The Yard Sale
I just have to do this every once in a while.
This post is brought to you by killing time with William Patry‘s blog. Patry is better known as a leading copyright (and I guess also copyleft) guru working as Google’s chief copyright attorney, and he keeps a pretty fat blog. And as you may expect, I’m going for somewhat Longcat here too. TL;DR warning! And most of it won’t have much to do with anime, so feel free to skip towards the bottom.
So there was this anime called The Legend of Black Heaven (by the way the Japanese name of this show makes a great pun), which the schtick was some mid-ager, in his crisis, saves the future with rock and roll. Oji, the main character, reunites with his old band and rocked on (sort of). A very anime-like premise, I suppose.
That paints the perspective that I have with Blue Drop. It’s not that I watch and laugh at the silly antics of some newbie playwright, or the embarrassing coming-to-know-your-feelings drama that so commonly peppers the landscape of TV anime. Rather, the strange homosexual undercurrent of the show became an outlet for some of the more honest, heartfelt human feelings that was in the show. Sort of like when Tanaka strokes his 6-stringer like nobody’s business (and hey, it was also LOL fun).
But I kid as well. There is no hard yuri in Blue Drop: Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku. Supposedly this anime is an original take based on a setting with two other manga series in the same time line as the anime, but about other characters doing other things. That’s really just the hook, the setting in which makes this show an anime rather than some strange Japanese TV drama that features an all-girl cast.
And some guy that looks like Yanni…
The science fiction part of the show is actually creative, but thoroughly an afterthought beyond the “genderbending alien invaders with better tech” premise. The anime makes little use of it, as it took place before the alien invasion. We began Blue Drop anime with a retrospective of an older woman on her way to somewhere for a meeting. Later, we find (at the very end of the series) out that she is a key supporting character, on her way to the alien mothership, even if we cannot recognize her at first. Nevermind that I just spoiled the show somewhat, but as the audience find the very first scene of the series a distant memory in the back of their heads, 12 episodes later, we can come to recognize the same woman as her teenage self in a happy yuri trio just moments before the “30 years later” overlay appears on the screen.
The funny thing is, to me, that whole retrospective thing is saying that there are some of these aliens who have enough ‘good’ in them that peace is possible. Throughout the series the mysterious Arume (or whatever they’re called) exhibited a wide variety of emotions and morally-driven acts (and apparently 90% of those emotions are various shades of embarrassment? I kid). Love, yes, both the platonic, heroic kind as well as the amorous and vengeful-jealous kinds.
It’s about looking back. Perhaps one through an extended penis analogy (/zing), the other as a couple holding hands, playing in the school pool, illustrating interconnectivity and reconciliation.
But also how no matter the sort of bitterness and difficulties we go through later in life, what happens during those pivotal moments in your youth will set you straight for good, or not. That’s probably not so funny.
And there was order in the world yet again. Peace be with blog-kind and may we wish good will to all in this now-annual tradition.
And I really don’t have much more to say about that. What you could do, however, is to help me help all of us by goading Momotato back into blogging. Since all he does is watch anime off nico^2 (we really could use a blogger who tackles stuff from that perspective, but that’s for another day) anyways, it’s definitely easier for him to, I dunno, write stuff and put it on the internet instead of downloading stuff then watch it. Goad him, how? You can just send an encouraging message either using his email (which is momotato -> google mail) or write embarrassing but flattering things about him in the comments of blogs he reads.
Why? It’s fun and he’s a jolly fella. And I think there’s something we all gain when we bother him, especially those of you who used to read his blog but have since moved on. You guys are really something special and you should let him know, one way or another. Even if it’s just a “happy new year” thing.
And lol what Michael Bay? I guess Manabi’s skateboard does transform…
Random off-off-topic note: I just want to highlight this blog post. In Search of Number Nine is pretty solid of a blog, but purely speaking as a blog. It’s always good to see what some light-weight fans have to say about something you’ve taken for granted years ago, but better.
Decidedly, the word is that 2007 is not as exciting as 2006. We did not have Haruhi, we did not have Simoun, we did not have Black Lagoon. In fact, I’m going to talk about shows I didn’t see in 2007 (and some that I did see, but not like Haruhi, Simoun and Black Lagoon).
Yes, ef – a Tale of Memories is awesome. Yes, I think it is a masterpiece. Yes, I think you should watch ef. No, I don’t think you’ll enjoy it (most of you anyways). Yes, I know I am elitist. Someone once said that all the visual tricks for the show is akin to putting lipstick on a pig, but sometimes shows like ef expose who are really the pigs around here. Oink! And yes, you should watch ef anyways and decide for yourself. Yes I could be wrong!
So. How do you build your own euphoric field? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can either read some of those nice episode summary blogs or just watch the anime (I recommend this, as always). If that doesn’t help, well, I’m sure you’re not alone. Think of it as a top 10 list about ef, in no particular order.
1. Expect opposition. The road to life is narrow and treacherous. But like many other things in life that’s hard to do, it’s also worth doing. Like cheering for a show that most people probably won’t get or enjoy. Or better yet, making one of such.
2. Use your head. Even if you appeal to the most basic of instincts and emotions, it is still not going to make you better than the next guy or the guy before who also appeal to the most basic of instincts and emotions. Masterful storytellers weave coherent, internally consistent and effective narratives. ef is, for the most part, just that. Sometimes it takes time for ef to do its thing, but all signs point to that the people behind it thought it through, and spend the time putting it together.
3. Plant a secret message in your episode titles. I mean, com’on, this guy obviously never looked it up on ANN, right?
4. Have a ball. Having fun is always a prerequisite to greatness. Sometimes it’s not so fun, but all the more to keep this one in mind.
5. Open your mind’s eye. Perhaps miracles are, as Menclave puts it, “inevitabilities and accidents, and what you’re going to do.” But for a people blind to their dreams and visions, they need all the help they can get. As clichés go, believing is seeing. Kuze puts it forth pointedly. All it takes is a gust of wind to change fate.
6. Repetition is the real test. Fact is most people (myself included) just don’t have the time to watch new shows and find time to rewatch old shows all the time. Most of my experience with a show happens inside my head or when I talk about it with someone, long after I’ve finished watching it. What a good show does is, well, what Renji does with Chihiro. I have to like to recall that show. It has to leave an impact. It has to withstand repetition, both in viewing (and ef does this well; watching it twice is almost necessary to understanding it fully) and being able to withstand analysis. Plus, of course, all that fuzzy warm feeling you have associated with something rushing back each time you remember the realization of a wish engraved into memories you don’t want to forget. That leads to…
7. Intercorse is good when you make it meaningful. It is pretty tough if you want to try to forget about meaningful sex the day after.
8. Cheer. Praise is an instinct, and it should be kept as an instinct. Not empty, calculated praise but genuine and heartfelt appreciation of something worth sharing with each other. The word cheer seems to be a little down to earth and gets the idea across a little better I think. Regarding to this anime, though, it’s exactly the sort of shows I watch and follow anime for. It’s edgy, it’s flawed, but the humanity shines through. All the while it’s entertaining and emotionally charged. The fact that it’s clever is just icing on the cake.
9. Field questions. Give answers with comment and suggestions. Pingback and trackbacks. Good o’ electronic mail. The postal service. Digital or analog telephony. Community and communicate have the same word root for some unknown reason that I cannot even begin to fathom. Right.
10. Stop being lazy–don’t do what I do.
I’ll just repeat myself slightly and say that like what X-Men the movie did to the comic book adaptation industry in Hollywood, finally we got one right in the eroge visual novel adaptation side of things. I’m not so much afraid that new shows following the same footsteps will get it wrong as much as just having that kind of production happen at all. Even among eroge, the ef game (soon games?) is peculiar. But without failures there cannot be successors, as ef itself only followed countless others that fell in the wake of the late-night otaku TV war. So, bring it on please!