12 days 2020

<div align='center' style='font-size: 120%;'>something akin to </div> <div align='center'>\ <img src="https://i.imgur.com/Kg6SVU9.png" alt="aaaaa" align="center" width="200px" height="200px"> </div/>\ <div align='center' style='font-size: 120%;'>\ [[survivor's guilt|Intro]]</div> \ </div> <div align='center'>[[my guy i do not want to read the intro again|Index]]</div> </div>

I don't really need to talk about what happened this year, do I? Just bringing it up is enough. I had less time for enjoying things. My job got a lot more demanding. What little free time I did have demanded to be filled with something productive to stave off endless tedium and screens. But the worst thing about it is that I actually had a pretty good year, personally and professionally. Everything went back to normal for me around June, and not because I chose to ignore it but because it was and continues to be adequately contained. The worst thing that's happened to me is that I can't go on holiday, and [[all things considered that's pretty okay.]]

Day —̸̧̡̥̩̳̫̬̣̝͎̝̖̻͕̬̮̼̓̑̇͐͛̈́̔̓͘̚ ̵̧̢̩͉̹̱̅͗̆͘: [[ah ha ha|anno 1]] Day 12: [[This is how it ends, with a flash|Flash 1]] Day 11: [[Higurashi: Neck Pain|Higurashi 1]] Day 10: [[We now return to Dartmouth!|Ito 1]] Day 9: [[Princesses to help you Connect]] Day 8: [[The Big No |Big O 1]] Day 7: [[Crawling in my Boruto, these Boruto they will not hee-uhl|Boruto 1]] Day 6: [[Wanting but not having: Umibe no Etranger|Umibe 1]] Day 5: [[Chargeman Ken, gone but never forgotten|Ken 1]] Day 4: [[Gyaru in the age of loneliness]] Day 3: [[Half-demon Princesses to help you connect|WFS]] Day 2: [[Postcards from Moominvalley]] Day 1: [[Notable burned-out cynic says "You can't be a burned-out cynic forever": Kumeta Kouji and Kakushigoto|You can't be a burned-out cunic forever: Kumeta Koji's Kakushigoto]]

I don't think anyone really needs convincing that what works we decide to enjoy actually are pretty impactful, that the people who make them deserve much better than what they have. Let's be real—we all do. [[So, here we go: Twelve works, one for each month. Thanks for reading.|Index]]

[[Not just yet, dear reader|Index]]

menstru al blood polio o il vo ll ey ball n o n -men stru a l b l ood w ar [[a|anno 2]]

[[ amn iot ic fl uid c el luloid mo re blood lo st decade s o mu c h mo r e b l ood |anno 3]]

中止だ中止 [[<img src='https://i.imgur.com/N602AXN.jpg'>->Index]] 中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止中止だ中止

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/pbH9w6Y.png" alt="farewell old friend" align="center"> [[Next|Flash 2]]

In the pre-Zuckerberg era of the internet, we were told repeatedly that once something got put on the internet it was there forever. I don’t know if this was ever true, or even if it ever seemed as though it might be true.One of the defining hallmarks of internet culture is and always has been something you like, or more than that, a foundational piece of your personal experience one day just disappearing forever. [[Next | Flash 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hceugDc.png" alt="this is me" align="center" width="333px" height="500px"> [[Next|Flash 3.5]]

If we're truly being honest, it's the final end of a process that began a long time ago. [[Next | Flash 5]]

Now none of this is to say that today's youth would be better off rotting their brains on edgelord flash cartoons, or that they're somehow missing out because their foundational experiences are vine, tiktok or (god forbid) [[fleets]]. But of course there's also no reason why both can't exist, other than both existing wouldn't as quickly enrich a small handful of Americans. Even if human society continues into the future (if!) the important parts of my upbringing will never have the cultural cache to attract fond mainstream reminiscences. [[Next|Flash 6]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/cOqCK4R.png" alt="oh, who's the guy who checks all the emails? It's me, Strong Bad. How little did I know how much of my life would become checking email." align="center"> [[Next|Flash 7]]

I would encourage you to seek this stuff out, even if you aren’t nostalgic for it, or even if you remember it but hate it and think flash going away is a good thing. I know you're out there. It used to be a mystery to me how poorly recorded history is, how people rarely took the time in the middle of something to set it down and record it. I don't really wonder about that any more. [[Back|Index]]

Flash goes away forever at the end of this year. Or rather, it stops being officially supported, and becomes the purview entirely of [[hobbyists and enthusiasts]]. Weirdly I think I’m the only person who seems troubled by this. The DIY aesthetic of the aughts internet, the days when all you needed was a pirated copy of flash and a dream, seems unthinkable now. And so much of it isn’t backed up or archived or available anywhere else, and will just vanish come the new year. Even if it does live on, say on a popular video hosting website, the interactivity, the labour of it just can’t ever fit with how we’re meant or able to with media in the year 2020. [[Next|Flash 4]]

[[Which I can only imagine is a dwindling number|Flash 3.5]]

[[That'll poorly age this| Flash 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/bST1oRu.jpg" alt="crab is delicious" align="center" width="500px" height="313px"> I’ll be honest, Akio Watanabe-style Higurashi broke my brain a little bit. [[Next|Higurashi 2]]

Higurashi’s a weird thing. R07’s work generally has always been flitting around the periphery for me, one of those things that I’ve not ever engaged with directly but have absorbed a lot via osmosis. The thing is, what I onsider the obvious aspects of his work, the things most worth commenting on, almost entirely escaped that osmotic process. As an example, R07’s work very heavily engages with child abuse as a theme. It would seem to play a big role in his day-to-day existence, as well it does for anyone who has had to experience that kind of trauma and is dealing with it as best they can. How this escaped the popular discourse around it for 20 years is beyond me. [[Next|Higurashi 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/DanXrs2.jpg" alt="i like it when the cute girl says the thing" align="center"> [[Next|Higurashi 4]]

His work is also largely about narrative, and narrative in-universe is treated as a kind of magic, graspable in broad strokes but the actual function of which is mysterious and opaque. I quite like it when a work that’s very much about narrative on it’s face gets [[popular]] . I also really enjoy works that act as a kind of chess game between creator and audience, encouraging the audience to find out for themselves what precisely is going on in the narrative. The problem, I feel, is that R07 seems to genuinely believe that there is a Correct Answer you can figure out, veering into unpleasant JJ Abrams mystery box shit. [[Next |Higurashi 4.5]]

[[even if that's rarely the reason why a work gets popular|Higurashi 4]]

Higurashi’s obliqueness works in it’s favour up until the point that it doesn’t. There’s a real clarity of intent which is somewhat missing from R07’s work. Where a creator like Isin or the world’s most mainstream surrealist David Lynch don’t particularly care whether your interpretation aligns with theirs, R07’s really, truly does care, and gets angry at you for not understanding his intent perfectly. If you're going to challenge your audience, you need to be okay with a broad range of responses to it, and maybe hate them less for not "getting" your narrow conception of what your story means. [[Next|Higurashi 6]]

I don’t know if any of this translate to Higurashi Gyou being bad, exactly. It is very idiosyncratic, a lot of it has that early aughts charm, when media was less of a homogenous goo Yhe hard right-angle shifts from fluff to psychotic breakdowns work pretty well. Even if it’s not particularly original, the [[quaint country town]] that’s a seething mass of hatred and bloodshed just below the surface really puts you on edge. And a lot like Kingdom Hearts, for a many of its fans the over-complicated story and universe are the charm of it, knowing the convoluted history in extreme detail being what draws people in. [[Next|Higurashi 7]]

[[No small irony that the popularity of Higurashi led to the degradation of the countryside in which it was set|Higurashi 6]]

But at the same time it is cool to see a work with such different sensibilities continue to be successful. It's such a weird time capsule, set in the early 80s, from the early 2000s and revisited in the early 20s. Weird, out-of-place cultural artifacts like famiresu uniforms as a fetish object (Hi, Megatokyo guy) alongside Kirisuto-kyo imagery. The intense fandom for R07’s work proves that it does, in fact, succeed whether it conforms to my taste or not. Or maybe I'm just not removed enough from the gore and the violence and the misery for it to work for me. [[Next|Higurashi 8]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/K22UIx0.jpg" alt="a woman who doesn't bleed" align="center"> [[Next|Higurashi 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/m7j4VQm.png" alt="Nipa~" align="center" width="600px" height="338px"> [[Back|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/a46Lcdm.jpg" alt="i fuckin hated this" align="center" width="500px" height="376px"> [[Next|Big O 2]]

Time to put this one on the pile of “classic” anime that's actually interminable, along with Yuasa, Satoshi Kon and [[Gundam]]. [[Next |Big O 3]]

[[Yes, even that gundam that's not for gundam fans that you know will hook me in|Big O 2]]

The Big O is a work so aggressively devoid of worth I genuinely do not know which part of it warrants the most criticism. It’s the kind of patchwork of epic references to non-Japanese works that non-Japanese fans gravitate heavily towards. The genre-hopping referential thing might have been ever so slightly more acceptable in 1999, but 21 years later deep in the Ernest Cline era of fan culture is unfathomably tedious. [[Next|Big O 4]]

Credited to Hajime Yatate, a pseudonym for the collective effort of Sunrise stuff, Big O believes its own hype in that ineffably Gundam way. You're meant to pump your fist in the air as the way-past-cool protagonist goes from moodily playing the piano to fighting giant robots inside of his own giant robot, and says “It's showtime!” in English. Really, The Big O spends the entire time just spinning its wheels, going nowhere and saying nothing. Yes, I'm aware of the troubled production, but it doesn't make it any less tedious. Besides, given then rest of the show there's no way they could have crafted any kind of meaningful payoff. [[Next|Big O 5]]

Could The Big O’s patchwork quilt of references, visual styles and music ever have actually worked? I suppose anything’s possible. But it would have required a much, much more coherent vision of what the project actually was, which more than a reference show about references is capable of. I've softened somewhat on referential works in recent years but nowhere near far enough to not hate The Big O. [[Next|Big O 6]]

Occasionally the show even stumbles arse over tit into an actually interesting idea, just out of reach of the characters. That, or I was just inclined to be generous after all the tedium. I get that the Film Noir is meant to be carried on feelings and visuals, never explicitly revealing anything to the audience. But your show does need to be about something, or have something happen even if it never resolves its mysteries. [[Next|Big O 7]]

Funnily enough a big influence on The Big O, the 1990s Warner Brother’s animation and Batman The Animated Series in particular, is seen as a high point in Western animation. But the production was heavily outsourced to a small army of East Asian animation studios with the technical skills and experience to pull it off, including Sunrise. This was referred to in a masturbatory fashion as “the golden age of animation” in the recent Animaniacs reboot despite sucking most of those studios dry and leaving them with nothing. A nauseating vortex of references. [[Next|Big O 8]]

The Big O makes me question every person who ever recommended it to me or sung it's praises. It's not even an interesting failure, it's just dull, sound and fury signifying nothing. Try harder. Try /at all/. [[Back|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yB9RwMW.jpg" alt="Dart-based action show" align="center" width="500px" height="281px"> [[Next | Ito 2]]

If you know one thing about J-Horror, it's probably the work of celebrated horror manga-ka Ito Junji. If you know more than one thing about J-Horror, it's probably more, different Ito Junji works. [[Next|Ito 3]]

Ito is a huge critical and commercial success, both in Japan and overseas, and is the standard by which Japanese Horror is judged. His mixture of striking visuals and ability to create a perverse sense of wrongness make him an instantly recognisable fixture of tattoos and t-shirts worldwide. So why doesn't he get a better treatment when it comes to anime adaptations? Honestly though, I find Ito's work pretty hit-and-miss. When he's good, his work is truly unequaled. When he's not, woof. I mean, /woof/. [[Next|Ito 4]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/for4UH7.jpg" alt="honestly? tomie can kill me" align="center" width="400px" height="400px"> [[Next|Ito 5]]

But what I don't like isn't even really the man or his work, but the punishing production schedule expected of modern manga-ka. The whole industry behaves as though it's haunted by Tezuka Osamu's vengeful ghost, tied to the mortal plane and unable to move on from the (so-called) Economic Miracle 1950s. If not forced to push out less than perfect ideas to meet production schedules, Ito's work would undoubtedly be a lot more even. As it is the middling TV anime Ito Junji Collection plays less like a greatest hits and more as though you were restlessly rifling through your music collection, trying to find something that'll [[hold your attention]]. [[Next|Ito 6]]

[[Hmm maybe this'll... no, no wait. Okay I'm feeling this one. Okay. Uh actually maybe I'm more in the mood for-|Ito 5]]

A number of them don't even reach the bar of "story", and are more "oh that's kinda weird". Then there's stories such as the misadventures of [[Dartmouth]], the boy who keeps nails in his mouth and mildly inconveniences his small town. It has a delightful, Tom-Sawyer-or-Blinky-Bill-but-gross kind of vibe that I'm not certain was intended by the production. "Oh Dartmouth, you scamp!", I'd say as his plan to replace teachers at his school with body doubles he controlled goes wrong, and everyone around him just kind of shrugs it off. [[Next|Ito 7]]

Some of the stuff is just very, very well worn as far as horror goes. Cannibalism? Weird carnival workers? Evil dolls, evil marionettes, evil scarecrows? None of the extremely well worn stuff is done well enough or fresh enough of a take to be interesting. It's easy to see why his work with big concepts such as Uzumaki are his best remembered and most well loved. Perhaps the worst part is that the demand for ever and more #content manages to tarnish some of his genuinely great works. In general, one of Ito's main weaknesses is his inability to write a decent ending, a problem which is compounded with the number of endings he is required to write. I imagine Ito was hounded over and over again to provide more stories about Tomie, and eventually gave in. [[Next|Ito 8]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/qppnXZn.png" alt="i miss homestar runner so fucking badly" align="center"> [["Dartmouth! He's getting away!" "Stand clear. I know what to do."|Ito 6]]

On the one hand, the image of a class of naked high school boys physically holding Tomie down as they dismember her is the most unsettling thing in the entire show. On the other, the long, explanatory denouement made me think Ito himself doesn't understand what makes Tomie compelling. Even if it's not Ito at his best, some stories are really compelling, or have things that stuck with me, and that rose above the middling production values. [[Next|Ito 9]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ApDqOxj.jpg" alt="What if a lady hit on you but she was-gasp-ugly!" align="center" width="500px" height="281px"> [[Next|Ito 10]]

Even if it's not Ito at his best, some stories are really compelling, or have things that stuck with me, and that rose above the middling production values. And even if on the whole I enjoyed the Ito Junji Collection, that's the big takeaway: anime production staff deserve better working conditions, and even big shot internationally beloved manga-ka like Ito deserve better working conditions. After all, what's more horrifying than capitalism? [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/NgQvcTH.jpg" alt="プリコネの年末年初はヤバイわよ！" align="center"> Everything you need to know about Priconne is summed up in it's most popular meme. [[Next | Yabai 1]]

Predatory gacha-based mobile games are one of those things universally recognised as being terrible, but we all just kind of accept anyway. Granted, it's not as if mobage are terrible above and beyond any of the other stuff we have to passively accept, but it is something that has developed and peaked in our lifetimes at the absolute least. Anyway, sometimes, there's a rare combination of source material and passionate staff that can produce an unexpectedly terrific result. [[Next|Yabai 2]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/D3khiuy.jpg" alt="Kyaru is just an all-time great character design" align="center"> [[Next | Yabai 3]]

The first thing Priconne really nails is it's visuals: saturated colours bring the extremely [[appealing character designs]] to life in a gentle pseudo-medieval fantasy setting, like seeing Hyrule Castle Town for the first time. feel as though you're already familiar with them. It's genre fiction, but it's also a VRMMO, but they're not trapped or at risk in the VRMMO, and it ends up being pretty low concept and fun and frothy. Mobage have, if anything, far too much story as they try to keep their player base invested over the course of years, and adapating very little of that was a great decision. And of course, the animation delivers far more than you would expect from a work-for-hire mobage adaptation as has been documented extensively elsewhere. [[Next|Yabai 4]]

[[The first time I saw Kyaru, I genuinely thought I recognised the design from somewhere and kept trying to remember where. I think a portion of my grey matter is just devoted to catgirls at this point| Yabai 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/kv4QtPp.jpg" alt="I love also that her name is just キャット and ガール put together" align="center"> [[Next | Yabai 5]]

I have a real tendency towards media that is in some way unhappy, or an exploration of human suffering, or intentionally designed to be abrasive and difficult. You might find this hard to believe but those media preferences were not entirely beneficial to my mental state this year. Even being well aware of that it's hard for me to seek uncomplicated and enjoyable works out, and even more rare for me to actually latch onto one. Priconne really is just a comfy show of the kind that reminds you why you devote what few free hours society allows you to the pursuit of Japanese popular culture. [[Next|Yabai 6]]

Priconne knows perfectly well that all we want is to just spend time with bishokuden. This was a running theme not just in the mobage in the advertisements and youtube specials long before a TV anime was even announced. It's actually kind of impressive that despite the many, many hands involved in Priconne from the mobile game to the TV anime and everything else that it ended up so consistent. The characters shine through above all else. Pekorine's sword has a bite taken out of it! Kokkoro is the kind of ultra-healing character you don't see much any more, but is also extremely competent! Kyaru gets blood from the stone of one of the most over-used and misunderstood archetypes in all of anime, the tsundere. [[Next|Yabai 7]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/sXUgr3g.jpg" alt="There's also a really great revival of the devilman no uta meme with Kyaru" align="center"> [[Next | Yabai 8]]

Look at me, attempting to take care of myself, enjoying things AND being positive. I don't know about you but I would call that personal growth for sure. Thanks, Priconne. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/NVeRDSg.jpg" alt="pain-peko" align="center"> [[Next|Boruto 2]]

I have a complicated relationship with Naruto. It's been a fixture of anime fandom about as long as I have, it's carved out narrative and stylistic niche for itself nobody has ever even attempted to replicate, and large gatherings of sweaty otaku would feel incomplete without a few metal headbands. I could honestly say that I love Naruto, that I have warm feelings towards it and the people who love it, and the place it has in otaku-dom. That's not at all the same thing as enjoying watching the anime or the reading the manga. [[Next|Boruto 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/AUPhKSX.png" alt="how could this HAPPEN TO ME" align="center" width="500px" height="411px"> [[Next |Boruto 4]]

Shounen, and the work out of Shounen Jump specifically, wasn't my entry into Japanese popular culture, and continues to be kind of lost on me. I certainly don't hate it the way certain other popular things just rub me the wrong way, but in general it's not for me. So it was little weird as I slowly realised how much of it I remember and how much it apparently means to me. [[Next|Boruto 5]]

For [[whatever reason]], I ended up watching a lot of Boruto this year. And what I discovered was, well first off that I'm no more amenable to Shounen Jump than I was back in the day. The second is that Boruto is really, really very bad, and in a different way than Naruto. Naruto's unique visual style and setting did get slowly watered down over it's run: In Boruto, it's functionally gone. Naruto's raw, angry bloodlust and sense of pain and loss was mirrored by it's chaotic, brutal violence: Boruto is functionally free of this. Naruto himself was delinquent ne'er-do-well, determined to spite a village who despised him: Boruto is the ultra-privileged son of the fucking Hokage. [[Next|Boruto 6]]

[[Come on. You know why.|Boruto 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/T1DKYSc.jpg" alt="i MADE MY MISTAKES" align="center"> Sasuke, shitty dad who refuses who wash out his aughts emo haircut. [[Next |Boruto 7]]

Bluntly, Boruto shouldn't exist, and almost all of Naruto shouldn't exist. Boruto's continued existence is in defiance of all reason, and wouldn't happen but for the needs of the Shounen Jump higher ups to afford more and larger yachts. Whatever creative spark Kishimoto had is long gone, and even with him taking a larger role in the creaton of Boruto [[recently]] I can't imagine any substantive change. [[Next|Boruto 8]]

[[You know, relative to me writing this. You know how it is.|Boruto 7]]

Kishimoto is a husband and father now. At some point, someone told him that 12 year olds fighting to the death was perverse, and showing that to children was irresponsible. And what's worse, Kishimoto appeared to agree, if only for the continued financial success of his work. This ignores the fact that 12 year olds fighting to the death was ''//extremely fucking cool//''. [[Next|Boruto 9]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/wLLmpT2.jpg" alt="LIFE GOES ON, something something somethiiing" align="center" width="500px" height="355px"> [[Next |Boruto 10]]

Younger audiences deserve better than creaky, unpleasant holdovers from people's past. And hell, we can even say that largely they get them: Nobody would say Boruto is the level of Kimetsu no Yaiba or One Piece or even HeroAca. But if Boruto is going to be out there and earning money it deserves criticism. And yes, spending my precious free hours watching it makes me part of the problem. I saw the worst parts of generational apathy in Boruto, and it left a really bad taste in my mouth. Even if Sasuke didn't have his stupid haircut it still would've been obvious. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/X4VI2y1.jpg" alt="i am so fucking tired you have no idea" align="center" width="306px" height="400px"> [[Next|Umibe 2]]

Now for something I didn't watch this year, despite my best efforts. Not in cinemas, and then abruptly in cinemas again but only just. And only in Japan. Not streaming anywhere, streaming somewhere, won't take my card. Then, finally, after I had accepted that I was probably not going to watch the film adaptation, the official english release of the manga disappeared. So it goes. [[Next|Umibe 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yFyyYTk.jpg" alt="i wanna bang sakurako so badly" align="center" width="600px" height="338px"> [[Next|Umibe 4]]

Umibe no Etranger is a very nourishing romance of a more subdued and stark nichijou-kei most reminiscent of Asano Inio. It's all very low-key and sweet, but has a lingering, disaffected sadness of watching your days curdle into years. Reading the ending of the manga genuinely moved me to tears. Some of the best works make you wish you lived that life, even (or especially) if it's sad and melancholy. In fiction, life's bitterness leads to better things, or was a necessary part of a journey, or can be simply overcome. At the end of Umibe no Etranger, the best existence I could think of was in a bitterly cold Hokkaido seaside village. [[Next|Umibe 5]]

I'm not as up on current trends in BL as I once was, and when I solicited recommendations this is the one that really stuck out to me. I also don't read as much manga as I would like. A big part of this is my preference for reading manga in paperback and not digitally. Yes, this is a weird idiosyncracity, I can't explain it. This means I don't get around to a lot of manga, having to wait for the work to get picked up, translated, distributed, and available a local independent book store. Umibe no Etranger really lets me know what I'm missing out on by only reading manga this way. [[Next|Umibe 6]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/t0ZE26P.jpg" alt="so fucking tired" align="center" > [[Next|Umibe 7]]

Can an adaptation even be good at all? Ever? Could an adaptation of this very specific story, with a very specific tone and deeply personal mood from the author, Kii Kanna, ever be adapted for a broad audience without sacrificing some of that? I don't know, maybe. Even with my misgivings about adaptations generally I was still looking forward to seeing it. I'm very fond of the characters, I love the mood and the tone and it would've been nice to reaquaint myself with them. [[Next|Umibe 8]]

It's easy to say "Oh, well maybe next year", as I've told myself time and time again. But I'm pretty exhausted by having to put things that I want off, of going without. I wanted to see this film so badly, you have no idea. Even when I do get to see it I imagine it'll be tainted by the negativity. Still, I got off easy as compared to Kii Kanna and the production team. Oh yeah, go fucking read Umibe no Etranger the manga. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/d4uTou9.jpg" alt="The chaaken experience" align="center" width="480px" height="360px"> [[Next|Ken 2]]

I am happy to report that (link:"Chargeman Ken has been saved,")[(gotoURL:"ttps://anigamers.com/features/analogue-preservation-in-the-age-of-digital-decay-save-chargeman-ken";)] at least for the time being. Vinegar syndrome proved powerless to stop our hero, and was thrown from his spaceship and exploded. Go Go Ken! Earth is our Utopia! [[Next|Ken 3]]

Chargeman Ken is an oil crisis fever dream of the middle class under attack. The Izumi nuclear family’s peaceful (and extremely westernised) suburban life is under attack again and again from outside forces, seemingly normal encounters always hide danger, even as the narration tells us of all the wonderful scientific advancements that allow people to live comfortably. Meanwhile the less fortunate perpetuate domestic violence or starve in the moving sidewalk-ed streets. [[Next|Ken 4]]

These anxieties of the era bubbled through anime production labour practices that, then as now, were more designed to encourage failure than allow for success. If I had to make five minutes of animation every day about a boy superhero battling an invading alien force I imagine it would come out a lot worse than Ken. [[Next|Ken 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8mPnITb.jpg" alt="Go Go Ken!" align="center"> [[Next|Ken 6]]

I always struggle with whether I’ve gotten the charm of this series across adequately. In no small part that’s because Chargeman Ken is always under-cutting your expectations and surprising you. You never quite know what’s going to happen despite the rigidly formulaic episodes, which makes it all the more fascinating. Many of (what could generously be described as) the plots are something of a [[fifth or sixth]] order abstraction. It really does expect that you are familiar with broadcast mediums and can fill in the gaps yourself. Other times, it’s inexplicably weird. [[Next|Ken 7]]

[[1. An event happens to someone. 2. A re-telling of the real life event. 3. A work is made based on the re-telling of the real life event. 4. The re-telling becomes a trope. 5. The re-telling becomes so widespread it is able to be referred to by shorthand. 6. Your familiarity with the shorthand is assumed by a work.|Ken 6]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/oLyTFQ9.png" alt="No joke, this shade of green makes me want to yak align="center" width="480px" height="360px"> [[Next|Ken 8]]

My favourite example, and possibly my favourite bit in all of Chargeman Ken, is an episode where Ken’s enemies the Juraliens take over a hair salon to menace his sister and mother. The oddness of the situation is emphasised to the viewer with an unsettling close-up of three identical women with [[lime green hair]], with sickly smiles across their faces. This tells us, the audience, that not all is well in this hair salon unbeknownst to the main characters. [[Next|Ken 9]]

Then, later on in the episode, we see the same three identical women tied up in the back room, with Juraliens taking their place as doppelgangers in the shop. Just, inexplicable. [[Next|Ken 10]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/5snpWNM.png" alt="Inexplicable" align="center" width="480px" height="360px"> [[Next|Ken 11]]

This show and its journey from rare oddity to fixture of online culture is very near and dear to me. Like with Flash an unfathomable amount of culture can simply disappear if keeping it from doing so won’t enrich someone. I’m glad we at least have Ken. I’ve said it before but it bears reporting: You really can’t make something as good as this on purpose. [[Back?|Index]]

[[Who in the 70s though this shade of green looked good? It’s nauseating.|Ken 8]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/fSPo9je.jpg" alt="rawr" align="center" > [[Next|Gyaru 1]]

Gyaru to Kyouryuu, or "Gal and Dino" if you suck, is the kind of weird, comfy hang-out only Japan ever seems to want to make. It's kind of a nichijou-kei show, even, where the daily life of a gyaru is augmented by a weird cartoon dinosaur. Odd-couple cohabiting shenanigans ensue. From (some of) the people who brought you Pop Team Epic, the [[best anime ever made]], Gyaru to Kyouryuu has a similar throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks energy but is less frenetic and abrasive. It's like a less brain poisoned, more normie-core Pop Team Epic. [[Next|Gyaru 2]]

[[<img src='https://i.imgur.com/YuRVclF.jpg'>->Gyaru 1]]

Actually a big thing I saw people taking away from this show was: Does the Gyaru subculture still exist? That's amazing to me, that the Western conception of Gyaru puts it into the same category of subculture icons that no longer exist, or at least exist severely limited in comparison to a once widespread popualarity, or even didn't really exist in the first place. [[Ganguro. Sukeban. Visual kei.]] To which it must be said... Gyaru never really went away or waned in popularity. [[Next|Gyaru 3]]

[[Moga. Kogyaru. Banchou. Burikko. Gothic Lolita. Taiyouzoku. Otaku with the flannel tartan shirt, camera, hachimaki, backpack with posters in it, you know what I'm talking about. Take no kozoku. Manba. Bousouzoku.|Gyaru 2]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Xge6qyK.jpg" alt="Speaking of decrepit subcultures" align="center"> [[Next|Gyaru 4]]

If I were to describe Gyaru in terms of anything western, it'd be a girly-girl archetype. But Gyaru is also a specific kind of subversive, where you take the hegemonic things society expects of you and do them to a point where it's seen as aberrant. Society expects women, and AFAB women specifically, to be interested in fashion and make-up and looking pretty-but wait, not to that extent! Hence the Gyaru. This leads in to how media portrayal's tend to make them extremely stupid, or very uncouth. [[Next|Gyaru 5]]

You can kind of see this in Gyaru to Kyouryuu: Kaede the Gyaru works a demanding office job, is exhausted constantly from Japanese working conditions and doesn't take particularly good care of herself (the thought of dinner being a single cup ramen is particularly unappealing to me personally), but her nails, make-up, colour contacts, hair, clothes and accessories are always on point. [[Next|Gyaru 6]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/L3dALvg.jpg" alt="who's that one twitter artist that does yumemi riamu, the brainworms idol who is terminally online as a middle-of-the-previous-century styled cavegirl?" align="center" width="223px" height="399px"> [[Next|Gyaru 7]]

Another thing the show does well is as a very strong adaptation of the source material. Like Pop Team Epic, the original manga is expanded upon, re-mixed and interpreted differently. I don't know if every anime should approach adaptation this way, but it really is an approach that works well. Lord knows we could use fewer filler episodes. However, unlike Pop Team Epic it does read a little as though they weren't confident the source material alone would carry the show. In which case it worked very well. [[Next|Gyaru 8]]

I don't think I ever laughed out loud at Gyaru to Kyouryuu, but it wasn't really that kind of show, and it also never failed to hold my attention either. Let's hope for more Kamikaze Douga adaptations as strong as this one. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/US4WzCD.jpg" alt="We all know it was Rin" align="center" width="500px" height="375px"> [[Next|WFS 1]]

Only the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons and his ilk would argue that Takahashi Rumiko is anything other than the greatest who ever lived. Nothing I could write could ever hope to capture the breadth of her work, and more than that, its impact, the many people over several generations who love it, both in Japan and abroad. There's an incalcuable love for her and her work. So even though it wasn't written by her, a lot of people were very much looking forward to Yashahime. [[Next|WFS 2]]

Personally, I was expecting a discourse tsunami on the level of that time people tried to cancel Go Nagai for [[Devilman]]. What I wasn't expecting was a crushing tsunami of disappointment as whatever end people had imagined for these characters for so very many years was canonically(?) undone. It would be nice if an ending you find unsatisfying did, in fact, not ruin a work you liked, but it unfortunately untrue despite the conventional wisdom. [[Next|WFS 3]]

[[I hate Yuasa so fucking much, just needed to say that|WFS 2]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/4d4ItPC.jpg" alt="i want to CHAAAAANGE THE WORLD" align="center" width="500px" height="250px"> [[Next|WFS 4]]

It really does suck being invested in something, and then whoever made it do their best to ruin the things you like about the original! Imagine if the last episode of Evangelion was Shinji and Gendo hugging, and Shinji kills the head big angel and saves the world. It'd suck! With that said I do think it's cool that Yashahime did things a lot of people weren't expecting. In many ways it's the only thing it could have done. Anything else would have been, borderline masturbatory and worst of all, not made a strong case for Yashahime existing. [[Next|WFS 5]]

There's another aspect to the reaction to Yashahime: that the way people engage with media has almost certainly changed since when they first experienced InuYasha. InuYasha isn't perfect, no work is, but fandom was very different when it was big, especially in the West. That in no way means that it is [[above criticism]]! That's not at all what I'm saying. But people have changed a lot and InuYasha... hasn't, it's still as it was. So maybe people were expecting a very different Yashahime than the one we got, one that has changed significantly as they have changed. [[Next|WFS 6]]

[[If anything, it means that the show, its impact, and how and why it got popular is deserving of more scrutiny|WFS 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hmSG5R9.jpg" alt="I love them so much" align="center" width="500px" height="250px"> [[Next|WFS 7]]

Yashahime isn't perfect but I really do like it a lot. Honestly the work it reminds me of the most is [[Macross 7]], which shouldn't come as any surprise because the guy that wrote Yashahime wrote a bunch of Mac 7 episodes. If you're disappointed in Yashahime or hate it, I feel your pain, I really do. It's far from the only late period sequel to ruin what we loved about the original. [[Next|WFS 8]]

[[God, I love Mac 7|WFS 7]]

It's hard to embrace a work on its own terms or successfully separate it from how you feel, and there's an argument to be made that you shouldn't. Frustration happens when what you're expecting doesn't line up with the reality of what happens. Maybe it's not the InuYasha sequel you had in your head for years but nothing could ever measure up to a work that doesn't exist. I liked Yashahime a lot, is what I'm saying. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/wv9LMpL.jpg" alt="Doot doot doo, bao ba-ba bao, ba-bao bao, ba-bao bao, bao ba-ba bao, ba-bao bao, ba-bao bao" align="center" width="361px" height="439px"> [[Next|Moomin 1]]

I love Moomin. I watched an inadvisable amount of Moomin cartoons this year. And the big thing that stood out to me is this: they're all very fucking weird, in very unique ways. Part of that is how disparate the many adaptation are, disconnected in time and space and context and also what exactly they think the purpose of an adaptation is. So let's have a look at all three Moomin anime, and see what they say about the time they were made in! [[Next|Moomin 2]]

Moomin (1969) <img src="https://i.imgur.com/HlNfyvG.jpg" alt="'Dude what colour are moomins?' 'uhhh idk bro, probably green or some shit'" align="center" width="400px" height="400px"> [[Next|Moomin 3]]

Moomin 1969 was made during the glory days of Tezuka Osamu's own Mushi Pro, who took over from Tokyo Mobie Shinsha early in the production. They looked at the Moomin series, a staple of childhoods the world over, beloved by adults and children alike, and threw almost all of it out the window. It bares very little resemblance to the Moomin series, other than the character designs. Moomin plots and schemes, gambles and tries to make money. The Groke, a common fixture in the night terrors of children everywhere, delivers the mail. It diverted so much from Tove Jansson's vision that she was furious, and demanded the production be shut down, [[which it was]]. [[Next|Moomin 4]]

[[This also makes it one of the most rare Moomin series, as it's never had a re-release|Moomin 3]]

But perhaps the most hard done by character in Moomin 1969 is poor Snorkmaiden. Nobody would describe the Moomin series as sexless by any means, but this is undoubtedly the [[fuckiest]] rendition of Snorkmaiden ever: The ending song is an extremely sensuous, come-hither tune, the "boy stop playing, grab my as" of its day. They also, delightfully, gave her pink hair, presumably because that would show up better on the analogue TVs of the day. I started to call this version of Snorkmaiden "e-girl Snorkmaiden". (Snork, for what it's worth, also has a permanent Louis XIV hairstyle, undoubtedly for the same reasons) It's the only version of Moomin to position Moomintroll's relationship with Snorkmaiden as the central premise of the show, as opposed to one aspect of it. [[Next|Moomin 5]]

[[Aside from when they put her in a microbikini in Moomins on the Riviera but the less said about that the better|Moomin 4]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VHVf8x8.jpg" alt="I will never ever in my life get ねえ、ムーミン...こっち向いて out of my head so long as I live" align="center"> [[Next|Moomin 6]]

You do get the feeling that the creators weren't particularly interested in Moomin as a whole given how far this adaptation strays from the source material. Having said that I think Moomin 1969 reflects what would've been expected out of an adaptation of the time, in the brand new world of television animation and certainly the broadcast medium itself. Ultimately it makes it little more than a historical curiousity for die-hard Moomin fans or those curious about animation history. Despite its popularity at the time it's definitely not aged well. It's not really for Moomin fans and little else distinguishes it. Tove Jansson was right to get angry. [[Next|Moomin 7]]

Moomin (1972) <img src="https://i.imgur.com/DSjuerw.jpg" alt="Actually I don't think they ever explicitly say Snufkin is Little My's brother in this one" align="center" width="320px" height="323px"> Or, "Shin Moomin" as it's more commonly known. [[Next|Moomin 8]]

Moomin 1972 is a much more faithful adaptation of Tove Jansson's work, likely to turn around Mushi Pro's ailing fortunes (at which it did not succeed). Despite that it still uses "Nee Moomin", Snorkmaiden's come-hither song. It hits a lot of the classic Moomin story beats and despite having a lot of filler it's still much closer to the Moomin you're probably familiar with. It does much more closely convey the experience of living in Moominvalley, free from any necessity of labour to sustain you and devoting yourself to things like jam-making and picnics. [[Next|Moomin 9]]

Both in Moomin 1969 and Shin Moomin their interpretation of Snufkin is... interesting. It's more apparent in this one given it's commitment to the source material, but their interpretation of Moomintroll and Snufkin's relationship is... interesting! I think their read on the characters was that Snufkin represents an ideal adulthood that Moomin looks up to longingly. As a consequence Snufkin is aged up considerably. However, given the overt and textual sexual tension between the two characters it ends up being much more of an older man, younger man relationship. Think like an historical //nanshoku//. [[Next|Moomin 10]]

I've discovered that this version still has a lot of affection in Japan, and many people consider it the definitive Moomin adaptation. This one also wasn't exported as far as I can tell, at least not to English speaking countries. This is anecdotal but I would also posit that doing a more faithful adaptation helped mend whatever wounds existed for Tove Jansson, and helped get more adaptations made in the. Well, that and the money she would have made off of the merchandising and things as well. [[Next|Moomin 11]]

Tanoshii Moomin Ikka (1992) <img src="https://i.imgur.com/uZszzYB.jpg" alt="Hattifatteners are the one Moomin thing I most wish we had in real life. align="center" width="450px" height="334px"> [[Next|Moomin 12]]

Tanoshii Moomin Ikka is the definitive Moomin adaptation for many people, and certainly for me as well. It's the one I grew up watching, the skin-peelingly bad dub and all, and I have a lot of affection for it! It is in many ways the most faithful adaptation. Gone are the Boys Own Adventure trappings and extremely fuck-y Snorkmaiden, this one matches the delicate, bittersweet tone of Tove Jansson's work the most of the adaptations we've talked about so far. Almost all your favourite Moomin stories are here, and all the characters act as you'd expect, Too-Ticky, Little My, with the exception of the Snork. He has glasses and a strong redditor, MRA kind of vibe. These adaptations never really know what to do with Snork and in this one he's some kind of inventor, trying to build a flying machine. Okay? [[Next|Moomin 13]]

Actually a good chunk of this show is filler as well. It gets a little tedious, and I really grew to hate Stinky, a minor character who gets over-used to provide some kind of conflict for an episode. You would think introducing a cute witch apprentice would improve any show but Amelia doesn't add much, and her grandmother the witch is played absurdly straight. That said this one has it's fair share of highlights. The Lady of the Cold is maybe the most memorable version of the story, and the pink clouds and the Hobgoblin are the stuff of pure childhood fantasy. It works being very comfy and low-key even if it does go on a bit too long. [[Next|Moomin 14]]

When this show is good, it's really, really good. Tove Jansson's work is by parts very sad and very sweet even if you live in Moominvalley with no obvious means of support. I'd recommend this one a lot despite its issues, and not just as a nostalgia piece. If you wish just to exist in Moominvalley, this is the one for you. Oh, yeah, Snufkin got aged way down for this one, and he's green again thank god. [[Next|Moomin 15]]

Moominvalley (2019) <img src="https://i.imgur.com/jsSayEq.jpg" alt="this is just a very fun image" align="center" width="500px" height="281px"> [[Next|Moomin 16]]

I guess I'll talk briefly about Moominvalley as well since we're here: It's very, very good. It is most certainly the definitive Moomin adaptation going forward, but also has a strong sense of it's own identity. Every little piece that makes it up is very good, the [[voice acting]] is sublime and the 3D animation... wouldn't be my choice but truly is done very well. If I did have a criticism it occasionally veers into twee, and leans a little too hard into being capital-t THE Moomin adaptation, to its detriment. Anyway I've talked longer than anyone is willing to put up with about Moomin, go check it out. [[Back?|Index]]

[[Matt Berry literally is Moominpapa, like Iijima Mari or Leonard Nimoy. Snufkin saying how the fire spirit won't hurt his "paws" devastated my house for weeks. Too-Ticky is so warm and friendly. Jennifer Fucking Saunders as The Mymble is inspired. I could go on.|Moomin 16]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/5y45Woo.jpg" alt="Wherever the real Hime is and whatever she's doing, I really hope she's well" align="center" width="408px" height="410px"> [[Next|Kakushigoto 1]]

The work of Kumeta Kouji means so much to me that trying to put it into words is really hard. [[Next|Kakushigoto 2]]

Let's start with me trying and failing to get into the manga. Kakushigoto had an uphill battle to earn my trust and affection. Although it’s by one of my all-time favourite manga-ka, I checked out the manga around 2013 and it didn’t hook me in. I really just do not enjoy stories about parenthood, how much your children add to your life and how joyful they make you. I also can’t really stand insider jokes about the entertainment industry, it’s quirks and the weirdos who work in it. Hate it, if I’m being perfectly honestly. And fridging a mother figure is, well I don’t even really have to talk about that do I. [[Next|Kakushigoto 3]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/0Ry8i07.jpg" alt="bure bure bure bure" align="center"> [[Next|Kakushigoto 4]]

I suppose the thing that I missing, though, was how good Kumeta is. His work and I have a really long history: his sharp wit really engaged me as a budding Japanese language student, and his vision of coping poorly with desperate, utter despairing cynicism continues to resonate with me. I’d hesitate to call Kakushigoto a kinder, gentler Kumeta but it does seem as though he’s finally, at long last, found a reason to keep going. [[Next|Kakushigoto 5]]

Barasui no longer needed the delicate [[escapism]] of Strawberry Marshmallow once he had a family, but Kumeta’s fears and anxieties have taken on a much more substantial and less abstract form in Hime, the protagonist's daughter, Kumeta has repeatedly mocked the idea that his work, from Katte ni Kaizou to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei to Joshiraku to Kakushigoto is based on his experiences. His experiences are his own of course, and he's not required to share his personal life with the world. And in a sense he doesn't really need to: Kumeta's work is always deeply personal, intimate even. [[Next|Kakushigoto 6]]

[[But I do! I've needed it for so many years! I need it now more than ever!|Kakushigoto 5]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KwLA5Vw.jpg" alt="this image of the two of them aged is just, it's a lot" align="center" width="599px" height="337px"> [[Next|Kakushigoto 7]]

Hime as a character is precisely what every parent thinks of their child, capable of doing no wrong and adorable in every facet. But the achronological framing device of Kakushigoto gives the character more depth, making the now teenaged Hime look at her past in a very different light, judge her experiences differently. This happens as you get older, what you thought was good or normal can easily turn out to be a hurtful little secret you spent many years choosing to ignore. [[Next|Kakushigoto 8]]

Kakushigoto really did surprise me me with how introspective it was. Kumeta re-uses designs and themes and characters, and the anime brings back some 2000s era seiyuu as well. The result feels a lot like Kumeta looking back on his life and [[career]], carrying on a conversation with himself about what he’s achieved and where he wants to go. The writing and even the rapid-fire gags are as sharp as ever, but the sense of relentless lost decade nihilism has been tempered ever so slightly. [[Next|Kakushigoto 9.5]]

[[Kumeta really does look down on his career, and seems to regard himself as a peddler of trash for those with simple tastes. Not everything he's ever done is finely-honed, timeless art or anything but the man has given me so much over the years and I wish he were less negative about it. His legacy is on his mind a lot these days, I gather.|Kakushigoto 8]]

I really loved this show. Even if you're not nostalgic for his work, the humour is as sharp as ever, the show looks great and the nested central mystery ties all the different sketches and jokes together. It's rare to see a work this nakedly personal and reflective, this sad and somber and also full of love and heart and looking forward as well as back. I can't recommend it enough. Thanks for reading. [[Back?|Index]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/uI1vf91.jpg" alt="ありがとう、絶望先生。そして、さよなら" align="center" width="600px" height="274px"> [[Next|Kakushigoto 9]]