Embedded Chineseness

Despite the terribleness of my Chinese language ability, it's surprisingly how my ethnic cultureness pops up in the course of my engagement with anime. Most recent e.g. cf my deep reluctance to touch Senkou no Night Raid.

SDB's counter-proposal of Kan'u and Hakufu as Ideal Women reminded me why, despite gorgeous chara designs and gratuitous yuri, I was unable to watch more than a few minutes of Ikkitousen. Due to occasional visits to the local temple (but mostly because of intensive play of Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 in secondary school), whenever Kan'u appears, all I can see is:

(Dropped) Kurenai – Naivety to the extreme

I'm come to the (probably erroneous) conclusion that Kurenai is harem for joseis. No, not reverse-harem. It's still a male harem lead only that he appears to be specifically tailored to pander to the older female crowd (and by older I'm talking about late teens and early twenties.) I finally dropped the series ep 10 for 2 reasons - naivety of the cast (hence the unraveling of the credibility of the premise) and the lameness of Shinkuro as a man.

Let me first clarify that I did enjoy very much some parts of the series. The education that Yamie and Tamaki gave to Murasaki was priceless. Much of the dialogue between the ladies was food for thought (I thought the 'save file' analogy was particularly intriguing and have confirmed traces of truth in that statement between my wife and me.) Murasaki and Shinkuro's relationship was endearing to behold. I personally wouldn't underestimate a child's ability to love in a mature manner even though Murasaki isn't quite there yet. Maybe in a couple more months with more daytime TV soap and Yamie/Tamaki indoctrination, Shinkuro/Murasaki may make a fine couple. Just a disclaimer here. Although I had found the ladies perspectives in love/life to be thoroughly interesting, I thought they were rather unhealthy, especially for a young child like Murasaki to acquire. Yamie/Tamaki clearly had issues and definitely ill-equipped to pass on 'wisdom' on love or even life.

Now for the gripes. One of my biggest lament of the series was how naive the cast generally was. From Benika to Shinkuro, they were constantly make poor choices on the ground when it came to protecting Murasaki. I especially palmed-faced when Shinkuro insisted on returning Murasaki to 'say farewell' in ep 9. 2 issues - First Murasaki didn't really say goodbye or gave any form of closure to her short friendship with the neighbours. I'm not sure what Shinkuro is trying to inculcate in Murasaki but that objective was certainly not achieved. 2nd. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING SPENDING THE NIGHT THERE?!?! 'Say goodbye' and leave for safer havens! I blame Benika. She was too idealistic to give so much space to an overly emotional/sensitive teenager. The credibility of the plot just came apart with those incredible motivations. My heart goes out to Yayoi (undoubtedly the most sane of the lot) who has to babysit this bunch of free-wheeling idealists.

The other deathblow of the series has to be Shinkuro. It's irked me to no end that Shinkuro didn't act decisively to rescue Murasaki and mucked around the whole of ep 10 even after knowing her unspeakable fate. Maybe the sensitive dialogue and introspective conversation cater to the target audience's tastes but just doesn't cut it with tanuki type. 2 eps only to go but I dropped it since I know I wouldn't forgive Shinkuro (and actually much of the cast) for not flying to Murasaki.

And oh, Yuuno chan has to be the choicest haremette in the show even though she still couldn't muster enough charm for me to complete the series.

Nabari no Ou 11

[nabari11_00.jpg title="What I really need is a drill..."]

Having just rewatched Kung Fu Hustle, I was just LOL at this scene: Dance the dance of the Axe Gang, Shimizu-ke!

Nabari no Ou 10

[nabari10_00.jpg title="Hitting them will only make them bigger, Juuji..."]

Iwasaki Minami: Give it back! Give it back!

Nabari no Ou 9

[screenie of Raimei doing pushups]

Ok, NnO, whole lot knock it down.

Don't make me ask you to 'See that tree over that?', k?

Nabari no Ou 7

[nabari07_00.jpg title="Look! Still no tsundere!! ]

In the spring season a fanboy's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of pairing up charas. In the vein of the Code Geass speculations over at the appropriately named Koibito Anime blog, I was wondering if the series is going to pair Raimei up with Miharu given his 'Raimei's happiness is my happiness' line :0 Feel the love power!

Nabari no Ou 6

[nabari06_00.jpg title="So boring that even two sidekick charas fell asleep!" ]

This episode did have an important development - Miharu's bargain with Yoite to abandon his mastery of his Apathy no Jutsu and use the Shinrabanshou to violate the Temporal Prime Directive. But, as Aroduc pointed out, the pacing was snooze inducing and even totali's love power was dented by the surfeit of emo.

Nabari no Ou 5

[nabari05_00.jpg title="No, I will *not* call Raikou 'Oniichan'!"]

Raimei's brother complex?