Picture Perfect Paranoia

Here it again, folks. Taking a break from the fiasco of the Odex saga and Taro Aso for PM coverage, we now turn our attention to the medium we love most (well, at least I think so :P). Do note that the summer season went unspectacular, so the stale listing have left a bad taste.

Well, let’s hope that we have a more satisfying viewings this season. This list may change due to this blogger’s taste in visual entertainment.

• 02.10.2007 till 25.12.2007
  D.C. II (Da Capo II)
  Genre: Drama, Romance, Harem, Fantasy, Comedy

1. Wow. It looks like the DC franchise hasn’t been saturated yet. With the underwhelming performance of DCSS (no thanks to the machination of one unfavorable candidate), the wheels of sequels to this popular game have been turning.

• 02.10.2007
  BAMBOO BLADE
  Genre: Comedy, Sports

1. Hmm, an unlikely combination of genre, unless the veterans can refresh me when this has happened before. And I thought…. nope, no harem.

• 03.10.2007
  Myself ; Yourself
  Genre: Romance

1. A romance genre in the lot, huh? We’ll see how this turns out, since I’m no fan of the genre, personally.

• 05.10.2007
  Shakugan no Shana II - Second
  Genre: Fantasy, Action, Romance

1. I’m personally worried of this one because, after all, we all knew how the second Zero no Tsukaima, not to mention the last spinoff/sequels of the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoda ended. This could just be my gut reaction, though

• 05.10.2007
  Clannad
  Genre: School, Romance

1. I’ve heard of the way KyotoAnimation has done excellent and fluid animation before (Kanon and Air, to name a few), so I’m sure this might turn to be a true adaptation to the Key franchise

• 07.10.2007
  Maple Story

1. Don’t tell me this isn’t true. o.O

• 10.10.2007 till 26.12.2007
  Genshiken - Second Season
  

1. VIVA LA OTAKU! Finally the sequels that is to be deserved of our interests.

We’ll see how this turns out, still.

• 11.10.2007
  Kodomo no Jikan
  Genre: Moe, Comedy, Romance, Ecchi

1. Hehe. We’ll se how those censors react to this. Will there be mosaics and image blurs in this one, as this deals with one issue we otaku are “particularly sensitive” to.

• xx.10.2007
  Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - Second Season
  Genre: Mecha, Action, Sci-Fi, Drama

1. Still in the speculative phase, eh?

• 15.09.2007
  Clannad Movie
  Genre: School, Romance

1. Wait, so there’s going to be a TV series, and a movie, all in the same season? o.o

The original list is credited to Mephisto2k.

Hmm. Looks like there are quite a few (as well as controversial) materials worth viewing this season.

It’s kinda funny how Mainichi Shimbun manages to string together cases of brutal murders in links, then a lot of bloggers seem to come up with their own opinions and observations based on this string of events. See here, here, here, and here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Off the heels of an announcement of broadcast cancellation of the anime series Higurashi Naku Koro ni Kai following news reports of a second axe murder attempt, The 12th episode of the murder mystery anime aired on TV Tama in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture, Sun TV in Hyogo Prefecture, and Chiba TV in Chiba Prefecture on early Tuesday morning despite their initial decision for a no-go.

From the ANN:

No direct link has been announced between either case and any anime series, but the reportedly violent last episode of the School Days anime series was preempted on all over-the-air television affiliates. Last week, Tokai TV and Kyoto KBS preempted the same Higurashi Kai episode that the three other stations aired Tuesday morning. The last over-the-air station, tvk broadcaster in Kanagawa Prefecture, still lists Higurashi Kai on its schedule.

So it would seem that my hypothesis, and later stand, that “correlation does not equal causation”, has not been proven to be false.

In other news, some are expressing their disappointment over some of its “axe-shaped merchandise” being pulled off store shelves, as it is somehow resembling the supposedly murder weapon used by two related incidents of axe chopping children (if I can recall, one was from Kyoto; this recent one in Nagano). Just how deep the censorship had gone, we’ll never know. At least, it has quelled the rage of millions of otakus of a possible censorship of anime series with violent and bloody themes.

Stay tuned for the impending conclusion of “The Japan Axe Saga”. More at 11.

If yesterday’s (Sunday in our timezone) election for the next Japanese prime minister are any indication, it would seem that public interest triumps, and is of greater concern, than “private hobbies”.

Yasuo Fukuda scored a comfortable victory to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The polls tally 330 votes for the Former Chief Cabinet Secretary, over 197 votes for his rival for the position, Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

A son of a former Japanese Prime Minister, his victory underscored an effort to revive party fortunes, as the country has been hounded by a variety of controversies, including support of ships participating in the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

“I want to change the party into one that carries out policy items steadily,” Fukuda added.

More Links:

• Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses New Leader - VOA News
• Japan’s Fukuda set to become prime minister - MarketWatch
• Fukuda set to win election as Japan premier - Hindustan Times
• New Japan PM chosen - Herald Sun
• Fukuda triumphs in LDP race / New leader eyes ‘revival’ of party after winning 63% of vote - The Yomiuri Shimbun
• Yasuo Fukuda: A steadier hand for Japan’s helm? - Christian Science Monitor
• Fukuda wins party vote to become Japan’s next leader - Guardian Unlimited

Even though Taro Aso failed to capture the top post in Japan, this doesn’t mean that the efforts of the otaku population, who supported him to the end, were in vain. Rather this would mean that there are better things to focus on, besides “cultural transparency” and efforts to destigmatize anime, along with other forms of artistic expression in Japan.

Remember what I said then?

Well, my blood is boiling again, and my creative energy replenished.

Why?

Because this had to happen.

“School Days” depicts a love triangle between three high school students: Makoto Ito, Kotonoha Katsura and Sekai Saionji. Episodes have been screened on Television Kanagawa and other UHF stations since July this year. The computer love simulation game on which the anime was based has about 20 different endings and one shows a high school girl slashing a victim with a knife. Television Kanagawa officials said that the last episode of the anime shows a schoolgirl acting violently. To tone down the scene, the victim’s blood was made black instead of red, but after the killing in Kyoto on Tuesday, officials decided to cancel the episode.

And I’m not the only one whose rage meter got raised.

So there was this recent murder incident from Japan bluemist cited. It involved a high school girl (of 16 years old) being stabby and “fatally attacked” her father, who is a police officer sergeant in their hometown in Kyoto.

At about 4:40 a.m., rescue workers received an emergency call from a family member of the officer saying he had been attacked on the neck at their home in Kyotanabe. Alerted by rescue workers, police officers rushed to the home and found the sergeant dead on his bed in his second-floor room with severe cut wounds.

I only have these words for the broadcasters: THAT IS ANIME! ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN! THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRL IN SCHOOL DAYS IS NOT REAL! GET REAL!

I know it’s lame, but, sigh, people overreact to things like these. I call shenanigans.

As for bluemist, well, he’s recently joined a rally calling for the success of School Days instilling the chilling feeling of paranoia.

The otaku thus declared this a canon episode of School Days then? Awesome! It’s the calm before the storm, cause we know that the ‘real’ final episode of School Days will be teh perfectstorm. You should enjoy your boat while it lasts Makoto. You may have your show ‘axed’ for now… but you can’t escape the ’saw’ and the ‘knife’.

As for my thesis? It’s going well, and will not be eating up most of my time, as I had previoulsy thought. So, in the spirit of Jack Nicholson:

Here’s Ronin!

…and after weighing in the choices, a hiatus is in order. This is to conserve whatever creative energy I have left, until I feel like blogging again.

Thanks to you, yes all loyal readers, for keeping up with this hobby blog of mine. See you in the foreseeable future! I. Shall. Return.

With the way things are going on in my life, I might not even make it to a third blog anniversary.

I srtated venturing into this craft called anime out of curiosity. Like everyone else, I was new to the medium, having seen only those broadcasted on our local channels. Soon after discovering the wonders of downloading videos from the Internet, first via Ares then through the invention of BitTorrent, I stared right into the hub of an amazing cultural import that has soon sucked my attention from real life into the fantasy world of animation.

It’s been almost 9 years since that fateful encounter, and I haven’t stopped looking back ever since. Now that I’ve lasted long enough to remember how the industry evolved from being a niche market to mainstream status, it’s as if my immersion has reached its goal, in one way or another. In other words, I have seen what needs to, should even, be seen.

Now I’m feeling melancholic. This hobby of mine is becoming quite a chore.

As a fallback alternative, I’ve browsed through the catalog of downloadable mangas I could scour my eyes with, and I’ve found it a breath of fresh air from the mediocrity of having to download torrent files of individual anime episodes (or batch episodes), then wait until completion and a generous amount of seeding to other peers in need of the same content. Good thing I followed one advice my parents gave me, that is, to have a back-up plan in case one fails.

With moyism closing his doors, it’s as if I should do the same. Should I, or put this blog on indefinite hiatus until I find enough energy and enthusiasm, the same elements that made my journey into the world of anime worthwhile, to continue exploring the facets of this Japanese media?

Negima! Live-Action’s Negi Played by 13-Year-Old Girl - Anime News Network

Somehow, news of things like this happening isn’t surprising to me at all. We’ve all heard about seiyuus lending their voice to male anime characters, and now this…

Surprising? What do you think?

I am personally appalled at how the proposed displomatic strategy concocted by the Japanese government is rather… stupid, to say the least.

via MangaBlog

Perhaps the biggest problem is the highly sexualized nature of the form, which can be exceptionally seedy, if not illegal. Earlier this year, 13 manga comics, including “Rape Me in My School Uniform” and “Pedophile’s Banquet II,” were labeled “harmful books” by the Kyoto Prefecture for featuring excessive sexual acts involving girls under the age of 13.

Anime and manga also tend to perpetuate negative images of daily life in Japan. Madeleine Rosca, one of the International Manga Award winners, notes that the cartoons did nothing to sell her on the country. “Japan comes across as a bit scary culturally—terribly formal and deeply strict,” she explains. “Most of the stories we get tend to be stereotypes showing heavy workloads and strictness, and a super-adherence to tradition.”

Nor are the cartoons immune from the politics that color Japan’s international relations more generally, and especially with its neighbors. As Ming Wan, director of the global affairs program at George Mason University, cautions, there is a limit to how much Tokyo can push its cultural products before manga and anime are viewed as government propaganda. This is especially true in China, where some already see Japanese manga as a tool of indoctrination. An article published by the Chinese paper Global Times in June 2006 accused manga of trying to “retell history” to cover up Japan’s war crimes and infect Chinese children with Japanese values.

And there’s a certain weirdness factor. The nearest American counterpart to anime-inspired costume play may be Star Trek and Star Wars conventions, whose participants also dress up as their favorite characters. Those gatherings have entered the broader cultural consciousness more as a source of late-night television humor than as a viable goodwill export.

These points aside, it’s rather worthy to note that this experimental approach to bridging relations in the name of democracy is a bad start. As one commented noted on a thread in Anime News Network (credit to Brigid for taking notice):

Anime is a medium. Every medium has its good, bad, and ugly titles. This is like saying “movies shouldn’t be used for PR campaign because there are such-and-such pornographic films.”

It’s enough to explain my stand on this, by the way.

One must understand that media is a double edged sword. It can either make or break one country’s, as well as its government’s, reputation. Suggest another “cultural approach” please. Thanks.

UPDATE:

• Kyoto Police Identifies 13 Loli Manga as “Harmful Books” via ComiPress
• Kyoto Police Tightens Grip on Loli Manga via ComiPress
• Kyoto Prefecture’s harmful manga list revealed… a.k.a. I massage Gumugum’s feet and bath his cat via Icarus Blog