While doing a search on Nico Nico Douga the other day, I noticed that my Ogiue and Tohoku-ben video had been uploaded to the site, albeit from an older version, titled as 【ニコニコ動画】荻上の東北弁
Good job, mysterious uploader, though I wish there was a way to give you the updated version.
Totally Not Work-Safe Warning: There’s a reason why I’m using a cutoff for the first time.
Kaiba is an unusual show amongst unusual shows. Its visual style is not like any anime airing on tv, it visuals existing somewhere between Tezuka and 60s manga, and the high art of Japanese artists such as Aoshima Chiho. Kaiba is different, and people will inform you of this fact.
I’ve heard numerous polarizing comments in regards to Kaiba, among them being that it’s (one of) the best of the season, that it’s so much better than all that crap out there, that it looks terrible, and that it’s nothing special and catering only to those who want high art in their anime. Either Kaiba is the savior of anime as an artform, or it is damning evidence of an incestuous circlejerk for highfalutin posers.
Kaiba animates well, but anime has never been known for spending elaborate time and money on movement, especially not for a tv series. Its characters are cute, but in a very illustrative, non-tactile manner. Characters have sex but are not sexualized. It uses characters as icons, but then subverts this by having the physical look of characters be interchangeable.
I think the divided opinion on Kaiba comes from the varying and often times contradictory roles that anime plays or is supposed to play. It is both an elevation of animation as something to be taken seriously as well as entertainment that anyone can enjoy. It is so much more realistic than other cartoons, but look at how weird and stylized these characters are!
There’s nothing wrong with seeing or wanting to see physical, human-like beauty in anime characters (see name of blog), even if it’s on a purely visual level. At the same time, this idolization of characters may be the root cause of the divisive opinions in regards to Kaiba. In fact, in the eyes of some, anime is currently the incestuous circlejerk and to others those same wide-appeal shows are what make anime great.
When speaking of the spring 2008 show Itazura no Kiss, the way I and others describe it as “so very 90s shoujo.” And it’s true. The show, even animated in 2008, screams the conventions of shoujo from that decade, which is no surprise seeing as the manga is from the 90s.
But then, I thought, what if someone had no idea what 90s shoujo was like, and that description was therefore useless? How could I accurate convey the properties which make up 90s shoujo?
This is the challenge I’ve set out for myself, and I have to admit, I have no idea how this will turn out.
Visually, 90s shoujo is all about clean, almost cartoonish designs for characters. Girls are much more cute than sexy, but it’s not the type of cute one expects to moe or fawn over immediately. Guys are certainly bishounen, but rarely do they look completely feminine. Line work tends to be very simple, giving 90s shoujo a very flat look, but not so flat that the reader or viewer becomes distinctly aware of it.
The melodrama dial isn’t cranked up nearly as high as it is in 70s shoujo, where characters’ emotions hit harder than a train filled with lead, but characters are affected strongly by the small events around them. There is suffering, but it tends to be a beautiful sort of suffering where you can tell that the characters will recover from whatever their problems may be.
90s shoujo is innocent. This doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of sex. Far from it, in fact. The difference is that there is not much venom (or lead poisoning) between characters. The drama is strong but fairly civilized, and characters generally do not end up wanting to kill each other. Love triangles do not end in ridiculous tragedy.
90s shoujo is pleasant in a way that shoujo from other eras is not. It’s about 50/50 escapism and realism, and is almost always uplifting.
Nintendo has announced plans to release Pokemon t-shirts for adults under its “Pokemon 151” line. This means not only larger sizes, but also designs catering to older audiences as well. And I for one welcome this desire to match actual aesthetics with anime/video game t-shirts.
Anime t-shirts and wearable merchandise in general tend to suffer from the recurring dilemma of simply Not Looking Good. This is especially a problem with any sort of non-Japanese t-shirt release, as the design usually just ends up being a stock image pasted onto the front of the shirt with no regards for the overall look. It’s like delivering a punchline with no setup.
This is why I was so pleased with the Eureka Seven t-shirts that came with the DVDs. It’s like someone understood the importance of subtlety (and in some cases when NOT to be suble) when designing them.
So yes, anime t-shirt makers, please learn from Pokemon 151.
Except for COSPA and Uniqlo. You guys are swell. Most of the time at least.
One complaint always leveled at anime companies is that they charge too much for anime. It’s something I’ve criticized in the past myself. Well, companies are finally listening and we’re seeing a variety of attempts to lower the cost of watching anime.
Gonzo plans on continuing its free online subtitled broadcasts with a continuation of Strike Witches.
Gainax and Bandai Entertainment have made it possible to watch the smash hit Gurren-Lagann on network cable via the Sci-Fi Network. Not only that, Bandai is planning a blitzkrieg release with 9 episodes per disc with a release of 1 disc per month. That’s 3 months for ALL of Gurren-Lagann.
Maria-sama ga Miteru, officially titled now as Maria is Watching Over Us, has an upcoming release of the entire first season at once. That’s 13 episodes from the get-go. No waiting, no nothing.
Media Blasters is releasing the second half of Gaogaigar all at once for practically nothing as well. This has less to do with plans and more to do with the fact that GGG did not do so well in the US, but it’s there.
And finally, Toei Animation has given the courtesy of releasing episodes of Hokuto no Ken and Slam Dunk online at $2 per episode. Granted, there’s some Digital Rights Management crap that we have to deal with, but they at least figured out that this is a better way of giving exposure to older series such as these.
So the anime industry has finally stepped up their game, and made it easier than ever to obtain anime from legitimate sources for affordable prices. It is now up to us as fans to support them, to tell these companies that, yes, we are willing to give you money directly provided you make it possible for us without sacrificing an arm and a leg when we do not have the fortune of being Edward Elric.
I don’t expect people to buy every single example I list here, and of course people’s income situations vary greatly, but I think it’s important that the anime fandom show that we are supportive of new attempts to get anime in our hands.
Seven artists are going to be making redesigns for the four Hokuto Brothers (Kenshiro, Raoh, Jagi, Toki), as part of the Hokuto no Ken 25th Anniversary Celebration.
The event will be held on July 7th, 2008 at a Tower Records in Tokyo.
As for the “redesigns” themselves, it’ll be…interesting…as let’s just say the artists selected do not exactly have Hara Tetsuo-esque styles.
The 7 Chosen Ones
Kitai Shinichirou (DEVILROBOTS)
Source: Anime! Anime!
The opening credits, or intro, of a staple of TV and animation. it’s a combination of sound and image designed to inform the viewer and pull them in. it is basically a commercial for the show you are about to watch with the secondary effect of giving credit to the people who are responsible for the show. The ending credits continue to list names of all the people who work on a show, and though it is not always the case, especially on American TV, it can be used to leave the viewer with a certain feeling. Japanese animation is of course no exception, but somehow anime has become what I think is the standard for openings and endings. There’s something special and different about the openings of Japanese animation compared to the animation of the rest of the world, and I’d like to know what it is.
I don’t think it would be too farfetched to say that a significant portion of anime fans love, welcome, and even expect the shows they watch to have good opening and ending credits. It’s the reason why fansubbers try so hard with their ridiculous karaoke effects. It’s the reason why I’m going to Otakon to see JAM Project. And I believe that it is a common factor in turning people into anime fans in the first place.
Anime openings can cause budding otaku to go, “Wow, this is different and good!” It’s not like non-Japanese cartoons are without good or memorable openings. I bet you there’s plenty of people out there who at least have a cursory knowledge of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme, or children (and adults) who could sing the Kim Possible opening as well. And while one can argue that anime openings have “better” music, it’s not like anime is without its repeated-title-shouting-style intros (see above concerning JAM Project, or should I say, its individual members).
Perhaps it’s simply a matter of professionalism. Not only is there an industry trying to make money off of it, but musicians, at the very least on a surface level, appear to approach these songs as if they were any other pieces they’ve performed. Directors are hired on specifically to direct the openings and endings. People’s livelihoods can depend on whether or not the opening credits are a hit with the audience.
I’d like to think that the root cause of the culture of successful openings and endings is passion and respect, but it’s an overly optimistic view of things. I just know that there’s something which makes the openings and endings of anime different and better.
PS: I haven’t even begun to think about dub openings and how they factor into all of this, though I’m sure that shouting, “It’s time to D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DUEL!” will get a reaction out of people
PPS: I lied, this isn’t really an opinion or an editorial.
It seems like I’ve been checking up on how various series I left behind are doing lately. First there was Bleach, then Inuyasha, and now School Rumble. And my first reaction is…
What?
At some point School Rumble started dropping the drama bombs like they were coming from Little Boy and Fat Man, and I am puzzled as to how and why this happened. The revelation concerning Karasuma alone is…odd, to say the least, and not in the Karasuma kind of way one would expect. I mean, I know it’s always been a relationship manga/anime, but it was always focused more heavily on the comedy aspects. Did something happen in the author’s life that would cause School Rumble to have such a stark change in mood?
This is like the first time I’ve seen an actual manga undergo the same fate as most comedic webcomics, where suddenly DRAMA is introduced into a world that was originally meant for humor and hijinks.
Maybe I’m judging it bit too early, but this was incredibly jarring.
OGIUE MANIAX 