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Posts tagged Analysis
[Rapidfire] Analytical Double Play: Halo characters and Kure-nai
Jun 4th
A quick discussion on two unrelated topics here, a concept I like to call ‘halo characters’ and a rant (albeit spoiler-free) on the status of Kure-nai through episode 9.
It’s pretty much as is, so let me use this pre-jump space as a mini-shoutbox, a mini-rant within a mini-rant post. It’s like those Russian dolls.
* Does anyone have plans for Anime Expo (AX), the weekend of the 4th of July? Some friends and I are considering making it happen (albeit very unlikely) and I’m just wondering if any of you can bribe me. Or provide rooms. Come to think of it, those two might be related.
* Those who said ItaKiss were better than Special A … yeah … you’re right. The latter has been on a horrible, horribly spiral recently with just Hikari bearing the weight of the show (Kei has since collapsed, for now).
I’m hoping this is just a result of S.A. spooling up for a bit of awesome later on, but ItaKiss is definitely pushing a lot harder with more plot and more intriguing characters. I don’t even hate Naoki any more, that’s how good it is.
* 300+ MB releases of Toshokan Sensou make me a sad panda. It’s one of my most-looked forward to shows of the season, yet it’s stalled out for me on episode 4 as I struggle to look for low-size subs. I use direct download, not torrenting … maybe that is my problem. Unless the crackdown in Japan busted a Toshokan Sensou capper, or something. It’s a tough gray-area issue to argue, so I’ll stay away from that.
And now, onto the main (minor) event…
Read the rest of this entry »
Harem Personality Quiz: ask your blogger what harem anime is right for you!
May 17th
So you wanna watch a harem anime. Or maybe you’re just amused by my post title.
In any case, the harem genre is one that enjoys a negative reputation from anime viewers, mainly due to the core nature of it being one guy surrounded by many girls waiting to jump him – rather pandering, even I will admit.
Of course, such a stereotype is the same as assuming that all shonen action shows involve men in spiky hair screaming, or all shoujo romances feature blond-haired ambigously-gendered prettyboys surrounded by sparkles and flowers, or, more pertinently, that all anime is hentai. So it’s my job today to recommend some of the better harem-type shows out there with a fun little activity – and I don’t mean fun like your teacher’s definition of “fun”, trust me, so it’ll be OK.
The problem with the harem genre, and the reason it has gets a bad rap from so many people is that, admittedly, it does vary wildly in quality. There are piles of pandering shows which are nothing more than the stereotype I mentioned above. But not all of them belong in this pile.
Rather, many shows have a harem setup only in appearance, and belong to a greater genre I usually term the ‘visual novel’ shows, after works like Kanon or Tsukihime that were originally visual novels, that have a skewed male:female ratio for sure, but have a more refined (or at least more refined pandering to emotional fools like me) taste.
So here’s a little quiz I devised on a boring weekend to help you determine which visual-novel / harem-type anime might suit you. Amuse yourself, at least to see if you’ve seen what I’ve recommended and whether it suits you or not. It’s all about what personally appeals the best in such a diverse genre like this.
Enjoy! (Yeah, everything’s after the jump. Keep going…) Read the rest of this entry »
The Otaku Girl Archetype and a painfully serious reflection on living the anime life
May 7th
The adages “birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract” are often at war, being two different ways to describe how people come together. While usually this is meant to describe the relationship between two distinctly real people, these sayings can be applied to the fandom of anime characters as well.
And in this 2D realm, oddly enough, the situation is much the same in that there are veritable arguments for both sides of the coin.
It’s quite obvious that there are character types in anime that would never be possible (or at least extremely implausible) in real life, ones that clash with the passive, soft-spoken attitude that most male anime fans embody. At the extreme end of the scale you get dominatrix-type characters in shows best left hidden in a dark corner somewhere (or under a mattress), but even more family-friendly personalities can pull off the appeal of being the polar opposite of the stereotypical harem lead archetype.
There are the extremely hyperactive types that simply exude energy, bouncing off the walls and willing to try everything as least once, no matter the consequences. Their outgoing attitude and lack of shame is a nice fit for any daydreaming viewer who wishes they could be as enthusiastic.
The appeal of a tsundere can somewhat fall under this umbrella as well; rather, it is the umbrella, housing the love-love couple of these two trains of thought at one time. A tsundere character as strictly defined will reach both sides of the spectrum; being a totally different, almost foriegn personality with their cold, sometimes brutal tsuntsun side, yet exhibiting the same blushing, stammering, flustered deredere side that many inexperienced romantics are familiar with.
But more than that, when I mean ‘birds of a feather’ I don’t mean characters with simply the same personality but those who share the same kinds of beliefs and passions as an anime viewer. It’s one thing to relate with a character based on their experiences and emotions but when you find someone else who can appreciate the same thing you do … it’s scarily intriguing.
Perhaps too much. Read the rest of this entry »
Isn’t it scary, Sacchin: The faulty fandom of side characters (plus added moe BS)
Apr 21st
Premise 1: Tsukihime, one of my personal favorite visual novels – and one I would highly recommend to anyone who wants some real sad girls in stuff, except with stronger characters and hundreds of times more action scenes – is apparently getting a remake of sorts. To use a colloquialism, much bricks were pushed out my rectum.
Premise 2: There has been more than a fair hint that everyone’s favorite no-luck heroine, Satsuki Yumizuka, might finally have her arc and story ending in said remake, mainly because 1) she’s listed as a “heroine” in the scan, 2) there’s not much else to add, and 3) Sacchin fans are probably standing outside Type-Moon headquarters right now with pitchforks right now demanding it. If this is true, I might push out enough bricks to build a house. Not like a apartment, but like a three-story mansion with twenty rooms, all filled with brick furniture and brick technology and brick refrigerators filled with brick food and drink. And, of course, a meido…made of brick. In fact, twin maids.
Needless to say I am a mild fan of Satsuki Yumizuka and being able to see her true ending, hinted at in the spin-off game Melty Blood (which worked things in the typical Nasu way by going off an ending which at the time didn’t exist), would be quite the experience. But I can’t help but feel a bit pensive about this development, in part due to something I’ve been brooding.
It was something I read on a fellow blog, or perhaps on a forum, about the popularity of side characters. Side characters, or at least characters without a defined story, tend to be quite popular, sometimes more popular than some of the main characters. Think of Kanon’s Akiko Minase, the Itsuki / Mayumi comedy duo in Shuffle!, Yukine of Clannad. Or, going outside of the visual novel genre, any of the Lucky Star minor characters, Wilhelmina / Margery / whatever yuri bait from Shana, hell, I even have soft spots for Hamaji (H2O) and Sakura Sae (sola).
But is there any logical basis behind this greater appreciation of characters left out from the big dance? I think there’s definitely a sort of bias going on here, one that might end up dimming the ranks of the Sacchin supporters if such a route ever comes out.
Read the rest of this entry »
Emotional Sonic Boom: Five Centimeters Per Second, (First) Final Impressions
Apr 12th
I’m about as late to the Five Centimeters Per Second party as its main character was to his destination in the first story, so we’ll spin this off into a fancy, deep, vaguely pretentious post.
Five Centimeters Per Second was one of those anime that personally had a hype level that surpassed nearly anything else I’ve heard of. Where as Haruhi was the god (and her anime too) of second-mainstream anime – all the shows a person would be likely to encounter after their initial shonen or CLAMP phase – 5cm was something praised as one of the most moving romantic works in a long time … or at least in as encapsulated a story as movies have to be.
I’m not inclined entirely to disagree, as I was definitely entranced by the story and the visuals (oh, the visuals), but it didn’t quite nail the perhaps implausibly high expectations I set for it.
It was a bit of a tear-jerker but not as much as I first believed, the characters bordered on that line between enrapturing and just plain cheesy, and, well, the ending.
The ending, and, to a lesser extent, the whole progression of 5cm was something that didn’t quite mesh. There were some ‘click’ moments, like when Takaki spoke of his search for a philosophy, but lacking a bit of one myself, his story overall was something that left me stirred, but not shaken. (James Bond would be dissapointed.)
At least during my viewing of it, anyway. After reconsidering and writing out this post, in final revisions I find myself to be quite tsundere, if I shall kick a dead horse, for shows in the vein of this and True Tears. There’s quite a disconnect between feelings from watching it, and feelings from analyzing it.
(Movie spoilers, and possible incoherence ahead.) Read the rest of this entry »