What Christmas really means

It’s Christmas. A time for family, friends, mad parties, and just all-around fun. For some of us, it’s the presents that make us look forward to it. For others, it’s the amount of alcohol imbibed.

Unfortunately, we’ve forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not about that jolly fat man who is but a metaphor for consumer capitalism and hyperconsumption, nor is it about family, friends, alcohol, or anything (but family and friends are pretty important, YA RLY).

Heck, it’s also not about animé, as far as I’m concerned.

(I KNOW JESUS WAS MOST LIKELY BORN IN JUNE, WORK WITH ME HERE.)

In today’s risk-averse, self-centered, graceless society, we’ve pretty much pushed out some very important things. Things like manners, family time, ethics,  trust and honesty, [LIST TRUNCATED].

But most of all, we forget the most important thing: that a loving, personal, God would give his most precious gift to us undeserving humans. What was that gift? It’s the gift of salvation.

But why do we need to be saved? Can’t we all save ourselves?

The question is, can we? I wish we all could, but assuming there is an afterlife and we are all going to be judged to see if we’re going to burn for all eternity, all of us would fail that test. Even if we did nothing but good deeds all our lives, we’d still be burning, because we all make stupid mistakes. If it only takes one piece of bad news to change a person’s reputation, it shuold take a lot less to deny us heaven.

Is what you see what you get? It isn’t. I wish it were, though. It’d make things a lot easier. But there are things which we can’t see, and yet, we get it. Like punishment, for example. We probably don’t see it, but we get it anyway. And grace. We can’t see it, and we definitely don’t deserve it, but we still get it.

Do all religions lead to God? I’m afraid none of them lead to God. Some might lead to understanding God, but none of them lead to God. In fact, it’s a given that all of them will lead you to some other place, or places. I’m not too sure about this.

But if everything is meaningless, wouldn’t it be better to die? HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE. WAIT.

But what’s a guy to do, or believe in? If nothing man does or believes has any effect on the events of the world, or the world after, then what does?

Would you believe me that He already gave you the answer? You do? Good. Listen very closely.

God gave up His Only Son, to be born on earth, to die on an old cross-shaped piece of wood. The guy did nothing but good, and was blameless and sinless, as far as my sources are concerned.  And yet, that guy gave up all power and honor to live just like us, feeling our pains, watching our lives, helping us when we need it most, lending his shoulder to cry on, being lent shoulders to cry on, experiencing with us what it truly means to be human.

And then, we nailed him to that old cross-shaped piece of wood, shamed him, jeered at him, called him names, ignorant of the fact that he was born in almost the same way, his first visitors being outcasts and pagans. The same people who adored him, now mocked him.

And the most amazing thing? He never once did kill them, or ask them to stop. Even when he was dying, he never stopped caring for us. (For those of you who note similarities between a certain work of fiction and what I actually am describing now, it’s all a mere coincidence.)

Now why would he do that? We did this to him! He has no need to care for us! He did not have to! But yet, he did! And why would he (and about 80 million people after him) be willing to be led like a lamb to the slaughter?

The truth is this: That man I am talking about, the guy who gave up the gloy of above for the lesser thing? The guy who lived with us all those years ago? That guy who was nailed to the cross-shaped piece of wood? He’s none other than Jesus. He was born unknown, and died reviled. And even in death he still served.

The thing is, he needen’t have done that. He could have killed us all. Why? Is he some sort of a sicko? A liar, crazy? OR MAYBE HE JUST LOVES US SO MUCH.

Yes, there’s no other explanation for this seemingly insane choice. This man, born of a virgin, gave up the glory of heaven, to die like some criminal. All because he loved us so much to save us all from what lies beyond.  He represents a deity so wonderful and kind, HE has held back His Hand of Wrath to let us all believe  in His Love.

I don’t represent any religion, even though I associate myself with the Christians. But I have tasted this Infginite Love, and it’s the most wonderful thing in the world. It’s so amazing, I have to tell people about it.

I don’t need to list down 12 moments in animé. Every single moment I see is precious. I don’t need to talk about what posts made headlines this year; it’ll only bring up bad memories.

But I have got to tell you this. It’s still the single greatest thing I know, and I’ve known great things. It’s more amazing than Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. It’s more amazing than Gurren-Lagann and CLANNAD combined. It blows Haruhi out of the water, and it’s more awesome than Overman King Gainer (and that show was pretty kickass to boot.) And the best part is, HE DID IT JUST FOR YOU. This most awesome thing, it’s also personalized!

Now THAT is the greatest gift ever. Don’t you think?

Merry Christmas. And I hope 2009 doesn’t kill us all.

The cancer that is killing Kyoani, PART DEUX

Oh, and the cancer that is killing KyoAni? They are too reliant on attention-to-detail. If you read the  manga, the quality is almost the  same as the animé. While this may be KyoAni’s strongest point, it is also their weakest. Without any form of minor rewrite to the script, they are only able to  produce animé that are a bit too faithful to the manga series. So I hear you liek mudkips. And that’s the cancer that is killing Kyoani.

I was kinda wondering why they had that one shot where they showed Misae in a typical porn pose that emphasized how smoking hot she was (AS IF WE DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW). Also, TOMOYO KYOU IN DA LOCKA. Apart from that, the episode itself was a masterstroke in shot placement, pace, and scenery porn, but then again, so was the whole first season.

And again when Kotomi wasn’t needed and still showed up. And the Fuuko Master scenes (which were really annoying, cinematically speaking). And the misture and sudden tying up of the Kyou/Tomoyo route mash. Or the fact that the OP scene was pretty much a Key staple OP in extremely pretty animated form (personally, Kanon did the Key OP thing a lot better. I have never seen such a recockulous amount of effort into SHOWING Ayu eating her taiyaki. Or Mai’s hair. Oh lawks the hair) Yes all the Key VNs have this annoying roll call of characters. Usually the main heroines tho. But rest assured, IT’S ALL THERE IN THE VNS.

Nor could I understand the seemingly unrelated scenes where robot and girl interact (though this originally was attributed to my unwillingness to suspend my disbelief). Which also manifested itself as Ayu’s I HAS A DREAM scenes right before every arc. AND THE END. DRR DRR DRR.

It is of my personal opinion that CLANNAD is still one of the most beautiful works of animation I have ever seen. In terms of animation, storytelling, and cinematography, it’s top-class. But it does seem that everyone has more than just mere reservations about the show, sometimes even bordering onto outright hatred, which also echo my personal reservations about the series.

Which would mean that there is some fundamental problem that cannot be atributed to just the human sentiment of wanting either more or too much from everything (which is still the root cause of the problem here.). Too much attention to detail, perhaps, KyoAni? I believe so.

The problem here is this. KyoAni prides itself on attention-to-detail. Probably waaaaaaaay too much. CLANNAD is not your typical VN, where you can pick your girl and be a happy man (relatively speaking). Every single arc is connected to the main plot (or so I hear). It is one of the most ambitious VNs ever made (it was 4 years in the making and drained a lot of money, too), so any adaptation has to be extremely ambitious in order to meet this extremely tall order.

It’s painfully obvious that KyoAni has stretched itself to breaking point to deliever what I personally feel is their magnum opus (AS IF KANON WASN’T ENOUGH ALREADY), and it’s showing. The pandering (OH LAWKS NOT THE PANDERING), the seemingly un-CLANNAD shots (like that one Misae shot), the sloppiness (as some people has said), all the minor nitpickings people are nitpicking over…

If you ask me, it’s clear that KyoAni has taken a job that is too big for their britches, even for a studio like thiers. CLANNAD was an insane gamble that paid off big-time for Key, and to adapt something this big requires not just extremely big balls (which KyoAni have already shown by taking on this Sisyphyean gamble), it requires nerves of steel, an insane director with an extremely creative BENT (think Shinbo, but less artsy),  and unwavering belief in what they do. And even when they lack some of the things required, they still pull through, even if it feels lacking (like pretty much everyone around these parts here feel).

Though if you ask me, by saying CLANNAD the animé sucks, you’re gonna have to say CLANNAD the VN sucks too. For being way too ambitious. Because the fault does not lie with the studio, it’s with the source material.

Are you forcing me, then, to say Key sucks? Because that’s what everyone wants me to do. And because it’s not just cool to hate on sacred cashcows, it brings in the hits, and in the interests of more hits, I’m going to say it out now.

Key sucks. ONE sucked monkeyballs. Kanon is a piece of shit. AIR deserves to be consigned to a trash heap. CLANNAD is tripe and deserves to be thrown into the shredder. Tomoy o After is more than crap, it’s anathema (OH WAIT), Little Busters is made of fail and lose and is so overrated it needs to die in a fire (AND THE PORN EDITION TOO). And planetarian may be a step in the right direction, but it still sucks. In fact, Maeda Jun deserves to be anally raped by FROZEN ICYDONGS for making such shit.

*just died even more inside.

Notes:

1. I’d love to link to Hianano’s FANGIRL RAAAAAAAAGEEEEEEEEEEEEE, but SERVER DIED, BLUEHOST SUCKS.

2. The main problem is still the fact we demand too much from everything. When we finally learn to expect less and accept more, it is there that we find true enjoyment.

3. GONZO is was awesome.

4. I hate myself.

SHODAN is tsundere. WUT

SHODAN is TSUNDERE. HOLY SHIT.

ORZ IS CLOSED FOR TODAY.

4chan, rule 34, etc.

Errr, Impz, I have no idea why I’m still being read. No really.

Impz posits a question: Does age matter in the economy of blogging?

I’m not too uncomfortable with the question, per se, but…

Does age matter? It matters, but not as much as you think.

I’m quite relieved that most of the people doing this are around the 20-29 age range, as this means that even in this age range, you can find a lot of differing opinions and styles, not to mention content.

I could throw out 5 names and they’d all be having different ways of writing, covering events, episodes, editorials, and whatnot. Hinano, jpmeyer (wait, is that one name or two?), Impz, NewGeekPhilosopher, IKnight. Of course, we all know them. But their styles are different, even if the content is similar.

Hinano is mostly HURRDURR FANGIRL RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE, jpmeyer uses wit and sporadic posting, Impz is, well, Impz, NewGeekPhilosopher HAS FUCKING ASPERGER’S BUT IS A HUMAN BEING ALL THE SAME, and IKnight, well, kinda writes with regards to philosophy and literature in mind.

5 people in the same age group, but they discuss the same content in different ways. Does age matter, in this case? I would say it takes a step back. Age helps a lot as an older person is seen as a wiser individual, more grounded and less prone to FAN RAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Though to be honest, I feel that age isn’t very important, considering people actually read what I write (Of course, I’m not going to break 500K hits anytime soon :P), and I’m pretty random when it comes to content. At times I flip out like a fanboy, sometimes I take on the erudite scholer mantle, once in a while I pretend to be a firebrand preacher, and most of the time, I’m just an average joe  who has a lot of fun with this.

But to be honest, I really enjoy what I do, and I love what I write, even if it does get painful at times. It’s rare to see someone who just does it and ends up enjoying it, since most of the time, I usually see either extreme disappointment, apathy, flamebait, or some philosophical discussion I don’t seem to grasp at that point of time (the last has yet to happen. I think.). Or somewhere in between. I dunno. I don’t think a lot of us enjoy watching animé anymore. Maybe that’s why a lot of people are either on hiatus or ARE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAD T_T

I dunno, mang. Maybe we should stop pretending to like something in order to write about it. We all gotta be honest with ourselves, or we might lose our reason to blog. Or live.

Blog Twitterage is fuuuuuuuuuuuun.

Google Reader + Notes = Much fun.

Guts loves moé, world in shock

GUTS LOEV MO-EHH SHIT, MORE AT 11

THE LOLI BOOK ROOM

WHAT HAVE I DONE. I HAVE RUINED A CLASSIC HPL CAROL FOR EVERYONE.

I DO NOT RANK ANIMU

Y I NO RANK ANIMU

Rumors of RadicalR’s passing are, well, RR IS NOT DEEEEEEEEEEAD

KANON TEASER PATCH IS OUT FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF RADICALR IS WIN. AND NEWS. SANYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA