Category Archives: thought exercise

The False Positive Pitfall in Discussion of Anime and Manga

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“Intertextuality” is the idea that there is a conceptual space where ideas brought forth by books, movies, texts, etc. interact with each other. One way to think about it is the old addage that the “truth lies somewhere in between.” This is the space where differing (or similar!) opinions confront each other. Don’t think about it too literally, but with the internet available, it’s become a lot easier to have this sort of thing happen beyond the scholarly journals and academic settings where this sort of thing usually occurs.

As anyone who has read Ogiue Maniax probably knows, I quite enjoy finding and seeing any connections which may connect one aspect of anime to another, be it from show to show, or from staff to real world events or whatever, and it’s something that’s consumed my time and the direction in which my hobby has gone. I think I’m pretty good at it, and apparently others do too.

However, there’s a drawback to having an open mind which actively seeks out connections among the material you’ve ingested mentally. Sometimes what happens is you see connections that do not exist, but because of the success you or others have had in taking this approach to a topic, it becomes difficult to break free of this trap. In other words, sometimes we tend to overthink things. This is what I call the “False Positive Pitfall,” and it’s something I feel anyone academically-minded towards anime and manga (or any other topic for that matter) has to watch out for. Failure to acknowledge this effect can result in a number of problems, from undermining your writing to being seen as unnecessarily elitist to simply leading you down the wrong path until all you see is false positives and you become a case where you’re an anime reviewer everyone makes fun of because you have no idea what the hell you’re talking about anymore.

Now, I’m not immune to this at all, and there’s multiple instances of statements made out of false positives that are on this blog. But people aren’t perfect, and even if you’re constantly on the lookout for them, some are bound to slip through, especially as your knowledge of anime and manga expands. Again, it’s more that I want people to be wary of the False Positive so that we can foster better discussion that is both relevant and respectful to the topics we engage.

Mine Characters, Aye

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While bored on the train, I decided to do a quick (not-to-scale) sketch of a lot of the characters whom I considered to be “main” or “important” characters in the stories and worlds I made up growing up all the way up until now. If you see any recurring themes in certain characters, well, that’s because I like certain things. I will not say that all of these were good ideas. Some concepts are better than others.

1. I don’t remember her name. She had the ability to “defy” laws of conservation of matter by tapping into the energy of an alternate dimension. Key point is her headband. Came up with her around the age of 16.

2. A pillow man based on the pillow I slept with when I was very little. He had a gun and his own video game where he fought enemies like a piranha man with tank treads for legs and a guy with satellites for arms. Probably my earliest character from when I was about 4 or 5.

3. The Victim. Co-created with a friend based on a calendar we got for class, the Victim is a dim-witted, optimistic fellow prone to getting himself in life-threatening, violent situations. Around age 10 or 11.

4. Peanutty. A peanut person. Liked to use anvils. Also created around 10 or 11, but before the Victim.

5. Tentsuki Akiko. You can tell by the psuedo-Japanese name that this was during a time when I started getting into anime. She’s a school girl and giant robot pilot, with her robot resembling somewhat the Aestivalis from Nadesico. Created probably age 15 or 16.

6. King HIV. Final boss of a video game about the immune system. Wears  crown. Created in 3rd grade. Seriously, not even kidding about this.

7. Alex Bellberry. Male bounty hunter who is very bitter about his effeminate looks. Around age 17 I believe.

8. Name undecided. The latest main character for an upcoming comic. She’s interested in the truth. Created just this year.

9. A magician girl whose name I forgot. Carries a staff. Created around age 15 or 16.

10. Super Six. He’s a muscular half-butterfly, half-man with 6 arms each of which have a weapon on them, ranging from a stinger to a can of insecticide. Created when I was about 5 or 6.

11. Sylvia North. A cheerful, intelligent girl who flies around in a modified garbage can and delivers garbage to those in need. Created at age 20-21.

12. Blink, co-created with the friend who drew Victim comics with me. Blink and his twin sister are the main characters of a puzzle platformer where they have to defeat an evil mosquito named Mr. P. Created around age 10.

13. Elyuna. A sickly girl whose disease happens to give her the perfect physiology to make an alien giant robot think she is a member of the alien race it came from. Created around age 18 or 19.

Examples of Anime’s Cel to Digital Conversion

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Though much less frequent these days as the anime industry has all but completely converted to using digital means to animate shows (Sazae-san I believe is an exception which still uses cels), it wasn’t so long ago that debates about the merits of cel animation vs digital animation were a common sight among certain groups of otaku. Those on the side of cels would accuse digital animation of lacking life and energy, those on the side of digital would ask the cel supporters why they liked having dust on their animation frames so much. These days, I think it’s fair to say that much like 2d vs 3d animation, or drawing with paper vs drawing with a tablet, each has its own merits.

It can be difficult to compare digital to cel in the sense that usually entire shows have been done one way or the other, but there are a few which were made during that transitional period between cel and digital, and so they too are transitional. A brief list follows, if you want to take a closer look.

1) The Big O

Season 1 was done with cel animation, the Cartoon Network-sponsored Season 2 was done entirely digitally. Some will say that the second season lacked something the first had in terms of visuals, possibly that everything feels too “clean.” Judge for yourself.

2) Galaxy Angel

Again, Season 1 was all cel while for Season 2 Broccoli decided to go digital. They also decided to cover up Forte Stollen’s cleavage but that’s a discussion for another time.

3) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Stardust Crusaders)

In an odd twist, the later parts of the manga were animated in the 90s while the earlier parts were animated in the 2000s. Watching this show in chronological order can be very unusual.

4) Gaogaigar Final

Now this was really meant to be a big budget OVA and it shows. Gaogaigar Final began production in 1999 (with the first episode out in 2000), and ended in 2003. Being an OVA, there was a long period between each episode, so the jump to digital is rather sudden when watched side to side. This is probably the one that best exemplifies the power of both cel and digital animation.

Ogiue’s Favorite Show from Spring 2009

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I think it’s pretty clear to everyone who’s seen it that Ristorante Paradiso would be Ohno Kanako’s favorite anime of the new season. Going with that, I began to wonder what, then, would Ogiue’s most anticipated anime of Spring 2009 would be. Ultimately, I decided that it would have to be the new Fullmetal Alchemist series, known in English as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (though I still enjoy calling it 鋼の錬金術師 Fullmetal Alchemist).

This might be too easy an exercise in hindsight. We already know that not only does Ogiue tend to prefer shounen series with lots of cute guys, but that she’s already a Fullmetal Alchemist fan. For those of you who don’t recall, in the manga Ohno slyly revealed that she was well aware of Ogiue’s burgeoning “Haregan (sic)” obsession (this was replaced by “Reass Mood” in the anime). On top of that, Ogiue is a fan of Roy x Ed, and was even originally planning on doing her first Comic Market erotic doujinshi of Fullmetal Alchemist.

I’m sure she’d have read the manga already, but that she’d still tune in for each episode in order to further fill her fujoshi reservoir, a reservoir for which there is no bottom. Well, not that kind of bottom.

Anime Fangirls Unable to Handle Geriatric Hunks

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Let’s face it, most girls are not Ohno Kanako, first true female member of Genshiken and lover of bishounen who are not shounen at all (“biteinen?”). So with an anime like Ristorante Paradiso, a sort of “Ouran High School Host Club” starring men ages 40 and up set in Italy, streaming legally (for free!) on Crunchy Roll, it’s only natural that the viewers on Crunchy Roll seem unsure how to handle this unusual setup.

“These are not beautiful people by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they are all very plain. Hope the action picks up.”

“well they are old and the girl is so ugly i will not be waching these sorry..”

“They emphasis too much of the double eyelid, with the depth and shadow, it gives them an aging look. *sad face* Either way, the plot is interesting and it’s rereshing. For those who are used to the whole shoujo thing, the art grows on you.”

“their mouths are huge, like freakin’ muppets. Their smiles are awful”

…among other comments.

What I find really interesting here is the amount of comments that basically amount to, “Whoa they’re old! Old men aren’t supposed to be handsome!” as if they had totally been entrenched in the Expanding Bishie Empire and its doctrine of “youth=beauty.” Of course, anime isn’t the only source of this belief, it’s something a part of most cultures in the world, but here it’s referring specifically to that type of effeminate beauty that one can usually see in series such as Fruits Basket or even Saint Seiya.  Nor is it gruff manly manhood, or rather what GUYS think sexy men who get all the women should be like. Ristorante Paradiso sits in a unique position, especially in American anime fandom, and I look forward to each episode teaching you young whipperotaku a thing or two about what it means to charm the ladies when all you had was a spoon in your pocket and a chip on your shoulder.

Aim for Mediocrity

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There’s two new shows this season where the apparent premise is that the main characters do not strive to be the very best, like no one ever was. One of these is the moe-powered 25-minute mahjong commercial Saki, and the other is the latest Kyoto Animation cute girls fest about a high school band K-ON! While the titular Miyanaga Saki is simply a mahjong genius who has found a way to merely seem mediocre, and K-ON!‘s Hirasawa Yui is simply a no-talent clumsy girl who’s trying to find something she can sort-of kind-of do, both girls are clearly going for the same goal, which is to be okay.

While both shows are clearly aimed at otaku with their ensembles of adorable girls with relatively harmless personalities, I don’t think it’s necessarily a case of “otaku are afraid to succeed and that’s why these girls aren’t striving to be the very best!” How I personally feel about it is that it’s actually kind of refreshing to not have characters who are entirely about toppling their opposition in a given field. Even if the story turns out that way eventually (a likely scenario for Saki), the fact that it started out that way is pretty nice.

Also, Saki is basically Takumi from Initial D only with mahjong tiles instead of a AE-86 Sprinter Trueno.

“She’s So Developed!”

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There’s something about a lot of anime and manga that I think lends them much of the praise and criticism they receive from people, fans or otherwise. I wouldn’t call it a unique or exclusive property of anime, but it’s something that I believe recurs more often when compared to other mediums. What I am talking about is the ability for a character to both be sexualized and objectified by its audience while still being able to move the audience with a well-developed personality.

Sheryl Nome. Arika Yumemiya. Kawashima Ami. Practically the entire female cast of Gundam 00. Every girl in Godannar. All these and more are designed on some level to explicitly titillate, but I would not call any of their characters excessively shallow or designed purely with fanservice in mind. Nor would I say that pure fanservice characters do not exist at all, but I feel like more often than not in anime and manga, blatant, in-your-face sexual attractiveness does not come at the expense of strong characterization or at the very least attempts at strong characterization. Much of the eroge and visual novel industry is built on this premise.

I do not see this happening as often in other mediums. Of course sex appeal still exists in them, but very rarely do they try to turn both dials up to max, rarely do they say, “Hey we want to basically tell the audience outright to fantasize indecently about this character while still showing the strength of their personality.” Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) on Heroes is clearly meant to invoke a reaction from male viewers with her attractiveness, official assignment as “cheerleader,” her clothes, and pretty much everything about her, but there’s some attempt at keeping the character Claire’s “fanservice” somewhat implicit. The DC Comics character Power Girl, known for her super strength and her enormous chest, seems to go through constant subtle shifts in characterization as writers and artists seem unsure how to balance the development of her character with a design clearly meant to get guys’ mojos going. Fans of DC Comics run into a similar problem. In other cases, a character who is obviously sexually attractive while possessing good characterization will have their sexuality incorporated into their personality and character.

Meanwhile, many anime fans embrace this double threat. Others do not of course, and I think this causes some of the conflict as to whether or not a character is “good” or not. Does being explicitly sexual in design and presentation work with characterization, or against it? Or do they perhaps run parallel to each other? Wherever you fall, if you meet someone who thinks otherwise, there’s a chance that, because your approach to characters is so different, arguments will arise. This is probably where arguments about moe find most of their ammo, no matter which side fans are on.

As a final note, keep in mind I used female examples because that’s what gets me. Feel free to replace all examples with male equivalents if that’s your thing.

“Negative Portayal” of Men

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When it comes to women in entertainment such as movies, books, and of course anime, it will sometimes be said that a work contains a “negative portrayal” of women. The finger of accusation can be pointed at many things, from having women who are too demure and helpless to women who are all too sexually promiscuous (or not promiscuous enough in some cases, a reaction against the idolization if virginity) to women who some would say are just “men with tits.” The specifics and whether or not something truly is a negative portrayal doesn’t matter here so much as the fact that the concept exists.

But what about the other side? What about “negative portrayal” of men? Personally, it’s something I never hear about. Sure, there’s “Shinji is a whiny baby,” or “Keitarou is completely lacking in any real personality,” but rarely do I see “This yaoi is offensive to men,” or “This is not how a man should be portrayed.” Keeping in mind that I’m talking about multiple cultures though primarily the one I live in (America), is this simply a product of a male-dominated society, that no matter the portrayal of a guy it never really leads back to how he stands up to men in the real world? Even my own thinking makes it difficult for me to really bring up any examples, while it would be much easier to do so on topics of race or class. Could it be that when it comes to gender, only one side has some goal to reach with their portrayal in media while the other perhaps already crossed that finishing line millennia ago? Or are there actually negative portrayals of men in entertainment and that finding them is even more difficult due to the way in which we were brought up?

Incredible America: Genshiken and the Accidentally Accurate Portrayal of Americans

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In Volume 1 of Genshiken, Ohno’s character profile states that her favorite game is Samurai Spirits. “Well that makes perfect sense,” you might think, seeing as how Ohno lived in America for many years, and how that very game was released in the US under the name Samurai Sho-down, but a later comment in the Genshiken Official Book reveals something interesting. It turns out that Kio Shimoku had no idea whether or not Samurai Spirits was ever released in America, and most likely picked it for Ohno due to the game having multiple old/burly types such as Earthquake.

So what we have here is what seems to be a surprisingly decently researched aspect of the American video game/anime fandom from the 90s but instead is just a lucky coincidence. Of course, Ohno and her preferences aren’t the most “American” aspect of Genshiken. That title naturally belongs to her friends Angela and Sue. And when you look at Angela and Sue across their incarnations (anime, manga, drama cd), you get the feeling that Kio Shimoku and the staff of the anime ended up portraying American fangirls with surprising accuracy, but based on the Ohno-Samurai Spirits Revelation there is the very real possibility that this too was also one huge coincidence.

Much of the portrayal of Angela and Sue can boil down to “HAHA AMERICANS ARE SO MUCH MORE DIRECT THAN JAPANESE,” but there is a grain of truth to that, and I think the result is that this “fictional” portrayal is about as realistic as the portrayals of the actual Genshiken members. Sue may possess a knowledge of anime far beyond your typical female otaku, but keep in mind that her otakudom was fostered by a Japanese fujoshi, so it might not be surprising for her to reference, say, Saint Seiya. Sue’s got a fairly abrasive personality, a general lack of manners, and you often cannot tell if she’s being awkward or devilish. Her frequent and loud reciting of anime quotes in lieu of real Japanese is definitely a trait you can find in fangirls (though she eventually becomes comfortable enough with the language to actually start speaking it fluently, albeit with an accent).

Then there’s Angela, who loudly declares to Sasahara that she may in fact be bisexual, which Sasahara despite his limited English ability seems to get the jist of. It might be somewhat stereotypical to brand Angela as very open when it comes to sex and sexual relationships, i.e. very AMERICAN, but it’s not like this is unprecedented even if you ignore anime cons and the fact that they are places where sex occurs in less than small amounts. Not that I’m saying she’s a slut or anything, merely that she is possibly about as sexually experienced as Saki, maybe more. I can also totally see Angela attending an anime club in America and being the center of attention among male members, but maybe I’m reading too much into it. As an aside, I sometimes wish there would be a Genshiken AMERICA spinoff starring Angela and Sue and seeing the interactions between characters in that respect. Maybe this could be a fanfic or a fancomic, I don’t know.

Sue is either young-looking for her age or actually young (her age is never given, only loosely implied), and we already know that the anime fans are getting younger and younger, so this makes plenty of sense. Angela meanwhile has a dynamite figure which some might say isn’t terribly realistic for a nerd girl, but I speak from experience (no not that kind of experience) when I say that this is not an impossibility. There are geek girls who look that good. You might see them cosplaying.

Though I think what stands out to me most about Sue and Angela and their American-ness is a scene in the Drama CD “Road to Ikebukuro,” where together they recite the famous line that so many female anime fans in the US have tied to their very histories: “In the name of the moon, I’ll punish you!” Granted, it’s said in Japanese, but I know that plenty of Sailor Moon fans are familiar with the Japanese catch phrases. And Sailor Moon was popular in Japan too (Love Hina creator Akamatsu Ken mentions it as the inspiration for him getting into doujinshi), but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Sailor Moon is arguably one of the most significant shows in American fandom history.

And again, all of this could just be happy coincidence! Kio Shimoku could have simply said, “I have no idea what American anime fans are really like so I’ll just make them however.” Which is to say, Kio Shimoku is a frightening man.

The Potential Return of Anime Clubs

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Note: I had published this on Sunday the 8th but it apparently did not go through. I am dating it as such.

We’ve got a suffering economy that’s impacting the anime industry and its viewers in a number of ways. People have less disposable income. Anime dvd sales have been declining on top of fewer people buying dvds in general. Some internet providers are limiting bandwidth while others have plans to do so in the near future. This affects not only torrent downloads but also streaming sites such as Crunchyroll and Youtube, especially as the quality of  video streaming gets better and better. This even affects simple file transfers over instant messenger programs. This can force anime fans to explore other methods of exchanging anime, such as good ol’ “actually walking up to someone and giving it to them.” Be it downloaded anime stored on an external hard drive or usb drive, or purchased legitimate dvds or even high-quality streamed episodes, people will have a reason to gather in order to minimize bandwidth and money usage.

At this point, you wouldn’t really call these gatherings “anime clubs,” as it’d just be a bunch of friends who already know each other, but isn’t that pretty much the way clubs start off? The major difference would be that while there might be a disparity in amount of anime possessed by a single person, it wouldn’t be the case where one person has all the power, especially when it comes to downloadable anime. Exchanging files (and let’s not forget you can officially download some shows now for a nominal fee so “files” is not inherently an illegal word) would be like trading tapes or having vcr parties, only much much faster. In time, maybe people will want to watch it together or talk about the shows they’re trading.

Nothing like necessity to force nerds who might normally curl into a ball to go out there and talk to people to get some more of that precious anime stuff. Not saying this is a guaranteed chain of events, but I feel like there’s a decent possibility this might happen.