Firstly, a brief lesson on dimensional mathematics:

The mathematical definition of an object with no or zero dimension is known as a point.

An object with one dimension is known as a line.

An object with two dimesions is known as a plane.

An object with three dimesions is known as a space.

As for the 4th dimension, Einstein discovered in his theory of relativity that it is actually time, but we won’t be going much into the 4th dimension. An object with four or more dimensions is known as a hyperspace.

5cm/s : A bittersweet aftertaste

I went to the Singapore National Musuem to watch Makoto Shinkai’s 5 centimetres per second. It was a really amazing show, and it didn’t hit me at first but after I went home and was lying around in bed I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It astounded me how a 2 dimensional animated show could bring out a certain beauty and purity that 3 dimensional movies/tv shows couldn’t.

Prior to watching the show I was talking to a friend about how fast this show sells out. He countered by saying “with such a small gallery theatre, it isn’t amazing that it sold out.” I wanted to counter with saying how anime wasn’t really that popular in Singapore, but he went on to elaborate by saying “the recent Spice Girls concert sold out in 38 seconds.”

It was then that I shut up. I was kind of uncertain whether the show would be that good at that point of time, but after the show, I was positive that this stuff was a few hundred times better than any spice girls concert.

Why then, wasn’t it as popular? Have you realised that it is difficult in general to talk about anime in real-life to others? Isn’t it much easier to talk about the news, the weather, or the latest celebrity scandal? There are other manga/anime enthusiasts at work and when I talk to them its more about work or life in general, to a lesser extent about anime/manga. Heck directly after the show I said something like “wanna go get a drink?” instead of really discussing about it, even though it is good stuff.

The empirical explanation: Dimensionality

Ok we are all 3 dimensional beings. As everyone should know, the first two dimensions are of course length and breadth. The 3rd dimension is height.

Ever felt inferior to someone that is taller than you? Since girls are more societal creatures compared to men, they are more dimensionally-entrenched, and thus feel the crunch harder. This is why high-heel shoes exist.

Since all of us are more or less affected by dimensionality, this explains why people think cartoons and anime in general are dumb. It is a fact that cartoons are 2 dimensional and thus possess no height.

Those who are deeply dimensionally-entrenched will make statements like “HAHA HAHA CARTOON AGAIN” (read comment 4). You can reduce your level of dimensional-entrenchment by of course experiencing more 2 dimensional entertainment. You increase your level of entrenchment if you shun such entertainment and only experience entertainment of 3 dimensions or higher.

This is true even for me, since I’m a 3 dimensional being. I find it difficult to engage in deep conversations about anime, especially if the conversationalist is dimensionally-entrenched (most people are). Many animebloggers have confessed this feeling in general, and have thus engaged in the thriving blogosphere to express their passion.

Dimensional feats

I mentioned that 2-dimensional beings cannot possess the property height. To them, modifying your position in height is an amazing, other-worldly feat.

To better illustrate this, remember at the start I mentioned that the 4th dimension is time? To us 3-dimensional beings moving through time is infinitely amazing. Thus, travelling through time is as amazing to us as jumping is amazing to a 2-dimensional being, which we can do very easily.

To reinforce this idea, a 4 dimensional being is probably a 3-dimensional being that can move through time, like Mikuru.

Higher or Lower: Purity and Corruption

String Theory predicts that the universe is made up of 11 dimensions. Due to this theoretical discovery, I’ve always based my pseudo-religious belief on how God is 11 dimensional, since an 11 dimensional being can perform miracles that us normal humans could not possibly fathom.

If God is indeed 11 dimensional, this may not bode as well, because the general argument is that the more complex a world is the more corrupted it can be. The lower the dimension, the lesser factors its dimensional beings would have to worry about and thus being more pure.

Look at the problems we 3 dimensional beings have to face with now: Global Warming, Wars, Day-to-day work-life politics. I speculate that at lower dimensions physical properties like temperature wouldn’t exist. In a nutshell, it would be a simpler and purer place.

Thus, imagine if God is an 11 dimensional being. He could be this mad scientist that has created all the lower dimensional worlds and is experimenting with them. If it is difficult to visualise an 11 dimensional world, you can try with a 4 dimensional world where everyone could time travel. That would bring about alot of problems already.

This is of course just all theory, but who knows? This world really isn’t what it seems, and if the scientists in the Arizona desert find a physical piece of evidence to prove it, it wouldn’t be merely a theory anymore.

To round it up, the reason why people say stuff like “its only a cartoon” is because they are dimensionally-entrenched. This is the reason why even though anime (2-dimensional entertainment) can be better or on par with 3-dimensional entertainment (Spice Girls) it is overall more comfortable to consume and discuss 3D entertainment, not because it is lousy or childish. It is simply because we are 3 dimensional beings ourselves.


HI

I’m a 20 year old male Singaporean who has finished serving his national service in the army possessing a combat vocation. Welcome to my anime blog (I will cover manga, light novels and visual novels as well).

Do not worry because as you will soon or have already found out, most of my posts will not be ridden with theoretical crap. But do expect some insightful posts with physics and mathematics mixed in from time to time. I do love pure mathematics (particularly calculus), and am going to train to be an electrical engineer at a local university soon.

There are some things you’ll never see here. I feel that 2D is purer than 3D, thus you’ll most probably never see any figurines here (although I have bought 2 figurines on impulse thus far). My hard-earned money is spent on anime-related goods accordingly:

1. Manga. Singapore has a more than competent local manga licensor that publishes above-average quality manga in Chinese and English compared to the sub-par quality manga of my South-East Asian neighbours such as Malaysia and Thailand. I, however, also buy manga licensed in Taiwan and America due to their superior quality to the local versions.

2. Anime DVDs via numerous online retailers. R1 DVDs make up the bulk of my collection since the major licensor over here sucks dick. *cough*odex*cough*

3. Soundtracks and maxi singles via CD Japan. I get my Key and visual novel soundtracks from Himeya Shop. I own an Onkyo CR-515 which I use to play these discs to their full audio potential.

4. Related magazines including monthly/weekly manga magazines, anime graphics magazines (Megami, Comp’s H) and Bishoujo gaming magazines, mostly for the artwork.

Banner was taken from Makoto Shinkai’s 5 centimetres per second. If you have not watched that, you are missing out on a lot. And I mean a lot. So go get it now and enlighten yourself (did I mention ADV films has licensed it? Guess not.) :)