Potential Dangers of Watching Anime Non-Linearly or Sometimes a Rice Bowl Is Just a Rice Bowl

ricebowl01

Just about everyone remembers this famous rice bowl from K-ON! It was probably the most talked about serving of food at least in this season, if not longer. You might be wondering why I bring this up weeks after the episode aired and everyone talked about it to death already.

Well, those that watched the episode know what this bowl of rice is meant to represent so I won’t bother repeating it. As a result of how big K-ON! is, it’s very possible that we’ll see this get referenced in other anime in the future. No surprise there but what happens when you watch a show that came out years before K-ON! was even just a manga?

Case in point, I am in the process of watching the Full Metal Panic franchise with my sister and we’re currently getting done with Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu. In the hot springs episode there’s a scene that involves rice bowls (as seen below):

rice15527

rice15539

rice15565

rice15567

rice15574

rice15608

As another series by Kyoto Animation, one might think there’s some connection between these rice bowls and the one from K-ON! except that it’s not possible – Fumoffu came out too long ago so there’s no connection. (Though thinking about using K-ON! as a reference makes for a very interesting interpretation.) So what I guess I’m saying is that it’s important to remember when and with what context was an anime made in because using the wrong context might give the viewer the wrong ideas.

And I’ll leave you with another not reference – Haruhi was not making a reference to Saki in the scene below.

rice25686

rice25816

12 thoughts on “Potential Dangers of Watching Anime Non-Linearly or Sometimes a Rice Bowl Is Just a Rice Bowl”

  1. “As another series by Kyoto Animation, one might think there’s some connection between these rice bowls and the one from K-ON! except that it’s not possible – Fumoffu came out too long ago so there’s no connection. ”

    This reasoning/logic makes no sense. Mobile Suit Gundam came out thirty years ago and shows are still referencing it in many different ways to this day. Time is really not a factor so much as the recognizability of the reference.

    Like

  2. No Kaio, you’re the one who’s not making any sense here. He’s saying that Fumoffu came out WAY BEFORE K-ON did, so the ricebowls in Fumoffu couldn’t possibly be a reference to the ricebowl in K-ON.

    Your reading comprehension is t3h fail.

    Like

  3. I honestly think the bowl is no significance. As far as I’m concerned, any other object that has a familiar blue-white stripe will do. Now, if the bowl had a crack, that would be an entirely different story…. :p

    Like

  4. Forgive me for not picking up on the true meaning of the ambiguous sentence in that I would have never assumed anybody would think a series could contain a reference to something that came into existence after it in the first place. Next time I’ll be sure to pick up on the assertation that makes even less sense then the one I tried to address.

    Like

  5. people probably love ur sarcasm dont day…………u know i understand the concept of criticism…..and i got to say ur pretty good at it cuz all u do is criticize this blog……
    however i take back my previous statement after re-reading the post and the comments i have to agree with you….it would be unreasonable to think that the blogger was talking about referencing k-on for things that happen in full metal….im sure steel knows what show came out first……

    ill agree that when it comes to references time is not that big a factor compared to how famous the scene is …….but its still a factor u cant expect someone to recognize a reference from thirty years ago unless of course they are old enough to watch the original series………..n yes i know full metal didnt come out thirty years ago…..all im trying to say is that time is nonetheless a factor…..

    Like

  6. Been away from the computer for a few days (I finally got dragged playing into paper dungeons and dragon) so I haven’t had the time to write up a proper response.

    I keep telling myself that writing stuff at 3 in the morning isn’t the best thing to do but I continue to do it 🙂 and I’ll say this with absolutely no anger and sarcasm attached to it – Kaioshin Sama why did you have a problem with this post and not my Munto review, I really figured you’d be by and tell me how much I overrated that show.

    The genesis behind this post actually started almost 8 years ago when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out. Every now and again I’d hear someone mention that LOTR was ripping off Harry Potter. I laughed at these idiots for saying something very nonsensical but I started to realize that the people that were saying this where younger people. In all likeliness, they where first introduced to Harry Potter but never LOTR so to them LOTR was ripping off Harry Potter and older people like myself could remember a time when Harry Potter didn’t exist and LOTR was the undisputed champion of fantasy (or historical romances as J.R.R. Tolkien called them).

    This thought came back to me when I was rewatching Full Metal Panic with my sister. For half-knowledgeable anime fans that have been fans for awhile, it would be impossible to ever confuse the timing of the two but with each passing month – more and more anime fans will first be exposed to K-On! and then at some future point Full Metal Panic – maybe even with the enticement that the second and third seasons where also done by Kyoto Animation so they’d already be primed to make some sort of connection.

    So what I was trying to say was that in forming conclusions about a show it’s important to remember when the show was made and with what context.

    Like

  7. Kids these days don’t even know the proper historical timeline for war and peace. I doubt their skills in basic research will focus overly much on the time line of anime productions.

    Like

  8. Even the adults thought Paul Revere was going to fight the British. Forgetting that the American Colonies had yet to declare independence, and thus was still British. British Paul Revere wasn’t going to fight British anyone else: his warning was for everyone British against the British.

    Like

Leave a comment