This anime is basically Amelie, only with candy instead of schitzophrenia.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
REVIEW: Anime: Dagashi Kashi
TV: Chuck and Flash
Millenials have particular tastes in television. They are more cheerful than my generation since their cynicism comes from groupthink rather than personal experience. They don't BELIEVE in cynicism, merely flirt with it for the sake of convenience. This shows up in their preferred TV programming.
Chuck is the story of an accidental secret agent. It is an action comedy on a TV budget, and its strengths include that the main character is a computer nerd with a broken heart who ends up a spy by accident. This lets him date a lovely blonde spy girl with issues of her own (turtles all the way down!). The first season also includes some good details, such as his best friend the bigger geek, the other nerds he works with being less functional than he is, and his bosses are hilarious and realistic parodies of people I've worked for in the last 20 years. Harry the creepy assistant manager is playing people I worked for. I really appreciated that this is a common trope now. And that corporate HR will hire this type and not realize it is demotivating staffs to give power to that kind of personality. They are directly harming their company, and including this character is a wonderful poke at the generation ruining America.
Chuck remains a charming show until he gains superpowers sufficient to defend himself, his spy-girl gets more emo, and even Adam Baldwin can't save the mess from itself, after which the show loses most of its appeal. The musical numbers are pretty funny though.
Jeffster was awesome. So was Captain Awesome, Chuck's brother in law. It does make many references to the 1980's, which I appreciate having grown up in that decade. I generally think that the decade when you're 10+ is the one where you are growing up, and should be the one a generation is measured by. So Millenials are nearing 30 at this point, having grown up with the Internet and cellphones. They don't memorize things because they can Google it. And they have a panic attack when their phone breaks or there's no signal, and can't even tolerate the idea of being alone, or going to places where you can't see people everywhere you look. It frightens them.
Another popular show for Millenials is The Flash. This TV show on CW network, which is programming created mostly for the flyover states and aims at the people MTV used to make programming for is relatively fun. Most of the cast are 18-30 years old, with the old guys my age either comic or evil or a source of wisdom if they are lucky. The wise are mostly doomed to die so the youth can rise up and take our places. This is the general theme of humanity, after all. Until such time as we can stop being bastards to each other, control our own birthrates without reverting to war to make room for the babies we're too irresponsible to feed otherwise, and take up the mantle of engineered bio-immortality (you can still die, but if you are careful and avoid accidents, the suicide gene and cancer never happen so you can theoretically live forever in a balanced state of health and fitness) or possibly upload your consciousness into a machine-space simulation instead of having a physical body (another option, and one that's cheaper than agriculture), both options being unlikely so long as we're warlike and evil. Still, shows like the Flash, a many times updated character from DC comics, this version being a relatively nice guy and pretty nerdy like Chuck, only with abilities without wisdom. Thus he needs a support team and learns from his many mistakes as the story goes. Often, when The Flash does something decent or offers redemption, the villain kills someone he cares about in response. I think the meta-meaning there is the Millenials are warning older generations are cannibalizing the young for our petty needs and short term gains. This is... true. And awful. The generation older than mine has been actively raping and pillaging the young in most of the businesses I've worked. I've been appalled. That media aimed at Millenials incorporates this as a regular plot point in most episodes is rather damming and serves as a warning for the future.
Another good example of this is Firefly, and the movie Serenity, using the same cast as the TV show. Note the presence of Adam Baldwin, being Adam Baldwin again. Once more we have an example of wealthy older people preying on the young struggling to create space they own and can improve for themselves. In this case the older people employ space nazis in actual jackboots (nice touch, Whedon!) whose effort to control their population and make them into sheep literally kills a planet and makes space zombies, that rape, kill and eat, in random order, the poor. The space nazis also torture teenage girls and slaughter settlements for fun. Because that's how you keep control. You scare the rest by killing some in very showy ways. That's how China long dealt with rebellion. They'd kill a whole province (30 million people) to scare the other 8 provinces into paying their taxes on time. This worked for generations, and what's 30 million peasants, after all? They're only peasants. Just like you and me. TV shows have homed in on this successful theme and its now present in much of the media aimed at youth. The most successful YA books have the theme of youth-exploitation and child-murder. Maze Runner, Divergent, Hunger Games are each about youth being slaughtered ritually to please the older people in power. This resonates because there is truth in it.
And we should be worried. These aren't comedies, not really. They are a warning.
Chuck is the story of an accidental secret agent. It is an action comedy on a TV budget, and its strengths include that the main character is a computer nerd with a broken heart who ends up a spy by accident. This lets him date a lovely blonde spy girl with issues of her own (turtles all the way down!). The first season also includes some good details, such as his best friend the bigger geek, the other nerds he works with being less functional than he is, and his bosses are hilarious and realistic parodies of people I've worked for in the last 20 years. Harry the creepy assistant manager is playing people I worked for. I really appreciated that this is a common trope now. And that corporate HR will hire this type and not realize it is demotivating staffs to give power to that kind of personality. They are directly harming their company, and including this character is a wonderful poke at the generation ruining America.
Chuck remains a charming show until he gains superpowers sufficient to defend himself, his spy-girl gets more emo, and even Adam Baldwin can't save the mess from itself, after which the show loses most of its appeal. The musical numbers are pretty funny though.
Jeffster was awesome. So was Captain Awesome, Chuck's brother in law. It does make many references to the 1980's, which I appreciate having grown up in that decade. I generally think that the decade when you're 10+ is the one where you are growing up, and should be the one a generation is measured by. So Millenials are nearing 30 at this point, having grown up with the Internet and cellphones. They don't memorize things because they can Google it. And they have a panic attack when their phone breaks or there's no signal, and can't even tolerate the idea of being alone, or going to places where you can't see people everywhere you look. It frightens them.
Another popular show for Millenials is The Flash. This TV show on CW network, which is programming created mostly for the flyover states and aims at the people MTV used to make programming for is relatively fun. Most of the cast are 18-30 years old, with the old guys my age either comic or evil or a source of wisdom if they are lucky. The wise are mostly doomed to die so the youth can rise up and take our places. This is the general theme of humanity, after all. Until such time as we can stop being bastards to each other, control our own birthrates without reverting to war to make room for the babies we're too irresponsible to feed otherwise, and take up the mantle of engineered bio-immortality (you can still die, but if you are careful and avoid accidents, the suicide gene and cancer never happen so you can theoretically live forever in a balanced state of health and fitness) or possibly upload your consciousness into a machine-space simulation instead of having a physical body (another option, and one that's cheaper than agriculture), both options being unlikely so long as we're warlike and evil. Still, shows like the Flash, a many times updated character from DC comics, this version being a relatively nice guy and pretty nerdy like Chuck, only with abilities without wisdom. Thus he needs a support team and learns from his many mistakes as the story goes. Often, when The Flash does something decent or offers redemption, the villain kills someone he cares about in response. I think the meta-meaning there is the Millenials are warning older generations are cannibalizing the young for our petty needs and short term gains. This is... true. And awful. The generation older than mine has been actively raping and pillaging the young in most of the businesses I've worked. I've been appalled. That media aimed at Millenials incorporates this as a regular plot point in most episodes is rather damming and serves as a warning for the future.
Another good example of this is Firefly, and the movie Serenity, using the same cast as the TV show. Note the presence of Adam Baldwin, being Adam Baldwin again. Once more we have an example of wealthy older people preying on the young struggling to create space they own and can improve for themselves. In this case the older people employ space nazis in actual jackboots (nice touch, Whedon!) whose effort to control their population and make them into sheep literally kills a planet and makes space zombies, that rape, kill and eat, in random order, the poor. The space nazis also torture teenage girls and slaughter settlements for fun. Because that's how you keep control. You scare the rest by killing some in very showy ways. That's how China long dealt with rebellion. They'd kill a whole province (30 million people) to scare the other 8 provinces into paying their taxes on time. This worked for generations, and what's 30 million peasants, after all? They're only peasants. Just like you and me. TV shows have homed in on this successful theme and its now present in much of the media aimed at youth. The most successful YA books have the theme of youth-exploitation and child-murder. Maze Runner, Divergent, Hunger Games are each about youth being slaughtered ritually to please the older people in power. This resonates because there is truth in it.
And we should be worried. These aren't comedies, not really. They are a warning.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Early Spring, Briefly
We're having a brief few days of warm weather here in the Sierras. It snowed here last Tuesday. I got to drive through it down the canyon past Rough and Ready before the rain started to hammer down the rest of the way to my internship/job at the Yuba College library. Today its 67'F outside. I got to drive home from my local library volunteer job with my windows open. It was lovely. The sun is shining, people are riding their motorcycles and bicycles or driving with the top down on their sports cars. Dad took his Porsche to the local club meeting near Kmart, had "cars and coffee" and talked with the various porsche owners and hot-rodders who meet there. Hot Rodders aren't US-only snobs here. They will say nice things to the Mini owners, and the Porsche guys because its still about cars, after all. We'll eat burgers off the grill tonight, always a favorite, and I think I'll bake some fries too. Tomorrow is the Stupor-Bowl, and I suspect I've seen most of those ads on Hulu already. Still, I'll watch some of the game. It will be fun. I even bought good beer for the event: Black Butte Porter by Deschutes Brewery, started by a marine veteran who created lots of jobs in his home town, near Bend, Oregon. Its a very consistent beer and I appreciate its flavors. It is not for sissies or pounding. This is a heavy beer.
So, with my window open and a porter to sip I am enjoying the rest of my day. Cheers.
So, with my window open and a porter to sip I am enjoying the rest of my day. Cheers.
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