Anime Pilgrimage RTT

April! Time spent bloggin’

You know my daddy blogged anime for his whole life
And he never knew nothing more
Yeah and his daddy done the blog like his old man
Who had blogged before the war
And though she couldn’t have known till I was born
My poor mama God rest her soul
Like them I come out bloggin’
-“Bloggin'”, Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

I presently have no idea where my laptop is, but it contains four updates. I’ll put them up when my precious cargo has been safely returned to me.

It’s April 1st in some parts of the world, and it looks like the anime community has been swept up in a storm of “I’m quitting!” messages. The one written on Equivocal Resolution mentions that each entry takes about two hours to write.

Now I’m not sure how to take that, it might be a blatant lie. But it did make me wonder how long people spend writing their entries. Mentar once said that it takes him about four hours to write up an episode.

In comparison, I’m kind of ashamed to admit the amount of time I spend on my site nowadays. There have been some entries (such as Sugar) that have taken me literally months to write – and I’ve never been satisfied with those – but almost all of the entries I have made in March have taken me between ten and thirty minutes to write and I don’t think the quality has suffered as a result: if I say what I intended to say, then my mission has been successful. (this figure does not include image preparation, which used to take me so long that I would just swear at my computer for hours at a time)

I think that when the words come easily, there’s no fear. I’ve been working on a Rozen Maiden article since December that I will amost certainly add a few words to and just kick onto the site so that I can finally let it go and allow myself to watch Traümend.

So, to all anime bloggers: how long do you spend on an entry? Do you release things you’re not satisfied with onto an unsuspecting public? My scheme might change now that I’m on top of things, but it’s always interesting to see what the “other side” is thinking.

Rescue Wings – episode 7

“Bright Side of Life (part two)”

Carelessness is only a split second, but regret lasts forever.

They really do make anime as good as this. Rescue Wings manages to put me in a very emotional state without for one second seeming manipulative. From this series I get a feeling of a total love for human life, and the idea of friends as a family that care for each other.
This “Bright Side of Life” story covered many different perspectives and was generally a triumph of scripting and direction.

Continue reading Rescue Wings – episode 7…

Shinigami no Ballad – episode 4

“Autumn Magic”

This time, Shinigami no Ballad offers the story of a dead mother. I much preferred this episode to the previous as it fired on several levels.

Continue reading Shinigami no Ballad – episode 4…

Honey & Clover ni-go and State of the Nation

All over the inter net is the news that Honey & Clover has been granted a sequel. Some worry that lightning isn’t going to strike twice – especially with the great ending offered by the first series.

The other news is that I’m this close to kicking the arse off of my sub backlog which means I can return to the world of DVDs and maybe even get some university work done.

I’ve also been quite disturbed to read that people think no one writes about “older” shows any more: I would like to point to my two years’ worth of archives which stretch back as far as 1977.

PS. I tried all night to fix up this god forsaken corner of the internet. I’ll reinstate lost comments tomorrow.

Mushishi – episode 19

“String from the Heavens”

Another superlative episode of Mushishi, this time about faith, scepticism and the invisible. 

Continue reading Mushishi – episode 19…

Rescue Wings – episode 6

“Bright Side of Life (part one)”

An episode that occurs during the o-bon festival, yet another Japanese holiday. The episode works on the triplet fronts of Uchida, Megumi and Hongo with some overlap. Again the home lives of the characters are on offer and one can more accurately see what these people are like.

Continue reading Rescue Wings – episode 6…

Binchou-tan – episode 5

“Kimono memories bin”

Another semi-depressing episode of Binchou-tan.

Continue reading Binchou-tan – episode 5…

Yakitate!! Japan – episode 56

“Kuroyanagi in danger!! The lost reactions!”

There’s not much point in me saying anything beyond the very basic, as my misgivings are the same in every episode.

Continue reading Yakitate!! Japan – episode 56…

Shinigami no Ballad – episode 3

“Beyond the Light”

General consensus on this episode is that it’s different to the first two. I agree, but I don’t like the ways in which it is different. I’m normally a fan of understatement, but this episode is understated to the point that virtually nothing happens.

Continue reading Shinigami no Ballad – episode 3…

Japan to face challenges from foreign animation

The Sydney Morning Herald has an article about the anime industry’s saturation, and infers that Japan will soon be facing competition in the world market.

While Al-khadra has a point about the fact that some people don’t care where the product is from as long as it’s dubbed, I think that the existing fan market won’t be penetrated that strongly simply due to the intense elitism of its members.

Judgement can’t really be passed on this sort of product because we haven’t really seen any of it. That, however, does not stop me from thinking that I wouldn’t be that interested: what could possibly be offered? If anything, the article implies that the work will both be derivative of anime and aimed primarily at children.
This makes it seem a cynical attempt to cash in by emulation, like so much of the stuff that you might see on Jetix. Of course I’m not saying the Japanese market itself isn’t driven by cynicism – hell, look at the amount of onsen boob ninja robot panties we’ve got at the moment – but industries should invent their own system of cynicism rather than slavishly copying another.

Finally, my traditional complaints: the article refers to fans as “geeks” and also it jumps straight from “Hello Kitty” to “sex and violence” as the two kinds of anime. Nothing much can be done about this, and I don’t think anything ever will be.

That link may expire soon, at which point I will reproduce the article in its entirety.