Archive for the ‘Editorial’ Category

Age and sage

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

And that’s how you get good rose wine (oh, and a dash of lemon).

While looking up what 下敷き meant, I (quite randomly) came across:

上げたり下げたり

and a shortened(?) form 上げ下げ (agesage).

I guess this is where the imageboard terms age and sage come from?

Disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried my wine like that yet!

Comparing K-ON and SoroWoto

Monday, January 11th, 2010

New decade, old spoofs

Monday, January 4th, 2010
Amongst other things

Amongst other things.

A post not inspired by Azumanga but nevertheless (as this is tending to be an anime blog) I will make reference of it. (more…)

The lady and the man

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Having finished Spice and Wolf recently, it only seemed to reinforce the fact that I really enjoy the dynamic. A lady of extraordinary circumstances comes upon a young man who is quite average in most respects1. We saw this in Crest of the Stars, Shakugan no Shana, Mahoraba… the list goes on.

These shows span genres but they all contain a certain tenderness between the two main characters – something I’ve come to really enjoy watching. Toradora did well in this respect, even managing a wider web of interactions than I expected in just 13 episodes.

I would have thought I would tire of this basic pairing, but I guess the writing and execution still capture my attention, time after time.

1 While their softness is typical for their role, it’s something I wouldn’t consider to be particularly normal though. Would you?

tl;dr: value of media, assigned and intrinsic

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Warning! This post is full of TL;DR fail.

A response and a discussion of value and preference of literature (and obviously other forms of media). (more…)

A light response on literature and anime as media.

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

I am not certain as to the stimulus behind the comparisons between two distinct media, and while not even outright (literature spans the full spectrum of creative and uncreative output of humanity so I guess such complete inspection would be unnecessary and tiresome), it is quite true that fiscal impetus is a primary driving force on televised works. Thinking of literature meant primarily to be entertaining (and thus might cater to even the lowest common denominator – which isn’t always the case as my friend touched on in his Honey and Clover article Mike so graciously linked), many cases come up which are, in a way, just as intellectually uninspiring as anime: The Da Vinci Code, many science fiction works, I would like to mention more but it had been too long since I read a non-academic work. In contrast, writing and publishing a book with a very small intended audience is quite possible, however I do not believe that animated shows easily lend themselves to such solitary efforts, Makoto Shinkai being an anomaly – it simply costs too much and distribution used to be a problem. Although with increased computing power (efficiency) and with the internet, anime might see an increase in independent, thought-provoking works whose primary objective is to show something to the audience for the sake of making them think (see Yasuhiro Yoshiura). (more…)

February on Christmas Eve

Monday, December 24th, 2007

Happy Holidays!

I really got into the spirit of Christmas, so i decided to write this song. a small amount of it is plagiarized from James Joyce, which would explain all the references to Dublin.

It’s not exactly appropriate and some people will not find it funny. Use your own discretion.

(more…)

Silly Kids, Politics are for Rabbits

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

The headline of a Globe and Mail article today read “For a single moment, the stars were aligned”, referring to the brief moment the green party lead the polls in Owen Sound last night. It brought a smile to my face. I would have liked to see the Green party pick up at least one riding if the referendum is not going through (Which btw, is all hikago’s fault). Of course, I didn’t help the cause either; I didn’t vote green.And boy am I paying the price now. This morning, on my way to work, I was ambushed by an elite tag-team of Al Gore and David Suzuki. Despite having the fitness of a hippo and the smarts of a chimp, they still managed to chase me down behind an alley. While they had me against the wall, the Govinator showed up with a piece of two-by-four.
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congratulations jon!

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

The loonie is now 1 for 1 with the American dollar.

yet we still pay more for books.

Post With Charts, Graphs, and PowerPoint Presentations

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

Warning: This post is completely pointless.

The new season has started, but there are few gems within the plethora of shows. In fact, there aren’t any shows which have really captured a strong fanbase yet, but hopefully we’ll be in for some surprises much like how the Rangers managed to pull a clean sweep on Atlanta out of nowhere.

Speaking of sports, I’ve noticed it is rather rare for a male lead to have a strong sports background or be on a sports team in relationship based anime. Its actually rather common for one of the girls to be in a sports team, and of course we’re treated to the male lead cheering her on and she makes some crazy comeback into 1st place, but why not the other way around too? Maybe the male lead will pull his team through to a miraculous win or a playoffs spot like Chris Bosh did for the failing Raptors. (more…)