s a step too far, in my opinion, replacing something that’s served well enough in the past for no reason. It’s the type of thing that happened with the 2chan emoticons, only not nearly as well applied. The various 2chan emoticons seemed more like upgrades of standard emoticons and so worked quite well

I like wwwwwww because, as ghost says, it’s easy as hell. Yet its connotation is very potent. While ‘lol’ and ‘wwwwwww’ basically denote the same thing (I forget where I read that “w” is just an abbreviated 笑), I use ‘wwwww’ to signify really sarcastic humor. At least for me, wwwwww is pretty much equivalent to saying “OMFGZ ROFLBBQSAUCE11!!! GUHROOGAMESH!!!JELFKJSLJRjairjoi#u%oqiurjf.” On the other hand, lol is more “formal”, signifying “hey, this is funny.”

wwwwwwwww is so useful precisely because it doesn’t “work” outside Japanese – that’s where its connotation comes from. Weeaboo using wwwwww is self-referential, laughing at and with themselves, but always directing humor towards whatever is they’re laughing at. Wtf omi-chin, I expected better of you.

[site note - this site appears helpful, not like I know if it's well-known or not.]

by † lelangir Posted on 17 June 2009 in Notes