The Kawaii Menace

I’m going to be away from the computer for a few days. While I’m gone, I’ll post a few screen captures from Mononoke, a series perhaps of more visual than narrative interest. This is the medicine seller, the central character of the stories, who functions somewhat like a free-lance exorcist. Usually his fingers aren’t dissolving away.

Dino Squad — yet another reason to stick to anime. (Via Tim Blair.)

*****

I notice that the group fansubbing Dokuro-Chan II calls itself “Philanthropy.” That’s not the word that occurs to me.

*****

For those who regard every anime they’ve downloaded that is subsequently licensed as a an “obligation buy,” a suggestion. If it’s a lousy, trashy series, e.g., Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, don’t spend your money on it. It will only encourage the company to license more garbage. Instead, take that money and apply it to a good show, preferably one that is underappreciated. (My own policy is less stringent. I purchase more than I download, and if a show is genuinely good, it goes on my “buy” list, even if I don’t expect to rewatch it soon. My drive may be getting full, but my shelves are overflowing.)

I just took a second look at the first two episodes of Potemayo to see if I had missed something. Let’s add up the score:

Guchuko: +20
Very sharp ax: +5
Energy beams: +5
Potemayo: +5
Sunao: +3
Kyo: +1
Bird: +1
Bird crap: -1
Mikan: -5
Nosebleeds: -5
Girls with nosebleeds: -10
Boys in skirts: -15
Bro-something Mountain: -20

Final score: -16. Much as I like Guchuko, there’s not enough of her to warrant enduring the rest of the show.

Post script: I forgot about Guchuko’s roll of tape, which is certainly worth at least a +5. That still only brings the total up to -11.

I’m tempted to say that Oh! Edo Rocket is an anime unlike other anime, but in fact I am reminded of several other shows. Like Jubei-Chan I, it oscillates between farce and drama; like Excel Saga, it’s wildly off-the-wall; like Noir, there’s potentially a complex story behind the story (as of episode ten — there are sixteen more to go, plenty of time for the writers to make a hash of things). Nevertheless, there really is nothing quite like Oh! Edo Rocket’s combination of broad comedy, science fiction, history, horror, romance, parody and nonsense.

The premise is that in early 1840’s Edo, where all “luxuries” are outlawed, the strange girl Sora asks the fireworks maker Seikichi to make her fireworks that will reach the moon. By a curious coincidence, the residents of the row house where Seikichi lives include an expert carpenter, a tile-maker, the best mechanic in Edo and two mathematicians, among other eccentrics, all of whom are fascinated by the idea of a rocket to the moon. Meanwhile, “sky beasts” appear in the area, some of which have a taste for the blood of young women.

Overall, silliness dominates, from the character designs to the blatant anachronisms. The writers will do anything for a laugh.¹ Ginjiro the locksmith goes fishing and catches a teevee set. Shunpei the proto-nerd keeps a pocket calculator in his room. There’s a henshin sequence involving a sort of sentai team; however, instead of cute magical girls, the transformees are homely adult men. At one point four of the characters are turned into cats, who perform a jazzy musical number. And then there is the crazed fireworks maker Tetsuju the Fuse, who drinks at a bar staffed by tanuki. And a flaky magistrate. And a girl with Tenchi Muyo-esque hair. And so on. (I’ve uploaded clips of Tetsuju’s first appearance and the singing cats to the video weblog.)

Despite all the absurdities, the story moves steadily forward. It’s not all foolishness. Some parts of Oh! Edo Rocket are nightmarish. Although the opening animation focuses on Seikichi and Sora, the central character is actually Ginjiro, who early on declares that he only does what is fun. As his past is revealed, it becomes clear that his attitude is inspired by bitterness, not frivolity. He is involved in nearly all the sub-plots, and he will likely face the most complex decisions of any of the characters as the series reaches its climax.

The art and the music deserve mention. The backgrounds (and occasionally foregrounds) look like paintings and contrast with the crisp lines of the character art. The effect is that Ginjiro et al seem like actors on a stage. The opening and closing themes may be listenable J-pop, but the background music is mostly big-band jazz.

1. They do draw the line at offensive and gross-out humor. [↩]

If the email address you submit when you write a comment looks phony, e.g., “whoever@fakeaddysrus.com,” I probably won’t approve your comment, even if it is on-topic.

… but install the crack.”

The purpose of digital rights management is to punish the legitimate user. Shamus and Steven recently noted the use of DRM to enhance your gaming experience. DRM is also a traditional element of music software. Here’s a classic from five years ago: Waves Native Gold Bundle 3.2 featuring PACE Interlok. It’s noteworthy that PACE merely crashed your computer and forced you to reauthorize the software, repeatedly. Sony’s innovations compromise the security of your computer.

Update: from the comments on Shamus’ post:

It is a sorry state of affairs when people trust some anonymous cracker more than they do a legitimate publisher.

By a vote of eleven to zero, readers here declared Dolores Umbridge to be more loathsome than Bellatrix Lestrange. I have a new poll up in the sidebar now: which is more evil, Microsoft or Sony?

Sometime in the near future I hope to post some thoughts on Mononoke and Oh! Edo Rocket. Until then, here’s Mel Blanc with David Letterman:

(Via Cartoon Brew.)

We’ve had pocket calculators, televisions, helicopters and worse so far in the 1840’s Japan of Oh! Edo Rocket, so why not a giant wooden mecha?

• I may be one of the stranger people around (though I think I’m perfectly normal, myself), but I’m not the silliest.

• There is an inverse proportion between the depth of an induhvidual’s political insights and his loquacity. There is similarly an inverse proportion between the distance from his mouth to my ear and the volume at which he proclaims his thoughts.

• There are few, if any, pictures of Narutards among those I took this weekend. There are also very few FMA characters. This was deliberate. There aren’t any Wolfwoods either, though I didn’t originally plan to omit them. However, those blasted crosses kept getting in my way when I framed shots, and I got irritated. Hint to cosplayers: pick characters who don’t carry cumbersome props.

• There were a number of SOS-dan girls, but no Kyon that I saw. There was only one representative from Ouran, and not Haruhi, either. Most of the solar system Sailor Senshi were represented; only Mercury and Pluto were missing. What most surprised me was the number of girls with Chobits ears.

• The music CDs were tucked away in an awkward spot next to the yaoi doujinshi. I’ll freely admit that by some standards I am mildly eccentric, but yaoi fangirls are downright weird and a bit creepy.

* I managed not to spend much money, but I did pick up a few CDs. The soundtrack to Utena is, um, interesting. Much of it is standard film score fare — some orchestral stuff and chamber music, some pop and rock, a bit of new-agey drivel, synths, etc. — a bit better than average but not particularly memorable. But the second half is something else. It’s been compared to the Vienna Boys’ Choir singing with Megadeth, and that’s a fair description.
I also found the soundtrack to Jubei-Chan I, which I’ve been looking for. The score isn’t outstanding, but there are a few pieces I like, and most of them are included, e.g., the full-length version of Bantaro’s theme. There is also this:

• “Raw” format, in which the image as caught by the sensor of a digital camera is initially recorded before being converted to jpeg, is wonderful. The “SafeSync” I ordered so I can use my old strobes with my new camera still hasn’t arrived, and I had to make do with the on-camera flash. It wasn’t up to the job, and most of the jpegs were woefully underexposed. However, I saved most of the images in both jpeg and “nef” formats (”nef” is Nikon’s version of raw), and I was able to salvage every one of the raw images, even when the jpegs were hopeless.

According to my camera, this is picture #666. Make of it what you will.

I’ve finished formatting all the pictures possibly worth posting. There are 139 of them, though I probably will cull a few. With a little luck, I should get the pages of thumbnails assembled on Wednesday. Then I’ll finally have time to read, watch and write again. Next project: Princess Tutu.

Update: Here they are.

Update 2: Here’s a calendar using my AFW pictures. (25 megabytes.)

Cosplayer and mother (who made the costume).

(Read on …)

I found this in a hallway at Anime Festival Wichita today.

(Read on …)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the condensed version:

CHAPTER TWO: DURSLEYS’ HOUSE

HARRY does some room-cleanin’, some bleedin’, and some reminiscin’. He picks up the newspaper and gets a nasty shock.
RITA SKEETER: (in the interview) I’ve just completed a 900-page book on Dumbledore!
READERS: 900 pages? Jeez. She must have the same editors as Rowling.

By the same author: The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

Update: another condensed version.

The only kind of “moe” I really understand is Moe Howard. I’ve been trying to get a handle on moe as the term is used in the otakusphere, and I have been following Avatar’s reporting on this year’s Saimoe tournament, but I’m not sure that I grasp the concept (or that there is a concept there worth grasping). Let’s see if I have this right.

Moe.

Not moe. (From Oh! Edo Rocket)

Let’s try a subtler distinction.

Perhaps.

Probably not. (From Denno Coil)

Isako is possibly the most interesting character in any current series, but I think that she’s probably too intimidating to be truly moe.

Let’s see how far we can push the concept.

(Read on …)

… in real time.

From the comments:

Every marching band in the world has just been pwned by Samsung employees.

All my old websites will soon be disappearing. They’ll be gone in January, if not by October. I recently spent some time browsing my retired weblogs, copying posts that might be of interest to visitors here. I sorted them into sixteen categories and posted them as static pages. You can find the categories listed as “ancient texts” under the “more” heading in the sidebar. And here:

I also rescued the “boy or girl?” quiz and added a few more pictures, bringing the total number of questions to twenty. Those who know their traps should do well; the rest of us — well, the average score among my friends was two right out of fourteen in the earlier version.

(I may be experimenting with different themes in the near future. I don’t like the way the current one, “Gemini,” handles static pages, and I couldn’t find an obvious way to fix the problems.)

I just a note from my brother:

I’m getting a laptop tomorrow. Any recommendations?

I don’t use laptops, and if I did, they would be Macs, which I don’t think he is interested in. Does anybody have suggestions for him?