Kamichika Rio

It occurred to me while reading Harry G. Frankurt’s “On Bullshit” that quite a few of the scenes we see in anime necessarily rest on a distinctly anti-realist skepticism of the truth of the world. In such anime, we see illustrations of anything from the most mundane aspects of our lives to what we can consider our most important experiences as holding no actual meaning, and this is the conception quite a few individuals have come to. Admittedly, this problem stretches beyond anime, and it constitutes, I believe, a far more pervasive trend in postmodernity than we may sometimes think.(...)
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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Kylaran | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Azuma Hiroki, Bullshit, Durarara!!, Harry G. Frankfurt, Otaku, Suicide

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More mock awards on the anime blogosphere (as if there haven’t been enough), this one being a sequel of the one I did last year. Just like the last effort, this set of awards will be structured to (somewhat) resemble the real Academy Awards, cheekily timed to coincide with yesterday’s ceremony. Again, these awards are completely biased by what I’ve seen (as well as the small detail of my own taste), and I’m pretty much going to conveniently ignore ongoing series except where it’s utterly clear that there’s no worthwhile competition within cooie. The other anomaly is Bakemonogatari, which is near enough to completion that I may as well treat it as such. I’m also going to snub worthwhile series like Aoi Bungaku and Kemono no Souja Erin because I still haven’t finished either (which is unfortunate, because what I’ve seen of both series has been outstanding, but they’re not what I’d call “easy” shows to watch, which is why I’ve been pacing myself with them). Oh yeah, and seeing as I’ve had to try to recall an entire year’s worth of anime, songs and seiyuu, there’s almost certainly something or someone I’ve unintentionally left out, so feel free to point out if you think I’ve tripped up.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Aoi Hana, Bakemonogatari, Canaan, Clannad, Eden of the East, Kara no Kyoukai, Natsume Yuujinchou, RIDE BACK, Taishou Yakyuu Musume

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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 | 19 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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This is Nishino Aki, my assistant for this article. She is not amused at what I am about to put her through.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how I translate sex scenes (エロシーン, ero-scene) in visual novels. It is one of the least pleasurable aspects of my hobby, and I’m rather glad that I never had to deal with ero-scenes during my time as a fansubber. Ero-scenes are notoriously difficult to translate well; several inherent linguistic barriers prevent accurate and succinct translation. What I am proposing here may not be new, or radical, and by no means is it perfect, but I believe it to be a different take on the translation of the ero-scene. This system will not make the reading of an ero-scene enjoyable. An ero-scene is an inherently cheesy, silly thing to read, and nothing that I, or any other translator, can do would change that. Rather, this is simply a way for translators to cut their losses. I have always facetiously advocated that there is no such thing as an ero-scene translation that is good; there are simply those that do not suck. Leave the sucking to the heroine, I say.

(WARNING! This article is filled with boring linguistic technobabble. In addition, people might think you’re a freak if you read this at work, or at any other time, for that matter. There are no NSFW images in this article, I promise. Also, please note that this does not represent my general translation philosophy. It is an extrapolation thereof, and in no circumstances should be applied to non-ero scenes. It would be a terrible choice.)

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Baldr Sky, Eroge

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Strawberry Panic - Nagisa and Shizuma

Yuri, shoujo-ai, girl’s love, cute anime girls getting it on with each other – no matter what you want to call it, these names refer to entertainment that contains romantic and/or sexual relationships between women. Yuri first developed as a genre mainly targeted towards women, much in the same way that lesbian literature in other societies began growing as homosexuality became an issue in developed nations. However, it seems that a large volume of yuri being produced is now marketed towards male audiences rather than ones composed of females. Why is this?

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Kylaran | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Sasameki Koto, Strawberry Panic, Yuri

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There are two ways to look at Ponyo, Miyazaki Hayao’s latest movie, one as a film and the other a story. In my opinion, as a film it’s great, as the overwhelming majority of his films are, but as a story, it’s good-OK. It’s a very simple story, possibly the simplest from Miyazaki that I can think of, even compared with the likes of My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, but that doesn’t exclude it from having a certain (if mild) amount of thematic depth. The themes of Ponyo have been written about fairly extensively. I realize I’m about six months too late for this to be a relevant topic, but Ghibli works are the rare occasions where I prefer the DVD experience to the cinema experience (especially now that I have a half decent LCD TV to enjoy them on).

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Ponyo

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…And the extremely effective.

Recently I’ve taken to watching video reviews from The Angry Video Game Nerd. I find his work hilarious… he has that college internet style of humour that online satirists like Maddox from The Best Page In The Universe have, except the “satire” itself has been replaced with extreme crassness delivered with highly colourful (and often creative) language. As a reviewer, he’s kinda going for easy targets by searching for the absolute worst in video game history (though I don’t think any of the titles he’s examined have received any less than they deserve), but as an entertainer, I think he’s great. He’s got legions of fans and he’s been imitated many times, but no one’s come close to reproducing the same responses or executed the over-the-top deconstructions of really bad video games as well. So there’s gotta be something that he does better than most. And I think a big part of that is due to his wide range of facial expressions.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Girls Bravo, Kara no Kyoukai, Nijuu-Mensou no Musume, The Angry Video Game Nerd

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I had the full intention of signing up for Crunchyroll membership this season, but baulked when I realized they only had two shows I was interested in. However, those two shows are arguably the best of the season so far, and with the US dollar where it is, there’s probably no better time for me to sign up than now. The last season was horrendous, so I guess the question is, will this season be better. With my momentary policy (borne out of practicality) of trying my damndest to avoid crap, I’m not really sure I’m qualified to answer that question, but I have been mildly pleased by what I have picked up. We don’t have any out-and-out gems this season, but this isn’t usually the time of year for outstanding anime. What we do have, at least on my “following” list, is a number of quaint, enjoyable anime that have shown glimpses that are worth getting excited about.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Durarara!!, Hidamari Sketch, Nodame Cantabile, Ookami Kakushi, Sora no Woto

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Continuing on from the last post. (Source of above image.)

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Another Code, Final Fantasy, Guitar Hero, LostWinds, Metroid, Nintendo, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Wii, Wii Sports

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The fullsize image (which I found on Danbooru) is quite amazing, but I unfortunately can't track a source...

It’s been a little over a year since I first got a Wii, so I guess this is about as good a time as any to look back at the games I’ve played in that time. And I have actually played quite a few. Wii is probably the console that fits me best, since I don’t consider myself a “hardcore” gamer (in fact, this whole ridiculous dichotomy between “hardcore” and “casual” gaming is best summed up with this comment, IMO), and I’ve grown up with major Nintendo franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid, so my attachment to them is completely unabashed. If I were a “hardcore” gamer (or a true America patriot), I’d probably get a PS3 after it, from all accounts, had an very good year just now, but I don’t have enough time and the Wii keeps me sated as far as games are concerned. Anyway, in the next two posts I’ll be mini-reviewing all the games I’ve played on the Wii this year and then posting some general thoughts on the console.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Tweet! | AnimeBlips - vote it up!
Post tags: Fire Emblem, Mario Kart, Nintendo, Okami, Resident Evil, Super Mario, The Conduit, The Legend of Zelda, Wii, Wii Sports

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