Roving Thoughts archives

On Natsume's Book of Friends

Extracted from Aroduc's 2011 Summer Anime preview:

A series that seems to inspire one of two things in people, an intense love [...], or the compelling urge to take a nap.

However fond I am of Natsume Yuujinchou, I have to more or less agree with Aroduc here. NY is pretty much a bunch of heartwarming slice of life stories that just happens to be about the supernatural (or mostly about the supernatural). Given my usual tastes, I have no idea why I like it so much, and I certainly can't recommend it except very selectively; it would bore or annoy a great many people.

(But if quiet, heartwarming stories about the supernatural sound like your kind of thing, you really owe it to yourself to check it out. Consider this a strong plug. You could probably start anywhere without losing much, but starting at the beginning of the first series isn't going to hurt.)

The military in Infinite Stratos

Author:

If IS' military use is prohibited, what is that destroyer doing in the academy's harbor?

If I take IS's background seriously I have to conclude that the whole 'IS military use is prohibited' thing is propaganda, and not very convincing propaganda at that. IS are armed, IS pilots are taught weapons and combat operation, competitions between IS pilots are combat duels instead of any number of other plausible tests of IS pilot skill, IS piloting seems heavily militarized, and so on. I can't think of a single non-combat use of IS we see in the entire series.

If I try hard, I can make the background covered on the Wikipedia page (see also) make some sort of sense. Clearly 'IS will never be used in combat' is a highly unstable balance of power that no one expects to actually last once things get serious, so everyone is frantically trying to get powerful ISs and stockpiling trained pilots (and keeping a careful eye on each other).

(When I was watching the series, I just assumed that there was some secret menace lurking in the background that some of the adults knew about and that all of the IS pilots were being prepared to fight, perhaps alien invaders or something. The IS anime ended right about where I'd expect the big reveal about this to happen in a longer series and I have no idea what happens in the light novels.)

PS: I try not to think too hard about the background in Infinite Stratos. The claimed lack of military use is just one of the issues that are probably best not examined too closely.

Some reactions to commentary on Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars

Now that I've actually watched Shingu I've been going back and reading commentary on it that I skipped over before in order to avoid spoilers, and of course I have some reactions to various bits of it. There are spoilers here, along with possibly too many words.

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On one of Shingu's mysteries

Note: contents contain spoilers for Shingu.

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Linux DVD players for anime

For my future reference if nothing else, based purely on watching Shingu on DVD:

Xine on Fedora 8 has much better handling of DVDs than even a bleeding edge mplayer, but mplayer has better deinterlacing and keyboard controls for pausing and so on so I used mplayer. Mplayer did turn the subtitles to mush in a few places so I went back and re-read them with xine. More modern versions of Xine may have better deinterlacing, which would probably make it almost completely superior.

Different players have somewhat different renditions of subtitles. My Xine shows them as solid yellow text; mplayer shows them as semi-transparent white text. Most of the time I prefer mplayer's style, at least when it's not garbling the subtitles.

(The Fedora 8 xine also has the irritating habit of leveling the left and right audio channels when it starts. I deliberately have mine slightly off balance because that's what it takes to sound right in my setup.)

Mplayer usage: gmplayer -nocache -vf yadif dvd://N, where N is the episode/title on disk; at least for Shingu, yadif was the best option for deinterlacing out of the ones that my old computer could do in real time. Occasionally I needed '-aid ID' as well to make mplayer use the Japanese audio track (by default I believe mplayer picks the first audio track; on most of the Shingu DVDs this was Japanese, but on one it was English). You want to stop and start gmplayer to change between titles or otherwise change parameters; when I did it from the gmplayer menus, the very bottom bit of the picture got this shifting green cast. I could not get mplayer's DVD menu support to work at all well, so I did not attempt to use it.

(I suspect that live action may call for quite different deinterlacing options than anime.)

I admit that it was periodically tempting to give in and download a fansub for Shingu, despite having the DVDs. I suspect I would have had somewhat better visual quality (since someone who knew what they were doing would have deinterlaced it well) and a better rendition of the subtitles.

(As I mentioned in my reactions, modern softsubs are clearly better than DVD subtitles. This should be unsurprising; among other things, modern subtitles are higher resolution.)

PS: the sign that one's anime DVD needs deinterlacing is that things moving sideways get this comb effect at the edges, as half the pixel lines are displaced relative to the other half. It's very visible.

PPS: if people have opinions on the best Linux DVD player for anime and the best settings for this, I'd love to hear them. I can't say I've done extensive experiments here.

Reactions to Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars

After various urgings from people whose opinions I respect, I got Shingu (on DVD) and recently watched it (after a bit of struggling with Linux DVD players and especially deinterlacing).

(It amuses me that the shipping to Canada was almost as expensive as the DVD release itself.)

So here, have some reactions and notes:

• everyone who has praised this has done so for a good reason. It is totally worth your time (and your $20).

  I'm pretty sure that this will make my best N of 2011 when I write it. It easily would have made my best N of 2010 if I had seen it last year.

(If you want to have a completely unsullied and un-influenced viewing of the show, stop reading now.)

• Nayuta is great. It's a good thing, because she is at the heart of the show.

  (You can tell that she is the real protagonist because she is the character who gets the real emotional development over the course of the series. By contrast, Hajime barely changes.)

• Someone should do a 'many faces of Nayuta' page, if it hasn't already been done somewhere (this and this give you a taste of what it would be like). It doesn't need to be distorted faces, because the animators give Nayuta so many normal expressions too. Even her eyebrows are expressive.

  (There's one scene where she goes through about three or four emotions in a row, and it's all done through the eyebrows.)

• I think Romi Park's voice acting for Nayuta is the first time I've been conscious of how good a job a seiyuu was doing. It's not that it's showy (in fact it's basically invisible), but her delivery completely supports Nayuta's various emotional shifts that result in all of those expressions. Without such a convincing emotional delivery, the rest of it would fall flat; instead, it's so well done that I didn't even notice, it was just perfectly real.

  (Yes, I'm being neurotic in writing her name as 'Romi Park' instead of the more common 'Romi Paku' or 'Paku Romi'.)

• I like how Hajime's room is realistically messy. Shingu is full of little details like that.

• like other people, I did not find the OP or ED to be particularly impressive. Neither song particularly grabbed me, and only the OP is animated (the ED is scrolling text).

• it's interesting how fast the look of animation gets dated. Shingu was made in 2001, but it looks very different from recent animation and comes across as seeming fairly old-fashioned. One of the things I particularly noticed is that static shots shake very slightly, I suspect from cell alignment not being completely precise from photo to photo, whereas I'm now used to shots being absolutely rock-solid (because they are at least computer composited if not entirely digital).

  Also, I'm spoiled; DVD resolution now looks dowdy compared to the routine use of 720P in fansubs. And I maintain that modern fansub subtitles really do look much better than DVD subtitles.

• I think it's best to carefully ignore what the show tells you about how Hajime's mother does her work. The work is fine and realistic; the details of how it's done, not so much (if nothing else, the memorization bit). Even given that this was made in 2001, I have no idea what the staff were thinking.

Vague spoiler warnings for the following:

• I'm happy that the show did not attempt to explain the situation with Muryou. Some things are fine to remain mysterious because they ultimately don't matter to what the show is about.

• the more I think about it, the more I can understand the emotional logic of why Nayuta winds up making a connection to Hajime. Out of all of the people around her, Hajime is both an outsider (and so not influenced by the baggage of who and what she) and someone who is in on the secrets so she can be open around him.

  (Muryou does not count as an outsider, not in this way.)

• given that Momoe Sanemori (the Sanemori matriarch) is around 113 years old, she may not literally be Nayuta's grandmother but a step or two further away. On the other hand, who knows; Nayuta does specifically call her 'grandmother', and Japanese does have a specific term for great-grandmother.

  (We know Momoe's age from the rediscovered old school movie. It was explicitly made exactly 100 years ago, and in it Momoe is a middle schooler just like Nayuta is now.)

I have other things to say about Shingu, but they're going to wind up in separate entries because this got long.

My early impressions of the Spring 2011 anime season

Another season brings another set of snapshots, just like last time, except that this has been extended and slow enough that this a lot more than first episodes by now.

Shows I've seen, more or less in the order seen:

• Dog Days: It's a refreshing change when the summoned hero is both competent and enthusiastic about his new situation. Apart from that, this is lightweight but cheerful and fun. Honestly, there's a lot to be said for that.

• Sengoku Otome Momoiro Paradox: this is bizarre in an almost over the top way, but ultimately it doesn't really sustain my interest (partly because it's too lightweight and too much a single joke).

• Steins;Gate: it's at least trying to be interesting, but it's not really succeeding; it has too much incoherence and not enough coherence.

• Softenni: this is probably decent but I found it insufficiently interesting for me to have much of an opinion on it. This is not really the show's fault, and people who like straight-up comedy will probably find it more attractive.

• Hidan no Aria: At first I thought this was interesting, but now I think that it was kind of generic (in fact, a lot like last season's Dragon Crisis). I have no confidence that it won't be yet another action/harem show.

  (On the other hand, the third episode surprised me. So who knows. I am a perpetual optimist about these kinds of shows.)

• [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control: Beneath the shiny peculiar stuff, this mostly looks like one of those 'person dragged into a fighting genre' shows that we've seen before. However, it has potential to be a well executed one.

  (It also has the potential to be an epic trainwreck of incoherence.)

• Ao no Exorcist: It's an action show, but it's not a bad action show so far. However, the first two episodes were basically the background introduction; things may change now that it's moving on to the main setting.

• Deadman Wonderland: This would be a lot easier to feel very enthused about if the setting wasn't so over the top implausible. Apart from that, it doesn't really stand out (except by promising the standard shonen fighting tournament, which does not exactly thrill me). In fact, the more I think about it the less enthused I am by this. I don't really need to watch two 'trapped protagonist' shows this season, and [C] is much more interesting and better executed (and has a far less offensive setting; Deadman Wonderland is asking me to watch lethal bloodsports).

• Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko: This made me smile. A lot. The narration totally makes it work. Although I did not expect it, this is the show that most made me go 'I want the next episode right now'.

  (I recognize that this charm may wear off fast, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.)

• Dororon Enma-kun Meramera: The retro style and setting of this doesn't lift it out of the 'competent but uninspired' category. In the wake of Panty & Stocking, I find myself not impressed.

• Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (aka AnoHana): This is a well made show in a genre that I generally don't find interesting. It's probably not well made enough to keep me watching it, though, which I sort of regret.

I'm going to skip trying to list the shows that I haven't watched for various reasons.

Looking at the list, I expect to continue following Dog Days because it is plain fun, Ao no Exorcist for decently well executed typical shonen action fare, [C] because it's well made, interesting, and they're at least trying to be unusual, and Denpa Onna for as long as it keeps making me smile happily. Steins;Gate and Hidan no Aria are kind of on the edge. AnoHana I will probably lose interest in soon.

(Disclaimer: predictions are dangerous. I'm probably going to be wrong, and anyways I have low willpower for stopping watching shows that are just on the edge and could be good next episode maybe.)

My bike gloves as of spring 2011

I bike in all weather conditions. As a result, I have a whole lot of bike gloves (and gloves that I use when I bike), and I'm often looking for better gloves. Because I feel like keeping track of this, here's my current list with notes about when I use them.

In order of decreasing temperature ranges:

basic MEC fingerless bike gloves

These are my warm weather gloves, say around 20C and upwards. I used to use the MEC commuter cycling gloves but last year switched to the 'road' gloves, which have less padding, and I think they work better with my very comfortable Ergon grips.

(I have very comfortable grips, so in the summer I wear gloves mostly to keep my hands from slipping with sweat (and partly to keep the grip pattern from printing itself on my palms). Padding is not necessary for this and seems to actually get in the way and make things less comfortable.)

basic MEC full-fingered gloves

Intermediate cool weather gloves for temperatures in the mid and low teens, especially on group bike rides. These are what I'll call 'skin' gloves, with no actual warm materials used in their construction.

(I'd give the MEC brand name, but MEC keeps changing things around.)

'Netti' mid-weight gloves

Cool weather gloves for the low teens and upper single digit temperatures. Unlike the MEC gloves they have some actual warmth and insulation, but not large amounts (and the side of the fingers are vented, which lets the cold air in).

I got these at Urbane Cycle, and they appear to no longer be in production. So it apparently goes with bike gear that I buy.

thin but insulated Castelli gloves

Cold weather gloves for around 0C; I believe they have some fleece lining. These are thin enough to be fully dexterous; I can comfortably use my DSLR while wearing them, for example, with only minimal fumbling.

I bought these at MEC a couple of years ago as the best cold weather gloves they had at the time, and they were okay for that but they are not really warm enough for serious sub-zero temperatures.

I can't remember the Castelli name for them but it probably doesn't matter since it looks like they're out of production anyways. There's a theme here.

Castelli Pioggia gloves

Cold weather gloves for sub-zero weather. These are much more insulated than my thinner Castelli gloves above, but significantly thicker and thus less dexterous (although they are still decent for this). They rapidly get too hot at above-zero temperatures.

In theory they have a waterproof liner layer, but I have never used them in the rain to put this to the test. If it worked it would be great; cold rain is one of the things that I don't have a good set of gear to deal with yet.

I bought these at MEC this fall as an attempt to get better gloves for sub-zero weather, and they have been a resounding success at this; they are actively comfortable in such weather, instead of merely sort of tolerable and survivable.

MEC 'lobster' style cycling gloves

I haven't yet biked in weather conditions cold enough to force me into these, possibly because I stop biking when the roads are covered with snow, ice, and slush. The few times I wore these (before I had the Pioggias), I found them not entirely warm enough without liner gloves.

I have some additional gloves that don't neatly fit into temperature ranges:

basic leather gloves with a light inner layer for warmth

These are currently my 'cold rain' gloves, because they're the only thing I have that is both reasonably waterproof and sort of warm enough. Before I got the Pioggias they were also my really cold weather gloves when worn with liner gloves; they were better than the lighter Castellis but not as comfortable as the Pioggias.

basic MEC polypro liner gloves

I used (and use) these for additional warmth underneath my leather gloves and the MEC lobster gloves. I can't remember if I tried using them with the lighter weight Castelli gloves, but I suspect that there wouldn't have been enough room.

I have read a fair amount of praise for neoprene paddling gloves as cold weather rain gloves, so I intend to get a pair when MEC gets them back into stock and experiment. I believe that MEC also sells waterproof shells, but when I looked at them in the fall none of them looked really attractive.

(The leading paddling glove candidate is the MEC CyclPad 3mm gloves, with the MEC Catch Neoprene gloves as a second option. The MEC Humboldt gloves in 2mm and 3mm are new enough to not have real reviews.)

Sidebar: other cold weather gear I swear by

• a basic MEC fleece cycling headband. This is just the thing to keep my ears warm on cool days, and keeping my ears warm turns out to make me much more comfortable.

• a basic MEC fleece skull cap thing, with ear covers; I wear this under my helmet in subzero temperatures. MEC has cycling specific ones, but I believe mine comes from their general cold weather gear because I didn't like any of their cycling-specific ones at the time that I was looking a few years ago.