Recently…

There seems to be quite the fuss about visual novels abroad, recently. From the worse ones dealing with really sensitive subjects in a really insensitive manner, the whole genre has become the sum of its worst parts, causing us to forget something really interesting: a lot of recent anime has been inspired by the genre. For my next post, I’ll be talking about the genre and what it’s done for anime, but in the mean time, here’s a comic after the jump about that:

A Little More 愛

A nice woodblock print, don't you agree?

Some links may not be safe for work, though all are tasteful, and reading the post itself will, of course, be fine for your health.

Recently, I’ve had some experience with Asian cinema that have led me to believe that the whole establishment has something to it. Influenced by postmodern views on the meaning of story and plot, the films have turned an eye inward and seriously examined themselves as singular works before considering what the audience wants as American films are wont to do.

Further than anime, which has intrinsic value as entertainment even when I’m just watching something more fanservicey than deep, and some Chinese action flicks, before recently I’ve found most Asian films to be, well, rather trite. However, my experience with Oldboy, as mentioned a couple of posts ago, started a sort of butterfly effect that ended with my downloading about seven Korean films and one Taiwanese film to round it off a bit and make it a nice, even number.

You’d think that, living in Japan at the moment, I’d have downloaded a couple of Japanese films.

That’s not the case. In fact, I’d venture to say that Japanese films, single-handedly, had turned me against the vast majority of Asian cinema by virtue of being the pithy works I referred to earlier. As a matter of preference, these campy films, interestingly so influenced by anime as a genre, have failed to capture my imagination in an inexplicable manner.

I’ve got a confession to make, guys…

Visual Style? Check.

Before I go into my deeply personal confession of my love for something only slightly related to anime but totally related to Japan, I’d like to note that since the style has changed, back posts will be evermore oddly formatted. I’ve tried a couple of changes to offset this odd and noticeable change, but I’d like you as the reader to bear with it. That in mind, これを始めようか？

I noted to a friend a couple fo days ago that I’m an absolute whore for the Final Fantasy series. Anything they throw at me I hoard greedily like some sort of dragon.

The most recent example of this was when I borrow my brother’s Final Fantasy XII and, after playing about 15 hours, realized my abiding love for it and imediately went out and bought my own copy. Was this necessary? Of course not! Buying an extra copy of any series of games, especially when your brother isn’t going to ask for his copy back is ludicrous.

Or is it? If you’ve been keeping up with your Squenix (because I’m guessing that’s how you actually write that bastardization of Square-Enix), you’ll know that the company’s been struggling to put new IPs on the market. Sure, they have a thriving business at the moment, but also, if you’ll note, that’s been from nice products like FFVII:AC on PSP, FFVII on PSN, FFIV:The After Story on WiiWare, FFIV on DS, and… are you noticing a pattern here? That’s right. They’re all old news. Maybe new takes on old news, but if I wanted that I’d go to a fan fiction website and read to my heart’s content.

No, this isn’t right… what happened to the Squaresoft I knew and loved? Nothing, it seems, as you’ll soon know if you

Reawakening

This weekend was amazing as far as movies go. First, my friends and I watched a couple of Asian films including “Old Boy” based on a manga by the same name about… well, revenge, if you get down to it, but its definitely not for the faint of heart or the conservative. That said, it was a masterful piece of cinema.

Another masterful piece of cinema, though, was… I’ll give you a hint:

Is that a new Eva pilot?

For more on that, take the jump and

A link

I love you guys. You know that, right? Here: enjoy.

Everyone, Grab The Mountain Dew

This is short, and I realize that, but I’m bored and in China. I’ve gotta amuse myself somehow, right?

In case some of you weren’t aware, and you really should have been, Zach has recently gotten himself over to Japan (Kyoto, specifically).

I don’t know about you, but for him, it’s basically a dream come true. This semester is like an academic wet dream for him, come to life. The difference? It’s not just in his pants. It’s everywhere.

That sounded wrong.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure we’ll all be seeing tons of new content from him. Zach will be on anime/manga/Akihabara overload, and I somewhat selfishly expect to benefit from it. Consider this a challenge to our favorite geek of all things Japanese; I’m not sure if it’ll see the light of day, as I’m just a contributor for the blog and have to submit everything for review from Zach, but if so, more power to him. That’ll mean Zach has balls… otaku balls. Made out of old crushed up old Nintendo cartridges, or decapitated pokemon, or something.

What are We “Owed”?

I’m about to go home for a couple of weeks before departing for the exotic locale of Kyoto. Before that, though, it seems I’ve started rewatching some of the seminal classics of anime, starting with Neon Genesis Evangelion and Fushigi Yuugi.

You’d be surprised exactly how much an ending can make or beak an anime. As I began to rewatch Evangelion, I mentioned to my friends who I watched it with that how they felt about the anime would be almost completely colored by their feelings about its ending.They looked at me skeptically, as if I was telling them something kind of preposterous, especially since they were enjoying it so far.

But as the End of Evangelion ended last night at 2am, and Asuka uttered “Kimochi warui,” the looks on their faces said it all; they weren’t sure about whether they liked it or not. The truth is, they felt betrayed. They understood a good part of what was said, but on the whole, they didn’t feel like it provided the closure. This begs the question, though: is “closure” owed to us? Do all great animes even have “closure”?

Closer and Closer to Japan (Now with videos!)

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to help a Japanese exchange student with her English skills and also ask my own questions about Japan and its current events. I ended up talking with her about Kyoto, which she had been to once, and it really brought home the fact that I’ll be leaving to Japan in less than a month and a half.

That said, the talks about money that I had with my mom are turning into talks about plane tickets, which I’m going to research and have my parents buy later today. Also, just yesterday I turned in my housing form, which *fingers crossed* will let me reside at the dorm of my choice… which looks a little something like this (audio in French, but you get the picture ~ hit the jump to see what I’m talking about):

Musings

Playing Armored Core: for Answer and enjoying my mecha-simulation/nerd-time has lead me to an interesting question: which anime genre would you most like to see made into a sim?

Studying abroad

Everything is crystallizing.

Simply, going to Japan is finally becoming a reality on something other than paper. Over the past few days, a couple of factors have driven this home:

1) My mother won’t stop bothering me about logistics.

2) I finally got my actual acceptance packet from Ritsumeikan Kyoto.

and, most recently, 3) I’m going to be doing language exchange sessions with a Japanese student at OU whom I am contacting as I write this.