How Has Anime Changed Over the Past 15 Years?
Ask John the same question, and you can read his answer.
It is a tough question to tackle, so I felt it was unfair to criticize him behind his back. Rather, I want to supplement his survey of the last 15 years of anime by pointing out some key changes that JP and I (mostly I) felt that was too important to be left out of John’s answer. There are also some erroneous bits, but I’m going to ignore them for now (ie., LOL moe and tsundere in anime predates 1995 kkthx).
Japan, now online: Between 1995 and 2010, cellular phone penetration has skyrocketed in Japan. If you recall Makoto Shinkai’s 5 cm/s, that was a key plot device in the first segment, especially coming into the film as a generation who find their cell phones second-nature. I presume this is how most modern Japanese teens and young adults feel about cell phones. Of course, Japan is this weird place where more people go online and do their internet stuff via cell phones than with their personal computers, so that also means places like 2ch is really a socially important thing today. Let’s not even go into how important 2ch is for anime fans of Japan. And 2ch didn’t officially exist until 1999.
The impact of 2ch on anime is hard to point and cite authoritatively, even if I’m sure we could cite to a bunch of stuff. It is, however, notable as a way for industry folks to gauge and interact with fans. Leaks to 2ch is almost like a marketing tool nowadays. (Kanatagatari’s leak is widely thought of as on purpose, for example.) We have anime and manga made about the Train Man story, which is essentially a national-cultural nod to 2ch. Obviously 2ch gets referenced in anime and manga, too. Still the real impact of 2ch has on anime is on the fans, on the fan industries (read: doujin market), and as a social hub that can make or break a work. Gurren Lagann episode 4 anyone?
And that’s just 2ch. Blogging; Mixi; online stream sites like Nico and Youtube, DTO sites, paid-streams, even the likes of Crunchyroll and foreign-operated licensees all play a notable role in the evolution of anime especially in the latter part of this decade. Pixiv and similar communities fostered growth of talents, even if only in part. It also presented a fan-facing revenue stream, complemented that whole “Comic Market” mentality that, well, we’ll get right to it.
The Game in the Anime, the Anime in the Game
While I disagree with his take about Bakatest, there’s a side point that has been cooking for the past couple decades. I rarely see anyone talk about it, so maybe it’s time to bring it up.
Let’s start with the term “moe blob” as a debased term. (And I love you Nayuki, don’t take this the wrong way!)
Have we ever considered the doujin-soft game Glove on Fight, which is a full-on parody in nature, the kind of forerunner of the modern insult? The original promotional flash video drives home the idea of the game pretty well, that you have your standard 8-pack of popular bishoujo characters in a fighting game. Well, that’s just combining two otaku pastimes, one could say. But a boxing game? With the kind of design exaggeration you can see above?
Glove on Fight is an easy pick because it is an extreme exaggeration. Super deformity has its root in manga and anime as comedic, light-hearted things, but GOF is not quite your standard SD-ness. It operates within the same visual/iconic vocabulary as SD (note that the eyes are small, near-perfect circles) but the characters express themselves appropriately, fitting for a fighting game.
The turn of the century marked a major rush of getting manga and anime visuals crammed into our Japanese video games. Well, it’s not an exact mark, as the concept has been around for ages. It is only until the Playstation era that we had graphical hardware and advances in production techniques to make it notably more cinematic, more like an anime. Final Fantasy 7 is a good example. Before then, it was present, but largely in that SD form in which we are familiar with almost on a genetic level.
I say “genetic” level because people who grew up in the 80s are probably familiar with these concepts at a young age; the evolution of these manga-style icons matched the evolution of the bodies and souls of that generation of people. Games like the very original Super Mario Bros used SD emoticons to express simple concepts (like being stomped on is bad). It’s so pervasive that even some of us brute Americans understand what X_X means, loosely.
At any rate, what I wanted to say is that Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu brings that visual style, that “Disgaea” feel (which is trying to cop a manga/anime style), to an anime. It’s like a double regurgitation. It’s like watching not just a trailer video for Glove on Fight, but an anime based on Glove on Fight. I mean, Disgaea is like a sprite-based game, but Bakatest uses their “game” video as a 3d/2d rendered thing that they can crunch out (without actually doing the 2D animation stuff, perhaps). Just so it gives a feel that it’s like a video game. It’s different technology, and there are differences in the visuals, but it’s the same visual representation.
I wonder what would an anime that is suppose to feel like a chapter in Sakura Taisen would feel like. I guess that wouldn’t be any different? In which ways could an anime adaptation of a video game or manga visual aesthetics feel sufficiently like a newly invented thing? This is the finer points about an adaptation that ought to get talked about more…
Type Moon Plays a Game of Pool, or the Illusion of UBW
Nasu Kinoko’s world (Nasuverse) is a game of pool where reality marbles clash.
When I was a kid, I played with marbles. It’s a great way to learn how things roll, you know? Children fancy marbles because they are pretty, shiny, and colored like the kaleidoscope. Rainbow is weak sauce in comparison. It’s like, you can’t find an identical marble. It’s like a freaking fractal screen saver. It’s also cheap.
A GRSI discussion thread appeared recently in which we discussed the merits of Index/Railgun’s universe, specifically the psionics. The underlying idea is similar; Kazuma Kamachi’s version of psionics is projection of an individual’s sense of reality to affect actual reality. I should say, the impression of Shiro’s world in Fate’s Unlimited Blade Works arc left me with the same taste. Oh yeah, this is really a UBW review post in disguise. I’ve just finished a couple weeks ago, and I guess it’s time to share before the UBW film hits the theaters later this year and before the memories fade further.
In as such that ultimately some of its plot devices play second fiddle to thematic satisfaction and poetic justice, UBW is interesting as a sample of the superhero genre. Especially as a Japanese thing. It is sadly a genre I’m wholly indifferent about, so I won’t bore you with that aspect of UBW. However, the underlying paradox and predestination of Emiya Shiro is what makes UBW interesting, and I don’t recall people really talking about that specifically. [Probably because 90% of the time when I read anything about UBW, it just makes my eyes tired and TL;DR.] I am going to presume someone has talked about it already. Instead, I’ll focus on the stupid Nasu thing that he does every time, and what went down with UBW that made it less annoying than in some of his other works.
For starters, Shiro’s ability: If you’ve seen Fate anime, you would know that he can reinforce things and make weapons or whatever. It is explained within the game as his ability to project an idea. The more he understands what he projects, the better the projection is. The stronger he believes in the projection, the more durable and real the projected item becomes.
[Oh, yeah, spoilers for UBW incoming!]
Does this make sense in terms of Shiro’s ideal? Yeah, sure, but it could work with any ideal. In as much as ideals are ideas, notion of perfections, it is almost always a goal, a destination, a race in which people strive towards but never “arrive” at completely. The general idea I got from EMIYA (to use the heroic spirit term and not the class term…speaking of which, does every Nasuverse protagonist have a projection of their other selves?) is that he merely was unable to recognize with the imperfection within the nature of an ideal, in the paradox that ideals are perfect but are also flawed in that they cannot be truly achieved (as in, the law of “conservation of saving people”). The “save everyone” ideal is a natural choice; it is a plot vehicle to have some battle and get Shiro off his lazy butt and go fight “the impossible row row fight the powah” sort of way. The particulars of that ideal eggs the plot towards an epic, climatic moment, as it would be difficult to use just any ideal and still create a satisfying story.
I recommend this other ideal that could work: “The student council is my harem!” (Yea, Good END indeed.)
Of course, I sort of jest. Shiro’s Reality Marble is, in the end, his magic that allows him to be who he was created to be and to be who he is called to be. At the same time, that doesn’t mean he is locked in his predestined ways (as in EMIYA) but in some “learn from your future mistakes” way. It still makes me chuckle how Shiro’s magic is basically a literal analogy to “my idealism/sense of perfection is better/stronger/harder than yours!” when he picked his fights with Gilgamesh. From there, Gil’s Gates of Babylon thingamajig is a metaphor of “reality” as it is full of “the original” noble phantasms; or things of the real world. The faster and harder Shiro believes in his ideal, he can fend off the harsh reality and stay on course.
So yeah, UBW is basically a story about ideal versus reality, both against cynicism and giving up. Thankfully there’s this cute tsundere on the side and a very majestic mentor supporting you throughout the game. Oh, I guess there was something about a sheath too.
I just can’t take Nasu seriously. Not that it isn’t entertaining and fun, and at times creative, but LOL. I mean if you think about it, the whole “I will stab your appendicitis” or “I will kill the poison in your blood” thing is basically the same as “I will project my ideal, you know, that idea that I strongly believe in, and because of the power of heart my ideal is stronger than your ideal, I will win, if you know what I’m saying.” Except thankfully in UBW we got an actual fight scene to resolve it, rather than just Shiki doing surgery, or some acid-tripped dream. Still, it is just ludicrous.
At the same time, when I look back to stories like Asura Cryin’ or Index, I appreciate the brutal appearance and purpose-driven sophistry in Nasu’s writing. They’re all just different flavors of the same story. At the least, Nasu’s babble is there for a reason and sometimes it’s pretty interesting, just like those marble balls to a child.
P.S. The best visual illustration of the “reality marble” term is the epilogue to the 1997 film Man In Black. It is not the same as the verbal illustration in which the term comes about, but I am sure that this happy coincidence relate beyond this persistent pun I used to build this post out of nonsense.
The Full Impact of Love Plus on Daily Living Is Not Immediately Apparent
Actually it’s immediately apparent to some people–at least one blogger has made the connection that walking around with a Nintendo DS could be the same as walking around with a dakimakura of your favorite animu gal, or WAIFU, or whatever they’re called. But what does that mean? Why do people do it? There must be more than what meets the eye.
Naturally nobody sane and with an ounce of self-shame would pull a Nisan/Nemutan, and presumably nobody is that curious about what it means to the man who’d go the extremes to do so (although Nisan has his own reasons). And when I was carrying my DS around I didn’t realize this could very well be what is going on in someone’s head while he sits pretty with a box on his lap, or a hugpillow with an anime character on it, riding the train.
There is this strange animistic, Shintoist read on the whole twist on merchandising a franchise. It’s a play on a girlfriend’s intimate relationship with her man, but due out of convenience rather than self-sacrificing devotion. But there is devotion nonetheless. Which really just means that I’ll play the game on October 5th, being Manaka Takane’s birthday.
Let’s restart from the beginning.
Love Plus is Konami’s latest “big” game. They spent some effort, time, and money marketing and developing this game. Being for the Nintendo DS, there is naturally expectations about being able to play it on the go, and I think the game has delivered that very well. And despite the limitation of a DS game (namely in the physical memory a DS cart holds), the game is fully voiced and comes with all kinds of neat stuff. It also has great graphics and whatever for a DS game. It’s a quality product.
However, what sets this game apart from other games like it (dating sims) is the”girlfriend” portion of the game. Roughly speaking, the game is a dating sim through and through, which means you have to schedule what you do every day, to manipulate certain player-based stats, and when the right conditions are met the players trigger some flags which enables the relationship to go forward. This is basically the first half of the game. Once the player has triggered the “GF” flag, the game changes drastically, and it becomes a “living with a GF” sim…which is still a dating sim of sorts, but now the game opens up a series of new mechanics that you can do with your girl. While they are largely more stats-manipulation, much of the direct interaction you have with your girlfriend is through different mini-games, from touch-based to even voice recognition. The most notable portion of this second half, however, is that you can (optionally) engage the game on a day-to-day basis based on the real time clock. In other words, you can play through the day and only for day, and if you play the game in the morning rush hour, you can walk with your girl to school, and do “morning” things. If you clock in some minutes before you go to bed, you can see your GF in her PJs. You get the idea.
Thankfully this is a Konami/PG-13 kind of game!
The game itself is well-made, and it’s fun. But like most dating sims it’s easy to get bored of it rather quickly. I suspect by artificially limiting gameplay based on real time is part of the gimmick to give a game with a hard content limitation (DS cart only holds 256mb) more stay power. But the point is, there really is an incentive carry your DS around. You can unlock time-specific content, plus it’s something to do if you want to play games on the train, right? Thanks to its dating sim format, each game play session could be just a minute long, if all you do is run through the day like a run of the mill. Even going on a date doesn’t take all that long. It’s made for portable gaming.
Let’s talk about 2D versus 3D for a moment. There’s nothing particularly notable about being fascinated with a concept, an ideal, or just a plain idea. One of my favorite idea is fusion, and some of the smartest people on God’s Green Earth are dedicated to this cause. Of course, there is an immense practical aspect to the research and pursuit of fusion that is missing when OhSoRonery, mid 30s salarymen look for in virtual mates, but that hasn’t ever stop anyone. Or rather, in the case for 2D otaku, they may very well be serving their own needs when they do so.
The problem, or advantage from another perspective, is that now Love Plus can serve as a mean to satisfy that sort of thinking, or that kind of longing for the type of interaction you find in the game without really breaking any social norms. Well, it’s no worse than reading manga on the train at any rate. It’s very odd to carry around a 4-foot long hugpillow when you go to work, but nobody would even notice if you sneak a DS lite in your briefcase. Even if they do, they wouldn’t know that your Nintendo DS is now one of the most potent delivery vehicle of junai-kei moe on the planet. It’s like a suitcase nuke, except it’s just kimoi-otaku, pants-wetting stuff.
So what? This simply means even a person like me can empathize someone like Nisan, simply because I could, on my commute, take a look at my virtual companion, and playfully poke her on the ribs on the way to school. She would even react like a teased tsundere. It’s so cute. All that is missing is a fist pounding on my shoulder, to punish for the act. It made me think: why does this feel so odd? Is this what someone who has a “waifu” feels like when they watch their favorite whatever in their games or anime or manga or doujinshi or whatever? Is Konami really joking with their advertising?
And is it really that different than any kind of fan behavior as stereotypically associated with all this moe otaku kind of thing? Like having a character shrine in your room or having a personal favorite route/girl in a straight-up, renai eroge? Is it merely the difference between some kind of pornography that surrounds the player versus the type that distances the viewer? And you can substitute any kind of story in the place of pornography. It’s about the distance between you and the things you like…and how far is too far.
Speaking of not too far, I word-dropped animism earlier, and it’s not too far from the truth. Granted, to someone smitten with Love Plus, a Nintendo DS is just a console to run software, but it is also a vehicle that channels human emotional responses. Desperate farmers praying for rain? Cheering on your modem so your files upload faster? That is only natural. Today, ever more so, as games adapt to players and demand much more than the simple interactivity as video games are stereotyped, the fact that your DS can symbolize your tragic love life is no small analog to the Shintoist respect of nature. The construct that calls herself Rinko sitting inside my DS is my partner in a sustained relationship, as she inhibits a little black box with a blue lid. It’s like idol worship, except Love Plus isn’t made for the PSP or Xbox 360.
Maybe it’s just me; maybe Konami is succeeding in taking dating sims to the next level. I vote the latter.
The Kimoi Romance
In anticipation of Konami’s next big galge, I got myself a Nintendo DS. There’s the right vibe in both marketing-PR-y stuff and in the content of the game. How can you say no to dating a 2D girl voiced by Sakura Tange or Saori Hayami? I guess if you had some Akiko’s jam (I wonder if the game will refer to that…seems likely) you might think otherwise.
Playing Love Plus may be a daunting experience for me since obviously this game is very heavy on text. I am hoping the narration will ease my inability to read anything, and certainly I do not expect to experience the full spectrum that Love Plus has to offer its Japanese-literate clientele. And if this was some other company other than Konami, I might have relented and not take a deep spoonful of that mystery substance. (Is this how you evoke a mixed metaphor between Cool-Aid and Akiko’s jam?)
It all goes back when I was playing Tokimeki Memorial 3. For some really odd reason I skipped over Tokimemo 2 (and most of 1…which was just a taste), despite being the stellar one in the series. Probably because I don’t really enjoy playing it on a PC and didn’t want to jump the loops for a modded Playstation? That can’t be true…but somehow it was. At any rate, Tokimemo 3 was a lot of fun, despite my even worse non-reading skills back then. Playing it by ear, context, common sense, and trial and error actually wasn’t so bad. That might also have something to do with how Konami is serious about their dating sims.
Anyways, it bears repeating that Tokimemo 3 was a neat game. It’s fun to get to know the characters and tease out the flags and experience the special events. If you can get around the slightly-uncanny-edged, cel-shaded visuals, it’s a rewarding experience. From ZARD’s opening theme to the final unlockable characters, I found that if you can give in to the concept of enjoying a dating sim, Tokimemo 3 is solid fun.
In my head (which… may not reflect reality) Konami’s dating sims sit apart from the galge universe (including girl’s side-type games, lack of a better word) much like Studio Ghibli’s feature films in terms of all Japanese animation. They’re flagship titles, made with tender loving care, money, and a sense of pride behind them. I mean, sure, the Tokimemo line has been milked by Konami in various forms over the years with some notably weaker entries, and by default these are niche games. But there’s always a particular, a sense of quality behind them. It’s as if they are a serious matter more often than not, rather than some creative but made-on-the-cheap hit like all those visual novels or 18+ SRPG and AVG games.
Considering my last “serious” galge affair was with Sakura Taisen, it’s time for a new romance. And if the language barrier is too much for Love Plus, I can always reminiscence anew in November. It’s a good year for galge…and to reminiscence.
