Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

December 3, 2013

The Better Mary: SAO Versus OBC

By omo

This is basically the main reason I have a problem with Sword Art Online: It’s a power-tripping fantasy that betray the reality of a form of escapism: the MMORPG. When you escape the escape it isn’t just meta, it’s just sad. For reference, this season’s Log Horizon plays the game by the rules. That is proper escapism where the Accountant can play her real-life class in this fantasy environment to her advantage, or the Post-doc raid leader can do it like the best of them (disclosure: My long-time WoW raid leader was also a Phd student that turned into a post-doc and then got a real job so he can’t play much anymore). Log Horizon deals with the human elements in a MMORPG; Sword Art Online deals with the human elements in a loser and it works well because he is in a MMORPG. Well, I guess that can be pretty appealing too.

Speaking of which, Outbreak Company is along the lines of Yet Another Light Novel about the really hardcore otaku mindset. Instead being stuck in a MMORPG he is stuck in an actual fantasy world of sword, magic, half-elves and moe dwarf children. OBC’s form of escapism is a little more honest in that he simply wants to live his otaku world in this new world, and the magic of fiction gives him the ability to do so in the form of an excellent Soft Power dig. So instead of fighting monsters or whatever they do in SAO, the protagonists in OBC instead educate children on anime, manga, and video games, usually in the form of either playing/reading/watching them, or talking about these things. This is right up my tiny crack of an alley, but its general appeal has more to do with the way it addresses the physical and emotional needs of the otaku by the way of traditional interpersonal characterization, accessible humor, and, well, cute girls. In other words, put yourself in his shoes, I’m sure you can do a better job; it invites you to do as much.

So to me, both stories derive a lot of entertainment value as self-inserts, although they may not be pure Mary Sue archetypes. Let’s do this Baka-Raptor style.

NSFW

Myucel

Just to be fair, this contest is just based on the first 9 episodes of both series.

Round 1: Who is more badass?

Kirito > Shinichi always.

Advantage: SAO

Round 2: Who is clear-headed and acts less like an emotard?

Shinichi easily. At gunpoint, would you rather play a MMORPG or run a culture export company in a hostile environment? I think most people would prefer the former, Shin’s got a harder life.

Advantage: OBC

Round 3: Who has better taste in men/women/things?

Myucel ~= Asuna

Petralka’s ZR ~= most things in SAO

The tie breaker goes against the fact that More Deban is still a problem unsolved, because Lisbeth and Silica are great.

Advantage: OBC

Round 4: meta factor

SAO is an anime about people stuck in a game.

OBC is an anime about an allegory of expanding otaku culture beyond Japan

SAO has fantasy magic and swordplay.

OBC has a lizardman blowing on a NES cartridge.

Advantage: OBC

Round 5: Meme factor

Two years, folks, two years.

Advantage: SAO

Round 6: Gender Equality

Do I even need to go to this? I mean OBC is by no means a progressive feminist take on things, but really?

As a note, a girl in OBC actually said “would you stop talking to my breasts?”

Advantage: OBC

Round 7: Race Equality

Do fairies count? OTOH, racism is an actual issue in OBC. Granted it’s kind of a comedy copout between elves and dwarves. SAO stays clear of it (other than… beaters?) while OBC somewhat bungles it.

Advantage: SAO

Round 8: Who would you rather be?

Honestly? I would rather be neither of them, because in some capacity I am both already–I play MMORPGs and I write about anime/manga/etc in a meta way, for public consumption. Maybe I would rather be Myucel, and learn Japanese or something. Being a socially-shamed, racially-oppressed, half-slave girl is kind of not a desirable thing however.

Advantage: Tie

Score:  3-4

I guess this means someone should license OBC hard and fast.

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Outbreak Company, Sword Art Online

December 1, 2013

Holiday Folly

By omo

This Cyber Monday… Find the true power of soft power.

This was a pricey purchase

Flood the market with sweat labor from the K-ON voice actors?

Leave a comment | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, K-ON, Modern Visual Culture

November 28, 2013

Serving Fans on Your Own Terms

By omo

This is what I want to do for a week

Over the years I found myself more inclined to approach fanservice (the sexual kind) as a plus than a minus. I think part of it has to do with recognizing it as a value to be delivered for some people. Part of it has to do with my growing appreciation for it as I sink deeper in that dark, dank ditch.

Is this why I think Yozakura Quartet – Hana no Uta is the best, at least on a technical level, animation on TV for this season’s anime? The way it simply just puts the light-hearted fanservice out there is natural and fluid and I didn’t even bat an eye half the time. On the flip side there are some characters who are simply walking sex symbols, even with developing personalities and roles to play as a part of an ensemble cast. Then there are the usual moe tropes. And the “We Dollars gonna protect Ikebukuro” nonsense. Except YZQ’s hood is nowhere as cool.

Maybe I feel that way only because Kyousougiga is also on the air, and it shows when you compare and contrast. Not to say that show isn’t well-animated–it is pretty nicely done at times–but as far as the “sakuga” of the thing, as far as hand-drawn animation of moving things, YZQ is a must-see this season. In my mind it blows away Kill la Kill on a technical level, at least purely on this point. And that other point–it’s way more fanservice-y? Maybe? Kill la Kill has full-blown naked people covered by only the shadows of censorship standards. Or clothes. Or what you see when you read Hentai Kamen. But it’s played largely for laughs. Ryuuko doesn’t come across as some pin-up looking to be exploited so she can exploit the viewer for viewership ratings or video sales. Nor anyone else in the show for that matter. Very different than YZQ.

I guess in that sense, we are blessed. All three aforementioned anime are very good storytellers. They’re preoccupied with the narrative and with the characters (when appropriate). They’re not as concerned (well, I’d argue Kill la Kill is very concerned, but it’s easier to argue they’re concerned about everything) about giving fans what they want as much as giving fans what they want but on the show’s own terms. They’re here to awe and I think most of us are okay with that.

And that statement, in some ways, is only not-as-ironic in a post-moe, post-tsundere-song world.

I would also include some other titles in this bin, for this season, like Samurai Flamenco and Non Non Biyori.

Not included would be Arpeggio, Galilei Donna, VVV, NagiAsu, Kyoukai no Kanata, OBC, Gundam BF. But just because they aren’t giving us ultimatums, it doesn’t mean these show can’t approach things their own ways either. I think Gundam Build Fighter is a good example, only because Gundam fandom is sufficiently convoluted and twisted that the meta juice is dripping like a baked turkey during its final hour. The gravy makes itself.

5 comments | posted in Kill La Kill, Kyousougiga, Modern Visual Culture, Yozakura Quartet

November 18, 2013

My Little Pony: Plate Mail Zettai Ryouiki Is Magic

By omo

When I was growing up My Little Pony was about little magical horses and their owners–ie., little girls. Not exactly about friendships. Whatever. It was about cute little horses, fueled by children’s imagination.

Which is to say, when I watch Walkure Romanze, I did not expect it to show a story about friends and how a horse can mend a person’s heart. Granted, that’s not really where the story is going. It certainly isn’t the main reason why I’m watching the show, although that is a pleasant thing to see instead, of say, non-stop tits and butts that this eroge-turn-anime could have been. It’s distinctly not a pure-oppai anime, although it has the prerequisite payload, which saves it from the vapid morass of far majority of the too-earnest-so-it’s-all-tits category of shows. A degree of petty schoolgirl-politics also help to season things a little.

Depends on how you look at it, however, the things that draw most first-timers in is the horse animation and all that jousting. That, and all the pin-up character designs dressed in ornate plate mail with curious bits exposed. A lot of the designs also eschew the single-shape breastplate design for something more pin-up-y. It’s like someone went and analyzed the pile of Saber porn out there and realized it’s the plate armor part that is being underserved by the general output, creating a market opportunity. That said, I wonder how much of it overlaps with the fanbase of something like, say, Marimite.

Because of its roots in eroge, Walkure Romanze’s list of characters, design-wise, tilt towards “man, any of these girls can turn into full blown porn material” and sometimes it kind of blows my mind when I look at the right places. How could that possibly be you, Mio? Or Miss “Butt-of-jokes” Bertille? And nothing has answered my question as to why Celia-senpai is wearing two pairs of bottoms. Is it because she learned the meaning of “chafing” after wearing a godly suit of armor?

Translation typo from CR

I like how Walkure Romanze evokes that soft, freshly-baked-bread-from-Valkyria-Chronicles feel. I also like, as a gap moe sort of thing, that it did a “haitenai” episode, while still being so. And it’s being played as a joke! Moreover, all the horses are girls! It’s like “Oh snap, my master’s panties! She must be in trouble.” So when Sakura tries to eat Mio’s skirt, she was just playing as Saten to Mio’s Uiharu? How much horse-riding porn did the producers of this show had to watch to greenlit it? The world may never know.

But indeed, it is this gap that makes Walkure Romanze so amusing. That it tackles a classically barbaric sport with the grace of a sÅ“ur checking her underling’s sailor neck tie is much like how Celia (wo)mans up to riding out almost commando to give Akane one great ride, while evoking that Valkyrie (ala video games) imagery. Or just how all these pretty things parade up and down the stadium bearing the magic of “ftmm” in the latest display of superior fetishistic technology. (Then again, overflow ftmm on armor is just…way too lewd, so there aren’t any.)

Of course, maybe this is just a great example of how sexy and erotic things could possibly be girls dressed to the gills, all covered up? It’s like what they say about men–it’s the clothes that makes one. At the same time, I’m not exactly comfortable making that statement given how half the time it feels like they really aren’t wearing as much as I think they are? I suppose in 2D-w-fief-dom and jousting, it’s all about form.

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Walkure Romanze

November 8, 2013

Gundam Build Fighters

By omo

At 5 episodes in, Gundam Build Fighters might be the most delightful Gundam that I’ve seen. It’s not just the nostalgia factor–I can tell a Zaku apart from a GM, but not a whole lot more than that. In fact, that has been consistently the one aspect of Gundam Boyfriend (as passionately nicknamed by many) that gave me the cold shoulder. It’s like when I first started the road to iM@S fandom, I would recognize songs and characters but can’t put names to faces or songs. Same with the gunpla.

But what makes Gundam Boyfriend so great is that, well, the meta-ness. The fact that it went Xzibit and put a gunpla ad in itself on the Youtube stream basically sums up how I feel about the thing. I mean, Gundam BF is a gunpla ad, and not just in the “Gundam anime was made to sell toys to begin with” sense. Oh, and being able to watch it simulcast-speed on Youtube is a huge plus, too.

The other thing that makes Gundam Boyfriend fun is the relationship. I suppose that, to me, is the trademark of a Gundam anime. And if you cast wide enough of a web (like Valvrave) you will create that vibe just by inevitable coincidence of the ensemble framework. BF is not so keen on that scale yet, but this AU show is sticking to how AU shows typically are.

And it strikes me that ever since G Gundam, has there been any other tournament plot framework + Gundam mashup? When can I get my Nether Gundam on? I mean, it has to do it! It would be a lot more revolutionary if they actually used a Go To Koshien format for Gundam Boyfriend, but that might be too powerful to pull off.

Turn-A Gundam movie soundtrack

Others have graced upon the Fake Geek Girl subject so I won’t go too much into it. I just find it amusing to see that in a Gundam show. Idols are not rare things in Gundam universes but this one hits real close, and while it’s subject to your interpretation, I find this portrayal particularly honest?

PS. I wonder if anyone has applied the FGG framework on Air Master’s Kaori Sakiyama.

Leave a comment | posted in Gundam, Modern Visual Culture