Tag: Essay

Periwinkle’s Art of War (02): The Fogs and Forgotten Battles of Alaska

Recently playing the classic Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation had me daydreaming and wondering about the history of the real Alaskan Peninsula Islands the game is said to take place on. Upon reading the Peninsula’s history I stumbled into a forgotten chapter in World War Two history and by re-examining the past I find new perspective of where we are in America today.

The fog never seems to end on the Aleutian Islands in the Alaskan peninsula but the low visibility has never seemed to slow nomads and explorers throughout history. Even at times acting as a strategic cloak or even a blanket burying the remains of soldiers long since forgotten.

Most of the islands themselves now belonging to the U.S. state of Alaska. While some farther west belong to the Far Eastern administrative district of Russia – known as Kamchatka Krai.

But hundreds of thousands of years before oil rigs, English colonists, Russian traders, merchants and Christian missionaries danced across the isolated piano teeth islands, the archipelago itself acted as Gaia’s horizontal ladder between worlds. The only land linking the continents of Asia and North America.

But it wouldn’t be the last time North Americans and Asians would find themselves co-occupying the territories for better or worse.

The “Alaskan Bush”

For gamers this setting would be most familiar with Metal Gear Solid fans. With the original PlayStation, writer Hideo Kojima realized that the 32-bit technology finally had caught up with his story telling and he aimed to redo and expand on his original MSX game, Metal Gear. He saw the updated technology the perfect platform to expand on the game’s lore and story in a more cinematic manner.

He wrote the entire game taking place on the fictional Shadow Moses Island. An island that is said to belong to a part of the real Fox Island Archipelago in the Alaskan Peninsula. Foggy year round, the adverse weather makes the destination extremely hard to navigate and naturally isolated.

But unlike Kojima’s fictional military conflict set in 2005 a real conflict unfolded between the United States and Japan in the same area sixty years before.

June 3rd 1942 began the Aleutian Island Campaign in the American and Pacific Theaters of World War Two. In only the second invasion of American soil ever, the campaign saw a small force of Japanese soldiers occupying two small islands on the archipelago.

Both Attu and Kiska islands, two of the westernmost islands in the territory of Alaska were occupied by Japanese forces. The Japanese reasoned that control of the Aleutian Islands would prevent the United States from an attack across the Northern Pacific.

Japanese troops raise the Imperial battle flag on Kiska Island in the Aleutians (6/6/42)

At first very little changed for the Unangans (the indigenous people living on the islands) under Japanese rule but that would soon change. Many Unangans would be captured by the Japanese and shipped to Hokkaido where they would be kept in internment camps in harsh conditions. Fearing the Japanese advance the American government forcibly evacuated the remaining Unangans into internment camps of their own where many would die due to exposure of Measles and Influenza. It would take nearly eighty years for the United States Government to formally apologize for the internment and treatment of their people.

Vehicles couldn’t maneuver across the island’s rugged terrain. United State’s soldiers here carry supplies by hand through Jarmin Pass

At the time the American and Canadian fears were growing to a fever pitch. They feared having most American troops already in engaged in the European and Pacific theaters of the war that there wasn’t a lot to stop the Japanese from moving up through the peninsula and overtaking Anchorage, moving south to Vancouver and ultimately settling in Seattle, Washington.

The Japanese opened up the aggressions with bombing Dutch Harbor in the city of Unalaska, Alaska. The aerial bombing which made use of the foggy weather conditions as cover lasted over two days – the second of the two days being much more effective – leaving a burning hospital, oil storage tanks and a breached barrack ship left burning in their wake.

140,000 American and Canadian troops were sent to the islands to meet the Japanese. Rugged terrain and ruthless weather would have devastating effects on both sides of the war effort. By March of 1943 a Japanese fleet was engaged in the naval battle of the Kormandorski Islands. One that would cut off Japanese supplies to the Imperial ground troops on the island indefinitely. Setting the stage for the largest forgotten battle on United States soil ever.

Operation Landcrab

On May 11th 1943 – “Operation Landcrab” began with the sole objective of recapturing Attu island from Japanese forces whose numbers only estimated around 8,000. Japanese forces despite being outnumbered and outgunned held the higher ground while Allied forces struggled with booby traps and frostbite.

Finally on May 29th following fierce entrenched combat the Japanese without warning led the largest banzai charge recorded in the Pacific theater. Led by Colonel Yamasaki the charge penetrated Allied forces so deep they wound up face to face with American rear-echelon support troops. The fighting that commenced there after was barbaric. Furious Hand to hand, face to face battle. Completely outnumbered, the Japanese troops were virtually exterminated.

Shortly thereafter Allied troops landed on Kiska island only to find it abandoned. Under the cover of fog the Japanese chose to remove their remaining troops from the area. Like ghost ships drifting back to the expanse of the sea the forgotten battles were now left to the mercy of time and history books which would bury them soon enough.

LEGACY

American military propaganda during WWII. (We’ve come a long way.)

In a foggy, frozen hell hole killing one another with their bare hands it would surely seem unthinkable to both American and Japanese soldiers that less than fifty years later both countries would be incredibly close military and economic allies.

But a theme Kojima constantly reminds his gamers of is that the enemies and politics constantly change yet the battlefield remains the same. Despite a time period’s politics and conflicts – despite yesterday’s rivals making todays greatest allies – despite what propaganda and claims of righteousness on either side of a battle may be – war is just as barbaric as it ever was.

After all of the decision makers and mouth pieces lay down and go to sleep at night it still all ultimately comes down to men and women – human beings – brutalizing and killing one another over an ever changing political landscape and societal policies that are bound to change soon enough on their own.

After the war the wounds began to heal and culturally the times changed as they always seem to do. With the increase in trade, the meteoric rise of the internet, video games, anime and more the love between our two cultures has never been stronger. I, like millions of other Americans LOVE everything about Japanese culture and Americans and American influence is met with an equally enthusiastic adoration in the Far East.

In a particularly heartbreaking week following the senseless murders of eight people in Atlanta – six of them women of Asian descent – it’s imperative for us as a melting pot to mourn the senseless loss of life together and to be angry on behalf of the victims together but most importantly use this time to embrace one another more than ever. To reach out to one another. To love ourselves and each other. To not let the despicable actions of not just this psycho but any racist shit head divide anyone.

To use our common loves as a constant reminder that we all are human beings and none of us are alone in this world. Sometimes the news cycle can make it look bleaker and darker than it is – but seeing the propaganda and history of the past one hundred years – even if we have a ways to go – we’re still heading in the right direction. Together.

Message me on social media and say something cool like, “Yo”

Creating My Ultimate Anime

Hello again my dear Island Guests and welcome to another post where I talk about the wonderful world of anime. Someone recently asked me what Manga I would like to see get adapted into an anime.. but I do not know, I don’t read manga nor do I think I should compare the two. It’s different forms of media and storytelling I do not know enough about adapting to know if my favourite Manga would be any good. So instead I will use this post to create my ideal anime!

Now first let’s determine who this show should be made for. Obviously the  most logical pick for me would be to make it a Josei show. For those who do not know Josei here basically would mean PG-13 catered to females. It’s male counterpart being Seinen. They oppose Shounen and Shoujo genres who are made for younger boys and girls respectively. My ideal show definitely would be PG-13 but since as a geek I predominantly hang out with groups consisting out of guys, because that is a thing I would like it if they would like my favourite show as well.  While I love sharing a show with my online lady friends there is just something about sitting on the couch and being mesmerised together. I have that when I watch Tengen Toppa or Madoka with my friends … the energy in the room is like magic. With friends in a room you do not need sleep , good anime can almost be like a druglike high..  without like ruining your body chemistry and not being able to poop and all. So with a good anime you can be high AND poop! The best two worlds!  Which is a perfect bridge! I am getting so good at this!

When you watch anime with friends and something cool happens! Also a cheer for my epic bridge to the next paragraph

My show would be the best of Seinen and Josei, showing some deeper relationship between characters and genuine emotional responses but also some nice action with a bit of darkness to it. Where cuteness and edginess clash but also intermix. We will throw in some Yuri and maybe some Yaoi elements as well for good measure obviously mostly implied with a single scene here and there that is a bit more explicit. I wanna watch this with friends, so pausing is not a thing so I would build some fan service moments where I can get myself, and maybe my friends, a drink and then they can go fetch drinks during some more heartfelt moments! Like a cute hand holding watching the sunset scene or something. Or during the guys flirting with each other. You know because plenty of my friends still think that’s not something they want to see. A girl’s gotta stay hydrated or inebriated… your pick! I would try to make it as unappealing as possible to young boys as possible because I do not like kids and I would not like to watch this show with one. Plus having to deal with someone like that during the fan meets is something I am not keen for either so .. there! Young girls I do not mind as much so I might throw in a unicorn somewhere or something! I am afraid that young boys will still like it as well..because it’s just going to be so awesome!

Not sure why I spend this long edditing this but hey! Details can be cool just like my anime!

Now to create a story for my show! That means also coming up with a genre.. but I usually like mixed genres. So i’d probably combine the Isekai, Magical Girl, Horror, Comedy and Romance genre together with a healthy dose of surrealism in the mix as well.  Maybe something a bit tournaments as well because I really like those. Of course I’d like a twist on each genre as well.. it will not be a flat up Isekai instead there will be a twist.  The horror elements can’t really be twisted as it just involves some scary stuff and the comedy is to balance out the grimness I’d like to insert to make it a bit cute as well. As a twist on the Magical Girl stuff I’d like to take it completely over the top.. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann style mixed with Dragon Ball Z/Super. New transformations happen constantly and grow more and more ridiculous. In a show that just makes you yell out loud! Who the Hell do you think we are! Except no that one because it is taken.Something like “Our Bonds are Unbreakable.. and these bonds shall be your chains’  or  ‘Love has brought us together and made us an unstoppable force we are NAKAMA, WE ARE TOMODACHI’ . You know I’d figure it out somehow. I’d like some of those kind of elements though.

So for the story I imagine something along the lines of the 1983 Dungeons And Dragons Cartoon but with a twist. Instead of getting completely Isekaid a group of 6 players or so, would be forced to play a deadly game of D&D in a house with a creepy Dungeon Master.
While playing the cast gets transported to the magical world. If you die in that world you’ll die in real life as well.The characters have to keep their real selves alive as well as their avatars. It would have some Danganronpa elements where the DM  is but a creep animatronic..hosting a session for several hours a day. Once it is over the characters return to their human lives and find themselves trapped in a mysterious mansion. By completing quests more of the house is unlocked and parts of the mysteries are revealed but as the game lingers on the dungeon master becomes increasingly unfair and stuff from the fantasy world seems to bleed over in the real world. As the house is revealed to have staff members that seem like their allies and foes in the game world their trust on what is and what is not on both levels would get twisted. Of course they do fall in love with each other as the show goes on.. and learn new transformations based on their class archetypes in D&D as they figure out how to cheat the Dungeon Master.. can they escape?

While I said there should be 6 characters or so the game might start with a few more.. you know a few disposables to tell us exactly how deadly this game is. Friends they make in the house later on.. as staff becomes unlocked and people in game are not death proof either and most likely only the Yuri couple would walk out alive. Why them? Because  I do not want a super grim end , there has to be some happy end but they are most likely to adhere to the classic horror elements of final girls. It would feel right. Besides it would combine super well the with the second element. There would be a psychological horror aspect, the Butler who is so sweet in the mansion who takes care of all of your needs turns out to be an evil guy in the campaign a traitor who got you into trouble.. does this mean the Butler can’t be trusted?
What happens when a character suddenly becomes a vampire and seems feverish in real life?  Are they transforming here to ? Can they even?  The DM tells there is a betrayer in the campaign is it one of the players, is he referring to an npc. As the show goes on the players at one time even begin to doubt if their Isekaid versions might not be the real versions and  if the game is a delusion. Of course there will be plenty of grim quests and creepy monsters too. Reality unravels more and more as mistrust grows as the DM sows more and more doubt in their minds. What can you trust?

The Magical Girl aspect comes from a power that the people get in the D&D world.. they can stack classes.  Initially maybe from a dead player, whose mini’s they discover as they go on but later they can stack more on top.  For example the sorcerer girl takes the powers of a ranger girl as well and transforms into a magical girl like looking hybrid of the classes that can shoot elemental arrows with pinpoint accuracy. The gay barbarian boy can take the spells of a wizard and becomes a sort of thor hybrid adding lighting to his strikes. The fighter can take some druid animals , changing their  strength by shifting to Gorilla arms, use wings for a huge downwards sword trust or even add a scorpion tail to poison their opponent.
The warlock could combine with a rogue.. wielding shadow magic.. being unseen cursing people from the shadow with shadows and so on.  However as they develop bonds they can take on the primary class of their romantic partner in the mix..becoming an even stranger hybrid, finding additional classes along the way in a way like the crests in digimon and so on. Each time they become stranger more powerful hybrids that can lend themselves to truly unique designs. Breaking limits against a DM that doesn’t seem intent on giving them a fair chance.  Eventually we end up with a pair that basically can stack all the classes to be found and transcend into near godhood.

Told you guys I’d put a Unicorn in here!?

That ties in to the increasing insanity element again.. players begin to resend their weak powerless bodies as their power in game increases their strength and will in real live wanes. In order to keep everyone level headed , very early in the series people would be partnered up to function as each others anchor. Sharing thoughts with each other these of course quickly lead to a bit of a romance element. For that reason it is best that none of the players know each other at the start, they would just get an invite to play in an amazing game all know how to play D&D  and it would be a great opportunity.. much like how an invitation to Hope’s Peak Academy seemed prestigious at first. Regardless , after each major quest we would see the characters explore the house for an episode or so and some pillow talk in the rooms could provide background on characters and would be our primary method to get to know their real selves. We can find out that the Wizard for example has an over-demanding father which pushed the Wizard to focus on their academic accomplishments so their Int stat is high and we find out why they are a wizard in game. While the girl dreaming to be an idol might start out as a bard. Sharing with each other and being in danger so often of course allows the characters to open their hearts for another and eventually fall in love.

The comedy element would come from some more whimsical quests suddenly tossed into the mix and some group bonding in the house. The group knows they need to keep morale up so not everything is grim and dark, they sometimes just have some fun as they dress the Butler up to like Mister Villain.. or once they found out the butler has to clean everything they have a bake off in the now unlocked ot them kitchen and just make a chaotic mess. Most of the comedy will be contained to the fantasy world though as players can not help but act like players in a fantasy game and mess up situations like D&D players would .. in the funny way.
It would not be overly dominant but it would offer a bit of a relief from the despair.  An element that might be needed or at the least could lead to some cute figurines being sold!

To wrap this up let’s look at the series length. I think it would need to be something of a 25 episode anime at least. Maybe even 50, there is a lot to tell.  I am using Digimon as a blueprint to go on here. It also had that world duality mechanic throughout most of its shows and usually had to use between 50 and 100 episodes. Since it will be less monster of the week, but still a bit I’d say 50 is a safe but ideally I would like to wrap the story in about 36 episodes. The show needs to be long enough for people to doubt the established status quo. what world is real?! What is fake?!.. this works better as a slower format as questions need to linger for a bit to add to the mystery. There is yet another reason for the large number of episodes!  Obviously the pacing is important and while 36 seems ideal the chosen studio I would love to use is a studio that has trouble with pacing. 

Pacing is important in anime!

Studio Trigger would be my choice as a production studio. I would also love Gainax as a studio but those haven’t been very active lately. Trigger can be both light and dark and has that surreal style in things I really love.  I loved Kill la Kill myself despite people thinking it’s not okay and all, but those transformation scenes.. that feeling is something I’d really want when someone transforms in my show!  Both the villians and the Ryoko’s transformation felt really powerful! I loved the music as well so I am sure they could hook me up in that department. I’d like that same bombastic feel Kill la Kill had during the battle scenes but I also like the tense uneasy synthwave in BNA ..something like that.. could still work in the house.. because of how D&D is surrounded by that 80’s vibe. Like adding a bit of Stranger Things charm on top of it. As A director I would love to get Shinji Takamatsu. The guy of Gundam Wing but also Cute Earth Defence club Love. Both have traits I ‘d like to see back in their directing.His experience with Gintama would also help when the Isekaid characters break the fourth wall in there. 

My show would have less skin on characters though! Like.. I mean more clothes.. the skin thing is like mid season!

My voice talent I haven’t fully figured out yet but there is one choice that is very obvious!
Not starting with that though I think the female lead should be played by Tomosa Murata who voices Gasai Yuno in Mirai Nikki. I think she has a wide vocal range and can sound cutesy but also cry  in despair quite well Since the characters in this show deal with faltering sanity I think Tomosa has the acting  chops to make this work. For her dub-voice I’d cast Kate Micucci. I love her role as Webby Vanderquack. Kate’s inflection and tone  reads naturally a bit geeky and awkward and those are traits I want in my main character. She doesn’t need to be hyper cute like Ako Tamaki, this character is a bit of a mix of Usagi from Sailor Moon, mixed with Tomoko  from Watamote topped of with a bit of Honoka from Futari Wa Precure

The DM should be voiced by Takehito Koyasu better known as the voice of Dio! He also played  Boris in BNA recently and he played Gin in Food Wars. This guy has such a commanding  presence which is perfect for the role of our creepy mysterious Dungeon Master. The guy is in like EVERYTHING so he should not be hard to get! For the English dub there isn’t a shadow of doubt in my mind who should play the role of the DM… Mark Hamill!……….. Kidding! There is obviously only one right choice and if this thing ever get made this choice is an requirement for the dub to even happen.. the Dungeon Master HAS to be voiced… by Matthew Mercer.

Now that I layed out my perfect anime, I might actually write a story for it I am not fully sure yet but I got myself really excited about this idea!  How would your ideal anime look like?!
Would you watch mine?! Let me know and i’ll pink up your life again in the next post you read! See you then! Oh and if you really like this idea! Maybe support my Kofi! If I get enough money I promise I will make the anime! You become a coconut to which more awesome than it sounds!

A Talk About Anime Filler

Few words are hated so much by anime fans as the word filler. Empty episodes to slow down a plot so the manga can move ahead.. or a story has more time to be developed. These are often treated as a crime against anime but are they really?! Today I give my opinion.

<Disclaimer> This blog shall only deal with the filler I have seen or know and any statement I make will always be a opinion be it my own or public opinion. I do not disapprove of anyone who does not share my views or  claim there is anything wrong with your opinion please do not take offence <End of Disclaimer>

One of the first words I learned in terms of anime was the word filler. While I got into anime Naruto was busy with their Taka arc in the manga. My classmates were sick of the Naruto filler and wanted Shippuden to happen. They read the manga! I did not, so I never really knew what was filler.  So …. I might look at this at a slightly different angle then most. Unable to confirm what is and what isn’t in the original story. While sometimes I noticed, like the Fake Namek Arc and The Garlick Junior Arc being not to me liking, sometimes I was rather oblivious, like for example the Bounto Arc in Bleach. While I did not enjoy that last one nearly as much as the arc that came before I thought it was okayish (mind you I was only watching 3 anime at the time, being Naruto, Fate Stay Night and Bleach). So I figured maybe there is just something about knowing when something is filler that makes it worse.. simply because we define it as filler?! I looked into this idea a bit further. 

Which brings us back to Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. I never read the manga of Z and the manga of Super is vastly different from the show.. so what exactly do we qualify as filler here? The manga is behind the series for Super and follows its own course. Still episodes like the copy Vegeta Arc feel “fillerly” I am pretty sure that it is.  Yet there are also episodes like Goku and Piccolo learning to drive in Z or the Baseball Game in Super that were really good stand alone episodes that do enjoy a fare share of fans. So if we consider that everything that is not part of the manga and does not factor into the main story in any significant way.. both Copy Vegeta as well as those somewhat beloved episodes can be quantified as Filler.  The  same goes for the Fake Namek Arc and The Garlick Junior Arc , while the first one is objectively very bad I’d say Garlic Junior would be rather painfully mediocre than bad. Still I do see more active hate against the arc of the immortal little man than that cluster fuck that happend before.  Why? I theorise it is because Garlick featured in a movie… so people KNOW this arc is filler as it considers a well known non canonical character

.  This theory isn’t fool proof, back when I saw both arcs I did not know either of them was filler, and disliked them both to an extend as they aren’t particularly well written from the get go.. but since the Garlick Junior Arc now can easily be identified as filler, due to the Dead Zone movie being out there, I do actively remember it more as filler while Fake Namek faded away in my head much more. Identifying something as filler has plenty of implications from the get go that are detrimental to your experience ..like actually harming tension arcs and expectations. So by being aware of the label it can actually decrease your enjoyment, I did not mind the Bounto Arc when I watched it because I did not know what filler was, I wondered what would happen and while the answer turned out to be ..not much I did not mind being taken for that right. Filler has a stigma on it simply as a word that can doom excitement from the get go. It isn’t contained to just “fillers be bad” it works much deeper than that, on our expectations and on possibilities…so something labeled filler in a way is already on the back foot.

A reason for this is probably because filler arcs suffer from the same detriment as the “it was all just a dream”  trope. Nothing significant will be gained or lost. After the arc the status quo will be the same as before. It’s just more content. However you know Ichigo will survive a filler arc, you even know that not a single character you knew before this arc will suffer to much. Not even mentally.. after all , once the arc is done it’s gone and forgotten. So knowing something is filler can obviously hurt your viewing experience . As soon as you know it’s filler, you know the ending. At least to the extend that the protagonist will not have learned any new techniques, none of the main crew will be to damaged and no friendship they made will last to long. Thus a filler arc is “boring”  to some extend.  Stakes are very low and the only things that might get lost, broken or hurt are the new elements.. based on how they interact with the main character you can completely predict this as well. 

A great example is the “The New Captain Shusuke Amagai Arc” Due to the awkward timing I knew this was a filler arc, which by the way Bleach is a star at ..but we all know that. As a result I knew that Amagai could never stay. The manga can not skip introducing such an important character, so clearly by the end he has to go. The more the story progresses.. the more that path becomes defined the more boring the outcome becomes. This is where I feel filler arcs will always fall through. Since 99% of all arc based filler move like this I think fillers are damn near factually more inclined to be boring than canon content.

Yu-Gi-OH on the other hand included filler character Duke Devlin in so much thing, though mostly filler arcs that felt of consequence still. He was there in the Battle City Tournament to support his friend, which also led into him partaking in the Noah Arc. I do not think that hurt the main story at all and the way they chose to include this side track felt much more natural.. I didn’t know it was filler and even if I did.. Duke is included so they still have a character I have come to care for and they can kill off. Tension remains and there is always some guess work involved. However this way you almost force people to watch filler content and risk polarising people. Which can enforce making filler arcs feel like an additional slog. But not only we as vieweres are limited.. so are the creators.

The No Consequence arc doesn’t only make the story less boring because you know where it has to end , it also limits what you can do. In the Garlic Jr arc you can not have Vegeta show up and take a beating.. this would result in him getting a Zenkai ..which might proof significant later on, you can not  have going turn Super Saiyan because that would impact the main story.. and you are not allowed to. So you already have to tell a story from point A to B .. but everything that was pre-established.. can not move from A to B.. they have to stay at A. Ichigo can not learn a new technique.. unless you make him realise the method is to dangerous in the end and still then your pushing your luck. Naruto can not move past an obstacle that still might an issue in the main story. So not only do you have to write flat character arcs for everybody relevant to the main story you also have to make sure nothing is gained by them that might alter the outcome of later events. Luffy can not make a super powerful friend that could have helped in Marine Ford prior to the Arc, (unless you pit them against other filler characters for show) Kirito can not gain a life lesson where he learns how to trust people more. So writing good filler is damn near impossible! So maybe we should go a bit easier on the people making them. No consequences for the characters, no consequences for the writers!

Does that mean that there are no good filler arcs? I think there are. One of the filler arcs I really liked was the Twelve Guardian Ninja bit in Naruto Shippuden. Not for it’s story exactly  but for what it set up for me.  While in terms of narrative it did not bring anything significant to the table .. it perfectly set up Asuma to…. die.  While the enemies encountered clearly looked off designwise to the series, (I did not know it was filler but realised it due to character design being in a different spirit than other Naruto characters)  and the main plot felt a bit meh.. it made me really bond with Asuma, I felt he was a great character, such a good spirited and respectable man. So when he lost in his fight against Akatsuki I cried… I would not have without this filler.  That to me is what smart and good filler should be like. Look past your limits. With Asuma they could do whatever they wanted because he would die soon after anyway. They could make him into whatever they wanted deepen him and that worked out wonderfully for me! While I did not enjoy the episodes that much.. they sure as hell made me appreciate what happened next more and I think that’s where anime filler could shine. 

Dragon Ball did this as well , in Super even more so than in Z.  During the Baseball Episode we got some amazing Yamcha moments, simply because Toriyama and Toyotaro didn’t really do anything with the character anyway! They had fun with it and even made his memed pose into something quite cool! A fun callback that felt like a bit of a redemption for the character  since he would not prove significant for a long time.. only know the Manga has given him some glory! Two years after super ended. The driving episode in Dragon Ball Z was done in a similar fashion. We do know that Goku has a fairly flat character arc and that the show intentionally stays away from seeing their family life. Having your filler set within that realm gives us something we all want to see but that does not influence anything else. It’s not what the show is about nor will it ever focus on that. So instead of a railroaded story we deepen our understanding of Goku and Piccolo without their characters changing at all. 

Bleach however did this completely wrong.. by announcing this new arc is set in an alternate universe you CAN have options opened up sure.. but you know nothing major is going to come out of this anyway. It would still create discourse , while Renji might be killed in the alternate world people already do now even care less because it’s not THEIR Renji. (Not saying Renji was killed but to make a point imagine if they did)  Like how blowing up Evil Android 18 felt justified even if we have come to care for the main timeline one. Different character, we don’t care about her. Filler should me made to hold fans over until the time is come to move along. By creating a new Ichigo .. you do not add anything you just make events even more trivial.  While ironically the Alternate Story Arc wasn’t that bad in terms of narative, I felt ZERO investment in it. Of course the way they introduced this story did not help either. I did care about Asuma though and I did care for seeing Goku’s escapades..I wanted to see those.. not from Alternate Universe Goku..but from the one we grew up with. Perhaps that is also why I care so little for Dragon Ball Super Heroes the Anime.

So with that I think we have created a recipe on how filler could be good! Fix the flaws of anime, listen to the fans and choose your time pieces carefully. For example had the Alternate Story Arc instead have taken place in the past, focussing around Ichigo’s father losing control of his Zanpakuto with a hint of how Ichigo was born.. that arc could have been fantastic. He could have encountered characters like someone named Yuzu and Karen and even an Ichigo which inspired him to name their kids this way..characters that got killed in a big .. all you had to do was ask the Mangaka.. do you ever plan to do anything with those names or are they randomly chosen.  Super simple.. the status quo can still not be altered but we get something else! A form of fanservice… and I don’t mean the jiggly kind. We could get name drops, technique origins, we could see unimportant side characters being deepend out.. or in Asuma’s case.. those who’d pass away.  Deepen your story on a horizontal level, not vertically, and what I mean with that is add lore to support current one rather than flat out create new lore that in the end doesn’t even matter.

Filler could be used to emphasis or foreshadow what happens next. I do not feel like filler has the power to stand on its own if you use the same characters, but it has the power to amplify. This goes for both the creator as the viewer though. While it is easy to focus on how Sora is a bit of a lackluster character in the Naruto lore and how the idea of a cloned/fake Jinchuriki feels a bit shoehorned in we can also focus on what did work. Sometimes something can be really good for you but it doesn’t taste great right away. Filler can do that still, it does still offer us more content of something we love. Just because it has that stigma doesn’t mean it has nothing to add. That only happens if you set it in an alternate universe.. in that case it only adds more content for content sake .. which will still please some fans. We still see anime movies for the same reason. The Story of Bardock was a pretty good special.. yet if it had been slotted IN the middle of the Namek Saga as a filler Arc I am pretty sure people would have hated it. Even in the same form as is right now! Look past the story filler tells (by nature it barely can be good)  and look at the added content it brings by it’s nature and maybe it is not so bad. 

Filler is like the lettuce leafs next to your steak and fries or one of those puffy potatoes!  Yes there is a lot less taste to it.. but what did you expect .. it is lettuce.. that’s bland by nature! It can cleanse or pallet which deepens the pallet of the steak and the fries! It’s watery crunch might really appreciate the cuisson of your steak as a nice counterpart.. something you would not realise without the lettuce. A good restaurant knows this and they know when to serve that lettuce leaf even if you see it and all you can do is “eeeew veggies”  a bad restaurant however  will slap that same leaf on everything just for a bit of colour of the plate and do not think of your dish as a whole. Even when you can not flavor something properly due to limitations you can make the dish in its entirety shine.. you can NOT make the lettuce the star of the dish it’s impossible! Do not make it into “just garnish”  Garnish you can cut into al sort of fancy shapes.. but when I see a lettuce flower or carrot carving  on my plate.. I usually just toss away. Be wise make your Filler a fitting side dish to enhance your meal.. not something fancy that makes the plate seem less empty!

With that I am done talking about Filler! Are there any filler stories your particularly like?
Any that you feel really added something to a show you loved? Any you feel very strongly against or are you one of those.. filler is never good types?! Let me know in the comments.

A Million Anime to pick next: How to Choose What to Watch (Part 2)

Welcome Island Guests to the second part of my how to pick your Anime post! Today we will be discussing a few more ways you can pick an anime the advantages and disadvantages of each method!  Perhaps somehow someway we can distill the ultimate technique from this! So we can find “the PERFECT anime”…but it’s me writing this so I seriously doubt it!

<Disclaimer> This is strictly my opinion and does not contain facts , I think by now now I finished about 40ish anime series and dropped/tried  about as much as well. So that isn’t a whole lot. I am not inexperienced but I am also not nearly as dedicated as many here. Any form facts only refer to my opinion.. It is a fact I feel this way.. no one has to share any of these opinions or feel compelled to do so <End of Disclaimer>

Thanks to this method Irina made me watch Kyousougiga , Fred made me watch Bloom Into You and Naja made me watch Samurai Flamenco. A recommendation from a person you trust and believe can be an absolutely empowering way to select an anime you are going to watch next. It has the potential of bringing people together and depending on your range of friends .. or bloggers you follow you could end up with some items very unaware to you!  So how does this method hold up?

Positives

Like with the other two this one  is among the more social ones methods. You can respond to another’s recommendation after all. It offers room for discussion that is actually a fair bit different than the other two.  You can either respond to someone’s blog or they can ask you very insightful questions. These things are often catered towards you so the conversation feels a lot more personal which to me is the way I prefer to talk to people. Generally you know the person whose advice you took to an extend as well so you can extrapolate and really judge pretty well if this anime is something for you. It can give a sense of purpose to watch on.. to talk about it with a friend or familiar.

Discussing something in a group of random people is always more tricky! I really dislike Sword Art Online for example, but I would not make a twitter post saying how much it disappointed me! Reactions can be to extreme even if I do have my motivations and can explain them clearly to people! They won’t listen.. with friends that is a bit less of an issue at least there is a chance they will! At least as long it’s not something they are completely enamored with. Letting a Friend, Senpai or Peer advise you can give you access to series you have never even heard of before. In turn  allowing you to experience stuff you would by your own accord. This is a method I really seem to prefer if things are going well. It is really fun to discover anime like this.. However this one comes with a pretty steep disadvantage as well.

Negatives

While this method can allow for pleasant conversations and deep discussions This one can also polarize you and your friends!  One of my best friends recommended me Code Geass and I watched it.. when I told him I hated it, but I did see why he would like it as I can see it’s a good anime, just not for me,  he got incredibly salty. I disliked anime he liked before and that wasn’t to much of an issue but this one hurt his soul. I will always be honest with my friend and honestly I really disliked a few things in Geass as it just wasn’t for me and I saw a few flaws such as some events feeling very forced. I don’t think it’s a a bad show which I told either but the atmosphere was soured for a bit. When a stranger tells me I should die because I do not like code Geass it stings, when a friend says ‘I thought you had better taste than that’ it actually really hurts. While the hate ratio is a lot smaller.. if things go bad.. they go a lot worse than among strangers.

A show I genuinely could not stand was Goblin Slayer, a friend of mine adored it. During a anime with friends night we hosted .. In this format we do a draw a lucky person who picks an anime. We watch 3 episodes and move to the next person. Who picks another anime, or can continue to watch on. My friend made us watch trough Goblin Slayer as he got selected first so I played nice and watched it with a polite smile. Then I was picked for the next selection but he interrupted me. ‘Let’s just watch all of Goblin Slayer, if you guys watch anything else now I think i’ll just go home and watch it myself’. At least two other people did not like the show (which meant 50% of us and one felt neutral) but no one dared to speak up so everyone agreed. To scared that disagreeing would anger him. I said I’d prefer to watch something else and just got “well it’s not like we would watch anything better than this is better!’ I agreed as long as next time we would let someone else pick. He said that’s fine and he will just stay home that time.

I stayed for one more episode, but I already was boiling inside! I hated the show and I hated how he acted. To vent I decided to play on my phone a bit (to calm a bit) and he sneered at me for it! Basically calling me an idiot for looking away. I told him I hated the show and that I already said that before and that I don’t mind being her for the company but the show is just not for me and that I would like to stay to see if we might watch another show later and for the company. He then declared we had to watch in absolute silence and I left.. he did not speak to me for days for disliking a show he loved. Whenever a reviewer I trust loves a show I don’t like at all I do notice some distance increasing. It’s not that much of an issue in the long run but disagreeing with people you have close to your heart never is all that fun. It can at times even discourage me from watching something they absolutely love that doesn’t sound like it’s completely me!

Advise

I can honestly say that this is a great method to approach anime but be a bit weary. People tend to see things very black and white in this day and age and if your friend is like that sometimes it’s just best to keep smiling. It’s not like it’s as toxic as the internet.. but a bad reaction can last longer than a few negative comments. Know your friends and know yourself. If your friend something you know you really know you’ll dislike.. stay away from it. There is nothing you can gain by destroying his favorite when you talk about it. There is nothing you gain by lying how much you love it either! They wil notice because they want to talk about it more! Forcing yourself to sit trough something you hate just to please a friend will not result in a fun time for anyone.

Always keep yourself in mind, friends and close ones react better to you genuinely liking something than you faking, Kirito’s duel wielding skill being kind of interesting! Conversations will always expand and you will be caught in the act of faking! Being overly blunt will also get you no where though! So while this method has the biggest gain.. it could come at risk being an obstacle between you and your friends. Know what type of anime your friend watches, know why they recommended it to you ( ‘Pinkie I think you will really like this anime’ usually is safer than “you guys everyone check it out I just watched and binged the Frick out of it”)

A lot of you seem to really be into Manga and while I am not that much into the reading habit, myself that is mostly to blame on availability and me not being very comfortable with the digital form of the media. My phone screen is to tiny and I like to read in a relaxed position and I can’t do that with my laptop all that much! So this is the form of anime picking I am least familiar with. Still it is worth taking a look at. Let’s investigate!

Positives

The most obvious positive from doing an anime pick this way is that you are familiar with the source material. Most of the time anime adaptations are fairly faithful though abridged renditions so if you like the story beats in a manga, you’ll probably like them in animated form as well. This form of anime watching also offers you a unique viewing experience compared to the others. You see your already beloved work come to life. Take Bofuri for instance for me. I would not have imagined Maple’s demon voice to be so funny! I did not read source material as I do not dabble in Manga myself but I sure as heck would not have imagined this so funny! Jojo’s  Bizarre Adventures is something I have read and when I saw it come to live it blew away my mind. The music, the style, the whole shabang.. this is one anime I think really is better than it’s Manga counterpart. 

Still such a viewing experience is totally different from what you get when watching something in season whose source material you do not know!  It can be very empowering and nostalgic, or it can be quaint a funny! The comedy and horror genre work a lot better in animated form in my opinion because they now have actual timing.  When you read the manga first you often get some interesting insights in characters as well. A experience that the non-manga anime watcher misses. These characters you already know! It’s like a reunion with friends rather than meeting some for the first time. So your experience can be amplified when it spans across media! Like seeing the Seven Page Muda come to live or see the Super Saiyan transformation animated for the first time after just reading it.

Negatives

Kicking in open doors again! The book is always better. When something is written down it usually always gets the motivations of characters more fleshed out, it’s usually more consistent  and also easier to make a call back. A Manga also moves at your own pace rather than the shows pace so you are the one in the driver seat. All in all  I do think it’s fair to say that “the book is better” is a way more popular opinion than “the anime was better than the book”.  So there is an increased risk of being let down if it’s already something you absolutely love. Air Gear would be a good example that comes to mind and a friend never shuts up about how D-Grey-Man the  anime was so lackluster compared to the Manga. I personally disagree I did not find the anime lackluster at all but that might have to do the next negative.

The Pricetag! If you want a book in your hand like me , reading manga first can be an extremely pricey hobby!  Meanwhile Crunchyroll, Netflix and other services on the internet are relatively a lot cheaper. At least here! I do not know how prices are in the rest of the world but paying 13 euros for a single book of manga for a show that is in its entirety on Netflix for the same price a month…plus access to all the other shows is off. I know it supports the creator more.. but I’ll be honest I can barely afford my own food and clothes..When money is an issue..Manga is not always an option. I know there are ways to get it digitally, but I just don’t have a pleasant experience with that without an E-Reader. My phone is too tiny..and I feel uneasy not having that available to make notes for my blog or not able to tell my manga loving friend about the amazing thing I am reading. I don’t like reading on comics on my laptop all that much either.

The final negative is the simple fact that you’ve already seen it. It isn’t very surprising. Don’t get me wrong this can be a good thing for some people but something that never surprises me .. essentially it’s a remake and I tend to like those but I am never overwhelmed by love for them as I miss that raw emotional experience new products can give me.  While your standard Shounen can be rewatched without to much drama, stuff like Danganronpa (Okay thats a game and an anime but same fault applies) where you find out “who did it” can really have a lessend impact on you.

Advise

If you have money to burn, this method is super healthy for the community!  It keeps mangakas strong and series ongoing!(If you read/buy ongoing releases) It also will give you a very consistent pay off, if you get that stick out of your ass and don’t look at what an anime skips/misses from the manga but rather how it brings that same story to the table in a new way.

You need to be the type that thinks like ‘Cool they made an anime about Attack on Titan.. that means more Attack on Titan’ rather than be the type that goes ‘Okay let’s see if this anime does my beloved manga justice’  If you can look without having a list of checkboxes I’d say this is a unique anime experience that no other method can offer, but honestly.. I’d rather buy manga of an anime I love than the other way around.

Anime series in its own can be rather random, so randomly selecting the randomness seems like quite a fitting way to go about things. Of course it’s chaos of the utmost level. It’s the equivalent of that Harry Potter Jelly Bean stuff.  Every flavour beans! Anime is so fast and wide that you can experience Foie Gras while you never heard of it (it’s delicious even it’s a no-no) but you also can go “Alas.. Ear Wax”  It sounds incredibly fun!  Let’s investigate!

Positives

People tend to really stick inside a comfort zone, this applies to both the ones viewing the anime as the ones recommending it. People usually are very careful about what they pick! It’s always .. “something similar too” or something with a high MAL score (which can be a whole selection method of its own but I am including it here if you can read between the lines)   In my experience.. everything that gets a super high MAL score is great.. yet at the same time is also catered to everybody. Which in my opinion means it will not resonate as strongly with me as an anime that cater to a sentiment I love. Take Dragon Quest : Your Story for example. So many people hate the ending but I love it so much!  Not per se designwise.. but the sentiment. That feeling that something is made for you!

In general you do not get that from  the high scoring anime. You do not get that from what a friend recommends (unless they really really know you!) That can only happen by you searching the internet yourself and even that is biassed towards your self proclaimed like pattern.  You might overlook something great. While Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is quite well known I discovered it by accident. A friend asked for fun for a Kamina hugging pillow, she did not recommend the show to me as she felt it might be to weird for me as a rookie! I only saw a picture of the guy and by searching I stumbled on the show not knowing what it was. I watched it to make sure I had the right person in mind for who Kamina was ! Within two days I saw the entire show! That to me is the magic of anime and that to me is an experience I almost uniquely get from watching something randomly.  I knew Magical Index was fairly good, so even though I recognize it I never get that blowing back expectations sensation. It’s fine about what I expected

Selecting Random Anime is also a great way to pick anime to watch with your friends.. because I tried about seven times before by vote and the discussions that arrive with all putting in picks we hardly make progress. They either hard refuse to watch anything but their own pick.. or are just in a different mood from you and might not feel like Isekai..while you don’t want a standard Shounen etc. This way it’s always a completely neutral unbiased pick and that can give you some sense of rest, no conflict , just blisfull chaos The best thing! There is a website to do this with the click of a button and you can even specify if you want a dub , a sub or pick a genre if you still want some inkling of control!  You can select a random anime right here.

Negatives

Where all other forms I posted have some form of control this one does not. It can recommend a very good show.. but it can also make you watch one of the worst anime ever rated on MAL. There is no way to tell.. well it actually tells you the MAL score.. but if you play it in honesty and abide by the rules of randomness this one has by far the biggest chance to waste your time. Now I am a loon that really commits herself to these things in order to discover. When I am on vacation in a foreign country and I do not know a certain dish in a restaurant that is the one I am getting. This left me with a few painful experiences and random anime will not be any different.. I am very lucky in this usually though.. most bad stuff came from random cooking at home. Regardless if anything is going to waste your time.. this method is it!

It is also  is probably the least social anime pick ever. Where your own pick can at least allow for some discussion by picking a vaguely familiar sounding name, no one will really discuss Record of Lodoss or Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl with you. It might make interesting blog topics.. but I am not sure how well random anime reviews would work. You could try and risk wasting even more time but who knows it might be the next hot new trend.  Obviously I am going to try reviewing completely random anime I even already rolled for what I have to watch before next week’s post! I have no idea what it will be about! I just wrote down the name! What it is I will keep secret! To avoid spoilers.. even though by the time this post has gone life I probably already have seen it. So I do need to get back how heavy this negative will turn out to be! Just a suspicion for now!

Advise

So guess what, I hyped myself up for completely random anime selection! This seems something really fun I want to try now.. but that’s because of the person who I am. I wonder why I haven’t done this before! Well for one I did not know about the website but still! Basically if you rolled your eyes when reading this section title, this isn’t for you. If you went oooooh  and did an eyebrow lift in intrigue this one’s for you. If your face did not move I challenge you  use the website and pick a random anime!  Write us about your random experience! I know I will! A post I will try to knock out for next week! I will watch the first five episodes of a random anime and will tell you if I will pick it up and watch more! Yay! I am so happy I am doing this.. so while I I can think of a few more methods to pick your anime, I will get to those somewhere along the road! Until then I am going to be random!

A Million Anime to pick next: How to Choose What to Watch (Part I)

Dear Island Guests, I have seen sooooo much less anime than the majority of you. Sometimes if I hear you talking you are so intimidating to me! Typing out japanese names of niche anime and everyone jumping the bandwagon. When I ask what anime I should watch next , I get lists that are longer than MY posts, and my posts are rather lengthy. So how do I decide what anime I watch next?! In today’s post I will “review” some ways I use to pick an anime. Plus why I think it’s a good method…but also their downside.

<Disclaimer>
This is strictly my opinion and does not contain facts , I think by now now I finished about 40ish anime series and dropped/tried  about as much as well. So that isn’t a whole lot. I am not inexperienced but I am also not nearly as dedicated as many here. My wish for community does play a large role in these reasonings, this shall not apply to everyone . Any form facts only refer to my opinion.. It is a fact I feel this way.. no one has to share any of these opinions or feel compelled to do so.
<End of Disclaimer>

Let’s start out with one of the more common ways to pick an anime! Watching whatever is in season! Plenty of you out there follow anime seasons and most of you seem to have fun doing it. I have followed MHA season 1 and 2 on season, I picked Didn’t I say to make my abilities average and even Isekai Cheat Magician. It might be one of the easiest ways to pick anime.. in fact those who watch a lot of anime barely have to pick anime at all then. They just watch it all! Everyday you get spoon fed a number of episodes which to be honest seems like a pretty solid way to pick anime to me! Yet now it’s time to pick up my comically sized magnifying glass and analyse this method.

Postives

This method works great if you have watched a fair amount of anime. It’s  new so you are very certain you will not watch anything double. In the past I accidently rewatched like 25% of a series before realising I had already seen it before.. (It wasn’t very good)  I just used an english name before and now a Japanese name. When you watch seasonals, you always watch something new. Now for  people who aren’t bumbling fools like me this one still is a great method to watch as it without a shadow of a doubt is the most engaging method. 

While you watch the community watches with you, this means you can talk, discuss and rave about it all you like.. and you are very likely to find someone to join you, doing things together is oftenly more fun. It also streamlines the choices you can make to a handful of choices. Instead of searching for that golden pearl inside of the world’s oceans you instead search for the pearl in on a single ship, even if your gold one isn’t there some clams will still have something shiny.Less daunting and you make some friends with people who sail along then.

Negatives

This method however might be one of the least consistently rewarding ones, when it comes to your enjoyment. We don’t know how good an anime is going to be until it airs.. now that is not fully true .. there is manga to go off on.. but still you might be digging for gold and all you get is coal.  There have been great anime seasons, there were also those who really can let you down.. and there is no refunding for viewing time. So seasonal anime is more risky.. yet it is also more tiring at least to me. You have to keep up with anime, especially if you pick a lot.

Lag behind a week and there are chances you get spoiled, depending on how many seasonals you watch.. a  friend coming over spontaneously or inviting you for drinks can mess up your schedule and if a episode is REALLY hype and memeable , spoilers arrive within mere minutes. Depending on how active you are in the community and if you blog yes or no.. this method of watching anime can add a lot of pressure and really kill some joy. You do not have to do so immediately, but if you are part of groups and are active in the community..you can’t wait to long either. It’s self imposed pressure depending on why you watch.. but at least I found that seasonals added of self imposed.. forcefulness upon myself.

The final negative point is not for everyone it’s just for those who haven’t seen a lot of anime. Who miss a few classics. The way the community talks often references other series,references the manga or their ideas where the series is headed based on earlier narratives. Spoiler by Proxy I call this. If I haven’t seen a trope before one can simply spoil me from having experience and analyzing. I do not mind as much but I really feel like an outsider when talks get like this.

Advise

Pick at least one anime per season to more or less keep up with but don’t go overboard with it unless you are a bit “experienced” . Of course you do not know what this experience will entail until you try. The more experienced you are in the medium the more advise this method. If you are less advanced like me.. this is a method I’d  use in moderation. If you have a lot of spare time this method becomes increasingly attractive though. This can be rather hit or miss so if you only have so much time to burn this can end up as one of your less desirable options.

Naruto, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Madoka, Elfen Lied, Code Geass!  We all know a lot of the big hit names. Me myself I am currently watching A Certain Magical Index as a name most people really seem to know so it should be good! This is the tried and true method for any anime fan that has no idea on what to pick. If you ever want to be an anime expert you’ll need to watch those anime everyone loves to mention! If the entire world likes something it must be good right?! Let’s take out the magnifying glass again.

Postives

You can’t go wrong with these picks is a phrase often used to refer to the classics. Re: Zero  is a very good show, Attack on Titan entertained and entertains so many so surely there is a “fact” based sense of goodness to it.. you know kinda like those toothpastes or shampoos from commercials 80% of the test panel said they would buy again. So unlike with seasonal gambles these anime are very likely to be entertaining.  As a result these are great choices for anime fans who want  to watch a good show but do not have a lot of time to  burn.  If you have an hour a week you want to spend on anime just, why not spend it on Death Note or Code Geass.

Wasting free time when you barely have any can be very sad.  For the ones with more times on their hands this one can be very satisfying as well! People are always willing to talk about classics so it’s still a rather engaging way to watch anime. When talking about Elfen Lied.. people tend to NOT compare as much. People don’t say Madoka is like Card Selector WiXoss nor do they say Elfen Lied was kinda similar to Brynhildr in the Darkness. No they just talk about Madoka and Lucy..so all discussions are rather accessible regardless your “skill level”. It’s always fun to talk about the classics!

Negatives

I have two main gripes with basing your viewing experience around the classics, actually three .. and I am probably going to get a lot of flack for one of these statements.  So lets save that one for last! The first main negative of watching the Classics is spoilers! The iconic anime shows that everyone loves and that are of a certain age can and will be spoiled if you don’t pay attention. Have you ever watched a Watchmojo top 10?  Of course you have! That spoiled a classic somewhere for you didn’t it?  I know exactly how Cowboy Bebop ends and I have never seen even a single episode. That doesn’t exactly make it less of an adventure but if you like to be surprised.. the classics are slippery slope to avoid spoilers on! Especially if you write about them in the meantime and look for images.

Speaking of no surprises a second gripe I kind of have with “the icons” is that they indeed will never give you that feeling of developing your own sense of taste.  The iconic anime, while still different are mostly in the same kind of story. Person gets powers and has to fight evil some way or another.. It doesn’t go for everything.. but most of the classics tend to be a bit “vanilla” High paced, action with some comedy. There isn’t anything wrong persé but it is just less adventurous. Like playing one of those always win Crane Games.. The prize is neat but you the experience seems less exciting. This of course is up for debate, but if you look at the really BIG names in Anime.. it’s all in the shounen ..or closely related pipeline. You don’t experience the full package.

The final negative I have with this is the one the one that will give me flack.  To me many of the classics like , Naruto, Geass, One Piece, Dragon Ball , Sailor Moon are in the 8/10 range. Because so many people think it is great, I lack that sensation of it ever being amazing. It’s like going to a 3 star restaurant.. you know the food is gonna be amazing.. but because you go in expecting that.. it has a hard time to fully live up to it.. Sure it’s still good but you expected more. The community can be a tad testy if you tell them it’s not as amazing as you expected too. While I do not question the quality of One Piece or Geass, neither resonate with me on a deeper level. Elfen Lied same story. I can see why it’s loved, I can have a great time watching it, yet at the same time I never know I will never be mind-blown so in a way these kind of feel like settling for something (really) good while you could be searching for amazing.

Advise

Watching the classics is a great way to watch anime if you have little time and can subvert your expectations. They are usually easily available and referenced so often that it’s hard to deal without them. However they do not offer a lot of insight into how deep the anime world can really go. There are some many beautiful things out there for you to discover and the really big names.. all  are a bit “safe”. Get a few notches on your belt and then talk to a massive Otaku for some recommendations like your favorites and experiment a bit more. If you are a veteran..some of these can really become a bit mundane so do not always expect the masterpiece people say.

Now don’t get me wrong .. I don’t mean this in the way that you need a shovel or anything.  No I am simply meaning doing all the work yourself. Pick your own genre , look for cover art that fascinates you, pick something you heard some rumors about or whose plot synopsis really appeals to you. With blood sweat, tears and mostly google you are sure to find an anime that is very much made FOR you. For the final time today (but I will follow this up with a second part) I will take out my looking glass.

Positives

No one knows you better than yourself. Only you know what Dere type you prefer in what type of series. You know best what genre you like an art-style you like. There are so many things to consider when selecting an anime and with google you can really get far into finding your own anime. You’d need some familiarity with terminology to really specify what you are into but by simply googling “good anime” you can already pull up a list of suggestions.

By simply glancing at some titles then doing some research on them you can already create a hit for yourself. When you delve deeper though and really find  a hidden gem, that’s when you can really feel accomplished. Recommending that hidden gem you discovered and see it spread across your community like wildfire can be very rewarding on it’s own. This will also help you develop your taste very well.

9 Tailed Kitsune the amazing blogger does some great  “Anime like (Anime Title) “ style posts which can really offer a framework for you to develop your own taste in anime. Others do offer you similar tools The more work you put into this .. the bigger the chance is that you will reel in hit after hit. Enjoyment guaranteed.

Negatives

That being said though the pool of anime to draw from is near endless. Defining your own tastes can last a long time as each major genre has plenty of subgenres. You can favor studios, art styles, voice actors, genres, subgenres and  character archetypes. Anime to me more than western media has more moving parts. If finding your favorite cartoon is a rubik’s cube than anime can be a rubik’s polygon. Mostly because of excess. Western cartoons are very heavily biased to contemporary , westernly cultured series. In anime we have more customisation options to our preference. As a result it can be rather daunting  to tweak our profiles.

I for example hate, political and military themes, elements that are oftenly tied in with the Mecha Genre.. but my favorite series of all time is a Mecha show (except for the few parts it gets kinda political). I hate people fighting for honour and glory, yet tournament story arcs are amongst my most consumed and beloved products.

There is just so much modifiers to account for. There are still genres I haven’t even addressed. So to be really good at this takes a lot of work and it will result in a lot of drop shows , and thus “wasted” time. It might also leave some very good shows of your radar because you simply did not know “that” was a genre or possibility. It also offers the least option of dialogue, your taste is yours and the more you distill that the more difficult finding people to talk about those specifically. There is always the risk of being misunderstood. While plenty of people are amazing enough to talk to you about just about everything and if you search you can find the proper people, there are also a lot of the “Your Anime Sucks” or “Your Waifu is Shit” types out there that can make your experience less fun! I am not saying you should mind them.. I am just stating they are out there.

Advice

Develop this skill as you go on.. use the other methods of this post.. and the next one as well to really discover what you like.. use this one as a mirror of your growth.. like a oenologist.. (that’s someone who knows wine)  at first you get some book smarts but then you develop your own profile.. while you will always require those book smarts. This one I’d say is the best reflection how how much of an “anime expert” you have become

An expert of anime in my opinion is not about what shoe size Asuna has or how many Muda’s are in the seven page Muda when it translated to anime. A true anime expert to me.. will always have a good time when they watch anime because they know exactly what will give them joy and when! This probably is the most labour intensive way to choose and community feedback isn’t always AS stimulating for these efforts as you might hope. This can be solved however.. but putting in yet more effort.

Next time I will look at some other ways to select what anime to watch! How do you usually decide what anime you watch? Like I said this is from my perspective aver having seen a couple dozen of series. Most of you have seen more than me so perhaps views shift over experience and of course personal preference! I am curious to find out though. How do you pick your next anime to watch?

Analyzing Anime: Suspension of Disbelief

Why do we like anime so much? Why do we need it over western media? We can find a drama  about a dying daughter both in anime as well as in Hollywood, we have Superman  where they have Goku. Genre wise except for maybe the fan service we don’t differ that much, yet if I had to choose never Western movies or shows or Never anime again I’d bow out the first one. Why can’t I consume local  stuff? I try to find my answer. To find that answer I must first understand what separates anime from Western Media for me in the first place. Where are they different?

Today I will address something I noticed when I was watching a Spider-man Cartoon passing on tv. Anime and Cartoons to me have a different line on how far they can push me before they break the suspension of disbelief. For some reason I can take a lot more weird stuff from anime than I could in cartoons?! I am not sure if I am the only one but this to me is a thing.
Let’s take a look at Spider-man for example. Spider-man is written very differently compared to most anime characters. While either side is heroic in a weird way at least to me western heroes and villains are described by their flaws. Spider-man  might not be the greatest examples.. but we know him as Peter Parker the somewhat geeky school kid that loves Mary Jane Watson (or Gwen Stacy). Batman..well that is Bruce Wayne.. he has no actual super powers he is just really smart. Superman is Clark Kent, he can fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes and fly but they are also weak to kryptonite.  He loves Lois Lane and when we root for Superman to be alright and be well we hope he finds his romance with his partner.

Now let’s compare our superhero shows with anime. Put them up against Luffy, Naruto and Goku.  What do all of these have in common?! They have no Alter Ego. Luffy doesn’t suddenly become Hank Mugiwara .. a dusty old liberian bloke, nor does he become “Rubberman” No the human and the super part are interconnected. Why does this matter? Well because we are less confronted with their limitations, we do not see them as human’s persé but more as the heroes. Which means I can take a lot more from those weirdo’s as those humans.  Good Example, the choice Spider-man has to make in the Sam Rami movie when facing the Goblin.. save the cable car or save Mary Jane. He saves both. That feels cheap, the villian would know how fast he is .. he faced him before. Make Spidey at least a bit flawed he is not a god.Yet would it be Naruto of Luffy or Goku to save all of them by some shenanigans I’d be fine with it. First of all there is not as much a dilemma for them because they are less human that whole appeal of torn between two worlds is not a thing, secondly breaking limits is much more a part of that media, rather then where Western Heroes are more focused of achieving within your limits. So anime would make me frown less in confusion.

Of course this does not only take place in Shonen shows this takes place in just about every genre. Let’s make a bold move and compare romantic super natural shows,  such as The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Medium and even less supernatural stuff like Grey’s Anatomy with the more outrageous Japanese romance genre of Harem shows.. just to make a point. When Elena Gilbert has to doubt between picking Stefan or Damon you could add Katherine in the mix to complicated things and Caroline to basically give Stefan his Harem but because it is western media your limitations are within being human.If you dehumanise them and make them want to partner up for very vampirish reasons or own fictional ones, the romance doesn’t work. What the hell are they doing we would ask.  Buffy’s romance are Angel Riley and Spike with Xander trying to fit in. While two are vampires, one a super soldier and one a loveable goofball in the end you can not make them to different. Everyone has to  have the same goals of planning to settle down, treat Buffy right, give her some peace. No one will join that romantic pursuit because they just think the other is cute, or heck for a misunderstanding.  If Sookie Stackhouse suddenly would be in a prearranged marriage with a demon would all think the writers have gone insane. Still.. vampire shoes are kinda like our variants of Harem aren’t they?!

Now.. let’s turn Buffy into an anime. Let’s place Angel, Riley Spike and Xander all in the same timeline. Riley instead of a plain super soldier is this ridiculous pretty boy who believes Buffy is the perfect woman and that their genetic offspring would be the most beautiful thing of all, thinking it’s his duty to create this beauty he pursues miss Summers. Spike doesn’t just fall hopelessly in love with her no instead he initially  does fall in love with her like in the orginal but this time when he asks for a soul he accidentally gets that of Buffies former boyfriend who died during the vampire attack in LA. Angel just wants to use her to lose a ancient gypsy that turns him into a woman during daytime, which he can break during a moment of pure happiness, so he just wants to bed her, but he actually begins to fall in love with her. Xander still stands no chance.. some things never change. Now as an anime I’d immediately see this working.. yet as a cartoon or life action show it would not.. why? Because they are anime characters.. they are on some other sort of level with other laws.. we can accept so much more from them.

Never felt I like this .. broke my suspense of disbelief.. somehow

Now let’s delve into the territory of drama and turn Breaking Bad in both a cartoon and into an anime. Both have a much higher suspense of disbelief and just can push the reality out of the window.. for this experiment I would like to see where the suspense breaks for me when slowly adapting this to other forms of media. For this example I will use the Fly in the Lab episode , as it is pretty self contained. Both in Cartoons and anime you can turn the fly into something more menacing. In both cases it could lead to an experiment blowing in Walter’s face chatring it black or resulting in some comical effect. In both cases we can turn the fly into something more menacing.. like a spy droid for Gus.. he controls to mess with Walter to get his batch to fail to make sure he will die or something. However where cartoons can not change Walt and Jesse while anime can.  We can see Jesse put on a jetpack in a cartoon and chase the fly away.. him spying the fly with a magic eye  seems weird.  Walt can invent a device to swat it.. yet he should not be able to change too much himself . Him creating a type of meth that gives him super powers seem out of cartoons range.

In anime though you can push a lot further. Jesse saying ‘Yeah Byakugan Bitch’ before his eye turn all white and veiny I can actually imagine. Anime Walt throwing a  disc shaped object or attack with pinpoint accuracy at the fly could remind you off the Pizza power he displayed earlier so he just kept that in the back for his enemies. Holding back is a pacing thing that is much more common in anime as in western media. Testing out your opponent rarely happens in Western comics. In manga and anime it is a constant. Western Narrative is a lot more straightforward, what you see is what you get. Superman and Batman rarely train, nor does Spiderman.. on very rare occasions they get new tech but over all western media characters deal with what they have. In basically any anime you can add on old lady that kills a fly by throwing a chopstick. Even in the more serious ones or dramatic ones, Bloom Into You for example. If Yu was bothered by a fly while pondering what she should do I could totally see her kill it with some super human action. Like tossing a chopstick or a pocky with sniper accuracy. I’d not notice anything to off.. in a way anime caters more to how they are different.. we can relate to THEM rather than that they should relate to us.  They don’t have to be relatable we will find something relatable about them.

This section title asks a very good question?! Why would I think a show is better if it is less relatable.. or further away from us?  The answer is, it doesn’t feel wrong as often. For a Western show to be good, it has to colour strictly within the lines. We know that it is right because we can it is coloured in between the lines.. or in reality we can sense it. We can sense if Tony Stark or Bilbo Baggins are being stretched too thin. Give Bilbo a Power to turn green instead of invisible and I would ask.. what were they thinking. Let Kazuma from  Konosuba wake up green and I would go like… who cursed him now?! The difference.. with Konosuba I am still thinking within the show I am not taken out of the plot yet with LOTR I am thinking of writing. Another good example is that very first episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. Encounter at Farpoint , an interdimensional being plagues the ship. With trials, time travel shenanigans and weird space jellyfish.  I felt very conflicted about this setting.. how do they balance this out? Yet would it have been an anime i would have consumed it without a single question. Exact same scenario. Where I watched the Star Trek episode as an observer through a screen, I would have watched the anime in world.

I would not go as far to call anime the more immersive experience, but once anime has you sucked in.. it can stumble a lot more before it spits you back out. The medium has less limits and as such we believe the worlds despite some really odd choices.  It can hide mistakes. Not everything we see in anime happens as we see it. Take a magical girl transformation.. I do not know how it would like seeing it as a spectator but I know the world does not fade away. When Menacing appears in front of Jojo characters I know they are not really there but I know what they mean. Now imagine Dr Octopus talking to spider-man but to indicate he is lying we see red flags appearing all around him or danger sounds.. it would feel jarring.


Anime has more options at its disposal to convey a message be it through exaggeration, parallel imagery or even side jokes. It all keeps us in that world while with Batman we ask.. would he really be able to lift that.. in Comic 73 page 12 panel 5 he was unable to lift an item that would weigh about as much. In anime.. not so much.. we can nitpick sure.. but all in all we can accept a whole lot more which makes it much more pleasant to watch, nothing seems fake because trough 90% of the medium, anything can happen.

Apologies for the bad quality.. but this. gif served my point way to well not to use!.

I Dislike that I Like Likes

Gooooooood whatever daytime you are reading this my precious island guests. It is time for another mental health, mindset post thingy where I make a fast from my rocking chair and blame the internet! This time we will look at the negative effects of the Like-Culture.

<Disclaimer: I use Blogger’s names in this post to make it concrete, the actions I tie to them do not in actuality have to link to them, though in some cases I did indeed have similar thoughts but I use this format to get a point across what would mean less with blank names. A fear is made much more real when it seems more concrete> 

Nightmare on Like Street

Recently I have written the blog that has gotten the most genuine likes, as well as enter a period where I get a lot less likes in general. I guess that means I suck now?! I don’t think I have changed that much?! I just picked some topics that are closer to my heart!? So that means that is stuff you don’t care for?! So by proxy you do not care about me?! Or worse.. maybe you took the fact that I had little energy to actively visit your blog and be my old bubbly supportive self as me not caring about you and I have been blacklisted and now I can never make friends.

Rini-Senpai likes a lot less of my posts so I guess she must have been dissapointed in me. Megan from a Geeky Gal used to frequently drop a like and now she never does and even Fred from Au Natural has left less likes in the past couple of days. Did I piss them all off. Did they drop me?! Am I THAT bad? I’ve seem them like posts that clearly have less effort put into them.. so that means they hate me?! I might not have used likes enough! I might not have browsed around the block enough spreading enough likes! Perhaps I forgot to click on like because I was reading a phone and upset someone for not liking a really good post?! I am so sorry!

Like Induced Hallucinations

The preceding paragraph is not actually what I think… however at the same thoughts it all crossed my mind briefly. It is not a thought I want to have or that I actively chase.. but the mind races. The reason is that a like is a very poor instrument of measurement, yet because of the importance of being liked.. in our core as a human being something that really is hard to go without. Irina and Megan I take on as examples.. so them not LIKING me in essence would mean me failing my teachers. Fred is so kind and supportive.. so him not liking must mean I really screw things up. Why?

We related the virtual “like” to actual liking.. and they are two whole different kinds of things in actuality.  Being liked is important… yet getting likes is not. Yet it can be incredibly hard to separate the two because my brain.. processes.. a like as being liked…  how can we distinguish these things?  How can we put these into context?  I feel like this is a thing I struggle with.. and that there might be others that do it as well so here is a peek into my process. So let’s take a look at what I think is the hardest part about being a somewhat sociable blogger.

Never Assume, Ignorance is Bliss

The most important thing to do is not to think for other people. If Megan doesn’t like my post that doesn’t mean she dislikes it. Maybe she just never read it, maybe she did and got actually engaged in a piece of text and forgot to click the like button. Maybe she was on her phone with the app, in which liking can be more impractical and could not be stuffed going trough that whole thing. There are so much more reasons a person can not like your post other than disliking your post.

For example I see a trend that Rini is much less active in the weekends , which can mean she is doing stuff besides blogging than.. or she doesn’t care for the specific content I bring out near the weekend. While I can assume either of these to be true.. for all that I know she gets captured by aliens who block phone signals or her boyfriend forces her not to look at her phone all the time. 

I am not Irina, nor Megan or Scott or Lyn or anyone who interacts with this blog. Why they like.. how and if they read is all simply a guess or assumption, these hold ZERO factual values so any thought of negativity derived from it is based on assumptions. None of the bloggers I worry about that they stopped liking me have ever Boo’ed me in the comments. It is easy to let a mind fill in a blank with a negative perception of it. I think most here would agree. Yet idea of other people hating you, or not liking you as much as you want stems not from them but from you. In a way you create fake versions of the people you want to get response from that drain away your energy. You are making your own dementors at that point.

Don’t over-rationalise, Ignorance is Bliss

Rationalizing however is a double edge sword. Because of how easy it is for us to monitor stats. For example I know fairly well what my normal view to like ratios are (around 50 to 75%). My Star Trek post for example only got 10 likes which is well below my average, but it also got way less views. While my anime review got pretty much my normal rate of likes but way more views and the ratio is off.

This ALSO doesn’t mean anything. A person could come back to a long post to read it in bits, inflating your views while making your post have a less favorable like/views ratio. I can even more or less tell who is watching me (except if you are from America) based on times and nations. I can more or less see when Irina visits my blog and doesn’t like. I can see when someone likes a post without reading.

This means we end up with a weird situation where we can not think about likes from an emotional stance nor a logical stance because both hold no real value. We aren’t aware of each others thoughts nor are we capable of constantly minding all the factors in play. I read some amazing posts and clicked of without leaving a like.. simply because I had the same sensation I felt when reading a good book. My mind completely with the post and not the social aspect. Sometimes I read a post and I had a craving for a snack or google more info about a post. Wandering off without leaving a like. Sometimes I read a post in a few steps.. messing up someones ratio.. but that’s the way I enjoy reading it. Humans are not a hivemind, we are not in sync.. and for those who accidentally put to much worth into likes, we create a no win scenario, due to the sheer access to data.

Do not think a like is about affection

We need to find a way for likes to mean less to us, but that is hard. Simply because of the word chosen is a key need of basically anyone. Much akin to love, like is a term of affection and that is something we all want or desire. Especially since my take on this in part is to find people to interact with and find community like becomes something greater than it is supposed to be.  A dissociation. The online like is a much more sterile concept that is much less meaningful than someone actually telling you “I like that”. That is something we can probably all acknowledge, yet because the computer tells me “Scott likes this” opposed to “Scott Pressed the like Button” its much more difficult for my brain to interpret this correctly.

Let’s get to the elephant in the room here! I know I am not my content, it’s easy to brush worries away under that standard and to some extend that does work……..IF we keep our distance to our work. It’s just a blog, a bunch of text some ramblings. Yet here it is detrimental that we are hobbyists.
We do generally do not post because we need to. We do it because we want to. The stuff we write means something to us, if only for the joy of creating it. Especially when we write something that matters to us. It sucks if an insightful piece gets less likes than a Top 5. It stings when a blogger who just posted some fan art that is not even his or hers while you made a deep essay gets more up votes from mutual followers. It can feel like a betrayal.. but why is that?


The reason is not the others that fail to press a button but the value we have given to this word. Trough YouTube we are constantly reminded about the importance of likes, your tweets have to be hearted. Your Instagram is based on likes! And Arceus forbid if you still use Facebook the social pressure of likes there! We gave become so dependent on them, that they are like a drug. We need them as our high.. our validation and when starved of them we will feel like utter trash. That is because we have been brainwashed by social media to think it’s as important as actual likes.. Thusly we connect it to affection while we should not. Yet how can we not when each video we like nowadays asks for likes and everywhere we look this stuff becomes important. For us at least this is not helped by the absence of a dislike button. Because we can’t see dislike as the opposite to a like, not liking becomes the de facto opposite.

To prove this point, try imagining going to a random blogger you follow but do not particularly care about and tell them “I do not like you” how many of you think that is  neutral? I bet it is not a lot of you. Our brains are wired in that way..so  when my brain picks up.. oh Mallow did not like this post.. that voice in your head  makes that very same dialogue tangible. We were raised with fairy tale mannerisms in mind but our rule-set changed. We can’t all simply adapt and let go of what we knew. This causes a hyper importance on like because it has become a popular commodity one one hand and the lack off  likes is interpreted as the opposite.  In doing so it becomes a resource I absolutely hate..but one I can’t help but covet.

Highscores and perception shifts

In a way we have turned our own life into classic arcade video games. If you don’t have a highscore you do not matter… or at least that is the lie we tell ourselves. Which is kinda ironic.. we care so much for our highscore in real life.. in the form of getting praise and backpads.. but in video games we hardly ever care for the thing. Yet a like is as insignificant as video game high score when it comes down to it.. it’s a digital display on how well you did. Without it being detrimental or beneficial to the actual content.  It simply a very poorly chosen term that seems logical and makes sense but puts enormous social pressure on you once you start to see patterns.
So perhaps by embracing this analogy we can defuse it into just that… that high score.. sure it is neat to put your name on the board but it doesn’t take away from our actual joy of playing the game.

Another way to achieve some inner piece can be achieved to “rebranding” what the word of the virtual Like means to us. Instead of seeing the button as a token of affection thrown your way.. perhaps we can view it as having similarities.. being ALIKE. A simple press of the button wouldn’t be a digital stamp of approval that you need to collect a lot of.. it is a tool to measure if people can vibe with your brain. You can like my Star Trek post.. simply because you enjoy the show and remember it, or because you saw that first episode and had a mindset similar to mine when watching it.. or you can mentally put yourself in my place there.. at that moment we can understand each other and are alike. 

There is something fundamentally less painful about being misunderstood than about not being likable. In being yourself and people not being like you, you can attach positive words. I am unique, I am myself I am a pioneer. Heck in the core being creative is about doing something unique.. it would defuse the pressure of the “like” while keeping the general mindset of it intact. People resonating with it.  That same type of positivity is much harder to apply when it comes down to not getting affection. No one smiles and says “I am an einzelgänger” with pride. No one is really happy to say “I do not need other people”. So let’s make that shift! Find a way to make the like more harmless!

Do Not Dislike Not Liking

Now just to make this clear, this is not a rant for people not liking things. Because I totally get that, as I tried to make clear throughout the post. While I feel terrible for not liking a post, that again is self imposed social pressure. The larger your blog grows the lesser the chance is you will be there for everyone. The smaller your blog is the more you feel bad about not getting likes, the bigger your blog is the more bad you feel about not giving them. They are both part of the same problem. While monetized blogs or YouTube channels could get indications for if content works or not.. that as hobby bloggers should not be our concern it should be about the joy of content creation…which for the most I do.. just this is a boon waved in your eyes that is friggin hard to ignore.

So just beware that not getting as much likes as you want will always sting, yet they are so meaningless that if you use them as your guide in your blogging journey you WILL get lost.  A like is a high-score and the system on how to get them is glitched. At times you will get some for no reason at all, at other times even though you picked up that score item.. it didn’t add up. It happens to the best of games. We should see it more as people resonating with your thoughts .. as opposed to affection for the blogger, which while making perfect logical sense is easily is confused by the brain. At least I think in full sentences and speech and that sometimes my pink heart go owie!  The like is a complex little drug, that offers you much safer highs but much more lasting lows. Beware of the like! Let’s make a case for the ALIKE…..also please leave a like!

The Problems with the Anime Protagonist

Recently I was listing my favorite anime characters in a discussion with a friend. To my surprise none of these characters actually where main characters. Now I found this interesting and than thought of my favorite characters of western media. Nearly all of them were main characters. So why do I like side characters in anime more?
Is there something wrong with the anime protagonist? Why are side characters almost always better? Today I look into this thing.

The Anime Protagonist is oftenly unrelatable.

Breaking Bad is one of the best tv shows of all time and it is also one of the best examples on how I can relate to a main character. I cared for Walt, even in his darker moments I cared for Jessie even if the way he talks made me cringe real hard. What differentiates them from a plethora of anime characters is how their goals are so much more relatable. They want to do right by their family, try to survive… earn a quick buck. Anime doesn’t oftenly do that.  Sure there is the slice of life genre where goals are often a bit low key , but that is oftenly over romanticised still. In the more common genres like Shonen we lose track even faster. 

Luffy wants to be the Pirate King, which isn’t even a thing here! Like what the friggin fuzz is a pirate king? How can we relate to this wish? Goku wants to fight the strongest opponents…for funsies.  I seriously doubt anyone of us desires to have their ass handed to them just so they can go stronger .. for the sake of getting stronger. LeLouch wishes to see the rule of Neo Britannia on Japan end and wishes to lead a group of rebels to victory and independence. Their biggest wish is often  tied in to the McGuffin of the series and can be described in one or two words. What does Goku want? Growing Stronger. What does Lelouch want? Freedom, What does Honoka from Love Live want? Idolhood! Yet all their goals are extremely situational and tied in very much to their series. Their goals are not that interesting because they are also the point of their respective series. They are oftenly huge and not exaggerated and not something we ever could achieve, oftenly their goal doesn’t even exist in our world.

Apparantly you need a red coat with pauldrons to be a pirate king!

Now by themselves this would not really matter and it would still work, but since anime often have such a large cast, it becomes a problem. In One Piece, Sanji wants to see All Blue, to behold a spectacle of nature, Zoro wants to be the best in his speciality and Nami wants to do something no one has ever done before.. in making a completed map of the world. While still rather hard to realise in the real world,we understand their goals much more. Luffy’s goal becomes more of an engine to get the others to their goals. In Naruto .. the fox boy wishes to become the Hokage…which again is an engine to make plot happen rather than .. in our worlds perspective .. a real goal. Sakura and to a lesser extend Hinata want love, Sasuke wants revenge heck Shikamaru wants stuff to be less bothersome.  Now I do feel revenge is not a great motivation as that on it’s own can be a bit unrelatable but the base emotion is something we can vibe with. Yet no one really of us would , (without a series) dream of being the political leader of a ninja village, to be the one who finds some special pirate treasure which makes you recognized as the pirate king or win a idol girl contest while in school. .. because those aren’t really a thing..

Why do all these titles come with weird clothes?!

Anime Protagonist oftenly have flat character arcs. 

Walter White started out as a soft , nervous good willing man who evolved.. or devolved depending on you look at it into a hardcore  drug Kingpin, who played mind games and wasn’t afraid to murder. Throughout his series he evolved. Anime protagonists oftenly don’t do that. The best example of this is Goku. While he does learn things and he does grow.. he never really changes. Way back in the earliest series of Dragon Ball,  Goku wishes to fight strong opponents and get stronger. Right now he still does. While he matured a bit… at times , he has not experienced significant change because his goals are the story engine.. it keeps on going. Enter Vegeta in the equation and let’s add some of his wishes to this. He wishes to surpass Goku and prove he is the true elite. 

Good luck Geets!

Now Goku’s goal will always proceed without to much hinder.. as it makes the plot possible.  Vegeta’s goals.. clash with this. This creates a tension in a character like prince of all saiyans.  He can’t reach his goals… so he has to react to it. His path is not a straight line from A to B. In the Buu Saga.. and even a bit in the Cell Saga already, he discovers he can’t surpass Goku.. or the potential of future saiyans.. he discovers the importance of family, having something to protect. His journey starts out as an A to B type of situation, but in the end we see him strive for C instead, and only after getting it return to try and reach B. Such characters gain more dimensions, Gohan not wanting to fighting but having to embrace he has to is another one of these types of situations. 

Lelouch never truly wavers from his goal no matter how much friends or loved ones he loses. The goal established in episode 1 still is the goal in the final episode. He is more hurt and more scarred, but his journey has never changed from A to B .. at least not really.  Main characters age, but not change. Even when they do their allies change faster. A good example of this is Hunter x Hunter. While Gon does grow, accepts responsibility and consequences of his actions basically everyone arounds him grows faster or more significantly. Killua is a great character that gets so much development he completely blows Gon out of the water. We see him change some of his core values, his status quo and his beliefs as he learns and discovers. The same can be said for characters like Kurapika and even Hisoka. In the case of Kurapika we see him reinvent his goal of vengeance to a certain extent.  We see him adapt , in the case of Hisoka we see that a lot of things we thought we knew where not true, or a shift in his position in the world. So obviously these characters will have a more interesting narrative. 

Look at how happy he is that I think he is cooler than Gon!

We know to much of the Anime Protagonist

Now let’s move away from your standard shonen a bit and expand our look a bit , because there are issues with main characters in other genres as well.. not that Love Live is Shonen..but still. One of the weirder things that make an anime protagonist less interesting stems from the original media, the manga.  Now I am gonna make a cardinal sin here and compare anime to comics.. because both of these have something that makes characters way less interesting when they carry over in other media. Thought Bubbles. Bloom into You was a great anime but throughout the series we hear Yuu’s thoughts. We can tell exactly how she feels not because we can relate to her ..but because the voice in her head tells us what she feels. Touko and Sayaka do not get this same effect so we have to guess what they feel, based on the look in their eyes, the inflection in their voice and possibly their posture. 

Sayaka creates a tension when she talks to Yuu because we do not know how she feels.. we guess. We get hints and have to puzzle the whole thing together. We can not take everything face value. While for Yuu we have to put zero effort into knowing her feelings.  The standard shonen protagonist shouts out their feelings and your average magical girl protagonists again has thought bubbles again or keeps a journal which they use to recap the last episodes. We so rarely have to wonder what motivates an anime protagonist or what they are feeling it is as Kevin Sorbo is acting out their script! For those not in the know.. he once read the emotional descriptions of a scenes tone as part of his lines..and that somehow made it into an episode. But that is exactly how the overly narrated protagonist can feel like. 

While this is more a flaw with anime in general than with its main person this post is not meant to say all anime protagonists is bad, because they aren’t… I just rather have Gohan over for Coffee than Goku. I’d rather interview Sakura than Naruto. The episodes of Crime Scene Investigation that are best are the ones where you have a chance to get who the killer is in the first or second act by simply finding links.. Oh that character’s mother died in an hospital.. the murder victim was an orderly.. perhaps they could not save his mother and he took vengeance. If we could hear the thoughts of all characters , we would know who the killer is right away… and the character itself becomes much less interesting. Like how a random bit of trivia on some paper is less stimulating than a riddle.

See this is the most interesting thing in my entire post! Desu Nee?!

We need the protagonist

I could totally see Breaking Bad kill off Walt in the third season after which we suddenly strictly follow Jesse, or maybe see Gil take over, it would have made the story less but in a way Walt as a protagonist stood apart from the major events happening in this story. Gus and Tuco would still do their thing , Jesse would still do his. The world is in motion despite of the characters interaction. In plenty of anime this is not true. Without Zero, Neo Britannia would  not be the same. Without Goku virtually non of Dragon Ball Z could have happened and Sword Art Online is basically just a collection of games Kirito plays, with the exception of the Rosario arc, which was one of the only SAO bits I actually liked. Without Honoka , Muse would have never been founded and it would not easily continue without her either as her enthusiasm drives everyone.

While anime is not afraid to let important characters die, rarely do they kill of golden goose. Which the same thing can be said for Western Media but compared to anime , these characters feel more killable. Would Yuu not show any interest in Touko at all, Bloom into you could not happen, so in essence Bloom Into You .. is Yuu. As a result Yuu HAS to develop some feelings , she HAS to overcome. It removes suspense once more because without progression there is no story. Some protagonists suffer from this worse than others.

Kirito from Sword Art Online is one my my least like protagonists ever and that is all in the way he is written. Kirito in almost every season.. for some reason just “gets” stuff. The plot has to get moving. The Dual wield skill just appears, in Gun Gale he figures out the plot out of the thing air and he gets a sword again for no reason, a particular model for no reason and so on. He needs the swords to beat the bad guy in a  cool way, he needs the sword to still feel like Kirito , he needs to figure out the plot then and there to save Sinon. We need him to do the stuff that he does.. and as such it can feel unearned and insincere. Achievements main protagonists reach are often in service of the main story, while side characters achievements feel like a side story.. so while I would contribute Asuna’s accomplishments to her as a character.. Kirito’s I’d count as the plot of Sword Art…   

Aww, he seems bummed I don’t like him…he will somehow grow a skill for that I guess

Great but Never Number 1

Except for Kirito I like all the main characters I mentioned but because of all the reason above I never would name them as my favorite. I favor L over Light, Matt over Tai, Kai over Tyson, Megumin over  Kazuma and Rem over Subaru and obviously Kamina over Simon. While plenty of them are well written and truly satisfying to look at, the way anime depicts their main characters differs from how western media does it.  It uses fantasy in another way and because it creates such unique worlds their main characters are always the least interesting thing about them. 

Yay I can show Kamina off again!

Western Media is like muscle cars.. we all want it to be red and have a big engine with plenty of V thingies. We care about how hard it goes Vroom. Walter White is the Engine of Breaking Bad.  In fact all Protagonists are the engine of their respective series..which are now cars! Anime however is like a concept car. It has such a weird body that we know little about what kind of engine should be in there.. so as long as the car moves.. the engine is fine.  We are more interested in the fact that they added glowing wheels, augmented reality windows or bubble doors. Midoriya just has to punch stuff and eat other peoples hair to make the plot go vroom, but by adding their Bakugous and Todorokis  this car will show some unique features. There is nothing wrong with buying a car for it’s cute interior.. I sure would if I could drive!

See I like how white the chairs are before I worry about the engine!

Do you generally prefer anime protagonists or do you favor secondary characters like me? Why do you feel that way? Let me know in the comments and remember I love you all!
Stay smiling and keep positive! 

XO
Pinkie

Poké Wars: Blue Hope (Part 0)

A long time ago in the Netherlands far far away from most of you, I came up with the idea to do a pokémon inspired Star Wars retelling. But everything changed when the fire nation attacked…. Okay that one is not true .. there was just a bit of a difficult period in which producing content was difficult but now it’s almost time to write my Magnum Opus of ‘spoofs.  This time though I decided to add in a part 0.
Here I will discuss the main characters and briefly give you some heads up on the pokémon they are based on. Rather than spamming a name I can refer to them by species on occasion then, to reduce word spam. Also I do not have to make a single episode where I explain every character. During the stories any non major characters will also be revealed trough similar ‘pokédex Entries’. I’ll try to add these characters to part 0. Since New was quite a story, Blue Hope will take several weeks to complete.

Now let’s talk characters.

The Heroes

Rioluke Skypuncher

Luke Skywalker eat your heart out because here we have Rioluke Skypuncher the riolu. Riolu is a Pokémon introduced to us in Generation IV in the Sinnoh Region. Quite oftenly classified as one of the baby pokémon.  Being a pure fighting type Riolu at first doesn’t seem to have a Luke with our favorite desert dweller. Yet both Riolu and it’s evolution Lucario (I bet you can see the potential in that one) are sensitive to a hidden energy in the pokémon world called Aura. While Riolu has not mastered the Aura yet it can still to an extend communicate through ripples of Aura and can use it to improve it senses. It is stated that Riolu posses great strength stamina and endurance which allow it to go on long journeys which make this pokémon a pretty perfect fit. Rioluke Skypuncher lives with his uncle unownen and aunt natu on a shiny miltank farm on the planet Tat-Orre.  A name based on the desertous Orre Region in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon Gale of Darkness XD. (That is not an emote but a title). Orre is pronouced like Oreo without the O..at least in my world.

While all his friends are signing up to be a part of the rebellion he has to stay on the planet to harvest the BlueBlue milk (Miltanks give Moomoo milk and Blue Milk is a Star wars thing so since the Miltank are shiny they give this type of milk here as shinies are alternatively coloured pokémon.) Bored with his life he spends most of his days trying to shoot Womp-Rattata with his landspeeder. But recently his magnetic suspension system broke. Poor Rioluke knows little what he’ll be in for.  
The title Blue Hope is a refference to Riolu’s skin colour and the orginal title Blue Harvest.

Princess Rita

Princess Leia has been replaced by the much cuter Gothorita also known as Princess Rita hails from the planet of Galaraan. Galar is the region where Pokémon Sword and Shield will be set. If you wonder how to pronounce it imagine how Hermione Granger would say it and you’ll probably get very close. Now to address the elephant in the room, did I select Gothorita to play Leia for her hair buns? I most certainly did! I thought of selecting the pokémon Slurpuff for it (though we will see that one make its appearance if this star wars spoof does well)  but Gothorita felt more elegant. This pokémon also is more likely to have the spunk that Leia has in the original movies compared to the whipped Dream Pokémon.

Gothorita is said to draw her power from the stars which will help Rita find strength as well when she most needs it. Gothorita creates friends for herself by hypnotising children and playing with them at night. While this has nothing to do with our story and Rita will not go this route in our story I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia for you to know. Like the Pokémon thought Rita and Leia can be quite manipulative and make people do something they would not have done otherwise.

Shaun YOLO

No one knows Shaun’s real name but he is a scrafty, so his name is probably close to that. It is said that Shaun was fleeing his home world of Unovellia (a combination of the american inspired Unova region and Corellia, han Solo’s home planet) and he picked the very unpokémon like name Shaun. When the custom officer asked him if he was sure he said YOLO. This all was tied in to everything important to his character happening to him on a single adventure but that is a prequel story we will only tell as soon as we have finished all the prequels and actually start on the sequels. Scrafty is the Hoodlum Pokémon and he’s very american, which makes him a very good fit for the role of Han Solo.

He has Moxie and can intimidate his enemies. It’s pokedex entry in the games state that it may be rude, it will take very good care of his friends it’s family and it’s turf. Shaun’s turf is his beloved spaceship the Millennial Mantine. A lot of people think this ship is worthless and slow and not as potent as ships of the generation before it he manages to do amazing things with this ship. It’s his baby and he will never leave it behind. However a deal he has made with Halva the Zygarde is risking his beloved ship if he can not pay up soon.

Obi the Alakazam

That’s right we aren’t even trying with this one! Formerly known as Obi the Kadabra was a PokéKnight serving the Pokécouncil and the Galactic MONarchy until Councillor Mewtwo got elected to be the new MONarch and ended democracy. When Kadabra traded in his old life for a new one, unbeknownst to  the rebels he evolved into a Alakazam. Alakazam is one of the four Gen I trade evolutions, the name change fits a certain minor element in the story but most of all we just needed an old man that can teach Rioluke the ways of the force. Alakazam is unable to forget anything he ever learned or knew. Having an IQ of over 5000 he will always have the intellectual highground.

While he was still a Kadabra he was the PokéMaster of  a young boy named Pawnianakin Skypuncher, the father of Rioluke but he claims that his student was killed by the loyal henchman of Galactic Overlord Mewtwo. Like any Alakazam Obi’s senses and abilities are increased exponentially when he closes his eyes. While his old body may be frail his mind is still extremely capable. 

The Villians

Galactic Overlord Mewtwo

Pale and Veiny, desiring absolute power, Mewtwo and Sheev Palpatine are basically the same person already depending on your chosen rendition. Both harbouring a big hate for a certain group inside civilisation and both well spoken, elegant and arguably the most powerful creature out there. (We do take extended universe into account and not just the disney cannon.. in fact if Rise of the Skywalker is going to be half as bad as the Last Jedi was there is going to be some heavy Retcons in those should i ever retell them). Since I talked about Mewtwo extensively I will just relink you that post though.  Galactic Overlord Mewtwo rose to power after from the shadows he managed to instigate several wars. Pretending to be all for the MONarchy he was elected their ruler in an attempt to end all these wars, at this time he suspended all democracy and became a fierce dictator. The PokéMaster Tapu Bulu tried to stop him but Pawnianakin interfered.. leading to the results we see today.

Mewtwo plans to use his new space station the MAS STAR  to capture all the rebels and send them to someone’s pc. In Pokémon when you have six or more pokémon on your team when you capture another they are sent to someone’s pc where you can later withdraw them.. but until then they don’t really live or exist they just are energy stored inside energy.In other words if you are ‘send to the pc’ you are kind of dead in this universe. Both Lightsabers as blasters are actually capture beams in this story, since pokémon cant handle pokeballs (as it would suck themselves up)  so they use beams to attack each other. 

Dark Blader

Darth Vader is replaced by Bisharp the Dark and Steel type pokémon seemed to be a great fit for the man permanently clad in a form of armor. It’s pre-evolution Pawniard and Bisharp share the ability inner focus with Riolu which we will use in explaining “The Aura” . The pre-evolution Pawniard also has the ability defiant which is an important trait for it to have in our mythos. Bisharp and Lucario share an egg group, which again is quite important to our narrative.. because we all know what will happen if I ever make it to the final part of The Overlord Psy Strikes back.  So it’s defiant, edgy, armoured a Dark type.. that all fits Darth like a glov- uhm ..mechanical hand. Now this guy is made up entirely out of blades which means we can give him a sound a like name that is actually pretty legit. Dark Blader. While Corviknight might have been an aesthetically better fitting pokémon it would give us a lot of trouble in the process. Bird Pokémon aren’t really great to use in situations like these.

Bisharp has red armor though, like the lightsabers of the bad guys. Did you know that the reason why all Sith Lightsabers are red is that they are artificial crystals? Unlike the Jedi who find a crystal to bond with, they make on using Alchemy. Why? Because these artificial crystals have a slight chance to short out non alchemical crystals. Bisharp takes pride in his blades being the best of the best as well. Bisharp can take down a target even a friend without changing it’s facial expression. Dark Blader is going to need this ability in the story to come…although he does have a type advantage already.

The Supporters

Bear Bakka

Instead of a wookie, we just have a very hairy and angry bear right here. Unfortunately for Chewie this time he his name sake is not chewing tobacco. This time he is named for his apparent lack of intelligence. While proven very capable to those who make an effort in getting to know the Wookie at first glance, Chewie does seem like your standard D&D barbarian.. a bit slow.

Since most of my readers are weeaboos or at least otaku i figured the description many star wars haters have given chewbacca .. stupid bear would fit but like any good Tsundere we do it secretly affectionate. Hence the name Bear Bakka. Ursaring goes stronger if he is angry thanks to his ability guts, he grunts and shouts a lot and he has brown fur. No real deep reasons here. Same can be said for most of the supporters though, as their backstory isn’t as relevant anyway and their impact on the narrative and personal growth is a lot less compared to our heroes.

Rotom W (Rotom Double U)

R2D2 will be replaced by a washing machine. Why? Well let’s talk about Rotom a bit first. Rotom originally is a ghost electric type pokémon introduced in generation 4. Soon however we find out it can posses all sorts of appliances to create mischief. Including a lawn mower, a stove, a fan, a fridge and finally the washing machine. Rotom Wash and Rotom Heat come about as close as we get to a pokémon like R2 that still fits in the mechanical theme.

It has some or R2’s blue elements and has the right amount of ‘clunk’ It can zap his targets just like R2 and it’s kind mischievous. Now why would Princess Rita put her secret plans in a washing machine? Well .. hiding plans in a droid seems fairly obvious compared to hiding them in a washing machine. I would check all the droids memories if I was an evil henchman but I would never think of checking inside the laundry. So there you go.. I am a bad henchman.

3People

C-3P0  has been the one who has been mutated the most of the sake of this story. Yet nothing really changes. I needed a golden hued pokémon that I can break into pieces without it being too harmful to it, that can be deemed mechanical. Phew.. that’s a bit of a difficult task. A certain legendary might have fit the brief quite well but I really doubt I can put C-3PO on that level. So i chose to go with Magneton. For those who don’t know, Magneton is a pokémon consisting out of 3 magnemites stuck together. While their main colour is silver their shiny variant is goldenish (though this oftenly isn’t really shown on the anime art.

Magneton is one of the few pokémon that know screech which I find fitting for C-3PO and since it’s mechanical and consists out several very much identifiable parts it’s a pretty good fit. The fact that it’s made out of 3 seperate pokémon.. sort off.. but not really but still make it easy for others to refer to the droid replacement as 3people. C3PO being mostly referred to as 3P0 thusly is as close as we can get. The protocol droid was my encounter with the Mandela effect, I vividly remember him being solidly gold while in actuality he has one silver lower leg. So this brings me to the question I have for my reader!

Question for my Readers:

Do you think I should make one of the eyes silver to refer the leg, or do you like me remember C3PO’s to be entirely golden?

Now before I round up this post I shall present you with a little treat. Next week will start our story… but this week I will already give you that with which we start all star wars movies!

That’s it for this post, arigato for reading again! Let me know your answer to my question in the comments and may the aura be with you!
The pinkest youtuber is blasting off again!
XO
Pinkie