Category Archives: Franchises

January 27, 2011

Array of Public Opinion Blossoms in the Crack of Weekly Broadcast

By omo

Okay, can I spoil on Madoka Magica episode 3 now?

It is the sort of little joys in my life, to be able to tune in to a fanbase that expressed their surprise, dismay, anger, joy, admiration and how eyes lit up when the collective of us pondered the meaning behind Kyubey’s unphased face, that never-changing :3 expression. The undigested SPOILER of a certain SPOILER drops onto those pin-top tables, feeling as if we’ve attended the wrong tea party. No queen spoke of “off with her head” but we did get a really large dose of Faust, and when you get that along with the word “contract” it shouldn’t take a lawyer to have some alarm go off.

The most pretty expressions this week are the fan artists and the graphical remixers. As TheBigN mentioned previously, Pixiv is one of the earliest spot. I guess there might be some kind of speedsubber mentality at work there, but it’s not just them. I think 2ch, 4chan and all the usual spots have a lot of fun takes of episode 3’s surprise twist.

But how can you enjoy these potentially short-lived outbursts if you don’t follow this show on a weekly basis? I suppose to an extent you could enjoy it by an exercise of empathy, but I doubt it can capture even 80%, let alone 100% of the festive feeling I’ve seen expressed. Especially if in the next episode, we get a big turn-around that may nullify this little shocker.

Well, we’ll know in a couple hours!

Leave a comment | posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Modern Visual Culture

January 23, 2011

The Spoiler And How It Implicates in the Simulcast Nonsense

By omo

This post contains no spoilers, at least not on the face.

The latest about Madoka Magica from Urobuchi’s, writer, twitter, is a spoiler for the show, 3 episodes in. I am not too concerned about his sadly feeble attempt to mislead, but it does show that the intent to surprise is fully present.

As an anime guy who watches anime and talks about it on the internet, spoiler, well, I shouldn’t have to tell you if you are reading this–they’re a double-edged sword or a necessary evil. Whatever and however you think they are and feel about them, they are unavoidable to an extent. Some might even seek them out on purpose. It’s also a great way to troll, as seen in Madoka’s case, as well as countless previous instances. Probably most recently famous for the Snake Kills Dumbledore meme [wow, 2005?]. Or maybe something else newer.

But if Shinbo doesn’t want to spoil you, maybe that is the best way to enjoy the show? Maybe it is best to enjoy Madoka without reading up and speculating too much? Well, whatever floats your boat, but that seems like a sensible thing to do.

Funny enough, given my perspective and tendencies I find myself applying The Spoiler Problem on the whole directly to the simulcast situation. It isn’t really a big surprise considering time delay and exclusivity are common methods for content owners to make profit and distinguish themselves over their competitors–there’s money in it. People want their stuff now, ASAP. I am not going to point fingers at DirecTV customers and call them impatient because they can get Hollywood films over their satellite dish faster than Netflix, but you get a bunch of them calling people who watch fansubs that exactly. That makes no sense to me, especially how some (very large and pervasive) media companies encourage this behavior. Can’t we stick to calling them people who break copyright laws? Because that’s all there is to it.

I mean, put it this way, in order to enjoy Madoka fully you pretty much have to avoid a spoiler that is 3 episodes in. The surprise element is pretty much gone if you follow any of the anime episodic blogs or chatters from Japan. Heck if you read #madoka on twitter you will basically get spoiled. As someone who prizes enjoyment of his anime above all else anime related, I really sympathizes to those Madoka fans who have to get their anime first, in this specific case, just so they can keep swimming.

I guess that’s not a real problem anyone has to be concerned about, since we live in a media-rich society with instant communication and broadcasting via the internet. In other words, we struggle with this all the time. It’s no different than picking up the newspaper on Friday and read about the reviews of new films coming out. Except in that case, if I really cared, I could just go watch it in theaters that same day then read the reviews. Where as in the anime case, copyright law says  you are SOL. Sorry, can’t read twitter or blogs for the next 3 months!

But instead of griping or whatever, I think of it as a Real Life Problem and an opportunity for profit. That’s how startups are born, people! Because this applies not only to anime, but it applies to all manners of media and it applies to all forms of consumption. Like this little twitter client. Or something like Crunchyroll.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Modern Visual Culture

January 19, 2011

Shiki and Satisfaction

By omo

Shiki was one of the two shows I wanted to marathon from the last season. It’s particularly notable to me for its lineage, being another anime adaptation of Fuyumi Ono’s works. Yea, I liked Twelve Kingdoms, and no, I passed on Ghost Hunt, too. Now that I’ve watched it as it’s almost all out and all done, hopefully I can put it down as fast as I’ve finished it. Naturally, minor spoilers are ahead.

In terms of genre, I think Ono writes for a horror-for-girls kind of thing in Shiki. In some ways that makes sense in Shiki, there are some pretty obvious elements where it feels natural to graft BL things onto them. I think typical for a girl-focused/mainstream work, also, there is a lot of strong poetic justice plays. There is a theme about retribution, divine, natural or man-influenced. Also I wonder how would anyone get the abandoned by God thing without knowing Cain and Able’s story.

Anyway, I don’t have a lot to say about Shiki except that during the whole build-up to the gruesome end to the series, I was being fed lines and after lines of how these vampire people are more people than vampires. And this happened not only as plot material, but as some kind of thematic element. I thought it was trying to speak a message that is about sympathy. In the end I realize it wasn’t the case. It was more a message about doing the right thing that is laced with sympathy. Shiki’s justice is swift and poetic; I can’t really say much bad things about that.

The problem is I have few good things to say about Shiki. Seishin’s plight as a human being might be the only angle, but I don’t quite get it in that ultimately his kindness lead to the death of those who probably didn’t deserve to die. Remember: Cain is the transgressor! In as much part of that become a purified, if meaningless, struggle against and for selfishness, it is just a little too calculated.

Speaking of calculated, Natsuno is clearly Able. In fact his circumstantial werewolfing is kind of a huge break, making him pretty much the victim the entire way through the show. It’s kind of nice to see the guy who was mean as the guy who is doing the right thing, for a change. A foil for Megumi for sure. I guess revenge is okay if they’re a bunch of undead bad guys?

Character analysis aside, Shiki just didn’t deliver enough. It got to a point where it is campy, and it just didn’t mix with all these serious characters. Well I should say, there were all these comical characters not contributing much to the overall impact of the series. There were some turning points in the plot where satisfaction, pity and other things they wanted to solicit just didn’t really come out of me. I guess there were a couple “Don’t invite them in!” or “Don’t open that window!” moments where it worked out okay, but I didn’t watch in a group where that dynamics was present to make the effect enjoyable.

I suppose after all is said and done I can understand why some people thought this was an anime-of-the-year caliber show, but to me it’s just your average Toradora-7/10 kind of fare. And that is being really generous, largely on the account of its production values.

Lastly, whoever edits Shiki’s Wikipedia entry should be slapped around a bit for putting major spoilers in the character descriptions, as it is in-line with the main article. Oh well, maybe you won’t believe it’s true.

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Shiki

January 18, 2011

Are There More Light Novel Adaptations in Winter 2011 Than Fall 2010?

By omo

No.

At least as far as I can tell. I think it is an interesting question because light novels are in a lot of ways the most interesting kind of material that gets adopted in the past 10 years.

Man, how old was Full Metal Panic?

Anyways, I’ve made a spreadsheet. You can see the full screencap if you click on the image to the top of this post. The methodology was going to Hashihime’s calendars for Winter 2011 and Fall 2010, listing all the TV shows that ended in Fall and the shows that started in Winter, and then mark the ones that are light novel adaptations. With a couple exceptions (like this one).

There’s a nuance in that some of these shows have manga adaptations, but at least one source (ANN usually) would say it is an adaptation of the light novel. In reality it doesn’t matter, because either way the light novel came first.

However it would be mistaken to call it “RailDex” anything, because Railgun is not a light novel adaptation. Go figure.

Speaking of which, this is why I made this chart.

Feel free and please drop corrections on the spreadsheet in the comments!

Maybe I will write more about this later, but the immediate observation is that a lot of these are manga adaptations, and while I was making the list, most of the titles I ignored are either your Fairy Tales or PreCures, which are JUMP-type crap or original shows. Light novels and properties originally as games are in a small minority. There is also a growing number of “media mix” type situations where it’s original, but there’s also a manga or even a light novel to go with, or in the above case as I mentioned, an original light novel series that has a manga adaptation way before the anime. The numbers seem to suggest this being almost as frequent as light novel adaptations where the anime is first-to-adopt.

It makes you wonder what the heck is Railgun actually.

Leave a comment | posted in Franchises, Modern Visual Culture

January 14, 2011

Hourou Musuko, Wandering Seiyuu Madness, What Fractale Is Not

By omo

I think noitaminA is fortunate to show Hourou Musuko after Fractale, simply because Wandering Son is a great animation. It’s not to knock on Fractale, but it is overshadowed by Hourou Musuko “stunning” presentation.

This is kind of amusing in a sense. From what it appears on the surface (and we are really doing “Judge-by-Cover Part 4, Winter 2011” here) Fractale has actual plot chops. It has a rich setting and some pretty amusing characters from the get go. It is exactly NOT what people like Daryl Surat is whining about when they talk about Hiroki Azuma’s Database Animal book, about character trait.

On the other hand, what makes Hourou Musuko so great is these superficial things. Granted what is presented to us on a watercolor, sparkly, white-filtered platter is character drama, I can’t help but to notice the stereotypical otaku elements are largely present: the tsundere, the trap, the tomboy, the cooldere, the fast-to-mature, the flirt, the shota (this is a Josei TV segment right?) and the loli-appealing. That gorgeous animation and those masterfully-done characters are what make this show so good at the start. But that is exactly what fuels the desires of the database animal.

This is what we get if we skip 30 some odd chapters, I guess. I don’t know, I can’t offer any of the whining and gensaku hakai outrage those who have read and adored the original manga can offer you, because quite frankly it is outside of my interests. All I can say is it was directed so well that it didn’t confuse me much, if at all, even if the show drops you deep within the original narrative.

And I’m not even done listing all the “elemental” things about Hourou Musuko that appeal to the otaku. Cross-gender forbidden romance? Awesome seiyuu cast? Ball-busting sakuga? The soundtrack? It goes on.

Hourou Musuko makes Fractale looks like the least pandering piece of work on noitaminA ever. And yet people call that stuff moe. I don’t understand it anymore. Or rather, comparing these two show is probably the best example of showing up that people who complain about moe are just talking about shows they don’t like but others do, for no real substantive reasons.

Oh right, the awesome seiyuu cast is well within my range of interests. Let’s just say this. And that. And Nana Mizuki cracked me up. The last time that happened in an anime was probably never, though I managed a chuckle during her Aoi Bungaku segment.

If there’s one negative thing I want to say about Hourou Musuko, it is that the whole gender identity issue aspect feels tangential and is really just a plot device to get drama juicy. Watching the show, I feel not really compelled about Nitori’s gender struggle as much as his attachment to Takatsuki, or what happens between them. Which is to say, episode 1 of Hourou Musuko is like a well-done template for teenage romance. Instead of a cute okama-to-be it could have been several other things (drugs, depression, etc), and it would not have changed the look, the feel, and the awesomeness of episode 1 of Wandering Son.

Unless you have a thing for shota traps, of course.

Fractale, on the other hand, is quite wholesome. Even with nudity, it merely pushes against the line that is dotted with the kind of nudity found in mainstream anime in Japan. I think a part of this is attributed to how unusual, lack of a better word, Kobayashi sounded in the lead male role. I suppose we are just getting started with this episode though, and it wouldn’t be wise to judge this book by the cover. Because despite wanting to say “hey Yamakan went to all these Ghibli and mainstream TV anime and stuck those iconic elements in,” it’s not what is carrying this narrative. Basically, I would probably watch this for the plot and setting.

Okay, Phryne is pretty moe during that scene when she’s talking about smiles. But that is more like moe for Kiki or Nausicaa, right?

As for flaws, Kurogane is pretty succinct, and I would be among those who find the BGM clashing a lot more than it should, despite if the music when consumed on its own, may be pretty okay. The animation is not perfect, but a Toradora-7/10 sort of rating would be more than what I can ask for out of Yamakan’s latest bid to bet the house. I think he’s on a good start towards that.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Fractale, Hourou Musuko, Modern Visual Culture