10 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Huerrgh!]
After the mecha-fest of the new Transformers live action movie and this short discussion the other day I started to wonder about the appeal of the copious quantities of testosterone that pervade certain anime series. Before you ask, ‘Huerrgh!’ is allegedly a slang term, also pronounced “Hooah!”, among manly military types, to denote an affirmative or general show of, um, manliness. “Jump the fence, marine!” “Yessir, jumping fence, Huerrgh!” According to a former housemate of mine who served in the T.A., anyway.
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Reading stats: 828 words & 3 images; estimated reading time 3:19 mins
[11 Comments]
05 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: ABC]
Firstly, an apology. My article that dealt with the theme “Anime isn’t deep It’s just entertainment.” was timestamped with the wrong hour and I was out of town over the whole weekend (partly because I was here but mainly due to important and unforseen family commitments) so I didn’t get time to answer and read the discussion that followed. Just so you know why my promised articles on Macross Plus and Excessive Manliness in Anime aren’t online yet either.
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Reading stats: 938 words; estimated reading time 3:45 mins
[3 Comments]
03 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: ABC]
It’s the typical retort to the old chestnut “Why are you watching those, um, cartoons?”. You take a bold stance, look *intelligent* and declare: “Because this stuff’s deep.” I mean, what better way to beat down those non-fans than to claim that they don’t ‘get’ it? The biggest hurdle (in my experience anyway) of getting people to actually sit down and appreciate an anime show is to prove that it’s mature, intelligent and fun to watch. Now, the ‘fun’ part isn’t the one that’s hard to prove…giant robots blowing stuff up, samurai and ninja fighting it out with breathtaking, poetic choreography…the likes of Appleseed and Ninja Scroll provide all the action and adventure of a Hollywood movie, they do it well and there’s no harm in that.
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Reading stats: 882 words & 3 images; estimated reading time 3:32 mins
[16 Comments]
11 Jul 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Over-analysis, realistic fiction]
The rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated. My laptop’s back. Broken motherboard apparently, but now normal transmission will resume.
I’ve often wondered at the ‘love it or hate it’ reactions to the Slice of Life genre in anime, which had me wondering about its place and relative merits. Ironically I got onto this train of thought by two examples that aren’t anime at all, although they both make use of Tokyo as a a backdrop: Haruki Murakami’s excellent new novel After Dark (go read it) and the Sophia Coppola movie Lost in Translation (which has a gorgeous soundtrack featuring Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine fame). These two stories exhibit some of the features of certain anime shows that I’ve noticed bring about extreme reactions from critics and fans. Some claim them to be masterpieces of real life, while others believe they are dull and lacking in storyline direction or a proper ending.
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Reading stats: 1001 words & 3 images; estimated reading time 4:00 mins
[5 Comments]
20 Jun 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Bokurano, Rants]
A recent bit of news is Hiroyuki Morita’s controversial decision with Bokurano. I’m taking this on now because 1) it’s still relevant and 2) it’s straightforward to write with my current situation amounting to a laptop that’s out of action until the weekend, at the earliest. Bah.
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Reading stats: 1021 words; estimated reading time 4:05 mins
[2 Comments]
17 Jun 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Hayao Miyazaki, Rants]
Okay, the ‘Bokurano on trial’ article I promised you will be online in a day or two. This post though is the result of a very interesting discussion over at Cruel Angel Theses, which mainly concerned itself with Dennou Coil. I haven’t seen that show unfortunately but it got me thinking - is the output of Hayao Miyazaki really as good as the general concensus makes it out to be or is he just retreading familiar territory?
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Reading stats: 941 words; estimated reading time 3:46 mins
[7 Comments]
03 Jun 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Over-analysis]
Since it’s late and I’ve already added today’s review I thought I’d fall back on the old Top Ten List idea instead of a proper post that involves screencaps and stuff. This time it’s the turn of the more intellectual fare that gets labelled as ‘pretentious’ or ‘hard to understand’ by some but ‘artistic’ and ‘profound’ by others. The criteria for ‘headscratcher’ is hard to define: the standards I use here go on having to watch a series/film more than once to understand it; the sort where you watch it two or three times and still have something new to think about. They’re also the sort that polarise opinion (read: start flame wars on forums) so if you think there’s anything that deserves to be on this list but isn’t (my viewing experience is limited, I know) or vice-versa, don’t hesitate from saying so in the comments section below. So, on with the list…
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Reading stats: 995 words; estimated reading time 3:59 mins
[1 Comment]
06 May 2006
Posted by Martin
Now is a good time to shamelessly plug my new ‘add comment’ feature at the bottom of each entry. If you are one of the handful of people who visits here (you are a VERY small minority guys but I love you all the more for it) feel free to add your two pence/cents/woolongs worth because I have absolutely no idea what the fuss is about!
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Reading stats: 448 words; estimated reading time 1:48 mins
[No Comments]
