Anime Banzai

Many definitions are sometimes listed in the English wikipedia site, so you might want to use that as a complement to my explanations.

As for "absolute territory," I posted this in another thread, but I might as well copy and paste it here as well:

Quote:Originally Posted by Lina Inverse
Hmm, perhaps we should found a "overknee socks lovers" club
But they have to be *white*, gray/black ones (as e.g. in Shuffle) just look *bleh*
"zettai-ryouiki" - 何漢字を使ったいますか。 「絶対・領域」ですか。この言葉は何由来ですか。

Yes, the kanji for zettai-ryouiki is 絶対領域

I am trying to perpetuate the English transliteration "absolute territory," but you can feel free to use zettai-ryouiki if that sounds much more "cooler."

I wrote a post about it before the forum crashed, so I try my best to recall what I wrote:

"Absolute territory" is the section of the skin that is exposed between the mini-skirt and the overknee socks. The ideal ratio should be 4:1:2.5 (length of mini-skirt : absolute territory : length of overknee socks above the knee).

A character that is equipped with such weapon can annihilate vast amounts of brain cells, which can amount to an intense moe~ness that is so destructive that one can overcome one's AT field in less than 0.03 seconds.

Many consider Mayura-tan as a prime example of a destructive absolute territory (or you can oggle at Tohsaka Rin's magnificent absolute territory on the previous post):

Literally, it means "coconut crab," a crustacean species whose habitats are in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

However in otaku lingo, this means "extreme low sakuga quality that is too painful to watch."

The term comes from the fourth aired episode of "Lost Universe," which was titled "Yashigani Hofuru." When this episode aired in April of 1998, many viewers complained that the quality of this episode sucked ass. It sucked so much that the anime production staff had to redo the entire episode to put it back to standard.

Many of the blame lay on numerous of factors including:
Time constraints on getting the go-ahead for the anime to the time of airing (It was approved in January 1998, to be aired in April 1998; less than two and a half months to make the first several episodes for the series).
Outsourcing to an inexperienced and low quality Korean animation studio SAN HO STUDIO.
Which they did not have a key-animation director, so there was no quality check.
When the Japanese anime staff received the genga, it was so horrible that they had to make various revisions and refinements in a hurry.
In which the top guys at these anime studios and producers of "Lost Universe" were upset that their Japanese key animators were still doing refinements to the genga (piece animation). With the airing date looming over the horizon, the top guys scrambled the key animators to quit their refinements and do the douga process instead.
When the key animators protested that the final result was going to horrible, the head guys didn't hear a word of it and sent the "finished" product to the douga process, which was once again outsourced to Korea.

The production staff of "Lost Universe" was plagued from lack of time and communication from the start. When episode one aired, the OP wasn't even completed yet and it actually had SD characters with signs holding up "UNDER CONSTRUCTION." Episode two and three, you can see signs that the Japanese key animators did their best in making refinements. But by episode four, all hell broke loose. Almost every scene had to be redone for the market release.

To see a comparison of before and after scenes of episode four of "Lost Universe," see here:

http://rashika.sakura.ne.jp/sr/lost/index.html
http://homepage1.nifty.com/home_aki/lost4.htm
http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani2.htm
http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani3.htm
http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani4.htm
http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani4.htm

Ever since then, the term "Yashigani" has been used to refer to a particular anime episode (or a series) whose quality is obviously well sub-standard to be shown on TV - or just too painful to watch.

The next "big thing" for the computer was the introduction of....hard drives. This was the era where no USB nor IEEE1394 existed. Nor was any connectors were on the machine board itself. What you had to do back then was to buy a SASI/SCSI interface card and add the hard drive externally. And, it wasn't as easy as just hooking up the cable - you had tons of driver tweakings and jumper settings to work around with "just to get it work right."

Still, people wanted the hard drive even though it was pretty confusing to set up.

One theory exists is that the driving force was once again, ero-games.

As mentioned in the previous post, "Dokyusei" was a big hit. The game came in eight floppy disks. This game can be played in two different ways:

A. Copy and install the files onto your hard drive
B. Play it from the floppy itself.

If you didn't have a hard drive, you were forced with a very annoying pop-up screen like the following:

1. You go into a house in the map screen
2. "Please insert Disk H into DISK DRIVE 2"
3. Nothing was in the house, and you leave
4. "Please insert Disk D into DISK DRIVE 2"
5. Back at the map screen.

Irritating, ain't it? Supposed you accidentally went into a place where you know nothing was in there. You are constantly told to change the disk in drive 2 for each and every time you go somewhere new. Aaagh!!!

By the time the sequel, "Dokyusei 2" came out, the game data expanded itself into a whopping 13 floppy disks!

By then NEC finally realized the necessity of CD-ROM drives, and started including them in their latest PC-9821 model, boasting 256 displayable colors from 16 million available colors.

Around this time, a Super Famicom game called "Otogirisou" was getting much attention. This was a simple adventure/mystery story with an added twist - multi-endings existed in this game. And as the player progressed by completing each ending, a new selection pop-up appeared where there wasn't. Combining background pictures and music, you read the text on the screen and moved the story foward. ChunSoft (the company that made "Otogirisou") called this revolutionary idea as a "sound novel."

You (the consumer) read as you are the main character (Nagase Yuuichi) of the story, as you dwleve deeper and deeper into the psychotic world of "doku denpa" (roughly translated as "poisonous electromagnetic waves") brain-washing girls into suicide and mass rape.

Kizuato (1996)
Leaf had another story in mind to go along with Shizuku. If their visual novel experiment failed, they decided to disband. If it was successful, they left its next idea aside so they can release it as soon as their experiment was successful.

Obviously, "Shizuku" did fairly well in its sales - at least they didn't have stockpiles of returned games as they did in their previous two flopped games.

So Leaf immediately released "Kizuato," their second installement in their Visual Novel series.

You (the consumer) once again read the story from the standpoint of the main character (Kashiwagi Kouichi) who dreams that he is going around murdering people. Then, the murder that he dreamt last night came to be the real thing on the news he say the next day? Am I the killer? Am I going around murdering people in the night!?

To Heart (1997)
The third installment of Leaf's Visual Novel series established themselves in becoming one of the leaders of the current ero-game industry.

180 degrees different from its previous two visual novels, "To Heart" was a heart-warming high school love story.

You (the consumer) read the story from the standpoint of second-year high school student, Fujita Hiroyuki. During the course of the spring semester, you meet different girls - all of whom have something special and you choose to fall in love with one of them.

Perhaps the biggest hit was the extremely heart-warming story of one cute little maid robot named HMX-12 Multi. Multi's hard work, the sad good-bye, and the dramatic ending where they meet once again ran tears down many eyes. Interestingly, the main heroine of the game was supposed to be Kamigishi Akari, but fan overwhelmingly voted Multi as the most favorite character in the game. Multi, in fact, has established itself as an iconic figure in the otaku world.

The CD-DA vocal music that was used in this ero-game (unprecedented at the time) was such a dramatic hit that it was selected to be a song to be sung at karaoke machines (also, unheard of - karaoke machines have the latest hit songs, but never was a vocal music from an ero-game ever introduced into karaoke tracks)

The success and effect of Leaf's gamble was immediately recognized. Many have been pondering "what is the best way to have consumers enjoy ero-games and have them play a good game at the same time?" The answer was what Leaf had just done: Visual Novels.

A. This system is rather simple and straight foward game, yet open to limitless possibilities
B. All you need is several great pictures, good music, and a great storyline.
C. No need for mind-boggling high-level programming or to think about game balances
D. If you have the right staff, a great game can be made with little investment

Formerly, the I/O systems for most games were very keyboard oriented. For example, you would type in "GET KEY" to get a key on the screen to open a door later in the game. One problem is that computers are stupid. For example, the door wouldn't open when you type in "open door," but you'd had to type in "kick door" to have it budge.

Hence, many ero-games became mouse pointer oriented. Dokyusei had mouse pointers with selections such as "rub breasts," or "finger the clitoris."

But, as the visual novels started to become the standard for ero-games, less and less selection points came into play - the main point of visual novels was that selection points were popped up only when it became to deal with what is going to happen in the story:

A. You decide to run away (leads to bad ending)
B. You decide to face your fears up front (continues story)

Consumers didn't want some flashy and hard to remember keyboard inputs nor spend two hours reading the manual just to figure out how to play the damn thing. They want it to install it and play it ASAP. Solution - simplify.

Since then, the gaming system engines for ero-games were tweaked little by little to give the best possible engine that is user-friendly to the consumers.

Now by this time, computers were running on the Windows 95 platform. Ero-game makers suddenly had much more freedom in doing CG art - now they can utilize as many colors as they want and store as much more data on a medium called the CD-ROM.

Elf's "Kono Sekai no Hate de Utau mono ~YUNO~" was perhaps the last game that was released for the DOS format - with much acclaim and show that will be remembered as the pinnacle of artistic work of DOS ero-games.

Now, as I mentioned in the previous post, "To Heart" was a major hit game. Multi's story was so heart-warming that it gave a hypothesis to one softhouse that perhaps heart-warming stories that make the player cry were the thing to make a hit.

ONE ~kagayaku kisetsu e~ (1998)
The core members of the softhouse, Tactics thought up of a simple formula:

(comedic first half) + (heart-warming romantic middle) + (tragic separation) + (emotional get together) = "crying game"

"ONE" was exactly written in this formula.

You play the role of a high school students named Orihara Kouhei, who on the surface is enjoying high school life by meeting several girls. But deep within in his inner self, you yearn to spend an eternity with your sister, who died several years ago - one in which you blame yourself for her death.

The first half of the game is very comedic and fun. However here and there, you have philosophical flashbacks about "sheeps in the field" and "the infinite sky." Around the turning point, you have a heart-warming romantic relationship with a girl that you'd chosen. However, this where everything starts a down turn - suddenly, people that knew you before begins to forget about you. One by one, your friends and teachers starts to forget that you even exist - this is because you've chosen the path to spend an eternity rather than make yourself exist in this world. Tragedy is that you'd just started a romantic relationship...will the person that you professed that you love also forget about you as well!?

Of course, it is up to the scenario writer to how well he can write a story that makes the consumer read onto the story without ever realizing that its all a matter of a simple formula (think: Stephen King novels - they are all the same formula, but it's still a best seller)

"Kanon" was released on June 4, 1999. Speculation was amounting that this game is a major "watch-for" item even before it went on sale. The beautiful CG art, the astounding music, and the atmosphere of the story was captivating. Consumers were wondering, "would these guys that disbanded from tactics be capable of doing something greater than their previous work?"

They did.

"Kanon" was created somewhat of a anti-thesis of "ONE." Instead of the main character going to eternity, this time it was the heroines who had something. Mainly, Tsukimiya Ayu was indeed a spiritual being who runs around the town looking for her beloved Yuuichi - with a very emotional ending.

"Kanon" is touted as the best ero-game of all time. Well, that is a subject open to debate, but it sure did leave deep marks for not only the ero-game industry, but for otakus all across Japan. "Kanon" was such a big hit - that it is not that surprising to say "you cannot call yourself an otaku without going through the baptism of playing Kanon."

The success of "ONE" and "Kanon" on their formula to creat a "crying game" was adopted by many softhouses. For example, just to mention a few:

D.O.'s "Kana ~Imouto"
KID's "Memories Off" (non-ero game)
CIRCUS' "D.C.~da capo~"
Studio Mebius' "SNOW"
minori's "Wind ~a breath of heart"

were all major hit ero-games that can be said that they were very much influenced by Key's formula.

Even age's "Kimi ga Nozomu Eien" was somewhat of a twist of this formula by adding in a "diluted and dirty love triangle relationship" into the scenario play.

As the Visual Novel standard was adopted, the erotic parts in ero-games began to become less and less apparent. More and more people who used to reject such type of games began to become more open-minded that it isn't just about sex anymore. And as more and more softhouses began to adopt the "crying game" standard, both the industry and the consumers began to look at "hey, ero-games CAN have great stories after all!"

Then again, there are also anime based on ero-games that didn't do so modestly - such as "Popotan" and "Yami to Hon no Tabibito." These were more like they were selected due to the high quality of their CG work (both of these ero-games were done by pretty famous illustrators). In the end, even a doujin game - TYPE-MOON's "Tsukihime" went on to become an anime. Right now, it is not so modest to say that currently, "ero-games are created with an anime market in their view." I mean I'm sure I am not the only one who already sees "Fate/stay night" as an obvious anime marketing material.

In 2001, the first movie based on a all-ages love simulation game was released - Sakura Taisen The Movie. In 2002, "Pia Carrot ~Sayaka~" became the first anime movie that was based on an ero-game. Early next year, the second anime movie based on an ero-game, "AIR" will be released. It is astounding that the director for this is Sir Dezaki Osamu - a highly respected veteran anime director who directed major classic anime hits such as "Kyojin no Hoshi" and "Ace o Nerae!" In 2005, the first TV anime based on a ero-bishounen game (ero-game targeted for girls), "Suki na Mono wa Suki dakara Shouganai" will also begin airing on TV. The momentum for ero-game turned anime is unstoppable.

Non-erotic bishoujo games turned anime also increased. As noted above, in addition to "Sentimental Journey" (based on "Sentimental Graffitti"), you have "Kita e ~Diamond Dust Drops~," "Sakura Taisen," and "Harukanaru Toki no Nakade."

Perhaps, you can also add animes such as "Sister Princess" and "HAPPY LESSON" to the list. I mean, "you suddenly have 12 young sister all in love with you," or "you have five beautiful moms as your teachers looking after you." The plot line screams that it could've come from an ero-game. But, I intentionally left these two out since these two were original ideas that were serialized on Dengeki G's Magazine.

Then what kind of anime do these ero/gal game based stories evolve into? Well, duh. If you take in what was in the original story as an anime, you have a single male lead revolving around dozens of pretty girls - a typical harlem anime. While going through each sub-heroines' story, the main plot line evolves by maintaining and growing the relationship between the main male lead and the main heroine. Then there are those anime where no male lead exists at all and everything is told from the female characters' point of view ("Popotan" and "Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito"). And then, there are those anime where each episode focuses on each individual female characters without the existence of a male lead ("Kita e" and "Sentimental Journey")

And then there are some interesting titles such as the anime version of "Comic Party." The main story of the anime involved the male lead, Sendou Kazuki working hard to attain the pinnacle of the doujin world. Interestingly, this ero-game based anime had the female characters as supporting roles rather than a love interest.

"Mahou Shoujo Lilikal Nanoha," which currently started airing this season is also pretty interesting to note about. This all began as a spin-off of the ero-game "Triangle Heart 3 ~ Sweet Songs Forever~" as a joke. The extra joke story within the original game was "what if we take the main character's younger sister and make it into a magical girl story?" (Think of it as something like the relationship of "Tenchi Muyo" to "Pretty Sammy" or "SoulTaker" and "Nurse Witch Komugi-chan"). Somehow this joke began to turn into reality (which is why the saying goes in Japanese anime industry "don't make a joke without thinking about the consequences"). What you have here now is a mahou shojo story that was originally developed as a joke plot within an ero-game.

Another interesting note is on the voices for these types of ero-game turned anime (or ero-game turned consumer console games). There are usually two ways these occur:

A. The seiyuu cast is entirely different from the ero-game and the anime/console version ("D.C. ~da capo~")
B. The seiyuus sound exactly the same, but the names are different

There are many factors why seiyuus use pseudonyms...in fact the seiyuu name that you know might not be their real name at all!

Here in Japan, many talents have gei-mei - a name that is amusing and interesting to remember. For example, there was this one famous talent who recently passed away that every Japanese people knew whose name was Ikariya Chousuke. However, "Ikariya Chousuke" was his gei-mei (talent name) spelled いかりや長介, while his actual name was "Ikariya Chouichi," spelled 碇矢長一.

Seiyuus are not an exception. Some may keep their own name. Others, would change their name so it "sounds" interesting to remember.

Hmm, a bad example would be some guy who has a great song, but the record company finds his real name to be rather boring, like John Smith. So the record company gives him a kick-ass name like Elvis Bon Jovi. While his driver's license and birth certificate still says "John Smith," he is now known to the world as "Elvis Bon Jovi." Like I said, it's a bad example.

So, a seiyuu name that you might know, may not be his/her real name...which you won't know. For instance, Kawamura Maria (I guess Americans would best know her as Naga from "Slayers"). "Kawamura Maria" is her gei-mei, and her real name is Kawamura Shigeyo.

So, going back, yes it was obviously known that Uehara Tomomi = Mizuhashi Kaori. You can alterate Akane's voice within your brain (nounai-henkan) to Rosetta in "Kaleidostar" (to me, it was the other way around - Rosetta alterates to Akane). But then, there is no guarantee that even Mizuhashi Kaori is her real name...perhaps she maybe married and no one knows that, so her surname might be different now.

But for now, Mizuhashi Kaori is her "front name" that she uses in "normal" anime, while Uehara Tomomi (and countless others she has used such as Nanoda Sanae and Tsukishima Rio) was her "back name" that she uses in ero-related anime and games...

Some seiyuus choose to use their name for both worlds. For instance, Ueda Yuuji and Seki Tomokazu uses their name without change "Akane Maniax." On the other hand, others separate their usage for "front" and "back" like Hoshi Souichiro, who goes by the pseudonym "Aiba Tsuyoshi" as Shirogane Takeru in MuvLuv. There are numerous reasons that one can think of...to protect their image, because they were "advised" (meaning, "you'd better change your name or else we'll fire you) from their talent-production agency, or just for the fun of it.

Other notables include:

Tezuka Maki = Nabatame Hitomi
Misaki Rina = Itou Shizuka

which like in the "light," they tend to appear in the same ero-games as well.

If you know how to read Japanese, you can find the listing of seiyuus and their pseudonyms (should they have one, of course) here:

http://www.geocities.jp/gp44103/index.html