Noir was my original favorite Anime, it had been temporarily dethroned by Utena for over a year at least, but once I did a more recent revisit of Noir it took the position back and now Utena doesn't even make my 3x3. I still love Utena, it's a fantastic work of art and I don't think anyone should be allowed to claim to be an expert on Feminist Film theory if they haven't watched Utena (and I suppose that includes anyone wanting to discus how well Buffy holds up as a Feminist show). But it's just not for me re-watchable enough to keep calling it a personal favorite.
So could the same happen with Buffy? Now that I'm revisiting my Buffy fandom can she take her former throne back from Pretty Little Liars (hence forth called PLL for short) as my favorite Western TV Show? If it does it would be largely on the strength of how much it ended better. But comparing their first 4 seasons PLL was absolutely much more consistently great then Buffy was. In fact with PLL season 4 was the best season, how often does that happen?
Now PLL was still good all the way to the end, even it's finale episode has material that will probably stick with me into Eternity. But the moment a certain change happened in season 5 it started losing something, and then in the middle of season 6 it makes that massive mistake it never fully recovered from that I've already talked about more then I feel I'm qualified to.
What I'm about to say probably makes me unlike most Buffy fans, but the last 3 seasons rather then the first three are what I'm most nostalgic for. Dawn is my favorite Buffy character, Spike my favorite male character from the show, and the Magic Box was a more natural base of operations then a school library. Now character wise neither Glory, the First or Caleb were the best Big Bads, but the Big Bad was always a plot device first and a character second. Remember as I've already shared I used to be a major Spawn shipper. And I've seen the MOTW Superhero show in a High School setting done as well or better by Magical Girl Anime and Smallville.
Season 6 was probably my favorite season of the show. And season 7 I think was one of the most successful final seasons in TV history, in-spite of how it kinda does some things I think a final season shouldn't do.
The Gift was a good episode on it's own, but in an awkward situation because of the first season being only 12 episodes where it has to be both the 100th episode and a season finale. What I want from 100th episodes and season finales are inherently not the same, a good 100th episode should be almost more about past seasons then the current one which is why it's convenient when they fall exactly in the middle of season 5.
But back to season 7. My first instinct would always be to advise someone NOT to introduce new regular/recurring characters during the last season, winding things down is not a good time to suddenly start whole new character arcs. The one exception could be a final Big Bad, but they should be introduced early in the season and connected to earlier story-lines somehow. Buffy season 7 clearly goes against this a lot between the Potentials, Principal Robin Wood, and waiting till the last 5 episodes to bring in Caleb.
Now Buffy season 7 does still demonstrate why I feel this way, which is why it fails to outdo season 6. The Potentials I'm particularity mad at since I think they ruined what Dawn's role in the finale season should have been. And as for Wood, he is a very interesting character who's background was a neat idea to add to the lore, but being in only one season limited the ability to flesh that out.
But over all season 7 was a pretty solid final act for the show in-spite of all that.
For finale episodes, my advise tends to be focus on being a good season finale first, and if the final season works as a final season it should naturally make a good finale episode. And Chosen mostly does just that which is why it's a great series finale.
On the subject of bringing back characters we hadn't seen in awhile, I believe final seasons should try to do that, but the finale episode should not, it should just focus on ending the story-lines of the characters who stuck around to the end.
Now you might think Angel's involvement in Chosen violates that rule, but he's an acceptable exception because he was only at the very beginning, and being the lead of a spin off meant that in the fan's minds he was never completely gone. You might also think Faith's involvement cuts it close but coming in five episodes from the end proved enough to reintegrate her.
PLL's final season and final episodes both do these things I said you shouldn't do, and doesn't make up for it as cleverly as Buffy does. Again I always enjoyed the show, but it's last 2 seasons were deeply inferior to the first 5 and also certainly don't make as satisfying an ending as how Buffy ended.
Thing is no single episode of PLL ever got as bad as some of Buffy's low points. And I'm not sure if any of my favorite episodes of Buffy can beat my favorites of PLL.
One thing both shows have in common is that some of my favorite episodes are their Halloween episodes, might have something to do with the weird fact that I was born on Halloween. But comparing them, PLL's Halloween specials win out with their epicness, the one that's a back door pilot for the failed spin off is the weakest of them but still pretty good.
It's hard for me to pick a single favorite episode for either. But for PLL Shadow Play is a strong candidate and for Buffy it would probably be Once Moor With Feeling. Comparing a Noir Episode to a Musical probably doesn't seem fair, but I think PLL wins here because for Buffy's my favorite character was kinda sidelined while on PLL Spencer was the focal point of this episode.
PLL never had a Musical which is a shame. And Buffy never had a Noir Episode, the Buffyverse did it's Noir stuff on Angel, where again I'd say no single episode of Angel is as good at being a Noir as Shadow Play is.
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Buffy as a Vampire Show
So you may have noticed that the two Buffy posts I made in the middle of the month didn't include my Vampire Fiction tag, well that's because in my mind Buffy has always been compartmentalized from my relationship with Vampire Fiction in general.
You see in-spite of how much I did and to some extent still do love Buffy, it's take on Vampire lore is actually just about hands down the absolute worst in terms of what I look for. Isn't that kind of weird? How could this be at one time my favorite show even though it's the worst at it's face value main genre?
But that's the thing, it was only ever a Vampire show at face value, the show is about the Slayer not the Vampires. Now originally most Vampire literature was more about the Humans dealing with them, but in Buffy's case her ability to kill Vampires was never her real obstacle. The show could just as easily have been Buffy The Goblin Slayer and... OH MY GOD!!!! I wish I'd thought of that when that show was still relevant, the memes I could have generated.
I'm honestly more interested in comparing Buffy to Magical Girl shows then to more conventional Vampire fiction. The show is about this particular Heroine's Journey and how the friends she makes along the way are the source of her real strength. There are also other types of Anime that might equally apply to, like Railgun.
So why do I hate Buffy/Angel's version of Vampire lore so much? I'll start with the core reason, then the most superficial reason, then something I don't seem to care about nearly as much as other people who take the opposite of my position.
The whole "Soul" issue and how that complicated the show's morality in general. If someone is going to have a seemingly very different morality as a Vampire then they did as a human, I'd rather why that is be psychologically explored. Instead it's just that killing "Souled" people is murder but killing people without "Souls" is not, some Vampires are basically the same personality with or without it, but some are not. This should effect more then just my opinion of it as a Vampire show, and it kinda does, but in the context of comparing it to stuff like Magical Girl shows allowing if someone is good or evil to change at the flick of a switch is a bit more precedented.
I hate that Buffy pretty much started the whole, they turn ugly right before biting you, thing.
They burn in the Sun. I'm someone who's ultimate preference is for vampires to return to how they were before 1922, when the Sun had no effect what so ever, they can be nocturnal because that's how they prefer to hunt or because they like the Moon, but the Sun should mean nothing. But as long as writers are unwilling to do that, as long the Sun is an issue they feel has to be addressed, I'll take Sparkling over being harmed by it any day. Yes you read that correctly, it's not a Joke, I sincerely mean that.
So those are the three issues that are kind of representative of the whole. There are some ideas I like, for example some Vampires losing the ability to look human once they become super old. The idea of Dracula being unique among vampires is something I have mixed feelings on, but performance wise Rudolf Martin is still genuinely my number two Dracula after Lugosi, so that makes up for everything else in that department.
Buffy and Angel were over well before my interest in the general Vampire craze started in 2009 and lasted till about 2014. If I knew way back then what I know now I might have been annoyed that Dracula was the only Public Domain vampire written into the show, I'd wanna see at least references to Carmilla and Lord Ruthven and Varney and hopefully some of Paul Feval's vampires. But that's just the Nerd in me who wants to see a Victorian Vampire shared cinematic universe.
The fact that I don't particularly care about Vampire media anymore is perhaps why it can still not actually matter to me as I revisit my fandom for this show. Maybe part of why it declined in my mind during my vampire phase was because of how it conflicted with my tastes there. I had endless issues with The Vampire Diaries but it came a lot closer to what I'd want from a Vampire show. Still I was never willing to say it was now better then Buffy even when it was my favorite currently airing TV show, it was Pretty Little Liars that dethroned Buffy.
You see in-spite of how much I did and to some extent still do love Buffy, it's take on Vampire lore is actually just about hands down the absolute worst in terms of what I look for. Isn't that kind of weird? How could this be at one time my favorite show even though it's the worst at it's face value main genre?
But that's the thing, it was only ever a Vampire show at face value, the show is about the Slayer not the Vampires. Now originally most Vampire literature was more about the Humans dealing with them, but in Buffy's case her ability to kill Vampires was never her real obstacle. The show could just as easily have been Buffy The Goblin Slayer and... OH MY GOD!!!! I wish I'd thought of that when that show was still relevant, the memes I could have generated.
I'm honestly more interested in comparing Buffy to Magical Girl shows then to more conventional Vampire fiction. The show is about this particular Heroine's Journey and how the friends she makes along the way are the source of her real strength. There are also other types of Anime that might equally apply to, like Railgun.
So why do I hate Buffy/Angel's version of Vampire lore so much? I'll start with the core reason, then the most superficial reason, then something I don't seem to care about nearly as much as other people who take the opposite of my position.
The whole "Soul" issue and how that complicated the show's morality in general. If someone is going to have a seemingly very different morality as a Vampire then they did as a human, I'd rather why that is be psychologically explored. Instead it's just that killing "Souled" people is murder but killing people without "Souls" is not, some Vampires are basically the same personality with or without it, but some are not. This should effect more then just my opinion of it as a Vampire show, and it kinda does, but in the context of comparing it to stuff like Magical Girl shows allowing if someone is good or evil to change at the flick of a switch is a bit more precedented.
I hate that Buffy pretty much started the whole, they turn ugly right before biting you, thing.
They burn in the Sun. I'm someone who's ultimate preference is for vampires to return to how they were before 1922, when the Sun had no effect what so ever, they can be nocturnal because that's how they prefer to hunt or because they like the Moon, but the Sun should mean nothing. But as long as writers are unwilling to do that, as long the Sun is an issue they feel has to be addressed, I'll take Sparkling over being harmed by it any day. Yes you read that correctly, it's not a Joke, I sincerely mean that.
So those are the three issues that are kind of representative of the whole. There are some ideas I like, for example some Vampires losing the ability to look human once they become super old. The idea of Dracula being unique among vampires is something I have mixed feelings on, but performance wise Rudolf Martin is still genuinely my number two Dracula after Lugosi, so that makes up for everything else in that department.
Buffy and Angel were over well before my interest in the general Vampire craze started in 2009 and lasted till about 2014. If I knew way back then what I know now I might have been annoyed that Dracula was the only Public Domain vampire written into the show, I'd wanna see at least references to Carmilla and Lord Ruthven and Varney and hopefully some of Paul Feval's vampires. But that's just the Nerd in me who wants to see a Victorian Vampire shared cinematic universe.
The fact that I don't particularly care about Vampire media anymore is perhaps why it can still not actually matter to me as I revisit my fandom for this show. Maybe part of why it declined in my mind during my vampire phase was because of how it conflicted with my tastes there. I had endless issues with The Vampire Diaries but it came a lot closer to what I'd want from a Vampire show. Still I was never willing to say it was now better then Buffy even when it was my favorite currently airing TV show, it was Pretty Little Liars that dethroned Buffy.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
The Battle Angel Alita movie was pretty darn good.
I've learned you should take glowing reviews I make when I just left the theater with a grain of salt since I tend to leave high off the cinema going experience in general. Yet the movies I've soured on after time passed tended be ones where I already had an investment in that intellectual property going in, here I did not.
I haven't seen the OVA or read any of the Manga, so I'm also the perspective of someone judging this off just the movie on it's own.
It's a beautiful film, the Mo-Cap main Heroine never came off uncanny to me at all.
What I like best is that even though this is an adaptation of an edgy 90s OVA, I feel this version with the gore toned down and the characterization/story fleshed out is a better representation of what Anime is like now. So for that reason I can recommend it to normies way before I can Devilman Crybaby.
I also loved how the Motorball game's announcer sounded like he's the same guy who did the Pod Race. Speaking of which how similar is Motorball to Blitzball in Final Fantasy X?
I haven't seen the OVA or read any of the Manga, so I'm also the perspective of someone judging this off just the movie on it's own.
It's a beautiful film, the Mo-Cap main Heroine never came off uncanny to me at all.
What I like best is that even though this is an adaptation of an edgy 90s OVA, I feel this version with the gore toned down and the characterization/story fleshed out is a better representation of what Anime is like now. So for that reason I can recommend it to normies way before I can Devilman Crybaby.
I also loved how the Motorball game's announcer sounded like he's the same guy who did the Pod Race. Speaking of which how similar is Motorball to Blitzball in Final Fantasy X?
Thursday, February 14, 2019
The Seventh Episode factor
I'm really annoyed that TVTropes has changed the name of the Seventh Episode Twist trope to Mid-Season Twist and thus changed most of the examples so now even most Buffy ones are not the actual Seventh Episode. The importance the Seventh Episode often has on Buffy and many other shows is a totally separate kind of importance from why the halfway point of a 20-26 episode show is important. Calling it a "twist" was always misleading I suppose as they aren't usually twists per se, though neither frankly are most midway point episodes.
Since I've had Buffy on the brain lately for the first time in a awhile, let me break it down.
Now the Seventh Episode is often not vital to the "plot", most Buffy examples actually don't feature the Big Bad, they're usually introduced in episodes 3-5 and may reappear in episode 8, but their plot-line mainly kicks off in the second half. Rather it's important to the emotional Story, the Character Development and the Themes. Often I've noticed it having a tendency to be important to that season's romantic story-line(s). Sometimes episode 14 has a similar Romantic significance, which could be because it's a multiple of 7 or maybe a reference to Valentines Day.
Season 1 Episode 7 was the episode titled Angel.
This episode features the Big Bad, but it's importance is still more like what I just laid out above, indeed it's named after the Love Interest.
Season 2 Episode 7, Lie To Me.
This one again features the Big Bads, but that's because Spike and Dru are more directly linked to the Romantic Story-line then most future ones will be. In the way the show is interpreted by The Passion of The Nerd's Episode Guide, this episode contains a vital mission statement to the show's moral philosophy (which in my current opinion is very toxic).
Season 3 Episode 7, Revelations.
This episode is again a vital escalation in the Angel story-line of the season. But it's also vital to Faith's story-line, her trust issues in general and putting her for the first time in conflict with Buffy. Perhaps the Faith importance is consistent with the romantic importance, depending on how you interpret things.
Season 4 Episode 7, The Initiative.
This one is important to the Big Badish story-line but mainly because season 4 was inherently different from most seasons in that regard. It is still the real beginning of season 4's romantic story-line. And the introduction of Spike's new status-quo, who has been and will be important to romantic story-lines.
Angels Season 1: Bachelor Party.
It's the first Doyle centric episode. And it ends with the set up for the first full crossover story-line.
Buffy Season 5: Fool For Love.
The beginning of the end of Buffy's current relationship and a vital stage setter for what will dominate her love life for the rest of the show.
Angel Season 2: Darla.
The romantic story-lines of this season are all about Darla.
Buffy Season 6: Once More With Feeling.
The Musical Episode, while the romantic story-lines come up, this is perhaps the least directly about those so far. It makes itself a turning point for every story-line, but chiefly is where the Scoobies finally learn how Buffy really feels about being brought back to life.
Angel Season 3: Offspring.
Darla shows up pregnant, do I need to say anything else?
Buffy Season 7: Conversations With Dead People.
This more then any other is the real beginning of the final season's arc. It's romantic importance is there, we learn something about what's going on with Spike. Like the Musical it tried to make itself important to every plot, though it's strangely the only episode of the entire series Xander isn't in.
Angel Season 4: Apocalypse, Nowish.
The introduction of the sorta Big Bad. And it's a turning point in the romantic story-lines as well.
Angel Season 5: Lineage.
Important to Wesley's romantic story-line, since it's mainly a Wesley episode over all. Given earlier patterns I kinda wish episode 8 had been this season's episode 7. Both Angel Season 5 and Smallville season 2 named their 7th episode Lineage, this one aired a year after that one.
So, that is the list of episodes that TVTropes page used to talk about for Buffy and Angel, though what I said about them is kind of different. To what extent this happens outside the Buffyverse is hard for me to objectively determine. For example the extent to which I used to see it on Smallville I think may have mostly been my looking for it.
But I think a factor in why Noir so quickly sucked me in as the first not a kid's show Anime I watched was in how the way it was structured happened to echo Buffy(Like how Episode 5 was the formal introduction to the antagonist force.), though having 4 more episodes to it's total length kind of made the 16/17 significance happen twice, the other being 20/21 which was the same number of episodes from the end as 16/17 would be in a 22 episode show.
Episode 7 of Noir was The Black Thread of Fate. The Soldats were to my recollection not relevant at all. The most important thing about this episode is how it's the first time we see definitive evidence our protagonists have come to actually care about each other. A brief throw away scene is also when we see Chloe for the first time, it feels like an after credits scene yet that's not where they put it. Also the title of the episode echoes the title of the show itself, Noir being the French word for Black.
On Madlax episode 7 was the first part of a two parter and the point at which the seemingly two different shows we were watching begin to come together. I feel like episode 7 of El Cazador de la Bruja can also fit this pattern.
Witch Hunter Robin would have fit if only they switched episodes 7 and 9.
Episode 7 of Code Geass begins with our first flashback and ends with Zero's first defeat, episode 7 of R2 was Lelouch's Achilles in his Tent moment.
Lupin III Part IV has two episode 7s due to two intended episodes becoming OVAs in Japan but being added back to the series for the Adult Swim airing. It's the order without the OVAs that makes it kinda fit.
In Katana Maidens episode 7 is where the Avengers are finally assembled. I think episode 7 of Darling in The FranXX's significance is self evident. Episode 7 of Doki Doki Precure inspired something I did on Tumblr once.
http://jaredmithrandir.tumblr.com/post/139417960233/magicalgirlconfessions-doki-doki-precure-won
I love you Glitter Force but I hate how you screwed up the episode order symmetry here.
But let's take a look at Anime that is too old to be accused of doing this because Buffy did it.
If you view Misty as a love interest on Pokémon, then episode 7 was the real establishment of her character even though she'd been there from the start. I also wonder if episode 5 being Ash's first Gym Battle could be compared to the significance I read into Buffy's episode 5s?
The fact that the classic Sailor Moon Anime fits this pattern more in it's DiC episode order I find really interesting. In that version episode 5 introduces Ami, episode 7 introduced Rei and episode 10 was the defeat of Jadite, all three things that could be compared to how Buffy seasons would be structured with episode 10s usually being semi-finales before a hiatus. The Anime version connects Rei to the romantic story-line since she was dating Mamoru/Darrien briefly. These episodes aired in English in 95, is it possible Joss had watched them?
The statement Joss once made about originally not wanting Angel to be a fighter makes me wonder if in general his role in the story was partly inspired by Tuxedo Mask (and the other part by The Vampire Diaries). I've been thinking of doing a separate post on if Buffy could be considered a Magical Girl Warrior.
In the live action Sailor Moon series episode 7 is made an important development in the Tuxedo Mask/Sailor Moon relationship. In Sailor Moon Crystal which more directly follows the Manga episodes 6 and 7 both are major Tuxedo Mask developments, and the end of 7 is when Sailor Venus first appears.
All I'll say about episode 7 of Utena is that when production issues delayed the intended episode 6 it was swapped with episode 8, another Nanami "filler" episode. Which tells me Ikuhara or Enokido for some reason saw it as important that Unfulfilled Juri be the seventh episode not any other number.
Feel free to leave comments about what Episode 7s of various TV Shows or Cartoons you think are interesting.
Since I've had Buffy on the brain lately for the first time in a awhile, let me break it down.
Now the Seventh Episode is often not vital to the "plot", most Buffy examples actually don't feature the Big Bad, they're usually introduced in episodes 3-5 and may reappear in episode 8, but their plot-line mainly kicks off in the second half. Rather it's important to the emotional Story, the Character Development and the Themes. Often I've noticed it having a tendency to be important to that season's romantic story-line(s). Sometimes episode 14 has a similar Romantic significance, which could be because it's a multiple of 7 or maybe a reference to Valentines Day.
Season 1 Episode 7 was the episode titled Angel.
This episode features the Big Bad, but it's importance is still more like what I just laid out above, indeed it's named after the Love Interest.
Season 2 Episode 7, Lie To Me.
This one again features the Big Bads, but that's because Spike and Dru are more directly linked to the Romantic Story-line then most future ones will be. In the way the show is interpreted by The Passion of The Nerd's Episode Guide, this episode contains a vital mission statement to the show's moral philosophy (which in my current opinion is very toxic).
Season 3 Episode 7, Revelations.
This episode is again a vital escalation in the Angel story-line of the season. But it's also vital to Faith's story-line, her trust issues in general and putting her for the first time in conflict with Buffy. Perhaps the Faith importance is consistent with the romantic importance, depending on how you interpret things.
Season 4 Episode 7, The Initiative.
This one is important to the Big Badish story-line but mainly because season 4 was inherently different from most seasons in that regard. It is still the real beginning of season 4's romantic story-line. And the introduction of Spike's new status-quo, who has been and will be important to romantic story-lines.
Angels Season 1: Bachelor Party.
It's the first Doyle centric episode. And it ends with the set up for the first full crossover story-line.
Buffy Season 5: Fool For Love.
The beginning of the end of Buffy's current relationship and a vital stage setter for what will dominate her love life for the rest of the show.
Angel Season 2: Darla.
The romantic story-lines of this season are all about Darla.
Buffy Season 6: Once More With Feeling.
The Musical Episode, while the romantic story-lines come up, this is perhaps the least directly about those so far. It makes itself a turning point for every story-line, but chiefly is where the Scoobies finally learn how Buffy really feels about being brought back to life.
Angel Season 3: Offspring.
Darla shows up pregnant, do I need to say anything else?
Buffy Season 7: Conversations With Dead People.
This more then any other is the real beginning of the final season's arc. It's romantic importance is there, we learn something about what's going on with Spike. Like the Musical it tried to make itself important to every plot, though it's strangely the only episode of the entire series Xander isn't in.
Angel Season 4: Apocalypse, Nowish.
The introduction of the sorta Big Bad. And it's a turning point in the romantic story-lines as well.
Angel Season 5: Lineage.
Important to Wesley's romantic story-line, since it's mainly a Wesley episode over all. Given earlier patterns I kinda wish episode 8 had been this season's episode 7. Both Angel Season 5 and Smallville season 2 named their 7th episode Lineage, this one aired a year after that one.
So, that is the list of episodes that TVTropes page used to talk about for Buffy and Angel, though what I said about them is kind of different. To what extent this happens outside the Buffyverse is hard for me to objectively determine. For example the extent to which I used to see it on Smallville I think may have mostly been my looking for it.
But I think a factor in why Noir so quickly sucked me in as the first not a kid's show Anime I watched was in how the way it was structured happened to echo Buffy(Like how Episode 5 was the formal introduction to the antagonist force.), though having 4 more episodes to it's total length kind of made the 16/17 significance happen twice, the other being 20/21 which was the same number of episodes from the end as 16/17 would be in a 22 episode show.
Episode 7 of Noir was The Black Thread of Fate. The Soldats were to my recollection not relevant at all. The most important thing about this episode is how it's the first time we see definitive evidence our protagonists have come to actually care about each other. A brief throw away scene is also when we see Chloe for the first time, it feels like an after credits scene yet that's not where they put it. Also the title of the episode echoes the title of the show itself, Noir being the French word for Black.
On Madlax episode 7 was the first part of a two parter and the point at which the seemingly two different shows we were watching begin to come together. I feel like episode 7 of El Cazador de la Bruja can also fit this pattern.
Witch Hunter Robin would have fit if only they switched episodes 7 and 9.
Episode 7 of Code Geass begins with our first flashback and ends with Zero's first defeat, episode 7 of R2 was Lelouch's Achilles in his Tent moment.
Lupin III Part IV has two episode 7s due to two intended episodes becoming OVAs in Japan but being added back to the series for the Adult Swim airing. It's the order without the OVAs that makes it kinda fit.
In Katana Maidens episode 7 is where the Avengers are finally assembled. I think episode 7 of Darling in The FranXX's significance is self evident. Episode 7 of Doki Doki Precure inspired something I did on Tumblr once.
http://jaredmithrandir.tumblr.com/post/139417960233/magicalgirlconfessions-doki-doki-precure-won
I love you Glitter Force but I hate how you screwed up the episode order symmetry here.
But let's take a look at Anime that is too old to be accused of doing this because Buffy did it.
If you view Misty as a love interest on Pokémon, then episode 7 was the real establishment of her character even though she'd been there from the start. I also wonder if episode 5 being Ash's first Gym Battle could be compared to the significance I read into Buffy's episode 5s?
The fact that the classic Sailor Moon Anime fits this pattern more in it's DiC episode order I find really interesting. In that version episode 5 introduces Ami, episode 7 introduced Rei and episode 10 was the defeat of Jadite, all three things that could be compared to how Buffy seasons would be structured with episode 10s usually being semi-finales before a hiatus. The Anime version connects Rei to the romantic story-line since she was dating Mamoru/Darrien briefly. These episodes aired in English in 95, is it possible Joss had watched them?
The statement Joss once made about originally not wanting Angel to be a fighter makes me wonder if in general his role in the story was partly inspired by Tuxedo Mask (and the other part by The Vampire Diaries). I've been thinking of doing a separate post on if Buffy could be considered a Magical Girl Warrior.
In the live action Sailor Moon series episode 7 is made an important development in the Tuxedo Mask/Sailor Moon relationship. In Sailor Moon Crystal which more directly follows the Manga episodes 6 and 7 both are major Tuxedo Mask developments, and the end of 7 is when Sailor Venus first appears.
All I'll say about episode 7 of Utena is that when production issues delayed the intended episode 6 it was swapped with episode 8, another Nanami "filler" episode. Which tells me Ikuhara or Enokido for some reason saw it as important that Unfulfilled Juri be the seventh episode not any other number.
Feel free to leave comments about what Episode 7s of various TV Shows or Cartoons you think are interesting.
Update 2022: The Seventh episode of Detective Conan was the first episode where Ran almsot figures out the truth, and it's pretty good.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
My long relationship with The Buffyverse
Back in 2000 the first episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer I watched was the season 4 episode This Year's Girl, which was obviously not a convenient episode to start with, but I enjoyed it. Immediately after I watched the Angel episode Eternity. I was under the impression that for both of those it was when they first aired, I know it was on a Tuesday from 7 to 9 o'clock central time on the WB. But what Wikipedia currently says about when these episodes aired doesn't line up with that, was I actually catching reruns that aired during the Summer?
Both gave me some wrong impressions about what happened before, but I like that. Prequel haters keep thinking it's a failure of Lucas that episodes Episodes I-III didn't happen exactly how they assumed from the way information was presented in IV-VI, but I know from experience even when a series was written in order you can get the wrong idea from watching it out of order. These episodes of Buffy/Angle had me thinking Faith had slept with Angel and that Angle turning into Angelus happened semi-regularly. (I had heard enough going in that I already knew Angel was a spin off and that Angel had been Buffy's boyfriend.)
I spent the next couple of years catching Buffy and Angel episodes on occasion. But I fully became a fan in late 2002, when Buffy was already in it's last season. What pulled me in was catching season 3 episodes as reruns. Thanks to all of the Rerunning I had managed to see every episode before the series ended.
Buffy held the status of being my favorite TV show pretty solidly until Pretty Little Liars took that position as it's Season 4b was airing. Thing is I spent a long time not caring about Buffy/Angel at all, it had been declining from my active nerdy interests before it was actually dethroned, and as soon as it was it became pretty much out of sight and out of mind.
Buffy's status as a Feminist show has become a topic of discussion as it's been reevaluated in recent years since Whedon's fall from grace. I honestly can't speak much to that since the Feminism never was why I was into it. The truth is I became the Feminist I am now fairly recently in the grand scheme of my life, even when I started these blogs in 2014 I wasn't all the way here yet. Maybe what Buffy did right played a role in subconsciously prepping me for it, but really when I was big into Buffy I was still fairly Conservative/Libertarian on gender issues. I was never a reactionary, I always supported the Feminist movements of the past, yet I was one of many Cis-Het white men naively assuming that battle was already won. I never considered going against traditional gender roles to be wrong, but I was not willing to say having them was inherently a problem. Now I've become a true Gender abolitionist, though my mind still struggles with the tendency to default to the Binary framework.
Even before I got into Buffy I already tended towards identifying with the female characters in the fiction I consumed, and being into female Superheroes. I'd already gone through a Xena phase and watched some Sailor Moon.
The fictional media I've consumed has played a role in making me the Feminist I've become. But mostly I'd say the credit for that goes to Pretty Little Liars and much of the Anime I've consumed. But also much of the analytical discussion of that media I've consumed, chiefly what Heather Hogan would write about PLL, and the perspective on Anime provided by VraiKaiser and Josienextdoor's WordPress blogs, and then on YouTube people like Digibro, ThePedanticRomantic and Zeria.
Much of the recent reevaluation of Buffy suggests that perhaps Whedon's Feminism always was more like where I was when I loved Buffy, someone who liked Strong Women but who's Feminism is still pretty Binary. But my point here is simply that Buffy didn't have much of an effect one way or the other on the development of my views on Gender, it's importance to me is in other areas.
Is Buffy another aspect of my Nerdy history that foreshadows the obsession I've developed with Anime? I think it's mostly how much Bathos there was in Whedon's sense of Humor that anticipates my modern opposition to Tonal Consistency. Xena was a show that jumped around a lot but each individual episode was still pretty tonally consistent.
Buffy played a big role in making me think about how to structure serialized story telling. Many have talked at length about the Seventh Episode factor Buffy had, it's not the only TV show to have it but it played a pretty big role in making me notice it. But what's more interesting is how for a long time I considered episode 5 the ideal point to introduce the Big Bad in a 22 episode season because of Buffy. The thing is Buffy only actually did that twice, in seasons 3 and 5, so why did I think of it as a major factor in the Buffy formula? It might have to do with episode 5 resetting the Big Bad in season 1, or that I had briefly mistakenly thought the Halloween episode of season 2 was an episode 5 which at least featured the Big Bad and introduced a minor recurring villain. Perhaps it oddly fits that in the last season episode 5 was the last appearance of a kind of important villain, Anyanka.
The fact that on Noir it was episode 5 that finally named it's antagonistic force was an interesting coincidence for me. I now know of at least one pre-Buffy show that did this, season 2 of Lois and Clark introduced Intergang in episode 5.
Both seasons that introduce the Big Bad in episode 5 have them then appear in episodes 6 and 8 with those being their only three appearances in the first 10 episodes. Maybe I simply always considered those two seasons the best at how they mapped out the Big Bad's role.
I already talked a bit about my history with Fan Fiction and Shipping where Buffy in particular Dawn was important, she was my favorite character.
I had kinda semi-forgotten just how much I valued Buffy and Angel. The other day I started watching The Passion of The Nerd's Buffy and Angel videos on YouTube and they really started bringing it all back to me. This hasn't lead to me re-watching any episodes yet and I don't think they will, I prefer to keep devoting my actual spare time to Anime and allow my memory of Buffy to remain how it is.
Both gave me some wrong impressions about what happened before, but I like that. Prequel haters keep thinking it's a failure of Lucas that episodes Episodes I-III didn't happen exactly how they assumed from the way information was presented in IV-VI, but I know from experience even when a series was written in order you can get the wrong idea from watching it out of order. These episodes of Buffy/Angle had me thinking Faith had slept with Angel and that Angle turning into Angelus happened semi-regularly. (I had heard enough going in that I already knew Angel was a spin off and that Angel had been Buffy's boyfriend.)
I spent the next couple of years catching Buffy and Angel episodes on occasion. But I fully became a fan in late 2002, when Buffy was already in it's last season. What pulled me in was catching season 3 episodes as reruns. Thanks to all of the Rerunning I had managed to see every episode before the series ended.
Buffy held the status of being my favorite TV show pretty solidly until Pretty Little Liars took that position as it's Season 4b was airing. Thing is I spent a long time not caring about Buffy/Angel at all, it had been declining from my active nerdy interests before it was actually dethroned, and as soon as it was it became pretty much out of sight and out of mind.
Buffy's status as a Feminist show has become a topic of discussion as it's been reevaluated in recent years since Whedon's fall from grace. I honestly can't speak much to that since the Feminism never was why I was into it. The truth is I became the Feminist I am now fairly recently in the grand scheme of my life, even when I started these blogs in 2014 I wasn't all the way here yet. Maybe what Buffy did right played a role in subconsciously prepping me for it, but really when I was big into Buffy I was still fairly Conservative/Libertarian on gender issues. I was never a reactionary, I always supported the Feminist movements of the past, yet I was one of many Cis-Het white men naively assuming that battle was already won. I never considered going against traditional gender roles to be wrong, but I was not willing to say having them was inherently a problem. Now I've become a true Gender abolitionist, though my mind still struggles with the tendency to default to the Binary framework.
Even before I got into Buffy I already tended towards identifying with the female characters in the fiction I consumed, and being into female Superheroes. I'd already gone through a Xena phase and watched some Sailor Moon.
The fictional media I've consumed has played a role in making me the Feminist I've become. But mostly I'd say the credit for that goes to Pretty Little Liars and much of the Anime I've consumed. But also much of the analytical discussion of that media I've consumed, chiefly what Heather Hogan would write about PLL, and the perspective on Anime provided by VraiKaiser and Josienextdoor's WordPress blogs, and then on YouTube people like Digibro, ThePedanticRomantic and Zeria.
Much of the recent reevaluation of Buffy suggests that perhaps Whedon's Feminism always was more like where I was when I loved Buffy, someone who liked Strong Women but who's Feminism is still pretty Binary. But my point here is simply that Buffy didn't have much of an effect one way or the other on the development of my views on Gender, it's importance to me is in other areas.
Is Buffy another aspect of my Nerdy history that foreshadows the obsession I've developed with Anime? I think it's mostly how much Bathos there was in Whedon's sense of Humor that anticipates my modern opposition to Tonal Consistency. Xena was a show that jumped around a lot but each individual episode was still pretty tonally consistent.
Buffy played a big role in making me think about how to structure serialized story telling. Many have talked at length about the Seventh Episode factor Buffy had, it's not the only TV show to have it but it played a pretty big role in making me notice it. But what's more interesting is how for a long time I considered episode 5 the ideal point to introduce the Big Bad in a 22 episode season because of Buffy. The thing is Buffy only actually did that twice, in seasons 3 and 5, so why did I think of it as a major factor in the Buffy formula? It might have to do with episode 5 resetting the Big Bad in season 1, or that I had briefly mistakenly thought the Halloween episode of season 2 was an episode 5 which at least featured the Big Bad and introduced a minor recurring villain. Perhaps it oddly fits that in the last season episode 5 was the last appearance of a kind of important villain, Anyanka.
The fact that on Noir it was episode 5 that finally named it's antagonistic force was an interesting coincidence for me. I now know of at least one pre-Buffy show that did this, season 2 of Lois and Clark introduced Intergang in episode 5.
Both seasons that introduce the Big Bad in episode 5 have them then appear in episodes 6 and 8 with those being their only three appearances in the first 10 episodes. Maybe I simply always considered those two seasons the best at how they mapped out the Big Bad's role.
I already talked a bit about my history with Fan Fiction and Shipping where Buffy in particular Dawn was important, she was my favorite character.
I had kinda semi-forgotten just how much I valued Buffy and Angel. The other day I started watching The Passion of The Nerd's Buffy and Angel videos on YouTube and they really started bringing it all back to me. This hasn't lead to me re-watching any episodes yet and I don't think they will, I prefer to keep devoting my actual spare time to Anime and allow my memory of Buffy to remain how it is.
Friday, February 8, 2019
What Genre is Anime bad at?
I recently made a blog post disagreeing with a common claim that Anime is somehow not good at Horror. But is there any Genre that even I as an enthusiastic Anime Evangelist have to admit Anime hasn't done that well?
Well the genre I have in mind is more of a Sub Genre of a Sub genre, but I think the one very popular Genre Anime hasn't done right yet is the Mafia movie.
Now what I mean when I say "Mafia" movie is much more specific then Gangster. I'm sure there's plenty of Anime that can scratch one's Gangster movie itch, after all certain Anime were a major influence on Tarantino. I'm sure Japanese entertainment media is the best place to go if you want fiction about the Yakuza. And I'm kind of surprised how often Street Gangs in Anime remind me of American media about Street Gangs of the 50s and early 60s.
Now I'm gonna express an opinion that might be a bit controversial and hard to fully explain. What I mean by "Mafia" fiction is even more specific then just being technically specifically about the Italian Mafia, and depicting Italian characters with Italian names and maybe Italian accents. For example I can't truly count any Golden Age 30s/40s Gangster films as Mafia movies even though plenty were basically just about Al Capone. Yet what I mean by "Mafia" movie still has enough variety within it that it can include The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas/Casino and at least some episodes of The Sopranos.
When I say I wanna see a Mafia movie, I want an atmosphere that makes me crave Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce, but Anime tends to give me Egg Noodles and Ketchup.
Much of what you'll see in any alleged "Top 10 Mafia Anime" list is based on treating "Mafia" and "Gangster" as synonyms. Here is a site recommending 6 that at least knows to stick to the Italians.
https://www.fandom.com/articles/6-must-see-mafia-anime
Most of those seem to be set in the 30s and with a look that tells me they are more inspired by those Golden Gangster films. One is an over 200 episode Shonen monstrosity involving a hitman who's a baby and an MC who's character design is aping Hunter x Hunter.
I've watched two episodes of Arcana Famiglia, it looks fine as an Anime, in fact I'm optimistic for how it'll compare to other Reverse Harems with genre elements. But it does not succeed in capturing that proper Mafia movie vibe. I'd very much like to see an Anime combine what I love about mafia movies with what's distinctly Anime, like a Mafia Princess walking around in Twin Tails, Zettai Ryouiki and the voice of Luci Christian. But something is just inherently missing.
The one time Anime has come at least close to giving me a vibe like a Godfather movie are certain episodes of Noir, my favorite Anime. As I've said before Noir was the first proper Anime I ever watched, and interestingly enough the first episode of Noir I watched was episode 9, the second part of a two part episode about the Mafia. One of the reasons those 20 minutes of Japanimation kept my attention was how much it reminded me of The Godfather Part III, the last Godfather movie most people would intentionally want to evoke but my personal favorite of them.
In total I'd say there are 4 episodes of Noir that have this Godfatheresque quality, 8 & 9, 14 and 17, but it's mainly the parts of those movies where they're in Sicily they remind me of. Coincidentally enough those are the same four episodes that are the main basis for why I like to Headcanon this Anime being part of The Blackcoats Universe.
I think the obstacle here is a cultural one. Now I'm not someone who normally thinks that's a problem, I think lots of stories can be re-imagined into or adapted by other cultures. But Mafia fiction isn't just about one culture, it's not just American or Italian, it's Italian-American. And the definitive Mafia movies I refereed to above were the ones that had Italians as more then just actors but as the key creative minds, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola (and his father who did the Music) and Martin Scorsese. So even though you can say these movies are problematic in how they relate to negative Italian Stereotypes, the good ones are about how the American Dream failed for many of those who immigrated here, and the hypocritical corruption of Capitalism.
I hope someone can find me an Anime that can refute this premise, I definitely want to find Anime that can succeed in filling every nerdy niche.
Well the genre I have in mind is more of a Sub Genre of a Sub genre, but I think the one very popular Genre Anime hasn't done right yet is the Mafia movie.
Now what I mean when I say "Mafia" movie is much more specific then Gangster. I'm sure there's plenty of Anime that can scratch one's Gangster movie itch, after all certain Anime were a major influence on Tarantino. I'm sure Japanese entertainment media is the best place to go if you want fiction about the Yakuza. And I'm kind of surprised how often Street Gangs in Anime remind me of American media about Street Gangs of the 50s and early 60s.
Now I'm gonna express an opinion that might be a bit controversial and hard to fully explain. What I mean by "Mafia" fiction is even more specific then just being technically specifically about the Italian Mafia, and depicting Italian characters with Italian names and maybe Italian accents. For example I can't truly count any Golden Age 30s/40s Gangster films as Mafia movies even though plenty were basically just about Al Capone. Yet what I mean by "Mafia" movie still has enough variety within it that it can include The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas/Casino and at least some episodes of The Sopranos.
When I say I wanna see a Mafia movie, I want an atmosphere that makes me crave Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce, but Anime tends to give me Egg Noodles and Ketchup.
Much of what you'll see in any alleged "Top 10 Mafia Anime" list is based on treating "Mafia" and "Gangster" as synonyms. Here is a site recommending 6 that at least knows to stick to the Italians.
https://www.fandom.com/articles/6-must-see-mafia-anime
Most of those seem to be set in the 30s and with a look that tells me they are more inspired by those Golden Gangster films. One is an over 200 episode Shonen monstrosity involving a hitman who's a baby and an MC who's character design is aping Hunter x Hunter.
I've watched two episodes of Arcana Famiglia, it looks fine as an Anime, in fact I'm optimistic for how it'll compare to other Reverse Harems with genre elements. But it does not succeed in capturing that proper Mafia movie vibe. I'd very much like to see an Anime combine what I love about mafia movies with what's distinctly Anime, like a Mafia Princess walking around in Twin Tails, Zettai Ryouiki and the voice of Luci Christian. But something is just inherently missing.
The one time Anime has come at least close to giving me a vibe like a Godfather movie are certain episodes of Noir, my favorite Anime. As I've said before Noir was the first proper Anime I ever watched, and interestingly enough the first episode of Noir I watched was episode 9, the second part of a two part episode about the Mafia. One of the reasons those 20 minutes of Japanimation kept my attention was how much it reminded me of The Godfather Part III, the last Godfather movie most people would intentionally want to evoke but my personal favorite of them.
In total I'd say there are 4 episodes of Noir that have this Godfatheresque quality, 8 & 9, 14 and 17, but it's mainly the parts of those movies where they're in Sicily they remind me of. Coincidentally enough those are the same four episodes that are the main basis for why I like to Headcanon this Anime being part of The Blackcoats Universe.
I think the obstacle here is a cultural one. Now I'm not someone who normally thinks that's a problem, I think lots of stories can be re-imagined into or adapted by other cultures. But Mafia fiction isn't just about one culture, it's not just American or Italian, it's Italian-American. And the definitive Mafia movies I refereed to above were the ones that had Italians as more then just actors but as the key creative minds, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola (and his father who did the Music) and Martin Scorsese. So even though you can say these movies are problematic in how they relate to negative Italian Stereotypes, the good ones are about how the American Dream failed for many of those who immigrated here, and the hypocritical corruption of Capitalism.
I hope someone can find me an Anime that can refute this premise, I definitely want to find Anime that can succeed in filling every nerdy niche.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
The Ideal 26 Episode Anime Structure
I made a post about how the ideal Anime structure is 26 episodes. But I could only think of two 26 Episode shows that even followed the structure I refereed to, too many two core shows feel like two single core seasons packaged together.
Well I just watched the first TV Anime of the Tenchi Muyo franchise, which was released in the US as Tenchi Universe. And it basically follows that structure, it's never Monster of the Week cause it's not that kind of genre, but the first 10 episodes are basic episodic self contained short stories helping us get to know the characters, then we get a 3 part episode, then episode 14 really launches the main plot.
Now this kind of structure can include a return to the Episodic formula temporarily during the latter half after the first major shake up, just with a new status quo. For Witch Hunter Robin that was a return to Monster of the Week stories but with the cast now split up. For Tenchi that was them now on the run traveling through space.
[As a Warning, episode 22 has a moment that may have potential seizure risk, it made me think of the Porygon incident.]
I had mentioned how I really wanted to see this structure applied to a Magical Girl show. Most Magical Girl shows are either kids shows that last all year, or single core shows which either never did the monster of the week thing to start with, or have to relegate the main plot to just the 2 or 3 part finale.
Well the Pretty Sammy TV Anime from 96/97 is a 26 episode show. I wonder if it follows this structure since it looks like the Tenchi franchise may have invented it. It doesn't have a Dub however which means it may be awhile before I watch it for myself.
Well I just watched the first TV Anime of the Tenchi Muyo franchise, which was released in the US as Tenchi Universe. And it basically follows that structure, it's never Monster of the Week cause it's not that kind of genre, but the first 10 episodes are basic episodic self contained short stories helping us get to know the characters, then we get a 3 part episode, then episode 14 really launches the main plot.
Now this kind of structure can include a return to the Episodic formula temporarily during the latter half after the first major shake up, just with a new status quo. For Witch Hunter Robin that was a return to Monster of the Week stories but with the cast now split up. For Tenchi that was them now on the run traveling through space.
[As a Warning, episode 22 has a moment that may have potential seizure risk, it made me think of the Porygon incident.]
I had mentioned how I really wanted to see this structure applied to a Magical Girl show. Most Magical Girl shows are either kids shows that last all year, or single core shows which either never did the monster of the week thing to start with, or have to relegate the main plot to just the 2 or 3 part finale.
Well the Pretty Sammy TV Anime from 96/97 is a 26 episode show. I wonder if it follows this structure since it looks like the Tenchi franchise may have invented it. It doesn't have a Dub however which means it may be awhile before I watch it for myself.
Monday, February 4, 2019
What is the actual goal of the Horror Genre?
Mother's Basement has recently added another video to the ongoing saga of AniTubers lamenting that Horror is one genre they feel Anime really has trouble with. And I notice these critiques often act like Scaring the viewer is a horror story's only or primary goal, like something has to give them nightmares to be truly a success, but is it though?
When I made my Halloween Anime recommendations back in 2017 I defined myself as not a traditional horror fan since I've never been truly scared by any horror fiction or sought to be. I've been startled by jump scares, creeped out by things, and felt that spooky atmosphere, but never truly scared and certainly never had nightmares from them, and I've watched plenty of the classic staples of the genre. But as I've thought about it more since then I've realized that's not so unusual, my brother says he's also never really been scared by any either, and if he isn't a hardcore horror fan I don't know who is.
So in fact I can't help but feel like most discussion of Horror Anime is really stilted by how it comes from people who are ultimately more into Anime then Horror. So when someone says "Higurashi isn't scary, it's just Cute Girls being Creepy" I'm like "yeah, a lot of Western live action Horror is about cute little kids being creepy too", from Bad Seed to Children of The Corn. Shows like Higurashi just merge that common form of Horror with Moe tropes. Maybe that I'm one of the few people who kind of enjoyed Omen IV:The Awakening is another thing that foreshadowed by Otakuness.
I think the main appeal of the Slasher genre tends to be sadism, they're made for men who get off on watching women be brutally killed, and it's the same with the sub genre Saw and Hostile started, I have no intention of recommending what Anime to appeal to that impulse. Which is why it's never been a genre I like much, but I do enjoy some Halloween movies and the first couple Child's Play films.
Classic Universal and Hammer monster movies are mainly about the Gothic Aesthetic, both done as a period piece and sometimes as being about the Gothic infecting the modern world. Jason Colavito likes to try and distinguish Gothic from Horror as a Genre (he says American Horror Story is really Gothic not Horror) but the truth is Classic Horror was always mainly about the Gothic.
How do you translate that Gothic appeal into Anime? There are two ways. One is simply Anime depicting the same European Gothic aesthetic of those movies, a lot of Anime is inspired by Western media. The other is to look at Japan's history and culture and figure out what the uniquely Japanese equivalent of Gothic Horror would be, and again I feel that is another thing Higurashi does perfectly.
And it is the importance Aesthetics plays in Horror that makes me totally reject this common assertion that the abstract nature of Animation is somehow an obstacle. Do Black and White horror movies work because people think that color pallet is what the 20s-50s actually looked like? Do Silent Horror films work because we think people didn't talk back then? No of course not.
Basically I reject even the starting premise of this debate that Anime has been less successful at Horror then other mediums. Over the last 3-5 years the Anime versions have become my favorite versions of most genres, and Gothic/Horror is no different. It's just Horror is the one genre where I still haven't seen as much yet.
And of course the Horror Fandom also includes people who love laughing at Campy Cheesy so Bad it's Good Horror, and the 90s and early 2000s avalanche of schlock dubbed by studios like Central Park Media and ADV that inevitably get riffed by Anime Abandon provide plenty to scratch that itch.
When I made my Halloween Anime recommendations back in 2017 I defined myself as not a traditional horror fan since I've never been truly scared by any horror fiction or sought to be. I've been startled by jump scares, creeped out by things, and felt that spooky atmosphere, but never truly scared and certainly never had nightmares from them, and I've watched plenty of the classic staples of the genre. But as I've thought about it more since then I've realized that's not so unusual, my brother says he's also never really been scared by any either, and if he isn't a hardcore horror fan I don't know who is.
So in fact I can't help but feel like most discussion of Horror Anime is really stilted by how it comes from people who are ultimately more into Anime then Horror. So when someone says "Higurashi isn't scary, it's just Cute Girls being Creepy" I'm like "yeah, a lot of Western live action Horror is about cute little kids being creepy too", from Bad Seed to Children of The Corn. Shows like Higurashi just merge that common form of Horror with Moe tropes. Maybe that I'm one of the few people who kind of enjoyed Omen IV:The Awakening is another thing that foreshadowed by Otakuness.
I think the main appeal of the Slasher genre tends to be sadism, they're made for men who get off on watching women be brutally killed, and it's the same with the sub genre Saw and Hostile started, I have no intention of recommending what Anime to appeal to that impulse. Which is why it's never been a genre I like much, but I do enjoy some Halloween movies and the first couple Child's Play films.
Classic Universal and Hammer monster movies are mainly about the Gothic Aesthetic, both done as a period piece and sometimes as being about the Gothic infecting the modern world. Jason Colavito likes to try and distinguish Gothic from Horror as a Genre (he says American Horror Story is really Gothic not Horror) but the truth is Classic Horror was always mainly about the Gothic.
How do you translate that Gothic appeal into Anime? There are two ways. One is simply Anime depicting the same European Gothic aesthetic of those movies, a lot of Anime is inspired by Western media. The other is to look at Japan's history and culture and figure out what the uniquely Japanese equivalent of Gothic Horror would be, and again I feel that is another thing Higurashi does perfectly.
And it is the importance Aesthetics plays in Horror that makes me totally reject this common assertion that the abstract nature of Animation is somehow an obstacle. Do Black and White horror movies work because people think that color pallet is what the 20s-50s actually looked like? Do Silent Horror films work because we think people didn't talk back then? No of course not.
Basically I reject even the starting premise of this debate that Anime has been less successful at Horror then other mediums. Over the last 3-5 years the Anime versions have become my favorite versions of most genres, and Gothic/Horror is no different. It's just Horror is the one genre where I still haven't seen as much yet.
And of course the Horror Fandom also includes people who love laughing at Campy Cheesy so Bad it's Good Horror, and the 90s and early 2000s avalanche of schlock dubbed by studios like Central Park Media and ADV that inevitably get riffed by Anime Abandon provide plenty to scratch that itch.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
The Dark Age of Anime
If Anime had a Dark Age it's the very late 90s and very early 2000s. At first glance there is a stark contrast between the aesthetics and sensibilities of 90s Anime and 2000s Anime. But that change didn't happen over night, there was a transitional period.
This is true of any area of Popular Culture, like it's sometimes weird to me that Eminem and Britney Spears are considered 90s stars when they became stars in the very last year of that decade, they don't particularly represent the decade as a whole and 90% of what they're now known for happened later.
But with Anime the visual distinction is particularly striking because of the rise of digital animation. With most Anime critics even who are nostalgic for this very era thinking of it as mostly Anime that hasn't aged well because of the awkwardness of that transition. The early to mid 90s and mid to late 00s are both Golden Ages of Anime for segments of Otakudom, yet this time in-between is never given such an honor.
Which kind of shows how Pokemon is uniquely compartmentalized from how we think of Anime in general. For Pokemon this time period is the Golden Age, the Kanto, Orange Islands and Johto sagas as well as the first 5 movies and for me personally Mewtwo Returns. And remember Americans didn't get Pokemon till September of 98, so yeah, classic Pokemon is kind of the Eminem and Britney Spears of Anime. However Cardcaptor Sakura was also from this time, so maybe the Saturday morning kids shows were transitioned with more finesse.
Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics are two very fansercivy anime from the same director, the former is late 90s and the latter is a 2001 anime. On the one hand it's not surprising how similar they are in-spite of a technical change in Decade/Century/Millennium on the Gregorian calendar. And yet on the other hand that some time however small had passed between them is still kind of apparent, though having radically different approaches to how they were dubbed might be a factor in how I perceive them.
Of course a lot of this observation about this era of Anime is for Western fans at least a product of looking back with new information. When these shows were airing in Japan we Americans were mostly getting stuff from 3-10 years before.
2004 is the year where I'm unsure if it's too late to still count as this period. The first Pretty Cure series is the only PreCure series that can be potentially confused with a 90s Magical Girl show. Meanwhile Lyrical Nanoha and Kannizuki No Miko very much feel like the beginning of what 2000s Anime would become, for better and for worse.
Almost any pre Pretty Cure Magical Girl Show looks like it could've been the 90s whether it was or not. But one exception is Ojamajo Doremi which Zeria just did a video on, it looks almost late 2000s or 20tweens in it's aesthetic.
This post has mostly been about the visual differences, art style and character designs. As far as the kinds of stories told go, a lot of what we think of as inherently 21st Century Otakudom was already in 90s Anime, just mostly not on Television but rather relegated to OVAs, and that's maybe true even before this transition really starts. Just going back to Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics for example, the 90s one was an OVA but the 2001 series was on TV. Galaxy Fraulein Yuna when watched now looks like someone threw Nanoha, Prisma Illya and Symphogear into a blender, yet it predates all of those. Devil Hunter Yohko looks like one of those male audience oriented appropriations of the Magical Girl Warrior formula, yet it actually started at the exact same time as Codename Sailor V, too soon for either to have influenced the other. Of course the real birth of the Otaku oriented semi-pardoy Magical Girl show was Pretty Sammy in 95.
And in many ways Western Audience perceptions of the history of Anime is still clouded by how often we didn't get these shows in the same order Japan did. We can debate endlessly how much the claim that Evangelion "changed Anime eternally" is a massive overstatement. But it's particularly the claim that Eva was the first "Waifu War" that is dependent on how many Western fans still don't seem to know that Tenchi Muyo actually came before Eva in Japan. Yes, there was a full blown Harem that came before Eva, the first TV Tenchi Series ended a week before Eva debuted, and it was preceded by OVAs.
But let's get back to the main topic.
The main reason I wanted to discus this particular neglected period of Anime history is because it produced my absolute favorite Anime, Noir. Noir is truly unique, it doesn't seem like a 90s Anime that came too late or a 2000s show that came too early, it stands on it's own as the best manifestation of what TV Anime in 2001 was capable of. So perhaps I can call this masterpiece the King Arthur of Anime's Dark Age.
Witch Hunter Robin is another show from this era I'm a huge fan of. Yeah it doesn't seem as polished as what a show with this same story and style would look like a decade later, but it has a charm to it that makes me glad it was a product of 2002.
Madlax was a sister series of Noir that came out in 2004. It is perhaps the best show to label the end of the Dark Age.
I just decided to look at 2004 on MAL and Wow, there is a lot of stuff I need to check out. How did I not hear of the Isekai show with Magical Girl in the title till now?
This is true of any area of Popular Culture, like it's sometimes weird to me that Eminem and Britney Spears are considered 90s stars when they became stars in the very last year of that decade, they don't particularly represent the decade as a whole and 90% of what they're now known for happened later.
But with Anime the visual distinction is particularly striking because of the rise of digital animation. With most Anime critics even who are nostalgic for this very era thinking of it as mostly Anime that hasn't aged well because of the awkwardness of that transition. The early to mid 90s and mid to late 00s are both Golden Ages of Anime for segments of Otakudom, yet this time in-between is never given such an honor.
Which kind of shows how Pokemon is uniquely compartmentalized from how we think of Anime in general. For Pokemon this time period is the Golden Age, the Kanto, Orange Islands and Johto sagas as well as the first 5 movies and for me personally Mewtwo Returns. And remember Americans didn't get Pokemon till September of 98, so yeah, classic Pokemon is kind of the Eminem and Britney Spears of Anime. However Cardcaptor Sakura was also from this time, so maybe the Saturday morning kids shows were transitioned with more finesse.
Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics are two very fansercivy anime from the same director, the former is late 90s and the latter is a 2001 anime. On the one hand it's not surprising how similar they are in-spite of a technical change in Decade/Century/Millennium on the Gregorian calendar. And yet on the other hand that some time however small had passed between them is still kind of apparent, though having radically different approaches to how they were dubbed might be a factor in how I perceive them.
Of course a lot of this observation about this era of Anime is for Western fans at least a product of looking back with new information. When these shows were airing in Japan we Americans were mostly getting stuff from 3-10 years before.
2004 is the year where I'm unsure if it's too late to still count as this period. The first Pretty Cure series is the only PreCure series that can be potentially confused with a 90s Magical Girl show. Meanwhile Lyrical Nanoha and Kannizuki No Miko very much feel like the beginning of what 2000s Anime would become, for better and for worse.
Almost any pre Pretty Cure Magical Girl Show looks like it could've been the 90s whether it was or not. But one exception is Ojamajo Doremi which Zeria just did a video on, it looks almost late 2000s or 20tweens in it's aesthetic.
This post has mostly been about the visual differences, art style and character designs. As far as the kinds of stories told go, a lot of what we think of as inherently 21st Century Otakudom was already in 90s Anime, just mostly not on Television but rather relegated to OVAs, and that's maybe true even before this transition really starts. Just going back to Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics for example, the 90s one was an OVA but the 2001 series was on TV. Galaxy Fraulein Yuna when watched now looks like someone threw Nanoha, Prisma Illya and Symphogear into a blender, yet it predates all of those. Devil Hunter Yohko looks like one of those male audience oriented appropriations of the Magical Girl Warrior formula, yet it actually started at the exact same time as Codename Sailor V, too soon for either to have influenced the other. Of course the real birth of the Otaku oriented semi-pardoy Magical Girl show was Pretty Sammy in 95.
And in many ways Western Audience perceptions of the history of Anime is still clouded by how often we didn't get these shows in the same order Japan did. We can debate endlessly how much the claim that Evangelion "changed Anime eternally" is a massive overstatement. But it's particularly the claim that Eva was the first "Waifu War" that is dependent on how many Western fans still don't seem to know that Tenchi Muyo actually came before Eva in Japan. Yes, there was a full blown Harem that came before Eva, the first TV Tenchi Series ended a week before Eva debuted, and it was preceded by OVAs.
But let's get back to the main topic.
The main reason I wanted to discus this particular neglected period of Anime history is because it produced my absolute favorite Anime, Noir. Noir is truly unique, it doesn't seem like a 90s Anime that came too late or a 2000s show that came too early, it stands on it's own as the best manifestation of what TV Anime in 2001 was capable of. So perhaps I can call this masterpiece the King Arthur of Anime's Dark Age.
Witch Hunter Robin is another show from this era I'm a huge fan of. Yeah it doesn't seem as polished as what a show with this same story and style would look like a decade later, but it has a charm to it that makes me glad it was a product of 2002.
Madlax was a sister series of Noir that came out in 2004. It is perhaps the best show to label the end of the Dark Age.
I just decided to look at 2004 on MAL and Wow, there is a lot of stuff I need to check out. How did I not hear of the Isekai show with Magical Girl in the title till now?
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