1 When the legitimate system is set up, the legal counselor's next objective is to fabricate areas of strength for a through proof social event. This includes assembling all actual proof, emergency custody maryland like archives, photographs, recordings, clinical records, contracts, and whatever other materials that help the client's cases.

2 The contract dispute resolution process typically begins with negotiation, where the parties attempt to reach an agreement without legal intervention. If negotiation fails, they may move to mediation, where a neutral third party helps facilitate a resolution. If mediation is unsuccessful, the next step is often arbitration, where an arbitrator makes a binding decision.
contract dispute resolution process

1

Adjusting the monetary commitments of a case with the interests of their client can be a troublesome undertaking, fathers custody rights maryland and neglecting to deal with these perspectives successfully may bring about monetary misfortunes for the legal counselor and disappointment for the client.

1 My Japanese teachers really didn't like the sound of "brigade" for -dan, because it sounded too military. Most of the cases where I see it translated as brigade are where it's an abbreviation of ryodan. I wouldn't call an orchestra, a choir, or a baseball team brigades, but they're -dan.

-j

2 You wouldn't call a choir or an orchestra "team", either.  Is there any distinction made between -gumi and -dan, to keep both from being synonymously translated as "group"?

It isn't unit - I'm pretty sure that's "-tai".

But the Gurren-dan *are* a military organization.  Well, of sorts.

3 Okay, after digging through a pile of books, I'm going to stake the claim that the difference in nuance between -dan, -gumi, and -tai can be summed up as "associated", "supporting", and "regimented".

"Building word power in Japanese using kanji prefixes and suffixes" doesn't list -gumi, but gives -dan as "organized group who participates in a common activity" and -tai as "group organized to accomplish some purpose", with some overlap in actual use.

Unfortunately, even the big Kenkyusha dictionary gives overlapping translations of the three. -dan: body, group, corps, gang, party, batch, bunch, company, troupe; -gumi: group, gang, company; -tai: body, company, corps, unit, squad, crew, band, posse, force.

The most interesting hint it offers is in the expression 隊を組んで行く = "to march in formation". So, tai for the disciplined structure of the group, and kumi/gumi for the common purpose. Clear as mud.

I'm tempted to look through some of my older anime to see how the three were commonly translated before the fansubbers decided that Haruhi's -dan needed to be called a brigade, a choice that never worked for me. It's a fun word, but growing up near a military base, "brigade" was always exclusively a military term to me.

"Team X" does sound a bit weak, although that may just be the pathetic nature of Hank and Dean shouting "Go Team Venture!". "X Company" adds a bit of military flavor without pushing it, but I suspect the younger generation might not think so. And, of course, there's always "F Troop".

I think Haruhi's club should have been a "gang". It sounds like the G-L folks might be a "company".

-j

4 "Hanaukyo Maid-tai" makes sense, then.

5 I liked the old fansub translation of Hanaukyo Maid-tai as "Hanaukyo Maid Battalion".  It got across their massed, militarized affect.

The Gurren-dan as of episode 9 still strikes me as more of a gang than either a team (which suggests cooperation and coordination, which isn't really their strong suit so far) or a brigade (which suggests chain of command and discipline, also not really part of Kamina's world-view).  And "company" in English has that dual economic/military set of definitions which is also off the mark - you can make a less economically-minded show than Gurren Lagann, but it'd take some work.

Likewise, the SOS-dan were, at least in design, supposed to be an official school club.  Troupe would probably have been the right word - gets across the "merry band of eccentrics" concept properly, and follows through on Haruhi's record  as a serial perpetrator of performance art.

6 ...now I want to redo the Haruhi credits to the theme from F Troop.

-j

7 Yeah... well... glad that's all settled then...

1 oh
my


I thought taping a perfect game on my SEGA genesis was sad.

Thank you for this perspective Will.

2 It's a scripted mod. No less sad, just a different kind of sad.

1 And Lafiel, right?

2 Yes, but she didn't come to mind immediately because while eccentric, most Abe females seem to be fairly sensible by default. I'll have to add her.

3

I dunno, a rather eclectic bunch, really. Ekuryua, for example, or Admiral Spoor.

Atosuryua, on the other hand, is definitely like you say.

4 Well, there is a shocker - Will prefers sensible women. Whatever happened to opposites attract? I was sure that you would love a good "fixer-upper" walking disaster type of gal

5 Heh, and people laugh at me when I say my favorite Sakura Taisen girl is Kanna...

6

Kerith, I've tripped over two-such so far, and I don't care to deal with it any more. Women who aren't completely psychotic are hard to find.

As to Sakura Taisen... It's a show I have given serious thought to starting up times, but considering how much the continuity is split up into videogames/anime of varying age and availability, the cost overhead has always driven me off.

1 I think that the people who love the show are enchanted by the situation more than by the characters or the story.

2 The setting is at least mildly interesting for me on its own, but it would be far more compelling with a cast that weren't a bunch of losers and a story that lived up to the hype.

3 In the end there is no substitute for interesting characters and a compelling story.

4

That's why I'll be curious to see your take on Lucky Star. If I had to break it down...

Setting: 5 - High school slice of life. We've been here before. We'll be here again.

Characters: 8.5 - The series' strong point. They all occupy the far reaches of their particular archetype/stereotype. The show's really about having fun bouncing these moe-modes off one-another.

Story: 3 - Not that it's bad, just that it's non-existent. No villains, no struggle, little character growth. Almost entirely static.

5

I'll admit my bias up front.  I liked the show.  I liked it a lot, in fact.  I'll be the first to admit that the biggest draw is probably what Steven calls the "gadget fetish."  Hard SF is very rare in anime, and I'd bet the success of Planetes is part of what's behind the recent rash of what might be best described as "space-pr0n."  Rocket Girls, Freedom and Moonlight Mile, especially (caveat: I haven't seen any of those, but I've read the reviews at The Space Review and other places, and seen plenty of screencaps).  Basically, Planetes is to these shows what the original Gundam is to the "real" subgenre of mecha shows.

The Leftism is something I've basically resigned myself to in anime these days.  At least it wasn't as egregiously anti-US as the manga was.  But what gets me is the notion that there was no story development, that the characters were static, and that the characters are losers (management aside; my God those two twits were annoying.  I'll put up with the Leftism of the manga to avoid Lavie and the boss).  Hachi grows up and starts to work toward his goal instead of just sitting there and talking about it.  The company manager he had been friends with has the same story, but in reverse.  She had it all, career-wise, and basically throws it all away after losing a rigged contest - as opposed to sticking with the company and changing it from the inside.  For grins, the writers doubled up on both of them in one character with Chen-Shin, the pilot who manages to recognize the trouble he's getting into and bootstraps himself back out of it.  Fee was already a pretty level character, underused in the show maybe (agian the manga is different), but she didn't need much growth.  She's the show's 'perfect spacer,' the measuring stick for the rest of the cast.  Even the space-cop who'd been Hachi's mentor is simply Fee to the Nth.  Yuri came to terms with his loss that started the show in the first place - and gains a mission in life, helping to prevent it from happening again.  And Ai?  She ends the story where she belongs, back on Earth and hopefully never going back up to space (except maybe as a tourist) ever again.  She's the human who can operate in space, but probably shouldn't, and loves it anyway.  Like Hachi's mom, she lives space through her loved ones.

6 Most of that probably should have been inside a spoiler tag.

7

And if I could, I would.

Rich, don't confuse my comments on Lucky Star above with my thoughts on Planetes. Some characters do change in Planetes, the problem is they just couldn't seem to make me care. 

For example, when Clarie and Ai were stranded on the Lunar surface, there was never any doubt in my mind that Ai would do the right thing. All that supposed tension and dread felt completely hollow to me. She was too much the "pure" character to leave Claire for dead. Sure she's been disabused of the romance in space travel, but she's still the idealist she was at the beginning.

Hachimaki is the one character who really underwent serious changes. The problem is he went from a listless self-centered jerk to an ambitious self-centered jerk, only to finally become something resembling a sociable human being in the last couple episodes. I hated his character for 24 episodes, so I'm quite dubious about how genuine and permanent his transformation will turn out. Was I supposed to empathize with this guy?

Those ninja-cosplaying clowns on the moon drove me nuts as well. I was supposed to feel sad when they died in the engine expolsion, but I help feeling happy I'd never have to see them again.

That's not a failure on my part to "get it." That's a failure of the writers to give me a cast I give a damn about. I didn't like the principals. The secondaries were mostly stereotypes, and there are better ways to lighten the mood than filling your tertiary cast with Excel Saga rejects. It completely destroyed the mood of the show.

 

 

8

Ahh, I see your meaning, Will.  I did confuse your comments on Lucky-Star with what you meant about Planetes, mixing your comments 2 and 4 with Steven's #3 into an extended multi-blog group whine about the story not being what you guys would have made it.  Which is still no excuse for my own whining thereafter.  Your opinons are your own, and this is your blog.  Regardless of guest opinions, those of the host are the correct ones in his own home, and I'm sorry for forgetting that.

(Aside: we're in complete agreement on the tertiary cast in any case; I so completely blocked the "clowns" out that I forgot they were ever there.  Those scenes were downright painful to watch.)

About spoiler tags, I don't see a button for those on the control panel at the top...is it some form of 'special character,' or something else?  I'll tag the rant appropriately if I can edit.

9

The open tag is the word spoiler inside of square brackets. The end tag is /spoiler inside of square brackets.

Like this.

10 I'm certainly not one to turn into a despot over differing opinions. There's no sense getting wound up with somebody over fiction. Non-fiction is a whole 'nother story.

And that spoiler tag format Steven mentions works at any mee.nu blog (mu.nu I'm not so sure of).

1 Is this your first viewing of the series?

2 Yep. I assiduously avoided reading any of your spoilers when you were gushing over the show last summer. The discs (still in the wrapper) disappeared in my move two months ago, and I finally found where they'd been secreted away.

1 So that would mean that Goku is gar?

2 Given what few bits of DBZ I've seen, I'd say yes. DBZ is way off most anime blogger's radar, but if it were coming out now, I think he would be classified as GAR.

3

Overall, I think this is a really interesting piece. Although I'm not sure where it applies when the lines between "heroes" and "villians" are much more blurred. It seems that the sheepdog/wolf analogy would rely on a hero who doesn't doubt what he's doing is virtuous, which would then mean that the character is inherently simple. Or at the very least is a fanatic. But a fanatic that the audience can agree is in the right.  

4

Well, I didn't mean to imply that the hero's thought process is necessarily as simple as that of a sheepdog. Kamina may be single-minded, but he's not simple. He has a dream all his own and pursues it with resolve, knowing that many others hope for the existence of the surface, but don't share his knowledge/faith in its existence. In our culture where individuality resonates, Kamina's behavior comes across as both virutous and righteous, while in his own culture, it was something to be shunned (until he proved himself right).

Simon isn't simple either. He's fighting the virtuous and righteous fight to defend Spiral beings from annihilation and to win back his woman from the Anti-Spirals. His judgement is somewhat questionable given that, in the face of the knowledge that continued use of Spiral Energy will induce the Spiral Nemsis, he fights on anyway banking on humanity somehow finding a way around it. It certainly won't happen in his lifetime, so it's not really his problem. But he's living is life by the mottos of the Gurren-dan. "Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb."

Krelian from Xenogears would be an interesting case study. He's a goodguy who looses his way and goes bad, but never resorts to violence himself. Would Simon be GAR if he carried on the same fight from behind a desk like Rossiu?

Ultimately, I think it comes down to whether the character's actions eventually bring a "boon to all" (all being a relative term ) If they do, he's a hero and GAR. If not, he's a villain and simply a sociopath.

What I was really trying, and failed, to get at is that moe and GAR draw on and play against similar primal instincts in the viewer. On one side of the coin you have the passive protector in times of peace, and on the other you have the violent warrior/defender in times of strife.

Good grief... I should have just made another post. I'm not going back through that to check for typoes or coherence.

5 You're missing some of the elements of the essential nature of gar. ;p Keep in mind that the archetype is Archer.

One of those elements is self-confidence. Not mindless egotism, but the manly state of mind where the person knows his abilities and isn't daunted by tasks that fall within them, or potentially anything at all - but gar isn't compatible with stupid. If your character suicide-charges the enemy to buy everyone else time to get away, and he knew he was toast going in, and he's smiling when they bring him down, that's gar. Losing when you thought you had a chance is never gar.

The gar man doesn't question himself. He has a set of morals and an objective and doesn't flinch from them for a moment. If the rest of the world doesn't keep up, too bad for them.

Gar is not above a bit of grandstanding. Gar is better than those around him and knows it, and isn't going to apologize for it. But it's only gar if gar has the goods.

It's a post-modern state of mind, with at least a wink to the public figure that the character is cutting. The gar character is not above dropping a quip. Importantly, the truly gar character never explodes in rage. Think Kenshiro - he doesn't get mad, he just makes peoples' heads explode and moves on.

I don't think Goku is gar, really. He's slightly too simple - he's not acting cool because he's aware of the importance of being seen to act cool. He just doesn't care about cool (and, well, he can blow up planets, so he doesn't have to.) He also loses that cool, and while there's something to be said for erupting in white-hot hair-growing world-shattering fury, it's not gar.

Protecting someone has nothing to do with gar. Think Akagi - walking posterboard for gar, but he's never out for anything but his own thrill, and he makes no bones about it.

6

Well now it sounds like we're talking about several distinct strains (or maybe levels, hmm...) of GAR. IKnight layed out in part 1 (and expanded in part 2) that he thinks GAR is comparable to virtus, an admiration of a superior warrior in your cause. Which means it has a lot to do with the impression the character leaves on the viewer. Do I feel compelled to get up and stand along-side this character in their fight?

In the very act of standing up and fighting the fight, win-or-loose, you become GAR. If only just a little. Increasing levels of competence and self-confidence can add to your GAR. Even losing can still be GAR, if it's done with honor. As for Goku, I would submit that not giving a damn about cool and just going out to win is as GAR as all the bragadocio in the world. Maybe even more so. A competent man can brag about his abilities, but a master doesn't waste his breath. The truly GAR character goes about slaying his (and our) villians in the most efficient manner possible, gives them no quarter, and doesn't bother with quips.

And your assertion that GAR never looses it's cool flies in the face of hot-blooded characters everywhere. They go crazy right up until the bad guy bites it, then they immediately regain composure. A lot of my impression of GAR comes from the character Richard in The Sword of Truth novel series. He goes blows by cold-blooded, bypasses sarcastic, shoots through hot-blooded, and settles right into the region where white-hot rage becomes a fine-edged scalpel with only one mission, "cut." As a warrior for your cause, in all things, "cut."

As for the "protecting," don't get too caught up in the metaphor. The sheep that the sheepdog is protecting could be a myriad of causes or reasons to fight, as long as they are righteous and virtuous in the eyes of the viewer.

That's why I don't think of characters like Akagi as GAR. I hold no admiration for them at all.

I think I need to get into Excel and layout a spectrum or something...

7 Yeah. Uh, but that's not gar, just generic bushido. Those hot-blooded characters are not what we're talking about here.

(cue Shiraishi talking about tsunderes)

8 Hmm @ the linked essay. I agreed in part, but I can't imagine someone from my country writing it. When did America lose the Protestant assumption that saying anything good about oneself must inherently be wrong? Not that said assumption is a good thing . . . anyway . . .

I think the sheep - sheepdog - wolf metaphor neatly encapsulates the power relations I'm trying to establish regarding GAR and moe, yes. But I think in my conception of GAR there is less of a sense that protectiveness is a sine qua non. Hence Akagi can be admitted to be GAR - just as certain Romans were generally acknowledged bastards, but remained possessors of virtus (I must point out that /A/nonymous, not I, invented the virtus-to-GAR connection).

I lack the time to delve deeper, though I would point out to Avatar that, while we can begin with Archer, a lot of characters have been declared GAR since him, and each one has altered the concept a little. Archer is a good place to begin, but a bad place to end, as it were.

9

When did America lose the Protestant assumption that saying anything good about oneself must inherently be wrong?

How I answer that question depends entirely on whether you're asking the question in wonder or regret.

I'm beginning to regret using "protector" in the essay, because it's leading everyone to think I'm only talking about defensive action. I got a little closer to the mark in comment #6. For a character to be GAR he must fight for a cause that we find righteous and/or virtuous. I have to include the "or" because to do otherwise would leave out a lot of anti-heroes. Vengeance can be righteous but is rarely virtuous, and there a lot of GAR characters that live simply for venegeance of a wrong. (And if they just happen to beat the big-bad and save the world in the process, righteousness is an added bonus)

1 I think I'm gonna go back and properly resize these pics. Letting the browser do it looks like crap.

1

The art style in the second episode of Vandread really drifts a lot. It's common in this kind of show for the primary production house to farm out animation to other studios, and I think that episode was done by someone else.

Regardless, they didn't get any more work. The rest of the series the art style is quite consistent.

2 Didn't anybody ever tell you that putting shit on a credit card right before you close on a house = bad?

3

Good to hear. For a while I was wondering if the style change was intentional. It didn't have the feel of an homage to another style.

As for the card, I was being faceitous. My current balance is only a tiny fraction of the available credit.

4 Heh, you made me look up "tsundere."

5 It's a pretty useful term. Yandere is another good one.

1 I'm getting warmer. One of my kids is named Garren.

2

Any Simons or Kaminas in the family

Actually, where's Garren come from? Can't say I've heard that one before.

3 I actually think there's a teenage mutant ninja turtle with the name of garren. But I have a family name of Guerin so I just changed it up a bit.

4 You lose ten geek cred points. The TMNT's are Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

5 Garren Guerin. How old is this particular young one? While I know "unusual" names are less and less unusual these days, I can't help thinking the kid's gonna need therapy

6

You lose ten geek cred points

*sigh* I can't win.

How old is this particular young one?

hahaha, google it, there's like a gajillion garrens out there.

Oh that's right it's not mutant ninja, it's Kamen Rider Garren.

 

1

Ow, my brain.

2 I found that in the "related videos" after hitting "The Wedding Ring" link you put in Steven's comments.

3

Oh, no, I won't let you lay the blame at my feet.

4 Well the music certainly got my kids running to the computer, but I had to make them go away because I was unsure of the content. My kids are out of luck because I can't go thru 6 minutes of that to see if it's safe for them.

5 There's a little inuendo here and there, but otherwise nothing you can't explain away in kid logic.

6 Ha, well that's good. I spend a lot of time in kid logic land.

7 The fact that PattyAnn recognized Lucky Star when she saw it speaks to a deeper geekiness than she lets on.

8 *sniff* Well I had a crush on Speedracer when I was a kid, does that count?

9 No, because, while Speed Racer has been around in the US since the 60's (and there's a live-action movie coming out that I will not be seeing), Lucky Star hasn't been (legally) released in the US yet.  That kind if knowledge requires a bit more than a passing acquaintance with anime (or associating with people like me).

10

Damn, *sigh* I guess I'll just go back to my kind of geekdom and go lvl my night elf priest. *walks away with my head down*

11

Ok, I take it all back. You are definitely a geek, because for all the hobbies I have that qualify as "geek", I just can't bring myself to play any kind of MMORPG.

12 I couldn't get anymore off topic when I ask this question, but uh, what's the location of your header if you know? Arizona? Southern Utah? Mt. Baker, Washington?

13 All of the banner pics are from the Red Rocks area around Sedona, AZ. It's a neat place to visit.

14 Will, I have an advantage. My aunt's husband goes to Japan at least 3 times a year and he always brings stuff back to me. I've been watching all of it I can since the early 80s. Lucky Star was new to me. Speed Racer was a crush for me, too, PJ. *sigh*

15

Lucky you. I've wanted to go over there for quite some time. I applied for JET right after graduation, but regardless of what they may say, they're more interested in hiring Japanese majors than engineering majors.

Given a few years, I'm sure I'll have the cash reserves for a trip. It just sucks having to wait.

16 You know you're a lifer when you see the girls' "alternate costumes" at 1:39 and instantly recognize them as Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Rin from Fate/stay night, Mikuru from the Haruhi Suzumiya series, and Akari from To Heart.

17

Speed Racer was a crush for me, too, PJ. *sigh*

PattyAnn has good taste.

them as Shana from Shakugan no Shana

My name is Shauna and that's close enough. See I knew I was geek with or without WoW.

 

18

And if your hair turns red and starts emitting burning embers when you're ready to kick some ass, you're one step closer.

19 Well, when she gets mad her ass starts burning and emitting embers, so I'd say she's almost there. Will, I've never been to Japan, and I'd guess my uncle's been 30 times and he says going there will never get old. I hope we both get to visit someday.

20

Well, when she gets mad her ass starts burning and emitting embers, so I'd say she's almost there.

Don't they make a cream for that?

My dad was stationed in Okinawa long before he met my mom. Many years later, he picked up this book somewhere, and I found it in the bookcase when I was very young. Growing up in the Sonoran Desert, seeing amazing pictures of ancient shrines and cultivated gardens really gave me the itch to get over there and see some of those things with my own eyes. I easily see myself spending my time over there scouring the rural contryside looking for out-of-the-way shirines and everything but the craziness of urban Japan.

21 PA, knows me too well.

22

Don't they make a cream for that?

When I read that sentence it makes me say, there's a visine for that.

23

Gives a new meaning to "Gets the red out."

Oh, crap. I didn't just go there on my own blog did I? And here I was trying to keep the place respectable.

24

And here I was trying to keep the place respectable.

Sorry, that's what happens when The Hostages come over for a visit. We drink all the beer eat all the food and basically wreck the joint.

1 So don't. There's plenty of reward in being the patient guy who doesn't tackle a show until it's been talked to death by everybody else - nobody says you have to be the one to break trail.

At the same time, keep in mind that a lot of that stuff is bread and butter for the Japanese fanboy that keeps these companies alive. It's always easier to write something conventional and try to sell it by putting in more of this, that, or the other. Bigger and bigger breasts, until you get Eiken. More and more maids, untill you get Hanayuko. Lolis everywhere, until you get Kodomo no Jikan. All three at once, until you get Gravion... Of course, the very element that they're counting on to draw in viewers has ruined the show well before you reach that point, but someone's buying this stuff...

It's okay to be a little snobby. I watched some Ninomiya-kun at the prompting of a friend, and honestly, there ain't no there THERE. Yes, yes, the girl is cute and busty yadda yadda. Gimme some story! And a good one, too.

That said, why do you feel the need to "justify" watching anime? Especially on "moral/legal" grounds? If you wanna watch a show, watch it, if you don't wanna watch it, don't. Just because you watch some Moyashimon or some Dennou Coil or Legend of the Galactic Heroes or whatever doesn't mean you have to wade in to the whole fan-service-laden genre. (That's left for slobs like me who need to know the references to work on other shows!)

2

What I mean is that, it seems like with each new season, anime gets closer and closer to what is (animated or not on this side of the Pacific) basically kiddie pron. It used to be easy to find shows that didn't feature busty koukousei and chuugakusei popping out of their clothes left and right. Now it's so common it's a cliche, and I personally am just not okay with that. I don't find panchira interesting in the slightest. Maids don't make me hot under the collar. Lolis are children.

I've got more respect for myself and respect for women (both real and fictional) than to put up with much more of it. I've been able to tune it out, for the most part, for quite a while. I've been able to enjoy shows that feature a lot of mindless fan-service by just ignoring it. But as the raunchiness and overall quantity of this crap keeps getting dialed up, it's getting harder to walk away from a show without feeling soiled.

I want to enjoy fanciful and imaginative shows that American TV writers are too dull to think up, but it's this arms race of immature shit being inserted into shows to appeal to pathetic emasculated Japanese males that's driving me away.

3 Heh, well, that's something I've noted. Focusing laser-like on the otaku audience is just driving people who aren't into the narrow fetish crowd away from anime - ironically, making them ever more dependent on the otaku, ever more desperate to out-do the last show.

I mean, hell, I've been working on Nanoha for a while now, and while it's still a good show, you can't really get away from the fact that, at some level, it's calculated to appeal to the pedophile. Yes, yes, they bothered to make it good anyway, and it's not so prevalent that it's impossible to ignore, but it's still there and it doesn't go away. (Also makes showing it to new people possibly awkward. ;p)

I don't know that things are necessarily worse, though. It's been pretty bad for a few years now, and it might just be that you've caught up with all the oldie-but-goodies and now the new stuff is where your new shows are coming from.

At the end of the day, most stuff is crap, Sturgeon's Law applies to anime too, and there's no helping it. But so what? It doesn't all have to be good. The shows that don't rely on panty shots for their plot development are out there, you hear about them, you watch them. We can sit around and say "damn, wouldn't it be cool if every show was cool and witty and didn't need to descend to perv-ville in order to get a viewer's interest," but it ain't happening. The good stuff that's out there, though, is still just as good. A bit of work to sift out the crummy shows, a bit of patience, and definitely don't make it your only hobby - erudite tastes in anime means you can't watch it 24/7, that's for sure. But what isn't like that?

Or maybe I'm just jaded. Tonight is the last of Nanoha A's. This weekend is Aika, which may not be a five-bladed razor of panty shots, but is at least four and a half blades plus gel strip. Next up is Lucky Star, which had the sexy fan-service exacted with a scalpel. It all pays the bills...

4

Yeah, it's a pedophilia arms-race, and I think a large part of my ire is driven by the fact that I can't share this stuff (and it's driving me off). I'm basically the "dealer" for our weekly anime nights, and when I start looking at the recent material, I can't honestly see any of the people in my group getting past the fan-service to the meat of a show. It's just too far beyond the lines of good taste.

Back in the Usagi, Sakura, and Pretty Sammy days, the amount of skin shown in a transformation sequence was pretty minimal. A quick flash of an innocuous bit of skin between outfits, and maybe a quick pan up. I started watching some of the Shugo Chara last night (picked it up based on word of mouth) that's been on my drive for a while, and the 5th grade protagonist flys around the screen stark-naked for 20-30 seconds in the middle of her sequence before putting some damned clothes on. For the studio it's win-win. They can pander to the otaku while also burning up screen time on something other than original frames and decent writing. For me, all that time was spent thinking, "Is this really necessary?"

And no, anime's isn't my only hobby, but it's the only one I currently get any chance to share with friends. I'm the only one in my circle that rides ATVs. Nobody else hunts. I don't want to spend money on MMORPGs. It's almost impossible to get anyone to go out shooting. I basically hibernate for the winter with anime, and I already dread what next winter is going to look like.

5 I recall from somewhere that a lot of the older, less-explicit transformation scenes were cleaned up from the Japanese originals. Pretty Sammy in particular jumped out at me as "edited for content".

They're definitely pushing the limits every season, though, the same way that the adult-video producers in Japan are using ever-more-precise mosaics to meet the letter of the law while showing more detail. Both markets are driven by their hard-core (coughcough) customer base, the ones who reliably spend money on DVDs and merchandise (even if the DVDs end up ripped and resold to Traders within a few days).

As for the "pedo" angle (using the word to cover both young teens and actual children, which seems to be the common meaning these days), it's not going to go away, unfortunately. Two things I saw in Japan convinced me: first, the fact that the "junior idol" DVD section at Traders was at least as large as the nearly-nude-adult-woman section; second, the fact that men's magazines like Bejean and Beppin School are considered tame newstand fare, and freely mix adult nude models with panty-flashing school-uniformed girls as young as thirteen. And you know they're thirteen, because the magazine comes right out and tells you.

-j

6

I'd be interested in seeing the editing information, if you can recall where it come from. Sammy was meant to be a mild satire of mahou shoujo, so going above and beyond what was the norm back then would make some sense. But that still doesn't mean it approaches anything like the nonsense showing up in more recent programs.

The rampant "pedo" side of Japanese culture is part of why my urge to visit the place has been waning. And it's also why I mentioned in the comments over at your place a greater desire to see rural Japan than the urban chaos of places like Akiba.

7 Ah, found it. The uncensored Pretty Sammy transformation is an easter egg on the region 1 DVD.

-j

8 I'll have to try that out when I get my DVD player set back up. It's been in a special caryying case I set up for traveling to friends' houses for anime night.

1 I don't recognize it. What is it? (I guess I'm just not hip...)

2

The flaming-skull-in-glasses is the emblem of the Great Gurren Brigade (Dai-Gurren-Dan) from Gurren Lagann. Those phrases are the various over-the-top slogans/mottos the croup leader uses to describe their ridiculous antics.

The show's been consuming my thoughts lately in a way I haven't experienced since I played Xenogears back in 2000.

I won;t say you should look into it, but I think Gainax pulled off a winner with this one.

3

*sigh* I can not wait until comment editing is available. I was typing that other comment on the computer hooked into my TV, and the crappy resolution makes it very difficult to check for typoes.

I also think I should clarify myself.

It's a mecha show, which is an immediate negative for you, but there again, it's also got the DBZ theme of "New Big Bad? MORE POWER! Super-Saiyan-jin Level 37 here I come!" They aren't so much machines as extensions of the characters' "fighting spirit." In the process, it tells a story about a kid who grows up into a man (the anti-Shinji Ikari) and his allies who group up right along with him. It's a mixed bag of things you list as positives and negatives.

4 I've heard good things about it, and it does have that amazing redhead, so it can't be all bad. (Unless she gets killed.)

5 Even funnier was second place, which was a Welsh dragon with Louise photoshopped on the back...

Well. Probably not actually funnier. But also funny.

But yeah, it's another example of how online polling is useless for serious matters - you have to assume you're going to attract the attention of an infinite amount of people with too much free time and no respect for you or your goals. ;p

6

They weren't being serious. The whole point of this poll was that the idea of changing the Union Jack is a frivolous waste of time.

7 Truly. The Internet is awash in unhelpful people.

8 What's really disturbing (now that there are a few comments up over there) is the number of people who seem to have taken the whole matter quite seriously.

1 Oh, Will, I adore My Chemical Romance in secret due to their reputation as an "Emo" band.

Here is a little MCR Christmas Cheer: All I Want For Christmas
<object width="300" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/II7kcRJEEI/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/II7kcRJEEI/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>

And my favorite MCR song: You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison (from the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge Album)

<object width="300" height="80"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/m/DsZWi5iyA6/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/m/DsZWi5iyA6/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="80" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>

Sometimes Imeem.com goes through and nukes songs to make them 30 second clips, so I apologize if that happens.

Good post, Will

2 Oops - Apparently I am not allowed to embed flash objects into your blog Here are the links:

You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison

All I Want For Christmas

3

There are certain limitations put in place to cut down on external abuse of the comment system. The other thing to keep in mind when commenting around here is that the editor is WYSIWYG. When you paste html in the editor, it's treated like normal text, not code. The far right button in the tool bar is where you go to view the source code. You would have to paste your embed code there (like so)

And even then, it doesn't appear to have been accepted because certain html tags are locked out.