Status report


Astro Fighter Sunred

These past ten days or so I’ve spent most of my spare time digitizing old vinyl. ((Once you get a CD player, getting up every twenty minutes to turn an LP over seems unreasonably laborious. Even though I have one of the larger vinyl collections that I know of, I don’t often listen to records anymore.)) It’s been productive: I’ve got over ten CDs’ worth of newly-convenient music to listen to. I have a few more LPs I want to get into the computer before I move on to the next project. Watching videos is not high-priority right now.

Nevertheless, I have watched some anime — not a lot, but some. Here are a few very brief notes.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea — discussed below.

Macademi Wasshoi #5 — Just plain icky ….

… and #6 — More watchable than #5, but the show is still not back on track. I hope we don’t have another Kamichu! here, a wildly erratic series that starts strongly but goes nowhere.

Ghost Hound through #12 — My lunchtime project. With Ryutaro Nakamura and Chiaki J. Konaka involved, it ought to be good, but the plodding pace is frustrating. The eventual payoff had better be outstanding. My impression of the series the first time I tried watching it was that it was a taut twelve-episode show padded out to a draggy twenty-two, and I still think so.

Natsume Yuujinchou through #4 — A show from the summer that got relatively little attention in the otakusphere while it was airing. Another example of Shinto 101, it reminds me strongly of Mokke, both in its subject matter and in its tone. It occasionally gets dangerously sentimental, but it probably is one of the better series of the year.

Astro Fighter Sunred #1 — A very silly gag series, featuring short, absurd skits and very minimal animation. You probably need to be drinking with friends to properly enjoy the show.

I may write more about these later. Or maybe not.

Think thank thunk

I was startled today to find myself listed between Dale Price and TSO in Irish Elk‘s choices for the Best Blog Darts Thinker Award. Thank you, Mark.

Here we go:

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to other 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.

And here are my choices:

Aliens in This World
Apologia
Charlotte Was Both
Darwin Catholic
Deep Furrows
Erik’s Rants and Recipes
Eve Tushnet
Flos Carmeli
The Fredösphere
Jelly-Pinched Theatre
more last than star
René’s Apple
Rightwing Film Geek
Sun and Shield
TexasBestGrok

Fish story

Someone smuggled a video camera into a showing of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, and thus I was able to take a look at it last night. It’s not first-rate Miyazaki, but it is much better than Howl’s Moving Castle. ((The book, Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, is excellent. Give copies to all the youngsters on your Christmas present list, and grab one for yourself. But don’t waste your time on the movie, Miyazaki’s worst.)) It will be worth seeing on the big screen when it’s released in the USA.

The good news: the core story, about the fish who wants to be a human, is something Miyazaki is good at. Ponyo, the magic goldfish, Sosuke, the boy who finds her, and Lisa (or Risa), Sosuke’s mother, are believeable, sympathetic characters. Some of the scenes reminded me of Totoro ((There is a significant parallel to Totoro in that Sosuke’s other parent is absent and, in the latter half of the movie, at risk.)) and Kiki. Ponyo’s first evening as a human in Sosuke’s home is as charming a sequence as Miyazaki’s ever done.

The bad new: the outer story is a mess. It’s a mixture of fairy tale, science fiction, paleontology, celestial mechanics, fantasy and deep ecology that doesn’t immediately add up to anything coherent. (I suppose I should be grateful that there isn’t a war going on.) Perhaps the symbolism will click after several more viewings and all will be clear and logical, but I doubt it.

Ponyo is not prime Miyazaki, but half of it is very good, and all of it is pleasing to the eyes, if not to the mind.

Incidentally, I was surprised by the quality of the video, both image and sound. There were very few clues that this was a surreptitious recording.

Screen captures below the fold.

Continue reading “Fish story”

1947-2008

R.I.P., Mitch Mitchell

Update: This is the tune I wanted to post yesterday, but I couldn’t find a good video. Note the meter.

Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Manic Depression”
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Manic Depression.mp3[/mp3]

Hot licks, horns and hippos

These past several days I’ve spent most of my spare time digitizing ancient vinyl, rediscovering many old favorites in the process. Here are a few examples:

Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, “‘Long Come a Viper”
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Long Come A Viper.mp3[/mp3]

Dreams, “New York”
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/New York.mp3[/mp3]

Robin Williamson and His Merry Band, “Zoo Blues”
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Zoo Blues.mp3[/mp3]

Grrr

Yesterday’s post has mysteriously disappeared. This is not the only anomalous incident involving my websites this week. My guess is that the web host’s server migration is not going as smoothly as it should. Until I’m reasonably sure that what I write won’t vanish, this weblog will be even quieter than usual.

(The missing post itself was of no consequence. It was just a few amusing links: this, this and this.)

Month by month

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.

A cure for insomnia

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.

Poll results, and a 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.

Marionettes and obsolete spaces

Halloween is approaching, so here’s another list.

Creepy, scary anime

1. Denno Coil, episode 19 — The series becomes darker and more intense in its second half. This episode, in which Yasako and Fumie are besieged by “illegals” while Kyoko’s cyberbody wanders in an obsolete space, is surprisingly scary for a show that began so playfully.

2. Mushishi, episode 4 — All of the stories in Mushishi are strange. A few are nightmarish, like this one about dreams.

3. Divergence Eve, episode 8 — The series is creepy from beginning to end, and I could reasonably pick any episode for this list. The eighth has perhaps the eeriest scene, in which Leblanc gives Misaki a tour of a room with unsettling specimens.

4. Vampire Princess Miyu OVA, episode 2 — Do you like dolls?

5. Serial Experiments Lain, episode 12 — Alice visits Lain’s home.

6. Hakaba Kitaro, episode 3 — Forget carnivorous plants. How about a vampire tree?