Reviews of movies, anime, and the occasional TV show mixed with warnings on Blogger spam. Also to be found are musings on whatever I am thinking about - all from the point of view of being left to watch everything from the sidelines of life.
Ill again, this time with a spotty rash that started on the face last night after midnight but has spread to the chest and back. I feel punchy at best and while not having a fever I’m staying put until it clears up. Hopefully it is an allergic reaction of some kind rather than something communicable.
This is what I get for going out to do things two nights in a row, I suppose.
I just got back from seeing Thor in 3D at the Spring Grove Cinema tonight. It was better than I expected and Kenneth Branagh proved he can handle a big budget action film better than most directors. Clearly his directing got the most from all the actors and nobody acted like they were sleep walking through their part.
The cast was excellent and Chris Hemsworth was perfect as Thor. But the real scene stealer was Tom Hiddleston as Loki, which is appropriate since Loki is always a scene stealer in the comic books and even the original Norse mythology. I even like Natalie Portman in it, which is a first for me! Anyone complaining about Idris Elba playing Heimdall just needs to go see the movie – he captures the gravitas of the character and is a proper guard of the Rainbow Bridge.
While there are plenty of explosions, vicious fights, and effects galore, the main story is very Shakespearean. At the heart of the movie is a classic story about two princes trying to be worthy of their father, Odin the king. One is fair and foolish, the other dark and cunning, but both crave their father’s love and approval. A shaky truces between races, old age, and intrigue complicate things enough, but the brash arrogance of Thor starts a tragedy.
Having proven himself to be stupid and vain, Thor gets himself a one way ticket from the realm of Asgard to Midgard, aka Earth, as punishment. Stripped of his powers and rank, he has to prove himself worthy to regain his godhood. That sets up some of the drama and all of the comedy as we get to see the now mortal god deal with being a mere man. It also is chance for him to gain some humility and find out what really matters through his interaction with Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) and her colleagues.
Effects were excellent, if overwhelming at times. One scene did annoy me greatly and that was because the humans hit with shattered glass came out of it uncut. Nice 3D effect, but come on! The 3D wasn’t that exciting to me and certainly not up to the standards of other films I’ve seen in the format. At least it wasn’t distracting.
Now for some comic book geekery.
The Destroyer was interestingly and well done. In the comics, it was an engine of destruction capable of taking on gods and it lived up to that. It was a little fragile in this rendition, but it was faithful to the look and menace I remember as a kid.
The art design was a loving tribute to Jack Kirby’s designs and I saw hints of Walter Simonson’s renditions as well. Asgard and Jotunheim were both sufficiently alien to be believable.
The Warriors Three translated well into live action and were the characters I always enjoyed. The SHIELD agent description of them and Lady Sif cracked me up.
The way Mjolnir was used was faithful in all ways to the comic and we pretty much got to see every variation except one: the ability to transport across dimensions. Even the twirling was used multiple times.
Hawkeye’s unnamed cameo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
All in all, Thor was a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good one. Worth seeing and stay after the credits for a very big hint about The Avengers movie it sets up.
Over at The Mainichi Daily News they have some amazing photos of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being hit by the tidal wave. The car being throne up into the building is particularly impressive and give an idea of scale. It truly shows how gigantic the wave was and it was amazing that events weren’t worse at the reactor – even as bad as they were.
Looking at this and other articles there, I realized that I want to post about such events here and not on Facebook like I did in March. Things get lost there and aren’t easy to find again for posterity, since it is a very superficial place. Events like the devastation of Japan by the tsunami is not something to readily forget, but human memory is what it is and that is limited.
It will be interesting to see if I can divorce the reality of what happened there from the fantasy of Godzilla movies the next time I watch one. Watching the footage and viewing the photographs was surreal, because in a way I’d already seen things like that happen in Japan thanks to the movies. These photos did not help with that and I wonder if I’ll be able to enjoy those films again.
The butcher of Srebrenica has finally been arrested after all these years. Ratko Mladic, the rat who commanded the Serbian troops, was captured by Serbian intelligence and will be extradited to face war crimes charges. While the timing is suspect, since Serbia wants to join the European Union and had plenty of opportunity to nab him, it is still glad tidings. I remember ranting at the Clinton administration to do something about “ethnic cleansing,” which was a brand new phrase at the time and waiting for a small eternity to see action taken.
For people who think modern countries can always peacefully work things out internally, the disintegration of Yugoslavia should be a cautionary example. It is a very fine line between civilized and barbaric behaviors – something that should never be forgotten and carefully monitored.
Pandering to an otaku audience goes to far when you make them the stars of the show. Everything becomes too incestuous and closed to outsiders, which eventually leads to both moral and financial decline.
There is a great danger when any group only “preaches to the choir” whether it be in religion, politics, art, entertainment or business. One thing that a lot of outsiders to manga/anime notice is how almost everything is currently set in high school or the protagonists are high school age. It is as if the only valid beings in existence are teenagers. But there are some reasons for this and it doesn’t have to do with the physical age of the audience the producers are catering to. It has more to do with their emotional age and the curious attitude that life ends when you become an adult in modern Japan.
While young protagonists have always been part of the genre, they were often university students and you used to see more adult characters in the casts. That’s what I remember from the 1980’s and 1990’s, so I looked through archives on the Internet to see if I was misremembering things. It turns out that I wasn’t and that things had started changing around the turn of the century.
Perhaps this is the end result of a declining population and an entertainment driven society, but I also suspect that the pressure to succeed and conform is a major factor. Rather than deal with reality, the plethora of media to distract has become a potent drug, much like Aldous Huxley predicted in Brave New World. The otaku’s represent this more than the average citizen, I expect.
But back to the changing protagonists. They are nearly always high school (or sometimes middle school) students and quite often are perverts. By this, I mean they are into sexually deviant behavior such as peeping, collecting pornography, exhibit sado-maschistic tendencies, and collect harem’s. This includes both male and female characters in both shounen (boy) and shoujo (girl) stories.
To make things worse, the shounen leads usually fall into two types: rude idiots or wimpy whiners. Sometimes they manage to blend the two, but they are usually outcasts at school. Gone are the strong good guys out to save the day at the first opportunity; instead they have to be dragged into taking action or doing good at all.
Does that sound like a bunch of emotionally arrested anti-social misfits? Ah, that would be the main consumer of this dwindling market, wouldn’t it?
If that wasn’t direct enough pandering, many series are now featuring otaku’s of both genders as leads or main cast members. Even mangaka’s (comic book creators) have become the focus of series! I’ll give a pass to Bakuman as it has been a great expose on how the industry works while still managing to be entertaining.
So what has happened is that the pandering of the industry to its dwindling customer base has resulted in a self perpetuating limit, since more and more you need to be a die hard otaku to get all the references and in jokes. But a problem with having such closed community is that things get boring fast as only very formulaic stories get purchased, achieve high ratings, or get votes. Yes, voting is a big factor in manga success.
Because so many stories are printed in weekly magazines such as Shonen Jump, the editors rely on sent in votes from the readers on what titles are succeeding. At least the comic books in the United States are stand alone titles and sink or swim on their own merits. In Japan, a tiny amount of readers hold vast sway over what lives or dies. These are the most motivated and obsessive otaku’s who have been handed immense power over the content published – simply because they bother to vote when most readers don’t.
No wonder things have gotten to such a point.
Getting back to boredom with content being a problem; there are only a few ways to break that. One is new and innovative stories and ideas, but the otaku’s aren’t really interested in that. Their behavior is that of a drug addict instead. What they want is a more intense high, or in other words, the same old tropes but taken to ever greater extremes. So more sex, more perversion, bigger battles, and anything else that is titillating to break the boredom.
Don’t get me wrong, there are good series of manga’s and anime’s being produced. But much like the decline in television shows here, it is like panning for gold in a sewage treatment plant. I don’t foresee things improving at all in the short or long terms.
So parents, check out what your children are watching or reading, especially on the Internet. A lot of people view comic books and cartoons as innocent fun, but those days are long gone.
Well, after writing this extended rant, I’ll have to be fair and do some writing about some of the nuggets of gold I’ve found in manga and anime. But that will have to wait for another day.
Much to my relief, there were no serious injuries. But there is a lot of property damage as can be seen over at The La Crosse Tribune’s gallery of pictures. From what I’ve heard back from church members, one had his work trailer crushed by a tree and possible house damage. I know someone who works at the damaged K-Mart and he wasn’t working that day, but I imagine it will make his job interesting for awhile. Given what happened to Joplin, which is roughly the same size city, I’m very grateful things turned out the way they did.
La Crosse probably won’t get federal disaster relief but Governor Scott Walker has toured the damage.
Locally, I still haven’t gotten out to see any of the damage near Caledonia, but might today.
Meanwhile, the people of North Minneapolis and Joplin need our prayers.
It was a tense night and early morning following from wondering how people I know in the area fared. Most I contacted didn’t suffer any damage and only a few haven’t gotten back to me yet. This is one of few times no news being good news is true, I think.
What had been a good weekend turned ugly this afternoon when a violent storm system ripped through the area. While where we live in Yucatan was close to the path of the tornadic part of the storms, but we got off light with one tree limb down on the property. I’ve been through intense rains, many storms, and a tornado before but this was the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen.
Reports are still coming in but it appears nobody was killed or seriously hurt despite tornados touching down in multiple places in Fillmore, Houston, and La Crosse counties. It sounds like there was a tornado near Houston, barns destroyed near Hokah, and damage north of Caledonia. Also, power line poles were knocked down around Valley High west of Hokah.
South side La Crosse took a lot of damage though, with K-Mart and the Pepsi bottling factory having their roofs torn off. Lots of trees and power lines are down in the initial reports. Thankfully, the gas main leak was contained quickly near Gunderson Lutheran Hospital and evacuations were rescinded. I am concerned about the homes near the K-Mart being said to be badly damaged as I have friends who live in that neighborhood.
Meanwhile, North Minneapolis, MN and Joplin, MS got hit by other tornadoes today. It looks like the damage was extensive, especially in Joplin. One fatality reported in Minneapolis, an unknown amount in Joplin, but so far none locally.
All I can do at the moment is pray for all involved.
The amount of perverted behavior in manga’s and anime’s is astounding. This is not healthy imagery for our children and teens to be exposed to. Parents need to be aware of this.
Diving into the world of the otaku’s was an unpleasant experience and downright nauseating at times. I quickly learned that I was better off reading spoiler filled threads in fan forums before even sampling an anime or manga. Explicit sex, rape, naked girls who look ten or younger, incest, sadism, bondage, bestiality, and other perversions all can be found – and is readily available through fan translations of material not imported to the United States.
Don’t expect me to name titles; I’m not going to help the kiddies using search engines to find smut. I will, however, go into some plot lines that are out there in successful shows and comics.
And just after I posted Part 1, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced the first titles they state have to be moved to 18 and over categories. One involves a comedy manga about a 24 year old married to a 12 year old and depicts child rape. Another is very popular (and one I accidently stumbled upon to my horror) about a high school brother and sister who are having an affair . That is the tip of the iceberg for that title, as it is far, far worse than just that. The rest all involve sex at school, rape, group rape, and incest. Such cheerful and amusing topics.
No doubt somebody will come along and read my posts with growing outrage that these topics are considered bad or damaging. One of the most disturbing things about reading posts in the fan communities is the amount of support for all these perversions, especially the lolicon (pedophile) stuff. The argument of it being fiction, and cartoon fiction at that, is often bandied about with the insinuation that it doesn’t really hurt anyone. They should have to deal with real life victims of such things and then say that.
That said, there are people raising concerns and complaining about the content, not to mention the declining quality of stories as the publishers pander to the otaku’s. That illustrates why manga and anime will never be big in the United States, as we still have some of our morals intact – at least where it comes to protecting kids. Though I’ll sadly admit that’s declining too as we have outfits like Ambercrombie & Fitch selling padded push up bikinis aimed at seven year olds.
It is the focus on underage girls that has caused the local government in Tokyo to crack down. With the immense power of being the main market in the country, this will effect the entire industry. The sheer amount of prepubescent looking females in scanty attire in anime and manga is mind boggling. Add that to most of the females being teenagers in the genre and it becomes clear that they are pandering to a bunch of perverts.
One of the more insidious and less obvious showcases for this is the “magical girl” subgenre. These stories feature girls who magically transform into costumed super powered heroines fighting evil. The most famous series would be the Sailor Moon anime adaptation that was so huge more than a decade ago. For the U.S. airings, there was quite a bit of censorship that Americans were unaware of, including cutting the lesbian content.
Interestingly, the “magical girl” characters have changed over the years. Originally, they were teenager who turned into adult forms to fight evil but somewhere along the way it changed to loli’s (derived from lolita) turning into teens and finally into loli’s turning into skimpily dressed loli’s. The transformation scenes have been known to have hidden frames with the character completely nude. Since the producers of this material are pandering to their audience, it says a great deal about said audience.
Yet otaku’s wonder why they have such a bad reputation.
Personally, every time the Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, slams the industry it makes me smile. Those who do the right thing will always be vilified and he is truly hated by the otaku’s worldwide. He may be a bit of a loud mouth, but he gets it.
Part 3 will wrap things up and cover how the pandering has hit ridiculous heights as protagonists have changed over the years.
Over at LDS Living, there is a good article on some of the Mormon myths that have sprung up within the faithful members of the church. I highly recommend reading it as I’ve been told some of them. We have a duty to be truthful in all things and I’m glad this article has been published.
There is one myth that has been spread quite a bit of late amongst politically minded Latter-day Saints and that is the Joseph Smith prophecy about how the Constitution of the United States of America would “hang by a thread” and be “saved by men from the church.” While I understand the human need to find comfort in dark times, relying on something that isn’t official church doctrine or even accurate in the first place is not a good thing.
Finding out the origins of this particular piece of Mormon folklore was a pleasant surprise this morning. With it having emerged fifty years after the Prophet Smith’s martyrdom, I have to wonder how many times those dismayed with the country’s direction have repeated it at any given time. Certainly we are in times that make the myth very attractive again.
For me, the following quote from the article says it all:
President Joseph F. Smith, who spoke after his son at that conference, re-emphasized his son’s remarks by calling the content of the prophecy “trash.” He said, “It is simply false. That is all there is to it.”
So I hope those LDS faithful who think our country is guaranteed to be saved at the last possible will open their eyes – especially to the faults of candidates they might vote for simply because they are fellow church members.
If you are a parent with kids interested in Japanese anime (cartoons) and manga (comic books), you need to be looking very closely at what your kids are into.
What is an otaku? Simply put, they are obsessive fans of pop culture, but I’m specifically writing about the ones involved in manga, anime, and video games. Of late, otaku has assumed negative connotations due to just how extreme the subculture has gotten. This is for very good reasons, which I will go into later. In the United States, the word mainly self-applied by fans of Japanese culture and hasn’t become such a negative term. Hopefully, it will become a negative term amongst parents given what I’ve run into online. There are far too many anime’s and manga’s that are pure sleaze masquerading as comedy or action.
I always wondered if the Japanese comic books and cartoons were really more intelligent and sophisticated than American efforts as their fans claimed. The other point I’d read and heard since the 1990’s was how more accepted they were in the culture and were, in fact, respectable. So as an ex-comic book collector and aficionado of things foreign, I decided to delve into the otaku world while going through two bouts of bronchitis earlier this year.
It wasn’t like I was a complete stranger to the genres involved, since I remember Robotech from the late 1980’s and Battle of the Planets from a little earlier. Due to glowing reviews everywhere, I watched Spirited Away and became an instant fan of Studio Ghibli. Younger friends had introduced me to Bleach, a typical fighting anime that at least had interesting characters. While I had Netflix, I sampled some anime series to get an idea what teens were into and did find some quality productions. In fact, that led to an automated recommendation that became the first anime box set I purchased, Area 88.
So I don’t come into this with a hatred for anime or manga as a format. Well done comics and cartoons can be just as emotional or complex as a novel or theatrical movie. In fact, I dare anyone to watch Grave of the Fireflies without shedding tears. But most of this, just like American comic books, is no longer for children. The main audience has become terminally arrested adolescents in their twenties to forties.
It is also a dwindling audience both here and in Japan. With the Japanese birth rate well below replacement rate, there simply aren’t enough children being born to keep things afloat and industry sales have decreased. Here in the states, the manga and anime boom peaked around 2005 and has imploded since then. Unlike Japan, those who consumed anime and manga outgrew it in their later years. So the great dream of mainstream acceptance went up in a puff of smoke.
There are consequences to shrinking markets in entertainment and one of the most interesting is what happens to a niche market. Just like comic books in the U.S., it shrinks to specialty shops and a ever smaller and more hardcore clientele. At some point, the whims of that small group begins to exert more and more control over the product put out. While not nearly as bad off in Japan as it is here, other cultural factors have produced an even more disproportionate influence by the hardcore fans over manga and anime.
I should note that video games are very intertwined with manga and anime. Many properties are adapted back and forth between all three media types. The peculiar popularity of dating and pornographic romance simulators in Japan is something we don’t have here in the States.
Why am I bringing this up? It has to do with many Japanese males dropping out of adult society, ones who have no real social lives, no wives, and no girlfriends. They spend their days as NEET’s, playing video games, reading manga, watching anime, and avoiding growing up at all costs. I’ve always liked the saying that “idle hands are the devil’s plaything” for good reason. Too many men with nothing to do is never a good thing. Combine a culture that is far more permissive in regards to sexual mores with pornography centered around school girls and you may get an idea of what I’m talking about.
To be a little more clear, we are talking about arrested adolescents who fantasize constantly about teen and, appallingly, preteen girls. With their disproportionate influence as very vocal consumers, the producers of anime and mange pander to this group constantly. This is called “fan service.” Jiggling breasts, sex jokes, nudity, and the ever popular camera shots of highly detailed panties are a staple of the medium.
But that’s just the beginning of the problems.
In the next post, I’ll go into how the themes of misogyny, incest, and pedophilia have become mainstream. Thankfully, the Japanese government has finally moved to do something about this but it still applies to what has been put out.
Just finished watching the finale of Smallville and, as I suspected, it was fairly anticlimactic. They setup so many things in the tenth and final season that it became a footrace to cram every loose end into the last two hours of the series. It figures that the same problems that plagued most of the season finales would be present in the final episode.
Far too much time was spent on the wedding in the first hour, which compounded the problem. There was a heavy overdose of second thoughts, doubts, and generalized wimpiness from Lois and Clark dominating what was supposed to be the big debut of Superman. It also dragged out and didn’t get interesting until the battle that, of course, derailed the wedding at the last moment. After that, the second hour was much better but things were crammed into that short span that would have benefited greatly from more time.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The return of Lex Luthor felt as rushed as could be, but no surprise there as they weren’t sure the actor would be involved. The death of Tess was no surprise, nor was alternate universe Lionel Luthor becoming the host for Darkseid in an ultimately disappointing appearance as the big bad guy.
What surprised me was that we never got the iconic Superman pose or a clear full on shot of Tom Welling in the costume. That is utterly baffling as fans have waited ten years for this. Yes, he was seen in costume, but blurred, obscured, or CGI’d the entire time. That and he wasn’t officially called Superman until the seven years later segment really annoyed me.
Smallville was never deep or consistent in quality, but it usually was entertaining. It was too much to expect a really well done ending, I’m afraid.
Now for some more positive notes.
Apokolips was very well rendered and the red skies were a nice tribute to Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The omega symbols being revealed as part of the Anti-life Equation was a nice nod to the comics.
Jonathon Kent handing the costume to Clark was very nicely done as the two fathers sent their son off to be a man.
Chloe and Ollie apparently having a son in the seven years later bookends was kind of sweet. Better yet, Chloe didn’t die!
Lex having his memory erased by Tess as she was dying at least explains how he wouldn’t know Clark was Superman in the future.
Jimmy Olson MK II was the surprise cameo at the end in the seven years later bit. So the little brother at Jimmy’s funeral did replace him in the mythos.
Still, it was a disappointing end to the series and felt more like a setup for something more. It lacked the emotional impact that Superman’s first public appearance should have given us. They simply fumbled the ball one yard from the end zone.
One of the problems with the modern media is that there are many vaunted “experts” on any given subject who simply don’t know what they are talking about. The Australian military aviation specialist Carlo Kopp is a prime example of this, which is why you should never quote him in a serious aviation forum – you’ll get laughed off the message board. Yet here he is, getting the spotlight once again by proclaiming the Chinese J-20 is equal to the F-22A Raptor.
Worse yet, he claims his “analysis” of the prototype shows it is more stealthy than the F-35 Lightning II from certain angles. This is the same guy who argued for upgrading ancient F-111 Aardvarks with the F-22’s engines! Another one of his ideas is a F-22 fleet for Australia and he’s still championing that despite the simple fact the country can’t afford them. Anything that threatens that dream is attacked, so Kopp has savaged the F-35 every chance he can. Fortunately, the Australian government is more sane and want the JSF as it suits there needs quite well.
Now I’ll admit the J-20 will be a serious threat to our allies in the Pacific, but the F-35 will outclass it in stealth, avionics, and weapons. That’s my armchair opinion based on the history of competing weapon systems over the years and Lockheed’s proven track record with stealth warplanes. But don’t accept me as any kind of expert and do the research yourself. You’ll probably come out more informed than Mr. Kopp.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy SEALs.
Good roundup of the events here.
I received an email from a friend about it just before going to bed last night and I was too tired to feel much about it. At the moment, I feel satisfaction that we finally got the butcher after 18 years from his attacking the United States. By that, I’m referring to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. It has been a very long time coming.
The fact he was living in luxury an hour away from the capitol of Pakistan was no surprise to me. He always had close ties to their government through the ISI security service and I’ve long thought he was being sheltered there. Also no surprise that we did this solo without Pakistani cooperation as they cannot be trusted.
What is surprising is how the White House is refusing to give the Pakistani government any kind of political cover on this. For all their vaunted efforts at reaching out to Muslim countries, they have shown themselves to be diplomatically tone deaf. This operation most likely will make already difficult relations with Pakistan openly hostile in the future.
I expect the near future to see more calls from both the Left and Right to withdraw from Afghanistan now that Bin Laden is literally sleeping with the fishes. In an era of highly personalized attack politics, we just removed the figurehead for the enemy and so support for the war will evaporate quickly. The Left are anti-military and anti-Bush, while the rising specter of isolationism is firmly entrenched within the Right.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but contrast how Saddam Hussein was dragged from a hole in the ground to Bin Laden being gunned down in a compound at a luxury resort area. The irony of the guy thought to be hiding out in caves going out that way while the dictator of many palaces was found wallowing in mud is profound.
Obama’s long form birth certificate has finally been released and you can download it here.
One of the red herrings that has had conspiracy theorists going nuts has been the lack of a full birth certificate being released. Foolish dreams of President Biden and a public spectacle of a resigning president have just gone up in smoke. This whole issue has been ridiculous to me from the beginning, since a local newspaper had his birth recorded at the time.
Hopefully, Donald Trump’s ego and celebrity driven candidacy can go up in smoke as well. He’s no conservative and a constant failure at business, which is precisely what we don’t need. The only thing he’s been good at is promoting himself and trading in wives for younger models as they get older. That’s cold reality there, much like Obama being a natural born citizen.
Why did the White House wait so long to release it? Mainly to avoid other records being released as the President made it clear to the media his family was off limits to them. The suspicion that his grades weren’t great is a valid one given his performance in office so far. But it is his wife’s dealings and family’s dealings in Chicago corruption that are the real issue, in my opinion. It also has been a great distraction from dealing with the real issues with his presidency and split independents from the Republican party.
In the meantime, the “birther” movement has made themselves look like idiots and that has been to the benefit of President Obama for some time. With the latest polls showing an increase in people believing he isn’t a citizen and Trump unofficially launching a candidacy, something had to be done to reign it back in.
By the 2008 election, we entered an era where people can’t tell what the differences between truth, lies, and speculation are. Now demagogues from all facets of the political spectrum are running rampant and things are becoming nuts as a result. Time to stop being so emotional people! Coldly focus on what needs to be done or there will be no hope of fixing anything.
What a sad joke our country is becoming.
or a Redundant Post Title and Some Anime Recommendations
As I’m trying to improve my health and rearranging my priorities, I’ll be posting more reviews rather than politics. There are many blogs on politics worth reading right now and I’m just static on an already crowded tuner. So my writing here will be more for exercising my skills than attempting to change the world with my limited energy. Looking at the long view, things are going to get pretty bleak for the world fairly soon and I have limits to how much complaining I can endure from myself.
So I’ll be reviewing all eleven episodes of the anime Fractale and eventually finishing the review of TRON: Legacy that I started in December. There is an off chance I might write some original fiction and put it up here, but nothing anytime soon.
While I’m not impressed by anime as a genre, I’ve done some exploring of it of late while being hammered by two bouts of bronchitis and have found some ones I deem of merit. Fractale has already been mentioned. Others of recent vintage are:
Shinryaku! Ika Musume aka Squid Girl – A humanoid girl with tentacles for hair decides to invade the surface in revenge for ocean pollution. What follows is a very funny, silly and sweet comedy anime that is utterly charming. Suitable for most ages; beware of squidding amounts of punning and the most annoying theme in history, degeso. I can’t wait for season two.
Kimi ni Todoke Seasons 1 & 2 – A letter perfect adaptation of the brilliant manga about the slow moving and heartfelt romance between an ostracized shy, scary looking girl and the most popular guy in her high school class. While it sounds formulaic, the characters are fully realized and utterly believable which is a true rarity in anime. Sawako and Shouta are one of the best couples in any form of literature and the supporting cast are wonderful in their own right. There is no way I can heap enough superlatives upon Kimi ni Todoke. The concentrated goodness in it is the perfect antidote for when the poisons of the world get you down. Suitable for 14 and up.
Yumekui Merry aka Nightmare Merry – Magical girl falls on high school boy and adventures ensue. I can’t stand this kind of thing and it has been done many times in the genre, but this series is different. Discordant camera angles, surreal imagery, and a disturbing soundtrack make this a very stylish and attractive anime but it really shines with its likeable and stereotype defying characters. Merry herself is a marvelous character, a rare feminine tomboy instead of a tsundere (look it up). She also is a lost and amnesiac dream demon trapped in the real world fighting her way to get back home. The dream world segments are very reminiscent of Tim Burton films. Very talky and slow compared to most fighting animes. Suitable for older teens and up, not aimed at kids.
It has been a hard winter, in regards to weather and health. So it is my hope that spring finally arriving will herald better times for me, at least in being more productive. I’ve had to shift priorities to seeing to my health and trying to put my house in order since last year. So far, results have not been good in either case. Having to face the fact that my health will probably decline, not just stagnate as I get older has been a sobering realization.
One of my major flaws is that I always put others first and don’t care very much about my well being. A person can get away with that as long as they have resources of health, wealth, and a network of friends and family to rely on. Since I’m at a deficit compared to normal people on all those things, my reserves are totally shot with no easy or fast replenishment possible. In the past few years I’ve had to give up a lot of volunteer work because I’m simply unable to do it anymore. In fact, all my activities have taken large hits. So my task now is having to learn to be more selfish in order to survive and be able to do anything at all for others.
Galling doesn’t even begin to represent how this makes me feel. It isn’t easy to go against one’s nature, especially when the only comfort in life is found when helping others.
But life isn’t about the way you want things to be, rather it is about dealing with the way things are. Like having to go to the dentist’s office today for another unpleasant cleaning…
…at least it isn’t root canal.
Or who is Phrynne?
Fractale was an interesting and underrated anime series that finished this past Thursday. I’m not going to give a comprehensive review, but I am going to write about the final scene because I’ve seen a great many misinterpretations of it on the Net. So if you don’t want spoilers on this complex and flawed series that fell short of being a masterpiece, don’t read this post!
Series home page on Hulu. Warning, not for kids. Older teens and adults only due to mature themes.
SPOILER SPACE
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The last scene is of Phrynne awakening after being in a coma for one year after merging with Nessa, the regressed mind of the original Phrynne who lived 1000 years before. Her immediate dialogue, tone of voice, and expressions seem to indicate that the Phrynne we followed in the series is dead and her mind replaced with Nessa’s. Clain’s reaction to her is the same as the viewer’s and while showing relief that he hasn’t lost both Phrynne and Nessa, there is a tinge of disappointment in his face and actions. When he addresses her as Nessa and she responds with something like an affirmative, the boy starts going down the stairs to fix breakfast.
That’s where downloading the fansub to double check made a huge difference for me, as the clearer audio showed a distinct change in Phrynne’s tone as she urgently calls out to Clain to thank him -- then tells him she loves him too and had from the moment they met. That wasn’t Nessa speaking, folks, that was the poor tortured soul of the girl we met in the first episode finally feeling able to confess her heart to the boy she loved.
Clain’s reaction of dropping his MP3 player and rushing to embrace her was another big indication that he recognized the girl he loved wasn’t gone. The tears that he hadn’t been able to shed as he watched Phrynne sacrifice herself to restart the Fractale system flooded out as he embraced the surprised girl. Watch how she slowly returns the embrace and a smile crosses her face. Nessa would have been exuberant and childish in response, but this isn’t what happens.
It took a third viewing and a fansubtitled version for me to clear up what I feel was a bad translation by Funimation. In it, Phrynne essentially calls Clain a baby in a softly affectionate barb, showing some of the prickliness of the difficult girl we had followed for eleven episodes. In the streamed translation, it was translated more as an astonished reaction to his crying, but the voice actress’ tone doesn’t correspond. That did not help with such a complicated resolution! As the show ends, Clain is beginning to laugh between sobs as the camera pans over the the group photo while zooming on the two.
To me that clinches that Phrynne is still Phrynne with a heavy dash of Nessa now in her personality. Instead of Nessa replacing her like she feared so greatly, Phrynne is instead completed by the ten year old’s mind. All the wounds to her soul have been healed between the fusing with Nessa and the love she had found. Clain hasn’t lost the love of his life after all and the promise that the three would be together forever was fulfilled.
In fact, all three wishes by the main characters were granted. The first was Phrynne’s wish that Clain would regain his smile and smile forever. The second was Clain’s wish that he wouldn’t be lonely anymore. The final one was Nessa’s wish that the three would live together forever.
In the end, Nessa was the catalyst that allowed both Phrynne and Clain to be healed and completed. The possibility that the original sexually abused sixteen year old Phrynne is finally getting her chance at a life is there too, since Nessa was her regressed mind recorded a millennia ago.
To my relief, this was a kind and good ending for Phrynne when it was looking like a tragic outcome was guaranteed. She turned out to be the main character of the series as I had suspected from episode one. The opening sequence and a translation of the main theme contained major clues to that as the theme is about a prickly and untrusting girl, a hedgehog.
Unlike most people in online forums discussing the show, I’d picked up that Phrynne had been sexually abused from the very beginning. Having been around women that had that happen to them, the telltales were obvious in the girl’s behavior and statements. I found myself worrying over this fictional character a great deal, which is a credit to the makers of this series. Maybe it was that or the anniversary of my mother’s death which that caused me to shed tears at the ending, but this flawed series will always be a favorite of mine.
While the series wandered a bit in the middle, I loved it, especially after that ending. I wrote this on the fly, so I hope it is coherent enough for those who watched the series and if you haven’t…
… Why did you just read this?
In the fall out of the shooting of Rep. Giffords and others at her public meeting in Arizona, the politics of demonization of the political right has been quick and ruthless by the political left. Their puppets in the news media have been quick to try to pin blame on the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Republicans. Claims that violent rhetoric from Republicans inspired this has become a chanting point. while the real facts that keep trickling out show that the shooter, Jarod Loughner, was a pot smoking, anti-religion, anti-war left winger with an obsession with Giffords dating back to 2007.
1. feigned high principles: the false claim to or pretense of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings 
It would be sheer hypocrisy for them to turn around and do what they criticize in others.
Warning: NSFW in some cases -- Michelle Malkin has an astounding and very long list of the violence called for and perpetrated by the left in the past ten years. Read through it and the definition of hypocrisy above is well proven, I think. As I mentioned, beware foul language and crude imagery at the link.
The desire to vilify the right has trumped anything approaching fairness or rationality on the left. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame has an editorial at the Wall Street Journal that further points out the hypocrisy going on. I will quote him:
To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?
Frankly, I don’t expect an honest answer from the left on that one. But I don’t expect honest answers from them on anything these days.
This rant by krakatoa at Ace of Spades pretty sums up how fed up we are with this. It is horrible that the acts of an extremely mentally ill young man are being used for attempted political gain by the left. Appalling barely begins to describe it.
I used to defend people on the left as being well intentioned if misguided. The events of the last several years have taught me otherwise. Dishonesty, intolerance, and hate is all I’m seeing out of them and it is getting worse. This trend cannot be good for the country and will lead to real conflict down the road.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/08/arizona-congresswoman-reportedly-shot-public-event/
I was hoping to post something more light hearted than this, but it is big news. My prayers go out to Rep. Giffords, her family, and the families of all that were shot or killed. Details are very murky, much like the Fort Hood shooting and there has been a rush to blame the Tea Party, Glen Beck, Republicans, and conservatives on left wing blogs. Given her stance on tightening security on the border with Mexico, she was getting a lot of flack from the left of late so I find such accusations to be very presumptuous.
Rumors are flying that the police are looking for a second suspect, but once again things are too confused to know what is really going on. Previous rumors claimed an Afghan war veteran shot her and the others. My worry is that this might be a spillover from narco-terrorism in Northern Mexico, where shooting politicians is getting to be common. Anyway you look at it, this is a very bad day in Arizona and the United States.
The willingness of people on the political left to paint the Tea Party as responsible is extremely disturbing and polarizes the country even further. People need to sit down, take a breath, and wait for the facts to come out.
UPDATED:
The shooter is a white male, 22, name is Jared Loughner. Someone may have fired back at him from the crowd. One gun with an extended clip is being reported, which sounds like a 9mm or 5.7mm to me and explains why so many survived. Rep. Giffords is out of surgery and was responding to verbal commands before despite being shot in the temple. A federal judge appointed by President Bush was also wounded. 18, not 19, shot. One more arrested and a third man is being sought by authorities.
This video screed may be by him, if so it shows a lot of signs of serious mental illness and hatred of government. Also, it looks something like a suicide note. He looks to be one sick puppy.
UPDATED:
Just viewed his YouTube videos and profile and he’s a left wing anarchist with favorite books including the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. One of his videos about being a terrorist includes flag burning as he doesn’t recognize the Old Glory as being constitutional. He also claims the Constitution is brainwashing and has another video on how to be a mind controller. His hatred of religion comes through very strongly as well.
He also is very clearly deranged.
The following is the written version of a sermon I gave earlier today at church and is my personal Christmas message to everyone this year:
I was asked to speak on what it means to be a disciple of Christ during the Christmas season.
As a child, I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come along. It was a time of family gathering together, cookies, games, television specials, and the best thing of all: unwrapping gifts to reveal all the toys I’d be playing with for the next year! It was almost too much to handle – all that waiting for the goodies I’d been coveting. Of course, I had to endure getting things like clothes from mother and hand knit slippers from a grandmother who didn’t understand what Christmas was about. They clearly didn’t have a clue! Oh how the years have gone by since then and oh how much I’d like a pair of new slippers knitted by my grandmother to keep my feet warm – especially during this bitterly cold winter we are having.
Age and the knowledge acquired over those years have changed my perspective mightily. A greater understanding of what is truly important in life makes for a very different feeling about Christmas time. While it is still much about family, the holiday season doesn’t fill me with anticipation the way it once did. Of course, being raised in a secular household that had no spirituality or faith made it more of a material holiday back then. Having found faith in Jesus Christ, it has different meaning to me now. Sadly, many I see are still caught in the material trappings of the season that have little to do with the Savior. We must not forget Him in the midst of all the blinking lights, frenzied shopping, distractions, even decorations and trimmings of a very commercialized and ever more secular holiday.
To be a true disciple of Christ, first one must understand what a disciple is. In the Bible dictionary, a disciple is defined as the following: “A pupil or learner; a name used to denote (1) the twelve, also called apostles, (2) all followers of Jesus Christ.” Most people think of the Apostles when ‘disciple’ is used, but the word applies to all of us who take on the name of Christ and follow in his path. In Acts 11: 26, we read “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” So Christian is another word for disciple. But there is more to it than that.
There are things that followers of Christ must do. In D&C 41: 5, it says “he who does the law is the Lord’s disciple.” We also read, “But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved;” in D&C 45: 32. Moving to section 84 of D&C, the Lord proclaimed, “Whoso receiveth you receiveth me; and the same will feed you, and clothe you, and give you money. And he who feeds you, or clothes you, or gives you money, shall in nowise lose his reward. And he that doeth not these things is not my disciple; by this you may know my disciples.”
Much is asked of those who would be disciples of Jesus Christ. It isn’t meant to be easy and I found the following scripture interesting. When the Lord visited the remnants of Israel in the Americas he set apart apostles there as he had in Israel. “And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he said unto those twelve whom he had chosen: Ye are my disciples; and ye are a blight unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph.” 3 Ne. 15: 11-12. Being a blight on others sounds harsh, doesn’t it? But those who make a stand for that which is right, good, and holy are something of a pain to those who don’t. It pricks them deeply, but shouldn’t stop us from doing what’s right.
We are asked to be obedient in Matthew 10: 24-25, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.” We are asked to sacrifice in Luke 14: 33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Most of all, we are to love others. In John 13:34-35 the Savior declared, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Love. To me, love is at the heart of being a true disciple of Christ.
We live in a materialistic world, where things often have more value than people do. To me, no time of year more embodies this than the holiday season. Perhaps my saying this disturbs you, but I’ve watched the incredible amount commercialization take over Christmas more every year. The constant sales pitches, the people running around and even fighting with each other to buy the latest and greatest time killing toy, for child or adult, seems to me to have nothing to do with the true love of Christ. By that, I am speaking of charity, of course.
There are so many who need love and help, especially in this often lonely time of year. While we need to strive to be true disciples every day of the year, the expectations and stresses of this increasingly frenetic holiday season are a sore trial for those who have little and even those who have much. No matter what part of society we inhabit, we should remember that all people are our brothers and sisters, all children of God. That includes our family members, a known source of stress – well, at least in my experience.
Charity takes many forms and while we are often mindful of the physical needs of others around Christmas time, there are other ways to show Christ like love. My words are utterly inadequate, so I will quote from President Thomas S. Monson’s address to the General Relief Society Meeting earlier this year. The sisters will be familiar with it but I think it applies to the brethren as well:
“I consider charity--or "the pure love of Christ"--to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.
I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others.
There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.
Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, "To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike."
Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.
In a hundred small ways, all of you wear the mantle of charity. Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life. May we recognize that each one is doing her best to deal with the challenges which come her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out.
Charity has been defined as "the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love," the "pure love of Christ . . . ; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with [her]."
"Charity never faileth." May this long-enduring Relief Society motto, this timeless truth, guide you in everything you do. May it permeate your very souls and find expression in all your thoughts and actions.”
It is my hope that we will find ways to show charity to others this season and to also find ways to be better disciples of Christ during it – and beyond. As we go forth into this final week leading to Christmas, may we remember to love one another and express it often. Let us never forget the love of the Savior and what Christmas is truly about during the whirling madness going on about us.
Christ loved us so much He went through the unimaginable pain of performing the Atonement. Our Father in Heaven loved us so much He sent His most beloved son to be sacrificed so that we would be able to come back home to Him. We should remember this charity shown us during the season celebrating the birth of the Savior. I testify of this love and end this talk in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
