I absolutely adored Love Exposure. It’s long, startling, grimly funny and is in my top five favourite films. Guilty of Romance is similarly dazzling from a visual standpoint, and is equally off-limits for the prudes and the squeamish. While Guilty of Romance is a work of art and I’m glad I’ve seen it, ironically its strengths make it a film I’m not in a hurry to see again any time soon.

The story is that of a downward spiral into emotional pain and debauchery, so however you look at it this is not a light or humourous tale. There are one or two moments of black comedy but they’re not particularly subtle and I didn’t feel inclined to laugh at subject matter like this. It’s not on quite the same level as Requiem for a Dream in the “so uncomfortable to watch I’ll never watch it again,” stakes but there’s the same problem inherent in telling a story that follows events depicting things going wrong and getting progressively worse.

The movie has two saving graces that allowed me to see it through to the closing credits. Firstly, the performances from the lead acting talent are superb. Makoto Togashi’s portrayal of Mitsuko is utterly compelling, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how Megumi Kagurazaka’s role as Izumi was similarly convincing throughout. Considering her background as a gravure idol, the reasons for her success in her previous line of work are fairly obvious but she has genuine talent as a dramatic actress, and deserves recognition for that.

The other thing that carries this film through unsettling territory that I didn’t want to linger in for too long is the cinematography. Sono makes wonderful use of colour, so even murder scenes and the grimy streets of a Tokyo red light district are, in a strange twisted way, quite beautiful. Both visually and musically it’s stunning and oozes loving care and attention to detail.

Although it’s spectacular from an aesthetic point of view, Guilty of Romance was still a bitter pill for me to swallow. Simply put, I’m uncomfortable seeing innocent people being forced – or forcing themselves – to do unpleasant things. The underlying message of the film for me was that sometimes we feel the need to go to extraordinary lengths in pursuit of happiness but beyond that, I’m not sure what Sono is trying to say here. I expect some might find a misogynistic subtext in the suffering of its female protagonists, but I think Sono is too clever for that. Izumi and Mitsuko are surrounded by men who use and exploit them but their journey into darkness and tragedy actually offers them some temporary freedom and empowerment before it all goes to hell.

The mantra of making the men in their lives pay for the sex is an interesting angle. Both Izumi and Mitsuko enter the sex trade willingly and use the financial payment from their clients as a form of compensation. The issue is also dealt with in Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop, in which the protagonist goes into enjou kosai (which is not *quite* the same as the full-on prostitution that occurs in this film, admittedly) to earn money.

In Guilty of Romance I don’t recall seeing how Izumi and Mitsuko spend the cash they make, so it’s all about the money but at the same time it isn’t. In Love & Pop the enjou kosai is a means to an end – the lead character is saving up to buy a ring, if I remember correctly – but in Guilty of Romance the money earned from prostitution is more symbolic: the emphasis is instead on escaping from their respective circumstances by finding affection through less conventional means…possibly what the film’s title is alluding to if I’m interpreting it correctly.

The narrative covers Izumi’s and Mitsuko’s respective stories well but there’s a lack of balance when it comes to the point of view of Kazuko, the detective tasked with unravelling the brutal murder that brings Izumi’s and Mitsuko’s friendship to a bloody and tragic conclusion. I think this is where the changes imposed on the international edit come in because I believe it’s considerably shorter than the domestic one, and the footage that tells Kazuko’s story is reputedly what ended up on the cutting room floor.

Because there’s relatively little emphasis on that aspect, Kazuko – and her investigation – are not explored much so their presence feels like an afterthought…which is a shame because I was hoping for some good old murder-mystery to complement the personal and dramatic elements. Although the aspects of the film that I found unpleasant and hard to sit through are integral to its messages and overall style, I suspect that I’d find the original cut more satisfying than the ‘International’ one.

I admire Guilty of Romance, as both a piece of cinema with captivating visuals and acting, and also as a tragic human story. It’s a challenging proposition to physically watch though, and if I were to emotionally disconnect myself from the plight of the characters to make the experience more painless, the impact it’s intended to have would be lessened. If nothing else, I’m now convinced of the talent of Sono and the calibre of actors he chooses to work with, so I can’t wait for the next one. Bring on Himizu, I say.

It’s fair to say that I wasn’t sure if this little viewing experiment with the Skirtless Wonders of the 501st would even pay off, so I did the sensible thing and marathoned both seasons in the space of two evenings, accompanied by numerous bottles of real ale. Which turned out to be a wise move, since it’s actually really quite good.

In order to get through the whole thing I had to do that weird form of mind training that allows you to see past the pantsu to appreciate things like character development and plot. Although the underlying reasons for making it a fanservice-y show in the first place go without saying, I sort of wish the production team hadn’t taken the Fanboy Fetish Tickbox approach because it makes show look less clever than it actually is.

Strike Witches is pretty blatant about its ecchi intentions, but the up-front honesty endeared itself to me after a while. I really don’t want to dwell on that though. Firstly, the quality of the writing in regards to the characters is a good example of how this show goes from being forgettable otaku fodder to being a bit more memorable. They’re stereotypes up to a point, but beyond that point they’re actually really likeable and I grew quite sentimentally attached to them by the end. Gertrud was my favourite, in case you’re wondering.

Click for full size

The pic above is, I must say, one of the coolest anime-related infographics I’ve ever seen. It helpfully highlights a very different type of fanservice…namely, the fact that Strike Witches has a staggering amount of historical accuracy. As the episodes progressed I noticed more and more little references dropped in and eventually realised, after checking the Wikipedia page, that the writers of the show had gone to great lengths to get the details right.

I’m familiar with Hiroki Azuma’s infamous ‘database theory’, moe anthropomorphism and how all that applies to appealing to the target audience, but this is the first time I’ve seen real-life historical icons in an anime-centric context, and used so effectively. I’m not sure what sort of brainstorming meetings Studio Gonzo usually go through but I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when the scenario of Strike Witches was thrashed out. Presumably there was one faction who wanted to show a bit of imagination while the other wanted to add animal ears and tits to make sure the target audience paid attention to it, and lively discussion ensued.

I started to think of Strike Witches as one production that had a novel concept, fun characters and a thoughtfully-written plotline, but somehow came out of those boardroom meetings with those important parts intact. It could’ve been a recipe for disaster with writers and animators fighting with the sponsors and accountants for supremacy, but amazingly it wasn’t. Hooray for artistic integrity, eh?

Then there’s the world-building. Alternate history is a plot device that I enjoy but personally don’t see very often, and I must confess I’m a bit of a WW2 history nerd anyway. An AH WW2 story, with the recognisable equipment and fashions of the era coupled with a shaken-up political landscape thanks to an alien invasion, is a really cool idea that just clicked with me.

I don’t think I’m in too small a minority with that either. There’s even a hirschgeweih_antennas tag on Danbooru and if you don’t know what THAT is, they were the arrays on the early Lichtenstein radar fitted to German night patrol planes. Compare the antennae of, say, a Ju 88 or Bf-110 with Sanya’s magical headgear:

The cool thing is, there are LOADS of these little omake scattered around, and anyone who writes the show off as just moe girls flying around in their knickers and hilariously crash-landing into one another’s cleavage is missing out on that. It comes with the caveat of being a history nerd into the bargain, of course.

I think that this particular aspect of Strike Witches taps into the mecha musume concept that melds these two types of geekiness – military/history buffs with bishoujo anime otaku – in what I find to be a disturbingly imaginative way. I guess that this particular topic is best discussed on its own since it covers a lot of in-depth theory that I don’t think I’m qualified to tackle right now, but Strike Witches is a textbook example of how moe anthropomorphism takes the sting out of what would otherwise be very serious and downbeat. War is Hell, but if Lucifer’s a moe girl with lacy knickers you can at least get a laugh out of it.

From a personal point of view, Strike Witches feels like Gonzo’s apology for inflicting so much relentless tragedy onto us with She, The Ultimate Weapon. Both series examine the personal effects of warfare on the combatants – and rely on young females to do the fighting – but beyond certain obvious similarities it’s as though Strike Witches was deliberately made to be Saikano‘s polar opposite.

That is to say, it manages to be a war drama that’s vaguely optimistic…and anyone who’s seen Saikano will I’m sure understand why an optimistic war story is a sight for sore eyes. Sure, there were a few tearjerking moments and points where I expected something utterly tragic to happen, but Strike Witches cleverly skirted round them and put a more hopeful spin on things. The premise of the Neuroi’s arrival forms a common enemy and allows humanity to stand united for a change, so although it looks and feels like the early 1940s it doesn’t have that familiar black cloud of misery and conflict…it’s as though the story is rebooting history and providing us with a more hopeful timeline to enjoy.

And enjoy it I did. Consciously seeing past the crap aspects of a production in order to appreciate the good ones isn’t how most people watch something, and it isn’t something I’d routinely recommend either. That said, theres one heck of a lot to Strike Witches that’s original and fun, or if it’s not original it’s still damned cool, and I’m sure as hell not going to disregard all that over mere panty shots.

There are a couple of segments in particular that go off at quite demanding tangents, which is fine for those of us with a passing interest in philosophy, psychology and Japanese folklore, but to most it would come across as self-indulgent on the author’s part (Kyogoku is a youkai enthusiast and boy, does it show up in his writing). Getting through these – and seeing how they are relevant to the story – is the main reservation I’d have in recommending this novel, but overall I loved it.

The character of Kyogokudou as the intellectual sceptic with a sizeable reference library and endless list of smart-arse put-downs works on more than one level too: he’s the Sherlock-ian genius who sheds light on the mystery but throws in a fascinating dynamic into the flow of the story. The premise sounds supernatural at first but Kyogokudo doesn’t believe in anything supernatural at all; because of this, Ubume, Mouryou and, I’m assuming the rest of this series, are in fact mystery stories with elements of SF in the guise of supernatural fantasy.

The realism of Ubume, or any Kyogoku story for that matter, is always a shock at first because you expect it to be a supernatural story, but the ghost or monster of the title is instead a metaphor for a very ‘real’ physical phenemenon. Using youkai in this way is a clever trick, but considering when these stories are set it takes on even greater significance.

The early Showa period was a mixture of Twentieth Century and traditional Japan, so the mechanics of the mystery involve the new-fangled contempory science that is mistaken for the traditional folklore and superstition. It’s an under-represented timeframe I think, because most Japanese fiction that isn’t set in the present or future is set way back in feudal times. And yet the Showa era was a really historically important, and (to me at least) interesting time when you’re trying to understand how the country’s society of the present day came to be the way it is.

I’m no expert in this area and I’m not suggesting that you need to be one in order to appreciate this story, but I believe it resonates more when you remember that two very different philosophies – Western science and medicine and traditional folklore respectively – existed side-by-side in everyday life during this period. Kyogoku takes this historical observation and creates two very different, and unsettling, horror/chiller themes: one grounded in traditional folklore but beneath the surface there’s a scientific/technological one that is, in its own way, just as unsettling.

It reminds me of the old/new contrast in aesthetics and technology that makes steampunk so cool and imaginative, but the period setting adds a social commentary aspect that takes advantage of how the beliefs and values of the people of the time were in a state of flux. If it were set any earlier, the technology would be too advanced to be convincing; any closer to the present and the majority of the characters wouldn’t still believe in the folklore any more and that plot device wouldn’t have worked either. In that sense, the story could only have happened in that strange post-WW2 era.

Another element that Kyougoku throws into the mix is the film noir aspect. During the 1940s the likes of Raymond Chandler were publishing hugely influential mystery thrillers in the US, and I suspect that there is a slight element of homage to that genre – albeit taking place in Japan with a strong local folklore theme – set around the same time, featuring a private investigator as one of the main protagonists, no less. Other common tropes of the ‘hard boiled’ detective story, such as depicting the destructive after-effects of lies and obsessions, and of course the enigmatic and alluring femme fatale character archetype who crosses paths with the hero, also feature strongly.

An interesting footnote to The Summer of the Ubume is that Kinoko Nasu claimed that he’s a huge admirer of Kyogoku’s writing. Mindful of this as I read through …Ubume, I started to notice a lot of similarities to the Kara no Kyoukai novel; from the walls of text in the dialogue, through the convoluted mechanisms that created the mysteries to be solved, and even character names. It’s one of those “once you think you see it you can’t unsee it” things. Looking at it that way, a lot of the idiosyncracies of Nasu’s own writing make a bit more sense, to me at least.

I’d like to think that more of Kyogoku’s novels will be published in English like this one has, but I doubt it. Despite Type Moon works sharing quite a few quirks, the supernatural aspect is real in their stories’ universe (which means you don’t have to explain at length what the story actually *is* like I’ve done here for Kyougoku’s) and they’re packaged in a more otaku-friendly way that makes them more accessible…even if the target market is a bit of a niche one. By that pessimistic logic, if we’re still waiting for an English KnK edition to hit the shelves, more of Kyogoku’s writing would be an even harder thing to sell to the general public.

Again, it’s a shame. All the more reason to savour this one, really.

The past couple of weeks have changed that though. It would seem that at least part of the problem was that there wasn’t much around that was worth writing about. After months of new DVD releases and simulcasts that didn’t make me want to sit down and pay attention, Spring 2012 has given me that old nudge of “oh yeah…this is why I’m a fan…”

Fate/Zero season 2

If there’s anything that’s going to get this fanboy out of a bad patch, it’s probably a new Type Moon show…which is an exciting prospect if only because, when basing your expectations on previous animated TM adaptations, you never know whether it’s going to be good, bad or somewhere in between. The first season of Fate/Zero gave me something interesting to watch on a Saturday evening with a nice cold beer (although I ought to be accompanying it with a bottle of this stuff in particular).

It was dazzling in many areas but even my patience was tested by the thick layers of exposition. It’s not that wading through all that wasn’t worth it; it’s just that the entire first half concerned itself so much with examining the motives and mechinations of the main players in the story in such an uncompromising way that many viewers didn’t even notice the things it did well. Now that the story has entered its latter half, the kinetic aspects have the room they need to get off the ground and the proverbial brown stuff has begun to hit the fan.

I can now safely say that, as of mid-April, Fate/Zero is finally a series to get excited about. If a Lovecraftian sea monster and Yukikaze-style Berserkerplane weren’t enough, we were treated to Excalibur being whipped out at last (insert relevant Reaction Guys pic here) and can now sit back and wait for it to get genuinely awesome. As we in Britannia say in such situations, thank fuck for that.

Eureka Seven AO

As Bateszi outlined so well, the sequel to Eureka Seven is a big deal. It’s especially important I think to we old-school fans who got into the anime fandom through seinen SF shows of the previous decade. It’s a somewhat belated follow-up to one of the fan faves of that era, when nobody complained about moe and when cool robots blew stuff up and we had in-depth discussions about what the storylines and symbolism meant.

Out of the new stuff I’m watching that’s currently airing, this is the second series that’s a sequel or prequel; and yet that fact – which would be a bad sign under most circumstances – doesn’t bother me one bit. Neither does the fact that E7 AO features a load of familiar tropes and visual flourishes from Studio Bones’ back catalogue and elsewhere: jumping into the mecha while still wearing his school shirt and fighting an alien-looking creature with a massive explosion made Ao Fukai look for all the world like Shinji Ikari if he grew a pair and decided “you know what? Fuck you all. I’m going to climb into the robot like a proper hero and take on that monster like a boss.”

I’ll admit that I had reservations about this show. It’s a sequel to a story that’s so late to the party that we didn’t expect the sequel at all; it recycles old Bones ideas and, heck, other plot devices of the genre; and Bones don’t have a spotless record for sequels anyway (the Darker than Black thing still stings). It’s early days, and there’s so much that could conceivably go wrong.

And yet, after the second episode, I was having too much fun to care about any of that. It was jam-packed with one moment of brilliance after another: Ao saved his island home, he was reunited with his current romantic(?) interest afterwards and as a character he’s more grown-up and, I might as well just say it, more interesting than Renton was. Whether or not it becomes a trainwreck like Ryuusei no Gemini or Code Geass R2, right now E7 AO has a balance of characterisation and pretty-shiny surfing robot action that makes it an absolute joy to behold.

Sakamichi no Apollon

This reminds me a little of Beck in that it uses music as a catalyst for the everyday drama and growing-up stuff that makes up so much of the anime we usually see broadcast. It’s one of those “could’ve worked even better in live-action” titles but as it is, I’m loving it.

I really appreciated the way the friendship between the three leads just, well, happens in a natural fashion and in all probability I’d be perfectly content with watching them hang out and jam together every week. There’ll be more to that I’m sure since it has such a mature and low-key approach that gives off an aura of “it’s not a cartoon; it’s animation.” Whether or not that statement gets quoted out of context on Shit Otaku Say or similar, I’m sure you know where I’m coming from there.

Speaking of music: interestingly, all three of these new shows have something special in the soundtracks. Fate/Zero has Yuki Kajiura, Eureka Seven AO has brought in ex-Supercar frontman Koji Nakamura and the jazz BGM of Sakamichi no Apollon was penned by Yoko Kanno. I didn’t intend it to work out that way, but I’m sure it’s no accident that three of my favourite songwriters are represented in the new season’s offerings. It’s the icing on the cake, as they say.

Relevant to the interests of sixty-something motorbike-riding UK rock fans, apparently

I’m sure those of you who share my tastes in Japanese music, art, entertainment, culture and whatnot will have your own stories about what families and friends think…a lot of that depends on whether you make a public show of it, but some of us are surrounded by like-minded people while some of us…well, aren’t.

Some of us bob around on the surface of the Fandom, dropping a fishing line in; others use a trawling net. Some, like me, make occasional dives into the shallows while others plumb the depths, James Cameron-style, into a Marianas Trench of otaku-dom. My circles of friends and acquaintances can be placed on a pretty broad scale but my family are probably on jet plane that’s bound for somewhere far inland and won’t touch down until it gets there.

As I was growing up I began to share less and less common ground with my family; they certainly aren’t anime fans. One of my sisters loves Studio Ghibli though, and would probably dig Mamoru Hosoda or Makoto Shinkai if work commitments allowed her more free time. My mum borrowed my DVD of My Neighbour Totoro once and liked it (I promised her I’d lend her Arietty since the BBC adaptation of The Borrowers was a TV fave when we were kids).

Beyond that, there’s a big portion of my books, DVDs and music collections that they have zero interest in. There’s a diverse group of family, friends and acquaintances reading my Facebook profile so posting a message about the new Kalafina blu-ray for instance would have possibly half a dozen people wanting to borrow it and the other ninety or so having no idea what the hell I’m on about and ignoring it completely. At least, that’s what I thought.

Outside of anime soundtracks, lot of what I listen to was actually influenced by my parents: I atttribute my heavy rock background to my dad while my mum and her dad got me into classical. None of them have ever shown an interest in Japanese or anime music. At all. Ever. And we’re all okay with the fact that they probably never will.

Unbeknownst to me, my dad spent a while last weekend listening to Kalafina on Youtube and said he was impressed with what he heard. I can only assume that my recent FB status update of “suffice to say it’s three (very pretty-looking) singers who sound amazing live without all that autotuning studio nonsense.” was enough to pique his interest since he has an aversion to contemporary manufactured chart pop and knows that I feel the same way about it.

Beyond that one short paragraph I hadn’t mentioned anything about this to my family – they simply aren’t interested in anime, manga, or anything associated with it. By describing the music simply as a live performance from talented people and attaching nothing else to it, my old man went and looked it up for himself with no preconceptions or expectations whatsoever.

It was a pure accident on my part, but an interesting experiment. I got into Yuki Kajiura through the TV and films she wrote music for, and Kalafina will always be associated in my mind with the Kara no Kyoukai movie series; a story I have sentimental attachment to and have quite a large emotional investment in. To hear that a relative of mine – who has no idea of the context I hold that music in – give his own opinion was genuinely interesting.

It got me thinking about whether I enjoy it as an anime fan (“that Kajiura project who did some awesome OSTs”) or simply as music. Kajiura’s style is instantly recogisable, and quite a lot of the time it’s hard to dissociate it from the medium it’s bundled with. Last weekend really proved that although it has a strong niche fan following, there’s something in it for casual listeners too.

Knowing my parents’ general outlook, I think the act of convincing themselves they won’t like something before they’ve even watched/heard/read it is a contributing factor. We all have our own biases and tastes, and we’re all guilty of thinking “I’m not into that sort of thing. No reason. I’m just not into it.” so it would be unfair of me to call them closed-minded per se. There’s a lot said about how Japanese pop culture is seen by the general public abroad, related to things like DVD sales, newspaper headlines and Embarrassing Fans mostly, that I don’t really feel like going into right now. The debates about whether the fandom deserves it dubious reputation are too complex and contentious for me.

On a personal note, it was a really fun and genuinely insightful experience to give an impartial (a less than partial, even!) subject a blind test of what I appreciate in my spare time. It answered a question I often wondered about: what would a non-fan make of this if their first impressions weren’t influenced by the things that mine were?

I was brought up on a diverse mixture but this was a rare occasion when things worked in the opposite direction: my dad was taking a recommendation from me rather than the other way around…and to my delight it wasn’t met with the usual misunderstandings and misconceptions I expected.

The icing on the cake was when he quipped, “there were some other names people linked to in the comments underneath.” I braced myself for what I thought was coming.

“I’d take Youtube comments sections with a pinch of salt. You get some real idiots on there.” (I didn’t feel like explaining the concept of internet trolls to him)

“There’s the name Yuki someone.”

“She’s the songwriter. She’s really good.”

“Oh, okay. There was another video they linked to though…a girl with a cello. Kanon somethingorother. That was pretty impressive too.”

It took a few incredulous seconds for me to realise that, in a matter of a few minutes, he’d also discovered Kanon Wakeshima. It was a surreal sunday afternoon.

Which could be most appropriately summed up with this

Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. There’s a strong rock element to Kalafina’s sound, and the live shows (which I’m assuming were what my dad had found) have a guitar/bass/drums backing band that would be familiar to a casual listener from a UK/USA guitar rock background, even if the non-English lyrical content isn’t. Even I have to admit that the choreography is a bit goofy and the three girls would be better off being themselves with a more informal vibe that I’ve seen in footage of the FictionJunction shows. But eh. That’s another day, another DVD release…which I may or may not give my dad a heads-up about.

1. Who is your favourite male anime character?

A toughie, but I’d say Ginko from Mushishi. He has this cool air about him and uses his knowledge wisely…a genuinely admirable and awesome guy who knows how and when to do the right thing. His backstory’s interesting too.

2. Who is your favourite female anime character?

Again, a few to choose from but it has to be Shiki Ryougi from Kara no Kyoukai – her character is one of the most fascinating and thoughtfully-written and she isn’t simply the usual tsundere or badass archetype either. I named my favourite guitar after her, so yeah…

3. What is your favourite anime soundtrack?

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette is spectacularly haunting…as is anything that Yuki Kajiura’s done actually.

4. What is your favourite anime opening + animation?

The opener to Paranoia Agent is amazing. It’s the product of a collaboration I have an immense amount of admiration for: Susumu Hirasawa and the sorely-missed Satoshi Kon.

5. What is your favourite anime ending + animation?

I really like the end sequence for Higashi no Eden. The song’s cool but I really admire the stop-motion paper animation; a lot of time and effort must’ve gone into creating it, and the end result is so unusual.

6. What is your favourite anime scene?

There’s a point in The place Promised In Our Early Days where Hiroki and Sayuri are facing each other in the same room, but their consciousnesses are in separate parallel universes. They can’t see each other, but they both somehow know that the other one is there. It’s a really moving and powerful scene that stuck in my memory.

7. If you could meet an anime character, who would it be?

I’d have to say either Saber (Fate/Stay Night) or Schneizel el Britannia (Code Geass). Both are badass characters but crucially are of British descent. My Japanese isn’t of a good enough standard to make casual conversation, especially with topics of world domination over tea and biscuits.

8. What anime character is most similar to you in terms of personality?

My personality isn’t the sort that you’d associate with the memorable hero of a story so I don’t really have a proper answer to that. I recall being able to relate to Ryusuke from Beck though, mainly because he’s a scruffy rock and roll type who lives on his own in a house full of guitar equipment. I really need to finish watching that show. I can identify with Kaiji sometimes too.

9. What is your favourite thing about anime?

The imagination and visual weirdness that animation can offer…specifically, the way that it comes across when seen through the lens of Japanese culture. I really dig the cultural/geographic aspect that it brings to the medium.

10. What is your least favourite thing about anime?

The way that entertainment value and artistic integrity are all too often hamstrung by budget constraints, corporate politics, scheduling and all the other related stuff that gives rise to the formulaic shows we all know and hate. The current economic climate has resulted in less creativity and originality, and the staff are poorly paid for the hard work they do. The underlying reasons are complex, but it’s still sad to see it hit the people who matter: the ones making it and the viewers who watch it.

11. Who’s your favourite anime couple?

So many to choose from…probably Aka and Fumihiko from REC. Firstly, they’re simply nice people who deserve to be together; secondly, they’re adults who are portrayed realistically; thirdly, REC is a really underrated show.

12. Who is your favourite anime animal?

The dog in Sword of the Stranger. Most badass pet ever.

13. What anime would make a good game?

A gaming expert friend of mine suggested that Rideback would make an awesome video game. I’m not a gamer at all, but I’m inclined to agree with him.

14. What game would make a good anime?

Since I don’t play video games, I’ll cheat and say a VN. Mahou Tsukai no Yoru needs to be made into a movie or OAV. Video games generally make rubbish movies or TV shows, whether they’re animated or otherwise.

15. What is the first anime you ever watched?

I remember Mysterious Cities of Gold when I was really young, but the first completely Japanese animation I ever watched was Miyazaki’s Laputa on TV sometime in the late 80s. It’s still awesome to me now.

16. Do you think you’ll ever stop watching anime?

It’s part of my fascination with TV, overseas cinema and storytelling in general so I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. If no more anime I enjoyed was ever made again I’d just rewatch old favourites occasionally. I’ll probably tire of the fans before I tire of the medium itself.

17. What is your favourite genre of anime?

Psychological thrillers with a SF slant and lots of headscratching weirdness.

18. What is your least favourite genre of anime?

I’m not really into sports of any sort, so a sports anime wouldn’t interest me either. That or any shounen stuff that drags out for zillions of episodes.

19. Are you open about watching anime with people you know?

If they themselves are open about what they watch, yeah. For people like my family and co-workers who have no interest, there’s not much point discussing it and trying to explain away the misconceptions isn’t worth the hassle. Watching it with friends is a lot of fun though.

20. Have you ever been to Japan?

Yes, once in 2009 and again last year. Loved it – a beautiful country with welcoming people and nice food. I intend to visit again and see people and places I didn’t get chance to before.

21. What anime was the biggest letdown for you?

The movie adaptation of Loups Garous. It was based on a novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku but didn’t do his writing justice at all. Seriously, read the book and avoid the movie. Or, if you want to see his work animated well, watch Mouryou no Hako instead.

22. What anime was better than expected?

I started Madoka Magica purely because Yuki Kajiura and Kalafina did the soundtrack, but didn’t expect it to turn out like it did. I don’t think anyone expected it, actually.

23. What is the best anime fight scene?

I was going to say Asuka’s last stand in End of Evangelion but I’ve not had the chance to voice my love of Macross and Yoko Kanno yet so I’ll say the final battle between Isamu and Guld in Macross Plus. It’s visually and musically spectacular, but resolves their story so well.

24. Who is your anime waifu?

Most female anime characters are too young for me but Holo from Spice and Wolf would be great company. She has a quick wit and would be loads of fun to go out drinking with.

25. What was your favourite video game as a child?

I remember Lemmings on the Amiga and even bought it on PSP recently, but I was a sucker for platform games back in the 90s. Magic Pockets ruled.

26. Most embarrassing moment?

There was a certain cosplay incident in a convention last year…it was a good laugh but I fear the day when any pics make it public.

27. Can you drive?

Yes, badly. I’ve never had (nor been responsible for) an accident but I’m not a confident driver so it’s more for convenience and necessity than enjoyment. I’ve managed for a while without owning a car though.

28. Are you mature?

Usually. I try to be sensible and responsible, but I was apparently born without an ounce of common sense.

29. What year were you born?

1982. I’m TEH OLDZ. OTL

30. Do you prefer dogs or cats?

Cats, hands-down. Dogs often scare me, but cats are like small furry humans with loads of character and attitude.

31. Describe yourself physically

Short (1m 70) and I look chronically underweight, even though I eat normally and I’m in perfectly good health. I’ve not been mistaken for anyone famous though, so I can’t really say what – or who – I look like, apart from a younger-looking version of my dad. Or just substitute Miku for Luka here:

32. What would you name your first child?

I’ve never considered having children – the responsibility of it all terrifies me. Anything normal-sounding that won’t get him/her picked on at school I guess.

33. What is the worst injury you’ve ever had?

I was bitten by a dog at the age of seven (Re.: question 30) and although I was lucky to not lose an eye or my nose, I’ve had an annoying scar ever since. The only lasting effect is occasionally getting asked dumb questions like “did it hurt?” (yes, duh) or “are you Harry Potter?” (no. Now sod off).

34. What is your worst habit?

Worrying too much.

35. Do you drink or smoke?

I used to smoke during my student days, but fortunately had the willpower to stop and don’t miss it at all now. I enjoy a glass of whisky or pint of ale/cider but since I’m a lightweight I can’t handle too much. Moderation is good.

36. Do you have a tattoo?

Nope. Never felt the need to get one.

37. Are you a morning or a night person?

I’m more of a night person. I think better in the mornings, but I’m not very good at getting up early unless it’s for a good reason (work, etc.)

38. Have you ever slept past midday?

Yes, rarely. Usually when ill, jet-lagged or after a really late night. I try to avoid doing it because sleeping through the daytime feels weird.

39. Do you regret anything?

Lots of things. Too many to count.

40. Can you count the number of friends that you have on one hand?

Out of the friends I have who I’m able to meet face-to-face regularly, yes. I have a small group of good friends, but don’t get chance to see them very often. One of the many problems of living in a small rural town, sadly.

41. Do you wear glasses?

Yes. I’m very short-sighted, but often wear contacts because they’re more convenient.

42. Are you a picky eater?

No. I eat most things and I’m willing to try something new, but I don’t like milk or eggs unless they’re ingredients in something else.

43. Would you die for someone?

I couldn’t rule it out if it was necessary, but my answer would still be ‘probably not’. If I did, it would be a pretty extreme set of circumstances that I can’t really imagine. I don’t have a very strong sense of self-preservation but I don’t know how I’d react if such a situation arose.

44. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

I think being able to move objects with the power of my mind would be pretty cool. I’d like to think I’d use it for the good of humanity, but when I’m not saving lives I’d end up as Lazy Bastard Man instead because I’d do the housework while sitting on the sofa.

45. Do you believe in the supernatural?

No, not really. My education is really science-based so I don’t have much religious or supernatural belief left. There’s a lot that science can’t explain though, which isn’t quite the same thing.

46. Would you rather be rich or famous?

Being rich would be very helpful. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it gives you one less thing to worry about so you can concentrate on other things…like being happy and making the world a better place. I wouldn’t want to be famous because I like my privacy. There are too many celebrities around as it is.

47. Have you ever committed a crime?

I drove slightly over the speed limit a few times and have downloaded music, movies and TV that I couldn’t buy through legal means. Pretty much everyone I know has done those things as well though, so I’m not sure if they count.

48. Time traveller or ghost?

Time traveller. I’m fascinated by history, so would jump back to various times and places to see what really happened. I wouldn’t interfere and change the course of history, but it would be awesome to see what the people and events were really like.

49. Does anybody have a crush on you?

I don’t think so…if anyone does, they’ve kept quiet about it.

50. Are you in a relationship?

No.

I’m really enjoying Mouretsu Pirates though – it’s a bit slow but the characters are engaging and it has this don’t-take-me-seriously vibe that I can’t bring myself to dislike. Sadly the opening theme doesn’t do much for me, so I kinda wish Alestorm had been tasked with performing it. Thanks for reading – and for the commenters, thanks for commenting – and seeya in March. Hopefully with an album’s worth of original music under my belt. Yarrr~!

It’s no more an eroge than Tsukihime and F/S N are if I’m honest. I would’ve thought the story-to-smut ratio would have to be lower for it to qualify since, like those Type Moon forays into the genre, Katawa Shoujo involves a lot of reading to get to the H-scenes so it’s plot-driven before anything else; outside of fiction written for a young audience, characters end up in bed together every now and then in many romantic drama stories anyway.

Thinking about how it approaches the themes it addresses, it’s less of ‘a story about disabled people’ and more ‘a story about people who happen to have disabilities’. The distinction is a subtle yet important one. It goes hand-in-hand with the idea of the storytelling being respectful and tasteful; I don’t think KS is intended to be an exercise in challenging people’s perceptions of the disabled in society per se. The problems and challenges that the characters face are not their respective disabilities: they’re connected, but are nevertheless separate.

Each affected character has overcome the obvious problem, but where KS gets interesting is in its portrayal of the knock-on effects. The core messages of this VN for me then were “look beyond the obvious” and of course “this is a story about people, not their disabilities.” Once I understood those facts of the writing, I was able to really appreciate what it sets out to do.

On my first read-through I ended up reading Emi’s route. It was in retrospect a good one to start on because it was relatively uplifting and comedic, and as a character Emi is likeable into the bargain. There were dark undercurrents later on but it set a nice direction for me in showing a character who has overcome her challenges, and in being by her side Hisao is able to move forward in life.

My favourite route overall though was Hanako’s, although it was somewhat darker and more tense in tone. It was for me the most well-written, mainly because the characterisation and the way Hisao brings her out of her shell were so cathartic and satisfying. It also subverted the common trope of ‘rescuing’ the girl from the situation she was in (by pure chance, a recent comment on my rather old post about the Heaven’s Feel route of F/S N reinforced my thoughts on this).

You’d expect Hanako’s route to get to know her and consistently help her…except, if you go too far into ‘knight in shining armour’ territory you hit the Bad End. Paying attention to the hints from Lilly and old Mutou-sensei though, you realise that the school is a means for preparing the students for the outside world so the pity of others is not helpful to them at all. Simply put, the only way to save Hanako is to give her the means to save herself.

I found this to be not only a clever bit of writing in terms of gameplay mechanics, but a realistic and true-to-life portrayal of the problems encountered by people affected by such things. Haruki Murakami references and character design aside (again, in another case of the “look beyond the obvious” mantra, she’s actually very pretty), I loved Hanako’s story: it goes on to use the H-scene as a plot device in an unusual way and delivers a Good End that is…just read it. It’s great.

Rin’s route was a bit of an odd one because unusually it’s not really about getting to know and understand the heroine…as a matter of fact, Rin doesn’t understand herself either. To make matters even more complicated, the decision points were very challenging so despite the emotional payoff I didn’t enjoy it as much in the conventional sense: I was unable to mentally work backwards through her background to get a grasp of why she’s the way she is, so the full force of the storytelling was a bit lost on me.

No story is perfect, especially when the narrative is branching and each component branch has a different writer; Shizune’s route for me highlighted how some are bound to be weaker than others. As a character she’s pleasant enough; I know there are fans of her character type out there even though I’m not one of them, but the issues I had were more to do with the character *development*, inconsistent pacing and relative lack of decision points.

In contrast, Lilly’s route was…pleasant is the best way to describe it. Again, I was fortunate in my choice of reading order because it had a warm, serene vibe and the final act actually felt more ‘final’ than any of the others. There was the additional benefit of the other heroines featuring prominently too: an issue I often have with multi-path stories is a difficulty adjusting to the shifted focus in each. I couldn’t start a route on the same day as finishing the previous one, for example, due to my sentimental attachment to the characters but when Lilly’s route features Hanako and even includes a lunchtime scene with her, Emi and Rin as well as Lilly I didn’t feel as though I was ignoring them.

Although it’s a closing thought, mentioning the hero at this point is actually rather appropriate; the protagonist of first-person perspective VNs is usually a tabula rasa figure in order for the reader to project his or her own thoughts and points of view onto him, but in this case Hisao has a backstory of his own and often the story is as much about him overcoming his issues as it is the heroines overcoming theirs. It adds to the interactive nature of the story in that we see Hisao help the heroine of each route, but at the same time the relationship benefits him as well. It’s a time for Hisao to mend his broken heart, in more ways than one.

VNs translated into English aren’t exactly commonplace, and in terms of subject matter I daresay KS is unique. I’m tempted to call it an experiment in open-source teamwork, and a successful one at that, but I’d be selling it as short as I would be if I were to call it “that 4chan dating sim about the disabled girls.” It’s not perfect – perhaps because of the voluntary and amateur nature of its creators or simply because no work of fiction ever is – but as a piece of storytelling it’s still impressive.

Maybe 4LS were mistaken in keeping a title that needlessly throws up extra preconceptions, or maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference; I don’t know. The VN format isn’t for everyone of course, and KS embraces certain tropes and aesthetics of the Japanese medium that inspired it so it’s not really intended for the mass market anyway. For the record, I found the experience of reading it very rewarding indeed, and my gratitude goes out to the people who helped to bring it to completion.

Final notes

I wrote some short-ish commentary on each route as I went along, in the order that I read them in. They go into a bit more detail than I did here and I’d only be repeating myself if I were to do a long copypasta, so here are the links in case you’re interested.

• Emi’s route
• Hanako’s route
• Shizune’s route
• Rin’s route
• Lilly’s route

I don't actually look anything like this

As far as I know this blog’s never been a victim of a hacker before, and since it’s been a bit neglected in recent months I’ve done only the bare minimum in terms of upgrades, maintenance and general housekeeping. Since a lot of anime/J-culture bloggers I’m in contact with run on the wordpress platform, I might as well outline my experiences in case it happens to any of you as well.

The wordpress Pharma Hack doesn’t show itself on the blog itself, but its effects are obvious in the victim’s google rankings: post titles are replaced with spam ads and it can go unnoticed for some time…until the blogger either sees a drop in site traffic, visitors have trouble finding it through search engines or similar.

After the initial feelings of panic and “I…I…I’ve been violated…” I looked up the potential cause and what to do about it. I disabled all my plugins, backed up my database and WP directory (when was the last time I did THAT?), deleted all files and folders, re-installed a fresh copy of the WP software and restored the rest piece by piece. I re-uploaded images first, then plugins.

One useful tool in these situations is the Sucuri Sitecheck Scanner, which runs a diagnostic scan to show up what sort of nasties are lurking in your site. At the time of writing, this blog is clean but last weekend the scanner picked up a piece of Black Hat SEO malware that’s associated with unwanted/bogus ads. To pinpoint the problem I installed the WordPress Exploit Scanner, which runs a check through the WP install to highlight lines of code which may be troublesome and therefore require removal.

The Exploit Scanner picked out a couple of lines in my Feedburner plugin that are attributed to the WP Pharma Hack, so I deleted that offending plugin, ran the Sucuri scanner again and it gave me a clean bill of health. In a way I feel very fortunate in that the source of the problem was a mere plugin; I’ve read horror stories about blogs with infected databases which, with my limited knowledge of SQL, I’d be pretty at a loss in terms of how to deal with it.

In all honesty I don’t feel the need for the Feedburner plugin anyway – a lot of my site promotion comes from GRSI (now Google+) or Twitter; I don’t *think* removing Feedburner broke my RSS feed, but you might want to re-subscribe this blog in your feedreader, just in case. All this seems to have done in the long run is eat up a saturday while I was trying to familiarise myself with this little beastie of a hack and re-install my blog, but since I’ve used it as an excuse to start playing around with a new theme/layout it’s not all bad. I’ve also learned a few things:

1. Regularly back up your database, themes, uploads and anything else important that’s unique to your blog’s install (duh!) That includes the config.php and the .htaccess file.
2. Change your password periodically (duh!)
3. Install only as many plugins as you need. Newer versions of WordPress have more stuff already included but some things, like anti-spam plugins, as essential. Each plugin is a potential target for a hacker. Keep those updated too, in case the developers come up with patches for security issues.
4. Keep tabs on your google search results and site traffic. Sudden increases and decreases in hits are worth looking into, especially when you have a regular posting schedule (I don’t, but still…).

I now have the new (TwentyEleven) theme installed with some pretty-shiny new banner images, and a long to-do list for upcoming posts and tweaks to the layout. Last weekend actually reminded me about how fun maintaining (not just writing) a blog can be so I now have a few things lined up. The SF episodic story thing I was working on over on the main site will continue (when I’ve spring-cleaned and checked that WP installation too, natch) and at some point I’ll upload the rest of the photos from last September’s Japan trip onto Flickr. I want 2012 to be a productive year, whether the Mayans (or Roland Emmerich) were right about the imminent apocalypse or not.

I found myself compelled to see it through to the notorious end, but I can think of so many reasons why I perhaps shouldn’t have bothered. My lasting impression is that it really wasn’t bad; ignoring the waste of time that is the Summer Special (a course of action I thoroughly recommend, by the way) it still had its fair share of problems.

Firstly, there’s the fanservice. I know that’s such a common thing that I don’t normally bother to pass comment on it, but this series has so many boob gags and scenes in which the female members of the cast are shown topless it’s as though their nipples were pairs of accusing eyes watching me watching them, and making me feel guilty about it (I think I became desensitised to it, but I’m not sure if that’s a healthy thing).

Hand-in hand with this is the issue of the kids’ teacher. By her second appearance on-screen I’d already stopped finding her antics funny and started to wish she could be written out of the story altogether, especially since she served no useful purpose plot-wise. The irritating bint’s lustful advances towards the adolescent male protagonist actually creeped me out far more than the camera’s fascination with Mahoro’s tits did which implies that, in my eyes, a shotacon teacher is worse than straightforward gratuitous nudity. An interesting train of thought, that.

Seeing Mahoro and the other girls naked made me feel a little uncomfortable, but the housemaid theme goes against the grain for me too. There’s a market for that sort of thing of course (maid cafés, for instance), but the apparent portrayal of outdated gender roles left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess fans could argue about its subversive-ness (because, y’know, it’s what Gainax specialise in) and the fact that it’s not really about sexual politics, but the sense of exploitation/otaku maid fetishism still refused to go away.

The irony that Mahoro was capable of killing aliens but decided to make Suguru’s breakfast and clean his house for him after she retired from active duty isn’t lost on me, and of course it’s often part of the comedy and absurdity of the show. A more positive way of looking at her decision to become a housemaid after a life of a battle android is assuming the story is taking a pacifist/personal atonement stance…or so I’d like to think.

Mahoromatic‘s mood-orientated gear changes were a little jarring too. Since it dealt with both ecchi slapstick and tragedy, the production trod on thin ice and because the ending is in stark contrast to everything that preceded it I was caught off-balance (the comedy had outstayed its welcome by that stage so maybe that change in atmosphere was for the best).

This serious undercurrent that runs continually from the first episode to the last is however the very thing that lifts Mahoromatic up and away from the rest of the ‘forgettable fanservice comedy’ titles. No matter what the subject matter of the episode happens to be – whether it’s vacuum cleaner-powered breast enlargers, hidden porn stashes, a brassiere missile launcher or a festive christmas special – each episode ended with a title card indicating Mahoro’s remaining life expectancy…which is measured in days.

When the viewer is reminded every time the end credits roll of how fragile the fluffiness of the show is, it gives a powerful sense of inevitability and finality and ensures that you never forget the story’s bittersweet roots. On one hand I wasn’t comfortable with Mahoro being Suguru’s obsequious personal servant but on the other I really appreciated the other main theme of the series: a warrior who chooses to spend her final days making a lonely young human’s life more pleasant and discovering her own humanity. On paper, it sounds trite and dumb but seeing it happen on screen is really quite moving.

With the exception of the homeroom teacher the characters are quite likeable, even Minawa, the insipid clumsy moe maid, who miraculously failed to initiate my gag reflex. Suguru is far from the worst example of the Anime Male Lead – I’d put him in the top 50% somewhere, anyhow – and Mahoro is also one of the more memorable anime characters I’ve seen over the years. Quite a bit of effort was poured into the backstories of the two of them, and refreshingly this isn’t thrown out of the window towards the end either.

Perhaps I also unknowingly recognised Ayako Kawasumi’s voice behind Mahoro’s character, and saw her as another cute-yet-badass female with a more interesting bond with the male protagonist, and a more interesting balance between toughness and femininity too (I’m thinking of her roles as Lafiel in Crest of the Stars and Saber in the Fate franchise here).

The lifespan counter at the end of each episode is decidedly unsubtle but I still had a lump in my throat by the end in spite of myself so while I did feel it was enotionally manipulative, I was manipulated very effectively. We often walk away with more positive lasting impressions of a story if it has a memorable, powerful or satisfying ending, even when the bits that precede it are patchy; filler is by its nature forgettable, so I remember the parts that worked well and in that sense Mahoromatic did itself a favour by cleverly timing its big twists and shifts in atmosphere.

Is the comedy forced, formulaic and reliant on fanservice? Yes. Is it lightweight fluff? Until the latter episodes of the second season, yes. Does it play into the hands of the otaku and their romantic fantasies? Yes. Is it borderline sexist? Possibly. For all that though, I still can’t bring myself to hate it. I think it’s one of those guilty pleasure shows: deficient or simply crap in some aspects, but with a few redeeming features that are just enough to save it. I often wonder if Gainax deliberately choose risky projects and thrive on trying to make these unlikely propositions work. Grudgingly, I have to admit they just about managed it here.