Worlds change in an instant, mused Rin Ogata as she danced on stage. She was a rising star in the ballet world, but when her ankle gives way it changes what she had thought would be the rest of her life, following her mother’s path of the prima ballerina. Now that the dream had slipped away, there was a void in her life; something was missing which left her aimless.
I’m a little surprised that there haven’t been more Rin figures made over the last few of years. I can see why Saber figures outnumber Rin. Armor. Big sword. A wider variety of costumes and outfits. Plus if you go with the extremes of Rei and Asuka spectrum of anime girls, Saber is closer to Rei, who as it’s been thrown around, is more appealing to otaku. Rin on the other hand, at least as far as the anime goes, is more of a bitch, doesn’t wear armor or carry a big frakking sword. A serious lack of props that a pendant and a dagger can’t compare with. Still, expected more Rin figures than what was released.
Every year since about 2007, I’ve been saying to myself on the drive home from Otakon that I’m getting too old for this shit and this is my last anime convention. Pretty much everyone else I know considers themselves too old for it, or you know, they’re just not into it enough to want to go. This year though, on the drive home, making the usual wrong turn onto 295 South, instead of 95 North, I decided I really didn’t care about being too old for this shit or not. I had fun doing the Japanese Figure Panel with VManofMana and his friend Andy, had the fun of a collective “holy shit!” with several hundred people during a screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and got to go through my silly convention mini-games (buying a Cinnamorrol item, eating at the same place three times, complimenting a nice hat, etc.). The final Otakon weekend ritual includes DMing for my gaming group as soon as I get home, which turned out to be an awesome session.
Loot was light this year. A character design sketch folio for Shangri-la, the art book from the person who draws all of those awesome Persona things, Birth from the Aria artist, a bag of like 20 dice (frosted pink, blue, and colorless), a set of large K-On pins (these are pretty huge), and a dancing Cinnamorrol.
Walking up to a house cat, pointing at it and calling it an aardvark makes about as much sense as pointing to sauerkraut and calling it honey. On some level names are just arbitrary sounds attached to an object, a label and we all know labels stink. Limiting. Confining. Why get bent out of shape if that guy calls a house cat an aardvark if I know exactly what it is that guy is pointing to. It’s just a tag and not exactly what that thing is. Still, getting back to the subject. I have problems calling her a dwarf.
A 1/8 scale PVC Taiga has spent the past couple of months on my desk and I didn’t mind it at all. The highlights of the figure are a seated pose, the chair, and the sort of a china dress. In the real world, the china dress never looks as good as it does on anime characters or in movies. It’s such a form fitting garment that it can be unforgiving. Anime characters can be impossibly skinny and proportioned to have the long slender legs needed to work the dress. That’s the beauty of animated girls and their deformities. Nevermind Taiga is supposed to be a shrimp.
Finally got to crack open my Eden of the East BluRays and marathon them. Totally was not expecting something as whimsical as a magic penis being the solution to a problem from a Kenji Kamiyama work. I expected something more subdued and restrained as a lot of this director’s previous works have been. It was great to see the director open things up a bit, adding to his directorial tool set.
Jackie Brown was a so-so Tarantino. Okay, maybe it’s actually a decent movie, but after Pulp Fiction…it was a let-down. The main thing I remember about it was one of the character’s obsession with bikini girls shooting machine guns and kind of laughing at the guy for watching such cheesy shit. Being a too-smart for myself student at the time, you know, the kind of douche who looked down on plebes for getting all excited about Independence Day, the only cheesy shit I watched was watched ironically. Years later and look at me now. I watch anime and girls shooting guns is one of my favorite things.
Continue reading “Twelve Days of Anime, Post 7: Girls + Guns + Canaan”
