Anime Synthesia

(Disclaimer: I am not actually a synesthete. I think.)

A lot of times when I watch anime, I tend to get hungry. (This is even more so with Rune Factory, but that's because 70% of the game revolves around food and making incredibly good sounding dishes.) I do not know if it is because of this that I began making analogies of anime to food in my head, but for quite some time I've been making some associations of the genres of anime with flavors and textures found in food. I never really had the analogies completely thought out or solidified, but recently when I was thinking about it I realized that perhaps the associations I have in my head may be more "developed" than what I had thought up before, and so for this reason I thought about writing something on this.

It is pretty clear to me that anime is not food, because it would be great to survive on just watching shows all day. Actually, maybe not. But regardless, the way I watch anime, to me, tends to reflect how I think about eating. While some people prefer to watch an episode or two a day and suffice with it, I tend to enjoy marathoning shows, because when watching only a single episode sometimes it feels like I'm not satiated enough-- kind of like having a taste of a good dish but not finishing it. So if an entire series can be considered a single dish, doing one episode is more like trying the sampler at a COSTCO wholesale foods store -- either you try it and you don't like it or you want to eat it all. So, oddly enough whenever I start watch anime I am constantly having the image that I'm "eating" it: as I watch more I eat more until I am full, the dish is finished, or I need to go to sleep because I have work the next day.

Just as anime is not really food, the genres of anime can't really be considered absolute flavors. In fact, I specifically specified the genres as being not just flavors but also textures. When people think of describing food, usually the first thing people would consider is how it tastes. However, texture is also really important. Taking sushi as an example, I don't mind the flavor of fish but the texture between cooked fish and raw fish is significantly different, even if the flavor is mostly the same. The difference between me enjoying cooked fish vs disliking sushi is simply that the texture is different. Anime, too, has its flavors and textures, defined into genres many shows typically get cast into. In the following I present a few genres as an example of how I would make the analogy between a show and a dish.


Moe = Sweet
Moe type shows are the easiest type of show to classify into a taste. I will admit that I may have been influenced through other portrayals of moe, because there has been none to few images and analogies throughout anime and fanart relating the aspect of moe to a sweet-tasting food such as cake. The reasoning behind this is really simple: cute things make a person feel happy, in a similar way that eating something sweet will make you feel happy. Yes, this is not true for everyone, and everyone has different tastes. However, I consider myself a sweet tooth when it comes to anime, so I always look for shows with at least a little sugar in it.
It should be noted that it is possible for an anime series to be too sweet. For me if this happens, I don't necessarily abandon it but I am actually unable to stomach the entire series in one go. This is significant. Making a food analogy, it is possible for example to eat an entire sandwich for lunch but then come to dessert and find that I can only finish a portion of that chocolate cake. It's not that I do not enjoy the cake, but simply that the flavor is too strong to finish right now. I may finish eating the cake later during the day.

Comedy = Crisp
The first thing I think of when I think of generic comedy is chips. Usually comedy shows are the ones I can blow through in one go without even feeling full afterwards, simply because they are airy and lack certain depth to make one feel fully satiated. However, chips are very tasty. Even if they are not fulfilling, when I start eating chips I want to keep eating them. Comedy shows I feel much the same about. They may not satisfy you in the end with their lackluster (if at all) conclusion, but they're still delicious and entertaining to watch.
What about moe comedy shows? Here I introduce a concept that I had been considering when thinking about all this. Genres are not hard-lined categories. Most of them can easily blend into each other. So how does this work with the analogies? Notice that I defined Comedy as more of a texture than a flavor. In that line of thought, Comedy can be placed more easily with "flavored" genres like a moe themed show, to create an analogy similar to a cookie is both sweet yet can be crispy (crunchy?)  at the same time. Hence, you can see shows that begin to have a gradient of flavors: cookies for those more moe-focused, chips for shows more focused on comedic moments.

Action = Meat
Sometimes, I just feel like watching a show where things blow up. This kind of feeling almost relates a type of primal, instinctive drive to eat meat which many people have. While some people really love their meat (and likewise, some people enjoy their pumped up shonen shows) I am typically fine most of the time going without it for quite a while, but a little action and some meat is always delicious to watch at times.
Meat goes even better with seasonings, though. Again, genres can be combined such that moe action shows are possible, comedy shows are possible, or anything else really. Eating meat alone can be fulfilling, sure, but not always enjoyable as having some sauce on top of it, or giving it a different texture such as frying it.

Slice of Life = Bland
By bland here, I mean typical types of staple/starch foods like rice or bread. Usually slice of life on its own is pretty boring. I mean if you think about it, real life is the best example of a "slice of life" show without much of anything at all. Spicing it up with different other genres, even at low concentrations, can make a bland show much more entertaining, in part because the flavor here is not as strong as those that are hard-classified as they would be in their respective genres.
Just as starch foods is a staple for meals, slice of life can typically "fill you up" in terms of your watching quota. It could just be because you're done with watching such a slow show and don't really want to watch more, though. :V

Drama = Vegetables
All of these classifications I have made so far are biased and this one is probably the most biased classification I have made yet, mainly because I am not usually a fan of drama. Most of it is either under the radar (covered with other flavors so I don't care much about it) or very distasteful such that I don't really want to eat (or watch) it anymore. That's not to say I don't like any types of vegetables at all, but certainly if I could go for something different to eat I probably would. (And, seeing how I'm not required to "eat an anime series", there's no harm skimping on the healthy foods simply because they taste bad).
Drama could be done well though. Of course it could, or else all those shows in the top hit spots wouldn't be there at all. But for me the drama is (almost) always the least important aspect for the taste of an anime series. Just like girls with glasses, typically its simply better without it.

Horror = Bitterness
Bitterness is an acquired taste. Give a 5 year old child some coffee and I'm pretty confident the child will not like it. Horror, to me, is much the same. You can't like it immediately when you see it the first time, because your first instinct is to be repulsed and run away. Still, many people like horror, just like people can get accustomed to coffee. For me, it would have to depend. Straight up horror is typically never pleasurable, but perhaps if prepared delicately and tastefully I can enjoy certain elements of horror too... typically combined with other elements.
I going to seem to go out on a limb here and state that the Ecchi genre is, to me, chocolate. Why chocolate? First off, when thinking about sweet and bitterness people will consider them pretty much opposites, since sweet foods taste "good" while bitter food tastes "bad". But there is one food that actually combines them pretty well: chocolate. Chocolate is (from my experience anyway) a sweet and bitter food at the same time. The level of sweetness and bitterness of course changes (milk vs dark chocolate) but this is essentially the nature of chocolate. In this respect, erotic content is much like a combination of "moe" and "horror". Here horror isn't the absolute "make people scream" type of horror but more like "make people disgusted" kind. Erotic content and the concept of intercourse IS disgusting, and many people think so. But at the same time, it can give pleasure, a similar type of sweetness that a moe genred show can garner. So in essence erotic content in a show can be in a way both sweet and bitter - delicious and repulsive - and ultimately addicting to some. To me, the nature of this and the nature of chocolate are therefore very similar. (As a side note chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac, I think, so its not like this is a completely original idea I thought of... chocolate is pretty ero by nature V: )

Mystery = Liquids 
When eating solids you can typically eat a certain amount, and then stop, and the amount that you eat is quantifiable. Liquids, however, are a bit different. Where you stop and where you begin again is arbitrary unless you really go down to the molecules. Furthermore, for liquids one may typically drink and continue drinking until you can't really drink anymore. Why I attribute mystery or suspense type genre to liquids is the exact kind of feeling. In a mystery when you're watching a series, despite being sectioned out into episodes, the show ends in suspense so you don't really have a "stopping" point - you're obliged to keep drinking. Furthermore mysteries to  me have a pretty high tendency to get "full" - once I'm finally finished with a mystery or suspenseful series I'll probably stop for a while, and maybe just think about what I just ate (or drank?). The nature of mystery is just such that you don't know when to stop but when the cup is finally empty you are probably done (well, until someone pours you another cup).



So in the end I classified what I imagine how certain genres "taste" with certain anime dishes, but even with these genres listed some things might be different. For example, dishes with the same genre could taste differently. A moe show may have a different sugary feel than another moe show, which would cause preference in flavor for one over another (think possibly brown sugar vs white sugar). Also, and possibly the most important aspect is this is how I may see anime, but everyone sees things differently. In a way I am intigued how other people may see certain series. Would fujoshi see bishonen much the same way as I had classified Moe, or would the flavoring be different to them? It's hard to say, since I don't think many people if at all would think of anime as a type of food.

Rune Factory 4 (Unfinished)

Things I keep accidentally doing.

1. Eating things I don't really want to eat, because the "use" button (B) is the same button normally used as "cancel". (Yes I totally wanted to eat that weed and poison myself.)

2. Give people and pets stuff I didn't really mean to give, because they stand right next to me and I was actually wanting to pick up stuff instead. ("Oh my, thanks for giving me this level 10 crop that took 90 days to grow!")

3. Talking to people/pets when I want to pick up stuff instead. There should be a "BTW You're stepping on my egg I want to pick up" option in every menu.

3. attack and destroy save spots/treasure chests. Because I really didn't want to save, really.

4. Allies attack and destroy save spots. Because Amber really didn't want me to save, really.


Well all in all its a pretty fun game despite the controls I need to get used to for the reasons above. I don't think I would find a normal harvest game really that interesting unless I like the characters (Harvest moon has potential, but I will never touch Animal Crossing). Rune Factory though, because of the character designs and the fact that there are RPG elements, I felt like it was "almost" the perfect game. There are still things I wished they improved on though (besides the terrible controls, which again for reasons above).

While the character designs are great, the avatar models are pretty terrible. I hope in the future they can improve on the graphics to something like Neptunia's level (probably impossible for a 3DS...). More importantly I'm not terribly sure about that plotline... then again I'm progressing really slowly in plot considering that you could stall it forever in order to raise your crops.

As expected of a game like this its rather grind-heavy. Grinding for high level crops, grinding your cooking skills, grinding for items, grinding for levels... each one in itself doesn't take a lot of time to do, actually, but given the limited time you have per day sometimes I find myself doing all of one thing and not getting done what I wanted to do for other things. Especially harvesting when all your crops are ready. Other times, I finish things faster than I thought I would and then I'm like "well crap what am I going to do now?" This game takes even more planning than the Atelier games sometimes...

There's still a lot of other things about this game I haven't check out yet (like marriage) although my interest is already waning after I finished the first arc of the game. Nevertheless the game is quite amusing to play. I'll probably keep at it for a while then switch to Ayesha since Escha is coming out later... time managing games about time management!

Also, Amber calls me "Master" after I start dating her = +10 points for amusement. 

My Classic Fairy Tale Can't Possibly Be This Cute

http://kotaku.com/check-out-japans-ridiculous-anime-fied-fairy-tales-1502540700

Kotaku posted something about classic novels and stories being "light-novelfied" so that they have anime portraits, for better or worse.

And I am totally okay with this.

In fact they should go overseas and publish these kinds of novels in English. With stories like Hitchhiker's Guide. Light novel version of Hitchhiker's? I would read that again. V: