Semagic's working again, joy of joys

[petronia]

More Fantasia reviews!

Ghost in the Shell S.A.C.: Solid State Society: the problem with trying to wrap a Standalone Complex-style plot in 1h45min is that the exposition gets really, really clunky. "As you know, Ishikawa, the political quandary caused by the fall of the Seok Republic..." And the ending felt like a bit of a copout, somehow. But basically it was just a long, excellent episode of the TV series.

T and I were talking about Transformers later that evening, and I said that at Nickelodeon-age I was alienated by "boy" cartoons - wouldn't watch anything that had robots, cars, or muscly men. I didn't even like muppets as most of them were funny-looking (the bulk of my Sesame Street-watching was done as a pre-teen, at which point I was old enough to get the puns). I did, however, enjoy watching G.I. Joe. XD;; Thinking about it that was basically like GitS:SAC for six year olds (insert own American foreign policy zing). Scarlett! Snake Eyes! OSHI IT'S STARTING TO COME BACK TO ME.

I was reading an article in Adbusters by a college professor who lamented that her twentysomething students were utterly refractory when asked to assess the influence of consumer culture on themselves, even though they accept the theory readily - that in effect the generational brainwashing by the likes of Hasbro was a total success. "Yes ma'am, child-targetted advertisement sure is nefarious, but don't you go hatin' on Strawberry Shortcake."

Yellow Fellas: bit of an amateur production. I do care about how films look, very much so, and this wasn't it. ^^; It was a free showing (the line stretched futilely around the block as the theatre only had 300-something seats) and a tale of personal endeavour so the crowd was inclined to be indulgent, I think. The script was the best part of it but I find that kind of humour only mildly amusing, and to be honest I don't relate to the existence of a greater North American "Azn Pride" identity, even defined parodically. Insofar as it strikes its mark it must be with regard to Asian men, at any rate, not Asian women, of whom there are a grand total of zero in the film (if you don't count the baby daughter).

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Why is this post locked?

I wasn't into boys' stuff until anime (middle school), before then the closest I came was Gumby (which really is either-gender). We're talking solid Rainbow Brite/Strawberry Shortcake/My Little Ponies, here. I did love the muppets though. (Fraggle Rock! ^___^) Wait, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I guess that's male-ish.

(GENERATIONAL BRAINWASHING: EXHIBIT A.)

I've been trying to keep my mouth shut about Transformers. My friends really loved it, I thought it was decent but most of the jokes really weren't funny.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

That's the thing about activists--they almost never come off as having enjoyed things as a kid (that were ideologically bad for you). I understand that people think you need to hate what you will set out to destroy, but it just means that there's a secondary message going out, I think, which is: You Must Have Had A Joyless Childhood To Get On This Ride. Or some such.

(I never saw the Strawberry Shortcake cartoons. I just had the doll. XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I never watched Strawberry Shortcake either. I had scratch-and-sniff books! XD

Naomi Klein was a mall rat as a teen and experienced a Damascene conversion, apparently. XD But yeah - it's actually really odd to think about, because I know I've never made the connection in my head either. Then again I never particularly lusted after the toys - we were poor academia at the time and coming from Red China the idea that one could/should whine after one's parents to buy one a crapload of plastic toy figurines advertised on TV was just not part of my childhood mentality, period. (It's still not, now that I'm into anime and manga. Original series yes, merchandise no. XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It's not locked anymore!

Probably the point of greatest irony is that I used to disdain anime terribly - they edited stuff like Voltron to the point of incoherency, of course, and it looked really cheaply made, with all the stills (funny to think second graders would care about quality of animation, but they showed us this stuff on a rainy day in the gym and the class was in complete consensus on this point!). Then during the mid-90s my sister started to watch the anime adaptations of The Three Musketeers, Anne of Green Gables etc. that showed dubbed on French daytime TV, and I would seethe at the unfaithfulness of the adaptations.

I have very vague memories of anime I thought was good back in China when I was four (Candy Candy, The Dog of Flanders), but the first one I liked after that was Sailor Moon. And I felt lame and uncool for liking it. XD

[celestriad.livejournal.com]

hmm, yeah, i'm definitely not part of the 'azn pride' movement. XP especially not the 'ghetto wannabees' type. :P

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I had this feeling like: I should like anime, everyone I know with my set (read: lack) of social skills likes it, why don't I like it? But I persisted. XD On the other hand, I still don't like American comics, and I tried very hard to like those too.

I watched a fair amount of television but I never really had the merchandise. ^^; My parents would buy books and videocassettes and that was it. I can't remember whether this was because they refused to buy anything else, or whether it just never occurred to me or my brother to ask for it (probably column A until we learned column B). We had a lot of stuff, but it mostly the kind that's supposed to make you smarter -- books, puzzle books, building blocks, jigsaw puzzles.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a bit, hm, univocalic to assume that the indoctrinated children are nice capitalistic sheep now? (Or maybe I'm just questioning the revolution and need to get re-educated. XD)

I used to have envy over certain items in the Sears Book (oh god, I'm old enough to have used a Sears Book for Christmas materialism...) that were expensive: mostly large stuffed animals, I think, but a few other things. But my family wasn't quite rich academia at the time either. Further up the scale from subsistance farmer, tho, so my father made sure we all got small gifts often. (And... those were mostly books. GEE I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE SIR. XD) But I don't know that I ever was really--even about Transformers--"oh hey I must get the toy in this cartoon!" about anything. But that's the question: how successful is the identification politics of the culture industry anyway? (I am on to you, Frankfurt School, ha!)

But still, I'm having major cognitive dissonance with the area I'm housesitting in at the moment, as it is Rich Hollywood. I'm seeing all sorts of anorexia and sports cars, not to mention what's in the supermarkets ("Uh, why is Michel Cluizel the beside-the-cash-register chocolate?"), which is just sort of. I don't know. You are not my people. (I'm developing a huge desire to relearn ASL, which is probably related, but I'm not sure how, precisely.)

I've been told that as far as Japan, I should consider living in a nice area not far from Harajuku. I'm a little uh about the concept. XD I am too old to live there kthx.

(Sorry, I'm rambling, because I've been reading texts about the High Art of Male-Male Sex from the Edo Period, and I'm both laughing at how the author seriously ignores any female gaze--'cause women are icky, of course--and also how apparently any critique anyone ever applied to any slash fanfic can be applied to a text about the lovely boys of such-and-such temple. So. I'm in an odd mood, to be sure. XD)