Anime in July

 HigurashiSotsu Episode 5, Kill First, then ask questions of the dead body. 

I realize the old Deen Anime probably also gets accused of Sexualizing the violence done to it’s female characters, but that’s more a product of how some of the most misguided SJWs will call anything sexualized so long as the characters are attractive at all.  

Gou and Sotsu however really truly are sexualizing their violence too much, and that really struck as I was watching Mion strangle Shion.  Now a more standard critic of Sexualized Anime content was probably complaining about this already in scenes with Satoko.  But it’s precisely because I acknowledge Loli as fundamentally detached from reality that I really didn’t care much there.  It’s because Shion is the kind of Woman i find attractive in real life, both in looks and personality, that I felt a little bothered by the show trying to turn me on as it killed her.

In episode 22 of So I’m A Spider, So What, I'm still liking the CGI.

Episode 4 of Dynszenon was okay.

Episode 6 of 86 was decent.

I watched 6 episodes of Sankarea, it’s certainly interesting.

First here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2021/04/anime-torah-year-introduction-post.html

I actually miss Episodic Television

I watched a YouTube video on Smallville recently, and one of the complaints about the show of course was that there was "soooo much filler".  It's kinda funny coming back to Smallville discourse after spending years in the Anime Community where "Filler" has a mostly different meaning.

When I look back on Smallville comparing it to the modern state of Superhero TV shows, the "Filler" is exactly what I miss.  To me what makes Clark Superman is how he deals with small things as much as the big things.

If you follow the discourse among actual DC and Marvel Comic Book readers, you'll notice one thing that has been lamented about the state of Superhero comics for well over a decade now is how everything is "written for the Trade" and thus you don't get simple short one off stories anymore, not in the main continuity at least.

Well Superhero based TV is finally catching up to the Comics in this regard.  And while for now everyone is excited about the possibilities, I feel like the one person noticing that this is leading to exactly why so many of us Comic Book Nerds started preferring TV and Cartoons to the actual Comics in the first place.

Saying Smallville was good actually may be mildly controversial, but saying that about Batman The Animated Series is not.  Michael Baily has lamented how since The Joker killed Robin and crippled Barbara Gordon in the late 80s you can't just tell one off Joker stories anymore, not in the main continuity, he became too big for that.  In the 90s BTAS became the source for new short one off Joker stories.  And it did the same for all of the villains.

The reason none of the modern attempts at creating new Batman villains have truly become Icons like the ones who've been around since at least the 70s is because those classic villains had who they are and what works about them defined by tons of short and simple one off villain of the week stories.  Then later writers started trying to find ways to make them work in more Epic and long form stories with varying degrees of success.  But now every new villain is introduced as the Big Bad of a huge status quo shaking event, and they may have worked great for that event, but attempts to bring them back just reveal their short comings.

It's not just the Superhero genre though.  Perhaps with something like a High School Drama it's harder to easily tell the difference between something episodic and something trying to be a 20 hour movie.  But I can still sense that I generally prefer the former to the latter.

For hour long live action TV shows my ideal is somewhere between purely episodic and every episode being a huge earth shattering plot development.  I want there to be an overarching storyline in the background, but for most individual episodes to work as their own stand alone stories.  That was how Buffy/Angel, Xena and Smallville operated back in the day. and it used to be that was also how most long running TV Anime worked.  

Now it seems like if a new show did what I like it would be viewed as a step backwards.  I look at how Netflix's Daredevil was praised from season 1 as a new evolution of the Superhero genre making everything that came before and contemporary with it look amateur in comparison.  But all I see is how the potential for interesting one off stories with a Superhero who's also a Defense Attorney were squandered by the obsession with making a 13 hour Kingpin movie.  Season 2 I liked more then most people in-spite of not doing what I prefer, then season 3 won back the season 1 people and I hated it.

And even with Anime what I like is becoming rarer, with Light Novel and Visual Novel adaptations dominating the market.  And Manga meanwhile hasn't had the same history as Marvel and DC Comics, they were always "written for the trade" to some extent.  So it's mostly original Anime, or Anime that diverted from the source material in ways purists hate like classic Sailor Moon and FMA that are structured the way I most prefer.  The later of those mostly isn't allowed anymore, and even original Anime are often written for the Binge watcher even if it aired weekly since most Anime don't make their profits from the TV broadcast anyway.

I love plenty of shows that aren't structured this way, I'm simply sad that this kind of TV is dying out.  

Anime Update: Shifting out of Spring and into Summer

So I’m A Spider, So What episode 20 was pretty good.

Well I’ve watched the first 2 episodes of SSSS.Dynazenon and I am interested.

86 episode 4 was decent.

Episode 1 of The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent was quite intriguing.

HigurashiSotsu Episode 4 “find a more pleasant way to go next time” this is the timeline where she drowns in Poop Water.

In episode 21 of So I’m A Spider, So What the production value seems to have taken a drop.  Which is really odd for an episode that’s about an epic battle.

Episode 3 of SSSS.Dynazenon was pretty amusing.

On a whim I decided to watch the first episode of Shuffle! on Hulu using my recently purchased Nintendo Switch in handheld mode.  I was intrigued by how it went 10 minutes, seeming like a normal Highschool Anime with no fantastical elements and then just casually talks about the Gate opening in background exposition and shows us a student with long ears, just like that.  I’m also amused by how these “gods” and “demons” are just Elves with slightly different Ears.

So in episode 5 of 86 I’m not even sure I followed what was going on.  So the “Empire” they’re fighting had already fallen this whole time?

YuriKuma Arashi is not ONLY about being Gay

It is 100% about being Gay, every detail of it is very very Gay.  But that's still not the only thing it's about.

The confusion and misunderstanding that comes form trying to interpret YuriKuma Arashi is that people have trouble understanding that other social commentary is also going on here.  All of Ikuhara's shows are about multiple things not just one thing.  To some extent they're all about the same collection of things but in different ways.

The other thing YuriKuma Arashi is about is Xenophobia.  It baffles my mind that a show which aired while Donald Trump was running for President where a "Wall of Severance" keeps two "Races" of people apart is a prominent plot point, but no one noticed that because it's apparently a given that nothing in an Ikuhara show should ever be taken literally.  

To Erica Friedman the Bears represent "Real Lesbians" whatever that means.  Others are constantly suggesting some less on the nose variation of that.  None of those theories explain why it is ONLY among the Bears that Heterosexual Reproduction is confirmed to exist at all.  The actual text makes them as a society less Gay then the humans but somehow symbolically they are the Prue Gays.

The Bears are Gaijin, that's why they have a religion vaguely molded after Christianity, because Japan still sees Christianity as an inherently foreign religion in-spite of it being there for centuries now.

I've seen it said a few times now that in Japanese society Lesbians are sometimes called Bears as a way of stereotyping them as predatory.  Somehow this never came up in ANY of the pre 2015 Lesbian Japanese media I've watched (I have seen a Wolf analogy used instead in Your Fault), but whatever I'll take their word for it.  It's still not the only connotation the Japanese word for Bear has in Japan's cultural collective subconscious.

In the Kojiki one of the non Yamato tribes of Japan who the Yamato slowly subjugate and conquer is named Kumaso, a combination of Kuma which means Bear and So which means "attack" or "layer on".  This Bear imagery seems to have been partly for the intention of dehumanizing them.  But if the real people behind the Kumaso were a tribe that shared a common Jommon ancestry with the Ainu like the Emishi, then it's notable that the chief Kamuy of the Ainu pantheon is a Bear.  It's also worth mentioning that the Emishi were known for their thick facial hair.

I wonder if maybe Ikuhara was also aware of Korean Mythology having the mother of Korea's first King be a divine Bear who became Human.  Since a lot of modern Japan's immigrant population is Korean.

JoseiNextDoor I think was the blogger who I recall making note of the show's use of the Pink Triangle symbol which came from Nazi Germany.  Well another symbol Nazi Germany used in a similar way that was similarly reclaimed by their victims was the Yellow Star of David.  And if you look closely you will find Yellow Hexagrams in YuriKuma Arashi as well.  You'll also find Hexagrams of other colors, since it's actually very easy to make a Hexagram out of a Lily.  Which is why I've come to suspect the origins of the Star of David as a Jewish Symbol partly lies in The Hebrew Bible's Lily imagery (Shushan is the Hebrew word for Lily, the female name Susana derives from it.).  It's easy for us Americans to forget that Germany's Anti-Semitism problem was also an Anti-Immigration problem, because Jews were among Germany's Eastern European immigrants, like Rosa Luxemburg, so the Anti-Semitism was also tied to Anti-Slavic Racism.

The thesis of YuriKuma Arashi is that Lesbianism is the answer to Racism.

I first learned about the Kumaso because I was once into reading up on theories about Japan being one of the Lost Tribes of Israel which I currently don't consider likely.  But one argument one Author made was that that the word Kumaso came from Chemosh and thus the Kumaso were the Moabites and the Kojiki's narrative for Emperor Chuuai was partly based on King Saul.  That chronology is kinda off considering it was earlier Emperors the same author claimed were based on David and Solomon.  And I I would think the Northern Kingdom's memories of Moab would focus more on the House of Omri and it's conflict with Mesha.

It's a silly connection since I already explained how Kumaso has a well known Japanese etymology.  But for the purpose of tying the Kumaso into how to understand YuriKuma I kind of like having this association in my head.  Since Ruth was a Moabitess and there is a long history of Lesbians identifying with Ruth and Naomi.

July has Arrived, Anime Updates

First here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2021/04/anime-torah-year-introduction-post.html

So I’m A Spider, So What Episode 19 was pretty interesting.

I decided to put 300Slimes On Hold for the time being.

Episode 3 of 86 was good, still not sure how sold I am on the show yet.

And I watched the first two episodes of HigurashiSotsu.  It seems we’re getting an Answer Arc for each Gou Question.

The more I think about it the more I’m not sold on the necessity of seeing this timeline again.  I know before Stosu starting people were mocking those who said full Answer Arcs aren’t needed insisting “of course there’s more to it then just Satoko injects everyone” and yes there is, in this case it’s Rena having the same issues already explored in the original show.  

The information that is new to us Anime only fans seems to me like it was probably always in the Visual Novel, among what it’s fanatics complain about the Deen Anime cutting, and if so seeing it now has vindicated by belief that everything Deen cut was not as good or important as they think it was.  The attempt to make the Gold Digger a bit more sympathetic this time I also just rolled my eyes at, everyone already got that the story of Higurashi approves of Vigilante Justice, it adds nothing.

The second Gou arc is like it’s original counterpart the one worth revisiting the same timeline from a different POV.  Seeing Mion’s POV for a change is the actually new thing I’ve been waiting for.  Sotsu would have grabbed me quicker if it’d started there.  And after that I just want to get back to where we left off before jumping into all this backstory, let Satoko explain the rest in an evil monologue or something.

So I randomly watched the first episode of Ultra Maniac on the TCL Channel app that was recently added to my Roku TV.  I’m afraid I’m simply not interested in Anime that is this much of a SitCom.

Update July 7th: Episode 3 of  Sotsu was pretty fine actually.  I was relived that wrapped this arc up in only a 3rd Episode.  So hopefully the next Arc will be what I've been waiting for.

Anime Inspired American Content

Western Cartoons that are marketed or promoted as being "Anime Inspired" or "like an Anime" or even according to some actually counting as Anime, never work for me, they don't feel Authentic, there are too many tells.  Same with attempts at Western Manga.  Even having actual Anime studios work with them doesn't help.

It's not like I even require there to be nothing that an actual Japanese Otaku wouldn't do.  It's about the spirit, I want stuff that feels like it was made by American Otaku, not being "Anime Style" as a marketing gimmick.  Much of what I think of as the Core of Anime are values that certainly do or should exist independent of it.

The Western stuff I do sometimes say I like for similar reasons to why I like Anime, were not trying to do that, a lot of it is actually Live Action media and even they are not indistinguishable.  Some of it is old enough that if there is a connection it's that it influenced some Anime, even if indirectly.  Was The Princess Bride popular in Japan?  The Anime I like to compare it to are all younger, they begin with Slayers basically.

However there is one exception, and that's the recent trend of American Visual Novels.  Avatar and Castlevania I will never consider even honorary members of The Council, but Doki Doki Literature Club manages to earn the rank of Master.  So why do they succeed where actual Animators fail?

Maybe it's because Visual Novels as we think of them are an inherently Japanese Concept.  People making a Cartoon no matter how much imitating Anime is the starting thesis can't help but still also be influenced by the trends of American Cartoons.  Even if they did watch some Anime as kids they probably watched it alongside other stuff, on Toonami, or Kid's WB, or Adult Swim.  But with Visual Novels even if you want to draw inspiration from more then just Japanese Dating Sims and Porn Games, you can't because other options literally don't exist.

Or maybe it's because these Visual Novels happen to be more independently produced.  They were, going back to what I said above, not just made by people who like Anime but are what they were inspired to make because of their experiences of being an Otaku.  While what you see on Netflix and Cartoon Network are executives who don't watch Anime trying to appeal to what they think Anime fans like.

Or maybe my sample size is just too small.  My knowledge of Japanese Visuals Novels is mostly the ones popular enough to get Animated Adaptations.  And my experience with their American imitators are ones that became infamous online because 4Channers Memed them.

Maybe some of you feel my lack of satisfaction with certain Anime Inspired Cartoons is because the Anime they are trying to be like are simply not the ones I'm into.  Avatar is trying to fit in with Shonen Jump and Castlevania with Edgys 90s OVAs.  While I'm clearly someone who only cares about Waifu trash.

However I'm also into Magical Girls, and there have been attempts to create Western versions of that genre as well.  Some are shows with loyal cult followings to this day, for good reasons I'm sure.  But I can just tell by looking at them that they are off the mark of at least what I like the genre for.  Because they were made when Sailor Moon was all the west had really seen, and since Sailor Moon is still not the genre fully formed it's easy to learn the wrong lessons from it.

Lindsay Ellis's argument for what makes certain shows and YA Novels "Avatar inspired" is mainly what she calls "the Zuco".  Even in the Anime most like Avatar in both Genre and intended audience demographic, "the Zuko" is still only babymode.  Good Shonen Anime give us more then just telegraphed in advance redemptions arcs.  They will make a character we met as a dangerous Antagonist into a protagonist we're rooting for by the end without their ideology or ethics or goals even changing at all, by expanding the context.  I wanted to call this "the Scar" referencing Fullmetal Alchemist but that character name can easily be confused with others.  I suppose that also describes Vegeta, kinda.  But the thing is FMA is more similar in concept to Avatar then then any Battle Shonen.

Update May 2023: And I've since I first wrote learned of those who do interpret Zuco as having never actually been a villain.  And the thing is that take on Zuco makes him basically just Fate Testerosa of the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha but needlessly dragged out.