アニ・ノート

I do not usually read manga, so I regard the scandal with the cancellation of Nymphet (aka “Kodomo no Jikan”) as a small piece in the puzzle of mainstreamization. The official letter by Jason DeAngelis read, in part:

It was not until these past few days, actually, that I personally took the time to delve more closely into the rest of the series and the specific content of the subsequent volumes. Sure, I’d flipped through them before, and what I saw on a cursory glance seemed harmless enough. But this time I sat down and read the series carefully in Japanese, and what I found in volumes two and three were very disturbing. (Particularly, pages 129-131 in volume three, which are highly problematic.) So much so, that I now have to retract some of what I said in my first letter where I tried to defend the content, because certain scenes in the subsequent volumes are indefensible and inappropriate, in my opinion.

Predictably, most otakus ridiculed the above view. A few suggested that the stem of the title ruined it. Someone else (who I don’t remember, or I’d link) wrote that “they only shared a sweater when locked overnight in gym storage”.

Yesterday, I saw this on IRC (nicks changed because I didn’t ask permission to publish the log; the channel is public, but the identities aren’t the point here anyway):

<sennin> A guy who I thought had given up on anime a long time ago called me to help him format his new hard drive.
<sennin> And at the end of the call, he tells me “Hey dude, Kodomo no Jikan is getting animated!”.
<sennin> I shuddered.
<Rein> He must’ve read it all. *shudder*
<sennin> Yeah, up to the part with the loli and the.. Well, I wouldn’t know, since I don’t read it.
<Rein> I read first 5 chaps.
<Rein> It’s everything you thought it is.
<sennin> And even more.
<Rein> Camel toe suddenly becomes disturbing.
<sennin> ..
<sennin> I think.
<sennin> Yeah, totally arou-I mean disturbing.

So, Nymphet was pushing the boundary even for hardened stalwarts of chat rooms. Who knew. I made a mental note.

TheBigN resurfaced today with a summary for Kamichu. It’s quite long and attempts to build some interesting comparisons, to which I don’t have anything to add. But I’d like to pick on this:

And while off sometimes, you couldn’t really have major complaints about the animation, art, and music.

Actually, I totally can. Animation was bad in a number of sequences. I have a few screenshots from the Christmas episode where it looks like concept art inked with a bucket fill tool. He says “sometimes”, but I think the low quality spots were in fact rather common. And even when high-line-count and properly inked, it still failed sometimes (real “sometimes” now though). For example, in the transfer episode, the welcome back sequence was outsourced to someone who blew the art. Not only the welcoming party didn’t adhere to the standard, the art was simply ugly. The instances of excellent art and animation happened, but overall, Kamichu is an uneven work.

I saw the first 3 episodes on the first DVD of Black Lagoon, and had no desire to see the rest at all. It’s completely mindless. Also, it’s not very Japanese (sort of like Witch Hunter Robin).

One notable thing about Black Lagoon is the so-called “production values”. I feel like I never saw any series quite so beautiful and skillfuly crafted. Certainly, there was Porco Rosso, but that’s not series. It’s truly outstanding. Some 3D still boils through, for example the gunship’s nose. But the characters were done in exquisite detail.

Liked: No
Rewatch: No

When Owen linked me, he chose the “Tandem Crew” entry.

On reflection, the entry made very little sense, because it wasn’t in its context. When I wrote it, the blog wasn’t listed yet and thus not read by anyone. The real pencil note which stated it read “Stellvia === Vandread”.

I did not mean that Stellvia was a remake of Vandread. Their stories are not very similar [^1]. But I meant to note that they a) both are examples of mecha-as-a-backdrop shows and b) made to the equivalent level of quality.

Steven Den Beste summed the mecha question thus:

I’ve now seen at least ten series which featured mechas and I was only really enthusiastic about one of them. Most of them I found to be a complete waste of time; several I didn’t even bother to finish watching. The problem is that the writers, and presumably the fans they’re writing for, are entranced by the idea of the mechas, and concentrate on the gee-whiz equipment instead of such basics as plot, characterization, and human warmth. That also applies to things like steampunk, or fascination with dirigibles. Generally, when the gizmos are viewed by the writers and artists as particularly nifty, everything else tends to get shortchanged. It’s theoretically possible that there could be a good series like this, and in fact I’ve seen a couple which I liked, but the odds are tremendously against any particular one being any good, and it’s a risk I choose not to take, since I do not have infinite time or infinite money.

When seen from this angle, Stellvia is an attempt to tell a character story with heroic action, which happens to have mecha in it somewhere. To illustrate, the Stellvia’s fanbase does not obsess with Keity’s combat loadout (unlike Gundam’s fans). Vandread takes the same route.

I saw Vandread basically because of Steven, after I’ve seen Stellvia. It wasn’t just the review, but the general advocacy too. And about halfway into the show I scribbed the “Stellvia === Vandread” note. They were leaving a similarly sized emotional imprint. Both let secondary characters flourish within reason. Both had protagonists which were a bit irritating (Hibiki with his pseudo-macho, Shipon with her tears). Both were drawn well and directed well. Both have a mid-series climax.

There was a number of dissimilarities, too, but they somehow compensated each other for the comparison. For example, the worst part of Vandread, long term [^2], is the bickering in the kitchen, sick bay, etc. The worst part of Stellvia, long term, was watching Shipon’s breakdowns. Vandread has a tight plot which explains everything, and Stellvia doesn’t, but you have to use Steven’s powers for retcon to uncover it. So for me, Stellvia makes more sense. Not that either of them was in any way realistic anyway.

So, there we have it. I gradually became enthralled with the “Stellvia === Vandread” meme and plug it unconsciously, and well past it “sell by” date, which is how the “Tandem Crews” came about.

I went to a screening for Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo Sumaseba, 耳をすませば) in the San Francisco public library, supported by the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco. The event was anchored by Gilles Poitras. Unfortunately, San Francisco organized some unholy hybrid of a frea market and a farmer’s market in the square in front of the library, so streets were closed off and parking was full. I sat in traffic jams, parked for $25, and ended being late. I saw probably 3/4 of the film.

I didn’t have my pencil on me, so no notes. The overall impression is rather positive, it’s on the border of “buy DVD”. The movie is a love story, nothing less, nothing more. It is recognizeably Ghibly and Miyazaki, but different enough in details. Maybe it’s because, uniquely for Ghibly, the movie is based on a manga. Or perhaps because Miyazaki only wrote the screenplay and Yoshifumi Kondou directed. There’s no war, so the trademark Miyazaki’s hatred of all things military does not get a chance to annoy me.

Liked: Yes (not my bag, but certainly a high quality work.)
Rewatch: Possibly.

As I mentioned before the movable engine going through the heat shield is a huge safety concern. However, there’s plenty of smaller oddities as well.

For one thing, pilot position is wrong. Here’s the whiteboard sketch:

A better view would be to turn it so the acceleration line is vertical:

Note that they did all the tricks with the engine especially in order to keep the acceleration vector pointing in the same direction at all flight modes. But the correct body position for the pilot to withstand 8G is with knees just a bit below the head:

Another odd thing I noticed was the location of the RCS thrusters in the nose. The Mangosteen is so damn small, that it’s simply impossible. Even far bigger capsules group thrusters near their fuel tanks. Here’s an example of SpaceX Dragon:

Some time ago Shamus ran into a problem: Netflix sent him a wrong disc. The tale of horror reads in 3 parts [link 1, link 2, link 3]. After the third turnaround with them he was obviously getting peeved.

Today it’s my turn to drink from this cup: they sent me J2 vol.4 in the slieve of J2 vol.3. This time they have a bit of an excuse: the volume number is in kanji (四). But it’s a very tiny bit. I am sure the sorting monkey does not ever bother to read the numbers.

So, what to do? The only way to correct this is to hold onto v.4, order v.3 again, and hope for the best.

Konata, Lucky Star ep.11

Where did I see this before?

Update: Wonderduck explains what the reference actually was for, just in case anyone is retentive enough to care.

As seen at Antenna a few minutes ago:

Not sure what this is supposed to mean.

BTW, server logs tell me that tons of people read Antenna. Hmm…

• Danny Choo:
  

  Cant remember exactly why I dropped this. I think t’was because it took too long for something to happen.

  I am linking this for the sheer weirdness of his perception, considering the breakneck pace of the show. I thought too many things were happening, it was pure Vandread.

• Don:
  

  Ultimately, it comes down to whether the engineering fanservice and skintight spacesuits compensate for the ugly computer animation. I enjoyed the show. YMMV.

  Since we’re in perfect agreement, I would not link Don usually. Also, he back-linked to me and so this double-linkage is uncoth. The reason I’m doing it is the screencap that he included. I so wanted to use it myself, but he got there first.

• Nick Istre:

  […] but I do like how the writers took pains to not (completely) trivialize the dangers of space travel.

  I have no foggiest idea what Nick was trying to say. Or, to put it better, I have several ideas, each more nonsensual than the previous one.

• Omo:

  In some ways all of this pseudo low-tech sci-fi gets on my nerves like a confused bee grazing under a blooming Spring sky. Is it like Gundam? As in, an event several decades ago that changed the minds of the animators and creators forever? Are we bridging that gender gap? My parents saw the momentous Apollo 11 landing broadcast live across the world and told me about it when I got older, and most of you reading this blog probably hasn’t, or too young to remember. Is it just a staple genre that old Japanese guys buy to remind them the memories of fascination and dreams they had as children? I don’t know. [Emphasis mine — Author]

  I think the Apollo moment was great. I knew it coming from two kilometers away, and I expected it to be cheezy and/or corny. But it avoided the abyss by a hair. To say more would be too spoilerish even for a free-flowing and irreverent blog such as this. So, all is left for me is poking fun at Michael’s presentation. Now every time I overdoze on blog flourish, it’s going to be called “the confused bee grazing”. At leat it wasn’t a dark and stormy night. Also… He probably meant a generation gap.