All posts by draggle

Dantalian no Shoka 07 — Drug Dealers

Dantalian no Shoka,

Nooooooo!!!!

In one of the most strait-laced episodes of Dantalian to date, Huey and Dalian encounter a perfumer who is (unwillingly) selling a drug she created with the aid of a phantom book. Huey and Dalian arrive just in time to witness her family and coworkers killed by the gang they collaborated with. They witness the woman take her own life and destroy the recipe and phantom book in an act of “atonement.”

Heightened Emotional Involvement

I’ve complained in the past that Huey and Dalian have shown almost no emotional attachment to the cases they’ve been involved in. This may be the first time Dalian has truly become emotionally involved with the people she met. She even shed tears at the woman’s death. And this was the same woman who, horror of horrors, dropped Dalian’s precious bread on the floor.

Dalian even attempted to comfort the woman on her deathbed. As she travels with Huey, is she becoming more attached to the outside world and the passions of the flesh?

A Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time

I believe that this is the first time we’ve heard mention of limitations placed on Dalian’s powers as a mystical library. The limitation is that Dalian cannot use a phantom book to save the same life twice. A restriction like this is not all that surprising— powers such as Dalian’s always seem to come with strings attached.

Passerby through Eternity

Jesus said, “Be passerby.”

— The Gospel of Thomas, v. 42

 

He has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

— Ecclesiastes 3:11

In each of the earlier episodes, I was surprised at how small a role Huey and Dalian played in resolving the short stories. Yet now I have come to expect it. There is indeed a purpose to Huey and Dalian’s uselessness. They are powerless and impotent bystanders to history, not actors on the stage of time.

The show’s atmosphere provides an acute sense of timelessness and of isolation, both from the scenes with the girl in the library and from Huey and Dalian’s travels. Huey and Dalian don’t form intimate bonds with the people they meet, and many of the people they do meet happen to die. Huey and Dalian have not been able to prevent any of the tragedies brought about by the phantom books or by magic, only to mitigate their effects. The pair continues to travel without a destination or clear purpose. And who knows how many generations Dalian has journeyed for?

References

  • When Huey reads the book of healing, Huey mentions “Arawn, the king of the otherworld Annwn.” This makes the book most likely part of the Mabinogion.
  • The phantom book used for making perfumes is an unnamed Gandharva sacred text. The Gandharva are Hindu nature spirits which dwell in scents and are known for their skill with music.
  • I don’t think I ever mentioned the origins of the library of Dantalian. Dantalian is one of the 72 demons of Solomon mentioned in the grimoire, the Lesser Key of Solomon.

    The Seventy-first Spirit is Dantalion. He is a Duke Great and Mighty, appearing in the Form of a Man with many Countenances, all Men’s and Women’s Faces; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one; for he knoweth the Thoughts of all Men and Women, and can change them at his Will. He can cause Love, and show the Similitude of any person, and show the same by a Vision, let them be in what part of the World they Will. He governeth 36 Legions of Spirits; and this is his Seal, which wear thou, etc.

  • A similar idea for a mystical library is the subject of Borges’ short story The Library of Babel (Spanish original here). Borges’ library, however, contains all possible books, and not merely Dalian’s comparatively tiny subset of 900,666.

Mawaru Penguindrum 07 — Bewitched

Mawaru Penguindrum,

Good lord. This episode was crazy, to say the least. After this, Ringo’s previous actions seem relatively benign.

So right up front, things are not looking up for our friend Shouma:

But even I wasn’t expecting Ringo to infiltrate the school, force Shouma to strip in the middle of a magical circle beneath the light of the full moon, and attempt to spawn frog eggs on his back.

Repressed sexual desire much? Shouma’s dedication to his sister may even surpass Kanba’s.

Ringo as a Witch

I was surprised by this turn of events, but it brought me to an interesting idea: Ringo is a witch. This episode makes her identity as a witch explicit, with the use of magic circles, love potions and frogs. Another item of note is Ringo’s dress: it’s all black. The only parts missing from her costume are the hat and broomstick.

Ringo displays two other components commonly associated with witchcraft, both sexual in nature. First, she is filled with lust, as demonstrated by the fits she goes into when imagining her first night with Tabuki. Second, she is a seductress, albeit not the most skilled one. Both of these attributes are often associated with witches.

And finally, there’s Ringo’s project M, which is itself an elaborate magical spell. Ringo is carefully following the instructions incanting the spell written in the diary spellbook, satisfying all the conditions to achieve her destiny cast the spell to restore her broken family. The spell also serves as a convoluted fertility ritual (more on this later).

This association with witchcraft brought to mind a few further thoughts:

  • Tabuki’s girlfriend is also a witch, but a much more powerful one. And I’m guessing that the woman with the slingshot will turn out the same way.
  • Thinking along the lines of witchcraft, have Kanba and Shouma made a pact with the devil to save their sister?
  • We’ve already tried the throw her in the pond test to determine that Ringo is not made of wood. We should try weighing her against a duck now (a penguin should also work).

Project M

This episode’s big reveal is that the “M” in Project M does not stand for masochist or marriage, but for maternity. A “magnificent and creative plan” indeed, Ringo. Modern girls don’t beat around the bush. Penguin Himari’s reaction to this discovery was priceless:

If we assume that the the slingshot girl has the same goal in mind, Kanba seems to have a stalker as well. Of course, this is by no means a correct assumption, given Mawaru Penguindrum’s propensity for red herrings.

Once again, this fits with the theme of witchcraft, as witches were accused of making pacts with the devil to cause stillbirths, and their carnal lust led them to have sex with the devil and bear his children.

Ringo’s Love Rival

Ringo has pretty much lost at this point to her rival with the announcement of their engagement (not that she had a chance in the first place). I think that Yuri just enjoys playing with Ringo— as I said, she’s an even more powerful witch.

The play was interesting, but unlike other works which skillfully fit a play within a story into the larger context of the whole (see Hourou Musuko, Star Driver, Gunparade March, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, etc.) the play here seemed to be largely intended for comic relief, along the lines of Ringo’s delusions. This and a chance for the animators to go wild. The disco ball, the silhouettes in the audience, the roses and glitter falling from the sky and the sparkles combine for quite the visual feast. The play is called “The Tragedy of M: Paris Falls”, but with the M referring to Marie this seems like just a tease. Although I’m sure we could come up with an esoteric interpretation if we tried.

Further Thoughts

  • This show does a great job at putting in amusing details. Tabuki’s bird chirp ringtone, the half eaten sandwiches and the rows of dead cocktails were hilarious.
  • The episode used the phrase “sharing a roof” in two complementary scenes. Ringo’s goal is to share one with Tabuki, and Kanba’s goal is to share one with Shouma and Himari.
  • I am shipping Shouma and Ringo heavily and am quite satisfied with the direction this episode took in that regard. They are quickly becoming more and more comfortable with each other, as evidenced by how they sleep together under the house, and Ringo’s weakening protests about Shouma tagging along with her (to the party for example).

Site Updates

As you have probably noticed, I redesigned the site to feature Shouma and Ringo. Let me know what you think of the design, especially if you find anything difficult to read with the new color scheme. I’m quite pleased with how the banner turned out, my GIMP skills are improving by leaps and bounds.

I now have a public MyAnimeList account. If you also have an account, feel free to add me as a friend. If you don’t, MyAnimeList is a nice site for keeping track of what you’ve watched and look up details about shows (you don’t think I remember all these characters’ names, do you?).

Finally, I’m experimenting with a new post format, of using headings to delineate sections. I feel like my thoughts are much more organized this way. I’m leaning towards continuing to use this format, so let me know if you disagree. I also started taking notes while I watch an episode, which probably helps.

 

No. 6 08 — The Noble Savage Visits the Oracle

No. 6,

We have a visit to the Oracle, rescuing the forest folk… Is this a bad RPG adaptation now? And we still haven’t gotten inside No. 6 yet?

Engaging Storytelling

In this episode we follow Shion and Nezumi’s journey to the center of the earth. They are brought as prisoners to the great hall of Argatha, where they offer a prayer to the Oracle, surrounded by his ascetic sackcloth-clad followers watching from the balconies. The Oracle was one of the chief architects of No. 6, but was exiled after he discovered what the leadership was up to. He gives Shion a USB key with the results of his research on No. 6 and the parasite bees, of which he was the first victim.

So, let’s review what we learned this episode.

  • No. 6 and the other cities were constructed very recently after all but six patches of land were destroyed in war. I thought it had been much longer.
  • The killer bees are not exactly a new phenomenon.
  • No. 6 eliminates all who come in contact with the bees. So the reason they tried to kill Shion was probably not because he was a dissenter.
  • No. 6 has an evil evil plan. It would take too much time to explain. But it’s evil!
  • Shion’s mother was involved in the construction of No. 6.
  • Nezumi is the last of the Mohicans, who were destroyed by No. 6. This explains why he is so noble (and savage) and why he is one with nature (the king of the rats).
  • The leader of the forest folk, Elyurias (I get the feeling it’s a tree or something), is calling out with its song to Nezumi and Safu.

These are probably the most interesting developments the story has had since episode two. So we’re starting to get somewhere. But I still took issue with the way everything was presented. The oracle asks Shion if he wants to know the truth. And then he just blathers everything to Shion. “Show, not tell” is the saying. And No. 6 just literally delivered an entire episode’s worth of exposition from the mouth of an oracle. An oracle who we didn’t even know existed until this episode. What a great way to tell a story, No. 6. You always manage to keep things exciting.

Overacting

The dialogue continues to feel fake to me. The characters are all highly articulate, complete with hand gestures and dramatic pauses. It’s like they’re acting out a play.

As one example, take Nezumi’s insert song. He comes out singing with a beautiful voice, with perfect posture, arms taut at his side. The cavemen scream in pain in the background (why are they afraid of the song…?). A lighting crew and an orchestra join in to accompany him. Then, for no apparent reason, Nezumi dramatically collapses, as Shion catches him. Ok… why?

For a second example, take the scene where the Oracle says “Elyurias… that is her name.” Nezumi’s gasps and his eyes wobble in fear. Right. Such a scaaary name. Sounds like the name of an angel or something.

And then there’s this scene, where the Oracle tells Nezumi what will happen if he kills the people of No. 6:

How could he possibly not have realized this…? The characters reactions’ are so over the top that I have trouble taking them seriously.

 Speculation

What does the future hold for No. 6? Not much, since there are only three episodes left. And for this show to come to a solid conclusion, they are going to need to pack more into those three episodes than they’ve put into the past six. Good luck with that.

Usagi Drop 08 — Rin’s Mother (and her Old Man Fetish)

Usagi Drop,

I didn’t believe it that Daikichi’s grandfather was actually Rin’s father. I had assumed that he just took in Rin out of the kindness of his heart. But that doesn’t seem to be the case…

Masako’s Roller Coaster of Development

This episode focused on Rin’s mother, Masako. It managed to pull my feelings about her all over the place. At first, the episode made Masako come across as even more pathetic than she had before. Initially, she had seemed to claim that she couldn’t take care of Rin because of difficult personal circumstances, and I had given her the benefit of the doubt that this was the case. But from the revelations surrounding her manga career, the reason seems much simpler: Masako is too irresponsible to care of Rin, and ditched her to become a workaholic. Her career is going well, but she still wants to take more and more work on. To confirm Masako’s workaholism, she screams “I’m not a woman! I’m a manga artist!” and runs out of the restaurant.

At this point, the creators have the viewers (or at least me) looking down on Masako. She abandoned Rin because of her megalomania and fear of being displaced by younger rivals? Daikichi asked for a demotion so he could take care of Rin. This hasty judgement against Masako is strengthened by her appearance— she looks half asleep, with ink marks all over her face, and is snacking on ice cream with her boyfriend. Is Masako really as hard a worker as she claims? She just seems fickle, lazy and irresponsible. Her daughter doesn’t seem to matter to her at all.

And then the creators skillfully take a U-turn and pull our emotions in the opposite direction. When Rin and Daikichi arrive at his grandfather’s grave, they notice that Masako has already placed fresh flowers there. Seeing this, Daikichi becomes angry, as she “didn’t even come to his funeral.” I really loved this scene, because it’s a completely normal (and completely illogical) reaction on Daikichi’s part. It also foreshadows the incoming discoveries about Masako: she really does care about Rin and Rin’s father, but tries not to show it.

Next, Daikichi chases after Masako and tells her she can peek at Rin. I liked how they portrayed Daikichi here: he’s clearly still angry at Masako, and makes a point of telling her that he doesn’t care about her personal circumstances at all and isn’t letting her take Rin. But he also wants to let Masako, as a mother, see her child.

Masako nearly enters shock upon hearing that Rin is nearby, our first hint that Rin means a lot more to her than she is letting on. She decides to peek at Rin through the bushes. She comments on how much Rin has grown. The ink on her face and her detachment are washed away, and she gazes at Rin with  longing and regret. This is the scene where Masako looks the most beautiful, her physical appearance reflecting her inner womanhood which she attempts to deny.

As Masako walks back to the office, she decides she will take the extra job, even though it’s probably more than she can handle. She gave up Rin to work on her manga, but at some level she regrets that decision and feels guilty. So in response, she works even harder on her manga so that she is able to justify that decision to herself. Her claim that she is unable to take care of Rin becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Usagi Drop has been doing great at slowly and subtly building up its characters. It doesn’t have people shouting that they love one another, or talking about what a family is, or trying to make disturbing smiles at their new found siblings. Instead, it focuses on day to day interactions, and shows the character’s thoughts and feelings instead of narrating them.

Animation

I’m continuing to love the bright colors. I realized in this episode what part of the art’s appeal is: many scenes look like they’re drawn with watercolors or crayons, and could have been painted by a child. Which, obviously, fits in very well with the subject matter of the show.

Parent / Child Imitation

One final thing I noticed in this episode is how the creators like to have both the children and the adults imitate each other. Why does this work so well?

  1. It’s funny having kids act like adults and adults act like kids.
  2. It shows how close the adults and children are. The children respect the adults enough to want to imitate them, and the adults love the children enough that their habits wear off on them.

To name a few examples from this episode:

  • Rin imitates Daikichi by lounging around on the porch
  • Daikichi copies Rin and says “Let’s hurry, the stalls will close!” when he gets excited about seeing Yukari in a yukata
  • Kouki copies Daikichi by shouting at him to watch out for cars

Battle Royale: Literary Masterpiece or Trashy Dime Novel?

Discussion,

For many years, I’d been hearing great things about Battle Royale. Everyone and their second cousin told me I just had to read it, and everyone who spoke of it did nothing but gush effusive praise. Last month, I was lounging around on a Saturday, and noticed that my housemate had left a copy of the book on the kitchen table. So I decided to finally take the plunge and read it.

I was hooked, and finished it in a single day. I enjoyed the book: it’s quite the page turner. But that’s pretty much all there is to it: it’s a thriller. Does it have any deeper meaning? Not particularly. Does the book have memorable, well-developed characters? No, they’re mostly cliché cardboard cutouts of each other. Is Battle Royale well-written? No, although I’ll be generous and blame part of this on an awkward translation. Is it as great as everyone let on? No. Is it the “Lord of the Flies for the 21st century,“ as the blurb on the rear cover proudly proclaims? Hell no. Battle Royale is to Lord of the Flies as the Davinci Code is to Foucault’s Pendulum.

It’s no Lord of the Flies

I wouldn’t think that the fact that Battle Royale is completely unlike Lord of the Flies would even bear mentioning, if the book jacket didn’t so obnoxiously proclaim it was and if so many people didn’t seem to believe it (just take a quick glance at the Amazon reviews page for Battle Royale – 111 / 167 reviews are five stars at the moment, with half of them seeming to think it’s better than Lord of the Flies). The main commonalities between the two works are superficial: children travel to an abandoned island and a breakdown of normal civilization occurs.

First of all, the conflict in Battle Royale comes across as black and white. The children (except for the few that enjoy killing their classmates) are the good guys and the organizers of the game are the bad guys. It’s the bad guys that are ultimately responsible for everyone’s deaths. There’s never any doubt of this. In Lord of the Flies, there are no organizers forcing the children to kill each other. They have absolutely no excuse for killing Piggy: it doesn’t even particularly benefit them to do so.

Battle Royale had to invent a boogeyman out of the autocratic government of Japan (which, I should point out, doesn’t appear to even have the tacit support of its citizenry as in most dystopian works).  In Lord of the Flies, the boogeyman comes from within innocent children, making it a much more stark and relevant commentary on humanity. One of the most haunting images of the book is when the Royal Navy ship, outfitted for war, appears on the horizon to bring the children back to the cradle of “civilization.” Battle Royale, on the other hand, is a simplistic, stark battle between good and evil, with clearly defined villains— the government and Kazuo.

Repetitive Story Arcs

After a while into the “game”, you can pretty much tell how the rest of the chapters involving the side characters are going to go. Here’s an outline.

  1. Two characters randomly meet up. They had some relationship before they were thrown on the island: either lovers, friends, or one-sided admiration, typically.
  2. They each fret over whether the other one is going to kill them or not.
  3. Someone dies. Possible causes:
    1. Intentional backstabbing.
    2. Accidental backstabbing due to confusion.
    3. Lover’s suicide.
    4. They reconcile and swear their eternal love / friendship, only to have someone else jump out of the bushes and kill them both. They die in each other’s arms.
  4. Repeat ad nauseum.

So the story is rather formulaic. There are a few more interesting segments: the introduction, the very end, and the short subplot involving Shinji’s attempts to sabotage the game, at least until he runs into Option D.

Still, the arc format would have some potential, if it weren’t for…

Formulaic Characters

All of the side characters are defined entirely by one or a combination of the following traits: membership in a school club, a tragic past, or a lover. None of them really get much depth. They don’t stick around long either, so from what I can tell, the only reason for any of them to even exist in the story is so that they can die a tragic death. Of course, the fact that their development is so shallow makes their deaths all the less tragic. For the most part, I couldn’t care less. And once again, the repetitive story format made me care even less about each individual death.

The main characters are also not too interesting. The male lead, Shuyo, is your standard loser harem protagonist, with the twist that he likes rock music, which the autocratic government frowns on it. This serves as an excuse for the author to add misplaced Bruce Springsteen references (more on this later). To continue our analogy, Noriko, the lead female, is the girl in the harem with the personality of a wet sponge that the male lead inevitably picks. She is quiet, and spends most of the novel asleep or injured. She is the sweet and innocent princess that our manly lead must protect.

Next is Shogo. Like many of the side characters, he also suffers from tragic past syndrome. He is on a quest for vengeance, and pursues this coolly and efficiently. The biggest issue I have with him and the other lead characters is that they just feel so fake. Shuyo is boring, Noriko is an angel, and Shogo is a cool, suave machine who always knows what to do and executes things perfectly.

Finally, we come to our villain Kazuo. He is simply the devil incarnate, with no positive traits to speak of. There is some half-hearted attempt to blame this on a birth defect. Not exactly the most compelling villain. The characters are, to be frank, simply not particularly interesting.

Subtlety and Depth

A big thing which bothered me is just how subtle this book is. For example, there are some obvious Orwellian influences surrounding the setup of the dictatorship. But instead of showing us the TVs that can’t be turned off, that we have always been at war with Eurasia, and that everyone loves Big Brother, the author just decides to have Shuyo tell us everything in a huge info dump. Not exactly the best storytelling there. As another example, each of the characters is introduced through narration rather than through action or dialogue. The author didn’t get the memo on “show, not tell.”

The author also likes to make references to Bruce Springsteen’s rock and roll, which is all about rebelliousness (?). The book ends with a quote from the lyrics of Born to Run, as Shuyo and Noriko quite literally run away from the police.

Baby this town rips the bones from your back
Its a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while were young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

The novel refers to Springsteen’s song in the literal sense of running away and the figurative sense of fleeing from a physical death. To make an analogy, this would be like Murakami writing a novel about Norwegian lumberjacks.

Conclusion

Battle Royale was an entertaining book, but it certainly wasn’t “the Lord of the Flies for the 21st Century.” I highly doubt that most people will have heard of it fifty years from now.

What were your thoughts on Battle Royale? Am I an elitist prick? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!