Do not click here.
Don’t click here, either.
Anyone else?
Here are the nominees thus far for best villain in anime.
Johan (Monster)
Cell (Dragonball Z)
Friagne (Shakugan no Shana)
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)
Light Yagami (Death Note)
Leader Desslok (Space Battleship Yamato)
Lord Genome, the Spiral King (Gurren Lagann)
Gendo Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Ladd Russo (Baccano)
King Hamdo (Now and Then, Here and There)
Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
Piccoro Daimaou (Dragon Ball)
Joker (ROD TV)
Charles Solomon ((Not eligible for technical reasons.))
Yomi Isayama (Ga-Rei Zero)
Vegeta (Dragonball Z)
Freeza (Dragonball Z)
Lust (Full Metal Alchemist)
Lord Shishio (Rurouni Kenshin)
Char Asnable (Gundam)
Considering the number of bad guys throughout anime, this is a surprisingly short list. Who else should be on it?
*****
John C. Wright declared that April 22, widely observed as Lenin’s birthday “Earth Day,” was actually Pluto Day. Is Pluto really a planet? Of course it is; else why would it have its own Sailor Senshi?
*****
I recently found “Dennou Coil licensed” and “Dennou Coil Media Blasters” among recent search terms. Has the best show of recent years finally been licensed, or do the searches indicate wishful thinking? The latter, apparently. However, I do note that The Tatami Galaxy (Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei) has been licensed for streaming by Funimation, and if it is now possible to watch Masaaki Yuasa legally online, then there is still some hope that we may yet see Mitsuo Iso on DVD.
*****
Leiji Matsumoto made a video for “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
(Via Ogiue Matrix.)
It doesn’t work particularly well — the images have nothing to do with the lyrics — but it’s worth watching once for the curiosity value. If you want to see a better example of combining music with the Leijiverse, I recommend Interstella 5555. The best video of “Bohemian Rhapsody” remains the Muppets’.
Make chimpanzee noises and hide the otter
I recently discovered that John Stump, the composer of “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz,” wrote other pieces of music, including the “String Quartet in A Minor (Motoring Accident).” A tribute to Stump, with scans of his scores, can be found here.
More remarkable scores can be seen here, here and here. Some of them have been performed.
Postcards from Iceland
More here.
(Via NRO.)
Update: A collection of eyjafjallajokull links. And one of several webcams.
Hanami, part two
The Kwanzan (or “Kanzan”) cherry (Prunus serrulata) was at peak bloom today at the botanical garden.
Shades of lavender
I visited Botanica again this afternoon and took a lot of pictures, which I’ll upload to my gallery later. On the way home I spotted a couple of other noteworthy floral displays: a Chinese empress tree, above, and a wisteria.
Call for nominations
Shinji, as I expected, has a substantial lead in the “most annoying character” poll. ChibiUsa and Happosai are battling for second place, and C-ko and Kimura have also made strong showings. I doubt that the standings will change significantly with additional votes, so let’s start a new poll.
Who’s the best villain in anime? Please post your nominations in the comments. You can nominate more than one character, but please don’t get carried away. (Also, please avoid spoilers. If an apparently benign character is revealed to be a malefactor only in the last few episodes of a series, don’t mention him. There are plenty of other evildoers to choose from.)
You might find it useful to review Steven’s criteria for a good villain:
1. Hubris: He thinks he’s strong and dangerous because he is strong and dangerous. But he isn’t quite as strong as he thinks he is, which is why…
2. Nemesis: he eventually gets what’s coming to him. Maybe it’s incremental punishment, or maybe it’s a grand reckoning, but in the end he suffers and probably dies. And before it happens, he knows what will happen to him and why. When it happens, in the eyes of the audience there should be a feeling of justice being done, and feeling of triumph.
3. Comprehensibility: We understand his motivation, even though we may not agree with it. What he does makes sense.
4. Menace: Serious villains should genuinely scare us.
5. Attraction: But villains should also be a bit seductive. There should be just a little bit of a temptation to root for the bad guy over the good guys. We should admire the bad guy, just a little, maybe. And feel just a bit sorry for him in the end.
The smooth side of the violin
April in Kansas
The tax collectors of Kansas want me to file my taxes online this year. How well does their website work?
After calling the toll-free number and learning nothing useful, I tried again.
So I clicked there.
I can cycle through the log-in page and these two pages indefinitely.
Every year I try to pay my taxes online, and every year I marvel at the utter incompetence of the website designers. Then I file my tax return on paper. Now the state of Kansas, in its wisdom and magnanimity, is going to start charging an extra fee for those who don’t file online (and another fee for those who want paper checks). There do exist some words that — weakly — describe my feelings toward the Kansas taxman, but I prefer to keep my website PG-rated.
Update: Success, finally, after changing to a different browser.
For future reference
Northeast Kansas
I spent the weekend in Atchison. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped.
Today’s quote
From the comments at John C. Wright’s place:
johncwright: If I had written EVANGELION, not only would I have have written an ending, but I would have explained both the first and second impacts, and the relation between the Qabala, the ghost of the mother hidden in the Eva, the spear of Longenes, and the point of Ikaru’s plan.
false_keraptis: Mr. Wright, as a science fiction reader, I am willing to entertain outlandish and unlikely premises, and my disbelief can be suspended from the lightest and most fragile of strings, but you’ve gone too far here. To suggest that Evangelion could ever be made to make sense to anyone is simply ridiculous.
Artsy types
The script to Shoka won the grand prize in the Animax competition in 2008. I’m not sure why. While the gimmick of using calligraphy and other arts as the basis of magical combat lends itself well to animation, the story and the characters are of scant interest. Still, the piece is worth seeing for the art, particularly if you’re sick of moeblobs with insectoid faces. Screen captures are below the fold.
I also recently watched Haiyoru! Nyaru Ani and Ranma – Akumu Shunminko. The former — a series of short moe-meets-Lovecraft animations — might sound like a brilliantly insane idea, but I don’t recommend it unless you think stabbing a little girl ((She’s actually Nyarlathotep, but she still looks and acts like a silly little girl.)) in the hand with a fork is funny. The latter is part of a celebration of Rumiko Takahashi’s work. It prominently features Happosai, and demonstrates why he has done so well in the current poll. I can’t recommend it either, even if it is the first new Ranma episode in years.
Update: Here’s the right way to make Cthulhu cute.
Tomorrow is Easter …
… so if I want to post a picture of a Lenten Rose, I’d better do it today.
This is a good year for flowering trees such as magnolias:
Hanami
It’s blossom-gazing time, with sakura blooming in Japan. I did a little blossom-gazing myself yesterday at the local botanical garden, which has a few flowering cherries. Wichita had enough serious cold weather this past winter to trigger profuse bloom. Instead of a blue tarp, I brought my camera.
I arrived one windy day too late to catch this one at its prime.
