Also, they like attention or something. And ponies?
Yeah, so "tomorrow" != "umpteen days from now," but I'm posting twice in one week!
[Aug. 19]
Things we've watched lately:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (first series, 2006)
Surprisingly, I quite liked it. I still don't think it deserves the astronomical hype it got when it came out, and I disagree that it's The Deepest And Best Thing Ever Ever Ever, but I was entertained. The premise worries me as it applies to the hype/popularity, though.
-----spoilers, 2006 vintage-----
After we'd watched a few episodes - I think we had just finished the baseball episode - Jay commented, "So, this series is about babysitting an intergalactic two-year-old. And we're supposed to side with this character why?" But the fans do. Boy howdy, do they ever. And I have to wonder whether it's because they think that's what girls are like. Haruhi is a great snapshot of what otaku think "girls" - all girls, 'cause they're all the same - are.
- Alien.
- All-powerful.
- Flighty.
- Inscrutable.
- Demanding.
- If you don't cater to them every second, the world will end.
Haruhi's interactions with the other characters kind of irritated me. I preferred her when she was dealing with ideas, or projects, or things - when she joined the band briefly, it seemed like she was actually having fun. Otherwise, she merely demanded that the universe change to suit her whims, but did nothing to bring it about, preferring to sit around in high school and expect interesting things to deposit themselves at her feet. I don't find that too sympathetic. Yes, she ran around doing random things, but that seemed more geared toward entertaining herself, not finding the OMG Special sorts that she deigned to mix with. Those were just supposed to show up because she's Just That Special. The series, agreeing with this, complied.
Also, I'm probably too old to identify with her angst about not being special enough, freaking out because she was only one little person in a baseball stadium full of people. I grew up in a generation that wasn't necessarily told every waking second of their lives that they were the literal center of the universe, so my gut-level reaction to this existential crisis is something like "Uh...and?"
I have soapboxed before on the whole cult of "special", so I'll pass this time.
All of that sounds like I hated the show. I really didn't. To me it had an engaging supporting cast with a lead who was annoying half the time and entertaining the other half, intentionally abysmal pacing, and a script that was actually funny.
Go ahead and freak out, but I liked the dub too. I think having characters with interior monologue boosts the quality of a dub by leaps and bounds well-nigh automatically. It's all about lipflap. Which brings me to...
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
I'm ohh, a little more than halfway through the first series. This series is not remotely as dry as I expected. I thought it was more hard-sf, hard-action and less suggested social/philosophical commentary mixed with sf and action. Keyword: SUGGESTED. I cannot express how terrific it is to come across an anime series that a) has interesting ideas to present, and b) doesn't beat it over the audience's heads. Take Shinji whining "Why am I here?!? Why does no one love me!?!?!" toward the end of Evangelion. (not the end of The End of Evangelion, that is.) This was widely considered to be The Deepest of the Deep. I disagree. I think that's deeper than "whee, bright colors are cool", but I think it takes more skill to do that kind of story with subtlety. This is why I'm a rabid fangirl of Kino's Journey, and even that series can preach now and then (guess what? War is bad!).
Here's the difference between the approaches:
1) Have a character say something like "What is... the meaning... of life?" or "What does it mean... to be human...?" (Shatnerian intonation optional.)
2) Present a story that outlines a question. Ex.: a story about robots who develop senses of self. Try not to spell out the underlying question, ex.: what does it mean to be conscious, or even human? Trust that your audience is not made up of idiots and does not need to be spoon-fed.*
There are other approaches, of course, but I prefer 2 to 1... by, well, 2 to 1. ;) GitS, alongside its larger story arc, has (so far) been a set of stories about consciousness, identity, etc. as played out in a society in which putting your brain in a robot body (human, not shark) is commonplace.
Uh, so anyway, GitS is good, and everyone already knows that; I just didn't know why. Also, it doesn't rely on anime shorthand / tropes. I would recommend it even to science fiction fans who don't normally watch anime, and I don't do that often.
---
* Yes, once a Tachikoma does say "What's it mean to be alive?", but it seemed to me like they literally didn't know, the way people will ask "are viruses alive? What's the difference?" Also, this sort of question doesn't stand in for an actual plot on a regular basis.
--------
As for gaming: Just finished The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. Thanks for letting me catch up on something I missed the first time around. It's not quite the same, but I'm glad anyway. Whee.
Uh, otherwise I don't have much to say. I will probably get back to finishing the Point Lookout expansion of Fallout 3, play the Mothership Zeta expansion, and finally put that game to bed. It's been fun.
(Wedding update - we met with the officiant today and everything seems good on that end. Oh crap, I need to call the rehearsal dinner place. Tomorrow! See, that's what it's like.)
[Aug. 19]
Things we've watched lately:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (first series, 2006)
Surprisingly, I quite liked it. I still don't think it deserves the astronomical hype it got when it came out, and I disagree that it's The Deepest And Best Thing Ever Ever Ever, but I was entertained. The premise worries me as it applies to the hype/popularity, though.
-----spoilers, 2006 vintage-----
After we'd watched a few episodes - I think we had just finished the baseball episode - Jay commented, "So, this series is about babysitting an intergalactic two-year-old. And we're supposed to side with this character why?" But the fans do. Boy howdy, do they ever. And I have to wonder whether it's because they think that's what girls are like. Haruhi is a great snapshot of what otaku think "girls" - all girls, 'cause they're all the same - are.
- Alien.
- All-powerful.
- Flighty.
- Inscrutable.
- Demanding.
- If you don't cater to them every second, the world will end.
Haruhi's interactions with the other characters kind of irritated me. I preferred her when she was dealing with ideas, or projects, or things - when she joined the band briefly, it seemed like she was actually having fun. Otherwise, she merely demanded that the universe change to suit her whims, but did nothing to bring it about, preferring to sit around in high school and expect interesting things to deposit themselves at her feet. I don't find that too sympathetic. Yes, she ran around doing random things, but that seemed more geared toward entertaining herself, not finding the OMG Special sorts that she deigned to mix with. Those were just supposed to show up because she's Just That Special. The series, agreeing with this, complied.
Also, I'm probably too old to identify with her angst about not being special enough, freaking out because she was only one little person in a baseball stadium full of people. I grew up in a generation that wasn't necessarily told every waking second of their lives that they were the literal center of the universe, so my gut-level reaction to this existential crisis is something like "Uh...and?"
I have soapboxed before on the whole cult of "special", so I'll pass this time.
All of that sounds like I hated the show. I really didn't. To me it had an engaging supporting cast with a lead who was annoying half the time and entertaining the other half, intentionally abysmal pacing, and a script that was actually funny.
Go ahead and freak out, but I liked the dub too. I think having characters with interior monologue boosts the quality of a dub by leaps and bounds well-nigh automatically. It's all about lipflap. Which brings me to...
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
I'm ohh, a little more than halfway through the first series. This series is not remotely as dry as I expected. I thought it was more hard-sf, hard-action and less suggested social/philosophical commentary mixed with sf and action. Keyword: SUGGESTED. I cannot express how terrific it is to come across an anime series that a) has interesting ideas to present, and b) doesn't beat it over the audience's heads. Take Shinji whining "Why am I here?!? Why does no one love me!?!?!" toward the end of Evangelion. (not the end of The End of Evangelion, that is.) This was widely considered to be The Deepest of the Deep. I disagree. I think that's deeper than "whee, bright colors are cool", but I think it takes more skill to do that kind of story with subtlety. This is why I'm a rabid fangirl of Kino's Journey, and even that series can preach now and then (guess what? War is bad!).
Here's the difference between the approaches:
1) Have a character say something like "What is... the meaning... of life?" or "What does it mean... to be human...?" (Shatnerian intonation optional.)
2) Present a story that outlines a question. Ex.: a story about robots who develop senses of self. Try not to spell out the underlying question, ex.: what does it mean to be conscious, or even human? Trust that your audience is not made up of idiots and does not need to be spoon-fed.*
There are other approaches, of course, but I prefer 2 to 1... by, well, 2 to 1. ;) GitS, alongside its larger story arc, has (so far) been a set of stories about consciousness, identity, etc. as played out in a society in which putting your brain in a robot body (human, not shark) is commonplace.
Uh, so anyway, GitS is good, and everyone already knows that; I just didn't know why. Also, it doesn't rely on anime shorthand / tropes. I would recommend it even to science fiction fans who don't normally watch anime, and I don't do that often.
---
* Yes, once a Tachikoma does say "What's it mean to be alive?", but it seemed to me like they literally didn't know, the way people will ask "are viruses alive? What's the difference?" Also, this sort of question doesn't stand in for an actual plot on a regular basis.
--------
As for gaming: Just finished The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. Thanks for letting me catch up on something I missed the first time around. It's not quite the same, but I'm glad anyway. Whee.
Uh, otherwise I don't have much to say. I will probably get back to finishing the Point Lookout expansion of Fallout 3, play the Mothership Zeta expansion, and finally put that game to bed. It's been fun.
(Wedding update - we met with the officiant today and everything seems good on that end. Oh crap, I need to call the rehearsal dinner place. Tomorrow! See, that's what it's like.)