July 19, 2012

There Is No Such a Thing as a Slice-of-Life Genre

By omo

One of the neat things about being a fan for a while (I’d say at least 6 years) is the opportunity to see your niche fandom evolve. When I was watching anime in the 90s, there was no such a thing as “slice-of-life” genre. In fact the term didn’t really come into its own until maybe the 2004-2006 period, when iyashikei shows were hitting the late-night airwaves in full force.

The relationship between kuuki-kei or iyashikei shows and slice-of-life seems almost too obvious. The placid everyday-ness of a lot of those shows inspires the use of terms that describes the everyday. I think I might have liked it more if “slice-of-life” was called “slice-of-everyday.” In fact, it might as well be called “slice-of-everyday-life.”

The evolution of fan lingo is not a big deal. I can deal with onions and cours as well as anyone. The problem I have with “slice-of-life” (henceforth SOL) is that it is ill-defined in the usual case. Or rather, it is only descriptive one-way. For example, I can say show X is a SOL show and we can think about how X maps to what we define as SOL as a genre or an attribute to a show. But I have a very hard time taking people’s recommendations for SOL shows. Besides the archetypal kuuki-kei stuff (Yokohama Shopping Log, Aria S1 and S2) you get shows like Hyouka or Manabi Straight in the mix. I’m like, please pass the crackpipe?

In other words, it makes sense as a tag on ANN or MAL, but it makes no sense as a topic for discussion. It’s just too vacuous. Moreover it is kind of a ghetto term. Nobody calls The Simpsons or Firefly a SOL show. Or for that matter just about any non-anime show out there. Why do anime fans use this term? It also propagates like an undead zombie, as I previously ranted on. Every time I run into someone using the term in a serious way I want to kill a kitten? Can we seriously switch to “healing” or “ambiance” as tags? Please?

I guess a more seasoned response to the SOL mapping problem is that anime fans historically have been horrible at mapping things. If I had a dollar every time someone calls Love Hina a shoujo story I would’ve been able to probably skip a mortgage payment, just for example. But that’s not a problem to me because those well-established terms have very clear definitions as applied to genre. My fundamental problem with SOL is that even if you know every single piece of information about a show, you still probably cannot firmly decide if a show is SOL. The best you could do is to convey a probability (probably a bell curve of sort, this would make an interesting experiment) that by saying this show is SOL when asked to name a SOL show, what % of people will agree with you. Because the bottom line is that SOL is a matter of more about feelings than any textbook definition. It’s like moe. Which explains why it is a good way to express the attributes of a show, but not a good way to prescribe a list of shows that shares a certain attribute. Perhaps that is enough for any language, but merely agreement is just superficial understanding, that “agree to disagree” sort of BS.

In a way, by coining this term, we have allowed ourselves to open up this construct for further discussion. Just what defines SOL for each person probably can fill the skies of internet boards and forums like how someone professes wifehood for his or her favorite character. It may be cause for celebration and it might be okay to cherish the process that goes on to explore the nature of the SOL, but how can we, on further examination, avoid this linguistic confusion between SOL and, say, kuuki-kei? Or perhaps in a more mercenary sense, will the term SOL ever graduate from common use, beyond as a parameter in the greater database that marks the likes of TVTropes or ANN? It seems to be stuck as a short hand, rather than a discussion topic. Probably precisely because the idea behind “slice-of-life” is bogus when rigorously applied to a genre (and many other things). And I will probably keep ranting about this until I stop running into people using this term in a functional, non-ironic way regarding attributes of anime series.

Or maybe I should approach it the other way around: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES IS SLICE OF LIFE YO.

[Think of this post as an updated version of the same rant I posted in August, 2010, which is now partly recovered.]

14 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom

July 18, 2012

Otakon 2012: Day -8

By omo

Here we go again.

As usual the otakon forums is a wonderful resource, and even if I am by proximity not that far from it, it’s still a good 3-hour drive. That’s like almost as far as Shimoda to Tokyo! [/Natsukise]

Oh, first of all, they have now officially released the schedule. They are saying they will use Guidebook, but on the app it only lists Otakon 2011 and it’s showing the old schedule on there as of this writing (11am Eastern).

And as usual, all of this is subject to change. And I mean all of it.

Guests and pawprints and Hancocks

  • Aya Hirano doesn’t seem to have a standalone autograph session. When she was first announced way back (good job on Otakon for outing this one early) the word was already that she will autograph after her concert (assuming with the usual sales of goods–and all its potential stipulations) and maybe a separate autograph session. I think that is a safe bet, given how typically this has happened in times past. For some reason I have a hard time finding the concrete start time for her concert, but it is on Sunday afternoon. The only remaining question is if she will sign just anything, or it has to be something you bought with her new label.
  • Ai Nonaka and Gen Urobuchi are visiting Otakon on behalf of Aniplex and their Madoka effort. Great! Because that probably means they will have a booth autograph session. I’m going to guess that will also include the dub actress for Kyoko, Lauren Landa. But checking for booth times? You know the drill.
  • Since the cat is basically out of the bag, Otakon debuts its first Korean act, VIXX. That’s the “guess the guest” answer (or so we think) for their ongoing contest. It’s kind of a game changer, yeah? They have not announced the other guest for their Friday night concert, but she has an autograph session on Sunday at the same time as Maruyama and Nonaka. And yeah, that might be another opportunity right at/after the concert!
  • Otakon is probably going to announce more guests this week. There might even be some music acts for their Thursday matsuri thing, which hopefully will also involve a better list of food vendors. Last year it was kind of pathetic.
  • Lastly, get a refresher on the autograph policy. Note that depending on how they run it, there could be tickets and non-tickets. I read somewhere it may be a system where they will give tickets to people who are not in the first line, if the autograph line runs too long. The usual 1-hour lineup time stands as previous Otakons, so there’s no real major reward for getting there more than 2 hours before start time. But who knows how these things will go?

Panels

Well, this is more like advertisement than something to check out, but if you find yourself looking to do something, and the time fits, check out these guys.

  • Dave and SDS are doing their mahjong show again. I hope they showcase at least a little of that advance MJ play we see in Saki Achiga-hen. I might even be there!
  • Super Rats is up for being harassed by you at the figure panel he cohosts with Andy and jdcseiken. The timing is unfortunate but I hope they get a nice crowd going. I mean, I’m pretty sure there will be some giveaways. Maybe.
  • There is a Satelight panel. I have no idea what it is but people are suspecting it is an industry panel given the description was written.
  • Mangagamer’s panel coincides with my friend’s panel on ero for the ladies. Otakon is neat in that they run “serous” content even at 1AM. Mangagamer’s panel, at Otakon, tend to be a snore though. It’s just a question if they can announce anything there or not. Certainly something to do after an Oriole’s game.
  • NISA has their anime and game panels back-to-back. Looking forward for something cool there. If I recall correctly last year they were pretty much missing at Otakon. Hopefully they can engage the East side a little more? I probably should look up what their dealer room presence is.
  • Funimation is throwing a Geneon retrospective panel on Sunday. That is kind of funny.

Food and others

  • The skybridge is in the process of being removed. I think Baltimore realized those bridges are kind of dinky and no longer trendy like how they were in the 70s. Also they want to funnel more traffic to the ground level…which is to say it’s kind of lame. This actually just means the bridge to that cool Korean food-by-the-pound place, coming from the ex-Windham/now-Sheraton is gone, so you will have to walk on the ground level for part of it. I believe the skybridge connecting the Hyatt and Sheraton, as well as the whole plaza area towards the inner harbor are still intact, but the future looks grim for those things.
  • The inner harbor pavilions have some updates. I believe one of them were renovated earlier this year? Anyways, more food options.
  • The food truck scene in B-more has improved since last year. With the O’s in town for a homestand all weekend (Thursday is a day game versus the Rays, and then a weekend series against the A’s–check out Calaggie’s plans for that, LOL) you can be sure there will be some of that if you walk just towards the park around the Hilton. Hm, wonder if any Japanese guests would be into that.
  • The most exciting food news this year is how Otakon runs right in the middle of the Baltimore restaurant week. In typical restaurant week fashion, participating restaurants will offer prix fixe meals at a fixed, uniform price; 15 something for lunch and 20 or 30 something for dinner. Reservation is typically highly recommended. Best thing to do is scope out the menu and offerings on the official site, and call ahead no later than probably Monday.
  • It’s going to be pretty hot this year, but I don’t think an extra 5 degrees make all that much of a difference to me. I’ve already optimized my Otakons to avoid the heat. All the more to thank the Ice Cold Water For Only One Dollar dude.
  • The Matsuri on Thursday is promising real improvements from last year with better food options. It’s something to do instead of waiting in line, for sure. They just haven’t announced all the details yet. So far I hear some more food options and more bands, rather than just one band last year. There will be a Taiko drums thing first up, then a workshop, then a DJ, then band #1 (a 3-piece VK outfit), then DJ again, then band #2 (A Chinese traditional/rock band). They’re still signing those bands I guess but a “guess the artist” thing is running in the forums, for any Matsuri attendees who can go and claim their prize.

A lot of this stuff is in flux, so most like I will just do a follow-up post for Otakon prep rather than update this one.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts

July 17, 2012

Jintai 3 Redux: We Are, Again, All Part of the Problem

By omo

I looked around at the various reads on Jintai 3 [is animenano even picking up most of the blog posts with that tag?] a little and I think we can go the extra mile, do you agree? For starters, I’m going to take this as a proper satire. Furthermore I’m going to assume certain norms as the de-facto positive assumed by Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, or Humanity Has Declined.

For example, the ability to occasionally have meat to eat is generally a well-considered thing. It is in this context in which we consider the livelihood and living standards of our lovely UN mediator, the Main Character (MC). I guess here’s the third thing–I’m going to take the episodes not in an individually-wrapped vacuum, but all together. The fairies and their factory, their sentient chickens and mysterious industrial products, the village girls’ inability to slaughter these things.

Actually, it appears that while the country life MC lives in looks more like life in the 19th or early 20th century, the prevalence of electricity and other amenities such as books and steam automotive suggests not so much a perceived “tech level” but a thematic setting. Perhaps European-inspired? I can’t say too much, because it seems prudent to assume a certain level of malleability in the way Jintai includes popular cultural references using the setting. For example, I’m not sure how to explain that the livelihood of MC and her friends are under the charge of some regulatory agency (such as, no eating of mysterious canned goods), which is an artifact of the late 20th/early 21st century living for the most part. Or that there’s electricity available in the home.

Anyway. There is ultimately a pervasive feeling that I had about episode 3 that reminded me of the settings of fabulous British literary luminaries such as Bronte or Austen, the same stories in which made them a require read in American mandatory education. Naturally so, those influences continue their pull from beyond the respective authors’ graves, even in Japanese culture so many years later. Even in the development of the subculture of BL. I suppose even moe culture today can be traced to 19th century German lit? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Can we say the same about the smooth yet cunning satire in Jintai? That I think is up for debate. My personal opinion is that ultimately the subject matters in the first three episodes are not really painted in a positive manner. At all. I think it is fair to say there are some issues, and these issues can be multifaceted. Some of the different sides of the issues being explored by Jintai have been picked and absorbed in its probably-post-apocalyptic setting as a show of farce. Others are just made fun of. Some are once-overed as food for thought. Indeed, we cannot fly.

I think it is fair to extrapolate episode 3’s subject matter of BL and fujoshi mockery to include popular entertainment and fan-driven culture in general. I believe this is ultimately supported by Y’s primary mission, as I previously mentioned, that to archive the human history, technological advances and culture, is a job nobody really cares too much about in the end. That is the key concept in episode 3 which gets repeatedly reinforced by the little plot things. Such as how the UN doesn’t really care about what Y is doing; society doesn’t really care about Y’s comiket-reference; and Y doesn’t really care about Y’s assignment.

I think it’s fair to conclude, furthermore, that this attitude in which allows Y to do whatever she wanted, using technology and resources that might be better served in other efforts, is actually the key attitude being mocked by episode 3. It might be okay, at least based on one read, to have the girls all over the country to carry on in their own merry ways, turning and tossing in their sleepless nights, wondering about the plot of some romantic escapade in a yet-to-released volume of some manga. It might be okay for otaku culture to continue to exist. Episode 3 explicitly validates its cultural value and the mechanism cultural values propagate, after all. But how can anyone look at what Y was doing and think it is a good thing, without basically ignoring the entire setting to the show? Perhaps it is permissible, but is it beneficial?

In fact, I think this is one of the universally-taught, quality trait to satire. It again reminds me of Austen and her ilk. Perhaps Jintai is more like Swift? I guess it behooves me to stop here, lest I want to talk myself into a particular circle of hell reserved for that kind of people.

2 comments | posted in Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, Modern Visual Culture

July 15, 2012

Humanity Has Declined 3 – We Are the Fairies

By omo

I have read more than one person’s reaction to Jintai 3 and complained about the lack of fairies. I think that’s pretty obvious why they’re not present–so far in 2 episodes, the fairies represents the institution in which our organizational/technological complex has become sufficiently…complicated to be understood by the public. The phenomenon of doujinshi publishing, however, is something easy to understand. If there had to be some fairies, it would be to explain to us how we got paper and electricity to furnish Y’s publishing operations in the first place. I don’t think we need any fairies to demonstrate the irony of Y’s actions, or to make a solid critique.

I thought episode 2 was tops in terms of actual humor, but episode 3 struck me as the one that is actually most interesting so far. The story begins with Y visiting our Main Character, explaining her assignment to create or continue to construct some kind of monument to bank the collective creation of human race in terms of history, culture and technology. The discussion quickly went to the direction of medium of storage, interesting enough. Why medium of storage? I don’t know, but if I were to guess it is to both lay the groundwork for what comes next, but also it is a very otaku-sai kind of thing to talk about.

The more important takeaway in that segment was how collectively it is de-prioritized over actually useful things and only idle workers (eg., Y) is sent to work on this project. In other words, it’s not something viewed as critical or important. To me that is already kind of ironic, if we were to assume fairies are sort of like symbolic human beings.

Y’s entire doujinshi movement thing is pretty cool in the sense that Main Character explained it to us as to how it is a way culture is created and propagated. There’s an angle you could take in there, in that scene; we can amuse ourselves in light of the nature of control and commercialism in popular media, and the real interests behind them, in parallel with what Y is going through. But that aside, we see the horde of rich girls that visits the village for their version of the Comic Market; the adults looked on with largely apathy, in which reflects society’s attitude to the same–as long as they don’t cause a problem and can sustain themselves. It’s just not really all that important. It’s is kind of amusing in that it is similarly making the same statement about the effort of collecting and archiving mankind’s cultural information. In other words, the job Y was assigned in the first place was equal or less important than her little sideshow. And nobody cares about either.

The thing that got me laughing was when the thicker, more comprehensive and competitive BL crap that gets published eventually caused a problem to the distribution network, and the couriers stopped distributing them as shipping these books were negatively impacting their ability to ship goods of greater importance such as food and basic supplies. Let’s put aside the innate joke about muscular men shipping BL anthologies for a second, and realize what it is actually saying. Given this was the only point of contention between “the real world” and the nonsense Y was doing, I thought it was worth a second of thought.

I’m just as weary of these otaku in-joke sort of thing as anyone else; for sure I consume as much as anyone else. Jintai’s treatment, though, does not beat around the bush in my opinion, and it hits the spot. I’m not sure if people sincerely enjoy waiting in line for 12 hours just to buy cartoon porn, or are they just people who’s never really been. I mean, I’ve never been and I don’t believe for a second Comiket does not have these fundamental problems that any organization and gathering of its kind would likely have at some point. In light of the troubles we encountered in the first two episodes, the fact that it’s making a joke about doujinshi is already kind of a question mark. The least it could do is to be honest about it.

Times like this I think about the funny media stories on big release dates about hit on productivity in the work force as people jet out of school and work to catch a blockbuster film or something. I guess that is just another way how humanity has declined.

Leave a comment | posted in Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, Modern Visual Culture

July 14, 2012

Reverse Importing

By omo

It’s not important how we got here, but Mike Toole pointed out how it is about three times the price to purchase all of Madoka on Blu-ray, versus how much it cost in the UK. Eventually he asked a more general question about how people feel about reverse importing:

Twitter anime nerds: do you think it’s immoral or otherwise dodgy to import cheaper legit DVD/BD from outside of your local region?

I guess here is my 2c, and it comes down to two ways to look at it.

For the longest time I have lived like an international citizen. I still do. Sure, I was growing up in America but I was also an immigrant. Invariably my access to anime was a little wider than the average American in that I could consume Chinese-subbed/dubbed stuff (I used to have these Canto dubs of MKR somewhere, they’re hilarious). The fact that I could be okay with importing a Korean or Taiwanese release and tough it out is no different than importing the Japanese release and tough it out. I guess I actually never imported from Korea, but I did do the other two. Especially Japan.

The last things I imported from another English-speaking region were the two Studio Ghibli films that are now finally coming over to the US–Ocean Waves and Omoide Poroporo. Well, I probably should pick up the JP release of Ocean Waves because that’s Blu and what I have is the UK DVD. But in this day and age, for someone so steeped in fandom online, region locks are akin to a minor inconvenience in terms of doing what I want to do.

I think anime is invariably something of an international product. It still amazes me how some Americans consumes it so out of context of its international origin, cultural background, and the context of how and why the shows they’re watching were first created. To me that there’s an international market for this crap is as natural as why Mexicans want to work in the States. I think that analogy is actually kind of what I want to get at.

Except unlike illegal immigration, region locking and such is simply the perpetration of a boorish business model predicated in a pre-global economy state of mind. It’s not about sovereign rights or anything like that. There is nothing natural about this; or rather,  it’s a human effort to do something unnatural. Moreover I don’t think natural or not matters at all. It’s just a matter of enforcement and doing what is probably the rationally best option.

I said region segmentation is boorish because I kind of read this. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but faced with a new reality of the 21st century as the billions of people in Asia and South America arm themselves with social media, cheap-yet-powerful personal computing devices, wireless broadband, and wealth/spare time, this is just how things will go. Emerging economies gonna emerge, yo. Who are we to say they shouldn’t? It’s certainly the ethical thing to do in my opinion, that we let people buy the stuff as long as it’s legal and isn’t going to hurt anyone. Finally, copyright is ultimately a tool for merchants to make money; why use copyright in a way where that isn’t going to make you more money? And it’s ethical?

The other way to look at it is the practical take. I import from Japan, so when I buy something that way it is a very conscious decision. Take Nadesico for example. I thank Nozomi for not putting out a Blu-ray of Nadesico because I have no choice but to buy that standing collection of Nadesico Blu-ray discs (including the new telecine transfer for the movie). If they had released the same content in a box set oversea and sold it for $200, I would have purchased it in a heartbeat because that is about $150 less than how much I paid, plus it reduces certain amount of hassle.

But if I could’ve gotten the same import from the UK at $200 instead (for example), I probably would have–assuming it’s a similar product, including the video/audio quality, packaging, etc–and feel nothing about it. That’s the reality of the situation. In a similar way I feel this is how a lot of Japanese fans feel about importing anime from America (hello, Infinite Stratos).

The irony of me thanking Nozomi, hopefully, is not all lost on you. The truth I have some major doubt that anyone in American can produce the sort of quality box set that rivals your average premium Blu-ray disc box that Japan sells to their hardcore otaku buyers. Did you ever look inside the Kara no Kyoukai box and touched its interiors? Did you ever look at the bitrate on these discs? Transfers and upscaling aside,  Japan just does it better in this category, almost across the board, every time. And for a big spender that sense of value is worth that much extra dough. For a show very dear to me I am more than happy to splurge (when I can) on it to get the proverbial best possible treatment. Nozomi just gave me the reason to spurn them and make this an easy choice.

I think the choice is a lot more serious in the Fate/Zero case. The first Blu-ray box sold at Rightstuf over the cost of importing from Amazon Japan. In that case, do you import? I hounded the Fandompost/AOD forums for a while during those months and found that there are some people who would pay the extra $40 or whatever and support RS. There are also people who think encouraging people to do it at RS sends Aniplex a signal. That may all be true. There is also a compelling reason to do business with RS because they do provide customer service that rivals Amazon, and they can go the extra mile in the case with product recalls and the like, something you are going to be SOL with if you deal with a Japanese exporter.

But you know what? I don’t give much mind to that. I don’t buy something with expectation that I will have to deal with the customer service. That’s just me though. What was more convincing was when I went to the Ei Aoki and Kondo autograph session at AX, they asked me if I got my Rakkyo box at Rightstuf.

The reality continues. I think if you read Clements’ interview I linked earlier, he links to another anecdote about a certain UK release that got reverse-imported. It’s just how that game works, so I understand if the market is set up this way, and people will reverse import, it will lead to the production companies avoiding releases that make them lose money this way. If they can show they’re losing money this way (I think this is a very valid question that nobody has gave me any concrete evidence as to what the answers are).

That’s basically what I mean by consequences. If we’re okay with the Kadokawas and Nozomis of the world, as far as these reverse-import situations goes, then I guess everything is peachy. And to a degree they are victims, as are their customers, of this wretched system that we have in place to extract short-term value at the cost of long-term growth.

14 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom