Is anyone here unfamiliar with Doraemon? I hope that isn’t the case. But for those who are, Doraemon is one of the longest-running anime series of all time. The heroes of this series are Nobita, a child struggling with bullying and everyday life, and Doraemon, the eponymous character of the series, who is also robotic cat with a lot of gadgets to aid Nobita’s difficulties. To date, the series has already aired more than a thousand episodes and is still going strong. The plot is episodic: the duo have new digressions and misadventures with each new episode. I can understand children (and even adults) enjoying Doraemon; consequently, I can understand why some people (like Daniel, for example), love Tristram Shandy. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

I thought that I had already resolved this issue with my writing in the past, but a close friend of mine had asked me why I wrote about literature so much. I also believe I have alienated some people with regard to my writing style, use of rhetoric, or some idiosyncrasy of mine, so I will try to set things straight (although I doubt I can change how I write at all). It still helps to clear things up. I believe that in this post a quasi-Wittgenstein approach is apt, so without further ado, I will begin. Read the rest of this entry »