Year In Review: N-Squared List
Just like last year, I guess some things have not changed. This could be a reference.
Seitokai no Ichizon And the Next Level
Let’s be more precise. Age and knowledge do not impart perspective. It is the hidden cost of outsourcing your code and planning your primary education curriculum mainly on an elevator system of rote memorization of data and formulas.
Which is to say, when Kurogane says however-many-years, he is just estimating some amount of accumulated experience. I imagine there are as many jokes shooting past above my head as the ones that hit, full on or glancing blows, coming from Seitokai no Ichizon. The same could be said that even I do not understand many of the jokes in Lucky Star, and I suspect (or rather, ani-nouto might have confirmed as much) that most of us enjoy Lucky Star despite our ignorance. Despite decades of anime watching, that is.
Seitokai no Ichizon plays without the fail safe that Lucky Star does (as with many others). A typical anime or manga comedy aims to pander wide, which is a matter of your sense of humor, I suppose. Sense of humor, though, is a finicky thing. When the joke can be appreciated both by a lower, commonly understood sense of humor as well as having multiple level of funniness to it, the joke may be more successful to a wider number of people. My personal measuring bar for this is Akitaro Daichi’s style, who masterfully combines in-jokes with just-plain-funny execution consistently. That is the fail safe.
(Contrast this also with Akiyuki Shinbo’s shotgun style, that lowers the significance and the transactional cost jokes so that even if the audience do not get many of them, it detracts little from the overall experience. It is a low risk, low probability but high reward gamble. Some might confuse that style with Seizon.)
But I am not sure that is what Seitokai no Ichizon is about. From the very beginning, it is a novel adaptation involving a bunch of people talking inside a room, diced up into short skits. There is an over-arching story, but at the same time the story telling style is almost non-linear as different plot threads weave into the back drop of a simple, episodic narrative. Maybe this is what is “healing,” and maybe this is Seizon’s true safety net. However, I think it is something that only works once you are sufficiently disarmed from laughing your butt off.
And yes, I enjoy Seizon because:
- I laughed my butts off.
- It is like reading the blog of a Japanese anime/manga/stuff fan.
There is a simple pleasure to see how some things just don’t change regardless of what language you speak and where you were born, too.
Well, so the question turns to: why are some people indifferent, despite having perhaps similar experience and knowledge with anime? The simple answer is that Author and I have very different sense of humor, maybe. Perhaps I get some jokes that he does not. Maybe I enjoy this kind of aimless 5-way manzai skit just because, and he doesn’t?I don’t know, as all or some of the above could be true. To some extent, I don’t really care either, because in the end something enjoyable was made into an anime, and even if I didn’t read the original works, it may very well preserved the spirit of the thing.
Chalk one up for further genre fine-line specification! Especially when it is a risky work that may very well be one of a kind.
Now I just need to come up with a better explanation other than to describe Seizon like reading an anime blog, since nobody knows what that means as applied to a work in of itself. Yes, one of the jokes about Seizon isn’t so much that the fourth wall has broken down, but the narrative is running naked down the street, out of the cage. In fact, it is as if Satoshi Kon was making an episode of Paranoia Agent about making Paranoia Agent. In Seizon the guise is much better, but as a result it’s much more difficult to pick up because the point isn’t so sharp. For starters, our four Student Council girls represent each of the four seasons, not just by name, but also by motif and personality flares. Their relationship with Sukisaki is not unlike the relationship of its intended audience with Seizon itself. Why the four seasons? Maybe they’re inspired by KEY games, I don’t know. Maybe Key-kun knows?
What I described in the above paragraph isn’t so much what is Seizon is about, but it is an example of the kind of thinking that underlies what makes Seizon enjoyable (and perhaps one could even say that is Seizon). A part of understanding is knowing the material it evokes, but ultimately it is a matter of perspective, and no amount of aging or anime watching can help you with that.
Changing gears complete, let’s ponder on something unusual. We might have a clue as to how nonsensical this was, in of itself. So how odd was it when someone whips up a blog that you saw from the show? Would it be even more weird if the blog was Out Of Character? Too bad they didn’t get that far, so in the end we just have a reference from the show made post-hoc on the web. Still, go take a look!
Seitokai no Ichizon: Mafuyu’s Brofist Double-Tap All-Clear
After the latest episode of Seitokai no Ichizon, I have a hard time shaking off the feeling that an anime like this couldn’t possibly be as funny as it was. While just how funny Seitokai no Ichizon is to you is not my business, somehow it was able to find my humor buttons and played them like a champ. Well, great, but why do I estimate it being of a lesser caliber?
Because it’s a show about a truckload of tropes?
I think when we get too hung up on the meta elements and all that trope shuffling, it’s a risky thing to do in that even in the act of understanding characterization. What distinguishes a mere verbal description of a character from a compilation of oft-seen tropes that also describes the same character? For example, is it really a problem simply because the character has sex appeal and uses it to manipulate people? Is it really a problem when a character likes certain types of girls, he proceeds to try to befriend as many of them as he could? I mean, when I think about the flattest characters (not that way) in the show, Mafuyu, I think back to the scenes in the anime which focused on them. I don’t think about the tropes she represents.
When I think about the scenes revolving around Mafuyu in particular, aren’t they all just a huge, Dilbert-esqe joke? Out of the five in the student council, only Mafuyu is the outright otaku in the group. It’s quite amusing that she both perpetrates the stereotype in exaggerated quantities and also behaves as the straight (wo)man. I mean, sure, that is why it’s funny.
There are other reasons why Seitokai no Ichizon is funny. One total side note is the way the show is paced and how each scene, each line, is framed. It’s a good contrast with Lucky Star, which takes things slowly; versus a more realistic but frantic, girlish even, pace of moving the script forward (eg., Kurenai). Seitokai no Ichizon takes the latter route. I mention Lucky Star because both are, well, 4koma in aspiration. Or I should say, one is actually a 4koma manga and the other is a writing that attempts to achieve the same comedy dynamics found in the usual four-panel style. When we ground up the original material to regurgitate it into an animated experience, well, I guess it’s fair game to compare them.
[Side note #2: character chemistry mapping: Mafuyu->Konata, Kurimu->Kagami/Tsukasa, Chizuru->Miyuki.]
Back to Mafuyu. Beyond what is already said, being both normal and bizarre, she out-meta’d me last episode by describing herself as a cliché, and it’s the kind of cliché act that she’d do, too, to describe herself as a cliché. And it’s not just any cliché, but the kind of cliché you expect her to say she is; which is not the character trope she really belongs to, yet it sort of fits. But that’s not all–what was funny was not only that what she said was true (in that Dilbert, truer than life sense), not only because she described her own 2D-animu-girl nature accurately via the video game RPG character notion, but because I got the joke.
It is an anticlimactic way of saying “well, maybe this show isn’t so funny after all.” That is, if your peers are those who aren’t like you, as in, a serious anime fanboy. But to give it credit, Seitokai no Ichizon was able to communicate some difficult things, across the cultural and language gaps, to someone like me. There’s nothing moe about it.
[Side note #3: I have to mention this pretty awesome reference, but that’s besides the point. What isn’t besides the point is knowing they’re going to Odaiba tomorrow and they’ve mentioned bleep about you know what.]
In most anime, victory posing scenes are jokes; in Seitokai no Ichizon, it’s like the anti-joke. In as much as the almost unfitting moments of sublime, sentimental, victory-posing can be funny, I think they are a sort of safe harbor in Seitokai no Ichizon. It’s like, at the end, these bags of clichés are still representations of human beings like you and me; though we may call ourselves names, we are beyond these simple labels of race, sex, religion or creed. There’s a limit to how much we can laugh at ourselves after all. (…And it’s ok to even laugh at that!) If anything, Seitokai no Ichizon is the kind of show that asks us to ask why things are the way they are. Maybe that’s a tall bill to ask of its viewers, but I think it is as original as postmodern animated entertainment can be.
Then again, perhaps this is all void until the Seizon monster makes a Manabi Straight stab!
Leader of the Pack: Autumn 2009
The below endorsements are not exclusive; there are a handful of shows I would like to watch but haven’t gotten around to check, but these I will definitely follow. (Well, subs and time permitting…with the caveat that some shows are better with less brain cycles spent trying to figure out what was said while watching. As a side note, lol, White Album is epitome of that statement. Thanks CR!) That is on top of the show I am watching that, heh, is not eligible for this post for some reason. Like White Album.
I wouldn’t have guessed at all that A Certain Scientific Railgun was so much fun a month ago; perhaps that is why I didn’t guess at all. On the other hand I recall some people lamented that it was Index that got adapted back half a year ago, and not the stories surrounding the electrifying campus celebrity herself. At any rate, Railgun episode 3 got to a point that it reminded me of the more enjoyable/fun TV anime from the 90s, except it looks sooooooo much better. I would think anyone who followed Index from earlier this year would watch Railgun just by virtue of still being in the hobby of watching anime, but this is good enough to pull in new fans, and make people hopeful for a future that is not just darker than black.
However, that’s not writing off several other shows which might be more directly targeting certain demographics–
- Seitokai no Ichizon is the surprising hit for me. Episode 3 raises the stakes by introducing Toudou-san, and having Mamiko Noto play a major foil/antagonist, well, satisfies the kind of otaku that’ll likely get enough of the actually-funny references to keep with this frantic anime 4-koma-kind of thing. What is ultimately surprising is that not only I got enough of the jokes to enjoy each episode, but the jokes were easy enough to get for someone like me!
- Kimi ni Todoke gets a mention only because, well, there’s so much left to go and so little to go on right now. I enjoy the art style and the animation, first and foremost. And yeah, Mamiko owns me. At any rate it has not hit its stride yet.
- While I wasn’t overly fond of Mind Game, I think Trapeze will be a better experience simply because I only have to take it 22 minutes at a time. The first episode at least strikes a balance between the interesting (as in, makes me want to watch it) and the odd (as in, makes me sleepy/bored). Strictly for the art house crowd though.
- Sora no Otoshimono–you already know this. (As an aside I wrote up a little thing about the whole panties disjunction, but I’m debating about revising and posting it. Maybe you have a different take than mine: It seems like a redundant exercise, and a bad idea. I mean it’s like trying to explain a joke to tell you why it’s funny. Or why porn is…porny?)
As to sequels–
- Sunred is as you know it; I don’t think they can screw up a show like that simply by making more episodes of it.
- On the other hand, it’s not out of the woods yet, but the moe-relationship craving crowd probably will also stick with Haruka’s Secret for now. Second season jumps on what makes the first one worth following, and really cranks up the dial. It might not be what some who enjoyed the first season want to sign up for, but you win some, you lose some. Regardless Haruka scores better-than-expectation for me.
- And remember, November 11 is only 23 days away. The non-coupled episode arcs for Darker than Black 2 is something I have not gotten used to (it’s only 3 episodes in!) but so far it’s got all the charm from the last season, almost.
It seems that sequels this season are somehow better than sequels of yore; a welcomed change if it follows through.
On Meta, Your Twinkie Girlfriend, and Journey to the East
Three posts in one:
ONE: Bakemonogatari episode 9 has a notorious reference, where Nadeko’s topless body draws a gaijin 4koma. Yes, it’s a flat-out reference. However, this reference evokes the correct representation (consider in contrast to sense) in addition to its added levity in a genuinely serious moment; it links three conflicting tensions–2violent1child, lolipowers, and the lulz–like linked cogs.
I mention this to draw contrast with Seitokai no Ichizon’s style of references. There’s nothing particular about Seitokai no Ichizon’s lack of the fourth wall, beyond it being a necessity. The nature of Seizon (LOL) is a conversation. Instead of talking about a chocolate coronet, they’re talking about the popularity of Haruhi Suzumiya in name and people would watch that show just because of its name; or the differences in the various forms of mass media.
In fact, isn’t that what the first episode is about? Game versus novels versus anime versus drama CD and so on? It’s like a chat log in its delivery, but the content is coherent and the references merely draw points that would otherwise take many sentences to illustrate. And thus, the question about “a radio drama is enough” needs an answer. It’s a prerequisite, at any rate.
Of course, is that funny? Maybe not, but there’s a point beyond that. It’s just a study on all this pop cultural crap, with an otaku focus. Being funny is not the main purpose to the exercise.
TWO: Nogizaka Haruka is your Twinkie girlfriend–fluff, sweet, indulging. She is different than the more universal blank slate types (eg., Soraoto) and closer to those “ideal” ones (eg., Onee-san). The difference however comes in the focus of the relationship. It’s perhaps closer to this than either of the previous examples. I guess what I wanted to say is the difference in the appeal, and not so much in the substance. It’s like you enjoy all the interactions in the game first, then the virtual waifu second. You could enjoy Love Plus because you like Takane, and you could enjoy Sora no Otoshimono because you like Ikaros, but usually it’s because you play the game or watch the anime first, then you come to like them. So basically, I like Nogizaka Haruka (the anime) because I like how it focuses on the romance (which is the same reason why these people like it).
As a side note, the second season offers little in assurance in that regard, although it does offer some right off the bat. That is beyond my expectation already (to offer it as little praise as I can).
THREE: It’s probably a small secret, but I’m sure they don’t mind spilling the beans now that they’re about done with the trip. Three old timers decided to pay Mizuho-sensei a visit. For the uninitiated, Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins take place in a scenic town in middle-of-nowhere, Lake Kizaki in Nagano. Like all notable otaku destinations, this one has a little shrine dedicated to the fans. We are Mizuho indeed.
This is noteworthy because I think during that time (2002-2003?) the three of them were really enjoying themselves. Regardless of what happened in their real life circumstances (and I don’t really know), this…thing that they have been doing together was something everyone cherished in some way. It’s a salute to sharing a cherished memory of youth. I so wish I could have gone~
