Iwa ni Hana

Desultory notes on the first episode of 'Skull Man' (スカルマン)

The good news is that BONES is very much on the ball with the production of this adaptation of the old school shounen sci-fi thriller manga by Ishinomori Shoutarou 石ノ森 章太郎 from the 1970s. From all the spoilers I have read, it seems that BONES is changing the original story radically (which is fine with me). Even if the story is not exactly a magnet, the show still deserves recognition for technical excellence. Here are some great technical points I want to mention:

• My favourite Ozu-style mono no aware scene, in which feelings are expressed by showing the face of things rather than the face of individuals:

Watching anime in a marathon run: 'Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi' and 'Wolf's Rain'

So I did a marathon run of Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi 天保異聞 妖奇士 in three consecutive nights, a period drama of philosophical depth which I would have missed if it were not for Anikimeiski-dono's kind tip. The only drawback to the show is the rather unimaginative designs of the youi or monsters, which look as though they have been recycled from a dozen other monster-fighting shounen series. Not that the monsters are there just for show - to quote Anikimeiski-dono: In Bakumatsu Kikansetsu universe, monsters make good people do bad things for them: In Tempo Ibun universe, good people create monsters to do bad things for them. Great characterization, intense pacing and some poignant moments - it's not a show of which you can complain of weak writing at any given point. Story-wise, it was the most mature and intellectually polished show of the fall season of 2006 (more so than even Le Chevalier D'eon by a wide margin).

I said I watched the series over three nights - perhaps I am getting old and my eyes now give up after so many hours. A few years ago, I used to be able to watch a whole series in one go during one all-nighter in the weekend. That was the way I watched Wolf's Rain ウルフズ・レイン. There is something to be said of watching anime in a maranthon run like that. If the anime series sucks you in at all, it really does feel like a long and amazing dream of having been transported to another world (espeically for a fairytale-like series like Wolf's Rain too). To add to that, when you catch up on your sleep, you would probably have one long and amazing dream of your own due to some sort of indigestion in your brain - the characters appear in your dream and various scenes appear in different slants. It really is quite something.

I wonder how other anime fans do their maranthon runs - I favour late night in the weekend and I always do this alone (in fact I would deeply resent company).

'Toki wo kakeru shoujo (時をかける少女)' directed by Hosoda Mamoru (細田守): An Analysis

Rating: 5/5

See this Wikipedia entry for plot summary and basic info.

[Spoilers of the animated film ahead.]

1) The painting Chiaki has come from all the way from the future to see is called Hakubai ni Tsubaki Kiku Zu (白梅ニ椿菊図), or 'A Picture of White Plum and Camellia and Chrysanthemum'. The ニ ('ni') in the title does not mean 'two', but is the katakana ni. They used katakana in archaic writings like that.

The Japanese blogosphere, drawing on various relevant interviews hitherto published , seems to have agreed that the woman in the middle is Butsumo 仏母, or the Mother of Buddha, whereas the four blue circles in the middle signify the universe. I have yet to figure out why it is four circles instead of one or two or three. (Methinks three would have been a fitting number signifying past, present and future.)

It is difficult to spot the three types of flowers in the painting but supposedly they are hidden in the 'frame' which surrounds Butsumo. However, I noticed that the camellia and chrysanthemum do appear elsewhere in Tokikake.

Here is the camellia outside the window of the shared room of Makoto and her sister, and in the hall just outside their room.

Here is the chrysanthemum:

And the camellia and chrysanthemum appearing in the same frame:

These are the seasons the three flowers represent respectively:

White Plum = Spring
Camellia = Winter
Chrysanthemum = Autumn

Unfortunately, I have not been able to spot the white plum anywhere in the film.

2) There is one sequence of camera work I really like. That is when Makoto is trying for the first time to do a time leap (and fails). First you see her lying prostrate from the ceiling. 

Then you see her turning around -

To look at the clock (which shows that she has not gone back in time at all).

In other words, the perspective through which we see her in the second frame above is the clock's perspective. A neat stroke that is.

Anime that they do not want foreigners to see, and anime that they do want foreigners to see

It seems that 2007 is going to be an extremely fruitful year for anime. I for one am overjoyed to see the likes of Mononoke, Paprika, Genius Party, Ani*Kuri15, Byousoku 5 Centimeter, Tekkon Kinkurito, Stranger - Mukou Hadan, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and Seirei no Moribito being released. As I was saying earlier, I think there is an increasing trend that the anime industry is diversifying towards two extremes:

• A: Shows that do not rely on the sale of DVDs
• B: Shows that do rely on the sale of DVDs

To this I wish to elaborate that there is another set of extremes:

• A: Shows that they do not want foreigners to see.
• B: Shows that they do want foreigners to see.

(Please note that A and B in these two sets of extremes may overlap with each other but not necessarily so.)

This is something that has been on my mind since the series Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto ended. For all the show's shortcomings (such as weak writing in the later episodes), it still comes off as an above average show. I am not aware of any news of it being licensed overseas yet. But on the whole, the impression it gives me is that it is a show they do not want foreigners to see. (It was broadcast online exclusively for free but they put in a smart DRM system to block foreign IPs.) Sure, it features more than one cool-looking samurai, stylish swordfights and an epic-sounding soundtrack - even with all the footnotes that are necessary to understand the transitional time from the Bakumastu period to the Meiji period, it still ought to be able attract a foreign audience effortlessly -

Basically, the plot of Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto boils down this: Samurai A stops Samurai B from conquering the entire world and succeeds in doing so. It is not clear what Samurai A and Samurai B are motivated by respectively - though good old shimei 使命 or 'destiny' is cited from time to time as the reason for their actions. In terms of the 'spirit' of the show, there is something skin to Taiyo no Mokushiroku, which may be award-winning within Japan, but is not, like Paprika, making its round in film festivals across the globe so conspicuously. I suppose I must trace that 'spirit' to political insensitivity and unnecessary smokescreening. In a way, Bakumatsu, for all its pretense to historic authencity, is an escapist revision of history. It is - if you will - self-consciously quiant.

There are two other big-budget animated films coming out in 2007 that make you wonder if the Japanese producers themselves might not have been similarly self-conscious of whether foreigners would view them as quaint:

ICE
The trailer makes it clear that this is a mecha and yuri show (and unapologetically so). The story: In 2012, the males of humankind are all wiped off the face of the earth due to unknown changes in the polluted environemnt, and only the females are left. Those who remain are divided into two camps: those have resigned to a doomed future and want to live the rest of their lives in a hedonist manner, and those who want to change their fates by means of developing new technology.
(Source: ttp://www.project-ice.com/ice_top.html)

Vexville - 2077 Sakoku -
Another mecha show in the style of Appleseed. The story: In the early 21st century, there are major advances in prolonging human life and robot technology. Japan leads the world in these technologies. However, due to the dangers inherent in these technologies, the UN demands that strict regulations should be complied with. Refusing the UN's demand, Japan decides to implement sakoku or 'close-country' policy in 2067 and cuts off all contact with the rest of the world. In 2077, an American female soldier named Vexville lands in Japan and sees for the first time a country no foreigner has seen in the past ten years, and what she finds is nothing but a wasteland...
(source: ttp://www.vexille.jp)

What is one to make of these?

In the meantime, when I first saw photographs of Genius Party's exhibition (at TAF 2007, I believe?), I thought I was looking at the centennial celebration of grand men of letters from the Meiji era at a museum or else a concert hall filled with posters of conductors conducting symphonies or something. Even the trailers of Genius Party feature footages of each director nodding and gesturing furiously at work. Its official website even has Japanese and English written side by side. The point is, they take themselves seriously, and they want the world to know that they take themselves seriously. There is no mistake that Genius Party is something that they want to world to see.   

When I said in an earlier post that there are anime that rely on DVD sales and anime that do not rely on DVD sales, I forgot to factor in a formidable shadow market in the anime industry - namely hentai or animated adult pornography. Obviously, hentai studios employ animators and the same pool of voice actors (albeit under aliases) to act out the scripts. I have been told that this is a stable source of revenue because the demand for pornography, like food, remains more or less stable over time, though the question remains as to how profitable or saturated the market is. It also provides work for up-starting voice actors who would otherwise have to supplement their income with a part-time job. It seems to me that hentai anime is not something that they would want foreigners to see.

I have always thought of anime and manga as a rich minefield of psychological complexes. It fills a psychological reality in the way that cannot be filled by the acting of real people. Even with the harem and otome shows, one could pump the depths of those psychological complexes if one knew where to look.

I have also noticed that there seems to be an inverse relationship as to how artistic a show is and how much fanart/fanfic it inspires. The shows that do not rely on DVD sales push all the right buttons that invite instinctive and emotional responses. It is for this reason that they inspire passion and madness in fans. They generate a great quantity of fanart/fanfic that shows which do rely on DVD sales cannot hope to achieve. They can also be embarassing for its fans to discuss because it is like a map to their mental composition - talking about it seriously to someone who may or may not share your enthusiasm is only a short step away from letting others read into your personal problems. I think this may be a reason why, as a commentator mentioned in an earlier post, in Japan the real otaku does not discuss anime seriously in spite of being otaku.

It seems fair to say, that in a similar fashion there the anime shows they do not want foreigners to see because these shows are only a short step away from letting foreigners (rightly or wrongly) read into Japan's problems.

Kabuki play 'Musume Doujouji' in Samurai Champloo

It just occurred to me that the kabuki play from Episode 6 of Samurai Champloo must be Kyou Ganoko Musume Doujouji 京鹿子娘道成寺 (also known as Musume Doujouji 娘道成寺 for short). In the play, the monks of Doujouji asks Kiyohime (disguising as a girl called Hanako) to dance for them in exchange for letting her pay her respects to the bell of Doujouji. Having mesmerized the monks with her dance, Kiyohime blasts the monks with her magic powers, throws herself into the bell and then a giant white snake appears on the top of the bell.

On a somewhat related note, if you are interested in the play, you can check out this 2004 movie called Musume Doujouji ~ Jyaen no Koi 娘道成寺～蛇炎の恋. The trailer from the official website does not, by any stretch of the imagination, look promising in terms of art direction and acting, but the extravagant stage costumes are definitely something for kabuki lovers to check out.

(May I just add that I really like the make-up of the woman in the poster of Musume Doujouji on the right? Kakunojou from Bakumatsu Kikanketsu Irohanihoheto in her stage get-up may look just like that if someone were to cosplay her.)

More on the films of Kon Satoshi: 'Millennium Key'

Someone has done an even better job at dissecting Kon Satoshi's Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. You can watch it on Youtube here:

Millennium Key (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

Be sure to check out the discussion of mystical level, the magical level and the mundane level in the structure of Millennium Actress in Part 5.

Just a quick note on the spring line-up of anime

Besides Seirei no Moribito and Toward the Terra, I will be watching (at least for the time being):

Hayate no Gotoku
Just looking at the Episode 1, I honestly thought it had the potential to be the spiritual successor to Ouran High School Host Club. But judging from Episode 2, it seems they may just be rehashing tricks and jokes that felt new in Episode 1. I am guessing the broad pattern of the show would be for them to introduce new characters every few episodes for the sake of novelty, and it is doubtful whether such a pattern can hold after a while.

Oh! Edo Rocket
The fight scene with the monsters in Episode 1, though technically well-done, dragged on for too long. But the unique scenery designs remind me of Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror. The big band jazz sounds fun. I have a feeling that the show can be 'educational' like Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto if you actually bother to look up the little historic details.

Darker than BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha-
Not exactly a first episode that makes me go wow. Somehow the trailers showing some keiyakusha acquiring eccentric habits like lining up little stones and breaking their fingers in exchange for their magical power seem to bode ill (I thought they were supposed to exchange their human feelings or something equally irreplaceable).

Heroic Age
This contains more sci-fi cliches than I expected. But story-wise if Le Chevalier D'eon is anything to go by in the Ubukata world, I think the 12 Articles of the contract humankind makes with Age will backfire on humankind in due course. 

Dropped from my to-watch list:

Romeo x Juliet
Somehow Juliet's voice-acting did not sit well with me, neither does the premise of a headstrong heroine who gets saved by the unassuming hero from one ill-conceived and impetuous dash of self-righteousness or another.

[Rant] It's the shipping costs, stupid!

Can I interrupt the regular programming with a rant on Amazon Japan?

Once upon a time, one used to have a choice between economy class and express shipping. Last month, they cancelled economy class shipping. That leaves one with only express shipping, which costs 2100 yen per item within Asia. The shipping & handling costs are now three or four times higher then the average price of a manga volume or a soft paperback novel.

I decided not to waste time looking at alternative online bookstores, as I would most likely be filling in forms and even giving away my credit card number only to be taken to a page that says they do not ship overseas or they do not accept foreign credit card. I went to the local Japanese bookstore and placed my order instead. (The local bookstore does not guarantee that they will ship manga for some reason, but at least they charge a fair price.)

Another thing that infuriated me about Amazon was that on the 9th of April they still have not updated the pages for a manga series that has already gone on sale on the 6th of April. I am sure they do not have statutory holidays for Easter in Japan. I cannot accept the weekend as an excuse as they could have set a page to be published at an appointed time. Besides, I don't want to sit around waiting for them to update the pages or risk misplacement of my order by using the pre-order function.

Does Japan still want to trade with the rest of the world or what?

* It's even more expensive for North America and Europe.

Career choice in 'Saiunkoku Monogatari'

Does Shuurei want to be a civil servant for the sake of being a civil servant, or is it great power for great purposes that she wants?

A heroine struggling for power is something of a terra incognita in the shoujo genre. When the story took a turn because the emperor Ryuuki changes the law to allow women to take the national civil exam out of affection for Shuurei, the following points crossed my mind:

• What the emperor gives out of affection today, he can also revoke out of disaffection tomorrow.
• Why place yourself in a position of dependence? However much you may succeed in the future as a civil servant, you will be in the debt of a patron who wants something from you which you cannot give.
• Is being a civil servant learned in... bureaucracy that smart of a career choice? Most civil service posts require only generalist knowledge. There are other ways to do good (which I presume is what she wants). Why not develop an area of expertise, like medicine or engineering - something that is of immediate practical use to society - and be a pioneer in that field? You make yourself indispensable by acquiring specialized knowledge so that they depend on you to take up a consulting post - it is not you who depend on them to give you a generalist post for which you could be easily replaced.

Some observations of the behavioural patterns of Japanese and English-speaking anime fans

Teamwork vs Non-teamwork

• If I have to describe the two fandoms through visual images, I would have them represented thus: the Japanese fans are like a classroom of pupils seated in neat rows of desks and none of the desks touches each other; the English-speaking fans are sitting in a circle with the desks pushed toward the walls of the classroom.
• There are primarily two modes of participation for Japanese fans: i) building individual fansites linked in a webring and; ii) anonymous postings at ch2 where the posters are so anonymous that they cannot even be identified by username. The former is the classroom where the pupils sit in rows - all order and discipline and doing-your-own-assignment-to-be-submitted-to-the-teacher. The later is the toilet where individuals scribble troll-ish ejaculations on the partition walls knowing that no one would ever find out who wrote what. These two modes of participation have existed for some years and are unlikely to change in the near future. You may think of them as the 'light' and 'shadow' fandoms in Japan.
• Modes of participation for English-speaking have changed over the years. Mailing lists and IRC used to be popular, now the platforms of choice seem to be blogs and community forums. Either way the innate tendency of English-speaking fans is to aggregate and interact. Fansub culture promotes team work (hence my analogy of pupils sitting in a circle). I am not aware of any separation of 'light' and 'shadow' fandoms among English-speaking fans.
• Not all Japanese fansites show up on search engines and not all fan blogs are equipped with RSS feeds. I have been told that this is because fanart and fanfic are technically infringements on copyright in Japan, which is why it is something of a taboo to link to their fansites without authorization. The point is, they tend hide away in some obscure corner of cyberspace. English-speaking fansites, by contrast, are out there to evangelize.

Logos vs Eros

• English-speaking fans tend to approach an anime series through the application of reason and logic. Japanese fans tend to approach an anime series through the application of emotion and feeling.
• Research on topics like historic background, mythical symbolism are more common with English-speaking fans. If something is unclear, the tendency among English-speaking fans is to look it up, write it up and serve it up, whereas the tendency among Japanese fans is to let it pass.
• You may call it the Rational Western Mind at work: on top of research, English-speaking fans like to take a body of details and develop theories of how these details are connected. After gathering the who, when, what, where and how, English-speaking fans want to know the why. I must say - although I frequent Japanese and Chinese fandoms as well, the most interesting analysis I have ever read all come from English-speaking fans.
• The creative genius of English-speaking fandom lies in identifying and decoding of the elements of an anime. The creative genius of the Japanese fandom lies in fanart.
• English-speaking fans are more sensitive to plot holes (ie. gaps in cause and effect), anachronisms (ie. failure to align time and space in the correct order) and supernatural intrusions into the material world (ie. the X factor that upsets the chain of causation). Many times have I seen English-speaking fans spotting obvious and not-so-obvious plot holes and anarchronisms which go unmentioned in the Japanese fandom. Also, English-speaking fans tend to react negatively towards the supernatural elements unless they see a good reason that justifies the incorporation of the supernatural. The dividing line between the supernatural and natural worlds do not seem to be as clearly marked for Japanese fans.
• Often there are Japanese fans on ch2 who say 'this show sucks' and not a word more. Sometimes the same remark, albeit worded differently, appear in over ten entries, only to be continued in ten more entries after a break. It is possible that the same person is repeating the same thing over and over again. It is also possible that several persons are there to express the same sentiment without stating why they hate it. On the other hand, the expectation in the English-speaking fandom is that if you called a show 'shitty', you had better be prepared to state your reasons. Japanese fans tend not to justify subjective likes and dislikes with objective reasons. English-speaking fans tend to justify subjective likes and dislikes with objective reasons. Granted, subjective likes and dislikes and objective reasons are closely related - it's just that there is a greater readiness among English-speaking fans to establish the link.

The above are quite desultory and I may have more to add later on. Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to agree, disagree, correct me or add to the above points.