Yep an introduction

[Aiffe]

Hello, I'm a bit hard to summarize, but I'm a legit person and stuff.

 

Suggested questions:

 

• How did you find Kametsu?
  

I was on the old cartoon-world, though not very active--I had to google it to see what happened and find out people came here.

• What do you think of the place so far?
  

Seems cool, I'm glad it's here.

• How active are you planning on being?
  

Honestly I tend to be a bit flaky, I will be really into a site for a while then lose interest, I have kind of a short attention span that way. So I don't promise anything, but I hope that won't bar me from joining and possibly becoming active!

• What are your top five anime?
  

Augh well it's not that easy to just pick five but okay let's see. In no particular order:

 

Mononoke Hime/Princess Mononoke. I swear every time I watch that movie I get more out of it. It's not most people's favorite Miyazaki film, but it's definitely mine. The dark, melancholy mood, the theme of endings and change...you know I think it's a movie a lot of people misunderstand, people call it "preachy" and think it's telling them to be better to the environment. But it isn't a warning or a nag, it's a tragic history of things that already happened. I mean obviously metaphorical (don't worry I'm not an otakin or anything) but it's basically saying that the death of the true wild forest happened at the dawn of the industrial era--this isn't something we can go back and fix, this isn't a reminder to recycle, this is telling us that the worst already happened. Paired with the story of Ashitaka, who is Emishi (indigenous Japanese) this touches on how for marginalized and indigenous peoples, we're already in a post-apocalyptic society. Our worst apocalypse movies are basically "what if what happens to marginalized people happened to the privileged instead," and Mononoke Hime is a historical apocalypse movie where the viewer knows the apocalypse already happened, and we were the victors. This is the story of the people whose worlds ended.

 

Revolutionary Girl Utena. This is one of those things where I feel like so much was going on I'm afraid to even try to unpack it, because I'm sure someone else did it better. But this is absolutely a rare gem. The exploration of gender and socialization and orientation, and the queer relationship at the center of it all. I related to this a lot, for reasons I don't really wanna get into here because it's personal, but yeah, this has a special place in my heart. And I love the art style too, it really stands out.

 

Mushishi. It's really pure aesthetic, but what aesthetic! I love the world, and the meditative exploration of it. I love that the mushi aren't really good or evil, and that when they end up hurting humans, the situation is a problem to be unraveled rather than an enemy to be defeated. It's such a refreshing way of looking at things, and the show itself is practically a religious experience.

 

Blood+. I know it isn't popular to like vampires right now, but well, haters can bite me. XD Funnily enough, I recently watched Blood-C out of loyalty to Blood+, and Blood-C sort of made a counterexample to everything that was great about Blood+. Because Blood+ is quite sincere, and that's something that's really hard to find with dark, gothic, angsty themes. There's this nervousness, this fear of being laughed at, this terror of embracing heartfelt romance too and not justifying your horror with gore. Blood-C was the exact opposite--cynical, self-loathing, gory for shock value. But Blood+ was so beautifully earnest, it took risks, it believed in itself, it wasn't afraid of romance either, and the main pair of that is actually one of the few canon het couples in anything I actually passionately shipped. It's total idfic and I just wanna roll around in it like a golden retriever in sunny grass.

 

Key: The Metal Idol. You know, if I first saw this today, it might not make this list, but I saw it about 15 years ago (it was old then) when I was a teenager. It was my first exposure to really dark anime, anime filled with longing and melancholy, which was what I was searching for (and still what I profoundly love). The idea of a robot that wants to be human itself was just so lovely to me, and though the story eventually goes other places, I remember hunting down subtitled VHS tapes of this one by one over the course of months with great difficulty, and treasuring each one, watching it multiple times before I was able to get more. I'd have to watch it again now to see how it holds up (I don't even have the VHS tapes anymore, after all the trouble I went to to get them...) but I figure it deserves a mention just because of the experience I had with it when I first saw it.

• Top five video games?
  

I'm actually not that much of a gamer, I grew up without access to a console or anything. Lately I've been getting into undubs of JRPGs, and exploring the Final Fantasy series and Xenosaga. Final Fantasy VI and X have a special place in my heart. I also play way too much Guitar Hero, but that doesn't really have a narrative.

• What other hobbies do you have?
  

I write, draw, blog about social issues, ride my bike and am starting an organic garden. I'm a big goddamn hippie, basically.

• Make any graphics?
  

I've been known to make the occasional gif or modified screencap....

• Do you have any questions for us?
  

Nope, I think we're good!

Edited May 30, 2014 by Aiffe

[Kenzou]

Welcome to kametsu forums Aiffe