A chain of short blog posts about their subjects. The last one is a run-on about Moenovel. The rest are about currently-ending or airing anime.
Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture
About Anison And Context
Kind of like turning a zombie into a zombie game, the anime music-infatuated blogger types are doing a tournament, where various vocal themes, openings and endings battle each other in a popularity contest, only to be separated by strangely nerdy seeding patterns. Well, the whole endeavor is pretty nerdy so whatever goes, I guess.
Did I submit something? Sure did. You have 15 slots, which is pretty good given how I usually have a top 10+ going on, although at this time and this date and this age, the biases will show. Especially the stuff in my car. And I’ll share some of that…later.
What I want to talk about is the role of the meta in music appreciation. I think it boils down to that cultural and artistic expressions have contexts, and listing to anison is really just a form of appreciation of some kinds of expressions within a specific context. No matter if you think of anison as some simple commercialism or museum-quality superflat-astic display pieces, it doesn’t really change the way how context matters probably more than the musical pieces themselves.
Just earlier today [as of this writing] someone said to us that dance makes Love Live songs better. I’m inclined to agree; part of that mix-media franchise’s appeal from the start had to do with the full-motion MVs that came with their first few singles. The song and dance routine appeals a lot better than the songs themselves. And this is kind of the fundamental truths about anime music.
It’s all just tie-ins, aren’t they? And a lot of the fun in listening to it is associated with the thing the music is tied to. Or FUN if you speak with weird articles. It’s like when I hear TANK, I don’t think of a great SF mash-up anime from the late 90s. I think of an over-played, over-used AMV track that sounds about 100 times better live than studio. And What Planet Is This is better.
So it’s kind of simple, if you think about the tourny this way. Basically whichever context has more subscribers, the songs within that context will speak to more people in that way. It’s somewhat different than simply the most popular songs from the most watched shows, because just because an expression is well-understood, that doesn’t mean the expression will resonate well, or is meaningful or appreciated. Just like my previous example, what that song speaks about may vary from person to person, even if it’s a well-understood saying. Just like “Libra me” might be about reason kicking and curbs, but it might also mean the ultimate phallus of masculine expression to someone else.
What can you do about it? Tighten up the context. For example, see these.
And for better or worse, yes, sometimes, that means the girls must dance. To me that’s great, because, well, here’s one of my submissions.
Gargantia Metanarrative
Going on a limb to interpret the latest episode of Gargantia, I draw from the form of despair and sense of stress that NEETs have to deal with. Since talking about that episode of Gargantia invariably means spoilers, I’ll talk about what I mean by despair and stress first.
Well, first, read this post and get on the same page, if you haven’t already. I’m just going to take a shot at the next stage of the NEET stimulus package.
The average NEET probably wants a reasonably paying and steady job. I say this because the demand for those jobs are always pretty high; that’s why they are relatively hard to land in today’s economy (Japan and elsewhere). The societal pressure is, as understood by the NEET or freeter, a form of reinforcement of these kinds of cultural norms. And of course if you do have a steady job that brings in good money, staying single means you can go to all the offkais you want, cons, wait in line for goods, whatever. Living the single life, instead of living-with-parents-and-waking-at-odd-hours life.
In 2013 terms, it’s no longer clear if becoming a NEET is really socially unacceptable, because people understand the truth that it’s hard to get a salary job as a young person in Japan, even if it’s one of those “success” indicator. The subsequent problem with NEET-ness is well documented in terms of getting that late start in life, being able to plan for retirement, etc. Not sure if that has much of a bearing on Gargantia’s narrative, but it’s worth noting.
And the way I see it, it’s all in the head anyway. Much like Ledo’s understanding of his predicament by the end of episode 10, being a NEET/freeter can feel stifling, as if you are cornered with no way out. Getting a job NOT as a fresh grad is harder than getting one as someone who’s just out of college. Companies naturally would wonder why you didn’t get a job the first time around, at least in the NEET’s head that’s what goes on. Settling into a strange pace of life trying to make part-time jobs can make it harder, just like doing anything else while working the graveyard shift or simply having to deal with a normal workday. Worst of all, you can fall into a habit, develop a rhythm living the NEET or freeter life, assuming your situation is stable enough. And the longer you fly in that standby pattern, the harder it is to land a permanent job or break out of that funk.
Invariably, unless it’s a planned period of NEET-ness, NEET status tends to continue for a while. Truth is, I think most people, eventually, get back on their feet. And in truth, there’s nothing Gargantia can do to solve the root problems–unemployment, societal expectations, the way employment works in Japan, all that jazz. All it can do is encourage people to feel better about themselves, and show that while they may be victims of the situation, they can do something about it.
(Mild) SPOILERS.
The Garden of Rainy-day Sinners
It took me 3 tries for Hoshi o ou Kodomo, so if it takes 3 times for Kotonoha no Niwa then at least I can do that in nearly a third of the time. It’s at least gorgeous enough to warrant watching it three times.
But yes, I’m still not sure how to react to the film. My initial feelings are both somewhat moved and yet slightly enraged at the odd composition of the romantic relationship. It all came together in a way that just felt a little wrong. It doesn’t, thankfully, take away the underlying emotions and the way The Garden of Words wraps around you and moves you.
I think you really have to go into this show without knowing what it is. The revelation later on int he film is a little disruptive and even if you’re a big fan of indie Japanese cinema you might not quite have it all planned out. And if you’re not, then this is probably not the kind of anime you expect.
It is the kind of anime Shinkai fans expect however. Visually it is beautiful. Tokyo has never been this gorgeous. Short of flooding this post with caps let’s just say that the Blu-ray can’t come to my house soon enough. [Especially since it’s in an order with the Festiv@l of Winter blargh, which means it’ll probably get here when I’m not home @ AX.]
So many rainy sunshine cuts, so few rainbows. It’s not Shinkai to do rainbows, I guess.
Mikasa Goodman
This guy thinks Mikasa Ackerman is a good girl. I’m not so sure. But while I was listening to that gaggle of voice actors sing along to the intense audio trope of a song the other day it dawned on me: Mikasa is played by Yui Ishikawa, who is in my mind, just Princess DNAra. A quick look on ANN says that Mikasa Ackerman is her second lead role for animation voice-overs. That’s a long time, relatively, in between. It’s also another incredible opportunity, to play a big role in a big show.
The thing is, Princess Dhianeila is also a “good girl.” In fact she is supposedly the literary parallel of some Greek mythological ideal for human goodness. I mean it in the “in contrast with, say, Gundam’s Relena or Lacus” but a force of nature pushing humanity into the next evolutionary level of existence, to join up with our space brothers and sisters; to chase after that mythical ancient race of gods or Qs or Precursors or whatever. In essence, DNAra is That Newtype. It’s about superhuman feats for an age where only such things can propel us forward, to overcome the other giants of the world.
It’s not too different, in that sense, from Shingeki no Titan. So what makes Mikasa Ackerman, and her muscle density? Or her voice actress? I have no freaking clue. It’s just yet another row in the database, where we bloggers run join queries and create nonsense for our entertainment. Ours and yours, hopefully.
And while sure, Mikasa, like Princess Dhianeila, are good girls, they’re also symbols in a way where a sense of flawlessness crusts over their humanity, their weaknesses. In my mind that is a great thing but it’s also not my cup of tea. In other words, I prefer girls who are more, shall we say, human.
