I was sure that someone must have made an Utena AMV out of the Sifl and Olly Performance Art song. It's so logical! But apparently it has yet to happen.
I gave up halfway through episode four. This series has the consistency of oatmeal. Does anything genuinely bad ever happen outside of a flashback?

I want to slap half the cast for their seemingly-permanent air of self-satisfaction. It's like that Anne McCaffrey book Nimisha's Ship, where the heroine designs the best spaceship ever, and then she uses it to solve everybody's problems one by one, and everyone says, "Nimisha, you're so great," and Nimisha says, "Basically," and then the book's over. My spaceship is going to mess you up, Nimisha. It will have cannons that fire evil space-bears with antimatter claws or something.
I have seen the greatest anime episode ever. Possibly the greatest cultural artifact ever. It is called Nanami's Egg, and everyone had might as well just stop making anime now, because I think we're pretty much done.

(I've never watched Utena all the way through before.)
I was looking at the animated movies meme. I am a failure as a nerd; I've only seen about 10% of this stuff. I haven't even seen all the classic Disney. Yet somehow, I have watched everything Ralph Bakshi ever made. This is how you know Mom raised us wrong.

I saw Unico and the Island of Magic, plus a few shorter Unico cartoons, when I was pretty tiny, and as Tezuka's stuff did for a lot of people, it permanently altered my idea of how stories ought to be told. I realized a couple of years ago that, when I read books set in the woods, despite the fact that I was kind of raised in woods, the setting I see is the one from Unico. When I first read A Wizard of Earthsea, the end of the world was Kuruku's end of the world. I suspect that I was psychologically primed to become obsessed with manga long before Yukito Kishiro took over my brain; after all, most manga artists were hit by the same cultural virus I was.
If you discover a new band via an AMV, you will never be able to picture its members as they actually are. You will always imagine them to be, like, Gojyou and Utena.

(Gojyou and Utena are members of Moxy Früvous. Moxy Früvous's Wikipedia entry contains this sentence:

Common themes in Früvous songs include Canada and the "human experience".


It sounds awfully dubious about that human experience thing. "Some sub-citizens have claimed that there is a "human experience" which in some way differs materially from the Zervack-16-ian experience. Have been unable to produce material evidence of this, most of these parties have been fed to the vengwaster, or else put to appropriate use in the Fields Of Inexplicable Heat.")
On BoingBoing, via [livejournal.com profile] james_nicoll.

M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don't know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn't just a tax shelter?
K: Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.


I remember reading somewhere - I have no idea where, and whether there's any truth to it - that some mafiosi kind of learn how to behave by watching Hollywood movies about mafiosi. It seems like there might be a feedback loop like that at play with yakuza, too. The interview mentions that there's a yakuza manga sitting the office they're playing in, and this game is not exactly the first piece of Japanese media I've encountered that thinks yakuza are kind of cool. I mean, I've watched two anime in the past month - Darker Than Black and Yami no Matsuei - and sympathetic yakuza dudes show up in both of them.

For a while, there were trailers for this game playing constantly at the electronics store next to the school in Shibata. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, given that, you know, there were both prostitutes and a lot of violence in the trailers, and there was a display of magic markers and stickers right next to the screen showing it. (Actually, the trailers gave so much attention to the prostitutes that I thought at first it was some kind of extremely-high-production-values dating sim.)
The world needs a Darker Than Black AMV done to See Colin Slash's "You And All Your Communist Friends," with a bunch of clips of Huang haranguing Hei. I say this partly because it is true, and partly because I wished to use the phrase "Huang harangues" in a sentence.

Regardless of my motives, I have no sense of rhythm, so someone else will have to do it for me. Come on, people. I don't have all day.
BUSYBODY LANDLADY: Hello, Li, exchange student who never actually goes to school. Are you off to your part-time job in the Screwing Up Endearingly sector of the service industry?

LI: ...yes...

MAO: I am a talking cat. Say, given that you are secretly BK201, codename Hei, pretty much the most dangerous dude in the world, why are you always screwing up endearingly?

LI: ...dunno...

HUANG: Obviously it is because he is secretly a ruthless manipulator empty of all human emotion, being a Contractor. Fuzake na.

*This suggestion will not be borne out by the plot.*

HUANG: Never mind. We are going to do something criminal-ish, for The Syndicate, because we are so very criminal. Yin, look at something! But be sure and do it all passive-like. Fuzake na!

YIN: ...

HUANG: That pose isn't passive enough! Danglier limbs! Glassier eyes! Fuzake na!

YIN: ...you said "fuzake na" again...

HUANG: I have to say it at least five times per episode. It's in the Crusty Guy manual. Hei, now that Yin has looked at something, you must go case the target! Be sure to be inconspicuous, by which I mean, fall down or something! And you should definitely accidentally make friends with everyone in the area, so they all remember your face!

LI: ...I fell down or something... and am eating a giant pile of food...

ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN: I am an attractive young woman! Your air of awkward sincerity entices me to trust you!

LI: (You are doomed along with everything you love.)

SCHOLARLY OLDER MAN: I am a scholarly older man! Your air of awkward sincerity entices me to trust you!

LI: (You are doomed along with everything you love.)

OTHER CONTRACTOR: I am another Contractor! There are actually two different alternatives for me here - either I am a total bastard with no motives, or I am conflicted with pathos-drenched motives! I may also be conflated with either of the two previously-mentioned one-off characters.

LI: (These variables will have no effect on your doom, along with that of everything you love.)

CHIEF KIRIHARA: Stop! Police! Hold still, while we ultimately fail to affect the plot!

OTHER CONTRACTOR: We're not going to do that. But if you want, later you can make a short statement of disappointment or hope, which will serve as a kind of emotional coda to the episode! Also, you can click your cell phone shut and then, your brow creased, mutter, "BK201...!"

CHIEF KIRIHARA: I can work with that.

HUANG: Hei! It's time for your interestingly passive-looking action sequence, possibly intercut with images of Yin looking vague as a reminder of your own essential powerlessness! Also - fuzake na.

LI: ...

ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN: *is doomed along with everything she loves* My accursed habit of acquiring some sort of power over those around me, whether via sexuality, science, or psionics, has undone me at last!

SCHOLARLY OLDER MAN: *is doomed along with everything he loves* My accursed failure as a father, husband, or brother has undone me at last! This is somewhat less creepy than what happened with the attractive young woman, at least!

LI: ...(I will now get worked up about the injustice of the situation, before killing the other contractor)...

OTHER CONTRACTOR: *is doomed along with a poignant reminder of the price of his/her power* My... thing has undone me at last! Gnomic utterance.

CHIEF KIRIHARA: Emotional coda to the episode.

(OPTIONAL) MEMBER OF MI6 OR EVENING PRIMROSE: Extra bonus gnomic utterance.

HUANG: I have found something to whine about. Fuzake na!

LI: ...

ATMOSPHERIC SUNSET AND/OR RAIN: ...
The Close Encounters communication-music keeps showing up in these last two episodes. This is even more distracting than the fact that the default Creepy Music involves the first few notes in Chrono Trigger's 600 AD theme.

(I have nothing else to say yet because Hulu panicked in the last fifteen minutes of 12, and I haven't finished it yet.)

I accidentally watched episode 26 first, and had no idea that it had been the last episode, rather than the first, until I scrolled down to find episode 2. (Hulu, you are really not set up for watching shows that have finished their run.) I've noticed that as long as you watch the to-be-continued episode sets together, so far, you could watch this show in any order without it making any less sense. It's completely temporally unhooked. ExpandSmall spoiler. )
And they make even less sense. Which is difficult.

I KNOW I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT HOW DEAD GUYS CAN DIE, we've gone over this. I also should not care about all the inconsistent characterization - in this case, I don't think it's real productive to spend more time thinking about fictional characters than the person who made them up did.*

I nonetheless cannot stop myself. I keep trying to come up with ways to induce Tsuzuki's decisions to make some kind of emotional sense - I go, well, maybe there were a cutscene in between where he and Hisoka have a fight, or where he has a conversation with Muraki. Or gets amnesia. Maybe there's a shinigami rule that you can't kill albinos.

Tatsumi's Aura Of Competence in the anime makes more sense when viewed in light of his occasional displays of competence in the manga. Though maybe I am not well-enough indoctrinated into anime tropes - his being The Dark-Haired Guy With Glasses is surely sufficient to explain all.

-

* The implication of this sentence is that in some cases it is productive. This blog's existence is reliant on that assumption, so I have no problem with it.
Hahaha what.

That is my cumulative opinion of the whole series.

ExpandSpoilers. )
because I am about ten years behind on anime, okay?

And I just got to episode 7, and how is Tsuzuki still (quasi-)alive if he makes such consistently bad decisions? I do not pity you, Tsuzuki! You are too stupid!

ExpandCut for spoilers and capslock. )

oh god

Jul. 6th, 2010 10:48 pm
suddenly i have got several pages and a synopsis of this complicated au where bad things happen to kyouya and he remains a complete jerk throughout

i'm such a TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING

so terrible that i must type without caps

(it may be slavefic)
* This post about Errol Morris's latest documentary is being linked around a lot. It's about a woman who abducted and raped a man in the 70s, but was only sentenced to one year (which she never served), apparently because the UK criminal justice system at the time wasn't quite sure it believed men could be raped.

This sounds pretty awful, so why's the post say this: The subject matter here seems right in the wheelhouse with other Morris profiles of the delightfully weird in films like Gates Of Heaven and Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control.

I mean, "delightful" is not the word I'd use. I think I'd probably use some other word.

* Since I've been encouraging people to watch Baccano!, I should probably warn for two items of mild racefail in there.

1) There's a Mammy stereotype whose role is basically to fret about the fate of the rich white girl.

2) One of the two newspaper reporter guys, Elean, is a black guy who shows similar tendencies to fawn over the same girl, and also gets humiliated a lot - not any more than the other reporter guy, but given that there are only two black characters in the show, it comes off as a little iffy.

* I tried making pinto-bean-and-salt-pork curry, but it didn't really work as well as the pinto-bean-and-salt-pork miso soup.

(Pinto-bean-and-salt-pork miso soup was a great idea, by the way. Thank me. Unless you're watching your sodium intake. Then you must curse me, for I come bearing your destruction.)
The series basically ends here, but there are three more episodes; I will watch them later.

I consider it possible that the story was originally Nero Wolfe fanfic that got distracted in the process of explaining why Wolfe and Archie are apparently immortal. Unless the last three episodes disabuse me of the notion, I'm going to assume that the process had something to do with the undeniable fact that Vino hired Wolfe to find Chane for him.

Considering the tone of the rest of the show, Czeslaw's Kaori Yuki-colored backstory was a little startling.
I hope not.

It may indicate some deficit in my character that I find Baccano! soothing, despite the massive quantities of blood spilt therein.

(It may also just indicate that I want to kill people? I don't know if that's a deficit; it seems to me like a surfeit, of something. Maybe it is my philosophical construction of the nature of wrath that is the deficit.)

Anyway, I like most of the cast, which is huge, but I particularly like Isaac-and-Miria, Nice, and Jacuzzi. Though I also object to Jacuzzi's name. His surname is Splot - I mean, the whole thing is just a really big problem.
Because it evidently does not have the internet. Or Japan.

Regarding the news that Supernatural is going to get turned into an anime (note: I don't know if this news is real and I'm not sure I care), someone over there explains the appeal the series might have in Japan thusly:

Though Supernatural is in many ways an all-American magicked bromance of the midwest, it makes a perfect fit for anime audiences. The brooding boys who treasure family above all else, fighting demons who want to break into our dimension from another world - it's a classic horror anime. Adding in those exotic American touches like "God" and "hamburgers" will only make it more fun for Japanese audiences.


1) LADY DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT BL IS

1a) I mean. How can you even post about this without bringing that up? It makes no sense. And the anime's apparently by Madhouse, the studio that did frigging Death Note. These are people who knew good and well what licensed L and Light figurines were going to end up doing when teenaged girls got hold of them.

2) Hamburgers?!

Get on a goddamn plane and go to Japan right now. HOW MANY HAMBURGER PLACES DO YOU SEE RIGHT OUTSIDE THE TRAIN STATION. (Answer: One, and it's McDonalds. But there's either a Mosburger or a Freshness Burger a couple blocks away.)

I forbid you ever to discuss Japanese culture in public again.

Edited a couple hours later because I felt that the narrative which I presented did not entirely cohere.
I've put together a Wiki if anyone would like to help me document the controversial run of the classic anime 10 no SINzou.

So far I've got a couple of bios, and some stuff about the author of the light novel series.

I'd be grateful if someone would put up some information about the seiyuu - I've been looking and looking at the credits on my Japanese tapes, and I finally figured out that they're just a list of Japanese historical figures who died of sword-related injuries. I mean, I think it unlikely that Magister Sinclair was actually voiced by someone named Oda Nobunaga, and Deathle was Mishima Yukio. (I guess it's possible? But if they were, then these guys have never been in anything else.)

(It was a lot of work for me to get those screenshots, what with the series only being out on VHS because of all that crazy thing with Yamada-sensei's second wife and all those licensing problems. If anyone else has any better ones, please put them up!)

If you wish to complain that Zone Macanchair just looks like Wolfram from Kyou Kara Maoh! with his clothes hue-shifted in Photoshop, I would like to point out that he is also wearing glasses.

December 2018

S M T W T F S
      1
2345 678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     

Style Credit

Syndicate

RSS Atom
Page generated Jul. 22nd, 2025 05:29 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Expand Cut Tags

Expand All Cut TagsCollapse All Cut Tags

Most Popular Tags

Creative Commons



The contents of this blog and all comments I make are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License. I hope that name is long enough. I could add some stuff. It could also be a Bring Me A Sandwich License.

If you desire to thank me for the pretend internet magnanimity I show by sharing my important and serious thoughts with you, I accept pretend internet dollars (Bitcoins): 19BqFnAHNpSq8N2A1pafEGSqLv4B6ScstB