The Yard Sale
Remember, remember, the 11th of November,
Of smoking, fangirls and GAR.
I see no reason why contractor, so badassed,
Should ever be forgot.
Maybe they’ll commemorate it by drawing mustaches on Hei’s mask.
The fans will totally demand, whine and ask;
For a disappointing turn.
Like ROD’s Joker, in his second task,
No affection was earned.
Or I think?
I know by now a lot of you have watched Touka Gettan 5.
Who am I kidding? It’s like the most confusing anime since … Utena? No, this is way more confusing than Utena. Maybe Boogiepop Phantom? But not even that; not everyone looks like eroge superstars with hair that only look good when your robe is half-fallen open (revealing some lacy underpants, if any), sprawling on your bedding, sick with spring fever? Er, I mean too many characters look alike with the hair, hair coloring, and face.
But it’s not just the purposeful confusion or the iroppoi (not eroppoi?) slew of half-possessed, across space and time menagerie of a cast that keeps me watching Touka Gettan. It’s things like that Japanese-style stall/fast food made-to-order store in episode 5. It’s not unlike how you’d buy a woman’s summer outfit:
1) browse in the store
2) pick it out and try it on (complete with “dressing room”)
3) ask the store to modify it, tailoring to your desires. While you wait.
Momoka’s penchant for Nori-ben (and other foods) may be why she’s so attractive, for me. Or is Saori Hayami outdoing Mamiko in a Mamiko role? I foresee a bright future for this … voice actress that I didn’t find any information about in a short time. It’s sort of refreshing to hear a “soft tsun” voice when rest of the show’s cast is doing “come have hot sexxorz” voice, “squeaky kohai” voice, “lol woman playing a boy” voice, or in episode 4 and 5, the Kefka laugh. Guh.
Better cut this post short before I get distracted by all that pr0n.
Revisiting Full Metal Panic – Fumoffu is timely, I guess. Enough to blog about.
Kyoto Animation’s new comedy, Lucky Star, has the attention of some people. I think. Not sure.
A while back (over a year ago now?) a popular media retail chain was closing. I raided one of their more urban stores and found some volume 1+box combos eating dust for a low price. As a small reward for having finished school and enjoying a few days’ worth of break, I watched it on the television. It would be the third or fourth time I braved the overly energetic tsun-tsun performance of Satsuki Yukino with otherworldly antics of an animated counter-terrorist.
With the strange word of the director change for LS, it occurred to me to check just how funny Fumoffu is rather than my rosy memory of how it was. Two birds in one stone, right? I also feel kind of bleh lately. Too much staring at the computer either for WoW or anything else…
And it’s funny still. It no longer has that shock factor to it, because I remember too much of it (as the series is quite memorable). But also because you need an audience to watch that show with; watching it by yourself is a little… Like eating a meal alone, I suppose.
The sharing nature of a piece of anime was something that Kyoani does well to imbue into their works. Even that random dance sequence… Someone must like that stuff, and it shows.
Wait, that’s no alien. It’s a bad pun!
You know, “Heroic” “Age.” Heh. Heh.
More seriously, The Heroic Age is actually fairly interesting if you look past the simple ongoing plot and stare into its setting. It’s not unusual for a grand, science-fictional space faring race to examine the purpose and meaning of the existence of the race from the perspective of the entire society. To me it seems foreign coming from an American, individualist school of thought, but on the flip side it is very at home with a Chinese/Japanese nationalist-zergling mentality. The 12 labors that governs the coalition of humankind feels like it will bring about some sort of silly caste system that dictates the social order of society of the Iron Tribe. The Golden Tribe certainly helped quite a bit by making it clear as to who’s suppose to do what. Maybe in the grand scheme of things the Silver Tribe is the truly oppressed race here? Well, of course not, since they brutally blew up planets and what not, AMIRITE? Sigh.
And what’s up with the OP? I get this very odd feeling that seeing those pretty and mysterious spirals warping into normal space in the very beginning of the OP is like, a scene from the end or the climax of the series, with Age looking off into space. Maybe those are his daddies? Or maybe I’m just thinking too much?
Did I mention I really like Manabi Straight?
What prompted me towards this entry isn’t the mysterious episode 10 sub, but my friend’s little concert in celebration of his first CD release. In America, indie musicians are not exactly rare and one thing I found out in the past few years is that an exorbitant amount of indie music are categorically pop–in the sense that what you’ll find playing on the radio is often not unlike what you’ll find in indie club venues. For my friend Dean, it’s more than that however. Well, he explains it better than I can. [/shameless plug]
But what’s interesting is that it really doesn’t take a whole lot to be “good” live. Sure, that’s not to downplay the countless hours that goes into the hard work everyone puts in, but everyone puts in a lot of hours in something like that; far majority of the serious musicians do it, first and foremost, because they love to do it, and it’s their calling in life.
When you see them perform live, rather than some constrained studio recording or even a candid YouTube video, their passion speaks much louder; their playing much more expressive; and like how a typical face-to-face conversation is 40% body language, a live performance is easily an extra 40% more enjoyable, if not more.
Much like Suzumiya Haruhi’s performance in ep 12, Manabi’s performance highlights the climax to the series. It’s like seeing Kotoko’s backup dancers splitting her costume asunder during her Winter Tour shows, except you’re a measly 10 meters from it. It’s like going uphill on a rollercoaster, and anticipating what comes next; and then enjoying what does come.
Megumi Hayashibara sang the OP/ED to Manabi Straight (resurrecting words from the legacy of Ritsuko Okazaki (we miss you!)); she also recently released a new solo album. Hearing her familiar voice now pitched in a matured arrangement is pleasant, to say the least, but the live disc that came with it had caught only a little bit of that “extra 40%.” Still, that was probably worth the price of admission alone. Feel Well and Watashi ni Happy Birthday was ;_;
What else can I throw into this post that’s remotely related to Manabi Straight? Yui Horie‘s performance itself was fairly standard studio fare, so I’m not sure what to say about that in this context. However watching the video sequence is something else. Part of it is the rollercoaster effect, but you can feel some of the love and detail to attention (like the guitar pedalboard). Maybe it’s the animator’s”extra 40%”coming in?
Anyways; it’s a pity that not more of it is subbed timely. I hope people get around to watch the last two episodes, when that happens. Or check the raw like I did :)