I’ve recently started watching The West Wing again. At one time, I was a regular viewer - it was the one and only show I made an honest effort to catch each week - but, with time, I lost interest, especially following the departure of creator Adam Sorkin prior to the 2003 season.
But, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I once again find myself setting aside an hour each Wednesday night to catch the show. It’s the only (American) television I watch over the course of the week, in fact.
Still, the one thing that annoyed me most about the show in the past remains: the vertigo-inducing dialogue. The exchanges between characters are still too fast, too monotone, too scripted, and, ultimately, too unrealistic. Listening to West Wing dialogue is much like watching a shell game unfold: Concentrate enough, and you can stay on top of things. Blink, however, and it’s all over.
It’s not that I don’t have good listening comprehension skills. After all, consider all the Japanese television I watch on a daily basis, sometimes subtitled, sometimes not. In other words, I’m used to processing a lot of information on the fly whilst staring at the screen. So, no, I’m afraid the fault lies in the writing of the West Wing. Or the direction. Or the guy running the sound board.
Thankfully, the show’s most rapid fire exchanges often contain little to nothing of significance. More often than not, it’s just noise. I’m gradually learning to tune it out.
Oh, and my thoughts on the coming Presidential election? Clearly, Jimmy Smits’ Rep. Matthew Santos is being groomed for the job, but I have to admit I rather like the idea of Alan Alda’s Sen. Arnold Vinick winning in the end. I’m giving my vote to President Hawkeye.
I recently finished Peter Carey’s Wrong About Japan: A Father’s Journey With His Son. It’s a remarkably short book, demanding only a day or two of casual reading. It’s also a frustrating book, at least from the viewpoint of an anime fan.
Admittedly, I’m not terribly familiar with Carey’s work. I understand he’s a novelist by trade, and it’s perhaps for this reason Wrong About Japan reads more as an aimless travelogue than a serious piece of reporting (the New York Times review makes a similar point). Often, Carey betrays his own premise, indulging himself with entire chapters on swordmaking and the legacy of World War II. Even in interviews with an assortment of celebrated anime directors and manga artists, Carey himself hogs the spotlight. His Japanese hosts are kind enough to chuckle at his ignorance of their craft and culture, and his son bright enough to give him a jab in the side when appropriate, but as a reader, it took effort to resist muttering “jackass” under my breath with each page.
Thankfully, Carey at least comes to admit his being in over his head, although whether he does so out of acceptance or exasperation, I can’t say. But, I couldn’t help but feel like poor Takashi, our hapless otaku specimen (and local color), annoyed with Carey’s reluctance to see the “Real Japan” right before his eyes. If the author had practiced a bit more humility, he perhaps would have recognized Takashi as a walking encyclopedia of anime and manga culture. I suspect he would have gained more insight from an afternoon in Akihabara with Takashi than in countless interviews with industry stars such as Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino.
The book’s heavy focus on Gundam is an indicator of how Carey only skips across the surface of his subject matter. Granted, Gundam is big, but trying to explain anime and manga culture through the lens of Gundam alone is akin to writing the history of rock ‘n roll using nothing but references to Elvis. And, as Mr. Tomino himself openly admits, Gundam was created in order to sell toy robots and little more (you don’t build a $100 billion industry on social commentary alone). In some ways, Carey and son, being non-Japanese Gundam fans, are a bit of an oddity, for the franchise never saw the sort of popularity in North America that it saw in Japan. American fans cut their teeth on another giant robot franchise: Macross.
Wrong About Japan is not without value, however. The interplay between Carey and son is entertaining, and one particular interview explains the concept of otaku more convincingly than most books on the subject. And, of course, I’d be lying if I said Carey’s lack of familiarity with his subject wasn’t as amusing as it was vexing at times.
Finally, I was surprised by the mention of Jeremy Hedley in the book’s acknowledgments. Apparently, he accompanied Carey and his son on their visit to Studio Ghibli as chronicled in the book’s penultimate chapter. Coincidentally, I believe I first discovered Hedley’s blog via that particular post. It’s a strange, small world.
There are two types of snow up here: “nuisance snow” and “plowable snow”. I’m not entirely sure what sort of accumulations define each type. After all, even a small amount of “nuisance snow” is “plowable”, and “plowable snow” is clearly more of a “nuisance”. And, of course, if you find snow as pretty a sight as I do, I don’t know how you could ever label it a “nuisance” - assuming you don’t find yourself buried under two feet in a day’s time, at least.
Weather happens.
The President was in town today. Meanwhile, the temperature soared to 62 degrees F by afternoon, just a couple of degrees shy of the daily record.
Feel free to make your own “hot air” jokes.
Still, patches of snow remain in spots the sun can’t reach. Winter’s far from over. Unfortunately, my thoughts are already turning to Spring. I remain a Texan at heart.
Despite being a regular anime fansub watcher, I’ve been remiss to comment on this CNET article - partially because it’s old news, but more so because discussion of fansub politics and ethics doesn’t particularly interest me.
Still, I’d like to share a few observations…
In many ways, referring to the fansub community as anime’s “underground” is a bit of a misnomer. Most serious fans are at least aware of the existence of fansubs, and the domestic anime industry clearly knows what’s going on underneath its very nose. While the community may be “underground” in the sense that it operates in a region of questionable legality, access to and knowledge of fansubs is not the sort of thing that requires a blood oath or secret handshake. In fact, a large part of the modern domestic anime industry is the product of old-school fansubbing operations gone professional. Many of the Presidents and CEOs of today’s largest domestic distributors were once among those “meet[ing] in college dormitories to watch much-copied videotapes of shows impossible to see any other way.”
Unfortunately, today’s fansub community isn’t exactly a refuge for reasonable people. There’s no shortage of fans who treat fansubs as little more than a free lunch. Appreciation for the domestic industry is difficult to come by; licensing announcements are often met with kvetching and grumbling. Furthermore, while many fansubbing groups operate within certain common ethical guidelines (i.e., “don’t distribute once licensed for domestic release”), there are just as many groups that don’t. And, of course, even if a group ceases distribution of a specific title, many viewers continue to distribute their own copies through various backchannels, long after an official DVD release becomes available.
Arguments in support of fansubs are as varied as the fans who make them. Ultimately, I’m of the “It’s perfectly illegal, but I do it anyway,” crowd. For the time being, fansubs (or raw video files downloaded via the internet) remain the only way a fan outside Japan can keep up with new anime as it airs on television. In other words, it’s about accessibility and convenience. It’s not, however, about getting something for nothing. I still buy many of my favorite shows on DVD once available.
For all the talk regarding the “death of fansubbing” that inevitably followed the Media Factory incident outlined in the article, the fansub community if still going strong as ever. DVD sales are still going strong as well. Even though one unnamed executive’s claim that “top titles still sell well, but the middle categories that used to sell respectable numbers of copies are being forgotten…” implies fansub involvement, an increasingly saturated DVD market is likely the better explanation. It’s a good time to be an anime fan, at least from an availability standpoint.
Oh, and one last piece of trivia: some might recognize Nikolai Nolan (as interviewed for the article) as the man behind the Bloggies. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Nikolai over the past couple of years, and have to say that, if the fansub community needs a goodwill ambassador, he’s an excellent choice.
