Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

August 23, 2020

Blogging About Anime, August 2020

By omo

It’s been a while since I wrote about my seasonal watches. Having MLB back on TV seems to provide me a kind of anchor, rhythm-wise. It is arguable that pro team sports is a good or bad idea in the US, in mid-2020, when/where the pandemic is still raging strong. But that seems like just par for the course in 2020, a year that the lowest of bars in politics, health, and communication are all up for argument.

The lowest of bars in anime is also up for arguments. I have some baseline opinions about Uzaki and how generally cutesy anime with sexual overtones have some link to pedophilia or grooming. But that also seems like an overtly obtuse argument used by tribalists who are not really interested in talking about anime. It’s like, just because you can use candies to lure kids into unmarked vans, they are bad? So let’s forget about the main use cases for candies and just say they are for pedophiles? I guess that is the low bar of media literacy up for grabs, in this era of our 2020. I mean, the candy industry does way more money than the anime industry (and tons of Aniplex titles, well), so maybe we can let that pass. Unmarked vans, though, tsk tsk tsk.

That being said, it is a strawman that I encountered–I have yet talk to any live human who would hold the opinion about Uzaki in such a way (in connection to pedophilia). The original complaint back last year about Red Cross Japan using Uzaki to promote a blood donation drive comes down to TPO, so it turns out, which is really nothing controversial. National, high profile charities should not perpetrate sexist stereotypes is a no-brainer. Need more blood, I guess.

The anime itself is surprisingly watchable. Uzaki is an irritating character that gets increasingly charming, and the cast also gets increasingly self-aware. Nothing to write home about, other than having a so-to-speak controversial urn where piss takes go into the huge drain in the internet sky. Maybe Uzaki’s …uzai-ness is part of the ethos behind those poopy takes.

Some anime on hiatus from last season have resumed. I think the best out of those I am enjoying is Major 2nd second season and Food Wars. It’s kind of odd that my tastes lately have shifted onto these arguably mainstream works. Major 2nd is especially praiseworthy with interesting characters and articulate, if a bit too convenient, baseball knowhow. The level of baseball IQ demonstrated by the show is beyond any middle schooler team, even if it’s one of those things coaches and parents who are hardcore baseball types would know. If you have kids this is not a bad watch to teach them about baseball. The way it plays up gender in teenage sports leagues gives me a Disney channel vibe.

Another last-season pickup is the historical fiction racing anime Appare-Ranman. Talk about weird character dynamics. A literal child is in this anime, a literal chinese woman is in this anime. A bunch of Americans, literally, are in this anime. And Japanese people, of course. It is extremely Japanese in a lot of ways, especially for an anime that takes place in a fictional world where America is a thing, that being the country they are in. But I guess these are not really relevant since everyone speaks Japanese or English in this anime, or whichever dub track you select. Is it post-racial or racist-but-who-cares? I don’t know if I care at this point. The premise is so whack that any appeal to historical underpinnings will be lost in all the noise. As an aside, BNW, Iron, and GM? One is not like the other two. Also that guy is French! LMAO.

Along the same line, something is remarkable about Deca-Dence, but the overall thing felt really slippery. I don’t quite have a grasp on the story or the characters–like I get what’s happening, but the post-humanity humanity of it is hard to sympathize. Like, robots are just robots. It’s the risk when you set up a setting that is quite smart but the level of discourse is not much more advanced than Spongebob Squarepants. The setting is visually grand and a bit all over the place at first. It features a sort of cyberspace kind of thing and a sort of meatspace kind of thing, but I wish they would just explain it to us in the way I just phrased it, as inverted.

Picking things up again is the new season of Oregairu and it is the most beautiful image of codependence ever. But it is a pretty neat non-binary depiction of relationships in which things are clear enough that words can describe, but you’re struggling to find them. It’s not so much a story with any emotional investment on my end, given how these really wordy stories play out over a long period (the first season started in 2013, if you forgot like me). It is simply a thing of beauty that came and will pass, again, like the autumn leaves or melting snow or whichever passing-of-four-seasons analogy you’d like.

As far as fanservice goes, Monster Girl Doctor and Kanokari are probably the top picks. Kanokari story is easily the most problematic thing by a country mile this season, it’s so bad that I really didn’t want to watch it at times. On the plus side, it has a fair amount of cultural cache and ultimately the episodes tend to turn out to be enjoyable overall. Once the story gets on its groove I think it will fall victim to general relationship polygonalism and dull its lame-brain, protagonist-takes-for-story-sakes kind of plot justifications.

Maybe the real reason why Kanokari has legs is that it is controversial, as opposed to Monster Girl Doctor which is just WYSIWYG. It is definitely a work where the element of surprise is not its forte, yet it can still occasionally deliver.

In a different programming track, the fantasy light-novel-anime adaptation flavor this season for me is Maoh Gakuin or Misfit of Demon Academy or whatever. It’s absurd in a fun way and plays on your preconceptions. The power fantasy is on the boring side of things but it does a good job withholding information to keep you interested. I also like how the anime tries to cram a lot of information in terms of last minute reveals.

I’m watching Gibiate. It’s sort of interesting if you look at it as an anime watcher’s anime. In premise, time-traveling samurai, ninja, and warrior monk kicks apocalyptic ass seems like a perfectly cromulent 1980s anime plot. You add the bit about self-recording, the virus, the show-in-a-show take, the zombie tropes, and in the end it’s a swamp of animation production issues bookended with unusual music choices. Also some interesting voice cast here. Trainwreck? Brilliantly bad? More like, just oddish.

There’s this anime about idols and magic school, which is tied to a KLab game franchise in the making (out soon?) called Lapis Re:lights. They had a fully-costumed seiyuu live thing last year (or several?). The idol units in the story all play a short live performance for us throughout the anime series, which gets a Youtube cut without the in-episode dialogue. It’s worth checking out if that’s your thing. Honestly, this is a bit too “love live” for me, but overall it’s worth mentioning. In some ways it’s the same formula as Love Live but more tailored to the prototypical otaku notion. Also, this song has a few sextillions in it.

Is this it? I think this is mostly it. I tried a few episodes here and there, like the fishing anime. The characters don’t do much for me but there’s a level of meta here where just like the protagonist, you end up liking the outdoor activity (or the depiction thereof) despite the annoying people? I don’t know. It’s more than what I can say about Peter Grill, although that show is interesting to think about, and kind of icky to think about, so it doesn’t occupy much thinking time. Umamusume shorts are cute and sweet. What else? I’m probably forgetting something as usual.

Leave a comment | posted in Appare-Ranman, Deca-dence, Gibiate, Kanojo, Okarishimasu, Lapis Re:lights, Major, Maou Gakuin no Futekigosha ~Shijou Saikyo no Maou no Shiso, Tensei Shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou~, Modern Visual Culture, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!, Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru.

August 5, 2020

Theater Days: Year Three

By omo

Theater Days launched June 28, 2017. I still remember having to deal with it on the flight to Anime Expo after it went live server-side and thinking about how much to kakkin in the early days. It would not be hard to guess that I will still be playing it 3 years later, at the time.

To reminisce a bit more, on June 28, 2019, I was in Japan, just finished with day one of ML6th Tour Fairy Station. Days later I would get to see the anniversary celebration in Akihabara, while I was en route to Anime Expo. Notable, mainly, because I had changed my flight to do it. This paints the backdrop for 2020, as the pandemic has wrecked a lot of it.

Going from the highs of having UNION@IR Special announced to this year’s general blank of (almost) 6 months since Kanshasai, we’re in the same place the rest of the world is in–a lot of uncertainty and adjustments. As a non-essential good/service, Million Live generally took a back seat to the real life crises the world face today, but at the same time it can be a salve to those hunkered down at home during this time.

I think this is a nice pivot opportunity for the franchise. One, it did the full month of live streaming leading up from the make-up nico nama (thanks Zoom) to the anniversary stream. That brought the fans together online and celebrated when the world didn’t give us much to celebrate. Personally I did the exact thing they did in the months leading up to June so it was a nice reliving the same thing, but once again with more experience.

With UNION@IR and the end of the MTGeneration phase of things, I thought it was good that the series didn’t take a break and swapped into the MTWave series. It chopped up the units to form new ones, although separating 765AS from the Million Stars. With Theater Challenge though, it was pretty sweet to see how Emily or the handful of 765AS might surprise guest in each other’s events.

Well, that was just wishful thinking. What really should have happened, as it were, was Million Live’s first outdoor live concert at FujiQ, complete with sunset UO songs, Glow Map, and fireworks when the stars came out. There we would have shed buckets of tears (assuming the weather held out) while they announce the TV anime project. Imagine all of that PLUS all the TC cameos? That would have been nuts.

Instead, none of that happened. At the most, we got to buy 3rd Anniversary goods from Gift, Amiami (btw one retail staff caught the rona recently), and Asobi. Yes, for about a week there were some stuff in Akiba Animate and Atre by the station, as things were. But it’s probably not a great idea to go there, in this kind of a situation. At least a month ago the coronavirus cases in Japan didn’t spike like it did recently as of this writing.

The Third Anniversary event came and went. Just a brief note on that–even though I wasn’t at Anime Expo as it was cancelled, I ended up being super busy running KuroCon. At least after it was over I had some time to grind up top 1000 for Matsuri, although what was hard is the forced nature of the rest-and-boost mechanism. I had a busy dayjob, so there were only so much of time outside of that 9-hour rest period in which I can play, and I had to also grind that boost once a day during the week after KuroCon. It was not the easiest thing, just because 9 hours is a tad too long. I certainly do not even (get to) sleep 8 hours a day, and before and after I sleep were my prime playing hours.

Bugs and repatriation aside, the Glow Map event went by uneventfully. Glow Map itself is sort of just OK, maybe not as cool as Flyers but also not as emotional as Union, so a happy middle. The outfit glowing was almost as impressive as how it was basically the menu background from the game. I mean, really? That is cool in a very dorky way–but not dork enough to be fashionable? Maybe? Not sure I dig the shoes but it was a focal point of the outfit.

The QOL changes from the game as of the 3rd Anniversary was mostly in the new outfits that you can now unlock via getting the 3rd Anniversary SR to four-stars. It now require you get points to awaken the cards, most of it coming from playing lives and unlocking missions that give points. Some of the biggest sources are Full Combos, and number of Million Lives.

Believe it or not that is a real game changer. Fundamentally, people like myself play Million Live Theater Days for content. And I think it’s not just me–a lot of people do this over trying to rank highly or get a high score. It’s not that kind of a rhythm game. Content, as I mean it, comes in the form of lives and commu–so songs, performances, stages, special characters, and outfits. Anniversary SRs give new outfits (and free gems–which gives outfits and characters and commu). So now there is a reason to get Million Lives and FC, beyond FCing each song once and forever. Because, let’s be honest, most achievements in Theater Days are next to worthless.

Also, the game now introduces the B-side type event, which revives MTG B-side tracks as new event songs, using existing MTG units. As of this writing the BORN ON DREAM event is going on, and so far it is both a good move to open up more content (Another outfits for the full team) but also a definite minus as it replaces rebooting a pre-Theater Days unit into Theater Days. In essence no new unit is introduced unlike every event up until now (save for the Anniversary ones I guess). We got a fun minigame, even if it doesn’t really keep your attention for long. Having a booster deck like the Twin Stage event seems gimmicky, since it took no effort for me to hit that 20% bonus. The bonus commu lines are bare-bones, but at least it’s good if you are a fan of the unit.

Since none of the MTG units really wowed me, I’m not too sure how to feel about this new event type, or having to deal with another 11 more units. It’s hard for me to not see this as a way to “ramp down” the content in the game so more stuff can be regurgitated. That in itself is not a huge problem, and I don’t have an issue with that per se–maybe after all the pre-Theater Days content is in game, I’ll be happier about this.

The more important thing has to do with a slew of other changes introduced in the 3rd Anniversary updates. One is the Birthday Live gacha. Not that you can pay 2500 paid gems for some next-to-worthless bragging rights, but you can gacha for all the SSRs for that idol up for the first 2 years. That is turning out to be a great bargain, even if it isn’t a guarantee, due to the high rate and the small pool. There are other small tweaks, like the booster deck in the b-side events, that rewards some players over another, and in ways that’s not exactly predictable. You can see why they did these things, both as balance and as a way to get new producers caught up, to lower the barrier a little. For a price.

Will it work? I don’t know. I’m not sure if I like these changes, but in the big scheme of things it is not a big deal. Just like how eventually all the LTH, LTP, LTA, and LTF events will have their week in the game, well before the heat death of the universe.

It just feels a little weird for folks who have invested $$$$$ into the game during earlier days, or into pre-Theater Days content. I mean, sure, do what you want… What I want, really, is more content: songs, dances, outfits, subunits, everything. And switching it up, not doing the same thing again. And blow it up. All the things that made Chupacabra great, and maybe not the things that makes Chupacabra divisive.

PS. Major feelios when 765AS live goods on sale included unit goods for Arcana and Xs. Man that would be flight worthy to see Rabbit Fur lmao.

Leave a comment | posted in Idolmaster, Modern Visual Culture

July 20, 2020

Japan Sinks 2020 Is Not Good

By omo

I read this and I’m like, no. Some spoilers ahead for Japan Sinks 2020.

Ayumu left his tatamis home

I watched Japan Sinks 2020. The “dumpster fire” problem is because Japan Sinks 2020 is a story about the Japanese identity in light of pain and suffering on a national level, and maybe make some lemonade when life gives you a lot of lemons. I liked the lemonade ending when Ayumu and Go got their lives back while living in Russia, because Japan literally sank and there was nothing they can do about that.

The leading up to it is the suffering in which paints the turning point of the varying amount of overcometh that Go and Ayumu had to, well, overcome. Her bionic leg is literally trivial when the circle of nearly everyone who she knew died in the tragedy. I think bateszi makes the point that by “foddering” them characters that perished along the way make the psychological points for Ayumu and Go, but unlike fictional characters, human beings behave in very unpredictable ways in light of tragedy. It’s not unexpected to hear very negative takes from actual human beings who had to suffer through Japan Sinks 2020. Empathy is the organ we experience this kind of fiction, characters may or may not be Gods but humans have emotional ties to them. So that much is expected going into this series.

Here is where Japan Sinks 2020 gets the dumpster fire complaint. If you are a homeless person seeking warmth in the winter, a dumpster fire is not the worst place to be. But most people watching Japan Sinks 2020 are not homeless, or emotionally in need of cheap death porn, to find the mere fact that the Yuasa anime kills them off for effects as a per se positive. This is the kind of “benefit of doubt” we give to a genius filmmaker, perhaps, but for people who won’t even give 2c about that, it plainly did not work. It never works when Dad gets offed like that–and the moment it turns into comedy is the moment the emotional tethering to the not-very-humorous Ayumu loses its dramatic pull. When viewers care enough about your characters to entrust you with our emotions, it is a double-edge sword to pull a stunt like this, because it shows us you don’t actually care about our emotions, and it’s only used for effects.

In other words, unless Ayumu and Go suit up and dive into the tectonic fault akimbo with laser blasters, trying to fight the bad guys, the comedy take just isn’t going to work as criticism for Japan Sinks.

This is pretty much the opposite recipe to masterpieces like Graves and This Corner. This is why Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 didn’t work either. You want magical realism? Graves and This Corners are like 100 times better at it. The realism complaint also made sense given how it tries so hard to incorporate IT in it, how the climax has to deal with fetching a SSD from some bunker? Or that the way Senpai took a dive? LMAO. It’s only entertainment if you are emotionally detached, but then it fails at the main job of the story. If we want this sort of thing, there is the entirety of Korean TV drama for your picking. Or the B-rated horror genre. Japan Sinks 2020 is limp, lukewarm all considered.

Sure, you can roast marshmallows (Sup KITE) with a dumpster fire too, and maybe have a fresh lemonade to go with, but it doesn’t make Japan Sinks less of a dumpster fire. Pretty much everything after the lost-at-sea arc was detached from any sense of realism. If anything that has been the trend of the series as it went on. It became less and less realistic–which makes you think about the ending. Each story arc is increasingly unlikely to happen. Maybe that is the secret to Japan Sinks 2020. Everyone basically will die, but they decided to not give you that ending. That would be an improvement too.

One real criticism for bateszi: “That doesn’t make it [bad]. It’s trying to make you laugh!” He said, in the year 2020. Basically, this is why we can’t have nice things in the past 7 years.

Oh, the animation isn’t even good. This is easily the least impressive looking Science Saru work even including all the pre-Science Saru stuff. So there’s also that. I mean, maybe this is on par with Yuasa’s episodes of Photo Kano, if not worse.

2 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture

July 20, 2020

IDOLM@STER Radio Revivals

By omo

For one night only, on August 1st, the three dead IDOLM@STER 765Pro AS radio shows will make a comeback. It’ll be streamed on Nico, and the first actual IDOLM@STER official youtube channel (about…time?) will also host it. Nico gets an omake as usual I guess.

Not that there’s anything wrong with MOR–it’s a perfectly great weekly internet show, it showcases content that direly needs more exposure and covers all the branches of the franchise, even .KR and 876Pro. In the big picture, we lost 3 to get 3 more? There’s now a Shiny radio, there is another CG weekly(?) and there is MOR. I sort of lost track really. But yes, Aimachu and IM@S Studio are also back with Aisute for one night only.

There is just a bit over a day left to send in some fan mail–all the usual corners are available. The info for Aisute is here. There is also a form to send in general letters for the August 2nd live stream, which features the full cast. Again all the info is on this page, include the other corners from the other shows. The deadline to submit a letter is 7/21 midnight JP time, so you have about a day and change to do so!

It’s hard to explain, but the IM@S radio shows played a big part of P culture from back in the days, and that culture carried into the first Deremas and Million weekly shows. At some point those shows became one of the pillars of the series, even if it was kind of its own thing. It’s easy to get attached to them back when it was a big outlet for the series for people looking at the 2.5D content. In retrospect the three shows didn’t even go away for that long, but it’s nice to say the least.

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture

June 1, 2020

The Chupacabra: Million Live Remains a Little Wild

By omo

In a blink of an eye, it’s already June? Almost.

In the past 3 months, I have taken to the land of streaming (Twitch, Youtube, and the underground where content ID is just a murmur) to stream some seiyuu live events. Knowing that every concert is going to get cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a bunch of people decided to watch IDOLM@STER Million Live concert content along online, so this group watch happened on almost every weekend leading into Memorial Day weekend here in the States.

The march from 1st live to today is a good idea to even the official folks running the franchise, so they are doing it in the month of June. Mind you I assume they knew of nothing of what we’ve been doing. Given how everything event-wise is shut down, musicians are also going online to show their stuff, either past performances or putting together new shows online-only. This much is the new reality in the age of COVID-19. On twitter I have seen other Ps watching old lives on their own.

With the first two shows out of the way this past weekend, it was definitely a nice salve for hardcore fans of the series, and also nice for casuals to join in to see something they might not have seen before, and get context from others following along the stream. Some of the staff and cast also tweet as we go.

This all precipitated when Million Live 7th anniversary live was cancelled about 3 weeks prior, and in its place, which were supposed to take place in the first weekend of May, were two live streams, each hosted by a cast member featuring the rest of the day’s cast in a zoom chat. The other main staff members also show up at the end on teleconference. Some announcement were dropped but none more shocking than the new song, Do the IDOL. This track is the promised fan-selection from those who watched Million Live Theater Days kanshasai in January, in which fans watching in person and online can vote for the theme of this song–techno and chupakabura were selected, so here we are.

In the continuing era of war of idols, mobile games clash with billions of dollars on the table in that ever-changing video game economy. It seems prudent, if not necessary, to continue to push forward the breadth and depth of the type of music, the quality of performances, and have genre challenges to existing works. It’s also important to keep pace and play up your core experience. Between the recent CG election and the Million Live stuff above, that seemed to play out plainly. These games are rather well-polished and take a well-funded team. It takes cohesive and compelling artistic vision that can sell both to management and customers. It’s about incremental QOL like the deresute monthly pack, as well as keeping what makes the franchise unique, as in, uh, the Chupacabra.

Million Live needs to be wild. With all the announcements due to 7th live now on drip over the next 4 weekends, we’ll see what is left in the gas tank after 7 turbulent years. It doesn’t help that we will be driving down (or again, in my case) that nostalgia lane, reminding us how it was in the “good old days.” It’s like taking stock and remembering this side of the franchise, when we’re just grinding Alive Factor on the other side? There’s a big surprise at the end of this road, in terms of the 3rd Theater Days anniversary content, and I’m hoping it’s something nice, and not a brick wall, LOL.

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture