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The Fall 2010 Anime Preview Guide

agila61 wrote:

Then for the shows that you've got access to, you have the same DVD resolution as Hulu, once you switch the stream from 360p to 480p.

Uh yeah, we're kinda going around in circles here. I say, the youtube streams look bad. ...

Their streams are pretty low quality so I'd rather just wait for a DVD release.

However, there was one aspect of the second eppie that didn't sit that well with me, although perhaps it was a fansub translation problem: namely, Zakuro's comments about how some aspects of Western influence were all right, but that other important things were being lost. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, but that kind of longing for "Old Japan" (i.e. before the nasty round-eyes started polluting it with their ways) struck me as a bit reactionary. It's the sort of sentiment you can imagine being flung around at an ultra-nationalist rally. Anybody else pick up on this?

Blood- wrote:

However, there was one aspect of the second eppie that didn't sit that well with me, although perhaps it was a fansub translation problem: namely, Zakuro's comments about how some aspects of Western influence were all right, but that other important things were being lost. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, but that kind of longing for "Old Japan" (i.e. before the nasty round-eyes started polluting it with their ways) struck me as a bit reactionary. It's the sort of sentiment you can imagine being flung around at an ultra-nationalist rally. Anybody else pick up on this?

If it was flung around an ultra-nationalist rally, it would be a reference to some idealized myth of Bushido, but in the context of half-yokai spirit girls in early Meiji Restoration Japan when the modernization is clearly being pushed by the Army, I don't get the ultra-nationalist vibe from it at all.

I am far from an expert on modern Japanese politics, but wouldn't one of the themes of today's Japanese nationalists be that the country has lost its "purity" as a result of foreign influences?

I am far from an expert on modern Japanese politics, but wouldn't one of the themes of today's Japanese nationalists be that the country has lost its "purity" as a result of foreign influences?

Blood- wrote:

I am far from an expert on modern Japanese politics, but wouldn't one of the themes of today's Japanese nationalists be that the country has lost its "purity" as a result of foreign influences?

Yeah. OTOH, a series set in the early Meiji Restoration period, even a fantasy version of the early Meiji Restoration period, that does not have anyone wondering whether its all entirely for the best, would be a Pollyanna whitewash of the tensions of industrialization. It'd be like Dickens' Little Dorrit without the debtor's prison.

Maybe it's a little ironic, but really, one expects yokai to be a bit reactionary, just as one expects European elves to be opposed to industrialization. Sure, one could have xenophile yokai, just as one can have elves dancing on the assembly line, but it would be contrary to the usual nature of fairytale creatures from the past.

DavidShallcross wrote:

Maybe it's a little ironic, but really, one expects yokai to be a bit reactionary, just as one expects European elves to be opposed to industrialization. Sure, one could have xenophile yokai, just as one can have elves dancing on the assembly line, but it would be contrary to the usual nature of fairytale creatures from the past.

But even on that level, the show is kind of contradicting itself. Zakuro seems to have an antipathy for all humans, but considering she lives in Japan, that antipathy should be strongest against Japanese people themselves considering they are the ones directly "oppressing" the yokai. It seems kind of odd that she, as a character, would be used as a mouthpiece for the "is modernization a good thing?" theme.

Blood- wrote:

DavidShallcross wrote: Maybe it's a little ironic, but really, one expects yokai to be a bit reactionary, just as one expects European elves to be opposed to industrialization. Sure, one could have xenophile yokai, just as one can have elves dancing on the assembly line, but it would be contrary to the usual nature of fairytale creatures from the past. But even on that level, the show is kind of contradicting itself. Zakuro seems to have an antipathy for all humans, but considering she lives in Japan, that antipathy should be strongest against Japanese people themselves considering they are the ones directly "oppressing" the yokai. It seems kind of odd that she, as a character, would be used as a mouthpiece for the "is modernization a good thing?" theme.

Its precisely the "Japanese people themselves" who were the ones doing the modernizing and industrializing. Indeed, in the Meiji period, the extreme nationalists would be among those leading the charge into modernization.

I guess you are just not understanding me. The fact that in the real Meiji Restoration it may have been ultra-nationalists who lead the modernization push is irrelevant to my interpretation of the message I think may be being conveyed by the show. I think the nationalists of TODAY would be very comfortable with Zakuro's message.

Blood- wrote:

I guess you are just not understanding me. The fact that in the real Meiji Restoration it may have been ultra-nationalists who lead the modernization push is irrelevant to my interpretation of the message I think may be being conveyed by the show. I think the nationalists of TODAY would be very comfortable with Zakuro's message.

Comfortable with? Yeah, probably comfortable with ... they'd be comfortable with any nostalgic look back at the early Meiji period as long as it was not an pedantic anti-Imperial lecture in disguise.

Of course, a radical Green would be equally happy with the scene that you are fretting over ~ the scene is actually about light pollution, after all ~ so its not like the show is pandering to ultra-nationalists reactionaries.

Yeah, on the surface it's about light pollution - but what is the potentially deeper, coded message? It kind of reminds me of white Southerners who want to fly the Confederate flag on state capitol buildings and insist no racism is intended. But yeah, I've already said it is possible I'm perceiving a message that isn't really there.

Yeah, on the surface it's about light pollution - but what is the potentially deeper, coded message? It kind of reminds me of white Southerners who want to fly the Confederate flag on state capitol buildings and insist no racism is intended. But yeah, I've already said it is possible I'm perceiving a message that isn't really there.