Let’s face it: Human beings of today cannot live without technology. It’s everywhere, from cellphones, to desktops and laptops, to the most critical of operations like national security, international relations, and even weapons of mass destruction. But we’re not stopping there. We’re never stopping there. The addicting allure of technology would only make us yearn more for its benefits. It’s not surprising to predict that in the near future, everything will be done in just a simple push of the button. But before you say Google is great, let me ask you this: Is it really okay?

Let’s look at the example given in Summer Wars: OZ. It’s the ideal world that substitutes everything we have in reality. From sports, to games, to legal transactions. Everything can be done anytime, anywhere. No long queues, no shortage of consumable content, no end to features that it can offer. Convenient, right? Then Love Machine comes in, takes over OZ, and uses this convenience to do its playful bidding. If not for the Jinnouchis and Koiso Kenji, it could’ve plunged the world into chaos.

Since time immemorial, humans have depended too much on science. They think that anything that has to do with science is fine and righteous because of its son, technology. Science doesn’t betray humanity’s faith and materialism like religion does, and most of the time it delivers the desired results. Even the weapons of war and mass destruction were given “consideration” on their creation. To kill an opposing few to save the many, it’s fine and righteous, right? Therefore we should make weapons for this cause!

But what if science suddenly betrays us? What if science suddenly turns its back on us? What if science suddenly tries to destroy us using the very technology that both science and humanity developed?

A good example of Science + Humanity = Technology FAIL. Then again, what about our mecha?

Humanity then started to fear science and technology. They thought that once they use them, they can never be stopped. They feared that science would give technology sentience. They feared science would suddenly generate an irreversible error through means and usage of technology. They feared that science would set off doomsday and genocide, and that there’s no reset code to stop it. Humanity tries to refrain itself from its desires, but the temptation defeats them. It’s like a dog owner and his dog, where the dog bites the owner, and the owner, instead of killing the dog, would beat it, put a tighter leash on it, and still have it around. If we were briefed on what happened to Love Machine after Summer Wars, this could be the case. The US Government would make a public apology, “destroy” Love Machine, and then make a more lethal but obedient version of it. What happens after, I don’t want to know. More like I’m scared on the capabilities of the program way too much to even imagine what happens after the aftermath. If the plot and events of the movie failed on the way they effectively restricted the dangerous possibilities the concept of the technology, it would screw everything up. And I mean everything.

So is overdependence to technology really okay? I don’t think so.

The most badass grandma deserves only the most badass image from the most badass wallpaper.

I never was a fan of Summer Wars before. More like I shunned it until my reemergence from hiatus. Everyone around me was going “Go watch Summer Wars!”, “You need to watch Summer Wars!” everytime, everywhere. Now I know why, and I think I should thank them.

Summer Wars is so great, you can’t summarize the movie in a single post, let alone try to combine all the important factors of the movie in one article. There’s never a dull moment, each minute has its own meaning, and the characters are oh-so-dramatic on their roles. And since we’re on the topic of characters, let me properly introduce you to the most badass grandmother in all of anime movies: Jinnouchi Sakae.

Fiancé Foresight

Grandma Sakae actually amazed me with her skill on this one. She simply asked Koiso Kenji if he’s willing to give his life for her grandchild, Shinohara Natsuki. When the lad answered yes, she gave her approval, and never took it back even after all that’s happened. She already knew that Kenji was the right man for Natsuki BY THAT SIMPLE QUESTION, and she was right on the money. Why? Because Koiso Kenji, the math prodigy, the social recluse, the son of an ordinary salaryman, saved both the virtual world and the real world. It’s as if Grandma Sakae knew what’s going to happen!

My Friend, The Naginata

Grandma Sakae is also knowledgeable in the art of fighting. She’s a renowned daughter of a warrior clan,  she beats up people half a century ago, and she doesn’t rust one bit. So when that cowardly thief came to Grandma’s birthday pre-celebration to rub her the wrong way, she grabbed a naginata and nearly sliced him in half. Now, I wouldn’t say anything on Jinnouchi Wabisuke’s part, but really, how cool a grandma is that?

Ninety Year-Old Ownage

Ever after all these years, Grandma Sakae knows her moves, her connections, exercising her powers when you least expect it. During the virtual chaos caused by Love Machine’s rampage, she used her connections to personally contact high-ranking people, and told them to fight back and restore peace and order. She fought and defeated an A.I WITH JUST PHONE CALLS. It was a constant reminder that there’s always something that can outmatch technology, and that it shouldn’t take too much to make a stand.

A Forgiving Heart

But under all that badass ownage, a grandmother will always be a loving, caring person to her grandkids, no matter the circumstance. Grandma Sakae never hesitated to offer Wabisuke something to eat even after a decade of separation. She doesn’t see anything wrong with accepting a bastard for a grandson, even if they aren’t connected by blood. True, she can hate him all her life, and the same goes for him, but she’s content that even if she dies, the love she has for dear little Wabisuke will never be extinguished.

There are many more things that I want to say, and I don’t know if the movie has given Grandma Sakae the due respect that she needs. But in my heart, she’ll be, and always be, the greatest grandma in all of anime movie history. She lived her life to the fullest, she loves her family to the point of giving her life to keep it together, and she simply kicks ass.

If the laws of nature allowed it, I would love to have her as my Obaa-chan.

This is probably what I was doing while this whole thing was brewing.

With the blogosphere slowly succumbing to the powers of bullet hell, I can say that the hijack is going smoothly as planned. That was one thing I was worrying. The other thing, we’ll talk about, heart to heart to heart, you, me, and Touhou.

The virality of Touhou started to spread in the blogosphere, which sparked a sudden surge of interest within its citizens. Bloggers started to talk about preferred characters, semantics of Touhoudom, and love for the world that spurred an unstoppable cult following, things that I have already mentioned in the past. Normally, I wouldn’t tinker with it and let it just unfold by itself. But somehow, an unknown amount of mischief made me spout something about it, and everything went crashing down, raging bloggers and all.

Our Gensokyo is divided into two categories: Original material (the original Touhou games), and fan material (doujin games and paperback). These form an equilibrium of sorts. The original material serves as basis for fan material, and fan material serves as a tribute to the original material.

This is where it gets murky. Because the franchise has two areas of interest, the community divides itself into two factions of interest: Those who love Touhou for the original material (dubbed as “The True Children of Touhou”), and those who love Touhou for the fan material (dubbed as “The False Children of Touhou”). The former, as the elitist, arrogant, and perfectionist power, would take offense if a Touhoufag lives for the sake of fan material while being oblivious to the original stuff. The latter, as the rabid, generalist, genre-loving power, would take offense if a Touhoufag lives a childish, I’m-not-leaving-my-nest life by not actively engaging on any fanmade content. “Why love Touhou if you can’t even dodge bullets?” “Why love Touhou if you don’t even see the beauty of fanmade material?” It’s like the Code of Cosplay, where you can’t say anything about a cosplayer if you don’t know where the cosplay is from, or you can’t cosplay if you don’t know where the cosplay is from. From black and white, the discord between the fans sows confusion on the fandom that should simply be loved for all that it is.

This leads us to “The Ultimate and Complete Touhou Experience”. From hereon, we walk the line between the two factions, the grey zone that embraces everything regardless of origin. There is no such thing as True or False Children of Touhou, since you can become both at the same time. You love fanmade content? That’s fine, since you loved the original games even if it’s not the same way you love your doujin stuff. You love original content? Sure, since you opened up on fan material, even though you don’t love them the same way you love your originals. Because people paid homage to both fanmade and original content, there’s no discrimination, there’s no elitism, no nothing. It’s like Nirvana, where Touhoufags complete their very being by indulging on everything that was, that is, and will be.

Pay tributes to original content by getting fanmade material. Pay tributes to fanmade material by getting the original content. Stay in the grey zone, enjoy, and all will be fine in our Gensokyo again.

And while you’re at it, apply this logic on your general otaku fandom too.

]]> http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3253/feed 7 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3236 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3236#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:43:10 +0000 Shance http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/?p=3236

… the best way to say “thank you” in Japan is to…that’s right, JAM IT IN.

Mischif (2010/01/05)

I recently had a nice conversation with a friend. It simply started out with our favorite artists and their artwork and the genres they usually draw. Of course, given that kind of topic, one thing led to another, and eventually, we found ourselves openly talking about porn. Yes. Porn.

And since it’s a post about porn, let’s tag it as NOT SAFE FOR WORK before we go tackle the juicy parts.

Rule 34: Hentai, ecchi, yaoi, yuri, call it whatever you want to call it. You can never consider yourself a fan if you can’t consider having earthly desires for the cause.

We humans are a species of love and admiration. We admire and love a lot of things, and that includes anime, manga, games, and everything that is to modern Japanese visual culture. We can’t kill or limit these feelings. They only grow stronger, more passionate. Next thing you know, you’re already holding your wang or playing with your clit, all while “loving” or “admiring” an erotic picture of a character you like, a show you watch, a manga you read, or a game you play. If you can’t harbor amorous advances to what you admire or love, that admiration or love won’t be complete. You really just have to do it, and it’s going to be done one way or another. Eventually, it would open up more aspects of yourself that you wouldn’t even dream of having, and all you can do is embrace them. From random pictures of naked bodies, you’ll turn into yuri, rape, and even guro. From stock images, you’ll turn to a plethora of preferred artists because they excel in factors you want like realism, cuteness, moe-ness, body build, proportions, character age, gender preferences, the illegal of the illegal, etc.

I don’t have a single piece of regular porn.

Madarame Haranobu (2002/12/12)

Now, some of you may be thinking: Shouldn’t we still have some sliver of shame in ourselves because it’s human instinct to be afraid of the ethically oppressive society we’re in? And if we should be afraid, should we let it hamper our burning fandom? It IS porn, after all. It’s something you don’t always see being talked about, unless you dive into content-specific sites or talk to people who engage said content. Hell, you may be even surprised that one of the prominent persons you know (say, a blogger or an otaku that everybody knows) actually has a hidden stash of hentai and erodoujin, and that’s regardless of their gender. They have their own preferences or even fetishes that disgust other people. It’s there, all the BDSM, the loli, the shota, the futanari, the yaoi, along with the people who patronize and harbor libido for them. We’ll hide them from the cops, we’ll show them to other otaku, and we’ll talk about them, updating ourselves on our current and new trends, just like what we do with non-erotic stuff. So here comes the next question: Does patronizing porn rob you of your last ounce of dignity and pride as a person?

Why in the world do people have to WAIT for the goods when you can get it NOW?

m3rryweather (2010/02/12)

If you understood and accepted yourself as an otaku (correctly, by abiding the “standards”) before you were asked, the question just now shouldn’t matter, and we should hear “I’m actually proud and dignified to have hentai/erodoujin/eromanga/eroge.” in about four seconds. If we ask “Why?”, the rebuttal “Because that’s how I love the character/anime/manga/game/eroge.” should come around in two seconds, maybe even less. Yeah, it’s kind of screwed for logic, but otaku simply think that way. We’re rabid, we’re obsessive, we’re possessive, and we’re free to think of our favorites as we please. We’ll humiliate them, torture them, rape them, amputate them, slice them, gore them, deflower them, kill them, and we’ll get off on that. Trivial things such as age, morality and gender will go out of the window, there’s DEFINITELY no way the porn will stop, and not even the long, stupid arm of the law can do anything about it. Or maybe they can, but not really.

Reality can never live up to a porn game.

Madarame Haranobu (2008/10/30)

Before I end this post, a tidbit for the mind: Media piracy, ever since the Tape Recorder Age, has never been exterminated, only defeated. And that’s little compared to how long porn endured such prejudice. Maybe because every one of us has a part that yearns for it, instinct or whatnot. Of course, there’s the real thing, but that one’s not my topic to talk about. Let me stay in my 2-D complex world forever, thank you and goodbye.

Oh, and don’t tell the cops.

Two years.

For two years, I didn’t think of playing Touhou Kaeidzuka (東方花映塚, though most of you know it as Phantasmagoria of Flower View, or simply PoFV ). All those short sessions back then were something out of boredom. Now that I’ve picked up the pace, I played it again, and here’s what I got:

Pure, unadulterated… VICTOLY!

Sorry guys, no Reimu this time around. My actual first choice for Kaeidzuka was Medicine Melancholy, and I stuck onto her all throughout. And so,  after playing Kaeidzuka in Lunatic after two long years, she helped me net these personal achievements:

• One Credit Clear / 1CC
• Lunatic Level Clear
• Medicine Melancholy Ending
• Unfocused Gameplay Clear

In the history of gaming, only a handful of gamers  think of playing in a whole new, hardcore level. They have this creative drive and determination to play the game in a whole new way, and they’re not stopping. For fighter gamers, it’s about how you create deadly, destructive and unstoppable combos to crush your opponents. For danmaku and Touhou gamers, it’s how you play the game without focus (using the Shift key to slow your movements so you can effectively dodge bullets), without using bombs (to clear a wave of unavoidable bullets), without using continues (I think this one’s obvious even without the danmaku lingo), or without even moving or shooting. For RPG players, it’s about playing the game without using skills, without going over a certain level cap, or even without the use of other characters aside from the game protagonist. For eroge people, it’s about aiming for the harem route, if not the secret loli imouto route. The more the ways to play the game, the more the valuable experience for the gamer, the more the bragging rights.

For the hardcore gamer, there’s no such thing a game being shelved. There’s always that little pinch of curiosity that thinks: “How about if I play the game like this?” “Without bombing? Without focus? Yeah, let’s try that.” So off the gamer goes, picks up that game again, and plays it, over and over, trying and using unorthodox methods you can’t possibly think of. That’s why even after two years, Kaeidzuka is still a beloved game for me, alongside the rest of the Touhou games.

So yeah, you can throw your generic game console “achievements” out of the window, and try something harder.

Related Media

The replay for the gameplay:

Touhou Kaeidzuka: Medicine Melancholy Unfocused Gameplay on Lunatic – Mediafire

]]> http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3226/feed 4 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3185 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3185#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:33:48 +0000 Shance http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/?p=3185

I looooooooove Fin Funnels. I couldn’t imagine my Gundam without them.

In the Gundam universe, Fin Funnels are known as one of the most uncanny weapons made for the experienced Newtype. Through the Newtype’s psychic powers, they destroy enemies with almost dead-on accuracy. They also last longer than conventional funnels because of their built-in energy generators. Finally, Fin Funnels have a feature not found in any other Newtype weaponry: They form a “guard” that protects the Mobile Suit from incoming fire, be it solid ammunition or energy beams.

So what is “Fin Funneling”, and how does it diversify the otaku blogger?

Fin Funneling is a term I would like to coin for relying on more than one medium of creative output. The blogger and the blog are the “Mobile Suit”, while the social interaction programs and sites that he or she uses aside from the blog are the “Fin Funnels”. The Fin Funnels work similar to their Real Robot weaponry counterparts by “firing” bits of the blogger’s information on his or her “targets”, i.e. the audience he or she caters in. They also “guard” bloggers from posts that they probably don’t want to post on their blog, or unwanted trackbacks and response posts that might spoil their blogging experience. No need for long tl;dr posts on some topic that doesn’t need stressing. All you have to do is open Twitter, and let them know what’s what in just 150 alphanumeric characters. Want to share something good without having to do shameless plug posts? Google Reader, link all relevant posts, and leave notes about the topic. How about your anime watchlist? There’s MyAnimeList. Online interaction in real time? GTalk, Google Wave, YM, MIRC, the usual talky-talky stuff that’s always available. There’s always an option to let everyone know what you do or what you have, and it never stops.

Now, now, Shance dear. Why the elitist facade? You use those sites and programs, too. That means you do Fin Funneling like the rest of us! So why are you trying to belittle their usefulness?

I’m not really belittling their usefulness here. I’m just saying, why use them? There’s the blog, you’re the blogger, and the blog is all you need if you want something expressed. So why? Is it because of the need to simply let anyone know? Is it selective posting, where you say what’s awesome, but pick which ones you want to post on the blog while the rest gets posted as scrobble-tweets and GRSI notes? Or maybe we just want to surprise the audience by supplying vague information about an awesome topic and letting them click the link for them to see for themselves. These things are taking the blogger’s attention away from the blog, which I think is bad. On the other hand, it helps maintain activity by letting people know what the blogger’s doing, which is good.

Maybe it’s just me here, but hey, blogs are the reason why we call ourselves bloggers. Let’s live up to our names, our mobile suits, and our status, shall we?

Further Reading

It was actually talked about before…:

Don’t Rely on Twitter – aloe, dream

The difference between firing your mobile suit’s Beam Rifle and Fin Funneling:

Microblogging About Anime – aloe, dream

… Yes?

As for me, you guys know who’s she’s gonna be, right? Yes, that’s right. She’s Hakurei Reimu from Touhou.

Unlike 2DT, I didn’t focus much on who my ideal girl is in terms of what I want or what the other side wants from me. I simply compared our similarities, our likes and dislikes, and our compatibility with each other as a couple, regardless of differences like age or gender. What I want and what she wants from me can come after that. We could drink tea for hours on end, lie down and waste time, read magazines, yawn together in sync, fight because of money, etc. We’re both living the take-it-easy, lazy and poor kind of lifestyle, and the ways we can manage life together are endless.

As for what I’m expecting from her, it would have to be this:

Cheap 5-yen chocolates (pictures from Giant Jeans Parlor Candy Friday archive)

Yup. 5-yen chocolates. It never fails. She’ll come in flying, blush while getting something from the right pocket of her skirt, then lash her right hand at me and my face while saying “Here, take it. Just take it.” Then she flies away, leaving me with a contorted face, trying to smile, blush and frown, all at the same time.

I’d like to know everyone’s opinion about this idea, so please, if you have posts about it, do continue!

Further Reading

2DT, truffles, and magical chocolate mousse:

Valentine’s Day Special: Wherein I Indulge in Shameless Fantasies – 2D Teleidoscope

Okay, fine. I’m convinced that there’s actually something that’s good for Winter season. I admit defeat, Winter.  You too, GAINAX. You both happy now?

Hanamaru Yochien. A seemingly harmless, slice-of-life-ish show featuring kindergarten life: Kids, caretakers, parents and all. But before you (or in a much more dramatic case, I) can think it’s going to be the same mundane type of show that has a 99.9% probability to mutate into a case of KODOMO NO JIKAN, the show suddenly shows an inner gem in a setting where innocence is so abundant and sustaining, it defeats any sense of precociousness and false instances of maturity.

First, see the characters. Tsuchida-sensei is a guy who likes video games, but probably has to play a millenia’s worth of it to surpass the kids in his Sakura class. Then, there’s Anzu’s mom Sakura-senpai, whose precociousness landed her in early marriage, a fact she doesn’t hide but is rather proud of. Then there’s Hiragi’s dad, who, by majority vote on appearance, is probably Yotsuba’s dad from Yotsuba&! You see ordinary people being given an extraordinary kind of “flavor”, which in turn spices the overall appeal of the show. Yeah, yeah, this fact’s a staple on slice-of-life shows, even though 90% of those shows don’t do it extraordinarily well, and 97% of said shows can’t do it PROPERLY with kids.

Hii-chan: Because doing a variation of a certain loli anime’s ED dance while in cat cosplay is cute.

Second, see the setting. No, not just Hanamaru Kindergarten itself, but the whole community setting. There’s big emphasis on connectivity not only with the characters, but also with the places they go. In fact, even a single location in the kindergarten itself (say, the slide, or the “legendary” bench) can be made big and interesting. And it’s especially cute if you take it from the kindergartners’ points of view.

Third, the activities, especially those of the kindergartners. Almost everything is focused on what they do, and all we can do is see them through. The adults are defeated in this kind of approach, and any attention focused on them would only be because of the kids’ doing. I mean, come on, the episode about Tsucchi liking Yamamoto and Yamamoto being dense is most probably spurred by Anzu (on Tsucchi) and the kids’ (on Yamamoto). We’ve yet to see if they do have enough focus on the adults without being related to kids, but for now, it’s mostly the former.

Fourth, the relation and the show’s nature. You see Hanamaru Yochien trying to walk the borderline tightrope, and it’s amazing how it can maintain itself on walking. The adults are okay on the supportive role, and they stay like that. On the other hand, the kids maintain or are “restricted” on a certain level of curiosity and precociousness that even the most amorous or intelligent advance would look like child’s play, even if said kindergartner is dead serious about it. The show shifts is focus from the adults point of view, to the kids, and this back-and-forth transition enforces absolute equilibrium. Pure enjoyment derived from “complex simplicity” comes afterward.

You’re probably blind if you didn’t see two girls we all know so well.

Last prominent thing I saw on the show (for now): Blatant reference dropping. It’s doing subtle reference drops AT AN ALARMING RATE. Seriously, Plus-Minus Zero? Big Angry Monster Destroying The City? Space Starcruisers Based On  Modern Aircraft? Milfeulle? Music Club Members Beside The Local Bar? Science Ninja Cosplay? If you didn’t get any of these after watching it once or twice, you’re either enjoying the show too much, while doing it wrong in a positive kind of way.

So yeah, Hanamaru Yochien is currently on my to-watch list now, and judging from the first four episodes, it’s going to be enjoyable for the follow-up.

And yes, moar Hii-chan, because adult Hii-chan is fine while ruining Shin’s fantasies altogether, even if but for a fleeting moment.

Further Reading

Too late when I found this, but it shows my sentiments for the show right on the money:

First Look: Hanamaru Kindergarten – Metanorn

Convince me, with this “This season doesn’t disappoint” you speak of:

Hanamaru Kindergerten 1 -Nostalgic Days – THAT Anime Blog

The game is moving in a steady phase somehow. Because of that, the blogosphere suddenly questioned a certain factor that makes us what makes us. Strength? Rage? Depth? Mindless Inclination? Rabid Determination? Surely, this goes beyond preference, depth, and the different ways to achieve satisfaction from the fandom, yes? So what about it?

If some of you can remember, I hypothesized how the word otaku became paradoxical due to it being severely misunderstood. Although it has been given a lot of meanings, this plethora of assumptions turned the word into an ambiguity, even defeating the purpose of defining it by transforming itself into a collective not bound by mundane definition. After the definition came the requirements, what makes us otaku, or at least some kind of assurance that we are. The final outcome after that is for us to decide, and for others to judge.

When I returned from my indefinite hiatus last year, I have given deep thought of what I said on the above paragraph. Back then, I was like some berserker, ranting and raving like some kind of complete idiot, completely disregarding everything else because I’m way too busy boosting my ego by means of trolling everyone in sight. Then I saw ETERNAL, whose enlightening posts give complete clarification aside from the fact that he shows his fandom in an intellectual kind of way. Now,  I can say I’ve mellowed down into someone who can simply digest the content, say something about it, engage people in ambient discussion because of it, and be quietly content with how it goes. But then, I see Digiboy, whose fandom was given merit because he disregards and regards everything in symbiotic harmony. You see how passion is being poured out in various ways and means that there’s almost no similar reaction if you compare any of them.

This compels me to ask: Is being overly zealous of the fandom a deciding factor that defines someone as an otaku? And if it is, is it advantageous or not? If we are to take this into consideration, we can see that it’s simple to achieve, easy to manifest, and interesting enough for other people to take notice. But let’s flip the coin to the other side. You see people displaying their fandom, and the rest of the society brands them as something close to an abomination. It also has the capability for self-destruction, alienating the people from the actual fandom just because of what they wanted the fandom to achieve.  So yes, zeal is a factor indeed, and it’s volatile enough benefit you or destroy you entirely.

The world of visual culture is vast, and surprisingly, more than half of it is composed by the very society that engages in a never-ending cycle of give and take. True, that this extremity cannot be simply defined, but it can be understood, where simply acknowledging and accepting its very existence is the only way to define it, but of course anybody can prove me wrong on that one.

Otakuism doesn’t need to be CAPS CONTROLLED for you to steer.

Further Reading

“Casuality”: Your Call If You Want The Quotation Marks Removed:

Epic in an Instant – Creating the Casual Fans

]]> http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3071/feed 0 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3062 http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/archives/3062#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:02:04 +0000 Shance http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/?p=3062 Oh, it’s my turn already? Okay…

You may be wondering what am I doing. During Christmas break, ghostlightning, along with other notable anibloggers, agreed on an assignment: Each one of us will randomly pick (from a pool of suggested shows) a 12-episode long anime to watch, and everyone must write a post about their opinion on said show. That being said, it’s my turn for Show and Tell, and the show I’m going to talk about is none other than Kure-Nai.

And this is how I would describe my state of mind after watching its 12 episodes in one sitting.

Personally, I didn’t think a show that’s off my radar would be given so much emphasis, it generates an “Uh… What…?” face, followed by RAEG and HAET, and then “Uh… What…?” again. I don’t know if it masquerades its genre as slice-of-life, underworld Japan, action, or if you stretch it far enough, harem. It didn’t stick to one, as far as I know, and as if being confused is not enough, the show throws in a loli and an adolescent boy who are just millimeters away from falling into a relationship that Shin would die for.

The characters are pretty much spineless despite having physical, monetary, influential, or political power. Hell, even the simple right of free will is there, but it isn’t well stressed for the most part. Protagonist Shinkuro, despite having the power of the Horn of Hozuki, chooses not to use it because he’s adamant to find his true self, which is, in essence, nothing of good worth both to himself and to others, since he depends too much on it as if it was his lifeline. The Kuhoin family chief, Renjo, is similar to a company CEO having problems because he can’t go against the wishes of the Board of Directors. He can’t object against the family’s traditions, nor does he have the balls to literally go against almost EVERYONE to save her daughter. Ginko, Shinkuro’s information broker, is merely a shell of her former self, who died when they were kidnapped by some syndicate as kids, even though she tries her best to somehow make contact with the protagonist in question. Enumerations aside, almost everyone has problems even though they have an ample amount of power to set things straight. All, except Murakami. everyone’s complete opposite. That girl’s defiant to the end. She fights for what she wants, even though she doesn’t have the power and freedom to do so. Childish, yet mature.

Another thing to note is the show’s “weak” dialogue. You see the script getting spoken out, you see the quick interaction by the characters, but you don’t see any emotion or reaction while they speak it out. It’s as if you have two manzai comedians talking in monotone, which spoils everything, from the standard conversation to the punchline. You have emotionally disturbed people trying to dish out slice-of-life by normal conversation, and they don’t look lively enough to convince that the show is making any progress.

Lastly, notice the great emphasis the show gives on practicing old Japanese traditions, which doesn’t pick any society, be it the underground, political, familial, or the religious ones. Most of the people who believe in such are superstitious, and the big families are so power-hungry, they believe inbreeding is the answer to secure and maintain, if not, strengthen, the family’s status. I’ve seen impure shrine maidens given deity status, political clans that still employ the code of Bushido, and girls that are used to give vitality and sanity, so you may say it’s nothing new to me. Of course, that includes seven year old girls getting raped by their “brothers”, who are mostly more than half their age and sizes.

Nevertheless, it’s still good, in a bad sort of way…

All in all, Kure-nai is a mixture of ICK, MEH, PEDO and RAEG. Kure-Nai’s appeal is limited to those who can understand what the words “mental breakdown” and “power” mean, or feel that there’s something much more worse than what they can think of, in a sexual, physical, mental, and non-violent (almost) way.

Further Reading

The Other Participants:

Kaeboo – Lamune

Navinaj – Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan

Ghostlightning – Bincho-tan

Bluemist – Spice and Wolf

Hazy – REC