Category Archives: Franchises

December 23, 2010

Asking John about Kara no Kyoukai

By omo

Ask John about Kara no Kyoukai, and he will give you actually a fairly balanced view of things, if a little too retail oriented.

I don’t know if he is right or wrong about the nature of American otaku and how the Rakkyo series fits it. I personally believe that he is probably spot on to compare Rakkyo with Oshii, but how many times did he use the word pretense? I mean who am I? Some self-titled anime expert? Who doesn’t even know ‘Rakkyo’? I mean it’s on freaking Wikipedia. Not a lot of people liked Innocence, as far as I can tell. Basically, I think it’s too off the beaten path even in America. What sold in the 80s and 90s was not what ROD OAV was.

He dotes on Chapter 3, which is the MAGARE episode in which Shiki performs an appendectomy. Well, actually, she kills the infection, not the appendix. Which sums up my opinion of episode 3. Certainly however I can see why someone would like it; the episode itself is well put-together and unlike Chapter 7, the viewer is not left in some kind of overwrought suspense and Mamiko Noto carries a strong performance both as victim and villain.

However obviously Aniplex thinks Chapter 5 is the one that everyone will like, as demonstrated at Anime Boston last year. I don’t blame them, Chapter 3 is a little bit too “otaku-poi” in a similar vein as Chapter 6 (which John also likes, besides the lack of epic fights). Chapter 5 features bleed-through pretentiousness, all the way down to its nonlinear narrative and strange showdown in the last 30 minutes of the movie. But when we’re watching cartoon porn instead of realistic porn, I think pretension is a sought-after quality and we shouldn’t make any pretense about it. The only difference is how one executes such pretentiousness so that critics like John will reach for another page in their biological thesaurus.

Perhaps the bigger issue with this that I’m trying to say is more about our perception (heh talking about perception in a Rakkyo thread) of what anime ought to be. I mean I think what I said applies to a lot of ambitious works, that at some level those works have to pretend. So why get stuck on that? Talk about execution instead. And I think good anime always executes. Those shows talk the talk but also walk the walk.

Which goes back to my assertion about what American fans like–I think a lot of the time we like shows that do neither talking nor walking. Because that’s the least pretentious of them all, and maybe that is the root problem. And when you get someone taking down on shows that aspire to be better as inferior to those who don’t even try, it’s just incredible.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Kara no Kyoukai

December 21, 2010

Sphere Observation

By omo

Just a few minor things to note, probably not exactly the most flattering thing to say about the girls in Sphere so I apologize to the fans I might piss off ahead of the time. As entertainers I have nothing but respect for these girls.

1. There is a reason why people don’t like Ayahi. I think she is nonetheless an important part of the group in both the way it’s presented visually and in the way the four girls sound together. In essence she covers a lot of holes. However at the same time I’m not sure what she brings to the group that appeases the target audience.

2. However there are a couple really good pictures of her in there, in Tentai Kansoku, that works well, in the sense that I didn’t know she can have that look. Namely in the first section.

3. Megane is a great equalizer. However Aki doesn’t look that good with them, not sure why. It’s more like, for boring faces, glasses add something; for great faces, it can equalize or add to. So generally you can’t really lose if you’re a seiyuu.

4. Speaking of looks, Minako still has the best face, in that she expresses well in photos, and can solicit a good range of feelings at least when I look at it. The other girls at best look “pretty” except Haruka, who can occasionally go beyond that. Occasionally.

5. But once we take into the whole package, Haruka still hands down wins. I guess you do have a much harder time to be a model if you are short, which both Minako and Ayahi are. I think they clocked below average even for Japanese girls.

6. In the same way, Aki looks pretty cool in some shots because she is taller, and it gives her body that balance that most seiyuu types don’t have. But I guess she still looks better not trying to stretch that.

7. In the same way, again, Haruka doesn’t do very well when she tries to. I haven’t had the opportunity to look at her photo books but from what I saw from scans, yeah, she tries and it doesn’t work that often.

8. The prom shots are still the best overall set.

9. I like Minako’s twin tail shots in the school outfit set, there’s just something with that hair.

10. Everyone’s seen that picture of Haruka looking calm with the white dress, it is one of those examples when they keep it simple, it comes off very well.

11. Ayahi in the kimono shot is LOOOOL. I thought she also look way better in candid shots.

12. Every musician type doing this kind of “business” should release a photo album/book that records all that stuff-concert tour goods, outfits, pictures from lives. It’s nice!

13. I totally like the title of the book. Not sure if it is, but it feels like a tribute to all the astro references. Like a page from Sora no Manimani (which was one of the first Sphere anime).

Going to end with an image and some discussion. This isn’t from the book, but it’s from one of the promo sets Sphere did this year.

This is one of those not-quite-candid shots where the girls need to express naturally, smile, all that stuff. It’s a fun picture, so it needs to look…fun. I think Haruka’s strength really comes through here since she is the best actress in the group. Aki always look pretty natural, so she automatically passes.

Minako is a little caught in between, but if you’ve seen her film you probably know she really can’t act anyways, so that much is probably just natural for her. However Ayahi is just… well, she’s doing the right thing, but it looks pretty fake. The problem is the way we human beings detect facial expressions. A lot of it has to do with the way you emote with your eyes, how your face muscles move them while you smile. It’s like she needs to do this somewhat, and isn’t doing it.

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Sora no Manimani

December 18, 2010

Year in Review: The Funnies

By omo

Over yonder at the blog-in-data-recover, I’ve written a list of the amusing stuff that happened this year. I guess I could have added the bouncing boobs from High School of the Dead on the list because it’s one of those Grenadier moments. You know? Except it only looks amusing and really doesn’t do anything. I don’t think breasts are good absorber of recoil, and whats-his-face Komuro should have gotten beaten over the head by Miyamoto for giving her purple boobs. That’s just the beginning, and the one anime probably everyone watched (outside of JUMP crap).

This year is an amazing year for comedies in anime. While we never had an outstanding title this year on par with FMP: Fumoffu, there were scores of great shows that will make you laugh out loud. At least it made me. Then again I laugh a lot.

The one I want to highlight is Seikon no Qwaser. It’s like Yosuga no Sora but without the pretense of seriousness. Plus, it’s got none of the “boning your twin sister while your girlfriend (soon-to-be-ex) stands and watch, along with ero-minded Iichou-san” big ball of fire mess; or rather, how do you top that? On the other hand, I thought the “keeps on going” thing works better with Nao being boned and Sora watching, but that’s just how she is. Qwaser just has unslightly people being unslightly, mostly doing all kind of weird stuff that defies imagination. I mean in some sense, the whole walking-on-the-sex-scene bit was not unexpected. It’s gawking, but it isn’t out of mind. Stuff like boob hypnosis is.

It brings up this notion that you can bridge the gap between awful and comedy. It’s kind of like how Fist of the North Star is enjoyable, but it’s also enjoyable. You get what I mean? There are too many shows making that gap this year it is starting to bleed into proper comedies.

But with offerings like Seitokai Yakuidomo, I can’t really blame them.

To wrap this point up, I’m just going to say that 2010 is an abnormal year in anime comedies in that I’ve seen more moments in anime this year that made me laugh than probably 2009 and 2008 combined. Maybe it speaks as much to how bad 2009 and 2008 was in terms of comedies, but really, if you are not laughing this year, you are not watching the same anime I’m watching.

The sad thing is there really wasn’t just one show that stood out besides the Qwaser, which is remarkable for other qualities besides that it’s hilariously over the top. That it’s terribly hilariously over the top.

Leave a comment | posted in Introspectives, Modern Visual Culture, Seikon no Qwaser, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Yosuga no Sora

December 15, 2010

Kouhei Hasekura and Anti-Establishment Drama

By omo

The archetypical traditional romance for scandal is the thing that makes Romeo and Juliet sensible, as star-crossed lover where a gap beyond their reach separates two true lovers. That gap could be circumstances or fate or whatever. In Fortune Arterial it’s vampirism…except it is not.

So it goes, Ms. Veep obviously feels for Hasekura, and vice versa (in this animated branch of an eroge). Erika doesn’t want to live like a traditional “vampire” or whatever that gets labeled as that in that universe. Erika has her own thought about how to live, how to live like a human, and how to live with humans. For drama, her mom makes some familial rule about it however, and there’s this conflict/pride nonsense which acts as the main point of conflict in their story, arising from the conflict of the expectations upon her as a vampire and as a human. And also there’s the whole vampiric blood and biology doing its job making Erika wanting to suck Hasekura’s blood.

To put it in other words, it is like as if Erika’s mom is trying to get her wedded off for their family’s fortunes, she resists because of pride, except she’s OTP with Hasekura. In eroge speak, you (Hasekura) are actually going after her and trying to get inside her gym shorts or whatever, and her vampiric urges that she is trying to suppress with her foremind is trying to get her p0n0’d. Oh wait, it just means she wants to suck some blood. Same difference.

I’m not sure how this is suppose to work. Or rather, I think I know how this is suppose to work and it is ringing the “this is not a feminist work!” bell in my mind. I mean think about it, Hasekura is a nice guy and all, but basically he is a tool for tradition and against independent thought, that his kindness torpedoes not just Erika’s human dignity (if she had any), but is both on the surface what he ought to be doing (encouraged) and underneath what he should be doing to unlock the CGs.

Such a pleasant story about unpleasant regression of individual’s power to choose as an underlying theme, yeah? Aren’t female vampires suppose to be exactly the opposite? Or is this just the logical offshoot of what happens when a Japanese family of vampires raises a kid like how Japanese humans do? What does that say about conservative Japanese family values? LOL.

Leave a comment | posted in Fortune Arterial, Modern Visual Culture

April 22, 2008

CLANNAD the Movie or Incremental Upgrades Leaves the Heart Wondering

By omo

I enjoyed the CLANNAD movie. But I realize it became a very narrowly tailored exercise in, well, dramatic reenactment of something that’s probably more powerful.

The problem with CLANNAD, and to some extent the Key anime adaptations we’ve seen so far, is that there is no way to traverse through all the key “checkpoints” without making a mess of the story. The story either loses some of the impact because of that, or the story just gets too convoluted for a straight-faced narrative.

In a more general sense, multi-pathing visual novels are like arcade racing games. Specifically, it’s those games that takes a couple tokens to play where you have to not only beat your AI opponents, but make various checkpoints to get more time. When you run out of time, even if you are ahead of the pack, you basically lose.

In this modular way to look at drama, where trying to hit every gut wrenching twist and turn becomes the purpose of an unstoppable, artfully sly narrative, we should see quite a few of those checkpoints in the duration of the story. But when as applied to visual novels, the difficulty arises when your checkpoints are not dotted across one race track, but in a city of one-way roads that necessarily limits you to only a subset of all possible checkpoints available in the game out of the total.

The approach in a theatrical adaptation is necessarily much more single minded. We want to go in and get it done in an hour-and-half. TV series can pursuit forks in the road, but movies lack the luxury of time to backtrack (so much).

And in exchange, the CLANNAD movie took us deeper and all the way through with Nagisa’s story. But at what cost? Was it worth it?

I think how you answer those questions will be the litmus test to determine what you enjoy the most out of an exercise in drama.

Perhaps more relevantly, with each iteration, each Key adaptation, both Toei and Kyoto Animation do a better job. At least that was my impression.

1 comment | posted in Clannad, Modern Visual Culture