アニ・ノート

So far the only note is, Netflix ships DVDs in Haruhi (broadcast) DVD order. Other than that, nothing to be talking about really.

At least I’ve seen Tsuruya.

UPDATE: Damien wrote to correct my misconceptions about the order. The list is supposed to make it clear, but doesn’t.

One odd experience of watching Haruhi now is how the history unfolds backwards. When one blogger insisted on calling Shiraishi “Taniguchi”, it confused me. Shiraishi didn’t voice Kyon, so what was it? Well, now I know, and I know where “Wa-wa-wasuremono” comes from. Curiously, both Shiraishi and Ono appear on Lucky Star as themselves, but only Shiraishi became a legend. Poor Ono! If only he were a girl, he could press idol DVDs.

UPDATE: A picture, for the archives.

Taniguchi is an object lesson how an excellent seyuu is unable to move a secondary role to the forefront in the same an actor would (if director permitted it).

I’ve made an unprecendented step of rewatching a netflixed DVD yesterday, because I’ve completely turned around on Haruhi. I may expound on the reason later, but in one word: Kyon.

OK, one more sentence: the idea that he is the god is absolutely preposterous (not to mention, counter-textual in view of ep.6). The idea that The Fourth is Naruto had way more credibility and consistency than the concept of Kyon-god, before it was debunked explicitly by Kishimoto in Shippuunden, at least the way I see Haruhi. Oops, that’s two sentences.

My initial antipathy originated in my dislike for assholes, such as Haruhi. God or not, it’s not an excuse. If I don’t like you, I don’t want to watch an anime about you. It’s not that I like Kyon either, but there’s a certain personal connection now. After I gained this beachhead, I can watch for something else.

By the way, on the second pass I had subtitles off and it helped me to hear that one item on Kyon’s list of troublemakers was “jishou… toki wo kakeru shoujo” (a self-styled time-traveller girl). The traditional translation for Tokikake is “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, which is literally correct, refers to the content, and sounds good in English. However, it may just be that “a time-jumper” is the stock phrase for a time-traveller. Did it occur to no-one?

I thought I would never be able to shake off the crazy blog hype that surrounded Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but I forgot about it pretty quickly. Perhaps because my impressions were contrary to most old writing that I saw.

Firstly, the animation quality jumps all over the place. It’s not terrible anywhere, but mediocore is certainly not past Kyoto, whenever they think they can get away with it. For example, this is outstanding:

This is not so outstanding:

Even if we agree to abstract away the dubious 3D, let’s look at Kyon’s face.

The second point is small: the episode order nazis can blow me (please pardon my potty mouth). It’s just fine as it is. Shuffle it all you want, it’s not going to do squat.

And finally, the biggest point I took away home was that Kyon is no rebel. He not just accepts his own fate of servitude, but rationalizes it (”for the sake of the world!”) and gets complicit in it. Perhaps even finds small fun here and there, or tries to ride the dragon. In order to drive the point home, creators trotted out Ryoko, who rebels and dies for it. I thought it was glorious.

This is not to say that Ryoko is good and Kyon is bad. Let’s remember that she thought she had a chance, so there was not much of a sacrifice in her, but quite a bit of miscalculation and recklessness. Still, she knew that it was likely to end badly, and stood up to the status quo.

By the way, I thought it was a very interesting use of color to highlight Ryoko’s supreme moment. Watch and lean, SHAFT.

There was also a story and the musting about what was happening, but IMHO it was seconday. Jonathan had a good run-down for anyone interested in questions like why Shamisen speaks.

Liked: Sorta.
Rewatch: About 3 for the 1st half.

Don writes:

Thank you Bandai, for simplifying my winter viewing. As a matter of policy, I don’t download series once they’re licensed. I don’t need to worry any more about Shigofumi or true tears. In fact, I probably will never see them at all, unless Bandai changes its insane pricing.

It’s fashionable to bemoan Bandai for the insane prices, but the reality was different so far. When I bought my Haruhi, it was about $22 for a 3-episode voluime. Not the cheapest price, but not “insane” either. And it was not a thinpack, but an honest first-time release.

I understand that fans must stay ever vigilant against attempts to impose the R2 price model upon the R1 (and thus collapse the whole market by making it even more niche than it is now), but so far their insane rhethoric has not translated into insane prices.

UPDATE: DiGiKerot e-mailed to remind that Bandai stands for two companies: Bandai Entertainment (the old and sane one, they released Haruhi), and Bandai Visual (the crazy one). The true tears is licensed by the crazy one.

If you want to see really crazy prices, you should go look at some of Bandai Visuals US Blu-Ray releases, some of which come with completely redundant DVD copies of exactly the same feature!

Mercifully, most of Bandai Visuals TV series licenses have been awful
thus far.

I knew about the two, but it completely slipped my mind when I wrote the above. And BD is going to be fun.

BTW, if I should’ve read the the announcement before blogging about it, because it leaves no doubt about the prices:

The first volume will ship with one episode on May 27 for US$29.99, and the next six volumes will ship with two episodes each for US$39.99.”

UPDATE: Avatar comments with puzzlement.

Actually this post is not about Ani-nouto in the same way Damien’s post is about the technicalities of Moe Check. Instead, I just want to make a play on a play on a meme, in a post about a different but related meme: Kyonko. There is also a second play: everyone knows about Kyonko by now, so this post is redundant. In fact, the whole site is.

Nonetheless, here’s picture he posted (Kyonko on the left, Itsuko on the right):

Too bad there’s no Miss Taniguchi.

I am not amused by the sex swap per se, primarily because I think Ranma squeezed that particular lemon dry back in the 80s. But the layers upon layers of memezation, and the unexpected strength of Lucky Star as a recognizeable symbol are amusing to me.

P.S. Truth to be told, Kyonko does play some angles on the swap which Ranma didn’t. Specifically, the favourite joke of Kyonko is how all the relationships and actions become ridiculous after the swap, e.g. Mr. Yuki Nagato inviting Kyonko to his room late in the evening. It’s the schtick advocates of colorblind society enjoy a lot, and it never gets old. So, Kyonko is not completely redundant, unlike Ani-nouto.

UPDATE: Daniel of Animanachronism (in comments elsewhere, rascal):

Kyonko is indeed moe. I’ve been wondering about this myself. The original Kyon wasn’t moe, but he had a compelling personality (a good thing too, since the whole show’s filtered through his experience), so I thought maybe part of Kyonko’s attraction is the tantalising idea that she’s a witty and sarcastic girl with whom we’re almost familiar.

I’m wondering. Koyomi Mizuhara was certainly compelling… Then, we had Kagamin. But coincidentially, both were defined by a oppositional relationship. Would such a character stand alone?

Steven posted a review of [Melanholy of] Haruhi [Suzumiya], which reiterated and assembled the points he has made before.

I only have a few small bones to pick… Firstly, Haruhi is not “gorgeous”, only pretty; Ryoko is gorgeous. Also, I think Kyon is somewhat interesting character, so “Cliche” is not the word I would use. Certainly, the concept of being goaded into love is not unknown. The beginning of Kiminozo, which I suspended just the other day, plays upon the same idea. The twist in Haruhi is, if Kyon strays then the universe may crack. So, his responsibility is far greater than that of Takayuki.

But overall, I mostly agree with his assessement, and I did buy the two first DVDs.

I was busy with life for a couple of days, and now I’m not only missing the Tower of Druaga, but completely overwhelmed by the bloggage. I think, one most important note is the designs of new Haruhi at Canned Dogs.

They should’ve given it to Toei, for lulz. But no, it’s Kyoto again.

P.S. Kuro hosts comments for this.