Everything, and I mean everything…
29 January 2008
Warning: Long Post Ahead
Behold! My long awaited return to blogging! I kid. Anyway…
I finally got around to watching Mononoke, which, I have to say was an exceptionally brilliant piece of art, not just anime, but art. When you have a show like Mononoke floating in the same patch of ocean as ef, the contrast becomes sharper and the distinction clearer, you start seeing the fine line that separates Great and Almost Great and even the Not So Great.
Watching Mononoke was like eating cake, not just a slice, but the entire cake, bite after bite of lush, soft cake, icing, the decorative fruit, layer after layer, just stuffing yourself full with the most decadent, indulgent dessert you can imagine. Not only was each and every scene a pure explosion of color, the fantastical nature of the stories, the emotions of the characters were just as vivid as the artwork. Each episode trumps the previous, culminating in one of the most exhilarating and amazing finales.
Mononoke isn’t scary in the contemporary, Hollywood sense, no zombies, no chainsaws, no giant monsters. But there is a lot of blood, not in the usual shade of crimson but a myriad of different colors, splashed across flimsy screen doors and white kimonos. The scariest part of Mononoke is probably watching the characters find themselves, admit their mistakes and almost regurgitated their past sins. That’s the key to exorcising a Mononoke, truth, form and regret. In short, and for a lack of better words, it’s one of the most beautiful and brilliant mind fucks to have ever graced my monitor. Half-way through an episode, with all the color, all the screams and shrieks, the flurry of subtitles (though this really only affects non-Japanese speaking people like me) bombarding my sense, I slipped and fell down a deep and treacherous rabbit hole.
And to add to my growing fondness for the series, it had a damn fine opening and ending theme.
It’s a spin off, sure, but it was a damn good spin off. Not to mention Takahiro Sakurai was the Medicine Seller. It was as if the world fell apart and was slowly pieced back together, the paper thin pieces of our reality held together by glue, drowning in color, patterns, textures, that’s Mononoke. Sometimes you start thinking that maybe the people behind these shows live on a different plane than you do, how else are they able to see the world in such a different way?
I also managed to pull through the remainder of ef – a tale of memories and Night Wizard. I can’t say they were on the same level of enjoyment as Mononoke, but the former was an interesting detour into uncharted waters, and latter was a shameless, self-indulgent exercise in watching anime shunned by elitist bloggers, a dip into mediocrity if there ever were such a thing.
I’ve already ranted and incoherently blabbed about ef and having finished it, my final verdict is it’s just another run of the mill love story. Granted, for a while there Chihiro and Renji had me in pretty deep, especially when she threw away all the pages of her journal. And I was deliriously happy when Kei walked in on Hiro and Miyako, literally pointing and laughing. To call ef some great masterpiece would be a stretch, sure, it’s stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with symbols, pretty, and random, imagery, but I’m at a loss as to what all that noise was about.
If you want to talk symbols and pretty imagery, watch Mononoke, if you want tear jerking romances, well, those are a dime a dozen. The most prevalent theme in anime is romance, from shows like Gurren Lagann to Zetsubou Sensei, every sub-category, ever genre of anime is infected with romance. Sometimes, the romance is so down right tragic, it makes ef look like a sheep in wolf’s clothing (and it’s not a typo). It was like the sappier version of Fifty First Dates, with a lot of angst and crying and some more angst and crying and a church. And when Chihiro and Renji finally reached the zenith of that unforgiving mountain they call love, she pushes him right off the peak. Typically, Renji would have just died, been shot, ruthlessly raped by a giant demon, or fade into the night sky on the eve of their wedding, but he came back. He came back and they made up and I was really expecting something, dare I say it, deeper for a show so examined and talked about.
I liked Night Wizard. I really did. It was one of the series I was borderline anticipating from the fall season, all because Hiiragi Renji, the falling man, was cute. The show captured very nicely the essence of a role playing game, battle music, nonsense attack names, giant weapons, hordes of demons, quests, even parties for the formation of the party and options (For the next question I’m about to ask you, please answer “Okay” or “Yes”), and of course, a serious twist I did not see coming.
The whole premise of the show was that Elis was the One, like Neo from the Matrix, with the power to save the world! And just like the Matrix, the world’s been saved before, by a multitude of other people! And when she, along with Hiiragi, Kureha and Akira finally gathered all seven jewels to open the door to the demon world and save the normal world, everything goes wrong. Enter, another pretty cute kid, Kirihito, the ‘Geizer’, I’m under the impression it should be Gazer, anyway. He apparently set everyone up and created Elis to be a vessel for this great demon who’s name I can’t spell who has the ability to completely destroy, well, everything! And then, cue the typical friends, love and peace prevailing against all odds theme and you have, in the nutshell, Night Wizard, unbearably simple and complex at the same time.
I walked away, in the end, feeling pretty good about myself. It goes back to that post I wrote up on Pumpkin Scissors, Night Wizard was one of those things that gave me such a warm feeling on the inside, a sense of companionship, if you will. Sometimes, there’s just not a lot to say about a series aside from “I liked it” and you’re not even sure why you liked it to begin with, but you did.
Rental Magica falls into the same category. I watched it because the lead character looked cute, I’m still watching it because he’s cute and because it’s a feel good thing. Every episode ends on such a light hearted joyous note. Rental Magica is going to end up being my Feel Good show of the season. I’m still waiting to see who that other kid in the opening is, as well.
I’ve been keeping up with Gundam 00. It weirds me out every once in a while that they’re still making gundam series and that I’m living through the actual broadcast of a gundam series. Mainly, because I regard anything gundam related as a relic of the anime past. The mecha designs are different, they’ve even migrated to a different timeline and protruded into the real world, but strangely, it’s still gundam. It’s nothing like the days of G Gundam (who’s racial stereotypes are even worse than G00’s) and Wing, but, again, it’s still gundam. So, to quote a line from one of my favorite songs, where did they go wrong?
The appearance of the three new gundams, sprouting somewhat satanic looking red GN particles actually gave me an incentive to watch the show. It seems the Celestial Beings organization is bigger and far more mysterious than they let on. Especially with the whole recap episode where they had talking pieces of art, reminiscent of SEELE from Evangelion and even the council from Star Wars. Aside from the new plot twists and, possibly, the beginning of a second arc (hence the recap), the new opening and ending were also pretty good. I’ve got the second ending sequence to G00 picked out as one of the best endings this year, and it’s only January. For one, it’s about a minute and a half of partially naked, emo guys on the beach. Need I say more?
As for Winter seasons shows, I’m only keeping up with two or three, Persona, Wolf and Spice, the second season Zetsubou Sensei (an issue I’ll address in a separate post all together) and that’s about it. Maybe I’ll pick up on some other series later, but nothing else seems to be of interest.
Persona’s been on my “have to watch when on air” list for a while. Iwatsuki Taku’s soundtrack is an added bonus, sometimes I hear bits and pieces of Gurren Lagann, maybe I’m just trying too hard. The title of the opening theme doesn’t help either, Breakin’ Through? Doesn’t that just scream Gurren Lagann? In any case, the two shows have nothing to do with each other. I seem to have a thing, lately, for role playing game adaptations (see: Night Wizard), because Persona, apparently, was a game as well. You can also see hints of rpg-ness, if you will, when the big monsters start clubbing each other. The animation is also pretty solid, the transparency of the fighting shadows is a nice touch. The plot isn’t in full swing yet, in fact, all the pieces of the puzzle haven’t even been revealed. Four episodes in, the most astonishing occurrence was Jun’s gender bending collapse at the end of episode four.
Wolf and Spice is probably the last thing I’m going to talk about. This post has become incredibly long. As Martin pointed out in his post, Wolf and Spice might just be one of the better shows this season. There’s something gentle, child-like about the series, but it also carries with it an almost melancholic sense of being, much like the characters. How Horo seems to sway from frivolity to severity like the ticking pendulum of a grandfather clock, how even just the grayness of Lawrence’s hair adds another level to his maturity, how, at first glance, there’s nothing amazing about the show and how half way through, I almost fell asleep, it all adds up to being something different. Perhaps, I find this amazing because I haven’t watched Kino or Mushishi, well haven’t finished but it’s almost the same thing. I’m digging the random merchanting segments, how Horo and Lawrence’s personalities bounce off each, it’s like fireworks without the spark, but beautiful nonetheless.
I lied, actually, because I left out Moyashimon. I thoroughly enjoyed Moyashimon, it was quirky from beginning to end, from the bird anus to the little floating microbes. It was like a short distraction, that’s what I end up calling all of these thirteen episode series, a short distraction. It taught me some really random facts about microbes and it pains me now to spray anti-bacterial things around my house, ever since that episode with the dead microbes. It was a pleasant shock for me to find out that Kei was the gothic lolita girl, but I saw it coming. I always thought he looked a lot like a girl, but I’m under the impression that borderline feminine men are good looking. The Spring Festival episode was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. College activities are, apparently, just as eccentric as the college.
Moyashimon also managed to dwell on other issues and there’s a lot more beyond the microbes, even though that’s what most people tend to notice. When Sawaki lost his ability but the microbes wrote his name on the bread anyway and he realized that microbes are always around him, that one of the strangest, most profound existential discoveries, ever. That whole scene, in a serious and comical way, stuck with me for a while. Microbes are always around. It was a zany ride, from start to finish, a few road bumps of hilarity here and there, like the bird anus (which I will never forget), Kei as the gothic lolital girl, the liquor store, Fatso and Mustache, Muto’s drinking problems, Hasegawa and Oikawa’s kiss and that hug scene of epic microbe-ness.
To sum up everything, it’s been a pretty amazing year for me in terms of anime. Well, mostly in part because I ‘re-discovered’ anime and now it’s a staple in my diet, just like rice, canned soda and video gaming. I could ask for no better an introduction than Darker Than Black, though in retrospect, it wasn’t as great as it could have been, blame the ending. Gurren Lagann is going to haunt my dreams for the rest of my life, not only because they threw galaxies at each other, but just because!! And, of course, my entry into the anime blogging community, which I did not know existed, and all the new people I’ve met, friends I’ve made. To avoid sounding cheesy, I’ll just leave it here. It’s all good. It’s all good.
(Christ, I left out Dragonaut as well…)