As you may have noticed, this blog has been pretty dead over the last few months. Meanwhile, my content stream for Funcurve has continued and I’ve just neglected posting any of it here. So in the interest of consistency I’ve decided I’ll just post everything I’ve done since then right here. Links to it all can be found after the break.
As it has been known for quite some time, and as has grown tenfold with the expansion of net culture and the agency it gives people to yell at one another more easily than ever before, there’s a very clear subset of people who cringe at the simple idea of “art”, of interpretation. You really can’t get too invested in any media analysis or criticism without being called a pretentious blowhard at some point or another. It’s a basic inevitability. Maybe they didn’t like doing English in High School, maybe they had a bad personal experience with an snooty elitist or two; but I’m not here to assume why they might feel annoyed or even threatened by the notion of “art”. What I want to discuss is specifically the mindset itself. I want to discuss the relationship this thought process has to how people consume and discuss media. It’s a subject that’s come up many times in many circles, but I think it’s still a subject as pertinent as ever.
![[URW]_Chuunibyou_demo_Koi_ga_Shitai!_-_01_[720p][64775D00].mkv_snapshot_09.55_[2015.01.17_23.51.31]](https://intoomanywords.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/urw_chuunibyou_demo_koi_ga_shitai_-_01_720p64775d00-mkv_snapshot_09-55_2015-01-17_23-51-31.jpg)
Truth be told, Chuunibyou Demo Koi Gai Shitai! was the very first Anime I ever watched as it was airing. Looking back over an old Facebook account I was absolutely gushing over it right up until the very last episode where I suddenly soured on the series. You see, at the time it was airing I had just separated from the Brony fandom entirely and could only think of the shame of all the times I committed social suicide when looking back. I was outraged that the series ended with Rikka continuing to be a chuunibyou because I saw that as encouraging her social ineptitude. You might say I was a bit like Yuuta in my fear of that behaviour. Eventually I became open to the idea that my reading of Chuunibyou’s messages was a bit lacking, and when that thought got mixed with a nostalgic desire to look back on the series just half an hour or so ago I went through my folders and found the first episode as soon as I could, and boy am I glad I gave Chuunibyou another chance.
Too Many Words 