melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 5
Categories: anime, episodic review, meido, melancholy of haruhi suzumiya, spoilers
Tagged: haruhi suzumiya
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God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world. God likes busty, lolita, moe meido, thinks men are potatoes, and has one wicked dance step; all’s right with the world.
(Think I can top 2,500 words for a post? Think 2,500 words can contain the sheer moeness of Mikuru? Think that I would actually pay attention to “plot” with Meido Mikuru lurking around?)
In my post about episode 4, I said, “We got it all wrong. The first episode wasn’t about Haruhi’s crappy movie… the first episode was warning us of what to expect.” Pulling back the curtain, Yuki reveals that she is, indeed, an alien. Mikuru reveals that she is, indeed, a time traveler. And Itsuki reveals that he is, indeed, an esper… which were the exact parts that they each played for Haruhi’s epic, Adventures of Mikuru-run Episode 00. And, of course, Haruhi is God/Ultra Director herself.
(Of course, this must be what it feels like to direct a Gundam series for Sunrise… “I’ll just fuck around those fanboys a bit more and have Luna hook up with Shinn. They won’t see that one coming!” In other words, complete and utter misuse of power that should have been used for good, i.e. more Meer.)
This episode picks up where episode three left off, and Kyon is having a heart-to-heart with Yuki, who explains to him that she was sent by her affiliation, the Integration Thought Entity, to Earth to examine the being known as “Haruhi Suzumiya.” Scrunched between the Evangelion-like cinematography, Yuki uses a lot of technobaubble to explain that three years ago, her affiliation recorded a burst of data from Haruhi and have been observing her since. However, recently, Haruhi has recently become unstable ever since she met Kyon. Why Kyon? That’s the mystery.
Mikuru returns after the traumatic but very delightful bunny girl incident, and the SOS Brigade inducts their newest member, the recently transferred Itsuki. Since we have already been introduced to Itsuki for Mikuru-run 00 and the baseball episode, it’s, well, anti-climatic. And I’m completely not surprised at his easy going nature right off the bat.
The next day, things seem to have returned to some normalacy, and Kyon walks into a scene where Haruhi is forcing Mikuru to change into meido fuku. I… I… I… am at a complete loss of words as Haruhi very dilligently explains how busty, lolita, moe meido wearing glasses is “subarashi” as Mikuru squells. Haruhi’s the best.
(Please note that I have a long history of liking busty, lolita, moe meido, so this should be a shock to no one. As logic dictates, if Haruhi likes them too, I should like Haruhi by associative property. Honestly, if Haruhi stuck nekomimi on Mikuru, I’m not sure what I would have done. In fact, let’s make Haruhi do this just to get my reaction out of it.)
She then forces Mikuru into taking some semi-scandelous pictures. (Can you imagine if Haruhi had a more willing subject to work with, like Genshiken‘s Ohno? In fact, let’s make that happen. Haruhi forces Ohno to leave Genshiken to join SOS Brigade. Done. I just signed off on it.) Mikuru is almost like Haruhi’s personal, anatomically correct Barbie doll. Anyway, I watched this scene a record 81 times since Sunday. Did I mention that I love HDTV?
Haruhi orders Mikuru to always wear her meido fuku when in the club room. Between that decree and her nonchantly explaining how meido is an important part of any school life drama, she didn’t just attack my weak point, she nuked the stuffing out of it… bull’s-eye. My blogging affections for Haruhi know no bounds now. (And how would Mikuru place on the Meido Power Rankings™?)
Since no one has been begging SOS Brigade to help them with their problems, they decide to look for mystery in a field trip around town. Haruhi had a bright idea of splitting everyone up, and, yep, Mikuru gets paired with Kyon. Much to Haruhi’s dismay/jealously/disappointment. Maybe Haruhi hasn’t controlled her powers enough that she can will Kyon to join her team like how she picke Kyon for clean-up. In any case, “Day-to ja nai no!” she warns Kyon and Mikuru. Of course, with Mikuru intensely adorable look in her casual clothes, the park setting, yep… no day-to here. Mikuru does sit Kyon down and have a long talk with him as she informs him that she’s his lover from the future from the future sent by her affiliation to keep tabs on Haruhi ever since Haruhi was found at a center of a timequake three years ago. And now, Mikuru noticed a chance since Kyon was tossed into the equation. While very similar to Yuki’s story, there is one added nugget of information: Mikuru’s people cannot travel back in time in Haruhi’s world farther than three years ago.
(While Yuki’s discussion reminded me of Evangelion, Mikuru’s reminded me of any typical harem game turned anime, especially with the fish eye camera perspective.)
Kyon and Mikuru are summoned back by Haruhi, and she splits them up again… only this time, Kyon gets paired up with Yuki. I’m not sure who to feel sorry for… Kyon or Kyon. With Kyon getting paired up with his intriguing dates and the SOS Brigade getting nowhere in their quest for mysterious, Haruhi calls off the hunt in a foul mood. The next day at school, she’s in Depressed Haruhi Suzumiya mode, which is as about as fun as watching Yuki apply for a library card. I prefer Genki Haruhi Suzumiya over Depressed Haruhi Suzumiya.
Anyway, Kyon calls Itsuki out of the club room and has his chat with him where Itsuki is revealed to be an esper sent by his afflication, The Agency, to keep an eye on Haruhi. Same as Yuki and Mikuru, they experienced their esp powers developing three years ago and believe that Haruhi is at the center of it. He’s a bit more open and sharing than the two girls and reaffirms the “Haruhi is the God of this world” theory. And like Yuki and Mikuru, he has no clue why Kyon is so special when he’s so ordinary.
(Itsuki does drop a “My powers manifest only under special conditions” line that reeks of plot contrivance. Maybe they’re just including this as part of their homage to Sunrise directors?)
To wrap up this mind-altering, meido-photo-raping infused episode, Kyon walks into Mikuru changing, again, in the club room… only Haruhi is nowhere to be found. Until next week, desho desho! (Episode 9?)
The SOS Brigade Awesomeness Index
UP UP UP Meido! This is AoMM, after all.
UP Attention to detail… I liked how Kyoto Animation actually drew different underwear for Mikuru on different school days. The first day she was attacked with the meido fuku, she wore the one with the red ribbon running through it. The second time Kyon barged in on her, she was wearing the more plain ones that she wore during the bunny girl incident. Great attention to detail by the Kyoto staff. Of course, let’s not forget the three most important things concerning Mikuru’s underwear: (1) they’re all tie-ons (2) they’re well-coordinated (3) Haruhi has dominated her so badly, she even mindlessly changes in the club room, even when Haruhi isn’t around. Almost half expecting Kyon to peek on her. Pantheon moe character all the way around.
UP Mikuru… Mikuru’s utter doormatedness is growing on me… maybe I’m won over by her meido fuku, but she was definitely a 175 out of 10 on any moe scale known to fanboy-kind. And she was very cute in her normal outfit during the field trip.
UP HDTV.
DOWN “Day-to ja nai no!”… Kyon should have investigated the local hotels and see if they had any strange pricing schemes, like by the hour. (After Haruhi left Kyon and Mikuru, Mikuru turns to Kyon with that playful smile and goes, “Dou shimashou?” *sigh*)
DOWN Aya Hirano’s Engrish… “My delight“… ?!? Almost as bad as “sen-ji-me-te-ru.”
UP Haruhi as our God… she willed all us bloggers into praising her! No question about it. She willed us through her dynamic personality, energetic behavior, erratic whims, and, of course, the dancing. People curiously dismiss Haruhi as being “overrated,” well, that’s just the reactionary counterforce to the instant historian nature of the internet. I’m seeing this now with the Steve Nash debate (almost as pointless as the Haruhi is overrated debate)… at the end of the season, people were saying, “OMFG STEVE NASH IS AWESOME, HE WON SO MANY GAMES WITHOUT AMARE!” Then Kobe posterizes him a few times, “OMFG STEVE NASH IS OVERRATED! HE’S WHITE!” And then tonight the ESPN bobbleheads were going “OMFG STEVE NASH IS UNSTOPPABLE!”). That’s just the instant history nature of the internet… people need to calm down and examine the following:
- No show right now or in the past few years even come close to the cinematography of Haruhi. Not up for debate.
- Only Ergo Proxy and maybe Tide Line Blue and Kamichu have the same fluid art style as Haruhi, and Ergo Proxy is helped a lot by the general washed-out, blackened color palatte. Everything in Haruhi’s world is vibrant and colorful.
- Pantheon level OP/ED. Should we penalize Kyoto Animation for making an OP/ED so awesome, it completely blows away everything else? They were creative, they did a fantastic job animating it, and they found music that fit the sequences to a tee. Isn’t this what every anime should strive for? Or would you rather have a stream of crummy-Wings of Word-type OP/ED sequences?
- Kyoto Animation pays attention to detail, like with the underwear. As Xellos pointed out, they used the Touch BGM for the baseball scene. Or the reflection in Yuki’s glasses. That’s just great attention to detail… the exact opposite of every plot contrivance girl appearance in ã‚ã‚ã£å¥³ç¥žã•ã¾ã£. Only Pani Poni Dash had such attention to detail, and Becky’s not even close to Haruhi’s tier.
- Haruhi herself is a very unique character. How many anime female characters are anywhere as free spirited, chaotic, and energetic as her? She’s addictive. She’s the anti-Rei Ayanami. People complain about how anime characters are so cookie cutter sometimes… well… Haruhi is of a new mold, and that’s a bad thing all of a sudden?
- blog好ã is not an accurate indicator of the anime world. It is a collection of bleeding-edge anime blogs that do engage a lot in instant history, and they’re run mostly by males. Sadly, I think only 7 or 8 out of the 50 blogs aren’t contaiminated by a y-chromosome. If there were only 7 or 8 males, I’m sure the debate right now would be, “OMFG NANA IS OVERRATED” instead. 100% positive.
technorati would be a better barometer of typical anime fans. Right now, as of today, according to technorati, F/SN has over 6,200 English posts for it, and it receives an average of 20 new posts a day concerning F/SN. There’s less than 200 English posts for Haruhi Suzumiya, and the peak was 20 posts a day. So you’re telling me that a series receiving 30 times less mainstream love than F/SN is more overrated than F/SN?
(I think if someone calls Haruhi overrated, they need to call F/SN overrated first. F/SN butchered the source material. F/SN doesn’t have the same level of animation quality. F/SN doesn’t have an OP/ED that will ever make it to the pantheon. And whatever Rin did to Saber in F/SN, it’s nowhere as hawt as Mikuru getting costume-raped by Haruhi.)
- Just because someone doesn’t like something, it’s not overrated. Everyone has their own tastes in anime. If I asked everyone for their “top ten anime” list, like snowflakes, no two lists would look the same. If 9 people out of 10 liked Haruhi, and one didn’t, it doesn’t mean the show is overrated. It means that the show isn’t for that one person. Why complain about Haruhi’s attention? And why give Haruhi even more attention by saying it’s overrated? Simple go watch other shows, and there’s tons of great shows this season, and talk about those. The Third, Black Lagoon, and Magipoka all need more love. I just happen to think that out of all 521 shows this season, Haruhi is the best. That’s my opinion. Yours may be different, but it doesn’t mean that Haruhi is crap or overrated just because I like it. And so what if a show is overrated? I bitch more about the lack of hawt yuri sex scenes in F/SN than I do about its overratedness. Let’s bitch about the lack of hawt yuri sex scenes in Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya first, desho desho?
UP Haruhi’s open jealously of Kyon/Mikuru… hey, five episodes in, we may actually have a genre! School life harem comedy sci-fi! That’s one of my favorite genres next to typical Sunrise train wreck featuring father/daughter incest. (Still, wasn’t Mikuru-run 00 a school life/harem/comedy/sci-fi, and Kyon was wondering if such a mixture of genres could work? Genius writing. I may just cry.)
DOWN Kyon’s sarcasm… his wit is less fast and furious this episode. Maybe he overdosed on the “Haruhi is our God” info, but he wasn’t the same. I’m sad. It’s like reading a below-average rip job on Otome from life line by line.
UP Aliens, time travelers, and espers… I’m definitely wondering where this concept goes from here. It’s logical to believe that Haruhi is the “big bang” of this world, but why is Kyon special? If Haruhi is God, then she can easily create/manipulate anyone into being her boyfriend (though, we all know how well this turned out for Yurie-sama)? That’s what I want to know… an anime that have a similar interpersonal relationship, i.e. The Third, Tenchi Muyo, and Shakugan no Shana, the guy always has some special quality to him. I want to see Kyon grow lighthawk wings and feed Hecate at the same time. But… what if Kyon really is normal? Mmm.
And then there’s the symmetrical nature of Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki. I liked how all three of them basically said the same thing and desensitized poor Kyon. Still, okay, so they’re here because of Haruhi, yet they’re really here for Kyon. There’s a lot more to this, and poor Mikuru isn’t telling us. Still, if I were in charge of a powerful entity that could time travel, why in Haruhi’s name would I send someone like Mikuru back, unless it’s one of those Jon Conner-type of things (in Terminator 1, he sends back his father so he could knock up his mom so he could be born)? Wouldn’t I pick someone better trained?
UP Family Feud… “Survey says 91 out of 100 fanboys prefer busty, lolita, moe meido. The other 9 are just plain haardo gay.”
42 Responses to “melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 5”
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There are people complaining about Haruhi being overrated? Some people really need better material for their blog posts. There are like 768 trillion other anime out this season and from the past year that need to be ravaged. No need to single out Haruhi for such a stupid reason.
I’m finding the Haruhi storyline compelling although the jumping around the timeline bit is weirding me out. It’s hard to follow the story when you only get it every other week. Still, I’m not peeved about this as much as I should be which is credit to KyoAni and it’s writers.
The words coming out of the screen in Yuki’s scene was definitely a nod towards Evangelion. Hey, maybe KyoAni heard you comparing this show to Eva and decided to do something about it! No? Coincidence? nah, there’s no coincidence in Haruhi’s world. Just ask Itsuki.
>>(Itsuki does drop a “My powers manifest only under
>> special conditions†line that reeks of plot contrivance.
>> Maybe they’re just including this as part of their
>> homage to Sunrise directors?)
It’s actually sort of neat from a pop-psych perspective… but it seems that won’t be happening for about a month.
His powers are useable under clearly defined circumstances for a specific purpose. Harmonium handwavery this isn’t.
Whereas Yuki is limited only by the prodigious about of data she can access and modify simultaneously, the practical application of Itsuki’s powers is practically nil.
Maybe Mikuru was sent back in time to incite feelings of jealousy to bring Haruhi to come clean with Kyon. That or they needed well endowed lolita looks in a meido outfit to allow Haruhi to investigate the limits of moe potential. Flirtatious Mikuru sent me bloody close to going into shock.
As for Mikuru in the meido power rankings I’d say atleast top three since Haruhi has taught her versatility (nurse, meido, bunny girl, and combat waitress.
I fully expect to see a HaruhixKyon dayto not for romance, but to see what insane scheme Haruhi can concoct and how far she can egg Kyon on when its just the two of them.
As for Istuki’s sunrise level plot contrivance, its actually canon according to the translation project for the novels. Given that this was the information episode you have to admit this was more fun than F/SN pathetic attempt. I am still not sure how to react to the attention paid to Mikuru-ran’s under garments on the one hand it shows appreciation on the other I can see how ultra-conservatives will never allow this into the States. The idea that God walking among us, treating men like potatoes, and exploring moe potential is already more than enough to make their tiny minds implode and have them leading witch hunts for Haruhism cults. (way better than Dogma)
Speaking of cults it would be amusing to see the a bunch of Otakus put Haruhism in the religion box on their census forms. In all liklihood Jedi and Haruhism will be the two fastest growing religions in the world, unfortunately Rastafarians and their Ganja are strong contenders. So who’s with me for putting Haruhism on the next census?
You, my man, are an absolute genius.
This is one of the most perfect posts on anything I’ve ever read, anywhere.
Anyway, I think Kyon’s sarcasm was decreased because he was suffering indigestion from all the Exposition he had to swallow in this episode.
the Mikuru scene where she’s asked her age was a wtf moment. totally. somehow her reaction seemed a bit stiff for this series though.
they really need to air more of this. this stuff is more addicting than cocaine, morphine, and nicotine combined. XD
There’s already been an attempt to list Haruhi-ism as a religion on Wikipedia… though it got deleted fairly quickly ^^0
Btw, did anyone notice that in the ED credits, Kyon and Haruhi’s names were abnormally large?
>>Btw, did anyone notice that in the ED credits, Kyon and Haruhi’s names were abnormally large?
There’s a meme going around that Haruhi’s jealousy somehow caused them to stand out. Kinda cute.
In reality though… in the ED, there are two frames for the cast. Typically, the first contains the five SOS members, and the second the extras and secondary cast. In this episode, though… nobody spoke besides the SOS crew. So they split it into Haruhi/Kyon and Yuki/Mikuru/Itsuki.
Several points. The Korean Link I put up shows S Haruhi winning the battle of new April anime by margin of 52610 to 15337 over Higurashi which placed 2nd. This vote was compiled by a TV station in Japan, and such a dominance has never been witnessed. 3rd is Digimon Savers with 10393, 4th is utawarerumono with 7682, and 5th is School Rumble with 6893. You need to add 2nd to 7th ( Ouran High Host Club ) to equal S Haruhi. The poll in Korea is even more biased, for Korean don’t get to see all the Animes Japanese can.
I do believe Church of Haruhi has already started with various people claiming clerical positions like Grand Inquisitor and Chief Knight Templar. I claim the position of Music Master of Ceremony and Chief Chant Soloist ( I used to get paid $16/hour+Food for similar position in Korean Catholic Churches )
When I mentioned that Haruhi will change the Anime world, I was actually mentioning both S haruhi and Haruhi in Ouran High Host Club. Both female characters and the anime breaks the cookie cutters we had so far in many ways. You cannot overlook broad male AND female support for Ouran High, as anime series tends to lean towards one of the demographics. It is rare for an anime series to inspire book craze, dance fever, and spending for various hardware updates, as I need to upgrade my computer to see Haruhi OP without it slowing down in several places, in addition to my dusting off several of my book collections in theology and philosophy ( One of my hobby is to collect books, thus I have several heavy weight theology and philosophy books which I have only read the cover ). I wonder if there will be Holy Trinity of Haruhis.
With Haruhi already at #3 on ANN’s Top 10 anime, it’s easy to see why we love it. >:D
Funny thing is, it seemed like Haruhi was humping Mikuru the enire last half of the photo-shoot. @_@
@crusader:
you forgot the flying spaghetti monster ->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....ti_monster
otherwise, MOEEE~~!!!!!!
Fact 1. If those pictures end up on police desk in non-Asian country, Haruhi would be sitting in Jail right now.
Fact 2. Haruhi wisely is in Far East where Sexual Harrassment is rarely prosecuted and even harder to be found guilty of.
>>(Itsuki does drop a “My powers manifest only under
>> special conditions†line that reeks of plot contrivance.
>> Maybe they’re just including this as part of their
>> homage to Sunrise directors?)
Coming from Kyoto animation, maybe it’s some pocket Lambda driver like in the first episode :p
>>Btw, did anyone notice that in the ED credits, Kyon and Haruhi’s names were abnormally large?
Hmm, if you’re talking about afk’s subbed episode then I’m not sure, since those names were typesetted over the original japanese credits. I never saw the raw.
>>I think if someone calls Haruhi overrated, they need to call F/SN overrated first.
Yesh, you are so damn f*cking right! Gosh as a FSN lover, I really really hated the way they did the anime. The promo of FSN actually showed promise but the main episodes did not deliver. I WANT MY SABER-RIN YURI SEX SCENES back!
Well, I have to declare that Haruhi has usurped the throne from my 2 favourites (School Rumble and FSN). Well SR manga still rocks (the anime is a little lacking) and FSN game still rocks (the anime is crappola). Haruhi anime has actually proved a new point => That Novel-to-Anime transitions are usually better than Hgame-to-Anime and Manga-to-Anime.
Lessee… memorable novel-to-animes:
1) Seikei no Senki series (it was love at first sight)
2) Scrapped Princess (damn cool fights)
3) Twelve Kingdoms (best plot I’ve ever seen)
4) Maburaho (pretty nice magic show)
5) Trinity Blood (Gothic FTW, sadly author died last yr)
6) Shakugan no Shana (no comments needed)
7) **HARUHI NO YUUUTSU** (Da Best Kid in Town)
8) Inukami (still fresh but girl+dogtail=MOE!! though I’d prefer Nekomimi)
Saiunkoku Monogatari may attain or surpass the level attained by Twelve Kingdoms. NHK( I believe ) did a good job of improving the plot from the original novel. I hope they do the same here.
>Hmm, if you’re talking about afk’s subbed episode then I’m not sure, since those names were typesetted over the original japanese credits. I never saw the raw.
afk’s subbed episode has the ED large the same way the raw had it large. If you just see the sub, you’d think the afk guys went nuts because of that ED but it was correct since the Japanese ED had the names like that too.
>>Saiunkoku Monogatari may attain or surpass the level attained by Twelve Kingdoms.
Call me biased, but I have something against Shoujo stuff. Although Twelve Kingdoms is Shoujo and is written by a gal, but Saiunkoku blatantly reminds me of a Bishounen game (guy harem for girls).Bleh, is it me or does it look like a Harukanaru clone?(and what’s with all the ancient Chinese settings?) Well, don’t take me seriously since I’ve not watched Saiunkoku at all… (sorry ecchi fanboy here)
Well, of course Koizumi’s powers “only manifest themselves under certain circumstances”. Whenever someone has psychic powers in anime, they always work like that. I can’t begin to count the number of times that I’ve seen times when someone’s powers “awaken” at some important moment.
The similarity between the ep 1 movie and the actual anime is … well, disappointing to me. It’s as if the show were as overdone as the movie, except that it takes itself seriously.
I’m waiting for, in episode 14, when credits will start rolling 18 minutes into the episode. Then we’ll zoom out to Haruhi+co watching everything that has happened so far, and ninensei Haruhi will say that their second attempt at creating a film was a great success, and they’ll definitely take the cultural fair by a storm this year. That’ll be the day.
Okay, I’m changing my goddamn theory about Haruhi.
Haruhi’s world is the Book of the Night Sky, Haruhi is Hayate(and therefore has Adminstration powers), and Kyon, Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki are the Wolkenritter. IT ALL FITS.
Now where’s Nanoha and Fate jumping into the scene. I WANNA SEE A TIMENUKE, DAMMIT.
…Wait, Nasu actually approved of the butchery? O_O Help us, O Grand Mother Haruhi, help us cleanse the one responsible for the mockery of the plot that is the FSN anime.
Yeah, since associating Haruhi with Nanoha, BAM, Haruhism in the face.
And, WHAT? NO KYON X ITSUKI DATE? I demand my daily intake of yaoi!
>> “Survey says 91 out of 100 fanboys prefer busty, lolita, moe meido. The other 9 are just plain haardo gay.â€
Kinda funny how in the novel where they are making the movie, Haruhi said 95% of male population will be attracted to Mikuru. When Kyron asked about the other 5%, haruhi replied those are born gay lol
>> what’s with all the ancient Chinese settings?
Please check the history and geography. Of three countries in Far East, Korea, China, and Japan, China is the biggest and it is the country which has made most POSITIVE contribution to the world, so majority of fantasies about ancient ( before 10th century ) times revolved around Chinese legends and history. Even now, the dream of Japanese Right wing extremists is to play its war games on the same ground upon which Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao, and Guan Yu once stood. By the way check out the latest CNN news, which reports that 60% of Japanese agree with the right wing to delete the article in constitution prohibitting building up of military forces for non-peaceful role, and these right wings deny the existence of war time atrocities by Japanese. Why do I care? Because many of my ancestors were imprisoned and killed without any due process by Japanese Occupying Force in Korea. They didn’t even bother to explain why my ancestors were killed.
I look forward to an episode that doesn’t jump around too much. It sort of kills some of the buildup that I’d be feeling if it actually went chronologically. Though, you have to admit, it IS an interesting novelty how we’re not presented episodes in sequence. Maybe someone over at Kyoto Ani’s been watching too many Tarantino flicks? XD
>>They didn’t even bother to explain why my ancestors were killed.
I feel ya. ._.;
In regards to Saiunkoku Monogatari I will wait a bit to see now consistently the series will be subbed, as i would hate to have to despartely apply my woefully inadequate Japanese langauage skills.
@wontaek and Yuenyi Runa
Being an ametuer war historian and part time puddle pirate all I have to offer as to the reason is that they wanted your land, women, and resources your ancestors were simply stood in the way of their imperialist ambitions. It hurts and it sucks for all of the peoples who had to endure occupation by rapacious group of thugs. Still the recent Japanese military build up and rocky re-alignment of US forces comes at a time when Japan feels threatened by the rising military and economic might of China. Though Japanese exports have seen a decided increase of anime and manga this whole increase in military spending on ehtier part is both foolish and may have an effect on the anime and manga series if they were so desperate as to put up a draft.
Militarily speaking both South Korea and Japan are arming up and moderneising at a time when US military aid is in doubt. China and the US have made numerous and major economic ties and the US is bogged down in an insurgency and Afghanistan, not to mention growing tensions over Iran which the US really needs support of China if Bush wants his sanctions. Still the US Navy with their up and coming postitronic cannons and free electron lasers has more than enough carrier strength to discourage any invasion from the PRC.
The PRC modernisation is not suprising since every up and coming super power goes through a massive modernaisation program, India is doing the same thing. Still Japanese military expansion is rather stupid since their over all military might is inconcievably small compared to China and China will probabaly achieve near technological parity with the US and will probably surpass Japan since last I heard the F-35 JSF isn’t ready and F-22s are not for sale not the ones the USAF is getting anyway.
The bad blood the Japanese governement is stirring leads me to beileve that they are playing a dangerous game. In the event that the US fails to intervene the most valauble ally would be South Korea that has the the dreaded Republic of Korea Marines and a sizeable military that has some technological and numerical parity, in some cases superiority with the PRC. South Korea also has real military experience something that neither China or Japan can boast. Despite this they wish to rub salt into old wounds at a time when both PRC and ROK navies are due to have blue water capabilities soon.
The Taiwanese ruling party is also playing a dangerous game that threatens to destablize the region. Not only is the ruling party corrupt but have cut back military spending while turning up the independence rhetoric. Taiwan no longer has a technological edge and will eventually will have to accept reunification if the isolation continues. Still re-unification probably won’t be all bad if a deomcratic government is installed, since China could always use some Taiwanese economic savvy and captial and Taiwan could use some more resources. Still culturally they are both similar and the language is largely the same dialect in Fujian, though why some of them inist on being different while the script is the same is beyond me. Must be the undue influence of the sons and daughters of the collaborator families.
War in the region would probably leave the victor in little better shape than the losers. At this point a PRC and South Korean allaince is more likely given that the most disputes of both parties are with the LDP.
Off topic, I know, but just relax. As Japanese exports and economy become more dominated by anime and Manga we all win since Mangaka at war is rather stupid since the pen is mightier than the aword. (except face to face, exception to practioners of Krav Maga withstanding). I can’t wait for the day that the largest complaint of Chinese and Koreans is that Gainax is milking EVA yet again rather than Yasakuni and Koizumi lurvin.
I have heard that, although basic written part of language is same, there are noticeable difference in pronunciation and grammerical structure between Catonese and Mandarin. I need a non-biased Chinese Language scholar to either correct me or give me more details about this. It is possible that all these years of coexistence has made them similar to each other as in case of many European Languages. To tell the truth, if I had studied Chinese letters dilligently in my high school days, it should have been possible for me to establish a written communication with a Chinese or Japanese scholars, despite not knowing how it would be pronounced by them.
China may have more battle experience then you believe through all that border skirmish with Russia, India, Vietnam, and Tibet. But if you ask me where is the biggest trouble spot to world peace, I would say it now is Iran.
finally anime is anime, and military is military. As long as anime doesn’t touch any sore spot or depicts blatantly inaccurate information, I am fine with it. Since the biggest importer of Japanese anime has always been Korea from 1970s, Japanese anime industry has stayed away from things that would induce Korean ire. Now days, almost half of anime subcontractors are located in Korea, thus it might not be possible for them to make something supporting right wing propaganda. The way to really cope with the past is exchange of informations and accepting of blames. With enough cultural exchange, I hope there will be a day when Japanese would no longer proclaim innocence over many incidences at the first half of 20th century. To accomplish this, Korea needs to step up in making translations of many of its manga, which is of very high quality. Despite overwhelming amount of Japanese Anime and related products in circulation within Korea, the Korean Manga market has managed to hold its ground, with some of them successfully making a landing in Japan. I hope some of my Korean Manwha favorites will be made into movies or anime series that will be available in English, Japanese, Mandarin,and Cantonese, as well as in Korean.
We’re listing famous and succesful novels-turned-anime yet no one mentions Slayers? For shame.
>>I have heard that, although basic written part of language is same, there are noticeable difference in pronunciation and grammerical structure between Catonese and Mandarin.
Well, I can speak and write Mandarin and I can also speak Cantonese. Unfortunately that is only a dialect to me. The Chinese have tons of dialects that sound nothing like each other but the main dialects would be Cantonese and Hokkien. Hongkong uses Cantonese in reading and writing. Cantonese is pretty much similar to Mandarin in structure except with a few grammatical differences here and there. However the characters are based on Traditional Chinese while modern Mandarin uses Simplified Chinese. And Cantonese pronunciations are very much different from Mandarin though they actually have certain similar patterns. Taiwan uses both Mandarin and a certain style of Hokkien. Unfortunately I don’t know Hokkien and it’s very very different from Mandarin in terms of grammar as the dialect is pretty crude and colloquail compared to Cantonese. And in China, Mandarin itself has so many variations in nuances and structure that people in northern China may not understand those from southern China, but most would still use proper Mandarin in the more developed areas. Well, I’m not a native of Hongkong, Taiwan nor China so I may not be 100% right.
>>We’re listing famous and succesful novels-turned-anime yet no one mentions Slayers? For shame.
And yes my bad. Slayers is also another excellent piece of work. But the trend of novel-to-anime is only picking up popularity in recent years.
The difference between dialects is mostly pronunciation with minor grammer differences. I don’t know all the Chinese dialects, but experience tells me Cantonese has far more curse words and is in general much more colorful and therefore fun.
China has had border skirmishes but nothing to a full blown war like the US has and the insurgency that the South Koreans are helping to fight against. Besides those conflicts were way back when. Now that India and China are emerging super powers, and nuclear states they haven’t had much experience with new tech though India is by and large more battle hardened.
There are many Japanese folk who are well aware of the LDP’s saber rattling, unfortunately socailists and feminists such as Hayao Miyazaki of Ghibli fame are usually drowned out by purple right wingers who know as much about fighting as they do about explitive (for more info get a copy of Patton’s speech to the 3rd army, it just about sums up my standing attitude on angst and cowardice). Stangely enough most ultra right wingers really did hide when the call to arms came. Thank heavens anime has not become a vehicle for rightwing farce, though Gainax in my messed up mind really pushes it.
60 plus years and the old scars remain, its really sad in a way.
I have also begun to see indigenous Korean anime in the States too, though I doubt it will ever be licensed or go beyond the sole network still pumping out subbed anime on basic cable.
Hoho its getting interesting… more characters are gonna show up… brace urself.
tl;dr: Sentient beings will fight against other sentient beings. I’m awaiting the inevitable nuclear war.
Now gimme me Itsuki X Kyon before I actually write it.
@DrmChsr0
Hey know Haruhi would go nuts if Kyon was seme or uke, and if roses popped up everytime Itsuki and Kyon meet. Not to mention think of poor Mikuru-ran and Yuki-chan.
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that’s a disturbing thought.
to think that there are people who would perfer a guy over two hawt girls
I don’t think sexual preferances are a matter of choice and no one should be ashamed of being who they are if they can’t help it.
All I am saying is that Haruhi will bring about armageddon if Kyon takes an intrest in any one but her. She was even jealous of Kyon little sister.
Great! The church of Haruhi has just begun and we are already talking about what kind of ending the deity, Haruhi, desires.
Pah.
All this talk about God, Herself, and not enough about what really matters. Dancing Kyon. ;D
I must confessed that i love this entry a lot.
You literally spoke everything on my mind on this episode.
If Haruhi is my God, you would be a mini-deity. Lol.
Hey, I still advocate the Haruhi/Kyon/Mikuru threesome. Still, nothing wrong with expanding your horizons a little. I think Haruhi would like teh yaoi. (Of course Kyon can’t be seme/uke)
Simplify and Tradition Chinsese writing don’t belong to any dialect. The simplify ver came into used by the communist in the fifties in thier attempt to get rid of the old. It is interchangable with any dialect. I am native cantonese speaker but i speak both. Cantonese is the better language if you want ot curse someone. Mandarien is definetly the more refine of the 2 dialects.
that’s a disturbing thought.
to think that there are people who would perfer a guy over two hawt girls
Well, they could be girls, so that would be fairly normal.
(remember, Haruhi is NOT a typical example of the female gender)
>> remember, Haruhi is NOT a typical example of the female gender
really… i’ve met ppl like her in life… although different in ways, but similar in personality
oh, and sorry, i wasn’t meaning to say that homosexual ppl are bad or anything. sorry about that. was just saying it’s disturbing for a “straight” guy to be haado gay