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The End of the World: two years old today

Posted by Martin  [Tags: blogsturbation, community, Self-indulgent nostalgia]

Two years. TWO YEARS I’ve been doing this. From my first post waxing lyrical about Monster, through the gender-bending Kashimashi, my stubborn refusal to fanboy about Haruhi and my stubborn refusal to not fanboy about Mushishi, right up to the move to Wordpress, the ABC dorama and beyond, it’s been fun. I cautiously dipped my toes into a whole subculture of aggregators, IRC humour, editorials, episode summaries and Wordpress upgrades precisely 731 days ago today and I haven’t regretted it one bit. Okay, it’s very tsun-tsun of me to say so but sometimes I get a bit baffled and exasperated at the aniblogosphere and your antics, but what can you do?

Happy birthday to me…

Actually, the precise date is probably lost in the mists of time since I arbitrarily set the timestamp of the first post to April 1 when I did the move to WP, but it’s as good a day as any. According to my stats this blog, when updated regularly, gets upwards of 500 hits daily. Admittedly this is way more than I expected or deserve but it’s all thanks to you, the reader. I write because I feel like it but the motivation to keep going has come from the comments, trackbacks, e-mails and other words of constructive criticism and encouragement from everyone who’s visited, commented, flamed and helped in some other way. You have my heartfelt thanks. I couldn’t have done it without you. Actually, I possibly could, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as awesome. You get the picture.

As for the other big blogosphere event today, I only have this to say:

[18 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Evangelion: my baptism of fire

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Evangelion, Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Over-analysis, Self-indulgent nostalgia]

On a number of occasions I’ve alluded to my somewhat unconventional (albeit not unique) introduction to anime fandom. While it hasn’t exactly changed my entire outlook on life or anything, it certainly set the course that my viewing and appreciation would take and even to this day shapes my views on many of the aspects that make up the reviews and editorials on this very blog, for better or for worse.

I’m doing this review partly because Neon Genesis Evangelion hasn’t had a full review or editorial here dedicated to it; also it’s a way of putting my current opinions on anime in general into context. Two of these are those of the Apologist and Elitist stances, which hopefully will be accompanying posts in the coming weeks. Everyone’s hobbies and interests have to start somewhere, even if that somewhere is a little embarrassing and inappropriate; this was mine, and I’ll leave it to you to decide how embarrassing and inappropriate an introduction it was.

[5 Comments]

[Manga Reviews, OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Love Hina manga

Posted by Martin  [Tags: realistic fiction, Self-indulgent nostalgia]

Everyone has a title or two that, against our better taste or judgement, we can’t bring ourselves to dislike. Whether it’s that derivative parade of shiny mecha, overlong Shonen Jump cash cow or high tech girls-with-guns offering, we all have one that we hate to love. I can even name a title from each one of those example categories: I’ve followed the early episodes of Naruto and will continue to do so until the DVD release catches up with the filler arcs, Bubblegum Crisis is a classic and I can’t wait for Macross Frontier either, even if it turns out to suck; nevertheless, I’d like to think that my collection is a worthy collection of artistic and intelligent entertainment…more or less.

Back when I was only just getting into manga, shortly after my in-at-the-deep-end introduction to anime proper (another story), Tokyopop were only just beginning to get a reliable and varied stock on UK shelves; the almighty Death Note had yet to arrive on our shores in paper form and I was still finding my feet (even moreso than now!) as a fan. I also had the brain-melting grind of university with the memories of all-night study sessions, coursework deadlines and frantically legging it to the bus stop to get to the exam room on time fresh in my mind. Maybe this is a valid excuse for reading every volume of the Love Hina manga from cover to cover…read on and I’ll let you weigh up the evidence for yourself.

[8 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Haibane Renmei and me

Posted by Martin  [Tags: iyashikei, realistic fiction, Self-indulgent nostalgia, Yoshitoshi ABe]

I’m trying a little experiment with this post. This won’t be my usual reviewing - outlining what’s good and what’s bad, basing the degree of how recommendable it is on that and so on. I want to add a bit of me-ness into this one even if the quality suffers - not just saying what I think about this series based on the usual criteria, but giving a more in-depth explanation as to why it’s so special. I’m adding a lot more lyric quotes too…just to see if I can do it.

I won’t dwell on the beauty of Kou Otani’s soundtrack here, nor talk too much at length about the otherworldly artistic style of the show, as much as they lend a lot to the its unique atmosphere. Interestingly though Yoshitoshi ABe was the screenplay writer as well as being behind the overall concept: unlike Texhnolyze and Lain, his input was thematic as well as artistic. Looking at how powerful Haibane Renmei’s messages are, I feel this to be significant: it really feels like he’s drawing inspiration from personal experience which gives the show much greater authenticity, although individual impressions will probably differ slightly from viewer to viewer.

[7 Comments]