The Animanachronism

The funny thing is, wildarmsheero is right: Code Geass doesn’t have a pretentious bone in its body. It’s the fans who are the pretentious ones. The show is just noise and pictures, and it’s the fans who shove the meaning on it. We’ve been here before, and we don’t need to say anything about Code Geass at all - it can just be enjoyed. Nevertheless, some of us find it even more enjoyable if we do say things about it, so, while we don’t need to talk about Kallen, I want to. It’s viewer’s prerogative time.

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‘Pizza Butt’ is an inelegant nickname. I propose ‘Beauttocks’ as an alternative.

You may recall that in the first episode of the first season of Code Geass, one of the resistance fighters, having been wounded, reaches out towards a button next to a picture of his family, mutters ‘Nippon banzai!’ and blows up the truck he’s driving. Now I am not Japanese, and in fact I have my doubts about the act of suicide, but I nevertheless found this moment rather stirring. The scene as a whole, however, is also rather disturbing - and not, I hasten to add, because of any patriotic fervour or jingoism, but for a rather subtler reason. This, remember, is the context: the resistance have got their hands on a container of what they think is a gas weapon from the Britannian military, and the lorry carrying it it is trying to escape through Tokyo’s old subway system.

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Eagle-eyed viewers of Code Geass R2’s first episode may have spotted that Lelouch is reading Dante’s Divina Commedia while Rollo gives him a lift. (As a child, I never loved anyone enough to give them my last Rolo.)

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At the beginning of Kaiji 24, something unusual happens. Kazutaka Hyodo (the Chairman) asks Kaiji for something. It’s not something important - all he wants Kaiji to do is to let go of his wrist - but it is a request. Having tried to beat Kaiji’s arm away with his cane, the Chariman resorts to calmly asking Kaiji to do something (he should’ve hit Kaiji on the left side of his head, but in the heat of the moment perhaps he forgot about Kaiji’s injury).

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‘The School of the UnDefeated of the East!’

The allusion was too tempting, and Tonegawa even looks just a little like Master Asia. (If anyone’s interested, this entry contains a moderate-level plot spoiler for Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann too; not a character death, or anything, but more of an arc-structure point.) As for this entry’s title, I suppose it demonstrates the global dimension of current US politics. If I were a homeowner, I wouldn’t have any control over the sale of the big mansion next door but I’d still like to know who it was likely to be sold to.

There’s probably little point in me praising Kaiji to you now; if you’re reading this, you’re probably a Kaiji fan already - and if you’re not then further paeans are unlikely to persuade you. So I will simply note that Kaiji continues to be my favourite currently airing anime before moving on to consider what happened in Episode 22. (more…)

More confusing than a PIME TARADOX?

Suppose you’re a Haruhiist, and you desperately want to see this genderswapping gem animated (though it has already mutated into clipshow form).

So . . . is it acceptable to pray to God that She might change Her gender? And is She the same God when She’s a He? This is, of course, assuming that Haruhi can be God and gendered at the same time. I wonder if anyone’s actually given thought to an internally coherent theological system for Haruhiism yet?

[Incidentally, it was recently announced that Haruhi is getting a UK release. And not before time too, I might add.]

‘You see, if you take off the ‘But there’re no mecha!’ goggles, it’s not as bad as you think!’

It wasn’t love at first sight, although our eyes did meet across a crowded blog. Given Kimikiss’s looks, perhaps it never could’ve been ‘at first sight’: while she has her charms, when she walks she treads on the ground (unlike certain others). Although she does pay comendable attention to her characters’ hair.

Perhaps it was simply coincidence that got us talking, or perhaps it was my desire to find material to prevent this blog from being entirely about Gundam. In any case, talk we did, and she certainly gave our conversation an action-packed beginning. We went out for a few episodes and gradually settled into something steady. There’s a lot I like about her, and we seem to get on well. Perhaps it’s my taste, but whenever she puts on a gently meditative piano melody I find it hard to say no. (more…)

After some thought, I have decided to switch from Contempt to Cutline. Cutline has the slightly wider main column and less cramped text that I was looking for. We’ll see how this works out; comments are welcome. The new theme comes with a new banner, of sorts, with added MANLY TEA, as well as the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster taken from the ninth episode of G Gundam. It’s a little rough-around-the-edges, but if I’m fitting in my blog’s title, my favourite beverage and my location, all in anime form, I can’t be going far wrong. (more…)

1. External forces arrive.

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This is what happens when a Victorian imagines a knight¹

[This is part of a series of entries considering GAR. The first one sets out what’s happening. The second one reinterprets the epic tradition through the lens of GAR. The third one examines the relationship between GAR and gender.

Contains minor-to-moderate spoilers for Akagi and for the first sixteen episodes of Kaiji.]

Akagi and Kaiji are closely linked by sharing the same manga-ka and by the similarities in their anime adaptions. Comparisons are quite revealing, and allow us to draw some wider conclusions about the nature of GAR, as well as the role of weakness and sacrifice. (more…)