Mid-Summer’s Afternoon Chatter
2010 is an eventful year in anime-manga-whatever-land. If there wasn’t a Bakatest tumbler to remind me of its passing existence earlier this year I probably wouldn’t even talk about it.
Bakatest interests me. Within the ongoing procession of anime based on print matter with a stress on the meta, this anime adaption showed a particular finesse. Compared to the way-more-meta SeiZon from last year, Bakatest left its mark for being generally amusing, where as Seitokai no Ichizon left its mark only on those who keyed in on the excess meta. I mean, it would not appeal to this gentleman, and rightfully so–it’s not he could understand why it’s funny anyways.
I singled Author out because, first off, I don’t think he’s going to find much in Seitokai Yakuindomo. Second, I don’t recall if he elucidated his distaste for SeiZon, as the excessive meta is hardly expected to have much appeal outside a small group in a demographic of anime maniacs–a clique within a small group of people. That’s obvious. But precariously so, what determines which anime title leave what in our grey matter after we watch it depends on a balance of freshness, interest, execution, expectations, hype, fetish points, and the countless things that goes to determine the internal state of the mind. SeiZon was overpoweringly meta to the exclusion of other factors, and to those who have enough of mind and mental wherewithal to withstand its assault of inside jokes, in order to be able to converse with it on some kind of metaphorical level, it was rewarding. You kinda have to be at least a little M to get Ken, after all.
What I call “internal states” is what hype is all about nowadays; ideas and minds are not simply fetid pools of infectious entities whose purpose is driven purely by evolutionary survival. That’s what hacks do. Because, in fewer words, over-expecting something leads to a let-down. True craftsmen do better.
This is the attitude I take re: Dai Sato’s ranting. WAH has an even keel take; I think it is a matter of personal interest if you are pandered to, or not. While I think I do applaud, in whole, of what Sato is saying, there’s nobody to blame other than possibly himself and his works.
Internal states of others and how it react to pre-determined expectations give me a hard time figuring out just how to gauge the response to Asobi ni Iku yo. AsoIku is really entertaining; it even offers something for my mind to chew on, so far, in the form of Beautiful Contact. I mean any anime that name-drops Sir Arthur C. Clarke in spoiler text format within the show is worth at least another episode, and by then AsoIku already sold me with its 90s, slapstick adventure style with high stakes and humorous juxtapositions.
I am being pandered to!
And I think if not for Erisu’s cat ears, furry tail and large, bouncing breasts, people might have taken AsoIku seriously. The thing is, as ideas fester in one’s mind, there are consequences. So you get this curious case where you want to hype, but you don’t want people to over-expect; you also want people to have a good time, but not turn away people from a “quality” experience. I think this is why shows like Sunred and Bamboo Blade have the positive fan buzz that they have, on top of being amusing. (There’s probably some Japanese anime lit crit term for this?) High School of the Dead presents an alternative to this conflict–just make it exactly as people expect it to be. As is, it’s exactly what we expect it to be; it isn’t to say there are no surprises to the show; sometimes the experience itself is a surprise, as in the case of a horror flick.
You might know that Summer is the season of horror in Japan. I guess when you break into cold sweat it feels good during heat waves? After AX I felt that Funimation got the short end of the stick in the US/Canada simulcast game in this genre. TAN has High School of the Dead, Crunchyroll nabbed Occult Academy, and Funi got Shiki… Nothing against Fuyumi Ono’s thrillers, but one is not like the other two. But hey, Kuroshitsuji 2 is on Funimation, and that show-with-undead will make more money than the other three combined. Maybe. And Occult Academy, being one of those Anime no Chikara things, is not the sure thing on paper, so Funi still “did the right thing” from a corporate-purchasing perspective.
Expectation strikes again!
Kuroshitsuji 2 is also the only anime that is important to North American fandom that I’ve yet to watch a single episode of that I’ve listed in this post. I just can’t get myself to care, even with Nana Mizuki now at the helm. And all this talk about zombies gets me thinking: why isn’t Shikabane Hime more popular? It really is not a bad show, just probably too out of bounds in terms of aesthetics for most? I don’t know.
Relics from 2009 aside, Mitsudomoe, Amagami SS, La Campanella Della Benedizione (I just like the full name), Denyuden, Strike Witches, and Ms. Wolf and her seven companions rounds out the new shows I’m watching. At least for now:
- I’m hoping Denyuden (The Legend of the Legendary Heroes) breaks into some kind of sekai-kei (to make a joke) parody about its redundant name. Which is redundant on purpose, I guess, until you begin to watch the show and realize there’s a thing about Legendary Heroes, as a noun phrase.
- Shukufuku no La Campanella is secretively a fantasy anime, much like some cheap-ass game I’ve been playing recently. Probably because it was that sort of game originally. Minus the cutthroat economics. Harmless, boobies, no shame in dropping when schedule squeezes them too tight and someone has to go.
- Amagami SS is the bee’s knees. And I’m not the first one to make that joke.
- Mitsudomoe is surprisingly robust, but sort of like what he said, I am afraid of dissecting that show too. At least it holds up better than Seitokai Yakuindomo.
- Strike Witches 2 is fairly straightforward. Pulls few to no punches.
- Ookami-san & Shichinin no Nakama-tachi is pretty general pulp stuff. I am sort of disappointed by it yet it is very inoffensive and soothing, while offering a variety of simple stories on a weekly basis. Com’on the fables you’re riffing off of have better punches than this otaku trash!
And that’s about half of the anime-relate stuff on my mind. Sigh.
You aren’t selling Seitokai no Ichizon short by claiming that it’s entirely meta? That might be true of the first half of the series, but it’s certainly not the case in the second half. I really disliked Baka Test because the whole thing felt like an exercise in cynicism. Ichizon did too, at first, but I was much more compelled by the second half when it stopped treating its characters like gags and started treating them like real people.
I really want to get behind what Sato is saying, but his criticism isn’t pointed enough to be effective. It’s as WAH says, his quotes are almost indistinguishable to a ranting graduate of the old-school who thought anime was indisputably better back when… (I just about fell out of my chair when WAH wrote an article that was reasoned and articulate).
This season hasn’t been all that impressive so far. Shiki and Occult Academy are showing promising signs. I can’t take Amagami seriously at all. The script is just awful. (Let me guess, I’m watching it wrong. Sorry for wanting my romance anime to be… romantic.)
Sneaking into sheds and licking each other is not romantic? At all?
I reacted to the second half of seizon the same way you’re reacting to BakaTest–it’s like Angel Beats lol. It is very calculated.
>>I just about fell out of my chair when WAH wrote an article that was reasoned and articulate
What’s that supposed to mean!!