Trivia that matter
*****
I haven’t spent much time on anime recently, and I don’t know when I will. My current obsession is a collection of fiddle tunes. (([Link deleted because of reported virus.] If you’re in the Kansas/Oklahoma area in September, go to the Walnut Valley Festival and drop by Carp Camp. And if you are building a website, don’t use frames.)) It should keep me busy for quite a while. I’ll be back eventually — maybe — but don’t hold your breath.
Here’s the most bizarre video I’ve seen recently. (Patience is required; it takes forever to load.)
There are more sponges and other three-dimensional fractals here, here and here.
Addendum: For sheer trippiness, nothing beats the Mandelbrot set. Here’s the classic fractal video, “Nothing but Zooms,” presented in four parts. Unfortunately, the image quality is low, even for YouTube.
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Here are some more videos of varying degrees of gimmickiness featuring the ultimate paisley.
This one
That one
This other one
What’s the Mandelbrot set? Let Jonathan Coulton explain. (N.B.: naughty words.)
I came across yet another damned book meme over at Robbo’s, and I thought that adapting it for anime might be a pleasant way of spending a lunch hour.
• What anime are you watching now?
The only current series I’m following is Macademi Wasshoi, and if there are more episodes like the fifth, I’ll drop it, too.
• What is your favourite time to watch?
Evenings, after dinner.
• And your favourite place?
The only available place is the uncomfortable chair at the computer.
• Who is your favourite auteur?
The snap answer is either Yoshitoshi ABe (Haibane Renmei) or Mitsuo Iso (Denno Coil). However, each has really only one show to his credit. ((Lain was a group effort, and while NieA_7 is based on characters created by ABe, someone else wrote the scripts.)) Perhaps Junichi Sato or Akitaro Daichi, or maybe Masaaki Yuasa? I think I’ll go with Satoshi Kon for now.
• Your favourite OST?
Still Haibane Renmei‘s, though that of Oh! Edo Rocket, swing ripoff though it is, has been frequent listening for over a year now.
• What is the most difficult anime you’ve ever watched?
Serial Experiments Lain. I could also mention Angel’s Egg and Cat Soup, but I don’t think either adds up to much more than what you see. (I read somewhere that Oshii himself doesn’t remember what everything signifies in the former.) ((Incidentally, Angel’s Egg is the reason I started downloading torrents. I had read about it and was very curious, but there was no legal way to watch it.))
• What was the first anime you remember watching?
Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke, in the theatre in Brigham City, Utah, on a Saturday afternoon with my girlfriend Gloria a long, long time ago. Many years later came Princess Mononoke.
Update: Here’s a trailer for Magic Boy, as Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke was called in the USA, and here’s a website with screen captures.
• Do you have a comfort show that you re-watch?
Random episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura or Animal Yokocho.
• What is the most erotic anime you’ve watched?
Not Divergence Eve. Nothing much comes to mind; that’s not what I look for.
• Which classic should you have watched?
Monster, I suppose, or Legend of Galactic Heroes.
• Which series did you never want to end?
A good episodic series like Mushishi or Galaxy Angel A could be spun out indefinitely as long as the creators have ideas, but in general, a show isn’t good unless it ends well.
• What is your most overrated anime?
Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched the first disc, and that’s two hours of my life wasted that I’ll never get back.
• Which character could you have an affair with?
This isn’t the sort of thing I fantasize about lest I end up like Sidney Kugelmass, but perhaps Lexshue from Crest of the Stars.
• Who is your favourite character?
Isako, from Denno Coil.
• Which character do you most dislike?
Kimura, from Azumanga Daioh.
• Which character do you identify with most?
Reki, from Haibane Renmei.
• Which anime changed your life?
None.
Update: Jumping on the bandwagon are Steven, Kiriska, Wonderduck and Mark. And Pixy. And Aziz. And Evil Otto and Nick. And Astro. And Ken the Brickmuppet.
If you were planning to tour Venice this week, you might want to cancel your trip and visit Neo Venezia instead.
(Via Naked Villainy.)
Askimet informs me that it has blocked 666 spam comments here. Meanwhile, at my other weblog there are 404 valid comments.
I’m going to be busy not watching anime for the next few weeks. There may be an occasional trivial post, but don’t expect anything more. I’ll probably be back around the middle of December. Until then, here are a few links of interest.
I would have thought that this was obviously true, but apparently it isn’t clear to some people. Further discussion here.
Fred Kiesche discovers Ghost in the Shell. His reaction reminds me of mine to Serial Experiments Lain the first time I watched it. (Lain, by the way, was first broadcast ten years ago this summer, so I think it’s old enough to officially call a classic.)
Back in February, I had other things on my mind than following the otakusphere. Consequently, I missed Martin’s survey of the worst anime has to offer.
Here’s a preview of this winter’s new series. A couple might be worth checking out. Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou is a continuation of what was probably the best show of the summer, and Kemeno no Sou-ja Erin is based on novels by Nahoko Uehashi, who wrote the books Seirei no Moribito was based on. Update: Here are a couple of additional surveys covering more shows, here and here.
Has the internet indeed gone too far?
Ken the Brickmuppet writes about his uncle.
I’d been considering whether to look at Tytania, but Pixy points out a serious defect.
*****
This week’s frightening search term: “life sized anime bishounen cutouts.” For target practice, I presume.
(These aren’t my photographs (or cats, either).)
And a picture exemplifying a different kind of cuteness.
40 Signs of the Mike World Order:
27. New TV show: Pundit Deathmatch! Reigning champion – Ann Coulter!
How to identfy the Antichrist.
The upsides to an event earlier this month (you may need to scroll down a bit):
#7: Conservatism is inherently a tradition of complicity, satire, internal conflict, and cynicism. So with the Messiah as our next president, we’re in like Patricia Quinn!
A couple of jokes, one mathematical, one theological (the latter via René’s Apple).
Snape paper dolls to download and print. You can play with them while you read Joseph Bottum’s suggestions for revising the canon of children’s literature.
Don’t click here if you have work to do.
Update: These were disappointingly easy, and there were only eighteen of them. Here’s a more interesting set.
I did searches at amazon.com and calendars.com for “anime calendar.” The results were pathetic. Between the two sites, 2009 calendars included only Naruto, Inuyasha, Bleach and Pokemon, and something called “Domo.” Bleah. Therefore, I paid a visit to YesAsia.com, where I did a little better: Soul Eater, Wagaya no Oinari-sama, Shakugan no Shana, Blue Dragon, Wolf and Spice, Ponyo on the Cliff, Chii’s Sweet Home, Clannad and Clannad After Story, Gintama, Evangelion and Petit Eva, One Piece, Gegege no Kitaro, Nodame Cantabile and Code Geass R2. And Gundam00, Tales of the Abyss, Keroro Gunsou, Shugo Chara, Studio Ghibli, Osamu Tezuka, Rumiko Takahashi and many others. And Dragonball Z.
I also found a couple of Yotsub&! daily calendars. The 2009 edition will be available March 31, 2009, suggesting that these run from July 1 to June 30, which means that the 2008 edition has eight months’ use left.
By the way, this year’s Edward Gorey calendar features “Neglected Murderesses.” I didn’t spot a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei calendar, but Gorey operates in a similar pleasantly macabre vein.
I watched the first episode of Tales of the Abyss to see if there was a good reason for eight different groups to subtitle it.
It starts off with some mythology, introducing a planet made of the seven “fonons.” After the opener, which features a whole bunch of people (you’ll probably need a scorecard to keep them all straight as the series progresses), there’s some more mythology, some history, and prophecies involving a boy with red hair. It’s all very portentous but not particularly memorable.
Then we meet a kid with red hair. He’s a prince named Luke who doesn’t remember anything before he was six. He evidently doesn’t remember much else, either, providing the writers opportunities to dump yet more lumps of exposition into the story in the form of lectures and flashbacks. I suspect that the viewer is supposed to see him as a spirited youth frustrated at not being permitted to leave the palace grounds, but he comes across more as an insensitive lout. He apparently has two belly-buttons.
There are other people, of course: the old gardener he thoughtlessly insults, his servant and keeper, his swordsmanship teacher, his parents, his fiancée — none of whom show much promise of being more than clichés. And then there is Tear, whom I wish would visit me late at night. I am a chronic insomniac, and she can sing people and monsters instantly to sleep. Tear magically arrives at the palace, where she attacks Luke’s teacher. Luke intervenes, and when their blades meet, some kind of supernatural resonance builds up and sends the pair flying out into the hinterlands. It seems that Luke and Tear are both “seventh fons” (is Luke the seventh fon of a seventh fon?). There are monsters out there, which they easily and bloodlessly dispatch, and —
The hell with it. What we have here is another fantasy RPG adaptation of no particular distinction. It’s not terrible, but there’s nothing of interest in it. I can see one or two groups subbing the series for the fans of the game, but eight? It’s squandered effort.
*****
A bit of good news: the second episode of Macademi Wasshoi has finally been translated. It’s as frenetically silly as the first episode, albeit raunchier.
Here are the candidates in the new poll.
28% of the voting visitors to this page would most like to see Denno Coil licensed (my choice, too, but I don’t vote in my polls). Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei came in second with 19%, followed by Potemayo with 14% and, Banner of the Stars III with 10%. The other shows, in order of decreasing votes, were Sailor Stars, Oh! Edo Rocket, Dirty Pair TV, Animal Yokocho, Magipoka, Alfred J. Kwak and Aishiteruze Baby. I was disappointed that nobody voted for Mind Game, a movie that deserves much more attention than it’s received.
And now, the new poll: which mahou shoujo has the best costume? Note that I’m not asking who is your favorite or is from the best show. I just want to know who you think has the best designer. ((Who makes the magical girls’ outfits, anyway? What does a girl do if her costume needs alterations? What happens if she needs to transform while her costume is at the cleaners?)) Also, the inclusion of a particular girl is not a recommendation of the relevant show. Some of the series are very good, e.g., Princess Tutu, but others are not so good, e.g., Pretty Cure.
The astute will notice the conspicuous absence of Sakura Kinomoto. This is for two reasons. First, she is not a typical mahou shoujo; i.e., she doesn’t transform ((Toward the end of Cardcaptor Sakura she does sprout wings, which can be regarded as a transformation, but she still wears Tomoyo’s costumes, not proper magical clothing.)) Second, Tomoyo’s creations are worth a poll in themselves someday.
From the Icelandic film Astropia, here is a brief apologia for anime. Flóki is a clerk at the titular comics/DVD/RPG shop and Hildur is the innocent new employee.
Flóki: Here we have Japanese Anime.
Hildur: Why aren’t they in the Asian section?
Flóki: Because I say so. They’re special cartoons. Some people like anime, but never watch Asian cinema. And vice-versa. Here we have some great titles, like My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ghost in the Shell.
Hildur: And grown-ups watch this?
Flóki: — Oh yeah. You’re just thinking of the Disneyfication of animation. Anime has much more to offer.They’re not all family films, but they respect their audience. They’re open-ended and multi-layered.
Disney has bought and hidden away many of the jewels of Anime to keep them from western audiences. To make a buck off The Lion Kingdom of the Mouse House.
Astropia is available for the reasonable price of $18.10. Unfortunately, shipping from Iceland is $32.99, so I hope that the film soon finds an American distributer.
Bonus link: My familiar is a purple snow leopard. The election as a RPG campaign. (Via Naked Villainy.)
