Tag Archives: anime

The Duality of Maturity

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That comic is from xkcd.com and it has been my guiding star for a long time now. It has always been a difficult thing for me to consider whether or not I’m an adult. In all truthfulness, I nearly wrote grownup instead of adult.

This has worked for me for the longest time. It makes sense. I’m not my parents nor is anyone I know. Older generations are against therapy, I’ve been in therapy since I was twenty-one and I will be probably for the rest of my life(that’s not a bad thing. I think that therapy isn’t a punishment it’s a release valve). So, I can do things that are silly and that other people consider stupid but it’s my life so who cares.

When I think about the milestones, I haven’t hit, house, wife, kids and the whole nine yards. I find myself not caring. I don’t need a house to maintain. I don’t need kids to continue my legacy. A wife, a partner, a friend might be nice but I’m happy alone.

But still when I was younger, I was told that that this was what was expected of me. This is what we do. My parents didn’t force me into it and my mom has never asked me when are you going to give me grandkids but you still can feel the pressure from other people. They say things like “when you’re married someday” or “you’ll understand when you have kids”. I just don’t care.

I’m getting off track. The concept I came up with was: immature in thoughts, mature in actions. Let me give you an example of my thoughts throughout the day:

I wonder if the convertible Kennedy died in was a transformer. How would he react to Kennedy getting shot? What if it was the same car as the one that Jack and Rose boinked in during the Titanic movie.

I need to eat better for my blood pressure. Should I look up soups?

Brian from Hatchet would be a good Animorph. I should write that fanfiction.

Gotta look up CD rates for my bonus. I should put some money away.

Gotta think of what to get for the kids that I’m doing secret Santa for, for my friend’s school.

I’d be a great sixth ranger but I’d be bad at being Tuxedo Mask.

I’ve never missed a rent or utilities payment. I clean my apartment every weekend. Even as a child, I remember seeing a child throwing a tantrum and thought to myself in much more childish terms: “that is unseemly and I shan’t be doing that”.

What I’m getting at is that interests can be childish and immature but as long as I keep up everything else it’s fine. I do the duties of an adult while indulging the child that I once was. Part of that means watching non-childish shows and what not, which is why I’m getting into Star Trek but also watch other movies. I also make sure I don’t buy everything I want to indulge that child either.

I’m not ashamed of the person I am. I like being me, I like the well of knowledge I dive into when I need a reference is deep not just for old Power Ranger episodes but for songs that have broken my heart since I was a teen. I also have emotional maturity to understand the feelings I have and what to do with them(thanks, therapy). Since my father died, I’ve become the “I don’t know how to deal with the fear of my parents dying let me talk to Frank” guy. To that end, my sister and I have made a pledge that we wouldn’t raise our voices to have a discussion.

If I wasn’t any of those things, I feel it would be a reason for introspection. Even being one all of those things I know I still need to look inward continuously to make sure that I’m on the right path(thanks again, therapy). For right now, I’m going to enjoy my hard fought for contentment and make myself a salad for dinner.

Then I’m going to watch Card Captor Sakura and pay my bills. Because…

The insanity of the early anime years

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The introduction to anime for many of us came on the deck of the Absolution, the flagship of Toonami and it’s robot pilot Tom. That was what came next. Certain channels had already bought the licensing rights to things like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors. You could watch them at five a.m. right before they switched over to the news or something else.

Of course, we know where it ended with anime infiltrating everything and Demon Slayer’s movie rocketing to the top of the charts. It’s just about everywhere now but I still remember those early days. Join me in my reminiscence.

First off, there were no streaming services. If you wanted anime that wasn’t one of the few that were licensed by the various television stations you had to buy it on DVD. That’s where the trick came in. Because they were foreign exports, dealers would charge an arm and a leg. Each disc of six episodes was about 20 bucks each. However, if you wanted the two episode finale you had to buy it for about 60 bucks. Extortion of the highest level.

Secondly, was the pointless censorship. For some reason, 4Kids, thought that we needed to not know what a rice ball was. Thus, we have this famous line:

Because it was the early 00’s, they had to protect us from the horrors of… lesbians! The stupidity of that is well documented. However, they did this by turning them into… cousins. You know how cousins act?

Not like that. So, yeah, they made it far worse because now it’s not just harmless lesbians it’s horrifying incest.

Then came the fact that we were being brought into a world that we hadn’t seen before. They started showing Dragonball Z without ever making mention that there was an entire other series, Dragonball before that. That there were nearly two hundred episodes introducing these characters to the world. That this was a continuation. No, we just thought it was just Dragonball Z and nothing else.

For those who haven’t seen this series, let me paint you a picture. You meet this guy named Goku and his crew having a reunion on an island with a turtle and an old man. Who are these people? Don’t know. They’re just here. We also saw this asshole meet and he nearly fights a green man.

Are there more green people? Is he a special case? Doesn’t matter. Keep it pushing. We find out that big hair is the main character’s brother. They’re saiyans! What’re those? Keep it pushing don’t stop. We know Goku is the main character. Him and the green man start fighting the big haired guy. They’re losing bad. But they’re the heroes! They have to win! That’s how these things work. Well, guess what, episode 5 they do win! And the main character is killed. What the fuck?

It was startling to watch. But for all of us, it was so interesting to watch. We hadn’t seen anything like that before. I think it’s what drove us into it. That strangeness, that weirdness. That just kept growing with every series they threw at us. Gundam Wing, Big O, Naruto and Bleach. We just kept going. I wonder what’s going to happen next. I wonder what the next revolution is going to be.

Dragonball Super Asks an Interesting Theological Question: What If You Could Punch God in the Face?

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Okay to be fair, in Dragonball and all its different forms, the god that Goku punches is not the Almighty. He’s Beerus the god of destruction and he looks like a purple kitty man.

He shows up and tells the main characters that he’s going to destroy the world unless he can fight the Super Saiyan God. Goku achieves it as he does everything in the series and manages to fight him. He still loses the fight but Beerus decides to let the earth survive.

Dragonball constantly offers that any problem with enough effort, the heroes can overcome it. It’s a pretty hopeful sentiment. There’s nothing that you can’t get over.

What if Noah told God that he was going to overthrow the world and Noah was just ripped off his shirt and shouted for God to come down and face him. What if he made up a team with Jacob who was able to wrestle with an angel for 24 hours straight. What would God’s response be? Just to flood the world anyway?

Of course, Noah did not have the abilities that Goku and his friends do in Dragonball Z. They are gods unto themselves. With the flick of a finger they can destroy a planet or turn a city into a glass floor. It would be interesting to see the world through the eyes of a normal person as Goku and his friends let one of their opponents run roughshod over the planet.

Maybe that’s the issue, that once you hit a certain level of power it’s hard to see other people as anything but disposable. We see that throughout Dragonball where innocent people are constantly caught in the crossfire. Cities are destroyed or their people are killed. Finally in the Buu saga the bodycount reaches the maximum as everyone on the planet is killed. The heroes revive everyone but they are returned to the planet knowing what happens on the other side.

If this was the real world, things would change if the entire world was brought back to life. The entirety of what comes next would be shown to the every single person. Religions would change and some would just end. Would people become more or less reckless knowing that they constantly lived on the edge of a knife because of the actions of a handful of individuals?

It’s a question that we’re not going to get an answer to in the actual text. I guess I’m going to have to find it myself.

Evangelion and the Body

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I was at the gym today getting my swell on and I thought about Neon Genesis Evangelion for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that I was getting gains but it made me think about the way that Evangelion handles bodies both of its young protagonists and their mechas.

For those that don’t know, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show about Shinji Ikari and his two… I am legit unable to think what term would best fit for their relationships, friends doesn’t work, allies kind of works, coworkers fits a bit more. As they pilot giant mechs called Evangelions to do battle against the angels. Here’s a screenshot that sums up the show but isn’t actually from the show.

That purple thing in the foreground is called an Evangelion hence the title and that big white thing is an angel. That is one of the more straight forward angel designs because they can vary from geometric shapes, kind of bird looking dudes and literally just a young boy. They’re looking to bring about something called Third Impact that I will get into at a different time. Here it is from the front:

Let’s set our stage. The Evangelions stand about 200 meters tall. They are insanely powerful and powered by what’s called an umbilical cable that literally is just a giant power cord that even plugs into the back of the Evangelion. You can see one in the above picture that’s not featured in the show. They’re equipped with various weapons like spears, knives and guns. They also have heavy armor but their main protection is the AT(Absolute Terror) Field. It’s a field that the pilot projects from inside the Eva. We’ll get into that in a moment.

Now where is the pilot in all of this? They’re inside what’s called an entry plug, which is then inserted into the back of Eva’s neck. Like so:

The entry plug has the piloting chair and controls and is then filled with an orange breathable liquid called LCL. Like so:

Now that we have all of this out of the way, it’s time to get into spoiler territory for my discussion. If you don’t want to be spoiled, leave now.

Okay, so the thing is with Evangelions is that they aren’t just giant machines. That metallic thing around them isn’t their whole body, it’s just what’s protecting the body. You can somewhat see what they look like with it in this picture:

They are giant humans in armor and can occasionally just go nuts and attack things? Why would they do that? How could they do that? Well, it’s because inside of those giant humans is a soul. For Shinji who is the one in the LCL, his Evangelion is powered by his mother’s soul. She died in an accident and was absorbed by the giant robot that he pilots.

This is where we start getting the way that Evangelion fucks with the concept of mecha in general but more specifically the male power fantasy. In one of these animes, normally getting your mecha becomes this grand thing and showcases the young boy into becoming a man. He becomes that much more capable and beloved for it. Just look at the way that Amaro in the original Mobile Suit Gundam is respected. Many of them have some trouble with piloting but eventually start feeling jubilant towards it.

Shinji doesn’t get that and part of it is the difference between Evangelions and other mechas. Other mechas are shells that protect their pilot from all danger. Not so the Evangelion, who requires the pilot to sync with it to pilot. Hence, why Shinji pilots the Evangelion with his mother’s soul in it. But the thing is that because of this synchronization Shinji feels everything that happens to it. This becomes horrific in the movie End of Evangelion, where another pilot, Asuka gets stabbed in the eye by a spear. We cut to the inside of the plug and blood is pouring out of her eye socket. The enemies then eat her Evangelion and she feels every part of it.

From this example, we can see that the power fantasy doesn’t quite match up to the expectation. Shinji just can’t go nuts in his Evangelion without getting badly hurt. Furthermore comes what I mentioned before, the umbilical cable. It’s not just a limiter by making sure that if it gets cut he only has about five minutes before the Evangelion deactivates. From the name, it ties Shinji and the other pilots in a parental fashion to the base. Speaking of umbilical and pregnancy, it’s no coincidence that the LCL fluid looks like amniotic fluid in a womb.

So, you have this child in the womb being sent out into the world to fight against an unknown enemy. It reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut’s first part of Slaughterhouse Five where he talks about writing his book to his friend and his wife. That she complained that he’s going to make war sound good when they were really just children, babies being sent out to fight. This has different meaning for me now that I’m an adult and could comfortably have a child Shinji’s age. It breaks my heart in a way that it didn’t when I was a kid.

This show has stuck with me since I was a kid. Part of the reason, I think is because unlike other shows I watched where there was just violence for violence’s sake, Evangelion used violence as a means to emphasize the amazing dialogue and characters. Half the time, the fights just became brutalization and animalistic screams. When I was a teenager, I related to Shinji. Now that I’m an adult, my heart bleeds for him. I’ll get more into him later this week.

Review: Gundam Requiem for Vengeance

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I watched all six episodes of Gundam Requiem for a Vengeance over the course of two days last week. My non spoiler review is that it’s well made and very good. My spoiler thoughts are below the jump.

*SPOILERS FOR GUNDAM REQUIEM FOR VENGEANCE*

For the uninitiated, the Gundam franchise is about a world where humans have created colonies in space and that has made people on the earth and colonies turn into the Hatfields and McCoys. They are constantly at war with the colonies being represented by the nation of Zeon, who in most continuities are the bad guys because they’re constantly trying to drop colonies on the earth to create nuclear winter.

Their main advantage in the war are weapons known as mobile suits, specifically the Zaku.

They make short work of any defenses the earth and colonies can throw at them. Usually the series picks up when the earth and its subsequent resistance comes up with an even better mobile suit called a gundam.

They are usually superior in every aspect and are able to dice through most of the Zakus. And they are usually piloted by hyperemotional teenagers and lead to ponderous discussions of war and the nature of a soldier’s existence. It sounds silly and it partly is but it’s nice to have a war franchise be made by people who think that war is bad as opposed to a lot of American media, which thinks that war is just peachy-keen.

Our story starts with the four person Red Wolves squadron of Zaku pilots who are making their way through Europe. We see how well they’re able to handle themselves with tanks and other weapons barely able to scratch them. The four pilots are pretty standard issue characters. They’re brash and hotheaded and say things like “Good hunting” to one another.

During the first episode, they settle in for the night at their base and everything seems to be going well. Until, there’s an explosion and rising out of the flames is the gundam.

It’s presented in the same way that Godzilla is with similar music and an air of inescapability and unstoppability. Everything they throw at it only seems to distract it before it subsequently kills its annoyances. Red Wolf Squadron is halved and the rest of the forces are destroyed. Are two leads, Iria and LeSean set out to save what survivors they can.

The rest of the show is a desperate cat and mouse game against and enemy that outpaces all of the main characters. Iria, our main character, is a complicated woman who has her duty but knows it means letting her friends and fellow soldiers die sometimes as well as making sure she doesn’t get back home to see her son.

There is an impressive dream sequence where she is seen in her former occupation of virtuoso violinist playing on stage in a long red dress. The bottom of the dress becomes blood that’s filling up the theater while she’s applauded by an audience of dead Zeon soldiers.

The show finally ends when she discovers the truth of the Gundam’s pilot. He’s not some grizzled adult but a scared kid who is forced to fight. She tries to spare him but while convincing him to stand down another soldier comes up behind him and stabs him in the back. Leaving Iria bereft and desperate to keep fighting to make sure that no other children have to be caught up in this conflict.

It reminds me of the Admiral Pelleon quote from the Star Wars Extended Universe.

“We go to war so that our children will never know the fear of it. Then our children go to war and we realize what fear truly is.”

To sum it up, the 3D animation works well with the designs of the characters and mobile suits. It’s nice to see a show where it’s not some world ending threat but instead a few days in the lives of a group of people. The main downside is besides for Iria I didn’t really feel like I got to know any other characters. There could have been another episode just to flesh everyone else out.

But I do think it’s worth watching if you like Gundam or anime in general.

When Do We Start Putting Neo in Front of City Names

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For the most part, it’s only been used for Neo-Tokyo from Akira. It’s such a cool prefix to depict a city that has been through something and is now firmly in the future. Unfortunately for Akira’s Tokyo, it had to go through a terrible event.

Same as Neon Genesis Evangelion where Tokyo is now Tokyo-3. Still cool but not as cool as Neo-Tokyo. Now, what are we going to do etymology-wise with the various cities in America, which are already new versions of English cities and towns. Let’s run through a few and see how we feel.

Neo-Boston- I feel like this is a good start. It does make me think of people screaming about the Sox but they’re wearing like Geordi LaForge glasses. Would Boston make a good spaceport? I think so.

Neo New York City- That’s just ungainly. I think it would be best if it was Neo-York City. Actually, typing that out that I’m not so sure about that. Then it feels like it’s giving all the joy to York and ignoring the whole part of New York City. NNYC. Okay, reneging on what I said before, I think that Neo New York City is the way to go.

Neo Intercourse- Yes, yes, yes. This is the way to go. So, for those who love map based humor, knows that there is a town in Pennsylvania called Intercourse. Renaming it Neo Intercourse gives it the idea of future love sex. Let me touch you with my cybernetic arm. Then we’ll plug into the net with our VR headsets and engage in a roundtable about funk music.

Neo-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch- Okay, this one is a no brainer. We need to find a way to make this town’s name even more confounding and long. Really put the following gentleman through his paces.

Neo London- This is also a home run like Boston. It feels like all the bleak futurism of London comics is coming starkly through with this name. There would definitely be zeppelins.

I’m going to revisit what the future versions of cities would be like but how do we arrive? In the altered words of David Byrne, how do I get there? Well, I think we need to move away from a pessimistic outlook that leads to Neo-places.

I think when a city becomes utopian and producing renewable energy that’s the badge of honor they get. Greenways, windmills and solar panels.

Join me soon in Neo-Silent Hill! Where Pyramid Head has a hoverboard and iPhone.

What is it about Pokemon?

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I had to explain Pokemon to my coworker the other day. She told me that her son liked the cards but had no idea what they were beyond that. Having to explain it to someone else, made me have to consider what did I like about it in the first place.

I think the games themselves offer a fantasy that any child would love. First, you get to leave home on an exciting adventure! You’re going to travel from town to town, seeing the sights. Encountering new people and doing new things. That was what the anime was, a road movie as much as an advertisement for the games.

Secondly, kids love pets. But what’s the problem with pets? You can only have one or two. Well, Pokemon offers you the dream of having several hundred pets all at the same time. And there are so many kinds of pets. Forget your normal dog and cat. You can have a sentient pile of garbage as your pet!

Who rescued who?

Then comes the joy of just collecting things. Kids collect trading cards and bottle caps and all kinds of things. Now they have cute animals on them. And of course, the aforementioned sentient bag of trash.

There’s over a thousand of them at this point. Your kid is going to be able to find at least one that they love above all others. For me, it was the Pokemon, Lapras.

A lovely blue and looking to surf through the water

I loved dinosaurs as a kid but found real plesiosaurs to be terrifying. I think they were the ones that gave me my initial hydromegathalassaphobia, the fear of large things in the water. Most things prehistoric things made me scared of the ocean.

AHHHH!

Lapras was a nice alternative. You could ride on its back. It was gentle and kind. But the problem was that they were so few in the game. They were hunted to near extinction. But then through conservation methods, they became plentiful again.

I thought that no one could shake my love for Lapras. But then one of the new games introduced a new challenger. The one and only, little pig: Lechonk.

Look at this absolute unit.

Gotta love a little pig that’s so round. While my love for Lapras will never be shaken or replaced, this little guy comes a close second.

But this is kind of the point, isn’t it? I’m sure that someone even loves the garbage bag. With that many, every person has to have a favorite and every pokemon is someone’s favorite.

It’s always been a weird thing for me to have such affection for these silly little games. But the fact of the matter is that they have influenced me throughout my life. Part of my love of adventure and wanting to see new places comes from these games. There’s always been a lifelong want to walk across America and it definitely came from watching Ash, Misty and Brock walking something like several thousand miles.

Lord of the Rings offers the same thrill of adventure. Leaving home and doing something great and I think that Pokemon elicits the same feelings. Except instead of having the fate of the world and a big eye staring at you, you get a nice little friend.