Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

The sub vs dub debate is probably one of the most beaten horses in US anime fandom, ever. Things died down with the advent of the DVD, but despite that, the nasty matter of whether one likes watching anime in English or Japanese still sometimes rears its beaten, bloodied and gruesome head.

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past week (or, conversely, if you have a proper life) you would know that the Lucky Star dub trailer recently hit the intertubes, and it is a most dangerous video indeed. Naturally, it stirred up a storm of hate in various places, making a lot of moe fanbois mad that their pure maidens were raped, and making a lot dub fans angry at said fanbois for being elitist. Now, I don’t mean to fan any flames here, but I figured now would be a perfect opportunity to talk about my stance on the whole LOL ENGLISH DUBS matter, since I don’t believe I’ve done so on this blog before.

But first, a story. Get ready for a shock, guys. Ready? Good.

(more…)

“Hey, are we really that depressing? Are we really that weird? Is it a crime to love anime or SFX movies? Why should it be a reason to set us apart? If you’re into playing tennis, that’s just fine and dandy, but if you watch anime, you’re weird? Why?!”

“Kubo…”

“Dammit… Dammit… Dammit… DAMMIT! Tanaka! I quit! No more job-hunting for me!”

“Huh?!”

“If Otaku are going to be discriminated against, then so be it! I’m gonna be a total Otaku!”

“What?”

“I’m not just gonna be an Otaku, but the Otaku of Otaku… THE OTAKING!”

“Otaking…? I like it! I like it! Alright, I quit, too!!”

“Let’s both become… OTAKINGS!”

So goes the end of the first Otaku no Video OVA. Possibly one of the most epic pieces of work ever made by Gainax, even more so than Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. I recently re-watched it a month or so ago, and that re-watch was the first time that I could really tap into its spirit. Viewings years prior weren’t bad, but the show made me feel alienated. I’m not sure if it’s because now I’ve seen more old anime, thusly I can get more of the references, or if it’s just because I’ve become more of an otaku. Probably both. Anyway, I thought I’d preface this post with that small bit of dialogue since it highlights a rather old and tired question, but one I’ve kept meaning to address: What does it mean to be normal?

This question hit me recently as I was laying down with the good Miyamoto-sensei. While staring into her adorable, flat, printed-on-100%-polyester eyes I wondered to myself, “wow, just how low have I sunk?” It struck me that I had spent $200 dollars out of my personal expenses last month on this pillow cover, another of a certain adorable spiral princess and a small figure. Then, it also struck me that rich kids spend roughly that much on Newberry Street weekly, so I felt a little better. But I guess it comes down to just what you spend your money on, right? Spending money on clothes is fine, but spending money on pillow covers with 2D pretreens on them is a touch perverse.

But it could be normal. If everyone was open minded enough. Having a 2D-complex isn’t that weird, right? RIGHT?

Yeah, just a small bit of rambling. Had to get it off my chest. Sorry Mom :(

If you happen to be someone who knows me personally (you poor, unfortunate soul) then you’ll know I’m not one of those people who harbours a hate for harem anime (or harem-type shows, such as bishoujo game adaptations.) In fact, when people go on their usual tangents on how harem anime is the cancer killing their hobby, I usually defend it to some degree. However, looking over what other people are watching season by season, I actually rarely partake of these kinds of shows, and I’ve always wondered why.

Designs. Looking back at all the bishoujo game adaptations and harem shows I’ve watched (them numbering very little) it’s almost always been the designs that have hooked me. It’s not always the designs, mind you (you think I’d watch a Key show for the designs? Hahahaha…) but for the most part, that’s what hooks me. And, honestly, a lot of these shows have horrible design work, with few exceptions. The reason I watched Shuffle! in the first place was because I loved the design work and the animation style. The reason I started watching Rosario + Vampire was for the design work. In fact, that’s the only reason why I’m still watching Rosario + Vampire.

So, in the end, I guess I’m not really attracted to the harem situation as a means of entertainment. Looking back, that’s why I skip out on most of these things– because if you’ve seen one harem show, you’ve seen ‘em all, and if you can’t hook me from the get go with the designs, then I ain’t watchin’. Of course, I will go back and watch shows people recommend for other reasons, such as the G-Gundam nods in Kimi Aru. And, of course, Shuffle! kept me going with its absolutely brilliant writing and amazing characterization.

Last night I watched the cam-sub of Rebuild of Evangelion. While the movie doesn’t suffer as much as the Zeta movies do from compression (the Zeta movies were damn near incomprehensible) it does rob the earlier installments of the show of their lighter charm. Naturally, since this movie is an anime-blogger-like summary version of the first six episodes, it constantly punches you in the face with all the “important stuff” leaving the lighter moments of the opening episodes on the cutting room floor. These lighter moments are important, I find. People accuse Evangelion of having a lot of filler at the beginning, but let’s be honest, it needed it. The series gradually eased you into the real meat of it, and didn’t just drop you smack dab in the middle. This is what makes it work well for me, and I find it a lot better than, say, Bokura No’s approach, which was forcing tales of death upon you week after week. That said, redone Operation Yashima is great.

Also, there’s something of a small plot hole in the movie, and I hope it gets addressed in the form of added footage in the DVD release. I made this point earlier, but I’ll touch on it again– the movie introduces Toji with him smashing Shinji’s nose in. I found this introduction to be quite awkward since it never really had any sort of build up. Now, the plot hole here lies in how Toji knew Shinji was the Eva pilot in the first place. I figured I might have missed such a detail watching it raw, but with subs it seems there’s never a scene showing how he came across such information. If I recall correctly, the original series had a scene in which the entire class finds out Shinji is the pilot (it was established that there was a rumour going about that he was the pilot) and ask him a bunch of questions in the middle of class. In the movie, they don’t have this scene at all, let alone tell you about the rumour. It strikes me as quite clumsy of Gainax to overlook this. Hopefully they’ll fix it.

Finished Devil Hunter Yohko last night, and it was good. The show doesn’t go out of its way to impress you with a complex plot or original story telling, but it’s well done popcorn action plus T&A that any guy can get behind and ride for a few hours. As such, you can’t really write much about the show, but I do have a few observations, one of which lies in the style change that happens between episode 5 and episode 6. There wasn’t that much time between the production episodes 5 and 6, so why does the last episode look all angular and late 90s all of a sudden? Not that I have any problem with that, as I find the designs of the last episode to be the best, but it just strikes me as odd. Also, the last episode is like an episode of Tsukuyomi with action, except for instead of Neko-Mimi-Vampire lolis we have girls in China dresses cutting up demons. Good to see Shinbo exercising his weirdness as early as the mid 90s.

My other observation has to do with the promo art for the series. The two other girls on this cover that aren’t Yoko and Azusa don’t show up in the show at all. Well, the pink-haired one looks like a re-coloured Haruka, but I’m drawing a blank on the other. Any hardcore Yohko fans have an idea?

Update

Why didn’t I do this earlier?

So Bad Boy, showing your back.
And smoking a cigarette,
Caressing the scar from the fight.
So, Hey, Bad Boy, you are
Just a little klutzy
Compared with others, Bad Boy.

May or may not write more about Devil Hunter Yohko later. That last episode sure was 90s, angular, and Shinbo, though. Quite a departure from the rest of it.

Original Post

Brad last showed up roughly 20 comics and 5 months ago, so I figured I needed to bring him back in. I actually had this script done for a good while (almost half a year) but other things kept popping up, preventing me from using it. But now, since there’s not been much news of note, and all the shows airing at the moment are pretty meh, it’s a good time to work from the backlog of unused scripts. Brad is meant to represent what I like to call the “Anime World Order” portion of fandom. Those who got into anime through the cool and violent stuff of the 80s, and who wish the “dreaded era of moe” would end. Brad also represents every adult in my life, ever. His influence in the comic is nice, and I should have him in more often. I should probably bring Rets, him and Tina together but drawing all three characters in one comic may break my hand. The art here is fine. Kind of messy, but turned out ok. Could be better.

In other site news, I changed the layout again. The site is mostly transparent pngs, so if you’re looking at this with IE 6, the site looks like total crap! But that’s only about 5% according to AW Stats, and about 70% are using Firefox, so that’s all that matters. Also, to all you IE 6 guys, at least upgrade or switch to a non-crap browser. For serious. The transparent pngs are kind of temporary, though. I’m still messing with the site’s background colour, and when I find something I like, I’ll switch back to more user-friendly gif. Also, I may try and take a stab at updating the reference guide this weekend. Does anyone actually use that, anyway? I think most of the jokes are quite obvious…

Finished Baccano! today. The show is good, but not great. See, it’s shallow. No, it’s not shallow in that it’s lacking heart, or that the characters are crap, because the show has plenty of heart and the characters are all wonderful. It’s shallow because it doesn’t really achieve what it sets out to do. The show goes out of its way boasting to you how wild, crazy and complicated its plot is, but in the end doesn’t explain everything. Not like it really matters, since the show is just fun to watch, and I recommend it to anyone who likes a good time, and is not averse to large amounts of gore. That’s another thing that put me off. I can only handle so much horrible violence! The show gets points for a good setting, nice style, and doing the “Layzner thing” with its opening– except it shows clips from previous episodes, instead of the episode to come. Also, you can’t hate Isaac and Miria. Love those guys.

That’s it for today. Kinda tired right now, so I’ll go to bed for now. Later.

Current
Clannad: It’s good. I think it has nice characters and a number of good scenes, but thus far the main stories have been kind of weak.
Dragonaut: I don’t even know why anymore…
Ghost Hound: Still moves at a snail’s pace, but that doesn’t really bother me at all. Something of a plot seems to be developing, and I’m hoping it involves more Miyako screentime.
Hakaba Kitarou: Deliciously dark and enjoyable. Needs Nekomusume :3
Hayate no Gotoku: Nearly over, and I shed HOT TEARS OF SHAME. Another year-long season, please?
Kaiji: Show kind of got weaker after GAMBLEBOAT but it’s still fairly enjoyable. I hope E-Card is more complicated than it looks.
Minami-ke ~Okawari~: Most certainly different, but that’s not a bad thing. It looks good, but you can tell Asread is still a bit green with some cuts here and there. Probably not as funny as the last one, but still enjoyable. You can tell they’re trying.
Rosario + Vampire: Apparently has no inbetweening. Yeah, this animation is super cheapo, but the characters are always on model, so that’s good. I could probably stand it for another nine episodes.
Shana II: Stuff happens.
Wolf and Spices: Pretty good, but not totally awesome. Probably a step above a lot of stuff airing right now, though.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: EXTREME. Shinbo and Co. play with original manga material, usually with hilarious results.

Mr. Sunshine used some underhanded marketing tactics and got me into watching They Are My Noble Masters. I’ll check it out soon.

Not so current
Baccano!: Finishing the rest tonight. Just plain fun, but I hope all the stupid commotion makes sense in the end.
Devil Hunter Yohko: Finally finishing this after many years. Lots of nudity, action and dirty jokes– so basically good stuff for growing boys.