delayed gratification: Level E and Hourou Musuko

[two_if_by_sea]

A heads-up to those on my flist who are anime/manga inclined but don't follow 50 anime blogs:

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YES, FRIENDS, 2011 WINTER SEASON IS NONE OTHER THAN THE SEASON OF THE LEVEL E ANIME. Done up in adorable retro style, Bakaouji, Yukitaka, and friends (INCLUDING A KRAFT THAT IS VOICED BY NONE OTHER THAN... WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT... Koyasu) finally

Comments

[keelain]

dunno about the second one much but we were watching level E at anime club and apparently it's hilarious. argh most worthless comment ever haha sorry.

For some reason anime is just better to watch with a group of people who will laugh when you don't... erm. Maybe I'm just not cool enough.

[two_if_by_sea]

I have a lot of high hopes about Level E, and the fact that a lot of bloggers enjoy it too without having read the manga makes me really happy. It's a great romp. I hope it won't disappoint!

[jibrailis]

I'M SO EXCITED

I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT~

[two_if_by_sea]

I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW-- I WANT YOU!!

[arboretum]

re hourou musuko:

the word trap just makes me wanna barf a little in my mouth xDDD just felt i'd share lskjdfg

i expect if there are reviews as positive as the ones you've quoted/linked then the fact that some people took away from it only anime stereotypes says probably more about them than about the show.

also
WHAT IS THIS LEVEL E THING
lol the opening is really pretty and from your vague pitch i may just pick it up
but
as of right now i think this anime is about
1) sunglasses
2) resident evil-style exploding alien heads
3) a big red box car
4) sunglasses

[two_if_by_sea]

As a concept, I don't mind talking about it, but people's obsession with plastering Hourou Musuko with trap issues really annoys me now. 2DT didn't bother me when he was doing it, mostly because before now, all the other discussions about Hourou Musuko tended to be annoyingly incendiary, whereas 2DT was actually discussing it in an interesting way. Now, though, it's like people keep mixing up "trap" dynamics and actual issues of transgender identity and I'm just like RAGE. RAGE. RAGE.

I think my issue is that the positive reviews are mostly from the people who have already read the manga and already discussed it at length in ways I agree with? Whereas omo, for example, is one of the few reviews I've read from someone who hasn't read the manga. So I'm worried that I'm going to watch the anime and come out of it hoping people will just read the manga instead

[arboretum]

sjlkfjg;asdfg sorry i'd kind of put that huge long discussion we'd had about hourou musuko out of my mind -- like i sort of vaguely remembered having a discussion but i couldn't remember the contents! and now just going back to the post i find my own comments too tl;dr to read.... ahaha sigh.

anyway i guess really my objection to traps is like. on a very fundamental level. ??

like they exist as this Thing in anime which is a lot of fun for people and i guess that's fine and all except that there's no such thing as a trap in real life...? so when they are played for fun to shock people or for whatever reason people have traps in their animes, it is like. er. objectifying? idk. maybe i object to it on the same level that i find certain kinds of bl and slash really skeevy sometimes.... and i object to the fact that like. well, like you said. that people get them mixed up. only i'm not shocked at all. i'm practically at the point where i'm not even enraged, just annoyed. i mean, duh people get trap and transgender mixed up. i

[two_if_by_sea]

Yeah, I think my problem is that traps exist in the anime world only, and so I don't mind talking about it as an abstract fictional thing, just like seme/uke dynamics, or mahou shoujo, or tsundere/deredere/kuudere/yandere dynamics, or any other anime-only thing, but the minute people try to apply these dynamics to reality in a way that doesn't acknowledge how silly they are in reality, I start getting angry. Like, okay, in a way I understand why it might be interesting to place Hourou Musuko's characters next to the characters of BakaTest and compare the way Hourou Musuko deals with transgendered cross-dressing versus more traditional "traps", but the fact that omo just universally is like "HURR HURR OKAMA" in that post, I felt really offended.

It's like, hahaha, WHY DOES IT ALWAYS COME BACK TO THIS, issues of gender identity among dans in Chinese opera, especially the more famous ones, and how they handled gender and sexual identification. It's this particular subset of issues that I would never, ever think to apply to

[lihsa]

I haven't watched Level E yet, but ep01 of Hurou Musuko really impressed me! I keep meaning to write about it. Mostly I'm glad to see something this anime season that doesn't look... well, awful. Looking over the season charts left me cold :|

[two_if_by_sea]

This is probably the most boring season in recent memory. The only things that interest me are Level E and Hourou Musuko, both of which are adaptations of works I love, haha, so. I've actually heard somewhat good things about Fractale? And Gosick is by Bones, so I'm tempted to watch it after the season is done, but jeeeeesus. Everything else about this season seems pretty damn drab.