Author: Don

Where “nerd” is a job title

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.)

My Saturday feeling

An early appearance of the leek in anime (Keroro Gunsou, episode 4a (2004)). This antedates “leekspin” by two years.

The anime I’m interested in is generally very different from the shows I used to watch on Saturday mornings many years ago. Serial Experiments Lain, for instance, has nothing in common with, say, Yogi Bear beyond being animated. ((Unless you count Lain’s pyjamas.)) Sometimes I’m in the mood for something silly and trivial, though, which brings me to my next list:

Anime like Saturday morning cartoons

Ramen Fighter Miki
Animal Yokocho
Galaxy Angel A and Z
Keroro Gunsou
The Adventures of Mini-Goddess

All of these consist of short episodes with no long-term narrative once all the main characters have been introduced. (Galaxy Angel makes no pretense of continuity at all.) They’re generally okay for kids. They are best taken in small doses; trying to marathon any of them results in indigestion. None of them approach the level of the best of Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, but they all compare favorably with the typical Hanna-Barbera offering. (The writing in Animal Yokocho approaches Moose and Squirrel level.)

Bonus list: Outstanding anime battles

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, episode ten (broadcast order) — one of the very few alleged “crowning moments of awesome” that actually is just that.

Denno Coil, episode four — defines “pwned,” except that the term will be obsolete slang in Isako’s day.

Seirei no Moribito, episode three — one of the rare conventional battle scenes that holds my attention …

… because, in general, fight scenes bore me. That’s why this list has only three items. I could add the fifth episode of Crest of the Stars and the last third of Banner to make five, but I think I’ll leave it at three.

Let’s see …

… If I counted correctly, there are three groups subbing Clannad –After Story–, Chaos;Head, Shikabane Hime and Ga-Rei Zero. Four are working on Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka and Tytania, five on Yozokura Quartet, six on Toradora! and eight on Tales of the Abyss. But apparently no one cares about the rest of Macademi Wasshoi.

*****

Let’s test this new poll thingy WordPress plugin.

The score so far, and dorks and damsels

Thumbs tentatively up:
Kannagi — Hoping that Hideyuki Kurata writes consistently well this time.
To Aru Majutsu no Index

Thumbs emphatically down:
Hakushaku to Yousei (Earl and Fairy) — There’s a vast literature about the collision of the human and faerie realms, from “Tam Lin” to Jonathan Strange. This promises to be the one of the lamest examples.
Kuroshitsuji — It could have been a decent horror series, but the stupid comedy kills it.

Decision pending second episode:
Macademi Wasshoi
Kurozuka — This could be spellbinding, or it could be a bloody mess. ((Kurozuka features the protean Romi Paku in yet another role completely unlike anything else I’ve seen her in, as usual. I would never have guessed that Nayuta, O-Ise, Haraken and Kuromitsu were all voiced by the same actress if I hadn’t looked at the cast lists.))
Chaos;Head — The usual description is Welcome to the N.H.K. as done by Satoshi Kon, and that’s about right. It could be a good creepy show if it doesn’t fall apart. It also could degenerate into a bloody mess.

Waiting for subs:
Mouryou no Hako — currently downloading
Michiko to Hatchin

Thus far this fall, nothing has gripped me like the first episode of Denno Coil.

Update: Okay, so I watched an episode of Hyakko. It may be comedy gold, but I didn’t smile once.

*****

I almost never see movies in theaters. The last one was Persepolis (recommended) back in February. This is partly because it’s a blasted nuisance for me to get to the cinema and back, but mainly because few films that do make it to Wichita look even slightly interesting. Nevertheless, there are some out there that I would like to see. For instance, Astropia. Faintheart is another. Will they play in Wichita? I doubt it.

$230,000

Nick did a little research into the production costs of several movies. If his figures are accurate, what’s astonishing is not how much Princess Mononoke cost but how little Five Centimeters Per Second and Perfect Blue did.

*****

Since Amaenaideyo!! has been licensed, I dropped it from the poll at right. It makes little difference; it only received one vote of the seventy-one cast so far.

Brief notes

I shot about 1,500 frames of dance last night, and it’s going to take a few evenings to go through all the pictures, selecting and editing the best. That and some projects for work mean that I will continue to be scarce here. I’ll be back eventually, but don’t hold your breath.

*****

I watched the first episodes of a few recent shows. Surprisingly, most didn’t stink and might be worth a second look. Let’s see ….

Macademi Wasshoi — It’s energetic and entertaining, but I would enjoy it more if the characters looked older: neotenous faces and fanservice is a distasteful combination. If future episodes emphasize humor over fanservice, I might continue with it. By the way, I’m not convinced that we actually have a dog-girl here. Her tail doesn’t wag properly. ((If you want a true dog-girl, albeit without the tail, see O-Nui in Oh! Edo Rocket.))

Kannagi — There’s an opportunity for easy but effective parody and satire if this divine Galatea continues to learn about the modern world from television. Otherwise, the series looks to be mildly amusing and bland. Update: Hideyuki Kurata is responsible for the script. Expect wildly erratic writing.

To Aru Matjutsu no Index — Promising, and that’s about all I can say at this point.

Detroit Metal City — Cute premise, but romangst and death metal are unlikely to wear well. Pass. (I would like to see the live-action movie, though.)

Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo — “Sexy adult women in anime.” ’nuff said.

*****

A few links:

Pixy recently posted some of his collection of openings and endings. N.B.: Dokuro-chan is not recommended.

Neojaponisme. (Via Eve Tushnet.)

Japanese matchbox art, ca. 1920-1950. (Via Lynn.)

*****

I didn’t recognize the reference, but a bit of searching did turn up this:

Bewitched: I got four kings.
Bothered: I got five — all hearts.
Bemildred: One a’ you is mus’ be cheatin’, ’cause I never had no kings of hearts in no deck of mine.