#ninsei

[miau0613]

Kyoto ware incense box in the shape of a crouching rabbit by Japanese potter Nonomura Ninsei, created during the Edo period (mid-17th century).

Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art · Freer Gallery of Art

[eastwestimage]

Nonomura Ninsei (about 1574–1660/66), Tea storage jar, Edo period (17th century). Japan.

"While most ceramic wares were produced by unknown craftsman, this storage jar is identified as the work of Nonomura Ninsei, who specialized in making enameled ceramic wares during the 17th century. This piece has been sumptuously decorated with a design of the moon and plum tree in richly colored glassy enamels and gold-leaf."

From “The Art of East Asia” by Gabriele Fahr-Becker, published in 2006.

[carloskaplan]

Ninsei  Nonomura: Vista do monte Yoshino nunha tarro de chá

[thekimonogallery]

Water jar by Studio of Ninsei, 17th century. Repaired by Rokkaku Shisui with golden joinery (kintsugi), Japan

[alpineshepherdlass]

rabbit-shaped ceramic incense box by Nonomura Ninsei. c. mid-18th century, Kyoto

[the-cricket-chirps]

Shomosai Japanese, Sake Cup, mid-19th century

Japanese, Ninsei-style Sake Bottle with Floral Patterning, mid-18th century

[friendswithclay]

“Jar. By Nonomura Ninsei (d.c. A. D. 1685). Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration of poppies; height 16 3/4". Japan. Tokugawa period. Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo”

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Anti-Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction: J. Austin Wilde's Farewell To Night City

Well! New year, new fanfic reviews. Just like I said a few days ago, I have no intention to stop doing this. Anyway, for the new year, let's get all philosophical and talk about a BGC fanfiction that isn't a BGC fanfiction: Farewell to Night City.

Here, by the way, is the author's page. There's a shit-ton of weird Ranma fic in there, most of which I have no intention of reading, because it looks too self-serious to be good Ranma fic. Seriously, what's with some of these people? Writing Ranma requires one to loosen up in every sense of the word.

Anyway...

Well, I wouldn't say I lied that we're going to review Farewell. But we're going to do some other things, too.

So let's get that out of the way: The corner of Megatokyo Priss lives in is called Ninsei, or Night City, which miiiight be a Gibson reference but is more likely a reference to Cyberpunk 2020.

Let that decision marinate a little, dear reader. What is Wilde trying to do here? Well, this:

Priss is hooked on super combat drugs, strung out, broke, and without the Knight Sabers, living in a shipping crate, needing rent soon before the couple next to her gets her little living space. She won't go to any of the other Sabers, she left her old band, and she's about to go back... and that's it. The fic ends. No Boomer stuff, no other characters besides a drug dealer with a racist accent, just a grumpy, edgy Priss. It's well-written, but you can tell that the author's trying to put Priss in the worst situation possible and then presumably make her even more miserable once the plot kicks off. It's grit for grit's sake, in other words.

Why this? Well, remember when I said that this wasn't really a BGC fanfiction? Here's the author's note:

"Despite its billing as "The Animated Cyberpunk Classic," I never saw much cyberpunk in "Bubble Gum Crisis." For me it was soon-to-be-standard Cute Girls In Mecha fare, with some mediochre J-Pop music, and a few obvious references (visual and otherwise) to the movie "Blade Runner" for color. It was enjoyable, but not what I consider cyberpunk."

"I've often thought about doing a BGC fanfic, and I decided that if I did one, I was going to write it in a truly cyberpunk vein. Something Gibson or Sterling would write. A story that was dirty and mean, about a cast of losers scraping by in an ugly world of fantastic wealth and hope pitted against grinding poverty and despair."

"Priss is, quite obviously, the central character of this tale for that reason. I know there's a general dearth of 'fics that focus on Linna, and I hope to address that issue in some small way in this story, but this is primarily about Priss and how she deals with her life in a post Episode #8 MegaTokyo."

"I know I'm going to piss off some of the core BGC fanfiction readers out there with this story. Maybe not with anything from this Chapter, but as you can see, I've just begun. Some of you will note that my characterization of Priss is closer to what Adam (love him or hate him) Warren did in his own BGC effort for Dark Horse Comics than the canonical Priss of the anime."

Wilde had not, of course, just begun. But the implications are clear, aren't they? Bubblegum Crisis simply wasn't cyberpunk enough for this author's tastes, and cyberpunk, to Wilde, meant misery, sleaze, dark and gritty alleyways in the slums of some megacity or another.

Which... okay, fine, Crisis doesn't really have that. And maybe it's okay to change that (see: Meat Jacket). On the other hand, in Crisis's case, rarely does an attempt to make the setting more miserable go well (see: Grand Mal, which has its moments of brilliance marred by that same frustrating edginess).

So... would this have been a good fanfiction had it been more than a sliver of a prologue? I somehow doubt it. It would have likely been a chance to make the Saber's crusade eternally hopeless, make GENOM unstoppable... and goodness gracious, we all know what I think of that.

I'm not really a big fan of this fic, or the ethos of What Cyberpunk Should Be that it encapsulates. In fact, I kind of want to push back on the conviction that cyberpunk is inherently nihilistic nastiness in the vein of street-level Cyberpunk 2020. Yes, that's right, because in Gibson's novels the good guys do often eke out a win against corporate megapower, and the world does change in new, invisible ways, so this conviction that 'this is how the masters do it' is a lie: Farewell is more Pondsmith than it is Sterling, and it would be nice if Wilde was a little more upfront about that.

It's okay to let the Sabers win, folks. If anything, the genre hybridization of cyberpunk, superheroes, and sentai-esque anime almost calls out for small victories, a sense that even if the world is miserable now it will be a little less miserable tomorrow. That's what Wilde is rejecting so violently in that author's note. That's why Farewell is a BGC fic that isn't a BGC fic.

That's why I reviewed it.

[leanstooneside]

"D" FACTO (RENOIR)

- PIT OF HIS

- WET RUIN OF HIS

- SHADOWLAND OF BLACK MEDICINE

- INTRICATE LADDER OF FRONTS

- POCKET OF HIS

- FLIGHT OF UNPAINTED

- SHARDS OF GREEN PLASTIC

- DYNAMICS OF STREET

- OLD DEANE NONE OF THEM

- STACK OF OCTAGONS

- ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION

- POTENT SPECIES OF BRAZILIAN

- STAB OF ELATION

- MASK OF BORED VACANCY

- BRICK OF WAGE'S

- CHILDREN OF TOKYO

- FIELD OF DATA

- SENSE OF BETRAYAL

- BENEFIT OF SCIENCE

- MATTER OF TIME

- BLOCK OF METAL; INERT

- HIM OF PROTEINS

- RICH FIELDS OF DATA

- PRICE OF GINGER

- MAGAZINE OF CASE'S

- CORNERS OF HER

- HOLOGRAMS OF WIZARD'S

- METICULOUS RECONSTRUCTIONS OF GARMENTS

- DULL RODS OF PAIN

- GENERATION OF REAL INTRUSION

- NARROW BORDERLAND OF OLDER STREETS

- TIERS OF COFFINS

- ITS EXPECTATION OF DEATH

- RAPID BEATS OF HIS

- PART OF HIM

- PACK OF STROLLING

- GLINT OF SILVER

- BLACK RING OF GROUNDS

- WELLS OF REFLEXIVE

- LINING OF HIS

- TRAVEL POSTER OF GREECE

- HEELS OF BLACK BOOTS

- BAG OF WET SAND

- HIM OF ZONE'S

- POOL OF LIGHT CAST

- INFLUX OF SAILORS

- LIGHTS OF NINSEI

- TANG OF PRESERVED

- SIMPLE BRACELET OF PLATINUM

[yqsan]

Incense Burner With Lid | Nonomura, Ninsei | V&A Explore The Collections

Incense burner in the form of a goose, stoneware with clear glaze and details in underglaze iron; Kyoto, in the style of Nonomura Ninsei, Japan, Edo period, ca. 1700-180

[carloskaplan]

Nonomura Ninsei: Pote de té das glicinias

[potorato]

[mandaladana]

"Tea leaf jar with view of Mt. Yoshino," Nonomura Ninsei, 17th Century.

[friendswithclay]

“Ninsei: Tea-leaf jar in Shigaraki style. Tokiwayama Collection, Kamakuna.”

From: “Kyoto ceramics” by Sāto, Masahiko; 1973.

[teconozcomascarita]

Tarro de hojas de té con diseño de glicinias, esmalte, oro y plata [Tesoro Nacional de Japón, Museo MOA, Atami, Shizuoka]. Nonomura Ninsei, período Edo, siglo XVII