In the midst of this current spring season, I am still on this sampling mood, with some more anime to try and catch up. I already know I dropped Papakiki as far as I can drop it. I may have a couple of more titles to watch, but I can’t help but write a bit about Inu x Boku SS, which turned out to be an unlikely watch. So far Crunchyroll has up to four episodes and it has been thrown in a couple of unlikely components that has me hooked.

The mention of youkai aspects in the storyline. This was an unexpected to the already normal storyline, you get to see a twist on how this socially withdrawn girl gets to live in such a top notch building. What is interesting is the characters introduced and what their youkai aspect are.

This bolt of cloth happens to be my favorite one!

Another is what gendomike would call as equal opportunity. This show has elements to hook in the females and the males..

For the guys, how loli and cute Ririchiyo appears, there’s also a female SS, who happens to be a perv for cute female types. Ririchiyo is the mold of a tsundere type, that it makes me wonder how does this appeal in real life?

A hook for the girls is just how cute Miketsukami appears. *cues the sparkles* This may either turn or turn off viewers, so have a paper bag or tissues handy. I can see how exactly Ririchiyo would initially want to run for the hills. He sparkles as he begs to serve. Oh and did I mention that he has two different color eyes like David Bowie? Sexy huh?

I was a little too photo happy for caps of the main characters, but so far I haven’t been displeased as to how the storyline is going. Not sure how this story would go really, but if anything.. bring on the aspects of talking about youkai, and then I would be pretty happy.

Midriff

This perspective is just amazing. A tight swimsuit around the midriff! Authoritative Nanasaki (cv: Yukana) scolds her perverted boyfriend, Tachibana, with physical rigidity in a tight swimsuit, so ironic and the gap is OMG!

Ahh, Tachibana-san is so shinshi (紳士 “gentleman”). He peeps the girls’ swimming club practicing. And he gets caught. And then, he has to kneel down before Nanasaki and repent what he has done. As the club-president of the swimming team, Nanasaki scolds him. “Senpai no ecchi!”

Ah, I wish I had a female kohai like Nanasaki in my school years, and had me scolded by her. Wait, is that do-M (ドM “excessive masochism”)? Well, what’s wrong being a do-M? Who the fxxk cares! In Crime And Punishment, a drunkard Semyon Marmeladov is also a do-M. He receives scoldings from his ore-no-yome (wife), and he confesses that he actually enjoys it to Raskolnikov at a bar. So, do-M has been around for a while. So, Amagami is very existential since Dostoyevsky’s novels! A do-M is actually an acute existentialist. Thus, I’m an existentialist!

Ah, Tachibana also talks dirty jokes to Nakata Sae. And she gets mad at him, “Senpai no ecchi!” And when Sae-chan is wearing a jersey, he scans her body thoroughly, and she gets mad again, “Senpai no ecchi!” But this time, she’s not feeling so bad. Actually, she’s enjoying it!

Ah, in Aquarion EVOL, Mikono-san gets angry at Amata because he gets horny at Zessica also. “Amata-kun no ecchi!”

Amata-kun no ecchi!

Ahhh, so cute. I want also to be scolded by Mikono-chan. That zettai-ryoiki and unaji (nape)! Yes, for my pervertedness! Jicho! (自重！”Control yourself!”)

But at the same time, in a private moment with Tachibana, very strict Nanasaki turns dere. When Tachibana is sick resting at school’s health center, Nanasaki visits him, and even sings a lullaby to him, with his head on her belly like this! Man, Tachibana is so sakushi (strategist). “My sister used to sleep on my father’s belly with a lullaby, so can you sing me a lullaby while putting my head on your belly too?” At first she rejects it, “No, we’re at school, senpai.” But he says, “We can close this curtain, so no one can see us.” And then she agrees! Ahh, I’ve never seen this before!
This angle… Oh my! Kyaaaa! Nanasaki forever! My goddess! Her dere side is just…, my moe MP exceeds 120%! She’s got me to develop a new moe, besides imouto moe, that is kohai moe (後輩萌え)!

ero-kawaii...

いい最終回だった。(It was a good final episode.) – Koyasu-san.

Well, it wasn’t actually the final episode. But the first arc was over. Yes, the fallen angel arc. The episode was titled, “元カノ、倒します！(I gonna defeat my ex-girlfriend!)” That was actually, “I gonna kill my ex!” Yes, moto-kano (元カノ “ex girlfriend”). As you know from Kare-kano, the word kano means “girlfriend.”

Ah, so sad. I totally feel for Issei. The first girl in your life who confessed love to you was actually a fallen angel. Her human name was Amano Yuuma, but her real name was Reinare. Ahh, that confession scene, I fell in love with her instantly. But with Yuuma-chan, not Reinare, a cold-blooded murderer. During the first date, when they were about to kiss, she suddenly revealed her true colors and killed Issei mercilessly with derision. And she even crucified and tortured a Loli nun to death, in whom Issei found salvation. That was really no good. Killing a sister, just unacceptable… I totally lost any feeling for her whatsoever, and I was completely through with her, and I was mad as hell like, “Bring her to justice!”

Finally, resurrected Issei miraculously defeated Reinare. And when he was about to finish her off, she changed back to Yuuma-chan, and begged him for her life. She even showed the wristband he gave her from the first (last) date with full of tears. “See, Issei-kun? I’m still wearing the wristband!” OMG. That really got me. It put me in a state of panic, and by the time I realized, I was screaming at my laptop, “Don’t kill Yuuma-chan. Please spare her life!” As if he reflected my psychological state, he was also utterly perplexed, “Why do you still keep that?” And he couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t kill her. If I were him, I couldn’t do it too. But instead, he left the dirty job for his new boss, Rias Gremory, the one resurrected him as a demon. So, the boss delivered the final blow to her while he turned away from the execution scene. Ahh, wasn’t there any choice left? Probably not. I wish I could see her dead as Reinare, not as Yuuma-chan. Fond memories of the first girlfriend were completely shattered…

It still left me a bad taste in my mouth. But could they have called the cops and put her in prison? Well no, she was a fallen angel, human beings were no match for her. So yes, a summary execution was the only solution.

I didn’t expect this anime to be this heavy. It’s supposed to be an oppai fest fan service show, and I’d been watching it light-heartedly. But this episode made me depressed, melancholic, and saudade. It was much more traumatic than The Yearling, a boy had to kill a deer he was fond of. But it wasn’t a deer, but his ex…

Koyasu-san’s closing comment, “It was a good final episode,” did lift me up a bit though.

Imagination is probably not going to be limitless, since ideas are recycled and presented differently. This is an example of how similar and different two titles can be.
崖っぷちのエリー or 毎日かあさん. One is a Japanese drama, another a Japanese anime. In some ways Gakeppuchi no Eri can be called the prequel to Mainichi Kaasan… but they’re not. Rather they’re similar in how the personalities of the main female character is.

In the drama, Eriko is a budding artist who gets employed by a B-rated seedy magazine. She is also quite poor, but is quite steadfast and optimistic. She is also very determined to prove herself. This determination compels her to move forth in life and also fuels her inspiration for her drawings. She eventually marries the photographer Joichi, and has two children.

In the anime, it is mother knows best… for better or worse. So everyone should stay out of her way if Reiko barrels through. Reiko lives with her husband and two kids: Bunji and Fumi. Every episode talks about how Reiko juggles between her job as a mangaka and raising two young children. Things are stressful if she is rushing on a deadline but with every episode there’s always a lesson or motto explored and learned.

So these series are really not the same, and if I ever do get a chance, I would try to see the live action movie of Mainichi Kaasan that was released in 2011. For the time being, Mainichi Kaasan is simply enjoyed in bite sized doses on Crunchy Roll. Gakeppuchi no Eri aired on Japanese television in the 2010.

While Chihaya aims for the Karuta Queen, Kana-chan is the Oppai Queen. But she is himote (非モテ “unpopular”) despite her oppai? Unbelievable. Why?

"I'm so unpopular."

But a lot of otakus on niconico are going crazy over her oppai, especially when it juggles. To juggle or not to juggle… Not only otakus, but during the sports festival, when she runs, school boys are all going frantic.

By the way, that binocular dude (双眼狂) is me.

And even within the club, Kana-chan defeats Chihaya by dateability. So, clearly, she’s popular!

And it seems her oppai keeps growing by episode! Look at this picture below, it’s clearly bigger than the last episode!

The Desk Nerd is so muttsuri (closet pervert). Everybody knows he wears glasses to hide where he is really looking at! Does he think he can get away with it? Wrong idea, Mister! We’re gonna confiscate your effing glasses!

Despite her small height, why are her boobs so large? Her four words idiom should be 背小胸大, or 背小乳大 (short, but large oppai) instead of 才色兼備 (talent and beauty). That gap is so rockn’ roll! That’s totally a very moe element! Kurono Kurumu was also like that, but she was demonic. But this pure-hearted classical literature otaku, yes, with that PE uniform on, sticking out bombastically, oohhh my! Buhihi!

When Taichi pointed out, “You guys are only interested in her boobs,” I really felt like he was talking about me. So, he’s not interested in the Oppai Queen? What’s wrong with him? He’s so bourgeois! Bourgeois men in general prefer small-breasted girls. According to Leil Lowndres in her book, How To Make Anyone Fall In Love With You,

More extroverted and lower-class men choose large-breasted, wide-hipped women. More introverted and upper-class males choose smaller-framed women. (p 175)

I’m introverted and lower-class. So, I like smaller framed girls with large breasts! While extroverted and upper-class Taichi prefers a tall girl with small chest, a typical model looking type like Chihaya (her sister is a professional model). Yes, a NEET/hikikomori of precariat seeks the Oppai Queen! And I’m proud of it!

Ahh, I was also brain-damaged when I saw Aquarion EVOL 5th episode.

Zessica’s love attack, pressing her oppai up against Amata’s arm. This forbidden technique is also seen in the 8th episode of Guilty Crown, the swimsuits episode! Oh my gosh, so many animes are the oppai fest! Can never stop the nose bleeding! It’s the holiest skinship ever!

Well, sorry for distraction, but back to Chihayafuru, even for oppai, you can tell there’s class warfare in the Karuta club! To us, oppai is a sign of sexual abundance, while bourgeois dudes are VOLUNTARILY more restrained. So, people like Taichi seek brahmacharya in women also. But who cares about his upbringing? We’ll pursue what we want as our pursuit of happiness is sanctified in the Declaration of Independence! We will continue to pursue our own Queen. God save the Queen!

Thus, oppai-seijin of the world, unite!

The current season show Ano Natsu de Matteru (I’ll be Waiting That Summer), with its emotionally believable depiction of teenage awkwardness and first love, reminded me of one adolescent summer of writing, filmmaking, and hopeless crushes. This is the first time I’ve told most of these stories to anyone except my closest friends. Why? I blame the wonderful OP and ED of the show, especially the latter and its wistful lyrics. (The part titles are taken from them.)

Dialogue in this memoir is approximate and based on a memory that grows increasingly hazy. I’m setting this down before I forget further.

Spring, 1995: My feelings are burning into film

I made a silent 8mm film once. It was the last project of my final year in middle school. We were to storyboard, direct, develop, edit (using literal film splicers and tape—will we get to see Kai and company do that?), and transfer onto VHS so that our films could be shown on the last day of school.

Unlike Ano Natsu de Matteru, there were no girls on my production team: it was just me on camera, my cousin, and a new friend I’d met only a year prior. That friend played the protagonist. I vaguely remember drawing stick figures in the storyboards, because I couldn’t draw anything else, and I remember agonizing over the plot. It had something to do with a magic marble that granted the wishes of its possessor, but he soon lives to regret it when he sees its consequences, and throws it away.

We filmed in downtown Washington DC, outside the Air and Space Museum and on the National Mall. The sculpture outside Air and Space was the establishing shot. We also filmed on the small patch of lawn in front of my family’s townhouse. Our neighbor came out once while we were filming. “Spielberg had better watch out!” he said, chuckling at our efforts. We laughed too.

Spielberg, George Lucas, what's the difference?

We filmed a hilarious fight scene between my friend and my cousin. My cousin came out with arms and fists swinging wildly, and we had to do a few takes before we got the requisite seriousness—where my friend, with the marble’s power, injures him more than he intended and realizes he has to give it up.

In the end, there wasn’t time to show my film on the last day. I’m glad. It was an overly complex, overexposed, and clumsy mess. However, a VHS tape of it still exists in my parents’ basement somewhere, a recording of the film projected onto a screen. It is grainy and washed out, but there is sound: my voice and my teacher’s voice, our last conversation together. She wanted me to preserve the film on tape even though it wouldn’t be shown, before I left for good.

How strange, that my last memories of middle school would be captured on a tape showing an 8mm film, just before the summer began.

Summer, 1995: the lingering summer scent still reminds me of you

Less than two months after the film was completed, my mother and I went to an independent Christian retreat for five days. Though it wasn’t an official event, many people from my church were there, including a big chunk of the youth group. I had never felt comfortable in the youth group, being nerdy, awkward, and sensitive, the sorts of traits that get you teased and bullied at that age. (This is true even if one of the sorts of nerdiness you have is being a Bible nerd, which I was, big time.) In reponse, I was already beginning to develop the affectations of the alienated writer: I had my spiral-bound notebook in hand and plans to go off and write in the corner or under a tree, by myself.

Which is why I was caught off-guard when the cute girl who I barely knew—the girl with the straight, short hair with dark brown highlights and the rosy face—called me over. She was sitting on a bench with some of her other friends, waving her arm. I thought that she must have been talking to someone else, but she was definitely calling my name.

I steeled myself. Past experience told me that this was usually a prelude to a put-down or pre-emptive rejection: this is long before nerd chic ever became a thing. But I went over to her anyway, fueled by equal parts curiosity and the dim, slim hope that maybe this was going to be—

“Michael,” she said—starting a whole trend of girls calling me by my full name—”I just wanted to tell you you’re so adorable and sweet and—” I don’t remember anything else she said, because by that time I was confused. I barely knew her; she barely knew me. As far as I could remember,we never talked at length. Her friends giggled.

“Um,” I said. “Thanks.”

And that was all. I left, my writing notebook in hand, her compliments—perhaps prompted by a dare (“go flirt with the nerdiest boy you know!”) or perhaps genuine and sincere—ringing in my ears. To be honest, I didn’t believe them. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. No one had ever called me that before.

Later, I discovered how much that girl who had complimented me had been ostracized by the group for some reason. I didn’t know why, and I never found out. All I remember is that when she had to get up from her seat in the middle of the row, all the guys and girls in her way stood up and glared at her as she went down the row to the aisle. Maybe we weren’t so different after all, though she seemed so cute and bubbly at the time: how could someone like that be unpopular? Wasn’t enough to be pretty and to at least pretend to be nice? The world opened up a little more for me that moment, that there might be something underneath the masks people wear.

The kinds of things people called me was mostly smart followed by polite and maybe nice. And those were the people who liked me.

Indeed, that was the sort of thing my Sunday School teacher at the time, a pretty college student, told me. I remember after class once, she asked me to stay behind for a few minutes: the sort of request that for most kids meant that they were in trouble. But instead of berating me, she complimented me on how knowledgeable I was about the Bible (I had a leg up: I’d gone to a Christian elementary school in my early years), and that she was so happy to have me in the class. The ‘teacher’s pet’ charge was one that had tended to follow me for most of life up to that point, and I’d just become another one.

But I didn’t care. I liked it. I liked being complimented by beautiful women. Who doesn’t, at that age? Or any age?

Kai is handsomer than I was at that age, though.

She was at this retreat, too, and seemed to go out of her way to not only say hi but to sit down and talk with me for a few minutes. I didn’t have too much to say that I could remember, except about my ambitious writing plans: I had wanted to plan out my first novel that summer. I’d made a few stabs at it in middle school, but they never went very far—but that summer, I swore, I was going to do it for real. My teacher was impressed. “You have to tell me about it later,” she said. “I’d like to read it.”

For an aspiring nerd fantasy boy writer at 14, these are the words muses are made of. I never said that out loud, of course, or to her—I was much too shy for that. But in between the sermons, and the forced games and the singing, there was hours of free time in the sunlit afternoons. I found quiet corners where, smearing the side of my right palm with ink, I wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline of a novel I called Sanctuary. It was a fantasy novel about a gifted young magic student, who feels like a failure and ends up going on a long journey to try to find his skills and himself. It contained some depressing parts where he realizes he’s not as good as he thinks he is, and his mistakes have irreversible consequences. It had a bittersweet ending.

Two days before the retreat ended, I finished the outline. In a grandiose gesture, I wrote at the end: “If I get this far, I am a genius!” It was written as a joke, because I didn’t really believe deep down that I was going to finish it. None of my attempts in the past had succeeded.

I gave my Sunday School teacher the outline. As she promised she read it, while I sat in a comfy chair, nervously waiting for her reaction. “Oh, but this is so sad!” she exclaimed at one point. “Why is this so sad?”

“Life isn’t always so happy.”

But when she finished, she smiled and handed the paper back to me. “Well, I want to read the manuscript one day,” she said. “You’re really talented, you know.” And she mussed my hair and then left for dinner. I sat there for a little while longer.

Epilogue: when I realized it, our threads of fate were already tangled.

I did actually finish that novel, Sanctuary, in my junior year of high school. I remember trying to show it to that Sunday School teacher not long after I bound the manuscript at home. But she was married by then and had a lot less time, and it was several years later. She never read it.

I’m currently reformualting and rewriting the ideas in that first novel into a new work, A Pattern of Light. It features most of the same characters and setting, but a fundamentally different plot and with some winking anime/manga style references. It is now 2/3 complete and I hope to get some light-novel style illustrations for it too.

The girl who called me adorable at that retreat ended up going to my high school too, so I kept running into her a lot. We were in Christian club together. She was always kind and friendly to me, though we weren’t really close. Once, I told her about my writing, and she asked, “but what does that have to do with Jesus?” Later, during a youth group outing, I thought about asking her out to the prom. I didn’t. I was too scared. I believe she is married now, too.

The friend who was the star of my 8mm film is now himself a director, digital animator, and actor in New York. We still keep in touch often and I count him as one of my oldest friends. Check out his work on his Youtube channel.

Yes, Episode 5 is a NTR episode! The Swiss way!

Kagura, a wild man, a beastlike villain, chooses his soul mate by body odor. Nioi fechi (匂いフェチ “odor fetish”).

But biologically, smell is an important factor for choosing a mate. In Switzerland, people choose their mates by smell. The Swissfriends.ch commercial tells it all.

Traditionally in the West, smell was frowned upon. Immanuel Kant looked down upon the nose, a primitive organ. So, smell was something they wanted to avoid. Yes, love based on smell is still seen Faustian in EVOL. So, EVOL is very Kantian indeed. Kant was famous for practicing celibacy for life!

But why does such a pure-hearted girl like Mikono get aroused by the villain?

Well, because she is Eve tempted by the Serpent. Some theologian interprets the forbidden fruit episode was about NTR. The Serpent NTRed Eve from Adam. The first cuckold in the human history!

So, Mikono = Eve, the Serpent = Kagura. But the Serpent is only limited to ikemen (ただしイケメンに限る). And Kagura smells out Mikono, does peropero (licking) to her hand, commenting, “You are stinky, and suave,” and declares, “I found my wench!” And then, Mikono gets electrocuted and passes out, just like a Michael Jackson fan girl collapses by a kiss. Just like Mnemosyne girls are aroused by a mere presence of the angels.

Villains in general have something that has a special appeal to women. Yes, just like Twilight girls go crazy over Edward. Or Vampire Knight fan girls. Hakuouki’s oni (demons). Vampires smell to figure which girl tastes like honey. “Honey attracts ants.” A taste of honey! Tasting much sweeter than wine.

In The Brothers Karamazov, Liza Khokhlakova also gets more attracted to Ivan Karamazov’s dark side, something demonic, than her “fiancé” Alyosha Karamazov’s saintliness. While Alyosha is a devout Christian monk, Ivan is an intellectual atheist (Dostoyevsky thought atheism was a bad thing). And Ivan’s sidekick (or spiritual son), Smerdyakov, means “son of the reeking one.”

Kunka kunka

Kagura much closer to the wilderness is olfactory, but generally girls are better at smell, so it’s possible that Mikono also smelled Kagura’s demonic pheromone. Yes, olfactory signals directly go to the subconscious level bypassing any rational filter, just like hypnosis does. So, pheromone-wise, they must be a perfect match. But smelling is a flag that something bad would happen. A bad omen. Love closer to the nature is evil as EVOL indicates. So, it’s civilization vs. nature.

So yes, once she’s in a relationship, there’s always the danger of NTR. Thus, feeding our otaku’s candaulism. Yes, a forbidden chemistry, cheating, adultery! A love triangle!

And Mikono gets mad at Amata for getting horny at other girls, such as Zessica. She yells at Amata, “Amata-kun no ecchi! (You pervert, Amata!).” Thou shalt have none other gods before me! But she can have many guys getting horny at her. And she herself gets horny at Kagura, yes, the other man, the Serpent! I didn’t want to use Tu Quoque on Mikono-chan, but this time, I had no choice!

Ah, how I wish I could kunka-kunka (smell) and pero-pero (lick) Mikono-san, to see if she really tastes like honey, but the only thing I taste is LCD…

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles and all the years you have lived. -Helen Keller

Report by guest correspondent Sh1zuka. First of three articles.

AnimeUSA 2011, held from November 17 – 20, 2011, is a cozy and moderately small anime convention held at the Hyatt Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. This year’s registration rate was $58 at the door, and cheaper if pre-registered over a month in advance. If you know you will arrive on Friday, you can skip the long pre-registration line by registering at the convention, saving you lots of time.

Even though AnimeUSA is a small convention, it is still a full featured convention, with usual Artist Alley/Art Show, Dealer’s Room, Video Game Room, Video Rooms, Masquerade / Skit Cosplay Contest, Concerts, and Hall Costume Contest. The convention’s small size will have you constantly running into people you just met hours ago, perfect for making new friends!

Unique to AnimeUSA is the Themed Ballroom Dance. This year’s “Military Cosplay Ball” required dancers to follow a dress code of Western formalwear or Military-themed Cosplay in order to get in. AnimeUSA introduced “dance cards” for the ladies at the ball, letting gentlemen leave their names on a lady’s dance card for a guarantee that the two would dance together on the dance floor. I really wanted to go to this dance, but I was stopped at the door: I didn’t meet dress code.

AnimeUSA also has the best convention Maid Cafe and Host Club on the East Coast, and compared to last year, it has gotten much better. Be sure to check out the forthcoming AnimeUSA 2011: Maid Cafe & Host Club post for more details!

Layout

The convention can be best described as vertical, spanning five floors. The bottom two, B2 and B1, are dedicated to Main Events, the Artist Alley/Art Show, Video Rooms, and Dealer’s Room. If you are looking to lighten your wallet, you need only head down the escalator from the lobby and descend into the madness of beautiful fanart, handmade plushies, poseable Vocaloid figurines, and more!

Can you name the Vocaloids?

The lobby, used only by AnimeUSA for registration, is usually filled with cosplayers during the day and offers a convenient shelter from the cold November weather. For attendees of age, the lobby also contains the bar (called the “Lobbibar” by the Hyatt), making it a popular destination at night when not attending raunchy 18+ panels. With a bar on the first floor and lots of 18+ programming, AnimeUSA accommodates older convention attendees rather well.

The Iconic AnimeUSA Torii (鳥居) (red archway). Photo by plumvs.

The floors above the lobby contain the bulk of the fan programming. Three panel tracks, two workshop tracks, and the Video Game Room are on the 3rd floor; an Events track, Manga Library, and the “My Cup of Tea” Maid Cafe are on the 2nd floor, while the “Club Ikemen Paradise” Host Club, located on the 20th floor, is only accessible via elevator from the 2nd floor.

“I choose YOU!”

All of the floors except for the 3rd floor are connected together via escalators. The 3rd floor is only connected to the 2nd floor via hard-to-access stairs, making getting to the workshops, panels, and the game room difficult.

Nearly-free Medicine

Something AnimeUSA does that’s awesome and unique is nearly giving away medicine to attendees, for a nominal fee of 25 cents per packet. Apparently there’s a law in Virginia that prohibits them from giving away medicine for free, so they charge a quarter.

I can say from personal experience based on the instructions I was given at the con that the entire leadership of the con has one goal. That goal is [to] put on [a] great convention where every attendee goes home saying they had a great time.” –forum post from one of AnimeUSA’s Medical Staff

I’m not aware of any other convention that does something like this, and it’s a great idea to help attendees stay healthy and comfortable during the convention. If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to get sick during a convention, having medicine is essential to being able to enjoy the precious little time you can spend at the convention.

Elevator Hell… No More!

I always made a point of never wanting to stay at the Hyatt for AnimeUSA because in previous years, attendees staying in the hotel rooms above the convention space fought with convention attendees who wanted to use the elevators to get from floor to floor.

This year, AnimeUSA disabled access to the lower floors (Lobby, B1, B2) from the elevators, an excellent decision that made elevators much faster and more efficient by reducing elevator demand. It’s really a blessing in disguise: you might make a few friends on the way up the escalators! The only downside is that getting to panel rooms requires more exercise.

Another welcome improvement is that access to the Host Club is only via one elevator on the 2nd floor, which only goes between the 2nd and 20th floor and is controlled by staff to prevent the host club from being full when you get there.

How many people are in the elevator?

Overall, AnimeUSA 2011 was tons of fun, even though I wasn’t allowed to go to the Military Cosplay Ball. Check out the next post on AnimeUSA’s Maid Cafe and Host Club, the attraction that I consider the best part of AnimeUSA.

Photos by scout, Shizuka, and plumvs.

Aquarion EVOL has so much yoga references, and its worldview is based on the karmic religions, with aparigraha (non-possession, renouncement), especially brahmacharya (sexual renouncement, celibacy), also shared by the Skoptsy. But these renouncement doctrines simply don’t apply to kimo-ota!

The Love-Shy Survival Guide proves it right. When I was reading it, I was yelling, “That’s totally right!” It says,

It sounds uplifting to hear you renounce pre-marital sex, but there is one problem. You can only renounce what you have, not what you don’t have. I have known dirt poor people who claimed they renounced wealth and power and total losers who never had a date who claimed they renounced loveless sex or all sexuality. It is easy to renounce what you don’t have because you will not miss anything. This mode of thinking just makes you feel good about your failures. (p 207)

Certainly! This book nailed it! It totally understands what kimo-ota’s suffering is like!

So, how did the Indo-Aryans come up with brahmacharya? Let’s take a look at Buddhism, the most wide-spread karmic religion in the world. In fact, the first gravest offense for the Buddhist monks is a sexual union. Yes, a forbidden union, so sex is divided by the Berlin Wall. So, “Berlin” symbolizes brahmacharya in EVOL.

Gautama Buddha, a champion of brahmacharya, formerly Gautama Siddhartha, was a stud. As a crown prince of a kingdom, he had his own harem for the rainy season during early summer, and he had his own entertainers providing him services, with people’s tax money! And then one day he developed a sense of emptiness and abjection after countless debaucheries, seeing women lying down on the floor sleeping, drooling with messed up makeups. Later on he told his students that women were the vessels of feces. So, it’s worthless being aroused at them.

So, the Wise Man tells us to ignore 3-D girls. But, still it’s based on a theory of kachigumi (the winners). He was the winner-takes-all. リア充王 (The King of Riaju, the Riaju of the Riajus). ただしイケメンに限る (Only happens to ikemen)。Yes, ikemen prince (イケメン王子) indeed. So, he could practice renouncement. As a Russian word Skoptsi means “castrate” but also “save,” so by giving up sex, he saved people’s tax money, yes, stopped wasteful spending.

Therefore, he concluded that debauchery was empty. So, he went on to practice voluntary celibacy.

But “voluntary” already sounds bourgeois because they have a choice to keep the property or trash it. They are the privileged. Yes, his own entertainers, love slaves, wives, and concubines were all his properties to dispense with.

But what about the poor? What about romantic poverty? We’re the have-nots. The propertyless. We have nothing to give up. We have no way of knowing what debauchery is like. So, we can’t find the Middle Path either.

This recent movement of LOVOS or Lifestyles Of Voluntary Simplicity is utterly bourgeois. The word “voluntary” already indicates that you belong to the propertied. While the unpropertied, working class, proletariat, or precariat, their situation is LOIOS or Lifestyles Of Involuntary Simplicity. Involuntary aparigraha. And romantic proletarians or involuntary celibates suffer from a girlless life. Their situation is INCEL or Involuntary Celibacy. Involuntary brahmacharya.

In other words, forced simplicity and forced celibacy by no fault of our own. We have no choice but to serve the master or employer to earn the living wage. So, our service is by coercion, involuntary servitude = labor. Didn’t the 13th Amendment ban involuntary servitude unless you’re in prison? They tell us that we have “right” to work. If so, then we’re supposed to have right to be lazy also. Don’t we have right to be a NEET?

So, this is how class struggle looks like, Voluntarism = bourgeoisie vs. Involuntarism = precariat.

Thus, financially and romantically, Buddhism is very bourgeois. That’s why I’ve turned away from Buddhism. And I don’t even bother becoming a Skoptsy like Smerdyakov.

The Skoptsy advocated castration, but it’s only effective for ikemen. It’s pointless to castrate kimo-ota since they have nothing to renounce. It’s pointless to tell the romantic poor to renounce romance, to give up sex to store wealth. Yes, in the age of capitalism, girls cost a lot indeed, so it’s better not to date if you want to save. But without money, you can’t have girls, and without girls, there’s no sex to renounce. How can you save when you have no savings in the beginning? Thus, aparigraha only works for bourgeoisie.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Yes! Amata unites with Mikono-chan and destroys the Berlin Wall with “Infinite Punch.” How liberating! Eroticism is potlatch, overflowing abundance. Yes, sex without any cost. Free sex. So, brahmacharya (sexual renouncement) wouldn’t be necessary. No wasteful spending occurs from sex. That’s what we nijikon (2-D Complex) need!

How come today isn’t like the 60s, the time period that if you’re deadly poor wearing dirty cloths but just by carrying a guitar, girls gonna come talk to you and get laid? I can’t wait the 60s revival for twelve thousand years. AD 14012? I would be long dead by then! Even if Christ promises to resurrect me by then. Even Lazaro only waited for four days, not twelve thousand years. I want romantic wealth right now! But 3-D is so cruel. So, I seek animevangelism as an animevangelical. And Aquarion EVOL is the Good News!

Thus, EVOL is so historic in this historic year of AD 2012 and Heisei 24. The ideological Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the first year of Heisei. And the sexual Berlin Wall falls in 2012, Heisei 24. That’s the real meaning of “when it turns to be 24″ by Sakamoto Maaya, who by this “24” prophesy has just been proven to be the prophet, our animevangelist!

Just genius. Tachibana must be the chosen one! And when he was in elementary school, he was already a gentleman. Just like Jesus was already preaching when he was 12!

At high school’s health center, Tachibana suggests to Rihoko to see who is taller. Obviously Tachibana is taller, so Rihoko turns him down first, but he suggests adding the chest size to it and see who would be taller. And Rihoko agrees! That play… Breast measurement play! Yeah, once a girl likes you, she lets you do whatever you want!

I would have given up if Rihoko rejected my offer. But he came up with a brilliant idea to counter her rejection. “Why don’t we add the chest size!” Only rejected once, then I’d give up. Yeah, I have dekikkonai (a defeatist attitude). That’s the attitude of a love-shy, as The Love-Shy Survival Guide says,

For example, a defeatist attitude ends up sinking you and keeps you by yourself. Oh, it’s OK if I’m by myself the whole day. Or, I don’t really need to talk to that woman at the bar over there, I’ll just go home and masturbate. (p 76)

Yes, just like Amata asked Mikono‘s name at a movie theater, but he didn’t go further, thinking that kind of pretty girl would never go out with him. But he got gyakunan from Mikono!

Therefore, I have to be persistent, so the door may open for me. I have to learn from Tachibana-san, the sakushi (策士 “strategist”) ever since Shokatsu Koumei. I’ve already earned the title of shinshi, but now I have to strive to become a sakushi!

紳士万歳！

Well there was no real way this post could be avoided. After finishing this series and realizing that there was little to no way this couldn’t be openly discussed in mere tweets/Facebook discussions, it finally came to pass that an extended post would have to be made regarding Kunihiko Ikuhara’s return to anime television. The very notion that such a long break from the industry that helped bring his name to international prominence in the mid-to latter 1990s by way of Sailor Moon R, and of course, Utena, it would have been safe to assume that any return could only be a disappointment. It seemed an inevitability considering how dramatically different the state of the medium is today. Or so I woefully assumed.

 
 
Taken as an entire piece, Mawaru Penguindrum is an unrepentantly unique, and often visionary series the likes of which may delight older fans, and utterly shut out a good portion of modern anime’s devotees with its treatise on a Japan gone from shattered paradigm to helplessly lost world amidst manufactured dreamscapes. Ikuhara alonsgide Takayo Ikami & Brain’s Base, Penguindrum takes very much the same “process” based cinematic techniques that helped make Utena become one of the most accessible, yet bizarre-on-the-surface titles to have ever made a splash on the international fan scene. The story of sickly Himari, and her two older siblings, Shouma and Kanba remains less about a bizarre quest to save her life from almost certain doom with the help of a penguin-hat sporting princess and a trio of hallucinatory birds, but rather the journey of many through a near concrete thick foundation of denial. It is from this outset, not remotely interested in tropes so much as the subversion of them, all the while spinning a tale of what extremities some feel compelled to go through based on perceived positions. Fate and destiny being something of an established chess board, with all characters merely pieces, often willing to turn to amazingly questionable behavior in the name of altering trajectory, or abiding it.

The biggest difference now is that the ante has been sufficiently upped by no longer setting the central action within and around a mythical school life/incubator space where our main characters could fight their ways through. This new expansion of the discussion pitts the characters within something almost resembling contemporary Tokyo, only with a slightly more advanced technological milieu. In fact, much of what many to consider Cool Japan is hyperbolized within this at times unsettling presentation. Colors are intense with pinks and blues, and structures are often day-glo bright. The interior of one of the most often used settings- the subway, is almost wall-to-wall with moving digital advertisement (often featuring the greek chorus in Double-H, who also serve a core purpose around the story). It is almost as if the entire design aesthetic in itself is a paradoxical reflection of internet pop culture Japan. Thereby universalizing the director’s concerns that haven’t subsided any since his previous masterwork. His concerns are Japan’s concerns. His characters may be living in a world of fairy tales, but they certainly don’t see that. In fact, the two-tone reality shared by the majority of Penguindrum’s characters seems to have cornered them to the point that delusions and/or audacious actions seem reasonable. In anime reality, we are quick to judge, but the show continually calls out the viewer, making the case that even wholly reasonable people are capable of such untoward behavior.

 
 
Continuing a 17 Year Old Soul Search
As the parentless Takakura children are further tumbling down the story’s rabbit hole, it becomes apparent that not only they are bound by the illogical in order to maintain a rendition of peace, but as are the lives of virtually everyone around them. The three kids, with the youngest mostly in the dark regarding these forces that apparently hold her life in limbo, are eventually surrounded by characters who also seem primed to overstep their moral bounds in order to attain a semblance of happiness. Carrying on the theme that binds all characters in the series, it is a seemingly generational curse that has even left troubling marks on those who came before our central leads. And the more we get to grasp the lives of Tabuki, one of the boys’ most seemingly level-headed schoolteachers, and stage actress celebrity, Yuri, it becomes all the more apparent that the Takakuras lie close the ground zero of a secret that almost brought the contemporary Japanese conscience to its knees. Even as the inexplicable advances of Masako seem ready to systematically “crush” some undisclosed object close-particularly to Kanba (who’s reputation as something of a playboy belies even stranger secrets). Even more troubling still is the role of pretty, yet seemingly ordinary high schooler, Ringo Oginome. A girl who could so easily be an inocuous entity in the story, becomes an unexpected element that may save or destroy all everyone holds dear. Not unlike the American television series, LOST, perceptions are questioned, rugs are constantly pulled, and Mawaru Penguidrum becomes something that series failed to become in six seasons, a tale of a society within stones throw of a heart hampered by a lack of emotional insight. It isn’t that Japan is screwed, but rather that it stopped looking forward when the chips were down. So as the tension ramps up when history seems bent on repeating itself, the world of the show is primed to either play within these assumed constructs, or break free by acting humanly unpredictable.

A big stumbling block this show may experience in regards to fandom outside Japan, may very well be the reality that much of what is discussed within the its 24 episodes. The entire narrative decidedly centers within a wholly Japan-centric mindset. As westernized as Japan currently is, much of what affects, and ultimately motivates the show’s characters is something more akin to post-WWII psychology. And while this may seem like something that is easy for many acclimated anime admirers to overcome, there is still quite a bit of context that is left intentionally unexplained in the confidence that those aware of their surroundings might pick up on it. Which makes the series an interesting twist on what some detractors have been declaring a growing “insular” movement in anime. This is perhaps an ultimate rendition of how that very movement can create something of cultural value without resorting heavily upon familiar tropes, lest they be toyed with in some signature manner. As visually specacular as this series can be, it’s often at the service of continuing a poem Anno helped spur to introspective life in 1995.

Backtracking a little, it is important to consider that Ikuhara has long been friends with Shin Seiki Evangelion director, Hideaki Anno. An artist who became famous for pulling the veneer away from anime’s “fantasy for its own sake” place of safety with his epoch-making series. A show that was in fact affected by the outside world as terror enveloped the nation as the sarin gas attacks, and subsequent trials pertaining to the cult known as Aum Shinrikyo were taking place on tv screens during that time. A nation half a decade into crippling recession, and such events revealed a growing sense of spiritual panic that came symptomatic of a society long neglectful of its heart as profits went up a decade prior, now broken and brimming with an almost insurmountable amount of confusion ready to burst at any moment. For many, Evangelion provided a much needed pressure valve for these emotions homeside, even as the series became a monstrous media success. But it’s also worth noting that despite many series to retread similar territory (as well as Evangelion’s unfortunate “molding” into safer fabrics over the years), it has often come at the sacrifice of likeable characters, and compelling storytelling. Something with Penguindrum never seems to run short on.

 
 
Humoring The Blackness
For a series tackling such heavy themes, one wouldn’t expect the series to continue Ikuhara’s trademark surreal humor. This is something Ikuhara’s contemporary could never take away from him, and it is here in full flower, personal quirks and all. From the often amusing antics of the Takakura family’ s newly adopted penguins, to the clever use of repetition, music, love of the takarazuka, and various spins on fan expectations, the series never lets us forget that we are in an exaggeration of matters. What makes this work so well for me is that despite all the goofy antics, there is often a very character-centric reason for it. Even when the penguins acts reach absurds highs like fighting off an octopus on a window-sill, there is often a lyrical purpose to it all that remains unspoken. The show’s faith in its audience to put everything together while laughing about what could very easily become a harsh melodrama is very hard to achieve, and more often than not, it works toward better helping us understand character dimensions we didn’t realize were apparent upon initial glances. “Show. Don’t tell” is a valuable tool in film, and Ikuhara remains a master of constantly playing with this.

Industry Of Seduction
Which plays quite nicely against the series’ ultimate vision of collective antagonism, the enigmatic Sanitoshi’s belief that it doesn’t matter if fleeting love is what it is, as long as one feels it if even for a brief moment. More extravanant and over the top than even the character of Yuri, Sanitoshi with his hopelessly fujoshi-bait image and voice embodies a youth unwilling to compromise with their mission to undo all around him, no matter the cost. The most ironic element within his penchant for things “eletrifying”, and in the moment, his seemingly magical presence belies something of an unerring addiction to simplified solutions to complex daily problems. With all of his smiles and assurances, there is little in the way of anything truly transformative within his motivations. In fact, it is every bit as binary as the world he seems hellbent to destroy. And like all classic visions of Mephisto, Methusela, and Coyote, he is a soothing, seductive presence fully in the mold of what some fans long to adore, all the while tending to a world of emptiness. He is the face of an artistic medium gone commercially desperate.

Mawaru Conundrum

Which brings me back to the core of why the series carries with it something that has long eluded anime containing elements of the experimental; a solid sense of purpose. Despite years of post-Evangelion attempts to inject a certain “newness” to certain series, eager to capitalize on a growing mature market, most series have had the unfortunate distinction of either taking themselves far too seriously, or suffering from copycat-ism often symptomatic of shows existing in a newly defined environment. And it isn’t that shows like Bakemonogatari are intrinsically flawed, but rather that they often carry lesser baggage and lack the narrative acumen to reach beyond a specific audience. They ultimately become niches unto themselves, making them not only hard to market, but closer to gallery material better suited to a Murakami exhibit. What Mawaru Penguindrum has that most of these series do not is a truly sneaky package, made all the more potent by being especially meticulous about its messages/questions. There never seems to be a moment wasted, or a shot in it for the mere sake of showing it. Ikuhara has observed anime over the last ten-plus years, and clearly has quite a bit to say about it with imagery that spans the absurdist to the terrifying. Most often asking contradictory questions within the same mise en scene, as if the internet age has accelerated our intake of complexity in how we view the world, and he acknowledges this, even as the drama unfolds. Carefully, and provocatively, it beings back the notion of the auteur to television anime in a way that simply has been missing for quite some time.

 
 
Smashing The World’s Blu-ray Case
So when the climax comes, and matters for our heroes have reached their irrevocable conclusion, this is where Ikuhara delivers a passionate plea for not only the medium, but its fans. As our most unlikely characters are forced to rise to a challenge that threatens the future of many, including characters we once thought we knew within how the series initially presented itself, we are visually made aware of a world which Ikuhara seems ready to do away with. One that has essentially caged all of our characters, and led them to this desperate, penultimate moment. We are suddenly shown the destruction of a very vessel that binds many a fan the world over.- A batch of anime dvds/Blu-ray. Which in and of itself could very well have been taken alone as an atypical cinematic means of hammering the point home in a one-sided metaphor. But it is immediately amended when this very vessel becomes the means by which salvation is delivered. Interpretation: Mindless consumption carries none of the value that comes with what is being said within the things we value most. In short; Ikuhara’s distaste for ravenous fan culture & preference for something resembling actual substance is made clear within a mere few seconds of animation.

The world model within the series is rhetorically based on years of buying into invisible assumptions (Often bolstered by consumer culture sturm & drang-Something which even more harshly binds the Japanese.), and the form of the show (not unlike certain characters) seems bent on shattering these illusory traps. It seeks honest answers as opposed to perpetuating ad-hoc, otaku posturing. The show opines that destiny is what we determine with our ever changing expressions of inner personal desire, and not on what we are sold into accepting. The cycle begun with Shoujo Kakumei Utena closes with Mawaru Penguidrum, making it both one of the more exciting shows to have ever been given the green light in such a volatile media climate, and a challenging riposte to a decade of hiding beneath a shell of societal assumption. It’s wild, weird, beautiful, gaudy, painful, and imperfect look forward and backward, seeking diverse answers from difficult questions. It’s both an introspective masterpiece for modern Japanese media, and a spectacular yet inelegant kick in the teeth to the addicted, and we are all the healthier for it.

ミコノさん、あなたと合体したい！Mikono-san, I want to unite with you!

Ah, Mikono Suzushiro of Aquarion Evol. How cute… She is purely cute and innocent. Her hairstyle is irresistibly attractive, exposing unaji (うなじ “nape”), yes, that is the traditional Japanese sexiness.

Japan didn’t really have a fashion to expose breasts, cleavage, midriff, navel, derriere, and bare legs with mini skirts. Kimono wasn’t practical enough to expose them. So, the only area they could expose was the nape. So, Japanese girls back then tied their hair as high as possible to expose their nape to a maximum. Ah, though I denied my Japaneseness for a long time, just like Smerdyakov adamantly denied his Russianness and planned to move to France, but unlike Smerdyakov, I managed to move to America, yet though living in the states for a long time, I was so shocked to see my Japaneseness got fully activated when I saw Mikono’s unaji. And that easy! It’s like, “Yabai, I’m flying!” I thought I assimilated enough in America. I thought I managed to put a permanent seal on my Japaneseness. But her unaji… Unaji-tengoku (unaji-heaven)! Ah, seems like you can take a Japanese boy out of Japan, but you can’t take Japan out of me. My self-denial has easily crumbled in the presence of Mikono-chan. My DNA fully activated. Nature vs. nurture, and the nature has prevailed!

I was reading several blogs, and this otaku says that he decided to keep watching Evol because of Mikono. He’s as dumb as I am! Now I’m so relieved to know that people who are as dumb as I am actually exist out there. And I totally understand Amata’s mousou (妄想 “fantasy”) of Mikono, ahh, a looking back beauty. Yes, Mikaeri-bijin! White doves flying behind her, ahh, that effect, she really looks like an angel! So beautiful. Divine!

Ahh, and that agapeic smile, as if she’s accepting todo de mí! Even my flaws!

Destined to meet!

Ahh. The romantic scene at a movie theater reminds me of the beauty of Cinema Paradiso. And it’s so shocking to see that gyakunan happens! And that piano BGM. So romantic! This girl is so seijun (清純 “clean pure”), but initiates dating. How can that be! Ohhhh, so utopian! Yes, 2-D! Too bad Fourier didn’t have a medium called “anime” back then. And when she says to Amata with a wink, “I’ll be waiting for you, even it takes twelve thousand years,” I was like “Oh my gosh!” I totally fell in love with her!

A boat scene at Venice, oh, un barquinho! Kyaaa, I really really want to date her!

So precious that she isn’t defiled by capitalism. She isn’t like these wily Sex And The City girls always calculating and plotting something to advance their careers. She can pure-heartedly get touched by a movie. Yes, I can tell she doesn’t have a boyfriend, since she comes to an empty movie theater by herself!  She’s not that shy, but not exuding self-confidence either. She’s rather humble or modest. A similar trait to bungaku-shōjo (literature fan girl).

She makes us realize how defiled we otakus are. We’re so vulgar, our thoughts are full of obscenity. Whenever I watch Chihayafuru, my eyes always go to Kana-chan’s oppai. She is a small girl, but why are her oppai so huge! 背がちっちゃいのに胸がでかい！Yes, like Kurono Kurumu! 体育着の揺れ乳 (Bouncing oppai with PE uniform) when karuta-club is doing a jogging routine. ああ、わが青春！Ahh, my adolescence! Obviously, we’re irredeemable by default. No question about it. That’s why we need a pure girl like Mikono-chan who can wash away all our sins with her innocence.

She’s surely our Sonya Marmeladova! Who would say to me, “We’re both dekikkonai (people who can’t believe in themselves, a defeatist attitude)”? We’re both on the same boat…the ship of fools (or sinners). Ahhh, I really want to hug her! I want to have skinship with her. I want to hold her hand and feel its softness. Tactile love = skinship (触愛). Flying Love Attack (触愛天翔突)! So, I can vicariously get in raptures over a forbidden union with Mikono! That is St. Mikono’s Ecstasy, today’s St. Theresa’s Ecstasy. Mikonolepsy, mikonomancy!

Thus, I want to unite with Mikono-chan! ミコノちゃんと合体したい！