kantaicon

The air in Charleston was thick. After a relatively mild summer, with low humidity and nary a 90 degree day in the northeast, the sudden blast of steamy air and Carolina day heat came as a shock when I stepped out of the car and faced the USS Yorktown. Sitting in its berth in Patriot’s Point, the most unlikely of venues was about to host more than its usual collection of tourists and scouts. For today was the day the otaku descended in droves, and transformed a memorial of our nation’s naval history into something else- the “sacred space” of a convention. 

With all the military-themed anime and games floating around, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to attempt the most ambitious of projects: holding a convention on an aircraft carrier. While this might sound like the punchline to some odd joke, or an inebriated declaration for Saturday night congoing, it was inevitable that someone would have the fortitude and drive to “take over” a military artifact and make it into what might be the most thematic venue around for an anime convention. 

And yet, staring up at the hulk of metal and military history in front of me, I could only applaud the endeavors made by the organizers, because what was about to happen would either be a rounding success, or something only whispered about in “horror stories” panels for years to come. I prayed for the former, and dreaded the latter.

autumn equinox flowers (higanbana)

The autumn equinox has just passed us, and so I (Kit) want to talk for a moment about higanbana; that curious red spider-lily that shows up from time to time, in places like visual novels (Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni) or anime series (Hell Girl; Puella Magi Madoka Magica). What does it mean when it shows up?

Higanbana - red spider lily - Lycoris radiata.

Higanbana ( 彼岸花 ) literally means "flower of that (other) shore" - referring to the shores of the Sanzu River, the river dividing the world of the living from the worlds and hells of the dead. It is known by other names too; manjushage is a name that refers to a story of a curse laid upon the flower-sprite and the leaf-sprite of the Lycoris radiata, ensuring they would never meet again (when the flower blooms, the leaves have fallen; when the leaves appear, there are no flowers at all). And since the bulbs are very poisonous, the lilies were used to border rice fields and houses to keep pests away, further evoking this sense of death (albeit, in a more protective form). Some other legends associate this flower with seeing someone you will never see again, and say that is why this flower is associated with tragic partings and funerals. Who knows where the truth may indeed lie.

So in Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Rebellion Story - you can see Homura with these as her symbol; in one image, the longing and symmetry of the sprite story - that she can never seem to be able to reunite with Madoka- and the morbidity of the tragic parting/beauty in decay are expressed. An eloquent image, but packing a punch to it; are the flowers and the figure associated with them harbingers of hope, or decay?

In Hell Girl / Jigoku Shoujo, you can see these flowers surrounding the house of Enma Ai, the girl that acts as an agent of revenge and curses.

So when you see them... watch out for ghosts, curses, yokai, or even demons, for those beings too may be lurking about the scarlet flowers.

worst kept secret

Hello all readers. Charles here, and I have a bit of news to share with everyone.

For the past 5 years, I've been writing on this site about all sorts of topics: fandom, anime, conventions, reviews, and whatever else I figured I could squeeze into the "mission statement" I posted way back before my first entries here. Back when the site was white and orange, like some horrid digital creamsicle.

Since then, I've tried my best to keep content flowing, through times when I was being prolific, to those dark months where my ennui was so crippling I forgot the password. It's been sporadic, hardly a regular deal for me, but I'm proud that I have at least attempted to keep the site going for 5 years, which is the longest I've stuck with any individual project of mine.

Recently, I've even added new contributors to the site, offering their own insights and open forum to discuss their own passions. Most of them I've met either through here, or via conventions, a stunning example of how fandom can expand your worldview, and enhance your experiences.

That said, I've been mulling over making some changes of late. I created this site in October 2009, almost on a lark. I wanted a blog to center my research around, and tried a few different names before StudyofAnime cleared the filter. Back then, that's what I wanted this site to be- a place for rumination and explorations on anime and anime fandom. I wanted to post research from my thesis, and extrapolate on end ideas from those early panels. I was so excited to tell people I had made the site, and made all these wild promises about panel notes and constant updates.

Look at my archive for 2009. Mostly con reviews and weird content I had written down at many of the cons I had gone to that year. Even after I had evolved as a person and a fan, I still kept to those early formats, and early insistences about what I wanted this site to be. And in hindsight, I really shouldn't have. Five years in, and I love what this site has given me, but not what I give back in return.

So here's the deal (damn you, Patrick, for adding that to my lexicon): I want to revamp everything. Starting in October, mission statement be damned, I will be using this site as the host for my 4th annual Horror Film Festival. Furthermore, I plan to expand what I write about to be more than just anime or Japanese culture. I want this site to be a reflection of who I am, not who I want other people to see me as. It is passion that drives the fan, and it just so happens that my passions are all over the place. So why try to constrain them into a single topic.

That does not mean StudyofAnime is going away. While I have a new domain in the works, this site will still function as it always has. I've been really happy with the content Kit has been posting. I'm also trying to get Sid to write more, and as always, I extend the offer to anyone who wants to contribute to send things my way. I want this to be more than a "private" blog.

Now I realize for most of you, this really is the worst kept secret. I've been hinting at it for a long time. But I feel the time is right for it to be formally announced. New things are on my own horizon, and a new site is only fitting for it.

Thanks for reading StudyofAnime, thanks for saying hi at cons, and thanks for being passionate fans.

(And also, thanks for your patience. I know some of my writing has been slow, but we are still chugging away.)

gung-ho humor - irresponsible captain tylor

In honor of the military-themed Kantaicon and my own upbringing - whom I have mentioned earlier, in my Edge of Tomorrow / All You Need Is Kill review - I wanted to talk about an older military-themed animation.

Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

This series was one of the series that my officer father would actually condescend to watch with me. He put up with my rambling about Gundam Wing (mentioning, casually, that the emphasis on political maneuvering would make it hard to follow if someone missed an episode or two), but when I put in the first VHS tape of Irresponsible Captain Tylor, he heard the scene of a surprised recruiter asking our bumbling protagonist Justy Ueki Tylor "how would life in the military be easy for you?" and started snickering.

"In the military, all your food is freeeeee!" - which isn't incorrect.

Tylor's comment about free food isn't incorrect: in future series, we will see other characters (such as Sasha from Attack on Titan) join military organizations in hopes of at least being able to better survive. In real life militaries, food and housing allowances are often given as benefits to serving members, scaled based on where the member is assigned and that area's cost of living averages. In the case of things like healthcare and the GI Bill for educational opportunities, it's not ridiculous that someone would want to join the military in hopes of a better life.

 Yes, this is fiction, though, and of course the story in Tylor gets ridiculous: Justy Ueki Tylor's name even sounds similar to "just [barely] awake", and throughout the series, nobody is exactly certain whether Tylor is a genius, or gifted with the universe's best/worst luck. He gets in to the military, rescues an admiral, defuses a bomb - all within the first two episodes, and no one is sure what to make of him - not even his crew (which, in fine anime and movie tradition, are cast-offs, nerds, eccentrics, probable criminals, and just plain weirdos). Crispin Freeman, in an early role of his, gives an amazing and gung-ho performance as Justy Ueki Tylor, and sounds like he's having fun with the role - an unexpected hero, but a hero nonetheless! The blend of humor balanced with galactic scale plots really make it fun and easy to watch, though it is very much 1980s-in-style, starting from the opening sequence onward.

But for someone used to seeing dark, grim stories about war, or the military (think - again - Attack on Titan, or Fullmetal Alchemist, or pick a Gundam series to your liking) - Irresponsible Captain Tylor was refreshing.

The North American release originally was a Central Park Media production, but Nozomi Entertainment has now picked it up, and so the first two episodes are available to watch on Youtube (dub only) and the boxset available via RightStuf.