[Anime Reviews]

Itazura na Kiss and the rationale of droppage

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Itazura na Kiss, Random thoughts, Rants]

My current watchlist looks like this. I think you’ll agree that longlist is looong - there are one or two that I’m following on DVD, or would be if finances permitted, but overall I’m balancing my time between a lot of unlicenced shows simultaneously in addition to full time employment (and the so-far fruitless search for better full time employment). This has led to a feeling that I’m sure many of you are familiar with - my personal standards have crept up to the point at which I’m actually looking for excuses to stop watching them in order to ease the pressure. To put it another way, “why watch series x when y is more entertaining?”. The weird thing is, I’ve never experienced this before but recently I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in terms of how much I’m watching. Sadly, unless you can give a good argument to the contrary, I think that Itazura na Kiss has to go.

When taking on too much becomes a burden: ironically this show has slipped into On-Hold purgatory too

When I say I’m looking for an excuse, I mean I want to give good reasons for dropping it; the last thing I want to do is be another Maddox wannabe who fails to see that logical and articulate arguments are what allows him to get away with being so bitchy and scathing. “This show sucks!” without a good argument to back it up will just make me sound like a troll or a retard; mindful that even after reading my last review for the show I still can’t remember why I enjoyed it in the first place, I feel that I need to outline in detail why InK seems to be failing.

[9 Comments]

[Editorials]

Anime elitism: why I’m cooler than you and why that doesn’t matter (shockingly delayed editorial #2)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: community, Random thoughts, Rants]

Maybe it’s the nature of the Internet that ‘elitist’ behaviour and views are so widespread, no matter how much they are derided. I believe that a contributing factor to the perception of elitism among anime fans though is that the fandom is a niche community: simultaneously small enough to have a sense of ‘us’ versus ‘everyone else’ yet large enough to contain cliques, lingo and who knows what else. Within this relatively small group of individuals there still seem to be borders in our minds that separate each of us, including those who are in our eyes, or consider themselves to be, ‘elite’.

Walking the line of good taste without falling into the trap of ignorance and arrogance is walking on a knife edge, like our hero here

Unfortunately, the assumption of elite groups implies superiority and inferiority, so I think the ‘elitist’ term is inaccurate and should be used only for reasons of convenience (which is why I’m resorting to using it in this post). What I’m examining here are the people who are seen as ‘top of the heap’ and how that manifests itself; furthermore I’m questioning how their position may not be a ‘horizontal’ separation of superior and inferior…using my elitist self as an example because I rule (sarcasm intentional).

[14 Comments]

[Editorials]

The apologist-eye view (shockingly delayed editorial #1)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Random thoughts]

I miss doing editorials, I really do. Inspiration is often more of a problem for me than the motivation to sit down and write; the concept of anime apologetics is quite close to my heart though. The first time Owen brought the subject up I felt like I’d identified some sort of long-standing medical condition at last, although my stance lies quite close to Jeff’s mantra too. Due to my current limited internet time coupled with the resulting boredom, when I’ve had the chance I’ve been c/p-ing other bloggers’ past posts that interested me, reading them at my leisure with a mug of sencha and a bit of Pink Floyd in the background when I get home, and putting my own thoughts on the respective subjects together for editorials; admittedly months later than I originally intended, but at least I’ve now been able to set out my thoughts on the issues that arose way back whenever.

This isn’t me. I’m not a girl

With the consensus that a high proportion of ‘meh’ titles fill TV schedules and store shelves while truly great stuff worth making a big fuss about is in a relative minority, it might seem a bit pointless to make the effort to defend certain series when, if one isn’t up to standard, there are plenty of others to choose from. I suppose my naiveté and lack of confidence in my early anime reviewing days goes some way to explaining my apologist approach (I’ll admit some of my first efforts were pretty shoddy) but now I’ve seen more of what’s on offer, read a lot of others’ blogs and developed a certain detachment when assessing criticism (or, to put it another way, being able to take constructive criticism while learning to ignore trolling fucktards), I can afford to be harsher in my appraisals of what I watch. So, why am I still so goddamned soft-hearted about it?

[8 Comments]

[First Impressions and Retrospectives]

The customary in-between updates post

Posted by Martin  [Tags: blogsturbation, Random thoughts]

In accordance with Hidoshi’s dislike for the term ‘meta-blogging’ used when writing a blog post about blog posts, I declare this to be a blogsturbatory one instead, in memory of the appropriately-titled but apparently deceased Epic Win. The spectre of Real Life loomed, I learned that magnolia wall emulsion and black denim didn’t go well together and I was reunited with the belongings that had been placed in self-store, awaiting my new hikikomori refuge house. It’s good to be back in my own place but sadly I have to wait another two days for my landline to be connected before I can install a new net connection. Hiatus diease ain’t funny folks.</digression>

So cute and artsy, I don’t really need a reason…beyond stating that I’ve just discovered Danbooru and amongst the NSFW garbage there’s some really cool stuff…

Since this temporary connection seems to be working, I’ll post a few brief viewing updates. Ghost Hound continues to be baffling, challenging but at times utterly awesome - the bigger picture is starting to emerge. And Taro is in love. Perhaps. Aww. <3 Persona: Trinity Soul was supposed to be on my watchlist but is already in Backlog Hell and might well wind up in the On Hold list indefinitely. There just isn’t that special something about it to make me watch it. Kaiji on the other hand has kept my attention throughout, and with the end in sight I’m looking forward to seeing the Mulleted One triumph at last. Unless there’s a second season planned to finish things off, which won’t surprise me actually. Spice and Wolf ought to be, by rights, the dull one I’d drop but the show as a whole is saved by the dynamic that exists between Lawrence and Horo. The reader comments seem to echo my own thoughts that even if they sit around in a bar chatting, that alone is entertaining enough.

[5 Comments]

[Editorials]

Valentine’s Day post: zoom lens love vs. wide angle romance

Posted by Martin  [Tags: ABC, Kare Kano, Makoto Shinkai, Random thoughts, Saikano, True Tears]

The mission, should I choose to accept it: write a Valentines Day post without taking the Holden Caulfield-esque stance that I take towards most things IRL. I didn’t want to limit myself to a True Tears follow-up post so tried to make a list of romance anime I’m familiar enough with to write about; this didn’t get very far either. It did throw up an observation that I found interesting though: my limited experience of romance anime seems to show two main approaches which, in keeping with the anime blogging tradition of inventing new descriptive terms, I’ve decided to call zoom lens and wide-angle lens storytelling. Yeah, I know categorising things can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings but I had to call them something.

Cutest. Couple. Ever.

[6 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad 2 and 3 and musings on adaptations

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad, Random thoughts]

Clannad is an odd show. At least, it’s odd when you haven’t seen Kanon, Air or any of the Key productions and have no experience in playing computer games of that ilk. It’s shaping up to being an interesting series actually, but there are a few sticking points such as moments where the storyline appears to borrow devices and features from its source material. The central relationship, that of Tomoya and Nagisa, is the focus from a romance/drama standpoint but there seem to be other characters vying for the lad’s attention, which feels like a distraction when I’m trying to focus on the two central characters. It feels like I’m watching someone else playing a dating sim game, admittedly doing a decent job of concentrating on hanging out with one girl in particular and being entertaining into the bargain. I’m not going to dismiss this series because of the cutesiness or anything (Re: Lucky Star’s deceptive awesomeness) but since I’m on a roll in throwing preconceptions out of the proverbial window, I figured I’ll experiment a bit and stick with Clannad too since it’s even further from my own perceived tastes.

And so we’re introduced to the dango

It has enough potential to be a decent enough high school romance with some humorous moments courtesy of classmate Youhei, although the idea of being sent flying by an irate female got stale around the midpoint of Love Hina. Yeah, he deserved it (kinda) but it’s been done before. The hit counter’s a nice touch though. I’m quite interested in the whole Tomoya x Nagisa pairing, and although effort has clearly been made to flesh out their personalities and background, Nagisa’s still a bit of a stereotype. Tomoya’s a pretty cool and likable fellow, although I’ve yet to see the delinquent aspect to him that the ANN and Wiki pages for the show talk about.

[6 Comments]

[Editorials]

Musings on horror

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Random thoughts]

Yeah, this is as near as I’m likely to get to a Halloween-themed post…and I know it’s a day late as well. I actually couldn’t care less about Halloween but it’s good inspiration for another editorial. The genre of ‘horror’ has left me a bit apathetic in recent years, to the point where I’ve questioned the definition of what makes a horror movie or TV show from my own point of view. What I consider to be ‘horror’ is an umbrella term for a variety of subcategories, which probably differ from other people’s.

[8 Comments]