Wendell

Genre Translation – Miyazaki, Amish Anime, Ace Accountant

 Posted by on Fri, 3/22 at 10:41am  genre translation prewriting  No Responses »
Mar 222019
 

I had a few ideas. Some impossible, but good think about.

  1. Any Miyazaki movie as a rock opera: I would find it incredibly interesting how it could be possible to translate something that is so somber and quiet, but contains so much radical and mystical visual flair, into something that would be full of noise and music. It’d be hard to replicate, but considering Spirited Away has an entire scene on a train that lasts literally around 6 or so minutes in dead silence, it’d be cool to try and see how another genre would use that silence and convey something with it that the original movie couldn’t.
  2. Near-Amish Romances done in the same style as one of those sports animes: When you get down to it, sports animes (The ones with a team full of one gender who all work for a “cause” but it’s kind of almost a metaphor for friendship but also a metaphor for sex) are incredibly sterile, especially the ones that appeal to young adult females. My first thought was Free!, one about swimming. I think it’d be interesting to see just how little changes when the “game” is replaced by a person or, better yet, perhaps even an object.
  3. Ace Attorney, but let’s set it in a more mundane place: I was wondering if the sort of ridiculous court shenanigans of the popular visual novel/crime solving game series Ace Attorney would seem nearly farcical if put in the setting of an office…as in, like, “Trucy, the boss’s daughter, gets caught on the security footage talking to Apollo, and oohhh nooo, are they actually dating? Hope the boss doesn’t find out!” …wherein all the drama and “courtroom” sections are actually arguments between coworkers, and all the testimony is gossip, and the evidence is meant to clear your own name or your friends’ names, not some client.

Subjects of Birthday Cards (Update)

 Posted by on Fri, 2/22 at 10:11am  subject-POS, subject-pos take 2  No Responses »
Feb 222019
 

Broad Subject: Birthday gifts

Narrow Subject: Birthday cards for young children

 

SUBJECT                                          POINTS OF SIGNIFICANCE

Corporate mascots appeal to an adult’s understanding of what the child would like because of their age.
Catchy rhyme schemes / puns give the reader a sense of something “heartwarming” shown through the card’s patronizing dialogue, something that could be easily understood by a child in the eyes of adults.
Delicate color palettes / bright color schemes remind buyers of the receiver’s innocence and youth, perhaps even ignites their own nostalgia with the colors used, making them think of the things they received as a child.
Animal imagery put into the mind of even the most skeptical of audiences of something cute, youthful and innocent while also keeping from the more blatant gendering or corporate branding, appealing to the largest audience possible.

 

Cards meant for an age 1-5 audience are not children; they are instead for adults who think that is what children would want to hear or read.

In what way are children’s birthday cards, specifically ones meant for children who cannot read, a product more so for adults than children?

The Definition of a Birthday Card

 Posted by on Tue, 2/12 at 11:33pm  technical definition  No Responses »
Feb 122019
 

One of many gifts for children aged within the classifications of infant to early childhood are potentially birthday cards, paper tokens of remembrance with poetic phrases and/or puns indicating good wishes for the reader of said card on the anniversary of their birth. Unlike cards meant for adults, children’s cards are typically cartoon-ish and depict an animal or corporate mascot alongside the words written inside. It is a common trend within this demographic of cards to employ more flashy gimmicks and tactile, toy-like parts included with the card to gain the attention of buyers and obtain longer shelf life for the receivers – literal children who cannot read or write.

Birthday Cards, Ages 1-5 (#2)

 Posted by on Tue, 2/5 at 12:18pm  underappreciated heuristic #2  No Responses »
Feb 052019
 

IDENTIFY PATTERNS:

  1. Inclusion/Exclusion: In this particular genre, content is usually loosely defined. It has to be a piece of paper or plastic with words on it. Sizing down the genre to children’s cards reveals the common pattern of using bright or pleasing colors, and the words written inside are in reference to the reader (i.e. “you, we, us”). Moving further, within the genre of birthday cards for children, there must be mention of the occasion. The inside of the card does not require anything but words, but often the outside contains a cartoon or a graphic. Cards that are typically singled-out are those that use stickers, included prizes, pop-up book technology (no idea how to describe that, sorry), audio recordings or music. These are still considered cards, but they are their own sort of subgenre within the public eye, being more on the side of gimmicks than anything else. Continue reading »

Birthday Cards, Ages 1-5 (#1)

 Posted by on Sun, 2/3 at 7:17pm  underappreciated heuristic #1  7 Responses »
Feb 032019
 

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Genre/Subgenre:  Cards meant for children ages 1-5, pre-reading age.
  2. Interest: These kids can’t read. Why the hell do we feel the need to give them useless bits of paper with witty phrases on them if they’re not going to understand them? Half of them use a pun based on the number they’ve aged up to, and I know that when I was that age, I was too dumb to understand what a pun was, let alone why it’d be funny.
  3. Corpus: Birthday cards, Hallmark cards, off-brand cards in a similarly cartoonish style. Pop-up cards, singing cards and sticker cards are exceptions in this genre, but their presence does show that the card business is trying to expand.
  4. Examples:

Continue reading »