The rumors of my blogging laziness have been greatly exaggerated.

In the midst of the working world and of real life another Rapidfire post rises from the ashes to inject a thousand-odd words of anime ranting and raving into the bloodstream of a starved anime fan.

Well, in all honesty I hope you’ve been reading elsewhere too, so you shouldn’t be starving, but in any case, I’m just starting to go off on random tangents, having already written all the content out of my head (yes, the pre-jump section comes last here) and now desperately typing random, fourth-wall referential content in an attempt to fill space.

In case you’re interested in what’s on board for today, there’s a news section announcing a new Shuffle!-like substance for the PC, a short metarant involving ads and websites, and a good long analytical-type thing about Howl’s Moving Castle – one of the popular Miyazaki films – and the power of emotional connection versus logical appeal.

Well … uh … how about that Nagato?


Shuffle! Essence+
The Shuffle! anime has always been sort of a dirty pleasure for me. As fanservice-filled and as unabashedly harem as it is, I maintain the belief that Shuffle! has a legitimately intriguing and dramatic plot behind it all; and certainly, its colorful character designs are among the best around, with nearly every character appealing on either a visual or a emotional level (or both).

Still, when I attempted to transfer my affection for the show to the visual novel it was adapted from, I was a bit underwhelmed. Each character’s story, individually, was perhaps less interesting than the way it was all wound together in the anime, and the blatant fanservice became more apparent.

Then again, I was playing using an automatic translator, which had no regard for the actual content of the lines being translated, so maybe the game lost a lot of its feel.

One thing that can’t be denied though is the surprising vastness of the Shuffle! universe, with three separate visual novels – the original, Tick! Tack!, and Really? Really!. As amusingly named as they are, I can at least vouch to the fact that YURIA sings some wicked OP songs (Remember Memories remains one of my favorite songs in both sound and lyrics) and that Navel has come up with some novel gameplay mechanics.

And apparently the universe is about to get a bit bigger with Navel’s announcement of Shuffle! Essence+ (keeping their “what the hell kind of naming is this” crown intact), a reverse port of Shuffle! On the Stage (PS2) to the PC with some extra content added.

In addition to the Mayumi and Kareha paths from the PS2 game, two all-new paths of girls named Daisy and Ruri are to be added, in addition to new dialogue and H-scenes for the previously-sanitized Mayumi / Kareha routes. More info can be found at the Animesuki thread here (thanks to them for the news).

I can only be so enthusastic for Essence given the fact that I can’t read Japanese, but if this gives any hope to the legendary Mayumi path actually getting some form of translation, I’m all for it. Mayumi and Itsuki are a great duo and they need all the attention they can get. I’m less interested in the new characters, because I think Shuffle!’s hitting a sort of a saturation point a la the Sonic series where new characters are superfluous, but this might just be because the current Shuffle! core cast is so strong.

Selling out?
With all the bluntness of Haruhi Suzumiya, I’ve been considering trying to actually wring some sort of profit out of the writing I do.

I say this expecting not to be bathing in solid gold coins anytime soon, but instead perhaps just a modest paycheck which could fuel an additional DVD (or other related merchandise) purchase every few months or so. It’s one of those things that you wake up one day and wonder, “Well, I spend on average one hour a day blogging anyway, might as well get paid for it.”

(Incidentally, that figure is quoted from when I manage to hit my every-other-day post quota, since I spend usually about 2 hours on the writing process.)

Well, to be honest, there’s actually a few things holding me back from stuffing ads into every free space of my site in the fashion some people get violated in disturbing hentai.

First off is the titular issue of this mini-post; I suppose I’ve already let some of my “fame” get to my head if I begin thinking about my readers instead of just focusing on what I’m writing, but a legitimate concern for me is whether if I put ads on my site, will I have enough readers left to make those ads worth it.

Quite simply “selling out” is a phrase that’s thrown about pretty much at anything artistically-related, whether it be music, art, or here, writing. Whether it’s a valid complaint about people losing their way to the greed for money, or just the whining of people mad that others have made their passion their life more than they ever could, I don’t know.

I should hope to someday be so lucky as to ever be able to legitimately sell out, since I don’t exactly have such a readership to be able to do so, but I do still wish to ask before I attempt anything silly: would you be offended by seeing ads on M3? I’m guessing it’ll be the usual fare I’ve seen on other anime blogs: Google Ads, and possibly banners from places like J-List or Amazon. I’m hoping what I’ll hear is “as long as they are integrated properly,” which is something I think I can achieve.

Or on the flip side, for bloggers who do actually put ads on their own sites, does it work? I’m not expecting riches here, but I’m hoping to at least cover server costs if I do use ads.

I say server costs because of a policy here at Dasaku (and a sensible one) that no ads be placed on blogs, logically given that Randall is wonderful enough (in a straight manner) to provide excellent, flexible, and most important, free hosting to everyone that asks. Although, I can’t decide whether pimping his service is a good thing (yay, positive feedback) or a bad thing (incoming begging-for-hosting rush).

But back on track, if I do decide to go ahead with Plan Get Mad Rich Get Paid (A Little) For What I Like To Do, I will probably be moving servers again to new hosting, with a few friends also looking to team up to split server fees.

Well, food for thought in any case. But how about we ramble about some anime instead?

Howl’s Moving Castle and the power of emotional connection
So this Miyazaki guy, he’s something, eh? Right up there with Evangelion and Gurren Lagann in the giant pile of “how have I managed to be a fan of anime this long without having seen this” is the enormously popular stack of films that Miyazaki has created, acclaimed enough to make their ways to American shores, and, if I recall correctly, theaters.

Perhaps it was the plain art style that never really spurred me to watch them; in a world where moe saturates anime like grease does pizza, Miyazaki’s works always look almost boring in comparison. Of course, this is more my fault than anyone else’s; but call me a shallow person, first impressions still count.

Another way to say ‘boring’ might be just ‘down-to-earth’, which is perhaps a better descriptor, but still since watching one of the Miyazaki films would involve either purchasing it or driving to the library to check it out, then shoving time out of my schedule to watch it, I was a bit tentative. At least until my friend came over one day, toting Howl’s Moving Castle and demanding to watch it.

It’s a curious work. I hesitate to give it a high score and hesitate to give it a low one, or, for that matter, a mediocre one.

This is because Howl’s Moving Castle is one of those anime with many facets, some of which shine really brightly and some of which are just plain ugly. I suppose the greatest parallel I could make is to a dramatic, roller-coaster, plot-hole-filled anime like sola or H2O. Like them, Howl’s Moving Castle is a powerful work … but perhaps not a great story.

I say this because as much as Howl’s Moving Castle was beautiful and touching, there was a point where it just sort of stopped making sense. Like my friends joked, maybe I wasn’t Japanese enough to understand it, or maybe it was meant to be open to interpreted.

But that doesn’t stop the fact that I honestly disliked how HMC confused me so much, almost seeming like the visual novel anime that many like to rag on for trying to coax tears out of viewers. For example, the ending parts, where Howl went from dead to alive and back and forth until he became a sort of Schroendinger’s Cat; the ending itself, where the two sides just give up on the war; or a lot of the backstory, which was never explained. Heck, even Sophie’s curse didn’t hold water half the time.

Perhaps I just feel cheated by a simple message; to me, Howl’s Moving Castle boiled down to “power of love saves the day”, and as warm and fuzzy and great as that message is, I’ve heard it a million times from every shoujo show ever. I frequently shouted at the TV, “That’s so, so awesome, yet so, so cheesy,” … because it was.

Whatever it is, despite Howl’s Moving Castle winning over my heart, driving me close to tears with a simple predicament, my brain remains unconvinced. I like to think rationally, but it’s times like these I wonder which organ is more important to listen to.

If you’re pondering the vague title, it’s because I’m going through a similar situation with Nodame Cantabile, with just one episode to go. Now make no mistake, Nodame is definitely a show I enjoy and hold dear to me; but I still can’t determine whether it is one of the true standout anime or not (more concretely, a 9 in my MAL book).

Logically, it’s merely very good. Nodame and Chiaki’s characters are both very empathetic, appealing to me through their mix of insanity and sanity. The comedy is frequently golden, and the show has good emotional moments too. There’s rarely a foot (or perhaps, a finger) placed wrong.

But, it’s missing some spark. It’s like the difference between a slow, prolonged burn at a low temperature, versus a high-temperature, fiery explosion. Both give off the same amount of heat in the end but one is definitely more noticeable than the other.

Nodame Cantabile is the former; a show that I’ve watched over many months, very slowly but surely. I’ve practically never failed to enjoy an episode, but neither am I ever really standing on my feet, holding my sides together, gripping my chair, or generally being far too enthusastic for 11 PM – as I have been with some of the other greats, such as Azumanga or Kaiji.

But the fact that it’s really a near-perfect show for me should be enough to, objectively, get it in the pantheon. I mean, it’s not like it is any worse than any of my ‘9′ anime. And the feeling in the stomach that grows when the end of an anime approaches, is large as ever; I definitely feel the upcoming void of Nodame Cantabile in my heart, mediated only by rejoicing at the upcoming second second.

The end result, still, is indecision, and probably a bit of complaining that there still aren’t enough tiers in the world to subjectively rank my anime, if only because I want to start tossing out numbers like 8.5, 7.7852, pi, and i.

Really, it just spurs more than anything to me, a thought about how time can affect anime so much – whether it be looking back overly fondly on old anime (alternatively, over-praising a recently concluded show), or the actual passage of time between episodes fading one’s enjoyment for a show.

-CCY

(Going back to Navel’s ‘what were they on?’ naming crown, I did see this poster at Fanime for the best-named eroge ever.)