Archive for May 2010
You are browsing the archives of 2010 May.
If it Were Possible, I Guess We Had a “Good” Loss
The dust has settled on our campaign in the Aniblog Tourney and since then I’ve had a bit of time to reflect. Here’s where I’ll be honest: the loss stung. Of course it stung. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t like losing. Now I’m not going to be as delusional as to suggest [...]
Elitists: A Reflection of Our Aniblog Tourney Run
Our pithy little blog, Behind the Nihon Review, was pitted against Random Curiosity, the mother of all episodic anime blogs, for the second round of the Aniblog Tourney. To nobody’s surprise, we lost. This post should not be viewed as an attempt to justify our failure in the tournament, nor should it be seen as [...]
Enter the Survival Horror
The survival horror genre isn’t exactly one that I’ve had much experience with. Before I got a Wii, the only game I’d played that even resembled survivor horror was Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (brilliant game), and that was more of an action/horror anyway. The first survival horror game I played for Wii, Resident Evil 4, [...]
Seeking Happiness and Loving What You Do – Nodame Sure is Subversive
(Minor spoilers to follow of Nodame Cantabile ~Finale~.) She had it all: her performance of Chopin’s 1st Piano Concerto was greeted with fanfare and was broadcast across the globe, reaching and touching the hearts of many classical aficionados. Fame! Prestige! Honors! They were all within her grasp! Yet, when it was over, Nodame, wasn’t elated; [...]
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary – Reducing Anime to Color
The Impressionists had been fascinated with color. It was a playground for them; a fertile field from which they could explore that very subjective experience of color qualia. A hundred years later, anime studios continue to carry on the tradition of experimention. However, I think we sometimes take for granted how the mood is conveyed in anime. We certainly can dissect it, talk about the lighting, the facial features of the characters, the placement of the items, all the while coherently pick out the mood that the scene contains, but we haven’t delved far into the heart of the art behind it at all. Let’s take a second and see just how the completed product – the artistic experience from watching anime – can be reduced to the most fundamental of building blocks: color.
