From the moment Digitalboy announced his Diary of an Anime Lived project, I was interested. True, it’s usually not a good idea for an anime blogger to talk more about themselves than about anime, but there are times when personal posts add an extra level of realism to an invisible writer and their opinions. It’s also intriguing to see how fiction can impact lives, intentionally or not.

However, when the project was announced and posts started surfacing, I quickly realized that anime hasn’t impacted me as much as I thought it had. Sure, my life is different today because of anime – but it’s the fandom that changed me, not any particular work of fiction. I could have rambled on about Honey and Clover and shoujo manga and unrequited love, but that’s not quite what the project is about. H&C might be my favourite anime, but it didn’t make me rethink anything. It’s my Bible, and it made me want to cry for every Takemoto and Morita and Hagu, every Ayumi and Rika and Mayama, but it didn’t make me rethink anything.

My prospects were looking bleak for a while: I’m from an ordinary, functional family, I attended reasonably safe and healthy schools, and I don’t suffer from any psychological problems. There isn’t much in my life that I can ramble on about, no tear-jerking awakenings spawned by a heroic struggle in anime.

Towards the end of the year, though, I realized something. I found a connection in a character who couldn’t be more different from me: Emiya Shirou.

Shirou is a naive, irrational kid who is selfless to a fault. His self-esteem is low enough that it makes me wonder just how tragic the events of the previous Holy Grail War were to him. As you might have guessed, I’m almost the exact opposite: I try to look at things rationally, and for better or worse, I’m not as interested in the well-being of the human race as a lot of people. Given the choice, I would not become Archer, and I would not sacrifice my life to become a hero. It just isn’t worth spending your one life on something you’ll never benefit from.

That said, when the second route rolled around, there was something that caught my eye. Shirou has a certain trait that I have, and if you take it out of context, his quest disturbingly similar to my own.

Let’s backtrack for a bit. Shirou, being “reborn” into a world of death and knowing that he was only saved by chance, decided to dedicate his life to others. Above all else, he vowed to become someone who could save everyone, so that a tragedy like that could never be repeated.

In a completely different way, I was born into a fairly ordinary society that hides its fangs beneath the surface. No, I’m not complaining – it’s a simple truth. As anime fans, virtually all of us have experienced some sort of exclusion in society, be it at school or work  or even with our own peers. I was never a victim of bullying and I never felt discriminated against, if that’s the right word to use, but the “fangs” of society were there. They’re still there. And yet, is it only the “abnormal” people in society who are pushed away from the “normal” ones? Nerd culture has grown tremendously, and some levels of geekdom are considered normal, or even respectable in the rest of the world. And as we all know, just as an anime nerd would get torn apart on a football team, jocks and playboys get flamed to death on 4chan. It’s happened.

Anyway, what does that have to do with me, you ask? Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with any open hostility to anime, but I never felt the “geek shame” that so many people talk about. For every jock that makes a snide comment about Japanese cartoon porn and competitive gaming, I make a snide comment about the amount of skill required to toss a ball into a hoop and the intelligence required to rebuke every argument with “your mom.”

(Yes, competitive sports are as meaningful as competitive gaming, but that’s not the point)

At any rate, it was experiences like those in my early teens that made me proud of anime as a counter-culture trend. Even today, I don’t try to hide the fact that I’m an anime fan, although I often avoid conversation on the matter for fear of the inevitable “Gundam Seed is sooooo awesome!”.

Of course, none of this adds up to Shirou yet. You’d think that growing up as a “rebellious” nerd who denounces pop culture doesn’t have much to do with a would-be hero’s naive idealism. When you factor in my competitive personality, though, it does.

I might not be argumentative by nature, but I’m certainly competitive. I’m competitive in the sense that I vowed to become a pro gamer by the end of high school; in the sense that I’m trying to finish every translated visual novel before the next school year. I don’t try to pick fights, but I genuinely enjoy raising the bar and challenging myself to learn new things. When you add that to my “nerd pride” viewpoint and the fact that countless nerds abandon their fandom as a mistake of youth before they can do anything meaningful with it, it should come as no surprise that my dream was – and still is – to learn all there is to know about nerd culture.

In a nutshell, it’s just a dream. It’s totally different from Shirou’s dream of becoming a superhero and saving everyone, but it’s still a dream. The question is, is it an impossible dream?

Becoming a hero doesn’t sound that hard. Practically speaking, I suppose you’d have to start a charity and give public presentations, or maybe join the army if you’re into the old-fashioned stuff. Unfortunately, those steps toward aiding the world are equivalent to most accounts drifting around on MAL: they’re a step in the right direction, and they satisfy the owner’s needs, but they’re eventually abandoned. A single soldier usually doesn’t change the world, and if they’re lucky, they’ll retire happily without worrying about the lives that will continue to be lost. Likewise, most anime fans conclude their hobby with no tangible benefit, as a sort of shameful high school pastime that got them through their teenage years. At the end of the day, everyone gets a job and gets married, and everyone forgets about the day they lost their first video game tournament and swore to grow stronger.

When I started to make this connection, I quickly realized that Fate/stay night would not conclude the way I wanted it to. I already had a vague idea of the story’s progression: Shirou begins the game as the child and ends it as an adult. Unsurprisingly, as I’m only a year or two older than him, his teenage self in Unlimited Blade Works represents my own beliefs flawlessly. Yes, I do realize that sacrifices have to be made in the name of fulfilling a dream; I realize that happiness is exchanged for success. But does it matter? Isn’t it wrong to turn your back on everything you believe in…?

At the end of UBW, Archer’s epilogue that revisited his fight against Shirou instantly became my favourite scene in the game. My heart was pounding, my finger was eagerly clicking, and the words were already dancing in my head, impatiently awaiting their chance to be poured out onto the keyboard. His final statement of “even so, I was not wrong” was the one ending that I wanted. I can’t deny that Shirou’s path leads to self-destruction, I can’t deny that the price of fulfilling his childhood dream is his own death… but even so, he can’t be wrong. If he didn’t pursue his dream, he would end up living a lie.

Those are kind of words you’d expect from a student who hasn’t worked a day in his life, right? I realize that – and Shirou realized that too. UBW is filled with doubt and uncertainty. Neither the viewer nor the protagonist knows if his dream is truly attainable, but it’s impossible to play the game without your fingers crossed, praying against the inevitable.

In that sense, Heavens Feel was like a view of the future for me. Certainly, it’s easy to vow to accomplish your goals when you have nothing on the line but yourself, but what about when someone else is relying on you? Love is the easiest example, but it can be anything. When you have people who are more important to you than anything else, wouldn’t that eclipse your desire to fulfill your dreams? It’s always one or the other. For Shirou, that was literally the case, but it’s not too different in the real world. The time and responsibility required to find happiness for yourself in life, to get married and settle down, always consumes the effort needed to accomplish your dream. In the end, the dream is compromised and ultimately fails… but you leave the stage more happily than you would have through any other path.

A convenient visualization of Shirou’s compromise

As you can see, there are a lot of contradictions in here, much like in F/SN itself. Which was the correct answer, UBW or HF? Was Archer’s final acceptance of his younger self’s determination a sign that dreams can be fulfilled even if the price is great, or was Shirou’s decision to sacrifice innocents to protect his loved one an admittance to the truth that happiness and success are mutually exclusive? Some people might have the answers to these questions, and some might think they do, but I don’t – and that’s precisely why Fate/stay night earned a Diary post. It’s my first and last: it’s the one time an anime made me think about my own life, beyond the usual emotional rollercoaster of love and the blissful healing of good shoujo manga.

At the end of the day, I have no way of knowing if Shirou’s dilemma really can work as an allegory for life, and if his eventual conclusion is the same as everyone else’s. However, I do know that I’m right in the middle of Unlimited Blade Works right now, and until Real Life pulls a Heavens Feel, I’m going to keep fighting Archer and repeating those four magic words.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

2009 has been an interesting year, though it was probably more interesting for me than it was for anime. Between finishing up some personal projects, broadening my scope of anime and media consumption, and delving deeper into my selected niche of visual novels, the distance between my last Christmas and this one is vast. Of course, aside from all of the personal growth that I could go on and on about, there was something quite significant that occurred this year, and it’s the only thing befitting the number 1 spot.

It goes by the name of Honey and Clover.

I wrote about the show when I finished rewatching it, pouring everything that I could think of into a single post. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one. It was quite an experience, tackling one of my favourite anime of all-time to properly re-examine it and solidify its place on my favourites list. I was only partially surprised when I found that the rewatch also solidified its place in my heart.

If there’s one thing that the blogosphere’s writing and my later rumination on the show has taught me, it’s that there is no correct answer to Honey and Clover. There are symbols, motifs, and implied themes, but to label a specific meaning to the show is just as foolish as labeling a specific meaning to life

Quite simply, H&C is life. That’s what causes it to resound so deeply with some viewers, what causes the different interpretations and reactions. We all find something different to relate to, something to project ourselves into – the mind unconsciously clings to whichever situation it finds most relatable. It’s like a magical item from a fantasy novel, a mirror that reflects the heart: the feelings that the show conjures are nothing more than the feelings from our own experiences. It does not create or tell; it simply stirs what’s already there.

Looking back, I believe that’s why I fell for Honey and Clover three years ago, and why I fell for it all over again last summer. As the other bloggers and viewers can attest to, each viewer leaves the show with a different feeling, with a different view of the central theme – but in reality, I don’t think that theme existed in the first place. It’s simply a memoir, a personal reflection done to perfection. Because of that, everyone will watch the final episode and find a different answer, a different “truth” about life… but nothing can change the fact that the show stirs the heart of all who open up to it.

And just like the ferris wheel that never stopped spinning, the summer weeks of 2009 that I spent revisiting this series will never disappear; they will continue revolving forever as my bittersweet memory.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

What does it mean to be a God?

For most people, this is a question that is rarely seriously pondered – and if it is, it’s probably through the lens of theology rather than Japanese cartoons.

Of course, Koji Masunari‘s Kamichu is no more about theology than Fate/stay night is about mythology. The background setting of religion is an interesting means of portraying a fairly simplistic and heartwarming coming-of-age tale, not unlike the works of a familiar studio. It follows the old magic-as-a-metaphor trope perfectly, using fantasy elements to illuminate the development of a very down-to-earth protagonist.

That said, I don’t believe the story contains any concrete themes or specific metaphors. Instead, it’s more of a general feeling, a vague message everyone understands but no one can describe. At the very least, despite its abstract plot and childish imagery, Kamichu will get you thinking.

The most obvious (and arguably most important) thing a person can say about this show is the fact that it’s imaginative. On the plus side, it’s creative; on the downside, it’s a stretch to believe. The viewer’s suspension of disbelief has to be completely put aside for it to work – treat it like a fable rather than a fantasy novel. Much like Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, logic is not a factor – the plot takes a back seat to the surreal aesthetics and the character development.

Looking at it that way, Kamichu is most certainly a story of growing up. Yurie is a plain middle school student, no matter how you look at it – she’s clumsy and she lacks confidence, she forgets her homework like all of us. Even with her powers as a God, she can’t solve the problems that really matter to her. Like any student, she fights through school life while struggling to figure herself out, except that in this case she has the whole world to worry about.

It bothers me slightly that I couldn’t identify any specific symbols or metaphors in the story, but there’s no doubt that Yurie’s magical powers aren’t to be taken seriously or literally. Instead, it’s as if her magic grows alongside her, incidentally helping her gain confidence and mature. Like in many anime, her lack of confidence is manifested in the object of her affection, who she can only idolize from afar, even after becoming a God. The magic is simply an extra push to help her along.

Looking at it that way, Kamichu starts to feel more like a magical girl show than anything else. Like the iconic Cardcaptor Sakura, the fantasy of being a magician and fighting evil is nothing more than a gentle force following along in the sidelines, watching as the heroine matures. Without spoiling, the last episode of CCS solidifies the concept of magic-as-a-metaphor in my mind, and the middle school God Yurie is no exception to the rule.

In conclusion, Kamichu is a pleasing slice-of-life, magical girl, coming-of-age hybrid that delves into the innocent troubles of youth. So long as you’re capable of viewing the story figuratively and not questioning the incompetence of the Japanese military and the ignorance of Yurie’s parents at their family cat’s ability to use chopsticks, this series will provide a warm adventure through the wilderness of the teenage heart that puts even Studio Ghibli to the test.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

There’s a lot that one can say about Fate/stay night; I spent about 5000 words on it in total, and I estimate Owen, Pontifus, and Martin have spent about the same.

Of course, when it comes to a game this iconic, there’s no accurate way of counting the impressions and retrospectives of fans. F/SN has always been one of the most popular visual novels in the history of everything, earning not only an anime adaptation and a plethora of merchandise, but also a solid concrete reader score (approximately 9/10 on VNDB and ErogameScape [NSFW]). Long story short, it’s a good game. Period.

Looking back at it – all 80 hours – that’s really all it comes down to. It’s a good game. Fate/stay night instantly brings to mind either countless in-jokes and internet memes or elaborate Nasuverse charts and statistics, but that’s only a fraction of what it has to offer. In addition to providing a memorable story and a complex set of rules worthy of any RPG, F/SN succeeds at toying with the reader’s heart with its eroge-style character development, akin to any good Key game, and it somehow weaves a dramatic and highly unique overarching theme into a seemingly incoherent mess of jargon. The game looks messy at first – GAR jokes here, annoying protagonists there – but by the end of it, it’s impossible to not leave with satisfaction.

I was never a self-proclaimed Type-Moon fan, and just as I didn’t care for Kinoko Nasu’s fictional universe, many of you may not care for visual novels as a whole. However, Fate/stay night is a spectacular story whether you like it or not, and if you let it get a hold of you, it will force you to concur. I have consumed many fictional works that played with my mind and tingled my heart, but I have never before seen something that does everything with such dramatic finesse. You are the only one who will regret it if you don’t play the game before you die.

- – -

2009 was the year that allowed me to experience my current all-time favourite visual novel, but behind the scenes of the usual denizens of /jp/ and the gemot, a potentially revolutionary visual novel has made strides in its progress.

Katawa Shoujo – Disability Girl.

The concept is bizarre, but that doesn’t mean much to us. The production values are nonexistent – it’s a free project intended for the market of fandom. It’s a novel idea, too, but novel ideas aren’t as uncommon as you’d think. What most Original English Language VNs lack isn’t ideas or money or passion, but simply skilled execution.

With the release of the first chapter of their iconic OEL VN, Four Leaf Studios has easily proved that they have what it takes to make it to the top. In a community filled with bright young minds and poor organizational skills, forums littered with projects that feel more like a programmer’s summer sandbox than a full-fledged piece of fiction, Katawa Shoujo is the revolution that we need.

That’s right: the importance of this offbeat EVN is not only about itself. For the dev team and the fans that will play it, nothing is more important than the game, but for the OEL community – for each and everyone one of us who dared to write a visual novel – it’s a tremendously significant step. The hype surrounding Katawa Shoujo has skyrocketed this past year, and if all goes well, it will prove to the world that the visual novel is not a medium that can only work in Japan, and that any group of skilled and dedicated fans can create a story worthy tears.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve said a lot about Clannad, to the point that I hardly feel like linking to a post. It was a spectacular show while it lasted – maybe not revolutionary, per se, but certainly a change of pace from the standard Key fare that we’ve grown accustomed to. Truth be told, my favourite moments in the series aired in 2008, while the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa was developing until things unfolded the way that they did. The whole warm-and-fuzzy shoujo-esque bliss of the middle portion of After Story is something I’ll never forget, but it’s also a memory that falls awkwardly on the line between this year and the last.

Having said that, the show’s infamous finale is probably more worthy of discussion than anything else. Of course, the final episode was discussed to death when it first aired, but even though everyone chipped in, I don’t think any of our opinions were swayed. My own feelings of the show are that it was too perfect to be ruined by one slip, but in all honesty, it’s unfair to call the conclusion a “slip”. At the very least, it was a mistake made with confidence and not out of carelessness.

Unlike Key’s previous works, I believe Clannad‘s main draw lies in its themes, not in its characters. It feels almost like a perfected version of their original formula, combining the character-driven drama of Kanon and the overarching story of Air. All of Clannad‘s arcs and motifs, particularly the Dango Daikazoku song that matches the melody of the iconic theme “Nagisa”, point toward the message that it’s trying to put across.

The show challenges the darker side of life, complete with Key’s signature tragedies, but it cleverly contrasts them with the equally signatory blissful slife-of-life galge development, drawing an unexpectedly meaningful story out of a tired medium. Without trying to come off as revolutionary or otherwise preachy, it challenges the viewer’s perception of happiness and sadness, of the tear-jerking tragedies and the impossibly idealistic rewards. Clannad views life with selectively rose-tinted glasses, and Tomoya’s final decision to accept  pain in the name of love is symbolic of not only the show’s themes, but also of the ubiquitous visual novel dichotomy of perfect love and painful reality. In the end, it doesn’t matter if happiness wins over sadness: all that matters is the certainty that running from sadness will never earn you your Good End.

- – -

The stars accidentally aligned today to combine Clannad with something vague that I also wanted to talk about; something that can simply be summed up as life goes on.

In the same bittersweet vein as Clannad‘s story, nothing can stop the real world from turning, and that law of nature also affects the internet. Since this is my first full year in the community, I can look back and honestly say that it’s been an interesting year for us – new bloggers joined, old bloggers left, and I think we’re all one step closer to our goals, whatever they may be. I was originally going to go through the names one-by-one, but frankly, you know who you are. I feel comfortable enough to say that, knowing that you know if we’ve influenced each other in any way.

If there’s one good thing that happened this year to offset the retirement and semi-retirement of some friends and acquaintances, it’s that I managed to overcome the sphere’s “learning curve”, so to speak. It’s sad to know that Real Life is always lurking behind us, awaiting its chance to sweep us away into the world of professional work and study, but it’s relieving to know that we’re a tightly knit circle no matter what – both in the blogosphere and in anime fandom as a whole. Kudos to a year well done.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

I don’t really want to talk about Endless Eight. I was away from the blogosphere while the long-awaited sequel to Suzumiya Haruhi was airing, but the drama that surrounded it quickly turned it into a trainwreck. There were some who liked it and many who didn’t; there were theories flying around about trolling and carefully written meta; there was the infamous “betrayal” of Aya Hirano and Yamakan himself. The end result was messy, not unlike a trainwreck, and it’s a little bitter to look back on.

That said, Endless Eight was probably the most memorable anime of the year, despite not being the best. It’s one-of-a-kind, as far as I know, both for its content and for its implications. Unlike other time travel stories, KyoAni was clearly aware of what they were doing here, engaging in a battle of wits with legions of fans. I’m not sure why they did it, and I doubt we’ll ever know, but their cryptic advertising and unorthodox directing of the past prove that nothing in Haruhi is unintentional. Unlike the relatively ordinary novels, the first season was literally tossed on its head, and the Hare Hare Yukai dance became a symbol of moe as an industry-wide trend. Haruhi was loud and obnoxious from the very beginning: much like the titular character, it does what it wants when it wants and doesn’t isn’t afraid of anything.

In that sense, the second season was an ironic success. I can’t say that I enjoyed it nearly as much as I could have, but KyoAni succeeded in throwing an impeccable curve ball that made even more of a splash than the seemingly insurmountable first season. When I look at it that way, I can’t help but feel that they accomplished their goal.

- – -

It might be a bit of a stretch to call MangaGamer’s forray into the commercial visual novel translation scene a home run, but they’ve certainly been the talk of the town over the past year. Leaping into the fray with Da Capo, they proceeded to buy the licenses for Shuffle, Higurashi, and some other respectable titles and beat the fan translators at their own game. Of course, there have been some hiccups in their own translation quality (and let’s not forget their choice of font), but I think we can all agree that their emergence has done more help than harm.

The future looks strong for MangaGamer right now, which is good news for those of us who want to get our hands on DCII and the rest of Higurashi, but they especially deserve praise for listening to their customers. If you’ve been anywhere other than the underside of a rock for the past month, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Censorship has been one of the biggest issues of 2009, pulling our beloved 2D goodness into a mess of politics and ethics, but so far the practical influence on us has been minor. It would be a bit too congratulatory to outright thank MangaGamer for deciding against the removed CGs in Soul Link – it might well have been a wise business move and nothing more – but the fact remains that many companies are unwilling to listen to the pleas of the consumers. For better or worse, though, the English-speaking visual novel community is a small place, and no business can survive by angering their target audience.

If JAST‘s partnership with TLWiki is a sign of things to come, we might be heading into a time in which professionals and amateurs don’t have to be at odds, a time in which we can cooperate under the same fandom with the same ideals. It’s unrealistic, I know, but I’d like to think that 2009 has taken us one step closer to a world in which we can all play the same eroge and live happier ever after. If that isn’t paradise, then I don’t know what is.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

Aoi Hana was a spectacular show, easily my top pick from the summer season. It inspired a lot of thoughts in me, too, which I recorded in the post that the awkward pun in the title is referring to.

Interestingly, 2009 was pretty much my first experience with the yuri genre, and I think I’ve learned my way around the tropes in the past year. Marimite was good, no doubt about that – the symbolic memes of ribbon-adjusting and “walking slowly is preferred here” define what shoujo-ai is all about. In fact, I don’t think it’s wrong to simply call Marimite a definitive piece, despite the origins of the genre reaching back to the 70s and 80s.

However, there’s no question in my mind that Aoi Hana excels at what other yuri shows only try to do. Much like the demure, subtle atmosphere of Marimite‘s all-girls Catholic school, Aoi Hana tells a straightforward story of first love, touching on devices like love at first sight and the infamous childhood friend. It shies away from the complications of relationships, which would, for lack of a better word, “taint” the purity that people associate with the genre. The aesthetics are perfect, capturing the mood and feel of the show, and the dialogue is only as revealing as it needs to be; but above all, Aoi Hana is sincere. The show is true to itself and true to its viewers. Ryan wrote a good piece on it recently: it’s a story with no excess, and it conveys the bittersweet longing that defines the shoujo-ai genre with the utmost sincerity. For that, it’s earned its place as my favourite yuri anime and one of my favourite shows of the year.

- – -

MyAnimeList is not a new invention. I believe the site was launched some time in 2004, and it’s since attracted as many types of users as there are anime fans. When you factor in the clubs, you can find pretty much anything on MAL. Thoughtful discourse? Check. Embarrassingly narcissistic fanclubs? Check. A society for masturbation? Believe it or not, check.

That said, the core of MAL’s fame is the sheer power that it offers to the user. Did you know that ghostlightning has dropped 18 days worth of anime, or that JP Meyer‘s mean score is about 2 points below mine? I didn’t either, but thanks to MAL, now I do. Unfortunately, no matter how much I preach, nothing can change the fact that MAL is not a new invention.

The updater, however, is.

MAL Updater, the program that automatically updates your list as you watch anime, was apparently created near the end of 2007, but it’s seen constant changes throughout the year. The developers have done a spectacular job of not only making the program work, but making it look good while working. It can be a little buggy, and I’m not sure if it’s Mac-friendly, but the MAL Updater is definitely an attractive program, and it’s an invaluable tool for keeping your list up to date. In addition to doing all of the work for you, it can also serve as a convenient way to record which episode you stopped at, and it has the power to make scoring/tagging and even downloading slightly easier.

Looking at it that way, there aren’t many reasons not to join the community of 10000 and download the program. It’s especially recommended for those of you who are allergic to keeping your lists up to date… and you know who you are.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

[viola]

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of Nitro+. You probably also played Saya no Uta when it was translated at the beginning of the year.

If you have done those things, then chances are high that your mind will never be the same.

I wrote about the game when I first finished it, but it’s hard to capture the story’s psychological intensity without experiencing it first-hand. Much like Ryukishi07′s When They Cry, Saya’s twisted story is a great example of how to do psychological visual novels right. That said, Saya no Uta does drift more toward horror and fantasy than Umineko‘s mystery, but the end result is the same. For the <10 hours it will last, I would be surprised if the sound of Saya’s song does not leave your spine chilled.

- – -

It’s funny that the word “Google” always brings to mind the blogosphere these days. I have no idea how or when it started, but as some point in the anime blogosphere’s history, someone must have had the bright idea of migrating the community to Google’s services (if I had to guess, my money’s on lelangir). It would be a long, perilous journey, filled with unnamed dangers – but as they say, the grass is always greener on the other side.

(Incidentally, the migration metaphor was pitched to me by someone on Google Wave. Go figure.)

I’m sure the blogosphere has had many places to hang out in the past, be it #animeblogger or a long-forgotten forum. Twitter has also caused quite a stir recently; having a Twitter account is almost as essential as having a blogroll. However, I think the most significant and all-around beneficial change was the migration to Google Reader Shared Items.

GRSI is probably the most asked-about acronym in the community, which isn’t surprising since I don’t think it’s an official acronym to begin with. However, I’m sure the number of GRSI users in the sphere has doubled in the past year, perhaps more, and it feels as if a new “regular” joins every couple months. Without a doubt, GRSI has become the default spot for all sorts of idle chatter, akin to what an IRC channel is supposed to be – a little nonsensical to beginners, but fun for the regulars.

For what it’s worth, I once went to #TLWiki, and Moogy and his friends were talking about fruit roll-ups.

While I have not personally seen a thread on fruit roll-ups (yet), GRSI is definitely the ideal place for anibloggers to hang out and chat. The interface makes it natural to talk about blog posts and internet-related happenings, but it can allow for pretty much whatever you want. Meme-shouting, fangirling, theory-debating – it’s all up to you. The Great Google Migration is easily one of the most important events of the year from the blogosphere’s perspective, and it’s nice to have a place in the vastness of the net to call home.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

Ah, When They Cry. What would we do without you? We’d all be slightly more sane, probably, but we’d also have missed out on an innovative and suspenseful story that goes beyond the proverbial locked room and doesn’t pull its punches until it’s too late.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was a great show, and I’m sure it was seen as unique when it first aired. It’s hard to not feel disconcerted after being treated to a full serving of killer lolis, complete with a bloody hatchet on the side. Along the same lines, Umineko no Naku Koro ni really took off in 2009 with the development of the story in the games released in Japan, the speedy translations of Witch Hunt, and the controversial anime adaptation.

In addition to providing the same mind-bending mysteries and psychological intensity as its predecessor, Umineko also benefits from its setting as an apparently unoriginal murder mystery. The legend of the Golden Witch has the same foreboding atmosphere as Higurashi‘s Oyashiro-sama, but the excitement rises when Battler starts tearing apart the whodunnit tropes one after the other and the audience is left, often literally, at the edge of their seats. There’s no way Ryukishi07′s latest sublimely sinister web of mysteries won’t go down in anime and visual novel history as one of the most innovative and engrossing in its genre.

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As for the Sun Goddess portion of the post title, a certain efficient Amaterasu has been turning heads this year in the VN community. Their first notable achievement is that they work quickly – some of their patches were released before I even knew what they were working on, and NNL openly praised them for their efficiency at some point or the other. Suffice to say, they’ve probably also been producing quality translations otherwise someone would have picked up on it.

However, Amaterasu also had an interesting idea going for a few months where they ran polls to determine which games they should take on next. Of course, we all know how that turned out, but the fact that their reputation as translators grew to the point that their poll would be the talk of the community and the subject of cheating and trolling says something about their rapid ascent to the top. While I do appreciate their initial philosophy of letting the fans decide what gets translated, I also have faith in Ixrec’s judgment and I expect their future projects to live up to their name. The visual novel translation scene is still painfully barren, to the point that games like Love Plus and Muv-Luv often act as an incentive to start learning the language, but it’s groups like this that remind me that the scene is constantly growing, and I’m sure they can keep it up in the coming year.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

[shino]

I hope you didn’t facepalm when you heard the word “keionbu.” If you did, you probably won’t like what I’m about to say.

K-ON was a bit more controversial than most moe shows, and needlessly so. While its premise isn’t anything unique, the over-the-top presentation and glorification of moe was a bit too much for some to handle, forcing it to play the role of either a punching bag or an object of worship. From a meta perspective, it was pretty much a scapegoat for moe haters and fans to attack and praise.

Really, there’s not much to say about the show that everyone on the internet hasn’t already said, but to sum it up, it’s a spectacular example of how to do moe right. I always say that it’s not easy to create the kind of characters who end up with hundreds of posts on Danbooru, despite the superficial appearance of moe characters being a flat set of traits, and I think K-ON proves that. In the eyes of many, including myself, it’s one of the finest examples of pure, fluffy, delicious 2D bliss.

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In other news, back in the summer, lolikitsune released a demo of his meta visual novel, CCY-senpai wa 17sai. The final product is probably still a long way off, but since blogosphere parody/commentary style games aren’t too common (the only other one being Hinano’s RenAi Blogger), it garnered its share of attention.

This is a bit of a pointless reward since the final product won’t be released in 2009, but from the taste I’ve gotten of the game, I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to it. Games like this are usually irrelevant to the people outside of the community, but for the bloggers and readers involved, the experience is like nothing else. Everything from the dialogue to the character designs look great, and there’s even a bit of potential in the story – I still like to think of Gakuensuki as a metaphor for our blogging “careers”, but we’ll see about that. The bottom line is that if you’re an active anime blogger and you haven’t played the demo yet, it would be a NICE IDEA to do so.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.