ahhh...anime

For my brother's birthday on the 12th, I sent him an anime movie. He lives over 13 hours away and dvds fit nicely in the mail. Besides the fact that R does have some interest in anime. I was even able to beg the student worker at work (gee that was eloquent) to take it to the post office. All in all it was a gamble. Did I pick the right gift? Would our inept worker be able to get it to the post office? Would the wrapping survive the rough menstrations of the postal workers? The only thing I was sure on was the card. I had picked it out months in advance-several months, such as I believe I had it when I moved last December. It was great it read, "I could have had a worse brother," (open card) "like Cain for example." It was funny because R and I get along fabulously...but I digress.

This post is a request of my brother, the man who notices everyone's hypocrisy. I still have not decided if this is a good thing or not. He picked up on my vehement anti-anime voiced opinion and my small, minor pr0-anime written discrepancy in his birthday note. And his demands are set-I must explain myself and flush out all of my double standards, something I have come to love. Poor me. I'll just tell myself this is for the better and I know that Husband is jumping for joy. He just barely tolerates all my two facedness.

But I'll come straight out and say it-I straddle the fence. Some anime is very good. Princess Monoke, Cowboy Bebop, His and Her's Cirsumstances, Nausicaa, Hamtoro, Totoro, etc. Some anime is very gross; Metropolis, Akira, etc . The boiling-bio-mechanical-masses theme that seems to run through the genre creeps me out. Most anime protray women as staggerly sexual-this is my opinion and I am bound to ruffle some feathers-and I believe that is unexceptable. There is also a huge blurring of gender lines, including malfuctions, cross dressers, psychological-I-am-a-guy-but-was-raised-as-a-girl issues (see Escaflowne for this reference). It's just a little to soap opera-y. I guess I wouldn't have such a problem with gender issues, if it weren't so ambiguous. I have no problems with gays, but bi-sexuals? I mean come on, just pick a side and stick with it.

And don't get me started on the conclusions. I watched 6, count them 6, dvds of episodes (like four episodes to a disc of His and Her's to get to the last episode to get something that made no sense. It was really bad poetry put to black and white pictures of the characters not moving draped across trees, benches, etc. I mean what in the heck does that mean? You don't believe me about the conclusions? I suffered through several late nights watching hours on end of Evagelion with my fiance to see a collage ending! Really, just random pictures of Japan put to music and words-not even dialogue! So I voiced "that was crap!" to my then fiance who said fine let's watch the endong they put out in theaters! I had to watch a whole seperate film and suffer through several more hours of grossness. Cowboy Bebop-an actual series I enjoy-has the lead character die in the end. DIE! I mean you've bonded with this character now and they just kill him off.

And that's another thing-why is all anime in series format? Why can't they just put it into one dvd, one movie, one something instead of breaking it into parts. And uncoordinated parts at that! Just put the first event in the time line first, instead of back tracking after the fourth episode, which of course is the second disc (dang money grubbers). I'm always completely thrown off course when this happens. I just stopped dealing with it when M got Full Metal Alchemist. The director pulled that stunt and I just stopped watching. It was not worth the effort. Full Metal Alchemist, btw has a great gender blurring axe-murder and bio-deformed masses in it that I was looking past for the humor, but the second disc killed that optimism.

I'll stop here before the ranting turns ugly....