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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.