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houseofvans · 6 years

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SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | Interview w/ STACEY ROZICH (LA)

From animal mask wearing people sifting through antiques to creepy mascots being arrested by equally creepy looking officers, Los Angeles based artist Stacey Rozich’s watercolor works are all things awesome. Strange, familiar, dark, humorous, and pleasantly eerie at times, Rozich’s paintings, while done in the style of folk traditional painting, are filtered through her own lens of modern pop culture. With some upcoming shows in the New Year–a group show at New Image in LA in February and a two-person show at Portland’s Talon Gallery in September–we couldn’t wait to chat with Stacey Rozich about her early experiences with drawing, her collaboration with Subpop Records, and her sketchiest story involving loud raucous metal heads and a little out-of-the-way saloon in Malibu in this latest Sketchy Behaviors.

Photographs courtesy of the artist | Portrait by Kyle Johnson

Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Stacey Rozich, or Stace, Stace Ghost, etc. I’m from Seattle, but I now live in Los Angeles. I’ve been painting in watercolor for the past twelves years, and drawing before that since forever. I sometimes do large scale versions of my work as acrylic murals, which is something I stumbled into. I dig painting in the folk tradition, but through my own lens of modern pop culture, and way too much tv watching as a kid. Seriously, I was an insomniac in middle school and for some reason my parents gave me a tv in my room, so I stayed up all night watching VH1 Pop-Up Video and Adult Swim (circa late 90’s). I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons seasons 3 - 8 — I used to recite monologues from the show to my family when I was a kid. And I still do!

What was your first experience with art / drawing? And who were some of your early artistic influences? In Kindergarten I drew a many-legged leopard in the forest with crayons and I got a lot of praise for it from the other kids and the teacher. I felt a combination of pride and complete embarrassment for the attention I got for something I created without thinking. My earliest artistic influence was probably Sailor Moon. I wish I could say I was one of those really smart arty kids that loved Picasso, but honestly I wasn’t that aware of what “real art” was until later in pre teenhood. The flashy colors and character designs of Sailor Moon were so exciting for me! Even the lush watercolor backgrounds captivated me. I liked drawing people then so the outrageous proportions of the girls was something I could mimic in my own drawings.

Some of our favorite aspects of your work is your use of gouache and watercolors. Can you share with folks what it is about this particular medium you enjoy so much? I absolutely love watercolor, and truthfully I don’t use gouache that much to consider myself proficient in it since it’s a slightly more opaque medium and I use it for accents. Especially the fluorescent gouaches I picked up in Tokyo, those against my watercolors pop nicely. But watercolor, yeah, I think I have that one in the bag. I remember using it in high school and absolutely loathing it — where was the control? One wrong move and it all just blended together into one big wet puddle. When I was a freshman at CCA (California College of the Arts in San Francisco) I took an intro Illustration class and the first thing our professor did was give us a watercolor demo; I was not looking forward to it. He was such a wizard with it! He gave us really smart instructions to not use very much water, and really “charge up the brush” with the pigments and paint it in and let it dry fully. That way edges of the paint have dried and created a barrier for the next application of color next to it. That’s why the barrier for entry with watercolor can seem too high, when it gets too slippery to work with there’s an overuse of water. I got that suddenly and it all clicked. Since i grew up drawing habitually I liked that I could use a very small brush and almost draw with watercolor, and large brushes to fill in certain planes with tonal washes. I like that I can wipe and dab away little pools of color and it creates a nice stained glass effect — that looks really lovely against a matte layer of watercolor that I’ve used extremely little water with.

Are there other mediums you’d like to try in the future? In the future I would really like to start painting portraits of people in my life. Like, Alice Neel style portraits in oil. Oil intimidates me greatly so I think I’d start in acrylic.

What’s a day in the studio for you like? I get to my studio around 10am since I’m not a very early riser, unfortunately. I so envy early morning people! One of my girlfriends who’s an incredible textile artist is up and at ‘em and hiking in Griffith Park by 6am. And there I am under the covers with a cat on stomach looking at her Instagramed hike thinking “Some day that will be me” — I like to lie to myself. Anyway! Once I roll into my studio I settle in to write some e-mails, putz around the Interwebs, and then get down to the task at hand. It’s usually 11 around this time so I’m usually really chugging along by 3, and then I’ll keep going for a few more hours. If it’s a painting for a commission or gallery show I tend to spread my timeline out so I don’t get burned out. If it’s a commercial gig there’s a lot more scanning, Photoshop clipping out and editing which can take me later into the evening.

What’s that process like? My process always starts with loose sketches on paper, which can mean in a sketchbook or whatever blank piece is lying closest to me. I work out compositions with really doodly lines — they’re virtually unintelligible but I know what they mean. When I move to the final I mostly wing it when it comes to the color palette. If anyone has ever seen my watercolor palette they know it’s a goddang mess which works for me. I usually work with whatever shades I’ve pre mixed and let dry in the pan.

You’ve worked with various clients and companies over the years. Do you enjoy collaborating and what do you find the most challenging about it? I do like working commercially, the collaboration with art directors can be incredibly rewarding. Though there are times it becomes a slog when you’ve created about four or five killer rough ideas and they go with the weakest one. Why does that always happen? You have to do what they say essentially, but still keep your voice even when it feels a little pinched.

In 2015, you collaborated with Subpop Records on some amazing record art and design? Can you tell us a little about that collaboration and process? Subpop is one of my favorite labels to work with hands down. Their art director Sasha Barr is such a boss. I was really lucky when I was working on the Father John Misty album that I got to create the art and not worry about the editing process. I sent it up to them since they had access to a gigantic scanner to get a full high-resolution image. It meant a lot that I was able to do the art as an actual full scale piece, as opposed to broken up to little scraps and then scanned on my wee little ancient scanner. Sasha did all the leg work to clip out the whole thing and to figure out how to stage the multi-layered pop-up interior gatefold. Usually when I work with smaller clients they ask me to do all this which is…not a good idea. Ultimately that album packaging was nominated for a Grammy in Packaging Design in 2016, but we lost out to Jack White because of course. Damn you, Jack White!

What WOULD BE your ideal collaboration? I would like to work with a great publishing house to do my own young adult series. Basically all the characters and worlds I’ve been painting distilled down into a serialized art book/graphic novel type thing. That’s a big dream of mine that swings from feeling so possible and exhilarating and then feeling completely futile because everyone has the worst things to say about the state of publishing right now. I still have hope that someday I’ll get it together to at least put forward a proposal.

On a different level I’ve love to design some patterns for Gucci. I’m not really up on the latest collections of luxury brands but Gucci is one I’ve noticed has been doing a fantastic job incorporating illustrations into their garments either as accents or printed motifs. The uniqueness of the artwork coupled with excellent hand done detailing makes my brain feel fuzzy in a really good way.

What type of music do you listen to when creating? Can you give us the top 5 bands you’ve been checking out? I waffle back and forth between music and a lot of podcasts. For the times when I can’t listen to anyone talk anymore, I listen to Jim James, Solange, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shabazz Palaces. I just started listening to Andy Shauf’s new album which is lovely, it reminds me a bit of Harry Nillson. Also there’s a great massive playlist on Spotify called Twin Peaks Vibes that is excellent.

What’s your strangest or sketchiest art story that you want to share? I was eating lunch with some friends at this little out-of-the-way saloon in a canyon east of Malibu after a hike a few months ago. It’s pretty isolated down there — they’ve been using this place for filming Westerns since the 30’s so it’s a very specific strange and cool gem. I was sitting at the bar and these bros come in, being loud and raucous. I kind of internally rolled my eyes at them and ignored them. I hear one of them say “Excuse me — are you Stacey Rozich?” I got scared for a moment because anytime someone recognizes me by name I feel like I’m going to get into some trouble. I told him I was, and then he and his friends got very excited since they all were huge Southern Lord fans, and loved the album artwork I did years ago for the band Earth. I was really surprised (and relieved) and we had a good chat! It was a very unexpected encounter down at this little far away rustic saloon.

What’s a common misconception about artists? Perhaps that we’re all lazy. That we don’t have a good work ethic since what we do is hard for most people to wrap their brain around. It’s a completely unconventional path to go down, and you have to be extremely dedicated to it. Yet somehow this doesn’t quite translate to most folks since it seems like basing your life and career on an unknown pursuit like art seems insane. And there’s an idea that artists have a lot of free time to spend laying around waiting for inspiration to strike.

What’s been the biggest challenge for you as an artist? The largest challenge for me, honestly is: myself. I’ve been working solely on my artwork for the past six years and it’s been full of a lot of ups and downs: emotionally and financially for sure. There’s always a feeling of not being good enough, why aren’t I as good as this or that artist, why aren’t I doing X, Y or Z. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of myself for what I have accomplished but I need to remind myself of that before I go down a spiral of anxiety. It comes from a fear of rejection which can prevent me from pursuing things, submitting a proposal for the aforementioned young adult series for example. Sometimes I need to remind myself to get out of my head and to get out of my own way.

What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t an artist? I’d probably be in finance, on Wall Street most likely. Kidding! I think about this sometimes. Being someone who creates has always been so tightly wrapped up in who I am as a person that it’s hard to extract myself from what I would be without. I would hope I would do something in Slavic studies. My dad’s side is Croatian (by way of Detroit) and while that’s been a huge inspiration for my artwork I’ve always been really fascinated with that region’s history of conflict and resilience. When I spent six weeks there back in 2012 it only deepened my love for that place and also my curiosity for what makes it tick.

What are your favorite Vans? A pair of beat up, worn in, maybe a couple of holes at the toe blue or red Authentics. A true classic.

What’s a question you never get asked in an interview and would like to ask and answer yourself? It would be, ‘If there was one person living or dead who you wished owned or could have owned your art — who would it be?’ To which I would say that’s such a hard question there’s so many people I admire! But as of this moment I think it would be rad if David Lynch had some of my art. I love his unstructured style of storytelling, all the loops and the sometimes frustrating dead ends his narrative world has. The effect of creating an unusual if not downright confusing vignette just for the sake of it reminds me of how I approach the storylines in my work.

What cool and interesting projects or shows that you’re working on - should folks keep an eye out for next year? Since it’s the end of the year things are usually pretty quiet in terms of projects, but I’m in a group show in conjunction with Luke Pelletier’s solo show at New Image here in LA in February. I’m scheduled for a two-person show at Portland’s Talon Gallery in September and! Hopefully, if it all aligns, I’ll be headed Internationally to do some muraling. I’m stoked for it!

FOLLOW STACEY | Instagram | Website

#Art #Vans #Vans Art #Stacey Rozich #SKETCHY BEHAVIORS #female artist #vans girls #painting #gouache #watercolor

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

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if destiel became canon i hope no destiel fan go around saying 'I TOLD U SO' to other ships and telling other ships their ship is meaningless. :((((

Wow, thanks for blessing my inbox with such a fantastically awful leading statement. What, you want me to say Destiel shippers won’t do that? I mean, there’s a bazillionity of them and a lot of them think Destiel is going canon or should do or at least would take canon as utter vindication of everything they’ve read in the text, which is a quantifiable, serious amount of storytelling and tropes which all directly imply Destiel. If people throw a street party because it happened, that’s their street party, you know?

I am not very well qualified to talk about wider shipping culture but Destiel fans who see it in canon have a certain axe to grind with the show because of the feeling that it’s textually present and many (myself included) would not have thought to ship it until something in the text flipped them and sheer incredulity about the depth of this story brought them to fandom and interacting with others to analyse and understand the story better.

I don’t believe other ships including ones involving Cas and Dean elsewhere have anywhere near the same textual level of storytelling and tropes to give them a shadow of what Dean and Cas have. I posted last night about how early Destiel was ship teasing without storytelling intent, and other prominent ships never moved beyond ship teasing and one of them certainly never will and can’t. But for YEARS Destiel has been running on the rails of a narrative between and about the characters which can be taken romantically. If it went canon it would not be the show just randomly picking one of 12 out of a hat and giving it their blessing.

Like, yes I suppose it does make the shippers look entitled if you ship on different means, e.g. chemistry, blurred lines between actor and character, which ones are hot and you think would look good fucking each other, and all the reasons which are great for shipping characters (and I’m not judging - I like ships which are completely implausible, not implied in canon, or are otherwise deeply unsuitable for shipping like Destiel. 3 of my coda fics this season were Mary/Charlie, Mary/Ketch and Cas/Benjamin instead of Destiel, and of those only Mary/Ketch was actually based on canon, and Mary/Charlie was hauling out a dead character who I thought would be great to ship Mary with from the realms of implausibility. And I can understand if you have all or a main ship which is in these sort of brackets instead of rooting for the canon storyline and waiting for it to provide you with all your material, then it’s different and feels different.)

But I don’t think Destiel shippers enjoying the idea of it going canon (because this is what’s upsetting you RIGHT NOW, not the idea that it POTENTIALLY goes canon and everyone’s a dick, you obviously feel like people enjoying it IN canon are being dicks RIGHT NOW) is offensive to other shippers, or that if you meet us on the grounds of fanon where all the shipping goes on, we’re anything more than more well-fed by canon than other shippers who don’t ship off of canon, because we get a lot of material for our ship from canon.

But great transformative works always add to the experience, and there’s so many interpretations of the characters in fanon which have moved 1000 miles from canon, in every possible way, which really just end up on what people LIKE to read, if they like D/s or AUs where they’re socially awkward hipsters or tentacle porn or canonverse but huge drastic changes. EVERY ship in every fandom has variations and fanon lives of the characters and if the fandoms are large enough, sub-fandoms within them that specifically enjoy certain dynamics. Canon HELPS but it does not define Destiel shippers in what we write about and how we enjoy the ship, and some people enjoy it only in fanon because they think canon Dean is a dick or they hate what’s happened to Cas since whenever or they just like an old dynamic which is easier to wallow in in increasingly AU settings and end up just reading coffee shop romances where the mains happen to be called Dean and Cas, and some people can probably only get into it if it’s so gritty and canon they can still taste the last episode on their tongue when they read the coda fic.

As a cumulative experience of what fandom is, Destiel going canon is ONLY vindication, because we can enjoy it in fanon as is, but the issues around the canon debate and representation and what have you are an entirely other thing and on THAT playing field canon is the only vindication.

But in that world, it’s not about other ships at all. I’m sorry, but something like Sastiel is just not part of the argument because in canon it’s not teased, not laid down in the depths of the show’s foundations as important, and it’s not part of the massive metatextual, media and fandom and show dance about the show sucking it up and making Dean bi and Destiel canon because that is only the MEDIUM in which the show needs to deal with the representation problem. If the thing had been swirling around Sam n Cas the entire time, then the debate would be about Sam and Cas. But it’s not. It’s about Dean and Cas.

Like, I’m sorry if other shippers want in on the idea of ship going canon vindication but on this show there’s such an entrenched, weird battle about Destiel’s place in the narrative, it’s 9 years too late on this one for it to be any other ship in any other way on this show.

I mean I’d say to other shippers, don’t go out and be a dick to people if it DOES go canon, just enjoy it and try not to be too horrible even if you do get involved in ship wars, like, just take the win and be the bigger person, but that comment isn’t exactly going to do much because I’m not the queen of this ship issuing decrees which seems to be the only positive outcome you’d ever think you could get out of asking me this ridiculous question. Like. What the heck were you expecting me to say? Oh no boo hoo we’re so nice, we’d never do that? It’s a gazillion shippers and a lot of them feel bitter and disenfranchised and they’re not going to consider that they are somehow being rude to other ships, because this is not the side of fandom where you ought to be respectful to people’s fanon practices, but essentially a conflict and we all walked into it where the battle lines were already drawn and it’s this ship and it’s inherently political to ship it if you do so from canon rather than politely excusing yourself to fanon.

If you feel threatened by the ship’s presence in canon because you can see as well as everyone else and are just pretending there’s an equivalence between Destiel and other fanon ships, as if the fanon stage and the canon battle are the same thing, then you’re just being deliberately obtuse as a troll. I mean, I don’t even fucking fight the canon thing that hard, I am a chill shipper who enjoys watching it unfold in canon and don’t make strong demands of canon, but I still know my ship is politicised on this stage about being canon or not and we have to think abou that all the time and if I HAVE to I will wade in as fight hard that it has full right to go canon and should, and that is NOT disrespecting other ships, it’s working with what I already have in my hands immediately from the moment I went “shit, there really is something to all this lovelorn staring they do at each other, isn’t there?”

Anyway YOUR SHIPS, DESTIEL INCLUDED, ARE SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT IN FANON AS MUCH AS EACH OTHER AND BECAUSE THEY MEAN SO MUCH TO WHOEVER IS SHIPPING THEM. END OF.

But fanon is fanon and you’re making a ridiculous argument equating “meaning” aka what fans draw from shipping and what makes them feel good about it into creating transformative works about their ship, to the idea of Destiel going canon as if it’s somehow going to do ANYTHING to the fanon.

Like, people with radically different from canon ideas ABOUT DESTIEL can cope with the show consistently not actually being what they really dig but use it just as a jumping off point to their personal interests in what they use fanon for - whether it’s kink or emotional healing or personal empowerment or just for writing and imagination like the fic writers who mostly just enjoy creating stories and like using fanworks rather than original works to hone their craft and feel confident and comfortable with what they’re doing. I mean, fan artists do the same. They might have the faces of the characters but they’re being depicted in a million different ways nothing LIKE the show.

Fanon is not threatened by canon. Even when canon trounces fanon, fanon rolls its eyes and carries on. And mostly fanon is so far beyond the realm of canon that it’s fairly untouchable anyway. The show can’t do much to fuck up my Cas works in a diner and Dean comes and hangs with him there AU because Cas does not work in a diner and Dean is not exactly up to flirting with a dude across a diner counter all day every day while Sam is literally sitting in the corner the entire time rolling his eyes. If Destiel still goes canon, I still hold the means of production here - I get to decide on my own terms if and when one of them snaps and asks the other to marry them. I would have the luxury to put off making them canon in my fanon even though in real canon they already were together. It’s a fearsome power :P

And I mean, something like Sabriel has enough little connections to canon that its fans can at least show them in the same room interacting and draw from that, but 99.99999999% of that ship is built out of tropes and fun and reading each other’s works and building off of that and creating a ship pretty much out of nowhere for their own amusement and gratification. Canon Destiel’s going to have a hard job doing anything to upset that boat, you know? If you’re offended you WANT to be offended.

Anyway I have now finished my cup of tea so that’s enough grumbling from me but seriously what the heck did you even send me this for? It’s such a petty, miserable view about fandom. If you enjoy your ships you enjoy your fucking ships and nothing can upset that and everyone should leave each others’ fanon fun the hell alone.

#Asks #wank for ts #AND the canon battle is NOT A SHIP BATTLE #it's between is it canon or is it not #no other ships is actually involved in that you know #it's just between people who think Destiel should be canon #and wishing the show would do something about it and that's it #fandom problems

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canvaswolfdoll · 6 years

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CanvasWatches: Dagashi Kashi

How did this get a dub?

Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful it got a dub, of course, since I enjoyed Degashi Kashi, but… how did an anime about Japanese Penny Candies/Snacks earn itself a dub? It’s so niche, so obscure, and so unlikely that American audiences would experience any of these foods for themselves,[1] that I wouldn’t even dream of it receiving a a Sub-only Release, let alone a dub. Heck, my even knowing about it was a combination of vaguely recalling some random bit from LoadingReadyRun discussing its upcoming release, and accidentally finding it through Funimation.

And it’s second season is also getting a Simuldub, which makes this series even more inexplicable, as it doesn’t strike me as a show that would inspire a revival.

Why does Dagashi Kashi have a dub? How does any of this happen?

I love anime.

(Spoilers below the page break)

Degashi Kashi is a slice of life comedy about a young boy who kind of wants to be a Mangaka, but whose dad wants him take over the family business: a Japanese Candy Store.[2] The young boy would rather not. Then a quirky, Degashi-obsessed girl arrives looking to recruit the father for her family’s snack company, but the father will not take the job unless his son will take over the family store.

Hilarity ensues. Also lot of trivia and history lessons about the Dagashi and its surrounding culture.

It’s a charmingly odd show that makes the most out of having only five cast members. There’s Kokonotsu (the noted son) his father Yo, Hotaru (the girl seeking to get Kokonotsu to take over the store) Saya (Cafe operator crushing on Kokonotsu) and Tou (Saya’s brother who looks like Dave Strider).

There’s pretty much no major plot to speak of, with only enough premise to carry the episodes between various Dagashi lessons.

Also some pretty tame fan service. And odd character designs.

The eyes are weird. Kokonotsu’s are mostly fine, as far as generic protagonist designs go, and Yo and Tou don’t have their eyes visible often enough for comment, but the girls have pretty out-there eyes.

Hotaru’s eyes are concentric circles, making her look a little crazed and possibly unearthly. Her design over all is pretty eccentric, as she’s dressed in a simplified gothic lolita style and is the only one without natural hair and eye color, but that I’m broadly used to, because… anime. She sticks out like a sore thumb, but that fits her role so I’m okay with her design.

Also, her dub voice is… unconventional. There’s a usual timbre and speaking pattern that I’ve grown to expect from female characters. Usually sweet and light, but able to range into comedic anger. A little wiggle room for personalization, but mostly samey.[3] Hotaru can have that quality, yes, but when she really gets going, it’s usually a little lower pitched, and there’s this vocal quirk that’s… very difficult to put into words, where she’s not actually putting on a mocking tone, but is next door to it in pattern.

Please try and find examples of this dub voice. I was surprised at first, but I quickly grew to like Tabitha Ray’s performance for sounding very distinct.[4]

Returning to eye criticisms, Saya looks constantly crazed.

Her irises remain constantly tiny. The thing about giant anime eyes is it allows space for fine tuning emotions. Normally, the pupils/irises take up about 40-60% of the total space, allowing space to make them grow to show interest or more emotion, or (as is more to the point) shrink to show shock or extreme anger or just a loss in mental stability.

There’s an expressive language one learns as they watch anime, and Saya is locked in the tiny iris end, so she looks like she’s supposed to be crazy, possibly planning on burning you alive with a scalding pot of coffee at any moment. But that isn’t her personality at all. Sure, her introductory scene was pretty textbook Tsundere, but she quickly eased into the Childhood Friend archetype, and either way, her shrunken eyes are unjustified. I got mostly used to the eyes, but it’s still poor design, since (ideally) character design should tell you something about the character, or at least be deliberately misleading.

Which leaves one last topic to discuss: Fanservice!

The portrayal of sexual elements is important for creators to consider. Good Art should hold a mirror to the human experience, and how an artist approaches the subject can say a lot.

Still, cultural norms and the ebb and flow of societal expectations, as well as the desire to draw in the target audience, makes the execution of fanservice fascinating to me. Where are the lines, on both a community level and personal level? Does the medium itself have an influence? Because a single misstep in fanservice can bring forth harsh criticism.

And, let me remind you that Avatar: the Last Airbender, one of the best animated series to broadcast on an American children’s television station, dedicated an episode to showing cute girls (and Zuko) at the beach in bathing suits. The oldest of whom was 16.[5]

So, Dagashi Kashi, to its credit, doesn’t feel fanservice-driven. Sure, some situations might be a little contrived (mostly surrounding Hotaru), but like the comedy of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, the show at least shows the steps that bring forth fanservice. And, to be honest, it’s pretty tame after the first episode. Mostly rain or sweat making Hotaru’s white shirt a little sheer to show off a little frill of her bra. Then the camera takes the perspective of Kokonotsu, who takes a very quick glimpse before averting his gaze.

Now, before I go further with my analysis, let me be clear: if the show cut all the fanservice scenes and took the maybe five total minutes they took (in twelve episodes) and expanded the Dagashi lessons, there would be no real loss. It’s superfluous material. But the fanservice shots also aren’t distracting nor derail the plot. They’re also mostly tasteful, and work is put in so the fanservice does work in context.

The element to execution that I think is most important is that it’s viewed through the the lense of youths, particularly Kokonotsu. No one’s ages are explicitly stated (not that I noticed, anyways), but there’s enough mention of homework that points to at least Kokonotsu, Saya, and Tou being school aged, most probably High Schoolers.[6] Hence, some awkwardness on the subject of romance and sex. So, yes, there will be some curious glances when the opportunity is presented.

Second, beside one scene concerning Saya, no one’s particularly victimized. The concept of fair consent is… curious when applied to fictional characters and the audience. It’s a debate that’s plagued superheroes for literal generations, and I’m not so foolish as to take a firm stance at this point.

So, setting aside arguments that fictional characters are inherently in a relationship of power imbalance with their writers,[7] in what cunning ways do you write a character (male or female) as being okay with a level of objectification?

You could have a character say they lack a nudity taboo, but that breaks the ‘Show, don’t Tell’ rule, and doesn’t clear accidental slips.

Dagashi Kashi manages to establish Hotaru’s lack of care in a such a blaze of insane glory that you don’t actually realize what the writers pulled until you’re writing a review spending an awkward amount of time discussing the show’s fanservice.

In the first episode, Saya meets Hotaru when the former sees the latter laying in the rice paddy she crashed into, coating her in mud. Being neighborly, Saya lets Hotaru use her shower. After which, Hotaru shows a casual disregard at being fully naked in front of both Saya and Tou. This is the most explicit scene in the series (in a PG-13 way) and is such obvious pandering, that you don’t even notice the show has taught you that Hotaru carries no reservations, so when the show very briefly shows off her body through the rest of the show, the audience knows Hotaru isn’t a victim.[8]

It’s a blatant, pandering scene that still serves a mechanical purpose. So that’s worth studying.

The only time either girl is victimized, it’s a transgression by Tou against Saya, when he uses a sticky hand to flip up her skirt. Credit to the direction, the camera stays firmly in front of her, where her skirt remained in place, and the audience sees nothing. Tou is also violently punished.[9] So the show went out of its way to show there’s a line: “accidental” fanservice from the indifferent Hotaru is kosher, intentional malice towards the unwilling Saya will not be justified by the camera.

I mean, obviously I’m not telling my fellow writers to showcase what they don’t think is okay to show, but I will say this: establish what you’re comfortable portraying and what you’re not, and try your best to inform the audience what the extreme is so they can decide if they’re on board.

Say whatever cynical thought you carry, I appreciate that many animes tend to front load the most egregious fanservice in the first episode, so after one episode you know what to expect.

Dagashi Kashi is a fun show, very educational about niche Japanese culture, and rife with things to overthink. Or not. The Japanese Snack trivia is a delight if you just want to watch at a surface level.

If you enjoyed this… frankly rambling navel-gazing review, consider supporting me on my patreon, checking out my webcomic or other works, or even just sending me questions or comments. Any support is nice. Helps me feel firm in following managka dreams instead of taking over the family candy store.

Except my family doesn’t have a candy store…

Man, why doesn’t my family own a rural candy store? That’d be cool.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Internet markets and subscription boxes aside. [2] Specifically a Degashi store, which seems to be a genre of Japanese snack foods. I cannot give further context, I’m afraid. [3] If I may have one quick dig at Japanese voice acting, girls always seem to have obnoxiously high pitched voices. [4] I should see if she’s done anything else. [5] A fact I present not as condemnation, but to provide an interesting perspective. I never see any debate over “The Beach”, which I think is also interesting. [6] I assume. Then again, Usagi of Sailor Moon is in middle school, so you can’t always trust your eyes. [7] Because it’s not a real person, and trying to apply such parameters to creator and creation is ridiculous. [8] And they don’t break the suspension of disbelief like Funimation did with Luccoa. [9] Now, the fact that this is a brother harassing his sister is a kettle of fish I will not dive into.

#CanvasWatches #dagashi kashi #CanvasReviews #anime

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