Feminists Vs. Bronies: Fight!

15 Jun 2013 Leave a Comment

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Apparently there’s going to be an animated My Little Pony movie, and Amanda Marcotte, notorious feminist of Slate XX, is not keen on the idea. This being MLP, somehow the bronies-adult male fans of the show-use their bro-telepathy and swarm the comment box. Popcorn is cooked, and battle ensues.

I agree with both of them, somewhat. I think Amanda is right in that this panders to the Bronies some, as fan art of the characters being human is a pretty common choice on the internet. Of course, not every MLP fan is a perv, but hardcore fandom gets a lot of weird people. I should know, I had my own stint at this back in the 90s with the Disney Afternoon, and even non-sexual fans can get a bit obsessive about their likes. I think though the Bronies are getting a wakeup call in that what is mainly a young girls cartoon is taking a shift back to reflect the concerns young girls have, instead of older males.

MLP got the brony fandom because in a way, they didn’t particularly cater to young girls as opposed to make a show with female leads and a gentler story. For comparison, look at shows like Horseland, which as far as I know have no male fans; its simply all about girls and horses in a way that others can’t attach. By adjusting the focus to reflect the perceived likes of young girls, it makes the male fans realize that yes, you are watching a young girl’s cartoon, and I don’t think they are comfortable with that. It’s a delicate balance, and they shifted it just enough towards girls to make the bronies blink, hence the dislike of what otherwise most fandoms would kill for-official canon body transformation side stories.

By doing this, it disrupts the fans ability to make their own narrative about things. Some will absorb the change, but a lot won’t, and I wonder if we’ll start to see brony as an identity decline some as the series adjusts to target its main audience more aggressively. The bronies are really a fascinating subculture, in that men are idealizing the feminine and often getting reviled for it. I don’t know how long they can persist, though, and this may be the first step in a big change for them.

Disclosure: I am not a brony. I’ve watched the first five episodes or so, but there’s never been a shortage of kids cartoons with clever or adult writing, and I think a lot of bronyism tends to be self-reinforcing. If you don’t do all the message boards or are a part of that culture, you don’t really value it. It’s the same with Tohou, for example; the actual games are just plain fan bullet hell shooters, but the giant subculture that latched on it reinforces itself.

Review: Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They?

13 Jun 2013 Leave a Comment

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: ,

3.5 out of five stars. For what you would think would be a ten episode throwaway series, it’s pretty good. The overpowered main character and the lack of explanation hurts it, but having heroes that are competent and show absolutely zero signs of angst help. Great animation doesn’t hurt, either.

Three children with special abilities are taken from three different parallel worlds and timeframes. Izayoi is a bored highschooler with insane power. You is a girl from the future who can take the abilities of any animal she defeats or befriends. Asuka can control most people with her voice, and can bring out the potential of other powers. These three are summoned to the world of the Little Garden by Black Rabbit, in order to help a disenfranchised guild rebuild to its former self.

The three kids think that this is going to be a lot of fun. You wants lots of friends, Asuka wants a normal life, and Izayoi wants things not to be boring. They’ll get that and more, if they can quit teasing Black Rabbit so much.

What will suck you in is how different the main characters are from most anime like this. Rather than agonize or try to run away from Black Rabbit’s request, Izayoi accepts with a smile, liking it because it’s romantic, and telling her to “expect wonders.” The world of Little Garden is centered around “Gift Games,” competitions where people use their special abilities and items to compete for the status of their communities, and in the demo one the three kids show how sharp they are by twisting the rules to their advantage. Throughout the series they act intelligently and maturely, and while there are still issues with it, it’s such a change from the usual anime leads that it’s striking. Izayoi in particular is purely having fun, and he laughs, compliments the foes he fights, and has a good time. The kids love to tease Black Rabbit, who will smack them with a harisen (paper fan, think the old idea of a slapstick) if they get out of line.

Unfortunately Izayoi is so overpowered it isn’t funny. He’s pretty much a Gary Stu character, and he’s too good. The anime manages to mitigate some of it by focusing on all three of the kids, and by structuring the games where he can’t always blast through all the time, but he makes short work of any challenge thrown at him. You might find him annoying, despite his good nature.

The series also needed to be longer. For ten episodes, you get a lot of action but little explanation about the world they are in. It’s a cool little world, one that’s as big as the surface area of a star, and where personifications of gods, demons, events, and mythology hang around to join guilds and fight it out. Having to compact six light novels into ten episodes only gives us enough crumbs to make our own ideas about the place.

Animation quality is good, the characters and voice actors are good if a little typical for fans. Shiroyasha stumbles a bit as she switches from an old-lady voice to a normal one. I think the villains are a misstep, as they seem to be pretty villainous in their actions, but are normal-looking and sometimes sympathetic. The last one gets taken out in a hardcore way, and you’re not sure how to feel about that.

For Christians, it would be a hard PG-13, although the crudity of one villain character’s words might tip that up to R. It was surprising, because they made a pervert character who was pretty nasty about it and not the usual anime-style pervert obsessed with silly things. There’s some blood, strong but not graphic violence, some fan service mostly centered around Black Rabbit, and censored bath scenes. There really isn’t any coherent message to the series, although minor messages of asking for help when you need it, or being strong in times of trouble exist.

Gauging from reaction on Crunchyroll,  a lot of people liked it and were sad it had the single, abbreviated season. I’d have to agree, because it was good while it lasted. I wished they would have added more, and toned Izayoi just a bit down in power, but if you have three or so hours to kill, you could do a lot worse than this. Bonus points for the adorable ending I put above, instead of the usual opening sequence I do for reviews; I love You’s dance especially.

Old School Review: Super Atragon

11 Jun 2013 Leave a Comment

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Four out of five stars. Great old-school mecha design combined with a serious plot make a silly concept fun. Needs a sequel, though, and it’s straightforwards action anime.

During World War II, the Japanese government discovered an artifact that enabled them to build a battleship of tremendous power, called the Ra. Little did they know that the Americans also built one, called the Liberty. The two titans fought, and both were damaged as their crews, and the twin mysterious girls on them fought.

It’s now the present day. The grandson of the captain of the Ra is on a UN expedition to survey the melting antartic ice caps. They find a huge black obelisk there. They also find out that what happened long ago was a test, and one we failed. The people who gave us that power, the Subterraneans, have come to destroy us. Our only hope is the resurrected Ra, and the ageless girl who still serves on it to this day.

It’s short, comprised of two episodes at around forty-five minutes each. But it’s pure old-school style, with almost obsessive attention given to rendering the Ra. The mecha design is unique, too; gravity-focusing rings and massive screw-based fortresses are the weapons the Subterraneans use to devastating effect, and the character design is good in that nineties, heroic way. There’s some reusing of animation in the battles, but they manage to be exciting in that ship vs. ship style. Characters are simple in concept, but are good for what they are; the young hero, the mysterious girl, and the gruff captain.

The plot is also simple, but in a way that’s a strength. A lot of anime throw implausible twists and turns to hide a basic story, but this one just tells the story and has characters react in a natural way. The length unfortunately doesn’t allow some of the good ideas to develop, like Annette and Avatar’s past relationship, or how she has dealt with and loved three generations of men. What it does tell, however, it tells well, and the old school style makes it feel fresh in an age of moe harem anime and unrealistic mecha action series.

For Christians, it’s R due to brief uncensored nudity, and a few scenes of intense violence. It has a message which could be expanded upon to relate to the faith; the artifact given to the surface humans could be seen as the apple in the garden of Eden, and the two Subterranean girls represent justice (twisted, however,) and mercy. Their command was not to use the power for war, and humanity failed, in essence causing this entire mess. There’s also some ambiguity; is Avatar reflecting the will of the Subterraneans, or has she gone rogue because she couldn’t deal with human hatred and evil? For what should just be a popcorn anime, it has a few interesting themes and ideas.

You can track a DVD down, or Youtube has the show up. If you like mecha, or old-school anime, it’s surprisingly good. People who like anime that deconstruct old tropes, or provide fresh spins on new ones may not like this. No knowledge of the live-action Atragon is required, as this is more of a reboot or side story than a sequel.

Madoka Mako: Unsung Hero?

08 Jun 2013 7 Comments

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized

I came across this article while remembering old Christian comics.

Madoka Mako was the pen name of a christian manga-ka who illustrated tracts as well as did gekiga (realistic, gritty style) manga versions of Bible Stories. She also did many tracts, as well as a history of Christianity in Japan.  I can’t find anything else on her at all, and not even a link to one of her works scanned online. From the article though, she seemed to be a tireless striver for the Gospel, and suffered some persecution for it. All there is though is this one page about her. Every other linked article I can find just references it, even the wiki.

I hope she’s doing well.

Weird Manga Of The Day: Pick Of The Litter

06 Jun 2013 1 Comment

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: ,

litterIn Pick of the Litter, Riku is a boy who has no memory of his past. He had even forgotten Japanese, and while he is curious about his prior life and any family he might have had, he has adjusted well to the loss. He’s known in his school for his accuracy in fortune-telling, and has more or less a normal life.

One day, some rather shady characters show up and start selling things in his school. They seem to know Riku, and with good reason; he’s actually their lost younger brother! They pull him into the alternate world of Yamato, where Riku finds he is heir to a storied destiny…

…of shopkeepers.

Yes, Riku’s family runs a store in this alternate universe, where life is like old Japan, and people have bunny and cat ears. Riku soon works part-time at his family’s store in Yamato, while still living in Japan. He finds he has special talents, as well as a sad past. But family is always there to help each other out, even when things go wrong.

What is weird about it is that is, paradoxically, it’s too normal. It’s something that probably wouldn’t be brought over today because of many reasons:

  • It has beautiful boys (bishonen) but doesn’t objectify them or flirt with boy’s love.
  • It has magical powers, but isn’t a typical shonen manga. Riku just has a useful special ability, and not many battles or power-ups happen.
  • There’s little to no ecchi, and romantic love isn’t a big deal
  • It’s not particularly mature or transgressive. In a way, it’s gentle.
  • It focuses on family, without siscon or brocon. They’ve just missed him terribly and are overprotective of him.

It’s a normal, restrained, and warm story. It feels a little weird because there’s none of the pigeonholing you find in many other manga or anime. I don’t turn the page and find “Oh, the female character is nude because now it’s time for some fan service.” Or “yeah, this chapter is appealing to the yaoi fangirls.” A lot of the tropes that you expect from recent anime and manga are muted or non-existent. It doesn’t pander to anyone.

I know it seems odd to praise it along these lines, but modern stuff can be so otaku-centric that they almost feel like they are in code. It’s rare to have a family that just likes each other, and a hero who likes them back.

For Christians, it’s a very mild PG. Could even be G, almost. There’s some minor violence and magic, but nothing offensive at all. It gets a big plus for portraying a normal family positively, and you could do a lot worse if you wanted to give it as a gift to a friend. You can probably track it down used or new easily, and its one of the reasons why I miss Tokyopop being in the US market terribly; they always had an eye for good, offbeat manga without descending into cringe-inducing stuff like Seven Seas does sometime. For people who like manga, but not violent or perverted ones, this is a great choice.

Oukoku Game: Is This Faith?

04 Jun 2013 2 Comments

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: ,

ouroku

 

Image from Mangafox.com

A long time ago, a young girl was crucified during a public suppression of Christianity. Today, seven teens visit a shrine, and receive a vision from her. They are commanded to “extend their kingdoms” by way of a game. Each receives tattoos on their forearms, which indicate their rank, from king to plebian. Low rank has to obey high, in a manner similar to the King’s Game. Why, and what effects will this have? They don’t know. This is the plot of Oukoku Game.

At first, the juxtaposition of Christianity and the teens is jarring. How does our hero find out the game works? As an aristocrat, he orders one of the girls to flip up her skirt. The King Game has nothing really to do with Christian faith, as it’s just ordering people around by rank, and soon some of the teens use it to settle private scores. It isn’t until the end that you suddenly realize he just might be more thoughtful than you hoped.

You see, the tattoos indicating rank change each night at midnight, meaning a king today could be a plebian tomorrow, and the orders you give you may create orders you need to obey in revenge. The hero reminds them of this, and in doing so unconsciously hints to do unto others as you would have them do to you. The hero also turns the other cheek; he has to stop the rampage of someone the king showed mercy to, and he floors the rampager with a punch. When he gets back up, rather than dodge the return blow, he takes it instead, calming the person down. It’s a novel way of showing when to turn the other cheek, while not making the person who does so weak.

There’s some potential here, even if you worry some. The manga-ka’s only other manga I see is the ecchi and rather horrid Naisho no Otome Revolver, which is about a gender-bending guy who becomes a gunner princess in order to be more manly, of all things. This doesn’t entirely give me hope that Oukoko Game will be that Christian in the long haul, or even make sense, considering how odd Revolver is. However, any manga that evokes Christian tropes is rare, and it’s one to keep an eye to see it evolve.

Review: Infinite Stratos

03 Jun 2013 6 Comments

by dmdutcher in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Two stars out of five. There’s bad bad anime, and there is good bad anime, and this is good bad anime. For everything it gets wrong, it manages to get enough right to be enjoyable. However, it’s simply not good enough for me to rate at three stars.

Ichika has it rough. He’s the only boy able to pilot the IS exoskeleton, powered armor normally restricted to female-only use. He’s the brother of one of the best IS pilots in the world, and is now a student at the Infinite Stratos Academy, a place where people train for the “sport” they use the mechs for. He soon has it rougher when he finds out that as the only boy in an all-girls school, he gets a lot of attention. Then, there are the random IS suits that are running amuck…

I won’t split hairs. There are many things wrong with this anime. It’s a harem show, and the whole point of it is to have every single girl in the show chase after Ichika. If this means changing the personalities of certain characters after they are beaten by him, no problem. Ichika isn’t the worst harem protagonist in anime, but they make up for his good qualities by making him clueless to women’s feelings to a near autistic level. You have your sexy time scenes, your beach episode, and everything except the token lolita character.

You also have a very loose and casual sense of detail. The shenlong is supposed to be a close-ranged mech, but then they bust out the shoulder lasers. Mech power levels vary drastically as the series possess, with some seeming blatantly overpowered, and some surprisingly weak for their generation. The mechs have a shield system which absorbs damage until zero, in which it shuts down, but you see Ichika taking punches to the face from an exoskeleton covered arm. and for a sport which is legitimately seen as dangerous, the female pilots have little qualms about using what would be deadly force on Ichika and each other a bit too often.

However, there are good points, too. The mech design is good, and the world itself is interesting. The IS robots are governed by a treaty preventing any military use, and their total number is restricted to the amount of cores the creator of IS doles out to the nations of the world. That same creator seems to have limited the operation of the robots to girls only, giving a legitimate reason for all of the girls to gather together in the first place. Some characters are done well. Ichika’s sister is no-nonsense, and has a lot of good scenes. Charlotte is one of the better harem secondary characters I’ve seen; she’s competent, understands things, is not prone to hysterics, and pilots her IS with startling strength and ability. Ichika is good because he’s essentially normal apart from the insane cluelessness; he isn’t a sad sack, and he has fond relationships with people even as he worries about the past.

There’s also some cool humor. It helps if you are the kind of person who likes to riff on bad anime, but there are some legitimately funny lines, like when Laura declares her romantic attentions towards Ichika, or when the oddball creator of the IS shows up. A strength that some people might disagree with is the mundanity of the world. There are no epic fights against conquering alien races, or constant “unlock the power-up” quests. It’s just some young men and women dealing lightly with their past and unexpected, malfunctioning threats. The story also doesn’t explain quite everything about the world, or neatly wrap it up. If anything the ending between two characters is interesting precisely because it adds some detail that begs for further explanation.

Keep in mind that despite all this, it’s really a bad anime. Even if you like harem anime, characters like Cecila and the weird girl who dresses like Pikachu in the beach episode will grate on you, and it never rises to the levels it may hint at. But it isn’t as bad as Kampfer, Yumeria, or Demon King Daimao, where you can’t even find pleasure in riffing on it or noticing some of the subtle details of the world. I wish that the light novels this anime is based on would come to the states, because the anime hints at a richer world that it doesn’t have time to properly show you.

For Christians, I’d have to give it an R because of uncensored toplessness and mild sexual situations, aka skintight wetsuits. There’s also the bloodthirstiness of some of the women, which is played for laughs, but considering that they are firing lasers at an unshielded human, it can make you squirm a bit. If you’re a vet of harem anime, it might startle you at times with its sexiness. They use it for effect, which is something not many harem anime seem to do well.

If this were the old days, I’d say Infinite Stratos is a fun rental, the kind where you watch it over a weekend and mock it all the time you watch it. But in the end, you find you had a lot of fun doing so, and liked some of the potential of the world. Even if you like it a lot though, you’ll find yourself apologizing for it.

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