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  • lolikitsune crafted this last love song at 10:40 am on November 5, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Anime, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: aoi bungaku, book of bantorra, , fairy tail, gemini of the meteor, ghostlightning, google wave, , kampfer, , kiddy girlAND, , , nyan-koi, , random curiosity, seiken no blacksmith, sora no otoshimono, the evil eye, , winter sonata, . What a slut.
    At least it only has 17 comments and 1,930 views.

    Obligatory Hatin’-on-Fall Post 

    Hey guys. I’ve been leaving you alone a lot recently, has that been nice? Technology is awesome. I’ve already managed to incense someone by bashing on Higurashi in Google Wave. Google Wave! That shit’s like, from 2014!

    Anyway. Back to the season at hand.

    I am now going to prove that nothing currently airing is good. Don’t expect screenshots, I’m too lazy even to steal pics from RandomC.

    1. Queen’s Blade Season 2: Hirano Aya’s character has been marginalized. I haven’t heard nearly enough of her voice this season. Every time I finish an episode of this trash, I go back and marathon the entirety of Kiddy Grade for want of her voice.

    2. Seiken no Blacksmith: Ignoring that knights must be chivalrous and not moe, the message of Blackshit thus far seems to have been that girls are sad if you don’t buy them useless kit. Buy a candle and stick it on their heads, though, and you’re golden. You’re even a good guy, who cares about the girl! But if you don’t buy shitty accessories, you’re a bad guy. Thrifty? No, you’re evil, and you need to be corrected.

    3. Fairy Tail: This show is louder than Seto no Hanayome, and it doesn’t make up for it with mermaid gangsters. Loud is bad.

    4. Sasameki Koto: Should be “Stammered Things” instead of “Whispered Things.” This manga didn’t translate well into anime form; Sumi is a humongous pansy who’s more painful to watch than the typical weak male harem lead, and her crush has no redeeming values whatsoever. Take something great and destroy it.

    5. Book of Bantorra: Xam’d ripoff. Inferior Xam’d ripoff.

    6. Winter Sonata: the main guy looks exactly like my gf’s ex, and that pisses me off. If an anime pisses me off, it’s bad, unless it’s Bokurano, in which case it’s somehow good even if it’s angering (thanks, Owen!).

    7. Sora no Otoshimono: Chobits was hotter. If Tomoki doesn’t start fingering Ikaros soon I’m going to throw my shoe at my monitor. This show also suffers from Kanokon/To-Love-ru Syndrome: too much sexual tension, not enough sex.

    8. Kanokon OVA: see above.

    9. To-love-ru OVA: see above.

    10. Kampfer: see above.

    11. Nyan-koi: Not enough catfish. Pass.

    12. Darker than Black 2: I have a skit for this piece of shit.

    Suou: FATE-CHAN! TANYA!
    Tanya: … *scowl*
    Suou: Fate-chan Tanya, stop this!
    Tanya: … why?
    Suou: It’s me, Nanoha Suou! Remember me?
    Tanya: Die.
    Suou: Listen to me! I just want to be friends…
    Tanya: BARDICHE! BUGS!
    Suou: *transformation sequence* STARLIGHT BREAKER! HUGE FUCKING GUN! *humongous explosions*

    Hopefully this has been illuminating and informative for all.

    13. Kiddy girlAND: Not enough Hirano Aya. ;(

    14. Aoi Bungaku: that piece of shit ghostlightning enjoys this show. He also like Bakemonogatari. You can see a trend, here.

    Anything else airing? I’ll take it down a few rungs. C’mon. Bring it.

    15. A Certain Scientific Railgun: not enough Railgun, way too much loud, annoying lolis (Uihara, the teleporting bitch, etc.). Also, promotes bad things, in particular, blanket video surveillance. Earns the “most evil” mark of the season, second being Seiken no Blacksmith with its consumerist messages.

    16. Kimi ni Todoke: traumatizing memories of the KimiKiss opening.

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    • Eugen R. 10:50 am on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Kimi ni Todoke. A certain scientific Railgun. And our opinions seem not to match on this season.

    • lolikitsune 10:57 am on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Responded to those two shows in the post. And how do your opinions not match up? Tell me where you think I’m wrong.

    • blkmage 11:43 am on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I was wondering why DtB2 seemed oddly familiar.

    • Shin 11:58 am on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Kobato? Seitokai no Ichizon? (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ

      I still can’t tell if you actually hate DtB2 or not, although given that anecdote, it sounds like a good thing to me!

    • lolikitsune 12:03 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Heh.

    • Eugen R. 12:03 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Love Kuroko’s voice, like Railgun in overall. Find Kimi ni Todoke the best romantic comedy-elemented anime I’ve seen (well, you can say ‘you haven’t see much!!’ here, but that won’t change my impressions, will it), and I adore Nyan Koi’s humour. Don’t ya read?, I posted on that

    • lolikitsune 12:08 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Sorry, every time I go to your site I get distracted by that maid… *drool*

    • Eugen R. 12:15 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      *wipes the drool off* I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have almost finished that new clothed pic of her. Well, perhaps I’ll make banner rotating^^

      Anyways, as you see there our opinions don’t match^^

    • nekosasu 1:10 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Not enough catfish? Shit man, we’re disagreeing. Well, obviously.

    • Baka-Raptor 1:56 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      A pedophile such as yourself could never understand the true beauty of Queen’s Blade.

    • sakura 3:18 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Sawako and Kazehaya are total win, I am loving Kimi ni todoke!

    • ryan aloevera gel 3:22 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      If Tomoki doesn’t start fingering Ikaros soon I’m going to throw my shoe at my monitor.

      LOL Pic or it didn’t happen, when it happens. So you finally got time to troll here.

    • Sorrow-kun 4:15 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      People wouldn’t have quite so much praise for Kimi ni Todoke if it were airing in a different season. It’s like the “Akane is the best character of the season” threads on /a/. Well, yeah, but where’s the competition?

      If you’re into pretentious crap (as I am), you might like Trapeze.

    • TJ 5:37 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Agreed about Railgun. Not enough Biri-biri, and too much Kuroko. Uihara is okay since she’s not as obnoxious as crazy lesbian Kuroko.

    • lolikitsune 5:54 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I don’t actually know anything about Kimi ni Todoke.

      I have a confession to make: I’d argue more seriously, against all the titles we’ve mentioned, but I would be told to look for a different medium. I can only express my dissatisfaction with anime in non-serious manners, so that’s what I do.

      I feel cornered.

      I just want to hate.

    • lolikitsune 6:16 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @nekosasu: get it get it, cats and goldfish ugh i hate my humor

      @ryan aloevera gel: long-awaited, huh

    • Rakuen 6:28 pm on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      What? Don’t you like Kimikiss’ OP?

      Want us to sing and record it for you in our Christmas-Karaoke Party?

      Well, no I’ve no concerns over teleporting lesbians, but Uiharu (not Uihara) isn’t hateable (if that’s a word) for me.

  • lolikitsune crafted this last love song at 9:24 pm on September 23, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Anime, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: 5cm/s, bokura ga ita, , eggs, ghostlightning, , , , sybilant, youtube. What a slut.
    At least it only has 21 comments and 5,706 views.

    The Tragedy of the Passage of Time – Honey & Clover, Cowboy Bebop, 5cm/s, Bokura ga Ita – Chewing on Nostalgia 

    According to ghostlightning, his wife, sybilant, hates tragedy. Apparently she enjoyed Honey & Clover all the way through, up until the ending—and apparently the ending was too much for her. When ghostlightning related this to me, I thought to myself, “was the ending… tragic?” I recalled lots of tragedy throughout the course of the show, be it in flashbacks (Morita’s family’s past) or in the present (Hagu’s accident), and compared to these instances of tragedy, the ending just didn’t measure up for me.

    (More …)

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    • ghostlightning 9:45 pm on September 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      He’s not telling it in the past tense, either. Whether the information on which he bases his prophetic statements comes from the past or present or sheer clairvoyance is unimportant; what is important is that he allows us to have an emotional reaction we wouldn’t have if certain scenes weren’t seen through his eyes.

      This is very important I think. If Takemoto had been sharing this way after the series of events, there’s a bit too much time to process, maybe — that will eventually prove your point, but remove much of what makes it tragic to even support an illusion.

      I may be completely off, but I place the sequential ‘space’ from which Takemoto narrates from somewhere similar but not exactly from where Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann begins, a variation of in medias res that in this case is even less significant to the telling. It is used almost entirely for effect.

      Their reserved silence is more than an appreciation for Ed and Faye, however: as they eat the eggs, they are undoubtedly both remembering the previous time women walked out on them, and perhaps thinking back further to how things were before that “last time.” My dictionary has the word “wistful” in the definition for “nostalgia,” and “wistful” is an adjective I might employ if you were to ask me to describe the manner in which Spike and Jet eat those god-damned eggs.

      Good stuff. It takes an imaginative leap I believe to take Takemoto to where these older bounty hunters are, but it’s a rewarding one. Takemoto may be bawwwwwing his eyes out while stuffing his face with the meaningful sandwiches, but the story we are hearing can and does feel like a celebration of his most intense youth.

      Remembering love is what it is.

      (Thank you lolikit for giving me an excuse to shamelessly drop that line in the end)

    • lolikitsune 9:48 pm on September 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      And hey, that’s what nostalgia is, right? Spike remembers his love for Vicious, and…

    • Owen S 2:58 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Yes. This.

    • omo 8:08 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      The Takemoto Lens is a great construct to explain not only in terms of theme but also the animation direction… Well, it’s supporting evidence at any rate.

      What’s laughable about 5cm/s though? I mean I admit the final scene became laughable after I cycled through it enough time and viewed it under different states of minds, but it’s tragic in the way that you described where Takaki could just be a hollow husk in respect to the story (as opposed to the character). Nostalgia’s partner in crime is regret, after all.

      Come to think of it, the first half of your post you’ve reconstructed the anime trope of nostalgia (“natsukashii”) and the second half you’ve described the role of regret in those works. As you surmised it is not the same as “tragedy” but it can seem tragic.

    • lolikitsune 8:14 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      What’s laughable about 5cm/s is what I said was laughable about 5cm/s: it’s about a boy, thirteen years old, who gives up on a childhood love and has his soul subsequently crushed. Freakin’ LOL.

      I wasn’t saying the ending in particular is laughable for 5cm/s, just that it’s hard to take the movie too seriously. I’ll add here that if you do manage to take the movie seriously it comes across as very well-done, very dramatic and yes, tragic. I loved it when I watched it, don’t get me wrong.

    • IcyStorm 8:29 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      You fucked this up.

    • omo 8:33 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Well, that’s a realization that never dawned on me–that his soul was crushed because he had to give her up. I thought his soul was crushed ( in his adult form) because he became a workaholic with nothing in life to live for. Of course if you were 13 and you had to give up the love of your life at the time, yeah, there’s nothing funny about getting crushed about that, at that time.

      I agree that if what you said is what you got out of 5cm/s, yeah, it’s silly.

    • lolikitsune 8:38 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I thought that his workaholic status was a symptom of having a crushed soul… he seemed pretty empty already in Cosmonaut?

    • DiGiKerot 8:46 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Bah, you just aren’t old enough to appreciate how depressing nostalgia can be ^^;

      (Note to self: I really must get around to watching the second season of H&C some day)

    • lolikitsune 8:47 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @DiGiKerot: It’s depressing—I understand that and appreciate it—but it’s not tragedy. No matter how you look at it, there’re wonderful happy memories to brighten your day!!

    • omo 9:11 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @lolikitsune: I think that only makes sense if you follow through with your interpretation. I see it as a gradual process. Mid-life crisis (or maybe quarter-life, kind of in between in this case) isn’t an isolated condition. The fact that he drowns himself with work is a side effect of having nothing to live for in life, I agree, but it can be a contributing factor (speaking from my own experience).

      The overall progression, however, is holding on to nostalgia/regret for too long. In the Cosmonaut segment Takaki is still stroking the dying flame of his heart on one hand, and putting it in an air-tight box in the other. That’s what’s sustaining him in those years. As he gets older in the last segment he no longer has that burning and driving him, but he still couldn’t let go. This is a very traditional interpretation, but that’s mine.

    • DiGiKerot 9:15 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I don’t know, I’ve not read Ghostlightnings post which initiated this discussion, but a lot of this does just seem to be arguing the semantics of a term that was probably used without too much thought being put into it in the first place.

      But putting that aside for a second, such a large part of nostalgia is the yearning for days gone by and the knowledge that such days will never return, the craving for past experiences you’ll never have again. It’s depressing, mournful, sad – nostalgia is inherently tragic.

      So, if you want to argue semantics, it thereby follows that whilst the ending to H&C isn’t a tragedy, it is still tragic ^^;

      Or it could just be that I’m depressed and I don’t realise it, whatever works for you. I think my actual point was supposed to be that regardless of whether or not it’s a tragedy, it’s still difficult for anyone who relates to Takemoto not to find such an ending at least a little depressing.

    • lolikitsune 9:43 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @omo: good to see that other perspective.

      @DiGiKerot: as I said toward the beginning of my post,

      Now, I understand that the entire premise of this post is a technicality. sybilant is welcome to enjoy what she enjoys and dislike what she dislikes, and if the ending of H&C is too sad for her, it’s too sad for her.

      So yes. If Takemoto’s ending is depressing for someone, it’s still depressing for that person. I’m not telling people how to feel.

      As for ghostlightning’s “post,” there is none; this post was inspired by an IM convo :P

      But putting that aside for a second, such a large part of nostalgia is the yearning for days gone by and the knowledge that such days will never return, the craving for past experiences you’ll never have again. It’s depressing, mournful, sad – nostalgia is inherently tragic.

      Is it tragic to appreciate the past? As far as I can tell, definitions of nostalgia involve affection but not mourning. You celebrate the past, you are happy for it, and you wish for it. This is different from actively bemoaning the present.

      I imagine that a sentiment of longing for the past and a sentiment for hating the present can go hand in hand (see: Takaki), but it is not the latter that’s in question here (it is not the latter that makes Takaki smile).

      The question was why can they smile, right?

      I dunno, as long as someone can smile, I don’t see tragedy. But then, I’m an optimist and this is a very dumb semantic argument as has been established. I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.

    • ghostlightning 12:38 pm on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @lolikitsune: LOL I’ve made a whole schtick with this nostalgia/remembering love.

      It’s the difference between a Solanin (which is arguably bleaker than H & C and a Bokurano I believe (unless one looks back fondly at the memory of naked little girls getting broken then killed, as a minor consequence of an endless loop of competing universes annihilating each other).

    • lolikitsune 12:39 pm on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      This really wasn’t the road down which I’d intended discussion to go… back to the hard-boiled eggs plox?

    • The Longcoat 12:25 pm on September 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @IcyStorm: He should have gone deeper into the bones of it.

      A really great post overall. As a Geass-tard I should mention Lelouch has a similar moment when he’s walking away from the Academy before heading off to China with his happiness-is-glass soliloquy.

      Reminiscing and nostalgia really kinda sucks, especially in regard to people you’ll never see again. There is a very fine line between bittersweet and just bitter.

      It is said that the outcome is not what matters, but the journey. I say people say that because the outcome has a bad tendency to suck boatloads of ass. Life is the journey and at the end of it you die like a punk.

    • sybilant 1:18 am on September 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Yep, I hate tragedy. Real life is sad enough already. It’s all about losing things we love gracefully and frankly, I so suck at that.

      At least I have kyun-kyun now.

    • lolikitsune 6:15 am on September 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @The Longcoat: I swear the last time I read your comment, only the first sentence was there.

      @sybilant: Don’t worry, I’ll steal kyun-kyun away from you some day. Twenty year age differences are nothing these days…

    • Michael 7:27 am on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      It’s not tragic. Great post. Something that will disappear is always better than something that has never existed. Because at least it was. At least it had been. At least one can look back and say that whatever that it was, it was there. A celebration of something, in my opinion, is more positive than a celebration of nothing.

      Thanks for the post.

    • lolikitsune 8:15 am on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks, Mike! I’m almost surprised to see you crawl back out of the woodwork. Where you been?

  • lolikitsune crafted this last love song at 2:00 am on July 9, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Commentary, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: aroduc, , , , crusader, , ghostlightning, , , , kuro, , , , , , sdb, , , , , , zyl. What a slut.
    At least it has 0 comments and 548 views.

    Tripeman, wherefore art thou Tripeman? TJ, ALL YOUR MASCOT ARE BELONG TO ME 

    In a comment on Sixten’s recent blog post about working on my visual novel, Pete Zai Author said:

    Obviously someone has to fail the cut. TJ, Omo, SDB with his cane, Crusader, BigN, Kuro, Evirus, Aroduc, Zyl and his brother, John and Zepy the newsmen — all went under the knife.

    Well, for one thing, Omo is definitely in the game (receiving lots of mutated-clit-penetration from Owen). For another, I’ll say this: now that character art is in the picture, the overhead for adding characters has increased dramatically. If I want to add a character, I need to charge Sixten—onto whom I have already piled work—with the character’s artwork.

    That said, I can find some outside sources of help.

    Otou-san, for instance, has volunteered to make me a ghostlightning.

    And some characters don’t need amazing character art. TJ won’t be appearing in my game, but I intend to make use of RIUVA‘s mascot: Tripeman. I hereby humbly request permission of the RIUVA staff. If it’s denied, I will bear Tripeman’s children and bring lawsuits against Jason Miao for removing RIUVA from Blogsuki in 2006 (in all honesty, its largest popularity bid to date), as that obviously will have led directly to my bearing of Tripeman’s tripenile mangobat children. If not explicitly denied, it will be taken for granted.

    Man, I’m on a roll with the funniehz.

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  • lolikappa crafted this last love song at 12:40 pm on July 8, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Anime, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: , bullshit, essay, ghostlightning, , narutaru, . What a slut.
    At least it only has 9 comments and 1,316 views.

    INSIDE-OUT LIVES: The Two Sides of Death in Bokurano and Narutaru 

    Holy shit holy shit I’m actually posting what is this. A grand mystery. Don’t expect this to be a regular thing or anything. Also, blame ghostlightning. Damn old man. All inspiring and shit.

    Actually, blame Mohiro Kitoh. Over the last week, I marathon-read his two main finished manga, Bokurano and Narutaru . They were both fucking awesome.

    (I feel like I should preface by saying that I have not seen the anime of either, nor do I particularly intend to. However, Uninstall is a genius OP, as I’m sure you all know, and made fantastic background music to read Bokurano to. And, you know, to write this post to. And to do anything to, really. That song is amazing.)

    (Second preface: this post will contain some spoilers for both series, but I’ll try to keep it light, and steer clear of any major game-changing spoilers.)

    Bokurano and Narutaru both deal with death in a major way. Each explores and handles one side of death, leaving the other mostly ignored. From a thematic perspective, the two are perfect complements, and are best understood in the context of the other.

    First, Bokurano. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Bokurano is the story of fifteen kids, mostly seventh graders, who find themselves the chosen pilots of a massive robot to fight other giant robots and save the world. Sounds generic enough, except for the catch. Each kid pilots the robot once, in turn… and then dies. Furthermore, each pilot knows when they’re going to have their turn next, but not when the fight will happen. So the manga consists of a series of character studies, of how each child deals with and prepares for their own imminent death.

    Their thoughts cover a wide range, from terror to sadness to pride at their chance to save the world. Each is a complex character, with a fleshed-out backstory and a thoroughly believable psychological makeup. Most chapters are narrated by the character in question, as they try to seek some closure in the time they have left, or escape their inevitable fate, or somesuch. The unifying factor is that in every case, their struggles are internal. They do not seek help, or discuss their plans with others, or anything else like that. More than that, the vast majority of the stories deal with purely internal problems. How does the person themself deal with their own death? They do not think beyond their own end, as to how their actions will affect others. A handful of the characters break this trend, making preparations for their siblings and loved ones for after they are gone, but even they do it for internal reasons. Near the end of the story, we have a series of vignettes revisiting the families of the children, and how they coped after their deaths, but these are fairly short and secondary. Bokurano is, first and foremost, the story of how people deal with their own deaths.

    Narutaru is the inverse of that. Again, a brief summary for those unfamiliar. Teens bond with magic baby dragons with really cool powers. As one would expect, they use them to do things like murder their classmates, rape people they had crushes on, and attempt to destabilize the government. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy-friendly mahou shojo / pet monster feel given by the first few chapters; Narutaru rapidly descends into a psychological bloodbath that reads like the bastard love child of Tomino and Anno.

    In Narutaru, death is brutal and sudden. It happens with almost no warning, and no celebration. Whereas characters in Bokurano spend long chapters monologuing and philosophizing about their own deaths, Narutaru characters are simply there one panel and gone the next. Death in Narutaru is not about the character who died, but rather those left behind by their death. Early on, the first villain is killed rather viciously by the main character. Most series would simply move on. Yay, we won! Not Narutaru. The police mount an investigation. The main character is haunted by the boy’s face on the news for the next week, and, worse, learns that his death meant he wasn’t around to care for his ailing mother, who died without his help.

    Things like this continue to happen throughout the story, as every death has extreme consequences on the surviving characters. When people die, their relatives and loved ones become relevant. Funerals are held. People are arrested and forced into psychological instutions, as one would expect. Deaths in Narutaru have aftershocks that shake the entire rest of the story, and ripple through the psyches of everyone left behind.

    In this way, Bokurano and Narutaru form a duality. Each deals with one side of death–Bokurano the internal, and Narutaru the external. The two themes are complementary and work together beautifully. Death is prepared for in Bokurano. We see it coming, but then, after it has happened, that story is over, and the death all but forgotten. Death is sudden in Narutaru, but followed up. Every death is the beginning of a story, not the end, as the story focuses on those left behind it. In a way, one cannot truly understand either manga without the other.

    Final ratings:

    Bokurano: 10/10

    Narutaru: 8.5/10

    Strongly recommend both to anyone who likes psychological… anything.

    Next up on my reading list… Five Star Stories, courtesy of ghostlightning. Don’t expect me to write anything about it, though, unless I get particularly inspired.

    .lolikappa

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    • ghostlightning 1:04 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Hehehe, excellent! I was just about to start reading Bokurano too!

      The ‘downer’ is a curious case of how I relate to the concept of the ‘guilty pleasure.’ People feel guilty (so they say) for watching crap reality shows, as if they would normally want to go to the opera. The dynamic is low-culture = guilt, and high culture = appropriate pleasure.

      Pfffft. There’s a huge inauthenticity about this, relevant to those who have shameful otaku secrets.

      Rather, the guilt that I find are inspired by the content and not the medium or genre.

      In the case of Bokurano, it’s taking pleasure in the misery of these kids, and ultimately taking pleasure (albeit indirectly) in their deaths.

      I’m watching Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, and as Adaywithoutme said, “it’s just one long party.” Basically I’ve been watching miserable people spiral downward into more misery and finally die. Because characters drop like flies because Tomino Yoshiyuki has no regard for human life.

      Why do I enjoy this shit? Is it for a hopeful triumphal payoff in the end when the good guys win? No, that’s not even true.

      So consuming and enjoying sad, sad shit… is our pleasure appropriate?

    • lolikitsune 1:07 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I did not take pleasure in the misery of the kids in Bokurano. I actually was offended by how hopeless it was.

    • otou-san 1:37 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’m actually almost through with Bokurano, and I agree across the board. Narutaro sounds interesting.

      Another manga (though based on a book) I’d call the flipside of Bokurano: Battle Royale. It uses the same flashback story structure, but instead of tackling the story of how each character will deal with the inevitability of his own death, it’s about dealing with the inevitability of having to kill someone else to stay alive.

    • lolikappa 1:54 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @ghostlightning
      Awesome, you read my new favorite manga while I read yours. : ]

      Is it really pleasure, though? I take pleasure on a philosophical level, in that the writing is brilliant and eloquent and explores complex themes. My pleasure is not of the schadenfreudic variety (or at least I don’t think so). I don’t enjoy stories that kill their characters for no reason, or for the sake of drama.

      … is what I’d like to say. But now that I think about it, character death is awesome BECAUSE it leads to drama. Which in turn leads to interesting psychology. So no, wait, I can say that I had been saying at first. Good.

      I don’t think it’s inappropriate entertainment, as long as we consume it for the right reasons.

      @lolikitsune
      That’s because you’re a pussy, LK-niisama.

      @otou-san
      I’ve never read/seen Battle Royale (and I know I need to), but I actually did run a LARP based on it. In which I played the teacher who personally went in and made sure people got murdering. It was… a very psychologically interesting experience, and all about karmic consequences.

      .lolikappa

    • lolikitsune 1:59 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @lolikappa: Madame, would you like to eat lead?

    • kirk_h 4:44 pm on August 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Narutaru sucked so much balls. Shiina died in one chapter (hit by a freaking missile, innards flying everywhere), was returned to her parents in a bag, then a couple of chapters later just came back to life with no explanations whatsoever and nobody wondering why the hell she’s alive again. Then she was menstruating and wanted to sex that stupid-looking guy who used to go out with the decapitated transvestite. The events leading to that missile attack was so much bullshit as well. That kid came out of nowhere, caused so much trouble, disappeared and forgotten just as fast. The ending was rushed as well. If he didn’t pile on so much bullshit after bullshit, maybe he’d have time to make a coherent story and an ending that makes sense. God damn, this manga made me rage so much. I’m so freaking annoyed since I’ve read so many posts praising it (those people probably haven’t read past volume 2). It’s bullshit. I give it 2/10. Narutaru is a fucking waste of time; Bokurano is way better and more coherent.

    • lolikappa 10:40 pm on August 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @kirk_h: I was able to follow the story just fine. It was a little confusing because I accidentally read a few chapters out of order, but once I went back and reread them, I didn’t have any trouble following it. Almost everything was explained eventually, and sure, the pacing was a little weird, but… it all made sense. But it didn’t make sense EASILY. You had to actually stop and think about it, fill in the various pieces of the puzzle. It’s a bit like Evangelion in that sense–a huge confusing mindfuck if you don’t want to take the time to figure it out, but if you do, the pieces are all there for you to put together. Such things happen to be one of my favorite types of stories, because I love putting together little bits of hints and worldbuilding and clues.

      .lolikappa

  • lolikitsune crafted this last love song at 9:20 am on July 6, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Commentary, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: , , , , , celebration, , , ghostlightning, , , , , , , , konoe, , , , , , , mr. pippers, , , , , sola, , , , . What a slut.
    At least it only has 25 comments and 2,404 views.

    So I’ve been aniblogging for… four years? 

    In the “better late than never category,” I started anime blogging on my old livejournal four years ago May. This officially makes me as pro as Jason Miao, and should elicit throngs of fanboys screeching “four more years! four more years!”

    I would do a retrospective like lelangir did, but it wouldn’t be too interesting—every few points would be interspersed with “then lolikit gave up aniblogging in an emo rage fit, and closed down notdotq for five months.” Not that I ever stayed away for long, but…

    … I do have a habit for, shall we call them, disappearances.

    Instead of a retrospective, let’s do a highlights, and without dates, because I care more about the feelings than I do the historical accuracies:

    - after one year of animeblogging, notdotq is born on wordpress.com, one of the handful of “first” anime blogs to use wordpress.com, along with jp meyer’s fairy tale of love and courage.

    - Jason Miao promises to put notdotq on Blogsuki.

    - Jason Miao removes newcomer RIUVA from Blogsuki, refuses to put notdotq on.

    - Various bedraggled anibloggers realize that Jason is a cancer.

    - Hung builds AnimeNaNo, invites Jason Miao.

    - I start spreading my name by creating and maintaining the AnimeNaNo IRC channel. The community is thriving. Mr. Pippers is still an aniblogger.

    - Jason still doesn’t join AnimeNaNo.

    - So there are no killer lolis in Higurashi, mmmkay?

    - Jason says that Japanese anibloggers are better than English-speaking anibloggers. Reason: graphs.

    - Beginning of holy anti-Jason crusade.

    - Oh by the way Haruhi sucks balls.

    - I go to France, where I finish Fate/Stay-night and die a premature death due to suck. While in France, AnimeNaNo takes off like a flock of majestic birds, Japes becomes my friend, and Haruhi 12 blows me away.

    - Hung, Japes, and Hinano–later, Japes’ girlfriend, now, his wife–start the AnimeNaNo podcast. Pips and I parody: podcast.dotq.org.

    - wait, this is turning into a chronological recounting. SHIT.

    Okay. Deep breath.

    Here are my top ten moments in animeblogging.

    #10. The founding of AnimeNaNo. Shit was so cash.

    #9. Blogging Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora, Sola, and Aria the Origination with Shirukii.

    #8. That time a newbie added me to her initial blogroll along with the big names–Jason, Jeff, Japes, Omo, etc.

    #7. Baka-Raptor informed me that I was the king of trolls. (Or maybe it was ‘trolling king,’ either way.)

    #6. Konoe and I enjoy many philosophical discourses over AIM, I publish these discourses (“on disagreement,” etc.), ghostlightning realizes that love needs explanation just the same as hate, various anibloggers begin defending their stances more rigorously, “lolikitean” invented.

    #5. Kyousora.com is registered and built. My first exercise in hilarious satirical porn stories, perhaps the genesis of my visual novel project.

    #4. Graphs. So fucking many of them. Everywhere. All the fucking time.

    #3. When Jason stopped posting for three months. Hell yes. This was also when lots of people (ghostlightning, lolikappa, lelangir) were posting on notdotq. I was being extremely productive and the ‘sphere was looking happy.

    #2. Miao on My Mind.

    #1. So, CCY-senpai, I herd u were maiking a gaem?

    I’m going to stop the nostalgia train here because I’m not being very coherent or classy. This was really just a poor excuse to post more.

    Love and peace and rock my song,
    -Dr. lolikitsune

    » Reply
     

    • Hinano 10:06 am on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      man has it been 4 years already. I think I hit my 3 years in June but i didn’t mention anything since that woulda been on my no longer existing blog. sigh time flies. i kinda miss all the 2006 fun we used to have…

    • lolikitsune 10:28 am on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Yeah… we didn’t yet have awesome folks like lelangir or ghostlightning around, but we were all pretty tight-knit. ANO had a nice feel to it and things seem a bit more chaotic these days. Also, fuck Twitter ;3

    • ghostlightning 12:09 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      A shit career that you pissed away every last drop of goodness from.

      Go away and never tease my poor, loving heart again.

    • lolikitsune 12:24 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @ghostlightning: Well said, ghastly crucifier of mine.

    • Baka-Raptor 5:53 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      These past few months don’t count towards the 4 year total. Time stops when you don’t blog.

    • lolikitsune 5:57 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Baka-Raptor: “Time stops when I’m around Baka-Raptor!” Guess I’m only two years into my career…

    • lolikappa 8:15 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      FOUR MORE YEARS
      FOUR MORE YEARS
      FOUR MORE YEARS

      .lolikappa

    • lolikitsune 8:22 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Why thank you, Madame.

    • Rakuen 8:40 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      All hail the King of Trolls! 4 more years! And fuck more tons of money!

    • lolikitsune 9:53 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Rakuen: Shit, money. I need to start raising money to pay Sixten.

    • IcyStorm 10:24 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’m commenting here because ghostlightning told me too.

    • lolikitsune 10:33 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks, jay appledecks-kun

    • Omisyth 3:22 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      You’re still on the feedreader, so that’s good enough.

    • Zeroblade 8:48 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I missed you. In the sort-of-kind-of-maybe-not-really-but-I’m-just-saying-this-because-I-don’t-really-have-anything-else-to-say way.

    • lolikitsune 9:13 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Omisyth: wow, I’m honored. I know I’m still on ANO, ramming my epenis into about 38 subscribers.

      @Zeroblade: awwww thx.

    • Hinano 10:09 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I still use twitter cause I need to rage about my work and pangya somewhere…

    • lolikitsune 10:34 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Hinano: I barely read twitter anymore, but I still post a bunch to it I think… not much anime stuff, though.

    • bluemist 7:08 am on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’d say you influenced my anime viewing a bit (Aria particularly), so kudos to you. More years to come.

    • lolikitsune 7:39 am on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      You influenced me more than you know, bluemist. Back when Lovely Kitsune still blogged, he wrote a vitriolic post about how some idiotic anime blogger had him in his “blogroll” (he seemed angered by the very concept of a “blogroll”). When I e-mailed him, worried that it was I who had invited his ire (I had a link to him on DotQ at the time; this was before notdotq existed), he reassured me that it was not I and provided me with a link to your blog.

      Then I read through your archives, and wondered why LK was so angry. You seemed chill enough.

    • bluemist 9:52 am on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, that? I did the same thing! I e-mailed him too with that same worry, and he replied that actually it was me and my stupid Q&A About page (which was similar to his) that triggered his doubts about me “copying his style”. He said he had problems with another blogger blatantly doing similar blogging gimmicks as his, and so he also had doubts with my content. That’s how he got ticked off I think.

      The blogging world was still small back then and so these stuff happens I guess. Some of my posts then may have similar style to his, but rather than copying, I may say that I drew inspiration from him. Well in general terms, I was inspired by all anime bloggers before me anyway.

    • lolikitsune 9:59 am on July 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Mmm yeah that was back a long ways, around when I was starting (again, on my long-forsaken LJ), back when Miao ruled the world (seas would rise when he gave the word). I obviously drew shittons of inspiration from Lovely Kitsune (stylistically… and otherwise. LK=>LK). I think he stopped caring at some point. He blocked me on AIM years ago because I admired him too much, or something. Guess it creeped him out.

    • moritheil 6:00 pm on August 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Every once in a while something happens that reminds me that I’ve technically been aniblogging longer than 99% of the scene. This qualifies. I’m not sure how I feel about that. If I had been “in the loop,” would I have been Jason Miao?

      Also, four more years.

    • Kaioshin Sama 12:02 pm on November 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      This epic story of Jason Miao’s trainwreck shall become oral tradition one day. Of this I am certain.

    • usagijen 8:04 am on November 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I still wasn’t around during those ‘good old days’ when the ‘sphere was tightly knit (thanks to blogsuki (in a lot of ways)) to witness the Legend of the lolikit, but my co-blogger absolute0 and fellow blogger/officemate cuteproxy remembers you, up until this day and age.

    • lolikitsune 8:15 am on November 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’m honored.

  • lolikitsune crafted this last love song at 10:36 am on April 24, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Anime, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: , , , , , disappear into the summer, , , , , ghostlightning, guin saga, hanasakeru seishounen, jyu oh sei, , , , , moritheil, natsukage, , , , the moritheil review, , Utawarerumono, valkyria chronicles, violinist of hamelin, . What a slut.
    At least it only has 14 comments and 2,055 views.

    Your Nails Were Weaksauce, O Ghastly Thunder Crucifier o’Mine 

    Jesus is gone now, but in these wrists, and in my side—!!

    (More …)

    » Reply
     

    • otou-san 10:49 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      guess it’s best to end this vicious cycle by not leaving comments

    • lolikitsune 10:50 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @otou-san: The Cycle Ends With You

    • Chihiro 10:52 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Noblesse oblige.

      Please continue being an aniblogger messiah.

    • Omisyth 11:02 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I think Lucky Star coule be seen as similar to Aria. They are both slice-of-life and moe.

    • lolikitsune 11:22 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Chihiro: Do I need to start calling Jim “Juiz?”

      @Omisyth: Lucky Star is a moe delivery system; Aria is a life lesson delivery system. They are fundamentally different, even if they share a couple tags.

    • KigaMoosh 12:09 pm on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Really.

    • ghostlightning 12:12 pm on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I miss you.

    • Baka-Raptor 1:00 pm on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’ve known you for over a year now, and I still don’t get any of your jokes.

    • digitalboy 1:06 pm on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      If there’s one real difference between Aria and Lucky Star, it’s that Lucky Star is FAR MORE AWESOME.

    • Alar 7:09 pm on April 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      FLAK-CHAMA, SUGGEST SITES FOR WITH WHICH I CAN DOWNLOAD K-ON! TORRENTS! KYAAAA~

    • Michael 1:21 am on April 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      A DYING SCREAM MAKES NO SOUND

    • moritheil 11:08 am on April 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      So, it was a Ph.D. in trolling after all!

      Glad we cleared that up.

    • Zeroblade 11:48 pm on April 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      IF YOU WON’T SAVE ME PLEASE DON’T WASTE MY TIME

    • lolikitsune 8:52 am on April 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Wait why are people spamming my post with Oasis lyrics? I don’t even mention Eden of the East in this post!

  • lelangir and lolikappa crafted this last love song at 4:46 pm on April 22, 2009. Permalink | Reply
    It's categorized as Commentary, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: ghostlightning, . What a slut.
    At least it only has 11 comments and 1,291 views.

    Leave lolikit alone 

    How fucking dare anyone out there make fun of lolikit after all he has been through!

    He lost his job, he went through a semester of college. He started two fuckin websites.

    His PR guy turned out to be a user, a cheater, and now he’s going through a trademark battle. All you people care about is….. readers and making money off of him.

    HE’S A FOXGIRL! What you don’t realize is that lolikit is making you all this money and all you do is write a bunch of crap about him.

    He hasn’t performed in ‘sphere in months. His blog is called “finally” for a reason because all you people want is immediate gratification!

    LEAVE HIM ALONE! You are lucky he even wrote for you BASTARDS! LEAVE LOLIKIT ALONE!…..Please.

    ghostlightning talked about learnedness and said if lolikit had panache he would’ve pulled it off no matter what.

    Speaking of learnedness, when is it learned to publicly bash someone who is going through a hard time.

    Leave lolikit Alone Please…. !
    Leave Dr. lolikitsune alone!…right now!….I mean it.!

    Anyone that has a problem with him you deal with me, because he is not well right now.

    LEAVE HIM ALONE!

    .lolikappa

    lelangir here. I had to drag lolikappa away from the keyboard just now… he was getting a bit too emotional. My fingers are wet and sticky now.

    …

    From lolikappa’s tears, you dolts!

    Anyway. It’s like Madame lolikappa quacked: leave lolikit alone. It’s hard enough dealing with the ungrateful bitch; it’s even worse if we have to deal with his detractors as well. Thanks, and good night.

    Jim, cut please.

    What? Mr. Crocker is outside? He wants his royalty payments? … how the fuck did he find out we were using his script? Shit! Look, Jim, get out the guns. Get out the fucking guns! It’s us or him, and I’m not going without a fight.

    What? We could get out of this mess by throwing lolikit’s carcass to Crocker?

    Guess the fans won’t be seeing anymore of the doctor…

    » Reply
     

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