The Kawaii Menace

While going through this month’s search terms, I noticed a theme:

kawaii watches
criticisms of kawaii culture
kawaii car stuff
kawaii room maker
couple kawaii hat
how to be kawaii
kawaii oak panio
teenage kawaii
kawaii camera
kawaii sequencer
kawaii computer
kawaii software
english clothes kawaii
chicago kawaii
kawaii multiply theme
kawaii comments
kawaii culture

Also:
japan fake reality cute
silly japanese cute words

Some kowai searches:
jewish anime
why is jackson pollock named jack the ripper
hello kitty boots without socks
dokuro chan costume prop — Don’t. Just don’t.
when did solomon become a satanist
horribly good saki
asian bluegrass metal — Something like God of Shamisen?
miss mune mune costumes — You probably shouldn’t, even if (particularly if) you have the figure.
paprika ubik — There’s a term paper here.
bartok lambda calculus music
rock critics are idiots — Obviously.
chicken dance accordion — Be careful what you search for. You might find it.

I’ve just added Seven of Seven to my buy list (though it will have to wait awhile):

Another thing that’s interesting is that they’re using a lot of Scott Joplin in the soundtrack. I think it works, too. It’s refreshing, and it does tend to support a light feel to the show. Joplin isn’t ponderous and certainly isn’t slow or depressing.

I used to play Joplin half a lifetime ago when my fingers were in shape. Using his music in the soundtrack could backfire, of course. I hated The Sting partly because I disliked Hamlisch’s arrangements. I hope Yoshihisa Hirano uses the original piano scores.

Incidentally, while most of Scott Joplin is lively and cheerful, he did write a few slow pieces, e.g., “Solace,” and some of his later rags, while not depressing, do leave a bitter aftertaste, e.g., “Scott Joplin’s New Rag.”

To put the recent news concerning Geneon in perspective, here are some of the titles on my shelves with a Geneon (or Pioneer) label:

Haibane Renmei
Serial Experiments Lain
Cardcaptor Sakura
Someday’s Dreamers
Sugar, a Tiny Snow Fairy
Paranoia Agent
Ah! My Goddess Movie
Kamichu!
Magical Project S

… not to mention Bottle Fairy, both copies of which I bought I sent to nephews and nieces, and others on my shelves I haven’t watched yet.

That’s three of my personal top five and many more of my favorites. Geneon peddled a lot of crap, but the number of first-rate titles they released more than compensates for the garbage.

I wonder if the “pre-licensed” Seirei no Moribito ever will actually be available in America?

One of the pleasures of Dai Mahou Touge is watching Punie and Paya-tan, her mascot, instantly transform from cutesy and playful to utterly ruthless, and back again. Paya changes seiyuus when he makes the transition. I thought Dark Paya sounded familiar, and I was right; he is voiced by Jouji Nakata, who is Giroro in Keroro Gunsou.

I’m surprised at how little attention DMT has received, despite its being one of the better examples of animated black humor. Once again, if Steven hadn’t spotted it, I’d have missed it. Why has this been ignored, while Dokuro-chan, which you couldn’t pay me to watch, has been endlessly discussed and now has a sequel?

*****

Not anime, but geeky: U.N. Secretary General or Star Wars character?

*****

Also not anime but still geeky: A new idea for a first-person shooter.

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And finally, a word from Shunpei:

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Bonus link: Put down the duckie. (Via the LLamas.)

*****

Update: Congratulations to Avatar.

Steven’s recent discovery reminds of the punchline of an old Koren cartoon: (said of a movie) “The sex wasn’t much, but the violence was wonderful.” I don’t have much to add to what Steven says, except to note that there are also four brief omake episodes. Punie takes her friend Tetsuko on a visit to Magic Land. It is indeed the kind of place that Punie would call home. I’ve posted the opening of Dai Mahou Touge on my video weblog.

*****

Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice, a.k.a. Tweeny Witches, has just been licensed. I watched the first several episodes a year or so ago and wasn’t sure what I thought of it. It certainly has a distinctive Studio 4°C look, but the main character is nearly as fatuous as Fuura Kafuka. People who like the series like it a lot, though, so I may give it a second chance.

I do like the closing theme. Here’s the full-length version, sung by KOTOKO. You might recognize the melody.

Some bloggers recently have reminisced about the origins of their addictions. I might as well, too.

I don’t watch television. At all. Consequently, I never saw Dragonball or any other Japanese imports. I did once come across a mention of something called “Sailor Moon” in a newspaper. It sounded dumb. Nor have I ever been a gamer of any kind, unless you count chess. Final Fantasy means nothing to me. If there ever were any “good old days” of anime, I missed them.

Some years back I read a review of a movie called Princess Mononoke. It looked interesting, and Neil Gaiman had worked on the English script. I made a mental note to see it if it ever came to Wichita. It didn’t.

Time passed. I discovered that one of my musical friends was an aficionado of Japanese animation from ‘way back, and he had a copy of Princess Mononoke. (He also has an impressive collection of anime cels, including some from Porco Rosso.) The movie was terrific, even with the English dub, and I asked him for more to watch. Most of what he brought by was disappointing — e.g., Those Who Hunt Elves (not recommended) — but I did discover the original Dirty Pair and Martian Successor Nadesico.

Meanwhile, I read every entry on every anime review site I could find. After sifting through hundreds, thousands of reviews by plainly unreliable writers, I settled upon Serial Experiments Lain as my first purchase. It was as good as Princess Mononoke, and utterly different. Ghost in the Shell followed. Some time after that I discovered that Steven Den Beste also saw that Lain was something exceptional. I finally had found a writer on anime whom I could take seriously. (I’ve found a few more since then. See the blogroll.)

I eventually started a weblog devoted to anime in addition to my main one (you’re reading its successor). A little over three years ago, one of my acquaintances from the SCA organized an anime festival in Wichita and an anime club. I’ve furnished most of the videos the club views at its rare meetings.

This isn’t quite the full story, though, and Princess Mononoke wasn’t the first anime I ever saw. That title belongs to Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke, released in the USA before the last ice age as “Magic Boy.” It was the greatest movie I had ever seen. It blew away everything by Walt Disney. Then I saw Forbidden Planet, and that was the greatest movie ever made, and I forgot about Magic Boy until my discovery of Miyazaki many years later.

GreyDuck recently posted nearly an hour’s worth of his favorite music on his site. I thought I’d do something similar, in case anybody is curious about what I listen to. Here are nine tunes I like in batches of five and four. I picked mostly shorter tunes, so the total time is about twenty-two minutes. My tastes run toward the obscure and the eccentric (hence my interest in anime); if anyone recognizes more than one or two of these, I will be impressed. No matter how broad your tastes are, there is sure to be something here to annoy you.

Update: Identifications below the fold.

(Read on …)

The fall anime season is coming up, and members of the otakusphere are trying to decide which series to follow. (The only one I’m interested in at this time is Ghost Hound, because of the credentials of its creators. It may well be a botch, but if so, it will be an interesting botch.) You can read the press releases, watch the trailers and click all over the various websites, but ultimately there is no reliable way of telling how good a show is without watching some of it. However, I have found three criteria that help me narrow the list of candidates.

Possibly good:

1. Series based on novels. Examples: Crest/Banner of the Stars; Suzumiya Haruhi; Seirei no Moribito; Kino’s Journey (short stories in this instance, but still literature, not manga); possibly Oh! Edo Rocket, though I’m not sure which version came first.

2. Series reflecting one person’s vision. Examples: Haibane Renmei (Yoshitoshi ABe); Shingu (Tetsuo Sato); Denno Coil (Mitsuo Iso); Cardcaptor Sakura (Nanase Ohkawa (of CLAMP))

Probably lousy:

3. Series based on games. Examples: too numerous to mention. H-game conversions or RPG-based epics, they all stink. I have never watched more than a few episodes of any. (I would like to see more of the Waragecha Five from Master of Epic, though.)¹

Based on the first criterion, the series to check out in October are Rental Magica and Strait Jacket. I can’t tell from the write-ups I’ve seen if the second criterion applies to any of the new shows. The third criterion rules out at least half of the new crop. I have even less interest in the anime Clannad than I do in the band.

1. Sakura Wars TV might be an exception, though I quit part-way through the first episode. [↩]

The Ghost Hound website includes a “Word Shelf,” i.e., a glossary. As translated by Google, it is largely impenetrable. Here is one of the more lucid entries:

Existential Ghosts

The departed spirit in existence principle.

Rumor of the departed spirit that it appears in the pachinko store where the prefectural road paralleling is closed. Don’t you think? with what, the shadow man who does not have the face from the building being present, in the track/truck which runs road surface the plectrum and others you call the [re] [ru].
The 匡 happiness which designates such rumor as the ear, Taro, inviting trust, embarks on the elucidation of rumor.

Nevertheless, it is possible to glean some information about the back story from the page. Taro, presumably the protagonist, lives in water heaven town. Eleven years ago, when Taro was eight, there was a kidnapping involving his older sister and younger brother. The sister apparently was killed. Their father committed suicide shortly afterward. Or something like that. Chiaki J. Konaka wrote the script, so there is a fair chance that it will all ultimately make some sense.

The why of bishounen.

(Via Darwin Catholic.)

I’ve just redirected the tancos2.net domain name to point to the same nameservers as tancos.net. The change will take a few days to propagate, but soon all the links to my old sites will either be redirected here or return 404s. You will still be able to visit the old sites for a few weeks more by substituting “tancos2.pmachinehosting.com” for “tancos2.net” in the URLs. However, I am cancelling my old host before the next service renewal in October, and after that the old sites will be gone. If you’ve been coming here by way one of my old pages and you want to keep track of my obsessions, this is your cue to update your links.

So Pikachu is an agent of International Zionism:

Who: Saudi Arabia’s Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law

What: Denouncing the lovable Japanese cartoon characters as having “possessed the minds” of Saudi youngsters, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority banned Pokémon video games and cards in the spring of 2001. Not only do Saudi scholars believe that Pokémon encourages gambling, which is forbidden in Islam, but it is apparently a front for Israel as well. The fatwa’s authors claimed that Pokémon games include, “the Star of David, which everyone knows is connected to international Zionism and is Israel’s national emblem.” Religious authorities in the United Arab Emirates joined in, condemning the games for promoting evolution, “a Jewish-Darwinist theory that conflicts with the truth about humans and with Islamic principles,” but didn’t ban them outright. Even the Catholic Church in Mexico got into the act, calling Pokémon video games “demonic.”¹

(Via Jonah Goldberg.)

1. These Mexican Catholic officials obviously weren’t paying attention to the Vatican. [↩]

Astro’s back with a trailer for Ghost Hound. The production features alumni of Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost in the Shell (but apparently not ABe), and the show looks like essential viewing this fall.

From the Old Home Bulletin Board:

BTW, ABe shares our good taste. ^_^ At AnimeFest this weekend someone asked him what current anime series he likes. He said he didn’t get to watch more than a few because he is very busy, but the best one that he always watches is Dennou Coil. He said he was very impressed with the story, the animation, and the voice acting. Later in another panel he listed it as one of his three favorites of all anime. The other two were Miyazaki’s films and Ghost in the Shell ….

I’m back from my trip, but I’ve got a minor yet tedious project ahead and it’s still going to be a while before I have time for anime. Don’t expect much activity here for the next two weeks.

*****

Yesterday evening I was frazzled from travel and a long day getting caught up at work. I was in the mood for something pretentious and angsty, so I watched the first few episodes of Evangelion. It’s a bad sign when the least unsympathetic character¹ is the flakiest, and worse when the putative hero is a basket case. So, does it get better, or should I abandon it now?

Update: Rei isn’t “emotionless.” She’s dead. The hell with it.

*****

It won’t cure angst, but you can dance to it:
(Read on …)

1. other than the penguin [↩]

Hatune Miku, a “vocal android” suited for J-pop and anime songs, might be a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately, she’s Windows-only at this time. (The Vocaloid website doesn’t list a release date for the Mac AU version, but I can hope.)

Nobody’s favorite guitarist.

The passengers.