Lately I've been having a random preoccupation with Middle East related topics. I never took a class that formally dealt with Middle East history post middle school (got AP Euro and AP US history instead), so reading about it now as an adult feels pretty eye opening in a way.
When I was on vacation and the cable news networks were all covering the the UN school shelter bombings in the Gaza conflict...
Me: I'd like to visit Israel at some point... when it's less chaotic over there.
P: It'll never be peaceful over there. Those people are cursed until the end of the world.
It was striking to me to hear this opinion spouted out, to go so far as to call a whole people cursed. Yes, it's a way of simplifying understanding the conflict there, and in this case I believe a view informed by an interpretation of that's region's history probably not uncommon in some Christian circles, something along the lines of either:
A. Jews being cursed for having a part in killing Jesus (and hence their lack of stability in their nationhood ever since).
B. Arabs being cursed to always be in conflict ever since Ishmael (as the story goes, ancestor of the Arab peoples) got displaced as an heir by Abraham in favor of Isaac (ancestor of the Jews). Also perhaps tied to why America, the "Christian" nation, always seems to favor Israel over everyone else in the Middle East.
C. Palestinians being cursed for allegedly being descendants or modern day equivalents of the Canaanites, who were themselves apparently cursed to be displaced from their own land by the Israelites ever since Noah cursed his grandson Canaan.
While there doesn't seem to be any real simple or easy solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, which has lasted longer than our lifetime, calling the people involved cursed does more to make the situation worse:
- It's way of saying that there's no point in trying to fix anything, because this is just how things have always been and this is how things always will continue to be, because those people are just destined to fight till the end of time.
- It's using an interpretation of history, one that quite frankly likely isn't entirely accurate, to justify a terrible status quo- on the same level as 19th century Americans who used the Bible to justify the enslavement of African or black people for being descendants of Ham, which itself is a misunderstanding of the original story (it was Canaan who got cursed, not Ham) in the first place.
- And ultimately, it's robbing a people's right to self-determine their own future for the sake of fulfilling a story... which is how I feel about a lot of the narratives in Genesis (Noah's sons; Lot's daughters; Abraham's sons; Jacob's sons; it goes on and on).
Taking such a view also leads to turning a blind eye to actual historical and present-day injustices and ignores a reality that is much more complicated. The rise of Zionism, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and European geopolitics in the last century have had more of an impact on the present day situation in the Middle East than any curse so to speak listed above... and that's just part of the story. Let alone the human rights violations being committed on both sides by Hamas and Israel today.
Sure, it's easy to attribute everything that's happened to curses. Curses are satisfying to people because the stories behind them are easy to comprehend, and they're vague enough such that it doesn't matter how events play out so long as they end badly for whoever is related to the one cursed. And to be honest, I'll admit that they actually do have power- but not because they actually happened, considering that these stories are often collected centuries after the fact. It's because people believe in them and use them to justify past, present, and future actions that otherwise would be considered injustice today... and indoctrinating that kind of belief in a population is a terribly effective method of coercing them into accepting otherwise atrocious behavior- just look at ISIS/IS today.
It feels weird to formulate a whole thought process about an idea that feels so outdated and irrelevant to the present-day situation in the Middle East, but these beliefs exist, and it feels disturbing for me to see how it's influenced attitudes in people I know towards the news and current events in that region. It's something I've felt self-conscious of more often lately, having grown up in an environment where the only source of information about the Middle East that I was aware of essentially came from the Bible... which only provides one aspect of that region's story and in a context far removed from what's actually happening today.
(and for the record, this is why I would never put my kids through a private Christian school.)
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
You can't please everyone.
I am generally a conflict aversive person, but conflict is difficult avoid when dealing with people with different value systems. In my case not at the same time, luckily, but it is a great deal frustrating to have some of your friends tell you one thing, and your parents another, and then both of them get mad at you for listening to the other at a given moment. Or as one person puts it, I don't have a "spine" and hence give in too easily to whoever I happen to be talking to first, and then the moment I get criticized I switch gears and the act of flip-flopping itself frustrates both parties.
I'll admit, I do tend to give in too easily - it's been in my nature growing up to listen to people, and generally I don't blatantly argue against them unless I have a solid reason not to. Unfortunately, I suck at coming up with these reasons on the spot (like said before, good lord if I ever get involved in a debate), and it usually takes some time after the fact for me to be able to articulate my point, by which point it's usually too late anyway. It's similar to why I always took forever on in-class essays.
Exhibit A:
One time I went to visit a friend's church, which happened to be Baptist (or at least had Baptist in its name), and upon finding out, the parents had choice words to say.
P: Don't go to a Baptist Church. Go to a Presbyterian or non-denominational; Baptist is bad.
Me: But it doesn't matter; they're all not really that different.
P: No, they ARE different. They're called Baptist for a reason; their beliefs are different. You should know what they believe.
Me: [silence because I have nothing to say]
As is usual with my parents when I argue with them, they technically make good points but those points happen to be off in the given context. If I had better split-second wits, I could have pointed out that:
- They don't actually know what the difference between a Presbyterian and a Baptist is themselves.
- The primary distinction of Baptists - that they practice adult baptism by immersion as opposed to infant baptism, the latter of which could be found in a Presbyterian church, for doctrinal reasons - is not something that they would have issue with. Well, maybe the underlying doctrinal reasons for this are what they're getting at, but these are the same reasons used by most of the non-denominational churches I've been to, including the one that they go to. Speaking of which...
- The non-denominational church they go to has more in common with a Baptist church than a Presbyterian church in America. (The head pastor at the time was from West Virginia, which happens to have a higher Baptist population so the influence is present.) If we went to an actual Presbyterian church, we'd be seeing more liturgical services - although the more modern versions of both probably wouldn't differ as much.
But I couldn't think of these at the spur of the moment so I just stopped talking. And of course several months later they had to ask me what Presbyterian meant. sigh.
Of course, this is an example where I actually could've argued back with points that might make sense to them. In other cases, the points that I would come up with don't mesh with their value system at all, so the arguments don't really go anywhere since there's no reasonable way of convincing them outright of blatantly defying what they say, which I don't particularly enjoy doing at all.
Exhibit B:
So I got a new car a few months ago (Honda Accord EXL v6), and while most people have been cool with it, I've gotten a few particularly different responses:
1. Friend A: THANK YOU!
(explanation: other person we both know purposefully bought a cheaper car, and Friend A doesn't understand why you wouldn't buy luxury car if you could afford it.)
2. Friend B: EXL? Seriously?
Me: Only one the v6 came in.
Friend B: Why the fuck do you need a v6? You granny driver. [this said while I'm driving.]
Of course, I feel less inclined to listen to someone while I'm being insulted, even if what they say has some truth behind it (granny: I don't generally exceed 80 on the freeway... partly because I don't trust my skills at faster speeds. Friend B can attest to this. But still, I didn't respond because I had no interest in starting an argument while driving.)
3. And of course the parents wanted me to not only buy a v6 (reasoning: for the hills in SF. though I imagine a v4 would handle it fine, but no, I can't argue with someone who cares about cars 100x more than I do), but with a nav, and I had to argue with them for a couple of phone calls that I didn't want to pay 2k for a product that I wouldn't use.
Mom: But I would use it!
Me: And I'm the one driving 99% of the time.
After finally winning on this point, I didn't feel like arguing any further past with them, nor did I care enough about the price difference between a v4 and v6. (And to be honest, I actually like my car.)
All three parties on this point come from completely different financial backgrounds, which is why their responses happen to be so different from each other, but the negative ones are really aggravating to deal with anyway.
For the record, Exhibit B is not something I want to talk about anymore, so pardon me if I brush it off in the future. I'm just sick and tired of being judged by people.
Anyway, back to sleep. (it's still 6 AM here - early wakers, no.)
I'll admit, I do tend to give in too easily - it's been in my nature growing up to listen to people, and generally I don't blatantly argue against them unless I have a solid reason not to. Unfortunately, I suck at coming up with these reasons on the spot (like said before, good lord if I ever get involved in a debate), and it usually takes some time after the fact for me to be able to articulate my point, by which point it's usually too late anyway. It's similar to why I always took forever on in-class essays.
Exhibit A:
One time I went to visit a friend's church, which happened to be Baptist (or at least had Baptist in its name), and upon finding out, the parents had choice words to say.
P: Don't go to a Baptist Church. Go to a Presbyterian or non-denominational; Baptist is bad.
Me: But it doesn't matter; they're all not really that different.
P: No, they ARE different. They're called Baptist for a reason; their beliefs are different. You should know what they believe.
Me: [silence because I have nothing to say]
As is usual with my parents when I argue with them, they technically make good points but those points happen to be off in the given context. If I had better split-second wits, I could have pointed out that:
- They don't actually know what the difference between a Presbyterian and a Baptist is themselves.
- The primary distinction of Baptists - that they practice adult baptism by immersion as opposed to infant baptism, the latter of which could be found in a Presbyterian church, for doctrinal reasons - is not something that they would have issue with. Well, maybe the underlying doctrinal reasons for this are what they're getting at, but these are the same reasons used by most of the non-denominational churches I've been to, including the one that they go to. Speaking of which...
- The non-denominational church they go to has more in common with a Baptist church than a Presbyterian church in America. (The head pastor at the time was from West Virginia, which happens to have a higher Baptist population so the influence is present.) If we went to an actual Presbyterian church, we'd be seeing more liturgical services - although the more modern versions of both probably wouldn't differ as much.
But I couldn't think of these at the spur of the moment so I just stopped talking. And of course several months later they had to ask me what Presbyterian meant. sigh.
Of course, this is an example where I actually could've argued back with points that might make sense to them. In other cases, the points that I would come up with don't mesh with their value system at all, so the arguments don't really go anywhere since there's no reasonable way of convincing them outright of blatantly defying what they say, which I don't particularly enjoy doing at all.
Exhibit B:
So I got a new car a few months ago (Honda Accord EXL v6), and while most people have been cool with it, I've gotten a few particularly different responses:
1. Friend A: THANK YOU!
(explanation: other person we both know purposefully bought a cheaper car, and Friend A doesn't understand why you wouldn't buy luxury car if you could afford it.)
2. Friend B: EXL? Seriously?
Me: Only one the v6 came in.
Friend B: Why the fuck do you need a v6? You granny driver. [this said while I'm driving.]
Of course, I feel less inclined to listen to someone while I'm being insulted, even if what they say has some truth behind it (granny: I don't generally exceed 80 on the freeway... partly because I don't trust my skills at faster speeds. Friend B can attest to this. But still, I didn't respond because I had no interest in starting an argument while driving.)
3. And of course the parents wanted me to not only buy a v6 (reasoning: for the hills in SF. though I imagine a v4 would handle it fine, but no, I can't argue with someone who cares about cars 100x more than I do), but with a nav, and I had to argue with them for a couple of phone calls that I didn't want to pay 2k for a product that I wouldn't use.
Mom: But I would use it!
Me: And I'm the one driving 99% of the time.
After finally winning on this point, I didn't feel like arguing any further past with them, nor did I care enough about the price difference between a v4 and v6. (And to be honest, I actually like my car.)
All three parties on this point come from completely different financial backgrounds, which is why their responses happen to be so different from each other, but the negative ones are really aggravating to deal with anyway.
For the record, Exhibit B is not something I want to talk about anymore, so pardon me if I brush it off in the future. I'm just sick and tired of being judged by people.
Anyway, back to sleep. (it's still 6 AM here - early wakers, no.)
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
goodreads
Just a random plug for goodreads, that social network I use for tracking books (...since I have a site for everything).
goodreads is awesome and I wish I had more friends who actively used it soI could stalk their reading behavior I mean discover more awesome book recommendations. Ever since Eric randomly convinced me to start writing reviews there (because "stars are meh"), I haven't really done book posts on this blog in a while since it'd probably be redundant, and I don't really foresee it happening again in the future, unless I read a book that triggers such emotion that it ends up overflowing onto here or something. I like reading friend's impressions of books though, even if they're just brief one-liners.
I usually go on book binges during family vacations because we end up having a lot of downtime (or my family is just lazy), and this trip has been no different. 4 books down, how many more to go...
Done:
The Wind in the Willows
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
The Count of Monte Cristo
On the immediate backlog:
Lies My Teacher Told Me
A History of the Modern Middle East
Othello
The Fall of Hyperion
Norwegian Wood
War and Peace
Redwall
Jesus and the Victory of God (v2 of N.T. Wright's series)
Infinite Jest
The Known World
House of Leaves
A Naked Singularity
If it isn't clear, I've been leaning towards the heavy stuff this year. Let's roll!
goodreads is awesome and I wish I had more friends who actively used it so
I usually go on book binges during family vacations because we end up having a lot of downtime (or my family is just lazy), and this trip has been no different. 4 books down, how many more to go...
Done:
The Wind in the Willows
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
The Count of Monte Cristo
On the immediate backlog:
Lies My Teacher Told Me
A History of the Modern Middle East
Othello
The Fall of Hyperion
Norwegian Wood
War and Peace
Redwall
Jesus and the Victory of God (v2 of N.T. Wright's series)
Infinite Jest
The Known World
House of Leaves
A Naked Singularity
If it isn't clear, I've been leaning towards the heavy stuff this year. Let's roll!
Thursday, July 24, 2014
on a year (partial)
This post is already a week old in writing, but eh, what else is new.
Nothing like an average conversation with friends to make you realize you don't feel like you've grown much in the past year.
Well if you want to be technical, I guess you could say there's been some change, but it's not really the kind of sudden-in-your-face-growth that people expect an answer for whenever they ask you how you're doing and what your goals are in life. I sound like a parrot repeating those all the time even though I actually don't get asked them that much either, but maybe such phrases are enough to put me on edge now that I probably should be addressing them for once and not in the tone of a chronic procrastinator.
what else is not so new:
- Early on last year I went through a panic attack phase that stemmed from social anxiety, a fact that surprised one of my friends this year who told me that he would never have gotten that impression from me whenever we hung out. I guess I'm good at hiding it from the right people. But regardless, the fear doesn't feel so real anymore and I'm more comfortable now around people I'm not as familiar with... but I can't really describe why that is, though, other than perhaps that I don't really take a lack of proactivity from people so personally anymore. Maybe once in a while the sentiment will linger, but it's become more of a fact of life for me now that I recognize my vulnerability in this area and that it's really just okay to not be as naturally engaging as whatever average you perceive to be the norm all the time.
- I also recognize that I spend a lot of time and energy exerting myself on manners of little consequence. I doubt most people who ever get around to reading this entry actually care about anime, and yet the subject of the post below this one actually preoccupies my head for hours sometimes and I can't get it out unless I write it, and then share it with the world!- because a backlog of lists on Evernote (oh god that phrase sounded horrible as I wrote it) isn't as mentally fulfilling. The music of the openings I like in particular is my guilty-pleasure or fodder for music I like to listen to when I'm working or driving and don't feel like paying attention much, compared to podcasts or new music which I only prefer when I have the energy for them.
Ironically, I don't like the full length versions of anime songs so much as their bridges and second verses tend to incorporate elements that turn me off. It's the same dilemma I have with Christian music that sounds good in church but horrible to my ears when performed by their actual music artists. But lately I haven't been enjoying modern worship music much either, compared to the older hymns and stuff. I take it as sign that I'm growing old...der. and possibly more than that.
- I frequently worry in the back of my head about becoming irrelevant and retreading over the same thoughts again, like for example on this blog where I'm paranoid that half of what I write has already been said by me on a previous entry on here. It's a blog-world problem that occurs when you realize that you've been consistently writing blog entries every month for the past 10 YEARS what the heck (livejournal counts as 2, and no, I am not linking to that crap on here).
I forget sometimes now that the original reason I started blogging was for myself, and that I am the heaviest consumer and harshest critic of the words that I write. I would probably have bolded that sentence or something, except that frequently bolded phrases (as well as excessive hyperlinking) in blog entries and articles on the internet are one of my biggest pet peeves.
- If I sound looser in this entry than I usually do, it is probably because I am not filtering my written thoughts as much as usual... for no particular reason other than the first line I wrote. All I've had in the last hour [edit: as of the writing of this sentence] is milk that I don't expect to finish before I leave town for Hawaii in a couple of days, and I hate wasting food so I will be imbibing as much [lactose-free] milk as possible before tomorrow.
When I was younger and lacking any symptoms of lactose intolerance, I used to drink reduced and later fat-free white milk everyday for breakfast and dinner. I never grew sick of it, just like I can never grow sick of rice and freshly baked bread and other plain foods. I love being vanilla!
- I'm not really anywhere near the markers I subconsciously established for myself as goal posts for personal growth around the time I finished college, and part of me also questions whether those markers are actually markers in the first place because one of them was quite literally "figure out what you want to do for the next five years," which isn't really much of a goal in retrospect. I have trouble visioning that far ahead because I tend to care more about the immediate future in general, and from years of planning schedules that I never actually adhered to or finished can attest that I don't practically work well with long-term visions... unless it has to do with making small to-do lists, because I do tend to finish those... just years after the fact.
- One of my friends asked me how long I'll continue to let my company abuse me, and after having a decently productive work day today and reflecting on what I liked about my job, part of me just wondered, "is it really abuse if I enjoy it?" and the other part of me just realized how horrible that sounded after typing it. But honestly, I feel like I have it easy compared to other people I know, so I don't generally find reason to complain much beyond little nitpicky things like the fact that it took a year for me to finally get a sit-to-stand desk configuration approved by the ergonomics department.
(This stems from a company policy to avoid situations that they could become liable for, except that allowing my back and wrist pain to worsen from a lack of action on their part ought to be considered just as bad as accidentally making it worse from an action taken.)
- To summarize: help, I'm aging and I can't stop myself.
Nothing like an average conversation with friends to make you realize you don't feel like you've grown much in the past year.
Well if you want to be technical, I guess you could say there's been some change, but it's not really the kind of sudden-in-your-face-growth that people expect an answer for whenever they ask you how you're doing and what your goals are in life. I sound like a parrot repeating those all the time even though I actually don't get asked them that much either, but maybe such phrases are enough to put me on edge now that I probably should be addressing them for once and not in the tone of a chronic procrastinator.
what else is not so new:
- Early on last year I went through a panic attack phase that stemmed from social anxiety, a fact that surprised one of my friends this year who told me that he would never have gotten that impression from me whenever we hung out. I guess I'm good at hiding it from the right people. But regardless, the fear doesn't feel so real anymore and I'm more comfortable now around people I'm not as familiar with... but I can't really describe why that is, though, other than perhaps that I don't really take a lack of proactivity from people so personally anymore. Maybe once in a while the sentiment will linger, but it's become more of a fact of life for me now that I recognize my vulnerability in this area and that it's really just okay to not be as naturally engaging as whatever average you perceive to be the norm all the time.
- I also recognize that I spend a lot of time and energy exerting myself on manners of little consequence. I doubt most people who ever get around to reading this entry actually care about anime, and yet the subject of the post below this one actually preoccupies my head for hours sometimes and I can't get it out unless I write it, and then share it with the world!- because a backlog of lists on Evernote (oh god that phrase sounded horrible as I wrote it) isn't as mentally fulfilling. The music of the openings I like in particular is my guilty-pleasure or fodder for music I like to listen to when I'm working or driving and don't feel like paying attention much, compared to podcasts or new music which I only prefer when I have the energy for them.
Ironically, I don't like the full length versions of anime songs so much as their bridges and second verses tend to incorporate elements that turn me off. It's the same dilemma I have with Christian music that sounds good in church but horrible to my ears when performed by their actual music artists. But lately I haven't been enjoying modern worship music much either, compared to the older hymns and stuff. I take it as sign that I'm growing old...der. and possibly more than that.
- I frequently worry in the back of my head about becoming irrelevant and retreading over the same thoughts again, like for example on this blog where I'm paranoid that half of what I write has already been said by me on a previous entry on here. It's a blog-world problem that occurs when you realize that you've been consistently writing blog entries every month for the past 10 YEARS what the heck (livejournal counts as 2, and no, I am not linking to that crap on here).
I forget sometimes now that the original reason I started blogging was for myself, and that I am the heaviest consumer and harshest critic of the words that I write. I would probably have bolded that sentence or something, except that frequently bolded phrases (as well as excessive hyperlinking) in blog entries and articles on the internet are one of my biggest pet peeves.
- If I sound looser in this entry than I usually do, it is probably because I am not filtering my written thoughts as much as usual... for no particular reason other than the first line I wrote. All I've had in the last hour [edit: as of the writing of this sentence] is milk that I don't expect to finish before I leave town for Hawaii in a couple of days, and I hate wasting food so I will be imbibing as much [lactose-free] milk as possible before tomorrow.
When I was younger and lacking any symptoms of lactose intolerance, I used to drink reduced and later fat-free white milk everyday for breakfast and dinner. I never grew sick of it, just like I can never grow sick of rice and freshly baked bread and other plain foods. I love being vanilla!
- I'm not really anywhere near the markers I subconsciously established for myself as goal posts for personal growth around the time I finished college, and part of me also questions whether those markers are actually markers in the first place because one of them was quite literally "figure out what you want to do for the next five years," which isn't really much of a goal in retrospect. I have trouble visioning that far ahead because I tend to care more about the immediate future in general, and from years of planning schedules that I never actually adhered to or finished can attest that I don't practically work well with long-term visions... unless it has to do with making small to-do lists, because I do tend to finish those... just years after the fact.
- One of my friends asked me how long I'll continue to let my company abuse me, and after having a decently productive work day today and reflecting on what I liked about my job, part of me just wondered, "is it really abuse if I enjoy it?" and the other part of me just realized how horrible that sounded after typing it. But honestly, I feel like I have it easy compared to other people I know, so I don't generally find reason to complain much beyond little nitpicky things like the fact that it took a year for me to finally get a sit-to-stand desk configuration approved by the ergonomics department.
(This stems from a company policy to avoid situations that they could become liable for, except that allowing my back and wrist pain to worsen from a lack of action on their part ought to be considered just as bad as accidentally making it worse from an action taken.)
- To summarize: help, I'm aging and I can't stop myself.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
a couple of anime-related lists
Because I haven't done a list post in a while. More relevant if you watch anime or are open to it.
Favorite Anime Openings:
I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes a good opening is enough to make me want to watch a series- especially the less conventional ones. The main criteria for this list is that I have to like the song at least, and then the visuals, but in this case I tried to prioritize visuals that didn't look too overused or familiar and so wound up with a bit more variety than usual. This could probably be taken as a recommendation list if you're looking for something to watch, although I actually haven't gotten around to watching a few entries yet. :P
Anime sometimes gets a bad rep for being immature and catering to unrealistic fantasies or stereotypes and the subculture that it represents, and I'll admit that there is a lot of shit out there... but just as with any other medium, there are worthwhile series to watch if you look around enough. I think anime in particular has strength in its ability to convey creative settings and scenarios that often can't really be captured anywhere else. Of course, some of the titles on here will still come across as weird to people, but what can I say, I have a higher tolerance threshold for these things now.
Also, the order in this list doesn't really matter, but I'm counting down just for the heck of it.
13. Psycho Pass, 2nd OP
The colors, and the song that keeps getting stuck in my head.
12: Baccano!
The anime take on a pulp fiction atmosphere? See also Durarara!! 1st OP
11. Bokurano
Feels a bit more old-school in the sense that the video doesn't exactly cater to the music, but does a good job of setting the tone for the series.
10. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, 4th OP
*warning, video has spoilers* - Probably my favorite action in a shounen series opening.
9. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig
Because we need more openings with Russian lyrics.
8. Ano Hana
Cute and nostalgic of days past.
7. Paranoia Agent
The laughing bobble-heads are bizarre and creepy, but it perfectly captures how unsettling this series is.
6. Samurai Champloo
Hip Hop + Samurais. The combo works surprisingly well.
5. Kaiba
Like a dream. Everything is transient except for the sentiment behind it all.
4. Honey and Clover
It's so creative! and the shrimp at the end always gets me.
3. Angel Beats
Angel Beats feels like the darker reverse cousin of Clannad After Story and is even sung by the same person, Lia. I like how it mimics the style of a visual novel opening without fully going there.
2. Welcome to the N.H.K.
Love the color palette, motifs, and strange imagery in this one.
1. Kids on the Slope
Smooth and upbeat. Yuki's voice took some getting used to for me back in Honey and Clover, but I love her here.
Runners-Up:
- Monster
- Phantom ~Requiem For the Phantom~
- Cowboy Bebop
- Digimon Adventure
- Clannad After Story
- Nichijou
- Last Exile
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, 2nd OP
- Hyouka
- Beck
- Attack on Titan, 1st OP
- Card Captor Sakura, 1st OP
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes, 3rd OP
- Planetes
- Steins; Gate
- Gosick
- Ping Pong the Animation
- The Twelve Kingdoms
Disappointing Anime Experiences:
I usually try to avoid watching series that probably would end up in this category if possible, but sometimes it just happens.
5. Sword-Art Online
Premise had potential (it's like dot hack, people trapped in a MMORPG, but less emo), but wound up being way too cliche'd and tropey for me. This isn't always a problem if the series is fine with acknowledging it, but in SAO's case, it felt like it was trying to pass off as something more substantial when it wasn't. They just had to make every girl fall in love with the main character, who isn't really that interesting to begin with, and the villain in the second half was laughably pathetic compared to previous one.
4. Eureka 7
So to be honest, it wasn't really that bad, but I think I watched this a decade too late. The themes are more high-school age oriented and aren't really interesting to me anymore, and the only arc that really drew me in was the one in the middle with Charles/Ray, which by online consensus happens to be the main high point of the series anyway, as it dealt with issues such as foster parenthood and loyalty to a cause in the midst of war. Most of the rest of the cast came across to me as either annoying or forgettable, and I couldn't really stand Renton's whininess... nor Eureka's even once she started developing a personality for once.
3. Code Geass R2
I enjoyed the experience of the series overall... but the second half felt a lot weaker compared to the first. The show took itself seriously as if every character's story mattered, but the stories themselves towards the end relied largely on arbitrary mistakes and unfortunate coincidences (essentially Murphy's Law) to create suspense and tension to the point where it felt like half of the plot didn't need to happen at all, and only did so because everyone (including the most innocent character, Nunnally... wtf) happened to be hot-headed and stubborn and failed at communicating with each other.
It was one thing to create a huge plot changing twist out of an innocent mistake in the first season; it was another thing altogether to continue in the same vein of creating scenarios out of unfortunately timed coincidences up to the point where the rest of the series started becoming laughably predictable. Not to mention, the animation style overall tended towards the bombastic and exaggerated in order to come across as epic. Well technically, the series has always been over the top like that, but I was really growing tired of it this time.
2. Umineko: When They Cry
I love the Umineko sound novels (although they do have their own problems), but I don't think this series really adapts well to the animated medium to begin with. A story meant to be a metafictional narrative about detective novels doesn't really make sense as much in an animated medium- particularly the red text battle sequences, which fundamentally would cause a lot of confusion to an anime-only viewer. The lack/butchering of music from the sound novel also really killed the mood, in addition to the unnecessary fan-service and excessive amounts of creepy Maria moments even by Umineko standards.
To be honest, though, I think the only adaptation that Studio DEEN has ever really done decently well was the second season of Higurashi, and that was after listening to the fans when they fumbled up season 1. But at least the overall creepy atmosphere of Higurashi was able to carry first season along well enough; strip Umineko of its epic atmosphere and you don't really have much else left.
1. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA 3
The Tenchi Muyo series probably isn't actually that great relative to other anime today, but the first two OVAs at least somehow managed to pull off an impressive genre bending combination of sci-fi and traditional Japanese slice-of-life... while at the same time serving as a quintessential example of the comedic harem genre. And it's one of the few such examples from that genre that I'm not turned off by (as opposed to say, Love Hina), just because it did the sci-fi and everything else well enough- I mean, how many other series can you think of that uses giant trees and cat-rabbit hybrids for spaceships? It had a surprisingly decent amount of character development for everyone in the cast as well (aside from maybe Mihoshi, who's such a ditz that she doesn't really need it anyway).
All of that is just to say that OVA 3 totally butchered that formula. It pushed in too many new characters all of a sudden and meandered about aimlessly while focusing on them over the main cast... until the last episode, where it suddenly pulled off a massive plot dump (without any exposition to explain what was happening) that attempted to resolve all of the questions left over from the previous two series. In other words, it turned into a rushed, almost incomprehensible mess, which was disappointing considering how much potential the three goddesses storyline had. I guess for now there's still a possible future for a Kagato story as hinted at by the last episode and the Shin Tenchi Muyo novels, but considering how the author's handled all of the newer Tenchi OVA universe series... oh well.
Apparently there's a new Tenchi series coming out this fall, but with the five minute shorts style, it sounds more like something in the style of Teen Titans Go! without much substance. I don't really expect much anymore anyway.
Favorite Anime Openings:
I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes a good opening is enough to make me want to watch a series- especially the less conventional ones. The main criteria for this list is that I have to like the song at least, and then the visuals, but in this case I tried to prioritize visuals that didn't look too overused or familiar and so wound up with a bit more variety than usual. This could probably be taken as a recommendation list if you're looking for something to watch, although I actually haven't gotten around to watching a few entries yet. :P
Anime sometimes gets a bad rep for being immature and catering to unrealistic fantasies or stereotypes and the subculture that it represents, and I'll admit that there is a lot of shit out there... but just as with any other medium, there are worthwhile series to watch if you look around enough. I think anime in particular has strength in its ability to convey creative settings and scenarios that often can't really be captured anywhere else. Of course, some of the titles on here will still come across as weird to people, but what can I say, I have a higher tolerance threshold for these things now.
Also, the order in this list doesn't really matter, but I'm counting down just for the heck of it.
13. Psycho Pass, 2nd OP
The colors, and the song that keeps getting stuck in my head.
12: Baccano!
The anime take on a pulp fiction atmosphere? See also Durarara!! 1st OP
11. Bokurano
Feels a bit more old-school in the sense that the video doesn't exactly cater to the music, but does a good job of setting the tone for the series.
10. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, 4th OP
*warning, video has spoilers* - Probably my favorite action in a shounen series opening.
9. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig
Because we need more openings with Russian lyrics.
8. Ano Hana
Cute and nostalgic of days past.
7. Paranoia Agent
The laughing bobble-heads are bizarre and creepy, but it perfectly captures how unsettling this series is.
6. Samurai Champloo
Hip Hop + Samurais. The combo works surprisingly well.
5. Kaiba
Like a dream. Everything is transient except for the sentiment behind it all.
4. Honey and Clover
It's so creative! and the shrimp at the end always gets me.
3. Angel Beats
Angel Beats feels like the darker reverse cousin of Clannad After Story and is even sung by the same person, Lia. I like how it mimics the style of a visual novel opening without fully going there.
2. Welcome to the N.H.K.
Love the color palette, motifs, and strange imagery in this one.
1. Kids on the Slope
Smooth and upbeat. Yuki's voice took some getting used to for me back in Honey and Clover, but I love her here.
Runners-Up:
- Monster
- Phantom ~Requiem For the Phantom~
- Cowboy Bebop
- Digimon Adventure
- Clannad After Story
- Nichijou
- Last Exile
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, 2nd OP
- Hyouka
- Beck
- Attack on Titan, 1st OP
- Card Captor Sakura, 1st OP
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes, 3rd OP
- Planetes
- Steins; Gate
- Gosick
- Ping Pong the Animation
- The Twelve Kingdoms
Disappointing Anime Experiences:
I usually try to avoid watching series that probably would end up in this category if possible, but sometimes it just happens.
5. Sword-Art Online
Premise had potential (it's like dot hack, people trapped in a MMORPG, but less emo), but wound up being way too cliche'd and tropey for me. This isn't always a problem if the series is fine with acknowledging it, but in SAO's case, it felt like it was trying to pass off as something more substantial when it wasn't. They just had to make every girl fall in love with the main character, who isn't really that interesting to begin with, and the villain in the second half was laughably pathetic compared to previous one.
4. Eureka 7
So to be honest, it wasn't really that bad, but I think I watched this a decade too late. The themes are more high-school age oriented and aren't really interesting to me anymore, and the only arc that really drew me in was the one in the middle with Charles/Ray, which by online consensus happens to be the main high point of the series anyway, as it dealt with issues such as foster parenthood and loyalty to a cause in the midst of war. Most of the rest of the cast came across to me as either annoying or forgettable, and I couldn't really stand Renton's whininess... nor Eureka's even once she started developing a personality for once.
3. Code Geass R2
I enjoyed the experience of the series overall... but the second half felt a lot weaker compared to the first. The show took itself seriously as if every character's story mattered, but the stories themselves towards the end relied largely on arbitrary mistakes and unfortunate coincidences (essentially Murphy's Law) to create suspense and tension to the point where it felt like half of the plot didn't need to happen at all, and only did so because everyone (including the most innocent character, Nunnally... wtf) happened to be hot-headed and stubborn and failed at communicating with each other.
It was one thing to create a huge plot changing twist out of an innocent mistake in the first season; it was another thing altogether to continue in the same vein of creating scenarios out of unfortunately timed coincidences up to the point where the rest of the series started becoming laughably predictable. Not to mention, the animation style overall tended towards the bombastic and exaggerated in order to come across as epic. Well technically, the series has always been over the top like that, but I was really growing tired of it this time.
2. Umineko: When They Cry
I love the Umineko sound novels (although they do have their own problems), but I don't think this series really adapts well to the animated medium to begin with. A story meant to be a metafictional narrative about detective novels doesn't really make sense as much in an animated medium- particularly the red text battle sequences, which fundamentally would cause a lot of confusion to an anime-only viewer. The lack/butchering of music from the sound novel also really killed the mood, in addition to the unnecessary fan-service and excessive amounts of creepy Maria moments even by Umineko standards.
To be honest, though, I think the only adaptation that Studio DEEN has ever really done decently well was the second season of Higurashi, and that was after listening to the fans when they fumbled up season 1. But at least the overall creepy atmosphere of Higurashi was able to carry first season along well enough; strip Umineko of its epic atmosphere and you don't really have much else left.
1. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA 3
The Tenchi Muyo series probably isn't actually that great relative to other anime today, but the first two OVAs at least somehow managed to pull off an impressive genre bending combination of sci-fi and traditional Japanese slice-of-life... while at the same time serving as a quintessential example of the comedic harem genre. And it's one of the few such examples from that genre that I'm not turned off by (as opposed to say, Love Hina), just because it did the sci-fi and everything else well enough- I mean, how many other series can you think of that uses giant trees and cat-rabbit hybrids for spaceships? It had a surprisingly decent amount of character development for everyone in the cast as well (aside from maybe Mihoshi, who's such a ditz that she doesn't really need it anyway).
All of that is just to say that OVA 3 totally butchered that formula. It pushed in too many new characters all of a sudden and meandered about aimlessly while focusing on them over the main cast... until the last episode, where it suddenly pulled off a massive plot dump (without any exposition to explain what was happening) that attempted to resolve all of the questions left over from the previous two series. In other words, it turned into a rushed, almost incomprehensible mess, which was disappointing considering how much potential the three goddesses storyline had. I guess for now there's still a possible future for a Kagato story as hinted at by the last episode and the Shin Tenchi Muyo novels, but considering how the author's handled all of the newer Tenchi OVA universe series... oh well.
Apparently there's a new Tenchi series coming out this fall, but with the five minute shorts style, it sounds more like something in the style of Teen Titans Go! without much substance. I don't really expect much anymore anyway.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
A history of poking
So some of you are probably aware that I have a bit of a phobia when it comes to being poked. I'm really sensitive in my side area, so nowadays any motion that people make towards me that even remotely resembles a poke there is enough to put me on edge or in defensive mode. A lot of this has largely stemmed from a history of being poked since middle school... some of which was in jest, and some of which I still feel bitter about sometimes.
Exhibits:
A. In fifth grade, people in my class used to make fun of me for using the word basically, because apparently that's not a word fifth graders normally used and it made me sound nerdy or something. One of my classmates took made a point of this during PE by yelling "BA-SIC-LY" while poking me in the side with each syllable. And I was a bit miffed because I'd helped this person in class before, and it hurt a lot.
B. In seventh grade, during math class and either history or geography or some sort, both of which were held in the same room, both of the people sitting behind me in class would get bored and decide to poke me in the back with a pen. If you've never been poked in the back with a pen before, it stings a lot more than a finger poke does.
In a fit of anger I used to retaliate against the second person, a girl, by whacking her in the head with a planner, and for some weird reason that would just make her laugh. The more times I whacked her in the head, the more she kept on laughing... and she just wouldn't stop. -__- I never understood her.
C. Also in seventh grade, during lunchtime my friends and I had wars that pretty much reduced to me and my lunchpail vs. an army of pokers (at this point it was more in jest than really hurting me persay). It was like freeze tag except tags were pokes in the side, I was the only person who could get "tagged," and I could fight back by whacking attackers with my lunch pail.
One person managed to successfully catch me off guard with a poke so sudden that it caused me to collapse and lie down on the ground for several minutes. Probably the "best" poke I ever got, although it worried everyone else haha. I also broke the tupperware inside my lunchpail once after whacking an attacker with it.
D. In eighth grade, one of my friends pulled off an arbitrary poke into my side, and I instinctively swung my arm backwards at him and my fist made contact with the inside of his mouth. He wasn't hurt, but ugh, saliva.
E. Sophomore year of high school Spanish, the girl sitting behind me decided to poke me in the back with a pen cause she was bored. Ironically this girl had no knowledge of my history of pokes, but I didn't retaliate because this was high school and I didn't feel like getting in trouble (also I have no idea how we got away with the things we did during middle school). But ugh, she was incredibly annoying, and I'd forgotten how much more painful pen pokes were.
F. In college, my apartment-mates got wind of my poking weakness and I distinctly recall one incident that resulted in me grabbing a trash bin filled with firewood (...I don't think it was the axe) and marching towards his suddenly locked room. But nothing came of it luckily.
G. A few of my church friends today like to greet me by poking me, although one time I was holding a cup of hot tea that I almost reflexively splashed on him. I don't get poked as much anymore, but sometimes... Bush...
And that is my history of poking. I'm not generally a violent person, but this is one area that has been able to rile me up in the past and I would caution anyone considering approaching me in this fashion to tread lightly.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Growing Up
There are days where I stop for a moment and realize that I don't really feel like I've grown up. Like this job I have is just to sustain the kind of lifestyle that I would've wanted to live in middle/high school if I didn't have existing obligations or restrictions like that of money or age or dependency on parents for rides and so on. Well technically, the job itself is a restriction on its own... as it is now, wouldn't it be even more freeing to be funemployed, maybe?
These are the days when I have to remind myself that I can't have everything in life. I think part of becoming an adult is learning to accept and deal with the restrictions that life imposes on you, and will continue to impose on you as you grow older. Family, food, money, housing, relationships, children, and time itself... no one is ever truly "free" in the literal sense of the word. It would probably be more freeing to simply be able to come to terms with that and still find fulfillment in other ways. To still remain content with your own life at the end of the day.
Putting it that way, though... I still have a lot of growing up to do.
(Because I think there's a relevant song from a musical for every occasion:)
(one of my favorites.)
These are the days when I have to remind myself that I can't have everything in life. I think part of becoming an adult is learning to accept and deal with the restrictions that life imposes on you, and will continue to impose on you as you grow older. Family, food, money, housing, relationships, children, and time itself... no one is ever truly "free" in the literal sense of the word. It would probably be more freeing to simply be able to come to terms with that and still find fulfillment in other ways. To still remain content with your own life at the end of the day.
Putting it that way, though... I still have a lot of growing up to do.
(Because I think there's a relevant song from a musical for every occasion:)
(one of my favorites.)
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