You still haven't answered our repeated questions about the bloggers you like to associate with
You can see me on twitter, right? Considering that's actually how I talk to other bloggers, I'd probably start there.
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Do you think that, when making an evaluation of a piece of media, you are also (at least in part) making some statement about those people who /enjoy/ that piece of media? e.g. thinking that Mahouka promotes a toxic message - does that mean you made a negative evaluation of it's fans, on some level?
This question deserves a full blog post's worth of answering, concerning how we critique things, how fans internalize and identify with them, and how our experiences of works are always personal and fractured to degrees that most people don't tend to actively consider. The short answer is "sometimes" - with stuff like Mahouka, my critique of it as a power fantasy implies that at least for many people, it is popular because it plays to some base power-oriented needs. But to then consider any criticism of a work as a criticism of its fans is silly, because people like things for a variety of reasons, and it's not even "wrong" to like things for reasons associated with their base/problematic elements, and this all ties into fans wanting criticism to validate all of their preferences. Most of the stuff we like is not Shakespeare, many of the reasons we like things are not because they promote aesthetic bliss and greater common humanity. We are not perfect beings, and it'd be silly to assume our media preferences would reflect otherwise.
What work deomstrates that not all poular things are bad?
If we're going with "critically lauded" for "the opposite of bad," then tons of stuff - to pick two entirely random examples, The Dark Knight and Daft Punk. But the more useful answer is probably "what makes something bad?" I didn't eventually realize all stuff I thought was bad was secretly good, I eventually realized people like an endless variety of things for an endless variety of valid reasons.
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What was the first movie/book/game that seriously disappointed you? Not just what you thought was bad, but disillusioned you from the notion that "what is popular must also be good"?
I can't imagine a time when I actually believed that - if anything, it'd probably be easier to pinpoint a work that demonstrated that not all popular things are /bad/. My default assumption as a kid was closer to "most people like stupid things for stupid reasons."
interesting that we share appreciation for Kubo's art; many in the fandom decry the large spaces as a sign of laziness. Do you know of other manga with similarly good visuals?
They're not necessarily good in the same massive contrast/negative space-focused ways, but of what I've read, both Monster and Cross Game have a tremendous understanding of panel layout and visual pacing.
Ignoring the obvious fact that they are connected, which do you enjoy more? Watching anime, or writing about anime?
Watching things is fun, and writing is often painful, but the peaks of writing are higher. Writing is my favorite thing in the world.
Do you eat while you watch things?
I generally watch games - either LoL or MtG. I can't focus on subtitles while eating.
Not a question. Just adding to your pile of unanswered ones.
do not do this
What are your thoughts on the very talkative narrator in the second half of the Chimera Ant arc in HxH
The narrator's basically what makes the drama comprehensible - he turns what would be a series of events happening into a very clear, extraordinarily multifaceted chess match. Kind of like an idealized sports commentator, actually.
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Marow
600???!!! HOLY ****!!!!
WE CAN'T CONTAIN IT HWUAGGHGHL
Care to explain THE HEART then?
...what?
Which is the most tolerable: One Piece, Bleach or Naruto?
"Tolerable" seems like too uncharitable of a word for them - they're doing what they intend to, I'm just not at all the target audience for it. I actually wouldn't /watch/ any of them - manga like that suffers tremendously in adaptation, both because it gets dragged out pacing-wise and because whatever made the manga's visual style distinctive tends to get ironed out by the anime. As for the manga...
I haven't read One Piece (though I've heard it's the best of them), but of the other two, I thought Bleach was actually very solid up through the end of the Soul Society arc. It had a bunch of small adventures that established/illustrated character conflicts, and then everything was funneled into one big, consistently stake-raising tournament arc. Plus, Tite Kubo's clear greatest asset is his understanding of black-and-white visual layouts and negative space. Bleach has some really gorgeous pages, not necessarily in character designs, but in the spacing of objects and visual momentum. The Kenpachi-Ichigo fight in particular is just a beautiful piece of work.
I haven't read One Piece (though I've heard it's the best of them), but of the other two, I thought Bleach was actually very solid up through the end of the Soul Society arc. It had a bunch of small adventures that established/illustrated character conflicts, and then everything was funneled into one big, consistently stake-raising tournament arc. Plus, Tite Kubo's clear greatest asset is his understanding of black-and-white visual layouts and negative space. Bleach has some really gorgeous pages, not necessarily in character designs, but in the spacing of objects and visual momentum. The Kenpachi-Ichigo fight in particular is just a beautiful piece of work.
Is tonari no kaibutsu-kun worth the watch?
Not really. It starts off looking like it might actually go beyond the usual romcom shenanigans, but then it banks sharply back into them for the rest of its running time. The only really distinctive thing about it is that the male MC is a legitimately unstable, likely dangerous kid, but the show doesn't really run with that.
I guess if you're not tired of the usual romcom stuff, it's a reasonably well-constructed one.
I guess if you're not tired of the usual romcom stuff, it's a reasonably well-constructed one.
How many old questions do you still have to answer?
Close to six hundred, and it grows faster than I answer them. Feel free to re-ask an old question, because I harbor no more illusions of ever beating this thing.
What constitutes a breezy comfort show? Would Sidonia and Chaima come under this category?
I was actually thinking Love Live, but if I weren't writing stuff for the Week in Review posts, those would both probably also fall under that category.
Do you take notes for every show you watch or just the ones you publish?
For the week in review shows, I basically just jot down the stuff I actually post. For backlist, I pretty much always take notes - I still took notes for Psycho-Pass and Fate/Zero even though those just ended up contributing to the general Urobuchi piece. For breezy comfort shows, I don't write anything.
Wait... how is Death Note sexist?
Dude, have you SEEN Misa's character? She's basically the only female character who doesn't get immediately murdered or used as a Light-doormat, and she's a 'hysterical woman' cliche. Half of the lines spoken to her are "that's nice dear, but the men are talking now."
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What do you think Urobuchi wants to do with the Gargantia and Psycho Pass sequels?
With Gargantia, I don't have any idea. I felt that show wrapped up its ideas and conflicts pretty perfectly, so the second season will have to be about something new, and I'm not sure what that will be.
With Psycho-Pass, there's tons of room to continue exploring the ideas proposed in the first season, and Akane's very suspicious relationship with her hue hasn't been explored at all, plus she's now occupying a position of more authority within the police force, so there's plenty of directions they could take it.
With Psycho-Pass, there's tons of room to continue exploring the ideas proposed in the first season, and Akane's very suspicious relationship with her hue hasn't been explored at all, plus she's now occupying a position of more authority within the police force, so there's plenty of directions they could take it.
Is one of the major issues with Stardust Crusaders is that it just doesn't feel as epic as Battle Tendency? Even if the animation in Stardust Crusaders is noticeably better, Battle Tendency just had better sound effects and more epic looking shots.
Agreed. It feels like Battle Tendency had a better soundtrack and more stylish direction in general. Stardust Crusaders is more polished, but it's playing things too straight.
Do you think Death Note is sexist?
Oooooh yeah. And Bakuman made it infinitely more clear that that author just has terrible attitudes about women altogether.
Gone Home was probably the shortest game I've ever played. Its only redeemable quality is being "socially progressive", and even that wasn't very impressive. Finish it, feel somewhat satisfied, then look up "Gone Home Gif".
I will never understand this demand for games to simply be /longer./ Would you finish reading a book and then say, "that was pretty good, but I wish it went on for another two hundred pages"? Wouldn't you rather have more powerful, concise aesthetic experiences than get stuck in a single one for a hundred hours of your life? We don't get that many hours!
Wait, fuck, some people /do/ wish books would go on for more hundreds of pages, or for sequels to completely self-contained films. Well, the point still stands!
Wait, fuck, some people /do/ wish books would go on for more hundreds of pages, or for sequels to completely self-contained films. Well, the point still stands!
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Sunshine Marmot
Are you a city or a nature person?
I'd probably go with nature if more bands played in the forest, but for now I have to stick with city.
Wait how can Utena be the "Evangelion of shoujo" if Madoka is already the "Evangelion of anime"??
I don't know, these people be crazy.
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Sunshine Marmot
Utena is sometimes described as the "Evangelion of shoujo" and Serial Experiments Lain as the "Evangelion of seinen". Would you say that's a decent descriptor of both shows?
I could see the Utena one, but even that's a stretch - "Evangelion is for boys and Utena is for girls" does both of those shows a serious disservice. The Lain one just seems like total nonsense, particularly since "seinen" is such a useless descriptor. Not everything has to be an Evangelion!
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Ignisalge
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Rose Bridges
drunk sao writeup pls?
I was actually a little tipsy for my last one, but normally I don't drink and write. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't actually make you funnier.
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