A week emotion and admiration.
Anime Highlights
Alas, only one show was truly stand-out this week, Clannad ~After Story as of episode 13.
Okazaki Nagisa
Firstly, I must say screw you otou-san wherever you may be, this show is awesome. The entire graduation ceremony with everyone coming back for one last hurrah! to give Nagisa a proper farewell was beautiful. Her speech at the end whih is proabably the longest time she’s spoken in the entire series and it revealed so much about her characer; she’s been stuck as “that girl what make Okazaki gud and is moe” for way too long and I’m glad she’s finally gotten some depth. I have no idea where things go from here on out and if anyone tells me I’LL KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP but I’m looking forwards to it. Oh and married and haven’t even kissed yet; Tomoya, I salute you for your oath of chastity but a get a bloody move on.
Blogging Highlights
Discussions on the Nature of GAR
lelangir and digiboy discuss GAR
lelangir and 21stcenturydigitalboy – Calamitous Intents
I’d like to think I’ve reached Kamina’s level, but I still find him inspirational. It’s less a goal and more a journey. Like, I’m not trying to reach Kamina, I’m trying to reach where he’s trying to reach. GAR characters haven’t mad it to the top, they are trying to get there.
I didn’t think GAR could have gone from a simple term meaning… well, that’s the thing: it doesn’t really mean any one thing any more. GAR, like many other words in the English anime vocabulary, has lost it’s original meaning to become this description of an undescribable emotion. It’s not a mash-up of words anymore and has gone well beyond the sum of it’s parts.
As for the post itself, I thought it hit on the meaning of GAR pretty well. An urge to emulate and replicate the actions of your hero and bring yourself up to their level, not so much to reach them, but to get to a state where you, the incomparably less awesome being, can attempt to attain their goals. Of course, the nature of GAR is such that this is impossible, if you were able to do that then their wouldn’t be many GAR characters any more. Which is an awkward segue into this apt semi-response from coburn:
coburn – Claiming Ground
The pre-Gar person I’m interested in is defined by unused potential. The character may have an idol figure of their own. If so, at the moment of crisis the idol is gone/dead/beaten. Our hero acts, and wins. Heroically.
But they are still not Gar.
When I attempt to combine these two ideas (grossly simplified here, if you haven’t done so, read the posts, it’s real good stuff) I come up with this: GAR is an unattainable yet tantalising state, the creation of which is more admirable than the result. Seeing characters such as Simon or Maka or Ichigo go through that process and reach a culmination of their experiences in one defining moment is even better than watching those who are completely h4x from the get-go annihilate every enemy in sight/ be fantastic, such as Kamina. We’ve been with these characters pre-GAR, from the beginning, and seeing those singularly amazing moments as they get closer and closer to that state inspires more awe than those who have always been that way.
And that’s it for this week. Perhaps if enough people comment on this post, I’ll finally get round to rewatching Gurren Lagann.
Man, all anyone cares about is Tomoya and gar. Grow up, mother-fuckers.
Also, a good episode does not a good show make (see: ef ~a tale of melodies~, Naruto, etc.), and Clannad TV is, overall, mediocre. The movie wins so hard.
4srs
Re lolikit’s comment, GAR is such a popular topic yes? As for Tomoya – that’d mean moe right?
I also know someone who chooses to suffer through the mediocrity of entire series just for specific moments – perhaps a whole episode or even just a scene or two in the entire series that’s done really well. This somehow makes up for the rest of the failures in his mind, though it’s not that he’d tell me that the series is awesome in itself.
I wonder if there are others who feel the same. I for one can’t extend my fanboying to that kind of extreme.
As part of my mission to bury the world in words I’ve been trying to come up with a theory for how really fucking good individual episodes contribute to the fun of a series as a whole. I’m tempted to make up some bollocks along the lines of several rather likeable series having spent time being necessarily ‘pre-good’;).
When I re-watched Gurren-Lagann recently it stood up to the second viewing remarkably well. In fact I think the final few episodes are actually way better with a bit of perspective.
@ghostlightning
Yep. Tomoya is moe. I want to protect him, with my penis, etc. etc.
@coburn
If a show is mediocre + amazing episodes, it can be fun to watch it for those episodes. It can nice to be surprised by quality, I don’t disagree. But. If a show is terrible + amazing episodes, is it worth sitting through the chaff? I’m not talking “pre-good.” Clannad hasn’t been “pre-good.” It’s been “wow we suck, but hurr hurr we have some actual good material now let’s execute it well and make it seem like we’ve rocked all along! … which, I repeat, we haven’t.”
After thirty episodes of pain, do two or three good episodes make a show good? Do they excuse the trash?
GARBAGE DAY etc.
^sorry, failed to close my bold tag. (Omisyth if you can and don’t mind, please fix?)
bold is the new capslock?
@lolikitsune
But I always liked Clannad, and I thought every episode had it’s own merits. So for me this was just icing on the cake.
@Nazarielle
Damn right.
@ghostlightning
Well, that’s better than suffering through an entire series and hoping it gets better only to realise it’s the penultimate episode and you’ve just sat through complete crap :/. Has happened to me on many an occasion.
@coburn
I was thinking on writing about something like that as well, only moer along the lines of how really fucking good indvidual episodes give momentary hope for a series which is already beyond repair. Like Naruto.
@nazarielle
QUIET YOU.