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NEWS: Ookiku Furikabutte TV Anime's 2nd Season Green-Lit


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leongsh



Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 181
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:14 am Reply with quote
musouka wrote:
His "confession" was (intentionally) framed along the lines of a romantic confession--something that DVD stores actually capitalized on in order to sell to a female audience. Was it actually a romantic confession? No. Was that nuance purposefully there as a joke? Yes.


So, if DVD stores capitalise on it as a joke, then it is a valid subtext rationalisation that it is what you perceive it to be a romantic confession?

musouka wrote:
For a non-joke line along a similar concept, you only have to remember the part where Abe tells a sleeping Mihashi he's going to devote himself to him for three years. Abe's possessiveness of Mihashi is also eyebrow-raising in some respects, and the entire course of the relationship of their battery follows along the exact same lines as you'd expect a romcom to, right down to spoiler[meeting the "superior, worrying ex."]


Again, by talking about this subtext, you're ignoring the context of why Abe declares that he will make sure that Mihashi continues as a pitcher with Nishiura - that Abe recognises he has found a pitcher who has great control, is totally willing to follow his lead, and fully trusts him, in direct opposite with the previous pitcher he used to work with who didn't even follow any of his leads as the catcher. Abe also does not want the control that Mihashi worked so hard for to be wasted if he can help it.

There really is no need to couch all this in "romantic" subtext when the context of the situation provides clear explanation for it. There's no complexity required and does not require it. Occam's Razor.

musouka wrote:
I hate the way people feel it necessary to downplay this subtext, as though there's something wrong with it, or it's a negative aspect of the series, or it's not "really" there, just "crazy people" are reading it wrong. No, they're not. It's just as much fanservice as a pantyshot in a harem anime, and guys need to grow up and get over it.


I find it annoying when people read too much into something because they can or want to. It comes down to how much an individual wants to read into it. A lot of this subtext is often an extrapolation based on certain viewpoints. In the end, people see what they want to see and read too much into something which is not what is just there and explanable by the context of the situation shown.
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:34 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I heard that in the first season of Oofuri only two baseball games are played. Is that true? Did they actually stretch out the games to be longer than the actual real-life sport?


I know other people have responded to this, but I have to add that the entire series is not just two games. Yes, two games are played, but you see other things happen before, between, and after those games. (forming the team, training camp, birthday party, school life, etc). That said, the games are a lot of fun to watch, but I also like the "slice of life" stuff too.
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musouka



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
Posts: 705
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:05 pm Reply with quote
leongsh wrote:
So, if DVD stores capitalise on it as a joke, then it is a valid subtext rationalisation that it is what you perceive it to be a romantic confession?


Did you even read what I wrote? The scene works on two levels. One, it is an affirmation that Abe appreciates the hard work Mihashi puts into his pitching on a personal level--he had been struggling to connect to Mihashi before this point.

The other level is, yes, a parody of a love confession to go along with the battery in this series being built like a "couple" from initial "infatuation" to a viable "romantic" partnership.

Saying only one "counts" is ignoring totally valid subtext. They didn't have to frame the scene like they did. Plausible deniability as to the actual sexuality of the boys has no effect on how the scene can be read. Note that I don't believe Oofuri is a gay love story, but the fact that it can be read that way is in no way a negative about the series, or something that has to be hand waved away by overzealous fanboys.

leongsh wrote:
Again, by talking about this subtext, you're ignoring the context of why Abe declares that he will make sure that Mihashi continues as a pitcher with Nishiura - that Abe recognises he has found a pitcher who has great control, is totally willing to follow his lead, and fully trusts him, in direct opposite with the previous pitcher he used to work with who didn't even follow any of his leads as the catcher. Abe also does not want the control that Mihashi worked so hard for to be wasted if he can help it.

There really is no need to couch all this in "romantic" subtext when the context of the situation provides clear explanation for it. There's no complexity required and does not require it. Occam's Razor.


All of that can be expressed in a way without homoerotic subtext. It's not just the context of the scenes. It's the mood. It's the phrasing. This is all purposeful. It would be one thing if it wasn't patently obvious the series was throwing fujoshi and fudanshi a bone by framing the relationship between Abe and Mihashi this way, but...

leongsh wrote:
I find it annoying when people read too much into something because they can or want to.


It's not reading too much into something, it's being aware of how the series is set up. There are plenty of sports series out there that manage to focus on a partnership between two guys that does not have mock love confessions as one of their key points.

Personally, I like the way Oofuri tells its story, with the idea that a battery isn't just a partnership, it's more along the lines of a platonic love story. The fact that people pick up on that and make it more than platonic is not particularly surprising, nor should it be to anyone else.
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narwhaltortellini



Joined: 18 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:42 pm Reply with quote
First off, YES SECOND SEASON. By the reckoning of the rate of the first, a second should take it through the Bijou game, right? ...And then just a bit into a rather odd spot, haha. ...Do they end anime seasons with less episodes for the sake of a normal arc? Or would they stretch it to fit? (Err, I hope they don't stretch the Bijjou game. I didn't know anything about baseball when I started reading this, but now I LOVE all the detail in the games... and yet the Bijou game was still pushing a little long for me, hehehe.)

As for the hoyay or noyay debate, I say WORD to musouka's posts. I think they've got the nail on the head.

Consider: If Mihashi were a girl, would there be any doubt that Abe was supposed to be "her" love interest? If these characters were opposite gender, people would downright LAUGH at anyone for even suggesting the relationship was supposed to be "just" a friendship.

I certainly don't think the characters are meant to be read as gay. And I certainly don't think that just because two guys are close like this they ought to be assumed or suspected (...an irritatingly accusatory/negative word, yet I can't think of another *sigh*) of being gay. But every time there is a chance to make a scene seem a little homoerotic, the writer pretty much UNFAILINGLY *just so happens* to do so. Yes, there is always context to explain it. BUT...

The fact that when you take the scenes in context there is a, er, totally heterosexual explanation for it all (^__^; ) is simply because Higuchi is a skilled writer who is good at covering her tracks. She puts in suggestive moments, but writes them into the story so they make sense (something I really appreciate. lazily inserted fanservice is extremely irritating, whatever sort it is.)

It's just as the above poster said. Oofuri is a platonic love story. The relationship of the main characters has all the tropes of and clearly follows the path of a love story. It just happens to be a platonic one. But you can't really begrudge people for playing with the idea it is a romantic one, especially when the author is clearly sometimes playing with the idea herself (if not actually seriously).
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