I’ve been posting only summaries and information lately on the anime I constantly blog or love, and haven’t gone much to blogging about anime itself. First off, classes have started, and I’m pretty much forced to cut down on my anime viewing (as if I’d do that), but really, me-time has been replaced with going to school; I have nothing against that, really, because I promised myself that I’d get rich and purchase the best and biggest HDs, fastest RAM, speediest and most consistent T3 connections … all for anime. School isn’t so bad when you have a goal like that. Meh.
Anyway, Honey and Clover II is premiering tomorrow; being the rabid fanboy, I’m hoping for a blow-away first episode. Gack. I’m seeing myself as far from the capabilities of bloggers who blog about memes (!) and stuff in anime-dom I barely know about. (I’m serious. I don’t know much about anime-dom, and just a few days ago I didn’t know Akitaro Daichi, who was the director of Fruits Basket [as if I cared XD].)
I admit, I’m not as into what’s behind the anime as to the anime itself. I don’t go into who produces this, who animates this or who directs this: I simply watch the anime itself. If anything, the anime tells everything. I wouldn’t even mind if it was animated by J.C. Staff or BONES; being human, BONES makes mistakes, just not as much as J.C. Staff, perhaps. But what I’m trying to get to here is that it’s pointless to compare animation studios or directors or whatnot, because even directors like Spielberg directed ET. (I mean, ET, come on. lol, jk)
I’m all into comparing anime – I’m going to compare Ergo Proxy and Honey and Clover and say Honey and Clover’s better, and I’ve gotten into more than a little trouble with that. Thing is, although a lot invoke the apples and oranges argument, as long as they belong to the same medium, anime, they’re all fair game to me as long as I’m comparing them to some general criteria like plot, for example. I’d probably give as much of a 10 to Ghost in the Shell as to Honey and Clover for their plot because both appealed to my senses, were sensible, and weren’t dragging or boring. That doesn’t have to make them similar, just comparable. With this I compare a whole lot of anime and stack them all against each other. As long as they’re anime, they’re fair game to me and some will be near the top and some will fall rock bottom.
Comparing the people or animation studios behind the anime is a waste of time to me, however. But it’s always worth a look: you’d probably watch something to do with Shinichiro Watanabe, even if it was only scriptchecking than this Ruuxvucxva SA(Faufa who directed some obscure anime. People also can’t be as consistent as anime.
I mean, once an anime is there, it’s there forever. It can’t be changed (unless cleaned up in DVD releases), but people can change. How would one know if it was only a fluke, or everything having gone well for the one-time director or writer?
Darn. I got to get some sleep. Ciao.
June 29, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Yo! man – you speak italian?
Che bello!!! un altro italomano – ) – guess i am joking
well – i have an opinion about comparing Ergo Proxy & Honey and a Clover & GITS
) level so once again i state – we can compare them only in few details – technical and general ones.
Well i guess it is hard to compare – well maybe because GITS is just too distanced from life around us (yeah – you may say that Ergo is the same case but i think it is not). Ergo Proxy being too a Sci – Fi still is stating the good old questions about a man on the edge of the societ: how he lives with other, what behavior pattern will he choose.. how can one come his own, in certain way unique, personality remaining however a part of the society. Well of course Honey and a Clover is just about us – how do we live with all things around and that is why it pretty cool and extremely intresting piece. Still the rythms of these pieces are quite different and that is why it is really hard to compare the content. We can however compare the animation it self – Honey and a Clover too have it’s own unique stile but it is much more stable in quality and this is great. Ergo Proxy is more like a movie and it is naturally seen as a more realistic animation (well i guess it will be RE-L fun to see Vincent transforming into a shoujy(shit correct me plz – i mean that crappy 14 old girls pinky manga!) manga )). however the level of the animation as we all too bloody well know, is not always on the top so we can say that in this field Honey and Clover is at half of a step forward. Still the music and the plot itself and it’s realization on my opinion are of the same super puper (add more compliments here!!!
June 30, 2006 at 12:08 am
That’s what I meant; comparing anime with the impression it left on you is not base. It’s normal, and even literary critics use that! (No shit.)
What I mean is that although the apples and oranges argument can be (and often is) invoked, it’s not wrong to compare anime of two disparate or dissimilar genres – as long as they use anime as their medium for communication, it’s fair game.
No, I’m not Italian – I just added it as an alternative to the generic goodbye.
Good comment, btw.
June 30, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Hmmm I can’t help but comment. Hee.
I don’t think GITS is too distanced from the life around us. On the contrary, Ergo Proxy is the one that is too distanced from the life around us. Aside from futuristic technology, GITS also shows us a glimpse of what might be in an advanced society such as the one that Motoko lives in. Themes like abuse of technology, corruption, addiction to the Internet, war–and even sex, are tackled. The technology and moral problems in GITS are realistic, whereas Proxies are not.
But I agree on Honey and Clover. It’s the most realistic of the three as it dwells on everyday life. It even reminds me of my college days, and oh how I miss it sometimes! =p
July 1, 2006 at 6:53 pm
I must have rewatched Honey and Clover three times for the past three weeks. I love it, definitely.
I’m not detracting anything from Ghost in the Shell; what I wanted to point out was that comparing anime, even in different genres, was fair game.