Rainbowsphere » Life

It’s Not Slice-Of-Life, It’s SLICE-OF-MAN

Shance — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:59:53 +0000

To explain the cause of this post, I’ll be short and quick: Thanks to Baka-Raptor, I’m never going to watch Cromartie High School, EVER.

It’s every man’s dream. Find me a man who won’t ignite the fire on his loins while looking at this picture, and I might gladly kill myself. Wait, Shin’s one. OHSHI-

Why? Why decline a non-realistic show that aims, or at least pretends to be, slice-of-life? Why not settle for it because it passed the Three Tests To Determine If A Show Is Slice-Of-Life? Or maybe not either of those. The real question is this: Does it pay to hate it not because the entirety of the show pretended to be slice-of-life, but because the manliness of the show made it pretend it’s slice-of-life?

Cromartie High School? Slice-of-life? Holy shit, that would kick ass! I would do anything to live in a world where it’s plausible, let alone ordinary, to go to school with a sentient robot, a sushi-making gorilla, and Freddie Mercury. Unfortunately, Cromartie High School is the least realistic anime I have ever seen.

Baka-Raptor (1/10/2010)

Let’s take Great Teacher Onizuka as an example of a show that is both rated as manly and slice-of-life: Onizuka applies as a teacher, Onizuka gets a problem class. Then, Onizuka falls down from the Nth floor of the school building, severely crushing the vice-principal’s poor Cresta below, while being nearly unharmed himself. And oh, did I mention he’s also into BDSM, kidnapping, and suicide? I don’t know if any of that is slice-of-life to you, but that’s plenty manly, if not GAR, to anyone.

Let’s take another example: Golden Boy. We have an intelligent guy who knows a lot of things, who travels the Earth and electric poles using his miracle bicycle that can outrun motorbikes. Speed? We have it! Electric bio-insulation? Not a problem! Programming and coding of a high-class, thesis-caliber company program BY MERE OBSERVATION? Piece of cake! Harem route? Wait, whatthisissliceofliferightoramirite?

Golden Boy is a story of manliness.

Well, no, not really. It’s a story of life, of the energy and ambition of youth, and-

No, no, it’s not that either. It’s a story of the manliness of youth, the energy and ambition that only true men have.

ETERNAL (1/3/2010)

Men. They have already been known in the past as the gender that never fails to impress… almost. If there’s anything inclined to insanity, murder, or anything that involves the extreme and the absurd, all eyes point their gazes on the man. They think of themselves as someone who thinks outside of the box. They think of themselves as invincible, passionate, juvenile, indestructible, taboo, the pinnacle of anything and everything that will claim everyone’s hearts, especially the girls. Attention whoring, be it direct or indirect, or we can just call mating and procreation instinct bullshit.

Maybe it’s true. Manliness is sometimes what labels a show as slice-of-life. It shows how the insanity is labeled as something normal, if not something positive, interesting, or impressive altogether. It shows and explores the capabilities of what men, or mankind in general, can do. It may or may not have a plot. It may or may not be what is or was intended to be. It may be stupid, absurd, unbelievable, or something that’s not really going to appeal to the general public. Then again, if there’s so much man in your slice-of-life, wouldn’t it be better to call it slice-of-man instead?

The New Year’s Day of the Impoverished Otaku

Shance — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:19:05 +0000

Celebrating New Year’s Eve with ourselves… and ourselves: Mascots clockwise from top – Reimu Hakurei (Rainbowsphere’s co-mascot), Mils (Miluda‘s mascot), Palette (Rainbowsphere’s current mascot), Unnamed Character (Walfas‘ mascot).

It’s officially a new year here (one hour ahead of Tokyo time), and with it come new hopes, new dreams, new aspirations and inspirations. The new chapter unfolds, and our role is to fruitfully pass the time, bearing the constant reminder that time is unstoppable and therefore, precious.

Aside from usual and eventful ones we experience in real life, the past year has also been full of ups and downs for the fan, the otaku, and the “otaku”. Seasonal anime fail to meet expectations, sequels being unable to follow up the initial success their predecessors achieved, manga of extraordinary caliber are hard to find, and novels are starting to become stale. The initial boom that the culture supplied the fans suddenly transformed into a crackle composed of pops and puffs of smoke, as if to signify the year’s hit-or-miss streak. Of course, some of you might prove me wrong, but I’m not being pessimistic nor am I being optimistic regarding the year that passed. It’s a smorgasbord that anyone can readily dig into, and I’m not one to talk since I ate a portion of it myself.

However, reality and fandom aren’t the only ones that had their moments. The blogosphere, ever the collective, also spawned various ways for people to make memories with. We have the OEG, the blogs that set the trends as we follow them, and the people and friends that we talk to in the Internet. For me, 2009 was one of the important years for blogging: It helped me evolve myself from what I was to what I am now, and that’s not without the help of the people around me.

Now, it’s time to face the future once again, and I’m ready for whatever it throws at me. My past shall mold my present, and the future is something I can freely dictate. I may be old and experienced, but there’s never enough for me to learn and be surprised in life, otakuism included. I hope everyone can achieve enlightenment or something similar if ever they are seeking for it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Renovations, Disconnections, and Self-Exile – The Withdrawal

Shance — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:55:35 +0000

No, it’s not an Ah! My Goddess or Hayate no Gotoku episode or chapter title, so leave me alone in my oh-so-pitiful state or else I’ll wham you on your chin…

I was almost out for a week, and it felt like a month. No twits for my status, no new posts, no new animu episodes for me to watch, no new manga chapters for me to read (thank God there wasn’t any new Negima yes, or else Kurogane would’ve laughed at me for being late about some WOULD-BE AUSUM NEWS), no new h-animu, no torrents to get, no eroge to download, no whatever goes when I surf. COLD TURKEY. No shit!

The reason, you ask? I got my room renovated. Out of my own whim, I asked my apartment manager, and told her “Can I somehow get my room fixed?” and went to do it when she nodded with permission. No, no pics for you. The kitchen and toilet (door), I still need to figure out. Besides, I got short on budget. And just when you’re busy with the carpentry, your net gets cut off while downloading Saki, Tayutama, A!MG! OVAs, the latest A!MG! manga chaps, Tenshin Ranman, and the final two episodes of Chobits.

…

FUCK…

So what to do when you’re on your so-called forced self-exile? The withdrawal’s being quick enough, telling me: “Find an e-cafe or e-shop! Go back to the office and leech some nets! Ask your female neighbor! FUCKING DO SOMETHING!!!” or something of the sort, but I somehow managed to find a way to pass the time till the room’s finished. A list of what I did during the week, which may apply if this happens to you:

Marathon Chobits (incomplete, missing 2 final episodes), Midori no Hibi, Hand Maid May, Love Hina, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Nagasarette Airantou, Kara no Kyokai, Ai Yori Aoshi, and I My Me Strawberry Eggs, all on a day, for three days.
Read Love Hina, Negima, Chobits, Angelic Layer, Saki, and some Touhou doujin, for four days.
Finish Tayutama and Tayutama: It’s Happy Days for three days.
Draw Touhou doujin, for four days (still far from halfway, though).
Regret your pitiful self for not getting Katawa Shoujo demo and Tenshin Ranman before your net got cut off, for three hours straight, for N days.
Do Art Requests, and hope the unnamed nasty server op doesn’t get mad with the delays, for four days.
Call the local hotline of your ISP and bug them about your Internet, for a week.
General cleaning, for three days.
Thinking of how to put all your stuff back to your room, for two days.

So much for that, it’s enough to make me cope up with the spare time I have left after I do work with the room starting from the morning till sundown. Not that you would mind me griping, but yeah, it’s fine enough. And now that the net is back up, I can work on my Melty Blood scanlation, post some artwork, and continue the damned downloads for all I care… until work comes picking me up on the pace on Monday next week…

Back to regular programming now, guys.