Arts & Culture

Memory Drips Down: Only Yesterday at Cornell Cinema

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Animation has always held a distinct position within the realm of film, enchanting viewers with its unique advantages. One of its most powerful capabilities is its ability to infuse fantastical elements into otherwise totally realistic settings. Before the advent of CGI, animation was pretty much the only way to create convincing epic fantasy worlds such as those we see in contemporary blockbusters like Avengers or Lord of the Rings. When it comes to the history of western animation, Disney towers above almost everyone else. Virtually every American child in the 20th century has come into contact with the ideals expressed in films like The Lion King.

Arts & Culture

JONES | Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday and Animation for Adults

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To many, animated movies seem like a medium for children: pretty, colorful and reassuring, with straight edges and corners, gaudy colors that fit just inside the lines, and a lack of  the moral ambiguity that cannot help but enter a film when the characters are played by actual humans. The work of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio best known for Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, has proved again and again that animated films can be complex, provocative and even disturbing, and remain enthralling for children. However, the intrigue of Studio Ghibli’s films hardly expires at a young age. I’ve only recently come to them (I haven’t even seen the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away yet), but I have been captivated by the few I’ve seen so far. The 1991 Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday, directed by Isao Takahata, has only just been given a United States release with an English dub, 24 years later.

anime

MANGA MONDAYS | Why Evangelion Hates You

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For those who haven’t met me in real life and those who haven’t read the blurb at the end of this blog, let me tell you a not-so-secret secret. I’m a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not just the “has merchandise, owns the whole show, owns the whole soundtrack, owns the whole manga” type of fan. I’m also the “goes to anime conventions to give talks about what it all means” sort of fan. And for lack of a better topic, I’m going to use that presentation’s content for this week.

Blogs

MANGA MONDAYS | One Punch Man and Satire

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This week, I want to talk about the One Punch Man hype train, now that it’s had some time to slow down. But boy, what a ride it was. I’ll spare everyone my thoughts on how awesome the show was, because let’s face it, essentially everyone who calls themselves anime fans (and even a bunch of people who don’t) watched it and loved every second of it. What I will say, though, is that my personal favorite part of the show was the spot-on satire. Yeah, the rest was great, but that’s where I feel the show really shines.

Blogs

MANGA MONDAYS | CGI: The Computers Are Taking Over

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First order of business: if you haven’t checked out Ajin yet (airing this season), then go watch the first episode to see what you think, especially if you

were a fan of Tokyo Ghoul or Parasyte (seriously, this main character is Kaneki and Shinichi all over again). At the very least, check out some GIFs, because my topic for this week is Ajin’s animation style. I was recently talking about Ajin with friends, who told me that they liked the story but dropped the show because they found the entirely computer-generated animation unbearable. So, I thought I’d take some time to discuss the role of CGI in anime.  

 

After all, Ajin isn’t the first out of recently released animes to rely almost entirely on computer generated graphics.

anime

MANGA MONDAYS | Anime Romance 101: How to Harem

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When you think of a harem anime, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? I’d be willing to bet that, for most people, it’s something like Clannad (or maybe Moster Musume if you’re into that kind of thing). Of all the genres out there, I think this one is criticized more than any other. And with good reason, I might add. Harem shows tend to abuse tropes and character archetypes much more than other genres while failing to apply any interesting development to those archetypes.

Blogs

MANGA MONDAYS | The Winter 2016 Hype Train

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I’ve written posts like this one for the last few seasons, so I figure I ought to keep up with the trend. Of course, I’ve also been horribly wrong about the things I say in them and had to post revisions to my hype train. So this could be a terrible idea, but I think it’s always good to let people know what’s out there. Speaking of which, I want to point readers to a handy site: Anichart. This is the site that I’ve been using ever since I began watching seasonal anime, and I find the layout super convenient.