10 Sep 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: ABC]
Yep, it’s time for me to once again jump on the joint blogging bandwagon and attempt to keep up with people of superior intelligence and insight…this time we’re taking on the issue of gender in anime. It covers an even wider field than the last joint blogging exercise did so I’m going to narrow it down to my own experiences and thoughts on the validity of the division between anime that’s intended for male and female viewers. I’ll be using the traditional labels of ’shounen’ and ’shoujo’ for simplicity’s sake but I’ll try to address the problems with those definitions too.
Is gender important? Maybe you should ask this guy.
shounen Vs Shoujo
There’s a line that’s drawn between the two but in these enlightened times of equality is it nearly as pronounced - or even relevant - as it seems at first glance? Sure, there are extreme examples that fall squarely into the ’shounen’ or ’shoujo’ categories: Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon are prime examples but there’s a proportion of shows that deserve recognition for not restricting themselves to one side or the other.
As the old saying goes, you can’t please everyone. Targeting a series at one audience runs the risk of alienating another: dashing bishies and pastel shades is as offputting to male viewers as panty shots and giant robots are to females (some male viewers find excessive fan service detrimental too, myself included). While it’s impossible to make something everyone will love, it seems the importance of carefully mixing bits of both isn’t lost on writers and animators.
Why not have it both ways?
Escaflowne is a good example of this. Aside from the fact that it’s very concept is pure win to start with, it expertly blends disparate themes and ideas that you wouldn’t expect to see in one show. Hitomi’s abilities and personality are magical girl through and through; add some handsome bishies and knights in shining armour and you have the quintissential girls’ adventure. In addition to this though, there’s a political slant, some excellent mecha action and a catgirl…fully ensuring that the fanboys are catered for too. The end result is a series that exhibits the cliches of both shoujo and shounen, but not to an excessive degree.
A more recent example, brought to light after ruminating over the significance of the Huerrgh! factor, is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This show is a boisterous, testosterone-fuelled mecha-fest but because it mocks these themes as much as it celebrates them, it has garnered a female audience whose number may be surprising (also explained by the fact that Yoko kicks major ass). Of course, Gainax’s MO has an enviable reputation for not playing by the book - the stunning Gunbuster, one of my all time favourite anime series, places female protagonists aboard a giant robot that would normally have a male pilot.
Who cares whether you’re a boy or a girl as long as you can offer hard work and guts?
Girl power!
Telling a story from a girl’s perspective like this, but including sci-fi elements that appeal to guys too, was something of a masterstroke that Escaflowne made great use of several years later. The presence of a strong female lead is also a great idea: both sexes tune in for a butt-kicking female protagonist, which has become a refreshing change from the male heroes of yore.
Nausicaa, the archetype of a gutsy heroine
The best heroines are well-developed characters beyond the looks. The Miyazaki heroine, such as Nausicaa and Mononoke Hime’s San, is a beautiful and independently-minded figure who shows female tenderness but without being the helpless damsel in distress for the male hero to rescue; similarly the all-female central characters of Bubblegum Crisis, not to mention Masumune Shirow’s love of drawing gun-toting attractive females, means that science fiction isn’t necessarily ‘just for boys’. And if you think mecha can’t be girly you should check out Idolm@ster Xenoglossia sometime.
Limitations of the definitions
This topic also drags up the recurring problem of slapping a label on or trying to pigeonhole things. My own experience of this dates back to a conversation with the writer of Hopeless Sensei’s Anime Views (whose blog is now sadly offline) when he recommended me Kare Kano. I reluctantly agreed to look into it, with the preconception that it would be saccharine, tame and difficult to enjoy from a male perspective. Not only did it burn through my embittered cynicism like a hot dramatic knife through butter but it gave, as its title promised, a balanced account of both sides of Yukino’s and Souichiro’s relationship and feelings. I realised that dismissing Kare Kano for its shoujo aesthetics would have been as foolish as avoiding Escaflowne because the characters’ noses look weird!
Kare Kano’s Arima and Yukino
…and an additional point to round things off
The ever-helpful ANN also points out that seinen, which forms a significant proportion of my collection, is occasionally mistaken for shoujo because male-friendly shows for a younger audience (i.e. shounen) are less thematically complex in comparison. Seinen has a level of character development that is more associated with shoujo than shounen, yet is in fact intended for a male audience. Because it has so much in common with shoujo, there are plenty of reasons for female viewers of a similar age group tune in as well. With this point in mind, perhaps some shows that are associated with the seinen category belong in a different one that’s more widely-encompassing. At a younger age the material is simpler in theme so is easy to lump onto one side or another; it is harder to justify doing the same for more ‘grown up’ fare.
Maybe this pic’s relevant, maybe it isn’t. I just wanted to post a pic of a gun-toting female.
After growing up on movies and TV shows that feature car chases, guns and heroes that exhibit the Huerrgh! factor only to settle on drama and slice of life more recently, perhaps my (an albeit incomplete!) turning away from gung-ho action has more to do with age than gender in terms of viewing habits.
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[18 Comments]
10 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Huerrgh!]
After the mecha-fest of the new Transformers live action movie and this short discussion the other day I started to wonder about the appeal of the copious quantities of testosterone that pervade certain anime series. Before you ask, ‘Huerrgh!’ is allegedly a slang term, also pronounced “Hooah!”, among manly military types, to denote an affirmative or general show of, um, manliness. “Jump the fence, marine!” “Yessir, jumping fence, Huerrgh!” According to a former housemate of mine who served in the T.A., anyway.
The division between ’shounen’ and ’shoujo’ is a blurry one these days and could warrant an editorial on its own but I was specifically interested in how both male and female audiences are swayed by the overwhelming exhibitions of gung-ho manliness on offer in the likes of Gurren Lagann and Moonlight Mile.
Moonlight Mile: In space, no-one can hear you say “Huerrgh!”
Moonlight Mile: mountaineering is a very manly thing to do.
I only got one episode into Moonlight Mile; firstly, it’s licenced now. Secondly, I couldn’t really be arsed with it. Thirdly, the manliness reached unprecedented and nigh-on unwatchable levels. It’s good to see two friends in what I’m guessing is the lead-up to an adventure in space, but sadly the manliness was cranked up to the point where even I felt put off - and I’m a twenty-something male who drinks beer and eats steak. Huerrgh!
The problem with this show is that the protagonists were so laddish that they pushed the audience away - when a character’s emotions are hidden behind a facade of bravado and gratuitous scenes of sex and drunkenness, it’s impossible to engage with them at any but the shallowest of levels. They’re fearless, adventurous and want to go into space but that’s it. Their deeper motives may have been explained in later episodes but as first impressions go, Moonlight Mile tried to impress the viewer with its adventurous manliness but from a distance, and failed.
Gurren Lagann: when manliness works
Gainax’s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann exudes similar levels of bare-chested, fist-clenched manliness but is the exact opposite: the over-the-top masculinity of its hero Kamina endears him to the viewer and is an absolute blast to watch.
“is that drill compensating for something?” Freud could have a field day with this…
The crucial difference with this show seems to be that excessive manliness can offer entertainment value if it doesn’t take itself altogether seriously. Kamina wears shades and a grimace of fearless self-confidence and no shirt - but he couldn’t care less about what other people thought of him. Although it proved to be his undoing in the end, his self-assured manliness made him The Man in every sense but also made for great entertainment: the mecha genre (in itself a very manly category, featuring as it does boys and big toys) is a crowded place and leaves itself open for shameless parodying and lampooning, of which Gainax are long-standing specialists.
Kamina shows us what it takes to be a man
however, writing off mecha as a manly genre isn’t entirely accurate when you consider the likes of Gainax’s earlier giant robot shows, Evanelion and Top o Nirae!. Sure, they have the giant robots, giant explosions and a ‘hard work and guts’ mantra but the majority of the central characters are female: only one out of the three Eva pilots is male (and a very un-manly one at that); Top o Nirae!’s Noriko wants to go into space and fight like her late father but her other role model is Kazumi Amano, an elite (and decidely female) mecha pilot. In both cases, the premise of humans fighting in giant shounen-friendly mecha doesn’t require much manliness at all.
Is your ‘Huerrgh!’ really necessary?
For comic effect, the manliness of Gurren Lagann makes it pure 100% win but sometimes it can be too much for even male audiences if it’s taken to an extreme. Really manly characters, by their very nature, only let you see sides of their personalities that they want you to see: manliness involves hiding your emotions away because a man is judged by his actions. Unfortunately this doesn’t lend itself to very insightful characterisation: breaking down in an Shinji Ikari-esque show of unmanly emo-ness is more dramatic, and the outward gestures of sisterly companionship highlight what it takes to fight with hard work and guts when you’re piloting a Buster Machine.
Although anime has a reputation among some for its portrayal of female characters being little more than eye candy, it also has its fair share of gutsy female protagonists who almost make the Manly Hero redundant. Mireille and Kirika from Noir, the Knight Sabers of bubblegum Crisis (how many times does Priss get one over on Leon?), any one of Miyazaki’s movies…they all make the issue of gender relating to strength of character pretty irrelevant. So, when the likes of Moonlight Mile try to win over viewers with the ‘Huerrgh!’ factor, I ask myself “why bother?”
[12 Comments]
05 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: ABC]
Firstly, an apology. My article that dealt with the theme “Anime isn’t deep It’s just entertainment.” was timestamped with the wrong hour and I was out of town over the whole weekend (partly because I was here but mainly due to important and unforseen family commitments) so I didn’t get time to answer and read the discussion that followed. Just so you know why my promised articles on Macross Plus and Excessive Manliness in Anime aren’t online yet either.
Before I get onto the topic itself, I ought to point out that the resulting shitstorm that knocked the blogosphere’s climate out of whack for several days was as much to do with the joint blogging concept as much as the subject matter itself. Being something that was planned via e-mail rather than being publicly posted on the participants’ blogs, quite a few readers were understandably confused and misunderstood the object of the exercise, which was to bring a topic to everyone’s attention by a number of us posting simultaneously and having fun with healthy and lively discussion. There are one or two points that came out of it, and will be addressed by those of us who took part before we take on a similar mission in future; it’s something we’re working on and I hope we can do it again. My own ‘take home’ messages I’d like to share are:
- It was an experiment born from so many members of the blogsphere getting into frequent discussions with each other and getting our heads together to try something new. It’s not an exclusive club: it was merely a list of people on an e-mail that can easily be lengthened through others showing an interest. The more the merrier basically, because it can be fun.
- As always, I’m more than happy to get a discussion going with what I personally write but if your beef is with another article from the same ‘joint blogging venture’, please leave a message under theirs, not mine. I’m afraid I can’t speak for them since we all wrote our respecive articles independently of each other and can’t give more than a personal opinion on what they wrote.
- This was an effort in highlighting an interesting topic and alerting visitors who visit our own blogs to other blogs that they may not have read before. Although it may be clear to some, others saw it as some sort of linking-orgy (nice imagery, there :shock:) or self-promotion or something. It wasn’t. I admit there are a few problems to be addressed before we do any of this again (including one blogger who was sadly excluded in the end…I hope your thoughts go online at some point because I was looking forward to reading them) but I think this sort of thing could work in a setting that has a good sense of community like the anime blogosphere does. Watch this space.
Okay, so onto clearing up misunderstandings and misconceptions on the subject itself.
The first problem is that the definition of depth in a story is really subjective. It’s akin to justifying what makes something funny: I can laugh myself silly at Blackadder, Spaced or Scrubs but chances are quite a few people I know will not see the appeal. It’s easy to see why disagreements occur when everyone has a different definition!
Another impression I’ve had as a result of all this is that the showing of thematic depth is associated with being pretentious or inaccessible to the majority of its audience; I didn’t help myself much in using Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell movies as an example when the Stand-alone Complex incarnation makes the point I was making so much more effectively. In Hige’s article he rightly points out that the SAC is not only more fun to watch, but retains the complexity and philosophy, which makes for a more balanced and rewarding piece overall. That is not to say that shallow stuff is less important, which may have been an impression some readers got from my first article (I was trying to argue the opposite); I think being entertained is of paramount importance when you’ve spent money on a DVD or cinema ticket, but the extra meaning drawn from some pieces matters too.
Another sticking point is that ‘deep’ anime has to be depressing. In the same way that the genre as a whole is a minority, there are a few select titles that do not fit this description at all (again, the definition of ‘depressing’ is itself subjective!). Getting back to Makoto Shinkai for the umpteenth time, his work has immense emotional depth but the bittersweet and profound endings to Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in our Early Days left me with an overwhelming sense of hope.
In closing
The ‘essay title’ we were set, as it were, turned out to be a trick question: anime CAN be deep (my reading of the companion articles gave me much food for thought but my general stance has not changed a great deal) AND be entertaining at the same time. The importance of this extra ‘depth’ clearly matters to a different degree depending on the viewer, but I’m still getting the impression that ‘thoughtfully written’ is being mistaken for ‘pretentious’ or ‘too clever for its own good’; I also believe that some people mistakenly see fans of complex anime declaring mere entertainment as somehow inferior. Sadly I can’t think of a solution to that but ventures such as this rather disorganised but enlightening joint blogging exercise seem to be good at bringing issues like this into the spotlight.
[3 Comments]
03 Aug 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: ABC]
It’s the typical retort to the old chestnut “Why are you watching those, um, cartoons?”. You take a bold stance, look *intelligent* and declare: “Because this stuff’s deep.” I mean, what better way to beat down those non-fans than to claim that they don’t ‘get’ it? The biggest hurdle (in my experience anyway) of getting people to actually sit down and appreciate an anime show is to prove that it’s mature, intelligent and fun to watch. Now, the ‘fun’ part isn’t the one that’s hard to prove…giant robots blowing stuff up, samurai and ninja fighting it out with breathtaking, poetic choreography…the likes of Appleseed and Ninja Scroll provide all the action and adventure of a Hollywood movie, they do it well and there’s no harm in that.
In the realms of fandom though, we don’t see mere entertainment as enough somehow. I include myself in this: many of us look beyond the explosions, the swordplay or even the everyday drama or comedy to view certain movies and series above the normal fare you see when you visit the cinema or switch on the TV; the character interactions, the social commentary, the philosophy, you name it. My core argument is this: SOME anime (note the capitals, people) matches the classics of cinema and television in highlighting issues that are scattered along the full spectrum from home truths of the everyday to questioning our place in the universe. Some, but not all, is mature and intelligent. In the same way that Battle Vixens or Legend of the Overfiend can scupper your argument that not all anime is all sex and violence, certain selected titles can prove that Japanese animation can, and does, say a lot about how and why the world is the way it is.
Haibane Renmei: much more than just pretty pictures
There is no reason, none at all, why anime cannot provide more than entertainment in the same way that any other art form can. Let’s face it, when moving images convey an idea or feeling they fall under the definition of ‘art’ by default. Take a frame from a Shinkai movie and you can hang it on your living room wall; yet anime can be more than just pretty pictures. Shinkai’s movies provide an insight into how humans feel and interact at an emotional level but there are other, very different, examples, of anime that fall into the broad category of ‘deep’, providing the expected, ’surface-level’ for the casual audience but including more complex issues for viewers who wish to look for them.
Kino’s Journey: It’s quite profound, you know
The adaptations of Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell combine taught, impressive-looking action sequences but also revisit the musings of Philip K Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and Isaac Asimov (I, Robot) - sadly, some viewers are so engrossed in the Major jumping off buildings half-naked and blasting the heads off terrorists with an assault rifle to notice that Mamoru Oshii is suggesting how A.I. and the exponentially-rising power of computers could affect our lives in the future. Many anime shows address social issues too: Satoshi Kon is (in)famous for his cynical views of the media, fame and the superficial nature of popular culture and historical events such as WWII are brought painfully and eloquently to life by Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen.
“I’m downloading ani…erm, philosophical musings…”
An additional problem with justifying anime’s ‘depth’ is that some viewers search for meanings in some shows that aren’t there in the first place. After several rewatches, much discussion and reading around, I see the notorious phenomenon of Evangelion as deep - admittedly, the ‘depth’ hides behind fan service, cool mecha designs and technobabble. It’s not deep because of the pseudo-science or freudian philosophy that some claim to divulge from it though; it’s because it gives a very important and profound observation of human nature. That is, facing your responsibilities in life head-on rather than running away from them is less painful and is a sign of emotional maturity. Simple, huh?
The sad fact is, for every anime show or film that has something worthwhile to say, there are countless pieces with less lofty ambitions; those that are designed to look cool and while away a little of your spare time (not to mention help you part with your spare cash) in the same way that ‘mainstream’ film and television does. I’m not saying that this sort of thing has no place on our shelves and screens; my point is, although it is relatively rare (going by numbers of features and franchises available to us as viewers, at any rate) anime can, and sometimes is, more than this. Rare as these are, sit an assorted load of them together and you have yourself a strong case…just don’t blame me if your parents or the guy you’re sitting next to in the pub look at you funny afterwards. I’m an opinionated and pretentious git but most people don’t believe that this level of analysis is healthy outside of a classroom. They maybe right on that one but hey, everyone needs a hobby!
*EDIT*
Full list of related articles for this topic:
[19 Comments]
11 Jul 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Over-analysis, realistic fiction]
The rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated. My laptop’s back. Broken motherboard apparently, but now normal transmission will resume.
I’ve often wondered at the ‘love it or hate it’ reactions to the Slice of Life genre in anime, which had me wondering about its place and relative merits. Ironically I got onto this train of thought by two examples that aren’t anime at all, although they both make use of Tokyo as a a backdrop: Haruki Murakami’s excellent new novel After Dark (go read it) and the Sophia Coppola movie Lost in Translation (which has a gorgeous soundtrack featuring Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine fame). These two stories exhibit some of the features of certain anime shows that I’ve noticed bring about extreme reactions from critics and fans. Some claim them to be masterpieces of real life, while others believe they are dull and lacking in storyline direction or a proper ending.
Ending? What ending?
Anime endings often have fans up in arms, possibly because they don’t resort to the endings that Western movies do: namely cliffhangers and ‘cut and dried’ conclusions. Anime endings, particularly Gain-axed ones, happen for a number of reasons but are strangely one of the things that attracted me to anime in the first place. After growing up with movie and TV shows concluding predictably, it was refreshing to have things open to allow me to interpret and guess for myself. We don’t know where Bob and Charlotte go after Lost in Translation finishes, or whether they see each other again; similarly we don’t know whether or not Taeko settles down when the credits for Only Yesterday finish rolling.
Take the stunning Haibane Renmei for instance: there are so many loose ends but the central theme, that of friendship and redemption surrounding Reki’s character, is adequately dealt with. The journey is as important as the eventual destination but since we are never told of the endpoint of a Haibane’s Flight we don’t know what the destination is. I can only guess at what lies beyond the walls, or when Nemu and Rakka take their Flight, or many other little details concerning the town of Glie; and yet, the messages of the show, intended or otherwise, speak loud and clear at a very profound level and have me in awe every time.
Since when was normal life boring?
Only Yesterday is a masterpiece of portraying the everyday and unremarkable. Taeko leads an ordinary life and nothing that happens to her could be considered outside the experience of a viewer from her generation. So, why does this make her story so compelling? It’s no coincidence that shows such as these also exhibit a very serene and wistful artistic style, which is at most an exaggeration of the beauty found in the natural world and more often than not very true-to-life indeed. Characters such as Taeko are quite simply easy to relate to.
The greatest strength of the Slice of Life genre, that of being true-to-life, is also its weakness. Most of the time I watch TV or go to the cinema as an escape from normality so returning to real life is not always what I’m in the mood for. Honey and Clover and Bokura Ga Ita are also superb portrayals of everyday life, the former starring a bunch of broke students who I could relate to instantly! And yet, I never finished either series even though I was aware of what made them special. To put it bluntly, I couldn’t be bothered. I wanted something that offered excitement and drama that went beyond the mere experiences of ordinary people: the light drama and short vignettes felt as satisfying as a light snack when you’re hungry for a square meal.
The ideal place for the open-ended storytelling structure really does fit best when the course of life and romance is being portrayed - big events and daring quests have definite beginnings and ends but life itself doesn’t. What the Slice of Life approach does bring us is a snapshot of a timeline, where we are dropped into the story to share the experiences of the characters (be they trivial and ordinary as in the case of Only Yesterday or downright silly like Azu Manga Daioh) and shown events and feelings that mirror our own: when done badly or when experienced at a time when you aren’t ‘in the mood’ it does seem boring and pointless. Equally it’s more natural and can offer a refreshing change from the ‘happily ever after’ cliche - in some ways it feels more sophisticated than the neatly wrapped up packages that film buffs and TV addicts are used to.
My final thought was pure conjecture on my part: perhaps Japanese writers simply look at stories differently from Westerners in terms of how significant a denoument is in the grand scheme of things. The old Buddhist saying of a thousand miles beginning with a single step points to the argument that the destination is not as important as getting there; in an industry where shows like Naruto can run for years (although some US and European shows also do this), perhaps the final resolution and the point it makes is not the central message. It’s how you get there that matters, as exemplified so beautifully in Kino’s Journey. Unless the sequel tells us otherwise, Kino and Hermes don’t finish up anywhere; they have no final destination in mind so the viewer follows endlessly with no end in sight. This sounds like a storytelling disaster until you realise that the profound messages the show has to offer stem from an innocent bystander or a traveller ‘just passing through’: Kino (and the viewer!) learns from her experiences, rather than finding a philosophical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Well, that wraps it up for now. Rest assured there’s a Texhnolyze article, Yoko Kanno OST review and more unlicenced reviews coming up - it’s nice to have my link to civilisation restored!
[5 Comments]
20 Jun 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Bokurano, Rants]
A recent bit of news is Hiroyuki Morita’s controversial decision with Bokurano. I’m taking this on now because 1) it’s still relevant and 2) it’s straightforward to write with my current situation amounting to a laptop that’s out of action until the weekend, at the earliest. Bah.
The problem lies in the fact that the show’s director has decided to take it in a very different direction to the original story, and adds to this by stating he doesn’t actually like the original in the first place. Thanks to fans’ affection for the manga and the apparent ingrained lack of confidence in GONZO’s ability to bring existing stories to the screen, there’s quite a furore over it. I’ll admit straight out that I haven’t actually read any of the manga (the simple reason is that I prefer reading paper copies over scanlations so haven’t had the chance) but the series so far, ep #7 at the time of writing, has led me to conclude that it’s the best show this season. And there’s a lot of competition. It looks like the battle lines are drawn…
The idea of taking a good story and changing it is a bad one unless there’s just cause for it, that much is obvious. It’s understandable then that the news of altering fundamental aspects of Bokurano was met with so much disappointment - changing the utterly pessimistic outcome is essentially turning the story into something else, which isn’t necessary with something of Bokurano’s calibre…or is it?
The bottom line is, the manga is ongoing so some changes will have to be made sooner or later, if only in order to give it a proper ending. Perhaps this is why the manga-ka has given permission for Morita to do so, albeit with one condition of ‘not using magic’. In addition to this, I’m of the understanding that some of the scenes in episodes #8 onwards are not nearly as shocking in their content as the manga. If this is the case I actually agree with Morita for toning it down: the events of episode #7 provided all the shock and tragedy needed so for me at least, it simply isn’t necessary to crank the brutality up any further in order to get the message across.
It’s also worth remembering that Bokurano is intended for airing on television - while you can write my personal feelings off as being oversensitive, there’s the question of what’s actually allowed to be depicted on TV. Given a choice between preserving the source material’s details and risking a hack-job censoring or leaving out the more distasteful parts at the production stage, I imagine most directors would choose the latter! Sure, the no-nonsense, close-to-the-bone approach is one of Bokurano’s best features but even by today’s standards it might prove to be too much for the broadcasters so I can’t blame the writers if they are erring on the side of caution.
One detail that softens the blow for the manga’s fans is that Morita publicly warned them that this adaptation will not take the direction of the original, rather than sneaking changes in without a word of explanation. It strikes me as an unusual decision but it could well be an attempt at reducing the backlash! This is a situation that is a frequent headache for directors of TV adaptations, but I always wonder about the true severity of it: after all, a bad adaptation doesn’t affect the quality of the original. If readers don’t like what they see on TV - and Morita himself recommends this - they should stick to the original instead. If the adaptation is so bad, it’ll just get forgotten in the long run anyway.
My main criticism with Morita’s decision is not what he’s doing: the reasons outlined above are just those that I could think of on a weekday evening on a borrowed PC. Public announcement or no, the sticking point is why he’s doing it. As the director of the project with the permission of the original author, he’s within his rights to do so but altering bits purely because he dislikes them just feels wrong to me. If he finds the material too unpleasant, why take on the project at all? My only explanation could be that, at the time of being approached for the position, he did not know what direction the story would take. Combining a plot-line with very mature themes and the saddest possible outcome with a director whose previous notable effort was a family-orientated film was strange the first time I read of it, and it still looks equally bizarre now.
At the end of the TV show’s run there will be two very different takes on the Bokurano story - a neater arrangement than, say, the ‘redone ending’ idea that was used for Evangelion; an approach that still didn’t satisfy everyone and to make matters worse haunted the director for years afterwards. While this series will earn no prizes in being a faithful adaptation, is this such a bad thing? The disappointment I feel as a result of this is not that a good story is being ruined - it’s that a director who I have great respect for has been assigned to the wrong project. Bokurano is dark, twisted, traumatic and not for the faint of heart. Sure, it’s not for everyone but that is what makes it stand out, which is something Morita should remember even when his ‘dislike’ is perhaps understandable. There’s still a fair chance I’ll enjoy the anime version from the excellent episodes I’ve seen so far - in fact I’m curious to see how Morita and his team can pull it off - but if not, I’ll bit the bullet and read the manga instead. Rest assured though, if I do criticise the way the anime’s headed, it’ll be because I’m judging it on its own merits, not some reactionary response that only goes as far as “GONZO can’t do adaptations”.
Thanks for reading and I hope I can follow all this up when my beloved Navi is back in working order. 
[2 Comments]
17 Jun 2007
Posted by Martin [Tags: Hayao Miyazaki, Rants]
Okay, the ‘Bokurano on trial’ article I promised you will be online in a day or two. This post though is the result of a very interesting discussion over at Cruel Angel Theses, which mainly concerned itself with Dennou Coil. I haven’t seen that show unfortunately but it got me thinking - is the output of Hayao Miyazaki really as good as the general concensus makes it out to be or is he just retreading familiar territory?
I have a sentimental attachment
The reviews I’ve written for his movies on the main site are, for the most part, wide-eyed fanboy raves. In my defence, many were written a fair while ago before my experience with anime really took off - I’d also like to note that I still haven’t seen My Neighbour Totoro. I’m sure I will soon, mind. The bottom line is, Laputa was my first anime experience…and yet, should I claim certain stuff to be good purely because I hadn’t seen anything else at the time to compare? I’ll put that question to those of you who got into anime through Pokemon and Dragonball Z…
His films still look beautiful…right?
From a technical point of view, Miyazaki exhibits an attention to detail that has left critics and audiences impressed for years, and he still tries to make a movie that stands up to rivals that fall back on CGI instead of good ol’ fashioned pen and ink. This is merely personal taste though. I prefer the mid to late 90s character designs and artwork, but I don’t have a beef with bringing the digital techniques in if it’s appropriate - it’s a means to an end since it doesn’t matter to many if you use CG or not as long as the end result is satisfactory.
Miyazaki is important
I get the feeling that people are afraid to criticise him because he’s nigh-on the only anime director who has broken into Western cinema - in a culture where the general public really do view anime as all Pokemon and Dragonball Z should we anime fans be putting down our biggest ambassador? On the other hand, I’ve seen people take the opposite view: dismissing his films BECAUSE of their popularity, not in spite of it. Ignore them, they’re idiots. Saying that he’s the only anime director to win an Oscar doesn’t say much to me either - if Satoshi Kon can get beaten by a dancing penguin, we should take those little gold statues with a pinch of salt.
What’s the alternative?
I don’t think we do have to rely on Miyazaki as our ‘anime ambassador’. Kon’s Paprika has made it onto the indie film circuit, Oscar disappointment notwithstanding. Makoto Shinkai has produced movies that look like a Haruki Murakami novel splashed onto a film cel. Hideaki Anno has made no less than three forays into live-action film. Plus there’s the fact that Miyazaki isn’t the be-all and end-all of Studio Ghibli either: Hiroyuki Morita made a superb debut effort with The Cat Returns, which is a sort-of sequel to Whisper of the Heart, directed by Yoshifumi Kondo; then there’s the other half of the ‘old guard’, Isao Takahata. Only Yesterday and Grave of the Fireflies are not just rivals to the tenderness and emotional power of Miyazaki: in places they are superior. The cold truth is, Takahata is less well-known.
What I mean to say is…
All this waffle is the lead-up to my main question: is Hayao Miyazaki working off the reputation of his previous work and presenting us with the same old themes and ideas he’s been using for years? Mononoke Hime for instance draws many comparisons with Nausicaa: both are superb films but there are still a lot of concepts that are recycled or at least reiterated. After Mononoke, my interest has waned a little. Artistically, Spirited Away is a marvel; yet it never grabbed my attention in the same way that his earlier work did. I imported a Japanese DVD of Laputa just to get the older dub and more accurate subtitles that the UK edition lacked; in contrast I still haven’t bought the DVD of Howl’s Moving Castle even after seeing it in the cinema. Mononoke Hime took Miyazaki in a full circle: a circle that contains everything I feel he has to say. In that sense, his CV was complete right there and then in 1997.
What’s wrong with his new stuff?
Spirited… and Howl’s… are films I’d recommend as great entertainment that will enthrall young and old and lead more people into a medium in the same way that it did with me. Beyond that though, there’s not much else. Mononoke Hime has samurais’ heads and arms being lopped off; Nausicaa features giant insects on the rampage in a chillingly plausible future world; Porco Rosso makes a middle aged man with a pig’s head its star. These older movies aren’t just family entertainment, they address so many more issues and push the boundaries as well.
In closing
I’ve gone on for too long. I’ll be interested to see where the rest of the blogsphere stands in this, which is hopefully not with a flamethrower aimed in my direction! I’m still a Miyazaki fan: just because his latest movie didn’t do much for me, it doesn’t mean I don’t treasure his efforts from the 80s and 90s. With a fresh crop of promising directors making waves, maybe we shouldn’t be afraid to criticise one man who may have exhausted his creative reserves. Besides, he’s a modest guy so ‘fanboy raves’ might embarrass him anyway.
Thanks again Owen. Keep up the good work.
[7 Comments]
03 Jun 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Over-analysis]
Since it’s late and I’ve already added today’s review I thought I’d fall back on the old Top Ten List idea instead of a proper post that involves screencaps and stuff. This time it’s the turn of the more intellectual fare that gets labelled as ‘pretentious’ or ‘hard to understand’ by some but ‘artistic’ and ‘profound’ by others. The criteria for ‘headscratcher’ is hard to define: the standards I use here go on having to watch a series/film more than once to understand it; the sort where you watch it two or three times and still have something new to think about. They’re also the sort that polarise opinion (read: start flame wars on forums) so if you think there’s anything that deserves to be on this list but isn’t (my viewing experience is limited, I know) or vice-versa, don’t hesitate from saying so in the comments section below. So, on with the list…
10. FLCL
A zany comedy with coming-of-age bits thrown in…Gainax style. FLCL epitomises the phrase ‘method in the madness’: behind every random and insane event is a symbol or metaphore for the pain and confusion that growing up brings. Nobody even knows what ‘furi kuri’ means (it’s often attributed to a slang phrase for groping a woman’s breasts - a connection that is apparently untrue) but anyone can relate to poor Naota’s confusion towards his bewildering and manic life.
9. Angel’s Egg
An early effort from Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii, Angel’s Egg is one of those films that comes across as deep and philosophical, or obtuse and vague, depending on how deeply you are drawn into the dark and strangely beautiful world. I still have my suspicions as to whether even Oshii himself knew what the feck it was about but it will leave you with a myriad of theories and unanswered questions afterwards.
8. RahXephon
Often unfairly compared with Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon has some thematic similarities but is otherwise a tremendous show in its own right. At its heart Rah is a romance that traverses time and space; it’s also a complex sci-fi thriller that throws in a lot of myth, legend and conspiracy. The film answers some questions but asks as many more again!
7. Ghost in the Shell/Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
The 1995 feature-length adaptation of Masumune Shirow’s manga and the more recent sequel brought the marriage of blistering action and slick CGI into the mainstream; it also gave director Mamoru Oshii ample opportunity to set his philosophical musings to the screen. Behind the gunfights and the voluptuous Major jumping off buildings, Ghost in the Shell examines the meaning of identity, individuality and even the human soul in a world in which computers match the power of our own minds.
6. Akira
An old fan favourite, Akira still enthralls fans with the complex sci-fi conspiracies and awe-inspiring cyberpunk backgrounds. You might have watched it in your youth because the bike chases and violence scared your parents but very few will dare claim that they know exactly what the hell is happening at the end.
5. Paranoia Agent
Satoshi Kon’s first foray into the made-for-TV format, Paranoia Agent is a sharp and darkly comical social commentary on today’s world. It is also a crime thriller in which two detectives hunt down a mysterious assailant. The sight of a baseball bat-weilding boy on rollerblades delivering his own brand of salvation is bound to have any viewer muttering “what the…?”
4. Haibane Renmei
The fantasy-drama brainchild of character designer/artist Yoshitoshi ABe, Haibane Renmei is initially a whimsical portrayal of an idyllic life with some Western angelology thrown in. As the series progresses though, we are drawn into a fantastical setting straight out of a Haruki Murakami novel that has some profound things to say about friendship, forgiveness and loss.
3. Perfect Blue
Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut, Perfect Blue is a mind-bending look at the consequences of fame and success in today’s world. Strikingly realistic one moment and terrifyingly surreal the next, this allegorical tale of one actress’s descent into fear and paranoia is a Hitchcock-esque masterpiece that plays out like a bad dream.
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion
I couldn’t compile a list of this sort without Neon Genesis Evangelion, the one series that still divides opinion as to its real meaning over a decade after its original release. The first half is a monster-of-the-week mecha show in which angsty teens battle creatures known as ‘Angels’ to save the world; later on the conspiracies, character drama and director Hideaki Anno’s fascination with Freudian psychology throw it deep into introspection and an act of catharsis for its creator’s bout of clinical depression. Evangelion boasts not one but two separate endings (one made-for-TV, the other theatrical); neither fully address every issue that viewers still have with the show.
1. Serial Experiments Lain
Perhaps the biggest animated head-f*** to date, Serial Experiments Lain melds science fiction, social commentary and philosophy that has had fans scratching their heads until they bleed and speculating over what the writers were trying to say in the first place. The episodes are termed ‘layers’, which neatly sums up how the viewer can delve through numerous levels of meaning, while coming up with either a number of explanations or the simple conclusion that people today use computers as a safe haven from reality. It made artist Yoshitoshi ABe hot property in the industry, as he went on to work on a number of other innovative and intellectual series.
That’s all I can think of right now. No doubt you will question the order or even the inclusion of some of these: I would have dearly loved to have the likes of Boogiepop Phantom and Kino’s Journey on here but sadly I have yet to watch them for myself. The above titles are included for a number of reasons so your own criteria may differ - I’ll be really interested to hear your own thoughts!
[1 Comment]
06 May 2006
Posted by Martin
Now is a good time to shamelessly plug my new ‘add comment’ feature at the bottom of each entry. If you are one of the handful of people who visits here (you are a VERY small minority guys but I love you all the more for it) feel free to add your two pence/cents/woolongs worth because I have absolutely no idea what the fuss is about!
From what I’ve read on other blogs there’s been a big discussion about how a lot of people are blogging the same ‘popular’ stuff and, what’s worse, writing their posts in the form of mere summaries of the latest ‘in’ fansub episodes. As I understand it there is a backlash against over-enthusiatic attempts at boosting hits and making thinly-veiled attempts at getting coveted places in the big sites’ links pages.
It got me thinking, it really did. In the short time that I’ve been running this blog I’ve been reviewing stuff that interests me. So I have the opening eps of Haruhi Suzumiya and Mushishi in my archives…that was because my friends recommended them to me and I reviewed them, neither knowing nor caring whether dozens of others were doing the same. From the outset I was talking to a small group of people I knew online and used their efforts as inspiration to do my own thing: do regularly updated reviews that allowed for more flexibility than CB.net’s main reviews archive allowed, plus a periodic journal. The thought of gearing my blog towards popularity wasn’t something that I really thought about before now and it probably never will be particularly important.
The problem is, the constant thought “Will this entry give my blog more hits?” might affect my choice on what I watch - that would defeat the object of the whole idea! I admit, some visitors have ben enticed in by googling for certain titles and it’s great to think that they are interested enough in what I say to visit. My point is, I’ll continue to blog these series whether I got one hit or a thousand because of them. I’m not particularly in touch with the wider anime blogging community nor am I the sort of guy who follows fashions.
So, what’s going to change around here? Absolutely squat, that’s what. I’m out-of-touch and proud of it, if my blog’s ‘in vogue’ it will be through pure accident and as you read this now you are one of a select group that’s in single figures. Later tonight I’ll be blogging the third ep of Haruhi Suzumiya. Why? Because it’s strange, funny and entertains me, not because every other bugger’s doing the same.
Feedback very much welcomed. ^_^
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