Category Archives: Franchises

March 3, 2014

So Much Freaking Feels

By omo

It’s a slow slog to go through and repeat, this time with words, the feelings that ran through my head every time I hear M@STERPIECE shows up somewhere, maybe an ad or a radio stream. The post-concert sickness didn’t help either, although I suspect that was from the flight home more so at the show. I was operating on fumes at that point.

I’m happy to say I’m about done with day one, and much of the “introduction” part needn’t be repeated for day two. So hopefully that, and the IM@S movie, and the Mouretsu Pirates movie, will come shortly.

Yeah, it’s like just now I realized I forgot to pick up a copy of Mouretsu Pirates movie pamphlet.

What I have done instead of writing the long-butt posts is instead, doing this. I signed up for a Gree account while I was over there, so it’s pretty smooth sailing. The hardest things so far are trying to play the game on the desktop (which is made easy with a user agent spoof plugin) and trying to buy coins (how?). Yeah, I don’t mind paying a few bucks. I guess I ought to be buying those LTP CDs instead; they come with special cards!

Well, despite its dreadfully mundane mobage interface, I think of Million Live the game as a way to know the girls. They’re no longer characters in a video game; they are the characters that make up the Million Stars.

Leave a comment | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, Idolmaster, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

March 1, 2014

The IM@S Bonfire

By omo

If I was a mild IM@S fan before going to Japan to watch the IM@S movie and their live show, I am no longer such a thing. Arguably I could not have been a mild IM@S fan given somewhere between 20-50% of my motivation of going to Japan this time was to see these two things, which can appear as an irrational behavior in most normal contexts. I say fan’s gonna fan, right?

Thing is, when I first watched the IM@S anime not-so-long ago, it didn’t appear to me as some top-tier anime made to advertise the franchise. I thought it was competent, featuring sparks of brilliance but overall typical A-1 Pictures late-night anime fare. Well, that actually says a lot, given this became one of the first anime that Studio Trigger that we now know worked on?

Discussing with some friends about Sakuracon tonight, I found that the Seattle-based con managed roped in two relevant animators as this year’s guests: the always amusing Koji Masunari, and sakkan and designer Toshifumi Akai, as a part of Magi’s promo at the con. Immediately my eyes honed into their contributions to Anim@s. It’s just that state of mind. And it’s not just that–I whipped out episode 23 from Crunchyroll right there and then and watched it. Despite the jetlag (or because?). Despite that not 5 minutes ago I was about to go to bed because I was tired, and it’s almost 1 AM.

The funny thing is, the entire episode kept my attention. Just a few minutes before putting my sleep schedule out of whack, I was watching an arguably inferior anime. I was close to zoning out while watching the show, so it was a good time to stop for the night I thought. But nope, that IM@S bonfire lit under my butt keeps me warm and going. What started as a freaking seed has blossomed into something more, perhaps something a little bit scary now. We’ll see where this takes me.

Episode 23 of The Idolm@ster anime is probably the second most depressing episode, and it’s depressing in a “Lost in Translation” kind of way. It’s got the Masunari touch. The way the scenes show the upper body motion. The way Yukiho sits in the green room, meditating to the music. The way Haruka camps out in front of her computer in her room. I totally forgot Little Match Girl made its anime debut here, and it becomes juxtaposition and yet somewhat touching in a very different way to what was going on in Haruka’s mind. And this is because the Yukiho we all love to hate or hate to hate has come so far along.

Everything comes together in this nub of an episode where Haruka doesn’t fall to the ground. It’s both the cause and cure of insomnia.

PS. If I was more motivated I would’ve pulled out their individual pieces from the Backstage M@ster book and look at the paw prints Masunari put in there. Of course, what ended up happening was that I googled the book and it turned up a couple “unboxing” type videos where the youtuber just go through the book, and what I found was that there are now a print run of this book that doesn’t have the Ogi Star Memories add-on. And for fact-checking purposes I got my copy out of the shelf anyway. At any rate, beware. Don’t get that version, if you want to buy the most definitive print reference for Anim@s. Get the one that has the Ogi Star Memories (the obi will indicate so). I am pretty sure that particular doujinshi is still over $100 street price-wise. Maybe you can get it less if you shop around?

All the more amazing when I just found it lying on A-Button’s counter a week ago.

PPS. The full sheding from Yukari’s SSA show can be found here. He goes into way more details than I can remember, and I sat next to him for the 2/15 show anyway!

EDIT: See the comments, but also https://twitter.com/digikerot/status/440942124369190912 for the first and subsequent editions of the book.

4 comments | posted in Idolmaster, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

February 26, 2014

Gundam Build Fighters: The Other Side of Shiny?

By omo

The thought came across first when the second ending visuals came on for the first time for Gundam Build Fighters. I was watching the show on my way to work as I typically do, on the train. The extra ~$30 I pay a month goes to exactly this–better-than-the-competitor’s LTE coverage down the Northeast Corridor, so I can watch anime on the go without having to set up some kind of auto-torrent-re-encode-plus-sync system, thanks to the magic of simulcast.

It’s the same idea behind why I liken the IDOLM@STER movie costumes as Gokuseifuku a la Kill La Kill. White background, single-colored stars. It glitters while I was thinking about the connection between these things. Well, maybe not so much thinking and noticing there’s some connection.

sample

It didn’t really click until I read the investor report from the Bandai Namco group for fiscal year 2013 where the spotlight on Bamco’s unique IP puts IM@S back to back with Kamen Rider and Gundam, as some of the biggest drivers within Bamco’s portfolio. It’s quite telling if you actually read what it says, like:

  • In Japan it’s about on par in terms of name recognition as Gundam
  • A focus to target anim@s Ps via social games

So, what about Gundam Build Fighters? I think it fits Bamco’s vision for the business to a tee. It bridges the kind of generational gap between kids and adults. One way it does that is by adding that video game element to the series in a very straight-up sort of way. This has two effects. One, you can have the tournament/arena setup that we see in the show, providing pretty satisfying battles (ones with clear losers) on a regular basis without killing all your cast in the process. Two, it gives the gunpla aspect new life by clearly painting a vision for the gunpla builder. In that sense, we’re now gamifying the gunpla aspect by giving it the ability for people to customize using official components (which is also a money driver kind of a thing).

Which is to say, if we were to describe the genre of game Gundam BF is trying to depict, it’s not really a fighting game (even if the gameplay turns out that way). It’s closer to a social-mobile game in which players spend all their time and effort building their gunpla, perhaps to just admire them (this is what Sei was doing until he met Reiji) or to relive them like “proper otaku” (this is what Ral-san was doing, as with the old fogies that Reiji schooled). Or in Gundam BF’s case, explode your master grade++ gunpla in moments of glory in battle. All these things exist only in some kind of weird context that you do with mobage as well.

All they’ve left out is the infinite money sink hole that is the kuji process.

I mean, it is not really that close to, say, Million Live, but the formula is there. You can’t customize your idols, and you can’t really build them up beyond what the game provides the framework for. For gunpla OTOH, masterful crafters can actually do something unique and special by adding their own touches. But in the digital version of such a game, you might as well be equally limited.

PS. I’ve returned. I have 3 posts queued up and to be written, on top of the backlog now haunts me and the posts to be written for other obligations. orz indeed.

PPS. I don’t know about you, but I think Wing Gundam is top idol.

PPPS. If it’s with you, Imber.

2 comments | posted in Gundam, Idolmaster, Modern Visual Culture

February 8, 2014

Mai Mai Miracle on Kickstarter

By omo

Kickstarter projects are all over the place, and in 2014 the platform is used for all different kinds of business purposes. I think however if this means having fans able to pool together money to get Mai Mai Miracle out in the wild, translated, it’s well worth doing.

Kiiko

I’m not sure if it’s well-documented, so I assume it’s not, but Mai Mai Miracle is one of those “for kids” movies that is actually for adults. It belongs in the same category as, say, Wolf Children or The Wind Rises in that I am not sure if kids can get everything out of it. Well, no, I don’t think most kids could. The whole thing seemed to be like a mistake from the beginning. The planning and development of the movie binned the movie as a for-the-family affair, mainly for kids. The story and final product, however, beame this precarious and sensitively piece that has a full-blown magical Inaka, where kids in their seats will tire and bore but the old guys will cry. It’s one of those movies that had a bad open but revenue per theater increases as the screening went on. It’s not going to be many children’s favorite, but it can win festival awards.

Furthermore, I think Mai Mai Miracle channels that Asian mid-boom feel, like how Whisper of the Heart succinctly captures the 1980s in urban sprawl Tokyo. Mai Mai just goes another 20 years back. It’s not as meticulous as Ghibli’s works, but that masterful mise en scene, the “relax” look for which animation breaths life, and the whimsical thread that carries forward the movie are just the same. What would Ben say about this ex-Telecom key figure? (By the way, he hasn’t said much about Katabuchi, at least in the posts.)

The kickstarter pegs the DVD/BD SKU at around $55. That’s typical anime pricing I suppose. I would take a step and say that it is also kickstarter pricing. And it’s [/drumroll] Aniplex pricing, coincidentally, on a per-minute basis. What is more notable is the 200-page artbook the Kickstarter is promising. It is not the standard 3000y settings and screencap artbook that you can get from Amazon or any major bookseller. It is a totally new product, which is good, because no way it would be worth $75 even after shipping.

Anyway, go back it. The movie is great if you enjoy kuukikei/Inaka style stuff. It’s great if you are East Asian and can handle a slow film. It’s great if you are an animation buff. But you already know this, don’t you? People who read my blog probably already do!

Also, this is the first UK-based kickstarter that does anime distro for R1, isn’t it.

For old time’s sake (since the only copy of my Mai Mai Miracle blog post seems to be on my desktop), here’s a link to Shii’s breakdown of Sora no Woto, which is basically a digression of the Inaka value as mapped to otaku entertainment.

And oh, the kickstarter.

2 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Maimai Shinko to Sennen Mahou

January 31, 2014

Horizontal Adaptation of Ideas in Original Anime Concepts

By omo

If I smack Anohana with a Nagiasu-shaped noodle press repeatedly, what shakes out of it follows:

  • OKADAAAAA
  • People in love with people in love
  • How more things change, more things stay the same, except things still change.
  • …and as a corollary, themes about passage of time in the physical versus passage of time in the emotional

It’s all really signature. I mean I don’t think the two shows have any overlap other than Okada, so it’s a good exercise in picking out what makes her writing tick. Nagiasu in many ways is a superior version of Anohana, except they have different goals narratively. [Edit: NISA licensed both shows for US distro, which might be the only other overlap!]

I was thinking about this while walking down a sidewalk in midtown NYC during rush hour. Invariably what happens is that you walk with a pack of people and someone is smoking. Then you think about Zvezda.

anzukate

Zvezda episode 3 almost justifies the existence of this anime. It is the sort of thing that makes me go “Original anime are the best.” [read it like “SHOW YOU GUTS COOL SAY WHAT” is the best.] I don’t think about it so much when watching Anohana or Nagiasu, but the thought simply confirms by those things. Similarly I can look at all my favorites this season, and majority of them are original. I’m not even sure that I included Kill la Kill or Space Dandy in that list.

I think what makes original anime good is actually not that they are anime-original. It’s because of the telephone game factor. If Shinsekai Yori was an anime original it would have been gangbusters awesome. You wouldn’t have people who looked it up and get all icky because of the highly sexualized manga, and I wouldn’t had to suffer through the slog of the thing that is the current anime, simply because they could have applied the narrative structure better. Of course, the trade off is that fewer people vet any given concept, none the least are the audience for the original work. Although arguably that is kind of not the point in a lot of cases in the late-night category. Also it isn’t to say original works don’t get that committee’s touch, to put it nicely; that can happen to anything.

Makes me think what Kawamori had to deal with when he was creating the core items in the AKB0048 anime.

I remember reading some interview with the creator of Rahxephon and Mamoru Oshii. This was a part of the US release of the movie, I think? Anyway, the point I want to repeat here is that a part of Evangelion’s greatness comes from the contribution of many of the animators there. There were a lot of talented creators pitching in little things that made it great. This is kind of what I’m referring to by my earlier comment on Witch Craft Works. And I think it is this sort of originality that makes original anime neat.

And to give things some orthogonality, you can track original creators like Okada across works in this way. It’s like she’s basically refining her thoughts on the topics and coming up with new ideas. It’s not just her, either. I think Madoka’s success is largely due to this factor, tracing Shinbo, Kajiura, Urobuchi and even Aoki (albeit a lot less than the others). I also like how Madoka’s PR purposefully hype and hide, so to speak. Nagiasu took a different route by hiding it entirely, and its sales reflects this (other than the obvious genre gap here). Both shows are better for it, I think, sales aside.

And Zvezda too. If the November 11 joke wasn’t enough for you…

1 comment | posted in AKB48, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai., English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Kill La Kill, Nagi no Asakura, Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda