I sometimes tell people that I'm trying to catch up on (some series that I've just made up that second), so I don't really have time to jump in to (whatever series they're suggesting); my finishing move is to suggest that what _they're_ suggesting I can get anytime, but _my_ thing is a pretty rare find in Japan, and never really made it to the North American market.
It turns out it's pretty easy to do on the spur of the moment, as long as you pick something from a medieval fantasy, something that sounds vaguely Japanese and a number, though in a pinch you can append "girl" instead.
Your suggestion intrigues me. It sounds a bit like the game "PS: I am not mad", which is played with letters to the editor in any major newspaper. Can you provide some examples?
You need some newspapers. A group of people take turns reading fragments from the letters to the editor to create a new batshit-insane letter. Traditionally you finish by saying "PS: I am not mad".
You can either take turns creating a whole letter from parts of others, or read a piece each until you've constructed a crazy letter collaboratively.
Generally the source material is rich enough to construct crazy letters without much difficulty.
So, what I actually meant was that I like how the human with the purple hair looks like a girl (as does the human with the large red hair), which is accurate, because both of the Pokemon anime characters look like girls.
Am I correct in understanding that the purple haired cartoon character is actually a female and the large red haired cartoon character is actually a male? Ah, Japan. Go team genderfuck.
No, the one you identify as "purple haired" is James. James is male (it's a kids cartoon show, so we are not given irrefutable evidence of this)
The one you identify as "red haired" is Jesse. She's female.
The costumes depicted are a sort of "uniform" for Team Rocket, but many stories involve them wearing disguises. Often James ends up with a "girly" disguise (e.g. school girl, anything involving a dress) and he seems to enjoy this particularly. So, perhaps 10% advert for cross dressing, 90% fan service for middle aged women who enjoy seeing a cute boy in a dress.
Can you explain how it misled you? Is it just that you expected that the costume they're pictured in would be a pertinent example of the unrelated text? Alas the person writing the Wikipedia text did not know it would be pasted into this blog, and so they lacked the necessary context to anticipate your confusion.
1. "Jessie tends to don the more masculine clothing in terms of costumes or disguises, while James often cross dresses in extremely feminine outfits." is a general phrase, and the paragraph gives no other clear indication of how often costume changes occur. Additionally it does not mention that their costume norm is gender-appropriate. And I've never watched the show.
2. The same image is on the wikipedia page with James on the left, Jessie on the right, and the cat in front of them. And it's captioned: "Jessie, James and Meowth", and left to right captioning is a standard in English.
Jessie (red hair, curves) is supposed to be a girl. James (blue hair) is her brother who happens to enjoy cross-dressing and once kissed a boy (Ash, the kid who is the star) while James disguised as a girl. They are ostensibly the villains of the show, but they are somewhat sympathetic in that they are trying to liberate the Pokemon from being exploited by the trainers, and are supposed to working to promote love and to unite the people of their nation. They have an intelligent (by cartoon standards), talking Pokemon cat who works with them of his free will.
Or is it a passing male-to-female transsexual playing the part of James? The layers of gender could run deep here. I don't remember any episodes where James added an extra layer of maleness on top of his girl acts, but, then again, I didn't watch that many episodes.
The most amusing part, I think, is that all the rest of team rocket are actually very good at what they do; it is just those two (and Meowth) who suck. When other Team Rocket guys show up and are all derisive it is hilarious. It appears they are kept in the organization mostly for lolz.
I just wasn't cool when I was a kid - that's why I didn't know until my daughter looked at the photo and said, "Team Rocket!" If it was a breed of dog or horse I would know but that really only won me points getting called names when I was little.
I think anyone 25 and under would be very familiar with Pokemon, just as anyone ages 22-28 would be very familiar with power rangers, and anyone ages 25-30 would be familiar with TMNT, and 27-32 are going to be the original audience of Transformers & Thundercats.
Being as old as old as I am and without kids yet, I didn't know what a Biber was until a few months ago, and I couldn't tell you if Yugioh was still on the air or what the latest craze was.
My comment was less about JWZ's lack of knowledge about the series, and more about the overwhelming ubiquity of the series at the time. If you threw a brick, you'd hit a stuffed Pikachu.
Nice. The "terrible anime" this is from is Pochemon. My 6 year old just called that one. In fact she just said, "How could he NOT know that was from Pochemon????"
Pokemon I do believe.
Indeed.
Damn fine hair.
Team Rocket. I try to ignore this stuff, but it's difficult to avoid it entirely.
I sometimes tell people that I'm trying to catch up on (some series that I've just made up that second), so I don't really have time to jump in to (whatever series they're suggesting); my finishing move is to suggest that what _they're_ suggesting I can get anytime, but _my_ thing is a pretty rare find in Japan, and never really made it to the North American market.
It turns out it's pretty easy to do on the spur of the moment, as long as you pick something from a medieval fantasy, something that sounds vaguely Japanese and a number, though in a pinch you can append "girl" instead.
Your suggestion intrigues me. It sounds a bit like the game "PS: I am not mad", which is played with letters to the editor in any major newspaper. Can you provide some examples?
Once I'm done this episode of Dragon Armor Vampire Girl.
I guess I'll just have to watch Templar Katana Zero in the meantime.
Please explain "PS: I am not mad", the google is not useful.
Nice trick, mhoye.
Back to Princess Katana Seven with me.
You need some newspapers. A group of people take turns reading fragments from the letters to the editor to create a new batshit-insane letter. Traditionally you finish by saying "PS: I am not mad".
You can either take turns creating a whole letter from parts of others, or read a piece each until you've constructed a crazy letter collaboratively.
Generally the source material is rich enough to construct crazy letters without much difficulty.
I like how the boy actually looks like a girl.
at first I was thinking yaoi.
But this looks like someone wove a wicker basket just for her head.
According to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_crime_syndicates#The_Team_Rocket_trio
They are Jesse (a girl) and James (a boy).
"Jessie tends to don the more masculine clothing in terms of costumes or disguises, while James often cross dresses in extremely feminine outfits."
So, what I actually meant was that I like how the human with the purple hair looks like a girl (as does the human with the large red hair), which is accurate, because both of the Pokemon anime characters look like girls.
Am I correct in understanding that the purple haired cartoon character is actually a female and the large red haired cartoon character is actually a male? Ah, Japan. Go team genderfuck.
No, the one you identify as "purple haired" is James. James is male (it's a kids cartoon show, so we are not given irrefutable evidence of this)
The one you identify as "red haired" is Jesse. She's female.
The costumes depicted are a sort of "uniform" for Team Rocket, but many stories involve them wearing disguises. Often James ends up with a "girly" disguise (e.g. school girl, anything involving a dress) and he seems to enjoy this particularly. So, perhaps 10% advert for cross dressing, 90% fan service for middle aged women who enjoy seeing a cute boy in a dress.
So that wikipedia article quote is misleading. What a shocker.
Can you explain how it misled you? Is it just that you expected that the costume they're pictured in would be a pertinent example of the unrelated text? Alas the person writing the Wikipedia text did not know it would be pasted into this blog, and so they lacked the necessary context to anticipate your confusion.
There were three misleading factors:
1. "Jessie tends to don the more masculine clothing in terms of costumes or disguises, while James often cross dresses in extremely feminine outfits." is a general phrase, and the paragraph gives no other clear indication of how often costume changes occur. Additionally it does not mention that their costume norm is gender-appropriate. And I've never watched the show.
2. The same image is on the wikipedia page with James on the left, Jessie on the right, and the cat in front of them. And it's captioned: "Jessie, James and Meowth", and left to right captioning is a standard in English.
3. It's Japanese. I wouldn't put it past them.
Jessie (red hair, curves) is supposed to be a girl. James (blue hair) is her brother who happens to enjoy cross-dressing and once kissed a boy (Ash, the kid who is the star) while James disguised as a girl. They are ostensibly the villains of the show, but they are somewhat sympathetic in that they are trying to liberate the Pokemon from being exploited by the trainers, and are supposed to working to promote love and to unite the people of their nation. They have an intelligent (by cartoon standards), talking Pokemon cat who works with them of his free will.
He sure has got a purdy mouth.
Is that a girl playing the part of James?
Or is it a passing male-to-female transsexual playing the part of James? The layers of gender could run deep here. I don't remember any episodes where James added an extra layer of maleness on top of his girl acts, but, then again, I didn't watch that many episodes.
Reminds me of Mia Farrow playing Peter Pan when I was little. That was hot!
I was thinking
The one on the left, at first glance, reminded me of Giger's alien.
Am I alone, here?
My kids would know. That's Team Rocket, from Pokemon. The nominal, but quite incompetent, villains.
The most amusing part, I think, is that all the rest of team rocket are actually very good at what they do; it is just those two (and Meowth) who suck. When other Team Rocket guys show up and are all derisive it is hilarious. It appears they are kept in the organization mostly for lolz.
I'm surprised that there are people who can't identify main characters from Pokemon. :o
Especially ones that old.
Pokemon wasn't on when I was six years old and susceptible to commercials masquerading as cartoons. What's your excuse?
XD
I enjoy extremely monotonous video games that involve nothing but leveling up and collecting crap.
I didn't watch the cartoon. :P
Pokemon is exactly like record collecting except that instead of black disks you're gathering up small lumpy animals with bright colors.
They both make funny sounds when you poke them with needles, though.
A cartoon with a manic depressive duck can't be all bad.
I just wasn't cool when I was a kid - that's why I didn't know until my daughter looked at the photo and said, "Team Rocket!" If it was a breed of dog or horse I would know but that really only won me points getting called names when I was little.
Just so I'm clear, you were in a cryogenic tube for most of the late 90s, right?
I'm with Jamie. I have no idea who they are.
I've never seen the cartoon or any games or other media spawned from the the cartoon.
The only character I know from Pokemon is "Ash" because it's mentioned in this classic flash animation...
http://www.verylowsodium.com/fanimutation/exuberance.html
I quit paying attention to this kind of stuff in the mid-90's. I'm oblivious to Pokemon, Power Rangers, and anything spanning after that.
I never ot into Pokemon because I was (a) too old and (b) squicked by the whole "traning animals to fight for your amusement is fun" subtext.
I did like the "Requiem for a Pokemon" feeling by the end of this piece of crazy fandom.
I think anyone 25 and under would be very familiar with Pokemon, just as anyone ages 22-28 would be very familiar with power rangers, and anyone ages 25-30 would be familiar with TMNT, and 27-32 are going to be the original audience of Transformers & Thundercats.
Being as old as old as I am and without kids yet, I didn't know what a Biber was until a few months ago, and I couldn't tell you if Yugioh was still on the air or what the latest craze was.
Beiber, third series, and I think it's Toy Story.
Just so I'm clear, you were 12 for most of the late 90s, right?
Oh shit, you were.
My comment was less about JWZ's lack of knowledge about the series, and more about the overwhelming ubiquity of the series at the time. If you threw a brick, you'd hit a stuffed Pikachu.
Yeah, I wanted to do that a lot in the 90s too.
Except you obviously totally are.
Nice. The "terrible anime" this is from is Pochemon. My 6 year old just called that one. In fact she just said, "How could he NOT know that was from Pochemon????"
Oh look, I spelled Pokemon wrong. Well, I'm not the one judging you like my daughter is!
That red wig looks like it's made from shielded cable. I'm not sure if that makes it more or less interesting.
I didn't even know Pokemon had "people" in it. I thought it was all critters, like Shirt Tales but scarier.
But Shirt Tales had people in it. Most notably Mr. Dinkle, but others too.