#(from what i can tell it is their miko mascot character)

[dogdrugreinforcement]

[balioc]

This is a complicated thought that deserves a complicated exploration, but right now it’s getting a scattered throwaway Tumblr post.

Superstimulus is always a failure mode of invention.  Sometimes it turns out that getting what we want is hard, but exploiting a glitch in our desire-fulfillment sensors is much easier.  This is very bad.  It means that you land in an equilibrium where you’re perpetually unsatisfied, but it’s very hard to do anything about it, because casual analysis will always suggest that the only promising paths away from dissatisfaction are...the ones that get you yet more superstimulus.  Which doesn’t actually help. 

(I think it’s important to frame this as a disconnect between desire and satisfaction.  A lot of superstimulus discussion tends to suggest that superstimulus indulgence is actually Desire-Fulfillment Run Amok, and that the thing being sacrificed is some other, higher, nobler value.  Which tends to result in people saying “what if that other value is actually bogus and I should just get what I want?”  Which is usually fair.  Those who go around clucking about their pet higher nobler values...well, they rarely do a good job of meta-ethical outreach.  But this all misses the point in a serious way.  If your superstimulus is leaving you feeling like you’re thriving and fulfilled, then sure, it’s presumptively fine, don’t worry about it.  The reason that superstimuli so often aren’t fine is that they prevent you from getting what you want, and make it difficult to fix that.)

************

I am deeply scared of artificial celebrity.  I think it is a superstimulus for an aspect of human well-being that matters deeply, which we don’t understand very well and never have, and it is capable of wreaking havoc on us before we have any cultural defenses at all. 

We’ve had partial hybrid artificial celebrities for a long time.  On the one hand, it’s been true for ages that Hollywood stars and Japanese idols etc. have their “personal lives” managed, edited, and publicized to the point that they’re as much like fictional characters as they are like flesh-and-blood humans.  On the other hand, it’s also been true for ages that fandom and comparable social structures have encouraged particularly-obsessive particularly-susceptible people to develop parasocial relationships with actual fictional characters. 

These social technologies are...not bad, not exactly, but scary.  But their techno-social limitations limit how much they can act as superstimuli, at least to some extent.  We all know that actors and idols are ultimately real people we don’t know, with real lives and real thoughts of their own, and that limits the extent to which we can direct our thoughts and our feelings towards them.  Inversely, society ultimately doesn’t provide very much support at all for caring deeply about fake humans from art and media (outside a few narrow social environments), and that also limits the damage here.

But we’re starting to combine these things.  We’re starting to say “here are some fictional people, they’re going to be presented as though they were real people, we encourage you to think of them as real people and to care about them in the way you’d care about real people.”  Vtubers and ascended-mascots like Hatsune Miko are the beginning of it, although I’m sure we’re not too far from the first genuine artificial musicians and/or artificial actors. 

************

What’s the problem?  Why should we think of this as a superstimulus?

It really matters to [most] humans that they been seen, that they be understood, that they be cared about for what they truly are (...or for what they believe themselves to be, the interaction between those things is complicated).  That they be validated, if you want to use that lingo.  This is a lot of what’s going on at the top of the Maslow hierarchy.  

((IN BEFORE CERTAIN GRIPES: Yes, there’s a certain kind of iron-minded sagacity that allows you to validate yourself and tell the rest of the world to go hang.  This is a very good thing to cultivate, if you can, especially if you’re the sort of person with a deep and expansive need for validation.  But that is a difficult skill, it is always going to be as specialized and rare as any other form of mental discipline, and for social-engineering purposes it doesn’t matter.))

There are ways in which validating each other, in that sense, often turns out to be hard and counterintuitive.  We are creatures of limited powers, who so often fail to live up to the ideals and narratives and personal myths that we want others to recognize and glorify.  Our lives so often fail to provide any real scope for our dreams and aspirations, which makes it difficult to see and honor those things in ourselves, let alone in the people around us.  Etc.

Finding a good way to deal with this is, I posit, a proper tentpole psycho-social project for a civilization that is rapidly overcoming the limits of material hardship.  It’s an exciting challenge! 

But our attempts to meet that need, for each other, can be hijacked by superstimulus.  Just like our attempts to eat, to have sex with each other, etc. 

Celebrity is a partial superstimulus.  Celebrities essentially get a psychic force-multiplier from their fame.  They are orders of magnitude more influential and more socially-powerful than any “real” people whom we know.  So they seem like they matter more, to our social-politics algorithms.  So their traits and quirks seem more defining and more noteworthy, and their stories seem more relevant. 

Unreality is also, potentially, a partial superstimulus.  Fictional people can make for much better objects-of-validation than real people, because they are subject to fewer limitations.  They’re always on-brand.  They interact with their environments only in ways that emphasize who and what they’re supposed to be.  They can keep having moments of incredible poignancy and symbolism, because some author can just make those up. 

Unreal celebrities might constitute a full superstimulus.  Unreal celebrities might be a lot better at getting us to care about them than we are ourselves. 

I have nightmare visions of a world in which we toil endlessly at tasks that don’t matter to us, feeling irrelevant and empty and mostly-unreal ourselves, while we lavish all the psychological validation we crave on fictional constructs designed to suck up all that energy without benefiting in any way from it. 

[fizzingwizard]

Digimon Adventure: Ep 19!

Wow! That certainly was an Episode!! It was pretty fun from start to finish, though nothing mind-blowing, but it was definitely the ending that made me gasp. Not wholly unexpected to an old turnip like me, but promising lots of fun (and angst!).

Picture of the week: MIKO, THE TRUE STAR OF THE SERIES!!

no for serious are the writers reading my reviews? they keep giving me what I want. within reason I guess. They seem to have an extremely limited budget as usual x’D

but Miko is still adorbs

ok I’m really looking forward to recapping this one so let’s get to it!

So last week I thought the kids sans Taichi and Yamato were abducted by Devimon, but apparently that either isn’t the case, or it was, but then Devimon decided it’s best just to dump the kids back on Earth and hold on to their partners. Because that’s the current situation. While concerning that the kids are separated from their partners, it’s probably best this way, since Devimon appears to be sending Gesomon(?) and Parrotmon(?)

to the human world, if I remember right. It’s hard to remember what happened in the first fifteen seconds kay So when the kids find their partners it will probably be in the human world and they can fight back.

Meanwhile Taichi and Yamato are alone and very Confuse

Taichi tries frantically to contact Koushirou. The others too... but especially Koushirou.

Finally he gets him!! He’s so happy!! My Taishiro heart flutters!

But I was fully expecting it to be a trap. When I saw this still here, my first thought was “Devimon’s forcing him to tell Taichi a lie by threatening him with a gun!!”

of course thats not whats happening. Koushirou is relatively fine and there are no guns (yet). What’s happened is the other kids have been sent back to the human world for reals this time!

This show is not even bothering to hide its Taiyama angle.

They spend the entire episode giving each other Significant Looks like this. The entire episode.

Now where’s Jou through all of this, you ask?

He went to talk to the police. He’s shocked they don’t believe his story about monster attacks and the world ending (well, at least Tokyo ending). I freaking love how taaaaall Jou is. Though it makes Koushirou look like a bean x’D

Jou = beansprout / Koushirou = bean

Koushirou has a much easier time dealing with the news that the police don’t believe them. He’s a denizen of the Internet. He knows how people’s minds work. And he has tons of chat logs to prove it.

People are chatting and spreading gossip and disbelief and complaints, but my favorite is the comment that just says “It’s a flood of fake news” xP

The home team runs into Mama Yagami! Who Sora literally calls Mama Yagami! x’D I mean I know that’s how kids generally refer to their friends’ parents but I still lol’d.

So un... Jou is almost as tall as Mama Yagami. LMAO. I’m gonna assume she’s short. Jou might indeed be quite tall for his age but Sora and Mimi are pretty close to Mama Yagami’s height too. I guess we haven’t seen Taichi standing next to his mom yet! With his hair he’s probably taller than her.

So Mama Yagami is HILARIOUS and I’m so glad that’s a continuing thing in the reboot! She was already that way in 99 Adventure, but we’re just seeing a lot of it now - like every time she’s around. (And we didn’t see it in Tri so I missed that.) Basically she seems like a basketcase. Not a totally irresponsible one, more like just... generally the carefree go with the flow type. Which is not bad. She just also seems a bit, uh, ditzy?? I think Taichi probably grew to be so serious by necessity. Dad’s busy with work and someone’s gotta make sure mom doesn’t leave the house without her keys!

The way Sora just stares at Hikari like “explain??” after Mama Yagami thrusts Miko at her and runs off to get her car with a big smile as if they hadn’t all nearly died recently... bahahaha.

also I love how she doesn’t even bother asking her son’s good friend if she knows where he is after not seeing or hearing from him for three full days

^The face of a boy shouldering the weight of nuclear family life and all its batshitness

Taichi and Yamato determine their priority is find the Holy Digimon. I wish they were a little more concerned with what happened to their friends’ partners, but I guess this is the only goal with solid clues. Anyway before they can do anything they are attacked by Bulbmon Looks like subtitlers went with Valvemon which also works, who looks like a Lego monster creation by an eight year old (and probably is).

He has the Domo face. Grrraaah

Domo is NHK mascot by the way. bahahaha

Next these guys come swarming out of Valvemon. (And if we didn’t already get it, apparently Digimon can construct other Digimon as we’ve seen before.) Nothing is quite as freaky as gas masks. They are commanded by Minotaurmon/Mintaromon whatever.

They too have the aim of Stormtroopers though so our heroes will be fine...

... probably...

... then Leomon finally shows up!! Yay! He looks good! All beefy and scarred and sounding exactly like Zaraki Kenpachi. Uhh. Is it the same VA?? Nothing comes up in the Google search so maybe not but it sure sounds like him. (Minotaurmon and Ogremon also sound like Leomon... while it’s normal for VAs in kids shows to voice multiple characters esp minor ones, it literally sounds like Zaraki Kenpachi is the voice of all the characters in this episode besides the main ones. And Mama Yagami of course because that would be weird.)

Leomon may look cool, but his ride... and his friends... uh, less cool x’D I want to strangle that ostrich thing with its own scarf somehow it inspires violent emotion in me

In the smallest, most shocked voice, Yamato says, “Leomon...?” It’s honestly kind of adorable. He’s clearly remembering what Neemon said about Leomon leading the resistance way back when.

Leomon helps them escape. Taichi very considerately and cutely helps Agumon aboard the fashion disaster ostrich emu thing.

Yamato also considerately helps his partner but rather less cutely xD

Leomon takes them to his hideout and gives them your standard fare of weird-looking Digi fruit. He then proceeds to tell them about Devimon and that he is trying to infiltrate Valvemon yadda yadda.

Taichi is freaking ADORABLE, immediately concerned that by saving their asses, Leomon’s battle plans have been ruined. Leomon waves that aside though. Yamato is equally adorabibble when he asks after Neemon and gets told that they made it to Leomon safely.

Leomon plans to try to get into Valvemon again because he knows Devimon’s put something related to the holy Digimon in there. Taichi is determined to join in. He doesn’t have much of an argument as it why they should be allowed when they just got their butts kicked so easily, but he has a trick up his sleeve: the Burning Eyes of Fiery Passion.

Not to be outdone, Yamato shoots off his Icy Eyes of Cold Determination.

Faced with this twin assault, Leomon has to give in. Ahh, I remember last week when we saw the trailer for this ep and I naively thought Leomon would train them like Piximon did in 99 Adventure. Nope. They’ve just met and they’re already spy buddies.

Okay, okay, yeah Leomon does seem to have some knowledge of the “Chosen Children” and that’s his real motivation. Still.

They break into Valvemon and we get the excellent invention of Agumon riding on Garurumon. I assume because of Garurumon’s advantageous speed. That seems to be recurring thing in this show.

Idk I just capped this because he’s so darn cute

I don’t know why I capped this one though.

They enter some sort of central space where Leomon tells them something relevant to the holy Digimon is being kept. (Lol I already forgot the details of what he said.) There are two protectors, Minotaurmon and Bullmon. Leomon tells the kids to take Bullmon while he faces down Minotaurmon. These guys might have been somewhat intimidating if we hadn’t already got Perfect level evolutions mastered, not to mention the occasional Jogress :P Sooo I didn’t feel too worried.

... uh, never mind x’D Taichi what are you doing

Yamato saves his idiot butt and almost gets in a bind himself. Once again I’m just wondering why they are sticking at Adult level. Whatever. They win of course

Leomon uses his Fist of the Beast King to maim Minotaurmon. His brilliant one-liner? “I have more than one first.”

Bully: *punches you*

You: ow

Bully: *smirk* I have more than one fist.

You: That’s funny, I only have one, but it’s made of titanium *You punch the bully straight through the stratosphere* Quality over quantity!!!!

*cough*

Our heroes approach the secret compartment supposedly holding something to do with the holy Digimon... Yamato gets a look inside and gets the black shadow of true terror over his eyes

becaue floating inside like some kind of Weapon X experiment is... Takeru!!!

Hold on while I put in my ear plugs. Okay, ready, screech all you want now.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

So... okay. First of all, baby Takeru is sooooooo cute <3 I had two predictions about what happened to Takeru last week. Either he ended up in the digital world and was now on his own, or he got abducted by Devimon. I thought the former was more likely, but in hindsight, it should have been obvious that it was the second. This show misses a lot of points where I feel like they could have developed some relationships or thrown in some drama, but it never passes up a chance for Yamato angst.

So yeah, this is pretty much gonna destroy Yamato xD Not only is the baby brother he wanted to protect no longer at home where he can easily protect him, he’s now in the digital world and in the enemy’s clutches.

I BETTER SEE REALLY TRAUMATIZED YAMATO NEXT WEEK. Of course, I expect him to be cool-headed enough to try to save Takeru, but I will be very disappoint if this goes off with no break downs at all. Takeru is always Yamato’s number one priority!

Super exciteddddd

So I give this ep 7.5/10. The .5 is pretty much for ending with a killer cliffhanger. My one real complaint about this ep is how highly plot-based everything is - we finally got the team all together only to split them up, and on top of that, once split up, we don’t even get all that many character moments between Taichi and Yamato. As I said, they give each other lots of Signifcant Looks, but man cannot live on bread alone. However this is par for the course for this show and I know I should stop mentioning it every week because I doubt it’s changing. We will get the big shockers when we get them and not a moment before.

I just want Yamato to cry in front of Taichi and make him all uncomfortable x’D That’s what made 99 Adventure so great bahahaha

Some cool bits from next week’s trailer:

Surprise surprise, Angemon is the holy Digimon! Or one of, anyway. And he is indeed trapped. This makes the “Angemon is Devimon” theory less likely. Let’s not forget that our heroes’ Digimon partners were evidently a band of powerful warriors in the past, but they’ve forgotten much of it. I won’t be surprised if the result of that war played a part in Angemon’s abduction.

Next week they’ll have to fight to save Takeru from being drained, I guess.

And then!! Digi egg! Excite. Also I only just noticed that his hate says TK!!!

Takeruuu <3 My first fav when I was 10. Though my heart has belonged to Taichi for many long years, I still have a special spot in it for Takeru only <3 Even if he does dress like a celery stick

[eshtarwind]

Tokyo 7th Sisters Character Commentary - Yukuhashi Ei

Other Commentary

Seto Ferb - Mimori Matsuri - Kawasumi Sisala - Shiratori Tomoe - Yamai Sawori - Echizen Murasaki

Warning: May contain spoilers for: Episode 1.5 (Ei) - episode 2.5 (Ei, Kyouko, Murasaki) - Episode 3.0 (Ei, Mimi, Sisala, Sawori)

Yukuhashi Ei

A long black haired girl with low tone, calm and somehow whimsical voice bringing a bag full of charms, Ei is a miko who can see ghosts. Her family runs a Shinto shrine (jinja) in Tokyo 7th and she often helps her family as a Miko. Ever since she was a child, she could see ghosts, spirits, and demon and even got possessed by them, although she will not have any memory of the time she was possessed. When she was little, she was so used to running away from them, she actually becomes the fastest runner in Nanastar’s sport event Team Sun (lol–there isn’t any Rena there, so I don’t know which between the two are fastest haha). Other than her ability to see spirits, Ei is just an ordinary girl, who happens to be an idol.

Character

Empathetic

Ei is kindhearted and it doesn’t limit its meaning to merely human or living being, but also the spirits she met. In several episodes including her own, she was shown to be empathetic to spirits. She would let the spirits talk to her and she would try to help them as best as she could, or at least just be there to lend an ear. In Sawori’s 3.0 Ei showed great empathy over Sawori’s condition, and was willing to put her self on the line for her friend’s happiness and be Sawori’s “body guard” to avoid hurting herself. She also appeared to be very aware and sensitive, telling others to not move too fast in case it will hurt Sawori or if they would make Sawori felt bad. In Sisala’s 3.0, Ei was shown to be angry in Sisala’s place when someone was showing aggression towards them. She offered assistance and help to people in trouble, showing sensitivity over someone else’s condition. She also would rather not make people feel bad if she could, opting to not tell her friends of her reason for choosing clothes after they told her it’s unfashionable.

A pushover

Often being placed in either embarrassing or compromising situations, Ei would often look obviously reluctant or troubled when people (or ghost) are asking the impossible out of her (like asking her to cosplay). However, when it comes to someone’s happiness, she would eventually comply given enough persuasion–which usually came in rather easily. Ei was vehemently against becoming magical girl miko for Manon at first, however, albeit reluctantly, she eventually did do it (and actually very serious in it) if it were to make Manon smile again.

Sentimental sense of fashion

Ei has a weird sense of clothing for her everyday attire that her friends said it to be “dasakawaii” which basically lame, but cute. The only cuteness is because Ei is the one wearing, so perhaps in fashion sense it’s just lame. Turned out, Ei chose clothes not based on how they would look good on her, but the memories it holds. That is why her clothes often mismatched each other as each piece is for a memory of different person (like her grandmother, her mother, or the Nanastar idols).

Likes teasing people

With people knowing that she can see ghost, at times she teased people, especially those who are scared by ghost, by saying there are ghost near them or at least pretend that she would say so (only to say something different). An example was Kyouko, who is a scaredy cat, or even Shihainin himself.

Sensible

Common sense is actually one of Ei’s traits, where she questioned a lot of things in the universe that did not add up (such as Miko who use magic). Ei uses polite form when talking to her elder, properly use their honorofic, and is sensible to understand one need to hide something so as to not hurt someone else (such as in Sawori’s 3.0). She also often there to tsukkomi the others’ antics, actually being the straightman instead of the strange one in the team.

Actually is just an ordinary girl in so many meaning

Her other traits are all very “average”. She shows concern, but not the type that rush headlong right away or being too stubborn. She is kind, but still show displeasure for things that embarrassed her. She also tsukkomi a lot of the strangeness in Nanastar. She is perhaps one of the most… “ordinary” out of all the girls, which is also quite ironic, since she might one of the more unique ones with her ability to see ghost.

Character Development

Ei’s character development so far mostly revolves around how she cope, or rather, feel about her supernatural ability or her strangeness. In 1.5 it is expressed that her ability has brought her a lot of trouble since she was a child, however upon being able to help a ghost finding her smile back, she was able to accept that if by having the ability she could make at least those that departed find their happiness back or solve their unresolved feelings. In 2.5 Ei was also shown to use her Miko status to help Manon, and despite her initial reluctance, also believed that it was worth the smile of every children present at that time. She also often used her jinja’s purifying rites to help rid away bad luck from her friends, giving them to Murasaki and also to Sawori. In 3.5, it is shown that even her fashion sense is strange, it was because every clothing articles she wore had memories, the main reason why she chose them.

Relationship

Yamai Sawori

Sawori and Ei’s interaction happened in Sawori’s 3.0, where Ei was paired with Sawori along with Shao for a job. Upon hearing how Sawori desired to not getting wounded at least until a PV shot, Ei realized that something they felt as usual such as not getting injured, is actually something rare for Sawori and she has taken it for granted. She was touched by Sawori’s condition and willing to spend time everyday with Sawori to keep her out of trouble, making charms for Sawori, and even willing to risk herself for Sawori’s sake. They also had a very good relationship, holding hands together as they walk around town.

Kawasumi Sisala

Ei was part of the hip hop event along with Sisala and seemed to have bonded some what (although Ei did not remember much about that time). She was also the one Sisala and co. asked to turn into magical girl for Manon. In Sisala’s 3.0 Ei was shown to have cared a lot for Sisala, while also showing respect, using polite form of speech when she knew she was asking something sensitive. She also express worry upon knowing that Sisala might have to face her past alone.

Uesugi Kyouko

Ei and Kyouko has a light, easy going relationship where Ei was mostly just teasing Kyouko about ghosts. She was willing to design a “ghost hunter show” simulation for Kyouko at least, leaving markers all over Nanasis for Kyouko fight her fear.

Echizen Murasaki

Ei and Murasaki’s interaction happened in Murasaki’s 2.5 when she came to help with Murasaki’s school festival. The first thing that Ei did was telling Murasaki about all the spirits in her school and also told her to be careful of the haunted stairs. Murasaki seemed displeased however, telling Ei to not just tell her that easily about the ghosts in one’s own school. However, Murasaki still showed gratitude and cherish the help she got, also appeared happy when she was given a doll which Ei had also helped to put her jinja’s blessing on.

Xiao Fei Hung

Being assigned together with Xiao and Sawori, Ei and Xiao agreed to not let Sawori get hurt by keep on being with her. Ei appears to keep reminding Xiao to not show their real intention to be with Sawori so as not to make Sawori feels bad, also warning Xiao whenever she walks just a little bit faster, or seems like she will fall. The three of them bonded during their days together, shown to be very comfortable with each other at the end of the episode.

Araki Rena, Jeddah Diamond, Orisaka Ayumu

All three appeared in Ei’s episode 3.0, helping her to pick some new clothes. In the end, they were touched by Ei’s reasoning and with Ei only letting things go and did not bother to explain herself, they talked about how what a wonderful person she was and why her clothes are important for her. 

Trivia:

The ‘Yuku” in Yukuhashi means “Death” while “Hashi” means “Bridge”, perhaps signifying how Ei could see those that have died yet has not yet crossed the bridge to another realm. The name Ei, although katakana, perhaps may mean “keen”, signifying Ei’s sixth sense ability to see spirits.

She collects charms, can do purifying rites, and other than ghost can see other spiritual phenomena. When she is possessed, her eyes will lit up purple.

Every time she is being offered a mascot/cosplay job, she would reject it by saying, “Leave those to Musubi!”

She calls her friends on first name basis without honorifics, showing a rather outgoing personality, but she properly use -san honorifics for those older than her.

[recentanimenews]

What Anime-Gataris Gets Right About Otaku Humor

Anime-Gataris is the latest anime about otaku and anime fandom. Much like Western nerd culture shows, there's a definite risk of over-reliance on tropes and a checklist otaku references, but Anime-Gataris approaches the subject with wit and heart. It combines the club antics of a Genshiken or Lucky Star, a behind the scenes look at production like Shirobako or Golden Boy, and the passion of the otaku vision akin to Otaku no Video. But how does it avoid the common pitfalls of reference anime to capture the authentic fandom experience?

  Anime-Gataris is the story of the anime club at Sakaneko High School. Newbie fan Minoa is pushed by wealthy otaku Arisu to re-open the anime club which was abandoned under mysterious circumstances. They are joined by light novel enthusiast Miko, chuunibyou Kaikai, cosplay queen Erika, and idol megafan Nakano. What the club members don't know, and what mystery cat mascot Neko-sensei isn't telling, is that the club appears to be the target of larger forces operating just always outside of frame. Unbeknownst to the characters, their anime club may be the focus of an anime about an anime club, making all of its in-jokes extra surreal. There are five main reasons Anime-Gataris' humor works so well.

    5. Clever, Well Written Jokes

It's an obvious requirement, but it's hard to overstate the importance of good writing. While there's always some fun had from simply recognizing something you know, jokes with clever observations are much more satisfying. I was completely sold on the show in episode two, when rookie anime fan Minoa was surprised that her brainy classmate Miko was into anime. Minoa protests, "but you're always reading books with complicated-sounded titles," far too much of a newbie to understand "A Certain Report on the Irresponsible and Depressing Chronicles of Me and a Certain Eccentric Childhood Friend" isn't an academic text, but a silly light novel. The series also excels in fake titles: "Melancholy of Happy Vuvuzela" is funny in any language, but "Sold Out Offline" may work better in Japanese katakana than in English translation. Jokes also take character into account, as when chuuni KaiKai, who always imagines himself in battle with demonic forces, thinks Miko has a crush on him. "This isn't my genre!" he angrily exclaims as he flees Miko's attentions. The series also takes care to make excellent musical references, as when a Haruhi theme-soundalike plays as the girls dress in bunny outfits to recruit new club members, or a piece that sounds like the Eva battle theme scores a mecha battle.

    4. The Show Understands Fans

As most anime writers are presumably fans, it isn't particularly rare to find a show that understands otaku psychology. But the breadth of observations in Anime-Gataris allows you to really identify with one or more of the characters. The story gets off to its start because Minoa has trouble remembering a show from her childhood that she just can't put her finger on, an extremely familiar annoyance to many otaku. The anime club is almost torn apart from the beginning because Arisu and Miko have a fight over whether an anime should have edited out an important scene from the light novel. They eventually come to a truce because they recognize that everyone has their own way of appreciating a show. Though their differences re-emerge when the club tries to create its own anime, with everyone trying to sneak in bits of their favorite genres, the club is ultimately able to come together to beat the student council that is intent on shutting it down.

    3. Anime-Gataris is Educational!

Outside of Shirobako, no anime gives as in-depth a description of the production process as Anime-Gataris. From explaining the importance of disk sales to Minoa to describing the feared anime production committees as secret societies like SEELE, the anime club breaks down the fundamentals of the anime industry in entertaining ways. This is especially true when the anime club decides to make their own animated feature for the school festival. The characters' normal personalities become possessed by their respective production roles. Of special note are Erika, who dons a pair of shades and a slick demeanor as the anime's producer, and Miko, who becomes gaunt and haunted by the immense amount of rewrites required of her initial script. You can tell Anime-gataris' writers enjoy sneaking commentary through her suffering. Interesting bits about how writers feel alienated at anime wrap parties and may be distressed at early cuts to their work when viewing storyboards for the first time, are slipped in the narrative this way.

2. An International Focus

It's a strange thing to see a US classroom in an anime, but in telling the experience of Erika's time abroad, a shot of one is included in the series! During Erika's time in America, she felt alienated, but in seeing that PreFae, the popular magical girl series, was also airing on US television, she was able to make some American friends. They even got to cosplay together! The anime club also gets to meet a Chinese otaku, Yang Beibei, at an anime event. She describes how most popular anime is simulcast now, and how some Japanese people she meets will only talk to her about older shows, thinking that's all she's seen. It's fantastic to see how international fans are being integrated into discussions of otaku culture, and Anime-gataris provides both a Western and Asian perspective for global otaku.

    1. Emotions and Allusions

Referencing works within other works is a literary tradition. Largely focused on the Bible, Greek myth, and Shakespeare, referencing a work everyone else has experienced at just the right time, in just the right way brings the emotional weight of another piece of art to bear on your own. In this age of mass media, there are so many works, many writers will treat them as a checklist to go down. Anime-Gataris uses these allusions in its anime-within-an-anime story in skillfull ways. The anime Minoa can't quite remember touches upon nostalgic anime like Gunbuster, Macross, Heidi, and Evangelion. The mysterious beret hidden in the anime club room is a nod to Osamu Tezuka, a first hint of the series-within-a-series nature of the world. The bunny girl outfits recall the time Haruhi Suzumiya tried to pull together her SOS club. Minoa and her friend traverse the arcs of a club anime while not recognizing their import, and as the series comes to its conclusion, I expect to see these references reach their emotional crescendo.

  What are your favorite parts of Anime-Gataris? Sound off in the comments below!

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Thomas Zoth is a features writer for Crunchyroll, blogs occasionally at Hungry Bug Diner, and appears on podcasts at Infinite Rainy Day. You can follow him on Twitter at @ABCBTom.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com