You can’t claim you have watched any anime unless you have seen the ahoge (アホ毛) in action. The ahoge, of course, is the conspicuous lock of hair that protrudes from a character’s head. It can be from the bangs area or the top of the head. It’s usually depicted as a single hair but sometimes it can be inferred as a lock. Ahoge come in all shapes and sizes, and I’m sure you’ve seen them all. It’s not considered a hairstyle, more of a bodily trait that cannot be created artificially in the anime world. As with everything else in anime, the invention of the ahoge can be traced back to Dr. Tezuka Osamu, but that’s enough Wikipedia for now. Let’s talk science.
Warning spoilers and rabid fanboy action follows. I don’t fag often, but for TTGL I am the second biggest fangirl in the universe. If you have not watched the movie or you are allergic to people flipping out over the franchise please for your own safety don’t read on.
After almost a year of waiting, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen, the second TTGL movie, is out. I saw it Saturday night and by now I expect most TTGL fans have given it a gander by now. If you’ve seen the first movie, you know the general formula for the TTGL movies: the same basic story happens except some details are changed to played around with. The movies are meant to augment the series, not to replace it, after all, so you can’t really compare it to the show itself. That said, oh my god that was freaking awesome.
Sora no Woto is a fun and interesting show that everyone is talking about this season. I particularly like the opening theme and the neat visuals that accompany. Sora no Woto is directed by painfully underrated director Kanbe Mamoru, who was also the director of Elfen Lied as well as episodes of Baccano!, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Ichigo Mashimaro, among others. His talent speaks for itself, as does his apparent love for the works of Gustav Klimt.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter who was part of the Symbolist movement. His works are very distinctive and like many other Symbolist paintings, often come off as fucking weird. One of his main subjects was the female body and sexuality. His paintings often feature women in rather erotic poses or situations as well as ample phallic imagery. I’m pretty sure he was pretty popular at 19th century Comiket. Kanbe based two of his shows’ opening themes off of Klimt’s works: Elfen Lied and Sora no Woto.
Well, lets take a look shall we? (You can click all images for full size)
'The Kiss' circa 1907
As you see here in a juxtaposition of a frame from, Elfen Lied’s opening theme was clearly inspired by Klimt. One of Klimt’s most famous works, The Kiss, is shown here. Two people embracing is one of Klimt’s central themes and embracing couples appear in many of his later works. The Kiss is central to Klimt’s expression of power through liberation and intimacy. (more…)
This has been making its way around the internet recently. Someone took bits of 300 different anime songs (OPs, EDs, inserts, character songs, you name it) from the last couple of years and made a video that you can quiz yourself on! I just got a notepad and pen and kept tally while listening to this in the background surfing the web. If you have a random 30 minutes lying around, I recommend trying it out, it’s really fun. As the title implies, if you got more than 270, your life is over.
Of 300 songs, I got 96, which I guess is average. Of them, 41 were physically in my music library, the rest I’ve heard and can name either anime or title. The plethora of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei helped me a lot, but I’ve heard so many of the melodies for the ones I didn’t get I’ve just never seen the anime so I don’t know the title for most of them. Curse me for not watching enough anime. Well, knock yourself out, I’ll post again soon.
There’s a new season of Hidamari Sketch and no one noticed. Even I had to be reminded of it after a few episodes have already aired. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the franchise, I just assumed that it was done. Shows typically have that 2 seasons and OVA max thing going. No matter what the show does afterward just feels like it overstays its welcome. Kind of like how your guests are pretty nice and pleasant when they just come over, but now it’s 2 in the morning and they insist on another round of tea. You hate to be rude but you really would prefer they get the fuck out so you can catch up on the third season of Hidamari Sketch.
Cheeky comments aside, Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆ is rather refreshing so far with three episodes out. Much of the same fare you’d expect from watching the other two seasons is present. Also returning is the bizarre art effects and visuals canon to Hidamari Sketch. The crazy visual metaphors and stuff pop out at you but seem so natural nonetheless, telling bits of the story in a unique yet efficient way. (more…)
I’m going to go out on a limb here and write about two things I never mention here in Desu ex Machina: eroge and manga. I’m an anime nerd, sorry. I don’t read mangoes and play games where they force you to do work for porn. It’s not my style, yo.
I hate to be Slowking.rmvb but Eternal kindly entertained me on Twitter that there exists a fishing eroge. Awesome. When I’m out angling in one of the ten thousand lakes here in Minnesota I just constantly think, “you know what I need? Cute bishoujos all around me.” Granted, I think that constantly, but still.
Mother fuck Sega Bass Fishing, does it have cute anime girls? I think not. With Chou Kanojo you can bait fish and bishoujos and enjoy both. Hell yes.
I have come to the conclusion that Dance in the Vampire Bund is a steaming pile of shit. Akira manages to dodge an IR seeking missile by… pushing Mina to the ground, and then he outruns a fucking Apache attack helicopter. Ducking will not save you from a guided missile. Vampires and werewolves aside, in Dance in the Vampire Bund, SHAFT totally fails at writing accurate military fiction. Tom Clancy won’t be losing his job soon, but Stephanie Meyer better look out.
Blatant sarcasmatrolling aside, the past few years I have found it easier and easier to drink the Shinbo Kool-aid. With Bakemonogatari one season and Maria+Holic during off seasons, it seems like everything he does is a visually immersive, daring stab at convention. After watching the first episode of this show, Dance in the Vampire Bund seems poised be another brilliantly written and directed series under Akiyuki Shinbo’s banner.
Compared to the end of the 20th century, nature of the anime industry, as well as its following, has been night and day. As the telecommunications infrastructure becomes more and more sophisticated, anime will become increasingly available to the masses. The animation industry and its fans face both new opportunities and new problems that must be reconciled.
Anime Before the Internet
Anime, a contracted form of the katakana “アニメーション”, meaning “animation”, originated around the year 1917. The definition of anime is rather thorny and a topic of debate, but it is generally agreed upon as animated work originating in Japan. The 1937 Disney animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a huge turning point in how animation as a medium was perceived (O’Connell 1999). Disney showed for the first time that animation was just as sufficient as live-action in creating an expressive plot. Thus followed a shift in focus from simple animated shorts focused on the execution of animation techniques to more ambitious, full length feature film projects.
It is near impossible to talk about the history of anime without mentioning Dr. Tezuka Ozamu, the father of anime as we know it. His 1947 manga Shitakarajima, based off of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Treasure Island featured a complex, fast paced plot and exhaustive length and was revolutionary at the time. The distinctive “large eyes” artistic style in anime, credited to Dr. Tezuka, allowed him to have characters easily express a wide range of emotions (O’Connell 1999). His portfolio of landmark anime and manga will never be matched: including Astro Boy, Metropolis, and Kimba the White Lion, among countless others.
Until the early 90’s, anime was extremely niche overseas. If you wanted to watch Astro Boy or Legend of the Galactic Heroes, you would have to find yourself an anime club, they would have to find some VHS copies (which were often copies of copies of copies). VHS fansubbing was possible though a complex procedure which I imagine involves crying nonstop for 13 hours.
Seitokai no Ichizon is Studio DEEN’s endeavor into the slice of life comedy genre. The formula for this show is simple and generic: parodies, references, and moe, with deeper plot and character aspects developed as the series progresses. While this structure can work in theory, the show quickly becomes bogged down with an awkward disconnect between the two dimensions of the show the writers try to balance. The plot is inexcusably undercooked, sacrificed for gags and punchlines.
Last summer, my good friend dondon went to China to visit his family and stuff. By the time he came back I was already off to college, so when I came back for winter vacation a few weeks ago the souvenirs he got became an incredibly convenient Christmas present. What did he get me from the copyright law enforcement-free streets of Beijing? Well, what else than a Chinese anime magazine?
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