Friday, October 9, 2009

Taking a Bow

Many of my recents posts have been short, off the cuff impressions. I tried to keep going to get into a rhythm & practice. That didn't really happen. Also, other blogs summarized Lovely Complex when it was still running. In short, I was getting away from the idea that I started with: thoughtful articles about anime & media. Not that I really got started on talking about media.

I'm not quitting altogether, but I'm going back to some previous projects and starting a new one. Margaret Man is taking a bow from this blog and it's going on hiatus.

Peace.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

State of the Manga Industry

Here are excerpts from the excellent retailers at the Anime Corner Store newsletter:

"This may be happening under the radar for many of you, but the US manga market is quickly transitioning into a 'rare' books model similar to what regular US Comic book dealers have been for decades. Hundreds of older manga issues have already gone out of print, and this year the process has been accelerated by a truly awful consumer economy. And a lot of this has been happening under the radar because past print runs were too large and the overhang of book inventory has remained in the supply chain for a long time, even after the decision as been made not to re-print them, at least until now. We, on the other hand, see the process in real time as every week manga volumes sell down and when we go to re-order some copies, that might have been available last week, are now sold out and listed as no longer in print. The manga publishers, for the most part, don't usually give us official lists of what's going 'out of print' either, they just decide not to reprint and once existing stocks dry up the books are no longer available for 're-order'. Tough luck Mr. Retailer if you didn't buy enough copies to begin with. Tough luck Mr. Customer if you didn't buy it when it first came out.

Now before you manga collectors out there start going crazy over this, let me remind you that there have probably been around 8,000 or 9,000 manga volumes published in the US over the last 10 years, and those backissues could not stay in print forever, so it was inevitable that the manga companies would eventually reach a point where they just start letting series go off the market en-mass as their sales cycles wind down. The process has really accelerated in 2009 though, and I'd guess that by years end there will probably be at least 1,500 older manga volumes that are no longer in print, and I would estimate by the end of 2010 fully half of the previously released catalog of English language manga will be out of print."
I guess that I'd better pick up the pace with collecting the Swan.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Fool for the Old Skool

Hades: Project Zeorymer is the perfect name for this ode to bombastic mediocrity. Yet, it still tickled me to watch giant robots blast off with names like Zeorymer of the Heavens or Rose C'est la Vie of the Moon. That last one probably made me loose a few brain cells.

However, there is something about the character designs, the mecha direction, and the unabashed gung ho spirit. Zeorymer does focus on the villains, making them the protagonists of each episode and imbuing them with a spirit that is usually reserved for the heros. This role reversal is reinforced by Zeorymer's overwhelming dominance.

I also see strains of Raxhephon & Eva, but then they may just be tropes of the genre that first drew me into the madness: Giant Robots.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Defending the Canvas

Different genre and media move different people, this may seem like a truism, but I've been told that one of my friends asked "what is the point of animation?" I believe that the gist of his argument ran: after all, movies show basically everything that animation can, but with real stuff. I was trying to put together a good explanation, when I saw Kseniya's Simonova's performance sand art from a clip on Youtube that she did for Ukraine's Got Talent.

NPR mentioned the Guardian article [1]. Kseniya draws the portrait of a young couple that met on the eve of Ukraine's bloody invasion by Germany during WWII and the subsequent occupation. Ace of Spades mentions that 1/4 of the population had been murdered [2] by the end of the war.


Young Couple at the eve of war


From some of the Youtube comments, I gather that the husband is sent away to war, and she bears his child. The young wife recieves a letter telling her of his death. An old woman mourns a fallen soldier in the war torn city. The young wife still remembers him.

Soldiers go off to war


The Sorrowful Letter


Mourning


Memories of the Fallen Remain

Kseniya's performance is different from animation in several respects. First, this is a live creation of sand art. Also, the images tell a story, but is not the incremental frame animation that we are used to. However, the essence of the sand art is that it starts from a blank tableau and uses opaque sand and stark whiteness to tell her story. Instead of paint, she used sand. Instead of a canvas, she used a tabletop. Yet the picture she paints becomes shear force to the tear stricken audience. Her spare lines are stark against the whiteness. The image is powerful, like a whisper is loud in a hushed room.

In the vast majority of live action, the director's camera captures a reality that is already exists, whether it is the onsite shot, the arranged set, or the actors brought. I recall reading a film philosopher who likened the camera to stealing the audience's eye. The angling & centering of the lens and zoom all are used to focus the stolen eye on key visual elements. By contrast Kseniya and animators craft a world starting from pure nothingness and working their way up from there. And the effects can be quite startling.

[1] Which I found through the Ace of Spades Blog.
[2] WWII & the Soviet years helps to begin explaining the happy-go-lucky attitude of your average Slav.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Haruhi Season 2 End

I just watched the ending of the 2nd Season of the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi [1]. While reading the Baka-tsuki fan translations of the novel, I had considered the movie making arc to be the middle child between the roaring opening of the original Melancholy (1st 6 episodes) and the Disappearance storyline.

After all, the actions were already completely defined and had already been shown in detail as episode zero. However, Kyoto Ani really kicked up the intensity in episode 13 during the argument at Tsuruya's house. Sugita nailed the scene and the animation was nothing less than inspired. Their reconciliation was also natural and well done. Haruhi trying to tie a ponytail recalls his complement in closed space. We can only hope that Mikuru doesn't go around in a ponytail or the world might end.

All in all, the first episode of the second season was good and the last three were excellent. The middle was interesting from an innovation standpoint, but was a bit overdone. Here's to a third season, soon.

[1] AFK fansub.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Umino Chika Does it Again

In March comes in like a Lion [1], Chika blew me away with the final chapter of volume 1. The series is still slice of life, but quickly culminates into a poignant story of an orphan growing up.

Her art transitions from the goofy to the sublime.

While there was a sharp dividing line between the personal and the derivative sides of Honey & Clover, 3gatsu seems more natural and united. I hope that this works comes over. I guess that I've got to do my part - cha-ching.

[1] 3gatsu no Lion - currently scanlated by Be With You Scans & SCX Scans.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Friday, September 11, 2009

Natsume hits the Spot

A great story with an unfortunate name, Natsume Yujincho [1] is the story of a boy who inherits his grandmother Reiko's book of yokai (spirt or monster) names and her ability to see spirits. In the past, this power made Natsume an outcast, but he meets a powerful yokai Madara and begins to interact with yokai and humans. The series is organized into single and two episode stories, where Natsume usually encounters a new yokai or human and becomes involved with their problems.

While the premise of an object of power and spirits is familiar, as anyone who's seen Ghost Stories can atest to, the magic is in the delivery. True to its shoujo roots [2], the story focuses on the characters' emotions. Unlike most modern manga, the central feelings and theme is not romance, but estrangement and fellowship. The main character Natsume attempts to connect to the yokai and people around him despite his fears of rejection. He finds that helping others is a good way to get to know others, but wonders if he is just using those he helps. While there is introspection, the author manages to keep it from becoming an angst-fest.

Overall, the animation and character designs are delightful. The stories are well plotted and are written with real feeling. It is clear that both the original author and the anime writers believe deeply in this work. This isn't an enervated re-hash like Hajime no Ippo, where the only new energy came from the Engrish theme song.

Despite the name and the sense deja-vu with the set-up, Natsume Yujincho is a winner. Better yet, Viz is releasing volume 1 in English in January 2010.

[1] Available via Crunchyroll, which is now one of my favorite websites.
[2] The original was a shoujo manga written by Midorikawa Yuki and published by Hakusensha under the Lala imprint.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Between the Act and the Audience

Last month or so, I wrote about the sweet spot between accessibility and epic-ness. If you swap adventure for epic, then you have a generalized description of narrative fiction. The audience must have enough to grab onto to enter the imaginary world. Without any connection in the characters or, secondarily, the setting or plot, the audience is an uninvited outsider. Any who watches French or Chinese art house film probably feels as alienated from the film as the obscure director did from general society.

Yet, the story must have enough difference with real life to to be worth the price of admission. Too much similary creates a banal storyline that the audience can see out of their window.

This dichotomy seems like a truism, but number of misses that come to mind makes me think that there's something too this.

Big News

ADV films went down. A moment of silence. However, Animenewsnetwork's ANNCast has a quick and clean summary of what happened after the 16:15.

Also, the Otaku-chief has stepped down, the last hope of the enervated LDP, which was never Liberal nor Democratic. Truth in advertising would have called it the Centralized Technocratic Party, but that could have been confused with CPT, which has already been claimed many times over.

Friday, August 14, 2009

2nd Stage Lensmen

You know a book is bad ass, when the enemy fleet brings along seven planets, armed with engines and guns, to a space battle. I thought that Gundam was getting raw when one colony got converted to a space cannon, but back in 1953, E. E. Smith had his heroes hurling planets as projectile, and all calculated with slide rulers (though they started using computers in book 5).

In other randomness, Endless Eights has supposedly ended after the eighth iteration.

Also, I saw this comment at Crunchyroll for Kurokami episode 13: Hawkeye_666 said. "And did Ketia just become beastily????? SURVEY SAYS!!!!!! BIG MOTHERFING YES!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh, Mother English, weep as I laugh in joy.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Boogiepop Loosing the Mystery

Boogiepop Phantom was stylish, mysterious and confusing. However, the obfuscation helped to create a dense atmosphere. Much of that mask was torn away in Boogiepop at Dawn, which relied on heavy exposition and switched often to the oppositions' point of view, such as Mo Murder from the Towa Organisation or the monstrous psychiatrist Fear Ghoul.

Upon first read, I was upset by the loss of mystery. I had another go at it and chilled out a bit. No work is perfect, and I knew that Boogiepop was far from it. The franchise got about as far away from that as it could during the teenie-bopper flick Boogiepop & Others.

With adjusted expectations, the collection of stories in Boogiepop at Dawn did flesh out the many gaps in the story left by the other light novels and provided more back story to what happened four to five years before B. Phantom. The collection of stories also ended at a pretty cool scene that earned back points marked off previously, but I won't spoil it. I'll just say that it cemented coolness of Boogiepop. [1]

[1] Or rather, I should say as an engineer that it hydrated the cement.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Not Britannica

One of my friends told me that she'd met a dumb guy who thought that he was smart. He was denying liability for some event or another, but kept on saying:

"I'm not reliable."

This bimbo [1] was trying to impress my friend, but he persisted in stating his unreliablity after she corrected him. His attempt to impress ended in an epic fail.

That was the feeling that I got from watching the first episode of Code Geass: Lelouche the Revolution. When the Brits or many successful empires conquered nations, they often used locals to help carry out their bidding. During the heyday of the British Empire, they recognized Indian nobility, then used them to help administer the Jewel of the Empire.

Also, the honorary Britanicans should have been using at least riot gear (e.g. rubber truncheons, plastic restraints, etc.), so that they wouldn't be overpowered by the local populace. However, such details would have violated the characters' metrosexuality with its phallic cludginess. A mass slaughter of the locals would have also ignited a mass uprising in the Shinjuku slums. Afterall, this is only 7 years after the beginning of the occupation.

In the aftermath of WWII, MacArthur warned Washington: "give me bread or give me bullets." While he may have been exaggerating to get the materiel, he knew that he would have problems if he didn't feed the defeated Japanese. In Germany, groups of unrepantant Nazis called the Werewolves still fought against the Allies, despite years of war weariness.

But is it fair to fault a mecha anime for unrealism?

My criticism of the first episode lies in two lines:
1. The conceit has potential. The image of the Japanese living in their own downtown as a slum is striking. However, the first episode ham-handedly develops the world. This is disappointing considering the ambition & scope that the writers are pushing. In short, they hyped the hard-core, so they have to live up to it.
2. Lelouche's use of anime cliches hampers the development of the episode. High schoolers, dramatic idealism (Suzaku) juxtaposes discordantly with the genocidal slaughter at the end of the episode. So if you aren't dazzled by Samwise-Frodo intensity stares and girly-man gorgeous teens, this show may not be for you. In other words, this is more of a niche show, which is a legitimate business strategy, but moves away from the universal rule: "If it sounds good, it is good." And I doubt that this show is for me.

I may try episode 2 if the mood strikes me, but I have my doubts about that.

Usually I wouldn't bother to write a detailed negative review based one episode, but this Code Geass a pet peeve of mine, which I detail in criticism #1. To this day, I criticize the Segway for the same thing.

[1] Bimbo first applied to men in the '20s.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

1000 Masks - End of the Line

I just finished watching episode 51 of Glass Mask. And I'm not sure what to think. I think that it was really good, but I'm not sure yet. I'm going to have to watch it again. But the series overall was excellent.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Aoi Hana the Animation II

Note: this post assumes knowledge of the Aoi Hana manga. [1]

This morning, while unable to sleep, the word "idyllic" came to me as my thoughts touched on Aoi Hana. Despite my railing against remakes, the Aoi Hana anime [2] has made a fan at me in 45 minutes. During my last post, I wrote about the light and the colors. Here are some samples, taken from Crunchyroll, of a scene with dappled light and the glare of a lamp beneath a curtain.

Dapples of light on the protagonist: Akira Okudaira.

Glow during the night.

Scenes from ordinary life are transformed into moving art. So far, the direction is nothing short of inspired. This is in contrast to jaded anime that take the otherworldly and make it utterly mundane.

The voice acting matches the characters well. I didn't like Akira's nasal voice too much during episode one, but it transitions well from the past to the present. It also matches her genki-ness. She also managed to pull off the emotional scene when Akira comforts Fumi.

Left - manga, Right - anime

This scene also serves as a good reference point between the manga and anime style. While much of the character designs are the same, there are differences. Akira's face is longer in the anime, making her look older. Her hand is also slimmer and her fingers are smaller. This makes her look more feminine rather than boyish. Typically males have a larger hand to body ratio. Kojita, the character designer of Someday's Dreamers, also used larger hands to emphasized a boyish energy and naivete. This is clearly shown in the picture culled from his website [3].

Note the hand size, which is prominent in this portrait of a tomboy.

Also, Shimura's usually leaves out the background. This economy boosts the impact of the character's closeness in this scene.

The two frames also show the two interpretations. The anime emphasizes Akira's facial expression, while the manga takes a more subtle approach. Note that Akira's hand sinks into Fumi's side with greater pressure, while her brows are unfurrowed, expressing more puzzlement than in the animated version.

This image also shows that both versions have a lot to recommend, and I look forward to their releases on this side of the Pacific.

= = =

[1] The early volumes of Shimura's work were scanlated by Kotonoha & Lillilicious. Lillilcious has been the sole scanlator lately. In another note, Lillilcious also fansubbed Maria-sama, which was the inspiration for this blog's name.
[2] Available thanks to Crunchyroll and thank you, thank you, thank you!
[3] Kojita site: http://www.tuchinoko.com/

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Aoi Hana the Animation

I've seen episode 1 via crunchyroll, and it's a beauty. The character designs are a bit more grown up and detailed than most of Shimura's frames, but they manage to convey the characters and their atmospheres. The color palette combines liveliness, soft shades, and incredibly detailed lighting (like the dapples on Akira's skirt) to lend itself to the subtle layers of character growth and emotion that is the author's staple.

The animation style feels like a favorable recombination of Shinkai's background & the raging melodrama "Bokura ga Ita". I'm a fan. Onto episode 2!

I've been in an otaku-cave. Oofuri has been out in the US and I've only recently noticed. Also Kannagi has just been released. I'm just catching up with Clannad. I think that the lack of space has been slowing down my anime collection. Also, the unwatched series have piled up. Being an otaku can be demanding.

Ranma the Trouble-maker

After a long, long time, I finally got a season of the Ranma DVDs. They were $25 per season through Right Stuf. The episodes were just as funny as I remember. Just about the time, they introduced Shampoo, the series dropped most of its pretense of continuity and serious and began it's descent into slap-stick harem-dom. It's been a walk down memory lane, and it was as good as ever.

This morning, I wanted to burn a music CD for my commute, when the boxset took a flying front flip and crashed right into my open CD-R drive. I've had that drive for 4 years and haven't had trouble with it. Now it's dead. The caddy won't close. However, the DVD ROM (read only) opens and closes again, though now it won't read anything. Down from 1.5 drives to zero. Sigh. Ranma, what a trouble-maker.

I'm not too upset, though since it was time for an upgrade to a DVD-R drive. Also, I've got Yawara, the series that beat Ranma to its knees when they both first aired in Japan. It's the blood-bout, now across the Pacific!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

More Vocabulary

More words to catch the eye & ear:

"abandominiums" = abandoned construction that is used by squatters. Portmanteau of "abandon" + condominium

Sporfe = spoon + fork + knife. Trade name = Splayd. Found on the Ragbag.

Also found on Ragbag:
fanon (sci-fi/fantasy fans): facts about the characters or worlds of a particular t.v. show, book, movie, etc. that are not part of the source material but originate in fan fiction (contrast with canon).

Addition 07-18-09:
Tertullian Heresy - the heretical belief that one of the joys of Heaven is watching the torment of those fallen to Hell.

Cel Fogey

With the advent of digital, I thought of a term for anime fans who cut their yellowed, Dew stained teeth before the internet became big and 3rd generation VHS cassettes were the order of the day: Cel Fogeys. The fogey-ism starts with "back in my day". And back in those days, anime was drawn on cells.

Epic, but accessible: a fogey rants

It's kind of like great taste, less filling. I've had a new copy of Escaflowne for a few months now (Vol 1 & 2 got microwaved from my collector's set), but I haven't watched them. I watched my old fan subs and my first DVD collection about six or seven times all together and certain scenes and episodes several times over, so its so firmly embedded in my memory that my eyes gloss over the screen and my mind wanders.

Still, the idea of the Earth in the sky as the Mystic Moon, empires clashing, magi-tech, an ancient civilization, and Sir Isaac Newton, makes for a true epic. Even with the breadth and scope, the entry point (Hitomi Kanzaki) and the flow of the story makes it accessible to the average viewer. Yet the accessibility did not translate into simplicity or shallowness, there was plenty of layers, mysteries, and character development to engage the audience.

Gaia was big enough to immerse the audience, but did not drown it.

Despite my limited exposure and criticisms of the franchise, Final Fantasy unabashedly offers both of these elements. However, they seem to be a prisoner of their own success. I accuse Square-Enix of crossing the fine line from storyboarding to formula. Here's a checklist:
  • A conflict between magic & technology
  • A race against time
  • A female character of unusual power needs your support
  • Girly men abound
Gainsay me if you will, if you can.

I believe that few anime in recent years have had the ambition to create a work of the scope of Escaflowne, fewer yet have suceeded in it.

The most popular series in recent years have been manga transplants: Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Inu Yasha. Let's not talk about the endless Inu Yasha, I don't consider it to be a story telling success. Bleach lost its characters in the multitude of battles. Death Note was intense in a different way. Naruto is a competition manga, which is an extension of the sports genre and is an illegitimate child of the murdered DBZ. While various serious works have tried to double down on the obfuscation that marked Evangelion. Even successful inheritors to Eva are markedly different from the sweeping adventure of Escaflowne.

That is not to say that there haven't been successful works. Ghost in the Shell, Haruhi, Gankutsou, & Mushi-shi readily come to mind. Yet these are not in the same vein. Dark cyberpunk, otaku madness, psychedelic remake, Twilight Zone avec les bugs are very different.

Though the tones were far different, 12 Kingdoms is a transfer story into another world. Last Exile hung a whole new world in the balance (in a race against time, of course). While I haven't watched much of it, the world of Full Metal Alchemist seems to be complete. So, there are a few big adventures spread over the years, but sometimes I sit at my computer and wonder when will the next Mystic Moon wax in the sky.

I feel like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. Square doesn't do it right, because it's become too much of the same. Yet this fogey complains that there isn't enough out there like the, now, venerable Escaflowne. But the gist of my argument is that the grand adventures seem to be missing, yet there must be enough new to make the trip worthwhile. Also heart is not an option. Without soul, there is no vigor, we might as well be watching Mahoromatic or Diamond Daydreams.

So I ask the anime makers: When will my Mystic Moon rise again?

Friday, July 10, 2009

Haruhi Season 2: Really Endless Eight

The arc Endless Eight will probably end in episode 5, but not before confounding (what I imagine) are most fans' expectations of a convenient end to the endless loop. Instead, there have been at least three iterations of the loop shown. For a show that began with episode 0, leapt through its own timeline, and then ninja ambushed the fans with the second season, there looping of the endless eight, should not be a surprise, yet it still surprised me.

Though the repeats jerks my chain with each rewind, I'm glad that Kyoto Ani isn't resting on their laurels. Sieg Kyon!

Update: Just watched 5, refusing to bow to rules or popularity pressure, Kyoto Ani continues Endless Eights for another week. I wonder if a mix up like season one would have worked better, but they strive to defy expectation.

Update 2: Episode 6 continues to loop the Endless Eights. Keep 'em guessing and stressing! I suppose that there's a good reason why there isn't a preview at the end of each episode. Keep 'em coming Kyoto Ani!

Update 3: I just watched the breaking of the loop at Episode 9. I was late to the game, but it was still a relief to see it end.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Glass Mask 2005 up to episode 45

I remember reluctantly watching the first episode of Glass Mask 2005. I was wondering just how good a twenty-odd year manga story line could be. Maya-who?

Now I'm fully hooked wondering what the end of the 2005 series will bring. Will episode 51 bring a resolution to the Crimson Goddess competition? What about Hayami and Maya? Obsessive otaku want to know.

The fanboy factor is high and I'm looking forward to the last few episodes.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Alpine Rose: Old School Lovin'

My latest Ivy Scans assignment is Vol 2, Chapter 1 of Akaishi Michiyo's Alpine Rose. It's the story of a poor young lovers set in Switzerland on the eve of World War II. The girl Jeudi was found by Lundi in a field when they were children. Lundi [1] had also lost his parents and was being raised by his Aunt and Uncle. At the earliest time possible, the Aunt and Uncle packed away Jeudi to work in a nearby town [2].

She was happy with her work for a time, but her old boss passes away and is replaced by a tyrant who tries to violate her. Jeudi flees to her only sanctuary, which is with Lundi. Lundi's aunt and uncle try to make her go back, but he stand up for her. While this mess looms over them, they accidentally the two get tangled up with a philandering noble, and then then adventure really get started.

From the start, Jeudi & Lundi are fond of each other with the uncomplicated ease of children. The night of Jeudi's arrival, they curl together in the same blanket. She is not content to sleep in the bed if he must sleep on the floor.
At the start: Close, but not quite lovers.
AKA Friends WITHOUT Benefits

The stakes rise once the Count Gourmont enters the picture, and Jeudi and Lundi rise to the occasion. Lundi incurs the wrath of Gourmont by protecting Jeudi's pet cockatoo, then Jeudi confronts Gourmont after the Count strikes Lundi. And so it goes. They have nothing but each other, and they hold on with everything they have. Their pure feelings transition from childhood fondess to the first declarations of romance.


Jeudi does not fear to stand up for her man!

This manga was published in the early to mid '80s. What were remarkable were
  1. the lack of angst
  2. the external conflict
  3. the strength of both Lundi & Jeudi in the face of this conflict.
Karekano was the first shojo work that I got into. In the first half of the anime, most of the conflict is internal and, boy, is there ever a streak of angst that runs on after the couple gets together. Souichirou Arima is plagued with powerful doubts, and Yukino is little better.

Most modern day shojo (as I've complained about before) focuses on or degenerates (Lovely Complex) into focusing on the feelings itself. While love is important in this earlier work, it is one aspect of the story, not the encompassing theme that it's become. The later works seem to have not only romance, but a morbid fascination with meta-romance: ruminations about the feelings of love, the effects of romance, what it's like being in love, etc.

Akaishi wrote "Alpine Rose" when she was in her twenties. Her parents lived through the reconstruction. However, Karekano is two generations distant from that time of deprivation, which is safely relegated to black and white images and stories from the senile side. The internal conflict may speak more clearly to the current generations, but I have my doubts that this is positive development.

The internal conflicts also mean that the mind is sliced and diced as each emotion is dissected. This calls for shades of gray, which can become a pall if there is too much angst. In Alpine Rose, the attacks from without are met with grit and clarity by both Lundi and Jeudi. It is telling that
in this portrait, both of them are clad in armor:

No need for damsel in distress.

While I enjoyed Karekano [3], the clear strength of Jeudi & Lundi have become the exception. And the old has become new again.

[1] I have trouble remembering that Lundi is the guy. I associate the moon with a woman, so it's counter-intuitive for me.
[2] This was translated as "shop" or "beverage shop". The frame says "Schloss", which is German for castle. It could be a bar or beer hall or tavern.
[3] Especially Yukino's moral damage.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Quick thoughts

My recent trip to Canada with my bro djtrainwreckx is still churning through my mind. There was a lot to see and much to think about. Then I got back to work. There was a lot less to see and a whole lot to stew about, but nothing all that healthy to linger on. I felt like Gundam Wing 01 going to town on a bunch of Leos from Monday to Wednesday.

Here are two quick secondary thoughts:

1. I finally understand Maya Sakamoto's song Twenty-four from "Hotchpotch". The first time, I didn't focus too hard on this track, because Maya was still muddling from middle Engrish to English. She's good now, but was rougher back then. Not that I can say too much, her English is about 10 to the 7th times better than my Nihon-not-go.

Anyway, the "twenty-four" simply refers to the same midnight in the second line.

See what happened to the girl
'Round the midnight
When she lost a crystal shoe
I don't need to spell on me
Or bell to tell me
You'd better go, you'd better say good-bye...

Too bad she gave it all away
When the magic's gone astray, hey hey
I'd never let it be
Whatever may come to me
When it turns to be twenty-four

I think that "twenty-four" may also refer to turning twenty-four years old in a youth obsessed culture, but a first-order analysis points toward the twenty-fourth hour that caps off a calendar day. Quebec goes by a 24 hour clock, so the pieces fit on the Monday after the trip.

2. After hanging out with a laid-back, awesome Polish woman, that brings up the number of fun Polish woman up to 2 out of three. I may be developing an unenlightened fetish here.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Not number 3...

The temperature plunged or so I thought. I am wearing three layers again and fell asleep like a rock after I came home from work. Maybe it's just the interrupted sleep, the fractured dreams, catching up to me. Or maybe I'm feeling sick again.

When I feel sick, I feel the need to do something, the burst of frantic thoughts and hopes, because I can't do much when ridden with fever or cold. There is the sense of feeling trapped, trapped by the inability to accomplish and watching the clock tick away. That is a prison as surely as any closed space. And I am touched by the spurs of fear, but without the energy, there is not much that I can do.

That is what illness does to me.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

7/7 & 13: The Crush from the Crushing Loneliness

The root of Haruh's pathology came from the diminishing moment during the game at the Hanshin Tiger's stadium.To be so insignificant and regular crushed her psyche. Carrying these feelings, Haruhi snuck out of her house and into the middle school to leave the simple message: "I am Here". She needed affirmation of her existence, then met John Smith, a high schooler who helped her (abet not quite willingly and with a lot of hollering) and gave her hope that
  • he guessed that Aliens were real.
  • he wouldn'd be surprised if Time Travelers also existed
  • and that psychics were everywhere.
  • Most importantly that there was someone at North High who believed.
John Smith brought her from those depths and let her know that she was there. That is what he meant to the thirteen year old Suzumiya Haruhi on July 7th.

Haruhi Season 2 Episode 1: Tectonic shift

The 2nd season of Haruhi kicked off with it's usual surprise, much like the first season opened with Episode Zero. According to limulux, season two began with a sneak attack on the fans. During another run of the series, the new episode was slipped in during the chronological order without any announcement. It had a cold start, so there was no warning from a new opening sequence.

These people still know how to take risks.

The animation quality was up to par with the old episodes and the directing clever. Most of it followed the novel, though the opening bit about studying was skipped.

I believe that there was a significant shift. It was small, but it was strong. While the episode showed a lot more Asahina than usual, the biggest scene belonged to Yuki. At the end of there three year status there is a look exchanged between Kyon & Yuki that says so much without words.

I'm hoping for more soon, though there was no episode preview.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

She's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Haruhi is officially back: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-05-21/new-haruhi-suzumiya-anime-episode-airs

The series starts out with the Bamboo Rhapsody. My fanboy fires have been reignited. I was feeling on point today. At first, I thought that it was from the ginseng or the nap during the safety training, but it was the return of the Goddesses of the Otaku. Welcome back, your Graces.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Let sleeping Gundams lie

Spoiler Alert.

I've been reading the MS Gundam novels by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was the mastermind behind the original anime. They are really what the compilation movies should have been. Even when I was watching the compilation movies, I often thought that there was a lot of filler and far too many robot models. Granted, even the creator of Gundam was forced to admit that his creation is "only a cartoon". I blame this on the voracious marketing and merchandising department.

I do not fault them for creating merchandising, after all it reinforces the rewards for creativity. However, the series was rolling out goofy models every third point of each movie and even had a chicken footed monstrosity with a cannon in it's crotch and verniers up its derrier:

The Big Zam was reported to have a walk-on role in "Orgazmo",
but that was left on the cutting room floor.


And let's not talk about the Gundam Hammer. There's really not much to say on that topic.

The first part "Awakening" keeps the mecha madness under control and smooths out the storyline. Instead of descending Earth-side, the action seamlessly plays out in space. This trajectory mercifully cuts out the scene where Char has an extended conversation with Garma, while was standing around in his briefs. Tomino also leaves the kids and Fraw Bo out of the action. By cutting down on the themes of youth and innocence that dominated the first compilation movie, the lean prose lets the focus fall on the Newtypes.

The book gets into the characters' minds and fleshes out the transcendental interactions between the Newtypes. In the compilation movie, the battle between Lala Sune and Amuro Ray was expressed in a Kubrick-esque trip. The book was able to tackle more directly and get into the characters' experience.[1] Tomino uses his third look (original series and compilation movies being 1st and 2nd) to create a far more grown-up work. I hope that volumes 2 & 3 play out as well.

The title of the post comes from the elated feeling that comes with imagining the space battles and suits. Since there was an anime, I tried to imagine the Gundams, Zakus, and the colonies in live action, drawing on B5, SF Channel's Dune, and all the other shows I've seen to construct it. While caught up in the massive constructs of Tomino's mind, I began to wonder: what if they made a movie-

I caught myself in time. No, no more calls for remakes, especially live action ones. I refuse. Much would probably be lost in translation. And I shudder to think about what Hollywood would do to the tragic relation of Lala Sune and Amuro Ray. In fact, I'd give her even odds on surviving. So no, I ax the idea of a movie or even a mini-series. I'll enjoy the book and let sleeping Gundams lie.

= = =

[1] A movie can express a mind meld, but it's harder. We have
  1. the Kubrick trip, which leaves more of an impression rather than precision.
  2. The characters can talk about it during the event or afterwards, but that creates a separation between the audience and the event that doesn't exist with the book.
  3. The characters can also talk directly to the audience, but breaking the fourth wall also breaks with the rest of the work. That's a wrinkle that has to be managed.
  4. alternately, words can appear on the screen a la End of Evangelion.
  5. etc.
Likewise, a book has a more difficult time than a movie dealing with rapid jumps between characters and scenery. A picture is worth a thousand words all at once. Each jump in a written work expends sentences shifting the scene. I contend that each sentence, paragraph, and page has an impact that is affected by the overall length of the work. In a room full of talking people, being heard is that much more difficult.

Each medium has its own strength and weakness. Not every story works well as a movie.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Paying da billz

I have one active credit card, and I always pay off my balance every month. After all, idle plastic is the Devil's new playground. Every time I open the bill, I try to recall what each charge is. Such as a charge to Right Stuf: Dai Guard and the Monster & Swan mangas. Or Amazon: Remember the Kangi I. Lunch at Van Allen's farm: Pork sandwich, Chicken Salad, chips & iced tea. I remember this, not completely b/c I'm OCD, but because I split the cost & food with a comely coworker.

Even though plastic looks like funny money, it's still a real outlay. If I don't remember the nature of the charge then it either wasn't a good purchase or, worse yet, the spending was more important than the purchase. That sounds strange, but it's the impetus behind impulse buys.

This month was a shock-ah in terms of size (new tires), but I remembered every charge, so I won that game this time around.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sealed Room

Yesterday, my foot was so swollen that it looked like my foot had two ankles, one right below the other. My bedroom faces east on the 2nd floor of this two story, modestly sized colonial. A small bathroom and a bedroom with a 4 season room finishes the upper story. A stair case coming off of the face of the bathroom leads to the living room downstairs. The front door lies a bit off of the mouth of the stair. The living room opens to a dining room and then to the kitchen. A glass and screen door open to the backyard.

With my swollen foot, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it back up the stairs if I went to the kitchen for something to eat. The toilet was upstairs. It would be an uncivilized problem if I went downstairs. The pain deadened my appetite, so I didn't feel much like eating anyway, so I stayed upstairs.

I lay with my foot raised on a sleeping bag. I considered the work that I had. I thought about calling work to see if someone could bring by some shop tickets, so I could check them for fabrication. I could toss my key down the window. Once I thought about it again, it would help, because the front and side doors had locks that could only be unlocked from the inside.

So as long as my foot limited me, I was in a sealed space. Now, I could have slid downstairs on my butt in an emergency, but in from a certain perspective, I was in a Sealed Room. I could not get out. No one could get in. The feeling was claustrophobic, especially since Sealed Rooms attract murders, like master detectives generate cases. After all, no one could possibly get involved in so many cases by random happenstance. I postulate that Sealed Rooms are similar.

It was a strange feeling when usual entrances and exits, which I usually used without a second, looked like impenetrably barriers. Stranger still that my world would be limited to three rooms, when I usually could hop into my car and range for a dozens of miles. That my sky would be 8 foot nine inches high. While my foot fevered my body and the pain made itself feel permanent, my mind painted a picture of a home become a prison.

What a strange waking dream it was.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Through Time & Space: Back off Hollywood!

I used to have a neutral opinion of remakes, but enough is enough. Though there is some laughter for this overblown tribute to Goku, the sentiment is heartfelt. The black clad French fan laments "Plus jamais simple! Plus jamais simple!, which I would render as "it's never simple anymore!" This afront is accompanied by Zac Efron in Full Metal Panic! and the darkening of G.I. Joe.

Fans Lament the passing of Goku.

At some point, the remakes included an element of flattery. The remake had the potential to add to the original legend and re-energize the fanbase. The trend is clearly away from taking risks or creation to sacking the intent and energy of the originals. I think that it's time to take a stand against this wave. The trouble is that there are still spots of quality in the flood of crap and where to make the stand, but a stand must be made.

Full disclosure: I have not seen Dragonball: Evolution, but have been warned against it. I also plan to watch the Evangelion: Reboot series.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Three days to a new HD

On the first day, I installed the hard drive and the OS.
On the second day came the drivers, the browser, and much fumbling.
On the third day were the security software and the peripheries. And upon the third night, the geek looked upon the shining monitor and said eff-it.

It was a lot of extra work, since I haven't opened the case in a while or reformatted. But now this machine has 450+ GB of usable disk space on top of a 320 GB external HD. Real estate prices have fallen in this cyber-hood.

Now that I'm back, I have to find something to say.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Impressions of ToraDora!

I'm lucky that I see a dentist these days (after a five year hiatus), because this series had enough sugar to rot out my entire mouth. ToraDora was sappy, melodramatic, and predictable, but it was an unabashedly, energetic romance. It was also the highlight of many of my weeks.

I read a movie review in the local paper praising the show the Mentalist. I've never seen the show myself, but the series was not as well reviewed as some of its competitors, because it was not shocking or surprising enough. The reviewer pointed out that most critics are looking to be wowed or blown away. Instead, the Mentalist tries to delight the audience, which the director said was the goal.

I've used the word "entertainment" as a disparagement. More precisely, it was "just entertainment". While ToraDora certainly wasn't deep, there was a color and vibrancy that helped me unwind at the end of the week. Maybe there was more to it for me than another drama. Or maybe in my narrow worldview, I need a bit of "just entertainment".

As for the show itself, it starts out with a klutzy and violent Taiga (tiger or tora) putting a love letter in the bag belonging to Takasu Ryugi. The homebody Ryugi is often misunderstood, because of his gangster like looks. When Taiga breaks into Ryugi's home to burgle back the letter, their bizarre relationship begins.

The show featured several good voice talents including one of my recent favorites Kugimiya Rie who also played Shana in Shakugan no Shana, though fans will probably know her more as Eric Alphonse in [1]. She filled out Taiga's eccentric character to the T. Her Taiga interplayed well with a well played Ryugi.

Hori Yui plays a bizarre softball player Minori, who is Taiga's best friend. Her strangeness is complemented by the equally bizarre Kitamura, who is Takasu's friend. Most of the comic relief comes from the eternally single homeroom teacher. The cast is joined by a two-faced beauty Kawashima Ami, who helps to exemplify (the cliched) theme of honesty. They are all ably voice casted.

Despite the cliches in the plot, the pacing is energetic and quick. The early episodes feel rushed, but are functional. The haste makes sense, because the nuances are fully fleshed out in the novels. At first, I was a bit putoff, until I watched the first episodes of the Hajime no Ippo anime, where the frames were directly ripped from the pages of the manga. I swore that I could have seen the scotch tape protruding from the ends of my TV screen.

While the art was good and the animation was saved for the right spots. The voice talents are really what make the series work. They convey the exuberance of first love and youth with just the right touch of sarcasm and humor that works if you're in to soak in a light story of pure romance.

[1] You can look it up in animenewsnetwork.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spiral (into Confusion)

Warning: spoilers galore.

Just to clear things up, this is the anime series released by Funimation back in '03 or '04. This is not Junji Ito's visually grotesque horror series "Uzumaki" or a veiled Narutard reference. Spiral refers to a story that focuses on kid prodigy Narumi Ayumu. He's has some of the detective and piano playing talent of his older brother Kiyotaka. Despite these abilities, Ayumu is always overshadowed by Kiyotaka's genius, though Kiyotaka disappeared two years before.

Before disappearing, Kiyotaka left behind his (hot) wife Madoka and younger brother with a mysterious message that he was going after the blade children. Soon enough, an attempted murder happens at Ayumu's school, which draws Ayumu into the mystery of the Blade Children.

The first two episodes draw on the Victorian tradition of mystery. One of the mysteries is literally a closed room. By a traditional mystery, I mean a mystery that can be solved by all of the clues and testimonies present, without the benefit of modern forensic technology. Usually there is a catch to the clue or testimony. The detective solves the crime using primary deduction, observation, knowledge, and psychology, with a helping of subterfuge.

The episodic murder mysteries give way to the larger mystery of the Blade Children, who engage "Little Narumi" and his plucky ally Hiyone in a series of games of life or death. These matches are a test to see if Ayumu is up to breaking the meee-sterious curse that surrounds the Blade Children.

After the introduction and tests, the story introduces the Hunters who are out to exterminate the Blade Children. Tantalizing hints are dropped and angstful lines are spoken about the destiny Blade Children and the role that "Little Narumi" has, but it adds up to a hanging thread.

If you are looking for a coherent, well-structured story and a distinct ending, look elsewhere. I found that the mystery was compelling and the ending was upbeat, even if it left the plot incomplete. If pressed, I would rate this as a watchable 2/4 for an otaku, because the plotting in some of the individual arcs were good. However, the eanly arcs of Death Note pulls off the match of wits with more skill and panache.

As an Evangelion fan, I tend to look through at post '96 works of anime through the lens of Eva. Here, I saw a young man wrapped in doubt living with an older hotty. He cooks, he plays an instrument. His major conflict is against his self-doubt, though he must act because of the mysterious curse. He even says that he doesn't value himself. While Ayumu isn't quite the basket case that Shinji sometimes becomes, the elements are there. These character developments made the series interesting for me. However, if you're not into the doubting anti-hero, then I recommend moving along.

Also as an Eva fan, I want to say that the successes of Eva does not excuse writers from creating an ending. The Eva anime series' strength relied on the honesty that Hideaki Anno invested in the characters. He put out pieces of himself. I believe that the postmodern ending was the best ending he could give, because he had not come to a resolution to all of the conflicts within himself. And it just barely worked. While it created an enduring controversy, it was not one of the strengths of the series. I liked the series in spite of the bizarro endings, not because of them. Other authors should take note and beware.

While the ending of Spiral was more upbeat and strongly suggested that Ayumu hand gotten over his crush on Madoka for Hiyone, it still left the mystery of the Blade Children and their fate completely. unanswered. Consider yourself warned, especially if you put a lot of stock in a story's ending.

According to the wikipedia article, the story of the manga continues the story. Hopefully, Yen gets the rest of it out.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Fandom Generations: My Take

My bro causeiambetta told me about the travesty that is the Stony Brook Anime Club. Reputedly, they played Wii all of the time, which is a bit unusual. Most otaku pride themselves in being at least a bit ridiculoun, which entails at least a PSIII, Xbox 360, or a vintage system. Mentions of this group, evidently, elicited snickers from the elite geeks at the SF Forum.

As I've probably mentioned before, I was throughly spoilt by the Animation Society at my college. We thought of anime as something precious. We hoped that it would come to these shores and would stay. I tried to corrupt -er- show anime to my friends, and thought there was an obligation to spread the underground gospel so that it wouldn't disapper.

The thought of an anime society that spends it time playing guitar hero, if the allegations are true, is a bit depressing. Also, they are unoriginal in light of the manga & anime Genshiken, which is about an anime club that is caught between other fandom societies and becomes the odd one out.

This surely as a sign of the times. I tend to split the times into five periods:
  1. A legendary group that was into anime before there were really commercial releases. They got the ball rolling for the rest of us. Think Toren Smith [1].
  2. The group that were high schoolers or adults when Starblazers or Gundam were released. The majority of their viewing were probably multi-generation raws [2] with scripts or fansubs.
  3. These were my friends and I who got hooked on Robotech, Voltron, or Mysterious Cities of Gold as kids. There were a few translation companies. Fansubs were prevalent. The Sci-fi channel used to have a weekend block. The term Japanimation didn't sound wierd back then.
  4. The Toonami transition phase who had Sailor Moon, DBZ, or Pokemon. Gundam Wing fanboyz 'n girlz and the Big O were the tail end. An editted version of Tenchi hit the airwaves, too. This was when anime went on widespread TV and got recognized as such. At this point, I was crossing my fingers hoping that anime was here to stay, despite the travesty that was Fox-caflowne. [3]
  5. Narutards & up.
I judge these groups based on their attitudes toward anime & fandom and the advent of the internet. Back in the day (Gen 2 & 3), just owning some tapes was the admission to the club. Later on, peer-to-peer networks made this a moot point. Conventions became the center stage for fan displays and cosplay became more competitive.

Group 4 also saw the emergence of the fangirl, which evolved into the seacow of the 5th Gen fujoshi. And they are the ones that squeal at the Cons.

This is the group that the current guys jamming to Guitar Hero belong to. However, they are also the future of fandom and will there be a 6th group?

[1] He had an anime character named after him and had Noriko from Gunbuster call his name. Lucky bastard. Reeeeaaally lucky bastard.
[2] I'm talking magnetic tape: VHS or Beta. For those who don't know, these degraded with each copy.
[3] No forgiveness!

Come what may...

Another shi-ite-ty day at work. But come what may, the second movie of the Evangelion remake has been scheduled 06-27-09, and I'm going to watch it. The Eva movie 1.11 will be out in the U.S., soon.

My soul has been lifted by a super-shaman.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Chaos;Head - Bits 'n Pieces

Last time, I established a baseline anime that fell under the barely watchable category. That sets up my impressions of the Chaos;Head anime. There were numerous, promising pieces there
  • The opaque mystery reminiscent of Lain
  • Paranoid atmosphere like Boogiepop
  • Eva-elements including the Rei-like singer named FES
  • A long haired tsundere
  • good female character designs
  • whacky blades.
It was like a dating sim with swords. In fact, it's roots are a dating sim with swords, as I found out after posting the first draft of this review. And it does little to rise above the limitations of that genre.

The opening episodes were unappealing, to put it mildly. In Evangelion, the weak anti-hero Shinji was drawn along by the extraordinary events. Chaos;Head's main character is portrayed as a sniveling, disgusting otaku. As a fanboy and video-game playing otaku myself, I mean disgusting when I say it. Takumi has delusions about a game gal being his wife and plays an mmorpg all the time, then spends two episodes fending off the come-ons by a pretty student by the name of Yua Kusunoki.

The only reason why I continued watching was because I knew that she would betray him and the blood would start flying. I had read the first chapters of the manga scanlation [2]. When the audience gets a taste of gruesome New Gen crimes and Takumi is accused of the killing by Yua, the series begins to get off of the ground.

The opaque mystery gives tantalizing hints, but instead of letting them unfold, the answers are dumped into the otaku viewer's lap like a bucket full of ice. The ending is so full of tropes that it even had the evil council that was actually lame and the random evil corporation. I'm convinced that listing "megalomanical plot" or "apocalyptic project" in the investment information packet must add at least 50 points to the gain on the IPO.

As I was saying, there were elements there, such as the singer Fes. She's a bit like Sister Creep from "Swan's Song". She's crazy when the world is sane, then is the best equipped to handle the craziness when the crap hits the fan.

There's a gorgeously animated scene where the long haired tsundere whips out her blade with Soul Caliber effects. There's also the voice actress of Kawashima Ami playing the sweet girl, who seems to betray Takumi.

In the end, it never integrates the tantalizing pieces into a work that's greater than its parts. The 12 episode work overall achieves half of a step above Yukikaze and can be entertaining in a looser fanboy kind of a way, but there are better works out there.

My gut instinct tells me that the Chaos;Head anime owes some of its mix of atmosphere and mystery to Paranoia Agent [3], but I haven't actually seen Satoshi Kon's work, so I can't comment.

[1] Fansubbed by m.3.3.w Fansubs
[2] Scanlated by SCX-Scans
[3] Drawn from trailers and comments of people that have watched it.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Baseline

My usual baseline for bad is Battle Fairy Yukikaze. I watched it fairly recent, and it managed to leave an impressively bad taste in my mouth with weak characterization, random plot elements and an unfathomable man-man-machine love triangle. Even more incomprehensible was the remake, which changed some of the planes to women, as if the audience wasn't bludgeoned numb by the mecha-sexual symbolism already present in the unfortunate anime. In the credits, I was horrified to find out that the half-assed storyboarding was a second look based on a manga.

One particular scene compared unfavorably with the GI Joe episode when Shipwreck believed that he had returned home from the war. The main character in Yukikaze thought that he was being treated at a friendly base, which had actually been taken over by the JAM. The aliens tried to seduce him having the mannequin-like nurse shove his face into her chest. I had a hard time figuring out which was worse. That scene or that the wooden nurse was not out of place with the rest of the cast. BTW, I watched that scene in Japanese and English, and writer didn't give either versions much of a fighting chance.

There are works that are worse than Yukikaze. Princess Army Wedding Combat comes to mind, as well as the middle of the drawn out Tenchi TV series. However, Yukikaze establishes a sharp baseline for barely watchable. Some kitsch is simply so bad that it goes so far that it hyperspatially warps from bad to mockably good, kind of like an Atari enemy going off the screen. Yukikaze manages to avoid this and just remains plain bad.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Local Flavor

Upstate vocabulary for today:
CSX Lottery = a lawsuit filed by someone who has been hit by a train, specifically a CSX train. Example: He won the CSX Lottery.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

'Mail Hate

I was talking with my friend, when he pointed out that I don't read my email thoroughly anymore. Then it hit me that I've come to dislike email and sometime hate it. I'm sure that this aversion comes from work, where I get bombarded with many requests and many annoying requests.

It's the ultimate tool for delegation and it's the lowest energy level for low energy people. I could rant and rave about it, but I won't. Fortunately, I'm now conscious of the aversion and can now challenge my apathy.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Paprika: The Spice of a Fulfilled Life

Warning: reading this post will spoil the movie so rotten that a neo-otyugh wouldn't touch it.
Credit: First, Paprika is the work of Kon, copywritten by Sony, the original author Tsuitsui, and everyone else in the credits. Second, most of this post came from discussions from causeiambetta, a modest man with a modest handle.

In the anime movie "Paprika", script-writer and director Satoshi Kon explores the themes of wholeness and mental health through dreams.The movie uses a fictional device called the DC mini, which allows the user to enter another person's dreams. The technology is supposed to be used for psychotherapy. However, the it is corrupted to invade the dreams of others. As REM dreams invade the waking world, the sleeping yearnings of three characters are awakened: the Chairman, the scientist Chiba, and the detective Konakawa. By using these three foci, a nuanced view of wholeness is explored.

The Chairman is the the force that corrupts the DC mini to draw the waking world into the dream world. He does this so that everyone else can live in his dream where he is physically whole and powerful, as opposed to his wheelchair bound body in the waking world. The fact that this wish fulfillment consumes Himuro and draws others onto the parade to oblivion is irrelevant to him. To the Chairman, his fulfillment is the world's fulfillment: le monde, c'est moi.

When the DC mini prototypes first goes missing, the Chairman wanted to shut down the project and all of the psychotherapy machines to preserve the sanctity of dreams. He talks about the emptiness of science in the face of dreams. Yet, he hypocritically uses the DC mini in his plot. This could be dismissed as a convenient lie, but the Chairman later tells Paprika that his garden is a sacred space where science cannot trespass.

The idea that the Chairman considers his dreams sacred is consistent with his overall arrogance. When Osanai is dying, the Chairman clings to his body, because Osanai's able and handsome body is needed to complement the Chairman's noble soul. The Chairman is stricken over what he will loose, not what Osanai looses or that Osanai is a human. During another scene, after Osanai pins Paprika, the Chairman invades Osanai's body and becomes outraged when Osanai refuses to kill Praprika/Chiba over "petty" love.

After his apotheosis, Paprika comments that his image of totality lacks a female component. It is implied that the Chairman's homosexuality is an extension of his narcissism. The implication is that his ideal is a male form that is similar to his own and because it is similar to his own.

The Chairman's wholeness ignores the needs of others and, therefore, becomes destructive when his wishes are fulfilled. Wholeness is necessary, but not sufficient for mental health.

Chiba's conflict is far more innocuous, but touches all of us: romance. She is outwardly cool and professional. Her beauty is intimidating. Yet, she feels constrained from revealing her feelings for Tokita.

Throughout the movie, clues are given to the depths of her emotions. The elevator scene gives off a sense of an onee-san type character with her bumbling surrogate brother. In the diner, after they investigate Himuro's apartment, she scolds Tokita for his gluttony. This could also be taken as the care of close friend, but the evidence mounts. However, her argument with him, while he is fiddling with another DC mini, has the heat and passion of a lover.

During the argument, Chiba touches on the idea of responsibility and selfishness; she wants him to improve. She also strikes the DC mini out of his hands. By contrast, an eminently professional boss, which is the usual Chiba, would order or reprimand him. The uncharacteristic heat of her blow and tone sounds more like a lover having a spat with her clueless man rather than a manager dressing down her subordinate.

It is only in the dream world that she can re-write the dialogue for the elevator scene. Then she can tell him that she loves his mind, despite his body, and that she can tolerate a spare tire, but he can't be a Michelin warehouse. And through Chiba, the film explores the idea of romance as a part of the fulfillment of life.

It is this union that lets Paprika defeat the Chairman in the end. Tokita and Atsuko/Paprika's union produced something bigger and better than themselves. While the unified girl resembled Chiba, it had Tokita's all-consuming creativity. The sums were greater than the parts and their dreams were bigger and stronger than the Chairman's insular vision of me, me, me.

While Chiba's growth focused on romantic connection, Konakawa's development examines fulfillment on the life path. His nightmare takes the form of movie scenes: Tarzan, a spy film, and then seems to take on real life at the murder scene. However, the murder scene turns out to be a movie scene from the movie that he made with his best friend, who Konakawa calls his other self. Even the bar scene is taken from "The Shining".

These movie scenes comes from his love of cinema that was suppressed following his best friend's death. They were to become directors together, but Konakawa gave up the dream. His best friend died from sickness before he could fulfill his dream, and the guilt lay heavy on Konakawa for abandoning filmmaking and leaving their film unfinished. By being plunged into the dream world and meeting Paprika, he acknowledges his past and comes to terms with the path he took.

In psychoanalysis, mental illness is believed to be born from the frustration of desires. The human mind shields itself from the conflict between desire and deprivation, but the coping mechanism often becomes the problem itself. The cure becomes worse than the disease that it was intended to cure. In Paprika, these subconscious desires were excavated by the DC Mini and brought to fruition.

Where many movies explore a concept through the actions and consequences on one character, the film "Hanabi" contrasted two lives on crossing trajectories, and "Paprika" used three movers-and-shakers as a sampling of the different aspects of fulfillment. And we are reminded that to find a whole and satisifying life, we all need at least a little spice in it.

[1] causeiambetta pointed this out to me. [2]
[2] other references pop up in the movie. The posters at the end were obvious. Also his pose after rescuing Chiba is probably from Golgo 13: the Professiosional. Finally, I believe that the pin scene was another. Megumi Hayashibara was the voice talent for Chiba and Ayanami Rei, who suffered a similar trespass from Ikari Gendou in "End of Evangelion".