~Beyond the Border~ > Daiyousei's Cold Storage
Time To Atone For Your Sins, MotK
JT:
--- Quote from: Tengukami on December 01, 2012, 08:13:57 PM ---this article
--- End quote ---
Spoiler: I don't even like AKB48, but I don't think it's physically possible to roll one's eyes at this any harder than I am right now. "You kids and your damn skimpy outfits and flirty music! It's just about SEX! WHERE IS THE SUBSTANCE???" Oh my God! People like their pop stars to be young and sexy, how awful! Give me a fucking break.
--- Quote ---All of this reminds me exactly of politics. It doesn?t matter if you have talent or ability, what matters is solely and purely PR. As far as I am concerned, this group does not have to present themselves as singers, but farmers or even jugglers. It would make the least difference. Besides, what proper production management in artists decide who is to sing on stage by fans? votes, completely ignoring the individual?s ability to sing?
--- End quote ---
Spoiler: Let me spell it out for you, Captain Feminist Liberator: Singing and dancing are part of the appeal, because those things are sexy. Farming and juggling aren't.
I really resent the implication that this is rooted in some kind of patriarchal desire to subjugate women. Boy bands and male pop singers are NEVER vacuous sex objects, am I right ladies?
AnonymousPondScum:
--- Quote from: Tengukami on November 24, 2012, 11:30:28 PM ---DEFEND THE WATAS OR SUFFER ETERNALLY
--- End quote ---
Challenge accepted.
--- Quote from: Tenguyama ---1. Why the Watatsukis are actually not Mary Sues, but have relatable flaws and imperfections
--- End quote ---
Yorihime can pretty visibly crush anyone in the series in a straight fight---she can dissolve and reassemble matter, create miniature stars, and deflect a Master Spark with little but her sword. Naturally she apparently places a huge amount of pride on her combat skills---she had Reimu, Marisa, Remi and Sakuya trapped with her abilities and could have diced them at her leisure, but when our heroines explained the concept of spell card duels to her, she released them and fought them one at a time, presumably not wanting to turn down a chance to beat the dissolute Earth-dwellers at their own game. It stands to reason that our heroines may have only kept their heads because of Yorihime not being able to turn down a good fight.
In the political arena? Yorihime isn't invincible. Are the charges leveled at her simple misunderstanding and caution, or someone conveniently trying to get Yorihime out of the way? Either way, she realizes that something is amiss and that she needs two heads to solve this problem, so she keeps Reimu with her at the Lunar capital for an extended visit---ostensibly because Reimu was walking proof that Yorihime wasn't the only one who could channel divine power, but also because it's possible Yorihime wanted a second person to be in-the-know and on her side. Why else would she have let Reimu go back home unharmed after taking her there, besides possibly some grudging respect for the only human in the rocket group to give her any worry? Who's to say Yori didn't bring her to the Moon to confide something with Reimu she couldn't share with anything else? Nobody would worry about a stupid, dumb, short-lived, short-sighted human being able to remember any details, right?
Also, Reisen II was in a pickle for heading to Earth and Yorihime went out of her way to "pardon" Reisen II's crime. As she also is the sister responsible for training the rest of the moon rabbits, she apparently has at least some sort of soft spot for her troops.
I imagine that also has something to do with the blame laid on Yorihime---for a bunch of folks obsessed with purity, Lunarians can fight really, really dirty.
As for Toyohime---she brags about being able to wield a weapon capable of casually levelling the entire Bamboo Forest, and seems to care little about the possibility of mass casualties amongst youkai and other creatures living in the Bamboo Forest, and furthermore considers the earth-dwellers to be subhuman scum by virtue of nothing more than being born mortal.
That is not the mindset of a smug jerk---that is the mindset of a certifiable psychopath.
Also, she doesn't personally tend to the moon rabbit troopers like her sister, though she has a soft spot for Reisen and Reisen II---I suspect Yorihime's is more genuine concern whereas Toyo thinks of them as pets, though. Which raises some disturbing questions as how well she empathizes with others.
--- Quote from: Tenguyama ---2. Why Toyo in particular actually has a personality beyond "boy do I love peaches".
--- End quote ---
Let me talk to you about peaches.
It's been said that both the Watas are married, and to men at that.
Has it ever been said that Toyo is HAPPY with her marriage?
These people can and will live effectively forever barring death by disease, gunshot, blunt force, drowning, etc. So why would they need such formal marriage arrangements?
Simple. New DNA is needed. Even if they have cloning of some sorts (possible origin of moon rabbits? Must investigate further) they've gotta get new DNA SOMEhow, and the easiest way is the one already in place---nature. How far did YOU think the Moon Nazi jokes were going to go?
My theory is that Toyo is not happy with her marriage because she swings that way, and the rest of the Moon cannot take that for an answer.
So how does she vent? Peaches. Peaches here, peaches there, peaches everywhere. We all know what peaches are used as a metaphor for sometimes, right? And no one catches on because peaches already have a cleaner, more mundane connotation in Asian-derived cultures.
Also, part of her job involves maintaining the boundary between the scientific, airless-ball-of-rock moon and the whimsical, mythological moon. Presumably without her they would be in some danger of suddenly suffocating within minutes and dying a horrible death.
One imagines she would feel kinda sorta maybe a little bit under pressure for this.
With all THAT in mind, her comparatively callous attitude takes on a different, more tragic dimension.
Danmaku. Danmaku never changes.
~Fin
That was tiring as Hell and depressing as fuck to write. I'mma shower and sleep now.
Jana:
--- Quote from: Nobuko on December 01, 2012, 04:19:16 AM ---Also i'm a huge stoner Partaker of the Miracle Soma but that's honestly pretty unrelated to the above.
--- End quote ---
I am no Yama, but Jana demands you take a long, warm shower and brush your teeth thoroughly!
Oldmansour:
--- Quote from: PX on December 01, 2012, 06:51:37 PM ---I love AKB48. Help.
--- End quote ---
Is it likewise a sin to have enjoyed AKB0048 the anime?
Nobu:
--- Quote from: Tengukami on December 01, 2012, 06:36:07 PM ---The Yama can relate to both of these "sins", intimately. So let's start with the former: for your penance, draw a visual form - either symbolic, realistic or both - that to you evokes feelings of motivation, and post it here.
With regards to the latter, the Yama happens to think this is often totally medicinal and not really a sin as such, in moderation. The "moderation" part being the important bit, of course. Do you think your partakinage has gone beyond the level of "moderation"?
--- End quote ---
I'll do the former as soon as possible, and as for the latter I do believe that I do things in moderation. It's an ever negotiated balance between all the lives that i'm pulled between, and how each lifestyle facilitates the other. My stoner persona is readily integrated into my regular self and I think of it as having gained the permanent buff "Inflappable" due to what i've learned from weed. I'm proud of who I am and all the steps that it took to bring me here.