Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

July 13, 2012

Nanoha Aces; The Verge Loves Anime

By omo

Today is the Japanese debut of the second Nanoha theatrical remake. Its meme-tastic “Friendship through overwhelming force” concept will now join its first iteration as  the namesake protagonist befriend even more fan favorites on the big screen.  I always thought seeing things in the theater provides another dimension home video screenings just tend to lack. At my own home, my meager, sub-2k home theater is sufficient but it does not replace the experience of a proper movie-going experience. I thought that was the ticket in terms of giving Nanoha’s theatrical remake a real reason for existing.

The first film, I think, adds little to the experience of the original series, at least when it comes to what it was good for. Plainly put, if you’ve seen the series before, it is just not worth watching unless it’s in theaters as it adds that extra little bit and can really alter your impression. But don’t take it from me, take it from someone who has seen it there.

In light of that, same can be said of seeing the Evangelion films in that way, despite that both of the home video transfers on Blu-ray achieve enough of a facsimile to the theatrical experience, enough that it really doesn’t warrant much of a note. With Evangelion Q on the queue this winter, hopefully Japanese theaters will replay the first two and give people another chance to experience those gorgeous and emotive Khara works.

It’s along those lines that makes me want to experience things like the K-ON movie or the to-be-released Mouretsu Pirates film, in theaters. It’s going to be a grand ol’ time! I can see some theaters do the Kara no Kyoukai marathon too, when Mirai Fukuin goes live…

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I took a look at the very long (and getting longer) promoted forum post on The Verge about anime recs. It’s really just people listing shows they like. I’ll keep this to a list.

  • The OP: I’d say whoever asked for recs knew a thing or two, or at least knows people who know a thing or two about anime. That image came from somewhere? I don’t know how the Verge forum works.
  • The comments: Basically it’s just people posting what their favorites are. It stopped being a recommendation thread when like, 50% of the titles mentioned were repeated by the OP. Com’on guys.
  • The lowdown: Most titles are the usual couple dozen of early 00s bubble-era pieces. You know what they are; we all know what they are, at least if you spoke English.
  • The old: Not a lot of older titles being recommended! I think it breaks pretty clearly into the late 90s, and that’s it.
  • The new: A few 2006 or newer titles represented, but largely landmark crap (Redline gets a few nods, fewer than I’d expect actually) and things like the usual Post-Haruhi hits like Madoka or Gurren Lagann. Kyoani wagoneers move on chronologically: very few Lucky Stars (if any) but a lot of Hyouka, I guess that’s just what’s on their minds. Strangely enough Fate/Zero makes a strong showing, which is good on them. Steins;Gate too.
  • The usual: Invariably a thread like that in a place like that you will get the usual archetypes posting stuff. Like the guy who says Gungrave is the best anime he’s ever seen, but he’s only probably see 5 titles ever. Or the guy who just lists a subset of the OP list and forgets to add “Cowboy Bebop.” Or the person who recommended Night Raid (whattt). And invariably people will be listing shows I forget about from the mid ’00s, like D.Grey-man, Abenobashi or Otogi Zoshi. Seriously? I guess what takes the cake is the one person recommending Ergo Proxy. I mean, it’s not bad I guess. It’s just so niche.
  • Elfen Lied: is this why (some) people like anime? I think so. Like CLANNAD I guess. It’s gotten to the point where I think those moefags who are super wota are less disgusting than actual CLANNAD fans, those who don’t even know who are the (Japanese) voice actors of the show or what Kanon 2002 was. Maybe this is why people like Urobuchi? :-)
  • My favorite thing about the post: the top image

3 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture

July 12, 2012

Earth Girls Are Easy – Third Planet Ver.

By omo

With Natsuiro Kiseki over for the time being, the summer of Sphere continues this week with their third album, titled Third Planet. Unfortunately the cheeky astronomical title didn’t help because I was listening to Red Planet all day long, resulting in a strong urge to make a Cowboy Bebop joke. It’s a jarring dissonance when you mash calming yet spine-tingling shrills from one of the best who’s touched an anime, against the popular yet generic idol pop that we have now come to know as Sphere’s music.

I think it’s safe to say that Sphere is a relatively inoffensive music operation, and by inoffensive as in if you don’t snob idol music per se. Simply put, that’s not their primary function. If easy-to-sing-to and easy-to-dance-to tunes can carry their image to the heart of their fans and uphold those wota calls and dances, as we have here, then that’s what Sphere will sound like. It’s not so much a testament of some extreme sense of savvy or some underrated skills the members of Sphere or their management are holding back on us, but simply solid, wise choices. To put it in perspective, I have heard better and worse.

In my Mars state of mind, however, I cannot quite fathom why anyone would take this particular, well, Earth-ly product,  so seriously. Ever since their ATMOSPHERE debut Sphere has been pretty much that one thing we expected them to be: seiyuu idols. Their slow rise in popularity merely confirms their solid play and planning, not to mention simply being hard at work. It’s like opening up to that page of a particular monthly seiyuu mag and it said “MINAKO Good Job!” I had to agree.

The simple, artificial feeling I get from Third Planet comes across best when I put on, say, “Feathering me, Y/N?” Because they’re a quartet and their music necessarily need to reflect this, the arrangements often feel kind of constrained. Only a couple of the songs play to the strength of the 4-woman format…actually, other than “Hazy,” I don’t really think any of the songs did a good job at this. Musically, Third Planet is marginally and incrementally better than Spring Is Here, a year ago; unfortunately that means very little. Perhaps nothing, even, if you can’t get over “Now Loading… Sky!” like many of us.

So why do I keep buying this stuff? I don’t know. It’s kind of like how I keep buying, say, Coca-cola. It’s just a common man’s drink, you know? It’s nothing special, but just pumped enough of sugar to make it inoffensive enough. It’s a known quality and a known quantity, in that you know what you’re getting.

Well, that’s pretty much just for plebs like myself. The rest of you can either move on or just look at the unboxing of the super-limited version of this album.

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

July 11, 2012

Dusk Maiden Is All about Set Pieces

By omo

There’s a genre or style of today’s anime where we’re presented character development based on how well we know the character based on one-sided presentation of the information, and interactions are couched by the emotional state of the initiator in a particular transaction, and delivering the packaged goods in scenes. This is kind of the basic approach to directing that we know from Makoto Shinkai and it’s a very common device in visual novels too. I think Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is basically this.

The problem with Dusk Maiden is how we get this sort of approach but it comes together loosey-goosey. It’s like episodes of Bakatest where 90% of the time it’s just duders goofing off, but you occasionally get some sad and sappy drama thing that makes you go “dawwww.”

Well, maybe that’s just how the source material is. I don’t think that’s really the case for Tasogare Otome x Amnesia. The departure from the manga aside, the story worked the best when our climatic set pieces get the setup done fully, completely, and done well. I thought that made the final two episodes as good as they were. And maybe that’s enough. It’s the eerie parallel with the ends-justifies-means sort of thing, that Yuuko was fine with being [despoilered:] the result of the process that turned her into a ghost in the first place, if it means that her beloved’s offsprings were able to have that fated encounter and live on in her stead. It’s a tough pill to swallow when we’re talking about Yuuko’s story specifically, but thankfully this is often not the case when it comes to set pieces in anime.

In some ways it only gets more complicated when we frame this issue in the “is it worth watching 11 episodes of crud to get to that climatic, penultimate episode of things-come-together-in-a-really-good-way episode?” Well, I guess that’s kind of besides the issue. Regardless of what we’re watching it might be best to state that the better its set pieces are, the better off it will be? And in a way the problem about set pieces come to light only when the rest of the show kind of feels flat in comparison. To that end it is merely wisdom to set up your awesome sets at the end of the series.

Thankfully, while the darkness and light analogies in Dusk Maiden might have some parallel with the way, the brightly burning romance story doesn’t quite overshadow everything. I enjoyed the “Yuuko the Schoolgirl Ghost” part of the show perhaps the most; second to the dramatic farewell on part of TakaneYumi Hara’s delightfully acceptable overacting.  Yep, all Takane fans would enjoy this show, I’d say.

 

2 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

July 9, 2012

Books And Covers, Summer 2012

By omo

From a consumption perspective we can look at our intake of anime like a diet, where some semblence of balance and moderation go a long way to make what you watch more enjoyable. But that’s kind of not applicable to describe the voracious: people like me, who are always following a dozen or more shows at any given time. The episodic grind, to some, probably parallels more to a race. Each racer is some title and whoever makes it to the end, in first place, wins. I find this survival-of-the-fittest paradigm easy to latch to real-life practice. Take AX weekend–the 5-day ordeal significantly limits my anime intake. It happens to take place at the week where a lot of shows are ending and some shows are starting, so I have a slimmed pool of finales to choose from. Those I reach for first (in this case Tsuritama if you wondered) “wins” this figurative race.

Honestly, both analogies sound like jokes from Jintai as human society declines through its overly sophisticated detachment from reality and greed-based irreverence of consequences, from commercialism to consumerism. Anime is not created for the sake of people consuming anime, right? Chicken are not born because people would eat them, right?

Where is my sentient toupee?

I think people who are capable of this kind of introspection will get a kick out of Humanity Has Declined, or Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita. Or just Jintai. Mai Nakahara’s wry delivery is dry and grit-free like the pastel artwork and children’s storybook-style designs, evoking enough of a dissonance once the viewer gets beyond its seemingly candy shell. Or in this case, chicken skin.

PA Work’s next original high school rom-com Tari Tari does not disappoint. Granted, I didn’t expect very much of it going in–much like how I didn’t expect very much of True Tears at first–but so far the show simply has a mind of its own and blazes its own path. The characters remind me of my friend Vinny, who does not take whining for an answer and would only bitchslap someone in his head, not in real life. (Let alone on the butt.) In this case Sawa-chan is a superior creation worthy of his adoration. I, on the other hand, find the entire experience on the oddish side of things and, as Hyouka would have it, 気になります. Also, you do note that Sawa is treating Konatsu like her equine friend, right, with that “pat on the back”? I guess that is C83 material.

I did watch the first two episodes of Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse at Anime Expo, so with episode 2 now airing this past weekend I can spoil some beans. Well, first off, it was not a huge shock that we’re rid of Yui’s friends, but it’s kind of gruesome. The real show doesn’t start until episode 3, so I really have nothing to offer here besides a good luck to those of you braving the games as a result of the anime adaptation. Oh, I guess I really like Kuribayashi’s ending theme. Finally something that doesn’t sound like every song she does.

Oda Nobuna no Yabou so far is inoffensive. Any show with Kanetomo-sensei deserves at least 3. That said I’ve only dropped one show thus far after 1. But watching 2 concurrent shows featuring warring-state generals as nubile anime girls may be too much; we shall see. At least in Nobuna’s show there are plenty of dudes, even old ones. Having at least tried my hand at the game (oh gosh which platform was it IDK), the whole thing is not entirely unfamiliar.

I dropped the Chiaki Kon-directed La storia della Arcana Famiglia, because Mamiko might be the only thing worth watching for me in the show. The lead girl is a bit too much like a typical reverse-harem lead. It’s not my sort of thing anyway.

If I needed more crappy Italian riffage, there’s Yoko Hikasa in Campione! if you swing the other way. Action, fanservice, a bit of a potato-kun action, it’s not much to riff on, actually. At least there’s some car-service. I mean, seriously, let’s put the “sha” in itasha. Or Pikasha for that matter. A bit of a personal anecdote: On Friday, I picked up this month’s Super Dash & Go! for the Yoko Hikasa photoshoot. I didn’t realize she was actually wearing some Campione-inspired outfit in that shoot until I saw the first episode about 12 hours later. Great way to leverage that 2.5D stuff in your mix-media focused mag, yeah? I think they’re doing it right if I am buying this magazine. Which now means I can take a look at how horrible the new ROD reboot is.

I rather enjoyed Kokoro Connect. It doesn’t look as stunning as, say, Hyouka, but if Hyouka was half as interesting as Kokoroco it would already be the show of the year. That said, Kokoro Connect is also an off-beat piece, and besides the plot device that makes me kind of cringe on the inside, I don’t see anything wrong with it. The voice cast is solid and I think they’re set up for some pretty cool drama. My only real concern is just how will they handle the humorous streaks…so far it’s kind of too subdued for my liking. If you can get through Natsukise, this is easy-peasy.

Like Jintai, I enjoyed Utakoi in a real-life kind of way. It’s by far the most educational anime I’ve seen in recent memory. However unlike Jintai, Utakoi just makes me cringe half the time. Plus, traditional love stories are usually not that funny; in that sense I applaud the show’s attempt to spiffy them up for entertainment. It’s way more palatable than Folktales from Japan.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous is a solid romance that represents the rock noitaminA is built upon. I’ll keep along; the Kuo Matsuo direction + Ken Muramatsu music combination is easy to go along with. Too bad I get the feeling there won’t be a spontaneous musical episode? As long as it’s not too sappy. The NTR joke is well-done.

So, I Can’t Play H is not quite the same as Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai, so “I Can’t Do H” sounds much better. There’s a lot of plain nudity in this show; it’s kind of the schtik (in a High School DxD sort of way). I admit the “transformation” scene when the fire burns away Risara’s clothes is pretty cool actually. But is it cool in a “LOL Guilty Crown” sort of way or “LOL Queen’s Blade” sort of way? I think it might be the latter. Aya Endo lending her voice probably does not help.

Sword Art Online is probably my least favorite new show this season. It’s way too chuu2. From what I understand the first episode is just set-up, so I’m perfectly happy to give it three. So far there are little else that bothers me about the show, but nothing grabs me either. I guess with Accel World airing at the same time, I have another source to tap into that fantasy genre-turned-shounen-formula. The plot and device of SAO is better fit for a joke than anything actually intriguing. I mean, how can people take it seriously? I enjoy the jokes way more than the anime thus far. Like the one about Korea. Or Brazil. Or China.

Nakaimo is… WHO IS IMOUTO? THERE IS A SISTER AMONG US. Who is imouto indeed! I mean, this. It’s a harem anime this time, straight-up with the Mom character saying “Dude, bag a girl, get married, win your massive inheritance, you’re already deemed talented enough.” It’s not my favorite sort of setup for harem, but I’m going to take it like a man for Jtor here.

Koichoco is short for Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, which means love, election and chocolate. It makes no sense unless you watch the show. I guess going in the show I know it only by name and by heritage, which is to say I was expecting something closer to this. But I should’ve known better and see it may be more like this. Well, the voice cast is intriguing so I’ll give it a spin. Most likely I’ll be entirely off base anyway, why fret?

That’s it for now. Meanwhile I’l leave you some food for thought about the decline of humanity.

PS. I was going to link it for the Tsuritama post, but odP’s PV about fishing that debuted at AX is appropriate in the decline of humanity sort of way.

2 comments | posted in Campione!, Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, Kokoro Connect, Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!, Modern Visual Culture, Muv-luv, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Oda Nobuna no Yabou, Sword Art Online, Tari Tari, Tsuritama

July 6, 2012

Tsuritama, Fishing

By omo

Have you ever caught a fish? It could be at the goldfish scoop or on some badass party boat off in the Caribbean, whatever. I think the largest fish I caught was a striped bass off the Jersey shore. Close to that was probably some bluefish after my flounder bait. But the striper? About 26 inches. I’ve never fished Mahi-mahi but they’re about that size, and have much more of a fight. Can you imagine how it feels like pulling in a Mahi-mahi the way Natsuki and Yuki pull them in? It’s exhilarating.

I think there is something beautiful when we take something relatively mundane and turn it upside down, inside-out, and explode it into the scale of saving the world. Except fishing is even more than that. By itself it is already a time-honored sport and a way to get some delicious dinner. The thrill of it isn’t as sadistic as, say, hunting, but nonetheless a real trial of skill, luck and patience. It’s as refreshing as sea-sky pirates are refreshing. The ocean and the wide open skies clean the heart of men.

I think that is the undercurrent to Tsuritama. Ultimately the story is still a fairly straightforward youth-adventure plot. It’s easy to see how you can edit the 12-episode series into a 120-minute feature film, complete with multiple twists and climaxes. The plight of Haru and his quest to save the world is almost like how an alien dropped into a Summer to Remember, minus the glasses fetish, and instead of MIB you have Men In Space Channel 5 Cosplays.

Also, Tsuritama has an ensemble cast that surrounds the four main guys, each holding a vital role in the final operation. The narrative has long since foreshadowed this division of labor; perhaps as early as the very first scene of the very first episode. All of this isn’t really a boon or a minus, but for those of us who aren’t really into fishing but are into popular media, it’s a life preserver to keep us above water within the torrents of a Nakamura original. Well, torrent is not a fair description (at least before the typhoon comes in)–this is by far the most accessible Kenji Nakamura work ever.

What RP mistaken at first glance is probably what gives Tsuritama real credibility: it’s actually about fishing. You see Haru and Yuki learn to tight that knot. You see the tricks of surfcasting with a lure. You see how Natsuki rally a school of mahi-mahi. You learn how to drive the boat for those big game tuna hauls. It’s quite something to see the material in the anime; it’s even more seeing it animated. That lends the show a degree of authenticity that even summer blockbusters struggle to obtain. Just compare it to Summer Wars for example.

I think in this day and age, having that kind of authenticity is what really makes the story compelling. It’s easy to find an anime or manga about  any subject under the sun. But will it just be another formulaic hash where the subject matter drops in like an interchangeable part of a Jump formula, or will it actually dictate the nature of the story? I guess in Tsuritama’s case, it’s something more in-between.

2 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Tsuritama