*****

I don’t know which is more depressing: the number I don’t recognize, or the number that I do.

(Via Anime Raku.)

Update: Raiga in the comments links to a spreadsheet with explanations.

*****

Naming your kids after anime characters is a dumb idea, but it’s no worse than calling them “Jimi Hendrix” and “Janis Joplin,” as did one erstwhile neighbor.

1. Yes, I know ways around this, but it’s still inexcusable. Also, every time I see the unskippable antipiracy notice, I feel a sudden strange urge to make illegal copies of every DVD I own.

Steven declared that he couldn’t stop laughing after the second episode of Asobi ni Iku Yo (spoilers), so I checked it out. There’s more fan service than I like, and it’s a bit too off-color to generally recommend, but otherwise it’s been fun. It looks like the story is will be pleasantly convoluted, with nearly every character representing various competing secret organizations, and I’m certainly not going to object if one of the central characters is a sweet, playful and competent catgirl.

If the series gets stupid or devolves into mere fanservice, I’ll drop it. However, this is one of the very few recent shows that have caught my interest, and I have hopes that the crew can maintain a high level of complicated absurdity through the remaining eleven episodes.

How much sense Asobi ni Iku Yo ultimately makes might depend on the translators. Compare these two versions of a moment in the second episode. Eris, the adolescent fantasy alien catgirl, is speaking to her human captor, who has the scent of dog on him.

Ayako & SubDESU:

Ayako & SubDESU

Team Zebraman:

Team Zebraman

Update: Here’s the clip in question. Would someone who understands Japanese please explain what exactly Eris says?

The previews for the third episode suggest that the Ayako/SubDESU version is more accurate. Note the entity in the lower right corner of this screen capture:

A thought: so far, no weapon has presented any real threat to Eris. What would happen if an enemy were to roll a ball of yarn in front of her at a critical moment?

*****

Steven also enjoyed Battle Programmer SHIRASE. Unfortunately, scarywater.net is defunct, and many older torrents are no longer available. Grr.

*****

Want a catgirl of your own? Visit the catgirl generator:

This brave catgirl has slitted, red eyes. She has neck-length, luxurious, curly, brown hair worn in an impractacal style. Her skin is pale, and she has brown fur with orange patches on her ears and tail. She has a voluptuous build. Her ears are alert. Her fashion preferences are best described as “as little as possible.” When she talks, she tends to use a lot of big words – and know exactly what they mean. (sic)

You can find many more generators here and here. (Does the world really need a “Bishotron“?)

Schrödinger’s Kitty.

“Nothing says ‘My Country, Long May She Wave’ more clearly than wrapping the American flag around the shapely hips and intimate parts of an Amazonian Princess, preferably with the American eagle grasping yet caressing her firm, large, shapely organs of matriarchy.”

“Well, Then, Maybe Now Is the Time“

It would have been nice if they’d worn sailor suits, but you can’t have everything.

(Via Terry Teachout and the Rat.)

Here’s a list of “20 Must-See Movies to Share with Your Kids.” There are some significant omissions. (And some questionable inclusions: e.g., the entire Disney 2D animation catalogue? Even in their glory days there were plenty of klunkers. And I’m sorry, Julie Andrews might have sung nicely, but even as a youngster I resented what Walt Disney did to Mary Poppins.)

*****

I see that there is going to be more To Love-Ru anime. Why?

*****

In case I have any readers here in Wichita: next week I plan to spend some time at Anime Festival Wichita. Look for a large, hairy non-cosplayer behind a camera.

*****

Iceland has been in the news a lot recently. It’s worth noting that Japan also has more than its share of entertaining geology. Sakurajima, for instance, has been putting on quite a show for decades.

This is an exciting time for geologists, by the way. African is splitting in two, and there will soon (i.e., in about 10 million years) be a new ocean where the rift zone is now. (Via Darwin.)

*****

I’m pleased that Funimation has rescued the ABe animes. Serial Experiments Lain is essential viewing for anyone with the slightest interest in cyberpunk, and everyone should see Haibane Renmei at least once during his lifetime. (Texhnolyze has been sitting on my shelf unwatched for over a year now. I’ll get around to it eventually.)

I’m also pleased to learn that I will finally be able to see the rest of Revolutionary Girl Utena. I just spent several minutes trying to think of any anime as strange as the first arc of Utena. Let’s see …. There’s Cat Soup, though that kinda, sorta makes sense; maybe Angel’s Egg; Mind Game; perhaps Yuasa’s other works — and that’s about it.

Via Jonathan T., Jonathan C. on “adapting” anime for western viewers.

*****

From kowai to kawaii: the Queen of Night’s aria, sung by Hatsune Miku:

Update: This aria (but not this particular “performance”) has been voted one of the top ten arias of all time. (Via Steven R.)

*****

Mono no aware: Steven Greydanus on the trailer for Tales of Earthsea:

Here is a mainstream Japanese animated film with a trailer that has an evocative, haunting power that eludes virtually the whole of American animation—and that’s just the trailer. And it’s not just American animation either, but pretty much the whole Hollywood machine. What was the last Hollywood box-office blockbuster that made you think of beauty, loss, longing and mystery? (Yes, other than The Lord of the Rings.)

Whether this particular film turns out to be good or not, it’s part of a cinematic culture that aims at, and sometimes achieves, something that isn’t even on the radar in Hollywood. This trailer reminds me of how I felt during the first five minutes of Howl’s Moving Castle, even though the film ultimately turned out to be a disappointment: Just the promise of the first five minutes, even a promise unfulfilled, was worth more than some American animation studios have delivered in whole films if not their entire outputs.

*****

American mecha: spiders for now, but eventually they’ll get to Gundams and EVAs (via the Borderline Sociopath):

*****

The Lelouch Lamperouge Picture Show: Is there such a thing as “anime camp”?

*****

I suppose it’s not that surprising that there is a large fanfiction community devoted to Ranma 1/2-Sailor Moon crossovers. Still, I did not expect to find a Sailor Ranko webcomic.

… and Cardcaptor Sakura is an old favorite, but I don’t think I’d ride an anime itachari like this around Wichita.

(Via Alafista.)

*****

John C. Wright previews his next novel, which features the Nine Samurai Vampire Warlocks of Kyoto. There may also be skin-tight latex nun suits.¹

*****

Care to propose a caption?

(Via Dustbury.)

1. Permitted as of Vatican II.

Here’s the culprit.

The website for Satoshi Kon’s current project is active. Yume-Miru Kikai looks like a significant departure from Kon’s previous work, at least visually, and unlike Paranoia Agent and Paprika, this “future folklore story” might be suitable for all ages.

An appreciation of the background art of Oh! Edo Rocket.

For anyone who’s ever said “Huh?” at a renaissance faire.

If you’re in the Minneapolis area, you can catch a performance of “A Christmas Carol” in Klingon. (Via Maureen the Suburban Banshee.)

A three-dimensional Mandelbrot set? (also via Maureen.)

Bored with caricaturing Roman Catholicism, manga artists have discovered the Eastern Orthodox.

An old interview with the late John Sladek I came across recently. Sladek, discoverer of the thirteenth sign of the zodiac (Arachne, May 13 to June 9),¹ was one of the last century’s best satirists and is of my favorite writers.

Meep.

Thinking about large numbers.

Keep an eye on those ducks:

Public service announcement: the complete Dirty Pair TV is out there, subtitled, if you know where to look.

1. For the morbidly curious, my own sign is “No parking — violators will be towed at owner expense.”

Several otherwise sane and sensible people recently have been posting their Champions Online or City of Heroes characters. I thought I’d check the games out. Fortunately for me, the former is Windows-only, but the latter does have a Mac client and a free trial period, so that’s how I spent a couple of lunch hours this past week. (Actually, I spent the first lunch twiddling my thumbs while the client downloaded nearly three gigabytes of additional content — if I had realized that it would do that, I wouldn’t have bothered.) It is fun to play with the character creator; you can make a (rather skanky-looking) schoolgirl, which isn’t possible with such sites as Hero Machine. The game itself, though, looks as dull as every other MMORPG I’ve visited, as far as I could judge from the tutorials (I tried both the heroic and villainous options). It’s nifty to design colorful avatars, but “jogging heroically” to fight random enemies is tedious. I’d rather listen to music —

— which is what I do in Second Life. My initial impressions of SL were rather negative, and if you want to find intelligent people to discuss anime with, you’ll do better hanging around Steven’s place. But there is lots of music there, some of it good, and there are other people with tastes as wide-ranging as mine. It’s possible to stream music from your computer to sites within Second Life, which I’ll be doing Saturday evenings for while. If you have a SL account, stop by Grizzy’s Café between 6 and 8 p.m. SL time (i.e., California time; between 8 and 10 p.m. in the central USA time zone). Tonight I’ll be playing very miscellaneous Japanese music, from Yoko Kanno to Hatsune Miku.

There is a tremendous range of ready-made avatars available in Second Life, such as this Super S Sailor Moon (to my eye, the most elegant of all mahou shoujo costumes). You can also design your own from scratch, if you're handy with Photoshop and virtual 3-D manipulation.

*****

I’ve sampled some random examples from the fall anime season. So far I haven’t finished a single episode. Surprisingly, the one I watched longest was Kämpfer, this season’s attempt to create the ultimate anime. Let’s see … we have

• high school students

• fighting
— with guns
— with swords
— with magic
(… but no forks)

• sailor fuku

• panties

• sexual ambiguity (question of definition: is a guy who actually changes to a girl truly a “trap”?)

• a meganekko

• henshin

• absolute territory

• .4 Rushunas — and that’s the hero. He also runs like a girl.

I hesitate to say whether there are any moeblobs or tsunderes in the show. I think one character qualifies on both counts, but that isn’t my field of expertise.

That’s in just the first fifteen minutes or so. There are also hints of a developing harem, a ridiculously powerful student government and perhaps a vast conspiracy. I expect future episodes will include copious steam. There are unlikely to be nekomimi, mecha or winged people, but I wouldn’t put it past the writers — it really is a silly show. Sad girls in snow are probably too much to hope for.

My only hope for the fall season is Kuuchuu Buranko, or Trapeze, whose crew includes Kenji Nakamura and Manabu Ishikawa of Mononoke.

*****

A couple of odd links:

A “green” F1 vehicle.

Carbon-free sugar.