[Anime/Manga] Level E by Togashi Yoshihiro
Comments with spoilers in no particular order as usual:
1) There are many shadow statements in Level E.
i) Mankind being seen by aliens of advanced civilization as backward and therefore warrants statutory protection under interstellar law
-> Aboriginal peoples being seen by developed countries as backward and therefore warrants statutory protection under national law
The above is an interesting rebuke of the SF tradition of aliens as invaders.
ii) An alien species which reproduces itself by the male devouring the female has intellectually evolved to the point where the concept of love becomes an obstacle to pure act of reproduction
-> The human species which reproduces itself through sex has intellectually evolved to the point where the concept of love becomes an obstacle to pure act of reproduction
From the perspective of biological survival and/or maintaining population growth (which is a great social issue in Japan, among other places), the idea that you should have babies only with The One is a bit of a drawback.
iii) God -> The Idiot Prince
The Idiot Prince remains unnamed to the end – very much in the tradition of the Biblical God whose name is not known.
One thing I am not too pleased with the anime version is that they have cut out the last story in the manga, which is a shadow statement of The Idiot Prince’s relation to mankind – which in turn is probably inspired by theories of ancient astronauts.
In the story, the Idiot Prince visits the earth and runs into a species of troublesome bugs, which has the tendency to attack those who have killed one of their kind, but will not harm you if you smile nicely at them. In the end, it turns out that those bugs bore an uncanny resemblance to the products of a genetic experiment the Idiot Prince abandoned ages ago and has forgotten since then.
The bugs, needless to say, are really an allusion to mankind.
The Idiot Prince said he abandoned them because he could not program their productive system properly. This may be a shadow allusion to the observation already made by a lot of ancient astronaut theorists that mankind alone seems to be the only species to not know how to reproduce unless the act of reproduction is demonstrated to them, whereas all other species seems to know how to reproduce without ever being taught. In other words, the act of reproduction is passed down from generation to generation as knowledge – instead of being passed down as part of the genetic makeup. All other species seems to know from the start that their mission in life is to reproduce, whereas mankind alone is often clueless as to what their mission in life is.
(Also, if you recall the game the Idiot Prince set into motion on the RPG planet, you will see that he also forgot to program in the purpose of the game…)
2) Level E the manga was published after Yu Yu Hakusho ended and before Hunter X Hunter began. In a way, Level E is a sort of spillover of Yu Yu Hakusho in terms of style. If you remember the last storyarc of Yu Yu Hakusho, you will probably recall the feel of the above shadow statements – ie. a kind of hidden joke or brain puzzle made in a spirit of black humour and cynism about the world at large. I often think that Level E is actually the kind of work that Togashi Yoshihiro would like to produce if it were not for commercial pressure…
3) The names of a lot of characters in this story are one-letter different from the names of a lot of well-known writers. For example:
筒井康隆 筒井雪隆
江戸川美歩 江戸川乱歩
坂本庵悟 坂本安吾
夢野久四郎 夢野久作
(You get a sense of Togashi’s literary taste from the above…)
4) The anime is really many notches below the manga in terms of how they choreograph the comic effects…
Has anyone else read/seen this series so far? I read the manga over ten years ago (how time flies!), and I had only lukewarm expectations of the anime adaptation. This manga is actually one of my all-time favorites and I was doubtful that any adaptation would do it justice.
I can’t agree that love is a drawback. It’s essential for a person in choosing a compatible mate. For example, we are physically attracted to people with different immune systems(so the baby will have an overall better one). Likewise, a partner’s character is important since we instinctively know their traits will be exhibited by the offspring. Therefore, love makes perfect sense in the grand scheme of reproduction. Otherwise, evolution would’ve long gotten rid of it.
I saw the anime for Level E and while it was enjoyable, I couldn’t find anything particularly memorable. I take your word that the manga is superior since I too am a huge fan of Togashi. In fact, HunterXHunter is probably my favorite manga and I’m very interested in your thoughts on it. Granted the first half is largely focused on the shounen aspects (power-ups, new techniques). But with the introduction of Nen and especially with the current chimera ant arc, Hunter X Hunter really extradinary.
Sock:
If you think about someone like Noriko in Ozu Yasujiro’s movie “Tokyo Monogatari” (1953), who never remarried by choice after her husband died in the war, that is a case of love being an obstacle to the mere act of procreation. To say it bluntly, she was still young and fertile, but chose to stay out of the human gene pool.
If I were you, I would add “some scientists currently believe” before “we are physically attracted to people with different immune systems”. Theories of that kind have a way of coming in and out of fashion in the grander scheme of history.
I actually anticipated that someone or other would bring up the stuff with love being related to genetic selection and whatnot, so I specifically used the word “evolved intellectually” in my post. The alien species in the story has evolved intellectually to the point where the concept of love became an obstacle the biological satisfaction of procreation by eating the female, and that was the downfall of their species. Ideas evolve, quite irrespective of how biology evolves. I think it is a shadow statement from Togashi that mankind is quite similar in that respect.
I think Togashi’s heart is not really in Hunter X Hunter – he is capable of better things and he knows it.
Wabisabi:
I see. Before, I couldn’t quite gather what you meant behind the mate-eating aliens but now, after reading your reply and briefly reviewing the episode, I think I understand your points much better. They remind me of a podcast episode from Big Ideas (Do you listen to any podcasts?) In it, a bio prof was discussing why humans have sex at all and not just reproduce asexually like plants. She gave explanations like sex create more diversity and the like, and then went on to prove them false. I hadn’t watched the whole podcast but I believe she concluded by saying that scientists don’t really know why humans have sex. Really boggles the mind that such fundamental biology is still unsolved.
I understand the wisdom behind the disclaimer. Certainly, phenomenons like love will always have scientists rushing for causes and, in their haste, make unsound science. Still, I personally believe this one to be true and thought it would be good to put it out.
As for your comment on HunterXHunter, lol you cannot imagine how much I disagree :\ I gather from it that you are much more oriented towards idea/novelty-driven manga than you are to shounen-esque mangas. That’s cool too. Have you read Bokurano? I think that great manga would be up your alley. If not, then feel free to correct me again lol.
Sock:
I am not really a fan of that sort of podcasts, partly because I think whatever people try to say in a 1-hour podcast can be condensed in 500 words which only takes you 2 minutes to read. That is to say, they tend to talk in circles.
(I am, however, a huge fan of audio books. I think reading books aloud is a lost art – a lot of writers these days write for the eye instead of the ear.)
I am not really a fan of Bokurano either. ^^
Wabisabi:
lol Well, in Big Ideas defense, it is made more for academic purposes than leisure.
hmmmm audio books, since I’m a cheapskate, my experience with them have been limited to librivox and free podcasts. The quality aren’t very good and I’ve never actually finished an entire audiobook. I do, however, really like the Selected Shorts podcast from PRI and the New Yorker fiction one is good too.
What is your opinion on Umino Chika’s Sangatsu no Raion and Yamashita Kazumi’s Fushigi na Shounen? :)
Sock:
That is perhaps why academia and I shall never get along… Brevity is the soul of wit.
Scriabin:
Sangatsu no Raion I started reading about 2 years ago, but stopped following new installments. It is about time I pick it up again.
Never read Fushigi na Shounen. Perhaps you recommend it?