Category Archives: anime

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is a Really Good GI Joe Movie

Posted on by

Is Transformers Japanese or American? Is it anime or not? The answer to these questions is “yes.” While the toys came from Japan, the original plot of Autobots vs Decepticons came from American writers, so it should come as no surprise that an American director was assigned to helm not one but two movis based on the franchise. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the sequel to the previous live-action Transformers movie, and once again directed by Michael Bay.

I enjoyed the first movie overall, but I had my own complaints about it. It was, to no one’s surprise, a flawed movie with a lot of action and a lot of juvenile humor. I was okay with that. My main issue with the movie however, was that so little time was spent on the actual robots themselves that one had to ask if it was really a TRANSFORMERS movie or not. Focusing too much on the kid, Sam Witwicky, was also a problem as I felt that within the Transformers franchise you had perfectly good main characters in the robots themselves, and to have to see it through the lens of High School Kid was pointless. If not Optimus Prime, at least make the main character Bumblebee so you could have a young character who is ALSO a Transformer. But again, I enjoyed it more or less.

Transformers 2 manages to solve at least one of the major problems with its predecessor, and that is to include the Transformers in the movie from the very beginning. There is no waiting an hour for Optimus to arrive, and that’s the way I like it. Also, they were given more time to talk and show their personalities. Sadly, while this issue was resolved a number of other ones cropped up.

Many characters felt useless or extraneous, and I was left scratching my head and wondering just what purpose these characters served. I’m mainly talking about the twins, who also act as sort of racial stereotypes without actually being any human race. I wouldn’t mind that aspect so much if only these characters actually DID something.

The action was often-times not well-suited for the presence of giant robots, even if the majority of the action involved them. It was often difficult to differentiate the Transformers, especially at a distance. Because so much gray metal was exposed, the defining colors of the Transformers was barely noticeable, and often times it was easy to confuse one robot for another and be unable to tell just who was fighting who. On top of that, it was often difficult to even tell just what was going on in a battle because the camera refused to be located where it actually mattered. This is an action movie first and foremost, and I expect the action to actually be visible. That said, there were actually a few instances where this was not the case and naturally they were the best fight scenes in the movie.

And now, the big complaint.

Transformers 2 has this very overt, unsubtle pro-military, pro-Iraq, America is #1 forever and ever stance that is extremely difficult to ignore. It was present in the first movie to an extent, but here it was so in-your-face that it made me kind of angry.

The most annoying character in the movie was an assistant for President Obama who acted as a strawman so that his intention to withdraw the Autobots from Earth in light of the Decepticon threat would be compared to the intention to withdraw American troops from Iraq. He is the typical guy-in-a-suit who the humble but patriotic military boys get to contrast with to seem that much more American.

Then there were all the scenes designed to glorify the American military, such as planes launching from hangars and soldiers jumping out of planes, and these wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t look like they were ripped straight from a US Air Force commercial on TV. The quality of the video, the camera angles, everything is set up to glorify the military.

The American soldiers even manage to score some successful hits on the Decepticons. And while I’m not against the idea of humans being actually useful in the face of a giant sentient robot menace, too much time is still spent on the American military dishing out the damage. It sometimes ends up feeling like an idealized war movie which happens to have giant robots in it.

Pro-America ultra militaristic patriotism. Lots of action scenes with soldiers running around coordinating attacks and using cool vehicles to fight an enemy. Hilariously awful racial stereotypes. These are all the ingredients for a fantastic GI Joe movie, but when you’re making a Transformers movie it just ends up being inappropriate. Transformers supports capitalism and American values already by being about the right to freedom and the right to sell millions of action figure toys to kids; it does not need such a divisive and time-specific message tainting it.

So in conclusion, why is Michael Bay NOT the director for the GI Joe movie anyway? I mean seriously, whoever was in charge of adapting Hasbro/Sunbow franchises for film seriously should have thought this over better.

The Reverse Thieves’ Otaku Diaries: And Now the Results

Posted on by

Some of you may recall that back in February I mentioned an interesting project by the Reverse Thieves called the “Otaku Diaries.” The basic premise was that they wanted anime and manga fans to fill out a survey about various aspects of their lives, from age to love life to of course questions about their fandom. As someone who is always interested in information such as this, I participated as well. Well now the Reverse Thieves have finished compiling their data and are ready to discuss the results.

This initial post establishes some statistics and is mainly there to get the ball rolling for future posts about the Otaku Diaries. For the near future, the Reverse Thieves will be devoting the first Monday post every month to discussing the Diaries, and I think there will be a wealth of information to be had.

One thing to point out is something said right in the statistics post: these results are not absolute, and are personal truths instead of absolute ones. Even if the sample size is somewhat small, there’s still a lot that can be learned, and I am eager to see what Hisui and Narutaki have to say about the results.

This is Your Mythology: Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – Pocketful of Rainbows

Posted on by

EDIT: I previously labeled this movie as “Pocket Full of Rainbows” only to realize that the title is actually a reference to the Elvis Presley song “Pocketful of Rainbows.” As such, I’ve changed the title and the associated category accordingly.

When the Eureka Seven movie was announced, speculation began as it always does. BONES said they would be retelling the story of Renton and Eureka, and using some of the existing footage from the TV series in the movie. Fans wondered if this meant the movies would be a retelling of the TV series with content edited to make it flow better as a movie, not unlike the First Gundam movies. Preview images and trailers started being released showing Renton and Eureka together as small children, something that never happened in any previous Eureka Seven media. Now that Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – Pocketful of Rainbows (or as it’s apparently called in English, Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – good night, sleep tight, young lovers –) is out, we know that the plans for this movie were much more ambitious than most anyone expected.

Once again, Eureka Seven focuses on the boy named Renton and the girl named Eureka, only this time any hint of the previous series beyond a superficial level are thrown out the window. As mentioned before, now Renton and Eureka are childhood friends who are separated and then reunited amidst a war with an inhuman enemy called the Image. Connecting them is a small fairy named Nirvash, whose words only Renton can understand. Front and center in Pocketful of Rainbows are the concepts of mythologies and dreams, as the movie explores the effects their existences have upon the world and what they mean for human beings.

This is a new world with a new history, and familiar faces are anything but. If you’re approaching this movie without ever having seen any of Eureka Seven in its other incarnations, rest assured that they have little to no bearing on the events of the movie. If you’ve ever seen the Vision of Escaflowne TV series and the Escaflowne movie, the level of difference in Pocketful of Rainbows is even more pronounced. In fact, spoiling the events of one will actually NOT spoil the other!

For those of you who are fans already, let me tell you just one little thing that will make you realize how different this movie is compared to the source material: In the world of Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows, there are no such things as Coralians.

This movie uses existing footage better than any anime I have ever seen. This is not simply reusing stock footage to show flashbacks or for the animators to go, “We already animated this once, why should we do it again?” Just like how the characters may look the same but their insides have changed dramatically, the TV series footage is given new life. Even though the same animation is being used on a number of occasions, the context of each scene is so different from when it was originally used in the TV series that the meaning of these animations change entirely. You almost can’t tell that it wasn’t originally made for the movie. This also has to do with the fact that this animation was already impressive in the first place, and the scenes newly animated for the movie are just as good if not better.

Being a movie, Pocketful of Rainbows does not have the luxury of developing the relationship between Renton and Eureka as thoroughly as the original TV series, but it still manages to get a sufficient amount of characterization into them and others. Even though you aren’t given all of the information, the way the characters act around each other will make few of the revelations about character relationships seem jarring or negatively unexpected. BONES knew that this was a 2-hour endeavor instead of a 50-episode series and worked accordingly. It really shows, as I do not feel that this movie was rushed unnecessarily.

Overall, this was a fun and thought-provoking movie as an Eureka Seven fan. Expect future posts about it as I explore some of the concepts presented in Pocketful of Rainbows, as the movie has gives you a lot to mill over.

For those of you want to see the movie for real inside of an actual theater, you should know that Bandai Entertainment has plans to do exactly that, albeit dubbed. Tickets go on sale August 21st for a September 29th showing in select theaters across the United States.

Too Good for Its Own Good: Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven (Anime)

Posted on by

With the Eureka Seven movie out, I figured it was high time for me to start talking more about Eureka Seven. I already reviewed Gravity boys & Lifting girl, but now I’ll be reviewing the original for this post, and then working my way towards the new movie.

Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven is an anime I hold very near and dear to my heart. I’ve watched it in almost every way possible: On Japanese TV, using downloaded raws, using downloaded fansubs, on DVD, and dubbed on American TV. It is not the first anime I watched, far from it in fact, but it has impacted my fandom and my life tremendously in positive ways. When asked to present a series of high quality with excellent characters, art, story, and pacing, Eureka Seven is the one I mention.

Eureka Seven centers around the concept of sky surfing, or being able to ride your board through the air, carried on mysterious green waves called Trapar. Sky surfing, known as lifting, is a popular sport in the world of Eureka Seven and influences culture tremendously, much in the same way skateboarding or surfing can attract people. Lifting is so well-known that they’ve become a common feature on giant military robots (called KLFs) to help them fight more freely in the sky. Perhaps the most famous lifter is a man named Holland, whose skills on a lif-board and in a KLF are all but unmatched and is also the leader of a band of anti-government rebels called Gekkostate.

With all that said, Eureka Seven is mainly the story of two people. The first character is Renton Thurston, a 14 year old boy and amateur lifter who idolizes Holland and is the son of a man regarded as the greatest hero the world has ever known. Renton dreams of escaping his dreary town and the shadow cast by his father, a dream which he is granted when he meets the second character and namesake of the series, a beautiful and mysterious girl named Eureka. Eureka has a personality you could almost call cold and distanced if not for the hints of humanity that reveal themselves occasionally. Enamored by Eureka’s calm beauty, Renton decides to follow her, only to find out that she is part of Gekkostate, the same rebel group led by Holland, and is given an invitation to join.

In the beginning, it’s fairly episodic, with the events of each episode pretty much resolving themselves by the end, but always dropping hints that there is more to the series than one might expect. The initial hook, as it were, is that you get to see the adventures of a stylish gang of rebels fighting against their world and its injustices while also having some fun. You also get to see the partnership between Renton and Eureka develop slowly but surely. If the series stayed like this forever I would have been happy with it, happy to keep watching, but fortunately for all of us the creators decided to do more. From here, the story continually ramps up, becoming stronger and grander until you are swept up by the raw emotion in the story. I know many people disagree with me, but I truly feel that Eureka Seven is one of the best-paced series ever. It is 50 episodes long and really knows how to use that number, with only a few hiccups along the way. Other than that, though, if you like a show which builds up gradually and never falters, Eureka Seven is it.

The characters in Eureka Seven are fantastic on pretty much every level. Design-wise, they’re all very unique and stylish, no doubt due to the contributions of character designer Yoshida Ken’ichi, a man who is possibly my favorite character designer ever. What really pushes Eureka Seven though is the incredible amount of character development. Very few characters in the show are the same person they were in the beginning and at the end. Renton struggles with growing up, Eureka has to deal with her strong and unfamiliar emotions, and Holland must come to terms with the contradictions in his real personality and the one he presents to the world.

Then you have other rich and well-developed characters. Talho Yuuki, girlfriend of Holland, is the ship’s pilot for Gekkostate. Having known Holland for a long time, she is able to reach past his facade and talk to the real him in a way no others can. On the government side is a man named Dominic Soleil, a young and intelligent communications officer who is also the caretaker of an unstable pilot named Anemone. Dominic is the main window into the government side of the story, and his presence does a good job of humanizing it, though there are others who add to the portrayal.

I can pretty much keep talking about the characters. It is they who really push the series and get it to stick in the minds of fans. However, there are other reasons for its artistic success, such as the aesthetic presentation that is on par with the characters. The animation ranges from decent to gorgeous, and the music is varied and strong, from the background music to the main themes. In fact, music is connected deeply with Eureka Seven, with musical references throughout. For example, you should know that Renton’s father is named Adrock Thurston.

The only flaw that Eureka Seven has isn’t really a flaw at all. You may be feeling it yourself as I expound praises on Eureka Seven. What I’m referring to is something called “overhype.” Eureka Seven fans have the hindsight of being able to see the entire series as a whole and knowing just how far it goes, so they, myself included, approach telling others about it by explaining how great it becomes. They have the entire image in their heads and their hearts. However, what happens is that this hypes the show up so much that when some new viewers watch the initial episodes, they don’t see the grandiose and life-changing anime known as Eureka Seven. The show is still good at the start, but it takes time to build up, and because of this overhype they ask, “Why isn’t it as good as people said?” You can see a similar thing happening with Gurren-Lagann or Legend of the Galactic Heroes. This is why I’ve tried to write this review in a way which explains the growth that happens in the series, but I know that even I fall victim to overhyping it.

That is Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven, a series which is, as the title of this review puts it, too good for its own good.

Saki Tacos: Yes This is the Best Promotion

Posted on by

In a move I would have been angry about if no one ended up doing it, Japanese taco chain Taco Derio has decided to start using the face of this year’s most popular taco enthusiast in Japan, Kataoka Yuuki from Saki. Order at a Taco Derio and you can get a Yuuki-themed tray mat to show off to your friends and co-workers, and score hot dates with taco-loving ladies. The mat, by the way, says, “With Tacos Power, Victory is a Cinch!”

For those who don’t know, Saki is a manga and recent anime about girls who play Mahjong and possibly definitely like other girls, a one-two punch that few dare to attempt. In it, Kataoka Yuuki is a supporting character, voiced by Kugimiya Rie, who is a strong and aggressive player despite her diminutive stature, and is mostly characterized by her love of tacos. So great is her taco addiction that she cannot play at full strength unless she has a steady supply to keep her going.

To put it simply, this is an awesome idea and everything that I want out of anime cross-promotions. Code Geass and its Pizza Hut angle was great and all, especially with all the imagery of CC chowing down on pizza, but that was practically built in during conception. It’s almost cheating, in a way. But with this, Yuuki was originally from a manga and so the tacos thing was designed not so much to promote tacos but to add an additional moe aspect to Yuuki (as if the cat belt wasn’t enough already).

It’s not quite as extreme as the rise in sales of left-handed basses caused by the popularity of K-On! or the increase in tourism to one Japanese town due to Lucky Star, but it’s a step in the right shameless propaganda direction. And there’s no propaganda like shameless propaganda.

I’m going to end off on a personal message directed at something significant: Akikan.

You totally missed the boat! Why didn’t I hear of any soft drinks sporting Akikan characters, or custom Akikan flavors that are just the older flavors with new names, e.g. Akikan Cooler?

For shame. Learn your lessons from those mahjong-playing tribades and try again!

Hating Who You Used to Be

Posted on by

I have a few questions to ask of you the reader, and I would much appreciate it if you responded in the comment section below. If you want to remain somewhat anonymous, feel free to not put down your usual username, etc.

1. How much do you feel you’ve changed since you’ve become an anime and manga fan?

2. Do you resent who you used to be, and if so, how much?

3. Do you feel that the changes to your person, as well as your resentment (or lack thereof) significantly impact what anime or manga you watch? Alternately, have you stopped watching anime and reading manga as a result?

To start off, I’ll answer my own questions.

1. The main difference between who I am now and who I was when I first started getting into anime is that I am a much more confident person. I don’t radiate confidence, but I’m now much more apt to speak my mind. However, I don’t feel I’m significantly different from who I used to be, other than I’ve been exposed to more ways of thinking and education over the years.

2. I do not really resent my younger self, even though I feel like a much-improved version. While there are some things about myself which I regret, I can see how those things shaped me to be the person I am today.

3. One thing I’ve grown less tolerant of are mecha shows which try to get by almost entirely on their mecha designs, as I feel you can’t carry a show alone with that. However, when I see a character who is similar to how I was when I was younger, I do not hate that character any more than I hate myself.

Now, it’s your turn.

Mandle in the Wind: Be a Man!! Samurai School

Posted on by

Last weekend at the New York Asian Film Festival, I got the opportunity to see the live action film adaptation of the 1980s Shounen Jump manga known as Sakigake!! Otokojuku. The title translates into something along the lines of Charge!! Mancademy, but the official English title is Be a Man!! Samurai School, which while not a literal translation gets the point across just fine. The director and star of the movie, Sakaguchi Taku aka Tak Sakaguchi, as well as his head stuntman, was there watching the movie along with us, and would stay around for a Q&A session afterwards.

You see, Otokojuku is a school for MEN in every respect. Led by its principal, Edajima Heihachi, a man who can take out hundreds of opponents just by mentioning his name and his title, Otokojuku is an all-male school, and the only remaining school in all of Japan that trains men to be MANLY MEN. The story begins as Tsurugi Momotarou, an impossibly calm and cool Samurai-esque man who carries a sword with him everywhere and wears a headband that barely misses the ground, is entering Otokojuku as a freshman shortly after beating up a gaggle of thugs using the power of Punching Fast. He makes some friends, endures some hardships, and then has a Shounen Fight Finale. I don’t really think that’s a spoiler because what can you expect from a movie based on an 80s Shounen Jump property?

There are many things you might look for in a movie, such as plot coherence, solid character development, subtle themes and undertones, and a straight and sure path from start to finish. Otokojuku has none of these, and is instead just a bunch of scenes from the manga faithfully adapted and strung together. Now, don’t hold it against the movie that it doesn’t seem to flow too well, as it is literally a faithful adaptation of the manga, a series which tended to flop back and forth between comedy and serious action more than most Shounen Fight Manga. It’s almost treated as isolated vignettes of the various ways in which the primary characters of the movie turn into manlier men than they were previously. The movie is fun and nonsensical, and if you really want to know an equivalent, it feels somewhat similar in pacing to the live action Cromartie High School movie. Basically, it doesn’t really watch like a movie. If this bothers you, then I would not recommend it, and whatever you do don’t be an ass about it.

The highpoint of this movie in my opinion is the narration, done by the masterful Chiba Shigeru, better known as the narrator for the Hokuto no Ken anime and an expert at making anything he says sound serious and dangerous. Any time anything at all needed to be explained or any time there was a special move to announce, sure enough Chiba would be there to tell us with power and fervor about it. It left such an impression on me that during the after-movie Q&A session, I had to ask Sakaguchi about what it took to get Chiba to do the movie. Sakaguchi said that he personally went and asked Chiba to do it, feeling that he was necessary for the movie to succeed and reach its true form.

Sub over at Subatomic Brainfreeze informs me that the entire movie was filmed in only two weeks with a budget of $400,000. Based on what I saw, I believe him. Don’t let that hold you back though, as it is one of the truest adaptations of an anime or manga I’ve ever seen. More than Casshern, more than Devilman, and especially more than Dragonball Evolution, Be a Man!! Samurai School is the movie to watch  if you want to see a manga brought to life.

Response: A Further Look at the Realism of Genshiken

Posted on by

The Reverse Thieves made a post today about perceptions of realism in fiction and how pessimism tends to overwhelm optimism in public opinion of what is “realistic” or not, at the expense of being able to tell more happy and uplifting stories. It’s a really good read and it got me thinking, particularly because of the primary example they use, my beloved Genshiken.

Hisui writes,

There are a standard list of complaints people have with Genshiken. The first being the prevalence of  female characters in the club and those female characters being too attractive to be in such. The second complaint is that too many of the club members wind up in relationships by the end of the series. Tacked on to this is the belief that the characters lives turn out too cheery overall. Too many of them get jobs they like and come to accept who they are through the club. Essentially, Genshiken is not harsh enough. Real otaku are sadder and more pathetic. Real otaku life is darker and drearier. To generalize the complaint, Genshiken white-washes the life of an otaku and makes it seems happier than it is. Genshiken is accused of having just enough realism to get you to ignore the lies and placates with what you want to hear but does not give you the true story.

I’ve talked about Genshiken on this blog numerous times, and it comes as a surprise to no one that I love the series. I’ve heard these complaints too, that Genshiken is too unrealistic in that its members all achieve some degree of happiness and success, whether it be in relationships, careers, or other areas entirely. However, I want to point out that having the majority of the cast descend into a pit of despair and bland mediocrity would be more unrealistic. It is very possible for geeks and introverts to remain immature and unsocial creatures who remain uncomfortably nervous when interacting with others, but it becomes much more difficult when these otaku are faced with the situations that Genshiken finds itself in.

There is one character in particular responsible for bringing the otaku of Genshiken out of their shells, and she arguably has the most influence on the entirety of the manga.

Did you guess Ogiue? You know me well, but this time you’re mistaken. The girl I’m talking about is Kasukabe Saki.

Saki is initially brought into the club by her boyfriend Kohsaka. Saki is not an otaku and has no interest in becoming one nor the subconscious will to do so. As Narutaki points out, and as I’ve seen numerous times, it is not so unusual for an otaku or a geek or a gamer to bring his non-dork girlfriend into his club. And it’s also not so unusual to have at least one otaku who is charismatic or handsome. Saki initially dislikes Genshiken and finds opportunities to insult its members or to devise ways to separate Kohsaka from the club, but what she inadvertently does is expose them to forces outside of Genshiken, outside of their comfort zone. It is their encounter with the “real world,” so to speak, and as anyone who was once debilitatingly shy or awkward will tell you about what was responsible for their change, increased interaction with others is central to that success.

Further still, you would find that having to confront someone with opinions different from your own when you have no way of escaping will affect you and make you grow as a person. This is the case with Genshiken, as the club itself is regarded as inferior to the Manga and Anime Societies of Shiiou University, making it a club dedicated to outcasts among outcasts and thus the end of the line with no points of escape other than to abandon clubs entirely, and to lose that opportunity to be around others. This is clearly something that none of the members want, and the result is growth and change.

As a fellow new member, Sasahara finds himself positioned opposite Saki through his status as a burgeoning otaku. Becoming chairman of Genshiken simply because he seemed the best fit for carrying on the lackadaisical spirit of Genshiken, his assumed role at the top of the chain and the responsibilities given to him result in his confidence and maturity growing accordingly. He is able to win Ogiue over because he represents someone who is comfortable with himself, something he learned from being with Genshiken for so long. Keep in mind that he applies for the position of manga editor out of desperation, but then realizes that it’s a position he’s already had similar experience in, and is able to use his sincere love of manga and status as an otaku to convince the interviewer of his qualifications. And it all came from having to be Genshiken chairman every day for an entire year. Do something every day and love what you’re doing, and it’s almost impossible not to improve. This is reality.

Similarly, Tanaka goes on to a fashion college after graduating. Tanaka was already interested in making costumes, but the arrival of Ohno gives him the opportunity to constantly improve his craft with a willing partner and to devote his personal time and energy to it. We the readers are not entirely sure when Tanaka began to actually have feelings for Ohno beyond simple physical attraction, but we can be certain that they interacted with each other often and became very good friends who were able to share and understand each other’s ideas and feelings. While you might say it’s unrealistic that a hot babe like Ohno would go for a scruffy tubby guy like Tanaka, would you say the same thing if you knew a guy and a girl in real life who hung around each other practically every day and were united by common interests, and the girl was given the opportunity to see that the guy was not only pretty decent but had creativity and ambition, albeit in cosplay form?

Saki herself meanwhile undergoes significant changes too. Just like how the members of Genshiken were forced to confront opinions different from their own, Saki became exposed to the world of otaku and understood that people are defined by more than their hobbies and interests. While success and confidence were hers from the start, they were incomplete, as Saki was initially embarrassed to reveal to others that her boyfriend is an otaku. However, by being with Genshiken she not only accepts the idea of a boyfriend who will never stop being an otaku, but is able to proudly show that it’s not something she simply tolerates but is another aspect of the man she loves.

In the end, the X-Factor of Genshiken is Genshiken itself. Gather a group of people with different personalities and outlooks on life, and have them interact with each other every day for years on end, and people will change. It’s inevitable. Genshiken just happens to be fortunate enough to be comprised primarily of people who, while socially awkward, are interested in friendship and being able to share moments with others. While it’s impossible for me to be a part of Genshiken, I can personally say that my own experiences as a geek and as an otaku do not fall far from this example given in fiction. Even those who find themselves subject to the pit of despair would be hard-pressed to resist personal transformation in such an environment.

“I’m an Anime Scholar! Why Should I Watch Anime?”

Posted on by

I love the idea of applying a scholarly or academic approach to anime and manga. If you’ve been reading Ogiue Maniax, I think that”s obvious. Whether it’s studying the works themselves, tracing parallels between fantasy and reality, observing the effects of fan subculture, or any other number of relevant topics, I welcome such discussion and discourse and I think that it’s beneficial to anime and manga overall. There’s just one problem.

Every so often you’ll see scholars writing about anime without taking the time to actually understand it. These are not stupid people, but their approach to anime can be misguided. I want to explain why.

The first issue relates to a problem I posted about previously, the “false positive.” This is where you believe you’re making insightful comparisons, but your lack of experience with anime and manga (and by extension analyzing anime and manga) results in what amounts to grasping at straws of logic and connection. This in itself is not that bad, but we all know that at least in the English-speaking community scholarly exploration of anime is a relatively recent development. The result is a lack of accountability, as writers, whether intentionally or accidentally, try to cover their topic in broad strokes and there’s no one to call them out for the moments where they reached just a little too far. This needs to stop.

The second issue again has to do with understanding the topic you’re studying. It’s one thing to take a detached approach to studying anime so as to avoid being influenced by bias, but become too detached and your words become baby’s first anime lesson only using a more complicated vocabulary. In other words, you begin to say things that are either obvious to people who actually KNOW anime and manga, or that come across as vagueries resulting from again, not actually looking at your material and investing your time in it.

That brings me to the third and last issue, which relates very much to the first two. One should not presume to speak authoritatively about anime and manga without at least understanding a little about the “language” that accompanies them. I of course am not saying you should literally study Japanese (although it can certainly help) but that you should not pigeonhole anime and manga entirely into the context of your own field, subordinating it to your greater topic while simultaneously denying its own creative and artistic language and structures. Even if you do not develop the “vocabulary” commonly used in anime and manga, what’s important is that you develop the ability to convey and translate those ideas. You do not have to be completely “fluent,” but if you’re only a first-year student of this “language” don’t be surprised when your translation is full of errors, and do not try to deny those errors in the first place.

Here’s my overly simplified solution to alleviating these problems: WATCH ANIME. READ MANGA.

Don’t sit back and watch it from the sidelines, engage every show you watch, and when it’s over, grab another and get to work. Love it, love the thing you’re studying even if you don’t think the actual works you’re looking at are any good. Let it become a part of you so that when you do talk about it the words flow naturally. Instead of sounding stiff and awkward, your words will carry the proper weight because you actually WATCHED it instead of just reading about it.

Oldie but Goodie

Posted on by

And for those of you who’ve already seen it, you should know I was the one who originally posted that screenshot on the internet.