#b1689q

@b1689q

It’s 1/1 scale (AKA life-sized)! XD

Here’s one of the pictures from the article:

Also, here are a couple quotes from the article as well since I like how much fun they have with it:

“The dog may scare the crap out of Riko, but all Shiitake wants is to come home with you.”

#Mad Max#film#visual effects#analysis#thought this was interesting#to be honest though. I wasn't really all that into Fury Road#(maybe I'd call it technically impressive filmmaking; but I have no real enthusiasm for it at all. if that makes sense)#and I think I disagree with a lot of the comments on this post (in terms of my own opinions. anyway)#for one. the 'good story makes action exciting' thing; sure. I guess#but I can't really apply that to Fury Road; to me. it mostly just felt like an overly long car chase#and other than the bare bones of the premise. the story didn't really do much for me#and 'CGI should be used as a cleanup tool'; well. there are probably certain things you can only really do with CGI#I don't really know enough about film to make a compelling argument. but I don't think filmmakers should necessarily limit themselves#(also. I saw the film twice. but I can't recall that Rictus moment OP is talking about or even who Rictus is lol)#but explanations from people about what they like about things I don't really like are always interesting to read#on some level. it also kind of makes me wonder about what my own criteria for liking films is#and I think in a way. it's still kind of nebulous to me. to the point where I don't really want to put it into a box#like for example. I quite like the Star Wars prequels (Revenge of the Sith is probably in my top 3 or 4 Star Wars movies)#and yet they get a lot of flak for the CGI work in them. as well as their writing (which is something I'd be more likely to prioritize)#maybe it's just because they're Star Wars#I dunno. skimming through that Cracked article. I don't think I ever really shared any of those complaints about CGI#I guess so-called 'bad' CGI work just doesn't bother me or something#but yeah I dunno. thinking about this stuff is kinda weird and interesting#I think I just kind of like things for reasons pertaining to those specific things. and that might not apply to others. if that makes sense

*internet thumbs up*  I agree with it being really interesting to hear people explain why they like a thing when it’s not something that I like myself.

I’m still head-over-heels in love with Fury Road, but I can see how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I wouldn’t call it a niche film, but it is definitely turned up to 11, so if it’s not your type of thing to begin with it’s not going to appeal at all. Someone in the fandom - wish I could remember who, was it @fadagaski? - pointed out that the storytelling isn’t in the dialogue. There hardly is any dialogue. Instead the storytelling is in literally everything else - it’s all subtext and details. It works pretty well as a silent movie, and was actually designed to be viewed as such. If that’s your jam it’s amazing, and if that’s not really how you watch movies it’s going to be about as engaging as wet cardboard. Well, wet cardboard with a flamethrowing guitar.

Fury Road cares about two things, the story and the aesthetic. Everything - from the costume designs to the use of CGI to the soundtrack - builds on the story, and does it in a way that is in line with the aesthetic. It’s more rewarding of rewatches and more fertile ground for fan theories based on obscure details than any other fandom I’ve been involved in. Not that there are more fan theories (it’s not the biggest fandom), but they’re organic in a way that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

Oh geez. It’s probably been over two years since I last read any fiction, with one exception, and I read fiction so rarely these days that I honestly can barely think of any novels that I’ve read… I dunno if I’ll be able to come up with an interesting answer for this, but I’ll try.

I think the best answer I can give, the exception I mentioned above, is a 20-page short story that was included in my Time of EVE Deluxe Edition set called “act0.5: SAME,” written by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, who came up with the original concept, and wrote and directed the series/movie. It’s a prequel to the series/movie told in first person by Dr. Ashimori, the kinda mysterious white-haired lady we don’t see much of who knows various things about the creation of the current generation of robot AIs and about Shiotsuki, who wrote the AI program.

(I don’t remember if you’ve seen either the ONA or movie version of Time of EVE, or if you’ve ever come across this short story, so, uh, potential spoilers ahead.)

The short story is Ashimori recounting her working relationship with Shiotsuki when they were building Sammy (her department worked on the hardware, his worked on the software), Shiotsuki’s disappearance, and her first encounter with Sammy, before her AI program was dumbed down/reined in to what we see in the series/movie (and OH BOY was it; I wanted to see original AI Sammy so bad after reading the story).

The story did a really great job of getting you in Ashimori’s headspace, especially in the scene where she first encounters Sammy. Her fear and revulsion at Sammy’s fully human-level AI, while Sammy herself is afraid and anxious, just wanting to know where Shiotsuki is, their emotions were so palpable. It was a fantastic experience that really stuck in my mind.

Thanks for the ask! Just a quick note, some of my answers are quite a bit more thorough than others.

#2. Has an anime evermade you cry?

Oh, definitely. I actually never used to get very outwardlyemotional when watching things (I still don’t, TBH). After a while, noticingother people’s very emotionally-resonant-sounding reactions to the anime theywere watching, I started to want that kind of emotional connection, too. Iguess I wanted to *feel* more, if that makes any sense. I’m not really sureexactly how I did it—maybe through trying to be more actively engaged in what Iwas watching, maybe trying to figure out how to express emotions outwardlymore, maybe both, maybe something else—I have made a slight change in thedirection I wanted.

Anime that have made me cry (that I remember, at least) areMushishi and Tsumiki no Ie/La Maison en Petits Cubes/The House of Small Cubes.

In the case of Mushishi, it was the episode called “Insidethe Cage,” in which Ginko is trapped inside a bamboo forest. I cried during oneof my re-watches of the series, at the end of this episode when Ginko comesback to see what happened after some time had passed. We see that both Kisuke’swife and child had died because his wife cut down the bamboo mushi that gave them life, and they had essentially become the fertilizer for acouple new bamboo children (I think?—I may not be remembering this entirelycorrectly). I just kept thinking, “They’re gone. He was so happy with them, andthey’re gone. And these two new bamboo children, much as he may come to lovethem, it just won’t be the same.” Thinking about it that way, with that senseof loss and with the tragic circumstances behind it in mind, I started crying.

Tsumiki no Ie is really interesting. It’s a 12-minute short.I have to describe it in some detail to be able to talk about my experiencewatching it, so I apologize in advance for any spoilers. The first half setseverything up. There’s a flooded town where the water continues to rise. An oldman lives there, continually building new layers onto the top of his house to escape the flooding. Itseems like all of the other residents have moved away, though he’s able topurchase what he needs from merchants who come through on boats. So, in thefirst six minutes or so, we’re introduced to this man and get to see how andwhere he lives day-to-day. At one point, he drops his pipe, which falls downthrough the cellar-like doors in each consecutive floor of the house. The manputs on scuba gear and goes after it. As he goes down deeper and deeper, hebegins to recall various important events and people in his life, like hisdeceased wife and their son who got married and moved away. Eventually, hefinds his pipe. The short ends with him eating dinner and making a toast to hiswife. I started to cry at about this point, again due to the sense of loss,even though the old man himself seems to have accepted it.

My eyes have teared up while watching the 7thKara noKyoukai film, near the end when Shiki and Mikiya are reunited after theirexperiences dealing with Lio. In this case, it was more of a happy feeling,rather than sad. It’s not anime, but I’ve also cried while watching Inside Out,at the end when Riley comes back home and has the cathartic moment with herparents. This was also a happy cry.

#3. Which anime made youlaugh the hardest?

Great Teacher Onizuka. No contest. XD

#10. What is yourfavorite ‘moe’ anime?

Bible Black.

Just kidding. X3

I’m going to answer this question in two different ways. Thefirst will be in terms of feeling “moe” as an emotional attachment to acharacter, and the second will be in terms of the moe aesthetic, which isintentionally designed to elicit feelings of moe from the viewer.

As I understand it, “moe” is a kind of attachmentcharacterized by warm, protective feelings. Stereotypically, this is marketedat otaku, and centered on female characters. I don’t usually get attached tocharacters in this way, and when I have, it’s been characters in anime that aresometimes not designed to have the typical moe appeal. Characters that I havefelt moe toward are Anna Liebert from Monster and Sammy from Time of EVE. I mayhave also felt moe toward Chi from Chobits, but it’s been such a long timesince I watched that one that I really don’t remember at this point. Thinkingback on it, it’s really amusing to me that I felt moe towards Anna Liebert, asMonster is DEFINITELY not designed with moe appeal in mind (though, at the same time, I guess having that warm, protective feeling typical of moe toward her makes sense, given what she goes through). XD

Regarding shows designed with moe in mind, whether in termsof character design (appearance and/or characterization) or the kind of show asa whole, while I’ve enjoyed shows like that, and have liked characters in thoseshows, it hasn’t been for reasons of moe. I really like Puella Magi MadokaMagica. It may sound like a weird show to list here, but I think the visualdesigns of the characters (and of the show in certain kinds ofscenes/environments) is intended to elicit moe. K-On! definitely comes to mind,particularly the second season, which I felt really excelled at capturing andconveying mood/atmosphere. I also quite enjoyed Monster Musume, which I think,even though it doesn’t have a strongly typical “moe” look, is designed toelicit moe. Of the characters I liked in MonMusu (primarily Rachnera andZombina), I didn’t like any of them for moe appeal.

So, I guess a short, direct answer is: For the first way Iapproached moe, in terms of the feeling, my favorite show is Time of EVE. Forthe second way I approached moe, in terms of design, my answer is MonsterMusume.

I do think you could argue that Time of EVE was designed inpart with moe in mind, but it’s not (one of) THE predominating thing(s) aboutthat work, so I put it in the first category.

#27. Which animecharacter are you most like?

Hmm…I don’t think I have a very good answer for this. I haveyet to come across a character and have the reaction, “Oh! It’s me!” There areat least a handful of characters I currently have (or used to have, in somecases) some things in common with, but these things generally aren’t majoraspects of my personality, identity, or self-perception. There’s actually anask meme I’ve been meaning to do for a while with a prompt that’s somethinglike, “What characters do you identify with?” Answering that meme will be athorough answer to this question. But, for a short answer that doesn’t go into the“what,” “how,” “why,” etc., I’ll rattle off a few characters, just in the orderI think of them:

-Tsubasa Hanekawa, from the Monogatari Series

-Nadeko Sengoku, from the Monogatari Series

-Tomoko Kuroki, from WataMote

-Holo, from Spice and Wolf

-Ginko, from Mushishi

-Sodachi Oikura, from the Monogatari Series

-Suruga Kanbaru, from the Monogatari Series

-There are a couple others that I don’t want to list withoutdetailing how I think I’m similar to them.

Honestly, I feel less similar in various ways to many of thecharacters I just listed than I used to. It might not be an accurate listanymore. But I’ll worry about that when I start working on my response to thatother meme I mentioned above.

#34. Have you everwatched an anime only because you liked a specific character?

Not…really? It’s not quite the same, but there are a coupleanime I’ve watched where I feel like a particular character really (or evencompletely) made the show: Onizuka in Great Teacher Onizuka and Tomoko Kurokiin WataMote. Though, WataMote might be cheating because Tomoko literally *is*the show. XD Also, I think Rumi Yokoi in Tonari no Seki-kun is a big part of whatmakes that show, as she does a really good job of bringing the viewer into theshow, even though it’s Seki’s antics that are the focus.

@b1689q,

@b1689q, @ronriii

Thanks for the ask! :) And no worries about it technicallybeing two questions. I tend to think of questions like that as one complex/multi-partquestion. And even if you had asked two totally unrelated questions, that’s fine. I mean, this is afun meme/ask thing. I’m not gonna be super strict about it.

Anywho, in the school district I attended during my K-12 education, from 6thgrade through 11th grade, all students were required to take aforeign language. In 6th and 8th grade I took Spanish(for some reason I have absolutely no memory of what I took in 7thgrade… O.o). I think the only options in 6th through 8thgrade were Spanish and French.

Starting in 9th grade, two more options wereadded—German and Latin. I didn’t want to take Spanish again, and the majorityof other kids were either taking that or French. I wanted to do somethingdifferent than what it seemed like everyone else was doing, so I decided to takeLatin. However, they cancelled the course, so I decided to take German instead.I took German from 9th through 11th grade, and for one ortwo semesters in junior college. I remember thinking it was ironic, as I wasraised Jewish, and being rather amused by that. >.<

I haven’t really had any occasion to use or otherwise practice German since then, so at this point I’ve forgotten most of what I’d learned, and am probably very rusty with what little I remember.