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Posts tagged Analysis
Super Tuesday, brought to you by KimiKiss (18-19)
Feb 20th
Sometimes it seems that everyone’s favorite high school romance has more in common with American politics than the date of the week where important stuff happens (this being the usual time for the fansub release).
The fight is intensifying on both sides, in this case over the hearts of Kouichi and Kazuki, the male leads, with two vastly different situations shaping up as we come into the closing quarter of the show.
Kazuki represents the Republican party, a battlefield that looked to be intensely fought over in the beginning, but now is just one that’s quickly becoming sparsely populated. Technically there are still multiple candidates left in the field but it would have to take some serious deluding at this point to believe in any other than the one that’s in the lead – with one of the main contenders seemingly dropping out and endorsing a rival, it seems almost a done deal.
Kouichi and the Democratic party has the tougher choice, a straight-up dogfight between two evenly-matched characters that may be similar in viewpoints but worlds apart in appeal. The innocent schoolgirl romantic seems to be the more charismatic of the two as the childhood friend has made a few missteps on the campaign trail but arguably up until recently it was a relative dead heat. Now, however, the pendulum of momentum is really beginning to swing and there’s one that ends up squarely in the lead, barring an unexpected surge.
So, who’s going to take the win? Eriko or Asuka? Mao or Yuumi? Will Kai, the underground favorite, play a role in stealing away hearts? Can the third-party nominations of Hiiragi and Mitsuki do anything other than get laughed at again? All this and more spoilerific commentary after the jump.
(Note: I’m really bad at politics.)
Anime Diaries: In-character humor and romantic recommendations for Valentine’s Day
Feb 14th
(Part of a Anime Blogging Collective Valentine’s Day post rush; refer to IKnight’s handy article collection for links to all the others.)
Who is she? I don’t know, but she has glasses and a valentine. Instant kill, no saving throw.
With the rise of the Internet, it’s easier than ever for people to destroy their personal privacy and post up their biggest, darkest secrets all over the Web, where nobody – except everybody – can see it.
As such budding paparazzi such as myself consider the blogging scene a veritable goldmine for digging up the dirty, the dorky, and the dunce-headed on the most popular or intriguing idols of today, and this isn’t any exception when it comes to the anime community.
No, I’m not talking about the anime blogging community, as many iconic characters as it has. Rather, there’s a lot you didn’t know your favorite anime character was up to on everyone’s favorite romantic holiday, and I’ve taken it upon myself as a freelance reporter to peruse the masses of entries every day for the most exciting, interesting, and controversial stories of what “everyday” life shapes up to be for the biggest names in harem, magical girl, and straight-up romance anime. I think you’ll be very surprised at what dirt I’ve got on them.
(Disclaimer: As you may have guessed, this is a fictional entry based on fictional characters, and a lot of the preceding was patent nonsense. I’m not part of the paparazzi nor a reporter, and if you see any blogs by anime characters I think you need to pinch yourself a bit harder. This is just a fun little idea for a Valentine’s Day post, based off this similar Christmas idea by Stripey, in imagining the (likely much more exciting) happenings of some popular anime heroes and heroines. Please enjoy.
Oh, and yes, I’m trying to inject a little analysis into this as well; these shows all have ties to romance in some way – although most of them, as predicted from someone like me, are harem – and I’ll be commenting on why this show might be something interesting to watch for someone in the mood for a little lovin’ on a day like today.)
(Yeah, I kinda minorly spoil KimiKiss, ef, and Clannad, in a roundabout way.) Read the rest of this entry »
In a world without omnipresent narrators…
Feb 12th
Where blogposts run wild in the internet, one man stands between a computer screen…and the wall behind him. And actually, he’s sitting. Coming soon – actually, right now – to a screen near you…
The Editorial. (This post is not yet commented)
Unfortunately that’s about as funny as the post is going to get, as we return back to our regularly scheduled Shiori worshipping search for a better memorable meme analysis, commentary, and yes, topic title, which, as you may have noticed, has a lot to do with that great voice from the sky.
Uh, the narrator.
Ironically enough most anime, and probably TV work in general, have as many varying beliefs in the existence of the narrator as the world does in the existence of the higher powers vaguely alluded to in the last paragraph. The majority of the shows take a largely individualistic approach, believing that The Narrator is inside each and every character, with the male lead interjecting useful mental comments into the conversation such as “Heloooooooo, <s>officer</s> meido.” (This is anime after all.) Very rarely, a show will be a nonbeliever, not implementing the narrator at all, giving a very third-person view to the scheme of things. And also quite uncommon is the canon implementation of the narrator, the enthusiastic and energetic voice that helps to explain the action, shouting statements like “The hero makes his move!” (Followed, of course, by the girl turning him down – don’tcha love context?)
A mix of the first and third variations are the ones I’ll be covering today in a case study, as I’ve recently been doing some musing about the storytelling of Kaiji during the ample downtime (action-wise, perhaps, although the mental conniving goes non-stop) of a show that is probably taking a few episodes to explain less than an hours’ worth of play.
The situation I pose is simple: the anime utilizes both lengthy inner monologues by titular character Kaiji and external explanations by the third-person narrator. Together, they probably compromise the bulk of the show, as Kaiji is very much a thinking man’s show, in-between all the falling off beams (among other physical punishment) .
But, what if we were to remove these segments? Read the rest of this entry »
Gyabo and Kiss! The evolution of shoujo romance?
Feb 7th
Mildly Engrish, yes, thanks for asking
A while back, I wrote an article about how true shoujo (girls’) romance shows, replete with shiny sparkly slow-motion pans of blond-haired pretty-boys, were lacking compared to the Marmalade Boys of years past. They seemed to be slowly fading out of favor; whether it was overcrowding due to more male-orientated “moe shows” (less of a genre and more of a giant classification) or simple dissapearance due to change of taste, I was unsure, but the fact was, they just don’t make romance stories truly aimed at just girls anymore.
With some coincidental genre-talk crossfire going on around other places, combined with my following of 2007 hit Nodame Cantabile, I began to think a bit again about the status of girls’ romance. Nodame Cantabile definitely had the feel of a show that could masquerade as being such a type of show, yet it also was decidedly different from the typical fare that occupies the genre. And what of KimiKiss? It’s a show that, despite being so much ’seen before’ material, defies classification by typical means, being neither guys’ harem nor girls’ romance.
These may be but two shows but to me they signify pretty clearly the direction that romance shows are heading. They may not be as popular as they used to be, passed up in favor of more pandering harem shows (not indicative of the harem genre as a whole, I must note) or the ever-strong action / mecha favorites, but what’s left in the romance corner is truly a distilled and refined version of what both guys and girls have come to love in love stories. Read the rest of this entry »
So now that we (and the industry) are all going to die
Jan 31st
(Although it looks mostly normal and I love it to death, a bunch of people like to hate on it for no reason and others keep telling me it’s terminally ill and will drop dead at any second)
Undertaker: “Bring out your dead!” *gong*
Panicked Anime Community: “Here’s one.”
U: “Twenty-five dollars.”
American Anime Industry: “I’m not dead!”
U: “What?”
PAC: “Nothing, here’s your twenty-five dollars.”
AAI: “I’m not dead!”
U: “Ey, he says ‘e’s not dead.”
PAC: “Yes he is…well…he will be soon…because he’s charging money for anime.”
AAI: “I’m getting better!”
PAC: “No you’re not, you’ll be flamed by thousands of ‘fans’ in a moment.”
U: “Well, I can’t take him like that, that’s against regulations.”
PAC: *looks left, looks right, clubs the anime industry over the head*
(incidentally, I just realized there was a trove of better sketches here)
Monty Python aside, the American anime industry, depnding on who you ask, is going through anywhere from a small trouble spot to a complete implosion. Like the state of the U.S. economy, there is a lot of awkward coughing and forced smiles being passed around higher-up, and depending on how you look at things there might be a fair bit of slashing prices and rates to encourage purchasing.
It’s a time that’s spurred a lot of panic, flaming, sharp sarcasm, and general feeling that would warrant a sad piano track or a dramatic orchestral build, and it’s one that I can’t really ignore much longer, as an American anime fan myself.
Like most disturbingly pleasant people, there’s an inner yandere side to this blogger, one that’s getting inflammed at all the reaction to the latest – what would one call it – ‘discussion’.
Actually, the ADV implosion-or-not is the lesser concern here; death panics aren’t incredibly new, and they’re rather like trying to light a wet fuse, one that’s been doused in water too many times to be taken seriously unless someone takes a flamethower to the table.
Rather, Bandai Visual USA’s much-publicized-by-now move to quickly license, release, and ratchet up the price on current shows True Tears and Shigofumi, and its following discussion, is what really spurred a boxcutter-and-boat-filled inner monologue. It’s the can of gasoline that they left on the table; it could be used to power a car on a trip to somewhere, but right now, people are just playing chicken with it and a lit match… Read the rest of this entry »