Merry Christmas, everyone!
It took twenty-nine years, but I finally woke up to a White Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s more like a blizzard, so I fear I might not make it home today as planned.
I think I’ll go back to bed.
Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' CategoryPage 2 of 6
After finishing Kanon earlier this year, I made a pledge to rewatch it come Winter. Except, when ADV announced its licensing of the show and set the release date for the first DVD in January, I decided it might be better to just wait. I originally wanted to both marathon and watch it in the proper season, however, so… well, I pulled out my fansubs and started watching last night. I’ll be purchasing the DVDs, obviously, but I figure there’s no harm in rewatching the show now.
So, aside from paying a short visit to my parents tomorrow, that’s how I’ll be spending my holiday weekend. It sounds pathetic, I know, but with the cold and the snow, I’d rather just stay inside where it’s warm. Home is where the heat is.
Speaking of which, while discussing televisions last week, a certain ghost of anime blogging past asked if I was planning to follow up on this post, seeing as I moved to a new place over half a year ago. People always seem to find this sort of thing interesting, so I suppose I should. Hence, I present to you the new and improved Hop Step Jump nerve center, now with more display space.
Clearly, a shiny new TV would look nice in there, and I were feeling impatient, I’d take advantage of Black Friday and pick something up for a cheap, but… well, what’s the weather forecast look like for that morning?
“Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Lows around 10F.”
I think I’ll just stay in bed.
After watching the first episode of Mokke a few weeks ago, I wrote, “The first episode didn’t necessarily grab me as much as I would’ve liked, but I think the show has a lot of potential.” Yet, despite my optimism, I proceeded to put the show out of sight and out of mind, almost to the point of forgetting about it entirely. This past weekend, however, I sat down and watched a few more episodes and discovered that my initial impression of the show was pretty much on the mark. In fact, I’d even go so far as to now label it one of my favorite shows of the season. I’m glad I gave it a fair chance.
When it comes to evaluating anime series, I’ve occasionally been accused of being a bit of a pollyanna in my assessment. I suppose it’s true, to a point; I consider myself an optimist and I have this annoying habit of being flexible and open-minded when presented with problems or new situations. It’s something I inherited from my father, I guess. He’s much the same way.
It’s also why I’m such a horrible anime reviewer. It’s not that I don’t view anime with a critical eye - otherwise, I’d be drowning in dreck - but, if the good in an anime series vastly outweighs the bad, I’m likely to describe it in glowing terms, ignoring even those flaws which clearly deserve mention. When your audience consists of a bunch of cynical anime fans, however, what do you do? Do you take the high road and stick to your guns? Or do you play to their desires and start dishing out the snark, poking at a show’s every imperfection, no matter how insignificant it may be? For me, it’s neither. I just said, “screw it,” and stopped writing reviews.
But impressions are another matter entirely. The nice thing about impressions is that they’re quite often snapshots of a moment in time. If I write, “I’m really enjoying Suki Suki Neko Rangers at the moment,” and leave it at that, I’m not committing to any particular opinion of the show as a whole. If the show goes down the drain five episodes later when its revealed that Neko Ranger Blue is, in fact, a descendant of God sent to rescue the Earth from an invasion of robotic Neko Ranger embryos from the past (boy, do I hate it when that happens), it doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed Suki Suki Neko Rangers at some point in time. And, when it comes time to judge the show in its entirety, the fact that it went in a direction I didn’t care for doesn’t mean the time I spent watching it up to that point was all for naught. Bait and switch is such a common feature of anime storytelling that I’ve grown accustomed to taking things one episode at a time. There’s less disappointment that way.
With the start of every new anime season, however, first impressions abound. From the minute the first new show premieres in Japan, the race is on to see who can weigh in the fastest. There’s definitely some value in these first impressions; with something like fifty new shows premiering each season, how does an anime fan determine what to watch? Spend a half hour on each and every one? Of course not. We rely an awful lot on the impressions of others when building our watchlists for the season. Unfortunately, however, those impressions aren’t always very trustworthy.
Compare and contrast the following statements…
1. “The first episode of Suki Suki Neko Rangers was far from perfect, but I like the characters and the premise. The animation was actually pretty good for this sort of show. I don’t know how it’ll turn out, but I’ll give it a chance for the time being. This is kind of a weak season so far, so I’ll take what I can get.”
2. “Why was this show even made in the first place? The animation is nowhere near the quality of the Sad Kittens in Rain remake from last year. I know they’re different studios, but it doesn’t matter. Suki Suki Neko Rangers? More like Sucky Sucky Neko Rangers, amirite? Still, I might as well watch it… it’s better that all this other crap. Worst anime season ever.”
Now, if you were thinking of watching Suki Suki Neko Rangers and went looking for impressions of the first episode, which of the above would you find more valuable? Assuming you’re not this guy, most likely the first statement. However, spend enough time reading anime blogs or hanging out on anime discussion forums, and you’re likely to see a lot of the second statement.
Everyone’s different, of course, but I know I find such premature proclamations of value (or lack thereof) to be useless. Terribly misleading, too. Far too many times, I’ve seen a show turn itself around following a lackluster start. And too many times I’ve seen a show blow a spectacular start in only a few episodes time. This is typical for most forms of serial entertainment, I suppose, but it seems especially common in anime. The smaller the sample, the harder it is to make sense of the big picture.
So, when I wrote, “the show has a lot of potential,” in sharing my initial impression of Mokke, I was essentially saying, “I want to see the big picture.” And I think this insistence on focusing on the big picture has helped me maintain my interest in anime after all these years. I find I don’t have to deal with disappointment as often as I think I would had I focused too much on the little nits and flaws that plague even the best of shows. And I’ve stumbled upon a lot of pleasant surprises along the way.
To be honest, I can’t even remember the last time I finished watching a show, only to think, “Gee, that was a colossal waste of time.” Even if I’m wearing rose-colored glasses, I seem to be having lots of fun all the same.
And I’m OK with that.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost four years to the day since I first started anime blogging. Back then, you could count the members of the anime blog community on one hand. For that matter, a community didn’t even exist. It’s impressive how much the community has grown since then.
Of course, just as the community has grown in size, it has also evolved. In the beginning, episode by episode blogging was the standard model most every anime blogger adhered to. Now, editorial style blogging is growing in popularity. I’m thankful for having had experience with both models. In all honesty, I can’t say which model I prefer; episode by episode blogging requires a lot of time and effort, no doubt, but editorial style blogging requires a lot of inspiration. With proper motivation, hard work and guts is easy to come by, but when it comes to inspiration, the well does occasionally run dry. In retrospect, it’s funny how I thought I’d have an easier time of things when I first launched Hop Step Jump a year and a half ago. Chalk that one up as a lesson learned.
But, hey, I’m having fun nonetheless. Sure, I gripe about the responsibility of maintaining a popular blog from time to time, and I often wonder how much more time I’d have for my other hobbies (or watching anime, for that matter) if I just logged in to WordPress one day and deleted the whole kit and kaboodle. But, if I were serious, I would have done something by now. There are occasions on which I have trouble writing, of course, and there are times when I find it necessary to take a break, but I always seem to bounce back. And you guys put up with it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. I’m not so in love with my own voice that I’d keep writing if I had no audience. “Blog for yourself,” be damned… I wouldn’t keep doing this if it weren’t for the fact my writing brightens your day as much as it does mine.
Seriously, thank you so much.
Navel-gazing aside, do I have anything to say that might help new anime bloggers find their place in this continually evolving community? Perhaps. The best advice I can offer, I suppose, is to take things as seriously as you wish to take them. If you want to overthink a plate of beans, go for it. If you want to post nothing but photos of Hirano Aya drinking milkshakes, go for it. If you want to do episode by episode blogging, go for it. A diverse community makes for a more interesting community.
At the same time, remember that, as part of a community, respect is something that must be earned. No one likes an asshole. Picking fights may seem like a quick and easy way to get attention, but when all is said and done, what are you left with? A bad reputation, that’s what. I know I don’t suffer fools gladly, and I suspect most anime fans feel the same way (we’re a bunch of know-it-all geeks, after all), but tolerance and friendliness go a long way in forging relationships with people. I know I’m much more likely to agree to disagree with someone when they treat me with kindness and respect. But I can’t expect to be treated with kindness and respect if I don’t extend others the very same courtesy.
And, no, I’m not perfect. When you inject your own voice into your writing, you’re guaranteed to piss someone off at some point. You’re going to put your foot in your mouth at some point. You’re going to eventually say something so horribly wrong that, upon looking back, you won’t understand why you even said it in the first place. Sometimes, you’re right, and sometimes, you’re wrong. That’s life. We learn by screwing up. Hence, there’s nothing shameful about saying, “Hey, I was wrong,” or, “Sorry I said something stupid.” You might learn something from it. I know I often do. After all, a lot of you guys know more about certain topics than I could ever dream to know.
Finally, do inject your own voice into your writing. You’re a human being, not an anime watching and critiquing machine.
So… anyone got photos of Hirano Aya drinking milkshakes?
Happy Tanabata to all! I had planned on decorating a bamboo plant for the occasion, but… well, this ain’t bamboo country. Every salesperson at every nursery I visited pointed me toward this plant, which isn’t even bamboo in the first place.
So, I hung some paper cranes, instead.
When I was in Japan, there were quite a few people who followed my day to day activities. Thus, the company received a lot of letters and gifts on my behalf, all of which were presented to me at my going away party the night before I returned to the United States. I had already known about the letters, as one of my producers had a habit of teasing me by sharing some of the juicier ones with the rest of the office (I was popular with lonely housewives… use your imagination), but I didn’t know about the thousands of paper cranes that had been mailed in from all over the country. I was impressed not only by the sheer quantity, but also by the amount of effort that must’ve gone into folding each and every one.
They’ve been boxed up and stored away ever since, however, so it’s nice to take them out to admire once again. Perhaps I should find a permanent place for them.
In an average anime season, I only keep up with seven or eight new shows on a weekly basis. So, essentially, this means I watch about two to three hours of new anime per week. I probably spend the same amount of time in the shower every week. Or cooking dinner. Or staring at the wall, trying to figure out WHAT to cook for dinner.
In other words, it’s not a huge time commitment.
Of course, I do watch more than new anime. I raid my DVD collection fairly often, rewatching old favorites from years past. And I do occasionally rewatch fansubs of unlicensed shows. For example, in the past few weeks, I’ve rewatched Planetes, Koi Kaze, Zettai Shounen, and a couple of random OAV series. However, rewatching a show is rarely as fulfilling an experience as watching something new for the first time. I scratch the itch, but I’m never really satisfied.
What to do?
Well, I had a bit of a “Eureka!” moment over breakfast this morning. As I said before, in an average anime season I only keep up with seven or eight new shows on a weekly basis. However, anymore, the average anime season offers twenty to thirty new shows from which a viewer can choose. Of course, the bulk of these shows are pure crap, but it’s safe to assume that there are three or four decent shows from each season that, for whatever reason, I neglect to watch. Keep this up for multiple seasons, and guess what happens? I end up with a huge pile of anime that I probably should’ve watched, would like to watch, and yet haven’t watched. I’m talking about hours upon hours of anime. It’s probably enough to keep me busy for a few months.
So, I guess I should get busy scratching that itch.
What’s batting lead-off, you might ask? I’ll give you a few hints. Josei. Lengthy. Pretty art. Period piece. Has been suggested to me by multiple people on multiple occasions. It’s not my favorite genre, but it looks interesting nonetheless.
First person to figure it out gets last night’s leftover curry.
If you’re not yet sick of hearing me talk about Kanon, make sure to check out the latest episode of the Mistakes of Youth podcast. I joined host Wildarmsheero and fellow anime blogger Gareth Bayer for a chat about the show yesterday.
Many thanks to both of them for the interesting discussion!