RP on the Demise of One’s Own Anime Blogging

Original Post: The two-year death and history repeating itself in the aniblogsphere

(Submitted by Scamp via @ghostcomments)

RP

Posted February 9, 2010 at 12:47 am | Permalink

It’s funny, I always think of a Nightwing quote from the old Bat man car toons where he says: “Things changed! I changed! The games over, Batman! I quit.” when it comes to topics like this. It seems oddly fitting.

Sadly, the cycle is what it is — unavoidable. I don’t think any one ever starts with the intention to quit, but it’s like relation ships that last a couple months, or a job you leave after a year or two. You never start things expecting to end it. But things change. People change. And priorities shift. It’s sad to see old faces go, but the world is a huge place, and soon, another face pops up. I hate to say we’re interchangeable pieces, but I guess that’s exactly what I’m saying 

Even I wonder how long I’ll stay in this game. I think I may have caused myself undue anxiety in my anniversary post by mentioning that I wanted to stick with blogging “for the long haul.” Not that I don’t, but the last thing I ever want to do is have blogging become a chore I feel like I have to do, than some thing I want to do. And that state ment seemed like an albatross in the making. Plus, how can I know? What if I end up get ting a new job that takes up all my time? What if I strike up a serious relation ship with a certain special lady? I’d like to think I could con tinue unabated, and I cer tainly think I could to some degree, but even the optimist in me would admit that I’d devote less time to it.

But I think it’s always interesting to reminisce about things like these, not because any one has any answers, but because I think in the back of our minds, we’re all thinking similar things.

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Filed under: meta , RP, submission (twitter)

Ojisan on the Tension of Identifying with the Assailant and the Assailed

Original post here: Exploring the Spectrum of Pleasure: Guilt in Narutaru (NSFW)

ojisan

February 9, 2010 at 1:40 am

In scenes like those above, with assailants & victims, I think people get off on (among other things) the tension of whom to identify with – I think that the flicker of identification from victim, to assailant, back to victim etc, creates a gripping and disturbing tension or suspense – especially since neither position offers any relief until the scene ends.

Narutaru is a fascinating and horrible series. I can’t get my brain around it, nor can I dismiss it.

REPLY

Filed under: Narutaru , ojisan

Shinmaru on Acceptable Depictions of Violence

Original post here: Exploring the Spectrum of Pleasure: Guilt in Narutaru (NSFW)

Shinmaru

February 9, 2010 at 12:51 am

This is something I think about a lot, actually. What manages to confuse (or even disturb) me most is that I don’t seem to have a cohesive value system for what is “acceptable” and “not acceptable” to me in terms of levels of violence and depiction of violence. I didn’t really bat an eye at Baccano! (which is a pretty violent series), but while I did enjoy Higurashi, the violence often repulsed me. I can’t even say there is much difference between how each series portrays violence — it’s bloody and tortuous in both, although in Higurashi I suppose it occasionally borders on the fetishistic, which I think is what got to me in the end. But overall I don’t think Higurashi is any more violent than Baccano!

There’s a certain weird energy to fictional violence — most people have that disconnect between reality and fiction, so they look at fictional violence — even enjoy it — on a different level than they would real violence. Something Baka-Raptor wrote about Kaiji when I did a post about it for the Twelve Moments stuff is pertinent: “Anyone who likes Kaiji is a sadist. Sure, we want to see him win in the end, but until then, we want to see him struggle as much as humanly possible.”

Your point about needing to empathize with the suffering of characters interests me. I don’t think this is true for all people, characters or stories, but many people of course have an emotional investment in the characters in whatever series they watch. And when those characters suffer, we (the royal we :p) suffer with them; we are right beside the suffering character, if not physically, then in spirit.

But the truth is, however, that we are not — we’re just watching. Few series choose to acknowledge that, but Kaiji is one of them. It takes great pains to show that Kaiji is not like the average person. He’s a lowlife, uneducated, perpetually jobless and a borderline criminal. He’s addicted to the rush of gambling. And to get himself out of the rut in which he has dug himself, he suffers — a lot. But do we truly empathize with his suffering? We want to see Kaiji win, but we want to see him suffer for it first. We’re the voyeurs.

I mean, that’s the very basis of fiction, isn’t it? If a character’s victory does not come with the “necessary” amount of suffering and hardship, don’t we feel cheated?

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Filed under: Narutaru , Shinmaru

Animewriter on Ninpo and Revolutionary Girl Utena

Original post: Lies, Murderous Intent, Remembering Love Gone Wrong, WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS Black Rose Society Arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena

animewriter

January 22, 2010 at 10:20 pm

As I read most interpretations of Utena written by western viewers I feel they’re missing the most important point of the whole series; this situation is almost the same as how western viewers saw the ending of TM 8.0 completely different from how Japanese viewers interpreted that very same ending.

I liked how you used wrong in the title of your post because from the very first episode of Utena, we the viewer, can see that EVERYTHING is wrong about the Ohtori Academy, and most of its students. The Othori Academy is an example of traditional Japanese society that has fallen off the path of social obligations and proper respect for one’s duties, and the concept of wrong memories, wrong motivations, and wrong self-identification fits perfectly.

If you take away the surrealism of the situation and look at the series and judge the characters by how they either conform or deviate from expected cultural norms it’s not hard to see why most of them have a bad end.

Almost all of the characters, Utena included, have given into their personal desires (ninjo) and have forgotten their social obligations (guri). Even in modern Japanese society, a great deal of weight is placed on the Confucius values of knowing one’s role in the family, and society (school, government, and so forth).

So, on first principles, A is A: Aristotle’s Law of Identity;

Everything that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and it has characteristics that are a part of what it is. “This leaf is red, solid, dry, rough, and flammable.” ……….To have an identity means to have a single identity; an object cannot have two identities. A tree cannot be a telephone, and a dog cannot be a cat. Each entity exists as something specific, its identity is particular, and it cannot exist as something else. An entity can have more than one characteristic, but any characteristic it has is a part of its identity.

Taken from
http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Metaphysics_Identity.html

So, most of the characters fail to realise what they are and what their proper role is “if you’re the eldest son, be the best eldest son possible; if your a member of the student counsel, try to be the best one possible; if you’re a prince be the best one possible”. Using this line of thinking you can pretty much see that Utena is not an unique character in anime or manga, you can see parts of her in Princess Sapphire from Princess Knight (1967) where Princess Sapphire was born with the heart of boy and the heart of a girl, and you can also see parts of Utena’s struggles in Lady Oscar from the Rose of Versailles (1979).

So, what I’m getting at is A is A; Utena should arise from the flames like the phoenix as (?), or emerge from her coffin and be reborn as (?), well, that’s the question. I’m waiting for your end of the series post so I don’t have to worry about any spoilers, and we can let it fly.

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Filed under: Revolutionary Girl Utena , animewriter

Coburn on the Beauty of Deranged Longing in Revolutionary Girl Utena

Original Post: Lies, Murderous Intent, Remembering Love Gone Wrong, WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS Black Rose Society Arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena

Coburn

January 22, 2010 at 12:54 pm

Mikage really is an odd one. He probably does rank as evil, but I’ve always been interested in his reaction to that normal bloke Wakaba rejects – Mikage’s coldness towards his duellists strikes me as a sort of projected self-loathing, when he comes across someone who rationalises a path through frustration Mikage is almost admiring.

The whole beauty of deranged longing thing kind of reminded me of a passage in the play Equus where a psychologist angst-trips over re-educating and normalising a patient as an intrusion on his individualism. At school that struck me as a pretty badass line in angst. What I enjoy about this arc as a concept is that the self-obsession of the duellists (including Mikage) is presented as something easily manipulated, rather than a product of immaculate internal logic. The insanity isn’t autonomous, and the role of memory (so, other people) in building personal identity is foregrounded.

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Filed under: Revolutionary Girl Utena , coburn

Sorrow-kun on A Sliding Scale Instead of Dichotomizing Objectivity and Subjectivity

Original Post: Defining a ‘good’ anime

Sorrow-Kun

Posted January 14, 2010 at 1:56 am

[...]

Is discussion of opinion just meaningless mental masturbation in a group environment? I mean, I don’t doubt that’s part of it, but I think there’s more to it than that.

Opinion might be subjective, but it’s formed out of interpretations of observations, and part of that process is objective. Thinking about it from this point of view, a clear divide between “objective” and “subjective” is probably an overly simplistic way to think about it. If you look at science, which values and strives for objectivity, the main point is to draw conclusions by analyz ing and interpreting the data. But it’s still possible for two people to draw different conclusions from the same set of data. That’s the whole point of scientific controversy, and from the debates that follow, these conclusions turn into test able hypotheses for future experiments, with the aim of trying to find out which conclusion is closest to the true nature.

The point I’m try ing to make is that, while judging anime is largely subjective, and science is largely object ive, neither is completely one or the other, simply because of process and human nature. I think we need to start think ing of subjectivity/objectivity as a scale rather than a dichotomy. Because if we define objectivity as “without opinion” as opposed to “without emotion” than nothing is truly objective, because opinion is the inevitable consequence of interpretation, some thing that must be done with everything we experience.

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Submitted via twitter @ reply to @ghostcomments by Scamp.

Filed under: meta , Sorrow-kun

Daryl Surat on Not Being a Jaded Anime Fan

Original Post: Talkin’ ‘Bout Jaded Fans: THAT ANIME SHIT? YEAH, I USED TO LIKE IT. NOW I WATCH SPORTS AND FUCK WOMEN.

Daryl Surat

January 13th, 2010 at 01:07:54

[...]

I don’t think my tastes are THAT specific, and I don’t even think I’m all that negative. The majority of my thoughts on anime are expressed by way of either my podcast reviews or my Otaku USA articles, and I would say that 95% of what I’ve chosen to review over the last 4-5 years is something I enjoy. In looking over Wikipedia’s seemingly incomplete list of all the anime made from 2000-2009, I counted roughly 1500 different titles. Of those 1500, about 170 were things I considered “worth watching.” Ties in nicely with the Internet’s 2nd favorite law about how 90% of everything is crap, with a percentage point or so margin of error.

But the unstated portion of that law is that nobody agrees on what falls into that 90% and what doesn’t. So it is that my 170 or so anime titles are a very different set than the set several other people come up with when presented with the same list. And so, even though I pretty much stick to talking about what I like, if I throw in an offhand remark about something I don’t particularly care for, that part’s all anyone remembers.

The most typical shorthand criticism levied towards me used to be “Daryl only likes shows from before 1990,” which was never true. Now it’s “Daryl only likes shows from before 2000,” which is also untrue. It’s just the inevitable result of a scenario by which there’s an increased output of titles available for viewing but a constant level of quality.

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Submitted via twitter @ghostcomments by 21stcenturydigitalboy

Filed under: meta , Daryl Surat

Ryan A’s Response to K-ON! S2 at Paper Flower

Original Post: K-on! Season 2

Ryan A

January 2, 2010 at 12:58 pm

Enjoyed melforaine’s perspective that everyone should not be concerned/care about others’ preference for experience, my response:

… I’m not sure the popularity aspect is what causes the flaming, rather I think it is fans being sucked in and then “overly vocal” about their interest in the series (blind hype).

With this stimulation, a number of [likely nonconstructive] blogs posts, fan art, etc manifest. So, many who don’t like the overhead (K-On! getting 1000 posts in a season) are going to easily get negative on it in hopes that people will just watch (or not) and shut up.

Viewers can experience a series and it is a “closed” event (viewers are not relying on other viewers to have the experience… they do it on their own). Anything beyond the experience isn’t necessarily needed, nor should it be voided (we need a balance of post content in the community… see my writings on redundancy for more info), but with viewers drunken on hyper-moe-kawaiisum there tends to be pointless overhead en mass. There may be correlation with popularity, but generally it is the fans dumbing-down and expressing themselves illogically which is the catalyst.

The constructive perspective: can we identify with both sides and find a solution which satisfies all sides?

I feel most of the community can identify with both/all sides in the general case, though not the specific case of Moe-ON! But what is a solution? If we don’t want to see/hear something on the interwebz, then avoid it. Unfortunately, some outlets do not allow unspoiling, unspamming, or general categorization when subscribing to content updates; you either get all or none, and that is a major issue imo.

Update: Seems I touched on this before.

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Filed under: K-On! , Ryan A, submission (trackback)

Crusader on the Middle Ground of Real and Super Robots that Gundam 00 Stands On

Original Post: Moments of 2009: Please Don’t Call This a Comeback (Gundam 00 Finale)

Crusader

Submitted on: December 17, 2009 at 4:59 am

[...]The middle ground that Gundam now sits is much more of a double edged sword since I have trouble digesting super robot and real robot cocktails. It just doesn’t go far enough in either direction to be terribly satisfying as say Mazinger Z which was an unadulterated celebration of Super Robot tropes. I think had they kept it more in line with real robot that any political message they had in S1 when they tossed around conflicts that were then ongoing they probably would have been more successful.

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Filed under: Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 , Crusader

Kaioshin on Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo II

Original Post Here: Moments of 2009: A Definitive Portrayal How Mecha Can Rule the Battlefield

Kaioshin Sama said:

December 14, 2009 at 3:59 am

[...]I think MS Igloo 2 like the original series does a great job of showing that in the deaths and personal sufferings of each main character of the episode even as they afforded less screen time than the average Gundam lead. So at the end of it all I have to say that MS Igloo 2 does a great service to not only the war epic and tales of heroism, but also the mecha genre. For it shows what I’ve always felt about war, and that is that even the greatest of men is powerless without the weapons with which to wage a just war at the same time as a weapon is useless without the courage of a hero to put it to use properly in that just war.

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Filed under: Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam: MS Igloo II , Kaioshin Sama

Kadian1364 on Watching Great Shows Regularly

Orignal post : Anime and Manga Related Moments 2009: Those Who WON’T Make the List

kadian1364

December 2, 2009 at 10:38 pm

[...]

This is a terribly obvious thing to say, but watching great shows regularly has been incredibly rewarding. Right now, everyone’s bemoaning the crap seasons, how the economy and moe is declining the industry, even predicting the death of the medium itself. And right now, I love anime more than I ever have, with a reverent knowledge of the classics and deeper appreciation of the trailblazing efforts of those that pioneered the medium in the past, and those that continue to test the boundaries of visual storytelling today. [...]

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Filed under: Anime Watching , kadian1364

DonKangolJones on Guilty Pleasures

Original Post: Anime is Serious Business Because Guilt is Serious Business

DonKangolJones

Submitted on 2009/10/30 at 9:50pm

[...]

But you know I swoop to material that I can directly relate to. As far as I’m concerned feeling guilty doesn’t apply (at least for me) to most media. Unless I’ve wronged anothe human being in some way playing a video game or watching something on TV I can’t really see the point in guilt.

Taste in anime boils should equate pretty well to taste in music or other mediums. Just because someone likes country music, death metal or german folk songs & I don’t find it desirable doesn’t mean they should feel awkward about it. Same with the whole argument about “pop” songs being crap & lesser known, more underground material being more quality. The initial reaction may be to feel some awkwardness and guilt because a group you associate with doesn’t enjoy it. And that’s natural, but so was the enjoyment you had when you listened to that song without anyone to tell you about it.

When I use anime in my examples some shows IMMEDIATELY come to mind. Most any long time anime fan can think of the contraversial & contentious choices. Naruto, Bleach, Code Geass R2, Evangelion, even Death Note & Lucky Star have been big fat targets. I keep asking myself, “if these people hate the series so much, why have they stuck around for 20 episodes/300 chapters?” I honestly think it’s to cement the fact that they have BETTER taste than those who say they enjoyed or even LOVED the popular material. I don’t care for that. The contentious comments don’t do much to further community or helpful dialogue. Nor does a person’s guilt about such a simple thing. Leave guilt to the matters of real live people.

The only times I can really remember feeling guilt (it was more like embarrassment) was when I had been clinging to a positive opinion of Maria+Holic. I saw something I thought was superior, the first season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I felt a little silly for considering that show to be of good quality after I saw something that clearly gave me a better idea of what a good dark comedy should be. I got over the guilt and moved on to other anime related matters.

P.S. And no one’s EVER going to make me feel guilty for enjoying R2

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Filed under: Guilty Pleasure , DonKangolJones

OGT on Guilty Pleasures

Original Post: Anime is Serious Business Because Guilt is Serious Business

OGT

Submitted on 2009/10/29 at 4:42am

The phrase “guilty pleasure” is the worst phrase in the English language and I exhort all of you to remove it from your vocabulary post-haste. If something is pleasurable to you, then you shouldn’t feel guilty about it. There are some things that you probably shouldn’t pleasure yourself with in public (double entendre intended), but certainly not because you feel guilty about enjoying it. One of my greatest pleasures is seeing other people relish the experience of (very obviously) enjoying something they love; one of my greatest pains is seeing other people relish the experience of hating something they dislike.

I get the feeling, in the Western world especially, that “quality” in the case of fiction is defined by intelligence being inherent to the work. It appears to be of no use to be intelligent about fiction that is not considered “intelligent” since, as there is no intelligence inherent in the work, there is nothing to be intelligent about. This is patently ridiculous, of course.

It follows, then, that you’re left with little recourse in this kind of environment: 1) and 2) above are literally all you have to work with for most of the time, and most of what you like. Simple enjoyment becomes an impossibility, and you must continually justify what you like (and what you do not like) along one of the three options given above.

Like most things pertaining to fiction these days for me, there’s a G.K. Chesterton quote for this: “It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.” (read the whole essay/chapter/conclusion, it’s my personal pick-me-up). In other words, it’s what I’ve always believed: the surest sign of maturity is being able to see the world as a child again. Adolescence has a disturbing tendency to kill off curiosity and wonder.

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Filed under: Guilty Pleasure , OGT

relentlessflame on Guilty Pleasures

Original Post: Anime is Serious Business Because Guilt is Serious Business

relentlessflame

Submitted on 2009/10/29 at 3:03am

This topic comes up from time-to-time (moreso recently?), and I’ve given a great deal of thought over the years. My conclusion basically boils down to the following:

1. Sturgeon’s Revelation applies to a work’s objective qualities.

2. One’s personal enjoyment is not merely a function of a show’s objective qualities.

3. Personal enjoyment is ultimately more important than objective goodness.

(And there are few conclusions that you could draw from this, the pointlessness of the “guilty pleasure” concept being one of them.)

The most common cause for arguments tends to be tenet 2 above because people struggle with the dichotomy between their enjoyment and a show’s objective traits. People who like a show sometimes struggle to deal with its objective flaws, or sometimes disagree with the importance/value of said flaws; sort of an “I enjoy it, therefore it can’t be bad” opinion, in violation of tenet 2. People who dislike a show sometimes struggle to consider the way their own personal biases or feelings impact their “objectivity”, and tend to assume that their lack of enjoyment is *simply* or *entirely* due to “obvious” (or objective) problems, *also* in violation of tenet 2.

There is a small grain of truth to the “you’re watching it wrong” argument, but only in the distant and abstract sense that a different person could watch the same material and have a different opinion or level of enjoyment. “You’re watching it wrong” is accusatory nonsense (and argumentative rhetoric), but “you’re seeing it from a different perspective” is a fairly self-evident truth. When two people watch the same show and come to opposite opinions, it is *not necessarily* the result of ignorance or a lack of critical thinking (important!); two reasonable people can have different opinions about the same subject and both be right in some cases and senses. This is the central point of tenet 2.

So, all that said, when you come to the point where you realize that you have your own reasons for liking the shows that you like, and it ultimately doesn’t matter whether those reasons are common or unique, then you can see the concept of “guilty pleasure” for what it is: an excuse or rationalization. And further, when people can get over their constant need to “excuse” or “rationalize” their like or dislike of a show, I would suggest that it will probably lead to greater personal enjoyment (see Tenet 3). The most important thing, it seems to me, is understanding why you like or dislike what you do so that you can find more spend more time on the things you like, and less on the things you don’t. That’s all operating under the premise that enjoying anime and manga is more important than simply being able to argue about it, but I don’t necessarily pretend that’s the case for everyone.

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Filed under: Guilty Pleasure , relentlessflame

Deckard and ghostlightning on Fanservice and Letter Bee

Original Post: Loving Someone Down: Letter Bee (04)

Deckard

2009/10/27 at 12:53pm

Seem that among many fans and blogers exists a tendency to call “fanservice” anything that involves exposed flesh, sexual innuendos, etc. Given that when applied to serious (i.e. not Needless type) show “fanservice” has a negative connotation, the audience’s approach becomes “Guilty until Proven innocent”. This puts before the director/writer a dilemma: to limit one’s storytelling and narrative elements to those that will not be labelled fanservice or to suffer the accusations. Self-imposing limitations surely can’t consistently produce a better story than is possible without the restrictions. Of course, Bakemonogatari is a brilliant example of (hypothetical) third choice, but one has to wonder if the success of Bakemonogatari was achieved through design or luck. I personally wish for it to be design.
Of course, there is also, as maAkusutipen guessed, the desire to sell DVDs. However, if that is the intention of the director/writer than one is justified in criticising and disliking fanservice in the same way one can criticise the shallowness of soft cover romance/fantasy/crime/etc novels. These type of fanservice has its place (Needless), but mixing Dostoevsky with Sidney Sheldon is like mixing all the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen in hope that the result would be good since the ingredients are good individually: you may be lucky, but no more than once.

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ghostlightning (in response)

2009/10/27 at 1:46pm

Good stuff.

As I mentioned to maAkusutipen, it might be helpful to do some genre-based analysis. I’ve only hinted on it there, but I think it’s good to try to get into the bones of it here.

While I can’t say that Dostoevsky (who I love btw) didn’t attempt to be a popular novelist by including tropes and devices that appeal to his contemporary readers (Shakespeare was more blatantly service-y, being generous with innuendo and ribaldry) for the purposes of this comment I will assume that he was aiming for posterity above all things, the kind of timelessness liberal humanist critics love.

Let us assume Dostoevsky never existed. A ‘trashy’ novel writer (those with Fabio covers) can, while risking commercial success, write a Brothers Karamazov of a romance novel… with Grushenka as the lead, torn between Vladimir and his father… while a incestuous homoeroticism simmers between Ivan and Alyosha. The prose is borderline purple at times, and the sexual content is gratuitous.

It won’t win prizes, but I daresay certain mature fans of the genre will be riveted… after all, ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ ended with a kiss between brothers…

Verily this particular novel would be well, The Brothers Karamazov of its genre: a fanservice delivery novel, that has uncommon wealth of material relative to its peers. Should anyone be bothered by the heaving chests, the heavy breathing, and the general lack of clothing in how both Vladamir and old Karamazov himself bare their souls to our Grushenka?

To a (small) degree this is how I feel about Fate stay/Night the visual novel (I’m in the middle of completing the Unlimited Blades Works route). It is an erotic game that has uncanny awesomeness in it.

But this example doesn’t really describe Letter Bee does it?

I sometimes suspect that both the panty shot obliquus and the mounted licking scene are wink wink nudge nudgeto older viewers who may not be interested by the (shonen) story alone, but can be persuaded by the charms of a loli furry and her cute little fang.

Further Reading (because I wrote a fakken editorial in this comment section wwwwww)

http://www.animenation.net/blog/2009/10/26/ask-john-why-do-americans-resent-fan-service/

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Filed under: Letter Bee , Deckard, ghostlightning

Animewriter on Kimi ni Todoke and the Seating Dynamics in Japanese Schools

Original Post: There’s Something Refreshing about Kimi ni Todoke

animewriter

October 22, 2009 at 6:29 pm

I think that Sawako’s not in denial about other peoples’ behavior towards her but I go more for “the self-defense” line of thought, because if Sawako really let how other people treat her become her reality than life would really suck. Sawako would have to give up the hope that when people get to know her better she can have friends and maybe a boyfriend, her future would look bleak and lonely.

I also have to say that you can’t underestimate the importance of the seating chart/seating arrangement in Japanese schools. A few years ago, I met a girl at college that spent her last five years of middle school and high school in the Japanese school system and she told me how big of a deal it was. She told me that because of the structure of the schools it was quite possible that you would have the same homeroom and homeroom teacher for all three years of high school, so she said that setting the seating chart was one of the most important social events of the year, and that most of the time it was left up to the class reps. She also said that the wheeling and dealing around this event was massive, you wanted to be next to your friends or others you want to become your friends, remember you might be spending the next three years next to those people.

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Filed under: Kimi ni Todoke , animewriter

Mechafetish on Macross: Do You Remember Love?

Original post here: Oh Macross, It’s Just a Popular Song, of Course it Was a Love Song: Do You Remember Love?

mechafetish

October 17, 2009 at 11:17 am

Its interesting to remember that DYRL is actually a movie within the macross continuity. Hence, it is actually a work of fiction as compared to the reality that is the TV series. Whats interesting to note here:

The songs in the TV series (actual history) are all Minmay’s songs, composed by her or for her by other human beings.

On the other hand, in the fictional movie, DYRL is a song created by the mysterious progenitors of both humans and the zentreadi.

Songs in macross are merely representations of culture. In actual history, the zentreadi were defeated by/succumbed to human culture.

On the other hand, the deliberate inclusion of the detail of DYRL as a song belonging to the progenitors of both races changes a lot of things.

In actuality, the zentreadi accepted and tried to adapt to an alien culture that was, for all intents and purposes, anathema to their own.

On the other hand, DYRL posits the zentreadi acceptance of culture “remembering love” as a reclamation of their own lost heritage. The zentreadi are no longer discovering a new way of life, but are rather REdiscovering a way of life lost to them since time immemorial.

As such, it may be interesting to think of DYRL as a form of propaganda to ease the cultural tensions that were prevalent on post war earth and to stem the zentreadi rejection of human culture as alien to them.

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Filed under: Macross, Macross: Do You Remember Love? , mechafetish

Deckard on the Peter Principle Among the Letter Bees

Original Post: The (Male) Fantasy in Letter Bee (02)

Deckard

October 12, 2009 at 8:30 am

I don’t think Peter’s Principle is as sound as you make it because in the form quoted it doesn’t mention underlying assumption. These are very strong thus severely limiting to Principles generality. In particular, if the Bees organisation is sufficiently small and narrow in duties, the Head Bee may well be the most capable practitioner.

Almost universally, within an organisation different levels of responsibility require different number of staff. In mail delivery, there is only on CEO and numerous postmen; think about this as a pyramid with CEO being the top (narrowest) and postmen bottom (widest).
Let’s assume, for simplicity, that there is only one skill relevant to all positions within the organisation (ability to deliver mail) and progressively higher positions require more of that skill. Now start filling the pyramid with members of the organisation. You will begin at the base of the pyramid filling it with the least capable people and progress towards the top where the most capable will be placed as CEO.

Note that if someone within the organisation cannot be promoted while he is competent than the Principle is violated since it requires that “members are promoted so long as they work competently”. If the Principle holds for the organisation, then person just below the CEO (arguably, so must be CEO) is incompetent. Furthermore, because none of the people just below the him can be promoted (there is no empty space above them in the pyramid), these people are incompetent by virtue reaching their promotion ceiling; etc until everyone within the organisation is declared incompetent so long as we believe that Peter’s Principle applies to the organisation. The absurdity implied by the Principle should be obvious.

What this principle relies one is that people become incompetent sooner than they reach promotion ceiling. Note that the principle as quoted by ghostlightning specifies “Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent” implying the that competence is a 0 or 1 (i.e. binary) variable. Thus, the Principle does not talk about degree of incompetence, but about incompetence vs. competence.

An important note to the above argument is what exactly is competence. Because in the Principle competence is binary variable, the definition has to reflect that. One definition is that at each level a certain – limited – amount of skill is required and person is considered competent if his amount of skill is higher than the limit of the position. Of course, this definition further undermines the Principle since it imposes another very strong assumption: CEO has less skill than is required by his position.

In case of the Bees organisation, it is difficult to claim that it is a meritocratic fantasy because we (at least I am) unaware of the size of the organisation and its structure. If it is sufficiently small in size and narrow in its duties than the most capable practitioner may well be the CEO. Note that example ghostlighting gave (Ghibli, Ganinax) are all very narrow is tasks they perform and small in size. Furthermore, Bees organisation is not necessarily build along patriarchal lines because it relies on the strength of heart, not physical strength.

I hope i didn’t mess up somewhere; though I probably did.

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Filed under: Letter Bee , Deckard

Kadian1364 on Macross: Do You Remember Love?

Original Post: Harsh! Consuming Media Not Related to Our Interests

kadian1364

October 10, 2009 at 2:14 pm

[...]

For years I had heard the stories that older generation anime fans told concerning the franchise, regaling tales of Robotech, Carl “The Butcher” Macek, and of course, DYRL. My first proper introduction to the Macross-verse was ‘08 anime Macross Frontier (aside from an ill-conceived foray into Macross Zero and some random episodes of the original Macross Cartoon Network once showed). Yet I never put much thought into finding the movie (It’s so old! I told myself), and it was only through sheer chance and dumb luck did I stumble across the torrent when I was browsing my usual BT sites (thanks Live-eviL!). I decided, what the heck, let’s give it a shot.

So I watched it. When it finished, I stopped, breathed slowly, took some moments in silent contemplation to collect my thoughts, got myself a tall glass of water, and then watched it again. And again the next night.

I used to think, That’s such a strange name, “Do You Remember Love”. A pop idol singing a song to end a war? Only in anime. Yet after a span of 2 hours, it was all made clear to me. I finally understood the meaning of its title. “Do You Remember Love” is a love letter to the dreamers, a gift to those who love epic stories, gorgeous and detailed animation, and beautiful, moving music. The guys at Anime World Order podcast once said that DYRL embodied everything they loved about anime, and even though we were separated in watching the movie by decades, and our experiences wildly different and years apart, somehow, I felt the same.

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Filed under: Macross, Macross: Do You Remember Love? , kadian1364

Animewriter on the Issues of Senjougahara and Araragi

Original post: Authenticity, How Beatiful You Are (Bakemonogatari 12)

animewriter

September 30, 2009 at 5:12 am

[...]

Hitagi’s father tries to tell Araragi this when they’re together inside the car, he basically tells Araragi that he saved/changed his daughter when he couldn’t.

While Araragi has his problems and issues, I think they pale in comparison to Hitagi’s issues. I can totally understand why she’s head over heals in love with Araragi, her faith and trust has been totally betrayed by the one’s who were supposed to protect her, her mother offered her up as a sex toy, and he father was too busy with work, or whatever, to notice. Araragi was the one who was able to save her, even in the face of her own threats to him, so I can see why she feels that he’ll always protect her.

Now, I also feel that Hitagi’s “tsundere” behavior was a red herring, she isn’t tsundere, she was just being mean as a self-protection defense tactic, after being betrayed by the ones who were supposed to protect her, I can’t blame her. I also feel that Hitagi’s feelings of self-worth are even lower than Araragi’s. It was pretty telling when she offers Araragi everything, her heart, her mind, her soul, and even if she’s scared, her body, and she feels that it’s not a lot. What more could a man want than having a woman offer everything she is to him, I would take it as a sign of absolute trust and love.

So, in the end, Araragi and Hitagi are two gentle and lonely souls that have made a connection and are struggling with issues of self-worth and loneliness.

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Filed under: Bakemonogatari , animewriter