Fall 2016 – Week 12 in Review

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Yeah, it’s that time of the year when you just want to cuddle up in your bed and not move an inch. I know I did this morning, because the cold was just insufferable. And then I realized I needed to go shopping, only to end up getting drenched in the rain on the way back. Thankfully, the anime was ready to greet me back at home, complete with a cup of steaming hot cocoa.

Merry Christmas everybody. 🙂

So yeah, the shows are ending. It’s a little sad, but at the same time there are still some shows that have an episode left before ending forever. And then there’s one show that’s going to go on for a second cour. So let’s recap what happened this week! Continue reading →

Sunshine Blogger Award Nomination

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Okay, so I think this is waaaaay overdue, and much of the reason has to do with my busy schedule and headless-chicken-like manner of getting things done. But I really owe it to Alane for nominating me. In fact, the truth is I started this blog waaay back in March 2016, but I haven’t received many views simply because I haven’t interacted with the blogger community that much.

And Alane was perhaps one of the first people to actually reach out to me. Thank you for that! Because of her nomination, I was introduced to a great number of people who write pretty fantastic posts. But just to clarify, I’m not really in it for the page views. So long as I know one or two people out there read my content and are actually “moved” by it is enough for me. So for everyone I’ve met in the three months I’ve started to become reasonably “active”, thank you for being such great people!

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Fall 2016 – Week 11 in Review

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This week was a little nerve-wracking for me, given I finally submitted my written dissertation proposal, followed by an oral defense that didn’t exactly go as well as I’d hoped. Regardless, I spent a lovely afternoon eating out with friends at a pretty authentic Japanese restaurant (which is hard to find in west England, mind you), after which I treated myself to a performance of the London Symphony Orchestra playing to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

But what about the anime? Well, it did reasonably good; although the funny thing is that even though the shows are obviously preparing to close shop for the year, I honestly can’t help but feel a little indifferent. It’s hard to express the feeling — I do want to see how the shows will end, but I sorta feel like I want to get on to the next season. And it’s not because the shows aren’t doing any good — in fact I feel that their approach to their closure is moving within reasonable expectations (as they should). But at the same time, I think I’m not as excited as I should be. Does any of that make sense?

Oh well, whatever. Let’s take a look back and see what happened last week! Continue reading →

[Rant] Composition and Anime

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Warning: this is gonna be a rant.

I haven’t really done rants on this blog yet, but suffice it to know that I actually do it quite often. Every season, there’s always a show or two that just doesn’t meet up to your standards, but every now and then there’s that one show that is just so amazingly bad that it manages to even be offensive. The last show I remember that reached that magnitude of awfulness was Kuma Miko back in Spring 2016… The culprit this season is none other than Occultic;nine.

And there are many reasons to hate this show — from its highly convoluted premise, to its heavy reliance on conspiracy theories turned chuunibyou-technobabble nonsense — but if there’s one thing to absolutely despise in this show, it’s the god awful cinematography and composition.

And I think I have enough experience in Photography (having grown up under the tutelage of a serious hardcore film camera-weilding father) to say that none of the compositional sense in this show makes… er, sense. Although the sensibilities in still photography and cinematography may differ, they share the same principles in basic framing and composition. Heck, just look at the mess of shots there are in this show! Continue reading →

Fall 2016 – Week 10 in Review

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Wow, we’re in the double-digits now. Week 10, and then it’s just a little bit more till 2017 — and that means obligatory year-end rankings and what not. But as much as I’m excited for the new year, I was quite similarly excited for what happened this week. If I were to describe this season, I’d probably call it out as some kind of misfit. There were those shows that were obviously good from the start… and then there were those that were just so bad… and then there were those that yo-yo-ed up and down as if trading seats during a game of trip to Jerusalem.

It’s a strange dynamic that is quintessentially Fall 2016. Sure, I feel like it’s screwed me pretty hard, but I feel like it’s been a fun ride nevertheless. So let’s run down just what happened this week: Continue reading →

Fall 2016 – Week 9 in Review

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Yup, that’s what I look like at the moment.

This entry comes in a bit late because I couldn’t procrastinate any further with my 4,500-word dissertation proposal. That and the fact that I’m heading up to Glasgow next week, so I needed to cram in everything I could before the week was up. As a result, the weekly review had to take a step back — but that didn’t mean I didn’t sneak in a show or two to tide me through the droll task of putting thought to… er, screen.

And fortunately (or unfortunately) there was one show that was cancelled this week due to changes in the holiday broadcasting schedule, namely March comes in like a Lion. Although it sucked not having my dramatic character-driven fix for the week, it sucked even more in that some of the shows kinda just blew up on themselves. This was, honestly, a really tiring week in both RL and animeland, so let’s rundown what the heck happened– Continue reading →

your name. – Review

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When faced with a Makoto Shinkai work, I often find myself preparing for it in ways more than one. On the one hand, there’s the excitement of witnessing an animation spectacle that is, arguably, one of the most beautiful of its kind. But at the same time, there’s the dread of having to deal with whatever feels there are to be had. Coming from Shinkai’s previous works, I’ve always been a little confused with regard to the author’s position on human relationships and the ways in which the world conspires for or against our visions of the “ideal” (embodied in the platonic). The short film 5 cm per second, for example, serves as an elegy to a failed relationship and how unspoken words and inaction hinder us from attaining this “ideal”. In contrast, the theatrical short the Garden of Words answers the former’s lack of action with an outspoken expressiveness that challenges the societal structures that keep us apart. But even in the latter, Shinkai ends on a leitmotif of time and distance — that all relationships are still subject to the forces of a world that can ravage such emotional connections with an unforgiving arm.

And so I steel myself for yet another answer to Makoto Shinkai’s long string of spatially troubled relationships. Indeed, your name. appears to be, if anything, an answer to that same question regarding the value of relationships — of bonds and connections — in a spatially disconnected world. And it does so by opting for a more fantastical depiction of love that involves people switching bodies, traversing through different time periods, and defying fate. If you’re thinking that sounds a bit ambitious at this point, then you’re not alone. But regardless of the devices used this time around, was Shinkai’s answer to the question in your name. a satisfying one? Let’s find out. Continue reading →

Fall 2016 – Week 8 in Review

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This week was a pretty unproductive week for me. I promised myself to complete a 4,500-word report as part of the initial submission for my dissertation, and so far I’ve only written about 300 words worth. And here I am right now, writing down my regular 2000-word weekly column — all for the sake of animu.

But there were other reasons for the setback in writing. For one, I’m having a hard time putting down into words what it is I need to say. That and the fact that I watched Fantastic Beasts and where to find them on Monday, and I just came from the premiere of Your Name. a few hours before writing this. Yeah, both so much and so little has happened this week that it’s making me feel a little dizzy.

But wait, what about the anime? Well, at eight weeks in, much of what I’m saying right now is just filler material. That’s right — I’m just saying a couple random things to get the ball rolling, but suffice it to know that the anime has been pretty much steady this week, give or take a few that gave me some mixed feelings.  So enough of that and let’s get things started! Continue reading →

Translating Anime (Shirobako Style)

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I’d like to take a step back from the anime for a moment to share with you something that many of you might not be aware of regarding the anime/manga you enjoy. It goes without saying that before you can even engage with the media, you need to understand it — and that’s where translators come in. Yes, I’m a translator. I’ve “worked” as a freelance translator in the “scanslation” scene for nearly a decade before going professional on a per project basis. Since I work full-time as a medical professional, I can only offer my services whenever I have the time, so this arrangement of working whenever there’s an opening works for me. And that means most of the time, I’m doing translation checks or other small bit translations (i.e. sign boards, SFX in manga, etc.). So chances are, you might have come across something in animeland that was translated, in part, by yours truly.

It sounds cool and all, and true — it does feel good being able to bring stuff out for other people to enjoy. But being on the supply side of the equation does have its downsides. And much of what I’m referring to is the backlash that you’ve probably heard of in the form of complaints in localization. Ew, the dubs suck. Subs were better. They changed the script so much, they totally re-wrote everything! Where are the honorifics? They’re whitewashing my anime, wtf!? 

Sound familiar? There’s a whole discussion behind preferences in localization and how a sort of heirarchy of anime supremacists have come about — the upper echelons of which are occupied by long-time “veterans” in the hobby who bemoan the degradation of anime into an industry of mass-production catering to “lesser” individuals that were “late on the bandwagon”. But I’m not here to talk about how a fragmented fanbase of anime/manga enthusiasts describe the media they consume. I’m here to give you an idea of what it’s like to be a translator, and perhaps give you a little insight as to why the media you enjoy (or loath) so much is in the form it is today. Continue reading →

Fall 2016 – Week 7 in Review

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I have to say, this has been a very satisfying season so far. I’m honestly surprised at how well the shows are doing to the point that it seems like there’s a visible line between what is palatable and what is pretty much inedible. That said, it’s been a bit of a chore figuring out how to rank these shows as the weeks go by, because all of them do what they do very well!

If you read my mid-season round up, you may have noticed that there’s quite a spread in terms of genre. That alone makes it difficult to say one show does better than the other — but that’s the format we bloggers have to follow, and believe me if we could just blurt out everything at the top of our heads, life would be so much easier. But we rank shows to give us an idea of how strongly we resonate with the themes that are presented — it’s not to say that any one show is better than the other.

So just what happened this week in animeland? Sit back and let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN! Continue reading →