It was the cry of a bird. The boy carried a chair over to the window and climbed up onto it. He pulled the curtains back and opened the window a crack. In the middle of the sky hung a large white moon, the full moon of late autumn, filling the yard below with its light. The trees out there looked very different to the boy at night than they did in the daylight. They had none of their usual friendliness. The evergreen oak looked almost annoyed as it trembled in the occasional puff of wind with an unpleasant creaking sound.

The cry of the bird seemed to be coming from the pine tree. The boy leaned out the window and looked up, but from this low angle the large, heavy branches of the pine hid the bird. He wanted to see what it looked like. He wanted to memorize its color and shape so that tomorrow he could find it in his illustrated encyclopedia. His intense desire to know had brought him fully awake now.

But the bird never raised its cry again. It fell silent as a stone, up there in the branches of the pine bathed in moonlight. Soon a chill wind blew into the room, as if giving him some kind of warning. [1]

It was a round well, maybe four and a half feet in diameter.

Like most everything else connected with this house, the well looked as though it had been abandoned long before. Something about it felt as if it should be called “overwhelming numbness.” Maybe when people take their eyes off them, inanimate objects become even more inanimate.

Close inspection revealed that the well was in fact far older than the objects that surrounded it.

I leaned over the edge again and looked down into the darkness, anticipating nothing in particular. So, I thought, in a place like this, in the middle of the day like this, there existed a darkness as deep as this. I cleared my throat and swallowed. The sound echoed in the darkness, as if someone else had cleared his throat. [1]

I realized that I was being enveloped once again by the overwhelming light. Almost unconsciously, I spread open both my hands and received the sun in my palms. It was far stronger than it had been the first time. And it lasted far longer than it had then. At least it felt that way to me. In the light, tears poured out of me. It felt as if all the fluids of my body might turn into tears and come streaming from my eyes, that my body itself might melt away like this. If it could have happened in the bliss of this marvelous light, even death would have been no threat. Indeed, I felt I wanted to die. I had a marvelous sense of oneness, an overwhelming sense of unity. Yes, that was it: the true meaning of life resided in that light that lasted for however many seconds it was, and I felt I ought to die right then and there.

But of course, before anything could happen, the light was gone. I was still there, in the bottom of that miserable well. Darkness and cold reasserted their grip on me, as if to declare that the light had never existed at all. For a long time, I simply remained huddled where I was, my face bathed in tears. As if beaten down by some huge power, I was unable to do – or even think – anything at all, unable to feel even my own physical existence. I was a dried-up carcass, the cast-off shell of an insect. [1]

The Town centers around a semicircular plaza directly north of the Old Bridge. The other semicircular fragment, that is, the lower half of the circle, lies across the river to the south. These two half-circles are known as the North and South Plazas respectively. Regarded as a pair, the two can impress one only as complete opposites, so unlike each other as they are. The North Plaza is heavy with an air of mystery, laden with the silence of the surrounding quarter, whereas the South Plaza seems to lack any atmosphere at all. What is one meant to feel here? All is adrift in a vague sense of loss.

In the middle of the North Plaza stands a large Clocktower piercing skyward. To be precise, one should say it is less a clocktower than an object retaining the form of a clocktower. The clock has long forfeited its original role as a timepiece.

Several rings of stone and brick buildings fan out from the North Plaza. No edifice has any outstanding features, no decorations or plaques. All doors are sealed tight; no one is entering or leaving. [2]

The boy named Crow flew in large, languid circles above the forest. After inscribing one, he’d fly off to another spot and carefully begin another, identical circle, each invisible circle following another in the air only to vanish. Like a reconnaissance plane, he scanned the forest below him, looking for someone he couldn’t seem to locate. Like a huge ocean, the forest undulated beneath him and spread to a the horizon in a thick, anonymous cloak of interlaced branches. The sky was covered with gray clouds, and there was neither wind nor sunlight. At this point the boy named Crow had to be the loneliest bird in the world, but he was too busy to think about that now. [3]

[1] The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
[2] Hard-Boiled Wonderland & The End of the World
[3] Kafka on the Shore

by Haruki Murakami
______________________________________________

Hi guys. No, I’m not back.

Another hiatus.

This has been bothering me for a while now so I won’t mince words: I’m getting tired of Anime. I haven’t been keeping up shows or other anime blogs. I blithely overlook and fail to respond to comments, sometimes even after reading them. There are a bunch of half-completed posts on my dashboard and even more ideas for future posts, but motivation to finish them is just dead at this point.

The good news is that I’m sure it’s a temporary slump, either from the holiday season or the upcoming Spring semester. I can’t imagine leaving Anime altogether, especially after experiences like Diary of an Anime Lived – which, as maudlin as this may sound, was a genuinely life-changing moment for me.

And I’d feel like a real jerk if I just packed up shop and abandoned you guys. I know we only know one another through the Internet, and it’s futile to think that I’ll ever meet you guys in real life, but you Anime bloggers are some swell people, and I would love to take each and every one of you out for a drink. Figuratively speaking, of course.

If you’re not a regular reader of my blog, I highly encourage you to check out the Anime bloggers on my blogroll, if you haven’t done so already. I have nothing but respect for these people, especially 2DT, who’s been with me from the beginning, even though I’m not quite sure why. I like to think of myself as his protégé while blogging.

Okay, too much brown-nosing for one post. I want to end this by saying that I’ll still be updating my personal blog since, at this point in my life, I find it easier to just talk about what’s on my mind, regardless of the subject. And since I only really used Twitter to keep up with other Anime bloggers, I’ll be taking a break from that as well.

Have a good one, folks.
Let’s hope you guys are still here when I return.

As one of the few and better known bara hentai of recent memory – partly because of its untimely discontinuation due to a lack of funding – it’s interesting to see such a heartfelt exploration of (credible) homosexaul desire in its main character of Jonathan Tiberius.

(See, having nothing else to blog about, I’ve decided to delve into hardcore gay pornography. Enjoy.)

If you’re not aware of the term, bara is gay hentai made primarily by gay men for gay men. Instead of the scrawny, pretty-boy bishounens that have become so common within fujoshi circles, you have your hunks, bears, and daddies – basically gay men who don’t fulfill the flamer stereotype. A good friend of mine voraciously downloads bara from various imageboards, so I’ve been exposed to it quite often and wasn’t that disinclned from watching the one-time OVA when he recommended it to me.

Legend of the Blue Wolves follows a young man named Jonathan Tiberius, recently enlisted in an ill-defined space platoon during an intergalactic war with surreal creatures that are able to assimilate with their victims. Of course, platoon means army, and army means men, and only the strongest, most ripped guys make the cut.

While I don’t mean to stoke the wrath of loudmouth otakus by equating classic shows like Gurren Lagann to gay pornography, there’s still a latent similarity between them. Like in any other quote-unquote GAR series, there’s always a sort of jingoism thrown in where the male characters resort to fisticuffs instead of listening to reason. These men need to reaffirm their dominance with brutality because it not only sets an example, but also expedites victory. And besides, pacifism isn’t manly.

In a flashback scene of a young Jonathan, he observes a pair of older men cleaning themselves off at a fountain, bereft of shirts and with sweat dribbling down their bodies. Almost unexpectedly, he becomes erect and pleasures himself to the thought of them. He imagines their “ideal flesh,” the impossibly perfect bodies he soon strives for as a young adult.

This draws parallels to the introduction of the book Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima, the prolific Japanese author whose confounding sex life as a homosexual man with a wife and kids was actually the least of his problems. The book is said to be an exploratory, semi-autobiography that channels a side of him that he seemed to be ashamed of throughout his life. A passage, where the main character as a child realizes that he’s attracted to a supposedly handsome older boy, seems to be a motif in gay fiction:

I had a presentiment then that there is in this world a kind of desire like stinging pain. Looking up at the dirty youth, I was choked by desire, thinking, ‘I want to change into him,’ thinking, ‘I want to be him.’”

Mishima himself was known for being a narcissist. He loved to work out and wasn’t timid about showing off his body. If what he writes in his book is reflective of his personal life in some way, then he certainly did achieve his “ideal flesh.”

(Source)

What can be said about Jonathan’s desire for the attractive men in his youth can also be said about all of bara hentai, and maybe even for the gay men who are aroused by it. Most hentai is lust incarnate for certain people – there are a wide range of fetishes that can be achieved in art and animation that you couldn’t pull off in the real world. The brawny men in bara aren’t completely unrealistic, but there is a modicum of godlike physicality in them – the chiseled abs, well-formed legs, and oversized biceps without an ounce of fat. For lack of a better term, they have a self-reflective Adonis complex where they’re able to vicariously enjoy beauty and become beautiful themselves at the same time. Bara reflects a mindset that projects one’s own “ideal flesh” through art.

So that is why I was kind of saddened to find out that Legend of the Blue Wolves didn’t make it past the pilot episode, although it was kind of stupid of the creators to delegate most of the sex scenes to this guy. So it was their own fault, I guess.

Not sure how to end this properly, so have some 3D bara.

There are no words to describe what I’ve just experienced. I feel like Brad Pitt at the end of Seven. I feel like the crying Indian chief in those old “Save the Earth” commercials, just observing the wreckage and wondering to myself “…what happened here?” Right now, I’m cradling my head in my arms; I want to laugh and cry because I feel like I’ve just been prison-raped.

Where to begin?

So I was on my way back to my dorm from a meeting. It was a formal meeting, so I had on my whole yuppie get-up (three-piece suit and leather shoes), looking totally out of place for a Friday night. I arrived on campus at around 7:45 pm. Now, I knew that our school had an Anime club that would meet every Friday at around 8:00 pm. I was never really against the idea of joining an Anime club, so I would occasionally peek my head in to see what was going on but never really summoned the willpower to actually commit to joining. But, retrospectively speaking, I guess I was feeling particularly masochistic ’cause, against my better judgment, I decided to sit in on a meeting for the day and see what it was like.

And, well, you can guess how that turned out.
(I’m sighing as I write this.)

So I found my way to the building that hosted the Anime club meeting. It turns out that in that very same building and on that very same floor, there was also a meeting for some kind of Asian cultural association in a room adjacent to that of the Anime club’s. Admittedly I was a little lost, so I would occasionally pass their room and hear them speaking in hushed tones. They would shoot glances at me as if they were expecting me to join them because of what I was wearing.

I eventually found the room and introduced myself to some of the members who were already there and busily fumbling with a projector. Turns out that it’s not so much a “club” with actual discussion as it is just a weekly screening of some of the Anime they owned on DVD, which I would later realize meant that they were limited to licensed shows usually played in dub. After we were done exchanging formalities, I took a look around the room and found a small snack table comprised of soda and …Pocky and wasabi peas and other Asian snacks. No chips or cookies, just Asian snacks. Yeah. I should have taken this as a sign to just leave, but I stifled that urge and thought nothing of it.

More people filtered in, and mother of God, Steve Urkel was less of a cliché. Every other phrase they uttered was some stupid Internet meme like “It’s a trap!” which they wouldn’t even use in context. One of the members – a guy with a really shrill voice who would always shout when he spoke – would tell what I assumed was supposed to be a joke, and when nobody responded, he would scream “Why doesn’t anyone get my references?!” Another member, a girl, was playing around with Google Maps on her laptop, typing in things like “G-Spot” and “Heaven,” and would proceed to giggle-snort whenever she got a successful result.

The Vice President of the club announced that they would be screening shows based on popular vote. I told him that I had the DVDs for Mushi-shi, Golden Boy, and Cromartie High School, so he added them to the list. In the end, the top three titles were the last 6 episodes of Outlaw Star, Azumanga Daioh, and I think, Claymore. When they were finished tabulating the votes, another member walked in – a guy who looked to be well into his 40s, with grey-speckled hair and deep-set facial wrinkles. It wasn’t enough for him to just give his vote and get it over with, he had to voice his opinion about everything as if anyone gave a shit about what he thought. He skimmed the available choices and said things like “Azumanga Daioh is bad. It’s so slow-paced and badly written” and “What’s Mushi-shi-shi?” Needless to say, I nearly developed a peptic ulcer.

They ultimately decided on Outlaw Star, the dub, which I had no problem with being that I grew up with the dub on Toonami. I was already fed up at this point, but I really wanted to stick it out and see through it to the end, so I took a seat in the back and got out my iPod, preparing for the worst. Thank God for Wi-Fi, I thought. So they pop in the disc, the opening song plays, and what do they do? They proceed to sing and dance to it. First of all, how in the ever-loving fuck do you dance to Through the Night? It’s not exactly club music, and yet they were gyrating their hips and mispronouncing the spoken lyrics as if it was routine for them. The lights were mercifully dim, otherwise they would’ve seen my look of utter shock and disgust. As Joseph Conrad would say, “the horror, the horror…”

Thank God for Twitter, I thought, something I would never admit outright because of my love/hate attitude towards Twitter. I tweeted like mad to distract myself from what was going on. Things like:

Thankfully, angelsharkbite was on and kept me company.

I should have heeded his advice, but, being the polite bastard that I am, decided to soldier on.

I really, truly believe that I was becoming progressively crazy throughout the course of the screening. They – these Anime club members – continued to shout stupid Internet memes and catchphrases with absolutely no context or provocation. When Gene said “It’s a lizard,” someone would shout “It’s a trap!” and everyone would giggle as if it was the funniest shit in the world. Gritting my teeth and clenching my fists, I kept thinking “shut the fuck up oh god please just stop talking you guys have the most punch-able voices.” The overly-opinionated, middle-aged guy would laugh at completely inappropriate moments, like in that scene where Jim unknowingly kills Hanmyo, the girl he meets and falls in love with but turns out to be a member of the Anten Seven, or the Big Bads of Outlaw Star. What was supposed to be a heart-wrenching scene was completely spoiled by this one asshole, the same guy who would repeatedly state throughout the meeting that “Azumanga Daioh is so bad.” Nobody asked for your input, you horrible creep. I kept thinking “Wow, I hate you. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate you.”

After three episodes, we had a bathroom break. Taking this as an opportunity, I quickly gathered my things and briskly headed for the door. On my way out, that old guy repeated once again, as if for good measure, that “Azumanga Daioh isn’t even so bad that it’s good. It’s just bad.” He had his hands behind his head, all smug and self-assured. A girl responded with “It’s a show that more girls than guys would like,” to which he responded “Okay, that’s just what you think” with his nose in the air. I swear to Christ, that simple exchange took years off my life.

When I entered the hallway, I couldn’t help but notice how different the air was, probably from leaving a room that reeked of half-eaten wasabi peas. The Vice President was coming back from the bathroom. I told him that I’d be back next week, maybe. He gave a really half-hearted “okay, nice meeting you” without even looking at or facing me. As I walked down the hallway, I made eye contact with someone in the Asian cultural meeting room. A girl, a normal girl. For some reason, I held eye contact and just breathed a heavy sigh. I saw her giggle as if in response, as if she understood my pain.

On my way back to my dorm, I plugged in my iPod and listened to the loudest death metal track on my playlist, imagining unholy things about the people I hated. If I had a cigarette, I would have smoked it. But I don’t smoke.

Never again.

Quick addendum to my last post.

So there’s this website called MyIncestHentai (NSFW, obviously) that touts itself as “110% devoted to incest hentai” and even has this fancy banner emblazoned with “SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, MOTHERS.” I didn’t stick around for too long because the site is pretty annoying to navigate and it would take me a good minute to cue up a single page, but I was nonetheless intrigued by the community and some of the content.

One thing I found really interesting was the idea of a “rewrite.” Basically in a “rewrite,” someone takes a non-incestuous hentai manga and rewrites the dialogue so that the fornicators in question are now related by blood. Sounds like something reasonable in the off-beat world of hentai, but to my surprise, the community was vehemently against it and seemed to actually be “turned off” by rewrites.

So get this, the users of the site can’t get off to rewrites. Every time I came across a rewrite in the gallery, there would always be a comment along the lines of “This is a rewrite. Tag it as such so I can filter it in my searches.” This whole concept of having a canon, incestuous relationship in hentai manga seemed kind of strange to me. Firstly, if you didn’t know it was a rewrite, would you still be able to get off to it? I’m willing to bet, yes. Anime character designs range from plain to androgynous that it’s not like you would be able to genetically prove that two characters were related through facial features or physique. Secondly, they’re fictional characters in one-shot manga. What difference does it make if they’re related or not? It’s not necessarily the same thing as getting off to real incest.

This thought was punctuated by a conversation I had had with a friend.

(Source)

So if you want further proof of how I’m probably the most open-minded straight guy you’ll ever come across on the Internet, you should know that I discuss gay porn with my gay friend. Of course, by the time he came out to me, I already considered him to be like a brother of mine, so conversations were never awkward. But I was always stupendously dumbfounded whenever he explained the logistics of gay sex and really got into the nitty-gritty.

Then one day, he mentioned how it was a fantasy of his to have sex with a straight guy. I immediately laughed and asked him why. He fumbled in his answer with a lot of “I don’t knows,” but eventually settled on “because if I know that the person is straight, it makes it hotter.” To which I countered with “It’s not like there’s a definitive way of knowing if a person is straight or gay. The person could even be lying to you, for all you know. We already know that gay people aren’t all queens. And besides, what difference does it make in how attracted you are to a person?” He nodded and simply responded with a “I just think it’d be hot.”

For his case, the reasons are a little easier to define. He’s attracted to what he deems, for all intents and purposes, “straight” qualities. That idea should be true, too, for the former situation with the rewrites, but I can’t find a connection. The very idea of demanding a canon incest couple in a hentai seems kind of murky. That’s the common thread here: these latent “fetishes,” and I put that word in quotes because I’m sure that I’m misusing it. Unlike other fetishes like feet or hair or even shoes, these rewrites and straight-gay baiting had a lack of concreteness and tangibility to them. There are methods of circumventing them without much effort and with very little change in aesthetic, so what’s the point? And the idea is only amplified in hentai and Anime in general, where these distinction are further muddled. Are these two situations even comparable?

Also, I’ve heard from otakus that hentai in itself can be considered a “fetish”? But is that really the case? There’s nothing in Anime and hentai that you can really bring to the real world. Except for maybe cosplaying.

Oh, lordy. I’m so drunk right now, my eyes are starting to bleed.

Still with me? Okay, good.

So cut through the scads of incest manga that’s actually hentai and you’re likely to find Densen Complex, a single volume collection of short stories that’s a far cry from the “endearing imouto” trope. Throughout the stand-alone chapters, there are themes as assorted as molestation, experimentation, and even gender identity. Keep in mind, they’re all fairly grim.

Perhaps the mangaka wanted to make a point in deciding to end the incest-heavy chapters with bittersweet, ambiguous endings, possibly in a half-baked attempt at profundity. A few open-ended pictures without context and scant dialogue here and there; it’ll feel like a cop-out if you’re not with it. But in any case, it’s a praiseworthy endeavor, and something I actually found myself enjoying when I was finished with it for a number of reasons.

As I said before, what makes Densen Complex really come into its own is the reality with which some of the relationships are handled, save a few measly plot contrivances. Like in one chapter, a sister recounts how she used to “do what the adults did on TV” with her older brother. Now a young adult and having grown out of that “experimental” stage, she finds herself conflicted with feelings of longing and jealousy for him in the face of his love interests. When asked by a classmate to give a bag of cookies to her brother, she crushes them and talks trash about her in front of him. In trying to stifle her own emotions by dating other boys, she realizes that it isn’t enough to skirt the problem. Other boys just aren’t enough for her. There is, of course, an element of one-sided lust thrown in, which is essential. The sister’s lust for her brother stems from her early years of experimentation and how “good” it made her feel. She believes that only her brother can satisfy her needs – she idealizes him and craves him even more. The story is able to strip away that veneer of fake romantic closure that’s usual in other incestuous stories, how we’re force-fed an ending where we have to believe everything will just work out for the couple. Densen Complex subverts that.

So you can either take it or leave it with the ambiguous endings. I’d like to think that it wasn’t possible to make a concrete ending for these chapters, not because it was out of the creator’s hands, but because there were really no other available avenues to traffic into. A picturesque ending where the brother gets with his sister or the molested schoolgirl overcomes her inner demons wouldn’t make sense because it’s not true to life. These events leave their indelible mental scars for the probable years to come, causing a deep-seated instability. But at the same time, by not necessarily acknowledging a completely fatalistic dead-end for these relationships is almost like a quiet gesture of empathy, a subtle nod of support.

And that’s the overarching idea that compelled me – that falling in love with a family member is tragic. Sure, we might not want to align ourselves with this mode of thought because, frankly, we find it disgusting. But if you really look at the different dynamics of an incestuous relationships, it’s the easiest dramatic set-up. The characters at large are in a perpetual limbo where they’re constantly being torn from side to side by nature, law and the status-quo of society. How are they allowed to be in love when everyone in the world is against them?

In conclusion, we need more incest (in Anime).

Also, a floormate offered me a beer before I wrote this. I don’t even drink; I just took it to be polite. And I’m a complete lightweight when it comes to alcohol. So you can imagine I’m fairly drunk right now. I might have to come back to this post at a later time to edit it. H’oh, boy.

I wish people would stop being so nice to me.

This is a response to a guy on YouTube who calls himself “Confused Matthew.” He does a variety of movie reviews on request. By and large, he doesn’t hold back, nor does he have the ability to see a movie for what it is. Yeah, he’s that kind of critic. In his review of The Lion King, he goes off on a very long-winded tirade about how much he hates Timon and Pumba because of how uncouth and selfish they are. I thought he was kidding at first. Y’know, like, being ironically humorous of something like that. But he was dead serious. About two months ago, he did a review of Spirited Away, and, of course, hated it.

I decided to write this post because I actually got the chance to re-watch Spirited Away. Just yesterday, in fact. It’s still as captivating and beautiful as it was when I first saw it back in middle school, which is the great thing about Miyazaki/Ghibli films. They’re timeless and not a complete embarrassment to the industry.

Crafting this response is a little tricky. At one end, Matthew does bring up good points about why the movie falls short of perfect, namely some stylistic choices in storytelling. On the other, he overlooks some of the plot points of the story, and by extension, its overall aim.

“To be perfectly honest, or rather brutally honest, I can’t stand Anime. I don’t like it and I don’t understand why anyone else does. Now, going into what I don’t like about it would be fruitless as they are all personal problems and not problems having to do with the actual genre. And that is the distinction I will try to keep in mind as we proceed.”

There are two things that are wrong with this statement. First, if he readily concedes that he doesn’t like Anime, what does he hope to achieve in this video. Granted, I’m not saying he’s not allowed to make this review – everyone has the right to voice his/her opinion – but that brings me to my next point. Anime isn’t a genre. I can tell how he flashes a promotional picture of Inuyasha onto the screen that he hasn’t been exposed to a lot of Anime, and that’s fine. But I’m also willing to conjecture that he thinks Anime is just a one-way road of banal sword fights and endless magic battles. You just can’t make these generalizations in reviews.

“The film has a huge problem shoved up its ass right from the beginning. The premise of the film has been summarized as follows: Spirited Away is a story of a spoiled child forced into a fantastic world… Two problems: one, the world isn’t fantastic as much as it is random and arbitrary. And two, the girl was never spoiled. Never. Not once. Ever. The girl is mature and sensible right from the very beginning.”

What movie were you watching? Chihiro is upset about having to move. She’s sarcastic to her parents and isn’t very receptive to their orders. When she tells her mom that her flower bouquet is dying, she pouts and whines. When her parents want to look through a tunnel that’s in their way, she yells no and adamantly refuses. Its’ a very nuanced kind of spoiled. Were you expecting some hyper-exemplified American Barbie Doll stereotype?

“…And the girl is thrusted into the spirit world guided by some guy that’ll show up, oh, about three times in the whole film… I guess that we’re supposed to believe that she wants to rescue the personality-less guy that she encountered in the beginning, but why would she? The two never got to know one another, and we never got to know him. So the film is just making a point of force-feeding her with a friend and an objective.”

Were you paying attention to the story? I’m not going to give away Haku’s real identity for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, but he mentions time and again that he knew Chihiro from when she was younger, and that he wants to save her because of that. There’s even a part where Chihiro unwittingly calls out his name when it isn’t even clear that what we’re looking at is Haku. There’s clearly a connection, and that connection helps Chihiro grow. That’s the overall aim of the movie, to see Chihiro become stronger. Something that obviously went over Matthew’s head.

“Like almost all Animes ever made, the world in which this is set is not very well-defined.”

Again, generalizations. Barely saved by the world “almost.” Also, the plural is Anime.

“The people here work at a bathhouse for spirits, but it’s unclear who these spirits are, where they all come from, or what the parameters of them are.”

I’m starting to think this guy isn’t as credible as I once thought. The spirits are gods. It’s been stated numerously throughout the film. Obviously their designs are influenced by things in Japanese culture that a lot of Westerners (especially children) wouldn’t be familiar with. But it shouldn’t even matter because they’re not even major plot points in the movie. They’re just fantastic creatures.

“Rather than create a magical world with structure and coherence, it just feels like the makers of this film are just barfing out whatever weird thing comes into their heads… Are these spirits? How does this place work?”

Translated: “Waaaaaaaaaaaaah! I need structure and coherence in my fantasy Anime! How dare the animators show creativity!” I bet if this guy watched Fantasia, he would scream “Why are the brooms dancing and sprouting arms?! This is bullshit!”

“Just like most all Animes, this is not a magical world, it’s just a stupid one. All of the characters are shallow, undefined and undeveloped.”

It helps that all of the characters, sans Chihiro of course, don’t have a whole lot of screentime. It wouldn’t make sense to develop any of the side characters because the movie isn’t about them. There are individual scenes where you can see that Chihiro is really coming into her own. like how early in the movie, she’s hesitant to walk down a long flight of stairs that resides on the side of a large cliff, but is later seen to dutifully run along a pipe suspended between two buildings. The side characters help to bring out that side of her.

“In fact, you could remove everything and have the same movie. Or just watch the film in any order you like. Beginning, middle, end; end, middle, beginning, or so on. It’s all just a bunch of random stuff happening.”

When you try to define a movie like Spirited Away in a ‘logical’ sense – making a list of everything that transpired in the story in a narrative format – then you’re kind of missing the point of the movie and doing a disservice to the filmmakers. It’s more about having everything happen and then letting it come full circle towards the end.

(Source)

Let me offer a parallel. Has anyone read anything by Murakami? They basically follow the same narrative format. “Dance Dance Dance” is a favorite of mine. When I first read the summary on the back of the book, it went something along the lines of a writer trying to find his missing girlfriend. Seems simple enough, right? But when you actually read the book, you’ll find that it’s anything but. It’s about a freelance writer and his eclectic associates. There’s an aloof, 13-year old girl who loves rock and roll, an old classmate to the protagonist who turns out to be a movie star, and a guy who calls himself the Sheep Man who lives in a different world. Throughout the story, the guy sleeps with various call girls, travels to Hawaii, and is even framed for murder. Taken separately, these events seem completely inconsequential, and they really leave you to question the purpose of certain chapters and events. But nothing is introduced into a story without having a purpose. In the case of Spirited Away, the events that happen don’t really have an extrinsic value. It’s kind of hard to explain, and even now I’m having trouble because it’s kind of one of those things that you have to experience in order to understand. If you invest yourself enough into the story, then everything will just click when it’s over. And that’s essentially the kind of storytelling technique that’s employed in Spirited Away.

Of course, Matthew probably isn’t going to read this post. And even if he does, he’s most likely the kind of guy who doesn’t like to admit that he’s wrong. If he does, he’ll just hide behind his name and say that he was “confused” or some shit like that.

Premise for an Anime: a high school, slice-of-life comedy centering around the anthropomorphisms of popular animation studios. If it was ever made and I was the director, the character archetypes would play out like this:

Kyoto Animation would be the busty classroom moeblob slut who would always tease the other main characters but would never willingly put out. She’s also a virgin. Bones would be the James Dean-esque stud; the classroom heartthrob with an indignant attitude towards authority and a cigarette tucked behind his ear. Gainax would be the child prodigy who ruined test averages and completed all of the extra credit assignments, even when he didn’t have to. Shaft would be the walking 80′s counterculture anachronism who would come to class hopped up on psychotropics – a running gag would be that the other studios would come to him for advice while he’s in a stupor and would misinterpret something he says for the better.

And Studio DEEN? DEEN would be the annoying fuckwit who would always cling to the other characters in times of need and would never have anything to contribute. The other characters would go about their daily shenanigans, laughing and joking around with each other, and DEEN would come in and just shit on everything.

The Umineko Anime is hands-down the worst adaptation I have ever seen, next to Fate/Stay Night – another DEEN production. At this point, with all the hype that Umineko has garnered, it would be counterproductive to talk about why this show fails as an adaptation – or just as an Anime by itself – so I figure it’d be much easier to talk about what went right.

Note: The following is a rant by a butthurt Umineko sound novel fanboy.

First and foremost, the OP is beautiful. Impeccable, even. They stayed true to the source material by having an Italian chamber choir in the backdrop to contrast the distinctively shrill vocals of Akiko Shikata, who maintains her role in both versions. The lyrics also offer decent foreshadowing without giving away any vital plot points. If there’s one thing you can’t fault DEEN for, it’s the opening sequence. You could even say that the poured their entire budget on its production…

Secondly, the aesthetic touches on the characters are agreeable, for the most part. The voice actors exert themselves in a way that makes me believe they’re the original characters from the sound novel. As someone commented on my previous Umineko post, the role of Sugita as Ronove is something I don’t entirely agree with, but I can learn to appreciate it with coming episodes.

I don’t, however, appreciate how they have to have a BOOB or ASS shot for every in-between frame of animation, especially during climactic scenes like Natsuhi’s “suicide” or magic battles between Kanon and the stakes. Why does Chiaki Kon feel the need to fix the camera angle right below the nape of the neck so that the frills of the panties are the center of focus. And why are the women so fucking jiggly? Why do the mothers have tits that are bigger than their heads that only keep growing after each successive shot? It’s supposed to be a murder-mystery series. To insert so much blatant fanservice detracts from the austerity.

Then there’s Maria, whose personality is a mangled caricature of her original self. Yes, she is an annoying, unfeeling brat who’s deluded enough to support the ritualistic torture and disembowelment of her direct family members. But she’s also one of the most important characters in the entire series and is worthy of a little more development. There’s another side to her that isn’t stupid-looking contorted faces and constant uu-ing. My guess is that Chiaki Kon inserted Maria as she is now as a way to appease the Higurashi fanbase, which doesn’t make any damn sense. Higurashi and Umineko aren’t remotely related, save a few likenesses in characters. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it a thousand times: Higurashi was more of a horror and drama, whereas Umineko is more mystery and action.

For me, the latest episode was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They ruined the Virgilia danmaku battle, unmistakably one of the highlights of episode 3. In the novel, Virgilia and Beatrice are in a perpetual stalemate of a magic fight, summoning large horsemen, armored knights, and spears from heaven, culminating in Virgilia turning around to see that she was actually dead the entire time. Meta-Battler interjects amidst the fight, flabbergasted at what’s happening right before his eyes. Virgilia fades. Beatrice laughs.

The scene in itself has its own background music and is delegated a substantial amount of time, so it’s only natural for fans of the novel to want a decent fight. But what do we get in the Anime? Barely two minutes of cheesy dialogue and horrible CG animation that doesn’t even have a proper build-up. Static images that rely purely on text were able to evoke more emotion than the actual animation. That’s pathetic.

Even this guy from Nico Nico Douga outperformed DEEN:

But what’s even more pathetic is that a lot of us will continue watching just to see our favorite scenes from the novel animated (horribly).
In any case, I defy anyone to think of something objectively good about the Anime thus far, ’cause it’s a real task for me.

I’m going to cram this entry in real quick because I just realized that I forgot to make a “personal” post last week.
I probably should have timed this better because all this fatigue is making me have a huge brain fart.
Anyway, bear with me, as this is the kind of entry that I would very much like a personal response to, as I’m sure some if not all of you have considered it at some point or other since you first started watching Anime.

Also, I find this whole business with updating blogrolls to be a bother. If someone regularly comments, I feel that it’s only polite to add their link to the list. Am I right? If anything, I’m just glad that WordPress arranges them numerically/alphabetically, as it places priority on the only Anime blog worth reading.

Y’know, people are usually subtle with their brown-nosing tactics. But I’m so fucking jittery right now after downing two cans of Red Bull, so I just don’t give a shit! On with the post!

So do you have any close friends or family members who are active fans of Anime?
Do you have any close friends or family members who are active fans of Anime as much as you are?
I’ve quietly accepted the fact that openly claiming Anime as a hobby will invariably throw some menacing glances in your direction.

In that regard, I find it puzzling how there’s a whole de facto caste system for determining where you fit in as a so-called hardcore fan of Anime.

At the top are the elitists, and I mean that in every sense of the word. These are the people who keep up with current seasons, know all the otaku jargon, and provide commentary on some of the finer points in a show’s mechanics. They’re able to break a show down to its bare essentials and understand what it is that they like and don’t like about it, allowing them to be self-assured in their beliefs. But through it all, they understand that it’s something that other people in the normal, industrialized world have yet to come to terms with, so there’s a sense of shame that comes with it.

At the bottom of the caste are the more open fans, the people you see wearing Naruto headbands and t-shirts in public who rant about how Japanese animation is the end-all, be-all of the animated medium in between chomps of pocky. These people are plastered as the face of Anime fandom. Not to say that there isn’t a subculture out there that doesn’t have an exaggerated caricature that’s brought to mind, but frankly, they should have some sense to know that there’s a time and place for everything.

(Source)

But throwing away the caste system idea, you can see that the line of demarcation is so clear-cut that it leaves no room for an “in-between” group of hardcore otakus. You’re either in group A or group B. It’s almost like a power struggle between the two groups, with the first group using a subtle approach to show that not all Anime fans are complete dorks, that they’re capable of some restraint and can even be intelligent. But then the second group comes in to undo everything by being uppity and obnoxious, which in turn only digs a deeper hole for the first group. It’s a vicious cycle.

From the tone of this entry, you can deduce that I’m of the first group. We often talk about how we have to “suppress our power level” in public because of this social stigma. As I was writing this entry, I had trouble thinking of a better word for the first group and eventually settled on “elitist.” I’m certainly not claiming that you have terrible taste in Anime if you watch Naruto, but there’s a fine line between awareness and delusion, and you know you’ve crossed it when you think you’re making a fashion statement by wearing an Itachi cloak to school.

Being opinionated is always attributed as a vice. I like opinionated people, even if their opinions run contrary to mine. I want to be able to agree or argue with others in a way that lets me know that we’ve connected in some intangible way and shared a common thought process for a transient moment in time. Anime can be a good proxy for just that.

Oh, wow. I derailed. Anyway, my point is that it’s hard to find other people who share your interests outside of the Internet. So I guess I’m lucky enough to have a few close friends I’ve known since childhood who have an active interest in Anime. They don’t keep up with current season shows, and they find things like conventions to be a bit over-the-top, but they’re certainly not condescending to others in any way. I mentioned in an earlier post about my best friend, the unlikely gay guy, who just so happens to be a casual fan of Anime. Now, the term “casual” would usually denote that he watches some of the more mainstream shows, but the guy actually has pretty refined taste. He’s the one who turned me to Mushishi and Haibane Renmei, and he even laughed at me when I told him that I teared at certain points of both shows. He tried to watch yaoi but was turned off by the sickly and emaciated character designs and the girly mannerisms. (Real gay guys don’t like yaoi. Funny how that works.) And then there’s my other best friend, a girl I’ve known since the 4th grade who lived down the street. She’s pretty sociable and outgoing, but lately, I think my 2D complex is rubbing off onto her – she recently developed a massive crush on Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara.

The thing is, they don’t bother to really dig deep into the shows they’ve watched in the way that I do, so at best I’ll have a superficial discussion about whether a show was enjoyable or not. You know those picturesque moments where you’re sitting on a park bench on a balmy day with a good friend, just musing about the latest episode of so-and-so and exchanging witty banter about how much we loved or hated a character. I want that moment, as pathetic as it may sound.

So what about you guys? Do you “suppress your power level”? Do you have any close friends who also like Anime as much as you do?

With that over and done with, I will now go jog 5 miles without rest. I started this entry as a way to just talk about my Anime-watching friends, but ended up sloppily rambling about otakus in general.
Don’t consume energy drinks while blogging, kids.

Anyway…

I’ve been reading through the updated lineup on Chartfag’s latest post. Sure, I found myself raising an eyebrow as to how some shows even made it past the cutting room floor. But there are also some definitively unique shows that I think will surely stick with us for years to come, if done right. Wouldn’t that be nice? I can’t even recall the last time we had an Anime of real merit, something even your friends and family could enjoy.

One thing about me when it comes to watching Anime – I’m not the type of person to “drop” a show, even if I end up hating it midway. Unless it’s an unfunny harem romance (ie: Shuffle, To Love-Ru), I’ll probably stick around for it to the end to see how it shapes up. With that said, here’s the list of the Fall shows I’ll be watching, along with some “maybes.”

Trapeze [Kuuchuu Buranko]

Chartfag added a disclaimer stating that the blurbs he wrote up for the shows could be erroneous or misguided. But, for the love of God, I hope that isn’t the case with Trapeze. It’s as if this show was made for me! A deranged doctor with an injection fetish and an Oedipus complex who enjoys screwing with his patients? It’s also being produced by the same makers who gave us Mononoke. Reading the premise and looking at the artwork gives me a sense that it’ll play out like a blend of Satoshi Kon’s Paprika and a typical Chuck Palahniuk novel.

According to ANN, the show is set to be a hybrid of live-action and animation, with some voice actors sustaining their roles for the live-action portions. Hopefully they’re able to utilize it in a way that isn’t jarring, if that’s even possible.

Kimi ni Todoke

I really need to watch more Shoujo romance. Real Shoujo romance. I’ve heard some people calling Toradora a Shoujo romance – it’s not. In Shoujo, we usually have a single, canon pairing that’s established early on and is developed throughout the remainder of the series. Toradora is a harem clumsily disguised as a romance for the simple reasons of Ami and Minorin. So yeah.

The thing is, when it comes to Shoujo, you’re not supposed to overshoot your expectations. The few shows I’ve actually watched – Honey & Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Lovely Complex - I’ve ended up liking a lot (Honey & Clover ranking among my favorites of all time). They were simple love stories that didn’t get bogged down with unnecessary plot contrivances. I want fun character interaction that’s able to balance humor and drama, without forcing it.

Blue Literature

After reading up on the show and doing a little research on the nature of the series, I still don’t know what to expect from it. (I couldn’t even find a decent promotional picture.) It’s an adaptation of six Japanese literary classics from the early 1900s. While I haven’t read the books, I’d really like to see how they hold up in the animated medium. If the show proves to hold its own, I’ll probably have the motivation to read the originals and see if it was a faithful adaptation. The show is also staffed by a hodgepodge of mangaka greats like Takeshi Obata of Death Note and Tite Kubo of Bleach.

Winter Sonata

Winter Sonata is an Anime adaptation of a Korean drama series of the same name. The main reason why I’ll keep up with this show is because, well, … I’m Korean, and I can finally watch a show without relying on fansubs!

No, but really. I don’t have an actual reason to watch this show. The premise doesn’t really strike me as anything unique, and the humdrum tone of the promo video made it seem kind of generic. But I’ll watch it to uh, practice my Korean! Yeah…

Shows I’ll Probably Watch:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms – How many of these do we have now?
Armed Librarians: Book of Bantorra – I put a lot of faith into this show when I first read the blurb, but it started to sound more like a cheesy shounen with all of the endless supernatural fights and lackluster storyline. Who knows, though.
Sasameki Koto – Standard yuri fare.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to pass out. Or write another quick entry to make up for lost time.
Either or.