Well, to be honest, there is also the fandumb on the part of both anime veterans and new guys to the hobby. This is the kind of discussion that makes me sick.

As a veteran (remember I started watching them when I was 4 or 6 years old) I am of the opinion that we are way too harsh to the “new” anime. A lot are pointing fingers to moé as the single cause of the decline that seems to be ongoing. How is it different from the situation of the 1970s where Super Robot reigned supreme, or the 1980s where it was mostly sport anime? I mean, I can get tired of the always angry, always impatient and ALWAYS SHOUTING mecha pilot or the sport prodigy archetypes, they did annoy me at one point of my life as anime fan. I was always more fond of the monolithic badass of few words (like Kenshiro, Guts or The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s movies).

When I think about, I can think of two reasons, even tho they are not the sole reasons. Until over 10 years ago, we relied on our local importers and localizers for our anime fix. They chose for the local market and demand of the local public. I insist on the local part because every countries are fortunately not the same. As a result, USA anime fandom is not the same as those from Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore and Philipine, to name a few countries. So, while the importers gave us a choice, it was a limited choice that catered to the taste of the fandom of the moment. If sport anime is in, like because of a world cup or the olympics, one could expect more sport anime, otherwise it is the action shounen and the romcom shoujo.

It was more rare to see an anime catering to another kind of audience. Onii-sama e created a lot of shock among the french parents associations because of its homosexual tone, let’s not get started on Hokuto no Ken. So our choice was limited by what taste our education gave us and what the moral guardians allowed. In this time of broadband internet, the importers and the moral guardians hardly matters anymore, you have now the choice to watch ultraviolent anime (Elfen Lied) and what people calls girly moeshit (Aria) and anything in between.A single click and at the cost of HD space and free time, here you have the lastest episode of… Bleach, yeah an example. Yes guys, this anime the importers took so long to license, you have already seen it months or years before every “casuals”. Here, you can chuckle when your friends are telling you that Death Note is the shit, “Yeah, right, Slowpoke.” Now think about it, you now have the CHOICE. And you can see ALL the bad, with the mediocre, average, the good and the potential classic that people may talk about for the years to come. But you are seeing the bad, really and think to yourself, “What the fuck is this shit?”. You need to remember what I said about the importers. Yes, they filtered out the bad shit for thirty years, and sometimes some of the bad shit of the 1970-1990s does get through. Those are the series that are lying somewhere in a closet, shamefully hidden by the guys who licensed it and collecting dust, those are the anime that gets a few episodes aired before being pulled out of air because of poor reception. Like, “what was that anime about a new sport mixing baseball with football (what USA calls soccer)?” And you have forgotten the title, and it may be better that way because it was that bad. This is one of those anime that makes you feel lucky if you have never wasted your time with.

Now the second reason, the anime netsphere, be it forums, image boards or blogs. Before them, you relied on anime magazines. They told you what is bad and what is awesome, but not anymore. Why? Well, you can look at blogs or forums to have a hot reaction over the lastest episode of Bleach. It’s easier now to voice your opinion, and easier to be listened. The thing is that, one complains, followed by another one and another one. See where I am going? One can go to youtube and read the comments about music or movies. “Music/movies used to be better in the 1960s-1980s”. How can 1990s be bad when music give us The Cranberries, Radiohead and more, and when we got Pulp Fiction, The Crow and Se7en? How could 2000s be worse than 1980s and 1990s when you got Muse, Masterplan for music, and Shaun of the Dead, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Hot Fuzz for movies?

Now extend this to anime and can you see how the whole “Things used to be better in the *insert decade here*” have become laughable and disgusting to me?
I do have hope in the creative and entertainment industry of nowaday, and I want to. I am not just going to sit on my ass and cry over how more anime should be like *insertgreatclassic* here. I do want to be surprised, nicely, by the likes of Gungrave, Durararara and Bakemonogatari. And if it meant to have to roll my eyes over yet another harem anime/mecha anime/Generic Light Novel, fine. That would not stop me from trying to search for the diamond, I mean, afte all, you DO have to dig through dirt and shit to find some, right?

But the current problem I meet is when I tell that modern anime is not as bad as veterans makes it out to be, and name the series I mentioned, I get the “Yes, but…” answer. What I am supposed to answer? What those modern anime have to do or have to hope to live up the classics? I have yet to hear a compelling answer regarding why those classics are untouchable standards that everyone should bow to and never criticize. But until, all those reasons belongs to the subjective realm and are therefore not acceptable for me.

I may see myself as a veteran, but I think that veterans are just way too severe to modern anime. Especially when they forget that their classics were aired among rubbish too.

Source is here.

Yes, you will miss the music (not that great. The franchise needs Kajiura for that), the animation (suffered at times from QUALITY) and the voice acting.

But you can hope that Tsuzuki will bring flesh to his vision without having to worry about budget restriction. In fact, his worst enemies will be deadline and if something goes wrong with his collborators.

I am midly amused by the fact that the one in charge of the drawing in “Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force” is the same as the one who drew Shina Dark. A rather nice light fantasy manga with a bit of ecchi. We should not worry about the moé and the fanservice.

Now, it will be the first time we will see a magical girl in her mid-twenties. I just hope that the fact they dropped “Shoujo” in favor of “Senki” for Nanoha Force is not just for show and actually express the wish of the author, and a part of the fan community, to depart from the genre.

While this community have chanted that its roots lies in Gundam and Super Robots. One have brought up an alternative if not more interesting interpretation.

A careful scrutiny of the Nanohaverse reveals that it isn’t really a magical girl series. It’s a fantasy-adventure series like Slayers disguised as a Magical Girl series. The high-tech look of TSAB equipment and the title obscured that.
There’s also the fact that Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are getting too old to be called Magical Girls anymore. At 25, they’re approaching the other contender for the title of oldest magical girl, right?

You have the journey element (Nanoha Takamachi, her challenges and her growth), the happy party growing as more enemies are defeated, the signature weapons so dear to the adventurers, and the quest for artifacts of doom in the first seasons (the jewel seeds and the Book of Darkness), and you also have the older generation eventually passing the torch to the new generation (seen in some fantasy epics, or in tabletop RPG games where player characters becomes too powerful and when the players and the gamemaster want a peaceful retirement). Those elements and the overall structure are indeed closer to the fantasy genre than Gundam or the Super Robot genre.

Visiting Eretto‘s site as I usually do, I realized how long it has been since the Churuya phenomenon has boomed. We love or we hate it, but it is one of the notable internet meme of the two past years (this is counting that infamous japanese four letter words that has drawn an ever burning hate toward dolls from me (the childhood traumatism from Chucky did not help), or the dansen).

The mother of all nyoro~n parodies

It has started as a random 4koma from an artist who ran out of steam and drawing subject. Then in the span of several weeks, with the help of anonymous communities like 2ch or 4chan and anime forums, the phenomena has spiralled out of control.

But why?

It’s not exactly the most funny thing ever, maybe you will chuckle or smirk upon reading a “nyoron” koma but one of it strenghts is the sheer simplicity:

First: Its setup. First panel will have the churuya-ized character trying to get someone’s attention. The called out person will have have a serious look and is not chibi-ized. In the second panel, Churuya or the churuya-ized character will say something. Third panel, the person who paid attention to the churuya will deny, refute in the most deadpan way possible. Final panel, Churuya will have nothing to reply with, and can only utter nyoro~n or a variation of it. When I think about it, it’s pretty much the japanese comedy duo setup dumbed down in 4koma, with Churuya as the idiot and the other character as the straight deadpan man.

No Youmu, you are as flat as the Silver Surfer’s surfboard

Secondly: its style. Anyone who can draw can Churuya. The setup being as described above, it also doesn’t require much effort. The effort will come in what the Churuya should say and how the straight man gonna deliver the line that will burn the Churuya.

Last: Anything, anyone can be churuya-ized. Not just anime, but also video games or live series.

Terry Bogard’s engrish has been the subject of many jokes from the SNK fan community

Of course, this is not without its flaws. For one, the drawer and writer has to know his targetted audience. No use showing a Spice & Wolf Churuya-koma to anyone who has never seen the show. Then again, humor has never had an universal recipe, what was funny in a time and context may have stopped to be funny later.

However, I have brought this subject, Churuya-koma, to bring another brick to what I think to be one of the important parameters for a cultural phenomenon: It somehow has to be assimilated by the public, in a way that they can make it their own and can come up with their own variations of the phenomenon or casually bring it up in a mundane conversation. Simple example? That dance, back in 2006; or Star Wars.

Oh well, this will be just an excuse to post more Churuyakoma.

PS: I need to think up more banners for the mandigo randomizer.

PPS: Last one for the road.

From my own personal experience, my relationship with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been… on the strange side. Back in the mid-1990, I disliked it. Mind you, if was a VHS rip of the OAV, in japanese with no subtitles. I has no way to grasp what was going on, excepted a bunch of strangely dressed people who would have been in the Village People. I could consider myself fully converted back in 2002, thanks to the efforts of a Viking who named his son after a King of Fighters Boss and a Tard from Kuwait who dreamt to ride a mecha version of Godzilla.

It somehow did help that the manga has started to be published in France.

So let me ramble about JoJo,

Hirohiko has written about his work:

I draw JoJo around the theme of “celebration of life” and “greatness of the humankind”. I want to make sure that my hero overcome dangers and challenges with no help from machines or technology, relying only on the strenght of his own body and mind. This is because I am one to think that sciences are not always the means that help the man to achieve happiness.

The true hero is someone who goes unnoticed, acting behind the shadows for the justice and the greater good. The true hero does not look for praises and ultimately dies in anonymity, knowing he has done the right thing. I think Jesus is a hero in its purest definition…

This hold mostly true thru the course of the series. Jonathan has saved England from the threat of vampires and ultimately died when his ship has sunken. Joseph in part 2 will not be remembered for having saved the world from the Pillar Men, even the nazi officer Stromheim, who was a valuable ally, will die as a nameless soldier in Stalingrad. And what about Caesar Zeppeli? And what about the protagonists of the fourth part? They has gotten rid of a serial killer, but who would believe them if they start talking about supernatural powers and the truth behind the unsolved disappearance cases in Morio?

Such are the endings of JoJo’s parts, no fanfare, no medal from the president, or handshakes from brass as you usually see in Hollywood blockbusters. All they can do is to hope to go back to their lifes, changed into greater men but dealing with their griefs resulting from their lost companions. Because catching up to your goal, doing the right thing, it does not come without a price, last world war II veterans can tell you about that.

It also hold true that JoJos does not rely on oversized guns, huge mechas, or any product of the industry to save the day. “Hamon magic” or “Stand” are resources provided by the human body and mind.

Often fights are won because the protagonists has played with the cards they has been dealt before the fight. They has to figure out the opponent’s modus operandi because the enemy is not going to waste his time into explaining how his technique work.
Each fight and challenge is a riddle, and the heroes can only make it with their own means. Nothing about “OVER 9000!” power-ups coming from nowhere. Even Jotaro’s time stop seems to have come out of the blue BUT it makes sense when: 1. Star Platinum’s abilities has never been that clear all over the series, we only knew he was strong, fast and short-ranged, that’s about it. Nothing about manipulating elements or something like that. 2. Dio has Jonathan’s body, the Jotaro’s ancestor, the fact that Jonathan’s power has been passed on Jotaro and awakened when Dio was back is not unlikely. (this Jotaro bits has been a common complaint among fans and anons).

Another thing that amazed me about JoJo was how it managed to jump from one genre to another. Part One started with a family drama that will remind people of Candy Candy where poor Jonathan couldnt catch a breath. Then it slipped in the gothic horror genre with a slice of kung-fu movies. Part Two is treading more on the adventure genre. Part Three is a pure shonen journey, and is the most popular, leaving an enduring influence on the pop culture. Part Four that start rather slowly switch to the criminal investigation when the villain, Kira Yoshikage, enters in the picture. Part Five is mostly a quest and the ascension of Giorno Giovanna in the italian mob ranks. Part Six is a prison fiction that end with a big cataclysm. I have yet to read part seven, Steel Ball Run.

Not only it jumped from a genre to another, but it also blend them so well together that it leave the reader speechless. Not to mention the diversity of tone within part, you will shed tears, you will laugh, you will have chills down your spine just from reading the pages, without having the transition between tones coming awkward.

Another thing one can recognize about JoJo’s bizarre adventure, the author always seems to be boiling with ideas. Just when you thought he has run out of ideas, he comes back with crazier ones. Not only it appears cracky, but it manage to make sense in the JoJoverse. There are crazy to the point your eyes rolls; but not in Jojo, JoJo is crazy AND awesome.

One of JoJo’s most awesome moments. Hell, one of the most awesome shonen moments ever.

Another of JoJo’s strenghts lies on its characters, both protagonists and antagonists. While one cannot deny how noble characters like Jonathan were. We can also see the great attention paid to the antagonists. I can never stress enough about how the polarity of the protagonist x antagonist is important and vital. Antagonists in jojo can be the most infamous like the iconic Dio Brando, or Kars from part two or Kira Yoshikage, but also very noble like sir Buford in part one or Waamu from part two. In the end, they always force a sentiment of respect from the reader. One can just see the cult following Dio Brando and its influence on authors like Yoshihiro Togashi or ZUN.

Sakuya, ready to muda muda shit up

Graphic-wise, JoJo is more of an acquired taste, but manage the impossible; marrying the ugly with sexy, the manly with the fruity. One have to read from the first volume to the lastest in part five to witness the long path walked by Araki. What has started as a rather cheap Hokuto no Ken’s bastard child has shaped out into one of the more unique styles of the profession. To the point that, back in 2004 or 2005, he has the honor to be hosted in a Parisian art gallery. No poses are impossible in JoJo, but most of poses in them are impossible IRL, but this did not stop japanese fans from founding a JoJo Posing School for great greatness or great hilarity, depending on how you swing.

Small clue for the parody: Part 4 finale

This school is just a witness of the deep influence of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure on the japanese pop culture, comparable to Dragon Ball, Hokuto no Ken, Sailor Moon or Gundam.

Once the Stands has been introduced, the concept has been copied, w/o ever been equaled. Shaman King, Persona games and many more are imitations, references or homage taking root in the stand concept.

I personally think that Nanoha would have been more awesome like that

JoJo’s influence is so great that it spread over internet but also in western medias. The most notable example is the series Heroes, especially Hiro the time manipulator.
In the end, I am hoping that this humble article will make people read JoJo if they has not done it yet. Get past the barrier of the graphic style, and you will enjoy a world of bizarre and awesome and fabulous, while giggling over the parodies that are spreading over the fanarts and doujins of your favorite franchises.

Who say it does not compute? It sure does compute for me