Anime genre: The disaffected/disenchanted office worker.
JohnH.
disaffected or disenchanted office worker. The two series that I have
seen that fall into this category are Black Heaven and Black Lagoon.
Does anybody know of any other anime series that fall into this
category?
Being a forty something responsible married male with two kids, a
mortgage, a dog, a cat, an office job, and all of the responsibilities
that accompany that stage of life, I have found those series to be a
type of escapism that I particularly enjoy.
Thanks,
John
Aje RavenStar
"JohnH." <john.he...@jrfcorp.net> wrote in message
news:add9f225-ef25-45ca...@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
Well, if you don't mind it mixed in with romantic comedy and a bit of ecchi,
There's Yuma de Aetara (English: If I See You In My Dreams). Male lead is
desperate for romance, but hopeless as his love life is cursed by unlucky
star. Every attempt he makes to win the attention of his interest is
doomed. At one point, this does affect his job performance. He's saved
temporarily by one of his problem elements, but ends up being reassigned (if
it was this country, he'd be sent to the Fargo ND office).
Historical drama, Rurouni Kenshin. Swordsman who played major role in
Japan's post opening up to the west and the Meiji revolution takes a step
back, having doubts if the ends justify the means, and becomes a wanderer.
I haven't seen enough of PlanetES yet to know if it falls into this theme or
has any of this theme.
Captain Nerd
"Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "JohnH." <john.he...@jrfcorp.net> wrote in message
> news:add9f225-ef25-45ca...@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> > Hi Everybody, I have discovered a genre of anime that I enjoy, the
> > disaffected or disenchanted office worker. The two series that I have
> > seen that fall into this category are Black Heaven and Black Lagoon.
> > Does anybody know of any other anime series that fall into this
> > category?
> >
>
> I haven't seen enough of PlanetES yet to know if it falls into this theme or
> has any of this theme.
Well, office worker discovers that he's in a dead-end job, decides to
go to Jupiter. Yeah, I could see that...
Cap.
--
Since 1989, recycling old jokes, cliches, and bad puns, one Usenet
post at a time!
Operation: Nerdwatch http://www.nerdwatch.com
Only email with "TO_CAP" somewhere in the subject has a chance of being read
DBBrandell
> "JohnH." <john.he...@jrfcorp.net> wrote in message
> news:add9f225-ef25-45ca...@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>> Hi Everybody, I have discovered a genre of anime that I enjoy, the
>> disaffected or disenchanted office worker. The two series that I have
>> seen that fall into this category are Black Heaven and Black Lagoon.
>> Does anybody know of any other anime series that fall into this
>> category?
>>
>> Being a forty something responsible married male with two kids, a
>> mortgage, a dog, a cat, an office job, and all of the responsibilities
>> that accompany that stage of life, I have found those series to be a
>> type of escapism that I particularly enjoy.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> John
>
> I haven't seen enough of PlanetES yet to know if it falls into this theme or
> has any of this theme.
Planetes mostly has astronauts in a company department that is not
considered very important; a couple of the lesser characters are
paper-pushers marking time.
The main character is an astronaut, but still basically a company drone;
he has to make some major career choices ( like Capt Nerd's post says ).
Dai-Guard is about a security company's PR department full of salarymen
and office ladies; the co. built a mecha for a military that never used
it for a couple of decades, but now suddenly needs it. And the PR dept.
happens to be in charge of it. The mecha's three crew characters are
young, so they're not my idea of typical disaffected office types, but
neither is Rock from Black Lagoon, so maybe that wouldn't matter.
There's a lot of office politics in the show.
DBB
Aje RavenStar
"Captain Nerd" <cpt...@nerdwatch.com> wrote in message
news:cptnerd-1E7001...@news.giganews.com...
> In article <CfGdndg5OsLWssTV...@comcast.com>,
> "Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> "JohnH." <john.he...@jrfcorp.net> wrote in message
>> news:add9f225-ef25-45ca...@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>> > Hi Everybody, I have discovered a genre of anime that I enjoy, the
>> > disaffected or disenchanted office worker. The two series that I have
>> > seen that fall into this category are Black Heaven and Black Lagoon.
>> > Does anybody know of any other anime series that fall into this
>> > category?
>> >
>>
>> I haven't seen enough of PlanetES yet to know if it falls into this theme
>> or
>> has any of this theme.
>
> Well, office worker discovers that he's in a dead-end job, decides to
> go to Jupiter. Yeah, I could see that...
>
> Cap.
>
I wasn't sure if PlanetES was that or if the guy was trying to follow his
father's footsteps. I've read v. 4 or higher of the manga (from public
library), and have disk 3 and 5 from Big Lots sale, but it's at the bottom
of my pending stack because I want v. 1 before I start (since it hasn't been
broadcast anywhere I've been able to watch it, I want to see how everything
and everyone is introduced).
Heh. If it's just someone getting nowhere careerwise or even finding work,
that's the poor schmuck in Dokkoida! (hey,earthling, we want to make sure if
this suit is bulletproof or not - we'll pay you to put it on).
(I'm wondering if I should send this or delete this bit - dunno about you,
Cap, but right now that offer would sound good enough to me).
Dave Watson
One I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet is Special Duty Combat
Unit Shinesman, a two OVA series about a bunch of office workers who
find that they have to break up their monotonous work by--becoming a
sentai team who have to defend the work from invading aliens.
S'funny. Check it out.
Watson
Who'll buy his own copy one of these days.
DBBrandell
Legend of Black Heaven (a.k.a. Kachou Ooji)
Then there's this... it's a bit different. A salaryman with an ordinary
life finds out he has psychic (?) power when he plays guitar, and said
power could alter a space war that humanity is completely unaware of.
That's a paraphrase of an excellent Anime Primer entry for this by Dave
Baranyi; it's here ( you have to scroll down to it ):
robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/primer/primer-l.html
The Primer's an excellent source on anime in general, by the way.
DBB
S.t.A.n.L.e.E
> DBBrandell wrote:
> > Aje RavenStar wrote:
> > > "JohnH." <john.he...@jrfcorp.net> wrote in message
> > > news:add9f225-ef25-45ca...@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> > > > Hi Everybody, I have discovered a genre of anime that I enjoy, the
> > > > disaffected or disenchanted office worker. The two series that I have
> > > > seen that fall into this category are Black Heaven and Black Lagoon.
> > > > Does anybody know of any other anime series that fall into this
> > > > category?
> > > >
> > > > Being a forty something responsible married male with two kids, a
> > > > mortgage, a dog, a cat, an office job, and all of the responsibilities
> > > > that accompany that stage of life, I have found those series to be a
> > > > type of escapism that I particularly enjoy.
> > > >
> >
> > > I haven't seen enough of PlanetES yet to know if it falls into this theme
> > > or has any of this theme.
> >
> > Planetes mostly has astronauts in a company department that is not
> > considered very important; a couple of the lesser characters are
> > paper-pushers marking time.
> >
> > The main character is an astronaut, but still basically a company drone; he
> > has to make some major career choices ( like Capt Nerd's post says ).
> >
> >
> > Dai-Guard is about a security company's PR department full of salarymen and
> > office ladies; the co. built a mecha for a military that never used it for a
> > couple of decades, but now suddenly needs it. And the PR dept. happens to
> > be in charge of it. The mecha's three crew characters are young, so they're
> > not my idea of typical disaffected office types, but neither is Rock from
> > Black Lagoon, so maybe that wouldn't matter. There's a lot of office
> > politics in the show.
>
> Legend of Black Heaven (a.k.a. Kachou Ooji)
>
Read the first post above. ^_^
Laters. =)
Stan
--
_______ ________ _______ ____ ___ ___ ______ ______
| __|__ __| _ | \ | | | | _____| _____|
|__ | | | | _ | |\ | |___| ____|| ____|
|_______| |__| |__| |__|___| \ ___|_______|______|______|
__| | ( )
/ _ | |/ LostRune+sig [at] UofR [dot] net
| ( _| | http://www.uofr.net/~lostrune/
\ ______| _______ ____ ___
/ \ / \ | _ | \ | |
/ \/ \| _ | |\ |
/___/\/\___|__| |__|___| \ ___|
Derek Janssen
>
> Being a forty something responsible married male with two kids, a
> mortgage, a dog, a cat, an office job, and all of the responsibilities
> that accompany that stage of life, I have found those series to be a
> type of escapism that I particularly enjoy.
Apparently, you don't work for a *Japanese* corporation, and all the
rich status, leisure time, family appreciation and self-worth that the
job perks bring with it.
Mr. Moroboshi says hi. (And goes back to reading his newspaper.)
And as for genres, can we have forgotten "Shinesman" already?
Derek Janssen (nine years ago, it wouldn't have seemed possible)
eja...@verizon.net
DBBrandell
Whoops... my bad.
DBB
Captain Nerd
"Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
Having been unemployed now for nearly 4 months, yeah, it would look
good to me, too.
"Age discrimination is illegal" my ass...
Aje RavenStar
Tell me about it. On the other hand -
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815509,00.html?cnn=yes
Aje RavenStar
"Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:jOGdnSpE69vb9cTV...@comcast.com...
Actually, looking at the gent's picture at the top again, maybe this could
be made on topic. Live action version of Roujin Z, anyone?
Galen
Well, there is _Momoiro Sisters_
a schoolgirl being raised by her office lady older sister:
http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/199.html
Rob Kelk
Well, if we're mentioning shows that are only available as fansubs, we
mustn't forget about "Android Announcer MAICO 2010" with its
broadcast-studio full of disenchanted office workers:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1053
--
Rob Kelk <http://robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/> e-mail: s/deadspam/gmail/
"I'm *not* a kid! Nyyyeaaah!" - Skuld (in "Oh My Goddess!" OAV #3)
"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear
of childishness and the desire to be very grown-up." - C.S. Lewis
Antonio E. Gonzalez
Oh, you're not too old, you're "overqualified"!
--
- ReFlex 76
- "Let's beat the terrorists with our most powerful weapon . . . hot
girl-on-girl action!"
- "The difference between young and old is the difference between
looking forward to your next birthday, and dreading it!"
- Jesus Christ - The original hippie!
<http://reflex76.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/07245047157197572936>
Katana > Chain Saw > Baseball Bat > Hammer
Aje RavenStar
"Antonio E. Gonzalez" <AntE...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:jm6j54hfohfu4f10a...@4ax.com...
Overqualified = overpriced.
Dunno how that follows - up till 2001, I was at double digits an hour,
unexempt (non-salaried) so I was able to get overtime. Since then, I've
worked for as little as 3 below double digits, have had double digits a
couple of times but was salaried each time (no o/t no mo'), etc, etc.
But, since that's the criteria, I'd like to announce my ability for
translating mangas into English and editing same. I know a bare bit of oral
Japanese, almost nothing of the written form. I do write stories on my own
time, but nothing that has been published for money. That should take care
of any concerns I might be overqualified....
sanjian
> Legend of Black Heaven (a.k.a. Kachou Ooji)
>
> Then there's this... it's a bit different. A salaryman with an
> ordinary life finds out he has psychic (?) power when he plays
> guitar, and said power could alter a space war that humanity is
> completely unaware of. That's a paraphrase of an excellent Anime
> Primer entry for this by Dave Baranyi; it's here ( you have to scroll
> down to it ):
The Minmei Effect with better music?
Rob Kelk
Nah...
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
s
a
v
e
s
p
l
o
t
t
w
i
s
t
s
... the Minmei Effect was only defensive.
Captain Nerd
"Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Antonio E. Gonzalez" <AntE...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:jm6j54hfohfu4f10a...@4ax.com...
> > On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:24:10 -0400, Captain Nerd
> > <cpt...@nerdwatch.com> wrote:
> >
> >>In article <5IWdnUd6wNWv08TV...@comcast.com>,
> >> "Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>
> >>> "Captain Nerd" <cpt...@nerdwatch.com> wrote in message
> >>> news:cptnerd-1E7001...@news.giganews.com...
> >>> > In article <CfGdndg5OsLWssTV...@comcast.com>,
> >>> > "Aje RavenStar" <whine...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Heh. If it's just someone getting nowhere careerwise or even finding
> >>> work,
> >>> that's the poor schmuck in Dokkoida! (hey,earthling, we want to make
> >>> sure if
> >>> this suit is bulletproof or not - we'll pay you to put it on).
> >>> (I'm wondering if I should send this or delete this bit - dunno about
> >>> you,
> >>> Cap, but right now that offer would sound good enough to me).
> >>
> >> Having been unemployed now for nearly 4 months, yeah, it would look
> >> good to me, too.
> >>
> >> "Age discrimination is illegal" my ass...
> >>
> >
> > Oh, you're not too old, you're "overqualified"!
> >
>
> Overqualified = overpriced.
Even though I've told them I don't expect to be paid for my
experience anymore. Granted, I may not have those precious keywords
to get me through the HR barrier, but after 30 years of programming,
I think I can come up to speed on whatever you throw at me. Hell,
I want to see the programming language that's harder than Japanese
(and no, I already know Perl, and APL's syntax was much simpler, too)
and I've been making uncurved B's for 3 years in school.
> Dunno how that follows - up till 2001, I was at double digits an hour,
> unexempt (non-salaried) so I was able to get overtime. Since then, I've
> worked for as little as 3 below double digits, have had double digits a
> couple of times but was salaried each time (no o/t no mo'), etc, etc.
>
> But, since that's the criteria, I'd like to announce my ability for
> translating mangas into English and editing same. I know a bare bit of oral
> Japanese, almost nothing of the written form. I do write stories on my own
> time, but nothing that has been published for money. That should take care
> of any concerns I might be overqualified....
Preach it...
Actually, I'd like to go on record for the same, since I've been
using manga to keep my skills sharp, and to improve my vocabulary,
translating them on my own. I'm lucky enough to have both the
Japanese and English versions of some manga, so I can check both
myself and the translators' work, to see how they compare. I have
an interview Friday with a company, that if it works, may actually
be fun, again. I'm prepared for the inevitable letdown, though...
sanjian
> "Antonio E. Gonzalez" <AntE...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:jm6j54hfohfu4f10a...@4ax.com...
>>> "Age discrimination is illegal" my ass...
>>>
>>
>> Oh, you're not too old, you're "overqualified"!
>>
>
> Overqualified = overpriced.
>
> Dunno how that follows - up till 2001, I was at double digits an hour,
> unexempt (non-salaried) so I was able to get overtime. Since then,
> I've worked for as little as 3 below double digits, have had double
> digits a couple of times but was salaried each time (no o/t no mo'), etc,
> etc.
Not sure what industry you're in, but I know that's been a huge problem in
the computer world. That's why I decided against it, back in the late
1990s, when all of my friends were majoring in CS. I knew, right away, that
the CS world was going to be very oversaturated, very soon.
Instead, I'll stick with construction - you can outsource the design, sales,
and lawyers - but you can never outsource the guy on the site.
sanjian
Dunno, I considered the Robotech version of Minmei to be fairly offensive.
Captain Nerd
"sanjian" <mun...@vt.edu> wrote:
It's not that the field is oversaturated per se, since each year we're
graduating fewer and fewer CS majors, it's that the threat of
outsourcing and the presence of more and more H1-B workers has
depressed wages. There are thousands of jobs out there, but
companies feel they can put on hold any projects they have until
they can cherry-pick disaffected or laid-off H1-B workers. They can
also put unreasonable amounts of "required skills" in the job
descriptions, in order to justify turning down applicants, most of
whom will likely apply because they have most of the requirements.
The worst thing is to be told by recruiters, "oh, we like your resume,
send us the latest version and we'll get back to you" and nothing.
They don't want to go on record as specifically rejecting someone,
so they act like you never applied. Grrrr.
Abraham Evangelista
Cap, are the pimps in your area really terrible? I've run across
plenty of older, experienced workers in this area, and they were
mostly conslutants working for one of the body shops, and getting paid
fairly well at that.
--
Abraham Evangelista
Captain Nerd
Abraham Evangelista <da...@verizon.net> wrote:
[...]
> > The worst thing is to be told by recruiters, "oh, we like your resume,
> > send us the latest version and we'll get back to you" and nothing.
> > They don't want to go on record as specifically rejecting someone,
> > so they act like you never applied. Grrrr.
> >
> > Cap.
>
> Cap, are the pimps in your area really terrible? I've run across
> plenty of older, experienced workers in this area, and they were
> mostly conslutants working for one of the body shops, and getting paid
> fairly well at that.
Well, all the ones I've been dealing with have been pretty much
useless, and the ones that actually talk money, quote rates that
are a little more than half what I've been making the past couple
of years, which is less than I was making 6 years ago. Each year
the rates I can get have been going down, while demand supposedly
has been going up. Unfortunately I don't have the magic "6 years
of Java, 4 years of PHP, etc" that is in demand, I got side-tracked
for a few years on a contract that didn't require Java or PHP or
any of the latest buzzwords. With 20 years of C++ experience under
my belt, and from what I've seen, there's little that Java could
throw at me that I couldn't figure out fairly quickly, including
the libraries. But, that doesn't count, because companies supposedly
can't afford the week or so it would take me to come up to speed
with their needs. Especially irritating when the same companies
who demand the Java experience also list years of C++ in their
requirements as well.
Aje RavenStar
"sanjian" <mun...@vt.edu> wrote in message
news:1KSdnZkgye35tcfV...@posted.internetamerica...
The job that ended in 2001 was construction, a builder hardware supplier /
foundation cable and rebar place sister companies (billing clerk for
multifamily office at the first, MIS tech involved in a conversion to Oracle
software at the second). The latter division was expanding big time then -
even established a Woodbridge VA office, just one of a number of sites I was
helping set up the NT 4.0 computer boxes for (no, I'm not certified) among
other things. The best job I've had since (and lasted almost as long) was
for a restaurant equipment supply sales and service place. In the dining
out capital of the US, so not bad - but, being service dispatcher/billing
clerk, lots of stress, because even here finding techs that know both HVAC
and kitchen equipment isn't easy - and most of the really good ones end up
with the national chains (restaurant inhouse maintance or with
supply/service companies like Hobart and Armstrong) (like you said, you
can't outsource the guy on the site) - although I did have three of the best
for a very short time and two of the best most of it. Alas, owner decided
to ease out of the service end. I ended up in a mechanical assembly gig in
desperation two years ago, would still be there being underpaid (though,
considering how little I know about that and my poor skill, I was probably
overpaid also), working 15 - 20 hours o/t to come close to matching my
budget needs. Then my back blew out on me - oh, well. I've got no choice
but to come up with an office gig now - and I can't grab some of the fill in
pick up jobs I've used between times before this time. THAT hurts.
Somewhat on topic random thought here (and which of our UK chums here have
seen or even tried it, heh - I know, none - that's a couple of complete
series!). Who came up with the recipe for this (not who priced it, I think
we all know who did that, hehheh) -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368901,00.html - Koala Sue, Orihime
Inoue, Chizuru Minamoto, or someone else?
sanjian
> In article <1KSdnZkgye35tcfV...@posted.internetamerica>,
> "sanjian" <mun...@vt.edu> wrote:
>> Instead, I'll stick with construction - you can outsource the
>> design, sales, and lawyers - but you can never outsource the guy on
>> the site.
>
> It's not that the field is oversaturated per se, since each year
> we're graduating fewer and fewer CS majors, it's that the threat of
That doesn't mean the field isn't oversaturated. It just means that it's
becoming less so. (or more so at a slower rate)
> outsourcing and the presence of more and more H1-B workers has
> depressed wages. There are thousands of jobs out there, but
> companies feel they can put on hold any projects they have until
> they can cherry-pick disaffected or laid-off H1-B workers. They can
> also put unreasonable amounts of "required skills" in the job
> descriptions, in order to justify turning down applicants, most of
> whom will likely apply because they have most of the requirements.
> The worst thing is to be told by recruiters, "oh, we like your
> resume, send us the latest version and we'll get back to you" and
> nothing. They don't want to go on record as specifically rejecting
> someone, so they act like you never applied. Grrrr.
So it's oversaturated, but not with just American workers.