Iwa ni Hana

[Tytania] Q&A for Episodes 3 to 5

For the record, Ep 3 and 4 were adapted from Tanaka Yoshiki's novel, whereas Ep. 5 was an original story.

1) What is the hidden meaning of the conversation between Idoris and Estorad?

I always perk up whenever there is a scene with Idoris in it because those scenes are inevitably the ones with meaty food for thought. The dialogue is just superb in hinting what a complicated issue is Idoris' assignment to Crystal Palace. It keeps Idoris away from the power center that is Uraniberg for long stretches of time, in a job for which there is already an incumbent - namely Ajman's elder brother, Estorad. Neither Idoris nor Estorad are too busy in their jobs and their functions overlap anyway, which show that neither are trusted by Ajman entirely. Estorad too must have been a contender to be the leader of the Tytania clan when he was younger, but lost out to Ajman in the end, and now he is parked in the Varudana court - out of harm's way.

It is likely to be Ajman's design to keep both Idoris and Estorad out of Uraniberg, and yet within a field of possibilities that would give Ajman justifications to purge them if need be should the following scenarios occur:

i) Idoris or Estorad being too "friendly" with the Varudana court - perhaps in secretly teaming up with the conspirators; or

ii) Idoris or Estorad being too "unfriendly" with the Varudana court - as is almost the case when Idoris executes his political purge of the conspirators.

So you see, Idoris and Estorad have very narrow room to survive in their posts. As Jouslain observed in Ep 3, Idoris is rather extreme in his political purge - to the extent that Jouslain fears that Idoris would only provoke more conspirators to come forward. I believe should the situation worsen, it is foreseeable that Ajman could lay the blame on Idoris (saying that Idoris is young and will be disciplined etc), and preserve the status quo between himself and Varudana. Idoris would be a disposable scapegoat after Ajman finished using him as a tool to purge Varudana's conspirators. 

If you are Idoris and you are assigned to such a job, it probably makes sense to overdo the purge (but not too much), if only to ward off any suspicion that you may be brokering a secret deal with Varudana's conspirators.

As it stands, Idoris and Estorad are both kept away from real responsibilities of running Tytania's affairs. (The real responsibilities are shared between Jouslain and Ariabart. Jouslain looks after diplomacy and politics while Ariabart takes care of military operations.)

Some may not like this anime series for taking too long to establish the context, but it is precisely the context that gives layered meaning to a seemingly innocent dialogue like this one.

2) Was Jouslain's negotiation with Turandia a failure?

I would say from the point of view of preserving peace, it was a failure; but from point of view of Tytania's consolidation of power, it was successful. Jouslain came away with "moral grounds" for Tytania to retaliate against Turandia (he himself was nearly taken hostage, a liaison officer of Tytania was killed etc). Now Tytania has ample grounds to send in the troops to Turandia. Tytania needs such a war to undo their last defeat in the eyes of the world - and not lose credibilty in starting an unreasonable war (which would only make them look desperate).

So you see how sly Tytania is - they themselves do not pull the trigger, but create a situation that would be tempting for others to pull the trigger first. Jouslain physically visits Turandia on a special mission, without any guards to accompany him. Why did he not ask Turandia to send someone to Uraniberg for a talk, or to meet him at a 3rd party neutral place?   

From Jouslain's perspective, if Turandia is not brewing a conspiracy, then nothing would happen to his person regardless of how he behaves. But if Turandia is indeed brewing a conspiracy, then it is quite foreseeable that his visit would result in his being captured as a hostage. His calculation turns out to be accurate.

Jouslain is a deep one - one should not only look what he does, but also at what he chooses not to do. It is the same thing back in Ep 2 - I believe that Jouslain could have spoken of his conjecture that Euria meant to lose to Ajman in private (especially if he is confident in his conjecture), but he did it in public knowing how humiliating this would be to Ariabart. It is a clear blow against Ariabart, however imperceptible.

3) Why did Ladisha commit suicide?

It is plain that Ladisha does not have much hold on power after the death of her husband. Her only friend is Tytania's military liaison officer Elvin - in other words, an outsider who is stationed there for relaying intelligence back to Uraniberg. This hardly helps.

I believe Ladisha commits suicide in order to prevent herself and her name from being used by anti-Tytania fractions in Turandia. They need her. To thaw their efforts, she ends her life.

A word on Elvin - his last name is not "Tytania" per se, but his father is actually a member of the Tytania clan by blood. It shows that it is a privilege to bear the last name of "Tytania", and not everyone related by blood is privileged bear it. There is some sort of halo around the name "Tytania" (just like there is a halo around "Imperial Rome," for example). They restrict the number of those who can bear that last name in order to preserve the mystique.   

4) Why did Aluses let Fan walk away?

Because it is more or less within his calculation that Fan would run away, and those who help Fan run away would be inevitably be anti-Tytania fractions. In other words, he is gambling on the opportunity to use Fan as a bait to lure anti-Tytania forces into action. That way, he would be able to take credit in a crackdown and be brought back to Uraniberg. This would be the first step he needs to take in order to eventually replace Salisch by scheme or crook. That is why Salisch sent Aluses to some place far from Uraniberg to begin with, because he knows that Aluses is after his position as a duke.

5) How serious is Miranda in re-establishing her country and overthrowing Tytania?

Actually they change the scenario so much in the anime that I cannot say for sure. In the novel, the only reason why Lila seduces Fan is because it is Miranda's test of Fan's integrity. If Fan yielded, they were going to turn him in to Tytania and receive the bounty on Fan's head.

[Tytania] Q&A for Episodes 1 and 2

It seems fair to say that anything you see (yes, even the most innocent and minor detail) in a Tanaka Yoshiki story (when he is not in his 'lite' mode as in Ryoko's Case Files) is there for a reason, and you may be surprised by the mechanism behind it all if you know where to look. So here is my take for Episodes 1 and 2:

1) Why did Ajman choose Idoris for the assignment of assassinating the prime minister of the Varudana Empire?

Neither the anime nor the novel directly explains this. I do not think it is a matter of shooting skills (in which case Salisch would probably be a better candidate).  In fact, it was not Idoris himself shooting the prime minister died in the novel, but a number of his underlings. 

The whole coup, I think, was Idoris' initiative to begin with. There are hints that he has an espionage network (both internally and externally) which the other three dukes lack. This may explain why:

i) He possesses information about Fan when Ariabart, as the commander in the field, does not. (It is not unthinkable that Idoris may have deliberately withheld information from Ariabart.)

ii) He knows about Ariabart's conversation with his admirals.

So it is natural to assume that Idoris would be the first to learn of the prime minister's conspiracy (or maybe he went out of his way to dig up dirt) and be the most equipped to gather evidence (it is not clear from the anime if the accusation is grounded but in the novel it is). Once he reports of this to Ajman, Ajman cannot very well take Idoris' labours away and give another duke the opportunity to 'shine' at the Emperor's birthday gathering. So it is Idoris who handles the public assassination and takes credit.

2) Why did Ajman keep it secret from the four dukes of the 'deal' between Tytania and Euria?

In the story, Euria developed a new and potentially very lucrative technology which Tytania wanted to get their hands on, but Euria belongs to an alliance of free city-states that are supposedly anti-Tytania, and it is doubtful whether they are supposed to have any trading relationships with Tytania (in which case Tytania can legitimately buy and Euria can legitimately sell). To make it worse, Euria's finances are in a mess and have not been paying their membership fees to the alliance for years, so the other members are reluctant to help, which means tiny Euria had to fight Tytania alone. The politicians of Euria decided to broker a profit-sharing deal with Tytania, but to preserve face as a 'free' polity they had to pretend to have lost a battle to Tytania. So they chose an inexperienced commander (Fan) expecting him to run away, surrender or lose the battle. But Fan returned to Euria triumphant...   

It is all very well for Euria's politicians to conceal this deal from the soldiers they send out to 'fight' Tytania for obvious reasons. But what reason is there for Ajman to conceal this from the four dukes?

On the surface, it would seem that Ajman wanted to test the abilities of the four dukes, and in this case he learned that Jouslain is the only one with intuitive insight to have guessed the truth. But my take is that Ajman probably never tells the four dukes very much about anything at all. There is nothing strange about this in itself - information is power and withholding information from others is one way of empowering onself. Ajman has to keep the four dukes at arm's length from usurping his position.

If all goes as planned, would Ajman have mentioned the deal to the four dukes? I think this may depend on whether the money goes to his private pocket or to a collective pot. And now that Ariabart lost the battle, would it do any good for Ajman to tell the four dukes? I am tempted to think Ajman did not mean to say anything about it when he entered the meeting room. He thought for a long time after Jouslain voiced out his supposition that Euria meant to lose from the beginning - I think he must have been struggling as to whether to let the cat out of the bag or not. He must have been impressed by Jouslain, and told the truth, for better or worse (mostly for the worse).

You see, I have a theory that the fateful events that overtake Tytania later on did not exactly originate from Ariabart's defeat, but in Ajman telling the truth in that very scene. As Ajman said, there are always wins and loses in battle, and one defeat is not fatal if one learns from one's defeat. I, too, think Ariabart's defeat is far from being the end of Tytania in the grand scheme of things. But the ripple effects of telling the truth to the four dukes were altogether something else...

3) What advantage could there be for Idoris to propose welcoming Fan to the Tytania camp?

Of course, Idoris always puts the boot in and rubs salt on wounds etc. In his proposal, he pays lip service to the tradition of drawing talents to serve in the interest of Tytania and so forth, but it is actually meant to be a put-down to Ariabart. But I wonder - what advantage could there be for Idoris to do this, if he himself is always so keen to show his own talents? Would not Fan's presence in Tytania fleets dims any chance for Idoris to shine in that area?

This is entirely my guess - I think Idoris probably does not mean to let Fan live for long even if Fan decides to join Tytania. Poison or the like would do the trick, preferably under circumstances where Idoris can shift the blame to Ariabart for Fan's death. Ariabart would be such a convenient and obvious scapegoat for this. This whole thing would be a demonstration to Ajman how broadminded he Idoris is, and how narrow-minded Ariabart is, hence swaying Ajman's decision as to who should succeed him as the head of the Tytania family.

4) What would happen if Jouslain instead of Ariabart were sent to fight Euria?

This was the possibility suggested by Ariabart after the meeting. He seems to think that Jouslain could have done what he could not (ie. winning the battle).

You have got to love Tanaka Yoshiki's stories for always flirting with possibilities - they make you ask 'what-if' questions, which in turn make you see things you would not have otherwise noticed.

Jouslain of course did not answer 'yes' or 'no' directly. I also have to confess that I have chewed on this but came up with no answer. But if you have any ideas, please feel free to let me know. 

There are more Q&As about Tytania, of course. But the above are the main ones for now (to me, at least).

Kouha (硬派) vs Nanpa (軟派)

I was somewhat amused by this Wikipedia Japan's entry on the meaning of kouha (硬派) in relation to anime and manga. But to start off with, the traditional meaning of kouha and its opposite nanpa (軟派) has to be defined and I think this post from Neojaponisme contains an excellent overview:

Nanpa apparently dates back to Edo time but was certainly in popular use during the Meiji period. Back then, it was written in kanji (軟派) and used in relation to its antithesis — kōha (硬派). The words mean “soft faction” and “hard faction,” respectively, and at the time, denoted diametrically opposed philosophical outlooks. Softs were thoughtful, introverted and open to compromise; Hards were aggressive, inflexible, and beat up Softs for kicks.

You can find numerous examples of the words nanpa and kōha being used to bisect various social groups, ranging from newspaper reporters (Softs did society and the arts, Hards did politics) to black marketeers operating in early 20th-century China (Softs dealt drugs, Hards ran guns). The usage that eventually evolved into the modern meaning, however, was the one that applied to young men. Simply put: Softs liked women, and Hards didn’t.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. Hards liked some women just fine: mothers, wives, and respectable spinsters. They were happy enough to jump through societal hoops and set up their own household, complete with standard-issue heirs. But they were only really comfortable in the company of other men.

Softs, on the other hand, loved women, and I mean loved women. They dressed sharp, preferred conversation to fighting, and always tried to be where the women were. (It’s worth noting that nanpa was also used as an adjective to describe women who would respond to such advances.)

Meanwhile, the Wikipedia Japan's entry contains three definitions in describing kouha anime/manga fan. The first one goes like this (my translation):

1) Refers to characters (mainly men) who are stoic and possess bushido or chivalry or so-call manliness or such value system.

In manga, anime or computer games, when the word kouha is used in character settings, it often does not mean this. In contrast to the 'might is right' attitude mentioned above, in this case it is more of a transcendence to something like 'the character himself is not violent, but he has the physique or mental strength to not bend to violence from external sources'. It is appears in settings of characters in middle-age because of this image of maturity. Its values are held to be opposite to moe, and people who are into kouha tend to dislike moe. However, because kouha also has a large following of fans, in a point of fact it has become a sub-category of moe.

In addition, the second definition of kouha goes like this:

2) Refers to manga, anime and computer games that are not aimed at beginners and cannot be enjoyed without prior knowledge, experience and technique - that is to say, so-called 'difficult' works. It also refers to writers and creators who tend to produce such works.

Such works are strong in projecting the image that it is not aimed at the majority but the discerning few. It is also said that even if those works have are a lot of fans, those fans may have a strong feelings as a self-appointed exclusive elite. Because those works are not beginner-friendly, market expansion tends to be obstructed. And it has been pointed out that the rise and fall of genres like SF, shooting games, combat games can be attributed to these genres being too kouha-conscious.

Lastly, the third meaning goes like this:

3) From the above usages comes the reference to people who like minor genres who 'do not go with the popular flow and choose what they like by their own will'. In this instance, 'nanpa' means things that are popular.

It is true, that kouha works like Ghost in the Shell for the 'Hards' are few and far in between these days, while nanpa works like adaptations erogames for the 'Softs' inundate the market. Personally, I am a kouha myself and I pray that Tanaka Yoshiki's Tytania (all three volumes of the still-continuing novel series I just read) will bring about a swing of the pendulum to accomodate 'Hards' who had enjoyed works like The Legend of Galactic Heroes oh-so-long-ago.

(On a housekeeping note, I can see myself updating the Tytania sublog more than I update Iwa ni Hana for the next few months ahead. So see you there!)

[Housekeeping] Sub-blog of Tanaka Yoshiki's 'Tytania'

Apparently the anime series that is most anticipated by me in 2008 is called 'Tytania' not 'Titania'. Anyway, the official website of that series was launched a few days ago and between now and the scheduled release in October, I will probably be updating my dedicated sub-blog on bits of news that leak through.

Fans of 'The Legend of Galactic Heroes' rejoice! Tanaka Yoshiki's space opera 'Titania' to be animated!

Breaking news indeed! Just 2 days after we learned that Titania is to be adapted into manga format, we now learn that it is to be animated as well. 

Referring back to my 2008 wishlist, it seems that I can now check off item 2 (ie. a revival of interest in Tanaka Yoshiki). As for the remaining items:

1) Gankutsuou-like art direction in Amatsuki

I have more or less given up on this after looking at the pictures on the official website.

2) At least one adaptation from an old-school shoujo classic

Nothing like that on the horizon yet. Though one wonders if Shimizu Reiko may be considered as 'old school shoujo'.

3) At least one series of serious historic drama

Maybe Mugen no Juunin (無限の住人) will fit the bill, but I have yet to learn more about this series.

4) A new series from Watanabe Shinichirou

No news from the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo yet.

5) Shinbo Akiyuki coming to his senses at last

No sign of that happening any time soon.

6) Something groundbreaking in terms of art direction

Thankfully, Kaiba will fit this description quite nicely.

Tanaka Yoshiki's novel series 'Titania' to be adapted into manga

Breaking news! Apparently, the space opera novel series Titania (タイタニア) by Tanaka Yoshiki (田中芳樹) is to be adapted into manga format on the magazine Shounen Sirius:

Here is what I have learned so far about Titania compared The Legend of Galactic Heroes, a.k.a. the space opera classic Tanaka Yoshiki is famous for:

• The novel series is not yet finished.
• Titania portrays a multipolar political world as opposed to a bipolar political world like in The Legend of Galactic Heroes.
• The characters just sort of go with the flow of events and no clear winner has emerged in the process.
• Whereas The Legend of Galactic Heroes places a greater emphasis on military issues, Titania is heavier on the political side of things.
• Whereas The Legend of Galactic Heroes has quite a few quotable passages, Titania has very little of those. Instead, there are more depictions of the characters' interactions with each other and their psychology.
• Titania is on the whole darker than The Legend of Galactic Heroes. Instead of splendid military strategies, you get dirty political plots winning the day.

What do I know? Referring to my 2008 wishlist, perhaps Tanaka Yoshiki is to experience a comeback after all. Now if only Titania is to become an anime series...