Iwa ni Hana

'Toward the Terra': The intoxication that is 'the future'

Mirai (未来) - meaning 'the future' - is a word with a halo around it in Toward the Terra. Mirai is like a drug.

It seems fair to say that it is about the only series in recent memory in which the characters' thinking take into account not only of their immediate lives, but of the lives of generations to come. There is prevalent realization of an individual's limitations. The characters think not in terms of their lifetime, but of a timespan measured in centuries. And the more they think about it, the more they realize that it is simply impossible to accomplish all that needs to be accomplished for their vision of the future, hence they entrusts dreams and hopes to the next generation. There is a real sense of the torch being passed down from generation to generation.

When you think about, isn't it the way things should be? Since when have we stopped thinking of building a future for ourselves, but for distant generations as well?

That is the marvelous thing about Toward the Terra (and to some extent other old school classics like The Legend of Galactic Heroes 銀河英雄伝説). The stage on which the characters tread is vast, and the timespan in which they live in acute awareness of spans across centuries.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what it means to be an epic.

[Heavy spoilers of the characterization, plot development and comparison with the original manga ahead.]

An introduction to the studio Fruit Lab. (fans of Shinkai Makoto would love this)

Remember my previous post on ga-nime (画ニメ)?

While I was browsing the 2007 winners of Digicon6+3 held by TBS, I discovered two utterly gorgeous ga-nime from Fruit Lab. -

Hatsukoi ・Ten (初恋・天)

As its title suggests, Hatsukoi ・Ten is about first love. The style emits what I call strong Shinkai-Makoto-vibes, though fans of Hosoda Mamoru's Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo may recognise the lyrical depiction of high school life and urban cityscape as well. 

Ichiaku no Suna (一握の砂)

This one is about father and son, and is by far my favorite. The style is very similar to Hatsukoi ・Ten.

You know, as I watched these two ga-nime, I grew more convinced that surely there is a market for animated commercials. Ichiaku no Suna for one would be a perfect commercial for 3G cellphones.

(Remember my post on Production I.G.'s Asience: Hairy Tale? Call me an impressionable anime fan, but after I watched the commercial, I actually ditched the brand of shampoo I have been using for the last 5 years and bought Asience's shampoo, hair condition and other related hair products instead... )

I Googled for Fruit Lab.'s official website, on which I also discovered their newest work Sekai Ichi no Hanabi (世界一の花火), now being shown on Gyao. As we know, Gyao blocks foreign IPs...

However, their official website also comes with a showcase of their other work. I would like to draw your attention especially to Ran no Machi (藍の町) and Gin no Ito (銀の糸).

'FICTION ZERO/NARRATIVE ZERO' and 'Wolfie the Pianist' by Studio 4℃

Has anyone heard of FICTION ZERO/NARRATIVE ZERO (フィクションゼロ/ナラティブゼロ) illustrated by Studio 4℃?

The thing is, I am not sure I understand the confusing marketing blurbs as to what this publication is about. It seems it is some sort of mook with stories. As you can see, there are interesting artwork by Studio 4℃ (w-dono should be absolutely drooling over this).

In other news, Studio 4℃'s new work Wolfie the Pianist will be shown at Festival de Cine de Sitges (a.k.a. Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya) next month.

Thought this news is not even announced on their official website for some reason.

Establishing the link between 'Mononoke' and the animated sequence in 'The Mystery of Rampo' by Studio 4℃

Many years ago, I watched The Mystery of Rampo (1994), a beautifully decadent film which features an animated sequence adapted from a short story called The Appearance of Osei by Edogawa Rampo (江戸川乱歩).

Many years later, I Googled for the studio behind that animated sequence on a whim.

It was Studio 4°C.

I also learned that Studio 4°C also did the animated sequence in Kamikaze Girls (2004), a film I also enjoyed.

Of course Studio 4°C has grown within the decade from 1994 to 2004. Looking back, it would seem that their involvement in The Mystery of Rampo was something of a breaking point in their history. In the following year, they produced Memories. From then on, they have established their niche in the anime market.

Unfortunately, my old VHS tape of The Mystery of Rampo is an ocean away. I wish I could rewatch just the animated sequence because the groundbreaking series Mononoke seems to be influenced by it.

On a side note, has anyone seen The Mystery of Rampo and Kamikaze Girls as well? Do you wish there were more live-action films featuring animated sequences? Or are animated sequences out of place in live-action films?

The strategy of 'being loved by everyone, one person at a time' in HaruToki (and economic reality)

I refer to this thoughtful blog post from neojaponisme.com, which compares the appeal of the fashion magazines JJ and CanCam. I would like to discuss in relation to otome games:

CanCam’s concept is being “super attractive.” Not just “attractive,” but “super attractive.” The originality is all in the adverb “super.” In contrast to JJ’s fashion strategy of “having the man of your dreams fall in love with you,” CanCam’s goal is “to be loved by everybody.” Ms. M-mura writes, “The target for female ‘attractiveness’ is not just limited to possible marriage partners. For example, female TV announcers all wear CanCam-style ’super attractive’ fashion because they want to be broadly embraced by everyone from kids to the elderly.”

Globalization over-allocates social resources to the “winners” of competition, and that means that “strong individuals” will be the only ones to enjoy a self-sustainable urban life.

There are not very many ways for the weak to survive. Logic leads us to only two possible strategies. The first strategy is to live under the protection of the strong. This is the so-called Aiming for a Wealthy Husband Strategy. But women are beginning to notice the surprisingly low reliability of those wealthy men they hope to marry. As soon as they realized the high risk of the “Marrying Up” strategy, women rejected JJ and embraced CanCam. The second strategy is to be loved by all those around you, one person at a time. Thus they have chosen the “super attractive” CanCam strategy: to be a “lovely” girl, loved by everyone. Young people have chosen this direction as the most advantageous option in the world they face. Of course, there are still a lot of young people who behave egotistically or arrogantly and think only of “I do what I want because I want to.” But when it comes to resource allocation and risk hedging through a mutual support network, they are already way too late. Before too long, they will be pulled to the lowest strata of society.

My knee-jerk reaction in hearing the strategy of being loved by everyone, one person at a time is -

Why, isn't this The Strategy for otome games all along?

Granted, I have only played HaruToki 1 once before out of curiosity. (I got bored of it very quickly and gave up, though I hear that HaruToki 3 is more interesting.) The idea in the game is that you are a messiah called Miko who must fight against evil, but as Miko you don't really fight in the actual physical combats - you make your warriors called Hachiyo to fight on your behalf. To succeed, you must -

• Raise the morale of Hachiyo

The premise is that the more they like you, the better they will fight for you. In actual battles, this means you have to select the rights words to cheer them up, because depending on their individual personalities, words that are nectar to one may be poison to another.

• Make sure that each Hachiyo does not get jealous of another because of you

The premise is that you may have one Hachiyo who is your honmei or your Special One. But if you get too friendly with another Hachiyo, they will fight each other. That results in unproductive loss when they should both be battling evil. 

In other words, it's HR management. Your job is to manage the emotional lives of your warriors. The ideal is that you are loved by each of them, one person at a time.

When I was first introduced to this game, I was puzzled by the values it seems to instill into the minds of young women. Now I think I can see the logic behind it. HaruToki is a videogame about pleasing other people. Miko derives her power through the use of words – in other words her ability to choose the right words to please each Hachiyo, who in turn will become stronger because of her pleasing words.

So the player is essentially doing the same thing she must do if she is to survive in this dog-eat-dog world. In that sense, HaruToki s probably less escapist than you think. It is a training ground for “people skills”.

The Problem with Depictions of Parent-Child Relationships in Anime

I have always thought that that the depiction of parent-child relationships is a major weakness in anime. Seldom do you find parents who are not of the following 'convenient' categories:

• Working overseas
• Dead
• Salaryman who never leaves the office and housewife who never leaves the kitchen

The point is, parents ususally appear as flat characters, far from the tangent of the teenage protagonist's life-drama.

One pattern I spotted is that the intellectual and personal growth of a female character is typically supported by an understanding father in the absence of a mother. Examples include:

• Oscar in The Rose of Versailles
• Haruhi in Ouran High School Host Club
• Shuurei in Saiunkoku Monogatari
• Hilda in Legend of Galactic Heroes

Whereas strong father-daughter relationship can be found here and there, mother-daughter relationship seems to be a rare topic for anime to touch upon. The only example I can think of is Yukari and her mother in Paradise Kiss, and even then her mother is rather a flat character.

I have always said that anime characters are mythological archetypes. When I look at female characters like Oscar, Haruhi, Shuurei and Hilda, I cannot help but be reminded of the Greek goddess Athena, who was born full grown from the head of her father Zeus. 'Being born full grown' is just another way of saying that Athena has never had a childhood. And sure enough, Oscar, Haruhi, Shuurei and Hilda were probably never 'children' psychologically. 

The intellectual and personal growth of a male character, on the other hand, tends to be pitted against his father, or at least a father figure, or the concept of 'father' in the abstract. Examples include:

• Yagami Light in Death Note
• Edward in Fullmental Alchemist
• Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Yuusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho
• Arslan in The Heroic Legend of Arslan

Again, when I look at these male characters, I cannot help but be reminded of the Greek myths of Zeus killing his father own Cronus and Cronus killing his own father Uranus. Each time, the son overthrows the father in order to establish his own world order, and the pattern repeats in every generation.

Mother-and-son relationship does not seem to be a strong point in anime either. Mothers tend to fall into either ends of the spectrum - they are either impossibly ideal or they are just downright mean and cruel.

I think Gankutsuou is an exception where the parents actually have their own lives to live out. Honey and Clover also features some minor appearances of parents which are nevertheless realistic and to the point.

What do you all think about parent-children relationships in anime? Has there been an anime which chiefly features a successful and touching depiction of parental affection and/or filial piety, or realistic portrayal of chilly relationships between parents and children?   

How do you define a 'cult classic' in anime?

I know that a cult classic can be defined in many ways. I have been watching anime since I was very little, and it has been nearly 20 years now since I saw the first series that I grew obsessed with (namely Saint Seiya). Since then, I have been through many phases as an anime/manga fan - Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, The Legend of Galactic Heroes, Neon Genesis Evangelion etc etc. Now that I look back and ask myself what defines a cult classic, I must say that:

A cult classic is one where the story goes far beyond the original in the imagination of its fans. That is to say, fans love a cult classic because the story reminds them of the other, the real one, the one they go on inventing in their imagination.

In that sense, I must say that Saint Seiya, though largely unknown to English-speaking fans, is a cult classic par excellence. It may be 'bad' by today's standards, but you have to give it credit for being the godfather of a whole school of aesthetics that is with us to these day, of which the following are but a few of its prominent features:

• Androgynous beauty: Saint Seiya is studded with characters who have masculine bodis that Micheangelo's David would envy, but nevertheless have femininely beautiful faces as well as long flowing hair. (To top it all, some of these characters are blessed with god-like powers and/or personalities. Gemini Saga is said to be a demi-god whereas Virgo Shaka is said to be the man who is closest to god).

• Technique / Attack Names: You can literally compile a whole encyclopedia on the technique / attack names of the characters. You can also group them under different categories such as psychic attacks, fire attacks, sound attacks etc. I think Saint Seiya largely defined the course of the developement in the shounen fight genre in this regard, though I also have to say that no other series managed to match Saint Seiya in terms of the aesthetic appeal of the attacks. I mean, some of the attacks are extremely pretty to look at (ex. Starlight Extinction, Stardust Revolution, Galaxian Explosion etc). When was the last time you saw a pretty attack in a shounen fight scene?

And true enough - Saint Seiya goes far beyond the original in the imagination of fans. For most series, you get your share of fans producing fanart, fanfic, wallpapers and icons. But with Saint Seiya, the game is on an entirely different level - more than one otome game has been created, fan-made original anime are produced, as are sets of fan-made Tarot cards. I have even seen groups of fans producing fanart on fanfic series (not even the original) of Saint Seiya in the form of calendars and what-not. Hardly a day goes by without several new fanfics being posted to the Chinese portal Baidu, where you also find proclamations of love for the Gold Saints and where the argument of whether Gemini Saga or Virgo Shaka is the most powerful Gold Saint has not ended after 3 whole years...

That, ladies and gentleman, is undoubtably a cult classic.

Saint Seiya is also special (to me at any way) in two other aspects:

• I have never seen an anime character with sadder eyes than Gemini Saga. His eyes speak.

• A lot of the fanart for this series are just mind-blowingly gorgeous and take your breath away. I have never seen a series that inspires so much high-quality fanart as Saint Seiya.
  

So what constitutes a cult classic in your mind? I would love to hear from you all.

The anime studio Rikuentai: 'Taisho Botan Tourou' and 'Fuyu no Himawari'

Has anyone heard of this anime studio called Rikuentai 陸演隊?

ttp://www.rikuentai.jp/mainframe.htm

I am chiefly interested in a project of theirs which seems to be stalled for an indefinite time - it is called Taisho Botan Tourou 大正牡丹燈籠 ('The Peony Lantern of Taisho').

According to the poster from their official website (see right), Taisho Botan Tourou is a kaidan set in the Taisho era.  They make a special point in distinguishing horror from kaidan in the sense that horror is dou 動 ('moving') whereas kaidan is sei 静 ('immobile'). What they mean essentially is that horror consists of sensational shock, whereas kaidan consists of a chilling effect that is more subtle. They also make a point of stressing that the art direction will aesthetically unique etc. (You can read more about the original story on which this anime seems to be based at SaruDama.)

I am also interested in Rikuentai itself. There are proclamations all over their website about how much rubbish there is out there in the anime industry and how they strive to produce high-quality anime etc etc. However, it seems to be that they are a young, struggling studio. From what I see of their portfolio, they did work on the artsy stuff like the second episode of the Bake Neko story arc of Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror, but they also seem to be not too selective in the other projects they have worked on (perhaps they did not have a choice).

They also have another project called Fuyu no Himawari 冬のひまわり ('The Winter Sunflower') which is about the Great Hanshin Earthquake (see poster on the left). It looks to be a serious drama in which a family copes with loss and living alongside memories of the dead etc.

They have my blessing in these projects, of course.

Racial identity in anime

I once read a theory somewhere that anime (and manga) allow Japanese to transcend the restraint of their national identity. It is like... being non-Japanese/European in a vicarious way.

Of course this all goes back to the whole historic debate  since the Meiji Era of Japan (or at least some people in Japan) wanting to distance Japan the rest of Asia and identify more with Europe and North America. I even once heard of a lobby group in Japan that was campaigning for Japan to join the EU.

There are too many anime series out there for us to generalize on this issue. Some series come with explicit info as to the characters' countries of origin, although there may be nothing or little in the characters' physical appearance that suggests they belong to different races. (Think Saint Seiya.) Other series are set in a fantasy world where race is not relevant (Think Kino no Tabi). Still others are set in a pseudo fantasy world where countries are loosely based on real countries and where the only real country that exists is Japan; in other words, every character is of make-believe nationality except for that one and only one character who is distinctly Japanese. (Think Kanda in D.Grayman, Naoji in Meine Liebe). Then there are series out there which I feel are Japanese fantasies of Europe. (Think Le Chevalier D'eon, and The Rose of Versailles.) However, I would hesitate to say whether there are series where everyone behaves like Japanese in spite of bearing western names and looking foreign. Although there are certainly series where characters bear distinctly Japanese names but look racially obscure. (Think Revolutionary Girl Utena.)

And then there are a few old-school shoujo classics where the topdog of the social hierarchy (there are always these social hierarchies in old-school shoujo classics for some reason) is inevitably blonde and blue-eyed, even though they have Japanese names and every other character with Japanese names look Japanese. (Think 'Madame Butterfly' in Ace wo Nerae and 'Miya-sama' in Oniisama E). I would suggest hoping over to Neomarxisme for an excellant analysis on that.

I am ambivalent about this. The thing is, I think if anime allows you to somehow live vicariously, it is in psychological archetypes rather than anything to do with race per se. I believe anime terminology evolves around psychological types and mental processes for this reason. 

What do you think? I would appreciate any feedback on this.

Just a passing thought on supernatural battles in anime

I said before that I dropped Shigurui because the bloodshed and violence were too strong a cup of tea for me. However, I could not help but peep at the screen captures of the more recent episodes. To tell the truth, I cannot even find the words to describe all the exaggerated violence.

Or is it exaggerated or just realistic?

This made me wonder if all the supernatural powers we typically see in anime battle scenes serve to deflect real violence. Sure - A emits a blast of spiritual energy at B, and the worst that would happen to B is being drained of spiritual energy and/or getting a few scratches. B just doesn't get the Shigurui treatment.

Two bits of news related to Kon Satoshi and Ikeda Riyoko

I came by the news that Director Kon Satoshi is to speak about the past, present and future of anime from the point-of-view of an anime creator at JAM 2007. I came by this news at a Chinese anime portal, actually. I had a quick look at the official website JAM 2007 but did not find any related info:

ttp://www.jam-anime.jp/top.html

At the same Chinese anime portal, I also came by the news that manga artist Ikeda Riyoko is to adapt a Korean period drama called Taiousijinki 太王四神記 into manga:

ttp://www.nifty.com/taiousijinki/

To be precise, it is going to be a type of manga called gekiga 劇画. Basically, gekiga is just serious manga with characters that are drawn realistically.

Perhaps I have been living under a stone but I thought Ikeda-sensei has retired for many years already... On the whole, I can't say that K-drama appeals to me, and I am not really getting my hopes up on Ikeda-sense's gekiga...