Desu ex Machina

Recently, Japanese teenage pop group SCANDAL covered K-ON!’s wildly popular and recognizable ending theme Don’t Say Lazy to commemorate their third anniversary. It’s quite fitting because simply, SCANDAL “lived the life” glorified by K-ON!, going from a completely unknown group of high school girls, to giving live performances, balancing schoolwork with the labors associated with being in a band, to (ok, maybe they went a little farther than K-ON! did) becoming a smash hit and going on international tours. Every teenage kid who picks up a guitar and starts a band in their garage has this dream of ascension though the indie scene in their minds. Stateside, punk-rocking, hormone driven teens may not exactly be thinking about K-ON! and SCANDAL but the basic idea is the same.

I like the cover. The rearranged some of the instrumental parts and the girls’ voices is distinctly different from Hikasa Yoko. Most noticably, SCANDAL has four vocalists (all the them) while Houkago Tea Time has one (either Toyosaki Aki (Yui) or Hikasa Yoko (Mio)). While Hisaka’s voice is of a richer quality, the SCANDAL girls, particularly Haruno Ono, render the song with a much more dry-cut almost punkish feel. The improvisations from the original in the cover were creative and gave the song a good new feel while still remaining very loyal to the anime original. The energy is definitely there, but which way it rubs you depends on, well, you. A touch more bass also couldn’t hurt.
Regardless of what one may think of K-ON! as an anime, the majority agreed, before the season even started, that the ED kicks serious ass. The cover is pretty cool and I recommend you all check it out. I kindly threw the YouTube up at the end of the post. You can grab the high quality source off Tokyo Toshokan

I would like to point out here they they should not be all genki and smiling. If they really wanted to stay true to the original they should all be staring kinda into space with no expression on their faces, just like in the ED animation. Oh well, you can’t get always get what you want.

And as promised:

If you’ve been reading blogs about anime or related culture for any amount of time at all, you know one thing. The internet is serious fucking business. And while I’ve had this post floating in the thinktank for a while, there’s no better time than now to let’er rip. So what is an otaku? Let’s see.

“Otaku” (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese slang term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games. (Wikipedia)

And that is as tame as it gets. See, on Wikipedia they have to maintain a neutral, balanced, and objective view on topics. It’s fine if you’re researching things like monolithic kernels or the history of Poland, but it’s totally different when you’re reading about a topic that is so crafted by public perception that its dictionary definition is totally buried and forgotten. Let’s look at examples from a source more shaped by community perception.

Otaku is extremely negative in meaning as it is used to refer to someone who stays at home all the time and doesn’t have a life (no social life, no love life, etc)

- death_to_all, Urban Dictionary

Otaku is a Japanese word for house.
As in you never leave it.

Please don’t call yourself an otaku, especially in front of real Japanese people, which you most likely never meet.

- jingjong, Urban Dictionary (link)

And I can’t even find a specific sentence to quote from here. As you can see, and I assume it being no surprise to you, the word “otaku” is not generally seen in a very positive light here on the tubes. For good reason. You’ve been to Sankaku Complex. You’ve read about the 2d waifus and epic otaku rooms funded by thousands of dollars for merchandise. When I was younger, in high school, I had a friend whose AIM was “superotaku544″ or some number. He was basically every negative stereotype against us anime/manga fans all rolled up into one. You know, that guy. The Naruto/Inuyasha fanboy that won’t shut up even if you’re totally not interested. The guy who cosplays to conventions despite having no idea what the hell he’s doing. It’s worse sometimes when they actually don’t even know that much about anime in general. “Oh, so what are you watching this season?” “Oh, I only watch Naruto. Dude check out this awesome forehead protector I bought”.  This was back before I really picked up anime. When I finally started anime I was rather weary at first, just because of what I have seen from my otaku-challanged friend. People like him create the stereotype of anime/manga/eroge/whatever enthusiasts, and to be honest, it’s unfortunate. When people with whom I am not super close with ask me about my hobbies, I don’t tell them that I enjoy watching anime. The perceived notions, stereotypes, and negative judgment is just so much. “Oh Kevin, you have a blog? What do you write about” “Oh, umm… anime” “Oh. *look of total disdain* I see.”

Now, I know there are a good plenty number of friendly folks who enjoy anime to a slight degree and watch very casually. That’s fine, if you’re having fun, who cares? The thing is that you don’t go around calling yourself that terrible word and thinking it’s some kind of badge of honor. Because I can tell you, it’s not. The word “otaku” has become a label; a label infused with all the facepalm worthy, idiotic, and humiliating things some overzealous fans do that makes everyone who enjoy this medium look bad. I’m sure that fans of English soccer (or football. Whatever) are not all crazed hooligans that burn cars and kill people when Manchester loses. I’m sure that not all Italian nightclubs and bars are run by the mafia. And it’s the same way; not everyone who watches anime and enjoys anime culture goes to school wearing a fucking furry tail. I’m not making this up. Oh god bad memories.

And of course, now they are also on the internet. Remember that incident with Chihara Minori’s waterbottle? Admittedly, that wasn’t too big of a deal to me. Sure, you’re putting your dignity as a human being on the line, but Setsuna is a pretty cool guy, it got Atarashii Prelude a whole mountain of hits, and it basically became a kind of a joke. Good for them; if I could trade some of my dignity for hits on Desu ex Machina, I would consider it. No, I’m talking about people who name their blogs “The Otaku Discharge” and talk all day about how they do nothing but watch anime, how awesome their “otaku lifestyle” is, post pictures of their shitty cosplay, and masturbate to Danny Choo. If you exhibit any of these symptoms, I have some advice for you. A blogger heart to heart, if you will. Shut the fuck up. No one cares.

Thankfully, to combat this is are heroes of justice , who seek to clean the annals of the blogosphere once-and-for-all. They have keyboards, and they mean business. Of course, I’m talking about the ‘Otaku’ Elimination Game. Here, they take four blogs a week from their index of blogs about the anime subculture and tear them the fuck apart. I guess I feel rather flattered that I was on their initial hitlist of blogs, which was a who’s who of the anime internet. The list has grown since then, since you get added if you just give them your URL. As Desu ex Machina’s eventual public flogging approaches, I’m rather interested to see how other people feel about this whole “otaku” business. People who whine and complain about the Otaku Elimination Game can’t take a joke. Be happy that people actually took time to read your writing and evaluate it and maybe, just maybe, consider if there is truth in their comments. Regardless, that site has good resources on the concept and more detailed information on the perspective of “otakus”.

Before this post was published, I have used the word “otaku” on this blog exactly three times. And that was because of the lack of a better word. I don’t consider myself an otaku, and that’s because, in case you have not already gathered, I find the term borderline derogatory. Just like with black people with the n-bomb, though I think the context is rather different. But a dilemma does arise. If we do not consider ourselves otaku, what do we call… well, ourselves? If nothing else, humans seek identification, a label. “American”, “Irish”, “11’s”, “Democrats”, “Republicans”, “homosexual”, “transsexual” etc. What is this culture that we write about? Just earlier in this post, you’ve seen me tripping and grasping for words to describe it. “Anime/manga/eroge/whatever enthusiasts” and the like. What term links me to j1m0ne, CCY, Pontifus, Danny Choo, and Moogy? “Anime bloggers”? Then what about Tiamat and manga bloggers? What about m3rryweather and Micchi and eroge bloggers, what about figurine bloggers? Art bloggers? We all share interest in the same culture, but what is it called? Japan? Well, I feel it almost condescending label anime and games as solely “Japanese culture”, because that’s sad. Japanese culture is much more rich and deep than this, we are not worthy of that name, quite simply. What is this network of blogs I read called? “The Otakusphere”? Well, is there something else to call it?

¹/₂ (out of 4)

Review: Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

In Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, SHAFT shows us how to make a pretty enjoyable show with minimal effort on their part. If nothing else, Zan is an enjoyable, funny, and clever show that fans of the franchise will enjoy like previous seasons. However, the distinct lack of original material from the manga and noticeable drop in art detail may will leave many fans seeking more, which the show does not deliver.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the third season of the wildly popular Zetsubou Sensei franchise, based on the manga by Kumeta Kouji. Like previous seasons, it follows the ever-in-despair Itoshiki Nozomu and his crazy class. Veterans will notice a change in art style, with slightly more saturated colors and cleaner lines. The show still feels much like Zetsubou Sensei with gags, satire, and politics jokes abound. The structure of this season’s episodes, however, will be the biggest difference viewers will notice. Each episode is divided into three segments, with each segment dedicated to a specific adaptation to a chapter of the manga. While some form of this structure has been used by SHAFT in a few episodes in past installments of Zetsubou Sensei, all 13 episodes this season are exclusively in this format.

While functional, I craved some kind of creativity from the animators or director like we have been used to the last two seasons, and got none. The chapter adaptations are so loyal to the manga that it’s too loyal of an adaptation. SHAFT has literally been accused of just tracing from the manga, which was even referred to in a specific episode. While it is true that many anime are manga adaptations, it’s expected out of directors and animators, as workers in a creative field, to interpret and enrich the media into anime. The script for Toradora! isn’t verbatim from the light novels, and Clannad isn’t just lines and scenes from the visual novel. I’ve read the Zetsubou Sensei manga (one of the few manga I read) and the similarity is just absolutely ridiculous. They do play with art style occasionally, like in episode 8 but overall someone expecting highly from SHAFT will be rather disappointed. Previous seasons do not have this problem. Chapters and gags from the manga were adapted flawlessly and weaved with SHAFT’s art style and Shinbo’s creativity into a product that augments the manga, not replacing it.

So keep in mind that when we praise Zan, we are in reality praising the manga, because the anime essentially perfectly identical, animated versions of the chapters. They introduce some new girls into the show, or at least attempt to. I found Shouko and Miko, a pair of girls who engage in multi-level marketing schemes, quite interesting and I hoped to see more of them. I didn’t. We don’t even get to figure out what Oora, the girl with the ponytail and sloppy uniform, is or anything about her. Zetsubou Sensei absolutely shines from its characters, but in Zan the lack of character development in its new characters cripples the series.

When each episode is basically three chapters, you really can’t complain about the pacing. Admittedly, they picked good chapters to adapt. Some of my favorite chapters, such as the one with the Winter Taisa and the one about sunglasses, were adapted so it was fun to see them turned into an anime.

To wrap up, in pure enjoyment and funny standards, Zan does well. The manga is great and hilarious, and there is so much similarity there is no reason Zan would be anything less. Fans of the series may be disappointed with the lack of original material and fans of director Akiyuki Shinbou will be disappointed with the absence of much of his stylization. How much of this “matters” is up to you, but if you liked the previous series, there is absolutely no reason not to check this one out.

Sometime in the last 24 hours, Desu ex Machina got its 5000th hit! (since I’ve started counting like 2 months ago). While it’s quite a humble feat, I’m glad I at least got this project of mine up and running. I remember when I got this thing started up back in June, I didn’t know how or if this was going to work at all! How would people get here? Would they like reading me ranting about anime? How do I use Wordpress? But thanks to my readers and bunch of great help and my friends and collaborators, I’ve gotten this far. Thanks, everyone. Usually there would be some art I drew saying “thank you 5000 hit!! xD” but you seriously don’t want to see me draw. Just take my word for it.

Needless episode 19 is out. I heard it was awesome, I’ll have to grab it later.

Because of random stupid complications in my life, I am without internet in my apartment for a few days. I have been heading to my university’s library for internet and right now I am typing this is an empty board room in the business school building. Saturdays are fun because everything is abandoned.

At first I was in much despair, but after a day or two it wasn’t too bad. Late at night I would catch up on some older shows I need to finish but mainly I have been rewatching some anime. I’m on episode 18 of a rewatch of Toradora and I hope to finish tonight. I watched the show as it aired and it’s nice and refreshing to come back to it. I remember I picked up Toradora on around episode 5 or 6 after all the hype drew me over and while I enjoyed the show quite a lot, my critique senses were always active. Now I come back and the show has nothing to prove to me, and it’s just a boatload of fun. Toradora’s well balanced cast, voice talent, quality animation, disciplined directing, pacing, and well conveyed plot and dialogue all contribute to a near flawless product. It’s very difficult to make an anime like Toradora, because so much can go wrong. Anyways, enough fagging here. This post is about rewatching anime, and why we do it.

The first reason is quite intuitive. You miss it.

Much like Toradora, my rewatch of the entire Aria series (starting Origination tonight) is fueled by the feeling the series gives me. Of course, you will pick up one or two little new things along the way, but you seek to relive the magic a show enchants you with. The thing with the rewatch is that you are confident you will enjoy the show. Leave your critical analysis aside and just enjoy the show and relive why you loved it so much. I wouldn’t call an anime I finished this January “nostalgia” but there must be some word for the feeling that overcame me the first time I heard Undine again.

The second reason could be that you want to give it anther chance. Did you miss something? Did you not understand something? Perhaps you want to enjoy the show, but you didn’t when you first watched it. Why?

H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~ is rather niche but people who have seen it generally like it a lot. I didn’t mind it but I’m still in the dark as to why it has seen so much praise. You have to realize that sometimes you don’t like a show and it’s not the show’s fault. I found H2O to have an interesting plot and pacing, but some of the motifs are totally undercooked. I don’t want to feel “left out” of the H2O party, nor do I want to come off as closed minded. Perhaps I did miss something here.

And the third reason is that Kyoto Animation thinks it’s 1998 and aired Clannad After Story and K-ON! in 4:3. Now that widescreens (and even Blu-rays) are out, I’m doing a nice slow rewatch of them. As with other anime I am entertaining myself with, I’m planning on finally finishing Gundam 00, which I started almost two years ago, sometime this month. I missed the party with Macross Frontier and Detroit Metal City as well. Those will be complete in a week or two.

The first streaming episode of Bakemonogatari, perhaps the strongest title of a marquee of solid shows the past two seasons, was released recently. It is really great to see that after the TV airing concluded, Bakemonogatari doesn’t miss a single beat and continues its sublime, distinctive storytelling style at and at the high quality of art and animation that we have come to expect for 12 episodes previous. Arararagi (sorry, I stuttered) is also one of the coolest male leads in anime. His subtle character change and outward attitude both keep him honest and make watching the show fun. If Araragi were different, Bakemonogatari’s dialogue driven structure could easily have collapsed. Oh and he also molests Mayoi-chan at the start of the episode, which is also plus points.

Now remember, this episode was a STREAM. so excuse the 360p or whatever. DVD will be out in like 2010

After a near perfect episode 12, we pick up where we left off with Tsubasa Cat part 3. Horie Yui is one of my favorite voice actors and Bakemonogatari is hocchan at her best. The way she renders Tsubasa is both distinctive and compelling; combined with the masterfully written dialogue, it is hard for this episode to be anything but amazing. After a load of dialogue, they go see Oshino and that’s basically the episode. It’s hard to summarize episodes of this show because the show is about the dialogue, not the plot. It’s not about what happened, it’s about the process by which it was presented to have happened. It’s about the the characters say, the way they say it, the reactions. This is why a good seiyuu corps is needed. If you want to find out what happened, go watch the episode yourself.

I particularly enjoyed the scene where Araragi encounters Hitagi in the bike-lot. Araragi’s relationship with Hitagi is unconventional in an anime sense because there is almost no romantic tension. Hitagi is smart and very rarely misunderstands her boyfriend, which is a fresh breath of air compared to many other anime with romance. Also present is some fourth wall breakage, which never goes over too badly if used in moderation.

Oh Saito Chiwa, Aika-chan would have taken offense to all those hazukashii serifu in episode 12

The end of the episode, however, left me most excited. Well, besides this…

if you got gg’s release of the stream, they left in the commercials for the singles of the OPs. They are taking painfully long to come out, especially since they are so fucking good, but after the end credits we get a sneak peek of Horie Yui’s OP for Tsubasa Cat! The little clip I’ve heard sounds fucking amazing and I can’t wait until we get to see the OP, and ultimately (in like January) get the single. It’s called sugar sweet nightmare and sounds great. Definitely check out the commercial after the credits of gg’s release if you haven’t already.