anitations

omo et al. on “By silverfish imperatrix whose incorrupted eye…”

cuz N told me to. [original post] [those reading in a reader may want to read on the blog for a more sensible presentation]

omo: well written but has the usual marks of “hey this is animu, I use an incompatible framework for a deeper look anyways, lulz” issue. very telling though.

cuchlann: I’m not sure why it’s incompatible — I’m not going to pretend I’m Japanese just because what I’m watching came from Japan, just as I wouldn’t expect anyone else to pretend they’re American. And I’m pretty sure SF criticism applies to SF.

ghost: I don’t get why incompatible either. Is it a high vs. low culture thing? (lols) Is it a visual vs. text issue? Reading methodologies (literary criticism) is quite adaptible once you consider that most things are texts subject to interpretation (i.e. reading).

omo: You can use any framework you want to compare anything, but it could come off kind of silly, is all.

Don’t you find it ironic to say things like everything in the paragraph that started with “So the anime shifted audience focus…”? Are you going to ignore the fact that the whole thing took place in /Neo Venezia/? Do you know there is a real Venezia? Do you know what Aria really is on the surface?

Second, Aria doesn’t take place in an utopia. Unless you think peaceful civilizations are utopic in general. Better put, if I watch a “Come visit Venice!” ad video, it would frame Venice’s attractions similarly as an Aria undine; just much less personal. In other words, it’s a matter of perspective rather than its setting’s construction.

Take a Buddhist view: utopia begins within.

Or better yet: watch Gakuten Utopia Manabi Straight and learn what the word means for the Japanese.

I think it’s a good thing that you talk about utopia, because in a way that’s what Aria is about. But I think most English bloggers don’t because in the West we generally don’t call the same concept by that name.

ghost: No problem about silliness, if that’s the concern. Animu blogging is (or at least in my case) is out of ‘foppery and whim’ (to use an LotGH quote). However this cavalier attitude isn’t really asking for a dismissal.

Now Jeff, your criticism of the text is valid — but the difference now is that it doesn’t seem like a dismissal but rather discussion, which is what I or I assume Greg would welcome. What you said about utopia is very interesting.

@TheBigN

Putting in more than one needs to is not that easy to measure. If one’s purpose is to merely enjoy, not a lot is required. Aria can be appreciated very easily. But it so happens that Greg with everything he knows/is interested in actually has quite a bit to offer in terms of exploring Aria.

Look at it as exploring possibilities of meaning, as opposed to getting to the ‘truth’ of what Aria is.

BigN: Well, that’s not necessarily what I meant by saying “more than one needs”. I look at it in terms of “well, I think I get what he’s saying, so all this other stuff seems extraneous”. But that varies from person to person. And to be honest, I don’t really think that Cuchlann did that in this article. I just used him as an example since we’re talking about his post.

omo: No problem about silliness. I wish it was just less time consuming in order to get to the punch line.

Cuchlann wrote a lot about sci-fi utopia, open/close, w/e. Is it relevant to Aria? I don’t know. Perhaps it is foppery and whim but my patience thins within the TL;DR. But I still read because his writing deserves better! And I didn’t really had time to respond in kind, nor do I do so on greader as I prefer to actually comment on the post if I am going to talk about substance.

FWIW, the only one around these parts doing any kind of dismissing is Owen :V

cuchlann: For now: I would stand behind my classification of Aria as a utopia. Didn’t come up with that myself, I think I saw it first on the wikipedia. At least, Aqua itself — there appears to be no social strife at all, in the first 13.

omo: I highly disagree. There are some evidence of social strife in Aria (and actual instances of it–like the whole girls high school mechanics within the larger undine houses). Then again, when the Akiba hit-and-stab happened it was as shocking as it ever was, and I can see that sort of a thing happen and getting the same response from the residents of Neo Venezia.

ghost: If that’s the evidence of social strife, then it is quite utopic — unless we stick to a strict definition that conflict is reduced to zero.

The back-talk in Himeya Co. don’t really result in slander or libel or career/corporate destabilization. The gossip is already the worst as it can possibly get.

In any case, the difference between Neo Venezia societal peace and warmth and most contemporary cities on Earth is very striking. Relatively speaking it’s quite an utopia.

omo: But that betrays the fact that Neo Venezia is not presented in the whole via Aria. It’s more like a boring countryside world with nice landscape shots. If there’s a schtik to Aria it is the way you see the world depends on your perspective; it’s the job of an undine to frame it for their customers, and it’s that rope that they learn as trainees.

“Real life undines” are not far removed from tourist traps, working in a country full of corruption and social unrest. But you can definitely have a wonderful time in Venice.

North Dakota is not an utopia by any means, even if crime rate is pretty much nil and people generally get by with their day-to-day work just fine. Social strife? Does being cut off while driving count? In a country that spans from sea to shining sea, does a riot at one coast imply the same on the other coast? Would anyone call Japan utopia just because of its low crime rate? How do you define utopia? Only when there’s social strife? Is it possible many Americans social strife is something they only see on TV or read in the papers? I think if you’re going to arbitrary draw lines, you ought to at least look at the big picture.

cuchlann: A utopia is a science fiction setting where technology has changed society, fixing the problems the creators of the fiction have particularly lined up as being relevant. Aria is a world constructed from non-existent terraforming technologies where the society functions in a perfect hierarchy, with full freedom of movement through the still-equal class system, there is no shortage of any resource, and, after all, the show/manga is classified a utopia by its creators/marketers.

And I love Manabi Straight — but it’s not a utopia. It’s the opposite, in fact — a dystopia. Technology has brought about the ruin of the educational/social system that the show, and the characters, value. The title indicates the characters’ attempts to create an utopic environment, with generally high success. However, the setting in general is not a utopia by any means.

Which is not to say there isn’t a lot of discussion in what constitutes a utopia, or whether Aria is best examined through that lens. But to set up a false comparison with selected strata of real-life society, which is never utopic — by definition, as it’s not fiction — serves no purpose.

omo: But Aria is a parallel with real life in its core. I don’t really believe it fixed anything besides unlike the first Venezia, Neo Venezia doesn’t sink into the ocean. I don’t see anything about “perfect hierarchy” from the show at all (if anything there is a sense of hierarchy maintained throughout and it doesn’t seem perfect from those who are “under” it), there is definitely a shortage of resource (just listen to what the Man-Home tourists say about the differences). It’s run much like a space colony version of your average countryside. I believe it’s merely the creators’ choices to not focus on any of the shortcomings people face (well, certain types of shortcomings at least). For what it is worth, Akatsuki is your typical country-side youth who is not exactly content with his life, but gets by because of his strong feelings for the people there.

I mentioned Manabi Straight because the creators also called it a utopia–in a very strong way. So you can’t have it both ways :p

My point, ultimately, is that you can’t really call it utopia without understanding what they mean by it. Which is not what you mean by it.

Let me just step back and outline the points of issues:
1. You use the term utopia in a very specific sense, and I don’t believe this is what the Japanese mean by the word Manabi Straight’s title, and probably in whatever the source of Aria’s wiki article.
2. I don’t believe there are any positive examples in Aria to support your claims and yet I can think of many counterexamples and inferences to say that your claims are invalid.
3. Yet you dismiss those counterexamples arbitrarily, as far as I can tell.

cuchlann: Well, if I seemed rude last night, I’m sorry about that, I was just tired.

Basically, I saw you attempted to use real-life examples to define a utopia, which doesn’t work. It’s a fictional construct.

If we have different interpretations of what a utopia is, that’s fine. I would like to point out the entire post wasn’t about Aria as a utopia, just a part of it.

To clear it up, then, what do you think the Japanese mean by the term “utopia” that makes it different from the traditional?

omo: I had this half-typed up reply but work+other stuff ate it.

Let’s just say that I think Aria is a piece that’s functionally a touristy escapism piece so an idealized world is part of its draw. At the same time it is very different than a literary utopia because Aria doesn’t seek to solve any social problems using technology–it just ignores them, much like an advertisement avoids the negatives of what it advertises. So it’s not really about any kind of utopia.

ghost: Interpretation A is proven to be best, therefore B should not be considered anymore?

Just for thought, I don’t think the post argues that the interpretation within invalidates other possible interpretations, or should be considered the primary reading of the text.

Well, at least that’s not how I read it, or how I put forth my own posts.

And no this isn’t an appeal to ‘let’s all just get along, no one’s wrong really, etc. etc.’

omo: I think my problem is that interpretation B begs to ask a question which interpretation A answers, and since interpretation A invalidates interpretation B, it makes B an odd perspective. I mean I guess it goes to the point that you can comparing anything with anything, and something interesting or useful may come as a result. But why do that if you don’t know if that is the case?

I think another point about literary utopia that is important is that AFAIK all stories with utopia as part of the narrative element use said utopia to illustrate some point. I just don’t see this in Aria, so it makes you wonder why did the creators make that idealized world, and what can a reader gain from comparing that world with the real one?

IIRC, this is left unanswered in the post.

cuchlann: Well, there’s a little in there, but it wasn’t developed. Specifically, I wondered at Aria, as a utopia, not doing what you’re describing. So the question then comes down to this: is the examination of a social point/issue a requirement of a utopia, or something that is frequently done with it but not always?

I was taking the standpoint, originally, that it’s often used, but not required. There’s a very strong case, however, for thinking it’s required. The first Utopia (book of same name, by More), was a social argument and not a work of fiction at all. I feel, though, that the genre has stretched a little.

omo: I think it still comes down to just how strictly do you want to define utopia, then. A setting that doesn’t have any kind of conflict or tension is difficult to mount a narrative, and at any rate that is not what Aria is. The characters in Aria still live in an imperfect world and have to deal with their imperfections. Now just how trivial are these little bits of feelings (”OHNOES MY GONDOLA IS GOING TO DIE^H^H^HGET RECYCLED” /cry) is up to you to decide should it make or break utopia or is this utopia not quite perfect because science in Aria has not invented a perfect substitute for pressure treated wood which lasts forever when used in boating.

I mean, seriously, they spent 3 episodes on it!!!

ghost: Yes, this. I’ve mentioned it eariler. It depends on how strictly we define utopia.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/utopia

utopia
2 entries found.

1. utopia
2. anti–utopia

Main Entry:
uto·pia Listen to the pronunciation of utopia
Pronunciation:
\yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ə\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Utopia, imaginary and ideal country in Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, from Greek ou not, no + topos place
Date:
1597

1: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
2often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions
3: an impractical scheme for social improvement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia

I think the practical use of the term is broad enough to say that in utopic idealizations conflict, entropy, deceit is NOT zero. Rather, that the setting is very capable of resolving, dealing with such problems — if they are to be considered evils AT ALL.

Let us consider that Aria is not an utopia in the sense that when we die, Neo Venezia is exactly like ‘heaven,’ rather, given the conditions that humans of that setting have gone through — it is an idealized place, due to its pace, it’s balance of ease and lack of technological shortcuts (Man-home has more conveniences), and the behavior of its inhabitants (perhaps including cats).

by † admin Posted on 11 June 2009 in Chuchlann & Collected & ghostlightning & omo

Owen on DM and author

via secret google society

Owen: I don’t see how K-ON aspires to be Manabi in any way, but Zaitcev’s post is a good demonstration of the fan delusion where they perceive prior works to always be the inspiration/basis for later ones when all they do in reality is share superficial structural similarities.

omo: There’s nothing delusional. Manabi is more or less the same kind of show K-ON is turning out to be. It’s even got that 4+1 thing. I have a pet peeve: comparing RahX and Eva the way DM did. He also dissed Robin, which is a personal favorite. He knows what he’s doing, too, the bastard. For what is worth, Zaitcev doesn’t even claim influence. That’s something Owen strawmanned. Maybe understanding what Izubuchi said helps, if you’ve read the whole thing Pete excerpted from.

I don’t even know if it’s a simple “manabi = k-on” thing. It’s more like, it’s a venn diagram whose center portion comprises the whole venn diagram. Saying that “k-on = manabi” is spurious, so to speak, because there’s no causality that one anime “is like” the other, only that they both resemble/contain/exhibit the same structural qualities that aren’t innately beholden to any one anime.

k-on =/= manabi
A, not C

k-on = x = manabi
A, therefore, B, therefore C

x = manabi
x = k-on

B, therefore C
B, therefore A
but (still)
A =/= C

[of course, when there's blatant copying or influence, we can say that A = C]

IKnight: If you’ve seen something before, and it resembles what you’re watching now, then it forms part of the basis for understanding what you’re watching now in your mind, whether or not there was any actual influence. This works backwards in time (’Legend of the Galactic Heroes? Liked it better when it was Code Geass!’), and across geographical/cultural divides (hence why Simoun reminds me of early Biggles), too.

Or at least that’s my theory.

to critique IKnight’s theory: to say “gurren lagan” is to reference the external, collective culture. TTGL is a signifier which points to a thing we all know, a certain story and all its complexity. However, cultural psychologists make use of the concept of “semiotic mediation” whereby humans internalize the external, collective culture, thereby putting their own “spin” on the external, collective culture: ergo, it creates an internal, personal culture. For instance, a prison has a fairly homogeneous collective culture because it is so routinized, but each prisoner may attach extremely varied personal cultural meaning to, say, a mouse, grasshopper, piece of used toilet paper, etc.

So the statement that “Akikan reminds me of Seed Destiny because I saw Seed Destiny first” doesn’t necessarily hold because you are, by necessity, referring not to the external, collective cultural signifier “Seed Destiny”, but your personal, internalized cultural meaning of Seed Destiny. Given, the internal culture can often highly resemble the external culture, which is why we can, most of the time, get away with saying that “Death Note reminds me of Shuffle! when Light was actually cool”. It’s in those more uncommon situations where internal and external are opposed, i.e. K-ON and Manabi Straight ;]

/end lelanjuice

by † lelangir Posted on 06 May 2009 in Uncategorized

citation form

There’s a burgeoning trend, a new citation style. People tell me OGT vangaurds the movement, and ghostlightning and mein Kaiser appear to be the primary constituents.

There was a super-secret-society google discussion:

Kaiser: In the past, I would have wholly agreed with the above Russell quote. I was more or less an avid subjectivist: what you liked was good. The more you liked it, the better. I have, more or less, abandoned this position in favour of another – quite like Russell did on almost all opinions he ever held, too. So, in light of Pontifus’ current excavations on what art is [->],

lelangir: what is up with this citation form? Ghost’s form is contagious, but for some reason it bothers me…no clue why though.

IKnight: I think gl borrowed the idea from OGT; I don’t know whether he invented it or borrowed it from elsewhere. I’m not a fan, but it’s probably just a taste thing.

omo: Personally I hate that kind of inline footnotes. At least embed anchors so the reader can jump back and forth Wikipedia-style. But I might be biased from having to edit academic papers, so.

OGT: I pulled it out of nowhere, I don’t think I had any source bur deranged inspiration. It’s no better or worse than highlighting a few words and slapping a link on them. ghostlighting and Kaiserpingvin liked that form better because they felt it was less obtrusive and more footnote-y, which it is, so it’s all a kind of visual textual aesthetics thing. I’ve yet to find a satisfactory solution to referencing external posts–it’s an evil, but a necessary one at times. IKnight’s “blogiography” idea is very good, but you still use inline links, right?

ghost: I got it from OGT. It’s a matter of taste I think, as the words don’t turn another color (blue). Useful too, as I can now make several links available for one word/thought. This has allowed me to link several photographic examples that would otherwise clutter the post in an image dump.

IKnight: Yeah, I still use inline links (and blogiographies are rarer now, as I’m making more of an effort to integrate my influences into the flow of my posts . . . or would be if I could set aside some time from essay-writing to work some posts up). I quite like words that a different colour, on purely sentimental, traditionalist grounds (proper names in the Winchester MS of Malory are red, for example).

omo: I think it’s epic FALE to sacrifice readability for aesthetics. Especially since this isn’t print, there’s no compromise necessary.

Here’s my take. With online citations – and I am specifically limiting the scope of my discussion to aniblogohedron discourse – there are two parts: (1) the “referred from” and “referred to”, essentially, the post/blog/etc. the link goes to, and the anchored text in which it is situated. The issue here is multiple ways of situating citations.

“Traditionally”, citations are embedded in the text itself like this. IKnight is well known for his “blogiography” and further reading sections too, which I have attempted to emulate in anitations, in various posts. But consistently producing a further reading list for every post can be quite burdensome.

Bloggers have also used footnotes. I find these interesting because they link to another section of the same post. Within this augmented section, however, you can also link to other blogs, and this similar to the “further reading section”.

Bracketed citations are basically the same thing as traditional, dead-tree parenthetical citations. [->] is the same thing as (lelangir, 2009, p. 290), only the information will be displayed more ambiguously in your browser status bar. “Hover text” (what’s it called?) helps, because it gives readers a better clue as to what the post you’re referring to is about. And because blog URLs alone can be ambiguous in that they don’t always explicitly state the blogger’s handle, having additional information is nice.

At first, I was displeased with the ambiguity of bracketed citations, but that’s not really a problem. They’re usually very clear. Ghost has a habit of using a bracketed citation which refers to the final clause of the sentence that it’s in, but not always, and that’s where it gets confusing.

It’s all nitpicking though, really.

by † admin Posted on 01 May 2009 in Collected & IKnight & OGT & ghostlightning & lelangir & omo

CCY, K-ON! Is a Lot Like a Little Sister (or, how I learned to stop worrying and worship Mio)

Initially I thought that lelangir’s comparison of her to Kagami was true, but given that Mio is apparently more shy girl than tsundere – probably shy girl with a side of Straight Man (Woman) is closer to the mark, this is wrong.

This can also be proven false using a Proof By Baka-Raptor, which is to say, I use big text and short sentence to say:
“Kagami sucks, Mio doesn’t, therefore Kagami != Mio.”

But despite her excellent character design and superb role in the ED (which is catchy to all hell I’ll say), Mio isn’t a show-carrier. The affection, as you might say, is only skin-deep. Her personality doesn’t drive the show the same way I would pause and squeal when Minor Hayate Girl I’m Smitten With (Hamster, Isumi, Saki, pick one) gets some development time.

Well, of course trying to huuuuge similarities will always fail just ’cause K-ON isn’t Lucky Star. Yet Mio retains some of the functionality of Kagami:

Konata says something
Kagami yells at her

Ritsu does something
Mio yells at her

The 4koma functionality is retained (must I cite examples?), since the roles are played out similarly. They’re both pragmatic too. I’m glad that Mio is shy[er than Kagami], variation is nice.

by † lelangir Posted on 24 April 2009 in CCY & Notes & Writers

Sorrow-kun, Natural moe

Sorrow’s first paragraph is devoted to articulating once again the difficulty of coming to a universal, operative definition of moe. Next he sets up his conceptual definition of “natural moe”:

…I’m talking about a type of moe which isn’t so blatant in how deliberately its manufactured. It’s much more organic in the sense that it’s not deliberately targeting a common archetype (and their associated fans) like “tsundere” or “dojikko” or “moe-blob” (there’s a lot of crossover between those latter two), and therefore restraining the scope for character development. “Natural moe” characters are cute in an almost incidental fashion, and that there’s more to their behaviour than trying to get a “moe” reaction out of watchers… not that there isn’t a bit of that anyway. ….The charm of the characters is allowed to emanate in a more natural way because you don’t get the feeling that you’re being pandered to, as one would in series where the moe is much more manufactured and deliberately directed. (my emphasis)

You can see where this definition is inadequate, as it relies on the viewer’s subjecting feelings whereby “you don’t get the feeling that you’re being pandered to.”

Sorrow lists five characters he believes exhibit natural moe:

1. Mizunashi Akari (Aria)
2. Kajiwara Sora (Sketchbook)
3. Yuno (Hidasketch)
4. Yumi (Marimite)
5. Taki Tooru (Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou)

I can’t say much for Tooru, though a little bit more for Akari, but I would say that Yuno, Sora and Yumi are all definitely of the shallow, pandering archetype. Regardless of what their specific archetype is – as it’s impossible to set up universal definitions – you can, rather, set up a definition (that is at least a bit more operational) which provides a framework for analyzing the context in which the archeype is situated. Arguably, this is more significant than debating the nature of moe because we can come to a reasonable conclusion as to whether or not the context of the character provides a rational, justifiable and meaningful basis for the actions and personality of the character.

Obviously, I’m much too lazy to explicate any further.

by † lelangir Posted on 22 April 2009 in Notes

nomadotto, Maria Holic- Pander Spectacular or/and Something Mo(r)e?

via

Well, this goes back to a very, very old problem, how much fluff you can add to something before the fluff is all there is? By fluff, I mean things that are completely tangential to the point of the work, but help to work as a draw. Fluff isn’t an issue about style or substance (though works that focus heavily on style do tend to include more fluff), because the essence of fluff is that it’s completely inessential to the work, whereas style permeates the entirety of the work, and shapes the substance of the matter.

On the one hand, it’s obvious that most stories, if you strip them down far enough, are the same, and, therefore, differ only by fluff. For instance, consider Don Quixote and The Odyssey. They’re both about a man who goes on a journey and encounters a bunch of fantastical monsters before returning home; obviously, the same thing.

What people seem to ignore in fruitless comparisons like this is that viewer psychologies are constructed around “fluff”. What’s significant is not the “point of the work” (as if we ever knew or cared what it really was in the first place), but what viewers take out of it and what how viewers make sense out of the work.

The distinction can be made between plot-centric and s’life shows. I guess in the latter, “fluff” is irrelevant because there is no “point” to the show other than everything the show does: nothing is irrelevant (I’d say Mariaholic falls in this category). Of course, for anime with a plot, instances of digression could actually be measured with a modicum of objectiveness. The plot progresses towards point A, and event X points towards point B, therefore, it digresses (i.e. Kircheis starts to cut Reinhard’s toe nails during a battle. Wut?)

Fluff is a useful concept when trying to establish universal values of a show (should I buy it?), but the non-universality of subjective experience is what causes concepts like fluff to fail.

by † lelangir Posted on 21 April 2009 in Notes

bad luck party on Hatsukoi Limited

a good question is raised:

a point I am finding curious about Hatsukoi Limited – the huge difference in representation between the male and female cast of characters. All the girls are…walking boner fodder. Misaki…is the worst offender in this regard. The sex-bomb girl next door who crawls around in hot pants but “isn’t interested in falling in love” is such a chauvinist fantasy. She’s designed to reconcile the virgin/whore dichotomy by presenting a ridiculously hot body that boys can fantasize about being the “first” to get all up ons (my emphasis). Not really a big deal, sexism in anime is de rigeur after all and I still love the show. I’m also certainly not saying there’s no depth in Hatsukoi’s female characters, because they’re still streaks ahead of a lot of current anime on that front. What interests me is how differently the cast of male characters are represented in juxtaposition to their moe/sexpot female counterparts.

One thought: all the publicity images are of a cast of girls. This show is about GIRLS, and as such, will have a girl-only “cast”. All the males presented here aren’t necessarily part of the “cast”, they’re just peripheral objects attached to the stories of girls. This isn’t the Brady Bunch. But that’s strange because, already, the Zaitsu brothers have received two episodes of screentime and story development: ironically, is the show really about BOYS? Not that it really matters.

by † lelangir Posted on 20 April 2009 in Notes

Omisyth, Avoiding The Accursed Name By Calling It An “Open Discussion”: 1st Episode Droppage.

via

This is kind of relation to the ranting discussion I was doing over at Daijobu: in defence of the haters, I tried to justify why they had hate-spammed K-ON and dropped it accordingly.

What’s the point of continuing to watch something you immediately dislike, just because it might change or suddenly become appealing when you could be watching shows you want to watch?

TheBigN understandably called this kind of way of thinking “jaded”. As DS said, few anime have shown their true colours from the first episode. They could all develop after their premieres into something that is more often than not is far superior to how they seemed at first. But in my eyes that still doesn’t mean that hating (or just disliking) and dropping a show that’s currently airing after the first episode is a bad decision.

Funny that he brings this up, considering how animekritik just posted about it the other day.

I just finished watching the first episode of Eden of the East, and I’ve come to this realization:

It’s not you, it’s me.

My response:

In other words, you just dropped (?) two anime because one didn’t agree with your emotional-jargon needs, and another because it didn’t match your emotional-visual needs. Right?

y so emo ):

It’s very important to distinguish between two types of ‘anime bad’ here:

Qualitative
Emotional/Temporal/Spatial

At the beginning of each season, we get a lot of #1 judgements based off one, two, maybe three episodes–reactionary tripe that we can safely ignore, for that asinine herd polemic is merely meant for the purpose of perpetuating a blogger’s insecure, fragile ego, and the need to proclaim that the latest season is terrible in order to establish their purported superiority, nevermind how they have shit taste in shows themselves.

#1 judgements are only valid when a significant portion of an anime said to be representative of its entirety has been seen, if you ask me, and if nothing short of watching the whole thing allows for a proper representation, then so be it. Plot-heavy anime usually fall into this category, and to denounce something when it hasn’t played all its cards… I don’t know.

But what about #2? animekritik is a good foil to Omisyth’s hazy opinion here–he readily admits that he doesn’t feel (emotional) like watching something like this.

This brings us to a post of ghostlightning’s some time back:

We will not like some anime because we are not ready for it.

Maybe in another time (temporal) or place (spatial)–if the weather is affecting his opinion–Omisyth and animekritik might be ready for whatever it is they dropped?

Of course, if you’re one of those types who think that you can judge the entirety of every single anime you watch from a couple of episodes, then more power to you. It works for some anime, it doesn’t work for others, but to assume that that particular judgement template works on everything is idiocy on a galactic level.

The key here, I think, is to be aware of what you’re doing, and the easiest way to do this would be to question yourself. If you’re not aware of why you’re dropping a show, you fail. Think more.

by † Owen S Posted on 14 April 2009 in Notes & Omisyth & animekritik

ETERNAL, K-ON: How To Make A Simple Thing Good

ETERNAL puzzles through the reasons why anyone should like K-ON.

I can confidently say that while K-ON is not revolutionary, it possesses a charm – a sort of magic - that enthralls its viewers into watching, and I believe its secret lies in its innocently portrayed simplicity.

Of course, this isn’t the case of all viewers but I think many who aren’t into the “moe” theme are still watching K-ON for unexplained reasons. It’s just fluff, plain and simple; it doesn’t ask for any sort of emotional or mental investment from the viewer and that could be where its (as Ryan A puts it) “allure” lies. I’d argue that that’s a good thing, as other shows which clearly want you to be engaged just weren’t up to par this season and it’s better to have a mildly interested audience than none.

by † Omisyth Posted on 13 April 2009 in ETERNAL & Notes

collected notes on Shangri-la ep1, i.e. gendered discourse

only remarks on Kuniko noted.

a day without me: I enjoyed the first episode of Shangri-la; we have a solid cast here, thus far, anchored by the energetic Kuniko, a young lady who is expected to become the leader of a movement known as the Metal-age, but who seems to feel fairly opposed to that fact. However, unlike some past heroines of anime, she certainly doesn’t seem to be against it because she dislikes fighting, which is a nice change of pace – got to love the ladies who can and are willing to fight. …(also, Kuniko is supposed to be eighteen? uh, righttt)

otou-san: [preairing thoughts] Well, I think Range Murata’s designs are great. A weird mix of cute and hot that you can only get in anime. Of course, that goes for the post-apocalyptic setting as well, and the two should add up to the kind of sexy action adventure that Gonzo does best (when they don’t overdo it).

cinnamon ass: Kuniko wears a ridiculously short skirt that teases the possibility of fanservice at every opportunity whilst running around being impossibly happy and beloved by all; …Kuniko’s foster mother is a pre-operative transsexual (who is actually a pretty decent character most of the time) who kisses his enemies into submission, etc.

Mark Thomas (mania.com): Kuniko Hojo, 18-year-old leader-designate of an anti-government guerrilla group Metal-age, returns to her town after 2 years of imprisonment. In concert with the Metal-age comrades, Kuniko rises in a rebellion against the government for those people left on the once-flourished ground of Tokyo. …The series opens up with a young girl named Kumiko Hojo being released from prison. By the reaction from all the other inmates, it is obvious that Kumiko is a popular prisoner and is seen as somewhat of a leader of the others. Upon her release, it is discovered that she is destined to be the future leader of Metal-Age, an anti-government protest group

Hanners: On the positive side of the coin, Kuniko is already quite the lead female character, an entertaining blend of teenage bravado and clumsiness that could prove a winner in this series. Oh, and her boomerang is pretty awesome too – You never saw Rolf Harris slicing the barrel off an armoured tank, I bet.

Eastern Standard: Two lolis with pandering, loud voices (no, Hojo is not 18, and no amount of “b-but the youth of Asian women” is going to say otherwise)?

Happysoda: The lead character, Kuniko she seems okay, maybe a little difficult to feel why she garners so much respect from people around her, but I’ll give that a pass — I’m still in love with the boomerang weapon and imagining the cool stuff that can be done with it. I’ll have to wait, since it suddenly seems like she’s not as good with it as she seemed.

Omni: When Houjou Kuniko gets released from prison, she’s brought back to her home where she’s to be the leader of a group called Metal-age that opposes the government’s policies. She lives in a world of carbon taxes, credits, and the carbon market, so everything is watched and regulated, and when some of the people in Kuniko’s town decide to generate some electricity, thereby creating some pollution, the military appears to come after them.

warriorhope (shoujo lover anime blog): There’s a lot of fanservice already. Three all powerful lolis will do that to a show and it is Gonzo. Not even going to mention Kuniko’s incredability short skirit. But it actually does have a plot (la gasp!).

psgels: I liked all the potentially interesting characters, the detailed character-designs…This show especially has to deal with explaining how a teenaged girl seems to be so incredibly good at fighting with such a strange weapon, and the strange instances of fanservice were typical Gonzo. Still, the potential’s definitely there.

kitsune: lolis at war

kanzeon: Her skirt is so… short O__o Which is I think they made it like that for some reasons >.>

by † admin Posted on 07 April 2009 in A Day Without Me & Collected & hanners