Category Archives: Popular Culture

Comedy and Drama for Your Anime Mama

Well, supposedly today you can get a discount at Kinokuniya Manhattan if you dressed up, but be sure that instead of cosplaying I’ll be cooped up at home and down some shows with friends nearby who I haven’t seen in a while.

It beats eating ice cream while watching the Honey & Clover movie in celebration of an exciting but disappointing Saimoe 2007 final (not that I did that…). Instead, we went out for dimsum at this nice and hidden-away local place that served very delicious chicken feet and beef dishes. I suppose if I was by myself I’d rather distract and blank out by crunching a lot of sketches from Danbooru into VectorMagic. Damn you tj, damn you.

But what is really bothering me is how my taste for anime on TV has seriously derailed from the mainstream. It gets hard for me to find something to watch that my friends and I can equally share. It would have to be either something really funny or something that’s purely “shounen jump”-like but not as bogged down with terrible episode counts (like Naruto), or full of self-infused fandom (like Suzumiya Haruhi).

It’s a little sad to remind myself that I know of no seiyuu fans in my proximity. It’s only at cons where I get to talk to people about voice actresses face to face. Something like this requires consultation among the people! At the end, I settled for Ai Nonaka because she is pretty looking at least in pictures. While she can’t sing, her unique voice and competent acting skills balance things out. Also I guess this past year I’ve enjoyed her roles more so than ever. Sure she may have tried to pander along the lines of Yukarin or Aaya but I think she has a more natural air about it.

The strange thing is, 10 years ago we just couldn’t quite do this–even the most popular voice actresses were passable at best. Girls like Minorin didn’t really take on the more otaku-poi career route. Must be a shift for production and producers. And I’m sure good-lookers like Kanako Sakai probably would not have even bothered. What does that make Halko Momoi, who sort of started half in, half out? A trend setter?


Tasha Yar == Karukinus

No, not really. Seriously. I’m just kidding…

Hello, Yin's sempai?

More I watch Heroic Age, the more I think of Star Trek. Why? It has that geek-utopia smell to it.

There is a lot of literature written about the Star Trek … franchise. Thing. Culture. Geekdom. What have you. Ever imagine if The Next Generation was not about Captain Picard going out there and discover new stuff, but Deanna Troi’s younger, innocent sister leading the Federation to reconciliation with a strange version of the Borg… Oh, and replace all that technobabbling with “hoshiboshi no michibiki” and “staarrrrway” and “the power of the Golden Tribe” and you’ve got it.

What if Q raised Age?

I think that air of utopia seasoned with reason being the common pillar for all those sentient being existing in the universe…is the heart of the Star Trek universe, the common thread behind its themes. And in this Heroic Age, such is the order of the world.

Onto the present and ever present whine:

Within the series we need to realize, that like many other space sci-fi stories, traveling between each star is a big hassle and a major plot point. Such is as true in The Heroic Age as with others in the same genre of anime. The nature of space travel in each sci-fi setting is something of some concern and attention for the story teller. That’s a big “Kero-chan Check” point for settings (as with character designs). But so far within the series we have not had a very clear explanation of how FTL travel works. I think it’s a major disservice to the audience to not be able to understand how this major plot point works. Especially how it ties into DNAra’s singular, unique power that we realize later on.

Along the same line, real space maneuvering in The Heroic Age seems to be akin to that of Starship Operator–it takes real time to move stuff around (each battle takes days and weeks and months to resolve), although it seems rather Star Wars-ish when it comes to combat otherwise. The Nodos here is both a help and a harm–it strips the show of any kind of realism, yet it makes things a lot less boring. But somehow, the combat parts of this show is still pretty boring and I don’t know what can be done to help it.


Darry Buns for Everyone!

They’re the cutest, more adorable ones on the block.

They melt in your mouth, not in your hands.

They’re soft to the touch, like heaven wrapped in plastic.

They’re Darry Buns. Now available at a local anime blog near you!

I SUX AT THIS

Despite urban legend, these won’t last forever!


Otakon 2007 Youtube Select

Ugh, sort of busy lately. But since I was doing this on my own time, I figured I can share with you some choice videos from Otakon this year if you haven’t had the time to look them up yourself.

Mamiko Noto

Tomokazu Seki

Kyoani Dance Mania! (I imagine this is a fraction of what AX got)

4chan is Madness

The Steve & Vic Show

AAA

Eminence

Others

Feel free to add more~


Minoru Shiraishi Makes Me Proud

…to be a fanboy.

Because, after all, that’s how we get our grooves on. There’s no reason to adhere some preconceived notion of protocol and trivia. Granted it can be tiresome and bad for our bottom lines, spending our time and attention on trivia and coining words and phrases on the border of meme and fad, walking that preciptious edge a step away from the bottomless abyss of intarweb lunacy.

“Rise up,” Shiraishi said. And I think we will respond.

It’s no surprise that Shiraishi talks about this so-called “tsundere.” Lucky Star pays attention to that sort of thing, and within the bounds of its suspended reality we have at least one. No surprise there, Kagami?

But a rousing speech from this semi-important gag character is the least you’d expect. Albeit it is still a bit of a genre trope… a celebration of geek independence. We speak our own language, breath our own culture, and produce our own information products.

Don’t let the elitist know-it-all get you down! Rise up, cling to your own sense of justice, but also reason grounded in common-sense! Talk about tsundere!