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Yes, this is a rant, or a tangent, at least. I can’t really pick a concise topic due to the nature of my blog as being a place where I just talk about anime in general, and since my life is pretty much “anime and school” there’s a lot to talk about.
So, where to start? I watched Gankutsuou this past weekend, having seen 16 eps previously but going back to watch it all at once. If you’ve seen it, I probably can’t say much to you, and if you haven’t I won’t spoil anything. To call it the most incredible visual experience ever might be an understatement and saying it had the best special effects ever might be a rushed statement, but that’s how I feel. All around, it’s something not to be missed if you take anime seriously.
Oh snap! Was that a topic I just cleverly segued into? Taking anime seriously is something I do to an extent and something I’d like to gauge in the people I talk to sometimes. There are many reasons to watch anime, and two people watching for different reasons will have a hard time agreeing with or understanding each other I think. It’s not so much about genre, because there are anime that will simply please every kind of viewer, but there are also those that plain won’t. I haven’t given this subject quite the thought in order to categorize the people who watch anime, but I’ve got some ideas like ‘people who watch to be entertained’ or ‘people who want to find a deeper meaning’ or ‘people looking to the medium’s artistic expression’ and of course, some people want all of these things.
I’m more than sure that there are people who watched NHK and found it funny, some found it reflective, some found it sad, and I thought about it too much. I rewatched NHK over the last 3 days as a reaction to the ADV incident which seems to have washed away already and found it to be as good as I remembered. That’s great, because after so long and having read the extremely great novel, I had a very blurred memory of the anime but was thinking I wouldn’t like it as much the second time because of the extreme difference from the superior novel. However, I was wrong, and instead found the show and novel to sort of be on level if only because their messages really were the same even if portrayed differently, and either road is fine for getting the point across.
What I did find interesting was that I seem to have accepted the morals as a fact of life, finally. After years of reading and rereading Boogiepop and Others, watching and reading NHK, and having seen Hitohira, broken down after Manabi, and being sobered by Niea_7, I was rather used to the idea that every time I was reminded of the dark nature of the future, I would become depressed. Most of those things I experienced at times of great indecision in my life, however now that I saw NHK again it was not so much depressing as inspiring. Even if you realize that the ending is ultimately sad, you can still take joy in it just by seeing the smile on Misaki and Satou’s faces.
Of course, it helps that I watched Lain again recently, and know the way the ending really would have been. It’s honestly a kind of unrelated subject from the other shows I mentioned as far as the theme goes, only connected by the fact that both deal directly with society. And overall, the fact that two shows perceive society differently means they are different, and Lain is surely different, plus more up my alley. I’m not going to sit here and talk about my perception of reality, but if you watch this show and think about it in anywhere near the same context I did, you will probably feel the same way about it.
So, what do I watch anime for? I will say that I always try to look at everything that an anime is. When I decide what it is, I won’t be picky about it, though. Say I decide a show is, in fact, thoroughly shallow. I will accept it as such, but it’s not like that determines my enjoyment. If I see the show as deep, it only means it’s deep. Some people probably think that sounds obvious, but when I loaned Boogiepop Phantom to a friend he had the nerve to skip an episode and refuse to watch it. I know that he liked the show, but I can’t possibly accept that he really saw it on the level I did, nor did so with the novels.
That isn’t a bad thing. I don’t mind that someone else read Boogiepop and Others as a good but “kind of boring” supernatural horror story, but of course he won’t have the same opinion of it as I do, seeing it as the ultimate culmination of societarial fact and emotional journey. Perception and reason are still two different things, though.
I watch a LOT of anime. But overall, the ones I enjoy are ones that teach me something, and that lesson can be anything. It can even just be ‘yes, this exists’ but when I see it, I will be happy. ef gave me a new definition of story, inspiration, art, direction, and so much more, so I love it. However, Hatenkou Yuugi has shallow plots, an episodic nature, and uninspired animation, but you’d be hard-presseed to find better dialogue or more fun characters in any other anime.
Sometimes, I forget what I’ve learned and need to rewatch something. Occasionally, I’ll even realize upon rewatching that there is something I need to study. However, with every lesson I gain from anime, I feel like the entire medium grows in importance for me, and I can’t tell you how great it is to add a new show to my top 10, even if it makes me only question how far I’ve come, showing me how much more is still out there.
A week ago, I got my friend to hack into my computer and IP ban me from otakuboards.com because I used to go there too much, and I’ve since watched a lot more anime, having had more time. However, as always, it’s less than I schedule myself for, haha! today I was to go back to the start of Blue Drop and watch the whole thing. While it’s good again, I don’t really feel like I’m in the mood for it. Mostly this is because of my getting a little involved in the annual Anime Grand Prix on Megatokyo’s Forum which left me in an odd mood. I am very poor at disagreeing with people, because I like my opinion a lot. For me, anime is my life and my opinions are my everything. I spend a lot of time recommending things to people and such just trying to get them to see what I see, because it is my dream for people to feel the same way I do about things. However, a contest literally forces yourself to disagree with people, and more often than not, they aren’t actually able to be convinced away from their opinion, which just tends to piss me off.
However, right after watching many great series in a row, I really feel the need to be moved by something and inspired. Part of my reason for giving myself extra time was to get started on a project of my own, but I’m still at a little bit of a standstill deciding which direction to go in. I just need to find a way to convince myself of something new.
On another note, my new time has gotten me to return to gaming somewhat. On Saturday I bought No More Heroes and GrimGrimoire which I’ve been meaning to get for a long time, only convincing myself I’d never end up playing it. I’m near the end of No More Heroes which is pretty great. It’s the first Wii game I’ve ever gotten into. There was a small amount of disappointment because I kind of expected it to be the OMG greatest game ever, but what there is is still great fun and entertainment. It is definitely a game that begs you to play it more than once, which I may end up doing, which is very rare for me outside the occasional handheld.
If do get back into gaming, I’ll be sure to incorporate that into this blog. If only because the video game industry doesn’t see enough variety to have as unique interests as I do in anime in music.
(holy crap, I didn’t have a boogiepop tab?) (or an ef one? WTF?)
So, I’ve been noticing the music in anime a lot more lately. I’ve noticed it before, even when I was new to anime, but I hardly payed it any mind save the OPs and EDs, but ever since that 2ch 100 songs thing and my listening to a bunch of anisons, I’ve been paying more attention. For instance, I recently started watching Kurau: Phantom Memory and noticed some interesting background music, so I went and nabbed all the OSTs for it. And it’s pretty good stuff - definitely interesting soundtrack to say the least.
So now I’m seeing it a lot and I suspect i will soon be investing alot in anime OSTs and such. I’ve been meaning to get the Lain OST forever, lol. The biggest factor in all this, though, is probably the Persona 3 OST which is downright excellent. I’ve only got the one that came with the American release of the game, but I love it, especially the songs with the hilarious jinglish lyrics XD. Baccano! had some great music as well, and so did Jing in Seventh heaven which I just got done watching. If you’ve got any OST recommendations, be sure and tell me!
Using the word ‘perfection’ is probably my practically saying ‘my vocabulary sucks’, however it’s the best way I can think for this arguement to make sense, and besides, I see it in what i speak of.
There are shows that I consider perfect, but not because of how great the show is or how much I like it. In fact, my alltime favorite anime could not be called ‘perfect’. However, I think there are definitely anime that are perfect and others that are brilliant.
The reason I came to this conclusion is that among my favorite anime, there are episodes that I don’t like, or parts that I would change or remove. The best example would be my alltime favorite anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I’ll admit, this show had some problems. Episode 4 was lame, 5 was more boring, there was a lot of stalling in the story progression, however, in the end the good far far far outweighs the bad and it ends up as probably the greatest anime evar. This rings true for a lot of my favoites - Haruhi (we all know chronological 14 was lame) NHK (didn’t like the pacing around the late teen episodes) and NGE (some eps are just boring >_>) however, all of them are brilliant in their own right.
So what makes an anime perfect? In my eyes, a perfect anime is one that utilizes every episode and every moment as a part of the whole, and without any single scene the series’ value would decrease, or something vital to the show would be gone. And yeas, shows like this exist. most recently, and in my favorite case, there’s Baccano. This is a show that uses every single minute of it’s running time to it’s advantage, and every detail is important. If I were to remove, say, the fourth episode, the entire thing would be ruined. If I took out any scene, one of the plotlines would be destroyed. And thusly, when I consider why I love Baccano, I don’t think only of all the great mometns in the series, but the entire whole of the series.
The only other show I’ve seen with this quality is Serial Experiments Lain, though I’m sure some would debate the trueness of that statement with me, hehe. I also think that the original Boogiepop novel carries this quality, though that’s escaping the realm of anime.
I can’t help but love to see this perfection in anime, though it could also just be because the 2 I’ve found it in are my kind of show, lol, but all in all I’d love to see more anime like this who don’t waste a single ounce of time. (if anyone knows anything else like this, please tell me)
This is mostly a (late) reply to Omo’s post on the subject. Yes, we’re talking about weirdness for weirdness’ sake.
I am a huge Shinbo fan, to the point that I’ve dedicated most of my 4-day weekend to watching his shows, and it’s for the reason that I love to see weirdness even when it’s meaningless, or even more if there really is a reason for it. Lets say that thee were 2 shows that were exactly alike in story and execution, but one of them has crazy acid-trip visuals and the other is perfectly normal. I can safely say that I’d enjoy the former more.
You could say I’m a fan of style, and I think that there are definitely shows that get it right when it comes to style, and those who wish they were stylized but fall short. From the 4 episodes that I’ve seen, a good example of this would be Ergo Proxy.
I bought the first Ergo Proxy DVD because the art looked cool and because I’d heard a lot of people comparing it to Serial Experiments Lain (I admit, I did not do NEARLY enough research on this show before i went to buy it.) What I was hoping for was something with a lot of style and flair, but I don’t think that’s what I got. Ergo Proxy has a lot of things that want to be pretentious - odd flashbacks, dark visuals, talking statues and all, but this isn’t the kind of style that really matters at all. There’s no reason to have talking statues and odd flashbacks and all that, but the show does it anyway. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a problem.
But the problem I have with Ergo Proxy is that these things feel forced. They are blatant and pushed so that the show can say ‘Hey! Look at me! Look at my stunning visuals! Look at my weird statues!’ This is the wrong way to have weirdness in a show.
Just because that’s the wrong way, though, doesn’t mean that everything else is correct. It’s really tough to decide if a show is doing it right or wrong. The best way for these things to happen is without explanation. For instance, in a show like Gankutsuou that features tons of odd things it doesn’t feel like it’s forcing these things onto you. The show is telling a story and it just happens to be in this incredibly stylized world. The same goes for The Soultaker which has a pretty incredibly strange story to begin with, but set in a universe of stained-glass windows, single-color frames, and an encompassing darkness.
But it’s not as though weirdness can’t be put forward and still good. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya uses it’s weirdness as a central plot element, which is the second way to do it. The difference from something like Ergo Proxy is that it’s still putting the wierdness right out there, only this time it’s actually important. After all, Haruhi without weird isn’t Haruhi anymore. In this case, though, it really depends fully on the show, since Haruhi is a legend for it’s great characters, writing, and animation. However, at this point, it can no longer be called weirdness for the hell of it.
When it comes down to it, I don’t really think weirdness for no reason other than weirdness can really be a bad thing. Because when it becomes a part of the story like Haruhi or is flaunted like in Ergo Proxy than it is no longer ‘weirdness for weirdness’ sake’. Having wierdness that serves no purpose other than to make a show weird and has no effect on the story itself can only really be good. Or rather I should say it can only really be weird because I am sure that some people to not think weirdness is good.
As long as weirdness only exists for weirdness’ sake, then whether you like the show as a whole or not only depends on the show. When I judge Soultaker’s story, I’m judging the tale of Kyousuke and his sister and the flickers, not the story of a man who’s battles take place in single-color frames and who’s journey is symbolized in stain-glass windows, however I will definitely talk about these things anyway when discussing the show. When I talk about the story of Hidamari Sketch, i will talk about the story of four girls in art school and their miscellaneous adventures, not a show about random live-action food and mysteriously appearing Xs.
But to relate things to the current season, when I talk about ef -A Tale of Memories- story-wise I will tell you about a moderately interesting romance, and not a story about multicolored eyeballs and stunning sunsets, but when I think about the show those things will come to mind.
I think a show is really at it’s best when it combines a weird central element and weirdness without purpose. For instance, in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the story is completely out-there and just as well it has things like scratch-drawn characters, galaxy-throwing, and all that manliness. Or better yet Serial Experiments Lain where there is no line to be drawn between weirdness without meaning and important weirdness. In my opinion, the entirety of episode 5 could be considered weirdness for weirdness’ sake.
Wow! my blog turns up in google pages! That’s the first time any of my pages has done that! Color me excited! Anywho, this whole page system theing isn’t working out. I talk about the episodes in posts anyway, so i’m deleting the pages.
Well, since I feel it’s important that for people reading my blog understand my atyle, I figured I’d talk about my favorite anime. Not to mention I want some damn reccommendations!!! I won’t be bringing up Neon Genesis this time, because everyone knows what that is, and it would be pointless. If you don’t care about my favorite anime, skip down to my talk of Gurren Lagann 10. If you don’t care about Gurren Lagann… well, that you’re not my friend XD
My top 5 favorite anime (other than NGE)
1. Welcome to the NHK - Yes, I watched this only 2 weeks ago, as you can see by scrolling down the main page (assuming I haven’t already knocked it off) but it very quickly grabbed my heart. NHK is not only a show I can relate to with frightening accuracy (this makes me cry) but a roadmap to my future, if you will (probably minus nice high-school girl who tries to help me, lol.) This show dominates all the other psychological shows for the simple reason that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has what I would consider an absolutely perfect blend of hilarity and depression - psychology and lightheartedness - fantasy and oh-so-harsh reality. It made good use of binding together multiple plotlines, but best of all was a cast of lovable and utterly memorable characters. This show was satisfying to me all the way through and when it ended it created the perfect mix of happiness and utter devastation in me (AKA I overreacted and got depressed ^^;;) I can’t wait for this to come out in the US and I need to find some way around the evil 18+ of the manga.
2. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Don’t patronize me! I swear to god, I had no idea about the bandwagoning or even that this was so popular when I saw it. I remembered that a friend of mine had used a picture of one of the characters as an avatar before, and another person kept talking about it on Otakuboards, so I thought what the hell. I was completely oblivious to the hype - hell I was even watching it on youtube >_< In any event, this show wins my heart for every reason there is. It’s a comedy that destroyes comedy cliche and promotes an eccentricity that I completely adore. This show was a total joyride and, of course, how could you not love the characters?!
3. Kanon 2006 - This is the only show that has ever actually made me cry. I’m almost embarassed to admit it, but this show made me increadibly emotional at all times. When the girls cried, i cried, when they smiled, i smiled. I probably sound like a complete and total wuss right now, but damn it, I loved this show, so i don’t care! not to mention there was Yuuichi who is unequivically awesome.
4. Kino’s Journey - this is an anime for relaxation, reflection, and deep thoughts. This is the kind of anime that makes you think, but keeps you entertained without overdoing it. I find it to be increadibly humble at all times and has an air of realism that you just don’t see in dramatic stories. Kino is a great character, and her dynamic with Hermes is always fun. This is one of the rare shows that plays well on all sides of the field. The calmer episodes are all done well, and the fighting scenes are equally great. Almost every episode catches you off-guard at some point with some kind of unexpected twist - some more expected, but others that make you full of shock and surprise. The last 2 episodes are some of the most heavy-hitting I think I’ve ever seen.
5. Serial Experiments Lain - This one might even just be a case of my fanboyism toward deep, intricate plotlines, but I’ll be damned if i’m going to say I didn’t like it. I think Lain had to be my favorite part of this show. Her story was so sad, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the almond-eyed kiddo. the ending was spectacular in my opinion, and that’s mostly all that I can remember. I really need to watch this one again.
(couldn’t find any good G-L pics FWR)
Gurren Lagann Episode 10
Well, while episode 9 was good, it did leave some to be desired. Kamina’s abscence and the seeping depression, along with Simon’s whole Shinji-style bitchiness was driving it downward, but Episode 10 more than makes up for it! first of all, I still stand by that kamina was an amazing hero who i couldn’t help but love, but I did think he would have become repetitive after a while. Nia does a great job of filling the gap - she’s strong and absoluetly adorable with the best hair I have ever seen! Simon was still all wussy, which kind of sucked, but the high-octane excitement all around him was fun. I think this was one of the best paced episodes yet, seing as how they managed to get a lot done and keep it interesting. Will be looking forward to ep 11 and more nia-chan!
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