what's it say? I CAN'T READ!
18 Jun 2010 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigou1. Rewatching Escaflowne, which I think may've been only the second or third series I watched with subtitles (once I moved into DVD-purchases, that is). Amazing the number of things I missed the first time, because I wasn't yet attuned to catching subtitles fast enough to also catch everything else on the screen. Like, say, the amazingly prevalent number of Greasy Money-Grubbing Jew (GMGJ) stereotypes that appear. For a series I otherwise love, it makes my skin crawl when the GMGJ caricatures show up.
Truly repugnant, especially considering the rest of the cast is drawn as pretty diverse, compared to many of Escaflowne's generational-peers. Not to mention it's not nearly as whacked as some when it comes to the feminine roles, although the cast is dominated by roughly half of its named female characters being stuffed in a fridge. Let's see: Van's mother, Allen's mother, Chid's mother... and then there are the unnamed "not appearing in this film" like Millerna's mother and Maiden's mother. I can forgive general orphaning, since the story's based in a rough and semi-warring world, but it does seem like an awful lot of mothers are conveniently Not Here Anymore.
On the other hand, it doesn't seem as though this adds any particular agony to Chid's storyline, at least, and what I do find curious is that neither Allen nor Van are driven by loss-of-mother, so much as awareness that the loss-of-mother was precipitated by loss-of-father, followed rapidly by loss-of-sibling. Deep grief, topped off by losing either the first-born or the baby of the family, and in each case the mother's represented as one that simply fades away. So instead of the usual drive/ambition that comes with revenge for 'horrible fate of being stuffed in a fridge,' it's more like the two characters are driven by a need to be everything to someone else, in a way they couldn't for their respective mothers -- who loved them, but didn't love them enough to stay, or didn't love them enough to let them make up for all the other love lost.
Rather intriguing, really, when you consider that Escaflowne was intended to appeal to girls as much as boys. Perhaps the "absentee mother" is a trope so prevalent in adolescent male development (and in basic archetypal storytelling coming-of-age routes) that it went unquestioned that Mother won't be appearing in this film, but at least raised the possibility of giving some reason other than gruesome, revenge-prompting death as the reason?
Noticeably, Hitomi's mother is not only alive, but appears to be aware of where her daughter's gone, and relatively confident Hitomi will return, at that, which is why I wonder if the shojo-influence on the storyline is what's showing up in the repeated "mother left". But in this shojo-influenced version, Mother's leaving is (from the other side) an active longing/searching for something (as stated explicitly about Van's mother) that just happens to not be the young man in question -- such that the male character's loss isn't necessarily tinged with blood and gore and horrible nightmares, so much as just deep-rooted grief at the loss of childhood/innocence and/or unconditional love of mother (which if you think about it, proved to be somewhat conditional, or at least impermanent).
And here I was just watching this to kill time while I wait for the next Oofuri.
Damn it.
2. Many years ago there was a commercial for dog treats which for some reason struck all of us working a restaurant as absolutely hysterical. (Maybe it's because bacon was a staple on all but our vegan and vegetarian sandwiches.) Wouldn't be a shift that didn't go by without someone yelling, "what's it say? I CAN'T READ!"
This is how I feel with the latest episode of Oofuri. It's bottom of the eighth, the catcher's out with a torn ligament in his knee, the opposing team has decoded all of our heroes' coach's signs, the replacement catcher's getting thrown so badly he's messing up his batting, the pitcher's freaked, the last-minute substitute is unnerved by (finally) being in a real game, and... things are falling apart. I want spoilers, and I want them NOW. But NicePitching only releases chapters like every once in a blue moon, and their last chapter was on the cliffhanger of the catcher's injury. No clues there! I track down the raws for the manga.
And instead of enlightenment, I want to holler, what's it say? I CAN'T READ!
With some really intense google-fu, I finally track down (rather circuitously ending up smack dab back on LJ) a comm that carries updates, raws, summaries, etc. But the link is dead for the corresponding chapter summary that matches this episode, oh noes! I scroll the comments, hopeful it'll tell me whether this is it or if the team's gonna come through, and the comments are all: "ah, Higuchi-sensei liberally sprinkles fudoshi-service..." and "this character has a crush on that one, right?" and "when does this character reappear?" and "is there anything about so-and-so in this chapter?" and I'm going, WHAT'S THE GODDAMN SCORE!? WHO WINS THE GAME!?
I study the pictures in the raw, curse the day that someone decided not to post a Chinese version, and I attempt to decode the final score. I can't! I CAN'T READ!
After all that, I finally track down a later summary that refers to this particular game. Our heroes lose, and are out of the Koshien in the third round, after making it to the top 16.
*sob*
Okay, maybe reading is overrated.
3. FMA is now officially over. Well, mostly -- the anime is rolling its way on to the finish line. Does this mean I'm off the hook? Does this mean it's a sign I should gird myself up and plunge back into the nightmare of complex coding and scripts that form the backend of the WP hacks making up the archive? Can someone wave a wand or a lampshade or a really big magnet and make it all go away? What do you think?
[note: before you assume answers to #1 indicate "so much remaining! like, THIS much!", see comments for explanation of what actually remains & the reason for reluctance in tackling.]
--poll now closed, replaced with short poll on-site--
Truly repugnant, especially considering the rest of the cast is drawn as pretty diverse, compared to many of Escaflowne's generational-peers. Not to mention it's not nearly as whacked as some when it comes to the feminine roles, although the cast is dominated by roughly half of its named female characters being stuffed in a fridge. Let's see: Van's mother, Allen's mother, Chid's mother... and then there are the unnamed "not appearing in this film" like Millerna's mother and Maiden's mother. I can forgive general orphaning, since the story's based in a rough and semi-warring world, but it does seem like an awful lot of mothers are conveniently Not Here Anymore.
On the other hand, it doesn't seem as though this adds any particular agony to Chid's storyline, at least, and what I do find curious is that neither Allen nor Van are driven by loss-of-mother, so much as awareness that the loss-of-mother was precipitated by loss-of-father, followed rapidly by loss-of-sibling. Deep grief, topped off by losing either the first-born or the baby of the family, and in each case the mother's represented as one that simply fades away. So instead of the usual drive/ambition that comes with revenge for 'horrible fate of being stuffed in a fridge,' it's more like the two characters are driven by a need to be everything to someone else, in a way they couldn't for their respective mothers -- who loved them, but didn't love them enough to stay, or didn't love them enough to let them make up for all the other love lost.
Rather intriguing, really, when you consider that Escaflowne was intended to appeal to girls as much as boys. Perhaps the "absentee mother" is a trope so prevalent in adolescent male development (and in basic archetypal storytelling coming-of-age routes) that it went unquestioned that Mother won't be appearing in this film, but at least raised the possibility of giving some reason other than gruesome, revenge-prompting death as the reason?
Noticeably, Hitomi's mother is not only alive, but appears to be aware of where her daughter's gone, and relatively confident Hitomi will return, at that, which is why I wonder if the shojo-influence on the storyline is what's showing up in the repeated "mother left". But in this shojo-influenced version, Mother's leaving is (from the other side) an active longing/searching for something (as stated explicitly about Van's mother) that just happens to not be the young man in question -- such that the male character's loss isn't necessarily tinged with blood and gore and horrible nightmares, so much as just deep-rooted grief at the loss of childhood/innocence and/or unconditional love of mother (which if you think about it, proved to be somewhat conditional, or at least impermanent).
And here I was just watching this to kill time while I wait for the next Oofuri.
Damn it.
2. Many years ago there was a commercial for dog treats which for some reason struck all of us working a restaurant as absolutely hysterical. (Maybe it's because bacon was a staple on all but our vegan and vegetarian sandwiches.) Wouldn't be a shift that didn't go by without someone yelling, "what's it say? I CAN'T READ!"
This is how I feel with the latest episode of Oofuri. It's bottom of the eighth, the catcher's out with a torn ligament in his knee, the opposing team has decoded all of our heroes' coach's signs, the replacement catcher's getting thrown so badly he's messing up his batting, the pitcher's freaked, the last-minute substitute is unnerved by (finally) being in a real game, and... things are falling apart. I want spoilers, and I want them NOW. But NicePitching only releases chapters like every once in a blue moon, and their last chapter was on the cliffhanger of the catcher's injury. No clues there! I track down the raws for the manga.
And instead of enlightenment, I want to holler, what's it say? I CAN'T READ!
With some really intense google-fu, I finally track down (rather circuitously ending up smack dab back on LJ) a comm that carries updates, raws, summaries, etc. But the link is dead for the corresponding chapter summary that matches this episode, oh noes! I scroll the comments, hopeful it'll tell me whether this is it or if the team's gonna come through, and the comments are all: "ah, Higuchi-sensei liberally sprinkles fudoshi-service..." and "this character has a crush on that one, right?" and "when does this character reappear?" and "is there anything about so-and-so in this chapter?" and I'm going, WHAT'S THE GODDAMN SCORE!? WHO WINS THE GAME!?
I study the pictures in the raw, curse the day that someone decided not to post a Chinese version, and I attempt to decode the final score. I can't! I CAN'T READ!
After all that, I finally track down a later summary that refers to this particular game. Our heroes lose, and are out of the Koshien in the third round, after making it to the top 16.
*sob*
Okay, maybe reading is overrated.
3. FMA is now officially over. Well, mostly -- the anime is rolling its way on to the finish line. Does this mean I'm off the hook? Does this mean it's a sign I should gird myself up and plunge back into the nightmare of complex coding and scripts that form the backend of the WP hacks making up the archive? Can someone wave a wand or a lampshade or a really big magnet and make it all go away? What do you think?
[note: before you assume answers to #1 indicate "so much remaining! like, THIS much!", see comments for explanation of what actually remains & the reason for reluctance in tackling.]
--poll now closed, replaced with short poll on-site--