The Off Topic Topic

[Lettow77]

 As promised. This should be good for an embarrassment I don't expect to live down- hopefully this will draw some of the schadenfreude from raz and allow the peanut gallery something at my expense instead, such that he can feel better by comparison. It also is a fairly comprehensive insight into what I find desirable. (My, but this took well over two hours to do! It was a pleasant passage of time.)

  Without further ado-


The centrepiece, followed by topleft clockwise and the same to the right:

Alicia Florence- A lady who stretches the limits of what is a believable human personality. I would give it no credence, save I have had the blessing to know someone of her benevolence before, as well as someone of her considerable reserve. Wedded to this is a grace and beauty almost exclusively reserved for the imagination. She finds joy in almost everything, and takes a determinedly optimistic view that is more grounded in will than natural disposition. Someone of truly extraordinary self-discipline who uses her mastery of herself to be a light of kindness in the world. A peerless character.

Oshimizu Nako-  Outwardly very shy, and happy with her job as a waitress in a traditional-style Japanese inn. While a quiet and helpful server there, she sees her "real" self as her persona at home, where she is a surrogate mother figure for her three younger siblings, a much more open and matronly person who giggles and smiles with a freedom her choking anxiety prevents in public. Probably the most shy and innocent of the list, and of all the characters listed, has the best haircut.

Kotobuki Tsumugi- A somewhat stereotypical girl of a well-to-do Japanese family, she lives in a lavish house and grew up winning accolades for piano performance. Amongst her group of friends she furnishes the tea set and daily sweets that become the center of the social circle's activity. Her silver-spoon upbringing gives her an enthusiasm for mundane activities she hasn't had exposure to- going to Mcdonalds, doing petty work, or sleepovers with her friends. She is the least integrated into her social circle, and has an apparent fondness for lesbian relationships, although no such activity of her own is noted.

Shiina Mayuri- An optimistic girl with a deliberately childish affectation. She keeps the company of people who routinely discuss things out of her depth, but is content as long as the atmosphere around her is friendly and she can be in proximity to people she likes. She is bubbly and prone to easy smiles, but becomes upset when those around her are in conflict, and becomes frustrated by her inability to understand the underlying reasons or restore the tranquility of the mood. Constantly referring to herself in the third person as "Mayushi", she is very representative of Japan's tendency to prefer forced immaturity out-of-step with time and natural emotional advancement. A bit refreshing compared to the jaded and overt preferences of the west. Mayuri is however docked for having the least relation to tea of all the ladies assembled here.

Chitose- A minor character from a forgotten anime in which cats have all (of course!) been anthropomorphized, she lives with her owner, a traditional Japanese confectionist, and correspondingly is constantly in a kimono and unfailingly polite. She has a fixation with other cats' tails, and sweets. A simple and archetypal character, my fondness for cats, the colour green, and the archetype itself nonetheless propels her into this exalted list. The show itself carries strong nostalgia value.

Satou Lilly- blind, mothering and never far from a cup of tea, Lilly is half-Japanese half-scottish, which by the established tropes of the medium dictates that she be completely blonde-haired and blue eyed. similar to Mugi, she is from a very well-off family, but has a greater sense of refinement and self-restraint. She is carefully measured in all her activities, and most of what she does is a function of memory and repetition, owing to her blindness. She has a sizable collection of braille literature, and has taken another student at her school for the disabled under her care- a burn victim who socializes with nobody else, but is gradually rehabilitated under Lilly's caring and competent tutelage. Lilly indulges an over-fondness for wine, and the agonizingly slow pace she takes life can be a frustration for anyone with expectations of things getting done.

Toudou Shimako- At a Catholic all-girls school full of proper, elegant young ladies, Shimako stands out as particularly proper and elegant. Gentle to the point of lacking a presence, she is very religious, and moved to tears when viewing the Pieta in St. Peter's basilica. She eventually takes a girl under her wing who is a closeted Buddhist at their Catholic school and takes pains to hide this from her- when she inevitably discovers, she is completely accepting, and the two grow closer together by their faith.

Kusunoki Yukimura- A confused girl that is never revealed as a girl in the anime in which she appears. Rather, she is presented as a boy crossdressing as a girl on a quest to be more manly- A contradiction of terms she is confused into accepting by a manipulative and ill-natured friend. Gullible and with low self-esteem, she views the protagonist as the epitome of a romantic outlaw she can attach herself to in order to become less shamefully effeminate and more masculine. She views women as inferior, and has an obsession with bushido and the gallantry of samurai. She frequently makes her suicide the condition of failure in trivial tasks, and is over-formal and stilted in her dealings with her self-appointed role-model. Obedient to the point of omitting any self-judgement, she will obey tasks to the letter with nonsensical results, in the belief that subordinate duty to one's superiors is the way of the samurai and the path by which she can become a proper man.

Matou Sakura- Kept in her adopted grandfather's dungeon filled with rape worms, Sakura lives a tortured life in which she is sexually abused by said worms, her adoptive brother, and her grandfather, who is in fact composed of said worms. (it's complicated- you know how Japan gets.) She presents nothing of this to the outside world, but is unable to make any meaningful friendships due to her emotional isolation and trauma. She falls in love with a boy when witnessing his persistence and determination from afar, which she draws upon for inspiration in bearing her own trials without complaint for the sake of her family. She is ashamed of her impurity, and even more so her wanton nature- her own sexual appetites shame her and she shrinks from them, while convinced she is unworthy of anything but mere proximity to the boy she admires, who she contents to serve as a servant rather than any closer connection. In this capacity she is a constant fixture as his house, cooking before and after school, where she enjoys a respite from her home life.

[11B4V]

 

[HVC]

pay no mind to the future face eater.

[Eddie Teach]

rape worms,

[Lettow77]

 I got a laugh out writing of that too 

"I wonder how apparent it is that this character escaped directly out of an eroge?"

Edit: Oh, and tyr- mainstream is relative. If people have heard of any anime at all in the states, they are likely to have heard of cowboy bebop. It aired on american television, in English. Compared to most anime, this makes it (for the west) very mainstream indeed, and there exists an element within the (western) anime community (and, I imagine, most communities) that disdains anything for its popularity, even if that popularity is entirely relative and largely imagined from the warped perspective of the fanbase that lacks a realistic grasp of how little the wider world cares about their pasttime.

[Josquius]

Anime hipsters. Haha.

Cowboy Bebop is weird. I agree most western anime fans and even a lot of people who just watch some anime will know of it. In Japan though it is very unknown, I know a few people very into their anime and they had never heard of it.

[11B4V]

pay no mind to the future face eater.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQb2m6VJ-eo

[Razgovory]

They all look the same.

[Neil]

Its popularity is helped by how easily an american audience can get into it- there isn't much "Japanese" about Cowboy Bebop.

See, I find that helpful.  These days, everybody's a fucking high school student.

[Razgovory]

Its popularity is helped by how easily an american audience can get into it- there isn't much "Japanese" about Cowboy Bebop.

See, I find that helpful.  These days, everybody's a fucking high school student.

Thank God I'm not.

[Valmy]

Do you find my contributions amusing and valuable...



I left Languish for like 7 months and no one noticed.

We noticed.  What did you expect?  That we would send a search party to Oxnard?  You weren't there anyway.

[MadImmortalMan]

Celebrity sighting: Lance Bass

It's sad that such a thing can be said in perfect sincerity.

I didn't say A-List or anything like that.

He served your coffee at Starbucks, didn't he.

[MadImmortalMan]

I am curious, though: What makes you like her? She's deceitful, money-obsessed, self-absorbed and treacherous. You can't trust her, she has expensive tastes, and she lies to herself as well as everyone else.

She's believable and realistic. 

[katmai]

Thirty-five years ago, Hollywood changed forever. "Star Wars" hit cinemas on May 25, 1977. But, while the film went on to be one of the biggest blockbusters of all time and launched sequels, prequels, TV shows, action figures, LEGO sets, and more, you may be surprised to learn that on its opening day, only a modest number of folks got to see it.

That's because the film opened in just 32 theaters across the nation. It opened on a Wednesday. By Friday, it had expanded to a whopping 43 theaters. Contrast that to Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 4,349 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.

Man how much has changed.

[MadImmortalMan]

Lady is on a phone interview on the L. Rahm takes the phone and gives her a recommendation right there.