Monthly Archives: August 2007

Honesty Is Better than Elitism

I don’t get the LOL otaku are elitist sort of nonsense. Or how is watching anime one way or another, deep or shallow.

While I can go on about elitism and what about elitism that there’s to say, I think in this attempt at meta-blogging I’ll just air some of my own views. I hope that might shed some light on the bigger picture.

First off, as an anime/manga/game/whatever blogger I think we all write, in a way that is either editorial or in a way that journals the annuals of fandom that affects our lives. It is the act of putting down, into tangible words, of the things that concerns in some way. (for example, how C.C.’s buttocks make you feel about yourself).

It’s a difficult act sometimes–we’re putting intangible things like feelings, complex social behaviors and manners, industry insights, and sometimes good ideas into words. And I’m pretty sure the average anime blogger, let alone the average fan or otaku, does not have the proper training to do all of that. I probably don’t.

However when some of the most passionate and hard working (meaning it in a “put heart into the works” sense) fans think and obsess over the desires of their hearts (to continue the example, how C.C.’s buttocks affect C.C. fans, how it has anything to do with Pizza Hut, or how this may jump start a butt fetish for the doujinshi on sale for Comiket this summer, etc.), you can’t but to think that these people, well, know about what they obsess about.

But the mistake is too often, for both the passionate and the outsider-onlooker, to mistaken what the subject matter is. It’s unavoidable that some anime neophyte will compare anime with things they are more familiar with–live action TV, other non-anime cartoons, what have you. Sometimes the comparison is warranted, but sometimes it’s not and is only to make a point (for example, C.C. is a flat [/zing] character; or fansubbing is a dying thing or piracy is BAAAD). Sometimes it’s done with implicit malice–it’s natural to bully anime geeks. Sometimes it’s a fear of the unknown at work. Sometimes it’s out of innocent ignorance. On the flip side, sometimes the most obsessive anime fans would start to defend anime on its merits or talk about it out of that inner reactionary instinct–they know they’re under attack. That would be fine if they actually know what they’re talking about.

In my own experience (and I’ve done my fair share of talking nonsense, surely) too often the hardcore fans actually don’t know what they’re talking about because they confuse the substance of the discussion with its underlying message. And I think that comes for a honest failure to not see what they’re obsessed about. It is like a person can really dig an anime title but knows nothing about how it was made, how much money it took, who is behind the writing, production direction, but still considered as an otaku because this person made it a part of his/her life in a commonly acknowledged way that otaku make things personal to them. (For example, someone who really likes C.C. but doesn’t know a thing about CLAMP or Ichiro Okouchi or Yukana but draws hawt doujinshi about C.C.; or on the flip side, a huge Yukana fan who doesn’t know about a particular character she played.)

I think instead of all of that we all just need to grow the hell up a bit, and take a more friendly approach. Be respectful to each other. In this case, respect means thinking of your peers on the internet the same as you think of yourself–at least at first. Extend the same courtesy as you would to yourself, and trust that they are as competent as you are. Get a feel as to how to communicate with each other and what they are really saying–what is the intangible thing they are putting into words? Humor them, rather than chide. We’re together in the greater scheme of things partly because we all share overlapping (and perhaps, an united) interest in this Japanese nonsense.

And because in this neck of the woods, C.C.’s milkshake really does bring all the boys to the yard, and damn right, it’s better than yours.


A Note on Marathons: No More Code Geass Please~

orz.

Some people only watch anime in bulk, others do it slice by slice. Bloggers tend to do the the weekly way for a wide variety of reasons, but I think sometime it’s good to do it the long, hard way.

Cornelia comes in #1 for me!

It has been a while that I marathoned something. This time? Code Geass. I’m glad I held off on it when it was a hot topic, simply because this is the kind of show that can well be watched all at once. However the more I think about it, the more this show comes off as a very solid production and its tight pacing works well no matter you watch it episode-by-episode or, in my case, half-series by half-series. I feel a bit left out of the fan loops during its airing, but now I can at least go back and identify random Code Gass pr0n or cosplay or parodies. Oh well.

That said, when it comes to its narrative, Code Geass stands above many others. I think it still suffered some conventional pit falls (Like how will it end? How can it possibly end (better)?) but it’s pretty rare that you can find shows like this, at least for me. Often the choice to watch an entire series at once, for a lot of people IMO, is to avoid the pang of cliffhanging. But for someone who doesn’t give a damn about waiting a few weeks for the next fansub, what is there for them? I always thought that because TV and OAV anime tend to be screened episodically there is a purpose and intent behind many of the shows that they should be watched episodically and not all at once, subject to the style of narrative. Killer cliffhangers are just part of the deal.

Could it be something that’s habitual? I never was a big anime marathon kind of guy even way back in the days. At the most I’d watch a couple tapes a day (something like 4-6 episodes tops). Maybe old habits die hard.

Sadly, I did it with Code Geass simply because I just didn’t have the time last half year to squeeze in so much anime, and I have some time now. It was nice to enjoy the luxury of watching anime in an accelerated pace–I can skip around as I wish and I didn’t have to force myself to consume what’s in front of me in full. On the flip side I think I probably missed some stuff because I didn’t really think about the show besides its per se presentation–I was busy eating it up. For Code Geass, that’s a bit of pity because you can tell the show is thought out in terms of some of its shocking (but predictable) paths it took. Savoring a show with a ton of Minami Omi and Yukana lines is hard when you are done with it in the space of 2-3 days. It takes time to come up with smart-assed things to say, after all.

But, I think, only really quality narrative can withstand both a piece-by-piece and marathon. As of 2007 there were only so many shows that I can even stand watching beyond 2 episodes, let alone 25-27 of them without much of a break. I guess I still have a soft spot for this kind of mainstream mecha nonsense; even if at time it’s just silly (like much of the second half of the show), it’s still prime entertainment. Too bad it didn’t give me an ending to laugh at and finish this thought. Instead, just as they planned, I’ll be on board for whatever comes next.


Otakon 2007 Youtube Select

Ugh, sort of busy lately. But since I was doing this on my own time, I figured I can share with you some choice videos from Otakon this year if you haven’t had the time to look them up yourself.

Mamiko Noto

Tomokazu Seki

Kyoani Dance Mania! (I imagine this is a fraction of what AX got)

4chan is Madness

The Steve & Vic Show

AAA

Eminence

Others

Feel free to add more~