The Otakusphere: A long line of dead blogs

So recently I was checking through my backlog of stuff and stumbled across an old Otakusphere column that I wrote back in February. Mostly because I wanted to find out what had happened to Only the Bitch Knows.

What I found was a fairly long post about how she'd had her identity stolen. Honestly it was one of those posts where even a crusty curmudgeon like me finds myself unexpectedly feeling a pang of something in my chest.

But it got me thinking about last posts on blogs. I mean CCY had brought up Like Water earlier in the year, and that was another really good last post. But what I found kind of went like this. There are two types of "dead" blogs. Those that just fade away and those that march into that good night.

So, I've decided to try and find some actual good posts on those blogs. So I'm going to take a step back into the way back machine and look at some blogs that either are on indefinite hiatus, or are, well, dead.

First up we have Equivocal Resolution, who really did suffer from the slow death. But it was her last post that I think is her best post. She did a review of Touch and brought up a complaint that I honestly haven't heard much these days. That 70s and 80s animation seemed old and dated. I mean granted, it probably is old and dated, but really, I don't hear that complaint much. Especially with the spate of people who have reviewed Legend of the Galactic Heroes in the past few months. (On a site note, she does have bateszi listed as "an interesting NEW blog.")

Now Kimagure may not really be dead. I mean he (or she) might just be resting. The blog has only been inactive for about five months. But I do like his (or her) second to last post about the controversy surrounding Kodomo no Jikan. Personally, I don't have any feelings about the title one way or the other (read: there's stuff I want to read/see more). But I think it's a pretty good opinion about why pulling was probably the best thing to do for Seven Seas, but that it was still a good title.

Die Fanboys! has arguably the best name of any anime blog that I've seen to date. Okay, maybe not the best one. But this was definitely a case of going out on a last hurrah, but not one that said, "So long and thanks for all of the fish." Matrim posted a fairly long rant about the decision to yank the twelth episode of Higurashi off of the air. To be honest, a lot of it's common sense. But on the other hand, I still am not sure whether Higurashi is actually any good and worth getting all that worked up over (I've got it cued up to watch at some point.)

And just for flavor, I'm going to throw in Pretty Scythe's review of Paradise Kiss ep 6. Mostly because I like that show.

Just one final note, a green haired loli trap sent me an e-mail to let me know that the voting for the anime blog awards has started, so go vote. And by some random trick of fate, I did manage to secure a spot in the Rookie of the Year category which is nice. So thank you for everyone who nominated me. I do appreciate it.

So in the spirit of Drmchsr0: Go out and get your vote on!

List o the weak: Anime that time has forgotten

So there are some series that make such an impression that they seem to rock the foundations of anime fandom: Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Beebop, etc. It's not that these shows are universally beloved, but they're definitely universal. They'll come up at least once in any conversation you have about anime.

And then there are shows that seem to spark, fizzle and fade away. Now for the most part, they probably deserve to. I mean how many people really are going to talk about Project A-ko or El Hazard. Not that these shows are bad, it's just that they didn't leave much of an impression.

And then there are shows that are good, but surprisingly don't seem to show up in any conversations. Now none of these shows are perfect, and they may have come at the end of a glut of other shows, or they might have just gotten a little too much bad press. But these are my top five overlooked anime.

Number Five: Otogi Zoshi

Okay, so the first thirteen episodes of this are better than the second, but even with that this show has two kickass openings, swords, mysterious quests and some really excellent animation (courtesy of Production I.G.) The first thirteen episodes follow the adventure of Hikaru Minamoto as she assumes her brother's identity to save Japan. Yes, it sounds like a cheap rip-off of Mu Lan. But trust me, this isn't Disney at all. It's got blood and dying and tragedy and all of the good stuff.

Now the second half does take place in a modern Tokyo and does seem more like an epilogue to the first part rather than a story in its own right. But it's still enjoyable enough.

Number Four: Noein

There's just something about this show. Yeah, it does focus on a bunch of elementary school kids in their last summer before they go on with the rest of their lives. But how they get caught up in this inter dimensional war is great. The kids themselves get routinely upstaged by their adult counterparts. In particular, Kurasu, who is the older version of the male lead, is at times dark and mysterious and times tragic and at times cruel and occasionally insane. He makes for one of the better heroes I've seen in anime. Now I wouldn't necessarily put him in Lelouch or Suzaku territory, but he's still loads of fun.

And the other characters are just as enjoyable. Even Atori, who at first just seems like the classic anime wack job actually gets some fairly decent development. In fact, my only complaint about this series is the ending, which just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the series. But otherwise it's definitely worth checking out. Here's Anime Diet's first look at it.

Number Three: Argentosoma

Um… did you notice my banner up there? Yeah, that's Ryu Soma. Probably one of the best anti-heroes in anime. He's as interesting of a character as Lelouch or Kaiji. He's probably more interesting than a lot of the heroes on my top eight list (with the exception of Brandon Heat). Now, I spent an entire analysis piece a while back going over him, so I won't repeat everything I said there. But the dynamic between him and Hattie is really what sells this show to me.

Now the side characters aren't necessarily as interesting, but that's okay. The plot is fairly good and provides an excellent backdrop for the conflict between those two characters and the conflict within the main character himself.

Number Two: Starship Operators

So I had a hard time deciding whether this should be number two or number three, but it's probably the more obscure show. I'll be honest though, it does an amazing job at capturing the relationship between the media, the government and the military in times of war. In fact, it could just as easily be a case study for the nature of modern warfare as it is a story about some high school students who hijack a ship.

The only bad thing I can say about it is that it has a nasty case of red shirt and a missing denouement but otherwise it's an excellent show.

Number One: Kaze no Yojimbo

Okay, so I've talked about this one before. But if you're tired of hardboiled heroes who go soft halfway through the series, than watch this show. If you want a little more realism in your anime, then watch this show. If you just want something that's different, then watch this show. I mean if Dashiell Hammett had a Japanese love child, it would be George Kodama. And if he'd happened to set The Red Harvest in Japan is would be Kaze no Yojimbo.

But… the character designs do have a bad tendency to switch a little. But honestly if you can put up with the ever shifting character designs of GitS: Standalone Complex, then you shouldn't have a problem with this one.

In My View: I still like serial. Even if it might rot my brain.

Now before I get into this, let me say that I respect bateszi a lot. I don't always agree with what he says, but he does say it very well. And even if I disagree, I can appreciate his point of view. And hell, he liked GTO.

It's just that his latest post got me thinking about why I like anime.

But I think I have to give you all a little history, so you know where I'm coming from. I grew up watching Doctor Who. In particular I grew up watching Tom Baker play Doctor Who on public television every weekday. And I didn't watch it in the two hour block that it would be later processed into. No, I watched it a half hour at a time. So an entire arc could take a week or two to play out. When you're eight, an hour can seem like a long time, let alone a day. But every weekday at 7:30, I made sure I was in front of the television when the show started up because I didn't want to miss a thing.

That's when I fell in love with the serial.

Serials really are unlike any other form of storytelling. Mostly because they aren't self contained. A really good serial will pull the viewer in and leave them thinking about, "what's going to happen next time?" in a way that traditional episodic television simply doesn't do. That's not a knock on episodic television, just to say that they're different.

Now with a rare exception, the majority of American television in the 90s was episodic. I don't blame the networks for their choices as far as that goes. I mean episodic television is safer. The stories are self-contained and don't rely on a person having watched the previous ten or so episodes so they get what is going on. Producing those kinds of shows just makes good business sense.

But it didn't help me much.

So I started watching anime. Now as a medium, anime does the serial really well. In fact, I'd risk saying that they do the serial better than they do episodic television. Now I'll admit that I started watching anime again on Cartoon Network. I even sat through the entirety of the Cell Saga on DBZ, although I'm still wondering why. And once I had the means and ability to buy anime, I did.

And it was about that time that America resurrected the serial with The Sopranos. In all honesty, I haven't watched the Sopranos, and I don't really have any intention of watching it (mostly because Mob shows are the one form of crime drama that I don't like.) But I have watched 24, Lost and Heroes with split feelings on all of those shows. But I can say all of those shows have one thing in common.

They aren't anime.

American serials (for the most part) work on the premise that no matter how weird things get, this is a story about real people living real lives. I mean take a look at Heroes. Here's a show about a group of people who find out one day that they have superpowers. Even the most bombastic show of all time – 24 – is still a show about the progression of Jack Bauer as a character. The creators have even said that much.

In fact, when a show starts pushing that boundary of realism too far (24) people like me start to cringe (how many times can the guy get tortured before he finally dies.) Now part of that has to do with the medium. Part of it has to do with the nature of American fiction. But with any of these shows they're required to stay within people's expectations of how real people should act and what real people should be able to do. And each time they diverge from reality they're taking a risk of losing their audience.

Whereas anime can break all the rules and get away with it. I mean could you imagine a live action Kamui and Fuma zooming around Tokyo tower holding swords nearly as long as they are? Or a real Lain standing in the middle of a bunch of jabbering mouths attached to shadowy figures? Or even someone playing Shinji Ikari kneeling at the feet of Unit 01 debating with himself whether he should really pilot it? I know I couldn't. (All rumors of a live action Eva aside.)

But because they're removed from the realm of reality, it becomes believable. We can imagine these things happening because somewhere in the back of our heads we're thinking, "It's just a cartoon." And that's the beauty of it. In fact, I'd compare it closer to another type of teen entertainment – the comic book.

Now anime that cuts a little closer to reality can certainly be good. I enjoy Monster. I think Kaze no Yojimbo is easily the best hard-boiled detective series that's ever been animated. But they're mostly a novelty. Interesting, yes. Intelligent, sure. But I could turn on my own television and see the same thing.

It's not that I deny that the American serial has a certain amount of appeal. I mean I like some of them. But it's a different type of story with a different type of medium and a different approach. Judging one in the light of the other just doesn't seem fair.