bad luck party

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - To Be Continued! Wow. That was...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:20:00 -0700

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - To Be Continued!

Wow. That was awesome. There’s really not much else I can say about the show that essentially introduced me to the shounen sports genre that I am now so passionately devoted to. This season ended on a note of what I love best about the series, with Ippo training to get faster and stronger than ever before. I’m going to miss seeing the Kamogawa Gym guys every week (yes, even Takamura and his dick-grabbing, see below). Motto hayaku, motto tsuyoku, and hurry up with season 3 okay?

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - Punny Holy crap. I’ve...

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:39:00 -0700

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - Punny

Holy crap. I’ve been lazy about going to training this week so I didn’t want to watch Ippo, thinking it would make me feel guilty for not hitting the bags. Luckily there is absolutely NO BOXING whatsoever in this episode, only the freaking world middleweight champion being a total lech, dick grabbing and some of the most horrible puns of all time. I bet the fansubbers are having a rough time with this one, hahaha.

Cross Game - Summer Nights and Black Undershirts Geez, you know,...

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:44:39 -0700

Cross Game - Summer Nights and Black Undershirts

Geez, you know, I really wanted to post a screenshot of the scene where Azuma approaches Aoba because I have a strong shipping compulsion for those two (even though it will never happen because Kou X Aoba is sooo destined (Unless Adachi-sensei pulls another awesome fakeout like he did with H2 SPOILER STOP READING NOW where osana najimi Hiro and Hikari don’t end up together cuz Hikari stays with the amazing Hideo Tachibana (nested parentheses!))). But, I could not post said Azuma/Aoba screenshot. For the primary reason that Azuma looks so goddamn fine in his evil elite team black undershirt.

This summer camp episode was pretty good, besides the weird culture shock I get to this day regarding Japanese summer-is-the-scariest-season-blah-blah-Obon episodes. I don’t find bright sunny days or short nights all that creepy myself. We got some interesting plot development on the main team roster as the best players start to become disillusioned with their coach, some Kou and Aoba “ki ni naru” stuff which is always great, and the heavy implication that the farm team is all fired up and going to come back hard. Love training arcs.

You don’t even know how excited I am that Junpei shows up in the next episode preview.

Hatsukoi Limited - Life Goes On I still feel like the crowning...

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:08:57 -0700

Hatsukoi Limited - Life Goes On

I still feel like the crowning radness of this show was the relationship between these three. Hatsukoi is over in 12 episodes and despite being slow at times (anything involving Yamamoto), stupid at others (Koyoi and her oniisan) and fanservicey all the time, I liked it! I’ve made no secret on this blog that my favourite pairing was Kusuda and Kei, and I appreciated that the anime kept a lot of focus on their story throughout. But although Hatsukoi’s climax over the last two episodes was deeply entangled with the Kusuda/Kei relationship, I felt like it was the boys’ relationship with each other that made the story arc. Maybe I’m just a sucker for bike-trip arcs about young men finding themselves (TAKEMOTO!!!!) but I found the scene with the boys yelling their feelings while riding as fast as they could pretty damn touching. That, combined with the comedic dynamics between the worry-wart Zaitsu, prissy Sogabe and courageous but lazy/greedy/worthless Kusuda was the greatest part of the show. They were far more interesting - read funny, engaging and believable - on screen than the girls were for the most part. The girls’ whole “anata wa ima, koi o shite imasu ka?” thing was just kind of vacuous and annoying. I didn’t hate it but I wish the boys had set more of the tone from the early episodes. Overall though, I’m a big fan of the message that not all first loves work out, and the “life goes on” note that both the manga and anime closed with. Nice bittersweet ending, more on the sweet side than the bitter.

Gokujou! Mecha Mote Iinchou - My New Favourite Show Okay,...

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:12:00 -0700

Gokujou! Mecha Mote Iinchou - My New Favourite Show

Okay, really not sure if I love this just because I am WASTED as I type or because it is legit awesome. But I’m thinking the latter. This is the first show I am attempting to watch fully sans fansubs as a test of my Japanese and so far it’s been incredible - the music, the subject matter, the beauty tips… I have decided to style myself from now on as a mecha mote sofuto enjiniaa. This is amazing fluff. So much shoujo I think I’m going to explode. Thankyou Gokujou for teaching me how to wash my hair/deal with pimples/get a bf. I don’t care that I’m 25 years old and Canadian while this crap is designed for a 13 year old Japanese demographic (not to mention having THE WORST ANIMATION OF ALL TIME), this is my new fave show for realz.

Eden of the East - Shooting Missles Out of the Sky With Your...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:42:00 -0700

Eden of the East - Shooting Missles Out of the Sky With Your Finger is HARD

Hard as in Walker, Texas Ranger, not hard as in difficult obvz. Takizawa Akira is the hardest dude ever. I had to marathon the last 4 episodes to catch up with what everyone was talking about this week - the finale of what was arguably the best anime of 2009’s Spring Season. I had some trouble watching Eden every week because I felt like the heavy subject matter required me to be in a different headspace than fluffier sports/romance shows I can sneak in here and there. God damn was it ever hard preventing myself from reading everyone’s blogs though.

Marathoning the last few episodes was a good choice since I got to immerse myself in Eden’s world and fully appreciate just how good the writing and production of this show was. (I also didn’t have to cry for too long over Pantsu’s death, yay.) I can definitely say this is one of the most mature contemporary anime series’ I’ve seen. References to Dawn of the Dead combined with a compelling representation of the cultural apathy of an entire generation had me sold. I’m generally a slice of life junkie so give me a story about college graduates trying to find their way in society, struggling with unrequited loves and social disenfranchisement in a modern global setting and I’d be furiously happy. But the fact that the whole show was so cleverly written and woven into a political sci-fi mystery of this scale just blows me away.

I always feel like ending a series with film versions is a bit of a cop-out. Or cash-grab, anyway. I would usually bitch and moan about such an obviously “to-be-continued”, “get-you-next-time-Gadget” ending as episode 11 and note that the season really should have gone 25 episodes to get the most out of its depth of plot. But I’m actually looking forward to the two Eden movies that were announced as a continuation to the series - even if we’ve gotta wait well into next year for them over here. The epic conspiracy subject matter really does seem better suited to film than 22 minute tv slots (part of the reason I found watching every week difficult), and I’m SO looking forward to seeing a big-screen budget boost in the animation department. See you next year Takizawa-tachi!

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Endless Eight Begins Shit, I...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:43:39 -0700

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Endless Eight Begins

Shit, I really love those snakey firework things. Anyone wanna buy yukatas and go to the beach with me one night? Or at least a parking lot? I’m serious by the way.

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - 支える手 (wwww) You have no idea...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:02:00 -0700

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - 支える手 (wwww)

You have no idea how hard I laughed at this in the manga. I’m so glad they adapted it faithfully to the animated screen. Actually it was the glowing, naked Coach Kamogawa that made me lose my shit first, but I couldn’t get a clear enough screenshot to represent the situation to the non-Ippo-watchers. And this was something that needed to be shared.

Something that probably doesn’t need to be shared is the raging fangirl boner I have for Takamura with his hair down. (Shades of post-shower Domyouji, for the HanaDan fans out there.) Thank you for the completely gratuitous hotness.

A third and final thing that MUST BE SHARED however, is this, in case you di’n’t know: it ain’t over. Unofficial announcement by Takamura’s voice actor that the show is most definitely continuing after this initial 26 episode run. HECK YES, YOU GUYS!

ONE MORE PIC TO CELEBRATE!

Anime Evolution 2009 Run-Down + Higurashi no Naku Koro ni...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:07:00 -0700

Anime Evolution 2009 Run-Down + Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 1-4

Hey you know that tone of voice a person gets when they are speaking or laughing loudly and are overtly aware of the fact they are being overheard? Kind of hysteric and self-conscious with an extra emphatic delivery as if performing in front of a crowd? Yeah well I heard a lot of that this weekend.

As part of a social experiment in fandom Noogz and I bought 3-day passes to Vancouver’s Anime Evolution, the only con of its kind on the Canadian West Coast. I had gone to a couple of AE’s earlier incarnations in the mid-to-late 90s up at SFU when I was a young anime-obsessed tyke, and was quite aware that things have changed since then. Notably, the fact that I attended cons in both Edmonton (at Grant McEwan) and Vancouver between 1995-1997 is indicative of the fact I’ve been in this hobby for a good 12 or 13 years longer than most of the teenagers swarming the new convention centre this weekend, showing off their elaborate cosplays and sitting on each other’s laps.

I was fully prepared for this and didn’t think much of it, but when faced with a program chock full of shallow panels and screenings I had no interest in, I realized my error. When I was young and forcing my Mom or teenage cousin Danny to accompany me to cons (I was only 11 when I started getting into anime heavily and none of my friends shared my passionate interest in Japanese culture), we would hit viewing rooms for hours on end. Everything from You’re Under Arrest to Tenchi Muyo, from Irresponsible Captain Tylor to Please Save My Earth, from Ghost In The Shell to Bubblegum Crisis, I first encountered at those “cons” (really a few of them were more like university club anime nights, to be honest…) Those rooms were brilliant, paradigm-changing spaces of discovery for me, before we even had internet at home let alone Wikipedia or Bittorrent. They were the only way for a little English girl living in a Canadian city to find out what shows existed and experience different anime genres without forking out cash for mystery VHS tapes in Japantown.

Nowadays if there’s a classic or current anime that I’m interested in, chances are I’ve seen it or it’s sitting on my hard drive and the rest I’m aware of and couldn’t be bothered with. I wonder if this is just a result of me spending the last decade immersing myself in my hobby (the con may well still be a great place to get an introduction to the world of anime) or if it’s more to do with the rise of the internet, thereby rendering viewing rooms redundant (or at very least changing their role).

The one notable exception this weekend was Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, a show I’ve consistently heard good things about but due to horror/mystery not being a favourite genre of mine it’s not something I would ever seek out to purchase or download. We had 2 hours to kill on Friday night though and saw that they were screening the first 4 episodes of Higurashi at the perfect time. Caught off guard by the surreal beauty/violence of the OP credits (above), I was both pleasantly surprised and utterly creeped out. What started in the first episode as a sweet and dull small-town moe anime showed horrifying and subversive flashes of brilliance as it morphed into a psychological thriller. I was riveted till the very end of the first 4-episode arc, felt kind of scared getting into my bed later on that night, and think I’ll probably seek out more of this show.

But returning to my “Wahhh, I’ve been into anime for soooo long I find your cons stupid and boring” argument… Panels, at AE at least, seemed geared even more toward beginner fans than the anime screening schedule. J-Dramas, visual novels and “working in the video game industry” (haha) are all things I’m quite interested in, but the amount I could learn from the panel discussions on offer seemed dubious. Again, I’m not hating. Just noting that despite being an epically huge fan of anime, VNs and doramas, I felt like I wasn’t really the target demographic for this con.

What would I have liked to see at AE? Some fucking Japanese guests, KTHXBAI. I realize Vancouver is a tiny, laughable city next to New York, Boston or San Diego and booking the convention centre must have cost a bomb but could we really not get a single effing voice actor, writer or musical artist? (OK, the Japanese band Minxzone played on Saturday night - which Noogz and I unfortunately had to miss because we were playing a show of our own - but my point still stands.) I suppose there were quite a few English language voice actors at the con but they weren’t recognizable to those of us who watch subs or raws, leaving us with a bit of an empty feeling. Not to mention an empty schedule…

The most enjoyable parts of the weekend for both Noogz and I were spending a few hours in the dealer room and watching some visual kei and otaku bands covering our favourite Japanese songs on the main stage. There wasn’t a lot being sold by vendors at AE that couldn’t be found in Asian import malls and Japanese bookstores all over Metro Vancouver, but it was kind of nice to have it all in one place and to have a bit of a selection of doujinshi as well. And of course, just watching all the cosplayers was great fun. Noogz and I wore school uniform cosplay both days we attended (Takasu and Minori from ToraDora and Yuuji and Shana from Shakugan no Shana respectively) but the majority of the cosplayers went WAAAAY larger.

It seems that the most popular series’ to cosplay were Shounen Jump titles (hundreds of Narutos, srsly what did you expect) and video games. Final Fantasy characters, anyone from Nintendo Super Smash Bros and even Team Fortress 2 all had pretty big showings this weekend. (I sort of wonder when anime and mainstream console game fandoms started to get convoluted, but as a fan of both I ain’t complaining.) Additionally I also saw about 6 different CCs, and one was even eating an actual, steaming hot slice of pizza.

All in all it was good times, would go again, but it’s important to keep the expectations low if you’re not 16 years old and surrounded by 80 of your closest friends wielding “yowie”(sic) paddles. The End.

Greetings and o hai thar! I’d like to send a quick apology...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:33:28 -0700

Greetings and o hai thar! I’d like to send a quick apology to my 7 loyal followers for hardly updating at all this week - I’ve been mad busy and I’ve got a backlog of things to write about, just you wait. None of which will be posted over the next couple of days because I’m going to be at ANIME EVOLUTION with Noogz! Planning to liveblog a bunch of the weekend over at my boring life liveblog so feel free to check that out for some anime con weirdness. P.S. I’ll be cosplaying as Minori Kushieda from ToraDora, gotta genkify myself asap. P.P.S. I’m scared…

Cross Game - I Took A Screenshot That Wasn’t Of Azuma The...

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:31:00 -0700

Cross Game - I Took A Screenshot That Wasn’t Of Azuma

The main thing that bothers me about Cross Game is that I hate waiting a whole week for the next episode. I guess this is why I have been marathoning Touch and various Adachi mangas during the rest of the week to give myself a koukou-yakyuu fix, which of course forces me to compare Kou to Tatsuya and Azuma to H2’s batting monster Hideo. Hideo and Azuma are effectively the same character except that Azuma’s been painted with a much darker “rival” brush (and if you read further in the manga you’ll know the reason for his more serious nature). In short, WANT, and gimme both plz now.

Kou also shares a number of character traits with our boy Tacchan, many of which were highlighted in his first outing as the Prefab-gumi’s pitcher. Starting baseball extremely late, he’s long on natural talent but short on stamina and control and that’s starting to show in the later innings. Azuma still can’t believe it’s his first game, however (which of course mirrors Nitta’s intense interest in Tatsuya as a rival in the rough). Kou’s also a bit of a lazy ass (see above) and shows signs of having a brief but explosive temper after getting hit by Azuma for 3 consecutive homers. But besides that, I just don’t feel the magic from him that I get from Tatsuya and I think it might just be the voice actor. Kou sounds kind of wet, and it’s also just hard to beat Yuji Mitsuya’s epic characterization of the slacker ace. Actually I just looked up Kou’s seiyuu and it turns out he also voiced Tsubasa’s Syaoran (totally not as badass as Cardcaptor Sakura’s Syaoran) and Zaitsu Mamoru in this season’s Hatsukoi Limited who I also consider a massive wuss. Damn it.

Regardless of voice actor (and the fact that he will never surpass Azuma or Tatsuya in my burning fangirl heart) Kou manages to pull off that Japanese masculinity remarkably smoothly. Like the koi fish who lies still on the chopping board and accepts his fate, you know what I’m talking about. From the manly way he grabbed Aoba’s collar that one time (before asking to borrow a nabe pot) to his calm and unspoken challenge to Azuma from the pitcher’s mound, Kou’s a master of that quiet coolness when it really counts. He might not pull it off with the same iconic brilliance as Tatsuya but hey, it’s 2009 and we’ll take what we can get.

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - Iron Brian The battle of Hawk...

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:33:03 -0700

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - Iron Brian

The battle of Hawk is getting intense, and it’s still not over by any means. But this episode was a pivotal one, finally bringing us the iconic shot from the OP credits (manga version above) animated in the ring. In characteristic Ippo fashion the first few rounds of this epic deathmatch have played out via a series of turnarounds. Takamura went down twice but put Hawk on the mat once and is currently ahead in a brawling exchange - though by the looks of next week’s preview we can expect another turnaround or two before the fight’s over. Obvz. After all that build-up did you think it would be easy?

The relationship between Takamura and Coach Kamogawa has been a major focus of the Hawk arc so far and that finally gets some resolution here, with Takamura proving that Kamogawa’s boxing style is effective at the world level. Of course he’s still not the true inheritor of Kamogawa’s fists (that role belongs to Ippo, duh) so after dropping Hawk with the jab Kamogawa taught him, Takamura begins to let his natural talent and brawling instinct come to the fore.

Interesting though kind of silly from a North American perspective is the emphasis this fight has been putting on national identity. Takamura is the bearer of a profound Japanese national pride and expectation that feels a bit out of place in the world of pro boxing - although I guess it has some real life parallels, when you think of how the Phillipines consider Manny Pacquiao a national hero for putting their country on the map. With relatively few Japanese world title-holders it makes sense for the country to rally behind Takamura, but what I feel is a bit silly is how Hawk’s national identity is similarly constructed. His trainer appeals to him in his corner to “remember the city you grew up in”, prompting a flashback to the “streets of New York” ripped right out of West Side Story. I had to stifle a laugh when Hawk said “My town…” in wistful Japanese accented English. It seems like the manga-ka based Hawk on the backstory of somebody like Mike Tyson - a fighter with prodigious natural talent but a seriously troubled background growing up poor in Brooklyn (not to mention his problematic relationship to women) - but processed this backstory through a decidedly Japanese lens. I’m actually kind of fascinated by Hawk as a complicated representation of American culture from a Japanese perspective now.

Ai ga Hitoribocchi - Iwasaki Yoshimi (Touch OP2) Second of a...

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:13:00 -0700

Ai ga Hitoribocchi - Iwasaki Yoshimi (Touch OP2)

Second of a few Touch opening theme songs - I just can’t get it out of my head lately. At first I thought the lyrics were kind of hokey with all the “Namida-kun” business but they grew on me and I find myself getting a little lump in my throat watching the OP as the camera rises up over home plate to the line “Nee dare ka kare ni tsugete ai ga zutto hitori bocchi yo to” (“Hey, someone, please tell him that Love is always alone and lonely”). I fervently wish it was 1985 with every fibre of my being.

On a related note, if you are enjoying the currently airing Cross Game anime - hell, scratch that, if you are a human being who breathes oxygen and experiences any semblance of emotion, then FUCKING WATCH TOUCH.

僕の彼女はサイボーグ (“My Girlfriend Is A Cyborg” -...

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:09:34 -0700

僕の彼女はサイボーグ (“My Girlfriend Is A Cyborg” - 2008)

Honestly I’ve had this DVD since last year but we only just got around to watching it on a lazy Sunday afternoon over some steak and beers. It was pretty adorable though and I don’t know why we never watched it earlier.

The premise centres on your usual hapless, somewhat perverted 20 year old boy. His name is Jirou and he’s spending his 20th birthday alone since he has no family, no friends and no girlfriend. Eating spaghetti alone at a restaurant, he’s approached by a kind of crazy but incredibly cute girl who tells him it’s her birthday as well and then takes him on a rampage around the city before disappearing “back to the future”. One year later on his birthday, our boy Jirou waits in hopes of meeting the girl again. To his surprise, a woman who looks exactly like the girl from the past year shows up and reveals that she’s a cyborg sent by his future self to save him from a huge tragedy.

Things get a bit complicated, Terminator style, with looping back and forth between alternate futures, the past and the present. In fact, the whole thing is very much a cheesey homage to the Terminator movies since the cute cyborg girl is ridiculously strong and humourless. Linda thought some of the more emotional moments got milked a bit far, but I felt like the film did everything I love about Japanese pop cinema really well.

It’s a light slapstick comedy half the time as Jirou struggles to go about his daily routine at college and working at Mos Burger or something with a ball-busting robot chick following him everywhere. It’s also a heart-wrenching romance as he finds himself falling deeply in love with a woman who can never return his feelings. There are some touching dramatic moments as we explore Jirou’s family background, and there are some seriously kick ass violent action sequences courtesy of the Terminator. (It actually gets pretty freaking brutal…) And most fascinatingly on top of all of this genre-whoring, the film turns into kind of a superhero thriller disaster movie as the cyborg girl tries to save innocent people and Jirou himself from a variety of horrific events from fires to school stabbings to a major earthquake that completely levels Tokyo.

Reading over that, I realize I’ve made the movie sound like a complete piece. And by no means is it top-quality artistic cinema. There’s a badly tacked on happy ending which is totally unneccessary and confusing but pleased me nonetheless. I’d say on the whole however that it actually pulls off most of the things it tries to do. In an overly earnest, slickly produced and often sickeningly heart-warming Japanese way of course. I laughed, I cried, and I yelled “FUCK YEAH!” at one point - isn’t that enough?

F's Tumblarity Hits All-Time Low

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:33:08 -0700

Seriously! Does it even go all the way down to 0? I’ve been slacking off on the blogging front, it’s true. Trying to decide exactly what it is that I want to talk about with this blog and I think I’m figuring it out gradually. In the meantime I’ve also deleted my Twitter and replaced it with a live photo album on Tumblr - http://feliciparty.tumblr.com (which can also be found via the new omake link in my header) - so if you know me and/or you’re interested in the vicarious mundane trivialities of other people’s lives, feel free to add that shit.

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - It Begins I’ve been...

Sat, 23 May 2009 14:32:36 -0700

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - It Begins

I’ve been blogging a lot of “my POV as a chick” stuff lately so it’s about time we get back to THE FIGHTING. If only they’d let us - the build-up to this Hawk v. Takamura fight has been dragging on for ages. At least they can’t hold off on it any longer because the starting bell rang in the last five seconds of this episode, haha.

I couldn’t believe they could spend another entire episode getting us hyped for the fight but they managed it - by bringing in every boxer from Miyata to Date to Sendo to the Japanese national champs of every weight class to lay their hopes on Takamura. Our senshu also got a private moment with every member of the Kamogawa gym AND a sentimental flashback of his entire career as a boxer. Hard to believe there was still time to fit in the opening theatrics for both Takamura and Hawk’s entrances and even some friction in the ring before the bell.

This fight is LONG AWAITED. Makes me wonder if they’re planning on stretching it to go the whole next 4 episodes, taking us to the end of the season. I mean, of course they will. But I hope they’ll announce another season in that case cuz there really hasn’t been enough of Ippo himself in this one. Major fight arcs for Miyata, Date and now Takamura, while all Ippo pulled off was an easy title-defence or two - disappointing!

K-ON! - Through A Feminist Lens (Seriously) Excuse the pic from...

Sat, 23 May 2009 13:04:00 -0700

K-ON! - Through A Feminist Lens (Seriously)

Excuse the pic from last week’s episode - I felt like it fits the theme of what I want to talk about today better than anything from episode 8. The return of Mikuru (as discussed in my perhaps overly harsh last post) has got me thinking about K-On and moe again. I’m so turned off by characters like Mio and Mikuru that my blood starts boiling and I end up spewing profanities when I really should be examining just what it is that frustrates me while simultaneously piquing the interest of so many otaku around the world. Hint: it’s not just tits.

I’ve been enjoying K-On a whole bunch lately. Besides it being funnier than most shows out now and giving me the occasional LOL thanks to its absurd moments and laid-back timing, I think I actually appreciate the show from a feminist angle too. It’s all about female relationships. The only characters are girls and women, and with the exception of the comically single Sawako-sensei, none of them could be bothered with boys whatsoever. That leaves the show open to explore a more genuine feminine interiority which I find pretty honest, centred as it is on female friendship, meeting personal goals, and eating lots of cake and sweets.

This is where I find the moe stereotype confounds my feminist utopic vision of a girl’s world. Mio annoys me. Like Mikuru, she is constructed as an ideal of helplessness. She quivers and cries at the slightest provocation. She cannot defend herself, and is constantly being physically manipulated and dragged around in circumstances I can only imagine are intended to model virtual rape. She is not confident. She has low self-esteem. And for all these reasons, she is the favourite character of most male viewers.

Is it clear yet why as a woman I have to take issue with moe as a representation of femininity? The other girls in the K-On-bu are full of life and personality. They love to eat, watch tv and be lazy, goof around, dress up for fun and pull pranks on each other. When Sawako forces Yui into a Santa cosplay, she gamely takes part and strikes a pose for her best friends. Mio on the other hand refuses, blushes, hides and throws a tantrum about how she’ll never be able to get married. Rather than being oriented toward her own goals and having fun with her friends, moe characters like Mio and Mikuru live in a world of shame where their relationship with their own bodies is defined entirely by how men view their bodies.

And the key point here? THEY ARE REWARDED FOR THIS. Viewers prefer female characters who lack confidence and let male desire influence the way they feel about their own bodies. All that blushing, God, these girls are HUMILIATED by themselves. What kind of message is this for a female viewer? (Not to mention, what are dudes learning from this anyway?) Why is the brave, energetic, outspoken and self-motivated Ritsu the least attractive character according to fans of K-On? She is a brash and capable girl who doesn’t give a crap what boys think of her - wait, that sounds a bit like Haruhi now doesn’t it?

This is not the empowering, positive representation that inspired me as an 11 year old girl discovering Sailor Moon in 1995, the message that I could be proud rather than embarrassed at being a girl. This is not the reason I started watching anime. Somehow, the message I AM receiving is that being able to stand up for yourself and having confidence in your own body without worrying how it looks to male eyes are not attractive qualities for a girl to aspire to. Hmmmm. Cuz ya see, I thought it should be the other way around? But what do I know anyway, I’m just a little girl.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Yawn? Holy God, Mikuru, will...

Thu, 21 May 2009 22:23:48 -0700

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Yawn?

Holy God, Mikuru, will you just die in a fire? Can you simper and suck any harder, mirai-shoujo? I can’t believe after two years of tireless waiting I found this new episode so boring and cringe-worthy. Okay, so freezing time in Nagato’s room was pretty cool and young Haruhi made me smile. Hence, I was interested in what I was watching for roughly 5 minutes of the episode. I remembered this show being so much better than this. Has all the time that’s gone by caused everything to self-destruct under the weight of its own hype? Or was this just a weak episode? Or am I just a hater? Stuff to ponder…

Hatsukoi Limited - Kappa Love Happens Yay for serious Kusuda/Kei...

Tue, 19 May 2009 18:56:00 -0700

Hatsukoi Limited - Kappa Love Happens

Yay for serious Kusuda/Kei screentime! Well it’s mostly Kei to be honest, since we haven’t seen Kusuda’s introspective side yet. I am REALLY looking forward to that though, since Kusuda’s motivations were what touched me most about the manga. Here you have this genuinely happy-go-lucky guy quietly battling a huge undercurrent of self-loathing. We’ve already seen plenty of signs that underneath his front of being the perverted class clown he’s pretty insightful and considerate of the feelings of those around him. But when it comes to Kei, the girl he clearly likes, he just can’t believe that she could ever like him despite his looks so he consciously keeps her at a distance.

Now I’ve heard some people lamenting that Kei and Kusuda are an unrealistic pairing, geared toward Hatsukoi’s predominantly male (and we are to presume, kappa-faced) viewing demographic. I’ve gotta disagree! As a female viewer, I find their relationship the most compelling of all Hatsukoi’s trillion pairings, primarily because it’s something I can see happening in real life. Most women I know can relate to the feeling of at some point or another feeling attracted to a guy they found physically repellant, whether due to his personality, sense of humour or the chemistry they shared. I’ve already pointed out the attractive elements of Kusuda’s personality (and there are quite a few) - and the sparks of wit and chemistry between Kei and Kusuda can’t be denied. Thus, I find it pretty believable that she would lie in bed at night (maybe not naked in a towel, however) agonizing over her attraction to a guy she really shouldn’t like at all. It’s certainly a hell of a lot more probable than all those girls liking that nerd in Love Hina/insert-name-of-harem-show-here. Thumbs up from me.

Cross Game - Gratuitous Gimme ‘dat.

Sun, 10 May 2009 22:09:00 -0700

Cross Game - Gratuitous

Gimme ‘dat.