What’s to say it’s unfettered? When I was in high school, my cohorts and I knew how to go from outside the school, into the basement, through various maintenance passageways, up shafts, and onto the roof… using only areas that the school administration thought were securely locked up.
Never underestimate the curiosity, and the ability to go Out Of Bounds, of a bunch of teens.
Here or in Anime. I think I’ve read it’s common in Japan as a facet of the space crunch that’s common there making it Optimal to put all available space to use. I thiiiink.
In the US yeah it’s pretty unlikely just for safety/insurance concerns. But I entirely believe enterprising students (especially if they’re part spider) might get around that.
The chainlink safety fence and bench behind them suggests the school condones or actively encourages the use of the roof as a common area. I can’t believe Abbie is a functioning member of her school’s student body yet has absolutely no idea of the roof’s use as a hangout space. She should have at least heard rumors.
To be fair, a lot of series I’ve seen (mostly because I’ve watched a somewhat enormous amount at all so perhaps I’ve seen less well known stuff than a lot of people) subvert that unfettered roof access trope, especially more so in recent years.
I don’t recall if Hidamari Sketch is also animated, but it’s a 4koma about people in an art school and I started reading that recently. One of the first things after the school life started was a bit about the main character wanting to check out the roof but it was off limits.
I was entirely unaware of Digit’s anime-watching habits. Don’t know if I missed something back whenever, or if it was never explicitly shown.
This probably means Dietzel watches anime, and has for some time, and that he introduced Digit to it while she was still a spider. I’d guess they had some afternoons to kill while Monica was away. I’ll also hazard a guess that Digit is pretty fluent in Japanese, and Dietzel may well be also (should he ever gain the ability to speak it, also).
Of course, this begs the questions in a huge way: what genres do they watch? Which series’ & movies are their favorites? Do they also read manga, and listen to the soundtracks? If these questions are ever answered, I sure hope I’m not disappointed; I’d love to sit down with them and spend an afternoon watching Dirty Pair, or Slayers, or Dennou Coil, or Railgun, or Eve no Jikan, or ….. or ……
Years ago in grad school, I had an office in a chemistry building with a … design flaw. The vents from the FUME HOODS, where all manner of gross stuff was prepared, were right next to the air intakes for the air conditioning system. If the wind was right, stuff would blow out of the one, into the other.
There was one prof who specialized in organosulfur chemistry. Organosulfur compounds are notorious for their stench (active ingredient in skunks, among other things). You can guess the rest.
And my office was right next to the main outlet for “conditioned” air in the basement of the building.
I didn’t spend much time in my office.
Hope the MIB or whoever designed this building are smarter than that.
In the US of A. I will not give specifics, but be it noted that this particular “feature” of the building was rather ironic given the place’s affiliation with a major medical school.
I have no idea what the concentrations were for organosulfur compounds in the conditioned air. Note, however, that with things like hydrogen sulfide, the gross odor serves as a warning, but happens at concentrations too low to be acutely lethal. When you *stop* smelling it, because concentrations get too high … that’s when you’re screwed.
Presumably Gryphon High doesn’t have that problem … but you never know.
I do find it interesting that we find dangerous scents stinky, rather than scary.
The smell of a large predator’s scat SHOULD cause our hair to stand on end as our eyes bug out looking for the threat.
Instead, we just hold our noses and try to move upwind.
I notice that THIS roof has a bench, and a full, high, chain link fence.
I’m assuming the roof serves as a student resource.
My guess is it’s either a basketball or tennis court.
Since basketball, at least around here, is a winter sport, and typically has its own INDOOR facility, I’m leaning toward tennis court.
Or the architect figured that no matter what, students were going to figure out a way to get up there, so better build that fence from the start. As for the bench, maybe it’s for the janitor whenever he or she has to go up there and do janitorial things.
I rather doubt the tennis court explanation, I think the wind would be a bit of a hassle.
Probably the heat exchanger for the air conditioner.
Maybe a louvered enclosure for the motor that runs the elevator, but I’m thinking air conditioner.
School rooftop. As part of the “Sitting on the Roof” trope.
“Sitting on the roof” is mainly used to help create more dynamic backdrops to the characters in anime /manga, in otherwise tight urban/building environments.
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been an anime (and set in a dense inner-city instead of the suburbs) they would have met on the school roof, instead of a remarkably empty library annex with conveniently large open floor space.
Besides Japanese Anime, ‘the Princess Diaries’ w/ a young Anne Hathaway comes to mind.
Sad to say, most of the San Francisco shooting locations where actually elsewhere. http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/p/Princess-Diaries.html (The rooftop basketball court _is_ in SF however…)
“When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face…
I climb way up to the top of the stairs,
And all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be.
And there the world below can’t bother me.
Let me tell you now,
When I come home feelin’ tired and beat,
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof).
I get away from the hustling crowd,
And all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof).
On the roof, the only place I know,
Where you just have to wish to make it so…
Let’s go up on the roof (up on the roof).
At night the stars put on a show for free.
And, darling, you can share it all with me.
I keep a-tellin’ you,
Right smack dab in the middle of town,
I’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof (up on the roof).
And if this world starts getting you down,
There’s room enough for two
Up on the roof (up on the roof)…
Up on the roo-oo-oof (up on the roof)…
Oh, come on, baby (up on the roof)…
Oh, come on, honey (up on the roof)…
Everything is all right (up on the roof)…
Most of the Japanese anime (and live action movies), the roof is not off limits to the students, just most don’t go up there because it’s usually where kids go to ‘make out’
The dynamics can get interesting. There are the ‘hip’ kids who don’t know it’s there, so they don’t use it. Are the nerdy kids who know it’s there, think it’s cool, so all the hip kids must use it, but the nerdy kids don’t like crowds, so they don’t use it so they may avoid the assumed crowd. And then are the social people who know about it, would use it, but no one else uses it, so they don’t use it. End result, the roof space doesn’t get used.
Anime is pretty ubiquitous now.
Back when I (and more relevantly, Paul) were in school, it was much more an obscure, niche hobby to be into, which required more proactive effort.
There was a club run out of our local college (but not restricted to students) who once a month would do a 2-day weekend marathon of dozens of anime (usually two episodes of each series) in one of the lecture halls, projected onto the big screen. Everything they showed was imported from Japan by exchange students with connections, translated by language students, and given subtitles by the AV or film students. It was a massive group effort to bring obscure anime in English to a relatively small interested audience. Some series shown were also popular enough to have been translated and dubbed by TV networks, but the US-based companies hacked and edited the shit out of these “cartoons for children” to the point whole episodes got cut out of the continuities, so there was interest in seeing the original, un-butchered versions.
That was all back in the mid-90s. The club lost a lot of interest in later years when an entire shop a few blocks away from the college opened with aisle upon aisle of anime series on DVD. There was less point to it when all they were showing were the same DVDs we could rent ourselves any day of the week.
Now there’s Netflix. So many mainstream anime are on the regular TV networks now there’s younger kids who aren’t even aware they’re originally Japanese.
Anime is no longer a hobby for a few odd otakus; its normal and everywhere now. I find Abbie’s treating her interest in anime like a big secret as odd and out of place as would be a line about sneaking out to the local speakeasy for a shot of gin would be.
That unfettered access to the roof will always confuse me.
What’s to say it’s unfettered? When I was in high school, my cohorts and I knew how to go from outside the school, into the basement, through various maintenance passageways, up shafts, and onto the roof… using only areas that the school administration thought were securely locked up.
Never underestimate the curiosity, and the ability to go Out Of Bounds, of a bunch of teens.
Yep, knew classmates who’d skip out of “mandatory” assemblies by getting onto the roof of the gym where they were held.
Here or in Anime. I think I’ve read it’s common in Japan as a facet of the space crunch that’s common there making it Optimal to put all available space to use. I thiiiink.
In the US yeah it’s pretty unlikely just for safety/insurance concerns. But I entirely believe enterprising students (especially if they’re part spider) might get around that.
The chainlink safety fence and bench behind them suggests the school condones or actively encourages the use of the roof as a common area. I can’t believe Abbie is a functioning member of her school’s student body yet has absolutely no idea of the roof’s use as a hangout space. She should have at least heard rumors.
Big fence. Probably a basketball court or some type of sports facility up there or maybe some chairs and tables to relax on.
To be fair, a lot of series I’ve seen (mostly because I’ve watched a somewhat enormous amount at all so perhaps I’ve seen less well known stuff than a lot of people) subvert that unfettered roof access trope, especially more so in recent years.
I don’t recall if Hidamari Sketch is also animated, but it’s a 4koma about people in an art school and I started reading that recently. One of the first things after the school life started was a bit about the main character wanting to check out the roof but it was off limits.
Only person she knows who watches anime!? Talk about suspension of disbelief!
I was entirely unaware of Digit’s anime-watching habits. Don’t know if I missed something back whenever, or if it was never explicitly shown.
This probably means Dietzel watches anime, and has for some time, and that he introduced Digit to it while she was still a spider. I’d guess they had some afternoons to kill while Monica was away. I’ll also hazard a guess that Digit is pretty fluent in Japanese, and Dietzel may well be also (should he ever gain the ability to speak it, also).
Of course, this begs the questions in a huge way: what genres do they watch? Which series’ & movies are their favorites? Do they also read manga, and listen to the soundtracks? If these questions are ever answered, I sure hope I’m not disappointed; I’d love to sit down with them and spend an afternoon watching Dirty Pair, or Slayers, or Dennou Coil, or Railgun, or Eve no Jikan, or ….. or ……
Being fantastic herself, Abby probably doesn’t need fantasy. She’s surrounded by the fantastic.
Lol. Those roofs usually have vents that release sewer gas into the air…
Or worse.
Years ago in grad school, I had an office in a chemistry building with a … design flaw. The vents from the FUME HOODS, where all manner of gross stuff was prepared, were right next to the air intakes for the air conditioning system. If the wind was right, stuff would blow out of the one, into the other.
There was one prof who specialized in organosulfur chemistry. Organosulfur compounds are notorious for their stench (active ingredient in skunks, among other things). You can guess the rest.
And my office was right next to the main outlet for “conditioned” air in the basement of the building.
I didn’t spend much time in my office.
Hope the MIB or whoever designed this building are smarter than that.
That’s not just bad, that’s potentially lethal! Was this in the US? Where I’ve worked OSHA would have been drooling over the fines for that!
In the US of A. I will not give specifics, but be it noted that this particular “feature” of the building was rather ironic given the place’s affiliation with a major medical school.
I have no idea what the concentrations were for organosulfur compounds in the conditioned air. Note, however, that with things like hydrogen sulfide, the gross odor serves as a warning, but happens at concentrations too low to be acutely lethal. When you *stop* smelling it, because concentrations get too high … that’s when you’re screwed.
Presumably Gryphon High doesn’t have that problem … but you never know.
I do find it interesting that we find dangerous scents stinky, rather than scary.
The smell of a large predator’s scat SHOULD cause our hair to stand on end as our eyes bug out looking for the threat.
Instead, we just hold our noses and try to move upwind.
OK, so now, having touched on the High Schoolers on the Rooftop meme, we can move along… Oh, and try and keep it in yer pan… er Imagination…
I notice that THIS roof has a bench, and a full, high, chain link fence.
I’m assuming the roof serves as a student resource.
My guess is it’s either a basketball or tennis court.
Since basketball, at least around here, is a winter sport, and typically has its own INDOOR facility, I’m leaning toward tennis court.
Or the architect figured that no matter what, students were going to figure out a way to get up there, so better build that fence from the start. As for the bench, maybe it’s for the janitor whenever he or she has to go up there and do janitorial things.
I rather doubt the tennis court explanation, I think the wind would be a bit of a hassle.
“Jaws” theme, maestro, if you please…
“Upon the rooooof…”
What are we all looking at here; a garage on a rooftop?
Probably the heat exchanger for the air conditioner.
Maybe a louvered enclosure for the motor that runs the elevator, but I’m thinking air conditioner.
School rooftop. As part of the “Sitting on the Roof” trope.
“Sitting on the roof” is mainly used to help create more dynamic backdrops to the characters in anime /manga, in otherwise tight urban/building environments.
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been an anime (and set in a dense inner-city instead of the suburbs) they would have met on the school roof, instead of a remarkably empty library annex with conveniently large open floor space.
And ya, that would very likely be one of the main HVAC units for the building.
I think it’s the stairhead.
Besides Japanese Anime, ‘the Princess Diaries’ w/ a young Anne Hathaway comes to mind.
Sad to say, most of the San Francisco shooting locations where actually elsewhere. http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/p/Princess-Diaries.html (The rooftop basketball court _is_ in SF however…)
Lovely Complex. Fireworks. That is all.
High School of the Dead. Zombie attack. (at Gryphon High, I almost feel sorry for the zombies)
Some of the zombies are probably students.
“When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face…
I climb way up to the top of the stairs,
And all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be.
And there the world below can’t bother me.
Let me tell you now,
When I come home feelin’ tired and beat,
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof).
I get away from the hustling crowd,
And all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof).
On the roof, the only place I know,
Where you just have to wish to make it so…
Let’s go up on the roof (up on the roof).
At night the stars put on a show for free.
And, darling, you can share it all with me.
I keep a-tellin’ you,
Right smack dab in the middle of town,
I’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof (up on the roof).
And if this world starts getting you down,
There’s room enough for two
Up on the roof (up on the roof)…
Up on the roo-oo-oof (up on the roof)…
Oh, come on, baby (up on the roof)…
Oh, come on, honey (up on the roof)…
Everything is all right (up on the roof)…
—Goffin / King
Most of the Japanese anime (and live action movies), the roof is not off limits to the students, just most don’t go up there because it’s usually where kids go to ‘make out’
Oh, and even in the US, some inner-city schools use the roof as a tennis or basketball court area
Gave me the nudge to buy Freak Angels by Ellis and Duffield, right when they’re having a sale, serendipity’s a doll.
In New York City, the roof is well known as Tar Beach.
The dynamics can get interesting. There are the ‘hip’ kids who don’t know it’s there, so they don’t use it. Are the nerdy kids who know it’s there, think it’s cool, so all the hip kids must use it, but the nerdy kids don’t like crowds, so they don’t use it so they may avoid the assumed crowd. And then are the social people who know about it, would use it, but no one else uses it, so they don’t use it. End result, the roof space doesn’t get used.
What? No Swimming Pool?
Sometimes I wonder if the physical location of the Gryphon Kindergarten/Elementary-/Middle-/High-School campus is in Japan.
I see what you did there paul. Where’s Tenchi? (heheheh)
Anime is pretty ubiquitous now.
Back when I (and more relevantly, Paul) were in school, it was much more an obscure, niche hobby to be into, which required more proactive effort.
There was a club run out of our local college (but not restricted to students) who once a month would do a 2-day weekend marathon of dozens of anime (usually two episodes of each series) in one of the lecture halls, projected onto the big screen. Everything they showed was imported from Japan by exchange students with connections, translated by language students, and given subtitles by the AV or film students. It was a massive group effort to bring obscure anime in English to a relatively small interested audience. Some series shown were also popular enough to have been translated and dubbed by TV networks, but the US-based companies hacked and edited the shit out of these “cartoons for children” to the point whole episodes got cut out of the continuities, so there was interest in seeing the original, un-butchered versions.
That was all back in the mid-90s. The club lost a lot of interest in later years when an entire shop a few blocks away from the college opened with aisle upon aisle of anime series on DVD. There was less point to it when all they were showing were the same DVDs we could rent ourselves any day of the week.
Now there’s Netflix. So many mainstream anime are on the regular TV networks now there’s younger kids who aren’t even aware they’re originally Japanese.
Anime is no longer a hobby for a few odd otakus; its normal and everywhere now. I find Abbie’s treating her interest in anime like a big secret as odd and out of place as would be a line about sneaking out to the local speakeasy for a shot of gin would be.