Monthly Archives: July 2012

Humanity Has Declined 3 – We Are the Fairies

I have read more than one person’s reaction to Jintai 3 and complained about the lack of fairies. I think that’s pretty obvious why they’re not present–so far in 2 episodes, the fairies represents the institution in which our organizational/technological complex has become sufficiently…complicated to be understood by the public. The phenomenon of doujinshi publishing, however, is something easy to understand. If there had to be some fairies, it would be to explain to us how we got paper and electricity to furnish Y’s publishing operations in the first place. I don’t think we need any fairies to demonstrate the irony of Y’s actions, or to make a solid critique.

I thought episode 2 was tops in terms of actual humor, but episode 3 struck me as the one that is actually most interesting so far. The story begins with Y visiting our Main Character, explaining her assignment to create or continue to construct some kind of monument to bank the collective creation of human race in terms of history, culture and technology. The discussion quickly went to the direction of medium of storage, interesting enough. Why medium of storage? I don’t know, but if I were to guess it is to both lay the groundwork for what comes next, but also it is a very otaku-sai kind of thing to talk about.

The more important takeaway in that segment was how collectively it is de-prioritized over actually useful things and only idle workers (eg., Y) is sent to work on this project. In other words, it’s not something viewed as critical or important. To me that is already kind of ironic, if we were to assume fairies are sort of like symbolic human beings.

Y’s entire doujinshi movement thing is pretty cool in the sense that Main Character explained it to us as to how it is a way culture is created and propagated. There’s an angle you could take in there, in that scene; we can amuse ourselves in light of the nature of control and commercialism in popular media, and the real interests behind them, in parallel with what Y is going through. But that aside, we see the horde of rich girls that visits the village for their version of the Comic Market; the adults looked on with largely apathy, in which reflects society’s attitude to the same–as long as they don’t cause a problem and can sustain themselves. It’s just not really all that important. It’s is kind of amusing in that it is similarly making the same statement about the effort of collecting and archiving mankind’s cultural information. In other words, the job Y was assigned in the first place was equal or less important than her little sideshow. And nobody cares about either.

The thing that got me laughing was when the thicker, more comprehensive and competitive BL crap that gets published eventually caused a problem to the distribution network, and the couriers stopped distributing them as shipping these books were negatively impacting their ability to ship goods of greater importance such as food and basic supplies. Let’s put aside the innate joke about muscular men shipping BL anthologies for a second, and realize what it is actually saying. Given this was the only point of contention between “the real world” and the nonsense Y was doing, I thought it was worth a second of thought.

I’m just as weary of these otaku in-joke sort of thing as anyone else; for sure I consume as much as anyone else. Jintai’s treatment, though, does not beat around the bush in my opinion, and it hits the spot. I’m not sure if people sincerely enjoy waiting in line for 12 hours just to buy cartoon porn, or are they just people who’s never really been. I mean, I’ve never been and I don’t believe for a second Comiket does not have these fundamental problems that any organization and gathering of its kind would likely have at some point. In light of the troubles we encountered in the first two episodes, the fact that it’s making a joke about doujinshi is already kind of a question mark. The least it could do is to be honest about it.

Times like this I think about the funny media stories on big release dates about hit on productivity in the work force as people jet out of school and work to catch a blockbuster film or something. I guess that is just another way how humanity has declined.


Reverse Importing

It’s not important how we got here, but Mike Toole pointed out how it is about three times the price to purchase all of Madoka on Blu-ray, versus how much it cost in the UK. Eventually he asked a more general question about how people feel about reverse importing:

Twitter anime nerds: do you think it’s immoral or otherwise dodgy to import cheaper legit DVD/BD from outside of your local region?

I guess here is my 2c, and it comes down to two ways to look at it.

For the longest time I have lived like an international citizen. I still do. Sure, I was growing up in America but I was also an immigrant. Invariably my access to anime was a little wider than the average American in that I could consume Chinese-subbed/dubbed stuff (I used to have these Canto dubs of MKR somewhere, they’re hilarious). The fact that I could be okay with importing a Korean or Taiwanese release and tough it out is no different than importing the Japanese release and tough it out. I guess I actually never imported from Korea, but I did do the other two. Especially Japan.

The last things I imported from another English-speaking region were the two Studio Ghibli films that are now finally coming over to the US–Ocean Waves and Omoide Poroporo. Well, I probably should pick up the JP release of Ocean Waves because that’s Blu and what I have is the UK DVD. But in this day and age, for someone so steeped in fandom online, region locks are akin to a minor inconvenience in terms of doing what I want to do.

I think anime is invariably something of an international product. It still amazes me how some Americans consumes it so out of context of its international origin, cultural background, and the context of how and why the shows they’re watching were first created. To me that there’s an international market for this crap is as natural as why Mexicans want to work in the States. I think that analogy is actually kind of what I want to get at.

Except unlike illegal immigration, region locking and such is simply the perpetration of a boorish business model predicated in a pre-global economy state of mind. It’s not about sovereign rights or anything like that. There is nothing natural about this; or rather,  it’s a human effort to do something unnatural. Moreover I don’t think natural or not matters at all. It’s just a matter of enforcement and doing what is probably the rationally best option.

I said region segmentation is boorish because I kind of read this. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but faced with a new reality of the 21st century as the billions of people in Asia and South America arm themselves with social media, cheap-yet-powerful personal computing devices, wireless broadband, and wealth/spare time, this is just how things will go. Emerging economies gonna emerge, yo. Who are we to say they shouldn’t? It’s certainly the ethical thing to do in my opinion, that we let people buy the stuff as long as it’s legal and isn’t going to hurt anyone. Finally, copyright is ultimately a tool for merchants to make money; why use copyright in a way where that isn’t going to make you more money? And it’s ethical?

The other way to look at it is the practical take. I import from Japan, so when I buy something that way it is a very conscious decision. Take Nadesico for example. I thank Nozomi for not putting out a Blu-ray of Nadesico because I have no choice but to buy that standing collection of Nadesico Blu-ray discs (including the new telecine transfer for the movie). If they had released the same content in a box set oversea and sold it for $200, I would have purchased it in a heartbeat because that is about $150 less than how much I paid, plus it reduces certain amount of hassle.

But if I could’ve gotten the same import from the UK at $200 instead (for example), I probably would have–assuming it’s a similar product, including the video/audio quality, packaging, etc–and feel nothing about it. That’s the reality of the situation. In a similar way I feel this is how a lot of Japanese fans feel about importing anime from America (hello, Infinite Stratos).

The irony of me thanking Nozomi, hopefully, is not all lost on you. The truth I have some major doubt that anyone in American can produce the sort of quality box set that rivals your average premium Blu-ray disc box that Japan sells to their hardcore otaku buyers. Did you ever look inside the Kara no Kyoukai box and touched its interiors? Did you ever look at the bitrate on these discs? Transfers and upscaling aside,  Japan just does it better in this category, almost across the board, every time. And for a big spender that sense of value is worth that much extra dough. For a show very dear to me I am more than happy to splurge (when I can) on it to get the proverbial best possible treatment. Nozomi just gave me the reason to spurn them and make this an easy choice.

I think the choice is a lot more serious in the Fate/Zero case. The first Blu-ray box sold at Rightstuf over the cost of importing from Amazon Japan. In that case, do you import? I hounded the Fandompost/AOD forums for a while during those months and found that there are some people who would pay the extra $40 or whatever and support RS. There are also people who think encouraging people to do it at RS sends Aniplex a signal. That may all be true. There is also a compelling reason to do business with RS because they do provide customer service that rivals Amazon, and they can go the extra mile in the case with product recalls and the like, something you are going to be SOL with if you deal with a Japanese exporter.

But you know what? I don’t give much mind to that. I don’t buy something with expectation that I will have to deal with the customer service. That’s just me though. What was more convincing was when I went to the Ei Aoki and Kondo autograph session at AX, they asked me if I got my Rakkyo box at Rightstuf.

The reality continues. I think if you read Clements’ interview I linked earlier, he links to another anecdote about a certain UK release that got reverse-imported. It’s just how that game works, so I understand if the market is set up this way, and people will reverse import, it will lead to the production companies avoiding releases that make them lose money this way. If they can show they’re losing money this way (I think this is a very valid question that nobody has gave me any concrete evidence as to what the answers are).

That’s basically what I mean by consequences. If we’re okay with the Kadokawas and Nozomis of the world, as far as these reverse-import situations goes, then I guess everything is peachy. And to a degree they are victims, as are their customers, of this wretched system that we have in place to extract short-term value at the cost of long-term growth.


Nanoha Aces; The Verge Loves Anime

Today is the Japanese debut of the second Nanoha theatrical remake. Its meme-tastic “Friendship through overwhelming force” concept will now join its first iteration as  the namesake protagonist befriend even more fan favorites on the big screen.  I always thought seeing things in the theater provides another dimension home video screenings just tend to lack. At my own home, my meager, sub-2k home theater is sufficient but it does not replace the experience of a proper movie-going experience. I thought that was the ticket in terms of giving Nanoha’s theatrical remake a real reason for existing.

The first film, I think, adds little to the experience of the original series, at least when it comes to what it was good for. Plainly put, if you’ve seen the series before, it is just not worth watching unless it’s in theaters as it adds that extra little bit and can really alter your impression. But don’t take it from me, take it from someone who has seen it there.

In light of that, same can be said of seeing the Evangelion films in that way, despite that both of the home video transfers on Blu-ray achieve enough of a facsimile to the theatrical experience, enough that it really doesn’t warrant much of a note. With Evangelion Q on the queue this winter, hopefully Japanese theaters will replay the first two and give people another chance to experience those gorgeous and emotive Khara works.

It’s along those lines that makes me want to experience things like the K-ON movie or the to-be-released Mouretsu Pirates film, in theaters. It’s going to be a grand ol’ time! I can see some theaters do the Kara no Kyoukai marathon too, when Mirai Fukuin goes live…

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I took a look at the very long (and getting longer) promoted forum post on The Verge about anime recs. It’s really just people listing shows they like. I’ll keep this to a list.

  • The OP: I’d say whoever asked for recs knew a thing or two, or at least knows people who know a thing or two about anime. That image came from somewhere? I don’t know how the Verge forum works.
  • The comments: Basically it’s just people posting what their favorites are. It stopped being a recommendation thread when like, 50% of the titles mentioned were repeated by the OP. Com’on guys.
  • The lowdown: Most titles are the usual couple dozen of early 00s bubble-era pieces. You know what they are; we all know what they are, at least if you spoke English.
  • The old: Not a lot of older titles being recommended! I think it breaks pretty clearly into the late 90s, and that’s it.
  • The new: A few 2006 or newer titles represented, but largely landmark crap (Redline gets a few nods, fewer than I’d expect actually) and things like the usual Post-Haruhi hits like Madoka or Gurren Lagann. Kyoani wagoneers move on chronologically: very few Lucky Stars (if any) but a lot of Hyouka, I guess that’s just what’s on their minds. Strangely enough Fate/Zero makes a strong showing, which is good on them. Steins;Gate too.
  • The usual: Invariably a thread like that in a place like that you will get the usual archetypes posting stuff. Like the guy who says Gungrave is the best anime he’s ever seen, but he’s only probably see 5 titles ever. Or the guy who just lists a subset of the OP list and forgets to add “Cowboy Bebop.” Or the person who recommended Night Raid (whattt). And invariably people will be listing shows I forget about from the mid ’00s, like D.Grey-man, Abenobashi or Otogi Zoshi. Seriously? I guess what takes the cake is the one person recommending Ergo Proxy. I mean, it’s not bad I guess. It’s just so niche.
  • Elfen Lied: is this why (some) people like anime? I think so. Like CLANNAD I guess. It’s gotten to the point where I think those moefags who are super wota are less disgusting than actual CLANNAD fans, those who don’t even know who are the (Japanese) voice actors of the show or what Kanon 2002 was. Maybe this is why people like Urobuchi? :-)
  • My favorite thing about the post: the top image

Earth Girls Are Easy – Third Planet Ver.

With Natsuiro Kiseki over for the time being, the summer of Sphere continues this week with their third album, titled Third Planet. Unfortunately the cheeky astronomical title didn’t help because I was listening to Red Planet all day long, resulting in a strong urge to make a Cowboy Bebop joke. It’s a jarring dissonance when you mash calming yet spine-tingling shrills from one of the best who’s touched an anime, against the popular yet generic idol pop that we have now come to know as Sphere’s music.

I think it’s safe to say that Sphere is a relatively inoffensive music operation, and by inoffensive as in if you don’t snob idol music per se. Simply put, that’s not their primary function. If easy-to-sing-to and easy-to-dance-to tunes can carry their image to the heart of their fans and uphold those wota calls and dances, as we have here, then that’s what Sphere will sound like. It’s not so much a testament of some extreme sense of savvy or some underrated skills the members of Sphere or their management are holding back on us, but simply solid, wise choices. To put it in perspective, I have heard better and worse.

In my Mars state of mind, however, I cannot quite fathom why anyone would take this particular, well, Earth-ly product,  so seriously. Ever since their ATMOSPHERE debut Sphere has been pretty much that one thing we expected them to be: seiyuu idols. Their slow rise in popularity merely confirms their solid play and planning, not to mention simply being hard at work. It’s like opening up to that page of a particular monthly seiyuu mag and it said “MINAKO Good Job!” I had to agree.

The simple, artificial feeling I get from Third Planet comes across best when I put on, say, “Feathering me, Y/N?” Because they’re a quartet and their music necessarily need to reflect this, the arrangements often feel kind of constrained. Only a couple of the songs play to the strength of the 4-woman format…actually, other than “Hazy,” I don’t really think any of the songs did a good job at this. Musically, Third Planet is marginally and incrementally better than Spring Is Here, a year ago; unfortunately that means very little. Perhaps nothing, even, if you can’t get over “Now Loading… Sky!” like many of us.

So why do I keep buying this stuff? I don’t know. It’s kind of like how I keep buying, say, Coca-cola. It’s just a common man’s drink, you know? It’s nothing special, but just pumped enough of sugar to make it inoffensive enough. It’s a known quality and a known quantity, in that you know what you’re getting.

Well, that’s pretty much just for plebs like myself. The rest of you can either move on or just look at the unboxing of the super-limited version of this album.


Dusk Maiden Is All about Set Pieces

There’s a genre or style of today’s anime where we’re presented character development based on how well we know the character based on one-sided presentation of the information, and interactions are couched by the emotional state of the initiator in a particular transaction, and delivering the packaged goods in scenes. This is kind of the basic approach to directing that we know from Makoto Shinkai and it’s a very common device in visual novels too. I think Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is basically this.

The problem with Dusk Maiden is how we get this sort of approach but it comes together loosey-goosey. It’s like episodes of Bakatest where 90% of the time it’s just duders goofing off, but you occasionally get some sad and sappy drama thing that makes you go “dawwww.”

Well, maybe that’s just how the source material is. I don’t think that’s really the case for Tasogare Otome x Amnesia. The departure from the manga aside, the story worked the best when our climatic set pieces get the setup done fully, completely, and done well. I thought that made the final two episodes as good as they were. And maybe that’s enough. It’s the eerie parallel with the ends-justifies-means sort of thing, that Yuuko was fine with being [despoilered:] the result of the process that turned her into a ghost in the first place, if it means that her beloved’s offsprings were able to have that fated encounter and live on in her stead. It’s a tough pill to swallow when we’re talking about Yuuko’s story specifically, but thankfully this is often not the case when it comes to set pieces in anime.

In some ways it only gets more complicated when we frame this issue in the “is it worth watching 11 episodes of crud to get to that climatic, penultimate episode of things-come-together-in-a-really-good-way episode?” Well, I guess that’s kind of besides the issue. Regardless of what we’re watching it might be best to state that the better its set pieces are, the better off it will be? And in a way the problem about set pieces come to light only when the rest of the show kind of feels flat in comparison. To that end it is merely wisdom to set up your awesome sets at the end of the series.

Thankfully, while the darkness and light analogies in Dusk Maiden might have some parallel with the way, the brightly burning romance story doesn’t quite overshadow everything. I enjoyed the “Yuuko the Schoolgirl Ghost” part of the show perhaps the most; second to the dramatic farewell on part of TakaneYumi Hara’s delightfully acceptable overacting.  Yep, all Takane fans would enjoy this show, I’d say.