Utawarerumono

I'm kinda violating my own policy by following two series at once. But I am glad I did so. Fate/Stay Night is getting kinda depressing for me. Not that anything sad in the story is/has happened, but since I was so thoroughly spoiled for the whole thing, it's hard to appreciate it. The story is taking a massive deviation from the original storylines, but that's not always a good thing.

Back to the topic on hand. I got into Utawarerumono because of a few selling points a member at CAA listed. Medieval backdrop? Warfare? Wings? KEMONOMIMI? I was curious, so I downloaded some eps. I am extremely glad I did. I got in for shallow reasons, but I'm staying for what I hope to be an awesome series.

The world of Utawarerumono has a bunch of "animal-ears" people (who still call themselves human, but possibly that's a translation error). The opening kicked major ass (moreso than F/SN's first OP and certainly more than its 2nd one) with lots of colorful characters and the promise of cool-looking warfare-related violence. The main character, the only guy who doesn't seem to have weird animal ears is very cool and likeable, even though he can't remember his past or even his own name and wears a mask that he can't remove. (BTW, in episode 2 the other characters give him the name Hakuoro). I find myself amazed at this dude rather than trying to defend him like I do for Shirou.

But the real hook to this show, IMO are the sisters Eruru and Aruru who are incredibly cute (especially the latter). Aruru in particular has that whole cutsey girl thing down pat and its extremely nice to see her play "mom" with her pet tiger.

This anime was based on a (H) strategy RPG. I hope that means lots of warfare, like suggested in the OP.

Amritas; Tomkyou; Midterms

1. Dr. Marc Miyake seems to be at it again. He is a linguist who also goes into some sociopolitical issues, but usually deals in the former. He seems to go through phases--a few months or so poking fun at hyper political correctness then many months analysing dead (or near dead) East Asian languages in which I have no interest.

I wonder if he will revive kevin kutabare kusoyama? (note the initials. If there are any Japanese readers here, please don't be offended at this obviously satirical name.

2. I haven't updated the Tomkyou blog in forever, and frankly, crafting that entire blogfiction kills my creative juices. Don't expect any updates in the near future.

3. I have a BIPN 100 midterm today. I did the bulk of the studying today, hours before the thing. Why am I writing this? Just to be emo, perhaps. :P

I'm Touched

It's like they made Fate/Stay Night ep.16 with me in mind.

Fate/Stay Night episode 15

I did not go into episode 14 even though up to this point it is considered by many (including me) to be the episode so far since so many other people did a better job at describing it than I ever could. Let's just say that ep. 14 set up Archer as the Chuck Norris of the anime world.

Episode 15 showed viewers promise of a sex (lesbian) scene. In the original game, the Saber's mana was replenished via sexual intercourse. In fact, there was even a threesome including Rin.

Let me just say, for the record, that though I found the synopses of Fate highly intriguing, I thought the whole idea of sexual mana transfer to be highly ludicrous. The game had enough of a story (as some say) to do without any sex scenes whatsoever, but since it was classified as an ero game, it somehow needed sex. I found the entire premise very forced.

Back to the episode. Indeed, there was a bit of *ahem* close contact between Rin and Saber. But sex? The conflicting views in the fanworld were (1) Shirou didn't have sex with Saber but rather connected with her spiritually and (2) Shirou shagged Shaber (I needed the alliteration). Why the conflicting views? Has the question of sex become like the puzzle of Schroedingers cat, like having sex and not at the same time? What happened was a very silly little "ritual" involving a lot of touching, feeling, and German. The suspense builds up as Rin kisses Shirou and then Rin holds Saber after undoing one of her buttons, saying "We need to have as much physical contact as possible." The audience is at the edge of their seat. Sooner or later, Shirou is on top of Saber, and his spirit leaves his body because (I can only guess) a Shirou X Shirou X Saber threesome is more preferable.

After all this buildup, what is the climax (no pun intended?) Shirou finds himself falling in a giant hole, and then he finds himself in a volcanic environment with a F*CKING DRAGON. This is where the debate lies. The "no sex" side clearly notes that there is nothing to suggest sex since when Saber and Shirou wake up, they are both fully clothed and whaddayaknow, there's no copulation! The "sex" side says, "The imagery is all there!" (Personally, I am on the sex side). Let's see. Shirou falls down a large, gaping hole. This obviously represents what must be Saber's large, gaping vagina. He ends up in a cavern of lava which must be her... um... lava-filled uterus, I suppose. Then the F*CKING DRAGON flies over and bites his arm off and then comes back to eat him whole. I guess that means Saber reached orgasm. I don't think I need to get into Shirou's lines, "Wait, I'm already inside her" and "I need to get close to Saber's core (G-spot?)".

This whole scene was a big letdown for many fans, since there is all this build up to a sex scene only to have some esoteric moment where a M*THERF*CKING DRAGON eats Shirou. Even imagining the whole scenario as a sex scene kinda falls flat since this moment is neither titillating, nor sentimental, nor romantic. Just scary. And kinda funny.

If that whole thing were a sex scene, Shirou must be making an abstinence pledge right now. Or he must be turning gay.

Shirou SHOULD have been summoned as a Berserker

Does this picture remind only me of the Hulk?