May 7 (5M^_^ wrap-up)

[Zeke]

Wow did that wrapup article take longer to write than I thought. But it wraps a lot up!

Five-Minute Anime: The Wrapup

I don't usually do this sort of "DVD commentary", but there was a lot going on in this event, and I want to share as much of it as possible. When you read this, you'll have a better idea what the hell I was thinking. There's also a state-of-the-site report of sorts.

[MaverickZer0]

Psst, the link at your livejournal post is broken.

S'pose I should've said the codeword when I found it? Ovumaki, which is impossible to work into a sentence dammit. Didn't find the other one, though.

It was a pretty cool event, all told. Hats off, Zeke. Stuff was worth the wait.

[Nate the Great]

ZugZug.

[NAHTMMM]

Quite interesting. Thanks for typing all of that up for us, Zeke. I get more of the jokes now, and others are funnier.


Didn't realize you'd gotten the "Goosefood" thing from Dilbert.


KJ actually thought "Musky" was a shout-out to Futurama's Captain Musky, who was an obvious play on Captain Pike.



BTW, the forum color scheme is quite entirely legible now.

[Wowbagger]

Since this event ended, I've added to my very limited list of "animes I know" (previously only Death Note and Azumanga) a third series: Neon Genesis Evangelion. This makes sense of surprisingly many of the jokes I missed. Perhaps I should make Hell Girl number four...

I honestly never guessed that the TJI fiver had an ending. Having read this, I found it in short order, although, my word, MaverickZero, well done finding it without the hint.

I refuse to believe that the year-long-itude of this event was anything but planned from the start. I am simultaneously wonderfully amused by the phrase "albatross of Damocles" and -- based on its proximity to my name -- wondering whether it might be a reference to something else entirely. You wag.

As for the new movie, the adulation heaped upon it by the media does not surprise me at all, because "the rebirth of Trek" under new management with new actors and new continuity perfectly fit a rather powerful media narrative. Even though I enjoyed it -- quite a lot -- I'm still a bit surprised it made as much money as it did. The media and internet's freakout over BSG, by contrast, continues to make no sense to me whatever.

I'm glad this event worked out. Can't wait for the anniversary! Ten years...

Man, I'm old.

Addendum: As a diehard 5ME fan, I just want to say again how wonderful FM "The Dirty Pair" was for me. Especially since it starred my favorite ENT characters, who are of course Tucker and JJ Abrams.

[MaverickZer0]

Actually, Zeke gave me a minor hint on MSN. He said the clue to find it was in the article.

...yeah. Ten years...wow. That's kind of amazing.

[Tate]

Nice article, Zeke.

Most people my age or older were pretty freaked out by their first encounters with anime -- all those huge eyes and sweatdrops just came across as bad art, and the animation quality was about on par with cartoons 20 years old.

I can agree with this. For the longest time I could not understand the appeal of anime. It just seemed stupid to me, especially all the weird hair styles. Now I tend to like it a lot more than a lot of western animation.

What really matters is that this mess is no longer hanging over my head like an albatross of Damocles.

Funny.

This Just In Special Report: Next Generation anime to begin and begin and begin

THIS ARTICLE ENDS!

I finally found the ending. It is pretty obvious, now that I think about it. I was originally thrown off by the false ending in the middle of the article and stopped looking.

Ironically, I just posted a much spicier comedy piece which involves twins -- but they're fraternal twins, so it wouldn't do anything for this crowd.

That...was weird. Funny, but weird. Very funny, but also very weird.

Originally Posted by Wowbagger

Since this event ended, I've added to my very limited list of "animes I know" (previously only Death Note and Azumanga) a third series: Neon Genesis Evangelion. This makes sense of surprisingly many of the jokes I missed.

I've also recently added about three shows to the list of anime I know. Unfortunately, none of those new anime were referenced in the 5MAnime event, so it didn't help much. The anime were fun to watch, though.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Wowbagger

I am simultaneously wonderfully amused by the phrase "albatross of Damocles" and -- based on its proximity to my name -- wondering whether it might be a reference to something else entirely. You wag.

I dunno what you have in mind, but I wasn't referencing anything consciously. I did google later and found I'm not the first person to make that joke; there's even a recording artist who goes by Albatross of Damocles.

Originally Posted by Tate

That...was weird. Funny, but weird. Very funny, but also very weird.

I hope you read the description first so you knew I was parodying an existing series, not just making it all up. The actual show, Onegai Twins, is kinda fun. But those girls were sure less skeeved out by potential incest than I'd be.

I've also recently added about three shows to the list of anime I know.

Do tell!

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

ZugZug.

?

[Nate the Great]

That was just me conveying the message "I'm here and I've read the preceding, but I don't have the energy to come up with a clever reply at this time."

Plus "ZugZug" is a reference to an obscure Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series gag that I never expected anyone to get.

[Tate]

Originally Posted by Zeke

I hope you read the description first so you knew I was parodying an existing series, not just making it all up. The actual show, Onegai Twins, is kinda fun. But those girls were sure less skeeved out by potential incest than I'd be.

Yeah. In fact, I think I may have run into the series somewhere before. I haven't watched any of it, but it may have shown up on one of my searches through Netflix.

Originally Posted by Zeke

Do tell!

Speaking of Netflix, that's how I've been watching the new anime.

First, I found Noein. It's a show with some interesting ideas and some really crazy people. It's a sci-fi series about alternate universes, and I enjoyed watching it.

The second anime I discovered was Last Exile. It's another sci-fi series with a lot fewer crazy people (it has some crazy people, of course). It's about a multi-front war fought in the skies of an artificial world. It's pretty fun.

The third anime is Clannad. I was slightly embarrassed to start watching it, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I now love it. It's basically show about a highschool guy and a lot of girls who like him. I assumed that it would be either an ecchi show or a show that only girls would like, and I was prepared to turn it off at any moment. But as skeptical as I was when I started watching it, I came to really enjoy it. The characters are truly interesting and relate-able (and not just eye-candy). I found Clannad to be the most heart-warming, most heart-wrenching, happiest, saddest, most beautiful anime I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many, mind). I actually cried during some scenes. And I laughed during a lot of other scenes. Did I mention it was funny?

Oh, and Clannad has some crazy people too, but they're crazy in a humorous way and not a potentially homicidal way like the crazy people of the other shows.