Iwa ni Hana

Zankoku Bi (残酷美): 'Shigurui' and the Strangely Seductive Beauty of Cruelty

I would like to discuss in relation to Shigurui a Japanese word that is used but never found in dictionaries - zankoku bi (残酷美). Mishima Yukio has an essay on this topic entitled Zankoku no Bi ni Tsute (残酷美について) which I am rather keen to track down, because if anyone in Japan is qualified to define zankoku bi then it is none other than Mishima-sensei. But being short of his essay, I humbly offer my own definition:

Zankoku bi may be roughly translated into English as 'beauty of cruelty'. It refers to beautiful images and noble sentiments framed in stark contrast to hideous images and perverse cruelty. The net effect is that the latter cast a strange veil of seductive mystery on the former and vice versa. Zankoku bi often appears in scenes of death, destruction or violence and may well be considered an offshot of hakai no bi (破壊の美) or 'beauty of destruction'.

The gory scenes in Shigurui are well documented and there is no need for me to elaborate on them. But from time to time there are odd shots of things that are beautiful in themselves, such as a stone buddha, the glossy lips of a pretty young woman, flowers, the full moon etc.

These beautiful things are all cast in a strange light in the context of Shigurui. The flowers are not just flowers in your backyard, but flowers interposed between two scenes of extreme and inhuman violence. The full moon is likewise not just the full moon, but the source of light through which a bloody duel is revealed. The gorgeous lips of the young woman are not just the lips of any tart, but the lips of a young woman who has no say on horrendous maiming of the men around her. To put it another way, the context of cruelty bestow on these beautiful things a layer of aesthetics that is at once dangerous and alluring. What is ordinarily beautiful is rendered soul-shakingly beautiful as horror strikes to the heart.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of zankoku bi.

(If there are other examples of zankoku bi you would like to share, the floor is all yours.)

'Under Execution Under Failbreak (死刑執行中脱獄進行中)' by Araki Hirohiko (荒木飛呂彦): A collection of bizarre, outlandish and strangely philosophical short stories

Araki Hirohiko is best known for his manga series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険), but to me his crowning achievement is in a collection of bizarre, outlandish and strangely philosophical short stories called Under Execution Under Failbreak (死刑執行中脱獄進行中). Let me summarize the first story in the collection so that you get an idea:

Prisoner 27 has just received his death sentence. He is brought to his cell to await his demise. He switches on the light only to be stung by a colony of bees beside it. He discovers devilishly clever traps hidden in his food and his chair. He spots a hole on the wall and attempts to dig his way to liberty, only to have his fingers peeled off by a meat grinder installed on the other side of the wall. It finally dawns on him that he isn’t incarcerated in a prison cell at all, but the execution room itself, where he is to suffer a prolonged and agonizing death. From that point on things progress from bad to worse. Rats spring out of nowhere to devour his fingers that have fallen onto the ground. In the end, he digs a hole large enough for him to escape alright. But having been consistently fooled by objects in the room that are wholly innocent in appearance but are in effect torture devices, he wonders if there is a scaffold ready to cut him into two halves the moment his jumps across that hole he dug. He sits, meditatively gazing at the clear blue sky, the distant mountains, the bounteous field, the light, the beauty of the outside world. Fifty years have passed him by, he still hasn’t mustered the courage to step over to the other side. The end.            

It is a story that makes one ask questions: What if the scafford Prisoner 27 imagines is not really there and he sits longing for freedom in vain for fifty years? What if the scafford he imagines is actually there and the moment he reaches out to escape to the free world, his life is finished?

Besides the story of Prisoner 27 above, my other favourites in this volume are Dead Man’s Q and its sequel, which are undeniably the most heavy-handed story with all the expected existentialist metaphors and Kafkaesque symbolisms. One has no right to be a manga fan without having read this. It is a stunning feat of story-telling. Take my word for it.

A very quick post: Itazura no Kiss, Soul Eater, Nijuumensou no Musume, Vampire Knight, S.A.~Special A~, Kaiba, Toshokan Sensou, RD Sennou Chosashitsu, Amatsuki, Kurenai, The Revelation

Itazura no Kiss

Surprising the series that I am enjoying the most so far. I mean it honestly. Director Yamazaki Osamu continues to do good work following Toward the Terra.

Soul Eater

Great art direction. Though the story just does not grab my attention. Judging from Ouran High School Host Club, Director Igarashi Takuya is capable of something much better than this. Dropped until I hear strong verdict to the contrary from people whose tastes I trust.

Nijuumensou no Musume

Saw the first two episodes out of curiosity while multitasking in other things. The series has promise that has yet to be realized. Dropped until I hear strong verdict to the contrary from people whose tastes I trust.

Vampire Knight

Saw the first two episodes out of curiosity while multitasking in other things. Dropped without reserve.

Nevertheless, the series would have afforded a great study of faceless groupies who appear in a shoujo.anime/manga as surely as the chorus appears in a Greek tragedy. I suspect the faceless groupies embody the shadow of the heroine - what the heroine would not condescend to do, the faceless groupies do with joy. The heroine and the faceless groupies are really one body of light and shadow (光と影は表裏一体).

S.A.~Special A~

Saw the first two episodes out of curiosity while multitasking in other things. Dropped without reserve.

Kaiba

Will write more about it in due course. Perhaps I set my expectations too high - the animation itself has a refreshing style but I am a little bit disappointed with storytelling. It does not really excite me with the question what happens next? If anything it makes me nostalgic for Mononoke - which really does an excellent job of making the viewer care what is going on from one scene to the next all the way up to the ending.

Toshokan Sensou

One of many anime series that are set in a futuristic world but are essentially nostalgic in outlook (and I mean this in an objective way without saying that this is necessarily a bad thing: in fact this set-up dwells at the heart of Japanese anime and makes it unique. Why go out of way to create a futuristic world only for the sake of recreating a bygone world? I shall discuss this at greater length some other time.). The militarization for the protection of books would have made much more sense before the Chinese invented paper and printing, and it seems a little silly to protected printed books to this extent if your objective is to protect the freedom of speech when there are other electronic formats available. However, the characterization and dramatic narrative are great - and this series actually does make one ask what happens next? I enjoy this most next to Itazura no Kiss.

RD Sennou Chosashitsu

Presumably the 'real show' (本番) will begin after Episode 3 and Haru will begin to investigate various incidents.  Fingers crossed.

Amatsuki

Will continue to watch with lukewarm enthusiasm.

Kurenai

Great screenplay so far that draws one into the story quite in spite of oneself. However, I have a feeling that it will probably go downhill and settle down as a fan service show.

The Revelation

[Massive spoilers up to Episode 3]

So it becomes obvious that the President's forbidden love for his daughter's boyfriend mirrors Aoki's forbidden love for his older sister. In the original manga, there is emphasis in the idea that what you desire but cannot have, you can only look, but if you really want to keep your desire secret (ie. undetected by MRI), you can no longer even look. That idea seems to be not stressed as much as I would have liked in the anime. And there does not seem to be enough dosage of angst when Aoki leaves his home - the real reason why he is moving out is because he does not want to look at his older sister any more.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for the 'theme park mascot murder case' from volume 3 of the manga.

Shinkai Makoto's 'She and Her Cat' and the Magic of Prologue

I have always been fascinated by Shinkai Makoto's earlier work She and Her Cat (彼女と彼女の猫) without quite being able to put into words as to why. Lately, I recalled something I read somewhere from Natsume Soseki that may explain it.

Natsume was writing about a personal experience where he was present at a classical concert. The orchestra was tuning the instruments as usual, and a Japanese lady, not knowing that it was just tuning, remarked afterwards that music at the beginning was wonderful, perhaps the best she has heard the whole evening.

When I read this anecdote for the first time, I actually could not help but agree with the Japanese lady. There is something provocative about the tuning part at the beginning of a concert - perhaps the premonition about what is to come - that excites one in a way that the actual performance does not. The tuning is suggestive, imperfect and impromptu - no one would think of recording the tuning at the beginning of a concert, and yet there is a kind of beauty in it in the sense that the tuning embodies the mood of anticipation of the evening.

To come back to She and Her Cat - the whole anime short feels like a prelude to something. There are descriptive passages about the weather etc which one would have thought were a set-up to a real story with characters, a plot,  various conflicts and their resolution etc. But the plot and the conflicts never came. We never learn the cat owner's sorrow. We never even see her face. One feels as though one is shown the beginning of something, but it ends before that something comes. And yet the effect is magnificent. There is a kind of magic in this anime short in that a story is suggested rather than told outright.

In a retrospect, one may also say that She and Her Cat is a prelude to Shinkai's career - in which recurring themes such as distance and separation are outlined. (His films are always about distance and separation one way or other.) But that is just wisdom after the fact.   

[Announcement] Shinkai Makoto's artbook 'Sora no Kioku' goes on sale

I just learned that Shinkai Makoto has an artbook called Sora no Kioku (空の記憶) going on sale on 25 April 2008. The price is 2800 yen.

Not sure if this is old news by now but just wanted to post this here.

This would be a good opportunity to scan high-resolution images to make wallpapers for widescreen monitors over 21".

(Source: ttp://animeanime.jp/news/archives/2008/04/_2008425.html/)

'2nd_Life (茗记)' from L-Key Studio: Fans of Shinkai Makoto would love this

In addition to Fruit Lab. (which I wrote about earlier here), you fans of Shinkai Makoto out there may wish to add L-Key Studio from the PRC to your watchlist. I think I will let this video (with English subtitles) speak for itself:

I like the concept and the direction of this video, even though in terms of general style it tries too hard to imitate Shinkai Makoto and therefore loses out originality. The concept of 2nd_Life is that sometimes one processes and reprocesses a particularly memorable time in one's past that 'the past' becomes a kind of virtual reality. Certain unforgettable scenes in one's life just get processed into larger pixels with higher colour contrast ratio.

As much as I am pleased with this video (it shows that Chinese animation has come a long way), it nevertheless made me wonder if Shinkai Makoto, as much as his existing trademark style is widely admired, may have to evolve into another style if he is to distinguish himself from imitators. An artist typically goes through several phases of personal style in the course of his or her life. I wonder what the style of Shinkai Makoto will evolve into.

Those mesmerizing eyes in the works of Shimizu Reiko

I have been revisiting the works of Shimizu Reiko recently and I recall a conversation I had which I would like to share. It ran like this:

A: 'Okay, so the artwork is pretty alright. But I still think those big sparkling eyes are cheesy. It's so... shoujo manga. What do you like about them anyway?'

Me: 'The eyes make me wonder what it would be like to see the world with those eyes. Just what does the world look like through those eyes, I wonder?'

Is love of anime/manga the new ‘love that dares not speak its name’?

Last year, I had what may be described as a networking dinner with a corporate lawyer from London who happened to be visiting. As with most networking dinners, the conversation in the evening began with chatter about the personalities at work, then onward to books one has read, and then (out of all things) to anime and manga. I learned that he used to read shoujo manga and had played and enjoyed otome games (mostly due to the influence of an ex-girlfriend). He was a fan of The Legend of Galactic Heroes and sang praises about Yang Wenli. He also loved Cowboy Bebop. He asked me what is good out there that he could watch.

Afterwards, he flew back to London and I had not heard much from him since. But the whole experience of watching him ‘come out of the closet’ made me wonder if anime/manga fans emit a personal  vibe the way homosexuals are said to emit – you give off a vibe exclusively to other like-minded individuals, signaling that you are one of them. To put it another way, you could just tell from a crowd of individuals with whom you can safely ‘come out of the closet’.

It happened with Bangin of the blog Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans. We first met through a mutual friend with whom I was doing language exchange back at university. I cannot remember how it happened but before long he came 'out of closet' professing his love for shoujo manga and otome games. Nowadays he may well be the only Japanese blogger on earth writing in English who calls himself an otomen.

Come to think of it, my first boyfriend was a great expert in old-school and angsty shoujo manga as well. Though I suppose by the time we first met he had already 'come to terms' with who he was and never showed much sign of agonizing over 'the closet'.

It used to be said that homosexuality is the love that dares not speak its name.  In most civilized parts of the world, it seems fair to say that it is no longer the case.* But love of anime/manga? The loudest disapproval thereof I have ever heard more or less boils down to the idea that anime/manga disengages an individual from real life - this includes the most common criticism that instead of developing real relationships one obsesses about fictional characters. I suppose with homosexuality one is still attached to a real person in real life – it may be counterproductive in a biological sense (ie. of no utility to society), but the relationship is nevertheless founded in reality. But anime/manga is founded on a world of imagination: creators and fans alike are engaged in an imagined world that does not exist – an imagined world with its own context, morality and language.

Society is founded on well-defined interpersonal relationships, and anything that draws one away from those interpersonal relationships are typically disapproved of. I guess it would be a neat point of debate as to why it is acceptable to love someone of the same sex, but not someone who is not real. My guess is that the debate may very well boil down to the issue of 'utility to society'. It is for this reason that I sometimes wonder if cosplay would gain wider acceptance if it were organized as a charitable event - instead of an activity for its own sake where you show up at a venue just to show off your garments. Cosplay is not unlike the masquerade at the Carnival before Ash Wednesday - but the Carnival has the communal purpose of celebrating the Passion of Christ, whereas cosplay serves no communal purpose and is regarded as somehow 'renegade' - instead of being good consumers and buying mass-produced clothes from a store, you make your own clothes to imitate characters from another era or an imagined world.

* In fact, the way novels/movies that deal with homosexuality seem to be get a disproportionate amount of media attention sometimes leads me to wonder if homosexuality is nowadays the love that would not shut up. 

'Monogatari Bi (物語美)' and the Beauty of Imperfection in the works of Shimizu Reiko

It seems fair to say that those who have encountered the works of Shimizu Reiko would inevitably grope for a word to describe the unspeakable beauty in her works. The other day, I found one such newly-coined word at a Japanese fansite, and it is monogatari bi (物語美). Here is my translation of the term as defined by the Japanese fan:

It is difficult to explain monogatari bi, but it is different from the artwork and characters being beautiful. It is about the work in its entirety having no flaw and no vulgarity that makes one sense the aesthetic touch that permeates the entire work. Combined with story-telling and attractive characters, a unique beauty is born.

The Japanese fan also gave an example from the ending of Ryuu no Nemuru Hoshi (龍の眠る星), one of Shimizu-sensei's earlier works. Without spoiling the ending, here is my translation of her comment:

There is a secret longing for beautiful ruins with no sign of living humans in this. To put it another way, what I like is that there is a feeling that living is vulgar, but through depicting a world in the near future where the realm of life transcends this vulgarity, life is not repudiated.

(Source: ttp://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~fleur/zakkicho002.html)

I think this Japanese fan sums it up rather nicely. In addition, there is always this beauty of imperfection in her works that gives the story a touch of sadness that haunts the reader for a very, very long time:

[Spoilers of the ending of Kaguya-Hime ahead]

Quick post on the first episode of 'RD Sennou Chousashitsu'

So the first episode presents the background of the story (which I summarized here before). Not much new info is presented, except now we know that Haru is to rediscover his diving potential during a power outage at his hospital. Also, something called 'real dive' is mentioned. 'Real dive' simple means a dive where you drop yourself as far as you can go into the sea just for the sake of feeling the depth of the sea. I am guessing that it can be contrasted with dive in Metaru, ie. a sea of information, which (according to the info pages on the official website) has pressure proportionate to its 'length' and 'depth'. I wonder if the English title of this series is meant to be Real Dive rather than Real Drive (which is the title that seems to have proliferated within fandom).

This episode is great - thoughtful dialogues, some nicely choreographed action. It promises to be a worthy successor to Ghost in the Shell.

[10/04/2008 EDIT: Actually, forget I said a thing. I just listened more carefully again and I think it is not 'real dive' but 'free dive'. And Real Drive is the titled on Production I.G.'s webpages.]

Quick post on the first episode of 'The Revelation'

So the first episode is an original story which sets up the stage (I summarized the background already here), though I can see from the trailer that from the second episode onwards the stories from the original manga itself will appear. Meanwhile, here are some quick comments:

[Spoilers ahead]

The tension builds up very nicely through the episode. The climax comes when Maki asks Aoki to lip-read the last line of the dialogue between the housewife and the housewife's ex-boyfriend. I was really on the edge of my seat as to whether Aoki would really say it. Ordinarily, I appreciate the deliberately unsaid thing, but here I have to say that it is more forceful to have Aoki spelling out what the housewife last said - that is, she wants to forget about him because she loves her husband and her daughter.

And yet this is the beauty of the last line - the story is built up in such a way that there is no surprise in hearing this, for if she had said something else, she would not have been killed by the ex-boyfriend. Yet the last line feels like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle falling into the right place, and the whole picture is complete.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the typical pattern that Shimizu-sensei's stories will follow. The first half typically presents the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and in the second half the action accelerates faster than you can react, and finally the story is brought to a climax and ends like a bang on a forceful note.

Plot summary of Production I.G.'s 'RD Sennou Chousashitsu'

Comments from the staff and cast were publicized today and you can follow the link below to read further if you like. I don't have time to translate everything so I will just stick to summarizing the plot which they also posted:

In the year 2012, Haru Masamichi who was surveying the phenomenon of the 'burning sea' on the coast of a man-made island got into an accident and went into a comatose.

In the year 2061, Haru Masamichi awakes to an aged body after 50 years. This reality causes him to lose the energy to walk. He has to live on a wheelchair. However, whenever he sees the sea, he still feels the pull of the mystery of 'the law of the earth' which he encountered in the depths of the sea minutes before the accident.

Kushima Eiichirou, who was an old friend of Haru and who has become the executive manager of Denriken, appoints Haru to be a 'diver' of the computer network, Metariaru (also known as Metaru for short).

Aoi Minamo, a girl of great powers of observation, comes to the aid of Haru.

Minamo's elder brother is an intern of Denriken and works under Kushima. He is also skilled in combat. He worries about his sister who seems to have become an assistant of Haru, and comes to frequent Haru's office.

There is also an assistant android called Holon. Together, they form a team and solve problems arising between Metaru and reality.

Furuhashi Kazuhiro is directing this, along with Amatsuki. He has got his hands quite full. My guess is that his energies are directed at RD Sennou Chousashitsu rather than Amatsuki, which explains why Amatsuki (or at least the first episode I have seen of it) seems rather pedestrian. Certainly it seems several notches off from his level at Le Chevalier D'eon. I for one just hope that he will do justice to both shows.

(Source: ttp://www.animecenter.jp/jp/200804/07202717.php)

Iwa ni Hana launches sub-blog dedicated to anime adaptation of Tanaka Yoshiki's 'Titania'

Creating a sub-blog to devote more coverage to a splendid series is something of a tradition here at Iwa ni Hana. The last time I did such coverage was with Mononoke in the summer of 2007. Now I will be doing the same for the anime adaptation of Tanaka Yoshiki's Titania. I just had a peep at the first few pages of the novel volumes and without reserve - Titania has the promise to be a worthy if not greater successor to The Legend of Galactic Heroes. The animators would have to try very hard to fall flat with this material.

I will be posting more on the Titania sub-blog shortly. See you all over there!

Divinity in anime

As an animation fan, I had never seriously thought what subject matter is animation (as opposed to novel, play, live-action film, manga etc) uniquely suited by its very nature to depict to the maximum effect. But ever since I watched Yuasa Maasaki's Mind Game, I think I have the answer - it is divinity.

In Mind Game, the image of God as it is perceived in the human eye changes shape every second or so. Even though He looks different every second, you just know that the Being standing before you is none other than God. Of course, encounters with divinity or God had been dealt with in other mediums of art, but Mind Game has the singularly most powerful encounter I have ever come across, and I do not think such representation of God would have been possible in any other medium of art. [EDIT: The reason is that one's conception of god/divinity is by definition something that springs from one's imagination. God/divinity is one of very few things in this world that people (or some of them) believe exists although they cannot see/have never seen it with their eyes. With live-action film, one can only film what is real and visible in this world, but with animation one can film what is imagined in one's head.]

Come to think of it, the other most creative vision of God or divinity I have ever come across also take the form of anime for some reason. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (though the source material is a light novel series) is one such example. As I said in an earlier post:

In short, you have the story of a God whose omnipotence is crippled by that fact that she is not omniscient; a God who seeks to rebel against human conventions but willy-nilly accepts the status quo at the end, and in accepting the status quo earns unbeknownst to her the friendship of far-from-conventional individuals which she has always specifically willed for. It's one of these chicken-and-egg things where you cannot tell where does the truth ends and the lie begins. The caveat is that the moment she 'wakes', her friends (and the world, for that matter) would probably no longer be. There are many things I like about this series, but there a few things which I have not heard raised in blogosphere so far: How much of gaining what we desire in life depends on our ability to renounce it and resign to the exact opposite? How much of what we have in life depends on us not knowing that we have it? And that the moment it comes to our knowledge, it is lost forever?

Whenever I am pressed for a short answer as to why I like animation (and it is always too complicated to explain in a short answer to someone who is not an active animation aficionado), I think I now know what to say.

So what about you guys? Is there a subject matter that you think animation is uniquely suited to depict to the maximum effect? Please do not hesitate to let me know.

'Persepolis' and the problem with depiciting the loss of love and a woman's coming-of-age story

Imagine that you were a filmmaker and you were to show a character grieving at the loss of love. The mundane way to go about this is that you could have the character cry - but cry in what circumstances, and in what manner, and to what effect? This is always the tricky part, and it is for this reason that I have always considered the portrayal of the lost love to be the true acid test of a filmmaker.

Having said that, I personally feel that the undoing of Persepolis, an otherwise unique and excellent film, is in its depiction of grieving over lost love, in which Marjane Satrapi (the middle-class heroine) wonders homeless for a month after a breakup. I am aware that it is probably a lifestyle choice that one wonders homeless for a month after a breakup, but honestly - I think it is just over the top, though it is probably an easy way out as far as meeting the acid test goes. The thing is, I believe the more profound a sorrow is, the more invisible it is on the surface. In live-action films, one may be able to show the sorrow underneath with really, really good actors (like Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love). In animation, I think Shink