He's neither, of course -- he has no need to have a "gender". It's
akin to asking what gender my pet rock has, or my computer, or the
universe.
Traditionally, and in my post, he's referred to with male pronouns, simply
because due to historical/cultural reasons, there are no respectful
gender-neutral pronouns in English. Saying "it" has negative
connotations. I've seen this come up in translating other languages, where it
became necessary to render a gender on a pronoun in the English translation,
because of the connotations with "it".
Historically, we can say there were other reasons, but nowadays, for a lot of
people, it's simply an artifact of the language. The historical reasons aren't
worth going into, as they're in the past, in my viewpoint.
To me, this could easily springboard into an interesting discussion of "why
does gender matter".
As with a number of others -- Studio Ghibli. My son is 3, and he likes them
already. He also seems to really like Tenchi, the original OVAs...
I'll never try to brainwash my child based on gender ideals. He can watch, and
do, whatever he finds interesting, although I will make him aware of gender
ideals, just so he can cope in the world should he choose to be different
The US govt will have little to do with it -- marketing will. If a company
thinks they can sell it in a particular venue without taking too much negative
press, they will. From the sound of it, no major companies would pick this up,
and you certainly won't see it on the shelves at any major chain stores -- those
places are just too concerned about their image in the press.
Some excellent examples of this can be seen in manga: a number of titles are
only sold shrink-wrapped, despite being very, very tame by adult standards
(others aren't sold at all in large stores -- I've found that the local Borders
carries a LOT more stuff than the local B&N, and the stuff missing in
B&N is often stuff that would be unsuitable for a six year old). The US
still has a lot of Puritanical thinkers in it, as well as a lot of people who
believe that anything that might be deemed a "comic" and which has
cutesy art must be marketable to six year olds -- under the (admittedly
reasonable) idea that six year olds may come across it in the store and think
they can have mommy buy it for them.
This may change as time passes however, and companies better realize the width
and breadth of the markets. Del Rey originally sold Negima in shrink-wrapped
formats due to these sorts of concerns, but has recently (as of... volume 15?)
stopped shrink-wrapping. I also noticed that the latest volume had the cover art
edited, with an "un-edited" version on the inside (I personally found
the image about as risque as a mannequin in Victoria's Secret -- not
very).
I agree that society should have limits, but IMHO, the US is ridiculously
Puritanical compared to pretty much everywhere else in the industrial world. It
is somewhat intellectually interesting to me to see that a line of thought
originally rooted in religion has spread into non-religious mainstream thought
via culture, but that's a different topic.
Definitely the worst anime I've ever watched, and I've watched a LOT over the
past 10+ years. The only people I can see liking this are the ones that either
own the PC game, or those that go in knowing how it will end. Unfortunately, I
did not fit into either of those categories.
I also found it rather telling that the production quality on the final episode
seemed a lot worse. I suspect I can guess the cause, but I've not seen it
mentioned anywhere else.
Quote by LordWe...the category was doomed
from the start in my eyes due to the lack of a concrete policy on what exactly
MT considers "abstract." People just dumped anything not specifically
anime-related into it, despite their art not being abstract at all (in the
traditional sense.) Saikusa is right, the quality artwork can be placed in the
Original gallery and I think it will make things a bit tidier.
I agree with this sentiment. The problem is not a lack of appreciation (though
that may be true), nor is it that this is primarily an anime-oriented art site
(though that is also true) ... it's that this stuff just isn't quality, largely
for the reason quoted. And I'd bet that a lot of that low-quality stuff has
gotten in there under the generous oversight of the "no one understands
me" defense. You see that in modern galleries even now in the modern art
sections -- works that took very little effort, contain very little content, but
no one is brave enough to call the artist's bluff, as it were.
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Oh, and move some of the better pieces elsewhere, because there are a few good
ones from browsing through it quickly.
My only bone with the site so far is a limitation of how deleted/quarantined
pics are handled. I have no problem with the actual decision to delete or
quarantine, but what bothers me is that officially generated thumbnail links to
those items are not updated. I find I like the style/taste of a particular user,
and so browse through their other works thumbnailed on the side -- often leading
to items that were deleted long ago. I really wish these thumbnails were deleted
at the same time.
Apparently the Japanese are unaware of the meaning of "xxx" in the
United States. While it may indicate a blank, it can also indicate the realm of
the supernatural and esoteric, which is popular with teens in Japan -- and
fitting with the content of the manga.
He's neither, of course -- he has no need to have a "gender". It's akin to asking what gender my pet rock has, or my computer, or the universe.
Traditionally, and in my post, he's referred to with male pronouns, simply because due to historical/cultural reasons, there are no respectful gender-neutral pronouns in English. Saying "it" has negative connotations. I've seen this come up in translating other languages, where it became necessary to render a gender on a pronoun in the English translation, because of the connotations with "it".
Historically, we can say there were other reasons, but nowadays, for a lot of people, it's simply an artifact of the language. The historical reasons aren't worth going into, as they're in the past, in my viewpoint.
To me, this could easily springboard into an interesting discussion of "why does gender matter".
As with a number of others -- Studio Ghibli. My son is 3, and he likes them already. He also seems to really like Tenchi, the original OVAs...
I'll never try to brainwash my child based on gender ideals. He can watch, and do, whatever he finds interesting, although I will make him aware of gender ideals, just so he can cope in the world should he choose to be different
The US govt will have little to do with it -- marketing will. If a company thinks they can sell it in a particular venue without taking too much negative press, they will. From the sound of it, no major companies would pick this up, and you certainly won't see it on the shelves at any major chain stores -- those places are just too concerned about their image in the press.
Some excellent examples of this can be seen in manga: a number of titles are only sold shrink-wrapped, despite being very, very tame by adult standards (others aren't sold at all in large stores -- I've found that the local Borders carries a LOT more stuff than the local B&N, and the stuff missing in B&N is often stuff that would be unsuitable for a six year old). The US still has a lot of Puritanical thinkers in it, as well as a lot of people who believe that anything that might be deemed a "comic" and which has cutesy art must be marketable to six year olds -- under the (admittedly reasonable) idea that six year olds may come across it in the store and think they can have mommy buy it for them.
This may change as time passes however, and companies better realize the width and breadth of the markets. Del Rey originally sold Negima in shrink-wrapped formats due to these sorts of concerns, but has recently (as of... volume 15?) stopped shrink-wrapping. I also noticed that the latest volume had the cover art edited, with an "un-edited" version on the inside (I personally found the image about as risque as a mannequin in Victoria's Secret -- not very).
I agree that society should have limits, but IMHO, the US is ridiculously Puritanical compared to pretty much everywhere else in the industrial world. It is somewhat intellectually interesting to me to see that a line of thought originally rooted in religion has spread into non-religious mainstream thought via culture, but that's a different topic.
Definitely the worst anime I've ever watched, and I've watched a LOT over the past 10+ years. The only people I can see liking this are the ones that either own the PC game, or those that go in knowing how it will end. Unfortunately, I did not fit into either of those categories.
I also found it rather telling that the production quality on the final episode seemed a lot worse. I suspect I can guess the cause, but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere else.
I agree with this sentiment. The problem is not a lack of appreciation (though that may be true), nor is it that this is primarily an anime-oriented art site (though that is also true) ... it's that this stuff just isn't quality, largely for the reason quoted. And I'd bet that a lot of that low-quality stuff has gotten in there under the generous oversight of the "no one understands me" defense. You see that in modern galleries even now in the modern art sections -- works that took very little effort, contain very little content, but no one is brave enough to call the artist's bluff, as it were.
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Oh, and move some of the better pieces elsewhere, because there are a few good ones from browsing through it quickly.
My only bone with the site so far is a limitation of how deleted/quarantined pics are handled. I have no problem with the actual decision to delete or quarantine, but what bothers me is that officially generated thumbnail links to those items are not updated. I find I like the style/taste of a particular user, and so browse through their other works thumbnailed on the side -- often leading to items that were deleted long ago. I really wish these thumbnails were deleted at the same time.
Apparently the Japanese are unaware of the meaning of "xxx" in the United States. While it may indicate a blank, it can also indicate the realm of the supernatural and esoteric, which is popular with teens in Japan -- and fitting with the content of the manga.