Anime no Chikara: The Soul of Pachinko?
1. Pachinko is big bucks for franchise owners. Ko is like a hound on this stuff. So I’ll share some of the stuff he shared, and other things–
- Rio anime (and also to some extent Umi Monogatari yeah?). We get pachinko anime because it’s a good crossover media marketing thing.
- Brad summarizes what Ko said. More pertinently, pachinko machines are an exploding market of sorts? Marketing is fierce and tie-ins are worth the big bucks. I mean sure, I will put in a few yen into a Nadesico machine. Or a My-Hime machine. Older franchises revive because they are big-time, well-known signifier.
- I wonder if Sailor Moon is going to take the plunge with its global revival soon… These revivals tend to lead to more SKU tie-ins (Mai-Hime BDs come to mind) and possibly one-shot animation or whatever like Fist.
2. Listen to this inadequate Ian Condry lecture about the interplay between merchandising and animation. Inadequate because it lacks video! But worth it if just for the Code Geass pitch session anecdote. Props to Alex L. for making it possible.
The Condry lecture painted a cloud-like picture. Online social networks, predictably, will continues to move to increasingly commercial in nature. I think it fits well with anime fandom in a sense that it is also very commercial (and not really all that revolutionary social/economically speaking) but yet very much a collective of individuals, as opposed to a “group.” Interaction from the commercial entities to the “cloud” is usually in two layers, one as an agent and the other as an insider. The difference is in the motivation–one shills, the other serves a personal self-interest implying an at-odds relationship with the commercial entity. Both are necessary; one for the purpose of recognition and the other is to disseminate actual information and add credentials. And both roles are increasingly not as much as what it seems to be. Kind of like you get the guy who blogs for Microsoft, and the guy who leaks MS info to the press.
The fact that most anime media companies ignore the whole fan scene on the face despite basically living off them (if this means anything) seems to suggest that likewise fans behave in a similar way–that we partake in a commercial relationship and in a way which identifies ourselves in relationship with these commercial entities. Like, for example, WAH loves Akiyuki Shinbo and would not mind having his child. That is an identity he shares with other fans and in context of the industry. WAH spent $4 (IIRC, correct me if I am wrong) on a copy of Tenamonya Voyagers is another kind of identity in which he relates to the industry, but it is an individual, personal fact. [Coincidentally WAH also asked a question in that recording.] Well that’s not the best example, but it’s like how some people pride on consuming only fansubs and not buy any actual licensed goods, or in reverse like how some people only watch anime on DVDs and never fansubs. (Or that they sometimes flaunt these personal decisions.) And subsequently, how that kind of thing is considered flaunting. On the other hand it’s much more acceptable to say “Senjougahara is mai waifu” or otherwise identify with something that constitutes actual fandom. Sort of. Even when both dimensions of the fan individual are crucial, if anything, as marketing data to commercial interests.
The difference is kind of like what I talk on my blog and what I do my social networking with on twitter and forums, versus the actual anime I consume, maybe?
The Channel of Commerce Argument on Loli: Chu-Bra
Obscene?
Commercial pornography?
Fuel, fire, and moe morality?
I am not really interested in talking about the ongoing, recent and future legal actions of people who got into trouble from possession of child pornography, real or imagined. Despite the suspect motives behind both the prosecution and the legislative bodies, I think it stands as a practical matter, that if Gaiman can be arrested for what he owns, then we are in good company where fairness is also among us.
However in all the nonsense posturing about imaginary children or harm or lawfulness, one key indicator in all these situations is the nature of the works. After all, what is wrongful in the eyes of the public is sexualizing children or whatever that is obscene. The mediator mind in me says that there is a neutral ground between these seeming opposite positions. It seems to me that for a lolicon to get his rocks off, it isn’t a necessary requirement to have obscene material or material depicting minors in a sexual situation. Perhaps it doesn’t apply to all you sickos out there, but I think there’s room to cooperate.
And I think the key to that is doing it well. Here is one possible example.
The latest episode of Chu-Bra ended with a little “kero-chan check” style segment on garter belts. Except it’s an instructional video instead of a design tip zoom-in. (Hm, I think that would be great for a show like Chu-Bra…) Nayu models how to wear a garter belt with appropriate stockings and gives us tips on the right way to do it, and some advantages of the type of stocking that goes with the system.
That is well and good except that she models it by wearing it, while in her usual attire. And by usual attire I mean in her stereotypical, cutekawaii chu-bras andto chu-pantsu desu.
I think it’s particularly noteworthy that in the same episode, the story discusses the role of underwear in male-female relationship. I think it is a fair characterization that girls’ undies are fuel (as translated) for the imagination for guys. At the same time, I’m not sure if it is an appropriate characterization. When it comes down to it, women’s underwear is just pieces of fabric and like material; on the other hand, the human imagination can take unimaginably many different forms, and can be inspired by anything under the sun and more. It’s like Doc Brown’s fusion reactor on his DeLorean, to use a fuel analogy. It’s Rule 34.
To understand the full picture, Nayu-bro asks the key question–how does a girl feel when a guy sees her in her underwear? I don’t think it gets any simpler than that inquiry, that attempt to convey a “how do I feel when I’m in your shoes?” notion across the ever-so-mysterious gender line. And we can ask that to ourselves; it is a fair thing to ask regardless if you are a budding teenage girl or not. And while I suspect we will get different answers, the exercise is one of empathy and not of comparative criticism.
I wonder how far they’ll go with Hiroki though–I think he’s a pretty good guy, taking the high road. But then again I don’t think they have much of a choice. What I want to see from the story is how it drills down to his respect (yes, respect!) versus his emotional responses. Ultimately embarrassment is an emotional response, and it’s a signifier and a controllable impulse. Being able to deal with your feelings is part of what makes a man mature, right? From an education perspective, if they want to tell girls that guys blush when seeing girls in underwear, they’re doing it with a heavy hand.
Okay, enough Chu-Bra ranting: we know this is a late night anime, which is stereotypically filled with anime featuring a lot of fanservice (let’s assume “sexualized displays of female bodies” as I use the term fanservice for this purpose). It’s a very weak assumption in my mind, but one necessary for this discourse. Well, Chu-Bra manga is a part of Comic High!, home of Hitohira, Potemayo, and Kodomo no Jikan (big surprise there); it’s a seinen magazine, so the assumption holds to some degree.
It seems to me that the catch to Chu-Bra is to play with that befuddled boundary between “fuel” and “fodder.” By fodder I mean as in general, the purpose of fanservice is for arousal, and little else. In as such, increasing competition and sophistication in fanservice breeds increasing diversity for outlets for fanservice. (I am speaking to “mai brothas” here in that if you watched Kanokan not because it has fanservice, but because how it is done, yeah?) On the other hand, “fuel” can be used for constructive purposes. One logical progression is to make the fanservice actually meaningful, like “how can you have breast milk magic without breast milk and how can you have breast milk without breasts?” Or, “how can you have an underwear club without underwear”? You can obviously go too far even with that disguise of sorts, as in the case of Kodomo no Jikan. And the example up above with Nayu demonstrating those garter belt+stockings setup is pushing things! But that is an example of getting it on without getting it out of hand. Sort of.
To revisit the baseline, isn’t that what child porn is? You take normal pictures of naked children (perfectly okay in a non-predatory situation), and give it to people who are looking for porn? Is that really that different than what Chu-Bra (or KoJikan or any other kind of porn) is doing as far as functionally for the consumer? Isn’t the only difference a matter of subject of content? I suppose because underwear is not porn nor could they be classified as children, and children wearing underwear is generally not considered pornography…
We have to thank the Almighty for the power of human imagination in which we can turn anything into a turn-on. It is just a matter of context (or as I call it, a channel of commerce).
And it’s not just about porn. It’s also no different than why I (or any of you I imagine) would watch a totally shoujo show (eg., Card Captor Sakura?) or something outside of the typical, categorical, “target audience bubble.” When it’s done well, done in a way that I can appreciate, I will watch it and probably enjoy it! And by the same token, I imagine there could be some kind of material that pacifies the bulk of you naughty lolicons out there without totally offending any random passer-by. It is only limited by the ever-expanding barrier of human imagination.
PS. A trip down Danbooru-lane with the right tags will tell you that a lot of illustrators draw panties under garter belts! Maybe Chu-Bra will bring about some positive change, yeah?
Beyond the Clouds, In Space
There is an element to Makoto Shinkai’s masterpiece, Five Centimeters Per Second, that I don’t see talked about often. In some ways, it is, in part, the failing of its narrative that we don’t quite grasp this element intuitively, yet at the same time I have my hat off to 5cm/s for just being able to include it. The element isn’t some cunningly-hidden reference, although it might be something most of us do not experience on a regular basis. The element works best when it is evoked from context of a personal encounter, yet it isn’t really something people will automatically realize when confronted with that, in person.
It’s safe to say that in Shinkai’s three latest works, he explored the theme of distance, both internal and external. Internal distance is a common theme in romance anime and manga, I feel, that the take on externalizing that space via the physical distance of a physical separation is the “spin” on the well-treaded theme. I’m not saying anything you probably don’t already know, but long-distance relationships are a plot device all to itself.
Voices of a Distant Star is the blueprint of all of this, if we think about it. And it is a story about a long-distance relationship, in a nutshell.
The thing is, where as I could be (joke inc.) talking to my mistress in Paris and Googling how to make a crib for my wife in America, Shinkai’s works look not Beyond the Ocean, in the Place Promised over an Unforgettable One Night Stand. He’s pretty much obsessed with, well, space. What stands beyond the clouds in Place Promised anyways? That ivory tower of n-strings? No, it’s deep, black, 3-degrees-kelvin space. Well, yes, there was that ivory tower of n-strings, but Shinkai has better sense than to use the exact same shtick again. When I think beyond the clouds, I think about the stuff of the heavens. Don’t you? (It wasn’t distance the keeps Takuya and Hiroki from Sayuri, but that weird comatose magic. So let’s just stuff that cosmological stuff together for the purpose of this discussion.)
It was all the more impressive that in 5cm/s Shinkai gives us his most beautiful, but also his most ordinary take on the same theme. But wait, why is there all this space exploration stuff in 5cm/s? And that’s the rub.
Takaki is a bit otherworldly, but in his dream in part 2, he sees a world beyond the clouds, in a place he should have promised. Actually, that’s the red herring, and it’s not “that element” I am drilling down to; it is the foil. I give credit to Shinkai for giving us an inside, bitter-sweet look at Takaki’s image of his future, or whatever teenage boys dream about when it involves an old crush. At the same time, what does that say about the force of reality that separated Takaki and Akari? They were children, their destinies were out of their control, at least for a time.
Invariably, some of the more ideal-romantics rage against this construct of, well, a cheap plot complex about distance. But well, yes, it’s a cheap plot complex; the beauty and the point of the exercise is in framing the issue. It’s just in this case, we’re using a deep space probe.
But why do deep space probes work? In Voices it was the simple understanding that the distance is, well, huge, that works in the same way. In Beyond the Clouds, it’s the world of dreams, an alternate universe connected by the power of love or something. I don’t know. In 5cm/s, it was the forces of the road of life, and our unchangeable circumstances.
And this is why 5cm/s failed. Just how powerful that force is, as all of us are to some degree avid viewers of media and these artificial constructs, the distance problem doesn’t seem like something that separates us as much as a challenge waiting to be overcome. After all, overcoming the difficulty of distance is only expected in love stories about the distance between two loved ones.
What is intended, I assume, is an appeal to awe. When Kanae cried and realized she was just Io and Takaki was the glitchy Voyager 2 (for example), a rocket took off on its decade-plus journey through the place beyond the clouds. While I can’t speak with authority as I’ve not witnessed it, I hear these kinds of launches are awe-inspiring. It’s like overlooking the Grand Canyon or some other mind-blowing large-scale display of nature. It is like looking into the endless depths of outer space, regardless if you’re busy wallowing in bittersweet memories of a love left behind or if you’re just bug-eyed and in awe with the insignificance of your existence in comparison with the rest of the universe.
It’s too bad that Shinkai doesn’t drill that little bit of awesome into his stuff, because I think that’s the missing link. That space stuff is awesome, and it really enhances how I feel about the work. It’s convincing.
Chasing Moonrunes
Pretend-ignorance can be bliss too.
Why do I follow Mako’s silly excuse of a blog? Because she posts pics like these.
It’s not exactly a secret, but I can’t read Japanese. So why do I subscribe to Japanese blogs? I’m subscribed to Makkun’s blog, out of some misguided sense of duty–the same reason why I buy almost every solo CD she puts out I guess. I hardly read even half of her non PR posts. I also follow ItoShiz’s blog, but because she usually posts some interesting pictures and she doesn’t post much anyways, so it isn’t as if it makes a difference.
I follow a few other Japanese blogs for non-informational purposes, but they usually have some actual utility even if I can’t read it.
Is this the same reason why I listen to Japanese music when I don’t understand it in the first person? Or play Love Plus (well anyone can say “pon” or whatever)? And by that I mean I don’t understand it until I look it up on Google or something. [Speaking of which.]
On a similar note, these blogging voice actors and anime personalities post things that they are commercially tied to. It makes logical sense–you’re blogging as a part of your professional persona as an entertainer, so what can you talk about besides what you did at work and other work-related things? To some extent that’s basically what makes following seiyuu blogs interesting. Someone like Mako gets into costumes (and her true idol roots show there) and do promotion events, so that’s always pretty neat to see. But the less-photogenic also have something else interesting to say to even the most-illiterate. Even if it’s just what they had when they went out to eat that night.
I guess pictures of chocolates incoming 3…2…1…
Why Did I Think Sayaka Ohara Retired?
Because Sayaka Ohara didn’t. She did announce that she is getting married/is married, late last year.
The equally-fab-but-less-historied, yet-also-35-year-old Erino Hazuki plays Yamamoto-sensei in Hanamaru Youchien. As you may notice, Hazuki is not a frequently-heard voice in the sort of anime we watch. Her voice is somewhat distinctive, and it is not hard to pick her out if she has any notable roles. I mention this because it makes the handful of main/secondary character roles she plays notable.
The thing is, in Hanamaru Youchien, Hazuki plays an ara-ara onee-san/okaa-san type, Hanako Yamamoto. Yamamoto-sensei is also the type of character you typically find Sayaka Ohara doing.
So if you’ve watched Aria, you might recall the ending of season 3. Now read j1m0ne’s splendid spoiler.
I am sure what I am pointing out is a coincidence. But it makes the mind wonder, doesn’t it?!
