Other: Cynical, Slightly Naive/Immature, Not Too Sociable or Talkative, Snarky, Haughty at Times, Mellow Other Online Aliases: SirInsania, Makaio
What I look like
Oh, the irony is delicious.
History On A Cel Under Construction
Comprehensive List of Favorites
Serials
Legend of the Galactic Heroes -- an intelligent, human, and compelling space opera
Now and Then, Here and There -- A depressing yet engrossing take on the psychological and social effects of war as well as the role in which hope plays
Princess Tutu -- a beautiful and complex fairytale that encompasses the tragedy and harmony of its own universe
Azumanga Daioh -- a cute, innocent, and charming light comedy that makes the mundane high school life far from ordinary (no cultural knowledge required)
Nodame Cantabile -- a romantic comedy with interesting characters, excellent writing, and a great use of classical music
Paranoia Agent -- a psychological thriller that pulls no punches on its critique of modern Japanese culture.
Movies, OAV's, and Shorts
Mind Game -- a smart, frenetic comedy on both facing and enjoying life
My Neighbor Totoro -- a heartwarming piece of animation that evokes child-like imagination
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time -- genuinely captures the experiences and joys of adolescence
Magnetic Rose -- an invoking journey into the fantasies of its victims
Millenium Actress -- a moving biopic that effectively that manipulates the difference between fantasy and reality
La Maison en Petits Cubes -- a serene journey into the life of a widow
Manga
Monster -- a psychological thriller that is both tight and compelling
Yotsuba&! -- makes the mundane nature of early childhood an adventure itself
Ode to Kirihito -- compelling and well-written which also gives insight into the human spirit
Solanin -- effectively captures the struggles and triumphs of post-college life
Tastes
Genres: Science Fiction, Psychological, Comedy (with taste), Drama, Artsy, Alternative Knacks: Unique Visual Styles, Original Concepts, Thoughtful Animation, Mental and Emotional Realism, Complex Storytelling, Fresh Takes on Old Genres, Wit, Satire, Black Humor, Humanity, Making the Mundane Exciting Frowns Upon: Self-Referential Humor, Unfunny Slapstick, Relentless and Purposeless Angst, Bishojo Character Design, Underdeveloped Characters (at the expense of everything else), Skewed Sense of Commitment (i.e. Taking about the first half of a show for everything to take off), Blatant Fanservice
Likes & Dislikes
Likes:
Food
Hawaii
Humor
Silliness
Blunt Honesty
Reading
Thinking
Video Games
Unique Visual Styles
Press Your Luck
Super Robots
Manliness (See also: Super Robots (Because mecha pilots of those beasts are REAL MEN.))
Dislikes:
"Cliques"
Frustration
Boredom
Stupid People
McDonalds (...is not REAL food)
Tired Anime Humor
Yutaka Yadamoto
Brendan Fraser (He can't act!)
Crocs (...of shit)
Unnecessary moral outrage/panic (mostly at the expense at reducing other peoples' privacy and freedoms)
Over-enthusiasm
Any adaptation that desecrates the source material (Jules Verne must be rolling in his grave right now.)
Studio-centrism- focusing too much on the studio in place of the people that worked on said title or using it as a quality filter.
Moe
Fans who use "moe" as an adjective just for the sake of being "clever". (See also: Memes)
Memes- mostly used as a poor excuse for actual humor and a lack of originality
Fans who decry a reviewer for a "lack of objectivity" just because they happen to disagree with said person's opinion. (See also: Stupid People, Over-enthusiasm)
Fans who give certain people or studios "sympathy points" in their reviews. (See also: Studio-centrism)
Vocal Minorities
Fans who take offense at non-issues (e.g. the MSNBC debacle). (See also: Vocal Minorities)
Comedies that replace actual humor with in-references that don't add anything to the work itself. (See also: Memes)
Youth Culture (Used for self-interest instead of empowerment)
Spread the word!
You say "elitist" like it's a BAD thing. Given the choice, it's my preference to watch things that are exceptional, for good or for bad, such that everything else just isn't worth the time. And you know something? There's so much out there that I won't ever have enough time in this life to watch everything based solely on those selection criteria. You want to disregard my opinion based on that? You go right ahead in the name of that wishy-washy "everybody has their own preferences, so NOTHING is truly bad or good because that's just like...your OPINION, man!" mentality.
--Daryl Surat
The awful truth...
The middle ground is exasperatingly hard to find if you're not already hip, and with the pronounced (physical and/or mental) youth of anime fans in general, it may well take a few years before one is mature enough to really step back from one's particular anime sub-clique and start thinking critically about their relationship with Japanese rape cartoons.
thanks for the invite ;D. In regards to Cencoroll I think you're wanting for closure where there isn't any. But you've made some very good points, and know you stuff. The titles you mentioned are stellar examples mind-blowing dynamism, but there is something to be said of Cencoroll's subtle quiescence.
Well, I can't really elaborate on Canaan, how many weeks have passed since I watched it? At most 3-4, maybe less and I remember next to nothing. I started Canaan in synch with Darker than Black. My initial of both shows were similar, both packed with a lot of stereotypic hero-antihero borderlines. Whereas DtB managed to add some good story arcs and human touch to the composition, Canaan simply insisted on juvenile hysteria. I was sleepwalking through most of the experience, it was playing half screen and I was surfing the net, that should say something about how high I held the show :). In the end I think this is B-movie material, if this was a self-conscious comedy of over the top action it may have worked.
I watched 1st and 5th of Kara no Kyokai movies and planning to fill in the rest, after Canaan I'm not sure ;).
I wish we get more western comics here. Other than superhero comics, few got licensed here. Some that I know is V for Vendetta, A History of Violence, Usagi Yojimbo, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Larry Gonick's works. Though they are some of the arguably more popular and economically viable comics, they did not seem to do well if the fact that I had to buy Watchmen from an import bookstore is any indication... but it's not that we get more alternative manga here anyway. What is released here is mostly shojo manga, some shonen manga. Seinen manga only take off pretty recently, but the choice titles are pretty limited. Other than Naoki Urasawa and Takehiko Inoue who reached mainstream popularity, other titles seems to get sluggish releases (it's been forever since the last volume of Blade of Immortal is released).
As for more enjoyment in gaming, I guess I'm kinda biased in gaming for now since I just picked it back and I played what is obviously cream-of-the-crop. It's like finding a really good new anime that's instantly re-energizes your passion for anime. Given time, I'm sure I will complain about it the same way about anime.
By the way, I just gotten in an argument in my local community over a show called Seitokai no Ichizon. I objects when one a person said that it is in the same vein with Azumanga Daioh, and said that Azumanga Daioh's situational comedy is way better than Seitokai no Ichizon's self-referential comedy (I tried not to be too judgmental... I believe the most offensive word I use is "I love Azumanga Daioh, but I hate this show" and "This show made me slam my table"). What happened is I was classified as a troll or was said "You're being too subjective." I guess I probably shouldn't spew my hate on that kinda show publicly in that area. In retrospect, I guess it's useless to criticize popular shows. I'd better off praising more obscure shows.
Hey, thanks for wishing me a happy birthday. Been kinda busy lately since I got a new computer for my birthday.
Have you received the message from Tokusyu Manga Club creator Pierre Bezukhov? He might be thinking that it's insulting to some people, but I can really, really sympathize with many (if not all) of his points.
Between school, socializing, and gaming, which I picked back after upgrading my computer, I just doesn't feel I have much time for anime/manga. Even if I have the time, most of the time I don't have much motivation for it.
I buy many manga, but I'm only really excited for a few. Most of it slowly becomes half chore, half enjoyment, in which in the end I choose gaming since it offers me more enjoyment.
I guess I'm on a down phase because I still can't say that I dislike anime/manga even with all its flaws, but his message especially makes me think that lately I haven't read/watch much things outside anime/manga (classic novels, movies) even though I have an interest in them too since I somehow feel more obliged to anime/manga... perhaps because I'm trying to be a connoisseur in the midst of the barren fandom here.
Hi!
Your Higashi no Eden / Eden of the East member card is finished! I sincerely apologize for the huge delay, but nevertheless, I hope you'll still like it. If there perhaps is anything wrong with it, please let me know!
If you'd like, please support the club by posting the card in your profile/blog!
Real man club? Sure, I'm in. I'd blame Daryl Surat for giving me a taste for hilariously 'bad' manly things though.
About the 'omnivores', are you implying that these 'omnivores' I'm talking about has an attitude of watching certain anime because they're anime fans? I do have a problem with that attitude (though I'm still a bit guilty of that in the manga front) but I will actually give some of them more credit than that, but the thing that bothers me the most is the depth of the comments. Nobody (and I dare say nobody) cares to extrapolate their thoughts or giving a meaningful insight about the anime/manga in discussion.
The average 'discussion' posts even on hardcore communities here is around 20 words, and most of them only contain comments such as "This anime is good.", "This anime is deep and touching", or even worse: "EPIC", "GAR", "[insert character name] is [insert moe archetype]". One of those 'omnivores' say this in a thread discussing Mononoke: "The artstyle is unusual, some may not like it. The story is pretty cool, even though the intro is pretty slow. The ending song is cool. Pretty recommended". I make no exaggeration that this is the best post about said anime in that particular thread.
Add that and that pretty much nobody cares about individual anime creators except maybe Hayao Miyazaki (and to a lesser extent Satoshi Kon), and that's how alienated I am. I'd respect even moe fans if I can have a good discussion and ended up understanding his point-of-view.
Well, that's to be expected, but I thought there's no harm asking. If you read my comments on his profile, you'll see why I'm so excited to talk with him. Primarily though, it's the sense of alienation and cynicism.
Sorry to rant here but before him there is not a single Indonesian anime fan I know worthy of my full respect. Those that reads/watches seinen, classic, 'artsy' anime/manga exist, but most of the time they're 'omnivores' (sometimes treating them as 'rest' between fanservicey titles). In retrospect, I actually do not mind if their taste is different, I just wanted someone that is interested in analyzing and explaining their thoughts about anime/manga (and uses good grammar).
As for what I've been watching recently, the only shows I follow as they go is Shin Mazinger and Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2. Shin Mazinger feels kind of dragging at times but overall it's an above-average robot show, which is the type of anime I non-objectively like the most. As for Haruhi, excluding the whole Endless Eight fiasco, I found myself rather ambivalent about it. Frankly, the first Haruhi is one my 'gateway' anime and at that time I found myself wholly amazed by its technical aspect and its 'sharp wit' (I even go as far as reading the translated novel online), but after years of experience I realized just how much pastiche and referential Haruhi is. Especially Mikuru, who now I find to be greatly annoying. It does not help that the current arc after Endless Eight mostly focuses on Haruhi herself abusing Mikuru. That said, between the nostalgic value and hope that it will get better (I did read the novel) I'll keep watching.
I'm also watching through Gundam 0080 (1st episode so far). The technical aspect doesn't age well (but still better than the Gundam movie trilogy, since it's an OVA)
but people have said that it's the Gundam that portrays the futility of war and human drama the best.
I'm more a manga reader actually, as I've been reading a lot of manga since I was I child before entering the anime fandom. Sadly, in Indonesia adult manga is mostly underappreciated. Part of the problem is that our country is mostly conservative about media. Recently there's a movie project here that involves the JAV star Maria Ozawa, and some religious leaders are already against it for 'devaluation of morals'.
There's an adult manga publisher, but we get mostly non-risque titles like Eagle or 20th Century Boys. Hell, even fanservicey shonen like Negima and Air Gear is 'forced' to be released under them because of the aforementioned 'moral vanguards'. How I envy the Americans and their choice in adult manga...
(well, there's always the option of importing, but that's too expensive for me).
Just want to say hello and say that my taste lately bore much resemblance to you (haven't updated my MAL though). I haven't been active on THEM boards lately though.
I especially wanted to ask you about the MAL user Anime_Sucks which you seem to have quite an extensive conservation in the past. I wonder if you are still in contact with him or have some kind of other contact information, because I really, really want to speak with another Indonesian with similar taste as 'us' (I'm an Indonesian too).
Since you may have added Denpa deki na Konojo after seeing it in my updates I feel obligated to warn you that it's not that good. It lacks development [story and character wise] and the conversations were poorly written, most of them are just awkward sounding.
It's mood was done well though, definitely gives off some creepy vibes. The scenery and music provided that at least.
If you want more stuff that is removed from the Okatu fandom, read some Western comics. I wrote an extensive recommendation on Corrupt Id's profile page. The amount of it is very overwhelming and there are quite a few links.
Thanks for joining The Tokusyu Manga Club. Hope you find a lot of new stuff there. From my experience with it, much of it tries to seperate from the okatu culture and tries to seek originality and a level of art that many people are unfamiliar with.
