School Daze – The Comedies (Part 3)

Right, time to haul out the mop and dust this blog off again (er… well, you know what I mean). I know I’ve been an absent landlord lately, but luckily, I have been building up a list of things to write about, even though 2009 hasn’t been the best year for new series. Still, hopefully those who read me (hi, Mum!) are still around. To make up for lost time, this is probably going to be a long post.

So with that said, let me venture forth back into semi-familiar territory – the classroom. Or should that be the clubroom?

The Sarcastic 10-Second Guide to PsyTrance

Psychedelic trance (also known as “Psytrance” or “Goa trance”) is a form of electronic dance music that has been parting hippies from their hard-bartered cash since the early 1990s. It combines a pattern of repetitive beats and melodies, which lull the listener into a trance-like state, with high-frequency wave forms. These, when combined with various recreational pharmaceuticals, can induce visual and aural hallucinations that appear to follow the same pattern as the music, and which generally results in the listeners either staring vacantly into space, or dancing like a drunk elephant wearing too tight shoes.

The Best Ghibli Movies… Ghibli Never Made.

Everybody is waiting (hopefully!) with baited breath for Ghibli’s new Miyazki-directed release, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” Whilst we do, I thought I’d have a squizz at the archives and pull out two films that have all the look, feel and beauty of Ghibli releases, yet aren’t.

I’d quite happily say that both could easily find a place amongst any Ghibli fan’s collection, however, or for that matter even fans of well-produced, slice-of-life animation. So let’s have a look at a couple of offerings that maybe… just maybe… had Miyazaki-san thinking, “I wish I’d thought of that…”

War Stories – Part 1

History, as they say, is written by the winners. You can probably extend that to read “Films are produced by the winners” – especially where World War 2 is concerned. There are certainly precious few out there that show the war from the point of view of the Axis forces – “Das Boot” and “Tachi No Yamato” are two excellent examples that come to mind.

Leave it up to the world of anime to present us with some excellent examples of the War, as seen through Japanese eyes. In keeping with the rules of good story telling, they don’t tell the story from we-were-right-and-they-we-wrong perspective, but more in a matter-of-fact-this-is-what-happened way. They don’t thrust a point of view on you (I think most people already have their own anyway – personally, I believe whoever ordered incendiary bombs to be dropped on cities consisting mostly of wooden buildings deserves his own special place in hell), but rather tells the story simply, yet brilliantly.

So, let’s look at some Japanese war stories. Oh, maybe a word of warning before you continue – some of the screenshots are a bit graphic. I don’t apologise for that – war is not pretty, nor is it romantic – especially for those on the receiving end.

One for Haibane fans…

…and Lain fans… and NieA_7 fans. I’ve had this doujinshi kicking around on my PC for ages now, as I’ve gamely battled to translate it and find out what is going on. Funny thing is, it’s not too hard to get it into some form of English, but then you get beaten up by this thing called “context” (which is German for “you’re screwed.”)

Anyway, suffice to say, the story is about poor old Rakka of the Haibane’s Old Home, who finds herself having to look after the new batch of Haibane… which inclide NieA, Lain and Mayuko (clearly this was drawn by an ABe fan)... and the inevitable stress this causes her. I’ve been lucky enough to find a translator willing to help out, so combined with my meagre editing skills (don’t expect a professional product – I’m doing this primarily to satisfy my own curiosity, but thought I’d share it anyway.) here are the first few pages for your reading pleasure. I’ll add the rest as they get translated and edited.

Enjoy!

Lalala-lala… wait… WHAT??!!

I’m putting my head on the block here and confessing that I’m a shameless JPop fan. I’m not sure if it’s the music, the lyrics (99% of which I have no clue, but that doesn’t seem to stop me warbling along to them in the car), or their association with various anime shows. I’m guessing the latter.

Argh!

So here I was, thinking I had figured out all of WordPress’s (WordPress’? Uhhh… it’s too early in the morning to battle apostrophes) little foibles, when it sneakily crept up and bit me in the butt.

I’ve somehow managed, instead of deleting one spam comment (Die, spammer scum! Die!) to delete ALL my comments. So to those of you who have commented in the past – thank you, and I really wanted them to be there and it wasn’t done intentionally.

Sorry! (and a word to WordPress – if I don’t select a comment, it would normally mean “do nothing” NOT “delete all”. Please take your programmer out back and shoot him.)

Anime off the Beaten Track

Phew! Been a while since I’ve managed to post here – life sort of got in the way. I’m actually jealous of those people who have the time and ability to blog everyday. Still, hopefully my avid reader(s) who’ve been patient (sorry, Mum!), will understand that it’s quality, not quantity that counts (er… hopefully this fills one of the criteria) and they should realize by now that I’m not going to blather on about currently running series (well, maybe occasionally… Kaiba is one that’s due a ramble, so I’ll mention that now, before I’m called a lyin’ filth again) – there’s enough bloggers out there doing that as I speak.

So, what’s on the menu this time round? Well, I thought I’d have a look at some of the more unusual productions I’ve managed to pick up during my trawls through animedom. They’re strange, somewhat rare – having escaped the attentions of the legions of fanboys and -girls out there, and generally very, very good. They also seem to straddle several genres, or none at all, which is probably another reason why they’ve flown under the radar – Western reviewers do like to compartmentalise their anime so.

I’d also like to think that one day, if I’m ever asked “Why do you still watch anime?” I can reply in all honesty, “Because of these…”

The Updated (Almost) One-Sentence Spring Anime Reviews

Allison & Lillia- Director of Mokke meets writer of Kino no Tabi via Madhouse. War/romance type series with a 30’s feel. Took an episode or two to get going, but this will be one of this season’s hits. – Watching.

School Daze – The Gamez

There’s been game-based anime (such as Fate/Stay Night, Devil May Cry and even *shudder* Pokemon) floating around for quite a few years now, in what seems to be a bit of a reversal to Western media, where games and such are normally a spin-off from a successful film or TV series.

However, in the last couple of seasons in particular, a plethora of these have hit the screens – especially those based on what are called “visual novels”. I’m not going to go into the reasons why, a friend has already pondered that point quite eloquently here. Visual novels are – to use the simplest description – stories you read on your PC screen, with occasional graphics and a storyline that can follow various paths, depending on how the player responds to various questions. Although there are exceptions to the norm, like the popular (and gory) “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni” murder/mystery series, the majority of those being animated lately are based on what is known as dating sims – where a boy, or boys, meets lots of girls and invariably ends up in the sack with one (or more) of them.