I rate based on MAL’s descriptions (5 for average, 6 for fine, etc.) without strict criteria;
And I literally rate by words, if something is fine it's really fine, positive. I don't know why people consider giving a 6 like negative. And a 5 it's no bad, it's just meh, 4 is mostly I don't like it.
My public reviews try to help and give another perspective. I don't care that much about that aspect. I just love watching stuff so mostly I write my personal impressions on my notes, feel free to check them, but I only have them to remind my future self what I thought about what I watched. They barely have structure.
I don’t like to focus too much on the "objective" aspects of an anime. Trying to justify my feelings that way feels fake — like when judges explain their decisions as if they were purely rational, even though they might’ve just been low on blood sugar. I’d rather just be honest about what I felt.
currently favorites:
movie: Mind Game
manga: idk (old was Berserk)
author: Fukumoto
song: idk (old was Domino Line by Casiopea or Peppermint Blue by Eiichi Ohtaki)
album: Big Wave by Tatsuro Yamashita
I used to add in "On-hold" anime that I completed but was too short, now I just added a tag for them, so to have a real number of the anime I just substract my completed list to the ones with the "short" tag.
a lot of dropped anime is missing, cause I used to delete the entry if I only watched one episode. Now I add everything I watch.
tags (&tag=):
Leijiverse: All Leiji not only space stuff.
generic
weekly: Anime I completed and I guessed only because I watched it weekly/season. (a curiosity is that most of dropped is weekly anime I couldn't complete or watch, what I mean is I just simply didn't like it to even watch it weekly or didn't have time, mostly is the first.)
future: This goes for dropped anime that if I don't have anything to do in the future I might watch, cause many of them I don't consider them horrible, but there are so many new stuff to watch than watching them isn't really something I wanna do. (Completed anime that I have low score must have a reason I watched it, either short, or memewatch that turned bad, etc).
no-brain: Anime I turned my brain off to enjoy, sometimes you come tired and enjoy some stupid shit, or some other reason. Not entirely that, but this tag mostly hints that I consider them stupid.
short: Usually it's like less than a normal episode of duration, like 30 mins isn't short, but 24 is. Something like that not very strict really :p.
I am kinda lazy to organize it so many anime doesn't have tag when they should.
tags i made cause of not having the dates clear:
childhood: Anime I am not sure if I watched all episodes, but definetely watched a lot. Not sure because I watched when I was a kid.
childhood+: Less than 12 year old, but not that less to not even remember I watched fully.
adolescence-= 12 to 14/15.
adolescence= 15 to 16.
adolescence+= 17 to 18.
Now I save the date, even for rewatches in letterboxd.
"No lo pidas, gánatelo. Solo así lo conseguirás". - Renton grandpa "Taking flight to a dream world to escape the harsh realities of life is indeed a human weakness". - Moguro Fukuzou
random shit I save:
物極必反
"In times like these I always cheered myself up with a certain story. I forgot just when I first heard it, or who I heard it from... but, back when I was young it would cheer me up when I was feeling depressed. Basically, you think of life in terms of a single 24 hour day. So if you take the average human lifespan, to be around 72 years, then dividing that by 24... that comes to 3 years per hour. Meaning, that if you were 18 it'd only be 6 AM! 6 in the morning is nothing! Schools aren't even open by then! It's only been a couple of hours before sunrise, the day's just begun! So if you're 18, you can still fix you life by then! In fact even if you were 30 year old, that's still only 10 AM! The sun's still high, and there's still 2 hours until noon! You still have the whole afternoon to fix your life! You could still make something of yourself. I've always been thinking that, but... I'm now 45 years old! 45 divided by 3 is 15 meaning, that the time 3PM! Ring Ring Ring! I can hear the clock, ringing in my mind! There's only 2 hours before work is over at 5PM! I can't redo anything, it's almost time to go home already."
― Nobuyuki Fukumoto, Saikyō Densetsu Kurosawa 9
"Even though there is life no one here is living it. Life is overflowing from you and these people are merely drinking their fill, but Dio and all the people I’ve met on my journey aren’t like that…they’re..they’re more…they were blazing with fire…they were torches burning with life."
― Casshern
Me acuerdo de ANJ con Yabuki, Carlos Mendoza, Rikishi todos ellos ardieron, "pure white ash", vivir con pasion, vivir con proposito esa pasion, frase va muy duro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67rc96joOz8
Man what a great a smile, I can't stop to think why people like this live, being yourself happy is the most important thinkg? is the sacrificies me and my family had done important? or should i just live like this man, enjoying my self... (this kinda reminded me of Rainbow Fireflies).
Kabukicho in anime:
Kinda kabukicho in Ep 2 of Hataraku Saibou Black.
Also in Bartender anime
In Trillion Game ep. 8
Kemonozume Ep 5
A lot more, wish i started this before, i know there were a lot
I like zuihitsu more than having an structured review.
Miguel Hernandez:
"¿No cesará este rayo que me habita
el corazón de exasperadas fieras
y de fraguas coléricas y herreras
donde el metal más fresco se marchita?
¿No cesará esta terca estalactita
de cultivar sus duras cabelleras
como espadas y rígidas hogueras
hacia mi corazón que muge y grita?
Este rayo ni cesa ni se agota:
de mí mismo tomó su procedencia
y ejercita en mí mismo sus furores.
Esta obstinada piedra de mí brota
y sobre mí dirige la insistencia
de sus lluviosos rayos destructores."
El del tiro un limon tambien jaja.
Lope de Vega:
Lo que han de hacer los ingenios grandes cuando los murmuran
"Un lebrel Irlandés de hermoso talle,
bayo entre negro de la frente al anca,
labrada en bronce y ante la carlanca
pasaba por la margen de la calle.
Salió confuso ejército a ladralle,
chusma de gozques, negra, roja y blanca,
como de aldea furibunda arranca
para seguir al lobo en monte, o valle.
Y como escriben que la Diosa trina,
globo de plata en el celeste raso,
los perros de los montes desatina.
Este hidalgo lebrel sin hacer caso,
alzó la pierna, remojó la esquina,
y por medio se fue su paso a paso."
"...Que si es de celos, no ladráis en vano."
Que al amor verdadero no le olvidan el tiempo ni la muerte
"Resuelta en polvo ya, mas siempre hermosa,
sin dejarme vivir, vive serena
aquella luz, que fue mi gloria y pena,
y me hace guerra, cuando en paz reposa.
Tan vivo está el jazmín, la pura rosa,
que, blandamente ardiendo en azucena,
me abrasa el alma de memorias llena:
ceniza de su fénix amorosa.
¡Oh, memoria cruel de mis enojos!,
¿qué honor te puede dar mi sentimiento,
en polvo convertidos sus despojos?
Permíteme callar solo un momento:
que ya no tienen lágrimas mis ojos,
ni conceptos de amor mi pensamiento."
Francisco de Quevedo:
UN DELITO IGUAL SE REPUTA DESIGUAL SI SON DIFERENTES LOS SUJETOS QUE LE COMETEN, Y AUN LOS DELITOS, DESIGUALES
"Si de un delito proprio es precio en Lido
la horca, y en Menandro la diadema,
¿quién pretendes, ¡oh Júpiter!, que tema
el rayo a las maldades prometido?
Cuando fueras un robre endurecido,
y no del cielo majestad suprema,
gritaras, tronco, a la injusticia extrema,
y, dios de mármol, dieras un gemido.
Sacrilegios pequeños se castigan;
los grandes en los triunfos se coronan,
y tienen por blasón que se los digan.
Lido robó una choza, y le aprisionan;
Menandro un reino, y su maldad obligan
con nuevas dignidades que le abonan."
ARREPENTIMIENTO Y LÁGRIMAS DEBIDAS AL ENGAÑO DE LA VIDA
"Huye sin percibirse lento el día,
Y la hora secreta y recatada
Con silencio se acerca, y despreciada,
Lleva tras sí la edad lozana mía.
La Vida nueva que en niñez ardía,
La juventud robusta y engañada,
En el postrer invierno sepultada
Yace entre negra sombra y nieve fría.
No sentí resbalar mudos los años;
Hoy los lloro pasados, y los veo
Riendo de mis lágrimas y daños.
Mi penitencia deba a mi deseo,
Pues me deben la Vida mis engaños,
Y espero el mal que paso y no le creo."
Retirado en la paz de estos desiertos…
"Retirado en la paz de estos desiertos,
con pocos, pero doctos libros juntos,
vivo en conversación con los difuntos
y escucho con mis ojos a los muertos.
Si no siempre entendidos, siempre abiertos,
o enmiendan, o fecundan mis asuntos;
y en músicos callados contrapuntos
al sueño de la vida hablan despiertos.
Las grandes almas que la muerte ausenta,
de injurias de los años, vengadora,
libra, ¡oh gran don Josef!, docta la emprenta.
En fuga irrevocable huye la hora;
pero aquella el mejor cálculo cuenta
que en la lección y estudios nos mejora."
Contra los que quieren gobernar el mundo
y viven sin gobierno
" En el mundo naciste, no a enmendarle,
sino a vivirle, Clito, y padecerle;
puedes, siendo prudente, conocerle;
podrás, si fueres bueno, despreciarle.
Tú debes, como huésped, habitarle
y para el otro mundo disponerle;
enemigo de l'alma, has de temerle,
y, patria de tu cuerpo, tolerarle.
Vives mal presumidas y ambiciosas
horas, inútil número del suelo,
atento a sus quimeras engañosas;
pues, ocupado en un mordaz desvelo,
a ti no quieres enmendarte, y osas
enmendar en el mundo tierra y cielo."
Amor constante, más allá de la muerte
"Cerrar podrá mis ojos la postrera
sombra que me llevare el blanco día,
y podrá desatar esta alma mía
hora a su afán ansioso lisonjera;
mas no, de esotra parte en la ribera,
dejará la memoria en donde ardía:
nadar sabe mi llama la agua fría
y perder el respeto a ley severa.
Alma a quien todo un dios prisión ha sido,
venas que humor tanto fuego han dado,
medulas que han gloriosamente ardido,
su cuerpo dejarán, no su cuidado,
serán ceniza, más tendrá sentido,
polvo serán, más polvo enamorado."
Me gustan estas fotos pero sabes la verdad no se si haya algun concepto o algo que me haga decir que sea buena, osea una justificacion de la fotografia sabes? Osea las imagenes son tan complejas y tienen tantos factores que no se si se puedan evaluar, me gustan estas fotos pero solo emocionalmente, no se si haya algun concepto al que me pueda agarrar para no solo basarme en lo emocional.
Y con este mensaje oculto me voy, me acuerdo de esa cita que tengo arriba de Fukumoto, pero bueno eso me voy ya no puedo mas.
As for what I personally thought of The Stranger, I found Meursault to be an incredibly unique protagonist, even more revolutionary by the standards of the 1940s. While previous literary heroes were filled with ennui and certain degree of frigid nihilism, not even the darkest of Byronic heroes were quite like this asshole. The feelings of complete detachment, alienation, and hopelessness make the novel powerful on an emotional level, while its attempt at finding a 3rd path similar to but distinct from nihilism and existentialism make it engaging on an intellectual level. The priest (and the reader both then and now) expect Meursault to grow desperate as he's about to die and try find some form of salvation, but he is purely accepting of the fact that he lives in a cold, uncaring universe and his nature that everyone else is disgusted by merely reflects this reality. The final speech to the priest rejecting religion was very powerful and stuck with me. I'm more of the wishy washy "agnostic" type, but I was just moved by how well written it was, not so much that I agree with it. As a philosophical novel and as a psychological drama I think it's pretty top notch. I have a soft spot for psychological dramas with lengthy internal monologues. I have been a Dostoevsky fanboy since I was in high school, so that's only to be expected. lol
I think The Stranger is an excellent introduction to Camus’s absurdism. If you want something a little shorter, you can check out his short story “The Guest” and then if you enjoy that, read Stranger. Then if you love Stranger there’s The Myth of Sisyphus, which I’ve actually not read yet but have heard is very good!
I'm glad you think my list is interesting! You likewise have a very cool list. It's great to see anime fans who explore a wide variety of anime! There is so much out there to find; that's what makes art so fun.
Although I prefer cel animation, I will say that our perspective on older anime is a bit warped. I imagine seasonal anime has always been rather shoddy, even if the art quality might have been better and we hadn't been inundated with mindless LN adaptations yet. We're mostly thinking of the most acclaimed productions from the 80s, 90s, and even early 2000s. A lot of stuff during the cel era was poorly animated, badly paced, and often not notable in most categories. I suspect average production quality has improved in more recent seasons, even if many of them look cheap, and I have a preference for cel. Pacing is also certainly better. I'm having a bit of hope for Saru lately, Shaft is generally good, Ufotable at least looks nice, and some other studios are fine... and there's a decent enough movie or series coming out here or there, so it's not all bad at least. :P
SAC is a rather silly style over substance show, which is best served as a film, I feel. I remember it being decent enough. Both the movie and series are directed by Dezaki, so they should be fairly well made. I only ever watched 1 episode of the series. Was okay, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that would work for 35 episodic episodes.
I'm getting to where I watch fewer seasonals lately. They're mostly dull and lacking creativity. Notable directing or writing is uncommon. Many of them aren't that well made. Concepts? Well, every season consists of goofy niche material (like work or hobby bullshit), long-running shonens, CGDCT sludge, loads of generic fantasy and isekai. Older isekai, even if not good, tended to be more thoughtfully constructed. Now it's the most escapist wank imaginable. There's usually only 1-2 shows I'll even give 6-7 to per season, and I feel like I've lowered my standards to do so in some cases. :D
Hi. You're welcome. It's one the main movies I usually recommend for that period of Japanese cinema. You might like some of Kurosawa's other films, but I think that must be his best. I was pretty much in the same boat as you back when I watched Cagliostro (since then, I've watched maybe 1-2 other Lupin movies and that Fujiko spin-off that came out a while back; so I've barely scratched the surface of this franchise). It stands on its own well, so I don't think any familiarity with the series is required, and the series is fairly episodic, I believe. Maybe read a wiki about the characters, but even that is probably unnecessary. Miyazaki is largely using the setup of Lupin as a vehicle to explore his own subjects of interest, so it doesn't depend on much knowledge of the series. Oh, haha... I understand. 26 episodes is usually my limit, and I find anything more than that is usually a slog.
It's a fascinating film for the animation technique and atmosphere, and I think any animation fan must see it (well, those who like independent animation, anyway). I find the Nazi references sort of obtrusive, having read about the actual colony. It did have colonists formerly in WWII-era Germany's military, but most young, fighting age men coming from Germany would have served in some way. It wasn't part of the "ratlines," from what I can tell, and they were ideologically Christian (national socialism is anti-Christian) and, evidently, getting perks from assisting Pinochet's regime. I didn't care for some of the themes, and the symbolism was lacking in subtlety (didn't the kids drink milk and become blonde and blue eyed and wearing lederhosen and suspenders? lmao... I've probably never seen anything more on the nose than this), but the modern fairy tale framing made it more palatable. It's slow (hardly anything happens beyond establishing the scene in some cases), detached, and maybe experimental to a fault. The film is about abuse, but the style is too alienating for an emotional connection to any of the characters, which can make it dull and removes a lot of the impact from the final phase of the film. It's far more concerned with aesthetics than storytelling, so I feel you could accuse this film of style over substance, but the style is so unique that it makes for a worthwhile film.
Cure is probably the best Japanese horror film, I feel. Kind of like a good, less edgy version of Se7en. I remember liking Onibaba too, but I'd reckon it's a touch overrated. Still, probably one of the best older black and white Japanese horror films, along with Kobayashi's Kwaidan.
It's a quirky horror comedy with dark, satirical tones, and the kind of weird concept that I tend to like. Unfortunately, I remember even less about it, as I watched that many years before Love Exposure. Have you seen Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure? I wonder if you'd like that for horror.
Hi. I see I gave it a 2.5/5... It's been a long time since I've seen it, so I don't think I can say anything too specific. It has that shitty digital camera/modern TV movie look, and it's LONG. Many of the shots are unappealing, and there is a cheese factor to some of the acting/expressions. Then there's Sono's typically perverse/grotesque characters and events, though the slightly kung fuish presentation of stealthy panty peeping is amusing, I guess. I don't like the culty Christian atmosphere of it, as I don't like the Abrahamic religions. It's usually around this time that I'll be told, "Oh, you don't understand. It's, like, making fun of Christianity." Yeah, I get it. I'm not too enthused about basic bitch critiques of religion and "cults." I don't like his Noriko's Dinner Table either, and it's a long, grueling film. About the only one I've tolerated well was Suicide Club, but that's been so long that I might have a change of heart there as well. What did you think of the movie?
Hi. No, I haven't seen it and don't recall the title. I'll give it a try. I've enjoyed a fair amount of Russian animation in the past. Thanks. Looks like vagabond Ronald McDonald ran out of clown makeup and red wigs and had an acid trip...
Ouch, what you said about restrictions and taboo growing up there sucks. Do you think it was like that for previous generations as well?
The perception we have of Chile here (and Argentina) is that you are more European-like (and I mean cold-European, like Germany) like the southern states of Brazil - which are more cold, conservative and their Carnaval sucks hehe (the further north you walk here, the more culturally mixed and party-prone we get).
I don't know much about how other countries and cultures dealt with nudity. I think because of our very tropical climate our natives were traditionally naked, we have a day to celebrate native culture and all their depiction on media, movies, cartoons for kids, etc, they were always naked, so I think our approach to nudity (before globalization) was highly influenced by them. I remember going naked to pools when I was a little kid and it wasn't rare to see little kids naked on the beach as well, I guess the general sentiment was that kids are sexless entities so no problem with that - of course the parents were always together, and if someone was looking weirdly they'd probably get lynched. There was this kids' TV show called Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, I remember one episode had a native folklore tale and they had two boys, probably aged around 6yo, playing two native kids and they were fully naked the whole episode... here it was seen as natural, but in other places I'm sure it would be a scandal - but times changed, I don't think any of that would be possible today.
But, for example, Black Moon (1975), a German/French movie by a French director, has a bunch of little kids playing naked. El Topo (1970) is Mexican production and the son of the main character (played by the director's son) is naked the whole time. I recently watched Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) and it's a very whimsical and cute Czech movie about a girl on the threshold of childhood, circus artists just came to town and she imagines adventures, villains and romance, I really could see Hayao Miyazaki animating it, it reminded me a lot Spirited Away, and there is a scene the girl is naked, I was going to log the movie on letterboxd and saw all comments about pedophilia and shit, man, some people automatically links nudity to eroticism, but in all those movies, as in those Japanese productions I mentioned in the blog, as well the cherubs in Renaissance art, the nudity is used to represent innocence and purity. But because of those movies I know it wasn't just Brazil that had this natural approach to nudity.
About nudity on Carnaval, yes it's artistic, "tasteful", but obviously it's linked to sexuality - as it is adult nudity, but it's exclusive to the parades and private parties. The street parties we have all around the country the whole week people don't go naked, it wouldn't even be safe.
Then from the '80s to the '00s we had this guy called Gugu on TV (I mentioned "Banheira do Gugu" in the blog and celebrities getting naked) well, this guy was shamelessly selling sex, and his show Domingo Legal was Sunday from 12h to 16h (I hope you guys in Chile don't use that AM/PM crap), so it was the time the whole family gathered to have lunch... you can't find much about it on Youtube, I found on a porn site a short homage our biggest newscast made when he died, and I can't upload it on Youtube because of the content lol, and yeah Brazil is a very Catholic country, but this was our Sunday family entertainment (I won't link it from a porn site here, so I downloaded the video and put on gdrive) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjP6ePxkdKrXKKzguaSdztwBlkOh-GlO/view - I look back and laugh at how unhinged this guy was lol, his show was absolute crap, but in a way I'm glad we had him - and watching it as a kid it was just some dumb competitions they had to swap clothes inside a pool faster than the other team or collect bars of soap inside a bathtub while the person from the other team tried to prevent it. edit: I just discovered this is a fan-made edit of best moments of his show
Stuff like sex and drugs in the media, I do think kids need a parent or a teacher to talk about it, they shouldn't just be exposed to it without someone to explain it, at least the first time. That movie Kids (1995) I mentioned I watched on school in fifth grade (10/11yo) it's pretty heavy stuff about unprotected sex, all the language is very explicit, but that's exactly the language we would have a few years from then (the characters are between 12 and 16yo), so what teachers expected is that when we got there we wouldn't be as dumb as those kids in the movie that had no guidance. We had that movie to scare us about sex and Christiane F. to scare us about drugs, but the approach to sex was pretty much just about unprotected sex, and they would talk more about boundaries and consent (first scene of Kids is rape, but some might not notice it unless it's pointed out). What you said about the censorship taking away the chance to understand it, yeah I think all those themes should be tackled in early adolescence, and then adolescents be free to watch all those stuff about problems they are going to face and really think about it, rationalize, be ready. Kids/teenagers are very smart if you let them, if you encourage them, I believe all the censorship just dumb us down.
The banning of words especially baffles me. You’re not solving anything by prohibiting a word. It’s not like the prejudice magically disappears. And this whole moral atmosphere that’s focused on banning everything that makes someone feel uncomfortable, rather than helping people think rationally or grow emotionally, is just exhausting and kind of backwards.
ps: I talked so much about the nudity subject because you asked about Brazil, and you know that video I posted about Carnaval? 2016 was the last year she was naked on TV, in 2017 they started clothing the character, and they killed it in 2022. There is way less nudity and sex in mainstream movies nowadays compared to the '80s and '90s as well (and that's a documented fact), add that to the general American-like censorship of the mainstream internet (social media and big platforms), I guess kids growing up here now are going to have a repressive view of nudity like Americans do, linking it to pornography and vulgarity. And that's probably the future until we get an anti-internet counterculture among young people, probably two or three generations from now before that becomes possible, if we don't become mindless pets tutored by AI until then.
Another effect of the internet, well, that wonderful part in the middle of this comic is probably dying because the algorithm put us in interest bubbles to drive up engagement - and peer pressure on the internet is insane, I blame that for the total homogenization of "sides" and the crazy politics we are seeing. Politics nowadays in Brazil also got Americanized, we are increasingly moving toward a bipartisan system, but all the left here came from a strong working-class tradition that stemmed from century-old unions, and in the last ten years it was diluted by American liberal identity politics young activists learned over the internet, as they have easier access to Twitter trending topics than their local unions and social movements' newspapers. Screw workers' rights, we just need more black, gay and female bosses, and support the big corporations that change their logos to promote it in specific months. The agendas also got Americanized lol - great strategy to stray workers from workers' movements.
Man, sorry if I got too political haha
But I saw that Miguel Hernández poem in your profile, so I guess that last paragraph won't bother you.
I just saw you are from Chile. What's your view of the subject there - changes the internet might have brought to your culture and society, and if it got Americanized as well.
Hi dude, how are you doing? I'm surprised someone actually read it haha
I think internet has changed childhood everywhere. I was watching Night of the Comet (1984) the other day, it's a teen apocalypse movie, and one thing that showed something was wrong is that there were no kids on the streets on Sunday morning.
Apocalyptic scenario back then, completely normal today hehe
Probably TV has also impacted childhood before, but I don't think it had nearly the same grip the internet (and especially mobile internet) has on people's lives, and at least TV is local, whereas with the internet we are all subjected to the sensitivity and set of morals from the service provider and their necessity to appease wider audiences. My page on Facebook had 40k followers and I lost it because a bunch of strikes related to nudity lol - and I don't post anything erotic, it was just pieces of art that happened to have nudity, and even though the TOS says it's ok, in reality they will censor it. So nudity is no big deal for people from some cultures, but people from cultures that make it a big taboo can't discern nudity from pornography, hence that censorship I mentioned in that text, like the Dragon Ball one.
(I'm often posting Watchmen on my page, and from time to time there is a follower who tells the story of watching it in the cinema and there was a parent with a kid behind him and the moment Dr. Manhattan appears naked the kid gasped so the parent would have some explaining to do that night... and after that I looked around the internet a bit and saw some forums people telling how to explain the bath scene from My Neighbor Totoro to their kids... so some people are so freaked out by nudity that they can't even shower/bath with their own kids... - I mean, if that kid from the cinema had seen his father naked before I guess he wouldn't have gotten surprised by Dr. Manhattan)
I don't have much contact with kids today, but until the pandemic I was still hanging out regularly at underground gigs (punk, goth, metal) and over the years I noticed a huge decline of "kids" (teenagers) in those shows... so I wonder how much the algorithm pointed kids towards things it judged more appropriate, "family-friendly", and they strayed from everything else. One thing I also wonder is how much kids today are affected by boredom. I'm hardly ever bored today (I don't know if it's an age-related effect), I mean, if I get bored I'm easily distracted by some feed of dumb short videos on my cell phone, but before the modern internet, I guess boredom was a big social drive, you'd go out and find something to do, see places, meet people, etc, and now you kinda just look at your phone and dull it.
All Comments (31) Comments
I'm getting to where I watch fewer seasonals lately. They're mostly dull and lacking creativity. Notable directing or writing is uncommon. Many of them aren't that well made. Concepts? Well, every season consists of goofy niche material (like work or hobby bullshit), long-running shonens, CGDCT sludge, loads of generic fantasy and isekai. Older isekai, even if not good, tended to be more thoughtfully constructed. Now it's the most escapist wank imaginable. There's usually only 1-2 shows I'll even give 6-7 to per season, and I feel like I've lowered my standards to do so in some cases. :D
The perception we have of Chile here (and Argentina) is that you are more European-like (and I mean cold-European, like Germany) like the southern states of Brazil - which are more cold, conservative and their Carnaval sucks hehe (the further north you walk here, the more culturally mixed and party-prone we get).
I don't know much about how other countries and cultures dealt with nudity. I think because of our very tropical climate our natives were traditionally naked, we have a day to celebrate native culture and all their depiction on media, movies, cartoons for kids, etc, they were always naked, so I think our approach to nudity (before globalization) was highly influenced by them. I remember going naked to pools when I was a little kid and it wasn't rare to see little kids naked on the beach as well, I guess the general sentiment was that kids are sexless entities so no problem with that - of course the parents were always together, and if someone was looking weirdly they'd probably get lynched. There was this kids' TV show called Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, I remember one episode had a native folklore tale and they had two boys, probably aged around 6yo, playing two native kids and they were fully naked the whole episode... here it was seen as natural, but in other places I'm sure it would be a scandal - but times changed, I don't think any of that would be possible today.
But, for example, Black Moon (1975), a German/French movie by a French director, has a bunch of little kids playing naked. El Topo (1970) is Mexican production and the son of the main character (played by the director's son) is naked the whole time. I recently watched Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) and it's a very whimsical and cute Czech movie about a girl on the threshold of childhood, circus artists just came to town and she imagines adventures, villains and romance, I really could see Hayao Miyazaki animating it, it reminded me a lot Spirited Away, and there is a scene the girl is naked, I was going to log the movie on letterboxd and saw all comments about pedophilia and shit, man, some people automatically links nudity to eroticism, but in all those movies, as in those Japanese productions I mentioned in the blog, as well the cherubs in Renaissance art, the nudity is used to represent innocence and purity. But because of those movies I know it wasn't just Brazil that had this natural approach to nudity.
About nudity on Carnaval, yes it's artistic, "tasteful", but obviously it's linked to sexuality - as it is adult nudity, but it's exclusive to the parades and private parties. The street parties we have all around the country the whole week people don't go naked, it wouldn't even be safe.
Then from the '80s to the '00s we had this guy called Gugu on TV (I mentioned "Banheira do Gugu" in the blog and celebrities getting naked) well, this guy was shamelessly selling sex, and his show Domingo Legal was Sunday from 12h to 16h (I hope you guys in Chile don't use that AM/PM crap), so it was the time the whole family gathered to have lunch... you can't find much about it on Youtube, I found on a porn site a short homage our biggest newscast made when he died, and I can't upload it on Youtube because of the content lol, and yeah Brazil is a very Catholic country, but this was our Sunday family entertainment (I won't link it from a porn site here, so I downloaded the video and put on gdrive) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjP6ePxkdKrXKKzguaSdztwBlkOh-GlO/view - I look back and laugh at how unhinged this guy was lol, his show was absolute crap, but in a way I'm glad we had him - and watching it as a kid it was just some dumb competitions they had to swap clothes inside a pool faster than the other team or collect bars of soap inside a bathtub while the person from the other team tried to prevent it. edit: I just discovered this is a fan-made edit of best moments of his show
Stuff like sex and drugs in the media, I do think kids need a parent or a teacher to talk about it, they shouldn't just be exposed to it without someone to explain it, at least the first time. That movie Kids (1995) I mentioned I watched on school in fifth grade (10/11yo) it's pretty heavy stuff about unprotected sex, all the language is very explicit, but that's exactly the language we would have a few years from then (the characters are between 12 and 16yo), so what teachers expected is that when we got there we wouldn't be as dumb as those kids in the movie that had no guidance. We had that movie to scare us about sex and Christiane F. to scare us about drugs, but the approach to sex was pretty much just about unprotected sex, and they would talk more about boundaries and consent (first scene of Kids is rape, but some might not notice it unless it's pointed out). What you said about the censorship taking away the chance to understand it, yeah I think all those themes should be tackled in early adolescence, and then adolescents be free to watch all those stuff about problems they are going to face and really think about it, rationalize, be ready. Kids/teenagers are very smart if you let them, if you encourage them, I believe all the censorship just dumb us down.
I can't agree more
Another effect of the internet, well, that wonderful part in the middle of this comic is probably dying because the algorithm put us in interest bubbles to drive up engagement - and peer pressure on the internet is insane, I blame that for the total homogenization of "sides" and the crazy politics we are seeing. Politics nowadays in Brazil also got Americanized, we are increasingly moving toward a bipartisan system, but all the left here came from a strong working-class tradition that stemmed from century-old unions, and in the last ten years it was diluted by American liberal identity politics young activists learned over the internet, as they have easier access to Twitter trending topics than their local unions and social movements' newspapers. Screw workers' rights, we just need more black, gay and female bosses, and support the big corporations that change their logos to promote it in specific months. The agendas also got Americanized lol - great strategy to stray workers from workers' movements.
Man, sorry if I got too political haha
But I saw that Miguel Hernández poem in your profile, so I guess that last paragraph won't bother you.
I just saw you are from Chile. What's your view of the subject there - changes the internet might have brought to your culture and society, and if it got Americanized as well.
I think internet has changed childhood everywhere. I was watching Night of the Comet (1984) the other day, it's a teen apocalypse movie, and one thing that showed something was wrong is that there were no kids on the streets on Sunday morning.
Apocalyptic scenario back then, completely normal today hehe
Probably TV has also impacted childhood before, but I don't think it had nearly the same grip the internet (and especially mobile internet) has on people's lives, and at least TV is local, whereas with the internet we are all subjected to the sensitivity and set of morals from the service provider and their necessity to appease wider audiences. My page on Facebook had 40k followers and I lost it because a bunch of strikes related to nudity lol - and I don't post anything erotic, it was just pieces of art that happened to have nudity, and even though the TOS says it's ok, in reality they will censor it. So nudity is no big deal for people from some cultures, but people from cultures that make it a big taboo can't discern nudity from pornography, hence that censorship I mentioned in that text, like the Dragon Ball one.
(I'm often posting Watchmen on my page, and from time to time there is a follower who tells the story of watching it in the cinema and there was a parent with a kid behind him and the moment Dr. Manhattan appears naked the kid gasped so the parent would have some explaining to do that night... and after that I looked around the internet a bit and saw some forums people telling how to explain the bath scene from My Neighbor Totoro to their kids... so some people are so freaked out by nudity that they can't even shower/bath with their own kids... - I mean, if that kid from the cinema had seen his father naked before I guess he wouldn't have gotten surprised by Dr. Manhattan)
I don't have much contact with kids today, but until the pandemic I was still hanging out regularly at underground gigs (punk, goth, metal) and over the years I noticed a huge decline of "kids" (teenagers) in those shows... so I wonder how much the algorithm pointed kids towards things it judged more appropriate, "family-friendly", and they strayed from everything else. One thing I also wonder is how much kids today are affected by boredom. I'm hardly ever bored today (I don't know if it's an age-related effect), I mean, if I get bored I'm easily distracted by some feed of dumb short videos on my cell phone, but before the modern internet, I guess boredom was a big social drive, you'd go out and find something to do, see places, meet people, etc, and now you kinda just look at your phone and dull it.