Drastic My Anime Blog

By TheBigN(ext Best Thing?)

I noticed last week that according to statistics, there have been OVER 1000 comments on DMAB, which is still a large enough number as it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that collectively Nomad and I have about a fifth of the total comments collectively, but I wouldn’t think that’s a bad thing. It just notes that we’re very involved with this effort. I can’t lie that one of the many reasons why I do blog is my attention whorish quality of hoping that people look at what I say and get something from it (I’m not a saint, but who is and is living?). Seeing the amount of hits that DMAB gets makes me happy and keeps me motivated, since theoretically, someone is at least taking a look at what’s here and seeing what’s up (unless they are just one of the many who seem to come for the Yoko pic. You know which one. :3). But comments are more definitive in that notion, with people finding things interesting enough to respond, even if it’s just to say “lol nice/fail/Touhou/Hrothgar post”.

Continue reading ‘A Grand of Comments’

Written by TheBigN

Lelangir’s post on how memberships are less “well-defined” as we think they are (or at least, that’s what I thought he was trying to say :P) made me wonder about why we place so much value into that in the first place. I don’t have the answer to that, nor do I plan on trying to explain what sets up this information, as I feel like I lack the proper information to be able to attempt to pull one off (nor is BS the way to go).  But with things like the amount of content generated just from the idea of the Round Robin discussion… group… thingy (which I helped out a wee little bit with), we can see that there’s a lot of opinions focusing on the idea of inclusion, separation, and all things that go with “separating” people into two or more different categories.  When looking at myself, I find that where I’m placed or I place myself is based on my life, blah blah blah all that jazz. But I’m also starting to find that when applying this to the animeblogosphere, these categories make me feel a little guilty, whether it’s justified or not. As Marmot had commented on another of my posts, apparently being insecure is part of the shtick that comes with being an anime fan (yay for more compartmentalization!), but I feel that I’m becoming too neurotic about this, as seen by the examples below. But let’s begin (the killing time).

Continue reading ‘No One Ever Is To Blame… But Myself’

By Nomad(Is not a Noodle Person)Otto

So, Code Geass. Code Geass is nowhere near as polarizing a show as Lucky Star way in its heyday (the hate generated by that show was like 5 times funnier than the show itself), but it’s still a show that has two major camps about it. I’ve been in both camps, but, as of watching episode 5 in season 2, I’m pretty far into the pro-Geass camp. It may seem really weird that my attitude towards a show would swing wildly within three episodes, but, there’s a method to my madness. In the case of Geass, the three episode swing happened from the last episode of the first season to the second episode of the new season. Given that there’s a huge (as far as “Nomad Arbitrary Time Units”) time gap between the two seasons, it’s not as weird as it could have been, but, still, going from liking the show to hating it to liking it again was a big swing, something I feel I need to justify. Jolly good, see you below the fold:

Continue reading ‘Code Awesome: Nomad of the Bloggers’

Written by TheBigN

So if you’ve been reading this blog, you might have noticed that I have a thing for ARIA. In this case, you should excuse my saying that RightStuf is my favorite licenser at the moment, as other bloggers have noted with this annoucement. ARIA has been one of the titles that I’ve wanted licensed in the US since I first started caring about that sort of thing years ago, so I’m really happy that this came through (Now go Hidamari Sketch! Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! Futakoi Alternative!). And I hope that somehow I’m able to introduce this (in my opinion) wonderful world to others.

As if Akari needs any extra help in the first place.

ARIA BANZAI!

Continue reading ‘Who, What, Where, Which?’

Continue reading ‘Anime Boston, Wolf and Spice, and more Economics’

Written by TheBigN

Another example of why I’m a hypocrite:

Continue reading ‘A Minor Gripe: Soo Nan De-su Ker?’

By (The Myth, the Man, the Legend) Nomad Otto

So, I’ve previously made disparaging comments about the state of Shounen Jump, with the exception of One Piece. I should probably begin by clarifying my earlier comments. When I say “Shounen Jump sucks except for One Piece, Jojo’s and Death Note,” what I really mean is “For anyone over the age of say, 15, Shounen Jump sucks except for One Piece etc.” The reason why I feel the need to put the age exemption in there is because Shounen Jump is fundamentally for young boys, say, from the ages of 6 to 16ish, and is written with that end in mind. One doesn’t mock children’s literature for being childish, that’s the point. There is a possibility of narrative depth and deeper understanding in some children’s literature (see JRR Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories for some background) , but, that’s a super added bonus, not a requirement.

Once one’s tastes mature, and when one looks for more depth in works, Shounen Jump is quite insufficient, this is mostly because Shounen Jump is run for the sake of making large sums of money, and, so, pretty much everything that runs in it suffers from an extended middle, or “pot belly.” Traditionally (by this, I mean Aristotle said so), stories consist of a beginning, followed by rising action, leading to a crisis, which then is resolved and produces falling action. However, the traditional formula has been changed successfully to accommodate longer form media, which cannot have a single climax, or, rather, which is able to create multiple points of impact. The Shounen Jump format admits rising action, and even temporary climaxes, but cannot ever allow for an ending, because then the property will cease to be profitable. Because I like graphs, here’s an example below:

Continue reading ‘Why One Piece Doesn’t Suck’