…and we’re really into tremendously long series with good characterization.
Found one. Hikaru No Go. About a boy prodigy in an obsessive and cerebral adult game (Go) that you could call Asian chess—it’s a really good story with actual re-watch capability. Available in Japanese on streaming Netflix: 75 half-hour episodes. No, you don’t have to know Go to enjoy the story, though you will learn some along the way. Honestly, as Jane said, it’s a good thing we didn’t find out about this game when we were kids. It would be very easy to get sucked in…and in this country, there aren’t that many people to play it with!
My sister is into that one. Mostly the manga, but she does watch the anime as well. She got so into it she has an ornate wooden set and everything. She used to make me play against her when I’d visit. I stank at it so she stopped. I don’t know if is from being dyslexic or what but my attention span for games of the non-fps variety is about zero. I prefer a good long book which I guess isn’t typical for people with my problem.
I’d have that problem with the game, I fear: it is patterns, and I flip patterns so readily, and then can’t remember sequence. It’s why I can’t watch tennis without going crazy. If I am able to see on which side of a line the ball landed (which I often don’t), I then cannot tell whether it was coming from a prior bounce in a ‘fair’ area, or going into it. It’s as if, rather than motion pictures, I see the world in a set of snapshots, which I cannot force into animation. I can do a figure skating jump, but cannot tell, when someone else is jumping, which sort of jump they’re doing. I’m getting better at it, but it’s taken years of watching the revolutions to be able to count them—and what is in my head is still a set of frozen snapshots.
Speaking of pattern recognition … the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on severe dyslexia and parts of the brain required to read languages where you have to identify the letters as distinct from Chinese or Japanese. The 13-year old used as an example handles Kanji very well, writes clearly and easily learns it. His English is nearly unreadable. It seems that the severely dyslexic are missing connections in the brain in some area and are using the same area of the brain that Kanji does.
I read that story. I suspect the kid who can handle Kanji and not English would still have other problems outside of language. Language is only the well known issue. I take too much time reading a clock, have to make an L with my hand to know which way is left, get lost while driving all the time, and can’t memorize things unless I am emotionally connected to it. History has to be a story, not just a list of dates and facts. If something doesn’t have a story attached to it I’ll make one up. As a kid I applied gender and personalizes to numbers and letters to help remember them. None of that showed up in my grades. I ended up with a 4.0 in high school. I just had to do everything an alternative way. Now I have a GPS, spell check, and a box of tricks I am still adding to daily.
You’re right, of course, and studying this type of learning throws a little more light on how the brain works.
The theatre technician at Cal State Sacramento, where I went, was a fifth dan, world ranked, Go Sensei. He tried teaching me. He wasn’t good enough for that.
I’m about to start Inu Yasha again.
🙂 Have read the manga, which is pretty absorbing. The anime goes on forever. I remember seeing an earlier episode, when they’re REALLY YOUNG, and then 40 eps later when they’re growing up… wow.
I still recommended Twelve Kingdoms for really good plot / character development … also Crest of the Stars / Banner of the Stars for space opera.
We did like Twelve Kingdoms very much. I’ll give a look to Crest of the Stars.
I haven’t ventured into animee yet — like I need yet another interest! Don’t seem to be enough hours in the day as it is. I am into web comics, though, especially the artwork. It takes a special kind of mindset, I think, to play “strategic” games like Go, and chess — and there’s two different versions of that mindset, the “abstract thinking” type — who view them as mental exercises. And then there are the “real world applications” people — the ones who have learned how to read people and manipulate them, the intriguers and plotters, the “courtiers” always trying to acquire power. I don’t fall into either of those types, which is why I would probably suck majorly at playing chess — except I have no interest in learning or desire to play.
Something that has always fascinated me, though, is how language shapes not just thought and world view, but the brain itself. That’s one of the things that has fascinated me about the Foreigner series. How the the differences in language play out in terms of cultural, mindset, and world view. (I’ve sometimes wondered how I would have turned out if my native language had been something other than English!) — There have been some fascinating studies comparing the PET scans of native Japanese speakers and native English speakers in terms of what the patterns of brain activity look like and which parts of the brain are brought into play as they speak their native language. Turns out there is a noticeable difference in how the brain organizes and executes speech, and which parts of the brain are involved. The same would apply to reading the language. And here’s one for you alternative history buffs — how would the world be different if the percentages of left handed people and right handed people were exactly reversed. I think we’d be astonished at how profound the differences would be.
This is why it is extremely valuable to get kids into more than one language, and as diverse language-groups as possible. Latin organizes things and ‘thinks’ very differently than English. Back when we were studying psychological tests (in my teaching courses) I relieved my boredom by mentally translating the tests into Latin and responding in that mindset. French, not so much difference. But different outcome and analysis from the Latin. Which persuaded me that pyschological tests, unless constructed and given by someone culturally savvy and good, are not as valuable as some people, eg, state legislatures—think they are.
A person who had English, Japanese or Chinese, Latin, Italian, French or Spanish, German or Greek, Arabic and whatever else can be had, eg Hindi, etc, would increase brain power considerably. That’s an example of the kind of language family diversity I mean. What it does to the brain’s repertoire of associations and clusters of concepts is, I am convinced, major.
I was very much into Go in my younger days, and as as you say, the problem was to find people to play it with. However, today you can play over the internet, so partners are instantly available 24/7. And of course there are plenty of programs where you can play against the computer.
One of the great things about Go is that it has a handicap system which is simple, but effective. This means that, unlike chess, a strong player can play with a weak player. If the handicap level is right, they will both have an enjoyable game, and the weak player has a reasonable chance of winning.
I was also very much into bridge (the card game) at university. I hate to think how many afternoons I spent playing. On the other hand, when I was a physics undergraduate I used to play bridge with some extremely bright PhD and Masters physics students, and there would be interesting discussions about physics over the bridge table.
These days you can naturally play bridge online as well, and watch important bridge tournaments live on the internet, with expert commentary.
Back to Go. If you want a simple, free Go program with a 9×9 board (so that games are quick), there’s one here:
http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html
This is a small, no-frills program, but it’s actually a very good introduction to the game. You can drag the window size to make the board bigger.
There is a short tutorial on how to play Go under Help on the menu. The rules of Go are easy, it’s the strategy that’s hard.
There’s an excellent video introduction to Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gECcsSeRcNo
I like Adachi Mitsuru’s manga and anime. Character development like no other mangaka. He gets classified under the sports anime banner usually but what he’s really about is his characters. I think one of his latest anime (Cross Game) is on hulu.com now. I’ve been reading his various manga since I found them in the 90s. It’s his manga I love most, any of them, but the anime adaptations of Cross Game, H2 and Touch (one of the episodes of which, in the 80s, was watched by 1 in 3 people watching tv in the entire of Japan, still a record) are brilliant (and long). You can’t really find his manga in this country except Cross Game. Used to be able to find the scanlated manga on onemanga.com but since Cross Game was such a giant hit, they had to legally take it off. They only allow manga which is not licensed for distribution in the US and I’m sure after CG, it woke some people up.
oops, didn’t realize you were allowing links through now 🙂 Cross Game at Hulu.com http://www.hulu.com/cross-game Also available at Amazon and Viz.
I second the recommendation of Cross Game! Can I also interest you in Saiunkoku Monogatari? Rarely has a female empowering series for ya and grown ups looked as deliciously shoujo ^^: the main storyline is about good government and what it takes to get there! The animation is not as fluid as Hikago or Cross Game, though, even though the characters are.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll take another few looks.
So far I’ve found I seem to prefer more western style anime, like Studio Ghibli works (Princess Mononoke) or hmm, should I mention Lackadaisycats? No I guess I shouldn’t, it’s not anime at all.