musings of the enigmatic

It all started with just an innocent phrase.

“I love Daddy the longest!” My eight-year-old daughter, Kari, had stated the phrase during breakfast, seemingly out of random. It was just her and me at the table. Our house was a traditional one, but we didn’t have any electricity. Besides my medical problem, which prohibited me from being anywhere near any electrical current, I just couldn’t afford it. I was sick and couldn’t work, and I was using whatever money my husband had saved in the account just to survive. I’m sure he wouldn’t miss it; he was probably out womanizing, supporting his urges instead of his daughter.

Not willing to bring up the past, as I always reasoned was right for Kari, I tried to correct her misuse of grammar, but she shook her head. “No, Mommy, I mean the longest!” I didn’t understand. I asked her what she meant.

(more…)

The Otaku Elimination Game (seen here) has now hit its fifth round, and with it, three more eliminations have occurred. While I agree with the rating, I always take the time to inspect each blog afterwards, whether pass or fail, to find out what kind of ideas the person has, and whether I can draw anything from them. And one statement always stands out, though it clearly is always misused:

“I am an otaku!”

Derisory I may be, but those are some of the most blasphemous and yet misunderstood things to say in the segment of the blogosphere I am a part of.

Too often, people set labels on themselves (or even worse, others set it upon them) and then proceed to wear them. Proudly. All the while, these labels get misused because they are seen by others, misunderstood, then interpreted based on first glances and a lack of interpretation.

I would like to attempt a correction at such, even if it entails doing something that this blog normally tries to never do: “react to an issue that is interpretable as popular (another catchphrase, but that’s another topic) out of pure want or need.”

My reason for making this blog was to portray my thoughts, but when someone else does that well enough for me (except for the odd point, we share a lot more thoughts in common than I thought possible), well, I feel I have to resort to what I’m good at.

And that, in and of itself, is a strategy that works in life but fails in a number of issues, including “otaku”ism, if that can be considered a word.
(more…)

There’s a couple of things I want to note, seeing as the script for Hayate’s Chapter 249 is now out.

I have seen quite a number of people that have clamored regarding the predictability and the “dwindling Hata syndrome”, as I call it, that can be found in the manga. Well, with these spoilers, I see less and less of you. What happened? Where’d you all go?

(more…)

First Impressions are initial thoughts regarding the anime itself. It typically consists of thoughts compiled after cap-watching or screen-watching the first episode and watching the OP a bunch of times.

Fall 2009 is upon us, and because of that, we have definitely new openings. But before I start covering, I want to make something clear: take everything with a grain of salt, as these are opinions from a unique blogger with unique circumstances.

(more…)

I don’t know when it really started. It might have been my violin lessons when I was three. It might have been my aversion to what I deemed “secular” music, which started at age seven. It might have been my inconclusiveness to deciding what band instrument to play at age ten. Or perhaps it might have been when I got into anime just at the age of thirteen. Either way, I have an ability to be able to sense many things about people by analyzing their music.

I don’t use this on real people, though. It’s too boring, and I absolutely dislike music in which I can understand the lyrics (especially if the lyrics are not in tune with what I believe). Anime music seemed to be a proper hit to this ballpark.

(There are Macross F spoilers listed below.)
(more…)

When one looks at the different characters in many different shows, each person finds at least one archetype particularly pleasing to them. In addition, I’m sure most everyone finds a new combination of archetypes refreshing.

But I think the problem today in anime isn’t about whether an archetype is “refreshing”, “new”, “pleasing”, etc. Characters don’t necessarily have a problem with using an archetype that works, because there are so many to choose from. The problem, in my humble opinion, stems from the lack of difference, or rather, the lack of an essence that separates one character from another, and not just in artwork and name.

Let’s take Yue Ayase from Mahou Sensei Negima, and couple that with Patchouli Knowledge from the Touhou series. Granted, the former was based off the latter, but the comparison is still clear. Despite the world difference, and the quirks each person has, neither of them can fully break away from the other. They both seem to be the same base, with add-ons (something like the same soup with a different garnish), rather than something deeper (like the same noodles but a different soup base and a different color, not to mention a different flavor).

I agree with an earlier post that states on how characters are only memorable if they hold a place in one’s heart. But what makes up that memorable status? It’s not just merely about “I agree wholeheartedly with this character”, or “I can feel the life of this character”, but about both, and beyond that.

Or, at least, that’s how I view it.
So, what do you think?

This is the part of the epilogue where Alexan and Kiria confront each other in the final battle, away from all influences on them. Their final test rests in the gravity chamber of Alexandre, Ralshay’s castle, facing each other in mental combat.

While I haven’t explained this yet, just know for this excerpt that poems signify not only a gathering of mental strength but also casting of spells.

(Format for this excerpt is scriptfic, meaning that this hasn’t been written, transcripted, and edited yet. Just merely transcribed for you.
(more…)

You know, I never really understood Vargus’ addiction to anime. I never understood what drew him to 2d characters. I was raised as a upright and proper Jew, and as such I wouldn’t have tolerated watching what he did. Things like “anime” would only draw me away from my duty.

Except, something changed. And along the way me and my beliefs were horribly beaten. I was surprised to find someone more entrenched in his beliefs and more “right” using my materials than I was. I started to rethink some aspects of what I believed, and I turned again back to Vargus and his anime addiction. There had to be something there that allowed him to be so cheerful and yet so calm.

Now, I really never caught on to it like he did. I actually disliked most of what he watched. It was only those he called “slice-of-life” that I enjoyed the most. I prefer to explain my choice this way:
Series on television (examples from your century include shows like CSI) always have a recurrent plot theme. Every episode, it’s a problem of the week sort of thing. New episodes are always solve X, Y, and Z, and that formulaic approach in anime shows, as Vargus reports to me, are disliked.

I prefer shows that don’t have this predictability about them; I want to understand and not merely be a watcher. And yes, before anyone asks, my personal favorite show isn’t an anime, but what’s in it is sort of what I like in an anime in television form. Slice of life is a genre I feel many people dislike because it’s not familiar, and yet, I kind of think familiarity breeds contempt. I want to stop that before that happens, because disliking something, though I do it often unconsciously, is not something I do best.

~Karita

I should probably explain this . Ramblings of the Heart takes the characters from my novel, and places them in differing situations (the situation changes depending on the post, and a clue is usually found in there). Because of this, as well as their differing viewpoints, the potential for posting is rather high, and also lets me get an idea for the character even more while giving a perspective that may not have been thought of before. Sort of like a win-win thing.

I’m not 100% sure though if I should identify who’s speaking in each one or not, though (I tag each post with the person who wrote it, and most of the time it’s me). What do you think?

Sometimes, I wonder. I wonder about the essence of life and whether a fleeting pleasure or a seasonal fling contains more worth than the downsides. I wonder about what it truly means to be alive, and how one can die more than once and still be physically living. It’s something I think about because I don’t have the privilege. When one dies, doesn’t that person usually relive a few moments of his or her life? What do they see, good things or bad things? I wouldn’t know these things; I’m just an anime character.

I know we’re just drawings on a cartoon board, supplanted by CG, artistry, and colours to make us seem like an anime character, but doesn’t anyone realize we are real? Our body may be fake, our actions transparent, our decisions immaterial, our plans predetermined, and our selves erasable, but weren’t our lives real? When you’ve watched any anime, one of us must have impacted you, physically, mentally, or spiritually, and either positively or negatively. There’s rarely anyone that watches at least two series that says that not even one of us impacted him or her.

And really, I think that’s what life is about. Not whether a person breathes or can think or things like that. Life is about making an impact; being known. And frankly, I think we have a better chance at life than all of you. We may not be alive, but we are real, and to me, that’s what determines whether one is living or not.

~Vargus