Category: Community

A small part of a larger project

Community

12 Moments of Anime #11: The Blogosphere’s Branches and the Disappearance of the World’s Greatest Hikikomori

Nagi Sanzen'in[kohinata sora]

Hayate no Gotoku was a great show. I can say that without a moment’s hesitation. I wasn’t on the internet while the first season was airing, but it made its rounds among my friends at school, and even with my meager experience at the time, I adored everything about it. Between the consistent and often clever references and the childish nonsense of the comedy, it was a pleasure to watch, which is more than I can say for a lot things.

I can see why a person might complain about the second season, though. For one, it’s a sequel to something good, so it has to come with a few complaints. More importantly, though, the focus on Hinagiku and the “love” story can be a bit of a turnoff since the show never had much of a plot to begin with. Still, I think Hayate no Gotoku really excels in its portrayal of its characters rather than in the characters themselves. It has the makings of a truly generic rom-com, but the intentional veneer of a kids’ show and the cheesy jokes and punchlines are what really make it shine. Despite the suspicious and disappointing absence of Nagi Sanzen’in, whom I deem to be greatest tsundere loli hikikomori in the history of everything, the show never ceases to be entertaining, and that’s what I love about it.

– – –

The blogosphere’s “branches” is an awfully ambiguous metaphor to use in a post title, but its meaning isn’t as abstract as it might sound. I’m actually talking about sideblogs: the little branches and twigs that bloggers create to manage and filter their thoughts. It’s almost like installing a few extra filing cabinets in your brain, giving you more places to dump your stuff and allowing each folder to specialize in something specific. Of course, while you’re busy pouring out your ideas left right and center, you’re also branching out into a different readership and indirectly growing more established.

I think the blogosphere has seen the emergence of quite a few sideblogs and projects throughout the year. I won’t even attempt to link to all of them, but I started my own a couple months ago (though it won’t hit full stride until the new year). Ghostlightning also came up with a novel idea to keep track of comments, and Moritheil’s meta blog is still going strong. CCY’s Saimoe blog is now but a memory, far as I can tell, but it was an interesting idea while it lasted.

The bottom line is that as bloggers gain more experience and the act of writing about anime becomes less exotic, many of us search for ways to experience fandom from a different perspective and discover something new. This is obviously a good decision for us individually, but it’s also great for the community because it adds more variety and assures that we don’t get trapped in an endless cycle of episodic summaries and lit-crit essays on Tomino and Tezuka. Just don’t let it detract from you real blog!

~ ETERNAL
つづく

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Community

12 Moments of Anime #12: The Vocaloid Revolution and the Summer of AIR

Air in Summer

[moonknives]

Despite how convenient it might sound, I did not watch AIR this summer. I watched it during the summer of 2006, when I was inexperienced enough to not know the definition of the word eroge.

I did, however, partake in a certain OVA that seems to have all but disappeared over the years: Air in Summer. It’s not a particularly memorable story; in fact, it’s really just a more personal look at Kanna’s arc from the anime. It lasts for a total of two episodes – the same length as some battles in long-running shounen – and it doesn’t say much about anything.

However, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

What really got me about Air in Summer, and what made it good enough to make the 2009 Christmas countdown, was the fact that it’s downright pleasant. It feels like it’s been a lifetime since K-ON aired, and it’s been even longer since the KyoAni + Key combo graced my TV screen. Ryuuya’s sharp wit, Kanna’s endearing clumsiness, and Uraha’s carefree ara ara~ personality are all staples of the anime adaptations of Key games, and they’re traits that I love more than a lot of things. Witnessing all of my favourite aspects of some of my favourite anime, written on top of a surreal setting with a vaguely bittersweet atmosphere, was undoubtedly one of my most pleasant memories of anime this year, with or without a plot.

– – –

As for the Vocaloid Revolution I mentioned in the title, I wonder if revolution is truly the right word to use. Our lovely idol Miku is already two and a half years old – plenty old enough for her popularity to catch on. Maybe it’s only because the latter half of this year was my first experience with Vocaloid-literacy, but I can’t help but feel that the Vocaloid subculture is becoming ever more mainstream. While Miku and her fellow electronic pop stars will always be more known in Western fandom for their endless pages of fanart, the release of Project Diva combined with the birth and growth of blogs like Vocaloidism, Polymetrica, and even a fairly comprehensive wiki, the word “revolution” might be fitting after all.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Community

Nodame Cantabile Rewatch and my introduction to Japanese Live Action

Nodame Cantabile live action

A few months ago on Twitter, Moritheil of Anime Diet proposed one of those ever popular communal rewatches that always seem to make the experience more fun. A couple posts have already been done to get the ball rolling , but I was busy drowning in my backlog toward the end of the summer and so I’m more than a little late to the party.

At any rate, there’s one aspect of modern Japanese media that I’ve always been illiterate in: live-action dramas. Admittedly, I’m not even well-versed in Western live-action films, favouring video games as a child, and I’ve only seen a couple anime-irrelevant Japanese live action movies (although one was directed by Hideaki Anno and the other was scored by Joe Hisaishi.) Most of my knowledge of the medium comes from little clips I’ve seen on my classmates’ computers and Hinano‘s screencaps. Needless to say, it’s about time I took a look at the medium for myself and figure out what I’ve been missing.

Besides, there’s promise of GYABO in here. How can it go wrong?

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Community

Thoughts on Darker than Black 01-06: A Matter of Presentation

darker-than-black-01-06

As you might have noticed around the blogosphere, a few of us – prompted by Owen, of course – have decided to begin watching/rewatching Darker than Black, which aired about two years ago. The episodic/editorial crossover going on at CAT should satisfy your needs for an in-depth look at the show’s development and themes, and as the posts continue to spring up from the rest of us, I’m sure you’ll be seeing more than enough ways to look at the same thing.

Therefore, as I started to rewatch the series – quickly discovering that I forgot quite a bit of it – I realized that there was something far simpler that I could be writing about. Yes, it’s technically irrelevant, and it won’t get you any closer to understanding the symbolism and narrative techniques implemented by the director, but it’s something worth taking note of anyway.

Because, six episodes in, there’s already something quite simple that has caught my eye, and it’s making an already good story look all the more appealing. Quite simply, it’s a matter of presentation.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Community

⑨ Moments of Anime #1: ef – a tale of melodies ep 6

And here we are: the final day. Did you really think I would pick anything else? After going on about it endlessly after it first aired, and after taking days to recover from the effects of a mere 22 minutes of animation, this was the one moment that I had planned from the start. It was quite possibly the climax of Yuuko’s story (I say possibly because I haven’t seen the final two episodes yet), and in my eyes, it was easily the most heart-stopping moment of the year.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Community

⑨ Moments of Anime #2: Clannad ep 22 (and a little holiday bonus)


That was definitely me last year…

The second-to-last Moment of Anime…what a fun time it has been. Counting down the year’s most exciting scenes (or gifts, as the original idea goes), tossing together a list of said scenes at the last minute, procrastinating until the end of the day to write posts that total up to be less than 500 words anyhow…as strange as it sounds, it was actually pretty fun.

And now we’re finally here, on Christmas Eve. Having played Animal Crossing for the night, I’ve got about an hour to burn before sleeping, and what better way to spend it than in this comfortable – sometimes a little tsuntsun, but still mostly comfortable – community we know as the anime blogosphere? Read on for my second-last post in the 12 Days series and a little celebration for Nagisa’s birthday.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.