The Animanachronism

It’s a mixed-up muddled-up shook-up world.

Prompted by the intricacies of the Haruhi genderswap, the vicissitudes of Minami-ke’s Mako-cakes and Baka-Raptor’s recent defiant (and probably tongue-in-cheek) statement that ‘Kyon is not a girl‘. [Regarding the above image: yes, there's version without cropping and with panties. No, I'm not posting it.] ‘Once you’ve fap’d to a trap, can you never go back?’ Granted, this subject is hardly new (here’s one example of many others’ entries on it, and here’s another) but I’m not averse to picking over the bones at someone else’s banquet. I’m a student: food really is scarce.

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One man’s fanservice is another’s relevant artwork
(one of these people is a reverse trap)

[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.

I don't like this entry very much. It seemst to me to be a collection of disparate fragments of argument. However, I think it is worth posting in any case, and I promise that the next one in the series will be more focused.] (more…)

Hint: it’s in this picture, and it’s not ‘panic’

Barthes wrote Mythologies, a witty and intelligent look at the layers of meaning which adhere to various everyday objects and symbols. What I always enjoy about Mythologies is its promiscuity of subject: Barthes applies analysis to pretty much anything, from ‘Greta Garbo’s face’ to ’steak and chips’. Certain parts of the anime and manga thought-world seem ripe for this kind of unembarassed attention, though I’m no Barthes. And so I turn my attention to p- (more…)