Personality VS. Multidimensionality: Alternate Metrics for Critiquing Anime

IntroductionI was making a favorite characters 3x3 this morning when I was struck with a realization. All of the characters that I would consider to be my absolute favorites are either psychologically or ideologically complex. I could make a pretty airtight argument as to why any one of them is interesting to think about or unique in some way... with the exception of Claire Stanfield from Baccano!... and it’s not like he’s a soft addition either. If I were to drop any character off of the list it would be Lelouch, and two characters that I had to cut (Asuka and Kaiki) are very emotionally and psychologically complex. When this hit me I sat there pondering for a few minutes as to what actually caused me to like Claire so much.It’s not as if he’s simple or uninteresting on an intellectual level. He has a well established backstory, interesting motivations, and a somewhat unique ideology... It’s just that he isn’t extraordinarily complex either, or at the very least doesn’t have an extraordinary amount of complexity that can be inferred from the information that we’re given in the show. After thinking about it a bit more, I realized that the same could be said of most characters in Baccano! (with the exceptions of Ennis and some of the older side characters, who do have very complex psychological states that the viewer has enough information to infer)... but I consider Baccano! to have my favorite cast of all time. After wracking my brain about this for a while, I came to my answer: personality.Personality is something that I find is rarely discussed directly when people are critiquing the quality of characters in anime. While pretty much everyone references it indirectly, when it’s brought up it’s generally to say that it isn’t a legitimate metric of critique... and I must admit that I’m guilty of this as well. In the following paragraphs I will present the argument that, while inherently extremely subjective, personality is an extremely helpful metric in discussion, and has certain elements that can be quantified.Definition of TermsWhat I mean when I say personality is surface traits. Things that you would have an innate understanding of even if you are given no information about the characters motivation, background, ideology, or psychology. Aspects of it are highly related to dimensionality, which I will use to refer to the above traits. It only makes sense that a character’s personality will be largely informed by their emotional state, ideas, and baggage. The difference is what these elements are for. While multidimensionality exists largely to facilitate verisimilitude, to make a character feel more real, personality encompasses the traits that inform your basic perception of a character. It’s important to note that I do not mean your logical perception, but instead your instinctual or your emotional one here. Personality is what informs your snap judgements, multidimensionality then builds on that before you finally form an overall opinion. With those definitions in mind, let’s run through the big things that will fall under the domain of personality:ExpressionSimply enough how a character outwardly expresses their internal thoughts and emotions. This covers everything from how often a character chooses to interact with others, word choice, natural charisma, ability to lie, tendency to lie, level of trust towards others... the list goes on and on. This is the piece that is most informed by a character’s dimensionality. It can be easy to conflate the two, or even dismiss expression altogether as an aspect of dimensionality, but the distinction becomes clear when you analyze two characters with similar dimensions (ideals, motives, etc...).As an example let’s look at Lelouch from Code Geass and Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero. I’m tagging this as spoilers to avoid issues, as it does hint at one event and gives some information as to character motivations that isn’t directly referenced in ep 1 of either show, but it should be pretty safe to view: Fate/Zero and Code Geass spoilers What makes this interesting is that even though they share so many elements in their motivations and the way they think, the way they express themselves drastically alters how we as the viewers perceive them as individuals. Further than that, their methods of expression affect how other characters perceive them and feed back into their dimensionality. Ultimately this is what leads to both of them using such drastically different methods to achieve their goals (in addition to the difference in their abilities).Character DesignCharacter design is generally discussed as a purely aesthetic feature, but it also informs a character’s personality (and therefore your perception of them and therefore the narrative if the perception the design creates is intentional). How a character chooses to style their hair or what they decide to wear is very often an aspect of expression, and if they do not use it as expression then that can say something about their character as well. Further, because nothing is created in a vacuum, character design is often used on a meta level to (for better or worse) cue you in to a character’s archetype. Examples where this sort of look carries obvious traits with it include the ‘shounen protagonist’ look (generally doofy hair and well defined muscles) , the big boobed older sister/sempai, and the black (often emo) haired edgy “cool” character.Voice ActingVoice acting, oddly enough, I do see sometimes talked about in relation to someone's overall opinion of a character... but generally only if they feel as if the VA doesn’t fit the character’s personality. Voice acting, like character design, informs a character's personality. Cadence, intonation, and everything else about how lines are delivered is very important to how we perceive a character’s expression (even if we don’t really have words to discribe it). This tends to be of lesser importance though simply because we watch shows in a medium where most of us don’t understand the language. This means that some context that a VA’s performance brings to a show is inherently lost for us. Given that dub VAs are separated from the original production of a show, they can’t be counted on to carry the information either (and notoriously fail at it in many cases).As an aside, this is also likely part of the reason that Baccano! has my favorite cast. In this instance, not only does the dub do an excellent job of reflecting the spirit of the show, it is considered by many to be the definitive way to watch it. This means that an element of personality that we don’t often fully process in anime is fully fleshed out in this show.Shot CompositionI know it’s kind of weird to say that a character’s personality is informed by a meta aspect of the show, but hear me out. The above definition of personality is the external presentation of a character. While normally you view another human being through the lens of your own eyes and how you happen to see them, in a show what you get to see of a character can be structured down to the most minute detail. While this isn’t a factor as to how a character presents themselves and therefore doesn’t give direct information as to a character’s dimensionality, it does inform how they come off to you and therefore their personality. This is the point in my mental path of logic where it really started to irk me just how much we (myself included) have been ignoring personality in criticism. Some directors put a lot of work into structuring exactly how shots fit together to give off a certain impression, and to act as if personality isn’t a legitimate critical aspect of a show is to strip validity from their effort. The same can be said for the above sections as well if they’re structured, but this was the point where it really hit home for me personally.Music, the context in which we see characters, and even the order events are shown to us are all similar to shot composition in this way. They don’t get their own section because I’d be repeating myself.When Personality is ImportantSo great, we have a solid definition of terms and a couple of examples as to how personality can inform dimensionality, but when is it actually important to bring up personality in criticism? In general personality is dismissed because whether or not you like a character is irrelevant to their intellectual value, and because criticism is something that’s generally done by people who consider themselves intellectually I suppose it’s easy to conflate that with the notion that to be ‘good’ under some critical measure your show has to have intellectual value. If you watch shows solely for their intellectual merits, then more power to you,, but most people watch shows for a variety of reasons. This is why I personally choose to rate based on impact. To me a certain degree of emotion is about equivalent to an amount that a show made you think and so on and so forth. While the actual weight given to each element will vary from person to person, I feel like this is how most people decide on their overall opinions of shows whether they realize it or not.What’s important in all of this is that personality affects emotion. If you like the main character’s personality, then you are going to be more invested in their experience. If you hate a villain’s personality, you’ll feel gratification at their downfall (or, even better, if you like a villain’s personality you’ll likely experience a range of emotions with their successes and failures). Of course this is all extremely subjective, I might like the personality of a character that you might hate, whereas it’s a lot easier to agree that at the very least their motivations are interesting. What this gives us though is a launching pad for stating our biases though. For example I might say:“Outside of liking his political opinions and motivations, I like Yang Wenli as a character because I identify with his bizarre lazy productivity and inability to handle praise.”Now some of us do this already, but others consciously avoid statements like this because of a perceived subjectivity. I’m sure you’ve heard this point a million times before, but to quickly reiterate: CRITIQUE IS ALWAYS SUBJECTIVE... but not discussing is stupid as well. Everyone has biases that they’re going to bring so as people who discuss anime all the time our job is to identify ours, state them where relevant, and then explain using logic where our enjoyment or lack thereof comes from building off of said biases. Using another subjective but quantifiable metric can only be beneficial.The next use of personality in critique I already mentioned above, and is probably the most obvious: How personality informs and is informed by dimensionality. It should go without saying that a way a character acts on the surface determines how other individuals will react to them. Because of this you can learn a lot about a character’s complexity from their surface personality. For example you observe that Shinji from NGE whines a lot. That relates to his deeper character as it both reflects and reinforces his lack of self confidence. The more he whines, the more people perceive him as weak, the more they treat him as if he is weak, the more he perceives himself as weak, the more he whines.Outside of that, there are some less positive layers as to the relationship between personality and dimensionality. Specifically tropes. Character archetypes are self reinforcing concepts that allow us to automatically imply specifics sets of internal complexity from a character’s surface personality... often simply from their character design. Technically, I’d assume this as a positive since it allows writers to communicate more information in less space. The issue is that writers more often than not fall into tropes out of laziness rather than as a means to create a concise narrative, meaning that, while I consider archetypes to be a technical positive, under most circumstance the way they are employed makes them into a negative... but I digress. The actual point of this is to note the information that can be conveyed through a character’s personality by way of meta expectation rather than inferences about how that personality relates to their complexity, and that that fact is something worth discussing when critiquing or debating anime.Before we move onto the next section, I’ll also talk quickly about personality’s effect on themes. Themes are one of the least tangible metrics for critique and probably a whole other essay in themselves (if I even get enough of a handle on them to properly comment), but surface personality can greatly contribute to a theme. The most obvious way to do this is to have a character whose surface personality matches or compliments the current theme of a show. A solid example of this would be Hyouka, where Minor Hyouka spoilers, basically the premise It’s also possible to go for something more subtle with this, and introduce characters to facilitate moods and therefore manipulate emotional pacing on a minute level... but again, we’re getting into an entirely separate essay here.UniquenessThis is the one instance that comes to mind where we can ‘objectively’ (or as objectively as one can talk about art) about the role of personality, and therefore it deserves its own section. The scale from unique to generic is relatively quantifiable as it is defined by the number of shows a character that is reasonably similar in enough of the categories outlined above under personality appears in. With some examples defining a character’s level of uniqueness such that all participants in a discussion are generally on the same page should be pretty easy... and in fact it’s something we already do, but not to its fullest potential. Generally when a character is being called generic the traits that are called out are the characters surface personality traits, however when a character is lauded for a unique personality, people tend to solely comment on the character’s multidimensionality.The reason for this is pretty straightforward: since in discussions we value dimensionality over personality we tend to talk about unique multidimensional characters when discussing uniqueness. On the flip side, crappy characters in anime tend to be archetypes like we talked about above, and use said archetypes to replace multidimensionality. Because of this the only thing that can be criticised as generic is their personality as the rest does not exist. There are very few generic multidimensional characters (not to say that there aren’t bad ones, there are plenty of those, but multidimensional characters tend to fall less into the trap of generic archetypes because being multidimensional in the first place means that you don’t get to participate in the laziness that those archetypes are meant to facilitate).What I would argue we are missing in discussions therefore is talk of unique personalities. It’s hard to talk generally about this so I’ll just throw out some examples and what they can do for a show. The entire cast of Baccano! fits this pretty much as previously mentioned, and the surface level of their interactions serves to create one of the most entertaining experiences in anime (that’s not to say there isn’t more to the show, but after writing this I’m convinced that this is a major factor as to why I enjoy it so much). To get a little more general though, think of any side character that you really liked. Most likely it was based on them having a unique and intriguing personality, as odds are they didn’t get enough screentime to truly develop dimensionality. Some solid examples of this include the teacher from Kill la Kill, Haruhi’s father in Ouran Highschool Host Club, and Dante from FMA 2003. I’m sure there are plenty more, but honestly even my brain isn’t properly geared for this yet as my mind keeps jumping to characters with very developed multidimensionality.So yeah, in the end, this is all just basically food for thought. Something that I think that we as a community need to be paying more attention to. I’m not really sure where it will lead us, but I feel that not really thinking about or discussing it as has been generally the case up to now is discounting a very relevant line of thought when it comes to what makes a show. I’ll also note before I go that most examples you come up with aren’t going to be one or the other, the best characters generally have both interesting multidimensionality and personalities, it’s just a good idea to think of the two as separate but very related entities.I guess that’s all for now, sorry if that was really dull, my brain just got caught on this tangent and I felt the need to talk about it. http://ift.tt/1Wo60Bz

A Different Approach to Anime Recommendations

Firstly, sorry I haven’t put out the Paranoia Agent WT! yet. Traveling has been harder than I expected, I’ll get back to my Satoshi Kon analysis stuff the moment I get back. Anyway, on to the preamble for the actual point of this post.When I’m looking for a show, I’m normally not looking for a show for a specific genre or demographic. Genre tags actually tend to be pretty useless for me when I’m looking for what to watch next. Instead, I’m usually looking for a certain feeling, idea, or element. Though you oftentimes see people dropping or asking for a rec or two of this sort of description, it's rare to find entire comprehensive lists like you do when you're looking at shows of a specific genre. I thought I’d compile a list of shows that I’ve seen and enjoyed that fit into these more abstract categories. I’ll be posting this every once in a while in the rec Tuesdays thread and updating it as I watch more shows, so if you have anything to contribute that fits these categories I’ll actually be far more likely to watch it than a normal rec I’m given and if I like it I’ll add it. Note that being included on this list has more to do with the quality of the specific element rather than the quality of the show (though I won’t put any shows that I don’t believe are worth watching on this list).Non-Romance Shows with Good Romantic Subplots:Kara no KyoukaiBaby StepsPaprika (though some people hate the romance here I thought it was well done)Sword Art Online (though I have my problems with this show, I have to give it major props for this in the first half)Note: Spice and Wolf and shows with harems are considered romances for the purposes of this list. SAO gets a pass because the harem elements stay out of the way for the most part during the section that I’m talking about.Shows Where You Legitimately Don’t know if There Will Be a Happy Ending:Kara no KyoukaiCode GeassMadoka MagicaNeon Genesis EvagelionPerfect BlueShikiKokoro Connect (only works if you’re really invested in your best girl winning, one of the better done love triangles out there as the conclusion isn’t obvious from episode 1)Note: I didn’t include some shows on this list that others might. I omitted Fate/Zero, I omitted Cowboy Bebop, and I omitted Shinsekai Yori because while I love that show and think that the story is amazing, I didn’t care enough about the characters for the ending to feel tense even though I legitimately didn’t know what was going to happen.Shows That Have a Solid Argument for the Ends Justifying the Means:Code GeassKill la KillFate/ZeroPsycho-PassLegend of the Galactic HeroesPrincess MononokeNeon Genesis EvangelionShikiShinsekai YoriNote: The argument doesn’t necessarily have to be on the “right” side, I’m more just talking about shows with good characters that operate under this philosophy and aren’t evil or idiots. I omitted Death Note, and I omitted Gurren LagannShows That I’m Constantly Trying to “Solve” in Some Way:Death NoteKara no KyoukaiPsycho PassSteins;GateShinsekai YoriNeon Genesis EvangelionBaccano!Perfect BlueParanoia AgentPaprikaHigurashiThe Monogatari SeriesDenpa-teki Na KanojoPretty much anything Fate/Code GeassSerial Experiments LainShows that Pull You in From the Start:Steins;Gate (yup, I thought the beginning was great and intriguing, fight me)FMA (either one)Attack on TitanPsycho-PassBaccano!Neon Genesis EvangelionAngel BeatsShokugeki no SoumaOne Punch ManKill la KillShows for if You Just Want to be Happy:Baccano!Bokura wa Minna KawaisouBaby StepsDurararaOuran Highschool Host ClubLovely ComplexShokugeki no SoumaShows if You Want More Complex Feels:SakurasouKara no KyoukaiMillennium Actress (seriously, fucking watch this)Kill la Kill (yes, you read that right)Gurren LagannSpice and WolfHunter x HunterFate/ZeroCode GeassFullmetal Alchemist (original over Brotherhood for this, though normally I’d say Brotherhood is better).Clannad/AFCowboy BebopPrincess MononokeShort and Sweet: ( > 20 eps or equivalent runtime)Baccano!Denpa-teki na KanojoAngel BeatsPerfect BluePaprikaMillennium ActressTokyo GodfathersLittle Witch AcademiaSo yeah, this is kind of a WIP for a new type of recommendation. If you have any more non-standard categories to add or stuff that might fit into any of these let me know. I haven't seen a massive amount of shows either so if someone with more experience wants to use this idea as a template that'd be great as well. http://ift.tt/1QxMc6O

[WT!] Paprika

As I’ve come to expect watching through the films of Satoshi Kon, Paprika is amazing. The one hesitation I have in recommending it is that it lacks one thing that is pretty constant among Kon’s works: a slow easing in to the logic of the story. As is par for the course, Paprika cranks up the weird shit-ometer up to 11, but unlike Kon’s other works it makes the choice to dump the strangeness on you from the beginning giving explanation and context afterwards. When I started the film, I was going to write that up as a flaw as it did make it more difficult for me to get immersed in the story early on. The beginning is nothing short of jarring. After completing the movie, however, I can’t in good conscience name it as such. It is certainly a downside to the film’s chosen presentation, but to call it a flaw would be to say that such a jarring beginning doesn’t ultimately serve a larger purpose in terms of how the film builds to the ideas it introduces later on. In the end, all I have to say on the matter of the beginning is to keep watching, the film as a whole entity is well worth it.Paprika shifts between dreams and reality throughout, blending the two as the characters lose their own ability to tell the difference. Oddly enough, even though Paprika has the most narrative reason of Satoshi Kon’s works for these shifts in the form of technology that allows people to watch and interact with the dreams of others, it’s also probably the easiest on the viewer. I had no trouble telling the difference between dream and reality in this movie, whereas in every other work of Kon’s save Tokyo Godfathers there were moments where I was truly unsure. This ends up being beneficial as it allows the viewer to put the entirety of their focus on what is in my mind the most interesting mystery of the show: the psychology of the characters. Paprika more than any other Kon film is about the characters on screen over a larger statement about society, and they are amazing. Saying pretty much anything specific on the subject would be spoilers, but the characters are Paprika will stick with me for some time. The way their dreams are used to either directly explore or hint at aspects of their psychology is nothing short of masterful. This does, however, bring me to the only direct flaw that I see in the film. There’s an antagonist who has the potential to be extremely interesting but ended up being underdeveloped to the point where it was difficult to discern his exact motivations. Unlike Millennium Actress, where there were dotted lines with which the viewer could extrapolate the deeper motivations and personalities of the characters that were glossed over in the narrative, Paprika completely fails to give what I feel would be an adequate amount of depth to this one important character. It’s not enough to ruin enjoyment of the film (I only became bothered by it in reflecting on the movie after the fact), but it is a little disappointing and out of place when compared to the complex and well written motivations and deeper issues of every other major character.In watching this film, I realize that Kon was not the only creator that I have been gaining an immense respect for. I have also been falling in love with the works of composer Susumu Hirasawa. Hirasawa also worked on Paranoia Agent and Millennium Actress, and on completion of all three I find that he has become one of my favorite composers. The soundtrack for Paprika is on point, and has also inspired me to check out some of his non-anime works (he has a pretty impressive discography). So yeah, if music is as much a selling point for you as it is for me then definitely check it out.As always, the animation is solid, and this might be Kon’s most impressive tour de force in terms of direction. Everyone always talks about how amazing Kon’s transitions are, but in this film in particular they are inventive, beautiful, and help to immerse the viewer in the perspectives of the characters. Kon’s usual meta-commentary is also present, though it winds up existing as flavor alongside the plot rather than being the main point that the film is striving for. There’s a spectacular example of this later in the film where a character who you might not expect is slapped. Without going too far into specifics, this is pretty clearly meant to be a stand-in for a certain character slapping the viewer, chastising you for your preconceptions about what direction a story should go without regards for the feelings of the characters involved (which you would know if you had actually been paying attention to how the characters felt rather than where the cliches would logically take you).This WT! is the fourth entry in a series of posts I’ve been every Tuesday for a little while on the works of Satoshi Kon. After these WT!s are done I’ll then set to reviewing each of his shows and post a final analysis of Kon’s writing and visual style, starting with my Millennium Actress review on January 26th. You can check out the full announcement for my Kon WT!s for more information. Here is the Tokyo Godfathers WT! I made on the first week, here is the Millennium Actress WT! I posted the second week, and here is the Perfect Blue WT! I posted last week. This week I’ll be rewatching parts of Paranoia Agent in order to write my final WT!. Starting this Friday, I’ll be traveling, so the actual dates for these threads are going to become more general guidelines depending on when I have internet. So hopefully I’ll see you guys next week for the PA WT!, if not expect that to come out sometime in the days following. http://ift.tt/1PoArz2

[WT!] Perfect Blue

I am going to preface this WT! by saying that Perfect Blue is the softest recommendation that I have given so far on a Kon film. That’s not because it isn’t amazing, it is. It’s generally considered to be his greatest work, and while I personally prefer Millennium Actress (more on that when I make my analysis threads) I could completely see going either way. Perfect Blue is not a softer recommendation because it isn’t a masterpiece, but because there are certain mindsets going in with which you won’t find any enjoyment from it. If you’re in the mood for something uplifting, save this movie for another day. If shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion are just generally too heavy for your tastes, this might just not be the show for you. Perfect Blue has weight, it is rarely happy, calm, or even comfortable to watch. Perfect Blue is oppressive, aggressively unsettling, and occasionally legitimately disturbing. It is amazing at what it does and if you find yourself in the mood for this bizarre nightmare of a movie I can guarantee you won’t find yourself disappointed.Perfect Blue is a film about Mima, a pop idol who decides to become an actress in order to get past a wall that she feels she’s come up against in her career. Shortly after this change, people in her life start getting attacked. The most amazing thing about this film hands down is the atmosphere. It does an excellent job of putting you into Mima’s perception as the stress of her new job and a possible attacker cause memory gaps and a blending of her films, imagination, and reality in her own mind. Even from the beginning, when not much is going on, the film comes off as unsettling, and this feeling only increases throughout to the point where it’s actually uncomfortable to watch. This is not a flaw in the film, it’s the point. The film is meant to put you on edge and make you feel tense, and it does a spectacular job of that. It makes you as paranoid as Mima becomes throughout as you try to figure out what the hell is going on. There are odd inconsistencies in the show where I’m still not sure if they’re meant to be Mima’s disjointed perception or clues to a larger mystery. The film feels so off that I’m not sure if the answer it gives us at the end is one hundred percent correct, or even what parts in between were real or imagined. It’s the kind of film that you’ll want to watch a few times before you really figure it out, but it doesn’t detract from the spectacularly built atmosphere of the first viewing.Adding the the unsettling atmosphere is the on point soundtrack and, of course, Kon’s signature animation style.The soundtrack exists in a weird limbo for me where I’m not entirely sure what to think of it. Normally I like soundtracks to have at least a few stand out tracks that I’ll listen to outside of the show, and that’s part of how I measure their quality along with simply how well they mesh with the show. I would listen to none of Perfect Blue’s tracks outside of the context of the movie, but I think it would be a problem if it were any other way. Perfect Blue’s soundtrack has a lot of ambience and is at times intentionally unmelodic in order to facilitate the oppressive wrongness of the atmosphere. Kon’s visual style is similarly on point. His transitions do a fantastic job of making each layer of reality blend together so that it’s harder to tell what is actually happening at any given moment. The fact that his characters tend to appear more realistic than most other anime adds to how visceral and disturbing some scenes are, and while I would actually list this as one of Kon’s lesser works in terms of animation it is excellent quality and (as always) blows most non-Kon shows out of the water in terms of directing.As is the norm for Kon, the film also makes some poignant commentary on society throughout, but it’s not overplayed and ends up resting as a backdrop rather than taking the fore as is his normal approach. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is really down to your tastes, he does both well so while I’m a fan of his shows that ultimately end up being meant to give the viewer a message I can’t really complain about this. The messages are there, and it would disrupt the existing plot if they were any less understated.To summarize, Perfect Blue is a masterpiece that is well deserving of all of the 10/10s that it gets. If you are into mindfuck movies you will love this film. If you like mysteries and aren’t afraid of something being dark and confusing, you will love this film. If you can take a dark and disturbing storyline, there’s pretty much no excuse not to watch this short film in case you end up loving it. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to watch this a dozen more times until I’m comfortable with my interpretation of what the fuck actually happened.This WT! is the third entry in a series of posts I’ll be making every Tuesday for a little while on the works of Satoshi Kon. After these WT!s are done I’ll then set to reviewing each of his shows and post a final analysis of Kon’s writing and visual style, starting with my Millennium Actress review on January 26th. You can check out the full announcement for my Kon WT!s for more information. Here is the Tokyo Godfathers WT! I made on the first week and here is the Millennium Actress WT! I posted last week. This week I’ll be watching Paprika. See you guys next week for that WT! http://ift.tt/1mBKOZa

[WT!] Tokyo Godfathers

With Christmas coming in a few days, I thought it only right to drop my Tokyo Godfathers rec thread now. Tokyo Godfathers is frankly an amazing movie that is well worth an hour and a half of your time. It is written and directed by Satoshi Kon, a man who is considered to be a genius of animation in many circles. What’s nice about Tokyo Godfathers when compared to the other works that I’ve seen from him so far is its accessibility. Kon’s vision often necessitates a somewhat confusing approach to storytelling that blends reality and imagination and can be offputting to some viewers. Tokyo Godfathers manages to capture his signature visual style and excellent writing in a very straightforward and heartwarming story.That’s what Tokyo Godfathers ultimately is: heartwarming. It’s the simple adventure of a trio of homeless bums who find an abandoned baby in the trash. The story twists and turns quite a bit, but is very easy to follow and you can get pretty much everything in one watchthrough. That’s not to say it’s lacking in rewatch value, however, as one of the best parts about the movie is the little details dropped in in the background or quickly glossed over. There’s an amazing scene part way through the film where two monolingual characters slowly come to understand words in each other's’ languages that just blew me away, and there are tons of tiny things like that throughout the entire journey.The show also has possibly the best portrayal of a transgender character I’ve seen in anime. While she can be over the top at times, it’s not hard to argue for her being portrayed as the most ‘morally right’ character in the movie. The main characters accept her for who she is, barring some derogatory language, and she doesn’t exist solely for comedy as ‘the gay one’. Tokyo Godfathers does an excellent job of portrayal of largely glossed over groups in general, actually. It portrays the human side of the oft-dehumanized. I won’t go into much more to avoid spoilers, but it tackles homelessness pretty excellently as well, putting a face and a personality to the random people you see loitering on the streets. Having had a couple of homeless friends in the past, I can say that a lot of the small details about them feel pretty accurate and genuine (and I wouldn’t doubt it if Kon or someone on the writing team actually talked to homeless people when researching for the film, or even if that were the initial inspiration).The animation is top notch, but unassuming. There’s nothing in this show that will make you think “wow, that was awesome!”, but it manages to be quietly beautiful all the same. The only real downsides to the show are the soundtrack (which will really come down to the person. It’s a good soundtrack, but the style just wasn’t my thing), and the above noted fact that it is really straightforward. If you go into it expecting another mindfuck on the level of Paranoia Agent you will be greatly disappointed, but so long as you limit your expectations to an amazingly fleshed out small scale adventure with likable and well written characters I can’t imagine not finding it at least enjoyable.As a final note, this WT! is the first entry in a series of posts I’ll be making every Tuesday for a little while on the works of Satoshi Kon. After these WT!s are done I’ll then set to reviewing each of his shows and post a final analysis of Kon’s writing and visual style. You can check out the full announcement for more information. See you next Tuesday with a Millennium Actress WT!. http://ift.tt/1QD5TzM

Contrast in Anime (Essay)

What if I told you that the reasons why Death Parade's misleading OP fits so well with the show, Cowboy Bebop is considered to be a masterpiece, and people develop incredibly strong attachment to over the top shows like Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann were all related to the same thing? Contrast, while not necessary for a good anime, is a mutable technique that is not often talked about but heavily colours our opinions of anime, and creative (and non-creative really) media in general.Oftentimes people will talk about watching a show that is good (or even great) in every quantifiable regard that they can think of, and yet somehow they never find themselves getting invested. We'll use Shinsekai Yori as an example here. Conversely you often see people talking about just how invested they got in a show that they recognize is "bad" by most critical metrics. Sword Art Online will be our go to for this for the purposes of this argument. I believe that the reason for this is often how well the show uses contrast in terms of tone. Shinsekai Yori is a brilliant show on an intellectual level by just about any metric, the worldbuilding is generally acclaimed as some of the best out there and the plot builds to a final message about extremely vague spoilers... But I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about being on the edge of their seat throughout the show. In fact, it is about as common to see people talk about being actively bored by it as it is to see people praising it (I know I was at points, and the show is one of my personal favorites). Part of the reason for this is obviously attributable to the characters. While the aren't unrealistic they are rather bland (by which I mean don't have many strong defining qualities or much depth to their psychology). The thing is I can list off a handful of shows with bland characters that people often talk about being invested in (note that this is not a statement of quality to the following shows, I find some shows on this list to be very good, others I do not):Death NoteMadoka MagicaKokoro ConnectSakurasouSword Art OnlineSAO is kind of my gold standard example for this, so like I said above I'll be using it for the comparison. Sword Art Online, by most metrics, simply isn't as good as Shinsekai Yori. The plot has moments of utter ridiculousness that are simply unbelievable, and while some characters are more interesting than those of SSY, this is mitigated by the ones that are completely unbelievable (and for the most part they're equally as bland). So what does SAO have that SSY does not that leads to it generating more investment from practically everyone who watches it? The answer, as you've probably guessed, is its utilization of contrast. SSY maintains approximately the same tone throughout. From episode 1 we are introduced to the generally dark and oppressive atmosphere. Even the slice of life elements throughout the show are given a creepy edge, and the general feel of creepiness and oppression never really lightens throughout the entirety of the narrative.The beginning of SAO on the other hand is presented as "fun". We get to see people playing the game lightheartedly before ep 1 spoilers The tone then shifts instantly, and the next few episodes are far darker. SAO then constantly switches between a light feel-good vibe and a darker brooding one. In the instance of SSY it is hard to get invested in the emotions and atmosphere that we are presented with because from the get-go we are numbed to it. The creepiness in the beginning does not affect us very much because we aren't invested in the story yet, and by the time we are into the story creepiness has become the status quo. It is simply there. In SAO we don't get much out of the initial show of happiness because we aren't invested yet either, but by the shock comes around ideally one is invested in the story and it hits harder than it would have had the show opened with it. Further, as the show goes on the additional tonal shifts continue to positively impact each other with a synergistic effect. The more you are experiencing the dark brooding nature of one section the more the next breath of calm feels refreshing... which in turn increases the impact when the show turns dark again as we feel as if more has been taken away, instead of a state of loss being the norm. Now this doesn't really change my stance much on the quality of either show. I still think SSY is one of the greats and that SAO is mediocre at best. That said it's important to note that it people don't like SAO because it's bad and drop SSY because they don't understand what good is. Sword Art Online has a clear definable and intentional quality that Shinsekai Yori does not, and it's perfectly legitimate for that to affect enjoyment. Below I'll list some other examples of where tonal shift impacts investment before moving on to the next section:Cowboy BebopDeath Parade's opening (the thought that sparked this entire essay) in my mind drastically makes the show better. It's a perfect example of why people should give OPs and EDs a chance, simply because sometimes they are a very intentional part of the vibe that a show is trying to present. Death Parade is a generally dark show with very little to smile at throughout its run. The OP which presents all of the characters having fun in a way totally unlike the show is not only comedic as we know it is completely different from our expectations of the episode to come, but also serves to frame said episode so that the darkness and drama have more impact. I don't consider Death Parade to be a particularly amazing show, but the contrast with the OP alone serves to enhance the impact of the show itself and ultimately improves its quality.Neon Genesis Evangelion is an example of a show where the quality of the contrast is hard to determine, and it ultimately depends on how sensitive you are to small tonal shifts. The show is undeniably dark throughout, but the people who enjoy it the most tend to be the ones who point to the brief moments where characters are content as some of the best in the show from a critical standpoint as they are used to frame the characters and concepts. These moments serve a dual purpose, by my interpretation, as the contrast created between the characters’ inability to deal with their situations and the brief moments of clarity make both impact the viewer more. Of course, it being that these moments are understated, it’s really down to the person whether or not this actually succeeds at improving investment.Shows like Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, Trigun, Angel Beats, Sakurasou, and Steins;Gate all use the same formula of heavy comedy in the earlier sections that then adds gravitas to the seriousness later in the show (regardless of whether or not you think the other aspects of a given example are actually enough to make it good).Higurashi uses completely normal slice of life to set up the horror, setting up an emotionally positive status quo so that the fear/other negative emotions have more impact.Legend of the Galactic Heroes does an excellent job of contrast in terms of pacing. While subjectively how slow the show is bothers some people, it’s almost undeniable that the slow build of the plot enhances sections where a lot is happening very fast. It’s a similar experience to watching a scene in slow motion, the moment the action snaps back to real time it feels like everything is hurtling forward at breakneck pace. LotGH does a great job of timing its set pieces so as to put the viewers on the edge of their seat.For a negative example, I think that a lot of the reason that many people can’t get into generic harem shows is because everything is status quo, which means that it’s hard for you to insert yourself into the emotions of the protagonist that is literally meant for you to insert yourself into. Every critically acclaimed show with harem elements that I can think of is either to some extent a genre parody, does contrast well, and/or has a protagonist that is not self-insert.And there are plenty more examples of this. The final thing that I would like to cover is how badly used contrast can negatively impact one’s experience. This, ultimately, is the reason for two of my most controversial opinions in anime: my dislike of the endings of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Toradora (which might be enough evidence to suggest that I put more stock in contrast than others). I can’t really bring up any examples for this without spoilers, because badly done contrast is generally when the tonal shift in a given moment is too dramatic of a shift from the existing tone that has been built up through the rest of the plot. I’ll give the main examples that come to my mind below. Sorry if none of the spoiler tags are anything you can read, it’s kind of hard to frame this section of the argument in a way that’s not annoyingly abstract without examples, but examples are inherently spoilers for one show or another.Higurashi KaiFullmetal Alchemist BrotherhoodFMA:B/2003Toradora... Shit, just a paragraph over the limit. Link to the last little bit (in comments). http://ift.tt/1OZGRah

A More Lengthy Explanation of my Stance on Fanservice in Anime

I've had to explain this a lot lately so I've decided to compile my logic in a single post both so that anyone who cares to can discuss my stance in its full context and so that I can link back to this for anyone who wants the long version so that I don't have to write it out every time. Note that the in the following when I say "fanservice" I am referring to sexual fanservice, not the broader definition.So I'll start off by saying that I believe fanservice to be inherently neutral. I primarily enjoy shows for the story and characters. While music or animation can enhance the presentation of the previous two and add flavor, sex appeal on its own does nothing for either (well, I guess it does something for the characters, but I was talking for the personality). Therefore the sex appeal of a given show will not enhance or harm my rating under most circumstances... except when said sex appeal has a positive or negative effect on the portrayal of the characters or narrative.This, I think, is really getting into why a lot of people view fanservice as an inherent negative. There are two pieces to this problem so I'll tackle the easiest one first. There are a lot of shows out there that are very low quality in terms of plot and characters, because said story elements are largely vehicles for fanservice. This leads to the assumption that fanservice is bad because of the connection that is has with other negative elements of the story. There is a direct causal effect here, so it would be wrong to dismiss this as correlation rather than causality, but it would also be wrong to classify it as an absolute. It is also important to note that often the characters and plot of a show are sacrificed to make an ideological or philosophical point (see Madoka Magica for characters that exist to make a point rather than for their own sake), which is often seen as having far greater inherent value than when the same features of a show are sacrificed for the sake of fanservice. I would make the argument that this is because a larger purpose or point to a show will have an inherent value. If this inherent value is positive, it can offset or even exceed the negative from sacrificing the characters or plot. Fanservice, by my definition being neutral, does nothing to offset these negatives and we are therefore left with a "bad" show by my (and many others') metric. So, with that in mind we can say that fanservice is inherently negative when other features of the show must be sacrificed for its sake, as it carries no positive factors of its own (this coming from someone who doesn't watch anime for fanservice, obviously someone considers fanservice to be another metric for enjoyment like characters or soundtrack would use a different metric).The second piece to the problem is now almost entirely solved by the first. This is the instance where fanservice exists in a show that exists for the sake of plot, characters, or other "positive" factors, but actively detracts from these elements. Take the sexualization of characters in Code Geass. The childish attempts at titilation contrast with the adult themes and give many scenes in the show a confused feel, as if it didn't know whether it was trying to get some boners out of teenagers or tell a legitimate story. It's easy to think of fanservice as inherently bad because it's so noticeable when it's doing this. It sticks out like a sore thumb. While other aspects (such as music or animation) stand out when they're bad, they also tend to stand out when they're good. Positive fanservice is much, much rarer. More common are the shows where fanservice coexists with the narrative and we forget about it the moment the show is done:Gurren LagannSakurasouMidori DaysShokugeki no SoumaActually I'm going to stop this list here because Souma is a great example of what I'm talking about. I know many people who wrote off the show because of the overt fanservice in the beginning. While some people I understand that it makes them legitimately uncomfortable (in which case you can't really deny that fanservice is an inherent negative from their perspective, just like for people who watch for it it is an inherent positive), a lot of people dropped this show early on because they associated the blatant fanservice with the glut of shows that have bad writing and characters along with their breasts. Souma does not have bad writing or characters. I don't think it's a great show just for the record, but it does do an excellent job accomplishing what it sets out to do. It's an enjoyable parody of the battle-shounen genre with likable characters and an awesome soundtrack. The fanservice never gets in the way of that goal except when it turns people off because of what they associate coming with said fanservice.So, I've made the argument that fanservice doesn't add or detract from shows outside of the realm of personal preference inherently, and that it all comes down to how it is presented... but what about the next step. So far I have only talked about how fanservice can coexist with a narrative and characters, but can it serve them? It's rare, but hell yes. I think everyone probably knew this was coming, but I'm going to talk about Monogatari and Kill la Kill now. Talking about the ways that the fanservice in Monogatari serves to frame the narrative is kind of beating a dead horse by now, but I'll go over it really quickly for those who don't know. Among many other things, the fanservice is used to color the audiences perception and put us in the head of the main character. Araragi, the lead character of the show most of the time, is a sexually frustrated highschool kid. The women in his life are heavily sexualized because that is how he perceives them. In the rare instances when the show exits his viewpoint, the characters are shown much differently (and for the most part much less sexually). For a rather enjoyable hour of rambling about these points with plenty of examples from the series, see the video that Digibro made analyzing it.So now onto the can of worms that is Kill la Kill. I have seen on multiple occasions people chastising fans of the series for looking to hard in order to find depth when they really want to justify their need for fanservice. This is a somewhat odd claim in the first place given that I don't really think of Kill la Kill as particularly sexy. Regardless of that, and even barring the idea that there's any kind of symbolism or allegory behind Kill la Kill, the fanservice serves the narrative and the progression of the characters. In the early section of the show Kill la Kill spoilers The show then moves on to use clothing constricting the body as a metaphor for oppression and nudity as a symbol of rebellion. Even the ways in which characters are sexualized speaks to their personality spoilersI'll also quickly mention Neon Genesis Evangelion here despite my general reluctance to analyze it in any context (I love it, it's just that everything that can be said about it has been said one too many times already and far more eloquently than I could put it). The brief sections of that show where Rei and Asuka are seen in a sexual light is meant to be a critique of the anime fanbase as a whole. I've seen some very interesting breakdowns of how this is likely Anno showing you how fucked up the archetypes you're into would actually be... Basically calling Otaku's a bunch of fucked up degenerates in classic Anno fashion, but it doesn't change the fact that the fanservice there serves his narrative purpose.... And that pretty much sums up my stance. There are other scenarios of course. It's always refreshing to see shows where there is no sexualization or where it's handled tastefully just because of the glut of fanservice that's out there. Shows like Psycho-Pass where the main character is not once portrayed in a sexual or romantic light despite being female are a breath of fresh air. Shows like Kara no Kyoukai that movie 3 spoilers are nice amidst the lighthearted nudity or near nudity that characterizes fanservice.I know that I've noticeably left out a piece of this argument, and that's the feminist standpoint. The short version of my argument there is that badly characterized women are the problem, not sexualised ones. Sexual features are something that is inherent in people and it's silly to conflate being seen as something sexual with not being seen as a person. Not actually being written as a person is far more egregious... But I'm not going to write all of that out right now as that would end up leading me into the completely unrelated can of worms that is stereotypes and representation in anime... A rant for another day. For now, thanks for reading.Edit: Much Requested TL;DR: Fanservice is neutral, neither positive nor negative inherently. It just happens that it is often either badly used or used in bad shows. http://ift.tt/1NcWTx3