Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Manga Minute: finished Megatokyo Vol.4

I normally review mostly Anime in this blog, but today I want to sing the praises of an American Manga that I've been reading lately and really enjoy.  I have now finished up through volume 4 of Megatokyo, which is to say the serialized Manga of the famous web-comic of the same name...

Megatokyo is an American web-comic done in Manga style in English; It reads right to left, and there is always an hilarious disclaimer at the back of the book reminding readers of this fact, a play on the warnings in the back of most Manga translations into English that retain the original Japanese cell placements to reduce re-printing costs.  Since Megatokyo was originally composed in English, it is read in standard English comic book fashion.

Megatokyo's premise are two American gamer nerds who fly to Tokyo on a whim after failing to get into a big convention in the USA.  They go on an ill-advised shopping spree in Akihabara and are too broke to afford return tickets home.  Why they didn't buy round trip tickets is anyone's guess.

Anyway, these two friends, Piro and Largo, have to find a way to survive in Japan. Piro speaks English and Japanese, while Largo speaks only English.  Piro winds up working in a comic book store in Tokyo alongside Erika, the beautiful former Anime voice actress, who is the friend and roommate of Kimiko, a young woman trying to break into the world of voice-acting.  Erika is bilingual, while Kimiko speaks only Japanese.

Supporting cast include Ping, a startlingly life-like female doll and PS2 accessory for dating sim games, and the mysterious and dark Miho Tohya...who is probably my favorite of all the Megatokyo characters, precisely because she's so enigmatic...and she has a  lot of great one-liners.

Here's a piece of fan-art idolizing Miss Miho:

The artwork in Megatokyo proper is more crude than this, mostly penciled sketches that are then uploaded to the web.  The author is on a tight schedule and produces his artwork as efficiently as he can, which sometimes means cutting corners, etc.  But what is really engaging about Megatokyo are the characters and their stories, their budding relationships, etc.

At the end of Volume 4, things are starting to look up for Piro and Kimiko, Largo and Erika.  The unlikely paring of Erika and Largo is amusing but sweet in its own quirky way.  Kimiko gives Piro permission to address her by first name, which is a big deal in Japan--a sign of greater intimacy.

Ping also upbraids Piro for being dense and tells him it's very likely Kimiko actually likes him.

Erika apparently has had some bad relationships in the past and got hurt very badly and fears intimacy.  She even says to Largo:  "If I sleep with you, will you go away?", which is kind of f*cked up.  She says it as a taunt and provocation, not an honest question asked out of fear...or maybe it is, in a double-entendre kind of way.  Erika herself is kind of dark and emotionally messed up.  Definite "bad" girl-with-the-heart-of-gold archetype.  She's fortunate to have a friend in Kimiko, who understands her better than anyone.

Piro reminds me a lot of myself...a hopeless romantic who is his own worst critic and always beating himself up.  His conscience is represented by an angelic character named Seraphim, a wise-cracking, winged brunette with glasses and a no-nonsense attitude.  She's based on Fred Gallagher's real-life live-in girlfriend/wife.  Piro is Fred's alter-ego, while Pirogoeth is Piro's own opposite sex alter-ego in the online videogame world.  She is his avatar in cyberspace, and it was while playing Pirogoeth that Piro first met Miho online;  Miho's online avatar was male, despite being in real life (in the comic) "a frail little Japanese girl,".

Miho is endlessly interesting as it's really hard to know what really is going on in her warped mind.

She's the ultimate gothic Lolita type....dark but breathlessly beautiful...and dangerous.

Ping is like Lt. Cdr Data of Star Trek insofar as she's always very likable and forever transcending her apparent limits as an artificial being with intelligence.  Her emotions are very real, if simulated.

She loves Piro and feels some initial jealousy towards Kimiko, but relents to let her "Master", Piro, pursue a relationship with Kimiko if that is truly what he wants.  She's very protective of Piro and doesn't tolerate him bashing himself.

Lastly there is Yuki, the real-life Japanese High School girl and budding artist who discovers Piro's sketchbook and wants him to teach her to draw like he does.  She has a schoolgirl crush on Piro, which her friends tease her about mercilessly.  Piro handles her rather poorly, standing her up on drawing lessons, etc.  Yuki is kind of heartbroken and depressed, though when she finally meets Kimiko, she realizes Piro loves Kimiko and not her.  She seems to find some acceptance of this and it lets her move on emotionally from a relationship that simply can never be between a 15 year old and someone in their 20s.

Megatokyo does lighten the mood sometimes with amusing fantasy/gamer nerd interludes, but I think it is at its best when exploring relationships, and people's relationship to art, anime, manga, fantasy and their inner emotional life.  That's what keeps me coming back to Megatokyo time and again, much more so than the l33t speak and gamer-nerd jokes and episodes.

If you have not yet experienced Megatoyko, I do strongly encourage it.  At least check out volume 1 of the manga from your local library if you don't want to surf its archives online.

Aspie Nations: Germany and Japan

This is apropos of nothing, really but if you are familiar with my writings you know that I have been diagnosed with (mild) Asperger's syndrome.  I'm not profoundly affected, but I do have it.  It's almost more maddening to be *almost* Neurotypical (NT), or "normal" but... "not quite".

I attend a local support group once a month at a local Baptist church (ha!) but it's totally a secular gathering (though some of the members are privately religious).  I mentioned in passing about when I was doing study abroad, I felt strangely much more comfortable and "at ease" living daily life in Germany as an exchange student than I did when I took the Christmas holiday in the United Kingdom, specifically visiting a former Gastfamilie of mine that once hosted me in 1990 in Siegen, Germany.  Wandering around England, specifically the town of Whitstable in Kent, was very very awkward for me indeed.  While I loved English bookshops (even bought an advanced copy of Douglas Adams' _Mostly Harmless_ before it was available in the USA, WOOT!!!) I found the English themselves very alien to me.  I never felt quite right in England;  I always felt off kilter and very socially awkward.  In Germany if I did anything stupid, I could always pass it off on account of being a foreigner or of pretending my German language comprehension was much lower than it really was and is.

Anyway, when I related this tidbit about feeling more comfortable in Germany than England, my facilitator at the ASPIE Houston meeting stated, and it was agreed by the other facilitator, that many who study Asperger's syndrome have hypothesized that some nations more than others can almost be called "Aspie Nations" and that two in particular come to mind...

1) Germany

2) Japan

Now see if that didn't strike  a chord deep within me.  Let's see, German Studies major who is also an Anime/Manga Otaku....like, DUH!  Makes a lot of sense now.  Look at the name of this blog for heaven's sake.  I have decided to put Tokyo on my "bucket list", i.e. list of places I'd love to visit before I die.  Vienna, Austria is also on it, as well as Dublin, Ireland and Edinburgh, Scotland.

Still haven't ruled out the idea of going over to teach English in Asia somewhere; preferably Japan but it looks like you have to earn your stripes first in places like China, Taiwan or Korea before you get picked for more choice assignments like Japan, at least with the agencies I've explored so far.

I've also heard that for Japan, it's best to pick smaller towns well away from Tokyo, if only because the cost of living is so insane in Tokyo and so more reasonable elsewhere in the country.  I can believe it.  Just think of the contrast here between Manhattan and....oh, just about everywhere else except San Francisco (comparable to Osaka perhaps, at least in terms of cost of living?...Osaka being another major city after Tokyo).  But the whole thing is that pesky retirement thing.  I have to work another 5 years in my current civil service job to be "vested" with my local gov't employer, and then when I reach retirement age I'll have a county pension on top of social security, etc.  If I could get that locked away and guaranteed, then suddenly the idea of teaching in Taiwan and or Japan doesn't sound as crazy anymore.  I'm unmarried, no kids, not likely to remarry either.

Just so that I can talk at least a little about Anime in this post, I've long wondered why it is that Anime characters don't really look Japanese.  While there are other examples out there of the Japanese oddly using white people in illustrated works before the advent of Anime, I think it may be that, although obviously Japanese people are just as distinctive as individuals as anyone else, the crude nature of animation is such that if you drew everyone with dark hair, dark eyes, you'd have a really hard time differentiating the on-screen characters from one another.  Sometimes anime characters DO look Japanese; look VERY Japanese in fact.  But not everyone does because of this need to differentiate characters from one another visually.  The only way to achieve this in a crude animated medium is to use characters with wildly different hair colors, eye colors, etc.  And on the hair color thing, sometimes the anime world isn't as far removed from reality as you might at first believe...just walk around Tokyo and see if you don't see people with dyed/bleached hair almost as "out there" as some anime characters.  Some Cosplaying Japanese also wear silver-haired or blue-haired wigs, for example.  Cosplay is like the Japanese answer to Mardi Gras or Carnival or Fasching.  Comiket and related celebrations of Anime/Manga culture are one special outlet the Japanese have to (literally) let their hair down and act like free spirits for a day or two before going back to their roles in an otherwise rigidly conformist society.

Obviously there is much, much more to complex Japanese society and culture and history than the world of Anime/Manga, but Anime/Manga are Japan's two best known cultural exports to the world.

Despite some initial resistance, I am actually trying to teach myself more Japanese words and phrases, little by little.  I still prefer the English dubs and probably always will, but I do appreciate being able to better understand the cultural references, in-jokes and cliches better now than previously.

I still wonder about the Japanese graduate student in music that I met while working at the campus library...we kept bumping into each other in the stacks, like a scene straight out of an Anime.  The only thing missing would be the accidental hand touch and blush, or falling over accidental kiss ;-)

After she got to know my name, and I hers, she would seemingly go out of her way to say hello to me in public places, almost flirting.  But I also know that Japanese people are simply incredibly polite and that I may have been reading way too much into it.  I never acted upon it in any case, because I was a university staffer and she was still a student, and dating would have been against protocol.  Even after she graduated, I kept a polite distance.  She was...unfortunately for me, a devout Christian convert, while I was and remain a staunch atheist.  If she had been a Shinto Buddhist I would have flirted back with her and risked rejection.  But since she was Christian, I held myself back.  In any case, after I resigned my position in Denton and moved away, she de-friended me on Facebook, so that was that.  She was so achingly beautiful--it really is more comforting to assume she never was interested in me.  Makes the separation less painful, I guess.  Merely the product of my own delusion and misapprehension of her polite nature, more easily forgotten thus.

Anyway, I would at least like to visit Japan as a tourist someday, if not work there as an English teacher for a more extended period.  I would also love to return to Germany, either as a tourist or as a resident alien in some capacity.  I always felt strangely at home in Germany...coming back to Germany from England definitely felt like an odd "homecoming".  When I crossed the border from Belgium to Germany I felt a wave of relief that came from being back in a familiar setting where I spoke the language fluently and felt I understood the Germans very well.

Well, that's about all I have to say for this oblique post.  More anime review goodness to follow.

 

Finished Bamboo Blade

I finished the series Bamboo Blade quite some time ago but noticed I didn't update my blog about that fact.  What can I say, I completely loved the series.  The characters are wonderful...below from left to right:

Satori Azuma (東 聡莉 Azuma Satori^?), fiery red-head voiced by Carrie Savage.

Ditzy blonde Kirino Chiba (千葉 紀梨乃 Chiba Kirino^?), the big hearted team captain voiced by Luci Christian.

Tamaki Kawazoe (川添 珠姫 Kawazoe Tamaki^?), center, the series heroine, voiced by Cherami Leigh (who voiced Sae from Peach Girl, a completely different personality).

The other red-head, Sayako Kuwahara (桑原 鞘子 Kuwahara Sayako^?), Kirino's best friend and budding artist, completely with erratic artist's temperament.  She quits and rejoins the Kendo team almost ritually.

And rounding out the team, the sweet but dark Miyako Miyazaki (宮崎 都 Miyazaki Miyako^?), who, despite her normally cheerful facade harbors some dark passions;  She despises bullies and has a strong sense of justice.  In the words of Saya, Miya-Miya is  "one scary chick":

Or at least she can be when roused.

When her boyfriend Danjūrō Eiga ("Danny") shows up Miya-Miya usually reverts back to her saccharine sweet personality.  Miya could be said to be a tad bi-polar.

Despite her inner rage and energy, Miya is often unfocused and strikes wildly in her Kendo matches, seldom landing valid strikes.  It takes a long time for her to overcome this.  She finally breaks down and asks Azuma and Kirino for help and advice.  Miya is also has a female stalker who knew her in Junior High, Reimi Odajima (小田島 礼美 Odajima Reimi^?); we learn more about their past together as told in flashback.  Reimi was interested in a boy, but that boy ignored her and was interested in Miya, before she met Danny.  Miya completely rejected him; in fact she beat the crap out of him, with Reimi watching.  Reimi became obsessed with Miya, and follows her around, especially after she joins the Kendo team.  Reimi attends every match, snapping endless photo and video footage.  Reimi seems to have an almost lesbian crush on Miya.  It is very unsettling to Miya and takes a long time before she is able to just ignore Reimi.  In fact, due to Reimi's obsession, Miya has a perfect record of her past matches and is able to refine her skills, with Azuma's training, and finally able to take on and defeat a brash American named Carrie who has been tormenting her.

Reimi is voiced by Monica Rial, proving once again Monica knows how to voice a complete psychopath if she needs to ;-)  I continued to be astounded by Monica's range as a voice actress...there's just no typecasting her.  She can do any kind of role, from serious to comedic to romantic.  From hero to villain.  From mute girl to highly expressive, from tough action hero to sweetheart.  Yes, I'm a total fanboy.

Tama meets a worthy challenger in the person of Rin Suzuki (鈴木 凛 Suzuki Rin^?).  Rin hands Tama her first defeat...in a singing competition hosted by the producers of Tama and Rin's favorite anime series "Blade Bravers".  Tama loves Blade Braver, the main character, but Rin loves Shinaider, his main rival.  Rin is also extremely skilled at Kendo.  They become friends but later face off in the Kendo tournaments.  Rin provides Tama with her greatest challenge yet.  The series finally is very emotionally satisfying.  

The series closes with Tama beginning her second year of High School and she is delighted to have someone else address her as "sempai".

What I love about Bamboo Blade is the same thing I love about Suzuka; a tender coming-of-age story set in the Japanese High School system, with sympathetic characters struggling with the awkwardness of entering into early adulthood, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles, sometimes finding love along the way.  I just feel drawn to these kinds of stories, over and over.  The first series I watched when I first got back into Anime around 2004 was Azumanga Daioh, which is a total slice-of-life High School comedy.  It's about a group of girls who are all friends.  There isn't even any romance, but it's so hilarious and so much fun to watch.  I also adore School Rumble, which is all about romance but also screwball comedy.

I also admire Tama most because I really think she is a character with a lot of Asperger's syndrome traits.  She really behaves a lot like an Aspie, and is an admirable hero.  I think someday soon she'll figure out that Yūji Nakata (中田 勇次 Nakata Yūji^?) actually likes her as more than a friend.

Tama's dad already has that figured out. ;-)  It's funny to  listen to the girls gossip about Yuji's first "date" with Tama.  "I don't think she thinks of him that way", says Saya.

This series could easily be extended another 13 or 26 episodes and I would gladly watch such a sequel.

 

Finished Planetes ("Wanderers")

I finished the series PLANETES, by Bandai Entertainment.  This series is unfortunately not available on Netflix at present, but a very cool librarian colleague helped me out.  It seems one of our patrons checked out this title via ILL from Fort Worth Public Library and returned it to us well in advance of the due date.  My colleague let me take home the DVDs "off the books", so I crammed in viewing the whole series over a few days and a long weekend.

Above pictured, main characters "Hachimaki" and Ai Tanabe, Hachi's eventual love interest.  He is her Sempai (senior) at work originally, and at first they don't particularly like or understand each other, but they become attracted to one another over time.  Ai is incredibly naive and idealistic, while Hatchi is pretty hardboiled and cynical.  They both work for a strong chief named Fee, who is voiced by Wendy Lee, aka the voice of Faye Valentine from Cowboy Beebop.

This is a science fiction story, but it's set in the near future rather than far future.  The space technologies used are believable extrapolations from existing technology.  The story depicts outer space accurately, with no sound traveling in a vacuum, etc, only the communications chatter over the radio, etc, and the sounds of the astronauts' breathing inside their space suits.

The basic story behind PLANETES is that in the near future, Earth orbit becomes so clustered with space debris, i.e. junk, that the accumulated junk of the passing decades becomes a genuine hazard to space travel and space development, requiring removal and destruction by contracted, private clean-up crews, to which Hachi and Ai are both assigned.  Space is regulated by a UN-like organization known as I.N.T.O. (pronounced "In-Tow"), or Inter-National Treaty Organization.  I.N.T.O. behaves more aggressively and militaristically than the UN we know in our world.

PLANETES theorizes that humans will develop space as a way to replace diminishing fossil fuels; the Moon becomes an unexpected motherload of new energy resources and Moon bases and even a few Lunar cities are established, and there is a limited human presence on Mars as well.  The next big leap into space will be a manned mission to Jupiter, again in search of further natural resources to exploit for human energy needs.

Like the fictional world of Firefly and Serenity, there are no space aliens, just us humans, exploring within our solar system (though in Firefly and Serenity there does seem to be FTL interstellar travel possible)...

PLANETES makes note that the division between rich and poor nations only gets worse with the expansion of Space exploration and development.  Those nations with access to Outer Space gain the greatest economic benefits, while those that do not fall further and further behind.  Japan and the United States are in the forefront, while more backward Middle Eastern and South American nations struggle to keep up.  

Ai Tanabe and Hachi work in the Debris Section of the Technora corporation.  They are treated with disrespect because other workers at Technora regard them as over-glorified "garbage men", but the reality is their job is vital to keeping space safe, especially after some very high profile accidents that claim many lives, including a space plane accident that killed the wife of Yuri Mikhailov, one of Hatchi's crewmates in Debris Section.

PLANETES is slow going at first and most of the action/tension centers on the inherent dangers of working in outer space, though later the terrorist threat, intertwined with the planned Jupiter mission become intertwined as the main drivers of the plot.  Tanabe grows in skill as an astronaut and develops more fully as a person, thanks in part to Hatchi's efforts.  In spite of his gruff nature, Tanabe starts to fall in love with Hatchi.  Hatchi begins to see Tanabe in a new light as well, though he is often torn and at odds with himself.  Torn between his ambitions as an astronaut and his desire for a romantic relationship with Tanabe.  Besides being thoughtless and insensitive most of the time, later on he's sometimes outright cold and cruel to Tanabe, even after they start dating.

Most of what drives PLANETES is the characters and their life histories and inter-relationships with each other.  A lot of the story is told in flashback, with past histories yielding light on present events.  Ai Tanabe is at first a very annoying character, and one can almost sympathize with Hatchimaki's exasperation with her at first.    Every character gets their moment in the sun as the focus of at least one episode, even the cool, seemingly apathetic temp worker Ms. Edel, who turns out to have a rather dark past that she struggled hard to overcome.

PLANETES is not for everyone.  If you want a hard-hitting Space Mecha epic, this is not your story.  If you want encounters with Space aliens, try one of Bandai's other titles, like STELLVIA.

If you have the patience for a slower but well-told anime story, and can feel empathy for these characters, your viewing efforts will be richly rewarded.