The amazing thing about this video is how well the two anime fit together! Although the idea of Gendo joining the SOS Brigade is scary.

Can’t wait for the next episode (if there is one) where Yuki and Rei meet each other!

The Hierarchy of Disagreement. Learn it. Use it. Live it.

During the past year or so, upon returning from the hallowed halls of the Judicial System to the Wild West of Otakudom, I have been subjected to many arguments from people who think calling someone “GAY” is equivalent to scoring some sort of metaphysical point. Coming from a line of work where precision of argument is of the utmost importance, I would like to disabuse these people of their delusions.

Look at the scary Maslow-like diagram above. Don’t worry, it won’t bite. It is the Hierarchy of Arguments by Paul Graham. It is arranged from the least valid objections at the bottom to the most valid ones on top. The bottom 4 tiers contribute very little to the actual discourse. The top 3 are better, but don’t guarantee that a refutation is valid, they simply increase the probability that a counter-argument is sound.

Since the whole thing is a bit abstract at this point, let me illustrate using real-world examples.

1. Name-Calling. We all know what this is like. We don’t need to spend too much time on this one. Example: You’re a dirty old man pedophile fag slut. *highfives gang*

2. Ad Hominem. This appears to be another favorite. This is a step up from Name-Calling because the accusation may be relevant, but doesn’t actually address the argument directly. Example: Of course he would side with her. He’s a White Knight. Another example: What does he know, he bought his costume instead of making it himself.

A very popular response to name-calling and ad hominem attacks. And just about as valid as they are.

3. Responding to Tone. Finally we see a response to the actual debate, but not to the content. After all, it’s better to be flippant and right than respectful and wrong. Example: You might be right, but you shouldn’t be so arrogant about it. (Btw, I get this a lot for some reason. )

4. Contradiction. This is the lowest form of actual response to argument, where you state the opposite case without little or no supporting evidence, often combined with Responding to Tone statements. Example: I can’t believe you’re so snarky about cosplayers who don’t make their own costumes. Cosplayers who don’t make their own costumes are cosplayers too.

With the next 3 tiers we finally get arguments that address the actual issues.

5. Counterargument. This is the first form of convincing disagreement. This is contradiction plus evidence. Unfortunately sometimes counterarguments aim at a different point than the original argument, either unintentionally or through intellectual dishonesty. It’s common for two people to fire off counterarguments at each other when they actually agree on the central point, or for one person to use counterargument to perpetuate a disagreement that is already resolved. Example: You make a good point about her popularity as a community figure, but she’s a terrible role model for the young because she’s glorifying the objectification of the female form.

6. Refutation. This is the most convincing form of argument, where you find the mistake in the argument and then, often using quotes, directly show why the original speaker is mistaken. Example: You said that the Endless Eight episodes were filler episodes by KyoAni done as an attempt to save money for the movie. But if that was the case, they would have simply reused cels from previous episodes, and used the same recorded dialogue, instead of freshly animating and dubbing each new episode.

7. Refuting the Central Point. The strength of a refutation depends on which point you refute. Many people prefer to refute peripheral arguments of their opponent instead of honing in on the very thesis of their argument, the very point he or she is trying to make, and then demolishing it with evidence and quotation. Example: You explicitly said at a public forum that “people who wear costumes for pay are not cosplayers, but models,” speaking on behalf of real cosplayers. But didn’t you also receive remuneration for wearing your very finely self-crafted costume that one time? Your status as a cosplayer is beyond doubt, of course, but doesn’t that leave your original statement in shambles?

Is that much clearer now, children? However, like I said above, just because your argument is higher up on the pyramid is no guarantee that that argument is correct. We do not deal in certainties. What it does do, however, is indicate a higher probability that the argument is valid.

So feel free to ignore arguments from the bottom 4 from now on, okay?

Hey, here’s something fun you can all try: Let’s look at debates involving our favorite fandom, and try to find out from which tier each speaker is coming from. It’ll shed a lot of light on how they think. So… where should we begin? Any suggestions?

[The above image is from CreateDebate, an awesome site you should check out if you're at all interested in being a more effective debater. Read the original essay by Paul Graham here.]

So which type of otaku neglects personal hygiene?

So Sankaku Complex reported the other day that 2ch has classified otaku into 2 distinct types.

(Great. Like we needed more ways to marginalize each other.)

To wit:

Type A:

A person who simply enjoys “anime.”
Is proud of Japan’s anime.
Evaluates anime based on direction, voice acting, art, etc.
Hates shallow anime with no real content.
Story emphasis >>>>> Moe anime.
A recent example would Higashi no Eden. Fans of anime like Lain or Ghost in the Shell would probably be this kind.

Type B:

A person who simply enjoys “characters.”
Will watch an anime if it includes cute or beautiful characters.
Doesn’t care if story is awful, as long as the characters are of interest.
Evaluates anime based on which seiyuu are in it and what the characters look like.
Loves moe elements. Doesn’t like complex anime.
The otaku the media picks up on are usually this kind.
Doesn’t know that much about anime and so is often criticised as by Type A otaku.
However, they make much better customers than the more discerning Type A otaku.
Recently there has been a huge increase in anime targeted at Type B otaku.
People who like K-ON!, Queen’s Blade, Strike Witches and so on would be in this class.

This got me thinking. I like to think of myself as Type A. My favorite anime is Utena, possibly because its symbolism and literary allusions are often as opaque as chocolate milk and it gives me a misplaced sense of superiority to be able to make sense of any of them. I actually like Mamoru Oshii films, and Lain, and so forth.

But then I have a whole bunch of character goods, and character goods tend to be from Type B anime. I blew most of my Tokyo shopping budget in Akiba, on stuff like this:

Pinky:st or Figma Haruhi? Both pl0x!

So there it was: I apparently belonged to both types of otaku, which to my mind rendered the whole debate pointless. I was going to ignore the entire thing until I saw the following comment by a certain JimmyKitty:

Put me down for TYPE A , please!
I admit it, I’m a snob.

Okay, I confess… I’m a closet TYPE B.

Which I think = TYPE H.

Hah!

So there you have it. I’m a Type H Otaku. Note the complete lack of surprise from everyone who knows me.

Save us, oh omnipotent capricious high schooler! And deliver us from Endless Eight. Amen.

Also in this pic: St. Yuki the Placid, St. Mikuru the Innocent, St. Itsuki the Genial, and St. Kyon the Martyr.

(image from Sankaku Complex)

Yay more Haruhi! Wait, what do you mean 'More of the SAME Haruhi'? I thought they did that with Endless Eight already!

What the hell. Right after I rant about how profiteering suits suck any medium dry, Kadokawa decides that the best thing to do with their immensely-profitable Haruhi light novel series is to reissue the series… but with new, connected covers, and call it a “Rebirth”.

From Sankaku Complex:

Kadokawa has announced an exciting new “rebirth” in the Haruhi novel series which will allow fans the heaven sent opportunity to buy them all over again.

This “rebirth” takes the form of a limited edition of the original novels, with an exciting new cover by Noizi Ito. Buying all nine volumes will allow the devoted fan the ecstasy of beholding a new picture by lining them all up.

I’m guessing this is the print version of the Endless Eight fiasco. Or as DeathCrunch quips, Haruhi is the new FF7. Or Twilight.

Longtime readers know how ticked off I was about Haruhi’s Endless Eight fiasco. Even though KyoAni never reused animation throughout the arc, I kept thinking they were being cheap, lazy bastards, except I thought they were keeping the money for themselves.

I guess they were saving the time, money, and effort for this instead. The character designs look identical to the TV series, except more detailed. Yuki in particular looks amazing, almost alive, which is more than one can usually say about Yuki. The animation itself is fluid and beautiful to watch, and they’ve captured an atmosphere I can only describe as ‘melancholy’, an adjective that hasn’t really applied to the series except for one episode, Someday in the Rain, the last episode of the first season, which is actually one of my favorites. The comparison of the wacky hijinks of the TV series with the quiet, introspective feel of the movie reminds me of another wildly-successful series that used this to great effect, Urusei Yatsura.

Long before Haruhi never wanted summer to end, Lum dreamed of the day before the Tomobiki Culture Fest.

Each thirty-minute installment of UY was concentrated insanity, but each feature-length film (with the notable exception of the first film) was a deep treatment of a particular subject. The second movie, Beautiful Dreamer, directed by Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in the Shell fame) is my favorite anime film of all time, and dealt with the idea of an endlessly-looping period of time more deftly in two hours than Endless Eight ever could with eight full episodes. (If you don’t believe me, watch the first part of the movie here.)

As far as Haruhi goes, after Endless Eight I felt like KyoAni had dropped the ball, and I wasn’t as excited to see the next installment as I used to be.

Now I watch this clip and I realize: I miss Haruhi. And I want her to shine again.

It’s September 1. That means that not only is Project Otaking 3 months old today, but that we’ve finally escaped the infinite time loop we’ve been stuck in for 595 years. It’s true. That’s where all the deja-vu we’ve all been feeling lately comes from.

We have all been living the same span of time from The Cosplay Mini-Summit to the White Hat Charity Event over and over again. This is the 15,532nd time we’ve lived through all this — which makes sense because this damned cosplay-costrip-modelling fiasco feels like it’s been going on forever.

There were two instances where I didn’t go to Otaku Taiki: the 2,391st and 11,054th times. In addition, there were 437 instances where a flamewar didn’t break out in the comments page of my Otaku Taiki report. (Unfortunately this isn’t one of them.)

There were 9,056 times where our friend Sese cosplayed, but there have been six different variations. Aside from Kagamine Rin, she also cosplayed as Hatsune Miku, C.C. from Code Geass, Minky Momo, EVA Unit 01, and a large green frog.

What possessed us to keep wearing these damned things?

I actually figured all of this out on the evening of August 31st and planned to tell you guys sooner. However, since time is reset at midnight, August 31st, back to August 17th, and our memories are also reset, we have no recollection of the previous iterations, and so I’ve kept forgetting to tell you all. Sorry!

Unfortunately I’d also been putting off writing today’s article, since I figured it was the problem of the Me that would somehow make it out of the time loop. So instead of a proper three month anniversary post, you have this silly piece instead.

(For those of you who aren’t Haruhi fans, or haven’t seen the second season, I apologize. This is one long joke about the Endless Eight arc.)

Look at the bright side: At least Hitler should be happy now:

So with the end of this Endless Eight, let’s all raise a glass to the final, definitive end to the same crap being spouted by the same people over and over again, and to the future of the local otaku scene! To three months of Project Otaking!

When I got married and moved out of my parents’ house last January I lost a very dear thing to me — unlimited broadband Internet access.

Oh the humanity!

Before that I spent my bandwidth as if it were water — downloading videos I had no intention of watching immediately, running a personal text-based role-playing server, clicking through link after link on Wikipedia, soaking up my brains with trivial knowledge that had little or nothing to do with my current tasks at hand. (Mame chishiki!) I even ran a Shoutcast stream off my PC, playing space ambient, game remixes, and radio programs for the few friends who knew of its existence. (This is Radio Morningstar.) (more…)

Sorry for the lack of an long article today! Hectic day, setting up broadband and wifi at the condo and writing articles!

Let me leave you in the care of our teenaged goddess Haruhi and her new opening song, Super Driver!

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