Japan is really going overboard with this moe thing

[rancor]

Nothing wrong with being gay, in my book.

I never said there was - I was merely inferring what GPs friend most likely said... err.. something along that line of thinking.
but yes - the rest of your post is 100% accurate as to whats going on here as well.

[GaijinPunch]

I think my gay friend was right about Japanese boys.

Do tell?

What's the difference between a straight Japanese boy and a gay Japanese boy?


About 3 drinks.

I think it's more of a saying amongst the gay gaijin community.

[Obiwanshinobi]

From direct observation it has to be the fact that 90% of Japanese boys are already 90% gay. This is an effiminate society to the extreme. I don't even notice anymore the number of boys looking at themselves in the reflection of the windows of the train with pouty lips doing their hair.

I was under the impression that "gay" isn't supposed to mean "effeminate" (quite the opposite).

[Randorama]

Rancor, what Obiwanshinobi said.

I think that not Japanese, but Asian "cultures" in general are terrible, from the little I see. I also can't stand the girls looking like Pandas or goth loli, nor the absolute trash that is tv dramas from Korea to Taiwan, the "one country one people" model, etc.

The combo of past and present dictatorships, secular communitarian societies and modern hyper-consumerism with capillar massification has made a total mess.

The way I see it, the whole of the Pacific rim (including China, please) could disappear on the 10th of November (when I fly back to Italy), and the general wisdom of the planet would dramatically improve.

Asian users are free to feel offended, insofar as they successfully prove that their country is free from the worst of West+East cultural non-sense.

[rancor]

I was under the impression that "gay" isn't supposed to mean "effeminate" (quite the opposite).

Sorry - I should have pressed "return" between those two sentences. I'm not equating "gay" with "effeminate".

[xbl0x180]

Hermione is like her own freakin' section of moe hahahah. At least she was never cast in a war movie as a soldier or a pilot

actually this guy is one of good artist that i like,loose and energetic brushstroke ,his work is good enough that he don't need to draw nsfw stuffs

I've seen some pages from that book; I just thought it was funny someone would take that Hermione chick and make a moe outta her hahahah. The artist is alright. I feel the same way about Utatane Hiroyuki and U-jin when it comes to their talent, but erotic comics are what they're most famous for

[drauch]

Studio Pierrot invented the genre with Creamy Mamy

What about Cutie Honey like ten years before that? Both manga and the anime...

I dunno, just watch whatever you want and don't give a shit. I like to think that I'm manly as fuck because I have a colossal beard, I drink whiskey, I work out, play sports (when I actually go outside), and my job is physically demanding. I occasionally have sex with females, but I'd prefer to just stay home and squeeze one off to some porn and forget the baggage and then play with my cats. Fist of the North Star is manly as hell, and it's probably one of my favorite things ever, but I don't think it strives on strictly testosterone and actually has great characters that I care about. I also like cute girly anime shit and read shojo manga and like magical girls and all this garbage everyone is fussing about, so I don't see why you can't just like both for what they are and either cut off your dick or grow a bigger one. I want a Rambo/Sailor Moon crossover.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I want a Rambo/Sailor Moon crossover.

Desert Punk? (From the episode 4, where Kosuna appears.) I seem to recall some ego trip of hers imaginary henshin scenes... Some of the best Japanese voice acting to ever grace anime on top of that.

[drauch]

I've been curious...I will give it a try

[Cuilan]

I just thought it was funny someone would take that Hermione chick and make a moe outta her hahahah.

He's not the only one. Moe doujins based on the Harry Potter characters were quite popular for a while (many of them pornographic).

[Randorama]

Studio Pierrot invented the genre with Creamy Mamy

What about Cutie Honey like ten years before that? Both manga and the anime...

Yes and no. It is something like a pre-cursor, I can't simply recall what it lacks to tick all the boxes for the 'magical girl' label (she's an android, isn't she?), for what is worth.

Fist of the North Star is manly as hell, and it's probably one of my favorite things ever, but I don't think it strives on strictly testosterone and actually has great characters that I care about.

HNK did not include mono-dimensional cretins like previous fighting anime, but it was far from a psychological drama, guys. And, the fights were often staggeringly slow, much like "manly" shounen series (and, c'mon, realistic stuff like "one finger and I make you explode" ?). It is head and shoulders its modern equivalents (Bleach), but still nothing top-notch. Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya were MUCH worse, though.

Fights should be brief and simple, not like Wrestling shit.

Also, the whole "manly" shit revolves around a few users pretending to be manly because they are closet gays and official homophobic weirdos, and want to hide this fact by bashing "non-manly" things.

On a videogame site, of all places.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I do prefer the old cyberpunk artstyle but im fine with newer and simpler styles if the story is good eg Code Geass.

Eurgh... Funny you mention that one. I just watched two first episodes... or rather, did I just watch poor man's Innocent Venus? Is it even POSSIBLE (Innocent Venus itself being poor man's Eden)?
Anyways, it left me with a far worse aftertaste than the Last Exile rehash. The adventures of fuck pillows indeed. Efforts like Code Geass (and Gundams) are where Sunrise loses me (as long as they have Gintama, though, I don't feel completely left out in the cold).
As if the fuck-pillowy character development wasn't bad enough, I found designs by Clamp (which I usually don't have problems with) plain bad here, and all other designs (the fashion, the weaponry...) extremely uninspired.
Boy, what a Frankenstein's monster of a show. The only surprise to me was that the Mysterious Girl Submerged™ wasn't butt-naked in her cocoon or fishtank (but we get to see her nipple as soon as the ending rolls on, so the status quo is restored).
Does it get any better? Let me guess, the girl has pointy ears, or at least glows in the dark, correct? A strange tattoo perhaps, say, a barcode on her back.

In other news, I started watching Redline and it evoked bad memories of Cowboy Bebop (I can already tell the protagonist's hairdo will keep spoiling my enterteinment). Furthermore, either it's just me or the BluRay-rip I saw, but for all the hype surrounding its hand-drawn graphics, it looked a bit too clean and glossy for my tastes. I know it was digitally edited and most likely didn't exist as a film copy, hence no grain, but still - more vintage look would be welcome. I'm not quite sold on the art style either. When Japanese cartoonists emulate American cartoonists, well, I can't think of a single example I would like without reservations (Susumu Matsushita being the creepiest at it). Comix Zone doesn't quite count, being an international endeavour.

[Gus]

Code Geass=Poor man's Legend of the Galactic Heroes

[Randorama]

Does it get any better? Let me guess, the girl has pointy ears, or at least glows in the dark, correct? A strange tattoo perhaps, say, a barcode on her back.

No, it is a very poorly made homage to V, from V by Thomas Pynchon. The plot is also particularly convoluted, and would like to talk about politics but just shows poor understanding of basic notions such as left-right, libertarian-authoritarian distinctions, etc.
Messy series.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Code Geass is certanly not on the same level as a novel, and is a Frankenstein's monster with mechs, magical girl who bestows powers on the protagonist, fight against an evil empire (the British) and highschool filler episodes but how its mixed together makes it something better than it should be. That said its just a dumb childish Shounen (even if its supposed to be a seinen) to me, with convoluted plot twists similar to an JRPG, I also liked seeing Lelouch pull off each of his plans and get out of certain situations, even if its just the writers pulling stuff out of their arse in a Star Trek / Hercule Poirot kind of way

Would I recommend it? hmm im unsure if it was a 12ep series sure, but its 48eps in total and something I probably wouldn't watch again, I dont have the time or energy to invest in 50 ep TV shows nowadays. Back then I was playing Eve Online which is one of those games that allows you to watch TV and multi task while grinding.

Ild say if you have the time, watch another episode or two until Lelouch gets himself out the fight he's in, if you dont like it then quit.

That reminds me I need to watch the second half of Innocent Venus

[Skykid]

Rancor, what Obiwanshinobi said.

I think that not Japanese, but Asian "cultures" in general are terrible, from the little I see. I also can't stand the girls looking like Pandas or goth loli, nor the absolute trash that is tv dramas from Korea to Taiwan, the "one country one people" model, etc.

The combo of past and present dictatorships, secular communitarian societies and modern hyper-consumerism with capillar massification has made a total mess.

The way I see it, the whole of the Pacific rim (including China, please) could disappear on the 10th of November (when I fly back to Italy), and the general wisdom of the planet would dramatically improve.

Asian users are free to feel offended, insofar as they successfully prove that their country is free from the worst of West+East cultural non-sense.

I appreciate the correct assertions about the plughole elements of Asian culture and I don't disagree, but there are plenty of positives in terms of values and respectability in Asia that outshine many of the louder, more arrogant western cultures I've been privy to (and live in.)

Your lambasting is oddly vitriolic. What prompted that?
There are faults in all cultures. A mate who just returned from 6 weeks in Italy didn't have a great deal of nice things to say about the folks there either.

What's the difference between a straight Japanese boy and a gay Japanese boy?


About 3 drinks.

I can see how a quip like this would come about. Japan's attitude to homosexuality has definitely changed over the years. They're an extremely liberal sexual society, but whereas in the past they often used homosexuality as a point of slapstick amusement, the days of Crime Fighters 2 are now long gone. Effeminate Japanese males are like a transsexual fashion movement, and I understand it works wonders with the ladies.

[Randorama]

I appreciate the correct assertions about the plughole elements of Asian culture and I don't disagree, but there are plenty of positives in terms of values and respectability in Asia that outshine many of the louder, more arrogant western cultures I've been privy to (and live in.)

I meant something else, more specific. So:

I lived for more than one month in both China and Japan, and know tons of asian (immigrant) people and asian-australian people. I had a deeply negative experience of China, and variegated experience of Japan and Thailand (went there for holidays). Generally speaking, most of..."far east" asian countries have a more capillar massification procedure than western one, which appears to be very strong on younger generations. I talked at length about this with "older" immigrants, which tend to share similar feelings.

And then, I met a lot of asian-australians kids, which are much like the Italian- or Lebanese- (or X-...) australians kids of the past: immigrants always a bit out of place, which import and ape old trends, and all look the same because they are expected to, as "tight-knit immigrant communities". Once I almost decked a kid who kept calling me "professor", out of a massive Pinkerton syndrome.

Perhaps it's a matter of taste, but your lambasting seems unnecessarily vitriolic. What prompted that?
There are faults in all cultures. A mate who just returned from 6 weeks in Italy didn't have a great deal of nice things to say about the folks there either.

If we can move Italy (and UK, large portions of the US) on the pacific rim before the big one it would be perfectly fitting. I include Australia and NZ too.

I don't identify myself with a culture or a country, nor I think that there is a "good country" full of nice people. I lived abroad for a while and in various countries, for long (Germany, NL, Oz) and short (US, China, Japan) periods. And, living in one place for extended periods is the best, if not only, way to figure out how a country other than yours works.

So, I'd say that I am really fine if I can easily avoid to meddle with "the common man", which I don't hate, but I don't get along with, too. Whether he/she is white, yellow, red, black, green or moe. I stick out, and don't plan to stop doing it anytime soon. Few can like this, insofar as they are human.

Tutto il mondo è paese, I am told.

[Skykid]

post

Well ok, each to their own. The common man never bothered me and I certainly have never had an issue visiting underprivileged countries or regions.

I've been to plenty of places on the globe. In Asia I've been up and down Japan twice, Hong Kong 3 times, and different parts of Mainland China 3 times. The differences between a highly commercialised city like Tokyo or Hong Kong versus the mountain villages on the vietnamese border are enormous, but I enjoyed their respective ways of life equally.

I was on holiday of course.

[Randorama]

I was on holiday of course.

Well, I think that if you say this, then this comment needs an edit:

but I enjoyed their respective ways of life as they were presented to my tourist eyes equally

Sorry, but I challenge you to live and work abroad, possibly in a country in which you don't speak the language, and keep any myths about how cool/shitty said country is, beyond two months of time.

Also, I come from the mountains, although I served five years in the Navy. I generally despise flatlanders, dammit!

[Skykid]

Sorry, but I challenge you to live and work abroad, possibly in a country in which you don't speak the language, and keep any myths about how cool/shitty said country is, beyond two months of time.

Ha ha, I'm actually looking to take up that challenge very soon!
I'll let you know how I get on. Sadly, I think you're probably right, especially after I met up with a friend who had lived in Japan for 10 years - he had lost all respect for the place.

[greg]

This is an effiminate society to the extreme. I don't even notice anymore the number of boys looking at themselves in the reflection of the windows of the train with pouty lips doing their hair.

Even worse is when they are doing this while ignoring their cute girlfriends who are fawning all over them and practically hanging on them. They think it looks cool to ignore their girlfriends or something. The flipside to that are idiot couples who make out in front of a Petsmart in America, I guess.

[Skykid]

This is an effiminate society to the extreme. I don't even notice anymore the number of boys looking at themselves in the reflection of the windows of the train with pouty lips doing their hair.

Even worse is when they are doing this while ignoring their cute girlfriends who are fawning all over them and practically hanging on them. They think it looks cool to ignore their girlfriends or something.

Last time I was in Tokyo I sat next to a young couple in a restaurant who spent the entire meal in silence and then 20 minutes thereafter looking at their mobile phones.

Didn't look like they were fighting or anything, it was just weird.

[Hagane]

I've been interested in animation since I was very young, but I won't ever and will never ever look at anime as anything other than youth-targeted entertainment. No matter how it's dressed, it's primarily targeted at young to late teens.

There are far less adult oriented titles in anime than in manga, that's for sure. And even some stuff like Blade of the Immortal has been dumbed down for that primary anime audience. Main reason why I tend to stick to manga; there are a lot more interesting, japan-bullshit-free titles for my taste.

On topic though, Yotsubato and Azumanga are enjoyable moe series.

It's the reason why I avoided Last Exile like the plague: the loli and the kid pilot on the front cover.

Hey, Range Murata is great.

If you liked Paprika, you should consider checking out Satoshi Kon's other works (Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent (TV series)), because that was his weakest effort. It was still good though, just saying.

I don't get why Perfect Blue gets so much love. Personally I think that's Kon's weakest work. The rest of his stuff is great though, Paprika probably being my favourite.

[Ruldra]

On topic though, Yotsubato and Azumanga are enjoyable moe series.

Even though I prefer action-packed stuff, I agree that those two are worth reading/watching. They are genuinely funny and don't sexualize the girls like most shows nowadays do.

Also, the whole "manly" shit revolves around a few users pretending to be manly because they are closet gays and official homophobic weirdos, and want to hide this fact by bashing "non-manly" things.

Late to this comment, but the whole talk about manliness on the internet deserves its own thread. Apparently what defines a man nowadays is which videogames he plays and which shows he watch.

[Leandro]

Real men don't play videogames and watch anime.

[Elixir]

Real men don't watch



But then posts Oyari Ashito art.

[Moniker]

Natalie Portman in The Professional.

Re: Asian cultures. Well, it's randorama using his trademark assmouth, but anyway... The South Korean film industry is one of the most exciting sites of emerging art right now. Sort of where France was ten years ago. The art of Chinese diaspora is similarly intriguing. As for Japan, have you read Haruki Murakami, or watched Kurosawa? Post-war Japan is one of the most complex and sophisticated syntheses of two cultures ever seen. I feel kind of foolish even bothering to point these out.

[Skykid]

Natalie Portman in The Professional.

Re: Asian cultures. Well, it's randorama using his trademark assmouth, but anyway... The South Korean film industry is one of the most exciting sites of emerging art right now. Sort of where France was ten years ago. The art of Chinese diaspora is similarly intriguing. As for Japan, have you read Haruki Murakami, or watched Kurosawa? Post-war Japan is one of the most complex and sophisticated syntheses of two cultures ever seen. I feel kind of foolish even bothering to point these out.

I think he explained himself ok, it's just the bitterness of familiarity.

South Korean cinema was hitting its peak a few years ago actually, it's level of quality output has declined quite dramatically since then. And yes, Kurosawa and Murakami props, but they don't represent the general quality of Japan's artistic output (outside of the realms of animation.) Generally speaking I find Japanese cinema/live action entertainment to be about as fun as a stillborn fetus, but I am occasionally surprised by the odd gem (Tetsuya Nakashima springs to mind.)

[Randorama]

And a comment on a "headless chook" style post:

The South Korean film industry is one of the most exciting sites of emerging art right now. Sort of where France was ten years ago.

K-Pop, K-dramas. Korean tv. Golconda in real-time: everybody must look the same. And, ehi, when the dictatorship controlled by the US ended? 1990? Do workers have rights? What's the suicide rate of students and young workers?

The art of Chinese diaspora is similarly intriguing.

Diaspora, because the Government applies censorship to artists. CCTV programs. 7 western films max imported, to avoid tainting of the masses. But ehi, tell Amnesty International that the diaspora artists make good movies, they can stop fighting their fights in China.

[quote[
As for Japan, have you read Haruki Murakami, or watched Kurosawa? Post-war Japan is one of the most complex and sophisticated syntheses of two cultures ever seen.[/quote]

Please go and read my posts on similar discussions. Also, Kurosawa represents two aeons ago. And, he always expressed scathing remarks about the Japan he was living in. Oh, and you can ask the local Gaijins about the ins and outs of the lovely police state known as Japan.

I feel kind of foolish even bothering to point these out.

Summing up, taking the small bits of good artistic productions from any country will not give any hint of the general artistic output of a country, let alone of the ins and outs of a country's society, economy, and history.

Are you seriously this naive and foolish? Your posts defy belief.

Leni riefenstahl made excellent movies, btw, so enough with this dissing of the Nazis, thanks.

[rancor]

As for Japan, have you read Haruki Murakami, or watched Kurosawa?

Have you seen Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, or more recent fare such as Stanley Kubricks 2001? Hollywood is exploding with new ideas and the only way to go is up, up , up!!!