January 7 (5M^_^: Seven of Seven)
 

Welcome back as Five-Minute Anime breaks into the new year! Today, filling in the fifth question mark on the front page, we have a more obscure target -- Nana: Seven of Seven. It's a light comedy anime from the creator of Sgt. Frog in which young Nana is accidentally split into seven copies of herself. (Fun fact: their voices are all different in the original, but Veronica Taylor does them all in the dub. You know her as Ash Ketchum.) Here's...

<a href="http://www.fiveminute.net/a1/sevenofseven.html">Five-Minute <i>Seven of Seven</i></a>

-- HEY! What the hell was THAT?

I don't get it. It wasn't supposed to be about <i>Voyager</i>. Where did this overlong dialogue piece a la The Disbanding come from, and what did it do with my anime fiver?

Something weird is going on here...

Well, anyway, I'm off to a math conference, but be here when I get back for the filling in of that final question mark!

[Side note: We're getting a lot of traffic right now from <a href="http://www.the-isb.com/">Chris's Invincible Super-Blog</a>. Why? Because of <a href="http://www.fiveminute.net/comics/marvelcomics1.html">my entry in Chris's fifth-anniversary contest</a> (the second one of these I've entered). There'll be a proper update for it later.]

That was pretty cool, Zeke. I liked a lot of the lines in your fiver, but just to pick one:

I'm assuming the anime is more or less along the lines of the fiver.

Ahaha, this line really caught my eye. Vashta Nerada anyone?

Nice one, man. Good to see the Underused Characters' Tavern is still open.

Pretty much. The two most important differences are that the Nanas had only one year to live unless they got reunited, and their transformation gave them super-powers. They sometimes used this as an excuse to disguise themselves as the "Nana Rangers" (characters from a Power Rangers-type show they used to watch) and thus be out in public as a group; they couldn't do this otherwise since Nana was trying to keep her duplication a secret.

Other elements of the show appear here only to get dismissed. Nana's copies really did have distinct personalities (except blue, who was the "real" one), they had nicknames to keep each other straight, and they all inherited Nana's crush on a boy in her class.

To be honest, I only got three episodes into Seven of Seven. It's the anime equivalent of a Saturday morning kids' show, so I felt a little old for it. Of course, since it's anime, Nana is a bit... bouncier than you would see in a western cartoon for the grade-school set. Okay, a lot bouncier. And it's based on a manga with even less age-appropriate visuals. So the whole thing makes me cringe a bit. It's part of a general phenomenon I discussed in the first half of this recent LJ post.

Oh, by the way, "nana" is Japanese for 7. That's the joke in the title, and it's the reason "Nana Rangers" isn't quite as ridiculous a coincidence as it sounds.

Anyway, glad you two liked it. (Now where's everybody else?)

Not everybody is a fanatic about relatively obscure anime, Z. I'm certainly not. Probably the most obscure anime I'd consider myself a fan of is The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Otherwise it's mon shows, magical girls, Miyazaki, and Takahashi.

(And Lucky Star. How can a dance with such meaningless lyrics be so catchy?)

I was afraid of this. Nate, click the link. As my "reaction" was supposed to indicate, this update is not remotely what I billed it as.

(On the plus side, this means somebody actually got my reference to the Lucky Star theme in the Sailor Moon fiver. I completely agree re: meaninglessness/catchiness.)

Seven: Only a mild predilection for the colour indigo.

Janeway: Red, Seven. Your favourite colour is red.

Seven: But indigo...

Is not a real colour, just something made up by the numerologists when they were assigning the colours of the spectrum back in the dark ages.

Doc: Not... right away. Re-integrating seven people takes much more complicated calculations than just differentiating one. It could take weeks.

Janeway: Weeks?

Doc: Have you ever tried to do a septuple integral?

Pfft, theoreticians. Another pass through a prism will sort them out. Er. Unsort them in? (Well, OK, maybe not Black Lant^H^H^H Seven, but there's always dark current in any instrument. You just have to subtract her out with the baseline)

Chakotay: So what did you do? Vaporize them? Give 'em the airlock?

Bandpass filter.

/nerrrrrrrd!

Side note: We're getting a lot of traffic right now from Chris's Invincible Super-Blog. Why? Because of my entry in Chris's fifth-anniversary contest (the second one of these I've entered). There'll be a proper update for it later.

A comic? I didn't know you could dr--oh. Never mind.

(I keed, I keed. I can't dr-- either.)

Nice update, Zeke. How's it feel to be back in the saddle?

Actually, I didn't. My fandom of Lucky Star is completely external.

I'm assuming your point is that you fived something that wasn't technically an anime. For that, I call foul. You can't call it Five-Minute Anime unless it's supposed to be a fiver of an anime.

I enjoyed that, especially the math jokes.
Not every shadow, but any shadow... (cue creepy music).

*snerk*

There were a few other lines, but I forget what they were. Aside from "Space Pepsi". That was quite an amusing thing for Janeway to blurt out.



Isaac Newton = dark ages? ;)

Now this is more like it! Sorry I whined about the low turnout earlier.

You wouldn't believe how long I spent deciding how to word that bit. (Btw, hope you noticed the next line...)

So you've only heard the theme, not seen it? Or did you see different subs? The line I referenced was "Seeraa fuku da kara desu ketsuron", which usually gets subbed as "'Cause it's a sailor uniform, Q.E.D.!"

Only now, at the end, do you understand... or rather, only at the end WILL you understand.

But this wasn't a fiver. It's like 493 times too long.

[ETA: Check the front page for a little not-quite-update.]

I had to go back and look. Hell yes. Potential for Voyager/Doctor Who crossover: totally fulfilled.

There was a Motteke! Serafuku reference in Sailor Moon and I missed it?

Oh, right at the beginning. Dur. I r smrt.

No, I meant that if you made a Lucky Star remark or reference, I hadn't remembered it. I made my remark because I was listing my tastes in anime and felt that a joke would enhance it.

(Newton) chose seven colors out of a belief, derived from the ancient Greek sophists, that there was a connection between the colors, the musical notes, the known objects in the solar system, and the days of the week.[5][6]

5 ^ Hutchison, Niels (2004). "Music For Measure: On the 300th Anniversary of Newton's Opticks". Colour Music. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~colmusic/opticks3.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
6 ^ Newton, Isaac (1704). Opticks.

Newton fell off the shoulders of the giants and got heavily into occult gibberish towards the end. The spectrum essentially goes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, more blue, purple we can barely see and basically ignore.

/knowitall

^ You say occult, but that really just sounds like scholasticism.

Hmm, no guesses so far about the final series? (Check the front page to see what I mean.)

True, but the point is that Janeway means her Doctor. I've been looking for a chance to make that joke. As for crossovers, I do have one on the backburner involving DW -- you wouldn't believe the other series if I told you.

Yeah, but since this is the transporter we're talking about, it could be way the hell more complicated. Fictional technology is convenient for plotting. (And hey, you're following Blackest Night?)

Took me a sec to realize what that was, then I laughed enough to betray my own nerd status. To anyone who somehow didn't already know, that is.

A zing, I do declare it. That said, be sure to read the contest rules. Artistic skill is almost discouraged.

Not sure whether you mean the recent updating or the math conference, but either way -- it feels good. REAL good.

^^Everyone always means their own Doctor. And we'll see...

Guesses? Death Note fits the pattern. So does Excel Saga, but it's already crack. Not sure if you've seen Elfen Lied. Lucky Star, same as Excel Saga.

Death Note is easier to make fun of, but Elfen Lied seems more your thing...still gonna have to say the first.

The transporter magically fixes everything at the end of the episode, especially if it caused the problem in the first place. Unless you're implying Banana Whatsername isn't up to the same standard as Scotty or Geordi or O'Brien?

(Not really following, since I don't buy comics, but I got the introductory issue on Free Comics Day and I've been reading up on the background on the DC wiki. I thought Indigo was going to be Altruism to balance Avarice until I saw they'd written Compassion in very tiny, very missable font. All the colours either side of Green seem to be opposites, or opposites once removed (Love and Anger (nearly hate), Fear and Hope, Compassion and Avarice (nearly Selflessness and Selfishness)).

Wish I'd told you that in person, then.

Really? In that case, maybe I should enter. My stick figures look terrible.

The updating. If you're gonna keep this up, I may have to actually write something for my subsite anniversary.

Being a reference whore, the Vashta Nerada joke will definitely be my favorite quote from this one, but it really was wonderful all-round. It has been far too long since I heard an intelligent anti-Chakotay joke.

I'm hoping for Death Note or Azumanga Daioh, on the grounds that those are the only two animes I've actually ever seen.

non mi frega anime, frankly, but I cheered so loudly at seeing Voyager content that I woke both cats. And it's damn funny! nice job!

Time for another reply roundup. First of all: evay! Always good to see you. Stick around -- if you were pleased about VOY content, wait'll you see the next update.

Well put.

Haven't seen Elfen Lied. (Been meaning to; my brother liked it.) I love Excel Saga, and I was a Death Note fan before it was cool, courtesy of Tarn-Vedra. I don't like the trend Lucky Star represents, but it had enough charm that I watched the whole thing anyway. However, none of these are correct!

Actually, if you know that much, you're following it more than I am. I've been kind of underwhelmed with Green Lantern events ever since Hal Jordan came back. But I seem to be alone on that -- everyone else thought Sinestro Corps was the bee's knees, and now all of comics fandom is hopping about Blackest Night. Go figure.

Well, this is more of a medical problem, so it's in Doc's wheelhouse. And he's the one who took months to separate Tuvix, so draw your own conclusions about his expertise. My point is just that made-up technology is very convenient from a writing standpoint -- if I want something to be really difficult, it can be, even if it's superficially similar to more easily-solved problems. (There are analogs in math. Solve a quadratic equation by algebra? Easy. Cubic or quartic equation? Much harder than you'd expect. Quintic equation? Provably impossible.)

All right, another Azu fan! I've actually been making references to that anime from the start. Sata andagi is mentioned more than once, and the repeating background image is the face of Chiyo-chichi. (Speaking of whom, note Ando's introduction in How to Debate an Exploding Candidate.)

Azu wouldn't be good fiver material, but it's perfect for short comedy pieces. I love DB Sommer's vignettes, for instance. My own contribution to the Azusphere, Elegy For Chiyo-sensei, was written in a very special way -- see if you can figure it out. I'll probably stick it in Features at some point.

::bouncy bouncy bouncy:: :D YAY! I don't follow anime, so it's been a bit of a dry spell waiting for something I'm familiar with to come up.

[The rest of this post refers to a discussion which is now in 5M.net Talk. - Z]

As far as April Fool's, Zeke, you do whatever makes you happy, and take however long you need. It's your site. There are no deadlines. Although it would make me happy if you did at least someday read the three Classic BSG fivers I sent you, even if you never get around to posting them -- I would love to know if you think they're any good.

Nate, do you have a site of your own? Just curious.

I have to thank my girlfriend for my exposure to Azumanga. Lovely show. (Lovely girlfriend!) And, yeah, I suppose you're right that it's pretty much unfivable, not least because it's already five minutes long as it is. It is, however, very well-suited to constant references in every other fiver universe, being as it is a heaven made of tropes (and trope deconstructions). I would not be displeased to see more of it.

I loved your story, too. It is a universe perfectly suited to a... story like that, because the insanity just blends into the general background of insanity that is everything on that show. And, no, I did not figure it out until you started explaining.

One final note:

Was that a reference to "Gumboots"? If so, I also recommend more Paul Simon references in future fivers. ;)

Thanks for the links! Though you pretty much condemned me to another full reread of "Exploding Candidate," which ate into most of my lunch hour, and I hate you for that. It's good to meet another Azu fan who is a boy.

Observation: Today is April 1st.

</HK-47>

Oh, is there some sort of custom associated with that date?

yep. We celebrate the birthday of April Patterson from For Better or For Worse.

Oh, I was thinking of Edible Book Day. I assumed somebody here would be participating.

Man, can you believe how big April was by the time the comic ended? I still think of <i>Michael</i> Patterson as a high-school student. Aging her characters realistically was a bold move on Lynn Johnston's part, but it can sure make readers feel old.

Oh, by the way, I'm turning Five-Minute Anime into Five-Second Anime forever. Well, not forever, just until my evil superdeformed clone takes over.

Okay, I'm saying this here so I don't have to say it in the new thread. The update I'm currently making will not quite be up by midnight EST. I am going to call it April 1 anyway. I am aware that this is cheating. I'm cutting myself some slack because I really tried hard to make it.

So help me, if I get trouble about this I will burn the land and boil the sea.