Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

October 10, 2007

I Watch Cartoon Porn for the Porn – Autumn 2007

By omo

Mao Mizusawa

I don’t know about you but I am shallow. Like a duck. Like algebra. Like sunshine raining down…on uncovered SKIN THAT IS! But I don’t go so far as anime fandom, on the whole, goes. Character is a literary term as well as the thing it refers to. I like my PVC figures reasonably proportioned and appropriately clothed, thank you very much. But I figured a tack to do a listing of this season’s best should take form by who, and not what anime, is worth watching for.

Mao Mizusawa – Kimi Kiss Pure Rouge – It’s no surprise that a trip to your local doujin/fanart depository should give quite a few hits of her. Kimi Kiss, itself, was somewhat popular a couple years back. Mao is no Saber but she has her fair share of admirers. I’m not sure what, maybe it’s a mix of that cuteness and a subtle maturity which hits off well for her? Is it the braided twin-tails? If I were to compare, she would be a lot like Tama-nee from To-Heart 2, but Mao is not as…sinister. In the anime she’s pitched as a returning osananajimi who came back transformed drastically, and I guess that explains a lot. Kimikiss is a character-driven romance story with drama-plot elements, so we’ll see more development for Mao down the road.

Liumei Wong (Wang Liumi) – Gundam 00 – I know someone whose name is 1 character off hers. But there is no one I know with a body like hers. And it’s not just that; her dress is two-thirds of what’s killer about this complete package of Chinese hotness. It’s very well designed from top to bottom. The prints are Kero-chan-Check worthy, so are those flower-pedal buttons that comes off not as old fashion but appropriately modern. OK I got to stop making these puns now. Oh, and of course the unforgettable low cut down her back. It’s not a big surprise that there’s a figure of this fine figure, already in production. Unfortunately we’ve only had a couple glimpses of Wang and I don’t think we’ll see her too much until her time is ripe for some Gundam action. I’d put money down that soon enough we’ll see her in the pilot seat of something.

Mayu Tsukimura – Goushuushosama Ninomiyakun – Apron Dress FTW. It’s not a pinafore, it’s not an apron, it’s a dress. But it works just the same… We don’t know much about this earnestly innocent succubus besides that what she thinks as appropriate maiden-like behavior is a major turn-on for…high school boys. I suppose that’s excusable because some high school boys are turned on with even less. Or more. Hormones and all. But being an anime Goushuushosama Ninomiya-kun distinctively relies on genre tropes to show the absurdity of our Mayu-chan in a new world of male lust. Oh, being a light novel adaptation I don’t think we’ll see much in terms of fanart right now. But soon enough at this rate…

Michiko Kouzuki – Blue Drop ~ Tenshitachi no Gikyoku – She’s the “Good Girl” archetype for the season. The bar is set high, as well–she may be timid but she is very single minded with accomplishing what she has to do. Actually she (and how Blue Drop portraits her) is one of the best thing about the show itself–like how she sprints down the lawn of the school, or blurt out her feelings for Hagino. Plus, wow, Yukino Satsuki is just awesome. The short ponytail also works wonder here, even if generally she’s a plain meganekko kind of a build.

Kureha Akabane – Night Wizard the Animation – She’s the warm, childhood friend of the protagonists’ potential love interest that welcomed the protagonist to her first day of school. Dressed in miko outfit (with…a pair of Sketchers? PWN) all day, at school, at home, at work–she’s pretty much the quintessential happy nun archetype. And it shows in battle too–capable but unable to do what the main characters do. Nonetheless her charming personality and Night Wizard’s mix of classic Shintoism in modern Akiba sci-tech warfare of fantasy make Kureha stands out above the crowd.

Tomoyo Sakagami – CLANNAD – The quiet, Mai Kawasumi type… Well there’s a lot said already everywhere about CLANNAD, so I’ll get to the point. Our Tomoyo is a little bit of a mean bitch, which supposedly suits Houko Kuwashima’s acting but the cool and violent mix has always been her bag anyways. What’s key is sort of ironic–CLANNAD the anime will pay CLANNAD fans plenty of Tomoyo service but we won’t see her story unfold fully (I guess). But the full story for Tomoyo Sakagami contained in CLANNAD game finishes in Tomoyo After, as you may have heard. And that would be the thing to watch for. If CLANNAD anime does well, who knows?

Yuuri Kitajima – Dragonaut ~ the Resonance – Sometimes it’s good to admit to being somewhat infantile. The first new anime girl of the season goes naked for you, and you put her name on your blog? That’s like a cliché harem plot device. In this case, Dragonaut has a lot to offer along that line, even if it comes in the shell of a cold and ends-driven mad scientist. A Gonzo original, you can’t really expect a whole lot out of Professor Kitajima, but conservative estimates suggest Kitajima has a whole lot already. Any more it would be obscene and gravity defying.

Runner-Ups:

Amu Hinamori – Shugo Chara – A stereotypical Pre-Cure era magical girl, Peach Pit lays it thick on her (and her sister) their brand of fashion. Hit or miss it’s up to you, but this massive tsunderella would probably be the only draw to a modern magical girl show. On the flip side, modern magical girls don’t hit home runs if they fall out of their lolicon-drawing market segment as Amu squarely is not.

Tieria Erde – Gundam 00 – Tieria is a male character, but the character design of Gundam 00, Yun Kouga, hits a home run, IMO, to bring that Saint Seiya style of modern bishounen-ism back in display. Sure, your typical military fanboy probably can’t stand how Tieria carries a purse or looks just like a girl half the time, but he’s got some fine hair. Actually, the same can be said of Gundam 00’s prophetic captain Big Hair, Sumeragi Ri Noriega. She’s not quite a whole paragraph even with the drinking in just one episode, but she’s another one to look out for in this coming season.

Adilicia Ren Mathers – Rental Magica – Take what you love about characters like Alicia Florence or Layla Hamilton, and install a more evil but tease-happy personality with a giant magical fish, and you get a bit of what Adilicia is like in Rental Magica. As of one episode we don’t know what’s going on with her, besides those hair drills and her mature and domineering presence. I personally dig Mikako Takahashi’s take on this tsundere-ish character. Similarly, Kana Ueda pulls her half-kansai Mikan voice for Rental Magica’s Honami Takase Ambler, a Japanese person who practices Irish witchcraft…? But that seifuku + broom combo is pretty delicious. Honami is not as eye catching, but she has that older sister charm which complements Adilicia well.

Toa – Dragonaut ~ the Resonance – Anemone, meet Eureka. Oh, add boobs. And Minorin.

Mizuki Hibara – Mokke – When you’re a little, energetic child living in the countryside, there’s a lot to do outdoors. It’s kind of sad to see that the premise of Mokke is the repeat victimization of this innocent person. Nana Mizuki plays the youthful Mizuki, who probably will spend a lot of time cheering Shizuru Hibara, Mizuki’s older sister, for saving her again and again. And to remind her life isn’t all that bad being poorvictimized by funky Japanese monsters.

That’s it for now. There are probably a few that I am missing out on, but this is hard work…

8 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture

October 8, 2007

The Story of Redemptive Violence, or Gundam Will Continue Forever

By omo

Make Love, not War?

Redemptive violence is the bigger, badder, more brainy term to describe violence justified. This ranges from executions to “eye-for-an-eye” to even a war to end all wars and even using violence to protect someone and catch criminals. Gundam 00 throws a nice, juicy fat herring from the get go, tying terms like “dunamis” and “kyrios” (Greek for Holy Spirit and Trinity) with “oh noes I’m a kid fighting a terrible war excused by religious reasons and there’s no god poo hoo”?

Sigh, I feel like an 8th grade kid trying to explain to random internet people the point behind faith and love.

And thankfully, most Gundam shows do make a point to talk about faith and love (or maybe just hope and love?). Because it’s only in these incredibly human, idealized feelings like faith and love that we can even stand, point and laugh at the folly of war, of greed, and the tragedy of looking at people not as people. (And also, I’m sure, that the producers feel the moral burden upon them, with all those 8th grade kids watching their shows.)

Most Gundam shows also do make a point about Gundam as some kind of idol, too. The whole “I want more power/to be stronger” nonsense goes hand in hand with the “there’s someone I want to protect” nonsense or the “this world sucks” nonsense. In fact this probably explains why a lot of anime have crappy endings, not limited to just Gundam shows.

Still, I think unlike a lot of other stories told in popular media, Gundam tells a much more elaborate, and philosophically complex stories about redemptive violence (and, even showing the myth of it as well) by actually telling you these things up front, instead of using characterization and theme to explain things to you. For better or worse, this gets the message across faster and clearer usually.

That said, it’s probably unfair to pin so much of Gundam into the pigeonhole that is redemptive violence. A lot of other people have said their piece about Gundam’s stories, their motivations, and the intent behind them. And indeed, Gundam means a lot of different things to everybody. And it doesn’t help that the franchise has gotten to a point, that each series keeps on repackaging the same story, myth, legend, troupe, and theme that I am never so sure what it was saying at the end.

Maybe that is why to date Turn-A has been my favorite Gundam series in how it walks that tight rope between redemptive violence and redemption itself, that war is never the answer to anything besides “how do we kill a lot of stuff real fast and make a lot of trouble for everybody.” That the feeling to protect someone is only going to make the person you protect into a bitter, old maid as the other lover of the person you died protecting ditches her because your death made things complicated. That by loving your enemy’s hairdo as your own is the first plank to build a bridge for reconciliation and peace. Or cross-dressing. I’m not sure which works better.

I hope 00 makes a similar effort to tackle the core moral dilemma instead of pandering to mere drama. That’s what makes the Gundam franchise more than just a nice boat (even if the roots are rather nice boat-ish). As the myth of redemptive violence perpetrates today’s society in its core, the ongoing saga of the Gundam franchise will continue and draw a lot of attention for being the marketplace and battleground of ideas between pacifism and the school of redemptive violence. Maybe eventually it’ll surprise me with a valid answer?

Or at least get all their fancy-pants Greek Gundam names to match. What’s Exia? Exegesis? I mean that’d be the poetically fitting reference.

2 comments | posted in Gundam, Modern Visual Culture

October 6, 2007

Aspect Ratio of My Heart

By omo

…is not 4:3.

Sorry, unlike other busy bees I won’t be waiting for the 16:9 CLANNAD but I will very definitely use that excuse to watch it again. CLANNAD is one of those games that I didn’t want to try to play after seeing how AIR and KANON turned out, and thankfully Kyoto Animation is the kind of studio that you trust to bring a good adaptation.

No matter because of the framing, because of the clipping, because of the Golden Rectangle, or because 4:3 is not how it was meant to be seen, it doesn’t negate the fact that CLANNAD is a show that does take advantage of these elements in an anime’s presentation.

What’s amusing is how did the folks in Japanese TV broadcasting come upon this idea as a way to sway subscribers…? Viva the otaku revolution. Then again, looking at a fair sample of the blogs out there talking about CLANNAD, the issue is more or less silent. I guess most people still don’t care?

I know when I dream, I don’t dream in 4:3. Nor should you.

3 comments | posted in Clannad, Modern Visual Culture

October 2, 2007

ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH

By omo

DNAra +4

It deserves repeating.

A nice rap song for a nice clock show. No matter if you liked or disliked Gurren Lagann, in whole or in part, its a show that has a deep message. It inspires, but it also breaks people’s hearts. That’s the power.

It doesn’t help that I’ve been in a “fight the power” mood lately either.

But a English-language rap song for a clock show? Heck, that’s gotta do more for the English-language literacy rate for Japan than any other anime out there right now.

GG Taku Iwasaki. I hope you get my share of monies spent on this little album set. It’s big and proud but also finely sliced like gourmet sashimi. Yummie! Oh by the way I’ll promptly discard the DVD and other CD that may come with it…merf.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

September 30, 2007

Naoki Satou FTW!

By omo

Listening to the new El Cazador soundtrack reminds me how Yuki Kajiura can hit left and feint right. But after doing it so many times, I no longer care about the feinting as much as how she does it. And oddly enough she only impressed me once since Aquarian Age TV, in Mai-Hime. I still don’t quite get why people get so riled up about her .Hack or Xenosaga, for praise or scorn.

But listening to Naoki Satou? It’s totally like a 10yr old listening to John William for the first time. And so far, every time. It’s not that he does anything really original or anything like that, but ever since I first heard him through X TV‘s soundtracks, it feels at first so powerful, that like Kajiura’s earlier works, the music drives the imagery by itself. We don’t need anime or animation to tell a story, if it’s going to be like that.

But unlike MADLAX’s “lol still pan + YAMANI” nonsense that lots of Kajiura fans like, different directors did it differently with Naoki Satou. X was probably a more conventional take about sweeping destinies crossed in a forest of revenge, much like Noir. And the musical presentation came across similarly. But not so in Eureka 7.

Eureka 7 was the place where I first took a good and hard look at his stuff. It was incredible at times, but yet it left a weak impression. Maybe it has to do with how musically Eureka 7 was all over the place, or maybe because the direction was trying to tell a story about people instead of trying to present a moving slide show with a nice soundtrack. The soundtrack albums themselves were epic enough but it didn’t quite give off that orange, legendary glow.

It is much like The Heroic Age. The two soundtracks for the show that are out now helped me understand a bit better what I’m experiencing. As far as music in the show goes, unlike E7, Heroic Age was mostly typical of “lol grand space epic” sort of thing. Some of the main themes and pieces that are repeated on the soundtrack got a lot of prominent use in the show. Some of the music stood out but it wasn’t remarkable. Yet listening to the soundtrack themselves tells a different, similar, but much more engaging epic. The music definitely does not go all over the place like E7 but yet listening to the album arrangements was just a delight.

In fact, it makes me sort of sad that so much of the great stuff from the second OST is just obscured by the silly show, and sort of wished that a show with slow-moving space battles and lofty racial politics can afford some stillness and sing us a few new tunes. The key is in the arrangement, I guess.

The Heroic Age has fast moving space battles as well, so that might be what’s taking up all the sound space? Maybe Naoki Satou needs to write for the next Simoun-like show. That’ll be beyond legendary.

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, The Heoric Age