I’ve been blogging for nearly nine years — the anniversary of the launch of my first weblog is a week from Saturday — and I long ago realized that I’ll never get a million hits in a year, or ever. I am not interested in blogwhoring, I’m too contemptuous of politicians to care about their blather and posturing, and I dislike making unnecessary enemies.
One thing I can do, though, is post pictures of pretty girls. Conveniently, Richard’s anime magazines are a rich source of such. Here’s another batch of scans. These are from two editions of a “New Video Magazine,” one from 1986 and the other from 1991. Both are similar in format to Vversion, which I looked at previously, so this time I’m focusing mostly on the cheesecake.
Which episodes of anime series do you find most memorable? Which stay with you long after you put the DVDs back in their cases? Please mention them in the comments. If there are enough nominated, they will the subject of the next poll.
Some possibilities: the first episodes of Haibane Renmei and Mushishi; the last episodes of Serial Experiments Lain and Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles; the tenth episode of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica; the third episode of Kamichu; the eighth episode of Paranoia Agent.
You can nominate more than one episode from a particular series. The second, third and final installments of Kino’s Journey each pack quite a punch, and are all worth mentioning.
Feel free to explain in general terms why a particular episode sticks in your mind, but beware of spoilers. For instance, I could note that “Happy Family Planning” in Paranoia Agent is a perfect fusion of slapstick and horror, but I would not mention anything about the characters or what they do.
*****
If you haven’t yet voted in the current poll, please do so. I’m going to let it run a little longer and see how long the leading couples remain tied.
The organizers of many smaller anime conventions, such as Anime Fest Wichita, are often slow to update their websites. This is inconvenient for those who prefer to plan ahead, so I’ve compiled information for a typical regional convention. This is by no means complete, but it should give potential attendees an idea of what to expect.
Classes, workshops and panels
Anime Taxonomy
The traditional division of anime and manga into the categories of shounen, shoujo, seinen and josei is of little use to the serious student of anime. We’ll develop an alternate classification scheme using as parameters magnitude of breasts, intensity of angst, quantity of blood, diameter of eyes, presence of kemenomimi, frequency of panchira, and potential violations of child pornography laws.
The State of Anime I
A discussion of the problems facing anime in the West and its chances of survival. The presenters place the blame squarely where it belongs: the insane Japanese system for financing anime, and the greed and paranoia of the license-holders.
Anime and the Significant Other
How to introduce that special person in your life to your obsession; tips on which titles to watch together first, what plushies are suitable gifts, how to suggest cosplay, and when to bring up Evangelion.
The majority of the magazines in Richard’s box are Mangajin, Dragon and Newtype. The former two are perfect-bound, which makes it difficult to scan entire pages without breaking the spine. Consequently, I’ll be focusing on the Newtype issues. (I’m sure Steven is disappointed, since the Dragon Half manga was running in Dragon’s back pages.)
Before I start on Newtype, here’s a look at Vversion ((Or V Version, or Wersion, depending on how you interpret the flag.)), devoted primarily to OVAs. It’s 132 pages, including the covers, and roughly half of it is glossy color.
My friend Richard has been following anime since the mid-1980s, when he was stationed in Okinawa. This past weekend he brought by a box of a magazines, many 20 years old or older. Most of them are Japanese-only, and I can’t read a word. However, I can look at the pictures, and there are lots of pictures.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born 327 years ago today (or on March 31, depending on which calendar you use). To celebrate the occasion, Amazon.com is selling nine hours of his music for 99¢ for a few days. I recognized a few of the performers, such as Joseph Szigeti and Andras Schiff, but most I’m not familiar with. I expect that the Amazon offering is mainly good older recordings and recent recordings by lesser-known artists. It’s probably worth gambling a dollar on.
In the 1970s, Jack Thompson bought a tract of land in the Royal Gardens subdivision on the island of Hawaii and began building a cedar home there. He finished it in 1983. As he installed the second-story windows, he noticed a orange glow on the panes. The light came from the lava fountains that heralded the eruption of Kilauea, which continues to this day. Over the years, lava flows took out all his neighbors’ homes, one by one, until only Thompson’s was left. This month, a vigorous flow found his house, leaving little beyond a satellite dish embedded in six feet of basalt.
To save you the trouble of clicking repeatedly on the lower left corner of Steven’s header, I’ve collected 915 of the images and assembled them into a convenient slide show.
The singer is Mayumi Kojima. She’s probably best-known in the anime world for “Poltergeist,” the memorable opening theme of the otherwise disappointing Ghost Hound.
Of all the mysteries in Mouretsu Pirates, the most puzzling, and the least likely to be satisfactorily explained, are the Sailor Moon shout-outs. This Princess Serenity is anything but a ditzy airhead.
By the way, it is impossible to watch just one episode of Shingu.
Crunchyroll began streaming Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica today, so I watched the first episode during lunch. I was curious to see how it looked at 1080. I took several screencaps; click on them to see them full-size. They look nice, but they’re not razor-sharp. I would guess that the video was upscaled from 720. (The monitor screen is 1920 x 1200, hence the letterboxing. (The images from Madoka’s dream were letterboxed to begin with.))
Real life keeps getting in the way, but I make time every Saturday to watch Mouretsu Pirates. So what if the premise is unlikely and that there numerous minor details to nitpick? As long as the characters are interesting and the story is good, I don’t care that miniskirts aren’t suited to zero gravity. I think the pacing is fine. Tatsuo Sato knows exactly what he is doing. Constant action is boring. I’d rather get to know the characters and situation before the battles start. I enjoy spending time with Marika, and I look forward to 20 more weekends with her and her crew.
I enjoy the soundtrack, too, and I hope it’s licensed. I apparently am in the minority on this point, but I even like the opening theme, despite the singers. It would be much better with a less cluttered arrangement — ideally, just drums, bass and Marty Friedman — and a singer who can properly belt out the tune. Can Bruce Dickinson sing Japanese?
Sato makes anime that is more complex than it at first seems and which ultimately mostly makes sense, e.g., Shingu. There’s already much speculation on the history of piracy and related matters in Marika’s universe at Steven’s place.
Just wondering: One of the spaceships is called the “Odette II.” Will there be an “Odile”?
Update: Here’s the “sailing” theme.
[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/PirateTheme.mp3]
Update II: Steven calls the tune “Odette II.” You can download a clean version from his site.
Here’s a curiosity from 1997 I ran across today on YouTube. It’s no surprise that it’s a Studio 4°C production, but there are some noteworthy names in the credits, e.g., Yoko Kanno and Masaaki Yuasa.
Suppose the translators responsible for The New American Bibletook on Shakespeare:
Existence or its opposite? That’s what I am asking myself.
Whether it be more or less dignified to put up with
The barbs and darts of brash Luck, or to use weapons
Against distress’s oceans, to stop them from happening.
There supposedly is a genre of iyashikei, or “healing,” anime, such as Aria or Ikoku Meiro no Croisee. I find most such productions irritatingly bland, rather than soothing or refreshing. ((The only example of the genre I find rewatchable is Someday’s Dreamers, which has a serious story underlying all the niceness.)) If you seek therapeutic anime, the works of Tatsuo Sato are much more effective:
A rewatch of Nadesico helped me get through the first few days of living with a broken arm, and Shingu was good for a flu and high fever.
Update: I just watched the second episode of Mouretsu Pirates. It looks like it’s going to be at least as good as Nadesico. Whether it approaches the level of Shingu remains to be seen.
“You don’t have to rely on a healthy body image or self-respect any more”:
I don’t know if you can “cook a tasty chicken on lava”, but I know you can cook a steak of meat on an Hawaiian lava flow! I did it! You just lay a sheet of aluminium on the lava; you spread some some oil on the steak, possibly with some herbs. Then, you put the steak on the aluminium sheet and let it broil a few tens of seconds on each side. I can assure you it is delicious, all the more with a glass of Californian wine! I’m French; I know what good cooking means!!
