18.2.07

Utawaremono, Crescent Love, Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas

A couple series I've watched/been watching lately. There will be spoilers, in particular with Utawaremono, but I'm sure everyone already knows that if they're reading my blog. :p

Utawaremono: I know I should say a lot about this series, but honestly for me there isn't too much I can say about it. It's a good series, and its rightful that it's popular; nevertheless, there some major flaws which I cannot overlook. One of the biggest problems I have with the series is its thematic concepts (and with it, again the whole "look at the evil scientist!" scenario) and I truly don't think that the quest for "power" as they put it will bring all of mankind to doom. In many cases science and discovery is both good and bad, but they seem to enjoy portraying the evils that come with knowledge without giving deserving credit to science and technology as a good thing (granted Utawaremono IS set up so that technology is minimal and people are living in a sort of medieval type of civilization). Hence, I don't think Utawaremono is fair in that respect, and their main theme of "technology is wrong, we should all live in simple bliss in a little village on top of a mountain" is incorrect and wrongly portrayed.
Aside from the thematic problems, there were many logical problems with Utawaremono as well. Again, some of this is associated with the "science" they portrayed, like somehow humans evolved from monkeys via a giant doglike demon (o_O) or that the monster can turn people into this weird "immortal" jello thing which I have been trying to think how in the world could that be logical (Yes, I know, I shouldn't think about the logic in an anime that has humans with animal ears and a tail, but it comes to me naturally :( ). Other logical problems reside in plot, but I can actually forgive this. This is because Utawaremono was originally a game (and, I presume, a very long game) so its impossible to get all the stories of the characters flushed out and properly arranged the way they should be. Nevertheless, many questions remain, including the history and deeper storyline of pretty much all the characters besides Hokoro's (sp?) life story. In particular, I thought the one character, the one with cat ears and weilding a rediculously huge sword, had a very unclear story in the anime; they left the audience with very little detail about the "evilness" of the emperor, why the character wanted to leave, and nothing about the whole "flowers on dead bodies" thing. That was the only time where I felt there was something lacking in that sub-story.
Overall, though, Utawaremono is a good anime. It has really good organization and flow when it comes to moving one story into another; there actually seemed to be a transition and slow progression into each story rather than suddenly, in a new episode, popping in something completely new and unexpected. The character designs are spectacular, the music is unique sounding with it's chinese-folk-put-to-techno style, and the character personalities are both relatable and admirable. I have to say, Benawi is an awesome guy, personality wise :D too bad I'm not a fan of spear weilders and I didn't care much about his fighting style; the two twins and their archer techniques, however, were freaking awesome. But I can't admire them too much due to the girliness they displayed throughout the entire anime, which made me sad... :( yes so sad...
In terms of the other characters. Kamyu by far is my favorite female character, you could say, mainly because of her youth state and she has wings (Her sister, I forgot her name, has wings too but she's the onee-chan type and I'm not fond of onee-chan types :( ). Anyway Kamyu has a nice upbeat "happy" personality, which is probably the only reason I find her different from Mikuru in "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi"... certainly, the two characters' designs were designed for the same purpose :p. Erurruu actually has a very kind and attractive personality. I think she best resembles a mother-type character though she is supposed to be young. But this is appropriate since the main character (Hokoro? I forget their names) is supposed to be the "father" according to Arurruu. Arurruu, to me, isn't anything really special (Kamyu is better) EXCEPT for this one part where Kamyu gives her a present (some little sculpture of a tiger cat) and Arurruu just keeps on going "Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh" and I thought that was just awesome :D :D :D The blind girl... she's nice but admittedly, not the most original of characters, though I think her situation is rather sad :( That "holy warrior" girl is funny because she reminds me of people who continously think their way is "right" and they could never go wrong... oh well its a good thing they made her skills really good :) And all other chars are cool but I don't feel like analyzing any more. :(

Crescent Love: Is a really bad anime, but not as bad as Mamoru-kun (or whatever that was, that was horrendous). The art work is REALLY REALLY nice and honestly, that was the only thing that kept me watching this series. Even their "chibi moments" and humor was really.... bad.

Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas: I hvaen't finished this series but I have to tell you, I really like it for whatever reason. It seems like a kids' show, but it also seems to have some sort of depth to it... something that I think makes it really good, similar to Stellvia in a way... I think. Regardless, I really like this series.

1.2.07

Rewatching AIR, "The Life of a Cell" video

AIR is truly my absolute favorite anime. I think I only told this to a few people, so I'll tell this to a few more people that might actually read my blog: AIR is an absolute masterpiece. I'm rewatching AIR and trying to figure out some things about the mysteries of Kanna and her feathers and it continues to astound and puzzle me. It's as if it almost makes sense, but still not feasible enough to make a reasonable conclusion from them. It could be that I'm really overthinking all this and the stories of Kano, Minagi, and Misuzu are all different: as in, sure they have some similarities such as the feather, but no overall connecting "theme".
Actually this is wrong, there IS an overall connecting theme that's pretty obvious, but I want to look even deeper. Deeper, behind the mere stories of maternalism, and possibly try to understand what, exactly, are these feathers. Are they memories of the deceased? This right now seems like a highly logical conclusion, giving the connection of the living with the dead. Apparently, as seen with Kano, I believe they can contain more than just one deceased persons' wishes, dreams, and memories.
Its highly confusing and racking my brain, the whole concept of a feather. I think they contain memories, such as the memories that possess Kano and how Michiru says she'll bring happy memories, then turns into a feather. But I think there's also more. Rewatching AIR for the 3rd or 4th time will not be enough; I will have to look over it again sometime in the future.
Additionally, I left out addressing the issue of Misuzu. Hmm, Misuzu as everyone already knows is the reincarnation of Kanna, but seeing how Kanna is cursed and etc. she begins to go through painful experiences and is never able to make friends. Right now I can't really think of her being much deeper than that, though there could be more deeper meaning. (Plus I have yet to figure out what's the "scientific" name of her symptoms, I think its similar to Parkinson's Disease but I'm not sure). But one comment I do want to make: I believe Misuzu in the 1st timeline (the one where Misuzu never had a crow with her) was actually saved once Yukito disappeared. In that dimension, I want to imagine that she ended up living a good healthy life, minus Yukito. So what about the 2nd timeline? I have yet to think more on that. Maybe its the curse passed onto Yukito, and he is living his life as a dream. I will not know for sure, yet.

A few final comments. Many people are raving about Haruhi right now, and Haruhi is great and all, but really has not much "deep analysis" to think about. Or at least, its not the same type of literary analysis AIR gives. Its more of a philosophical "what if that can happen" sort of thing; rewatching it doesn't necessarily point out deeper meanings (but you may be able to spot cool scenes that you may not have seen before). To look for deeper meaning in Haruhi is just thinking more philosophically and doesn't even require rewatching the anime: what if the world is fabricated? What is time, space, etc? AIR is remarkably different and if I would say, more complex. There IS meaning in almost every aspect of AIR, even in those small frames where it shows a mother Robin feeding her chicks. Even that is a foreshadowing, a symbolic meaning, a link to the maternal themes presented in AIR. Everything seems connected, but I don't always know how they are connected; this is why it is so mystical.

Speaking of Mysticality, and relating to the fact that I have a biochem exam I SHOULD have been studying super hard for instead of rewatching AIR, I'll present to you this video. It is the GREATEST science video I have ever seen, and really re-inspires me to do more biology. I dare say that it rekindles why I want to be in the field of Biology. I may want to do something like this in the future; not just research, find new information, but present it in a beautiful, mystical way just like this video does to everyone, showing how complex and amazing the world of Biology is.

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

EDIT: One more sidecomment I want to make about AIR: I do believe the game should be better, but I wouldn't know how tolerable I would be to trying to play it and figure it out. I heard from other people that its immensely long and tedious, most likely, so I'm not sure. :x I still really want to play though; I believe if it ever came out in America (haha insert laugh here) I would automatically buy it, no questions asked. :x This would probably present a problem with my parents... But yea, its hard when you can feel so riled up over a "followup" of something that was originally presented as a game much earlier, so I feel I really want to look into the source.

Don't worry (or maybe you guys should), I'll be talking more about AIR in the future, sometime.