i’m bad at sports metaphors
13 04 2008This… is so uncomfortably true. Well, maybe minus the sports references, because it’s been a full year since I’ve watched a complete game of basketball. (And yes, I fully appreciate the irony of the first anime blog link on two if by sea to be a link to Jason Miao.) I know I find myself latching on to a show, enjoying the shit out of it, and then writing long commentaries that only delineate the flaws in it.
Conversely, though, with shows that I find not salvageable, I feel the need to find something meaningful or enjoyable about it…? And these days, I don’t know if it’s because I always see the glass as half full, or because I want validation that I’m not just wasting my time.
(Today, though, a friend of mine, who normally expresses disdain over my clandestine nerdy hobbies, demanded to know whether I ever feel like I wasted my time after watching a particularly bad anime. “No? Even if it’s bad, I laugh at it to myself…?” I thought this was going to be a serious conversation, but then he revealed he’d seen anime before. “!!!,” I said. “WHICH ONE?” “…Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.” really, wtf? orz)
Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, as much as I enjoy all the anime bloggers who sound like they have film theory majors (and really, I do, I don’t know how I could have conceptualized sexuality and textuality if it weren’t for Daniel), I still wonder: why aren’t there more bloggers with distinctive half-mocking half-loving voices? I mean, there are the lovable (? I mean sometimes. Other times– grating like Ayu and Parmesan cheese– oh that was a mixed metaphor, shit) trolls like lolikitsune, and Kurogane cracks funnies all the time, but it depresses me that I go to Derailed by Darry just so I can smile while lambasting Gundam 00.
I think for me, it’s more of the former than the latter. I’d like to think that I’m doing something productive when watching anime, and having a blog to write about it helps this feeling out greatly. But more than that, I try to find something that I found interesting/enjoyable in everything that I’ve watched is because it’s just fun to do so. I wouldn’t be spending so much time on the hobby otherwise.
I think because it’s hard to pull off well (I know that it’s not my style to do it, so I don’t), so it’s much more power to people who are able to do it. :P
My impression is (and it’s not as though I’ve been at this game for long) that the ‘film theory major’ style is a relatively new development, at least compared to Jason Miao, who has had a lot of time to grow his own style. Personally - and this may be the Gundam fan in me coming out - I thought his coverage of 00 was (to borrow a word) broken, but that’s just me.
[Actually, as a literature student, my teachers encourage me to look down on Film Studies students as individuals incapable of appreciating anything which isn't wrapped up in pretty lights (unfair, I know).]
>>TheBigN
But more than that, I try to find something that I found interesting/enjoyable in everything that I’ve watched is because it’s just fun to do so. I wouldn’t be spending so much time on the hobby otherwise.
You make a good point (and sound far better doing so than me :>). I guess that’s the nature of being a fan, and I don’t think fair weather anime fans keep blogs. Or, well, not for long, anyway.
You know what’s weird, though? I always thought that if you blog long enough, you’ll develop a blogging voice, and thus everyone will be distinctive, but now I realize that a lot of the people I’ve come to expect have been here for a long time, are actually only a year or two into the blogging experience. (I’ve been on LJ too long; if you can form a coherent paragraph there, you must be over 20.)
>>The Animanachronism
Ha! As a student at a university dominated by engineer students, I’m peer pressured into believing that anyone who doesn’t have 3 hours worth of protein lab every day is unworthy of having an opinion.
And as a fan who started out in Sailor Moon and didn’t love anime until Gundam, I agree with you– Jason has, uh, very specific tastes. But I feel like there are so many wonderful bloggers out there, and it gets difficult to keep all the voices straight…! (This is me blaming my lack of brainpower on other people.)
(Also: sorry, I forgot that WordPress has pingback; I’ve spent too long on less sophisticated blogging platforms. I didn’t mean to accidentally direct you to my irrelevance.)
I’d hesitate to declare what you’ve written irrelevant, and I’m all in favour of pingbacks. They boost my comment count, and so (indirectly) my ego.
I never knew anyone considered me lovable aside from the anon trolls who stalk me on facebook.
Thanks :)
@lolikitsune
I’m a very accomplished stalker. Who knows, I could even be one of those trolls. :)
You’re very welcome.
I’m being afraid, I’m being very, very afraid.