You guys may have noticed that I’m way ahead of schedule. It’s true, I am. But I’d rather fulfill it faster than not fulfill it at all. Maybe I’ll get some bonus points, I don’t know. As long as my mind can think of different topics to write about, however, why should I stop? (This post is lengthier than the rest of my Lunar New Year posts. I hoped to delve deeper into what I wanted to talk about. I hope I was successful.)

Since I have totally no idea what to place here, have some fun at badly designed pictures.

Thenightsshadow just wrote a new post in his updated blog. I know this because I was talking with him yesterday; the post deals with character music. He quipped:

However, I feel that people have overlooked a gem of the characterization of anime characters; that is, their character music.

This statement reminded me of James Joyce. It’s quite far-fetched, right? (more…)

I have been unable to sleep early since the onset of my sickness. Since I have ideas still roiling around in my head, I decided it would be best to write another post (it would also bring me closer to my aim of fifteen posts).

This book is worthless.

I gave some of my books today to a friend of mine. There was supposed to be a gift exchange among the different students of Biology (my course) for last year’s Christmas, but I wasn’t able to give that friend anything (since I picked him from the lottery) until yesterday. I gave So Human an Animal, Hyperion, and Greenmantle. All are notable novels to some extent, but they simply did not appeal to me. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, however.

I decided to give it to that friend of mine because he loved reading about different things and would probably appreciate the ideas of those books I gave him. I chose the novels in such a way that they had variety in them: every single book was different from one another that if he failed to like one or the other, there remained another option. This experience made me think.

Not everyone likes Honey and Clover, even though I think it’s the best anime series ever. It can be noted that the writer of that article also dislikes Twelve Kingdoms. While the reasons may be very valid, for example someone’s irritation with the character designs of Honey and Clover, as they are admittedly unique, there may be some reasons also that simply stem from the personality of the viewer.

Real looks like an actress . . .

I’m sure how the viewer was raised up or grew contributed to his future choices and decisions (even as supposedly simple as choice of anime series), and I’m also sure most of us will never know the reasons why one likes this and the other likes that. However, do we even need to?

Anime, first and foremost, is a medium meant for entertainment. It is not like literature in that some literature aim simply to make people think either in its sense or nonsense. I fervently believe that The Sound and the Fury was written like that because it did not mean to entertain in the first place: it meant to force people to think, to intellectualize and experience how the thoughts of a retardate, an intelligent madman, and a rational asshole flow all within the same nuclear family. If it meant to entertain primarily, the story won’t have been written in such a method.

. . . and he looks like a model

Anime, however, even at its bleakest and most complicated, is a medium meant to entertain first then to provoke thought second. Things are just like that. For even with the supposedly labyrinthine anime like Ergo Proxy, the heroes are very cute and pleasing to the eyes (Re-l was hot; Vincent was a bishie). There are no ugly leads. Because as long as one is entertained, even if he or she didn’t understand the totality of the (non)story, he will remain attracted to the series (even if only to the lead character), and this makes money for the studios.

And as long as enough money is made, both sides are happy. The cycle returns again to its starting state.

P.S. I finished this post at almost three in the morning. If I ever wrote something wrong, kindly address me in the comments.

Remember that post I wrote when I was in a state of fever? I didn’t offer anything new but tried to confirm the murkiness of Code Geass. However, I did try reading about postcolonialism by essays of established critics (as to glean more information on the literary movement where Derek Walcott belongs). I’ve read those essays because I thought those were what was recommended by my professor. However, when I revealed the book to him and asked help from him, he was shocked at me. For one, he noted, even he as a graduate student had difficulty reading those critics; for another, those essays weren’t the ones he wanted me to read. He wanted me to read about the author, not about the theory, which was infinitely more complex. (more…)

While I’m still unsure as to whether I can pull this feat off, I don’t back down on things that I’ve said: so here I go. I’m not going to write 3000-word posts everyday, but I’ll try to write morsels of thought that would hopefully bring you guys to vote for me. I tried searching for a good category for 15 posts, and I found that my ancestors celebrated their Lunar New Year in 15 days. So I decided simply to call it my Lunar New Year. I hope you like the title.

We murder to dissect.

This is a line from William Wordsworth’s poem The Tables Turned. I have not culled it directly from his poem, however, but from So Human an Animal by Rene Dubos (as far as I know, no, he’s not related to Andre Dubus III). The choice of book was a departure from normality: I usually read classic novels or critically-acclaimed contemporary ones, and the book was neither. All the book had going for it was a Pulitzer Prize (it won in 1969 for General Non-fiction) and a cheap price-tag. I bought it anyway as it was cheap (I bought it months ago, and only picked up the book because I was being attacked by boredom, sickness and an inability to sleep). But like most books I’ve bought in the past, I tried finishing it.

Since I only read timeless novels for the most part (that’s why they’re called classics!), I was surprised at how badly the book aged with time. Although it had grains of knowledge, I found the book to be an indictment of society without offering any real solutions. I’m glad, however, because it referred to a lot of writers, and introduced me to that wonderful line.

Smiling in the face of death

Guncannon, in one of the rare times we chatted directly with one another on IRC, told me he had only contempt for those who over-analyzed things (and I admit, I am a victim of that sometimes). Having grown and delighted in literary analysis, I tend to look too much into things at times. When I discovered this line, however, I was delighted. Wordsworth was indeed a genius.

We murder to dissect. Has anyone noticed that in their attempt to peg meaning into the anime that they watch, they have also disfigured it and murdered its content in some way? Daniel posted regarding Code Geass and its tension with colonialism, and it was incisive. However, one does not know if that was the message the writers truly wanted to deliver. In his interpretation of Geass’s message, he may have transformed the anime into something that it wasn’t. Somehow, he has intellectually murdered what it was for perhaps the writers as well as most people so that he could offer insight on it. But isn’t that alright? While I’m not a fan of murder (as anyone sane isn’t), all of us as anime watchers intentionally or unintentionally transform, disfigure, or mutilate the series that we are watching through our own interpretations. But if that fosters discussion, promotes knowledge, and in the end develops wisdom, what is a little murder of concepts? After all, in its murder, the phoenix of intelligence is allowed to rise once more.