I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries.
Oh, lovely, you're a cheery one aren't you?
Wednesday, May 10
Anime Parents
Steven has a post up on
anime parents, or rather, the lack of same. To his missing persons list you can add, just off the top of my head, Saga from Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar (both parents), Kaoru from Ai Yori Aoshi (both), Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi from Ranma 1/2 (mother), Jubei from Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl (mother), Ushio from Ushio and Tora (mother), Sana from Kodomo no Omocha (spoiler), Yuzuyu from Aishiteruze Baby (both, effectively) and Tenchi from Tenchi Muyo (mother and grandmother). (Honoka from Pretty Cure has both parents, but they are rarely seen; they work (and apparently live) abroad, while Honoka stays with her grandmother, which is another thing we often see.)
He suggests that it's to save money on voice actors, but that can't be right, because most anime is produced from existing manga, and manga is noticably lacking in the audio department.
It's a plot device.
The other things these characters have in common is that (a) they are young and (b) they are not living what you would call normal lives, exactly.
Ranma and Urusei Yatsura are prime examples of this.
In Ranma, both mothers are absent; Mrs Tendo passed away some years ago, and Mrs Saotome is at home waiting for the return of her husband and her son - who are, of course, desperate to avoid her. If both ladies were present, the series would have been over in 13 episodes rather than 176.
In Urusei Yatsura, on the other hand, most of the characters do have two living parents (Ryuunosuke being the exception, and she's not a major character). But Ataru's parents are largely ineffectual (though one of the best episodes has Mrs Moroboshi taking center stage), and Lum's parents are absent most of the time, being, after all, from a different planet.
It's effectively the same, and the reason is the same: If you want your teenage and pre-teen characters to be running around causing chaos, it's hard to do it and give them a stable home environment with parents who aren't complete idiots. Some shows (Sailor Moon did this, I think) push the plot point the other way: You have to go out and save the world... Exept you're grounded.
Note also that it's usually the mother that gets it. The reason for that is that it's much more acceptable to portray men as idiots (see Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome for prime examples) than women. Possibly because men are idiots, but that's a whole 'nother post.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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I agree. It isn't just anime, either--as I pointed out to SDB,
name a Disney movie (other than Mulan) that has a 2-parent family.
On top of that, look at most of the fairy tales that Disney movies are
based on--how many of them involve older children/younger adults who
have lost one or both parents?
The basis of many of our stories, whether old tales, books, movies, or
anime, is often the coming-of-age/young-adventurer/hero's-journey
mythos. How exciting and challenging is a world where the hero,
at the first sign of danger, has the option of running home to his
mother? No, instead the hero is all alone with nowhere to
go--they must find the courage to persevere and succeed on their
own. Frodo Baggins, Rand al'Thor, Taran, Conan, Luke.
A single parent, often a loving but somewhat distant father, doesn't
disturb the theme so much. In fact, they can serve as the villain
(Gendo Ikari, Anakin Skywalker, generic Wicked Stepmothers).
Posted by: Big D at Wednesday, May 10 2006 02:29 PM (8EZDw)
2
Here's something I thought of after reading SdB's take on it followed by this post:
This is just rampant speculation, but it does make sense. The
formulations of Manga as we know it today rose out of Post-War japan,
a country that basically had a generation and a half of men
obliterated by 12 years or more of pretty much constant warfare.
Creators making series during that time would have made characters who
were being raised by a single parent or by grandparents because that's
what was happening. By the time the second generation of manga
creators came to the scene, these conventions would have solidified,
to the point where now they are tropes.
Posted by: toby Bianchi at Wednesday, May 10 2006 03:34 PM (PvuPD)
3
Entirely possible, Toby. I'd also like to add Yohko Mano from Demon (or Devil, depending on translation) Hunter Yohko; raised by her mother and grandmother, Gally from Battle Angel (double orphan), Wataru from Sister Princess (double orphan).... in fact, the only other two-parent family I can think of is in Yumeria (plot spoiler).
In fact, the latter was the most surprising to me
(SPOILER WARNING
Posted by: ubu roi at Wednesday, May 10 2006 04:46 PM (dhRpo)
4
Amazingly, I can pull four full families out into the open almost instantly, and maybe a fifth.
First, there's the Mihamas, Chiyo-chan's parents (who, I'll admit, are never seen, but are referred to in a few episodes of
Azumanga Daioh).
In
World Of Narue, Kazuo's mother shows up in a couple of episodes, his father in one.
Then, in
His & Her Circumstances (aka
KareKano), Yukino's parents are given an entire episode to themselves, and her sisters appear all through the show (and are two of the best characters). Arima's parents abandoned him, true, but his... erm... uncle and his wife(?) took him in; they are reoccurring characters.
And I seem to remember
Love Hina's Keitaro talking to both parents at one time or another (though I may misremember). Of course, Shinobu's parents are divorcing, which is what drives her to the Hinatasou in the first place...
However, in
Noir, Kirika (as a child) shoots Mirielle's parents. In
Narue, Narue's father had two wives. One divorced him before Narue's birth (but not before they had a child, who is Narue's older younger sister... don't ask), the other died after Narue was born.
All of which is apropos of nothing, of course.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wednesday, May 10 2006 09:06 PM (zBXYv)
5
The theory I've always heard is that it's wish fulfillment, especially
the usual lack of a mother, or an occulted mother like in
Angelic Layer.
The idea is that Japanese post-war mothers were ideally stuck at home,
in tiny houses or apartments, with nothing to do but do housework -
quickly done in tiny Japanese spaces - cook - for relatively small
post-war families - and take care of kid(s). Thus, there's a
certain social stereotype of the obsessive, dominating, smothering
Japanese mother - or even worse, the "education mama". Kids go to
manga and anime for escape, not more of omnipresent, demanding,
overprotective mama. Thus, the manga & anime which kills off
the mother-figure, never introduces her, or puts her on a safe, distant
pedestal, would tend to be much more popular than those that do
otherwise.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Tuesday, May 16 2006 07:25 AM (iTVQj)
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Tuesday, May 09
Moving On Up
I'm now Chief Technology Officer at my place of employment.
It says so on my business card.
Also, I have business cards.
Okay, so it's the same job I've been doing for the past 18 months, but now I have a fancy title.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
01:23 AM
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Let the bowing and scraping commence!
All hail Pixy Misa, Chieftain of Technology!
Posted by: TallDave at Tuesday, May 09 2006 08:33 PM (H8Wgl)
2
The real question: are you getting a bigger paycheck to go along with the fancy new title?
Posted by: owlish at Tuesday, May 09 2006 09:15 PM (JLwmt)
3
....... no.But I am getting six new dual-processor servers to play with.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, May 09 2006 11:52 PM (FRalS)
4
Three cheers and a tiger for Pixy! Couldn't happen to a sweller fella!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wednesday, May 10 2006 12:39 AM (+FLIL)
5
Nice, but kinda pales in comparison to your secret identity as leader of the MuNu World Domination Club.
Congrats on the new cover!
Posted by: Ted at Wednesday, May 10 2006 07:33 AM (blNMI)
Posted by: Jenelle at Thursday, May 11 2006 12:37 PM (dg3TS)
7
Just don't go on any "away" trips to a planet with Kirk and Spock...
Posted by: Susie at Saturday, May 13 2006 12:08 AM (a0oF7)
8
It's okay Susie, I don't even
have a red shirt.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 13 2006 03:18 AM (FRalS)
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One, Two, Four!
Four million served.
Bastards.
(Plus about half a million blocked by Apache using .htaccess.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
01:16 AM
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% Spam 100.00
That really says it all. Reminds me of Douglas' line about the Thumb and the desperate efforts of half the Galaxy's engineers to jam it while the other half work to jam the jamming.
Posted by: TallDave at Tuesday, May 09 2006 02:45 PM (URCCr)
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Monday, May 08
Melancholy Baby
For Wonderduck, I'll explain briefly: Episode one of
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is actually episode
zero, although it comes chronologically well after episode two, which is the real episode one. Episode three is thus episode two, episode four is episode seven, and, uh, so on.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
05:48 AM
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It's worth noting that the average score of the reviews of this show at AnimeNfo is 10.0. Of 23 reviews, there are twenty perfect tens and three 9.8s.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, May 08 2006 07:28 AM (J+j5x)
2
I did watch
episode 2 episode 1 last night. Pretty good! She's an odd duck.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Monday, May 08 2006 11:45 AM (zBXYv)
3
"Odd duck" is
one way to put
"she's totally insane, but fun to watch." I've seen all the
episodes that have been fansubbed so far (up through #5, which, oddly,
is actually the fifth episode). The original author of the novels
has to be given a lot of credit for the whackiness, but the
presentation is the anime writers at work, and they are no slouches
either.
Posted by: ubu roi at Monday, May 08 2006 07:21 PM (Js/Ly)
4
Wait, check that... I went back to my blog, saw your comments and then
followed up by listening to each of the previews and listing what Kyon
and Haruhi say. To my surprise, Kyon's count is inconsistant
also. There should be an episode in the middle of the
conversation with Yuki, per his count.
Also, having Kyon be the narrator has kind of obscured this point, but
have you noticed that the "normal human" is the only major character
for whom we do not have a full name? Not even a family or given
name--Kyon is just his
nickname. I have to wonder if that's significant? With this bunch, it could just be a red herring too.
Posted by: ubu roi at Monday, May 08 2006 07:58 PM (Js/Ly)
5
The whole show is an exercise in messing with the viewer's head, which would be really annoying if it wasn't so brilliantly done.
It's this season's Kamichu. Not that the two shows are at all similar, just in terms of originality and superb production values.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, May 08 2006 09:53 PM (FRalS)
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Saturday, May 06
Whee!
I did some more tweaking on my ADSL modem, and I'm now getting 18808kbps downstream and 1023kbps upstream.
But that's not the good part. The good part is I'm downloading anime* on Bittorrent** right now at 1.2Mbytes per second.
...
Was downloading anime. It finished while I was typing this post. Zzzzzip!
* The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
** Actually Azureus.
Update: Dropped out, and reconnected at 18999. A new Pixy speed record!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Fixed! mu.nu, that is. Not much I can do about your modem, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 06 2006 08:43 PM (Yen+c)
2
I think there's something about
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya... I got 7 kbps when I was d/l'g it earlier.
Sure, that might not SOUND like much, particularly when compared to your godlike speeds, but considering that I'm using dialup, and that it's 2 kbps faster than the best sustained speed I've ever gotten, I'll take it.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Saturday, May 06 2006 11:27 PM (+FLIL)
3
I think it's the sheer number of people DL'ing it. That is one popular show.
Gee, I wonder why? ;-)
Posted by: ubu roi at Sunday, May 07 2006 12:04 PM (/cvqF)
4
One thing I've noticed is that torrents tend to be
much better seeded than, say, a year ago. So when you come to download a show like this, instead of finding 20 seeds and 100 downloaders, you'l have 500 seeds and 100 downloaders. Which makes a hell of a difference.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, May 07 2006 01:57 PM (J+j5x)
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Ubu Roi, I'm afraid I can't tell you why it's popular... I haven't seen it yet. I'm keeping up with the d/l's, but I haven't had a chance to watch, other than the first five minutes of the first episode, which I am PRAYING is something like a student-made 'film within a film.'
Because if it isn't, there's something wrong with anime fans worldwide.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Monday, May 08 2006 01:26 AM (zBXYv)
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the first five minutes of the first episode, which I am PRAYING is something like a student-made 'film within a film.'
Not sayin' nothin'. :)
Because if it isn't, there's something wrong with anime fans worldwide.
Well, that's a given.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, May 08 2006 02:14 AM (J+j5x)
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Scarlet Pumpernickels
Anyone know where I can get a bunch of mini-ITX boards with two ethernet ports and two firewire ports?
Also, OC-3 PCI cards.
Also, cheap network-controlled power switches. Or PCI system management cards that work in standard motherboards. (HP have a nice one, but it seems to work in their servers only.)
Also, an ATX desktop case with at least 4 3.5" drive bays that's no more than six inches high. (Okay, that one was easy.)
Oh, and a micro-ATX motherboard with dual gigabit lan, four PCI slots, SATA, and compact flash. (No problem.)
Yes, I'm doing something weird.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Pixy - are you doing a Maguiver or something!?!
Richard Dean Anderson eat your heart out!
Did you get my email the other day btw?
Posted by: Tilesey at Saturday, May 06 2006 04:26 AM (eyEGU)
2
I don't remember seeing an email from you recently, but I might have missed it. I'll check this weekend.
As for the MacGyver thing, yeah, pretty much. I've been tasked with taking over the worldwide internet and telephony market and given a budget of three pounds five shillings and eleven pence ha'penny.
It's a tough assignment.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 06 2006 04:35 AM (FRalS)
3
Especially in a country where the official currency is the "dollar".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, May 06 2006 08:18 PM (+rSRq)
4
So, do you think there might be something about this three pound note they gave me?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, May 11 2006 09:19 AM (xN2lN)
Posted by: CHI Straightener at Friday, October 12 2012 12:31 PM (9O9/V)
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Thursday, May 04
Tuesday, May 02
Well, Yeah
I'm working on the technical details for a new business plan that requires 24 x 7 server and network uptime. I have it easy at the moment, since the company I work for is basically 12 x 5 for the in-house stuff. There's a lot of 24 x 7 stuff too, but the responsibility for that falls in other people's laps.
So I'm sweating bullets on network designs. You know the sort of thing: This router is pretty bulletproof, but if it does go down, then... Okay, we can put a backup here, and we can tweak it to take over the IPs automatically... But if this network link goes down, we still lose half the business, so let's split that... And so on.
But really, things go kerflooie all the time. I arrive home, to find no internet. Why is this, I ask. The answer comes:
Hi all,
Just to let you know customers connected to the following exchanges may be currently unable to the Internet:
Liverpool
North Ryde
Manly
Menai
Miller
Minto
Miranda
Mona Vale
Mosman
Northbridge
This is believed to be a fault within an upstream provider's network and we are working to have it resolved as soon as possible.
Well, that's just ducky. As someone noted:
Strangely looks like a Sydney suburban dictionary attack!
Curiously enough, I don't live in any of those places. What's going on?
Our provider has lost power to a switch in Sydney. This has taken out one of our aggregate links to the above exchanges. We are waiting to hear back from them.
And this affects me because?
As a result of the work being performed to resolve the original fault the following exchanges are now also affected:
Balmain
Fairfield West
Castle Hill
Coogee
Epping
Hornsby
Hurstville
Maroubra
North Parramatta
Randwick
Ah. Nice one.
Update: See also: TypePad, Hosting Matters. No finger pointing, just noting that shit happens. Perfectly redundant and fault-tolerant systems are so expensive and complicated that (a) no-one can afford them, so they don't get built, and (b) no-one can understand them, so they fail anyway because of human error.
Which doesn't mean you don't make the effort. We haven't had a power outage at our new office since we moved in (February '05) but I'm still budgeting for dual UPSes. (I just checked one of the web servers - 433 days uptime, and that one isn't on a UPS.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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