Category: Animation

Attention, Funimation

Do you want me to stick to downloading fansubs? If not, then why do you put unskippable previews for series I have zero interest in on your DVDs? ((Yeah, there are ways around this, e.g., playing the disc with VLC or making a modified copy with Mac the Ripper. But these tactics shouldn’t be necessary.)) Punishing your audience is not good business practice. Also, please don’t have characters say “I could care less” when they mean the opposite.

Bonus, unrelated grumble: The hour you gain in the fall doesn’t compensate for the hour you lose in the spring.

Miscellany

A duck and a cuckoo from episode eleven of Joshiraku.

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You don’t need to attempt kanji for a memorable tattoo. A weak grasp of English is sufficient.

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An entertaining historical document is online: That Party at Lenny’s.

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Welcome to Crossover Hell. A related horror: another approach to Touhou Ponies.

I wonder: how does the world of Bronies compare with the Touhou universe?

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So salt and sugar are unnatural?

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Jinrui wa Suitai Shamashita was perhaps the best show of the summer. I did a little searching to see if Romeo Tanaka’s novels have been translated yet. As far as I can tell, there’s only one chapter available in English.

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(Bumper sticker courtesy of Borepatch.)

Last and least, some political notes. Although I am a member of the Wet Blanket Movement, I do have some interest in the Fringe Party. For those who believe that all people should have the right to vote, not just the living and the residents of Chicago cemeteries, Dr. Boli has yard signs you can download and print.

Irony deficiency

From Helen Rittelmeyer‘s review of Yumiko Kurahashi’s The Adventures of Sumiyakist Q:

For one thing, Japanese literature has no tradition of satire. I did not realize this until I read it in the translator’s introduction (“only deviations from accepted socials norms have tended to be the objects of criticism . . . where there have been attempts at satire in the twentieth century . . . one gets a stronger sense of personal grievance than of objective criticism”), and if he says it, I suppose it’s true. I have heard that Americans visiting Japan are warned not to speak hyperbolically because they are liable to be taken literally, and it is difficult to imagine satire without exaggeration.

Is this true? Does Japan not have an Aristophanes or a Swift? I’m skeptical; I don’t see how a culture can stay sane or even survive without satire.

Even if it was once true of Japanese literature, it’s not true now. See Yasutaka Tsutsui, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Legend of Koizumi, Oh! Edo Rocket, Jinrui wa Suitai Shamashita, Dai Mahou Touge, ….

Update: The challenges of translating humor. (Via the Sanity Inspector.)

Today’s question

Dog Days II seemed like a collection of filler episodes, even if it was laying the foundation for a dramatic third season. There was an excess of jiggle and bounce and disintegrating clothes, too. I’m not a randy adolescent, and I would have preferred less fanservice and better stories. Fortunately, the more interesting first season is now available to Crunchyroll subscribers.

Continue reading “Today’s question”

You don’t have to worry about a thing

A thousand years from now, technology has advanced little, if at all, if what we see in the first episode of Shin Sekai Yori is representative. Not all technology, though — genetic manipulation has produced some remarkable results in farming and perhaps elsewhere. Many people, maybe everyone in the rural community where protagonist Saki lives, are capable of some degree of telekinesis. The appearance of this power in a youngster is heralded by the appearance of a “blessing spirit” and is the occasion for a quasi-Buddhist ceremony, but it is strongly hinted that there have been generations of selection and breeding involved. And culling.

There’s also Dvorak every evening at twilight.

The first episode suggests that Shin Sekai Yori could be a complex, uncanny story like Serial Experiments Lain was and Ghost Hound tried to be. However, the summary at ANN indicates that it will go in a different direction:

In the future Japan has become a fractured country, and small towns now exist. The rulers of this world have the cursed power of Telekinesis. When an incident occurs, 5 children come to realize the world is not as it seems, and learn the bloody history behind this world. These 5 children unite and help the world as it falls into a downward spiral of chaos.

More spectacular and less interesting that I would have hoped. I’ll continue watching it, anyway. It may still be the best show of the fall season.

Screen captures are below the fold.

The first episode of K is worth watching for sheer gorgeous spectacle. One episode will probably be sufficient. The characters are largely violent bishies (there’s also a creepy little EGL), and I have no interest in any of them. But the animation sure is pretty.

I also watched the brand new Hayate no Gotoku for a while, but bailed out half-way through. It was just dumb.

Continue reading “You don’t have to worry about a thing”

Back to school Hell

Excel began her saga by getting hit by a truck. If the Great Will of the Macrocosm had not intervened, her story might have been something like Hells. Here are some screen captures from the first third of the movie. (It will probably be a week or two before I watch the rest of it. Right now, I’m getting ready for Winfield.)

Continue reading “Back to school Hell”

Oranges, lemons and bananas

I’m following four current shows. Three of them — Moyashimon Returns, Dog Days II and Joshiraku — are pleasant entertainments and little more, and I haven’t much to say about them. ((Steven has lots to say about Dog Days.)) The fourth, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, or Humanity Has Declined, is a series unlike other series. Exactly what it is, I’m still not sure. It initially was surrealistic and satirical, but in recent episodes the emphasis has shifted from ridicule to something nearer science fiction as we know it. It remains plenty strange, though. I wonder if there will ever be an explanation for the fairies: are they actually cutesy morlocks, or sucrose-based alien life forms, or what? In any case, beware of fairies bearing bananas.

The ending theme of Jintai, “Yume no Naka no Watashi no Yume,” reminds me strongly of the opening and ending of Azumanga Daioh. There’s a good reason for that. It was written and sung by Masumi Itou, who was half of the Oranges and Lemons duo. She was also part of Heart of Air, of “Blue Flow” fame. (Say “‘Blue Flow’ fame” ten times fast.) There is a transcription of “Yume no etc.” and a link to sheet music here if you’d like to follow the key changes.

Incidentally, the ending theme of Joshiraku, “Nippon Egao Hyakukei,” suits Momoiro Clover Z’s talents and limitations much better than the opening of Mouretsu Pirates, and I would link to a video of it if I could find one on YouTube. It’s the most energetic closing song I’ve heard since Pumpkin Scissors‘ “Mercury Go.”

Pigs can fly

Here’s some nonsense to amuse you while I’m busy not writing.

Missing link discovered: Magical girls perform functions in Japanese society similar to those of superheroes in America. I’ve wondered whether if this is an example of parallel evolution or if there is a common ancestor. A recent discovery suggests that the latter may be the case. The protagonist of Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin is essentially a superhero. However, she has a henshin sequence that is unmistakably that of a mahou shoujo. (The show is on the border between silly and dumb, and I don’t recommend it except as a curiosity.)

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Um, no comment.

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European history, according to freshman papers:

The Reformnation happened when German nobles resented the idea that tithes were going to Papal France or the Pope thus enriching Catholic coiffures. Traditions had become oppressive so they too were crushed in the wake of man’s quest for ressurection above thenot-just-social beast he had become. An angry Martin Luther nailed 95 theocrats to a church door. Theologically, Luthar was into reorientation mutation. Calvinism was the most convenient religion since the days of the ancients. Anabaptist services tended to be migratory. The Popes, of course, were usually Catholic. Monks went right on seeing themselves as worms. The last Jesuit priest died in the 19th century.

I spent ninth grade at a Jesuit high school. Either I’m older than I had realized, or I was educated by zombies.

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Let’s intellect: Is this a parody, or for real?

A community where all angst struggling writers and poets can intellect. We are not only spiritual and constructive in our writing. We are serious, hardworking writers. We have given perspiration to inspiration; We have strived in our thrivations. We have lived to build our living characters, penciled through every constructive detail in our realms filled in sorrow, death, birth, hardship, and pain. Our imaginations entwined to unfurl past a world of hope, a universe of dreams, fairies, trolls, gas- breathing dragons or three-warped witches, tales of Heros, and stories of legend all capsized into an outlined story draft. Words strumming onto a page of pure magic; and it is magic. Our work is engraved in our names, stitched into our bloods, ravenous through our ink-coursed veins that defines the artistic process. Join us and forever hold your peace in The Ambitious Writers, The Children Writers, The Erotics, The Romances, The Horrors, The Fictitious, The Poets, The Westerns, The Adventures, The Mystery, THE STRUGGLING WRITERS

Oh, yeah: Rule #1 is “No negative critiquing.”

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Would you buy it for a quarter?

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Fear the clown.

Odds and ends

I noticed recently that Funimation is now streaming a couple of essential anime series, Serial Experiments Lain and Haibane Renmei. The latter will finally be available again on DVD next month, and for a very good price, but as far as I know, there are no plans to reissue Lain.

Update: As Mikeski mentions in his comment, Lain will be available again in November, possibly in much higher quality than the original release.

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Quotes of the week:

… I do wish the media would stop calling Leonardo da Vinci just “da Vinci.” It’s like calling St. Francis just “Assisi” or me just “New Jersey.”

Pro tip: when framing your opponents as intolerant hate-filled bigots, try not to showcase your own hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.

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Hollywood is the wrong place to look for heroes worth emulating. Try anime, instead. Seirei no Moribito is a good place to start.

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Jack Vance’s novel The Chasch is free for the downloading during August. (Via Aliens in This World.)

“Dosuloli”

The Japanese have a word for it. (But do the Japanese have a word for “missing nose”?)

I had some unexpected free time this weekend, which gave me an opportunity to watch some first episodes. While nothing I saw astonished me, there are a few shows this summer that might be worth following.

Dog Days 2 (I’m sorry, but Dog Days’ just looks stupid) started off well, and it might be the most entertaining series of the summer if it doesn’t lose its way. It looks like the anime staff has something better in mind for Becky other than having her hang around Shinku and get in the way. Now if only the designers could find something more fitting for someone of Leonmitchelli’s status to wear than jean cut-offs —

— and if only they would drop the Most Common Special Attacks and general boinginess. The first Dog Days was a very good children’s show that I can’t recommend for children because of the frequent, irrelevant fanservice. It looks like season two will be the same.

Joshiraku is probably hysterically funny if you know Japanese and can catch all the puns. Monolingual Americans could use some footnotes. Even so, enough of the gags survive translation to make it watchable.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita combines the twilight of humanity theme of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou with the nightmarish nonsense of Hare & Guu in deadpan fashion. It will be a long time before I want to look at a another loaf of bread. If I watch the next episode, I might not be able to eat chicken ever again. Dare I risk it?

Moyashimon Returns looks to be much like the first season: seriously quirky characters, lectures on fermentation, an elegant gothic lolita, and cute microbes. It’s missing Polysics, though.

All of these — even Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, despite the risks — I’ll watch at least one more episode of. I also saw Campione, Sword Art Online, and Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, which impressed me less. I might watch more of the first two, but “yaoi sticks” disqualify the last from further consideration.

Seasonal yawn

Gee, it’s summer already, and I haven’t yet finished ignoring the spring anime season. Is there anything coming up that’s worth my attention? Let’s see. Moyashimon Returns and Dog Days’, probably. I might check out Sword Art Online, Joshiraku and Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity Has Declined), ((Speaking of decline ….)). And that’s all that looks even slightly interesting.

Out of morbid curiosity, I watched fifteen minutes of Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse. Pros: Girls in skin-tight uniforms. Cons: Everything else.

I did watch the first episode of Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi all the way through. The art is low-budget but pretty. It looks like the emphasis of the storytelling will be on romantic intrigues, which is not of great interest to me. What did catch my eye was the botany in the opening, in particular what looked like Epiphyllum hybrids. This is curious, because the parent cactus species come from Central American jungles and were not likely to have been cultivated in 13th-century Japan.

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I recently finished the first season of Dog Days, by the way, and it was good. I wish I could recommend it for youngsters, but there is a little too much fanservice.

I also finished Soul Eater, finally. At the two-third’s point, it looked like it was going to be a very good series, with Vast Conspiracies Revealed at the end, and Everything Explained and the World Put to Rights. But the plots fizzled out, and the rest of the show ended up being mostly just a lot of fighting.

Which is not to say that it’s a bad show. It is always entertaining, with effortless transitions between violent action, horror and farce. It just could have been more.

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I see that Haibane Renmei will be available in September for a very good price.

Sailor Pirates

This was sent to me by a malefactor whom I won’t identify (his name sounds something like “sick puppet”).

Who would the outer senshi be? Haruka and Michiru are a little too obvious, but whom would you pick for Hotaru and Setsuna? Also, is there any guy as dorky as Mamoru, or any girl as annoying as ChibiUsa?

Update for those who have not endured watched Sailor Moon: the pirates and their sailor senshi counterparts have very little in common. Gruier’s hair deliberately imitates Usagi’s, but she is nothing like the stereotypical blonde that Sailor Moon is. Chiaki and Rei are probably the best match: both are black-haired and short-tempered and sometimes wear miko outfits. In each pair, the pirate is the more interesting character.

Still, Sailor Moon is the gold standard for mahou shoujo costumes. I’m always pleased to see pretty girls so attired, even though this is otherwise a crossover that shouldn’t happen.