Anime bigotry – Form for substance
With the advent of Clannad, I find myself reading more disgruntled comments all around the blogsphere, about how KyoAni is wasting their time with "moe-bishoujo crap". Yes, it's all happening again. Instead of focusing on KyoAni and Clannad in this time, I'd like press my point on the problem of substituting form for substance through several anime case studies.
Case Study #1 - Kannazuki no Miko
How would you describe KnM? Mikos meets mecha? Gundam Marimite? Or an intense drama of taboo love? The first 2 are superficial descriptions outlining the platform by which the real meat of the story is built upon - drama. Yes, it's lame on the mecha front and probably disappointing to folks looking for action. But for those who look beyond the mecha skin and into the heart of drama, it's a great series.
Case Study #2 - Infinite Ryvius
IR is a social commentary and a bold dabble in uncharted anime genres by SUNRISE. By virtue of its unique scenario, many have touted it to be the best thing since free internet porn sliced bread. But personally, I thought it was a squandered great. To takes more than just having an unique or avant garde premise to be considered a good series. The potential needs to be realised. IR was refreshing and promising but unfortunately severely handicapped by an underdeveloped cast and turbulent storytelling, disqualifying it from being an Anime GreatTM.
Case Study #3 - Mahoromatic (Season 1)
I always cringe when folks brush Mahoromatic off as "merely an ecchi series". The core of Mahoromatic's message is the celebration of life. It's expressed through the bittersweet tribulations/hijinks of Mahoro as her end draws nearer while the days becomes happier. The ecchi elements serve to accentuate the fun which in turn supports this central theme. To write it off as ONLY a fanservicey show is to miss the pizza for the anchovies.
Case Study #4 - Kodomo no jikan
I'm so glad I'm hearing less of "ewww... series' for lolicons" rhetoric and more "awww.. what a sweet story" affirmations. No, I'm not in denial. Admittedly, KnJ has some pretty racy stuff going on for pre-pubs, pushing boundaries at times. But it'd be true denial if you think kids are pure nowadays (pure as in anime-clueless 'pure'). I was panty-flashed by 2 female classmates (deliberately) when I was in 10 yrs old and recently asked by a kid 20 yrs younger than me to be her bf. The truth is children today are precocious, well-informed, growing faster than ever and KnJ is candidly upfront to explore some of these issues (albeit with exaggerations). To see KnJ as a show for lolicons is to potentially miss one of the sweetest coming of age tales this season.
There are at least 5 other terribly maligned series I could rave about but for the sake of keeping this entry readable, I'd stop here. In parting, I just like to say good series those that have coherent stories with well-motivated/consistent characters and inspired storytelling (which may include humour/fanservice) that converges these symbiotic elements. And these can be built on any platform, be it mecha, bishoujo, harem or ninja. One just have to look beyond their anime prejudices to realise that universal constituents of an enjoyable series can be applied to every genre include moe-bishoujo.
Now, I await Clannad, ef~ a tale of memories and DCII with the greatest anticipation.
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September 26th, 2007 - 01:56
If you want quality, try Seirei no Moribito. My wife recently have crowned it as possibly best anime series ever in overall consideration, and I dare not argue with her.
September 26th, 2007 - 02:11
JULY 15 2014, TOKYO, JAPAN:
As per visual novel company Key’s tradition of allowing one Kanon adaptation to be made every 4 years, revered director Makoto Shinkai has announced his intention to remake the classic into a “25 episode epic comprising of 5 shorts, which tells the tale about one boy, five girls, and a distance of seven years” in a press conference held at Akihabara early this morning.
Tenmon, his friend and long-time composer for works such as Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and 5 Centimeters per Second, has promised to give classics such as ????, ?? and ?? “the usual treatment”, and tells fans to expect “an orchestral epic of The Fox And The Grapes” during Makoto’s death scene. Tenmon declined to comment when asked how he would surpass the success of James Wendt’s Last Regrets ~English Rewrite~, Gabriela Robin’s The Fox And The Grapes ~Opera Ver~, or Mai Yamane’s ???????? ~Bossanova Mix~.
BONES, having previously adapted Kanon for the third time in 2010 to critical acclaim alongside accomplished maestro Yoko Kanno, has upped the ante for Kanon adaptations considerably since KyoAni’s feat in 2006, and the pressure is on Shinkai, who was tight-lipped and evasive about what sort of Yuuichi would come to light this time, only saying that it would be “very different from KyoAni’s sarcastic one, or BONES’s gritty, bitter and cynical one”.
Reaction has been mixed among the English-speaking community on the internet, whose reactions have been anywhere from pleased to angry to bitter, in a none too surprising mirror of events 4 years ago, when BONES decided to pick up Kanon for adaptation after their immensely successful Darker than Black series, or even 8 years ago, when KyoAni decided to adapt Kanon in favour of the cult classic Haruhi 2.
One fan identified only as G.C. who could be seen cosplaying as what looked like an original mecha design at the press conference, was overheard as saying “I don’t care what Shinkai does to the other four girls, as long as Shiori stays ALIVE!” before taking out a Shiori dakimakura and vigorously sexually assaulting it in public, only to be promptly removed by security.
September 26th, 2007 - 02:35
I’m personally not keen on ‘moé-bishoujo crap’ and would love to see Haruhi 2 earlier rather than later. Nonetheless AIR, Kanon, CLANNAD etc. *are* extremely popular in Japan – where fans actually spend lots of money on their ‘moé-bishoujo crap’. Since KyoAni would probably like to stay in business and make a profit while they are at it, it makes perfect sense for them to animate these series – that’s the democracy of the market for you.
September 26th, 2007 - 02:53
Gainax does Kanon.
You KNOW you want to see it…
Cheers.
September 26th, 2007 - 04:46
ono, gainax, can we expect some out of the world ending?
September 26th, 2007 - 05:44
I think that most people who are bitching would like to see KyoAni try their hand at something other than a h-game adaptation (which is most of their works), like they did with Full Metal Panic! and TMoHS. I mean, the h-game adaptations certainly seem to be their forte, but I’d love to see what they can do with something besides that (again, see Full Metal Panic! and TMoHS).
That said, Clannad looks interesting.
September 26th, 2007 - 06:06
Weirdly enough, I’m very keen on “moe-bishoujo-crap”, but I’m not really looking forward to Clannad, and Kanon didn’t fill me with much enthusiasm either. This is because, from all that I’ve heard (and in the case of Kanon and Air, seen), the stories are far too depressing for me.
I’d be happy if KyoAni did more Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star until the end of time, but then considering how much I’m getting persecuted in anime forums for liking those shows (especially the latter), I can understand them not doing so.
I want happy moe-bishoujo-crap. Failing that, I’d at least like to have a happy ending so I can keep those last few episodes and discard the rest of the angst.
September 26th, 2007 - 06:47
September 26th, 2007 - 09:20
Gainax Does School Days kkthx.
Yall are silly people.
And Kodomo no Jikan fans who think people shouldn’t go eww over its somewhat charming “story” elements should just go all watch Simoun now.
September 26th, 2007 - 09:31
Preach on, My Brother! ^_^
I think there are some amazingly good bishoujo series out there, and anyone writing the genre off as crap because of its less stellar examples is missing out. There are a lot of bad bishoujo series, sure, but there are a lot of bad series in anything, and the gems of bishoujo to me are as good or better than the gems of any other genre. Saying bishoujo series ’suck’ is like saying the color green sucks–there’s nothing more subjective than what you like and dislike. I think all too often in the internet what we end up with is people stating their opinions as facts, instead of personal opinions/preferences. If they had never made Da Capo and Kanon…just the thought is enough to make me shudder…
To Dkellis’s point on Lucky Star (I know, not a bishoujo series, but as an example)–it seems like most of the criticism of it I see is simply because it isn’t something completely different, like saying pizza sucks because it isn’t as sweet as a choco cornet. Of course it isn’t, it’s pizza, not a dessert! If you add a plot, drama, action, and so on to Lucky Star you get a series in a completely different genre, which is NOT what Lucky Star is trying to be. Sure, Lucky Star is light entertainment, and won’t make you think any deep, profound thoughts, but that’s not why I watch it–I watch Lucky Star because after a long workday, it consistently puts a smile on my face. If people don’t find it funny, that’s fine, we just have different tastes. If people think they should never laugh in their entire lives and all anime should be dark and serious…that sounds pretty sad to me, but whatever floats your boat.
Back to bishoujo series, I have to admit I’m not looking forward to Clannad nearly as much as I did to Kanon, though–I don’t mind drama and a few tear-jerking moments (re-watched episode 14 of Kanon last night, and if that scene with Sayuri and Kazuya doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, 9 out of 10 doctors believe you may have No Immortal Soul), but based on Hinano’s novella-length summary of the Clannad game a while back, it sounds like Clannad is going to be closer to Air than Kanon. Kanon had what I’d consider a great ending, but while Air had good moments (Kannabi no Mikoto for one), it was just too depressing for me, and other than Kanna and the lead I didn’t connect with the characters as much. That’s 1000% subjective, so I’m not bashing Air or saying it was ‘bad’–I think it just didn’t hit the right note for me.
September 26th, 2007 - 12:37
As long as the story’s good, the characters are interesting, and have looker females, I could care less what the genre is.
After playing the ef -the first tale- demo translation released about three days ago, I’m kind of looking forward to the anime.
I wonder if they’ll go with the Tomoyo ending in Clannad because of Tomoyo After.
September 27th, 2007 - 02:27
Well, I tend to ignore all these comments about “moe-bishoujo-crap”. First of all because people that use ‘moe~’ in a way as it was a genre show that they don’t know what they’re talking about. Moe is just a term for describing how a character is, and it’s something personal. I think the definition “making you feel all warm inside” is better, and it isn’t limited to just bishoujo games and anime adaptions. You can find moe~ in any series. Someone might think that Euphie in Code Geass is moe~ whenever she shows her compassion to someone.
I’m a bit worried that in west, moe~ will become a totally wrong definition, just like how ‘hentai’ is defined.
Secondly, Clannad won’t be a “moe-bishoujo-crap”, because the characters aren’t as helpless as in Kanon, or as stupid as they tend to be in many of these stories.
The best way to show this is to demonstrate how two of my favourite Clannad characters interact in this short video clip:
http://flaskis.ownit.nu/clannad6.wmv
Enjoy ^o^
PS. Tsundere is moe~
September 27th, 2007 - 06:42
maglor: Noted. Thx for the highlight
Owen S: LOL! Loved the closing Shiori bits. Sounds like Kanon has become a franchise as GUNDAM did. A glorious future awaits! XD
Zyl: Actually it’s not like Haruhi2 would not generate the same bucketload of money given the following it has. Of course money talks but KyoAni’s work is clearly not only monetary-motivated. Think of Tessa’s OVA and we see how much love they have for their characters and craft.
Personally, I believe KyoAni is into the bishoujo biz not for the financial returns only but more importantly for their love and excellence in this genre.
Skane/Kabitzin/crimson: Gainax is reserved for Planeterian.
I can’t imagine a studio for suitable for a world so despondent.
DKellis: I’ll also looking forward to Clannad more than Kanon since Clannad is going to be a virginal experience for me. That said, I understand that Clannad is closer to AIR in soul so folks who prefer Kanon to AIR may not enjoy Clannad as much. At least that’s what I was told
Venneh: Personally I believe KyoAni’s strength is inspired storytelling and devotion to details be it in characterisation or plot devices. These strengths bring the best out of any adaptations or genre so yeah be it Clannad or FMP, you’d be sure KyoAni’ll spin a fine tale with endearing characters
omo: I’ve seen simoun and while it’s also a coming of age tale, the scenario and governing boundaries for the characterisations are so different it’s hard to compare. But I don’t see how both cannot be good tales.
suguru: Always great to have my bro-in-bishoujo covering my back!
Beowulf Lee: Given that Tomoyo After’s the one with H-content, I’m holding out for a Tomoyo after hentai after Clannad’s run is over…. not! LOL! XD Looking fwd to ef more than ever now
flaskis: Thx for the video! Looking fwd to Clannad more than ever now!
September 27th, 2007 - 10:32
Skane: CONGRATULATIONS YUUICHI
Owen S: LOL Shiori fap-boy. Excellent.
P.D.: Gainax should do Kodomo no Jikan.
October 1st, 2007 - 00:38
I guess I’m leaning in DKellis’s camp. I’d kind of rather see more upbeat stuff for a little while after a couple of years of being beaten down with tragic drama.
However, its like Zyl says … its all about what the domestic market shells the yen out for. Outsiders are just hanging on for the ride.
October 1st, 2007 - 09:22
Sherman, the Ramni: LOL! I’ve always equated Gainax with “14 yr old nudes” seeing how many of their series features the abovementioned. XD
Vexx: Heh, myself I don’t mind any kind of story as long as it’s well told. Still holding my breath for a KyoAni Planetarian
October 1st, 2007 - 14:50
>>>I
October 1st, 2007 - 21:39
Thanks soo much for the warning! Staying away from it like plague. I would have expected KyoAni to be more prudent after all of Kanon’s previews were very discreet.
Edit: Oops, Clannad movie… ah… Toei… bleh XD
October 3rd, 2007 - 09:31
Beowulf: Go watch Moonlight Lady.
Some of the best animation i seen in anime, Hentai or Non-Hentai and the artwork and character design is by Carnelian.