The Kawaii Menace

I don’t have interests or hobbies; I have obsessions. They usually progress like this:

Stage one: What’s this?

Stage two: This is kinda interesting. Let’s investigate it further.

Stage three: This is really interesting. It’s worth a little time and money.

Stage four: This is absolutely magnificent, wonderful stuff. Let’s spend every waking moment on it and annoy all my friends with my enthusiasm. Let’s max out the credit cards, too.

Stage five: This isn’t quite as much fun as it used to be.

Stage six: In fact, it’s starting to feel like work. Let’s do something else tonight.

Stage seven: What a waste of time. The hell with it.

Stage one: Hey, what’s that?

Not every obsession runs through every stage. Photography has oscillated between stages three and five for years and probably will continue to do so as long as I can hold a camera. On the other hand, I spent far too much time in the SCA, and I am very thoroughly burnt-out on that sort of historical re-creation. Don’t even mention Renaissance faires to me.

With respect to anime, I am currently at stage six. I’ve watched very little in the past few weeks, and what I have seen were old favorites, not new shows. I know I should be keeping up with Kaiba, and I would probably enjoy the recent episodes of Soul Eater if I bothered to launch VLC, but right now both look more like duties than pleasures. Rather than force myself to watch them anyway and guarantee reaching stage seven, I’m going to take a break from anime.

Perhaps I’ll spend the summer reading. There’s a whole generation of science fiction and fantasy writers that I haven’t yet seriously investigated, and at least two of them, Tim Powers and Neal Stephenson, are first-rate storytellers if what I’ve read is representative.

So, there’s not going to be much happening here for a while. I do have a few posts in mind, but I’m in no hurry to write them. I’ll be back when I’m back.

How Obama can win:

Hey, McCain has been ignoring the catgirl vote throughout the primaries, I say Obama should take advantage of this. As a matter of fact, a strong anti-tentacle monster platform would bring in both the catgirls and the Lolis. He could then show show his strength on defense by committing to a crash course of giant robot development. All he would need at that point would be a promise of combat training for all nubile young schoolgirls and he would have the entire geek vote locked up.

On a related note, here’s the most frightening title I’ve heard in a while: The Melancholy of Hillary Rodham.

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That other dealer has Geneon merchandise on sale. Haibane Renmei, Someday’s Dreamers and others are going for $5 per disc, and this time there’s no minimum order.

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Via Pixy, sophisticated technology in the service of sheer silliness:

And some Leeky Star:

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Stranger than anime: the operatic guide to dating.

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Yoshitoshi ABe will be in Minnesota in September. It’s a bit out of bicycle range for me, unfortunately.

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Update: No. No. No. No. No. No.

Who has “an almost Buddhist sense of nothingness”?

(Read on …)

The good news: Not only can I walk (albeit slowly, and with a cane), but as of today I can ride my bike again.

The bad news: Posting here will continue to be spasmodic. I plan to walk and bike as much as possible for the next several weeks to regain strength and flexibility. Other recreations, including anime, are going to be low priority for a while. Of the current series, I will probably keep up only with Kaiba and perhaps Soul Eater. I’ll catch up with Allison and Lillia and the other shows of interest later this summer. I recently ordered the Fantastic Children boxed set, which I’ll probably marathon the weekend after it arrives, and that’s the only older series I will look at this spring.

Speaking of Soul Eater: a commentor wonders how I can find Toshokan Senkou unwatchable because of Kasahara yet enjoy Soul Eater, in which the male characters are “1000% more stupid and irritating than her.” There are three quick responses:

1. There’s only one nitwit in Soul Eater, Black Star. Soul Eater is a competent enough, and Death the Kid is a mental case, not a moron. If Soul Eater were just the Black Star show, one episode would have been plenty, but that’s not the case.
2. Toshokan Sensou and Soul Eater are different kinds of shows. The latter is much more farcical, and what is annoying in one context can be funny in another.
3. Don’t ever accuse me of consistency.

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Recent search strings:

tomo takino feet
kawaii stalin
bishie mussolini
britney spears mushi
kawaii religion

If you can explain any of these, please keep it to yourself. I don’t want to know.

This one

or this one?

There’s a clue here.

… not to mention Romi Paku. Now I’m really impatient to see Kaiba.

Update: Really, really impatient.

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Psgels gave Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z the surprisingly high score of 88/100. Last night I was in the mood for something silly and frivolous, so I watched the first few episodes. Well, it’s really silly and frivolous. How silly is it? The girls, Hyper Blssom, Rolling Bubbles and Powered Buttercup, and their arch-enemy, the talking monkey MojoJojo, interrupt their battles for ice cream breaks. Tomboy Buttercup catches a cold from wearing the mahou shoujo short skirt. I posted an excerpt from the first episode on the video weblog that might give you an idea of the show’s flavor. It’s not something I could stand to watch much of at a time, but in small doses it’s agreeably ridiculous.

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I also posted a four-minute excerpt from Iblard Jikan, which I mentioned earlier.

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I spent the morning at the hospital getting a three-inch screw removed from my ankle. I can now put weight on my left leg, and this afternoon, for the first time this year, I walked. It will take a few weeks to regain full use of the ankle, but at least I can return the wheelchair to the shop now.

Today marks three anniversaries. The Kawaii Menace is one year old. Note that it’s not my first anime weblog. It was preceeded by the defunct Beware the Kawaii, begun on April 19, 2006. The curious can find a selection of the less-embarrassing posts from the earlier weblog in the sidebar listed under “ancient texts.”

It was five years ago today that I began my first weblog, Mixolydian Mode. It focused on music, books, the decline of civilization, and silliness. At that time I hadn’t yet seen any anime beyond Miyazaki,¹ and it wasn’t until I discovered Serial Experiments Lain a year later that I began writing about anime. Eventually my posts on anime threatened to overwhelm the rest of the blog, so I started Beware the Kawaii, devoted to animation, Japan and women with blue hair. Mixolydian Mode is defunct now, replaced a year ago today by Scuffulans hirsutus.

1. I did see Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke a long, long time ago, but I was very young then. [↩]

Studio 4°C has posted a trailer for Genius Party Beyond. It looks like a mixed bag, but the range of styles should hold my interest. I figure that the chances of either of the Genius Parties being licensed for region 1 are close to nil.

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I used to be a busy costumer back when I active in the SCA. I sewed mainly for myself, and I still have a closet full of 14th- and 15th-century clothes, most of which I can’t fit into anymore. When I became interested in anime, I naturally was curious about cosplay.

I discovered that there are significant differences between the historical recreationist and the anime universes. Costumers in the SCA have 1,000 years of fashion to draw upon. No matter what your age or shape is, there is something elegant for you to wear in any period, and there are plenty of options for both men and women. Cosplay, however, is the province of the young and thin, and females have a definite advantage.¹

There’s also a greater degree of freedom in SCA costuming. If you could document the elements and show that the combination was plausible in a particular time and place, you could design a outfit to suit your fancy, and that was fine. In cosplay, however, you try to duplicate a particular outfit as closely as possible. There’s far less room for idiosyncratic variation.

I’m not all that young and skinny anymore, so, rather than turn stomachs, I stick to photographing good costumes. (It’s probably just as well, though I’d be interested in sewing for someone with a better figure if I could find a willing victim (and the time).) I enjoy good cosplay photography, so I was interested to learn today that the cosplay magazine Cosmode has announced a bilingual, sorta, online version. There’s a preview here. The gimmick is that, although the Japanese text remains unchanged, you can read translations by positioning your mouse over a block of text. I don’t know if it’s worth the subscription price, but I’ll probably check out the free first issue.

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Today’s quote:

Anime titles are eminently sensible, fairly representing their content. I mean, who can look at titles like these without knowing exactly what they’re about: DearS, Angelic Layer, All-purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku-nuku, Bubblegum Crisis, FLCL, Chobits, Cutie Honey, Green Green, Bleach, Kiddy Grade, Divergence Eve, Dirty Pair, Hyper Police, Happy Lesson, Club-to-Death Angel L’il Skull, Mysterious Hats of Twin Princesses, Excel Saga, G-on Riders, Lime-colored War Stories, Gals!, and of course, Mai Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment. (only four of these are translations, the rest are the original titles…)

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A few non-anime links of note:

Blogging is a hazardous occupation.
The patron saints of graphic design.
The fifty most powerful blogs (yeah, right). None of them are about anime.
(Via TSO and MCNS.)

1. I once saw a picture of an “Ah, My Goddess” group, with girls in pretty robes and a guy in street clothes. It took me a moment to realize that he was in costume, too, as Keiichi. [↩]

Media Blasters has rescued Seirei no Moribito. Further good news: the first novel in the series that Moribito is based on is scheduled to be published in June. The series also will be shown on Cartoon Network. I look forward to apoplectic reactions from the “meat is murder” crowd when the twentieth episode airs.

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Quote of the week:

As regards Go Nagai, I’m not sure that the creator of Kekko Kamen and Cutey Honey is really the father [of anime] we want to acknowledge. He’s more like the creepy uncle who goes around wearing the trench coat.

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So far, the only upcoming series I plan to watch is Allison to Lillia. The main reason, of course, is that it is based on books by Keiichi Sigsawa, the creator of Kino no Tabi. I recently discovered that the opening and closing themes feature the Kuricorder Quartet, who, as the Kuricorder Pops Orchestra, did the music for Azumanga Daioh.

Update: Astro has posted the opening.

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A few notes on the Anime Blog Awards before I drop the subject forever:

1. As I mentioned before, Rule #10 disqualifies me from participating:

10. You do not have to nominate blogs for all the categories. However, you are required to fill in at least 9 nominations in 9 different categories in order for your nomination to be accepted.

Let’s see: I don’t read manga; I don’t obsess over particular seiyuu; I’m not interested in fan art, doujinshi or visual novels; I don’t collect figurines; my main sources of anime news are not blogs; and, for humor, satire and comics, I’m too spoiled by David Burge, Randall Munroe and their peers to have much interest in their otakusphere counterparts. That leaves at most eight categories in which I might be able to make knowledgeable nominations. Owen, in a comment on my earlier post, says

I got clarification: it’s a guideline, not an absolute rule. It was made in order to scare off those who’d vote in like 1-2 categories for 1-2 people or something. Perhaps you have like 5, 6, 7 potential nominations? That’s fine.

That implies that there are two sets of rules, the official ones posted on the site, and the real rules, which are secret. If that’s the case, then I’m really not interested in being part of this.

2. The categories are rather arbitrary. I can think of several not included that I would rather have seen than some listed, and I expect that you can, too. The worst omission: there should have been a category for “best reviews.” The single most useful service an anime blogger can do is to identify what’s worth my time and explain why. Those who are good at it deserve recognition.

3. The list of blogs nominated so far suggests that the inhabitants of this region of the otakusphere are rather parochial. The awards are popularity contests and you’re inevitably going to see the same sites over and over, but I expected a broader range of nominees. Many of the sites I find most interesting were still missing from the lists last time I checked. Surely I’m not the only one who finds the infrequent updates at AniPages Daily worth the wait. There was exactly one nomination for a mee.nu blog. There is one site in particular I have in mind whose absence from four of the listed categories is inexplicable and renders the competition meaningless (not that that particular blogger gives a damn).

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Nick has posted a collection of short works by Makoto Shinkai on his site.

So now there are Anime Blog Awards. Too bad I can’t participate. According to the rules, “… you are required to fill in at least 9 nominations in 9 different categories in order for your nomination to be accepted.” Unfortunately, there aren’t nine categories of anime weblogs with which I am familiar enough to make nominations. Thanks a lot, guys. I notice also that there is no category that applies to The Kawaii Menace, no “most eccentric,” “most frivolous” or “most desultory.”

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One more peculiar search term: “maoist anime.” I can’t think of any series offhand that reflects that point of view, and I’m not particularly interested in finding one. However, if you’d like a maoist interpretation of an anime, here’s a review of Serial Experiments Lain:

A further serious flaw in “Lain:” it makes no references to reality outside of imperialist-countries. The decadence of imperialist society is not just a matter of internal ennui, violence, and f******-up gender relations: it’s also predicated on the imperialists’ oppression and exploitation of the colonies and neo-colonies. “Lain” assumes all of humynity can connect to “the wired.” In our world, less than 10% of the world’s population has internet access (619 million of 6.23 billion).(1) For that matter, countries like Afghanistan, Burma, and Liberia have less than one telephone line per 100 population, and only 28% of India’s population has access to improved sanitary facilities.(2)

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Garfield minus Garfield. (Via Eve Tushnet.)

Every time I check the search phrases that lead surfers here, I learn once again that there are some really strange people in the world. Most frightening recent query: “‘president aria’ image gallery hentai.” Then there’s “keroro gunso doujinshi yaoi download.” Yaoi is distasteful enough when it involves humans. Let’s leave the frogs alone, okay?

Other search phrases from the past few weeks worth noting:

shounen comedy martial arts romance action fantasy ecchi harem schoolkids anime — Could you be more specific, please?
bleah — I agree
how to be haruhi
crunchy vs smooth peanut butter personality variables
nekomimi quartet
autistic catgirl
jack the ripper was autistic
sailor moon as a religion — it beats Scientology
transforming boys into girls — there’s a bit too much of that going on
creamed colored precalculus textbooks
are you kawaii or kowai?
kowai clothing
paranoia agent sounds like strawberry fields forever — not really, though “Maromi’s Theme” is a good lullaby for psychotics
rube goldberg clothes in basket
cyberpet adoptions japan wolves

And more variations on the usual theme:

kawaii crimson
kawaii closed roads
kawaii in chicago
kawaii badger
kawaii weather in june
kawaii horror

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Another item for the “ducks in anime” file:

Ten’s spaceship in episode 2a of Urusei Yatsura.

Things I’d like to see:

Dirty Pair TV: This should have been licensed ten or twenty years ago along with the OVAs and the movies, but there isn’t even a fansub currently available for most episodes.

Yasutaka Tsutsui: Salmonella Men on Planet Porno demonstrates that he is at the very least a capable satirist, but almost none of his books have been translated into English. The recent films Paprika and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo were based on novels by Tsutsui. In the former case, the orginal was probably better.

Divergence Eve and Misaki Chronicles: I’d like to see a remake, with the same script and cast, but without the pointless fanservice, and with better computer graphics. It’s a pity that one of the best science fiction stories in anime looks like porn.

Petitnone: This was a short CD included as a bonus with the third disc of the Japanese edition of Haibane Renmei. If one were to add some of remaining uncollected background music, such as the solo harpsichord in the third and fourth episodes, the resulting disc would be worth releasing in its own right.

Binchou-tan: One of the very few series that deserve good English dubs. This is an excellent show for small children, but most haven’t learned to read subtitles yet.

Kino no Tabi, vol. two and beyond: Evidentally there’s a licensing snafu and the rest of the books may not be released here after all (see Astro’s note on the previous post). This is criminal.

Ribon no Kishi: Besides its historical importance as the first shoujo anime and, if I remember correctly, the first anime series produced in color, the first episode is also quite lively, looks good and promises an interesting story. Yet the first episode is is all I’ve ever found.

Bandai Visual: Hurry up and go bankrupt, please, before you license anything else I want to see.

Vocaloid: Please port this to Macintosh so I can annoy people with Hatsune Miku.

Alfred J. Kwak: The first four episodes were subbed last year, but there haven’t been any more for several months now. This looks like another good show for kid and adults.

The KuriCorder Quartet: Masaki Kurihara composed and performed the music for Azumanga Daioh with his KuriCorder Pops Orchestra. He has released many other recordings in Japan, none of which are available in the west. The music he wrote for Yotsuba&! is as good as that for AD, and I’d like to hear more.

Mojos: I’m not really into plushies, but I wouldn’t mind a couple of Isako’s helpers to sit on top of the monitor. While we’re at it, let’s have a Guchuko plushie for Steven. (Densuke and Oyaji plushies are available in Japan but not here.)

It has nothing to do with anime or Japan, but it’s such a heart-warming image I couldn’t resist posting it.

(From here, via Lynn.)

I’m not in the mood for deep thought and critical analysis, so here are the annual Kawaii Menace Anime Awards.

Best idiot, male: Isaac Dian, Baccano!
Best idiot, female: Miria Harvent, Baccano!
Least enviable magical (or quasi-magical) ability: Sawaki’s in Moyashimon
Most noble dog: Densuke, Denno Coil

Best spacesuits: Rocket Girls
Best resident deus ex machina: Oh! Edo Rocket
Most accurate botany: Mokke
Worst animated vehicle: Rocket Girls

Best battle: episode four, Denno Coil (Runner-up: episode three, Seirei no Moribito)
Most shameless almost-but-not-quite plagiarism: Oh! Edo Rocket OST
Best opening song: Mayumi Kojima, “Poltergeist,” Ghost Hound
Best ending song: Polysics, “Rocket,” Moyashimon
Best completely extraneous musical number: episode ten, Oh! Edo Rocket
Ugliest musician: episode four, Mononoke
Most popular current series I haven’t the slightest interest in: Clannad
Best fusion of kawaii and kowai: Guchuko, Potemayo
Worst behavior from good kids: Manabi Straight opening

… and others as I think of them. Later. Right now I’m heading back to bed.

Addendum:
“Kids Say the Darndest Things” award: Czeslaw’s request of Ladd, Baccano!
Best show for children and adults: Mokke
Best choreography: Lucky Star opening

Some good news for Steven: it looks like there are plans for a Strike Witches TV series. I’m ambivalent, myself. The eight-minute OVA was perfect in its way (and perfectly absurd); a regular series, even if done well, is going to seem diffuse in comparison.

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I’ve got the week off. I’ve been reading Diana Wynne Jones rather than than watching anime, though, so I don’t have much to report. I have noticed that many recent visitors find this weblog through searches involving the terms “gothic,” “lolita,”, “Kei” and “Moyashimon,” which makes me apprehensive about the second half of the series. I suppose Kei does look a bit girlish, but I doubt that he’ll be as charming as Aspergillus. (If I were to tell a young woman that she’s as cute as a fungus, would she understand that I mean it as a compliment? Probably not.)

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We have an uncommon event here in Wichita: a white Christmas. That happens maybe once in ten years.

I considered posting a tune from the Sailor Moon Christmas albums today, but I’m not sure that punishing your readership is a good idea. If you would like to hear some less-familiar Christmas carols, there are some MIDIs on my other weblog.

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Not anime, but geeky: mathematical needlework; crocheting a Sierpinski triangle; a how-to book, with projects and papers. (The first link may be slow to load.)

3,500 Nutcracker pictures. Gah. I’ve gone through them all, selected the best and cropped and edited them and burned a stack of CDs for the dancers and crew, and I am done, done, done. Life can return to what passes for normal around here. Maybe I can even watch some anime. (The morbidly curious can see a selection of the pictures here.)

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Congratuations to Avatar.

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What happened to Astro? (Update: he’s back, sorta.)

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I probably will add Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to my “buy” list. I did watch the first two episodes and was not entirely unimpressed. Since this was a Gainax series, though, I decided to wait until it completed its run and see what the final word was before investing any more time in it. By all accounts the show succeeded on every level and is probably one of the best of the year.

I can’t resist posting the Gurren Lagann Jack:

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Every time I hear someone say “Ohayo,” I have a strange urge to reply, “Illinois.”

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When I lived with my folks, I got stuck every year with taking down the Christmas tree, which by that time was thoroughly dried-out and prickly. It was not much fun. Since then, I have never had the slightest interest in putting up my own tree. However, if I were to decorate a Christmas tree, even though it’s utterly inappropriate, I would like to include a Belldandy angel among the ornaments.

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Sooner or later I’m gong to want to upgrade to a more recent version of WordPress. Before I do, however, I want to make sure that I can still post the occasional phrase in Japanese characters and not see “???.” When I upgraded my other weblogs, I lost this capabiity, even though the selected character set is still UTF-8. How can I make the Japanese look the way it’s supposed to?

It looks I’ll have to watch more of ef — a tale of memories. The visual novelties in the first episode were entertaining, but none of the characters seemed particularly interesting. However, several of the more thoughtful writers on anime are impressed with the series, and Author declares it the top pick of the fall, so perhaps I missed something.

I probably am a little too quick to dismiss the shows I sample. There are good reasons for being picky: there’s a lot out there, most of it is of average quality or worse, and I don’t have unlimited time. In general, the sooner I drop a show, the better. The danger is that I’ll dismiss something genuinely good because it doesn’t make a strong first impression. This may well be the case with ef. Shugo Chara might be another instance; I only made it through half of the first episode, but those who like it, like it a lot.

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While the fall offerings may be disappointing, overall this has been a decent year for anime. Five series so far are on my “buy” list should they be licensed: Denno Coil, Seirei no Moribito, Oh! Edo Rocket, Baccano! and Mononoke. In comparison, only three from last year made my list (Suzumiya Haruhi, Ouran and Muteki Kanban Musume). I’ll probably add Moyashimon unless the quality drops, though I don’t plan to buy the Aspergillus oryzae plushie.

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Update: Jonathan Tappan has been posting pictures from his vacation in Japan.

I haven’t had much time for anime or anything else recently, but I did manage to watch the first disc of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Good grief. I think I’ll watch Cat Soup again; that’s a model of clarity in comparison. I suppose everything will make sense in the end, but seven episodes into Utena, it’s absurdity upon absurdity, combined with swordfights, silliness, pointed chins and a minimal animation budget. Surrealistic though it is, it remains mostly on the right side of the line between silly and stupid, and I am curious to see if the writers do make ultimately something coherent out of the nonsense.

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Here are a few odd links. Click at your own risk.

A term I didn’t need to learn.

So kawaii.

I didn’t really need to see this. (Found it here.)

This is worth looking at.