What does it mean for something to be faithful to the original work? Producing a faithful adaptation involves more than just copying the precise happenings of a story. It’s about capturing the spirit of the original work. And unfortunately, Madhouse does an injustice to Hitoshi Iwaaki’s original manga, transforming the story from a classic horror story to a new age science fiction action anime.
anime
Modern Existentialism in Vocaloid: “Common World Domination” by Pinocchio-P
This song is awesome. It’s catchy, has a lovely music video, and it’s philosophical. Watch it and share your thoughts.
“Common World Domination” is a modernist narrative about the fruitlessness of material obsessions. You can see this right from the beginning with the motif of the skeletons collapsing, which represents how no creature can escape from returning to skeletal dust. Meanwhile, the band-aid motif represents the superficial and artificial ways in which people try to escape from their problems. The narrator (whom I’ll just call “Miku”) is a classic modern intellectual filled with apathy and the burdens of consciousness, who compares and contrasts herself with “you”, the viewer.
Ping Pong: The Animation Box Set Snapshots
I made a full unboxing but haven’t finished editing it yet. In the meantime, here is a quick overview of #based Ping Pong packaging.
Ping Pong: The Animation OST [320 kbps], with download links
UPDATE! Please check out version 2 of this torrent here: https://finewhiningandbreathing.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/ping-pong-the-animation-ost-v2-bundle/
My Ping Pong: The Animation box set just came in today, and I’m uploading all the files to youtube.
By the way, if you enjoyed Ping Pong, please feel free to look at my analysis of it. http://wp.me/p4y3Dh-4H
YouTube playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpA14iy5pxO2WX8ywWUemYMDf9RROdX58
Download links:
FLAC Torrent:
- http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=593402&showfiles=1
- Backup: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0wddcpc63i5zobk/Ping_Pong_OST_FLAC.torrent
320 kbps MP3 Torrent:
- http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=593424
- Backup: http://www.mediafire.com/download/m904l92umd53xk4/Ping+Pong+OST.torrent
Gen Urobuchi Alludes to Madoka Magica Sequel During Talk Event Held at Anime Expo 2014
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Minipost: The MadokaSucks.com domain is now in my hands, and by the way Madoka still sucks
You can try it for yourself: http://madokasucks.com. I also revised the blog post a bit to make it more readable. I doubt that very many people will be typing “Madoka Sucks” or “MadokaSucks.com” into their browser anytime soon, but maybe I can get a laugh out of this someday.
I also took a look at the existing results for “Madoka Sucks”, and they’re okay. Most of the search results are too generous with the show and are pretty poorly written. It sure feels good to be the best.
Do you remember your first anime? Part I: Monkeys, Vampires, and Superheroes
I had almost completely forgotten my old days of anime-watching. As a child, I had been a pretty big fan of the Dragon Ball manga. And now that I think about it, it was because I had a fascination with personal training, superheroes, and metamorphosis.
Goku’s adventures were so vivid and wonderful, and I loved the scenes that depicted his adjusting to life a “normal person”, namely taking showers, wearing proper clothes, and talking to women.
Zen Buddhism and Enlightenment in Ping Pong the Animation
I’ve recently been catching myself rewatching the last few episodes of “Ping Pong” over and over again. Although much of the anime is inspired by the 2002 film based on the Ping Pong manga, every frame and shot of the show is made with the complete dedication that only a genius like Masaaki Yuasa could uniquely offer. “Ping Pong” is far from a typical sports anime; it’s a complex story of emotional growth that traces itself through a group of ping pong players. It’s difficult not to scream out in internal joy when we see folks like Kazama and Smile finally becoming enlightened at the end of the show.
Yes, enlightened. The main character Peco, despite his initial flaws — his arrogance and indulgent personality — is a hero who, in his own quest for personal enlightenment and self-improvement, touches and changes the lives of the people he meets along the way. Through his hardships and experiences, we see Peco learn from his mistakes and develop into a perfect Buddhist teacher, capable of uplifting even the most ignorant and unenlightened of people, doing so so with the sublime and simple grace of a true hero.
“Ping Pong: the Animation” shares the common narrative of the Ping Pong Learner, always on his quest for enlightenment, continually interpreted and reinterpreted in the personal lives and emotional developments of the characters. Ping pong is the human activity that has brought a cast from far-flung and diverse backgrounds and dispositions together, each of whom carrying a personal definition and purpose to ping pong in his or her heart. We see this when Butterfly Jo, the Old Lady of the Dojo, and the CEO of Poseidon come back together for a brief reunion, talking among one another with the coarse, lively language of young friends; this scene is the first and only time we ever see all three of them on screen at once.
Ping Pong is the Greatest “Serious Anime” Ever Made
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, i just finished this show and it was FUCKING amazing. this direction, this amazing writing, this fucking greatest of all time character development, what the fuck
why is Yuasa so fucking good at everything? jesus christ everything about this show was fucking perfect, the visual metaphors, the narrative that represents a key part of the human spirit, jesus fucking christ, and it’s a story completely removed from the dumb cliches and edgy pseudo-philosophy that dominates most media (not just in anime)
i thought Tatami Galaxy was good, but only within the framework of anime, but Ping Pong is an entire work of literature that stands completely on its own independent of it’s medium. I would honestly put this on par with Steppenwolf or Notes from Underground, it is a completely amazingly articulate work that is so brilliant and so completely non-pleb
Jesus christ if you aren’t watching this show then I feel bad for you. Nobody deserves to have tastes so bad that they completely miss out on something like this. Enjoy your edgy Madoka Magica shows or Attack on Titan or whatever and pretending that anime is worth watching, because this show is the magnum opus of all “deep anime” and it will only take a true genius to beat this show; there is no POSSIBLE way that a ZOG-controlled capitalist dog like Urobucher and his ilk will ever be able to even stand in the same sphere of creation as this fucking show, but whatever, I don’t even have to tell you this, if you don’t believe me then enjoy chewing the cud like the dumb cows you are, for I have already attained the enlightenment
Recent traffic from /a/-viewers
The other day, somebody posted a link to my Madoka analysis on /a/ (archive here: http://archive.foolz.us/a/thread/106641443/). Despite accusations that I was the one who did it, I promise that I wasn’t the one who posted it — really! I was really quite surprised to see the sudden influx in traffic. Whoever you are, thanks for spreading the good word about the philosophically inconsistent terribleness of Madoka.
Honestly, I knew /a/ was bad, but I didn’t know they had degenerated to such a disgustingly low level of discussion. This really isn’t a debate. Madoka’s last two episodes are objectively indefensible from any reasonable school of philosophy or literary analysis, and if you don’t understand that even after reading my amazingly articulate, one-of-a-kind, million-dollar blogpost, then you have my sincerest condolences. For all those Madoka fans out there who seriously think that the show is even remotely philisophically legitimate, I know that living with such mental incapabilities must be hard for you.
Condolences.
Although I don’t really care that much about the /a/ objections to my critique of Madoka (since the objections are all really stupid and child-like criticisms that I’ve heard time and time and again, and even addressed in the original post), one point that kept coming up was this idea that the ending to Madoka was somehow sad, emotional, and deep.
Really? There’s nothing sad about the ending of Madoka at all. In a world that Urobuchi sets up to be tragic, heartless, and absurd, there really isn’t anything sad about Madoka heroically “sacrificing” herself to guarantee everybody’s sweet sweet happiness for the rest of eternity.
Honestly, the real ending to Madoka should have been similar to what happened to Mami, Kyoko, and Sayaka — Madoka does something foolish and idealistic, but in the end the world churns onwards because it doesn’t give a shit about frilly little pink magical girls. For example, when Madoka makes the grand final wish that saves all of humanity (TM), it ends up not doing anything, and as a result Kyuube tears her apart limb from limb. Or something. You get the picture. If you seriously watched Madoka and didn’t understand that the entire first 10 episodes were entirely about philosophical absurdism (link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism), which is 100% contradictory with the last 2 episodes, then sorry! You’re just dumb! It’s unfortunate I had to be the one to tell you. Maybe from this point on you could consider reforming yourself and reevaluating your life decisions. Until then, feel free to shitpost on my blog. I welcome all comments that aren’t blatant spam, really!
Oh also, while I’m here, I want to address this particular shitpost:
>>106642327
>Mami dies a pretty gruesome and unheroic death
It’s like he doesn’t realize that that was the fucking point. Has this guy never watched an Urobutcher anime before?
Holy shit, top lel, try looking at my post again kid. Sometimes I wonder if you people even know how to read. Just kidding! I don’t wonder that — because I already know that you don’t!
