On Certain Shows: Not Reviews, but Musings
I probably shouldn't be starting this post at 11:30 at night, but for some reason I feel compelled to.
It's been bothering me for awhile that when the subject of Gin-chan has come up, people have said to me "and you liked that show, didn't you?" To which I respond ">.> No, where did you ever get that idea??"
But then, looking back on my posts at the time, they really did come off "yay squee this is so fun!!" and, yes, certainly make it sound like I enjoyed it.
I think the problem lies partly in how I expressed myself then, and partly how my feelings have changed since then.
Gin-chan no Koi is in turns a wacky comedy, a black comedy, and a tragedy. I said when I first watched it that I didn't understand why Gin-chan was the main character, when he comes off so unfeeling and detestable compared to his friend Yasu. Yasu gives and gives and gives and sacrifices everything, and even at the end I'm not entirely sure Gin-chan understands and appreciates it all.
I don't like that kind of story, where I can't sympathize and root for the hero properly. And I don't think I very much like black comedy and the way it leaves you with an empty sense of "life sucks and people suck; let's be merry now for tomorrow we die."
If I want a show with wacky antics, I think I'll choose Paradise Prince any day of the week. Because THAT'S a story where underneath all the silly funtimes there's an underlying message of hope and faith in one's dreams that moves me.
That's why don't like Gin-chan. It may have its funny moments, but at the end of the day... Yeah, no. Just wanted to be clear on that in case anyone else was still confused.
Now let's talk about Shangri-La.
This one I've been confused about myself. I've been rolling it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out why I can't completely open up my heart to this show. Why can't I like it, when it's Soragumi, and it's sci-fi/fantasy, and it's novel and inventive and so many things I should want to see in a show?
When the announcement first came I immediately assumed that Alice-chan would be in it. It was completely inconceivable to me that the company would give Kacha a partner older than her, and I thought Alice-chan's time was finished. I thought for sure she'd go to Drama City.
Thus I was left with the difficult task of imagining my girl in a show where the top musumeyaku would be carrying a gun, and Alice-chan herself... I had no idea what to expect. It could be amazing, or it could be something really small and thankless again. I knew my basic inclination would be to like a story like Shangri-La, but I would hold it against Koyanagi-sensei / the show itself if Alice-chan wasn't properly used.
And then it turned out that my girl wasn't in it at all, and I felt freed of the obligation to like or care about Shangri-La.
Somewhere along the way that lack of caring turned into a bitterness, and I think I finally know why.
It's jealousy. Just simple, petty jealousy.
I said it before and I'll say it again; I don't know how many people will remember Je Chante in the long run. The people who hate Kacha were probably in I Pointedly Don't Care mode about it.
But Shangri-La will live on. Something new and edgy like that, with crazy costumes and haunting music and cool dancing, lots of guns and leather -- people will remember that.
(The official DVD release, as opposed to Je Chante only airing on Sky Stage if that, I guess goes without saying.)
I'm jealous. I'm jealous of the ones who got to do something different and cool while some of my favoritest, favoritest girls were giving their hearts to a story that was much more standard fare.
I finally finished watching the Shangri-La DVD tonight, and in spite of myself I cried for Ice's sacrifice. I think Tomochin has played a lot of unsympathetic villains in her time, and it's good that she finally got one with a redeeming end.
But yeah -- this wall that I'm facing -- it's jealousy and spitefulness and hypocrisy, no doubt about it, because I can sit here and disparage Sumika for wielding a gun but god damn I love to see Tara-chan and Eri-chan with them. (Of course I think it's not wrong of me to maintain that the two of them are cooler than Sumika, simply because their characters seem to have been properly trained in combat unlike Miu who just gets handed a gun and decides she knows how to use it.)
I'm petty, but again I can't deny that Sumika annoys me less when I can watch her on DVD and be disconnected (except when she cries, oh god). I almost got to that point again -- you may not believe me, but at times I reach this point -- where I almost think I can forgive her.
But then I remember that I'm going to have to watch her in Tokyo 10 more times...
Plus there's the fact that she doesn't naturally draw my eye the way Tara-chan does even when she's just standing in the background god SERIOUSLY stop being so hot, Tara-chan ♥ ♥ ♥
...No, this is not a review, so it is not turning into a rundown of all the girls I like for the millionth time. This is just me emptying out my brain after midnight.
My basic point is, I can break down Shangri-La and point out the plot holes and make it sound not as great as it is, but the simple truth is I'm just jealous. I admit it, there. ^_^;;;
It's been bothering me for awhile that when the subject of Gin-chan has come up, people have said to me "and you liked that show, didn't you?" To which I respond ">.> No, where did you ever get that idea??"
But then, looking back on my posts at the time, they really did come off "yay squee this is so fun!!" and, yes, certainly make it sound like I enjoyed it.
I think the problem lies partly in how I expressed myself then, and partly how my feelings have changed since then.
Gin-chan no Koi is in turns a wacky comedy, a black comedy, and a tragedy. I said when I first watched it that I didn't understand why Gin-chan was the main character, when he comes off so unfeeling and detestable compared to his friend Yasu. Yasu gives and gives and gives and sacrifices everything, and even at the end I'm not entirely sure Gin-chan understands and appreciates it all.
I don't like that kind of story, where I can't sympathize and root for the hero properly. And I don't think I very much like black comedy and the way it leaves you with an empty sense of "life sucks and people suck; let's be merry now for tomorrow we die."
If I want a show with wacky antics, I think I'll choose Paradise Prince any day of the week. Because THAT'S a story where underneath all the silly funtimes there's an underlying message of hope and faith in one's dreams that moves me.
That's why don't like Gin-chan. It may have its funny moments, but at the end of the day... Yeah, no. Just wanted to be clear on that in case anyone else was still confused.
Now let's talk about Shangri-La.
This one I've been confused about myself. I've been rolling it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out why I can't completely open up my heart to this show. Why can't I like it, when it's Soragumi, and it's sci-fi/fantasy, and it's novel and inventive and so many things I should want to see in a show?
When the announcement first came I immediately assumed that Alice-chan would be in it. It was completely inconceivable to me that the company would give Kacha a partner older than her, and I thought Alice-chan's time was finished. I thought for sure she'd go to Drama City.
Thus I was left with the difficult task of imagining my girl in a show where the top musumeyaku would be carrying a gun, and Alice-chan herself... I had no idea what to expect. It could be amazing, or it could be something really small and thankless again. I knew my basic inclination would be to like a story like Shangri-La, but I would hold it against Koyanagi-sensei / the show itself if Alice-chan wasn't properly used.
And then it turned out that my girl wasn't in it at all, and I felt freed of the obligation to like or care about Shangri-La.
Somewhere along the way that lack of caring turned into a bitterness, and I think I finally know why.
It's jealousy. Just simple, petty jealousy.
I said it before and I'll say it again; I don't know how many people will remember Je Chante in the long run. The people who hate Kacha were probably in I Pointedly Don't Care mode about it.
But Shangri-La will live on. Something new and edgy like that, with crazy costumes and haunting music and cool dancing, lots of guns and leather -- people will remember that.
(The official DVD release, as opposed to Je Chante only airing on Sky Stage if that, I guess goes without saying.)
I'm jealous. I'm jealous of the ones who got to do something different and cool while some of my favoritest, favoritest girls were giving their hearts to a story that was much more standard fare.
I finally finished watching the Shangri-La DVD tonight, and in spite of myself I cried for Ice's sacrifice. I think Tomochin has played a lot of unsympathetic villains in her time, and it's good that she finally got one with a redeeming end.
But yeah -- this wall that I'm facing -- it's jealousy and spitefulness and hypocrisy, no doubt about it, because I can sit here and disparage Sumika for wielding a gun but god damn I love to see Tara-chan and Eri-chan with them. (Of course I think it's not wrong of me to maintain that the two of them are cooler than Sumika, simply because their characters seem to have been properly trained in combat unlike Miu who just gets handed a gun and decides she knows how to use it.)
I'm petty, but again I can't deny that Sumika annoys me less when I can watch her on DVD and be disconnected (except when she cries, oh god). I almost got to that point again -- you may not believe me, but at times I reach this point -- where I almost think I can forgive her.
But then I remember that I'm going to have to watch her in Tokyo 10 more times...
Plus there's the fact that she doesn't naturally draw my eye the way Tara-chan does even when she's just standing in the background god SERIOUSLY stop being so hot, Tara-chan ♥ ♥ ♥
...No, this is not a review, so it is not turning into a rundown of all the girls I like for the millionth time. This is just me emptying out my brain after midnight.
My basic point is, I can break down Shangri-La and point out the plot holes and make it sound not as great as it is, but the simple truth is I'm just jealous. I admit it, there. ^_^;;;