FunBlog

Steven Den Beste comments on the logical problems raised by the fuuzetsu (”time-stop seals”) in Shakugan no Shana. When time stops inside the seal, does it also stop outside? Either way seems to create impossible paradoxes. Either way no one should be able to enter or leave the sealed area.

Of course these problems also occur with any of the other anime and manga series that use a variation of this concept. It’s a convenient notion. Seal off an area where the good guys and bad guys can fight it out, then clean up the mess before anyone notices. The idea dates back at least to X, and also appears in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Pretear, Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, and who knows how many others. They all are subject to similar critiques.

However I think that in the case of Shakugan no Shana all of the paradoxes can be resolved rather simply by applying the rules of that fantasy universe. Entering full-geek mode, I will attempt to do so. NOTE: This is going to require some spoilers, so those who haven’t seen the series should read no further.
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The worst thing about this series is trying to explain what it is about without sounding ridiculous. A story about a boy who plays with dolls? A story about dolls that fight each other to win the chance to become the perfect girl? A commentary on the emotional pathologies of Japanese adolescents?

Nevertheless it is a fascinating and charming story with a positive ending and some very nice artwork.
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Some people are fanatically devoted to this series. A few strongly dislike it. I fall somewhere in between. It’s not the greatest anime ever made, but I think it is pretty good; indeed the best example of its genre.

(The genre in question is “Seinen or Shounen Comedies about High School Girls Based on 4-koma Manga.” This is a larger category than you might expect.)
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ANI-NOUTO has some comments on Figure 17. Some of them are fair but I am going to take issue with the following:

if Hikaru is made out of liquid metal, a-la T-1000, why does she eat, and how does she digest the food?

The answer, I think, is that she isn’t made of liquid metal. The alien technology is much more advanced than that, crossing into Clarke’s Law territory. A Ribers can assume multiple forms; when she is in human form she is indistinguishable from a flesh-and-blood human.

(Conversely, when they merge Tsubasa is no longer flesh and blood. That’s the main reason why she finds the process so frightening.)

For centuries there have been rumors about a mysterious group of white-haired children, sometimes called “The Children of Béfort.” At age 5 they leave their homes and find each other. They search the world for something or someone, pursued by shadowy enemies. At age 12 they die–only to reappear again shortly thereafter.

Someone had a really great idea for a story here. Unfortunately in this case a great story idea did not result in a great anime, due to flawed execution.
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If you have watched much anime you probably have a pretty good idea of what will happen if some Japanese high school students are suddenly transported to a strange and dangerous new world. They will quickly bond with each other even if they didn’t know each other previously. They may be frightened, but they will face the unfamiliar threats and challenges with courage and integrity. They will stick together, fiercely resisting any attempts to turn them against each other. They will never, ever let each other down.

It is easy to poke fun at the gambatte spirit, but it is a standard part of the genre, and one that gives it a great deal of its charm. To find it missing would be disconcerting.

But what if it does appear to be missing? What if the characters, placed in a frightening situation that they could not have anticipated, behaved less like the people that we wish we were, and more like the people that we fear that we actually are? Could this still be a good story? Actually the answer is “Yes.”
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In a study that has been getting a lot of attention recently, American and Japanese college students were required to judge the facial expressions of digitally altered photos. The American students looked primarily at the mouths, while the Japanese students looked primarily at the eyes. (via Ars Technica.)

This is supposed to explain why Japanese on-line writers prefer emoticons like these:

*_*   ;_;   ^_^

while Americans prefer things like

:-)    :-(

all of which can lead to cultural misunderstandings.

But it is obviously is relevant to the “big eyes” question. To Japanese artists and fans the eyes are much more important for conveying expressions.

Steven den Beste and Ubu Roi have been conducting a spirited debate on their blogs about Shakugan no Shana. (Ubu’s posts are here and here; Steven doesn’t have permalinks for his posts but you can read his review here.)

To summarize and oversimplify: Steven was initially enthralled by the horror/adventure story, but was greatly annoyed by the inclusion of “high school angst.” Ubu agreed that “angst” is bad but argued that the adventure story is only background; the “real” story is about Shana’s character development and personal growth. (I agree with Ubu, but most people are going to watch it for the adventure story. The personal growth story takes extra effort to follow since Shana and several of the other key characters are not open about their feelings.)

But this got me interested in the whole question of “angst”. Practically everyone who writes about anime (or at least every male who writes about anime) agrees that this is a bad thing. But what is it exactly, and what is so bad about it?
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Once upon a time there was a poor college student, a decent young man, but awkward and unlucky. One evening a beautiful goddess appeared before him and offered to grant him a single wish. He could have anything he wished for, no matter how outrageous, but he must choose carefully because he would not be given a second chance.

Impulsively and incautiously, he wished that she would stay with him…
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A while ago I praised the quality of the subtitle translation on the Shakugan no Shana DVDs. Given that this seems to be a particularly difficult story to translate they seemed to be doing a pretty good job.

Unfortunately with the fourth DVD the translation seems to have taken a turn for the worse. And my main complaint isn’t even about the difficult poetic stuff; it’s something that should be really simple and straightforward: they’re spelling Wilhelmina’s name as “Wirhelmina”. I know that you could romanize the katakana that way, but why on Earth would you do that? Are the translators unfamiliar with European names? Are they relying on how Shana (Rie Kugimiya) pronounces it? (If so it’s a bad idea since we’ve already established that Shana speaks English with a heavy Japanese accent.)
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I have spent the last few days trying to figure out the ending of Kanon, which may be a waste of time, but the damned show got stuck in my head like an annoying song.

Anyway I have decided that it does play fair with the audience, and it mostly makes sense. I think I have figured out the major puzzles, though other interpretations are possible. I have collected my notes here: Spoiler Notes for Kanon

WARNING: Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the series. This is not intended to make sense to anyone who is not familiar with the story, and reading it before watching the series will almost certainly ruin it for you.

This may be the most controversial of the many anime series adapted from CLAMP stories. Many people love it; others really hate it. Personally I like it. I find it clever and funny and poignant and only occasionally unsettling. But you may not react to it the same way.

I suspect that many people’s reaction depends on how they would answer the following multiple choice question.

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…so maybe I need to think about it some more.

Cartoon Brew digs up an old article on the censorship regime that prevailed in the 1930s. (via. Wired).

Most of it seems ridiculous now, but some of the material would probably be banned today, though for different reasons.

After seeing a total of three episodes, I can’t get past the obvious problem that everyone else comments on: that the supposed high school students look ten years old (at most). Is this just a stupid and distracting drawing convention? Is the world of the future suffering from an epidemic of some terrible chibifying disease?

Probably not, since the students from the other high schools look like normal teenagers, as does Manabi’s brother. Here’s another possibility: perhaps Seiou High School is a special school for child prodigies, a school full of Chiyo-chans if you will.
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When they announced that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was going to be released in Region 1, my worst fear was that the clueless American distributors would ruin the story by releasing the episodes in chronological order, instead of the original broadcast order. Now it seems that my worst fear has been realized, but it is not the fault of the American distributor. Indeed they seem to be making an unusual effort to salvage the situation.

Here is my understanding of what happened, and what a long-suffering Anime fan can do about it.
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If I tell you the plot of this story it’s going to sound like a laundry list of anime and manga clichés. But in this case there’s a good excuse: this is the story where many of these clichés originated. As is often the case, the original is better than most of its imitators.
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“Doctor, Doctor! What’s wrong with Shiori? Will she be all right?”

“I’m sorry Kaori, but your sister is not going to live past her next birthday. More specifically, she’s going to look fine until the exact day of her birthday, then she’s going to drop dead.”

“How awful! How is that possible?”

“Shiori is suffering from Anime Disease. It is similar to Movie Disease, but even worse. Remember she is very weak, so keep her out of school, but let her wander around in the snow and eat all the ice cream she wants.”

Words fail me.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
–Robert Frost

After finishing this I felt a bit numb for several days. It is one of the darkest and most emotionally draining television series that I have ever watched. I found some of the scenes quite upsetting, but to be fair there were also some that were rather beautiful. And somehow or other the ending really got to me, so I guess I have to give it a positive recommendation, but with some strong caveats. It is very well done, but very dark and unsettling.
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Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that you woke up one morning and discovered that you had become a god. It might be great–perhaps you could solve all of your problems with a snap of your fingers! Or (if you have a fantasy writer’s imagination) it might be awful. Gods might have powerful enemies and worse problems than you will ever have to face. But perhaps the worst outcome would be if it actually didn’t make much difference in your life.
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OK, maybe I should clarify the previous post.

First, I intend to buy the DVDs even if they mess them up badly. That’s the only practical way that I can show my appreciation to the people who created the original series.

Second, I’m not that hard to please. All I really need are two things. One should be a given: that they include the original Japanese soundtrack with Aya Hirano as Haruhi and Tomokazu Sugita as Kyon, along with decent subtitles. The other I’m a little more nervous about: that they include the episodes in the original broadcast order.
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The teaser site now has an official announcement that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is being released by Kadokawa Pictures USA and distributed by Bandai Entertainment.

It also has a rather lame promotional video that probably won’t help them very much. Like the original series it is sort of weird, but unlike the original series it is not very funny.

There is no word yet on when the DVDs will be available or how badly the translators are going to mess it up. ;-)

This is one of the most popular anime series of all time, though hard-core otaku tend to look down on it. It attracted an enormous audience when it was first broadcast in Japan. Millions of Americans have watched a horribly dubbed version on the Cartoon Network, and dubbed versions in other languages have been broadcast in many other countries.

There are reasons for its popularity. This show has many of the attributes of greatness. However it also has a serious flaw which keeps me from giving it a wholehearted recommendation. Nevertheless I have a certain fondness for it. For one thing it was seeing it on the Cartoon Network that first got me interested in anime.
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The web is buzzing with speculation that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has finally been licensed, based largely on a teaser site with teaser links from people who may be in a position to know. So we should know for sure by the end of the week.

But will the news really be good? We’ll probably have to wait even longer to see whether they

• Change the location to Cleveland.
• Give the characters Anglo names.
• Show the episodes in chronological order.

This is little gem of a show: small but flawless, perfectly formed and expertly cut.

Superficially this seems to be a very simple children’s story. On closer examination it is not written entirely for children. It is a story told on multiple levels, put together with exquisite craftsmanship, with subtle symbolism and wonderful characters. It is a remarkable piece of work–every time I rewatch an episode I am impressed again by how well it is done.
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I put a bunch of notes here about common symbols. These are my own interpretations and speculation. You can take it for what it is worth.

I’m getting a little tired of constantly typing “this series is not suitable for young children”, or words to that effect. So here is one that won’t require me to write that.

This is basically a charming children’s show, but one that can also be entertaining for adults, provided that the adults have a high degree of tolerance for cute characters and sentimental story lines. If mainstream America ever starts to take anime seriously this may come to be considered a children’s classic.
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Can a television series qualify as great literature? In principle I don’t see any reason why one couldn’t, but few of them have any such ambitions. In any case great literature has to pass the test of time, and perhaps the medium hasn’t been around long enough.

If one ever does qualify, it might well be this strange haunting story about people who have wings and halos, but who are not angels.
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This show has no particular ambition other than to be very funny, and to a large extent it succeeds. The episodes on the first two DVDs are the funniest things I have ever seen in an anime series.

After that it loses some of its comic energy. The biggest laugh on the last DVD is probably unintentional (and only occurs on the Japanese soundtrack). By the final episode they have sunk to using cheap sentimentality in the hope of producing a lump in the viewer’s throat. It’s sort of like putting a heart-warming ending on a Three Stooges movie (which doubtless has been done, and didn’t work any better there).
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A young traveler on a talking motorcycle travels from place to place, never staying anywhere more than three days. Each new place has a story of its own. Sometimes the stories cast new light on earlier stories.

That sounds like any of several dozen American television shows, doesn’t it? But you aren’t likely to see stories like these on American TV. If Jonathan Swift were alive today (and living in Japan) he would probably be writing stories like these.

The story-telling in this show is first-rate. The stories are clever and ironic. Some are charming; others are funny in a very dark way and some are chilling. This is well worth watching for viewers of an appropriate age.
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A long time ago, before xxxHolic, before Chobits, even before Cardcaptor Sakura, the enigmatic team of artists known as CLAMP created a manga called Magic Knight Rayearth, which was made into a two-season television series, the first anime to be based on their work.

Perhaps because it was an early work the series has a strangely uneven tone. Watching the first season for the first time I initially felt amused, then impatient, and finally shocked. The second season seemed darker but more enjoyable. When I watched it for a second time I had a better idea of what the first season was really about and I enjoyed it a good deal more.

Actually once I accepted that there is more going on here than just a goofy parody I found the story powerful and affecting. If you are a fan of CLAMP’s other stories you will definitely want to see this one. On the other hand, if you have no previous exposure to CLAMP’s somewhat twisted sense of humor you would probably do better to start with one of their more accessible works, such as Cardcaptor Sakura or Angelic Layer.
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J Greely has a theory, and I have an awful feeling that he is right. I say “awful” because if he is right, the series probably never will be licensed. A damned shame.

About half-way through this series it occurred to me that I was watching two loosely-connected but very different stories:

1. A coming of age story about twin girls living on a farm in Hokkaido.
2. A science fiction adventure about fighting monsters with the help of an unusual type of mecha.

The two stories even look different: the first has a bright, cheerful hand-drawn appearance; the second is dark, with the rather soulless look that comes from over-reliance on computer-generated images.

The coming of age story is very well done (though very sentimental) and gets most of the screen time.

The science fiction story is definitely the lesser of the two. It is not particularly original and not as thrilling as it wants to be.

This led me to wonder if the science fiction story could have been eliminated entirely. Something similar to the first story could have been written without including the SF elements, but I don’t think it would really have worked. There is one important respect in which the main story needs the science fiction story.

If you like sentimental stories about children growing up then you probably will like this one a lot. On the other hand if you can’t stand stories like that, you should consider yourself warned.
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I can’t give a good reason it, but this has become one of my favorite anime series. It has a rather dark premise; it is full of bizarre over-the-top characters and the ending does not resolve the central problem.

Still I love it. It is dark-romantic rather than dark-realistic. The bizarre characters are fascinating; the episodes feel like an invigorating adrenaline rush and the ending resolves just enough to feel satisfactory.
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