Bakemonogatari

October 18, 2009 at 12:48 am | In anime, best, comedy, harem, nothing happens (and that's ok), tsundere, winter 2009 | Leave a Comment

Summary: Supernatural Waiting for Godot
Based on: 5 eps
Series Info: at Anime News Network

Everyone in Bakemonogatari is damaged and some kind of supernatural being (hence the name of the show, which you could translate as Monster Stories), but this is not as glamorous as you might expect from recent fiction and anime. This is the best writing I’ve seen in an anime for years and the best visuals since Mononoke. The Blu-ray sales for the first collection are through the roof, and I’m not surprised at all.

It is also very tricksy – it puts up a front of the usual cliches then subverts them. This is technically a harem anime with a nebbish male and plenty of fanservice. In addition, the guy is a (ex-)vampire, which is the most glamorous of all supernatural beings, right? Let’s take a look at these.

This is in some sense a harem anime; everyone but the lead nebbish male (Koyomi Araragi) and the detached  sensei-figure are cute girls with the usual buffet selection (princess, loli, tomboy, class rep, exotic blonde…).  But they’re all so damaged it’s hard to feel there’s the usual shallow competition for the hapless doof.  The beautiful princess-like lead girl, Senjougahara, confesses  soon enough, but she’s so emotionally damaged and scary that this makes poor Araragi-kun more wary than happy even as he lusts after her. She’s beyond tsundere and into yandere, so ‘I Love You’ is more a declaration of war.

There is plenty of fanservice – the series starts out with a panty shot in the first five seconds. But it seems to be smirking at you – here you go, how do you like this, you shallow bastard? Happy now? Here’s the beautiful girl naked, but what she’s saying is making your manhood wither.

The lead nebbish (Araragi-kun) is a vampire, which is the most glamorous of all monsters, right? Well no, he’s an ex-vampire. And his single talent is wanting to rescue other monsters. But he’s not a pushover, even though he’s not too bright – he’s perfectly willing to punch a schoolgirl in the guts and knock her out. He lusts after Senjougahara, but it’s not the mere idea of sex that frightens him unbelievably as it usually does with the emasculated lead, but the fact that she really is a very scary girl.

Finally, this series isn’t afraid to spend an entire episode in a (visually arresting) park with two and three characters just talking.  This is where I can’t recommend it to just everyone – if you need action you are going to be disappointed. It plays with various visual effects and angles you won’t see in other anime, but it may still be too boring for some people just because it really is just people talking, like Waiting for Godot.

That’s why I’m currently a little torn about including this in the weekly showing, because while it’s visually stunning and has plenty of fanservice and uses various tricks to cover up the lack of action I wonder how much it still bores some of the other people – but I love it. You owe it to yourself to at least try a few episodes.

One Outs

November 10, 2008 at 6:46 pm | In anime, fall 2008, guilty pleasure, ridiculous premise | Leave a Comment

Summary: Baseball as a gambling vehicle
Based on: 3 eps
Info at: Anime News Network (pic from there, too)

a10199-10

Note: This is a guest review by Brendan Speer.

When found out about One Outs, I was very excited.   ‘Finally’, I thought to myself, ‘An Akagi where I’m familiar with the sport!  This is going to be great!’  Plus I can pretend that the Lycaons are the Cubs.  Thusly, I waited for 2 weeks for it to be subbed; begging and cajoling friends to do it for me.

Then I sat down and watched the first episode.

And I was really disappointed.  I figured out that one of the great things about Akagi is that I don’t know the first damn thing about Mahjong.  I could really follow Akagi play without the little nagging doubt in the back of my mind.   The prospect of an 120 kph (75 mph) pitcher with no breaking balls being able to psych his opponents out that much introduces an element of that ‘This is ridiculous!’ feeling.

And yet, I’ve watched 3 episodes, and will probably watch the fourth tonight.   First off, it’s still compelling to watch.  I _still_ want to see Toua beat his first challenger at One Outs Baseball.  Even if I know the prospect is preposterous.

What Akagi and One Outs do differently from traditional ’sports’ anime, like Hikaru no Go and Prince of Tennis, is that the latter play like ‘Japanese youth introduction to sport <insert sport here>’.   Prince of Tennis will spend half an episode talking about the Buggy Whip Shot, or try and illustrate the difference between an All-Arounder and Baseline Retriever.  One Outs doesn’t do this.  Instead the sport is only a vehicle to tell the story, quite well I might add.  You know what’s going to happen, you always know who’s going to win.  However, between the Narrator, the Music, and the situations, you’re still compelled to keep watching.   How will Akagi play out of this?  Will Toua get hit?  It’s quite ingenious.

As Ron has referenced in his paragraph, the character designed have been tarted up for the female audience.  In Akagi, the character designed were basically ugly.   Distinctive, and stylish, but unattractive.  The unattractive, gritty style fit Akagi well.  In One Outs both Kojima and Toua are pretty-boy anime arch-types, the former being the squared-jawed Japanese traditionalist, and the latter having that punky bishonen going for him.  Even the first opposing team’s pitcher has an Kaneda-like street punk handsomeness to him.

The first two episodes were very Akagi like.   Very slow paced, building suspense.   The third introduced another element, of the Owner of the team.  I’ll try not to give away too much, but I like the way this is turning from the Akagi formula.   I suspect when I go back to rewatch something like this, however, I’ll still turn to the Mahjong master.

definition: plot crystalization

October 23, 2008 at 2:53 am | In definition, plot crystalization | Leave a Comment

This came about because I just finished Yakushiji Ryoko’s Case Files, which is a great example of this. Card Captor Sakura is another.

Basically it refers to a series where the first several episodes are aggressively, even boringly, formulaic, then they hit you with the real plot.  CLAMP stories are perhaps the best examples of this – Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa, XXXholic, Rayearth, etc., but it also seems to be a requirement for most magical girl shows like Pretty Cure. They lull you in, then wham.

I’m not sure if this is exactly good or bad – it’s certainly bad during the forumlaic setup where you’re thinking ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, she has to capture another card’, but in the case of something like Ryoko’s Case Files where the last third of the show suddenly turns into a sprawling epic where they bring in all sorts of bits from the early episodes that you’d thought were just throwaway, it’s actually kind of fulfilling.

This is felt much more strongly in shoujo anime, so I’m going to say this is linked to shoujo cliche – the first several eps are designed to lull the viewer into a sense of familiarity and security before they can get into the real plot.

Why I’m Cranky

October 20, 2008 at 8:39 pm | In meta, pandering, you kids get off my lawn | 1 Comment

In the future, when people ask me why I’m cranky about anime, I’m just going to send them to this music video. Warning: not exactly safe for work and the audio will make you want to burn your ears out with a red hot poker.

definition: pandering

October 17, 2008 at 7:11 am | In definition, pandering | 1 Comment

I fling this word around like monkeys fling poo, so I guess it’s incumbent on me to offer a definition other than ‘I know it when I see it.’ I realize it’s very subjective. To me, pandering is where somebody said ‘okay, how can we make this more appealing to pathetic nerds’  even when it doesn’t come naturally out of the context of the show. If it makes sense for the show, then okay. It all boils down to is it calculatedly gratuitous?

You might consider Hellsing’s gun porn, ultraviolence, and style over substance to be pandering, but I get the feeling that Hirano (the manga author) really, truly, loves this stuff and is just writing what he thinks is goddamn cool, so it’s not pandering. This is what he loves, there’s no compromise of principle.

To me (and you may legitimately disagree) Horo’s omnipresent nudity in Wolf and Spice is less pandering than the crotch shots in Strike Witches because in Wolf and Spice the nudity is treated like it’s nothing – just another outfit, no lecherous loving pans over insanely detailed flesh. Whereas in Strike Witches it seems like the guys writing the show had the crotch shots as their primary directive and they show up at the most ridiculous times – rubbed in your face, so to speak. You can tell they consider this the primary selling point of the show.

Lucky Star isn’t bad once you get past the stultifyingly boring first episodes, but the character of Konata is too obviously calculated to appeal to pathetic otaku guys. Pani Poni Dash is generally okay except when they throw a completely gratuitous bromide in your face – and even worse make it a pull-out pan with sparkly highlights to rub it in your face! Shows like Akiba-chan, about maid doll girls in Akihabara, are entirely cynical ploys. Hell, anything with ‘Akiba’ in the name, period.

Other things are harder for me to pin down. Akamatsu’s Negima! has an unprecedented buffet of girls that’s undeniably extreme pandering, yet the plot and dialogue is less pathetically desperate than his previous Love Hina.  As above, some people see Wolf and Spice’s nude wolf-girl scenes and go ‘Holy crap, where did this come from’ and I can see that – to me it flows naturally when you involve a fertility goddess, but that’s just gut feel and I can’t objectively argue against it.

To Aru Majutsu no Index

October 14, 2008 at 8:15 am | In adventure, anime, could be worse, fall 2008, fightfightfight, guilty pleasure, ridiculous premise | Leave a Comment

Summary: Action magic/drama in Young King Ours/Square-Enix style.
Based on: 2 episodes
Series Summary: at Anime News Network (picture stolen as well)

Okay, so this one has me conflicted after 2 eps. I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t like it, then why you should.

First, it’s utterly typical of a style you find in Young King Ours magazine, which I subscribe to, and anything Square-Enix sponsors. An adolescent male appeal with violence, sexual undercurrents, and an emphasis on fighting and sheer coolness over plot. Of course there’s always magic/psychic powers involved, lots of fighting and explosions, and a young guy who’s sort of helpless (but not a totally weak despicable dork, thank god) but turns out to be the only way the world can be saved once his powers can be trained up. World Embryo is the epitome of this. So when I see it my reaction is to go ‘meh’.

On the other hand, given the formula setup, the characters in this are relatively well done, likeable, and believable (minus the loli teacher). It certainly delivers the action. I can’t fault the character design or animation or music. The heroine (?) out-Rei’s Rei for being white-haired autistic savant, but since the hero’s not even slightly romantically attracted to her (so far) that’s tolerable. The most eye-rolling thing here is that everyone believes in psychic powers but not magic, though they have a Justification for this.

So what am I saying? I’m not sure yet, but if Yozakura Quartet drops the ball this could be my action show for the season.

Yozakura Quartet

October 10, 2008 at 5:39 am | In Weekly Showing, adventure, anime, fall 2008, fightfightfight | Leave a Comment

Summary: shojo Bleach
Based on: 1 episode
Series Info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly stolen too)

For some reason this starts out with a hugely boring chunk of exposition about how the half-human half-demon town came into existence, which wouldn’t even need to be explained if you thought your viewers had two brain cells to rub together. The basic plot is about a town where humans and youkai (demons) co-exist, and the quartet is a group that hunts down bad guys. Think Geobreeders, Phantom Quest Corp, or Ghost Sweeper Mikami. The setup is pretty standard.

But once you get past that, I rather like this. It continues the trend of merging of shojo (girls’) and shounen (boys’) genres, and reminds me of nothing so much as a slightly more girly Bleach before Bleach jumped the shark. I absolutely love the character designs, especially Kotoha.

This could easily end up in the crapper if it just milks the premise as stated and turns into harem anime, but for now I’m absolutely grabbing the second ep.

definition: hgame to anime sucks

October 10, 2008 at 5:12 am | In definition, hgame to anime sucks | 2 Comments

This one is related to ‘rpg to anime sucks‘. It’s just as easy to remember – any anime based on a hentai (porn) game sucks. Which should be obvious, because it almost inevitably means harem and/or buffet of girls and usually school syndrome and of course an unlikeable nebbish male lead. And the female characters are even more one-dimensional and annoying than usual – and really, who wants to put up with all that if you can’t even have sex with them (since the anime are invariably pg-rated)?

Some of the hall of failure include:

  • Comic Party
  • Fate/Stay Night
  • Kanon
  • Kimi ga Nozomu Ein
  • School Days
  • Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica
  • To Heart (and To Heart 2)
  • Tsukihime
  • Utawarerumono

And some horrific anime I can’t even remember the name of about a battleship powered by the main character’s semen. (Brendan S reminded me that this is Lime-iro Senkitan).

These are usually pretty easy to spot – are there gratuitously too many different types of girls (especially an annoying loli) and a plot that seems to be an afterthought? Does the main goal seem to be to get you to lust after one of the female chars rather than involve you in the story? Unfortunately, manga seems to be headed this way too, so I mistakenly identified Sekirei as one of these even though it isn’t. Rosario to Vampire fits here too.

School Days is perhaps the most interesting of these – it knew it was based on a vapid porn game, so it took the most horrific of the game paths and rubbed it in your face, and made the main character to pathetically weak you couldn’t possibly like him (I hope).

definition: rpg to anime sucks

October 10, 2008 at 4:54 am | In definition, rpg to anime sucks | 1 Comment

I love console RPGs unreasonably. There’s something soothing about a formulaic dialogue heavy old-school RPG like the Tales games that just appeal to me.

Sadly, every single anime based on these is formulaic boring crap. Take the recent Tales of the Abyss or the Star Ocean 2 anime. I liked those games a lot, but I couldn’t even sit through two eps of the anime. And I can’t think of a single counterexample (and don’t even say the Final Fantasy VII movies).

The least bad I can think of so far is Mahoujin Guruguru.

Here’s the list of failure so far, and I’m sure I’m missing quite a few:

  • Ar Tonelico (OVA)
  • Arc the Lad
  • Blue Dragon
  • Chrono Trigger (OVA)
  • Final Fantasy Unlimited
  • Idolm@ster: Xenoglossia
  • Night Wizard
  • Persona 3
  • Ragnarok Online
  • Suikoden: Demon Century (OVA)
  • Tales of the Abyss
  • Tales of Symphonia
  • Tower of Druaga
  • Wild Arms
  • Wizardry (OVA)
  • World Destruction
  • Xenosaga

Not included here are anime based on porn adventure games like Tsukihime or Utawarerumono – that’s something else.  Nor do I include real RPGs to anime, like Record of Lodoss War.

define: tsundere

October 9, 2008 at 5:33 am | In definition, tsundere | Leave a Comment

This is a term that’s almost as overused as moe. Basically it means a girl who acts all hostile (tsuntsun) towards the nebbish male lead, but since she’s secretly in love with him she can’t help but get all flustered and super-bashful-girly (deredere) in the right circumstances.

These have peaked in popularity, and there has been a huge amount of bitching about how the term has been cheapened, but Louise from Zero no Tsukaima and Taiga from Toradora are great examples.

Another sign that tsundere are played out is the recent growth of the related yandere character – who acts polite and girly, then goes totally insane and cuts you up with a meat cleaver (think Rena from Higurashi).

Kuroshitsuji

October 8, 2008 at 7:31 am | In anime, fall 2008, ridiculous premise, shoujo cliche, yaoibait | Leave a Comment

Summary: Shojou Hellsing (again)
Based on: 1 episode
Series Info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly stolen)

[edit: I reread my initial review of this, and it came off far too harsh - sure, this is formulaic, but it's not as bad as I made it out to be.]

Sigh. It really is disappointing that anime/manga for girls are even more more generic than anime/manga for boys. Aren’t women supposed to be more subtle, nuanced, and intelligent than stupid brutish men? Then you look at Harlequin romances (and shojo anime) and realize this isn’t the case. Women prefer their plots even more formulaic and predictable than men do.

So now that I’ve got that ranting out of the way, if you liked Nabari no Ou this is the your shojo anime for you this season.  Ciel Phantomhive (eye-patched prettyboy) is the heir of the English Phantomhive toy dynasty. His butler, Sebastian, is an ultra-competent ultra-handsome demon lord. Everyone else in the household is comic relief.

I had a brief moment of appreciation for this show when it actually invoked some horror (the oven scene), but then it completely cheapened and nullified it. The best I can say is this isn’t as horribly bad as Trinity Blood.

But, for you people who need your formulaic prettyboys (and I have my own guilty pleasures), this is your show. And the production values are indisputably good.

Kannagi

October 8, 2008 at 7:18 am | In anime, could be worse, fall 2008, miko | Leave a Comment

Summary: Divine love comedy
Based on: 1 episode
Series info: at Anime News Network (picture shamelessly stolen from there too)

It’s hard to tell from only one episode, but given the horrible premise and opening animation this was actually better than I expected. We’ll see. Generally miko are just a rape-bunny fetish, so I’m skeptical, but I’ll be watching the second episode.

Schoolboy Jin (an interesting name in this context that can mean ‘person’ or ‘god’ depending on the character) carves a figurine out of wood from a sacred tree (nageia, a type of conifer). The local land-god, displaced from her habitat, animates the figure and suddenly Jin has a hot divine chick living with him. I’m giving this a chance since even with the obvious harem setup coming, the first ep resisted the obvious panty shot and other cheesecake opportunities.

This could could go straight in the dumper from here, and I suspect it will since it reminds me most of  Ai Yori Aoshi or Seto no Hanayome, but damn it I have some faint hope.

define: miko

October 8, 2008 at 7:10 am | In definition, miko | Leave a Comment

Shrine maidens, with emblematic white robes and bright orange pants. Unfortunately, these, like nuns, are generally viewed by the Japanese as shorthand for ‘rape bunny’. The usual inseparable mix of sacred and divine.

Detroit Metal City

October 8, 2008 at 7:00 am | In fall 2008, guilty pleasure | Leave a Comment

Summary: Low-brow death metal comedy.
Based on: 6 episodes, 5 volumes of manga
Series info: at Anime News Network

This series only has one joke, but I love it and it’s fairly bottomless. Negishi the nebbish just wants to write vapid jpop songs, but to make ends meet he transforms into Krauser II, lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for death metal group DMC.

Negishi is the wussy super-ego, but when he dons the mask (or even lets down his mental guard), his Id takes over and he becomes Krauser II, who can sing ‘ten rapes per second’. Part of the fun here is that Krauser II isn’t just some made up persona, it’s really a facet of Negishi’s personality that he won’t admit exists.

The legend of Krauser says that he killed his parents then raped them then broke out of prison then raped them – then killed them. Got that?

And this is all animated by the super-fabulous Studio 4C in low fidelity Gag Manga Biyori style. The low quality visuals are part of the charm.

Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo (Ryoko’s Case Files)

July 31, 2008 at 9:23 pm | In adventure, anime, grownup is not a panacea, plot crystalization, summer 2008 | Leave a Comment

Summary: Adult action office romance adventure with some supernatural. Yes, it’s (too?) busy.
Based on: 13 episodes
Series info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly lifted from there too)

This one’s a bit strange. It’s obviously written for adults, not teens or kids, which is a good start. Ryoko’s an apparently brilliant police investigor who spends all her time slacking off. Her assistant Junichiro is basically her babysitter. But when the weird stuff starts happening, she’s suddenly in the thick of things to fix it, which is apparently why they still keep her employed. You’ll sometimes hear this one referred to as Ryoko’s Supernatural Case Files, but it’s more Science Gone Mad thing than vengeful ghosts. The Kaiki just means bizarre/strange.

All the women in this show are strong and dominant and all the men are semi-closeted submissives, which is hardly unique in adult anime, but a nice change from the usual teen stuff.  Presumably this appeals to Japanese salarymen, but then they have to undermine it by constantly non-subtly hinting that Ryoko’s fallen for Junichiro, though she’d never admit it. So she’s allowed to be strong, but still weak enough she doesn’t totally emasculate the viewers. In fact, the 3rd episode is pretty much a total waste based on this ‘plot’.

Usually you’ll hear me bemoaning shows for too much action and not enough plot or character building, but honestly in this show the action is much more interesting than the relationship building, which I find fairly awkward and stunted.  But Ep 2 has giant man-eating snakes destroying buildings in downtown Tokyo and a very amusing interrogation scene. I thoroughly enjoyed the Doc Savage vibe in that one, so I’m going to keep watching for a while longer to see what comes up.

Update: I’ve watched it all now. I particularly like how the plot crystalized in the last 5 eps or so for a big dramatic finish that pulled in a bunch of seemingly throwaway plot points from early episodes.  The ending was a little facile, but respectable.

I don’t usually mention specific sub groups, but big thanks to AonE and AnY for following through one of the few respectable anime that’s actually for adults out to completion.

Slayers Revolution

July 8, 2008 at 1:31 am | In adventure, anime, comedy, summer 2008 | 2 Comments

Summary: Comedy adventure. If you’ve seen any Slayers you’ve seen this.
Based on: 1 episode
Series info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly lifted from there too)

I’m actually more interested in comparing this to Birdy the Mighty Decode, which is another revival of an ancient show this season. Whereas Birdy embraces the new visuals of the 2000s (oughts?), Slayers Revolution remains proudly 90s retro. The character designs have hardly been updated, the songs are the same, and most tellingly I don’t think there was any CG anywhere in the episode. Unless it was integrated really well, everything, even the bits that you would normally expect to be CG these days like fleets of ships, was hand animated.

All the normal cast of TV characters are back. The overall plot, such as it is, is that Gourry lost the Sword of Light in Slayers Try so they’re looking for a replacement. The plot for the first ep is ‘Lina gets mad and she blows things up as usual’. There are some slight changeups – instead of exploding bandits she’s exploding pirates and though the expected Dragon Slave goes off in the first ep it’s not Lina who does it.

If you’ve never seen Slayers before you might be pretty lost, since this is effectively the 4th season of an ongoing plot. But it’s fairly fluffy harmless comedy adventure series which usually sprouts some Drama half-way in.

Birdy the Mighty Decode

July 8, 2008 at 1:31 am | In adventure, anime, summer 2008 | Leave a Comment

Summary: Curvy alien supercop hunts down criminals on Earth.  Action/Romance. So old it feels new.
Based on: 1 episode (and the original series)
Summary at: Anime News Network (pic shamelessly lifted from there too)

This one is interesting to compare to Slayers Revolution. That show wallows happily in its retro 90-ness, while this one is a retelling of the old Birdy the Mighty series which yanks it visually into the 2000s.

‘Birdy’ is a space inspector tasked with hunting down alien criminals (who for some reason like to hide on Earth) though in practice she acts more like a bounty hunter. Throw in some school romance (due to a silly plot twist that ends the first episode but which is one of the series core conceits) and lots of fighting and action and you have something that’s not really all that adult, but is entertaining.

Graphically this is hugely updated – lots of CG and even the hand-animation is very attractive.  The aliens here are fabulously ugly, even when disguised as human.  But this is still 90s at the core – in fact it’s sort of sad that the idea of a Bubblegum Crisis type ass-kicking female, which were a dime a dozen, actually feels somewhat fresh compared to the submissive big-breasted bubbleheads (or lolis) that tend to populate shows now.  But fighting in high heels still isn’t.

P.S.: I’m not sure if it’s a nod or because he was just perfect to begin with, but badman Gomez looks exactly the same.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu

May 24, 2008 at 7:18 am | In anime, comedy, could be worse, harem, nothing happens (and that's ok), school syndrome, you kids get off my lawn | 2 Comments

Summary: not as great as advertised, but interesting once over the hump
Based on: 14 episodes (first season)
Series info: at Anime News Network

I probably don’t really need to review this one since you’ve likely already heard of it and seen some of it, but it would be silly to just ignore it since it was such a huge phenomenon and reviewers generally seem to be unable to articulate what makes this show stand out (besides the media oversaturation).

It suffers a bit from school syndrome and harem, but not awfully. The school setting gets less and less important, and there are only three main girls.  It’s also a show where nothing really happens yet contains more plot twists than most shows do in 26 episodes.  It’s fairly formulaic on the surface and overly marketed, but it does three things I found interesting that raise it above the genre:

First, it says that it’s okay not to like the main (female) character. The male lead is your normal unremarkable harem anime nebbish, but Haruhi herself is selfish, rude, and generally unlike normal anime girls who are there to cater to the audience (most ‘bad’ girls are appealingly so). And, calculatedly, this in itself is appealing. In contrast the other two girls are basically complaisant dolls there to receive your deflected affections: so you didn’t like a real girl – how about… this (Mikuru’s breasts here)?

Second, it dares you to not like the show.  The episodes are shown out of chronological order, and it starts with the most (purposely) awkward, stupid, and badly acted and voiced episode of the series. Are you lookin’ at me? Are you lookin’ at me? C’mon, I dare you, turn it off. Then the next eps set up your generic school romance/harem formula. You have to sit through quite a bit to get to any payoff at all. It’s playing hard to get where most anime is pathetically eager to please.

Third, it’s unafraid to lull you into complacency then sucker punch you. I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but it’s willing to take the most base of plot cliches, mix them into that totally vanilla school romance/harem formula, then embrace the outre consequences. This in itself isn’t quite so abnormal (most series are ‘generic setting plus something weird’), but the breadth is unusual.

So yes, this is overhyped and overmarketed, but it’s worth watching if only as an exercise in deconstruction and hating the viewer as a useful tool.  And you might even enjoy it once you get past the first few episodes.

define: nothing happens (and that’s ok)

May 22, 2008 at 6:50 am | In definition, nothing happens (and that's ok) | 1 Comment

Occasionally you get a show where nothing happens… and that’s okay. Well maybe something happens. Maybe the main character visits a park. Or meets a ghost.  Or time travels.  But it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is the characters and the setting and the fuwa fuwa (warm fluffy).  If you’re a fan of Jane Austen or Patrick O’ Brien novels you know this – it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Non-comedy anime series that try this often end up being too precious or cute for their own good (especially falling prey to buffet of girls, but those that can pull it off are some of the best. I’m going to exclude comedy series, since most of them fall into the ‘nothing happens’ category – it’s the serious or whimsical that are much harder to pull off.

A prime example of this is Haibane Renmei (one of the best anime ever), where anything that actually happens is just incidental. One of the best manga ever, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikkou (Yokohama Shopping Trip), is perhaps the epitome of it – if there were more than just a measly 4 episodes of it it would be on the best anime list. Another fine example is Aria.

define: buffet of girls

May 16, 2008 at 10:41 pm | In buffet of girls, definition | 1 Comment

This is obviously related to harem, but isn’t quite the same. The harem usually involves the buffet of girls but you can have the buffet of girls without the harem.

This kind of show runs down the fetish list and makes sure you have one girl for each of the major categories. You have the dumb tanned athletic girl, the brainy glasses wearing class rep (iincho) type, the well-stacked ditz, the lolicon girl, the blue-eyed blonde haired foreign girl, the ‘weird’ girl, on and on. Each girl is more or less the objectified personification of her fetish. Probably the nadir of this is Negima! which makes sure you have 31 different fetishes taken care of like robot girls, witch girls, etc. [1]

The high school girl comedy genre is very prone to this: No central male character (or sometimes any at all) to make it a harem, but one of each girl for the viewers. It’s your harem! What makes Azumanga Daioh superior to similar series like Pani Poni Dash is the way the latter objectifies the girls (complete with cheesecake shots for their first appearances), who are no deeper than their stereotypes, and the former doesn’t. [2] And Pani Poni is still fairly mild as far as this goes – it just would have been much better without it.

Another well-known example is Lucky Star – the only character with any depth on the entire show is Kagami, and the template for Konata is about as coldly cynical as I can imagine.  But while it’s ruthlessly commercial it’s not as exploitative as something like Shuffle!.

Does this sound too cynical, like these series are factory production lines? Well it should, because that’s exactly the case. The doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it if it’s done well, but recognizing this really helps your up front crapfilter.

[1] To be fair, the execution is far better than his previous Love Hina, but the premise is still the ultimate example of buffet of girls.
[2] Azumanga even includes type overlap (‘redundant’ characters) which is usually anathema for this kind of show since it’s inefficient to have your fetishes doubled up.

Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.