Banana Fish!

Banana Fish is so cool! I havn't had a chance to get into the new anime of Banana Fish until now, but have listened to the soundtrack a few times in the past because it is just so good and I've had a big backlog so I'm glad I had a change to get into it for real now and experience the soundtrack with the actual show. This anime was super different for me to watch as I havn't watched much anime that isn't fantasy etc. or set in a city for that matter (apart from seasonal slice of life etc. stuff that just isn't the same thematically and stylistically) apart from maybe Kekkai Sensen which... is absolutely no where near what Banana Fish is at all but still set in NY.  Taking place in New York was a bit jarring for me and I think the only anime I can think of with this realistic style was BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad but even that is no where near what Banana Fish is even about. It's just different. Different actually to a degree where it was hard for me to keep with it for some reason. For some reason I liked it, but couldn't really get into it. I think maybe if I come back to it a few years later I'll be able to love it a lot, but it just didn't click with me for some reason and I want to give it another chance later on in life. Maybe listening to the OST beforehand a lot made me tired of it instead of hyping me up for it? I honestly have never felt this before with media and I'm stumped as to why. I usually like shōjo manga but man this was different.  I might just need another pass at Banana Fish because I really wanted to like it. Maybe it was the setting? Not sure. Definitely hit me in the feels though.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

Starting out, I have honestly skipped over Nausicaa and never really came back to it until now. I really loved diving into it as one of my favorite things is deep visual world-building and just displaying absolute environment porn such as is displayed in Nausicaa. One work that I've read recently was Blame! as it has little to no dialogue, words, or speech bubbles and displays pages after pages of lone environment exploration. Seeing the amount of pure environment shots while reading Nausicaa felt really refreshing as I've been watching mostly seasonal anime of late.

Above are two pages from different parts of Blame!. As they aren't the same thematically, Nausicaa and Blame! have both given me great feels of exploration of environment that is not normally seen in most manga. There is a level of world building that is on a grander scale in these works in line with scales of Akira and the Metropolis Anime visdev work.

Makoto Shinkai

I have watched most of Shinkai's works and I honestly do not like the comparison to the works and Ghibli's as him becoming the next Ghibli. The works just completely evoke different feelings and emotions in me and feel drastically different visually. To me the first different would have to be Ghibli works always seem to have something to say first and foremost. Miyazaki's works to me just feel like they have a pointed message and commentary on society. With Shinkai's works i feel a greater sense of trying to convey relatability and almost just creating pretty stories of society rather than sending a pointed message. The works are just flat out different. One key criticism I have for Shinkai's works is the narratives are all pretty much the same. Two lovers separated by space and time. It's a formula he dosn't seem to be breaking any time soon especially seeing the success of Your Name. His style is nice, but my god I might just turn subtitles off and mute my tv and look at the art for the next Shinkai work unless he can break out of rehashing the same narrative formula.

Presentation description

I will be doing my presentation on a cyberpunk show called Serial Experiments Lain and its manga Serial Experiments Lain: The Nightmare of Fabrication. I will be delving into its influences and worldbuilding.

Princess Jellyfish

Princess jellyfish hits on so many societal subcultures its insane.  From cross-dressing to neetdom, Princess Jellyfish has it all and it is done so correctly.  Starting with Kuranosuke, he comes into Amamizukan which has a group of tennants who hate men and are also NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training).  I think an aspect of the characters I find most interesting is their each individual obsessions ranging from being obsessed with old men like Jiji, Tsukimi and Jellyfish, and Mayaya with the records of the three kingdoms.  Princess jellyfish deals with many topics again, are not socially common, nor deemed even acceptable by some to talk about from gender identity to the aforementioned neet lifestyle.

Questions

What are your ideas on the merge of virtual reality and anime?
Opinions on representation within anime and manga of pressure within the Japanese society to reproduce?

Week Three

Starting off, Abandon the Old in Tokyo was god damn harsh.  The situations were highly realistic and I could not stop reading.  The closest to the narratives portrayed that I have experienced in manga and anime would have to be from Paranoia Agent that goes into the role of paranoia in peoples everyday lives.  Abandon the Old in Tokyo I feel I will leave a lot to discuss in class and I feel it had great plots that were able to balance disturbing with realistic narrative that made me keep reading.  Manga like this are necessary and are a great example of what would be lost with heavy censorship.  This manga shows a side of reality that necessary to know about and foremost read about and experience visually and not just experience and view manga and anime as escapes of pleasure.