Behind The Nihon Review » Meta

Where Does Gap Moe Fit Into Post-Moe?

Sorrow-kun — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:08:18 +0000

In a recent article published on We Remember Love, Pontifus considered the confusing contradictions that appear throughout Ookami-san and pondered whether they indicated a statement on moe, or perhaps even a meta-reaction to it. He took it one step further by bringing up the question of whether a moe in conflict with itself (as appears in Ookami-san) is sustainable, and likened the moe genre as a whole to a dodongo who’d just swallowed a bomb. Art movements, as he rightly pointed out, don’t explode though… they shift. The most important question he asked dealt with the future of moe, and he speculated that moe might go through something of an upheaval… maybe now, maybe not til five years time.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi, Post-Modernism, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

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Once Upon a Time in Akihabara

Akira — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:29:31 +0000

The saddest sight in the world.

It’s the night before Comiket 78. In about a few hours, I will be joining hundreds of thousands of others like myself, lining up in the sweltering heat and braving stampedes of foul-smelling young men in a quest for books, goods and trinkets. On the eve of battle, I sit alone in my Tokyo apartment, five minutes from Akiba. The lights are dim, Aoi Hana is playing softly from my computer’s speakers and I sit in my chair, reflecting upon my long history with Akihabara.

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10 Things I Hate About You (Idiot Fans) Part B

TypicalIdiotFan — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:57:54 +0000

Lame way of representing "Part B"? Go fuck yourself. I like it.

Continuing from where I left off before, because the list just got too damned wordy, I want to instead focus on the more volatile pieces of anime fandom that piss me off. Unlike the first five items, which are just general fan pissing contest annoyances, these next five are much more serious. My friends and copatriots on this site, Kylaran, Sorrow-kun, and Akira, have been trying to bring out an awareness of the otaku nature both from aspects in the west and in the east. Their works have inspired me to bring forth more issues I find are important to anime fandom. These five items deal with the potential harm of fandom, the mental state of some fans, and the importance of personal freedoms and liberties. Because of this, I toned down trying to be antagonistic and curbed the swearing quite a bit, as I really want the readers to understand where I am coming from here. Sure, I still take some pot-shots at the fringe, but I do it out of love. I sincerely hope these last five are read with an open mind, as there is an “ugly” aspect to otakuism that we need to explore.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Bleach, Dance in the Vampire Bund, FUNimation, Happiness!, Hideaki Anno, Kannagi, Neon Genesis Evangelion, NTR, Otaku, Waifu

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10 Things I Hate About You (Idiot Fans) Part A

TypicalIdiotFan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:55:13 +0000

It's time to get some shit done...

I have been a fan a very long time. I have seen the best of times and the worst of times when it comes to the anime phenomenon in America. I have seen new generations of fans spring up every few years, bolstered by the explosion of anime available on television, for retail purchase, in movie theaters, and over the internet. I am now 32 years old, an “oldfag” to most of you whipper-snappers, and I like to think that as I have matured, so have my tastes in anime and in anime fandom. In the beginning I was much like the rest of you. I watched everything, even the shit, proclaiming it was better than anything the West had ever produced. I collected wall scrolls, and figurines, and whatever anime related materials I could. I went to conventions and cosplayed and sat in on panels and sang karaoke and did all kinds of other fun stuff. Generally, I acted like what I have observed most young fans act like. These days are a little different. I still go to conventions and I still watch tons of new material, but now I write about it and have wonderful intellectual discussions about it. I know a few people in the industry who have remained friends over the years. I enjoy anime fandom on a different level than I did before.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Arjuna, Avatar, Bleach, Chihiro, Coalguys, Cowboy Bebop, GG, Naruto, One Piece, Otaku, To Love-Ru

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Aniblog Readings: “Moe? In my anime?”

Sorrow-kun — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:08:33 +0000

In zzeroparticle‘s infinite scheming, he’s come up with an event intended to embarrass all anime bloggers foolish enough to take part: the Aniblog Readings. Through a randomized drafting, each participant has been given a victim, one of whose more amateur works from their blogging infancy are immortalized in the form of a recording. For me, I’m not sure what’s going to be more embarrassing, my recording, or hearing someone else’s recording of one of my posts.

Anyway, Cuchlann from Super Fanicom has delivered, with a reading of my “Moe? In my anime?” post from 2007. Check it out here. I haven’t even listened to it yet, so I have no idea what to tell you to expect.

Edit: Now you can listen to it with the Audio Player below.

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If it Were Possible, I Guess We Had a “Good” Loss

Sorrow-kun — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:24:28 +0000

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 that we deserved to win. Of course not. We made a half-hearted attempt to do for a week and a bit what Random Curiosity has done with frightening consistency for over five years. They’ve built a reputation for unbending reliability and intimidating speed bit-by-bit for ages and they absolutely deserve their popularity, as well as favouritism in this tournament. We got a first hand lesson: if you want to win an Aniblog Tourney, you must be at least as good as Random Curiosity.

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Elitists: A Reflection of Our Aniblog Tourney Run

Akira — Fri, 28 May 2010 21:29:03 +0000

Is Time a better publication because it is more popular? Is Foreign Affairs a better publication because it is more academic? Does the question even matter?

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 an exercise in hateful finger pointing. I intend to do nothing of the sort.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Aniblog Tourney, K-ON!, Lucky Star, Strike Witches, Yamakan

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What Exactly Constitutes “Original Anime”?

Sorrow-kun — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:56:07 +0000

Sora no Woto is one of a new breed of anime originals.

While discussing the new Anime no Chikara timeslot, Omo from Omonomono noted that it’s a little difficult to come up with a decent list of anime originals that are both critically acclaimed and popular. Omo brought up Gainax‘s Evangelion and Gurren-Lagann, and the subsequent comments mentioned titles like Code Geass, My-HiME and Cowboy Bebop. My own attempt to respond to this post ended up in frustration when I quickly realized that Omo is quite right… successful anime originals are a rarity. (Above image found on Moe Imouto; link slightly NSFW.)

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Angel Beats!, Cowboy Bebop, Dennou Coil, Haibane Renmei, Shingetsutan Tsukihime, true tears

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Random Comedy is Not Clever Comedy

Sorrow-kun — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:27:30 +0000

This post is largely inspired by a Twitter debate largely between Sea Slugs! Anime Blog‘s Jesus159159159 and The Cart Driver‘s Scamp, over the respective merits and flaws of Excel Saga and Seto no Hanayome. For the record, I sided with Jesus159159159, but it’s quite a stretch to say either is an exceptionally funny, let alone clever, comedy. Don’t get me wrong, both shows have their moments. But they’re both, ultimately, random comedies, which means they struggle to be consistently incisive… let alone just plain consistent. (Minor spoiler warning for the tagged titles).

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Dr. Strangelove, Memories, Seitokai no Ichizon, Seto no Hanayome

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VocaJazz

Sorrow-kun — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:02:50 +0000

It was on /a/ that I first stumbled on a couple of rather charming soft jazz Vocaloid songs arranged (and illustrated) by a Nico Nico denizen named Cocoacigarette-P, which I twittered about a couple of days ago. DKellis from Moe Check! also pointed out just how well they’re arranged, from a technical point of view, as well as their cute sense of humour. I was impressed, and after scratching the surface a bit more, I found that Cocoacigarette-P‘s works are just a few of many that march under the banner of “VocaJazz”, a genre of Vocaloid remixes of well recognized anime (and VN) songs that have had a jazz infusion. (Source of OP image).

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