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:

To begin with, I’d like to say that Geass has a number of really glaring flaws. Most important is the pander factor. A fairly sizable chunk of the show is basically a bone to throw to the fanboys (and girls), for example, the endless shots of Karen’s ass; also, Rollo, the Uke character. Lloyd and Suzaku weren’t enough, so, to complete the pairings, they added an Uke, as I am not a yaoi fangirl, my appreciation for this addition to the cast is somewhere between zero and minus eleven (hur hur). Furthermore product placement is fail and pisses me off a great deal. Finally, the shift from happy school life to terrorist plottings violates the “no more X episodes” rule that I discussed previously.

So, what’s to like about the show? Well, in my mind, it has three major threads that more than make up for the pizza-hut. First, there’s the symmetry between combatants. Second, there’s an inversion of the standard “winning by losing” trope. Last, but most important to me, is a solid dose of commentary about my favorite blood sport: power politics. None of these things alone is enough to overcome my annoyance at the weaknesses of Geass, but, together, they forge a sort of “black tri-thread” with enough power to execute a “jet stream attack” on my viewing habits (I blame this awful extended metaphor on the SRW I’ve been playing instead of writing for the blog or doing real work).

So, interchangeable combatants. It’s a common theme in “real robot” shows (like gundam) and it’s even started shown up in “super robot” shows with a non-trivial frequency. The basic idea is that the two sides aren’t that different, and, has circumstances been different, the warriors on one side could easily have been found on the other side. For example, in real history, a Robert E. Lee is seen by some as an example of this “if only things were different, we could have been friends” mentality (my two cents: treason in defense of slavery is not excusable). The suggestion, moreover, is that the real enemy is war itself.

It’s an interesting, if a little overdone, idea, but it’s not the idea that Geass advocates. in Code Geass, Lulu and Suzaku are friends who end up on opposite sides of a war. However, there’s a profound difference between the two, and between the sides they support. Lulu is supporting a bunch of terrorists, something I can’t imagine the “noble knight” Suzaku doing, while Suzaku deeply cares about his people, in contrast to Lulu, who isn’t a racist, but, at a basic level, doesn’t really care about the damn elevens. At first, it seems weird that Lulu and Suzaku ended up on the sides they did, but, really, it makes perfect sense. They’re not just cogs in a larger machine of war, but, sympathetic individuals who have chosen to support morally questionable enterprises (terrorists, the oppressor nation) because of a higher good. To use an analogue, it’s like the difference between orcs and humans in warcraft II (they both play pretty much exactly the same: interchangeable combatants) vs. the difference between the three races in starcraft (they play similarly, but are fundamentally different: whatever the hell Geass is doing)

This parallelism breaks around the end of the first season, when Lulu accidentally Geasses Euphie into murdering a whole mess of elevens. At this point, the chance of reconciliation between elevens and Britanians is so tiny that it makes the idea of forcing the Britanians out seem reasonable. The population has been radicalized, and it looks like Lulu has basically won. This, of course, is not the case, as by Geassing Euphie, Lulu has sown the seeds of his own destruction; by winning, he has lost, as Suzaku is not committed to his destruction. However, Suzaku, in so doing, has also set himself up for a fall, as he is now a creature of the emperor’s, and no-longer has a chance to break the cycle of control: the best he can do is to buy the elevens a temporary reprieve, if and when he becomes governor.

Normally, we see the trope from the other end, a character who wins by losing, and the ability to transcend or escape from a broken system. Geass, to its credit, has no ray of light, it’s the main characters who start the exchange, and force a mutual zugzwang, a series of forced moves that will end only in anihilation, each step perfectly logical, but with a repugnant finish. Of course, someone will end up winning the exchange, if only by virtue of not playing, which is the third thing I love about code Geass.

If you asked me to tell you the best spectator sport in the world, power politics and war would definitely be up there. Of course, they’re horrible to live through, but, if you wanted a pure example of human ingenuity and gamesmanship, you couldn’t do much better than those two. Geass has, at core, a story of power politics, but it’s a little difficult to see at first. Lulu begins as nothing more than a private citizen with a grudge, but, through extraordinary circumstances, has a glimpse at greatness, he might be able to change the world.

The problem is that during the first season it’s not really clear what he’s opposing, sure, Britania is bad, but he spends most of his time trying to find out who killed his mom; not really power-politics at all. The only guy who really “gets’ what’s going on the the Britanian traitor/intelligence guy. He sees that though Zero, there’s a real chance at completely changing how power is allocated: who has control over the world, and who has to shut up and deal. Lulu doesn’t think of that as his “real goal,” but, as the show goes on, his desire for revenge, and, later, his desire to protect his sister are gradually being sublimated to his desire to tug the strings of fate, to play chess master to the world. It’s so completely human, it’s wonderful, as once people taste the honey of control, it tends to slowly dominate their lives.

What’s even more fascinating is that by trying to control him through Nunnaly, Suzaku and the others are playing with fire. They can only control Lulu so long as they don’t actually “do” anything, because once she’s dead, all that’s left for Lulu is power, and I’m sure that even if he ends up failing to take over, the blood and chaos he makes will be fantastic. Well, that’s about it for now, catch you cats later.

]]> http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/code-awesome-nomad-of-the-bloggers/feed/ nomadotto Figure 1 The Real Enemy Enjoys CUrry Lulu crosses over to the dark side Cat-service http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/my-delusions-as-a-fanboy-down-that-slippery-slope-to-the-end-of-the-world/ http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/my-delusions-as-a-fanboy-down-that-slippery-slope-to-the-end-of-the-world/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 14:07:17 +0000 TheBigN http://bignanime.wordpress.com/?p=674

Written by TheBigN

This is sort of a continuation from my last installment in this category from my experience at the D.C. Sakura Matsuri. As you recall, I immediately criticized in my mind the actions of some participants during a cosplay contest for what I thought was no good reason. And I had mentioned that at the time I was thinking that as anime fans, we represent anime culture to the rest of “society” (a fun concept to be sure). So the “logical” conclusion I had was that because these cosplayers weren’t acting “normal” in regards to society, moral scruples, or whatever kinds of standards most of us agree abide by, they were demonstrating to people that anime culture isn’t normal. Therefore anime would not be perceived as normal and “those” fans end up making it harder for the medium to have “mainstream acceptance”, whatever the hell that is. Not the best train of thought there, as you can see, and I’m still a little ashamed at myself for that unfounded rationale.

Yet when I think about it, thinking about the worst possible scenario as the most likely option seems to be common from what I’ve seen from fellow anime fans. The example I listed seems to be stated a lot, where fans that are a bit overzealous compared to “everyone else” tend to be singled out in this manner. But other situations abound that follow this trend. Fansubs being the main reason why the anime industry is apparently going down the tubes, not to mention the closing down of anime distribution companies like Geneon USA making a big contribution as well. Shows like Kanokon or Kodomo no Jikan, not even mentioning hentai (or the “Dark Side” of anime) possibly being used as “Exhibit A”s on why anime isn’t a good thing. The slippery slope argument tends to be used in different ways by many different people including myself, as if anime fans are a gloom and doom prophesying bunch.

I do wonder why many of us seem to believe that things will go to hell in a hand-basket so quickly with anime. One reason seems to feed back into that desire I mentioned earlier of wanting the medium to be acknowledged as something that’s alright to indulge in from the mainstream. That probably goes into the whole “Anime is from Japan = different” situation making it harder for that acceptance to occur, but I can’t claim to know if that has any bearing on this desire at all. I also wouldn’t say that it’s a struggle to get a broad approval for anime outside of its fandom, as I know of others that don’t mind remaining in the niche we’re currently in. But there’s a definite effort to show off the best that we feel can be offered to everyone, which I feel is a natural response to demonstrating what you like.

I get the impression from blogs, forums, IRC and the like that some fans feel like if we’ve managed to make a connection to the general public and present a positive image of anime at all, that connection is flimsy at best. I can see a strong worry, and I have that worry myself, that the least “desirable” aspects of anime will destroy how things have been built up, making the situation even worse than before. Or there isn’t enough anime out there that can reach a mainstream audience, despite the efforts of things like Adult Swim out there, and that also makes the relationship weaker. Or it could be something else entirely, and the combination of these and other factors are what lead to a less than optimal result. From that, we might get some of the negativity and a little desperation that I see in the fan culture today, but it’s only one example and I’m sure others can provide better explanations for that sort of thing.

One thing I do know is that it leads to a lot of what I consider to be irrational and misguided anger and worry on other elements of the fan culture. There seems to be a lot of the “this is why we can’t have nice things/you’re ruining stuff for us” irritation taken out on things like cosplayers acting silly, or on shows that have fanservice for the sake of fanservice, for example. And the hubbub over things like the moe boom (which seems to apparently be slowing down), or acting as if these “problems” don’t exist feel more overblown than they should be a lot of the time. Are things like that really ruining things for the rest of us, and how would they be doing that? Sure, those things can be embarrassing to us, but I feel like we’re using them as scapegoats as there the most visible parts of what we don’t like about anime and the culture, especially when we probably aren’t even going to deal with those things (watching the shows in question, directly talking to the transgressors, etc.). We place the blame on them for the sake of pointing fingers, and maybe to externalize our palpable fears and worries about everything that we enjoy crashing down in an instant. Should things really be that SERIOUS BUSINESS? Is bashing stuff that we aren’t going to bother with otherwise the right thing to do? Are we really that insecure about how strong anime is? I’d like to hope not.

Granted, I’m just a blogger standing on a soapbox that probably doesn’t need to be there, I’m probably being hypocritical by complaining about the complainers without doing anything about it, and I’m probably not the best person to be talking about it. But those thoughts have been something that’s been bothering me for a bit, and it’s always good to get what ails you off of your shoulder, lest that dirt on your shoulder becomes an unnecessary chip. And I do think that we all need to cool off every once in a while, less we might end up causing the downfall of anime ourselves. And if that isn’t a poor slippery slope argument waiting to happen, I don’t know what is.

]]> http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/my-delusions-as-a-fanboy-down-that-slippery-slope-to-the-end-of-the-world/feed/ TheBigN More people need to take this Engrish lesson to heart. Yui's embarrassed by the less positive aspects of anime. If Tamaki quickly ages and starts sweating profusely because of SERIOUS BUSINESS, what happens to the rest of us? The emperor has no clothes, and this blogger doesn't have that much credibility. http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/and-now-for-a-random-fanboy-moment/ http://bignanime.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/and-now-for-a-random-fanboy-moment/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 19:33:54 +0000 TheBigN http://bignanime.wordpress.com/?p=670

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!

Written by TheBigN

This season has brought out a lot of entertaining shows, and it makes me wonder if I’ll have enough time to see all that I want to see. When coupling this with the yearly ritual of next to no Internet access (and what is would probably only be 56K, so fun times) during the summertime, it makes for a massive backlog of things to take a look at when school goes back in action (however, things might work out better this time around). And that backlog will probably be increased further by a combination of things that I want to see this summer, such as Hidamari Sketch x365, and the increased difficulty of the second-year of medical school. But enough about what might be, and more about what is. Of the many series that I’m watching and planning to watch (hurry up with Library Wars subs, please), three have stood out early, hooking me in different ways.

I don’t have a definite favorite this season, but Kurenai might be on the list, based on what I enjoyed in episode 3. From around 14:14 to about 15:20 in that episode, Kurenai (the main male), Yuuno (an apparent admirer of said male) and Murasaki (the main female) have a three-way simultaneous chat, with much misunderstandings, quick clarifications, and at least one person feeling left or not as uninformed as the other participants. I was reminded of IRC conversations between three people, each trying to get their voices to be heard, and maybe one person out of the three acting as a go-between for the other two, but the process is tougher than it should be.

But what worked for me wasn’t the subject matter, as enjoyable as it was, but the flow of the conversation. The flow felt natural, not as in a “this is how all realistic conversations are like” tone (though many of them were like that), but the progression of the dialogue was great. If that doesn’t make sense to you, think of a comedy duo where what one says feeds into what the other says seamlessly. Not all exchanges are funny, but I feel that this flow pervades throughout most of Kurenai, and that it’s not regulated just to those talks. For the moment, the small, gradual uncovering of information and the interesting cast of characters and their multilayered interactions work well, and feed into each other well, save for the Inner Sanctuary intro in the first episode. It’s rare for me to see an anime that way, so it must be doing something special.

To go from laminar flow to a much more turbulent flow, we have Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, and I’d say that the Frenzy Family moniker works well here. I have a soft spot for madcap, fast comedy, and so far this show is connecting with me in a way that others haven’t. From just the show’s sorta hyper OP to setup of the show to the variety of personalities, appearances and actions of the makeshift Midarezaki family, the show exudes a focused unpredictability. When randomness is done for its own sake, the results may vary on the audience (like with fanservice lol), but I feel that KKN has executed that well, with the added benefit of using it to help define the characters and develop the situation. As an example, though Kyouka burns brightly like a certain Haruhi Suzumiya in terms of imposing her sometimes bizarre wants on others, for better or worse, we also see that she has things together more than we would expect her too.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki hints at something much more serious than its silly surface, and we see that in the second episode as we get to know a little bit about the back stories of some of the members of the family. I’m mostly positive that we’ll get the message that even when thrown together, familial bonds are created that long-lasting and rewarding just from the setup. But this show could have the possibility of going more in depth about issues that affect our society today. I’m definitely just projecting my desires here and I’m not necessarily holding my breath on that, but based on how Yuuka was treated in episode 2, we might actually get to learn something worthwhile here if things are executed well. A little substance and valuable learning lessons sandwiched in between a heap of chaos isn’t a bad thing at all.

And for a different set of chaos, I turn to Kaiba, which is visually the most unique of any of the shows this season as far as I know. In this sense, I’m referring to the world that the main character and we as the audience are thrown into, a world different from ours with different standards and rules it seems, and my curiosity was piqued. I haven’t been this interested in the setting of an anime series since Dennou Coil, and even in that case, we get information on the world fairly quickly. Whereas with Kaiba, we start off knowing nothing about the world, and slowly learning as we go along. What instantly comes to mind in thinking of others shows like that is Haibane Renmei, though that’s much more “accessible” to the general anime-watching public. Owen has already explained a little bit of what can initially be seen in terms of how the world is run, so I won’t get too much into that.

Indeed, part of the charm of Kaiba’s world for me comes from the atypical design of the characters to how things are designed. Just being different can get things noticed, and the lack aesthetically pleasing elements get it both praise from some and avulsion from others. I myself enjoy the show’s appearance in terms of seeing how the medium of anime can expand as a whole, but that point is superficial and neither here nor there at the moment. What I’m mainly excited at could possibly not even happen, as it comes from what might be uncovered through the show. Even from the brief moment that Owen marks in his article, we get into issues of identity, existence, privacy, and what it means to live or have memories and I feel that as we learn more about Kaiba, some of these concepts will be touched upon.

It will be a fun ride this season. :3

Written by TheBigN

This is what I’d like to say a “philosophical exercise” based on some RL events. But it’s really just me asking a bunch of questions, so take it as you see it, I guess.

So last weekend, I went to the Sakura Matsuri, an event near the end of the National Cherry Blossom Festival (yes redundant, I know :P), which was sort of an “all about Japan” festival. It was predicated by the Cherry Blossom Parade, which was entertaining save for the blocks of minutes between some groups because of performances in other areas and what not. But oh well. Being who I am, with an anime blog and all, I checked out everything the festival had to offer, but spent most of my time looking a section focused on anime, manga and popular music in Japan called “J-Pop Land”. There were a couple of stands for various stores and events (remember a Katsucon prereg table, and I need to look at my schedule for next year, since it seems a good a time as any to go to a con), and a main stage where some artists placed.

It was on that stage that a cosplay contest was held, which made sense since I did see a lot of cosplayers spread out around various areas of the event. A lot of the cosplay was good (the ones that stick in my mind were a Nanoha cosplay, as well as an awesome Princess Peach and Mario), and the people who one deserved it, IMO. But it was the presence that some of them placed on the stage that bothered me for some reason. Whether if it was someone singing on stage, or saying something “goofy”, etc., I either facepalmed or turned away from the, and though to me it looked like some of the people in the crowd enjoyed the contestants being themselves, it was still discomforting to me.

It was then that I started to wonder, “why am I caring so much about how the cosplayers act on stage”? This was important especially when I don’t know any of the cosplayers involved, nor should they really care about how I felt. Was I embarrassed for them, or for myself? Or better yet, why did I feel embarrassed in the first place? Who the hell did I think I was, anyway, and why did I feel important enough to feel how I did? Looking back at this moment a couple of days ago, I see what I did there, however brief, as elitist, hypocritical, and wholly unnecessary. And I know that it hasn’t been the first time I felt that way, either; I felt that way when I looked at posts on forums or comments on blogs that remind me of some of the more negative posts at places like Gaia, for example.

This is the situation that I saw and keep seeing myself in: that as an anime fan, we somehow represented anime culture by extension. But who are we representing to exactly? People who aren’t into anime, or who couldn’t care less about it. At the same time, why do we have to represent in the first place? Why am I placing this burden on myself, and why do I feel that other people feel the same way that I do? I think for me, the answer lied in a want for this culture to be accepted more than it already has been, and a worry that a group of “bad eggs” who tend to act outside of societal norms would “ruin” things for the rest of us. So, how would things be ruined, and why do I feel that anime isn’t accepted enough in the mainstream? Or to place it more squarely on myself, what would it mean for me, as someone who doesn’t wear his anime-loving heart on his sleeve for everyone to see? Why am I so negative about a culture I belong to?

These shortsighted and superficial questions just keep coming, and I have no answers because I can’t see these questions as justifiable ones. Nor could I see any solution that I could come up with at the moment being nothing more than a “validation” of the snobbish attitude that I have, and I want to try and minimize that influence ASAP. I know I’m not the only one that has these sorts of thoughts, and these can have a major role in our enjoyment of the medium itself.

When looking at how hard some people are slamming shows like Kanokon, or the fervor behind the Kodomo no Jikan situation last year, I wonder if those concepts rear their head again. I can understand why people complain about things like less than stellar animation, lack of a good plot, etc., but the majority of complaints have been about the titillation in the viewer’s face, which I think is silly (and so does Owen). I wonder what’s really “wrong” with Kanokon’s blatant fanservice, since it’s hard to find a show that’s willing to be so truthful about that. Is the problem because of the fanservice being out in the open, and if so, why does that matter so much? Is part of the reason the same worries and fears that relate to the ones that I hold for some of the “less self-controlled” members of the anime fandom, or relate to why people were so adamant about KnJ coming to the US? It’s definitely more than just that, but I wonder how much of a factor these apprehensive thoughts do come into play, if at all.

Either way, at least I’m telling myself try to stop worrying and to stop getting embarrassed over how zealous fans can be. Especially because I can’t say that I’m not obsessed myself, seeing how I have an anime blog and all. :3

Written by TheBigN

I turn 22 today. Have some cake with Miyako.

In terms of this season, I’ve been looking forward to Library Wars (because knowledge is power), Macross Frontier (because it turns on a dime), Allison to Lilia (because of Kino’s author), Kaiba (because it looks and sounds interesting) and Kamen no Maid Guy (because GAR insanity is always awesome). Taking a look at Kurenai because of what people have been saying about it, Zettai Karen Children because it has Aya Hirano in her Pachira voice and Ryouko Shiraishi in her “Hermione Ayasaki” voice, Tower of Druaga because I want to see how serious things will get from the awesome first episode and that’s it. I don’t know much about this season really, so could people give me recommendations on what to pay attention to for this season when I get internet again in the fall?

But then again, aren’t most of us like that?

Written by TheBigN

There have already been substantial posts in content from other members of the committee trying to bring to successful fruition the Anime Blog Awards, so chances are that this isn’t really going to be one of them. But I’ll rehash some thoughts that I had about them anyway, so you never know. I don’t think I really need to say this, but these views are mine alone and not representative of the ABA committee as a whole. There’s no real hivemind here, no matter how much people would like to think so. Okay, maybe Impz, but it’s okay if it’s him/her.

I don’t pay attention to the fact that you could reduce the awards to just being more than a popularity contest. And that’s probably defeating the point, but it’s not what I’m looking for. It’s logical that the blogs people vote for are the ones that they know. And if the ones that that they know are the popular ones, naturally those are the ones that will get the most voters. As others have said, those blogs have to be doing something right to have that much of an impact on fellow bloggers (including myself), especially when a lot of the “popular” blogs nominated don’t really seem to care about the awards. I certainly don’t see any serious bargaining or pleading for nominations from these blogs, nor do I feel that people are voting these blogs out of an obligation, for a favor, or for recognition, and that’s great.

As this is the first time as far as I know that any of us on the committee have attempted to do something like this, there are bound to be problems with the execution of the awards. Many have been highlighted and mentioned, but I also feel a lot also have yet to be brought up as well. For people with complaints about it that they care enough to talk about it, help out! Comments and criticisms are always welcome in order for this to go down better next time (since I hope there’s a next time), and suggest ways for more “community ” input in the setup of the awards, so that committee isn’t just wasting their time trying to give anime bloggers a way to pat themselves on the back. I know some of them don’t need it, but I’d hope that the though at least counts.

I believe in the awards as a way to recognize blogs that have done much for the bloggers that nominate (which should be all anime bloggers), intentional or otherwise, as well as a way to introduce blogs that others don’t know about in the animeblogosphere. Looking at some of the responses that I’ve seen, there a lot of blogs out there that others haven’t heard of before, and entire cliques of blogs that are isolated from everyone else. I’m sure that there are many bloggers that are fine with that, but at the same time, the fact that I do see that people are interested enough in checking out what others nominate in addition to the nominators themselves means something positive to me. That’s one reason the nominations are transparent after all, as it would totally be no fun if votes were held in secret, and we can see the process by which the final nominees are decided, hopefully with no cry of FOUL included.

Idealistically, I look at this as a means to both expand and bring together the anime blogging “community”. Expanding in the sense of the increasing the scope of the world of your fellow bloggers, and bring together as in interconnecting with each other, even though just posting links isn’t really going to accomplish either. But just posting those links is a start to both of those hopes, and even if everyone else has those same links, you can look at them as a starting point to learning more about why other bloggers feel the way that they do about the same blog. I feel that this can become something special if people give it a change, and that’s why I’m on the committee trying to do what I can. And by all means, everyone should have fun with it, since anime blogging shouldn’t be serious business. :3

Now onto the nominations, where my rationales for these nods will probably kill off any momentum I had above.

Best Episodic Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
The End of the World
Anime Diet

Whenever I read blogs that blog episodes of shows, as others have said (see how original this is? lol), I don’t look at the summaries of the episodes, since I plan on looking at those anyway. I want to see the impressions of the episode; that is, how the bloggers viewed the episode, and how they explain what they get out of it. Sea Slugs places a nice humorous spin on these, often making me smile in the process while pointing out things that I didn’t notice, and making it easy for me to comment on them whether or not I agree with them. At the End of the World, Martin looks at episodes of a series in movie-length chunks, tying together themes presented throughout these blocks in well written posts, as well as interesting opinions regarding what he’s talking a look at. And when the page is up, Anime Diet impressions are simple but deep. Or at least that’s how I look at it.

Best Editorial Blog
Omonomono
Hop Step Jump
Jinx!

Seeing that I wrote most of the description for this segment (which does need some work, I think), these blogs “excellence in its writing, explore the boundaries of ideas in a way that accurately portrays the blogger’s perspective and connects with their readers, and consistently introduces new, interesting ideas that can change our opinions on anime.” I’ll get to Omoikane and Jeff Lawson in a bit, but NovaJinx’s combination of controlled anger, humor, common sense and his focus on things bigger than the game makes this the best blog I’ve read from Finland since ever. :3

Best Team Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
Anime Diet

Reasons posted above for each + different but still entertaining/insightful opinions = a fun spice of my blog reading life.

Most Influential Blog
Omonomono
Hop Step Jump
アニ・ノート (Ani-nouto)

I look at this as both blogs that inspired me to being blogging, as well as blogs that truly do influence the way people blog. For me, Omo has a bizarre way with words, usually seeming as if he knows something that the rest of us don’t. But it encourages people to look deeper into things without being shoving it in your face (or with it appearing like he’s not shoving it in your face. That’s important too. :P), and surprising or not, that’s one thing that I try to do when I normally post, but more on that later. Jeff Lawson was one of my top inspirations to blog because of his “style” of combining his experiences with life with anime, or even just combining his experience of watching anime with anime. I feel like I can relate to what he talks about, and no other blogger has that much of a hold on me, or others as it seems. And much has already been said about Mr. Zaitcev and how Ani-nouto has done much for the anime blogosphere just by being a not-so-passive observer. The fact that he was the first commenter on my blog, and that he continues keeping tabs on what I post about helps me become a better blogger. Not to satisfy what he wants to see, but because he encourages me (even when he’s not directly doing so) to keep going at it and continue to try to improve on all that I’ve done before.

Best Dorama
Basugasubakuhatsu Anime Blog
Mistakes of Youth: The Blog
Cruel Angel Theses

I’d like to think that Hung has the pulse of the anime blogging world under his finger, what with AnimeNano and all, but I think when he posts about the community, people listen and are moved to hear out what he has to say. Wildarmsheero relishes being a firestarter, especially because he takes the resulting drama in stride
and revels in it. He understands that for all due respect, anime (or anime blogging) shouldn’t be serious business, yet he does it anyway just because. And it’s still kind of sad to see that everyone likes a scapegoat, and though he doesn’t help out some people’s opinions about him, Owen doesn’t deserve a lot of flak that he does. But I feel like he wears that criticism like a badge of honor, and I think he also needs it in order to continue to try and expand how things are done animeblogging-wise. Whatever he does, people keep tabs on him, and that’s what it’s all about.

Rookie of the Year
Meaty Anime Blog
Claiming Ground
Jinx!

For Meaty, I feel that Roast-beefy-weefs is honest in how he feels about what he watches, for better or for worse, and the way he presents it somehow works with me in ways that not many other bloggers are able to. I feel that if coburn comes back and continues to post the way he had been at the start, Claiming Ground could really go places. For someone who claims to have not seen much anime, he manages to provide insightful, solid essays that make me feel like he’s been analyzing anime for a good long while.

Funniest Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
Derailed by Darry
Subatomic Brainfreeze

Because humor is subjective from person to person, all I’ll say is that these three blogs are the ones that make me laugh out loud the most. And based on the nominations made in that category, so it is for others.

Best Satire Blog
“WE ARE F***ING NOT DOTQ. THIS TIME SERIOUSLY.” (Want to keep my blog PG-whatever at least :P)
Azure Flame Reloaded

These two blogs make me laugh out loud when they’re trying to be funny, but at the same time make me acknowledge them being clever in hiding an underlying message under what they’re talking about. Most of the time. As I’ve said, humor is subjective, and I’d like to think so is satire. :3

Most Thought-Provoking Blog
Omonomono
Cruel Angel Theses
Derailed by Darry

All three regularly provide viewpoints that make me reconsider why I watch some shows, why I participate in the world of anime in the first place, and always make me wonder about if I’m really looking at things in the “right” way. As I’ve said before, Omo has the knowledge and the word skills to make me feel like I’m missing something when I read his posts, and I tend to look deeper into what he’s saying more than I need to, but whatever I uncover always proves to be an interesting experience. Owen goes on entertaining tangents with anime that I never really thought about, but still manage to make sense in my head and further my experiences with anime. And though I disagree a lot with what Jason Miao has to say, he’s constantly makes me realize that POVs that differ with mine have merit, and that I can learn some very important things by being with a person that doesn’t share the same views that I do.

Best Blog-related Comic
Mistakes of Youth
Beta-Waffle

Granted MoY’s blog is probably a result of his comic rather than the other way around, but his comic never fails to bring a smile on my face, whether if it’s twisted, sadistic, sad, intriguing, or just plain funny. And DigiKerot with his “Unfunny” comics constantly tickle my fancy, which probably says more about me and my sense of humor than I’d want to admit.

Best Art/Doujin/Visual Novel Blog
Radiant Dreamer
Mission to Deep Space
Heisei Democracy

What captures my eye from Radiant’s blog are the photoshoots, photoshopped or not, that are done with the figures he has on hand. The detail is what grabs me, even if it didn’t take him much time to work on them and even if people can do the job better. And his own art isn’t too bad either. With Mission, Hemisphere keeps tabs and produces thorough and entertaining summaries on the Visual Novel world so that I don’t have to worry about playing those games myself. And Shingo and co’s interest in doujin from the sites reviews to their doujin-related news is admirable and well thought out.

Best News Blog
Canned Dogs
アニ・ノート (Ani-nouto)

The first provides the most consistently solid anime related or anime-tangentially related news that I’ve seen and the other provides the most commentary on the anime blogging world that I’ve seen. These are the sites that I use in order to keep in touch with what’s been going on, and their interesting opinions keep me coming back for more.

Well that’s it for this go around, and I’m definitely not planning on doing this again for a looooooong while. Or until the next set of awards, whenever they may be.

Written by TheBigN

It’s funny how a lack of knowledge can help or hurt me, and it also shows how easily I can be swayed. When I first heard of the premise for Bamboo Blade, I thought it wasn’t something that would interest me much compared to what else was shown (Fall 07′ was a pretty strong season, now that I think of it). My last foray into a sports anime focused on a squad of girls coming together was fun (often more unintentionally than intentional), but not something that I was really too much into. Based on how people explained the show , I admit that I had a wrong uninformed opinion of the show, thinking it was harem-related without even doing research or taking a look at the show in the first place. Ignorance is bliss after all. At the same time though, because of people’s glowing mentions of the show, because I didn’t know anything about Bamboo Blade, I decided to check it out. And I’m glad I did, since it’s now one of my favorite series of 2007/08. Everyone has pretty much said what I’m going to say, but I figure more voices of support can be used for it, and because I think more people need to check it out.

I think what set this apart for me from other sports series, or just series in general was it’s quirkiness, and you could even just start from the premise. I do see and hear mention of kendo a lot in anime, but for me it was still an obscure sport. It didn’t help that we don’t really get that much focus on kendo normally in anime. Usually it’s just people hitting each other with wooden swords, and leaving to go to tournaments and train while their loved ones wait for them, deepening the understanding of why they love as time goes by. Granted, it’s not as unaccessible as curling seems to be, but I guess coming from my Western experiences, it’s a bit out there. And I never saw girls regularly participating in kendo either, aside for rare exceptions. But I’m digressing kind of a bit here.

So continuing on this angle of interesting idiosyncrasies, look no further than the show’s strength in the characters. Granted, none of them are really, really deep, but that doesn’t matter. Each of they have their own endearing eccentricities to them, and it’s hard to find a reason to dislike any of them (and for the people that do try, find a better way waste time maybe? :P). From Kirino’s obsession with kendo and sweat, to Dan-kun’s appearance belying his outerwordly pimping skills, to Ishida-sensei remaining old-school with video games and anime, a spin is placed on to sorta-stock characters with these unusual traits. Hell, even Yuuji’s odd here, because he’s the most normal of the group! And they help to define a lot about Bamboo Blade, where situations like Miya-Miya’s stalker (I so hope there are some doujins where Reimi manages to take advantage *wink wink nudge nudge*) and Blade Braver’s application to the group as a whole factor a lot into the show’s execution, and adds that much more enjoyment to the series. They even made the Sega Saturn relevant again, and I believe that it helps to watch over our souls while the company as a whole has sadly forsaken us all (why else would Yuyuko have so many Dreamcasts?).

It’s the interest of kendo that initially connects all of these people, but as with every other sports related anime, as they get to know each other, friendship develops between these people and leads the way. While we still have the basic quirks, we grow in our understanding of the character as they grew. Yeah, it’s been done before, but it’s still interesting to see how devoted Kirino is to her family and her club, how Tama-chan didn’t look at things in the right way, or how kendo can become serious business when your priorities are messed up. Sometimes the effect of the growth works out and sometimes it doesn’t to the point where you’re not even sure there has been change. But that’s life; we all don’t change that easily, so it depends on how you look at it.

It doesn’t help when some characters get a little shafted time-wise or content-wise like Satori. But when you see Dan-kun becoming a kendo threat, Sayako actually staying around and Miya-Miya gaining confidence that she was surprisingly lacking in, you couldn’t say that there wasn’t any growth or that it wasn’t satisfying in some way. Or you could, but that’s where you and I differ I guess. What matters is that I felt happy at what I saw was progress, and I hope that you feel the same. Bamboo Blade is simple, but sometimes that’s all one needs to be super effective. Seeing everyone move forward as individuals and collectively as a team was worth it, and though there might be a new season down the line, these 26 episodes have been more than good enough for me. :3

Written by TheBigN

I’d like to think that it’s common knowledge that as we are all separate individuals, we each have our own way of looking at the world. By extension of that, more often than not, we can see the world in a way that makes sense to us, irrespective of how things actually “are” (and how do we know what that reality is?). The idea of “I take your reality and subjugate it with my own” is a universal human trait in my reality. Because of that, as already stated, bias is inherent in humans, and it’s probably impossible to completely nullify when doing anything in life. So for some fun, I feel like rehashing observations when applying this to watching anime. As always, hopefully it makes sense to you as it (sorta) did to me.

I’ve mentioned before that when watching series, I try my best to keep expectations out of it, but I also note how hard that is to do so. To make it more general, tabula rasa when I’m watching anime is impossible; I can’t block out everything that makes me me, like my life experiences, or my desires. I can take out some parts of the equation, like those pesky expectations (Or so I’d like to think; it’s my state of mind, remember? :P). But it definitely doesn’t mean that partiality is bad either; I actively look to get something out of anime, whether it’s enjoyment or edification, so bias factors in strongly there. We all have favorite series and “genres” that we prefer to watch over others, etc.

Things can get interesting when we deliberately place out bias into the viewing experience, which is where the “goggles” idea comes from for me. You know, everyone sees what they want to see, and that’s okay for the most part. I’m one of those anime fans you know that like to believe that there are couples of the female/female variety via “implicit” hints, statements, actions, etc. Like the Saya/Kirino scene in Bamboo Blade episode 24 (OMG SO HAWT)? Nanoha/Fate? Konata/Kagamin? ARIA (preferably the apparently rare Alice/Akari pairing)? Marimite? Okay, Marimite’s a given, but the point here is that I’m a loser yuri fanboy and proud of it. And there are other “goggles” that I have other than the yuri-tinted ones, but I’d like to keep those under wraps for the moment.

It doesn’t mean that these goggles are on the same power at every instance. The sensitivity changes based on how “strong” I find the impetus (the goggle activators) to be. Are the characters “close” enough? Is there enough evidence there to make things work? Do I like whoever’s involved? There are people with the same eyewear who can take things too far (like the “lol lol lol yuri everywhere” fans), yet even then, they have different responses based on the situation at hand as well, and they just probably have a broader range of visibility, which is related to their own bias.

Everyone has one or several pairs of goggles/selectivity filters of different varieties based on their desires, preferences, viewpoints, etc., and I think they help make anime a more interactive experience. From things like making blog posts or writing fanfiction based on the goggles you use to arguing or complaining about people who profess a certain goggle gospel on forums and the like, of if you are one those pulpit-thumping people, anime becomes more than what you watch. With my bias, I consider becoming more active in anime a good thing (and I feel like I’m right here. Lol opinion :3). It’s not all great though, as if we’re not too careful and leave them on in our sleep, or overuse them, we could lose our ground to what really are the standards that make up reality as we know it.

This over-reliance explains at least where we get vehement reactions when opposite pairs of goggles or the same type with different visibilities meet. Then we get arguments about which character is right for Shin in True Tears, or if the anime is doing things right in our eyes (like the annoying people who claim that the Tsukihime anime doesn’t exist. Of course, their goggles contrast with mine, which are better. :P), for example. Based on how strongly you depend on them, people can clash realities, leading to people misguided and heartbroken. Or at least people who are needlessly pissed off. When it gets close to that point, it’s good to step back at those times, and realize that a.) What we’re doing is projecting our desires/wants/hopes/fears/dreams onto what actually is and b.) We don’t really need to do that to get what we want out of it. I feel that most people realize that the concept of “goggles” as a whole doesn’t really constitute enough to be considered Serious Business.

But what do I know? Will I feel the same way when a Satchii (goggles version, of course) comes and destroys my carefully selected pairs? That’s for me and my goggles to think about. I’d like to think that as long as I can continue to fantasize over pairings that will probably never happen, I’m good. Could I just sit back, goggles off, and watch anime as it is? Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have this blog to have fun with.