i don't think i really can give much insight into that kind of story (solo leveling) unfortunately XD is there a reason you think the style of that story is particularly bad?
i don't know much about manhwa or korea to say why this narrative would be more prevalent there. i know the original story is a web novel, and also that webtoons seem more commonplace/mainstream in the south korean comics world, whereas manga is, of course, run by the publications, and that's where most people know to go for their content. maybe south korean artists look at this as a way to get established without having to worry about writing a complex narrative. similarly, lots of artists get their start writing hentai/doujinshi, which are also kind of "low maintenance" and there's an expected group of people artists know it will appeal to. it could just be seen as a way to feasibly contribute toward making a living while growing to some extent as an independent artist, but then for whatever reason some of them have their popularity grow out of control.
maybe it depends on the scope of the events. in a way it's kind of like your typical mystery story, except it doesn't necessarily concern somebody getting busted or confessing to a crime or what have you, so maybe the investigator/historian's suspicions are never fully validated. a massive event like a genocide might not work that well, but maybe a particular person or family whose life was lost, or some kind of soldier or scientist entangled in the event in some way, could be a fitting subject.
well, i think it's really again a question of why a tendency to almost exclusively consume this kind of content exists in the first place. the problem i notice is that it isn't just that people want to consume fiction to escape from reality. escapism extends to peoples' attitudes in general. to me there's no reason that "pandering" fantasies shouldn't exist as a rule, and i think everyone can enjoy them to a certain extent at a certain time and place; yet as long as they exist, it's not just that people will turn to them again and again, it's that when faced with a work that encourages them to confront certain things they wish to escape from, they will just ignore it or avoid it. so it doesn't seem like by simply showing people different cartoons, they will give up on this tendency to ignore faults or problems in themselves or society or what have you. they won't just ignore the thing they are avoid confronting in and of itself, they will avoid the cartoon that encourages them to confront it, too. or honestly, it even seems to me at times like people have some kind of mental block against interpreting what they're seeing in a way that is threatening to their world view. yet we are all involved in the same mass culture. this makes me think it's not really the content available so much as something to do with the circumstances of peoples lives or their development. i think a large part of it is that consumerism, increasingly virtual lifestyles and an overabundance of arbitrary choices encourages people to seek to eliminate as much friction from their existences as possible. we have too much control over our what we present to people (as our "identities"), as well as what is presented to us. our consumption and even socialization is mediated by algorithms that guess what we want to see based on what we like and what we buy. ironically i think this causes fear or shame about what are essentially normal, necessary dimensions of humanity, to simply grow out of control.
i dunno if you are familiar with the stupid meme on this forum where in any thread that presents a topic that people do not want to talk about, they will begin spamming something about "anime tiddies" or whatever. meanwhile there was a person on anilist recently who in seriousness suggested there should be an option to automatically block people whose scores for particular anime were different from yours beyond a certain threshold. this all reminds me of the defense mechanism called "Verwerfung" or "foreclosure" in psychoanalysis, "the ego rejects the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea has never occurred to the ego at all." the idea of even minor conflict and inconvenience is unimaginably distressing in a world where we seek to eliminate those things far beyond what has ever been possible from within increasingly complex and immersive VR bubbles.
ah i didn't mean to suggest that should be a theme for the story; more that it will be a challenging aspect of the act of researching and writing the story.
yeah, i think a lot of the problems with the show, such as you're pointing out, are just from trying to deal with the challenges of being an ambitious 1-cour anime, which has been the downfall of lots of promising anime i've seen in the past couple years. even before i got to the end of it, i was bothered by things like that. part of me wished it were just released as a manga, because i find there is more freedom to experiment and take time with stories that take this abstract, episodic approach, but then i guess we'd be missing out on some of the visual treatment of the show. i dont think the individual stories are all that bad or without some cleverness. yet as i kind of alluded to as well, i find that the potential of most of the massive cast of characters is wasted, including the girls who come to be more focal. the scientist character and a couple others take up most of the rest of the screen time, in addition to figures who come and go. yet they're all mostly there seemingly for the MC to work out his worldview and not much more. apologies for spoiling things a bit on that note; i'm not sure why i assumed you'd seen it already XD.
i don't disagree with your points here, but i don't think the feeling that people have no control comes from material circumstances alone. there are sensible reasons that people think solidarity and social change are difficult, but instead of letting people believe it's impossible by default, i think especially young people should be encouraged to overcome that type of presumption. of course, if you don't draw the line somewhere, it's always possible to feel guilty/depressed that you're "not doing enough." it is important to be realistic. however, i think a notable set of factors that prevents people from organizing for social change more is that they do not feel that other people care, that the project is doomed to fail before it starts, and they fear the risks. there are plenty of people who really cannot worry about much more than living their own lives, and i don't mean to put blame onto these people, but there are also conceivable ways that people can protect one another from risks and support one another. how do strikes happen, or how do people form unions? in many instances these types of things can just cost you your job, which is something everyone is terrified of. the first step to setting these types of things in motion is that the concerned individuals all have to be on the same page, which means they have to believe in the possibility that it can work, that others are there to support them, that they won't simply be betrayed or lose their livelihood for nothing, etc. i don't mean to get into a whole discussion about this kind of thing LOL but my point is that i think people are more inclined to take risks that may end up benefitting everyone, when they feel that others around them share their concerns and are willing to support them in what ways they can. it's a matter of viewing oneself strictly as an atomized individual vs viewing oneself as a part of a community or social class of some kind, and i think the worldview presented here just takes for granted that the latter is not even on the horizon of ideological possibility.
well, i haven't done more research on the matter yet myself. but i still believe it seems like a good subject for a graphic novel or one shot. also, i wish i could say it is surprising that something like this could be forgotten/misunderstood by many people that it is so close to, but sadly it doesn't really surprise me that much at all. i guess in writing it you'll have to confront the subjective nature of history itself, which could be challenging, since you have to decide what to portray based on conflicting or incomplete accounts of things.
i have refrained from writing about sonny boy because honestly it's one case where i'm a bit afraid that people will misunderstand me.
i don't really like sonny boy because i don't like the worldview the show offers. to me the show deliberately exits the territory of strictly existential shows like eva because it tries to use metaphors to comment on labor, inequality/social hierarchies, etc., so we end up with this show where the MC, who's this bored, anxious teenager who thinks everyone around him "doesn't get it," has an allegorical confrontation with his worldview for 11-12 episodes (i forget how long it is), and when he comes out the other side, he thinks "well, i've thought about the problems with society, and i've concluded, there's nothing i can do about any of it. society will always be unfair no matter what, so since that can't change, i'll just be a bit more optimistic." is that an actual change at all? mizuho changes even less than that, she has no resolution; and nozomi was never expected to change because she already had the correct attitude from the beginning.
i don't like this because in the first place the social problems are only represented as toothless abstractions, which is how many people think of social problems in general anyway. they do not have the time or mental space to confront grand social problems that they do not experience first hand in their daily lives. in other words, most people do not experience the violence of poverty and discrimination the way actual working class marginalized individuals who don't have access to good education or healthcare or what have you do, but they think "well, i've thought about that. i know that that happens, even though i don't know what the actual literal implications are, and i feel bad. what more do you want me to do?" i don't like that the show wants to make this kind of view seem normal, and that solidarity and social change being impossible should be taken for granted. to me this is a much more dangerous form of "pandering" than other types of things anime fans rage about (whether it's shipbaiting or fanservice or whatever) because it's a problematic view many people hold that they don't even realize is ideological and not simply "the truth."
this is why i like Gundam, for example, where Tomino's consistent view is "things may not change whatsoever in our lifetime, but the only acceptable thing to do is to fight based on the assumption that positive change is possible, even if it ends in disaster." and he shows all of the ways that things could tragically go wrong because of individual selfishness, arrogance, stupidity, etc. but there's no giving up. on the other hand, maybe you could make many of the same criticisms about "sky crawlers" for example, and i didn't mind that film as much. so maybe i am just a hypocrite, or there was something else i liked about sky crawlers that i forgot about.
That sounds like an interesting subject, one worth bringing more to light, and one I could benefit from learning more about, too. Definitely feel free to send me a message about what you're working on and I will do what I can to help!
I think the non-linear method can be quite good here. Also I think any story can be told without too much explicit narration/info dump. It's just a matter of approach and what you want to emphasize in the story. Although it's hard to come up with examples without knowing what your friend decides to do with the character, so for now I suppose we'll just wait and see.
I have written some short stories, poetry, and I occasionally work on a 4koma comic based on some ideas I've come up with. I have much more outlined/planned than I have ever written... I would have no problem with collaborating per se, but it's hard for me to find the energy and time to work on creative things that much these days.. if I could, I would like to spend much more time working on my comic, or at least practicing drawing. It would be difficult for me to really commit to something currently, but perhaps I could provide some feedback or ideas occasionally. Did you have plans to write something?
I think it is possible to have the old guy as a primary character or even the main character, but his motivations definitely need to be reconsidered and his physical/mental condition need to be more clear. i think it would be interesting to follow the older character's internal situation, while the fighting responsibility is divided up among the cast. in my experience this kind of planning takes a long time. i guess it can be boring for people who want to dive into writing right away, but for me it's actually the fun part. which is probably why i think of lots of ideas for stories, but then never write them myself xD
I think the first thing I would want to know as someone reading this is why the old guy is the MC. I'm probably not going to put it down right away, but I need to be hooked by this character very quickly. Why does someone with so many years behind them already, have an interest in something like this "being the world's strongest?" It obviously seems like a much more natural aspiration for a young person with a long life ahead of them, while old characters are usually more interested in things like dying in their homeland or peacefully living with family or something like that. It just needs some kind of explanation to have it make sense for the reader imo, why an old person would be so driven to achieve this kind of goal. Does his memory loss mean he isn't aware of his age as well? To me it would be more interesting if the old fellow had forgotten something more emotionally significant from his past that his great grandchildren want him to remember, or maybe he forgot the techniques of a powerful, secret martial arts system that he is the inheritor of and wishes to pass on. Something like that. That's what I think at least XD
I feel similarly about Dune. I generally don't expect much from Hollywood blockbuster movies even when it's a "notable" director because they just aren't free to do much. The style, humor, and action is often similar no matter who is in charge for the most part. I also didn't have much anticipation for it and didn't know anything about the novels (except that they're tremendous and very significant for sci fi/fantasy fans), so I appreciate the insight of your comments. It's hard to really understand for me what to attribute to the books vs the film, especially when it comes to things like Pauls character. It's funny how when a Hollywood studio takes liberties with an IP it seemingly only makes the adaptation less interesting instead of more interesting. I can barely remember any details of the movie to comment on myself lol, but nevertheless I'll probably still watch the next one.
Feel free to air out your criticisms of the Batman lol I may not be able to give much feedback, but I don't care about spoilers and things like that. Some of my friends like it but I think they are just very forgiving when it comes to Batman.
I've actually always been interested in watching more Iranian films. I've seen a few films of Majid Majidi (I think the Color of Paradise and Song of Sparrows), which I liked and showed to some other people; and a friend recommended "Where is the Friend's Home" to me a long time ago. Thanks for the suggestions
I like live action films, but it's a hobby I neglect a bit. I saw Dune.. I'm trying to remember if I've seen any other new films since then, and honestly I can't think of any lol. I thought Dune was pretty decent, honestly if I had one complaint it's that I wish they just put the whole story out at once. Even if it's like 5 or 6 hour movie >_> it might sound crazy but I prefer that. I didn't find the movie too long or boring, as I've heard others malign. I'm still undecided on if I want to watch the Batman, although I reread the Long Halloween last year in anticipation of it after I saw the first trailer, and I still like that comic.
I can probably count the live action films I watched last year on two hands, or maybe using a couple toes as well... I remember watching Zazie dans le Metro, City Lights, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Raise the Red Lantern, Woman in the Dunes, Klute, Trouble in Paradise, Melancholia, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.. probably a few more. I tend to watch more old, or "foreign" (to Americans) films I suppose, and recently I was trying to get into silent or pre-code Hollywood films, just things from early in the history of cinema, since I don't know much about them at all. How about yourself?
Hmm, well, I have that collection but I don't remember if I've read that work or not yet. I'll have to take a look through it.
I can't really speak for everything that people decide to call ero-guro, and I have not really felt like it is easy to fairly generalize about it, so even the things I'm saying, I don't want to say half of it without qualifying my statements, because we're not talking about specific works. I've read some ero-guro collections and things myself where there are works that just seem more like pornography as well, as I've somewhat alluded to. I don't know what to say or not about what most ero-guro works are really like, because I don't think I've read most of them, but I think ero-guro manga in the first place is an evolution of the ero-guro that existed since the early 20th century, influenced by it but not the same; and then there are generational differences among ero-guro manga artists as well. Like all art forms, as its lifespan goes on, there are people who are interested in it for the aesthetics who have no deeper interest in the art or its history. To me Shoujo Tsubaki is an iconic ero-guro work and representative of the genre because I know that the author of the manga has an interest in ero-guro art that supersedes his interest in making manga. What I mean is, he's actually emulating ero-guro artists that predate "manga," not just other mangaka (although he is emulating some mangaka as well, like Kazuichi Hanawa). It's just one thing that influences his work. So to me his art is more in the spirit of what ero-guro is meant to be like. But maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part. If someone wants to say it's wrong of me to call myself an ero-guro fan because I only like specific works or I have the wrong impression, then I have no problem with that I guess lol
my problem is more with certain delusional ways lolicons seem to think, namely that they convince themselves (or at least pretend to) that "lolis" are somehow not really drawings of little girls, so they don't have to feel any shame about being aroused by them. however, i don't think the cause of those delusions is lolicon hentai itself, it's a much bigger, baffling ideological problem.
on the other hand, i think loli/shotacon hentai and (certain) eroguro are totally different in part because the motivations of the people making them are totally different. some eroguro is more on the pornographic side, but most of it i don't believe is made with the idea in mind that it is anything like pornography, and it formally doesn't really resemble pornography at all except that it has graphic content (but even the graphic content doesn't focus on the same things or run at the same pace). just like, say, something like "the rape of persephone" is not pornography, even though it is sexual and graphic. in other words, the artists aren't making things for people to gratify themselves to, even if certain parts of the work may be arousing in virtue of involving sex. often it is something confessional for the artist, guiltily expressing painful desire that cannot be talked about or acted on; or the works are graphic for the sake of better expressing the thematic concerns, not in order to merely shock or titillate people. making a lolicon manga that's primarily made to appease lolicon and/or help sell porno magazines and tacking a theme onto it as an afterthought that can easily be ignored while the reader jerks off to the naughty parts is not really comparable in my mind. however, i mean, you could call shoujo tsubaki a lolicon magazine by some stretch of the imagination since the protagonist is a little girl.. but that just doesn't seem appropriate to me at all. if you are talking about literally shoujo tsubaki then i guess i would have to say i think it's ok, but that's because, again, i don't think it is just a porn comic with a message tucked in it.
I'm not sure if I can explain it any better than in my other posts and stuff, but basically with many eroguro works the interest seems to me to be in the very idea that humans fetishize one another, and the consequences of that. It is fairly obvious that we live in a society where girls are treated as a desirable commodity, for instance. Just because a person disavows certain impulses that they know to be unethical, doesn't mean they do not experience unacceptable desires. People can control what they do, but not what thoughts pop into their minds. Eroguro manga (or anime, rarely) is not made like commercial anime, so I don't evaluate it the same way. It's an expression of the suffering that arises from living in a society where people are dehumanized as commodities, or persuaded to desire things they know they should not want/cannot have.
Or in the case of something like Shoujo Tsubaki, which is probably the most famous work, especially nowadays, the tragedy that befalls the protagonist is caused by the fact that every other character fetishizes her, so to simply say the work is bad because it is fetishistic seems reductive to me. To look at it another way, why is she inducted into a "freak-show?" She is not abused because she has a "deformity," she is abused because she is a young girl. A kind of equivalence is established between her and the other performers based on that. She is robbed of a chance at happiness from the beginning just based on the person she's born as. To me, the ending of Shoujo Tsubaki is one of the most emotionally provocative scenes I have seen in an anime.
On the other hand, this content is not something I would push others to read or take an interest in, because sexual violence is not something a person should force themselves to read a story about just to prove a point or what have you. I only write about it because I think it has become interesting to people, BECAUSE of the sensation of people posting reaction videos on tiktok/youtube of themselves watching Shoujo Tsubaki, or because people are fans of Shintaro Kago's commissioned art; but imo it's often misunderstood.
as for garo, not all of their manga is ero-guro. in fact, most of it is not. as for ero-guro, well, there is a lot i could say about the genre, but it is an outgrowth of an art movement that involves mainly erotic and violent art, which itself has origins in Muzan-e, so the manga will typically contain those elements.
It is something I care about, but I have never studied film much on my own, so it's probably not something I tend to write about or comment on as much, as I don't think of myself as very knowledgeable. Although, I won't say I know nothing lol. I'm interested in live action film as well.
Something I mentioned in another comment on here recently is that in animation, everything is included on the screen intentionally. The people who are drawing/directing/photographing/etc. have total control over the images we see, unlike in live action film. Another thing is, the imagery is typically obviously simplified, and expressiveness is exaggerated. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what kind of story is being told, imo. I often find myself wishing that things like dialogue, as in the actual words themselves, were given more weight over "how the lines are said," things like facial expressions, exaggerated voice acting, music or visual tone of a scene. On the other hand, there are some directors who borrow expressive techniques from Japanese or western theater, too, (rather than action lines and cartoony facial expressions borrowed from manga or what have you) which have their own expressive languages. In general, I think it is fair to characterize anime as a medium (not by choice of the artists per se, but because of the industry's interests) that is focused on getting an emotional response; while obviously this is not always the aim of film when an artist has total freedom. Anime is difficult for an artist to make alone because it requires a lot of money and effort, whereas a person can make a film with a camera and their friends if need be, and some filmmakers have achieved impressive results using just that method. The tradeoff is, given the budget and the freedom, you can show literally anything with animation. With that in mind, mainstream is rather limited. There is little stylistic variety. Characters are designed and express themselves in the same ways over and over again (which is why when people see something like Avatar, they think to themselves "this is in an 'anime style'" or even "why isn't this listed on MAL?"). And so on.
My knowledge of Japanese cinema is honestly not that extensive. I think lots of anime directors (and Japanese film directors in general) are influenced by western cinema (Hollywood, French, German, Italian, etc), and for whatever reasons it seems rare for them to cite Japanese directors among their influences in interviews; unless maybe we're talking about older directors like Tomino or Dezaki, both of whom are still influenced by western cinema as well. For example, I noticed recently that Turn A Gundam uses a lot of wipe transitions, which, I think, most people when they see this will immediately think of Star Wars. It turns out Tomino is influenced by Star Wars, but both Tomino and George Lucas were influenced by Akira Kurosawa, too. Kurosawa used those kinds of transitions, and initially Star Wars was conceived as a samurai movie in space. There appears to be much of this kind of dialogue between Japanese and western media over time.
It is much easier for me to notice tropes from those western traditions, like American action movies or French new wave etc., than any Japanese directors I know of. Or on the other hand, I think it is fair to say that lots of techniques were invented or found their home in anime because they are efficient for the intentions of the people working in the medium given the constraints they have to deal with, or were borrowed from less "respected" forms like Tokusatsu shows, samurai films, Kaiju movies and such.
Anime is certainly not a medium where artists typically have the freedom to do whatever they want. It is largely about compromising with the aims of the studio and whomever is invested in the product being made. Whether that's good or bad, really depends on one's interests. If an artist selfishly creates something that's about themselves/their creative interests without regard for how it's received or what have you, does that necessarily mean they are doing something admirable or interesting? Also, another way to look at it is, there's always a level of compromise with creating art, whether it's the possibilities of the medium or what the artist is able to afford to make. When I think about directors who are influenced by cinema, some who immediately come to mind are Mamoru Oshii, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Osamu Dezaki. What makes them influential in the world of anime (and for Otomo, manga as well, which totally changed because of his style) and distinct from the artists they're influenced by is precisely the fact that they have to balance their interest in cinema and storytelling with the limits placed on them by the medium, their job and their budget. The "shortcuts" Dezaki made use of are still known and used today. They've shown other artists ways to do the same thing. I suppose the question is whether the shortcuts are innovative, and manage to become charming features of the creation unto themselves, like with Studio Shaft's anime. Compared to OVA or films, TV anime has pretty much always, except for brief periods, been in the worst spot as far as creative freedom and experimentation, and I think that's true now more than ever.
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i don't think i really can give much insight into that kind of story (solo leveling) unfortunately XD is there a reason you think the style of that story is particularly bad?
i don't know much about manhwa or korea to say why this narrative would be more prevalent there. i know the original story is a web novel, and also that webtoons seem more commonplace/mainstream in the south korean comics world, whereas manga is, of course, run by the publications, and that's where most people know to go for their content. maybe south korean artists look at this as a way to get established without having to worry about writing a complex narrative. similarly, lots of artists get their start writing hentai/doujinshi, which are also kind of "low maintenance" and there's an expected group of people artists know it will appeal to. it could just be seen as a way to feasibly contribute toward making a living while growing to some extent as an independent artist, but then for whatever reason some of them have their popularity grow out of control.
well, i think it's really again a question of why a tendency to almost exclusively consume this kind of content exists in the first place. the problem i notice is that it isn't just that people want to consume fiction to escape from reality. escapism extends to peoples' attitudes in general. to me there's no reason that "pandering" fantasies shouldn't exist as a rule, and i think everyone can enjoy them to a certain extent at a certain time and place; yet as long as they exist, it's not just that people will turn to them again and again, it's that when faced with a work that encourages them to confront certain things they wish to escape from, they will just ignore it or avoid it. so it doesn't seem like by simply showing people different cartoons, they will give up on this tendency to ignore faults or problems in themselves or society or what have you. they won't just ignore the thing they are avoid confronting in and of itself, they will avoid the cartoon that encourages them to confront it, too. or honestly, it even seems to me at times like people have some kind of mental block against interpreting what they're seeing in a way that is threatening to their world view. yet we are all involved in the same mass culture. this makes me think it's not really the content available so much as something to do with the circumstances of peoples lives or their development. i think a large part of it is that consumerism, increasingly virtual lifestyles and an overabundance of arbitrary choices encourages people to seek to eliminate as much friction from their existences as possible. we have too much control over our what we present to people (as our "identities"), as well as what is presented to us. our consumption and even socialization is mediated by algorithms that guess what we want to see based on what we like and what we buy. ironically i think this causes fear or shame about what are essentially normal, necessary dimensions of humanity, to simply grow out of control.
i dunno if you are familiar with the stupid meme on this forum where in any thread that presents a topic that people do not want to talk about, they will begin spamming something about "anime tiddies" or whatever. meanwhile there was a person on anilist recently who in seriousness suggested there should be an option to automatically block people whose scores for particular anime were different from yours beyond a certain threshold. this all reminds me of the defense mechanism called "Verwerfung" or "foreclosure" in psychoanalysis, "the ego rejects the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea has never occurred to the ego at all." the idea of even minor conflict and inconvenience is unimaginably distressing in a world where we seek to eliminate those things far beyond what has ever been possible from within increasingly complex and immersive VR bubbles.
yeah, i think a lot of the problems with the show, such as you're pointing out, are just from trying to deal with the challenges of being an ambitious 1-cour anime, which has been the downfall of lots of promising anime i've seen in the past couple years. even before i got to the end of it, i was bothered by things like that. part of me wished it were just released as a manga, because i find there is more freedom to experiment and take time with stories that take this abstract, episodic approach, but then i guess we'd be missing out on some of the visual treatment of the show. i dont think the individual stories are all that bad or without some cleverness. yet as i kind of alluded to as well, i find that the potential of most of the massive cast of characters is wasted, including the girls who come to be more focal. the scientist character and a couple others take up most of the rest of the screen time, in addition to figures who come and go. yet they're all mostly there seemingly for the MC to work out his worldview and not much more. apologies for spoiling things a bit on that note; i'm not sure why i assumed you'd seen it already XD.
i don't disagree with your points here, but i don't think the feeling that people have no control comes from material circumstances alone. there are sensible reasons that people think solidarity and social change are difficult, but instead of letting people believe it's impossible by default, i think especially young people should be encouraged to overcome that type of presumption. of course, if you don't draw the line somewhere, it's always possible to feel guilty/depressed that you're "not doing enough." it is important to be realistic. however, i think a notable set of factors that prevents people from organizing for social change more is that they do not feel that other people care, that the project is doomed to fail before it starts, and they fear the risks. there are plenty of people who really cannot worry about much more than living their own lives, and i don't mean to put blame onto these people, but there are also conceivable ways that people can protect one another from risks and support one another. how do strikes happen, or how do people form unions? in many instances these types of things can just cost you your job, which is something everyone is terrified of. the first step to setting these types of things in motion is that the concerned individuals all have to be on the same page, which means they have to believe in the possibility that it can work, that others are there to support them, that they won't simply be betrayed or lose their livelihood for nothing, etc. i don't mean to get into a whole discussion about this kind of thing LOL but my point is that i think people are more inclined to take risks that may end up benefitting everyone, when they feel that others around them share their concerns and are willing to support them in what ways they can. it's a matter of viewing oneself strictly as an atomized individual vs viewing oneself as a part of a community or social class of some kind, and i think the worldview presented here just takes for granted that the latter is not even on the horizon of ideological possibility.
i have refrained from writing about sonny boy because honestly it's one case where i'm a bit afraid that people will misunderstand me.
i don't really like sonny boy because i don't like the worldview the show offers. to me the show deliberately exits the territory of strictly existential shows like eva because it tries to use metaphors to comment on labor, inequality/social hierarchies, etc., so we end up with this show where the MC, who's this bored, anxious teenager who thinks everyone around him "doesn't get it," has an allegorical confrontation with his worldview for 11-12 episodes (i forget how long it is), and when he comes out the other side, he thinks "well, i've thought about the problems with society, and i've concluded, there's nothing i can do about any of it. society will always be unfair no matter what, so since that can't change, i'll just be a bit more optimistic." is that an actual change at all? mizuho changes even less than that, she has no resolution; and nozomi was never expected to change because she already had the correct attitude from the beginning.
i don't like this because in the first place the social problems are only represented as toothless abstractions, which is how many people think of social problems in general anyway. they do not have the time or mental space to confront grand social problems that they do not experience first hand in their daily lives. in other words, most people do not experience the violence of poverty and discrimination the way actual working class marginalized individuals who don't have access to good education or healthcare or what have you do, but they think "well, i've thought about that. i know that that happens, even though i don't know what the actual literal implications are, and i feel bad. what more do you want me to do?" i don't like that the show wants to make this kind of view seem normal, and that solidarity and social change being impossible should be taken for granted. to me this is a much more dangerous form of "pandering" than other types of things anime fans rage about (whether it's shipbaiting or fanservice or whatever) because it's a problematic view many people hold that they don't even realize is ideological and not simply "the truth."
this is why i like Gundam, for example, where Tomino's consistent view is "things may not change whatsoever in our lifetime, but the only acceptable thing to do is to fight based on the assumption that positive change is possible, even if it ends in disaster." and he shows all of the ways that things could tragically go wrong because of individual selfishness, arrogance, stupidity, etc. but there's no giving up. on the other hand, maybe you could make many of the same criticisms about "sky crawlers" for example, and i didn't mind that film as much. so maybe i am just a hypocrite, or there was something else i liked about sky crawlers that i forgot about.
I have written some short stories, poetry, and I occasionally work on a 4koma comic based on some ideas I've come up with. I have much more outlined/planned than I have ever written... I would have no problem with collaborating per se, but it's hard for me to find the energy and time to work on creative things that much these days.. if I could, I would like to spend much more time working on my comic, or at least practicing drawing. It would be difficult for me to really commit to something currently, but perhaps I could provide some feedback or ideas occasionally. Did you have plans to write something?
Feel free to air out your criticisms of the Batman lol I may not be able to give much feedback, but I don't care about spoilers and things like that. Some of my friends like it but I think they are just very forgiving when it comes to Batman.
I've actually always been interested in watching more Iranian films. I've seen a few films of Majid Majidi (I think the Color of Paradise and Song of Sparrows), which I liked and showed to some other people; and a friend recommended "Where is the Friend's Home" to me a long time ago. Thanks for the suggestions
I can probably count the live action films I watched last year on two hands, or maybe using a couple toes as well... I remember watching Zazie dans le Metro, City Lights, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Raise the Red Lantern, Woman in the Dunes, Klute, Trouble in Paradise, Melancholia, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.. probably a few more. I tend to watch more old, or "foreign" (to Americans) films I suppose, and recently I was trying to get into silent or pre-code Hollywood films, just things from early in the history of cinema, since I don't know much about them at all. How about yourself?
I can't really speak for everything that people decide to call ero-guro, and I have not really felt like it is easy to fairly generalize about it, so even the things I'm saying, I don't want to say half of it without qualifying my statements, because we're not talking about specific works. I've read some ero-guro collections and things myself where there are works that just seem more like pornography as well, as I've somewhat alluded to. I don't know what to say or not about what most ero-guro works are really like, because I don't think I've read most of them, but I think ero-guro manga in the first place is an evolution of the ero-guro that existed since the early 20th century, influenced by it but not the same; and then there are generational differences among ero-guro manga artists as well. Like all art forms, as its lifespan goes on, there are people who are interested in it for the aesthetics who have no deeper interest in the art or its history. To me Shoujo Tsubaki is an iconic ero-guro work and representative of the genre because I know that the author of the manga has an interest in ero-guro art that supersedes his interest in making manga. What I mean is, he's actually emulating ero-guro artists that predate "manga," not just other mangaka (although he is emulating some mangaka as well, like Kazuichi Hanawa). It's just one thing that influences his work. So to me his art is more in the spirit of what ero-guro is meant to be like. But maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part. If someone wants to say it's wrong of me to call myself an ero-guro fan because I only like specific works or I have the wrong impression, then I have no problem with that I guess lol
on the other hand, i think loli/shotacon hentai and (certain) eroguro are totally different in part because the motivations of the people making them are totally different. some eroguro is more on the pornographic side, but most of it i don't believe is made with the idea in mind that it is anything like pornography, and it formally doesn't really resemble pornography at all except that it has graphic content (but even the graphic content doesn't focus on the same things or run at the same pace). just like, say, something like "the rape of persephone" is not pornography, even though it is sexual and graphic. in other words, the artists aren't making things for people to gratify themselves to, even if certain parts of the work may be arousing in virtue of involving sex. often it is something confessional for the artist, guiltily expressing painful desire that cannot be talked about or acted on; or the works are graphic for the sake of better expressing the thematic concerns, not in order to merely shock or titillate people. making a lolicon manga that's primarily made to appease lolicon and/or help sell porno magazines and tacking a theme onto it as an afterthought that can easily be ignored while the reader jerks off to the naughty parts is not really comparable in my mind. however, i mean, you could call shoujo tsubaki a lolicon magazine by some stretch of the imagination since the protagonist is a little girl.. but that just doesn't seem appropriate to me at all. if you are talking about literally shoujo tsubaki then i guess i would have to say i think it's ok, but that's because, again, i don't think it is just a porn comic with a message tucked in it.
Or in the case of something like Shoujo Tsubaki, which is probably the most famous work, especially nowadays, the tragedy that befalls the protagonist is caused by the fact that every other character fetishizes her, so to simply say the work is bad because it is fetishistic seems reductive to me. To look at it another way, why is she inducted into a "freak-show?" She is not abused because she has a "deformity," she is abused because she is a young girl. A kind of equivalence is established between her and the other performers based on that. She is robbed of a chance at happiness from the beginning just based on the person she's born as. To me, the ending of Shoujo Tsubaki is one of the most emotionally provocative scenes I have seen in an anime.
On the other hand, this content is not something I would push others to read or take an interest in, because sexual violence is not something a person should force themselves to read a story about just to prove a point or what have you. I only write about it because I think it has become interesting to people, BECAUSE of the sensation of people posting reaction videos on tiktok/youtube of themselves watching Shoujo Tsubaki, or because people are fans of Shintaro Kago's commissioned art; but imo it's often misunderstood.
Something I mentioned in another comment on here recently is that in animation, everything is included on the screen intentionally. The people who are drawing/directing/photographing/etc. have total control over the images we see, unlike in live action film. Another thing is, the imagery is typically obviously simplified, and expressiveness is exaggerated. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what kind of story is being told, imo. I often find myself wishing that things like dialogue, as in the actual words themselves, were given more weight over "how the lines are said," things like facial expressions, exaggerated voice acting, music or visual tone of a scene. On the other hand, there are some directors who borrow expressive techniques from Japanese or western theater, too, (rather than action lines and cartoony facial expressions borrowed from manga or what have you) which have their own expressive languages. In general, I think it is fair to characterize anime as a medium (not by choice of the artists per se, but because of the industry's interests) that is focused on getting an emotional response; while obviously this is not always the aim of film when an artist has total freedom. Anime is difficult for an artist to make alone because it requires a lot of money and effort, whereas a person can make a film with a camera and their friends if need be, and some filmmakers have achieved impressive results using just that method. The tradeoff is, given the budget and the freedom, you can show literally anything with animation. With that in mind, mainstream is rather limited. There is little stylistic variety. Characters are designed and express themselves in the same ways over and over again (which is why when people see something like Avatar, they think to themselves "this is in an 'anime style'" or even "why isn't this listed on MAL?"). And so on.
My knowledge of Japanese cinema is honestly not that extensive. I think lots of anime directors (and Japanese film directors in general) are influenced by western cinema (Hollywood, French, German, Italian, etc), and for whatever reasons it seems rare for them to cite Japanese directors among their influences in interviews; unless maybe we're talking about older directors like Tomino or Dezaki, both of whom are still influenced by western cinema as well. For example, I noticed recently that Turn A Gundam uses a lot of wipe transitions, which, I think, most people when they see this will immediately think of Star Wars. It turns out Tomino is influenced by Star Wars, but both Tomino and George Lucas were influenced by Akira Kurosawa, too. Kurosawa used those kinds of transitions, and initially Star Wars was conceived as a samurai movie in space. There appears to be much of this kind of dialogue between Japanese and western media over time.
It is much easier for me to notice tropes from those western traditions, like American action movies or French new wave etc., than any Japanese directors I know of. Or on the other hand, I think it is fair to say that lots of techniques were invented or found their home in anime because they are efficient for the intentions of the people working in the medium given the constraints they have to deal with, or were borrowed from less "respected" forms like Tokusatsu shows, samurai films, Kaiju movies and such.
Anime is certainly not a medium where artists typically have the freedom to do whatever they want. It is largely about compromising with the aims of the studio and whomever is invested in the product being made. Whether that's good or bad, really depends on one's interests. If an artist selfishly creates something that's about themselves/their creative interests without regard for how it's received or what have you, does that necessarily mean they are doing something admirable or interesting? Also, another way to look at it is, there's always a level of compromise with creating art, whether it's the possibilities of the medium or what the artist is able to afford to make. When I think about directors who are influenced by cinema, some who immediately come to mind are Mamoru Oshii, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Osamu Dezaki. What makes them influential in the world of anime (and for Otomo, manga as well, which totally changed because of his style) and distinct from the artists they're influenced by is precisely the fact that they have to balance their interest in cinema and storytelling with the limits placed on them by the medium, their job and their budget. The "shortcuts" Dezaki made use of are still known and used today. They've shown other artists ways to do the same thing. I suppose the question is whether the shortcuts are innovative, and manage to become charming features of the creation unto themselves, like with Studio Shaft's anime. Compared to OVA or films, TV anime has pretty much always, except for brief periods, been in the worst spot as far as creative freedom and experimentation, and I think that's true now more than ever.
Those are my uneducated observations at least XD