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.

Don’t click here, either.

*****

A couple of silly links:

Another example of silhouette animation, this one recounting the avian terror in Clerkenwell.

If you play Dungeons and Dragons, stay out of prison in Wisconsin.

show

(Via Dustbury.)

•••••

In case there’s anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, here’s the best Touhou video I’ve seen in a while:

*****

Catholic News Service apparently didn’t think to google the name they chose for their multimedia service.

1. Underwear goes under your other clothing.¹

2. Heath Ledger’s Joker might be a great character, but the makeup is ugly.

3. Please don’t shriek when you’re standing next to me.

4. An all-ages anime convention is not an appropriate place to lead your pet about on a leash.

5. Please don’t stage large group photos in the middle of congested hallways.

1. And a bath towel cape looks really stupid.

heresy is not kawaii
gurren lagann knitting
cowboy bebop knitting
knitting anime themes
ponyo on a stick
sailor moon cardboard cutout
a religion based off of sailor moon
canzoni kawaii
languid gay charles solomon
gender critics are idiots
anime girl wolf boy frog
haruhi peanuts
kawaii the murderer pics
safe for work babes
oink supervisor

There were a few that make me glad that I am unlikely ever to meet the searchers:

anime manly girls
armpit hair pictures
kawaii tentacle monster

*****

Anime cosplayers are normal, sane people — at least compared to these.

Via Steven, who recently discovered Pokémon. (Update: note the third-place item in this list.)

Ubu, meanwhile, has discovered RahXephon. In a comment at Ubu’s place, Avatar confirms what I had suspected:

RahXephon was a show where we constructed a couple of really elaborate theories that explained everything, wrote off to Japan with a “so which one is it, we need to know for the translation”, and got back “huh? We did all those things because they looked cool.”

*****

I recently watched the first two episodes of El Hazard: The Magnificent World. Good grief. Here’s our hero:

I really wonder sometimes: do Japanese boys want to be girls? If you think I’m exaggering, count the thumbnails on this graphic:

The first El Hazard OVA was written by Ryoe Tsukimura. He also wrote the scripts for the first Tenchi Muyo! movie and the many UFO Princess Valkyries. They have their moments, but they’re all essentially anime junk food. Most of the rest of Tsukimura’s output looks similarly undistinguished. However, he does have one classic to his credit, Noir, which was his idea and his script. In this, he reminds me of Kou Ohtani, a competent, unmemorable soundtrack composer who on one occasion exhibited afflatus.

*****

Since I closed nominations for the current poll, commenters have mentioned Ghost in the Shell, Tenchi Muyo GXP, Kimagure Orange Road, Spice and Wolf and Wolf’s Rain. The first has been mentioned twice (the second time in an email), so I’ll probably add it to the second round candidates. Would anyone care to second any of the other series?

Should Haibane Renmei be rated “R”?¹

(Via Strange Herring.)

1. Yeah, Haibane Renmei is not a “film.” The point remains.

And besides, I don’t really see how there could be such a thing as a “surge” in popularity for Light Novels; they’re basically just romance novels written for men, which is, uh, not a terribly large demographic here in America.

This is too imbecilic to let pass. “Romance novels” for men — absolute nonsense. A “light novel” is essentially the Japanese equivalent of an occidental “young adult” book. Fuyumi Ono and Nahoko Uehashi are counterparts of such writers as Diana Wynne Jones,¹ not Harlequin romance hacks.

1. One of my favorite writers. Her book Howl’s Moving Castle is far better than Miyazaki’s botch of a movie and is strongly recommended.

• When you make a movie from a novel, the challenge is to see how much you can jettison and still have a story that makes sense. Making a teevee series from a novel presents the opposite problem: how do you fill thirteen or twenty-six episodes with perhaps 250 pages’ worth of material? Kyoto Animation solved the problem in Suzumiya Haruhi by interpolating chapters from later books into the anime. Production I.G. may have done that with Moribito: several episodes in the middle of the series have no counterpart in the novel but are not jarringly out of harmony with the rest of the show. However, P.I.G.’s primary strategies were elaboration and invention. Characters who appear only briefly in the book become regulars in the anime. Scenes are developed in greater detail than in the book. Many incidents are invented, such as all the flashbacks to Chagum’s past. Overall, the writers did a good job; although several episodes in the middle could have been cut without damaging the story, only one really didn’t belong.

• The anime is nicer than the book. Everyone in the series means well.¹ Chagum, a decent kid in the book, is almost nauseatingly sweet in the anime’s flashbacks. In the anime, Chagum’s father is profoundly mistaken but not unsympathetic; in the book, his motivation, while understandable, makes him much less attractive.

• One of the premises of the book is that there is a parallel universe that occasionally impinges significantly on the human world. All the paranormal phenomena in the novel are developed from this notion. The anime introduces a more conventional, less interesting kind of magic when Balsa’s spear blade turns out to have a special property.

Both the book and the anime are worth your time. Both tell the same story. The novel is more focused and fast-moving; most readers will probably finish it in one or two sittings. The anime is more detailed, and the art and animation are lush.

Incidentally, the second book in Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito series will be available soon in English.

*****

Here are some other topics on my mind that I probably won’t write about any time soon:

• Christian elements constantly turn up in anime — apparently, nuns are as exotic to the Japanese as mikos are to Americans — but rarely does their use make much sense. It might be amusing to compile a catalogue of anime heresies.

• Is there any anime that every educated person should see — not just the animation enthusiast, but anyone who considers himself to be well-rounded culturally?

• What is it about Sailor Moon? There are innumerable mahou shoujo/sentai shows out there, from Tokyo Mew Mew to Wedding Peach to the multitudinous Pretty Cures, and every single one is superior to the chronicles of the Sailor Senshi. However, aside from the parody Magical Project S, I’ve never gotten more than a few episodes into any of them. Yet I did watch the entire first season of Sailor Moon (not to mention two of the movies and several of the musicals as well), and not just because of sheer stubborness. What did Takeuchi and Toei get right that everyone else missed?²

• Is every man, woman and child in Japan a pervert?

(Apparently so:

The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs has awarded loli pantsu anime Strike Witches a ringing endorsement, in the form of an official recommendation. (NSFW)

Here’s further evidence.)

*****

I expected that Evangelion would be an easy winner in the current poll, but at this moment Naruto is only one point behind.

Update: Naruto takes the lead.

*****

The palisenians, making no headway in their campaign against fruit beverages, have now declared war on anime sites.

Addendum: Cute makes right.

1. There are a couple of exceptions, but one doesn’t belong in the story and the other is confined to flashbacks.
2. Over a decade after the last episode of Sailor Stars was broadcast, Sailor Moon is still a popular cosplay. I put a recent example on my puzzle site.