K-On! Nominated For Japan Academy Award Alongside Ghibli, Tezuka
Wrap it up, 20th century manga heroes. There’s a new game in town, and it’s called moé.
The 35th Japan Academy Awards nominated Ghibli’s flop “Kokuriko-zaka kara”, an adaption of Tezuka’s epic “Buddha”, a youkai story called “Toufu Kozou” based on a bestselling adult novel, and a movie from the Detective Conan series, which has the wonderful distinction of having been nominated for a Japan Academy Award every year since the “best animation” category was introduced in 2006. Oh yes, and K-On! The Movie.
Web tabloid Searchina notes that of these five, K-On! is the most unlikely nomination recipient, saying that the Kyoani production could “hardly be said to be a household name in Japan”. This is untrue in my personal experience. I mean, there’s a 12-year-old at one of my schools who has this attached to her pencil case:
In case you are puzzled by that image, that’s the girls’ character Capybara-san sitting on the head of a K-On! character (whoever she is, I don’t watch these moéblob shows goddamn you) who is sitting in her Houkago Tea Time mug.
There’s also a 10-year-old at that school who hassled me for K-On! merchandise every day until I found some to give to her.
So, K-On! is no longer otaku stuffs, it now belongs to everyone in Japan who likes cute things and is staying on top of… uh… whatever kind of cultural currents transmit the latest cute things to children. This certainly represents a new wave in mainstream anime, but it could hardly have been a controversial choice for the academy. I mean, “Toufu Kozou” was popular, but I imagine there are plenty of people who never heard of it.
So, congratulations to Kyoto Animation for their first Japan Academy Award nominee. I don’t think K-On! will win that Academy Award though. It’s an anime about girls who eat cake.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:06 am
A dark day for Japan.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:21 am
If you would put forth 10 seconds of effort to learn the appearances and names of the moęblobs you hate, you would increase your ability to make fun of them significantly. It’s easier to make fun of Christians if you just read a little of the Bible, after all.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:23 am
It wasn’t my intention to make fun. I don’t know the names of the Anpanman characters either, besides the eponymous baked good and his girlfriend Melonpan.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:27 am
New game? Moe? It’s like it’s 2007 again!
January 31st, 2012 at 1:44 pm
Poor Yui, her hair being used as a dog’s body again
February 1st, 2012 at 12:38 am
Capybara =/= dog.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara
Capybara = gigantic real-life rodent. Do a Google image search for the word capybara if you’ve never seen or heard of one before and be impressed. The thing is like a guinea pig, the size of a big dog.