It is hard to part with the past.
Especially when it makes a great story that others enjoy hearing. This is the story of Robin Sena for me. Often times when it’s playing on the screen, I just look blankly and smile. Thankfully I rarely see her on TV.
Oldies are goodies sometimes, when what the old stuff evoke isn’t some higher power brain function but a simple emotional response. It makes us turn into little kids. It’s quite different than what I think is “moe” or what is plainly attractive or sexy. This feeling is layered, seasoned emotion. You taste euphoria by remembering how it was euphoric. It’s like ABC gum, but the flavor never goes away. Or Star Wars: A New Hope. Or lazying around with some old friends doing nothing.
Or is it? I think when I rewatched Witch Hunter Robin last week as it was being rewatched by someone else (does that make me a mere by-stander?) I realized this show, vintage 2002, is really well done even by today’s standards. Maybe that’s just me watching my own DVDs for the first time (at least, the first time I remember it) and all I can mostly remember is my first impression from the off-air digisubs that made me a believer, but aside from the awkward lines here and there by the animator team trying to do Shokou Murase’s designs justice…it looked really nice.
I think all fans have memories like these that make them the type of fan that they are. Come to think of it, the gothloli fad was making its way just about then in Japan in force. Maybe I have this show to blame for my strange, elegant slant. In a way this is really the kind of idol-effect that I really need to be aware of. Naturally what I adore, I praise and follow…
It all makes sense. Genres are pioneered by massivly popular hits into the mainstream. Gateway drugs-type experiments open the door to greater differentiation and diversity (and more gateways) when they’re successful. We all have to thank Astro Boy? What and who is responsible for all the lolicon in anime? If we can trace it, that is.
Yurika Doujima: …
Robin Sena: …
Yurika Doujima: …