Too-Shy Shy-Girl from a Too-Shy Shy-Era
Do you still remember Kannagi? Takako Kimura? For some of you, there has been a lifetime worth of stuff since, but to me it is a whole heartbeat ago.
Takako: a catch-all catch-you fangirl?
Kannagi’s filler episodes are the true spiritual successor of Lucky Star IMO.
If the general concept behind Lucky Star is when you stick an otaku-type into a group of normal folks, then Kannagi is when you stick a few normal people into a group of otaku types. It strikes me oddly funny that the bulk of people talking about K-ON skipped out on this little not-KyoAni show. Maybe because it isn’t?
Anyways, for the reference of this post, let’s recall another show where you have fanboys and fangirls: Genshiken. It is like, a bunch of otaku types interacting with each other, and sometimes with the greater society. If you have not watched or read Genshiken, you ought to fix that pretty quick-like; not because it’s good entertainment, but it’s a honest-to-goodness otaku fantasy, with the realism dial set to the realistic half of fantasy rather than the more fantastic half. For us proto-otaku types, the enjoyment comes in with identifying the nuances in Shimoku Kio’s world with ours. A Dilbert or The Office, if you will, for you and me. Naturally the focus on the show will come down to some degree, on said nuances.
Back to Kannagi. There’s this succulent contrast between the backwards and low-tech of it all, if we take a look at one nuance, compared to the almost-foreign, advance tech representations that gets hoisted on Jin, Nagi and Tsugumi.
It’s not just a Sony. It made a comment, perhaps fairly categorized as a jab, about Sony’s sometime-solitary insistence on its own technological platform for media storage. Akiba made that comment to a poor kid living in a run-down apartment, watching TV on … what, a 24″ CRT feeding NTSC from rabbit ears. It’s a scene out of Kamichu minus the rolled-up newspaper and wintry laziness.
And if electronics tech is not enough, the assault continues with cultural changes. What does that say about Zange and Takako’s performance? Or Nagi’s in contrast? Of ad jingle, image songs from 80s OAVs, present day pop songs…and songs that’s not on any CD… It’s a diverse cross-section.
Is it at all coincidence that the Akiba-kei types stand on the cutting edge of consumer tech? I hardly think not. But the mentality of an otaku is not defined by what is loved or hated, rather, it’s, well, a mentality. One observed through looking at the little details.
In a way there’s a slope of increasing insularity. Characters like Konata and Takako are detached from reality to a degree (beyond the obvious fact that they are anime characters). They may be unreal representations (well, Konata is suppose to be real…) but ultimately they are not crushed souls like the various college kids graduating from Genshiken (which, well, are also unreal in their own ways). Ok, maybe high schoolers have more fun, but whatever. And it’s fun that brings all the fans to the yard.
They’re not shy!
Mio and Yui especially could fit into Kannagi’s cast very easily.