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Crusader: black text
lelangir: blue text ←[105]
Note: In an effort to remedy the current lack of team work I hope you all don’t mind me conscripting Comrade lelangir for this one, I normally have trouble blogging about non mecha shows and this time it was easier since lelangir is a rabid marimite fan. I thank him for his cooperation and hopefully we can do this again sometime. I hope that the format we used is realtively easy to follow.
So far so good even if the ED is spoilerific as hell I suppose that at least Kanako seems to get a conciliatory prize in the OP. I thought the ED was very trashy, and the song was awesome - awesome wah and cheese synths are awesome. Still the OP was like hey did Yumi just get magical powers or something, must have been a subtle knife or some such. Well Cuchlann said how the new pop OP suited the matriculation well - leave the classical music behind for the seniors, the new girls are in power now. Well at least it will be a bloodless coup I suppose. I also see that we have some minor consistency issues still, but this washed out color pallet seems a bit weird. if memory serves me correct it use to be a bit brighter, might be the sub though. I still see little resemblance between Yuki and Yumi though. They’re using the art style they used in the third season OVAs, which I actually prefer. I suppose so still for a genderbend it’s just not as fun as I was hoping it would be, though pretty much everything is subdued.
Well the cat’s out of the bag already…
Will they finally kiss this year? It’s tradition…
One day Yoshino will be writing fan fics about this…
I thought this episode did a fairly good job of painting Kanako as a ‘tragic’ character. It’s also good because they didn’t have to start from scratch, as they had three previous expository seasons at their base. I would have been more partial to Kanako being petite soeur, but I guess with Touko it’s borderline selfscest. The boys on the other hand, well at least it is still not about them so much. Nevertheless Yuki in Kimono is very much glam band cross dressing. You have to wonder though what kind of parents would name their kid Alice. Oh Alice…I don’t know what to make of him. His presence in the previous seasons wasn’t memorable and he was parodied a bit in the DVD funny specials.
I wasn’t particularly fond of Kanako’s blatant sexism. Besides that, it’s an obvious ploy for later character development, but feels rather contrived. She’s right you know men are scum, I know them very well, hell I am one. Any way since the cat is out of the bag anyway they have to peel her off some how. The only guy in the show I didn’t like was Sachiko’s incestual cousin or whatever. Pretty full of himself, trying to come onto Sei. According to Wiki he’s gay for Yuki…any way the guy is an ass, they ought to trade him for Hosaka. Haha oh lord Hosaka…
She totally ate your lunch dude.
Yuki has a much to learn about the Oyama way.
I fail to see the resemblance as well. Looks like Mako-cakes and Maria will not have to worry about competition here.
What did you think about Touko’s appearances? Liked the (no pun intended) drama? As for myself, well, I always like twin-drill tsunderes. But Touko’s “natural” grace was nicely complemented by Yumi’s internal thoughts, especially when she notes how Touko is a natural liar. So there, they set up a nice contrast between Kanako and Touko. You could say both are introverted, while one is silent, the other is blatantly false. Well I guess Touko wants to be a manly man for Yumi, the Drama Club thing was kind of meh. Still I understand why she felt that she could not show her face there. Touko has a lot of pride.
One interesting thing was how Kanako reacts to Sachiko’s bidding. Of course Sachiko is the big boss around there, and Kanako was acting incredibly submissive, putting on a disgustingly insincere smile. And while Sachiko can easily see through Touko’s masks, could she see through Kanako’s? Practicality trumps pride any day, though you are right Touko is proud to the point of arrogance sometimes. Kanako is a bit harder for Sachiko to read, after all they hardly know each other despite both being tall dark and bishoujo. Still for now they seem similar in some respect, I like that Kanako is at least trying to kill every man she sees.
Some like Rule 63 more than others…
Touko makes funny faces too.
Varying degrees of want?
Honestly though I kind of wanted a “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” when Yumi confronted Touko. Oh man that scene was LOL. What was Yumi doing? - I was clearly waiting for a bitch slapfest. It’s freaking marimite, a bitch slap is as likely as a colony drop, still I wonder if they are going to do Little Women, after all relatively speaking Touko is rather little. I mean, Yumi’s antics are pretty hyperbolic (and they satire that in the DVD specials too), which is why I enjoy watching her. She’s very moe, I suppose, a quintessential klutz. Touko does at least have the funny face similarity going for her, come to think of it it seems the House of Chinensis is populated with dojikkos of one sort or another, only Yoko wasn’t in the habit of embarrassing herself. Even if Yumi is hyperbolic I suppose that is the mark of a politician, and there does seem to be a Chinensis Dynasty. Yeah, you could call Sachiko hyperbolic in ways, subdued hyperbolism, especially her drama (particularly season one), though Sachiko really seems in control of herself this season, the true mark of maturity, perhaps? - so you can see how we’ve been through three years of students, and this rite of passage theme is always evident. The generational thing is an aspect I do like, in most cases time seems to stand still for other slice of life type shows.
That one’s enthusiastic to say the least.
Would you kindly?
A man chooses, a Yumi obeys…
I wonder if we are going to get Yakk Deculture Touko and Sachiko when they finally visit Yumi in her natural habitat. Well I think Sachiko’s already been exposed and attuned to Yumi’s rather wild-side, especially when they go jeans-hunting in the first season. But I think the Yakk Deculture might come around for either Sachiko or Kanako when they have to confront each other. This will be important because Yumi has to decide between Kanako and Touko, so you’re going to have Sachiko, the grandmother, incur her divine matriarchal intervention somewhere along the line. As if Sachiko is ever going to give up Yumi. Well, I mean that this first episode was a really good exposition in that it clearly established the Kanako/Touko dichotomy. What is left is how Yumi is going to deal with it, therefore setting herself up for some intruiging character development. I have no idea what the solution will be but I doubt it will be orthodox. I suppose though given the preview it will be time to meet some one’s parents, probably Kanako’s. It’s certainly off to a good start, though with a series this venerable I don’t think much will change, not sure if it will draw in any new fans though since it was not beginner friendly and requires the viewer to be privvy to some past events as well. Yeah, one thing I like about this anime is that parents actually exist, however marginally. Overall I think that at least given the spate of parental problems in the stuff I have been watching or at least noticing, it’s nice to see parents that are fairly normal in that they do not intervene heavily into the lives of their children. The Girl That Leapt Through Time also displayed this in a very nice manner, IMO. We rarely see Yumi’s parents, but it was funny when they showed up during the sports fest and there was a whole bunch of irony going on; just a typical “my parents embarass me!” moment. To be honest kids embarrass their parents plenty in return…
In case you missed it.
Nervous eh?
So moe you died?
Because we’re not finished with the school festival, we’ll still see how effective Sachiko’s ploy is - she’s just trying to use dramatic genderbending as a means for extroversion, but it’s backfiring for Kanako. It hasn’t backfired fully yet, and she was sort of agonizing over two tickets, I can already guess who they are meant for though. Hah! - well, I think the genderbending trick can’t go wrong. However it ends, it will produce some sort of drama that leads to character development, though this development - regardless of the drama the path takes - will probaby be the same. Indeed in marimite as much things change many things stay the same, or you could call it two steps forward one step back!
Would you kindly?
I think Touko is very similar to Yumi…
Very similar…
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by Nomad (Buy Dapper Dan Haircream) Otto
I was originally going to write something pointing a finger at the virgin/mother/whore trichotomy you find in a lot of work, even those things written by women. Then I realized that I don’t really have anything to SAY about it, other than “look, it’s this weird thing. You may now shower me with gifts.” On the other hand, when I was thinking about this topic, something else occurred to me, and that’s that the father figure in…. basically every show I’ve seen in a good, long while is either absent (either physically, as in, they’re not around, or emotionally, as in, you occasionally see them, but they have no real influence over the lives of their progeny) or bad (sleezy, corrupt, manipulative, or otherwise a jackass). Especially considering that Japan is a very male-dominate society, and that anime/manga is a very male-dominated hobby, you’d expect that an important relation in the lives of the characters would be the bond between fathers and sons. This post is designed to look at the issue, both from the literary standpoint and the social standpoint, and, then, will degenerate into crushing irrelevance. Join me for it, won’t you?
ahahahah, suck it batman, my dad isn't dead (......for a while)!
So, since this isn’t going to be focused on the specific missing father roles, I’m going to focus instead on reasons for the lack of fatherhood, of which I see three. First, the lack of available fathers could be a reaction to the actual condition of society over there. Second, it could be the case that the absence of father figures is being used to make a literary point/make it easier to write plots that make sense. Third, it could be that the problem is primary psychological, with the trait being a function of being young and male, a state which is true of most manga authors etc. Let’s examine each theory in turn.
The theory of absent fathers corresponding to an actual social condition at first seems very attractive, because the traditional salaryman work ethic pretty much minimizes the amount of contact the fathers have with their children. If you leave at the crack of dawn, and stay at work or out drinking until late at night, your interaction with your beloved progeny is likely to be extremely minimal. This will naturally be reflected in the mind-scape of children, who become adults, who write books, comics, and shows, none of which have the presence of a strong father figure. Moreover, since the ethic of the salaryman pervades the culture, fathers who AREN’T gone all the time do so because of personal failing, or, rather, they may be perceived as being failures because they can’t fit into the salaryman system.
Would you trust this man with YOUR children?
The problem with this idea, at least in my mind, is that even salarymen have days off. Regardless of how little influence they have, they have at least SOME place in the minds of their children. But we don’t see salarymen fathers. We don’t, in general, see fathers that place work above their children. We don’t see fathers who appear only from time to time. We see NO fathers. So, either the extent of the salaryman deprivations on normal (from the perspective of an upper-middle-class westerner) family life are much larger than I’d expect, or, there might be another explanation for what’s going on.
Maybe the reason for the absent fathers is narrative, rather than sociological. The lack of strong male characters other than, you know, the main character, allows writers to force the lamest of milquetoast protagonists to become heroes. Also, many of the shows that I watch are coming of age stories, in which a boy needs to become a man, something that becomes more difficult to accomplish if there are already men, at least, reasonable sorts of men who might be trusted to do things, on the scene. If this explanation were correct, I would need to get out my old-man cane and rantin’ stick to talk about the sins of Lazy Writing, and invoke the phrase, “just because it’s easy doesn’t mean that you should do it,” along with, perhaps a little of the old “art exists to mirror life.”
I don’t think that this is the case, at least completely. I think that a lot of the properties which are based on visual novels, or have a strong component of relationship issues, do exclude other strong male characters, because it makes it harder to identify with the lead, who, frequently, is something of a cipher. Moreover, in many stories, the characters are not supposed to be the people you’d turn to in a crisis, and, so eliminating the father figures allows for the second rank of folks to take center stage, that is, children, women, etc. On the other hand, a lot of stories would be markedly improved by the existence of another male character, and, moreover, many stories substitute surrogate father figures in place of dad himself. Why the need for surrogates? After all, everyone HAS a father, so, why the need to create a father figure while, at the same time, removing the father himself?
In other words, why this guy?
To use my customary lack of anything resembling tact, Daddy issues! At least, that’s one way of looking at it. The Freud Dude, as Keanu Reeves once said in the best acting job of his carreer, theorized that young men grow up hating their fathers and loving their mothers. While I don’t think that most authors want to re-create the story of oedipus Rex, there might be something going on with the need for surrogate fathers. After all, one’s own father can be a threatening figure, as well as a helpful figure, as he not only is a source of support, but also a source of condemnation and discipline. Moreover, the choice of one’s family is outside of one’s control- many people end up with family that are a continued source of annoyance. On the other hand, a father-replacement has the potential for all of the benefits of a traditional father figure: he can provide support, guidence, and even discipline, occasionally, without the whole: “he’s your father, reguardless of how you feel about him.” A surrogate father is a father you can select, and can if he proves unsuitable for the role, walk away (of course, in general, you won’t HAVE to walk away). A surrogate father is a father over whom you have some control, but, as a surrogote, he can only fufill his role if the real thing is unable, or unwilling, to serve. Thus, it’s an easy step, and one that may not be even thought about a great deal, to get rid of the figure that threatens the power of the hero, by eliminating or marginalizing him, and to introduce his replacement.
I’m just saying. I mean, I’m probably wrong, but it’s interesting to think about, innit? Anyway, I’ve got a hundred pages of paper to get read. Laters!
Uh, I guess there was Christmas or something that I missed....
Okay Boys looks like we have to raid the Super Special bus…
So while there seems to be a rather tepid and hostile reaction to White Album I was utterly delighted to see that for the short term we have the greatest wretched hive of scum and villainy dumb and emo all in one show. Sure it already looks dated with the pay phones and a strong US Dollar, but nevertheless while these characters are boring and look rather samey, they do have one thing going for them, emotional “problems.” Yes this alone will attract Tanukis that remember Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and fans of Takayuki. Maybe it will surprise me but for now I have decided to study these subjects with a ghillie suit armed with liberal amounts of sneering contempt. Also Pardon the Suchong Accent.
Observation Log 001 Corpsman Crusader, Subject: Toya Fuji
Too dumb to phone home…
Young man is loser always late for work, he woke up at noon and did not have enough balls to tell his supervisor in person about how he over slept. Subject got fired, to think that a bunch of people were turned down for the job only for him to bitch about girlfriend is galling. Stupid boy no understand real suffering complains more than professional activist about CIA conspiracy. He saw his girlfriend some up coming fetish fuel that is rather boring, he not have feelings enough to kiss her or anything, he calls her his “everyday.” Must be reference to how often he faps to her picture. Keeps his so called best friend sexually frustrated by being third wheel, with friends like Fuji who need enemy? Also have fear of girl on TV, talks a lot of shit about people he don’t know let alone meet. Subject hates his father but called home to beg for money, while he failed to show up on anniversary of his mother’s death. Subject seems like a douche.
Observation Log 002 Corpsman Crusader, Subject: Haruka Kawashima
She charges for bike ride.
Girl on bike suicidal, part of me wish she slid out and hit dumb boy and break her neck. Worse thing about love triangle as that almost every other girl want to make it a harem. Her cousin Ami is so much cuter, regardless subject is hard on for dead “nii-san” but now she try to get into pants of best friend’s lover. Look like Tanuki can suck on egg he no get sis-con. Such a waste throwing her talent away mourning like she’s the only one who had to bury a relation. Usually sports girl have brain or at least strong this one weak like straw. Possible necrophiliac.
Observation Log 003 Corpsman Crusader, Subject: Yuki Morikawa
As soon as she cries it will look authentic.
Fetish fuel is obviously an invertebrate given lack of spine, it also have trouble with basic motor function and can barely do her job right. Supposedly she’s up and coming, though I can easily imagine her suffering fate of Ranka, manager is however quite useless. So subject is safe for now from remixes and Breras. It buy cans of juice for its natural predators, the red hyenas, but lacked brain cells to put velocity with the mass she brought back as defensive measure. I estimate that severe and crippling damage could have been done given frail frame of predator species and size of cans. Recently dressed like high school drama club, will add in small razor to see if there will be reaction, should have cut away middle from generic white dress of bad design to expose midriff; wasted opportunity. Possible Hippie.
Observation Log 004 Corpsman Crusader, Subject: Rina Ogata
LISTEN TO HER SONG!
Interesting subject this one, limited observation time probably meant less chance for Ogata to fuck up. Seems to be alpha female and top predator of food chain, ate red hyenas for breakfast, subject seems universally feared. Current hypothesis is pheromones so strong that they can pass through native TV. Manager seems old and fat, perhaps it is her pet or farm animal? Subject seems to tolerate Yuki like lion playing with food, subject promoting dead end relationship for Yuki with stalker. Hopefully subject is not predatory and will show signs of yuri-lust. Voice and haircut seem more interesting.
It’s been a while, but I’d think this is a useful post for other people, as well as myself, so I’ll restart it (I never really meant for it to lapse to begin with)
Anime DVDs
January 6, 2009
Blue Dragon - Volume 3 (dub)
Eden’s Bowy - Box Set
Gurren Lagann - Part 2
Lucky Star - Volume 5
Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture
Naruto - Volume 31 (dub)
Ouran High School Host Club - Part 2
Manga
January 6, 2009
Black Cat - Volume 18
Black Jack - Volume 3
Captive Hearts - Volume 2
Castle of Dreams
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - Volume 2
Chibi Vampire - Volume 12
Crayon Shin-chan - Volume 6
Dr. Slump - Volume 17
Fate/Stay Night - Volume 2
Fushigi Yugi: BIG Edition - Volume 1
Gintama - Volume 10
Gun Blaze West - Volume 3
Heaven’s Will
High School Debut - Volume 7
Hunter X Hunter - Volume 24
Junjo Romantica - Volume 8
Kurohime - Volume 9
Lovely Complex - Volume 10
Momo Tama - Volume 1
Nana - Volume 14
Prince of Tennis - Volume 29
S.A - Volume 8
Saiyuki Reload - Volume 9
Sand Chronicles - Volume 4
Shaman King - Volume 20
Skip Beat! - Volume 16
Strawberry 100% - Volume 7
Time Stranger Kyoko - Volume 3
We Were There - Volume 2
Whistle! - Volume 21
January 7, 2009
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service - Volume 8
Path of the Assassin - Volume 14
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Haruka and Chiaki finish up putting on their kimonos for the New Year visit to the shrine, while Kana sleeps in.