Nostalgia Blinds
Or why I think it’s silly to harp on the past.
So, I was just minding my own business and hopping cheerily around a scenic garden with a group of bunny rabbits and frolicking deer, when “BAM!”, wildarmsheero launched a huge flaming fireball in my direction like one of those Undead Mages I had to fend off as a female Night Elf Rogue in World of Warcraft.
She is from the future!
He is hot and bothered mad about my choice of anime and blogging materials, particularly Gundam 00. It’s apparently because G00 is not “classic” enough for him. Although I do agree that G00 has more flaws than Michael Jackson’s face, not being a “classic” is definitely not one of them.
Read his blog entry where he asserts that my blog “fucking sucks”, presumably because I blog about terrible shows that he hates with a zealous passion.
It’s the future!
Back in the Days…
First of all, wildarmheero makes the (bad) assumption that I am one of “those kids” who have never watched the original Gundam. This is how it always begins.
Personally, I like to think that I am pretty well acquainted with the franchise. Sure, I can’t rattle off the serial number of every bolt and nut on RX-78, but I did watch a good portion of the Gundam titles out there. I watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta (which was supposed to be the best, or something?). I watched all the mini-series (0083, 0080, 08th, etcetera) and what not (e.g. Evolve), and I even enjoyed ∀, Wing and X.
After Zeta, I decided to give ZZ and V a pass. I’m sure they were all excellent and ground-breaking titles of their respective eras, but I can’t force myself to sit through them just to earn the right to boost about having watched every Gundam ever. Quite frankly, I thought the original Gundam was decently average but I didn’t like Zeta one bit. The mini-series are pretty awesome, though.
She’s not from the future. (But close enough.)
Again, I’m not saying that G00 is the greatest Gundam ever made. I wouldn’t even call it a “good” anime. I blog about it simply because I enjoy watching it. I love it just because it fills me with boyish glee every time it makes an allusion to real-life politics.
I don’t really give a damn about the actual Gundams at all. It’s like how I watched SEED (which wildarmsheero begrudgingly admits to have enjoyed) for the girls, and how people watch Wing (which wildarmsheero also enjoyed) for the fireworks.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
Selective Memory
Were things really better in the “good old days”? Do so-called “classics” really deserve the god-like status that fanboys like wildarmsheero bestow upon them? I don’t think so.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam was undeniably ahead of its time. But it is nowhere close to an Grade A anime by today’s standards. I can give it the respect that it deserves as a pioneering piece of work, but I honestly do not think that it can stand up to modern competitors. I definitely won’t recommend it to a friend. Certainly, Thomas Edison’s light bulb brought a new age upon humanity, but I prefer my compact fluorescent light, okay?
Space!
I think it’s very important to understand that the circumstances under which you first encounter a piece of work can pretty much determine how much you like it for the rest of your life. Paradigms shift; circumstances change. Medieval villagers would consider incandescent light bulbs to be witchery, 19th century folks considered them cutting edge science, and today we consider them technologically obsolete.
This is especially true for issues which are by definition subjective in nature. It’s futile to force people to see things your way when the opportunity to do so (i.e. the first impression) has long past.
I can’t wait till the future is here!
People tend to be biased about anime series from their early days as aspiring otakus. I do it too. I still hold Evangelion and Nadesico in high regards, but that doesn’t mean that I have to blog about them. (Exceptions made for remakes.) I have long come to the realization that most anime titles are pretty much shit in terms of literary value and the original Gundam certainly is no exception.
A Harmless Analogy
To put things in perspective… wildarmsheero spends an obscene amount of time talking about Kaede Fuyou, the absolute worst character (IMNSHO) from the PC-game-turn-anime SHUFFLE!. As someone who has purchased and played quite a few bishoujo games, I, DarkMirage, assert that SHUFFLE! is a terribly clichéd game and wildarmsheero “fucking sucks” for blogging about this horrible franchise which can’t hold even half a candle to the classics.
They are not from the future. (But they pwn Kaede.)
And in a similar fashion, it makes me very mad that wildarmsheero likes a messed-up character from a crappy series so much that he actually bought pillow covers of her. That’s right, it offends my sensibilities! We should all be blogging about awesome classics like Tokimeki Memorial and Sentimental Graffiti and hugging Shiori Fujisaki pillows instead! Oldies forever!!!…
…Doesn’t that sound awfully silly to you? Mr. Original Gundam Fan? ;) But that’s basically what UC purists are saying, except with less moé and more mecha.
Conclusion
I do in fact love SHUFFLE! a lot (just take a look at my posts tagged with “shuffle”). I enjoyed it in spite of its huge and glaring flaws, the same way I enjoy Gundam 00.
People should not be forced to limit what they like to the “best” or the “classics”, neither should classics be given special treatment just for being classics. The original Gundam is terrible when viewed today without a helpful dose of nostalgia to make up for its flaws.
Please get over this irrational obsession with the past. The old days only seem better after a makeover via selective memory. Stop judging every Gundam title based on how close it is to the original (or at least stop trying to convince me that there’s any logic to it). Thank you.
BAM! Your Gundam is dead!
November 5th, 2007 at 2:14 am
It’s late now and you stay up to post, alright.
The only Gundam series I have watched are Gundam Wing, Seed and Seed Destiny. I think that Seed is awesome, the best from the 3 I have watched.
I have not watched Gundam00 yet, but I will soon.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Well to each his own I guess….. I admit that I have only watched Seed, SD, 00, Zeta and ZZ but I admit that most of these gundams have the same storyline.
As you have seen, there is bound to be a red/pink gundam, and the protagonist’s gundam is ALWAYS blue, the kid has to blow up his own gundam in order to get a better one, and of course, the love stories and the annoying cute round robot named Haro.
I would say that ZZ isn’t really worth watching, but Zeta is certainly the BEST of the entire series. I am not sure about 00 though, but I guess you should just ignore these kind of people.
The entire Gundam franchise simply just rocks, regardless of era and storyline. Period.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:34 am
It’s the truth and anyone who says otherwise is full of himself. I tried watching Gundam Wing a year ago and I quit after the first episode. I just couldn’t stand how fugly Heero’s gf looked.
We read classic books for how they’re well written in language, their presentation in themes, characterization and maybe for the mass allusions lots of other books make of it (Bible). Language changes but never gets old, until we can communicate ideas telepathically without words.
We watch classic movies for their dialogue, their presentation in themes, characterization, and may even look at them as a reflection of their generation (well, this goes for books too).
However, we can’t do that for 99% of anime (the 1% I’m thinking of goes to Miyazaki and maybe GiTS). Admittedly, the dialogue in anime sucks balls. The stories and characters are so completely derivative of each other and not only that, their presentations are just terrible. Themes? If loser males end up with all the girls is a theme……..
Why do we watch anime? For the girls wearing skirts that would make you a grade-A hoe in real life. For the meido. For the unabashed fanservice. For the giant robots flying around blowing things up. For the emo facial contortions on 15 year old girls. Anime, pure and simply, is entertainment and how entertaining something is, is dependent on time. If you’re watching anime for other values, you’re just lying to yourself.
I can’t believe I just spent the last 30 minutes writing that.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:43 am
Wait, I just don’t get it. I thought that if you’re a geek, you’re a fag by deafult, even if you love MANLY shows. Damn, that even makes you a bigger fag. If you’re manly, you should be watching shows like Clannad, you know, with cute girls that you should want to protect with your manly power.
…
Erm, srsly, I really think that some fans worry WAY TOO MUCH about being manly.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:52 am
@Beowulf Lee’s last paragraph
If you think anime can’t be viewed for “higher” values, then all I can say is that you’re simply not watching the right shows. This year alone has seen an influx of such titles in Mononoke, Seirei no Moribito, Dennou Coil, Baccano!, etc.
November 5th, 2007 at 3:45 am
But the thing is I only just watched first Gundam in its entirety (via the movie trilogy) and Zeta Gundam over the past 2 years, and over the past year have only just watched Space Battleship Yamato, Arcadia of My Youth and a bunch of a other classics. If I was truly blinded by nostalgia I’d be going on about how Pokemon and DBZ are fucking awesome, as they defined /my/ youth.
I kinda used to be a dumb Seed fanboy. Back when I was like 15 or something I did honestly think it was a good show. Then I decided that I’d finally finish the original by way of the movies, so I did. After I was done with movie three (which is probably one of the greatest anime films ever) I wondered what I even saw in Seed. I think the originals still stand up well today in terms of writing and themes, only falling short when it comes to animation (and that’s mostly First, Zeta Gundam looks better than a lot of modern anime I find.) I guess it’s just up to whether or not you like stuff made for REAL MEN or stuff made for pussy treehugging teenagers.
Also leave my wife out of this. She ain’t done nothin’ to you >:(
November 5th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Darkmirage, you may remember me from my previous comments on the Nyooro debacle, but anyways here’s my 2 cents on this issue:
I posted on wildarmsheero and you can take a look at what I wrote.
My point is quite simple, darkmirage has his own way of enjoying GundamOO. So what’s wrong with that? Why is wildarmsheero making such a big fuss out of it? There’s no set way of enjoying an anime, and bloggers can blog an anime for all sorts of different reasons ranging from the seiyuu, to a particular character, or graphics or just even genres etc. I like different opinions, different viewpoints.
Simple analogy: Let’s say someone gets a nice sports car. Person “A” might like to just chill and cruise along and be very happy whilst Person “B” might like to drive it hard and fast. DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS, DIFFERENT REASONS AND WAYS TO ENJOY THE SHOW.
In the end, this whole debacle just makes wildarmsheero look very immature. Being an oldschool anime fan doesnt’ make you have a higher status. It just means you started watching anime for a long long time and have more exposure. But that doesn’t mean it gives you the right to criticize other anime blogger’s way of appreciating the anime.
November 5th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Oh sorry and by the way, wildarmsheero can’t be considered old school anime watcher since he started watching Wing Gundam in 2000.
Darkmirage, just don’t waste too much time on other unappreciative bloggers like wildarmsheero. It’s good to respond, but he’s not worth any more extra attention.
November 5th, 2007 at 3:58 am
You bastardized my “car enthusiast” analogy. For shame.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:01 am
sorry sagacious, I am a car enthusiast myself. I’m active around e90post.com/forums also. didn’t mean to. just wanted to put the message across that there are different ways to enjoy a certain medium.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Actually it is good that he is willing to respond, it shows that he is constantly on the watch for current affairs (yes there are also current affairs in the otaku world, with the Great War started by Odex a few months ago).
Well I would say that DM has done a fine job in bringing his opinion and discontent across without the usage of expletives, which in turn shows his mental maturity and tolerance for others. Keep it up kiddo, you just surpassed me in terms of age. xD
I became open about my obsession with anime, J-culture and hentai recently when my friend got odexed. If such lambasting is going to take place, otakus will be stereotyped as immature kiddies with no life and condemned in society the way homosexuals are. Let’s try to show some tolerance for each other and if we want to say something about someone else, do it critically and not use extremities such as death threats or expletives. Save the word “f*ck” for your hentai fansubs, I am sure it would help more in bringing across the point in an ecchi scene rather than in places like this.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:12 am
wildarmheero’s post was just rude for me. I really can’t see what is wrong with Gundam 00. I entirely enjoy watching it (please excuse my english).
November 5th, 2007 at 5:44 am
I find that there are way too many “OMFG YOU WATCH THIS THEREFORE YOU=FAG MUNCH!!!!!” problems these days. Seriously. Wildarmsheero reminds me of hitler condemning others cuz they don’t think like him or w/e. Just because i hate Kaede and shuffle in general doesn’t mean i would burn you at the stake( no i don’t hate it). I find what wildarmsheero is doing is just plain stupid and a waste of time. Just cuz you like “old school” anime doesn’t make you the overlord of others. Go back into your hole and watch some classic m’kay?
November 5th, 2007 at 6:27 am
@ Somethingleft
Godwin’s law.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin’s_law)
November 5th, 2007 at 6:30 am
I think it’s still too early to judge gundam 00 as a crap show. I have been enjoying it so far. It’s not great, but not terrible either. I’ll give it like probably 8 more episodes before i even start judging it.
November 5th, 2007 at 6:40 am
>>>This year alone has seen an influx of such titles in Mononoke, Seirei no Moribito, Dennou Coil, Baccano!, etc.
OK. Watch them 50 years from now and let’s see if can sit through 5 episodes.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Well it’s nice to see a civilised response by wildarmsheero above… (well, I’ve seen worse)
I thought only old hags complain about the present and glorify the future? But anyway, most of you are lucky not to be blogging about football. The general fanbase in football is stingy and rotten and 80% of text written about football oin the internet is all about flaming.
Again, we talk about perspective, and how much people want to change others’ and replace it with theirs. We’ll never have agreements with another human, because we have opinions. And I’m not gonna take that boring proverb “if everyone was the same, the world would be boring” thing out. Oh look, I did…
November 5th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I like Kaede.
But I like all the girls from Shuffle, so…