Anime Review: Hetalia

I love Hetalia.

I hate the other fans.

I’ll explain the first point first. If you don’t know what Axis-Powers Hetalia/Hetalia World Series is, it is a show with very short episodes (five minutes a pop). Each country is depicted as a person, and the show follows each country’s cray-cray-cray interactions. Notice the three crays? It needs all three. Through the short episodes, it also gives out some basic history lessons as time jumps around a lot in the series. Initially, the series is about Italy, Germany, and Japan (the Axis Powers) during WWII. That plot got dropped quickly as France, Britain, and America began to have more central roles in the series.

I have more personal experience with the sub. I watched a couple episodes of the dub and cried a little on the inside. I give the English version and the voice actors for attempting the accents, but some of them are so over done that I can’t understand what is being said and even if I can, I stop paying attention to the words and just listen to the terribly overbearing accents.

The sub is excellent. Being a history buff/nerd, I love all of the history of the countries and I’m a big fan of the premise. The interactions between the countries are so funny and when the historical events are included it can be really cool.

Most of the countries are white men. Cuba (who makes a two-second appearance) is the only not-white person I can think of. There are only a couple of girls, and some of them don’t come across as the need-to-be-rescued princess type (ex. Hungary). And then you have Belarus who complains about her breast being too big. So if you are looking for a strong female perspective you aren’t going to exactly find it here.

However, some of the humor is too much and goes into the bizarre. For example, there is a short clip of each country as a different cat. It wound up being cute, but when the screen flashed “Catalia” naturally I put on my “da hell” face. And my “da hell” face makes numerous appearances.

Now the fans. Let me start off by saying that I’m the biggest history nerd. I grew up watching the History channel (before it became Swamp People and that crap) and history was a major part of my college major. So I do not dabble in history. At the same time, I don’t pretend to be the walking history text book. I’ve had numerous encounters with Hetalia fans that have the notion that because they watch Hetalia, they are the history text book. While Hetalia does explain history, it often over simplifies it and it cannot be counted on instead of reading the history book. So if you watch Hetalia, don’t act like you are educated on all of the history of the world.

Now, I have very little con experience before Hetalia took off. And maybe I feel this way because there are so many Hetalia fans, but they strike me as a little too intensely in love with the show. I love anime, but I diversify. Hetalia fans (I feel, debate me in the comments if you feel free) don’t. It’s like the cray-cray Twilight fans. They’re just too into it. And I’m sure there are other anime fans who love only one anime (brings me back to my high school anime club and how everyone had only heard of Naruto and I still didn’t know what it was). And maybe it’s because there are so many Hetalia fans that the cray-cray people are just higher in number.

I love Hetalia, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a fantastic series. I just don’t like that the other fans think they’re history know-it-alls and think Hetalia is the best/only anime in existence. But I love history and politics and funny things, and therefore I love this series.

Fanfiction Fridays: Gospel of Deception by thereisafire

Durarara!!’s Orihara Izaya is a multifaceted figure full of mystery and trickery. I’ve even heard a fan theory that he’s actually Loki, the Norse god of chaos, michief, and trickery, in human guise.

This fic sadly does not explore that facet of fanon. (Although if someone wants to write me that DRRR/Avengers crossover I didn’t know I wanted until just now, PLEASE DO IT.)

Rather, it boasts the fascinating pairing of Izaya/Trolling, and gets you inside Izaya’s head with backstory on how he becake the horribly manipulative person he is today, going all the way up to him getting Shizuo arrested. It’s terribly clever and well-written, and the author’s Izaya!voice is really spot-on.

Check it out here at AO3!

Theatre Thursdays: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the Pittsburgh CLO

This past Sunday I had the great pleasure of seeing Fiddler on the Roof performed at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh PA. I have long loved this musical thanks to the spectacular film and as such was thrilled to finally get a chance to see the show live.

The curtain for the show was a painting of the town of Anatevka (the setting of the show) done in a style which reminded me somewhat of Marc Chagall’s which I found very appropriate since I’ve thought his works should be used as the poster art of the show ever since I learned about him. The theater was packed and the audience was very receptive. They were quick to laugh and applaud and that’s always nice and adds to the enjoyment of the show. Not that this show needed any help, however. The show was a joy from beginning to end and the Pittsburgh CLO once again proved itself a top-notch theatre group.

 

Lewis J. Stadlen played Tevye and had a great stage presence. He was hilarious and had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. The only criticism I can raise against his performance is that his emphasis on the comedy was so strong that the sincerity didn’t always show through which is so important to the role. Tevye’s love needs to be genuine and deep because as trite as this may sound, this show really is about love and throughout the story love is tried and challenged and at some points nearly broken. That is what makes this show so wonderful. This family grows and changes so significantly because of their romantic love for others and familial love for each other and never once does this seem hokey or forced.

The show is actually fairly feminist. For those unfamiliar with the story, Tevye has five daughters, the oldest three of whom are reaching marrying age.

Each of these three daughters challenge tradition and their patriarchal society, becoming stronger and more independent as they grow and learn. Granted, they do so in their choices of which man to marry and as such they may not exactly be shining examples of feminist ideals, but they are women who are fighting for their autonomy against the pressures of society and (in the context of the story) they were being quite revolutionary so I personally think they are admirable women of strength.

Another thing I love about this show is the religion. The majority of the characters are Jewish and their faith is very important to them. I always loved the way Tevye related to God, whom he addresses as a friend. He regularly converses with God which I find so admirable and refreshing. That kind of relationship with God isn’t usually represented. He talks to God, he complains, he thanks, and he jokes. I would hesitate to call his relationship with God casual because he is certainly respectful, but it’s not such a pious, regulated relationship as is often portrayed.

As I mentioned, in this show love is tried and tested and it’s especially clear in the love between Tevye and his daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava. Each daughter challenges him more than the last in who she wants to marry and how she wants to do it. (Tzeitel picks her own husband, rejecting the man given by the matchmaker, but at least asks Tevye’s permission; Hodel picks a revolutionary student and doesn’t even request Tevye’s permission but hopes for his blessing; and finally Chava picks a man of another faith) Tevye learns to let go of many of his long-held prejudices and think critically about his own beliefs for the first time. He also learns where his breaking point is, as he struggles with some of his daughters’ choices.

The Pittsburgh CLO production portrayed these important issues beautifully and every cast member was excellent. My personal favorites were David Perlman as Motel (Tzeitel’s fiance) and Nick Verina as Perchik (Hodel’s fiance). Perlman was just plain funny and appealing. Motel’s a great character to play, starting off as a somewhat gutless comic relief but becoming stronger and braver thanks to Tzeitel and Perlman did a great job in his scenes. Perchik never stood out to me much in the film but seemed so much more important to the story in the play and I think at least part of that was thanks to Nick Verina’s performance. He was clearly bright and passionate and reminded me strongly of Enjolras from Les Miserables. Verina had a fire that made him seem important in every scene he was in.

I highly recommend this show. Its depiction of family, friendship, love, faith, and religion are fantastic. The Pittsburgh CLO production has closed but any time you can see this show you should really take the chance, I’m glad I got to see such a good production, but I’m even more glad just to have seen the show.

Web Crush Wednesdays: Meanwhile Misha

It’s Web Crush Wednesday again! Let’s talk about this week’s Web Crush: Meanwhile Misha!

Those of you who have read my posts about Supernatural know that while I am hard on the show, sometimes it is still my favorite TV show right now. And though it may not be obvious on this blog I’m not often obsessed with celebrities (the exception probably being Felicia Day). Oh yes, I go into phases were I love one actor/actress more than any other, but it usually fades after all and I usually tend to not care about their day-to-day life. Don’t get me wrong; If my favorite actor/actress is getting married or something and I hear about it, I think it’s nice for them, but I tend to get more obsessed with characters than the celebrities that play them. The thing is, I just don’t know these people in real life. I never wanted to conflate a character with their actor, and I never wanted to be let down if an actor/actress ended not being nice at all. But then there was Misha…

Holy Movie Reviews Batman It’s The Dark Knight Rises

MadameAce: So this movie is okay. I like it. I certainly like it more than other movies for DC. But I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would. Maybe that’s because I built it up so much in my head before watching it that it couldn’t possibly live up to my expectations. Or maybe it’s because the conflict is the exact same conflict in the previous films, only with an even drearier tone. Or it might just be the fact that I couldn’t understand Bane’s character at all. Among other things, of course. And that’s Bane, not Bain, dear Rush.

Lady Geek Girl: I was actually fairly pleased, probably because I didn’t build the movie up in my head. So it actually went beyond my expectations. Here’s the thing, if you were expecting the movie to be just as good or better than The Dark Knight then you were probably disappointed. I was so worried about being disappointed that I ended up liking it instead. That’s not to say that this movie isn’t without flaws though, because there are probably more flaws in this movie than in Batman Begins or in The Dark Knight.

Trailer Tuesdays: Man of Steel

I want this to be a good movie. I want it so badly, but the past has taught me that Superman tends to do well in every other medium but the big screen. The last Superman movie flopped, and the ones before that—oh God, they were terrible. The first two were okay, I suppose, but by the fourth one, they got unbearable.

As Lady Geek Girl told me, a lot of people seem to forget that Superman is from another planet and doesn’t fit in with society all that well, and that they view him as really strong and really nice. And yeah, that does tend to be how he comes across, no more depth or personality given. From what I can tell in this trailer, Man of Steel makes it look like he’s going to have to do a lot of soul-searching and coming to terms with who he is before becoming Superman, which I’m all for. Christopher Nolan’s even working on this, so that’s a good sign right there.

I’m not sure why he seems to be a fisherman and not a farm boy. Like seriously, are they setting the film in Maine?

Manga Mondays: Death Note

If you were given the power to kill anyone you wanted, in any way you wanted, leaving no evidence, what would you do?

Death Note is an exercise in philosophy, a detective thriller, a crime drama, and a shounen tournament-style story all rolled into one, and that description doesn’t do it justice by any means.

So here’s how it goes: When the aforementioned power over life and death falls into the hands of Yagami Light, a justice-obssessed genius college student with access to the world’s criminal records, he decides to cleanse the world of all wrongdoing (by killing all the wrongdoers). The ‘power’ itself comes in the form of the Death Note, a death god/grim reaper/shinigami’s tool for reaping lives: all you have to do is write down a person’s name, and they’ll die of a heart attack. Be more specific if you want—time of death, manner of death, circumstances of death—just add that info and it will come true.

When the world realizes what is going on, L, the world’s foremost detective, is called in to catch the killer that the world has dubbed ‘Kira’. (In Japanese, ‘killer’ is written ‘kira’ in katakana.) Dramatic genius-versus-genius cat-and-mouse hijinks progress from there. (What, I’m not gonna post spoilers!)

The cast of characters is full of interesting and weird and nuanced characters, although pretty much the entire female cast exists for Light to deceive or manipulate to his own ends. It’s also jarring that the story is told from Light’s point of view, since we as readers tend to sympathize with the main character, and Light’s sociopathy is, well, difficult to get behind. It creates a sort of irony—you’re rooting for the main character to lose, but you know everything he’s doing and therefore know that he has the upper hand.

The art is the cherry on top of Death Note. You may have read my rhapsodic review of Hikaru no Go several months ago—this manga was illustrated by the same artist.

To be fair, the ending of the story is rather weak, in my opinion, because they introduce several other detective-type characters who want to help bring down Kira. In this, I actually prefer the live-action movie adaptation, which keeps the drama specifically between Light and L without changing too much of the story or how it ends.

I’d still say this is worth a read, though, both as a classic of the manga world, and as an impressive example of how to write an action-oriented story with a heavily philosophical plot without overwhelming it with the philosophy. Go check out Death Note!

Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: Religion in Harry Potter

So the other day while I was thinking (a very dangerous thing to do), I realized that no one seemed to be religious in Harry Potter. Nobody ever mentioned going to church, or praying that Lord Voldemort didn’t come from the sky and strike them down, or anything like that. At first it didn’t really trouble me. After all Harry Potter was a fictitious story that took place in an imaginary world. And then I did a little more thinking and realized that it wasn’t an imaginary world at all. Rather, it was a world that was supposed to be the same as ours, except with a wizarding secret society. So why did the story make no reference to religion?

I suppose it was largely due to Rowling’s personal choices. She probably didn’t want to endorse one faith over another. But in difficult times (such as those Harry and his friends are experiencing), sometimes it’s very natural to turn to religion for help and guidance. Not to mention there is always a Christmas vacation, yet no one mentions coming back for Christmas dinner after church or anything like that. And there is zero mention of Judaism, Islam, or any other world religion.

While Rowling did not include any specific religion/religious references (such as crosses or other symbols, or mention the religions of some of the students), she did put in subtle references. On his parents’ tombstone, Harry reads the quote “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” while on that of Dumbledore’s mother and sister, Harry reads, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The second tombstone inscription is a direct quote of Jesus from Matthew 6:19, the first is from 1 Corinthians 15:26.

But this brings up the question: why are there cemeteries with tombstones with Bible passages on them if no one celebrates anything religious? Sounds awfully fishy to me…

The series’ preoccupation with death and whether there is life after is fascinating. Harry spends the entire seven books struggling with loss, of his parents, of Sirius, and in the final book of many more. When Sirius died in particular, Harry became very preoccupied with whether or not he was dead and if there was a way to get him back. And then there is our BFFL the resurrection stone, which can in fact bring people back from the dead (in a sense). Maybe this is my very little Catholic Sunday School talking, but I thought Jesus was the only one who could do that.

Anyway, when Harry collects all three hallows he becomes the Master of Death. Other than Lucifer in Supernatural (and I suppose Lucifer in general), I wasn’t aware anyone, much less a mortal being, could master death.

Which brings me to that scene in Harry’s head after he’s been killed, where he’s talking to Dumbledore in King’s Cross Station. My guess is that is supposed to be some kind of Purgatory where you can decide where you want to go. Again, the Sunday School speaks and thinks where you end up is someone else’s job.

And the philosopher’s stone, and every spell. I mean, in all seriousness, if all I need to be Jesus is a wand and a spell book the entire religion thing is a little disenchanting if you are a wizard (no pun intended, and yes I am prepared to get in very big trouble for that last sentence). So what role does religion play if miracles are child’s play?

I can totally understand why Rowling wouldn’t write entirely about religion, she didn’t want to endorse one set of beliefs over another. And rereading this post right now it sounds very negative, which was not my intention. Rowling tried to insert a little religion in, but she didn’t want her beliefs to become too overbearing, which is why she has hardly spoken on the subject. And issues such as life after death are something we as individuals all struggle with. However, officially it’s a question that each religion has its own way of answering. And as nice as Rowling’s answers seem in The Deathly Hallows, it leaves some big questions still open.

If she had given her work a little more of a religious context as to how religion fit into the wizarding world then I probably wouldn’t have to talk about these things. But she didn’t so I went there.

 

The Ultimate Spider-Man is Actually Pretty Good

So I’ve been trying recently to branch out into American comics. You may have noticed this. My most recent adventure has taken me into the animated world of Spider-Man.  Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man TV show is actually pretty awesome. The premise is this: Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for a while when he is approached by Nick Fury with a proposition: join up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and let them train Peter into the “ultimate” Spider-Man.  Peter accepts and is suddenly tossed onto a team with junior S.H.I.E.L.D. agents White Tiger, Nova, Power Man, and Iron Fist.  Hijinks ensue and Peter learns valuable lessons about superheroing, blah blah, you know the drill. Anyway, it’s a pretty fun show.

So first I gotta be upfront with you about the real reason I started watching this show. Yes, it was a good way to learn more about the Marvelverse, as Peter often breaks the fourth wall to explain a situation or introduce a character we may not know.  But really? I needed more Son of Coul in my life.  Yup, that’s right. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a lot of influence on this show, and one way that shows is in the presence of Agent Coulson as a supporting character.  Best of all, they even got Clark Gregg himself to do the voice acting! It’s just a small part in the background (Coulson is undercover as the principal at Peter’s high school) but it made me happy nonetheless.

The voice acting in general on this show is pretty great, with Drake Bell as Peter Parker, Tara Strong as Mary Jane, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and Tom Kenny, Greg Cipes, Steve Blum, Travis Willingham (as Thor!), and even Mark Hamill as various other roles. (Stan Lee has a running cameo as the high school’s janitor.)

The animation is somewhat inspired by anime, with some chibi-fication and whatnot.  It also has a good mix of episoding plots versus an overarching storyline.

I’m enjoying it so far. (Although, to be fair, seeing as the internet seems to be full of this show’s haters, I’m relatively easy to please and have no basis for comparison.) I recommend you check it out, too!

Sexualized Saturdays: “The Outcast”, aka Rick Berman is an idiot

Rick Berman is an idiot. Seriously. I cannot stress this enough. Rick Berman is a flipping idiot.

On top of ruining Star Trek with the poor writing of Voyager and the abomination that is Enterprise, Rick Berman produced some of the worst episodes of the series. One of these episodes falls right into Sexualized Saturday’s wheelhouse. That episode Star Trek The Next Generation’s “The Outcast”.