10jan2024

Originally I was gonna do something else for the rest of the week, but decided to round out the gift decoration theme with some older gifts that I never got around to featuring.

Meanwhile, two reviewers who wanted to like the latest Marvel superhero film but couldn't really, had things to say about it that's stuck with me, so here we go.

Scalzi has a column about The Marvels, the one with the three Ms. Marvels, I guess, for which his teal deer is, I'm a bona fide nerd, but even so this is braiding of IP is getting waaaaaaay complicated, like it's actual work. Meanwhile Abigail Nussbaum, says the film is entertaining enough, but...nobody's talking about it.

I haven't seen the film in question, though on its face—a superhero movie featuring three women—it's a good fit, but alas, I'm no longer doing movie theatres much, not only because of the masking—especially now, when COVID (and, one presumes, RSV as well) are climbing rapidly, as they do this time of year—but because I simply no longer have friends who want to see this sort of thing. (They're all going for more challenging stuff, like Poor Things, which they flatly said were too violent for me, though I'd love the costuming, and, it sounds like? the story, which I gather is a possibly? feminist update on Frankenstein? An awful lot of interesting content falls into this category, unfortunately....)

As a completist, however, I have to admit the idea that I would miss so many of the in-universe references would be dismaying. (Cuz there's no way I could get them all, not least of which a lot of this stuff is on Disney TV.) I mean, I notice that for some of the anime I watch people who catch refs to classic series definitely notice those homages, and it absolutely adds to their enjoyment. I mean, if half the point of your show is to satirize the medium, then it's gonna look stupid and annoying if that goes entirely over your head. (Yes, I read crunchyroll comments...)

Superhero films have been dominating (US) tentpoles for years, and as a sf&f fan, I've rather enjoyed them, despite the big underlying thematic issue, which is “super” heroes need souped up villains to make the story entertaining; and your ordinary folk get ground into dust as a consequence. (Of course, one could argue they do anyway during vicious struggles, as anyone living in a war zone could tell you.)

It occurs to me that if we have other kinds of action-packed stories—say, war or cop dramas, to cite two classic examples—they'll definitely be geared to adults, i.e. R rated, which is to say bloody and violent; (some of) the superhero films, at least, do present themselves as older-children friendly, so the violence isn't quite as sickening. I do wonder what is wrong with me, that even a cartoon like, say, Blue Eye Samurai, which is gorgeous, but again, so violent it's really hard to watch, that everyone else can enjoy this stuff and say, oh, the effects are good, or hey, it's just a story, or whatever, while I'm over here, closing my eyes in a desperate effort not to be squicked out.

Anyway. Today's giftwrap has a medieval flair. Enjoy;)

9jan2024

Today wraps up the final post in the 2023 winter holiday giftwrap series, and it's neatly packaged into an index (mostly cuz I stumbled across an older collection, and went, oh, yeah, that's how you do multiple tag collections...

Enjoy:)

8jan2024

Besides the engaging characters, compelling plotlines, beautiful art and effective scores, one reason I like Ancient Magus Bride and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is that the characters tend to speak calmly, in normal tones; for someone attempting to practice their 日本語、this makes things easier.

Well, in line with trying to find good things in the New Year, I found another good candidate in Crunchyroll's 2024 lineup that's even better on the practise-Japanese front: A Sign of Affection/ゆびさきと恋々, which is a slice-of-life/romance about a Deaf college student who meets a cute polyglot, who, being fluent in three languages already, along with studying two more, is perfectly positioned to add sign language to his arsenal. (With a cute girl no less;)

Because the protagonist communicates with her hearing friends and family via text, this means I can not only practise spoken Japanese, but written too.(1) Moreover, the art is gorgeous, particularly the character designs, which are outstanding, and though the story is very simple, it's nicely done, at least judging from the one episode I've seen: frex, 雪, (Yuki) is literally named ‘Snow’, and one way the anime tries to get hearing viewers to have a sense of her silent world is using the metaphor of silently falling snow, along with good sound design.

I've been fascinated with 日本語 since 4th grade, because, even printed (never mind calligraphed) it was such a fascinatingly graphically beautiful language; and as I've slowly (very s-l-o-w-l-y) learnt the language, its differences have also intrigued me: Japanese has quite different grammar than English; but I always thought if you really wanted to explore a mind-bendingly different language, sign language would be a good choice: besides finding the gestures beautiful (as an artist who draws people, plants and animals, I find human hands very attractive with endlessly possibilities in pose) its grammar allows for simultaneous words: someone signing can (& will) imply the quality of a word (i.e. adjective, red ball, or adverb, swiftly run) at the same time, because of having two hands, plus facial and postural cues.

I'm not at all deaf—my hearing has tested normal—but my ability to parse sounds, especially in noisy environments, is so bad that I can't really “do” loud parties or bars, and, needless to say, my ability to properly identify, let alone reproduce Japanese phonemes (morae, if you want to get technical about it) is also lousy. —I think it would be awesome if sign language was common, because it would be helpful for all kinds of people, not just the Deaf, just as curb cuts are great for cyclists, delivery people, etc.—not just wheelchair users.

Naturally, the characters in this series speak JSL rather than ASL, though from my pov they're equally cool:) So there you go, a fun find, especially for language lovers:)

Oh, and here's a bonus gift to go with the 12 days series.

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(1)There are still way too many kanji I don't recognize, but I realized, no, she didn't actually text anything besides ‘thank you’, as opposed to the ‘thank you for taking me to the train station’ as shown in the English translation. Because the former is basically a politeness marker for ending the conversation (in either language), it explains why he's a bit disappointed: he wants to keep communicating with her; the translator probably added the bit about the train station because USians might not realize why they're separating in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to her house...it's not obvious that they're at the station, even though they first met on a train, because that's so much a part of Tokyo life that the show just clipped it.

Personally, I would expect anime fans to realize they're separating at a (subway) station and left out the explanatory text, but that's a decision that could be argued either way...the point for me is that I can look at the original and, on rare occasions, go, oh, I would've done that differently. Anytime this happens I'm happy because it implies some level of understanding of the original;)

I still can't read kindergarten level texts, though, siiiiiiighhhhh.

6jan2024

Today's Epiphany, the 12th Day of Christmas, and I really wanted something upbeat and special, something that's celebratory to get the bad taste of the Jan 6 insurrection out of my mind...and as it happens, I think I found it, this article about researchers working with people who have dementia to create interactive robots for them.

Dementia is scary to me, more so even than cancer: I watched my inlaws, my father-in-law in particular, suffer from this condition, and his life, if I had to characterize it, was profoundly dull.

Grey, the way depression is grey.

There's been a certain level of (US) mockery heaped upon (Japanese) robots designed to help the ill and old, but I like this take better. One observation the author makes that struck me is that Japanese robots tend to be friendly (such as Astro Boy) whereas Western ones are combative (the Terminator). I kind of wonder whether this comes out of the fact that Japanese culture (however attenuated by modern technology) sees itself as a part of a harmonious whole with nature—with creation—whereas Westerners in general (& Christians in particular) think of nature as subservient, something to be dominated—a more combative attitude that then extends to our own “creations”, humaniform robots, which because of our psychology, live in a half-world between people and tools.

Nevertheless, creating a talking companion, or even an interactive tool that vibrates or changes colour in response to tactile cues, that is “nice” rather than creepy is a tremendously difficult task; and the inputs of patients? clients? those with dementia are absolutely critical, and I very much like this collaborative approach.

The other thing about the article is that it celebrates the humanity of people suffering this condition, finding joy and indeed some level of hope for their lives, which—to be honest—are mostly written off at this point.

So I s'pose it's appropriate that after a number of wrappings with a severely limited palette, today's—the 12th's—is bursting with colour.

5jan2024

Welcome to the penultimate day of my 12 days of giftwrapping:)

So, I (re?)watched the 2012 Wolf Children/おおかみこどもの雨と雪 (literally, Wolf Children: Rain and Snow) this morning (very early this morning, like 2–4am—insomnia sucks), a Studio Chizu production; they also did the 2018 Mirai (Future, or The Girl who leapt through Time), which I wasn't crazy about, and the 2021 Belle, which was their re-imagining of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which I did like; though I'd say, out of all three films, the earliest was the most successful, at least for me.

As I was drifting off on the afternoon nap necessitated by the earlier wakefulness (I really think my dry January is gonna be sans coffee...) it occurred to me that there are some strong parallels between Wolf Children and Saga, both of which are splendid stories featuring half-breed kids who do not at all fit in.

Wolf Children tells the story of a human woman's effort to rear her half-(benign were)-wolf children in a Japan where wolves have been hunted to extinction and are “the bad guys in stories”; Saga is Brian K. Vaugn and Fiona Staples’ ongoing and brilliant comic about a child born to a magical horned human father, and technology-using winged mother, whose respective peoples are locked into endless combat; both sets of governments are attempting to hunt down parents and child to destroy what they represent, rapprochement—peace— between their cultures.

One obvious reason both these narratives appeal is that... both moms, in particular, go to a lot of effort to get their children to hide their father's heritage from their own (i.e. the mom's —Japan's human and the ‘wings’ respective cultures; and the daughters, experiencing the inability to be their true selves, find that limitation very constraining.) For parents or children who do not fit in, because they're trans, because they're autistic, because they've been adopted out of their birth culture, because they're first generation immigrants—oh, a whole lot of reasons, this is a tale that's gonna resonate.

But. As much as parents and children struggle to bridge the gap, even if it's just a generational one, there's also gonna be misunderstandings. And that can be hard, and very painful.

(Major spoilers for both to follow.)

There were some really unhappy commenters on Crunchyroll for Wolf Children, who hated that the wolf dad died very early on in the story (and worse, that his body was—literally—thrown away like garbage); likewise, ram-horned Marko, dies roughly halfway through the daughter Hazel's childhood; Hana, the wolf-children's mom, successfully bears a daughter and a son, named Yuki (Snow) and Ame (Rain) for the weather of their births; Hazel's mom Alana also become pregnant with her little brother hoped-to-be, but miscarries; the Robot Prince's son Squire becomes her de-facto brother instead.

Hazel and Yuki are both decisive, outgoing girls who must conceal their heritage, and are the narrators who relate their parents’, in particular, their moms’, stories.

Ame and Squire, the two boys, also share some similarities, most notably that they speak little and don't fit in very well. (Squire, though adopted by Alana & Hazel, loses both of his parents, so he in effect has Alana as a mom, as his biological mother is assassinated shortly after his birth, and loses his dad much as Hazel lost hers and at roughly the same point in his life—there is a lot of revenge based slaughter in Saga.)

We don't know how Squire's story will turn out, yet; but in the case of Ame, what the commenters disliked most were his seemingly cold-hearted choices: to become a (mostly) inscrutable wolf. However, the very structure of the story demanded that path. This becomes ever more clear when you look at the way both narratives are put together.

For example, both sets of kids have very realistic—and imperfect—moms: Alana undergoes a period of drug addiction, for example—but struggle to do right by their children: indeed rearing their kids to adulthood in the face of life-threatening discrimination becomes these women's over-riding life goal.

As the stories are at their core about families and rearing children, another parallel is that the parents have an older generation's help—Marko's parents, though initially less than thrilled by his choice of partner, commit (unto death in the grandfather's case, and prison in the grandmother's) to helping rear Hazel; in a similar way, the old man who growls at Hana's smiling and laughing when she moves to a remote, mountainous village (where she hopes she can rear her shapeshifting wolf children without having to deal with nosy neighbors and CPS wondering why she hasn't vaccinated her children) not only teaches her the basics of growing food, but leans on the entire village to help her, once he's convinced she'll stick it out.

If there are a lot of similarities in the way these two stories play out, it's because they're classic, romeo-and-juliet type narratives. Which is why it's basically inevitable that if Yuki chooses the human world, her little brother Ame will go the way of the wolf: this is because the story is about a mom supporting her children, whatever they choose.

As an individual leaning into his wolf side, Ame is not especially demonstrative or verbally communicative: he has no words for the fox who teaching him the ways of nature except ‘sensei’ —teacher. When his sister berates him for choosing to follow his canine rather than human heritage, he fights her the way two dogs (or wolves) fight, biting and snarling and chasing, rather than the words she uses. When he is ready to leave home at an adult age for a wolf (10 years), his (human) mother is understandably upset, because that's really young to let go of a human child: instead of tearfully telling her goodbye or even nuzzling her, he instead leaps up a difficult mountain path, howling at the summit to demonstrate to her that he appreciates her efforts in raising him (and my thanks to a CR commenter who provided this insight; also to another who read the manga to let us anime-only folks know that he does visit, bringing her gifts of food).

A lot (but not all!) of commenters found Ame's behaviour immature and inexcusable, instead of mature and rational, because they were judging him on human rather than wolf terms.

That Yuki and Ame would choose different paths was inevitable, given the story set up: the father died young because ultimately, the narrative is about the struggles of a human woman dedicating 13 years of her life to rearing her half-wolf children with only the vaguest idea how to succeed (in that sense, a metaphor for every parent ever, honestly, but especially one for parents whose kids are very different than them); and, just as those children's personalities are completely different from birth, so would their life choices be later on and their mom needed to accept this—the story was set up so that the hardest thing this woman has to do is let her child go forever, after putting her all into her kids, and what could be harder than letting a kid go into a way of life utterly alien to you?

It's not just trans people, I believe, who find these narratives engaging; I suspect, given Ame (and Squire's) cryptic communicative styles, folks on spectrum identify with the characters too. The love and acceptance—if imperfect understanding—these children receive is why these stories are so compelling, and in some ways, so similar: because love is love.

Er, and here we are, with a giftwrap I loved.

4jan2024

Well, today's entry is being posted a day late:)

Well, I did spend a fair amount of my time taking down the tree with my bestie, and that was a couple of days early, since I normally like to leave it up till Epiphany; though since there's still an hour or two of work left to do so perhaps I will finish taking the tree down and packing up xmas decors by the 6th (besides chopping the tree apart, on which I spend ridiculous amounts of time, but 25–100mm pieces of fir make great mulch: it's one of those meditative activities to be outdoors that I do around this time of year)

Nevertheless, I can see light at the end of tunnel, and I will finish this series:) And here's day 10.