Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category

Geoblock your face

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Some news. One Piece will be simulcast by Funimation. Some bad news. Their streams will be limited to North America and Canada. Well, I live in the UK, so I’m bang out of luck on that, and now I’m wondering, what the hell is going to happen to the fansubs?

The irony is that I really want to support this whole wave of simulcasts. It’s finally starting to feel like the industry has noticed that there is this cool thing called the internet that people use to watch anime and stuff, but what they apparently still haven’t realised, or simply refuse to believe, is that the internet is borderless.

A lot of anime fans are based in North America, but a lot of us aren’t, all that should matter is that I’m an anime fan, that English is my language and that I love One Piece, so I really can’t understand why I’m being refused access to this series. More to the point, isn’t geoblocking an anime simulcast just blatantly contradicting its supposed alternative to those damn dirty fansubs?

It’s like the industry still doesn’t get it, still doesn’t understand why people like me end up downloading anime. Regardless of whatever legal nonsense always seems to get in the way of a proper, global stream, with enough hard work and guts, it could be possible, but as it is, the anime industry remains utterly clueless, while fansubs will continue to be distributed. One step forward, two steps back. Nothing will change.

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Posted in Anime, Editorial, Manga, One Piece, Soul Eater | 6 Comments »

The despair of Cross Game

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Aoba crosses the line

Reading usagijen’s post on Cross Game reminded me of just how frustrating it can be to try to recommend something new to anime fans. By this point in the Spring season, I think it’s fair to say that Cross Game is one of, if not the, best series to première in April (it’s certainly my favourite) and yet, I’m still seeing a lot people talk about how they won’t watch it because it looks too ‘weird’; that is to say, it’s bad because doesn’t look like every other post-2000 anime series. I’m not a fan of this mentality at all; I find it superficial and stupid. Are aesthetics really so important? May be I should try asking the people still refusing to watch Escaflowne because the damn noses are too big?

Anyway, there is this brilliant scene in Cross Game episode 5. When Aoba makes a typically thoughtless remark about her younger sister, Kou, rather than use his usual tactic of shrugging it all off as if it’s nothing, roughly grabs at Aoba’s sweater and glares straight into her eyes, freezing her with a look of utter disdain. No words are exchanged for a few seconds, Aoba is speechless; she was wrong and knows it, while Kou is just trying to say that she crossed the line. The moment passes and things go back to normal, but it was so surprising, and a heartfelt show of emotion for Kou. It’s in these subtle ways that both characters reveal so much about themselves, while the soundtrack, using the same piano song as in Akaishi’s scene, captures the sedate, quiet beauty of it all.

And to think people are avoiding Cross Game because they don’t like the character designs? I despair.

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Posted in Anime, Editorial | 3 Comments »

The floating city

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Dreaming of what might be

One of my favourite tropes of anime is the floating city. Most recently seen in the beautifully animated Basquash!, it’s not what the city contains as much as what it represents to the people excluded from it. The floating city will always be filled with the best of society, while those below it are forever considered less than fortunate. There is no free ticket to the city, you have to be special to gain entry.

It’s the same in Battle Angel Alita. This floating city literally dumps its garbage onto the people below, who then forage through it looking for some useful bits and pieces of technology. The story actually begins when Alita is thrown from her city in the sky and discovered amongst the junk.

What the floating city symbolises is a tangible object of hope. I say tangible because I think we all understand the meaning of this, but in anime like Basquash! and Alita, it’s a literal thing, like a waking dream, people stare into the stars and see a perfect life, a utopia to strive for. That’s why I like the idea of the floating city, I think it taps into such a profoundly human sense of hope, even if, tragically, it’s often a false hope.

In Alita, a character is killed for building a hot-air balloon to fly into the city above, while another desperately climbs its massive foundations, only to be thrown asunder like a sewer rat. Such delicate dreams the city inspires, and, even if the reality is often different, maybe it’s just the dreaming that’s important anyway?

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Posted in Anime, Editorial | 3 Comments »

Sympathy for the devil

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

The moment in question

In episode 5 of Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, the main character, Zwei, executes a child. Such a violence moment is in line with the rest of this series, so it wasn’t done for superficial shock value, but, none the less, it was shocking.

This whole concept of an anti-hero is nothing new, we’re often introduced to characters with dark pasts, but it’s actually quite rare to literally see them doing bad things on screen, after all, how can we be expected to feel empathy for a character who has just so heartlessly murdered a helpless mother and her child? That’s probably the fundamental question at the core of Phantom, that if a person continually commits immoral acts, will they be forever denied redemption?

The characters Ein and Zwei are assassins tied to an all-powerful crime syndicate. They don’t murder because they want to, they do it because if they don’t, they themselves will be killed. They can’t be blamed for having such strong wills to live, yet, I don’t exactly condone their killing sprees either, but this constant questioning of morality is why I’m finding Phantom such a thought-provoking and generally satisfying series. It’s obvious that Ein and Zwei are struggling with their consciences, evidence enough that there is something good in them, which is sufficient for me to believe in them too, yet they remain, by and large, amoral assassins. They aren’t heroes at all. They are killers.

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Posted in Anime | 3 Comments »

Of course, I knew that I wasn’t the main character in her dream

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Akaishi of Cross Game

This is typical. In the four episodes that I’ve seen so far, Cross Game has had some proper dramatic high points, yet none have left as deep an impression as this one scene in episode four.

While playing catch with Akaishi, Kou notices that his friend looks “kind of happy”. It’s strange because big Akaishi isn’t the smiling type, he’s totally serious all the time. Apparently he fights a lot, too, but they share something important; they were both friends with Tsukishima Wakaba.

Akaishi is remembering their chance meeting from years ago, when Wakaba told him that she had a dream in which he was a catcher and Kou was a pitcher. They were playing on such a lush green field and everyone was smiling; even her sister looked happy. It was perfect. They were playing baseball.

And so, from that moment on, Akaishi has tried to be a catcher. It’s wonderful how the direction of his life was changed by that one moment, so random and fleeting, his chat with Wakaba was no more than a minute long, yet he remembers every second of it.

“Of course, I knew that I wasn’t the main character in her dream…” “but I was content just to be in Tsukishima’s dream.”

It’s the way the music rises with this tiny exchange. It’s so slow, yet so sweet, and really captures a polarising sense of aimlessness and hopefulness, that we can go through our lives believing that we may never be noticed, yet with two words and a smile later, everything seems so different, so vibrant. It’s such a simple moment, yet so heartfelt.

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Posted in Anime | 2 Comments »

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