Last impressions

Perhaps it’s because I’m in a sour mood, but nearly everything I’ve sampled recently has bored or annoyed me.

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera — A Go Nagai creation with a high-gloss finish: juvenile humor, mild smuttiness, a manic pace and no subtlety whatsoever. High school sophomores will love it.

Hanasaku Iroha — One narrative motif I loathe is the protagonist making a spectacularly bad initial impression on her new associates at the beginning of the story. Hanasaku Iroha might actually be a good show, but I couldn’t make it through the first episode. Update: It’s just as well I didn’t. Yeesh.

Tiger and Bunny — The first half of the first episode was fun, but then my interest flagged. The premise does have some satirical potential, and I might give it a second chance when I’m less grouchy.

Dog Days — I wish I could like this — there are dog-girls and cat-girls, all very cute, no one gets killed, and the hero actually does have some genuine ability — but it just hasn’t caught my interest. Perhaps I haven’t played enough video games.

Tetsuko no Tabi — A show about train otaku for train otaku from several years ago. Someone decided to sub it. Why?

The Epic of Zektbach — A female warrior in a land where women bare their midriffs wields a sword that makes her invincible. There is a downside to using the sword, and all ends badly. The creators tried to make the story a parable about science and technology by flashing numbers, chemical diagrams and mathematical formulae on the screen whenever the sword is drawn. It doesn’t work.

It looks like C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is the only spring show worth watching, and that’s assuming that Nakamura focuses on telling a story rather than editorializing.

The little samurai

One Saturday afternoon back before the last ice age, when I was very young, my then-girlfriend Gloria and I walked to the town theatre and watched a Japanese movie called Magic Boy. It was exciting, colorful, fantastic in every sense. It made all the Disney movies I had seen seem like pablum. I thought it was the greatest movie ever made, and I wanted to go to Japan and learn magic.

Some months later, I watched Forbidden Planet, and that was the greatest movie ever made. As the centuries passed, I gradually forgot about Magic Boy.

Several years ago, when I discovered anime by way of Princess Mononoke, I recalled that I had seen some Japanese animation back in prehistoric times. I did a little research and determined that film was Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke, which was the first anime to get a theatrical release in the USA. Although it’s apparently still under license, it’s not available in any form in region one that I’ve been able to find. I’ve periodically checked for torrents, but I never found a live one until a week ago.

Sasuke and his older sister live in the Japanese countryside with monkeys, deer, squirrels and bears. One day he encounters a giant salamander, who turns out to be an evil witch intent on causing as much suffering as possible. Sasuke resolves to defeat her, and leaves his home to learn magic. After taunting the leader of a group of bandits and meeting the witch again, he learns martial arts and magic from an old hermit living high on a steep mountain. Meanwhile, the bandits burn and pillage a town, and the lord of the region takes an interest in Sasuke’s sister. There are plenty of swordfights and magical battles, and good eventually triumphs over evil.

So, is it indeed the greatest movie ever made? Maybe, if you’re seven years old. Better than Disney? I haven’t seen anything from the Mouse in centuries so I can’t really say, but in terms of production values, probably not. Is it worth watching? Yes. Beyond its historical significance, it’s a simple but entertaining story told in a straightforward manner with energy and humor.

The version I found is dubbed in three languages. The English soundtrack sounds at times like it was recorded underwater. The story and characters are uncomplicated enough that you can watch with the Japanese soundtrack without getting too lost, and the music is better, too.

Helvetica Standard

If Osaka was your favorite character in Azumanga Daioh, and if you thought the New Year’s Dream episode was one of the highlights, you might enjoy Nichijou, a.k.a. My Ordinary Life. The first episode was vastly better than the dull preview, and the series might be worth watching. Nonsense is hard to do well for long, though. I’m crossing my fingers, but I fear that after a few episodes the creators’ invention will flag, the sketches will lengthen and drag, and the show will become as dumb and boring as the preview.

Cherry, Cherry

It’s blossom-gazing time. Here in Wichita the overwhelming majority of flowering fruit trees are boring white Bradford pears, with some redbuds and crab apples here and there. However, there are a few Japanese cherries at the botanical garden, and a couple of them were blooming this morning: the Yoshino cherry, above, and the Okame cherry.

Without socks

Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite writers, died Saturday. She is perhaps best known in anime circles as the author of the book Howl’s Moving Castle. ((Available as an audiobook here.)) However, if all you know of Jones is Hayao Miyazaki’s weakest movie, you don’t know Jones at all. Although she herself liked the movie, I found it far inferior to the superb novel, which I highly recommend. I’ve read and re-read a lot of her books; many of them are excellent and all of them are at least good. Some of my favorites include Dogsbody, Fire and Hemlock, Hexwood, A Tale of Time City, Archer’s Goon, The Homeward Bounders, The Dalemark Quartet, ….

Update: Neil Gaiman on Diana Wynne Jones. (Via Steven R.)

Update II: Eve Tushnet on Jones: “As always with Jones, childhood is no refuge.”

Update IIII: Yet another appreciation, this one containing the useful phrase, “unpredictable inevitability.” ((Which encapsulates the difference between Zombie and Madoka, by the way. Things just happen in the former, but in the latter every detail matters and each event, no matter how surprising, is logically connected to everything else and inevitable in retrospect.))

Rather than blather on, I’ll reprint an entry from my first weblog many years ago.

*****

At a used bookstore this afternoon I spotted Diana Wynne Jones’ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Should you ever find yourself on a tour in Faerie, you will find it handy.

Apostrophes. Few names in Fantasyland are considered complete unless they are interrupted by an apostrophe somewhere in the middle (as in Gna’ash). … No one knows the reasons for this. Nor does anyone really know how an apostrophe should be pronounced, though there are theories:
1. You ignore the apostrophe and simply pronounce the word. (Here Gna’ash = Gnash.)
2. You leave a gap or lacuna where the apostrophe appears. (Here Gna’ash = Gna-ash.)
3. You make a kind of clucking-sound to stand for the apostrophe. (Here Gna’ash = Gnaglunkash.) Persons with insecurely mounted tonsils should adhere to one of the other two theories.

Bath is something all Tourists crave for quite soon. After very few days of slogging along in all weathers and sleeping in your clothes, you will be ready to kill for a Bath. You will crave to wash your hair. The management is reasonable on this issue. Before long you will find wither a deep POOL in a RIVER of icy water (“icemelt;” see also HYPOTHERMIA, COMMON COLD and CHILBLAINS) or an INN with a heated bath-house. You will be able to leave your clothes, money, weapons and SECRETS on the bank or bath-house bench and wash in perfect safety. Management Rules state that no one ever steals your clothes/valuables or AMBUSHES you while you are immersed in a Bath.

Common Cold. this is one of many viral nuisances not present. You can get as wet, cold and tired as you like, and you will still not catch cold. But see PLAGUE.

Costume. It a curious fact that, in Fantasyland, the usual Rules for CLOTHING are reversed. Here, the colder the climate, the fewer the garments worn. In the SNOWBOUND NORTH, the BARBARIAN HORDES wear little more than a fur loincloth and copper wristguards (see CHILBLAINS and HYPOTHERMIA). However, as one progresses south to reach the ANGLO-SAXON COSSACKS, one finds VESTS and BOOTS added to this costume. Further south still, the inhabitants of the VESTIGIAL EMPIRE wear short SKIRTS and singlets and add to this a voluminous wrapper on cold days. Thereafter, clothing steadily increases in thickness and quantity, until one finds the DESERT NOMADS in the tropics muffled to the eyebrows in layers of ROBES (see HEATSTOKE).

… In fact, Elves appear to have deteriorated generally since the coming of humans. If you meet Elves, expect to have to listen for hours while they tell you about this — many Elves are great bores on the subject — and about what glories there were in ancient days. They will intersperse their account with nostalgic ditties (“songs of aching beauty”) and conclude by telling you how great numbers of Elves have become so wearied with the thinning of the old golden wonders that they have all departed, departed into the West. This is correct, provided you take it with the understanding that Elves do not say anything quite straight. Many Elves have indeed gone West, to Minnesota and thence to California, where they have great fun wearing punk clothes and riding motorbikes.

Sing is used in a technical sense. This is because MUSIC is so powerful in Fantasyland that no one can really just sing a SONG without risking a Magical result.
The most frequent use of Singing is to speed a dead person’s soul on its way. On some tours no one is properly dead without it (see UNDEAD). Otherwise, Singing is an invocation, a SPELL, or a way of summoning nature MAGICS for some purpose. Tourists shoud be careful to avoid humming a casual tune. You may find you have summoned an ELEMENTAL, a STORM, or a selection of GODDESSES AND GODS.

Socks are never worn in Fantasyland. People thrust their feet, usually unwashed, straight into BOOTS.

There’s a lot more, including six pages on the various kinds of enchanted swords (be sure to have a qualified magician inspect a blade, just as you would have a mechanic look at a used car you’re thinking of buying). Jones’ lexicographical exercise subsequently resulted in her novel Dark Lord of Derkholm.

Myriad menaces

Goodbye Kitty
Goodbye Kitty

(Via Dustbury.)

*****

Why I don't have ads on my sites
Why I don't have ads on my sites

*****

I'm with Eineus
I'm with Eineus

*****

Old-fashioned nightmare fuel.

*****

The OED fails.

*****

Fortunately, I’m not a Linux user.

*****

And now for something perhaps a little less frightening: a friend of my brother has released a new tune. If you like loud music, give it a listen. It has more cowbell.

Tall, slender and on little wheels

Fred Himebaugh, a.k.a. “The Fredösphere,” who once wrote a jazz chamber opera using Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made Out of Meat” as the libretto, has unleased his idea of a pop song upon an defenseless world. “Earth Girl” is an a capella celebration of interplanetary romance. The performers are not credited; I presume they are Fred, Fred, Fred and Fred. Frëd is some kind of genius; what kind, I hesitate to say. It’s available at Amazon.com.

*****

It’s spring preview time again. As usual, little looks worthwhile. C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is directed by Kenji Nakamura, who previously did Mononoke and Trapeze. Even if the story makes no sense, the visuals should be entertaining. I’ll probably also sample Moshidora to see if it’s possible to make management interesting. I might see how Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera compares to the original. The preview looks true to Go Nagai: too childish for adults, too pervy for kids.

There are times when I would swear that every man, woman and child in Japan is a pervert. I really didn’t need to read about Lotte no Omocha.

*****

Some visitors have come here looking for a “shinmoedake webcam.” There’s one here and a couple more here (the sixth and fifth seventh and sixth from the bottom in the box at right. The fourth fifth from the bottom ((The Suwanosejima camera is back (second from the bottom), though you still can’t see much.)) is Sakurajima, which is worth checking regularly). The Shinmoedake crater at Kirishima did erupt again Sunday, but it was not as catastrophic as the L.A. Times would have you believe:

If there was destruction and panic, everyone was over it in time to go to the mall the next day.

The big show was back in January.

If it’s “silly hindu stuff,” you’re looking for, I can’t help you.

Quote of the week

At around age 6 while living in Korea, I somehow came to have a spiffy catalog from America that listed all Fisher-Price toys that were available for mail-order. The catalog had all these incredible toys that neither I nor any of my friends have ever seen. I read that catalog so many times, imagining playing with those toys, until the catalog eventually disintegrated in my hands one day.

The catalog was the book that confirmed to me — who was six, mind you — that America must be the best and the greatest country in the world. Later when I came to America, my faith was validated.

(Via .clue.)

No escape from unreality

(This post has nothing to do with Madoka.) I extricated myself from the Society for Creative Anachronism years ago, and I have no desire whatsoever to relive the past. So I felt a chill while bicycling through a park this afternoon when I saw a group of people with swords ((Boffers, actually.)) and shields whacking each other. It turned out that they were not SCA but a LARP organization called “Stormwrath.” They were friendly and let me take pictures. The morbidly curious can see the rest of the photos here.

Magical girl theory

(Manga Kyubey from here.)

Possibly useful for those obsessive about Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: the “Puella Magi” Wiki. ((Grrr.)) Among other things, it include notes on the “middle school” mathematics and Mitakihara architecture.

*****

The last word on Fractale:

This series really would have stood out had there not been a Madoka Mahou Shoujo Zombie Level E Wandering Son Fantastic Yumekui Midriff series occurring at the exact same time.

Clockwork

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, episode ten: I can’t think of anything to say except “wow.”

One translation nit-pick: “Puella magi” != “mahou shoujo,” and I refuse to use the term. It should be either “magica” or “maga.” “Puella magi” means something like “girl of the wizard.” I suppose you could describe Kyubey’s victims as such, but I don’t think that’s what Urobuchi and Shinbo had in mind.