Commentary

Seitokai no Ichizon is like the chat log you accidentally saved

Seitokai no Ichizon

Seitokai no Ichizon is masturbation in every sense of the word except the literal one. It’s as meta as meta can be, as counterproductive and pointless as a dating-sim parody of Comic Party. I don’t expect there to be anything original in Seitokai; I don’t expect it to be occasionally heartwarming like Lucky Star or occasionally bittersweet like Genshiken. You’d have to search high and low to find something that has less of a plot.

And yet, I’m writing this post with nothing but praise in mind. Does that say something about me as a fan? Technically, yes – but don’t forget that there’s more to entertainment than objective quality.

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Editorial

Robots are in my Blog! 0080 and the Gundam Tradition

Gundam 0080 - War in the Pocket (1)

Well, this is quite a turn of events, isn’t it? No matter how diverse or focused a fan’s interests may be, it would be hard to call oneself a dedicated anime fan without exploring the beast known as Gundam. By “beast”, of course, I’m referring to one of the most massive and well-respected franchises in anime history. It’s the good kind of beast, a creature that must be tamed in order to reap your reward, like a secret boss with a legendary drop item.

That said, I don’t think I’ll get anywhere with the metaphors today, so I’ll stick to giving my first real impression of this universe of epic proportions.

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Editorial

On Setting and Atmosphere

On Setting and Atmosphere

It can get a little tiring thinking about plot and character all the time, can’t it? The Araragi Theory of Bakemonogatari, the Nasu-ified story of CANAAN, the theme of the value of life (and, well, brotherhood) in FMA: Brotherhood – while all of these things are good by themselves, they can easily lead to a mentally-taxed viewer.

Well, when you look at it objectively, being mentally taxed isn’t exactly a bad thing. If anything, it’s good to have stuff to think about while watching anime, but as everyone knows, sometimes it’s nice to just kick back and relax. But what is it about these shows that lets us do that? Aria is an extreme case, but even so, what is it about the show that causes it to be such a stress reliever? The characters and story are part of it, but surely that isn’t everything. When I started questioning why I fell so easily for a show about baseball girls in the early 20th century, though, I knew it was time to get to the bottom of it.

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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?

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Review

War is better when it’s Moé – Gadget Trial

Gadget Trials (11)

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you haven’t heard of Gadget Trial. If you follow visual novel translation news then you can skip the next few lines, but in essence, it’s a surprisingly lengthy VN by the apparently well-known Kogado studio. Like most SRPG VNs, Gadget Trial mixes strategic gameplay with visual novel-style dialogue, but unlike most of them, it seems heavier on the gameplay. That’s what makes it feel long, regardless of the actual hour count.

All things considered, though, that doesn’t matter very much. Really, what matters more is the Tomokazu Sugita-voiced military commander and the loli artillery units.

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Analysis

Idealism and Heroism: Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works route

Unlimited Blade Works

What is a hero? A miserable pile of ideals? Wikipedia defines the word as a person who selflessly and courageously faces danger for the sake of a greater good, while it defines superhero as a person who protects the weak and innocent by fighting evil. Heroes are ubiquitous in fiction, long before the days of Superman; the concept of heroism extends into the days of mythology, when the world was a radically different place.

Thus, it’s only fitting that Emiya Shirou, the main protagonist of Fate/stay night, should share something in common with these summoned heroes that he must fight alongside and against. His wish is to become a superhero, to save everyone and eliminate the need for sacrifice. It’s a naive ideal at first, possibly as frustrating to the reader as it is to Tohsaka Rin, but the moral battle grows ambiguous when the red knight arrives to play Devil’s Advocate.

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