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What's with the grayed out text? That means it's spoilers. For such things I make the background and text the same color of gray, so you can't read it by accident, thusly: See, you can't tell what it says, can you? To read it, select it either by sweep-highlighting it with your mouse, or by using hot keys to select everyone (e.g. Control-A on Windows).

Why "Chizumatic"? The character Ooe Chizuko is my favorite supporting character in all the anime I've watched. Since she appeared in the series Mahoromatic, and is known to her friends as Chizu, thus the name. (Or at least she was my favorite supporting character when I started this blog. These days I think I'd lean either towards Tomoyo in Card Captor Sakura, or Wind Fairy Pepper in Sugar, a little snow fairy as my favorite supporting character.)

Where did all the top pictures come from? They're frame grabs from DVDs I own, or fansubs I've downloaded.

Sub or Dub? Sub, always sub. I watch everything in Japanese with English subtitles; I have never found a dub I thought was as good (except the Funimation dubs of Dragon Ball Z). Early on I tried to watch everything both ways, but I soon gave that up. The impression I've gotten recently from such sampling as I've done is that the dubbing has been getting progressively worse, with lousy casting and terrible performances. Likely that's because doing a better job would cost more, without yielding significantly more sales.

Fansubs? I don't do fansubs. For one thing, I try to honor copyright. (Yes, I know that fansubbers think they're honorable and that they withdraw their versions when the real ones are released here in the US, but they're violating copyright all the same.) For another thing, there's no better way to get your computer infected with all kinds of wonderful malware than to muck around with mass-transfer networking software, and I'd just as soon keep my computers clean.

...or at least that was the policy for this site until early in 2007, when I finally gave in to temptation and started downloading fansubs. I guess I'm not as principled as I thought I was.

AMVs? I guess I'm too old. I was almost 30 when MTV began, and I never got into music videos. I tried watching a few, and they just didn't do anything for me. Anime Music Videos don't, either; I've looked at a few, and there just wasn't any thrill. It's not that I actively dislike AMVs, it's just that they bore me.

Why "Too many words"? When I used to write for USS Clueless, a common complaint was that I never used one word where ten would do. I kept getting told that my posts would be a lot better if they were shorter. Just trim out a lot of the words.

It reminded me of a piece of dialogue from the movie Amadeus:

Emperor: Well, I mean, occasionally it seems to have... How shall one say... How shall one say, Direktor?
Direktor: Too many notes, Your Majesty?
Emperor: Exactly! Very well put. Too many notes.
Mozart: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Your Majesty, as are required; neither more nor less.
Emperor: My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. [hesitates] I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?
Salieri: Yes. Yes. On the whole. Yes, Your Majesty.
Mozart: [indignant] This is absurd!
Emperor: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

So sometimes when I'm inspired to write at preposterous length about something-or-other, it will get posted as "Too many words about..."

Why don't you buy an air conditioner? I rent a one-bedroom apartment and there's no place here to mount one. But even if there were, it only gets intolerably hot maybe five days per year here. Not worth it.

Steve's Anime Heuristics: (What makes a show good)

Heuristic 1: A harem show will be worth watching to the extent that the guy in the middle gets a grip. (Good: Hanaukyo Maid Team La Verite. Bad: Maburaho.)

Heuristic 2: Great power must be challenged by great adversity in contention for great stakes. Power without challenge is just crass spectacle. (Good: Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles. Bad: Tenchi Muyo OVA 3.)

Heuristic 3: What makes a good villain:

1. Hubris: He thinks he's strong and dangerous because he is strong and dangerous. But he isn't quite as strong as he thinks he is, which is why...
2. Nemesis: he eventually gets what's coming to him. Maybe it's incremental punishment, or maybe it's a grand reckoning, but in the end he suffers and probably dies. And before it happens, he knows what will happen to him and why. When it happens, in the eyes of the audience there should be a feeling of justice being done, and feeling of triumph.
3. Comprehensibility: We understand his motivation, even though we may not agree with it. What he does makes sense.
4. Menace: Serious villains should genuinely scare us.
5. Attraction: But villains should also be a bit seductive. There should be just a little bit of a temptation to root for the bad guy over the good guys. We should admire the bad guy, just a little, maybe. And feel just a bit sorry for him in the end.

(Good: Cell in DBZ, Valkyrie Ghost in UFO Princess Valkyrie 2. Bad: Kid Buu in DBZ, Shino in Maburaho.)