larryhammer | Entries tagged with anime

Quote of the day: "As with all Japanese popular culture, it appears to delve deeply into and grapple profoundly with the eternal existential-philosophical question, What the Fucking Fuck Was That?" —Bill Walsh on The Tragedy of Belladonna, as quoted by TvTropes.

Also seen on TvTropes: "Wodehouse was ... a master of farce, constructing farce, and pushing farce to the point where it curves around some nebulous point out in the dada hinterlands of space, wraps around the universe, and actually makes sense." Where by "making sense" the writer meant the plots are tightly constructed. The trope of Chekhov's Armoury (in which not just one gun is set over the mantlepiece) seems to be created for his books.

But speaking of Japanese popular culture, recently watched:

5 Centimeters Per Second - The most recent anime feature by the writer/director of Voices of a Distant Star, and like it is about growing apart and missed connections. As is should be, given the title refers to the terminal velocity of falling cherry petals. Gorgeous animation, stunning visuals, and deeply atmospheric. However, comma, it not only doesn't nail the ending but fumbles it -- the final act needed about two beats more of story arc, and the gratuitous closing pop song completely trashed the mood. Just jumping straight from the moment the song started to the final scene would have improved things, actually. Worth watching for the first two acts, though.

Love*Com: The Movie - Live-action adaptation of a popular, award-winning rom-com manga. There's something about the timing in live Japanese comedy that feels off-kilter to me. It didn't help that, of the main cast, only the female lead appeared to be her nominal age. The script, at least, did a decent job of compressing the first half of the series into 90 minutes. Made me want all the more to see an official translation of the anime. (Hey, if they'll license Ouran ... )

Cross Game - As in, I'm keeping up with the fansubs, which are coming out in English the day of Japanese broadcast. It's as good as the manga, at least so far. Given the show's scheduled for 51 episodes, I suspect the manga will be ending about the same time, next spring, which is good as structurally, there's only two more games to play on-stage.

Aria the Natural - The second season of the anime adaptation of the manga. Actually, I'm savoring this one slowly, and haven't even gotten halfway through -- it's not one to rush as it's very much a journey rather than destination sort of series. This season, with a full 26 episodes, they had the space to more "naturally" develop things left out of the first season, which means yay Cait Sith and other magic realist incidents. But even without that, Akari's confused "Ehhh?!" to Aika's "sappy lines prohibited!" line never gets old. Ahhhh.

Has anyone seen anything good lately?

---L.

" ... that's the miracle of our chance encounter / you are not alone, because I'm with you"

Short shameful confession: The first time I heard the opening theme to the second season of the Aria anine, my first response was "But -- but -- but -- they changed it!" -- which was not so much a "change!bad!" reaction as a "how could anything be as good as "Undine"?" reaction. Now, tho', I'm all but obsessing over "Euforia" (I can't really recommend the somewhat lame official video). And for your browsing pleasure while you listen, here's some links that have nothing to do with gondoliering on a terraformed Mars:

Special to buymeaclue, who will have seen it fifteen-dozen times by now: as an example of how everything really is better with zombies, how about Jane Austen? (via)
I've liked this song for a while, but I'd never seen the live-action stop-motion music video, which is just about perfect. (via)
Reproducing your desktop workspace on your computer desktop. (via)
Candyland as an introduction to how to play a game. (via)
Why overstructured playtime without free play may be bad for children. (via)
Principles of the American Cargo Cult. For overseas readers, yeah, this pretty much describes Americans in their pathological state. Which explains a lot. (via)
Photos of Sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival. Where else are you going to get captions like "Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers cleaning mouse heads"?
Wm. Shakespeare's Five and Twenty Random Things Abovt Me. Now we need Chaucer's. (via all over)
Reasons I love Wikipedia #521: List of oldest companies.

---L.

Current Music: 84% of the journey West

It is annoying, to say the least, to pick up a couple pieces of pernicious malware less than a week after getting your computer back with a new hard-drive. I was not even finished installing and configuring all Seven Important Applications and Eight Useful Utilities, when Firefox began spawning random pop-ups and explorer.exe became unable to close gracefully. It is most distressing, as is proved by the following verse:

Beneath the winter clouds, my heart is heavy
For my infected laptop's running slow:
While AdAware detects, it can't repair,
And Spybot finds but can't unblock the flow.
Smitfraud has coded claws that still hold on,
While Virtumonde's bit teeth will not let go.
May Heaven's Emperor damn their creators
To be some demon's entertaining show!

To take my mind off such woes, I've turned from Song dynasty poetry to a Ming dynasty novel: Journey to the West in a pretty good complete translation -- 100 chapters of oriental picaresque harnessed to the cart of Buddhist propaganda. Much more entertaining than Outlaws of the Marsh, being an abridgment of Water Margin. The Monkey King is, of course, my favorite character. Marvelous monkey! I especially like how the Taoist powers of the Confucian gods are not enough to overcome his tantrum and they have to call in Buddha -- not just any Buddha, but the Buddha -- to send that boy into time-out for several centuries under a mountain. The episode rings enough of a bell, actually, that I'm pretty sure the fragmentary memory from Japan about a dog/fox/monkey boy in a giant's hand was, in fact, an anime of this scene. Seems quite possible, given the popularity of the story and how the writing on Buddha's finger sounds really familiar. Either way, it spooked the heck out of me at the time.

In any case, between my labors I, like a dutiful scholar, humbly continue collecting links full of the Four Edifications and Five Enjoyments for you all. And if you don't know what links I have, you must listen to them in the next installment.

Current Music: Journey to the West, Jenner trans.

Short shameful confession: I am more amused than is warranted, given the syntactic differences of Japanese and English, by translated taglines for anime and manga.

My current favorites are "Mysterious school academy cat action!!" and "Thus begins a girl-meets-monster love comedy!" -- which are probably even funnier if you DON'T know the context -- though I remain fond of "Non-stop after-school exorcist action!" Current runner-up is "Taisho cherry blossoms amidst a fanciful storm."

(Answers: Neko-Ten, Tokyo★Innocent, Ga-Rei, and Sakura Wars (tv series), resepectively.)

---L.

Current Music: Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society, Robert Browning

Current Music: Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society, Robert Browning

Varieties of textual experiences:

Fry, Stephen: The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within - A solid and entertaining beginner's guide to writing formal verse. If you like Fry's usual manner, he's in full form her; if you're allergic, there are other guides for you. Generally sensible, energetic, and if I disagree with some of his readings, he's rarely outright Wrong. I especially appreciate his insistence, backed by repeated examples, of the importance of crappy finger exercises. Bonus: an instructive analysis of what, exactly, goes wrong in McGonagall's The Tay Bridge Disaster.* All this said, it really is a beginner's guide: I did learn some technical tidbits, but mostly it was an enjoyable review of the basics. Rating: 3 odes**
Juno - Dude. Yes. That. Tight script, tight snark, tight acting. I especially like how there are no characters from central casting, nor any scenes that are by the numbers (though a few play with expectations, only to break them nicely). Cleverness as a way of insulating yourself, oh yes. That. Rating: 4 TicTacs
Shindell, Richard: Somewhere Near Patterson - It took me a while to warm to this album, possibly because only one song from it was on Courier. There's a lot to like here -- Shindell's first-person storytelling is in full form, starting with the tone-setting first track, "Confessions." "You Stay Here," despite one word that is exactly wrong, blows me away every time. A few tracks, I listen to and think "standard Shindell sort of thing," and I include his cover of Dar William's "Calling the Moon" in that, but there's enough songs like "Abuelita" and "The Grocer's Broom" and "Transit" to keep you going. Besides, standard Shindell is better than quite a number of people. Interestingly, there's a handful of songs where the speaker is in middle age or older. Rating: 3 1/2 Jersey turnpikes
Lang, Robert: Pegasus (in Origami Design Secrets) - Nifty base and there's some satisfying transitions, especially when folding up the neck, but the final details leave something to be desired. In particular, the legs do not readily come out as diagrammed, even on my second attempt, and the head is more stylized than I like. Not nearly as nice a model as some of the others in the book, such as the box turtle with a plated back. Rating: 2 1/2 cranes
I was going to do Yotsuba&! volume 6, but a month after supposed publication, the English edition is still MIA. Curse you, ADV! So moving along ...
Sakura Wars tv series, episodes 1–5 - Lessee, we've got a Taisho-era Takarazuka-knock-off troupe piloting steampunked mechas in secret. Hello, my buttons. As long as it didn't actually suck, this looked worth watching. And it doesn't suck -- it ain't great, but it's watchably entertaining. The Imperial Defense Force Flower Division is the usual motley band of misfits -- a samurai girl, a veteran sharpshooter, Miss Rich Bitch, a powerful but traumatized orphan,*** and the (male) recent Naval Academy graduate inexplicably put in charge of the admittedly tactically challenged band -- they spend so much time rehearsing for their cover story and learning to just use the mechas, the women seem not to have learned how to fight as a team. I think I know where this is going, but that's okay -- I'm looking for more. Besides, they're kinda hot in the opening credits dance. Rating: 3 sakura petals of DOOM blowing in the wind

* In brief: everything.

** Although I learned to program in FORTRAN, not C, I use the traditional [0-4] scale instead of this newfangled 1 to 5 thingie.

*** You can tell she's traumatized because she talks through her teddy bear.

---L.

Current Music: Land of Unreason, Pratt & de Camp

In the interest of varying my incidents while slowly bushwhacking through Dante's theological thickets,* some random anime reports:

Someday's Dreamers episodes 5-12 (end) — Hmm. The interesting dark worldbuilding currents I was digging in the first episodes evaporated in first a romantic then an existential crisis. Fortunately the romance is not our heroine's, and the existential crisis resolves with the physician-heal-thyself thread of her mentor in a neat (or possibly pat) way. In fact, most of the episodes tie into the resolution, making it a surprisingly tidy overall arc. Not a brilliant fantasy anime, but good, and it does have moments of true wonder. That main piano theme earwormed me like mad for a few days.

Haibane Renmei episodes 1-13 (end) — I'd suspected I'd like this, but not this much -- I snorked it down. We've got angels with small wings, birth as a mature being, learning to be what one is,** a walled world, a crow-girl, ascension-with-grief, despair made concrete, partially averted redemption, and quietly creepy spirit beings -- all of which add up to mine. My kind of stuff. And for those of you who dig amnesia stories, it's that too. I'm amazed something this soft-toned can create so much tension -- at the end of every episode, I all but squawked "what! -- already?" I want to describe it as "Take Princess Tutu, replace ballet with angels and subtract the meta, then cross it with Princess Mononoke minus ecotastrophe and with war replaced by salvation, and then layer the result with quiet gray feathers in an old house," only that completely FAILS to convey anything. Wah. Watch it, 'k?

Lovely Complex episodes 1-4 (in fansub): The tallest girl and shortest boy in the class, both sensitive about their heights, are paired up by everyone because the constant bickering is funny. Indeed, it's all fun and games until one of them ~~pokes an eye out~~ notices what the audience knew all along: that self-image problems aside, Risa and Ohtani are perfect for each other. Romcom hijinks ensue. This is one of my favorite ongoing manga in English (it wrapped up last year in Japan). The anime compresses the story's pacing, compared to the manga, but all the snark and attitude is lovingly retained. And it's fun to hear everyone in the cast speak Osaka dialect, instead of just the one Idiot-from-Osaka sent in by Central Casting. Well, okay, they're all idiots here -- this IS a high school romantic comedy. I want an icon of the repeat loop animation of the end credits.

Meanwhile, I await summer for the English releases of Maria-sama ga Miteru and Victorian Romance Emma -- both, interestingly, sub-only, in season box sets.

* I appreciate his warning in Heaven canto 2: "If you've been reading this as an adventure yarn, stop now, 'cuz there ain't no adventuring in Paradise." Oh, do I appreciate it. At length.

** Usually, this is "learning to be human," but the Haibane aren't.

---L.

Current Music: Paradiso canto 15 / Revolutionary Girl Utena volume 5

Current Music: Paradiso canto 15 / Revolutionary Girl Utena volume 5

The difference between feeling like crap and feeling like crap warmed over is small but immensely frustrating.

*honk* *snrfl*

OTOH, catching a cold means also catching up on random anime.

Planetes ep 1-5: If this isn't the anime poster-boy for the Mundane SF Movement, it ought to be. It's blue-collar office drama set in the orbital debris cleanup section of a corporate space station. There's the usual assortment of characters, including the naive newbie paired with the cynical sempai, and not just one but two pointy-haired boss types -- fortunately more ineffectual than anything. The science fiction is pretty hard, though sometimes the orbital mechanics are not always quite on,* and things don't tumble quite enough in zero g, but otherwise the animators seem to know what they're doing. Hasn't snorked me in, but I'm looking forward to more.

Someday's Dreamers ep 1-4: I was not impressed by the manga, despite it looking like exactly my sort of thing. The anime, by expanding the cast and world, plugs many of my concerns by expanding the consequences of having mages in society -- by increasing the regulations involved. It doesn't do it perfectly -- Angela is an interesting character, but adding her to a story that is Yume's alone in the manga weakens the episode considerably. I may continue, if I can do so cheaply enough.

My Neighbor Totoro: Comfort watching. I still loves this to pieces, but I'm not sure it's a complete story. There's a beginning, and a middle with a bunch of episodes, but the end seems to be entirely the conclusion of the last episode than of the whole. It would be interesting to watch this as a double-feature with Grave of the Fireflies, as they were in theatrical release, but that would mean watching Grave of the Fireflies again, and I'm not yet up for that -- the parallels and contrasts are interesting.

His and Her Circumstances aka Kare Kano ep 1-6: Not comfort watching. Has to be the most frenetic and surreal high school romantic comedy drama I've seen, and I include Kodocha in that. Though that's partly because in Kodocha the frenetic is done for comedy and here's it's for drama. The anime was done by the creators of Neon Genesis Evangelion right after producing that, and, well, it shows. I likes, but, um, not restful. Definitely looking for the rest.

* You do not easily rendezvous with an object in a cometary orbit from near earth orbit. Just sayin'.

---L.

Current Music: The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan

Things that have amused me this week:

Every so often, if I arrive at work early enough,¹ I catch snatches of Indian flute playing in the stairwell. I don't know who it is, because it comes from the top floor and stops if anyone approaches. Haunting cedar woodwind in a vertical resonance chamber.
Midori no Hibi aka Midori Days, episodes 1-2: Compared to raised by pigeons or reincarnated as a penguin, having your hand replaced by a puppet-sized girl is pretty tame -- ... What am I saying? That's just as cracked. Especially since Seiji's a brawler with lots of enemies, and now he can't use his infamous Demon Right Hand attack. There's some stupidities here, but so far it's playing the comedic emotional consequences seriously,² which means I want to watch more pls.
Why had I not noticed before that Herrick's poetry is more than sensual Cavalier lyrics and 17th century tentacle porn? The man was obsessed with the True Significance of Appearances. Even the carpe diem flowers are meditations on True Significance,³ which gives them an interesting, not immediately apparent, depth. Also, the man just may have had the best poetic ear of his time. You can learn things from him about when and how to break syntax for effect.

Not to mention how to write erotic poems about insect bestiality.
Rereading Omukae Desu (5 volumes complete), I like it more than ever. The otherwise ordinary college boy Madoka can not only see ghosts but has the rare ability to let them temporarily use his body, so he's recruited as a part-time worker by the spiritual agency that helps ghosts with, ah, Issues cross over to the Other Side. Very episodic and quirky -- his boss is dead, wears a bunny suit overlaid with a theme costume of the month, and ferries the departing spirits by flying scooter -- but I really like Meka Tanaka's characters: they are not insane, nor jerks. Screwed up, sometimes, and a little demented, but pleasant to spend time with.⁴
Two words: Psychadelic Tyrannosaur.⁵

Footnotes of amusement:

That is, on time.
Okay, aside from Seiji's inability to notice that Midori wears a dress embroidered "I ♥ Seiji." But otherwise.
Specifically, on the transient nature of the apparent world.
Almost as nice company as Sakura Tsukuba's.
ObBonus for chibicharybdis: Flowery Struthiomimus.

---L.

Fansub humor: When a character in Touch says "Thank you"* in moments of gratuitous English (ETA: this happens more than once), this is subbed as "Arigato."

Uh huh.

#insert obligatory_rant_wondering_why_why_WHY_isn't_more_Adachi_licensed_dammit.h

* Or rather, "tankyuu."

---L.

Current Music: Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett

Current Music: Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett

Current favorite recent discovery: Yotsuba&!. A lot of humor manga doesn't translate well for me, but the manglings and misadventures of small children work in any language -- and over and above most five-year-olds Yotsuba is, as her father calls her, a weirdo. (For example, she claims she's from an island that's "to the left," where she apparently had never encountered swings.) I think my favorite chapter is "Yotsuba & Revenge," in which the older people, each in their own way, play along with the water-pistol-toting gangster, occasionally floundering in the shifting currents of flexible game rules -- not to mention the title page is way cute. But there's lot to like here -- heaping four-leafed clovers* of liking. Three volumes are out in English, with two more to come this summer.

Current guilty cracktastic delight: Romeo x Juliet, which is based on the Shakespeare play in the way 10 Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming of the Shrew. Fourteen years ago in the aerial city of Neo-Verona, the ruling house of Capulet was wiped out in a Montague coup -- all except two-year-old Juliet, daughter of the deposed Duke. Now she lives as a boy named Odin in the above-theater apartment of a playwright named William.** Odin sometimes goes about the city as the Red Whirlwind, a cloaked-and-masked swordsman, righting injustices and freeing commoners accused of being Capuletists. At the end of the first episode, on the night before his/her 16th birthday (when her/his secret past is due to be revealed to him/her), Odin goes to the Montague's ball disguised as a girl -- where she meets Romeo, the Duke's son and heir.

Maybe I should put irony quotes around that "based on." But not around cracktastic. At 15, Juliet already has four identities, can kick your butt with a rapier, and makes a darn cute sheep. What's not to love?

Ninja Replacement Scores of Canterbury Tales, latest report:

Clerk's Tale: Griselda? Totally needs to turn ninja on Walter's ass. Early and often. NRS = 1.***

Merchant's Tale: Again, ninjas would not improve it. Though a less high-fallutin' style might. NRS = 0.

Squire's Tale: The Squire is the sort of guy who spends half an hour making a long story short. You'd think a tale of Genghis Khan wouldn't need ninjas, but this isn't the Genghis Khan you think you know -- this is a chivalric romance version of Genghis Khan. A longwinded, tedious chivalric romance version. NRS = 4 (his nibs & three children) + another "Thank you!" to the nice Franklin.

Previous reports: 1, 2, 3, 4

* I should probably explain that Yotsuba's name means "four-leafed," as in clover, and her green hair is worn in four pigtails.

** In episode 1, we see Verdi's Otello and a rehearsal of what looks suspiciously like an As You Like It remix.

*** In the interest of fairness, I should say that aside from the subject matter, this is the easiest tale to read so far. The Clerk did well, obeying the Host's command to avoid a high style.

---L.

Current Music: a-cantering to Canterbury

A few years ago, the owner entrusted me with the shop, then went away somewhere. To go where? To do what? To return when? I think it's good I'm a robot. No matter how long it takes, I can wait.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou has been partially adapted into four half-hour OVA (direct-to-video) episodes, divided into two series -- the first from 1998, the second (subtitled Quiet Country Café) from 2002. Some of us speculated as to their content; now that I've seen the fansubs (current torrents: 1.1 & 1.2, 2.1, 2.2), here's an episode guide.

Series 1: Opening credits are shopping trip scenes from the prologue and chapter 33, closing credits are scenes from ch 30, I think. The musical interludes set to random character art (some from chapter splash-pages) are ... random.

1.1: Alpha meets Kokone when the latter delivers a camera from Owner; Alpha spends a day failing to take pictures. Covers chapters 7-9 & 12, sticking closely to the story and images.

1.2: Alpha is struck by lightning, is repaired by Sensei, has a bad hair week, discovers tears of emotion, has a rocky recovery, and watches the "flowers of light" (streetlights of a drowned city) turn on in the evening. Covers chapters 4 & 22 + extrapolated filler between.

Series 2: Opening and closing credits are establishing and reprise shots.

2.1: Alpha and Kokone go scootering; a typhoon wrecks the cafe; Alpha tries running it as a patio cafe, then decides to travel, to raise repair money by working elsewhere. Covers chapters ~~27 (? - heavily adapted if so)~~ correction: 84, 57 (fragment), 62-63, & 65.

2.2: Alpha's year traveling, including meeting a male robot for the first time, Kokone missing her, and ending with Alpha's decision to return while working in the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Covers chapters 66, 64 (expanded), 67-69 (parts), 72 (part), & 73 (expanded).

The story in series 2 takes more liberties with the material than series 1 (gone are the airplane flight and lamppost trees!), but is better animated and more coherent -- also, no random musical interludes. Note that a lot of Alpha and Kokone's developing friendship is lost in the gap between the series.

[ETA: On later consideration, I realized that while the progress of Alpha and Kokone's friendship is lost in the gap, the changes to chapter 64 and using the anachronistic 84 work together to make Kokone's romantic interest more explicit.]

The festival-like world has slowly settled to a leisurely pace. To think that an era came to its twilight so pleasantly, what has come to be called the Age of Evening Calm. I think I'll continue watching this twilight world as long as time flows.

---L.

1.1: Alpha meets Kokone when the latter delivers a camera from Owner; Alpha spends a day failing to take pictures. Covers chapters 7-9 & 12, sticking closely to the story and images.

1.2: Alpha is struck by lightning, is repaired by Sensei, has a bad hair week, discovers tears of emotion, has a rocky recovery, and watches the "flowers of light" (streetlights of a drowned city) turn on in the evening. Covers chapters 4 & 22 + extrapolated filler between.

Series 2: Opening and closing credits are establishing and reprise shots.

2.1: Alpha and Kokone go scootering; a typhoon wrecks the cafe; Alpha tries running it as a patio cafe, then decides to travel, to raise repair money by working elsewhere. Covers chapters ~~27 (? - heavily adapted if so)~~ correction: 84, 57 (fragment), 62-63, & 65.

2.2: Alpha's year traveling, including meeting a male robot for the first time, Kokone missing her, and ending with Alpha's decision to return while working in the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Covers chapters 66, 64 (expanded), 67-69 (parts), 72 (part), & 73 (expanded).

If I am ever a character in a manga or anime, I hereby promise to:

Find a way to save the world without dying.
Not pretend to be someone of my opposite sex while attending a boarding school. Day school is iffy, but can be done as long as my parents aren't forcing me. (Cross-dressing is a different issue, but best left outside of school anyway.)
Take up a martial art other than kendo. Flower-arrangement-jitsu sounds good.
Never be a second-in-command with an angsty backstory. It is inevitably fatal. If I find myself cast as one, I will resign my commission, no matter how much I want revenge against the enemy.
Use my new-found godlike powers only for good. Even if my little sister steals my boyfriend.
Never develop romantic feelings for anyone I call onii-san/onee-san (big brother/big sister), even as a courtesy title. This goes double if I use -sama (respectful address). Triple if I use -chan (familiar or diminutive address). Quadruple if I live alone with him/her.
Never let anyone address me with -chama (diminutive + respectful). If anyone does, I will drop-kick them into the nearest temple/shrine for a exorcism. This goes double if they request that I address them with -chama.
Use stealth and guile to win, not my mad fighting skillz. The latter only leads to more fights and periodic power-ups.
Never live with several other young women plus one young man. No matter how cheap the place is, it's not worth it. Until I can move out, I'll never wear a skirt, always keep on modest underwear, and before bathing or changing clothes, double-check that I'm alone, the door's locked, and shades are drawn tight.
Expect Death to be, say, a cutie in a kimono riding a floating oar, or Santa to be a biker chick on a hovercycle, or the lake monster to be my little brother. These things happen.
Never flash my panties. Ever.
Raise my new-found little sister-or-equivalent without any sexual shenanigans. Except possibly with a classmate my age -- and only if little sister approves of her.
Not take up photography as a hobby, let alone profession.
Decide on my feelings for the girl before the national championships.
Not touch the bishounen. They may be pretty to look at, but anything more can only lead to tears.
Go into chibi form no more than three times a chapter.
Not be a pure-hearted idiot who can be distracted from asking crucial questions such as "Wait -- you knew my mother?" or "Just who ARE you anyway?" by, say, someone pointing out a cute cloud.
Watch out, when I'm disappointed, for my falling word balloon. It hurts if it lands on my head.
Pay attention when jaunty accordion music comes on. It means trouble's starting.
Pay attention to any boy with an attack chicken. He's important.
Pay attention to the penguin that follows me home. It's not important, but it is way cute. If way random.

Did I miss anything?

---L.

Current Music: Saikano vol 2

While watching the climax of Princess Tutu's first season ("chapter of the egg"), we realized that Duck really needs to be looking for the Clue Shard.

For those who haven't met Tutu, it's firmly in the magic girl genre of anime: a ballet student named Duck turns into the ballerina fairy Princess Tutu to restore the scattered fragments of the Prince's heart -- said Prince being an affectless student at Duck's school, and each shard being an emotion. But there's interesting complications. For one, Duck is not a girl, but a duck turned into a girl to help the Prince. For another, the Prince is a character from a fairy tale, and he shattered his heart to trap the villainous Raven, at the moment when the author died and his characters escaped the story. Or sort of died -- the author's still around, turning ducks into schoolgirls to complete the frozen story. And the cherry of angsty goodness: if Princess Tutu ever confesses her love to the Prince she will, as happened in the tale, turn into a spark of light and vanish.

With two scoops of stories reflecting various classic ballets, dribbled with shoujo slapstick syrup and crunchies of relationship angst, that's a recipe for something Yum. Also, something very charming.

( Spoilers through episode 13 behind the cut. )

I have to say, I'm really digging an anime that uses classical music this well, playing off both the music and its context. Not to mention playing with so many levels of narrative and identity.

Current Music: Mythic, still

Current Music: Mythic, still

Baedecker guide to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 1895.
Mythic volume 1 (1 contributor's copy).
Secret of the Three Treasures (15 20 author's copies).*
Princess Tutu volume 3.
Various circulars and fliers, ½" thick.

* Okay, so technically they're copies from a distributor, not the contractual author's copies, but work with me here.

---L.

Current Music: Mythic, ed. Mike Allen

More general discussion here.

( Big Damn All-Spoilers-Allowed Discussion of what the heck happened in Revolutionary Girl Utena )

---L.

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Larry Hammer

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Page Summary

"She was barely out of her shell / when he took her up and kept her so well"
"Even though it's the same old morning / it's dressed in vivid colors"
"He's a god, you fool. It'll take more than one shot."
"My girlfriend should be human -- not my right hand!"
"My girlfriend should be human -- not my right hand!"
"Show me how pretty the world is because I envy the way you move"
"My wings are made of hay and corn husks so I can't leave this world behind"
"My wings are made of hay and corn husks so I can't leave this world behind"
"Under the outer wrapping of an angst-filled tragedy of anime proportions is a core of good story"
"Being his right hand instead of his girlfriend is a tiny bit disappointing"
"If ye wol werke by my conseil, ye shul nat assaye Fortune by no wey"
"If ye wol werke by my conseil, ye shul nat assaye Fortune by no wey"
Manga, anime, medieval lit -- it's all good
Robots who wake up slowly = kawaii
Robots who wake up slowly = kawaii
The anime character pledge
Quack! quack quack quack!
Quack! quack quack quack!
Things that came in the mail today
After the SPOILERIFIC apocalypse

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Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

Entries tagged with anime

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"She was barely out of her shell / when he took her up and kept her so well"

"Even though it's the same old morning / it's dressed in vivid colors"

"He's a god, you fool. It'll take more than one shot."

"My girlfriend should be human -- not my right hand!"

"My girlfriend should be human -- not my right hand!"

"Show me how pretty the world is because I envy the way you move"

"My wings are made of hay and corn husks so I can't leave this world behind"

"My wings are made of hay and corn husks so I can't leave this world behind"

"Under the outer wrapping of an angst-filled tragedy of anime proportions is a core of good story"

"Being his right hand instead of his girlfriend is a tiny bit disappointing"

"If ye wol werke by my conseil, ye shul nat assaye Fortune by no wey"

"If ye wol werke by my conseil, ye shul nat assaye Fortune by no wey"

Manga, anime, medieval lit -- it's all good

Robots who wake up slowly = kawaii

Robots who wake up slowly = kawaii

The anime character pledge

Quack! quack quack quack!