What anime are you watching right now? Apr-Sep 11

[symbv]

You blame MAL for that? Oh God, hahahaha!

No, but I see a positive reinforcement feedback loop. At the very least, MAL creates the platform for the peer pressure to score the anime and compare scores, even for those who are not that keen on this kind of thing.

[Oz]

Well, I guess that might be the case for some, but I merely use MAL to conveniently list and organize the titles I have seen.

[Merridian]

ouch, that's harsh.... what score did you give it anyway?

As symbv noted, "scoring is meaningless." I've never liked using numerical ratings. I think I gave it a 6, but that doesn't mean much. For reference, that puts it notch below Madoka, on par with Fractale, and a notch above Eureka 7. Not that such reference does much good. It probably wouldn't take much for me to raise it up to a 7, though.

And yeah, I was harsh. I rather liked Anaru and Tsuroko despite the short end of the development stick they get toward the end of the show. Unfortunately, they're the only decently-explored characters that I cared about, since Menma got annoying after awhile and the two main guys were thoroughly unlikeable idiots. Popo was cool too, I guess.

Plot-wise, one of the biggest "what" moments I had concerned the whole fireworks thing. I mean, here you have this forgetful ghost hanging around you that finally, after the best part of the series has passed, the rest of your motley crew acknowledges, and the best idea you can come up with as to why this ghost is stuck on earth is fireworks? This is serious metaphysical stuff, here. Maybe I'm shooting at straws, but come on! Aren't the dead supposed to bound to wander the earth due to unfulfilled oaths or lost loves or some gloriously romantic stuff like that? Isn't this common knowledge? And this batch of idiotic kids don't think, "I wonder if Menma had an oath she never fulfilled while she was alive!" They think, "obviously she just wanted to see some explosions in the sky! Let's make fireworks like we were gonna do!" What kind of retarded logic is that? Was this supposed to demonstrate that none of them had actually matured beyond their childhood selves in both their cognizance AND their selfishness? I couldn't find that believable in the slightest. And that results in another four episodes are wasted again on another blatant red-herring. The writing tried to play it off with Yukiatsu's scheming, but that doesn't explain why they put so much effort into--and seriously believed--the whole fireworks business in the first place.

I know, it's making a big deal out of nothing, but when that red-herring was so obvious and when it wasted so much screen time, it made me wonder if the writers were even trying at that point. It was really frustrating to watch a series that was pretty interesting--if a bit melodramatic--up to that point just spiral down the tubes so quickly.

And anyway my understanding has always been the way melodrama is taken in Asia is different. Many Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean tv drama and movies are heavily melodramatic, and those usually get a bashing in the west. So I am not surprised at the general negative reactions in the west.

When I think good Japanese ridiculously over-the-top melodrama in anime, I think Leiji Matsumoto or Kazuo Koike. Manly operatic spectacles of heroism and badassery that are epic in scope, that kind of thing. A bunch of angst-ridden high schoolers is pretty far removed from gallivanting across the cosmos like a Japanese mix of Aragorn and Erol Flynn blasting blue-skinned she-plant Mazone invaders from another galaxy.

[symbv]

When I think good Japanese ridiculously over-the-top melodrama in anime, I think Leiji Matsumoto or Kazuo Koike. Manly operatic spectacles of heroism and badassery that are epic in scope, that kind of thing. A bunch of angst-ridden high schoolers is pretty far removed from gallivanting across the cosmos like a Japanese mix of Aragorn and Eroll Flynn blasting blue-skinned she-plant Mazone invaders from another galaxy.

Those are the manly melodrama when hot-blooded heroes were the norm in anime and movies in Japan. The melodrama that is rising the last decade or two is the melodrama for younger girls and boys. There are no lack of tear-jerker TV drama in Japan (one liter of tears, sekai no chuushin ni ai wo sakebu) but most are the "pure-love" type or "people fell on hart time" type. This kind of tear-jerker about friendship and its durability is not so common, much less in anime. This is some refreshing change of direction here.

Also Jintan mentioned several times about "I wonder if Menma had an oath she never fulfilled while she was alive!" even in the first few episodes. This is why he got Anaru and Poppon to play old games etc. Firework I interpreted as the symbol of the highest emotional moment when the whole Peace Busters were one and their friendship bonded. Firework always get a lot of emotional values in Japanese psyche. I don't think it is stupid to use it in the anime at all.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

Alright Xard, start watching Macross 7 again or else I'll post IT.

[Tarnsman]

Watching through one of the most overrated show in western fandom. Trigun. God I dislike this show. Boring cliche protagonist, boring cliche villains, boring paper thin side cast, boring setting (this coming from someone who loves Westerns), boring plot, boring lackluster animation, and boring fights. Seriously, this show could be used as a sleeping aid for me.

Edit: As for stuff that is currently airing. Caught up on Kaiji S2, still awesome. End of the chinchiro-arc was pretty awesome. Pachinko-arc has been pretty great so far, although thirteen episodes of Kaiji battling The Bog might drag like the second half of Akagi. Either way, as long as Fumihiko Tachiki is there with his hammy as hell narration, everything will be good. Overall, enjoying it about as much as the first season. Kaiji is still moe.

[DevRei17]

Watching through one of the most overrated show in western fandom. Trigun. God I dislike this show. Boring cliche protagonist, boring cliche villains, boring paper thin side cast, boring setting (this coming from someone who loves Westerns), boring plot, boring lackluster animation, and boring fights. Seriously, this show could be used as a sleeping aid for me.

This reminds of something I was telling Merridian in a PM. To be fair, I did kind of liked the comedic first half better - In fact, I think if the show had stayed with that it could have been at least watchable. Alas, we reach the second half where we learn (Hell, what am I saying it was obvious from the beginning) that melodrama is not this show's strong point. WAY too many (To coin my favorite BrikHaus term) "YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE CRYING HERE!" moments. Yes, I didn't cry or even become romotely sad when you-know-who dies. Who cares - He was a shitty, uninteresting character (People only liked "him" for superficial reasons anyway.)

[Tarnsman]

This reminds of something I was telling Merridian in a PM. To be fair, I did kind of liked the comedic first half better - In fact, I think if the show had stayed with that it could have been at least watchable. Alas, we reach the second half where we learn (Hell, what am I saying it was obvious from the beginning) that melodrama is not this show's strong point. WAY too many (To coin my favorite BrikHaus term) "YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE CRYING HERE!" moments. Yes, I didn't cry or even become romotely sad when you-know-who dies. Who cares - He was a shitty, uninteresting character (People only liked "him" for superficial reasons anyway.)

The first half was only decent till episode 8 anyway. After the train it went down hill, fast as it devolved into generic "I'm the good guy and I'm not going to kill anything! Now send a bunch of villains that exist only to die at me! That makes for good entertainment!". Maybe if Trigun had decent drama I could care about Vash's moral plight, but it doesn't. Which makes the entire show boring. If we're going to have an invincible unbeatable protagonist, make it fun to watch them win.

Really the series should have ended at episode 5.

[DevRei17]

The first half was only decent till episode 8 anyway. After the train it went down hill, fast as it devolved into generic "I'm the good guy and I'm not going to kill anything! Now send a bunch of villains that exist only to die at me! That makes for good entertainment!". Maybe if Trigun had decent drama I could care about Vash's moral plight, but it doesn't. Which makes the entire show boring. If we're going to have an invincible unbeatable protagonist, make it fun to watch them win.

Really the series should have ended at episode 5.

In other words, it should have been an OVA and left at that.

You know, there's an old Ask John column from a few years back where he explains why the show's generic and why it's popular.

Hold on, I'll find the link...

[symbv]

Translated something for Xard about Kawamori's view on Alto, Brera etc in Macross Frontier. Think perhaps it is worth sharing with the forum as well:


河森総監督　COMMENT

男の主人公を今の時代に作るのは難しくて。特にバサラの後で、「マクロス」のTVシリーズの男の主役は非常に難しかった。それで色々考えたあげく、女の子に見えるような美少年と思って作りました。それが理屈上成立するのって、やっぱり歌舞伎の女形かなと。宇宙で一番ミスマッチみたいな感じで（笑）スタートしたんですけれども。
Nowadays creating a male protagonist is difficult. Particularly after Basara, creating a male main character for the Macross TV series was very difficult. After a lot of consideration, I came up with using a bishounen who looked like a girl. And considering making him convincing, I thought he's gonna be an onnagata of kabuki. Although it may be a start with the feeling of the worst mismatch in the universe (lol)

現代の場合、なんでもほどほどには手に入ってしまうじゃないですか。25年前や自分が子供の頃に比べても、とにかくちょっとお金出せば、たいていの物が手に入る。携帯電話なんてね、僕の子供の頃はスーパーヒーローたちだけが持っているアイテムだったけれど、その性能を今は上回っている物が簡単に買えてしまう。そんな時代に、自分の持つ夢ってなんだろう？ということでしょうか。それを考えないと目標が定めきれないような感覚をアルトで描けないかなという感じですね。だから、ランカも気になるし、シェリルも気になるし、その中で揺れ動いているというよりも、その時会っている相手に合わせて演じられちゃう感覚ですよね。役者本能じゃないけど。アルトの中に今後熱いものがかいま見られていくと思うんですが、本人も気づききれていないんじゃないかな。衝動的に出ているところがあるから。
In the modern age, you see, we can get hold of everything quite easily. Compared to 25 years ago or when I was a kid, as long as you are willing to spend some money, you can get hold of a lot of stuff. Take mobile phone. When I was a kid it was an item that only superheroes could possess, but now we can easily buy something that has even better functions. In this kind of age, the thing is, what is your own dream? I kinda feel that perhaps I could use Alto to portray the feeling that if we do not think about that question we cannot firmly establish our goal. So, he cares about Ranka and he also cares about Sheryl, but instead of vacillating between the two the feeling is more like he ended up acting the part that matched with the person he was meeting at the time. It was not really actor's instinct though. We may be able to catch a glimpse in Alto of what will be his passion in future, but perhaps he himself did not notice it fully. Yet there could be occasions when he showed it by impulse.

アルトが紙飛行機を折るのは、自分がもともと飛行機が好きだからというのもあるんですが、ただの一枚の紙が、折るだけで空を飛ぶものに変わるのが、すごく面白いと思っているんです。もっともプリミティブ（原始的）な飛行機だし。その概念が変わるというのが。ただ折って開くだけなのに、それまでの用途とまったく別ものになるのが、メタモルフォーゼというか、変化する時の願望とか、そういった気分の象徴なんですよね。
One reason for getting Alto to fold paper planes is because I myself love planes in the first place. I think it is very interesting to see just one piece of paper can be changed to a flying object just by folding. It is the most primitive plane. There is a shift of concept there. Also just by folding and reopening, it can become something whose use is totally different from its previous uses. It is a symbol of the mood of, like metamorphosis, or the wish at the moment of change.



河森総監督　COMMENT

ランカを中心としたアルトとブレラの三角関係の一人。「世の中は広い」ということを表現できればいいなと思って。どんなに主人公が頑張ってもかなわない相手がいるというのが、「マクロス」の伝統なんで（笑）。インプラントとかね。もうそういうことが現実に起き始めているし、おそらく今後……10年後や20 年後に大問題になるだろうな、という危機感が自分の中にあるので、それを象徴できればいいかなと思っています。すごい能力というメリットがありながら、より自己存在というものが分からなくなってくると思うんですよ。バージョンアップすれば自分の性能を上げられてしまう。でも自分の中のアイデンティティを書き換えるチップを入れた時に、それでは自分が何であるか分からなくなる……そんな時代がもう来てると思います。現実にチップの埋め込みがアメリカでは始まっていますしね。
He is one person in the triangle formed among Alto, Brera and Ranka with her at the center. I thought it would be nice to express "this world is huge". No matter how hard the protagonist worked there is always a rival he could not beat -- I think this is the tradition of "Macross" (lol) And then there is implant. That kind of thing already started to become true in reality. I am afraid in future... after 10 years or 20 years it may become a big problem. Inside me there is this sense of crisis, so I thought it would be nice to symbolize it [in the anime]. While it has the merit of powerful abilities, I think it will make it more difficult to understand self-existence. Just do an upgrade and then your own ability is enhanced, but when a chip that can overwrite the identity inside yourself is inserted, then you start to lose the understanding of what you yourself are.... I think such era is surely approaching. In America they already have chip implant in real life for example.

[Spud]

It took me long enough but I finally finished PMMM.
I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say it was great.
If you haven't seen it by now I'd say its worth putting every other anime on hold to watch it.


LOL I know I'm REALLY late to the party

[symbv]

^ Glad you love it !! Now your task is to go through 110 pages of PMMM threads here and here, and become a PMMM connoisseur

[Spud]

110 pages of PMMM threads

.... How bout' I just grab a wiki and read those later

I think I need to finish The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya first
After sitting through The Endless Eight (Why!!!!! ) I needed something else so I turned to PMMM. Problem is I did the same thing to Toradora. I get half way through a series but because I tend to marathon them I get tired of them and put them on hold. I really need to brake this habit.

[Merridian]

Also Jintan mentioned several times about "I wonder if Menma had an oath she never fulfilled while she was alive!" even in the first few episodes. This is why he got Anaru and Poppon to play old games etc. Firework I interpreted as the symbol of the highest emotional moment when the whole Peace Busters were one and their friendship bonded. Firework always get a lot of emotional values in Japanese psyche. I don't think it is stupid to use it in the anime at all.

The problem is that thinking that the ghost of their childhood friend had returned to play some games or watch some fireworks demonstrates a severe lack of thought on the part of the characters, which is why I said that the writing really stretched my suspension of disbelief. They were high schoolers; reenacting childhood memories might be good for nostalgia's sake, but once everyone accepted Menma's ghost as a reality, I figured they'd have realized that fulfilling a yearly fireworks ceremony out-of-season isn't enough to relieve such a serious metaphysical ailment. Sure, the act brought everyone together briefly, sort of, but that act wasn't fulfilling any old oath and it wasn't accomplishing anything that had been left unfinished during her lifetime--superficialities of the actual fireworks aside. And this was made worse when the show hinted at Tsuroko and Yukiatsu already suspecting the 'real reason' for Menma's return, only to be just as flabbergasted as the rest of the gang when the fireworks stunt failed to bring Menma solace.

-----
Anyway, I've started watching Steins;Gate, and I'm glad I did. It feels like a psychedelic mix of Beakman's World and Rosancrantz & Guildenstern. And especially after Star Driver, I find myself strangely drawn to Mamoru Miyano's voice. I should have picked this up when it started airing.

[child of Lilith]

Watched the last two episodes of Denpa Onna that will be aired on TV. They were both really good, but episode 12 was the better of the two. Even though it wasn't the final episode it would make for a great ending anyway. Now I just have to wait for episode 13 to come out on the dvd.

This show ended up being quite a find. Even with the problems I've had with it I think I'll still rate it as the one of the best shows that I've watched this season.

[evaunit13]

rewatched The Place Promised in Our Early Days after not getting it the first time. maybe i'm stupid but i didn't like it that much. it was painfully slow and the first part was really boring.

Trigun was one of the series on my watch list, but i guess i'm moving it back/taking it off if it's really that generic.

[C.A.P.]

Another day, another viewing of a first episode to an anime. Today, it's Bakemonogatari.

Not a fan on what I saw. There's a lot of pretentious ideas throughout the first episode I saw; lots of artistic decisions for the sake of doing them, characters that explain what they're feeling instead of letting their actions tell us about them, music that tries really hard to overshadow the footage, setting up camera angels for arbitrary reasons, and the characters feel like generalizations expressed by a director instead of characters having a mind of their own. Didn't help that none of the characters gave me any reasons to like them.

If anything, the first episode felt like a laboratory; the people who worked on this early on wanted to try out any artistic decision they had in their mind, and instead of relying on their storytelling, they want to try out every trick in the book to grab the viewers into the world they created. In other words, as far as they're concerned, they want to express intriguing styles rather than an interesting story, and if the rest of this show continues to do this, then the experiment was a complete success as far as the eyes of the beholder are concerned.

[symbv]

I like your last sentence. It was a smashing success FOR ME (it was almost love at first sight and it got even better after I read the novels), and I am not going to convince anybody to think like I do.

[C.A.P.]

^I'm actually a little curious Sy; what drew you into this particular franchise? Was it the artwork? As I recall, you wrote once that you thought the show was beautiful, and I'm wondering if you're talking about the show as a whole or just the artwork.

[symbv]

The artwork is indeed beautiful, the dialogues are beautiful, the character designs are beautiful, the music is beautiful, the animation is beautiful... I also happen to love the eccentricities of the directing (with its tendency to flash text on screen and odd angles etc) and the stylized background art as well. Some scenes burnt into my brain and there were numerous times when I walked on a random place in Tokyo city and some scene just flashed up on me. The music and songs are also memorable -- some of them are constantly in my most-played list in my iPod. And the seiyuu are great as well. The moe fetish is just the icing on the cake -- and of course I LOVE IT TOO.

Just a note while we are on this "monogatari" subject:
The latest novel from the "monogatari" serie - Otori Monogatari ( http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/koda ... cs/nishio/ ), is on #1 rank of the book bestseller list (all genres) in Japan now. Sales is brisk and big volumes are shifted. It promises to be some big revelation for the most popular character in Bakemonogatari -- Nadeko Sengoku. Readers are reported to be stunned by its development. Unfortunately as I no longer live in Japan, I need to find some way to get hold of the novel... Grrr.....