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Posts tagged anime

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I was just shopping for groceries and BAM, HUNDREDS OF COSPLAYERS in the MEGADEATH MALL. There must’ve been some kind of local anime and manga event. I think Animax Asia was one of the sponsors.

The Briefs dude was kind of cool, and so was the little kid in the Zero costume. His DAD was with him, being supportive. Daddy, you’re the best!

Filed under Philippines cosplay Animax Anime Manga

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In the previous post I mentioned how, after robot anime, I really like swordfight anime. Over on twitter, my friend Iknight noted how he doesn’t think animation handles swordfights as well as live-action. I actually agree, which is why I value the small number of shows that do it well (or passably). Star Driver 03 gives an example of how even when a show animates a swordfight with some fluidity, there are still things that we can view as problems. If one can imagine a continuum of swordfight anime similar to the real robot - super robot continuum, Star Driver (or at least the swordfight in this episode) would be in the super side of the line.  I would imagine Revolutionary Girl Utena to be somewhere in the super side of the line as well. In Utena’s case the finishing moves and their resolution do not resemble anything that happens in the physical world, not to mention the super powers of the sword, and the in-fight possession by the Prince over Utena. In Star Driver everything seems fine if obviously stylized, until the Galactic Pretty-boy calls out his final attack, very much an anime/manga conceit. It’s the ‘super’ part of anime sword fights that make me agree with Iknight (beyond limits of budget in making choreography fluid) that anime can’t handle sword fights as well as live action can. Of course, unless, one actually enjoys these super attack shenanigans. (I dropped Sengoku Basara season two for this reason).

In the previous post I mentioned how, after robot anime, I really like swordfight anime. Over on twitter, my friend Iknight noted how he doesn’t think animation handles swordfights as well as live-action.

I actually agree, which is why I value the small number of shows that do it well (or passably).

Star Driver 03 gives an example of how even when a show animates a swordfight with some fluidity, there are still things that we can view as problems. If one can imagine a continuum of swordfight anime similar to the real robot - super robot continuum, Star Driver (or at least the swordfight in this episode) would be in the super side of the line. 

I would imagine Revolutionary Girl Utena to be somewhere in the super side of the line as well. In Utena’s case the finishing moves and their resolution do not resemble anything that happens in the physical world, not to mention the super powers of the sword, and the in-fight possession by the Prince over Utena.

In Star Driver everything seems fine if obviously stylized, until the Galactic Pretty-boy calls out his final attack, very much an anime/manga conceit.

It’s the ‘super’ part of anime sword fights that make me agree with Iknight (beyond limits of budget in making choreography fluid) that anime can’t handle sword fights as well as live action can. Of course, unless, one actually enjoys these super attack shenanigans.

(I dropped Sengoku Basara season two for this reason).

Filed under Star Driver Revolutionary Girl Utena Swords Anime

7 notes &

pontifus: Which is to say that, while I never really feel the need to justify my preferences that much (my mantra being “be critical of what you like, but never apologize for it”), I think that insisting upon the rightness of my dislike or dissatisfaction (and, by extension, the wrongness of someone else’s satisfaction) would be an exercise in futility, if not simply meanness. Any exceptions I make are, generally speaking, intended purely for the sake of entertainment, and should be taken even less seriously than my only semi-serious standard would suggest. This graph also concedes that my writing about things I like in a certain way does amount to a kind of justification, if we count my wanting people to see what I see in things I like as “justification,” and I guess we should. Indeed, it’s something I’ve come to terms with as an advocate of anime and my favorites in it.  You can’t expect people to accept your advocacy/recommendations uncritically. It is unsatisfying when they do. One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga is when readers discover something to enjoy in what you enjoy (therefore recommend).  However, the nature of attacking what you enjoy, belongs in another dimension of fandom. See the terrible behavior of the Gundam fandom in all its retarded ugliness in Ngee Khiong’s raegquit post. A sterling example would be the massive hate directed at the release of the Perfect Grade Strike Freedom Gundam kit, which has little to do with the quality of the toy but has mainly to do with hatred for the pilot of the Gundam in Gundam SeeD the anime. You’ll also see this in the hate for shows like K-ON! and Code Geass. There’s an inauthenticity to this behavior, and it’s something we as hobbyist writers are loath to deal with. It sucks our energy because we are expending so much on something as you say, is just about entertainment. It is the interests of entertainment of some fans to participate in this kind of “criticism”, inasmuch as blogging your heart out for the shows you like and love is for you. This is why we can’t have nice things.

pontifus:

Which is to say that, while I never really feel the need to justify my preferences that much (my mantra being “be critical of what you like, but never apologize for it”), I think that insisting upon the rightness of my dislike or dissatisfaction (and, by extension, the wrongness of someone else’s satisfaction) would be an exercise in futility, if not simply meanness. Any exceptions I make are, generally speaking, intended purely for the sake of entertainment, and should be taken even less seriously than my only semi-serious standard would suggest.

This graph also concedes that my writing about things I like in a certain way does amount to a kind of justification, if we count my wanting people to see what I see in things I like as “justification,” and I guess we should.

Indeed, it’s something I’ve come to terms with as an advocate of anime and my favorites in it. 

  1. You can’t expect people to accept your advocacy/recommendations uncritically.
  2. It is unsatisfying when they do.

One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga is when readers discover something to enjoy in what you enjoy (therefore recommend). 

However, the nature of attacking what you enjoy, belongs in another dimension of fandom. See the terrible behavior of the Gundam fandom in all its retarded ugliness in Ngee Khiong’s raegquit post.

A sterling example would be the massive hate directed at the release of the Perfect Grade Strike Freedom Gundam kit, which has little to do with the quality of the toy but has mainly to do with hatred for the pilot of the Gundam in Gundam SeeD the anime.

You’ll also see this in the hate for shows like K-ON! and Code Geass. There’s an inauthenticity to this behavior, and it’s something we as hobbyist writers are loath to deal with. It sucks our energy because we are expending so much on something as you say, is just about entertainment.

It is the interests of entertainment of some fans to participate in this kind of “criticism”, inasmuch as blogging your heart out for the shows you like and love is for you.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Filed under Criticism Anime Manga Fandom

11 notes &

THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT PINK: Anime.. ja nai?

scarletmonochrome:

cincobajeena:

scarletmonochrome:

cincobajeena:

The verdicts are already starting to come in on Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. If there were a consistent way everyone wrote the name of the show in their tweets, you could probably do a nice little search to find that 90% of them mention The Powerpuff Girls, or at least say something about…

I think it’s sad that no one who watches this will have seen Dead Leaves, Imaishi’s directorial work before Gurren Lagann that’s exactly like PantyStocking. Oh, newbie fans…

I remember when PPG came out, btw, because I obsessively watched cartoon network throughout my entire childhood. I do think it’s funny to say a show is like a western cartoon and cite PPG when PPG was all about being like anime. As for whether it’s come full circle, well, it already happened with PPGZ in that case…

Ok digiboy. First off, I already said the bit about PPG being inspired by anime (and kaiju) so I hope you’re agreeing with me by saying that.

But is everyone who hasn’t seen Dead Leaves a newbie?

I don’t have any clever and humorous way of saying this, but I saw Evangelion before your balls dropped. And I’m pretty sure when I was watching Vampire Hunter D the first time you were still shitting your drawers.

Occasionally you get into a high horse kind headspace and need to get punched out of it, so… you’re welcome.

Lol I hope they aren’t since I haven’t seen Dead Leaves either.

Anime elitist hipster faggotry. 

In other news, my daughter turned 9 months today and watched her first episode of anime on local television with me. The show: Shin Mazinger Z-Hen (dubbed in Tagalog). I watched the original Mazinger Z not much older than she is.

soul of chogokin mazinger z my daughter's inheritance 

Now both of us can claim that we were watching robot anime even before we could walk. Not that we get to tell off the Digiboys of the world often.

Filed under Mazinger Z Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Anime Hipster Elitist

3 notes &

Courage Punch: Don't Move

couragepunch:

This is something by way of an extremely belated response to a post on Ha Neul Seom.

In his 2009 post gaguri contrasted Japan and America in terms oF animation style - dividing them into ‘modernist’ and ‘classical’ - the expressive and the realistic, if that’s not dumbing it down too much. On…

Actually, the money quote is this:

It’s perhaps because of this inherent admixture of an accidental modernism into our experience that only extreme forms of creative animation, or creative non-animation, jolt us out of our customary surrender to anime’s modulated unreality. If only for a moment, the absolute oddballs challenge us. They show us some of the artifice in what we normally consume. Hopefully after such a moment of challenge we can still allow ourselves to slip into a new world. Perhaps it’ll be a place where even the most madcap of modernist expressions is quite real, and even a budget-forced pause can be meaningful.

This post is an excellent piece of apologetics for pauses, or still “animation.” Honestly I never thought of things in these terms. Coburn displays very keen observation and an insight that delights me to no end.

In my own post in tribute to the late Kon Satoshi, I explain why I am so devoted to animation as a craft and form of entertainment. It’s because I love illustrations, and in animation I get these at a rate of twenty four frames per second. Now sometimes, thanks to Coburn, I realize how I enjoy how it stays still for a while, to linger on a frame…

It isn’t just a means to let me enjoy an image, due to the dynamics of linear sequential time in telling a story, it becomes a moment.

Filed under Animation Anime