Bobduh

I guess my recommendation would be, "in one small area, one step at a time." I don't know if it's possible to take one giant leap from an unhappy situation to a happier one, and I generally find myself backsliding if I attempt something like that, so I think the best thing to do is to just try to improve your life in some small way you actually can control on a consistent basis. Like through picking up a new hobby, and slowly working at improving on it. Or making yourself a to-do list of one extra thing you feel you should do in a day, and trying to commit to it. The areas your life is lacking in can feel insurmountably vast, but you don't have to "fix" these things in some dramatic way, you can still address them in very small ways over time. Even something like that leaves the very real possibility of feeling bad about failure, but I think small steps like that are more "safe" than larger ones, and can add up once you're able to stick with them.

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I hope that helps, and good luck with the crap you're dealing with!

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I get this question pretty often, and I always struggle with finding a good way to answer it, because my own critical education has been a pretty difficult-to-replicate mix of formal and informal studying. On the formal side, I went to a good college and studied English there, taking a solid mix of criticism and creative writing classes. I studied English because I love writing, and I've always loved writing, and I've always /been/ writing - obviously it's easy to develop bad writing habits without formal guidance, but a mix of dedicated writing /and/ formal guidance were a big step up for me personally in learning how storytelling works, best practices for handling voice, etcetera. Absent actual teachers, my advice for somewhat replicating this would be to read broadly and with great curiosity - engage with highly praised writing, and think about how both those authors and the authors of the works you love specifically convey ideas, emotions, actions, down to the smallest word choices. And do the same with film, and if anime is what you want to cover, anime specifically as well.

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On the informal side, my post-college education has pretty much all been informal, self-taught stuff. I recommend going to a library and checking out some general "history of criticism" books to give yourself some grounding - I like Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory myself. Books like that won't really teach you "how to critique," but they will give you a lot of necessary context on /what/ criticism is. I see people online sometimes act like they've discovered the One True Path to either good storytelling or meaningful criticism, and I think understanding the many phases formal critique has gone through would go a long way to helping people adopt a more open mindset. I'd also look up modern, relatable criticism, and see what works for you - I was personally reading a lot of Film Crit Hulk at the time I started writing about anime, and of course there are always classics like Roger Ebert. But again, read from a diverse selection of critics, because there are many compelling approaches to engaging with text.

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Finally, I'd think about what you yourself want to get out of criticism. What exactly do you want to say about media - what compels you to write? A great deal of getting good at writing in general, criticism aside, comes down to the dedication to repeated craft that only passion can bring. So seize on what you find satisfying about writing, and stick with it.

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[continue] you feel is necessary to make new characters compelling with a limited amount of time work with?

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There's a whole bunch that goes into whether a show will be able to efficiently engage you with its characters, and what /kind/ of engagement the show is actually looking to create, and it's all a combination of both character craft and narrative goals. In Sakurako's case, the show opens with an extended monologue from one of the two protagonists, one where he describes his lack of enthusiasm for his daily life. In a situation like that, it all comes down to the grace of the writing - FLCL does the exact same thing, but Naota comes off as a person, whereas Sakurako's writing style make Shoutarou come off as one more of a million similar protagonists. Small language choices and animation/framing can be the difference between character and archetype - to pick another example, Kumiko's body language and actual language in the first episode of Sound! Euphonium immediately set her apart, orienting her as a specific person who is unlike characters in other similar situations.

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But if your writing or execution aren't inherently good enough to make your character feel like a person, you have to give them /time/ to feel like people. In Sakurako's case, the writing is bad, but beyond that, almost every interaction between the characters is plot-driven, with very few injections of offhand personality or chemistry beyond "Sakurako is a weird person." Compare this to Utawarerumono, where basically every conversation between Kuon and Haku both serves a narrative goal and also takes the time to have the characters continuously feel out each other's personality, bouncing off each other in ways that demonstrate multiple sides to each of them.

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It also comes down to what kind of story you're telling. Mushishi, somewhat like Monogatari, tells supernatural stories that are simultaneously personal stories. Its characters aren't just people the plot is happening to - the plot is generally a reflection of their emotional conflicts, be they an unhappily estranged couple or a father and daughter isolated by grief. The twists and turns of the plot act as overt narrative hooks and simultaneously tell us more and more about the characters, creating very efficient personal stories that also succeed as general meditations on relatable human instincts. This doesn't make Mushishi unique - most great stories tie the narrative to the personal to the universal, and are stronger for it.

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For a little bit more about character writing, you can check out this post I wrote a while back:

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http://wrongeverytime.com/2014/05/18/character-design-101-want-and-need/

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[continued] up for your public image?

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AW SNAP WE IDOLS NOW. Frankly, I think I'd have the easiest time adapting to that out of anyone in my band. As much as I enjoy playing drums or guitar, for live performances I much prefer just holding a mic and emoting like crazy from the front of the stage - in fact, our traditional show closer was a cover of Nothin' to You, where our normal bassist handled the drums and I just jumped around like a maniac singing and dancing. Here's our recording of that:

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https://soundcloud.com/bobduh/nothin-to-you-12711-mp3

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ANYWAY. If we were allowed to get away with a setup like that, I don't think anyone would complain - I'd happily be the unrepentant frontman of a band where I don't have to do anything but sing and move. But if all three of us were forced to actually adopt the "idol lifestyle," things would be a bit trickier. The idol lifestyle, quite frankly, sucks. When you get outside of animeverse idols and start discussing the real ones, you have to engage with the fact that the industry is inexcusably abusive, and expressing basically any degree of independent personality runs from being "firmly discouraged" to "getting your ass kicked out of showbiz forever."

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But that's partially a reflection of how Japanese celebrities in general are held up to terribly invasive personal standards. If we were somehow "American Idols" (I know, what an alien concept), things would still be pretty great. I'd likely play up exactly the same personal attributes I use to make you saps on twitter think I'm a cool person - a combination of general snarkiness and self-effacing humor, mixed with that maudlin sincerity the people love. I'd comment on our silly costumes while totally embracing the fun stagecrafty artifice, our guitarist would be the mysterious silent one, and our bassist would be the upbeat athletic one. I'd crack jokes with the crowd about the silliness of our performances, and then "get real for a minute" and talk about how much I appreciated all their support. And I'd mean all of it, because there's legitimately nothing I love more than performing and creating for people, be it through song and dance or writing and jokes. I think no matter what path I chose in life, I'd still end up in a different version of the same place.

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https://youtu.be/IGhUpvgcIKo

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Definitely pink hair. Hell, they even have red flowers in the background for contrast. It seems to be a darker, slightly red-tinted variation of what I'd normally describe as "bubblegum pink" - somewhat different from the pinks usually used for anime hair colors, but definitely a pink nonetheless.

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And that was indeed a quick answer, so here's a variety bag of silly gifs!

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http://i.imgur.com/lUlH73U.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/U20x5AC.gif
http://i.imgur.com/Ygdz11d.gif
http://i.imgur.com/5v7erap.gif

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I didn't actually have any Monmusu gifs, but I couldn't turn down an opportunity to find Monmusu gifs STRICTLY FOR WORK-RELATED REASONS, so here are some of those!

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http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/990/441/684.gif
http://pa1.narvii.com/5836/7f1b24f89b62e5cdf8482cec7388c6c0d4e77596_hq.gif
https://33.media.tumblr.com/076df9f2b0f22529bbeae57b3a95b757/tumblr_nrulxqe1vj1uuq1pao1_500.gif
https://38.media.tumblr.com/a50a0f8ea33e9a17fcd6c4e1d7b5184a/tumblr_nrv0m7DVMR1seyt9ho1_500.gif
https://31.media.tumblr.com/2f5ea598792f01ac66a0a7dfc53aa444/tumblr_nu7tbrU8801u1bxt2o1_500.gif
https://38.media.tumblr.com/da6a7de45103d0ea645d108369b69c19/tumblr_ns7j56t0Aw1rmzw91o1_500.gif

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Starting with the winter season, here's what I'd recommend getting up to date on:

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#1: Shirobako

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One of those rare and wonderful anime dramas featuring actual adults, Shirobako is equal parts funny, heartfelt, and engaging. It covers the process of anime creation from basically every position within an anime studio, featuring dozens of characters who somehow all end up feeling like real people worth rooting for. One of the best shows of the last few years.

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#2: Death Parade

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Featuring sharp vignettes and some lovely aesthetics, Death Parade shrugs off its "death game" premise to actually tell a bunch of poignant and endearing little stories. Not all of its stories are equally strong, but they're diverse and well-executed enough that it feels like an easy general recommendation, and it's clear that unlike many shows with such a morbid focus, this show actually cares about its character.

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#3: Yurikuma Arashi

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My feelings on Yurikuma have honestly cooled pretty significantly since the show ended, but it's still a really interesting thing, and since you're enjoying Gatchaman, I figured this show works as a nice complement to it. It's Ikuhara, so expect some nice visual storytelling and thematic priorities that threaten to overwhelm the narrative entirely. It's also about lesbian bears.

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#4: Sound! Euphonium

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Easily KyoAni's best show in years, a drama strong enough to stand next to Hyouka. Sound! Euphonium is as beautiful and animation-rich as any of their shows, but applies those strengths to a very tightly written drama full of characters with rich internal lives. It's just a classic little story told pretty much perfectly.

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#5: Oregairu S2

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This one's a sequel, but it's so strong that I have to include it. The first season of Oregairu was the best-written high school drama I've seen, and Oregairu S2 actually completely surpasses its predecessor, featuring much better execution and much more cathartic dramatic peaks.

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#6: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

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I figured it'd be nice to include an airing show, and outside of Owarimonogatari, Iron-Blooded Orphans is definitely the pick. It's just a really solidly constructed war drama so far - strong characters that bounce off each other well tied to a narrative with a strong sense of momentum. It's no-frills storytelling done right.

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