the newest low?

This is just beyond sad beyond words

Although reality TV shows are almost always beyond sad.

The abstract for the show is (IMDB): In the new reality show "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?", eleven hopefuls create their own superhero alter-ego in a competition to be judged by comic book maestro Stan Lee. With new identities like Creature, the Iron Enforcer, and Fat Momma, these ordinary people will have their courage, strength, and mettle tested in multiple challenges to see if they have the stuff that makes a hero. The winner will be immortalized in a new comic book to be created by Lee himself and released by Dark Horse Comics.

...........God =___=||||||||| Human intelligence and dignity can sink so low in the desperation for fame.

meiji restoration

Read up a little bit on Wikipedia on the Meiji Restoration.

It's a period of history that the Japanese remember well (i.e. almost as done-to-death as The Tales of Genji). The role of the samurai probably holds the same sort of breathless fantasy that knights and their code of chivalry hold in western literature. And the best remembered ones lead the highly romantic lives of a classical tragic hero.

Okita Souji is probably one of the most bishounen-fied amongst popular fiction. A brilliant swordsman, a young man who laughed often but spoke little, kind to children, and died, tragically, at the age of barely 25 from tuberculosis. It also helped that dying from tuberculosis (or consumption) has its inherent tragic beauty in that one spends a lot of time coughing blood and fainting dramatically. (Although apparently, his face was described as "flat-fish-like", whatever that might be.)

And then there was Taira no Atsumori almost 700 years before Okita's time, who played his flute before battle and carried it with him as he fought. He was supposedly only 16 when he was killed in battle by Kumagai Naozane, who regretted it so much that he became a monk. ...It also helped that Atsumori was purportedly very beautiful and now has a flower named after him...



But the Meiji restoration (1860s) really was a messy time, not just in Japan but also in other parts of Asia. It was when traditions and ethnic pride clashed violently with the need to adapt and survive. A lot of idealistic youths died for what they believed was the right way. Even now, even retrospectively, it is impossible for us to point at any one side and say "they were the righteous ones". Japan's decision to open up was almost directly responsible for its later domination and the terrible crimes its army committed in Asia during the second world war, and its own tragic defeat and economic slump following that. On the other hand, China had tried to close its doors, only to have invading nations jam it open again and again, until the disheartened and battered empire crumbled meekly into nearly a century of ensuing instability.



All that said, there must be some kind of perverse pleasure in watching Gintama tear the historically well-loved images of Okita, Hijikata, Kondou and Katsura to shreds. ...And it helps that Okita and Katsura, on opposing sides, are done by Suzumura (Shinn) and Ishida (Athrun). LOL.