Where do I start? John Green's "an abundance of katherines" is a laugh aloud funny book, well paced, well written, and footnoted. Moreover, this book has heart. Not the red construction paper cut-outs that you hand out during Valentine's Day, but the beating gory vitality of two young men and a young woman who meet in Gutshot, Tennessee.
(Spoilers warning.)
After graduating from high school, uber-geek Colin Singletary is a mental wreck after being dumped by his girlfriend Katerine Carter. His wise-cracking and Thickbruger-wolfing friend Hassan drags him from the doldrums and into a random road trip out of Chicago. They randomly stop at Gutshot, Tennessee to take a look a random road side attraction, the grave of Archduke Ferdinand, and meet Lindsey.
The geeky duo meet Lindsey's mother Hollis who recognizes Colin from a TV quiz show. Hollis hires them to make a history of Gutshot. During their stay, the three discover more about themselves and take another step toward growing up.
A wise man once told me "If there's nothing serious, there's nothing funny." Green applies this principle like a judo master uses his opponent's leverage. The title comes from Colin's nineteen failed romances with girls named Katherine, which lends a sense of unreality to Colin's pain. However, Green manages to interweave his need for Katherine XIX with his deep seated questions about his own value.
Like real teens, Colin, Lindsey, and Hassan philosophize, angst, and joke, but Green keeps the story moving on a positive note. The author aimed for an excellent pace and achieves it at the expense of the messy vacillations found in real life, and I think that it is a good trade off, because "an abundance of katherines" tackles a real question about self worth and identity.
Here is a sample exchange between Collin and Hassan while hunting. This is why this book felt like flying down the road at 80 mph with the wind in my face with my best friends sitting next to me.
"Dude," said Hassan softly. "Khazeer."[73]
"Matha, al-kanazeer la yatakalamoon araby? [74]" Colin asked.
"That's no pig," answered Hassan in English. "That's a goddamned monster." The pig stopped its rooting and looked up at them. "I mean Wilbur is a fugging pig. Babe is a fugging pig. That thing was birthed from the loins of Iblis."[75]
73 Arabic: "pig"
74 Arabic: What, pigs don't speak Arabic?
75 Arabic: Satan
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Romeo x Juliet: Episode 1
Synopses: The first scene opens in the wind stricken skies and zooms into a tower of a castle in the sky. Within the stone walls, evil Duke Montague strikes down the head of the Capulet family. A red-haired child Juliet and a servant stumble across the murder. Montague orders that she and the rest of Capulets be exterminated. A servant rescues the pair from Montague warriors. They escape from the keep on a flying horse.
The next scene takes place fourteen years later. Montague standards, a gold bound shield on azure, fly over Neo-Verona, and a square serves as a impromptu court and headsman block. Montague soldiers accuse a peasant girl of being a surviving Capulet. A red garbed vigilante and his sidekick rescue the girl with derring-do worthy of Errol Flynn. After they free the girl, the soldiers give chase. The vigilante Red Whirlwind and his sidekick run away. They split up, and the Red Whirlwind pulls a blond woman from a market stall.
Far above them, the bored Romeo Montague chats with another stuck-up noble Benvolio at a cafe. He notices the chase and decides to intervene. Meanwhile, the Red Whirlwind and Cordelia accidentally run toward a collapsed skywalk, which collapses beneath their feet. Romeo and Benvolio swoop to the rescue in the nick of time on pegasii. The Red Whirlwind is ungracious about the help. He leaves Romeo with an awkward thanks.
The Red Whirlwind et al. head to the playhouse of a playwright named Willy. Behind a secret passage lives the exiled Capulets. The Red Whirlwind is introduced as a boy name Odin, who is scolded by the servant who rescued the two girls in the beginning. Odin slips away and in the privacy of her room, it is revealed (to the two audience members who hadn't realized it yet) that Odin/Red Whirlwind has a third identity of Juliet Capulet.
The scene switches from the Capulets to the Montagues. Duke Montague hold pegasii races for amusement, a past time of the rich. He upbraids Romeo for wasting his time in the city and tells his son that a sovereign must rule with an iron fist. Duke Montague turns on the charm for the rose of the nobility Lady Hermione who he intends to wed to his son. The Duke puts Romeo on the spot by announcing that the lad will take Lady Hermione to the ball that night. By silence, Romeo acquiesces to his father's decision.
The next scene starts at Willy's playhouse and rapidly cuts between the Capulet and Montague side. Juliet asks Willy about love as Romeo has nearly the same conversation with Benvolio. They receive nearly the same answer. The scene jumps back to Willy's and a brief farcical scene puts Odin into a dress to get hauled off to the ball.
Juliet is led through Neo-Verona Keep, the site of the ball, by her accidental date. She recognizes the grand old palace. She also recognizes Duke Montague. She flees from the sight of the cold man to a fountain where she meets her destined lover Romeo.
Thoughts: Gonzo has come a far, far way from an anime long, long ago known as "Zaion: I wish you were here", which was a paper thin rip off of Eva with echos of "Blue Gender". I sat for a full hour through two episodes and wished that I were somewhere else. Gonzo's stories greatly improved after "Full Metal Panic", "Kaleido Star", "Last Exile", and "Gankutsuou". I immediately bought into the Hollywood quality trailer and eagerly awaited the first episode of "Romeo x Juliet" (RxJ).
Rated GD for Grave Disappointment.
First, the good points. The animation and backgrounds were top notch for a TV series. The computer effects blended well with the traditional animation. The character designs and costumes were easy on the eyes. The city of Neo-Verona combines an eclectic collection of architecture smoothly with the fantastic. I could almost feel the sumptuous marble in the Montagues' palace and the solid sanctuary of Juliet's room. The sense of perspective and proportion is simply incredible.
The action sequences did not disappoint with dynamic direction and smooth animation.
Juliet as you've never seen her.
Gonzo got into trouble with the rapid fire hodge-podge of stories. The last heir and the vigilante are both Western tropes. The cross dressing was surely a shoujo influence, while the tongue and cheek scenes with "Willy" were a bit forced, though mildly amusing. These different elements squeezed the original premise to the end with a Cinderella-type ballroom scene. The storyboarding was a helter-skelter montage, and failed as a coherent introduction.
The voice acting was another disappointment. While the Duke of the Montagues carried real gravity as the villain, Romeo and Juliet could have met at any given Tokyo high school. Make that a drama club or a culture festival to explain the costumes. The voice acting of the young Juliet and Cordelia were especially flat given the blood and drama of the rest of the scene.
I suspect that the "Big O" effect is in play (see my previous post). "Romeo and Juliet" is set in a foreign milieu with a story that the teen viewer in Japan may only be vaguely familiar with. In America, practically every middle and high schooler is exposed to some Shakespeare. "Shakespeare in Love" and the 1996 production "Romeo + Juliet" made it to cinemas in recent years. Likewise with Mel Gibson and "Hamlet". When exploring a new setting, it makes sense that the director might play the characters safely and fall back on archetypes that are familiar to the audience like the teenage boy and girl.
As the "Red Whirlwind", Odin (Juliet's alter ego) is strident and outspoken, but the girl Juliet is not elegant, fiery, or meek. She may lean on the independent side for Japanese audiences, but she does not have strong personality. Witness her argument with her old guardian. The source of the argument could have easily been breaking curfew as opposed to risking her life in a battle.
Romeo wears the costume of a mighty Capulet, but he could be a pretty boy from a shoujo manga sipping latte at a cafe in Shinjuku. His voice is not particularly spoiled, powerful, or good; he stays well within a standard deviation of the mean.
Though the opening episode disappointed me, I am willing to give the series until episode 4 or 5 before really pronouncing judgement. It still has the potential of hitting a stride and uniting the disparate elements into a single story.
Loose Ends:
1. The alternate identity of "Red Whirlwind" seems to harken back to Zorro, but the red color may be a reference to the "Scarlet Pimpernel".
2. My older brother pointed out that a woman cross-dressed to join an acting troupe in "Shakespeare in Love". Could this have inspired the "Red Whirlwind"?
Thanks to Umai for translating the fansub that I watched and double thanks to Gonzo et al.
Added synopses.
The next scene takes place fourteen years later. Montague standards, a gold bound shield on azure, fly over Neo-Verona, and a square serves as a impromptu court and headsman block. Montague soldiers accuse a peasant girl of being a surviving Capulet. A red garbed vigilante and his sidekick rescue the girl with derring-do worthy of Errol Flynn. After they free the girl, the soldiers give chase. The vigilante Red Whirlwind and his sidekick run away. They split up, and the Red Whirlwind pulls a blond woman from a market stall.
Far above them, the bored Romeo Montague chats with another stuck-up noble Benvolio at a cafe. He notices the chase and decides to intervene. Meanwhile, the Red Whirlwind and Cordelia accidentally run toward a collapsed skywalk, which collapses beneath their feet. Romeo and Benvolio swoop to the rescue in the nick of time on pegasii. The Red Whirlwind is ungracious about the help. He leaves Romeo with an awkward thanks.
The Red Whirlwind et al. head to the playhouse of a playwright named Willy. Behind a secret passage lives the exiled Capulets. The Red Whirlwind is introduced as a boy name Odin, who is scolded by the servant who rescued the two girls in the beginning. Odin slips away and in the privacy of her room, it is revealed (to the two audience members who hadn't realized it yet) that Odin/Red Whirlwind has a third identity of Juliet Capulet.
The scene switches from the Capulets to the Montagues. Duke Montague hold pegasii races for amusement, a past time of the rich. He upbraids Romeo for wasting his time in the city and tells his son that a sovereign must rule with an iron fist. Duke Montague turns on the charm for the rose of the nobility Lady Hermione who he intends to wed to his son. The Duke puts Romeo on the spot by announcing that the lad will take Lady Hermione to the ball that night. By silence, Romeo acquiesces to his father's decision.
The next scene starts at Willy's playhouse and rapidly cuts between the Capulet and Montague side. Juliet asks Willy about love as Romeo has nearly the same conversation with Benvolio. They receive nearly the same answer. The scene jumps back to Willy's and a brief farcical scene puts Odin into a dress to get hauled off to the ball.
Juliet is led through Neo-Verona Keep, the site of the ball, by her accidental date. She recognizes the grand old palace. She also recognizes Duke Montague. She flees from the sight of the cold man to a fountain where she meets her destined lover Romeo.
Thoughts: Gonzo has come a far, far way from an anime long, long ago known as "Zaion: I wish you were here", which was a paper thin rip off of Eva with echos of "Blue Gender". I sat for a full hour through two episodes and wished that I were somewhere else. Gonzo's stories greatly improved after "Full Metal Panic", "Kaleido Star", "Last Exile", and "Gankutsuou". I immediately bought into the Hollywood quality trailer and eagerly awaited the first episode of "Romeo x Juliet" (RxJ).
Rated GD for Grave Disappointment.
First, the good points. The animation and backgrounds were top notch for a TV series. The computer effects blended well with the traditional animation. The character designs and costumes were easy on the eyes. The city of Neo-Verona combines an eclectic collection of architecture smoothly with the fantastic. I could almost feel the sumptuous marble in the Montagues' palace and the solid sanctuary of Juliet's room. The sense of perspective and proportion is simply incredible.
Feast your eyes on these.
The action sequences did not disappoint with dynamic direction and smooth animation.
Juliet as you've never seen her.Gonzo got into trouble with the rapid fire hodge-podge of stories. The last heir and the vigilante are both Western tropes. The cross dressing was surely a shoujo influence, while the tongue and cheek scenes with "Willy" were a bit forced, though mildly amusing. These different elements squeezed the original premise to the end with a Cinderella-type ballroom scene. The storyboarding was a helter-skelter montage, and failed as a coherent introduction.
The voice acting was another disappointment. While the Duke of the Montagues carried real gravity as the villain, Romeo and Juliet could have met at any given Tokyo high school. Make that a drama club or a culture festival to explain the costumes. The voice acting of the young Juliet and Cordelia were especially flat given the blood and drama of the rest of the scene.
I suspect that the "Big O" effect is in play (see my previous post). "Romeo and Juliet" is set in a foreign milieu with a story that the teen viewer in Japan may only be vaguely familiar with. In America, practically every middle and high schooler is exposed to some Shakespeare. "Shakespeare in Love" and the 1996 production "Romeo + Juliet" made it to cinemas in recent years. Likewise with Mel Gibson and "Hamlet". When exploring a new setting, it makes sense that the director might play the characters safely and fall back on archetypes that are familiar to the audience like the teenage boy and girl.
As the "Red Whirlwind", Odin (Juliet's alter ego) is strident and outspoken, but the girl Juliet is not elegant, fiery, or meek. She may lean on the independent side for Japanese audiences, but she does not have strong personality. Witness her argument with her old guardian. The source of the argument could have easily been breaking curfew as opposed to risking her life in a battle.
Romeo wears the costume of a mighty Capulet, but he could be a pretty boy from a shoujo manga sipping latte at a cafe in Shinjuku. His voice is not particularly spoiled, powerful, or good; he stays well within a standard deviation of the mean.
Though the opening episode disappointed me, I am willing to give the series until episode 4 or 5 before really pronouncing judgement. It still has the potential of hitting a stride and uniting the disparate elements into a single story.
Loose Ends:
1. The alternate identity of "Red Whirlwind" seems to harken back to Zorro, but the red color may be a reference to the "Scarlet Pimpernel".
2. My older brother pointed out that a woman cross-dressed to join an acting troupe in "Shakespeare in Love". Could this have inspired the "Red Whirlwind"?
Thanks to Umai for translating the fansub that I watched and double thanks to Gonzo et al.
Added synopses.
The Big O Effect: the Voice Acting Constraints of a Japanese Paradigm
I first watched "The Big O" in English on the Cartoon Network. Back then, I called it a dub. The showing was contemporary with Fox-scaflowne, which dared to turn down the volume on Yoko Kanno's dulcet tunes. Evagelion featured a bitchy Asuka and a teeny-bopper Misato-san, and the horrendous yak-yak performance of "Lily Cat" still grated on my ears years after I'd last seen it. I was impressed by the emotion and humor injected into the acting in "The Big O". That was the first time that I started using the term "English Language Version" without the irony.
When I bought the DVD, I didn't expect to like the English language version so much more than the original Japanese dialogue. The voices sounded flat in the Japanese. Dorothy sounded like a young girl and Roger Smith was a tough guy. The performances were straight forward, plain and simple. There was nothing wrong with them, but Lia Sargent and Steven Blum interacted with a snarky and dynamic chemistry.
Part of magic came from the American voice talents, and part of it came from the advancements in the voice directing, but I believe that much of the difference was cultural familarity. Here in America, the Speak Easies, G-men, and the tommygun are stock settings. The era was popularized in the "Dick Tracy" comic, lionized in "Scarface", and then parodied in "Looney Tunes" and "Guy Noir: Private Eye"[1]. The tradition continued on the big screen on the dark streets of Gotham City in "Batman Begins". The charged exchanges between Sargent and Blum are played to an audience comfortable with the Noir milieu.
Just as the Meiji Era feels foreign to most Americans, I conjecture that mood, style, and accepted imagery of film noir is foreign to the Japanese audience. Many Japanese have probably seen Scarface or another gangster flick, but even as a single samurai flick gives a gaijin only a taste of the Shogunate, a single gangster flick does not convey the glitz and grit of 20s Chi-town. Therefore, Dorothy and Roger were played straight as the girl and tough hero to convince a teenage Japanese audience to buy into mood and milieu of Noir.
The cultural gap between the audience and the milieu caused the voice directors and actors to play the roles safely and flatly. Instead of an impertinent waif, Dorothy was a girl first and foremost and a sarcastic side kick as a far second. That is what I call the Big O Effect.
[1] A skit on Public Radio International's "Prairie Home Companion".
When I bought the DVD, I didn't expect to like the English language version so much more than the original Japanese dialogue. The voices sounded flat in the Japanese. Dorothy sounded like a young girl and Roger Smith was a tough guy. The performances were straight forward, plain and simple. There was nothing wrong with them, but Lia Sargent and Steven Blum interacted with a snarky and dynamic chemistry.
Part of magic came from the American voice talents, and part of it came from the advancements in the voice directing, but I believe that much of the difference was cultural familarity. Here in America, the Speak Easies, G-men, and the tommygun are stock settings. The era was popularized in the "Dick Tracy" comic, lionized in "Scarface", and then parodied in "Looney Tunes" and "Guy Noir: Private Eye"[1]. The tradition continued on the big screen on the dark streets of Gotham City in "Batman Begins". The charged exchanges between Sargent and Blum are played to an audience comfortable with the Noir milieu.
Just as the Meiji Era feels foreign to most Americans, I conjecture that mood, style, and accepted imagery of film noir is foreign to the Japanese audience. Many Japanese have probably seen Scarface or another gangster flick, but even as a single samurai flick gives a gaijin only a taste of the Shogunate, a single gangster flick does not convey the glitz and grit of 20s Chi-town. Therefore, Dorothy and Roger were played straight as the girl and tough hero to convince a teenage Japanese audience to buy into mood and milieu of Noir.
The cultural gap between the audience and the milieu caused the voice directors and actors to play the roles safely and flatly. Instead of an impertinent waif, Dorothy was a girl first and foremost and a sarcastic side kick as a far second. That is what I call the Big O Effect.
[1] A skit on Public Radio International's "Prairie Home Companion".
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Nomiya the Treacherous Fantasy
On Thursday, my coworkers and I were sent to a business writing seminar. The teacher was concise and clear. One major topic was writing for the reader's comprehension level. As the teacher put it "trying to change someone else makes for an interesting first marriage."
Change is necessary in the development of story characters. In successful story telling, one character often changes or tries to change because of a love interest. Godai from "Maison Ikkoku" struggles for seven years to become more responsible to propose to Kyoko. The hard-shelled Ayukawa from "Kimagure Orange Road" (KOR) tries to leave her delinquent ways after she meets Kyosuke.
KOR is a gender reversal on an old theme. Kenshin reversed his katana after his blade cut Tomoe, and Eastwood's character in "Unforgiven" tried to correct his cussing and killing after meeting his dearly departed wife.
While character change is necessary for a story to have meaning for the reader or viewer, it can be used as a vehicle for fantasy. In harem anime, the main character bends the hearts of beautiful girls with chance meetings and the smallest acts of kindness. In shoujo, a plain or unremarkable placeholder draws in a pride of bishounen. This creates a fantasy for entertainment. I believe that entertainment has its time and place. Altering the consumer's world view or values is not one of them; however, you are what you eat and candy usually has low nutritional content. With this analogy in mind, I humbly submit the following graphic:
Would you like fries with that? [1]
The unhealthy rating comes from the fantasy that Nomiya embodies. Outside of chapter F, his draws are his looks, professionalism, and all-consuming devotion to Yamada. The fantasy here is the conversion of a womanizer to a good and faithful man. I believe that this particular dream gets real life women in trouble.
I've heard by anecdote that abusive men adopt the strategy of "push and pull". The push is the abuse: cheating, pettiness, verbal abuse, and physical abuse. The pull are the moments of kindness and repentance. Without the pull, the redemption fantasy gets punctured.
While Nomiya is never shown to be abusive, the pre-Ayu Nomiya was a rampant womanizer. Even with Ayu, he creates several worrisome moments, such as driving her to another town for noodles. This is borderline abduction. In Umino's dreamworld there is also the Onee-san Miwako who looks over Ayu. However, the real world is rarely as sweet as honey or soft as clover.
Change is necessary in the development of story characters. In successful story telling, one character often changes or tries to change because of a love interest. Godai from "Maison Ikkoku" struggles for seven years to become more responsible to propose to Kyoko. The hard-shelled Ayukawa from "Kimagure Orange Road" (KOR) tries to leave her delinquent ways after she meets Kyosuke.
KOR is a gender reversal on an old theme. Kenshin reversed his katana after his blade cut Tomoe, and Eastwood's character in "Unforgiven" tried to correct his cussing and killing after meeting his dearly departed wife.
While character change is necessary for a story to have meaning for the reader or viewer, it can be used as a vehicle for fantasy. In harem anime, the main character bends the hearts of beautiful girls with chance meetings and the smallest acts of kindness. In shoujo, a plain or unremarkable placeholder draws in a pride of bishounen. This creates a fantasy for entertainment. I believe that entertainment has its time and place. Altering the consumer's world view or values is not one of them; however, you are what you eat and candy usually has low nutritional content. With this analogy in mind, I humbly submit the following graphic:
Would you like fries with that? [1]The unhealthy rating comes from the fantasy that Nomiya embodies. Outside of chapter F, his draws are his looks, professionalism, and all-consuming devotion to Yamada. The fantasy here is the conversion of a womanizer to a good and faithful man. I believe that this particular dream gets real life women in trouble.
I've heard by anecdote that abusive men adopt the strategy of "push and pull". The push is the abuse: cheating, pettiness, verbal abuse, and physical abuse. The pull are the moments of kindness and repentance. Without the pull, the redemption fantasy gets punctured.
While Nomiya is never shown to be abusive, the pre-Ayu Nomiya was a rampant womanizer. Even with Ayu, he creates several worrisome moments, such as driving her to another town for noodles. This is borderline abduction. In Umino's dreamworld there is also the Onee-san Miwako who looks over Ayu. However, the real world is rarely as sweet as honey or soft as clover.
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