Fetish Fanservice
I never fully understood fanservice until I watched Mysterious Girlfriend X episode nine.
Mysterious Girlfriend X has a persistent theme of fetish. The show starts with a fetish for saliva, as everyone knows by now. It doesn’t stop there, though. The show explores exhibitionism, secret love, clothes fetishes, some light BDSM themes, sweat, and tan lines. Episode 9 is about hair. That’s what finally got me.
Mouretsu Pirates 22
You’ve seen me moping about being sick the past few days. Actually, hopefully you haven’t, because this post was actually published on June 7th, 2012 and totally not June 18th because why would I publish a post that’s already been published?? It doesn’t make any logical sense! :o
Anyways, hopefully, you haven’t seen me moping about being sick the past few days. This is because I did not go to school the past few days, and if you saw me, it would be within the confines of my own home. And that’s creepy regardless if you’re a family member or not, for if you are, this blog is creepy, and if you aren’t, you are creepy. Stalkers. (psssssst click the link to understand this ~inside joke~ that’s not even a joke)
Regardless of whether you have or haven’t seen me moping about being sick or not the past few days, there is no doubt that Show is undoubtedly and indubitably radical sick
Hypocrisy in Sankarea
A guest post by @redball of shinda akachan, reprinted on O-New with his permission.
Sankarea has two recurring themes. The first, on the surface, is the theme of zombie obsession, and thus an obsession with death. The second is easily overlooked, but the theme of hypocrisy is pervasive.
Now I have to give credit to twitter. I think it was Captain L.B.C. who first pointed out the hypocrisy in Sankarea, noting that the main villain in the series is guilty of the same crime as the series itself. Both Rea’s father and the viewer ogle and objectify Rea via his risque photographs of her. He goes to the utmost extremes, with a shrine to his daughter’s nude form and later bath scenes with the photos strewn about. Yet, the viewer is presented with many of these same images. What, if not fanservice is the purpose of this?
At first I did not notice this hypocrisy. I figured the series was trying, without much tact, to show the depths of the father’s depravity. I won’t claim to be above fanservice, but I didn’t take that as a presentation thereof. However, once this alternative view was presented I watched with a more critical eye and realized that it is correct. The series is quite hypocritical in this regard and it does objectify and sexualize Rea much the same as her father.
Avengers of O-New: Some Non-Anime Post
That’s right. Take the capital letters of that title, and what do you get?
AON’S NAP.
Wait, no, that’s not right. That sounds too much like ‘K-On’ to be on a blog like O-New, which is entirely safe-for-moè-haters and quite dangerous to moè. Take out the N, O-New’s supposed to be Onew anyways (but it isn’t, because Onew sucks.)
AO: SNAP.
…Oh snap. Time for an editorial post.
What are Little Women Made Of?
Before you accuse me of depraved intentions, no, this is not a post dissecting the many features of the female form. Instead, it is a post about Hourou Musuko, femininity, masculinity, and gender roles in a society where a boy is not a boy and a girl is not a girl. Except when they are, of course. Now, you know that I can’t tackle serious issues like this, so I hope you guys will comment and actually discuss, y’know, real stuff, and not the shit I put into my posts. My newfound popularity (?) after a spectacular loss to Shameful Otaku Secret ought to promote this discussion. OUGHT TO.
2011 Fall Anime Second Thoughts
Phew! Here it is, finally, completely complete and edited and everything! Except for the images, which haven’t been modified in any way except for some resizing. So here it is, over seven thousand and five hundred words later, my twenty-eleven fall, anime, SECOND THOUGHTS! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH *party music*
Please, don’t read this all at once. Symptoms of reading this all at once include boredom, ennui, disinterest, fatigue, indifference, apathy, lethargy, dullness, monotony, tiresomeness, and death.
Well, well, well. Turns out I couldn’t finish this in time. I’ll write the Chihayafuru, Fate/Zero, and concluding segments tomorrow.
Don’t bother reading through this mess. At the moment, it’s over 6000 words long, and, well, completely unedited – that’s right, even I haven’t read through this mess of a post. So don’t bother, and I’m not even trying to use reverse psychology on you. I’ll finish editing this tomorrow. Then, I’ll start to spam it on every single blob in the history of ever and wait did I just say blob
well here’s a blob
But at least I made a not-very-pun-thing in the title of this post! Get it? I had First Impressions, and now I have Second Thoughts! Still debating what to call the third post in this series (the Third Coming?), cause fuck if I’m going to write 11 Half Season Reviews after being 2 months late on every single show.
Ao no Exorcist and Three-Episode Taste Tests
…or whatever they’re called.
Here’s a rather long post with no pictures, but I hope my ideas (not my writing) is at least interesting enough.
The Girls Who Leap Through Spacetime
The Girl Who Leapt Through Space
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Expect a post on the latter soon~
In other words, I’m lazy and this thought just popped up into my mind.
Also Fall Chart v2 is released, though not Chartfag;
Noam Chomsky: The Justice of the Powerful Heroes
After recently watching half a season of tl;dw (DenYuuDen/the Legend of the Legendary Heroes), in which Ryner assassinates several dozen soldiers to rescue one kid with an Alpha Stigma, because those soldiers were terrorizing the kid just because he had the Alpha Stigma. This can be considered an act of terrorism (killing so many people to save one), or an act of heroism (saving that one, wrongly accused kid).
In a school assignment parallel to the timeline of my watching tl;dw (my life is an anime~!), the English teacher assigned us to read about Noam Chomsky, in which he degrades American society, counter-terrorism, and propaganda in the media.
Obvious connections were set up – and thus, I present to you, an anime editorial – Noam Chomsky: The Justice of the Powerful Heroes.
From Danbooru
“Those who stand at the top determine what’s wrong and what’s right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes Justice!!!”
-Donquixote Doflamingo, One Piece
Though One Piece may be, Doflamingo’s statement is not at all quixotic, reflecting much of history’s and present-day political situations.
Without straying from the unrealities of One Piece, let us think about two differing viewpoints.
Imagine that you are a pirate. The corrupt World Government, composed of narcissists such as Axe Hand Morgan has been completely overthrown during the Battle of Marineford. People are free to wander the seas, to do what they please; to just enjoy life. Gone are the slave-trading programmes of old, gone are the elitist Nobels, gone are the presence of Noble prizes, gone are my stupid spelling mistakes. The world is free to do whatever they want, the characters are happy, etc.
If you can’t imagine a world like that, then try harder because I suck at adjectifying.
Alright. Now imagine again, that you are a commoner. Those evil pirates, sea-thieves who steal all our precious gold and money have all died away, and finally, an organized government is in control of the world. Public health care and education are provided, and more jobs are being created than ever. The economy is booming after an era of collapse.
In both ways, you can see that the end result (as long as you are on the right side) is ‘favourable’ and ‘justified’.
In this essay/editorial, I’d like to convince everyone about one, simple opinion (fact).
Justice is relative.
_
“High ideas were besmirched by cruelty and greed, enterprise and endurance by a blind and narrow self righeousness, and the Holy War itself was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God, which is a sin against the Holy Ghost.”
Sir Steven Runciman, The History of the Crusades
Now, let us journey back to the past (or is it the future?) from such fanciful surroundings and become acquainted with some of the more… realistic examples of this “duality of justice” – the Crusades.
– Anything controversial is controversial.
This point seems quite obvious, just as 1 + 2 = 1 + 2, or even 1 = 1. Regardless, what I mean is that anything that can be debated, anything that has sides, anything that you can have an opinion on (everything) – is relative to the opinion of the individual.
Here’s an allusion to my second idea about individualized opinions.
Anywho, there are two obvious opinions here – that the Crusades was a ‘justified’ thing to do, and that it was ‘unjustified’. Both have sides. However, as a Christian residing in the circumstances of the Crusades, one can be fairly certain of what you will support; as will it be with a Muslim of the same settings.
Because there are two separate opinions, and both of them are ‘justified’, how will you actually determine which one actually is ‘justice’?
In direct (and perhaps, a bit too anticipated) opposition to Runciman’s speech about ‘intolerance’, Pope Gregory VII has argued (over ten centuries ago) that it was ‘justified violence’.
But just how was it justified?
–
“I speak in the name of the entire German people when I assure the world that we all share the honest wish to eliminate the enmity that brings far more costs than any possible benefits… It would be a wonderful thing for all of humanity if both peoples would renounce force against each other forever. The German people are ready to make such a pledge.”
Adolf Hitler, October 1933
Since this essay is more about the present than the past, shall we begin the long walk forward? A definite controversial topic currently are the actions of Nazi Germany during World War II.
– The winning side determines the winning argument.
As Doflamingo has put (rather bluntly, if I may say so myself) out, whoever wins automatically becomes justice. Right now, by most (if not already all) of the populace, World War II was a terrible thing, forced by evil, racist, dictators who wanted nothing but to kill and corrupt.
However, was that all just ‘justified violence’?
Approximately 5.5 million German soldiers were killed – just about equal to the people who died in the Holocaust. More than 3.2 million German civilians were killed – and not part of the Holocaust, which means that most of them were killed by Allied soldiers.
That’s still 3,200,000 innocent people killed. Is that still alright?
Taking World War II is a rather extreme example, as more than 25 million other civilians were killed as well, so yes, I suppose it was justified.
However, what if you were in Germany during the war?
You’d be bombed almost daily by foreign soldiers without hope of escape. Wouldn’t you feel hate towards them? If Germany won the war, wouldn’t you think the Allies would get disgraced for their cruel mistreating of right and honest citizens?
–
“Waging war to eliminate war? You’re contradicting yourself!”
Kiefer Knolles (in reply to Refal Edia), the Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Let’s take another example from this war – the nuclear bombs. If they didn’t drop it, hundreds of thousands of civilians would have survived. If they didn’t drop it, possibly millions of military and civilians would perish in the forthcoming land-based assault as well. But we won’t know. For all we know, Japan might have surrendered before the first US troop set foot on the land.
– Other paths are unknown.
We don’t know that we’ve actually ‘saved’ lives. Maybe, if the Axis won, world peace would’ve been reached and there wouldn’t have been any more war, ever. Maybe, if the Holocaust hadn’t happened, some guy (who had been killed) might release a worldwide epidemic comparable or greater than that of the Black Death.
Thing is, we don’t know.
Thusly, we can’t /say/ that this was the lesser of two evils. We can generalize and say that this is /probably/ the lesser of two evils, but we will never know.
Which means, whether or not something really is ‘justified’ is impossible to determine – we can’t see whether it’s better or worse, because we only have one path to take.
I could steer this in the topic of fate being predetermined, but that’d be straying way off my intended path; let’s continue with…
–
“We can’t quite decide if the world is growing worse, or if the reporters are just working harder.”
the Houghton Line, November 1965
…media. Ever since the beginnings of logical thought and information processing, people needed some way to relay information outwards; generally towards the general (no pun intended) audience.
– The media distorts the winning argument.
Distorts sounds like a much more negative word than creates, doesn’t it?
Anywho, whilst the powerful rulers may create an argument, the media distorts it to as to make it more presentable for the populace. While the information may be “people accidentally eat poisonous Russian mushrooms and five people die shortly thereafter”, the media may choose to present it as “Russian mushroom kills five people”, causing subconscious sublimal messages evaluating that the mushrooms were poisoned by Russians, intentionally to kill people.
Everything can be opinionated. This essay is strongly opinionated, though I try my best to keep it neutral (that’s impossible though, unless it’s a report). Can you tell it’s opinionated? If you can, you’re smart. If you can’t; don’t worry, more than 5 billion other people can’t either (can’t say the same for the other billion).
After the winning argument is presented in a much more biased format, the populace can be coerced to agree with its terms as being righteous. After anything goes through the media, an intended result is almost always produced.
Anyways, let’s review: Everything has an argument. However, other paths are unknown, so the argument is always biased. The winning side creates the argument for the winning side, and the media further distorts it for the people.
–
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
Lord Henry, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Now, what’s actual morality? Let’s take this into a completely different analogy – manners. Aren’t they defined by humanity?
– Morality is defined by humanity.
Manners are something that all people are expected to have. Being polite, etc. However, even in contemporary society, it varies from country to country. Whereas a burp in Western society would have negative connotations, in China, it can be considered a sign of a good meal.
Are not manners and morality almost synonyms? Moral consequences of one society and another are completely different; showcasing that in all terms, morality is not strictly defined by anyone.
Because it does vary, it means that the morality is determined by the individual, the group, the collective society – by humanity.
Humanity determines morality; something immoral today might as well become common practice in the world of tomorrow.
–
“…of the people, by the people, for the people…”
Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address
Now, do you see? The information is now highly opinionated and densely riddled with bias. It’s impossible for the population to resist its justifiable urges. Morality is already being determined by humanity, so if all of humanity devours this bias…
– People determine justice.
After people have been fed a highly biased entry from the general media (Russian mushroom murderers!), they can be led to determine what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. From the entry, they can say that the Russian mushrooms are ‘wrong’, and with further distortion, that the Russians are ‘wrong’ and ‘immoral’.
Here’s where Noam Chomsky comes in. Read his books; he’s a self-defined militant Anti-Zionist strongly opposed to the United States and ‘counter-terrorism’ in Israel against the Palestinians.
Now, from his point of view, the United States are really the terrorists; killing thousands of innocent people just to kill one target, with no media consequences, whereas if that happened in the United States (9/11), even the repercussions would incite fear.
From our point of view, the Palestinians are the terrorists, with us (the US, even though I’m Canadian) being the innocent civilians caught in the cross-fire.
This obviously shows that the people determine what is right or wrong.
–
I conclude this essay here. Hopefully, all of my points have been fully, or at least extensively elaborated upon to deliver an accurate conclusion on the subject.
Needless to say, this has not been extensively researched, as time constraints would limit upon me. However, if public opinion desires, I will expand on this topic in many different directions in the future.
As a final summary: Everything has a side. The winning side will seem more ‘justified’, as the winning side will distort their won to be more biased, and seem more ‘right’. However, at the end, ‘justice’ is merely something determined by humanity, so if the winning side has more people convinced that their side is ‘right’, their side, as Doflamingo conjectured, becomes, justice.
– Justice is relative.
What if? Black Lagoon x Durarara!!
OK, call me crazy, but what if?
So, I’m putting Black Lagoon’s plotline into Durarara; meaning the story will seem more Durarara then Black Lagoon. Here goes some major mindfuck.
Format is “Durarara!! Character”/”Black Lagoon Character”; and one person can be different people. Rock/Mikado is different from Rock/Erika; Erika and Mikado are merely played simultaneously as Rock. When the plot needs to, something like Anri/Revy can switch to Anri/Balalaika. Killed also merely means “won’t appear significantly again” (cause you know people don’t die in DRRR, and in Lagoon… well… they do).
Mikado/Rock leaves his home, Japan, to live in Ikebukuro/Roanapur. As he wanders around, he meets some people; Kyohei/Dutch, Saburo/Benny, and… Erika/Rock and Walker/Benny.
Anyways, the Kidnappers/Military corner Rio/Rock, but Celty/Revy kills them. Mikado/Rock then meets with Masaomi/Balalaika who introduce (time-warp time, this gets teleported to the future where you actually do know these people) Shizuo/Roberta, Simon/Bai-Ji Shin, and Izaya/Balalaika.
Rio/Rock becomes emo and decides to commit suicide, which Izaya/Balalaika encourages. But Celty/Revy “saves” him/her, and thus Rio/Rock gets forgotten and disappears (becoming Mikado/Rock).
Mikado/Rock asks Kyohei/Dutch about the Hotel Moscow/Dollars but Kyohei/Dutch tell him it’s too dangerous to mess around. Izaya/Balalaika attacks Luak/those annoying girls, and then kill Chin/some gang members.
Celty/Revy and Shinra/Rock remember their “past” when… well, nothing much is revealed about Rock and Revy’s past in Black Lagoon, so… stuff happens.
Anri/Balalaika talks about Mika/Ratchman and stuff happen. Seiji/Sir Alfred does stuff, so MORE STUFF HAPPEN.
Kadota’s gang/Lagoon Company rescues Kaztano/The Twelve Knights Led by Brunhilda.
OK, now here’s some more timebending; imagine that the German-submarine arc extends till episode 12. Then imagine that Roberta’s arc is now. So it is: Shizuo/Roberta reveals that while s/he was young, s/he kept on breaking his bones by throwing refrigerators at random people/assassinated people because she was a terrorist. Eventually, s/he came to be employed by Tom the debt collector/Diego Jose San Fernando Lovelace the… person. Shizuo/Roberta thinks about his brother/noone at all, Kasuka/noone.
Celty/Revy talks to Shinra/Rock about her head/money in Shinra’s house/the submarine.
Mika/Ratchman realizes that Seiji/Alfred is sending her/him to her/his death, and well… the Seiji arc is too creepy to even be transposed, so we’ll leave it as “both of them are never heard of again”, cause DRRR doesn’t really give them any significance later. Seiji/submarine arc is now over.
Celty/Revy is chased by Kinnosuke/the Protectors of the Islamic Front. Nevertheless, she eventually loses them/BLOWS ALL OF THEIR HEADS OFF. Celty/Revy is then asked to pick up Shingen/the briefcase and take him/it to Shinra/the CIA, which she does.
The Slasher/Gretel attacks a bunch of people. Mikado/Rock is worried because The Slasher is targeting Dollars/Hotel Moscow.
Shuji/Hänsel tries to attack Anri/Balalaika but is killed by Kyohei’s Gang/Lagoon Company (Hotel Moscow).
Anri/Revy is visited by The Slasher/Gretel, who is revealed as Haruna. Haruna/Gretel then chases Takashi/Eda, and Anri/Revy is forced to reveal herself as the slasher/put Haruna/Gretel on the Black Lagoon.
Anri/Balalaika reveals that she’s the real “Slasher”, and kill Haruna/Gretel.
Masaomi’s past really has no place in Black Lagoon either, so I’m just going to stop trying. But Saki is Janet, and it somewhat fits; there’s this girl, people want to attack her for money, and she gets severely injured/survives without a scratch. Anyways Greenback Jane’s arc is over in one paragraph of discussion :/
Anri/Balalaika finds out that Masaomi/Balalaika’s the leader of… wait, they’re the same person
Finally we come to the last arcs, the climaxes (or in the case of DRRR, anticlimax) – Fujiyama Gansta Paradise.
Masaomi/Tsugio tries to find out who the Dollars/Hotel Moscow are (doing), and Izaya/Balalaika reveals that the leader of the Dollars is Mikado/they will do ANYTHING TO SECURE PROFITS. Noone/Tsugio then dies.
:/
Nevertheless Takeguchi/Laptev dies because of the Yellow Scarves/Washimine Group. Horoda/Chaka then kidnap Anri/Yukio. However, some Dollars Members/Revy and Ginji get her back. Mikado/Yukio then disbands the Dollars/Washimine Group.
Shizuo gets shot but nobody cares about that
Masaomi/Rock tries to tell the Yellow Scarves/Hotel Moscow to stop attacking the Washimine Group/Dollars, but Horoda/Balalaika holds him at gunpoint. He is finally saved when Anri and Mikado burst through the door/HE SAYS SOMETHING FREAKING WITTY.
Horoda/Ginji “runs away” but a bunch of people/Revy kill him.
The end.
Character List 1:
(Black Lagoon = Durarara, chronologically)
The Black Lagoon Arc:
Roanapur = Ikebukuro
Rock = Mikado, Erika, Rio, Shinra, Masaomi
Revy = Celty, Anri, Dollars Member, “a bunch of people”
Dutch = Kyohei
Benny = Saburo, Walker
Lagoon Company = Kyohei’s Gang
Hotel Moscow = Dollars, Yellow Scarves
Balalaika = Masaomi, Izaya, Anri, Horoda
Military = Kidnappers
Chin = Gang Members
Luak = Annoying Girls
Die Rückkehr des Adlers Arc:
The Twelve Knights Led by Brunhilda = Kaztano
Ratchman = Mika
Sir Alfred = Seiji
Calm Down, Two Men Arc:
Eda = Takashi
Roberta = Shizuo
Lock’n Load Revolution Arc:
Bai Ji-Shin = Simon
The Protectors of the Islamic Front = Kinnosuke
The Briefcase with Information about The Protectors of the Islamic Front = Shingen
The Vampire Twins Comen Arc:
Hänsel (formerly Gretel, but gets killed as Hänsel) = Shuji
Gretel (formerly Hänsel, but gets killed as Gretel) = The Slasher (Haruna)
Greenback Jane Arc:
Janet = Saki
Washimine Group = Yellow Scarves, Dollars
Tsugio = Masaomi, Nonexistent
Ginji = Horoda, Dollars Member
Yukio = Anri, Mikado
Chaka = Horoda
Laptev = Takeguchi
Nonexistent = Kasuka, Namie, Tom, Blue Squares, Dennis, Shiki, Hashim, Hiroshi, Kanazawa, Isaac, Miria, Ruri, Ran, Green Squarves
Character List 2:
(Durarara = Black Lagoon, chronologically)
Exit 1 Episode:
Ikebukuro = Roanapur
Mikado = Rock, Yukio
Masaomi = Rock, Balalaika, Tsugio
Kyohei = Dutch
Saburo = Benny
Walker = Benny
Erika = Rock
Kyohei’s Gang = Black Lagoon
Kidnappers = Military
Rio = Rock
Simon = Bai-Ji Shin
Shizuo = Roberta
Celty = Revy
Mika = Ratchman
Dollars = Hotel Moscow, Washimine Group
Highly Unpredictable Arc:
Seiji = Sir Alfred
Izaya = Balalaika
Anri = Revy, Balalaika, Yukio
Annoying Girls = Luak
Gang Members = Chin
Utterly Alone Arc:
Shinra = Rock
Shingen = The Briefcase with Information about The Protectors of the Islamic Front
Takashi = Eda
Yellow Scarves = Hotel Moscow, Washimine Group
Kaztano = The Twelve Knights Led by Brunhilda
Takeguchi = Laptev
A Sudden Turn Arc:
Kinnosuke = The Protectors of the Islamic Front
The Slasher (Haruna) = Gretel (formerly Hänsel, but gets killed as Gretel)
Shuji = Hänsel (formerly Gretel, but gets killed as Hänsel)
Saki = Janet
Horoda = Balalaika, Ginji, Chaka
Dollars Member = Revy, Ginji
“a bunch of people” = Revy
Nonexistent = Kageyama, Wentzel, Matsuda, Speilberger, Gruppenführer, Fritz, Yolanda, Watsup, Garcia, Hong Kong Triad, Masahiro, Shenhua, Leigharch, Ibraha, Abrego, Verrochio, Rowan, Russel, Frederica, Claude, Rotton, Tsugio, Boris, Columbian Cartel, Rico, Bao, Yoshida, Diego, The Captain, Extra Order Company, Shane
…So there’s the plotline! There’s bound to be holes and errors in it, so comment below if stuff seems weird (’cause I suck at proofreading). Gonna add more information later, but for now… be confused. :3
O-New 