Category Archives: Franchises

August 10, 2011

DVD/BD Sales Figures Fun

By omo

There’s not much more you need to know beyond this 2ch write-up on how to interpret Japanese anime DVD/BD sales. I say this mainly because, well, there’s not much more you need to know, unless you have a knack for spreadsheets. Knowing beyond a casual, internet-warrior level of what those numbers means is like a 8yo genius trying to teach his working-class parents how to calculate the angular momentum of a rigid body in 3 dimensions. It’s unnecessary and is an exercise in futility. But it’s really amusing to see how a lot of people just don’t quite get it, when they saw this Crunchyroll post from  yesterday. I could farm twitter for even more lulz, but that’s not going to be worth the effort. I guess successful troll is successful. But in some ways it is also insightful, so I’m going to try to say a couple things.

The obvious thing  here is to realize that DVD/BD sales figures are kind of meaningless in terms of revenue. This is something you can explain away in different ways, but basically it is the best part of the troll. I mean, DVD/BD sales figures are obviously extremely meaningful in terms of calculating revenue and profit. That is not just common sense, but the cold hard facts. So what’s wrong with this picture? Clearly there are other factors that also impact revenue/profit/etc; or better put, what qualifies as success.

TL;DR, that “infographic” compares apples with oranges.

[Actually I can launch into this other tangent about how most infographics out there are evil and you probably shouldn’t pay them a lick of mind, according to my small amount of actual education on interpreting data in graphical form (elitism: they teach college level courses on this stuff for hard science majors, except people who do infographic on the intarwebs are typically too academically challenged to take those courses).]

I mean, how many people who commented on that infographic knows about how late night anime are financed? How it compares to Bleach? Or how a mix media franchise works? I don’t even know all about all of those topics, and while I am nobody, I am less of one than probably most people who bothered to comment on it. Because if you are somebody you wouldn’t even comment on it!

Let’s identify the fruits in that list. It’s not all apples, nor is it all oranges, so what are they?

  • Stuff that were never planning to make money via home video releases, eg., Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, etc. People need to remember before the DVD revolution and how everyone nowadays know youtube exists, people generally don’t buy TV shows on home video. Movies? Sure, because it cost a ton of money to take the family to the theater, and you can buy the tape (or DVD/BD today) for a fraction of price (in NYC it’s approaching 1 BD to 1 ticket…which is just sad and pathetic). Why would you buy Bleach? Because you have dirty clothes, that’s why. I mean you would probably even buy a Doreamon movie or your child’s favorite episodes of One Piece just so you can pacify the poor little dude/dudette when you’re busy cooking lunch or something. It’s suspiciously the metaphoric fruit that is missing in this chart; probably because Japanese edutainment programs are horrid and nobody but Japanese kids (and their caretakers) watch them.
  • Stuff that were paid up front, eg. WOWOW anime, etc. This is something most people wouldn’t know, because these shows are relatively rare. A lot of the time what these channels will do recently is air OAVs, but it’s like if enough people watch Game of Thrones, HBO has already achieved its goals. In other words, some anime are created as premium programming, available only to those who have paid subscriptions to those channels. Video sales to them are icing on the cake. It’s like pre-Chappelle’s Show.
  • Stuff that were paid up front #2, eg. movies, etc. I split this one out because it’s obvious to you. I mean if Transformer 3 does a bijillionquadrubple bucks in the box office, who gives a damn about video sales (besides that it will also sell bijillionquadrubple copies)? It can sell less than Kaiba and still be like, “yo I make more money than all your mamas.” But as I alluded earlier, this never is the case with movies. In fact, movies tend to sell the best (see: bijillionquadrubple copies of Transformer 3). Part of it has to do with the fact that unless you are a Kara no Kyoukai, you end after one film. Or at least, you give this unspoken assumption about this is it and sequels? What sequels? It lowers the barrier of entry of paying for a series versus just an one-shot. [But in reality, when you buy a very popular film, the odds that it will have a sequel is pretty close to 100%. So if you can’t stand owning just the first volume and not the second (even if the second, third, fourth, etc is horrible), you really don’t have any business buying popular movies in this day and age. Or rather, that is their business, eh?]
  • Stuff that were used to recoup from investment costs, eg., most late night anime, etc. To be specific, this is why moe anime is made. Because they can consistently bring in a steady, if anemic, stream of sales. At certain pricing, it is steady revenue. This is why Bakemonogatari (and its kins) sales numbers are such a big deal, because they are by-the-book late-night anime business. Their sales figures on home video is a large narrative for home video publishers, since it’s usually their slice of pie at stake here. So that kind of shows get made.
  • Stuff that were paid for during the TV run, eg., the rest. Evangelion has pushed a lot of units on home video. But it would have been considered a success on the TV viewership numbers alone, because it brought in eyeballs, and sold real ads. However the fact that it was so successful on video too gave it a second wind, so to speak. That’s the Chapelle’s Show’s model. I keep on referring to Chapelle’s Show because for the longest time, old TV shows just didn’t sell on home video (see Bleach, Naruto, etc) but somehow, Chapelle’s show has become the sign post of home video sales floating enough money to justify the continuation of the show because of its ludicrous sales figures (compared to prime-time television). Is this a sign that our society is becoming more  maniacal about our favorites? Maybe someone else can tell you about that, but these kind of anime are in a league of their own. I mean, I speak of home video sales, but the key here is that this type of show don’t solely rely on it; it’s kind of just a sign of how crazy some otaku are about kiddy TV shows. They are the AC Gundams and Pokemons of our times, where their sales figures on home video only told a part of the story. As an aside, this group also fields the majority of original anime titles out there. Because as long as the models are cool and the video games are hot properties, the anime has already served its purpose.

To continue, a good 25% of the anime on that list is original. I think that kind of reflects the top Oricon charts, by overshooting it. The bottom tier is probably full of original titles. Does Denno Coil count? I’m not sure. Even this apples-to-oranges analysis doesn’t tell the story behind the difficulty of original anime breaking through things at a glance. At least it tells you how special Madoka is. (And to note, Nanoha StrikerS isn’t too far behind it I think).

In the same vein, it makes you wonder why we continue to include shows like One Piece, Bleach and Naruto in the overarching anime discourse in America. I mean, sure, they are anime, but they’re as anime as Kaiba. And nobody talks about Kaiba! Joking aside, it’s as relevant as its low sales figure. Maybe it is kind of like how anime fans may yell buttscratcha memes at cons, since Family Guy is not anime either. At least that one makes more sense than Marco Polo. Maybe even more so than Bronies. In my mind, Naruto is almost a meme. A lot of people read the manga or watch the anime, but it’s kind of the noise in the background and it isn’t really relevant to anything beyond Viz and fans of the franchise.

That’s going to lead into my last observation here. I’m kind of surprised; speaking of cosplay icons at American cons, where’s Trigun? Its sales figure was pretty abysmal too! If America was different than Japan, I can’t think of a better example than that. So why is Trigun missing from the infographic? Maybe that’s too apples-and-oranges in that graphic? It breaks the trend/trap set up by the infographic? I don’t know. But you know, people in Japan actually bought Cowboy Bebop, too. So you’ve got to wonder.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Franchises, Modern Visual Culture

August 2, 2011

Otakon 2011 Wrap

By omo

I always want to keep my post-con posts brief, but it rarely happens. Let’s see how it goes this time.

Makoto Shinkai

He’s pretty cool. He does have an art/animator background when he first worked on video games before making the switch to independent anime production. I always forget this. The other thing that was a big realization for me was how much of his films are based on his real life experience. I mean this is something most people knew about him, but it is much more, lacking a better term, low level. Like in 5cm all the little ideas thrown in there are based on something he experienced in some way.

As a person, well, he’s pretty amiable I guess. He’s also young/nerdy enough to get all your references. Or should I say, bro enough? I mean, as I said earlier, he knows what To Heart is.

I’m not going to go through all the Q&A here, and I’m not even ready to do that…got to get through some transcription crap first. But in general people asked the same set of 10 questions for him, and he gave the same 10 answers. A lot of the time the question’s nuances gets dropped and he’s actually pretty good at dodging. He also has some kinda-bro moments, to contrast with another young animator who is probably better spoken (and even more bro), when being asked about those “state of the industry” questions. And there are the Hoshi o Ou Kodomo questions, which are mostly pretty good actually.

I only asked him 2 questions, once at a press panel and the other during his public panel. The latter one is a spoiler for Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, so I’m going to save that for later.

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo: Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below

This is the one premiere that I wanted to see. No offense to the new FMA film, I would have done you if I finished FMA:B (just a bit over half way through). Yes you are stand-alone. No I don’t want to wait in line.

Anyway, back to Hoshi o Ou Kodomo. The reviews for this film was varying and I get the vibe of the film even before heading to Otakon. But what I didn’t know is how it truly measures to Shinkai’s previous works. We all know that Hoshi no Koe, Kumo no Mukou, and 5cm/s, all have this same thematic thread going on. It turns out so does Hoshi no Ou Kodomo! This is something nobody really talked about. And I now see why.

In a lot of ways the same themes that I love from his previous work play in full in Hoshi. The problem is more in that the narrative impetus is still mired in a way that I found as a flaw to Kumo no Mukou. Except in Hoshi, he doesn’t even really try to create that overall build up of tension that actually made Kumo no Mukou passably engaging to watch.

I think Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is engaging in a different way: it is much better constructed as a movie based on a series of interrelated themes. However, there are probably too many thematic threads spreading throughout the movie. It can be a heavy thing to digest, and Shinkai did say he wanted to make something worth watching multiple times.

As for the Ghibli-isms, it is very well warranted. I don’t think the similarities are superficial either, but it’s probably not in the way you think they are similar. Basically, recall the start to Mononoke Hime; the purpose of Ashitaka’s trip: to observe and find a way to preserve something. In that very same sense, the plot device to Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is some kind of self-searching journey between two unlikely companions, each carrying the same philosophical conflicts as symbolized by their characters: San is the teacher, Ashitaka is Asuna, Eboshi is Shin. Or like I said elsewhere, Ikamusume and Jerid go on a self-searching journey to the center of Earth.

The characters’ introspective qualities aren’t something that can easily be externalized. In fact, other than Asuna, you don’t really see any of it until the climax of the film. In that sense, this film just had to carry the audience to that point in order to realize its message. To do so, all Hoshi o Ou Kodomo had to work with was some action scenes, its Ghibli-esque looks, and Shinkai’s trademark background porn. The fact that he was able to put his clouds on the ground is already impressive and an unfair trick, LOL. I was hoping he would play with the visuals in greater leaps when creating the underground world, as it is a bit plain. But it looks pretty for sure.

What do I think of it? I think Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is a great answer to the question posed in 5cm/s. As a film, it is pretty but despite trying I don’t think Shinkai has created something for the general public. It just isn’t that entertaining for people who don’t slurp up thematic circle-jerking in the blockbuster film format (ie., most people). The whole theme of separation between life and death and the externalization of a need to shrug off loneliness are things that just don’t communicate well to children I think. It takes a person who’s experienced them to some degree to really appreciate those ideas, and thankfully children are usually not such people. The other whammy is that these themes are just dense! To really explore them in the work makes the film drag and kind of not as focused as it could have been.

In other words, great if you like thoughtful films, not so great if you just want to have a good time.

Bandai’s K-ON! Live Event

I went to the play-acting concert performed by the four dub voice actresses of K-ON US release. It’s actually kind of fun and sort of modeled after the Japanese show. It’s largely MC, and some theatrics of a real band. Azusa was played by this cosplay-musician. But it doesn’t really matter; nobody actually played their instruments. At least they didn’t lip sync AFAIK.

Alexd got spotlighted to sing the ending to Kagayake Girls! For the unfamiliar, that is saying this line really fast and repeated:

“Shiny Shining Shiniest, Girls Be Ambitious Shine Shine Shine”

Vee held a mic to his face. It was LOLS. Also, we were the only two penlight holders in the crowd. Just as well.

Figure Collecting Panel

Due to various other tasks I arrived at the panel late. It was a pure Q&A kind of fare and VManOfMana just want to chat with the crowd, with Andy and Super Rats. They were swamped with curious talkers afterward the panel so I just grabbed a free figure from the free figure guy (he was there last year too?) and took off.

I couldn’t hear very well half the time because the questions don’t get parroted back to the crowd so a lot of people can’t hear what’s being asked. The Q&A is pretty simple otherwise, as the guys addressed the questions by topic. What is kind of disappointing is the lack of figures actually at the panel on display. On the other hand I think that iPad works well to quickly pull up pictures of a figure being talked abot.

The Ladies’ Choice to Hentai Panel

Why was I there? Because, also, I know the panel organizer. It’s probably the first time I sat through an entire 18+ panel actually about anime porn. I hope it will be the last.

The panel itself is pretty entertaining; the issue is more that I already have a good idea what they were going to talk about, since I also helped them with some of the materials. What I didn’t know is what they were actually going to say for each of the clips they screened. Personally, I was pretty tired by then: 12:30am on Saturday? If it was Friday I might have been okay, but I really wanted to just pass out then. And I suppose in a room full of people watching porn is something I’ve experienced in other contexts (I have an Otakon story for you about this!) so I was pretty okay just sitting and chilling for an hour.

It’s all fun and games. If anything my only complaint is that there was this tendency to joke about real life. The very last commenter from the crowd that night brought this point up very well–I mean, this is ero anime. What are we suppose to do with it again?

Atsuhiro Iwakami Producer Panel

IwakamiP is pretty neat, he has “the right attitude” regarding some of this stuff. Unfortunately his panel was way too short and nobody really asked any good questions that is fit for a producer. Maybe except Wah’s Shinbo dig and the state of the industry question. It’s on bayoab should you care to look.

If you also read bayoab’s log on the Aniplex panel, they deferred the answers to some licensing questions to Iwakami’s panel. I’m not sure what is suppose to happen there. Iwakami did say explicitly that he will take license requests. And somehow there wasn’t any at his panel. What’s up with that?

What did happen was screening of a HD Fate Zero trailer, and an explicit nod that it will be simulcasted. In fact he raised this point during the Q&A about how Osaka was the first region getting Madoka OTA on Thursday nights; Tokyo region didn’t get it the day after. If you recall, this means a lot of westerners were watching the fansub of the thing even before people living in Tokyo could see it. He is aware of this and want to, using bayoab’s words, guide a healthy relationship between content producers and fans. Because it can be kind of messed up.

After taking 6 or 7 questions, Iwakami turns around and polled the panel attendees as to what anime they’ve seen. It’s pretty amusing to see how 80%+ of people already saw Madoka, and at least a third saw Rakkyo and OreImo, etc.

For giveaways, they raffled away volumes 1-4 of Madoka on Blu, a couple T-shirts and a plushie of QB, and that Takeuchi sketch of Fate Zero Saber. You can see the picture here. And for reference, you can see the companion sketch to that here, as it was donated for auction. It’s kind of too bad we spent all this time drawing raffle tickets, because the panel really could use more time doing Q&A.

And there’s this sad yet hilarious anecdote about Hisui that I could tell, but it’s something you had to be there to witness. Saber is truly his waifu.

Bandai After Dark

I guess this is the proper Bandai industry panel? Before that panel, on the schedule there was a Sunrise industry panel too, in the same room. Not sure what the previous panel was all about, but you can read Digitalboy’s write-up for some clips. Or you can go back to bayoab.

Besides the cool bean licenses, I thought this year they did a good job. Not as great as last year’s, but still pretty good. Things kind of ran long though; we had Hiro Yura playing a track from Disappearence again; he set up a table for some post-panel sales too.  The loot this year is pretty cool, except as usual it was things you could have gotten as freebies if you bought certain things. Yea, maybe I should have bought those Haruhi character singles from RS?

The big personal note here is that I managed to get a copy of Shackles of Night single from Hiro after telling him how I didn’t get it last year, despite having paid for it. Baller dude!

Actually another cool note is how Johnny Bosh dropped by the panel and killed a lot of time trying to play something on Taka’s ukulele. Vee also sang along. It was kind of odd, and that act ate up a lot of time.

I think the best troll happened at this panel too, when Napton said some lucky winner was sitting on a chair with a gift certificate taped underneath it. Everyone then proceeded to reach around and tear off…some consumer safety sticker. Nice! If you remember last year’s Bandai After Dark, there were like a bunch of prizes given away this way. So he got us good. This year, tho, because of time and room-clearing reasons, they couldn’t do it.

Miku Live in LA: “MIKUNOPOLIS” Behind the Scenes

Like I said earlier, it’s 90% of coverage of things that happened at AX. Which is great if you couldn’t make it this year or can’t make it to all the vocaloid events (which is probably almost everyone). I’ll just talk about the notable and interesting bits.

They showed clips from Fox News coverage of the event. A couple of the Toyota commercials as well. Yeah, those Anons drew a loud reaction.

There was a slide during the presentation which contains the cover of the deck for the pitch of the Miku Live in USA Tour plan. Mr. ASCII Media Works EIC-san (who ran the panel) specifically told us to note that originally it wasn’t targeting LA or AX as the only event where Miku can appear. Which is probably good, as far as false hopes go. But who knows?

They also reported what sold and what didn’t at Mikunopolis booth. Basically everything sold out except coasters and phone charms. Not that surprises anyone.

The interesting thing for Otakon is that a new line of Miku merch is being pushed out. You can buy it now–Vocaloid tees: Miku, Len/Ren, Luka and Kaito. I bought the Len/Ren and Miku ones. More importantly they are not $40 like the Cospa ones. They’re not even $25; probably can be had for $15-20. The back of the shirt prints that they are Crypton produced. Which makes me wonder what was the big deal with those Viz license announcements…

At the end of the panel, Fukuoka-san did brisk business and sold some Wowaka CDs and that PV DVD that they were hawking. He put together a nice deck!

Chemistry Concert

Not my kind of thing, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were selling penlights at their table. White ones, pretty powerful. Has a lot of modding potential… Not that I am going to.

As for their act, I think they are very good. It also feels like AAA back a few years ago–a lot of fanfare, but not a lot of relevance. Except Chemistry is actually kind of relevant, having done songs for a few popular shows. I’m only really familiar with that one FMA song and their Gundam UC contribution. The R&B duo are pretty pro.

Kylee Concert

I was late, and as a result I missed probably a good 3-4 songs. The show was barely 40 minutes long. It was still fun, even if I missed all the songs that I know except the one Heroman theme. She has a real band, and it worked out well besides that nobody was really moving. She seem like a well-groomed girl. She needed someone to open I think. Kind of ironic that I missed out on her doing Vacancy. Com’on! You only have so many songs.

Rave with DJ Saolilith

So while I lament not being able to hit up DJ Saolilith’s panel, I did get to see her set at the rave. I’m not sure if this is the second or third year that the con rave is located in Hall D, which is all the real musical guests play at (sans Hiro Yura &c). I got in just in time for Saolilith’s act, because somehow the queue didn’t empty out or something.

It’s the second time I’ve been to Otakon’s rave proper, ever. The first time was like… 1999? Maybe even earlier? Back then, the rave room didn’t smell like a giant funk pit; the AC works if you didn’t stand in the crowd. Friday night at 11:45, I was feeing a little tired but the hyper environment kept my spirits up.

I don’t think I can regirgitate Saori’s setlist here, but let’s just say when K-ON ED2 came on, I was already sold. Then there was the Nico kumikyouku stuff. And Love.EXE. And it really helps when I can recognize all but like, 3 tracks she spinned. Good times.

The first third of the songs I was standing towards the back of the hall, just to take in what’s going on. A breakdancing circle appeared soon enough and one of the people I came with peeled off to do that. Another couldn’t tolerate the environs anymore and headed out to a panel. Link and I eventually braved the front lines. Which is easy to do, since it’s a rave, not a concert; people aren’t packed up front.

At some point during the rave Saolilith pulled out a water gun on us. I think that was not necessary, but I got sprayed. I think the crowd was maybe 6-7 bodies deep only anyways, I was about 2 bodies away from the stage. For the encore (she did 1 song) she jumped down and did a little thing. I couldn’t see because she jumped into the denser side of the stage, which is opposite to where I was.

At least it wasn’t weird to wave my penlight around! That is one thing the con dance has right.

Eats

I ate the same thing Friday as I did Sunday: Cafe 100 for Breakfast, dinner at Sliders. Lunch was optionally something from Jimmy Johns, and like most other customers there I think they passed the Otakon test with flying colors. I’m inclined to dock them points for providing not-as-fresh-as-it-can-be bread (I see them hauling out of boxes en masse), but something had to give. It was good, but Potbelly’s is better, albeit more expensive, slower, and farther away. That is fine for the slower pace, Sunday PM last-meal, which is what we had. I picked up some coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts on Sunday to keep me awake throughout the day, but that’s about it.

Thursday routine was very routine: Pickles, Tir na Nog, Pickles. Food-wise, Pickles is actually the place to go on Thursday, simply because their happy hour is great stuff. Wings or nacho or pizza, it’s all pretty decent. Pitchers of beer made short work of all that. I got the Shephard’s Pie again. I also had a slice of Sicilian pepperoni pie at that Italian place inside the BoA skywalk area, it was good for what it was.

I’m not used to this cheap beer thing, but it was kind of nice being able to stumble into Bandai After Dark after having 4 drinks. For the same amount of money I probably could only pay for one by NYC standards.

Pickle’s fried pickles are still good.

Sliders dinner fare is relatively limited; it is really just a bar. But it was pretty delicious when I got the food there. Maybe I was just hungry at the time. Day 1 I had the chili dog set. Day 2 I had the Chesapeake chicken wrap. Both days we split the nachos. Their chili is pretty good.

Miscellaneous

Wah did two Omokage Lucky Hole songs; I missed the first one because it took place during a press event. The second time I followed up with STRAIGHT JET. HORRIBLY done STRAIGHT JET I might add. Wah’s performance is quite commendable though.

Yeah, that ice cold water really is only a dollar. I’ve only bought it from the dude once, a couple years ago. Inflation-free memes are the win.

What isn’t are tolls, parking and cost of fuel. Sigh.

Baltiport is a total jinx. Lance also needs to update the home page!

Guide book app is definitely a keeper. All cons should use it if they could. It’s actually not the most intutitive thing. For example, it was hard to set alarms manually–and there are plenty of times that you wish you could do it from your “to do” list. Or manually add to the schedule or something. How else are you suppose to keep track of booth events? Also, 1 hour is not enough for alarm. Some events need 2hr or more! There also needs a better way to slim out the main schedule, although I suppose manually scrolling up and down is not a major issue as long as there are not 100s of events to go through (Otakon got close to that). The ability to cross-reference dealer room locations is quite handy, and on that front it beats the pocket scheduler. For quick references, tho, not as fast.

Directors Panel

Just read SDS’s write-up.

Loot-related

I was in the dealer’s room for a net total of maybe an hour and a half. A third of that was waiting to get an autograph from Shinkai and chatting with people. A third of that was buying things from Bandai’s booth, the Otakon loots (Madoka charity poster and con shirt. I’ve gotten one every year, why stop now?), and checking out Kinokuniya. The last third was to buy those Vocaloid shirts.

At Kylee’s and DJ Saolilith’s autograph sessions, they were selling CDs. I got one from each of them, but they didn’t have the goods at the time. I gave them my address. I think the same company may be doing this stuff? I forget if Chemistry had their share of missing CDs. Yura didn’t.

Those CDs weren’t cheap, but considering the very weak dollar versus yen, it was okay. Kind of like how AAA distro was selling figures on Sunday; that Gift Saber Lily for $140? Are you for real? Bandai was selling some Lantis CDs that came with promo posters. I bit on one. Price was fair, all given.

Conclusion

I’d hit it again.

Every year there is something different or special about Otakon from my POV, and this year is no exception. Makes me wonder what next year has in store! Even if what is “different” or “special” can be positive and negative things. Like, I was talking to some folks after the con over IRC and I learned a few things about the charity auction results. Kind of neat, like how those wrist bands and badge add-ons totaled up a good third of the proceeds. Kind of not so neet of seeing that Saber sketch fall below a grand. Or Watsuki’s Sanosuke for about $300-400. Some futae no kiwami is called for somewhere.

Still, a good time. Big shoutout to all the brothers and sisters out there for making things work the way they do. Even more appreciative of staffers as I get older, and the same faces I see at cons, fans or industry alike. And of course, the special visitors domestic or abroad.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, K-ON

July 25, 2011

Summer 2011 Checklist

By omo

I better do this before Otakon washes me out. This being just a run-through on the interesting titles this season.

As usual, just because I couldn’t fit a show in here doesn’t mean it does not deserve it. I think it’s self-destructively amazing that I can still watch so much anime given my usual hours. And I’m writing about it. Probably just so I can then forget it and do something else. Anyways…

Are you ready? I’m ready. At least my body is ready, so they say.

Mawaru Penguindrum wins the visual award. I’m blogging it elsewhere, but hopefully it’ll make me want to write more about it here too.

Mood-wise, I am pretty partial to Kamisama no Memochu and Kamisama Dolls. The latter just makes me want to sing UNINSTALL for some reason. The former has that DRRR chic with match eccentric NEET-types. But I don’t know; both shows are wildcards in execution and plot departments.

A supposedly safer bet is Blood-C. In a lot of ways Blood+ was really flawed. Like a PS3 is flawed. Blood-C has potential to reboot the brand, while retaining what is attractive and boot what isn’t from its predecessors. But each reimagination sucks the life out of the original concept a little more than before. It’s also my Nico experiment target #1–something relatively high profile, good viewer numbers, and hopefully some slick comments will feature-add over the dumb comments.

Twin Angel is also a Nico experiment, except for the reverse of course. I now truly understand what people mean when they said they’ve watched really crappy anime on Nico that they would not have otherwise.

I thought the same for  R-15. The truth is, it’s the creative sort of crap anime that is sufficiently enticing that I would probably continue to watch it even without the Nico snipping. It may be a typical harem kind of show, but it’s sufficiently deviant from the norm to be amusing and thought-provoking (at least a little).

And that is way more praise than I can give for shows like Black Rabbit. I feel all Kuroneko about this anime, in the sense that it’s some pathetic chuunibyou attempt to cash in on some thing by using the most unoriginal source material. That is probably too harsh, but at least in Yumekui Merry there’s some kind of moe factor along with a sharp directional sense. We don’t get either in this. And why am I slamming Yumekui Merry? Obviously Index is the real true public enemy #1.

Dantalian at least looks passably okay. Nico comments do help it go a little farther, like Blood-C. But I’m not excited.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu is… Touhou animu. Too bad it’s not even funny.

The real dark horse this season is Ikoku Meiro no Croisée. I mean, it’ll be all culturally relevant and iyashikei with moe power over 9000. “A Jasc show” by all means. It’s got that huge advantage only because there is nobody pissing on it as everyone is too busy pissing on Usagi Drop. Grrrr.

Total aside, isn’t it ironic how a bit over a year ago Funimation has noitaminA on that partnership lockdown? Look at things now! Zero shows!

I think Number 6 will get its audience; the drama (in the noitaminA format) should be compelling as long as there’s some substance. It can’t be worse than Jyuohsei. And I watched Jyuohsei. Oh poor me.

The real guilty pleasure this season is obviously Ro-Kyu-Bu. And I’m doing it for the seiyuu marketing. Yeah. That’s it. But more seriously, if it can stay true for its three-episode-pilot about team building and your garden variety sports drama tropes, I can’t see how it’ll turn out badly. Unless you count the FBI breaking things up as a bad end.

Oh, speaking of those 3-ep-pilots, I thought R-15 ep2 was in every way superior than ep1. It’s like watching two different shows, the differences. Ro-Kyu-Bu also had a similar difference, but that’s more because the plot stuff didn’t kick in full gear until episode 2. What’s up with that?

Then again some shows are still playing true to formula. I’m not sure what I’m suppose to do with Sacred Seven. I probably will pass on it until I catch up on Blue Exorcist. Or something equally unlikely. It’s not bad, just not good enough.

But sometimes not good enough is fine, if you’re the only thing that airs on CR (so I can watch it on the road via 3G streaming) on Monday (man I miss Kaminomi). YuruYuri is just that.

Kind of wish that is true for Mayoi Chiki too. As is tho, it might not matter–if I can’t get to episode 2 by the time episode 4 airs, the odds are low that I will ever watch it.

Is this it? Probably not. I have a couple more shows that I want to try (ie., Manyuu!). I think I’m watching still a lot of shows left over from last season, which cuts into the new shows I can pick up. And then there’s stuff coming back like Bakatest. Oh well.

So the net total is pretty good; we’re talking about just two shows that I find even at all notable that isn’t getting a simulcast. Even Morita-san has it. Now we can argue about 1 hr or 24 hr or 72 hr or 144 hr or whatever, or if we can even call it simulcast (I don’t think we should), but in my book any of those is better than never.

10 comments | posted in Blood, Idolmaster, Mawaru Penguindrum, Modern Visual Culture, Usagi Drop

July 22, 2011

Stray Thoughts on Usagi Drop

By omo

On Daikichi’s recent sacrifices, you can read a survey here from E Minor, which summarizes the issues that appears in Usagi Drop 3. However I was under the assumption that most of us have already internalized it on the basis of what child rearing means in general. I’ll cover a few things that E Minor didn’t.

1. On time spent on Rin–in general, at least in America, when your kid is 6, you are actually well positioned to re-enter the workforce full time, if you took time off to take care of his or her formative years. It’s easier to find child care for kids in that age range than, say, 0-2, with the onset of elementary school. The kids themselves are easier to take care of (and thus freeing up the caretaker to do more things). In Daikichi’s case, this was not possible simply because he has a different take on Rin’s psychological burdens than an average foster parent. That perspective gap is what drives Usagi Drop’s drama later on, as I can see it from manga readers’ reactions. At the same time, Rin probably needs more time with some stable parent figure to cope with the unusual events that has so far transpired in her short life.

2. But even if we don’t care about any of that, if Daikichi works 12-16 hours a day (and by that I mean it in the usual Japanese salaryman sense), there is just no way he can take care of a child simply on the basis of government-provided childcare. There’s also the “Daikichi seems to be entirely clueless about administrative burdens of parenting” angle. If he was a savvy parent, he probably could try to juggle a more-than-fulltime career with parenting especially given his social network (ie., he has one). This is a conceit on the part of Bunny Drop, I think.

3. At the same time it is exactly in areas like this that Japan feels so antiquated, compared to the west. It isn’t that westerners don’t sacrifice for their kids; arguably the time spent is actually more in the latter case. The impact of that on one’s career is just somehow less as a matter of corporate culture. It isn’t that women (and some men) are indirectly disadvantaged due to adding new members into their respective families in the west, but that gap is socially accepted. I should rather say, taking time off to care for a newborn (again, it’s not the direct counterpart to Daikichi’s unique situation, but it seems to maps the best) is a luxury that companies use to entice prospective employees. At least with a straight face, anyway; culturally it is considered as a luxury as well. And the fact that it’s somewhat government-mandated makes it easier for companies to just man up and do it that way.

4. While we can phrase it as a “parent’s sacrifice,” it means different thing to different people. I think if you are choosing between two things you love dearly, after failing to have that cake and eat it too, the fact that you can be regret-free after having one and not the other is not a real problem. To me, the term has a large component of respect that some how happens that the person has aligned his or her choice with the well-being of his or her family via spending time there. It is a selfish decision as well as a selfless one. So it’s not a dimension that I particularly want to dwell on. But if human beings make large career choices such as these based on reason, that’s where social policy can affect real change in the direction of its population. That is, if social policy can be changed in a way that shifts the nature of the Japanese corporate culture, anyway.

5. From this point we can speculate the other tangential issues that may come into play with a single-foster-parent situation. I always thought anime is kind of a weird medium to try to affect social change. Or manga, in this case. It is a good incubator of such thoughts, perhaps, and hopefully Japan will wise up and allow its people to live in the 21st century.

Lastly, there’s one thought that bothered me this entire time with Usagi Drop–people who are whining about the manga in the anime discussion. I normally don’t really mind, but some people really crossed the line when it comes to this title: Basically everyone who’s read the manga extensively and pisses on the title due to their colored impressions as triggered by the anime. I mean, sure, some people put “spoiler warning” on their posts and…if it wasn’t a FIRST IMPRESSION piece that would be okay! And what’s more this typically happens with people who … well, have a certain disposition which tend to make them interesting “first impression” folks that I read. Except in this case their true natures rear their ugly heads and I just want to forget it has ever happened. In my book that’s worst than the worst spoiler that you could have given. It’s simply irresponsible.

Actually that kind of extends to a general complain about people who whine about the medium-specific aspects of the adopted work because they’re judging it from some presupposed perspective as a result of an prior experience of the work in a different medium. Or, as before, whine about some non-specific aspect of the adopted work because they’re judging from a post-hoc position in the knowledge transfer process of storytelling from a different rendition in a different medium, before the transfer process has even started in earnest. They, for what it’s worth, can all die in a fire.

With that said, I think I might actually like the manga and its post-time-jump conclusion! I guess after the anime is over I will give it shot. Six volumes and all.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture, Usagi Drop

July 14, 2011

The Melancholy of Azusa Miura

By omo

You’re such a meanie, Author:

In particular, I was reminded that Azusa had a backstory. Not a large or dramatic one, but nonetheless, she graduated from a junior college and found herself unneeded by the society. The only difference with millions of young women with liberal arts degrees that are our contemporaries on both sides of Pacific, she ended in employ of Namco Pro instead of Starbucks. Also, instead of developing a depression, becoming religious, or hooking up on drugs, she is dreaming about the destined person — but is not doing much about finding him.

There is no special message in any of it, I’m afraid, and actually Azusa was developed for original games, before the higher education bubble became this apparent in America. But if creators play their cards right, she may become more popular than ever. Many people might relate, even in Japan.

The immediate reaction is, well, such a person probably doesn’t exist in that particular format. The 30-sai version of Azusa is a much more likely candidate (she works in a library? Slightly a step up from Starbucks, but obviously a destination of liberal arts degree holders). But the truth remains; people unmatched remain unmatched unless something happens.

But I think the better angle is that Azusa isn’t someone we can identify ourselves with; she’s more like the leftover meal from this generation of herbivore males. Here is the alternative take. We can say, via simple supply versus demand, that the consequences of single folks working longer hours and deeper into their lives, with more people getting married later in life, is that there will be people who may want to get married at an earlier age, but couldn’t because the supply is lower. It is a weakly negatively reinforcing cycle. Weak in that people tend to want to get married, and just because it is more difficult it doesn’t usually stop them from continued pursuit. For those single folks seeking out there, the lesson is:  Don’t give up; Carpe diem and all.

I like this angle better because ultimately IM@S is about, well, admiring young ladies while they entertain us. In a sense that is not too unlike what you would do with your spouse. Or so I hope. At least at some point in your relationship (when applicable)? I don’t think IM@S’s narrative cares about self-identification as much as drawing affection (and in the real idol industry, in the mind space) from the audience. Granted in these kind of things, usually there’s some kind of back story in which identification helps to disarm the audience and buy into whatever story that is being sold. But the core of an idol identity is one that is still just a step different than just you or me. Even the girl-next-door types is not exactly the girl-next-door in the urban, isolated sense; more like the childhood friend that you really didn’t know is a knockout until she debuted in some gravure magazine.

For the record, I also agree with ani-nouto about the general idea behind the character; but I can also imagine Azusa projecting a pretty fierce AK-Field IRL.

Leave a comment | posted in 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Idolmaster, Modern Visual Culture