Hilariously, Hideaki Anno's resemblance to Gendo seems to be a thing among Eva fans/non-fans, because his TV Tropes page expressly mentions that their resemblance is "unintentional". Suuure. End of Evangelion is basically what I imagine real insanity feels like, that movie was so bizarre that even I (someone who actually likes Eva, FLCL, and Utena) found it off-putting. EVERYONE TURNS INTO TANG, WHAT IS GOING ON.
I think that particular couple (in Pacific Rim) could have worked but it was still refreshing to see the writers ignore that trope. I liked Donna too, as she was a nice break from all the companions who fall in love with the Doctor (not that I disliked any of them, it was just nice to see one who didn't have that reaction.)
I love Princess Tutu, but I do find flaws in it, mainly the animation and the huge quality increase. The second season (is it called that? Basically all the episodes after 13 or 14, I mean) is so dramatically better than the already-good first season that it's really noticeable, at least to me. It works, but it's still hard to compare a first season episode (for example that one where they watch the professional ballerinas on tour) to a second season episode (for example that one where they have a ballet opera to Danse Macabre and it was FREAKING AMAZING. I almost squealed to death when they used that song, I had hoped they would and it was brilliant. I digress...) The animation is pretty solid, but looks a bit cheap compared to contemporary series (my go-to for 'how animation didn't suck ten years ago' are Ghost in the Shell and FMA 2003.) Mostly the fact that some ballet scenes are still frames when others are detailed and fluid. Minor flaws though, but it comes incredibly close.
I think yanderes are too popular right now (again, Mirai Nikki...) to find a really solid, non-fetishized version of one. Tsunderes have been solidly popular since basically the 70s, so it was ok to deconstruct them (just like how Eva and Madoka deconstructed their genres decades after they were established.) It's a shame, because there is potential there.
How did you find a Nagisa shirt??? Oh my gosh that's amazing. I keep on hoping some American distributor will license Free and give it an English dub, because I want to compare with 50% Off. Nobody seems to have done it yet though (and hopefully it's not Aniplex, I don't want to have to sell my car to buy a 3-episode Free collection.)
You just gave me a mental image of a group of Gainax animators desperately trying to finish their still frames just so they can refill the one water bottle they're sharing. Actually though I read somewhere (ok it was TV Tropes again) that the company had such a small budget because they didn't anticipate it would be successful and really hoped it would fail so they could declare bankruptcy. So essentially the background for the series was the plot of The Producers. I don't entirely buy this though because if that was true I doubt they would have bothered making an interesting story or paying for top-quality seiyuus to voice act.
Action films are horribly guilty. I saw an ad for that sequel to 300 (which totally needed a sequel, amirite? I hate Hollywood) and basically all the female lead did was bark orders and have a few token "Hey look, we're progressive! She's fighting!" scenes. Not all was it horribly inaccurate for the time period, but it was just so stereotypical. We've seen strong women who fight in movies. It's not a novelty, and writers keep thinking that this single trait is new and 'shocking' enough to carry the character. It's annoying. I loved the hell out of Pacific Rim. I hope this convinces all those Hollywood execs who want to produce live-action mecha movies to quit it, because we have it now, and it's way better than some whitewashed Evangelion or Gundam could be. I loved Mako Mori because she wasn't some stereotypical female action hero - she fought yes, and very well, but she was allowed to have her own problems and issues, and she wasn't brash or bossy, though she clearly stood her ground and knew her value as a fighter. Also, it totally subverted the 'male and female lead end up together', which is also hilarious because that romance would have actually been believable had it worked.
Yay, I can't wait for a Princess Tutu review! I love that show so much, and not enough people have heard of it. It (along with a few other series) I agressively suggest to people because of its relative unpopularity. I just love magical girls, even the cheesy older ones - I've made it a goal to watch most of the major ones from the past few decades. I haven't started Cardcaptor Sakura but I'm sure I would love it, but I just don't know about Nanoha. Admittedly I'm only on the fourth or fifth episode, but it just seemed generic to me. I've heard positive things though so I hope to at least finish the first season at some point.
I like the concept of a yandere, but there has to be something more there, and definitely not used for fanservice. Actually, my only OC that is a yandere (a serious one) is a male, and I added enough traits to him that he isn't one-dimensional. It's obvious that this doesn't go into many of them, though. I'm just surprised though when I see characters like Yuno get so much love and popularity (to the point that on some anime sites she ranks in the top 20 or even top 10 of characters) when all she litererally is, is a yandere. Tsunderes usually annoy me, but I think what worked for Taiga is that she was more like a deconstruction of one. We saw exactly why she behaved the ways she did, and she also developed as a character - she was much less bossy and abrasive at the end. I imagine somewhere, someone has written a great yandere character, but I assume it's either not in anime or at least not mainstream anime. The archetype is too popular there to ever develop into something more interesting at the moment. I mostly have a fondness for kuuderes because some of my favorite characters (Riza Hawkeye, Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, C.C. from Code Geass) fit this.
As promised TV Tropes has ruined my life, though without it I don't think I would have watched some of the anime I have, or began reading comics. I'm definitely incorporating 50% Off into my daily life. I love the Harus - "You killed the Haru who could read!"
The comparisons between the original series and the Rebuild films are ridiculous. I mean, naturally it would be nicer-looking anyways because of the years elapsed between them, but my god. I make jokes a lot about how Evangelion had a budget of $20 per episode xD
I don't call those people feminists either, in fact their opinions seem to be more misogynistic than anything else. I hate the trend, which is increasingly common in live-action American movies, to shove in a token female character whose only distingushing characteristics are that she can fight and she yells a lot. It's just annoying. It's like the only decent female character these writers can think of is 'stereotypical male action hero, but add boobs'. Azula is my favorite villain of all time. She's brilliantly written, and her flaws are realistic and portrayed incredibly well. Avatar as a whole I think is one of the best series, gender-wise, of any I've seen (and it's amazing otherwise too, haha.)
I completely agree about Ahiru, Winry, and Gou. I liked that Gou and Rin's relationship was much more realistic in how it was portrated: she cared about him, but they weren't creepy incest close and it was obvious that they also had some distance between them because of Rin's behavior at the time. I love Ahiru, she's so adorable and sweet I just want to hug her. Many people wouldn't call her a 'strong female character', because she's a ballerina who doesn't fight and cries and gets worried a lot, but I would, because she's interesting and sympathetic and makes you root for her. I think this is why I love magical girl series so much even if aren't really popular outside of the '8-20 year old females' demographic. They're strong and excellent fighters but also almost aggressively feminine, and in ensemble shows they are incredibly diverse, personality-wise.
My friends and I had a conversation the other day about the appeal of yanderes, because I don't get it. What do guys see in a psycho girl who will kill others to be with you? Tsunderes can be written well (I love Taiga from Toradora for example), and I'm totally going to admit that I love kuudere characters, but yanderes? They're just bland killing machines. I blame Mirai Nikki for popularizing the concept. Harem anime in general are just bad on the character front in general. I mean, the whole premise is that this group of girls are in love with a usually bland guy and very rarely do we get much else from them. I consider Black Lagoon to be a part of the 'actions girls mess shit up' brand of feminism (see also Kill Bill.) It doesn't try to be feminist at all really, but nevertheless ends up being so in a way.
I don't agree 100% with some of her stuff either, but then again, I doubt I'll ever find someone I agree with completely. I still enjoy her blog, however, and the liveblogs she did for the first FMA anime and the Madoka movie were hilarious.
My friends and I speak to each other almost exclusively in references to 50% Off and Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged. Oh god how I love 50% Off though. Nagisa meeting Rei was the best thing since forever ("Oh it should be illegal to be that fine!") Also, it got a TV Tropes page! I was so happy when it did, but now I'll be wasting more time there.
Oh, and on the subject of female characters in anime, there's a blog I found on tumblr the other day that has some great stuff on feminism while being interesting and refreshingly non-preachy. The url is adventuresofcomicbookgirl, and while I don't agree with everything she writes, a lot of it is a great analysis of women in anime. I particulaly liked her reviews of Princess Tutu, Utena, and FMA, though she has several others.
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You have a really lovely avatar ^_^ Is it from any anime?
Hilariously, Hideaki Anno's resemblance to Gendo seems to be a thing among Eva fans/non-fans, because his TV Tropes page expressly mentions that their resemblance is "unintentional". Suuure. End of Evangelion is basically what I imagine real insanity feels like, that movie was so bizarre that even I (someone who actually likes Eva, FLCL, and Utena) found it off-putting. EVERYONE TURNS INTO TANG, WHAT IS GOING ON.
I think that particular couple (in Pacific Rim) could have worked but it was still refreshing to see the writers ignore that trope. I liked Donna too, as she was a nice break from all the companions who fall in love with the Doctor (not that I disliked any of them, it was just nice to see one who didn't have that reaction.)
I love Princess Tutu, but I do find flaws in it, mainly the animation and the huge quality increase. The second season (is it called that? Basically all the episodes after 13 or 14, I mean) is so dramatically better than the already-good first season that it's really noticeable, at least to me. It works, but it's still hard to compare a first season episode (for example that one where they watch the professional ballerinas on tour) to a second season episode (for example that one where they have a ballet opera to Danse Macabre and it was FREAKING AMAZING. I almost squealed to death when they used that song, I had hoped they would and it was brilliant. I digress...) The animation is pretty solid, but looks a bit cheap compared to contemporary series (my go-to for 'how animation didn't suck ten years ago' are Ghost in the Shell and FMA 2003.) Mostly the fact that some ballet scenes are still frames when others are detailed and fluid. Minor flaws though, but it comes incredibly close.
I think yanderes are too popular right now (again, Mirai Nikki...) to find a really solid, non-fetishized version of one. Tsunderes have been solidly popular since basically the 70s, so it was ok to deconstruct them (just like how Eva and Madoka deconstructed their genres decades after they were established.) It's a shame, because there is potential there.
How did you find a Nagisa shirt??? Oh my gosh that's amazing. I keep on hoping some American distributor will license Free and give it an English dub, because I want to compare with 50% Off. Nobody seems to have done it yet though (and hopefully it's not Aniplex, I don't want to have to sell my car to buy a 3-episode Free collection.)
You just gave me a mental image of a group of Gainax animators desperately trying to finish their still frames just so they can refill the one water bottle they're sharing. Actually though I read somewhere (ok it was TV Tropes again) that the company had such a small budget because they didn't anticipate it would be successful and really hoped it would fail so they could declare bankruptcy. So essentially the background for the series was the plot of The Producers. I don't entirely buy this though because if that was true I doubt they would have bothered making an interesting story or paying for top-quality seiyuus to voice act.
Action films are horribly guilty. I saw an ad for that sequel to 300 (which totally needed a sequel, amirite? I hate Hollywood) and basically all the female lead did was bark orders and have a few token "Hey look, we're progressive! She's fighting!" scenes. Not all was it horribly inaccurate for the time period, but it was just so stereotypical. We've seen strong women who fight in movies. It's not a novelty, and writers keep thinking that this single trait is new and 'shocking' enough to carry the character. It's annoying. I loved the hell out of Pacific Rim. I hope this convinces all those Hollywood execs who want to produce live-action mecha movies to quit it, because we have it now, and it's way better than some whitewashed Evangelion or Gundam could be. I loved Mako Mori because she wasn't some stereotypical female action hero - she fought yes, and very well, but she was allowed to have her own problems and issues, and she wasn't brash or bossy, though she clearly stood her ground and knew her value as a fighter. Also, it totally subverted the 'male and female lead end up together', which is also hilarious because that romance would have actually been believable had it worked.
Yay, I can't wait for a Princess Tutu review! I love that show so much, and not enough people have heard of it. It (along with a few other series) I agressively suggest to people because of its relative unpopularity. I just love magical girls, even the cheesy older ones - I've made it a goal to watch most of the major ones from the past few decades. I haven't started Cardcaptor Sakura but I'm sure I would love it, but I just don't know about Nanoha. Admittedly I'm only on the fourth or fifth episode, but it just seemed generic to me. I've heard positive things though so I hope to at least finish the first season at some point.
I like the concept of a yandere, but there has to be something more there, and definitely not used for fanservice. Actually, my only OC that is a yandere (a serious one) is a male, and I added enough traits to him that he isn't one-dimensional. It's obvious that this doesn't go into many of them, though. I'm just surprised though when I see characters like Yuno get so much love and popularity (to the point that on some anime sites she ranks in the top 20 or even top 10 of characters) when all she litererally is, is a yandere. Tsunderes usually annoy me, but I think what worked for Taiga is that she was more like a deconstruction of one. We saw exactly why she behaved the ways she did, and she also developed as a character - she was much less bossy and abrasive at the end. I imagine somewhere, someone has written a great yandere character, but I assume it's either not in anime or at least not mainstream anime. The archetype is too popular there to ever develop into something more interesting at the moment. I mostly have a fondness for kuuderes because some of my favorite characters (Riza Hawkeye, Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, C.C. from Code Geass) fit this.
As promised TV Tropes has ruined my life, though without it I don't think I would have watched some of the anime I have, or began reading comics. I'm definitely incorporating 50% Off into my daily life. I love the Harus - "You killed the Haru who could read!"
The comparisons between the original series and the Rebuild films are ridiculous. I mean, naturally it would be nicer-looking anyways because of the years elapsed between them, but my god. I make jokes a lot about how Evangelion had a budget of $20 per episode xD
I don't call those people feminists either, in fact their opinions seem to be more misogynistic than anything else. I hate the trend, which is increasingly common in live-action American movies, to shove in a token female character whose only distingushing characteristics are that she can fight and she yells a lot. It's just annoying. It's like the only decent female character these writers can think of is 'stereotypical male action hero, but add boobs'. Azula is my favorite villain of all time. She's brilliantly written, and her flaws are realistic and portrayed incredibly well. Avatar as a whole I think is one of the best series, gender-wise, of any I've seen (and it's amazing otherwise too, haha.)
I completely agree about Ahiru, Winry, and Gou. I liked that Gou and Rin's relationship was much more realistic in how it was portrated: she cared about him, but they weren't creepy incest close and it was obvious that they also had some distance between them because of Rin's behavior at the time. I love Ahiru, she's so adorable and sweet I just want to hug her. Many people wouldn't call her a 'strong female character', because she's a ballerina who doesn't fight and cries and gets worried a lot, but I would, because she's interesting and sympathetic and makes you root for her. I think this is why I love magical girl series so much even if aren't really popular outside of the '8-20 year old females' demographic. They're strong and excellent fighters but also almost aggressively feminine, and in ensemble shows they are incredibly diverse, personality-wise.
My friends and I had a conversation the other day about the appeal of yanderes, because I don't get it. What do guys see in a psycho girl who will kill others to be with you? Tsunderes can be written well (I love Taiga from Toradora for example), and I'm totally going to admit that I love kuudere characters, but yanderes? They're just bland killing machines. I blame Mirai Nikki for popularizing the concept. Harem anime in general are just bad on the character front in general. I mean, the whole premise is that this group of girls are in love with a usually bland guy and very rarely do we get much else from them. I consider Black Lagoon to be a part of the 'actions girls mess shit up' brand of feminism (see also Kill Bill.) It doesn't try to be feminist at all really, but nevertheless ends up being so in a way.
I don't agree 100% with some of her stuff either, but then again, I doubt I'll ever find someone I agree with completely. I still enjoy her blog, however, and the liveblogs she did for the first FMA anime and the Madoka movie were hilarious.
My friends and I speak to each other almost exclusively in references to 50% Off and Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged. Oh god how I love 50% Off though. Nagisa meeting Rei was the best thing since forever ("Oh it should be illegal to be that fine!") Also, it got a TV Tropes page! I was so happy when it did, but now I'll be wasting more time there.
Oh, and on the subject of female characters in anime, there's a blog I found on tumblr the other day that has some great stuff on feminism while being interesting and refreshingly non-preachy. The url is adventuresofcomicbookgirl, and while I don't agree with everything she writes, a lot of it is a great analysis of women in anime. I particulaly liked her reviews of Princess Tutu, Utena, and FMA, though she has several others.