Aesthetic IS Narrative

Edited by The Davoo

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Nominations for Anime Music Tourney

Oh look! A post about anime. Taka here! Yes I have risen from the depths to once again place a post upon Digitalboy’s humble little blog about Ponies.

Gasp! The light of the viewer’s gaze chars my flesh. I shall be with you but a moment.

In case you have been under a rock…blah blah blah…etc. Anime Intstrumentality is hosting an Anime Music Tourney. The nominations process is over by tomorrow so I submitted mine last minute this morning. Let me tell you, picking 15 songs was hard. I stripped my list of anything I thought was a guaranteed for a nomination (most modern anime music and Cruel Angel’s Thesis/Tank/Higurashi) or if I did I put them low. Mostly I stuck to some older songs I enjoy. So without further ado the list!

Even More Awesome EDs, ~2011 Edition

More EDs! These ones missed the first list for one or more of these reasons: I forgot about them; I didn’t want to include two from the same show; I counted it as not awesome enough because I was being a lazy dick; I haven’t actually seen the anime it comes from but know the ED by reputation.

TO MAKE THIS LIST, if I can actually think of how the song or video goes, it’s got a good bet.

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—KIDS, Layer: 06—Plunging Into Wired

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—Distortion, Layer: 05—Arrival of Nyarlathotep

Nothing can protect us from cosmic anomaly. Beings exist that can capsize our universe with a casual brush. They are beyond our imagination. Mika just had tea with Cthulhu.

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—Religion, Layer: 04—Lain the Connected

—What is your name?
[……lain.]
—First year in junior high?  Second?
[Second.]
—Is school fun?
[(long pause)……yeah.]

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—Psyche, Layer: 03—Lain’s Decision-Making

It has been some time since rumors of the existence of a processor called “Psyche” first surfaced. First mentioned in news groups then eventually throughout the web, its name was whispered among tech-otaku, with employees of shops in Akihabara and Nihonbashi at the core.

While it’s true that every episode so far has focused squarely on Lain, this episode does so in a way that speaks more than it hides for once. Lain’s multiple identities are brought up many times, and I find no reason to question that they’re the same person. Lain never denies any accusations, and rather her actions toward the end of the episode in Cyberia suggest admittance to the idea that “Lain of the Wired” and Iwakura Lain are one and the same. My suspicions that Lain is up to something also feel confirmed, if only by the elementary-school tech wizard Taro’s similar suspicion towards Lain. (I love that I’m suspicious of the main character, by the way.)

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—Girls, Layer: 02—Lain the Quiet Lie

lain?

It’s amazing how much a girl can change her face. Those middle school girls look “their age” when they’re in school uniforms, but get them in their club attire with their makeup and you’ve got a whole new look—and never believe that isn’t the point. Lain is the sneakiest of them all, fabricating different looks to fit the different situations that she finds herself in at the Cyberia club.

First Serial Experiment—[Lain]—Weird, Layer: 01—Lain the Island Genius

Every event serves to emphasize the existence of one’s own personal reality, and as individuals separate from all others, we desire a place to belong.

Serial Experiments Lain is the longest-standing item on my favorites list, even though I haven’t watched it since 2007. I’ve seen Lain in its entirety twice, the first four episodes thrice, and the first episode now five times; and I’ve never felt that I knew the show well enough. Most Lain fans claim to have watched the series four times before “understanding” it—though everyone’s “understanding” of the show is a bit different, and tends to change no matter how many times they rewatch. Certain things like reading the Lain artbook changed my perception of the series without even watching it.

DigiBoy's Collection 1: The Depths of My Regret (OR Buyer's Remorse: The Shit I Wasted Money On, As Raped By Krauser II)

When a normal person sees a high-power-level collection, they will invariably remark on how you have ‘wasted a lot of money on this crap’, and a proper fan will usually reply that it ‘isn’t a waste.’ I wish I could say that, but the truth is that I own a few things that I truly regret buying. Organized, here, in order of how much I spent on this shit. Needless to say, they are all figures, and therefor I will depict each of them being raped by Funeral’s Krauser II Revoltech, a 25-dollar toy with more value than all the shit I’m carting out combined. Ugh. These are the mistakes of my youth.

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