Houblog

No, I haven’t died. Work is hell right now and I’m coming home mentally drained. I watched Divergence Eve on Sunday and am trying to work up the energy to watch it again and write up a review. Managed to exchange a few e-mails with Steven over it, but that was about it.

Watched the first DVD. Four immediate thoughts.

Beats the hell out of Godannar. Slight difference, Godannar intentionally has comedic aspects.
Never seen a less appropriate closer.
You were right, they stripped the extras. Nothing but previews.
The CGI looks like it was done on my PC, in a game.

I just can’t express how badly mismatched the closer is. No matter how I express that, it won’t be enough to convey the reality. I swear, it’s not even from the same show. I think the budget ran out before they did the animation and song, so they swiped one from another show entirely.

It’s a damn good anime, I recommend it. But try not to be too distracted by the humoungusized tits.

Ok, so far I’ve watched:

• Mars Daybreak #6, which finished that series. Entirely too clichéd at the end.
• Godannar #5, which puts me 1 DVD from completion. Some answers are appearing, but not enough. My psychic theory has seen evidence both pro and con. We do get one very important answer: the two American pilots aren’t lesbians. At least, not to start.



• Excel Saga #1, just into the third episode. At that point I decided that watching it alone was a waste. I put it back in the case, and I’m going to hold on to it until Dr. Heinous and I can kick back for a couple of days worth of animé binging, and then I’m going to watch in a state of legal intoxication. It’s just the kind of show that the brain cells should not be operational. Well, not all of them, anyway. This show is what Bobo Bobobobobo-(oh, whatever) wishes it could be. It’s just so hilariously wrong, on so many levels.

Well, thanks to the $$$ crunch from dental work and other things, I had to halt my animé purchases for a while. I managed to hang tight while beating down the credit cards, but I was starting to get the shakes, see Skuld lurking with a bomb around every corner, and have odd dreams involving giant robots and cute girls. When I found myself plotting the fastest way to deal with Hezbollah positions in Lebannon using combat maid androids, I decided I’d best get my fix before I started calling NASA to see if they’d spotted any green-haired alien babes on the recent shuttle mission.

Sooooooo, I just contacted my pusher through his super-seekrit online order form, and had him send me several hours worth of mind crack:

Excel Saga Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Divergence Eve Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Mars Daybreak, Vol #6 DVD
Godannar, Vol #5, International Affairs DVD
Starship Operators, Vol #1, Revolution DVD

Excel Saga: I’ve heard too much about this one for too long, mostly thanks to TRG. Got to check it out; this show sounds seriously demented. Fits me to a ‘T’.
Divergence Eve: I just can’t pass up those cows! I mean pilots. Pilots! Whatever. The second series has gotten rave reviews but you gotta see this one first or nothing makes sense.
Mars Daybreak: Finally finishing this series off. I hate to say it, but I started having problems with Vess on the last DVD. She went from “I want to kill Gram” to “I want to kiss Gram” a bit too quickly. One thing though, her dad is definately in cahoots with the big conspiricy.
Godannar: Robots and scantilly clad babes. How can I argue with that? Two more after this one, and then I’m done. I have to admit, my interest is slacking a bit in it. The story is thin, and when they start giving you stats on the monsters, you know they’ve skimped on the plot.
Starship Operators: Sorta obligated myself to buy this series by watching the fansubs. It’s the best damn space-military show since Banner of the Stars. Although there’s not many fleet engagements, every battle is tense and well done. Only negative is that they have a tendency towards “Geordi LaForge” solutions from the first officer. And the ending is rather ambiguous, which was my biggest problem with the series.

Ah My Goddess! didn’t make the cut this month, but now that I’ll have finished off Mars Daybreak, I’m thinking a smaller order might be in order late next month, and I can pick it up then. Also, I need to see the reviews on “This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.” I couldn’t decide from the pre-release publicity if it was worthwhile or just another thin plot with fanservice tacked on.

And now, back to your usual programming.

Soon, my precious, soon….

It’s only a matter of time.

It’s blog sweeps month? Nobody told me! Time for an anime post! And boy, do I have the fanservice this time. In fact, I’ve got so much of it, I have to put it below the fold. I also have to put this warning on it: While the thumbnails are merely risque’, some uptight businesses (probably even my own) would consider them NSFW. And when I start using text links to the pictures…. look out because that stuff is definately NOT Safe For Work! (Yes, I might have botched the aspect ratio again. Or maybe it’s just those two shots. Sorry all, but I just don’t have time to take eighty pictures again and then cull them.)

How to describe this show? Well, it’s farcical, it’s comical, it parodies anime, it’s loaded with fanservice that pushes bulldozes the line into ecchi, and it’s completely, utterly, irredeemably silly. It hasn’t got a serious bone in it’s body, yet it’s not a comedy, it’s not exactly a farce, it’s not always a parody, and sometimes, it almost gets serious. Almost. As I watched it, I finally realized why it seemed familar. It’s another Martian Successor Nadesico, only not as good — but with a lot more fanservice to cover up that fact. (I’m pretty certain it was made from a hentai game after seeing episode 14.)

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I don’t know if it’s in the sphere of interest of many of my readers, but publisher Jim Baen passed last night. He suffered a stroke about a week ago on the 12th, and had been in a coma ever since.

Founder of Baen Books, he felt that science fiction could and should be uplifting, that the good guys can win, the military isn’t evil, and sex isn’t necessary to sell books (although he began allowing it in some later novels). Almost all of the biggest writers in military sci-fi write for him, a fact that tended to send the adherents of more dystopian futures into a frenzy. “Space Opera” was a term they often used, but Baen didn’t care.

He brought the same approach to the business of publishing, making the books he published available for download entirely unencrptyed. While major publishing companies were loading their wares down with DRM, Baen released simple text files readable on almost any device, doing many times their business. Many complete novels are available online, entirely unencrypted and with his (and the authors’) blessing. Baen was well known for shepherding new talent along, and his latest project was to revive the dying short story format through electronic publishing — again, entirely unencrypted. Ironically, the premeir issue, out this month, contained an essay titled “Why Die?” Sadly, it now also contains a eulogy by David Drake.

He was a good man, a great publisher, and will be sorely missed.

It’s funny how a meme crops up among several people at the same time, as I was recently reflecting on the same things that I’ve found Steven Den Beste and Pixy Mixa Shamus ruminating on: The differences between Japanese anime and American TV — and whether it’s possible to become as burned out on the former as we are on the latter.

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So, Tuesday night was time to watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, episode 11. After a slump through episodes 6-9, the last two have definately been on target again with the insanity, Kyon’s sarcasm, and the totally unpredictable madness of Haruhi.

Even though it was predictable that the Computer Society would cheat and that Yuki would hack their cheat codes, it was just a riot to watch.

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That was, I think, the title of a fictional role-playing game being played by several medieval fantasy heroes sitting around a table, killing time between orc-killing expeditions, according to a comic in the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide. They role-played clerks and managers in a fictional techonological society, which of course was a total inversion from what the player was doing.

As if I’m in a game of Pencils and Paychecks, I’ve often thought I should re-roll this character. I seem to be stuck in a rut, at say, third level.

Just how much of a rut got driven home to me recently, as I was cleaning out some old files at work. I ran across a lot of things I’d sooner forget: a recommendation for counseling due to “hostility towards management,” a reprimand for disrupting a (poorly organized) training session — don’t get me started on the policy that was the subject of the training itself, and the fact that the trainers had a key issue wrong…. I certainly have an up-and-down history: commendations and reprimands, high marks and low, evidence of keen insights and some things that just make me groan to look at today.

I don’t think they invented the saying about square pegs and round holes to describe me and bureaucracy, but I’m fairly sure it was polished up and saved for application to my case.

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So Jason, over at Anime on My Mind decided a month ago to challenge his viewers to put together their very own animé harem. Just in case you’re not familiar with the genre, an anime harem involves 2 or more girls (usually 3-5) all chasing after the same guy. Often he’s hapless and hopless, and he usually can’t (or won’t) make up his mind between them, or something prevents him from doing so. Competition between the girls is often fierce, and provides about half the entertainment; the other half being the frequency with which the girls lose articles of clothing.

For the selection, the rules were: six girls, plus one maid to kind of keep the place in order. No two girls could be from the same series, unless they were twins/triplets, in which case the sisters would count as a single “girl.” Pretty simple, and quite generous. The thread is still going, so I chimed in with my contribution. Just for fun, I decided to cross-post here, since I can add the pictures and show my choices, not to mention discuss my reasons at greater length.

Many of the posters developed “themes” with their choices, and as I sifted through my collection mentally, I found one developing with my picks. Once I identified it, I ran with the idea, although it did change my choices slightly. I chose to restrict myself to anime that I owned or had seen on TV; if I’m picking my favorites, I can’t claim a girl as a favorite if I haven’t seen her series. So a lot of worthy candidates got eliminated from the outset: CBD Kei, CBD May, the original Nuku Nuku, Lum, and so on.

The theme I ran with was flexibility.

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Well, I’ve managed to go more than long enough without an anime post, so I thought I’d drop one in today. Sadly, I don’t have a lot of cheesecake to tickle your eyeballs with, because this series is based more on its whacked-out premise and implausible plots. Yes, although the title is taken from Ghostbusters, I’m discussing the hijinks of the SOS Brigade, and everyone’s favorite unconcious goddess, Haruhi Suzumiya. If you’re thinking about watching this show in the near future, don’t go below the fold, because I’m speculating about the metastory here and there’s huge spoilers as a result.

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I’ll be going out of town this weekend for a 2-person anime bash with Dr. Heinous, so there won’t be a lot of posting going on. In betwen episodes of mass panties, though, I’ll be hard at work on the laptop putting the final touches on that special project I’ve mentioned a few times.

Just to hold you though the holidays, here’s a sneak preview.

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday! (And if not, avoid traveling on the same roads as me, ok?)

Why no, I don’t think fans are getting completely obsessed with a show that hasn’t even been officially translated and marketed in Region 1. By the way, I should be downloading ep. 8 tonight.

Comment by wontaek | 2006/04/21 at 04:58:07
revised forcast. Over/under for the date when someone starts the Church of Haruhi: May 1st.

It was over.

Edit: thanks to YouTube, here’s the show’s, ah, energetic ending, with translations. Whomever recorded this has the same aspect problems I once did, so it’s distorted.

Update: Ok, now I’ve watched the episode, and even if it’s not as insanely funny as many of the others — Kyon’s sarcasm is definately lacking here — the series continues to intrigue because of all the mysteries. What happened in the cave? Did Haruhi make a change? And what’s with the mole on Kyon’s neck? I dont’ believe that’s just a red herring. Of course, with this bunch, you never know. And when is that talking cat from the first episode going to show up? From what I’m reading on the web, the studio only committed to 14 episodes. I don’t think they expected it to be such a runaway hit in the otakusphere.

DearS (that’s “Dear S”, not “dearz”), is one of those guilty pleasures that come along once in a while. It makes me wish I were still young enough to enjoy the ridiculously over-sexed humor, without thinking about what’s being “said” here. It’s not as braindead as Girls’ High, nor as pretentious as Chobits, and those are good things. The writers clearly set out to have fun by creating a piece of sexy fluff, but there are two problems: first they thought it would be funny to have an oversexed teacher and a gratuitous Don Juan running around. Second, there’s a few gaps in logic; this is not a show with “refrigerator moments” because it expects you to crank up the suspension of disbelief to somewhere near “ludicrous speed;” the illogic isn’t going to wait on a trip to the refrigerator.

While the second problem is merely eye-rolling, the first one makes the show uncomfortable at times. The writers barrelled right across delicate ground at full throttle with the clear attitude that “if it bothers you, go watch something else.”

One year ago, a spaceship with (supposedly) 150 aliens crashed into Tokyo bay. The passengers, called “DearS” (translated as “beloved friend”), were mostly female, human-looking and very beautiful — and almost all teenagers. Apparently, we’re just supposed to accept that the alien society that they come from is populated by people just as human as we are. (And judging from the, er, compatible plumbing, they have the same urges.) They quickly learned the Japanese language and customs, and were granted citizenship. At the opening of the story, many are being sponsored for home-stay in various households. The male lead is Takeya Ikuhara, who is probably the only guy in his school who isn’t DearS crazy — especially given that one is coming to their school soon. Takeya lives alone (it’s explained why later), and the closest he’s got to a girlfriend is the meganekko/childhood friend/landlord’s daughter, Nenneko. As much as he bothers thinking about the DearS, he doesn’t trust them; he thinks they’re probably really lizards here to enslave humanity (again, it’s explained why later). In general, Takeya is pretty rough around the edges. He works at a video store, where he sneaks out the adult vids for his friends — and gets decked for it by the manager.

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In passing, I’ve touched on the issue of perversity in animé before. In hentai (animé porn), you expect a lot of it, but too many times, non-hentai shows will step over the line into treating pre-teens as sexual objects. In part, this is a cultural difference in Japan, which is facinated with youth; an unmarried female of 26 would be called “Christmas cake” (as in, no one wants to eat the leftovers after Christmas) and considered over the hill. It’s not uncommon for adult women to dress and act like teenagers; it’s considered sexy there.

(I mean, you can buy a high school girl’s used underwear from vending machines in Japan. No, I’m not making that up. A part of me wishes we’d had that when I was in high school; it was about the only way I was going to get into any of those stuck-up . . . . Ahem. Never mind.)

But just like our television reflects American society and mores, only exaggerated, Japanese TV does the same thing for theirs. So, with that kind of fixation, it’s not surprising that there are a number of series that suddenly start treating pre-teen kids as sex objects, just out of the blue. It’s not an integral part of the plot, it’s just there. Usually the character is a foil for the hero (although s/he is not necessarily the villian) and it’s played for laughs, but to American sensibilities, such can be painful to get through. Examples: Yumeria, Kiddie Grade, and Azumanga Daioh

There’s even one series where it is a major story element, involving a female teacher marrying her student in order to keep it a secret that she’s a space alien (Please Teacher!, although now we’re stepping into the realm of teenagers). Seems like that’s complicating the hell out of things. But while the actual loli’s are played for laughs in some series (like Yumeria), I’m just finding it less and less funny. Why? Because it’s hard to laugh at the reality:

Teacher accused of sexually assaulting 14-year-old student

This is “old” news locally, but I’m doing a bit of catching up, and this caught my eye.

A substitute teacher is facing charges of sexual assault of a child. Police say the man assaulted a 14-year-old Milby High School student on three separate occasions.

Thing is, she didn’t report it, but some other girls stepped forward to complain about how he acted towards them. KTRK never quite explains how the case got from “pervert” to “statutory rapist” but one can assume that one or more of the other girls was aware of what was going on.

Another group of girls came forward to high school administrators saying that the teacher had been rude to them. They released a tirade of complaints against him.

“To (a student) it seemed that this teacher would confront her in private, or confront her in the halls, trying to groom her, basically, and to get into a sexual relationship,” explained Jeanette Perales with the HPD Juvenile Sex Crimes unit. “Many of the students came forward and stated that this teacher, in their words, was a pervert.”

Then there’s another story out of Fort Bend.

Investigators say a former teacher’s aide in Fort Bend County crossed the line. They say he had sex with two students at his high school. Regardless of their age or whether or not anyone consented, police say the former teacher’s aide broke the law by having sex with students.

Mike Harvey with the Fort Bend ISD police said, “I think Mr. Martin took advantage of a situation that he shouldn’t have.” Harvey says he can prove Martin had sex three times with two girls. One girl was 17 years old and the other was 18 years old. “None of the incidents occurred on campus,” Harvey said. “We don’t have any allegations that that’s the case. But they did occur in a neighborhood that’s nearby.”

Ok, I have to roll my eyes at that one. It’s obviously aggravated circumstances that there was a school in the neighborhood where he was screwing a student. To be thorough (I don’t want to say “fair”), teenagers aren’t pre-teens, and at 17 or 18, now we’re getting to the point where people are more likely to shrug and go, “oh, come on, 18 is an adult, and 17 is damn near.”

“Grass on field! Play ball!” (Now that’s ecchi.)

Somehow, I don’t think the parents of the girls involved would say that. And they’d be right not to.

Authorities say Martin used his position of authority to seduce the young women. Under the law, that’s an allegation of an improper relationship between an educator and a student. Martin faces three such charges.

“This seems to be happening so often now that we’ve almost become numb to it,” said parent Darrell Robertson.

That’s something to remember the next time you’re tempted to laugh at someone yelling “ecchi!” in animé. (He says, just before popping in DVD2 of DearS, which has a very inappropriate relationship going on that doesn’t even have anything to do with the main plot. Edit: finally watched all the way through. Turns out the guy is an upperclassman, not a teacher.)

Teaching is harder than it used to be. It’s more politicized, more bureaucratic, and more difficult. The result is that teachers tend to burn out within a few years, and move on. When I was in high-school, teachers tended to be old wrinkled old women and bald men–except for the coaches. Nowadays, the teachers are highly likely to be MILF’s. (Warning: link NSFW!) Worse, now the “old-timers” with 30+ years of experience are not around to ride herd on younger ones they think might be about to make a mistake.

Something else to think on is this. Recently, I had a conversation with several co-workers, ranging in age from 23 to 50. Of six people at the table, four had teachers in either their own or their kids’ high school or junior high either arrested or suddenly transferred due to “inappropriate relationships.” And in a fifth case, everyone suspected, but there was never enough evidence to make an open accusation. (That teacher’s contract was not renewed for the next year, however.)

Those are disturbing odds, and the time span suggests that it’s not a recent problem, by any means. Sometime after I get through playing with the page setup, I’m going to do a full review of DearS–and it will have more cheesecake of that very inappropriate teacher. (Not like I’m fourteen, after all….)

Update 6/5/06: Once more, with feeling.