Author Archives: omo

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I run the site, too.
September 15, 2016

Light Novels Are Doomed

By omo

emirin360

I found this site off twitter and I am like, what. [Unrelated to top image/link]

I quote:

Light novels are inherently long-winded stories. They’re 300 pages stories with a lot of fluff, mainly character thoughts or just plain descriptions. Most of the time, they go overboard with those. It’s one of the main cons of reading a light novel. After all, if the author can’t fill those 300 pages with enough quality-writing (and you can be assured that most the time, they can’t), reading them becomes tedious.

Novellas kept their descriptions to the bare minimum and allowed much more creativity, even if some recurring quirks from light novels were still present. However, it isn’t as apparent because of the aforementioned problems that can be addressed thanks to the smaller, tighter grasp on the story development.

????????? whattttt

Wikipedia has a slightly less of a hack definition, for your comparison.

They have an “introduction to light novel” section on the site, and at least it doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out.

If these guys owns englishlightnovels.com, this genre is doomed.

I also just want to say one thing: you cannot confuse the word count in Japanese versus English. Just like how 140 characters is a lot in Japanese versus in English in terms of meaning density, a lot of light novels in Japan are in the 100-200 page range as oppose to the ~300 page range as they are translated. And this is to note that given their smaller form factor, they have fewer words per page than “proper” books in Japanese. For the US-published works, at least, they read and feel like most non-light novels, maybe just shorter. English-language novellas are sometimes this long but usually 2/3 of the length as well. This is also why Wikipedia uses word count, like a pro.

More importantly, translating a novel from Japanese to English is basically rewriting the novel. The meaning of the story may be the same but it reads entirely differently, at a different length. This has to be accounted for.

PS. Faust is good fun, go read that.

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom

September 12, 2016

Kimi no Riajuu

By omo

I’m glad Shinkai Makoto’s latest theatrical work grossed 6 billion  yen in just 17 days. That beat not only the estimate commercial distribution outlet, Toho, but the commercial success beyond most’s expectation somewhat validates the movie. Critics like Yamakan and Azuma have already weighed in, among others.

I don’t think it’s a fluke. He was honing on the formula from the very beginning. The real question, I thought, was similar to the one Azuma posited.

kimi-no-na-wa

The cultural trend has been long going that route. If the soccer-bu star can moonlight as an otaku, there’s no stopping it. In a society where animated mascots and cartoons surround its inhabitants daily, where manga is consumed with typically zero stigma attached, you’d think it is normal for animated movies to get such hits. In fact, isn’t this what Studio Ghibli have been doing in the past couple decades? To me that was kind of the line of thought, until I realized who Kimi no Na wa is about: the riajuu.

This movie is fueled by sales of couples going to theaters. This, I think, is what Azuma is on about. To be clear, plenty of romantic stories dotted Studio Ghibli’s output, but those always served mainly as backdrops to epicly for-the-children narratives. The ones where the romance poked its head forward tend to do worse, as they often eyed a more mature audience. Kimi no Na wa is not such a thing. I make the assertion about riajuu only via second-hand observations and some personal observation, so I could be wrong, but that is the vibe and reports I have gotten.

If you’re one of those people who have enjoyed anime because, at times, some story/aspect of a show jumped out at you, and you think it has mainstream appeal because it’s so good, then I think you should cheer for Shinkai and what he’s doing. Otaku media or not, its evolution is contingent on hanging on to these sorts of valuable things about the medium.

3 comments | posted in Kimi no Na wa

September 2, 2016

Substitution Blues

By omo

I just want to vent a little. Chalk it up to the jetlag.

Happy Birthday Fuuka!

So the news today, at least the good bit, is that anison singer Faylan has resumed activities. If you’ll recall she took a long break to recover from some persistent illness, ones that reminds me of the condition that eventually took Matsuki Miyu’s life. I don’t know exactly what Faylan has, so this is all baseless conjecture, but as a fan we don’t have the info so it’s going to be natural to worry and think too much.

This naturally hits me a little harder consider what happened to Taneda Risa, who announced yesterday that she is suspending all her professional work in order to fully recover from an unnamed medical condition. It seems that she has been undergoing treatment for it for some time but it showed no improvement, and thus the hiatus. It hits doubly home because she is part of Million Live, which just announced the removal of her character’s role in the upcoming drama CD and anniversary live next March. That’s a long time away. But of course, as with these things, you can’t put someone’s name on something that they may or may not be able to make, so a substitution is necessary. The rumor mill says that Tanechan is dealing with some job-related issue (see: voice-impacting). It’s hard to hear, since she is one of the leading seiyuu of this generation.

I can only wish her the fastest full recovery.

On that note I also wish Aoi Eir also a fastest full recovery. I can’t make a Faylan substitution joke if Eir is out due to health reasons!

Lastly, earlier today Sakurai Tomo has announced her retirement. This is not great news but it is a note worthy of celebration, as she has defined an era of seiyuu idol/singer-ness. Her retiring makes a good milestone, an end of an era so to speak. Nothing wrong with it and I wish her the best in the next chapter of her life.

 

Leave a comment | posted in Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

September 1, 2016

Animelo Summer Live 2016

By omo

Otsukaresama!

I’m back to the States after attending Anisama 2016! The 3-day festival/concert at the Saitama Super Arena was a blast and frankly a pretty heavy-duty experience on both mind and body. I made it even worse by adding a side trip to Chara-hobby Expo Tokyo, now rebranded as C3 Tokyo, before the live on day 3, as there was a Million Live stage event there in the morning. What turned out was even worse because of stuff unexpected. At least now I can cross out going go Mogra on my bucket list.

I have been following Anisama since the beginning. Now that I have visited for the first time I can say it’s basically the anison wota equivalent to comiket, as far as a collective, cultural experience goes. The outdoor stage that was added some years back made it even more so a celebration of young people going nuts during the Japanese summer break, with these somewhat 2.5D idol up-and-coming acts. The main shows themselves are 5+ hours long, with a smattering of old and new performers. Some acts are one-shot things (B.B. Queens??), some are super mainstream (like Tamaki Nami this year), some have been here since the start (Minami, Angela), and some came on a time machine (Ayukawa Maya, Matsumoto Ricca). There are the usual gearing-up promo acts like TrySail and AOP, but also someone who’s never publicly performed as a solo artist until now (Numakura Manami). If anything, it’s hard to complain about Anisama 2016’s diversity, at least on paper.

Anisama is different than the other festival-style lives I’ve been to. The energy and expectation are through the roof. Many of the attendees there are yakkai as F. Most are pretty normal. Some people sat down more than they stood up. Granted I’ve yet to attend Animax Musix or Lisani, where in recent years they’ve been upping their games, especially in the collaborations, but Anisama as a whole feels just that much more epic compared to the ones I’ve been to thus far (P’s Live 02, Nendo 10th). Three hot summer nights are a long time and a lot of cheering for anybody.

This year, thanks to typhoon Lionrock, we enjoyed mild, if slightly damp, weather for days 2 and 3. It rained on and off in Saitama but the Tokyo region was cool, compared to day 1, when heat and humidity were at their usual form. Standing in the sun was not recommended. This was also my third time going to Japan during summer, and I like it as much as getting a punch to the gut. Only for you (and IM@S and Yoko Kanno), Anisama!

A lot of that is what’s special about Anisama, I think. The crowds and the energy and passion is much stronger, better. Maybe yeah, there are those people who whip out their custom umaibou penlights during Calorie Queen, or those digging into their gyudons during Rice to Meat You. How can you blame them I mean that’s awesome I would too?

I mean look at this (outdoor stage):

Continue reading

4 comments | posted in Conventions and Concerts

August 22, 2016

The Best Idolm@ster Panel Material

By omo

There have been a splatter of fan panels in North American anime cons on the IDOLM@STER franchise. Of the few that I have attended over the past few years none of them were as good as NHK’s take. Granted it’s a bit cringe-y but it’s not like some of these panels aren’t either…

You can watch it here for the next few hours or see it ripped on youtube.

KutapP's underling huh

Here’s why I think it’s the best take so far:

  • It’s meant for a general audience. Different panelists may disagree and I would agree why their takes meant for a con audience is sometimes superior, but a general critique I have is that most of those takes are still too “general.” Why not this one?
  • It’s really concise and to the point. This earned massive prop from my end.
  • For the most part it is also very accurate. It’s not 100.00% spot on but more so than pretty much any other panel (except maybe Chuck’s).
  • It even talks about the seiyuu stuff.
  • Of course it’s also unfair that it has interviews with key creative people behind the scenes.

But just for the lead-in portion of the video where they go over the history and some of the well-known aspects of the franchise it’s such a precise and to-the-point thing that I wish all panels covered this much material, this closely, in this little time.

I had a similar problem, if you recall, doing the IM@S 10th panel. Because the 10th documentary in the Blu-ray was pretty much the same thing…

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Idolmaster