Category Archives: trends

Ah so

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In my quest to finds clips online that aren’t anime to help with my listening comprehension, I found out that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso aka Rozen Aso has his own Nico Nico Douga channel. What better way to practice than with the man, the legend?

So I say, but actually the most I got out of this was learning a new phrase: マスゴミ (masugomi)

マスコミ (Mass Communication, masukomi) + ゴミ (Garbage, gomi) = マスゴミ (Mass Garbage) or something along the lines of useless politics, etc. talk.

It’s a useful phrase.

An anime industry in a terrible economy

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As disposable income decreases for anime fans across the country, it becomes increasingly tempting to resort to alternative, less legitimate methods of obtaining our fix. This hurts an industry which is trying its best to stay alive in an increasingly volatile environment, but ultimately a person with no money to spend on entertainment will choose free entertainment over no entertainment. It’s an absurd level of Catch-22, with both and neither side to blame.

Anime companies want to take as much of our money as possible, and it’s only fair that they do so. I may often say that “I want to support the shows that I like,” but I also know that in the end, no matter how friendly the higher-ups and the employees are, a business is a business. Anime companies want to maximize their profits, but we fans have limits on how much money we’re willing to spend, especially as of late. The issue then becomes finding an amount that’s agreeable to both sides.

I know this sounds incredibly obvious, but we’ve seen at least one company (Bandai Visual) eat dirt because it didn’t even consider compromise.

Good Slow Power Creep

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Hajime no Ippo is getting a new anime this winter. Eyeshield 21 just finished what one might call its “Part 1.” Both have gone on for many chapters, and both are excellent examples of how to properly show the progress in skill of their characters. There are many reasons why I call this Good Slow Power Creep, and much of it has to do with making the increasing skill levels feel as natural as possible.

In both Hajime no Ippo and Eyeshield 21, the natural progression of their main characters’ abilities in their respective endeavors are tied to the natural progress of the art by their creators. Both start off weak and dumpy-looking, visually the art styles are decent but could stand for major improvement. As the series have progressed over the years, both Sena and Ippo begin to look better and better, gaining maturity and confidence just as the artists have as well. As the artists’ techniques become more sophisticated, Sena and Ippo make leaps and bounds over their former selves. It’s as if the effort of these heroes is a direct result of the effort put forth by their creators.

The best thing about the gradual and almost-unnoticeable power creep is that neither series feels like it’s jumped any sharks. Quite the opposite, they feel like they’ve only just begun. If ever either series begins to falter, I think it’ll be evident in how (un)natural the skill progression will feel.

A Maiden’s Virginity: Is it as “Necessary” as We Believe?

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Recently there’s been some controversy among otaku on both 2ch and 4chan regarding Nagi from Kannagi. A recent manga chapter, or perhaps the minds of the otaku reading it, have posited the idea that Nagi is not a virgin. And this is apparently tainting Nagi in the eyes of some of her fans. However silly you think this to be (in my case very), it brings up the question of how valued “virginity” is for idols, fictional or otherwise.

Idols in Japan are not supposed to have boyfriends to give the illusion that any fan has a “chance.” Is this the same ideal that surrounds wanting an anime character to be pure and virginal? Both the real-life idol and the anime character are for all intents and purposes unattainable by the fans, but notion that a female idol will retain her virginity for her fans is futile at best. Maybe that’s part of the appeal of the anime-character-as-virgin, they can maintain the status forever.

(Actually, in some cases, I don’t think the fans mind. Momoi had a concert where she was already pregnant, and she was still loved by her fans.)

I was in contact with Ogiue fans in Japan back when Ogiue first lost her virginity in the manga. What’s odd, relative to this whole Nagi thing, is that Ogiue entering a clearly sexual relationship did not turn off her fans. It did not push them away, or cause them to call Ogiue a “slut.” It only made them love Ogiue more, not because she had sex but because it was a result of her finding happiness. Perhaps the place where it differs is that Ogiue’s sexual relationship was pretty much the resolution to a story while Nagi’s is background information?

Dithering While Breaking the Speed Limit

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A few weeks ago made a post concerning dithering and its place in this current age of advanced visuals.

Here, the Kannagi anime is using exactly that effect to give the impression of otaku seeing the two girls as if they were characters in an erogame.

Though with using dithering when this is clearly supposed to be a modern pc visual novel, I have to wonder if this isn’t the visual otaku cousin of those scenes in tv shows where you hear bleeps and bloops as someone is supposedly playing a video game.

PS: Takako is wonderful.

I Would Like to See Artistic Use of Dithering

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Dither is, according to Wikipedia, “a technique used in computer graphics to create the illusion of color depth in images with a limited color palette.” In terms of otakudom, it’s a visual technique used in many early to mid-90s h-games when the maximum number of colors was 256, and is basically a way to make an image more detailed with limited resources. If you play the Phoenix Wright games, you might notice some of the backgrounds have significant dithering, at least the ones that were adapted from GBA titles. You’ll also see it if you enlarge any gif.

These days, with 16-bit, 32-bit, and “true” colors available, dithering has fallen by the way-side. Games as far back as To Heart and Kanon didn’t use dithering, and really there’s no practical reason to keep it up. People who want to get off on these games would undoubtedly prefer better colors, and those who play for the story and characters, it doesn’t make much difference. But where practicality falters, artistry thrives.

We’ve seen a “return to form” in anime and other media with varying degrees of quality. Megaman 9 showed the world what it meant to look 8-bit because your gameplay was suited to it. Bihada Ichizoku shows the world what it’s like when you make a show just to throw in super 70s shoujo designs.

So I want to see dithering used not as a substitute for better things, like a pirate attaching a pegleg, but as an intentional part of design, like a pirate carving his pegleg into an intricate horse shape.

Hopefully the start of a good trend in fansubbing

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I was spending many hours minutes seconds preparing yesterday’s post (which believes in cool and spicy and is therefore power), using chibi fansubs’ release of episode 1 of Shugo Chara doki. I got to that point in the opening and decided to take a screencap of Amu doing the monkey, but then I panicked.

“This is a softsub mkv, but I probably won’t be able to get a good shot free of karaoke,” I thought. After all, many fansub groups despite switching to softsubs still hardsub their karaoke directly into the file. “I’ll have to download the raw.”

On a whim, I decided to just try to turn off fansubs, and lo and behold the karaoke actually disappeared! Amazing!

Why is this amazing?! This should be standard!

Please, let this be sign that the disease known as Karaoke Effects is dying, or at least mitigated by being able to remove them at the viewer’s own volition.

Factoring Time into the Visual Aesthetics of Anime

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Having spent yesterday and today hesitating on whether or not to buy the special edition Cardcaptor Sakura movies, I decided to sit down and watch some episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura, to see if it would swing my decision one way or the other. As of now, it’s still undecided, but just like every other time I’ve decided to re-watch Cardcaptor Sakura, I was reminded of how good the show looks. Years from now, the show will still look good. And this got me to thinking about the way time relates to an anime’s visuals.

In animation, there is a race to see the visual quality of animation improve over time. Though it’s not as drastic or hotly contested as the race that video games have gone through, it’s not uncommon to hear from people that a show looks outdated. This is a dangerous way of thinking, as it assumes that the shows you like today will be considered inferior in ten, twenty years. One might say then, that “timelessness” is the ideal to pursue, but at the same time I don’t think “timelessness” of visuals is necessarily a good thing. Much like how making anime for an international audience can take away some of the uniquely Japanese aspects of anime, I think a similar problem can occur when the creators of a show try to isolate it from its own time. At the same time, this isn’t an excuse for a show to look bad or have poor art direction and using either “timelessness” or “representative of its time” as an excuse.

Different shows seem to approach this issue of time and its relation to the animation quality. In Cardcaptor Sakura, it’s the well-thought-out “camera” angles, transitions, and just the way the show flows naturally from scene to scene and action to action that makes it stand the oft-mentioned “test of time.” Koutetsushin Jeeg and Re:Cutie Honey, both updates of 70s Nagai Go works, merge the visual cues of 70s anime with a modern sense of perspective and consistency towards animation. Casshern SINS, a current show, takes an interesting approach. Its main character is said to be immortal, and to show this the design of Casshern references anime throughout the decades. Casshern himself is a 70s anime character, while his hair and musculature are similar to 80s characters, his figure and facial features are reminiscent of 90s bishounen, and the overall aesthetic of the show is very modern. Anne of Green Gables, a 1979 anime series directed by Grave of the Fireflies director Takahata Isao (with Miyazaki on staff as well), is an adaptation of an already well-known novel, and though there wasn’t a lot of resources in animation at that time, they worked with what they had to make the show very engaging.

“Working with what you have” may not always produce the best or most well-remembered shows, but I think it’s an important step in making a show whose visuals will be well-remembered years down the line when what was once cutting-edge will become as old-hat as wearing a skinned sabretooth tiger. One thing that Cardcaptor Sakura, Koutetsushin Jeeg, Re:Cutie Honey, Casshern SINS, and Anne of Green Gables have in common is that you can see the sheer amount of effort put into these shows. Judging “effort” is tricky business, and might even be scoffed at as impossible or even arbitrary, but when there’s this much effort involved I think you can’t help but notice. And when people, year after year notice this, that’s when a show’s visuals can be called “timeless.”

Though if you don’t aim for “timeless” art direction, that still doesn’t mean your show cannot be great.

The Moe Heroine and the Yamato Nadeshiko

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A “Yamato Nadeshiko” is defined as the traditional ideal Japanese woman. These qualities include being loyal to their husband, putting family first, modesty, and being skilled in domestic matters. Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess is a prominent example in anime and manga of a Yamato Nadeshiko, and the fact that Ah! My Goddess has continued to run for many years indicates that this type of character is relatively popular today.

Of course, the spotlight in recent years has been on moe characters, and while some character traits reinforce the idea of the Yamato Nadeshiko, others defy them. Key’s heroine of heroines Tsukimiya Ayu has loyalty as one of her important traits, but is also a clumsy tomboy whose cooking ability is on par with Homer Simpson pouring cereal. Tsundere characters such as Hiiragi Kagami are strong, capable, and put family and friends first, but are independent-minded and are anything but submissive. Aisaka Taiga from Toradora! meanwhile is a clumsy tsundere.

I don’t think the intentional increase of moe traits in characters is, at the very least on a basic level, “progressive feminism,” but I think it’s worth taking a look at how these characters relate to a concept with a long history in the society from which their fictional media are produced. In American fiction, particularly television and movies, there are certain stereotypes for female characters, particularly when it comes to romantic interests. The Girl Next Door can be considered a reaction to the Bombshell (or vice versa). Any time there’s a shy girl who turns out to be highly sexual, it’s actually just a simplified form of “what you see isn’t always what you get.” Though they are now recurring, even stereotypical concepts in fiction, their basis is in the trends of what most people want in their entertainment, at least as it pertains to female characters.

Granted, otaku are not “most people” in Japan or any other country in which they (or should I say we) reside. And when non-typical people look at something typical, I think there’s often a desire for something “different,” though perhaps not drastically so. But the line between “different enough” and “too different” is a very personal thing, and I think it’s the area in which disagreements regarding the validity of moe characters arises.

The Idiotic Protagonist

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I’ve been taught that the most dramatic stories come from having protagonists who have to do what comes most difficult to them with a fervent desire to accomplish their goals, and lacking intelligence is one way to stack the deck against the main character. You want your hero to struggle, to earn his progress. Protagonists in manga, particularly shounen manga, are often designed to not be the sharpest tool around. Be it Naruto, Goku, or any number of heroes who act before they think (or omit the second part of that combo altogether), the reason why they’re made to be dumb is to make them more of an everyman, to tell its readers, “Hey, this could be you.” However, with some readers an opposite effect occurs, and you’ll often see people gravitate to the supporting characters on account of the heroes being, at least in their eyes, bland or possessing little merit as characters.

In trying to make the hero an everyman, authors run the potential risk of making their hero a no-man, someone to whom the reader simply cannot relate, but I don’t think that’s the problem at hand. I have this feeling that some readers do not wish to see certain negative traits in a story’s most important characters. Sometimes it’s because they’re passive, other times because they’re idiots, and other times because they are totally moe.

There’s a division of sorts when it comes to making this kind of shounen-esque protagonist. Should you have a protagonist that acts as a stand-in for the reader, to allow the reader to be immersed in the world, to feel as if he or she is the one saving the day? Or is it more important that the hero be someone who is already skilled, someone the reader can look up to? Both are paths for readers to live out their fantasies through protagonists, both are forms of wish-fulfillment, but each is different in the types of interaction required by the reader, and people may prioritize one over the other.

I have to wonder if age of the reader factors into this division of stand-in protagonist vs larger-than-life protagonist. The stand-in protagonist is something that I think appeals more to that crowd of boys 12 and under who run around in the school playground pretending they can fire lasers. Meanwhile, the larger-than-life protagonist seems to appeal more to the rebellious teenage crowd. A magazine like Shounen Jump has readers well beyond its originally intended audience of young boys, and disagreements as to what makes a good main character in a shounen series may simply be a result of different groups reading the same story.