Anime Blogs

Perfect Blue was a film that I’ve heard many good things about, and it really delivered. As my first Satoshi Kon work, Perfect Blue weaves together a narrative of reality and fantasy perfectly with Mima’s ordeal following her career change. Despite taking place in the early days of the internet, one of the things that I think Perfect Blue does amazingly is how it portrays Mima’s online and public identity being dissociated with the real Mima. 

These four episodes of Death Parade were… interesting. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but it’s still a pretty unique concept.

These episodes definitely focused on human emotions, but I was slightly confused. The black-haired girl (Chiyuki) in episode 2 argues to Decim that Machiko actually loved her husband and was just trying to lessen his guilt. I thought this demonstrates how complex human emotions are. Machiko is willing to go the extreme, lying and destroying her relationship just to protect Machiko. In episode 11, Chiyuki admits that it is difficult for humans to understand each other, stating that she herself couldn’t understand why she is upset after her injury. Again, this seem to point towards the complexity of human emotions. In episode 9 however, we saw how the game itself intensified Shimada’s need for revenge. Chiyuki points out to Decim that people aren’t that complex and their emotions are easily influenced. To me this seems to contradict the whole idea of human emotions being complex.

Chiyuki being with Decim leads him to question his judgements. The former questions the latter’s ability to understand human emotions, stating that he was never alive. I thought this is a fair point. If it is difficult for humans to understand emotions, how can someone who was never alive do any better? Considering how Decim’s wrongly judged Machiko and Takashi due to his inability to understand emotions, is it really fair for him to remain as an arbiter?

I think Violet Evergarden is by far the saddest anime we’ve watched in this class. I have watched this once before, but watching it again still hit me hard. Also, I really like the animation in this series. Kyoto Animation did a superb job.  

It’s really sad to see how Violet views herself. Growing up in the army, she came to believe that she is only a tool for war even though Major Gilbert does treat her like a human. The anime portrays how she lives life after the war. Initially, she does not have her own will and only wants orders from Gilbert. She seems more concerned of the major than herself too, as seen in the first episode. Violet however, becomes more accustomed to civilian life by working as an Auto Memory Doll. I think this is what the anime is trying to point out, that getting a job can help war veterans reintegrate into society and deal with loss. In episode 9, when Violet breaks down, she recovers after receiving a letter from Roland and then helping him deliver the remaining letters. While the letter definitely helped, I think delivering the letters contributed to her recovery as well since it gives her a sense of purpose.

I have to confess that I feel angry with this manga. Since the document contains only some parts of the manga, I do not make a conclusion for the moment. But I don’t know the author is using an ironic technique, criticizing Japan’s reluctance to admit its mistakes made in the war, or he really thinks that Japan did nothing wrong, and even believe that the United States does brainwashing to Japanese, and fake photos are used in China for publicity. I don’t know the author wants to express his point of view through the mouth of the main character in the manga, or is he satirizing this character. Also, I am surprised that the author could draw such a long manga for the purpose of defending Japan.

Although I have known for a long time that the Japanese government has done a lot to cover up the truth of the history and deny its guilt, including rewriting history textbooks, when I actually read this type of reading, I still feel a bit angry and disappointed. In addition, the argument of this manga is not sustainable. Japan and Germany are aggressor countries, which is an indisputable fact all over the world. I don’t know much about American brainwashing, but I know clearly that Japan massacred more than 300,000 civilians in Nanking. Every Chinese knows this fact. Even if the photos are censored or fake, or if Japanese soldiers did not kill so many people in Nanking, then what? Do you want to say that because of these two reasons, Japan had not committed any crime and had not killed anyone in Nanking?

Your Name by Shinkai is one of the movies that took a lot of people by surprise. It was a massive blockbuster hit from a director that was not extremely well known like Miyazaki. Your Name tells a fresh romance story through the body switching of the two main characters.

The reading by Foucault was somewhat confusing, but I could tell how it connected to Your Name. Taki and Mitsuha are both adolescents, those lacking power according to Foucault. When they live their lives in each other’s bodies, you can see the efforts they go to do act as their opposite gender. While hard to translate to english, you can see the different pronouns Mitsuha uses in Taki’s body. Mitsuha first uses watashi, which is more feminine. She then progresses through other varying pronouns before using ore, which is a more masculine pronoun in Japanese. 

“Character-based web anime like Hetalia promote stereotypes, and yet they also propel their reimagining in new contexts.”

                                                                                      - Annett’s “World Conflict”

Hetalia Axis Powers is a series that retells history in a lighthearted way, displaying countries in a stereotypical way. Not going to lie, I enjoyed it 

Not only were their accents in the English dub, which I personally felt was a nice touch, but the way the countries were portrayed may have been stereotypical in an extreme manner. I mean Italy was too pasta obsessed to get anything done. However, despite this, the stereotypes serve to add the humor in the form of comedic exaggeration. Thus, I can see how the show may be “a conflicted locus for transnational capital and transcultural community in the twentyfirst century,” as revealed in the reading, Annett’s “World Conflict”. I mean depending on a viewer’s level of nationalism, he or she may be greatly offended by their country’s portrayal. I mean if everyone’s favorite ‘Murica Man saw the way America was portrayed they would definitely be offended, despite that in my personal opinion America is not the worst one portrayed. The same goes for any country. 

First of all, I think it is quite interesting what the term “otaku” means for people in the United States and how this term evolved from its original usage in Japan. An interviewee in the documentary pointed out that in Japan, the word “otaku” means a hardcore fan and could be applied to any type of fan. In the west however, people have come to associate otaku exclusively with fans of anime and manga. It has been pointed out as well that “otaku” is more of a derogatory word in Japan due to the Otaku Murderer incident in the 1980s. Over here, there are still some negative images of the otaku, but the word “otaku” itself isn’t used as much as a derogatory word compared to in Japan.

The documentary points out that Otakon serves as a place where people with interests in anime and manga come together and form a community. The convention allows people to make new friends through their interests and to participate together in activities without being judged continually by those around them. I thought this community of acceptance is similar to what we saw in Genshiken. We saw Sasahara having confidence in approaching doujinshi booths at Comiket as he realizes that those around him are the same as him. Otakon being a place where people can express their inner fantasies through cosplay, in particular, cross-play is similar to Hato (in Genshiken as well). Like Madarame accepting Hato’s cross-dressing, the community in Otakon seems accepting towards the different types of cosplay present there.

The cosplays in Otakon relate to our previous readings on the otaku. When asked about what it means for participants to cosplay, some say that it is something that allows one to be someone other than himself/herself and to bring fiction to reality, while others say that it is a way to interpret characters. In any case, these cosplays show that otaku produce simulacra in order to “own” the unownable fiction, as argued by Saito. This, of course, is similar to what we saw in Genshiken. Regarding the creation of costumes, we can liken Iris (Dustbunny) to Ohno. Both of them put much effort into creating their own cosplays. On a side note, I found it interesting how such creations involve so much work and can teach one many new skills. Iris says that she researches characters through different websites before creating her outfit. I thought of this as the continuation of creating simulacra through other simulacra. Before I move on, something I’d like to point out is the fact that there were stormtroopers present in Otakon. From my past experience, there are definitely a lot of people who cosplay as characters from western media. I don’t think I saw any in Genshiken, so that could be a difference between here and in Japan, but that might not be the case in real life.

Although Otakon is a place where people aren’t judged by the general public, it certainly is interesting how some cosplayers decide to put themselves in a position to be judged by a panel of judges through entering a cosplay competition. Iris mentions that the competition is not only a way to gain attention, but to gain recognition. I thought this relates in a way to Fiske’s discussion on fandom. Winning the competition requires a thorough understanding of not only the characters being represented, but the skills needed to create the cosplay. Thus, by winning it, cosplayers can signal to others their rich knowledge and gain status within the fandom. It’s also worthy to point out that cosplay competitions are held in Japan as well.

Finally, otaku here are similar to those in Japan in that they spend a lot on anime and manga merchandise. A good deal of people in the documentary say that they spend a lot while at the convention. I have to admit, even I do spend a lot on merchandise as well.

I think that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is the third Ghibli film I’ve watched, and it’s the one that has the strongest environmental message, making it the main focus of the film.

I’ve never really watched an anime before that seriously tackled a topic like gender identity. While anime has often poked fun or sexualized seemingly trans figures, Wandering Son makes a mature statement on the issues and decisions that trans people face.