http://i360.com/editorials/flash/ A lightly textured daily babble from the editors of i360.com en-US http://i360.com/editorials/flash/241
But if they'd told me it was Utena 2.0, I would have worked much harder to watch it.

Utena 2.0, you ask? I only have one answer for you, direct from the script: "That's power. With that power, anything is possible. You can even free her from her fate. But how that power is used. . . is my decision."

Actually, two. Whose castle do you think that is, in Utena? Who is trapped there, and why?]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/240 Kuragehime, Princess Jellyfish) does remind me of one thing: the infernal cussedness of the Japanese language.

Check it: 海月, pronounced "kurage". Main character: 月海, pronounced "tsukimi". (A combination my IME doesn't bother to present, by the way.) Perfectly normal, you say. Of course kanji have more than one reading, some of them used only in names.

But no! This is not the case in Chinese, where the vast majority of hanzi have only one reading, used in all situations. The written language is apparently less ambiguous than English. That might not be a very high bar, but it's one that Japanese misses without even noticing. Totally ludicrous. Maybe, just maybe, if the Japanese had invented their own writing system rather than trying to bolt on something completely different, we wouldn't have this problem. (See also: Korea.) But then we'd still have had to go through the Edo period, when I'm informed the language changed to such an extent that it's like cockney rhyming slang becoming standard English.

Today's outrage: 明日, which I usually read as "ashita", probably because it always makes me think of the DDR announcer. But sometimes it's "asu", which is apparently more standard. Very irritating, especially when trying to do karaoke. (In some formal or archaic contexts it's "myounichi"? I've never seen that, although it's a plausible way to read it.)]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/239
Truthfully, the biggest thing to happen to me lately was watching Princess Jellyfish (Kuragehime). Great fun. I found that I couldn't stop thinking about it -- something about Tsukimi was so compelling that I had to see what she'd do next. (I have to admit, her housemates didn't do much for me, but I think that's one of the sacrifices they make to get it into 11 episodes.)

It was really charming, and I think Tsukimi kind of approaches the absolute ideal of what "moe" means to serious otaku. She's likeable but comprehensible, limited in ways that we can understand.

(This post is unabashed fluff. AX starts tomorrow. For some, it's started already.)]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/238
Or is it?

There will be between 7 and 10 points, they will draw heavily on previous manifestos written by better, more creative people, and I think that I will rather enjoy trying to follow them. For a little while.

Now I just need a suitably bombastic name.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/237
(Bonus question: how do you pluralize a proper noun that's the same as a noun with an irregular plural? Would "Pantys" be better? Obviously this is shorthand for "people dressed as Panty" or "representations of Panty" or similar, but it's a common enough shorthand that the rules should account for it.)]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/236
Of course, there have been at least 5 major aftershocks as I write this, each of them large enough to be newsworthy by itself, so the shaking isn't over yet.

But right now, the tsunamis are bad enough. The amazing thing is that, after the quake, you could watch the news come in with new videos showing buildings dissolving like sand castles in the surf. All very postmodern. It's also a funny feeling seeing the Wikipedia article, "2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami". It's as if we're looking back at the name that history will eventually apply to this disaster. And TBS's dead/missing counter is truly chilling.

News ticker's showing the capacity of evacuation sites. Japan does have an impressive disaster response plan, and the citizens are much better trained than they would be in, say, the U.S. I didn't talk about this much when I was watching Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, but it was one of the most impressive things about the series, this massive and organic response at every level to a devastating earthquake. (Which, I should point out, was perhaps 1/25th the size. This could easily have been worse than the Great Kanto Earthquake.)

Anyway. Tokyo Magnitude. It was almost like a government PSA for disaster response -- fast, efficient, pervasive. And now we're seeing how it translates to reality. Based on the news, looks pretty good.

Unfortunately, though, looks like Reitaisai 8 is off until further notice. Good thing I didn't get it into my head to try to attend.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/235
As for myself, I'd just gotten back from Japan, and it's really quite impressive just how little I felt like dealing with people, particularly people I barely knew. We've known for a long time that I harbor very strong hermetic tendencies. This only served to confirm it, as if confirmation were needed.

But still, it was fun. ALA's turned into the party con, but no one forces you to party. It's perfectly possible to walk around quietly and drop in on friends, and that's about all I did, keeping to myself when too many people were around, hanging about in Jason's room when the mood struck me, drinking moderately and getting some work done, culling images from conventions past.

(Yes, work. Things are being forced to happen. Look suprised.)]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/234 here and here.)

I think the major thing about Comiket, in the end, was seeing the level of skill and effort put into these things. People work on their doujinshi for months, you arrive at their table, flip through briefly, smile, and usually bow and walk away. (At least, that's what I did. I don't exactly have the killer instinct when it comes to retail.)

Perversely enough, I found it inspiring. You work hard, and your work evaporates, and you'll make something even better next year. I found myself really wishing that I had more time to draw. Thinking, perhaps, that it wouldn't be so bad to have a table at Comiket someday.

They say that people rise to the level of their peers, and I think that's the best thing about Comiket -- because it's so vast, the best stuff is better than you'd believe possible, and everyone there can see that and have something to aim for. Thus the average level improves and the cycle continues, with new cycles of aspiration as each seeks to outdo the rest, even if only by chance.

In the end, I didn't attend day 3, having been terrified by all that I'd read. I bought a random smattering of Touhou doujinshi on day 2, all-ages style, around 15 all told. (It actually makes a pretty impressive stack.) Not a huge amount, but it's media -- I have way more than enough to consume as is. And I'll be back, anyway.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/233 part 1 is here.

If you're hitting the major circles or hoping to get the Comiket special stuff from the commercial booths, your life is very simple. You will stand in line, get things, stand in another line, get things, and then your day will be over. (I kid. But only slightly.)

But if you're not doing that, Comiket provides you with some interesting conundrums. The smaller circles especially -- they'll print maybe a hundred copies, and once they sell out, they're gone, never to be reproduced. These items are available only one day, and, given the size of Comiket, it's even odds that you'll never walk past the booth again. Even if you do, it may have sold out. You have to act as if you'll never see any given work again. It does something to a person, being surrounded by this surfeit of ephemeral work. You feel that you either have to buy immediately, or else you feel that scarcity becomes meaningless. That is, these works are unique, but so are many other things. If I don't buy them, there will always be others. I felt both ways at different times. As a consequence, while I regret many things, among them I now have to number not buying some ICO doujinshi.

But again, there is always more. There's a lesson there, if you like.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/232
Comiket was, in fact, terrifying. I know of nothing even remotely comparable. I did not actually see the crowds and immediately flee in terror, but I came pretty close. Even at the beginning, as I watched the Tokyo Big Sight rise over the bay, I felt the first stirrings of blind primordial panic.

The problem is that, for all my serious devotion to fandom, I don't actually like very many things. In aggregate, things that I don't like (such as Shonen Jump series) are virtually all of Comiket. But Comiket is special. I had to go, no matter what, just to see it and understand where we all came from.

And so I did, for two days.

Several times I was picked up bodily and carried with the crowd for a span of several paces. Once this happened while a guy was demoing a desktop mascot, and I shrugged, gesturing at the crowd as I was carried past. He smiled, shrugged back, and we bowed, me as best I could. At times the crowd was so thick that I couldn't even see the booths, much less the merchandise. Attempting to cut through would have been folly.

And yet, like any description that emphasizes some particular characteristic of a thing, it would be oversimplifying to say that there are large crowds and long lines at Comiket. There are, but there are also aisles that have only a few dozen people, where the circle participants chat, or draw, or type into their mobile phones. Some parts are crowded, but there are always little islands of peace, even at something like Comiket. I think that focusing on the crowds misses the point -- Comiket is large enough to have diversity. It's an entire world, and I'm looking forward to going back.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/231
This presents me with certain difficulties. I really like Akihabara and I've been spending a lot of time there, but frankly K-books and Toranoana and the other big shops make me want to run outside and sit down for a while. I'm not that great with crowds, I've never heard of most of these series, I don't actually do moe, and the strain of near-illiteracy is overwhelming.

Plus, I started reading the catalog, looking at the circle cuts to find stuff I might like. The sheer scale of this undertaking terrifies me. Doubly so because, again, there's not actually all that much I like.

Just watch, I'll be like Saki in Genshiken -- step outside the station and immediately turn around and go home.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/230
But I digress. As you can see, it handles line breaks and Japanese properly, and that's about all I need it to do for now. I just wanted something I could easily use to post from Tokyo.]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/229
よろしくお願いします。]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/228
よろしくお願いします。]]> http://i360.com/editorials/flash/227 Densha Otoko tv drama lately -- you've probably heard of it.

In summary, it's a drama about a geek. And that's why I find it tough to watch -- he's just so painfully bad at socializing. I mean, I'm a geek myself. Card-carrying. I've written a technical book. I work as a sysadmin. I enjoy anime and have a discreet Nagato figure on my desk. But I'm not remotely like that guy, and neither is anyone else I know. I may stutter a bit and get flustered easily, but I just can't deal with this guy's portrayal of it as a default state. I have to pause and yell at the TV quite a bit.

But I do love the bits where 2ch is cheering him on. They might be the only reason I've stuck with it so far.

I think part of the problem is that I'm just not as familiar with the drama conventions. There's no point in railing at them being silly and melodramatic -- that's a deliberate part of their charm.

The other aspect is that I need to listen to more non-anime Japanese. It bears about the same relation to normal speech as the voices in American cartoons do. Picture someone talking like Bugs Bunny. So yeah, it's actually quite important that I cultivate a taste for live-action. But a show about a geek -- something where I know exactly how far from reality they are -- is maybe not quite the best place to start.]]>