One of the (very few) anime I started watching during my extended break from this blog was The Third. Last night, I finally got around to watching the third volume of The Third, and I figured I’d resurrect the ever-popular (for sufficiently small values of popular) “Thoughts On” format. Therefore, below is an unordered list of my thoughts. Minor spoilers may abound.
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Seeing as how this is nominally an anime blog, I should probably post at least a little about anime, huh?
Taking advantage of Random Curiosity’s Spring 2008 preview, which provides screenshots and summaries and other things I’m much too lazy to do myself, let’s see whether there’s anything coming out that I’m interested in.
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Via scans_daily, the most insane thing you’ll see all day. (Click image for full-size.)
The girl in white on the left, of course, is Jesus.
Via Chizumatic, I learn of a new anime series called Shina Dark. (Framegrab stolen from Subculture Anime Blog.)
I won’t copy/paste the whole story description, but apparently the basic plot is that the nations of the world send a thousand beautiful maidens to the island realm of the demon lord Exoda in order to fulfill his lusts and stop him from rampaging across the world. Only, it turns out that Exoda (who doesn’t really look that demonic) isn’t all that lustful, but no one wants to accept the “tainted” women back. So Exoda lets them stay on his island and establish the new nation of Shina Dark.
After coining the term “harem horde” to describe this type of show, Steven Den Beste observes:
[T]his is possibly the best explaination I’ve heard for a series setup to explain just why it is that you’ve got a place where there are a thousand bodacious babes and only one guy who doesn’t want any of them. The nations of the world would have picked the most beautiful girls they had to offer as sacrifices.
But it’s still a stupid idea.
Which I more or less agree with. But I’m kind of sad that this core concept is being “wasted” on a harem horde show, because - freed from the constraints and purposes of that genre - I think this “stupid idea” can become a rather good one.
Step One: Exoda, instead of - so far as I can gather from the frame grabs - being essentially a human male serving as male lead for the harem, becomes a truly non-human entity. Even if he occasionally takes human form, he isn’t one, and he isn’t interested in romance with the women any more than he was in sating his non-existent vile lusts on them in the first place. He becomes a disinterested, if vaguely benevolent, landlord.
So, what is our show about, then? The women establishing their new nation and society. There’s some obvious challenges there: each of these women is originally from a different country and culture, probably with some language barriers. Practical skills for settling and uninhabited island are likely to be thin on the ground.
And then we get the internal conflict. Beyond the siple of question of who’s in charge, I can see a lot of distinct factions arising. Some might worship Exoda, others might hate him and even want to kill him. Some might be better off on the island and others might struggle to find a way to return to their old lives. Some might hate the outside world for abandoning them and try pirate raids to get much-needed supplies.
External conflict would come in later in the series, as the nations of the world react to Shina Dark’s rise. Do world powers feel threatened? A world that sends 1000 women to appease a demon is probably not terribly feminist, so that angle can get played too. I imagine a climax with a multi-national fleet sent to destroy Shina Dark and kill or reclaim the women, as all the internal conflicts come to a head…
Hmm. Now I’ve spent much too long and too many words thinking about this. I might need to check out this series when it comes out and see whether it does anything like this with the concept, or whether it just plays out a mostly generic “harem horde’ story.
Sadly, I imagine the latter is much more likely.
One of the first meaningful posts on this blog was a tangential reply to something Pete Zaitcev wrote, so why not follow that tradition for this soft relaunch?
Over at his new blog, he introduces me to the existence of a fairly significant project to rewrite the Haruhi novels/anime with the genders of all the characters reversed. (Via a link to post on “Moe Check!” ). Pete writes:
I am not amused by the sex swap per se, primarily because I think Ranma squeezed that particular lemon dry back in the 80s…P.S. Truth to be told, Kyonko does play some angles on the swap which Ranma didn’t. Specifically, the favourite joke of Kyonko is how all the relationships and actions become ridiculous after the swap, e.g. Mr. Yuki Nagato inviting Kyonko to his room late in the evening. It’s the schtick advocates of colorblind society enjoy a lot, and it never gets old.
Genderbending fanfic of various sorts is actually one of the more interesting genres to me, and this post made me think about why, which lead into some various thoughts on the different sub-genres of it, which lead to some various thoughts on how I would do it to the Naruto cast (if I wasn’t dreadfully late on finishing the fanfics I’ve actually started). If any readers actually (a) exist, and (b) aren’t completely disturbed by this topic of conversation, then click on the more link for these thoughts. (Minor spoilers for Naruto involved.)
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Recent Naruto Manga
- What’s the difference between the first chapter of a fanfiction I’m not going to read more of and the latest story-arc in Naruto? One swiftly and clumsily eliminates old characters, introduces a host of new characters including a new love interest for a pre-existing character, in a burst of enthusiasm boosts said pre-existing character to new, unrivaled heights of power with little regard to explanation or logic, and generally fails to generate any interest in where the story is going. The other I frequently encounter on Fanfiction.Net.
By request, a return to simpler anime… with airplanes.
So, the My-HIME DVDs have little short extras added after each episode, which weren’t part of the TV broadcast. And let me say:
- The extra after the first episode on DVD 2 is absolutely horrid. Even for a series as lowbrow as My-HIME, it stands out as a fairly disgusting display. It left me embarrassed not only to be watching the show, not only to be an anime fan, but to be a member of the same species as the people who made it. Worst. Fanservice. Ever.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
I was literally just thinking that it was a little odd that no one had licensed The Third and pondering downloading the series beyond the three or four episodes I watched when it first came out.
Only to go to AnimeOnDVD, note the sight redesign, and find the link to the page announcing its licensing and not much else, not even the identity of the licensor. (Which seems to be a trend and is a little annoying.)
Just an odd little coincidence presented for your amusement or boredom, as the case may be.
So, this weekend I finally got around to watching this DVD, which I’d picked up around the time it came out but never got around to watching. I also roped my friend into watching it with me by the clever strategy of putting it in the DVD player while he was in the room.
