Unwinnable

“All the new thinking is about loss.
In this it resembles all the old thinking.”

–Robert Hass, Meditation at Lagunitas

Since Makoto Shinkai’s arrival on the anime scene, he’s created some of the most breathtakingly beautiful – and heartbreakingly depressing – feature films in the industry. He’s one of the few directors out there to regularly be compared to the great Hayao Miyazaki, and with each release the comparison becomes more favorable. Every single one of his films, however, has dealt with the very same theme: loss of love and disconnection over time and space. Even before he released 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007), some of his critics (particularly those named Daniel Imperiale) had begun to wonder whether the young anime auteur had anything else to say. (more…)

Fall is historically looked upon as a big deal in the world of American television (even though that tradition is slowly changing). Japan, however, doesn’t have that same tradition, history or yearly cycle. In the Far East, every quarter of the year is a fresh start and you’re never sure when the big shows are going to hit…or not.

It turns out that this fall features a pretty thin, weak field. For us in the U.S., perhaps it’s just as well, given the higher-than-average number of geek-friendly primetime show premieres that we have the good fortune to check out this year. Of course, there are at least a couple of things here that may be worth your viewing time. (more…)

Let us speak, for a moment, about desire.

In the Buddhist traditions (notably Zen/Chan Buddhism), desire is a condition of delusion. The world we perceive with our senses is a kind of sham initiated by ignorant craving. What many Buddhists correlate to enlightenment is emancipation from worldly desires and from the perception of dualities (black/white, good/evil, life/death).

Depending on which sect you’re dealing with, this victory over desire and the practitioner’s subsequent enlightenment are incremental: today I am craving a good anime, tomorrow I am aware that both the anime and the craving are illusions. That’s one notch in the Buddha belt—plenty more to come. (more…)

Ah, summer. A time to visit the beach, pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the ocean. And maybe watch a bit of television while you recover from sun poisoning. We may not be there to remind you to bring the sunblock, but we can help you choose your animated shows from Japan.

Much like in the U.S., the TV schedule in Japan is always a bit thin over the summer, as many viewers tune out and enjoy some outdoor activities. But there are a couple of gems this season, and you’d be wise to catch them in between games of inner tube water polo. Here are the recommendations, in descending order of predicted awesomeness. (more…)

Maybe not me personally since, as a member of the press, one must keep an arm’s length in these situations–or maybe I’m just no Don Juan–but however you look at it, Sakura-con spared no expense finding ways to marry off the masses of single anime fans at their convention.

The first night hosted a panel called “How to Talk to Girls,” which included some examples of what not to say from popular anime. Later that night there were waltzing lessons and a grand masquerade ball at which people actually danced. I might have expected something more like that one dance-less moment toward the end of Footloose, but inhibitions at Sakura-con were refreshingly low.

It was Saturday that really got things moving, though. In the daytime there was a speed dating event for patrons under 18 (despite my interest in Sakura-con’s many love connection events, my lawyers advised I should avoid this one), which was followed that evening by two adult speed dating sessions, one for the straight community and one for gay and lesbian attendees. (more…)

Once again, we at Unwinnable are here to help you cut through the clutter of this season’s anime.

Before talking about the shows, I want to touch on something a bit more serious. Northern Honshu is still a mess after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, and people are really suffering up there. So, as you’d expect, there’s a lot of extended news coverage of the situation. This continues to bump around air times for pretty much everything else on TV in Japan, as it rightfully should. If your favorite show has an unexpected delay, remember that there are more important things than entertainment in our lives. They’re doing what they need to do.

If you’d like to help, the most efficient charities that have been involved are the Japanese Red Cross, and globalgiving.org.

On to the previews… (more…)

American television has only so much tolerance for the taboo. We’ve come to allow for homosexual characters and situations (despite, or perhaps because of, our stringent social policies regarding gay rights) and even to sympathetically depict polygamous Mormons. While I haven’t seen polygamy covered in anime, I’ve certainly seen homosexuality examined in the foreground and accepted in the background as it has been for a while in the US. But I’ve also seen anime depicting incest (by both Eastern and Western standards), pedophilia (by Western standards) and transgender issues. (more…)