Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Otaku Level; achievement unlocked.

Cover via Amazon

So I think that I’ve reached a new level of Anime Otaku insofar as I hunted down on Amazon.com the specs for the Bandai Blu-Ray release of
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence which includes the elusive English dub (with the original TV series cast), which came out in 2009 and is already out of print due to a comedy of errors being a Bandai production (who shut down their North American
operations entirely) and going with comically inept North American distributor Media Blasters. Such that the copies one can obtain from Amazon are all over $100, and the best available “Used—Like New” is in the range of $179 USD. The reason I know I’ve achieved
a new level of otaku is that I am actually seriously considering coughing up that amount to acquire this rare film. You know you’ve attained a serious collector status when those kinds of price levels don’t make you balk immediately and laugh out loud. 
I confessed this to a work friend, who counseled against it, saying that surely it will get re-released at some point, yada yada. Perhaps. Perhaps not, however. Even the original Neon Genesis Evangelion is in an ambiguous situation on certain rights questions
so it may be quite some time while all of those questions are sorted out by IP lawyers before a North American Blu-Ray release will be considered. There is a Blu-Ray release that diehard fans can import from Japan, but I prefer English dubs, so that option
isn’t for me for that show. And I know preferring dubs is a ding against my “street cred” as an anime otaku. Whatever. 

 
I will check to see if Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is available via the Roku app that Manga Entertainment has on that system, but I’m not overly optimistic. They tend to host certain TV series, not movies last I checked,
though I’m willing to be shown to be wrong about that. They might have one of the Space Battleship Yamato animated movies, for example.
 
For the heck of it, I encouraged Hoopla Digital to see if they could acquire streaming rights to more former CPM titles, like
Record of the Lodoss War. They indicated they would pass my suggestion along to the content committee that looks into such things.  
 
Regarding Hoopla, I finally finished my last dubbed show,
Gasaraki, the sci-fi mecha show. With multiple Hoopla checkouts remaining for November, I decided to take a plunge to see how the other half lives and began watching the first episode of several sub-only shows available through my Hoopla portal(s),
including Antique Bakery (a yaoi/BL title, incidentally), Ristorante Paradiso (romance drama),
Emma: A Victorian Romance (‘nuff said), The Rose of Versailles (historical fiction, which also served reputedly as the inspiration for
Revolutionary Girl Utena), Super Robot Wars, and Aria: The Animation. I had to adjust my viewing habits and devote my full attention to the show, lest I miss a line of dialogue here or there. These were all very respectable
shows and I confess I did enjoy watching them. My main motivation for watching them being “because they’re there”, and I have nothing better to do with my Hoopla checkouts, so I might as well watch them. I wouldn’t bother or go out of the way otherwise. 
I look forward to continuing all of these series next month and in the months ahead.
 
I just finished up watching the 3rd season of
The Slayers, known also as Slayers Try. I have moved on to
Slayers: Revolution for fun. In the meantime, FUNimation has uploaded yet more dubbed episodes of
Fairy Tail for me to once more get caught up on. Then there are all the Sentai Filmworks shows waiting for me on my DVR (from Toonami) and also on The Anime Network proper. In fact I had to watch the subbed version of Episode 3 of
Parasyte: The Maxim because my DVR garbled the broadcast recording of the dub. And one of these days I am going to sit down and watch my way through the original
Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets) with the revised ADV Films dub that is much more faithful to the original Japanese script and not the bastardized version made for American television that I grew up watching as a child in the 1970s. That
version will always be near and dear to my heart, but I want to see the best representation of the original Japanese story available in English as well, courtesy of Sentai Filmworks, which re-released the original ADV Films dub not too long ago.
 
My Anime otaku nature is filled with watching anime for fun and entertainment, yes, but I also have a kind of completion agenda as well, making my way through what amounts to a “core curriculum” of the “relevant cultural texts” of Japanese
Anime. It is sometimes more chore than hobby, but I try not to let it become too tedious, and sometimes I take a break or vacation from anime watching so as to avoid dreaded anime burnout. I also have a lot of shows on disc that I started but dropped but
would like to circle back to as well.
 
Though there’s no way in hell I’d ever be able to explain why spending $179 for an anime movie on Blu-Ray makes perfect sense to me for the specific title in question.

Oh, Holy Knight (OVA)

So, has anyone else out there seen the one-shot OVA "Holy Knight"? Apparently it got a dub, but my local public library only has streaming access (via Hoopla digital) to the original sub version. Anyway, it feels like a 60 minute product pitch for a proposed much longer series that never got green lit. The pacing is crazy fast and it throws every anime trope and the kitchen sink in, too. It was reasonably entertaining I guess, but also left a lot of unanswered questions. The main character's sword, with cryptic Russian writing on the blade (which looks cool, but when I paused it and tried to read it, I noticed it was mostly nonsense, full of consonant clusters that don't actually get used in Russian, etc.), is a bit of a red herring, at least in this OVA. Seems like it should play a bigger role but they ran out of time? It's kind of nuts.  In the image below, the character is looking into a mirror, so the script on the sword is shown as a mirror reflection also (which come to think of it violates literary Vampire canon, but whatever)...but even if you flip this image and try to read the Russian script, you'll see the nonsense I'm talking about.  The Russian double "ii" (with special mark over the 2nd "i") only appears at the end of words, not internally within a word, like it does on this sword. 

Still, I found it considerably more entertaining than all of Vampire Knight, but I guess that's because I'm definitely not in the target demographic for Vampire Knight (teen girls & women) while Holy Knight was definitely made with dudes firmly in mind (Read: it's unabashedly pervy and weird).  I'm identifying vampire chick Lilith as the main character, even though ostensibly the main character is intended to be milquetoast audience insert character Mizumura Shinta, your average everyday Japanese high school student. 

This OVA feels like a condensed re-cap movie for people who want to re-live in condensed form the "highlight reel" from a 26-episode regular series.  A series that never got off the ground, apparently.  Which is unfortunate, because the foundations of a rather good supernatural action show are present and could've been reworked into something great or at least respectable.  The OVA teases an awful lot of potential but doesn't have the time to pay them off or adequately develop the characters or anything.  It makes the OVA very frenetic and kind of incoherent.  The "moral" of the story, if there is one, is "fuck tradition, fuck destiny, we'll make our own future and find love".

It's sort of Romeo and Juliet only with Juliet as a vampire chick who's inexplicably horny and half-Romanian, half-Japanese, carries around a weird Russian sword, while Romeo is your average Japanese high school dweeb who's also horny but awkward around girls and has a childhood best friend with big boobs who totally wants his dick but loses out to weird foreign vampire girl.

I was entertained, but damn this is a weird show.

Gasaraki completed

 
So, I finally finished the 1990s Mecha series GASARAKI. It does a good job of trying to depict the combat robots realistically, the actual problems they would face on a real-world battlefield, and what would be needed to overcome the inherent
difficulties of the bipedal design. The series interweaves Japanese mythology and Medieval History with the present day, hints at reincarnation, etc., and even integrates cultural practices like ceremonial dancing in very awkward and unintentionally comedic
ways. I might react differently if I were Japanese with a better understanding of the social and historical context, but as an ignorant
Gajin, I can only point and laugh and snicker at some of the clunky dialogue. The ADV Films crew deliver their lines with sincerity, it’s not their fault that what they’re saying is at times patently ridiculous. 

 
The film is also very politics heavy and the greatest weakness by far is just how goddamn talky the story is; it really wrecks the pacing of the anime and there are many extended scenes of characters sitting across from each other giving
deeply thoughtful lectures to each other about the philosophical underpinnings of their project and their critical analysis of what’s wrong with contemporary Japan and how it can learn from the past to build a better future for itself.
 
The villains of the story are Japanese elites of a very traditionalist and nationalist mindset, very arch-conservative and right-wing, but the story lets them expound their views and seems to lend some tragic sympathy to their views. Indeed,
there is a possible segment of the audience who would view the villains as tragic heroes who fail rather than cheer for the ostensible young protagonists. The main antagonist, Mr. Nishida, wants to provoke a confrontation with the United States and also usher
in a period of economic devastation to Japan that he hopes will break the amoral, narrowly consumerist ambitions of contemporary Japanese and return them to a more noble, purposeful agrarian past that eschews technology altogether. However, he’s undermined
by an ally, the head of Gowa clan, for whom although they share a common goal to smash the existing Japanese state, and launch a coup’d’etat together, their ultimate goal is the advancement of their own power and absolute dominance, much in the manner of his
medieval ancestor. His ambitions are stopped by his brother, Yushiro, and a female mech pilot, Miharu, who have a special affinity beyond normal humans for piloting the robot mecha.
 
It seems in this version of Medieval Japan there were terrible Mecha-style monsters resembling Golems, known as the Gasaraki, that could also be piloted by a certain class of knights and were capable of wreaking great destruction upon the
land. These Gasaraki were sealed away deep underground, never to be used again, but the Gowa Corporation has uncovered their ancient burial grounds and brought these Gasaraki back into the modern world. The ancient, Golem-like Gasaraki are even more powerful
and terrifying than modern Mecha known as TAs, or Tactical Armors. There are a few flashback episodes of the Gasaraki operating in Medieval Japan, and we can see that Yushiro and Miharu lived in those times as well, their contemporary namesakes being reincarnations
of their ancestors. Yushiro is a civilian contractor and test pilot assigned to a JSDF mecha unit testing their TAs. He is more skilled than any of his military counterparts and the Gowa Corporation tries and fails to find a way to reproduce Yushiro’s special
abilities via drugs, with disastrous results for the unfortunate test pilots.
 
The Gasaraki re-enters the plot one final time, but more as a gateway to a mystical realm than as an actual combat unit. Mystical things happen and the heroes are judged worthy and returned to earth to live out their natural lives, while
the wicked are annihilated by divine judgement. 
 
It’s a really weird show and worth watching, I guess, but I only saw it because it’s available on Hoopla digital through my local library. I wouldn’t recommend going out of one’s way to acquire used copies of the original ADV Films DVD
release.

Oni-Con XII wrap-up (2015)

I had a relatively good time at Oni-Con XII this year, but I think overall that Oni-Con XI (last year) was more fun for a number of reasons, some of which are not at all the fault of the Oni-Con staff.  For one, the weather was simply awful this year.  The only nice day was the day we arrived, on Thursday.  We got library cards from the Rosenberg (Galveston City) Library, then I gave my companion a tour of TAMUG (where I used to work for a time), then we wandered down to Seawolf Park and its pier and related attractions, the USS Stewart (Destroyer Escort) and USS Cavalla (Submarine).  We watched the sunset begin in the park, then checked into our room at Red Roof Inn on Seawall Blvd and began our walk up Seawall Blvd to see if it was possible to pick up our con badges yet.  Nope, the helpful volunteer informed, please come back at 8pm.  We continued northwest on Seawall Blvd, with the Pleasure Pier visible in the distance (whose cross street we'd earlier used to get from Broadway to Seawall in the first place).  I treated my companion to a nice seafood dinner at Nick's Seafood Cafe (formerly known as Casey's), then he agreed to accompany me a block or so north for drinks at a local pub (we sat outside, at the main bar), and, after an entertaining discussion of word etymology, we sauntered back in the direction of the Galveston Island Convention Center and our hotel.  We dropped by for our badges, then went on back to the hotel.  We watched a little anime on my iPad then went to bed.

Which reminds me, another disappointment of the Oni-Con XII experience versus XI....last year it was possible to connect either a PS2 or Xbox to the in-room television sets.  We watched anime off our DVDs in our down time.  It was a blast, and definitely heightened our enjoyment of the convention.  In the intervening months, Red Roof Inn replaced all their televisions with models that no longer permit the hooking up of external devices (despite written directional literature stating the opposite still in the rooms themselves), which we confirmed upon complaining loudly to the front desk, who could only shrug and say sorry.  This is a ridiculous backwards step for Red Roof Inn to take and definitely out of step with the needs & desires of today's 20-to-30 something con-goer (and teens too, obviously).

The weather turned bad on Friday much sooner than originally forecast, and never really got better like it was supposed to.  When it was still raining for breakfast Sunday I decided we'd call it quits and head home early.  We made one last buzz of the dealer's room then loaded up the car and got out of town and got our extra night refunded, which was nice of the hotel to honor.  I didn't even bother to cosplay that last day because the rain was really getting to me and triggering my depression.  It sapped my motivation completely.  If we'd had last year's weather we definitely would've stayed through Monday morning (as many of the industry guests apparently did this year--hardier souls than me, I tell you).

Things I did this year that I didn't do last year:  The J-Rock concert was LOUD but a blast.  Also did the Rave on Friday night (but skipped out on Saturday's Rave--once was enough).  I danced until my feet hurt and my legs got tired, which was roughly an hour.  My companion left early, noting the noise level was too overwhelming for him personally.  The next night the BECK Project concert was awesome as well.  I also managed to snag autographs from all the industry guests I wanted this year.  The FUNimation industry panel was good, and I got to ask Clarine Harp in general terms what the experience was like in broad, general terms, working on Eva 3.33; She gave me a polite, broad, carefully worded reply and noted that she could not get more specific than that.  She had to know the question would be asked and it might as well have been me who asked it.  At the very least she indicated she was DONE with her part of the work and happy that the street date (February 2016) was official.  The rest of the panel was informative and interesting banter between Chris Bevins, Talesin Jaffee and Clarine Harp, while answering other questions from the audience.

I also sat in on Otaku Travel Tips to Japan and Samurai Dan's History of Sharp Pointy Things, both of which were very informative and entertaining.

The dealer's room was pretty good this year.  I managed to find the schoolgirl Asuka Langley figure I was after, and also found box sets of Ghost in the Shell SAC and 2nd Gig (Seasons 1 & 2), which are super out of print and stupid-expensive on Amazon.com these days.  I found both for a reasonable sum from the same vendor.  I got a couple of more Fairy Tail plushes and a Fairy Tail t-shirt in my size that actually fits me (rare these days in most dealer's rooms).  I tend to be pretty narrowly focused and targeted in my approach to dealer's rooms these days.  I go in already knowing what I want to walk out with and don't let myself get distracted from my objectives, though I do keep one eye out for rare or unique gems like the GITS set(s).

Artists' alley was great and one print seller was tempting (I loved her renditions of Yoko from Gurren Lagann and Saber from Fate/Zero), but I'm running out of wall space in my work cubicle so I gave prints a pass this year.  Hopefully she'll be at Anime Matsuri 2016 and I'll buy some of her artwork then.  Lots of great cosplay, too, and I was much more bold in asking politely for photographs instead of meekly jumping in on "me too!" opportunities.

I went with the Star Trek cosplay for myself again this year because it's just easy to do and wear.  I kept things mixed up, wearing Next Generation tunics as well as Original Series tunics as well.  I'm tired of catching crap for wearing some of the "Command Red" from TNG, though because everyone still gives "Redshirts" a wide berth, even though that only applied to TOS, not TNG.  The "Redshirt" mythology is just too strong, and even TNG's revised color schema doesn't put a dent into it.  I mostly stuck to Science Officer blue (TOS & TNG) and Command Gold (TOS), which got the most positive receptions from others at the convention.  I even saw 3 other Trek cosplayers, which made me happy.

I had a fun time with my travel companion again this year.  We made do with my iPad for our down time anime, and mostly this was okay except for Saturday night when there wasn't enough bandwidth to go around and the shows were laggy and the picture quality was ass.  I bought a multiple USB charger at Radio Shack for better device power management and also a wireless (bluetooth) speaker for the iPad so we could have better audio for our anime viewing.  Big ticket items but they made the trip better overall.

Anyway, happy to add GITS to my collection along with Solid State Society on Blu-Ray.

Too early to say if I'll return to Oni-Con next year for Oni-Con XIII.  But I'm definitely on for Anime Matsuri 2016, already have my tickets paid for (which also allowed me to exercise restraint in the dealer's room this year at Oni-Con).

Oni-Con is the goldy locks of anime cons in terms of size....not too small (Delta H) not too big (AX, Otakon), but just right.