I haven't posted here in a while. In truth, it hasn't been quite so long as to merit filing a missing person report for me, but the reason why it feels as though it has is that I know I could have gone quite a bit longer, if I hadn't forced myself to write an entry. My desire and no doubt my ability to write have deserted me. Life just isn't anime and fan fiction anymore. Well, it isn't fan fiction, at any rate. I'm still consuming anime at such a rate that a person unfamiliar with anime would be apt to brand me a creep or a pervert. For some reason, anime invariably evokes the idea of hentai in the noninitiate's mind. Netflix has happily been including more and more anime in its catalogue of late, which makes consuming it all the easier. I watched The Devil is a Part-Timer! recently - a nice bit of light viewing at the end of a work week.
Currently I'm watching the Magi series - a show in which I've become quite a bit more emotionally invested. Initially I imagined that I would feel rather silly watching a show in which the characters bore such names as Aladdin, Alibaba, and Sinbad, but it really isn't silly at all. The characters, to be sure, are vaguely inspired by their Arabian Nights counterparts, and the setting and aesthetic are distinctly Middle Eastern, but beyond that it's anime/manga tropes all the way. Magi is the master of the "little things in life". The characters' backstories and motivations are not thrust onto you from the get-go but are brought out gradually and tastefully. Interpersonal relationships don't follow the kind of black-and-white friends-vs.-enemies pattern from most anime but are complex and realistic. Magi also treats political and geopolitical themes with a lot more sophistication than I'm used to seeing in fiction. Kubo could have learnt a thing or two from it. The dialogue is great as well. Meaningful, emotional, realistic, logical - poetic and humorous when it needs to be, but never dull or unnecessary. Mashima could have learnt a thing or two from it. Magi also contains perhaps my favorite anime line in recent memory: "Nani-baba-kun?" I'm considering using it in real life as a replacement for prosaic old "What?" I'm prepared to be labeled a weeaboo for it and burnt at the stake. People have perished for far less.
Apart from anime, I've been reading a bit more lately, thanks to my decision to commute to work by bus, much to the consternation of my carpooling coworkers, who don't understand my lifestyle or appreciate the joys of traveling without having to listen to conversation delivered in a Tamil accent on a mist of curry breath. I'm currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, which was a graduation present from Sasha, whose taste in books seems to match her brilliance in CS. It's a murder mystery set in a fourteenth-century abbey. The writing is pornography for history buffs, though Eco sometimes has a tendency to lose himself in lengthy excurses and comma-separated lists that go on for pages at a time. I guess that's just his style. It's basically a more Latinate and less pulpy version of Dan Brown. The translation quality is also excellent.
5 comments :
Nani-baba-kun?
Such a beaut.
Unfortunately, the Final Arc seems to recall the dreaded last course on Masterchef prepared by That One Contestant who you know is not going to return the next episode. Just Nani-baba-kun throughout.
Such sadz, because, as I've said, I've become rather emotionally invested in this manga. =/
I actually take that back. The Final Arc is nothing like That One Contestant on Masterchef. That honor would have to go to Bleach.
I thought it would turn out to be the last part of A Canticle for Leibowitz - a sort of Utopian epilogue that leaves you feeling rather empty - , but instead it has retained the fun and the freshness of the earlier arcs. Remember I said that Magi's treatment of politics was sophisticated? You can add economics to that as well.
I've also developed a kind of soft spot for Arab culture. You know, the pre-ISIS stuff that sadly doesn't exist anymore. The wonder and the mysteries of the Arabian Nights and whatnot.
Such a rambling comment.
Hahaha, the debacle that was Bleach...
That is true. Listening to my Iranian refugee coworker talk about certain things, and also realizing what an old, old empire and culture that used to be, is quite saddening.
Truly unfortunate. I hope we get to see peace in the Middle East in our lifetime.
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