Comments on: The Other 2.5D, Scarlet Rain

By: omo

omo — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:00:45 +0000

Just as a point of clarification, these shows target the otaku, not the mainstream. They want military trivia, so there they are. I think it’s amusing how the trivia soaks into the stories in the meta as a way to entertain. But it also makes you wonder if there’s more to it.

By: Fencedude

Fencedude — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:57:55 +0000

See also Upotte! and Gun Culture in Japan. Same deal.

By: vendredi

vendredi — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 07:31:51 +0000

I can’t help but feel there’s a database spectrum to these sorts of things too, kind of a “how much of the original weapon/vehicle/aircraft is represented via some metaphor”. Strike Witches works on multiple levels for this too; representing not just aircraft but historical persons.

And then there’s oddball things like Muv-Luv, where the ‘mecha are essentially the same as today’s planes: it’s just that whatever parallel timeline we’re in they happened to be developed into giant robots instead but still followed the same overall development trajectory (and involved the same historical people).

It’s rather surprising how, well, deep into military trivia a lot of Japanese products are, despite having a military that’s essentially hamstrung by their Constitution (or perhaps that’s a cause of it?)

By: omo

omo — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:47:19 +0000

I’m not sure how much I should read into the metal aspect.

By: Fencedude

Fencedude — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 21:41:21 +0000

I rather shamlessly adore mecha-musume, and I basically agree with what you have here.

On a side note, considering Accel World’s conceit about avatars, what does it say about Yuniko that her avatar essentially herself, only metal?