Skip to content

Category Archives: Anime

I’m Sorry, I Love You – Between Of One Year

The long-awaited animated special of my all-time favorite k-drama MiSa (미안하다, 사랑한다 / Mianhada, Saranghanda) has finally been released on DVD. I want it so bad.

Posted in Anime, TV Dramas.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – March 10, 2008
Yenmillionaire, not

So it’s confirmed, I’m going to Tokyo, and they have posted the full text of the essay online if you care to read it. Although they liked my essay, they didn’t like it enough:

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Economics, Essays & Writing, Japan, Japan - Tokyo Trip.

2 comments

By qui tacet – December 14, 2007
Gundam and Economics

My love of anime, combined with my interest in Japanese business, has finally paid off, and I might have the opportunity to visit Tokyo in January.

We would like to express our gratitude to you for submitting your essay to the JFTC Essay Competition 2007. After a strict screening of all the essays, we have selected your essay, “Gundamnomics: Transforming Corporate Japan for the Challenges of Global Capitalism” as a candidate for an award. The final result is scheduled to be announced on Friday, December 14, and the winners will be notified directly. The Awarding Ceremony and our New Year’s Reception will be held from 16:30 to 19:00 on January 9, 2008 at Hotel New Otani, Tokyo, Japan.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Economics, Essays & Writing, Japan, Japan - Tokyo Trip.

4 comments

By qui tacet – December 2, 2007
The Political Economy of Gundam 00

I wish I were a gundam meister.

The new Sunrise adaptation of Gundam Wing – Gundam 00 (pronounced double-oh) – is my most awaited series each week. It isn’t just the high-definition animation quality or the giant space robots that make it so wonderful, but its presentation of current affairs and contemporary issues through the lens of science fiction. I examine Gundam 00 through the lens of international relations theory.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Economics.

3 comments

By qui tacet – November 25, 2007
Summer Anime/K-drama Update

War of Money / 쩐의전쟁 (Summer 2007)
From Chosun Ilbo:

The male and female leads of a hit Korean drama about the illegal loan sharking industry were appointed public relations envoys for the Finance Ministry on Wednesday. For one year Park Shin-yang and Park Jin-hee of “War of Money” will promote the ministry’s “micro-credit” system which offers low-interest loans to people with bad credit. The government in February will use dormant deposits to establish a W200 billion fund to finance the micro-credit program.

I absolutely adore the SBS k-drama War of Money and I think it is so awesome that the stars of the drama have been co-opted by the Korean finance ministry to promote their microcredit program, which no doubt needs a lot of help, although I think they should pursue a more commercial approach. Also, given the number of SK dramas imported to the north through China, the stars might well be supporting much-needed microfinance/small-business education in NK and paving the way for economic reform and development efforts in the north.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Development, TV Dramas.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – August 1, 2007
Spring 2007 Drama/Anime Update

I’ve had more time to catch up on my j-dramas and anime since summer began. It’s strange since my mom has started watching k-dramas, but all the imports she’s watching now I’ve already seen before. This season is surprisingly interesting, with a few gems that I hadn’t noticed before.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, TV Dramas.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – May 21, 2007
The painful truth about cats & dogs

This post isn’t really about honey and clover.

In episode 16 in the first season of Honey and Clover (you can watch it here but its with mandarin subtitles), Yamada’s gang of childhood friends decide to propose to her simultaneously, which she runs away from without giving an answer. When Hanamoto-sensei asks why she is avoiding her friends. She cries, saying “do I have to tell them what hurt me to hear?” – that she will never see them as more than close friends no matter how hard they try or how long they wait – realizing that refusing to lower her expectations and accept her suitors, while still holding on for Mayama who sees her the same way, would be hypocritical. She finally realizes how Mayama feels, and cannot reasonable blame him for not changing his mind however dedicated she is to it. Hanamoto-sensei tells her that she should just be honest about how she feels, and let the guys decide between making an effort to change her mind (however futile it may be) or giving up – as that is the same choice she has with chasing Mayama. Later on, Hanamoto-sensei cryptically notes that there is a third option, which he doesn’t state, as if one believes that there are only those two options to chose from (fighting on or giving up), one can ‘open pathways’. That option, as Garten at Memento notes, is to long from afar, contenting oneself with friendship while always holding on for the possibility that it might become something more. By never letting go of a futile love, while never acting on it, we can never move on with our lives. That appears to be Hanamoto-sensei’s own choice with regard to Rika and later, Hagu.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Bildungsroman, College Life.

3 comments

By qui tacet – January 28, 2007
미안하다, 사랑한다 / Mianhada, Saranghanda (animated)

And there is no one more sorry than I for it

My all-time favorite k-drama is now animated. What was truly wonderful about MiSa was the tragic irony of the protagonist’s misguided but all-consuming desire for vengeance, and not necessarily the purity of the girl’s love for him (that’s like every other drama) – so don’t be fooled by the trailer, it’s actually pretty dark. Also, it looks almost like a scene-by-scene remake.

I feel like having a MiSa marathon session.

Posted in Anime, TV Dramas.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – December 6, 2006
The Honey and Clover movie

I can’t wait to see the film adaptation of one of my favorites:

It’s just the trailer but I’m already a little disappointed. Hagu-chan is supposed to be so much cuter, they should’ve got her seiyuu to act. And the scene about seeing for the first time the precise moment that someone falls in love seems a little less poignant than I thought it should be. It’s my favorite part so they had better get it right. I’m also not sure how well it would work as a film when there is so much less time to develop the characters – the slow-paced anime series had absolutely no plot and each episode was just a slice of their lives.

Posted in Anime, Film.

2 comments

By qui tacet – August 2, 2006
AnimEconomics: Cosfest V and the Market for Cosplay

I spent Sunday afternoon at Cosfest V, where I attended as a random schoolboy (i.e. ren’ai game protagonist) in a high school uniform Zyl helped me to get a while back. In retrospect I probably should have brought a bag and changed at Downtown East, after all the stares I got on the train. I had only planned to stay an hour or two, but the rain kept me there the whole day. The upside was that I got to witness a subcultural market phenomenon firsthand.

Continued…

Posted in Anime, Economics.

3 comments

By qui tacet – July 10, 2006
Reflections on Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and anime fandom

As the ending credits roll for the final episode, I struggle for words that adequately describe the joy that is Haruhism, and fail miserably. It defies genre conventions, yet is a paean to them. It is, as Malcolm Gladwell would say, a tipping point in animation. I would rank this in my top ten favorites along escaflowne, last exile and hachimitsu to clover.

Before I say any more about the series, some perspective on anime fandom is in order.

Continued…

Posted in Anime.

4 comments

By qui tacet – July 5, 2006
Review of Jyu Oh Sei / 獣王星

This season’s anime lineup is actually quite wonderful (ouran high school host club, suzumiya haruhi, higurashi no naku koro ni) and completely make up for the ‘filler’ arcs in Naruto/Bleach – I hesitate to call them ‘fillers’ because they leave one hungry for the real thing. The best of this season is Jyu Oh Sei (planet of the beast king), an SF epic. The synopsis on wikipedia doesn’t do the series justice – it has production values that match last exile and ergo proxy (w/o using CG), and the epic scale to match them.

Continued…

Posted in Anime.

2 comments

By qui tacet – May 12, 2006
Densha Otoko

Densha Otoko/The train man – a review

Some people would dismiss it as yet another wish fulfillment fantasy, but I found Densha Otoko to be the best j-dorama I’ve ever seen. Supposedly based on a true story, it is about an otaku who saves an office-lady on the train, and his requests for relationship advice on the 2ch bbs. Classic archetypal cinderella story of personal transformation, ie, a bildungsroman.
Continued…

Posted in Anime, TV Dramas.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – October 16, 2005
Bounded Rationality

It’s probably hypocritical for me to subscribe to an ideal of hyperrational utility-maximizing individuals yet be unable to live up to the same standards.

The dilemma that has plagued me for the past week is compounded by my inability to ascertain future decision spaces or project future lifestyle valuations – the limits of cognition when it comes to introspection and so-called ’soul searching’. My utility functions extend beyond the monetary material to intangibles. Unquantifiable, unqualifiable factors that may or may not sum to unity. I’m simply not able to perform this complex calculus of determining the distance between the ideal future self and the projected future self to any satisfactory, meaningful degree.

I liken the dilemma to the love triangle in Suzuka (at least up to episode 13 it is a triangle) where the protagonist, having been rejected by his first love, finds solace with the girl-next-door – the next best alternative – yet is getting (mixed) signals from the first girl. Should he risk it all to be with the one he wants, or settle with what he could be happy with? Of course my dilemma has nothing to do with romance – that would be a welcome distraction at this juncture.

In the end, it matters little whether or not the decision was made perfectly rationally – it’s as rational as it’s going to get – but rather, whether it was made based on risk-neutrality or risk-aversion. Which is more about strength of character than intellect.

Posted in Anime, Bildungsroman.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – October 3, 2005
Suzuka

It may be premature but after four episodes I’m ready to call Suzuka the sleeper hit of the anime season.

It’s hard to categorize Suzuka. A track and field love triangle? At first glance one may be tempted to pass it off as a generic harem series – the plot setup screams it (the male protagonist lives in a bathhouse) and the show has some (well, more than some) ecchi moments. There are some six female characters to two male characters so far, however only two are presented as serious love interests – much less than Da Capo S1/S2, KGNE, Ichigo 100% etc. Of course its still pretty early in the series.

Its obvious from the title and the OP which girl is going to ‘win’ (much like Da Capo S1), so there’s none of KGNE’s who-does-he-choose tension. So why is this show worth watching? I think its the characterization. Unlike Hina/Ichigo there’s no absurdity about the characters and their relationships, it’s all mostly normal. Unlike Peach Girl, the show isn’t propelled by fate and chance but by human action. There’s a kind of honesty about it. With 26 episodes and the current pace, it should be on par with KGNE/Karekano. That’s if they do the ending right – with the manga still being serialized the anime might not have an actual conclusion.

Methinks I’ll be following this series closely. Mentar at Memento has great scene-by-scene reviews of the episodes as they air, should you need further convincing.

Posted in Anime.

Comments Off

By qui tacet – August 1, 2005