Mai Mai Miracle is WOAAAH
Since Summer Wars is out on DVD/BD this week, you can watch it pretty easily. But Mai Mai Miracle is not going to happen for a while still, and my goodness.
If you like Omohide Poroporo, or know what inaka means and like anime, then you owe it to yourself to watch Mai Mai Miracle. I am actually not exaggerating at all; the film is all about that inaka-crap. For the record, I probably don’t qualify for either, so maybe this is just over-reaction or something.
It’s been years since I last saw Omohide Poroporo, but I still remember it vividly, if spottily. And as much as I hate to pin Mai Mai Miracle on that excellent Ghibli production, I think I have to, out of my inability to stand on anything else to criticize it.
Which is to say, I think Maimai Shinko to Sennen Mahou doesn’t quite stand up to that work, but at the same time it isn’t equally boring. Make no mistake; it is still boring. I saw the film with a theater full of kids, and a lot of them are fidgeting throughout the affair. You can hear it. It’s definitely a low octane experience. Still, it’s a visually competent work with good music and all that as you’d expect from a Madhouse feature film that opened just a few months ago (Began screening in Japan back in Nov. ‘09). It just doesn’t have as much of that softness, that human touch, than the Isao Takahata masterpiece. On the other hand, Shinko’s life in the boondocks was notably less controversial and friendly to certain things and ideas.
The story itself is based on the autobiography of a writer, and it’s set during her childhood. The presentation is, actually, like another Madhouse film. I hope that got you curious enough. It was my first impression. I even wrote it on the ballot… A writer is akin to an actress, but even more powerful since she created whole worlds from scratch; but I guess on the silver screen, we’re given the treat the same way, no matter if it originates from an act or a script.
On some level, this is a film that’s mainly for kids, or Japanese people. But the film’s presentation isn’t exactly the most easy thing to understand for the young as it overlays fantasy over reality and it’s quite the raw countryside (well, packaged nonetheless) experience to well-to-do New Yorkers and their children. I’m sort of at a loss as to how foreigners should engage the work besides as a, well, foreign film. But maybe that’s why the term “slice of life” is still a butchered metaphor rather than anything else, despite the earnest desire of people trying to use it to describe something way more profound than they realize.
As obligated, I’ll write more about both this and Summer Wars. Summer Wars is notably more mundane in comparison. I mean a mainstream-appealing action-adventure work with attractive Sadamoto designs is a win-win formula, but we’ve had just that a few years ago. Well, see for yourself.
The screening I attended featured Mamoru Hosoda himself, and after the screening he gave us a good 30-40 minutes of Q&A time. As this was the NYICFF, about 70% of the questions came from kids, as in people who looked like kids since they were yea big. There might be a few adults who actually asked questions, as in certifiably people over age of 25, total, out of the 2-3 dozen questions he entertained.
This was simply the best, most delightful Q&A session involving something anime in nature that I’ve attended. The questions from the kids were earnest, straightforward, and even thoughtful (as kids could be). Like why the Love Machine was called that (not just a Momusu thing). Or the big diss on lacking on juice. I had a great time anyways. Hosoda had to entertain the kids, but he also asked them some things to get feedback. And boy did they give feedback… I was amused when Hosoda was trying to explain the concept of internet-based multiplayer gaming to this kid, who looked like 7 or 8 years old. Well, you get the idea. Appropriately he went for a smoke after the time spent w/ the general public; it’s a tough crowd.
I’ll save the comparison with Tokikake and the rest of the review for later, but the thing that struck me about Summer Wars the most was the references. I mean, we all got the John & Yoko bit (and to the NY crowd, that’s a funny joke, if you are over the age of 20). But I just can’t help but to think that the Hanafuda Koi-Koi game is like Mahjong, and Natsuki is like, well, Nodocchi.
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.
Year In Review: N-Squared List
Just like last year, I guess some things have not changed. This could be a reference.
Animelo Tradition 2009
Like last year, Animelo 2009’s home video isn’t slated for release until early 2010. They’ve finally released the details, and it is similar to last year’s setup–a DVD/BD 2-SKU set.
I wonder if Lantis Fest will ever do something like this… I actually wanted to see that more than Animelo this year.
I might have mentioned this before but I’d like to get my Animelo discs by the Winter holidays because they are like, 4+ hours each, and you get two of them. It takes a while to go through all that concert footage even fast forwarding half the time. Then again it isn’t like I have nothing else to watch… (If all goes well I can instead watch Nana Mizuki’s Seibu Dome live…)
The February release date makes February even deadlier from a”buy more media” perspective. There’s already that Final Fantasy 13 thing but even if I was immune to that, Level 5’s White Knight Chronicles is coming out weeks earlier. Plus, there are a bunch of other stuff coming out that month that aren’t video games…
You have to ask yourself–if watching these shows at home is such a hassle, how does it feel doing it in person? Add in the line con for getting merch and the standing-for-hours and what have you. And back-to-back for some of these folks at the Anisama Live… Sounds fun.
NYAF 2009 Wrap (Once Again, with Feeling)
[Shorter version/prequel here. This post is like, 10 blog posts squished together.]
As much as I care about anime conventions, I don’t attend very many of them. The thing is, they are not exactly the most enjoyable things in terms of time and effort. I see them as opportunities–a chance for fans, once they put in the effort and time and energy and HEART and whatever that forms Captain Planet, to make memories and things you tell your grandkids about. It’s a different question if those kind of fans will end up with grandchildren, but that’s beside the point. The point is, again, it’s tiresome business. It’s not a cruise vacation. It’s about working to make your desires come true.
On the flip side, it’s also a business. What comes to my mind is people like Funimation’s Sheehan, who supposedly attended 6 cons in the past 5 weeks or something as a rep. Regardless if it is for work or for pleasure, that is just madness. Anyways, it’s an opportunity to do business, make some money (especially for dealers and artist alley types), or whatever agenda that you may have and whatever you want to achieve.
In short, there’s a technical, skill aspect and an art to going to cons. Let’s take a look at what happened this year at New York Anime Fest.
