The Yard Sale
This is a very long post about a two-day concert. I touched on various of things but I sort of had to stop writing because it’s simply way too long. So this is just kind of the key notes I wanted to jot down, some impressions, and stuff that I don’t want to forget.
Here is one way to skin this cat. I sort of agree but I would have put it in a different way.
Witch Craft Works is really an “anime” anime. Only Zvezda gives this one a run for its money this season. What I mean by this is that what’s fun about Witch Craft Works, other than the characters and designs, are out of the elements that’s added in by the process of animation: the voice acting, the visuals, and pacing. To use IS as a point of comparison, season 2 is closer to radio drama slideshow than anime. As an aside I think that is where things failed for IS…
So rather than pinning all the blame on either Potato-kuns (Potato-kunes?) I am going to just give credit to where it’s due: JC STAFF.
Because, like I said, the manga and the themes in Witch Craft Works are hardly anything one should aspire to. It’s not terrible but I think I can throw a stone into a late-night TV screening in Japan and hit something just as good or better. Which is to say…it’s kind of terrible. Admittedly I’m still a couple episodes behind, but there’s nothing in this show that has shown me any redeeming value besides what the anime brought to the table.
Which is to say, if you give Kugyuu, Mamiko, Kawasumi Ayako and Kayanon (and a strong supporting cast, although I’m kind of flipping the roles here) their own witch anime by JC Staff and put some actual animators and an experienced director behind the helm, it’s probably going to be A-OK.
PS. I hope Seto Asami keeps doing deadpan roles after this one, because I like to hope against great odds?
PPS. WCW is probably “better than A-OK” because, well.
PPPS. Is the top image a GSC spoof w.
The title is a pun.
Actually, I was thinking about how Yamakan’s WUG anime mixes idols and Tohoku saving. On paper, you are combining two things that are arguably opposite of each other. The filth of the entertainment industry that boils in the cauldron of Japan’s media center, and some Sendai guys trying to get in on that action? I don’t know. Of course, in the wake of the tragic quake and tsunami, lots of entertainers in Japan tried to ride it for charity or a buck. Which is why I have this DVD autographed by Sunao Katabuchi because he made a little music video trying to raise money for tsunami relief. I mention this only because it looks not like anything any otaku would buy; it’s purely a “cartoon” so to speak. Its motives are pure. I suppose that it aired on NHK means something.
Likewise, if anything, I think WUG’s treatment of the Tohoku disaster aspect is tasteful. The problem is that if I can still spin it in a negative light, so can anyone with an agenda otherwise. WUG is definitely late-night anime fodder. But what of its motives? This is where water and oil have a hard time mixing. In episode 9, here we have Kaya, the older and perhaps the one in the group who’ve gone through the most hardship, drops a little bomb on battle-hardened Mayu, who hopefully has gotten a little mug of perspective as a result. The way Kaya downplays how she overcomes her difficulties is almost borderline gap moe. And I’m half-serious. Or perhaps, there’s a double-gap moe here because it feels comical when Kaya’s troubles feels a magnitude larger than what Mayu suffered through, and at the same time Kaya’s motivation seems so insignificant compared to Mayu’s personal drive to achieve in the idol biz.
Still, here we have it, two very different people finding shared grounds as aspiring idols. They’re determined in equal parts. Perhaps that’s where both idol biz and Tohoku saving can meet, and shake hands. Yamakan surely will make enough to spot for the cost of the party. Akiba is prosperous enough that there’s nothing for it to lose and everything to gain.
It makes me think of The Wind Rises. It’s indulgent, but daring. WUG is, well, also indulgent and daring, except you have to take into the entire media mix doohicky. And to what ends? I think it’s always great when creators challenge the difficult or controversial in a meaningful way. Yamakan doesn’t quite go that far, but in essence he has combined two things people normally wouldn’t. If this really does mean benefiting the locals in Tohoku, this might be even better than that Angel Beats moment about organ donation.
PS. We can talk about something less 3/11 and more about late-night anime via WUG, actually. Maybe later. Today let’s take a moment to remember the tragedy and remind ourselves that recovery is still in progress! Thanks Yamakan!
[Note: This was written on Feb. 12, so uh, while I don’t think anything changed significantly but it’s worth noting.]
Some people told me that there’s a gender swap component with how Witch Craft Works is playing out. I don’t disagree, but at the same time it’s not clear cut. To me, it feels more like you got all these tropes or elements, that given a certain pattern, it would start to look like a gender swap. It may or may not be a mindful change, or it may only be superficial.
The problem I see with Witch Craft Work’s treatment from a gender role perspective is that there’s nothing special about whichever way things go. It depends on how you feel what aspect of the plot is validated thematically. For example, Honoka’s eager feelings to want to help Ayaka is always rewarded as he translate those feelings into actions and decisions. However his actions and decisions are not really rewarded? Much like how Ayaka’s calculating ways are often rewarded because she’s good at doing those things, but it always falls short in the grand scheme of things and Honoka makes up the difference.
In the very same breath, I can say that Honoka’s male-bravado-like behavior are appropriately punished because they are usually not thoughtout, precisely because these acts presupposes and ignores Ayaka’s feelings, how she sets things up the way they are, etc.
It’s a little worrysome in my opinion, because I think ultimately Witch Craft Works is a positive story in regards to Honoka and Ayaka. Honoka will grow and develop into respectability, and it’ll be couched in the typical anime-harem context regarding their mutual feelings. But you know, none of this really matters in the big picture. Something like RailDex is a much worse offender of these things. But let’s face it, neither stories are concerned about these gender issues, which is why they have them set up this way, which is why those are not the reasons why we are enjoying them.
But here I am, writing a blog post. I thought the whole genderswap thing was notable in Witch Craft Works only when I also thought about Silver Spoon. In the very same way, Hachiken behaves very much unlike the more stereotypical/idealized farmer boy, which is why Hachiken and Mikage form a triangle with Komaba. I mean, I think Komaba is that quiet, hard-working farmer to a tee. Hachiken on the other hand exhibits a lot of stereotypically urban/feminine traits, like the cooking thing, or crying a easily/lot, or gets overly attached to cute animals. It also doesn’t help that he is bookish, a fuss to deal with, often uncertain and generally very emotional. But I wouldn’t say gender roles play a huge part to the story in this sense, similar to why I wouldn’t call Witch Craft Works a gender swap. It’s interesting to see Mikage being the more cool-headed one, the single child trying to shoulder a family business. It’s such a typical inaka plot thing that the fact Mikage is a girl is kind of not even worth mentioning.
I could also look at it from a power point of view. It’s hard to say because in typical anime/Eastern fashion of glorifying women, it’s still about gender roles. Women are the most powerful/best what is grooved into their roles, and likewise for men. A lot of recent (past 10 yrs) anime have already gave girls more aggressive and active positions in society and boys into more housewife-type situations. So I guess it just doesn’t seem like WCW is doing anything new, nor is it really particularly going anywhere with the gender reversal.
So does it just come down to the princess carry?
Man, I could spend better time writing about ImoCho.
I confess, I don’t read A&V; nothing personal, that blog just doesn’t talk in a way that I particularly find rewarding versus the time it takes to walk that talk down to its components. But occasionally the talk does match the walk in a way that surprises, such as today’s contribution from a favorite blogger of mine. I think the post does a good job unraveling the cunning calculus beneath a, by all means, mundane product tie-in/advertisement. It’s easy to write about smarts in a smarty-pants show, but I need that like another EN blog post on Utena or another article about chuunibyou. Well, I’m sure someone does.
One of the big takeaways I had from my recent Japan trip is precisely this–there is a reason why things like IM@S is as big as it is. Or I should say, there are many, many different reasons why, and one of them has to do with precisely the way certain things came together, how they’re planned originally, how these ideas were then turned into features and functional-to-dos. If you ever planned a startup, you might find the whole process eerily familiar, even the pivot that happened between the IM@S1 and IM@S2 line of products. The closer I got to this vertical, the more clear these details became, with less barriers in the way. There are things it did well, there are successes and failures, there are things the IP did, the management did, to steer through the good and bad times.
But as someone who hasn’t really been close with the IP during much of its life, I cannot speak with authority on the details. It’s just got that shape, that unique smell, if you will. Like the smell of countless flowers in the halls of SSA.
TL;DR: Anim@s is a surprisingly intelligent piece of planning and writing, and Otou-san only uncovered part of it. Or, version 2: A&V blogged about something I cared about for once. Or, even shorter: アイマス最高!