March 30, 2015 Eimear Fallon

Watched: Death Parade (2015).This is a 12-part anime series that takes place in what’s best described as a sort of Purgatory; in each episode, one or two departed souls arrive at a bar and play a game to determine their eventual fates. That’s a form… — **Watched:** *Death Parade* (2015).
This is a 12-part anime series that takes place in what’s best described as a sort of Purgatory; in each episode, one or two departed souls arrive at a bar and play a game to determine their eventual fates. That’s a formula that, while initially enticing, could grow old quickly, and it’s to the show’s credit that it ends up doing *so much more*; by the end, there’s a powerfully humanist message that speaks as much to life as it does to death. The cast of characters is fascinating - both the mainstays who run the bar and the newly-arriving souls - and there’s a depth and maturity to the show that I didn’t quite expect.

June 25, 2013 Eimear Fallon

Watched: Katanagatari

It’s been a couple of days, and I still don’t know what to make of this. It’s the sort of show that feels like it’s more about the journey than the ending, which seems deliberately crafted to defy trope… — **Watched:** *Katanagatari*

It’s been a couple of days, and I still don’t know what to make of this. It’s the sort of show that feels like it’s more about the journey than the ending, which seems deliberately crafted to defy tropes first, and provide an emotional payoff second. (I say this; I suspect my relative unfamiliarity with anime might get in the way a little, as Arden reportedly bawled her eyes out on several occasions throughout.)

There are so many high points, though, and the sort of delicate interplay between humour and drama that I haven’t really seen so far in the form. Togame and Shichika are characters that enjoy lavish detail, and the show uses its longer-than-usual running time to paint their histories and motivations in microscopic detail.

I’ll probably watch this again at some point, and I suspect I might enjoy it more the second time around - there’s the constant sense that I might be missing something small when I watch something like this, and having the freedom to explore and pick up on minor details is an act I think this show might reward. For now, though, it’s probably the most solid anime I’ve seen so far.

May 15, 2013 Eimear Fallon

Confusing media roundup: Grand Theft Auto IV, Halcyon, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

Because I’ve been watching and playing a lot of stuff, but splitting thoughts into three individual posts would be exhausting.

Halcyon (in addition to being a really good book by Casey Morell) is an iPad game by Zach Gage (of Ridiculous Fishing fame) and therefore probably isn’t that interesting to about 90% of my readership. (Maybe I’m wrong - maybe you all have iPads. I’ve never done any research.)

It’s a curious title, though - the gameplay is visually unassuming and aggressively repetitive, but a combination of stunning soundscapes and a slightly meditative tone put it in the same group as games like Super Hexagon - aggressively addictive without relying on microtransactions and powerups (I’m looking at you, brilliant-but-otherwise-infuriating Jetpack Joyride). Basically, how arcade games should be, but for some reason aren’t anymore.

Chuunibyou was one of those shows I shouldn’t really have liked. It’s cutesy, has a few too many upskirt shots for a show about a group of young teenagers and deals with a phenomenon I’m not too familiar with (so-called “8th-grade syndrome”, where the sufferers generally act like fantasy characters and engage in delusional activities okay it’s basically LARPing as a way of life).

But it’s weird - although it stays along the line of genuinely funny but a little bit trite for a few episodes, things take a turn about halfway through and cast the show in a whole new light. The humour isn’t lost when it’s grappling with bigger issues, but it lends the whole thing a sense of humanity I didn’t quite expect. It’s funny - I think the reason I feel like anime as a medium hasn’t yet won me over is because of my total lack of exposure prior to a few months ago, because so far there hasn’t been one show (or film) I’ve disliked. I have a couple in mind for the next on my list (either Shin Sekai Yori, which looks interesting in a oh-woah-this-subject-matter-is-different sense, and Revolutionary Girl Utena, which apparently left a huge impression on Arden so my hunch is that it’s probably pretty good).

That leaves Grand Theft Auto IV, which… well. It’s such a videogame. Filled to the teeth with lazy misogyny, characterisation that ignores gameplay and a story that’s less engaging than Captain Picard’s junkie meltdown, but still fun because the radio stations are funny and the open world (despite a shitty PC port) feels palpably alive.

My one complaint about Saints Row: The Third (a far superior game in most respects) is that the world at times feels a little cut-and-pasted, the suburbs punctuated by things that don’t really fit in for the sake of cost-cutting. It’s fine - SR3’s priority is fun rather than coherency, and it delivers bucketfuls on that front - but Liberty City feels aggressively real. Now that I’ve completed the story, I’m having fun just wandering around and seeing what I discover. I’ve been throwing myself off tall buildings a lot. Not sure what that says about me (or the game). It’s made me want to get Grand Theft Auto V when it comes out, blaze through the story as fast as possible, and revel in what’s left. There is enough here to excuse the awful shittiness the writers left at the front door.

February 18, 2013 Eimear Fallon

Watched: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Observations:

I’d like to say that this show shattered my preconceptions about “magical girl” anime, but it didn’t. In part because I never watched Sailor Moon or its associated variations… — **Watched:** *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*

Observations:

I’d like to say that this show shattered my preconceptions about “magical girl” anime, but it didn’t. In part because I never watched *Sailor Moon* or its associated variations, but also because Arden raved about this show consistently for about three months so I was expecting something with depth of character and a truckload of subversion. That, or to seriously begin to doubt Arden’s judgement.

That said: this is a really good show.

There’s one character in particular in this show that actually made me mash my keyboard in anger for the first time. I just broke composure. You’d be surprised who it is.

Technically, this show employs a fairly convenient use of *deus ex machina* to wrap everything up, but this is a show where wishes and magic are given facts, so it doesn’t really feel that way. It’s a neat ending.

The trip there is horrifying, though - for a show where the lead character looks like this, there’s a serious amount of angst about incredibly weighty subjects.

A lot of crying, too.

It takes a little while to pick up, but the animation style in this is at points stunning, and uses a few strategies that I hadn’t seen before. It’s fantasy that actually tries to look fantastical, which sounds so obvious but (sadly) isn’t when you look at fantasy media these days.

I really recommend this, even if it doesn’t look like the sort of thing you’d watch.

January 30, 2013 Eimear Fallon

I kind of want to talk about the effect that Neon Genesis Evangelion had on me, but I’m not going to - not really, anyway. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the idea that I might get a response I don’t like. This is the sort of … — I kind of want to talk about the effect that *Neon Genesis Evangelion* had on me, but I’m not going to - not really, anyway. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the idea that I might get a response I don’t like. This is the sort of show that has a few layers of ambiguity, and I think it’s possible to draw different conclusions depending on a few things (not least your mental state in approaching the show in the first place), but the internet doesn’t like ambiguity. Despite that belief, there’s the fear that someone will tell me I’m somehow “getting it wrong”. There are parts of this that, a day later rather than immediately after, have awoken very visceral, personal flashbacks of being an eighteen-year-old Philosophy student with actual delusions of solipsism, but the fact that a television show made me remember - rather than therapy, or some other event we consider sacrosanct and something you carefully pace around - means that talking about it could provoke reactions that confuse an intimately personal reaction with a television review.

One thing I did learn - through Arden, and later confirmed by reading up a little - is that the show’s creator, Hideaki Anno, has had a strained relationship with his more obsessive fans. Watching the show, it doesn’t surprise me (in *End of Evangelion*, the two-parter designed to replace or complement the final two episodes, flashes of death threats to Anno and an obscenely-graffitied Gainax office appear), but that level of obsession seems to be taken for granted now. Maybe it’s been there for longer, but the internet diversifies it - every show, every band, every idea provokes its own miniature Beatlemania. People get possessive. Get too close to a piece of fiction, and it can fuck with your head. I can only wonder at the volume of hate mail Steven Moffat gets. I think it’s that sort of thing that’s unprecedented - when your TV show is so desperately owned by others that any good narrative decision is met with histrionic wailing and claims of having “all the feels”, and any voice of dissent is met with death threats, then it becomes a little stifling.

People who put all their stock in a market economy probably don’t have a problem with this - the potentially criminal elements, sure, but the ownership of media by those who invest (their time, money, attention) is taken as read. But that’s odd to think about. The terrifying devotion of fans has thrown out a huge, centuries-spanning debate about the purpose of art simply by virtue of its ferocity.

*Neon Genesis Evangelion* works because of the authorial voice. There’s a distinct impression, about halfway through, that it’s no longer being explicitly written for an audience, and that’s where the autobiographical elements, the controversial ideas, and the real feeling of excitement shine through. There’s a feeling that someone’s actually *making* something, rather than just meeting the expectations of people who - let’s be frank - aren’t making anything themselves. You stop thinking about the monster of the week, and start losing yourself.

Obviously, I don’t really have fans (apart from Arden, who doesn’t really count because fiancés are biased), but I did notice myself continually being referred to - by people who like what I do - as a “British sci-fi writer”, and it kind of backed me into a corner. I got to some weird creative bottleneck, where the hyper-awareness of that trite description meant that I was shoehorning futuristic-sounding but ultimately soulless ideas into stories, and being obsessively wry about everything in sight. You’ll never see those drafts, because they suck. I’m back to writing more honestly now, but it can be a hard place to reach these days.

January 28, 2013 Eimear Fallon

At Arden’s recommendation/request, I’m watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s surprisingly mature, very pretty, and isn’t fucking with my narrative preconceptions for once. It might have sold me on the medium.

January 28, 2013 Eimear Fallon

Watched: Spirited Away

Observations:

This film could not be prettier if it tried.
Chihiro’s voice got to me after a while - though it might just be because I went into it with the beginnings of a headache. A little too earnest.
I love Miyaza… — **Watched:** *Spirited Away*

Observations:

This film could not be prettier if it tried.

Chihiro’s voice got to me after a while - though it might just be because I went into it with the beginnings of a headache. A little too earnest.

I love Miyazaki’s films because they take imaginative steps where you wouldn’t expect. When the film pans across the various spirits, it’s impressive to see the diversity of the creature design - they could have got away with a lot less.

I’ve also realised that I sometimes struggle with Japanese features because they abandon the three-act structure that’s kind of ingrained into my head by now (thanks, Western cinema); I’ll look for clues that usually help my brain structure the plot, and when they inevitably aren’t there I get a little mentally exhausted.

Is there any reason why it’s not really touched on that they’ve clearly been away for years?

I still think Howl’s Moving Castle is the best Studio Ghibli film I’ve seen, but this was still pretty good. Intoxicating, as always.

October 4, 2012 Eimear Fallon

Watched tonight: Paprika

What a weird, brilliant, oh-God-Christopher-Nolan-wasn’t-original kind of film. Occasionally weird on the topic of sex, but then considering the country of origin that’s not too surprising. — **Watched tonight:** *Paprika*

What a weird, brilliant, oh-God-Christopher-Nolan-wasn’t-original kind of film. Occasionally weird on the topic of sex, but then considering the country of origin *that’s* not too surprising.