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If you're wondering where I've been for the past several weeks, wonder no more. I was very busy preparing for Anime Detour, my favorite local anime convention run by some very cool people (I'm a bit biased: they're my friends... and me, hehe). This year my habit of procrastinating hit me extra hard, so I ended up having to spend a lot of time all at once getting my act together. In addition to some yearly panels I run, I also run the AMV Contest(s) and that requires some amount of organization, pre-planning, work... Anyway, I'll have a convention reaction post up in a little bit, but for those of you who are interested in getting a look at my panel materials, I've uploaded them. They include handouts and clips/presentations from the panels. Feel free to use them if you like, just credit me/link back here if you use them for your own presentations and what-not. I put a lot of work into making these materials, so it's nice to get some credit.

FYI, the video files should be playable to pretty much anyone who watches any amount of downloaded video. During the year I started to make the transition between using avi and mp4 files for the clips, so there are some of each. They should all play on most computers, even less powerful ones.

Shiny New Anime

This is my yearly panel devoted to anime that's been released between last year's convention and this year's. My husband and I (and occasionally some other guests) talk about our favorites and show clips from them.

Handout

Clips

Anime for Grown-Ups

During this panel, we devote some time to discussing anime either aimed at an older audience, or general-audience shows that might have appeal towards fans who feel like their more "mature" tastes are underrepresented in the selection of series. It's not necessarily anime that contains copious sex and violence (though sometimes those things can be a component). I sometimes get some flak from people wondering why some shows are "for grown-ups;" my answer really is that these choices are subjective to what I consider appealing to older people, and that I watch and enjoy plenty of anime that's "not for grown-ups" also.

Handout

Clips

Manga for Grown-Ups

Likewise, this is a panel devoted to more mature-themed manga. This panel is often easier to put together because there's simply more manga aimed at older readers than there is anime aimed at older viewers.

Handout

Power Point Presentation

All of the links should be available for 30 days. If you'd like to download these after that window, send a comment and I'll update the links.

Also! If you have any suggestions for Manga or Anime for Grown-Ups, let me know. I've watched a lot of anime and held these panels for multiple years, but that doesn't mean I'm aware of everything that might be interesting or relevant.

So in case it wasn’t apparent from the fact that I haven’t updated yet this week, I’ve been very busy lately. I’m taking a class at work, and they’ve actually given me homework and reading to do. The last class session is tomorrow, so it shouldn’t be hindering my writing any more after that. The newest book club update should take place this weekend. I’ve also been plugging away at reviewing crappy anime from this and last season, as requested (HOORAY), so expect that, too.

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine posted an opinion online regarding a television series with a large cult following. The series is a critical darling (if not a ratings superstar), and many people in my social circle are big fans of it, so this particular friend of mine started watching it. When she did, she picked out many aspects of it that, based on her experience, came across as hurtful and insensitive. They're things that I think most fans either gloss over, things that don't register as "negative" with them, or which they just tend to interpret differently. In any case, she expressed this to her friends via the internet, explaining how, in some sense, she almost felt betrayed by the intense, repeated recommendations of the show from many of her friends.

Situations like this one are part of the reason why I don't generally take anime recommendations from outside sources.

I consider myself a pretty sensitive person, and a lot of how I approach situations is based around the goal of guarding and protecting my mental well-being. I don't consider this to be inherently negative; I don't think that intentionally being a hard-ass or acting stoic in the face of intense emotional stimuli is necessarily something to be proud of. But it does mean that I have to be in a certain state of mind to watch things that I know are going to upset me (which is part of the reason why I've been loathe to touch a lot of recent anime series at this blog, har har), and it's difficult to express to people the nature of the specific things that trigger the sort of intense negative response that can come with being caught emotionally off-guard.

Just a quick update here. The reason I haven’t been around the last few days is due to one of my cats having come down with some sort of condition. He’s having unexplained seizures so I’ve been monitoring him and dealing with that. There’ll be more to come once the situation is under control. Thank you for your understanding.

Content warning for discussion of rape, rape culture, relationship abuse and related subjects.

Soon after posting my "coming out of hiatus" entry about the Autumn 2012 series My Little Monster, I rediscovered the fact that there are really a lot of passionate feelings about this series. Re-reading blog posts and tentatively poking my head around the ANN forums reiterated the fact that folks get very offended if you happen to mention that something they like might be problematic for some individuals. I'm not going to post another lecture about being able to enjoy problematic things, because I think that's been over done and people tend to misinterpret that as free license to just ignore offended parties or belittle their complaints. What I'd like to do, though, is go into a little more depth about my own criticisms, and hopefully be more clear about why the arguments against those criticisms have fallen flat with me.

I think the bigger issue here is the definition of rape culture, and how that applies to My Little Monster. Rape culture is a concept that's misunderstood by a lot of people. Fans read "rape" and immediately go on the defensive; no one wants to be accused of enjoying something that supposedly promotes rape. The issue here is that when we say a piece of media reinforces the tenets of rape culture, we aren't, as many people assume, accusing the media itself of causing people to go out and rape. Just like violent video games don't force average players to grab guns and go on uncontrolled shooting rampages in real life, a shoujo anime indulging in many of its genre's more disappointing tropes isn't causing the average otaku to jump up from his or her seat and go sexually assault another person. I'd personally argue that media doesn't have the power to force the hand of someone who isn't already in the state of mind to do something. I do, however, believe that media is both a reflection and projection of our society's commonly-held ideals, and that it has the power to subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) reinforce both positive and negative attitudes and beliefs that we share.

Many thanks to Serdar Yegulalp of genjipress.com and anime.about.com for upgrading the backend blog software for my website. I’m hopeful that this will help solve some of the annoying comment problems (as in, my lack of email notification regarding comments that people have posted) as well as perhaps make it possible for me to pre-post entries again (although that is more of a convenience rather than a necessity).

I hope that the holidays weren’t too stressful (for those who celebrate) and that everyone else is doing well. I’m trying to remember to use my full-spectrum light so that my seasonal depression won’t take me down quite as badly as it has been lately. I think that this type of depression is difficult to explain to people who haven’t experienced it, so what I’ll say is that my motivation to do work and to write has been very low and that, given the decision, I find myself spiraling into a pattern of avoidance (looking at clothing and fashion online has been my go-to distraction lately) and self-disgust that has made it difficult to keep on track. Once I do manage to focus and watch some anime, everything is just dandy… it’s just the getting to the point that’s been really tough for me (doubly-so since my disconnect from all but the closest segments of the anime community has been very disappointing lately).

Anyway, a reminder is in order – Sora no Woto begins as our new book club selection tomorrow. I might give the first entry a couple of weeks just to get back into the swing of things, or I might split the first episode up into a couple of weeks worth of examination depending on the response I get. I’m also still searching for a follow-up. Since I now own both DVD sets, I’ve been considering The Book of Bantorra as a possible option. The show itself is sort of strange, but I was fascinated by the world building aspect and thought that its method of characterization was pretty interesting as well. Feel free to leave thoughts in the comments; I’ll probably post something more formal soon.

Coming up within the next few minutes, I’ll be posting my “Best-of” list for 2012. Rather than tailor it directly to this website, I’m just linking to what I wrote for The Fandom Post. I’m thinking of doing a few more specific “fun” categories for this website when I get some time, but for now I think the Fandom Post article sums up a lot of my feelings about the anime and manga that were released over the past year.

Well, I hope everything has been good with my readers out there. Thanks for sticking by me, even when the amount of content being posted has been kind of pathetic. I’m barely even aware of the new anime being broadcast already this season – except for Chihayafuru season 2, because yay!

A couple of weeks ago, Crunchyroll had a promotion in partnership with Rightstuf, during which you could spend $15.99 and receive thirty anime DVDs at random. I decided, to heck with it, I'd take them up on that offer. I was lucky(?) enough to have some spare change floating around that I could use to indulge my curiosity.

I immediately forgot that I had done this, and was only reminded when a very large box showed up on my doorstep this past Saturday. The box did indeed contain thirty DVDs, and surprisingly enough only four of them were discs that I already owned.

(I'm terribly sorry for the poor quality of the photos. That's what happens when all you have is a cell phone camera).

Since the spines of the DVDs are pretty illegible in the picture, here's a run-down of what was in the box:

• Last Exile vol. 1
• Human Crossing vol. 1
• Kurau: Phantom Memory vol. 2
• Someday's Dreamers vol. 1

I already own all of those, so I'll probably give them away.

• Armitage: Dual Matrix (film)
• Mao-chan: I Will Protect the Peace of Japan! vol. 1
• Gun x Sword vol. 6 and 7
• Viewtiful Joe vol. 1 and 2
• Heat Guy J vol. 4 and 7
• Tenjho Tenge vol. 3 and 5
• Saiyuki Reload vol. 1 and 6
• Saiyuki vol. 10
• Getbackers vol. 9
• Girls Bravo vol. 5
• X Remix vol. 5
• Madlax vol. 4
• The Law of Ueki vol. 3
• Starship Operators vol. 3
• Trigun Remix vol. 3
• Best Student Council vol. 2
• Nerima Daikon Brothers vol. 2
• Chobits vol. 2
• Gad Guard vol. 2
• Zipang vol. 1
• Burn-Up Scramble vol. 1

As you can see, the common thread that seems to run through all of these is that they're, for the most part, things that I would not normally buy for myself, for various reasons (titties, intense Japanese nationalism, bishies, etc.). I thought it might be fun, though, to work my way through these DVDs, one-by-one, without any context whatsoever, just as a writing exercise. This won't happen right away; I have actual reviewing responsibilities that need addressing first. But there's absolutely no way I'm going to let myself spend money without getting some nominal use out of the whole ordeal, so look forward to some impressions in the future.

If you've got any of your own impressions of these titles, feel free to share your war stories in the comments.

Hey all. Just wanted to post a quick update. Because of the holiday and the fact that my health hasn’t been very good since the weekend, I might end up pushing the book club post back a week to this coming Sunday. I ended up not getting home until about 8:15pm tonight and I’m already a couple of days behind just because of a hectic weekend and Monday.

I realize it’s been really sparse here lately, which is not something I’m very happy about, to be honest. I’ve been feeling pretty depressed lately and it’s been difficult to muster the energy to write about anime, especially in cases where I know I’ll be watching something that’s bound to make my mood even worse. I’ve got vacation from work coming up soon, though, and I hope to use that time productively.

Thanks for being understanding.

I posted this to Facebook and my Tumblr blog, but I thought it might be worth posting here, also. Look, I even re-created the look of a Tumblr-style photoset!

I was going to mention this last night, but then I fell asleep. Anyway, we watched my two favorite episodes of one of my very favorite anime last night, episodes 6 and 7 of Mononoke. I love those episodes, but they absolutely gut me emotionally. There's something very personal about watching the story of a woman who is literally turned into her own worst enemy by those around her. I think there's a message to be had about the ways in which society can pervert what should be a nurturing, loving relationship, that between a mother and her daughter, into one of manipulation and the sublimation of one person's physical and emotional autonomy for the benefit of another.

While I'm a very emotional viewer of anime and often weep openly when I'm by myself, the two episodes that comprise this story arc are some of the few that can bring me to tears in public. When the Medicine Seller asks Ochou "who did you kill?" and she realizes that, through the process of bending to her mother's wishes and then the wishes of her husband, she's been killing herself all along and hiding behind the mask of the good daughter and good wife, I can't help but break down. This is the plight of so many of us, who are taught to reign in our opinions, to tone down our "selves," just so we can maintain harmony with other people who have certain expectations of who we ought to be.

As a final note on this, I wanted to mention that the way the story resolves itself has always fascinated me. I love that, instead of "rescuing" Ochou from herself, the Medicine Seller uses his supernatural abilities to allow Ochou to face her own past and resolve to leave on her own (a story trait shared with Revolutionary Girl Utena, now that I think about it). "Perhaps the Mononoke fell in love, and knew it was a love that could never be." How haunting and poignant and gut-wrenching is that? What a masterpiece, and how sad that so many people on this side of the world will never, ever know about it.

I’m being smart and doing this ahead of time this year.

In case you were not able to attend this year’s MAS Halloween party, or would like a copy of the AMV show, here’s a list of them in order, with links to animemusicvideos.org so you can watch/download them for yourself (and streaming links if they exist).

1. The Responsibility of Peace by NWJ

Video: Irresponsible Captain Tylor

Audio: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country trailer audio

2. IOWEHNIFGEH by Soul

Video: The Tatami Galaxy

Audio: Life on the Nickel by Foster the People

3. Crazy, Maybe by Warlike Swans

Video: Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (all series)

Audio: Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

4. A Corrupted Elegance by pacotacoshell

Video: Katanagatari

Audio: The Fine Art of Poisoning by Jill Tracy

5. That Burning Sensation by Haunter103

Video: Tiger & Bunny

Audio: Fire by Raghav

6. The New Avengers by GuntherAMVs

Video: Durarara!!

Audio: The Avengers Trailer

7. My Freeze Ray/Phone/Microwave (Name Subject to Change) by Miracle_Falcon

Video: Steins;Gate

Audio: Freeze Ray from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

8. Start Again by Shayles

Video: Mawaru Penguindrum

Audio: Blinding by Florence and the Machine

9. Pop Culture by Mally

Video: Nichijou

Audio: Pop Culture by Madeon

10. PonyNote by VivifxAMV

Video: Death Note, various

Audio: Nalepa – Monday by The Glitch Mob, Opening Theme from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

11. White Rabbit by shati

Video: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Audio: White Rabbit by Blue Man Group