Shameful Otaku Secret!

I’m not sure what first gave me the idea to watch it, but it became apparent almost immediately that it was a good idea. Everyone I talked to seemed suddenly seized by a compulsion to rewatch at least some episodes (in ghostlightning’s case, the whole damn thing in 2 days). No one seemed to have so much as a caveat for me, let alone actual misgivings.

I’m not going to go too much into why it’s made of awesome and win — many have seen it, plenty of blogs praise it even if they don’t agree on the methods, and most people already know lots about JC Staff’s occasionally brilliant skills of execution that can make something as rote as Hatsukoi Limited into a winner and something well written into animated gold. The true strength of Honey & Clover is not its humor, underplayed dramatic moments, or unwillingness to insultingly explain key points to you out loud; it’s the writing, plain and simple. As a fan you’ve probably spent at least a little time justifying why anime isn’t kids’ stuff, but you’re often repaid by archetyped characters bouncing around a high school and crying a lot. Honey & Clover is your true reward. Even the theme that I most wanted to talk about is a little more “mature” than what you normally see: That’s letting go, one of the series’ many central threads that runs throughout. I’m picking ONE because apparently I can write almost 2,000 words about it, so to take on the whole thing would be extreme fucking insanity.

Something atypical for me: I try to leave them out normally, but there will probably be big spoilers.

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Few figures in animation are more divisive than Wackiyuki Akiyuki Shinbo, studio head and famously iconoclastic director at SHAFT animation studio. Some love his visually bizarre work, others loathe it for its apparent pretentiousness. Very few people tend to be in the middle. Plenty across the internet have weighed in already – and they tend to do so again every season that one of his series airs.

So what makes this wingnut/auteur so appealing? Let’s pick 5 and run with that (please note that after the jump this post may contain images of animated girls in their skivvies!):
[show me the skivvies]

Women have a hard time in the media, just as in some areas of society. Anime’s no different. In fact, I’m sure it’s worse than most. I’m also sure there are plenty of issues at play — especially Japanese cultural ones, not to mention most anime’s lack of originality —  but it’s a bit depressing. Too often, “strong” women in anime conform to one of three archetypes, which really aren’t strong at all. The easiest illustrations for these are their Evangelion examples.

Apologies (esp. to zaitcev) if I overstated the cheesecakey nature of the pictures that go with the post.

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