2008: My Fourth Quarter in Anime
Dec. 31st, 2008 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerAnother three months have gone by, and once again I'm trying to put together some thoughts on all the anime I watched in that time. If I had to give as short a summary as possible, I might say that I kept watching, some of the stuff I saw I enjoyed quite a bit (although the corollary, of course, would be that I liked those titles "more than others"), and if I dwelt on anything, it was on how many DVDs were piling up to be opened, not worrying about "burning out" some small fraction of the way through them. It may be, of course, that in avoiding the complaints of others how nothing made in the past twenty years has satisfied them, I've instead been in the company of those who, now that they're not quite so worried about the enduring North American anime distributors going out of business in the next few months, can get back to complaining about how those companies' latest DVD releases are either defective or just not up to their own highly developed aesthetic standards. I suppose, though, that I'm fine coping with that.
At the start of these latest three months, I rewatched a series I had seen before, once more accepting a sense that this was "getting in the way of getting around to new stuff" to stand against a sense that "getting around to new stuff is the only thing I can do." In any case, it was interesting to return to the "near-future" science fiction of Planetes and view it perhaps more as a unit than I had before. As I'd said before, this did get somewhat in the way of things I was already in the process of watching, and one of those titles was maybe that much more of a different experience. A while ago, I posted in an amused way about hearing that Pizza Hut in Japan was going to arrange a promotion involving an anime named Maria-sama ga Miteru, which I had gathered the major appeal of was its classy same-sex relationship overtones. (I've since heard that one of Pizza Hut's major demographics in Japan is delivery to those fans who'll stay up late watching anime series scheduled at odd hours, which may put the juxtaposition into a better perspective.) At the time, I said that I didn't see myself getting around to obtaining the "fansubs" of the series, at least in part because I'd be a little worried about being interested in it for "wrong reasons." As it turned out, I didn't have to seek out "fansubs," because the series was licensed for North American release by a small company (supported by an online store offering the complete range of anime and manga). As if prepared ahead of time for a "boutique" release, the show would be subtitled only, but I suppose I can deal with that... and also that I may have been motivated by thoughts of "helping the industry." In any case, I ordered the series, its title now translated as Maria Watches Over Us. While it was perhaps a little too possible at first to interpret everything as a joking double entendre (I noticed a review that suggested those with a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" mindset may view the series with a different kind of "wrong mindset"), I soon found myself concluding that the anime was quite far from being sensationalistic. The pairings are established as being senior-junior mentoring arrangements at a Japanese Catholic girl's school (if always the closest possible matches), and while small matters can get mined for all the melodrama they pack, things seem to get settled again in the episodes that follow.
The other series I had been viewing was one I was getting around to rewatching in a somewhat different fashion. I had seen not quite the first half of Eureka Seven on TV when its dub got on cable up here a while back, breaking off that viewing through nothing more involved than because the scheduling got fiddled with partway through. It was a "mecha" series involving a particularly casual group of rebels with a distinct sort of "urban" style and also giant robots riding flying surfboards, making their way through a world not quite our own. I got around to buying up the DVDs of the fifty-episode series, first through a sale and then through preorders, although I didn't start watching them until I had not just all of them, but also a number of other series in progress tied up through large orders waiting to be completed. It was still interesting to return to Eureka Seven (this time watching the Japanese-language version), picking up on things I hadn't quite noticed before and pushing further into the series... although it had to start "competing" with a different series again partway through that.
On seeing the first third or so of Gurren Lagann, I had been quite impressed by it, but it took a while for the next DVDs of it to arrive. When they did, I was able to press straight through the entire series. I continued to be impressed, and yet to say too much about it would seem to be to give the surprises away... although I saw one summary of it, hopefully not too revelatory, that suggested that each part of the show could be seen as representing a different decade of giant robot or mecha anime. I did wonder myself part of the way through (and I'm still hoping that this won't say too much) if a big point was being made of things having become "nuanced," and then things got back to one's giant robot being an extension of one's indominitable willpower. However, in getting back to Eureka Seven, I found myself wondering of Gurren Lagann was just plain "overpowering" it, as it might many other things... Black Lagoon had seemed able to match it, but this different series seemed a bit more conventional by comparison. I finished Gurren Lagann before Eureka Seven, though, and at the conclusion of that longer show, as the last secrets to be spelled out were revealed, things were interesting enough.
I also got back to the amiable and low-key (if often fandom-focused) humour of Lucky Star (and in one episode realised how it was then referencing Maria Watches Over Us), although watching through three of its DVDs over the span of a month may have made me ponder a little about my motivations in starting to buy it in the first place all those months ago. Remembering back to then (and its own variation on "helping the industry") seems to have helped my feelings about the series again, though.
With Macross Frontier finished, I started following the fansubs of the continuation of Gundam 00, which picks up several years later in story time with the character designs of the formerly teen-aged characters revised to make them look older. The series seems to be following a path set by other "sequel series" in other parts of the large and complicated Gundam franchise, with the official powers being fought against that much more oppressive than before... although I seem more interested in this iteration than I've been in some of its previous variants, perhaps in part because there are characters from before caught on both sides, helping at times to give a sort of sense of "innocence lost." I've also been able to follow the discussions of some other fans about this series, but this does perhaps leave me with the familiar yet ambiguous sense that I can be a lot more sympathetic towards put-upon and struggling fictional characters than some other people.
For a while, with some pretty lengthy anime series that I had been watching via fansubs complete at last, I didn't have much idea of where to go next with that more ambiguous way to see anime. Then, I made a decision and started converting my video files of Dirty Pair to carry them around on my iPod touch. I've had a little experience before with that series from the mid-1980s, but it may still be most of all notorious with me for its two female troubleshooters having been appropriated to be girlfriends in a massive and self-indulgent fanfiction series featuring its authors, a series I was presumptive enough to write a MSTing of. Still, in beginning to watch the series I got a definite sense of how the fans of the 1980s could have enjoyed it. (I believe there are some subtle references to it in the early years of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well.) In any case, I also began to think that my impression of the show being about "mayhem and carnage follows in their wake, but it's never their fault" may have been formed a little more extreme (and horrifying) than the reality.
At the start of these latest three months, I rewatched a series I had seen before, once more accepting a sense that this was "getting in the way of getting around to new stuff" to stand against a sense that "getting around to new stuff is the only thing I can do." In any case, it was interesting to return to the "near-future" science fiction of Planetes and view it perhaps more as a unit than I had before. As I'd said before, this did get somewhat in the way of things I was already in the process of watching, and one of those titles was maybe that much more of a different experience. A while ago, I posted in an amused way about hearing that Pizza Hut in Japan was going to arrange a promotion involving an anime named Maria-sama ga Miteru, which I had gathered the major appeal of was its classy same-sex relationship overtones. (I've since heard that one of Pizza Hut's major demographics in Japan is delivery to those fans who'll stay up late watching anime series scheduled at odd hours, which may put the juxtaposition into a better perspective.) At the time, I said that I didn't see myself getting around to obtaining the "fansubs" of the series, at least in part because I'd be a little worried about being interested in it for "wrong reasons." As it turned out, I didn't have to seek out "fansubs," because the series was licensed for North American release by a small company (supported by an online store offering the complete range of anime and manga). As if prepared ahead of time for a "boutique" release, the show would be subtitled only, but I suppose I can deal with that... and also that I may have been motivated by thoughts of "helping the industry." In any case, I ordered the series, its title now translated as Maria Watches Over Us. While it was perhaps a little too possible at first to interpret everything as a joking double entendre (I noticed a review that suggested those with a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" mindset may view the series with a different kind of "wrong mindset"), I soon found myself concluding that the anime was quite far from being sensationalistic. The pairings are established as being senior-junior mentoring arrangements at a Japanese Catholic girl's school (if always the closest possible matches), and while small matters can get mined for all the melodrama they pack, things seem to get settled again in the episodes that follow.
The other series I had been viewing was one I was getting around to rewatching in a somewhat different fashion. I had seen not quite the first half of Eureka Seven on TV when its dub got on cable up here a while back, breaking off that viewing through nothing more involved than because the scheduling got fiddled with partway through. It was a "mecha" series involving a particularly casual group of rebels with a distinct sort of "urban" style and also giant robots riding flying surfboards, making their way through a world not quite our own. I got around to buying up the DVDs of the fifty-episode series, first through a sale and then through preorders, although I didn't start watching them until I had not just all of them, but also a number of other series in progress tied up through large orders waiting to be completed. It was still interesting to return to Eureka Seven (this time watching the Japanese-language version), picking up on things I hadn't quite noticed before and pushing further into the series... although it had to start "competing" with a different series again partway through that.
On seeing the first third or so of Gurren Lagann, I had been quite impressed by it, but it took a while for the next DVDs of it to arrive. When they did, I was able to press straight through the entire series. I continued to be impressed, and yet to say too much about it would seem to be to give the surprises away... although I saw one summary of it, hopefully not too revelatory, that suggested that each part of the show could be seen as representing a different decade of giant robot or mecha anime. I did wonder myself part of the way through (and I'm still hoping that this won't say too much) if a big point was being made of things having become "nuanced," and then things got back to one's giant robot being an extension of one's indominitable willpower. However, in getting back to Eureka Seven, I found myself wondering of Gurren Lagann was just plain "overpowering" it, as it might many other things... Black Lagoon had seemed able to match it, but this different series seemed a bit more conventional by comparison. I finished Gurren Lagann before Eureka Seven, though, and at the conclusion of that longer show, as the last secrets to be spelled out were revealed, things were interesting enough.
I also got back to the amiable and low-key (if often fandom-focused) humour of Lucky Star (and in one episode realised how it was then referencing Maria Watches Over Us), although watching through three of its DVDs over the span of a month may have made me ponder a little about my motivations in starting to buy it in the first place all those months ago. Remembering back to then (and its own variation on "helping the industry") seems to have helped my feelings about the series again, though.
With Macross Frontier finished, I started following the fansubs of the continuation of Gundam 00, which picks up several years later in story time with the character designs of the formerly teen-aged characters revised to make them look older. The series seems to be following a path set by other "sequel series" in other parts of the large and complicated Gundam franchise, with the official powers being fought against that much more oppressive than before... although I seem more interested in this iteration than I've been in some of its previous variants, perhaps in part because there are characters from before caught on both sides, helping at times to give a sort of sense of "innocence lost." I've also been able to follow the discussions of some other fans about this series, but this does perhaps leave me with the familiar yet ambiguous sense that I can be a lot more sympathetic towards put-upon and struggling fictional characters than some other people.
For a while, with some pretty lengthy anime series that I had been watching via fansubs complete at last, I didn't have much idea of where to go next with that more ambiguous way to see anime. Then, I made a decision and started converting my video files of Dirty Pair to carry them around on my iPod touch. I've had a little experience before with that series from the mid-1980s, but it may still be most of all notorious with me for its two female troubleshooters having been appropriated to be girlfriends in a massive and self-indulgent fanfiction series featuring its authors, a series I was presumptive enough to write a MSTing of. Still, in beginning to watch the series I got a definite sense of how the fans of the 1980s could have enjoyed it. (I believe there are some subtle references to it in the early years of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well.) In any case, I also began to think that my impression of the show being about "mayhem and carnage follows in their wake, but it's never their fault" may have been formed a little more extreme (and horrifying) than the reality.