Late con posts aren’t all that bad, are they?

Anime North 2010 took place over the last weekend of May, and it happened to coincide with a few important real life events for me, like the end of my last year of high school. Suffice it to say that I had a great time and that it’s still one of my highlights of the year. Since the idea of writing a “real” con report puts me to sleep, this will pretty much just be a collection of my impressions of the various events I attended and on the con as a whole. The post is far longer than anyone should want to read, so the important names and events are bolded to make for easy skimming. There’s also a bit of meta at the end if you’re in the mood for it.

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I don’t believe spent much time talking about this online, but this was actually my first year getting a hotel room for the con. As I’m sure you already discovered, it’s worth it. Sleeping over at a con is a million times more fun than returning home every night, and it’s convenient when you have to wake up early for a 9:00 panel. A lot of people experience cons as an overnight trip because they live out of town, but I can say first-hand that it makes a difference even if you live within comfortable driving distance.

Anyway, Friday began with the Touhou Panel, which was great. Naturally, it was fun to attend an event with a bunch of like-minded bullet dodgers, and it helped that the panelists knew what they were talking about. They were all well versed in the franchise’s universe and storyline as well as the games themselves (and one of them is a pretty serious shmup gamer). Most of the cosplayers were there, too, and there was as much crossplay as you’d expect. It turns out that the event was planned by a few regulars from Maidens of the Kaleidoscope, so it wasn’t totally isolated from the internet. Who knew Toronto was on the map?

Since the panel was at the very beginning of the con, the first thing I did after that was rush to Hendane in the Dealer’s Room. Oh, Hendane… it just wouldn’t be an anime con without your proudly displayed dakimakura covers, your un-awkward conversations about the most awkward topics, your Yaoi Guy’s amusingly bad jokes. It’s an experience that every anime fan needs to have at least once.

Pretty much all of my purchases this year were from these guys (hooray for not being underage). I’m still not as up to date with the doujin scene as I should be, but I did get a couple CCC books as well as some miscellaneous Touhou and K-ON stuff. I also found one of that circle‘s delicious F/SN books. There was some FLIPFLOPs as well. Conveniently, I got a nice bag drawn by Ikegami Akane (Danbooru), which I used to hold everything for the rest of the day.

Oh, and I also bought a legit copy of ef. Success! I still need to find the second game somewhere, but this is satisfying enough for now. I mean, just look at the box. Even the startup manual looks good!

Incidentally, I passed by again on Saturday and got a free burned copy of Narcissu 2 in English. Apparently they know the translators and they were giving it out to anyone who knew what it was.

The only other notable event on Friday was the Symbolism of Alchemy in FMA panel, which was incredible. The panelist was a PhD student who basically gave a two-hour lecture on the mythological background of FMA’s alchemy, transmutation circles, etc., explaining their significance in the story. There’s no way I could paraphrase a lecture of that level, but effectively, each of the shapes used in the alchemic symbols represent something, and they’re designed to relate to the story (each character’s transmutation circle says something about their personality and motives, etc. Even the logo is made up of symbols that state something about the show).

In case you’re wondering, I did peek my head into the karaoke room on Friday night to see if anyone looking like the NNL crew was there, but I couldn’t find anyone of interest. There was also no standing room in the 4chan Panel within 5 minutes of its start so I decided to head back for the night.

Saturday is always the most important day of the con. I spent most of the morning on panels, although there wasn’t much that really jumped out at me. I did get some interesting info from Managing a University Anime Club though. Amusingly, one of the panelists – an attractive business major in a maid outfit – proudly said that she uses female cosplayers to draw in new members. Lesson learned: when it comes to club recruitment, anything goes.

Artist’s Alley was pretty cool. Is that still what they call it? Anyway, I got some decent prints – mostly typical bishoujo stuff, but I also got some of this guy‘s incredible backgrounds. Shilin is good, as always. There were also a couple of doujins this time: a magical girl one-shot by ocean and a K-ON collaboration by Homodachi, the latter of which was apparently founded by my future university’s anime club. I got $2 off!

The bad news is that I missed out on the Maid Cafe; the good news is that I missed out on it for the last time. This was the first year that one of my friends was interested in going so I didn’t know that we had to buy tickets in the morning, but next year I’ll be prepared. I mean, these girls are serious! They were  handing out ads to passersby like real maids! How can anyone not blush in front a cute girl in a maid outfit? True men sacrifice $20 in the name of moe~~~

I didn’t do much else on Saturday afternoon, sadly. I realized this year that that’s the best time to hang around outside of the convention center while keeping an eye out for good cosplayers, so I’ll be sure to do that next year. Maybe next year will be the year that I finally start taking more than five cosplay pictures.

Saturday night was great. The BlazBlue Tournament was solid – it ended with a Taokaka vs Arakune matchup that was close for both players. It wasn’t recorded, sadly, but it was a spectacular event to watch. They actually managed to time out on a couple matches, despite Tao playing aggressively throughout. You know what fighting games are like; crazy pressure strings getting blocked flawlessly, a single whiffed attack getting punished with a combo removing ~33% of your health. The Arakune player got his opponent down to <10% a few times with curses and linking his combos together but he ended up losing in the end.

Oh, and there was a guy in a Little Busters COSPA shirt. I would have talked to him but he was busy playing, my arms were freezing from the air condition, and I haven’t even played LB.

Later that night was the shmup game room, which was run by one of the guys from the Touhou panel. It was pretty fun, although I came late for various reasons. I got to watch someone play through all of Ketsui, and I tried my hand at the last boss of Mushihimesama Futari ver 1.5 a few times. I would have tried to run through SA Extra but I couldn’t seem to find it on the laptop. I also got to chat about general Touhou stuff, which is nice, and I vowed to join MotK and start posting. The event wrapped up at midnight, and I concluded the day by playing one round of Melty Blood: Actress Again and getting utterly defeated. I’ll improve for next year….

I never noticed kigurumi at AN before, but I never really looked for it either. I’ll keep an eye out in the future.

Sunday was more or less plain, as usual. The most interesting thing was the Haibane Renmei/Lain Panel, which was aided by a doctor of something-or-the-other who does panels at various anime and sci-fi conventions. The panel was extremely useful for me because I never really analyzed ABe’s works to tie them together, so it got me thinking in the right direction. I’ll have to go through his stories again one day and write a post on them.

The rest of the day pretty much just involved hanging around and catching up. We left a few hours before the con ended.

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With another year of Anime North done, I’m reminded yet again that I love anime conventions. It’s easy to be cynical towards the majority of anime fandom, but the fact is that the type of fans that most people hate isn’t the “majority” at all. There are a ton of reasonable, experienced, mature fans at cons who know how to have fun without speaking in broken Japanese and arguing about the Naruto dub. In fact, in a lot of ways, I have more in common with the average con-goer than some fans on the internet – I’m always open about my fandom, and I love being with other people who feel the same way. I can’t relate to the shame and self-loathing of some self-proclaimed anime fans at all. Cons create an experience that you can’t really get elsewhere, even if all of your friends share your hobby.

The con also got me thinking about some things that I want to do next year, although there’s no telling how things will play out. I’d like to get involved with a panel, for one. That will depend pretty much entirely on whether or not I can convince friends from school to do it with me, but if all goes well, I’ll be doing something in public next year. I also need to brush up on my fighting games and stick around for Saturday’s overnight gaming. And I definitely need a silly Touhou hat!

At any rate, since this is already a real life post, I might as well say this now. As I mentioned before, high school is just about done for me, and I’m at the beginning of a summer that will hopefully let me do a ton of things that I didn’t have time to do before. The good news is that, unlike last year, I have almost no real life tasks to take care of, so I have most of the holidays to tackle the backlog and produce as many posts as I can. The bad news – for this blog at least – is that I’ll be starting university in September. I can almost guarantee that I’ll have to go on hiatus for a bit as I get adjusted to residence life, but if you know me, you know that I won’t be gone for long. Studies have shown that the transition from high school to university, much like the transition from university to the workforce, is one of the leading causes of Aniblogger Burnout. I’m determined to fight the disease.

Until then, let the summer begin! AN 2010 has shattered all lack of faith that I might have had toward anime fandom, and I’m even more pumped to keep up with these local events and go out of my way to meet new people. The next school year will introduce me to an anime club that I have very high hopes for, and it should help balance out my real-life anime social life with my internet one. I might be jinxing myself by saying this, but if all goes well, I might even make it to Otakon next year.

Maybe.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

This isn’t quite a serious response to a recent Sankaku Complex article (NSFW). Their jab at Western “dating sims” was obviously not intended for any kind of serious contemplation, despite the fact that they overlooked something crucial.

The punchline, however, felt disturbingly familiar. It isn’t all too uncommon in anime fandom to criticize Western media, much moreso when a person is creating something that “resembles” Japanese media like anime and manga. It’s the typical “stop trying to be Asian” argument, which appears to be worse for the YouTube stars (although that may only be because they have to deal with YouTube commenters).

Anyway, media is the issue here, not culture. Put simply, some fans have a bad habit of underestimating Japanese-style media that wasn’t made in Japan, and that can be as unhealthy for the community as it is harmful for your own media intake.

I don’t think anyone would benefit from me listing the reasons why Western “imitations” of Japanese media aren”t necessarily bad. It’s common sense, for the most part. While anime is distinctly Japanese, I don’t believe the fact that it’s Japanese has much to do with our enjoyment of it. The fact that it’s different, maybe, but not simply because it came from Japan. So, instead of rambling on about the importance of open-mindedness, I’ll do something productive and list a few pleasant Original English Language creations I’ve had the pleasure of discovering over the years.

• Katawa Shoujo needs no introduction (and it’s linked above). I played the demo up to the opening video, by which point I was convinced that it would someday become the revolution that the OEL VN community needs. There’s no question that I’ll play the full game when it comes out.

• The Answer is clever, though it has little value unless you’re an aspiring visual novel creator.

• You’ve probably played The Best Eroge Ever already. If not, do so now: it’s the good kind of meta.

• Tomorrow is an unusual OEL VN written like a Shakespearean play. Sorta. It’s no masterpiece but it’s a refreshing change.

• Sorcerers & Secretaries is a soothing romance manga that isn’t too ambitious. It’s an enjoyable read for the two volumes that it lasts for.

• Megatokyo needs less of an introduction than Katawa Shoujo, but it’s worth linking to for the two of you who haven’t heard of it. The comic supposedly dropped in popularity as it took a more serious turn, but while I wouldn’t recommend reading it in webcomic form due to the naturally slow pace, the archives and/or manga volumes make for a great read.

• Textnovel is one of those sites for amateur writers to post their work, the only problem being that there’s usually more writing than reading. However, the site’s focus is on cell phone novels, and it seems to have a heavy slant toward Japanese-style light novels. The Ranobe Cafe took note of them a little while ago, and the most popular story seems fairly interesting. At least the art is good!

That’s about all I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure there are a few buried (and not-so-buried) treasures that I have yet to stumble upon. I’d appreciate any and all recommendations if you happen to know an OEL gem or two, but failing that, perhaps it’s time you took a break from watching Railgun and reading Umineko to give the unknown a shot. Who knows, you just might earn the bragging rights of saying that you were there when a future classic first got off the ground!

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re reading this, you should already know that I’m a moe fan. As a proud newfag Not Oldfag, I don’t see anything wrong with fluffy VNs and pointless harems. However, as most moe fans know, it’s not quite as easy to create an appealing character as you might think. There are tons of characteristics to think about, almost like planning a storyline: which tropes to use and which to subvert? Should there be a major plot twist, or should the effect sneak up on you? Despite the fact that so many shows star characters that are meant to appeal to male viewers, very few make a genuine impression that lasts more than a few weeks. Thus, after being reminded by digitalboy’s post, I have decided to perform a rite that every self-proclaimed otaku ought to perform at some point: create a list of my 5 favourite anime girls and explain what sets them apart from the fields of osananajimi and the seas of tsundere.

5 – Mio Akiyama

All right, I admit, this is a little redundant: I know I wrote about her a little while ago, but omitting her from the list just because of that would be cruel and inhumane (or at least incorrect). I definitely did a better job of describing her charm in that post than I can do here, but the long and short of it is that she’s a unique twist on tsundere. She plays the tsukkomi in most of the comedy in the series, building up an image of being cool and mature, but the real finishing blow is in her dere side. Instead of feeling embarrassed around her crush, her soft side comes out in the funniest everyday situations: childish fear. The way she gets scared of ghosts and barnacles, then gets embarrassed about getting embarrassed, was instantly enough for me to put her on the list, even before the show was finished. Maybe it’s because I can relate to her awkward bashfulness, but Mio’s appeal is decidedly more unique than that of her ilk.

4 – Mizuki Hayama

Mizuki is…interesting. If I were to accuse any of these girls of being unoriginal, it would probably be her. Admittedly, Mizuki’s personality isn’t very unique; she’s genki, kindhearted, a little clumsy, and then back to genki. It doesn’t take long to understand her, and there wasn’t anything too significant in the anime to really win her “points” with me. However, for some inexplicable reason, she quickly became one of my favourite aspects of melodies, right next to Shinbo’s antics. Perhaps it’s because she came on strong, but it didn’t take long for her bright smile to quite literally become one of the highlights of my week, even as the world fell apart around them. Her final confrontation with Kuze helps as well: realistic or not, her blind but genuine faith in love and life fits her personality perfectly, and I couldn’t help but smile at the end of it. In a sense, Mizuki made an impression on me by “being herself” – the tropes and cliches were meaningless in the face of a character who couldn’t care less about them.

3 – Miyako Miyamura

Ah, MiyaMiya. Where to start? Yandere scares me, that much is certain: in real life, I don’t think I’d be able to handle someone as unstable as her. That said, her insecurities are an important part of her character, and I couldn’t criticize her for not being “perfect.” From that perspective, Miyako has the advantage of not relying on blatant pandering, as the viewer is forced to see that life isn’t always easy in the anime world. Weaknesses aside, though, Miya’s personality is something that clicked with me right away. Maybe it’s because of her first encounter with Hiro, but her energetic, outgoing nature appeals to the antisocial tendencies in me, and her sly playfulness is the icing on the cake. She’s the perfect companion for apathetic or unmotivated guys like Hiro was at some points, yet she still tickles the protective urge that moe is known for.

2 – Nagisa Furukawa

A little while ago on Google Reader Secret Society Shared Items, someone brought up the concept of “being in love with the idea of being in love” with relation to Clannad. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever know where my attraction to Nagisa ends and my respect and idolization for the main couple begins. Tomoya Okazaki is easily my favourite male visual novel character, and when the cheesy, almost shoujo-style moments starting showing up between him and Nagisa, my enjoyment of her character shifted away from moe. However,  she still pulls of the “Key lead” stereotype perfectly, with a delicious mix of air-headed clumsiness and childish determination. Nagisa goes a bit deeper than that, with her initial lack of confidence, but I was especially impressed by the fact that she wasn’t held back by her past. Her problem wasn’t as convenient as a tragic past or lost childhood friend; she simply didn’t have the confidence or desire to move forward. Tomoya gave her that confidence, and together they were able to find happiness. This is a fuzzy one for me because it’s hard to pinpoint whether I like her more as a haremette or a shoujo lead, but I can’t forget my love for her moeblob exterior and weak-willed but strong-hearted interior.

1 – Shiori Misaka

Surprise, surprise? Oh, who am I kidding.

My love for Shiori will always be strange because I don’t really know where it began. I watched Kanon when I was innocent, as far as otaku go; I wasn’t as in-tune with moe subculture and its many divisions, and I didn’t consciously notice pandering and affection for a character as I do now. As a result of that, I still don’t know when I became a Shiori fan. I’m sure some of it was due to her character design, which stands out as original even now; and I’m almost equally sure that her mysterious nature and heartbreaking story arc contributed greatly. But there had to be something more, something to give her the position in my avatars and signatures that she has today.

CCY talked about it before, but almost like Nagisa, Shiori’s character goes a bit deeper than her initial appearance. The first thing that got me was her physical weakness – the kind of thing that makes you want to hug her and stop her tears, even though you’ll be crying in her place because there’s nothing anyone can do – but I think the final blow, the thing that puts her above the stereotypical Dying Moe Girl, is her inner strength. Much like Nagisa, Shiori is a fairly strong person mentally, but the gravity of her situation is too much to bear alone. And that’s where you come in. She isn’t so weak that she begs to be protected, but she doesn’t do everything for you like Miyako; she’s right in between, trying her best to enjoy her life while fearing the inevitable like any sane human should. Somewhere along the line, her silent struggle combined with her mysterious nature and memorable character design boosted her to the top of my list, turning her into a memory that I hope I won’t forget in 7 years.

- – -

Having said all of that, my disclaimer is that, for me, a character’s appeal is closely tied to a show’s appeal. All of the girls on this list are from anime that I honestly enjoyed, and all but one are from shows that are on my Top 5 on MAL. Additionally, rewatches tend to change my perspective on things, and I’m sure I’ll be able to write something better on Shiori after I play through the game this winter. The list isn’t too rigid and I shift things around from time to time, but I very rarely add or remove a character, and I feel confident in my current choices. Ultimately, though, the otaku heart will always be a fickle thing, demanding imagedumps and blog posts whenever a new girl “transfers in” to shake up the class. And that’s the way I like it.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

Honourable mentions:
- Mai Asagiri: win for character design, but she played almost no role in the anime and the game isn’t translated.
- Matsuri Shiho: a lot like Miyako IMO, but the story and atmosphere of ef will always be more alluring.
- Kazumi Yoshida: Shana isn’t bad, but Yuuji is an idiot and Kazumi is way underrated. She’d have potential if she had her own show, or at least more screentime.
- Nagi Sanzenin: Loli tsundere hikikomori otaku. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

I like maids. You like maids too, right? We all like maids. Everyone likes maids. There’s nothing wrong with that, as far as anime fandom goes. But sometimes, the whole goshujin-sama concept can be a little…disconcerting. No, this isn’t about taking the concept too far and why moe is the cancer that’s killing anime; it isn’t a rant about sexism in Japan, or an elaborate way of saying that my fetish > your fetish. It’s simply a voicing of opinion: a short complaint on the ironic little subdivision of moe called maid moe.

Reading Hinano’s post on the insistence of the man to protect the woman in nearly all Japanese media, including female-targeted otome games, I started thinking that her complaints sounded a little familiar. Being a male visual novel fan, however, this isn’t about agreeing or disagreeing: it’s mainly the irony that caught my eye, the irony that a female-targeted story would put the female characters in a lower position. Whether or not that’s a wise move on the part of the Japanese otome game industry doesn’t matter much to me, though, because it already led me to finding a similar case quite close to home.

Maids. Servants. The trend of having a female character whose sole job is to please and provide for a male. She can be a literal maid like the twins in Tsukihime, or she can simply be a doting little sister like Kaede Fuyou, but the end result is the same: they exist only for one man, usually the protagonist who you play as.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike maids. I actually find them quite interesting! Shows like Maria Holic, Hayate no Gotoku, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, and about a million other anime out there wouldn’t be the same without the presence of the maid characters. Maid costumes are great, too, albeit from a different perspective. But having said that, doesn’t something about the single-minded attitude of those servant-type characters bother you?

Like they say, different strokes for different folks is the rule of thumb when it comes to moe. There’s nothing right or wrong about being attracted to a certain personality type. However, just as the protective bishounen of shoujo manga are supposed to be a dream come true for the female readers, there’s something about the pure devotion of eroge girls like Nemu Asakura that turns me off, even if their incessant showering of affection is supposed to be a good thing. Maybe I just like the traditional moe characters that pander to the male instinct to protect, but either way, I know I’d enjoy my visual novels a lot more if I could help a clumsy girl cook breakfast instead of being served the meal in bed.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

If there’s one thing readers and writers alike quickly discover about the blogosphere, it’s that in a sea of casual reviewers and episodic summarizers, there are always a few people that feel the need to stand up and proclaim that anime is more than just ecchi and robots. For better or worse, this vocal minority – ranging in age, background, and upbringing, yet united under a single glorified goal – tends to force itself into the spotlight and steal the show using big words and plentiful paragraphs, fighting to the death for its belief that Japanese cartoons are not just Japanese cartoons.

But are they right? Are we right? Is the blogosphere truly fighting for a noble cause, to learn and to educate and to learn once more, or are we all simply delusional? We already know that anime isn’t creative, and TJ Han is always the voice of reason in the sphere, so what if this was all an elaborate lie? What if we’re all living in a dream world in which we’re the kings and queens of the universe, oblivious to the jeers of society?

Or worse yet, what if this is all part of The Internet‘s plan to seize control of the blogosphere using lolikitean cryptology?

Let’s start from the beginning: Gundam. It doesn’t get any older than Gundam, right? Well, technically it does, but I wasn’t even alive when the UC Gundams started, so they’re old enough for me.

Anyway, as far as I know, Gundam and Macross were some of the earliest mecha titles, and both franchises are still alive today. They’ve done their part to revolutionize the genre, and both names are legendary enough to be known even to many a non-anime fan. In fact, in one of the Gundam anime, Sunrise has even gone so far as to cast Jesus as the main character!

Ambiguous deaths and teenage Mary Sue mech pilots aside, however, none can question the influence that Gundam has had on anime as a medium. So is it creative? Is it art? Is it deep?

This is where things get tricky. Many would argue that the politics and combat in the franchise are entertaining at the very least, and there would certainly be many a fanboy willing to risk his Gunpla collection on a bet to recite the model numbers and specs of some of the most famous mobile suits, so it’s safe to say that the fanbase is there. While not deep in the truest sense of the word, we’ve all seen first hand the influence that Gundam and the mecha genre as a whole has had on anime fandom and otaku culture.

But then again, super robots are for kids, right? NEXT!

Skipping ahead quite a bit here, because I was probably only old enough to button mash through Mario Party by this point, we have one of the most famous anime ever produced: Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Eva has received both praise and criticism, but despite the clumsy use of religious symbolism, many fans believe that the depth of the characters is something that should be commended. One could even argue that the psychology is what makes the series what it is, with the mecha and sci-fi elements a mere afterthought. The conclusion and Anno’s quirky directing style may have angered more than a few followers, but by and large, the masterful tale woven in Evangelion is one that will always be remembered, and I’m certain that over the last decade, many devout anime fans have argued to their unenlightened peers that anime can be deep.

But then again, those “devout” fans are really just social outcasts that can’t cope with the fact that their medium of choice is shallow, right? Because Evangelion has big robots, which are meant for kids, and it makes fun of Christianity! Who in their right mind makes fun of religion? It doesn’t matter if it’s in the name of art, or if the use of religion was tasteful enough to provoke thought rather than anger – Lilith isn’t supposed to be a monster!

So now we know that anime is not only childish, but also evil!

However, all hope isn’t lost yet: we still have many more generations of anime to go. And I certainly hope you all recognize the above picture, because it’s from another one of the medium’s most popular franchises: Ghost in the Shell, a sci-fi story that deals with science and philosophy in tandem.

Anyone who watched GitS with an active mind would know that it did a superb job of probing the human conscience, mostly literally, but also figuratively. It prompts the viewer to question the true nature of thought and emotion, from a scientific and biological perspective, but it also deals with the same issues in society that we face to day, such as crime and isolation, proving that a world with Cyber Brains and sex dolls wouldn’t be all that different from our own.

…But come on! Those ideas might have been interesting, I suppose, but we all know that it was blatantly plagiarized from Catcher in the Rye! The main villain in the first season even openly admits that he’s the same as the novel’s protagonist! Those foolish otaku might like to call themselves smart by watching shows like this, but really, all anime does is steal ideas from real mediums of entertainment.

By this point, I believe that I have conclusively proven that anime is childish and evil, and even when it tries to be deep, it ends up failing and plagerizing instead. So what merit does this irrelevant medium have?

Ah, that’s right. Creativity.

My opinion might be a little biased here, but really, who can watch ef and not see it as creative? It’s one of the most genuinely original anime I’ve ever seen. It’s fairy tale-esque setting is appealing enough to the romantic in me, but even aside from the dramatic plot and writing, the sheer abstractness and artsiness of the show is nothing short of astounding. Never before has an anime blown me away with sheer animation, save for Kara no Kyoukai and 5 Centimeters Per Second, and yet the animation in ef transcends mere beauty – it’s simply surreal.

But really, did the show have to be that pretentious? Who cares if they were trying to do the best that they could with the medium, what does it matter if the pretentiousness was accompanied by reason? Shinbo and the team assumed that their viewers were sophisticated art critics, whereas he was actually directing an anime based on the latest hentai game. That’s right, ef is porn, and if one of a medium’s most creative pieces is meant to be fapping material, then I think it’s safe to say that salvation is just a bit too optimistic.

So there you have it: the truth. Whether providing lonely nerds with artificial girlfriends or stealing ideas from literature in an attempt to sound smart, anime is nothing but a child’s medium that should be outgrown or otherwise laughed at. It doesn’t matter if all creativity can be art; it doesn’t matter if every medium has its flops; and it certainly doesn’t matter if anime has accomplished things that would be nearly impossible with film. The fact of the matter is that anime is not deep, and that the blogosphere makes a mockery of editorial writing and, I hesitate to add, literary criticism. We have blinded ourselves for years within our own little shells, but when the truth hits, it hits hard – we are merely a group of delusional college students with too much time on our hands.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some real entertainment to enjoy, like books and movies and music. This is the kind of entertainment – the kind of art - that nurtures the soul and feeds the mind, something that can never be accomplished through Japanese cartoons.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

(P.S. This was initially supposed to be a joke, but I couldn’t help turning it into a tl;dr satire. See bateszi for any lingering questions you may have on my thoughts on the matter.)

©2010 Memories of Eternity. All Rights Reserved.

It’s very, very hard to get a good picture of Rika.

It all began while I was rewatching Honey and Clover. It’s a beautiful show, really, and I can guarantee that I’ll post on it at some point, but the painfully real relationships of the cast aren’t the focus of this post. Instead, I’m going to talk about a thought that crossed my mind with relation to one of the characters: Rika Harada.

What does this have to do with moe, you ask? You’ve probably already started drawing conclusions in your head, but I’ll spell it out for you – just as long as you click on that enticingly blue read more link below.

Rika Harada is not moe. She can’t be, really, because H&C is a josei series aimed at older women. Hagu is a loli, technically, but I doubt the show would attract any sort of lolicon following because of it, just as I wouldn’t expect Yoshino from Clannad to attract fangirls. The target audience is one of the most important aspects of escapism, because if you don’t know who you’re targeting, then how are you supposed to help them escape from reality?

That’s why, as common sense dictates, the frail, wounded girl named Rika, whose eyes have grown cold from her pain and whose sorrow has overcome her longing for her deceased partner, cannot be moe.

…But wait. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Well, you probably weren’t, and my bias is quite obvious, but listen for a moment. Shiori Misaka is an emotionally wounded girl who is forced to face a bleak future that no human being should ever be forced to face, let alone someone of her age. She tries to act strong, and she doesn’t want the people around her to worry about her, but the reality of the matter is that she’s suffering. And, given the circumstances, who can save her?

Only you.

You, the reader, are meant to project yourself into Yuuichi and protect this innocent girl from her fate. Even if you’re just a human, even if there’s nothing you can do, you still have to try – because she needs you, and at the end of it all, you’ll discover that you need her. Your feelings will be enough to shatter the chains of her cruel fate, and when a miracle happens and her life is saved, you’ll be by her side.

It’s perfect, right? A girl that relies on you, a girl that needs you – and at the same time, a girl that can be her own person and make you smile. My attraction toward Shiori is obviously personal, but I think we can agree on one basic principle: that the characters of moe anime are written to appeal to the viewers.

And following that logic, one would assume that Shiori Misaka in real life would be my idea of a perfect girl, right?

…Right?

Wrong.

I’m not sure if this train of thought is common or not, but when I witnessed Rika’s weakness for the second time, when I saw her damaged body and even more damaged mind, when I saw how she didn’t want Mayama to get hurt and how she couldn’t forget the pain of her loss…when I witnessed the spectacle that is her character, I realized something.

I realized that, in every sense of the word, she should be moe. She should be the girl that the viewer want to protect, that he wants to be with.

But she isn’t. Because the cruelty of her situation is far too severe to be made a mockery of using cute catchphrases and excessive snow.

The snow in this scene was really quite beautiful, though the giraffe doesn’t help.

When it comes down to it, my point – and the lesson that I learned – is very simple. Moe is not as impossible as people believe it to be. It wouldn’t be strange for a girl to be dying, or for a guy to meet and befriend her by chance. People get divorced and remarried, so the concept of a half-sister isn’t at all impossible either. The likes of the Ah! My Goddess and Shuffle! cast might not be possible in the real world, but by and large, the scenarios and personalities that otaku around the world praise as moe are not at all impossible.

It’s simply that they’re not appealing in the real world.

In Kanon, Nayuki is your sleepy, clumsy younger cousin that doubles as your childhood friend; Ayu is the playful, innocent girl that will never leave your side; Makoto is the same, bar the innocence. Mai’s appeal lies in her silence, because of the mystery and depth of her character, and Shiori’s situation in itself beckons the reader to protect her. It’s a perfect world, isn’t it? A perfect world in which the reader, you, get to live the life on your dreams, developing a relationship with one of the five girls while learning of the tragedies in her past.

But what does reality have to say about this? Makoto would be annoying, Mai would be boring, Nayuki would be illegal, Shiori would be hospitalized, and Ayu would make you look like a pedophile. Not so fun now, is it?

At first I was afraid of the fact that I was attracted to Rika, but it didn’t take long for this very obvious truth to sink in. Of course, I’m in no way against moe: I’m quite the visual novel fan, and I’ve seen my fair share of VN anime as well, so I’m definitely not criticizing. However, as someone who has grown attached to the various characters in said visual novels, and often times longed for such scenarios to develop in the real world, I can understand better than many that moe is both more real and less possible than people generally believe.

Because really, wouldn’t it be possible for one of you to be living with your non-blood-related little sister? But if you are, and if you grew up together, then you probably don’t see one another as anything more than friends. If, by chance, she did develop feelings for you, you’d probably be afraid to step forward and ruin your relationship as family; if you developed feelings for her, she might not even return them. And if by some miracle you like each other, then I suppose you’ll be happy, so long as you ignore the criticism from your classmates – but that hardly matters, because by that point, the fact that she’s your non-blood-related little sister won’t matter, and it’ll be just like any relationship.

Sadness is only beautiful when there’s a solution.

The bottom line is that moé, of the emotional variety at least, is not about childhood friends. It isn’t about tsundere, either, or loli or dojikko or mukuchi. It’s about the fantasy elements, about the purity and innocence of love, without the hindrances of words like “relationship” and “marriage” – it’s about the feelings that the viewer wants to feel, not about the characters portrayed on screen.

Because when it comes down to it, it wouldn’t be all that impossible for a glasses-wearing transfer student with a ribbon in her hair and a weakness in her heart to show up at school one day, but unless the guy has harem lead powers, that seemingly perfect scenario isn’t going to develop like a dating sim – it’s going to develop like real life, where scenario =/= result.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

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