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Ronja, The Robber's Daughter
Mar. 30th, 2018 11:16 amThis one goes out to every person who has ever complained about how the film/series/anime "cut out so much from the novels". You got what you wanted with this one. I deeply suspect that not a single line of dialogue has been cut.
Formative childhood literature aside, I watched it because it's Studio Ghibli's first take on a TV anime, directed by Miyazaki Jr. I was knocked out by either a mild flu or the cold from hell, so something slow and simple was just what my brain needed.
( It grew on me. Slowly. )
Formative childhood literature aside, I watched it because it's Studio Ghibli's first take on a TV anime, directed by Miyazaki Jr. I was knocked out by either a mild flu or the cold from hell, so something slow and simple was just what my brain needed.
( It grew on me. Slowly. )
I'll never, ever forget the time someone tried to explain to me that "100% real manga" meant uncensored boobs and blod.
( Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, spoilers for episode 1 and 11 )
( Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, spoilers for episode 1 and 11 )
Kino's Journey 2017
Mar. 4th, 2018 02:38 pmI'll borrow the reasoning from someone over at tumblr: The 2017 Kino's Journey anime is pretty clearly meant as an animated take on the novels. Was it to please existing fans or make new readers curious about the universe? Both, I guess, but to what extent it worked is not for me to say. I never got around to reading more than the four novels that were translated to German, and I remember preciously little from them. My love of this universe is love of the 2003 anime, which is very much its own story.
There are a number of differences between the 2003 series and the 2017 one, but the only one that really matters for what they are, is their relationship to the novels from which they were adapted. The 2003 anime might be as episodic as the novels are, but there's a thematic coherence to it; the final episode (A Kind Country) neatly ties back into episode four (Country Of Adults). The story doesn't end because the journey doesn't - but the anime gives us closure.
The 2017 anime sets these two episodes back-to-back: Country Of Adults is episode ten, Kind Country is episode eleven, and the final episode is then some completely unrelated nonsense. The 2003 anime hasn't got much in terms of a story arch either, but the end ties back to the very beginning. The 2017 anime is completely episodic, and together with the so-so production values, is almost certainly only interesting inasfar as it connects to the novels.
Which is a lot of words for telling you that while the 2003 Kino's Journey anime is distinctive in both visuals and music and has a consistent purpose for its storytelling choices, the 2017 one is very generic in looks and sounds and comes across as fairly slapdash as far as the stories go. The 2003 anime made it very clear that the purpose of its stories was the social commentary and philosophical questions. While the 2017 did so sometimes, at least half the time I was just wondering what the hell was wrong with all these assholes.
I don't even dislike the 2017 Kino's Journey. But it wasn't memorable either, and I'm not using another six hours of my life on it. It was okay, but the most interesting part of it was how it compares to the 2003 one.
Below is a bit more in-depth commentary on how they did things differently, with spoilers for Country of Adults, A Kind Country, and the prounouns.
( hell, I liked how they did Country Of Adults )
There are a number of differences between the 2003 series and the 2017 one, but the only one that really matters for what they are, is their relationship to the novels from which they were adapted. The 2003 anime might be as episodic as the novels are, but there's a thematic coherence to it; the final episode (A Kind Country) neatly ties back into episode four (Country Of Adults). The story doesn't end because the journey doesn't - but the anime gives us closure.
The 2017 anime sets these two episodes back-to-back: Country Of Adults is episode ten, Kind Country is episode eleven, and the final episode is then some completely unrelated nonsense. The 2003 anime hasn't got much in terms of a story arch either, but the end ties back to the very beginning. The 2017 anime is completely episodic, and together with the so-so production values, is almost certainly only interesting inasfar as it connects to the novels.
Which is a lot of words for telling you that while the 2003 Kino's Journey anime is distinctive in both visuals and music and has a consistent purpose for its storytelling choices, the 2017 one is very generic in looks and sounds and comes across as fairly slapdash as far as the stories go. The 2003 anime made it very clear that the purpose of its stories was the social commentary and philosophical questions. While the 2017 did so sometimes, at least half the time I was just wondering what the hell was wrong with all these assholes.
I don't even dislike the 2017 Kino's Journey. But it wasn't memorable either, and I'm not using another six hours of my life on it. It was okay, but the most interesting part of it was how it compares to the 2003 one.
Below is a bit more in-depth commentary on how they did things differently, with spoilers for Country of Adults, A Kind Country, and the prounouns.
( hell, I liked how they did Country Of Adults )
(no subject)
Mar. 2nd, 2018 09:49 pmIn today's edition of checking our privilege, here's a friendly reminder that it's ableist to value comments over kudos.
why do i even bother with tumblr
why do i even bother with tumblr
The Captive Prince
Jan. 28th, 2018 01:28 pmI have absolutely no idea where I caught wind of The Captive Prince, but it must've been online and it was probably fandom. This is very fitting, of course, since you won't have to search long to discover that this trilogy began on LJ, and I'm 80% certain the author has a background in fandom. Remove the context of paper, ink, blurbs and the author's full name, and you might as well be left with the AO3 tag set of Damen/Laurent fantasy au, slow burn, slavery kink, enemies to lovers. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it reads incredibly fanfic-y.
Which means it went down in like three or four days, of course.
( It's better than it sounds )
Which means it went down in like three or four days, of course.
( It's better than it sounds )
(no subject)
Jan. 22nd, 2018 06:53 pm
Blue and red as in Shoma and Kanba, or as Hikari and Hibari I HATE THIS ANIME AND I HATE YOU IKUHARA AND I HATE THAT IT TOOK ME FIVE YEARS TO NOTICE THIS
and most of all I hate how I'll never ever know if the choice of colour here was an intentional play on Kanba's family devotion, and I don't think it is because IIRC the same colours are at work when Himari is at the library with Sanetoshi
SO SHALL WE INSTEAD DISCUSS WHY HIMARI IS REPRESENTED AS THE COLOUR WHITE ARGH WHY DO I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS
Reading Elfquest: The Final Quest
Nov. 7th, 2017 06:31 pmFor today's lesson in how weirdly sensitive I am to how stories do romance: I'd have forgiven it all the suck and weird storytelling choices if Kimo and Mender had switched places, and I'm perfectly serious about it.
But the general lack of quality has put me in the previously unfamiliar dilemma of pirating things readily available in languages I understand. Had this comic been anything else than Elfquest, I'd have dropped it long since. But it is Elfquest and my appreciation of the Pinis' previous work means that I want to do my share to support them. And so I'll probably buy the last Final Quest collection whenever it comes out, while doing something I wouldn't have dreamed of doing three years ago: Looking up the single issues online to cringe.
I just really want to pretend that Elfquest ended with Wild Hunt.
( Obviously spoilery commentary up until issue 22, with reaction gifs )
But the general lack of quality has put me in the previously unfamiliar dilemma of pirating things readily available in languages I understand. Had this comic been anything else than Elfquest, I'd have dropped it long since. But it is Elfquest and my appreciation of the Pinis' previous work means that I want to do my share to support them. And so I'll probably buy the last Final Quest collection whenever it comes out, while doing something I wouldn't have dreamed of doing three years ago: Looking up the single issues online to cringe.
I just really want to pretend that Elfquest ended with Wild Hunt.
( Obviously spoilery commentary up until issue 22, with reaction gifs )
Are the rest of you watching the reboot yet?
( On the Ducktales reboot and the ladies, in light of the comics. Spoilers up to episode 6 )
( On the Ducktales reboot and the ladies, in light of the comics. Spoilers up to episode 6 )
At some level, at some point, I'm sure someone will be intersted in a peek into the mind of someone who is looking into getting a Lumia 950 two years after it was released. And is looking into getting it used, because even bloody Microsoft has given up on their smartphones, going by their online store around here.
( wherein I start talking about smartphone politics and somehow end up concluding that everything was better during the war )
ETA: So let's talk about the further irony of the timing of this post, and let me add that my Lumia 950xl arrived yesterday and it is a marvel in all ways. It even has a real xbox Go app.
( wherein I start talking about smartphone politics and somehow end up concluding that everything was better during the war )
ETA: So let's talk about the further irony of the timing of this post, and let me add that my Lumia 950xl arrived yesterday and it is a marvel in all ways. It even has a real xbox Go app.
(no subject)
Sep. 29th, 2017 06:19 pmIsn't it funny how I never needed to know the defintion of "malty" to know what it tastes like anyway?
I suppose the fact that I fell for IPA after the first sip should say all there is about my tastes in beer, but nearly all the bottle down in this Dobbeltbock, I found myself digging the aftertaste even if I thought it was foul to begin with.
The 7,5% could have something to do with that, but I'm pretty sure it didn't because I'd still take the IPA, thank you, and not just because my recent studies took me to the place where I'm engaging with the other IPA with curiosity rather than rage (give me the right name, and I'll consume both chocolate and eyeshadow of questionable quality just because of the associations. This is the power of language). I'm at the place where I've googled "where to buy Eisbock" in German and being torn between regretting the fact that I lived there for two years and never took the chance to truly experience the world of beer happening there... and, you know, being happy that I lived there for two years and learned to like beer, and reminding myself that all the supermarkets just carried the big brands and local breweries anyway.
I'd like to know to what extent the 5-8% beverages are a matter of aquired taste anyway, because a recent attempt at harder-than-usual cider left me with "well, it's good but there's definitely that alcohol taste to this that I'm not sure I'm digging" that was there with both times I tried bock.
I suppose the fact that I fell for IPA after the first sip should say all there is about my tastes in beer, but nearly all the bottle down in this Dobbeltbock, I found myself digging the aftertaste even if I thought it was foul to begin with.
The 7,5% could have something to do with that, but I'm pretty sure it didn't because I'd still take the IPA, thank you, and not just because my recent studies took me to the place where I'm engaging with the other IPA with curiosity rather than rage (give me the right name, and I'll consume both chocolate and eyeshadow of questionable quality just because of the associations. This is the power of language). I'm at the place where I've googled "where to buy Eisbock" in German and being torn between regretting the fact that I lived there for two years and never took the chance to truly experience the world of beer happening there... and, you know, being happy that I lived there for two years and learned to like beer, and reminding myself that all the supermarkets just carried the big brands and local breweries anyway.
I'd like to know to what extent the 5-8% beverages are a matter of aquired taste anyway, because a recent attempt at harder-than-usual cider left me with "well, it's good but there's definitely that alcohol taste to this that I'm not sure I'm digging" that was there with both times I tried bock.
(no subject)
Sep. 8th, 2017 10:08 pmIn completely unintersting-for-the-internet things, I've moved and no longer faces a one-hour commute every morning, but instead the challenge of trying to fit a sofa into my living quarters.
The two weeks that commute lasted, however, were almost enough to carry me through all of the LotR radio drama.
The two weeks that commute lasted, however, were almost enough to carry me through all of the LotR radio drama.
Here's the shocker of the year: I'm at episode fifteen of Samurai Flamenco, and am low-key upset that I'm visiting relatives with no wi-fi and will have to wait until I get home to see watch the rest.
I didn't expect to like Samurai Flamenco. The reviews I've read have agreed that it starts out okay and becomes a mess in the second half, so maybe it's just the low expectations that made this unexpectedly fun? Rest assured, I won't be the person who tells you that this is a great anime. But I did find it lovable.
One review made the point that this series is really several different series, thanks to a number of WTF plot twists and story arcs with wildly different focuses. This is true, but it's also a description that makes it sound like the plot twists are bigger than they felt like to me. But in order to discuss how successful it was at being several different shows in one, I'm going to discuss the first of those plot twists. So: Spoilers for episode seven ahoy, but I honestly think you'll need to know about this one to know what you're getting into anyway.
If you don't want that, then this is what I took away from it: Samurai Flamenco might be a parody or homage, but for people who aren't familiar with Super Sentai beyond that it exists, it's really hard to tell. So for us, it's ridiculous. But I had fun watching it anyway. Also, did I mention the lesbian OT3?
( show me the show with a lesbian OT3 that isn't ridiculous )
I didn't expect to like Samurai Flamenco. The reviews I've read have agreed that it starts out okay and becomes a mess in the second half, so maybe it's just the low expectations that made this unexpectedly fun? Rest assured, I won't be the person who tells you that this is a great anime. But I did find it lovable.
One review made the point that this series is really several different series, thanks to a number of WTF plot twists and story arcs with wildly different focuses. This is true, but it's also a description that makes it sound like the plot twists are bigger than they felt like to me. But in order to discuss how successful it was at being several different shows in one, I'm going to discuss the first of those plot twists. So: Spoilers for episode seven ahoy, but I honestly think you'll need to know about this one to know what you're getting into anyway.
If you don't want that, then this is what I took away from it: Samurai Flamenco might be a parody or homage, but for people who aren't familiar with Super Sentai beyond that it exists, it's really hard to tell. So for us, it's ridiculous. But I had fun watching it anyway. Also, did I mention the lesbian OT3?
( show me the show with a lesbian OT3 that isn't ridiculous )
The thing with living in small-ish language spaces is that getting into any foreign thing that isn't strictly mainstream means BUYING STUFF ONLINE AND IT'S HELLA EXPENSIVE. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure that the single factor of international shipping and custom fees is at least 70% responsible for the fact that my anime collection is relatively high quality, or at least made up of things I sincerely enjoy. The only anime I have bought and dropped was Eureka Seven, and my dropping it had less to do with quality and more to do with rage at certan decisions on behalf of the writers. I lived on student loans; I couldn't afford to just "check something out". If I was going to get it, then I was going to be sure it'd be worth it. I read a lot of reviews.
Having a Crunchyroll subscription presents me with problems that just never existed in my life before: At what point should I stop watching? As someone who strives to have Opinions on things, I feel obliged to at least watch it all if I'm going to whine about it afterwards. Thing is, I should be reading Good Books instead of watching trashy anime, or at least re-read good fanfic or something. It should be a hint when I need to remind myself to watch, I guess.
SO ABOUT THE ROYAL TUTUR, which obviously needed reminding:
I don't know what it wants to be. The less funny and less emotionally engaging and completely genre-abiding version of Ouran? The grade school version of Maoyuu? Some weird, platonic student-teacher take on the Otome genre? Except the character design is a lie, and the manga at least is shounen. It obviously isn't memorable, and it's predictable AF, and clearly not interested in a frank discussion of the things royalty needs to learn in order to rule well.
TL;DR summary: In Shinyland (that's the literal translation, boys and girls!), there are five potential heirs to the throne. The four youngest live in the royal castle, and have successfully proven their lacking kingship skills by driving away all their tutors. Obviously, things change when the next tutor in line is Heine Wittgenstein, who to no-one's surprise reforms the four princes by the ideas at the fundament of modern pedagogy.
There's not a lot of plot to it. There is, in fact, like three episodes of just basic classroom leadership (get all the kids present and make them shut up and listen to you) before the tutoring even starts, and the focus isn't the content on the tutoring as much as it it watch the princes have epiphanies, learn about the true meaning of governance, ponder their true desires in life. And as said, it's... juvenile, at this point. Yeah, of course you want everyone to be happy; that's admirable, but the youngest of you is 14, so maybe we should also ponder how you're going to pay for that?
According to a friend of mine who follows the manga, there's at least more drama and succession intrigue going on there. What we're getting here is "spoiled teenagers reconsider their vision of life, gets ambitions" in an artstyle that is a weird mix of bishounen and chibi. It's fairly visible that the anime is really just the setup arc to a bigger story, but that probably isn't coming; there's an anime-original ending that is nothing else than what it of course has to be when a mysterious new teacher comes in from no-where to transform the lives of troubled childreen. Unfortunately, this anime doesn't trust its viewers enough to handle even that take on the realities of life.
More than anything, I feel that this anime was made for a younger audience than most people watching anime in the west. It's cute and it's impossible to hate, but if someone asked me why they should spend six hours watching this, I'd struggle to answer. Like... if you really really like cute teenage boys have non-problems? Because everything else in this anime has been done better elsewhere.
Having a Crunchyroll subscription presents me with problems that just never existed in my life before: At what point should I stop watching? As someone who strives to have Opinions on things, I feel obliged to at least watch it all if I'm going to whine about it afterwards. Thing is, I should be reading Good Books instead of watching trashy anime, or at least re-read good fanfic or something. It should be a hint when I need to remind myself to watch, I guess.
SO ABOUT THE ROYAL TUTUR, which obviously needed reminding:
I don't know what it wants to be. The less funny and less emotionally engaging and completely genre-abiding version of Ouran? The grade school version of Maoyuu? Some weird, platonic student-teacher take on the Otome genre? Except the character design is a lie, and the manga at least is shounen. It obviously isn't memorable, and it's predictable AF, and clearly not interested in a frank discussion of the things royalty needs to learn in order to rule well.
TL;DR summary: In Shinyland (that's the literal translation, boys and girls!), there are five potential heirs to the throne. The four youngest live in the royal castle, and have successfully proven their lacking kingship skills by driving away all their tutors. Obviously, things change when the next tutor in line is Heine Wittgenstein, who to no-one's surprise reforms the four princes by the ideas at the fundament of modern pedagogy.
There's not a lot of plot to it. There is, in fact, like three episodes of just basic classroom leadership (get all the kids present and make them shut up and listen to you) before the tutoring even starts, and the focus isn't the content on the tutoring as much as it it watch the princes have epiphanies, learn about the true meaning of governance, ponder their true desires in life. And as said, it's... juvenile, at this point. Yeah, of course you want everyone to be happy; that's admirable, but the youngest of you is 14, so maybe we should also ponder how you're going to pay for that?
According to a friend of mine who follows the manga, there's at least more drama and succession intrigue going on there. What we're getting here is "spoiled teenagers reconsider their vision of life, gets ambitions" in an artstyle that is a weird mix of bishounen and chibi. It's fairly visible that the anime is really just the setup arc to a bigger story, but that probably isn't coming; there's an anime-original ending that is nothing else than what it of course has to be when a mysterious new teacher comes in from no-where to transform the lives of troubled childreen. Unfortunately, this anime doesn't trust its viewers enough to handle even that take on the realities of life.
More than anything, I feel that this anime was made for a younger audience than most people watching anime in the west. It's cute and it's impossible to hate, but if someone asked me why they should spend six hours watching this, I'd struggle to answer. Like... if you really really like cute teenage boys have non-problems? Because everything else in this anime has been done better elsewhere.
Spirou Special, The One With Borneo
May. 27th, 2017 01:10 amThe Thing With Franco-Belgian Comics is that I buy them 110% for the nostalgia value, though which nostalgia here is debatable - the only one of them belonging to my childhood is Asterix. I never much cared for Tintin (it's the art); Spirou and Fantasio I only really discovered as an adult, and I love it but it's also kinda... hard to defend, on quality measures? It's essentially a fifties boys' adventure series that never really grew out of the fifties, and god only knows what it sells itself on these days. It's not parody the way Asterix was parody, it's not really comedy, very shallowly political, and the format is too short to allow for drama or engaging plots. I guess it's essentially aimed at the same market as the Donald Duck pocket books, except that they clearly have some kind of artistic ambition; The Moran and Munuera run might've had some storytelling issues, but I forgive them all of it, all of it, for how bloody gorgeous those pages are.
So also with The One With Borneo. No, no panning citiscapes or actions scenes in breathtaking angles, but a lot of really gorgeous animals, really pretty Franco-Belgian backgrounds, and that one thing that I love so much about modern Spirou: they've taken the European caricatured style out of its original stiff format and made it work with dynamic panels, in closeups and in serious scenes. This one is particularly good at it. There are also some dream sequences that honestly work a lot better for me than non-verbal dream sequences in comics normally do. Can't say much about the story: It's Spirou and Fantasio, it's a fifties boys' adventure story with a fixed ending and an appropriately politically correct moral. I'm not reading this for the plot and neither are you.
I'm also 95% certain that Spirou and Fantasio are a couple in this one, and believe me, having Spirou flirt with the Cute Art Teacher on the literal final page of the story just cements it further.
So also with The One With Borneo. No, no panning citiscapes or actions scenes in breathtaking angles, but a lot of really gorgeous animals, really pretty Franco-Belgian backgrounds, and that one thing that I love so much about modern Spirou: they've taken the European caricatured style out of its original stiff format and made it work with dynamic panels, in closeups and in serious scenes. This one is particularly good at it. There are also some dream sequences that honestly work a lot better for me than non-verbal dream sequences in comics normally do. Can't say much about the story: It's Spirou and Fantasio, it's a fifties boys' adventure story with a fixed ending and an appropriately politically correct moral. I'm not reading this for the plot and neither are you.
I'm also 95% certain that Spirou and Fantasio are a couple in this one, and believe me, having Spirou flirt with the Cute Art Teacher on the literal final page of the story just cements it further.
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